Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1884 — What a Contrast. [ARTICLE]

What a Contrast.

Three days before taking his seat in the House, John Quincy Adams wrote the tollowing letter: Philadelphia, 9th. I called upon Nicholas Biddle at the United States Bank and received two dividends of my bank stock, by an order on the branch bank at Washington. I left with Mr. Biddle my certificate of stock to be sold, and the proceeds to be remitted according to such directions as I may give. I told him that, as I might be called to take a part in public measures concerning the bank, and was favorable to it, I wished to divest myself of all personal interest in it. Thirty-eight years later James G. Blaine,' Speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote the following letter to Warren Fisher, Jr.: Augusta, Me., Nov. 18, 1869. Mr Dear Mb. Fibheb : It is quite evident to my mind that at the approaching session of Congress there will be an expansion of the currency to the amount of fifty to seventy-five millions of dollars. The form it will take, I think, will be an addition to the national bank circulation West and South. My object in writing is to ask in season if your friends would desire to establish a bank at Little Rook. It will be to some extent a matter of favoritism as to who gets the banks in the several localities, and it will be in my power to “cast an anchor to the windward” in your behalf, if you desire it. Please think over the matter and confer with Mr. Caldwell, and let me know your desires as soon as you reach any conclusion. There is, of course, no special hurry, but I thought I would suggest the matter in order that you might mature your thoughts in good time. It would be well to determine the amount to which you might wish to go. I suppose it might be practicable to secure a $560,000 bank; but in that locality you would hardly wish to go so deep. But they are very profitable institutions—say $256,600. Yours, very truly, J. G. Blaine. Warren Fisher, Jr., Esq. Imagine James G. Blaine divesting himself of personal interest in an enterprise because he might be called to take a part in public measures affecting it! And then imagine John Quincy Adams using his official position to “cast an anchor to the windward” in the interest of his associates in speculative enterprises. The one was an honest statesman; the other is simply a political jobber.