The Wabash Courier, Volume 1, Number 19, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 18 October 1832 — Page 3

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whether, upon similar growads of reasoning, the President's mom icfcwn f»r a Bank, if Congress should do so tralikeiy a tbipg as to adopt it, would not become uacoestitational also, if it should so happen that bis suecessor should bold hit Bqak io as light esteeo be holds ibo» established under the auspices of Washington and Madison?

If the reasoning of the messdge be well founded, it is clear that the charter of the existing Bank is not a law. The Bank has BO legal existence it is not responsible to Government, it has no authority to acti it is incapable of being ao agent the President may treat it as a nullity to-morrow, with draw from it all the public deposites, aod set afloat all the existing national arrangements cf revenue and finance*. It is enough to state these monstrous consequences, to show that the doctrine, principles, and pre Bitensions of the message are entirely incou sis tent with a government of laws. If thai

Congress has enacted, be not the law of the fend, then the right of the law has /^T ceased,and the reign of individual opinion has already begun

The President, in bis commentary on the details of the existing Bank ('barter, undertakes to prove that one provision, and another provision, is not necessary and proper because, as lie thinks, the same object,

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reposed to be accomplished by them, migbt been better attained in another mode •anil therefore such provisions are not necer #ary,and so not warranted by the Constitution. Docs not this show, that, according to bis own mode of reasoning, his own •M scheme would not be constitutional, since another scheme, which probably most peo~i pie would think a better one, might be substituted for it! Perhaps, in any Bank charter, there may be no provision* which may be justly regarded as absolutely ihdispensank ble since it is probable, that for any of them, some other* migbt be substituted.—

No Bank, therefore, ever could be establishf# ed, becautc there never has been and never 4 could be, any charter, of which every provision should uppear to he indispensable, or necessary and proper, in the judgement of cveiy individual. To admit, therefore, that *•. there may be coiwtitutional bank, and yet to contend for «uch a modo of judging of its provisions and detail*, as the message adopts, A' '..'involves an absurdity. Any charter, which |w may be framed may be taken up, it each powor conferred by it, successively denied, on the V" |l ground that, in regard to each, either no iiiMsuch power is "necessary or proper" in a $ bank, or, which is the same thing in effect,

?.j$| some other power, might be substituted for it, I? fee® nnd supply its placc. That can never be 5 necessary in the sense in which the message understands that term, which may be dispensed with and it cannot be said that any power may not be dispensed teilh, if there be some others, which might be substituted for it, and which would accomplish the \f same end. Therefore, no bank could ever

be constitutional because none could be established, which should not contain some provisions, which might have been omitted, I nnd their place supplied by others. Mr.

President, I have understood the true and well established doctrine to be, that, after it has beon decided, that it is competent for ^Congress to establish a bank, then it follows, that it may create such a bunk as it judges, iu its discretion, to be best, and invent it with all such power as it may deem fit and suit able with this limitation always, that all is to bo done in a bona fide execution of the power to create a Bank. If the granted powers are appropriate to the professed end, ..??J so that the granting of them cannot be rcgardedas usurpation of authority by Congross, or an evasion of constitutional restric'tions under color of establishing a bank, then the charter is constitutional, whether these powers be thought indispensiblc by others, or not, or whether even Congress jdeomod them absolutely inriupeu&ible, or .only thought them fit and suitable whether

I they are snore or lea appropriate to their .end. It is enough that they are appropriate it is enough that they suited to proIt duce the cfTects designed and no corapari'v son is to be iiutituted, in order to try their 1 constitutionality, between them and others which may be suggested. A case analogous to the present, is found in the constitutional power of Cougrcss over the mail, l'he Constitution says no more than that "Congress shall have power to establikh post offices and post roadsaud in general clause, "all pow.ors necessary and proper" to give effect to 4' this. In the execution of this power, Congress has protected the mail, by providing £•,the robber of it shall be punished with I death. Is this infliction of eapital punishi- ment unconstitutional 1 Certainly it is not, iunless it be both proper and necessary.1'

The President may not think it necessary or proper the law, then, according to the

-system of reasoning enforced in the message, ^ia of no binding force, and the President :may disobey it, and reAise to secitexecut 4 4«*d, Tlie truth is, Mr. President, that if the genefal object, the subject-matter, pro|«erly boloags to C'ongrees, all its incidents belong .to Congress, also. If Congress is to ettablish post offices and post roads, it may, for that end, adopt one set of regulations or ^another $ and either woald be constitutionnl. So the details of one bank are as constitntional as those of another, if they are II confined, Ikirly and honestly, to the purpose of orgaaitaag the institution, and render* I" ing it usefal. One bank is lis constitutional I as another bank. If Congress possesses the power to make* a bank, it possesses the power to make it efficient, aud competent to produce the good derived by it. It may clothe it with all such power and privileges, net otherwise inconsistent with the Consti^tutioa, as My be necessary, in its own judgement, to makfe it what Govern meat deems it shoald be. It may confer cn it such immunities, as may induce individuals to be-, cosae Stockholders, and to furnish the captil and, since the extent of these iwMHtt ties and privileges it matter of discretion, and matter of opinion, Cougres* only can dgoide it»bec*uai Congress aiona caa frame.

or grant the charter. A charter, thus grunt- it all it ever possessed buttbecoaaplaint is, ed to individuals, become* a contract with that the Bank charter does not confer the them, upon their compliance with it« term*, power of taxation. This, certainly, though The bauk bscomss an agent, bound to per- uot new, (Io* the same argaasent was urged form certain duties, and entitled tu curtain kevej appears to me to be strange mode of atipufetfd tight* a»d privileges 0 reiapeusa- anertiRg and maintaining State rights. The tiou for the proper dif-haigg of thsw do-' power of taiabou is a soreveagu power aud ti*, and all thuir stipulations bug as the Pwmdeni, and Jhose who Aink wifh hiss, they arc appropriate tu th* ofejeet peufcmed, ankof opinion, in a given cusu, 4fcat bis so

^ana not repogaant to any other cbttJtitu tional injunction, are entirely within the competency of Congress. And yet, sir, the oiessage of the President tolls through all the commonplace topics^nonopoly, the right of taxation, the suffering of the poor, and the arrogance of the rich, with as much pain' ful effort, as if oae, or another,, or all of them, had something to do with the constitutional question.

What is called the "monopoly" is made the subject of repeated rehearsal, in terms of special complaint. By this "monopoly" 1 suppose is understood the restriction contained in the charter, that Congress shall not, during the twenty years, create another Bank. Now, sir, let me ask, who would think of creating a bank, inviting stockholders into it, with large investments, imposing upon it heavy duties, as connected with the Government, receiving some millions of dollars as a boniu, or premium, and yet retaining the power of grauting, the next day, another charter, which would destroy the whole value of the first? If this be an un constitutional restraint on Congress, tbo Constitution must be strangely at variance with the dictates both of good sense and sopnd morals. Did not the first Bank of the United States contain a similar restriction? And hove not the States granted bank charters, with a condition that, if the charter should be accepted, they would not grant others? States have eertainly done so and, in some instances, where no bonus or prenjium was paid at all, hot from the mere desire to give effect to the charter, by inducing individuals to accept it, and organize the institution. The President declares that this restriction is not ncfcts&ry to the efficiency of the Bank, but that is the very thing which Congress and his predecessor in office were called on to decidc, and which they did decide, when the one passed, and the other approved the act. And he has now 110 more authority to pronounce his judgment on that act than any other individual in society.— It is not his province to decide on- the constitutionality of statutes which Congress has passed, and his predecessors approved.

There is another sentiment, in this part of the Message, which we should hardly have expected to find in a paper which is supposed. whoever may have drawn it up, to have passed nnder the review of professional characters. The message declares that this limitation to create no other bank is unconstitutional, because, although Congress may use the discretion vested in them,

uthat

they

may not limit the discretion of their successors." This reason is almost too superficial to require an answer. Every one at all accustomed to the consideration of snch subjects, knows that every Congress can1bind its successors to the same extent that it can bind itself: the power of Congress is always the same the authority of law always the same. It is true, we speak of the twentieth Congress, and the twenty-first Congress, but this is only (o denote the period of time, or to mark the successive periodical elections of its members. As a politic body, as the legislative power of the government, Congress is always contiguous, always identical. A particular Congress, as we speak of it, for instance the present Congress, can no farther restrain itself from doing what it may chance to do at the next session, than it can restrain any succccding Congress from doing what it may choose. Any Congress may repeal tho act or law of its predecessor, if in its nature, it be repealable, just as it may repeal its own aot and if a law, or an net be irrepealable in its nature, it can no more be repealed by a subsequent Congress than by that which passed it. All this is familiar to every body. And Congress, like every other legislature, often passes acts, which, being in the nature of grants, or contracts, are irrepeaiable ever afterwards. The message, in a strain of.argument which it is difficult to treat with ordinary respect, declares that this restriction on the power of Congress, as to the establishment of other banks, is a palpable attempt to amend the Constitution by an act of legislation. The reason on which this observation purports to be founded is, that Congress, by the Constitution, is to have exclusive legislation over the District of Columbia and when thb bank charter declares that Congress will create no new bank within the District, it annuls this power of exclusive legislation! I must say that this reasoning hardly rises high enough to entitle it to"a passing notice. It would be doing too much credit to call it plausible. No one needs to be informed that exclusive power of legislation is not unlimited power of legislation and, if it were, how can that legislative power be unlimited that cannot restrain itself, that cannot bind itself by contract? Whether as a government, or as an individual, that being in fettered and restrained which is not capable of bindicg itself by ordinary obligations. Every legislature binds itself whenever it makes a grant, enters into contract, bestows an office, or does any other act or thing which is in its nature irrepeaiable. And this, instead of detracting from its legislative power, is one of the modes of exercising that power. Aod the legislative power of Congress over the District of Columbia would not be full and complete if it might not make jtrit such a stipulation as the bank charter contains.

As to the taxing power of the State, about which the message says so much, the proper avenue to all it says, is, that the States pattetued tike powtr (t tax oajr iittbrvmeni of the Government tf the United States. It was no part of their power before the Constitution, and they derive no such poller from any of its provissoas. It is no where given to them. Could a State tax the rein of the U. State* at the mint? Could a State lay a stamp tax on the process of the Courts of the Upstates, and on custom house papers? Could it tax the transportation of tho mail, or the ships of war, or the ordnance, or the monitions of war of the U. State*? The reason that they cannot be taxed, by a State, is, that they are means and instruments of the Government of the V. States. The establishment of a bank, exempt from State taxation, takes away no existing right in a State. It leaves

vereign right sbotidd be conferred cm tte State* by an aet of Congress. There is, if I mistake not, as little compliment 0 State sovereignty, ia this idea, a* there is of sound constitutional doctrine. Sovereign rights, held under the grant of an act of Congress, present a proposition quite new in constitutional law.

The Presidofif himself even admits, that an instrument of the United States ought not, as »nch, to be taxed by the States yet he contends for such a power of taxing propertj connected with this instrument, and essential to its very being, as places its whole existence in |h£ pleasure of the States. It is not enough that the States may fax all the property of (heir own citizens, wherever invested, or however employed. The complaint is, that /he power of Stale taxation does reach so far as to take cognizance over persons out of the State, and to ax them, for a franchise, lawfully exercised under the authority of the United States. Sir, wben did flie power of /he States, or indeed of any Government, go to such an extent as that Clearly, never.

The taxing power of all communities is necessarily ana justly limited to the property of its own citizens, and to the property of others, having a distinct local existence, as property within its jurisdiction it does not extend to rights and franchises rightly exercised, under the authority of other Governments, nor to persons beyond its jurisdiction. As the Constitution has left the taxing power of the States as the Bank Charter leaves it, Congress has not undertaken either to take away, or to confer a taxing power nor to enlarge, or to restrain it: if it were to do either, I hardly know which of all would be the least excusable.

I beg leave to repeat, Mr. President, that what I have now been considering, are the President's objections not to the policy or expediency, but to the constitutionality of the Bank and not to the constitutionality of any new, or proposed Bank, but of the Bank as it now is, and as it has long existed. If the President had declined to approve this bill, because he thought the original charter unwisely granted, and the Bank, in point of policy and expediency, objectionable or mischievous, and in that view only had suggested the reasons now urged by him, his argument, however inconclusive, would have been intelligible, aud not, in its whole frame and scope, inconsistent with all well established first principles. His rejection of the bill, in that case, would have been, no doubt, an extraordinary exercise of power but it would have been, nevertheless, the exercise of a power be-* longing to his office, and trusted by the constitution to his discretion. But when he puts forth an array of arguments, such as the message employs, not against the expediency of the Bank, but against its constitutional exercise, he confounds all distinctions, mixes questions of policy and questions of right together, and turns all constitutional restraints iuto mere matters of opinion.— As far as rts power extends, either in its direct effects, or as a precedent, lb* message not only unsettles every thing which has been settled, under the constitution, hut would show, also, that the constitution itself is utterly incapable of any fixed construction, or definite interpretation and that there is no possibility of establishing, by its authority, any practical limitations on the powers of the respective branches of the government.

When the message denies, as it does, the authority of the Supreme Court to decide on constitutional questions, it effects, so far as the opinion of the President and bis authority can effect, a complete change in our Government. It does two things first it converts a constitutional limitation of power into mere matters of opinion, and then strikes the Judicial Department, as an efficient department, out of our system. But the message by no means stops even at this point. Having denied to Congress the authority of judging what power* may be constitutionally conferred on a Bank, and having erected the judgement of the President himself into a standard by which to try the constitutional character of sncb powers, and having denounced the authority of the Supreme Court, and decided finally on constitutional questions, the message proceeds to claim for the President, not the power of approval, but the primary power, the power of originating laws. The President informs congress that he would have sent them such a charter, if it had been properly asked for, as they ought to possess. He very plainly intimates, that, in his opinion, the establishment of all laws, of this nature, at least, helongs to the functions of the executive government, and that Congress ought to have waited for the manifestation of the executive will, before it presumed to touch the subject. Sucb, Mr. President, stripped of their disguises, are the real pretences set up in behalf of tbe executive power in this most extraordinary,paper.

Mr. President: We have arrived at a new epoch. We are entering on experiments with tbe Government and the Constitution of tbe country, hitherto untried, and of fearful and appalling aspect. This message calls us to tbe contemplation of a future which little resembles the past. Its principles are at war with all that public opinion bar sustained, and all which the experience of tbe Government has sanctioned. It denies fast principles it contradicts truths heretofore received as indisputable. It denies to the judiciary the interpretation of laws, and demands to divide, with Congress, tbe origination of statutes. It extends the grasp of executive pretension%ver every power of the Government. But this is not all. It presents the Chief Magistrate of the Union in the attitude of arguing assay tbe powers of that government over which be has been cbosed to preside and adopting, for this purpose, modes of reasoning, which, even under the influence of all proper feeling towards high official station, it is difficult to regard as respectable. It appeah to every prqadice which may betray men into a mistaken view of their own interest and to every passion which may lead them to diatroy the impulses of their understanding. ft urges aD the specious topes «f State rights, and national encroachowent, against that which a great majority of tbe States have affirmed to be rightful, and in which all of tbeui have aeqoieaced. It sows, in an unsparing muMier, tbe seeds of jealousy aod iU-will agaiart the government,

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of which its author is to the official^! ead. It raises a cry that liberty is in danger, at 'the very moment when it puts forth claims to power heretofore unknown and u&beaid of. It affects alarm for the public freedom, when nothing so much endangers that freedom as its own unparalleled pretences. This, even, is not all. It manifestly seeks to influence the poor against the rich wantouly attacks whole classes of the people, for the purposes of turning against them the prejudices and resentments of other classes. Jt ia a State paper which finds no topic too exciting for its use no passion too inflamable for its address and its solicitation. Such is this message. It remains, now, for tbe People of the United States to choose between the principles here avowed, and their government. These cannot subsist together. The one of the other must be rejected. If the sentiments of the message shall receive

general

approbation, the con

stitution, will have perished perhaps, even earlier than the moment which its enemies originally allowed for the termination of iu existence. It will not have survived to its fiftieth year.

WABASH COCKIER.

TKRRE-HAUTE, WD.

Thursday Morning, October 18,1832.

(£5* The non~arrival of our supply of paper, compel us to issue on a smaller sheet than usual for the present To make vp for this deficiency, hovsever, ue give our subscribers an EXTRA, much to our own inconvenience, and at considerable additional expense. When we are necessarily compelled to disappoint our readers,we think it no more than fair that they should have an equivalent..

Every thing is crowded out to make room for Mr. Wk«8ts*'3 Speech on the Bank Veto. It should be read by every man in the U. States, without distinction of party. WtU our Jackson friends read it?—4hosc who approve the Veto, from a misconception of its tendency We would implore all such to devote a leisure hour or two in reading this speech. Citisens should vote under3tandingly—vsith their eyes open—not blindly, obstinately, and without rejection. Relying on the patriotism, intelligence, and honesty of our Jackson fellow-citi-uens, we make bold to call their attention to this last effort of Mr. Webster, not doubting that they will find in it an antidote for those pernicious doctrines with which the Veto Message abounds.

rik'We have only room to say to to our friends in the different sections of the State, that the news from the East is cheering to our hopes. -At Ttie 'Charter Election in Albany, New-York—the headquarters of Jacksonism in that State—the National Republicans gained a signal victory over the Jackson and Van Buren party, beating them in four wards out of five Throughout the whole of that great State,the greatest enthusiasm prevails among our friends. The State WILL be carried against Jackson and Van Buren by twenty thousand majority From Old PENNSYLVANIA the news is of the most gratifying character. At the recent election for Inspectors, the Jackson party was almost universally routed. In the city of Philadelphia, alone, that party was beaten more than fifteen hundred votes In MARYLAND, the election for members to the Legislature is just over, and parlies stand as follows: Clay, 53-Jackson,22! These are some of the signs of the times."

We are reque sled, by the Board of Health, to say, that adults, or children, who hate not been vaccinated, are dangerously situated, as it is ascertainedr thai the Varioloid, (modified small-pox) it this vicinity. We are requested further to say, that no time should be lost in having ehildren vaccinated, which parents can have done by applying to any of the Physicians in the town or Coventry.

The following letter it from an intelligent friend, in whose judgment we place great confidence. The predictions ventured on by our correspondent, gain strength by every dmyU experience. j**

LETTER TO THE EDITORi PMtLADELrHIA, OCT. 1, 1832. Dear Sir: I have heretofore given yoa assurances of very great changes in pablic opinion, in this State. In thf result of oar primary elections, on Friday last, ron will discover ample evidence of tne correctness of these assurances. Friday was, in truth, a prood day for the friends of the constitution and the laws. Men who had abstracted themselves for the last twenty years, from party politics, were seen on that day, actively engaged in the cause of civil liberty. In dividing off, for ebeice of jodpes, in one of our wards, tbe venerable Bishop WHITE, DOW past eighty years of age, was discovered ntsuiding, ready to give bis vote.

rore him a chair. The old Bubop replied»wi%* ^pintw^rtby ofthechap

assntfe

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lain of tmReirohififltiary

in all, 182 votes, will certainly go a gainst him. l9ot only so, but there will be a decided anti-Jackson majority, in the next Congre^, both in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Three fourths of our members of Congress will be anti-Jackson, and probably one Senator.

I suppose you are curious to know the principal causes which have operated tbe unexampled changes in thh» State. The frequent exercise of that 'V delicate and dangerous power o( veto-

ing measures passed by the People' Representatives, may be considered^ the principal cause. The Jickson -4 party in Congress have also shewn* VSA^5.7 themselves, on various occasions, hos-v tile to the tariff, which, you know, i6 of vital importance to our interests and, consequently, this opposition ha» alienated many friends# Our German^ population is very Targe. These peo^ W: pie are industrious, to a proverb and, having suffered, in times past, by a *inf dling Banks, they consider the re-char-*"' lerof the United States Bank as the?.. ,• most important measure for the pro*f tection of their bard earnings. Whenfe Gen. Jackson vetoed the Bank, they!*** determined to veto him, as a matter of self-preservation. We have also a^ large bodv of citizens, the descend-sf ants and followers of William Penn* who dislike the turmoil of politics, and!

seldom go to the polls. These worthy^ citizens are brought out by the alarnH ing doctrines contained in the PresU dent's Bank Veto Message, wherein he sets himself above the law and the constitution and, with the venerable Bishop WHITE, they say—4k These are

0^7" There will be preaching at the Court House, on Sunday neat, at 11, A. M. and in the evening, at early candle-light.

young friend offered to pro-

lisssi

Address on Temperance will be de.

livered in the Court House, on Tuesday eve* ning next, at early candle-light, by the Rtv$ Mr. Butler. J-

Hunters, Take Hotice! W

THE

subscriber will pay the highest prices in Cash or Groceries, for yeoison Hams, aod well stretched Deer Skins, at Cho old staod, in Terre-Haute.

Oct 18—lOtf H. N. MANNING. I

THERE

Notice. I

wfu be an election held io the' several Towoships throughout tho County of Vigo, at the usual places of holding elections io each Township, on the first Monday of November next, for tbe purpose of electing Electors for President and Vice President of the United States.

C. G. TAYLOR, Shf.

October 11,1832-19

Administrator's Notice.

THE

undersigned having taken oat let^ ters of Administration QD the estate of Robert A. Angevine, late of Vigo county, deceased, requests all persons indebted to said estate 40 moke payment immediately, and all persons having claims sgainst said estate, to present tbem, duly authentic, cated, for payment. The estate is probs-f bly solvent. SILAS HO8KIN8, Admr.

Oct. 18^-19w3

State of Indiana, Vi*o Coanft, $

NOTICE is hereby given, that, by virtu/ of a writ of Domestic Attachment, tuned by mc, and directed to a Constable of Harrisort Township, nine and a half acres of com, standing in the field also, the one half of. twelve acres tf corn, growing in the field, hoot*" been attached, as the property of Jasnes,. Gardner, at the suit tf James Trabue an% thai I will proceed to act an said writ of al& tacksmentf at my Office, in Terre-Havtr, on the 10th day of November, 1832, at 10 clock, A. Jt, C. T. NOBLE) J. P, fe

amy,

No,

my yo®ng friend, no—these ore Inner when old men should stand up This spirit is abroad in our State. The returns, as they come in, astound the most saneuine. There now remains not a doubt bat the anti-Jackson ticket wrll be carried in Pennsylvania, by a majority of more than fifteen thousand votes and that the people throughout the United States, will shew to Andrew Jackson, that they' are still free and independent, and "born to command." You must have seen the glorious triumph in Albany. The Regency, have "been routed—• horse, foot, and dragoon." New York will be stronger against the Hero, than Pennsylvania. We consider alias safe4 New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Ken-

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Oct. 18,1839—19V? &

Notice.

9TRHE subscribers have dissolved, Ky mo-i jJL tosl cooseot, tho partnership that hitherto existed l^we«a them.

S. PATRICK,

etteotioa to

forwarding Goods. }mel4—ltf

A it*,X

JOHN W.HITCHCOCK,

July 29,1832 N. B. Dr. PiTBtbi may be farad, bereaf-£ ter, at his dwelling. Dr. HITCHCOCK re-| tains the ofice which was formerly occupie% by both.

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times when old men should stand and the man of peace should buc

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