BUREAU OF OBJECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION |
| DIRECTOR Jesus Vang |
ABOUT
My colleaguecomplainsofsomecomparison which has been made between the officers of the Government and bank officers; he contrasts them, and gives the preference to the latter, as being State officers, inasmuch as banks are "State institutions;" and he asks if it is Democratic to decry (Afm1 He farther tells ns that Mr. Jefferson revered " State institution»," therefore, of course, Mr. Jefferson re. vered State banks ! Sir, 1 have no hostility to banks; I would do them no violence or injustice; let them go on and trade, and speculate, and shock and convulse the country from lime to time, I have nothing to say; bat in the sense which my colleague means, [ totally deny that they are State institution-. On the contrary, unless they are checked br legislative power, or unless, as has ever been my hope, the evil shall cnre itself, they will overshadow, and ultimately overawe, your legitimate, constitutional, State institutions—the departments of the Government.
My colleague has informed the nation that he •was the protege of Mr. Jefferson. I stand here to rescue that great Apostle of Liberty from the imputation that he revered these State institutions—these Slate banks. 1 undertake to say that not a word that ever escaped his lips, or his рев, warrants the imputation; on the contrary, he thought them inimical to liberty and to virtue. In the many volumes which John Taylor of Caroline wrote, there is se ircely a page on whiuh he does not denounce ihrm; and Mr. Jefferson has solemnly said, that that ¿•real man had never written л word to which he (iid not give his assent. He said he had road his •writings annually, and recommended to the rising yoa'hof the country to do the same. But my colleague says that "S'ate rights" "implies jealousy of Executive power" ! It is strange to me how any person professing, as he does, to understand and to admire this little volume, (Madison's report,) can have fallen into so gross an error. I have only lime to refer him to that report, to prove how utterly erroneous is ihe position. It inculcates on the States a jealousy of their reserved rights against ail and every department of the General Government, and utterly repudiate* ihe idea of special and exclusive danger from the tifcutive; and who does not know Mr. Jefferson's opinions on this »object? He speaks of danger to State rights from nil the departments of the Federal Government, but says: "The judiciary is the subtle corps of fsappera and miners, working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fa
bric." No, sir; this exclusive jealousy of .Executive power is not sustained by the Constitution, or any of its contemporaneous expounders. It is a part of modern machinery, worked on the prejudices of the people by those who want the very power they thus repudiate.