force only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us; that no man has the natural right to commit aggressions on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the law ought to restrain him; that every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of society, and this all the law should enforce on him; that when the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions.

We declare unqualified hostility to bank notes and paper money as a circulating medium, because gold and silver is the only safe and constitutional currency; hostility to any and all monopolies by legislation, because they are violations of equal rights of the people; hostility to the dangerous and unconstitutional creation of vested rights or prerogatives by legislation, because they are usurpations of the people's sovereign rights; no legislative or other authority, in the body politic, can rightfully, by charter or otherwise, exempt any man or body of men, in any case whatever, from trial by jury, and the jurisdiction or operation of the laws which govern the community.

We hold that each and every law or act of incorporation, passed by preceding legislatures, can be rightfully altered and repealed by their successors; and that they should be altered or repealed, when necessary for the public good, or when required by a majority of the people.

1836.-WHIG RESOLUTIONS,

Albany, N. Y., February 3.

Resolved, That in support of our cause, we invite all citizens opposed to Martin Van Buren and the Baltimore nominees.

Resolved, That Martin Van Buren, by intriguing with the executive to obtain his influence to elect him to the Presidency, has set an example dangerous to our freedom and corrupting to our free institutions.

Resolved, That the support we render to William H. Harrison is by no means given to him solely on account of his brilliant and successful services as leader of our armies during the last war, but that in him we view also the man of high intellect, the stern patriot, uncontaminated by the machinery of hackneyed politicians—a man of the school of Washington

Resolved, That in Francis Granger we recognize one of our most distinguished fellow-citizens, whose talents we admire, whose patriotism we trust, and whose principles we sanction.

CHAPTER XII.

VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION.

1837-1841.

PRESIDENT'S POLICY.

Van Buren continued Jackson's cabinet, and promised "to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor." The reduced democratic majority in the non-slaveholding states which he had received, made it apparent that a re-election. must come, if at all, from the south. He improved the earliest opportunities of making advances in that direction, and declared that he "went into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, against the wishes of the slaveholding states; and, with equal determination, he would resist the slightest interference with it in the states where it existed."

PANIC OF 37.

The circumstances attending the accession of the new President to power were very inauspicious. The doing away with the United States bank, and the making of gold and silver the medium of exchange, produced a money pressure, which culminated in May, 1837. During this month the banks of New York suspended specie payment. Their example was followed by other banks throughout the country. Commercial distress and business prostration followed immediately. Property depreciated, and the whole country was filled with distress and consternation. This condition of things was the more embarrassing to the new administration,

because it had grown out of measures enacted and sanctioned by the previous one, to the continuation of which Van Buren had pledged himself. He was urged to repeal the specie circular, and call an extra session of Congress.

Congress met September 4, 1837. The democrats were in Twenty-fifth Congress, the majority, but the whigs had made Extra Session. great gains. James K. Polk, of Tennessee, was elected Speaker. The President, in his message, went into a lengthly discussion of the causes instrumental in bringing about such a condition of affairs, and held that the government should not attempt to interfere directly with the panic, but let it right itself, which it would finally do more. easily and satisfactorily than could be done in any other way. He held that the panic was due, in large part, to the overstimulated condition of commerce and trade, engendered by an excessive issue of bank paper, previous to the issuing of the "specie circular," and that the country must look to the development of its resources as a means of bridging over the financial distress. He, therefore, refused to rescind the "specie circular," but proposed, instead, a

SUB-TREASURY.

This plan met with strong opposition from the whigs, and some of the democrats, the latter assuming the title of "conservatives," and, as a rule, voting with the whigs on financial measures. The measure establishing the sub-treasury, though passed in the Senate, was lost in the House; but an act was passed authorizing the issue of $10,000,000 in treasury notes, and giving merchants further time on their revenue bonds. Congress adjourned October 16.

Congress met December 4, 1837. The bill for the estabTwenty-fifth Congress, lishment of the independent treasury First Session. I was again recommended by the President, and again passed in the Senate, but killed in the House.

As a measure of relief to business, a joint resolution was passed, authorizing the secretary of the treasury to receive the notes of specie-paying banks in payment for public lands. This annulled the specie circular.

ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

During this session a bill was offered by Senator Preston, of South Carolina, which proposed as follows: "Be it Resolved, That with the consent of the said state previously had, and whenever it can be effected consistently with the faith and treaty stipulations of the United States, it is desirable and expedient to re-annex the said territory to the United States." This was the beginning of a great agitation, involving the extension of slavery and the dangerous supremacy of the slave power. After some discussion the subject was laid on the table. Congress adjourned July 9, 1838.

STATE BANK DEPOSITORIES VS. SUB-TREASURY.

In the course of the controversies upon the bank and financial matters generally, it will be observed that each party in time changed its position and involved itself in inconsistency. The whigs, during Jackson's administration, opposed the use of state banks as depositories for government moneys and favored a sub-treasury. When Van Buren recommended the latter scheme the whigs brought all their influence to bear against it, and advocated state banks as depositories instead. In justification of this change of position they argued that frequent changes in the policy of the government were more injurious than the "intrinsic defects of any particular plan of finance." The democrats, who were supporting the administration, were involved in the same inconsistency. Under Jackson's last term they had favored the state bank system, while now they were arrayed squarely against it. This change the people could not understand,

and, as a consequence, their views upon the question were greatly confused.

THE RIGHT OF PETITION.

There was little of party interest occurred this session. Twenty-fifth Congress, Congress and the administration apSecond Session. peared disinclined to interfere in the financial troubles of the country, which tended to weaken the democratic party in its hold upon the people. During this session the question of the "right of petition," which was sprung in Jackson's administration, came up. Mr. Atherton reported a series of resolutions, which closed with the provision "that every petition, or paper, in any way relating to slavery, as aforesaid, should, on presentation, without further action thereon, be laid on the table without being debated or referred." This was adopted by majorities ranging from forty-eight to fifty-eight. Since the question had begun to be agitated, similar resolutions had been passed at three other sessions. In 1840, one was passed by a majority of six, and in 1845 the rule was rescinded and Congress "consented to receive and treat respectfully all petitions on the subject of slavery." Congress adjourned March 3, 1839.

THE ABOLITION PARTY.

The passage of resolutions against the right of petition, and the strong pressure brought to bear to prohibit anti-slavery literature from being carried in the mails, aroused quite an excitement in the north, and many who had never entertained any sympathy for the abolitionists now sided with them. By this means they grew in strength till, in November, 1839, they were enabled to organize; which they did at Warsaw, New York, under the name of the abolition party. (Plate VI.)

LIBERTY PARTY.

The state convention of the New York abolitionists, which