142

POLK FOR THE PETS-MARCY AND WALKER SHAVING.

who desired to get the millions of the treasury into the very hands of his partisans and parasites." This is from Van Buren's echo, the Washington Globe. Mr. Thomas Ritchie, too, chimed in with the chorus of official indignation against the sub-treasury. Listen to Thomas as he talks to Old Virginie' through the columns of the Richmond Enquirer:

"We have objected to the Sub-Treasury scheme, (so called,) that, in the first place, it will enlarge the Executive power, already too great for a Republic; 2dly, that it contributes to endanger the security of the public funds; and thirdly, that it is calculated to produce two currencies-a baser one for the people, and a better one for the government. The more we reflect upon the matter, the more we read the speeches of the orators on both sides, the more firmly we are satisfied of the strength of these objections." "It is certainly subject to very strong objec tions, not the least of which is the very great increase of patronage to which it must give rise, and a patronage of the most dangerous influence, as being so immediately connected with the public money." "But I can see no advantage, and on the contrary, a fruitful source of mischief, in making government officers the keepers of the cash. Place about thein what guards you may, in the shape of commissioners, inspectors, or whatever else, peculation will be endless. There is no security in it, and it will involve heavy and unnecessary expense. The chief and overruling objection, however, is the endless source of patronage to which it would give rise. Make the machinery as simple as you may, and open to view, wherever money is, temptation will creep in, and corruption in every form follows at the heels."

In 1834, James K. Polk was the organ of the U. S. Treasury in the House of Representatives. Listen for a moment to Mr. Chancellor Polk:*

"A corporation may be safer than any individual agent, however responsible he may be, because it consists of an association of individuals who have thrown together their aggregated wealth, and who are bound in their corporate character to the extent of their whole capital stock for deposits. In addition to this the Secretary of the Treasury may require as heavy collateral security in addition to their capital stock paid in, from such a corporation, as he could from an individual collector or receiver, which makes the government deposit safer in the hands of a bank, than it could be with an individual. It may be well questioned whether the heaviest security the most wealthy individual could give, could make the public deposits safe, at the point of large collection. In the city of New York, half the revenue is collected. Seve ral millions of public money may be in the hands of a receiver at one time, and, if he be corrupt, or shall engage in speculation or trade, and meet with a reverse of fortune, the loss sustained by the government would be inevitable."

* KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.-To show what chances there are, through our gambling system of politics, to defraud the millions, I state the following case from the Courier and Enquirer of Dec. 10, 1832, where it appears, headed "Stockjobbing-Stupendous Fraud." It is possible enough that John Van Buren may have made money by his father's and Jackson's Messages, as well as by Marcy's, but whether Webb and Noah had good grounds for what they affirm as to Mumford and Cambreleng I know not. They say, that on Nov. 29, the price of a share of U. S. Bank stock at the board of brokers was 115-and that Jackson's message lowered it in two days to 1041-that 14,500 shares were sold on time, between Wed. Nov. 29, and next Wed. morning; equal to $1,635,000, leaving a nett profit to the Wall street stockjobbers, of $80,000 nearly. The C. & E. asserts that Cambreleng and Mumford knew what would be said in the message that Mumford had boasted that Jackson gave him a copy of his message on Saturday night at 11; and if so, two days were left clear to the gamblers in the secret, for the message appeared on the Wednesday. What a melancholy thing it is, that men who are elevated on the shoulders of the people to high honor, should so often forget the noble path before them, and turn round to wallow in the mire of sordid, grovelling selfishness! The U. S. Bank was hated by the local institutions, because while they charged the heavy discount of $7 off $100, the national institution exacted but $6.

Walker, the new Secretary of the Treasury, has great influence with Polk, and Marcy manages the one through the other. Buchanan is on less familiar and intimate terms with the president. He holds office, more on account of his ability and standing, and of the state of Pennsylvania, than any personal feeling of friendship. When Van Buren got to be president in 1837, I think he could have passed the sub-treasury had he been in earnest-but his friends had the whole revenue in their hands as it was, they made much money by using it in favorite banks, and I daresay that good bonuses were secretly given in some form by dealers in it. In 1810, when the term was nearly out, and a re-election doubtful, Van Buren pressed the new scheme, early enough to show that he meant to hoax the country in that too. Polk and Walker talk sub-treasury fashion also, but are in no haste to enforce the principle. Walker tries it with Corcoran & Riggs, Washington-has taken every dollar of public money from

THE PET BANKS. MCDUFFIE. ORESTES A. BROWNSON.

143

CHAPTER XXIX.

Profligate Public Expenditure of Van Buren, as President-Orestes A. Brownson -Francis Preston Blair, and the Globe-Van Buren's standard for Political Writers -National Debt-The 200,000 Militia Plan-Log Rolling-Edwin Croswell and John Van Buren-Veto Power Suspended-Waste of the Revenue-Post Office Law-Silas Wright and Slavery-Electioneering in Ky.— Helping the Press-Covetousness.

I HAVE already alluded to many parts of Van Buren's public conduct during his presidential term, and there is much that ought to be noticed for which I have no room in this volume. In his early life, and in matters which related to cash, he was covetous and mean-but in his management of the public finances there was none more profligate. His conduct in the Canada troubles, tothe banks in that city, and given $500,000 to them, to speculate on, without interest! Corcoran was once greatly embarrassed in money matters; his partner, Riggs, is wealthy. The ques tion is asked here, whether they got this $500,000 to dabble in the stocks in Wall street with it? They might have information beforehand of changes by which vast sums might be saved or gained. A cabinet minister, or more than one, might divide the spoil with them. In Voltaire's time, one of the king's secretaries told him when to buy and sell stocks. Somebody may tell Corcoran and Riggs also. What a pity it is that crises must be created that knaves may grow rich! One of the Baltimore resolutions was against surplus revenues. Why have we ten millions of a surplus lent to 400 bank directors, who are chiefly cunning stockjobbers, and pay no interest to us, while the nation is paying interest on debts that might be bought up and paid with the money? I begin to think that the Baltimore Convention of 1814, Walker, Butler and all, was a vile trick on society for the gain of a few. At present, 50 banks, with a host of gambling managers, hold eight or ten millions of the public money, not to lend it to upright merchants and manufacturers, but to sport with, like 'my dear Jesse' and his man John, in betting, stockjobbing and electioneering. If Walker hold on to the Treasury for a year or two, he'll clear old scores and may give way to some other victim of speculation.

In 1838 and 1840, Senator McDuffie said that "the Sub-Treasury was the only remaining alternative, unless we returned to the notorious pet-bank system, which gave to the Federal Executive a more dangerous and corrupting influence than any other scheme ever suggested; and which had been condemned by experience, and denounced by both parties in succes sion." I quote McDuffie from the South Carolinian, and bid the reader remember that Polk, Marcy and Walker, talk sub-treasury now, but have stuck to the dishonest treasury pets of 1834, all of them knowing as well that their country will be plundered wholesale through their means, as Woodbury did in a like case in 1838, or Dallas in 1815.

* ORESTES A. BROWNSON.-Since writing the following letter, Mr. Brownson, as well as myself, has seen ground for good hope that the cause of national freedom might be promoted by peace. England has got the territory she coveted, with the consent of Wright, Tallmadge and Calhoun, the latter of whom, with Mc Duthie, though ready to cut the connection with the U. S., to get rid of taxation at the Charleston Custom House, and although acknowledged in the London Times to be England's firmest friend in this republic, urged annexation because if English influence were to prevail in Texas it would interfere with our tariff!!! Eng land sees a proud and angry spirit in the western states which the political rascals in Washington wish to use for electioneering purposes next election. I am sorry that her long misgovernment of Canada, the wanton cruelties her agents practised on so many worthy and true-hearted men, the manly sons of freedom who were sent to the gallows by her commands, have roused feelings in the west which I could now desire to see allayed, for the past is beyond recall.

Orestes A. Brownson. of Massachusetts, to W. L. Mackenzie, when in Rochester Prison. BOSTON, April 22, 1840. Dear Sir: Though personally a stranger to you, I have yet for some time been wishing to express to you my sympathy with your attachment to the cause of Freedom for the Canadas, and my sincere regret that your attachment to that cause should have met in this land of professed Freedom. no better reward than a Jail. I have a fellow feeling with, I was about to say, all Rebels; at least with all who struggle against power and seek to secure for the people a portion of their long lost liberty. All governments which have hitherto existed have been founded in oppression and maintained by fraud and force.-They have been based on injustice, and opposition to them is the cause of God and Man. Our own government, in theory is based on the rights of man, founded on justice; but it has hitherto been administered in all its departments, quite too much in accordance with the maxins of the governments founded on the opposite theory. In forming our government we acted from ourselves, and were original, but in managing it we borrow from the practice of the Old World. We read its literature, study its politics, its jurisprudence, its philosophy, and lose sight of our own principles. Hence it is, that there is a striking discrepancy between our theory and our practice, between the encouragements we hold out to the friends of liberty abroad and the actual reception we give them. This is not all. We have never achieved our independence on England. We are scarcely less dependent on

144 F. P. BLAIR. VAN BUREN'S STANDARD OF STYLE AND DECORUM. wards the Florida Indians, and the people of Mexico and Texas, is elsewhere briefly noticed. It would be impossible for any candid writer to praise it. No man could be more obsequious than Van Buren was to the south while in power, yet they deserted him in 1840; and in 1844 when his name came up for a third trial, they condescended to give him twelve votes. In truth, they distrusted him; all parties have done so in turn. No man professed to agree more cordially than he did with Jackson, in 1828, in favor of one term only; but in that also the result proved that he was insincere.

Jackson left office with 30 or 40 millions in the banks of Van Buren's selection -he left the country out of debt. Although the banks suspended cash payments, yet most of them paid in uncurrent paper. The revenue was enormous, but Van Buren expended it all* and left a public debt, March 4, 1841, ot

the British Empire now than we were before the revolution of '76. We dare not assume in regard to the British Government the tone of equals. We could menace France and obtain justice, but we dare not elim ex cept in an apologetic tone, even our rights of England. The treaty of '83 has never been carried into effect, and never will be. Great Britain has claimed a portion of our territory which she wants for the purpose of connecting her North American Colonies, and which if obtained would give her, in case of war with this country, an equivalent for thirty thousand men. And, sir, this territory she will obtain unless I am greatly deceived. The matter will be settled by a compromise, and we shall surrender to her the important advantage she desires. The reason of this is to be found in our close commercial relations with Great Britain. The commercial interest of this country is controlled by England, and we can have no controversy with her without arming the whole business part of our community against our own government. This our government feels, and hence its tame submission to British arrogance Here, sir, is the secret of your imprisonment. It is not, sir, that we do not love Freedom, that we do not know how to appreciate its defenders, but that we are afraid of offending England We bar er national honor and make ourselves a bye-word in the Earth to please the trading portion of our community. I am sorry that it is so, but I almost despair of its being otherwise. Otherwise it will not be without a war with England, and which, as much as I deprecate war, is the only thing which to ine seems capable of saving the republic, and the sooner it comes the better. For your efforts to secure the independence of the Canadas, as one of the friends of Freedom, I thank you. I do not think the time for their independence has come, but it will come. The colonial system must be abandoned, for public opinion throughout the world is fast verging to the point that one nation shall exercise dominion over another no longer than the other lazily consents. With my prayers for the speedy arrival of the time when your countrymen shall be free, and my hope that you will find ere this reaches you your own freedom, I am, sir, with great respect, yours,

O. A. BROWNSON.

FRANCIS PRESTON BLAIR, EDITOR OF THE GLOBE.-Martin Van Buren, president of the United States in 1840, has been spoken of with perfect freedom throughout this volume. Being somewhat at a loss for a suitable democratic standard of propriety, when speaking of great men, or men who had held high situations, a friend advised me to take the Van Buren standard, the Globe, by Blair. In a letter dated Lindenwald, April 24, 1845, Van Buren writes J. C. Rives, "I thank you very kindly for your noble and manly letter upon the subject of the transfer of the Globe establishment, and repeat with pleasure what I have already said to Mr. Blair, that I APPROVE OF YOUR COURSE THROUGHOUT."

General Harrison became president in 1841. In 1840 his character was before the people The Globe said of him, March 5, 1840: "Let them [the South] beware how they place confidence in the versatility or subserviency of a weak, vain old man, in the dotage of expiring ambition. The combination of weakness and vanity with threescore and ten, is not so easily governed. . . . . . Let Mr. Tyler mount his old weather-beaten pony [Harrison], in the expectation of guiding him at will..... A weak old gentleman, whose vanity, always his leading characteristic, is every day pampered with flatteries, and whose obstinacy is only increased by the imbecility of age." Again (March 6), "GOODY Harrison, a gossiping old lady, and an available, who lives on a sinecure clerkship in a city, but is pretended to be a farmer living in a log cabin, and drinking hard cider." Once more, (March 17,) "The Whigs are making great exertions for THE OLD GRANNY, but all to no effect." This is Van Buren's APPROVED standard of delicacy, when speaking in the name of a president in office, about a general in the armies of the republic, then a candidate for the succession, through a press paid and pampered by the people's agents. Apply Van Buren's standard to my book, and blame me if you can!

This same Globe, approved by Van Buren "throughout," speaks of "Mr. Calhoun, who never told the truth when a falsehood would serve his turn." Again, it describes Calhoun thus: "There was one, however, Reprobate Spirit that could not bear to look on the bright and auspicious day [of Van Buren's installation, Mar. 3, 1837,] and it was a pleasure to all that the face of CATILINE was not seen on that occasion! Calhoun's relative, Pickens, thus sketched Blair: "A galvanized corpse. . . . . . That hideous visage whereon envy and malignity are blended in cadaverous union." It would seem that Calhoun and Pickens had also approved of the Globe and its language, for without their aid Blair and Rives had not been elected public printers in 1840.

Blair' says of himself, that before he was 21, he set up in life with a lucrative office, a clerk

VAN BUREN'S POLITICAL MIDWIFE, f. p. blair.

145

$7,447,799, which Tyler increased other ten and a half millions. Since Polk came into power, he has had on hand a continual surplus of eight millions, but instead of devoting it to the payment of the public debt, on which the country. is paying interest, he lends it to a host of electioneering bank directors who use it chiefly in stock speculations. The profligate expenditures in Florida,* in

in a court, a good wife, a fortune with her. That the speculations of the times swallowed up his means, made him a bankrupt, and that he surrendered his property to his creditors, gave up all, and emigrated to Washington. Van Buren gave him letters to Lawrence, Hoyt, Noah, &c. here, who got up a subscription, and bought a press and types for him as a gift. With these he started the Globe on behalf of Van Buren, to try to cut out Green, who was for Calhoun. Jackson and Van Buren put a million of dollars, or more, in his way, and he is now very wealthy. In Kentucky, Blair was a strong Clayman; but when he thought, like Kendall, that Jackson would succeed, he, in 1825, wheeled round to the winning side. He had been a speculator, stockjobber, &c., and his last office in Kentucky was that of a state bank president, [the Commonwealth Bank,] at Frankfort. A son of his is or was not long since United States District Attorney for Missouri. Theophilus Fisk, in the Old Dominion of Nov. 11, 1843, opposed Blair's claims to the public printing, thus: "He came from Kentucky reeking with bank corruption, his hands unwashed from the infamous transaction that cheated General Jackson out of his election in 1824. He came to Washington poor and despised, but the unbounded popularity of Jackson, the defection of Duff Green, and the necessity of an organ at the seat of Government, brought this unlicked cub into notice, and gave him importance and power, raising up a brutal parvenu, whose touch was contamination." If printing and banking could be settled permanently, it would be a blessing to America, for more than half the legislation of the United States is devoted exclusively to these two subjects. Bribed presses and bribed agents were the means whereby Van Buren compelled the people to harness themselves to his car, and support men and measures, they would have nobly spurned had the truth been told. But what really independent press could live in Washington? Whence would it find support? The villainy of Blair, Ritchie, Croswell, and these Harrisburgh rascals, would never have become known to ine, had they not fallen out. Hill's exposé of Blair was complete. The petty thief whom the Recorder sends to Blackwell's Island to break stones or pick oakum is an angel compared to the hired tool of a party at Washington. No lawyer in the Centre Street Sessions ever lied more for his fee than Blair has done for his fortune. His old master, Van Buren, approves it all. No doubt of it. Be it bank, or anti-bank, sub-treasury or treasury notes, war or peace, Texas or Oregon, tariff or anti-tariff, land sales for cash, or land sales for credit, good Calhoun or bad Calhoun, good Swartwout or bad Swartwout, anything or nothing-your hireling is ever ready. All he cares for is his tithe of the current plunder. Hill showed that Blair and Rives got enormous prices; and Blair and Rives, in the Globe, expended columns to prove that their predecessors had cheated still more steadily. Hill names one job that will cost $553,000, or $33,460 per volume, and affirms that Blair had got over $200,000 since Van Buren left Washington, for printing, at prices higher than was charged in any other city in the Union; as also $100 for every working day of the four years that Van Buren was president, or over $500,000. I am but an adopted citizen, and therefore liable to be slighted here, for the act of God in fixing my birth place in Scotland. Besides, I am poor, with a large family struggling for a humble livelihood, and in the evening of life-but were I young, a native, and possessed of the means of making myself heard, I would raise such a dust about the ears of these mock democrats as might end in improving the whole system. Blair may have cleared $150,000 of profits in one single year of Van Buren's term—I mean 1838, in which year his reccipts from the public exceeded $300,000.

*THE 200,000 MILITIA SCHEME.-In December, 1839, Van Buren, in his messago to Congress, recommended Joel R. Poinsett's plan for a new militia organization, in these words: "The present condition of the defences of our principal sea-ports and navy yards, as represented by the accompanying report of the secretary of war, "calls for the early and serious attention of Congress; and as connecting itself intimately with this subject, I cannot recommend too strongly to your consideration THE PLAN submitted by that officer for the re-organization of the militia of the United States." The plan was to divide the United States into eight military districts; in some cases three or four states to form a district, and in others, such as New York, only one state; to organize the militia so as to have a body of 12,500 men in each district in active service, and as many more in reserve; altogether 200,000 men were to be armed, equipped, drilled, and ready for war; the president might call for and assemble such numbers as he pleased, twice a year, at such places as he chose within each district; and when on service these men were to be subject to the same rules and articles of war as troops of the U.S." This plan was very unpopular. N. Y. state was required to furnish 18,000 active men, and these men might have been ordered to assemble anywhere-the 3,000 actives for the 8th district down at Utica, for instance, just before an important election. Why not turn them as the $800,000 corps of the N. Y. Customs are turned, into political machines 7 This plan the Globe praised and fully endorsed, per order-the opposition circulated it far and wide-Van Buren found that it was hated-Ritchie wrote that it was injuring the cause. in Virginia; he next wrote Poinsett, that it was called a tyrannical and oppressive" standing army of 200,000, and bade him explain. This was in M. In July, Van Buren himself took the field, and in a very long

146 200,000 MILITIA-THE BLOODHOUNDS-EDWIN Croswell.

the civil, naval, military, and diplomatic departments of the goverment, in Congress, in printing, in the custom-houses, and in the Post Office, were never equalled on this continent, under like circumstances. The Globe, in 1839, ceased to defend the authorities in this particular, but on the 1st of May, took new ground, saying, "We challenge the whole corps of federal [opposition] "members to point out on the record of either house of Congress, a PRODIGAL, CORRUPT, LOG-ROLLING appropriation, which has not derived its principal support from that party in the House which is now raising the clamor about it in "the country." Mr. Blair then gives HIS account of what he justly calls "that

letter to J. B. Cary, of Elizabeth city, pleaded that his "knowledge of military affairs was very limited," that it was "but lately that his attention had been drawn to this subject," that Poinsett's plan was not constitutional, and worse and worse that he had not approved of it in his December message! Here are his words: "We have been compelled to see, not I should think, without shame and mortification on the part of every ingenuous mind, whatever may be his political preferences, the names of respectable citizens subscribed to statements, that I had in my annual message expressed my approbation of a plan, which, not only had never been submitted to me, but was not even matured until more than three months after the message was sent to Congress." Look at my quotation from his message, where he says, "I cannot recommend too strongly to your consideration THE PLAN submitted" by Poinsett. That was in December, 1839. Now-July, 1840-he says THE PLAN was not then matured, and had not been submitted to him at all!!!

Florida, as a territory, was under Van Buren's especial care. He got this same Poinsett to send to Cuba, for bloodhounds, as an auxiliary militia to hunt down the Indians and poor forlorn negroes whom oppression had driven among them.

Joel R. Poinsett, War Secretary, to Brig. General 7. Taylor, commanding Army of the South, Florida. "WAR DEPARTMENT, January 26, 1840. Sir: It is understood by the Department, although not officially informed of the fact, that the authorities of the Territory of Florida have imported a pack of bloodhounds from the island of Cuba, and I think it proper to direct, in the event of those dogs being employed by any officer or officers under your command, that their use be confined altogether to tracking the Indians; and in order to insure this, and prevent the possibility of their injuring any person whatsoever, that they be muzzled when in the field, and held with a leash while following the track of the enemy. J. R. POINSETT "

Mr. Adams, in Congress, submitted the following resolution: Resolved. That the Secretary of War be directed to report to this House the natural, political, and martial history of the bloodhound, showing the peculiar fitness of that class of warriors to be the associates of the gallant army of the United States, specifying the nice discrimination of his scent between the blood of the freeman and the blood of the slave-between the blood of the armed warrior and that of women and children-between the blood of the black, white, and colored menbetween the blood of savage Seminoles and that of the Anglo-Saxon pious Christian. Also, a statement of the number of bloodhounds and their conductors, imported by this Government, or by the authorities of Florida, from the Island of Cuba and the cost of that importation. Also whether a further importation of the same heroic race into the State of Maine, to await the contingency of a contested Northeastern boundary question, is contemplated, or only to set an example to be followed by our possible adversary in the event of a conflict. Whether measures have been taken to secure exclusively to ourselves the employment of this auxiliary force, and whether he deems it expedient to extend to the said bloodhounds and their posterity the benefit of the pension laws.

* EDWIN CROSWELL AND JOHN VAN BUREN.- Although these two pupils of the elder Van Buren and Butler his partner, are at present at variance, they have many points of resemblance, and I have therefore given a brief notice of them together. Edwin Croswell is nearly fifty years of age-the son of a newspaper editor in Catskill, where also he, himself, conducted a weekly paper. One of his brothers keeps a very pleasant hotel there, and the family are wealthy. Edwin took charge of the Albany Argus in 1823, was then elected state printer, and has kept his position, while advocating rotation in office to others, for twenty-two years, except about as many months, during which Thurlow Weed, who besieged and took his fortress by storm, held possession. Edwin Croswell married a daughter of John Adams, a lawyer in Catskill, who has been in Congress and held various offices. His nephew and business partner, Sherman Croswell, married her sister. From 1818 to 1838, Croswell followed Van Buren's lead implicitly in all things. In the matter of the sub-treasury, he submitted, as did Marcy-buf the ill-luck of 1810 and 1814, the splitting up of parties, through the slavery question, and the exposures made in my Lives of Hoyt and Butler, have helped to terminate an intimacy that was founded solely on gain. There seemed to be a chance of healing differences, by giving Wright's editor, Cassidy, half the profits, and Sherman Croswell the other, but it fell through last February. I described Croswell in 1843 as his political friends do now. O'Sullivan, in the News of Feb. 24, says, "that in 1837, our party did not throw off all of this conservatism. Edwin Croswell was as much its master-spirit then as now; as timid as any, as unsound as any. But the best office in the Union was floating amid the angry waters; he clung to it with a death-grip, and went with it to the bottom. But now, gorged to repletion, because he can get no more, he summons his motley hosts of Conservatism to the rally." Croswell's emoluments, when he got office, as Leake's partner, in 1823, were small. $10,000 a year sufficed for printing in those days-but the expenditure gradually rose to $70,000 per annum, all items included. His receipts, from first to last, have been estimated by Flagg and others at a million of dollars. He had all the printing of the senate, the assembly, the executive, and the state departments, including laws, journals, legal notices, advertisements, and, of course, the private sale and advertising of his paper, and his business as a printer. He had