Appendix: “A New Advocate for a National Bank,” 14 March 1844
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Appendix: “A New Advocate for a National Bank,” 14 March 1844
Source Note
Source Note
[], “A New Advocate for a National Bank,” The Daily Globe [Washington DC], 14 March 1844, vol. 1, no. 63, p. 251. Transcription from microfilm G512, Microfilm Collection, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
See Historical Introduction to Letter to Editor, 15 Apr. 1844.
Page 251
A NEW ADVOCATE FOR A NATIONAL BANK.
We have cast our eyes hastily over General Smith’s (Mormon Joe) “Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States Nauvoo, 1844” This illustrious individual “goes the whole figure” with Messrs. , , Sargeant, and the whig party in general, for a national bank. After this, who can doubt the propriety of such an institution? Here is Joe’s plan for a “fiscal agent,” which is quite as sensible, both in nature and object, as the famous whig fiscalities:
For the accommodation of the people in every State and Territory, let Congress show their wisdom, by granting a national bank, with branches in each State and Territory, where the capital stock shall be held by the for the mother bank, and by the States and Territories for the branches; and whose officers and directors shall be elected yearly by the people, with wages at the rate of two dollars a day for services; which several banks shall never issue any more bills than the amount of capital stock in her vaults and the interest. The net gain of the mother bank shall be applied to the national revenue, and that of the branches to the States’ and Territories’ revenue. And the bills shall be par throughout the , which will mercifully cure that fatal disorder known in cities as brokerage, and leave the people’s money in their own pockets.
The prophet seems to be thoroughly imbued with the whig financial doctrines. He wants a national bank for the “accommodation of the people,” and to save the federal and State treasuries from taxation. In two respects, however, we think Joe’s plan has decided advantages over those of Messrs. and . He sticks to the specie basis, dollar for dollar; and his plan is more economical, as the officers are to be elected by the people, “with wages at the rate of two dollars per day.” There is another recommendation, however, of this “great financier” which, we fear will somewhat embarrass the practical operation of his scheme. He tells the people:
Petition your State legislatures to pardon every convict in their several peniteniaries; blessing them as they go, and saying to them, in the name of the Lord—‘Go thy way, and sin no more.’
We fear that, if this humane recommendation be adopted, the “specie basis” would soon disappear from Joe’s mother bank and branches, including that of , which would quickly show a “beggarly account of empty boxes.” Perhaps, however, we are unnecessarily apprehensive of the small thieves, who fall into the clutches of the law, since the great thieves, who robbed millions from the late whig bank and its satellites, are permitted to roam at large with perfect impunity. Upon the whole, however, we will do General Smith the justice to state, that we think his financial doctrines more sound, his views more honest, and his scheme more feasible, than those of the hypocrites and quacks, who, supported by a great party, have fleeced the to the very quick, and are now eager to repeat the application of the shears.
The following passage calls vividly to mind ’s Hanover speech, in which he promised a perfect millenium to the , as soon as a whig President should be elected:
The will be full of money and confidence, when a national bank of twenty millions, and a State bank in every State, with a million or more, give a tone (an odor of nationality) to money matters, and make a circulation medium as valuable in the purses of a whole community as in the coffers of a speculating banker or broker.
The prophet is not only thoroughly imbued with the financial doctrines of the -and- school, but he has caught the very tone of their “eloquence.”
The General is not an admirer of lawyers. “Like the good Samaritan.” he exclaims, “send every lawyer, as soon as he repents and obeys the ordinances of Heaven, to preach the gospel to the destitute, without purse or scrip, pouring in the oil and the wine.” How it must have delighted his heart to learn that the pious has lately become an eloquent preacher!— though we fear he does not “repent and obey the ordinances of the gospel,” nor is contented—not he—to preach “without purse or scrip,” however willing to “pour in the oil and wine.”
We cannot refrain from treating our readers to the following glowing passage, in which our friend Joseph so eloquently describes the defeat of . We have read nearly all the whig slang on this same subject; and we have met with nothing to equal the gloomy grandeur of this portentious paragraph:
At the age, then, of sixty years, our blooming began to decline, under the withering touch of . Disappointed ambition, thirst for power, pride, corruption, party spirit, faction, patronage, perquisites, fame, tangling alliances, and spiritual wickedness in high places, struck hands, and revelled in midnight spendor. Trouble, vexation, perplexity and contention, mingled with hope, fear, and murmuring, rumbled through the , and agitated the whole , as would an earthquake at the centre of the earth, heaving the sea beyond its bounds, and shaking the everlasting hills. So, in hopes of better times, while jealousy, hypocritical pretensions, and pompous ambition were luxuriating on the ill-gotten spoils of the people, they rose in their majesty, like a tornado, and sweept through the land, till General [William Henry] Harrison appeared, as a star among the storm-clouds, for better weather.
After this, won’t Mr. [John Minor] Botts give way , and let General Smith be the whig candidate for the vice presidency[?] But let us finish the picture:
The good man died before he had the opportunity of applying one balm to ease the pain of our groaning : and I am willing the should be the judge, whether General Harrison, in his exalted station, upon the eve of his entrance into the world of spirits, told the truth or not, with acting-’s three years perplexity and pseudo-whig-democrat reign, to heal the breeches, or show the wounds, secundum artum, (according to art) Subsequent events, all things considered. ’s downfall, Harrison’s exit, and ’s self-sufficient turn to the whole go to show, as a Chaldean might exclaim: Bérám etái elauh beshmayáuh gauháh rauzéen (Certainly there is a God in heaven to reveal secrets.)
Joseph is unquestionalby a great scholar as well as financier. Cannot persuade the General to accompany him on his electioneering tour? With [George] Poindexter, [Sergeant] Prentiss, the Bear, the Borer, Joe Smith, and a few other quadrupeds to complete his menagerie, he could not fail to convince the moral and enlightened people of the of the necessity of a national bank, and of their duty to make him President.
Before we close, we have a few suggestions to make. We propose, then, that Joe Smith (Mr. [Nicholas] Biddle being out of the way) be made president, and George Poindexter cashier, of the new whig national bank that is not to be: that the mother bank be established at with branches over all creation: that the honorable Mr. Mitchell be appointed counsel, and that have unlimited power to draw, with Governor [James Duane] Doty of as his security. With this arrangement we should have the perfection of a whig system of finance. [p. 251]
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