The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools.—Solomon’s Proverbs.

In the daily Globe of March 14th, notices my “Views on the Power and Policy of our Government," under the head of “A new advocate for a National Bank,” with remarks and extracts. As it does not bespeak a gentleman to tell all he knows, nor indicate wisdom to murmur at the oddities of men, I rarely reply to the many remarks, sayings and speculations upon me and my plans, which seem to agitate the world; for like the showers upon the verdure of the earth, they give me vigor, beauty, and expansion: but when a man occupies a station in his , which ought to be honored as an exaltation; which ought to be sustained with dignity; and which should be filled by a friend and a patriot of the nation, too wise to be cozened by counterfeit principles; too great to blur his fame with sophistry; too proud to stoop to the vanity that is momently wasting the virtue of the government; and too good to act the hypocrite to accumulate wealth—or to frustrate the ends and aims of justice; I feel it my duty to bring forth the truth, that the man and his measures, if right may be sustained; and if wrong, may be rebuked.

Without reference to men, parties, or precedents, the plan of banking, suggested in my “Views,” is assumed upon the all commanding, and worthily considered, omnipotent petition of the people, and whether, as a “fiscal agent,” “great financier, prophet, priest or king,” I act wisely and righteously, so as to answer their virtuous prayers, without fear, favor, or partiality; and produce union; give satisfaction to twenty millions of freemen, rather than sport with their holy supplications to boost a few hungry crafty hypocritical demagogues into office to gamble for the“loaves and fishes”—no matter whether the game is played “upon the tables of the living, or the coffins of the dead”—or whether I raise the honor and credit of the above the little, picayune, cramped, narrow minded schemes of the dominant, undominant, and would be dominant parties, cliques, knots and factions; or whether, like the venerable fathers, I launch my new ship into the great ocean of existence, and, like them, luckily bring relief to the oppressed, is all the same, so long as the people are honored as noble in their patriotism; and almighty in their majesty:—vox populi—vox Dei!

But it is extraneous, irrelevant and kick shawing to connect me or any part of my “Views on the Powers and Policy of the Government,” with , , , , , , or any of their galvanic cronies—what have they done to benefit the people? The simple answer is—nothing but draw money from the treasury. It is entirely too late in the age of this , to clarify a of the West; deify a of the East; quidify a of the Whigs, or bigify a of the Democrats; leaving and such fair samples of bogus-democracy, that he that runs may read.

As the beautiful excellence of a  head  may be a desideratum only remedied by the “Excelsior,” of the brain, so a great man ought to exhibit his wisdom by his liberality to the unfortunate among men as a token of philanthropy, unbounded by party lines, unfettered by chain-cable opinions, and untrammelled by cast-iron rules. Why slur the noble project of letting the prisoners go free by petition? It is sanctioned by ancient custom; it is the counsel of God, and would be the only visible testimony to the world that this realm is what it professes to be, a Government of Liberty! Heaven, earth, and hell know that the penitentiaries of the several States are a disgrace to the , and a stink in the nostrils of the Almighty. And the county and city prisons are still worse. Unfortunate men, and in nine cases out of ten, innocent, are hurled into prison by corrupted Judges, suborned witnesses, or ungodly men who gamble themselves into Congress, into Legislatures, into courts, into churches, and into notice and power, and then damn their friends and fellow beings to prison, wretchedness and ruin. And in ninety and nine cases out of a hundred, the prisoners are treated meaner than dogs; half starved to put money into the pockets of speculators; fed upon unwholsome provisions; whipped without mercy and even murdered with impunity. Look at the beastly conduct of **** to the female in Auburn State Prison, N. Y. Remember a man was whipped to death, not long since in penitentiary, Illinois; and it is not uncommon to lacerate with the “rope’s end” thirty men at once, in the parish prisons of , so that the voice of reason now cries from the vast numbers of prisons and the multiplying number of prisoners in the for relief: and the death like groans from cells, bastiles, castles, and cursed holes throughout the whole earth, is ascending up into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth to be avenged of such cruelty. And when great men, in high places, see a shoot out his own brains with a rifle; or gaze upon the havoc made by the bursting of a “great gun” among the “Executives” of the , then know ye, the hour of his judgment is come!

The is the boasted land of “Liberty,” where “these truths are held self evident—that all men are created equal: and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness:” but at the same time in the face of these truths, slavery is tolerated by law: imprisonment is tolerated by law: and murder is tolerated by law: and even fifteen thousand free citizens are exiled from one state to another—and the General Government has no power, (according to the opinions of and ) to redress the wrong. O, Queen Victoria, and ye lords and commons of Great Britain, what think ye of a Republican Government? and how do you imagine your daughter will come out in her attempt at equal rights and reigning in righteousness? Pshaw! (will they answer,) your coffers are robbed with impunity; your citizens are mobbed, and driven like chaff from the threshing floor, and the government, controlled by a set of money gambling, chicken-hearted, public fed cowards, cannot redress you! Ask the reigning sovereigns of Europe, Africa and Asia, what they think of the boasted Republic in ! and will they not laugh in the face of the whole world, and taunt the , by exclaiming! Ah! hah! ah! hah! If there is any power in a Republican Government, in a real case of necessity, you have failed to find just men to exercise it. Party spirit cuts the cords of union; patronage veils the face of justice, and bribery closes the lips of honor, and when the wicked rule the people mourn.

Perhaps it may be said, the government has been adequate to the calls of justice; and I answer, if it has, it was because the officers in authority considered their honor and the rights of the people, paramount to patronage, pelf, and popularity!

They were patriots who carried out the poet’s explanation of true greatness—

It is said that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” and when men are called “quadrupeds,” and ridicule occupies the place of reason, and the virtue, dignity, honor, power, and majesty of the people seem to be buried in rubbish; covered with dust; mildewed with fog; tainted with treachery; burlesqued by blackguards; or humbled by debauchees; it is high time for humanity to exclaim:—“How has the gold become dim, and where has the glory departed?”

The only suggestion worthy of commendation relative to a National Bank, in ’s remarks, is, that the mother bank should be located at .

This is correct, for as a city, collectively or individually, cannot be reproached with dishonor, crime, corruption or bribery. Neither has a Swartwout or Price mingled his millions with the majesty of monarchs by walking out of the unwalled and ungated . The blood of commodores and congressmen, shed by the heaven-daring, hell-begotten, earth-disgracing practice of dueling, has never stained the virtuous soil or city of . Nor does a slave raise his rusting fetters and chains, and exclaim, O liberty where are thy charms? Wisdom, freedom, religion, and virtue, like light, love, water and air, “spread undivided, and operate unspent,” in the beloved ; while the gay world, and great politicians may sing, and even the “great Globe” itself may chime the melodious sounds:—

As the “world is governed too much,” and as there is not a nation or dynasty, now occupying the earth which acknowledges Almighty God as their law giver, and as “crowns won by blood, by blood must be maintained,” I go emphatically, virtuously, and humanely, for a Theodemocracy, where God and the people hold the power to conduct the affairs of men in righteousness. And where liberty, free trade, and sailors’ rights, and the protection of life and property, shall be maintained inviolate, for the benefit of ALL. To exalt mankind is nobly acting the part of a God—to degrade them, is meanly doing the drudgery of the devil. Unitas, libertas, curitas—esto perpetua!

With highest sentiments of regard for all men, I am an advocate of unadulterated freedom.

, (Ill.) April 15, 1844. [p. [1]]