Salt River journal. [volume], September 19, 1840, Image 1

About Salt River journal. [volume] (Bowling Green, Mo.) 1833-1841

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A. H. BTJCKNER, Editor and Proprietor.
"power is ever stealing from the mant to the few.1
G. B. PRICE, Publisher
VOL. 7 NUMBER 49.
BOWLING-GREEN, MO. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1840.
WHOLE NUMBER 361.
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT.
Our readers will find in another column of
to-day's paper, an article from the Globe,
exposing some of the base tricks resorted to
by the Whigs of North Carolina, to operate
on the late elections in the State, which had
its effect; but we now have the pleasure of
layin before our readeis an able letter from
the President himself, explained the whole
matter commenced with this most miserable
of all humbugs which have been gotten up,
the Hooe-case. The letter is written at the
request of a gentleman of North Carolina.
Washington, August, 1840
Sir: I have received your letter, asking
me for yourself, and in behalf of the citizens
of Martin county North Carolina, to give you
a statement of the case of Lieutenant Ilooe
of the navy, with my views upon the subject;
a request with which I do not hesitate to
comply.
It appears from the official report of the
case made by the Secretary of the navy to
Congress, that Lieutenant Hooe was tried by
a court marshal upon several charges, por
tions of which were for causing several per
sons to be flogged on board of the United
States ship Vandal in, in disregard of the in
ternal regulations of said ship, and in direct
violation of the act for the better govern
ment of the navv; that he was acquitted
upon a portion of the charges, and convicted
upon the residue; that in the course of his
trial two colored seamen belonging to the
crew of the vessel on board of which he was
serving, were offered as witnesses to sub
stantiate a portion of the charges; thai they
were objected to by Lieutenant Ilooe, but
admitted by the court, a majority of which
was composed of Southern officers; that the
proceedings of the court martial was referred
by the Secretary of the Navy, in the ab
sence of the Attorney General, to the Attor
ney for this District, a native of a slavehol
ding State, and subsequently to the Attorney
General himself, for their opinion in regard
to the objection, which had been made on the
trial as to the competency of the colored
witnesses; that these gentlemen united in
the opinion that in as much as the testimony
given by those witnesses was not material
to the question of the guilt or innocence of
Lieutenant Ilooe, in respect to the charges
tirVMl t7r-Irr-i ka nrao rrttttmA f itnt nilPstinil
having been deceded upon other testimony,)
the objection raised to their competency
oueht to Lave no influence with the Secreta-
finding of the court, !
ry is psjsing vpon
that the
Lieutenant
the West
a I - U. tha
tSj o wasreup approved
by the secretary; and that, upon appeal ! .
v . v . ii i
r . i
1CIC win, me; ucuisiuu, i
nth the decision.
simple question presented by these '
lings, was whether the admission of ille-;
-.r . . v . i
The
: i ' : w k ...v 4 .,u
Hftiience u tuuii, uy wintll - - , t .,
. -r .u. u u:u (iv I iu uc luuuu vuiv iu us uiiciauuu. n is
Hooe ras - to be dismissed Irom .-. j - ,
1 IwC .... : ftt. thin innnt ha HKnninnlicha1
India souadron, a.'.'er having been ':.rZ.TT
stantiate parts only of the charges, ought to (why the rule which prevails with the con
be allowed to Invalidate the finding of the ! approbation of all in the judicial,
court in legard to those charges which were should not be extended to the military tn
established to the satisfaction of the court by ' buna,s of the country. The legislation of
other and unquestioned evidence; in other Congress necessary to accomplish that ob
words, whether Lieut. Hooe ought to be;ject would be very simple, it being only
suffered to avoid the consequeuces of a r.on-1 ncessary to provide that the rules, in re-
viction upon proof
t ,4mltfAj1 t tiA lArrol .Mil
t " . o - - -
deemed to be sufficient, because the public
prosecutor attempted to sustain other charges j
against him by proof which the accused claim
ed to be illegal. The court martial thought
.cot the law officers of the Government
not the Secretary of the Navy thought not
and I sustained their united opinion. No
E
rinciple is better established in courts of
aw than that a new trial will never be gran
ted on the ground of the introduction of ille
gal testimony, when the verdict complained
of is fully sustained by proof to which there
was no objections; the common sense and
justice of which rule will be at once obvious
to every ingenuous mind.
This disposes of the case of Lieut. Hooe,
as far as it was passed upon either by the Na
ry Department or myself. But it does not,
as you will perceive, touch the question as to
the legality of permitting free blacks to testi
fy against white persons in naval courts mar
tial. It is obviously not so much the in
dividual case, as the general principle, which
has excited your attention, and it is there
fore due to you to give you a wider view
of the subject. By your State laws, blacks
are prohibited from testifying against white
men. You very naturally, as well from con
sideration ss from your own feelings, look
with repugnance upon their admission as
witnesses before the Federal tribunals. The
first question is, whether the law, as it
now stands, authorizes their admission; and
if it does, the next is, whether the law ought
to be, and how it can be, changed. There
is no act of Congress which prohibits the
admission of colored persons as witnesses in
courts martial, it is believed that the prac-
tice of permitting them to testify, has been
unilorm,and 1 have not found that the ques
tion has ever before been brought up for dc-
- Ti l,, . r.
cision. inueea, i uia not perceive that, ex
cept by the accused' the illegality of their
admission is even now objected to in any
quarter. The officers constituting the court,
a large niapnty of whom where Southern
gentlemen, of highly respectable standing,cog-
nizant of all their rights, and in no sense, lia
ble to the imputation of being indisposed to
sustain them, did not, it appears, hesitate as
to the legality ol the testimony. 1 he Dis
trict Attorney. Mr. Key, declares the wit
nesses to have been competent as the law
now stands. The Judiciary Committee
composed of professional gentlemen, at least
a majority of whom could not be suspected
of a disposition to screen the Department or
the Lxecutive from responsibility, if they
had sanctioned an illegal act are silent up
on the subject, and the very resolutions even
by which the case of Lieutenant Hooe was
brought before Congress, although denounc
ing the proceedings with great vehemence,
do not, I believe, allege that the admission
of these witnesses was illegal. I he matter
rests upon very simple grounds. The able
men who framed the judiciary act of 1789,
wisely adapted it as far as practicable, as
many of them had assisted in doing with the
Constitution itself, and as they did with most
of the early and fundamental acts of the (ov
ernment, to the peculiar condition of the
different States composing the confederacy
in respect to their local laws and domestic
institutions. It was to this end provided,
"that the laws of the several htates, except
where the Constitution, treaties, or statutes,
of the United States, shall otherwise require
or provide, shall be regarded as rules of deci
sion in trills at c-niiiio:i law in the courts of
the United States, m cases where they ap
ply. The consequenee of this provision in
respect to this particular question is, that
when the Federal courls sit in a State where,
by its own laws colored persons are prohibit
ed from testifying against white persons,
thevare excluded in those courts; and when
the State lawsadmit them in the State courts,
they are admitted in the Federal court also,
Such has been the uniform parctice under
the act, and all excitements upon the sub
ject has been by that means avoided. But
this applies only to the judicial tribunals of
the country. The law of courts martial
has not been framed with so much care.
Their proceedings have been exclusively
regulated by acts of Congress without refer
ence to State laws or State usages. Those
acts have never prohibited the introduction
of colored persons as witnesses; and hence
their frequent admission in that capacity,
particularly in naval courts martial, s
jhem a,moft mvariab y forming a port
some or
ion of
' Arforv ehiiia fniir If it nirAnn te nAmtt
Y ' . T ? ; .
J"' th aul " th !aw' ,and he re1me-
a as, w niuu s,vr uuiuid
as it stand,, when ,. case ZlZ'
P.erUed, or to 'attempt to .change itsope
ion. there would indeed be cause tor com-
nl.ii. - t and denunciation. But whilst 1 nave
., - - , .
Ihe constitu t.onal power toal er the law,
I have no hesitation in s-ymg that I have not
Uon nlJa fn discover a suflicient reason
been able to discover a sufficient reason
-Lll U 1U LI in UUIIII33IWU Ul Hllliwava ...
particular should be the same in both classes
of courts. Some special enactment in re
i u i .t. : t..ii. -l.
gard to courts martial held at sea, and out of
. - c . . 1 . I
tne jurisdiction oi any state, migni ue ac
cessary, but could easily be adjusted.
It is thus seen that efforts designed to be
useful in the matter should be directed to
Congress, and not to the Executive.
I am, sir very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
M. VAN BUREN
To Mr. Eugene Burras,
Jamestown, Martin county, N. C.
The expansions and collapses of the last
ten years, have taught this generation some
lessons which they will hardly forget At
one time they who sustained prices by a
speculative forcing system, were supposed to
be saved to the nation in price of cotton and
flour, by sustaining prices at their "neutral"
point. The effort to keep up flour was cer
tainly most wonderfully successful. Every
i bv me. were t euner toaisrecara tne law
thing was on a grand scale in those days;
and it did seem that nature's laws might be
set at defiance, and herself subdued by her
own children. The millers were eager buy
ers of wheat, at extremely high prices; and
because they were so eager, and bid so high,
the farmers would not sell. Crops were
thus kept back, and a fictitious scarcity creat
ed in the midst of real, plenty. But the
unoheralJe laws pf-tra4iiave resumed their
supremacy. The overloaded system has
broken down we now have a real surplus,
and prices are too low, probably, in their
vibration from the opposite extreme. By
this reaction, mischief has been done which
fai outweighs all the good of high prices, and
people are thoroughly convinced that they do
most to benefit the country, in this depart
ment, who most facilitate the sales of pro
duce, at whatever price the relative influen
ces of supply and demand may determine.
When we contemplate these things, how
surpassingly wise docs the groat plan of na
ture appear! The crops cannot be squan
dered in advance they cannot be reached
until their time. When, by the excessive
grasping of men after useless wealth, the
whole country is prostrated money, credit
business, all gone the earth yields her gold
en harvest as if nothing had happened, and
by her steady bounty, gradually relieves the
lords of creation from the evil consequences
of their folly. Jour, of Com.
o
Bi'chanan ASn Davis. In 1814, when
John Davis was making the welkin ring with
his rejoicings over the victories of the ene
mies of his country, Jap. Buchanan was
marching to Baltimore with hit musket on
hit shoulder, as a volunteer, to defend that
city against the British army. In 1 840, when
Mr. Buchanan was advocating a measure
that would secure to industry the fruits of
its toil, Mr. Davis was opposing it because
it might reduce the dividends of the p iper
money aristocracy. Worcester Palladium.
o
Keep it before the people. That Har
rison resigned in the middle of the war de
serted his post in the midst of danger: and
withdrew from a field thut, in the hands of
Andrew Jackson, become one of the most
glorious in the nnit-tU of history.
That his iwn officers passed resolutions
against him, disapproving of his conduct in
the sverest terms resolutions, which now
after a Kip Van Winkle sleep of twenty
seven years, it is attempted to explain away.
Their charity comes fo lat.
Tlmt tin vnfpH in fnvir nf snJ sirmuft n
law which the poor man might be sold into
slavery, and become the slave, perhaps of hi
own prosecutor.
1 hat he refuses to trust tho people with
his sentiments, and will not answer the ques
tions of those whose votes he asks.
o
THE BANKING SYSTEM.
We have seldom leen a more striking pic
ture of the effects of the banking lyytem,
as estal'lised in this countrj-, than is fu mill
ed in the following extract. It is taken from
the speech made in the United Statps, April
6th, 1819, by the present Whig candidate
for the Vice Presidency. There is no rea
son to believe that Mr. Tyler has changed
his opinion since that period; as every inci
dent in our subsequent history proves the
truth ot hi? description:
uv or one, 1 enter my protest against the
banking system as conducted in this country
a system not to be supported by any cor
rect principles of political economy; a gross
delusion, a dream of a visionary a system
which has done more to corrupt the morals
of society than any thing else; which has in
troduced a struggle for wealth, instead of
that honorable struggle which governs the
actions of a patriot, and makes ambition vir-
ture, which has made the husbandman spurn
his cottage, and introduced a spirit at vari
ance with the simplicity of our institutions.
I call upon the warm advocates of banking
now to surrender their errors. Shall Ijtake
them by the hand and lead them through our
cities? Bankruptcy meets us at every step-
ruin stares us every where in the lace.
Shall I be told of ti'ie benefits arising to com
merce from the concetitration of capital !
Away with the delusion. Experience has
exposed its fallacy. True, for a moment, it
has operated as a stimulus, but, like ardent
spirits, it nas produced activity and energy
but for a moment; relaxation has followed,
and the torpor of death has ensued.
When you first open your bank, much bus
tle ensues; a fictitious goddess, pretending
to be wealth, stands at the door, inviting all
to enter and receive accommodation; splen
did palaces arise; the ocean is covered with
sails; but some alteration in the state of the
country takes place, and when the thought
less adventurer, seated in the midst of his
family, in the imaginary enjoyment of per
manent security, sketches out to himself long
and halcyon days, his prospects are overshad
owed, and misery, ruin and bankruptcy,
make their appearance in the form of bank
curtailments. If this be true, and I appeal
to the knowledge of men for its truth, I de
mand to know if you can put down the sys
tem too soont Can we too soon escape the
danger with which we are surrounded? 1
know that 1 shall be told, that even it we put
down tin's bank, the State Banks will still ex
ist. Even if true, the position is not a justi
fiable one. If the State Legislatures do not
follow the example which we set them we
shall have acquitted ourselves of our duty.
It is all that can be asked of us. But, sir,
we actually possess the lever of Archimedes,
and have a foot of ground on which to rest
it. Our revenue amounts to upwards of ,$20
000.000 annually. Require a fourth, or even
a sixth to be paid in gold and silver what
what would be the effect? The merchant
would collect the notes of banks and demand
specie for them, and thus a test would be
adopted, by means of which to ascertain the
solvency of each institution. The demand
of specie thus produced would have the bene
ficial effect of introducing more of it into
the country; for money is like every other arti
cle, and will find its way to the market where
it is most wanting. The system might be
enlarged gradually until your wishes should
be consummated.
THE GREAT' CONTEST.
WHAT THE TWO POLITICAL PARTIES
ARE STRUGGLING FOR.
Are the Whigs contending for the privilege
of living in log cabins? Is there any despot
in the land who prevents them from pull
ins down their mansions of brick, of granite,
and of marble, and putting up log cabins in
their places? Do they desire and design to
blew up the President's House, and demol
ish the Capital, that they may build log cab
ins for the accommodation of congress and
the President on ther ruins? Are they de
nied the privilege or painting log cabins up
on ladies' fans, stmping them upon handker
chiefs, impressing tnern upon their buttons,
or branding them upon their foreheads? Or
has some tyrant dashed the gourd from their
lips, knocked the hoops off their barrels, and
denied them the right to drink "hard cider?"
Are they making so fierce a war to recover
the lost liberty of getting drunk on whatso
ever hcvera-.'t; t'-ey please? Or has a despot
interpi-fj t prevent their assemblage to
gether in .is many thousands as they can col
lect, hauling pig-styes and little boats, rolling
halls and waving cocnskins, climbing into
the forks of trees braced up in carts, chatter
ing like monkeys, cawing like crows, harking
like dogs, whooping like Indians, and yelling
like devils, to their hearts content? All
these blessed privileges they now enjoy un
molested; and many are improving them with
an exuberance of zeal and delight which shows
how hishlr they are prized.
For all these thins the leading Whigs care
nothing. They do not mean to live in log
cabins. Except with such as have in the
mean time become incorrigible drunkards,
all their uhard cider' drinking, and the mum-
menps which attend them, will cease with
the election. They are only tho arguments
by which tho leaders of the party expect to
indwe an intelligent copIe to vote for their
candidate! Ihe objects which they hope to
attain through such means are far different.
and it behooves a jer.lous people to look be
yond the lug cabins and see what thei are.
It is sometimes denied that we have a
urniiLEnEn orper" in our country. In show
ing that such an order exist, we mut not
be understood as attackingany privilege they
enjoy under the authority of law. On the
contrary, our sole object is to show that, not
content with their lawful privileges, they
have transcended the limits of the law, and
are now struggling, not for any legal right,
but to take the Government of the country
out of the hands of the people, and vest it in
their order.
"A privileged orper" may be defined to be
A CLASS OP KEN ON WHOM THE LAW CONFERS
CERTAIN PRIVILEGES OR IMMUNITIES NOT EN
JOT EI) DT THE GREAT MASS OP THE PEOPLE.
Such an order are the bankers or stockhol
ders in banks. They enjoy both a privile
ges' and 44 ihvunities" not enjoyed by the
people in general.
The essence of their privilege is, that they
are enabled by law to realize a double or triple
income from their properly, while all other
classes are left to a single income obtained by
their own unassisted exertions.
One man has a thousand dollars' worth of
property in money, and onther has a thousand
dollars' worth in land. The law authorizes
the man who has $1,000 in money to lend
.$3,000 in notes not bearing intercst,ond take
from his fellow-citizens therefore notes bear
ing interest, whereby he gets triple interest
on his $1,000. But the law does not and
cannot enable the farmer to make three crops
a year vpon his land. With sweat and toil
he makes one crop, while the law enables
the banker, living in idleness and luxury, to
make three. Is there no special privilege
here?
The law authorizes the banker to promise
to pay on demand three times as many dollars
as lie has, and recognises his notes as cur
rency as a standard of value by which the
property of the people is to be measured.
The law does not authorize the farmer to
promise to deliver three times as many bush
els of wheat, or bref cattle, or other produce,
or stock, as he really has, and recognise those
promises is money. It does not authorize
the mechanic to promise to deliver tb
limes as much furniture or other"-'"
ti a tin at rn Vff
' , -slides as
does not authorize the laborer to promisrf
eight days' work a week when he can render"
but six, lend his promises as money; and get
interest upon their nominal value. A unV
mer's land, stock and utensils, are At capital;
the mechanic's skill, materials, and articles'
on hand are hit; the laborer's consists in bis"
strong arm and willing heart; while the'
banker's consists in money. The law in ef
fect triples the banker's capital, while that of
all other classes remain single. . Is there no?
"special privilege" in this?
Bankers in general enjoy immunities also'
which are not granted to other classes. If
the farmer promise to pay money or deliver
his crop to a purchaser, all his property U '
responsible for a faithful performance. The
banker is authorized by law to promise to
pay $3,000 for $1,000 in bank, and if he '
fails to do so, though worth a million, is res
ponsible to the extent of $1,000 only, or the
amount of his bank stock. He may, with
three hundred dollars of his own notes, issue
upon a capital of one hundred, buy three
hundred bushels of the farmer's wheat; and
if he fail to pay those notes, can only be held
responsible for one hundred dollars, the a
mount of his stock. He pays to mechanics
who build his house, or to laborers who till
his lands, three hundred dollars in his pictur
ed promises, when he is responsible but for
one; but if those humble men promise him to
pay the same sum, they are responsible for
the whole. Is there no special privilege:
here?
In partnerships among the people fortradV,
or farming, or any other business, each part
ner is held responsible in his whole property
for the debts of the firm, however small may
be his part of the capital. But in banks
and other corporations, the partners in gener
al are held responsible only in the amount
of their stock. The bank may break, involv
ing thousands in loss and hundreds in ruin,
while the stockholder, enriched by the us
of the privileges, and perchance by the frauds
of his bank, lives in luxury amidst the gener
al distress. Is there no special privilege ia
this exemption?
In many of the States, the citizen who is
unable to pay his debts is subject to arrest
and imprisonment. It is not so with the
banker. While all his property except bis
bank stock is exempted from execution to
pa the debts of the bank in which he is a
partner, his body is exempt altogether. By
clubing together and getting an act of in
corporation, the rich, whose wealth is in1
money, are enabled not only to promise te
pay or deliver three limes as much property
in money as they have, without responsibli
ty in their other property, but to escape the
laws of imprisonment for debt altogether."
Is there no special privilege here?
In fine, our banking laws enable the bank
er to get the use of other people's money or
property for nothing, while the people psy
for the use of his promises, which are not
property. The farmer sells to the banker
one hundred bushels of wheat,- takes a one
hundred dollar note in payment, and locks it
up in his desk. The banker has now got
the farmers property, while" the farmer hav
nothing but the bankers promissory note,
without interest. The banker sells the far
mer's wheat at one hundred and ten dollars,
and lends out the money upon interest. If
the farmer keep the note a year, the banker
will have made, in the mean time, $16 60 out
of the use of his property, paying nothing
for it. If the fanner pass the note, and it
remain out a year, the effect is the same
the banker has the property, while the note
holder has the shadow. So also the banker's
profit is more or less, in proportion to the
time the note may remain in the hands of the
farmer, or in circulation.
A farmer goes to a banker to borrow mon
ey; wnat does he get! IVot money, but
promises to pay money; it is a mere exchange
o: notes; the tanner gives the banker his
note, and the banker gives the farmer notes
in return. But there is this important dif
ference: the farmer' note is on interest,
while the banker's notes exchanged for it -are
not. If the farmer were to keep the
bank notes until his own note became due, -he
would evidently lose the interest and the
banker would gain it. The effect to the' -banker
is the same, if the farmer put the
notes in circulation -the banker gets the nt-'T.
terest.
For every bank note in circulation, the
banks have either the property of the classes '
in possession, without paying any thing for
it, or their notes upon interest, paying no
interest in return. The bank note circula
tion of his country has been about as high
ns one hundred and fifty millions of dollars.
To this amount, therefore, the property of ;
the people, or their notes bearing interest,
have been in the use of the bankers, affor-'
ding, at 6 per cent, an income of about nine:
millions of dollars per annum; When any '
man, not indebted to a bank," has one of its '
notes in his pocket, tho bank has his proper
ty to its full amount, and is making a profi, by
its use, while he gets nothing in taflU if-',
he owe the bank, he is pi- .inoo. -
the debt, while thV mte.r"ApK -
The banks have been en
io h- Vj'or.T to cet into their
I bled, at one Vf community ana
hand the r.kf. mount of about one
, 'iDiy make,
1