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of the people, it is exceedingly probable that within a few years this vast amount of State debts will be doubled, if not trebled. The rage for borrowing seems to have no limits, excepting that which may be imposed by the caution which experience may teach those among whom paper currency circulates. By the Constitution these States cannot be sued. The payment of the interest as well as principal of these debts must, therefore, rest upon the same confidence as the redemption of paper currency, which, within two years, has universally failed. During the last session of Congress, Mr. Webster predicted that another general explosion was not far distant-and his sources of information on this subject are unquestionable.

Whenever it shall become necessary to provide for these debts by direct taxation upon the people of the States by whose authority they were created, what will be the result? The tax-consumers are not the governing power in this country, as in England. The tax-payers here possess uncontrollable political sway. The money to be replaced by taxation has been generally dissipated for the advantage of others than those who will be required to pay it. If they were the same individuals, the questions which relate to borrowing and spending are wholly different in their practical influence upon the imagination of most men, from those of taxation and payment.

It is not for us to attempt to foretell the course, which may be pursued, by the indebted States of the Union, whenever a crisis shall befal their finances. It is clear that, the Constitution prohibiting any State from making any thing but gold and silver a tender in payment, the people cannot relieve themselves from debt, as many of the States had done at different periods, before the adoption of that sacred guarantee of public and private rights. Whether any avenue of escape will be afforded by the prohibition against issuing bills of credit-most of the State debts being, substantially, in that shape-may possibly, hereafter, become an important question.

We hope, in view of this interesting subject, that those who have taken such unwearied pains to corrupt and debase public opinion, in relation to public obligations and the measure of value, may be induced to perceive the necessity of elevating the character of their ethical doctrines. Should the disorganizing and anarchical principles, which, within the last two or three years, have been boldly promulgated under the sanction of imposing names, become generally received among our citizens, and produce their intended effect upon the governing power, we fear that many important enterprises, on which immense sums have been lavished, must come to an untimely end. None can deprecate more sincerely than ourselves any measures or doctrines which tend to impair the public faith either of the United States, or the several States. It cannot, how

ever, be concealed from the view of all men of observation, that the profligacy which the paper system has introduced among us, has already made deep inroads upon the resources of some of the States, and bids fair to prove a heavy source of future taxation. Whether another generation of legislators will be inclined to see themselves and their constituents impoverished, without making a serious struggle to relieve themselves from the burdens which have been, in so many cases, improvidently imposed, cannot be foreseen. The most prudent and advisable course undoubtedly is, to avoid any occasion for such efforts by forecast and economy in all public expenditures. The experience of the English nation, in the accucumulation of debt, ought not to be disregarded.

A general condition of poverty and degradation cannot be fas tened upon the people of this country, by a system of exorbitant taxes levied upon the many to support the luxury of the few. No standing armies can be kept on foot, among us, for the purpose of repressing the desperation of want. The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the only safe maxim, and, in the long run, will prove as advantageous to the security of the rich as it will be beneficial to the comfort of the poor and the industrious.

SONNET.

ANDREW JACKSON.

Come, stand the nearest to thy country's sire,
Thou fearless man, of uncorrupted heart!
Well worthy universal praise thou art,
And 'twill be thine when slumbers party ire.
Raised, by the voice of freemen, to a height

Sublimer far than Kings by birth may claim,
Thy stern, unselfish spirit dared the right,

And battled 'gainst the wrong; thy holiest aim
Was freedom in the largest sense, despite

Misconstrued motives and unmeasured blame.
Above disguise; in purpose firm and pure;
Just to opposers and to friends sincere;

Thy worth shall with thy country's name endure,

And greener grow thy fame through every coming year.

MARCH 4, 1839.

THE HEART'S TRUST.

BY MRS. DA PONTE.

I trust in thee! I trust in all

That doth my mind, my soul enthral
With silent ecstacy!

Truth lives within thy thoughtful eye;
I hear it in that low-breathed sigh,
Whene'er I turn to thee.

Nay, take not thou away thy hand!
Tis seldom thus that I may stand
And speak this hidden truth;-
And thou art truth! By passion's vow-
By all that's beautiful, I know

Thou art my dream of youth.

And though I may not, must not show
Whatever through my soul doth flow
Mysteriously and still!

Feelings that from thy sight I hide,
Whose power subdues all strength, all pride,
And bows me to thy will!

I hear thy voice when others speak,
When others praise, when others seek
To win with flattering art;

It comes in hours of revelry,

In midnight dreams, in midnight glee
It falls upon my heart.

I drink the sound! And then they deem
Thou art not heard amid the stream

Of mirth and levity!

Well do I feign joy's mad excess,
As through that mighty throng I press,
But only trust in thee!

DEFALCATIONS.*

The people of the United States are at last favored with the result of the labors of the far-famed Committee of Investigation. After two months consumed in spreading a partizan version through the land, we are permitted to behold the proofs on which they depend to establish the bold charges so widely, and, we may say, so recklessly, disseminated. Their bulky document is at length forthcoming. "Verbosa et grandis epistola venit, E Capreis." From the secret chambers of this new inquisition, (for such its conduct, its acts, its extreme injustice, its unmanly and secret mode of proceeding, so totally at variance with American character and American institutions, prove that it was,) from these six members of Congress-than whom no six ever so wantonly neglected to perform a duty they had assumed, or so unjustly perverted a high trust to malignant and unworthy purposes-we have a volume of seven hundred and eighty-six pages, printed with the public money, and diffused through the country at the public expense. We do not characterize it unjustly. No man, devoid of the heated feelings of a partizan, can look on the proceedings or productions of this Coinmittee without mingled feelings of contempt and pity. We speak thus of this document, after a perusal as carefu! as its tedious pages would permit. We were anxious to arrive at the truth-to know whether, in spite of the unfair conduct of this Committee, its disclosures might not bring proofs of misconduct against public functionaries. We were prepared to pass the severest judgment against any officer of the people who might be found censurable or corrupt, notwithstanding the partiality of the inquest by which the charges were preferred. There are few who shall commence a similar perusal, that will be found willing to persevere through the same unprofitable task. Probably it was part of the design of the Committee that they should not. Probably it was thought best that their conclusions" should be supported by a bundle of documents so complicated and tedious, that no human patience would essay the labor of proving, by a comparison with the evidence, their falsehood or truth. We pronounce, however, without hesitation, that no candid and honorable man, who shall read this book or report, will hesitate to say that the whole proceeding has been most

* Report of the Committee of Investigation, chosen by ballot, by the House of Representatives, January 17th and 19th, 1839, on the subject of the defalcations of Samuel Swartwout and others, and the correctness of the returns of collectors and receivers of the public money.

partial and unjust; that the Committee have been grossly negligent in the manner and extent of their investigation, wholly omitting to do that which Congress and the country intended and expected would be done; and that the "conclusions" they profess to establish are totally unsupported by the evidence they have themselves adduced.

The proceeding, from the beginning to the end, has been marked by a spirit of partizanship-not by a love of truth. The object of the investigation has been to obtain, if possible, some available grounds of attacking the Administration-not to inquire really and honestly into the adequacy of the existing laws that regulate the Treasury; into the mode by which frauds upon it have been successfully perpetrated; into the delinquencies of those who are really guilty but to gather evidence in secret; to concoct partial statements; to draw unjust but plausible inferences, by which they may heap censure and odium on the Treasury Department. The object has been evidently, from first to last, to criminate public officers for political purposes-not to guard or protect the Treasury. What citizen rises from the perusal of this big book with additional knowledge as to the extent of defalcations, or the means of preventing them? What lights have been thrown upon the subject to guide the future legislation of Congress? The citizen or the legislator finds nothing of this; he has, instead, a train of voluminous sophistry, the sole object of which is to abuse the individual officers of the Treasury Department, and to manufacture materials to be used in electioneering for a future President. The object, we repeat the evident object, the undisguised object of this proceeding from first to last-has been political crimination, not the search for truth.

Let us look back on the commencement of these proceedings. Towards the close of the second session of the late Congress, certain correspondence was called for in regard to the receivers of public moneys; but how was it called for? Why, one-half the correspondence was demanded, while the rest was carefully excluded. The letters written by the Secretary of the Treasury are required; but no call is made for the answers he received. Every instance in which he finds occasion to complain of these officers as wanting in punctuality or correctness is thus brought before Congress; but the reply that might give an explanation or defence is excluded by the terms of the resolution. The document thus garbled, thus partial, presenting but one side, and that, the side most injurious to the officer, is circulated through the country under the supposed sanction of its being a public record, and even the self-defence of the person attacked is carefully suppressed. Is it possible to misunderstand the object of a proceeding like this? Is it possible to doubt the manner in which a scheme thus commenced would

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