CHAPTER IV. Letter from Mr. Gore.-Letter from Mr. King. Mr. Mason's Congressional Life till the Close of the Fourteenth Congress.-Domestic Correspondence. Correspondence with Dr. Appleton, Mr. King and Mr. Gore. - Mr. Mason declines the Office of Chief Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire. WHILE at home, after the close of the Thirteeenth Congress, Mr. Mason received a letter from Mr. Gore, and also one from Mr. King, both of which are here given, alike from the intrinsic interest and as showing the friendly relations between these eminent men and their correspondent. CHRISTOPHER GORE TO JEREMIAH MASON. WALTHAM, 16th August, 1815. MY DEAR SIR,-. . . . I have always thought Dallas extremely culpable in the course he has pursued in relation to the payment of the public revenue. If, instead of authorizing its discharge in paper of less value than specie, he had directed that nothing should be received as compensation of the duties but specie or treasury notes, it is almost certain he would have compelled all the banks to have paid specie, or to have seen their paper so disgraced as to become of no value. His treasury notes and the funded stock would in all probability have been nearly at par by this day. I can perceive no honorable and wise motives for taking depreciated paper for duties, and I am yet to learn where he obtained authority to receive less than money for the public revenue except in treasury notes. (120) I cannot refrain from thinking that notwithstanding all the weak and wicked management of our public stewards the stocks of the United States will appreciate. The revenue will be productive, and I think abundant to the re-establishment of public credit. United States stocks have risen in value, whether owing to any cause that is like to have a permanent influence, I cannot say. Our Boston banks, from all that I learn, will continue to pay specie; they are satisfied that their course has been and is correct, and that eventually they shall derive advantage from having adopted and persisted in their present system. The end of the war, on the continent of Europe, will be attended with a depression of the price of specie in England, and of course that drain for our specie will be stopped. I have therefore thought that temptations to our people to adopt the conduct of the Southern banks, will be diminished, and motives to such of these as are solid to resume the payment of specie be increased; but however they may be influenced as to a return to specie payment, I perceive no reason to doubt that the Boston banks will persevere in their conduct. I cannot even conjecture what will be Dallas' plan as to a paper bank the next session, but I do flatter myself that under the auspicious circumstances which seem to exist both here and in Europe, we may indulge in expectation that the great mass of the community and a majority of Congress will return to those safe maxims which reestablished the credit of the United States in Washington's administration and preserved it so manifestly to the advantage of the whole and every part of the Union even during the reign of philosophical democracy. Should this be the case, I think we may not only put down the schemes of this mountebank but probably erect a fair and solid institution for the nation which will necessarily crush all these issues of irredeemable paper. Farewell, my dear friend. Instead of ridiculing the brevity, I fear you will complain of the tedious length of my epistles. Yours faithfully and affectionately, 16 C. GORE. RUFUS KING TO JEREMIAH MASON. JAMAICA, L. I., November 22, 1815. DEAR SIR, I last evening received your letter of the 12th. I have some acquaintance with the condition and views of the banks in our city, and though I have no particular information concerning the banks southward of us, my apprehensions are much the same as respects them all. Mr. Burke has remarked, that all men possessing unlimited and discretionary power, tending to their own advantage, abuse it; and we are not to expect a miraculous interposition to alter the laws of nature. To be sure there has been a commendable moderation, which would have been more considerable, in the administration of our city banks, if they had unitedly rejected the projects of Dallas. In Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, the banks seem to have imposed no restraints on themselves; their issues have been excessive, and their profits indispose them to resume a better course. By an agreement between our city banks, they are pledged to each other, and to the public, that their debts should not exceed their respective capitals and sixty per cent. addition; that such of them as owed more than this sum should reduce their debts within that limit, and that the debtor banks should pay to the creditor banks six per cent. interest on their weekly balances. The interest is paid; but I doubt whether the banks, which at their stoppage owed more than the limited ratio, have diminished their debts; and have some reason to believe that the aggregate debt at the foregoing epoch has been increased, though not exceeding five or six per cent. According to a supplemental and late agreement, the debtor banks are severally pledged to reduce their debts to the creditor banks to $400,000 each, before the first of January. To effect this they must sell funded debt, or treasury notes, exceeding a million and a half of dollars; this would depress the stock market and be (122) attended with loss to the sellers, a circumstance sufficient to deter them from doing it. Some of the banks here desire to return to the old system; others of them do not wish it, even, and I think I risk nothing in expressing an opinion that the paper circulation will be persisted in, if its discontinuance be left to the banks which do not pay their notes in specie. Congress may correct the mischiefs of this state of things by passing laws to establish a bank on the only correct principles, and providing that the revenue shall be receivable only in specie, or the notes of banks which pay their notes in specie. The paper system vanishes. The currency, bad as it is, cannot preserve its present credit; unless the public have satisfactory evidence of the probable resumption of specie payments, it will become worse; and as the States can pass no law protecting the banks against their creditors, the further depreciation of their notes will stop their circulation, suits will be instituted against the banks, one decision had, and the bubble bursts. Whether Congress will establish a national bank, on the only sure plan, you are as able as I am to determine; if they do not, I am persuaded that the excessive issues of bank notes must put an end to their circulation. I have no expectation of leaving home for Washington before the 6th or 7th of December. By late accounts from Mr. Gore, I am uncertain whether his health be such as will allow him to undertake the journey. I should like well enough to be present at the discussion of the commercial convention with England. If those who made it, so far as it is made, are gratified, let it become the law. The currency is, in my opinion, the more important subject that will require our attention and exertion; and we shall be there in time to hear, and to be heard concerning it. With very sincere respect and esteem, I am, dear sir, your obedient and faithful RUFUS KING. I hope you will come on as soon as you can without too great a (123) sacrifice; Washington without the intercourse of one's friends, few as in that scene they necessarily must be, would be insufferable. The first session of the Fourteenth Congress began on the 4th day of December, 1815, and closed on the 30th day of April, 1816. In the number of able men it comprised, it has rarely been equalled, and never surpassed in the history of the country. In the Senate, besides Mr. Mason himself, there were his friends, Mr. King, Mr. Gore, and Mr. Daggett. Mr. Campbell, of Tennessee, reappeared in his old place, having resigned his office of Secretary of the Treasury. Besides these, there were James Barbour, of Virginia, Harper, of Maryland, and Macon, of North Carolina. Conspicuous among the members of the House was William Pinkney, of Maryland, a man of really great powers, in spite of the vanity and affectation with which greatness is not usually attended. Mr. Randolph appeared anew from Virginia, having defeated Mr. Eppes by a small vote, after a hard contest. Mr. Webster came again from New Hampshire, Mr. Clay from Kentucky, and Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Lowndes from South Carolina. Among other men who made their mark, and are remembered in the history of the country, were Mr. Forsyth and Mr. Wilde, of Georgia, Mr. McLean and General Harrison, of Ohio, Mr. Tyler, of Virginia, Mr. Timothy Pickering, of Massachusetts, Mr. Sergeant and Mr. Hopkinson, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Hanson, of Maryland, and Mr. Gaston, of North Carolina. The Federalists had gained since the date of the previous Congress, the Senate standing twenty-two Democrats to fourteen Federalists, and the House a hundred and seventeen Democrats to sixtyfive Federalists. Mr. Mason did not take his seat till the 8th day of January, 1816. His brethren showed their estimate of his abilities by placing him upon the most important of their committees, that upon finance and a uniform national currency; of which Mr. Campbell, the administration leader in the Senate, was chairman. The other mem (124) bers were Mr. Chase, of Vermont, Mr. Bibbs, of Georgia, and Mr. King, of New York. Mr. Mason was also put upon a committee on providing for the publication of the decisions of the Supreme Court, which reported a bill which was passed by the Senate, but was indefinitely postponed in the House. The kindred subjects of finance and the currency engrossed most of the time of both Houses during the first session of the Fourtenth Congress. The government had a difficult task before it: it was to reform the currency, to repair the waste of the war, and provide the means of paying at once the interest on the national debt, and ultimately discharging the principal; and to this task it addressed itself with energy, ability, and, all things considered, very fair success. Early in the session Mr. Calhoun introduced into the House of Representatives a bill to incorporate the subscribers to a Bank of the United States. At that time most of the leading statesmen of the |