with the Western States, I know enough of their condition to be satisfied that what I have predicted must happen.  The people of the West are rich, but their riches consist in their immense quantities of excellent land, in the products of these lands, and in their spirit of enterprise.  The actual value of money, or rate of interest, with them is high, because their pecuniary capital bears little proportion to their landed interest.  At an average rate, money is not worth less than eight per cent per annum throughout the whole Western country, notwithstanding that it has now a loan or an advance from the bank of thirty millions, at six per cent.  To call in this loan, at the rate of eight millions a year, in addition to the interest on the whole, and to take away, at the same time, that circulation which constitutes so great a portion of the medium of payment throughout that whole region, is an operation, which, however wisely conducted, cannot but inflict a blow on the community of tremendous force and frightful consequences.  The thing cannot be done without distress, bankruptcy, and ruin, to many.  If the President had seen any practical manner in which this change might be effected without producing these consequences, he would have rendered infinite service to the community by pointing it out.  But he has pointed out nothing, he has suggested nothing; he contents himself with saying, without giving any reason, that, if the pressure be heavy, the fault will be the bank’s.  I hope this is not merely an attempt to forestall opinion, and to throw on the bank the responsibility of those evils which threaten the country, for the sake of removing it from himself.

The responsibility justly lies with him, and there it ought to remain.  A great majority of the people are satisfied with the bank as it is, and desirous that it should be continued.  They wished no change.  The strength of this public sentiment has carried the bill through Congress, against all the influence of the administration, and all the power of organized party.  But the President has undertaken, on his own responsibility, to arrest the measure, by refusing his assent to the bill.  He is answerable for the consequences, therefore, which necessarily follow the change which the expiration of the bank charter may produce; and if these consequences shall prove disastrous, they can fairly be ascribed to his policy only, and the policy of his administration.

Although, Sir, I have spoken of the effects of this veto in the Western country, it has not been because I considered that part of the United States exclusively affected by it.  Some of the Atlantic States may feel its consequences, perhaps, as sensibly as those of the West, though not for the same reasons.  The concern manifested by Pennsylvania for the renewal of the charter shows her sense of the importance of the bank to her own interest, and that of the nation.  That great and enterprising State has entered into