And now, Gentlemen, I ask you, and I ask all men who have not voluntarily surrendered all power and all right of thinking for themselves, whether, from 1832 to the present moment, the executive authority has not effectually superseded the power of Congress, thwarted the will of the representatives of the people, and even of the people themselves, and taken the whole subject of the currency into its own grasp?  In 1832, Congress desired to continue the bank of the United States, and a majority of the people desired it also; but the President opposed it, and his will prevailed.  In 1833, Congress refused to remove the deposits; the President resolved upon it, however, and his will prevailed.  Congress has never been willing to make a bank founded on the money and credit of the government, and administered, of course, by executive hands; but this was the President’s object, and he attained it, in a great measure, by the treasury selection of deposit banks.  In this particular, therefore, to a great extent, his will prevailed.  In 1836, Congress refused to confine the receipts for public lands to gold and silver; but the President willed it, and his will prevailed.  In 1837, both houses of Congress, by more than two thirds, passed a bill for restoring the former state of things by annulling the treasury order; but the President willed, notwithstanding, that the order should remain in force, and his will again prevailed.  I repeat the question, therefore, and I would put it earnestly to every intelligent man, to every lover of our constitutional liberty, are we under the dominion of the law? or has the effectual government of the country, at least in all that regards the great interest of the currency, been in a single hand?

Gentlemen, I have done with the narrative of events and measures.  I have done with the history of these successive steps, in the progress of executive power, towards a complete control over the revenue and the currency.  The result is now all before us.  These pretended reforms, these extraordinary exercises of power from an extraordinary zeal for the good of the people, what have they brought us to?

In 1829, the currency was declared to be neither sound nor uniform; a proposition, in my judgment, altogether at variance with the fact, because I do not believe there ever was a country of equal extent, in which paper formed any part of the circulation, that possessed a currency so sound, so uniform, so convenient, and so perfect in all respects, as the currency of this country, at the moment of the delivery of that message, in 1829.

But how is it now?  Where has the improvement brought it?  What has reform done?  What has the great cry for hard money accomplished?  Is the currency uniform now?  Is money in New Orleans now as good, or nearly so, as money in New York?  Are exchanges at par, or only at the same low rates as in 1829 and other years?  Every one here knows that all the benefits of this experiment are but injury and oppression; all this reform, but aggravated distress.