specie in the Atlantic states, and transport it to the place, in which their payment was to be made. Thus the bullion flowed from the quarter, where, in a sounder state of things, it should be collected, and where its presence is essential to the regulation of the exchanges and was thrown as government deposits, to stagnate unemployed in the vaults of remote provincial banks. The gold and silver so subtracted from the great commer. cial cities, found no channels for return; for, when the Western banks began to restrict their loans, and their circulation, the merchants in those parts, were, to a certain extent, deprived of the means of making remittances, formerly accorded to them; and moreover the proceeds of the goods, consigned on credit to the interior, having been in many cases under the prevailing temptation, entirely invested in land, it was impossible in the hour of need, again to realize them. It can be no matter of wonder, that under such circumstances, the money market became seriously deranged. The merchants of New York and the other great cities, who shortly previous, had been ranked amongst the most opulent, were deprived in this manner of the usual means of providing for due payment of their outstanding liabilities, and began to doubt of their solvency; nor was any remedy obvious. A large proportion of their creditors, were in foreign countries, for the payment of whom, it was apprehended, that specie might be required; but the specie was in the vaults of the Western banks, or at all events, too far off, to be available at the moment. Nor could this want be supplied, even to the extent of their domestic liabilities, by the

aid of the local banks, in the shape of discounts; because, of course, it was probable, that the proceeds of such discounts, would be eventually demanded from the banks in specie, for the payment of foreign debts.

The state of things ensuing upon this obstruction in the mone tary circulation is thus described by Mr. Biddle, the President of the United States Bank. "The interior banks making no loans, and converting their Atlantic funds into specie, the debtors in the interior could make no remittances to the merchants of the Atlantic cities, who are thus thrown for support on the banks of those cities, at a moment when they are unable to afford relief, on account of this very abstraction of their specie to the West. The creditor states, not only receive no money, but their money is carried away to the debtor states, who in turn, cannot use it, either to pay old engagements or to contract new. By this unnatural process the specie of New York, and the other commercial cities, is piled up in the Western states; not circulated, not used, but held as a defence against the treasury; and while the West cannot use it, the East is suffering from the want of it. The result is, that the commercial intercourse, between the West and the East, is almost suspended, and the few operations, which are made, are burdened with the most extravagant expense. In November 1836, the interest of money has risen to 24 per cent.; merchants are struggling to preserve their credit by various sacrifices, and it costs six times as much, to transmit funds from the West, and the South West, as it did in 1835, 1834, or 1832.

"Thus, while the exchanges with all the world are in our favour, while Europe is alarmed, and the bank of England itself uneasy, at the quantity of specie which we possess, we are suffering because, from mere mismanagement, the whole ballast of the currency, is shifted from one side of the vessel to the other."

In this emergency an expedient was adopted by the bank of the United States, for the relief of the commercial body. Promissory notes, or post bills, were issued by the bank, payable twelve months after date in London, and certain other European cities, and were placed at the disposal of American houses, on securities not immediately available. The measure was attended with partial, and temporary success, but it failed, as every human contrivance must have done, to arrest the catastrophe.

In the mean time, the deliberations of Congress, which had assembled in the previous December, proceeded in their accustomed train. It will seem singular to those acquainted with the history of the Texian insurrection, that one of the earliest incidents of the session, which we are called upon to notice, should be a message from the President of the United States to the Senate, complaining of injuries and outrages, not suffered, but inflicted by Mexico on its powerful neighbour. The message which was dated the 6th of February contained the following passage. "At the beginning of the session, Congress was informed that our claims upon Mexico had not been adjusted, but that notwithstanding the irritating effect upon her councils of the movements in Texas, I hoped by great forbearance, to avoid the necessity

of again bringing them before your notice. That hope has been disappointed. Having in vain urged upon the government the justice of those claims, and my indispensable obligation that there should be no farther delay in the acknowledgment, if not in the redress of the injuries complained of,' my duty requires, that the whole subject should be presented, and now is, for the action of Congress, whose exclusive right it is to decide on the farther measure of redress to be employed.". "The length of time since some of the injuries have been committed, the repeated, and unavailing, applications for redress, the wanton character of some of the outrages upon the property, and persons of our citizens, and upon the flag of the United States, independent of recent insults to this government, and people, by the late extraordinary minister, would justify in the eyes of all nations immediate war," and it was then recommended, "that an act be passed, authorizing reprisals, and the use of the naval force of the United States, by the executive against Mexico, to enforce them, in the event of a refusal by the Mexican government to come to an amicable adjustment of the matter in controversy."

The message was referred to the Committee on foreign relations, which not long afterwards made its report; after stating, among other grievances, that "the merchantships of the United States have been fired into, her citizens attacked, and even put to death, and her ships of war treated with disrespect, even when paying a friendly visit to aport, where they had a right to expect hospitality;" the committee submitted to the house of

representatives two resolutions:1. "That the indignities offered to the American flag, and injuries committed upon the persons and property of American citizens, by officers of the Mexican Government, and the refusal, or neglect of that government, to make suitable atonement, would justify the congress of the United States in taking measures to obtain immediate redress, by the exercise of its own power." 2. "That, as evidence of the desire of the American Government to preserve peaceful relations with the Government of Mexico, as long as is compatible with that dignity, which it is due to the people of the United States to preserve unimpaired, the President be, and is hereby respectfully requested, to make another solemn demand, in the most impressive form, upon the Government of Mexico, for redress of the grievances, which have heretofore been ineffectually presented to its notice."

This report was presented to the house, February the 24th. On the 18th of the same month, that very committee came down to the house, with two other resolutions, which to be appreciated should be placed in juxta-position with the above. The first of these resolutions declares," that the independence of the government of Texas ought to be recognized." The second, that the committee of ways and means should be instructed to provide, in the bill, for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the government, a salary and outfit, for such public agent, as the President may determine to send to Texas."

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It is due to this committee to state, that they had not the front to preface these resolutions with

statement of

any preamble, or reasons whatever. When we remember, that the Texas had been wrested from Mexico by a freebooting horde of " citizens" of the United States; that "the Government", the President, the commander of the troops in that province are Anglo-American; and that nothing but the aid of Kentucky, and other wild western adventurers, prevented that territory from relapsing into the possession of the Mexican Government; it must be admitted that the mode in which this republican committee on foreign relations, would administer inter-national equity, presents no model for our imitation.

The consideration of this report when brought up, was postponed by the house of Representatives; but in the course of the session, a bill was passed, appropriating a salary to a Texian chargé d'affaires and to take effect, so soon as the president, having received satisfactory information of the indepen dence of Texas, should deem it expedient to fill up the office. Accordingly, the president did not neglect to take advantage of this vote, and one of the last acts of his administration was the appointment of a person to this contingent office. The Mexican government did not fail to employ what were its only means of resistance to this injustice. A spirited protest was put forth by José Ortiz, the minister for foreign affairs in that republic. It began by stating that Señor Gorstiza, the Mexican minister to the Government of the United States, having, on the motion made in the senate, to recognize the independence of Texas, suggested by the defeat suffered by the Mexican arms on the 21st

of April, called the attention of that government to the rights of Mexico, and its means of enforcing them, was informed by Mr. For syth, the secretary of state, that he was instructed by the president, to assure him, that the government of the United States would come to no decisive resolution on the question, which should not be based on the rules and principles which guided its conduct during the disputes which existed between Spain, and the Hispano-American states. M. Ortiz then proceeded to ask, "Is the position of the Texians, with regard to Mexico, what that of the Mexicans was with regard to Spain, at the time their independence was recognized by the United States? Is there any similarity between a nation consisting of six millions of people, who, by their own efforts, after a bloody struggle of eleven years duration, cast off the yoke of cppression, and repulsed beyond the sea the ruling armies-and some thousands of wandering and home less people, without virtue, and without religion, and threatened by a numerous army, marching full of enthusiasm to recover the laurels which the caprice of fortune refused them at St. Jacinto ?" These or other arguments seem to have induced at least a temporary forbearance on the part of the American government. Before the close of the year, the Texian agent at Washington was informed, that no negotiation on the subject of the independence of Texas, could be opened, as long as war continued to prevail between that province, and the Mexican republic.

We may here mention-In the early part of the year, general Santa Anna, having obtained his

liberty from his Texian captors, arrived at Washington, with a view, as it was alleged, to advocate their cause with the government; if so, his captivity would seem to have produced a singular change in his views on this subject; but the circumstances of this conversion, if indeed it had taken place, are at present enveloped in some obscurity. After a short stay at Washington, he took his departure for Mexico, in an United States vessel of war.

It will be seen by a reference to the President's message of the 6th December, 1836, that General Jackson, following up his hostility to the United States Bank, admonished Congress, that "the conduct and present condition of that bank, and the great amount of capital vested in it by the United States, required their careful attention." He also called their notice to the report of the secretary of the treasury, from which it appeared, that "the bank of the United States had made no payment on account of the stock held by the government in that institution, although urged to pay any portion that might suit its convenience, and that it had given no information when payment might be expected. Before the expiration of the charter, the stockholders of the bank obtained an act of incorporation from the legislature of Pennsylvania, excluding only the United States. Instead of proceeding to wind up their concerns, and pay over to the United States the amount due on the stock held by them, the President and directors of the old bank appear to have transferred

• Vol. lxxviii. Appendix.