The ruthless and
unsparing temper with which whole cities and communities were oppressed,
individuals impoverished and ruined, and a scene of cheerful prosperity
suddenly changed into one of gloom and despondency ought to be indelibly
impressed on the memory of the people of the United States. If such was
its power in a time of peace, what would it not have been in a season
of war, with an enemy at your doors? No nation but the freemen of the
United States could have come out victorious from such a contest; yet,
if you had not conquered, the Government would have passed from the
hands of the many to the hands of the few, and this organized money
power from its secret conclave would have dictated the choice of your
highest officers and compelled you to make peace or war, as best suited
their own wishes. The forms of your Government might for a time have
remained, but its living spirit would have departed from it.
The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by the bank are some
of the fruits of that system of policy which is continually striving to
enlarge the authority of the Federal Government beyond the limits fixed
by the Constitution.
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