Speech of Hon. Thomas H. Benton of Missouri: On the Cabinet Plan for a Federal Exchequer Delivered in the Senate, January 13, 1842

              •w    »•        %
#
r
t
I
SPEECH
OF
HON. THOMAS H. BENTON,
OF    MISSQURI,
ON THE CABINET PLAN for a FEDERAL EXCHEQUER.
DEUVERED IN THE SENATE, JANUARY 13, 1842.
\
I 1     1
I
/"•
J*.
^ Mr. President: I have said on several occasions since the. present Administration was formed,
that we had gone back not merely to the Federal
times of General Hamilton, but far beyond them
—to the Whig times of Sir Robert Walpole, and
the Tory times of Glueen Anne. When I have
said this I did not mean it for sarcasm, or for insult, or to annoy the feelings of those who had just
gotten into power. My aim was far higher and
nobler—that of showing the retrograde movement
which our Government was making, and waking
up the country to a sense of its dangers before it
was too late; and to the conviction of the necessity
of arresting thit movement, and recovering the
ground which we have lost. History is said to be
philosophy teaching by example; and I wish to
have the benefit of the instructive voice of this
great teacher in the lamentable circumstances in
which we are now placed.
When I had said that we had gone back to the
Walpole and Glueen Anne times 01 the British Government, I knew full well the extent of the declaration which I had made, and the obligation which
I toad imposed on myself to sustain my assertion;
and I knew that history would bear me out in it.
I knew all this; and I felt that if I could show to
the American people that we had retrograded to
the most calamitous period of British history—the
period from which her present calamities all date—
and that we were about to adopt the systems of policy which she then adopted, and which has led to
her present condition; I felt that if I could do this, I
might succeed in rousing up the country to a sense
of its danger before it was too late to avoid the
perils which are spread before us. The administration of Sir Robert Walpole was the fountain
head of British wees. All the measures which have
led to the present condition of the British empire,
and have given it more debt and taxes, more paupers, and more human misery than ever before was
collected under the sway of one sceptre: all these
date from the reigns of the first and second George;
when this minister, for twenty-five years, was the
ruler of Parliament by means of the moneyed interest, and the ruler of kings by beating the Tories at
theb own game of non-resistance and passive obedience to the royal will. The Tories ruled under
Q,ueen Aane: they went for church and state, and
rested for support on the landed interest. The
Whigs came into power with ihe accession of
George the firs': they went for bank and state; and
rested for support on the moneyed interest. Sir
Robert Walpole was the head of the Wlrg party;
and immediately became the favorite of that monarch, and afterwards of his successor; and, availing himself during that long period of power of all
the resources of genius, unimpeded by the obstacle
of principles, he succeeded in impressing his own
image upon the age in which he lived, and giving
to the Government policy the direction which it has
followed ever since. Morals, politics, public and
and private pursuits, all received he impress of the
Minister's genius; and what that genius produced
I will now proceed to show: I read from Smcllet's
co»tinuaiion of Hume:
"This was the age of interested projects, inspired by a venal
spirit of adventure, the natural consequence of that avarice,,
fraud, and profligacy which   the MONEYED   CORPORATIONS hid introduced." * * *        "All other
professions and employment were utterly neglected; and the
people's attention wholly engrossed by this (the South Sea) and
other chimerical schemes which were well known by the denomination of bubbles.   New companies started up every day,
under the countenance of the prime nobility.   The Prince of
Wales   was   constituted   Governor  of the  Welsh   Copper
Company:   the   Duke  of Chandos   appeared  at  the  head
of the York-buildings Company:  the Duke of  Bridgewater
formed a third, for building houses in London and Westminster.
About a hundred such schemes were projected and put in execution, to the ruin of many thousands.    The sums proposed to
beraised by these expedients amounted to three hundred millions sterling; which exceeded the value of all the lands in Eng?
land."          *                                              "During the infatua-
tion produced by these infamous schemes, luxury, vice, and
profligacy, increased to a shocking degree of extravagance.
The adventurers, intoxicated by their imaginary wealth, pampered themselves with the rarest dainties, and {he must expensive wines that could be imported: they purchased the most
sumptuous furniture, equipage, and apparel, though without
taste or discernment: their discourse was the language of pride
insolence and the most ridiculous ostentation: they affected to
scoff at religion and morally; and even to set Heaven at defiance."       k:f-       ,'          *          *          "The vice, luxury,
and prostitution ofthe age—the almost total extinction of sentiment, honor and public spirit—had prepared the minds of men
for slavery and corruption.   The means were in the hands of
ministry^ the public treasure was at their devotion: they multiplied places and pensions, to increase the number of their
dependants: they squandered away the national treasure without taste, discernment, decency or remorse: they enlisted an
army  of the most  abandoned  emissaries, whom they employed  to  vindicate the  worst  measures in   the   lace  of
truth,   common   sense,   and   common   honesty;   and   they
did  not fail   to stigmatize   as  Jacobites,   and   enemies   to
the Government, all those who presumed to question the merit
of their administration."               *       *       "The interior Go*
vernment of Great Britain was chiefly managed by Sir Robert
Walpole, a man of extraordinary talents, who bad from low
beginnings raised himself to the head of the Ministry.   Having
obtained a seat in the House of Commons, he declared himself
one of the most forward partisans of the Whig faction.   He
was endued with a species of eloquence which, though neither
nervous nor elegant, flowed with great facility, and was soplaib