speech of thomas h. benton in the senate 1842 |
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•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
Object Description
Title | Speech of Hon. Thomas H. Benton of Missouri: On the Cabinet Plan for a Federal Exchequer Delivered in the Senate, January 13, 1842 |
Creator | Thomas Hart Benton |
Subject.LCSH | Budget; Federal government |
Subject.Local | Budget; Federal government |
Description | On the Cabinet Plan for a Federal Exchequer Delivered in the Senate, January 13, 1842 |
Publisher | St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis |
Date.Original | 1842-01-13 |
Date.Digital | 2017 |
Type | Books and pamphlets |
Source | M-111-2-094 |
Language | English |
Location | United States |
Rights | NO COPYRIGHT - NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY |
Contributing Institution |
University of Missouri--St. Louis. St. Louis Mercantile Library |
Description
Title | speech of thomas h. benton in the senate 1842 |
Transcript | •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 |