Chapter LXXII: "effects of the Veto."

Under this caption a general register commenced in all the newspapers opposed to the election of General Jackson (and they were a great majority of the whole number published), immediately after the delivery of the veto message, and were continued down to the day of election, all tending to show the disastrous consequences upon the business of the country, and upon his own popularity, resulting from that act. To judge from these items it would seem that the property of the country was nearly destroyed, and the General's popularity entirely; and that both were to remain in that state until the bank was rechartered. Their character was to show the decline which had taken place in the price of labor, produce, and property--the stoppage and suspension of buildings, improvements, and useful enterprises--the renunciation of the President by his old friends--the scarcity of money and the high rate of interest--and the consequent pervading distress of the whole community. These lugubrious memorandums of calamities produced by the conduct of one man were duly collected from the papers in which they were chronicled and registered in "Niles' Register," for the information of posterity; and a few items now selected from the general registration will show to what extent this business of distressing the country--(taking the facts to be true), or of alarming it (taking them to be false), was carried by the great moneyed corporation, which, according to its own showing, had power to destroy all local banks; and consequently to injure the whole business of the community. The following are a few of these items--a small number of each class, by way of showing the character of the whole:

"On the day of the receipt of the President's bank veto in
New-York, four hundred and thirty-seven shares of United
States Bank stock were sold at a decline of four per centum
from the rates of the preceding day. We learn from Cincinnati
that, within two days after the veto reached that city,
building-bricks fell from five dollars to three dollars per
thousand. A general consternation is represented to have
pervaded the city. An intelligent friend of General Jackson,
at Cincinnati, states, as the opinion of the best informed men
there, that the veto has caused a depreciation of the real
estate of the city, of from twenty-five to thirty-three and one
third per cent."--"A thousand people assembled at Richmond,
Kentucky, to protest against the veto."--"The veto reached
a meeting of citizens, in Mason county, Kentucky, which had
assembled to hear the speeches of the opposing candidates for
the legislature, on which two of the administration candidates
immediately withdrew themselves from the contest, declaring that
they could support the administration no longer."--"Lexington,
Kentucky: July 25th. A call, signed by fifty citizens of
great respectability, formerly supporters of General Jackson,
announced their renunciation of him, and invited all others,
in the like situation with themselves, to assemble in public
meeting and declare their sentiments. A large and very
respectable meeting ensued."--"Louisville, Kentucky: July 18.
Forty citizens, ex-friends of General Jackson, called a meeting,
to express their sentiments on the veto, declaring that they
could no longer support him. In consequence, one of the largest
meetings ever held in Louisville was convened, and condemned
the veto, the anti-tariff and anti-internal improvement policy
of General Jackson, and accused him of a breach of promise, in
becoming a second time a candidate for the Presidency."--"At
Pittsburg, seventy former friends of General Jackson called a
meeting of those who had renounced him, which was numerously and
respectably attended, the veto condemned, and the bank applauded
as necessary to the prosperity of the country."--"Irish
meeting in Philadelphia. A call, signed by above two thousand
naturalized Irishmen, seceding from General Jackson, invited
their fellow-countrymen to meet and choose between the tyrant
and the bank, and gave rise to a numerous assemblage in
Independence Square, at which strong resolutions were adopted,
renouncing Jackson and his measures, opposing his re-election
and sustaining the bank."--"The New Orleans emporium mentions,
among other deleterious effects of the bank veto, at that place,
that one of the State banks had already commenced discounting
four months' paper, at eight per centum."--"Cincinnati farmers
look here! We are credibly informed that several merchants in
this city, in making contracts for their winter supplies of
pork, are offering to contract to pay two dollars fifty cents
per hundred, if Clay is elected, and one dollar fifty cents,
if Jackson is elected. Such is the effect of the veto. This is
something that people can understand."--"Baltimore. A great
many mechanics are thrown out of employment by the stoppage
of building. The prospect ahead is, that we shall have a very
distressing winter. There will be a swift reduction of prices
to the laboring classes. Many who subsisted upon labor, will
lack regular employment, and have to depend upon chance or
charity; and many will go supperless to bed who deserve to
be filled."--"Cincinnati. Facts are stubborn things. It is
a fact that, last year, before this time, $300,000 had been
advanced, by citizens of this place, to farmers for pork, and
now, not one dollar. So much for the veto."--"Brownsville,
Pennsylvania. We understand, that a large manufacturer has
discharged all his hands, and others have given notice to do
so. We understand, that not a single steamboat will be built
this season, at Wheeling, Pittsburg, or Louisville."--"Niles'
Register editorial. No King of England has dared a practical use
of the word 'veto,' for about two hundred years, or more; and it
has become obsolete in the United Kingdom of Great Britain; and
Louis Philippe would hardly retain his crown three days, were
he to veto a deliberate act of the two French Chambers, though
supported by an army of 100,000 men."

All this distress and alarm, real and factitious, was according to the programme which prescribed it, and easily done by the bank, and its branches in the States: its connection with money-dealers and brokers; its power over its debtors, and its power over the thousand local banks, which it could destroy by an exertion of its strength, or raise up by an extension of its favor. It was a wicked and infamous attempt, on the part of the great moneyed corporation, to govern the election by operating on the business and the fears of the people--destroying some and alarming others.