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half eagle, 116 grains of fine gold, and 129 grains of standard gold; each quarter eagle to contain 58 grains of fine gold, and 644 grains of standard gold; every such eagle to be of the value of ten dollars; every such half eagle of the value of five dollars; and every such quarter eagle of the value of two dollars, and fifty cents; and the said gold coins to be receivable in all payments, when of such weight, according to their said respective values, and when less than such weight, at less value, proportioned to their respective actual weights.

And it was further provided, that, all gold coins of the United States, minted anterior to the 31st July, then next coming, should be receivable in all payments, at the rate of ninety-four and eighttenths of a cent per pennyweight.

It was at this particular season, that the extravagant and visionary schemes of General Jackson, then President of the Republic, began to develope themselves. He had already embarked in a war of extermination against the Bank of the United States, which in the ebullition of an overwrought democratic tendency, he denounced as unconstitutional, and as a dangerous institution in the heart of a free country-calculated to subvert its most valued privileges, and control by its influence the government and entire monied system of the nation. It was a "Monster" (to use the General's phraseology) of no ordinary kind; hideous and deformed in its outward aspect, and in its inward working, of vicious and appalling iniquity. A thousand ills were conjured

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up in the fretful and pertinacious mind of President Jackson, by its peaceable and useful efforts, to guide and improve the monetary system of the Republic: but its fate had been decreed, the expiry of its charter was near at hand; and it was compelled to yield to the inflexible and stubborn bent of a perverse, and head-strong old man, placed for a while on a dangerons pre-eminence, and who, availing himself of his position, had enlisted in this crusade, the unthinking-the wild passions of the "fierce democracy" of the country, by which he was surrounded, not only against the United States Bank, which was the declared object of his hostility, but against every other monied institution, and perhaps, it might with truth be added, against property in general. The Bank, soon after, ceased to exist as a public national establishment, but was re-chartered, as a mere private joint-stock institution, by the State of Pennsylvania. It never finally recovered from the blow, but moved onward for a while, in a morbid and sickly course, until at length becoming insolvent, it eventually terminated its career in 1840, or 1841.

It was simultaneous with these proceedings, and in the whirlwind of passion and excited prejudice which they evoked, that General Jackson hoped to realize the halcyon vision of his early days, and to secure to his country, the advantages and blessings of an entire and efficient metallic currency, in lieu of the worthless paper, the mere "promises to pay," with which it was inundated. All future payments

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to be made to the general government, on the score of custom dues, or otherwise, were from thenceforth, by a special edict of the Executive, required to be paid in specie; and that there might be no lack of the precious metals, for all public purposes, a Bill was passed through Congress, June 1834, contemporaneous with the one last mentioned, "relating to gold and silver coin in the United States," providing -"that from, and after the 31st of July, then next coming, the following gold coins should pass current, as money within the United States, and be receivable for all payments by weight, for the payment of all debts and demands, at the rate following, that is to say,

"The gold coins of Great Britain, Portugal, and Brazils, of not less than twenty-two carats fine, at the rate of ninety-four cents, and of a cent per pennyweight; the gold coin of France & fine at the rate of ninety-three cents, and of a cent per pennyweight; and the gold coin of Spain, Mexico, and Columbia, of the fineness of twenty carats three grains and of a grain, at the rate of eighty cents, and of a cent per pennyweight."

And by a further act of Congress of the same date, it was provided, that from and after the passing thereof, the following silver coins should be of the value, and should pass current as of the money of the United States, by tale, for the payment of all debts and demands, at the rate of one hundred cents the dollar; that is to say, the dollar of Mexico, Chili, Peru, and Central America, of not less weight

than four hundred and fifteen grains each, and those re-stamped in Brazil, of the like weight, of not less. fineness than ten ounces, fifteen pennyweights of pure silver in the troy pound of twelve ounces of standard silver, and the five franc piece of France, when of not less fineness than ten ounces and sixteen pennyweights in twelve ounces troy weight of standard silver, and weighing not less than three hundred and eighty-four grains each, at the rate of 93 cents each.

And it was further provided, that it should from thenceforth, be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, to cause assays of the aforesaid gold and silver coins, made current by this and the foregoing act, to be had at the mint of the United States, at least once in every year to Congress.

The very natural consequence of these several enactments, with the increased value which was thus attached by act of Congress, to the gold and silver coin of all foreign countries, in the United States, was, the immediate introduction into the Republic of a large amount of every description of foreign money, and which from thenceforth, constituted a part of the circulating medium of the country. To such an extreme were these schemes carried out, that the imports of specie, that in the preceding year, (1833,) amounted only to 7,070,368, and in the year 1832, to 5,907,504 dollars, with an export of 5,656,540, leaving an excess of imports of only 250,964, increased in the year 1834, and on the foregoing acts going into operation, to a sum of

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17,911,632 dollars, with an export of only 1,676,258, creating an excess of imports into the United States, in this one year, over exports, of no less a sum than 16,235,374 dollars.

From the official returns of the Treasury department it will also appear, that a sum of Thirty Millions more of specie had been imported into the United States, in the four years ending 1837, than exported within this period.

But this was the realisation of the cherished hopes and aspirations of General Jackson-the evidence to his mind of the greatness and prosperity of his country, and which he held forth to the gaze and admiration of the remaining world, perfectly heedless, or at least unconscious of the extreme monetary embarrassment and suffering, which this " great financial experiment," (to use the language of his immediate friends and political supporters,) upon the currency, as also upon the prosperity and welfare- the very life and being of his country, was sure to entail upon the Republic; and that while playing off these extravagancies, the nation, with the recklessness of an uncontrolled spendthrift, was plunging headlong and deeper still into debt, and every other commercial distress and difficulty.

The sudden introduction of this unusual quantity of specie into the United States, had the very opposite tendency, to that which General Jackson had so earnestly anticipated. No sooner did it reach America, than the greater part found its way to the coffers of the State Banks, that instead of contract