Part 12 (1/2)

Several of the company interfered by remonstrating with Flan against this unnecessary demonstration of fervor, which Flan, on the other hand, insisted upon as his right.

”Whenever old The. Fog comes out high flown,” said he, ”I yells as a matter of principle. It's encouragin' to youth. Nebuchadnezzar, the King of the Jews, couldn't beat him at a speech: he's the b.u.t.t cut of Democracy.”

”Flan, hold your tongue,” said Theodore. ”Gentlemen, we have no secrets.

Abel Brawn and Davy Post are welcome to hear all I have to impart. I know--everybody knows--that we have been in a state of suspense on the great question of the Sub-Treasury. The INDEPENDENT Treasury, as we are going to call it since Congress rejected it--we'll try what a new name will do. I say we have been in suspense. Like honest New Lights we have waited to see how the cat would jump. Some men imagined that Martin would bow to the judgment of the people and give it up. They did not know the stern, uncompromising, footstep-following principles that dwell at the bottom of his heart. He will _never_ give it up--the people _must_ take it: he has got nothing else for them. Hasn't he tried everything else? And isn't this the _last_ thing he could think of? Why, then, of course, the people _must_ gulp it down, or the party is broke.

Where is the slave that would desert his party? Who's here so base would be a turncoat? The Whigs call the President the _servant_ of the people--we call him the Ruler, the Great Chieftain,--and when a man deserts him he is a TURNCOAT--that is sound New-Light doctrine.

”Sirs, it has been developed in the recent demonstrations of contemporary history----”

”Yip!”

”Silence, Flan Sucker, and don't make a fool of yourself. It has been discovered that bank influence has defeated the Sub-Treasury bill. Every member who voted against it has received a large bribe from the banks.

The Globe man has lately discovered this astounding corruption: the President is aware of it; and for this reason, in addition to that which I have already mentioned, he is determined to run it as the INDEPENDENT Treasury again. Every New Light is expected to toe the mark.”

”Three cheers for that!” cried Pivot.

”We have heretofore _partially_ denounced the banks,” continued Fog; ”we are now to open upon them like hounds--worry them like rats. From this day forth, the Quods will take a new turn;--they will dismiss all pity from their bosoms, and cry aloud for strangling the banks--not even excepting our own. Patriotism demands the sacrifice. Down with paper money! will be the word. Turn the tables on the Whigs, and call the whole bank system the sp.a.w.n of aristocracy--remember that. At the same time, gentlemen, be not afraid. No harm will be done to any bank you have a liking for--the essence of the thing is in the noise. We shall have perhaps to kill the banks in the District of Columbia--but that's nothing;--it will be an offering to consistency. All experiments require an exhausted receiver--and the District is ours;--a snug little piece of machinery to play upon. So keep it in mind--Treasury Notes and no Paper Money!--down with Credit, and up with the Independent Treasury!”

”Ain't that first-rate?” said Sim Travers. ”The., who sot that agoin'?”

”Who?” replied Fog. ”Why, some of the highest men in this nation--the Lights of the age. Middleton Flam has just received letters from Was.h.i.+ngton, laying open the whole plan of operations. He has accordingly determined to put himself in position for ultimate action, by resigning the presidency of the bank. Middleton Flam, gentlemen, I am free to say it, although we have differed on some questions, is a great man and an honor to the New Lights. He has already sent his resignation to Nicodemus Handy. The Board meet to-morrow to act upon it. You may imagine, gentlemen, who is looked to as his successor. But I here announce to _you_, the conglomerate essence of my const.i.tuency at large, that on no consideration can I be persuaded to accept the vacant place.

No, gentlemen, the whole tenor of my life renders that impossible. I have defined my position years ago; and every man must see, that president of that, or any other bank, I can never be. Simon Snuffers is the man. If he can make it agreeable to the Democratic principle upon which he holds the Hay Scales--and that it is for you to say--I have no doubt he will accept. Simon has no ulterior objects;--and men without ulterior objects may do as they please. But I trust that this responsible post will never be pressed upon me. Upon that point I cannot indulge the wishes of my friends.”

The importance of this speech was duly appreciated by those to whom it was addressed; and as every man was anxious to know what everybody else thought about these matters, there was an immediate adjournment to the Borough. The consequence was, that Abel Brawn's shop was left in a few moments without a customer; and in the course of the next half hour the news communicated by Theodore Fog was in every man's mouth. The movement at Was.h.i.+ngton was held to be decisive. The Independent Treasury, from that moment, became a leading test of the allegiance of the Democrats of Quodlibet.

CHAPTER XIV.

LETTER FROM A CABINET OFFICER TO MR. FLAM--DIRECTIONS TO THE DEMOCRACY--THE CABINET OFFICER'S MODE OF PRODUCING AN IMPRESSION--THE PRESIDENT'S DETERMINATION IN REGARD TO THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY--WARNING TO DESERTERS--CANDIDATES FOR MR. FLAM'S PLACE IN THE BANK--HARDBOTTLE ELECTED--THEODORE FOG'S OUTBREAK--HE COOLS DOWN AND STANDS UPON PRINCIPLE--HARDBOTTLE UNPOPULAR.

The fact was as Theodore Fog had stated it. Mr. Flam had received a letter from a member of the Cabinet, apprising him that it was deemed absolutely necessary to the preservation of the New-Light Democratic Party to become extremely pointed in their a.s.sault against the State Banks, and that the misdeeds of those inst.i.tutions should be exaggerated as much as possible, and then charged upon the Whigs.

”This attack,” said the letter, ”must be made with more than usual clamor, and followed up with unremitting industry, that, by force of the first word and incessant repet.i.tion, we may get the people to believe that we have had nothing to do with the creation of these corporations; but have, in fact, been inveterately hostile to them from the first, and that our opponents have been their sole patrons and friends. Our recent outcry on this subject has succeeded so well with the people, that we are determined now to make the denunciation of the banks our chief topic, by way of preparation for the Independent Treasury which we are resolved the people shall swallow. We cannot too strongly impress upon our friends the propriety of charging upon the Whigs that we have repeatedly warned them against increasing the number of banks in the States. By this device we shall put upon their shoulders all those mischiefs of _over-banking_ and _over-trading_, which _they_ used to talk about. We must impute to them all the evils of the paper system--except the Treasury notes, which it would be well for us to praise, as an admirable Democratic scheme to give the country a METALLIC currency. It has also been deemed important,” continued the writer, ”that we should prove that the government has lost more money by the State banks than by any other agents it has ever employed. This idea was hinted to the Secretary of the Treasury, who has, in consequence, very recently been at work upon the subject, and has produced a report altogether conclusive against the banks. He will continue these labors with a view to the instruction of Congress and all our other inquiring friends; being, in no respect, daunted by that unlucky report made by him in 1834, which, singularly enough, proves the opposite side of the case; for, as he remarks, the specific gravity of his State papers is so great as to sink them too deep for the perception of the present generation,--and that consequently his report of 1834 must be pretty well forgotten by this time, which, indeed, I think quite likely;--it was so long-winded, dozy, and prosy, (a note in the margin marked this as 'confidential,') that I should not wonder if more than ten men in Congress ever read it, and of those, perhaps not a single one retains any distinct impression of its meaning.” The letter exhorted Mr. Flam to make these views known to the drill sergeants and corporals of the party in Quodlibet, and to stimulate them to active exertions in the part a.s.signed to them. ”Pound it into public mind,” said the writer, ”that the Whigs are the authors of the present evils; continual pounding will inevitably, at last, do the business. Many a time have I riveted, by diligent hammering, a politic and necessary fabrication upon the credulity of the people--so fast that no art of my adversary could tear it away to make room for the truth: therefore, I say to you and our Democratic friends--hammer without ceasing.”

A letter also from the Secretary, at the same time, informed Mr. Flam, that as the people had so contumaciously rejected the Independent Treasury bill, by their representatives in Congress, the President was now determined to carry it at all hazards; and consequently it was expected that no New-Light Democrat would be so false to the glorious principles of the Quodlibetarian theory as to interpose any opinion of his own between the will of the President and the appropriate duty of the people. ”If such should be the case,” said the Secretary, ”Mr. Van Buren can have no alternative--the individual so recreant to the eternal principles of the New-Light Democracy must be denounced by the Globe as an enemy to freedom, and, what is worse, a traitor to his party.”

Mr. Flam reflected upon these communications with grave attention; and having shown them to some of his intimate friends, among whom I count it my highest honor to be ranked, he announced his purpose to resign his post in the bank. For this step he had two good reasons: the first was the necessity of disenc.u.mbering himself of a connection which might have impeded his usefulness--to use his own words--in his public relations; the second reason was, that he had borrowed so large an amount from the bank, as to circ.u.mscribe its bounty greatly to the prejudice of sundry of the directors who were, in consequence, beginning to complain of his management of the inst.i.tution, and were even threatening to run an opposition against him in the election which was but a few months off.

It was whispered also that Nicodemus Handy had given him a mysterious but friendly hint to resign, without explaining his reasons. Upon these considerations his mind was made up; and accordingly the resignation was laid before the Board at the time indicated by Theodore Fog.

This event produced great sensation in Quodlibet; not less from the curiosity to know why our distinguished representative should relinquish so lucrative a post, than from the interest felt in the measure of selecting his successor. Fifteen of our most strenuous New-Light Democrats were candidates; and notwithstanding the speech made at the blacksmith's shop, Theodore Fog was the first who wrote a letter to the Board to apprise them that, in consequence of the eager importunity of his Democratic friends to confide the bank to his management, he found himself compelled to forego his objections to having any concern with the banking system, and therefore would not feel himself at liberty to decline the Presidency in case it should be offered to him. He said he wished it to be distinctly understood, that emolument was not his object: but that he was actuated solely by his attachment to that New-Light Democratic principle which taught him on all occasions to seek preferment, as the means of widening the sphere of his usefulness, and to increase his worldly fortune only for the sake of the good it enabled him to dispense to the people. On no other terms was he willing to accept the government of the bank.

Some two or three days were spent in canva.s.sing this matter; when the choice ultimately, upon the twenty-fifth balloting, fell upon Anthony Hardbottle, who had not been previously thought of for the place, and was only brought forward when all attempts to elect others had failed.

The fifteen original candidates became greatly incensed at this choice.

Theodore Fog was furious: he said Hardbottle could scarcely be called a Democrat:--if anything, he was half Whig--nay, he believed, whole Whig:--and to elect a Whig to a great responsible post like that--a post connected with the national fisc, allied to the money power, so intimately related to the important concerns of the currency!--it was not to be tolerated. The Genius of New-Light Democracy should array herself in steel, indue herself in panoply, buckle on her armor, shake her lance against it, or, in other words, he deemed it incompatible with free inst.i.tutions to allow a Whig, or, at least, a man who never attended political meetings, and who held the Whigs in respect--to preside over such a Democratic inst.i.tution as the Copperplate Bank of Quodlibet. Theodore continued raving in this strain until he drank nine juleps, interspersed with numberless other potations, and became so incapable of motion as to render it necessary for Mrs. Ferret to have him carried to bed. As he cooled, so cooled his compet.i.tors. Indeed, in the course of a few days, Theodore Fog, in commenting upon the pretensions of the several defeated candidates, found so many objections to them individually and collectively, as to bring himself into an excellent temper upon the subject, whereby he was able to make merry with the whole election; and thus, by degrees, he fell back into the state of mind which he had manifested at the smith's shop, and declared that no consideration could possibly induce him, professing the principles he did, to accept any post connected with a bank. He expressed himself in sharp and censorious terms against what, he said, he had constantly observed: namely, that he never knew a post in a bank to be vacant, from the President down to the porter, including Directors and all, in regard to which he didn't find half a dozen Loco Focos, to say nothing of New-Light Democrats, applicants to fill the vacancy: he thought it inconsistent with principle, now that orders had come for the Democracy to abuse the banks, to seek or accept such places; and he did not care who knew his sentiments upon the subject.

Mr. Hardbottle was a strict man of business, and did not, it is true, greatly interest himself in politics. Yet, nevertheless, he was a decided supporter of the New-Light cause, and was always esteemed a useful member of the Borough. One thing that made against him in the Board was, that he had never been a very active customer to the bank, except so far only as keeping his commercial account there. He was often urged to accept accommodations with a view to the improvement of the Borough, but almost invariably refused, from an aversion to indulging in these useful speculations. His brother Directors, in consequence, rather regarded him as a man who was deficient in public spirit; and they imagined that he might be inclined to depreciate the value of the services they had rendered the bank by the liberal employment they had given to its funds. Mr. Hardbottle, therefore, might be said to have entered into the government of the bank under inauspicious circ.u.mstances, and was likely not to be a very popular President. He was, however, determined upon one thing, and that was to make a thorough examination of the bank for the purpose of bringing about a resumption of specie payments at the earliest possible moment; for some complaints had gone abroad against the Bank of Quodlibet for not resuming when the other banks of the country affected to be anxious for that measure.