Friday, October 5, 2007

THE GREATEST PRESIDENT WE NEVER HAD

Here is the political views of a presidential candidate in 1844, who, only four months later was killed by a mob:

“For the accommodation of the people in every state and territory, let Congress show their wisdom by granting a national bank, with branches in each State and Territory, where the capital stock shall be held by the nation for the Central Bank, and by the states and territories for the branches; and whose officers and directors shall be elected yearly by the people, with wages at the rate of two dollars per day for services; which several banks shall never issue any more bills than the amount of capital stock in her vaults and the interest.
“The net gain of the Central Bank shall be applied to the national revenue, and that of the branches to the states and territories revenues. And the bills shall be par throughout the nation, which will mercifully cure that fatal disorder known in cities as brokerage, and leave the peoples money in their own pockets.
“Give every man his constitutional freedom and the president full power to send an army to suppress mobs, and the States authority to repeal and impugn that relic of folly which makes it necessary for the governor of a state to make the demand of the President for troops, in case of invasion or rebellion.
“As to the contiguous territories to the United States, wisdom would direct no tangling alliance. Oregon belongs to this government honorably; and when we have the red man’s consent, let the Union spread from the east to the west sea; and if Texas petitions Congress to be adopted among the sons of liberty, give her the right hand of fellowship, and refuse not the same friendly grip to Canada and Mexico. …..
“The Southern people are hospitable and noble. They will help rid so free a country of every vestige of slavery, whenever they are assured of an equivalent for their property. The country will be full of money and confidence when a National Bank of twenty millions and a State Bank in every state, with a million or more, gives a tone to monetary matters, and makes a circulating medium as valuable in the purses of a whole community as in the coffers of a speculating banker or broker.
“In the United States the people are the government, and their united voice is the only sovereign that should rule, the only power that should be obeyed, and the only gentlemen that should be honored at home and abroad……..
“When the people petitioned for a National Bank, I would use my best endeavors to have their prayers answered, and establish one on national principles to save taxes, and make them its controllers of its ways and means. And when the people petitioned to possess the territory of Oregon, or any other contiguous territory, I would lend the influence of the Chief Magistrate to grant so reasonable a request, that they might extend the mighty efforts and enterprise of a free people from the east to the west sea, and make the wilderness blossom as the rose. And when a neighboring realm petitioned to join the union of liberty’s sons, my voice would be: COME- yea, come, Texas; come Mexico, come Canada; and come, all the world; let us be brethren, let us be one great family, and let there be universal peace.”
---February 7, 1844

Undoubtedly had this policy been instituted, the United States would have been much, much better than it is, and we would not have had a Civil War.

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