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whether the advantages of this system are not counterbalanced by many evils, and whether it does not tend to beget, in the minds of a large portion of our countrymen, a spirit of discontent and jealousy dangerous to the stability of the Union."

While speaking of the tariff, "nullification" came under the president's notice; and he quietly but resolutely intimated his belief, "that the laws themselves were fully adequate to the suppression of such attempts as might immediately be made" to carry out the views of those who favored absolute state sovereignty. "Should the exigency arise," he continued, "rendering the execution of the existing laws impracticable from any cause whatever, prompt notice of it will be given to Congress, with the suggestion of such views and measures as may be deemed necessary to meet it."

In regard to the United States Bank, Jackson showed himself equally uncompromising. He now recommended that "provision should be made to dispose of all stocks then held (by the general government,) in corporations, whether created by the general or state governments, and to place the proceeds in the treasury." He also brought against the bank the definitive charge of effecting "an arrangement with a portion of the holders 1832. of the three per cent stock;" by which, said he, "a surrender of the certificates of this stock may be postponed until October, 1833; and thus the liability of the government, after its abil ity to discharge the debts, may be continued by the failure of the bank to

perform its duties." And then it was recommended, that Congress should seriously investigate this question,"whether the public deposits in that institution may be regarded as entirely safe." The president also recommended a reduction of the price of the public lands, so as to prevent their becoming a source of revenue, and an amendment of the Constitution, so as to limit and define the power of the general government over internal improvement. The policy of the government in relation to the Indians was applauded; and an extension of the judiciary system to the new western states was again recommended.

South Carolina having proceeded to the lengths mentioned above, General Jackson manifested his usual decision in meeting the emergency. He gave orders to the military force at his disposal, to be ready to sustain and protect the federal officers at Charleston; and on the 10th of December, a long and energetic proclamation was issued, denouncing the movements of the nullifiers as palpable treason, and calling upon the South Carolinians to return to their loyalty to the Union.

The House of Representatives, at an early day, applied itself to the subject of the tariff, referring to the committee of ways and means the consideration of the president's suggestion concerning it. In the Senate a resolution was car ried, calling upon the secretary of the treasury, who had in his annual report urged the reduction of duties to the revenue standard, for a draught of a bill embodying his views, or rather those of the administration. On the

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