charter of a bank, to be called the United States Bank of Pennsylvania, with a capital of thirty-five millions-the very same institution, in reality, that had so furiously contended with General Jackson, and that had been twice so significantly condemned by the people, in the triumphant reëlection of the old hero, and in the elevation to the Presidency of Van Buren, who was pledged to the same hostility against the Bank, and that had been still more emphatically condemned, if possible, by Pennsylvania herself. Notwithstanding these repeated expressions of popular will, the hydra-headed monster was again careering in the field, taking a very different course from what it had under its former charter from the United States. Instead of applying the screws to coerce obedience, a very opposite motive principle was brought to bear by the Bank upon the men of influence the question probably was, How much will you ask as a consideration for voting for the bill, offering a bonus of two millions for the use of public works? The supposed enemies of the bill were asked: What do your constituents want? We want a railroad, a turnpike, a bridge in our county -and I want it to accommodate my furnace, mill, or store, &c. By arrangements like these, wherein the cupidity of men instead of their patriotism was consulted, the proposed charter was hurried through both branches of the legislature, and signed by the governor, before the people had an opportunity to remonstrate. And, in order to sprinkle every indi vidual, rich and poor, with golden dew, one hundred thousand dollars a year, for twenty years, was to be contributed by the Bank as a part of the bonus to the State for school purposes; and thus was old Pennsylvania gulled. Who, alas! is able to estimate the force of a golden engine with a motive power of thirty-five millions of dollars? It is able. to crush everything but revolutionary virtue-subdue everything but the invincible integrity of true patriotism, such as was exemplified in the whole public career of Old Hickory. Now this two million bonus was not given directly to the State, although it was so supposed by the mass of the people; but the Bank was to subscribe for stock of all these trifling railroads, to run, if possible, to the very door of every friend of the Bank. Hence started up numerous railroad corporations, the Bank being the principal subscriber for stock. This brought a world of work into market for contractors: and here again fortune spread her golden prospects before me, and invited me to embark once more in an enterprise for wealth, with which invitation I readily complied, having about one hundred and fifty dollars in money and a good suit of clothes; and I will assure my reader, if good clothes are ever necessary to recommend a man, it is when he is at the foot of the hill and out at the pocket. To be poor is bad enough in all conscience; but to be poor, and to look poor at the same time, makes a bad matter considerably worse. If a man is only known to be rich amongst his neighbours or in the community where he lives, any kind of rags will look well-nay, they will almost be regarded as ornaments upon him; and thus many rich men are prouder in rags than in fine clothes. But clothes do much to give a man position and credit among men ; as Dr. Young has said : "Fools indeed drop the man in their account, Amongst other railroads, there was one laid out running from Harrisburgh to Hagerstown, in Maryland, a distance of seventy miles, through what is known as the Cumberland Valley, lying between the north and south mountain. This valley contains the richest limestone-land in the United States, under a high state of cultivation. Here the northern man, as he passes through this beautiful valley, feasting his eyes on those splendid and magnificent farms that lie on either side, cultivated with taste and decorated with stately and neatly-finished brick or stone barns, is filled with admiration. There were two distinct companies incorporated to construct this road, one called the Cumberland, and the other the Franklin Railroad Company-the latter crossing over into Maryland. I contracted with the Franklin Company to furnish all the timber required on that road, and to make a part of the track. Here I again found myself in business to my heart's content. I put in operation twenty or thirty saw-mills, bought a tract of land, and built a steam saw-mill thereon-and everything was now moving on gaily, and success seemed certain. to the man proscribed by fate, as devotee of pleasure, But bad luck, death to the "Like a staunch murderer, steady to his purpose, Nor misses once the track." So here, as heretofore, I was confronted by my old familiar foe. What is wrong now, do you ask? Why, nothing more than that the huge monster had again shut his destroying jaws-Biddle's "Great Regulator," the United States Bank of Pennsylvania, had suspended specie payments, and every country bank followed suit, and refused to discount the gold of the country was cankered and the paper moth-eaten-the currency of the country was worse than mildewed and corrupted-every business man, and every little, contemptible, irresponsible corporation was forced to issue "shin-plasters," or they did the same for gain, and thus the poor contractor on the public works was doomed to embarrassments and miseries like those of the former panic, when the deposits were removed. But to dispose of a long story as briefly as may be, it shall suffice to say that I finished the contract through all these troubles, sued the corporation for the balance due to me; and we have at this very day a judgment against them, on the record of the Hagerstown court, for thirty-three hundred dollars. At the time judgment was obtained, the "Great Regulator" had smashed-her bills worth only four cents on the dollar; and I do not know that I could get this day ten dollars for the above judgment. At the same time that I had the Franklin contract, I had also a contract with the Tide-Water Canal Company, to furnish locust timber for forty-five miles of said canal, and I performed it, and made money in the operation. But this company, immediately after, failed, and was not able to redeem its scrip, which had flooded the country, and of which my father-in-law allowed $1,000 to die in his hands. Mr. Biddle's bank was a large stockholder in this canal. During this period, or rather previous to it, I furnished a large quantity of locust timber for the eity of Philadelphia and that neighbourhood. But I will not trouble the reader with any of my small, commonplace business operations. About these days there was another letting of work, by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, bordering on the Potomac river. The letting was in the city of Washington. My reputation as a thorough-going contractor was known to that company,—that when I began a job there was no backing out till it was finished. I could, therefore, compete for work with any contractor in the United States; and there was allotted to me, by this company, about forty thousand dollars worth of work. I suppose I have already wearied the patience of my kind |