ected that
those who disapproved the policy of the Government in relation to the
currency would, in the excited state of public feeling produced by the
occasion, fail to attribute to that policy any extensive embarrassment
in the monetary affairs of the country. The matter thus became connected
with the passions and conflicts of party; opinions were more or less
affected by political considerations, and differences were prolonged
which might otherwise have been determined by an appeal to facts, by the
exercise of reason, or by mutual concession. It is, however, a cheering
reflection that circumstances of this nature can not prevent a community
so intelligent as ours from ultimately arriving at correct conclusions.
Encouraged by the firm belief of this truth, I proceed to state my
views, so far as may be necessary to a clear understanding of the
remedies I feel it my duty to propose and of the reasons by which I have
been led to recommend them.

The history of trade in the United States for the last three or four
years affords the most convincing evidence that our present condition
is chiefly to be attributed to overaction in all the departments of
business--an over-action deriving, perhaps, its first impulses from
antecedent causes, but stimulated to its destructive consequences
by excessive issues of bank paper and by other facilities for the
acquisition and enlargement of credit. At the commencement of the year
1834 the banking capital of the United States, including that of the
national bank, then existing, amounted to about $200,000,000, the bank
notes then in circulation to about ninety-five millions, and the loans
and discounts of the banks to three hundred and twenty-four millions.
Between that time and the 1st of January, 1836, being the latest period
to which accurate accounts have been received, our banking capital was
increased to more than two hundred and fifty-one millions, our paper
circulation to more than one hundred and forty millions, and the loans
and discounts to more than four hundred and fifty-seven millions.
To this vast increase are to be added the many millions of credit
acquired by means of foreign loans, contracted by the States and State
institutions, and, above all, by the lavish accommodations extended
by foreign dealers to our merchants.

The consequences of this redundancy of credit and of the spirit of
reckless speculation engendered by it were a foreign debt contracted
by our citizens