USA > Georgia > The bench and bar of Georgia: memoirs and sketches. With an appendix, containing a court roll from 1790-1857, etc., volume II > Part 42
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Mr. Wilde returned to this country, and was for some time engaged in his biographical work concerning Dante. Mr. Wilde's original poems and translations are always graceful and correct. Those that have been published were mostly written while he was a member of Congress, during moments of relaxation, and they have never been printed collectively. Specimens of his translations are excluded in this brief narrative. His versions from the Italian, Spanish, and French languages are among the most eloquent and scholarly productions that have ever been published.
Mr. Wilde was married in 1818, and was left a widower in 1827. He died from yellow fever, in New Orleans, September 10, 1847, aged fifty- eight years. His only children living are two sons.
Most of this sketch is from Griswold's "Poets of America," which is in the main part accurate, except as to the place of his birth. Mr. Griswold says he was a native of Baltimore, which is not so.
The first part of this sketch is from the pen of my brother, who is the eldest son and inherits his father's literary taste and poetical talents. The following paragraph of an obituary notice by N. Oakey Hall, formerly of New Orleans, appeared in the Commercial Bulletin :
" The judge upon the bench, opening his winter term, will have one less cordial nod to bestow as he looks around upon the bar of New Orleans ; the youthful advocate will have one less approving smile upon his suc- cessful efforts, the University of Louisiana one less matured and enthusi- astic parent of its promising infancy; the social circle and the festive board will have one less admired visitant and honored guest; and among
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the hundreds who have fallen by the pestilence, none will be more sin- cerely mourned than the distinguished scholar and amiable gentleman whose coming a few years since all welcomed,-whose untimely removal all deplore.
" In a city like New Orleans, where trade and commerce are the great monopolizers of the human passions, and the plannings and the enterprises of their votaries are the almost absorbing business of life, a man like Mr. Wilde excreised a great humanizing influence. His learning illuminated the labyrinths of commercial transactions; his scholastic graces scattered roses in the retired walks of those escaping for a moment from the toils and burdens of the day; he mingled the amenities of life with its cares, and softened its weary hours with the suggestions and lessons that a refined taste so agrecably prompts.
"' The envenom'd whirlwind o'er the city pass'd ; And as in forest yields the monarch oak At rudest summons of autumnal blast, So didst thou fall before the whirlwind stroke,
O Poet-Jurist, leaving friends behind Who deeply sorrow thy untimely end, And offering grief-wove tributes, as they bend Around thy tomb, unto thy master-mind !
Hush'd are thy lays; the music of thy tongue Shall ring no more in Learning's halls; nor seen The stately form, the winning smile, the mien That charm'd the thousand hearts thou dwelt among;
And, whilst enshrined within those hearts thou'lt be, Each mourner-friend will shed a tear for thee !'"
This coneludes the obituary notice. There is a very good description of my father's personal appearance in a book entitled "The Manhattance in New Orleans ; or, Phases of Crescent-City Life," by the same gentle- man, who is a friend of mine. Have you ever seen the book? I have it, and could copy the paragraph if you should wish it.
Respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN P. WILDE.
The author is truly grateful to the son for the very interesting contribution to this memoir; and just here a letter from the father will be introduced, written more than twenty years ago, in reply to one from the author asking the favor of such speeches delivered on leading questions in Congress as would enable a young man to form correct opinions, and especially soliciting copies of the speeches delivered by Mr. Wilde himself. The original letter from Mr. Wilde is now before the author, even more highly prized as time renders the beautiful penmanship somewhat dim to the vision.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, May 14, 1834. (Private.)
DEAR SIR :- I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your obliging favor of the 3d instant, and to return you my thanks for the expres- sions of kindness it contains. It affords me just satisfaction to comply, so far as is in my power, with your request, by sending you a few of such speeches
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and documents as I have by me : there are others which I would gladly transmit if they were attainable; but these things get completely out of print in a short time, and often it is impossible to find a single copy of a popular speech.
The peculiar subject of interest now, and for some time to come, must be the currency; and, considering that as a question of permanent, not ephemeral importance, and regarding it, not as it respects men and mere parties, but as it operates on great national interests and the whole frame of our Government, I beg leave to add a speech of mine, delivered two years ago, and now nearly forgotten, which contains many facts useful in forming an opinion on some points concerning money,-the most import- ant and least understood of financial topics.
While you will find me a bullionist, agreeing with the English writers and statesmen who unite paper systems, and insist on the convertibility of notes into coin as essential to their security, and the exclusion of small notes as indispensable, you must not understand me as favoring either the claims of a currency exclusively metallic, or believing in the President's and Secretary's mode of excluding small notes, by refusing to receive them in payment of taxes and duties. The only effect of that measure will be to restrict the circulation of the pet banks and give the small bills of the others the whole market. A depreciated currency always usurps the circulation. Whenever a bank is in doubtful credit, you see no other bills. Every one passes them off as rapidly as possible.
At this moment we have nothing of peculiar interest. Mr. Polk's bill for conducting the collection of revenue through the State banks will certainly not pass. I doubt if it will get through the House.
We have rumors of a war-message against France; but my informa- tion is that the President has been persuaded out of it. He no doubt did entertain such an intention.
Very respectfully, your most ob't ser't, R. H. WILDE.
With this letter came a speech delivered by Mr. Wilde, March 18, 1834, " On the Reasons of the Secretary of the Treasury for the Removal of the Deposits," from which a few extracts are given. He commenced by a touching allusion to the death of the Hon. Thomas T. Bouldin, of Virginia, who, while in the act of addressing the House on the Deposit question, fell and expired in his place on the 11th February, 1834.
Mr. WILDE said :- The lips that were opened to discuss this subject, when it was last before the House for debate, were now closed forever in the silence of the grave. The patriot fell, where he had ever stood, foremost in the van, warring for the law and the Constitution. It is in life as in battle. Our companions drop by our side. We close the ranks and hurry on. The eagerness of the strife leaves no time for praise or sorrow beyond the brief, blunt terms of a soldier's eulogy. We have lost an honest and gallant comrade. Peace be to his ashes! Honor to his memory ! Who would have thought that so soon-almost before his corpse was cold-it would have been strode over with impious and indecent haste to attack the best part of that constitutional liberty which had always been his idol,-freedom of debate ? And under what circumstances
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was URGENCY decreed ? Voted, he should have said : it is still voted. We have not yet come to the simple machine, a proclamation :-- " Silence is commanded, on pain of imprisonment." He meant to state the historic facts. If the " old Roman's" course is to be sustained by Carthagenian strategy, the reproach of " Punic faith" must be borne by the centurion and the legionaries.
After reviewing the situation of the country at different periods, as influenced by the currency and by the action of local banks, showing great losses to the public, Mr. Wilde proceeded :-
Such was the state of things in 1816, before the present Bank of the United States went into operation. How has it been since, according to evidence equally authentic ?
For ten years preceding 1830, the revenue of the United States was collected through three hundred and forty-three custom-houses, forty-two land-offices, eight thousand four hundred post-offices, one hundred and thirty-four receivers of internal revenue, thirty-seven marshals, and thirty- three clerks. The aggregate of persons employed in the collection was computed by the committee at nine thousand. The amount received during that period was $230,068,855. This sum was collected at various points of this widely-extended country. It has been disbursed at other points, thousands of miles distant ; and yet it has been collected, remitted, and disbursed without the loss of a single dollar.
The loss sustained by the United States from broken banks alone between 1814 and 1819 exceeds a million. The receipts into the Treasury during these five years were $198,000,000. Of this amount, $68,000,000 were received from loans and Treasury notes, and $93,000,000 from cus- toms, upon none of which was there any loss. The whole amount of loss then accrued on the collection of $36,000,000, received from the public lands, internal revenue, direct taxes, and incidental receipts. We lost, then, during these ten years, one-thirty-sixth part of the revenue accruing from these sources.
This, however, forms but a very small item in the loss of the Government. If all that was lost by the extravagant price paid for loans, by the sale of Treasury notes at a discount, and by the premium paid on exchanges, or the interest allowed for advances of current money, were taken into the account, the sum would be swelled to many millions.
Still, the loss to the Government sinks into utter insignificance com- pared with that to individuals. During the years '15 and '16, the exchange between our different cities varied from 5 to 25 per cent., the ordinary premium for specie being from 10 to 20 per cent. The amount of our domestic exchanges may even then be estimated at not less than $200,000,000 per annum : they are now much more. If we estimate the difference of exchange paid on these $200,000,000 at only 5 per cent. on an average, the industrious classes were taxed annually ten millions, for the benefit of banks and brokers, on their domestic exchanges !
The excellence of the Bank of the United States, as latterly conducted, consists in the facility and stability it has given to domestic exchanges. The transfer of funds from place to place, for the purposes of the public expenditure, are as nothing compared with those demanded by the exi- gencies of commerce. The burden of transmitting the public money under a system of unequal exchanges would seem to be much less than
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the advantage, in the shape of premiums, to be derived from such ex- changes on the remittances of commerce. But the people would have just right to complain if the institution sacrificed their interests to its own, by levying a tax on their exchanges beyond the fair equivalent for interest, trouble, postage, and insurance. Under a judicious course of policy, therefore, domestic exchange has latterly been equalized. The remittances of commerce are made subservient to the transmission of the public funds ; the deposits of the public funds have, in their turn, furnished the means of extending greater facilities to commerce ; while the public, in the sum originally paid and in the duties subsequently performed by the bank, received ample compensation for the privileges bestowed on it.
The loss sustained on their domestic exchanges by the citizens of the United States, in the years 1814, '15, '16, '17, and'18, though the greatest, is far from being the only one. Between 1811 and 1830, one hundred and sixty-five banks failed,-the greater part of them between 1811 and 1820. The loss arising from that cause cannot be less than $10,000,000 or $15,000,000.
But, it will be said, the state of the banks now is not like their state in 1816. No! their present condition is even worse.
In 1816, two hundred and forty-six State banks, with a paper circulation of sixty-eight millions, had nineteen millions of specie. In 1832, actual returns from two hundred and eighty State banks show about forty millions of paper for eight millions of specie ; and, calculating the remaining one hundred and seventy banks on the same basis, the whole four hundred and fifty banks had a circulation of about sixty-four millions for twelve millions of specie.
The issues of the State banks in 1816 were only about three and a half for one; in 1822, they were upward of five for one; and in 1833, they were at least six, and most probably seven, for one, and so, no doubt, continue at the present moment.
Mr. Wilde analyzed the relations of commerce and the converti- bility of bank-paper into coin, the only standard of value recog- nised throughout the world. A passage is here selected for the beauty of its comparison :-
The danger arising from the vast influence of the Bank of the United States has been much insisted on. The answer to the whole of this class of arguments is obvious. All power, strength, passion, action, energy, and capacity are, in one sense, dangerous,-even the thirst of knowledge, which ruined our first parents. What then ? Must we give up printing because the press is licentious ? gunpowder, because magazines explode ? and machines, because men are sometimes killed by them ? Must we return to ignorance, barbarism, and imbecility, because knowledge, civili- zation, and enterprise are dangerous ?
This elaborate effort of Mr. Wilde, equal to fifty pages of the usual pamphlet size, exhibits deep research and patient investiga- tion. A further extract is given as a proof :-
Of the remaining modes suggested for collecting and disbursing the public moneys, the most pernicious experiment that could possibly be attempted is that of creating a bank owned and controlled wholly by the
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Government. Such a bank, besides being open to all the objections of the present one, has numerous disadvantages. If it do not issue paper, it will be impossible to collect the revenue in a uniform medium. If it do, you have at once all the evils and temptations of a Government paper. The issue of paper money, directly, or through banks controlled by Govern- ment, has been tried by various countries, and always with the same suc- cess. Depreciation and bankruptcy have always been the issue; and every project of this description, disguise it as you will, is only a repetition of the South Sea bubble, the Mississippi Company and bank of Law, the assignats of France, and our own Continental currency.
A very brief sketch of the paper money of other nations and our own may not be without its interest. France, during her revolution, issued 45,579 millions of paper money, of which 12,744 millions were in some way or other discharged; the remaining 32.835 millions, of the nominal value of about 6,260 millions of dollars, remained as waste paper in the holders' hands. During our Revolutionary war, our Congress issued 360,000,000 of Continental bills of credit, which depreciated to one thousand for one, and finally became utterly worthless. The amount of issues by the States is unknown. Various States of this Union have attempted to establish State banks, which were solely the property of the State,-many of which have failed, and generally after gross frauds and abuses.
Catharine II. issued a paper currency for Russia : the moderation of its issues kept it for some time at par; but in 1814, four rubles in paper were worth only one in silver.
The Bank of Copenhagen was founded in 1736. Nine years afterward, the Government freed it from the obligation of paying its notes in full. In 1773, the king, thinking, probably, the privilege of issuing an incon- vertible currency too valuable for a private corporation, took the bank into his own hands. In October, 1813, a dollar in silver was worth sixteen dollars in paper.
The currency of France in 1716 was specie, and amounted to about eight hundred millions of livres, or 190,000,000 of dollars. Law's bank, established a little before, raised the currency to about 195,000,000 of dollars. In January, 1719, "the Government"-that is, the regent, in the name of the king-took possession of the bank. In May, 1720, the bank had in circulation 2,235,000,000 of livres, or about 530,000,000 of dollars. On the 20th May, 9000 livres in paper would purchase only 82₺ in silver; and in October they became of no value whatever. Jus- tice to Law requires it to be said that he was not responsible for the mon- strous abuse of his project. His ideas (developed in his work on money and trade) are not those on which the French Government acted. It was the conversion of Law's bank into the "Banque Royale," and the change made in its issues, that did the mischief. Law remonstrated in vain. Power prevailed over argument, as it always does; and, by a singu- lar perversion of justice, popular prejudice (from which even the Presi- dent does not seem to be exempt) attributes to the erroneous principles of Law the evils arising from an arbitrary exercise of royal authority .*
The Government of Brazil established a bank. The issues were vir- tually under the control of the State. Its paper depreciated more than one-half, and it was closed by a commission to wind up its affairs and issue a new paper in place of the old. About two years since, 6400
See Law on Money and Trade, and Edinburgh Encyc.
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milreas in coin were worth, of the new paper emission, from 11,000 to 12,000 milreas; and, at the same time, so base was the copper coin, (the only species in circulation,) that this depreciated paper bore a premium of two per cent. in copper. Yet at that moment there was no deficiency of the precious metals in Brazil. They were exported, as usual, and what remained in the country were hoarded.
The Austrian paper money originated with Maria Theresa. In 1810, a florin in silver was worth thirteen florins in paper. In 1811, the Government called in the existing paper money and exchanged it, at one-fifth of its nominal value, for a new paper money; and, in 1812, eight forins of the new paper were worth only one in silver. Corrupting the currency by the issue of a Government paper money is the desperate expedient which has succeeded to the ancient practice of debasing the coin. In effect it is the same.
The method adopted by those powers in Europe whose territories are most extensive for the remittance of the public money from place to place, as its expenditures may require, is not without its use and interest in this inquiry. I have obtained, from such sources as I could depend on, information respecting the practice of France and Russia in this respect. The circulation of the bank-notes of the Bank of France, I understand, is pretty much confined to Paris and the large towns. There are re- ceivers-general in the different departments, by whom collections and disbursements are made, and who sometimes give drafts on each other, or on the royal treasury, "bon" for so much. But it is frequently requisite to transport specie from place to place for the purposes of the Govern- ment. So it is in Russia,-though the paper rubles of the Government are remitted in packets by the mail, or by couriers. This mode of trans- ferring public funds is to the Bank of the United States what a raft is to a steamboat.
The increase of patronage, the corrupting power, the danger of frauds, the mismanagement, negligence, abuses, and losses of a Government bank need not be insisted on. I should regard a bank established solely by the Government with as much horror as an established Church.
If the most pernicious experiment that could be devised is that of a Government bank, the least plausible is that of attempting to collect the revenue, maintain the circulation, transport the funds, discharge the debts, and equalize the exchanges of the United States through the instrumentality of the State banks. This leads me naturally to a con- sideration of the main topic. The Treasury of the United States has been emptied into the vaults of "certain State banks," by order of the President or Secretary,-for the present, I care not which,-and the com- mittee recommend that it should remain there, We are now to discuss that measure and the reasons assigned for it. Various official and un- official documents respecting it have been laid before us or published. The measure itself has been canvassed throughout the country with an interest and eagerness proportioned to its importance. Part of this in- fluence has probably arisen from the influence of party politics. So far as it has, few men are more exempt from it than myself. The older members of this House, at least, understand what have at all times been my relations with all parties. To me the President is nothing, and his successor is nothing, and his secretaries, past, present, and to come, are nothing; but the people of the United States are much, my own imme- diate constituents more, and a Constitutional Government of liberty and
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law every thing. It is not, therefore, as a mere party struggle that I pro- pose to regard this measure, but as a great question of currency, finance, and constitutional power,-the rights of the executive, and the duties of the legislative, department.
As Mr. Wilde acquired his fame mostly as a scholar, and as his productions are always agreeable, not only for matter logically arranged, but for felicity of style, the author feels justified in swelling his quotations by introducing extracts from the speech of Mr. Wilde on the Tariff in 1832, in which he describes the promi- nent men whom he found in the House of Representatives when he first became a member of that body in 1816. It has been much admired for its chaste and graphic delineations of character. After noticing the condition of the country at the close of the war, and the systems of policy maintained under different admi- nistrations, influenced by the master-minds in Congress, Mr. Wilde thus used his pencil :-
It was under such circumstances that the Fourteenth Congress as- sembled. At that time I had the honor to be a member of this House. It was an honor then. What it is now I shall not say. It is what the Twenty-Second Congress have been pleased to make it. I have neither time nor strength nor ability to speak of the legislators of that day as they deserve, nor is this the fit occasion. Yet the coldest or most careless nature cannot recur to such associates without some touch of generous feeling, which, in quicker spirits, would kindle into high and almost holy enthusiasm.
LOWNDES .- Pre-eminent-yet not more proudly than humbly pre- eminent-among them was a gentleman from South Carolina, now no more,-the purest, the calmest, the most philosophical, of our country's modern statesmen. One no less remarkable for gentleness of manners and kindness of heart than for that passionless, unclouded intellect which rendered him deserving of the praise-if ever man deserved it-of merely standing by and letting reason argue for him. The true patriot, incapable of all selfish ambition, who shunned office and distinction, yet served his country faithfully, because he loved her. He I mean who consecrated by his example the noble precept, so entirely his own, that the first station in the Republic was neither to be sought after nor declined,-a sentiment so just and so happily expressed that it continues to be repeated, because it cannot be improved.
PINKNEY .- There was also a gentleman from Maryland, whose ashes slumber in your cemetery. It is not long since I stood by his tomb, and recalled him as he was then, in all the pride and power of his genius. Among the first of his countrymen and contemporaries as a jurist and statesman, first as an orator, he was, if not truly eloquent, the prince of rhetoricians. Nor did the soundness of his logie suffer any thing by a comparison with the richness and classical purity of the language in which he copiously poured forth those figurative illustrations of his argument which enforced while they adorned it. But let others pronounce his eulogy. I must not. I feel as if his mighty spirit still haunted the
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scene of its triumphs, and, when I dared to wrong them, indignantly rebuked me.
These names have become historical. There were others of whom it is more difficult to speak, because yet within the reach of praise or envy. For one who was or aspired to be a politician, it would be prudent-per- haps wise-to avoid all mention of these men. Their acts, their words, their thoughts, their very looks, have become subjects of party contro- versy. But he whose ambition is of a higher or a lower order has no need of such reserve. Talent is of no party exclusively, nor is justice.
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