Westward extension, 1841-1850, by George Pierce Garrison.

TYLER AND THE WHIGS

57

banks, from New Jersey to the extreme southwest,
had suspended specie payments; that there was no
currency of uniform value throughout the country; and that what there was varied, by the specie
standard, from par to fifty per cent. discount.'
Rates of exchange were very high and uncertain.
This state of things could not exist among an energetic and progressive people without an active
search for a remedy. If local banks of issue were
to exist, whose methods and management varied
according to the varying restrictions of state law,
there could be no uniform currency without some
kind of general regulation. A national bank might
not be necessary, but some kind of national banking system was. Tyler's peculiar suggestion that the
states, with the consent of Congress, limit by agreement among themselves their power to create banks,
shows that he saw clearly one serious aspect of the
problem.2
Having received the president's message, the two
houses at once set to work. A resolution introduced by Clay, and passed by the Senate, to inquire
into the expediency of repealing the sub-treasury
law was quickly followed up by a bill for that purpose, also introduced by Clay, which was reported
June 4 and rushed through that body in four days.
Meanwhile the Senate and House both called on the
secretary of the treasury for a plan of a bank or
Clay, Works, VI., 171.
2 Richardson, Messages and Papers, IV., 46.