26 FACTS RELATING TO GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



Gen. Harrison to the Presidency. The real issues were not 

 much discussed — certainly not by the Whigs. In reality the 

 results were due to the general prostration of business and 

 the utter discredit that had fallen upon General Jackson's pet 

 bank system. The Independent Treasury System, as it was 

 termed by Democrats, or the Sub-Treasury System, as it was 

 called by the Whigs, had not been tested. 



The country was tired of experiments and all the evils, 

 which were many, that then afflicted the people, were attrib- 

 uted to the experiments of General Jackson in vetoing the 

 bills for the recharter of the United States Bank and for the 

 institution of the pet bank system. In truth the country was 

 wedded to the idea that the funds of the government should 

 be so placed that they could be used to facilitate business. 

 That idea and the practice arising from it were full of peril. 

 In the infancy of a country, when the resources are inade- 

 quate, a national bank, assuming that it is managed honestly 

 and wisely, may be an important aid, but time being given, it 

 will inevitably become a political machine in a country, like 

 the United States, where the political aspirations of the 

 people are active and the temptations to seek the aid of the 

 money power are always great. Even in modern times, with 

 a surplus of millions in the banks of the city of New York, 

 for which no proper use can be found, there are indications 

 of a purpose to return to the pet bank system under another 

 name. 



Gen. Harrison, the nominee of the Whig Party, was then 

 sixty-seven years of age by the record, but the public opin- 

 ion credited him with several more years. His mental pow- 

 ers were not of a superior quality, and his life had not been 

 of a sort to develop his faculties. He had done good service 

 in the Indian wars of the frontier and as commander at the 

 battle of Tippecanoe he had won a reputation as a soldier. 

 During the war of 1812, he commanded the army of the 

 Northwest, and with honor. He had had a seat in each 

 House of Congress, he had represented the government at 

 the capital of a South American Republic, and all with credit, 

 and all without distinction. His career had been sufficiently 



