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The fact was as Theodore Fog had stated it. Mr. Flam
had received a letter from Amos Kendall, apprising him that
it was deemed absolutely necessary to the preservation of
the New Light Democratic Party to become extremely
pointed in their assault against the State Banks, and that
the misdeeds of those institutions should be exaggerated as
much as possible, and then charged upon the Whigs.

“This attack,” said Amos, “must be made with more
than usual clamor, and followed up with unremitting industry,
that, by force of the first word and incessant repetition,
we may get the people to believe that we have had nothing
to do with the creation of these corporations; but have, in
fact, been inveterately hostile to them from the first, and
that our opponents have been their sole patrons and friends.
Our recent outcry on this subject has succeeded so well
with the people, that we are determined now to make the
denunciation of the banks our chief topic, by way of preparation
for the Independent Treasury which we are resolved

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the people shall swallow. We cannot too strongly impress
upon our friends, the propriety of charging upon the Whigs
that we have repeatedly warned them against increasing the
number of banks in the States. By this device we shall
put upon their shoulders all those mischiefs of over-banking
and over-trading, which they used to talk about. We
must impute to them all the evils of the shinplaster system—
except the Treasury notes, which it would be well for us
to praise, as an admirable democratic scheme to give the
country a METALLIC currency. It has also been deemed
important,” continued the writer, “that we should prove
that the government has lost more money by the State
Banks than by any other agents it has ever employed.
This idea was hinted to Mr. Woodbury, who has, in consequence,
very recently been at work upon the subject, and
has produced a report altogether conclusive against the
banks. He will continue these labors with a view to the
instruction of Congress and all our other inquiring friends;
being, in no respect, daunted by that unlucky report made
by him in 1834, which, singularly enough, proves the opposite
side of the case; for, as he remarks, the specific
gravity of his state papers is so great as to sink them too
deep for the perception of the present generation,—and that
consequently his report of 1834 must be pretty well forgotten
by this time, which, indeed, I think quite likely;—
it was so long-winded, dozy and prosy, as every thing of
Woodbury's is, (a note in the margin marked this as `confidential,
') that I should not wonder if more than ten men
in Congress never read it, and of those, perhaps not a single
one retains any distinct impression of its meaning.” The
letter exhorted Mr. Flam to make these views known to
the drill sergeants and corporals of the party in Quodlibet,
and to stimulate them to active exertions in the part assigned
to them. “Pound it into the public mind,” said the writer,

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“that the Whigs are the authors of the present evils; continual
pounding will inevitably, at last, do the business. Many a
time have I riveted, by diligent hammering, a politic and
necessary fabrication upon the credulity of the people—so
fast that no art of my adversary could tear it away to make
room for the truth: therefore, I say to you and our democratic
friends—hammer without ceasing.”

A letter from Mr. Woodbury, at the same time, informed
Mr. Flam, that as the people had so contumaciously rejected
the Independent Treasury bill, by their representatives in
congress, the President was now determined to carry it at
all hazards; and consequently it was expected that no New
Light democrat would be so false to the glorious principles
of the Quodlibetarian theory as to interpose any opinion of
his own, between the will of the President and the appropriate
duty of the people. “If such should be the case,”
said the secretary, “Mr. Van Buren can have no alternative—
the individual so recreant to the eternal principles of the
New Light Democracy, must be denounced by the Globe
as an enemy to freedom, and what is worse, a traitor to his
party”

Mr. Flam reflected upon these communications with
grave attention; and having shown them to some of his
intimate friends, amongst whom I count it my highest honor
to be ranked, he announced his purpose to resign his
post in the bank. For this step he had two good reasons:
the first was the necessity of disencumbering himself of a
connection which might have impeded his usefulness—to
use his own words—in his public relations: the second
reason was, that he had borrowed so large an amount from
the bank, as to circumscribe its bounty greatly to the prejudice
of sundry of the directors who were, in consequence,
beginning to complain of his management of the institution,
and were even threatening to run an opposition against him

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in the election which was but a few months off. It was
whispered also that Nicodemus Handy had given him a
mysterious but friendly hint to resign, without explaining
his reasons. Upon these considerations his mind was made
up; and accordingly the resignation was laid before the
Board at the time indicated by Theodore Fog.

This event produced great sensation in Quodlibet; not
less from the curiosity to know why our distinguished representative
should relinquish so lucrative a post, than from
the interest felt in the measure of selecting his successor.
Fifteen of our most strenuous New Light Democrats were
candidates; and notwithstanding the speech made at the
blacksmith's shop, Theodore Fog was the first who wrote
a letter to the Board to apprise them that, in consequence
of the eager importunity of his democratic friends to confide
the Bank to his management, he found himself compelled
to forego his objections to having any concern with the
Banking system, and therefore would not feel himself at
liberty to decline the Presidency in case it should be offered
to him. He said he wished it to be distinctly understood,
that emolument was not his object: but that he was actuated
solely by his attachment to that New Light Democratic
principle which taught him on all occasions to seek preferment,
as the means of widening the sphere of his usefulness,
and to increase his worldly fortune only for the sake of the
good it enabled him to dispense to the people. On no
other terms was he willing to accept the government of the
Bank.

Some two or three days were spent in canvassing this
matter; when the choice ultimately, upon the twenty-fifth
balloting, fell upon Anthony Hardbottle, who had not been
previously thought of for the place, and was only brought
forward when all attempts to elect others had failed. The
fifteen original candidates became greatly incensed at this

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choice. Theodore Fog was furious: he said Hardbottle
could scarcely be called a democrat:—if any thing, he was
half whig—nay, he believed, whole whig:—and to elect a
whig to a great responsible post like that—a post connected
with the national fisc, allied to the money power, so intimately
related to the important concerns of the currency!—
it was not to be tolerated. The Genius of New Light Democracy
should array herself in steel, indue herself in panoply,
buckle on her armor, shake her lance against it—or
in other words, he deemed it incompatible with free institutions
to allow a whig—or, at least, a man who never
attended political meetings, and who held the whigs in
respect—to preside over such a democratic institution as
the Copperplate Bank of Quodlibet.—Theodore continued
raving in this strain until he drank nine juleps interspersed
with numberless other potations, and became so incapable
of motion as to render it necessary for Mrs. Ferret to have
him carried to bed. As he cooled, so cooled his competitors.
Indeed, in the course of a few days, Theodore Fog,
in commenting upon the pretensions of the several defeated
candidates, found so many objections to them individually
and collectively, as to bring himself into an excellent temper
upon the subject, whereby he was able to make merry with
the whole election; and thus, by degrees, he fell back into
the state of mind which he had manifested at the smith's
shop, and declared that no consideration could possibly induce
him, professing the principles he did, to accept any
post connected with a Bank. He expressed himself in
sharp and censorious terms against what, he said, he had
constantly observed—namely, that he never knew a post in a
bank to be vacant, from the President down to the porter,
including Directors and all, in regard to which he didn't find
half a dozen Loco Focos, to say nothing of New Light
Democrats, applicants to fill the vacancy: he thought it

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inconsistent with principle, now that orders had come for the
Democracy to abuse the banks, to seek or accept such
places; and he did not care who knew his sentiments upon
the subject.

Mr. Hardbottle was a strict man of business, and did not,
it is true, greatly interest himself in politics. Yet, nevertheless,
he was a decided supporter of the New Light cause,
and was always esteemed a useful member of the Borough.
One thing that made against him in the Board was, that he
had never been a very active customer to the Bank, except
so far only as keeping his commercial account there. He
was often urged to accept accommodations with a view to the
improvement of the Borough, but almost invariably refused,
from an aversion to indulging in these useful speculations.
His brother Directors, in consequence, rather regarded him
as a man who was deficient in public spirit; and they imagined
that he might be inclined to depreciate the value of
the services they had rendered the Bank by the liberal employment
they had given to its funds. Mr. Hardbottle,
therefore, might be said to have entered into the government
of the Bank under inauspicious circumstances, and
was likely not to be a very popular President. He was,
however, determined upon one thing, and that was to make
a thorough examination of the Bank for the purpose of
bringing about a resumption of specie payments at the
earliest possible moment; for some complaints had gone
abroad against the Bank of Quodlibet for not resuming
when the other banks of the country affected to be anxious
for that measure.

In consequence of this determination of the New President,
the Bank was kept in a perpetual bustle for the whole
fortnight succeeding the election. What then occurred will
be told in the next chapter.

p239-187

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