Washington County Ohio Genealogy Trails A part of the Genealogy Trails History Group

Washington County

At a meeting of the citizens of Washington county, in the State of Ohio, convened at the court-house in Marietta, March 29, 1834, to consider as to the course to be adopted in regard to the late measures of the Executive in assuming the control of the national finances, the meeting was called to order by Colonel Ichabod Nye. Whereupon, William R. Putnam, Esq. was elected Chairman, and John Delafield, Jr. and Levi H. Goddard, Esquires, Secretaries. A committee appointed to report preamble and resolutions in relation to the subject before the meeting returned, and made report of the following preamble, resolutions, and memorial to Congress:

Whereas the recent measures of the Executive Department of the Government of the United States, in respect to the Bank of the United States, and the money affairs of the country, and their effects upon its business and concerns, render an expression of public sentiment proper at this time; therefore, as the sense of the citizens here assembled,

Resolved, That the removal by the Executive of the public depositor from the Bank of the United States, was a measure not warranted by law, unwise in policy, and ruinous in its tendency to the business and prosperity of the country.

Resolved, That the character of our country, and the condition of the people, especially in the West, render credit an essential instrument to the business and prosperity of the country; and that its employment in the form of a sound bank paper circulation, based upon coin, is best calculated to sustain the industry, and develop the resources of the country.

Resolved, That the Bank of the United States, while it has essentially contributed to preserve and maintain a sound and healthy circulation of the State banks, has realized, in an eminent degree, the advantages of such a system, and has afforded the most safe, cheap, and desirable facilities for the exchanges and business of the country; and that as a means, and instrument to sustain and advance these great objects, and to save the country from impending distress and ruin, in its pecuniary affairs, the best interests of the country require that it should be continued, (at least for a limited time,) under such modifications and restrictions as Congress in its wisdom shall deem necessary and expedient.

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, the late resolutions of the Legislature of this State did not express the real sentiments and opinions of a majority of the people of this State on these subjects.

Resolved, That a memorial to Congress, expressive of the foregoing sentiments, and of the effects upon our business and concerns, of the late Executive measures, be circulated for the signatures of citizens of this county in all parts thereof; and that committees be appointed by the Chair, in the several townships, for that purpose; and also a central committee of five citizens for the superintendence of that object, and for forwarding the memorial to Congress.

The following memorial was then read, and unanimously adopted:

To the honorable the Senate and Howe of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

Respectfully represents:

That, as a part of the American people deeply interested with their fellow-citizens in the political and social condition of their common country, they beg leave thus respectfully to submit to the representatives of the people, the immediate guardians of their rights and their interests, a brief statement of present, and, as they believe, impending evils.

Your memorialists have viewed with surprise and painful apprehension the recent measures of the Executive Department of the Government, by which the control of the national finances, and the regulation of the national currency, of the whole monetary system of the country, upon which all our prosperity depends, have been unlawfully, as they think, assumed by the President, and attempted to be withdrawn from those hands—the hands of Congress—in which the constitution and the laws had placed them. A change in the administration of that branch of national affairs, the influence and the ramifications of which extend directly to all parts of the community, so momentous in its character and tendency, and so mischievous in its immediate effects, and its necessary results, calls, your memorialists think, for a decided expression of public sentiment, and, most urgently, upon the patriotism and the action of Congress for its'correction.

To Congress, your memorialists believe, belongs, of right, and according to the will of the people constitutionally expressed, the control and disposition of the national treasure. Its union, so sudden, so unexpected, and so alarming, with the Executive power, presents, in the apprehension of the undersigned, an aspect, a crisis of public affairs, pregnant with imminent peril to the rights and security of the people. To that body the undersigned citizens appeal, to guard these rights, and restore that security.

Your memorialists further respectfully represent, that, although distant from the principal seats of commerce and capital, the effects which have flown from the removal of the public depositcs from the Bank of the United States, and the hostile attitude assumed and maintained
by the Executive to that institution, have reached them, in a sudden and rapid reduction of the circulating medium, and a consequent pressure and embarrassment in money transactions and trade; an almost total derangement of the facilities for sales, remittances, and exchanges which previously existed ; in a depression of the prices of agricultural productions, the staples of the county: in a depression of enterprise, and a general distrust and loss of confidence, which have given a serious blow to private credit. And if these evils have not yet overwhelmed them with the degree of distress with which the commercial cities and more populous districts have been assailed, the occasion of this short and partial respite is found in the difference of position and population; whilst the same primary causes, certain in their operation, must visit them with the like ruinous consequences. This change in their condition has followed the recent measures of the Executive already mentioned. Prior thereto the business of this district of country was prosperous, and its money circulation healthy and adequate to the demands of that business. The reasons reassigned for the rash measure which has reversed the former prosperous condition of things, are at war with the experience of your memorialists, of the benefits derived by them from the Bank of the United States; in the soundness of its paper circulation, and its unprecedented facilities for exchange and remittance, whilst its operations in this region of the country contributed to sustain the credit, usefulness, and efficiency of the local banks. The change thus wrought, instead of benefiting these institutions, has constrained them rapidly and greatly to reducd their circulation! and curtail their accommodations to the business of the country; a business consisting, mainly, in the export and marketing of the products of the soil.

Your memorialists, therefore, can see no adequate means of relief from the evils which have thus been brought upon them, and which threaten them in future, but in a restoration of the former relations between the Government and the Bank of the United States, and the rechartering of that institution on such terms, and with such modifications as Congress in its wisdom shall deem expedient. Your memorialists, looking to the experience of the past, regard such an institution as essential to the maintenance of a sound circulation and monetary system, uniting the tried and eminent advantages of specie and bank paper, whilst they believe that a reduction of the business of the people this country to a mere coin circulation is as impracticable, and would be as little desirable, as an entire change In the social habits of the people.

If our memorialists, therefore, respectfully and earnestly pray that Congress, moved by that paramount consideration, the wellbeing and prosperity of the people, will devise such means of relief as the present alarming and oppressed condition of the country most urgently demands.

[The Chairman nominated the following gentlemen as the Central Committee. viz. Ephraim Cutler, Arius Nye, Caleb Emerson, Joseph Barker, Jr., and James M. Booth.

The township committees were then appointed by the Chair; when, On motion of Arius Nye, Esq., the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That this meeting highly approve the noble stand taken by the late Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Duane, against the measure of the Executive, of removing the public deposites from the Bank of the United States; and we would commend to all public men the just sentiment expressed by him in his reasons against that act, viz. "that he does not think that the end justifies the means, or that there is any distinction between moral and political integrity."

On motion of J. Delafield, Jr. Esq., the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, our Representative, by this vote on the party questions in the last session of the Ohio Legislature, relative to the rechartering of the United States Bank, and the removal of the deposites, misrepresented the views of a majority of the citizens of Washington county.]

On motion, the meeting adjourned.

WM. R. PUTNAM, Chaiman.

John Delafield, jr.
L. H. Goddard, Secretaries.

Stephen Allison	William Fleming	Barnabas Noland
Barnett Bailey	Paul Flors	Charles Noland, 2d
John Bailey	Daniel Gardner	Philip Noland
Martin Bailey	John Gibson	William Noland
Seth Bailey	John Giger	Francis Palmer
Henry Ball	John Giger, Jr.	John P. Palmer
Isaac Baker	John Greene	Carlton Parmer
Martin Baker	Richard Greene	William Pepper
Joseph Barker, Jr.	George Greenwood, Jr.	Isaac Place
Lewis Barnes	Benjamin Hartwell	Joseph Place
Horace Barstow	Ebenezer Hartwell	Nathaniel Place
Ebenezer Battelle	James Harvie, Jr.	Samuel Prentis
Gordon Battelle	James Harvie, Sen.	Jesse Prunty
Edward Beck	John G. Haynes	William Rea
Reuben Berkley	Sylvester Haynes	David Reece
Peter Brewer	Thomas Hays	David Reed
Ira Bosworth	Wm. Hays	Stephen Rees
William Bosworth	Colmore Hildren	George Reese
William A. Bosworth	Ira Hill, Jr.	John Reynolds
John Broughton	Isaac Hill	S. A. Richardson
John Brown	Nathaniel Hill	Zachariah Richardson
John Campbell	D. C. Hinds	Oliver Root
James Chambers	John Hinds	Elisha Rose
Robert B. Chambers	Sereno Hollister	John Rowland
William Chambers, Jr.	James Hopp	Robert Rowland
Nicholas Cisler	James Hoyt	William Rowland
Jacob Cook	Henry James	Joseph Ruggles
Job S. Cooke	Erastus Johnson	George Salor
Michael Cronin, Jr.	Moses Johnson	D. H. Seevers
Alfred Dana	Wm. Kemple	John Shepard
Stephen Dana	Charles Little	Ezekiel Slagle
William Dana	Joseph Lobdell	Samuel R. Smith
Ephraim Davis	Lewis Lobdell	Stephen Smith
Isaac Delong	M. H. Luckey	Peter Snyder, Jr.
Abner Devol	Joseph Martin	John Sportes
Allen Devol, Jr.	Adolphus Mason	Edward Thersher
Isaac Devol	Elijah Mason	Robert War
Richmond Devol	Jonas Mason	David Ward
R. H. Dodge	William C. Mason	Claudius C. Wells
Daniel H. Dye	Philip Mates	David Wells
John G. W. Dye	Joseph Maxwell	Evander West
Samuel Dye, 2d	Alfred Mayhew	John West
Thomas Dye	John McKibben	Lucius West
William Edgell	John McMullen	Joseph Wilson
Asa Ellis	Clark Middleswort	Noah L. Wilson
Gideon Ellis	Jacob Middleswort	Ephraim Wire
John Ellis	James N. Morris	George Wire
Joseph Ellis	David Murdock	Rodum Wire
Daniel F. Fairchild	John Nesbit	Oliver Woodward, Jr.
Andrew Farley	James Nichols	Oliver Woodward, 2d
John Flaherty	Alexander Noland	Charles Wright

Source: House of Representatives, 23d Congress, 1st Session, Doc. No. 487 , Transcribed by C. Anthony