and yet, if he should be Chief Justice thirty years longer, he will
construe
our liberties away from us"
[Bruce,Randolph, 11,194-195].
[Bruce,Randolph, 11,194-195].
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
Said MVB, "The Senate at this
trol was lost. Said Del Mar: "In 1268, owing to the severity of the taxes . . . particularly the corn duties, a bread riot occurred in Venice, and though the republic was in great financial distress, the obnoxious imposts
Souvenirs, 61; 34:88].
219. "Pige? moi . . . carthaginois:
223. "on above ] .
borrowed
capital . . .
: [cf. 63
F, "Just look at the character, said old Gustav, who will paint you a Carthaginian easy chair. " "Old Gustav" is Flaubert, author of Sal-
224. Judge Marshall: [37:67].
ammbb, a roman de Carthage.
220. Henry J. had Coburn: Said Coburn: "it was my unique privilege in 1906? 1907 to provide the fron. tispieces for each of the twenty-four volumes of the collected edition of Henry James' works" [Alvin Langdon Co? burn: Photographer, 52].
221. I need add nothing . . . : Said MVB: "I entered the Senate . . . at the commence- ment of Mr. Monroe's second Presidential Term [1821]. John Gaillard, of South Caro? lina, was then, as he had been for many years, President pro tern of that body. I need add nothing to the eloquent description given of his character by Col. Benton . . . except the expression of my full concur- rence in what has been so well said" [MVB, Auto,115].
. . . : [cf. 173
225. Agamemnon: By killing a stag sacred to Diana and allowing the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia so that the Greeks, wind? bound at Aulis, might be freed to sail to Troy, Agamemnon himself became a "father of war. "
226. "Leave the Duke: [50:28].
227. quest'oggi: I, "this very day" [cf. 205 above]. M de R. cites these several lines about forging the thalers and says that while the village committee was questioning Pound on his return to Gais [cf. 192? 194 above], the "single dangling Thaler on the watch? chain [of the brother? in? law] shifted interest from paper money and stamp-scrip to the Thalers from Maria Theresa" [Discretions,
192].
231. Gold . . . Pontifex: Says Del Mar: "The jealous monopoly of gold coinage by the sovereign-pontiff ascends to the Achime- nides of Persia, that is to say, to Cyrus and Darius; in fact, it ascends to the Bramins of India. The Greek and Roman Republics broke it down; Caesar set it up again" [HMS,
70; cf. 79 above].
232. Bezants . . . : Bezants were
coins issued by the BasjJeus of the Eastern Empire: gold was then under the pontifex.
233. Dandolo: Enrico D. , ca. 1108? 1205, became doge of Venice in 1192. In the 4th crusade he diverted the attacking forces to Zara and then, in 1203, to Constantinople ("Stamboul"). Though old and blind, he commanded the victorious fleet. Thereafter, the coinage, which had been stable, passed into the hands of banks and merchants.
234. arab uneasiness: Between the basileus and the rulers of the Arab states bordering the Eastern Empire open conflict sometimes broke out over the coinage [97:6].
235. The forgery: [cf. 204 above].
236. Valla: Lorenzo V. , ca. 1407? /457, Ital? ian humanist and Greek scholar. His claim to fame rests on three things: (1) the exposure of the forgery; (2) the allegation that he was tortured by the Inquisition for the exposure,
222. "Good? bye
above] . A very complicated senatorial strug- gle between Randolph and both his friends and opponents developed because of the in- creasing vituperation in his speeches. This lack of temper would eventually lead to the Clay duel. Randolph himself expected not to be re? elected to the Senate. While the Senate was preparing to pass rules to curb him, he was preparing to go to England to get away from it all. At one moment of great drama,
Tazewell
moment presented a striking
tableau . . .
every Senator present
sides in the fray-when
deliberately from his place . . . and passed in front of the Chair to the door, exclaiming as he walked along, 'I will have no more of this! I am off for England! Good bye, Taze? well! Good bye Van Buren! They are all against me! . . . in Virginia tool'-and still uttering these words the doors of the Senate closed behind him" [MVB,Auto, 206? 210].
228. "Benton . . . (Randolph):
duel [88/577], R wrote to a friend: "I can- not write. I tried yesterday to answer your letter, but I could not do it. My pen choked. . . . I am all but friendless. . . . Ben? ton begins to understand and to love me. Nothing has stood in his way" [Bruce, Ran- dolph, 524? 525].
229. In Venice . . . Danzig: [cf. 203 above]. The stability of these two corporate states, Venice and the Hanseatic League, depended on their power to issue and control the mon- ey supply. With the rise of banks, that con?
. . . to take
inclining
. . . Randolph moved
After the
were repealed"
[Money and
Civili?
zation,66].
. . .
230. Alex said
ander also undertook to pay all debts in? curred by his soldiers, and to find out how many debtors there were, he invlted all who were in debt to enter their names and the amounts they owed in a register. " The sol- diers were afraid and most didn't, so Alex- ander changed the order. "He cancelled re- gistration and ordered that all debts . . . were to be paid without . . . their names in writ- ing" [Genaa/ship, 136? 137].
paid: Says Fuller:
"Alex?
Byzantine
? 536
89/602-603
89/603
537
which i$ untrue-he wasn't even imprisoned; and (3) his treatise De Voluptate-proving that he was given to paganism-which at- tacked chastity as an ideal [Coleman, Dona- tion, passim].
237. 12 to one, Roma: Says Del Mar: "From the accession of Julius to the fall of Constantinople, the ratio of value between gold and silver within the Roman empire, whether pagan or Christian, was always 1 to 12; whereas, during the same interval, it was 6 1/2 in India, as well as in the Arabian empires" [HMS, 79].
238. And the Portagoose: Said Pound: "Portagoose as SOON as got into Goa/ started uprooting spice trees/400 year ramp [age]" [letter to Denis Goacher, 10 Aug. 1954; unpublished letter to Simon Fraser University Special Collections, cat. no. 552/ 84; Watts, 256]. Afonso de Albuquerque and his Portuguese adventurers seized Goa and other territories on the west coast of India in 1510. Del Mar describes him de- basing the coinage of Goa to obtain gold. "His professed object was to relieve a local dearth of coins . . . his real one to buy the gold which he might fail to plunder, and sell it (in Portugal) at cent per cent profit"
[HMS, 388; 104:84]. 239. Orage: [46: 17;
242. "50 mocking birds . . . : It was Dr. James Alexander of "Randolph's District" who wrote after Randolph's death: "The spring no longer coquets but embraces with Oriental voluptuousness . . . . Before break- fast, I counted fourteen species of birds known to me, and two unknown. There are about 50 mocking birds in and about this lawn, and 40 robins were counted on the grass at once" [Bruce, Randolph, II, 110-
Ill].
243. and
chief justice of the Supreme Court, had to be operated on by a surgeon, who saved his life. Randolph in a speech afterwards said how glad he was that the surgeon "has re- stored the Chief Justice to his health, to his
friends, to his country and to his seat on the bench of the supreme court where God knows he ought never have been put. He is a great man and a good man . . .
and yet, if he should be Chief Justice thirty years longer, he will construe our liberties away from us"
[Bruce,Randolph, 11,194-195].
244. Mazzini: Giuseppe M. , 1805-1872, Ital- ian nationalist and revolutionary. Said Pound: "As a Cavourian I long neglected the writings of Mazzini. " He then quotes approv- ingly from Mazzini's Duties o f Man and finds there constructive ideas consistent with the basic concepts of Social Credit: "The distri- bution of the credit . . . should not be under- taken by the Government, nor by a National Central Bank; but, with a vigilant eye on the National Power, by local Banks administered by elective Local Councils" [Pound's italics; SP ,312].
245. Doveri: I, "duties. " Part of title of Mazzini's book.
246. K"Tlo, arp,,'Ic,,": H, "against slaughter. " Mazzini did not agree with Cavour's plan to get foreign power, France in particular, in- volved in fighting for Italian unification. He believed in the revolution, but his program was political, deeply social, religious, and moral. He was against needless slaughter.
247. N'Y oleanz . . . 16: Source unknown,
but the lines seem to pose a moral question relating to the political struggles over the tariff: one of the issues was that the concen- tration of sugar in the syrup of New Orleans was only half that in the syrup from the West Indies.
248. Catron . . . : [cf. 48 above].
249. "Shd / have shot Clay: Years after his retirement from politics, Jackson talked about his life to some of his friends, who later reported the conversation to one of the president's biographers: "Jackson talked, and the other listened. He told them of his two principal regrets-that he had never had an opportunity to shoot Clay or to hang Calhoun" [Bowers, Party Battles, 480].
250. Antoninus: [78:56].
251. semina motuum: [90:24]. L, "seeds of movement. "
252. Ideogram: Chi [M411], "changes, mo- tions; the origin of, the moving power of-as of the universe" This character occurs in a passage from the Ta Hsio which Pound trans- lated thus: "one humane family can human- ize a whole state; one courteous family can lift a whole state into courtesy; one grasping and perverse man can drive a nation to chaos. Such are the seeds of movement [semina rnotuum, the inner impulses of the tree]. That is what we mean by: one word will ruin the business, one man can bring the state to an orderly course" [80/500; CON, 59-60].
253. the old hawk: A friend of Jackson wrote to MVB in 1859 telling him about a siege Nicholas Biddle organized against Jack- son during the war of the bank in the mid- 1830s: "I spent the month of August . . . with the President at the Rip Raps . . . . Biddle had planned a most insidious mode of
reaching him in this isolated spot. . . . He had organized a sort of siege . . . in the shape of letters entreating a surrender of the design of removing the Deposits [37:76]. In a word no man was ever so overwhelmed with such a deluge" [MVB,Auto, 607].
254. Mr Biddle . . . baby: Of the bank's in- solvency of 1841, THB says: "The losses to the stockholders were deplorable, and in many instances attended with circumstances which aggravated the loss. Many were wid- ows and children, their all invested where it was believed to be safe" [TYV, II, 369].
255. mr cummings: e. e. C. , 1849-1962, American poet whose work Pound admired.
256. "Yes, Mr Van Buren . . . : MVB tells of visiting Jackson after his (MVB's) return from England and finding him "stretched on a sick-bed . . . but as always a hero in spirit:' Then he says: "Holding my hand in one of his own and passing the other thro' his long white locks he said . . . 'the bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I will kill it! '" [MVB,Auto, 625].
257. Mr Taney's statement: [37:76]. Mr. Taney said in effect that the bank and its directors were able to use the money of depositors and the money of the government and public for their private purposes without public accountability of any kind. Said MVB: "Mr. Taney's statement was never re- futed either by the bank or by its supporters in Congress, but, on the contrary, not only was a challenge . . . to go into the investiga- tion of its truth declined but the investiga-
tion itself was . . . refused thro' the action of the friends of the bank" [ibid. , 644]. MVB goes on to show how the bank used public funds to publish the bank's praises "avow- edly for electioneering purposes. " The gov- ernment proposed an accounting should be made: "This proposition . . . was promptly voted down. . . . This took place in August
1833" [ibid. , 648-649].
258. And as to expunging? . . . : The Senate passed a resolution of censure against Jack- son, implying ciminality. Jackson responded by a letter of protest to be read before the Senate, which the Senate refused to hear. Great excitement ensued, which resulted in a motion to receive the protest. Having had about enough, THB moved that "The Ex- punging Resolution," ordering the original
"The New from the people into inner rooms inhabited
80:322].
Age traced the recession of power, away
by inner cliques" [IMP, xiv]. 240. Uncle George . . . Senate:
78/481; 80/509].
[74/433;
241. "offensive, defensive": Said MVB: "With Nations who consider that their re- spective positions make it for their interest to bind themselves to mutual support . . . a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, is the usual mode by which that object is ac- complished. But experience has greatly weakened the confident reliance of mankind on such safeguards. When the crisis arrrives it has been found that Nations are disposed to be governed by their apparent interests at the moment" [MVB,Auto, 485].
"construe . . . : John
Marshall,
? 538
89/603-604
89/604
539
censure resolution be "expunged from the journals of the Senate" be adopted. The original resolution was adopted March 28, 1834. Benton offered his motion at each session of the Senate until on January 14
1837, it was finally passed at night in a~ atmosphere of great drama: "As the dark~ ness of approaching night came on, and the great chandelier was lit up, splendidly illumi? nating the chamber, then crowded with the members of the House, and the lobbies and galleries filled to their utmost capacity by visitors and spectators, the scene became grand and impressive. " Clay, Calhoun, and Webster indulged in the oratorical fireworks few but they could muster, but to no avail: "Midnight was now approaching. . . Mr. Webster concluded. No one rose. There was a pause, a dead silence, and an intense feel- ing. " The question was called and passed. One part of the gallery was filled with henchmen of the bank, "sullen and menac- ing in their looks," Drama became danger, and firearms were brought in. "The presiding officer . . . gave the order to clear the gal- lery. " Benton opposed the order, saying, "I hope the galleries will not be cleared, as many innocent persons will be excluded. . . . Let the ruffians who have made the distur- bance alone be punished . . . seize the bank ruffians. " Benton's demand was acted upon: "The ringleader was seized, and brought to the bar. This sudden example intimidated the rest; and the expunging process was per- formed in quiet. " And so ended one chapter in the wars of the bank [TYV, I, 528-550,
717-731).
259. Securing . . . in 'elect: Daniel Webster in 1833, looking forward to becoming presi- dent in the next election, decided that form- ing an alliance with Jackson would be his best ploy. He thought they'd make a good team. Webster seemed to think he was "ad- mirably qualified for a great adviser. " Jack- son's "heart to execute" would be abetted by "the majesty of his [Webster's) intellect" [MVB, Auto, 687-690). Since there is no mention of Dante in the sources, nor evi- dence that either Webster or Jackson had
read him, and since part of Webster's ploy was to assist Jackson in the next election "Dante" is prob. a typo for "Dan'el. " '
. . .
due in Great Britain. " Benton was against a proposal for the federal government to as- sume the debt: "We have had one assump- tion in our country . . . [and that) was at- tended by such evils as should deter posteri- ty from imitating the example" [TYV, II, 171? 175). Benton opposed the "Assumption of the State Debts" and the measure did n o t pass.
. . .
Thomas Benton fired twice at the falling form of Jackson and Jesse lunged forward to shoot again . . . . Jackson's wounds soaked two mattresses with blood. . . . He was near- ly dead-his left shoulder shattered by a slug, and a ball embedded against the upper bone of the arm" [James, Jackson, 153). Later on, when Benton was battling for Jackson as President, another "expunging" took place: "the President had to submit to a surgical operation for the extraction of the bullet which he had carried in his left arm ever since the time of the Benton affray, in Nash- ville, twenty years before . . . . The doctor made a bold incision into the flesh, gave the arm a squeeze, and out jumped the ball upon the floor. " Parton says, "My informant does not state whether the General restored the ball to its rightful owner [Jesse Benton) or his representative [THB)" [Parton, Life of
Andrew Jackson, III, 415-416).
260. "No
1891-1970, a prolific writer who lived in England 1910? 1912. The quote about Russia is attributed in Orientamenti to a conversa- tion with "the novelist Knitl. " Pound wrote in Meridiana di Roma [7 June 1942): "cer- tainly the great civilizations are monuments and splendid and leave monuments because they have marble" [BK).
trol was lost. Said Del Mar: "In 1268, owing to the severity of the taxes . . . particularly the corn duties, a bread riot occurred in Venice, and though the republic was in great financial distress, the obnoxious imposts
Souvenirs, 61; 34:88].
219. "Pige? moi . . . carthaginois:
223. "on above ] .
borrowed
capital . . .
: [cf. 63
F, "Just look at the character, said old Gustav, who will paint you a Carthaginian easy chair. " "Old Gustav" is Flaubert, author of Sal-
224. Judge Marshall: [37:67].
ammbb, a roman de Carthage.
220. Henry J. had Coburn: Said Coburn: "it was my unique privilege in 1906? 1907 to provide the fron. tispieces for each of the twenty-four volumes of the collected edition of Henry James' works" [Alvin Langdon Co? burn: Photographer, 52].
221. I need add nothing . . . : Said MVB: "I entered the Senate . . . at the commence- ment of Mr. Monroe's second Presidential Term [1821]. John Gaillard, of South Caro? lina, was then, as he had been for many years, President pro tern of that body. I need add nothing to the eloquent description given of his character by Col. Benton . . . except the expression of my full concur- rence in what has been so well said" [MVB, Auto,115].
. . . : [cf. 173
225. Agamemnon: By killing a stag sacred to Diana and allowing the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia so that the Greeks, wind? bound at Aulis, might be freed to sail to Troy, Agamemnon himself became a "father of war. "
226. "Leave the Duke: [50:28].
227. quest'oggi: I, "this very day" [cf. 205 above]. M de R. cites these several lines about forging the thalers and says that while the village committee was questioning Pound on his return to Gais [cf. 192? 194 above], the "single dangling Thaler on the watch? chain [of the brother? in? law] shifted interest from paper money and stamp-scrip to the Thalers from Maria Theresa" [Discretions,
192].
231. Gold . . . Pontifex: Says Del Mar: "The jealous monopoly of gold coinage by the sovereign-pontiff ascends to the Achime- nides of Persia, that is to say, to Cyrus and Darius; in fact, it ascends to the Bramins of India. The Greek and Roman Republics broke it down; Caesar set it up again" [HMS,
70; cf. 79 above].
232. Bezants . . . : Bezants were
coins issued by the BasjJeus of the Eastern Empire: gold was then under the pontifex.
233. Dandolo: Enrico D. , ca. 1108? 1205, became doge of Venice in 1192. In the 4th crusade he diverted the attacking forces to Zara and then, in 1203, to Constantinople ("Stamboul"). Though old and blind, he commanded the victorious fleet. Thereafter, the coinage, which had been stable, passed into the hands of banks and merchants.
234. arab uneasiness: Between the basileus and the rulers of the Arab states bordering the Eastern Empire open conflict sometimes broke out over the coinage [97:6].
235. The forgery: [cf. 204 above].
236. Valla: Lorenzo V. , ca. 1407? /457, Ital? ian humanist and Greek scholar. His claim to fame rests on three things: (1) the exposure of the forgery; (2) the allegation that he was tortured by the Inquisition for the exposure,
222. "Good? bye
above] . A very complicated senatorial strug- gle between Randolph and both his friends and opponents developed because of the in- creasing vituperation in his speeches. This lack of temper would eventually lead to the Clay duel. Randolph himself expected not to be re? elected to the Senate. While the Senate was preparing to pass rules to curb him, he was preparing to go to England to get away from it all. At one moment of great drama,
Tazewell
moment presented a striking
tableau . . .
every Senator present
sides in the fray-when
deliberately from his place . . . and passed in front of the Chair to the door, exclaiming as he walked along, 'I will have no more of this! I am off for England! Good bye, Taze? well! Good bye Van Buren! They are all against me! . . . in Virginia tool'-and still uttering these words the doors of the Senate closed behind him" [MVB,Auto, 206? 210].
228. "Benton . . . (Randolph):
duel [88/577], R wrote to a friend: "I can- not write. I tried yesterday to answer your letter, but I could not do it. My pen choked. . . . I am all but friendless. . . . Ben? ton begins to understand and to love me. Nothing has stood in his way" [Bruce, Ran- dolph, 524? 525].
229. In Venice . . . Danzig: [cf. 203 above]. The stability of these two corporate states, Venice and the Hanseatic League, depended on their power to issue and control the mon- ey supply. With the rise of banks, that con?
. . . to take
inclining
. . . Randolph moved
After the
were repealed"
[Money and
Civili?
zation,66].
. . .
230. Alex said
ander also undertook to pay all debts in? curred by his soldiers, and to find out how many debtors there were, he invlted all who were in debt to enter their names and the amounts they owed in a register. " The sol- diers were afraid and most didn't, so Alex- ander changed the order. "He cancelled re- gistration and ordered that all debts . . . were to be paid without . . . their names in writ- ing" [Genaa/ship, 136? 137].
paid: Says Fuller:
"Alex?
Byzantine
? 536
89/602-603
89/603
537
which i$ untrue-he wasn't even imprisoned; and (3) his treatise De Voluptate-proving that he was given to paganism-which at- tacked chastity as an ideal [Coleman, Dona- tion, passim].
237. 12 to one, Roma: Says Del Mar: "From the accession of Julius to the fall of Constantinople, the ratio of value between gold and silver within the Roman empire, whether pagan or Christian, was always 1 to 12; whereas, during the same interval, it was 6 1/2 in India, as well as in the Arabian empires" [HMS, 79].
238. And the Portagoose: Said Pound: "Portagoose as SOON as got into Goa/ started uprooting spice trees/400 year ramp [age]" [letter to Denis Goacher, 10 Aug. 1954; unpublished letter to Simon Fraser University Special Collections, cat. no. 552/ 84; Watts, 256]. Afonso de Albuquerque and his Portuguese adventurers seized Goa and other territories on the west coast of India in 1510. Del Mar describes him de- basing the coinage of Goa to obtain gold. "His professed object was to relieve a local dearth of coins . . . his real one to buy the gold which he might fail to plunder, and sell it (in Portugal) at cent per cent profit"
[HMS, 388; 104:84]. 239. Orage: [46: 17;
242. "50 mocking birds . . . : It was Dr. James Alexander of "Randolph's District" who wrote after Randolph's death: "The spring no longer coquets but embraces with Oriental voluptuousness . . . . Before break- fast, I counted fourteen species of birds known to me, and two unknown. There are about 50 mocking birds in and about this lawn, and 40 robins were counted on the grass at once" [Bruce, Randolph, II, 110-
Ill].
243. and
chief justice of the Supreme Court, had to be operated on by a surgeon, who saved his life. Randolph in a speech afterwards said how glad he was that the surgeon "has re- stored the Chief Justice to his health, to his
friends, to his country and to his seat on the bench of the supreme court where God knows he ought never have been put. He is a great man and a good man . . .
and yet, if he should be Chief Justice thirty years longer, he will construe our liberties away from us"
[Bruce,Randolph, 11,194-195].
244. Mazzini: Giuseppe M. , 1805-1872, Ital- ian nationalist and revolutionary. Said Pound: "As a Cavourian I long neglected the writings of Mazzini. " He then quotes approv- ingly from Mazzini's Duties o f Man and finds there constructive ideas consistent with the basic concepts of Social Credit: "The distri- bution of the credit . . . should not be under- taken by the Government, nor by a National Central Bank; but, with a vigilant eye on the National Power, by local Banks administered by elective Local Councils" [Pound's italics; SP ,312].
245. Doveri: I, "duties. " Part of title of Mazzini's book.
246. K"Tlo, arp,,'Ic,,": H, "against slaughter. " Mazzini did not agree with Cavour's plan to get foreign power, France in particular, in- volved in fighting for Italian unification. He believed in the revolution, but his program was political, deeply social, religious, and moral. He was against needless slaughter.
247. N'Y oleanz . . . 16: Source unknown,
but the lines seem to pose a moral question relating to the political struggles over the tariff: one of the issues was that the concen- tration of sugar in the syrup of New Orleans was only half that in the syrup from the West Indies.
248. Catron . . . : [cf. 48 above].
249. "Shd / have shot Clay: Years after his retirement from politics, Jackson talked about his life to some of his friends, who later reported the conversation to one of the president's biographers: "Jackson talked, and the other listened. He told them of his two principal regrets-that he had never had an opportunity to shoot Clay or to hang Calhoun" [Bowers, Party Battles, 480].
250. Antoninus: [78:56].
251. semina motuum: [90:24]. L, "seeds of movement. "
252. Ideogram: Chi [M411], "changes, mo- tions; the origin of, the moving power of-as of the universe" This character occurs in a passage from the Ta Hsio which Pound trans- lated thus: "one humane family can human- ize a whole state; one courteous family can lift a whole state into courtesy; one grasping and perverse man can drive a nation to chaos. Such are the seeds of movement [semina rnotuum, the inner impulses of the tree]. That is what we mean by: one word will ruin the business, one man can bring the state to an orderly course" [80/500; CON, 59-60].
253. the old hawk: A friend of Jackson wrote to MVB in 1859 telling him about a siege Nicholas Biddle organized against Jack- son during the war of the bank in the mid- 1830s: "I spent the month of August . . . with the President at the Rip Raps . . . . Biddle had planned a most insidious mode of
reaching him in this isolated spot. . . . He had organized a sort of siege . . . in the shape of letters entreating a surrender of the design of removing the Deposits [37:76]. In a word no man was ever so overwhelmed with such a deluge" [MVB,Auto, 607].
254. Mr Biddle . . . baby: Of the bank's in- solvency of 1841, THB says: "The losses to the stockholders were deplorable, and in many instances attended with circumstances which aggravated the loss. Many were wid- ows and children, their all invested where it was believed to be safe" [TYV, II, 369].
255. mr cummings: e. e. C. , 1849-1962, American poet whose work Pound admired.
256. "Yes, Mr Van Buren . . . : MVB tells of visiting Jackson after his (MVB's) return from England and finding him "stretched on a sick-bed . . . but as always a hero in spirit:' Then he says: "Holding my hand in one of his own and passing the other thro' his long white locks he said . . . 'the bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I will kill it! '" [MVB,Auto, 625].
257. Mr Taney's statement: [37:76]. Mr. Taney said in effect that the bank and its directors were able to use the money of depositors and the money of the government and public for their private purposes without public accountability of any kind. Said MVB: "Mr. Taney's statement was never re- futed either by the bank or by its supporters in Congress, but, on the contrary, not only was a challenge . . . to go into the investiga- tion of its truth declined but the investiga-
tion itself was . . . refused thro' the action of the friends of the bank" [ibid. , 644]. MVB goes on to show how the bank used public funds to publish the bank's praises "avow- edly for electioneering purposes. " The gov- ernment proposed an accounting should be made: "This proposition . . . was promptly voted down. . . . This took place in August
1833" [ibid. , 648-649].
258. And as to expunging? . . . : The Senate passed a resolution of censure against Jack- son, implying ciminality. Jackson responded by a letter of protest to be read before the Senate, which the Senate refused to hear. Great excitement ensued, which resulted in a motion to receive the protest. Having had about enough, THB moved that "The Ex- punging Resolution," ordering the original
"The New from the people into inner rooms inhabited
80:322].
Age traced the recession of power, away
by inner cliques" [IMP, xiv]. 240. Uncle George . . . Senate:
78/481; 80/509].
[74/433;
241. "offensive, defensive": Said MVB: "With Nations who consider that their re- spective positions make it for their interest to bind themselves to mutual support . . . a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, is the usual mode by which that object is ac- complished. But experience has greatly weakened the confident reliance of mankind on such safeguards. When the crisis arrrives it has been found that Nations are disposed to be governed by their apparent interests at the moment" [MVB,Auto, 485].
"construe . . . : John
Marshall,
? 538
89/603-604
89/604
539
censure resolution be "expunged from the journals of the Senate" be adopted. The original resolution was adopted March 28, 1834. Benton offered his motion at each session of the Senate until on January 14
1837, it was finally passed at night in a~ atmosphere of great drama: "As the dark~ ness of approaching night came on, and the great chandelier was lit up, splendidly illumi? nating the chamber, then crowded with the members of the House, and the lobbies and galleries filled to their utmost capacity by visitors and spectators, the scene became grand and impressive. " Clay, Calhoun, and Webster indulged in the oratorical fireworks few but they could muster, but to no avail: "Midnight was now approaching. . . Mr. Webster concluded. No one rose. There was a pause, a dead silence, and an intense feel- ing. " The question was called and passed. One part of the gallery was filled with henchmen of the bank, "sullen and menac- ing in their looks," Drama became danger, and firearms were brought in. "The presiding officer . . . gave the order to clear the gal- lery. " Benton opposed the order, saying, "I hope the galleries will not be cleared, as many innocent persons will be excluded. . . . Let the ruffians who have made the distur- bance alone be punished . . . seize the bank ruffians. " Benton's demand was acted upon: "The ringleader was seized, and brought to the bar. This sudden example intimidated the rest; and the expunging process was per- formed in quiet. " And so ended one chapter in the wars of the bank [TYV, I, 528-550,
717-731).
259. Securing . . . in 'elect: Daniel Webster in 1833, looking forward to becoming presi- dent in the next election, decided that form- ing an alliance with Jackson would be his best ploy. He thought they'd make a good team. Webster seemed to think he was "ad- mirably qualified for a great adviser. " Jack- son's "heart to execute" would be abetted by "the majesty of his [Webster's) intellect" [MVB, Auto, 687-690). Since there is no mention of Dante in the sources, nor evi- dence that either Webster or Jackson had
read him, and since part of Webster's ploy was to assist Jackson in the next election "Dante" is prob. a typo for "Dan'el. " '
. . .
due in Great Britain. " Benton was against a proposal for the federal government to as- sume the debt: "We have had one assump- tion in our country . . . [and that) was at- tended by such evils as should deter posteri- ty from imitating the example" [TYV, II, 171? 175). Benton opposed the "Assumption of the State Debts" and the measure did n o t pass.
. . .
Thomas Benton fired twice at the falling form of Jackson and Jesse lunged forward to shoot again . . . . Jackson's wounds soaked two mattresses with blood. . . . He was near- ly dead-his left shoulder shattered by a slug, and a ball embedded against the upper bone of the arm" [James, Jackson, 153). Later on, when Benton was battling for Jackson as President, another "expunging" took place: "the President had to submit to a surgical operation for the extraction of the bullet which he had carried in his left arm ever since the time of the Benton affray, in Nash- ville, twenty years before . . . . The doctor made a bold incision into the flesh, gave the arm a squeeze, and out jumped the ball upon the floor. " Parton says, "My informant does not state whether the General restored the ball to its rightful owner [Jesse Benton) or his representative [THB)" [Parton, Life of
Andrew Jackson, III, 415-416).
260. "No
1891-1970, a prolific writer who lived in England 1910? 1912. The quote about Russia is attributed in Orientamenti to a conversa- tion with "the novelist Knitl. " Pound wrote in Meridiana di Roma [7 June 1942): "cer- tainly the great civilizations are monuments and splendid and leave monuments because they have marble" [BK).
