US Presidency
1845

The first Congress under the Constitution, by the act of the 2d of September, 1789, to establish the Treasury Department, provided for the appointment of a Treasurer, and made it his duty to receive and keep the moneys of the United States and at all times to submit to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller, or either of them, the inspection of the moneys in his hands. That banks, national or State, could not have been intended to be used as a substitute for the Treasury spoken of in the Constitution as keepers of the public money is manifest from the fact that at that time there was no national bank, and but three or four State banks, of limited Capital, existed in the country. Their employment as depositories was at first resorted to a limited extent, but with no avowed intention of continuing them permanently in place of the Treasury of the Constitution. When they were afterwards from time to time employed, it was from motives of supposed convenience.