The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-20 00:00:00

AMERICAN BANNS.

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the speech of Mr. Wright, Member of the United
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a number of misstatements and omissions in his message
respecting the national debt. It had already been ad-
mitted that the balance of outstanding Treasury notes
had been correctly stated by the President as amount-
ing to no more than $4,500,000 ; but the complaint
was, represented that as the whole
debst,.. thatl‘„i her. had
to show that the President was
Webster, wrongly
wrong, had referred to what are called the " trust funds,"
and chiefly, if not entirely, to those portions which ap-
pertain to the Indians. Of these he (Mr. Webster)
had said that he was inclined to believe that portions
had been expended for the use of the Treasury, and
were now a debt on the country, and that the money
stipulated by the Indian treaties to be invested had
not been all invested, but that large sums had been ex-
pended, and were therefore a debt against the Treasury.
To answer these allegations, Mr. Wright said, he
found it necessary to consider several of these Indian
treaties by themselves, as they varied in the provisions
for the trusts constituted under them. In the first
place, he referred to the treaty with the Chickasaws,
which constituted a trust of a novel description, accord-
ing to which the United States had become the volun-
tary trustee of the Chickasaws, stipulating to sell their
lands, and, after deducting incidental expenses, to ac-
count to them for all monies remaining unexpended.
Tile principal part of the money to be so received, he
;earned at the Treasury, had been placed in charge of
th head of that department, for the purpose of invest-
ment ; small portions, belonging to orphans, and certain
of her members of the tribe, remaining in charge of the
Secretary of War. All the money in the charge of the
Treasury, above the expenses, had been invested, where
there had been time since the receipts ; ne part of it
had been expended, and therefore an addition to the
national debt was not to be sought In this quarter. This
money is the only Indian money in charge of the Trea-
sury,Tiewseithtreaties, said Mr.
aiothfsMunmirtie tribes,
attached WebsterWebster
committed
Abenrotohfertrreeafetirozwe
the rest being by the treaties to the
Wright, had stipulated that the several sums should
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be invested for the benefit of the tribes mentioned,
twoh Etch he hoafd
their classed
names. altogether,
which he believed hid not been done, Congress having
preferred to appropriate the annual interest as part of
the current expenses. He had learned, indeed, that in
many cases sales of the lands ceded by the treaties had
not been made, that in many cases the expenses of the
tre lties had not been covered, and that in none was
there sufficient money to bring a large portion of capi-
tal into the Treasury. He also showed that there was
a constitutional reason for the non-investment, which
was, that Congress had neither provided nor appro-
priated the money required, and therefore, while he ad-
mitted it was a debt, said it was not one that could be
recognized by the Secretary of the 'Treasury in present-
ing the means and liabilities. Mr. Webster bad also
expressed suspicions of other debts, but these mere sus-
picions Mr. Wright said it was impossible for him to
fathom. . . _

......
Thus it is tolerably apparent that the whole of Mr.
Webster's attempt to criminate the Executive amounts
to little more than a piece of special pleadiag, It