Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1837-01-04
SECOND LETTER
FROM MR.. BIDDLE TO THE HON. JOHN
QUINCY ADAMS.

MY DEAR DR. proceed 10 the
second subject of our conversation
the present state Of the currency
which | shall treat dispasslonately, as
an abstract question OF mere finance.
Our pecuniary condition seems to be
Il strange anomaly. When Congress
adjourned, it left the country with a.
bundant crops and high prices for them
with every branch Of industry -four
ishing-with more specie than we ever
possessed before-with all the elements
of universal prosperity. Not one of
these has undergone the slightest
change, yet after a few months Cong
ress will reassemble and find the whole
. country suffering intense pecuniary
distress. The occasion ofthis, and the
remedy for it, may we'll occupy our
thoughts.
In my judgment, the main cause of
it is the mlsmanagement OF the Reye-
nue-mismanagement in two respects:
the mode of executing the Distribution
law, and the order requiring specie for
the Public Lands.
Ist. The Distribution law.
In July, 1886, Congress declared
that the surplus in the Treasury on the
Ist ofJanuary, 1887, should be divided
amongst the States. That it might be
done as gently as possible, the pay
ments were to be made, not at once on
the LIST Of January, but quarterly
throughout the whole year 1887; and
as the aggregate sum to be distributed
is from thirty-six to forty millions, we
may assume the first payment in Janu.
airy to be about nine millions. To
prepare for this, the Treasury has had
in hand forty or fifty millions it would
receive in the course of the operation
thirty or forty millions ofrevenue more
and as there was probably money in
every State, and payments to make in
every State, the operation was so SIM
pie and easy that it ought not to have
occasioned the slightest pressure either
on public or private interests; and the
whole might have been accomplished
without any arrangement of trade and
without the movement of a single doll
lar in specie. That this not only could
be done but has actually been done,
you will find in the public documents Of
1899.
In that year, the new administration
of Mr.. Jackson, anxious to appropriate
every d~isposable dollar Of the revenue
10 the reduction of the public debt,
sought and obtained the aid ofthe Bank
of the United States. Notice was &C.
cordingly given on the 31st of March,
1929, that on the 1st of July, the debt
and interest, amounting to $S,7l5,465
81 would be paid. AT the period Of
the notice, the whole available means
of the Treasury were only six millions,
scattered throughout the United States,
and these, with the accrulng revenue
in the interval, were, at a notice of
ninety days, 10 be collected, TO pay
nearly nine millions. So closely vas
the Government pressed, that, after
paying these sums, the actual balance
in the Treasury throughout the whole
/ United States, was reduced to 1854,
365 04. The Bank however under
took the arrangement, with what sue
cess may be seen in the following part
ofthe message of Mr.. Jackson to Con.
gress, in December, 1929. "The pay
ment on o of the public debt,
made on the LIST day of July, was So,
715,465 81. II was a~pprehended that
the sudden tcithdrawal of so large a sum
from the Banks in which At waS deposit
4 ed, at a time of unusual pressure in the
money market, might cause much injury
TO the interests dependent on Bank &C.
commodations. But this eril waS whot-
ly arerted By an early anticipation Of 1t
at the Treasury, aided by The judicious
arrangement Of the officers fthe Bank
of the United STATES" The respective
shares of the Bank and the Treasury
may be -coniecturod from the Secreta-
ry's letter Of the 18th July, 1929, in
which he takes occasion to express the
"great satisfaction of the Treasury
department in the preparation for the
\ heavy payment of the public debt on
/ the lst instant-which has been Effected
By means of the prudent arrangement OF
! pour BOARD, at a time Of serere dePrcS-
GSn on all the productive employmentsot
Inc country, without causing any senSa-
bic addition 10 the pressure, or eren ~
sible effect upon the ordinary operations
4 Of the State Banks"
I If then nine millions, being almost
the last collar in the Treasury, could
i be thus distributed-two millions of 1t
to foreigners--at a time of unusual
. pressure, how happens it hat with
\ funds equal to fifty millions, and with
six months notice, nine millions cannot
now be Observation-Disclosures among
our own people-at a time of great
abundance, without hazardlng a con-
vulsion? The answer is to be found
in the different mode of conducting the
operation. This may be seen by con-