The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1837-10-03
From the Charleston Mercury.
NO. TX
THE sUB-TREAsURY SCHEME.

We have read with entire satisfaction, the Mes
sage of the President, with the exception of so
much as relates to the receiving and keeping of the
public revenue and this we have perused with equal
regret 1t proposes an experiment on the funda-
mental principles of our currency and moneta-
ry concerns We do not hesitate to predict, that if
adopted, it will be productive of much immediate
evil and that the country having suffered that evil
it will be abolished before the existing Presidential
term shall expire. We begin TO yield to the opinion
in spite of our habtual charity that the late ad-
mnistration was guilty of the folly and medated
the mischief of intending to establish sole specie
circulation and that this part of the Message is the
tail of the boding meteor. We have too good an
opinion of the understanding Of the President, to
believe that he could have originated plan, which
shows so much ignorance of the commercial charac-
ter of modern times, and of our own particular
country, as well as such want of reflection on the
character and extent of the measure. proposed. We
hoped better things of the Judgment and intelligence
of the chief magistrate which we know to be of a
high order We fear this is 'eaven of our times,
but hope it has not ''leavened the whole lump"
The first objection to this part of the Message is,
that il calls for the adoption of fundamental regu
laion, on vastly important subject, at an extra
session of Congress which allows little time for that
body to deliberate, and none for the public mind TO
pass upon it. We think it is Mr.. Burke who says
that every innovation requires to be justified before
it be adopted. The proposed scheme is a great
fundamental innovation and requires this previous
justification. 1t is said, not by the President but by
other advocates of the measure, that ii is not
novelty, and that we have before us the examples of
other nations, and particularly of Great Britain and
France. We assert that we have no parallel ex-
ample in the history of the world, and particularly
that Great Britain and France furnish none such
There is no logic worse, more sophistcal and less
consequential, than that which compares dSsinilar
things, and thence draws its conclusions We are
great free, sef-governed people, in our infancy,
with few established habits, covering sparsely a
great continent, in some of whose lakes the Island
of Great Britain might almost float: and we are
indpDpndpnt ips
A thousand other distinctions might be pointed
out, but those here stated, in two three lines,
forbid us to be parallel with any other nation, ex-
cept in few particulars, which always ought to be
sustained by specific proof What may be Tracti-
cable and proper in a country of a few hundred
miles diameter, may be by no means in one of
as many thousands. What may work well under
a simple monarchy, it is more than probable, will
not be at all suited to government exceedingly
complex as that of our Union. What may be wise
when it is the result of slow growth, keeping
pace WITH and forming, or formed by the character
of the people, their early pursuits, their gradual
changes, and their ultimate maturity, may be found
to produce the worst of evils, among a people
who are in state of formation, and with few or
fixed habits. But the facts, independent of their
want of parallelism, do not exist in the principal
exemplars which are held up to us for imta-
ton. II is not fact, for example, that England
either collects or keeps her revenue in the manner
proposed by the Message. The whole revenue of
England is collected in the notes of the Bank of
England, and deposited in that Bank, without any
separation from the mass of its funds Nothing is
deposited in the Exchequer chest but a piece of
paper, acknowledging deposite, in other words,
debt for which the Bank is liable to the govern
ment or its fnctionaries This practice, in all its
essential particulars, accords precisely with the
past practice of our government and has not
single feature of the measure proposed by the
Message. But it in all particulars alike, there
is this all-imporiant difference there is but one
Exchequer chest, but centre of receipts and
disbursements in the whole realm of England
This in itself, is difference destructive TO all pa
rallelsm II it should be imagined that the result
would be the establishment of like centre, of equal
convenience, we should say, God forbid! II would
be practical surrender, as regards our monetary
concerns and its consequences of every thing else
essential-of the independence and sovereignty Of
the States. Are We prepared to say that New York
or Philadelphia, shall become commercially, politi-
cally, and socially, the London of the United Siaes7
We would almost readily agree that the Pres-
dent should become the monarch Of them. That
the measure will have strong consolidating ten
dency Is an objection 10 il. There is by far too
great tendency to this centrasm, in the actual and
inevitable operations of commerce, and the dis
burscments OF government, and we ought not TO in
crease that tendency. , .a
Under the British system, the revenue is RENTED
from remote points TO tho central point, by operations
ofcommerclal exchange and bank drafts. BY the
sure OF tho message both these excluded Now OF
the little revenue collected south and west Of Baltimore,
IN ordinary times not half probably expended at
these points, though they pay immensely This is
grievance great enough but is il to be aggravated by
this scheme which requires that the balance shall be re-
United, not by the operation Of the gentle OF re-
ciprocal commerce, but by the violence Of direct ship
mcnt of Specie TO the points ofexpcnditurc lh,s WIN
be done, too, at the expense Of transportation, though
exchange might be purchased under par and ne same
expense must be incurred in sending II back WHITTIER IT.
or an equivalent must 90, u 1t III inc hrst instance oe
l. transported in violation Of the state OF exchanges
1t win habusy produce great occasional embarrass-
mens and arrangements in the currency Occasional