Western courier. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1837-1838, 1837-09-14

1t is, however, a mistaken impression,
that any large amount of specie is requir-
ed for public payments. or the seventy
| o. eighty millions now estimated 10 be in
the country, ten millions would be sufIi
cient for that purpose, provided an accu.
mutation Of large amount of revenue,
I beyond tie necessary wants Of Govern
ment be hereafter prevented. Tito these
considerations be added the facilities
which will arise from ennbting the Treas.
ury TO satisfy the public creditors. by its
drafts or notes received in payment Of the
/ public dues, it may be safely assumed
that no motive of convenience to the citi'
zens requires the reception Of bank pa
! per.
To say thatthe refusal of papermoney
by the govrnment introduces an unjust
discrimination between the currency re-
ceived by it and That used by individuals
on their ordinary affairs, is, in my judge
ment, to view it in very erroneous light.
The constitution prohibits the states fror,
making uny thing but gold or silver a ten
der in the payment of debts, and thus Sc
t cures to every citizen the right to demand
payment in the legal currency. TO pro-
vide by law that the government will not
only receive its dues in gold and silver,
is not to confer on it any peculiar privi-
lege, but merely to place it on an equality
with the citizen, by reserving to it righ,
secured to him BY the constitution. 1t is
doubtless for the reason that the principle
has been sanctioned by successive laws
from the time of the first Congress under
the constitution down to the last Such
precedents, never objected to, and pro-
ceeding from such sources, afford deci-
sive answer to the imputation of Unequal.
! ity or injustice.
But, in fact, the measure is one Of re~
striction, not of favor. TO forbid the
public agent to receive in payment any
other than a certain kind of money, is to
refuse him discretion possessed by every
citizen. 1t may be left to those who have
The management of their own transactions,
| to make their own terms; but no such dis
cretion should be given to him who acts
merely as an agent Of the people, who is
to collect what the law requires, and to
pay the appropriations it makes. When
bank notes are redeemed on demand, there
is then no discrimination in reality, for
the individual who receives them may, at
his option, substitute the specie for them,
he takes them for convenience or choice
When they are not SO redeemed, it will
scarcely be contended that their receipt
and payment, by public officer, should
be permitted, though none deny that right
to an individual; if it were, that effect
would be.most injurious to the public, since
their officer could make none of those
arrangements to meet or guard against
the depreciation, which an individual is
at liberty to do. Nor can inconvenience
to the community be aledged as an objec
ton to such regulation. Its object and
motive are their convenience and well
fare.
If, al a motion of simultaneous and I'M
expected suspensions by the banks, it adds
something to the many embarrassments
of the proceeding, yet those are far over
balanced by its direct tendency to pro-
duce wider circulation of gold and sill
yer, TO increase the safety of bank paper,
to improve the general currency, and thus
to prevent altogether such occurrences,
and the other and Far greater evils that
attend them. ..
1t may, indeed, be questioned, whether
it is not for the interest of the banks
themselves that the government should
not receive their paper. They would
be conducted with more caution, and
on sounder principles. By using spe-
Gle only in its transactions, the gov
ernment would create demand for
it, which would to great extent prevent
its expectation, and by keeping it in cir
culation, maintain broader and safer
baisis for the paper currency. That the
banks would thus be rendered more sound,
and the community more safe, cannot ad-
nit Of doubt.
The foregoing views, it seems to me,
90 but fairly carry out the provisions Of
the federal constitution in relation TO the
currency, as far as relates to the public
revenue. AT the time that instrument
was framed, there was but three or four
banks in the United States; and had the
extension of the banking system, and the
evil growing out of it, been foreseen, they
would probably have been specially guar
ded against. The samo policy which led
to the prohibition of bills of credit by the
states, would, doubtless, in that event,
have also interdicted their issue as cur
rency in any other form. The constitu-
ton, however, contains no such prohibi-
ton; and since the states exercised for
nearly halfa century, the power TO regu
late the business Of banking, it is not to be
expected that it will be abandoned The
whole matter is under discussion before
the proper tribunal-the people Of the
states. Never before has the public mind
been so thoroughly awakened to prop