Maumee express. [volume] (Maumee City, Ohio) 1837-1838, 1837-09-16

AiOuSJ uCy WClC CUuVCItCu iIltU SpOOtC,
to be kept by the officers Of the Treasu-
ry, some ofthe most serious obstacles to
their reception would perhaps be re-
moved. Toretain the notes in the Trea-
sury would be to renew, under another
form, the loans Of public money to the
banks, and the evils consequent thereon,
tits, however, mistaken impression,
that any large amount Of specie is requii-
ed for public payments Ofthe seventy
or eighty millions now estimated to be
in the country, ten millions would be abb
undanily sufficient for that purpose
provided an accumulation Of large a
mount of revenue, beyond the necessary
wants Of the government, be hereafter
prevented. If to these considerations
be added the facilities which will arise
from enabling the Treasury to satisfy
the public creditors by its drafts or notes
received in payment Of the public dues,
it may be safely assumed that no mo-
tive Inconvenience 10 the citizen requires
the reception of bank paper.
To say that the refusal Of paper mo-
ney by the government, introduces an
unjust discrimination between the cur
rency received by it, and that used by
individuals in their ordinary affairs, is, in
my judgment, to view it in very erro-
neous light. The constitution prohibits
the States from making anything but gold
and silver a tender in the payment Of
debts, and thus secures to every citizen
right to demand payment in the legal
currency. To provide bylaw that the
government will only receive its dues in
gold and silver, is not to confer on it
any peculiar privilege; but merely to
place it on an equality with the citizen,
by reserving to ii right secured to him
by the constitution. 1t is doubtless for
this reason that the principle has been
sanctioned by successive laws efrom the
time of the first Congress under the Con-
stitution down to the last. Such prece-
dents never objected to, and proceeding
from such sources, afford decisive an
swer to the imputations of inequality or
injustice. ...-
But, in fact. the measure is one ofre-
striction, not of favor. To forbid the
public agent to receive in payment any
other than 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 transac-
tions, to make their own terms; but no
such discretion should be given to him
who acts merely as an agent of the peo-
pie, who is to collect what the law re-
quires, and to pay the appropriations it
makes. When bank notes are redeem
ed on demand, there is then no discrimi-
nation in reality, for the individual who
receives them may, at his own option,
substitute the specie for them; he takes
them from convenience or choice. When
they are not so redeemed, it will scarce
ly be contended that their receipt and
payment, by public officer, should be
permitted, thoug none deny that right
to an individual !; if it were, the 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 indi-
vidual is at liberty to do. Nor can in
convenience to the community be alleg-
ed as an objection to such a regulation.
Its object and motive are their conve-
nience and welfare.
If, at moment OF simultaneous and
unexpected suspension by the banks, it
adds something to the many embarrass-
ments Of that proceeding, yet these are
far overbalanced by its direct tendency
to produce wider circulation of gold
and silver, &c increase the safety of bank
paper, to improve the general currency,
and thus to prevent altogether such oc-
currences, and the other and far greater
evils that attend them.
1t may, indeed, be questioned, wheth-
er 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 specie
only in its transactions, the Government
would create demand for it, which
would, to great extent, prevent its ex-
portation, and by keeping it in circula-
ton, maintain a broader and safer basis
for the paper currency.
The foregoing views, it seems to me,
do but fairly carry out the provisions of
the Federal Constitution in relation to
the currency, as far as relates to the pub
lie revenue. AT the time that instru-
ment was framed, there were but three
of four banks in the United States /;
and had the extension of the banking
system, and the evils growing out Of it,
Ebeen foreseen, they would probably have