The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1837-12-12
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4
| 1884, $33, 100000
That the balance on hand on The Isl of
January 1885, was $50 s,s9oOOo
Leaving the sum expended in 1884, S24,6i0OOO
1t must be recolleced thatthe Sub-treasury scheme
| is supposed TO have been in full operation that year
Therefore the sum on hand at the commencement Of
the year must have been held in specie the entire
collections of that year have been made in specie;
and the whole Of the disbursements have also been
made in specie. II is hardly competent for the mind
Of man 10 conceive the scenes Of devastation and
ruin which the system under these operations would
have caused. The millions Of specie constantly
| locked up in the Sub-treasuries the credit, Of
which that was the basis which would necessarily
have been withdrawn /" from the uses Of private
trade'--the millions of specie which would con-
santly have been passing from the banks through the
hands of the public debors-and the millions which
would have been as constantly passing from the Sub
treasures through the hands Of the disbursng Off
GERS of the Government, would have convulsed and
made the whole Republic tremble from its centre to
| its remo,e5t borders
will illustrate the practical operation by selecting
single city, the great nercia emporium of the
country New York. The actual collections made in
that city by the Government in 1884, were nine mil
lion dollars; the expenditures made that year in the
! entire State of New York were but about three and
half million dollars (incuding the payment oftwo
millions of public debt.) Beside the amount collect
ed in that city during that year. large sums were
transferred TO it. that the average deposite on hand
during the last half of that year. was more than nine
| million dollars.
The expenditures made in Virginia and the Dis
trict of Columbia that year, amounted to more than
five millions and quarter dollars while the coec-
| tons made in the same places did not amount 10
three quarters of million dollars. The excess of
disbursements was principally, if not entirely, trans
ferred from the city of New York to those places.
Who can contemplate the disastrous conse-
quences which must have attended these operations
and not shudder? Five millions of specie constantly
locked up in the Subtreasury Millions transferred
there which if not in specie (bu in checks drawn by
banks in other cities) must be paid in specie there
Millions regularly and daily called into the Sub
treasury there-and millions as regularly going from
it to distant places. The wealth of the nation con-
centraed there, could not Withstand the fatal effects
such operations would produce. Well might such
scheme be denounced (as it was by the official or
gan) as "DISORGANIZING AND REVOLT
TIONARY." "..
| Were such scheme attempted to be put into ope
ration in England by the Ministry, il would lead to
revolution throughout the whole kingdom, and to the
overthrow of the British monarchy. The British
nation seeks 10 nourish their Institutions and 10 che
| IRISH commerce, not undermining the foundations
ofhe former and the total prostration Of the latter
But these are not all the evils which it will lead
to engenderng. II is pEMoRAIzING in its character.
First leads to building up and sustaining hosts of
sharpers and shavers, dealers in specie Then from
the vast amounts OF specie, which it inevitably
places constantly in motion between section of
| the country and another, ii thereby holds out the
strongest temptation to HIGHWAY ROBBERIES
end MURDER.
The foregoing gives but one aspect of the scheme
Of deeply Objectionable character of which it is
susceptible. That part of it which contdes the
keeping of the public money, to persons appointed
By the President and remoreabte at his niH, presents
many and strong objections. 1t will place the whole
of the public treasure within the immediate custody
and control of the Executive be employed for the
purposes of corruption should he be SO disposed
II places the public money in state of insecurity
and danger and where ii can be plundered by
many hands as are entrusted with its keeping. 1t
contemplates leaving the public money in the hands
of class of public officers, who are TO become the
permanent depositarieS of the same, in which great
defacations have occurred, and large sums of mo-
ney have been lost, notwithstanding the rigid ac-
countability which they were supposed to be held
under the regulations requiring them to make fire.
quent deposites in bank of moneys which they had
received 1alude more particularly to the receivers
of public land sales. If public report speaks truly
all this and much more, to the irresponsibiity of
that class Of public officers, will be established,
whenever the correspondence between the Treasury
Department and delinquent officers shall come be-
fore the public. m".
| There is another objection. II has been already
SEEN that men who have both property and reputa-
ton to loose will not hold those offices with all the
the responsibilities attached to them which there
must be under the system. They will not incur the
risk which there will be, Of being ruined in sin
gle night by robbers; their lives placed in jeopardy,
| and their reputation blasted under such circum-
stances by the insnuations Of a censorious world.
The friends and supporters of the measure pro-
pose to exact ample security by of individual
bondsmen The luminous lists of balances out
standing more than three years owing by receiving
and disbursing agents of the Government, and the
result of proceedings against their sureties, annual
" made to Congress, furnish abundant evidence of
how little value are the sureties when the princi-
pals TO the bonds become defaulters. II they have
property, they dispossess themselves of it SO as TO
secure il from being made liable for the debts OF
defaulter to the Government, wherein they never
derived any advantage or benefit. However wrong
it is both in principle and morals, the sympathy of
the public does and will sustain them in doing II
must be evident that the public moneys must there
fore frequently be efl in the keeping of individuals
of doubtful responsibility
| should suppose, that the objections which have
here urged against the scheme as originally pro-
posed, are sufficiently numerous and irresistible in