Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1837-01-04

ISuCn necessity, then the 18TH section
ofthe law makes these transfers illegal.
Now there is clearly no such neces.
sity. The money was to be deposited
WITH the States, not IN them. twas
necessarily paid in Washington by
drafts on other places. If you say that
the Secretary must pay it into the State
treasury, 1t is not enough TO bring il
into the State-he must take il TO the
Seat of Government. Pennsylvania
must have her share-not in Philadel.
phia, but in Harrisburg. New York
must be paid--not in the city OF New
York, but in Albany. If the place be
not fixed by law, the mutual convent
ence of the parties will designate it,
Now there is no individual and no State
in the Union that would not prefer pay.
ments in New York, or the north At.
lantic cities. to payments any where
else and for this obvious reason
that money is worth more there than
any where else. If the State of Ohio,
for instance, had a DRAFT on New York
it could sell il &c its citizens, usefully
to them, and profitably to the Treasu-
ry. 1t does not want the money bro't
to Ohio. Every mile it comes on the
road lessons it's value. We may safe.
ly conclude then that there was no ne.
cessity for sending a dollar of public
money from New York or the COM
mercial cities for the purpose either of
equalizing funds among the Banks-or
distributing them through the States
The true theory of the case, there.
fore, was simply to let the excuses of
revenue in the several states be trans
ferred, in the course Of trade, to the
great commercial points, and then to
paythe States by drafts on those points.
The Opposite Banks at these points,
knowing what they had to pay, would
have been ready to pay,-and up to the
hour Of payment, would have employ
ed the funds usefully so that in every
stage of that progress, business would
be assiSted-commercial activity sti-
~mulated--and all parties be gamers.
Even ~supposing these transfers at all
necessary-the funds should have been
RENTED by bills to the points of accu-
misunderstanding these operations so
insensibly with the business ofthe coun-
try as to be unfelt except in their bene.
fits.
But what has the Secretary lone 7
Instead Of gradual preparations TO pro-
vide funds at the distant points, the
whole science of. the Treasury seems
to have consisted in drawing warrants
in taking up the columns of returns,
and directing drafts from the Banks,
throughout The United States, without
necessiiy-wlthout reference to the
wants or the business Of tine different
sections ofthe Union, the season ofthe
year, or the course oftrade-and thus
making the whole revenue of the coun-
try work against the whole industry of
the country.
His secret is thus revealed in the let.
ter 20 Messrs. Griswold IL Swan:
al have, heretofore, in cases where
the public money had accumulated in
any Bank in any n State, and Few
Banks could be %scasonably obtained in
other States where only a lille pubic
money already e1iSted, made but one
transfer to accomplish both objects, and
by a single operation have reduced the
excess in certain Banks in certain
States, and placed it in the States where
ii woald be needed neat year, and where
they before had not an equal portion Of
the public money"
We thus pereeive-what on less au-
! thority would be incredible-the ex-
t~raordinary manner in which the pub
lie revenue has been scattered. The
Secretary sees an accumulation ofpub-
lie revenue in any one Slate. He sees
another place, in another State, ''where
only a little public money already ex-
ted,"-whereupon, he resolves to be-
stow upon that place car equal portion
ofthe public money !" and as he will
have, twelve months hence, to pay
some money in that State, be makes ga
single operation of it--and according
ly he confesses that he has actually
transferred public moneys into States
which cannot receive them for a wear
misunderstanding the very COM
munity which raised the money of the
use of it during the whole period.
Such a measure was of itself sufi-
cient to dlsorganize the currency. But
it was accompanied by another which
armed it with. ten-fold power of mis-
chief. This was the Treasury Order
prohibiting the receipt at the Land Of
Aeesbf anything but specie-an act
which seems tssne a nos wanton abuse
Of power, ifnot a fragrant u%surpation.
The whole pecuniary system of this
country, that TO which, nex to its Free
dom, il owes its prosperity, is the sys-
tenn of credit. Our ancestors came
here with no money--but with far bet
ter things--with courage and industry
and the want of capital was supplied
by their mutual confidence. This is