The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1838-01-27
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
DEPOsITE BANKS AND THE SUR
TREASURY SCHEME.

iNSSAANAS"1 ~ NA-"s DSAi "a oNsoSSt
last
Resolved That he Secretary Of The Treasury
communicate 10 this House early IL s merit session
as dcticdbe Lhs names Of all the recercrs COLLECTORS
or depositaries Of he public money RHO in default
the kHgtA Of time due, the security greR If ann and
h0o much has been, riH be lost together Nth all
correspondence upon The subject, from he FIRST Of ia
aHary, 1884 10 his tune.
The report is too voluminous to admit of its
being printed and laid before Congress pre-
vious to the day fixed for taking up the Sub
treasury bill, reported in the Senate
As the report has come before us to be
printed, we have had an opportunity to give it
a partial examination. Some parts of the
same we consider too important, not to be
laid before the public, in anticipation of the
regular printing, and previous to the COM
mencement of the discussion of the Sub
treasury bill'in the Senate.
Ii is not a little remarkable, that the report
was not forthcoming, until more than three
months had expired, after the resolution call
ing for it had been adopted. We may add it
is not less singular, that the report was not
made at all, until we inquired what had be-
come of it, through the columns of our paper;
and, that it was laid before the House on the
same day. As voluminous as the report is,
we should suppose, the entire labor required
to prepare it, might have been performed by
three efficient clerks in two weeks, as the
whole, or nearly so, appears to be mere tran
scripts from records.
The whole Of the call under the resolution,
appears not to have been answered by the
Secretary of the Treasury; who, in his COM
munication, says, /" The last branch of The
resolution, the time and aid necessary to fur
nish The copies in the office Of the Solicitor Of
the Treasury will be such as TO render special
appropriation proper for that purpose" We
can only remark, that the correspondence
since the first day of January, (which alone
was called for under the resolution) must have
been very extensive, to call for special ap-
preparation, to be made by Congress, to defray
the expense Of employing persons to copy it.
That, however, is matter which concerns
the rights of Congress, and not US.
The information which we are enabled to
CLEAN from the various branches of the report,
is of no ordinary import From the report
relating to the public money in the hands of
the late deposite banks, we gather the follow
ing ito us) gratifying and interesting informa-
ton.
1t is stated that many of the banks lately
employed as repositories of the public money
have paid in full, the amount placed in their
pected all the remainder still holding balances
10 the credit Of the Treasurer Of the United
States excepting twelve, "dre expected to
pan the balances due from them WITHOUT suit"
OF these twelve banks, against but one of
which suit has been instituted, two are in
Mississippi; two in Detroit two in Ohio;
one in Kentucky; one in Buffalo; one in
Mobile, and two in Tennessee; all of which
have already furnished satisfactory security,
or have offered 10 do so, to avail Of
the provisions of the act Of Congress Of the
10th of October last The other bank, and
the only one against which legal proceedings
appear to have been instituted, is the Frank
lin Bank of Boston, which appears to be in
debted in balance of $l7,469 CO. This is
one ofthe banks selected by the Secretary of
the Treasury, under the deposite act of 1886,
to hold temporarily portion of the surplus,
which the other banks already selected could
not hold under the act, and having but $780,
600 capital! We should think the circum-
stances which led to such selection, for such
purpose, called for some explanation.
A few days since we stated that from an
official report made TO Congress in October
last, it appeared that the Treasury Depart
ment had ouerdra,cn the Commonwealth Bank
over two thousand dollars. BY the late re-
port, it appears, that on the 18th December
last, there stood to the credit Of the Treasurer
of the United States in that bank the sum of
$43,slo 90! How has this happened, when
the same report states, thatthis bank among
others, in consequence of the suspension Of
specie payments in May last, was "discon-
tinucd by law" as deposite bank
The same report contains list of all ba-
lances existing against banks employed as
" deposite banks" many years since, the cha
racter of the whole of which, was fully ex-
planned and defended by the present Secretary
of the Treasury, in supplemental report to
Congress, made in December 1884.
In the late report, we find a list given of
the names, together with those of their sure