Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1838-05-17

III
MESSAGE OF THE PREsIDENT.-DE-
BATE ON THE TREASURY NorE Bill
So much space is occupied in this day i
paper by the invaluable speech Of Mr.
}oND, of Ohio, on the practices and
professions Of our Reforming Admins
tration, that we are unable to offer the
remarks we intended on these recent
extraordinary developments of the re-
suits of its financial policy. We can
not refrain, however, from inserting the
following very temperate explanatory
article of the National Intclligenccr of
Monday, in relation to the protractcd
debate referred to in our summary of
Saturdays Congressional proceedings,
on the bill which processes to be simply
an amendment Of the Treasury note act
Of October last, but which in fact is an
authority for loan to the amount Of the
notes re-issued, not probably less than
ten millions Of dollars,
The reader will perceive that the
House was engaged in what may with
truth be called "a struggle" Of four
teen mortal hours, upon a bill to pro-
vide means for meeting unsatisfied and
current demands upon the Treasury, in
the form of new issue of Treasury
notes.
That the faith Of the government
ought to be held with all those whom it
employs or deals with, no one denies.
Nor will any person object to proper
measure Of immediate relief to the
Treasury, from the state Of collapse Gf
we may use the expression) under
which it now labors. But such mea-
sure, to be proper and advisable, should
be not only Ineligible, but also definite
practical, and bnsi4ess-like.
The measure now before the House
is, in the opinion Of those who so per-
severingly resisted the attempt to force
the bill through the House i'll its pre-
sent shape, neither ineligible, definite,
nor business like.
The bill is entitled, in the first place,
a bill to carry into effect the act Of
October last. From this title no one
could possibly arrive at Q right coniec-
ture as TO the object of the bill The
act Of October proposed an issue of ten
millions of dollars Of Treasury notes
which notes having been issued, that
act has been fully executed rs to the
issue of Treasury notes, and is for that
purpose functus oticiO, retaining only so
much vitality as will suffice to punish
the copnlerleitipg and provide for the
redemption Of such Of the notes as are
yet alloat.
IN the next place, the bill proposes
to accomplish by indirectioa what ought
to be done openly and without any at
tempt at concealment. The Treasury
wants money, and must have it. We
all know that. Let our chancellor of
the cxchequer, instead of a bill to car
~ INTO effect law which has expired by
its own limitation, and is withal one of
the most defective and vexatious laws
that ever dcformcd a statutc-book, come
forward and propose loan to the
amount of the eXigcncies of the Gov
ernmcnt. Our word for it he had bet
ter have done SO at first with good
grace, tban be obliged to do it at last
with an i'll one.
Farther, this bill is part and parcel
of the system Of expedients and expert
mcpts which has brought the Treasury
to its present deranged and impover-
ished condition, from which it never
can be shcctually relieved but by re-
currence, on the part of the administra-
ton. to business habits, to the dictates
of COMMON sense, and to the practice
of the government before its disastrous
"experimepts" were undertaken. To
II likcn the machinery Of our government
to that Of a railroad locomotive, the
conductor C has run the engine off the
track; and all that he has to do now is,
with the help Of the passengers, to get
il back to where il was, and take a
fresh start. Every other scheme for
reg aiming his lost ground must fall
through.
The Treasury is short ten millions Of
dollars. Let il, like u practical mel
chant, borrow the money for twelve
months which il can do upon advanta-
geous terms--instcud Of putting bank
bonds into market for six millions ofthe
money, and issuing again four millions
of its own notes, which it has taken up
and cancelled, and which, if issued
must be again taken up and cancelled
before any substantial relief to the
|ITrcasury can have been afforded by
them.
II ns. T. ,,m,,x NNo can onl