The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1838-04-24

boVeTHHent Is 10 TeceIVe anu ouI Soiu eii-
yer, and nothing but gold and silver
| Now, Mr. President, let anticipate this joyous
epoch let us suppose the six years TO have expired;
and let us mngine'this bill with its specie payments
and all, 10 be in full operation at the present hour.
What will that operation be In the first place,
disregardng all question of public convenience, or
the general interest of the people, how will this
system work as n mere mode of collecting and pay
ing out revenue? Let us see.
Our receipts and expenditures may be estimated,
each at thirty millions year. Those no think'this
estimate either too high too low may make the
| necessary allowance. Here, then, is the of
thirty millions to be collected and paid out every
year and it is all To be counted actually to be told
over, dollar after dollar, and gold piece after gold
piece and how many times counted Let us in
quire into that. The importing merchant, whose
ship has arrived, and who has cash duties to pay,
goes to the bank for his money and the tellerscount
it our that is lie carries 1t 10 the cusOul-
house, phys it, and the clerks count it over that is
twice. Some days afterwards, the collector takes
it out of his bags and chests carries it TO the recev
ergeneals Office and thereit is counted again, and
poured into the bags and chests of that office that
is the third time. Presently warrant comes
from the Treasury, in favor of some discussing Off
Ger, and tho boxes opened, and the necessary
sums counted out: this is the fourth counting. And,
filthy and lastly, the dsbursing officer pays it to
the persons entitled to receive it, on contracts, or
for pensions, salaries, or other claims Thirty mil
lions of hard money are thus 10 be handled and told
over five times in the course of the year; and it
there be transfers ON place to place, then, of course
il is TO be counted much oftener. Government
officers therefore, are TO count over one hundred
and y-millions of dollars year which, allowing
three hundred working days in the year, gives five
hundred thousand dollars day. But this is not all.
Once quarter, the naval officer is to count the coll
lectors money and the register in the land office is
to count the receivers money. And moreo' er, sir,
every now then tho Secretary IF the Treasury is
TO authorize unexpected and impyomptm countings,
in his discretion, and just to satisfy his own mind
Sir, what a money counting, tlnklDg, lngIng
gel inn wv sLn ba I bnp
in Solomons temple will be as nothing to us. Our
sound will go forth allilands. We shall be like
the king in the ditty of the nursery
'There sat the king, counting of his money"
You will Observe sir. that these receipts and pay
ments cannot be made in parcels without the actu-
al handling Of each piece of coin The marks on
kegs of dollars, and the labels bags of god are
not to be trusted They part ofcreditall credit
all trust, all confidence, is TO be done away with
When the surveyor, for instance lat the custom house,
Is to examine The money on hand in possession of the
collector or receiverseneral, he is, of course, to
count the money No other examination can come
to any thing. He cannot tell, from external ap-
pearance, nor from the weight, whether the collec-
tor has loaned out the money, and filled the bags
and boxes up with sand and lead, or not. Nor can
pieces be otherwise detected than by
actual handling. He must open, lie must examine
he must count And so Mt the land Offices the
mints, and elsewhere. If these officers shall have
a taste for silver sounds, they all likely to be
gratfed.
Mr. President, in all soberness, is not this whole
operation preposerous !?
1t begins by proposing to keep the public MONEYS
This itself, in the the word is here used isa
perfect novelty, especially in the United States.
why Keep the public moneys; that is to say, why
hoard them, why keep them out of use /? The use
'f money is in the exchange. 1t is designed TO CIR
'uate, not to be boarded All that Government
should have TO do with it, is to receive it to day,
hat it may pay it away Tomorrow. 1t should not
ecoive IT, before it needs il and it should part
With 1t ms soon as it owes it, TO keep it-that is to
etain it, to hold il back from general use, board
/, is conception belonging to barbarous times and
aroarous governments. How would it strike us,
we should see other great commercial nations
citing upon such SYSTEM If England, with
evenue of fifty millions sterling year. were found
D be collecting and disbursng every shilling of it
4 hard money, through all the ramifcations of her
asst expenditure, should we not think her mad?--
tut the system is worse here, because it withdraws
is so much active capital from the uses of coun-
y that requires capital, and is paying interest for
npital wherever 1t can obtain it,
But now, sir. allow me TO examine the operation
this measure upon the general interest of COM
erce, and upon the general currency of the coun-
y And 10 this point of view, the first great ques-
on is, What amount Of gold and sioer ,oiH Mis OPP
alton subtract fran the currency Of the country,
nd from the use Of the Banks ?
In regard to this important inquiry, we are not
lthoul the means of forming some Judgment An
ticial report from the Treasury made to the other
ouse, shows that, for the last years. there has
zen at the end Of each year, on an average fifteen
illions and four hundred thousand dollars in the
reasury. And this sum is exclusive of all that
I'd been collected of the people, but had not yet
ached the Treasury; and also of that had been
avn from the Treasury by disbursing officers but
inch had not yet been by them paid to individuals
ddng these sums together, sir, and the result Is,
at on an average for the last ten years, there have
en- at least twenty millions Of dollars in the Treas.
y. do not mean, of course that this sum il,
9 whole OF it unappropriated mean that this
'oun has in fact been in the Treasury, either not
proprlated, or not called Tor under appropriations
mat II this sub treasury scheme had been in OPP
li'on, IN times past of the specie in the currency,
enty millions would have been constantly locked
In the safes and vaults. Now, sir, do not be-
We that, for these ten years, the whole amount of
yer aud gold in the country has exceeded, the
erage fifty sixty millions. do not believe
exceeds sixty millions at the present moment;
d If we had now the whole system in complete
Grafton, it would lock up, and keep locked up,
. full third of all the specie in the country
ckedup say, hoarded-rendered as useless TO all
purposes of commerce and business, as lift were