The North-Carolina standard., 1838-01-03


than the present, session of Con-
gress will allow, but it is esti-
mated at $4,000 90
Total receipts SI,O57,I53 81
The disbursements have been:
! BY warrants on hanks S452.524 SIS
| BY drafts Post Masters 1882 SO
| By collections from Post Masters
without drafts in part estimated 387,97o So
Total disbursements 81 OI9, ,327 62
1t is not possible to distinguish the amount re-
ceived and disbursed in specie from that in other
funds. OF the deposites in bank, it is presumed
that the greater part was in bank notes, having
been made before the suspension of specie pay
ments. The Department has no report of the
FUNDS In which warrants on banks have been
paid 1t IS understood that five banks have con-
| tinued to pay its warrants in specie since the
suspension, and have so paid S28279 g. There
has also been paid by the Bank of the Metropo-
lis the sum of $35, ,426 II in specie which was
specially deposited
1t is probable that most Of the balance, as we'll
since as before the suspension, has been paid in
bank notes. If so, they have been received by
the creditors of the Department of their own
choice; for all warrants on banks returned with
proof of refusal 20 pay in the legal currency of
the United States, have been promptly paid in
gold and silver No drafts on postmasters,
drawn for the purpose of paying balances due
contractors. have been returned for refusal to
pay in gold and silver, and it is not doubted
that nearly the whole amount has been paid in
that currency. In that currency, also, the col
lectlons by contractors have generally been
made. That there are many exceptions in the
ten thousand post Offices from which the contrac-
tors collect, is very probable; but only nine
postmasters have been reported to the Depart
ment for refusing to pay in gold or silver, and
their aggregate quarterly balances do not ex-
ceed 81 ,525. Eight other cases are reported,
involving about $1,000, IN which bank notes
had been received by district attorneys and others
for old debts due the Department. In some OF
these cases, the notes certificates of deposte
have been returned, in others retained, because
there was bad prospect of getting any thing
else.
4. 1.-THE regulations touching the funds to be
received and disbursed, if any, other than those
already communicated"
No regulations not already communicated have
been issued.
s. 1.-The instances in which those regulations
above been disobeyed or dispensed with"
In no instance have the regulations relative to
receipts and disbursements in the legal curren
cy of the United States been "dispensed
with"
There is no law or regulation expressly re-
quiring postmasters to collect postages in specie
or its equivalent. Gold and silver constitute by
| law the currency Oh the OnueQ StateS, anu the
standing regulations inform posimasters that they
will be responsible for that currency or its equi
valent, and that no credit will be given them for
depreciation of bank notes or for counterfeitS.
Before the late suspension of specie payments,
the postmasters took bank notes on their own
risk, being required to account for the legal
currency The ten thousand collection offices
remain the same footing still. and the only
change made by the circular of May 13. 1887,
| n IN
sites In banks. To ensure greater certainty in
meeting the drafts of the Department, they were
required to retain the amount due IN specie The
former regulations in reference to collections
were not changed. The cases where postmas-
ters have been reported for refusal to pay specie
on demand are rather violations of law than ot
the regulations of the Department. and are so
treated.
6. Separate statements OF the aggregate a
mounts left in the hands of collecting officers.
paid into the Treasury. and deposited in bank,
the Mint and its branches or other repositories,
since the date first mentioned"
The amount left in the hands of postmasters
since the first of May. most of which would
have been deposited in banks under the former
system, is S544,8I2 81.
The amount deposited in bank, as exhibited
above, is S124,37O 62.
No deposites have been made by this Depart
ment in the Mint or its branches, or in other de-
positories, nor has any thing been paid into the
| Treasury.
In further explanation Of the operations oi
this Department since the suspension of specie
payments by the banks. it is proper to add, that
the notes of those institutions, though to some
extent tolerated by law in the transactions ofthe
Government as long as redeemable and redeem
ed in gold and silver, are expressly prohibited
TO its use when no longer SO redeemed that it
was in obedience to the law that this Depart
ment, on the suspension of the banks, took
prompt measures to prevent their receipt and
avoid their disbursement in it's own operations
that the suspension of payment by the banks oc-
CURED in the month of May one of those
months in which the quarterly balances due TO
contractors are chiefly paid off; that the entire
available means of the Department for that pur-
pose were deposited in the hunks that the De
partment had no alternative but to continue its
warrants on the banks, or stop payment alto
gether; that inasmuch as the banks had given
no notice of an intention to refuse gold and sill.
yer or their equivalent in paying ont the depo.
sites of the Department, It considered no
violation of law to draw on them as if nothing
had occurred; for that reason, as well as to a.
void an absolute stoppage of payment. and gain
time to accumulate a specie fund, the issue oil