The Yazoo City Whig and political register. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 183?-1840, 1839-11-29

sucn specie paying banks, receivable unler
TINS Dill, as TIE bank receives on general de-
postte. This proviso is wholesome res
stnceon upon the abuse OF power By the
deposite banks. Il will cnrtail. and was In
tended to curtail, the p wer Of the deposi;e
banks. 1t will arrest an odiuus monapolg,
by preventing the deposite banks from
making their notes the only paper receivable |
for the public dues, thus rendering, for all
practical purposes, the paper of these banks
the only currency of the Federal Govern
ment, to the manifest Inconvenience Of The
people, and the severe oppressioneof other
State Banks, equally as solvent as these IN
situations. It will prevent an oligarchy of
deposite banks from controlling the currency.
and exercising power over the prosperity
of the country quite as despotic as that pos
sessed by the bank of the United States.
II we reject this proviso, we. shall only have
Disseminated the American people from the
Bank of the United States, one master, to
substitute eighty masters, a combination OF
which, uncontrolled by this proviso, might
hold in their power the prosperity of this
nation. This same power was conhded, in
relation to the removal of the deposites, TO
the Secretary of the Treasury, as regards
the Bank of the United States, and the ex-
istence, as we'll as the exercise, of this
power, by that officer, was deemed, by the
Senator from Missouri, most wise and salu-
tary. Yet the Senator from Missouri now
objects to this power, and says he would
not entrust it even to the administration OF
the President, or of his successor. Indeed
The Senator from Missouri would not con-
fde to the Secretary Of the Treasury the
necessary power 10 remove the public tho
neys from any deposite bank, thus abusing
its authority, and expressing the people IN
the contingency referred to in the ProViso,
and yet he would permit the joint resolu-
ton Of 1916 to remain unFepealed and IN
modified, by which the Secretary Of the
Treasury might, at his discretion, regulate
the whole currency of the country, receive
or reject bank paper at his option, change
and rechange his orders upon this subject,
introduce or exclude the currency of gold
and silver, and exercise over this whole
subject powers unregulated and uncontroll-
ed. Sir, the Senator from Missouri stops at
the melehill of this proViso, whilst he sur
mounts the mountain which rises to our
view, upon survey Of the enormous pow
ers which that Senator would entrust, with
cut any regulation, into the hands of the Sc
cretary of the Treasury.
Mr.. w. said be would now proceed to
prove that the Senator from Missouri had
himself originally proposed something SINH
lar to the provisions Of the bill which he
now denOunces violation of the Constitu
ton; and especially that he had directly pro-
posed, by resolution as we'll as laws, to au
thorize the receipt of bank paper in payment
of the public dues; and, until very recently
limited himself to the exclusion of notes
under twenty dollars, as proposed by the bill
of the committee. And first, Mr.. W. read
from the journals Of the Senate, under date
Of the 9th April, 1884, as follws:
"The following motion, submitted by Mr..
BENTON, was considered:
"RGSoIUed, That committee be appoin-
ted on the part of the Senate, jointly with
such committees as may be appointed on
the part of the House Of Representatives,
TO consider and report to the Senate and to
the House respectively, what alterations, if
any, are necessary to be made 8.
In the joint resolution Of 1916 (for the bet
ter collection of the reVenue;) so as to ex-
clude all bank notes under twenty dollars
from revenue payments after given period
and to make the revenue system Of the Uni
ted States instrumental in the gradual sup
position of the small note circulation, and
the introduction of gold and silver for the
common currency of the country.
Here it will be perceived that the Sena-
tor from Missouri then considered the Joint
resolution of 1916 as requiring alterations
by Congress, so as "to exclude all bank
notes under twenty dollars from revenue
payments after a given period" Here then
was direct proposition, by that Senator, to
do precisely what is done by the bill of the |
committee, as regards the exclusion from
revenue payments of notes only "Wnder |
twenty dollars" Why then does the Sena- |
tors now denounce what was then his own
PROJECT as a repeal of the Constitution?
His project then was, not as it now is, to
exclude all but gold and silver from revenue |
payments, and cut loose the Federal Gov
eminent from the paper system, but the We
~ reverse, name y-to authorize banknotes
not under twenty dollars to be received in |
revenue payments. And, how received?-I
Why, by regulations then proposed by him,
TO be made by CongFesa-by alterations of
the joint resolution of 1916 The honorable |
Senator then also proposed to make "the |
revenue system of the United States instru-
mental in the gradual suppression of the
small note circulation, and the introduction
of gold and silver for the common curreneyi
of the country" The terms common cur
sencys as distinguished from exclusive cur
rency, are italicised in the resolution of the
Senator from Missouri, and the suppression
confined to "the small note circulation. .
This suppression of ''the small note circu-
lation," of notes under twenty dollars, was
to be effected by the instrumentality of the
revenue system of the United States. Nowl
is not all this precisely what is proposed in
the bill ofthe committee? and are not that
bill, and this resolution of the honorable