The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1840-07-11

Sub Treasury plan2 How, | beg to know, are
these Sub Treasurers 10 be made responsible 10
the people? The President is 10 appoint the
Receivers General and their subordinates he
can make and unmake them at his pleasure
say the President appoints, for, although affr-
NATIVE action by the Senate is required, we
well know nominations TO that body have very
rarely been rejected from the organization of the
Government down. General Jackson asserted
the doctrine, for the first time, that the Execu-
tive was unit, and that all the subordinate Elk
eeutiye officers, responsible, not to the peo-
pie, but to him, the grand focus of responsibility
and that he, himself, was alone responsible
10 the people. But under the most orthodox
doctrine of responsibility, the subordinate Off
GERS of this Government, are reponsible 10 the
| people but very remotely and circuitously. The
President holds his station for the term Of -four
years; he may, on the day Of his Inauguration,
appoint very improper man to office, and the
people cannot reach him before the expiration Of
the Presidential term, and then only through the
President and by BUSTING him only, can they
| Dust the Objectionable officer, and as thousand
considerations are necessarily taken into view.
at Presidential election, il seems to me obvi-
Gus that this idea OF responsibility, for all prac-
ncal purposes, is entirely fallacious.
IL Is said that by deposting the Government
funds IN banks, we imply grant Of political
power How sir can political power in this
country be created or granted by implication,
and how can corporations having no souls and
no bodies that are tangible receive exercise po-
lllical power? Under our constitutions and laws
every citizen having certain prescribed quafca-
tons, possesses not implied but actual political
power, and somay thestockholders and officers of
banks, not by reason of their connection with
banks, however, but without any reference to
them, If it Were said, that men with money
have more power, politically and otherwise, than
men without money, it would be unquestonably
true, because rich man has more means for
conferring benefits, and for inhictng injuries,
than a poor one. But this power does not de-
pend upon the nature of his investments--for
the man having money, will have the influence
pertaining to it, whether il be used for banking
purposes, or for manufacturing purposes, or be
lent to his neighbors
1t is urged that the Sub-treasury system should
be adopted to prevent the use of the public
money: and how long, let me ask, has it been
the doctrine Of the Administration party that the
people should be deprived of the benefits result
ing from the employment of their own money?
What said President Jackson in his celebrated
manifesto, after the removal in 1885, of the de-
posltes from the Bank of the United States to
the State banks 1t was, that
The funds of the Government will not be annihi-
lated by being transferred They will Immediately be
issued for the benefit of trade, and if the Bank of the
United States curtails its loans the State banks,
strengthened by the public deposites 1oH ertend
theirs"
But the extraordinary circular of Mr. Taney,
then Secretary of the Treasury, is still more to
the point; it is conclusive He said TO these
banks ,,,,,. ,,on.,, ann .noo,. ,,o,,
to afford INCREASED FACILITIES TO THE COMMERCIAL,
AND OTHER CLASSES OF THE COMMUNITY, AND THE DE
raRrMENT anticipates from you the adoption Of such
respecting your accommodations, as 1oiH
prore acceptable to the people and safe to the Gouern
ment." .s..
And what said the President two years after,
when the process had been going on for more
than three years by the State banks:
To retain the public revenue in the Treasury, un-
employed in any way, is mpracticable. tits consi-
dered against the genius of our free institutions to
lock up in vaults the treasure of the nation. Such
treasure would doubtless be employed, at some time,
| as il has been in other countries when opportunity
tempted ambition
| Gen Jackson says it is impracticablen to
prevent the use Of the public money, and | ask
those gentlemen about me. who believe in the
infallibility of his judgment, why 1t IS that we
should attempt to do that which was pronounced
impracticable by such authority
| If the money be used by Sub treasurer, it
will be for his own benefit or that of his friends
if by bank, then for the benefit of the stock
4 holders on the one side composed of rich men,
poor men, widows, children, charitable assoca-
lions and the like, and the profit derived is the
equivalent for the labor and responsibility OF
managing the funds. But other than the inter
ests of the stockholders are to be looked TO in
| the investigation of this question Our country
like all other new and sparsey settled countries,
is deficient in capital. We have fertile land in
abundance, and the means of acquiring wealth
without stint but we must have time 10 pro-
duce such resu-such a supply of money,
that it may be cheap, as in Holland and England,
and on the Continent, results from the industry
and economy of ages. In the U. States money
has always commanded high rate of interest
because the supply fell short of the demand for
profitable investment. If the public money be
deposited in banks, the average amount consti-
tutes the basis of discounts, for the benefit d-
rectly or circuitously, of manufacturers, me
chancs, merchants, planters, and every body
who wishes to buy or sell labor merchandise,
cotton wheat, tobacco or any thing else, and
while the most beneficial effects thus flow
through a thousand channels, .'the Republic
receives no detriment," so long its drafts are
duly paid and if we look at the Government
as distinguished from the people, odious though
the distinction be, we find that too, receives
great benefit from the increase of the means of
its citizens further to contribute to the public
cessites.
But without reference TO the high authority
cited, let me ask if Sub-treasurers will not use
the public funds; for Sub-treasurers we always
| have had and must have for collecting and dis
| bursting the revenues.
/ In December last, Mr.. Woodbury. made re-
port to the House of Representatives, doc.
No 100 which contains table showing the
losses of the Government by discussing officers,
and by collecting officers, in each case, from
1899 TO 1886 inclusive, which present the fol-
/ lowing results:
| Disbursing officers.
Aggregate amount of loss in civil department