Maumee City express. [volume] (Maumee City, Ohio) 1838-184?, 1840-01-11

tIons have been exaggerated. From the
best estimates we may safely fix the amount
of specie in the country at eighty-five mil
lions Of dollars, and the portion of that which
would be employed at any one time i'll the
receipts and disbursements Of the Govern
ment, even if the proposed change were
made at once, would not, it is now, after
fuller investigation, believed, exceed four
or five millions. If the change were gra-
dual, several years would eapsc before that
sum would be required, with annual oppor-
tumties in the mean time to alter the law,
should experience prove it to be oppressive
or inconvenieut. The portion of the COM
munity on whose business the change would
immediately operate, are comparatively
small, nor is it believed that its effects would
be in the least unjust or injurious to them.
In the payment of duties, which consti-
tu,e by far the greater portion of the rcve.
nue., a very large proportion is derived from
foreign commission houses and agents of
foreign manufacturers, who sell the goods
consigned to them, generally, at auction,
and after paying he duties out the avails,
remit the rest abroad in specie or its equiva-
lent. That the amount of duties should, in
such cases, be also retained in specie, can
hardly be made matter ot complaint. Our
own imp prtiog merchants, by whom the
residue of the duties IS paid, are not only
peculiarly Interested IN malntalnlhga sound
currency, which the me lsure in question
will especially promote, but are, from the
nature of their dealings, best able to know
when specie will be needed, and TO procure
it with the least difficulty or sacrifice. Re-
siding, too, almost universally III places,
where the revenue is received, and where
the drafts used by the Government for Its
disbursements must concentrate, they have
every opportunity to Obtain and use them
in place of specie, should 1t be loi their IN
tercst or convenience. Of the number OF
these drafts, and the facilities they may af-
ford, as well as of the rapldity with which
the public funds are drawn and dsbursed,
an idea may be formed from the fact, of
nearly twenty millions of dollars paid to COL
lectors and receivers, during the present
year, the average amount in their hands at
any one time has not exceeded million and
a half; and Of the fifteen millions received
by the collector of New York alone during
the present year, the average amount held
by him, subject to draft during each week,
has been less than half a million.
! The ease and safety ofthe operations of
the Treasury in keeping the public money,
are promoted by the application Of its own
drafts to the public dues. The objection
arising from having them too long outstand-
ing, might be obviated, and they yet made
to afford to merchants and banks holding
them an equivalent for specie, and in that
way greatly lessen the amount actually re-
quired Still less Inconvenience will attend
the requirement of specie in purchases of
public lands. Such purchases, except when
made on speculation, are, in general, but
single transactions, rarely repeated by The
same person; and it is fact, that for the
last year and hall, during which the nutes
of sound banks have been received, more
than moiety of these payments has been
voluntarily made in specie, being a larger
proportion than would have been required
in three years under the graduation propo-
sed.
1t is moreover a principle than which
none is better settled by experience, that
the supply Of the precious metals will al
ways be fohnd adequate to the uses for
which they arc required. They abound in
countries where no other currency is al
lowed. In our own States, where small
notes are excluded, gold and silver supply
their lace. When driven TO their hiding
placesby bank suspensions, little firmness
IN the community soon restores them i'll Il
sullcient quantity for ordinary purposes
Postage aud other public dues have been
collected IN coin, without serious inconve-
nlence, even IN States where deprecated
paper currency has existed for years, and
this, with the aid OF Treasury notes for a
part OF The tune, was done without inter-
ruptlon during the suspension of 1887. At
the present moment, the receipts and dis
bursemen's OF the Government are made in
legal currency IN the largest portion of the
Unlon--no one suggests departure from
this rule; and II It can now be successfully
carried out, u VIII be surely attended with
even less dllntulty when bank notes are a.
gam redeemed III specie.
Indeed cannot think that serious OBJ
ctIon would any where be raised to the
receipt and payment OF gold and silver in
all public transactions. were it not from an
apprehension that surplus i'll the Treasury
might withdraw large portion of 1t from
circulation, and lock 1t up unprotitably IN
the public vaults. 1t would not. in my op-
mon, be difficult to prevent such an incon-
venlence from occurring; but the authentic
statements which have already submitted
to you In regard to the actual amount in
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