The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-03-30
Not 10 be forgotten.


moment they see relief ahead This is true in
republics as well as in monarchies. When a
KING removes grievance, his subjects are as
excessive In their gratitude, as they were vim
dictlve in their suferngs. They forget their
troubles. We are forgetting the bad measures
that brought on the Sub-treasury, and bear light
" me evils that have resulted, in hope Of getting
out Of them soon. This is virtue; but our
safety requires, that we should cherish undying
hatred to such foul conspiracy against freedom,
and such plan for the destruction of pros
perity.
The faitacy ftte !Sub-treasury a deposit
ofpubiic money.
In this view, as opposed TO proper fiscal
agency, it may be defined in word, as lock-
up-chest, or a miser's vault II is not the fiscal
agent Of State, and has nothing Of its charac-
ter but the system, in this particular, is based
on the principle of miser's calcuation--get
money, if you can, and keep il, not use il. The
money is boarded, all that is in hand. The true
economy of nation, in regard to its financial
concerns, is TO have money on demand, but
never to have il in hand. All that is in hand is
dead capital. Hoarded treasures are fit only for
| a miser's false estimate of value, or tyrant's
occult designs. There was never any thing
more false, as State policy, than the Sub-trea-
sury. As part Of social system, il is fit only
for state of barbarism, or for despotsm.-
When it is understood, public economy would
condemn it, civilization would scorn it, and free
dom would rebel against it.
A fiscal agent indispensable to nation.
| A moments reflection will show, that fiscal
agent, in the proper sense Of these terms, dis
charging all the commercial or bank functions Of
national Exchequer, is one of the most indis-
pensable parts of the machinery of Government.
A ship Of the line might as well be aAoat with
out purser, or an army be in the field without
commissariat, as a nation without fiscal agent
The farmer says, money makes the mare go. In
the affairs OF nation il is not only necessary to
have money, but equally, supremacy important,
that the agency thereof should be perfect in its
machinery, and infallbly secure in its banking
operations. There must be medium, and oNE
medium, safe and responsible agency between
the Government and its resources. The fiscal
agency of nation is trade, profession, a
high vocation, and the most responsible banking
operation in the world.
The United States withom Fiscal Agent
There is at this moment perfect vacuum in
this department of the Government. The en-
tire machinery, in this particular, has been de-
stroyed. IL is pdnfing. The Sub Treasury
was intended rs substitute, but it is not one,
and cannot be. There is not single feature
in it Of proper fiscal agency, nor can il posi-
bly, perform those functions There is no con-
stitutional medium between the Government
and its resources. II has been annihilated. And
what is more, the system by which it has been
superseded, IS wanting in the prudence of the
most ordinary commercial transactions, both as
to responsibility and as to convenience. Ills a
thing which can by no human power be made TO
work. 1t does not work, and never will, and
never can except to crack, and break, and fall, TO
the ruin Of the country. 1t is the invention of
quacks, having no pattern in the practical ope-
ration Of human affairs. Without exception, it
is the greatest blunder, upon which nation ever
stumbled. Every dollar Of the public money,
while there is any, is not only put in peril, but is
out of use. The nation, whose it is, is deprived
Of it. 1t is locked up, if it could be kept; but
being temptation to rogues, il makes rogues,
and then it is gone. While there is no money,
we do not want Sub-Treasury; and while
there is money, it is so much more than dead
the time being, besides that it is in danger Of be-
ing lost
Evidence Of This insecurity
Isaac HIPS bonds, including his own, were in
fact not worth over $4,000, and yet he was LA
Bile, even in such times as these, to have $780,
QUO or 100000 Of the public funds in his hands.
In prosperous times, he might have half mil
lion, or million. Is that no risk /? The bonds
of DR.. Penn, of Missouri, were nominally $780,
900. Very likely they might be worth more
than those of Isaac Hill. But the first draft he
made from the Missouri Bank was over 5 l,200,-
900 in specie Is this no Iisk2 Ii is impossible
to say, from the short period of this experiment,
and from our ignorance OF the real value OF the
bonds given by public receivers, how much bet
ter they are generally than these we have men
toned. But if we take The bad luck OF General
Jackson I'D Mr.. Van Buren, in their appoint
ments as a rule, it is indeed fearful list
INC a'nih is. the whole system is false one,
and not only total failure in It's practical opera
ton, but immeasurably disastrous. The simple
project Of having one currency for the Govern
ment and one for the people, as if the peoples
fare were not good enough for the rulers, const-
tuting rulers board of shaving brokers on the
people, which is the practical operation of the
system, is enough II was grand continuance
to bring the people under the pressure Of exor-
btant and intolerable Government exac,ions,
i H.. IL.