Litchfield enquirer., 1842-12-15

nor can any abuse arise under it but such as the legislature itself will be answerable for if it be tolerated-since it is but the creature of the law and is susceptible at all times of mod itication, amendment or repeal, at the pleas ure of Congress.
 know that it has been objected that the system would be liable to be abused by the legislature, by whom alone it could be abu- sed, in the party conflicts of the day. That such abuse would manifest itself in B
 change of the law which would authorize an
 excessive issue of paper for the purpose of
 in1ating prices and winning popular favor. To that it may be answered that the ascrip--
 tion of such motive to Congress is quite gra-
 tuitous and inadmissible. The theory of our-
 institutions would lead us to different con-
 clusion. But perfect security against g.
 proceeding so reckless would be found to ex--
 ist in the very nature of things. The politi-
 cal party which should be 30 blind to the true-
 interests of the country as to resort to such an
 expedient, would inevitably meet with an
 overthrow in the fact that, the moment ther
 paper ceased to be convertible into specie, or
 otherwise promptly redeemed, it would be--
 come worthless, and would in the end disho--
 nor the government, involve the people ile
 ruin, and such political party in hopeless.
 disgrace. At the same time such view in--
 wolves the utter impossibility of furnishing.
 any currency other than that of the precioues
 metals, for, if the government itself cannoE
 forego the temptation of excessive paper is--
 sues, what reliance can be placed in corpo--
 rations upon whom the temptations of indi--
 vidual aggrandizement would most strongly!
 operate? The people would have to blame
 none but themselves for. any. injury that
 might arise from course so reckless, siace
 their agents would be the wrong doers, and,
 they the passive spectators.
 Hharn 6an ho hI1f sn1c cof
 currency. 1st. gold and silver-2d. the pa-,
 per of state institutions-or, Sd. represent
 tative of the precious metals, provided by the ] general government, or under its authority.
 The Sub-Treasury system rejected the last. l in any form-and as it was believed that no
 reliance could be placed on the issues of To-
 cal institutions, for the purposes of general
 circulation, 1t necessarily and unavoidably-
 adopted specie as the exclusive currency for
 it's own use. And this must ever be the cass,,
 unless one of the other kinds be used. The
 choice, in the present state of public senti-.
 ment lies between an exclusive specie cur-
 rency on the one hand, and government is-
 sues of some kind on the other. That these issues cannot be made by chartered inssitu- 1 tion, is supposed to be conclusively settled.- ! They must be made then, directly by go- vernment agents. For several years past they have been thus made in the form of, Treasury notes, and have answered a valua. ble purpose. Their usefulness has been lim- ited by their being transient and temporary, their ceasing to bear interest at given peri ods, necessarily causes their speedy return, and thus restricts their range of circulation, and being used only in the disbursements of: the government, they cannot reach those points where they are most required. By rendering their use permanent, to the mode- rate extent already mentioned, by offering no, inducement for their return, and by exchang-- ing them for coin and other values, they will constitute, 10 certain extent, the gene-- ral currency SO much needed to maintain the internal trade of the country. And this is, the Exchequer plan, so far as it may operate lh furnishing d currency.
 cannot forego the occasion to urge it's; importance to the credit of the government, in fiscal point of view. The great necessi- ty of restoring to every proper and becoming expedient in order to place the treasury on u footing of the highest responsibility, is enc trely obvious. The credit of the govern ment may be regarded as the very soul of, the government itself-a principle of vitality without which all it's movements are languid and all its operations embarrassed. In this, spirit the Executive felt itself bound by ths' most imperative sense of duty to submit to Congress, at it's last session, the propriety of making specific pledge of the land fund, as basis for a negociation of the loans author ized to be contracted. l then thought that, such an application of the public domain, would. without doubt, have placed at the command of the government, ample funds. to relieve the treasury from the temporary endorsements under which it labored.-> American credit has suffered a considerable. shock in Europe, from the large indebted ness ofthe states and the temporary inability of some of them to meet the interest on their debts.
 The utter and disastrous prostration ofthe U. s. Bank of Pennsylvania had contributed largely to increase the sentiment of distrust by reason ofthe loss and ruin sustained by the holders of it's stock, large portion of whom were foreigners, and many of whom were alike ignorant of our political organiza. tlon, and our actual responsibilities. It was the anxious desire of the Executive that, in the effort to negotiate the loan abroad, the American negociator might be able to point the money lender to the fund mortgagsd for the redemption of the principal and interest of any loan he might contract, and thereby vindicate the Government from all suspicion of bad faith or inability to meet it's ongase.- ments. Congress differed from the Eyecu. tive in this view of the subject. It became. nevertheless the duty of the Executive to re. sort to every expedient in it's power to nego. tiate the authorized loan Affer failure to do so in the American market, a citizen of high character and talent was sent to Europe with no better success and thus the morti flying spectacle has been presented of the :n- 0hiIifV nf fhis t~ oh%o:r