The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1844-04-05
From Kendall's Expositor.
TRACT NO. 2.

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A Treasury is place tchere treasure Is Kept.
The Constitution of the United States says, that
'sNo money sh"H be draun JrOm the Treasury 6ul
in consequence, cfappropriatiOns made By id'o; ana
a regular statement and account OF the receipts
and expenditures Of aHpuJhe mon. g shall be pub
lished tiOm time to time"
The obvious meaning of this provision Is, that
the ''recepts" or money received, shall 60 into
the Treasury and remain there, until drawn out by
authority of law, when it becomes an "expendi-
ture. % and the object of the published irregular
statement is, to enable the people to understand
how much has been received; how much has been
expended, and hoac much remains in the 1redS'-
ry
The object was, that the public money should
be kept for public u,e legalised By Congress, and
not applied 10 private or unauthorized uses.
When the government was organized under the
constitution, Treasurer was appointed to receive
the public money, carefully to keep it, and to pay
it out only 'sin consequence appropriations made
by law'' He gave bonds and entered upon the
discharge of his duties The Collectors who also
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ther they nor the Treasurer paid out public mon
ey except in pursuance appropriation and Treas
ury Warrants.
But there was class of men who desired to OBJ
tain the public money tor prirate uses. They did
not like this system which kept the money in the
Treasury for the public only; and they set them-
selves to work to overthrow it, An ingenious plan
was hit upon to abolish the Treasury, make the
Treasurer Bookkeeper only and take the money
which should be in the treasury for theuse ofmer-
chants, Speculation ors and other borrowers
The plan was to hand over the public money to
Banks, not to be KEPT, but to be LENT. ltwas
called a DepOSite in Bank; and the TreasuEer's
Books showed heavy sums in the Banks, when in
fact there ,cas not dollar hert, the whole having
been loaned out, just as if it were Bank Capital
The nominal amounts in Bank were called mon ys
in the Treasury. Thus the people were amused
with the idea of full Treasury, when in fact their
money was all out in the hands of traders and spec
ulators Bank stockholders pocketed the interest,
and the constitution became in this respect dead
! letter.
To perfect the scheme, Bank OF the United
States was created, being the most convenient In
strument through which the public money could
be applied to private purposes.
For many years, the nation in fact had no Treas
ury at all. All its moneys went into Banks and
were loaned out by them; and the balances report.
ed to be in the Treasury, were only the amounts
which those corporations owed the United States
In 1887, the balance thus reported to be in the
Treasury was many millions; yet the Banks hav'
ing suspended payment, the Treasurer could not
command dollar 1t was all ont of the Treasury
but not ssia consequence Of appropriations made
Jylau." When the appropriations came, the mon
~ ,cas already gone.
This led those in the administration of the gov
ernment to consider how it was that so many mil
lions had gone out ofMe Treasury without appro-
priations or Treasury Warrants. They soon per-
ceiyed, that not only the money was gone but the
Treasury itself. We had Treasurer but no
Treasury Our Treasurer even, instead OF keep
ing our Treasure when we had any, had been met.
amorphosed into mere Book Keep'r. Instead oi
being keeper of Treasure as the constitution in
tended, he had become Keeper OF Bo"hs.
The remedy was obvious. 1t was to be found
in return to the Constitution and the establish
ment of Treasury, in which the 1r'as"r' OF the
country should be placed, MOTTO be drawn out "but
in consequence of appropriations made by law
It was, to make the Treaslrera keeper of Treas
ure as was originally intended, and as his official
name implies, with such assistant keepers as the ex-
tent of our country and the business of the govern
ment. rendered necessary and proper F"
Accordingly, TO restore the constitutions prevent
the public money from being loaned out for private
uses and for the profit Of Bank stockholders, or
"drawn from the Treasury except in consequence
of appropriations made by law" Congress passed
the Act of July 4th 1s4O, entitled An Act to
provide for the collection, safekeeping, transfer and
disbursement Of the public revenue" The fHs'
Section established Treasury: That is to say,
il provided place schee the Public Treasure
4 should be kept, in the tolio,ciag aoords' Uiz
"Be il enacted, &c. That there shall be prepar-
ed and provided, within the new Treasury build
ing now erecting at the seat OF government, SUIT
able and convenient, rooms for the use OF the
Treasurer, of the United States, his assistants and
clerks; and sufficient and secure fre-proof vault
and safes, for the keeping Of the public moneys
sin the possession and under the immediate con
4 troll of the said Treasurer: which said rooms
vaults and safes, arc hereby constituted and dc