The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-04-16

ness, till their use of the public funds became
Insuiierable evil, and separation from them cryinI
necessity Public sentiment has npened upon
to vast preponderance. 1.-THE first Secretary o
the Treasury, Hamilton, were here 10 give IN
opinion, he would advise his whig friends That re
eurrenee 10 the constitutional treasury, as he was ae
quainted with it, has become Indispensable. R0ber
Morris, Alexander Hamilton, all the eminent mel
Of that day, were hard-money men So was Wash
ington Madison, and may add, every chief ma
gstrate Of the United States, without exception.
The dire discovery had not then been sprung from
London upon mankind, that paper may be ISSUED
by banks and circulated as money instead OF silNei
and gold.
Ia 1897, an order in council, suddenly made on
a Sunday, under the pressure OF Bonapartes Veto
ries, and the alarming decline Of the Bank OF Eng
land the stocks therein, the credit Of the immens,
Fictitious empire, Great Britain, bank notes were
by act of Parliament, first, for only six weeks, then
I'LL the end OF the session, eventually for three-and
twenty years made legal tender, which cannot be-
done In this country The constitution forbids IT,
The influence in the United States Of that disastrous
government fraud, by act Of Parliament, was TO ON.
holden the swarming bank eyil-doers Of this ooun'
try push to the last extremities their abominable
specualons, leaving the federal goyernment.no al.
tentative but to divorce its funds entirely from bank
custody To reduce them entirely To coin, and 10 re-
eognise no other currency, nothing as money, but
those precious metals which alone arc money
By ihis we make no war on banks. They have
become, whether right or wrong, part OF our State
system. Let them take care Of themselves. The
constitutional treasury, while it may curb and regu.
late, is not designed to destroy them. Bank paper
may remain in circulation. The bank note, the
promissory note, the bill Ofexchange, none of IA
miliar instruments Of payment and exchange, are
molested No harm is done to anybody, incorpo-
porate, or individual. But the federal government
undertakes 10 guard its own funds from depreda-
ton, huctuatloD, and loss, by lnteropers, whether
incorporated or individual
Every lawyer, and almost every other member Of
this House knows that the Supreme Court Of the UNI
ted States was nearly equally divided on the ques-
ton whether Stale bank notes are not bills Of credit,
prohibited by the constitution. The late Chief JUS
ice Marshall told gentleman that he should have
thought So II the question had been presented when
their issues first began. But his ultimate Judgment
was in conformity to MadIson's, that they are
not contrary to the constitution, unless made legal
tender. Judge Story, and some Of his associates,
pronounced those notes unconstitutional.
While such have been the fluctuations Of opinion
and of property in this country, the effect Of the
paper money usurpauon in England, was to depre-
ciate property there from twenty TO forty per cent
and terrible was the struggle to recover from this
decline. The present prime minister, the greatest
reformer Of the age, began with his bill for the re-
sumption Of cash payments The intelligence Of
Great Britain, without distinction Of party, the
Howes Broughams, Cannings, Husklssons, and
Weingtons, united against the preudces and ig-
norance Of the kingdom, and achieved a great but
painful and perllous reform. Since then, IN renew
ing lately the charter Of the Bank of England, Sir
Robert Peel has repudated the bank parlor postu-
late that bank paper, convertible with one dollar IN
coin for three in notes. is a safe medium. Every
where, where anything like popular government
prevails-in England, France, il | am not mistaken
Il olland and Belgium coin is the circulation. The
smallest notes in England and France are large
enough TO secure the payment Of wages; of trades.
mems bills, travelling and daily expenses--in
short all but large commercial transactions, in hard
money.
In this country, this reform remains to be effected
the greatest Of all improvements in the currency,
the industry, the morality, the equality and liberty
of the people. Our backsliding has been continual
and lamentable for between forty and fifty years
This bill is the first effort of recuperation.
Since the repealed sub.treasury act Of July, l54O
we have enjoyed at least approximation TO coin.
During the administrations of Mr.. Tyler and Mr.
Polk, while the public money has been kept mostly
in banks, the public transactions have been made IN
coin or convertible paper. Very little supplement
to the act Of 1853 would suffice. We might dis
pense with much Of the machinery in the present
bill, but that it would be necessary then TO
leave the public money in such banks or other
places as the Executive might choose. That
would be too great trust and risk. We must not
leave the public money the disposal Of the Exc
cutive, either as to the place m which II snail DC
kept, or the medium. The somewhat complicated
machinery of the bill is therefore unavoidable.
cAeerfully subscribe to it, and will give the bill my
cordial vote as it is, in that respect. Very likely,
as have said, there imperfections OF provision,
and will be awkwardness and inconvenience IN the
beginning of operations. But time and experience
will easily rectfy these disadvantages and long be-
fore the close of the present administration the re-
viva of the constitutional treasury will be settled,
and its acceptance nearly universal.
The inaug uration and outset of the constitutional
treasury will not be by any means so difficult or
slow as that of the Bank of the United States in
1877 which was nearly Frustrated by the frauds
of its own officers and much retarded by its revival
of cash payments.
Let me address the gentlemen of New Eng
land and other advocates of the pro ective system,
on anxious seats here, all about me, trembling
for their tariff | am the friend of duties for pro-
lection; and whatever | may think of the law of
IS42 for which voted, am opposed to violent. sud-
den, unjust, and cruel shocks to industry, even
when extravagantly fomented. But of what avail
is any federal tariff against the undermining of State
paper money, and the counterfeit cionage of banks
Pile on protection high as you will, make 1t all
cent. per cent, MORE yet must 1t be futillty
mockery, while hordes Of State banks may flood
the markets with little notes, miscalled money. No
more sagacous people live than those Of New Eng
land. But their superiority as an industrious peo-
pie is countervaied by their deprecated paper mon.
ey in small bank notes. The small notes of small
corporations which they charter as bank capital, is
no more capital than waste paper. The whole if
mere deusion, and renders them tributary to infe-
rior peoples, against whom exchanges would rur
all over the world, in favor Of New England, il
they did not discard the only acknowledged STAN
dard Of value and universal medium of payment
1t is like making the bushel hold sometimes as much
as hogshead, at others only quart; the yard
stick three feet, six feet, six inches long, as
few short-sighted, sordid, specializing bank pres
dents and cashiers decree by ukases more irratona
than those of any autocrat, or frmans worse thar
Turkish. Property, by this, is always uncertain
wages never just, whatever their nominal amour
may be, often paid in orders more unfaing and un
| principled than counterfeit notes. These means o.
undermining protection to the industry, equality, ant
subsistence of the laborous Congress cannot directly
control But the constitutional treasury will have ex
ceent tendencies and influences that way. Ii viii
operate as duties, both specific and I'D valorem
equivalent to ten or fifteen per cent The advocates
of the present tariff may rest assured that this bill
| is their best protection to begin WITH and good Il
abide with. Without 1t, duties may be piled cent