The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-09-06

large premium to the Government The restrain
ing effect Of the system upon the tendencies TO
cessive paper issues by banks has saved the Gov
eminent from heavy losses, and thousands of our
business men from bankruptcy and ruin. The
wisdom of the system has been tested by the ex-
nerience of the last years. and il is the dictate
of sound policy that il should remain undisturbed
The notifications in some of the details of this
measure, involving none Of its essential princi-
PIES heretofore recommended, are again present
ed for your favorable consideration"
The argument of the Opposition journals
is, that it Yas not relevant, in message
treating otsuch subjects, to introduce this
$4,000 defalcation. 1t was relevant
enough to inform the people what the con-
stitutional treasury had done-but irrele-
want to state what it had left undone 1t
was relevant to state in terms that our pub
lie finances had been carried through
foreign war requiring distant transfers
and disbursements, Without embarrass-
ment"-but it was irrelevant to mention
that embarrassment had occurred in the
matter of our Marseilles agency, by which
the Department had suffered very censid-
cradle embarrassment. 1t was irrelevant"
to mention that " no loss has occurred of
any Of the public money deposited under
any of its professionalism it was irrele-
want to state that loss had occurred
| of $155,0O0. 1t was relevant to state
that the system of transfer had been
+" safe"-but it was irrelevant to state
wherein it had been unsafe. 1t was rele-
want to state that during the previous year
considerable loans I" of specie were re-
CURED for distant Disbursements it
was irrelevant to state that the Navy De-
partment had undertaken to make some of
its distant disbursements in merchan-
dise' consigned to French and American
houses, whereby a large sum of money
had been lost to the treasury. 1t was
relevant to convey by the strongest impl-
cation the idea that our foreign disburse-
ments Uere made in specie-but it was
irrelevant to confess that many of these
foreign disbursements were actually made
in paper, and that the "specie" of which
Mr.. Polk speaks had been converted into
| drafts upon insolvent houses, before it
reached the hands of the disbursing agent.
By what subtle logic the Opposition jour
nails can distinguish with regard to the rel
evancy or irrelevancy of these respective
statements, we cannot imagine. The only
test that we can apply to the case is the
bearing of the statement on the character
and standing of the party, or of the late
administration. If statement looked well
for the party, it was relevant; if it looked
| i'll, it was irrelevant. 1t was relevant to
say that the Sub-treasury had kept and
disbursed the public money safely, be-
cause that was plume in the cap of the
administration it was irrelevant to say that
money had been lost in spite of the Sub
treasury, because that was a reflection
upon some member Of Mr.. PoLK's Cabinet,
and upon the Baltimore convention, which
had warranted the Sub-treasury as a per-
feet save-all.
We apprehend that the American peo-
pie are not to be deceived by these thin
distinctions. Certain il is that Mr.. Polk
did not know of this defalcation, or he was
guilty of a neglect Of duty in emitting to
communicate it to Congress; and this with
out reference to the express provisions OF
the Sub-treasury act. The communication
became material and important, in conse-
quence of the line of argument that Mr..
Polk had seen fit to adopt. II became
material and important because, without
such communication, there was that sup
preston of truth in his message which was
equivalent to the suggestion of falsehood,
even on the hypothesis Of the Opposition
journals, that the language of Mr.. Polk
in this connexion applied to transfers from
New York to New Orleans, but not to
transfers from Richmond to Marselles.