The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-03-24
DEFENCE OF THE SECRETARY OF
THE TREASURY.
SPEECH OF HON. JAS. JACKSON,
OF

h hc House Of Representatives, February 81, 1859.
Mr.. CHAIRMAN The attacks made upon the Secretary
of the Treasury by the opposition, and by some of his
~prOfessed political friends, who have been thwarted in
their designs upon the treasury by his rigid economy and
stern integrity, demand a reply and it seems to me that
such a reply could not come more appropriately from any
other quarter than from myself. Representing the dis
trict which so often honored him by his suffrages, and
which he so fully repaid by a long, able, and brilliant
career in this House, it is meet that l should vindicate
the fame Of one dear to those who sent me here, and
thereby repay, in part, the debt of gratitude l owe for
their kindness to me The only regret / feel in under
taking the defence is, that l have not an ability equal TO
the zeal which / bring to the task. Satisfied, however,
that it requires no labored effort to vindioate truth, and
that all that is necessary in this case is a simple, una
dorned statement of facts and array Of figures, / feel that
1 shall be able to show to every impartial mind that the
attacks made upon that distinguished officer have been
as unprovoked as they are utterly without foundation.
Those attacks, when resolved by the simplest analysis,
are reduced to three. First, that the Secretary, upon his
installation into Office, found a redundant treasury and
that, by the unlawful and i%njudicious expenditure of the
public money for the redemption of the public debt be-
fore maturity, at e~xorbitant premiums, he emptied that
treasury, and thereby created the necessity for loans and
the issue of treasury notss at an earlier period than
would otherwise have been necessary and money, to
the extent of the premiums paid, has been forever lost
20 the country. Second, that his estimates of receipts
have been wide of the mark that he has displayed in
them no financial forecast whatever, and that they are
unworthy Of the confidence of Congress and the country
unfit bases of legislation and, therefore, the Secretary is
proved incapable of managing the intricate machinery
of his laborious Office. Third, that the expenses of this
administration are enormous and the Secretary of the
Treasury, as its financial head, is responsible for these ex-
orbitant expenditures.
shall consider these charges in the order in which
they are stated, and the candid mind will find no diff
Guilty In arriving at the conclusion, not only that they
are wholly incorrect, but destitute of the shadow of
foundation. Under the first head, I ask was it unlaScfm
for the Secretary TO purchase the public debt at the cur
rent market price, The act of 1853 answers the ques-
fion. Let it speak for itself
$3.50. 0. And be II further enacted, That the SECRETARY of the Treas.
uy be, and he is hereby, authorized TO purchase, at the current
he may think most advisable, from any surplus fund in the treasury:
Provided, That the balance in the treasury shall not at any time be
reduced below $4,000 ooo. STATUTES at Iarge, chapter 81, volume
10, page 2i2l
Comment upon this act is unnecessary. 1t needs no
interpretation. 1t is as plain as the English language
can make thought ineligible. 1t not only authorizes,
but would seem to require, the Secretary to redeem the
public debt so long as there was q surplus exceeding So
900, 900 in the treasury and Mr.. Cobb ceased to pur-
chase with $40, 900, 900 left there. Upon this ~intorpreta
ton of the act the predecessor of the present incumbent
had acted ; and stocks of the United States, outstanding
and not due, were purchased by him. But it is said that the
price paid by Mr.. Cobb in the way of premium was en-
tdpagdnt, and the public money wasted in the purchase of
United States stocks by him. The reply to this charge is
as conclusive as that to the illegally of his conduct is
shown to be by the production of the law. He paid what
the law authorized-the market price. He could purchase
Mt nothing short of that, for the simple reason that the
holders of the stocks would take no less from government
than they could get from other purchasers. He paid pre-.
cisely the same sum that Ar. Guthrie, his predecessor,
had paid the year before, and, indeed, up to the Sd of
March, 1857, when he left, and Mr.. Cobb took charge of
the department. The subjoined table shows the premi-
ums paid at the treasury In the redemption of the debt of
the United States from the passage of the act of 1858 up
10 the time when the last stocks were redeemed by Mr..
Cobb, by which it will be seen that the present Secretary
paid the identical premium which Mr.. Guthrie had paid
The same year