Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1908-07-25
STATES OWE NATIONAL
GOVERNMENT BIG SUN

NEW YORK, July Especial -
State controller GIynns announce
ment last week that he had found abb
uses in connection with the handling
of the Omitted States deposit funds
in this State called to mind a curious
phase of the financial history of the
United States in the early PART Of the
last century
An act of June %, 1886, regulating
deposits of United States money, pro-
vided that the surplus in the United
States Treasury in excess of $4,000, 600
for working balance might be depos-
tied with the States in proportion to
their representation in Congress. Such
deposits were to be made in four equ-
al installments, beginning January J.,
1887. The States were compelled to
authorize their Treasurers to receive
the money and to pledge its return on
demand of the Secretary of the Treas
ury. The act specifically provided
that the funds were to be held as de
posits," but the feeling was very
strong that the amounts Of money so
deposited constituted actual gifts to
the States
The measure was finally passed af-
ter much discussion and after a bill
to donate the money to the States had
been vetoed as unconstitutional There
was ultimately transferred to the
States concerned $2S,101 GA The
amount still held by New York state
is $4,000
The distribution to the different
States of this surplus led to the Gre
alton of so-called fiscal banks" by a
number of the States, while others Sc
lected public depositaries, and much
fayoritism followed. Various enter
prises were undertaken by the States,
including railroad and canal projects
! and era of speculation set in upon the
payment of the first installment of
some $9,000,000 in January, 1887 After
the payment of the second installmSnt
to the States in April, the same year,
the serious nature of the financial and
commercial situation being apparent,
public meeting was held in New
York and committee of fifty appoint
ed, with Gallatin at its head, to ap-
peal to the Government to throw over
a policy SO injurious to the welfare
Of the country. In May specie pay
ments We're suspended, over $50 fail
| ures reported, and in the middle Of
the month President Van Buren, CALI
ed Congress to meet in special session
the following September In spite
of the presence of such unsettling
conditions Secretary of the Treasury
Woodbury., in July, paid over the third
installment of the Treasury surplus to
the States, and, as Mr.. A. Burton
Hepburn points out in his book: Con
test for Sound Money" n doing so
barely escaped defaulting in his own
payments.
On October 2 that year an act Of
Congress postponed the payment of
the fourth installment of these de-
posits for the States until Jan 1, 1889,
at which time there proved to be no
surplus to divide On Oct 16, Con-
gress took away from the Secretary Of
the Treasury the power to recall the
State deposits, reserving to itself this
right
The $2S,101644 paid over to the
States in the three installments men
toned remains on deposit" to this
day and is carried on the books of
the Treasury as unavailable" A
number of times the suggestion has
been made that it should be recalled,
while on the other hand a number of
the States, even recently, have asked
for the fourth installment, although
this has never been paid out