BRANCH MINTS AT NEW ORLEANS, AND IN THE GOLD REGIONS OF GEORGIA AND
NORTH CAROLINA.
The bill had been reported upon the proposition of Mr. Waggaman,
senator from Louisiana, and was earnestly and perseveringly opposed
by Mr. Clay. He moved its indefinite postponement, and contended
that the mint at Philadelphia was fully competent to do all the
coinage which the country required. He denied the correctness of the
argument, that the mint at New Orleans was necessary to prevent the
transportation of the bullion to Philadelphia. It would find its way
to the great commercial marts of the country whether coined or not.
He considered it unwise and injudicious to establish these branches.
He supposed it would gratify the pride of the States of North
Carolina and Georgia to have them there; but when the objections
to the measure were so strong, he could not consent to yield his
opposition to it. He moved the indefinite postponement of the bill,
and asked the yeas and nays on his motion; which were ordered.--Mr.
Mangum regretted the opposition of the senator from Kentucky (Mr.
Clay), and thought it necessary to multiply the number of American
coins, and bring the mints to the places of production. There was
an actual loss of near four per cent. in transporting the gold
bullion from the Georgia and North Carolina mines to Philadelphia
for coinage. With respect to gratifying the pride of the Southern
States, it was a misconception; for those States had no pride to
gratify. He saw no evil in the multiplication of these mints. It
was well shown by the senator from Missouri, when the bill was
up before, that, in the commentaries on the constitution it was
understood that branches might be multiplied.--Mr. Frelinghuysen
thought that the object of having a mint was mistaken. The mint was
established for the accommodation of the government, and he thought
the present one sufficient. Why put an additional burden upon the
government because the people in the South have been so fortunate as
to find gold?--Mr. Bedford Brown of North Carolina, said the senator
from New Jersey, asked why we apply to Congress to relieve us from
the burden of transporting our bullion to be coined, when the
manufacturers of the North did not ask to be paid for transporting
their material. He said it was true the manufacturers had not asked
for this transportation assistance, but they asked for what was
much more valuable, and got it--protection. The people of the South
ask no protection; they rely on their own exertions; they ask but
a simple act of justice--for their rights, under the power granted
by the States to Congress to regulate the value of coin, and to
make the coin itself. It has the exclusive privilege of Congress,
and he wished to see it exercised in the spirit in which it was
granted; and which was to make the coinage general for the benefit
of all the sections of the Union, and not local to one section. The
remark of the gentlemen is founded in mistake. What are the facts?
Can the gold bullion of North Carolina be circulated as currency?
We all know it cannot; it is only used as bullion, and carried to
Philadelphia at a great loss. Another reason for the passage of
the bill, and one which Mr. Brown hoped would not be less regarded
by senators on the other side of the House, was that the measure
would be auxiliary to the restoration of the metallic currency, and
bring the government back to that currency which was the only one
contemplated by the constitution.
Mr. Benton took the high ground of constitutional right to the
establishment of these branches, and as many more as the interests
of the States required. He referred to the Federalist, No. 44,
written by Mr. Madison, that in surrendering the coining power to
the federal government, the States did not surrender their right
to have local mints. He read the passage from the number which
he mentioned, and which was the exposition of the clause in the
constitution relative to the coining power. It was express, and
clear in the assertion, that the States were not to be put to the
expense and trouble of sending their bullion and foreign coins to
a central mint to be recoined; but that, as many local mints would
be established under the authority of the general government as
should be necessary. Upon this exposition of the meaning of the
constitution, Mr. B. said, the States accepted the constitution; and
it would be a fraud on them now to deny branches where they were
needed. He referred to the gold mines in North Carolina, and the
delay with which that State accepted the constitution, and inquired
whether she would have accepted it at all, without an amendment to
secure her rights, if she could have foreseen the great discoveries
of gold within her limits, and the present opposition to granting
her a local mint. That State, through her legislature, had applied
for a branch of the mint years ago, and all that was said in her
favor was equally applicable to Georgia. Mr. B. said, the reasons
in the Federalist for branch mints were infinitely stronger now
than when Mr. Madison wrote in 1788. Then, the Southern gold region
was unknown, and the acquisition of Louisiana not dreamed of. New
Orleans, and the South, now require branch mints, and claim the
execution of the constitution as expounded by Mr. Madison.
Mr. B. claimed the right to the establishment of these branches
as an act of justice to the people of the South and the West.
Philadelphia could coin, but not diffuse the coin among them. Money
was attracted to Philadelphia from the South and West, but not
returned back again to those regions. Local mints alone could supply
them. France had ten branch mints; Mexico had eight; the United
States not one. The establishment of branches was indispensable to
the diffusion of a hard-money currency, especially gold; and every
friend to that currency should promote the establishment of branches.
Mr. B. said, there were six hundred machines at work coining paper
money--he alluded to the six hundred banks in the United States; and
only one machine at work coining gold and silver. He believed there
ought to be five or six branch mints in the United States; that is,
two or three more than provided for in this bill; one at Charleston,
South Carolina, one at Norfolk or Richmond, Virginia, and one
at New-York or Boston. The United States Bank had twenty-four
branches; give the United States Mint five or six branches; and the
name of that bank would cease to be urged upon us. Nobody would want
her paper when they could get gold.
Mr. B. scouted the idea of expense on such an object as this. The
expense was but inconsiderable in itself, and was nothing compared
to its object. For the object was to supply the country with a safe
currency,--with a constitutional currency; and currency was a thing
which concerned every citizen. It was a point at which the action
of government reached every human being, and bore directly upon
his property, upon his labor, and upon his daily bread. The States
had a good currency when this federal government was formed; it
was gold and silver for common use, and large bank notes for large
operations. Now the whole land is infested with a vile currency
of small paper: and every citizen was more or less cheated. He
himself had but two bank notes in the world, and they were both
counterfeits, on the United States Bank, with St. Andrew's cross
drawn through their faces. He used nothing but gold and silver since
the gold bill passed.
In reply to Mr. Frelinghuysen, who asked where was the gold
currency? He would answer, far the greatest part of it was in the
vaults of the Bank of the United States, and its branches, to be
sold or shipped to Europe; or at all events, to be kept out of
circulation, to enable the friends of the bank to ask, where is the
gold currency? and then call the gold bill a humbug. But he would
tell the gentleman where a part of the gold was; it was in the
Metropolis Bank in this city, and subject to his check to the full
amount of his pay and mileage. Yes, said Mr. B., now, for the first
time, Congress is paid in gold, and it is every member's own fault
if he does not draw it and use it.
Mr. B. said this question concerned the South and West, and he would
hope to see the representatives from these two sections united in
support of the bill. He saw with pleasure, that several gentlemen
from the north of the Potomac, and from New England were disposed
to support it. Their help was most acceptable on a subject so near
and so dear to the South and West. Every inhabitant of the South
and West was personally interested in the success of the bill.
From New Orleans, the new coin would ascend the Mississippi River,
scatter itself all along its banks, fill all its towns, cities,
and villages, branch off into the interior of the country, ascend
all the tributary streams, and replenish and refresh the whole face
of the land. From the Southern mints, the new gold would come into
the West, and especially into Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee, by the
stock drivers, being to them a safe and easy remittance, and to the
country a noble accession to their currency; enabling them quickly
to dispense with their small notes.
It was asked, Mr. B. said, what loss has the Western People now
sustained for want of gold? He would answer that the whole West was
full of counterfeit paper; that counterfeit paper formed a large
part of the actual circulation, especially of the United States
branch drafts; that sooner or later all these counterfeits must stop
in somebody's hands; and they would be sure to stop in the hands
of those who were least able to bear the loss. Every trader down
the Mississippi, Mr. B. said, was more or less imposed upon with
counterfeit paper; some lost nearly their whole cargoes. Now if
there was a branch mint in New Orleans every one would get new gold.
He could get it direct from the mint; or have his gold examined
there before he received it. Mr. B. said that one great object of
establishing branch mints was to prevent and detect counterfeiting.
Such establishments would detect every counterfeit piece, and enable
every body to have recourse to a prompt and safe standard for
ascertaining what was genuine and what not. This was a great reason
for the ten branches in France.
Mr. B. was against the paper system. He was against all small notes.
He was against all paper currency for common use; and being against
it he was in favor of the measures that would put down small paper
and put up gold and silver. The branching of the mint was one of the
indispensable measures for accomplishing that object, and therefore
he was for it. He was in favor of practical measures. Speeches alone
would not do. A gentleman might make a fine speech in favor of hard
money; but unless he gave votes in favor of measures to accomplish
it, the speech would be inoperative. Mr. B. held the French currency
to be the best in the world, where there was no bank note under 500
francs (near $100), and where, in consequence, there was a gold and
silver circulation of upwards of five hundred millions of dollars;
a currency which had lately stood two revolutions and one conquest,
without the least fluctuation in its quantity or value.
New Orleans, he said, occupied the most felicitous point in America
for a mint. It was at the point of reception and diffusion. The
specie of Mexico came there; and when there, it ascended the river
into the whole West. It was the market city--the emporium of the
Great Valley; and from that point every exporter of produce could
receive his supply and bring it home. Mr. B. reiterated that this
was a question of currency; of hard money against paper; of gold
against United States Bank notes. It was a struggle with the paper
system. He said the gold bill was one step; the branching the mint
would be the second step; the suppression of all notes under twenty
dollars would be the third step towards getting a gold and silver
currency. The States could do much towards putting down small notes;
the federal government could put them down, by putting the banks
which issued them under the _ban_; or, what was better, and best of
all, returning to the act of 1789, which enacted that the revenues
of the federal government should be received in gold and silver coin
only.
* * * * *
The question was then put on Mr. Clay's motion for indefinite
postponement--and failed--16 yeas to 27 nays. Further strenuous
exertion was made to defeat the bill. Mr. Clay moved to postpone
it to the ensuing week--which, being near the end of the session,
would be a delay which might be fatal to it; but it came near
passing--20 yeas to 22 nays. A motion was made by Mr. Clay to
recommit the bill to the Committee of Finance--a motion equivalent
to its abandonment for the session, which failed. Mr. Calhoun
gave the bill an earnest support. He said it was a question of
magnitude, and of vital importance to the South, and deserved the
most serious consideration. Yet, he was sorry to say, he had seen
more persevering opposition made to it than to any other measure for
the last two years. It was a sectional question, but one intended
to extend equal benefits to all the States--Mr. Clay said, if
there had been resistance on one side, there had also been a most
unparalleled, and he must say, unbounded perseverance on the other.
He would repeat that in whatever light he had received the proposed
measure, he had been unable to come to any other conclusion than
this, that it was, in his humble judgment, delusive, uncalled for,
calculated to deceive the people--to hold out ideas which would
never be realized;--and as utterly unworthy of the consideration
of the Senate.--Mr. Calhoun was astonished at the warmth of Mr.
Clay on this question--a question as much sectional in one point of
view, as a measure could be, but national in another. Let senators
say what they would, this government was bound, in his opinion, to
establish the mints which had been asked for. Finally, the question
was taken, and carried--24 to 19--the yeas being: Messrs. Benton,
Bibb, Brown, Calhoun, Cuthbert, Hendricks, Kane, King of Alabama,
King of Georgia, Leigh, Linn, Mangum, Morris, Porter, Preston,
Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tyler, Waggaman, Webster,
White, Wright. The nays were: Messrs. Bell of New Hampshire, Black
of Mississippi, Buchanan, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, Frelinghuysen,
Goldsborough, Isaac Hill, Knight, McKean, Naudain, Robbins,
Silsbee, Smith, Southard, Swift, Tipton, Tomlinson. The bill was
immediately carried to the House of Representatives; and there being
a large majority there in favor of the hard money policy of the
administration, it was taken up and acted upon, although so near the
end of the session; and easily passed.