RECISION OF THE TREASURY CIRCULAR.
Immediately upon the opening of the Senate and the organization
of the body, Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, gave notice of his intention to
move a joint resolution to rescind the treasury circular; and on
hearing the notice, Mr. Benton made it known that he would oppose
the resolution at the second reading--a step seldom resorted to,
except when the measure to be so opposed is deemed too flagrantly
wrong to be entitled to the honor of rejection in the usual forms of
legislation. The debate came on promptly, and upon the lead of the
mover of the resolution, in a prepared and well-considered speech,
in which he said:
"This extraordinary paper was issued by the Secretary of the
Treasury on the 11th of July last, in the form of a circular
to the receivers of public money in the several land offices
in the United States, directing them, after the 15th of August
then next, to receive in payment for public lands nothing but
gold and silver and certificates of deposits, signed by the
Treasurer of the United States, with a saving in favor of
actual settlers, and bona fide residents in the State in which
the land happened to lie. This saving was for a limited time,
and expires, I think, to-morrow. The professed object of this
order was to check the speculations in public lands; to check
excessive issues of bank paper in the West, and to increase the
specie currency of the country; and the necessity of the measure
was supported, or pretended to be supported, by the opinions
of members of this body and the other branch of Congress. But,
before I proceed to examine in detail this paper, its character,
and its consequences, I will briefly advert to the state of
things out of which it grew. I am confident, and I believe I
can make the thing manifest, that the avowed objects were not
the only, nor even the leading objects for which this order was
framed; they may have influenced the minds of some who advised
it, but those who planned, and those who at last virtually
executed it, were governed by other and different motives,
which I shall proceed to explain. It was foreseen, prior to the
commencement of the last session of Congress, that there would
be a very large surplus of money in the public treasury beyond
the wants of the country for all their reasonable expenditures.
It was also well understood that the land bill, or some other
measure for the distribution of this fund, would be again
presented to Congress; and, if the true condition of the public
sentiment were known and understood, that its distribution,
in some form or other, would be demanded by the country. On
the other hand, it seems to have been determined by the party,
and some of those who act with it thoroughly, that the money
should remain where it was in the deposit banks, so that it
could be wielded at pleasure by the executive. This order grew
out of the contest to which I have referred. It was issued not
by the advice of Congress or under the sanction of any law. It
was delayed until Congress was fairly out of the city, and all
possibility of interference by legislation was removed; and then
came forth this new and last expedient. It was known that these
funds, received for public lands, had become a chief source of
revenue, and it may have occurred to some that the passage of a
treasury order of this kind would have a tendency to embarrass
the country; and as the bill for the regulation of the deposits
had just passed, the public might be brought to believe that
all the mischief occasioned by the order was the effect of the
distribution bill. It has, indeed, happened, that this scheme
has failed; the public understand it rightly, but that was not
by any means certain at the time the measure was devised. It was
not then foreseen that the people would as generally see through
the contrivance as it has since been found that they do. There
may have been various other motives which led to the measure.
Many minds were probably to be consulted; for it is not to be
presumed that a step like this was taken without consultation,
and guided by the will of a single individual alone. That is
not the way in which these things are done. No doubt one effect
hoped for by some was, that a check would be put to the sales of
the public lands. The operation of the order would naturally be,
to raise the price of land by raising the price of the currency
in which it was to be paid for. But, while this would be the
effect on small buyers, those who purchased on a large scale
would be enabled to sell at an advance of ten or fifteen per
cent. over what would have been given if the United States lands
had been open to purchasers in the ordinary way. Those who had
borrowed money of the deposit banks and paid it out for lands,
would thus be enabled to make sales to advantage; and by means
of such sales make payment to the banks who found it necessary
to call in their large loans, in order to meet the provisions of
the deposit bill. The order, therefore, was likely to operate
to the common benefit of the deposit banks and the great land
dealers, while it counteracted the effect of the obnoxious
deposit bill. There may have been yet another motive actuating
some of those who devised this order. There was danger that the
deposit banks, when called upon to refund the public treasure,
would be unable to do it: indeed, it was said on this floor that
the immediate effect of the distribution bill would be to break
those banks. How this treasury order would operate to collect
the specie of the country into the land offices, whence it
would immediately go into the deposit banks, and would prove an
acceptable aid to them while making the transfers required by
law. These seem to me to have been among the real motives which
led to the adoption of that order."
Mr. Ewing then argued at length against the legality of the treasury
circular, quoting the joint resolution of 1816, and insisting that
its provisions had been violated; also insisting on the largeness
of the surplus, and that it had turned out to be much larger than
was admitted by the friends of the administration; which latter
assertion was in fact true, because the appropriations for the
public service (the bills for which were in the hands of the
opposition members) had been kept off till the middle of the summer,
and could not be used; and so left some fifteen millions in the
treasury of appropriated money which fell under the terms of the
deposit act, and became divisible as surplus.
Mr. Benton replied to Mr. Ewing, saying:
"In the first of these objects the present movement is twin
brother to the famous resolution of 1833, but without its
boldness; for that resolution declared its object upon its face,
while this one eschews specification, and insidiously seeks
a judgment of condemnation by inference and argument. In the
second of these objects every body will recognize the great
design of the second branch of the same famous resolution of
1833, which, in the restoration of the deposits to the Bank of
the United States, clearly went to the establishment of the
paper system, and its supremacy over the federal government. The
present movement, therefore, is a second edition of the old one,
but a lame and impotent affair compared to that. Then, we had
a magnificent panic; now, nothing but a miserable starveling!
For though the letter of the president of the Bank of the
United States announced, early in November, that the meeting of
Congress was the time for the new distress to become intense,
yet we are two weeks deep in the session, and no distress
memorial, no distress deputation, no distress committees, to
this hour! Nothing, in fact, in that line, but the distress
speech of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Ewing]; so that the new
panic of 1836 has all the signs of being a lean and slender
affair--a mere church-mouse concern--a sort of dwarfish, impish
imitation of the gigantic spectre which stalked through the land
in 1833."
Mr. Benton then showed that this subaltern and Lilliputian panic was
brought upon the stage in the same way, and by the same managers,
with its gigantic brother of 1833-'34; and quoted from a published
letter of Mr. Biddle in November preceding, and a public speech of
Mr. Clay in the month of September preceding, in which they gave
out the programme for the institution of the little panic; and
the proceeding against the President for violating the laws; and
against the treasury order itself as the cause of the new distress.
Mr. Biddle in his publication said: "Our pecuniary condition seems
to be a strange anomaly. When Congress adjourned, it left the
country with abundant crops, and high prices for them--with every
branch of industry flourishing, and with more specie than we ever
had before--with all the elements of universal prosperity. None of
these have undergone the slightest change; yet, after a few months,
Congress will re-assemble, and find the whole country suffering
intense pecuniary distress. The occasion of this, and the remedy for
it, will occupy our thoughts. In my judgment, the main cause of it
is the mismanagement of the revenue--mismanagement in two respects:
the mode of executing the distribution law, and the order requiring
specie for the payment of the public lands--an act which seems to
me a most wanton abuse of power, if not a flagrant usurpation.
The remedy follows the causes of the evils. The first measure of
relief, therefore, should be the instant repeal of the treasury
order requiring specie for lands; the second, the adoption of a
proper system to execute the distribution law. These measures would
restore confidence in twenty-four hours, and repose in at least as
many days. If the treasury will not adopt them voluntarily, Congress
should immediately command it." This was the recommendation, or
mandate, of the president of the Bank of the United States, still
acting as a part of the national legislative power even in its new
transformation, and keeping an eye upon that distribution which
Congress passed as a deposit, which he had recommended as raising
the price of the State stocks held by the bank; and the delay in
the delivery of which he considers as one of the causes which had
brought on the new distress. Mr. Clay in his Lexington speech had
taken the same grounds; and speaking of the continued tampering with
the currency by the administration, went on to say:
"One rash, lawless, and crude experiment succeeds another. He
considered the late treasury order, by which all payments for
public lands were to be in specie, with one exception, for a
short duration, a most ill-advised, illegal, and pernicious
measure. In principle it was wrong, in practice it will favor
the very speculation which it professes to endeavor to suppress.
The officer who issued it, as if conscious of its obnoxious
character, shelters himself behind the name of the President.
But the President and Secretary had no right to promulgate any
such order. The law admits of no such discrimination. If the
resolution of the 30th of April, 1816, continued in operation
(and the administration on the occasion of the removal of
the deposits, and on the present occasion, relies upon it as
in full force), it gave the Secretary no such discretion as
he has exercised. That resolution required and directed the
Secretary of the Treasury to adopt such measures as he might
deem necessary, 'to cause, as soon as may be, all duties, taxes,
debts, or sums of money, accruing or becoming payable to the
United States, to be collected and paid in the legal currency of
the United States, or treasury notes, or notes of the Bank of
the United States, as by law provided and declared, or in notes
of banks which are payable and paid on demand, in said legal
currency of the United States.' This resolution was restrictive
and prohibitory upon the Secretary only as to the notes of banks
not redeemable in specie on demand. As to all such notes, he was
forbidden to receive them from and after the 20th of February,
1817. As to the notes of banks which were payable and paid on
demand in specie, the resolution was not merely permissive, it
was compulsory and mandatory. He was bound, and is yet bound, to
receive them, until Congress interfere."
Mr. Benton replied to the arguments of Mr. Ewing, the letter of
Mr. Biddle, and the speech of Mr. Clay; and considered them all
as identical, and properly answered in the lump, without special
reference to the co-operating assailants. On the point of the
alleged illegality of the treasury order, he produced the Joint
Resolution of 1816 under which it was done; and then said:
"This is the law, and nothing can be plainer than the right
of selection which it gives to the Secretary of the Treasury.
Four different _media_ are mentioned in which the revenue may
be collected, and the Secretary is made the actor, the agent,
and the power, by which the collection is to be effected. He
is to do it in one, or in another. He may choose several, or
all, or two, or one. All are in the disjunctive. No two are
joined together, but all are disjoined, and presented to him
individually and separately. It is clearly the right of the
Secretary to order the collections to be made in either of the
four _media_ mentioned. That the resolution is not mandatory
in favor of any one of the four, is obvious from the manner in
which the notes of the Bank of the United States are mentioned.
They were to be received as then provided for by law; for the
bank charter had then just passed; and the 14th section had
provided for the reception of the notes of this institution
until Congress, by law, should direct otherwise. The right of
the institution to deliver its notes in payment of the revenue,
was anterior to this resolution, and always held under that
14th section, never under this joint resolution, and when that
section was repealed at the last session of this Congress,
that right was admitted to be gone, and has never been claimed
since. The words of the law are clear; the practice under
it has been uniform and uninterrupted from the date of its
passage to the present day. For twenty years, and under three
Presidents, all the Secretaries of the Treasury have acted
alike. Each has made selections, permitting the notes of some
specie-paying banks to be received, and forbidding others. Mr.
Crawford did it in numerous instances; and fierce and universal
as were the attacks upon that eminent patriot, during the
presidential canvass of 1824, no human being ever thought of
charging him with illegality in this respect. Mr. Rush twice
made similar selections, during the administration of Mr. Adams,
and no one, either in the same cabinet with him, or out of the
cabinet against him, ever complained of it. For twenty years
the practice has been uniform; and every citizen of the West
knows that that practice was the general, though not universal,
exclusion of the Western specie-paying bank paper from the
Western land offices. This every man in the West knows, and
knows that that general exclusion continued down to the day that
the Bank of the United States ceased to be the depository of the
public moneys. It was that event which opened the door to the
receivability of State bank paper which has since been enjoyed."
Having vindicated the treasury order from the charge of illegality,
Mr. Benton took up the head of the new distress, and said:
"The news of all this approaching calamity was given out in
advance in the Kentucky speech and the Philadelphia letter,
already referred to; and the fact of its positive advent and
actual presence was vouched by the senator from Ohio [Mr. Ewing]
on the last day that the Senate was in session. I do not permit
myself (said Mr. B.) to bandy contradictory asseverations and
debatable assertions across this floor. I choose rather to make
an issue, and to test assertion by the application of evidence.
In this way I will proceed at present. I will take the letter
of the president of the Bank of the United States as being
official in this case, and most authoritative in the distress
department of this combined movement against President Jackson.
He announces, in November, the forthcoming of the national
calamity in December; and after charging part of this ruin and
mischief on the mode of executing what he ostentatiously styles
the distribution law, when there is no such law in the country,
he goes on to charge the remainder, being ten-fold more than the
former upon the Treasury order which excludes paper money from
the land offices."
Mr. Benton then read Mr. Biddle's description of the new distress,
which, in his publication was awful and appalling, but which, he
said, was nowhere visible except in the localities where the bank
had power to make it. It was a picture of woe and ruin, but not
without hope and remedy if Congress followed his directions; in the
mean time he thus instructed the country how to behave, and promised
his co-operation--that of the bank--in the overthrow of President
Jackson, and his successor, Mr. Van Buren (for that is what he meant
in this passage):
"In the mean time, all forbearance and calmness should be
maintained. There is great reason for anxiety--none whatever for
alarm; and with mutual confidence and courage, the country may
yet be able to defend itself against the government. In that
struggle my own poor efforts shall not be wanting. I go for the
country, whoever rules it. I go for the country, loved when
worst governed--and it will afford me far more gratification
to assist in repairing wrongs, than to triumph over those who
inflict them."
This pledge of aid in a struggle with the government was a key
to unlock the meaning of the movements then going on to produce
the general suspension of specie payments in all the banks which
saluted the administration of Mr. Van Buren in the first quarter
of its existence, and intended to produce it in its first month.
Considering specie payments as the only safety of the country, and
foreseeing the general bank explosions, chiefly contrived by the
Bank of the United States, which was to re-appear in the ruin, and
claim its re-establishment as the only remedy for the evils which
itself and its confederates created, Mr. Benton said:
"There is no safety for the federal revenues but in the total
exclusion of local paper, and that from every branch of the
revenue--customs, lands, and post office. There is no safety for
the national finances but in the constitutional medium of gold
and silver. After forty years of wandering in the wilderness
of paper money, we have approached the confines of the
constitutional medium. Seventy-five millions of specie in the
country, with the prospect of annual increase of ten or twelve
millions for the next four years; three branch mints to commence
next spring, and the complete restoration of the gold currency;
announce the success of President Jackson's great measures
for the reform of the currency and vindicate the constitution
from the libel of having prescribed an impracticable currency.
The success is complete; and there is no way to thwart it,
but to put down the treasury order, and to re-open the public
lands to the inundation of paper money. Of this, it is not to
be dissembled, there is great danger. Four deeply interested
classes are at work to do it--speculators, local banks, United
States Bank, and politicians out of power. They may succeed, but
he (Mr. B.) would not despair. The darkest hour of night is just
before the break of day; and, through the gloom ahead, he saw
the bright vision of the constitutional currency erect, radiant,
and victorious. Through regulation, or explosion, success must
eventually come. If reform measures go on, gold and silver will
be gradually and temperately restored; if reform measures are
stopped, then the paper system runs riot, and explodes from its
own expansion. Then the Bank of the United States will exult
in the catastrophe, and claim its own re-establishment as the
only adequate regulator of the local banks. Then it will be said
the specie experiment has failed! But no; the contrary will be
known, that the specie experiment has not failed, but it was
put down by the voice and power of the interested classes, and
must be put up again by the voice and power of the disinterested
community."
This was uttered in December 1836: in April 1837 it was history.
Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, replied to Mr. Benton; and said:
"The senator from Missouri had exhibited a table, the results
of which he had pressed with a very triumphant air. Was it
extraordinary that the deposit banks should be strengthened?
The effect of the order went directly to sustain them. But
it was at the expense of all the other banks of the country.
Under this order, all the specie was collected and carried into
their vaults: an operation which went to disturb and embarrass
the general circulation of the country, and to produce that
pecuniary difficulty which was felt in all quarters of the
Union. Mr. C. did not profess to be competent to judge how far
the whole of this distress was attributable to the operation
of the treasury order, but of this at least he was very sure,
through a great part of the Western country, it was universally
attributed to that cause. The senator from Missouri supposed
that the order had produced no part of this pressure. If not,
he would ask what it had produced? Had it increased the specie
in the country? Had it increased the specie in actual and
general circulation? If it had done no evil, what good had it
done? This, he believed was as yet undiscovered. So far as
it had operated at all, it had been to derange the state of
the currency, and to give it a direction inverse to the course
of business. The honorable senator, however, could not see
how moving money across a street could operate to affect the
currency; and seemed to suppose that moving money from west to
east, or from east to west, would have as little effect. Money,
however, if left to itself, would always move according to the
ordinary course of business transactions. This course might
indeed be disturbed for a time, but it would be like forcing the
needle away from the pole: you might turn it round and round as
often as you pleased, but, left to itself, it would still settle
at the north. Our great commercial cities were the natural
repositories where money centred and settled. There it was
wanted, and it was more valuable if left there than if carried
into the interior. Any intelligent business man in the West
would rather have money paid him for a debt in New-York than at
his own door. It was worth more to him. If, then, specie was
forced, by treasury tactics, to take a direction contrary to the
natural course of business, and to move from east to west, the
operation would be beneficial to none, injurious to all. It was
not in the power of government to keep it in a false direction
or position. Specie was in exile whenever it was forced out of
that place where business called for it. Such an operation did
no real good. It was a forced movement and was soon overcome by
the natural course of things.
"Mr. C. was well aware that men might be deluded and mystified
on this subject, and that while the delusion lasted, this
treasury order might be held up before the eyes of men as a
splendid arrangement in finance; but it was only like the
natural rainbow, which owed its very existence to the mist in
which it had its being. The moment the atmosphere was clear,
its bright colors vanished from the view. So it would be with
this matter. The specie of the country must resume its natural
course. Man might as well escape from the physical necessities
of their nature, as from the laws which governed the movements
of finance: and the man who professed to reverse or dispense
with the one was no greater quack than he who made the same
professions with regard to the other.
"But it was said to be the distribution bill which had done all
the mischief; and Mr. C. was ready to admit that the manner in
which the government had attempted to carry that law into effect
might in part have furnished the basis for such a supposition.
He had no doubt that the pecuniary evils of the country had been
aggravated by the manner in which this had been done."
Mr. Webster also replied to Mr. Benton, in an elaborate speech, in
which, before arguing the legal question, he said:
"The honorable member from Missouri (Mr. Benton) objects even
to giving the resolution to rescind a second reading. He avails
himself of his right, though it be not according to general
practice, to arrest the progress of the measure at its first
stage. This, at least, is open, bold, and manly warfare.
The honorable member, in his elaborate speech, founds his
opposition to this resolution, and his support of the treasury
order, on those general principles respecting currency which
he is known to entertain, and which he has maintained for many
years. His opinions some of us regard as altogether ultra and
impracticable; looking to a state of things not desirable in
itself, even if it were practicable; and, if it were desirable,
as being far beyond the power of this government to bring about.
"The honorable member has manifested much perseverance and
abundant labor, most undoubtedly, in support of his opinions;
he is understood, also, to have had countenance from high
places; and what new hopes of success the present moment holds
out to him, I am not able to judge, but we shall probably soon
see. It is precisely on these general and long-known opinions
that he rests his support of the treasury order. A question,
therefore, is at once raised between the gentleman's principles
and opinions on the subject of the currency, and the principles
and opinions which have generally prevailed in the country,
and which are, and have been, entirely opposite to his. That
question is now about to be put to the vote of the Senate. In
the progress and by the termination of this discussion, we
shall learn whether the gentleman's sentiments are or are not
to prevail, so far, at least, as the Senate is concerned. The
country will rejoice, I am sure, to see some declaration of
the opinions of Congress on a subject about which so much has
been said, and which is so well calculated, by its perpetual
agitation, to disquiet and disturb the confidence of society.
"We are now fast approaching the day when one administration
goes out of office, and another is to come in. The country has
an interest in learning, as soon as possible, whether the new
administration, while it receives the power and patronage, is
to inherit, also, the topics and the projects of the past;
whether it is to keep up the avowal of the same objects and
the same schemes, especially in regard to the currency. The
order of the Secretary is prospective, and, on the face of it,
perpetual. Nothing in or about it gives it the least appearance
of a temporary measure. On the contrary, its terms imply no
limitation in point of duration, and the gradual manner in
which it is to come into operation shows plainly an intention
of making it the settled and permanent policy of government.
Indeed, it is but now beginning its complete existence. It is
only five or six days since its full operation has commenced. Is
it to stand as the law of the land and the rule of the treasury,
under the administration which is to ensue? And are those
notions of an exclusive specie currency, and opposition to all
banks, on which it is defended, to be espoused and maintained by
the new administration, as they have been by its predecessor?
These are questions, not of mere curiosity, but of the highest
interest to the whole country. In considering this order, the
first thing naturally is, to look for the causes which led to
it, or are assigned for its promulgation. And these, on the
face of the order itself, are declared to be 'complaints which
have been made of frauds, speculations, and monopolies, in the
purchase of the public lands, and the aid which is said to be
given to effect these objects, by excessive bank credits, and
dangerous, if not partial, facilities through bank drafts and
bank deposits, and the general evil influence likely to result
to the public interest, and especially the safety of the great
amount of money in the treasury, and the sound condition of
the currency of the country, from the further exchange of the
national domain in this manner, and chiefly for bank credits and
paper money.'
"This is the catalogue of evils to be cured by this order.
In what these frauds consist, what are the monopolies
complained of, or what is precisely intended by these injurious
speculations, we are not informed. All is left on the general
surmise of fraud, speculation, and monopoly. It is not avowed
or intimated that the government has sustained any loss,
either by the receipt of the bank notes which proved not to
be equivalent to specie, or in any other way. And it is not a
little remarkable that these evils, of fraud, speculation, and
monopoly, should have become so enormous and so notorious, on
the 11th of July, as to require this executive interference for
their suppression, and yet that they should not have reached
such a height as to make it proper to lay the subject before
Congress, although Congress remained in session until within
seven days of the date of the order. And what makes this
circumstance still more remarkable, is the fact that, in his
annual message, at the commencement of the same session, the
President had spoken of the rapid sales of the public lands as
one of the most gratifying proofs of the general prosperity of
the country, without suggesting that any danger whatever was
to be apprehended from fraud, speculation, or monopoly. His
words were: 'Among the evidences of the increasing prosperity
of the country, not the least gratifying, is that afforded by
the receipts from the sales of the public lands, which amount,
in the present year, to the unexpected sum of eleven millions.'
From the time of the delivery of that message, down to the date
of the treasury order, there had not been the least change, so
far as I know, or so far as we are informed, in the manner of
receiving payment for the public lands. Every thing stood, on
the 11th of July, 1836, as it had stood at the opening of the
session, in December, 1835. How so different a view of things
happened to be taken at the two periods, we may be able to
learn, perhaps, in the further progress of this debate.
"The order speaks of the 'evil influence' likely to result from
the further exchange of the public lands into 'paper money.'
Now, this is the very language of the gentleman from Missouri.
He habitually speaks of the notes of all banks, however
solvent, and however promptly their notes may be redeemed in
gold and silver, as 'paper money.' The Secretary has adopted
the honorable member's phrases, and he speaks, too, of all the
bank notes received at the land offices, although every one of
them is redeemable in specie, on demand, but as so much 'paper
money.' In this respect, also, sir, I hope we may know more as
we grow older, and be able to learn whether, in times to come,
as in times recently passed, the justly obnoxious and odious
character of 'paper money' is to be applied to the issues of
all the banks in all the States, with whatever punctuality they
redeem their bills. This is quite new, as financial language.
By paper money, in its obnoxious sense, I understand paper
issues on credit alone, without capital, without funds assigned
for its payment, resting only on the good faith and the future
ability of those who issue it. Such was the paper money of our
revolutionary times; and such, perhaps, may have been the true
character of the paper of particular institutions since. But
the notes of banks of competent capitals, limited in amount to
a due proportion to such capitals, made payable on demand in
gold and silver, and always so paid on demand, are paper money
in no sense but one; that is to say, they are made of paper,
and they circulate as money. And it may be proper enough for
those who maintain that nothing should so circulate but gold and
silver, to denominate such bank notes 'paper money,' since they
regard them but as paper intruders into channels which should
flow only with gold and silver. If this language of the order is
authentic, and is to be so hereafter, and all bank notes are to
be regarded and stigmatized as mere 'paper money,' the sooner
the country knows it the better.
"The member from Missouri charges those who wish to rescind the
treasury order with two objects: first, to degrade and disgrace
the President; and, next, to overthrow the constitutional
currency of the country. For my own part, sir, I denounce
nobody; I seek to degrade or disgrace nobody. Holding the order
illegal and unwise, I shall certainly vote to rescind it;
and, in the discharge of this duty, I hope I am not expected
to shrink back, lest I might do something which might call in
question the wisdom of the Secretary, or even of the President.
And I hope that so much of independence as may be manifested by
free discussion and an honest vote is not to cause denunciation
from any quarter. If it should, let it come."
It became a very extended debate, in which Mr. Niles, Mr. Rives,
Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Southard, Mr. Strange of N. C., Mr. Clay, Mr.
Walker of Miss., and others partook. The subject having been
referred to the committee of public lands, of which Mr. Walker was
chairman, reported a bill, "limiting and designating the funds
receivable for the revenues of the United States;" the object of
which was to rescind the treasury circular without naming it, and
to continue the receipt of bank notes in payment of all dues to the
government. Soon after the bill was reported, and had received its
second reading, a motion was made in the Senate to lay the impending
subject (public lands) on the table for the purpose of considering
the bill reported by Mr. Walker to limit and designate the funds
receivable in public dues. Mr. Benton was taken by surprise by this
motion, which was immediately agreed to, and the bill ordered to be
engrossed for a third reading the next day. To that third reading
Mr. Benton looked for his opportunity to speak; and availed himself
of it, commencing his speech with giving the reason why he did not
speak the evening before when the question was on the engrossment
of the bill. He said he could not have foreseen that the subject
depending before the Senate, the bill for limiting the sales of the
public lands to actual settlers, would be laid down for the purpose
of taking up this subject out of its order; and, therefore, had not
brought with him some memorandums which he intended to use when
this subject came up. He did not choose to ask for delay, because
his habit was to speak to subjects when they were called; and in
this particular cause he did not think it material when he spoke;
for he was very well aware that his speaking would not affect the
fate of the bill. It would pass; and that was known to all in the
chamber. It was known to the senator from Ohio (Mr. Ewing) who
indulged himself in saying he thought otherwise a few days ago;
but that was only a good-natured way of stimulating his friends,
and bringing them up to the scratch. The bill would pass, and that
by a good vote, for it would have the vote of the opposition, and
a division of the administration vote. Why, then, did he speak?
Because it was due to his position, and the part he had acted on
the currency questions, to express his sentiments more fully on
this bill, so vital to the general currency, than could be done
by a mere negative vote. He should, therefore, speak against it,
and should direct his attention to the bill reported by the Public
Land Committee, which had so totally changed the character of the
proceeding on this subject. The recision of the treasury order was
introduced a resolution--it went out a resolution--but it came back
a bill, and a bill to regulate, not the land office receipts only,
but all the receipts of the federal government; and in this new form
is to become statute law, and a law to operate on all the revenues,
and to repeal all other laws upon the subject to which it related.
In this new form it assumes an importance, and acquires an effect,
infinitely beyond a resolution, and becomes in fact, as well as in
name, a totally new measure. Mr. B. reminded the Senate that he had,
in his first speech on this subject, given it as his opinion, that
two main objects were proposed to be accomplished by the rescinding
resolution; first, the implied condemnation of President Jackson for
violating the laws and constitution, and destroying the prosperity
of the country; and, secondly, the imposition of the paper currency
of the States upon the federal government. With respect to the first
of these objects, he presumed it was fully proved by the speeches
of all the opposition senators who had spoken on this subject; and,
with respect to the second, he believed it would find its proof in
the change which the original resolution had undergone, and the form
it was now assuming of statute law, and especially with the proviso
which was added at the end of the second section.
Mr. B. then took up the bill reported by the committee, and
remarked, first, upon its phraseology, not in the spirit of
verbal criticism, but in the spirit of candid objection and fair
argument. There were cases in which words were things, and this
was one of those cases. Money was a thing, and the only words in
the constitution of that thing were, "gold and silver coin." The
bill of the committee was systematically exclusive of the words
which meant this thing, and used words which included things
which were not money. These words were, then, a fair subject of
objection and argument, because they went to set aside the money of
the constitution, and to admit the public revenues to be paid in
something which was not money. The title of the bill uses the word
"funds." It professes to designate the funds receivable for the
revenues of the United States. Upon this word Mr. B. had remarked
before, as being one of the most indefinite in the English language;
and, so far from signifying money only, even paper money only, that
it comprehended every variety of paper security, public or private,
individual or corporate out of which money could be raised. The
retention of this word by the committee, after the objections made
to it, were indicative of their intentions to lay open the federal
treasury to the reception of something which was not constitutional
money; and this intention, thus disclosed in the title to the bill,
was fully carried out in its enactments. The words "legal currency
of the United States" are twice used in the first section, when the
words "gold and silver" would have been more appropriate and more
definite, if hard money was intended.
Mr. B. admitted that, in the eye of a regular bred constitutional
lawyer, legal currency might imply constitutional currency; but
certain it was that the common and popular meaning of the phrase was
not limited to constitutional money, but included every currency
that the statute law made receivable for debts. Thus, the notes of
the Bank of the United States were generally considered as legal
currency, because receivable by law in payment of public dues; and
in like manner the notes of all specie-paying banks would, under
the committee's bill, rise to the dignity of legal currency. The
second section of the bill twice used the word "cash;" a word which,
however understood at the Bank of England, where it always means
ready money, and where ready money signifies gold coin in hand, yet
with the banks with which we have to deal it has no such meaning,
but includes all sorts of current paper money on hand, as well as
gold and silver on hand.
Having remarked upon the phraseology of the bill, and shown that a
paper currency composed of the notes of a thousand local banks, not
only might become the currency of the federal government, but was
evidently intended to be made its currency; and that in the face of
all the protestations of the friends of the administration in favor
of re-establishing the national gold currency, Mr. B. would now
take up the bill of the committee under two or three other aspects,
and show it to be as mistaken in its design as it would be impotent
in its effect. In the first place, it transferred the business of
suppressing the small note circulation from the deposit branch
to the collecting branch of the public revenue. At present, the
business was in a course of progress through the deposit banks, as
a condition of holding the public moneys; and, as such, had a place
in the deposit act of the last session, and also had a place in the
President's message of the last session, where the suppression of
paper currency under twenty dollars was expressly referred to the
action of the deposit banks, and as a condition of their retaining
the public deposits. It was through the deposit banks, and not
through the reception of local bank paper, that the suppression
of small notes should be effected. In the next place, he objected
to the committee's bill, because it proposed to make a bargain
with each of the thousand banks now in the United States, and the
hundreds more which will soon be born; and to give them a right--a
right by law--to have their notes received at the federal treasury.
He was against such a bargain. He had no idea of making a contract
with these thousand banks for the reception of their notes. He had
no idea of contracting with them, and giving them a right to plead
the constitution of the United States against us, if, at any time,
after having agreed to receive their notes, upon condition that they
would give up their small circulation, they should choose to say we
had impaired the contract by not continuing to receive them; and so
either relapse into the issue of this small trash, or have recourse
to the judicial process to compel the United States to abide the
contract, and continue the reception of all their notes. Mr. B. had
no idea of letting down this federal government to such petty and
inconvenient bargains with a thousand moneyed corporations. The
government of the United States ought to act as a government, and
not as a contractor. It should prescribe conditions, and not make
bargains. It should give the law. He was against these bargains,
even if they were good ones; but they were bad bargains, wretchedly
bad, and ought to be rejected as such, even if all higher and nobler
considerations were out of the question. What is the consideration
that the United States is to receive? A mere individual agreement
with each bank by itself, that in three years it will cease to issue
notes under ten dollars and in five years it will cease to issue
notes under twenty dollars. What is the price which she pays for
this consideration? In the first place, it receives the notes of
such bank as gold and silver at all the land-offices, custom-houses,
and post-offices, of the United States; and, of course, pays them
out again as gold and silver to all her debtors. In the next place,
it compels the deposit banks to credit them as cash. In the third
place, it accredits the whole circulation of the banks, and makes
it current all over the United States, in consequence of universal
receivability for all federal dues. In other words, it endorses,
so far as credit is concerned, the whole circulation of every bank
that comes into the bargain thus proposed. This is certainly a
most wretched bargain on the part of the United States--a bargain
in which what she receives is ruinous to her; for the more local
payment she receives in payment of her revenues, the worse for her,
and the sooner will her treasury be filled with unavailable funds.
Mr. B. having gone over these objections to the committee's bill,
would now ascend to a class of objections of a higher and graver
character. He had already remarked that the committee had carried
out a resolution, and had brought back a bill; that the committee
proposed a statutory enactment, where the senator from Ohio [Mr.
Ewing], and the senator from Virginia [Mr. Rives], had only proposed
a joint resolution; and he had already further remarked, that in
addition to this total change in the mode of action, the committee
had added what neither of these senators had proposed, a clause,
under a proviso, to enact paper money into cash--to pass paper money
to the credit of the United States, as cash--and to punish, by the
loss of the deposits, any deposit bank which should refuse so to
receive, so to credit, and so to pass, the notes "receivable" under
the provisions of their bill. These two changes make entirely a new
measure--one of wholly a different character from the resolutions
of the two senators--a measure which openly and in terms, and under
penalties undertakes to make local State paper a legal tender to the
federal government, and to compel the reception of all its revenues
in the notes "receivable" under the provisions of the committee's
bill. After this gigantic step--this colossal movement--in favor of
paper money, there was but one step more for the committee to take;
and that was to make these notes a legal tender in all payments
from the federal government. But that step was unnecessary to
be taken in words, for it is taken in fact, when the other great
step becomes law. For it is incontestable that what the government
receives, it must pay out; and what it pays out becomes the currency
of the country. So that when this bill passes, the paper money of
the local banks will be a tender by law to the federal government,
and a tender by _duresse_ from the government to its creditors and
the people. This is the state to which the committee's bill will
bring us! and now, let us pause and contemplate, for a moment, the
position we occupy, and the vast ocean of paper on which we are
proposed to be embarked.
We stand upon a constitution which recognizes nothing but gold and
silver for money; we stand upon a legislation of near fifty years,
which recognizes nothing but gold and silver money. Now, for the
first time, we have a statutory enactment proposed to recognize the
paper of a wilderness of local banks for money, and in so doing to
repeal all prior legislation by law, and the constitution by fact.
This is an era in our legislation. It is statute law to control all
other law, and is not a resolution to aid other laws, and to express
the opinions of Congress. It is statutory enactment to create law,
and not a declaratory resolution to expound law; and the effects
of this statute would be, to make a paper government--to insure
the exportation of our specie--to leave the State banks without
foundations to rest upon--to produce a certain catastrophe in the
whole paper system--to revive the pretensions of the United States
Bank--and to fasten for a time the Adam Smith system upon the
Federal Government and the whole Union.
* * * * *
Mr. Benton concluded his speech with a warning against the coming
explosion of the banks; and said:
* * * * *
The day of revulsion may come sooner or later, and its effects may
be more or less disastrous; but, come it must, and disastrous, to
some degree, it must be. The present bloat in the paper system
cannot continue; the present depreciation of money exemplified
in the high price of every thing dependent upon the home market,
cannot last. The revulsion will come, as surely as it did in
1819-'20. But it will come with less force if the treasury order is
maintained, and if paper money shall be excluded from the federal
treasury. But, let these things go as they may, and let reckless
or mischievous banks do what they please, there is still a refuge
for the wise and good; there is still an ark of safety for every
honest bank, and for every prudent man; it is in the mass of gold
and silver now in the country--the seventy odd millions which the
wisdom of President Jackson's administration has accumulated--and
by getting their share of which, all who are so disposed can take
care of themselves. Sir (said Mr. B.), I have performed a duty to
myself, not pleasant, but necessary. This bill is to be an era in
our legislation and in our political history. It is to be a point
upon which the future age will be thrown back, and from which future
consequences will be traced. I separate myself from it; I wash my
hands of it; I oppose it. I am one of those who promised gold, not
paper. I promised the currency of the constitution, not the currency
of corporations. I did not join in putting down the Bank of the
United States, to put up a wilderness of local banks. I did not join
in putting down the paper currency of a national bank, to put up a
national paper currency of a thousand local banks. I did not strike
Cæsar to make Anthony master of Rome.
Mr. Walker replied to what he called the bill of indictment
preferred by the Senator from Missouri against the committee on
public lands; and after some prefatory remarks went on to say:
"But when that senator, having exhausted the argument, or
having none to offer had indulged in violent and intemperate
denunciation of the Committee on Public Lands, and of the
report made by him as their organ, Mr. W. could not withhold
the expression of his surprise and astonishment. Mr. W. said it
was his good fortune to be upon terms of the kindest personal
intercourse with every senator, and these friendly relations
should not be interrupted by any aggression upon his part.
And now, Mr. W. said, he called upon the whole Senate to bear
witness, as he was sure they all cheerfully would, that in this
controversy he was not the aggressor, and that nothing had been
done or said by him to provoke the wrath of the senator from
Missouri, unless, indeed, to differ from him in opinion upon
any subject constituted an offence in the mind of that senator.
If such were the views of that gentleman, if he was prepared to
immolate every senator who would not worship the same images of
gold and silver which decorated the political chapel of the
honorable gentleman, Mr. W. was fearful that the senator from
Missouri would do execution upon every member of the Senate
but himself, and be left here alone in his glory. Mr. W. said
he recurred to the remarks of the senator from Missouri with
feelings of regret, rather than of anger or excitement; and
that he could not but hope, that when the senator from Missouri
had calmly reflected upon this subject, he would himself see
much to regret in the course he had pursued in relation to
the Committee on Public Lands, and much to recall that he had
uttered under feelings of temporary excitement. Sir (said Mr.
W.), being deeply solicitous to preserve unbroken the ranks of
the democratic party in this body, participating with the people
in grateful recollection of the distinguished services rendered
by the senator from Missouri to the democracy of the Union, he
would pass by many of the remarks made by that senator on this
subject.
"[Mr. Benton here rose from his chair, and demanded, with much
warmth, that Mr. Walker should not pass by one of them. Mr. W.
asked, what one? Mr. B. replied, in an angry tone, Not one, sir.
Then Mr. W. said he would examine them all, and in a spirit of
perfect freedom; that he would endeavor to return blow for blow;
and that, if the senator from Missouri desired, as it appeared
he did, an angry controversy with him, in all its consequences,
in and out of this house, he could be gratified.]
"Sir (said Mr. W.), why has the senator from Missouri assailed
the Committee on Public Lands, and himself, as its humble organ?
He was not the author of this measure, so much denounced by
the senator from Missouri, nor had he said one word upon the
subject. The measure originated with the senator from Virginia
[Mr. Rives]. He was the author of the measure, and had been,
and still was, its able, zealous, and successful advocate. Why,
then, had the senator from Missouri assailed him (Mr. W.), and
permitted the author of the measure to escape unpunished? Sir,
are the arrows which appear to be aimed by the senator from
Missouri at the humble organ of the Committee on Public lands,
who reported this bill, intended to inflict a wound in another
quarter? Is one senator the apparent object of assault, when
another is designed as the real victim? Sir, when the senator
from Missouri, without any provocation, like a thunderbolt from
an unclouded sky, broke upon the Senate in a perfect tempest
of wrath and fury, bursting upon his poor head like a tropical
tornado, did he intend to sweep before the avenging storm
another individual more obnoxious to his censure?
"Sir (said Mr. W.), the senator from Missouri has thrice
repeated the prayer, 'God save the country from the Committee
on Public Lands;' but Mr. W. fully believed if the prayer of
the country could be heard within these walls, it would be, God
save us from the wild, visionary, ruinous, and impracticable
schemes of the senator of Missouri, for exclusive gold and
silver currency; and such is not only the prayer of the
country, but of the Senate, with scarcely a dissenting voice.
Sir, if the senator from Missouri could, by his mandate, in
direct opposition to the views of the President, heretofore
expressed, sweep from existence all the banks of the States,
and establish his exclusive constitutional currency of gold
and silver, he would bring upon this country scenes of ruin
and distress without a parallel--an immediate bankruptcy of
nearly every debtor, and of almost every creditor to whom
large amounts were due, a prodigious depreciation in the price
of all property and all products, and an immediate cessation
by States and individuals of nearly every work of private
enterprise or public improvement. The country would be involved
in one universal bankruptcy, and near the grave of the nation's
prosperity would perhaps repose the scattered fragments of
those great and glorious institutions which give happiness to
millions here, and hopes to millions more of disenthralment from
despotic power. Sir, in resistance to the power of the Bank of
the United States, in opposition to the re-establishment of
any similar institution, the senator from Missouri would find
Mr. W. with him; but he could not enlist as a recruit in this
new crusade against the banks of his own and every other State
in the Union. These institutions, whether for good or evil,
are created by the States, cherished and sustained by them, in
many cases owned in whole or in part by the States, and closely
united with their prosperity; and what right have we to destroy
them? What right had he, a humble servant of the people of
Mississippi, to say to his own, or any other State, your State
legislation is wrong--your State institution, your State banks,
must be annihilated, and we will legislate here to effect this
object. Are we the masters or servants of the sovereign States,
that we dare speak to them in language like this--that we dare
attempt to prostrate here those institutions which are created
and maintained by those very States which we represent on this
floor? These may be the opinions entertained by some senators
of their duty to the States they represent, but they were not
his (Mr. W's) views or his opinions. He was sincerely desirous
to co-operate with his State in limiting any dangerous powers
of the banks, in enlarging the circulation of gold and silver,
and in suppressing the small note currency, so as to avoid that
explosion which was to be apprehended from excessive issues of
bank paper. But a total annihilation of all the banks of his own
State, now possessing a chartered capital of near forty millions
of dollars, would, Mr. W. knew, produce almost universal
bankruptcy, and was not, he believed, anticipated by any one of
his constituents.
"But the senator from Missouri tells us that this measure of the
committee is a repeal of the constitution, by authorizing the
receipt of paper money in revenue payments. If so, then the
constitution never has had an existence; for the period cannot
be designated when paper money was not so receivable by the
federal government. This species of money was expressly made
receivable for the public dues by an act of Congress, passed
immediately after the adoption of the constitution, and which
remained in force until eighteen hundred and eleven. It was
so received, as a matter of practice, from eighteen hundred
and eleven until eighteen hundred and sixteen, when, again, by
an act of Congress then passed, and which has just expired,
it was so authorized to be received during all that period.
Now, although these acts have expired, there is that which is
equivalent to a law still in force, expressly authorizing the
notes of the specie-paying banks of the States to be received in
revenue payments. It is the joint resolution of eighteen hundred
and sixteen, adopted by both houses of Congress, and approved by
President Madison.
"Where is the distinction, in principle, as regards the
reception of bank paper on public account, between the two
provisions? And the senator from Missouri, in thus denouncing
the bill of the committee as a repeal of the constitution,
denounces directly the President of the United States. Congress,
no more than a State legislature, can make any thing but
gold or silver a tender in payment of debts by one citizen
to another; but that Congress, or a State legislature, or an
individual, may waive their constitutional rights, and receive
bank paper or drafts, in payment of any debt, is a principle of
universal adoption in theory and practice, and never doubted
by any one until at the present session by the senator from
Missouri. The distinction of the senator in this respect was as
incomprehensible to him (Mr. W.) as he believed it was to every
senator, and, indeed, was discernible only by the magnifying
powers of a solar microscope. It was a point-no-point, which,
like the logarithmic spiral, or asymptote of the hyperbolic
curve, might be for ever approached without reaching; an
infinitesimal, the ghost of an idea, not only without length,
breadth, thickness, shape, weight, or dimensions, but without
position--a mere imaginary nothing, which flitted before the
bewildered vision of the honorable senator, when traversing,
in his fitful somnambulism, that tesselated pavement of gold,
silver, and bullion, which that senator delighted to occupy.
Sir, the senator, from Missouri might have heaped mountain
high his piles of metal; he might have swept, in his Quixotic
flight, over the banks of the States, putting to the sword
their officers, stockholders, directory, and legislative bodies
by which they were chartered; he might, in his reveries, have
demolished their charters, and consumed their paper by the fire
of his eloquence; he might have transacted, in fancy, with a
metallic currency of twenty-eight millions in circulation, an
actual annual business of fifteen hundred millions, and Mr. W.
would not have disturbed his beatific visions, nor would any
other senator--for they were visions only, that could never
be realized--but when, descending from his ethereal flights,
he seized upon the Committee on Public Lands as criminals,
arraigned them as violators of the constitution, and prayed
Heaven for deliverance from them, Mr. W. could be silent no
longer. Yes, even then he would have passed lightly over the
ashes of the theories of the honorable Senator, for, if he
desired to make assaults upon any, it would be upon the living,
and not the dead; but that senator, in the opening of his
(Mr. W.'s) address, had rejected the olive branch which, upon
the urgent solicitation of mutual friends, against his own
judgment, he had extended to the honorable senator. The senator
from Missouri had thus, in substance, declared his 'voice was
still for war.' Be it so; but he hoped the Senate would all
recollect that he (Mr. W.) was not the aggressor; and that,
whilst he trusted he never would wantonly assail the feelings
or reputation of any senator, he thanked God that he was not so
abject or degraded as to submit, with impunity, to unprovoked
attacks or unfounded accusations from any quarter. Could he thus
submit, he would be unfit to represent the noble, generous, and
gallant people, whose rights and interests it was his pride and
glory to endeavor to protect, whose honor and character were
dearer to him than life itself, and should never be tarnished by
any act of his, as one of their humble representatives upon this
floor."
Mr. Rives returned thanks to Mr. Walker for his able and
satisfactory defence of the bill, which in fact was his own
resolution changed into a bill. He should not be able to add much
to what had been said by the honorable senator, but was desirous of
adding his mite in reply to so much of what had been so zealously
urged by the senator from Missouri (Mr. Benton), as had not been
touched upon by the chairman of the land committee; and did so in an
elaborate speech a few days thereafter. Mr. Benton did not reply to
either of the senators; he believed that the events of a few months
would answer them, and the vote being immediately taken, the bill
was passed almost unanimously--only five dissenting votes. The yeas
and nays were:
YEAS--Messrs. Black, Brown, Buchanan, Clay, Clayton, Crittenden,
Cuthbert, Dana, Davis, Ewing of Illinois, Ewing of Ohio, Fulton,
Grundy, Hendricks, Hubbard, Kent, King of Alabama, King of
Georgia, Knight, McKean, Moore, Nicholas, Niles, Norvell, Page,
Parker, Prentiss, Preston, Rives, Robbins, Robinson, Sevier,
Southard, Swift, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomlinson, Walker, Wall,
Webster, White.--41.
NAYS--Messrs. Benton, Linn, Morris, Ruggles, Wright--5.
The name of Mr. Calhoun is not in either list of these votes. He had
a reason for not voting, which he expressed to the Senate, before
the vote was taken; thus:
"He had been very anxious to express his opinions somewhat at
large upon this subject. He put no faith in this measure to
arrest the downward course of the country. He believed the state
of the currency was almost incurably bad, so that it was very
doubtful whether the highest skill and wisdom could restore
it to soundness; and it was destined, at no distant time,
to undergo an entire revolution. An explosion he considered
inevitable, and so much the greater, the longer it should be
delayed. Mr. C. would have been glad to go over the whole
subject; but as he was now unprepared to assign his reasons for
the vote which he might give, he was unwilling to vote at all."
The explosion of the banks, which Mr. Calhoun considered inevitable,
was an event so fully announced by its "shadow coming before," that
Mr. Benton was astonished that so many senators could be blind to
its approach, and willing, by law, to make their notes receivable in
all payments to the federal government. The bill went to the House
of Representatives, where a very important amendment was reported
from the Committee of Ways and Means to which the bill had been
referred, intended to preserve to the Secretary of the Treasury his
control over the receivability of money for the public dues, so as
to enable him to protect the constitutional currency and reject
the notes of banks deemed by him to be unworthy of credit. That
amendment was in these words, and its rejection goes to illustrate
the character of the bill that was passed:
"_And be it further enacted_, That no part of this act shall
be construed as repealing any existing law relative to the
collection of the revenue from customs or public lands in the
legal currency, or as substituting bank notes of any description
as a lawful currency for coin, as provided in the constitution
of the United States; nor to deprive the Secretary of the
Treasury of the power to direct the collectors or receivers of
the public revenue, whether derived from duties, taxes, debts,
or sales of the public lands, not to receive in payment, for any
sum due to the United States, the notes of any bank or banks
which the said Secretary may have reason to believe unworthy
of credit, or which he apprehends may be compelled to suspend
specie payments."
Mr. Cambreleng, chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, in
support of this amendment, said it had been reported for the
purpose of preventing a misconstruction of the bill as it came from
the Senate, and securing the public revenue from serious frauds,
and asked for the yeas and nays. The amendment was cut off by a
sustained call for the previous question; and the bill passed by a
strong vote--143 to 59 The nays were:
NAYS--Messrs. Ash, Barton, Bean, Beaumont, Black, Bockee, Boyd,
Brown, Burns, Cambreleng, Chaney, Chapin, Coles, Cushman,
Doubleday, Dromgoole, Efner, Fairfield, Farlin, Fry, Fuller,
Galbraith, J. Hall, Hamer, Hardin, A. G. Harrison, Hawes, Holt,
Huntington, Jarvis, C. Johnson, B. Jones, Lansing, J. Lee,
Leonard, Logan, Loyall, A. Mann, W. Mason, M. Mason, McKay,
McKeon, McLean, Page, Parks, F. Pierce, Joseph Reynolds, Rogers,
Seymour, Shinn, Sickles, Smith, Taylor, Thomas, J. Thomson,
Turrill, Vanderpoel, Ward, Wardwell--59.
It was near the end of the session before the bill passed the House
of Representatives. It only got to the hands of the President in the
afternoon of the day before the constitutional dissolution of the
Congress. He might have retained it (for want of the ten days for
consideration which the constitution allowed him), without assigning
any reason to Congress for so doing; but he chose to assign a
reason which, though good and valid in itself, may have been helped
on to its conclusions by the evil tendencies of the measure. That
reason was the ambiguous and equivocal character of the bill, and
the diversity of interpretations which might be placed upon its
provisions; and was contained in the following message to the Senate:
"The bill from the Senate entitled 'An act designating and
limiting the funds receivable for the revenues of the United
States', came to my hands yesterday, at two o'clock P. M. On
perusing it, I found its provisions so complex and uncertain,
that I deemed it necessary to obtain the opinion of the Attorney
General of the United States on several important questions,
touching its construction and effect, before I could decide on
the disposition to be made of it. The Attorney General took up
the subject immediately, and his reply was reported to me this
day, at five o'clock P. M. As this officer, after a careful and
laborious examination of the bill, and a distinct expression of
his opinion on the points proposed to him, still came to the
conclusion that the construction of the bill, should it become
a law, would be yet a subject of much perplexity and doubt (a
view of the bill entirely coincident with my own), and as I
cannot think it proper, in a matter of such interest and of such
constant application, to approve a bill so liable to diversity
of interpretations, and more especially as I have not had time,
amid the duties constantly pressing on me, to give the subject
that deliberate consideration which its importance demands, I
am constrained to retain the bill, without acting definitively
thereon; and to the end that my reasons for this step may be
fully understood. I shall cause this paper, with the opinion of
the Attorney General, and the bill in question, to be deposited
in the Department of State."
Thus the firmness of the President again saved the country from an
immense calamity, and in a few months covered him with the plaudits
of a preserved and grateful country.