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MR. FLOYD, OF NEW YORK,

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THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY BILL-

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Tuesday, June 11, 1840.

MR. FLOYD rose and said —

Mr. Chairman : The history of the proposition
“ to provide for the collection, safe keeping, trans-
fer and disbursement of the public revenue,” con-
tained in the bill now under consideration, affords,
as I think, much instruction for those w,ho would
learn aright the character of the American people,
and is alike creditable to the distinguished indivi-
dual at the head of this Government, who first pro-
posed it for the consideration of Congress, and to
the intelligence of our fellow-citizens, who, through
their agents, here assembled, are, as I apprehend,
about to carry it into effect by the form and sanc-
tion of law.

The peculiar situation of the currency, when the
plan of an Independent Treasury was first laid
before the country by the President, in his mes-
sage of 1837, is doubtless well remembered by all
on this floor, and as I then thought, and still think,
imperatively called upon the Chief Magistrate to
propose some plan by which the treasure of the
people, collected from them, and held in trust for
them by their servants, should be safely preserved
for its appropriate uses, and not subjected to the
embarrassments and losses which had been and
might again be occasioned, by the reckless cupidity
of unprincipled corporations.

The whole army of monied monopolies through-
out the country was utterly prostrate and flat; and
the numerous retinue of camp followers, consist-
ing of directors, stockholders, counsellors, attor-
neys, brokers, debtors, and runners, in Congress
and out of it, were unable to give them any aid.
The currency — if currency it could be called —
consisted of bank paper, for which not a dollar of
money could be obtained, and which was in truth
little. more than a certificate of the great gullibility
of the people, and the fraudulent bankruptcy of
tb«6e who issued it. Even Baal himself ceased to

be a God. The great idol of the Federal party —
the United States Bank — having exhausted its en-
ergies in a fierce warfare upon the “ old Roman,”
and in the payment of bribes, in the shape of im-
mense counsel fees, to Senators and Congressmen,
toppled headlong down, from its own rottenness,
and the wrecks of the State banks were scattered
throughout the country in such a profusion of cor-
ruption, that the whole land stank. Shoals of
speculators and merchants, who had hoisted all
sail to catch the prospering breeze, and were riding,
as they supposed, on the top billow to wealth and
luxury, were, by the receding wave, left like shell
fish high and dry upon the sand, to gape and rot.
The people themselves, in their associated capacity
as a people, did not escape unscathed. Their trea-
sure, which they had contributed lor their general
welfare, had been entrusted for safe keeping to
those faithless agents, the banks, and a call upon
them for payment was as ineffectual as would have
been a call upon the dead to arise; they had neither
the disposition to pay, nor the ability.

The lobbies of the State Legislatures were over-
run with bank vermin. All the well known ap-
pliances of the bank* were put in requisition to
procure the sacred power of the States to sustain
and support an insolvent banking interest. The
stockholders of banks in the Legislatures needed
no prompting to promote their own interest. To
such in the Legislature who owed the banks,
threats, direct or indirect, were used, while
others were assailed by the most abject entrea-
ties — for the veriest beggar for cold victuals
cannot “ crook the pregnant hinges of the knee”
with more suppleness than a bank aristocrat,
whenever “ thrift may follow fawning.” And so
effectually was the object pursued, that throughout
this whole confederacy of sovereign states, I be- .
lieve, without one exception, the legislative power
of the State was brought to bow in submission at
the feet of the bankrupt moneyed aaaaeigtioB*.
But, sir, while the several States were brought

Vvi\ V\ V

2

*3 Jon by bank influence from within and from
without, to blot their statute books with infamous

ispension laws, legalizing the fraud; of the banks,
S id sanctioning their continuance, enabling them
to reap a harvest of wealth from the ruin theynad
themselves occasioned, the people were subject to
the tender mercies of their own agents, and were
compelled to receive their own money in a depre-
ciated currency ; and in paying their servants, their
military, civil and naval officers, the hardy soldier,
the gallant sailor, and the laborer on public works,
were compelled to make up in quantity what the
bank currency lacked in quality.

Such, Mr. Chairman, was the situation, but
faintly described, of the currency and the currency
making institutions of the country, when the Pre-
sident of the United States, the highest public ser-
vant of the people, elected by themselves — by their
free, unbiassed suffrages — to watch over their
interests, in the discharge of his duty, proposed to
Congress, and through Congress to the country,
that national honor and honesty — a proper dis-
charge of national obligations — yea, justice to
themselves, required that the people should keep
their own money in their own way — trusting none
but servants selected by themselves for their inte-
grity and fidelity, and dissolving, forever, a connec-
tion with the banks, which had proved so disas-
rous.

And, sir, how was the proposition met by the
Federal party in this House and in the country 1
By' unqualified, bitter hostility. The propensities
of privileged orders are the same in all countries.
Do the nobility of England grasp with less energy
their titular distinctions, because all ttie causes
■which led to their creation, and all the circum-
stances and associations which gave them worth
and grandeur, have long since passed away!
and because the tinsel glitter, which distinguishes
them, is but the phosphorescent glow which marks
their decay ! Not at all. And the Federal party
in this country, which apes, at an humble distance,
the aristocratic mummery of Great Britain, never
buckled on their harness in defence of their fa-
vorite privileged institutions with more zeal, than
when those institutions had shown themselves to
be utterly worthless and corrupt. Well, sir, they
opposed, they defeated the Independent Treasury
•plan. Did they propose any thing in its stead !
•Nothing. Like Satan, they had power to do evil,
butueither power nor inclination to do good. They
had strength to prevent this measure, but no ability
to propose a better.

“ Too ignorant to teach, too proud to learn, i’

they contented themselves with the poor honor of
being able to destroy. Sir, if there has been de-
rangement in the finances of the Government, and
if, from that derangement, the business of the
•ountry has suffered, let the blame lie at the door
-of that party, which held a majority upon the
question -of finance in this House, during the last
Congress. It. is not -with them to deny, that
they, had the power to regulate the finances of the
Government; They -had that .power— they had a
majority of this House; the journals and the re-
corded votes shows this fact. Why did they not
propose a plan for keeping, collecting, and disburs-
ing the revenue! Had they not the capacity, of]

had they not the courage! Why at least did they
not discharge their solemn duty by making the
attempt to save their country from the disasters
which they allege have occurred for the want of
a good financial system.

Sir, the opposition is indefensible upon this point,
and no one can doubt that they feel themselves
to be so, who was present a few days ago, and
witnessed their extreme sensitiveness, when the
honorable member from North Carolina, (Mu.
Montgomery) “ like an eagle in a dove cote,”
fluttereathe Federal forces in this House by charg-
ing their delinquency home upon them, and prov-
ing it from the journals. But, sir, “ the second
sober thought of the people, never wrong, and
always efficient,” has prevailed. Upon this issue,
every member of this House was elected. Upon
this issue the Administration may safely consent to
stand or fall. By this issue the Opposition pro-
fessed themselves willing to abide, until completely
routed and overthrown ; they have scattered to the
winds every issue which involves reason and prin-
ciple, and have betaken themselves to the hopeless
task of cozening the intelligent voters of this coun-
try, by appeals which rate the intellect of the labor-
ing man on a par with that of his horse.

Mr. Chairman, I propose briefly to examine the
principal features of the system now under con-
sideration, and to compare it with the antagonist
measures to which the Opposition are supposed to
be friendly.

First. The bill proposes that the money of the
people shall be collected, kept, and paid out by
responsible agents of their own, selected for that
express purpose, instead of the banks, which have
been hitherto employed as financial agents.

There would seem, at first blush, to be no-
thing very startling in the proposal that, in a free
and Republican Government, where all power
emanates from the people, and all officers are,
or should be, responsible to them, that so im-
portant a class of public servants as those entrust-
ed in any way with the revenue of the coun-
try, should derive their authority and feel their
accountability, according to this most salutary
principle of Republicanism. If an individual
appoints an agent for any particular service, he
selects that agent with a view to his qualifica-
tions and responsibility, and he prescribes the
mode and manner of performing his duties, and
exacts security tor the faithful execution of his
trust. Why should not the people of this coun-
try, in selecting their agents, have the benefit of
the same wholesome mode of appointments !
Whence comes the irressistible necessity of ap-
pointing, as financial agents, those in wftose se-
lection the people have no voice, upon whose cor-
porate existence no moral obligation can rest —
no reproach for delinquency can attach — to whom
a reputation for honesty or dishonesty is alike in-
different, and who can be subject to no punish-
ment for their crimes, however enormous and
base-! Whence, I say, is the necessity which
s,eems ;to rest upon_ the minds of gentlemen
in tho Opposition, that the people of this .coup-
try must continue to employ agents of ,, this
description! What are the qualifications
requisite in a financial officer ! Are they

3

not honesty, capacity, Mid responsibility”? Ajpd
are not all three of these secured by the bill. undiJr
consideration % As for those ' of the opposition
who say that men of sufficient honesty cannot be
found, I respectfully request, them to confine the
declaration to themselves and friends. I make no
sueh confession, and submit to no such imputation
for the party with which I act. But, if honest
individuals cannot be found, how is the matter
helped by employing banks'? What are bank
officers but individuals'? and was it ever heard
of, that a man became more honest by becoming
an officer of a bank 1 Nay, sir, is not the danger
in this respect greatly increased by employing
banks as depositories'? for, besides the risk that
the collector of revenue may be dishonest, you
then have the additional risk that some one out of
the score of bank officers may be so. So far, then,
as honesty may be considered a desirable quality
in an agent, the system proposed by the present
bill has a decided advantage over the deposite
bank system; besides, by it, the people may select
their servants from among themselves, and may
choose any one of the whole mass of citizens of
the United States, while, by appointing the banks
as fiscal agents, they must trust to the honesty of
the officers of the bank, who are selected some-
times for their morality, and sometimes for their
knavery.

Then for the capacity of the agent. What su-
periority is claimed for the banks, in point of finan-
cial skill, over individuals'? Does the magic of a
bank charter endue those who hold office under it
with superior wisdom 1 ? Such a proposition is ab-
surd in theory ; and the deplorable history of bank-
ing institutions for the last few years, most fully
proves that they do not possess skill enough to
save themselves from the disgrace of suspension
and insolvency.

Now, sir, what is the responsibility of the banks 1
What is the -eeurity they offer which cannot be
procured equally well by an individual 1 ? What is
the security yon have had from the deposite banks'?
Why, it has been according to the most approved
form of the modern “ credit system.” You have
had the banks as corporations for principals, and
the individuals composing the banks for sureties;
like modern commercial paper, in which A and
B, as members of a firm, draw a note, and, to
make it perfectly good, A and B, as individuals,
endorse it; and, with all this boasted security of the
banks, they have been utterly unable to pay to the
people the money entrusted to them for their safe
keeping ; and while the agents of the deposite banks
are in your lobbies begging you for a postpone-
ment of the day of payment for the money they
owe you, their friends upon this door are urging
you to try them again — to trust them with more
money, for the purpose, perhaps, of enabling them
■to pay what they owe already. Sir, 1 should blush
for my country, if I could say that citizens of the
United States could not be found who were trust-
worthy asGovernment agents. I should state what
all men know to be false, if I declared that banks
were more honest than individuals. But, sir, there
are knaves enough, both in the banks and out, and
with the utmost care dishonest persons may be se-
lected For «uch this bill provides, in a> way in

which it is.impossible to apply it, or any legal pto,
vision, to .corporations, and that is, by bodily
punishment. The seventeenth section .of the aot
declares any use, bv loan, or in any other way. of
the public money, an embezzlement, a^dmunisbes
it with imprisonment. Sir, if you could have
brought this salutary provision to hear, upon the
directors and officers of the pet banks, your Trea-
sury would have avoided much of the embarrass-
ment it has experienced. .

At the first proposal of the Independent Treasury
plan in 1837, there broke out afresh the contro-
versy which has ever existed, and ever will exist;
in this country, between the people and the mo-
neyed aristocracy, and privileged classes, and that
is the question involved in this bill, which draws
out such fierce opposition. Shall the people go-
vern, or shall they submit to be bound hand and
foot, and abide the dictation of the aristocracy -of
associated wealth. Such is the issue, - and every
Democrat who tenders or accepts any other issue
in the present contest, is unjust to himself and to
his principles. That the doctrines held by the Opi
position are odious, they know right well — they
are offensive in the nostrils of the people, and it is
not strange that they should attempt to conceal
them, or that they should attempt to get up issues,
in which the principles which lay at the root of the
opposition to this bill may not come directly in
question. Those, sir, who approve of this bill,
should make it their duty to show that opposition
to it arises from those only who would establish a
favored, distinct class among us, to be supported
without labor at the expense of the many.

Mr. Chairman, call it radicalism, if you will —
call it Jacobinism, if you please — the fact, never-
theless, is, that in this country, every great political
contest has been, and every political contest upon
principle will be, a war between the rich and the
poor — on the part of the rich, a war of aggression
— on the part of the poor, a war of defence. The
arrogance of wealth is almost universal — the pos-
sessor of riches most naturally slides into the belief
that the property which gives him advantages in
the procurement of the luxuries of life over his
poor neighbor, should confer additional personal
importance and superior political rights. Hence
it is that the Democratic party is continally under-
going a process of purification and rejuvene scenes,
if I may so speak— those who have grown old and
grown wealthy, leaving it to find more congenial
principles and associates in the ranks of the aris-
tocracy, while their places under the 'Democratic
banner are filled with enlistments from the young
men of our country, whose only prospect of suc-
cess in life, whether their aim be wealth or honor,
depends upon the preservation of the free, untram-
melled, uncontrolled, unprejudiced rights of each
citizen.

The bill under consideration is the poor man’s
bill. It gives him nothing, it is true — he asks no-
thing. It is the poor man’s bill, because, like few
bills passed by law makers, it takes nothing from
him ; it leaves him a clear field, and he asks no
favors: it operates with equal and exact justice
upon all : it knows no man otherwise than as a
citizen of the United States; and whatever may be
his rank or calling, from that of a farmer, the most

4

sable at all, down, down, down, to the backer, who
lava* upon privilege — it shows no favor and im-
pbaesno disability. Is it not the duty of those who
represent all, to adopt such measures as will afford
inuatl protection to all, and show favors to none ?
Why, then, and by whom, is this measure, opposed ?
Sir, I will examine this question at some little
length.

’ The Independent Treasury system is opposed by
those classes of citizens who have hitherto pi eyed
upon the Government — who have had the custody
and the use of its money so long, that they have
come to regard it as their own — and who consider
their own particular interests as deserving the pe-
culiar fostering care of the Government, to the ex-
clusion of all others. Sir, I mean the merchants
and bankers, and those connected with and de-
pendent upon them by the operations of their busi-
ness. It is from those, and from their public or-
gans, that proceed the most terrific bellowings
against this bill. The publie treasure is about to
be wrenched by the people from their clutch. Think
you they will yield it without a death struggle ?

A wise man has said, in most apt words, in re-
gard to legislation : “ Touch but a bristle of the
commercial interest and the whole sty will be in
an uproar.” How fully has the truth of this as-
sertion been manifested during the last few years
in this country I Could all the Federal jeremiads
of the last two years be uttered at once, it would
make an uproar of lamentation which would
drown the thunders of Niagra. Were all the pa-
pers in the pay of the banks and the merchants,
which have been filled with mourning for their lost
plunder, spread out in this broad land, they would
cover it as if a deluge had departed and left a pes-
tilential scum.

The farmer has been at work, planting his corn,
dropping three kernels for himself and two for the
banks. The mechanic has been at work in his
shop, striking three blows for himself, and two for
the banks; for it is in about this proportion that
our system of paper money robs the producer of
is earnings, and by a silent, but sure process,
transfers them to the coffers of the banker ; but the
merchant, the broker, and their whole army of de-
pendants, have been agonizing to repossess them-
selves of the public treasure — you have had panic
speeches without number ; and pestering com-
mittees of from ten to ten thousand. The press
has groaned with arguments to show that the inte-
rests of these classes should be protected at the ex-
pense of all the rest. Every mail has been loaded
with speeches to prove that Government is or-
ganized to foster the few at the expense of the
many. The daily sheets in the pay of those inte-
rests, filled with vituperation againts those who
stand for popular rights, flutter in every breeze, and
are borne abroad on every gale; and here upon
this floor, at this session, as at former sessions, you
hear from the Federal party denunciations, fierce
and fearful, against this most safe, most just, most
necessary, most Democratic measure.

It is complained, by the opponents of this bill,
•that it proposes to keep the public money from cir-
culation. " Ah, there’s the rub ;” farewell, public
.denari tes, say the banks — farewell, loans of the
jmout money, say the merchant and speculator-

fare well,, bank suits, cries the attorney — and fare-
well, bank facilities, and bank counsel fees, say
the bank Senators, and members of Congress. li
is estimated, that under. this bill, not more than five
millions of dollars will be on hand at any one
time — but, whatever the amount, it is to be safely-
kept, until paid out in the ordinary operations of
the Government. And it seems to me, that it will
be in abundant time for the friends of the banks
and the merchants, to propose to borrow more of
the Government, when they have paid up what
they borrowed years ago. But, sir, how, and to
whom, do the opponents of this bill propose that
the public money should be loaned — with whom
deposited I Is it proposed that the farmer shall
have the benefit of it/? not a dollar: or the me-
chanic ? not a cent : but they propose to dispose of
it according to the old fashioned Federal rule —
take cars of the rich, and the rich will take care of
the poor : in other words, they propose that the
banks shall have the custody of the money — that
they shall loan it to the merchant and speculator,
who are their principal customers.

Now, sir, if it be so wrong lor the people to keep
on hand their money, a few days, between the time
of receiving it from the publiG debtor, and the time
of paying it to the public creditor, why do not gen-
tlemen propose some plan, by which it may be de-
posited directly with the farmers or mechanics of
our country? Why must the preference be given
to the wealthy bankers? Will any one here ven-
ture to say, the bankers are more honest than our
farmers and mechanics? I had rather, much ra-
ther trust those who live in log cabins, than those
who live in bank palaces. I mean the true log
cabins, such as I can show you in my own district,
and not such as you see hereabouts, and which
truly represent those who build them, for they are
mere shams, built of slabs, and filled with gentle-
men in ruffled shirts and silk stockings. Sir, we
shall hear no such proposition — true as the Reedle
to the pole, the Opposition will propose no measure,
which does not, in some way, aid the moneyed
monopolies ol the country.

And what arc these institutions which, in the
opinion of gentlemen, are entitled to so much
consideration at the hands of the people? Why,
sir, they are associations of individuals invested
by the beneficence of State legislators with all
the rights of the whole people on a particular and
pretty important matter, that of making a currency
— some of the legislators granting the monopoly,
being generally interested in the association which
they aid to incorporate. They are not necessa-
rily, or generally, at the outset, ^wealthy, though by
the operation of a bank charter they soon become
so ; for it is one of the excellencies of a bank
charter that it turns into money lenders those who
have most need to borrow; nor have they neces-
sarily any credit, for the essence of modern bank-
ing is the '■'■credit system," which is no more like
credit than a horse chesnut is like a chssnut
horse; they commence without cash and without
credit ; and going on without work by the mere
magic of a bank charter, by which they ex-
change their own notes without interest, for the
notes of others bearing interest, they draw
into tfieir coffers the wealth of the country,

rail in, luxury and splendor ; have their hordes of
officers and attorneys ; command legislators and
Senators by their wealth; hare, at their nod and
beck, thousands of debtor slaves ; demand and carry,
in your State Legislatures, whatever their cupidity
may, from time to time, require; and furnish in
this country what the nobility of Great Britain
furnishes there — an aristocracy having no feeling
or interest in common with the people at large,
but considering them as their chartered privileges,
make them their hewers of wood and drawers of
waters. Such are the institutions which many de-
sire should have the benefit of the public depo-
sites; and the honorable gentleman from Massa-
chusetts [Mr. Cushing] asked a day or two since,
where do the friends of the bill deposite their
money 1 Do they lay it away in a chest, or do
they deposite it with the banks 1 There is no doubt
that generally those who have any considerable
amount of paper money, deposite it as speedily as
possible with a bank; and why'? Let us see. Sup-
pose the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts
receives ten or twenty thousand dollars in bills of
various banks, about the solvency of which he
knows nothing, and can know nothing, would he
not be unwise if he kept them over night 1 He would
as soon think of keeping on hand a cargo of fresh
fish. So if there is a bank in his neighborhood
which does not suspend oftener than once a year,
he hastens to it with his paper money, deposites it,
and the bank has such a nigh opinion of it, that it
sends it back to the place where it was made, by
the very first opportunity. Sir, I doubt if there is
a bank in the United States, at this moment, whose
bills the honorable gentleman would feel safe in
keeping for six months.

Mr. Chairman, when the people deal in solid
coin, there will be no need of that peculiar prompt-
ness with which all now act who have on hand any
paper money. There will be no need of playing
“ Robin’s alive” with our money, when we nave it
in solid coin. Then let the banks suspend or
break: the mint drops will not suffer.

But we are told that the banks, to be used as de-
positories, should be good specie-paying, solvent,
honest banks 1 Where is such a one 1 Is it that
which suspended yesterday 1 or the one that failed
outright the day before 1 or the one from which the
cashier embezzled half a million last week! or that
which is expected to blow up to-morrow 1 ? An
honest, solvent bank ! — a white crow !

Mr. Chairman, it is said that this bill will crip-
ple the State banks. If it were calculated to have
that effect, it would not injure it, in my opinion. —
But I deny this. In what way does it affect them 1
It prevents no man from borrowing their money,
or from receiving their notes; nor does it prevent
them from going on, as heretofore, in the full tide
of profitable extortion ; and the head and front of
this objection is, that, although the bill leaves the
people to be shaved, according to the bank charters
of the several States, in such case made and pro-
vided, it refuses to let the banks have the public mo-
ney to aid them in that praiseworthy operation. —
You cannot cripple the State banks; they are be-
yond your control ; and it is because you cannot
regulate them, that you should have nothing to do
with them;

Again, sir, it is eharged that this billlsan attach
upon the “ credit system,’’ If it could cut up tint
system by the roots, eradicate it forever from the
land, it would be a glorious bill indeed. I am no
enemy to credit ; it is the nerve and sinew of in-
dustry — the life blood of enterprise; it is as much
the property of an individual who will earn it, as
his money or his farm. He that trims the mid-
night lamp to qualify himself for the business; he
that rises early, and sits up late, and eats the bread
of industry ; he that squares his conduct by the
strictest rules of morality; will net fail to establish
with his fellow men a character for honesty, capa-
city and industry ; and that character is his credit.
But the “ credit system” is, in all its moods and
tenses, a system of villany; and I appeal, without
fear of refutation, to the experience of this whole
country, under the operation of that system for the
last few years, for proof of what I say. It has d&-
stroyed honest credit; it has almost destroyed our
commercial character ; it has swept millions of
its blind devotees and innocent victims into the
whirlpool of irretrievable insolvency ; it has car-
ried poverty and wretchedness into thousand; of
humble dwellings, which were before the abode of
competence and happiness; it has exchanged ma-
ny a happy home and fireside for the poor-house ; it
has degraded the moral character of your people,
both at home and abroad; and your State sove-
reignties — aye, sir, the hitherto sacred laith of your
States— has been under the M credit system,” and
is now hawked about the stieets of European cities
like a broken winded horse, by a town crier, and
finds no purchasers. I will give but one instance
of the effect of this system upon State credit, and
I do so with deep humiliation. The State of New
York, “ my own, my native land,” while carrying
on with careful energy and good husbandry her
magnificent public works, borrowed money upon
her credit. She pointed the money lender to her
income, and to her actual resources for his secu-
rity; and her promises to pay were eagerly sought
for, aud taken at a premium of from five to ten
per cent. Within a year or two, the State, under
a “ new impulse,” has embarked under the aus-
pices of the “ credit system.-’’ and her stocks, in a
single year, fell twenty-two percent below par;*
and lor every seventy-eight dollars the State re-
ceived, the farms of her people are mortgaged to
pay one hundred dollars, with the interest on the
one hundred dollars. Your money lender is no
fool; ne knows that the prodigality which borrows
without the means of paying, is near akin to the
morality which will repudiate the debt when it falls
due. Sir, if this bill will destroy this source of
evil, and restore us a sound and healthy credit, its
passage should be announced from city to city, and
from village to village, by the ringing of bells and
the roaring of cannon.

’ The fallowing paragraph is taken from the Journal of
Commerce, a leading Whig paper in the city of New York,
of September, 1839 :

“A sale of $100,000 New York and Erie Railroad stock,
bearing 4} per cent, interest, payable quarterly in N- York,
was made on Saturday, at auction under the direction of the
Comptroller, ahd taken by Messrs. Prime, Ward and King,
as follows : $10,000 at 79, $10,000 at 78}, $30,000 at 78, and
$50,000 at 77}, the closing price. The stock is redeemable
in 1859, and was sold on terms — one-third down, $nd the
balance in thirty and sixty days.”

6

Second. The bill proposes that the revenue, by
progressive proportions, shall eventually be collect-
ed in the only currency known to the Constitution
—solid coin.

.A stranger to the influence which private inte-
rest has exerted upon the legislation of this country,
and to the all-pervading power of banking associa-
tions, would appear astonished, that under our na-
tional compact, the Government or its officers had
ever presumed to authorize the receipt of any thing
else than coin for its revenue.

“ Those who formed the Constitution were hard
money men,’" says a distinguished Senator, They
had seen the deplorable effects of a paper money
system, and they therefore recognised, in our trea-
ty of union.no money or currency but the precious
metals; and to prevent, if possible, the future use
of paper money, they expressly provided that it
should not be in the power ol the States to make
any thing but gold and silver coin a legal tender
for the payment of debts. Such are the prohibi-
tions of the Constitution ; but unfortunately there
is no barricado against cupidity ; there is no law,
written or unwritten ; there is no Constitution,
though purchased by the death of the brave and in-
scribed with the blood of patriots, which can stay the
stealthy, serpent-like progress of crawling avarice.
In the teeth of your Constitution, Congress passed a
law making the bills of a United States Bank re-
ceivable in the payment of revenue ; and worse still,
by a resolution ot 1810, Congress stamps the notes
of the United States Bank and the notes of other
banks, as an illegal currency — as a currency un-
known to the Constitution, and, therefore, no cur-
rency ; and at the same time authorizes them to be
received for debts due to the people. The words
of that resolution fully bear me out in this position.
It provides that the Secretary of the Treasury shall
see that all debts due to the United States shall be
paid “ in the legal currency of the United States, or
in notes of the Bank of the United States, or in
notes of banks which are payable or paid on de-
mand.” Now does not this resolution show that
the very Congress which incorporated the United
States Bank, considered legal currency one thing,
and bank notes another thing, as indeed they are 1
Those who oppose the specie cluse of this bill are,
of course, in favor of receiving the notes of banks
for revenue, and, consequently, in favor of receiving
for debts due to the people something which is not
known to the Constitution as money or currency,
and which has expressly been declared by a bank
Congress to be different from “the legal currency
of the United Stales.”

Mr. Chairman : It is worth while to inquire
whether there is any good reason for blotting out
the Constitution and following some new light
kindled by private interest. The collection of re-
venue is understood to be, to enable the people to
discharge theirdebts — to pay their shipbuilders, sai-
lors, soldiers, &c. Now, did this Government,
from the time of its foundation to the present time,
ever contract a debt to be ua>d in any thing besides
the “ legal currency of the United States!” I may
be mistaken, but I ddoubt if the opponents of this
bill, friendly as they are to the credit system, would
authorize any such contracts Such being the
case, Mr, Chairman, is it the part of wisdom for

the people to collect what is due to them in a cur-
rency which they eannot payout to their creditors!

But, .say they, none but the notes of specie pay-
ing banks — none but notes redeemable in specie,
should be received. A specie paying bantr— an
egregious humbug ! Redeemable notes — a mon-
strous fallacy ! Why, sir, there has grown up with
this credit system a technical jargon, which is flip-
pantly enough mouihed by “ the trade,” every
phrase of which is cunningly contrived to hide a
falsehood under the semblance of truth, ot to set
ignorance agape while his pocket is picked. Re-
deemable bank notes ! There is no such thing —
there never was. The phrase is not applicable, in
truth, to any bank in this country which is doing
a profitable business -with its usual circulation out
If a bank has one hundred thousand dollars of
bills in circulation, with but ten thousand dollars ot
specie in its vaults, those bills are not redeemable,
whether any have been refused or not — and when
the whole bank circulation is two or three hundred
millions of dollars, and there is not more than
eighty millions of dollars in the country, in the
banks and out of them, that circulation is not re-
deemable ; and it is untrue, except in the bank vo-
cabulary, to say that it is so. A single fact will
show you the meaning of the phrase “ redeemable
notes,” and will show the value of notes which are
redeemable in bank parlance. On the 9th day of
May, 1837, every bank note in the city of New York
was redeemable in specie, according to the true
intent and meaning of the bank jargon. Not a bill
had been refused payment — not a bank had refused
to pay such of its bills as were presented. On the
10th of May, 1837, every bank note in the city of
New York was irredeemable — not a dollar could be
got for it — yet, sir, was it, in truth, worth any less
on the 10th of May than it was the day before! —
The banks had the same specie on hand — the same
notes of their debtors — the same property of every
kind — the bank officers were as honest— yet, in the
twinkling of an eye, millions of paper money, just
such as the opponents of this bill would have you
receive, became just such as they would have you
not receive ; and this change, which is at all times
liable to occur, you have no means to prevent, for
the local banks are beyond your control ; no fore-
sight can predict it, no sagacity arrest, no skill can
remedy. Sir, is it the part of wisdom to collect
your revenue in a currency so uncertain as this,
which to-day is, and to-morrow is not ! Your gold
and silver changes not ; put it safe in your strong
box ; it is good to-morrow, next year, next century ;
it loses neither weight nor value; it never suspends;
it is never irredeemable ; your soldiers, and sailors,
and workmen will not refuse it, nor will they suf-
fer by its being below par. Put it on board your
men of war, and send it around the globe ; the
country is yet undiscovered in which it is not
known and appreciated -as a valuable circulating
medium. The experiment of receiving bank paper
for revenue has been tried, and it miserably failed.
The Government is yet suffering on account of the
non-payment by the banks of their notes, received
for revenue. The notes of specie payingbanks
notes redeemable in speeie received in 1836, ana
deposited with the banks, are yet unpaid: and these
very institutions, which cannot, or will not, pay

7

(heir debts, insist, by their friends here; that you
should trust them again. We are told, with some-
thing of a chuckle of triumph, that the late Presi-
dent adopted the State bank deposite system, and
pronounced them good and sufficient for all the
purposes of depositories ; and we are urged to ad-
here to a system which he, “ the noblest Roman of
them all,” approved. Sir, the fact and the argu-
ment show the character of the two parties. In an
evil hour, the Democratic party yielded to the cla-
mor of the banks and merchants for the deposites,
and ordered them to be made in the State banks.
That plan failed; they have abandoned it, deter-
mined to trust them no more, but to regard the eco-
nomy of the old Scotch proverb : “ He that cheats
me once shame fa’ him — if he cheat me twice,
shame fa’ me” — while the party which “ learns no-
thing forgets nothing,” would “ totter on in blunders
to the last.”

Sir, there is another plan for keeping the public
money, and for furnishing a circulating medium,
and that is by a United States Bank; this, has, in
one instance been avowed to be the measure of the
Opposition upon this floor; and would, I suppose,
be generally acknowledged, were it not that such
an avowal would be a blur upon the escutcheon of
a party on whose banner is inscribed “ office, not
principle,” and whose virtue, like that of the Vene-
tian women, is “ not to leave undone, but to keep
unknown.”

Mr. Chairman, if it is in the power of experience
to established a truth, then is it proved beyond all
question that the United States Bank was a failure.
I speak of it as a bank, and not as a Government
agent, supported and sustained by the money of
the people ; and as a bank, I say it was a failure.
I appeal to this whole country, whether from the
time that Bank ceased to be a Government Bank ;
from the moment it took a State charter ; although
he that should have known best, declared it to be a
better charter than the other, and more profitable to
the stockholders— I say, sir, I appeal to the whole
country to say, whether from that moment that
Bank did not take the down hill road ; and although
in its steep-down course, he who had directed its
destinies hitherto, deserted it, declaring it to be in
a prosperous condition — I ask whether that United
States Bank, with the same capital — a better char-
ter, the same directors, the same field of operations,
is not now in ruins ? And, sir, if, while that Bank
was the Government agent, it was able to make large
dividends, to pay large counsel fees to Senators
and Congressmen, to publish large editions of poli-
tical electioneering pamphlets; and if, when it
ceased to be a Government agent, it became insol-
vent; is it not “confirmation strong as proof of
Holy “Writ,” that all those immense profits and
means of profligacy were drawn from the Govern-
ment, and not from its legitimate operations as a
bank? And yet, in the face of all these facts, a
large party in this country is in favor of such an
institution. I should be at a loss to account for such
an obliquity of reason, did I not sometimes fancy
that I could hear the leaders of that party, saying
to each other in the language of Demetrius, the
silversmith, “ Sirs, ye know that by this craft we
have our wealth.”

It is further objected to this bill, and especially

to' the specie clause, that its effect will be to esta-
blish an exclusive metallic currency in this coun-
try. If such a result could be brought about by
degrees, so as to produce no commercial distress;
no sudden fluctuation in prices; no unjust effect
upon existing contracts, it were in mv opinion a
consummation devoutly to be wtshed. And, sir, I
• ely upon the experience of the whole world, in all
ages, under all Governments, and under all circum-
stances, for the proof of what I say, when I assert
that, from the time that Abraham bought the
cave of Macphelah of Ephron, the son of Zahor,
for which he “paid four hundred shekels of silver
current money with the merchant,” down to the
present time, gold and silver have been “ currant
money” every where — while I assert that no paper
money, which was not guarantied by the faith of a
Government, ever passed as “ current money” out
of the country in which it was made; and I chal-
lenge the friends of paper money here or elsewhere
to point eut that system of paper money, whether of
a Government or of banks, which has not failed.
Sir, what is the objection to an exclusive metal-
lic currency — and I lay aside now the inconve-
nience of the change, whatever that inconvenience
may be — what is the objection? Why, you are
met at the threshold with the cry, there is not
enough — not enough? Did ever any one find out
how much would be enough ? No man ever did.
No man ever can ; and they who pretend to tell
you with any certainty, are, in my opinion, quacks,
who presume npon the ignorance of others, to as-
sume a character for greater knowledge for them-
selves. I do not pretend to say how much is
enough; but this I know, that if in proportion to
our industry, enterprise, and production, we did
not have a fair proportion of the gold and silver in
the world, it would be the first instance in. which
the laws of trade, which, unchecked and untram-
meled, are the laws of God, failed to administer
good and ample justice.

Another objection to a specie currency, is its in-
convenience of transportation. Well, sir, let us
see what this really amounts to— and the objection
comes, you will remember, from those who profess
themselves to be the hard-fisted, hard-working, log
cabin men. Fancy yourself, Mr. Chairman, siop-
ping at the log cabin of a Whig, in an Illinois
prairie, where what is lacking in choice viands,
will, I dare say, be more than made up by a right
hearty welcome — and the good man of the house,
who has lately received a speech of one of his
friends here, is bemoaning the wretched stete of the
country, and his own sad condition in particular —
and, among other things, laments that paper mo-
ney will not pass at the land office— that he wishes
to enter a section of land that adjoins his farm,
for which he has the one hundred dollars of gold
in his chest, but that the inconvenience of trans-
portation is such, that he is compelled to forego the
purchase. You ask him how much the gold, ne-
cessary to pay tor the land weighs, and he tells’you
about five ounces ! about as much as a good-sized
jack-knife • - • - - ■

Mr. Chairman, this is a fancy sketch— the log
cabin gentry of your cities may be bent to the
earth, un.ier a five ounce weight but there is no
log cabin man in Illinois, and I have seen many of

8

them, who would look his horse in the lace, and
titter such an absurdity. Sir, the good people^of
this country would little know the extent of their
misery and suffering, but for the opposition efforts
here and elsewhere.

There is little danger, Mr. Chairman, but that
the merchant, who has half a million of dollars,
which he wishes to send from New York to Char-
leston, will find the ways and means of doing it.
Your concern and mine, should be to provide, so
far as we can, a good currency for the men of
small means — a class which comprehends nine-
tenths of the people of this country — that the man
who has ten dollars, and wishes to travel ten miles,
may have that v/hich is valuable when he sets out,
and will not spoil before he reaches the end of the
journey.

Most heartily do I wish that a bank note below
the sum of twenty dollars might never again be
seen in this country ; that the hand-to-hand currency
— that in which the mechanic receives his month-
ly, and the laborer his weekly wages — might be in
the precious metals, upon which he would be
charged no discount ; of which he could lay by a
small portion for a rainy day, without fear of its
spoiling; and in which he would no longer be the
victim of that most current form of scoundrelism,
counterfeit aud depreciated bank paper. Sir, the
losses by counterfeits and broken banks fall most
gr.evously and almost exclusively upon the poor
man. 1 do not doubt that the merchant, who re-
ceives a million of dollars a year, suffers less in
this way than the laborer, who gets but a hundred
and fifty. The first, never moves without his
counterfeit detector and his weekly or daily list of
broken banks; and if, by chance, he takes a bill
which is below par, one which his deposite bank
will not receive, it will nevertheless answer per-
fectly well to pass away to his porter or carttnan,
when Saturday night comes; and he, sir, takes it
to the grocer to purchase provisions for his family,
and there suffers a deduction of five, ten, or fifteen
per cent, from bis earnings. *'ir, if your moneyed
man last as much in proportion as the working
classes do by bank paper, every bank charter would
be repealed in six months. Does the labouring
man complain 1 To whom shall he utter his com-
plaints'? To his employer, think you ? He dare
not; he must submit; his family must eat less, or
perhaps starve more; another boy or girl must be
taken from school and put to service for a bare I

living; and him that is cheated, wronged,. defraud-
ed, his hard earnit gs wrung from him each Satur-
day night by this damnable system of legalised in-
direction. Monday morning’s sun must find him
at work without a murmur, or it will find him dis-
charged.

I would that this bill might have one half the
effect in bringing about a metallic circulating me-
dium that its enemies attribute to it. I should then
think still better of it than I do. Bnt it will do
something ; it will at least prevent the people’s
money from being used to sustain anti-republican
institutions; it will take a little power of doing in-
jury from them. They can, under this bill, no
longer beat the cripple with his-own crutch; they
can no longer lend the people their own money,
and, by their most approved deposite system, make
the owner of money pay interest while he is being
cheated out of the principal.

The monetary aflairs of this nation will no lon-
ger be subject to irresponsible corporations ; it will
be at least refusing the sanction of Ihis Govern-
ment to the creation, or the perpetuity of a distinct
and privileged class, forming a moneyed aristo-
cracy, more odious and more dangerous than any
other aristocracy which ever existed, because their
privileges are stolen from the mass of the people,
and their immense income is an immense extor-
tion. This bill effects, in this most desirable re-
form, but little ; it can effect but little ; the subject
is not one on which you can exercise a direct and
efficient authority ; the subject is under the control
of the Slate Governments. Had we the power, I
should be in favor of doing much more than this
bill can do, to check the rapid strides of the money-
ed oligarchy ; for, as I live, I believe that the first
civil war which this country sees, will be a rising
of the people to demand a restoration of their rights,
which have been apportioned out by your legisla-
tors among the favored few. And if the system is
to go on increasing in all its blasting, withering
influences upon the prosperity of the people, the
moral character ot the country, and the honor of
your Government, the sooner that crisis arrives the
better ; and when it does come, may God speed the
right.

Mr. P. concluded his remarks at the hour of eight
o’clock, p. m. ; at which hour

Mr. BARNARD obtained the floor; and on his
motion, the committee rose, and

The House adjourned.

PFUKTED BY H. KI?iBER & CO.