the country. I will not speak of them, for it is my sincere wish to keep out of the present discussion every thing which may awaken unpleasant feelings. But this I will say, that no act of legislation was ever the subject of a more watchful scrutiny, in the various stages of its progress; few, if any, have ever met a fuller discussion, or a more deliberate consideration; none, within my experience, has ever received a more unanimous and emphatic assent of the bodies by which it was passed. The country, too, so far as I have been able to learn, (and I have not been an inattentive observer of the evidences of public sentiment on the subject,) has responded with a general voice of approbation to the decision of Congress, and warmly and cordially sustained it. It is that measure, thus doubly sanctioned, with some modifications suited to the change of circumstances, that I beg leave to re-present as a compliance with the call of the President on Congress for further legislation, believing it to be adapted to the exigencies of the occasion, as well as useful and salutary in its general operation on the currency. The principles of that bill were these: It declared that the public dues should be collected in specie, or in the notes of specie-paying banks, under certain restrictions in regard to small notes, which were intended to operate the suppression (ultimately, but gradually) of all notes under twenty dollars; and it further provided, as I have already stated, that, in future, no discrimination should be made between the different branches of the revenue, as to the funds in which they were receivable. These principles are incorporated in the bill I now ask leave to present, and in the very language in which they stood in the bill of last session. The modifications of that bill which I have made with reference to existing circumstances are these: In contemplation of the contingency (now highly probable) of an issue of Treasury notes, I have introduced an alternative clause, declaring that, in addition to specie and the notes of specie-paying banks, the public dues may be collected "in any other medium specially authorized by law." The other modification has relation to the great desideratum of an early resumption of specie payments by the banks, and consists in a proviso that "the notes of no bank which now fails, or may hereafter fail, to redeem its notes in specie, shall, at any time, be received in discharge of the public dues, unless such bank shall, on or before a given day, have bona fide resumed payment in specie." The object of this proviso is to designate a fixed period for the resumption of specie payments by the banks, which may serve as a rallying point to them all, and produce that concert and harmony of movement, without which this most desirable end cannot be accomplished. There will be no difficulty, I think, from the data already in our possession, or easily attainable, in fixing that period understandingly and judiciously. The mere desiguation of a day by Congress will, itself, be powerfully operative in effecting the result we aim at. You doubtless recollect, Mr. President, what was the effect produced by a similar proceeding in 1816-'17. By the joint resolution of April, 1816, the 20th of February following was fixed as the day for the resump. tion of specie payments by the banks. The banks themselves determined, in a formal convention held for the purpose, not to resume until the 1st of July, 1817; but the firm adherence of Congress to their original resolution forced the banks to yield, and they finally and simultaneously resumed specie payments on the 20th February, 1817, the day indicated by the act of Congress. The inducements to an early resumption of specie payments held out to the banks by this bill are two fold. It addresses itself both to their hopes and their fears. It says to them, in effect, that, whenever you resume specie payments, (provided it be before a certain day,) your notes, under the restrictions of the bill, shall be receivable in payment of every branch of the public revenue, whether for [SEPT. 19, 1837. lands or customs; but if you do not resume by that day, your notes shall not be received in payment of public dues, even though you may thereafter resume. The banks will thus be doubly stimulated to a resumption of specie payments-by the promise of a benefit on the one hand; by the exhibition of a penalty on the other. With these provisions I do not doubt the early re-establishment of a sound and healthy state of things. What is the present condition of the country; and what the treatment it demands? If we look around us, we find all the great sources of national prosperity still unimpaired-the land, the labor, the capital of the country, in their accustomed fertility and abundance. And yet industry is paralyzed; commerce at a stand; the currency degraded and deranged; the precious metals fled from circulation; the land overrun with spurious or precarious substitutes for money, exposing every interest of society to insecurity and hazard -an insecurity and hazard involving alike the wages of labor, the value of property, the fulfilment of contracts, all the acquisitions of the past, and all the hopes of the future. Now, what is the remedy for this extraordinary state of the body politic? It is comprehended in a single wordthe restoration of confidence. It will be admitted on all hands that the first thing to be brought about, with a view to the amelioration of the present condition of things, is the return to specie payments by the banks. But that return cannot be effected without a restoration of confidence; and confidence is to be restored mainly by the policy and example of the Government. With its aid in the re establishment of confidence, nothing is clearer than the ability of the banks, at an early day, to resume and maintain specie payments. Let us for a noment look at the condition of the country and of the banks in regard to those particulars which form the leading elements of this question. And, first, as to the stock of precious metals in the country. This supply in the country is most abundant; for, although a good deal has gone out recently, to pay off our foreign debt, an equal, or nearly equal, quantity has come in. It is shown by official returns that the importations and exportations of specie, during the year, very nearly balanced each other. The quantity in the country at this moment, according to the estimates and statements we have received from the Treasury Department, is nearly three times as great as it was four years ago. The means to enable the banks to resuine and sustain specie payments are, therefore, ample and unquestionable, as soon as confidence shall be restored. Then, as to the balance of our foreign debt, which forms another important element of this question, it has been in a course of constant and progressive reduction for the last six months, and with the aid of the new crop which is now coming in, and the great diminution of foreign imports, we shall soon see it entirely extinguished. At the same time, the great mass of the banks throughout the country have been diligently preparing themselves for a return to specie payments, by a steady and judicious reduction of their circulation. Nothing, then, is wanting to a speedy accomplishment of that great object, but the restoration of confidence; and it depends mainly on the action and policy of the Government to supply that requisite. The currency of the country is, at this moment, in the condition of a human body in a state of suspended animation-the heart still beats, the principle of vitality is unextinguished, but the active functions of life are suspended. Let the Government but breathe the breath of confidence into it, and it will be at once resuscitated. It is the more necessary that the Government should give its aid in this work of restoring confidence, because, whether justly or unjustly, it is from the Government that the greatest danger of hostility is apprehended. Let this apprehension, then, be quieted by some pledge of security, by some token of encouragement and confidence. SEPT. 19, 1837.] Kinds of Money for Revenue. [SENATE. The Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] as- cording to these circumstances, the results in the two counserted yesterday that the disease of the country is debt, the tries ought to have been precisely reversed. We should only remedy is time, and that he relied much more on the have continued to sustain specie payments here, while a cotton and tobacco crops for relief than upon any action of suspension of them in England would seem to have been the Government. Sir, the debt of the country, as I have inevitable. Why has it been otherwise? How has it hapalready remarked, has nearly reached its extinguishment, pened that England, with her supply of the precious metals either by actual payments or the bankruptcy of unfortunate reduced to one half her usual stock, has continued specie debtors. But, if this were not so, the cotton and tobacco payments, while we, with three times the amount we ever crops, though essential ingredients of relief, do not super- had before, have been compelled to suspend specie paysede the necessity of other and auxiliary remedies. Ex-ments? The solution must be found mainly in the fact, amples are not wanting in the financial history of this and that in England, in periods of commercial distress, confiother countries, to show the magical effects of confidence in dence is always encouraged by Government, while here periods of great public distress, and how that confidence de- nothing was done by the Government to animate and suspends on the conduct and policy of the Government. The tain confidence. I do not mention this as matter of reyear 1793 was a period of the severest commercial distress proach to the Government. It may be that the Governin England. More than a hundred country banks became ment here believed it had no constitutional faculty to interbankrupt, and the whole country seemed destined to a sim- pose in any manner for the support of confidence. But, ilar catastrophe; when a single act of the Government, en- unfortunately, direct and open attacks on the commercial couraging confidence, produced immediate and general re- credit and institutions of the country, well calculated to delief. I allude to the offer made by the British Government, stroy confidence, were made in a quarter which, from the rein that crisis of suffering and alarm, to lend to solvent deal- lation it bore to the Government, gave rise to lively appreers five millions of pounds in Exchequer bills. A consid- hensions of hostility from the Government itself. These erable part of the sum was not taken or even applied for; apprehensions are now again revived by the recommendabut the simple offer of the credit of the Government, in re- tion of the President-a recommendation which, if attemptstoring confidence between man and man, elicited the dor-ed to be carried into execution, would, in my humble judgmant resources of the country, and relieved at once the gen. ment, render the recovery of the country from its prostrate eral distress. condition hopeless and impossible. It is a matter susceptible of demonstration, that if the policy of demanding specie exclusively in payment of the public dues shall now be adopted, it will be utterly impossible for the banks to resume specie payments. It is an invariable law of currency, well stated by my honorable friend from Georgia [Mr. KING] yesterday, that if there be two currencies in a country, one answering all the purposes of the other, and a valuable purpose besides, the currency answering the additional purpose will always command a premium. This is the condition of the country at the present moment. Bank paper constitutes the great mass of the circulation, while gold and silver are only to be had at a premium. If the Government shall now adopt the policy of requiring payment of its dues in specie alone, this state of things must be perpetuated. Applicable to all the purposes for which bank notes can be used, and, over and above that, answering the important purpose of paying the public revenue, from which bank notes will be excluded, specie, under these circumstances, must continue to command a Can the banks resume specie payments in the face of a premium borne by gold and silver? The very moment they opened their vaults, the holders of notes, in order to secure the premium to be obtained for specie, would make a general run upon them for cash; and if they open We have had a similar and striking example in our own country. You well recollect, Mr. President, the memorable panic of 1834, which ensued on the removal of the deposites from the Bank of the United States. The storm which was raised on that occasion was directed chiefly on the great commercial emporium of New York. The Legislature of that patriotic and powerful State, with a paternal sensibility to the interests and sufferings of her citizens, came forward and authorized the creation of a stock of six millions of dollars to be lent to the banks, for the purpose of sustaining them under the extraordinary presure to which they were exposed. What was the effect? Not a solitary dollar was taken by the banks; but the offer itself operated like a charm. It restored confidence and relieved the pressure. These examples may serve to show gentlemen that there is some practical virtue in confidence, and in the moral power of the Government to promote and encourage it. What does the country ask at the hands of the Government at the present moment? Is it a loan of six millions? No, sir. The only boon that is asked, the only aid that is want-premium. ed, is, that the Government should not discredit, by its act, the great circulating medium of the country, in which nine. ty-nine hundredths of the transactions of society are negotiated and settled, when that medium shall be restored to soundness, and brought back to the standard of convertibil-ed their vaults, it would only be to close them immediately. ity into specie. In connexion with this subject, I beg leave to call the attention of the Senate to one remarkable consideration. It is this: the President, in tracing the causes of the present calamity, states that the same embarrassments and distresses have existed in England as in this country, arising from the same general causes, with this only difference in the result-that here the banks have suspended specie payments, while in England no such catastrophe has occurred. This difference to my mind comprehends every thing. It is rendered the more remarkable by the fact that, during the progress of these difficulties, England was constantly losing her supply of the precious metals, the stock of bullion in the bank having been reduced from about eight million to four million pounds sterling, (one half of her ordinary quantity,) while in this country, during the same period, the precious metals have been steadily flowing in upon us, and accumulating in an unprecedented manner; so that, at the time of the suspension of specie payments we had three times the amount of specie we ever possessed before. AcVOL. XIV.-6 But again, sir, would not the example of the Government, in the indiscriminate rejection of all bank paper, have a powerful moral influence in exciting the jealousies and suspicions of the whole community? If the Government, by its acts, shall declare bank paper to be worthless or unsafe, will not the people also take the alarm? Will not a general distrust be created of all banking institutions, and will not every person holding their paper become impatient to convert it into specie? In this pervading want of confidence, their vaults would be drained of every dollar they possessed. It is demonstrable, therefore, that, under the policy of collecting the dues of the Government in hard money alone, we never can accomplish that great object in which the whole country has so vital an interest-the resumption of specie payments by the banks. How does the proposition of the honorable Senator from Missouri [Mr. BENTON] bear upon this question? Its practical effect, if I understand it correctly, will be to enforce a penalty upon the banks for resuming specie payments. In the amendment offered by him there is a blank left for the day after which the revenues are proposed to be collected in gold and silver only; and I understood the gentleman to say it is his intention to fill that blank with the day on which the banks would probably resume specie payments. I believe, sir, said, Mr. R., (turning to Mr. BENTON,) I am not mistaken. [Mr. BENTON. Right, right.] Then, Mr. President, here is a positive penalty denounced against the banks when they shall return to specie payments. As the law now stands, the notes of specie paying banks are receivable in payment of the public revenue. The Senator is willing that this should continue to be the law while the banks do not pay specie for their notes; but when they do pay specie, the honorable gentleman says to them, we will revoke this privilege, thenceforward reject your notes, though immediately convertible into specie, and declare that, from and after the day of your resumption, nothing but gold and silver shall be received in discharge of the public dues. Is not this, in effect, a direct penalty visited upon the banks for returning to specie payments? Under such a policy, this great object of public interest and anxiety never can be accomplished; and I recur with confidence to my original position, that the only means by which it can be effected is a just, safe, and paternal policy on the part of the Government, announcing to the banks that, on such conditions as may be necessary to guard against the recurrence of the catastrophe we are now suffering from, we will receive your notes, convertible into specie, in payment of the public dues, as they have been received, by the practice of the Treasury Department or by express enactment of law, from the origin of the Government down to the present time. I have thus far, Mr. President, spoken of this matter in reference to the particular circumstances of the crisis, and what appears to me to be the pressing and paramount object to which the attention of every patriotic legislator ought to be directed at the present moment-an early resumption of specie payments by the banks. But, looking at it in a broader and more general point of view, I ask, sir, upon what principle of republican government is it that the Government can be justified in drawing a line between itself and the people-in saying there shall be one currency for the Government and its officers, and another for the great body of the community-that the better currency shall be for the governors, and the baser currency for the governed? Such I have shown must be the effect of demanding the public dues in gold and silver exclusively, while the great mass of the circulation shall consist of bank paper. Sir, I have always been taught to believe-my honorable colleague and myself learned it from the bill of rights of our own State as soon as we were capable of reading—that a common interest between the governors and the governed is a fundamental principle of free institutions, and that the best means of "restraining the former from oppression is to make them feel and participate the burdens of the latter." Let the Government share the same fate with the citizen, and you give it the strongest of all motives to watch over the general interests. On the other hand, place it in a position different from that of the great body of the community, especially in so vital a matter as that of its revenue and pecuniary support, and you make it at once callous and indifferent to the sufferings of the people, and even give it an interest to perpetuate those sufferings. You destroy all sympathy on the part of the Government with the people, and you alienate the confidence and affections of the people from the Government. What, sir, is at this moment the ungracious attitude in which the Government is placed towards the people? Its officers and contractors are paid in gold and silver, or in Treasury drafts made receivable in discharge of public dues, and therefore nearly equivalent to gold and silver, while the community at large are left to conduct their business as they may, in an irredeemable paper currency. Does not [SEPT. 19, 1837. this operate as a virtual increase of the salaries of public officers, in the midst of general distress affecting all the rest of the community? The gold and silver which they receive is at a premium of ten or twelve per cent., and the Treasury drafts at seven or eight per cent., above the actual and common currency of the country. This premium is, I repeat, an addition of so much to the amount of their salaries; for, in a practical sense, there has as yet been no depreciation in the value of current bank notes. They pass for as much in the ordinary business of life-in the payment of debts, in the purchase of necessaries and conveniences, of whatever is worn, drank, or eaten-as they ever did. The premium, then, which the public officers and contractors obtain on their gold and silver, and Treasury drafts, is so much clear gain to them. And at whose expense is it acquired? Is it not at that of the great body of the people, the ultimate tax-payers and supporters of the Government? Does any one suppose that the importing merchant, who has to give ten or twelve per cent. for the gold and silver, and seven or eight per cent. for the Treasury drafts, with which he pays his duties to the Government, does not add an equal amount, with the usual profit upon it, to the price of his goods? It is, then, the consumer, at last, or, in other words, the great body of the people, who are subject to increased taxation for the benefit of the office-holder and the contractor. Sir, this is a state of things which I do not wish to see perpetuated. It is contrary to the genius and fundamental principles of our republican system. Of all schemes of policy I can conceive, that which proposes a permanent distinction between the Government and the people in their pecuniary interests-one currency, and that the better one, for the Government, and another, and inferior currency, for the people-such a system of discrimination is, to my mind, of all others, the most injurious and revolting in principle, the most heartless in character, and the most despotic in its tendencies. It is like quartering the Government, as a foreign enemy, on the heart of the country. You entrench it behind a frowning fortification, surround it with battlements, and lay the country, far and near, under contribution for the support of this garrison of officeholders. Desolation and oppression are without, while the tenants of the citadel are revelling in luxury and profusion within. I am not willing, for one, to see the Government of my country placed in this antisocial, if not belligerant, attitude towards the people. I am not willing that this favored land, to which the nations of the earth are looking for a successful example of the practical enjoyment of free institutions, should exhibit such a spectacle of inequality and oppression in the eyes of the world. Much reliance, Mr. President, has been placed on the popular catch-word of divorcing the Government from all connexion with banks. Nothing is more delusive and treacherous than catch-words. How often has the revered name of liberty been invoked, in every quarter of the globe, and every age of the world, to disguise and sanctify the most heartless despotisms. Let us beware that, in attempting to divorce the Government from all connexion with banks, we do not end with divorcing the Government from the people. As long as the people shall be satisfied in their transactions with each other, with a sound convertible paper medium, with a due proportion of the precious metals forming the basis of that medium, and mingled in the current of circulation, why should the Government reject altogether this currency of the people, in the operations of the public Treasury? If this currency be good enough for the masters, i tought to be so for the servants. If the Government stern.y reject, for its uses, the general medium of exchange adopted by the community, is it not thereby isolated from the general wants and business of the country, in relation to this great concern of the currency? Do you not give it a separate, if not hostile, in terest, and thus, in effect, produce a divorce between Government and people ?-a result, of all others, to be most deprecated in a republican system. [SENATE. alluded, it failed to become a law. The same measure, in all its essential principles, I now again submit for the consideration of the Senate. We have been told, Mr. President, of the embarrass- The President, sir, in his message, tells us that the rements and inconveniences to which the Government is ex- quisition of gold and silver in payment of the public dues posed, by receiving its revenues in any thing but gold and would have "a direct tendency to produce a wider circulasilver, in such an event as has now overtaken the country tion of the precious metals, to increase the safety of bank and involved it in general distress. For one, sir, I cannot paper, and to improve the general currency. I desire to respond to this appeal. I do not desire to see the Govern- treat the opinions of the President with all possible respect ment placed in a position that would exempt it from em- -a respect felt alike for the individual and the magistrate; barrassment when the people are embarrassed. Would it but unless I have wholly misconceived the elementary pringive any satisfaction to a patriotic mind, in the present ca- ciples which belong to this subject, as well as their obvious lamitous condition of the country, to see treasures of gold practical operation, it is impossible to sustain any one of and silver pouring into the coffers of the Government, these positions. How, sir, can the collection of the revewhile the people are suffering all the evils of an irredeem- nue in gold and silver tend to widen the circulation of able and depreciating paper currency? For myself, I am the precious metals?" It is a well-known and invariable free to say, that neither as a citizen nor as a representative, law of currency, that bank notes and coins of the same having it in my power, if I would, to participate, in some denomination cannot circulate together. It is in vain, then, degree, in these peculiar advantages of the Government, to attempt to widen the circulation of gold and silver by could such a state of things minister the slightest gratifica- any other means than by the suppression of bank notes of tion to me. No, sir, my heart disowns the thought. So the lower denominations. But, not now to dwell on this far from it, the contrast would be but a new feature added view of the subject, (which I have fully developed and ento the mortifying and distressed condition of the country, forced elsewhere,) I maintain that the collection of the puband casting reproach upon our institutions, which admit- lic revenue in gold and silver, while the common currency ted such an unnatural and anti-republican inequality. If of the country consists of bank paper, instead of widenany thing could make your Government a callous and in- ing the circulation of those metals, would have the effect different spectator of the sufferings of the people, refusing of taking them out of general circulation altogether. In a helping hand to their relief, and "mocking when their the remarks I have already made, I think it has been satisfear cometh on," it would be to place it in a position like factorily shown that the necessary effect of this policy this. No, sir; whenever the people suffer embarrassment, would be to cause gold and silver to bear a premium. embarrassment should be felt by the Government, that it Bearing a premium, they would not circulate as currency may be stimulated, through experience of the common suf- at all, but would be at once converted into an article of fering, to do all it can to prevent or relieve that suffering. merchandise. The public debtor would buy them of the I am for holding the Government in all things to a com- broker to pay his dues to the Government; and when paid mon fate with the people, so that whatever touches the out to the public creditor, he would go and sell them again one shall be immediately felt by the other. Let the con- to the broker. Instead of entering into circulation, all of dition of the Government answer to the condition of the them that were seen would be restricted to this narrow people, so that the conduct and policy of the one may, round of traffic, while the great mass of them would be with equal fidelity, reflect the interests and sentiments of withdrawn from public view as well as use. the other. This, sir, is the principle which has always guided my views in regard to the great question of the currency. No one desires a sound reform of the currency more than I do; but I wish to improve it for the benefit of the people as well as of the Government. I desire to see a large infusion of the precious metals into the general circulation and business of the country, and not a monopoly of them by the Government. This great object can be effected only by the suppression of bank notes of the lower denominations, and not by demanding gold and silver alone in payment of dues to the Government. Let all notes under twenty dollars be gradually suppressed, and you will have an abundance of gold and silver in common circulation, passing from hand to hand in the common business of society. That will be a salutary and beneficent reform, enuring to the advantage of the great body of the people as well as of the Government; and when it shall have been accomplished, when gold and silver shall thus have become the common currency of the country, you may, without hardship or injustice, demand payment of the public dues in the precious metals. But this most desirable result-the general circulation of gold and silver in the common business of life-never can be effected, (as I think I have fully shown on another occasion,) without a previous suppression of bank notes of the lower denominations. In every scheme of reforming the currency, which looks to the benefit of the people as well as of the Government, this is the great point to be aimed at. It was the leading object of the measure I brought forward during the last session of Congress, and which then received the almost unanimous sanction of this House, and the assent of a large majority of the other, though, from causes to which I have already Then, sir, as to the tendency of this policy to "increase the safety of bank paper"-would you increase the safety of bank paper by abstracting the fund for its redemption? Yet, such would be the plain operation of this policy. The Secretary of the Treasury has referred to the condition of the Treasury in 1834, as affording a general average to illustrate the operation of the new financial system he proposes. In looking at the Treasury statements for that year, I find that the average amount of public moneys on deposite in the city of New York, during that year, was about five millions, while the whole amount of specie in the banks of the city was about two millions. Taking this as a fair average for that city, what would be the influence of this new policy of collecting the public dues in gold and silver, on the safety of bank paper there? Where would you get the five millions of specie to meet this demand for the public revenue? It is evident the banks would be drained by it of their stock of the precious metals, and the community would thus be deprived of the security on which they relied for the soundness of the bank paper held by them. "improvement of the general currency," then, which the President anticipates as the result of the policy he proposes, would, unless the principles heretofore received as incontestable truths on the subject of the currency be utter fallacies, amount to this, that the precious metals would no longer form a part of the general circulation; that they would cease to be currency, and become mere articles of merchandise, to be obtained only at a premium, and that the specie basis, on which the soundness and safety of bank paper so mainly depend, would henceforward, to a great extent, be withdrawn and monopolized by the Government. The But it has been said, and I regret to perceive that the SENATE.] Kinds of Money for Revenue. [SEPT. 19, 1837. idea is countenanced by the high authority of the Presi- since the precious metals form so small a part of the actual dent, that the general currency of the country is a matter circulation of the country, this power, however important with which this Government has nothing to do; that its in itself, can exert no controlling influence on the general duties are confined to the exercise of the coinage power currency. We then find that the constitution gives to and the collection of its own revenues in gold and silver; Congress the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, &c., and that the general circulating medium of the country to pay the debts, &c. of the United States." From the must be entirely abandoned to the separate and often con- large amount of the receipts and disbursements of the Govflicting control of the individual States. Now, sir, as my ernment, this power is susceptible of an extensive and imopinion differs alike from this view of the subject, and from portant bearing on the general currency of the country. that urged a few days ago by the Senator from Massachu- In the exercise of it, it is incumbent on Congress to make setts, [Mr. WEBSTER,] I beg leave to state briefly what it instrumental to secure to the whole country, as far as they are. The whole history of the formation of the con- possible, the benefits of a sound and equal currency, equiv stitution, as well as the internal evidence of its provisions, alent every where to specie. It may be so managed, by prove, beyond question, that the framers of that instru- receiving the paper and employing the agency of the State ment intended that there should be a common currency for banks, in the fiscal operations of the Government, under the Union, and not "as many different currencies as there certain salutary restrictions and conditions, as to impart to are States." They, doubtless, believe that that currency the issues of those banks, forming the actural currency of would consist, almost entirely, of gold and silver. There the country, some of the most essential qualities of a sound, were but two banks then in existence, whose issues formed stable, and equal circulating medium. But if, on the an exceedingly small part of the general circulation. They other hand, this incidental control, through the revenue no more foresaw that immense multiplication of banks, power of the Government over the actual currency of the which has made bank paper the actual currency of the country, is to be abandoned, and that currency be regulated country, than they foresaw the two great discoveries of the exclusively, as is now proposed, by the separate and conage-steamboats and railroads-which have had so extra-flicting legislation of the individual States, our whole moordinary an influence on the wealth and resources of the netary system, affecting so widely and deeply the interests country. Believing that gold and silver would continue to of society, must run into wild disorder and confusion, and constitute the currency of the country, they placed the one of the highest objects of the constitution be nullified "regulation" of that currency expressly under the control and defeated. of Congress, and took it away, in terms equally express, from the States. But while they did this, they left with the States (for the omission to take it away amounted to the same thing) the power of incorporating banking institutions. In the general and extensive exercise of that power by the States, the issues of the banks have come to take the place of gold and silver, and to form the actual currency of the country. In the practical working of our system, then, a state of things has grown up entirely unforeseen by the founders of the constitution. This Government has no authority, by force of law, to put an end to that state of things, nor is it desirable, considering the many and indisputable conveniences of a sound paper currency, in the present advanced stage of commerce and civilization, to destroy it altogether. But as the original design and intention of the constitution certainly was that there should be a common currency for the Union, it is incumbent upon Congress, in the exercise of the powers delegated to it, to do all it can to fulfil that design, and to render the actual currency of the country as sound, as equal, and as nearly equivalent to gold and silver as possible. This, sir, was the doctrine steadily maintained by the late administration. From the removal of the deposites from the Bank of the United States down to the close of that administration, it was constantly put forth, in bold relief, in the messages of the President, and the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, as well as in the speeches of its leading friends in this and the other branch of Congress. The obligation of the General Government to watch over the general currency, and to secure to the whole country, as far as possible, the benefit of a circulating medium that should be sound and of equal value, was distinctly recognised and admitted; and it was contended that this object could be as effectually accomplished through the State banks, as by the agency of any national incorporation. The management of the revenue, through those institutions, was to be the instrument by which the end was to be accomplished, and the particular means relied on was to make a suppression of the small notes, and some other reforms in the currency, the conditions of a deposite of the public funds in the banks, and of the receivability of their notes in payment of the public dues. By the emin-ployment of these means, the late President, in his last annual message but one to Congress, said, "we should soon gain, in the place of the Bank of the United States, a practical reform in the whole paper system of the country," and looking forward to the ultimate suppression of all bank notes below twenty dollars as the result of this policy, he hailed it with enthusiastic patriotism, as "forming an era in the history of our country, which would be dwelt upon with delight by every true friend of its liberty and independence." The present Chief Magistrate, in his celebrated letter to a member of the other House, speaking of this same policy, said: "nothing but a faithful prosecution of it by the General Government and the States is necessary to place us on a footing of equality with other nations," enjoying, in the highest degree, the advantages of a stable and uniform currency. To all this, I was a sincere convert, and am still. I still believe that it is the duty of this Government-a duty from which it cannot free itself without betraying one of the highest objects of the Union-to exercise a superintendence, in all constitutional modes, over the general currency, so as to secure to the whole country a sound, stable, and, as nearly as may be, uniform medium of exchange; and, to use the lan This duty is essential to the harmony and friendly tercourse of the States, and is, indeed, intimately connected with all the objects of a common Government which led to the establishment of the constitution. But this duty is to be measured by the extent of the powers which have been delegated to Congress; for it must always be borne in mind that this Government can exercise no other powers than such as have been specifically delegated to it. Now what are those powers in regard to the question of the currency? The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. WEBSTER] argued, the other day, as if the constitution had given to Congress a substantive and plenary power to "regulate the currency," eo nomine, and inferred from thence the power to establish a national bank to regulate the issues of the State banks, which form the actual currency of the country. But, in the first place, the constitution has not delegated to Congress any general or substantive power to "regulate the currency," nor has it, any where, either by express grant, or necessary implication, given to Congress the power to create a banking corporation. What, then, are the powers it has vested in Congress on the subject of the currency? In the first place, it gives to Congress "the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof." But |