offices. It was no sooner paid into the land office, than the receiver of public moneys deposited it again with the banks, to the credit of the Government. Thus the indebtedness of the banks was daily and rapidly increased. The banks, fearing that the public deposites would be called for in coin, became alarmned at their own condition, closed their doors, and suspended specie payment; thereby putting it out of the power of this Government to pay the public dues, according to law, in specie, or its equivalent.

This, said Mr. T. is a brief statement of my opinion of the causes which produced the present embarrassment and distress that surround us; it was an unfortunate tampering with the currency and the public deposites by the Executive. Our troubles have come sooner, but come lighter than they wou'd have done, had the Treasury order never existed. Now for the remedy. The bill reported by the honorable chairman of the Committee on Finance, imposing additional duties on public officers, as he understood it, intended to cut loose the Government from all banks, and to authorize the Treasury Department to keep and disburse as well to collect the whole revenue of the Government, dispensing with banks as fiscal agents altogether. This policy he thought might well be questioned. It would strike a large portion of the American people like a shock of electricity, on account of the increased power and patronage it would confer on the Executive arm of the Government. He would not declare in advance that he could not go for it, or for something like it, but he would be slow in yielding it his support, and he hoped that a better remedy would be found. He had never been an advocate for using a litter of State or local banks as fiscal agents of the Government. They contain with in themselves antagonist principles; each possessing separate views, and looking to the interest of its own stockholders, they cannot or will not act together in transinitting and disbursing the public money of the United States, and so long as they are used as depositories of the public moneys, embarrassments and occasional losses are to be expected.

Mr. T. said that he was opposed to taking any step here that would have a tendency to cripple or break down the State banks. The people were encouraged to establish State banks to keep down the Bank of the United States. They had vested their capital in them to a very large amount. Many of these banks were perfectly solvent and safe; none more so than the banks of the State which he had, in part, the honor to represent here. The banks of Indiana were waiting to see what Congress, the Executive, and other banks, could or would do, intending very soon to resume specie payments, and honestly to redeem all their paper; and he would give no vote to discourage or to procrastinate so desirable an object. It was true the banks had not acted well in suspending specie payments and embarrassing the Government, but we should deal mercifully with them. A single breath from Congress and the President, saying to the State banks, "We will not receive your paper in payment of duties or for public lands," will strike fifty per cent. off the value of all the property of our constituents vested in these banks; indeed, off all their property of every description; and he was not prepared to sanction such a course. In the language of the West, give us land office money. Whatever will buy land is as good as gold. It is at par in all the moneyed transactions of the western country. No matter how old or ragged paper may be, if it contains words, letters, and figures enough to be receivable in the land offices, it equals gold; and if not receivable for public lands, it is of uncertain and changeable value. It finds its way into the hands of the poorer class of people, who are liable to be imposed on, and shaved by the rich, in whose hands the better currency was always found. This would be the effect on the western people, should we refuse to receive the paper of their banks in payment for public lands. He left it for Senators representing States east of the mountains to say what would be its effect on the interest of their constituents, should this Government refuse to receive their bank paper in payment for revenue. Above

all things, Congress should establish and maintain a uniform currency. Have gentlemen forgotten how forcibly the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun) described the influence of this Government on currency the other day, when he said if the United States will endorse the note of the beggar, it will pass at par? And will that Senator now say to a very large proportion of the people of this country, we will not receive the paper of your banks in payment of dues to the Government, although you may redeem your paper with specie, when, by that act, he will bankrupt thousands who have strong claims both on the justice and the clemency of the General Government?

Mr. T. would not detain the Senate by an attempt to show what effect the measures before it would have on our commerce or exchanges. He left that to abler hands. He pretended only to take a plain common sense view of their mischievous tendency on the interests of his immediate constituents, and to enter his protest, in their behalf, against the ruinous consequences that must follow the passage of the bill with the amendment proposed. He said the course that he had marked out for himself to pursue, put it out of his power to vote for the bill or the amendments proposed by the honorable Senators from South Carolina and Missouri, their amendment, if adopted, looked to a refusal on the part of this Government, at an early day, to receiving or useing in its ordinary transactions the paper of all banks, and a return to a metallic currency. This, said Mr. T. looks well on paper, but in my opinion it is impossible to reduce it to practice. There surely is not metal enough to answer one half of the business transactions of this great and growing country. It was on a mixed currency, partly paper issued on a metallic basis, that our country reached the summit of its prosperity, and who could ask more than to be placed where we were in 1831?

He would vote for the proposition offered by the Senator from Virginia, when it come. It contemplated preserving the property of our people vested in the State banks. Let us collect from the late depositories the money in their vaults, but in doing so give time for them to pay us without crushing these institutions. This would enable the banks to indulge their creditors, and go far to relieve the embarrassments under which our country was suffering. He cared not what those in high places might think. He considered it the duty of this Government to relieve the people, when this can be done with an eye to public justice. Congress now had the power of relief, and he hoped would exercise it.

The frequent charges thrown out by the late President, in his messages to Congress, against the Bank of the United States, had a tendency to discredit that bank with the people, and we all witnessed its downfall. The constant lauding of the State banks by the President and his Secretary of the Treasury as, depositories of the public money, encouraged the people to take stock in those banks. They grew up, as it were, under Executive favor, and shall Congress now lend itself to break them down? If we intend to avoid embarrassment and losses hereafter, we must put the regulation of the currency, and the deposites of the public money, under laws, passed by the joint wisdom of Congress, and leave less to the whims of a President and his Secretary of the Treasury.

If the bills which had passed the Senate authorizing an issue of Treasury notes, and that regulating collection from the deposite banks, become laws, he wished to see this extra session brought to a close, and let us return to our masters, the people, and consult them on what is further to be done. He did not stand here to register the Executive will; he looked to the boys of the West-those with haid hands, warm hearts, and strong arms, who fell the forest, hold the plough, and repel foreign invasion-for his instructions; it was their voice he felt bound to obey; it was their wishes and their interest he came here to represent. If the Executive desires the additional responsibility of keeping and disbursing, as well as of collecting, the revenue of the country, he now has it, under the regulations of the Treasury Department, since the suspension of specie payment by the deposite

banks; and he warned honorable Senators who, like himself, wished to sustain the present administration, provided its conduct entitled it to the support of the people, to be careful how they entered upon new and dangerous experiments. If he was bent on breaking down an administration, he would give up to it the unlimited control of the public moneys of the Government. He could not vote for the bill reported from the Committee on Finance, but he would vote for the motion of the Senator from Georgia, (Mr. King,) to postpone the whole subject to the next session of Congress, when we shall have had an opportunity of ascertaining the wishes of our constituents. It is good for us occasionally to consult the sovereign people.

Mr. CALHOUN expressed his surprise that the Senator from Georgia should have made a motion to postpone the further consideration of this subject until the meeting of Congress in December next. He regretted, too, that that Senator should not have assigned some reasons for his motion. He (Mr. Calhoun) thought it was due to the country and to Congress, that this question should be settled at the present session. He stated that there were millions of money now waiting the result of our decisions. Even in the city of New York, the very centre of the distress, a large amount was held back under the supposition that a Bank of the United States would be created-a vain and idle and delusive expectation. The objections to such an institution were insurmountable. The commercial world knew not what to do. No man was more sensible than the gentleman from Georgia of the necessity of prompt and decisive action on the part of Congress. Why, then, should the subject be postponed? Were we not as prepared to decide the question now, as we should te in December? A postponement would be fatal to the best interests of the country. Let the question be decided now, and much would then be done for the relief of the country. "Delays (said Mr. C.) are dangerous," and the remark was never more true than in the present case. Those opposed to the Sub-Treasury scheme, backed by the banking institutions of the the country, presented an array of force, formidable in the extreme. The banking power and influence presented itself in every direction, and would be brought to bear against the measure, should there be any delay. To postpone, then, would be doing nothing less than to surrender the question.

Mr. C. concluded by briefly defending his coursein reference to the Bank of the United States, against the sentiments expressed by the Senator from Georgia (Mr. King.)

Mr. RIVES would, he said, say a word or two in reply to the Senator from South Carolina, who had again spoken of the Pennsylvania bank of the United States, as if it was at all connected with this question. But is it so? He denied that it had any thing to do with this bill. It strikes a vital blow at the whole banking system of the country, which was now incorporated with the prosperity of the country. Although opposed to the abuses of that system, yet he saw that this blow would be fatal. He was in favor of preserving the system at present, inasmuch as it was necessary to the existing interests of the country. He went on to answer the Senator from South Carolina, who yesterday insisted that this was a struggle between Mr. Biddle and the Government; that it was an attempt to recapture the deposites; that Mr. Biddle was trying to get control of the Government and of the political institutions of the country. Now is that the proposition I have submitted? He denied that his bill proposed any such thing. The gentleman had treated the whole question as if it related to the Bank of the United States, and the restoration of the deposites to that institution. It did not relate to that more than to any other bank, nor to the deposites at all.

Mr. CALHOUN explained, if the Government received the bank notes, they endorsed their credit, and the deposites would follow.

Mr. RIVES said, then the objection did not apply to his (Mr. R's) bill, but to the existing law of the land. The law directs the mode in which the depositaries shall be selected. He referred to the duties of the Secretary of the Treasury under the

law; ye the gentleman says the practical issue is whether the Bank of the United States shall have the deposites? Would Mr. Woodbury give them to that bank? He thought in very unlikely. He thought he could leave that issue to the Secretary with perfect confidence. He would protest against the ghost of the dead bank being paraded here for effect. A great deal had been said about arguments ad captandum. If there had been any such, it was this: all that had been said in rerelation to the deposites was gratuitous. His firm conviction was, that there could be no general resumption of specie payments without a simultaneous movement; all must resume at the same ume. His great object in introducing his proposition was to indicate a day for it, so that the banks may be prepared. Without that, the resumption cannot take place.

He stood here as little subject to suspicion in regard to favoring the United States Bank as any gentleman here. The gentleman from South Carolina signalizes his zeal as a new convert. In 1816 he introduced and supported the bill for chartering the Bank of the United States. He had been a firm and unflinching opponent of that institution. When that gentleman advocated a Bank of the United States in '34, he was opposing it. He hoped the gentleman would throw out no more appeals of that character. He had thrown out insinuations for effect, and then disclaimed their application. It appeared to him that the repetition of these factitious appeals showed the weakness of their cause. Are we children, that the gentleman endeavors to frighten us with the ghost of a Bank of the United States? No, sir. He hoped that Senators were too sensible of their position to be influenced by these scenic exhibitions. Let the gentleman show that there is any real foundation for the alarm about the banks recovering the Government deposites, and not endeavor to excite groundless fears, and work upon our imaginations.

But no ground had been alleged for these insinuations. They were altogether gratuitous. There was nothing in this proposition that favored the Bank of the United States more than any other bank.

He begged leave to say a word or two to the gentleman from Missouri. He was thankful to him for the suggestion, that if he looked over his right shoulder he would see whom he was acting with, Let me tell that gentleman, that when I offer a proposition on this floor, I never think who will vote for or against it. If the gentleman supposes that I am to derive any support over my right shoulder, he knows more than I do. I know one thing: I know who supported this bill before. I know that five-sixths of the friends of the administration supported this bill. It was supported almost unanimously. That is all I know. I do not pretend to speculate as to who will vote for i or against it. I had not the support of the gentleman from Missouri, nor do I expect it now, nor do I expect that of any other particular gentleman. It is enough for me to believe that it is essential to the best interests of the country. So far from seeing why his proposition should now be abandoned, he saw every thing to stimulate and urge him to bring it forward. It would be impossible that the banking institutions should ever rise again, without a measure of this sort. They must lie prostrate. The people wished to see an end of this paper money, that the gentleman from South Carolina and the gentleman from Missouri so much deprecated. No one had a deeper sense of its danger than he had. We should never get rid of this evil, unless some measure of this character should be adopted. He was unwilling to go back to his constituents without having first done something for the relief of the country. He was unwilling that the American people should witness an adjournment of these bodies, without the passage of some measure of a healing and a salutary character, in regard to the currency of the country. He felt that it was necessary to fix some day for the resumption of specie payments by the banks before we go home, in order that the people might have an assurance of getting rid of that most horrible abomination, the spurious or precarious substitutes for money that

are now overrunning the land. But, in regard to the personal appeal of the Senator from Missouri, if I stand in a position which he indicates; if I am to look over the right shoulder for a guide or leader, will the honorable gentleman, oblige me by looking immediately in front of him, he will find his file-leader. [Mr. Ca'houn sits in front of Col. Benton.] Now, that is a singular transposition of places, indeed. The honorable gentleman from Missouri, who has so long taken the subject of the currency under his particular care, is now content to furnish facts and hints for another leader. He had not looked for or sought any special support from any gentleman on that floor. He had not changed his position. If any gentleman supported him, he presumed it would be from patriotic motives. When the Sub-Treasury scheme was introduced into the House of Representatives in 1834, it received bet thirty-three votes, and only one of those was a friend of the administration; and this scheme was then denounced under the auspices, and in the name, of the administration as revolutionary, disorganizing, anti-republican— tending to enlarge the Executive power, and place in its hands the means of corruption. Believing now, as he did then, that such is the character and tendency of the measure, he adhered to the ground taken by the republican party in 1834; and he would use every weapon which reason and argument could furnish in opposition to it. He would freely cooperate with any party, or any individual, in resisting a scheme which he believed to be fatal to the best interests and happiness of the country; and in doing so, he did not consider himself as abandoning, but, on the contrary, maintaining, the true republican faith.

Mr. CALHOUN said that, after his disclaimer yesterday, he was much surprised to find himself the object of a personal attack. He contended that the stand taken by him in the year 1834 would speak for itself. He rebutted, with much warmth the remarks of the Senator about his "zeal," and identifying him with the Senator from Missiouri, and said the whole remarks were alike unworthy of the Senator and the State he represented. On motion of Mr. CLAY, The Serate adjourned.

Messrs. DARLINGTON, MORRIS, McKENNAN, and OGLE of Pennsylvania.

[Mr. M. MORRIS of Pennsylviania presented the memorial of John Paxson, Charles Marquedant, and eighty others, eitizens of Bucks county in the State of Pennsylvania, remonstrating against the annexation of Texas to the United States.]

Messrs. MARVIN and LOOMIS of New York. Mr. TILLINGHAST of Rhode Island. Messrs. ADAMS and PARMENTER, of Massachusetts, and

Mr. FAIRFIELD of Maine.

INQUIRY IN RELATION TO THE FLORIDA WAR.

The House then proceeded to the unfinished business of the morning hour, which was the consideration of the following resolution, submitted by Mr. WISE on the 19th instant:

Resolved, That a select committee be.appointed by ballot to inquire into the cause of the Florida war, and into the causes of the delays and failures, and the expenditures which have attended the prosecution of that war, and into the manner of its conduct, and the facts of its history generally; that the said committee have power to send for persons and papers, and that it have power to sit in the recess, and that it make report to the next session of Congress.

"That a select committee be appointed to inquire into the cause of the Florida war, and the causes of the extraordinary delays and failures, and the expenditures which have attended the prosecution of the same, and all the facts connected with its history generally; and that said committee have power to send for persons and papers."

The question immediately pending, was the motien of Mr. HOWARD to strike out the words "that a select committee be appointed," and insert "that the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed."

Mr. WISE said, when he came to Congress four years ago, and when he was first elected by the people of his district, he was the friend of power. He had not been here long before he found that power needed no friend; it was too strong already. He looked narrowly at the condition of the public institutions. He watched closely the enemies of the public institutions of this country, and he found that the chief enemy of those institutions was the consolidation of all power in the hands of the Exccutive. He looked at the public domain, the richest inheritance which any nation was ever gifted with, and he saw that all these riches were at the disposal of the President. He saw this power so exercised that the new States were at the bidding of the Executive. He looked at all the other

sources of power, at all the little springs and all the large fountains, and he saw them all pouring into the hands of the Executive. He looked at the public press, and he found that it belonged to the Executive, and a greater power still he found to consist in the appointment and renoval of officers. All this, and more than this, he saw concentrated into the hands of one man. It was true that some check was provided in the Constitution, by giving Congress the control of the public purse; but between his first election and the time of taking his seat here, the President, through the power of appointment to, and removal from, office, seized upon the custody and control of the public money; and, instead of Congress controlling him, he had the control of Congress through the removing and appointing power. In consequence of these important and extensive powers offences must need come, and these offences were corruption, dictation, and oppression. This was not mere theory that offences must come; for he found a party with the maxim, when he come here, that to the victors belonged the spoils in full practice. He was not long here before he was undeceived, and he then declared that he was no longer the friend of power. He then set himself to work to diminish this power, by exposing its abuses. It was a sacred duty which he owed to his country; and he took it upon himself, disregarding every personal risk to which he might expose himself. It was true, he foresaw the difficulties which any man would have to encounter, who should undertake to beard the lion of power in his den. It was necessary that corruption should be exposed; and how was it to be exposed? The House of Representatives, the grand inquest of the nation, he took to be the proper place to expose it, as the responsibility rested there. He then took upon himself this task, but not alone: there was another individual, who was now absent, connected with him; and with a fixed resolution in their minds, they commenced the work, regardless of all difficulties and dangers. They knew who the enemies of the institutions of their country were, and they estimated the enemies of those institutions as more dangerous than a foreign foe. He wished to be permitted to say of that absent friend, that he was more than a companion: he was powerful in intellect, eloquent, magnanimous and brave; and stretch as he would in zeal, reach as he would in mighty energy, to keep by that friend's side, his onward march was such that he could not keep pace with him. That man was Balie Peyton of Tennessee, than whom a more generous, honorable or high minded man never lived. The difficulties and dangers of their duty were constantly compelling them to throw themselves on the spears of power and its parasites. The truth had to be told boldly, bravely and unflinchingly. In making their charges, they were frequently met,

and had charges hurled back against them, but they received them as became honorable men. They never made personal charges wantonly; and when general party charges were hurled back at thein, they never received them as personal to themselves. They met all personal charges as became them, for they had put their hand to the plough and it was not for them to turn back. When assaulted, they returned the assault. They never had been personally attacked but once, by any of the favorites of power, although he doubted not that the resolution to do so had oft times been formed. He had seen those persons march to a certain line boldly, but they never came over it. It was true, however, that he never desired to meet them, as he always wished to avoid personal conflict, either in the House or out of it. General attacks on his party he could meet as well as any other gentleman; and although he had no desire to have personal conflicts, personal attacks, whenever made, either on himself or his absent friend from Tennessee, should be met in that determined spirit with which he had entered upon the discharge of this duty to his country. He was induced to make these remarks in consequence of the general declaration-for general declaration he must call it, made by the gentleman from Mississippi on yesterday. He knew not whether the declaration was intended as personal to his friend from Tennessee, or himself, or not; but the remark was certainly true in its terms. The gentleman remarked that the scenes enacted in the rooms of the investigating committées last session, were disgraceful to the committee, disgraceful to the United States, and disgraceful to the nation.

subject on yesterday as they were delivered, and make a personal application of them if he chose; he was not responsible for the publication as it appeared in the Globe of yesterday, not having seen the report of yesterday's remarks before they went to press; the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wise) might take the remarks he had made just as they were made, and make what use of them he pleased; he repeated again, that scenes did take place in the committee rooms which were disgraceful to Congress and to the country; but in making this remark, he differed from the gentleman from Virginia in tel eving that the investigation threw any disgrace upon the late administration. He had not been able, for the life of him, to discover, after a close examination of the testimony adduced, that any disgrace could attach to the late administration. Although it had been repeated again and again by the gentleman from Virginia, that corruption did exist in the administration, he (Mr. G.) had not been able to discover it. The gentleman had said that a disgraceful scene took place in the House at the time; the majority of the House sustained a witness who refused to appear before one of the investigating committees. Now Mr. G. believed that the late House sustained that witness, because they believed that it would be doing injustice to him to send him before a committee; whose chairman had treated him in the manner the chairman of that committee had treated the witness.

A certain difficulty had taken place before another committee,m which the chairman of that committee took a part, and in consequence of this difficulty, as he (Mr. G.) understood, the majority of the House would not force the witness before his committee. He considered that the circumstances of the case fully warranted the House in making this decision, and he justifi d their conduct on that occasion. Then, was this a disgraceful scene? Was it a disgraceful scene for the American Congress to protect an American citizen? If so, Mr. S. was satisfed to take his share of the disgrace. The witness (Mr. Whitney) was freeman, and entitled to all the rights and privileges of an American citizen; and as much entitled to protection as the gentleman from Virginia or any other gentleman. He had before said that he knew nothing of Whitney per

a

Now, he perfectly agreed with the gentleman from Mississippi in that general remark. The scenes enacted in the investigating committee rooms were disgraceful to the committee, disgraceful to the House, and disgraceful to the nation. Such scenes never were exhibited before in this Capitol, and he hoped that they never again would be enacted. Sir, they were all scenes perfectly exhibiting servility to Executive power. He (Mr. W.) saw scenes enacted in both those committees which were enough to convince him of the corruptions of the Government. He saw the majorities of those committees stooping before the power of the Executive, bring at the will of the President; covering up all the abuses that had been charged against the Govern-sonally, and what he knew of him from reputation ment, and directly sanctioning them. We saw a scene in this House that was disgraceful to the last Congress, and to the last Honse of Representatives. The very person who was charged as connected with the Executive in wasting the public money, and bribing and corrupting the public mind, contumaciously refused to appear before the committee and testify, and this House sustained him in hat conduct.

He concurred most fully with the gentleman from Mississippi that the scenes enacted in those 'committees were disgraceful to the Honse, and two of the members of the majority of the committee of which he was chairman, have been most signally rebuked, in consequence thereof. They have been condemned by the voice of the people, and are left at home. By looking over the list, it would be found that there was but two here out of the six, who were the majority of that committee.

In relation to the remarks of the gentleman from Mississippi, he took none of them to himself as personal, nor did he think any of those remarks as applicable to his friend from Tennessee. If he did, or if it was really apparent that those remarks were intended for him, or his friend, or whenever he or his friend were charged as the au-' thors of the disgrace of these scenes, or whenever any disgraceful conduct was charged to him or his friend, he would say to the man who uttered the charge, that in his foul throat he lied!

Mr. GHOLSON wished to be understood as not ⚫ making any personal allusion in his remarks to the gentlemen from Tennessee, (Mr. Peyton,) as it never was his custom to make any remarks to apply to persons who were not in a position to defend themselves.

As to the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Wise,) he might take the remarks he had made on this

was rather calculated to make an unfavorable than a favorable impression on his mind in relation to that individual; because he was charged with being in league with the banks in Mississippi, which banks, and those that sustained them, were his (Mr. G's) political enemies--the enemies of the people-and sustained by the party to which the gentleman from Virginia belonged. Yet, notwithstanding these banks were owned and controlled by the whigs, they were denominated here the pet banks "of the Government." He repeated here that those banks in Mississippi were opposed to the administration, and opposed to the clection of himself and his colleague (Mr. Claiborne.) This House was to be looked upon, according to the doctrine of the gentleman from Virginia, as enacting disgrace, because it has sustained an American citizen, in a stand he had taken in not appearing before a committee, whose chairman bad made violent charges against him. It was easy to make charges, but it was difficult to prove them. The gentleman from Virginia no doubt believed all the charges he had made against this individual, but he denied that he had proved them. He knew Whitney as the agent of one of the banks alluded to, but further than this he knew him not, nor did he care what his character or conduct had been; he viewed him only as an American citizen, and as such he had rights secured by the Constitution, that those in power had no right to take from him. He considered it a duty to protect every individual until the charges brought against him be proved. Surely he did not look upon this as bowing at the footstool of power to protect this individual under the circumstances of the case. If it was so, however, he was ready to take his share of the responsibility. He cared not what charges gentlemen might make against him; he came there the representative of an independent and of a magnanimous people, who

were not to be deterred from the support of an administration which they believed acted in accordance with the republican principles contained in the Constitution, by the denunciations of any set of men, or any party. He had not changed his mind since he came to this House. He had not seen the corruptions of which the gentleman from Virginia had spoken. And he had not changed his political opinions since he came here. He had not discovered those corruptions, and until he did discover them, he saw no reason for changing his political opinions. When he had the evidence of them presented to him, then it would be time enough to change the opinions he entertained when he entered this House. When that occurred, he could return and tell his constituents the cause of his change, and if they went with him be it so; but until he made this discovery, he should continue to support the party he had heretofore supported.

The gentleman from Virginia tells us that he has discovered that the new States were at the bidding of the President. Now he (Mr. G.) represented one of those new States, and he would take the liberty of informing that gentleman that it was neither at the bidding of the President nor of the monarch of bank rags. Although they sustained the late President and his administration, they did so because they looked upon that administration as acting in accordance with republican principles. This was the reason they sustained that administration, and not because they were bought up. If they could be bought up, they would be bought up by the banks. It was the banks that bought up men, and not the administration. Wherever you find the influence of banks existing to any extent, there you will find the aristocracy of wealth opposed to the democracy of numbers; and wherever you find gentlemen who have worshipped the golden calf, you will find that they have abandoned the good old republican doctrines, and cry out loud and long against the party in power, and those who sustain it. The only persons in the State he represented who were violently opposed to the administration, were those who, like the gentleman from Virginia, claim to possess all the talent, all the decency, and all the worth of the country.

The gentleman from Virginia further charges the democratic party with being sustained by a corrupt press. Now if the press had become corrupt, it had become universally corrupt, and if the press in favor of the administration was corrupted by the administration, the press of the opposition was corrupted in the same ratio by the opposition party, who had the command of nearly all the wealth in the country. A large majority of the presses of the country, so far as his observation extended-and in the State of Mississippi two to one-were opposed to the administration, and this arose, in his opinion, from the fact that the wealth of the country was to be found in the ranks of the opposition. The press, then, with all its corruptions, is against us, if it is corrupt. He denied the charge unconditionally, that the new States had been bought up by the adminis tration, and it was an insult to the people of the new States to make this charge. the gentleman from Virginia represented a constituency that would be bought up or bribel, he had nothing to say to it; but for himself and his colleague, [Mr. Claiborne] he claimed to represent an intelligent, independent people, who would not, nor could not, be bought up either by the Government or the banks; and who were not to be frightened by the cries of the gentleman and his party from the even tenor of their ways.

If

Mr. LOOMIS considered the remarks of the gentleman from Virginia as an unjust attack upon the absent members of the House With regard to the gentleman from Rhode Island [Mr. Pearce] he had nothing to say, but left him to be noticed by those who had succeeded against him in that State. In regard to the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Mann] however, he must tell the gentleman that he was entirely mistaken, as he was not left out in the manner alluded to by the gentleman from Virginia, but remained at home in private life, of his own choice.

Mr. WISE said there were four members of the majority of that committee, who were not here

- 25TH CONG.........1ST SESS.

now.

BY BLAIR & RIVES.

[Continued from No. 4.]

He was well aware that the gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. Hannegan] who was a personal friend of his, had been appointed to office by the President, and he believed Mr. Mann had been left out in consequence of the principle of rotation; but Mr. Parks, of Maine, was, he perceived by this morning's news, a defunc: Governor; and Mr. Pearce of Rhode Island was signally defeated, and as he was informed, the conduct of that gentleman on that committee, had some weight in the election.

Mr. LOOMIS thought the attack upon those gentlemen was improper, because of their inability to defend themselves, and because that every thing which was said here was caught up and promulgated through the thousand papers of the country. They suffer under the attacks, and have no means of being heard. He should have supposed that all this feeling would have been smothered or forgotten before this, according to the statement of the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. WISE said he intended, when he was up before, to do justice to the majority of the committee, and to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Muhlenberg) especially. It might be thought by some that his remarks conveyed the idea that his friend General Campbell really resisted the majority. That idea, however, was wrong. It was due to the gentleman from Pennsylvania to say, that he condemned the report when it was first presented. Mr. Pearce, of Rhode Island, also said that he did not concur in it, so that there was no necessity whatever for resisting the majority. When the report was first brought in, the minority thought that the majority were going to insist upon having it appear as it was drawn up; but it soon displayed itself in such a character that the majority expressed their reprehension of it. He recollected most distinctly, that his friend from Pennsylvania (Mr. Muhlenberg)—for he must still call that gentlemas his friend, as also many of those who belonged to the administration party-condemned it. The majority of the committee and entrusted the drawing up of the report to Mr. Pearce, and Mr. Pearce had put it into the hands of a scullion, who drew it up, and, in consequence of their not having time to read it, took them by surprise. But if Pearce's remarks were to be taken as true, Mr. Mann furnished the materials for that report, and knew what it contained before it was read.

Mr. LOOMIS said it was extraordinary, from the description of the state of good feeling which existed, according to the statement of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, that an attack should be made upon absent members at this late day. Those attacks should have been made when those gentlemen were here, the equals of the gentleman from Virginia; when they could have been met by those gentleinen face to face. Then was the time to make those attacks, and not now.

Mr. LOOMIS was here interrupted by a call for the orders of the day.

On motion of Mr. CAMBRELENG the order adopted for the House to meet, from and after Monday next, at 10 o'clock, a. m. was changed to Tuesday. Mr. C. gave as a reason for the motion that, at that hour, on Monday next, the Committee of Ways and Means intended to hold a session.

The motion was agreed to without a dissenting voice.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1837.

WEEKLY.

doubtedly his expectation, and he hoped he should have the general concurrence of the House.

Mr. CUSHING. That would be of course for the committee to decide. But I wish further to ask the gentleman whether he, as representing a certain set of opinions in that House, intended to choke off debate. (Loud cries of "order.")

Mr. CAMBRELENG. Certainly not on my part.

The CHAIR interposed that the conversation could not be permitted without the assent of the House.

Mr. GARLAND of Louisiana said he also wished to propound an inquity to the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means.

Leave being given by the House

Mr. GARLAND said, in reference to what fell from the gentleman (Mr. Cambreleng) last evening, he wished to inquire whether any, and what, financial arrangements had been made by the Treasury since the passage of one of the bills in the Senate; by what authority they had been made, and whether they had been made merely from the fact of that bill having been made?

Mr. CAMBRELENG rose to respond, but The CHAIR interposed, and said this discussion should take place only where disenssion on the bill was in order.

The House then passed to the orders of the day. The CHAIR laid before the House a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, of the different methods adopted for the safe keeping of the public moneys of the United States from the first organization of the Government, designatine the losses sustained, &c.; which, on n.ction of Mr. LOOMIS of New York, was laid on the table and ordered to be printed.

On motion of Mr. CAMBRELENG, the House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, Mr. HAYNES in the chair, and resumed the consideration of the bill to POSTPONE THE FOURTH INSTALMENT WITH THE

STATES.

The question pending was on the amendment of Mr. PICKENS to strike from the bill the indefinite clause "till further provision by law," and insert "the first day of January, 1839."

Mr. CAMBRELENG would with the permission of the gentleman from Maine, take that opportunity of making a response to the gentleman from Louisiana. He expressed his gratification that the gentleman had propounded the interrogatory, because it enabled Hr. C. to explain to the committee what he intended to have done last evening, if he had not been stopped by the gentleman from Maine, (Mr. Smith) who had not, as he had since informed him, understood his object.

What Mr. C. intended to refer to, was that the passage of the bill through the Senate, extending the time of payment of merchants' bonds nine months, carrying the first payment to February next, and that from the merchants' bonds not commencing to be paid till then, there was not only no demand at this time for Treasury warrants and drafts, but they had fallen four per cent. since the passage of that bill by an almost unanimous vote of the Senate.

The bill extending the term for paying the balances due from the banks to four, six, and nine mouths, having also passed the Senate by, he believed, a unanimous vote, had had another effect on drafts on these corporations, which woul! render even that portion of these Valances unavailable to the Treasury, upon which calculations had been made to pay current expenses. As the credit commences from the day they refuse to pay them, they have every inducement not to pay, and will refuse to do so in all cases, where the bank desires to use the public money for four, six, and nine months.

The consequence of these two measures having passed, the action of the merchants in purchasing these drafts, and the action of the banks in consequence of the passage of that bill, the Treasury was

VOLUME 5.........No. 5.

revenue.

Mr. C. added that he had been informed they had even been compelled to return thirty thousand dollars from the Treasury to the custom-house at Now York, to pay debentures and current expenses. Under these circumstances, he thought he might confidently appeal to gentlemen on all sides of the House for their concurrence in a more prompt action upon the various bills before the House.

Mr. SMITH, who was entitled to the floor, (having temporarily yielded it to Mr. Cambreleng) expressed his regret that his honorable colleague (Mr. Fairfield) yesterday, should have gone back to the period of the passage of the deposite act of 1836. Now Mr. S. had contributed his humble share to that measure, and at no subsequent maoment had he seen occasion to regret that course. He asked to whom, or to what, they were now indebted for not having thirty-seven millions of unavailable funds, instead of nine, but to the friends of that measure, and to the measure itself?

In regard to the amendment pending, if it had been originally inserted in the bill from the Senate, he should have voted for it, but he was opposed to it now with the proviso, because it made a general recognition of the system of distribution. The bill of the House he objected to, because it was a virtual, and in fact a positive, repeal of the distribution of the fourth instalment, under cover of a postponement. He maintained that the deposite act was not a contract, nor that it did, in any degree, partake of any of the legal or moral obligations of an instrument of that character. He assented, in part, to the cases put yesterday by the gentleman from New Hampshire, (Mr. Cushman,) but supplied a defect in them, by putting the case of a promise of two hundred thousand dollars, and, between the time of promise and that of payment, it was found to fall short of the amount of the fourth payment or instalment. In this case there would be neither moral nor legal obligation to fulfil the proposition. The law was passed under the supposition that there was a surplus, and the money was received under that same supposition, and that alone; and the moment it was ascertained that no surplus existed, both parties were relieved from the obligations of the law.

He denied that the passage of the bill would be i breach of faith on the part of the Govern a th; er tainly not more so than the preposition of "go tleman from Tennessee (Mr. Bell) to wathio' the appropriations. If the one was a breach of gd faith, the other was equally so. In adver to the argument of the gentlemen from Pennsylva... and Ohio, (Messrs. Biddie and Loomis,) that their respective States would lose so much money, arguhe expressed his surprise that such an ment, referring to pecuniary interest alone, should come from the sections it did. But the Secretary of the Treasury had himself anticipated the objections on that score. But even if tho e gentlemen's constituents could be influenced by such a consideration as that, the returns of the deposite banks showed they were better off than they would be, f the distribution were made; for heir deposite banks had at this time twenty-five per cent. more of the public money than the fourth instalment would amount to, and it would be admitted that in proportion as those banks possessed the public money, so did they extend their accommodation to the public. In fine, he said, that unless the bill went openly for a repeal, or went for a postponement to a definite period, he should be compelled to vote against it. If the proviso of the Senate's bill were stricken out, he would vote for it, but he could not in the shape in which it then was.

In referrence to the Maine election, he said the

result offered no exponent or indication of the will of the people on the measures of the administration, but arose from the combination of a variety of sectional and personal causes. He felt assured hat the confidence and approval of the people in hose measures had undergone no change.

Mr. THOMPSON of South Carolina desired, he said, to say a few words upon the particular measure before the House, in explaining his reasons for the vote he intended to give. He should vote for the amendment of his colleague, because it would make the measure s mewhat more acceptable, but he should vote against the proposition thus amended. He had voted, with all his heart, for the distribution, and his mind had undergone no change, nay more had been confirmed, by every thing that had occured since, of the wisdom of that measure. One of the very best features of that measure he regarded to be this: that it provided that, should the future exigencies of the Government require the return of the money deposited, it could be made by State taxation, instead of by the will of a majority of the Federal had Congress, ignorant, as past experience furnished india melancholy proof, of the vidual interests of the States. If the case should be presented, he should regard himself as false to his principles, and also to those peculiar interests he, in part, represented, if he hesitated in giving back not only this instalment, but even the interests upon it. But he did not regard this as a case of that kind. He had gone over carefully and diligently, the statements made by the gentleman from Tennessee, and had also made a number of calculations of his own, and all came to the same result. The result of that examination was that, deducting $15,000,000, which the Secretary of the Treasury admitted were not needed, the gross demands upon the Treasury for the past and present year would be over $70,000,000.

In this statement was included $37,000,000 to be distributed, the $16,600,000 of unexpended appropriations of former years, and $32,000,000 of appropriations of last year, making altogether $85,000,000 odd. Deducting the $15,000,000 which the Secretary said would not be needed, there was then a clear fund of $64,000,000, and with the addition of the funds in the hands of disbursing officers, upwards of $69,000,000. The accruing revenue of the last half of the present year was assumed by the Secretary to amount to $7,000,000, but it had been demonstrated to Mr. T's entire satisfaction to be about $9,500,000, making about $85,000,000. As to to the funds in the hands of disbursing officers, he would ask, were they not as much the resources of the Government as the funds actually in the Treasury? They were only one step further towards expenditure: that was all. They were still in the hands of the Government. So in taking the revenue of the last half year at seven millions, instead of nine and a half, which was the more correct estimate, there would be a surplus. Hence, if $9,000,000 be distributed among the States, and $12,000,000 of Treasury notes, there would be upwards of $20,000,000 remaining in the Traasury, not to meet the necessities and wants of the Government, but to be placed in the Sub-Treasuries.

In reference to the Sub-Treasury scheme, Mr. T. had one insuperable objection to it, among others. It was, that it would put into the power of the Government the means, not only of coercing the State banks, but of bringing absolute and inevitable ruin upon the communities in which those banks were located. He contended, however, that the condition of the Treasury was not such as to warrant the carrying out such a scheme. The States would not refuse to take the notes of their State banks in payment of the instalment. He adverted to the law itseif. It was of a characmere sronger than a common enactment, for it was a aw implying an obli gation. The effect of the bills proposed would be to ruin all the State banks, and he would rather see the whole surplus sunk in the ocean, ere he would inflict upon this country the calamity and ruin that must and would result from the coercion of those institutions. He regarded the bills to be all of the same character, part and parcel of the

ter even

same scheme, branches of the same system, so running into each other that it was impossible, wisely and intelligently, to look into one of them without considering the whole.

The policy the Government intended towards the banks, Mr. T. designated as not only unkind and cruel, but ferocious. To press them at such a time as this would bring on general ruin. To demand specie from them, they must necessarily press their own debtors for specie; and they, in turn, must press those owing them. Why was the great distinction made between the banks and the merchants? Specie was not demanded of the latter, nor should it be of the others, at such a period as fhe present.

As to the Sub-Treasury system, [Mr. T. said,] in no possible form in which the ingenuity of man could place it-by no false or delusive name by which it could be called-would he ever assent to it. He had been told that it was not a Sub-Treasury sytem. He insisted that it was. It was the very Sub-Treasury system he had been taught to look upon for years with alarm and dismay. It was the very SubTreasury system projected by a man he understood was holding an appointment at Washington, and who first became known to the country by the pub. lication of this project-he alluded to Mr. Gouge. It was a proposition against which Mr. T. had been long warring, and he saw nothing then to change his position.

It was called not another experiment, but an "expedient." The word "experiment" had become odious; and he had strong reasons for believing that, if they were to go on much longer under the present order of things, they would run through the whole vocabulary of the English language for terms. However, it was a somewhat favorite sign of things, that the Jack Cade banner was to be taken down, and to be substituted by the ferule of the schoolmaster! This at least is good sign,

for that word was well chosen. The word " expedient" meant something employed in an exigency, and no word in the English language could have been better selected for the present purpose than that word "expedient."

Mr. T. then went into the objections to the system in question. The primary and main one was thar it put into the hands of a Government, already armed with the sword, the unrestricted, free, uncontrolled, and almost irresponsible command of the purse strings. The present incumbent of the Executive chair was not able to wield the sword of Achilles, and therefore he must have in his own bands the complete control of the whole revenue of the country, to be used for party purposes, in elections, &c. Mr. T. put the case of an approaching election in the city of New York. How easy might it be, on the eve of that election, to forward on three, four, or five millions of dollars, to be placed, perhaps, in the hands of a single man or institution, to be used in controlling the election. Was it wise, prudent, or just to throw into the way of any set of men such a power as this? And what was it but giving the Federal Executive unlimited power over the whole money of the country, and in the most objectionable form? Mr. T. should infinitely prefer a Government bank, organized as a Government bank, with branches in the several States. Not a SubTreasury scheme! Why it was fa Sub-Treasury system in its most irresponsible and most dangerous form. Nay, he would go further. The scheme was not only the embryo of a Government bank, but it was in itself, to all intents and purposes, a Government bank of issue and deposite. Unquestionably of deposite, for the public funds had to be deposited there. Unquestionably of discount; for how else were their funds to be disposed of from one place to another? There would necessarily be a vast accumulation in the city of New York; in another region, where payments were required to be made, there might be no funds; and how were they to be transferred? In wagons? No, but by bills of exchange, to be bought and sold, either with a profit or loss.

This, too, would produce another evil. They would be destined to see acted over there again, claims after claims, coming in day after day, of the

same character as the noted Purviance claim, which occupied half a century.

It was also to be a bank of issue. These warrants would not only pass current from one agent to another, but the Government itself was directly to issue a currency, in the form of notes, to be signed by the Secretary of the Treasury as cashier.

There was also another objection, not less insuperable, and that was the insecurity of the public Could bond to a sufficient amount be money. given by individuals to secure the Government from loss? Impossible.

Mr. T. reiterated his condemnation of what he described to be an effort to enlist popular prejudice against the deposite banks for their suspension of specie payments. They had never been able to pay the deposite in specie, and the administration knew it.

They were no more able to do so when the public money was first deposited with them than they were at the present time, and he adverted to the condition of the New York banks in proof of this fact. The Secretary knew, at the time he deposited, that they could not; and yet he deposited the money with them, and continued to do so, their condition remaining the same, he all the time telling Congress it was safe. And, added Mr. T. they were safe, and so they still were, unless society should be altogether torn up by the roots. They had not specie, it was true, but they had that which was as good. They had liens upon all the property in the country.

But did the Government itself pay in specie? Could it pay in specie? Unquestionably. How? Why, it possessed stock which, thrown into the European market, would procure as much specie as it wanted. He insisted, however, that in refusing to pay specie when they did, the banks had not only acted honestly, but they would have acted fraudulently if they had not, because they would thereby have given a preference to those living near them over the distant creditor; have prevented that general distribution of what funds they had among their whole creditors, and would have disabled themselves from paying a large portion of them at all. He then contrasted the conduct of the French Government during the time of the embarrassment consequent upon John Law's Mississippi scheme, with that of the United States in the late crisis, which he designated as atrocious. He also, for the same reason, adverted to the conduct of the British Government in 1797, which, on a like occasion, when ruin and univer al distress threatened to engulf the commerce and trade of that country, came forward with the offer of a loan of several millions of exchequer bills to the merchants, the mere offer of which alone averted the impending calamity and restored confidence.

Mr. T. then entered into a variety of statements in support of his opposition to the recommendations of the President-the bankrupt law in particular. He examined the principles and effects of that law in England, and pronounced a similar one here, if adopted, to be one of the most unconstitutional and insolent assumptions of power ever set up in the history of this Government. He concluded by repeating his declaration, that he should support Mr. PICKENS's amendment, as making the bill less objectionable; but even should the amendment be engrafted on it, he should vote against the whole proposition as delusive, not required by the state of the Treasury, and inexpedient.

Mr. HALSTEAD asked the indulgence of the committee to state a few of his reasons for opposing the bill. Two of the grounds on which he based his opposition were, first, that the bill was unnecessary; and, second, that in the present state of the country it was inexpedient. On what grounds did the advocates of the bill rest their support? They said that there was a deficiency in the public Treasury. But he had been informed that there was a doubt on that subject; and if it should be shown that a doubt existed, that doubt, by right, belonged to the people, and not to the GovernAdmitting, for the sake of argument, the statement of the Secretary to be correct, the whole amount of deficit was about nine millions of dollars.

ment.

The question then was, had not the Government