National Intelligencer. (Washington [D.C.]), Vol. 47, No. 6758, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 16, 1846 Page: 4 of 4
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SPEECH OF Mr. J. R. INGERSOLL,
OF PENNSYLVANIA,
ON THE SUB TREASURY BILL.
Plato
I do not love Caesar
House of Representatives, March 31, 1846.
Mr. INGERSOLL said that, when this subject of a Sub-
treasury was about to be brought forward for the present consi-
deration of Congress, he did not suppose that it possessed a sin-
gle claim to merit. Reflecting, however, upon the source from
which, in its present shape, it has sprung, and coupling it, as
he was bound to do, in some measure, with the reporter of the
plan before the House, he could not fail to admit that the bill
had one item in its favor, namely, its individual authorship.
Freely conceding the existence and influence of this single
item on one side of the account, where it stood alone, he be-
lieved it to be greatly overbalanced by a long list of per con-
tras on the other. Entertaining honestly this conviction,
(said Mr. I.) I shall not only cast my bumble vote against it,
but will proceed to suggest a few practical objections.
is my friend, but truth is much more so. T 1 ‘ '
less, but I love Rome much more.
It is not necessary to dwell upon that part of the question
which is made to assume a mere party aspect. A minority
will generally suffer by tendering such an ;ssue. It substitutes
at once for rules of reason the force of numbers. The end may
be reached with greater simplicity of argument and less effort
of reflection ; but justice is discarded as an ingredient in the
mass of motive, and the great interests of the country are ex-
posed to risk by mingling the chances of an accidental majori-
ty with the pride of power and the devotion of party allegiance.
I would only add a word or two to the explanations given by
gentlemen who were here in the special session of 1841, when
I was not a membei. The argument has been mistaken which
justifies complaint on account of the precipitancy with which
the measure of re-enactment is now borne through the House,
notwithstanding the acceleration which characterized the re-
peal of the original law. It is one thing to build up a system,
as this has sometimes been called, and it is another thing to
put it aside when it has proved incompetent for its purposes
or otherwise unworthy of support. Great trees, it is said, are
long in growing to their height, but they are cut down in an
hour. The repeal of a law, in the nature of the thing, em-
braces neither complexity nor details. It is a simple proposi-
tion, which requires nothing but a single operation of the
mind. An enactment implies combination as well as reflec-
tion—a harmonious union of different and distinct, and some-
times dissimilar, ingredients, making together one consistent
whole.
Neither is it sufficient as an argument that the present course
is, in its rapidity of completion, more or less retaliatory. Our
antagonists complained, they say with justice, at least plausi-
bly, of the “hot haste” with which measures were dispatched
during the brief period of Whig ascendency in 1841. They
went with those complaints upon their lips before the people.
They profited and they prevailed by the use of them. Let
them beware how they fall themselves into the same errors.
Retribution may await them, as they say it did us. Should
such be the case, they will have the mortification of defeat
aggravated by the consciousness that they sinned with the light
of experience shining before their eyes and the lessons of prac-
tical instruction sounding in their ears.
Supposing the question fairly open, and free to ample dis-
cussion, it is an argument in the threshold against the mea-
sure that it has been heretofore weighed in the balance, with
a steady and impartial hand, and found wanting. I do not
refer to a decision of the people in the memorable contest oi
1840, although that might be no unimportant circumstance in
determining the present result. I do not even refer for any
personal imputation of inconsistency to the fact of a Subtrea-
sury having been at an earlier period opposed by those who
are now its warmest friends. But I refer to that transaction
of an earlier period as an expression of opinion by an unbiased
body of Representatives, when reason alone was permitted to
influence their judgments, without the agency of party feel-
ing. With every opportunity to examine, and nothing to pre-
vent a correct determination, this House then came to the
conclusion—circumstances being in no respect less favorable
to the measure than they are at the present moment—that it
was not desirable, and it was rejected and renounced by a large
majority. Separate from it now its party influences ; let the
tocsin cease to sound, and let the rallying word be no longer
given out, and the precedent of 1835 will be adopted at once
as authoritative and persuasive upon all impartial minds.
An obvious practical objection to the scheme is found in its
being unnecessary. All the essential objects of the present
complicated and voluminous bill, consisting of seven-and-
twenty sections, may be accomplished under the few and sim-
ple provisions of the act of 2d September, 1789. That en-
during and comprehensive statute is, in relation to its own
objects, a type of the Federal Constitution in its wider scope.
Distinguished by great simplicity of language and arrange-
ment, both of those instruments—fruits as they are of the
golden age of the nation—are at the same time precise and
definite to all co-existing purposes, and yet so expansive as to
meet the exigences of many alter generations. AH that can
and ought to be done, according to the proposed scheme, may
be done more directly and with far less complex machinery
under the act of ’89. Every thing now proposed, that con-
cerns the receiving, disbursing, and keeping of the moneys oi
the United States, is contained in the classic provisions which
have been in force for nearly sixty years. The difference is
simply this—that now, as heretofore, the money may be kepi
in safes and vaults, if in safes and vaults it can be kept to
greater advantage ; but no compulsion is imposed to prefer the
mephitic vapors of a cavern to every other place of deposite,
however in all respects more eligible. From this time forth
all option is denied. An inexorable imprisonment is the doom
of the Treasury, and to the fens upon which its buildings are
erected the practice of keeping the Government funds musl
be confined. When this new depository was half built, such
were the doubts even of its superterranean capacities that it was
proposed to stop the wrnrk and take it down. Within a few
days past one of the heads of bureaus has shown me a book of
records fished up from the Serbonian bogs of oblivion that
abound below, which was already much injured, and threa-
tened with entire destruction. All this mischief will be en-
tailed by the Subtreasury scheme, without substantially cre-
ating any convenience, security, economy, or strength beyond
those which already exist. As the law stands money is re-
ceived and kept by the Treasurer, without any allusion what-
ever to banks. It is disbursed by him upon warrants drawn
by the Secretary of the Treasury, countersigned by the Comp-
troller, and recorded by the Register. His accounts are ren-
dered quarterly to the Comptroller, or oftener if required, and
a copy, when settled, is transmitted to the Secretary. At the
commencement of every session he is obliged to render to
Congress fair and accurate copies of all his accounts, as also a
. true and perfect account of the state of the Treasury. He
must submit, not once a week, but at all times, to the Secre-
tary and the Comptroller, or to either of them, the inspection
of the moneys in his hands. All these duties are performed
under the sanction of a bond, with sufficient approved sure-
ties, conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties ol
his office, and for the fidelity of the persons whom he may
employ. Add to these well-conceived arrangements, which
are peculiar to the Treasurer, the comprehensive provisions
which apply to other and all persons appointed to any office
instituted by the act, and you have a broad outline which re-
quires no further legislation. None of the officers are permit-
ted to be concerned or interested, directly or indirectly, in
carrying on the business of trade or commerce, or to be the
owner in whole or in part of any sea vessel, or to purchase by
himself, or another in trust for him, any public lands or other
public property, or to be concerned in the purchase or disposal
of any public securities of any State or of the United States,
or to take or apply to his own use any emolument or gain for
negotiating or transacting any business in the Department
other than such as should be allowed by law. These are the
barriers set up against the dangers of temptation, in aid of the
sound principles which foitify the pure and honorable mind.
It will be observed that, independently of the bill reported,
no particular place of deposite is contemplated for the funds of
the Government. They are every where that they may be
needed, and where they may be made available. They are
the right of the nation in all places, and by whomsover for
greater convenience kept. They constitute its fiscal power,
and may be wielded at will in the shape of credit as well as of
gold in hand. They are in the pockets of solvent debtors, cr
in the agreements by individuals or corporations to accept of
drafts, at the remotest corners of our own or a foreign
country—as well as in the iron chambers of the edifice at the
other end of the avenue. The word Treasury is twice men-
tioned in the Constitution. First to indicate that the com-
pensation for members of Congress is to be paid, not by the
States, as had formerly been the case, but with the moneys of
the United States : and again, when appropriations made by
law are declared in effect to be the only competent sources of
public expenditure. Neither the Constitution nor the law,
nor the practice of fifty-six years of successful administration
of the revenue, with the brief exception of one year, one
month, and nine days, hints at a necessary local habitation or
even a preferred place of deposite for the public funds. Safes
and vaults and hollow significancies were reserved for a time
and an occasion long distant from the era and the purposes of
the Constitutfon and the almost contemporary law.
The next practical objection that I would suggest to the
plan is, that it has no aim to promote the great ends of Gov-
ernment. It contains no creative good. It pretends to none.
At the best, nothing more than a mere incident is proposed to
the performance of some of its functions. Fruitful, indeed, is it
in patronage and in means of interfeience with the character-
istic simplicity of the original design, but it has no view to an
enlargement of the resources, a promotion of the dignity, or
an advancement of the interest, happiness, extent, or glory of
the Republic. It involves no leading purposes of legislation,
it attempts no practical or positive good. It is at best a small
contrivance to do familiar things in a new way. It brings
with it in possession no sunshine for a smiling land ; it pro-
mises in the future and in hope no refreshing dews or fertilizing
showers for a season when they may be required by a thirsting
soil.
This compound system, when resolved into its original ele-
ments, consists of two essential parts. It professes to induce
an employment of the precious metals to the exclusion Of all
other currency. This is its popular and captivating feature.
This is the dazzling lure which, like the forty ducats held up
to the longing eyes of the apothecary, wrung from his pov-
erty and not his will, consent to folly and to crime. It misleads
the miser, by encouraging the hope of a more solid and sub-
stantial horde of imperishable wealth, and it deludes the spend-
thrift, by promising him counters for his play and glittering
agents for his prodigality. The other cardinal virtue coun-
terfeited by the plan is the security which it affects to afford :
the means of sa/e-keeping of the treasures of the Government.
It addresses itself to the vulgar senses by presenting visible
bars and locks and walls, the mere physical impediments to
invasion—barriers which ingenuity and skill can easily make,
and equal ingenuity and skill can as easily burst asunder—for
the moral force and multiplied checks of mutual responsibility ;
for actual, sufficient, and always available pledges of punctu-
ality and fidelity, rendered inaccessible to the remotest possi-
bility of accident, negligence, or fraud.
Now, gold and silver are, in their proper place, excellent
things. Like fire and water, they are good servants, but bad
masters. Asa basis of circulation, they are the best that ever
has been suggested. As a sole and exclusive currency, they
would be found just as inconvenient and impracticable as was
the iron of ancient Sparta, or tobacco in the revolutionary his-
tory of Virginia. In the ordinary retail haberdashery of life,
they are, perhaps, indispensable. In the large concerns of
wholesale business, either connected with the domestic com-
merce of the inhabitants of an extensive country, or the com-
merce of those inhabitants with distant nations, they are in
practice never resorted to but as an exception, and from mere
necessity. They are, it is true, more or less generally used
even in small affairs, according to the more or less absolutely
commercial character and habits of the particular people ; but
a resort to them, and to them alone, on occasions when any
thing like extensive transactions of trade are carried on, would
be an anomaly that is yet without a precedent. Hence a right
to require specie in payment of Government dues is too im-
portant a one to have been overlooked for a moment, and the
States are constitutionally disabled from making any thing else
a legal tender. But an obligation to require it at all times
and under every possible contingency might be attended with
serious inconvenience : a receiver of public money, for exam-
ple, might be under instructions to remit the first that should
come to his hands to a distant part of the country. It is of-
fered to him in the shape of exactly such a draft as he de-
sires. He must refuse the draft and pay a premium for a
similar one to the broker next door, with the specie which he
has reluctantly but necessarily received. It is the option that
I contend he should have. Treat the affairs of the Govern-
ment in this respect as a prudent man does his own, and there
will be no danger. Let specie, or the representative of specie
of equal value and (if it be so) of greater use, be taken in
payment according to circumstances, and as either may be
most desired, and you will have no occasion for the stringent
rule proposed. You have, probably, Mr. Chairman, never
been sworn at Highgate. If you have, you would know that
the clearest powers of preference are not obligatory in the face
of interest and inclination. You are only bound not to walk
a journey when you can ride ; not to eat brown bread when
you can get white ; and not to kiss the maid when you can
kiss the mistress; provided always, nevertheless, as the
statutes say, unless you like the maid, the brown bread, and
the walk, respectively, better than the mistress, the white
bread, and the ride.
Look into the history of our own country ; compare its mo-
neyd condition at the different periods, when it possessed the
option of specie or its equivalent for all business purposes,
with its condition when there was no such option, because
there was no such equivalent. From the peace of 1783 until
the year 1791, specie was the legal currency. A feebler frame
of Government, notwithstanding the robust and vigorous popu-
lation of which it was composed, never existed. It dissolved,
after a few short years of disastrous experiment, in its own
weakness. It ended with a public- debt of eighty millions,
which it bequeathed as a sad legacy to the Government of the
Constitution. An early and a wise act of the new Govern-
ment, in its first Congress, was to establish a Bank of the
United States. It was established because it was believed that
it would be very conducive to the successful conducting of the
national finances ; would tend to give facility to the obtaining
of loans for the use of the Government in sudden emergen-
cies, and would be productive of considerable advantages to
trade and industry in general.—[Preamble to the act to incor-
porate the subscribers to the Bank of the United States, Feb-
ruary 25, 1791.] Before the expiration of the time fixed for
the end of the charter, every farthing of the heavy national
debt was paid, although the prosperity of the country was as-
sailed during portions of it by calamities in the shape of de-
predations upon commerce, non-intercourse, and embargo of
indefinite extent, quasi war with one powerful belligerent na-
tion, and threats of war with another.
I am not contending for a Bank of the United States, or
for any other bank. I am contending for the propriety and
necessity of a medium of exchange of equal value and great-
er facility of remittance and transportation than gold and sil-
ver. The war of 1812 found the nation without a Bank of
the United States, and it left it without any such currency as
1 have described. It left it, however, somewhat the wiser for
its disastrous neglect or wilful omission to provide for such an
emergency. An early effort after the restoration of peace was
to guard against a similar calamity, and to lay the foundation
in another fiscal scheme, of which a new Bank of the United
States, with a greatly augmented capital, was the principal
ingredient, of the discharge of another heavy debt, and the
establishment of a sound alternative currency. On the 30th
of April, 1816, a joint resolution of Congress was approved,
which ran thus :
A resolution relative to the more effectual collection of the
public revenue.
“Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That
the Secretary ot the Treasury be and he hereby i s required
and directed to adopt such measures as he may deem necessa-
ry to cause, as soon as may be, all duties, taxes, debts, or sums
of money accruing, or becoming payable to the United States,
to be collected and paid in the legal currency of the United
States, or Treasury notes, or notes of the Bank of the Uiiited
States, as by law provided and declared, or in notes of banks
which are payable or paid on demand in the said legal curren-
cy of the United States ; and that from and after the 20th day
>f February next no such duties, taxes, debts, or sums of mo-
■ley accruing or becoming payable to the United States as afore-
said, ought to be collected or received otherwise than in the
egal currency of the United States or Treasury notes, or notes
ot the Bank of the United States, or in notes of banks which
are payable and paid on demand in the said legal currency of
the United States. ”
On the 12th of September, 1816, Mr. Secretary Dallas
issued his notice that from and after the 20th day of Februa-
ry, 1817, all duties, taxes, debts, or sums of money accruing
or becoming payable to the United States, must be paid, not
in gold and silver only, but in the legal currency of the Unit-
ed States, or Treasury notes, or notes of the Bank of the
United States, or in notes of banks which are payable and
paid on demand in the legal currency of the United States,
and not otherwise. Under this alternative arrangement the
finances again prospered. Under it the national debt was
again extinguished. The celebrated “specie circular” of
5th November, 1834, written at the period of Gen. Jackson’s
active war with the Bank of the United States, authorizes the
collectors of customs and all receivers of public money to re-
gard the legal currency of the United States, Treasury notes,
notes of the Bank of the United States, and notes of banks
which are payable and paid in the legal currency of the Unit-
ed States, as equal in merit and in the estimation of the Trea-
sury. Prosperity accompanied the effectual continuance of
this arrangement, and the power to comply with it. When
it ceased once more, as it didin 1837, from a variety of causes,
(the Bank of the United States had ceased by the expiration
of its charter, and other banks had suspended specie pay-
ments,) disaster spread over the land, and involved in its
wide vortex Government and people. That crisis, too, has
passed away, and while a bright sky shines above us, and
plenty and prosperity smile before us, and beckon us onward
in the smooth path of general contentment, these happy pros-
pects are to be darkened with the interposition of a needless
and pernicious mystery; with elements enough of official
power and corruption; with temptation enough to fraud and
embezzlement; with complexity enough to embarrass and con-
fuse, and with more than enough departure from the diffusive
and beneficial spirit of the age, but without one principle of
practical or positive good. If you will insist upon one cur-
rency for the Government, and another for the people, why
not have it without locking it up from the uses of both, and
destroying it as a currency altogether ? It is a mistake to
suppose that this Subtreasury scheme will have any such effect
as is boldly promised for it, in the introduction of an exclusive
metallic circulation. To the extent of what is in Govern-
ment possession it will withdraw exactly so much from all
circulation. It is no longer currency when it is hoarded in
inactive masses in the coffers of penurious men, or no less
penurious public treasuries. At this very moment there are
about eleven millions on hand, fortunately for the people, and
in active use among them, while it is safe beyond peradven-
ture in the National Treasury. But change the system, adopt
the plan of the bill before you, and considerably more than
one-seventh of the specie in the country is, to all beneficial pur-
poses, extinguished. I have lately seen a calculation that the
due proportion for the United States of all the gold and silver
coined and in existence in Europe and America is two hun-
dred and fifty-seven millions of dollars. While we have al-
ready scarcely more than a quarter of this desired amount,
you are about to inflict upon the people an intolerable loss of
nearly a sixth part of what they have. If indeed this be the
currency of the Constitution, you strangely violate that vene-
rated instrument by interfering to the utmost of your power
with its beneficial designs in diminishing and virtually destroy-
ing its chosen representative of value.
Let the advocates of exclusive metallic currency do what
they may, they must at last fail in their attempts to attain that
avowed and ostensible object. Commercial transactions are
not and cannot be conducted without something else. Solvent
and prudently-conducted banks are now used, and they an-
they were not accessible, the Treasurer and other disburses
of money of the United States would at once avail themselves
of some other local, corporate, or individual agency. Private
bankers, whose business is extensive, and whose arrange-
ments are of a corresponding character, are exactly as servicea-
ble. In this place all are private bankers. Not a chartered
institution exists. The selected depositaries of the fund for
paying all of the expenses of this House of Representatives,
including the compensation of its members, are individuals of
Washington—men of great respectability, having their pri-
vate banking house, and conducting its affairs with entire sat-
isfaction to all who deal with them. The manner of dealing
is at once a living proof of the uselessness of a Subtreasury,
and the advantage of paper currency along with that of gold.
The Sergeant-at-Arms hands you for endorsement, by way of
receipt, a check upon Messrs. Corcoran & Riggs, with whom
the money is deposited, and presents you the option of gold or
paper, or both. He must be fonder than I am of burdening
his pockets who does not altogether, or in a great degree, pre-
fer paper, which he knows to be represented to its full extent
either by precious metals, or by other substantial effects which
render it convertible into them at the pleasure of the holder.
The late Stephen Girard, who was the most extensive pri-
vate banker that this country has known, died with outstand-
ing discounts and circulating notes, and sums upon his books
to the credit of actual daily depositors, amounting to several
millions, and yet the aggregate of specie in his vaults was be-
tween sixteen and seventeen thousand dollars. Who was un-
safe or who was uneasy from any such circumstance ? His
treasury, always replenished, always overflowing, was every
where. It was in rows of tenanted dwelling-houses, in lots of
established and improving value, in meadows and rich pas-
tures, in coal mines, in stocks, in ships and merchandise, in
daily recurring expirations of the terms of credit of solvent
debtors, in his universal command of means founded upon an
approved knowledge of his sterling resources, punctuality, in-
dustry, and sagacity. This should be the never-failing trea-
sury of the Government, not the damp dungeons of an ill-
constructed edifice. The gentleman who reported this bill
did not design to banish paper circulation, or that there should
be an exclusive resort to metallic currency. He so acknow-
ledges in the candid report which he made upon the subject at
the last Congress. “It is expected and desired,” says he in
that document, “ that the States will perceive the necessity
* and advantage in reference to the acting of the Federal Gov-
‘ eminent, to prevent a depreciated paper circulation, and to
* preserve the circulation of the precious metals and such
‘ paper medium as rests on a firm and sufficient specie basis, and
‘ which may at all times be converted into gold and silver on
‘ demand, at the option of the holder.”
Even on the spot where the great reservoir is dug, paper
must and will divide with the precious metals the favor and
the preference of those who have the power to choose. In
business operations between distant places—how distant, let
the long line from Rouse’s Point to the Rio Grande tell—pa-
per alone will be used. The great collections of revenue are
made at a few principal custom-houses and land agencies.
But money may be required for disbursement any where, in
whole States where neither an available custom-house nor a
land agency exists. Money is remitted from and to these
points of collection and disbursement by the paper agency of
bills of exchange.
What are the advantages proposed by this plan over and
beyond the advantage of signalizing the strength and the tri-
umph of party ? Dismiss for a moment the delusion of con-
stitutional currency, which is a name and a thing upwards of
fifty years later in birth than the Constitution itself, and let
us look the object in the face, mystified by no reverend titles
or theoretic arguments. Is there convenience in a Subtreasu-
ry ? What other agencies of the Government are conducted
in a similar manner ? There is nothing analogous to it. If
a Government of any country desires to transport materials
for its buildings, or stores for its magazines, hospitals, navy
yards, armories, or arsenals, it does not build wagons, con-
struct roads, purchase horses, and grow provender, to meet
the various exigencies ; it employs common carriers, known
to the common law better than the Constitution, when they
are to be had, and entrusts them upon the ordinary principles
of bailment with the duty in all its details. E-ven the prodi-
gious expenditures for conveying the mail, rich with every
kind of treasure, money and money’s worth, clandestine cor-
respondence, State secrets, which, if divulged, might set the
nation in a flame, are acquiesced in without hesitation. Ex-
pensive and vexatious as might be the difficulties with railroad
or steamboat companies, in arranging the transportation of the
mail, no Postmaster General thinks of procuring a special out-
fit of locomotives, cars, tenders, steamers, with the appurte-
nances of engineers, fuel, &c. at Government cost. He uses
those already adapted alike to private and to public conveni-
ence. Yet he has no security, not a particle, except what
the general principles of law afford for protection against
carelessness of property and lives. State prisons hold your
Government offenders. State court-houses are occupied by
your administrators of the law ; all the imaginable functions
of Federal policy are performed through the instrumentality
of State engines, of whatever description. Why withhold
from similar custodiers that which more than all the rest re-
quires habitual exercise and experienced hands ? All the
conveniences of keeping and,aiding as the medium of dis-
bursement are found eminently out of the limits of the Sub-
treasury walls.
Is there greater safety in the proposed plan ? It is admit-
ted by the report already alluded to that one defalcation oc-
curred during the brief existence of the late Subtreasury law.
“Suit was instituted and judgment obtained against the de-
faulting officer and his securities.” I am desired to read on,
and I do so cheerfully : ‘ ‘ And if the plea of the officer is held
‘ insufficient on an appeal taken to the Supreme Court, and
‘ the judgment of the inferior court affirmed, it is believed
‘ that the security is ample, and that the Government will ul-
‘ timately sustain no loss in its finances.” So clear, then, is
the evidence of the fact of fraud, that on an affirmance of the
judgment a belief is entertained that recovery maybe had from
the “security;” unless, indeed, the ordinary appeal to Con-
gress in such cases should obtain relief! Granting, for the
sake of the argument, however, superhuman honesty in all
subordinate agents, and super-brazen strength in the chained
doors and vaulted roofs, which are to be prepared anew, I
maintain that the safety guarantied by them all is far short of
that security which is now habitually provided. Government
stock, corresponding dollar for dollar with the sum to be depo-
sited, is, we are told, now pledged by the depositaries of ..mo-
ney, and is received by the hands of the Treasurer. If stolen,
or accidentally lost, it cannot be used by the wrong-doer or
the finder. If destroyed in the hands of the Government no
injury is done to any body; for, at the worst, exactly so much
of the public debt is paid off at par.
Possibly there may be found greater economy in the literal
custody of the public officer in the form prescribed. This is
an age of alleged frugality. The dominant party thrives by
its reputation for that virtue. It professes to be eminently
economical. This is par excellence a saving Congress ! By
their fruits shall ye know them. An estimate is given on
the thirteenth page of the report which omits the necessarily
principal item—officers’ salaries, and the vast incidents which
the friends of the measure contemplate as indispensable. One
gentleman before me is panting for an opportunity to insert by
way of amendment in this very bill provision for a magnificent
Subtreasury building at New York under the guise of a branch
mint. Another gentleman near him with equal anxiety de-
sires to construct under a like name an edifice at Charleston.
Half a million of dollars for each building, and from fifty to
seventy thousand dollars annual expenditure on their super-
fluous operations as extra mints, will serve to show the rate at
which we are to suffer for an economical administration of the
Government in the particular department of the safe-keeping
of its funds. On the other hand, the present perfectly con-
venient, well-tried, and absolutely safe mode of keeping the
public money does not cost, I believe, one single farthing.
Truly, this is an economical democracy !
A fair test of the fidelity of an agent is found in his giving
equal care to the property of others with his own. The rule
applies as well to great trusts as to small ones—to Govern-
ment agency as to individual agency. How does one of the
sternest advocates of a Subtreasury in private life keep his own
money when it accumulates largely ? Which of them hesi-
tates to place it in the hands of those whose business it is, and
whose arrangements are made at great cost, to take care of
money, and to draw it out from time to time by checks as he
wants it? Who ventures to trust large sums to his own ne-
cessarily honest custody, aided though it be by adamantine
bars ?
The Government employs without hesitation banking estab-
lishments as agents and depositories abroad. Has it more
confidence in them than in its own citizens ? Foreign bank-
ers employed by the United States give no security I believe,
deposite no stock, furnish no pledges of indemnity. They
would probably throw up the agency if they were desired to
do so. Yet they are trusted, deservedly trusted, without an
inquiry into the mode of safe-keeping which they may chance
or choose to adopt, much more without insisting that they
shall provide safes and vaults and all the machinery of imagi-
nary or ostentatious domestic apprehension.
Driven, as it must be, from other motives, the Subtreasury
seeks refuge behind the argument, not less plausible, if well
founded, than the constitutional protection which is sought
for it, that it is republican in its tendencies. This is one of
the errors found in the report to which I am constrained re-
peatedly to allude. More than once within the limits of
page it is asserted to be in accordance with “ the nature and
character” or “ the genius and spirit” of republican Govern-
ment. Lessons of history have been studied in vain, if the
reverse has not been found legibly written among them. An-
cient Persia—the most absolute of despotisms—exhibited an
early specimen of this description of popular institutions.
China, at this time, and, as far as knowledge is permitted to
penetrate the my steriesjof that inscrutable empire, at all times,
has abounded in these depositories of silver coins. Napoleon
is said, when his downfall was imminent, to have developed,
from the recesses beneath the palace of the Tuileries, millions
of secreted wealth. In the petty but arbitrary sovereignties
of interior India a simpler method of preservation is resorted
to ; than the artificial caverns of palaces, either republican or
monarchical, will afford. A hole is dug in the ground, in
swer the purpose perfectly well wherever they are tried. If which the treasure is deposited, and a venomous serpent is
dropped into it with entire confidence in the vigilance and
disinterested integrity of the reptile guardian. These are
favorable specimens of despotic subtreasuries. Very differ-
ent establishments have been found elsewhere. An institution
of the Republic of Genoa was one of the most ancient and
celebrated banks of circulation as well as deposite in Europe.
It was broken up by the ruthless and predatory bands of in-
vaders which issued from the volcano of revolutionary
France, and spread like burning lava over the fertile fields of
Italy. England has as an emanation of the popular part°of her
system, not only a great national bank, the advantages of the
large capital and the treasury deposites of which are shared
alike by Government and people, but she has hundreds of
banking institutions, almost all of which issue notes, forming,
with specie, the equivalent circulation of the kingdom. Re-
publican Holland had her bank from a distant period, estab-
lished, we are told, “to obviate the inconvenience and uncer-
tainty arising from the circulation of the coins imported into
Amsterdam from all parts of the world. The merchants,
who carried coin or bullion teethe bank, obtained credit for an
equal value on its books. This was called bank money ; and
all considerable payments were effected by writing it off from
the account of one individual to that of another. This estab-
lishment continued to flourish till the invasion of the French
ini 795.”—[McCulloch.] If our own country can be considered
a type of republicanism, it must disprove the notion that
such a principle is inharmonious with paper circulation ; for
paper circulation, whether for good or evil, has here found its
especial home.
I am not called on for a scheme as a substitute for the Sub-
treasury. Neither the thing itself nor a substitute is now de-
sirable. The one is a mere misconception ; the other would
meet no responsive popular sentiment. Enough is found in
existing law for all the present exigencies of the country.
When a day of war or any other great national crisis shall ar-
rive, a very different system will be required for the aid of the
Government and the accommodation of the people from any
thing that now exists or is now proposed. Until then let us
in humble thankfulness cherish the good things we possess,
and rejoice that they require no peculiar exertion, while we
trust that the emergency may be far distant which will de-
mand a change. While thus I disclaim the advocacy of a
National Bank, I am bound to demur to that part of the report
which rests its argument in favor of a Subtreasury upon the
comparative demerits of such an institution, as they are supposed
to be manifested in its past history. “ Solemn warning” is
discovered by the report “ against the repetition of a like plan”
in the career of the last Government Bank—in its imaginary
“ embarrassments,” its fancied “ depreciation,” and, finally,
“its ruinous explosion and its annihilation of its vast capital.”
It is altogether a mistake to suppose that these disasters ever
occurred to “ the United States Bank,” as the report styles it,
or to any Government institution of that or any other name.
On the contrary, for forty years a Bank of the United States
has lived in unquestioned freedom from them. The last of
those institutions, which \Vas chartered by Congress in 1816
for a period of twenty years, expired by original limitation on
the 4th March, 1836. It expired in great prosperity. No
better proof can be required of this circumstance than the
estimate which was put upon the Government portion of its
stock by commissioners appointed for the purpose by the Trea-
sury, one of whom had been familiar with its operations as a
Government director. Its stock stood in the market at about
fifteen per cent, above par, and the Secretary of the Treasury
refused to receive less than that price for it. At that price, or
thereabouts, it was actually sold, to the entire satisfaction of
the Government, which thus parted with its interest at a large
profit, after having received, during nearly the whole of its
existence, besides great accommodation, steady and large divi-
dends. At a very early period it floated for a while upon a
troubled sea of speculation. But it soon reached a port of
safety, and continued to be prosperous to the end of its charter.
No “ ruinous explosion, ” no “ annihilation of its vast capital ”
ever took place. It is extraordinary that a gentleman, experi-
enced as the one who made the report, should have fallen into
the palpable error of supposing that it did. The Bank of the
United States ceased, as I have said, on the 4th March, 1836.
A State institution wras chartered by the Legislature of Penn-
sylvania, having no possible connexion with the Government
of the United States. The same stockholders, (except the
Treasury of the United States,) and, unhappily, the same
capital, were continued, in the vain hope that the shadow of
a name would preserve the extended circulation which the
Government Bank had enjoyed. In the short space of eigh-
teen months the circulation fell from something more than
three-and-twenty millions to a fraction beyond one million of
new issues. The capital thus thrown upon the bank must be
employed some how, and various investments were made from
one end of the country to the other. If the institutions which
were the recipients of them had turned out well, the invest-
ments might have verified the best expectations that had been
indulged in relation to them. But disaster succeeded disaster
in a long train of unfortunate miscalculations, and the stocks
and securities, which in their first condition seemed to be satis-
factory, finally collapsed, and left the Bank of the State of
Pennsylvania penniless. Whether, during the whole career
of the Government institution, it would have been able to
stand without the friendship and co-operation of the Treasury,
I will not undertake to say. That would at best be conjec-
ture, which must avail little. That it did stand in great credit
and prosperity as long as it was a Federal corporation, I aver
without the fear of contradition, and in disproof of the posi-
tions of the report. Its credit was substituted for specie in the
China market, which until that time had responded to the
calls of our merchants only when they appeared with Spanish
dollars in their hands. Its notes were received in payment of
the Indian annuities in preference to gold. Its credit was co-
extensive with the commercial world.
Practical objections to the bill, in principle and in detail,
gather round me as I advance in the argument. Penalties are
provided for divers acts which are declared to be felonies and
misdemeanors, and are made punishable under the laws of the
United States. If there be any part of the Federal system
which lacks vigor, and fails for the want of it in practical en-
forcement, it is its penal jurisprudence. This may be possi-
bly an inevitable evil. Certain it is that an experience of
nearly sixty years has not failed to afford numerous illustra-
tions of the deficiency. An absence of control over domestic
and municipal concerns, which are reserved necessarily for
State policy, limits the sphere of the criminal jurisdiction of
the General Government. It looks to a few objects only.
Unlike the corresponding laws of other countries and of the
several States, it does not form an entire code. Links are
wanting to make the whole chain complete. Omissions are
occasionally discovered and supplied. Still there is no entire
system of criminal law, and, from the nature of things, there
never will be. The nation was threatened with war by reason
of one of these deficiencies, at the time of the arrest and trial
before a State tribunal of Alexander McLeod. A recurrence
of the particular danger was wisely obviated by the passage of
an act of Congress, approved August 29, 1842, “to provide
further remedial justice in the courts of the United States.”
Other cases, already crying loudly for a remedy, have not
been provided for. The courts of the United States sit at
longer intervals than those tribunals of the States which are
devoted to the administration of the penal law. Witnesses
are often not to be found at the day of trial, and the guilty,
on this account, escape. A memorable instance of the defi-
ciency of power to punish crimes occurred some years ago in
the District of Columbia, under the eye of the National Le-
gislature, where, if any where, it might be supposed that jus-
tice would be provided for and maintained. We must all re-
member with what a glow of shame our cheeks as citizens
were tinged when a popular and powerful President, surround-
ed by the public and his friends, was openly and in the face
of day assaulted in the cabin of a steamboat, and the offender
escaped with entire impunity, from the imperfection of the law.
The distinguished head of a foreign Government dwelt upon
this circumstance, in conversation with the representative of
our country, with mingled astonishment, indignation, and re-
gret. As the moneys of the United States are now kept, or-
dinary felonies with regard to them would be investigated by
the tribunals of the State, while a loss to the Government,
after they have reached the condition when a Subtreasury is
to commence its operations, would be utterly impossible.
Government stock is a never-failing pledge.
Some of the penal provisions of the bill are liable to other
and graver objections than these. The sixth section interdicts
the loan cr use of all public moneys. The seventeenth sec-
tion provides that, if any of the custodiers shall loan, with or
without interest, any portion of the public moneys entrusted
to him, every such act shall be deemed and adjudged to be an
embezzlement, and it is declared a felony, and all persons ad-
vising or participating in such act, being convicted before any
court of the United States of competent jurisdiction, shall be
sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months
nor more than ten years, and to a fine equal to the amount of
the money embezzled. It not unfrequently happens that a
course of State policy is changed. In the progressive im-
provement of knowledge new views are unfolded ; trade and
commerce shift their grounds ; legislation must be modified in
order to conform to them. Every day’s experience demon-
strates the necessity of a wise conformity to circumstances;
and he is a stubborn rather than a sagacious statesman that
does not open the eyes of his mind to emergencies as they
arise. All this is far short of what is now proposed. Rather,
let me say, it is directly the reverse of it. What sort of legis-
lative policy is that which suddenly, and without "any change
of circumstances, converts that which is not only innocent
but laudable to-day into a heinous and infamous crime to-
morrow ? Which encourages, facilitates, and invites to a
course of action ; pronounces it salutary, beneficial, and vir-
tuous ; furnishes the means and sees to the employment of
them at one moment-; and punishes condignly and to the
utmost extremity of the law -t disqualifies from posts of honor;
holds up to shame ; makes an outlaw of a citizen who pur-
sues exactly the same course of action, at the next ? At this
hour the Government moneys, perfectly secure in their re-
turn, and subject to call by the Treasurer at any moment, are
yet beneficially. extended to the uses of the people. The
Secretary of the Treasury, in great wisdom, thirty years
ago, urged this circumstance as a leading inducement for the
establishment of a system of finance of which it was a part.
It is practised without the possibility of harm, and with the
most prolific good. You may talk about undue expansions
and contractions as you Will. These are abuses to which a
thing, useful and proper in itself, is liable in the nature of
things. If being obnoxious to abuse were a reason for ab-
staining from the use of blessings, all that is beneficial in
friendship, true in morals, faithful in affection, loyal in patriot-
ism, or pious, fervent, and devoted in religion, must be dis-
carded from the bosoms and the business of men. While the
moneys of a Government, which is nothing more than a con-
centrated essence of popular will—while, therefore, the mo-
neys of the people are placed, with due care and in full pro-
tection from loss, in the use of the people, there can be no
danger, except that which attends every action of our lives.
My object, however, is to show the error of suddenly, or even
tardily, by party legislation, converting virtue into crime. In-
consistency is not the word that properly applies. It is posi-
tive and enormous wrong.
A few practical objections have thus been offered to a scheme
which is patronized by a powerful party. They are present-
ed, I will not say in the hope, but certainly in the honest
wish, that they may fall upon some not reluctant ears, upon
minds not absolutely sealed against conviction. In any event,
the attempt, however feeble, will have been made to rescue
vital interests of the country from a threatened sacrifice of
them to the Moloch of party, the fiercest and most unrelent-
ing tyrant of the age.
LIST OF LETTERS
Remaining in the Post Office, Washington,
rfpril 15,1846.
53" Persons inquiring for Letters in the following list will
please say they are advertised.
A.
Applegate, John C Allens, mrs Hannah
Alexander, Sandy 2 Armstrong, John
Allen, John M
Allen, Capt James
Anderson, mrs E
Adams, mrs Ii
Alexander, C A
Adams, Miss H
Ashburner, A E
Andrews, II A
Armstrong, W II
Anderson, mrs E M
Abbot, Richard II
B.
Beach, Chas R Boyd, CooperS Baldwin, Wm
Brooks, Dr LB Blunt, Thomas M Bradford, W J A 2
Barnes, N P Bowen, J M Brestlaw, Michael
Bates, mrs Sarah Bowler, Wm Blanchard, L
Byrd, Peter Brunning, A II Beckley, Emilius L
Black, mrs S A Bartin, ASH Burkett, Middleton
Black, mrs E J Birkliead, mrs J T Brannon, R
Brown, Edward Bradford, M Burrow, Nap B
Brown, mrs Louisa Butler, Miss Eliza. Bartell, mrs Anna
Bloom, miss A M Baldwin, mrs A M Barnum, Daniel
Black, John M Bartlett, Isaac C Bowie, mrs Cath
Barr, mrs Sophia A Barrell, S B Buel, James
Bagg, John S Berry, mrs Rachael Belger, Lt Jas 2
Bagge, Guslavus A Bennett, Jas H
C.
Craigin, Abner B Codman, Rev Dr 2
Chadwick, F W R Calliglier, James
Cameron, David A Curtis, Henry
Campbell, Maj J P Cooper, Maj Sami
Cabell, Edward C Crampsey, mrs F
Craven, Calvin Crossfield, Geo R
Collins, Thos M Calvert, Charles
Cary, John M Collins, Alfred
Crabtree, Capt L D Caldwell, S Polk
Cole, JohnT
Clark, mrs Sarah
Clarke, Lucy
Cox, James
Cole, Otis N
Cobb, James W
Cushing, Caleb
Cary, Shepherd
Cockrell, mrs J E
Corbett, Michael
Carter, Col II D
Chapman, Basil
Dean, Eben
Deas, Lt F A
Doepke, Charles
Diggs, Geo A
Dawson, George
Drinkard, B
Evans, Miss F
Claxton, R W 2
Cooper, Samuel
D.
Dixon, J 2
Dwyer, Patrick
Downes, Miss M
DeCamp, Lt John
Dautremont, C
DeGraft", mr
E.
Ennis, John F
Everardus, Miss G Espey, Wm
Everheart, John E veiling, Henry
F.
Fisher, Miss E J
Fordman, Chas
Faragate, mrs S
Farnum, Dr J W
Frost, J P & P J
Flick, Wm T
Fry, Miss Eliza.
France, James
Fry, John
Cowen, John F
Croghan, Col G
Dickinson, Mr, ofN
Orleans
Drummond, mrs H A
Donaldson, Major A
J 2
Eggleston, Rev W G
Emerson, EPS
Evans, Estwick
Farnham, G W
Fifiner, Wm
Fardy St Lowery 2
Fuller, mrs M S
Fletcher, mrs M A Fowler, Lemuel
G.
Green, Cogswell K Giberson, G L Gordon, mrs J A 2
Goold, Thomas • Grinnolds, Capt S Gadsden, Col Jas 3
Griffin, James Gorman, Peter
Gilpin, Henry D Griner, Anthony
Greanaelier, L F Golada, Geo S
GulJy, Dr Wm Grattan, T C 2
Garnett, Lt Francis Godon, Lt Syl W
Graham, Thos
Goodrich, Jas
H.
Galt, Capt P II
Goods, Miss Jane
Gay, Hamilton 5
Grundy, Charles
Gibson, John T
Gorham, Chas T
Giddings, Sami J
Hurst, Wm B
Hunt, Henry
Hickman, Geo H
Hatten, mr
Hume, mrs Barbara Herrick, Joshua
iiuiuc, in
Hart, W
Hooper, Charles
Haywood, Miss A
Handy, Thomas
Humbert, madame
Harper, R G
Hardin, John J
Hoomes, mrs B T
Jack, Col Chas J
Jones, Com Jacob
Johnson, John H
Ingle, mrs Mary
Johnston, Zach
King, Peter
King, E J
Hoover, Miss S E
Holland, James
Halle, Jas W
Hamilton, Col 1)
Hollister, David S
Humphreys, John
Hooper, Sami 2
J.
Jamaison,
Johnson, F W
Jackson, II
Jackson, S H
Jackson, Jonathan
K.
King, mrs M
Klimkiewiez, A L
L.
Lee, James
Lawson, mrs E
Lahead, Ann
Lister, John W
Locke, Dr John
Lane, Miss 2
Lee, Capt R E
Lowe, Chris C
Lee, Miss Marcella
M.
Morse, Cyrus E Mahon, mrs M G
Moore, II W Moses, John 2
Moore, Thos P Macey, B O
Moore, Miss Selma Milburn, Timothy
Hawkins, Daniel
Harrison, Gen P
Hutchins, John S
Hazard, L Y
Hollingsworth, G W
Harmann, mrs M E
Hunter, J C or N
Hinton, Gen Otho 2
Hernandez, Gen’l J
M 2
Miss Jos Jeffers, Capt J W
Jackson, A I
Jenkins, Andw
Jenkins, Miss H
Jackson, Miss M J E
Kenrick, Francis 2
Keobel, Jacob
Lambert, E A
Livingston, A 4
Ludlow, Thos W
Lucas, mrs Ann
Mann, Col A D
Moore, C B
Muard, mr
Martin, Thos L
Mattox, S A
Mendalbaum, S
McKeaver, Miss B
McGuire, H
Macgregor, Jas
Neady, Miss Cath
Nailor, Miss Soph
Niven, Col Chas
Monroe, Miss M
Marshall, Gen A 2
Monroe, Jas 2
Moran, mrs D
Morton, Geo W
Me.
McIntosh, Jas T
McCarty, Robert 2
McConnell, M M
'N.
Nones, mrs Edw
Newell, Stewart
Orphean Family O’Donnell, Dr L
O’Bannon, Columb !O’Neill, Michael 2
Mitchell, Chas
Matthews, Rev J D
Martin, Cnas
Miller, Edm H 2
Masicot, Jacques
Martin, E
Merchant, Gid C
Murphy, M
Moran, Dison
McGonegal, A
McConnell, Murray
MeCaughan, J J
Nourse, Ch J
Nessle, Wm 3
Offlcy, John
FOR TU£ Jf ATIONA1 INTEILIGENCEH,
The Great Chain of Southern Railroads,
On the importance and necessity of a continuous line of
railroads, connecting the Potomac and the Mississippi, and
leading from the seat of Government to the great commercial
emporium of the South, (New Orleans,) nothing more need
be said by the humble correspondent of the Intelligencer. But,
as distinguished members of Congress have lately sustained
his views of the constitutional power ot this Government to
construct works of internal improvement, he may be permit-
ted to quote from one or two speeches, of signal ability, that
might have application to the Southern chain of railroads lead-
ing towards New Orleans. “It is generally known,” said
Mr. Ewing, of Tennessee, “that a series of railroads from
Charleston, in South Carolina, to Chattanooga, on the Ten-
nessee river, have either been completed, or are now under
contract, with the immediate prospect of completion. By
these railroads and the Southern rivers a chain of connexion
is effected from the Tennessee river with all the States of
South Carolina and Georgia, and with a portion of the State
of Alabama ; and it only needs^a railroad from Nashville to
Chattanooga to effect a still more important connexion. By
such a railroad, the great desideratum, so long looked upon as
visionary, or at least remote, of bringing together the South
Atlantic seaboard and the great West would be effected—a
consequence, the importance of which in a social, political,
commercial, and military point of view, is nearly incalcu-
lable. In view of the immense results to be effected by such
a chain of communication, for all parts of the Union, but
especially the Southeast,” Mr. Ewing spoke of his deep
regret at the opposition or lukewarmness of Southern members
of Congress to works of improvement so advantageous to their
constituents. If measures of internal improvement were car-
ried out, Mr. Ewing added :
We should hear no more complaints from the Southeast of
her isolated condition, of tire neglect of her just rights, ofriiul-
lifieation, and of tariff injustice. Her interests would soon be-
come common with those of the rest of the Union. That such
a connexion can be formed is now, I think, beyond a reason-
able doubt. The Legislature of Tennessee, at its last session,
granted a most liberal charter for the construction of a rail-
road from Nashville to Chattanooga, and I have every confi-
dence that in a few years this communication between Nash-
ville and the seaboard will be complete. The advantages to
all parties are in fact so obvious, the cost of the railroad com-
paratively so insignificant, that I must believe the people of
Nashville and of Charleston recreant to their best interests if
the measure should fail; and this lam not prepared to believe. ”
Mr. E. went on to observe, that the small appropriation de-
manded for the Cumberland river, in connexion with private
enterprise, would soon remove every serious obstruction be-
tween the Southern cities and St. Louis and Cincinnati. He
dwelt upon the advantages of the establishment of such a com-
munication :
; They are so obvious, and indeed so generally admitted, as
to render this almost unnecessary.” “ He adverted, with re-
gret, to a spirit of alienation existing between the South and
the Northwest, both social and political, arising doubtless from
their lack of social and commercial identity, to convince me
of the necessity of tying them together by additional and strong-
er bonds. Their mutual interest and dependence is, I appre-
hend, the strongest chain by which they can be held together.
It is this which secures the peace of nations ; it is this which,
if any thing, will preserve from wreck our mighty Republic.
The constant interchange, then to arise, of commodities, of
opinions, of society, of intelligence, between these two sections
of the Confederacy, I deem of the highest importance, and I
believe this may be greatly advanced. ” “ I might not impro-
perly, perhaps, say a word of the importance of this chain of
communication” [is not that through the interior of North Ca-
rolina to New Orleans equally important ?] “ in a military
point of view. Tennessee and Kentucky * * * will ever
be found ready to afford assistance in time of war to their more
exposed brethren, if the opportunity of doing so with effect
shall be afforded to them.”
He adverted to the importance of internal improvements for
the speedy transportation of troops and munitions of war,
' ‘ Might not Charleston at some day need the same defenders
as New Orleans ? Are not both the South and the North-
west interested in receiving aid by the shortest and the most
‘ expeditious route, in case of sudden invasion ?” or in case
of insurrection, might be added. Yet the main opposition to
works of internal improvement, that the Southern States omit
to have, executed, in which the aid of the General Govern-
menf is needed, comes from the South itself. “ I would fain
‘hope,” says Mr. E., “that the South would rid herself of
those narrow scruples in the construction of the Constitution
‘ which have been the main obstacle to her advancement in
prosperity and political consideration.”
The town of Nashville, being situated about two hundred
miles from the mouth of the Cumberland river, navigable for
a large part of the year for the largest class of steamboats and for
small steamboats nearly the whole year as high as Nashville,
a place of considerable trade and the metropolis of the State,
this becomes an important link in the scheme of internal im-
provement :
‘ By Nature, and without reference to any artificial im-
provement in other quarters, the Cumberland river forms one
of the main connecting links for a large portion ef Tennessee
and Kentucky with New Orleans, St. Louis, Pittsburg, Cin-
cinnati, and, through these, with most of the South, and with
all on the Western and Northeastern States, ”
Senator Benton, in his speech in reply to Gen. Cass, re-
ferred to the route that may hereafter form our connexion with
Eastern Asia ; that—
‘From the South Pass (across the Rock}- Mountains) and
through it the overland line of travel will forever be ; but the
return route of Lewis and Clarke will be the route of com-
merce. It presents but two hundred and ten miles ot land car-
riage between the Great Falls of Missouri and theUpper Falls
of Columbia, passing the mountains through a low gap and a
fertile country, long marked by a large Indian and buffalo
road. ”
This points to the importance of the links of connexion by
water from St. Louis to Nashville, and from Nashville by
railroads to Charleston and other cities on the seaboard. The
link in the lailroad connexion between Raleigh, North Caro-
lina, and Camden, South Carolina, becomes of importance,
not only for North Carolina interests, and especially to con-
nect Raleigh and Nashville, but with a view to a continuous
railroad from Washington to New Orleans, by Mobile, and
from Washington to Vicksburg, on the Mississippi, by Jackson.
If these works be not done by the States most interested in
them, or by the enterprise of private associations, it becomes
the duty of the General Government, out of regard for “the
general welfare,” to have them executed. The Hon. Andrew
Stewart, of Pennsylvania, in his late able speech on inter-
nal improvements, said: “The execution of works strictly
‘ national had been improperly cast upon the States ; and if
‘ they were ruined it was because the General Government
‘ had refused to exercise its own legitimate powers and to per-
‘ form its own legitimate duties.” AN OBSERVER.
Prince, Miss Susan Porter, P W 2
Page, Rev Wm Piper, James H
Page, J W
Payne, Absolorn
Price, Col J W
Pope, mrs Chas T
Pope, mrs Victoria
Pritchard, Jas J
Perry, Erasmus
Parker, Ely S 2
Preston, Thos L 2
Rail, Lewis
Rice, mrs R M
Ricks, Jas Thos
Reid, Robert
Roark, Wm
Rose, Wm B
Reed, C M
Rising, C B
R.
Richards, J P
Roberson, Jas
Eushmore, J os M
Righter, Sami F
Russell, Lt W W
Russell, P A
Reeder, Richard
Pettibone, Geo S
Philips, Lewis
Porter, Rev Rob
Parsons, Maj J 6
Purcell, Miss S
Peckham, Dr M H 3
Robertson, J W
Richardson, Ira
Rosseau, Lewis
Robertson, N R 2
Ramsay, mrs A E
Reddick, Arch
Roberts, Edm
Smith, Jas F 2
Simms, mrs S
Smith, Capt F A
Suatts, mrs
Shultz, Henry 3
Smith, Sami C
Smoot, Alfred
Smith, Miss II L
Schmidt, Philip
Severs, Miss E
Smith, B P
Smee, A L C
Sands, Geo
Smith, Fanny
Thrift, Jas W
Thomas, Wm
Turfley, John
Thompson Jas
Taylor, T M usn
Thompson, mrs
S.
Smith, Aug F
Smith, Austin
Shawk, Abel 2
Slidell, Miss S
Simpson, Miss L
Stewart, Geo W
Sumner, Chas 2
ouutu, Sheppard, John H
Stewart, Miss E A Sheppard, Miss A R
Smithson, Miss P Skelley, Wm
Sisson, John Shuteau, madame
Slaughter, Peter Sewall, Miss M
Shapter, J S Stewart, Maj C B
Spencer, Col J Starkweather, S
Sellwerer,MissM E Stevens, Wm
Scrivener, mrs E Simonds, Wm H
Suggett, Wm Sedgwick, Theo 2
Shummaker, Wm Staples, Thos A 12
T.
Tucker, Enoch G 2 Thomas, mrs G
Thomas, Martin Taylor, Miss R
Thompson, Miss A Turner, Com Danl
Thomas, Benj Tilton, James
Thorburn, F usn Trimble, J R
Taylor, M K 2 Thompson,Miss A E
u.
Ungerman, Miss Henrietta
V.
Vernoye, Chas Van Rensalear, Miss
W.
Witlierow, mr Williams, mrs N
Wheeler, Prof H T Watson, Joseph
Woodside, P R 2 Williams, M G
Willis, N P Win doff, Heury
Williams, mrs S B Walher, mr
Wilder, Jas M Woolley, John
Williams, Wm Westerfield, D
Wilson, John Walker, Rich
__0___,________ Walker, JohnT Williams, E
Wade, or Wyble, J Williams, MissM VWalker, Jas T
Work, Maj Jos 2 Wheeler, Wm Williams, mrs S
Willson, J A Wallace, Gen R
Y.
Yates, Giles F 2 Young, Rev J C Young, sen Benj
Yebower, Chris
53" The inland postage on all letters intended to go by ship
must be paid, otherwise they remain in this office,
apr 15 C. K. GARDNER, P. M.
Valentine, Edw
Wood, mrs E
Woods, James
Ward, Geo
Wahn, Rachael
Wirt, Wm
West, John W
White, G M usn
Wright, John C
Wright, Miss A
LAW NOTICE.
THOMAS RANDALL anu THOMAS H. HAGNER,
AtTOUNEXS ANI) CoUNSELEOllS AT Law,
~T~E~ AVE united in practice. They will attend the several
JlI Courts of Law and Equity in the Middle Circuit of
Florida, and in the counties of Franklin and Jackson, in the
Western Circuit. Also, the District Court of the United
States, and the Supreme Court of the State of Florida, to be
held in the city of Tallahassee.
Tallahassee, (Flohida,) Feb. 17, 1846.
REFERENCES.
Messrs. Holbrook, Carter & Co. I
Henry Gassett & Co. > Boston.
Little 8c Brown, )
Messrs. Carleton, Frotliingham&Co.")
Van Arsdale & Warnock, 1
Holbrook, Nelson & Co. > New York.
Prime, Ward Sc King, J
Coe, Anderson Sc Co. J
Hon. Reverdy Johnson,)
John Glenn, Esq. > Baltimore.
Walter Farnandis, Esq.}
MsIcivU. } Wa’l‘iDSlon-
mar 24—lmdScSmcp
TTALOABLE IMPROVED PROPERTY at PUB-
Y L1C SALE.—The subscriber will offer for sale, on
Wednesday, the 22d day of, April next, the Farm on which he
formerly resided, near Colesville, Montgomery county, Ma-
ryland. (To be sold on the premises, at 12 o’clock M.)
The above described property is sold for the benefit, first, of
R. Smith, Esq., agent for the Bank of the United States, to
settle a debt due for the purchase money ; the balance tor the
benefit of the creditors of the subscriber, according to a deed
of trust made to John Brewer, Esq., in the year eighteen hun-
dred and forty-five.
This farm contains about 192 acres of perhaps as valuable
land as any in the county ; about sixty acres ol prime bottom
land ; the most of the upland highly improved ; a splendid or-
chard of choice fruit; the buildings good, witii a large 'lanne-
ry establishment.
As this property lies within twelve miles of Washington,
and is admirably adapted to the growth of grass and vegetables,
as well as grains ot every description, it is an estate offering
very superior inducements, and will be sold at greater sacri-
fice than any property which has been offered for sale for
many years.
Terms of sale : $1,500 in cash ; the balance in one, two, and
three years, to be secured by a rieed of trust on the land; the
interest to be paid annually on the deferred payments. It it
shall be deemed necessary, individual security will also be
required.
The creditors interested are particularly requested to meet
on the day of sale.
april 2—TuScScpts JOHN POOLE.
VNUANO._The subscribers have on hand twenty-five tons
\JT ot this justly celebrated manure, a full and careful an-
alysis of which (made by one of the first chemists in this coun-
try) may be seen at their store, showing this to be avery superior
article, possessing all the valuable qualities of manure without
adulteration. The chemist expresses a belief that it is fully
equal in quality to any Guano imported into the United States.
We invite farmers to call and examine this article. Being
anxious to close it out, we will sell it low, and in quantities to
suit purchasers. E. P1CKRELL Sc CO.
mar 21—eo2wdkc Water street, Georgetow%
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National Intelligencer. (Washington [D.C.]), Vol. 47, No. 6758, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 16, 1846, newspaper, April 16, 1846; Washington, District of Columbia. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1024981/m1/4/: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .