New York, and New Orleans, exceeding in number and amount, probably, any that ever occurred within an equal period of time, took place in a few months before and after the suspension. Representations of the vast depreciation of property, of the general prostration of business, were made to the president, with requests to rescind the specie circular, and to call an extra meeting of congress. On the 15th of May, a few days after the suspension in the city of New York, ä proclamation was issued for convening congress on the 1st Monday in September

But for the general suspension, it is doubtful whether the president would have convened congress. Under the provisions of the resolutions of 1816, and by the act of 1836, regulating the deposits, the federal officers were prohibited from receiving or paying out the notes of any but specie-paying banks. And the deposit banks, as well as others, had now suspended. Under existing laws, therefore, no collections or disbursements of public moneys could be made. If done at all, it must be done in violation of law.

Pursuant to the proclamation, congress assembled on the 4th of September, 1837. The president's message was almost exclusively devoted to the banks and currency, the causes of the existing difficulties, and their remedy. He suggested the entire disuse of banks as fiscal agents of the government, the collection, safekeeping, transfer, and disbursements of the public money by officers of the government, and of the employment of specie alone in its fiscal operations. It was the recommendation of the sub-treasury scheme. He believed the exclusive use of specie a practicable operation. Of the seventy or eighty millions in the country, ten millions would be sufficient for the purpose, if the accumulation of a large surplus revenue were prevented. The large increase of specie since the act of 1834, had contributed largely to the feasibility of the measure. The gold coinage alone had been since August, 1834, ten millions, which exceeded the whole coinage at the mint during the thirty-one previous years. By using specie only in government operations, a demand for it would be created, and its exportation prevented.

In consequence of the great pecuniary embarrassments, there had been a diminished revenue from importations and the sale of public lands, while the appropriations had been many millions more than had been asked for in former estimates. To supply the deficiency in the treasury thus produced, the president recommended the withholding of the fourth and last instalment, then in the treasury, of $9,367,200, directed by the act of June, 1836, to be deposited with the states in October next.

No measure having direct reference to the relief of the people, was recommended. The president hoped, however, that the adoption of the proposed fiscal measures would, “ by their necessary operation, afford essential aid in the transaction of individual concerns, and thus yield relief to the people at large, in a form adapted to the nature of our government.” He said : “ Those who look to the action of this govern. ment for specific aid to the citizen to relieve embarrassments arising from losses by revulsions in commerce and credit, lose sight of the ends for which it was created.” “All communities are apt to look to government for too much. * To avoid every unnecessary interference with the pursuits of the citizen, will result in more benefit than to adopt measures which could only assist limited interests, and are eagerly, but perhaps naturally sought for, under the pressure of temporary circumstances.”

In conformity to the suggestions of the president, a bill was reported in the senate by Mr. Wright, chairman of the committee on finance. It was entitled, “ A bill imposing additional duties as depositaries, in certain cases, on public officers.” It required all officers of the general government receiving public moneys, safely to keep, without loading or using them, until duly ordered to transfer them or pay them out. Bonds for their safe-keeping were to be given; and their accounts were to be submitted for examination once a year or oftener, at the discretion of the secretary of the treasury. The accounts of collectors of customs, receivers of land-offices, and treasurers of the mints, were to be returned to the treasury department, quarterly or oftener, at the discretion of the secretary. The same bill was reported to the house of representatives, by Mr. Cambreleng, chairman of the committee of ways and means. This was the bill for the establishment of the independent treasury, commonly called the sub-treasury.

Several other bills for the temporary relief of the government, were reported, and promptly acted on by the senate : (1.) A bill to postpone the payment of the fourth instalment of the deposits with the states; (2.) A bill to authorize the issue of treasury notes ; (3.) A bill extending the time for the payment of merchants' bonds; (4.) A bill for adjusting the remaining claims on the deposit banks; and (5.) A bill to authorize merchandise to be deposited in public stores.

The bill to postpone payment of the deposits, after a brief debate, and the adoption of an amendment offered by Mr. Buchanan, providing that "the three instalments already paid do remain on deposit until directed by congress," instead of being subject to be called for by the secretary of the treasury, was passed, 28 to 17, and sent to the house for concurrence. The chief participators in the debate were Messrs. Wright, Rives, Webster, Buchanan, and Calhoun.

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Mr. Webster made the principal speech against the bill. He regretted that the measures of the president and his secretary regarded only one object, the relief of the government. The community also needed relief from the evils which it suffered : these, however, were capable of a distinct consideration. He mentioned, first, the wants of the treasury, arising from the stoppage of payments, and the falling off of the revenue. A second and greater evil was the prostration of credit, the derangement of business, arising from the suspension of the local banks. A third evil was the want of an accredited paper medium equal to specie, having equal credit over all parts of the country. The secretary's report, as well as the message, regarded exclusively the interest of the government, forgetting, or passing by the people. He (Mr. W.) rejoiced at the clear shape which the question had at last assumed. Was there any duty incumbent on the government, to superintend the actual currency of the country? to do anything but to regulate the gold and silver coin? Might it abandon to the states and to the local banks the unrestrained issue of paper for circulation, without any attempt on its part to establish a paper medium equivalent to specie, and universally accredited all over the country?

Mr. W. contended that the power to regulate commerce between the states carried with it, necessarily and directly, the essential element of commerce-the currency, the money, which constituted the life and soul of commerce. Paper money, in this age, was an essential element in all trade between the states; it was connected with all commercial transactions: and it belonged to the general government, and not to the state governments, to provide for or regulate the currency between the states. A paper medium equivalent to coin, and of equal credit in all parts of the country, was an important instrument of exchange. Currency and exchange were united : and if the government would do its duty on the great subject of the currency, the mercantile and industrious classes would feel the benefit through all the operations of exchange.

In remarking on the bill, he said that its object was a necessary one ; but he did not think it provided the best mode of relief. was expected by the states; some of them had already disposed of it in advance. And was it wise to add another to the causes in operation, disturbing the business transactions of society? But the bill, if passed, would not essentially aid the treasury. The secretary himself virtually acknowledged it, for he says he wants other aid, and asks for an issue of some millions of treasury notes. He would therefore get the money without the bill. But what sort of notes did the secretary propose to issue ? Notes of small denominations, down even to twenty dollars, bearing no interest, redeemable at no fixed period ; receivable for debts

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due the government, but not otherwise to be paid, until, at some indefinite time, there should be in the treasury a surplus beyond what the secretary might think its wants required. It was plain, authentic, statutable paper money: a new emission of old continental. If this was not paper money, what was it? And who expected this ? Who expected that, in the fifth year of the EXPERIMENT FOR REFORMING THE CURRENCY, and bringing it to an absolute gold and silver circulation, the treasury department would be found recommending to us a regular emission of PAPER MONEY ?

Mr. Wright defended the bill as a proper measure for providing for the payment of the public creditors. The law requiring the transfer of the surplus moneys from the treasury to the states, provided for its safekeeping, and that only. The time had arrived when the United States had no money to keep, and not enough for the necessary public expenditures. The amount in the treasury was only about $8,000,000, subject to draft, and that would be so reduced by payments in September, that not more than two-thirds of the fourth instalment could be paid. The question therefore was, whether the government should borrow money to be transferred to the states for safe-keeping. He was sensible that inconvenience would result from withholding the instalment. In his own state the matter had been so arranged, that if it was not received, it must be paid out of the treasury of the state. This made his situation delicate; but he regarded his duty as paramount.

The senator from Massachusetts, Mr. W. said, had remarked with some asperity and surprise on the recommendation of the secretary for issuing notes not bearing interest. The committee, differing from the secretary, had provided for allowing interest till there should be means to redeem the notes. The senator erred, however, in regarding this as a new currency under the constitution. Congress, in 1815, had authorized the issuing of treasury notes: those for less than $100 payable to bearer, without interest; but for $100 or more, payable to order, bearing interest at the rate of 5 2-3 per cent., or otherwise to the bearer without interest. The senator considered the president inconsistent in saying that he refrained from suggesting any specific plan for regulating the currency and exchanges, because he thought congress had no power to act for such a purpose; and yet he had recommended a bankrupt law against corporations and other bankers. But the constitution did expressly authorize the passage of a general bankrupt law. He was therefore guilty of no inconsistency.

Mr. Webster said, if the act of 1815 authorized the issuing of treasury notes, no circulation was ever made of them as the secretary now recommended. All treasury notes went on the ground of a temporary loan to

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the government, to be paid or funded as soon as the treasury would allow. During the late war, there was a great want of money, and a great disposition to use treasury notes in the payment of public creditors. But at such times things were done which we should be slow to do in a day of peace.

Mr. Buchanan contended that congress had, in the act of 1815, done the very thing which Webster had said had not been done since the days of the confederation. He rejoiced, however, that the committee of finance had proposed the issue of no notes not bearing interest. in favor of this bill. He had voted for the deposit act of June, 1836, only as a choice of evils. On the one side, nearly forty millions, (besides the five millions to be reserved,) had accumulated in the deposit banks. By the use of this money, they were increasing the dividends of their stockholders, expanding extravagantly the paper circulation, and exciting speculation to the greatest excess. On the other hand, he had strong objections to making the federal government an instrument for collecting money that it might be deposited with the states. But the money being on hand, and having been collected under existing laws, he thought it more just, more politic, more safe, to place it in deposit with the states to be used for the benefit of the people, than to suffer it to remain in the banks for the benefit of their stockholders, and to the injury of the country.

But the deposit law made no gift or loan to the states. It merely transferred the deposits from the banks to the states. The faith of the states was pledged for the safe-keeping of the money, and for its repayment whenever required by the secretary for defraying the expenses of the government. Such want has now occurred; and it would be in the line of his duty to call on the states for a portion of the instalments already paid. But he had acted wisely in not making the demand until the pleasure of congress could be known. The states were not now in a condition to return immediately any portion of what they had already received. On the face of the act nothing but deposit was written; and if the states expected it as a loan or gift, it was not from their solemn contract with the United States under this law.

But for the unfortunate amendment made to the deposit bill by the house of representatives, and acquiesced in by the senate, congress, Mr. B. said, would not have been involved in its present difficulties; and the fourth instalment might be deposited with the states. The secretary would have received from them transferable certificates of deposit, in convenient sums, bearing no interest until it became necessary for him to use them, but afterwards bearing an interest of five per cent., and redeemable at the pleasure of the states. Such certificates would now

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