Irishman Speaks - Conor Cunneen

Below you can read Martin Van Buren's 1839 State of the Union Address. But FIRST !

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State of Union Address 1839 - Martin Van Buren

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I regret that I can not on this occasion congratulate you that the past year has been one of unalloyed

prosperity. The ravages of fire and disease have painfully afflicted otherwise flourishing portions of our

country, and serious embarrassments yet derange the trade of many of our cities. But notwithstanding

these adverse circumstances, that general prosperity which has been heretofore so bountifully bestowed

upon us by the Author of All Good still continues to call for our warmest gratitude. Especially have we

reason to rejoice in the exuberant harvests which have lavishly recompensed well-directed industry and

given to it that sure reward which is vainly sought in visionary speculations. I cannot, indeed, view

without peculiar satisfaction the evidences afforded by the past season of the benefits that spring from the

steady devotion of the husbandman to his honorable pursuit. No means of individual comfort is more

certain and no source of national prosperity is so sure. Nothing can compensate a people for a

dependence upon others for the bread they eat, and that cheerful abundance on which the happiness of

everyone so much depends is to be looked for nowhere with such sure reliance as in the industry of the

agriculturist and the bounties of the earth. 

With foreign countries our relations exhibit the same favorable aspect which was presented in my last

annual message, and afford continued proof of the wisdom of the pacific, just, and forbearing policy

adopted by the first Administration of the Federal Government and pursued by its successors. The

extraordinary powers vested in me by an act of Congress for the defense of the country in an emergency,

considered so far probable as to require that the Executive should possess ample means to meet it, have

not been exerted. They have therefore been attended with no other result than to increase, by the

confidence thus reposed in me, my obligations to maintain with religious exactness the cardinal principles

that govern our intercourse with other nations. Happily, in our pending questions with Great Britain, out of

which this unusual grant of authority arose, nothing has occurred to require its exertion, and as it is about

to return to the Legislature I trust that no future necessity may call for its exercise by them or its

delegation to another Department of the Government. 

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For the settlement of our northeastern boundary the proposition promised by Great Britain for a

commission of exploration and survey has been received, and a counter project, including also a provision

for the certain and final adjustment of the limits in dispute, is now before the British Government for its

consideration. A just regard to the delicate state of this question and a proper respect for the natural

impatience of the State of Maine, not less than a conviction that the negotiation has been already

protracted longer than is prudent on the part of either Government, have led me to believe that the

present favorable moment should on no account be suffered to pass without putting the question forever

at rest. I feel confident that the Government of Her Britannic Majesty will take the same view of this

subject, as I am persuaded it is governed by desires equally strong and sincere for the amicable

termination of the controversy. 

To the intrinsic difficulties of questions of boundary lines, especially those described in regions

unoccupied and but partially known, is to be added in our country the embarrassment necessarily arising

out of our Constitution by which the General Government is made the organ of negotiating and deciding

upon the particular interests of the States on whose frontiers these lines are to be traced. To avoid

another controversy in which a State government might rightfully claim to have her wishes consulted

previously to the conclusion of conventional arrangements concerning her rights of jurisdiction or

territory, I have thought it necessary to call the attention of the Government of Great Britain to another

portion of our conterminous dominion of which the division still remains to be adjusted I refer to the line

from the entrance of Lake Superior to the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods, stipulations

for the settlement of which are to be found in the seventh article of the treaty of Ghent. The

commissioners appointed under that article by the two Governments having differed in their opinions,

made separate reports, according to its stipulations, upon the points of disagreement, and these

differences are now to be submitted to the arbitration of some friendly sovereign or state. The disputed

points should be settled and the line designated before the Territorial government of which it is one of the

boundaries takes its place in the Union as a State, and I rely upon the cordial cooperation of the British

Government to effect that object. 

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There is every reason to believe that disturbances like those which lately agitated the neighboring British

Provinces will not again prove the sources of border contentions or interpose obstacles to the continuance

of that good understanding which it is the mutual interest of Great Britain and the United States to

preserve and maintain. 

Within the Provinces themselves tranquillity is restored, and on our frontier that misguided sympathy in

favor of what was presumed to be a general effort in behalf of popular rights, and which in some

instances misled a few of our more inexperienced citizens, has subsided into a rational conviction strongly

opposed to all intermeddling with the internal affairs of our neighbors. The people of the United States

feel, as it is hoped they always will, a warm solicitude for the success of all who are sincerely endeavoring

to improve the political condition of mankind. This generous feeling they cherish toward the most distant

nations, and it was natural, therefore, that it should be awakened with more than common warmth in

behalf of their immediate neighbors; but it does not belong to their character as a community to seek the

gratification of those feelings in acts which violate their duty as citizens, endanger the peace of their

country, and tend to bring upon it the stain of a violated faith toward foreign nations. If, zealous to confer

benefits on others, they appear for a moment to lose sight of the permanent obligations imposed upon

them as citizens, they are seldom long misled. From all the information I receive, confirmed to some

extent by personal observation, I am satisfied that no one can now hope to engage in such enterprises

without encountering public indignation, in addition to the severest penalties of the law. 

Recent information also leads me to hope that the emigrants from Her Majesty's Provinces who have

sought refuge within our boundaries are disposed to become peaceable residents and to abstain from all

attempts to endanger the peace of that country which has afforded them an asylum. On a review of the

occurrences on both sides of the line it is satisfactory to reflect that in almost every complaint against our

country the offense may be traced to emigrants from the Provinces who have sought refuge here. In the

few instances in which they were aided by citizens of the United States the acts of these misguided men

were not only in direct contravention of the laws and well-known wishes of their own Government, but

met with the decided disapprobation of the people of the United States. 

I regret to state the appearance of a different spirit among Her Majesty's subjects in the Canadas. The

sentiments of hostility to our people and institutions which have been so frequently expressed there, and

the disregard of our rights which has been manifested on some occasions, have, I am sorry to say, been

applauded and encouraged by the people, and even by some of the subordinate local authorities, of the

Provinces. The chief officers in Canada, fortunately, have not entertained the same feeling, and have

probably prevented excesses that must have been fatal to the peace of the two countries. 

I look forward anxiously to a period when all the transactions which have grown out of this condition of

our affairs, and which have been made the subjects of complaint and remonstrance by the two

Governments, respectively, shall be fully examined, and the proper satisfaction given where it is due from

either side. 

Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our intercourse with Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France,

Naples, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, or Sweden. The internal state of Spain has sensibly improved, and a

well-grounded hope exists that the return of peace will restore to the people of that country their former

prosperity and enable the Government to fulfill all its obligations at home and abroad. The Government of

Portugal, I have the satisfaction to state, has paid in full the eleventh and last installment due to our

citizens for the claims embraced in the settlement made with it on the 3d of March, 1837. 

I lay before you treaties of commerce negotiated with the Kings of Sardinia and of the Netherlands, the

ratifications of which have been exchanged since the adjournment of Congress. The liberal principles of

these treaties will recommend them to your approbation. That with Sardinia is the first treaty of commerce

formed by that Kingdom, and it will, I trust, answer the expectations of the present Sovereign by aiding

the development of the resources of his country and stimulating the enterprise of his people. That with the

Netherlands happily terminates a long-existing subject of dispute and removes from our future commercial

intercourse all apprehension of embarrassment. The King of the Netherlands has also, in further

illustration of his character for justice and of his desire to remove every cause of dissatisfaction, made

compensation for an American vessel captured in 1800 by a French privateer, and carried into Curacoa,

where the proceeds were appropriated to the use of the colony, then, and for a short time after, under the

dominion of Holland. 

The death of the late Sultan has produced no alteration in our relations with Turkey. Our newly appointed

minister resident has reached Constantinople, and I have received assurances from the present ruler that

the obligations of our treaty and those of friendship will be fulfilled by himself in the same spirit that

actuated his illustrious father. 

I regret to be obliged to inform you that no convention for the settlement of the claims of our citizens

upon Mexico has yet been ratified by the Government of that country. The first convention formed for that

purpose was not presented by the President of Mexico for the approbation of its Congress, from a belief

that the King of Prussia, the arbitrator in case of disagreement in the joint commission to be appointed by

the United States and Mexico, would not consent to take upon himself that friendly office. Although not

entirely satisfied with the course pursued by Mexico, I felt no hesitation in receiving in the most

conciliatory spirit the explanation offered, and also cheerfully consented to a new convention, in order to

arrange the payments proposed to be made to our citizens in a manner which, while equally just to them,

was deemed less onerous and inconvenient to the Mexican Government. Relying confidently upon the

intentions of that Government, Mr. Ellis was directed to repair to Mexico, and diplomatic intercourse has

been resumed between the two countries. The new convention has, he informs us, been recently

submitted by the President of that Republic to its Congress under circumstances which promise a speedy

ratification, a result which I can not allow myself to doubt. 

Instructions have been given to the commissioner of the United States under our convention with Texas

for the demarcation of the line which separates us from that Republic. The commissioners of both

Governments met in New Orleans in August last. The joint commission was organized, and adjourned to

convene at the same place on the 12th of October. It is presumed to be now in the performance of its

duties. 

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The new Government of Texas has shown its desire to cultivate friendly relations with us by a prompt

reparation for injuries complained of in the cases of two vessels of the United States. 

With Central America a convention has been concluded for the renewal of its former treaty with the United

States. This was not ratified before the departure of our late charge d'affaires from that country, and the

copy of it brought by him was not received before the adjournment of the Senate at the last session. In

the meanwhile, the period limited for the exchange of ratifications having expired, I deemed it expedient,

in consequence of the death of the charge d'affaires, to send a special agent to Central America to close

the affairs of our mission there and to arrange with the Government an extension of the time for the

exchange of ratifications. 

The commission created by the States which formerly composed the Republic of Colombia for adjusting

the claims against that Government has by a very unexpected construction of the treaty under which it

acts decided that no provision was made for those claims of citizens of the United States which arose from

captures by Colombian privateers and were adjudged against the claimants in the judicial tribunals. This

decision will compel the United States to apply to the several Governments formerly united for redress.

With all these--New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador--a perfectly good understanding exists. Our treaty

with Venezuela is faithfully carried into execution, and that country, in the enjoyment of tranquillity, is

gradually advancing in prosperity under the guidance of its present distinguished President, General Paez.

With Ecuador a liberal commercial convention has lately been concluded, which will be transmitted to the

Senate at an early day. 

With the great American Empire of Brazil our relations continue unchanged, as does our friendly

intercourse with the other Governments of South America--the Argentine Republic and the Republics of

Uruguay, Chili, Peru, and Bolivia. The dissolution of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation may occasion some

temporary inconvenience to our citizens in that quarter, but the obligations on the new Governments

which have arisen out of that Confederation to observe its treaty stipulations will no doubt be soon

understood, and it is presumed that no indisposition will exist to fulfill those which it contracted with the

United States. 

The financial operations of the Government during the present year have, I am happy to say, been very

successful. The difficulties under which the Treasury Department has labored, from known defects in the

existing laws relative to the safe-keeping of the public moneys, aggravated by the suspension of specie

payments by several of the banks holding public deposits or indebted to public officers for notes received

in payment of public dues, have been surmounted to a very gratifying extent. The large current

expenditures have been punctually met, and the faith of the Government in all its pecuniary concerns has

been scrupulously maintained. 

The nineteen millions of Treasury notes authorized by the act of Congress of 1837, and the modifications

thereof with a view to the indulgence of merchants on their duty bonds and of the deposit banks in the

payment of public moneys held by them, have been so punctually redeemed as to leave less than the

original ten millions outstanding at any one time, and the whole amount unredeemed now falls short of

three millions. Of these the chief portion is not due till next year, and the whole would have been already

extinguished could the Treasury have realized the payments due to it from the banks. If those due from

them during the next year shall be punctually made, and if Congress shall keep the appropriations within

the estimates, there is every reason to believe that all the outstanding Treasury notes can be redeemed

and the ordinary expenses defrayed without imposing on the people any additional burden, either of loans

or increased taxes. 

To avoid this and to keep the expenditures within reasonable bounds is a duty second only in importance

to the preservation of our national character and the protection of our citizens in their civil and political

rights. The creation in time of peace of a debt likely to become permanent is an evil for which there is no

equivalent. The rapidity with which many of the States are apparently approaching to this condition

admonishes us of our own duties in a manner too impressive to be disregarded. One, not the least

important, is to keep the Federal Government always in a condition to discharge with ease and vigor its

highest functions should their exercise be required by any sudden conjuncture of public affairs--a

condition to which we are always exposed and which may occur when it is least expected. To this end it is

indispensable that its finances should be untrammeled and its resources as far as practicable

unencumbered. No circumstance could present greater obstacles to the accomplishment of these vitally

important objects than the creation of an onerous national debt. Our own experience and also that of other

nations have demonstrated the unavoidable and fearful rapidity with which a public debt is increased when

the Government has once surrendered itself to the ruinous practice of supplying its supposed necessities

by new loans. The struggle, therefore, on our part to be successful must be made at the threshold. To

make our efforts effective, severe economy is necessary. This is the surest provision for the national

welfare, and it is at the same time the best preservative of the principles on which our institutions rest.

Simplicity and economy in the affairs of state have never failed to chasten and invigorate republican

principles, while these have been as surely subverted by national prodigality, under whatever specious

pretexts it may have been introduced or fostered. 

These considerations can not be lost upon a people who have never been inattentive to the effect of their

policy upon the institutions they have created for themselves, but at the present moment their force is

augmented by the necessity which a decreasing revenue must impose. The check lately given to

importations of articles subject to duties, the derangements in the operations of internal trade, and

especially the reduction gradually taking place in our tariff of duties, all tend materially to lessen our

receipts; indeed, it is probable that the diminution resulting from the last cause alone will not fall short of

$5,000,000 in the year 1842, as the final reduction of all duties to 20 per cent then takes effect. The

whole revenue then accruing from the customs and from the sales of public lands, if not more, will

undoubtedly be wanted to defray the necessary expenses of the Government under the most prudent

administration of its affairs. These are circumstances that impose the necessity of rigid economy and

require its prompt and constant exercise. With the Legislature rest the power and duty of so adjusting the

public expenditure as to promote this end. By the provisions of the Constitution it is only in consequence

of appropriations made by law that money can be drawn from the Treasury. No instance has occurred

since the establishment of the Government in which the Executive, though a component part of the

legislative power, has interposed an objection to an appropriation bill on the sole ground of its

extravagance. His duty in this respect has been considered fulfilled by requesting such appropriations only

as the public service may be reasonably expected to require. In the present earnest direction of the public

mind toward this subject both the Executive and the Legislature have evidence of the strict responsibility

to which they will be held; and while I am conscious of my own anxious efforts to perform with fidelity

this portion of my public functions, it is a satisfaction to me to be able to count on a cordial cooperation

from you. 

At the time I entered upon my present duties our ordinary disbursements, without including those on

account of the public debt, the Post-Office, and the trust funds in charge of the Government, had been

largely increased by appropriations for the removal of the Indians, for repelling Indian hostilities, and for

other less urgent expenses which grew out of an overflowing Treasury. Independent of the redemption of

the public debt and trusts, the gross expenditures of seventeen and eighteen millions in 1834 and 1835

had by these causes swelled to twenty-nine millions in 1836, and the appropriations for 1837, made

previously to the 4th of March, caused the expenditure to rise to the very large amount of thirty-three

millions. We were enabled during the year 1838, notwithstanding the continuance of our Indian

embarrassments, somewhat to reduce this amount, and that for the present year (1839) will not in all

probability exceed twenty-six millions, or six millions less than it was last year. With a determination, so

far as depends on me, to continue this reduction, I have directed the estimates for 1840 to be subjected to

the severest scrutiny and to be limited to the absolute requirements of the public service. They will be

found less than the expenditures of 1839 by over $5,000,000. 

The precautionary measures which will be recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury to protect

faithfully the public credit under the fluctuations and contingencies to which our receipts and expenditures

are exposed, and especially in a commercial crisis like the present, are commended to your early

attention. 

On a former occasion your attention was invited to various considerations in support of a preemption law

in behalf of the settlers on the public lands, and also of a law graduating the prices for such lands as had

long been in the market unsold in consequence of their inferior quality. The execution of the act which

was passed on the first subject has been attended with the happiest consequences in quieting titles and

securing improvements to the industrious, and it has also to a very gratifying extent been exempt from the

frauds which were practiced under previous preemption laws. It has at the same time, as was anticipated,

contributed liberally during the present year to the receipts of the Treasury. 

The passage of a graduation law, with the guards before recommended, would also, I am persuaded, add

considerably to the revenue for several years, and prove in other respects just and beneficial. Your early

consideration of the subject is therefore once more earnestly requested. 

The present condition of the defenses of our principal seaports and navy-yards, as represented by the

accompanying report of the Secretary of War, calls for the early and serious attention of Congress; and, as

connecting itself intimately with this subject, I can not recommend too strongly to your consideration the

plan submitted by that officer for the organization of the militia of the United States. 

In conformity with the expressed wishes of Congress, an attempt was made in the spring to terminate the

Florida war by negotiation. It is to be regretted that these humane intentions should have been frustrated

and that the effort to bring these unhappy difficulties to a satisfactory conclusion should have failed; but

after entering into solemn engagements with the commanding general, the Indians, without any

provocation, recommenced their acts of treachery and murder. The renewal of hostilities in that Territory

renders it necessary that I should recommend to your favorable consideration the plan which will be

submitted to you by the Secretary of War, in order to enable that Department to conduct them to a

successful issue. 

Having had an opportunity of personally inspecting a portion of the troops during the last summer, it gives

me pleasure to bear testimony to the success of the effort to improve their discipline by keeping them

together in as large bodies as the nature of our service will permit. I recommend, therefore, that

commodious and permanent barracks be constructed at the several posts designated by the Secretary of

War. Notwithstanding the high state of their discipline and excellent police, the evils resulting to the

service from the deficiency of company officers were very apparent, and I recommend that the staff

officers be permanently separated from the line. 

The Navy has been usefully and honorably employed in protecting the rights and property of our citizens

wherever the condition of affairs seemed to require its presence. With the exception of one instance,

where an outrage, accompanied by murder, was committed on a vessel of the United States while engaged

in a lawful commerce, nothing is known to have occurred to impede or molest the enterprise of our

citizens on that element, where it is so signally displayed. On learning this daring act of piracy,

Commodore Reed proceeded immediately to the spot, and receiving no satisfaction, either in the surrender

of the murderers or the restoration of the plundered property, inflicted severe and merited chastisement

on the barbarians. 

It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the Navy respecting the disposition of our ships of war

that it has been deemed necessary to station a competent force on the coast of Africa to prevent a

fraudulent use of our flag by foreigners. 

Recent experience has shown that the provisions in our existing laws which relate to the sale and transfer

of American vessels while abroad are extremely defective. Advantage has been taken of these defects to

give to vessels wholly belonging to foreigners and navigating the ocean an apparent American ownership.

This character has been so well simulated as to afford them comparative security in prosecuting the slave

trade--a traffic emphatically denounced in our statutes, regarded with abhorrence by our citizens, and of

which the effectual suppression is nowhere more sincerely desired than in the United States. These

circumstances make it proper to recommend to your early attention a careful revision of these laws, so

that without impeding the freedom and facilities of our navigation or impairing an important branch of our

industry connected with it the integrity and honor of our flag may be carefully preserved. Information

derived from our consul at Havana showing the necessity of this was communicated to a committee of the

Senate near the close of the last session, but too late, as it appeared, to be acted upon. It will be brought

to your notice by the proper Department, with additional communications from other sources. 

The latest accounts from the exploring expedition represent it as proceeding successfully in its objects and

promising results no less useful to trade and navigation than to science. 

The extent of post-roads covered by mail service on the 1st of July last was about 133,999 miles and the

rate of annual transportation upon them 34,496,878 miles. The number of post-offices on that day was

12,780 and on the 30th ultimo 13,028. 

The revenue of the Post-Office Department for the year ending with the 30th of June last was $4,476,638,

exhibiting an increase over the preceding year of $241,560. The engagements and liabilities of the

Department for the same period are $4,624,117. 

The excess of liabilities over the revenue for the last two years has been met out of the surplus which had

previously accumulated. The cash on hand on the 30th ultimo was about $206,701.95 and the current

income of the Department varies very little from the rate of current expenditures. Most of the service

suspended last year has been restored, and most of the new routes established by the act of 7th July,

1838, have been set in operation, at an annual cost of $136,963. Notwithstanding the pecuniary

difficulties of the country, the revenue of the Department appears to be increasing, and unless it shall be

seriously checked by the recent suspension of payment by so many of the banks it will be able not only to

maintain the present mail service, but in a short time to extend it. It is gratifying to witness the

promptitude and fidelity with which the agents of this Department in general perform their public duties. 

Some difficulties have arisen in relation to contracts for the transportation of the mails by railroad and

steamboat companies. It appears that the maximum of compensation provided by Congress for the

transportation of the mails upon railroads is not sufficient to induce some of the companies to convey

them at such hours as are required for the accommodation of the public. It is one of the most important

duties of the General Government to provide and maintain for the use of the people of the States the best

practicable mail establishment. To arrive at that end it is indispensable that the Post-Office Department

shall be enabled to control the hours at which the mails shall be carried over railroads, as it now does

over all other roads. Should serious inconveniences arise from the inadequacy of the compensation now

provided by law, or from unreasonable demands by any of the railroad companies, the subject is of such

general importance as to require the prompt attention of Congress. 

In relation to steamboat lines, the most efficient remedy is obvious and has been suggested by the

Postmaster-General. The War and Navy Departments already employ steamboats in their service; and

although it is by no means desirable that the Government should undertake the transportation of

passengers or freight as a business, there can be no reasonable objection to running boats, temporarily,

whenever it may be necessary to put down attempts at extortion, to be discontinued as soon as reasonable

contracts can be obtained. 

The suggestions of the Postmaster-General relative to the inadequacy of the legal allowance to witnesses

in cases of prosecutions for mail depredations merit your serious consideration. The safety of the mails

requires that such prosecutions shall be efficient, and justice to the citizen whose time is required to be

given to the public demands not only that his expenses shall be paid, but that he shall receive a

reasonable compensation. 

The reports from the War, Navy, and Post-Office Departments will accompany this communication, and

one from the Treasury Department will be presented to Congress in a few days. 

For various details in respect to the matters in charge of these Departments I would refer you to those

important documents, satisfied that you will find in them many valuable suggestions which will be found

well deserving the attention of the Legislature. 

From a report made in December of last year by the Secretary of State to the Senate, showing the trial

docket of each of the circuit courts and the number of miles each judge has to travel in the performance of

his duties, a great inequality appears in the amount of labor assigned to each judge. The number of terms

to be held in each of the courts composing the ninth circuit, the distances between the places at which

they sit and from thence to the seat of Government, are represented to be such as to render it impossible

for the judge of that circuit to perform in a manner corresponding with the public exigencies his term and

circuit duties. A revision, therefore, of the present arrangement of the circuit seems to be called for and is

recommended to your notice. 

I think it proper to call your attention to the power assumed by Territorial legislatures to authorize the

issue of bonds by corporate companies on the guaranty of the Territory. Congress passed a law in 1836

providing that no act of a Territorial legislature incorporating banks should have the force of law until

approved by Congress, but acts of a very exceptionable character previously passed by the legislature of

Florida were suffered to remain in force, by virtue of which bonds may be issued to a very large amount

by those institutions upon the faith of the Territory. A resolution, intending to be a joint one, passed the

Senate at the same session, expressing the sense of Congress that the laws in question ought not to be

permitted to remain in force unless amended in many material respects; but it failed in the House of

Representatives for want of time, and the desired amendments have not been made. The interests involved

are of great importance, and the subject deserves your early and careful attention. 

The continued agitation of the question relative to the best mode of keeping and disbursing the public

money still injuriously affects the business of the country. The suspension of specie payments in 1837

rendered the use of deposit banks as prescribed by the act of 1836 a source rather of embarrassment than

aid, and of necessity placed the custody of most of the public money afterwards collected in charge of the

public officers. The new securities for its safety which this required were a principal cause of my

convening an extra session of Congress, but in consequence of a disagreement between the two Houses

neither then nor at any subsequent period has there been any legislation on the subject. The effort made

at the last session to obtain the authority of Congress to punish the use of public money for private

purposes as a crime a measure attended under other governments with signal advantage--was also

unsuccessful, from diversities of opinion in that body, notwithstanding the anxiety doubtless felt by it to

afford every practicable security. The result of this is still to leave the custody of the public money without

those safeguards which have been for several years earnestly desired by the Executive, and as the remedy

is only to be found in the action of the Legislature it imposes on me the duty of again submitting to you

the propriety of passing a law providing for the safe-keeping of the public moneys, and especially to ask

that its use for private purposes by any officers intrusted with it may be declared to be a felony,

punishable with penalties proportioned to the magnitude of the offense. 

These circumstances, added to known defects in the existing laws and unusual derangement in the general

operations of trade, have during the last three years much increased the difficulties attendant on the

collection, keeping, and disbursement of the revenue, and called forth corresponding exertions from those

having them in charge. Happily these have been successful beyond expectation. Vast sums have been

collected and disbursed by the several Departments with unexpected cheapness and ease, transfers have

been readily made to every part of the Union, however distant, and defalcations have been far less than

might have been anticipated from the absence of adequate legal restraints. Since the officers of the

Treasury and Post-Office Departments were charged with the custody of most of the public moneys

received by them there have been collected $66,000,000, and, excluding the case of the late collector at

New York, the aggregate amount of losses sustained in the collection can not, it is believed, exceed

$60,000. The defalcation of the late collector at that city, of the extent and circumstances of which

Congress have been fully informed, ran through all the modes of keeping the public money that have been

hitherto in use, and was distinguished by an aggravated disregard of duty that broke through the

restraints of every system, and can not, therefore, be usefully referred to as a test of the comparative

safety of either. Additional information will also be furnished by the report of the Secretary of the

Treasury, in reply to a call made upon that officer by the House of Representatives at the last session

requiring detailed information on the subject of defaults by public officers or agents under each

Administration from 1789 to 1837. This document will be submitted to you in a few days. The general

results (independent of the Post-Office, which is kept separately and will be stated by itself), so far as

they bear upon this subject, are that the losses which have been and are likely to be sustained by any

class of agents have been the greatest by banks, including, as required in the resolution, their depreciated

paper received for public dues; that the next largest have been by disbursing officers, and the least by

collectors and receivers. If the losses on duty bonds are included, they alone will be threefold those by

both collectors and receivers. Our whole experience, therefore, furnishes the strongest evidence that the

desired legislation of Congress is alone wanting to insure in those operations the highest degree of

security and facility. Such also appears to have been the experience of other nations. From the results of

inquiries made by the Secretary of the Treasury in regard to the practice among them I am enabled to

state that in twenty-two out of twenty-seven foreign governments from which undoubted information has

been obtained the public moneys are kept in charge of public officers. This concurrence of opinion in favor

of that system is perhaps as great as exists on any question of internal administration. 

In the modes of business and official restraints on disbursing officers no legal change was produced by

the suspension of specie payments. The report last referred to will be found to contain also much useful

information in relation to this subject. 

I have heretofore assigned to Congress my reasons for believing that the establishment of an independent

National Treasury, as contemplated by the Constitution, is necessary to the safe action of the Federal

Government. The suspension of specie payments in 1837 by the banks having the custody of the public

money showed in so alarming a degree our dependence on those institutions for the performance of duties

required by law that I then recommended the entire dissolution of that connection. This recommendation

has been subjected, as I desired it should be, to severe scrutiny and animated discussion, and I allow

myself to believe that notwithstanding the natural diversities of opinion which may be anticipated on all

subjects involving such important considerations, it has secured in its favor as general a concurrence of

public sentiment as could be expected on one of such magnitude. 

Recent events have also continued to develop new objections to such a connection. Seldom is any bank,

under the existing system and practice, able to meet on demand all its liabilities for deposits and notes in

circulation. It maintains specie payments and transacts a profitable business only by the confidence of the

public in its solvency, and whenever this is destroyed the demands of its depositors and note holders,

pressed more rapidly than it can make collections from its debtors, force it to stop payment. This loss of

confidence, with its consequences, occurred in 1837, and afforded the apology of the banks for their

suspension. The public then acquiesced in the validity of the excuse, and while the State legislatures did

not exact from them their forfeited charters, Congress, in accordance with the recommendation of the

Executive, allowed them time to pay over the public money they held, although compelled to issue

Treasury notes to supply the deficiency thus created. 

It now appears that there are other motives than a want of public confidence under which the banks seek

to justify themselves in a refusal to meet their obligations. Scarcely were the country and Government

relieved in a degree from the difficulties occasioned by the general suspension of 1837 when a partial one,

occurring within thirty months of the former, produced new and serious embarrassments, though it had no

palliation in such circumstances as were alleged in justification of that which had previously taken place.

There was nothing in the condition of the country to endanger a well-managed banking institution;

commerce was deranged by no foreign war; every branch of manufacturing industry was crowned with

rich rewards, and the more than usual abundance of our harvests, after supplying our domestic wants, had

left our granaries and storehouses filled with a surplus for exportation. It is in the midst of this that an

irredeemable and depreciated paper currency is entailed upon the people by a large portion of the banks.

They are not driven to it by the exhibition of a loss of public confidence or of a sudden pressure from their

depositors or note holders, but they excuse themselves by alleging that the current of business and

exchange with foreign countries, which draws the precious metals from their vaults, would require in

order to meet it a larger curtailment of their loans to a comparatively small portion of the community than

it will be convenient for them to bear or perhaps safe for the banks to exact. The plea has ceased to be

one of necessity. Convenience and policy are now deemed sufficient to warrant these institutions in

disregarding their solemn obligations. Such conduct is not merely an injury to individual creditors, but it

is a wrong to the whole community, from whose liberality they hold most valuable privileges, whose

rights they violate, whose business they derange, and the value of whose property they render unstable

and insecure. It must be evident that this new ground for bank suspensions, in reference to which their

action is not only disconnected with, but wholly independent of, that of the public, gives a character to

their suspensions more alarming than any which they exhibited before, and greatly increases the

impropriety of relying on the banks in the transactions of the Government. 

A large and highly respectable portion of our banking institutions are, it affords me unfeigned pleasure to

state, exempted from all blame on account of this second delinquency. They have, to their great credit,

not only continued to meet their engagements, but have even repudiated the grounds of suspension now

resorted to. It is only by such a course that the confidence and good will of the community can be

preserved, and in the sequel the best interests of the institutions themselves promoted 

New dangers to the banks are also daily disclosed from the extension of that system of extravagant credit

of which they are the pillars. Formerly our foreign commerce was principally rounded on an exchange of

commodities, including the precious metals, and leaving in its transactions but little foreign debt. Such is

not now the case. Aided by the facilities afforded by the banks, mere credit has become too commonly the

basis of trade. Many of the banks themselves, not content with largely stimulating this system among

others, have usurped the business, while they impair the stability, of the mercantile community; they have

become borrowers instead of lenders; they establish their agencies abroad; they deal largely in stocks and

merchandise; they encourage the issue of State securities until the foreign market is glutted with them;

and, unsatisfied with the legitimate use of their own capital and the exercise of their lawful privileges,

they raise by large loans additional means for every variety of speculation. The disasters attendant on this

deviation from the former course of business in this country are now shared alike by banks and individuals

to an extent of which there is perhaps no previous example in the annals of our country. So long as a

willingness of the foreign lender and a sufficient export of our productions to meet any necessary partial

payments leave the flow of credit undisturbed all appears to be prosperous, but as soon as it is checked

by any hesitation abroad or by an inability to make payment there in our productions the evils of the

system are disclosed. The paper currency, which might serve for domestic purposes, is useless to pay the

debt due in Europe. Gold and silver are therefore drawn in exchange for their notes from the banks. To

keep up their supply of coin these institutions are obliged to call upon their own debtors, who pay them

principally in their own notes, which are as unavailable to them as they are to the merchants to meet the

foreign demand. The calls of the banks, therefore, in such emergencies of necessity exceed that demand,

and produce a corresponding curtailment of their accommodations and of the currency at the very moment

when the state of trade renders it most inconvenient to be borne. The intensity of this pressure on the

community is in proportion to the previous liberality of credit and consequent expansion of the currency.

Forced sales of property are made at the time when the means of purchasing are most reduced, and the

worst calamities to individuals are only at last arrested by an open violation of their obligations by the

banks--a refusal to pay specie for their notes and an imposition upon the community of a fluctuating and

depreciated currency. 

These consequences are inherent in the present system. They are not influenced by the banks being large

or small, created by National or State Governments. They are the results of the irresistible laws of trade or

credit. In the recent events, which have so strikingly illustrated the certain effects of these laws, we have

seen the bank of the largest capital in the Union, established under a national charter, and lately

strengthened, as we were authoritatively informed, by exchanging that for a State charter with new and

unusual privileges--in a condition, too, as it was said, of entire soundness and great prosperity--not

merely unable to resist these effects, but the first to yield to them. 

Nor is it to be overlooked that there exists a chain of necessary dependence among these institutions

which obliges them to a great extent to follow the course of others, notwithstanding its injustice to their

own immediate creditors or injury to the particular community in which they are placed. This dependence

of a bank, which is in proportion to the extent of its debts for circulation and deposits, is not merely on

others in its own vicinity, but on all those which connect it with the center of trade. Distant banks may fail

without seriously affecting those in our principal commercial cities, but the failure of the latter is felt at

the extremities of the Union. The suspension at New York in 1837 was everywhere, with very few

exceptions, followed as soon as it was known. That recently at Philadelphia immediately affected the

banks of the South and West in a similar manner. This dependence of our whole banking system on the

institutions in a few large cities is not found in the laws of their organization, but in those of trade and

exchange. The banks at that center, to which currency flows and where it is required in payments for

merchandise, hold the power of controlling those in regions whence it comes, while the latter possess no

means of restraining them; so that the value of individual property and the prosperity of trade through the

whole interior of the country are made to depend on the good or bad management of the banking

institutions in the great seats of trade on the seaboard. 

But this chain of dependence does not stop here. It does not terminate at Philadelphia or New York. It

reaches across the ocean and ends in London, the center of the credit system. The same laws of trade

which give to the banks in our principal cities power over the whole banking system of the United States

subject the former, in their turn, to the money power in Great Britain. It is not denied that the suspension

of the New York banks in 1837, which was followed in quick succession throughout the Union, was

produced by an application of that power, and it is now alleged, in extenuation of the present condition of

so large a portion of our banks, that their embarrassments have arisen from the same cause. 

From this influence they can not now entirely escape, for it has its origin in the credit currencies of the

two countries; it is strengthened by the current of trade and exchange which centers in London, and is

rendered almost irresistible by the large debts contracted there by our merchants, our banks, and our

States. It is thus that an introduction of a new bank into the most distant of our villages places the

business of that village within the influence of the money power in England; it is thus that every new debt

which we contract in that country seriously affects our own currency and extends over the pursuits of our

citizens its powerful influence. We can not escape from this by making new banks, great or small, State or

national. The same chains which bind those now existing to the center of this system of paper credit must

equally fetter every similar institution we create. It is only by the extent to which this system has been

pushed of late that we have been made fully aware of its irresistible tendency to subject our own banks

and currency to a vast controlling power in a foreign lad, and it adds a new argument to those which

illustrate their precarious situation.. Endangered in the first place by their own mismanagement and again

by the conduct of every institution which connects them with the center of trade in our own country, they

are yet subjected beyond all this to the effect of whatever measures policy, necessity, or caprice may

induce those who control the credits of England to resort to. I mean not to comment upon these

measures, present or past, and much less to discourage the prosecution of fair commercial dealing

between the two countries, based on reciprocal benefits; but it having now been made manifest that the

power of inflicting these and similar injuries is by the resistless law of a credit currency and credit trade

equally capable of extending their consequences through all the ramifications of our banking system, and

by that means indirectly obtaining, particularly when our banks are used as depositories of the public

moneys, a dangerous political influence in the United States, I have deemed it my duty to bring the

subject to your notice and ask for it your serious consideration. 

Is an argument required beyond the exposition of these facts to show the impropriety of using our

banking institutions as depositories of the public money? Can we venture not only to encounter the risk of

their individual and mutual mismanagement, but at the same time to place our foreign and domestic policy

entirely under the control of a foreign moneyed interest? To do so is to impair the independence of our

Government, as the present credit system has already impaired the independence of our banks; it is to

submit all its important operations, whether of peace or war, to be controlled or thwarted, at first by our

own banks and then by a power abroad greater than themselves. I can not bring myself to depict the

humiliation to which this Government and people might be sooner or later reduced if the means for

defending their rights are to be made dependent upon those who may have the most powerful of motives

to impair them. 

Nor is it only in reference to the effect of this state of things on the independence of our Government or of

our banks that the subject presents itself for consideration; it is to be viewed also in its relations to the

general trade of our country. The time is not long passed when a deficiency of foreign crops was thought

to afford a profitable market for the surplus of our industry, but now we await with feverish anxiety the

news of the English harvest, not so much from motives of commendable sympathy, but fearful lest its

anticipated failure should narrow the field of credit there. Does not this speak volumes to the patriot? Can

a system be beneficent, wise, or just which creates greater anxiety for interests dependent on foreign

credit than for the general prosperity of our own country and the profitable exportation of the surplus

produce of our labor? 

The circumstances to which I have thus adverted appear to me to afford weighty reasons, developed by

late events, to be added to those which I have on former occasions offered when submitting to your better

knowledge and discernment the propriety of separating the custody of the public money from banking

institutions. Nor has anything occurred to lessen, in my opinion, the force of what has been heretofore

urged. The only ground on which that custody can be desired by the banks is the profitable use which they

may make of the money. Such use would be regarded in individuals as a breach of trust or a crime of

great magnitude, and yet it may be reasonably doubted whether, first and last, it is not attended with

more mischievous consequences when permitted to the former than to the latter. The practice of

permitting the public money to be used by its keepers, as here, is believed to be peculiar to this country

and to exist scarcely anywhere else. To procure it here improper influences are appealed to, unwise

connections are established between the Government and vast numbers of powerful State institutions,

other motives than the public good are brought to bear both on the executive and legislative departments,

and selfish combinations leading to special legislation are formed. It is made the interest of banking

institutions and their stockholders throughout the Union to use their exertions for the increase of taxation

and the accumulation of a surplus revenue, and while an excuse is afforded the means are furnished for

those excessive issues which lead to extravagant trading and speculation and are the forerunners of a vast

debt abroad and a suspension of the banks at home. 

Impressed, therefore, as I am with the propriety of the funds of the Government being withdrawn from the

private use of either banks or individuals, and the public money kept by duly appointed public agents, and

believing as I do that such also is the judgment which discussion, reflection, and experience have

produced on the public mind, I leave the subject with you. It is, at all events, essential to the interests of

the community and the business of the Government that a decision should be made. 

Most of the arguments that dissuade us from employing banks in the custody and disbursement of the

public money apply with equal force to the receipt of their notes for public dues. The difference is only in

form. In one instance the Government is a creditor for its deposits, and in the other for the notes it holds.

They afford the same opportunity for using the public moneys, and equally lead to all the evils attendant

upon it, since a bank can as safely extend its discounts on a deposit of its notes in the hands of a public

officer as on one made in its own vaults. On the other hand, it would give to the Government no greater

security, for in case of failure the claim of the note holder would be no better than that of a depositor. 

I am aware that the danger of inconvenience to the public and unreasonable pressure upon sound banks

have been urged as objections to requiring the payment of the revenue in gold and silver. These

objections have been greatly exaggerated. From the best estimates we may safely fix the amount of specie

in the country at $85,000,000, and the portion of that which would be employed at any one time in the

receipts and disbursements of the Government, even if the proposed change were made at once, would

not, it is now, after fuller investigation, believed exceed four or five millions. If the change were gradual,

several years would elapse before that sum would be required, with annual opportunities in the meantime

to alter the law should experience prove it to be oppressive or inconvenient. The portions of the

community on whose business the change would immediately operate are comparatively small, nor is it

believed that its effect would be in the least unjust or injurious to them. 

In the payment of duties, which constitute by far the greater portion of the revenue, a very large

proportion is derived from foreign commission houses and agents of foreign manufacturers, who sell the

goods consigned to them generally at auction, and after paying the duties out of the avails remit the rest

abroad in specie or its equivalent. That the amount of duties should in such cases be also retained in

specie can hardly be made a matter of complaint. Our own importing merchants, by whom the residue of

the duties is paid, are not only peculiarly interested in maintaining a sound currency, which the measure

in question will especially promote, but are from the nature of their dealings best able to know when

specie will be needed and to procure it with the least difficulty or sacrifice. Residing, too, almost

universally in places where the revenue is received and where the drafts used by the Government for its

disbursements must concentrate, they have every opportunity to obtain and use them in place of specie

should it be for their interest or convenience. Of the number of these drafts and the facilities they may

afford, as well as of the rapidity with which the public funds are drawn and disbursed, an idea may be

formed from the fact that of nearly $20,000,000 paid to collectors and receivers during the present year

the average amount in their hands at any one time has not exceeded a million and a half, and of the

fifteen millions received by the collector of New York alone during the present year the average amount

held by him subject to draft during each week has been less than half a million. 

The ease and safety of the operations of the Treasury in keeping the public money are promoted by the

application of its own drafts to the public dues. The objection arising from having them too long

outstanding might be obviated and they yet made to afford to merchants and banks holding them an

equivalent for specie, and in that way greatly lessen the amount actually required. Still less inconvenience

will attend the requirement of specie in purchases of public lands. Such purchases, except when made on

speculation, are in general but single transactions, rarely repeated by the same person; and it is a fact

that for the last year and a half, during which the notes of sound banks have been received, more than a

moiety of these payments has been voluntarily made in specie, being a larger proportion than would have

been required in three years under the graduation proposed. 

It is, moreover, a principle than which none is better settled by experience that the supply of the precious

metals will always be found adequate to the uses for which they are required. They abound in countries

where no other currency is allowed. In our own States, where small notes are excluded, gold and silver

supply their place. When driven to their hiding places by bank suspensions, a little firmness in the

community soon restores them in a sufficient quantity for ordinary purposes. Postage and other public

dues have been collected in coin without serious inconvenience even in States where a depreciated paper

currency has existed for years, and this, with the aid of Treasury notes for a part of the time, was done

without interruption during the suspension of 1837. At the present moment the receipts and

disbursements of the Government are made in legal currency in the largest portion of the Union. No one

suggests a departure from this rule, and if it can now be successfully carried out it will be surely attended

with even less difficulty when bank notes are again redeemed in specie. 

Indeed, I can not think that a serious objection would anywhere be raised to the receipt and payment of

gold and silver in all public transactions were it not from an apprehension that a surplus in the Treasury

might withdraw a large portion of it from circulation and lock it up unprofitably in the public vaults. It

would not, in my opinion, be difficult to prevent such an inconvenience from occurring; but the authentic

statements which I have already submitted to you in regard to the actual amount in the public Treasury at

any one time during the period embraced in them and the little probability of a different state of the

Treasury for at least some years to come seem to render it unnecessary to dwell upon it. Congress,

moreover, as I have before observed, will in every year have an opportunity to guard against it should the

occurrence of any circumstances lead us to apprehend injury from this source. Viewing the subject in all

its aspects, I can not believe that any period will be more auspicious than the present for the adoption of

all measures necessary to maintain the sanctity of our own engagements and to aid in securing to the

community that abundant supply of the precious metals which adds so much to their prosperity and gives

such increased stability to all their dealings. 

In a country so commercial as ours banks in some form will probably always exist, but this serves only to

render it the more incumbent on us,, notwithstanding the discouragements of the past, to strive in our

respective stations to mitigate the evils they produce; to take from them as rapidly as the obligations of

public faith and a careful consideration of the immediate interests of the community will permit the unjust

character of monopolies; to check, so far as may be practicable, by prudent legislation those temptations

of interest and those opportunities for their dangerous indulgence which beset them on every side, and to

confine them strictly to the performance of their paramount duty--that of aiding the operations of

commerce rather than consulting their own exclusive advantage. These and other salutary reforms may, it

is believed, be accomplished without the violation of any of the great principles of the social compact, the

observance of which is indispensable to its existence, or interfering in any way with the useful and

profitable employment of real capital. 

Institutions so framed have existed and still exist elsewhere, giving to commercial intercourse all

necessary facilities without inflating or depreciating the currency or stimulating speculation. Thus

accomplishing their legitimate ends, they have gained the surest guaranty for their protection and

encouragement in the good will of the community. Among a people so just as ours the same results could

not fail to attend a similar course. The direct supervision of the banks belongs, from the nature of our

Government, to the States who authorize them. It is to their legislatures that the people must mainly look

for action on that subject. But as the conduct of the Federal Government in the management of its revenue

has also a powerful, though less immediate, influence upon them, it becomes our duty to see that a

proper direction is given to it. While the keeping of the public revenue in a separate and independent

treasury and of collecting it in gold and silver will have a salutary influence on the system of paper credit

with which all banks are connected, and thus aid those that are sound and well managed, it will at the

same time sensibly check such as are otherwise by at once withholding the means of extravagance

afforded by the public funds and restraining them from excessive issues of notes which they would be

constantly called upon to redeem. 

I am aware it has been urged that this control may be best attained and exerted by means of a national

bank. The constitutional objections which I am well known to entertain would prevent me in any event

from proposing or assenting to that remedy; but in addition to this, I can not after past experience bring

myself to think that it can any longer be extensively regarded as effective for such a purpose. The history

of the late national bank, through all its mutations, shows that it was not so. On the contrary, it may, after

a careful consideration of the subject, be, I think, safely stated that at every period of banking excess it

took the lead; that in 1817 and 1818, in 1823, in 1831, and in 1834 its vast expansions, followed by

distressing contractions, led to those of the State institutions. It swelled and maddened the tides of the

banking system, but seldom allayed or safely directed them. At a few periods only was a salutary control

exercised, but an eager desire, on the contrary, exhibited for profit in the first place; and if afterwards its

measures were severe toward other institutions, it was because its own safety compelled it to adopt them.

It did not differ from them in principle or in form; its measures emanated from the same spirit of gain; it

felt the same temptation to overissues; it suffered from and was totally unable to avert those inevitable

laws of trade by which it was. itself affected equally with them; and at least on one occasion, at an early

day, it was saved only by extraordinary exertions from the same fate that attended the weakest institution

it professed to supervise. In 1837 it failed equally with others in redeeming its notes (though the two

years allowed by its charter for that purpose had not expired), a large amount of which remains to the

present time outstanding. It is true that, having so vast a capital and strengthened by the use of all the

revenues of the Government, it possessed more power; but while it was itself by that circumstance freed

from the control which all banks require, its paramount object and inducement were left the same--to

make the most for its stockholders, not to regulate the currency of the country. Nor has it, as far as we are

advised, been found to be greatly otherwise elsewhere. The national character given to the Bank of

England has not prevented excessive fluctuations in their currency, and it proved unable to keep off a

suspension of specie payments, which lasted for nearly a quarter of a century. And why should we expect

it to be otherwise? A national institution, though deriving its charter from a different source than the State

banks, is yet constituted upon the same principles, is conducted by men equally exposed to temptation,

and is liable to the same disasters, with the additional disadvantage that its magnitude occasions an

extent of confusion and distress which the mismanagement of smaller institutions could not produce. It

can scarcely be doubted that the recent suspension of the United State Bank of Pennsylvania, of which the

effects are felt not in that State alone, but over half the Union, had its origin in a course of business

commenced while it was a national institution, and there is no good reason for supposing that the same

consequences would not have followed had it still derived its powers from the General Government. It is

in vain, when the influences and impulses are the same, to look for a difference in conduct or results. By

such creations we do, therefore, but increase the mass of paper credit and paper currency, without

checking their attendant evils and fluctuations. The extent of power and the efficiency of organization

which we give, so far from being beneficial, are in practice positively injurious. They strengthen the chain

of dependence throughout the Union, subject all parts more certainly to common disaster, and bind every

bank more effectually in the first instance to those of our commercial cities, and in the end to a foreign

power. In a word, I can not but believe that, with the full understanding of the operations of our banking

system which experience has produced, public sentiment is not less opposed to the creation of a national

bank for purposes connected with currency and commerce than for those connected with the fiscal

operations of the Government. 

Yet the commerce and currency of the country are suffering evils from the operations of the State banks

which can not and ought not to be overlooked. By their means we have been flooded with a depreciated

paper, which it was evidently the design of the framers of the Constitution to prevent when they required

Congress to "Coin money and regulate the value of foreign coins," and when they forbade the States "to

coin money, emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts," or "pass

any law impairing the obligation of contracts." If they did not guard more explicitly against the present

state of things, it was because they could not have anticipated that the few banks then existing were to

swell to an extent which would expel to so great a degree the gold and silver for which they had provided

from the channels of circulation, and fill them with a currency that defeats the objects they had in view.

The remedy for this must chiefly rest with the States from whose legislation it has sprung. No good that

might accrue in a particular case front the exercise of powers not obviously conferred on the General

Government would authorize its interference or justify a course that might in the slightest degree increase

at the expense of the States the power of the Federal authorities; nor do I doubt that the States will apply

the remedy. Within the last few years events have appealed to them too strongly to be disregarded. They

have seen that the Constitution, though theoretically adhered to, is subverted in practice; that while on the

statute books there is no legal tender but gold and silver, no law impairing the obligations of contracts,

yet that in point of fact the privileges conferred on banking corporations have made their notes the

currency of the country; that the obligations imposed by these notes are violated under the impulses of

interest or convenience, and that the number and power of the persons connected with these corporations

or placed under their influence give them a fearful weight when their interest is in opposition to the spirit

of the Constitution and laws. To the people it is immaterial whether these results are produced by open

violations of the latter or by the workings of a system of which the result is the same. An inflexible

execution even of the existing statutes of most of the States would redress many evils now endured,

would effectually show the banks the dangers of mismanagement which impunity encourages them to

repeat, and would teach all corporations the useful lesson that they are the subjects of the law and the

servants of the people. What is still wanting to effect these objects must be sought in additional

legislation, or, if that be inadequate, in such further constitutional grants or restrictions as may bring us

back into the path from which we have so widely wandered. 

In the meantime it is the duty of the General Government to cooperate with the States by a wise exercise

of its constitutional powers and the enforcement of its existing laws. The extent to which it may do so by

further enactments I have already adverted to, and the wisdom of Congress may yet enlarge them. But

above all, it is incumbent upon us to hold erect the principles of morality and law, constantly executing

our own contracts in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, and thus serving as a rallying

point by which our whole country may be brought back to that safe and honored standard. 

Our people will not long be insensible to the extent of the burdens entailed upon them by the false system

that has been operating on their sanguine, energetic, and industrious character, nor to the means

necessary to extricate themselves from these embarrassments. The weight which presses upon a large

portion of the people and the States is an enormous debt, foreign and domestic. The foreign debt of our

States, corporations, and men of business can scarcely be less than $200,000,000, requiring more than

$10,000,000 a year to pay the interest. This sum has to be paid out of the exports of the country, and

must of necessity cut off imports to that extent or plunge the country more deeply in debt from year to

year. It is easy to see that the increase of this foreign debt must augment the annual demand on the

exports to pay the interest, and to the same extent diminish the imports, and in proportion to the

enlargement of the foreign debt and the consequent increase of interest must be the decrease of the

import trade. In lieu of the comforts which it now brings us we might have our. gigantic banking

institutions and splendid, but in many instances profitless, railroads and canals absorbing to a great extent

in interest upon the capital borrowed to construct them the surplus fruits of national industry for years to

come, and securing to posterity no adequate return for the comforts which the labors of their hands might

otherwise have secured. It is not by the increase of this debt that relief is to be sought, but in its

diminution. Upon this point there is, I am happy to say, hope before us; not so much in the return of

confidence abroad, which will enable the States to borrow more money, as in a change of public feeling at

home, which prompts our people to pause in their career and think of the means by which debts are to be

paid before they are contracted. If we would escape embarrassment, public and private, we must cease to

run in debt except for objects of necessity or such as will yield a certain return. Let the faith of the States,

corporations, and individuals already pledged be kept with the most punctilious regard. It is due to our

national character as well as to justice that this should on the part of each be a fixed principle of conduct.

But it behooves us all to be more chary in pledging it hereafter. By ceasing to run in debt and applying the

surplus of our crops and incomes to the discharge of existing obligations, buying less and selling more,

and managing all affairs, public and private, with strict economy and frugality, we shall see our country

soon recover from a temporary depression, arising not from natural and permanent causes, but from those

I have enumerated, and advance with renewed vigor in her career of prosperity. 

Fortunately for us at this moment, when the balance of trade is greatly against us and the difficulty of

meeting it enhanced by the disturbed state of our money affairs, the bounties of Providence have come to

relieve us from the consequences of past errors. A faithful application of the immense results of the labors

of the last season will afford partial relief for the present, and perseverance in the same course will in due

season accomplish the rest. We have had full experience in times past of the extraordinary results which

can in this respect be brought about in a short period by the united and well-directed efforts of a

community like ours. Our surplus profits, the energy and industry of our population, and the wonderful

advantages which Providence has bestowed upon our country in its climate, its various productions,

indispensable to other nations, will in due time afford abundant means to perfect the most useful of those

objects for which the States have been plunging themselves of late in embarrassment and debt, without

imposing on ourselves or our children such fearful burdens. 

But let it be indelibly engraved on our minds that relief is not to be found in expedients. Indebtedness can

not be lessened by borrowing more money. or by changing the form of the debt. The balance of trade is

not to be turned in our favor by creating new demands upon us abroad. Our currency can not be improved

by the creation of new banks or more issues from those which now exist. Although these devices

sometimes appear to give temporary relief, they almost invariably aggravate the evil in the end. It is only

by retrenchment and reform--by curtailing public and private expenditures, by paying our debts, and by

reforming our banking system--that we are to expect effectual relief, security for the future, and an

enduring prosperity. In shaping the institutions and policy of the General Government so as to promote as

far as it can with its limited powers these important ends, you may rely on my most cordial cooperation. 

That there should have been in the progress of recent events doubts in many quarters and in some a

heated opposition to every change can not surprise us. Doubts are properly attendant on all reform, and it

is peculiarly in the nature of such abuses as we are now encountering to seek to perpetuate their power by

means of the influence they have been permitted to acquire. It is their result, if not their object, to gain

for the few an ascendency over the many by securing to them a monopoly of the currency, the medium

through which most of the wants of mankind are supplied; to produce throughout society a chain of

dependence which leads all classes to look to privileged associations for the means of speculation and

extravagance; to nourish, in preference to the manly virtues that give dignity to human nature, a craving

desire for luxurious enjoyment and sudden wealth, which renders those who seek them dependent on

those who supply them; to substitute for republican simplicity and economical habits a sickly appetite for

effeminate indulgence and an imitation of that reckless extravagance which impoverished and enslaved the

industrious people of foreign lands, and at last to fix upon us, instead of those equal political rights the

acquisition of which was alike the object and supposed reward of our Revolutionary struggle, a system of

exclusive privileges conferred by partial legislation. To remove the influences which had thus gradually

grown up among us, to deprive them of their deceptive advantages, to test them by the light of wisdom

and truth, to oppose the force which they concentrate in their sup-port--all this was necessarily the work

of time, even among a people so enlightened and pure as that of the United States. In most other

countries, perhaps, it could only be accomplished through that series of revolutionary movements which

are too often found necessary to effect any great and radical reform; but it is the crowning merit of our

institutions that they create and nourish in the vast majority of our people a disposition and a power

peaceably to remedy abuses which have elsewhere caused the effusion of rivers of blood and the sacrifice

of thousands of the human race. The result thus far is most honorable to the self-denial, the intelligence,

and the patriotism of our citizens; it justifies the confident hope that they will carry through the reform

which has been so well begun, and that they will go still further than they have yet gone in illustrating the

important truth that a people as free and enlightened as ours will, whenever it becomes necessary, show

themselves to be indeed capable of self-government by voluntarily adopting appropriate remedies for

every abuse, and submitting to temporary sacrifices, however great, to insure their permanent welfare. 

My own exertions for the furtherance of these desirable objects have been bestowed throughout my

official career with a zeal that is nourished by ardent wishes for the welfare of my country, and by an

unlimited reliance on the wisdom that marks its ultimate decision on all great and controverted questions.

Impressed with the solemn obligations imposed upon me by the Constitution, desirous also of laying

before my fellow-citizens, with whose confidence and support I have been so highly honored, such

measures as appear to me conducive to their prosperity, and anxious to submit to their fullest

consideration the grounds upon which my opinions are formed, I have on this as on preceding occasions

freely offered my views on those points of domestic policy that seem at the present time most prominently

to require the action

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