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H. OF R.]

Accounts of the Deposite Banks.

Mr. JOHNSON, of Louisiana, opposed the amendment as modified, and wished to introduce a different one. Mr. GARLAND, of Louisiana, spoke in explanation of the amendment he had offered to the bill.

[Oct. 14, 1837.

If a bank had not complied with its engagements, though the default should be ever so small, this section has no application to the case. It simply says to those which have fulfilled all their engagements, we will not play the Shy

Mr. LINCOLN preferred the amendment of Mr. Loo-lock with you, because you have been true to your engageMIS to that of Mr. GARLAND. He thought the deposite banks should be charged with interest for the use and enjoyment of the public money. He looked upon the bill as inseparably connected with the bill to postpone the payment of the public deposites, and he was opposed to any action of the House which would relieve the Government from compliance with that law, providing for the payment of that portion of the surplus revenue which shall be due to the States on the 1st day of January, 1839.

Mr. L. showed the connexion between this and the postponement bill, going into the subject at some length. He had not finished, when the House took the usual

recess.

EVENING SESSION.

ments. The next section of the bill proposes to put the claims described in the first section in suit. This certainly could not be done, inasmuch as the only banks to which any direct allusion is had in that section are those which have met and shall meet all their engagements. This was the first inquiry Mr. A. wished to make. The committee could decide for themselves how far it had been answered, and what necessity there was for the passage of any such law as is now proposed.

The second question he would propound (and he asked pardon of the gentleman from New York, Mr. CAMBRELENG, for troubling him, but he confessed that his faculties of comprehension did not permit him to understand the phraseology of the bill) was, what is meant by "no further interest" could be demanded than that contemplated by the act of 1836 The object of a law was ever to remedy some existing evil; but in this case the terms of the law itself deny that any evil exists.

Mr. LINCOLN closed his remarks, begun before the interest" in this section? He would ask, what "further House took its recess.

Mr. MARTIN, of Alabama, followed, and went into a view of the general policy of the bill, suggesting, at the close, to the mover of the pending amendment a modification of the same, to the effect that the bond contemplated by the bill be given for the payment of the moneys due the Government, in three instalments; the first on the first of July, 1838, the second in six months afterwards, and the third in twelve months, after default: provided that such deposite banks as belong exclusively to the State in which they are situated, and for the payment of which the faith of such State is pledged, shall not be required to give the security in this section contemplated.

Mr. ADAMS now rose, and said he had some inquiries to make in regard to the meaning of the first section of the bill. He would ask the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means to what banks the following words were intended to apply: "And that no further interest than that required by the deposite act of the twenty-third of June, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, under which those deposites were made, shall be demanded of any bank which has met, and shall hereafter meet, the requisitions of the Department.'

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Mr. CAMBRELENG replied that the gentleman from Massachusetts had answered his own interrogatory, by reading from the bill itself. The section simply meant to hold the deposite banks to the performance of their obligations.

Mr. ADAMS resumed. He could not perceive the need of any law at all on the subject, unless there was some particular allusion in this provision of the bill to delinquent banks. According to this reply of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, the banks that have paid every dollar they owed the Treasury, and faithfully complied with their engagements, are to be treated precisely as defaulting banks are.

Mr. CAMBRELENG remarked that the act would hold out inducements to comply faithfully with their engagements. Mr. ADAMS. But of what earthly use is it to make such an inducement for those banks which have already and always done this? This was somewhat insulting to such institutions. The question was not answered; and he conceived that if the bill were to pass in its present form, it would not operate as any relief to the deposite banks; being simply an act declaring that the Government will not charge with unlawful interest any institution which has always faithfully performed its engagements. The law would be a perfect dead letter. And here Mr. A. referred again to the language of the bill. It provides, he said, that the money was to be positively drawn-in a gradual manner-with no further interest chargeable thereon than that provided by the deposite act of 1836, to any bank which has met, and which shall meet, its engagements.

Mr. CAMBRELENG rose quickly, and remarked that at so late a period of the session, the last working night, he could not waste his time in discussing nouns and pronouns, verbs and adverbs, with the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Mr. ADAMS resumed. Well, sir, as language is composed of nouns and pronouns, verbs and adverbs, when they are put together to constitute the law of the land, the meaning of them may surely be demanded of the legislator, and those parts of speech may well be used for such a purpose. But if such explanation be impossible, it certainly ought not to be expected that this House will consent to pass a law composed of nouns and pronouns, verbs and adverbs, which the author of it himself does not understand.

But, sir, the act goes on to provide as follows: "This provision shall also extend to such public moneys as may remain in any of the said banks, whether standing to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States, or of any disbursing or other public officer of the Government."

Mr. A. would ask, what suit could be brought on the first section of this bill against any bank or corporation? It operates on nothing. It is a dead letter, and ought not to be adopted by this committee.

Mr. A. presumed that the bill was susceptible of amendment; and if the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, or any other gentleman, would move such a one as would make the bill operative for some end or object, he would go for such an amendment, although he should afterwards vote against the bill. He should not himself offer any such amendment. He would suppose that it was generally believed by members, who had not particularly noted the phraseology of the bill, that it was intended to relieve delinquent deposite banks-banks which had suspended specie payments-banks which had not met the requisitions of the Department-banks which had dishonored its drafts, and thereby become liable to the demand of some further interest than that required by the deposite act of 23d June, 1836; which further interest it is the purpose of this provision of the bill to relinquish, on the part of the United States. But this section has no reference to any such bank. It applies solely and exclusively to banks which have met, and shall meet, all the requisitions of the Department-which have not suspended specie payments-which have punctually paid, and shall hereafter pay, every dollar of draft due by them; and with exquisite absurdity this section provides that no further interest shall be demanded of them than that required by the deposite act of June, 1836; that is, that the Government will not

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demand of them that which it has not the shadow or pretence of a right to demand. Now, Mr. A. said, he would suppose it intended to apply to the delinquent banks, and he must ask another question, which, in the opinion of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, might seem to betray great ignorance on his part, and that was, what was the true import of the proviso contained in this bill, that "no further interest shall be demanded of the banks, though delinquent, than that required by the deposite act of 23d June, 1836 ?"

It was necessary to presuppose, in order to give any meaning to this passage, that the Government have a right to demand something more than this; and, although the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means was so unwilling to answer his questions, he must still hold him responsible to the committee for a proper explanation of his own proposition. And what does the Government, in this section, resign by this promise? What is the substance of this promise? What right have we to demand what this bill makes us promise to resign? Mr. A. took it for granted that it was some penalty incurred by the delinquent banks, in not meeting the demands of the Government, that was intended hereby to be relinquished, on certain conditions. By the charters of most banks, so far as he knew, the suspension of specie payments forfeited their charters, or subjected them to the payment of extraordinary interest. The charter of the late Bank of the United States required the payment of twelve per cent. per annum interest after refusal to pay specie; and the banks of his own State, (Massachusetts,) by suspending specie payments, incurred the penalty of paying twentyfour per cent. interest. Mr. A. took this section to apply to such provisions as these in the charters of the deposite banks; and he demanded again for whom this relief was intended? What is relinquished in each of the contemplated cases? The country should know. It was not our own claims that were to be given up or compromised, but those of the people of the United States. It was their money which these banks were refusing to pay. Now this bill promises to relinquish every thing-the penalty, whatever it may be, in each case, the extra interest, every thing, in short, if the banks will only pay the Government what they owe in a reasonable time. Now, will the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means tell this committee what this is which he proposes to give away, and relinquish to these banks, in the name of the people? Mr. CAMBRELENG said he had but one way of responding to the gentleman from Massachusetts-he would call for the consideration of some other bills before the committee.

Mr. ADAMS called the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means to order, and the latter resumed his seat. Mr. LYON remarked that, by a provision in the charter of one of the banks alluded to, the Bank of Alabama, no penalty for the non-redemption of its notes in specie could be demanded by the United States of that institution. Mr. ADAMS asked how it then happened that the Secretary of the Treasury had confided the public money to an institution in which it was not protected by the liability of such institution to the same penalty as in other cases? It was the duty of Congress to see that justice was done to this Government as to the keeping safely of the public moneys. If the Secretary of the Treasury had acted thus, he had wasted and risked the safety of the money of the people. But the section referred to does not apply even to the Bank of Alabama. Even though that institution has failed to comply with its obligations to the Government, it is not held by any penalty in the act before the committee to answer for its delinquency. It is perfectly clear, and may safely continue in such delinquency, for this provision of the act is, to all intents and purposes, even if passed, a dead letter. And thus gentlemen are in a dilemma.

[H. OF R.

Either the bank has subjected itself to the payment of extra interest by refusing to pay specie, or the Secretary of the Treasury has made with that bank a ruinous bargain, (so far as the country is concerned,) by which it escapes with impunity. And, by the way, it might be remarked, (said Mr. A.,) that this answers another gentleman who had complained of the bill before the committee as an ex post facto law, and oppressive and cruel in its operations upon the State he came from. Certainly there was nothing cruel in the terms of the act; but, on the contrary, it was excessively indulgent to all the delinquent banks.

Mr. A. remarked that the committee now perceived the relation in which the Bank of Alabama stood to the State itself the bank itself being the State. But it had been said by a gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. CHAMBERS] that it was impossible, in this particular case, to raise the money required. What, sir, asked Mr. A., is the credit of the State of Alabama worth nothing? Sir, could not the State of Alabama raise by her credit, in twenty-four hours, a loan of one million of dollars, and pay off this debt of her bank? [Mr. CHAPMAN said, "Yes, at five per cent. interest."] It was, then, perfectly possible, and it was natural that the gentlemen from that State should feel indignant at the imputation that it was not, especially when, as had been said by one of them, [Mr. CHAPMAN,] that that State could, at any moment, raise a loan of a million of dollars! And where, then, asked Mr. A., would be the charge of cruelty on the part of this dead-letter law?

As to the second section of the bill, Mr. A. did not know any very strong objections which could be brought against it. He referred to the provisions of the law of June, 1836, depositing the surplus money in the Treasury with the States, and adverted to the facts that three of the instalments, authorized by that act of Congress, had been paid over, and that the fourth instalment, payable on the first day of the current month, had been postponed, by a recent act, until January, 1839. In connexion with these facts, Mr. A. took a comparative view of the amounts to which the States were severally entitled, on the 1st of October, 1837, under the deposite act of June, 1836, and of the amounts of public moneys actually on deposite with the several States in July and August, 1837, observing that he derived these statements from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury.

Mr. Chairman, continued Mr. A., there is one point of view in which this bill, together with that to which it is a mere supplement or rider-I mean the bill for the postponement of the fourth instalment of the deposites with the States-is so deeply interesting to my immediate constituents, to those of my colleagues, and to those of many other members of this House, that I deem it my indispensable duty to expose it to the House and to the country, in minute, though in dry and tedious detail. As a preliminary to which, I must read so much of the deposite act of the 23d of June, 1836, as prescribes the payment of the deposites to the States. It is in these words:

"Sec. 13. And be it further enacted, That the money which shall be in the Treasury of the United States on the 1st day of January, 1837, reserving the sum of five millions of dollars, shall be deposited with the several States in proportion to their respective representation in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, as shall by law authorize their treasurers or other competent authorities to receive the same on the terms hereinafter specified, &c.

"Sec. 14. And be it further enacted, That the said deposites shall be made with the said States in the following proportions, and at the following times, to wit: onequarter part on the first day of January, 1837, or as soon thereafter as may be; one-quarter part on the first day of April; one-quarter part on the first day of July; and onequarter part on the 1st day of October, all of the same year."

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The conditions were accepted by all the States. The pledge, you will observe, was positive and unqualified. The surplus (reserving the five millions) actually in the Treasury on the first day of January last, was all positively and expressly devoted to be deposited with the States. The word appropriated was not used, because it was to be a deposite; but the identical money was as specifically denoted as it could have been by a direct appropriation.

Accordingly, on the third day of January, 1837, the Secretary of the Treasury reported to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, that the balance in the Treasury on the first day of that month, subject to be apportioned among the different States, had been ascertained to be thirty-seven million four hundred and sixty-eight thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine dollars ninety-seven cents. And appended to that report was a statement of the sums payable to each of the several States of the Union, in the fulfilment of that act in the course of the present year.

The first, second, and third instalments have according ly been paid-excepting a part of the third, which yet remains in transitu; and on the first day of this month the sum of $9,367,214 99 should have been paid to the seve ral States in the same proportion as the three previous in. stalments had been paid, and as had been specified in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury to the House of 3d of January, 1837.

The money was, on the 1st of October, all in the deposite banks selected by the Secretary of the Treasury himself. It was to have been expeeted that, with the ample notice which he had enjoyed of more than fifteen months since the enactment of the deposite law, he would at least have taken care to place in the deposite banks of each State a sum adequate to the payment of the instalment payable to that same State. By this simple operation, when the 1st day of October came, the instalment due each State would have been deposited in its own banks, ready to be passed to the credit of its treasurer, or other officer duly authorized to receive the money.

Instead of this, what had the Secretary of the Treasury done with it? I hold in my hand a comparative statement of the sums which each of the States was, by the deposite act of the 23d of June, 1836, entitled, on the 1st of October, 1837, to receive, with the sums in actual deposite, in the late deposite banks throughout the Union, at the commencement of the present session, and again with the balances due by the same deposite banks on the 4th of October, three days after the fourth instalment of the deposite with the States should have been paid.

It is a very curious paper; and, as the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means laid before the House, and obtained an order for the printing of a statement by himself of the condition of the Treasury, if I possessed as much as he does of the favor of the House, I would solicit the same privilege for this statement of mine, all drawn from the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury himself. But I shall not make that request. I shall merely publish it for the information of the people, and I commend it to the special attention of the members upon this floor, of what used to be called the good old thirteen States; above all, to the representatives of the six New England States, that they may see how naturally the money of this Union flows to the North or to the East. And, as some of them bave been taught, by sundry learned statistics of the Globe, to think that the payment of the fourth instalment of the deposites ought to be repealed, because it would require a new tax upon the people, I respectfully ask them to perform the simple process of arithmetical subtraction of nine million three hundred and sixty-seven thousand two hundred and fourteen dollars and ninety-nine cents, the whole sum which should have been paid to the States on the 1st of October, from the sum of nine million eight hundred and one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one dollars and forty

[OCT. 14, 1837.

nine cents, which on that very first of October wasa ctually deposited in the favorite depository banks so cordially cherished and so often eulogized by the profound calculator of the Treasury Department. The money was all there. At least it had been all there; and if it had been, at the special recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, scattered abroad in discounts among the people, to purchase friends to the administration, he was at least responsible that the money should be forthcoming when it should be wanted for the payment of the fourth instalment. He had, I say, more than fifteen months' notice of that coming daymore than ten months' notice of it before the suspension of specie payments by any of the banks. The specie circular was issued within twenty days after the enactment of the deposite law. Nothing but the constitutional currency, gold and silver, was, with a trifling exception, to be received at all the land offices for the proceeds of sales of the public lands. Why is it that the Secretary had not, before the first of October, 1837, placed in deposite in the banks of each State in the Union a sum sufficient to pay the instalment due to that State on that day? Why is it that, after draining the Atlantic States of their gold and silver, to pay at Western land offices, and into Western banks, for all the wild speculations in Western lands, when the day of payment comes for the fourth instalment, the funds are found all or nearly all drawn off from all the deposite banks in the Atlantic States, and millions upon millions, not of constitutional currency, but of unavailable funds of rags and shin-plasters, are heaped up in those very Western and Southwestern States, where the land was sold, and where the specie circular was to prove a mine "outshining far the wealth of Ormus or of Ind?"

[Mr. A. referred to the following statement, which he held in his hand :]

Comparative statement of the sums which each State of the Union was, by the deposite act of 23d June, 1836, entitled to receive on the 1st of October, 1837; with the sums which were actually in deposite in the deposite banks of each State, in July and August, 1837, as appears in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the finances at the commencement of the session; and with the balances still due by the said banks, on the 4th of October, 1837, according to the Treasurer's week. ly statement of that date, appende i to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury to the House of Representatives, of 6th October, 1837: showing the suns from the deposite banks between and October.

Maine

States.

New Hampshire.
Massachusetts
Rhode Island.
Vermont
Connecticut
New York -
New Jersey
Pennsylvania.
Delaware
Maryland
Virginia-
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia

Alabama
Mississippi.
Louisiana
Missouri
Kentucky
Tennessee.
Ohio -
Indiana -
Illinois -
Arkansas
Michigan

drawn

TABLE.

August

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[In the above table Mr. A. was so particular as to calculate not only the cents but the fractions of cents, in the proportion of the surplus due to each State; but for the sake of compressing the table into convenient width, we have omitted both the cents and the fractions.]

Let us now compare the threec olumns of this comparative statement with each other, and see how the different States of the Union have been treated, first by the deposite law, the act of Congress, and secondly by the Secretary of the Treasury and the executive administration.

The first column shows the sum which each State of the Union was, by the deposite act of 23d June, 1836, entitled on the 1st of this present month of October to receive.

The second column shows the amount which the deposite banks in each State had received from the Secretary of the Treasury, and was due from them at the commencement of the present session of Congress.

The third column shows the amount of balances still due from the same deposite banks on the 4th day of the present month, that is, precisely at the time when the fourth instalment should have been paid.

Examine this statement, and you will find that on the first of this month the State of Maine was entitled to receive $318,612 75; that at the commencement of this session there were in the five deposite banks of that State only $117,042 95; and that on the 4th of October that sum had been reduced to $41,708 92. Maine, therefore, was entitled to receive largely more than $300,000. She had received in deposite in her banks on the first day of this session, $117,000; and this scanty sum had, on the 1st of October, been reduced to $41,708 92. Little short of two hundred and eighty thousand dollars has thus been filched from the people of the State of Maine, and given, for the present at least, to the States at the south and western extremities of the Union.

The State of New Hampshire was entitled to receive $223,028 92. She had in six deposite banks at the commencement of the session $114,026, 31; out of which were squeezed before the 4th of October so much as left only $63,635 98. Her contribution to the Southwestern banks was only about one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The Secretary cannot be charged with partiality to his native State. How is it with mine? Massachusetts was entitled to receive $446,057 85. At the commencement of the session she had in four banks $81,278 40; which on the 4th of October was reduced to $42,891 30; but, in the last return of the Treasurer's accounts, several new columns are introduced, one of which is of over-drafts, and two of the Massachusetts banks are credited with these over-drafts to the amount of $13,000, which, if subtracted from the balance still charged against them, will leave it less than $30,000. It is indeed doubtful whether, at this day, there is a dollar due from the late deposite banks of Massachusetts to the Treasurer of the United States. Her present loss by the postponement of the fourth instalment is at least equal to the whole sum which she was entitled to receive, little short of $450,000.

Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, may also well make up their accounts for a present total loss.

She

Rhode Island was entitled to receive $127,445 10. had in two banks at the commencement of the session $5,433 06-reduced on the 4th of October to $1,133 41. The portion of Vermont on the 1st of October was $223,028 92, the same as New Hampshire, and the same as Alabama. But the amount of balance due from the two deposite banks in Vermont was, at the commencement of the session, $588 64, and on the 4th of October $496 83; while the balance due from the single deposite bank of Alabama was, at the commencement of the session, one million and twenty thousand eight hundred and fifty-six dollars twenty-six cents, and on the 4th October nine hun

[H. OF R

dred six thousand three hundred and seventy-nine dollars twenty-three cents, and this Bank of Alabama is the property of the State. I have seen lately some vain boastings in certain public journals, that the administration was going ahead, and growing popular in the State of Vermont. I should like to hear what the Green Mountain boys will say to this administration mode of settling parallel accounts. The State of Connecticut was, on the first of this month, entitled by the deposite act to the receipt of $254,890 20. The balance due from her two deposites banks at the commencement of the present session was $31,629 18; and from her three deposite banks on the 4th of October current was $7,409 02. How it happened that there was on the 4th of October one more discarded bank in the State of Connecticut than there had been at the commencement of the session, I do not know; but as the aggregate amount of the balance due from the three banks was so much decreased from that which had been due by the two, the addition of one to the defaulting depositories in the last account scarcely forms a sufficient cause for inquiry how it has happened. I heard distinguished member from the State of Connecticut on this floor deliver an able and very earnest speech in favor of the postponing bill, as it came from the Senate, because he considered it, as it was, a repeal, a total and final repeal of the fourth instalment, which would have replenished the Treasury of his own State with a sum of about two hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars; he dreaded the idea that it would be necessary to raise this sum if the instalments should be paid, by taxation. Now I put it to the consideration of that gentleman and of his constituents, that there can be no possible need of taxation to raise this sum at all. It exists as it existed when the Secretary of the Treasury announced the depositable surplus in the Treasury on the first of January last. It is all as it was then in balances due from the Southwestern and Western banks: those very balances, the prompt payment of which the bill now before you is about to relinquish. Sir, I have pointed out the comparison between the sums which each of the New England States separately was entitled to receive on the first of this month in deposite, and the sums which their banks then actually had in deposite, first, at the commencement of the present session; and, secondly, one month later, that is, on the 4th of October. Let us now make the same comparison in the aggregate.

The sum which the six New England States were entitled to receive on the first of this month by the deposite act was one million five hundred and ninety-three thousand and sixty-three dollars and seventy-seven cents.

The whole amount of the balances due from all their repudiated deposite banks at the commencement of the present session was three hundred and forty-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight dollars and fifty-four cents, nearly one hundred thousand dollars less than the State of Massachusetts alone was entitled to receive.

And the whole amount of the balances due from the same banks one month later, on the 4th of October, three days after the fourth instalment should have been paid, was one bundred and fifty-seven thousand two hundred and forty-five dollars and forty-six cents, nearly one hundred thousand dollars less than the State of Connecticut alone was entitled to receive for her portion of the fourth instalment.

Now for the other side of the account.

On the first of this month, the State of Mississippi was, by the deposite act of 23d June, 1836, entitled to receive the sum of one hundred and twenty-seven thousand four hundred and forty-five dollars and ten cents, precisely the same portion as that of Rhode Island.

The balances due from the late deposite lanks in the State of Mississippi, at the commencement of the present session, were one million seven hundred and forty-four

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thousand three hundred and seventy-three dollars and seventy-one cents.

[OCT. 14, 1837.

This bill, as it came from the Senate, was not sufficiently indulgent to their delinquent banks. Instead of four, six, and nine months of delay before they should be called to disgorge their millions upon millions of the public spoils, nine, fifteen, twenty-one months of time were to be grant

The balances due from the same banks on the 4th of October, three days after the fourth instalment should have been paid, were one million six hundred and sixty-six thousand three hundred and sixty-seven dollars and thirty-ed them, without even the payment of interest to the plunthree cents.

If you deduct from the whole amount payable to the six New England States for the fourth instalment the whole amount of the balances due from all their deposite banks, there will remain due one million four hundred and thirty thousand eight hundred and eighteen dollars and thirty-one cents payable to them.

If you deduct the whole sum payable for the fourth instalment to the State of Mississippi from the whole amount of the balances due on the 4th of October by her late deposite banks, there will remain due from them the sum of one million five hundred and twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and twenty-two dollars and twenty-three cents.

The balances due, therefore, from the deposite banks, in the single State of Mississippi, a State with four electoral votes, are nearly one hundred thousand dollars more than adequate to pay the whole fourth instalment receivable by herself, and by the six New England State.

Suppose we state the two cases in the form of accounts

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Sir, I hope we shall hear no more of the necessity of raising, by taxation upon the people, the sums necessary for the payment of the fourth instalment.

I will not pursue this comparative review of the sums due to each State for the fourth instalment, and of the sums due from the deposite banks in each State through the whole twenty-five, (for it seems there was no deposite bank in Arkansas;) but if any indifferent person or philosophical observer will compare the relative amount of the three several columns against the name of each State, in this table, and then mark the names in the lists of yeas and nays upon your journal, first on the passage of the act to postpone the fourth deposite instalment, and then on the passage of this act, I do assure him that he will discover secrets worth knowing. He will find in these elements a key to the system of measures prepared by the present Executive for the action of Congress, in this emergency, for relief to the distress of the country. He will see how these measures were adapted in advance to each other-how the excessive balances due from one set of States were to be made easy, by withholding from another set of States the fourth instalment to which they were entitled. He may chance to discover some insight into the art magic of application to motives. He may trace the cause of that uneasy solicitude manifested by more than one member from the debtor States, when the postponement bill was on its passage, to set it aside and take up this bill, before they should be compelled to vote ay or no upon that.

dered sister States. And here, on this floor, we beheld a pledge demanded of the chairman of the committee, and given by him, in the face of the House, that when that bill should have passed, and this one should be taken up, a liberal indulgence of time should be allowed to the overburdened and discarded depository banks. That bargain was not only concluded in the presence of the House, but was signally and indignantly rebuked at the time by two members of the House, one from Georgia [Mr. Dawson] and one from Ohio, [Mr. SAMSON MASON;] yet we are now witnessing its consummation. This bill is the equivalent for the votes indispensable to carry that-this amendment is the premium pudicitiæ for the wear and tear of chastity in the accomplishment of that.

Sir, when that bill came from the Senate, and through that body from the Treasury, it came with fraud upon its face.

Mr. CAMBRELENG called the gentleman from Massachusetts to order; observing that that was not the first time that gentleman had thus transgressed the rules of order.

The CHAIR [Mr. HOWARD, of Md.,] could not see the relevancy of Mr. A.'s remarks to the subject before the committee.

Mr. ADAMS. Am I not permitted to refer to a bill; and to the manner in which that bill passed the House, without which, as I contend, this bill now before the committee would not be here at all? [Cries from all sides of the House, "Go on! go on!"]

Mr. A. resumed the thread of his remarks. Yes, sir, it came with fraud upon its face. It professed to be a bill to postpone the fourth instalment; it was, in fact, a bill to repeal it. It was, in fact, a bill to raise revenue, and as such, not having originated in this House, ought never to have been entertained by it. A member from South Carolina [Mr. PICKENS] proposed an amendment, which made it what it professed to be, a bill to postpone the fourth instalment to a day fixed-the 1st of January, 1839, to which I proposed an additional amendment, appropriating these balances due from the delinquent banks, and a supplementary fund, if it should be necessary, for punctual payment at the day fixed by the amendment of the gentleman from South Carolina. With those amendments I pledged myself to vote for the bill.

I was fully aware of the sacrifice of the just rights and interests of my own constituents to which I must assent by voting for the bill in that form; and I knew that I hazarded incurring the displeasure of some of them by yielding so much. But I knew they were a generous people. I came here knowing that the Executive administration was reduced to great straits for the means to perform the pecuniary engagements of the nation. In their distress, however brought upon themselves, I saw only the distress of the country, and trusted that my constituents would sustain me, in giving up a portion of their just claims for the general benefit of all. These were the sentiments with which I came to Washington, and, as a pledge of their sincerity, I offered, with the amendments, to vote for that bill; and how was this disposition received and returned? The chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, substantially the representative of the Executive in this House, would neither accept my amendment nor that of the gentleman from South Carolina. He forced the bill, with all its imperfections on its head, as it came from the Senate, to a third reading; and he carried it in the fullest vote ever taken in this House by yeas and nays, 119 to 117; and of the 119, one was the gentleman from South Carolina, who

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