MAY 1, 1834.] The General Appropriation Bill. [H. OF R. Britain by a minister of the highest rank, they would day were called to witness a novel state of things; and he provide the means of paying his salary. begged the gentleman from New York [Mr. BEARDSLEY] Mr. CHILTON said that he was of opinion that the in particular to reflect upon what had occurred. The ministers were necessary, and was disposed to vote for President had nominated this Mr. Gwinn to the Senate the appropriation; but, without qualifications, he could for a certain office: the Senate rejected the nomination: not do it. Gentlemen seemed to think that it would be the President then waited till the session had expired, out of character to refuse the appropriation, if the House and had immediately appointed him in the recess, in dithought there ought to be a minister, and that there were rect and open violation of the spirit of the constitution. no grounds to distrust the intentions of the Executive. When the Senate had subsequently, with a view to comNow, Mr. C. should endeavor to call things by their proper promise, indefinitely postponed the case, the moment the names. He was neither afraid nor ashamed to follow the Senate rose the President appointed him again. The example set him by high authority, and should, therefore, gentleman had called for precedents; but he again de"take the responsibility" of doubting the mode in which manded of him to say when had the nation known an Exthe money would be used, should the House appropriate ecutive of this Government to pursue such a course? As it. He asked gentlemen to look at facts; he was free to the reply which had been given to the gentleman from to confess that the remarks of the gentleman from Penn- Virginia [Mr. ARCHER] by the Secretary of State, let it sylvania [Mr. BINNEY] had struck him with great force. pass for what it was worth. Mr. C. thought that it had Here had the Congress been five months in session; and been correctly interpreted by the gentleman from Pennyet by what tenure did some of the principal officers of sylvania, [Mr. BINNEY.] But supposing that the Presi the Government hold their offices? On the appointment dent did bona fide intend to nominate a minister during of the President alone, without any concurrence of his the session, and supposing him to have made his selection, constitutional advisers, although they possessed an equal, if the President had once arrived at the conclusion that and, as Mr. C. believed, by much the greater portion of the appointing power. Would any gentleman tell him why the President had withheld these nominations? Iad such a case ever occurred before? There had not. a certain individual was fit for that station, every one, who knew the President, must know that all the men in the world could never take that conviction out of his head; (for, whatever other deficiencies the President The gentleman from New York [Mr. BEARDSLEY] had might have, he certainly possessed no lack of firmness;) very confidently inquired whether an instance had ever and if, under these circumstances, he should be able, in happened before, when an appropriation for the salary of any way, to ascertain that the Senate would not ratify his a foreign minister had been asked for by the President, nomination, Mr. C. would consent to sacrifice all he posand refused by Congress? When Mr. C. had heard the sessed in the world, if the President would not in half a gentleman ask this question, it had occurred strongly to minute come to the conclusion that "circumstances had him to ask, in turn, whether the country had ever before arisen, connected with the public interest, which renhad such a President? And to ask a further question, dered it proper" that he should make no other nominawhether the appropriation had ever been asked under tion. If he nominated an individual, he did it because, in such circumstances before? He would ask the gentleman his view, the public interest required that man to go from New York when this vacancy in our mission to Eng-abroad as minister. land had occurred? Mr. BEARDSLEY here interposed, and said that he had not admitted that there was any vacancy. He had neither said that there was, or there was not, because he did not know how that matter really was. If the Senate thought differently, the President would nevertheless adhere to his own view of the public interests, and would continue to nominate and re-nominate till the Senate should adjourn, and then he would put the man into office, as he did in the case of Gwinn. Was the Mr. CHILTON resumed. He still inquired how long gentleman from Georgia [Mr. WAYNE] prepared to sancit was since we had been without a full minister to the tion this? The gentleman had said that, if he believed Court of London? He believed that next July would the President intended to pursue such a course, he should complete the second year since the return of Mr. Van vote to strike out the appropriation. Well! Mr. C. had Buren, and no minister of that grade had been deemed shown what the President had formerly done; and he necessary by the Executive, or else the President had asked, what new consideration, in reference to the public been unwilling to trust the Senate with a nomination. interests, was likely to arise, or could arise, before the The gentleman from New York insisted that officers close of the session, to render it improper to make the appointed in the recess continued to hold their offices nomination? The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. ARCHER] under the constitution until the close of the succeeding had said that he did not believe any such reason could session of Congress. That was true; but what was the natu- occur. Neither did Mr. C. If the President could not ral inference from the present course of things, but that get his minister through, he would then think that the the President intended to hold up the nominations until public interests required him to wait a little. Expose the last day of the session? and, in that case, the question Mr. C. to what it might from the attacks of editors politiwould arise, when would the vacancy occur? Not till the cally opposed to him, he cared not; entertaining these last second of the session; therefore, not before the re-opinions, he had expressed them, and should continue to Ccss. Now Mr. C. would not undertake to decide whe-express them. It was very true that the House could not ther, in such a case, the President would appoint a minis- interfere with the President and Senate in the matter of ter; but this he would say, without hesitation, that, under appointments; but though they, said Mr. C. make the such circumstances, it would not take the President more officers, it is we that pay them; and that I never would than half a minute's deliberation to decide that it was consent to do unless they were constitutionally made. He such a vacancy as he was authorized to fill. confessed that his distrust of this administration was The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. ARCHER] had indeed deeply rooted. If those who had claimed and promised expressed it as his own opinion, that the President would to do such marvellous things for the country had suffered not make the appointment after the present session had Congress to remain five months in session without subexpired, because he had an opportunity now to make it mitting the nomination of a single great minister of State by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. But to the constitutional action of the Senate, and gentlemen if it were admissible to reason from facts, then the question could still see no circumstances to warrant the suspicion would very naturally arise, when had the President of any design to usurp the rights of that body on the subdeemed such consent necessary? Need he refer to the ject of appointments, Mr. C. was at a loss to conceive case of Gwinn? Who could ever forget it? We in this what those circumstances could be which would justify 3903 GALES & SEATON'S REGISTER H. OF R.] The General Appropriatim Bill. money. [MAY 1, 1834. The plan seemed now to be to take such a suspicion. For himself, he believed that the time the order of the day that all power of every sort was to was come to take a stand for the institutions of this coun- go to the President. try; but if the substance of those invaluable institutions from the Senate its power to advise, and from the House When this should have been successfully acwas doomed to be destroyed, then the poor forms of its right to consider, whether it would grant or withhold liberty might as well, and better, perish with them. Mr. LANE said that his object in rising was not to complished, the country would have one man alone to make a speech: he should not follow the example of the govern it, and the representatives of the States and the It had once, gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. CHILTON;] his only ob- people might very quietly go home and attend to their ject was to call upon the committee to observe the result own business. The doctrine was the most completely What was the aristocratic he had ever heard advanced. a treaty was the su of all the speeches which had been made. subject under consideration? It was an appropriation for indeed, been contended that, as the salary of ministers to England and Russia. And what preme law of the land, the House had no liberty of judg was the impression, the avowed belief, of all who had ing whether they would or would not appropriate to spoken on the subject? That a minister to each of those carry its provisions into effect; but even that construction The House was bound to courts was indispensable. All agreed on this. And how had been abrogated as too aristocratic; but the gentlewas this object to be accomplished? By withholding the man went beyond all that. appropriation, and rendering it impossible? This was the appropriate for as many ministers as the President should If gentleman could retreat from ask, without looking how the money had been or was plain state of the case. likely to be applied. In ordinary cases, Mr. R. would this, he did not see how. The President, One word to the very eloquent and learned gentleman not press such an inquiry; but the present was not an orfrom Pennsylvania, [Mr. BINNEY.] The argument of that dinary, but a highly extraordinary case. Such a course gentleman had struck him with peculiar force: indeed, apparently out of resentment that a minister whom he he always listened to that gentleman with peculiar de- had nominated had been rejected by the Senate, now re. light, even when he differed from him the most widely. fused to nominate another in his place. He never would consult any will but his The Secretary of State had informed the chairman of the was in perfect conformity with the leading characteristic Committee on Foreign Relations [Mr. ARCHER] that it of the man. If the House believed that the President would use was his intention to nominate a minister to England and own; and such seemed to be the notion of the constitution. to Russia during the present session of Congress: and he It was, no doubt, an evil that had added the reservation "unless the public interest the money in an unconstitutional manner, they were not And this bound to give it to him. should render such a measure unnecessary. annunciation had, it seemed, satisfied the gentleman that we should have no full ministers at these courts; but it the President did not intend it. Now, he thought, the would be a greater evil to put an iron rod into the hand gentleman from Pennsylvania must either be very credu- of the President wherewith to break the constitution. It lous, or very much the opposite, to hold such an opinion. was the duty of the House to consider this alternative; It put Mr. L. in mind of an anecdote he had once heard and not to sit there and vote blindly for whatever the respecting a very affectionate young lady. She was called President or his Secretary might choose to ask. on by a young gentleman, towards whom she had very present advised, Mr. R. should vote to strike out this aptender feelings-for she was a young lady of great sensi-propriation. He asked her Mr. ADAMS was opposed to the amendment of Mr. bility. It was a bright star-light evening. to take a walk; to which she assenting, they went out of DAVIS, though in favor of that which had been withdrawn the house together: when the young man casually re- to make room for it, and gave his reasons at length. He shone very brightly, the predicted that no appointment for London would be made marked that the moon young lady promptly replied, "not the least objection in during the session, but in the recess; and the minister the world." It seems that the gentleman from Pennsyl- would thus obtain outfit, infit, and salary, and return in a few months, and a great glorification be made over it at vania was about as willing as that young lady. the next session. otium, but not cum dignitale. As at Mr. FILLMORE suggested that the amendment would reach beyond the mission to England, and injuriously affect others. The question was thereupon put, and the amendment proposed by Mr. DAVIS was rejected. Mr. REED observed that the gentleman from New Mr. DAVIS further advocated his amendment, and ad York [Mr. BEARDSLEY] had not very exactly hit the argument to which he was replying. That gentleman had verted to the use made of the Russian mission as a sort of said that if the House were convinced that a minister of hospital for refractory members, where they might enjoy the highest grade was needed, they were, as a matter of course, bound to provide his salary. This Mr. R. denied: because, though this was a reason why they should give the money, there might be other and stronger reasons why they ought not to give it; and that was the question. The gentleman had asked, with an air of confidence, Mr. FOOT then renewed his motion to strike out the whether this had not always been done? Admitting that it had, it was no reason at present; because the country appropriations for Great Britain and Russia. Mr. COULTER asked for a division of the question. had now a President who had avoided the concurrent We It was accordingly put first on the item for Great Britain, It was then put on action of the Senate in questions of appointment. had lived to see a new day in the history of this Govern- and negatived: Ayes 69, noes 101. ment. Had other Presidents omitted for five months af- Russia, and negatived without a count. Mr. FILLMORE moved for the rising of the committee, ter Congress had been in session to nominate the principal officers of Government? They had never thought but it was refused: Ayes 81, noes 90. The reading of the bill then proceeded until that clause of such a thing. But the nation had now a man at its head who claimed new powers; and if there were good was reached which provides for charges des affaires to grounds to believe that he meant to absorb to himself Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Turkey, Belgium, the whole power of the Senate, then there were grounds Brazil, Buenos Ayres, Chili, Peru, Mexico, Central to hesitate on the present appropriation. The gentle- America, and New Grenada, $58,500. man from New York had advanced what was to Mr. R. a Mr. ADAMS now inquired of Mr. ARCHER, as chairnew doctrine, viz: that an officer, appointed in the re-man of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, why these cess, though rejected by the Senate when it met, still re- items had been inserted for Belgium, Buenos Ayres, and tained his place until the end of the session. It might be the South American States? He wanted information on so, but it was certainly a new position. It seemed to be the state of our relations with those countries. [H. OF R. creased. It was a project to aid the banks in pushing Mr. JARVIS called up the resolution heretofore pre-the merchants bought only that they might sell, and sented by him, providing for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the causes of the failure of the Bank of Washington and Patriotic Bank, with the amendment proposed by Mr. HARDIN, extending the inquiry into the state of the Bank of the Metropolis. money was subject to the same laws with other merchandise. But if the plan of this bill should succeed, we should, by and by, have to weigh our own coin, as it was now proposed to do that of other countries. There was, however, an easy way to prevent the currency from goNo objection being made, the resolution was read. ing abroad; put a seignorage upon it, to cover the exMr. CHILTON, who was entitled to the floor from a pense of coining, and then it would not go out of the previous day, consumed the hour appropriated to morn-country. Make the coin better by adding labor to its ing business, in an animated speech in favor of the amend value. By this means, a dollar recoined would be, while ment, in which he contended that the Bank of the Metrop-it remained here, two cents better than an equal weight olis had violated its charter by issuing notes of a less denomination than five dollars. Before he had concluded his remarks Mr. BOON called for the Orders of the Day. SPECIE TENDER BILL. The engrossed bill, making certain foreign silver coins a legal tender in the United States, was read a third time. Mr. FILLMORE objected to the provisions of the bill as he understood them. Its object was to provide that, in payment of all sums over one hundred dollars, certain foreign coins should be a legal tender, according to their weight and fineness. Now, in practice, it would be very inconvenient for the person making a payment, not only to weigh, but assay the coin. He thought it should be provided that if the coin bore a certain recognised stamp, the burden of showing its inferiority to the standard of that stamp should be cast upon the objecting party. Besides, the weighing was very inconvenient. He would much prefer having foreign coins made a legal tender by tale, as they were now, in the ordinary circulation of the country. of bullion; but this added value must cease the moment such coin was taken out of the country: and, of course, the coin would remain here. But this bill, instead of availing of the experience of all commercial nations, would carry us back to the very commencement of Hebrew history, when the patriarch Abraham could not pay for his land without weighing out the shekels of its price to the children of Heth. Mr. CAMBRELENG observed, that when Spain held the mining countries, she was in the practice of coining Spanish milled dollars, which were universally known, and every where circulated. But since those countries had passed into the hands of the various recent Governments of South America, the old dollars had gradually disappeared, and a considerable portion of the metallic circulation in this country consisted of five-franc pieces, and the new republican dollars. This bill went to secure the circulation of this sort of currency at its actual value; and what more did gentlemen want? He thought it not wise to sacrifice a practical good for mere refined speculation. For his own part, his only objection to this bill was, that it limited the amount of the tender. He could not see why coin made and stamped here was any better, Mr. C. P. WHITE said, the making foreign coins a tenor any more fit for circulation than that made and stampder by tale would entirely defeat the object of the bill, which was to give such coins currency in large payments only at their intrinsic value, keeping the general circulation of the country supplied with our own coinage. ed in Mexico. He knew no good reason why coin, which was current in all countries, and in every part of the world, from the Indies to the Americas, should not circulate without restraint in the United States. Mr. BURGES was opposed to the bill. He considered Mr. FILLMORE said that the bill before the House it as proposing an experiment of a very hazardous char-proposed to make foreign coin a legal tender to a certain acter; anciently the precious metals when used as money amount. [Here he quoted the terms of the bill.] But, had been current by weight; but the progress of im- under what circumstances was this coin to become a tenprovement had introduced the practice of milling the der? If a man owed a debt, and had a quantity of this coins upon the edge, by which their size was fixed, and foreign money, what must he do? He must first get it both sides being marked with a stamp impressed by pub- assayed, to see if it was of the requisite fineness, and then lic authority, the coin passed safely by tale, without the he must have it weighed, to determine whether it was of necessity of the tedious process of weighing. But the the full legal weight, and then, after all this trouble and present bill proposed a retrograde movement-it went ceremony, he might tender the money in payment of his backwards instead of forwards, in the course of improve- debt. But why did men coin money? To what end? ment, and returned to a practice now antiquated for cen- That it might, in the public stamp it bore, carry with it turies, of passing money in the daily transactions of traffic primu facie evidence both of fineness and weight, and that by weight. It proposed to make bullion a legal tender. thus the constant necessity of weighing and assaying might Such a thing was unknown in any part of the civilized be saved. The present bill threw this advantage quite world. In England, the attempt had been made to ren- away. The friends of the bill themselves admitted that der bank bills redeemable in bullion as well as specie; the the coins of Mexico were usually of the requisite fineness, practical result of which must have been highly advanta- and they ascribed great credit to the Government of Mexigeous to the bankers; because, when an individual de- co that such was the fact. Now, all he asked was a law manded a sum of money to be paid him at the bank, the to give this credit in a substantial form; to allow that coin officers would weigh him out buillion, which he did not to pass, prima fuc'e, as the requisite weight and quality, want, and could not pass without re-weighing; the conse-and to throw the proof to the contrary on the individual quence of which was, that he preferred receiving the who should refuse it when tendered. Why should not notes of the bank, and thus their circulation would be in- this money be a legal tender in payment of small debts as VOL. X.--245 well as larger ones? Why allow banks and rich capitalists to pay their large debts in a way the small debtor cannot pay his? It was said, that the value of our metallic currency must be raised: he had no objection to this; but let it be a whole currency, and not a partial one. Let it be a universal tender for sums great and small, and not a currency for only a part of the community. [MAY 2, 1834. obliging the mass of the people to lose in exactly the same proportion. Mr. WILDE said it was with great reluctance he rose to speak upon this bill. He should have suffered it to pass in silence would his duty have permitted. He had been placed, two years since, upon a select committee of the House to whom was referred the subject of the na Mr. GORHAM said that the great object of the bill tional coin, and although he did not enjoy the same honor was to introduce the circulation of a certain description at the present session, the result of former investigations of coin already used to a great extent in our country. led him to believe that this bill ought to pass. He would The course of trade connected the United States with not, indeed, pledge himself for the entire accuracy of Mexico, and we consequently received large quantities of every feature of it, because he had not minutely examin their coin. This, though taken as coin in Mexico, when ed all its provisions. It was obvious that since the time of it arrived in the United States was only bullion. The the passage of the law regulating the weight and fineness dollars of that republic were in this treated as nothing of the dollar of the United States, a great change had more than so many bars of silver. The gentlemen who taken place in our currency. The milled dollars of were opposed to the bill seemed to forget that the coins Spain were no longer legal coin, and the Mexican dollars, of Great Britain and France, and the Spanish milled dol- and those of other South American states, had come in lar, were all a legal tender until the year 1827. The their place. The coin of Colombia was the only one of whole history of our commerce and domestic transactions these which had been debased: that of the other new went clearly to show that no inconvenience was suffered states in the South was of a better quality than our own. from rendering foreign coins a legal tender in this coun- The banks of course preferred to pay out dollars of this try. We had the light of experience to guide us. The description, because they made one-half per cent. by plan was not a new one: it only put back the country the transaction: and hence the gentleman from Rhode where it had been before the expiring of a former law. | Island [Mr. BURGES] thought that a conclusive objection The bill contained some limitations, which the gentleman from New York [Mr. FILLMORE] did not seem entirely to understand. The burden of proof was, it was true, cast entirely upon the debtor, who wished to pay his debt in foreign coin. So it had been under the former law, yet no inconvenience attended such an arrangement. The gentleman also desired that this foreign coin might be made a tender as well for small sums as large ones. [Mr. FILLMORE here explained. He only wished that foreign coins should be freely current in this country; and he had suggested what he conceived to be a defect in the provisions to make them so.] Mr. GORHAM resumed in reply. There were some reasons why foreign coin should not be current in the payment of small debts. The effect would be in a great measure to exclude the circulation of our own coin. The Mexican dollar was not exactly equal to ours: it was worth a little more; and that was a reason why they ought not to go by tale. It was intended to restrict their use as a legal tender to sums over $100. They would then be used chiefly by the banks, who had their own modes of proof as to the fineness of the coin. It was impossible for our national mint, at present, to coin enough silver coin for the use of the community. Mr. G. said he had come on from Boston with a gentleman who had taken 500,000 Mexican dollars to the mint, to get them re-coined. This was an expense to the nation, without any corresponding benefit. No alarm or difficulty of any kind would attend the adoption of a plan like that proposed in the bill: the country was full of this Mexican money; and it would be a great facility to the banks, and all engaged in business on a large scale, to have it rendered current by law. arose to the bill. That gentleman had said that he obtain ed at the bank no more than ninety-nine dollars and a half for a one hundred dollar bill: and he had asked whether he could pass these by tale for more than a dol lar a piece? Certainly he could not; but if he would take his ninety-nine and a half Mexican dollars to the mint, he would get one hundred American dollars or two hun dred half-dollar pieces for them. No injustice, therefore, was done to him. He might, indeed, have to wait a little, but that was the only inconvenience he would sustain. This showed the importance that the mint should coin the bullion sent to it with as little delay as possible. And the advantage from the bill would be, that when an amount of Mexican dollars came in, they might be depos ited in bank, and there remain as specific deposite, and be issued again without the expense and delay of re-coining: for, if made a legal tender, it would answer all the purposes of American coin. This would be a great convenience to our banks, and a great facility in our commerce, while it produced no injury whatever to the community. Mr. W. thought there was an obvious advantage in de nying the use of this foreign coin for the minor circulation of the country. Such an arrangement would keep open that circulation for our own coin when the circulation of bank notes of a small denomination should be curtailed. This must be the result, because our own coin being of an established and certain value, its use would of course supersede that of a coin whose value was uncertain, not being fixed by law. It must, however, be acknowledged that our own coin had been deteriorated by abrasion, per. haps to the amount of twenty per cent., yet it continued to pass by tale. And it was desirable that the minor circulation of the community should be carried on in our own coin. Mr. BURGES said that his chief objection was to the necessity of weighing the coin. If a man took a hundred It was, indeed, a prerequisite to such a state of things, dollar bill to a bank and demanded specie for it, if he was that the circulation of bank notes of small denomination paid in Mexican dollars, he got no more than ninety-nine should be curtailed. This was the doctrine of the Presi and a half of them for his bill; yet these dollars, when he dent, of his Secretary of the Treasury, and of the Com wanted to use them, passed for no more than so many mittee of Ways and Means: and in it Mr. W. heartily dollars of our own coinage; so that he lost half a dollar concurred. The present prevalence of such an opinion by the transaction. Of course no man would take his was evidence of the progress that truth was making among bill there. The character of the bill was retrograde; it us. Three years ago it was deemed unworthy even of an was for the few and against the many. A man that held inquiry: now it was the acknowledged theory of the half a million of these foreign dollars saved half a cent on Government, the administration desired to see it carried every one of them. But if the money were made a law-into effect, and every body seemed to concur in such a ful tender, and allowed to pass by tale, trade would take wish. As to the matter of assay, there was no such great care of itself. It was a bill enabling bankers and cap-inconvenience connected with it as some gentlemen seemitalists to sell bullion at a gain of one-half per cent., and led to apprehend. Annual assays were made of this MAY 2, 1834.] Specie Tender Bill. H. OF R. South American coin, and they presented one uniform ous that a jury would presume the money to be good, result. The dollars were found to hold the same fineness why not make it so by law, as was done in relation to the as formerly. Supposing, then, the tender to be made at the risk of the person tendering, that person had for his security, first, the fidelity of the mints of Mexico, and in the second place he had the annual assay of our own mint: and this annual assay was required by this bill to continue. This security was amply sufficient for all practical purposes. Spanish dollars? In practice this money was now in circulation every where, and it was every where received, save by here and there a troublesome man. All that was wanted was a law to make the course of business, where this money was used, easy and certain. Such it would be if the dollars were allowed to pass by tale; but if the bill retained its present form, nothing but mischief could Mr. GORHAM replied to the objection of Mr. BURGES. ensue. The objection urged by the gentleman from That gentleman did not seem to understand the object of Rhode Island was, in his opinion, conclusive. There the bill, which was to retain a double advantage, that of was a vast amount of bank paper circulating, and the ef employing the foreign coin to be used in large transac- fect of this law would be to reduce it half per cent. in tions, and our own for those of a minor amount. If the value; would the House consent to do this? He trusted gentleman took the ninety-nine and a half dollars the not. Would they compel the holder of a hundred dollar banks gave him to the mint, he would get his hundred bill to take ninety-nine and a half silver dollars for it? It American dollars: but not if he attempted to use them in was said, indeed, that, if these dollars were weighed, no small transactions. This was the very end intended: it loss would be sustained. True; but how was a man up in excluded foreign coin from the minor circulation, leaving the mountains to get his money weighed? He went to that open to our own: while it availed itself of the use of the bank to get his note changed, and the bank would the foreign silver amongst us for the purposes of com- give him no more than ninety-nine and a half dollars for merce. Were the foreign dollars allowed to pass in small it: unless he would take this, he must keep his bill. Thus as well as large transactions, the American would of the banks would make money out of the farmers. Could course be exported. they carry their bills all the way to the mint? Were gen Mr. COULTER said this was a bill the effects of tlemen serious in proposing to them such an alternative? which reached every man in the country: he would, A measure which thus went to injure the humblest of his therefore, offer a word or two in regard to it: for no constituents should never receive his sanction. Mr. C. axiom should be more implicitly followed than that every said he had great respect for the gentleman from Massabill of a general character and operation ought to be well chusetts, [Mr. GORHAM,] and relied much on the informaand ripely examined. If the gentlemen who introduced tion he possessed on all subjects connected with trade this bill into the House expected it was to pass without and commerce; but that gentleman was mistaken in supexamination, they would find themselves disappointed: posing that these Mexican dollars lay in the banks as buland he must beg gentlemen who assumed to understand lion. Such was not the case beyond the mountains: there the whole subject so well, to allow others to understand the dollars circulated freely by tale; he presumed the it also. The objection urged by the gentleman from same was the case throughout the country generally. New York [Mr. FILLMORE] had great force: and it had This coin answered, in practice, all the purposes of monot been removed. The provisions of the bill must be ney, and would continue to do so unless this bill should productive of great inconvenience in common business. operate to prevent it. He hoped, therefore, that the bill The House was told by the gentleman from Massachusetts would be so amended as to allow the foreign dollars to be [Mr. GORHAM] that the plan of making foreign coin a a tender by tale, without requiring every piece to be legal tender was not new. No doubt every body knew weighed. that foreign coin had been formerly made a legal tender Mr. SELDEN said that the information he possessed, in the United States: nor had Mr. C. any objection to its on the subject under discussion, he received from practibeing done again: but let it be done according to the cal men, who understood the operation of this sort of former usage, and let not gentlemen introduce a new currency in matters of trade and contract. By such men, system which the people did not understand. Let the the plan of making the foreign coin a legal tender was coins pass by tale, as they did by the old law, and there decidedly approved. He should first say a few words in would be no difficulty in the case. But this bill provided reply to what had just fallen from the gentleman from Pennthat they must not only pass by weight, but be also of a sylvania, [Mr. COULTER.] The gentleman was alarmed certain fineness. A gentleman had assured them that at the thought that his constituents would get only ninetythis would be attended with no inconvenience, because nine and a half dollars for a hundred dollars worth of there was no debasement of the Mexican coinage. If bank bills. There was an easy remedy for this difficulty. such were the fact, why require it to be assayed? Why Let them present their money by fifty dollars at a time, not make its good quality the basis of certain legislation? and they would receive its full amount in American silver If there was no debasement at the foreign mints, why without any loss whatever. Two minutes would be sufnot let their coin pass by tale Why not let credit be ficient to remove the whole difficulty. As to what his given to the stamp it bore? Then the present law would colleague [Mr. FILLMORE] had urged about the necessity resemble all former laws for the like purpose. The gen of making the foreign coin a tender for small as well as tleman from Georgia [Mr. WILDE] insisted that there large sums, and the inconvenience of compelling every would be no difficulty, because the assay was repeated at man to weigh his money, he could answer that gentleman, our mint every year; and no man would refuse these coins that this sort of coin never would be employed in the when tendered but a man who previously desired to give small contracts of every day business. It was not intendtrouble. But suppose a man did desire to give trouble, ed to be introduced in reference to them; but only in and another went and tendered to him an amount of these those vast contracts which were continually occurring in foreign dollars, in what position would he stand? The the money transactions of so great a country as ours. In law required that the coin should be of a certain prescri- these the contractors would, indeed, be compelled to bed degree of fineness. How was the holder to provej take these foreign coins, but only at their real value as this? Would it do to give in evidence the laws of Mexi- ascertained by quality and weight. If this money should co? How could he give the assay at Philadelphia as be made to pass by tale, they would be exposed to forproof of the quality of the coin he offered? Mr. C. could eign adulteration. It would not do to compel ourselves not see how he was to prove its quality unless he had the to receive them by their impress alone, but there could very pieces themselves assayed. If it should be answered be no danger if both the weight and the value were that the fact of the fineness of these dollars was so notori fixed. This was done by the bill in its present form; |