638 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



before some open tribunal, independent of party 

 politics, ready to investigate the merits of every 

 case, furnished with the means of taking evidence, 

 and bound to decide according to established rules. 

 This would guarantee the safety of the accuser when 

 he acts in good faith, and at the same time secure 

 the rights of the other party. I speak, of course, 

 with all proper respect for the present Senate, but 

 it does not seem to nie that any legislative body can 

 be so constituted as to insure its fitness for these 

 functions. 



It is not the theory of this Government that pub- 

 lic offices are the property of those who hold them. 

 They are given merely as a trust for the public bene- 

 fit, sometimes for a fixed period, sometimes during 

 good behavior, but generally they are liable to be 

 terminated at the pleasure of the appointing power, 

 which represents the collective majesty and speaks 

 the will of the people. The forced retention in office 

 of a single dishonest person may work great injury 

 to the public interests. The danger to the public 

 service comes not from the power to remove, but 

 from the power to appoint. Therefore it was that 

 the framers of the Constitution left the power of re- 

 moval unrestricted, while they gave the Senate a 

 right to reject all appointments which, in its opinion, 

 were not fit to be made. A little reflection on this 

 subject will probably satisfy all who have the good 

 of the country at heart, that our best course is to 

 take the Constitution for our guide, walk in the path 

 marked out by the founders of the Republic, and 

 obey the rules made sacred by the observance of our 

 great predecessors. 



The present condition of our finances and circulat- 

 ing medium is one to which your early consideration 

 is invited. 



The proportion which the currency of any country 

 should bear to the whole value of the annual prod- 

 uce circulated by its means is a question upon 

 which political economists have not agreed. Nor 

 can it be controlled by legislation, but must be left 

 to the irrevocable laws which everywhere regulate 

 commerce and trade. The circulating medium will 

 ever irresistibly flow to those points where it is in 

 greatest demand. The law of demand and supply is 

 as unerring as that which regulates the tides 01 the 

 ocean ; and, indeed, currency, like the tides, has its 

 ebbs and flows throughout the commercial world. 



At the beginning of the rebellion, the bank-note 

 circulation of the country amounted to not much 

 more than two hundred millions of dollars ; now the 

 circulation of national bank notes and those known 

 as " legal tenders " is nearly seven hundred millions. 

 While it is urged by some that this amount should 

 be increased, others contend that a decided reduc- 

 tion is absolutely essential to the best interests of 

 the country. In view of these diverse opinions, 

 it may be well to ascertain the real value of our 

 paper issues, when compared with a metallic or con- 

 vertible currency. For this purpose, let us inquire 

 how much gold and silver could be purchased by the 

 seven hundred millions of paper money now in 

 circulation. Probably not more than half the 

 amount of the latter showing that when our paper 

 currency is compared with gold and silver, its com- 

 mercial value is compressed into, three hundred and 

 fifty millions. This striking fact makes it the obvi- 

 ous duty of the Government, as early as may be con- 

 sistent with the principles of sound political econo- 

 my, to take such measures ad will enable the holder 

 of its notes and those of the national banks to con- 

 vert them, without loss, into specie or its equivalent. 

 A reduction of our paper circulating medium need 

 not necessarily follow. This, however, would de- 

 pend upon the law of demand and supply, though it 

 should be borne iu mind that, by making legal 

 tender and bank notes convertible into coin or its 

 equivalent, their present specie value in the hands 

 of their holders would be enhanced one hundred per 

 cent. 



Legislation for the accomplishment of a result so 

 desirable is demanded by the highest public consid- 

 erations. The Constitution contemplates that the 

 circulating medium of the country shall be uniform 

 in quality and value. At the time of the formation 

 of that instrument the country had just emerged 

 from the war of the Revolution, and was suffering 

 from the effects of a redundant and worthless_ paper 

 currency. The sages of that period were anxious to 

 protect their posterity from the evils which they 

 themselves had experienced. Hence, in providing a 

 circulating medium, they conferred upon Congress 

 the power to coin money and regulate the value 

 thereof, at the same time prohibiting the States from 

 making any thing but gold and silver a tender in 

 payment of debts. 



The anomalous condition of our currency is in 

 striking contrast with that .which was originally de- 

 signed. Our circulation now embraces, first, notes 

 of the national banks, which are made receivable for 

 all dues to the Government, excluding imposts, and 

 by all its creditors, excepting in payment of interest 

 upon its bonds and the securities themselves: 

 second, legal-tender notes issued by the United 

 States, and which the law requires shall be received 

 as well in payment of all debts between citizens as 

 of all Government dues, excepting imposts; and 

 third, gold and silver coin. By the operation of our 

 present system of finance, however, the metallic 

 currency, when collected, is reserved only for one 

 class of Government creditors, who, ho'lding its 

 bonds, semi-annually receive their interest in coin 

 from the National Treasury. They are thus made to 

 occupy an invidious position, which may be used_ to 

 strengthen the arguments of those who would bring 

 into disrepute the obligations of the nation. In the 

 payment of all its debts, the plighted faith of the 

 Government should be inviolably maintained. But 

 while it acts with fidelity toward the bondholder who 

 loaned his money that the integrity of the Union 

 might be preserved, it should, at the same time, ob- 

 serve good faith with the great masses of the people, 

 who, having rescued the Union from the perils of 

 rebellion, now bear the burdens of taxation, that the 

 Government may be able to fulfil its engagements. 

 There is no reason, which will be accepted as satis- 

 factory by the people, why those who defend us on 

 the land and protect us on the sea the pensioner 

 upon the gratitude of the nation, bearing the scars 

 and wounds received while in its service ; the public 

 servants in the various departments of the Govern- 

 ment; the farmer who supplies the soldiers of the 

 army and the sailors of the navy ; the artisan who 

 toils in the nation's workshops, or the mechanics 

 and laborers who build its edifices and construct its 

 forts and vessels-of-war should, in payment of their 

 just and hard-earned dues, receive depreciated 

 paper, while another class of their countrymen, no 

 more deserving, are paid in coin of gold and silver. 

 Equal and exact justice requires that all the credit- 

 ors of the Government should be paid in a currency 

 possessing a uniform value. This can only be ac- 

 complished by the restoration of the currency to the 

 standard established by the Constitution ; and by 

 this means we would remove a discrimination which 

 may, if it has not already done so, create a prejudice 

 that may become deep-rooted and wide-spread, and 

 imperil the national credit. 



The feasibility of making our currency correspond 

 with the constitutional standard may be seen by ref- 

 erence to a few facts derived from our commercial 

 statistics. 



The production of precious metals in the United 

 States from 1849 to 1857, inclusive, amounted to 

 $579,000,000; from 1858 to 1860, inclusive, to 137,- 

 500,000 ; and from 1S61 to 1867, inclusive, to $457,- 

 500,000 making the grand aggregate of products 

 since 1849, $1,174,000,000. The amount of specie 

 coined from 1849 to 1857, inclusive, was 1439,000,000 ; 

 from 1858 to 1860, inclusive, 125,000,000; and from 



