26TH CONG....1ST SESS.

faith of the United States was pledged for its redemption.

The third section of the act of October, 1837, designates the manner of executing these certificates of the public debt, and requires the Secretary to account for the notes delivered to him.

The fourth section repudiates the idea that this issue of Treasury notes was to be regarded as paper money, and unqualifiedly establishes the position before assuined that the issue was butto carry out the loan which had been contracted by the Government. That section provides that the Secretary of the Treasury, under the direction of the President, cause a portion of said notes to be issued in payment of debts due by the United States to such public creditors as may choose to receive such notes in payment. And the Secretary of the Treasury is further authorized, with the approbation of the President, to borrow, from time to time, such sums as the President may think expedient on the credit of such notes. There seems to be no room left for cavil-it is as clear as light-that this emission of Treasury notes is not to constitute, by the act of the Government, any portion of the circulating medium of the country, but merely to enable the Executive to perfect the loan which, by the terms of this act, he is authorized to obtain, and to issue these notes as evidences of the debt and as engagements to refund. The fifth section, in terms, makes them of the same negotiable character as the old certificates of the funded debt, and makes them assignable like the negotiable paper of individuals.

These Treasury notes are made receivable for duties, taxes, and for public lands. The other portions of the act of October, 1837, need not be particularly quoted. They provide that the holder shall receive the principal and the interest specified. They give authority to the Secretary to purchase the outstanding notes. And the act further provides for the punishment of all persons who shall counterfeit said notes. And it requires the Secretary of the Treasury to cause a statement to be published monthly of the amount of all Treasury notes issued or redeemed in pursuance of the provisions of the act. It gives no authority to reissue the notes once issued, or to issue new notes in their stead.

EXPENDITURES.

By the act of May 21, 1838, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to issue new notes in place of such as have been or may be issued, under the authority of the act of October, 1837, and which have been, or which may hereafter be, paid into the Treasury and canceled. By the act of March 2, 1839, an authority is given to issue, at any time prior to the 30th of June then next, the remainder of the Treasury notes authorized to be issued by the act of May 21, 1838, to meet the current expenses of the Government.

.$1,255,753 1,427,687 1,650.000

4,333,440 1,400,000 1,546,560 $7,280,000

2,526,576

Tent.

1,149,904

1,082,865

The principal now due on the Treasurer's de-
posits in other banks, which suspended spe-
cie payments in 1837, is....
Should all these claims be collected in 1840,
they would prevent a deficiency, and leave
an available balance in the Treasury of
nearly.......

He adds, for the information of Congress, and most properly adds, that "it is not, however, considered prudent to rely exclusively on the collection of these debts." And in another part of the same report the Secretary, after informing Congress of the aid which had been given to the Department in time of temporary embarrassment

Such has been the legislation of Congress heretofore in relation to this subject. And the bill now upon the table proposes to reenact and revive for one year the preexisting legislation of Congress upon this same subject-matter. And he would address himself to the intelligence and patriotism of the Senate, whether the bill is objectionable in terms-whether the condition of the Treasury does not imperiously require the immediate adoption of this measure. He was sure he should not make this appeal in vain. He held in his hand a statement which had recently been received from the Secretary of the Treasury and which went to exhibit the true condition of the Treasury at the present time; and if this paper could be relied on, and he could not doubt that it merited our entire confidence, there was a necessity for immediate action upon the bill before

authorizing the issue of Treasury noteshad further added that

"The Department is now without any resort, temporary or permanent, in case of material deficiencies; and considering all the circumstances before mentioned, with the dangerous liability in law to have the whole of the outstanding Treasury notes paid in at any moment for public dues, without a power remaining to issue others in their stead; considering, also, the present revulsions in the commercial world, which affect so seriously the receipts from both duties and lands; considering the disasters which are befalling the banks and rendering our collected funds in some cases wholly unavailable, and the advances necessary to be soon made for the large payments of pensions and Treasury notes falling due in March, the earliest attention to new legislation on this subject seems highly prudent, if not indispensable, for the effectual security of the public credit."

This is true to the letter; and the Secretary has not in his recent communication retracted any part of the statement made in his annual report. In that official document he distinctly stated, not only the aggregate amount of the available means in the Treasury, but he also officially transmitted to Congress an estimate of the expenditures of the year. This estimate of expenditures that distinguished public officer is in no way responsible for; it is made up at the several Departments, and the head of each of those Departments informs the Secretary of the Treasury what sum will be necessary for the support of his own Department. The Secretary arranges these various communications, and, upon a proper classification, he reports to Congress what sums are estimated as the aggregate of the public expenditures for the current year; and his statement that there will be in the Treasury on the 1st of January, 1841, $1,000,000, is predicated upon the fact that all the means he has estimated shall be available, and that the expenditures do not exceed the estimates. He could make no other report; and he would have been false to his trust if he had given an honest account of the means, and a faithful exhibit of the estimated expenditures, and it should result from such an exposé that the former would exceed the latter by $1,000,000 if he had said, I want from Congress a still further sum of $5,000,000.

Such a course of conduct is not in accordance

with the known vigilance, fidelity, and uprightness of that public officer. But let it not be supposed that the Secretary has made any concealments. What has he said in his report? After giving a detailed statement of the means with which the Treasury may be supplied in the course of the year, as follows:

From the best information possessed by this Departments it is computed that the aggregate of means available for public purposes will not exceed $18,600,000, namely, from Customs.................................... Lands.....*******

$15,000,000 3,500,000 100,000

1,556,385

In the extracts made from the Secretary's report, it is manifest that he has put Congress in possession of all the information which could be material for their action. And by more recent communications the same facts are repeated.

The Secretary says, in a report made by him the President, under date of 15th of February, that "after the lapse of nearly three months, the views expressed in his annual report remain unchanged." This bill is called for at this time, not for the reason that the ordinary means coming into the Treasury will not be sufficient to meet the ordinary expenditures, but for the reason that the expenditures have been extraordinary in the month of March, and will be unusually large in April and May. The statement from the Secretary shows for what purposes the expenditures have been made up to this time. It is known, also, that there is now outstanding Treasury notes amounting to $1,500,000. This sum must be paid in April and May. These considerations should induce the Senate now to concur with the House in the passage of this bill. It is a fact known to him that the Departments have been without pay for the last quarter; that our judges are without their quarter yearly salaries; our courts without the necessary means for their support.

It is true that the current appropriation bills have not passed the House, and owing to that circumstance the Treasury Department has been enabled hitherto to sustain the credit of the Government. And all he had to say in conclusion was that he hoped the Senate would coöperate with him in now passing the bill before us. It is a measure called for by every consideration of public justice, by every feeling of patriotism, by the unavoidable expenditures of the Treasury Department which have recently taken place and which are in prospect. It is not to be regarded as a permanent measure, but merely to afford that temporary aid and relief which an extraordinary expenditure of public money in the recent payment of pensions and in the extinguishment of a large portion of the public debt has occasioned. He trusted, then, he should find the Senate prepared to carry this measure through without delay.

After some remarks from Mr. WEBSTER,

Mr. HUBBARD said: Mr. President, I rejoice that the Senator from Massachusetts concurs with me in opinion that this bill ought to pass. I anticipated such an avowal, as we are both members of the Committee on Finance, and of course amount, in the aggregate, to................ 20,156,385 presumed to be acquainted with the present finan

26TH CONG....1ST SESS.

Treasury Note Bill-Mr. Hubbard.

Experience has already shown that this mode of negotiating temporary loans has been most successful. The local institutions of the States, individuals in the interior sections of the country, as well as the capitalists of our cities, have, with alacrity, come to the relief of the Government with a strong and controlling feeling of patriot ism; they have advanced their means as the exigencies of their country demanded. It is for such considerations that I have an abiding predilection for this mode of negotiating and perfecting a loan. In time of peace, in my judgment, it should be invariably adopted. As unforeseen and unanticipated expenditures may be necessary, as deficiencies in the Treasury may arise, as there may be for a time a want of immediate means to carry on the operations of the Government and to sustain the public faith, in all such events I would resort to this mode of pledging the public credit, in preference to others, in order to relieve the Treasury from such temporary embarrassments. In no point of view, therefore, is this mode of raising money for public purposes objectionable, in my judgment. I would invariably resort to it to meet such an exigency as now exists, to afford that temporary aid which the condition of the Treasury at this time so imperiously requires. These are my views. They have been formed after a full consideration of the act of October, 1837. I gave that measure my support. I gave to the acts of May, 1838, and of March, 1839, my support. I shall give to this bill my sup

port.

cial condition of the Government; and he, as well as myself, could not doubt, from what has been communicated to that committee, that the present wants and necessities of the Treasury called for the immediate passage of the bill before us. This fact was well known to me, and the knowledge of this fact must have led the honorable Senator to declare that he should make no opposition to this measure. In this, then, we agree, that the amount specified in this bill, at least, Congress is now bound to provide for the use of the Government. We also agree in another fact, that this bill is nothing more nor less than giving authority to the Administration to contract a loan upon the credit of the Government for $5,000,000. I stated in my opening remarks, and I now repeat, that this bill can be sustained upon no other principle than as a loan. Under that clause of the Constitution authorizing Congress "to bornow money upon the credit of the United States" I have heretofore defended measures similar to the bill under consideration. Under that same constitutional provision alone I now sustain and defend this measure. I regard it as a loan, and nothing but a loan. It is of no earthly importance what are the peculiar terms of the bill, or what are its general provisions. The object is clearly set forth in the act of October, 1837, which act the bill before us seeks to revive; and, as I said when up before, that, from beginning to end, that act gave authority to contract a debt of $10,000,000; to borrow that sum upon the faith of the United States; to issue in the form of Treasury notes of the denomination of fifty dollars and upward, as the evidences of this debt, and pledged the faith of the United States for its ultimate redemption and payment. The present bill is substantially the same; of itself it contains no important provisions; it reenacts merely the law of 1837. True it is that it proposes to borrow only $5,000,000, but in all other essential particulars it is like and is to be determined by the act of 1837 and the subsequent acts of Congress upon this subject. With the Senator from Massachusetts, then, I entirely concur that this bill is merely a proposition for a loan; and, notwithstanding the character which has been formerly given on this floor to kindred measures, and the character which has been given elsewhere to this very measure; notwithstanding it has been violently assailed as a Government bank, that it conferred the power to issue Government paper, and that that paper was designed to enter into the circulation of the country as money; notwithstanding these attacks upon and these objec-regulate at once the tariff as to impose duties on all tions to the bill, I cannot but regard them all as without foundation. I have endeavored to examine well this whole matter; I have, with much care, looked into the former legislation of Congress, and I have come to the conclusion that such attacks were wholly unwarranted, that such objections were wholly unsustained; and I have not been able to come to any different result than the one expressed by the Senator from Massachusetts, that the bill gave authority to contract a loan for the use of the Government. All its other provisions were but mere details to carry into effect the object in view.

I do not propose, Mr. President, to follow the Senator in many of the remarks which he has submitted, having no immediate connection, as I can see, with the bill before us. The Senator has, however, gone into a full examination of the present condition of the Treasury, and its past, present, and prospective means, its past, present, and prospective expenditures. I will give to this part of the Senator's remarks some notice. The Senator has adverted to the tariff as it now exists, and to such a modification of the tariff as he would desire to have established. He has told us that he would, for the purpose of supplying the Treasury with available means, impose at once a duty upon silks. He has informed us of the gross amount of the importation of that article for the last year, and has deduced from that fact that even a moderate duty would bring millions annually into the Treasury. I agree to all this, and shall be as ready as that Senator, or as any other, so to

SENATE.

as an indispensable necessary of life. I would have it come to us as free from duty as the air we breathe, or the water we drink. [Mr. BENTON signified his satisfaction with the last remarks.] But, Mr. President, my friend from Missouri must not infer that I am prepared to go with him for the repeal of the fishing bounties, or the allowances given to our fishing vessels. I am not prepared at this time of day to support to that extent the project of the Senator from Missouri. I hope that when that subject shall come before the Senate I shall be prepared to show that other and important considerations induced this system of bounties and allowance than the mere amount of foreign salt used by the fishermen.

I have said, Mr. President, that I was in favor of this bill, and in favor of this mode of obtaining money for the use of the Government. I have said that for temporary purposes, to relieve the Treasury from some sudden and unlooked-for embarrassment, this manner of procuring money upon the public credit was altogether desirable. If the question was a loan of long continuance I might think differently. But with reference to this particular bill it meets with my entire approbation. Ldo not agree, however, that this measure is to borrow $5,000,000 for the period of two years. It is true that the Secretary of the Treasury may, on the last day of the first year, if there are no certificates outstanding, make a new issue of the whole amount for one year. But the bill itself is limited to a single year, and the Secretary of the Treasury is bound to redeem within a less time if the means of the Department will enable him to do it on giving sixty days' notice. I have no fears then that this loan is to be fastened upon the Government for the term of two years. In the nature of things it appears to me that such a scheme could not be accomplished. I have full faith in the head of the Treasury Department, and experience will show that he has not overestimated his means, and that even before the expiration of one year most of the notes will be redeemed, and redeemed with the means within the control of that Department; and if the Secretary has not erred in his estimate of the receipts into the Treasury for the current year; if he has not fixed too high his available means, and if Congress shall keep the appropriations within the estimates, instead of there being any occasion for the issue of Treasury notes at the end of the first year to sustain the credit of the country, there will then be in the Treasury, subject to draft, over a million dollars.. What earthly reason, then, could possibly induce the Secretary to issue $5,000,000 at the close of the present year? I know none, and I believe it would be difficult to conceive of any consistent with the known integrity of that officer. Let the bill pass, and my word for it, the $5,000,000 will find their way back to the Treasury Department before the expiration of a single year should peace remain within our borders and no unusual or extraordinary appropriation of the public money be called for.

The Senator from Massachusetts has remarked upon the estimate of means and expenditures as contained in the Secretary's annual report on the finances; and from the course of his argument I infer that, in his opinion, that officer has over. estimated the one and underestimated the other; and that, instead of there being in the Treasury on the 1st of January, 1841, $1,000,000, there will be a deficit, and that even the amount intended to be raised by the bill before us will prove

I not only regard the measure before us as a proposition for a loan, but I regard the mode and manner of contracting this loan with great favor. It comes strongly recommended to my mind. I have reflected much upon the objections which have, time and again, been urged against this particular mode of making a loan, and I must say that it is, in my judgment, greatly to be preferred to the usual and customary mode of contracting loans by the Government. The mode pointed out in the bill upon the table avoids all the delays necessarily incident to the other. There are no public advertisements; no circumlocution; no opening of books for subscription to the loan; no carrying our wants abroad; no humiliating appeal to the moneyed power of Europe; no seeking accommodations from the bankers of England, Holland, or France all this is avoided. The amount wanted is named in the bill, the Treasury notes or certificates of debt are at once issued of every denomination of fifty and exceeding fifty dollars, and an appeal is at once made by our own Gov-duced all; and whenever a proper occasion shall ernment to the subjects of that Government. Every individual of the community has the op portunity of contributing to its aid and relief.

come, I shall be ready to go with my worthy friend upon my left Mr. BENTON] to repeal the remaining duty on salt. I regard this article

mencement of the Administration of 1841 the Government will find itself involved in a national debt of millions. This may be so. The estimated means may not prove available. In that event no blame could be imputed to the Treasury Department or to the general administration. The expenditures may go far beyond the estimates. In that event no blame could be imputed to the Administration. Congress itself is alone responsible for the public expenditures. The Secretary of the Treasury has nothing to do with the public appropriations; he submits to Congress an estimate of the expenditures required for the year; he makes known the means at his command, and the character of those means. If Congress make appropriations in disregard of his estimate of expenditures, or if the means on which he relies

26TH CONG....1ST SESS.

should fail him, it would indeed be true that an entirely different result would follow from such a state of things than that stated in the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury. But, Mr. President, there is no mystery in this whole matter; that statement is made with great precision and clearness; it discloses the means of the Department, the character and source of those means; it exhibits the expenditures required; and unless the Government should have some collision with England, unless our country should become involved in war, it is idle to talk of a public debt being fastened upon us at the commencement of another year. No such event will or can take place unless our existing controversies with Great Britain should involve us in war, of which I admit there is some probability; and I would rather have it come, with all its evils, than see a rood of our soil surrendered or the honor of our country compromitted.

Is there any probability that the Secretary will not realize all the means he has estimated? Is there any doubt that the receipts into the Treasury during the course of the present year, from all sources, will amount, in the aggregate, to $20,000,000? Will he not realize $15,000,000 from customs? Will he not receive $3,000,000 from the sale of the public lands? This estimate of receipts was made at the commencement of the quarter ending on the last of December. He then told us that there would be in the Treasury, on the 1st of January, 1840, $1,500,000. Has not his estimate been exceeded? Does it not distinctly appear, from a communication he read to the Senafe when he was up before, that the balance in the Treasury, instead of $1,500,000, was $2,200,000? He commences the year, then, with more means than he anticipated; and this excess beyond the estimate must have been derived from imports and from land sales; it could not have, in the main, been produced from payments on the debts due the Government from the old deposit banks, for it distinctly appears from the paper read that from that source the Secretary has received the sum of $700,000. It follows, then, from this exhibit, that $700,000 were received into the Treasury in the last quarter of the last year more than were anticipated. It also results, from an examination of the same communication, that the receipts into the Treasury for the first quarter of the present year have exceeded the average estimates for that quarter; and if the coming quarters do not fall short it will be found that the Secretary has not overestimated his available means, arising either from the customs or the lands. It is true the Bank of the United States may not promptly pay the sum falling due in September next; and it may so happen that the old deposit banks may not extinguish the balances against them; but this is not to be presumed; but should it so happen that the entire indebtedness of these institutions should not be canceled, is there no way to supply the deficiency which might thus be occasioned without a resort to a loan? Yes, sir, there is a mode, and, in my judgment, it is our bounden duty, by immediate legislation, to adopt that mode, by correcting the judicial constructions given to the tariff act of 1833, in consequence of which millions will be, without right, and against the intention of Congress, abstracted from the Treasury. Let there be prompt legislation upon this subject. Let the existing tariff acts he fairly executed. Let them be carried into full effect, and, as the Senator proposes, let there be even a moderate duty now imposed on silks and other luxuries, and we shall

find from these sources an accession to the available means of the Treasury in the course of this very year of at least $3,000,000. And why should not all this be done if the existing tariff laws have received such judicial constructions as to deprive the Treasury of the pecuniary benefit which it was designed they should afford? Why not correct, by an immediate declaratory act, the evil? It in no way affects the compromise bill, for it in truth would be carrying out the true intent of that bill. Why not impose the duty on silks? Such a duty is called for by every consideration. I would then, without delay, afford to the Department all the aid which would result from such legislation; and, from a document I have seen, coming from the head of that Department, if this be done, then, without any interference with com

SENATE.

of January, 1837, with what had been collected from the Bank of the United States within the last three years-to swell the extraordinary means of the Government to $20,000,000 at least.

I wish to offer a word or two in relation to this matter, although it seems to have no very direct connection with the Treasury note bill. It has, Mr. President, heretofore been urged that the States had a right to this $9,000,000; that the Gov. ernment was bound to make a deposit with the States of the entire amount in the Treasury on the 1st of January, 1837, after the deduction of the $5,000,000; that it was due to the States, and due to the States from the General Government, From these positions I entirely dissent. The money was the property of the United States, and not of the individual States; and when and where deposited was for the benefit and to the credit and on account of the former; and in the event of any pecuniary embarrassment occurring after the pas sage of the deposit act, if the Administration had continued to withdraw the public moneys from the public Treasury and deposit them with the States, it would have been false to its trust, and would have justly merited the condemnation of the American people. I admit that the Secretary of the Treasury did not, under the act of 1836, deposit with the States the last quarter of the amount on hand January 1, 1837; and why and wherefore was this? Is not the reason known and well understood? Did not all the local banks of the country suspend specie payments in May, 1837? Not only those institutions having the public money, but others, as it were, by a united concert, at a given moment, refused to pay their paper and to redeem their debts. I refer to these facts to show for what reason the General Government failed to place in deposit with the States the remaining portion of the public funds required under the act of 1836. It was because the failure of the local banks of the country had put the public money without the control of the Government. The Senator has very correctly stated that the $9,000,000 in addition to the amount in the Treasury on the 1st of January, 1837, and in addition to the $5,000,000 received from the Bank of the United States has, since that period, been expended by the Government beyond the ordinary

correctly stated that the amount which had been collected from the Bank of the United States, the balance in the Treasury on 1st of January, 1837, and the sum remaining not deposited with the States, as required by the act of 1836, formed an aggregate of over twenty million dollars, and that these were extraordinary means placed at the disposal of the Administration; and that since that period this whole sum, together with the usual

had been almost wholly exhausted; so that the balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January last was reduced to $1,500,000; and hence the Senator would have us believe not only that the expenditures have been extravagant, but that the estimates of the expenditures for the current year must of necessity be too low. Little indeed did I suppose that the honorable Senator would have stated, as he has most correctly stated, the amount of the extraordinary expenditures for the last three years, without having distinctly informed the Senate what had taken place to have rendered such an extraordinary expenditure of the public money indispensable. Surely the Senator well knows that during this whole period we have been enwith the Seminoles.

penditures. And while I frankly avow the satis-gaged in a most disastrous and expensive war faction I experienced in the perusal of this report of the Secretary, I believe that I do not mistake public opinion when I add that the tax-payers of the whole country will give to it their unqualified approbation.

The honorable Senator has given us a statement of the expenditures of the Government for the last three years. He has referred to the deposit act of 1836; to the obligations under that act to deposit with the States what should be in the national Treasury on the 1st of January, 1837, after deducting therefrom the sum of $5,000,000. He has informed us that the Administration has failed to deposit the last installment with the States, as required by the act of June, 1836; and that this sum of $9,000,000 went-with the $5,000,000 reserved for public use in the Treasury on the 1st

Mr. President, I have not before me the official reports in relation to the great expenditure for the prosecution of the Indian war. But it has been said heretofore by Senators in the Opposi tion that this war had already cost the Government over twenty millions. Not exactly so; but there can be no doubt that it has called for the appropriation of nearly fifteen million dollars. And can this Administration be charged with extravagance, with a want of economy, because this cruel and exterminating contest had cost the na tion $15,000,000. Should the Administration stop to count the cost, and leave the border inhabit ants to the tender mercies of a savage foe? No, sir, no! Such a course of policy no patriot would for a moment justify.

26TH CONG....1ST SESS.

The war was unavoidable; its consequences, dreadful as they have been, in the sacrifice of human life, and in the expenditure of human means, have nevertheless been inevitable. Well, sir, I then start with a credit to the Treasury of $15,000,000 for the expenses of the Florida war. is this all? Have our Indian relations called for no other expenditures within the last three years? How have the treaties with the Creeks and Cherokees been executed? Have not those tribes been removed beyond the Mississippi at a cost of over seven million dollars. Yes, Mr. President, such are the facts; such is the language of official documents. We, then, have had an extraordinary expenditure of the public money within the last three years in the prosecution of the Florida war, in the removal of the Creeks and Cherokees, of more than twenty-two million dollars, exceeding the aggregate of extraordinary means as stated by the Senator from Massachusetts. But we have concluded other Indian treaties within that period requiring the expenditure of public money, all of which may be classed under the head of extraordinary expenditures.' I contend, then, that the facts to which the Senator has adverted furnish no ground of charge against the Administration for extravagance. These expenses were necessary to maintain the honor and the justice of the country, and they might have occurred under any other Administration. Nor do these unusually large expenditures for the last three years tend in the least degree to show that the Secretary of the Treasury cannot get through the current year with an expenditure of only $20,000,000.

Where is the evidence of extravagance, and where is the evidence that the Secretary has underestimated the public expenditures for the current year? Sir, it may be well to look a little into history in relation to the public expenditures. We shall find that the current expenses of the Government for ordinary as well as for extraordinary objects have been reduced within that time more than seven millions; and the estimated expenditures for 1840 are less, by at least fourteen million dollars, than in 1837. The time has come when there will be no hoarding of the people's money, when no more will be drawn from the pockets of the people than is indispensably required for public use. And there can be no doubt that unless the continued suspension of the banks shall sensibly derange our commercial operations, reduce the amount of duties, and diminish the sales of the public lands, the head of the Treasury Department will leave no national debt behind him, should he retire in 1841, to be canceled by his

successor.

The Senator from Massachusetts has, in the course of his speech, signified his intention not to oppose the passage of this bill; but he has presented an argument against this mode of borrowing money for the use of the Government. He has remarked that the greater part of all the Treasury notes issued since October, 1837, have borne an interest of six per cent., and that the rate of interest on an issue of Treasury notes must be higher than would necessarily be required upon a loan contracted in the usual manner. I have already expressed my views as to the mode. I would merely add, in answer to the objection, that as a citizen of our own country I would greatly prefer to borrow money at home than to obtain it from abroad, even if such negotiations could not be accomplished as favorably in a pecuniary sense. There is, ever has been, and ever will be, an undue influence exerted by a moneyed power; and when, in our negotiations for loans, that power is concentrated in and can be exercised by a foreign Government, or when that power is concentrated in and can be exercised by the bankers of any foreign country, then, in my judgment," the jealousy of a free people ought to be awake;" for I regard such an influence as most dangerous to our free republican institutions. I would then, at all times, borrow money here among our own citizens, whenever the exigencies of the country shall require it. I regard such a policy as founded in wisdom, as calculated to cement stronger and stronger this bond of union.

This is the first answer I would make to the argument of the Senator, if it were founded on fact; but the Senator will find that he is in error

Treasury Note Bill-Mr. Hubbard.

on this point. I have before me a table which has been prepared at the Department, which shows the exact amount of Treasury notes which have been issued under the respective acts of Congress, and the rate of interest given upon every Issue. I shall not stop to read this table at length at this moment, but merely refer to it; and will state, for the information of the Senate, that on averaging the rate of interest upon all the issues of Treasury notes under the various acts of Congress, it will be found that the rate of interest upon that average will not exceed four per cent. per annum. It is contended that a loan in the common mode, as it is called, might be negotiated at a rate of four and a half per cent. Admit it for argument. Here then is a direct saving to the Government of one half of one per cent. in the kind of loan sanctioned by the recent acts of Congress, which is the same as is contemplated by the bill before us. But, is it true that since 1837 a permanent loan could have been accomplished at a rate of interest of four and a half per cent.? Have the States been able, within that period, to negotiate loans on terms so favorable? Not so.

In order to show what amount of Treasury notes has been issued under the different acts of Congress, and at what rate of interest, I have

subjoined the

following

1839-second quarter.....

1839-first quarter................

table:

Years.

Statement of the amount of Treasury Notes issued quarterly, bearing the several rates of interest.

per annum. At 5 per cent.

At 2 per cent. per annum.

annum. At 1 mill per

Total.

The Senator will, I trust, find himself

also mistaken in his allegation, that in March, 1841, the public debt would amount to eight or ten millions, according to his estimate. It may be so, but I am totally at a loss to know upon what principle the Senator has made his calculation. The bill before us authorizes only a loan of $5,000,000, and authorizes, as the Senator says, the continuance of this loan for a period of two years. How this debt of $5,000,000 is to be doubled is beyond my poor ability to comprehend.__This very bill is to give to the Secretary of the Treasury the means of redeeming every outstanding certificate of public debt. Admitting that the Treasury shall not be able to redeem within the year a single note issued under the authority of this bill-that the whole $5,000,000 shall then be outstanding-I would ask, in sober earnest, what would then be the aggregate of the public debt?

SENATE.

Could it by any rule of arithmetic known among us exceed the sum of $5,000,000? No, sir. But the Senator will, I think, be most agreeably disappointed; he will find, if peace shall continue, that this issue of Treasury notes will be faithfully redeemed within the year by the means at the command of the Department. It may not be unprofitable to state what amount of Treasury notes was issued under the different acts of Congress, and what amount has been redeemed.

On referring to the subjoined table it will be seen that under the act of October, 1837, $10,000,000 of Treasury notes were issued; under the act of May, 1839, $5,709,810 01 were issued; and under the act of March, 1839, $3,857,276 21 were issued, making in all the sum of $19,567,086 22. And now, Mr. President, what amount has the Government already redeemed? It will be seen by the annexed table that on the 26th of February, 1840, there were only $2,167,231 67 outstanding.

And since that time the amount of Treasury notes has been redeemed to that extent, that according to a statement from the Treasury Department which I read to the Senate when up before, there will not be after the 1st of April over a million and a quarter unredeemed. In a little more than two years, then, the Department has taken up nearly the whole amount of the nineteen and a half millions of the Treasury notes issued under the different acts of Congress. I infer from these facts that there exists a disposition faithfully to apply the means of the Government not only for its proper support, but also to relieve it from its indebtedness. There is another fact referred to by the Senator which I feel bound to notice. The Secretary of the Treasury, it has been said, has issued portions of these notes at different times for the purpose of depositing with certain local banks in this country; and the fair inference following from such a statement must be that such deposits were made for the accommodation of the banks. There is no public officer connected with the Government who receives so frequently from the Opposition charges of dereliction of official duty. He certainly can be no favorite of theirs. On all occasions he seems to be selected as the object upon which was to be spent the whole venom of his political adversaries. He has been accused of almost everything; but he must have the proud consciousness that these charges, be they what they may, have in no respect degraded him in the estimation of the American people. Unaffected and uninfluenced by the attacks of his enemies, he has gone on steadily and faithfully to do his duty with all fidelity to the Government and with the approbation of his country. In relation to this particular matter, adverted to by the Senator from Massachusetts, I wish merely to say in reply, that I challenge the most rigid investigation into the official conduct of the Secretary of the Treasury under the various acts of Congress authorizing the issue of Treasury notes; and I hazard nothing in saying that in no one instance will it be found that he has issued a Treasury. note unless the exigencies or convenience of the country or the interests of the public creditors required it.

I hazard nothing in saying that on no occasion nor under any circumstances has he issued Treasury notes for the purpose of being deposited in banks, "but to facilitate the exchange of specie for notes, without the delay and expense of trans-, porting it to this city, and then carrying it back for expenditure, to effect such an object." Specie may have been placed in certain banks, and Treasury notes to a corresponding amount may have