igh he feels much power, and no fear, yet will he d all useless waste of that power. Treasury agent had been sent, by the President, to State banks; not that he might learn what safety, or it bonus they would give to, or for, the public money; the United States Bank gave the utmost safety to, and I in advance and had given $320,000 per annum for money. The object of inquiry must have been, the tical terms, on which those banks would receive that ey. it le executive directors reported to the President on [H. or R. comes a kind of era, and will hereafter stand in the annals of our institutions, as the advent of pestilence or conflagration stands in the calendars of those nations which have been visited by those calamities. On that memorable 23d of September Mr. Duane was dismissed; and, on the same day, as if such a deed were not enough to render one day odious to all the true whigs of the world, the present Secretary of the Treasury was appointed to fill a vacancy, not happening, but a vacancy created by one deed of despotism to make room for doing another, if possible, more detestable. 'Mr. Taney was appointed; the order and direction of the President, made and promulgated on the 20th, was by him signed; but, whether before or af ter this appointment is, and will remain, among the unknown things of that great deep of darkness and despot le Treasury Department, did, as President of the ism towards which this man, once the man of the people, ed States, and under the provisions of the constitu- is now hurrying all their rights, interests, and liberties. call on himself, as head of that Department, to Let, then, every candid man in the nation examine all to himself his own opinion, in writing, concerning these facts, and determine for himself whether all these ity in that office in respect to the removal of the movements have been made for the safety or benefit of ic money. To this call, the Executive, as head the public money-for the benefit of the people-or to Treasury Department, did, on the 18th of Septem- enable the Executive, the President of the United States, 1833, respond in writing to the Executive, as Pres- to bring that money entirely within his own control. Sir, of the United States, touching his treasury duties in as if the grasping of this money--the removal of this on to that removal. money by his agents-the placing of it in banks controlled that paper containing that opinion, read to the whole by these agents, were not enough to demonstrate this peret on that day, the Executive, as head of the Treas- ilous truth-the President has assumed to himself a power Department, clearly convinces the Executive, as Pres- never before claimed by any Executive of the United of the United States, that it was his imperative duty, States-the power, as executive head of the Treasury he reasons given to himself by himself in that impor- Department, to make that Department accountable to paper, to order and direct that no more public money himself, and obedient to his orders and directions. If he Id be deposited "in the United States Bank or its succeed in maintaining this claim, (and you see the Secches," and that all money then found there, belong- retary of the Treasury already acknowledges his supremto the people of the United States, should be removed acy, and denies that of all the laws;) if, I say, he shall sustheir own keeping in their own bank. The Execu- tain himself in that claim, he will unite in himself the money therefore, did, either as President of the United 3, or as head of the Treasury Department, on that order and direct this cessation of deposite, and this val to be made, on the 1st day of October, 1833. power of the nation with the political power, without any other effort whatever. Thus, sir, this master of the sword will have made himself master also of the treasure of the nation; and how long will the nation remain without a master in this high commander-in-chief? the 20th of the same September, this order and dim, made by the Executive, and to be executed on welfth day following, was officially announced in the itive gazette. Mr. Duane, then Secretary of the all and each of the reasons of the Secretary of the Treasury, and as the law declares "head of that depart-ury. Have we all? We know that we have not. We "denied the power of the President to act as head know that the true, efficient reason for the removal was at department; denied that the reasons, assigned in the order of the President. The Secretary has told us lanifesto of the presidental Secretary of the Treas- that "he holds his office subject to the supervision of the head of that department, were, any or all of them, President." If he can supervise, he can direct; we know ent for ordering and directing a removal of the pub- he did direct; and why has that order and direction made mey; and, more astonishing than all, the President by him been withholden from us. Sir, the House of Representatives, "thus sitting, thus consulting," should have before them the whole reasons, 1 ted, as he had always done, that Mr. Duane, as Sec- Sir, is there a man in this House who breathes the vital of the Treasury, had the entire and independent air, and feels the current of life beating in his bosom, who to decide and adjudicate on this great question of does not feel himself, as a free living man, dishonored ral. Mr. Duane did, on the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and disgraced to stand here before his country examining ind 23d days of that same September, refuse to sign the sufficiency of reasons laid on our table by the Secreder and direction made by the President, or to pro-tary, when he knows that an order of the President, not ite any such paper, under his signature, as his own. sent to us-but not one thread of all this fabric spread bemaccountable as it may appear, the President could fore us-was the great, efficient cause of that deed of ersuade himself that it was lawful for him to sign an power which has convulsed our country throughout all its which he had induced himself to believe it was law-regions? r him to make and give. He dared to adjudicate for Sir, if, then, the true reason of the removal be the or ecretary between the bank and the nation; he dared ke out the execution, the order and direction for o carry that judgment into full effect; but he dared do the mere clerical service of the amanuensis. Praising these questions, for doubting the executive lications, for refusing to obey the presidential man- reasons laid before Congress by the Secretary of the for daring to judge for himself honestly and inde- Treasury are insufficient for the removal. For if that ently, Mr. Duane was dismissed from office. In an removal would not have been made without that order, ary event, the day of its occurring is not material; then it was not made because of these reasons sent to us, 1 these daring and portentous acts of executive usur- but because of that order not sent to us. So far, theren, the day, the hour, the moment, when one of them fore, are any or all these reasons from being sufficient, is a blot on the fair page of our national history, be- that they might all have existed, and the removal would der of the President; and, if that order were given, not for the safety of that money, or for any benefit to the people, but to bring the public treasure within the executive control, and unite that money power with the political power already in his hands, it necessarily follows that the not have been made, unless the order of the President had been given to make it. The Secretary of the Treasury has disobeyed the law; he has not laid before Congress his reasons for his order and direction. He has not laid before them the President's order, or his own promise, made either before, or after his appointment, to obey that order. The House might, therefore, immediately, and without further consideration, vote the reasons laid before us insufficient; not only because they are but a part, but because they are not the efficient part of his reasons for the removal. For another cause, these reasons are not only insufficient, but utterly nugatory. It is known to every member of this House, that every one of the reasons now laid before Congress by this Secretary of the Treasury, as [MARCH 26, 1834 If, therefore, Mr. Duane had the right to decide on the sufficiency of these reasons, and did condemn them for insufficiency, could Mr. Taney, the next hour, by order of the President, give to these reasons a sufficiency which one hour before, did not by law appertain to them? If the law made it the duty of Mr. Secretary Duane to decide on the sufficiency of these reasons, can Congres reverse his decision? Congress, or either House may, al any time, order an inquiry, by a committee, into the con dition and conduct of the bank; but if Congress, after in quiry, instead of sending the case to a jury, place before the Secretary of the Treasury, no matter how many res sons, for ordering and directing a removal of the depos ites, and he adjudge those reasons insufficient, neither House, nor both Houses, can reverse his decision. W causes-as reasons for his order and direction to remove it, then, be contended that the President can do it; an the deposites, were by the President laid before the Sec- that an adjudication, made in the forenoon by one Secr retary of the Treasury; and by him examined and adjudged tary of the Treasury, could, in the afternoon, be reverser to be insufficien Fiat adjudication, if not destroyed, by another? Can it be possible that we have a power remains now on the records of the Treasury Department. and that merely executive, in the United States, which What, then, can give any new sufficiency to reasons con- can, by this process of removal and order of reversal, su dem.ned as insufficient, by that Secretary, who had the aside against great fiscal adjudications between the sole right to judge, who nobly stood at the Treasury States and any of the people; between the United State door, and resisted the executive order and the executive and corporations of the United States, where solemn con arm, in all attempts to remove the money of the people tracts and all the principles of good faith, are involved a from the bank of the people, where the laws of the peo- such proceedings? Sir, if a fiscal decision can be tha ple had placed it in unquestioned safety? UL reversed, not a law in your whole revenue system la It is admitted by all men, that this Secretary of the any better foundation for its practical uniformity, fres Treasury had the legal, the undoubted, the unquestiona- year to year, or from place to place, than mere executus ble authority to adjudicate and decide on the sufficiency will and caprice. If this decision of Secretary Duane e of these reasons. If that be true, no man can have the be reversed by his successor, then every decision of ever right to rejudge, and reverse his decision. Any rule con- Secretary can be reversed by any successor in that offic trary to this, would put every thing in that Department These reasons are, then, insufficient, because they a utterly afloat. not the reasons for which Secretary Taney ordered at It has been seen, that both the Secretary of the Treas- directed the removal; and because they, and all other re ury and the Comptroller are vested with high judicial sons for that removal, were adjudged insufficient by M powers on many fiscal questions, and that this now before Duane; and that decision cannot be reversed by his us, is one among those questions. If a ship, with a cargo cessor. of $500,000, come within the port of Philadelphia, and, by mistake, the master do not exhibit his manifest in due form, and the vessel and cargo be seized, application is made to the Secretary or the Comptroller, to release the dent could, and therefore he did, justly dismiss this pu seizure, and admit the ship to a legal entry. A trial is lic officer. Possum quia possum, is the measure, had. The fiscal judge, on a full inquiry, is satisfied that the justification of presidential power. On what principle was Mr. Duane dismissed fro office? On this principle: The possession of pow always justifies the exercise of that power. The Pr termination, who can cause it to expire before that tin This act of the Executive was a sheer exercise no fraud was intended. He adjudges the ship not guilty, There is no precedent for such a dismissal. Mr. Dual and orders the collector to release the seizure, and to ad- was appointed to fill a vacancy happening in the recess mit her to a legal entry. Should this come to the ear of the Senate. No Secretary, so appointed, has been the President, could he cause that judgment to be re- believe, so dismissed. By the constitution his commis versed, by dismissing that officer, and appointing another, expires at the close of the next succeeding session of C who would give assurance that, if appointed, he would gress. If it must expire at that time, who can bring it make that reversal, hold the ship to the seizure, and cause her to be libelled, and, if possible, condemned? Nay, could he make this reversal of this adjudication, and, without a libel or a trial, condemn the ship and cargo, as he has reversed the adjudication of Mr. Duane in favor of the bank, and caused another Secretary to condemn that institution, without a scire facias, or a judge, or a jury, or any trial whatever. Thousands of fiscal cases have been tried; but never did a President of the United States attempt to reverse a judgment once so made.* On the petition of Justin and Elias Lyman, reported House of Representatives, November 25, 1814, Secretary Del sustains the same doctrine, declaring that, "the Secretary ha acted, his decision is final." In the report made to the same House, November 25, 19 the petition of Charles D'Wolfe, the Comptroller, Mr. Daval pressly states, "that the case of the petitioner having bee cided by his predecessor, the subject was not then consider open to investigation." When the same case was before the trict Judge, he decided "that the exclusive power of disung in such cases, was in the Comptroller; and his judgment was There was, I believe, no appeal from the decision of this * The irreversible character of all decisions made by the Secretary or the Comptroller of the Treasury, in all cases committed, and conclusive." by law, to their determination, is established by the uniform usage of that Department, and confirmed by judicial precedent. and, at all events, his opinion, in this respect, has never been To demonstrate this, reference is here made to a few, out of the versed, controverted, or questioned. many cases on record decided by those Treasury officers, and af- In the case of Thomas Vincent, reported to the House of terwards determined to be irreversible by the Department. resentatives, March 1, 1813, sixteen other cases being gever On the petition of Noah Shaw, reported to the House of Rep- by the same principle, the decision of the Secretary of the The resentatives, December 3, 1814, A. J. Dallas, Secretary of the ury in cases of forfeiture is regarded as final and conclusin Treasury, uses the following words: "The case must, therefore, The conclusive and final nature of a Treasury decis be deemed to have been decided on its merits; and the power of therefore, established by authority; and, when once made, the Secretary of the Treasury being once executed, the Depart- not afterwards be modified, rescinded, or changed by that ment cannot afterwards modify, or rescind, or change its decision."partment. MARCH 26, 1834.] The Public Deposites. [H. OF R. power; and violation of a constitutional right to hold an the spoils of victory; but a tribute of so many human fice according to the tenor of his commission, and not heads as would form a pyramid at the gate, surrounded it the will of the Executive. This man was not dismissed, by columns, higher and more massy, Mr. Speaker, than tis true; because he was literally turned out of office. those which surround this Hall. One of these same All ages of the world have furnished the historian with trophies had been built, by order of this man of power, abundant materials brought into existence by the actions on the ruins of Bagdad; and it cost ninety-six thousand of men "who feel power, and forget right." Men of human heads to complete the structure. power have been less numerous, but more distinguished, This command being giving by Timour, he called modern than in ancient times. The Roman, the together the Mussulmen doctors, to propound to them Macedonian, the Persian, and the Assyrian dynasties one of those captious questions in their theology, with rave to the world many men of power. All of them, which he had puzzled the schools of Herat and Samarinwever, we shall find, if we look back from the third chand. Bursting into a rage of passion, in anger not a Jasar, the dissimulating, bloody, and profligate Tiberius, whit behind the best display of it in our own time and nhim, the last of his race, whose midnight carousal country, he exclaimed to these subdued and trembling ailed into his seraglio, and profaned, with meretricious men, "Ye are false as those of Damascus. Moawiyah pations, vessels consecrated in the temple to the was a usurper, Yezid a tyrant, and Ali alone is the lawful Forship of the Most High; if we look at them all, not successor of the prophet. Tell me, who are the true ne will be found to have equalled Timour; that great martyrs, those who fall on my side, or those of my logul chief, of the thirteen and fourteenth centuries, adversaries?" A cadi of the school answered him sually called Tamerlane. All of them justified their adroitly: "Sire," said he, "the prophet has determined fred's because they had the power to do them. Possum that great question. He has told us, that the purpose possum was their motto; but Timour alone contended for which, and not the standard under which, he fights, at his power was given to him by God; and, therefore, makes the martyr. If he fight for the glory of God, and th him, I can, because I can, was a dogma of his reli-fall in battle, he is a true martyr; and the black-eyed n. No other man exercised so much power, and Houris shall receive him into the paradise of the pro lemolished so many of those things produced by human phet." abor. He alike swept away the narrow hamlet and the Timour, appeased by this timely reply, fell into easy de city; and struck, like death himself, with equal conversation. "How old are you doctor?" said he to How at the cottage of the poor and the palace of the the cadi. Fifty years, was the reply. "It would be," pulent. None of all the men of power, like him, drove said the chief, "the age of my eldest son. You see me the ploughshare of ruin through the earth; or turned up here a poor, lame, decrepit old man; and yet it has wide a field of the inhabited world; or drenched the pleased the Almighty, by my arm, to overthrow the furrows of that field with such a waste of human blood; or great kingdoms of Iran, Tauran, and the Indies. I am gathered, out of the ruins of nations, such a harvest of not a man of blood; and God will bear me witness, that lunder in gold, silver, and all other precious riches. my enemies were always the aggressors, and brought the This great Mogul was a most devout Mussulman, had evils of war on themselves." Leca taught his creed in that faith, under the doctors of During this peaceful conversation, as Gibbon tells us, he Persian school; and fervently followed the sect of the streets of Aleppo ran down in streams of blood; and grandson of the prophet himself. He abhorred the the portico, where they were seated, echoed with the atometans of Western Asia and Africa, the people of cries of mothers and children, and the shrieks of wives and Egypt, as the disciples of heretics and usurpers. and daughters. Such was the man who could look with 570ner had he returned from his successful campaigns composure on such deeds of blood and carnage; and such Loa, than he proclaimed a seven years' war against were his deeds of power, on the western coast of Asia, use countries; and swore by Allah himself, that he little more than four hundred years ago. In those days will use the power of God to extirpate heresy from of darkness and despotism, so spake the man of those rface of the earth. The military republic of the Mamalukes was still werful in Egypt and Syria; and the emirs of that sty had assembled at Aleppo to resist this tide of war tg on against that devoted city. No city of Asia was re splendid. None adorned with more wealth, beauty, valor. The Syrians, instead of sheltering themselves, as they ot, behind their impregnable walls and bulwarks, re too proud of their own valor to fight behind them; He times, whose motto was, I can, because I can. All, but the mere forms of this power have faded and vanished from existence. The great maxims of it are erased from the records of nations, in that quarter of the 1, relying on their discipline, their true Damascus earth; and the maxims of law are now inscribed on those les, and lances of the same steel and temper, they archives where that of absolute dominion stood in letters ew open their gates, and marched out into the plain. of blood, many years since our own country was first re they were encountered by the whole array of Scy- visited by civilized men. war. The chief had covered, from wing to wing, How the claims of power fly from region to region of front rank, by a line of elephants of the most formida- our troubled world! How these vile birds of strong Indian race. These, in addition to the terrific arms wing and voracious beak, when deprived of food in one en to them by nature, were surmounted with towers, nation, are soon in flight to find and devour their prey in d with men armed with Greek fire, and with Scythian another. coers; men quick of eye, strong of arm, and deadly of At the first discharge, the Syrians were thrown disorder; and the rapid and repeated evolutions and ages of sixty thousand calvary, quickly completed overthrow. They rushed back into the city, with Er conquerors pursuing and mingling with them. At gate Timour gave the command to his soldiers to act the customary tribute, due from conquered cities. at a tribute of wealth or beauty; these were of course VOL. X.-202 "As does the vulture on Imaus bred, Here, in our own country, what do we see? The maxims of power used by Tamerlane and Arungzebe in their Government, have been picked up by political anH. OF R.] The Public Deposites. [MARCH 26, 1834. tiquaries, as fragments and forgotten relics, among the who candidly and impartially inquire into the course of ruins of Asiatic despotism; and though when brought political events. into our country they were at first regarded as mere cu- It is, indeed, a most singular and extraordinary reasor, riosities, yet have the devoted partisans of the Executive interpolated these maxims of power on the pure text of the constitution; and we may now read, inscribed by the Presidential hand, on the walls of the Treasury of the United States, I can, because I can, as the great maxim this lack of time, this two and a half years too short for one trial; and, at the same time, without conviction, without a trial, without notice to the accused, to proceed to condemnation and punishment! What would you say to the chief executive officer of of his legal and constitutional power. Under the exer- this district, the marshal, if charged with a warrant cise of this maxim, and this alone, as it has been admitted arrest a man accused of a capital offence; what would be by his devotees, Duane, a man who, when the record of said of this officer, if when he found this man not a our times shall be made up, will, like Aristides the Athe-health, but sitting in his own house, and his physician nian, be surnamed the Just; yes, such a man was, by the examining the state of that health, what execration worl President, dismissed from the national service, merely be poured on that marshal, if, because that physiciat because he had power to dismiss him. No matter how assured him this man could not live more that two much power, if the dismissal be a wrongful exercise of years and a half, he should take him from his fireside, it. Mere power without justice is the attribute of a fiend, and, amidst the cries, and tears, and entreaties of his wit and not of a man, and every exercise of that power, and children, hang him up at his own gateway, and ther without regard to justice, is alien to humanity-is purely and altogether demoniac. justify this deed of outrage and atrocity by saying two yest and a half was not time enough to try him; and, unles Is not this the very instance of peril named by Mr. he had been so executed, he would have died a natur Madison? A man is dismissed from office, whose merits death, and escaped punishment? How do these required him to be retained in office. In such an event, deeds differ in principle? One is a single felony; a mur what says the patriarch of the constitution. Hear his der of one man; a ruin of one family. The other i own words: "If the President wantonly remove meritori- fatal stab at the constitution of a nation; a violence don ous officers, 1 contend that he subjects himself to im- to good faith, which has spread ruin and wretchedne peachment." Was not Duane a meritorious officer? over a whole country. What, sir, what would you what would all the genuine Sir, this new Secretary of the Treasury, after surr friends of the President have been willing to lose rather dering to the President the control of the Treasury Di than he should have lost the service, or failed to follw the partment, by making him head of that Department, dot wholesome counsel of Duane the Just? Can that power, claim for himself powers never given to him by the law which, by his removal, subjects itself to condemnation, not only justify the very act by which he is condemned; but also vacate and reverse the legal adjudications made by this Secretary, before his unjust expulsion from office? After this decision, by Mr. Duane, against the removal of the national money, the President had but one legal course in relation to the bank. If he believed that the charter had been violated, his duty called on him to direct a scire facias to be issued. A jury would have been empannelled forthwith; every fact could have been tried in one month at most. Had the case been brought up to the Supreme Court, two weeks would have been a time amply sufficient for the trial; and that trial, by the rules of the court, would have taken place early in the first succeeding term. Sir, before the end of January, 1834, it would have been settled. All this would have He can, as he tells us, without violating the claims of th bank, and that, too, by the charter, remove the publ money from that institution at any time, and without f happening of any contingency whatever. "The Can this be so? What says the charter? ney of the United States, in places where the Bank of th United States or its branches shall be established, sha be deposited in that bank or its branches, unless Secretary of the Treasury shall, at any time, otherwis order and direct;" and, in that case, he shall, imm diately, when, or so soon as in session, lay his reasdi before Congress. If the Secretary must lay reasons before Congres then it is evident that he must have such reasons before can make such order and direction; for, otherwise, could have none to lay before Congress, when he b made his order and direction. been done, and the country remained, during the The bank and the United States, then, by the charte whole time, in a condition of universal quietness; rely-agreed that, for certain reasons, the Secretary of the Tre ing on the operation of law, and the preservation of ury might, at any time, order and direct a cessation of national good faith; and without any of that alarm, deposite of the United States money in the United Sta distrust, loss of confidence, and universal ruin, which have Bank and its branches. followed this departure from law-this violation of that faith. If, for certain reasons, the Secretary might make s order and direction, it is absurd to say that, by the ch To this course there seems to have been, in the presi-ter, he has power to make that order and direction witho dential mind, one fatal objection. The Executive would the happening or occurring of any such event; any su have retained all the political power granted by the con- contingency as would furnish such reasons for so ki stitution; but, if a jury and a court had decided against as he might lay before Congress when he had so donta him, he could not have obtained any of that power over The power of the Secretary is, therefore, not absolut the money of the people which was never intended to be granted to him. Sir, the law has guarded both the safety of the bank and the good faith of the nation, by providing that a jury trial may be had, on all questions whether the bank has violated the contract made by its charter with the United States. If both the President and Congress refuse to order such a trial, what is the fair inference? Sir, all mankind will say that Congress cannot obtain a commit but limited, and can be exercised in no case, unless the happening of such such events, such contingencie as, when they have happened, will furnish such sufficiet reasons as, when laid before Congress, will justify himf. having given such order and direction. What must those events be? They must be events cos nected with the character and conduct of the bank, be cause the original reasons for making the deposites in th bank were connected with the character and conduct tee which will report; nor has the President reason to the bank. Now, whatever might have been the orig believe that the bank charter has been violated. For be reasons for making the deposites in that bank, it is cha assured, the allegation that two years and a half was a that the reasons for ceasing to make them there, must I time too short for this trial, will never satisfy those men la cessation of those original reasons for so making th MARCH 26, 1834.] The Public Deposites. H. or R. deposites. If, then, the original reasons for making the contract, what did the bank agree to do, in relation to deposite in the bank were found in the character and the public money? Why, just as much as the Secretary conduct of the bank, (and where else could they be says he originally, when there was no law on the subject, found?) it follows, conclusively, that the reasons for ceas- had a right to require of the keepers of that money which ing to make those deposites in that bank, must likewise he himself should employ. They, the bank, agreed to be found in the character and conduct of the bank. keep the money safely, in the hands of faithful agents, in If the money were deposited in the bank in pursuance places convenient and ready to be applied according to of the charter; and if the charter be, as the Secretary the wants of Government. What, then, becomes of the alleges it to be, a contract; then, if while the original Secretary's power to remove the money, when there is causes for which the deposites are made in the bank are no absence of legislative provision; when Congress has continued, and exist in full efficiency; or, in other words, contracted with the bank to furnish such places of safed, while the bank fulfils its part of the contract, the Sec- keeping for this money, in the hands of such agents, ready retary of the Treasury order and direct a cessation of to be applied according to the wants of Government; and those deposites in the bank; will not Congress, if it justify when the bank fulfils its contract? hm, violate that part of the contract which the United Let it be, then, granted that the Secretary has all this States are bound to fulfil? original power to look for places of safe-keeping for the It is idle, and worse than absurd, it is fraudulent to con- public money, when none is provided by law; what foltend that there can be a contract, binding on one party, lows? How can he look for such places when the law und of no obligation on the other. A contract is a moral has provided such places? His whole duty, according to gament, equally binding both parties. If, then, the his own showing, is then resolved into such a supervision bank is bound by the contract made in the charter, the of the bank, as will enable him to know when it does, or Enited States, being the other party, are also bound by does not, fulfil its contract; when the public money is All admit, all contend, that the bank is bound by safely kept by faithful agents, in places convenient and their charter; and that, by any, the least violation of its ready to be applied according to the wants of Govern. provisions, the charter and all its benefits are forfeited. ment. So soon as, by the returns made to him, and by How, then, are the United States under no obligation, and his inspection of the books and papers of the bank, from the bank bound by every obligation of this contract? which they are made, he finds that the bank has ceased How can the Secretary of the Treasury have any reasons to fulfil its contract; that it does not furnish safe-keeping fremoving the money, when the bank preserves in full for the public money, in the hands of faithful agents, in force and efficiency all the reasons for which that money convenient places, ready to be applied according to the was originally placed in its custody and keeping? wants of Government, he can order and direct that, there Is it to be presumed that the bank paid to the United after, the public money shall not be deposited in the Stales, for the use of this money, a sum which, if the in- United States Bank or its branches. He must immediterest of it be calculated on the rules of discount and ately lay this order and direction before Congress, with renewal, or as at the Treasury, at the rate of quarterly the reasons for making them. payments; the sum advanced would, at the end of the If this be true, the Secretary cannot make this order Charter, be equal to $5,500,000; and that the bank agreed and direction until the public money is unsafe, or the In pay this under a contract by which the Secretary of agents are unfaithful, or it is not kept in convenient places, Treasury might, by the terms of that contract, and or it is not ready to be applied according to the wants of Masut any violation of it, the very next day, without Government. When he does make this order and direcTry to the rights of the bank, order and direct a re- tion, his reasons for making them must be the unsafety of al of this money for no reason whatever; and thereby the keeping, or the unfaithfulness of the agents, or the grable Congress to sell the use of it to other banks for inconvenience of the places of keeping, or the want of other bonus? No, sir, never; until the presumptions readiness for its application to the wants of Government. law shall favor the practice of fraud, and cease to susWho will pretend that the bank has not kept the peobonesty and fair dealing. ple's money safely, in the hands of faithful agents, in The Secretary tells us that it was "always his duty, in convenient places, and at all times ready for the wants of the absence of any legislative provision on the subject, to Government? The Secretary does not pretend it; it is ake care that the public money was deposited in safe- not in his reasons. If, therefore, the Secretary of the eeping in the hands of faithful agents, in places conve- Treasury has the power to find a place of safety for the ent and ready to be applied according to the wants of public money, he has found it in the bank; and, as Convernment; ent; that the bank charter, without giving gress ordered it to be placed there so long as that safety any new power, confirms that which he before pos. continued, he has yet no power of removal, and his reased; and that his liability to render reasons to Congress, sons are insufficient. 4: remove the money, is but the liability which, by law, Sir, we have a new theory from the Secretary of the Was always under to account to either or both Houses." Treasury; but it is too late in the day for him to devise Ie whole of this is incorrect; but, for the sake of the any new theory of that Department. The true theory ment, let it all be admitted. If the Secretary can, was established, under laws already quoted, by Alexander the power reserved to him under the charter, at any Hamilton, the first head of the Treasury; and we may look out for and remove the money to a place of safe learn what it was by his letter, dated February 25, 1794, posite, and do this because the law has not provided in answer to the call of a committee of this House, made me, "in the absence of legal provision," as he says, then, on him three days before. He says: to by law, a place of safe-keeping has been provided, his "All moneys collected on account of the United States, wer of removal ceases. If the law has provided that and deposited in banks to the credit of the Treasurer, arc money shall be kept in the bank, then, by the Secre- considered as in the Treasury from the time of deposite. y's own declaration, he has no right of removal so long The steady course with regard to the standing revenue is, at bank furnishes a place of safe-keeping, in the that the money deposited in banks passes immediately to ands of faithful agents, in places convenient and ready the credit of the Treasurer. But it is necessary, to disbe applied according to the wants of Government. For charge the payers, that receipts of the Treasurer should says he originally had the power to find such places of be endorsed upon warrants signed by the Secretary, counkeeping in the hands of such agents; and that the tersigned by the Comptroller, and registered by the arter has reserved to him all this orginal power, nor Register, which is the course regularly observed. mes he claim any more. Now, sir, if the charter be a "After moneys are deposited in banks to the credit of |