look to government for too much." The framers of our Constitution "judged that the less Government interferes with private pursuits, the better for the general prosperity;" and if he refrains "from suggesting to Congress any specific plan for regulating the exchanges of the country, relieving mercantile embarrassments, or interfering with the ordinary operations of foreign or domestic commerce, it is from a conviction that such measures are not within the constitutional province of the General Government.

The difficulties of the times cannot be regarded as affecting the permanent prosperity of the nation. The suspension of specie payments, under the circumstances of our country, can be but temporary; and all banks that are solvent will redeem their issues in gold and silver.

He regrets that, in his first communication, he should be required to address them on such topics; "but it is a high gratification to know that we act for a people to whom the truth, however unpromising, can always be spoken with safety, and for the trial of whose patriotism no emergency is too severe." He does not mean to detain them longer than the object for which they were convened demands; and he reserves for their annual meeting the general information on the state of the Union.

This message had been looked for with great anxiety by the public, naturally desirous of learning the course proposed to be pursued by the Administration; and while all the State banks, and those interested in them, did not relish the doctrine of separating the moneyed concerns of the Government from all agency of the banks, many others were dissatisfied with the proposition that the people expected too much from the Gov

ernment, whose proper province was not to aid or relieve individuals, however numerous a class they constituted, but to leave them to their own and other private efforts.

Probably some surprise was felt by the Opposition, that the President, instead of admitting that the suspension of the banks had been an unexpected evil, and of attempting to show that it was not fairly attributable to the measures of the Government, should have regarded it as a confirmation of the policy that had condemned all systems of paper money, and had sought to establish a metallic currency. The views presented by him in favor of that policy were well calculated to influence. popular sentiment; and, therefore, the friends of the Administration were disposed to give to the message the widest circulation.

The banks of New York had, a little before Congress met, proposed to the banks of Philadelphia, to call a convention of the banks to meet in New York, in October, for the purpose of fixing on a day for resuming cash payments; but the Philadelphians thought it would be premature to act on the subject, until they saw the course that Congress would pursue, and declined to appoint delegates to the proposed convention.

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury was very full in its details of the course pursued by the Department since the bank suspension, as well as on the plan of separating the financial concerns of the Government from all connection with the banks.

Mr. Wright, of New York, introduced a bill in the Senate for the issue of ten millions of treasury-notes, not bearing interest for one year; also a bill, authorising a further postponement of the time of payment of duty bonds for six months.

The Secretary of the Treasury addressed a letter to the Speaker of the House, in compliance with a resolution of the eleventh instant, inquiring whether a letter purporting to be from him to the Clerk of the House, offering payment to the members in specie, was authentic; and if so, to what other claimants on the treasury a similar offer has been made, and what principle of discrimination has been adopted: also, that he report the amount of specie received since the first of May last, from whence received, how it has been disbursed, the amount on hand and where deposited, and whether any part of the public dues have been received on protested drafts.

The Secretary states that the letter is authentic; that he had once made a similar offer to many other claimants, in fulfilment of the law requiring specie to be paid by the Government; but after the bank suspension, it was necessary to make some discrimination. whom he paid in specie he thus classed :

First. The debentures of the merchants.

Second. The salaries of all the land officers.

Those

Third. The moneys refunded from sales of land, the titles to which proved defective.

Fourth. The fees received for patents, and refunded since May.

Fifth. The Indians, and those connected with their affairs.

Sixth. A large part of the payment for certain State stocks bought by the War Department, for investment of Indian funds.

Seventh. All claims on the Chickasaw funds.

Eighth. Payments have been made with a view to secure the efficient operations of the State, War, and Navy Departments: hence, bills of exchange have been

purchased with specie, and the bills remitted to our agents abroad.

Ninth. In the domestic operations of the War and Navy Departments, specie has been occasionally furnished.

Tenth. Reasonable amounts in specie have been paid to pensioners.

Eleventh. Specie has been furnished to the War Department, to defray travelling expenses of officers.

Twelfth. On like principles, the offer was made to pay members of Congress, to whom most of the pay would be for travel, in so short a session.

Thirteenth. As the specie has increased from the land offices in June and July, and also from some of the deposit banks, the Department has been able to extend its offers yet further.

Fourteenth. Judges, and other officers of courts, near land offices, have been paid in specie.

Fifteenth. The holders of the debt against the cities in the District of Columbia; as the interest on the stocks had been paid in specie.

Sixteenth. The holders of the scrip for the fifth instalment of the French indemnity.

The other inquiries were answered so as to exonerate the Secretary.

Various petitions and memorials were presented against the annexation of Texas, in consequence of the disposition manifested by Texas; and Mr. Adams took occasion to declare that, in many parts of the United States, a dissolution of the Union would be preferred to such annexation.

On the discussion of the bill for issuing treasury-notes, Mr. Calhoun spoke at great length on the present financial condition of the country.

He first inquired whether the connection between the Government and the banks should continue; and was decidedly of opinion that it should not. He considered it to be an established fact, that the State banks could not furnish a sound and stable currency: the only alternative presented to our choice is a disconnection with the State banks, or the establishment of a Bank of the United States.

But there are difficulties in the way of the latter alternative which he considered insuperable. The people are generally opposed to such a bank, and the States Rights party have always considered it unconstitutional. If these difficulties were removed, there are others which would prevent the success of the experiment. The circumstances of the present time are very different from those of 1816. Nor would he be willing to afford it a triumph over the Government, though he considered the Government the assailant.

He thinks, moreover, that the connection between the banks and the Government is injurious to the currency, as the issues of the bank expand and contract with the fiscal action of the Government. He endeavored to establish this position from a history of the banking in the United States from the year 1824.

Another objection to a National Bank is, that it was a preference to some citizens over others, by the use of the public funds. It makes a difference, too, between one part of the country and another. As the Government and banks are now separated, it is better for them both to remain so.

He suggests that a paper currency, in some form, is indispensable, in the present condition of the world. He thinks that no convertible paper, none whose credit rests upon a promise to pay, is suitable for a currency, for it