is liable to excess: the only basis for a safe currency is the demand and supply. A medium resting on this demand, which simply obliges the Government to receive it in all its dues, to the exclusion of every thing except gold and silver, and which shall be optional with those who have demands on the Government to receive or not, would, he thinks, be as stable in its value as those metals themselves, and be as little liable to abuse as the power of coining. Experience alone could determine the amount of this currency. He draws an example from the paper money of North Carolina.

As to the relief to be afforded, he fears that little can be done. The distress of the country arises from its indebtedness, and it can be relieved only by the payment of its debts.

We have reached a remarkable era in our history; of Legislative and Executive encroachments; of tariffs, surpluses, bank and public debt, and extravagant expenditures. The Government stands now disentangled from the past, and freer to choose its course than ever before. He rejoices that the Executive Department is so reduced power and means, that it can no longer rely on its influence and patronage to secure a majority.

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He looks with pride to the wise and noble bearing of the little States Rights party, throughout the eventful period the country has passed through since 1824. They had joined their old opponents on the tariff question, but under their own flag, and made a gallant and successful war against the encroachments of the Executive; but that terminated, he adds, "we part with our late allies in peace, to secure the fruits of our long but successful struggle under the old republican flag of 1798."

The sub-treasury bill, as it was called, provided for the safe keeping of the public money by the Trea

surer of the United States, the treasurer of the mint and its branches, all collectors of the customs and surveyors acting in that capacity, receivers of land offices, and postmasters, till the same were ordered to be paid by the proper Department; and all such depositories were to give additional security, on such terms as should be required by the Solicitor of the Treasury: and the Secretary of the Treasury might appoint special agents to examine the accounts of such depositories.

The bill passed the Senate by twenty-six votes to twenty.

In the House of Representatives, the bill to postpone the payment of the fourth instalment of the surplus fund to the States until the first of January, 1839, passed the House by a small majority.

The sub-treasury bill, as well as all other measures relative to the monetary and financial concerns of the nation, created a protracted discussion; and the effect. of the bank suspension seemed to be so to weaken the Administration party, and to strengthen that of the Opposition, as to make them nearly equal.

All the leading men in both Houses spoke on the subject, but it is now scarcely necessary to do more than to give a very condensed statement of their respective views.

Mr. Clay began with referring the present state of the country to the errors of the Government. If over-action and over-trading were the immediate causes, the Government was responsible for them by its measures. These measures were: First, the veto of the bank charter; second, the removal of the deposits, with the injunction on the banks to enlarge their accommodations; third, the gold bill, and the demand of gold for our foreign indemnities; fourth, the clumsy execution of the deposit

law; fifth, the Treasury order of July, 1836: all of which he examined in detail.

He denied that the surplus was the effect of the tariff: it arose from the great land sales. If the land bill had gone into operation, this surplus would, by the distribution of the proceeds of sales, have prevented the large accumulation in the treasury.

Our error has not been so much a want of wisdom as of firmness. The will of one man has been allowed to predominate, and to carry measures which had been previously disapproved and condemned.

The remedial measures now proposed are:- First, the sub-treasuries, the public depositories for the specie of the Government, refusing all the notes of banks; second, a bankrupt law, levelled at the State banks that stop payment; third, a particular law for the District of Columbia, prohibiting the circulation of any inconvertible paper; and fourth, the suspension of the fourth instalment to the States: which system, if carried out, must end in the total subversion of the State banks.

He spoke of the advantages of a convertible paper, as a labor-saving instrument. He impugned Mr. Calhoun's plan of a paper currency, affirmed that the paper of North Carolina did depreciate, and adverted to a similar experiment in Kentucky, where it signally failed. To make war upon the State banks is to make war upon the people.

True wisdom, he urged, consists not in aiming at theoretic perfection, but in the good that is practicable. A currency exclusively metallic would cause great injustice, by depreciating property. He objected to the subtreasuries, for their insecurity; and adverted to the delinquency of the State Treasurers in Kentucky. He

spoke of the liability of the proposed system to favoritism, and of its fearful increase of Executive patronage.

He denied that this power or patronage was diminished. So far from disclaiming any part of it, the present Chief Magistrate has avowed his intention of following in the footsteps of his predecessor. "The person of the Chief Magistrate is changed, but there stands the Executive power, perpetuated in all its vast magnitude, undiminished, reasserted, and overshadowing all the other Departments of the Government. Every trophy which the late President won from them now decorates the Executive mansion. Every power which he tore from a bleeding Constitution is now in the Executive armory, ready, as time and occasion may prompt the existing incumbent, whoever he may be, to be thundered against the liberties of the people."

"Pass this bill, and the union of the purse and the sword, so justly deprecated, will be effected."

The operation of the system in increasing the power and influence of the Executive was then pointed out.

The Government now says the people expect too much. from it; it is not its business to furnish exchanges: but that was not its language in its contest with the Bank.

He adverted to a National Bank; denied that the question had been decided by the American people; thinks a President has no right to say in advance that he would not approve of a particular bill, if it were passed by Congress; and believed that a majority of the people would now be in favor of a National Bank. The benefits of such a Bank are dwelt upon; and he does not think that any practicable connection of State banks can supply a general currency; but between Mr. Rives's scheme for that purpose, and that recommended by the Administration, he should prefer the former.

Mr. Rives's amendment proposed to authorise the receipt of the bills of all specic-paying banks not issuing notes of less than twenty dollars (as a substitute for the whole sub-treasury bill): it was lost by twenty-six votes to twenty-two.

One of the assailants of the sub-treasury scheme-Mr. Hoffman, of New York-was particularly successful. He was opposed to this bill, because it violated the Constitution, at least in its spirit. He said there should be a common credit or discredit between the Government and the people, a common honor or dishonor, a common interest in all things between them. He scanned the provisions of the bill, said defalcation would ensue; besides the pilfering and frauds of those who would have the charge of the public revenues, there would be the brawling sycophant, and the unscrupulous partisan, whose very bread would depend upon his subserviency to Executive dictation. He said the true cause of the distress of the country was the war on the Bank of the United States by the late Executive. He had never been the friend or the enemy of that Bank, or of the local banks. He showed that Mr. Van Buren had risen to power by the aid of the Safety fund system, and that he was now kicking away the ladder by which he had risen. The bill had been called a "divorce bill;" but it was rather a "fatal marriage:" fatal to the Constitution, and to the liberties and happiness of the people.

Mr. King, of Georgia, followed on the same side. He showed that the system of exchanges by the State banks, instead of being cheaper, was far more expensive, and gave to those banks enormous profits. He aimed to show that the measures of the Government had produced all the present mischief. He had been in favor of Mr. Van Buren's election. In answer to the President's