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on, and agree from necessity to use them as money. In Ohio, with all her abundance, it was hard to get money to pay taxes. The sheriff of Muskingum county, as stated by the Guernsey Times, in the summer of 1842, sold at auction one four-horse wagon, at $5 50; 10 hogs at 61 cents each; two horses (said to be worth from $50 to $75 each) at $2 each; two cows at $1 each; a barrel of sugar for $1 50: and a "store of goods" at that rate. In Pike county, Mo., as stated by the Hannibal Journal, the sheriff sold 3 horses at $1 50 each; 1 large ox at 12 cents; 5 cows, 2 steers, and 1 calf, the lot at $3 25; 20 sheep at 13 cents each; 24 hogs, the lot, at 25 cents; 1 eight-day clock, at $2 50; lot of tobacco, 7 or 8 hogsheads, at $5; 3 stacks of hay, each, at 25 cents; and 1 stack of fodder, at 25 cents. The United States Almanac stated the losses on five descriptions of capital, in four years, from 1837, as follows:

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Losses on bank circulation and deposites....

66 on bank capital failed and depreciated.

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248,000,000

100,000,000

80,000,000

300,000,000

$782,000,000

A writer of a series of papers published in New York, in 1840, entitled, "Letters to the people of the United States, by CONCIVIS," showing a good deal of ability, and apparent labor of investigation, sums up a catalogue of losses in the whole country, for the same period, as follows:

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A portion of this, it will be seen, is a calculation of depression of values in permanent property, amounting to more than half of the aggregate, which is restored, at least in part, with the revival of prosperity, and does not, therefore, belong to the score of absolute and entire destruction; though it shows what would continue as the effect, and operate destruction, without a remedy. In all

seasons of general adversity of this kind, however, a vast amount of permanent property is forced to change hands, and is consequently a sacrifice to individuals, though not to the country, when its value is restored. With these abatements, and with all allowances for the difficulties of coming at exact truth-variations from which being as likely to fall on one side as the other, except in a want of fairness-calculations of this kind lead to stupendous results, of which this is an instructive example.

Government can facilitate or embarrass, revive or destroy, the trade of a nation, and it is fair to hold it responsible for unfavorable results in commerce, domestic and foreign. The maxim of Mr. Van Buren-"Let the people take care of themselves, and the government take care of itself," is subverting the design of government, whose appropriate function is a parental care of the people and their interests. But this maxim destroys this parental relation, fosters unnatural and destructive passions, and seems to authorize rulers to prey on the people. It is undoubtedly true, that the American people will take care of themselves, if the government will let them. All they require is the protection of their interests vested in labor, art, and capital, which is one of the chief designs of the appointment of governing powers.

CHAPTER III.

REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITES.

Care of the Public Funds committed by Law to Congress, and by Law forbidden to the Executive.-An Opinion of the Supreme Court.-The Secretary of the Treasury an Agent of Congress, not of the Executive.-Required to make his Report to Congress.-The Secretary of the Treasury reads a Lecture to Congress, and helps them out of a difficulty.-An Employée that has more Power than his Principals.-The Airs of an unrobed Official.-Mr. Clay's Resolutions. -Remarks.-A Revolution.-The Judiciary humbled.-The President takes the Responsibility.-Mr. Clay's Views.-Correspondence between General Jackson and Mr. Duane.-The President takes Charge of Morals, &c.-A Cæsar. -Mr. Duane's noble Conduct.

It will not be surprising to those who may have read the preceding parts of this work, that the transaction indicated by the head of this chapter, should have been regarded as an alarming usurpation. When it is considered, that one of the prime and most careful objects of all free governments has ever been to keep the purse of the state separate from the sword; that in whatever nation these two powers have been united, it has been used for purposes of despotism; that the government of the United States was carefully constructed to guard against it; that all the laws erecting and governing the treasury department were framed expressly to constitute it the agent of the democratic branch of the government, and make it responsible to that branch alone; that it is required to report to that body, and not to the executive; that the treasurer of the United States, and not the secretary of the treasury, is by law made the keeper of the public funds, and required to give bonds for their security; that the treasurer's duties are clearly defined in the statute, as follows, "To receive and keep the moneys of the United States, and to disburse the same, upon warrants drawn by the secretary of the treasury, countersigned by the comptroller, recorded by the register, and NOT OTHERWISE;" that the constitution says, "No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law," that is, only by the authority of Congress; that the bank of

the United States, by the act of its incorporation, was constituted the treasury of the nation; that, in consequence of these various enactments, made from time to time, creating the treasury, appointing its agents, and regulating its concerns, the president of the United States was as effectually cut off from any lawful power to touch the public funds, or to have any control over them, as any other man in the nation, or in the world, and designedly and especially so, for the reason that they were INTENDED to be kept out of his reach, on the ground of a recognised principle of supreme political importance, that the security of public liberty required it; and when, in addition to these provisions of law, it is considered, that, in consequence of a disposition manifested, on the part of the president, to violate these obligations, and transcend these limitations of his authority, the house of representatives in Congress-a majority of whom were his political friends-passed a resolution, in March, 1833, by a vote of 110 to 46, "That the government deposites may, in the opinion of the house, be safely continued in the bank of the United States," thus emphatically expressing their opinion in advance, as a rebuke of the purpose, and as an admonition against its execution; and when, in addition to all this, it is also considered, that the secretary of the treasury, prompted by the president himself, sent an agent to inquire as to the safety of the public deposites in the bank of the United States, who reported, that they were perfectly safe; and that, in consequence of the endeavors of the president, in his official documents and otherwise, to excite public distrust in the bank, a committee was appointed by Congress to make the same inquiry, with the same result;-it can not be denied, that these laws and these facts ought to have been regarded as a very formidable barrier to the executive act of taking charge of these deposites, and removing them, NOTWITHSTANDING!

To clear the way for this extraordinary assumption of power, it was necessary, first, to assume, that the secretary of the treasury was an executive agent, challenging or overlooking the fact, that he was constituted by law the agent of the legislative branch of the government. That, unfortunately, according to the practice of the government-though it is believed against the design of the constitution he held his place at the will of the president by the power of removal, is true, as is the case with every public officer that is appointed by the co-ordinate power of the senate, there being practically no co-ordinate power in removing from office. It

should be remarked, however, that this power of removal, as usually exercised by the president, is no further a settled question than by the precedent of the casting vote of the vice-president in the first Congress under the constitution, and may therefore be considered an open question.

The heads of the departments of state, navy, and war, seem to be recognised executive agents, and make their reports directly to the president. The members of the cabinet are no rule to determine this question, as there is no such constitutional body or faculty, it being optional with the president, who he will have as advisers, or whether he will have any; though, as a matter of prudence, and in respect for usage, he could hardly dispense with it. General Jackson brought into his cabinet the attorney-general and postmaster-general, not before practised.

It will be observed, that Mr. Secretary Taney, in whose name the deposites were removed, very properly addresses his report of that transaction to the Hon. Andrew Stevenson, speaker of the house of representatives, over his signature of R. B. Taney, secretary of the treasury. Though the reports from that department are always made to Congress, there seems not to have been a uniformity in the modes of address. Whether there has been at any time a disposition to break loose from that connexion, and form a new one, is not a fact admitting of very clear evidence. Mr. Secretary Woodbury, in 1837, sends his report as usual to Congress, but addresses it to NOBODY-that is, to no representative functionary. It begins thus: "In obedience to an act supplementary to an act to establish the treasury department, the secretary of the treasury respectfully submits to Congress the following report." Mr. Secretary Spencer, in 1843, addresses his report to the Hon. Willie P. Mangum, president of the senate, and begins: "Sir: By the act of Congress approved May 10, 1800, IT IS MADE THE DUTY of the secretary of the treasury," &c.- —a very suitable recognition of the authority under which he acted. This obvious relation, as developed in the history of the action of the treasury department, corresponds, as it should, with the constitution and the laws, and shows, as might be expected, that the secretary is a minister of the legislature, and not of the executive branch of the government. The reasoning in the decision of the supreme court of the United States, given in the note* below, in the case of Mar

"By the constitution of the United States, the president is invested with certain important political powers, in the exercise of which, he is to use his own discretion, and is accountable only to his country in his political character, and to his

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