for the accommodation of the Government, I am to inform you that it is my desire that the notes of those banks, payable either on demand, or at no longer period than thirty days after their respective dates, should be received in payment of the duties, as equivalent to gold and silver; and that they will be received from you as such by the Treasurer of the United States.

This measure, besides the immediate accommodation to which it has reference, will facilitate remittances from the several States, without drawing away their specie; an advantage, in every view, important.

I shall case you shortly to be furnished with indications of the genuine notes as will serve to guard you against counterfeits, and shall direct the manner of remitting them. In the mean time, and until further orders, you will please to receive them, transmitting to me a weekly account of your receipts.

The Treasurer of the United States will probably have decasion to draw upon you for part of the compensation of the members of Congress from your State. These drafts you will also receive in payment of the duties, or in exchange for any specie arising from them which shall have come to your hands.

I

am, sir, your obedient servant,

ALEX. HAMILTON,
Secretary of the Treasury.

OTHо H. WILLIAMS, Collector

of Customs for the port of Baltimore, Md.
H. 2.

Extract from a report of the Secretary of the Treasury of
April 22, 1790, with regard to the collection law.
Sec. 30. This section provides for the receipt of the du-
ties in gold and silver coin only. The Secretary has con-
sidered this provision as having for object the exclusion of
payments in the paper emissions of the particular States,
and the securing the immediate or ultimate collection of
the duties in specie, as intended to prohibit to individuals
the right of paying in any thing except gold or silver coin,
but not to hinder the Treasury from making such arrange-
ments as its exigencies, the speedy command of the public
reources, and the convenience of the community, might
dictate; those arrangements being compatible with the
eventual receipt of the duties in specie. For instance: the
Secretary did not imagine that the provision ought to be so
understood as to prevent, if necessary, an anticipation of the
duties by Treasury drafts receivable at the several custom-
houses. And, if it ought not to be understood in this
sense, it appeared to him that the principle of a different
construction would extend to the permitting the receipt of
the notes of public banks issued on a specic fund. Unless

it can be supposed that the exchanging of specie, after it has been received for bank notes, to be remitted to the Treasury, is also interdicted, it seems difficult to conclude that the receipt of them, in the first instance, is forbidden.

Such were the reflections of the Secretary with regard to the authority to permit bank notes to be taken in payment of the duties. The expediency of doing it appeared to him to be still less questionable. The extension of their circulation by the measure is calculated to increase both the ability and the inclination of the banks to aid the Government. It also accelerates the command of the product of the reve nues for the public service, and it facilitates the payment of the duties. It has the first effect, because the course of business occasions the notes to be sent beforehand to distant places, and being ready on the spot, either for payment or exchange, the first post after the duties become payable, or are received, conveys them to the Treasury. The substitution of Treasury drafts, anticipating the duties, could hardly be made without some sacrifice on the part of the public; as they would be drawn upon time, and upon the expectation of funds to be collected, and, of VOL. XIV.-A 5

[25th CoNG. 1st SESS.

course, contingent, it is not probable that they would obtain a ready sale, but at a discount, or upon long credit. As they would also be more or less liable to accident, from the failure of expected payments, there would be continually a degree of hazard to public credit. And, to other considerations, it may be added, that the practice of anticipations of this kind is, in its nature, so capable of abuse, as to render it an ineligible instrument of administration in ordinary cases, and fit only for times of necessity. If the idea of anticipation should be excluded, then the relying wholly upon Treasury drafts would be productive of considerable delay. The knowledge that funds were in hand must precede the issuing of them; here would, of course, be some loss of time. And as the moment of demand, created by the course of business, would frequently elapse, there would as frequently be a further loss of time in waiting for a new demand. In such intervals the public service would suffer, the specie would be locked up, and circulation checked. Bank notes being a convenient species of money, whatever increases their circulation increases the quantity of current money. Hence, the payment of duties is doubly promoted by their aid; they at once add to the quantity of medium, and serve to prevent the stagnation of specie.

The tendency of the measure to lessen the necessity of drawing specie from distant places to the seat of Government, results from the foregoing considerations. The slow operation of Treasury drafts would frequently involve a necessity of bringing on specie to answer the exigencies of Government; the avoiding of which as much as possible, in the particular situation of this country, need not be insisted upon.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May —, 1837.

SIR: As the painful information has reached this Department, through the public press, that your bank has suspended specie payments, the object of this letter is to learn, officially, if that fact has happened; and to receive such explanations concerning the reasons for it, and the future course of your business, as it will be apparent are so important for this Department to know, under the existing liabilities and relations between you and the Government. While, on the one hand, it is deemed proper that such indulgences should be granted by this Department to its former fiscal agents as they may request, consistently with the laws and with the present state of the Treasury; it must be apparent, on the other hand, that nothing can be grantcd which is likely to endanger the safety of the public funds and other important public interests.

The imperative provisions of the act of June, 1836, make it the duty of this Department to discontinue ordering any further sums of public money to be placed with the deposite banks, after suspending specie payments. And hence you are notified that no more can be thus deposited in your institution, provided such a failure to redeem your notes has actually occurred.

It is also made my duty as soon as practicable to select other depositories, and place with them the money of the United States in your possession, as well as the accruing revenue; but the Department will endeavor to draw out the funds in your hands by warrants and transfers, reasonable in their amount and in the periods of their payment. Such warrants and transfers, it is trusted, you will at all times be anxious and able to meet, in a manner satisfactory to all concerned; not only with a view to fulfil faithfully your contract, and relieve the Treasury and its creditors from embarrassment and losses, but to exonerate yourselves and sureties from consequences equally injurious, inevitable, and unpleasant.

I trust, further, that you will continue to regard it your duty, while any public money remains in your possession,

to forward regularly, all the returns and statements which are required by your agreement-the mutual advantages from doing which cannot fail to be obvious. The Department will also feel much obliged if you will furnish, as early as practicable, replies to the two following inquiries, in order that it may be in possession of such intelligence from you, in an authentic form, as will be useful to the community and the States, and very material for regulating properly the future measures of the Treasury. Those inquiries are

1st. Whether you expect to resume specie payments soon, and what mode you propose to take fully and seasonably to indemnify, secure, and satisfy the Government and the pub lic creditors for any breach of your agreement and bond? 2d. Whether, if you do not expect to resume specie payments soon, any particular time for it hereafter has been yet decided on, and what special efforts or arrangements you intend to make for that very important object? I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, LEVI WOODBURY, Secretary of the Treasury.

To the CASHIER of the

K.

Bank.

Merchants and Manufacturers' Bank, Pittsburg, Pa.
Bank of Wilmington and Brandywine, Wilmington, Del.
Bank of Delaware, Wilmington, Delaware.
Union Bank of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland.
Franklin Bank, Baltimore, Maryland.
Bank of Metropolis, District of Columbia.
Bank of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Farmer's Bank of Virginia, at Richmond, Virginia.
Bank of the State of North Carolina, Raleigh, N. Carolina.
Planters and Mechanics' Bank, Charleston, South Carolina.
Bank of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina.
Bank of Augusta, Georgia.

Branch Bank of Alabama, Mobile, Alabama.
Union Bank, of Louisiana, and branches, New Orleans, La.
Commercial Bank, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Planters' Bank of Mississippi, and branches, Natchez, Miss.
Agricultural Bank, and branches, Natchez, Mississippi.
Union Bank of Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee.
Planters' Bank and branches, Nashville, Tennessee.
Bank of Kentucky and branches, Louisville, Kentucky.
Northern Bank of Kentucky, at Lexington, and branch at
Louisville, Kentucky.

Clinton Bank of Columbus, Ohio.
Franklin Bank of Columbus, Ohio.

act of June, 1836.

Mercantile Bank, Bangor, Maine.

Maine Bank, Portland, Maine.

Cumberland Bank, Portland, Maine. Granite Bank, Augusta, Maine.

York Bank, Saco, Maine.

New Hampshire Bank, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Commercial Bank, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Portsmouth Bank, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Piscataqua Bank, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Merrimack County Bank, Concord, New Hampshire. Mechanics' Bank, Concord, New Hampshire. Merchants' Bank, Boston, Massachusetts. Commonwealth Bank, Boston, Massachusetts. Franklin Bank, Boston, Massachusetts.

Fulton Bank, Boston, Massachusetts.

Hancock Bank, Boston, Massachusetts.

Phoenix Bank, Charelstown, Massachusetts.

Bank of Burlington, Vermont.

Bank of Windsor, Windsor, Vermont.

Quinebaug Bank, Norwich, Connecticut.

Farmers and Mechanics' Bank, Hartford, Connecticut.
Mechanics' Bank, New Haven, Connecticut.
Arcade Bank, Providence, Rhode Island.
Rhode Island Union Bank, Newport, Rhode Island.
Mechanics and Farmers' Bank, Albany, New York.
Manhattan Company, New York, N. Y.
Bank of America, New York, N. Y.
Mechanics' Bank, New York, N. Y.
Seventh Ward Bank, New York, N. Y.
Lafayette Bank, New York, N. Y.
Phoenix Bank, New York, N. Y.

Leather Manufacturers' Bank, New York, N. Y.
Tradesmen's Bank, New York, N. Y.
Dry Dock Company, New York, N. Y.
Merchants' Bank, New York, N. Y.
Union Bank, New York, N. Y.
National Bank, New York, N. Y.

Merchants' Exchange Bank, New York, N. Y.
Brooklyn Bank, Brooklyn, New York.
Commercial Bank, Buffalo, New York.
Troy Bank, Troy, New York.

Trenton Banking Company, New Jersey.
State Bank, Newark, New Jersey.
State Bank, Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Girard Bank, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Moyamensing Bank, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Franklin Bank, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Commercial Bank, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Agency of Commercial Bank, at St. Louis, Missouri.
Bank of Zanesville, Ohio.

Bank of Wooster, Ohio.

Commercial Bank of Lake Erie at Cleveland, Ohio.

Bank of Cleveland at Cleveland, Ohio.

State Bank of Indiana, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Illinois Bank, at Shawneetown, Illinois.

Bank of Michigan, Detroit, Michigan.

Farmers and Mechanics' Bank of Detroit, Michigan. *Bank of River Raisin, Michigan.

L.

List of present deposite banks under the act of June, 1836.

People's Bank, Bangor, Maine.

+Brooklyn Bank, Brooklyn, New York.

Planters' Bank of Georgia, Savannah, Georgia.

Insurance Bank of Columbus, Georgia.

Louisville Savings Institution, Kentucky.

Bank of the State of Missouri, St. Louis.

M. 1.

To Collectors of the Customs.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 12, 1837.

If the bank where you deposite should suspend specio payments, you will yourself collect and keep safely in your own hands, the public money for all duties at your port, until further directions are given to you by this Department how to deposite, transfer, or pay it. You must,

of course, continue to adhere to the existing laws of Congress, and the former instructions of the Treasury, in respect to the kind of money receivable for customs; and by which it is understood to be your duty to require payments to be made in specie, or the notes of specie-paying banks that are at par. LEVI WOODBURY, Secretary of the Treasury.

ceive, till further directions are given to you by this De

0.

[25th CoNG. 1st SESS.

Secretary of the Treasury.

N.

House of Representatives.

As connected with the difficulties that have occurred in the execution of the laws, which is the subject of this report, the Secretary begs leave, in the last place, to mention the want of an officer in each State, or other consider..

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, June 9, 1837. SIR: Should all the banks in your vicinity selected as depositories of the public money have suspended specie payments at any time, so that you can no longer legally deposite in them, as usual, to the credit of the Treasurer, all public moneys received by you, except such sums as may be required to meet the current expenses of your of fice, the payment of debenture cirtificates by collectors, &c. in other words, the sums you would formerly have placed

iu bank to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States,

will, under the present arrangements, be placed to his credit, in a separate account, on the books of your office. They will be drawn for, by him, in the following manner, and no other:

1st. By the Treasurer's draft on the officer having funds to his credit directing the payment; which draft will be recorded by the Register of the Treasury, who will authenticate the record by his signature. A private letter of advice will be transmitted by the Treasurer in each case.

2d. By a transfer draft, signed as above, and approved by the signature of the Secretary of the Treasury, for the purpose of transferring funds to some other point where they may be required for the service of the Government.

No deduction whatever is to be made from the moneys placed by you to the credit of the Treasurer, except in one of these two modes, until they can be lodged by you with some legal depository.

On payment of any draft, the party to whom it is paid will receipt it. You will note on it the day of payment, will charge it on the same day to the Treasurer, and will transmit it to him with the return of his account in which it is charged. In charging these payments, it will be proper to enter each draft separately, and to state the number and kind of draft, whether transfer, or on Treasury, War, or Navy warrants, and the amount.

It is also necessary that the Treasurer's account be closed weekly, with the conclusion of Saturday's business, and transcripts thereof forwarded in duplicate-one copy to the Secretary of the Treasury, and one to the Treasurer. When the quarter of the year terminates on any other day of the week, the account should be closed on the last day of the quarter-leaving for an additional return the transactions from that time to the close of the week: so that neither the receipts nor payments of different quarters be included in one return. Punctuality in transmitting the return is indispensable.

To produce uniformity in the manner of making the returns of the Treasurer's account, a form is herewith transmitted. For the purpose of binding, it is requested that they be made on paper of nearly the same size. Your monthly returns must be rendered to the Department as heretofore.

When the public money shall have accumulated in your hands to an amount exceeding dollars, you can make a special deposite of the same, in your name, for safe-keeping, in the nearest bank in which you have heretofore deposited the public money, and which will receive the same, to be held by it, specially subject to the payment of checks or drafts drawn by the Treasurer of the United States on the officer by whom the same has been deposited.

LEVI WOODBURY,
Secretary of the Treasury.

superintendence of all the officers of the revenue within such State or such division.

Among the inconveniences attending it, is a great difficulty in drawing from the more remote ports the moneys which are there collected. As the course of business cre.. ates little or no demand at the seat of Government, or in its vicinity, for drafts upon such places, negotiations, in this way are either very dilatory or impracticable; neither does the circulation of bank paper, from the same cause, extend to them. This embarrassment would he remedied by having one person in each State, or in a district of the United States of convenient extent, charged with the receipt of all the moneys arising within it, and placed, in point of residence, where there was the greatest intercourse with the seat of Government. This would greatly facilitate negotiations between the Treasury and distant parts of the Union, and would contribute to lessening the necessity of the transportation of specie.