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to the system, it could be fully obviated by a moderate and fixed premium for the certificates, either when issued or redeemed.

The common drafts of this Department, in their present convenient form, possess one advantage, which could sometimes be imparted to the certificates. When used at places against which the balance of trade exists, but drawn on places in whose favor it is, the former do now, and may hereafter, not only facilitate essentially the domestic exchanges, but at the same time supersede numerous bank transfers, and the more expensive transportation of specie itself.

The mint certificates, heretofore given on the deposite of bullion and specie for coinage, might easily be made running to bearer or order, and receivable for all public dues; and, in that way, would contribute to the same desirable ends.

The present branches of the mint, if not numerous enough, nor situated at convenient places for the receipt of specie and bullion for this purpose, might be aided by two or three agencies, instead of more expensive new branches, at points favorable to the interests of the mint and of the community.

as soon as deemed expedient by any of them, specie alone,
or paper, or a mixed medium of both, as considered prefer-
able by each for its own purposes, can be, if it be not now,
established. At the same time, it is hoped and believed
that no wish exists in any quarter to prevent, but rather a
deep and general anxiety, like that evinced by Congress,
the Executive, and this Department, for some years past,
to encourage the same sound currency for the uses of the
people and the States, as for the fiscal operations of the
General Government.

VIII. SOME GENERAL CAUSES AND HEMEDIES OF THE PRES-
ENT EMBARRASSMENTS.

In conclusion, it is the intention of the undersigned not to advert to the chief causes of the recent calamities, except so far as they are connected with our financial condition, and as appears necessary to indicate briefly a few remedies by means of general legislation.

Without doubt one of these causes was the over-production of cotton, coupled with the large and sudden depreciation of its price.

The whole product, though before so great, had, within three years, been increased probably more than one hundred millions of pounds, so as to exceed in a single year the enormous quantity of five hundred and forty millions of pounds. The fall of price was such as, on that quantity, would make a difference in its value of near forty millions of dollars. The occurrence of this fall, however, was at such a period of the year as not much to affect over half the last crop; but the violence of the shock, though thus lessened, still occasioned a loss to an appalling amount. The fall was chiefly consequent from the over-production, the abrupt withdrawal of foreign credit, combined with some other circumstances which need not now be particularized. The over-production originated partly, like most other excesses here, from an extraordinary extension of credits and bank issues, and partly from keeping open the sales of public lands to all persons, and at the former low prices, after other articles, including cotton and lands had suddenly risen much in their nominal value. Under this tempting state of things those sales were exorbitantly enlarged, till they amounted to over twenty millions of acres in a year, when not more than three or four millions were probably necessary; and not so much had before been requisite, annually, to meet the natural demands for new public lands for raising cotton, and for all other kinds of agricultural employment. But this excess in sales, so unexpected and ruinous, can, it is believed, be averted hereafter, whenever they are likely to go beyond a desirable amount, by passing laws which shall confine them to actual settlers, or increase the price to others. The same measures, with other remedies hereafter suggested for some other existing evils, will help to correct future excesses in the production of the great domestic staple of the Union.

It must be obvious that the paper of any bank will be less safe and useful in being received for public dues, in proportion as it may want such solid securities and foundations as the certificates before described. But if the notes of State banks are made receivable for such dues, under certain limitations like those which have been explained, the other most desirable guarantees for their safety, whether looking to any use of them by the General Government, or to the durable interests of the States themselves, seem to be for the latter, first, to impose on the existing banks, so far as lawful, the checks mentioned in a subsequent part of this communication. They could next authorize very few banks hereafter, except those of mere discount and deposite; and where the power of making paper issues to pass as money is added-a power so sovereigu in its character, and so indispensable to be vigilantly guarded, could require a large proportion of specie to the circulation and deposites to be kept on hand, and, in addition, have the faith and security of the State pledged to indemnify the community, as, in the case of the above-named certificates, would be pledged those of the General Government. This would greatly increase the caution and watchfulness of all concerned, and could be done by special laws for that purpose, or by allowing no new banks hereafter, except State banks so organized, or by requiring State stocks to be owned by all the banks, and lodged in trust to the extent necessary, with the specie on haud, to secure the immediate redemption of all the bills issued, and all the deposites payable on demand. Another kind of security beyond what now generally exists, would be, never to permit deposites to be received, payable on demand in specie, (a practice so very dangerous to the bill-holders,) except in the case of special deposites kept for a moderate compen- Another of the causes of the present embarrassments was sation. The only other description of security which is the unprecedented quantity of foreign goods imported. By likely to prove in any degree efficient, seems to be of a stimulants to overtrading, such as very extended and often penal character, either by extending the provisions of a renewed credits abroad, as well as at home, so treacherous bankrupt law to all banks, as before suggested in respect in appearances of prosperity, those importations were danto such as may be fiscal agents, or by allowing all deposit-gerously swollen to the amount of almost two hundred milors, public or private, and all bill-holders, not only a large interest, but severe prosecutions against the directors after any deliberate omission by banks to discharge their duties in the manner provided in their charters and contracts. The paramount object in all such provisions should, of course, be to guard against abuses, and reform existing evils, though, in some instances, the case may have become so desperate as to require even amputation to save life. Every thing else concerning bank paper is supposed to belong to the wisdom and sound discretion of the sev eral States, as they may prefer, from time to time, to create. and employ it. Within the constitutional limitations, and

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lions of dollars a year, and thus constituted an excess over our exports of about sixty millions, and involved the coun. try in a foreign debt, merely commercial, whose balance against us, after all proper deductions for freights, profits, and similar considerations, probably exceeded the aggregate of thirty millions of dollars.

That excess, so little anticipated and so indiscreet, the system of credit formerly in use, and better regulated, would have seasonably prevented, by requiring an early adjustment of balances, and, thus turning the foreign exchanges against us, would have stopped many extravaganees both in trade and bank issues.

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mands for specie very large sums, most of which were before mere credits, they also hastened, if not increased, the loss of confidence in banks, that has since so widely impaired their character and usefulness.

But, stimulated and unrestrained, as before described, it increased the duties some millions beyond what a prudent though prosperous state of trade was likely to produce, and, combined with some other causes, has overwhelmed the mercantile interest with many of those disasters under Another, and the last general cause of the present embarwhich it has suffered so severely the past season. From rassments which will be noticed as having much connexmany of these, no just legislation can now afford much re- ion with our financial affairs, has been an unnecessary and lief. Nor could any legislation heretofore have prevented injudicious increase of bank capital, discounts, and issues. severe revulsions from this source, except by imposing A similar increase, however this may have been influenced checks on inordinate credit and banking, as well as on sud- by the large temporary deposites of public money made den, and large expansions and contractions in bank issues, with banks and States, and by the causes before alluded to, and by that further reduction of the tariff which has been has happened in some foreign countries, as well as here, so strenuously urged for two years past to be adopted, during the same period, from other great commercial and whenever our fiscal condition evinced that the whole of the monetary impulses, that are permanently connected with accruing duties were not needed for public purposes. Be- all paper systems not founded entirely on specie. These cause the great surplus, forced into the Treasury by the impulses have operated in some measure independently of excesses in the sales of land, and in duties on imports, not several transient and local causes, whose effects have by being seasonably withdrawn, either by equivalent appropri- many been much exaggerated. It is probable that they never ations or further reductions in the current receipts through can be properly controlled under such a system of expansive new laws or by investments, has undoubtedly contributed, credit, while the individual directors of much of that credit through the loan of it while in deposite, to sustain in some have so little separate legislative restraint placed over their degree, if not produce, the spirit of overtrading. That sur- conduct, and have private interests at stake, which, in purplus was often deprecated; and the only sound legal pre- | suit of immediate and large profits, must usually possess a ventives still appear to this Department to be the measures strength so superior to that of any sense of general duty to before enumerated for preventing its accumulation. And consult the public security. after it had undesignedly happened, the wisest disposal of it was supposed to be, to expend it, as fast as useful, on proper objects of a public character; and, in the mean time, not to leave it in the deposite banks, but to invest it in State stocks, as a provident fund, to remain both safely and profitably till wanted to aid in meeting current expenditures or extraordinary contingencies.

The amount of circulation which existed in the early part of the last year, had increased thirty millions or forty millions of dollars in only three years. It continued to expand for some months afterwards, and in the last annual report was considered likely to prove ruinous to steady prices; to surround with danger every species of sound trade; and not to be susceptible of that reduction to proper dimensions which was necessary, and soon inevitable, without probably producing some of the wide-spread sufferings which have since happened. The constitutional power of the General Government to check such evils, except as before indicated, and incidentally, through the kind of money it can and should permit to be employed in its revenues and expenditures, is apprehended to be limited. Through the latter, it may usefully discourage, as of late years has been attempted by Congress as well as the Executive, the dangerous issues of small bills, and, indeed, paper emissions of any kind, which are not paid on demand in gold or silver coin at the place where issued, and shall not be equivalent to specie at the place where offered, and convertible into gold or silver upon the spot, at the will of the holder, and without delay or loss to him." For the like purpose, it may likewise continue inflexibly to countenance for smaller payments, and in the business of society not particularly commercial, a metallic currency; which is not liable, like bank paper, to sudden fluctuations and great losses. A further wise step would doubtless be, to refrain to make, by its own acts, any addition to the amount of bank capital, already too great; and to rely on bank paper as little as practicable, when authorized in the improvident manner which has often prevailed, and exhibited so much feebleness and insecurity, as well as produced so many inconveniences and losses.

The undersigned regrets that he was not so fortunate in sustaining his opinions concerning the transient and fluctuating character of the excesses in our revenue, as to have received the concurrence of Congress in relation to those cautionary provisions formerly recommended by him for meeting the revulsions, deficiencies, and contingencies, which he supposed incident to them, as well as to our financial system generally. He is, at the same time, aware that the deposite act, so far as it placed a part of the public money with the States for safe keeping, and the Treasury circular issued by the direction of the Executive, as to the kind of money receivable for public lands, were intended, among other things, to obviate a portion of the evils connected with those excesses. Nor does he entertain any doubt that they both contributed, at first, to awaken caution among the more considerate, and to excite strong suspicions, if not convictions, in prudent minds, as to the great extravagances of credit into which the community had rashly plunged. But after those measures had accomplished these and similar benefits with a portion of the community, though others still felt justified in anticipating a continuance of surpluses and distributions, the subsequent influence of either the act or the circular, in checking the threatened mischiefs, is believed, in most cases, to have been overrated. The operations of the deposite act, in supplying deficiencies of revenue, by a recall from the States, however well intended, will probably prove very deficient. It appears to the undersigned that all beyond this which In some other respects they have, by first requiring to be can be beneficially accomplished, in connexion with the speedily collected and subdivided among more numerous last cause of the present embarrassments, and without an banks from ten to fifteen millions of dollars, and then com- alteration in the constitution conferring on the General pelling, within the short period of nine months from the 1st Government direct authority over every kind of banking, of January last, another collection and transfer of nearly must be effected through the State Legislatures, and the forty millions more, and much of it from the merchants, commercial habits of the community. Much improvement and to places not situated in the usual channels of trade or can, doubtless, be introduced, if the Legislatures will imof large fiscal operations, unquestionably aggravated many pose those additional regulations, restraints, and securities, of the distresses which had their principal origin in other which have been before enumerated. Much more will also causes. Those operations necessarily aided to produce follow, and substantial relief be afforded to the people at the derangement that occurred in the domestic exchanges, large, if, in addition to the other measures recommended, and imposed a task upon the banks unprecedented for its individuals will exercise the wisdom to place a greater amount and difficulty. By converting suddenly into de-reliance on real capital, active industry, frugality, and

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well-grounded credit, than on that inflated system which of late has contemporaneously prevailed to such ruinous extent, both in this and some other countries-a system which has been encouraged by some persons, under the delusive idea that there was no overtrading of any kind, till a revulsion has occurred almost without a parallel, and has given to commerce and credit a blow whose destructive effects it may require years fully to repair. All which is respectfully submitted. LEVI WOODBURY, Secretary of the Treasury. Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Hon. JAMES K. POLK,

List of documents annexed to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury.

A. Letter to the collector at New York, from the Secretary of the Treasury, concerning the postponement of bonds for duties.

B. Instructions from the Solicitor of the Treasury, on the same subject.

C. Memorial from merchants of New York to the President.

D. Memorial from Chamber of Commerce of Boston to the Secretary of the Treasury.

E. Memorial from the Chamber of Commerce of New Orleans.

F. 1. Reply from the Secretary of the Treasury to the Chamber of Commerce of Boston.

F. 2. Letter to collector of New York as to receipt of bank notes.

F. 3. Letter from committee of Chamber of Commerce of New York, requesting extension of a year on payments of duties.

G. Letter to the Executives of the States, with the postscript as to the return of the transfers in case of non-payment by the banks.

H. 1. Circular letter from the Treasury Department as to the receipt and transmission, by mail, of bank notes in 1789.

H. 2. Extract from report of April 22, 1790, upon collection law.

I. First circular to the deposite banks, discontinuing those which had ceased to pay specie for their notes. K. List of those thus discontinued.

L. List of present deposite banks under the deposite act. M. 1. First circular to collectors, directing them not to place money in general deposite in banks which have stopped specie payments.

M. 2. Circular to receivers of public money on the same subject.

N. Second circular to them to deposite specially when they have on hand over a certain amount. O. Extract from Treasury report in 1790, as to a new class of officers to keep and transfer the public money.

P. Table of Treasury warrants payable in each State

in 1834.

Q. Comparative condition of deposite banks in certain particulars in November, 1836, and in March, May, July, and August, 1837.

R. State of the accounts of the former and present deposite banks with the Treasurer of the United States. S. Circular as to deposites by disbursing officers, by order of the President.

T. Circular instructions to collectors and receivers, to accept Treasury drafts in certain cases.

U. Condition of each of the former deposite banks at the last returns.

V. Last circular to banks, on the subject of resuming specie payments.

A.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 8, 1837. SIR: I have been directed by the President of the United States to communicate to you the views of this Department in relation to the request recently made to him by a committee appointed at a respectable meeting held in the city of New York. The request was, "that instructions may be given to prevent the commencing of suits in any of the collection districts upon unpaid bonds, until after the first day of January next."

With every disposition on the part of the President and this Department to gratify any wishes of the mercantile portion of the community, and with a deep solicitude to alleviate, as far as possible, the pressure which exists in their pecuniary affairs, it is to be regretted that instructions cannot be given for so protracted a delay, and in so general a manner, without a departure from long-established usage, and great inconvenience to both the merchants and the Treasury.

By the act of Congress of the 2d March, 1799, it is provided that "where any bond for the payment of duties shall not be satisfied on the day it may become due, the collector shall, forthwith and without delay, cause a prosecution to be commenced for the recovery of the money thereon, by action or suit at law."

No authority or discretionary power is intrusted expressly to the President or this Department to dispense with this imperative direction, given by Congress to the collectors of the customs. The general practice has been opposed to the existence or exercise of any legal authority, except in Congress, to grant delay in the payment of such bonds, until after an action is instituted or judgment is confessed. After a suit has been brought, the collector's duty has been considered as fulfilled, and this Department, through its proper agents, has in such cases, and in that stage of the proceedings, deemed it lawful to direct some delay to be granted by the district attorney on certain

terms.

No statute forbids such a course, and if a payment in part is then made, or additional security furnished in cases where great hardship, embarrassment, or insolvency is shown to exist, and the application is made in consequence of some of those circumstances, indulgence has frequently been given.

But the power of permitting some indulgence before an action is commenced is supposed by the Attorney General and the Solicitor of the Treasury to belong to the latter officer, under the act of Congress of 29th May, 1830; and in times and cases like the present, when the most favorable construction which is legal should be followed, this Department is disposed, in conformity with the advice and opinion of these law officers, to sanction a delay by him under like circumstances, and to a like extent, before suit as afterwards. Upon the occurrence, therefore, of cases of the character previously described, whether before suit or after, and whether at your port or elsewhere, similar indulgences on similar terms could, and undoubtedly would, be allowed with pleasure, on seasonable application in each case, and the extent of the delay being regulated by the facts of each case, and the existing and probable wants of the Treasury at the time it shall be presented.

But should applications of this kind become numerous, and extend to several bonds very large in amount, difficulties, unfortunately, would arise, under the existing laws and present state of the Treasury, not only to the parties, but to the public, in postponing payment for any considerable period. In the first place, all parties and sureties upon bonds unpaid after due are expressly disabled by the 62d section of the act before referred to from having credit upon any other duty bonds. The language is, "No person whose bond has been received, either as principal or

Report on the Finances.

surety, for the payment of duties, or for whom any bond has been given by an agent, factor, or other person, in pursuance of the provisions herein contained, and which bond may be due and unsatisfied, shall be allowed a future credit for duties until such bond be fully paid or discharged." In the next place, the condition of the Treasury during the remainder of the year will probably be such, whether looking to the estimates submitted by this Department to Congress at the commencement of its session in December lust, or to the actual state of things at this time, as to create serious inconvenience and embarrassment to the public interests in meeting the public engagements, should the payment of all the duty bonds outstanding in the United States, and amounting to several millions of dollars, be postponed in their collection, either before or after suit, until the time requested by the committee.

This will be very manifest from the following data: The aggregate receipts into the Treasury during the year 1837 having been estimated in the last annual report at $24,000,000, and the appropriations asked for by the respective Departments, with the usual anticipated contin. gent, having amounted to about $27,000,000, it was then suggested that this would require the expenditure not only of all the estimated accruing receipts, but near three millions of the five reserved on the 1st of January, 1837, for dis tribution among the States. Congress, however, in the course of the session, appropriated not only those three millions of excess, but over five millions in addition; making an aggregate of more than thirty-two millions: and by this means a charge was imposed on the Treasury to the extent of eight or nine millions beyond the estimated receipts during the year.

The expectation of a recurrence of an extraordinary excess of revenue during the present year, which may have been contemplated by some, and have formed the ground on which so large appropriations were made, was never entertained by this Department; nor does any such expectation, judging from the receipts of the first quarter and the first month of the second quarter of the present year, seem likely to be verified. On the contrary, assuming the hypothesis that a similar amount of unexpended appropriations will remain at the close of the present year as did at the close of the last, (though in ordinary times they are generally reduced eight millions lower, and, should they become so, would increase the deficiency to that extent,) the postponement of the payment of any considerable amount of bonds to the 1st of January next would make a deficiency in the means of the Treasury highly probable. To postpone the payment of the many millions falling due at all the ports in the United States, would render this deficiency inevitable.

Comparing the present condition of the country with a former period of similar revulsion in trade, when, in 1819, from causes somewhat analogous, the mercantile interests were exposed to a pressure so very general and severe, the likelihood seems equally strong in favor of a rapid reduction in the revenue.

The foregoing remarks will explain some of the practical difficulties to be encountered in meeting the wishes expressed by the committee for the long postponement of the payment of duty bonds, whether granted before or after suit, and whether in view of the consequences to the merchants or to the Treasury and the public. But indulgence for thirty, sixty, and ninety days, not extending beyond the 1st of September, or about the time for arranging the payment of the last instalment of deposite with the States, could doubtless be granted in special cases, under the customary terms and circumstances as before explained, should any parties desire it. But what forbearance the situation of the Treasury may justify in this respect, at any future day, cannot now be foreseen with much accuracy. The payment, within so short a period VOL. XIV.A 4

[25th CoxG. 1st SESS.

as nine months, of such a vast amount to the States as near thirty-eight millions, and which is mostly to be collected through the deposite banks from the mercantile portion of the country, increases the pressure from other causes on both the banks and the community, and creates a prospect that the revenue accruing for the rest of the year will much decline, and will generally be, as has been the case in April, less than the current expenditures.

Hence the amount in the Treasury at this time being only about six millions more than is required to be paid to the States, the progress of events may compel a recourse to such other measures as the existing laws authorize for meeting one of those great crises or fluctuations in trade, by which, as well as by other contingencies, our present sources of revenue, from their intimate dependance upon them, are so suddenly and so largely influenced, and for which it has been the anxious wish of this Department for two years past that Congress would effectually provide. How far the powers of the Department, under the deposite and other acts, are now adequate to this end, need not be considered until a necessity to resort to them shall become imperative. But, at all events, it is manifest that the present, as well as probably the future condition of the Treasury must be so doubtful, if not straitened, as to prevent it from affording so much incidental or direct aid to the mercantile interest, either individually or through the deposite banks, as it would be highly gratifying to this Department to be able to extend. More especially would it be gratified to do this, while their interests are suffering under the present severe pressure-a pressure regretted by me as deeply as by any one, and the near and probable approach, as well as principal causes of which, according to my views of the subject, I felt compelled, from a sense of public duty, however disagreeable the task, to point out in detail in the last annual report, so fully as to render a repetition of them on this occasion unnecessary as well as painful.

This Department cannot close the present communication without requesting you to assure the individuals connected with the great commerce of your port of the deep sympathy felt here on account of its embarrassments; of the willingness cherished at this time, as on former occasions, to extend to it every species of relief and indulgence in the power of the Treasury, consistent with the laws and the public duties intrusted to its charge; and of the entire conviction entertained, that the high moral character and honorable feelings of the merchants will not only carry them through the trials of adverse fortune with their usual scrupulous respect for the laws and the constituted authorities of their country, but, by the aid of their accustomed energy, enterprise, and indefatigable industry, will ere long relieve them from most of the sufferings occasioned by those disasters which have occurred so unexpectedly to some and so injuriously to many.

Respectfully, yours, &c.

LEVI WOODBURY, Secretary of the Treasury.

SAMUEL SWARTWOUT, Esq.

Collector at New York.

P. S. You are requested to give immediate publicity to the above communication.

B. [CIRCULAR.]

From the Solicitor of the Treasury to the U. S. attorneys.
OFFICE OF SOLICITOR OF THE TREASURY,
May 15, 1837.

SIR: You will perceive by the letter of the Secretary of the Treasury to the collector of the port of New York, under date of the 8th instant, that the Treasury Department, desiring, in concurrence with the views of the President,

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to give all the relief to the mercantile community, under its present state of general embarrassment, which is authorized by law, and permitted by official obligation, has determined, in certain cases, to suspend for a short time the collection of duty bonds.

A

The 5th section of the act of May 29, 1830, entitled "An act to provide for the appointment of a Solicitor of the Treasury," gives power to that officer to instruct district attorneys in all matters and proceedings appertaining to suits in which the United States is a party or interested." This power has often, on application to this office, in cases of great hardship, embarrassment, or insolvency, been exercised, to give time for payment, after the institution of suit, on condition of further security being furnished to the satisfaction of the district attorney. temporary indulgence on this, or other conditions, has frequently made ultimate payment secure, when a rigorous enforcement of the law would have resulted in the ruin of the debtor and loss of the debt. But indulgence has never heretofore (except on occasion of the great fire in New York, when Congress was in session, and had the subject of relief under consideration) been extended before suit commenced; but, under the opinion of this office, with the sanction of the Attorney General, the collector of New York has been informed by the Secretary of the Treasury that the power exists to grant delay before suit, and will now be extended in appropriate cases.

The present general embarrassment of the money con cerns of the commercial cities has also been deemed by the President and Secretary of the Treasury a suitable occasion for an extraordinary exercise of the power of instruction to district attorneys, vested in this office by the act of Congress above mentioned, by giving it beforehand, and leaving to them its special application on the general terms and principles laid down by this office. I have, therefore, as the applications for relief will probably be numerous, thought proper to point out for your government the terms and conditions on which, in the exercise of a sound discretion, after obtaining in each case all the information in your power, you may postpone the institution of suit.

1st. You will require that the assent of sureties, in writing, to the indulgence desired, be filed in your office. 2dly. The 65th section of the general collection law of March 2, 1799, entitled "An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage," provides that "en all bonds, upon which suits shall be commenced, an interest shall be allowed, at the rate of six per cent. per annum, from the time when said bonds become due until the payment thereof." You will require, therefore, the agreement of all the parties to bonds on which suits shall be postponed, to pay the same interest as if suit were instituted.

3dly. You will in no case, without further orders, grant a suspension of suit beyond the 1st day of October next; before which period, Congress will have an opportunity of making such provisions as they may think proper.

4thly. You will, in all cases, request additional security. If this cannot be given, you will require a judgment by confession, as a condition of such stay of execution as you may deem expedient and proper, not to extend beyond the time above allowed for the suspension of suit.

5thly. It must be a condition, in all cases, that a forfeiture of all the benefits of the indulgence granted shall be incurred, whenever any one of the terms of that indulgence shall not have been complied with.

It is not intended by the third regulation that the postponement of suit should, in all cases, be made until the 1st October next. On the contrary, you will take care that, in the exercise of the discretion respecting postponement of payment and suit, conferred on you by this letter, no indulgence be granted, where the parties, in your judgment, are able to pay without serious sacrifices. It is, moreover, desirable, where the parties have it in their power to make

it, to obtain payment in part, and to stipulate for the residue in instalments of thirty, sixty, or ninety days; or, if no part can be obtained in cash, then the whole amount to be paid in instalments of thirty, sixty, and ninety days. More especially should this be required where no additional security is given.

It is desirable, for the convenience of parties applying for indulgence, that they should, in proper cases, obtain it without the delay, trouble, and expense of applying to this office. It is, moreover, obvious that the Solicitor of the Treasury, acting through the district attorneys who reside in the same place with the applicants, and have a personal acquaintance with them, and a knowledge of their character and circumstances, may exercise the power for their relief, incident to his office, more judiciously than in person at Washington. The requisite authority, and the general regulations for its exercise, are, therefore, given you by this letter of instructions. But, although it is highly desirable and expedient that cases of relief should be acted on and decided at once in the places where they originate, yet important cases, not coming within those regulations, or the circumstances of which, from their peculiarity, shall, in your judgment, require it, may be referred to this office, with a detailed report of all the facts and information affecting them, possessed by you, or which you can collect.

You will, as heretofore, make your regular report of bonds, transmitted to you by the collector of the customs for suit, as prescribed in the first regulation for the observance of district attorneys, in my circular of the 27th July, 1830; and under the head of "remarks," if a suspension of suit be granted, you will state the circumstances and conditions of the suspension, and the nature and amount of the security given, the evidences of which you will retain in your possession.

In case of application for indulgence being made before the bonds become due, you may make use of the same forms of return as in case of suit, leaving such heads blank as are not applicable, and making the report immediately after the suspension of suit is granted. Should any of the conditions on which indulgence has been granted not be fulfilled, you will immediately, without further instructions, institute such legal proceedings as the case may call for, and make report thereof to this office. I am, very respectfully, sir,

To

Your most obedient servant,

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To MARTIN VAN BUREN,

C.

President of the United States. SIR: We have the honor of informing you that a very numerous meeting of the merchants of New York was held on the 25th of April, for the purpose of considering the present distressed condition of the city, and deliberating upon the means of relief. It was called by more than three hundred firms, and was attended by a large proportion of those merchants who are connected with the internal trade of the country, and who have an especial and direct interest in the state of domestic exchanges.

A committee was appointed to repair to Washington, and remonstrate with the Executive against the continuance of the specie circular, and to urge its immediate repeal; also, to ask that instructions may be given to prevent the commencing of suit, in any of the collection districts, upon unpaid bonds, until after the 1st day of January next, and to urge upon the Executive the propriety of calling an extra session of Congress at as early a day as possible.

In obedience, sir, to these instructions, we present our

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