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the arrangement of his business and the collection of his debts; and we would respectfully suggest the example for the imitation of the Government. The embarrassment and distress of the merchants would be more readily relieved by the suspending of suits upon unpaid bonds until a future day, when the wisdom of Congress may grant some measure of relief.

selves before you, and ask your deep and solemn attention to the unhappy condition of that city which has hitherto been the promoter and the index of our national prosperity, and whose fall will include the ruin of thousands in every region of our territory. We do not tell a fictitious tale of wo, we have no selfish or partisan views to sustain, when we assure you that the noble city which we represent lies prostrate in despair, its credit blighted, its industry paralyzed, and without a hope beaming through the darkness of the future, unless the Government of our country can be induced to relinquish the measures to which we attribute our distress. We fully appreciate the respectfully and earnestly urge upon the Executive the propriety which is due to our Chief Magistrate, and disclaim every intention inconsistent with that feeling; but we speak in behalf of a community which trembles upon the brink of ruin, which deems itself an adequate judge of all questions connected with the trade and currency of the country, and believes that the policy adopted by the recent administration, and sustained by the present, is founded in error, and threatens the destruction of every department of industry.

Our merchants, manufacturers, and mechanics, have repeatedly predicted the fatal issue of that policy. "What was prophecy has now become history;" and the reality far exceeds our most gloomy anticipations. Under a deep impression of the propriety of confining our declarations within moderate limits, we affirm that the value of our real estate has, within the last six months, depreciated more than forty millions; that, within the last two months, there have been more than two hundred and fifty failures of houses engaged in extensive business; that, within the same period, a decline of twenty millions of dollars has occurred in our local stocks, including those railroad and canal incorporations which, though chartered in other States, depend upon New York for the sale; that the immense amount of merchandise in our warehouses has, within the same period, fallen in value at least thirty per cent.; that, within a few weeks, not less than twenty thousand individuals, depending upon their daily labor for their daily bread, have been discharged by their employers, because the means of retaining them were exhausted; and that a complete blight has fallen upon a community heretofore so active, enterprising, and prosperous. The error of our rulers has produced a wider desolation than the pestilence which depopulated our streets, or the conflagration which laid them in ashes.

We believe that it is unjust to attribute these evils to any excessive development of mercantile enterprise, and that they really flow from that unwise system which aimed at the substitution of a metallic for a paper currency-the system which gave the first shock to the fabric of our commercial prosperity, by removing the public deposites from the United States Bank, which weakened every part of the edifice by the destruction of that useful and efficient institution, and now threatens to crumble it into a mass of ruins, under the operations of the specie circular, which withdrew the gold and silver of the country from the channels in which it could be profitably employed. We assert that the experiment has had a fair, a liberal trial, and that disappointment and mischief are visible in all its results; that the promise of a regulated currency and equalized exchanges has been broken, the currency totally disordered, and internal exchanges, almost entirely discontinued. We therefore make our earnest appeal to the Executive, and ask whether it is not time to interpose the paternal authority of the Government, and abandon the policy which is beggaring the people?

Amid all the distress of our condition, we have been gratified by a view of the generous and forbearing spirit which has almost invariably marked the conduct of the creditor towards the debtor. A general disposition has been manifested to indulge the debtor with ample time for

Feeling, as we do, that we have reached a crisis which requires the exercise of all the wisdom and energy of the country to heal the wounds which have been inflicted upon its commerce and productive industry, we would respectof calling an extra session of Congress, to deliberate upon the unprecedented and alarming embarrassments in which we are involved. The members, coming directly from their constituents, will have had the opportunity of knowing and appreciating the extent of the distress which exists; and we are convinced that their collected opinions will fully sustain those which we have expressed, and their testimony indicate an amount of suffering of which we cannot believe that you, sir, bave heretofore been aware.

We persuade ourselves that the representations which we have given of the actual condition of our affairs will induce you to doubt the expediency of the policy which has been recently pursued; and we trust to your intelligence for such a change of measures as will revive the hopes and stimulate the energies of the merchants of New York. ISAAC S. HONE, JAMES W. BRYAN, BENJAMIN LODER, ALEX. B. MCALPIN, JOHN A. UNDERWOOD. THOMAS TILESTON,

MEIGS D. BENJAMIN,
ELISHA LEWIS,
SIMEON DRAPER, Jr.

WASHINGTON, May 3, 1837,

D.

The subscribers, under the direction of a meeting of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, respectfully represent to the Hon. Secretary of the Treasury, that much difficulty will arise here from the requisition, which they understand has been made, that all dues to the Treasury shall be paid in specie.

The suspension of specie payment is now universal in this city, and it is impossible to procure the amount necessary for the payment of custom-house bonds. If the requisition be made, there is no course left to the merchants but to submit to a suit, and its upleasant consequences.

It is evident that specie for the large amounts daily falling due on custom-house bonds, throughout the country, cannot be procured on any terms. The refusal of specie for bonds is not, therefore, in the least, a matter of choice; the payment is utterly impossible.

If, then, no alteration be made in present instructions, the suits now just commencing will eventually extend to the commercial community throughout the country; incapacitating them from further entries or importations, and seriously embarrassing the financial operations of the Government. If this be so, it is merely a matter of time, with regard to the required alterations; sooner or later they will become indispensable; if made now, much distress will be prevented.

Even were it otherwise, there are, it appears to the chamber, sufficient reasons why specie payments should not now be required by the Government. It is a matter of notoriety that specie payment of the indemnity lately received by the Government has been refused to the claimants by the agents of Government; and further, that specie payment of debenture certificates is now refused at the custom-house, at the very moment when specie payment is

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demanded for bonds. The extreme hardship and injustice of the demand and the refusal, at the same moment, cannot require comment.

Under these circumstances, they cheerfully request such a modification of the requisitions of the Government as may consist with justice and the ability of the community. To this purpose, a withdrawal of the specie instructions recently issued to the collector of this port, leaving him and the merchants to devise, in good faith, the means of adjusting the claims of the Government with the mercantile community, would, perhaps, be entirely sufficient. A course like this has been adopted on a former occasion, and seems to be the only one now practicable.

WM. STUFGIS,

President Boston Chamber of Commerce.
THOS. W. WALES, Vice Presidents.
ROB'T G. SHAW.

G. M. THATCHER, Secretary.

E.

NEW ORLEANS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,

New Orleans, May 25, 1837.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit to you, enclosed, a copy of the procedings of the Chamber of Commerce of New Orleans, in relation to the deranged condition of the currency, and the impractibility resulting therefrom to conform strictly with the requisitions of the law and orders emanating from your Department.

I beg leave most respectfully to call your attention to said proceedings, with the hope that some measures may be devised to obviate existing difficulties.

I have the honor to be, sir, with great consideration and respect, your obedient servant,

SAM. J. PETERS,
President.
To the Hon. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY,
of the United States, Washington city.

NEW ORLEANS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Saturday, May 20, 1837. At a special meeting of the chamber held this day, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted, with only one dissenting voice:

Whereas, the collector of the custom-house of this district, in virtue of instructions from Washington, requires specie, or notes of specie-paying banks which are at par, in payment of all duty bonds: and whereas it is well known that nearly all the banks of this city, including the deposite banks, have lately suspended specie payments; and that the notes of the few banks which have continued to redeem their circulation in specie are not re-issued, and therefore cannot be obtained, whilst the same banks refuse to pay their deposites in specie:

In consequence of which, it is impossible that the requisition of the collector can be complied with. Therefore, be it resolved

1st. That, in the opinion of this chamber, the existing revenue laws, which it is now attempted strictly to enforce, were passed by Congress under circumstances very essentially differing from those which at present prevail; and that a revison of the same by Congress has become indispensable.

2d. That, in the opinion of this chamber, it is highly expedient that Congress should be called at as early a period as may be practicable, with a view to take into consideration the currency of the country, and the revision of the revenue laws, so as to reconcile them with the present state of things, and to render them susceptible of being executed. 3d. That the payment of duty bonds in gold and silver, under existing circumstances, is utterly impracticable; and if the collector cannot receive in payment thereof the notes of our local banks, said bonds must necessarily remain un

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paid until the action of Congress with regard to the same

be ascertained.

4th. That any attempt on the part of the Government to enforce the collection of custom-house bonds in gold and silver, will be attended with serious suffering and distress: inasmuch as the sale of property by the marshal of the United States cannot be effected, for specie, without the most cruel and unnecessary sacrifices.

5th. That if the Government persists in the collection of duty bonds in gold and silver, when the same is not to be procured; and in the event of its finding attorneys and jurors willing to assist in rigorous prosecutions, it is the opinion of this chamber that these measures may gradually lead the country into scenes of disorder, violence, and resistance to the laws, which are seriously to be deprecated, and which the Government ought to avoid.

6th. That the President of this chamber be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to the President of the United States and the Secretary of the Treasury.

[SEAL.]

A true copy from the minutes: as witness my hand and seal of the chamber, this 24th day of May, 1837.

GEO. W. WHITE, Secretary.

F. 1.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 21, 1837. GENTLEMEN: Your communication, in behalf of the Chamber of Commerce in Boston, concerning the payment of duties, was received at this Department to-day. Though without date, it is presumed to have been written before the receipt in your city of the proclamation of the President calling a special and early session of Congress, and of the circulars, letters, and notices of this Department, recently published, concerning custom-house bonds. Copies of these are, therefore, annexed, (numbered 1 to 7,) and to which I beg leave to refer for several explanations on some of the topics contained in your memorial.

In addition to those explanations, but few other remarks are supposed to be necessary to put the Chamber of Commerce in full possession of the views of the undersigned, in respect to your request, and, it is hoped, to satisfy you that every thing has been done, and will continue to be done here, for relief to the merchants in the present distressing emergency, which the laws sanction and my limited authority permits.

One of the earliest acts passed by the first Congress convened under the present constitution of the United States, was that of July 31st, 1789, expressly requiring all duties to be "received in gold and silver only," and which provision has been virtually continued in subsequent laws. The circular of this Department from whose operation you ask to be exempted, is only a repetition or an affirmance of that act, except it contains a mitigation, justified by a long and liberal construction, which authorizes an equivalent for specie to be also received.

Under that construction, anxious as the Department has been, and still is, to extend every indulgence to those connected with it, which is not inconsistent with law and public duty, it sanctioned the receipt of the notes of speciepaying banks instead of specie for customs, and all the drafts or checks of the Treasury, not paid to the satisfaction of the holders by the banks on which they are drawn. Debenture bonds are likewise receivable in payment of duties; and, whenever doubt has arisen on that point, express instructions have been given to take them.

Beyond these alleviations, the Department has yet been unable to discover any legal authority which it possesses, or is able to delegate to others, to receive substitutes for the specie, which is imperatively required by law in payment of duties. On the contrary, by a reference to the various acts of Congress bearing on this subject, it will be manifest that if the Department, under the influence of

Report on the Finances.

sympathy, rather than of official obligations, should allow any thing not equivalent to specie to be received for duties, it would violate the letter of the original law on this subject, and the invariable practice under it, with one brief and occasional exception, which existed only in certain sections of the country, about twenty years since, and commenced during invasion and war. It would also act in conflict with both the letter and spirit of the joint resoJution of Congress, afterwards passed in April, 1815, for the avowed purpose of preventing any longer or future deviation from the act of 1789.

If, in a period of profound peace, and in many respects of great prosperity, the President and the undersigned, as mere executive officers, jealously restricted by the constitution and by statutes, should proceed to dispense with these laws, without previous permission from Congress, it might certainly be considered one of those unwarranted usurpations of power, so boldly and cogently denounced by our forefathers; and, without doubt, we should next, and on similar grounds, be requested to extend a like indulgence to all debtors of the Government, whether individuals or banks, and to all the purchasers of the public lands, though these last are likewise required by statute to be paid for in "specie, or in evidences of the public debt of the United States.' Any such disregard of those imperative requisitions would lead to other consequences almost equally alarming and deplorable, as it would amount to the receipt for duties of what was less valuable to the community and to the Government than what the acts of Congress expressly direct.

In this way, without legal authority, the interests of the United States would further be injuriously relinquished and compromised, by virtually allowing a diminution of the whole tariff of duties, and all the incidental benefits anticipated from it, to any of the great branches of industry in the country, quite to the extent of the difference in value between specie and the notes of the banks not paying specie. The many millions of unavailable paper which would probably be thus placed in the Treasury for duties and other debts, it would be difficult to compute; as, besides the twenty-six or seven millions now due from individuals and banks, most, if not all of the future revenue accruing from customs, or the increased sales of public land in consequence of such a system, would be paid to the United States in notes of the same depreciated character. It deserves consideration, likewise, what could legally be done with such funds when collected; as, by the second section of the act of April 14, 1836, the Treasury is expressly forbidden to offer, in payment of any claim whatever against the United States, "any bank note of any denomination, unless the same shall be payable, and paid on demand, in gold or silver coin, at the place where issued, and which 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."

How great would be the loss on such irredeemable funds, and who ought to bear it when they are received contrary to law, and how destructive such measures would prove to the preservation of a sound constitutional currency, by indirectly sanctioning, as they would, the disuse of specie for it here, and the consequent export of it in large quantities to foreign countries, as an article of trade, need not be dwelt on at this time. It is moreover manifest, that all such collections would further disable the Treasury from paying immediately, in the manner it is bound by law and good faith to do, the various public creditors; some of whom are stated, as a matter of complaint, in your memorial, not to be able now to obtain specie for their claims. But if the indemnity certificates and debentures to which you refer have not all been paid in specie or its equivalent to the merchants or other holders,

[25th CoNG. 1st SESS.

you may rest assured that the failure to do it has not arisen from any direction to that effect by the Treasury; but, on the contrary, that express orders have been given to meet both with specie when demanded; and, if not done, the failure has occurred, and will continue, only in consequence of the regretted omission of the merchants themselves promptly to discharge their bonds in specie, and of a like omission on the part of the banks (through the misfortunes or advice of many of their customers) not to continue to discharge their obligations in the manner provided by law and their agreements with the Treasury. One great and paramount object, therefore, in requiring that the public dues should continue to be paid to the United States in a legal manner, is, to enable the Department, in this emergency, faithfully and promptly to pay others in that manner, and, as soon as practicable, to overcome any embarrassments or delays to its own creditors, which may have happened in consequence of the course pursued by those on whom the Government is immediately dependent for its available means. You justly intimate that the public payments ought to be made in this way; and you may rest assured that, in all cases where creditors are not otherwise satisfied, it will cheerfully be done the moment the Treasury is enabled to accomplish it by a compliance with their engagements on the part of those indebted to the United States.

If, from the accidents and misfortunes of others, in any instances, such an inability as you describe has occurred with any of our fiscal depositories or custom-house officers, and any reproach should inconsiderately be cast on the Government for this inability, which has been caused by others, (though, without doubt, unintentionally,) you may rest satisfied that no proper effort will be spared here to avoid deserving the censure of "extreme hardship or injustice" on this account, and (by strenuously endeavoring to do to others all which it asks of them) to discharge every claim against the Government, in specie or its equivalent, at the earliest day practicable.

In connexion with this, and merely in justification of the Treasury, it may be proper to notice further, that, besides near thirty millions elsewhere, something like three quarters of a million of dollars were due in your city alone, from merchants, and institutions of which many of them are members, and payable to the United States in specie and on demand, at the time your memorial was forwarded, setting forth the omission of our fiscal agents to pay in that currency some small demands held by a portion of the mercantile community.

This Department is aware that, even after all its forbearances and mitigations, some embarrassments must still be undergone, in certain cases, by means of incidental difficulties, and the strictness of the laws as to cash duties, which were introduced wholly for the benefit of manufac turers rather than of the finances. But it cannot concur in the opinion that, during the present favorable condition of the country, in respect to its large amount of specie, it will be impossible to obtain sufficient for this purpose; and, considering that all which is paid must immediately return again into active circulation, it trusts that the merchants will find themselves fully indemnified for the inconvenience and limited sacrifices to which they may be exposed in obtaining the small sums necessary for their object by and after the liberal indulgences authorized on their duty bonds.

Thus, by instructions published at Boston since your letter was probably written, the disagreeable result you anticipate, to wit: that there is no course left to the merchants but to submit to a suit and its unpleasant consequences," need rarely, if ever, occur in cases of real solvency; as liberal extensions of credit have been permitted, under proper circumstances, before as well as after suit, till the meeting of Congress; and, in addition to these, an extraordinary session of that body has been called by the

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President at the earliest convenient day, with a view, among other things, to afford an opportunity for new legislation to yield further relief in the present embarrassing posture of affairs.

With these explanations, and such others as appear in the documents before referred to, and which, ere this, have probably reached your city, the Department cherishes a hope that your Chamber of Commerce will be satisfied that every thing of an alleviating character has already been done, in respect to duty bonds, which the laws sanction, and the public interests justify; that all proper exertions have been made, and are making by it, to preserve the same good and legal fidelity in its obligations to others which it requests of them; that, if not successful, the failure will arise from the misfortunes or neglect of others; and that, by a firm perseverance in the path of duty on this subject, reciprocal aid will be conferred, both by the merchants and the Treasury, to preserve a sound state of the currency for all the public purposes, and gradually, if not speedily, restore one for all the necessary transactions of life.

This Department confides so much in the intelligence, correct principles, and patriotism of those who, through you, have addressed it, that it cannot doubt they will be solicitous to prevent, even in times of the greatest embarrassment, any discredit being cast on the character and practical workings of our free institutions.

It feels satisfied that the Chamber of Commerce, as well as the whole community, must, after reflecting on such considerations, become quite as desirous as the undersigned for a mutual and vigorous co-operation to uphold the habitual opinions and practices in favor of the inviolability of the constitution and laws, which are fortunately so characteristic of the great mass of the population in every quarter of the Union.

It is in this manner only that the Department can be enabled to carry on the fiscal operations of the Treasury so as to maintain the public faith unimpaired at home and abroad, and sustain, as far as relates to the currency, a sound standard of value, in the true spirit of the constitution, and according to the best established principles of political economy.

Respectfully, yours,

LEVI WOODBURY, Secretary of the Treasury. To WILLIAM STURGIS, President, G. WALES, 2 R. G. SHAW, Vice Presidents, and

G. M. THATCHER, Secy, Boston Chamber Com.

F. 2.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 19, 1837. Sin: This Department has, with much surprise, seen several representations in the daily press concerning certain declarations made by you at a recent public meeting in New York city, as to the course you intended to pursue in future in collecting the public revenue.

The importance of the subject, and the nature of these representations, render it my unpleasant duty to call your immediate attention to them.

Some of the accounts of what took place represent you as saying, in substance, that, as the orders of the Treasury could not be complied with, you, on your own responsi bility, would dispense with them; while others state that you understood a discretion had been left to you by the Executive on this subject; and that, in the exercise of such discretion, you should not conform to the instructions of the Department, either by collecting the money yourself, which fell due for duties, or by collecting it in such kind of money as the laws require. Other representations convey the idea that, if you pursued such a course, the Government would make no objection to it.

Under a belief that, in these reports, as to your remarks

and determination on this subject, some unfortunate errors must have occurred, or that you must have imbibed very incorrect opinions concerning the views entertained by the Department, it becomes proper, on the present occasion, to repeat, in explicit terms, the real character and extent of those views.

1. The order as to the mole of collecting bonds by yourself, rather than through the banks, and in specie or its equivalent, was, in the last respect, in accordance with the course which you reported to this Department for its approval on the suspension of payment by the banks. The order was the same in substance, in all respects, at your port, as that adopted at all other ports in the United States, where no banks paid specie on demand for their notes, and where, in that event, the express language of the deposite act of June, 1836, imperatively required their discontinuance as public depositories; and other laws virtually forbid the receipt of their notes for duties.

2. But, in the wide-spread calamity which had recently fallen on the commercial world, and, through it, upon those banking institutions, in common with others which were depositories of the public money, it was evident that our finances must become embarrassed through the previous embarrassments of others, and that great care and efforts must be exercised to meet faithfully the current public engagements. At the same time, it was desirable that every indulgence and forbearance should be exercised, and were intended by the President and this Department to be liberally exercised, towards the public debtors, which those engagements would permit.

3. Accordingly, in order to mitigate the evils which pressed so heavily on the merchants, this Department, with the sanction of the President, at once authorized a postponement to be granted, in all suitable cases, of the payment of duty bonds, as well before as after suit and subsequently as new events justified, permitted it to be extended till after the commencement of the next session of Congress.

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The Department likewise empowered the collectors to receive for duties the drafts of the Treasurer, in favor of the public creditors, which might not be paid in specie to the holders by the banks on which they were drawn.

Outstanding debenture bonds are also receivable in the same way; and, to afford the opportunity to procure still further aid and relief, if it shall be deemed proper by Congress, that body has been specially convened by the President at the earliest convenient day.

After all these mitigating measures, neither the President nor this Department saw any further indulgence which could be given consistent with the acts of Congress, and which it was within our powers to bestow, limited and regulated as those powers are by various express laws.

It was, and still is, hoped that the merchants would, till Congress assembled, cheerfully incur the diminished sacrifices, in respect to the payment of some of the duties, which their liabilities and business might render necessary; and that the officers connected with the customs would feel a pride, as well as zeal, in encouraging them to uphold the laws faithfully, and neither countenance nor permit any departures from thein.

The Executive possesses no authority to delegate to you, nor has it intended to delegate, any discretion to disregard those laws in any particular, or to act contrary to the instructions of the Department, which had been issued in conformity to them; nor can it sanction the exercise of any such discretion on the part of any of the officers of the

customs.

It would seen better that the duties, whether due on bonds or in cash, when the goods are entered, and which the merchants may be unable, if not postponed, to pay in any of the legal modes before pointed out, till the early day on which Congress convenes, should go entirely un

Report on the Finances.

paid from inability to meet them legally, than be collected or discharged in a manner that is not sanctioned either by the acts of Congress or our duty to the Government.

The Department is willing to make liberal allowances for acts growing out of the sympathy naturally felt for the embarrassments of the commercial community, and the strong desire to contribute to their relief; but you must be sensible that the newspaper accounts which have already appeared are calculated to convey the idea that the President and this Department are disposed to overlook, or even to approve, the unauthorized course which it is said you propose to adopt; and it is possible that, from your full knowledge of the sincerity and extent of the anxious desire of the President and of this Department to afford relief, you may have entertained the impression that such would be the case.

It therefore becomes my duty instantly to inform you that all such impresssions are erroneous, and it is hoped that many of the considerations before stated will have occurred to you; and that, under their influence, you will continue to discharge your duties in the manner pointed out in the acts of Congress and the instructions of this Department.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
LEVI WOODBURY,
Secretary of the Treasury.
S. SWARTWOUT, Esq., Collector, New York.

F. 3.

NEW YORK, August 28, 1837. SIR: The undersigned have been appointed a committee of the Chamber of Commerce of the city of New York, for the purpose of addressing to you the following representations upon the subject of the payment of customhouse bonds becoming due, and of duties upon wool and woollen goods now lying in the public stores in this city.

It appears that there were custom-house bonds in the hands of the district attorney, payable previously to the first of this month, (August,) for $2,200,000 And at custom-house, payable in August,

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[25th CONG. 1st SESS.

which mainly govern the regularity of payments, by all connected with commerce.

Owing to the entire derangement of the internal exchanges, and to the absence of a specie standard, funds, even when collected at various points of the Union, are generally unavailable as the means of payment here. The banks of the city, with a laudable desire to resume specie payments at the earliest day, must adopt a system of restriction, and therefore withhold facilities, now more needed than ever by their dealers, whose collections in bank chiefly consist of payments of a part only of the amount due, with renewals for the remainder for two, three, and four months; and at the end of those periods, similar renewals are repeated.

This total derangement of all the means of carrying on the business of the country throughout its various sections, has rendered the collection of debts impossible; and, accordingly, the vast amount due for goods already sold in this city, on which a large portion of existing duties were levied, remains unpaid, and without any immediate prospect of liquidation. Nor can sales now be made of foreign merchandise on hand; and it is impracticable to convert goods into money, as well from the inability to pay on the part of buyers, as from the unwillingness to sell on credit on the part of the holders; and sales by auction can only be made at ruinous sacrifices.

A general extension, to a large portion of their debtors, has also been granted, for a period of twelve months and upwards, by the importing merchants of this city; and there is now due from other places, to those engaged here in the importation and sale of foreign merchandise, a much larger amount than would pay off all debts from this city to the Government and to foreign countries.

A very large proportion of the means of the importing merchants is thus virtually withdrawn from their control, and scattered throughout the Union; whence it cannot be collected, in any available manner, in the present state of suspended payments by banks and individuals, of derangement in the domestic exchanges, and of interruption to business, throughout the whole country.

Under these circumstances, the importing merchants 705,500 have no alternative left, but to ask the Government to 1,004,727 apply to them the same measure of relief which they have 536,093 granted to their debtors, by extending for a year the period 350,646 of payment of bonds, and of other dues at the custom318,245 house; at which time, it is fully believed there will remain no obstacle to a punctual discharge of all such indebtedness. $5,115,211 The like remarks apply to the inability of the importers of wool and woollen goods, now in public store, to pay 2,000,000 duties; which will amount, according to the above estimate, to two millions of dollars. The Government holds these goods in its own keeping; therefore the revenue is secure and the extension of one year beyond the time required by law may, with entire safety, be granted to the importers for entering and paying the duties on these goods.

$7,115,211

This port being the recipient of merchandise destined for the consumption of a large portion of the Union, the importing merchants here assume, in the first instance, the responsibility of paying the duties to Government; and the history of the past may well attest the fidelity with which that responsibibility has been discharged, until the present time, when the general condition of affairs has been so essentially changed.

After the banks of the Union had suspended specie payments, the difficulty of paying the dues to Government in legal currency became insurmountable, and, at the instance of this committee, the period of payment of customhouse bonds was postponed by your Department until the 1st of October next, in order that Congress, which would then be assembled, might make the needful laws upon this new shape of things.

The mercantile and trading interests of the whole country have since been laboring under unparalleled difficulties, so that reliance can no longer be placed upon receipts,

The undersigned, therefore, respectully represent the necessity which, under the circumstances set forth herein, renders it expedient that Congress should interfere, at a day previous to the 1st of October next, by the passage of a law providing for the postponement of the collection of such bonds at the custom-house as may fall due prior to the 1st of January next, with the assent of sureties, and upon interest; allowing, however, the option of earlier payment, and thus stopping interest: and, also, to extend, for one year, the respective periods within which goods subject, upon entry, to the payment of duties in cash, may be retained in the public stores.

In the hope that these suggestions may meet your approval, and, in that case, that you will see fit to recommend the passage of such a law, at the opening of the ensuing Congress, and, in the mean time, that you would favor us with a reply,

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