Speech of Mr. Rives, of Virginia: In Support of the Bill Introduced by Him Designating the Funds Receivable in Payment of the Public Revenue, and in ... to the Sub-Treasury Scheme (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

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Excerpt from Speech of Mr. Rives, of Virginia: In Support of the Bill Introduced by Him Designating the Funds Receivable in Payment of the Public Revenue, and in Opposition to the Sub-Treasury Scheme

Mr. President -

I rise in pursuance of the notice I gave yesterday, to ask leave to bring in a "Bill to designate the funds receivable in payment of the revenue of the United States." It will be borne in mind by the Senate that among the most prominent, and certainly not the least important objects presented both by the President's Message and the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, for the "immediate attention" of Congress at their present session, is the expediency of some legislative provision defining the character of the funds to be received, in future, in discharge of the public dues. From the intimate connection between the collection of the public revenue and the general currency of the country, this question has, in my estimation, far more essential bearings on the great interests of the community, than any which the President has submitted for our deliberations. The Committee of Finance, however, to whom the Message was referred, have not thought it proper to make any report on that portion of it, and we have been informed by the honorable Chairman, that it is not their intention to make any report upon it at the present session. It is this omission, on the part of the Committee, that it is the object of my motion now to supply.

The President recommends that henceforward the whole revenues of the United States shall be collected exclusively in gold and silver. A proposition of so marked a character, emanating from a source of such high authority. could not fail to excite deep anxiety in the public mind; and it seemed to me that all uncertainty in regard to the policy of the Government, on so vital a subject, should be promptly settled, one way or the other, by the action of the legislative department. It is my misfortune to differ with the President in his views of the expediency of this proposition. I am firmly convinced that, in the actual condition of our circulating medium, and in what is likely, for years to come, to be its condition, the operation of such a measure would be distressing to the community, injurious to every branch of industry and enterprise, and above all, would postpone indefinitely that return to specie payments by the banks, which is the great object of the public solicitude, and ought to be the end and aim of our deliberations here. Viewing the question in this light, I desired it should be met with promptitude, considered with candor, and decided with wisdom.

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