A Book of the United States / Exhibiting its geography, divisions, constitution, and government ... and presenting a view of the republic generally, and of the individual states; together with a condensed history of the land, from its first discovery to the present time. The biography of about two hundred of the leading men: a description of the principal cities and towns; with statistical tables

by Unknown

On the 4th of September, in compliance with the proclamation of the President, congress assembled in extra session. In his message of the following day, the President alleged as the reason for convening congress in extra session, the inability of the government to comply with the law requiring the revenues to be deposited in specie-paying banks, the apprehension that the suspension of specie payments in addition to the before existing pecuniary embarrassments of the country would so far diminish the public revenue, that it would be insufficient to defray the unavoidable expenses of the government, and the difficulties experienced by the mercantile interest in meeting their engagements. “Sensible that adequate provisions for these unexpected exigencies could only be made by congress, convinced that some of them would be indispensably necessary to the public service before the regular period of your meeting, and desirous also to enable you to exercise your full constitutional powers for the relief of the country,” the President remarks, “I could not with propriety avoid subjecting you to the inconvenience of assembling at as early a day as the state of the popular representation would permit.” The message proceeds to ascribe the pecuniary embarrassments of the country to the redundancy of credit acquired by excessive issues of bank paper, and by means of foreign loans, contracted by the states and state institutions; and above all, by the lavish accommodations extended by foreign dealers to our merchants, and as the consequence of this redundancy of credit, to what the message terms, “a spirit of adventurous speculation, embracing the whole range of human enterprise.” The President next adverted to the best mode of keeping the public funds. A national bank, as a fiscal agent, he repudiated, and also local banks, they having failed to answer the expectations of the government in this particular. He would propose “a separation of the fiscal operations of the government from those of individuals or corporations;” a divorcement of the government from banks and banking, and a thorough change of the custodaries of the public revenue. As a means of immediate relief, he advised to the postponement of the fourth instalment of the deposits with the states, and the issue of treasury notes receivable for all public dues, but without interest. Both by the President and the secretary of the treasury a new mode was proposed of keeping the public revenue. They proposed to place it in the custody of commissioners, or receivers-general, at certain central points; into their hands it was to be paid, and kept by them, subject to the call and control of the treasurer. Most of the money, it was supposed, could be paid out near the places where it was collected, and thus save the expense and hazard of transmission to the seat of government. “This organization,” said the secretary, “would be advantageous as a separate establishment for this business alone, and as an independent check on most of those collecting the revenues. But it would require some addition to the present number of offices, and in the first instance would more increase the public expense.” The whole additional offices supposed to be necessary were ten. The annual increase of expenses was estimated at sixty thousand dollars. The danger of losses would be no greater, and probably less, under this organization, than at present. Such was the general plan proposed for keeping the public moneys, and which it was urged would render the government more independent, and less subject to be affected by the vicissitudes of tradeand speculation, and less under the control of selfish and moneyed corporations.

In accordance with the recommendation of the President and secretary of the treasury, a bill was early introduced into the senate for the safe keeping of the public funds, commonly denominated the Sub-Treasury bill. This was intended to be the prominent measure of the session, and was urged with great power and by numerous considerations upon the senate and house of representatives. By the senate it was adopted by a vote of twenty-six to twenty. In the house, after undergoing an animated and protracted discussion, it was laid upon the table, by a vote of one hundred and twenty to one hundred and seven. Subsequently, an effort was made to reconsider the vote by which the bill was laid upon the table, but was lost; the motion for reconsideration being itself disposed of in the same manner by a vote of one hundred and nineteen to one hundred and four.

The extra session of congress was brought to a close on the 16th of October. The two principal measures adopted, designed for the relief of the government, were the postponement to the first day of January, 1839, of the payment of the fourth instalment of the deposits with the states, and the issue of treasury notes to an amount not exceeding ten millions of dollars, reimbursable in one year, and of the denomination of not less than fifty dollars.

In the autumn of 1837, an insurrection broke out in the British provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. Citizens of the United States, sympathizing with the insurgents, enlisted into their cause, and attempts were made, in violation of the laws of the United States, to raise troops in our territory to aid the revolutionists. Great excitement prevailed among the inhabitants along the line of our north-western frontier. The President of the United States in order to sustain the laws, issued his proclamation under date of the 5th of January, declaring that all persons who should compromit the neutrality of the United States, would render themselves liable to punishment under those laws, which would be rigidly enforced. At the same time orders were issued from the war department to General Scott to repair to the Canada frontier with an armed force, to be furnished by the States of New York and Vermont, for the purpose of repelling an apprehended invasion of our soil. The immediate occasion of issuing these orders was an attack made by an armed force from Canada upon the American steamboat Caroline. This vessel, owned by an American citizen, and bound for Schlosser, upon the east side of the Niagara river, and within the United States, was boarded about midnight, on the 29th of December, by seventy or eighty armed men, who immediately commenced an attack upon the crew and passengers with muskets, swords, and cutlasses, and soon set her on fire, towed her into the current of the river, and abandoned her to the mercy of the cataract. Out of thirty-three individuals known to have been on board of her, twelve could not be found, and of those found, one, Amos Durfee, was dead, having been shot through the head with a musket hall, and several others were wounded.

Immediate steps were taken by the department of state to bring the whole subject to the notice of the British government. Sir Allen N. M’Nabb, the commander of the British forces on the Niagara frontier, in justification of this attack on the Caroline, alleged that he had the most positive information that she had been sold to the pirates on Navy Island, and, loaded withprovisions and munitions of war, was destined to co-operate with the British rebels. Although the civil war in Canada was soon brought to a close, the difficulties between the two governments, growing out of the attack on the Caroline, still remained unadjusted.

The second session of the twenty-fifth congress commenced on the first Monday of December, 1837. The message of the President represented the condition of our foreign relations as not materially changed since the last annual message of his predecessor. Of questions pending between the United States and foreign governments, the most important regarded our north-eastern boundary. “The sole result of long pending negotiations and a perplexing arbitration,” the President observed, “appears to be a conviction, that a conventional line must be adopted, from the impossibility of ascertaining the true one, according to the description contained in the treaty. Without coinciding in this opinion, which is not thought to be well founded, my predecessor gave the strongest proof of the earnest desire of the United States to terminate satisfactorily the dispute, by proposing the substitution of a conventional line, if the consent of the states interested in the question could be obtained. To this proposition the British government have not yet replied.” The President urges upon the consideration of congress the claims of the government upon Mexico; that government having as yet declined to do any thing satisfactorily for the adjustment of our demands upon her for many cases both of public and private wrongs. The subject of the collection, transfer, and safe keeping of the public moneys was again represented as requiring the attention of the legislative department. The President considered congress as having decided, at the last session, against the creation of a national bank, and also against the deposit system. He therefore brought forward again the sub-treasury scheme as the only remaining expedient. A graduation of the prices of the public lands according to a valuation to be made, and an extension of the pre-emption laws in favor of settlers, were measures which the President seemed to regard with favor. The system of removing the Indians commenced by Mr. Jefferson in 1804, having been steadily persevered in by every succeeding president, was well nigh terminating in complete success, almost all the Indian tribes having been removed and established west of the Mississippi. The war in Florida still continuing, the principal part of the army had been concentrated there, with a view and in the expectation of bringing the war in that territory to a speedy close.

The second session of the twenty-fifth congress was terminated on the 9th of July, 1838, without however any thing having been done for the safe keeping, transfer, collection, and disbursement of the public moneys; and on the 14th of the same month, the secretary of the treasury issued his circular to the collectors and receivers announcing this fact, and urging upon them the necessity of scrupulously enforcing the regulations and instructions of the department, of accuracy in their accounts, punctuality in their returns, promptness in their payments, and of an entire forbearance to use any part of the public moneys. The acts passed at this session of congress were chiefly of a private nature, and few, if any of the measures recommended by the President in his message, were adopted.

On the 13th of August, 1838, by previous concert, many of the banks resumed specie payments. On the 23d of July previous, a convention was held in the city of Philadelphia, in which the banks of the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, were represented, and which unanimously resolved to recommend the 13th of August as a suitable and convenient time, on which to resume. Accordingly, on the arrival of that day, the resumption was generally effected without commotion, without injury to themselves, and without inconvenience to the mercantile part of the community. This was an event which had been devoutly looked for, and was welcomed by the whole country. Some anxiety was felt as to the effect resumption would have upon the specie-paying banks; but generally, it was accomplished with ease. In Philadelphia, where this anxiety was perhaps the greatest, the demands for specie were confined to the wants of the community for change.

On the 3d of December, 1838, the twenty-fifth congress commenced its third session. On the following day the President transmitted his message, in which he represented the foreign relations of the country as generally friendly. With Mexico an advance had been made toward an adjustment of difficulties by the conclusion of a treaty, which, when ratified, would refer all subjects of controversy to the arbitrament of a friendly power. The work of removing the Indians west of the Mississippi was yet in successful progress, the entire removal of the Cherokees having been now effected.

Of the financial state of the government and country, the President spoke in tones of exultation. “When we call to mind,” said he, “the recent extreme embarrassments produced by excessive issues of bank paper, aggravated by the unforeseen withdrawal of much foreign capital, and the inevitable derangement arising from the distribution of the surplus revenue among the states as required by congress; and consider the heavy expenses incurred by the removal of Indian tribes; by the military operations in Florida; and on account of the unusually large appropriations made at the last two annual sessions of congress for other objects, we have a striking evidence in the present official state of our finances, (estimated at $2,765,000 in the treasury on the 1st of January, 1839,) of the abundant resources of the country to fulfil all its obligations.”