In consequence of complaints which have been made of frauds, speculations, and monopolies in the purchase of the public lands, and the aid which is said to be given to effect these objects by excessive bank credits and dangerous, if not partial, facilities through bank drafts and bank deposits, and the general evil influence likely to result to the public interests, and especially the safety of the great amount of money in the Treasury, and the sound condition of the currency of the country from the further exchange of the national domain in this manner, and chiefly for bank credits and paper money, the President of the United States has given directions, and you are hereby instructed, after the 15th day of August next, to receive in payment of the public lands nothing except what is directed by the existing laws, viz, gold and silver, and in the proper cases Virginia land scrip: _Provided_, That till the 15th of December next the same indulgences heretofore extended as to the kind of money received may be continued for any quantity of land not exceeding 320 acres to each purchaser who is an actual settler or _bona fide_ resident in the State where the sales are made. In order to insure the faithful execution of these instructions, all receivers are strictly prohibited from accepting for land sold any draft, certificate, or other evidence of money or deposit, though for specie, unless signed by the Treasurer of the United States in conformity to the act of April 24, 1820; and each of those officers is required to annex to his monthly returns to this Department the amount of gold and of silver, respectively, as well as the bills, received under the foregoing exception; and each deposit bank is required to annex to every certificate given upon a deposit of money the proportions of it actually paid in gold, in silver, and in bank notes. All former instructions on these subjects, except as now modified, will be considered as remaining in full force. The principal objects of the President in adopting this measure being to repress alleged frauds and to withhold any countenance or facilities in the power of the Government from the monopoly of the public lands in the hands of speculators and capitalists, to the injury of the actual settlers in the new States and of emigrants in search of new homes, as well as to discourage the ruinous extension of bank issues and bank credits by which those results are generally supposed to be promoted, your utmost vigilance is required and relied on to carry this order into complete execution. LEVI WOODBURY, _Secretary of the Treasury_. [From American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. VII, p. 554.] HERMITAGE, _September 7, 1836._ General J.E. WOOL, _East Tennessee_. SIR: Your letter of the 30th ultimo has just been handed to me by Mr. Rogers, the express. Being in a state of preparation for setting out for Washington and surrounded by much company, I have but a moment to reply to it.