Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 1 (of 16)United States. Congress
History
Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 1 (of 16)
United States. Congress
Law -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
advantage from his abilities in such a situation, as you would if he
were placed in office without control? If he was possessed of such
genius, he could employ it more usefully as a Commissioner of the Board
of Treasury, than when left to perform all the drudgery of the executive
part; because while his fine imagination was busied in reducing a chaos
to a beautiful system, his colleagues might perform those parts which
required less elevation of thought; by dividing the burthen, the
business would be done with more regularity and facility. Surely no
advantage to the public would arise from giving him the sole management
of the business, but much inconvenience might; besides, it must
unavoidably, as I said before, subject him to suspicions unfavorable to
his reputation. This has absolutely been realized; it is not a mere
chimera, a matter of speculation. We have had a Board of Treasury, and
we have had a Financier. Have not express charges, as well as vague
rumors, been brought against him at the bar of the public? They may be
unfounded, it is true; but it shows that a man cannot serve in such a
station without exciting popular clamor. It is very well known, I dare
say, to many gentlemen in this House, that the noise and commotion were
such as obliged Congress once more to alter their Treasury Department,
and place it under the management of a Board of Commissioners. We have
seen speculations excited from this quarter against the Government
itself, and painful insinuations of design by his appointment to the
Senate. I mention these circumstances to exhibit to your view the
inconveniencies to which an officer is subjected by constituting an
office of this nature. If the gentleman I have alluded to had been a
member of the Board of Treasury, he would not have been subjected to the
charges which were brought against him. In such a situation, he could
have rendered the services his great abilities enabled him to do,
without exposing his character to be torn to pieces by malevolence or
detraction.
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