Thirty Years' View (Vol. 2 of 2): or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850Benton, Thomas Hart
History
Thirty Years' View (Vol. 2 of 2): or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850
Benton, Thomas Hart
United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861
"He must ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment, and was
sorry it had been offered. If it was to be fully considered, it
would renew the debate on the deposit act, as it went to change
the essential principles and terms of that act. A majority of
those who voted for that act, about which there had been so much
said, and so much misrepresentation, had professed to regard
it--and he could not doubt that at the time they did so regard
it--as simply a deposit law; as merely changing the place of
deposit from the banks to the States, so far as related to the
surplus. The money was still to be in the Treasury, and liable
to be drawn out, with certain limitations and restrictions, by
the ordinary appropriation laws, without the direct action of
Congress. The amendment, if adopted, will change the principles
of the deposit act, and the condition of the money deposited
with the States under it. It will no longer be a deposit; it
will not be in the Treasury, even in point of legal effect or
form: the deposit will be changed to a loan, or, perhaps more
properly, a grant to the States. The rights of the United States
will be changed to a mere claim, like that against the late Bank
of the United States; and a claim without any means to enforce
it. We were charged, at the time, of making a distribution of
the public revenue to the States, in the disguise and form of a
deposit; and this amendment, it appeared to him, would be a very
bold step towards confirming the truth of that charge. He deemed
the amendment an important one, and highly objectionable; but
he saw that the Senate were prepared to adopt it, and he would
not pursue the discussion, but content himself with repeating
his request for the ayes and noes on the question."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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