be sought in industry, economy, the observance of
good faith, and the favorable influence of time.
In pursuance of a pledge given to you in my last message
to Congress, which pledge I urge as an apology for
adventuring to present you the details of any plan,
the Secretary of the Treasury will be ready to submit
to you, should you require it, a plan of finance which,
while it throws around the public treasure reasonable
guards for its protection and rests on powers acknowledged
in practice to exist from the origin of the Government,
will at the same time furnish to the country a sound
paper medium and afford all reasonable facilities for
regulating the exchanges. When submitted, you
will perceive in it a plan amendatory of the existing
laws in relation to the Treasury Department, subordinate
in all respects to the will of Congress directly and
the will of the people indirectly, self-sustaining
should it be found in practice to realize its promises
in theory, and repealable at the pleasure of Congress.
It proposes by effectual restraints and by invoking
the true spirit of our institutions to separate the
purse from the sword, or, more properly to speak,
denies any other control to the President over the
agents who may be selected to carry it into execution
but what may be indispensably necessary to secure
the fidelity of such agents, and by wise regulations
keeps plainly apart from each other private and public
funds. It contemplates the establishment of a
board of control at the seat of government, with agencies
at prominent commercial points or wherever else Congress
shall direct, for the safe-keeping and disbursement
of the public moneys, and a substitution at the option
of the public creditor of Treasury notes in lieu of
gold and silver. It proposes to limit the issues
to an amount not to exceed $15,000,000 without the
express sanction of the legislative power. It
also authorizes the receipt of individual deposits
of gold and silver to a limited amount, and the granting
certificates of deposit divided into such sums as may
be called for by the depositors. It proceeds
a step further and authorizes the purchase and sale
of domestic bills and drafts resting on a real and
substantial basis, payable at sight or having but a
short time to run, and drawn on places not less than
100 miles apart, which authority, except in so far
as may be necessary for Government purposes exclusively,
is only to be exerted upon the express condition that
its exercise shall not be prohibited by the State
in which the agency is situated. In order to
cover the expenses incident to the plan, it will be
authorized to receive moderate premiums for certificates
issued on deposits and on bills bought and sold, and
thus, as far as its dealings extend, to furnish facilities
to commercial intercourse at the lowest possible rates
and to subduct from the earnings of industry the least
possible sum. It uses the State banks at a distance
from the agencies as auxiliaries without imparting