embarrassments must 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 any power to trade