them from their statute books. The committee cannot conclude this report, however, without putting the opinions at which they have arrived into a shape, in which they may receive the ratification and adoption of the House; trusting that such an expression of them may not be without influence in procuring for the memorialists, and still more for the oppressed and injured seamen in their employ, the redress which they rightfully demand.

They accordingly submit the following Resolutions:

Resolved, That the seizure and imprisonment, in any port of this Union, of free colored seamen, citizens of any of the States, and against whom there is no charge but that of entering said port in the prosecution of their rightful business, is a violation of the privileges of citizenship guaranteed by the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States.

Resolved, That the seizure and imprisonment, in any port of this Union, of free colored seamen, on board of foreign vessels, against whom there is no charge but that of entering said port in the course of their lawful business, is a breach of the comity of nations, is incompatible with the rights of all nations in amity with the United States, and, in relation to nations with whom the United States have formed commercial conventions, is a violation of the sixth article of the Federal Constitution, which declares that treaties are a part of the supreme law of the land.

Resolved, That any State laws, by which certain classes of seamen are prohibited from entering certain ports of this Union, in the prosecution of their rightful business, are in contravention of the paramount and exclusive power of the general government to regulate commerce.

Resolved, That the police power of the States can justify no enactments or regulations, which are in direct, positive, and permanent conflict with express provisions or fundamental principles of the national compact.

NOTE.

TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

Your petitioners, citizens of the United States, and some of them owners and masters of vessels,

That on board of that large number of vessels accustomed to touch at the ports of Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans, it is frequently neces sary to employ free persons of color:

And whereas it frequently happens that such crews are taken from the vessels, thrown into prison, and there detained at their own expense, greatly to the prejudice and detriment of their interest, and of the commerce of these States:

They pray your honorable body to grant them relief, and render effectual in their behalf the privileges of citizenship secured by the Constitution of the United States.

Samuel T. Armstrong

James Dennie
Henry J. Nazro
Henry J. Oliver
Joshua Crane
Bramhall & Howe
C. Wilkins & Co.

George Thatcher & Co.

Edward Oakes

Charles C. Bowman
John J. Eaton

Henderson Inches, Jr.
M. Brimmer

T. M. J. Dehon
Stephen Grover
Thomas B. Curtis
Joseph Ballister & Co.
Josiah Bradlee & Co.
James Parker

THE

SAFE KEEPING OF THE PUBLIC MONEYS.

A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 25, 1843.

It is with no little reluctance, Mr. Speaker, that I enter into this debate. There is a well-remembered proverb of Solomon, that "from the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh." I confess, Sir, that I have no fulness of the heart to speak from, in relation to the questions now before us. The whole subject of the currency has been so perplexed and embarrassed, by the deplorable collisions which have occurred between the President of the United States and the Congress of the United States, that no man can approach it without something of repugnance and aversion.

In reference to this subject of the currency, indeed, we have been tossed to and fro on the waves of party contention for almost ten years. A year or two since we were flattered with the belief that we were coming at last to port; but the objects which we took for land, and which were eagerly and joyously hailed as such from the mast-head, turned out to be only fresh reefs of rock across our course; and we seem to be now as far as ever, or even farther than ever, from the haven where we would be. In the mean time, the subject itself, as a matter of public discussion, has become "as stale as the remainder biscuit after a voyage."

Questions, however, seem likely to be taken before this report and resolution are disposed of, upon which any vote that one may give, will be so exceedingly liable to misconstruction, that I cannot consent to forego some explanation of my views.

Repeated challenges have been heard in this hall, for one man to rise in his place and say that he was in favor of adopting the Exchequer plan as originally presented to us by the President of the United States. I am not about to respond to these challenges, or to take up the gauntlet which has thus been thrown down. But I greatly doubt both the policy and the propriety of passing the pending resolution, and if compelled to give a vote on it at all, that vote will be in the negative.

Before proceeding, however, to any remarks upon the resolu tion itself, or upon the report by which it is accompanied, I desire to present some general views on the subject-matter involved in them.

And, in the first place, Sir, I wish to express the strong sense which I entertain of the obligation which is resting upon the Congress of the United States to make provision, by law, in some form or other, and without further delay, for the collection, custody, and disbursement of the public moneys. How is it with these moneys now! Who knows where they are to-day, or where they will be to-morrow? Who knows how they are collected, how they are kept, how they are disbursed? Who does not know that they are collected, kept, and disbursed, under the almost entirely unregulated and discretionary authority of the Executive? There is a section or two of an old law of 1789, and there is an amendatory act of 1822,- both of them exceedingly loose in their language and indefinite in their import; and there is also the resolution of 1816. The first of these acts merely makes it the duty of the Treasurer of the United States to receive and keep the public moneys, and to disburse the same upon the warrants of the Secretary of the Treasury, leaving all the subordinate agencies, through which the receipts and payments of this great nation are to be conducted, entirely without legal specification or selection. The second of them relates mainly to moneys appropriated for the War and Navy Departments, and supplies none of the defects of the previous act. And the resolution of 1816 prescribes only the medium in which the public revenue shall be collected. These comprise all the law there is on the subject. These are the disjecta membra, the dry and detached bones, of our existing fiscal system; and it is left to