National currency. Memorial of Littleton Dennis Teackle, presenting a plan of national currency and depositories of the public moneys, and praying that its principles and details may be considered and acted upon by Congress. June 12, 1841

27th Congress, Doc. No. 17. Ho. of Reps.
1st Session.

NATIONAL CURRENCY.

MEMORIAL

OF

LITTLETON DENNIS TEACKLE,

PRESENTING

June 12, 1841.
Referred to the Select Committee appointed on the subject of the Currency.

The subscriber, with profound respect for the superior wisdom of the supreme legislature of the American people, submits the accompanying plan, which proposes to create a National Currency for the common convenience and benefit, and to provide for the collection, custody, and disbursement of the public moneys ; and he respectfully prays that its principles and details may be examined and considered by the select appointments of your honorable bodies, to which those important topics have been referred, and that the results of their deliberations thereon may be acted upon as in your wisdom may seem meet.

LITTLETON DENNIS TEACKLE.
Washington, D. C. 9, 1841.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

The undersigned, a native citizen of the United States, residing in the State of Maryland, in the exercise of a constitutional privilege, with deference approaches your honorable bodies, to present a proposition designed to remove the embarrassing and vexatious circumstances which have arisen from derangements in monetary affairs, and to avoid the recurrence of similar

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evils, by the interposition of an adequate and ample circulating medium, in connexion with the collection, custody, and distribution of the revenue.

In the construction of a code for these essential purposes, the undersigned has acted in obedience to the following considerations, viz :

1. That the system of this republic embraces not only the constitution and laws of the confederation, but the institutions of its component States; and that the people are paramount to all.
2. That the mere keeping of the public treasures imparts a beneficial privilege.
3. That the credit of its circulation is a virtual capital of great value.
4. That the benefits of each and every other prerogative, whether positive or incidental, properly belong to all the people; and that they cannot be ceded to a part, without derogating from the rights of the whole.

Economists admit that money is the blood of a nation, the spring of its industry, the generator of its enterprise ; and its regulation in this empire of free States having been exclusively vested in your honorable bodies, the exercise of that power, to the end that its functions may be equally exerted for the general good, is especially devolved in the pending crisis.

The plan proposed is believed to be founded upon principles substantial in their nature, and entirely consistent with the genius of our Government, as it proposes to diffuse the benefits of a high and valuable prerogative to the whole people, and not for the profit of a favored few or privileged order. It is, in fact, substantially, a national bank of deposite and exchange, without the faculty of discounting or circulation, in connexion with a system of State institutions for the keeping and distribution of the federal revenue, under guards and guaranties commensurate with the wealth and credit of the several States respectively; to each of which States it would impart extensive aids, and afford facilities for general accommodation and amelioration. And while such a system would essentially enlarge the specie basis, and adapt the operations of the public institutions to the minor concerns of the country, the national currency would supply the interchanges of commerce, in large transactions, on terms convenient and economical; and although the making of paper a legal tender in private contracts may be interdicted by the constitution, the allowance of such a currency, in all payments to the national Treasury, has been sanctioned by law and usage, in the adoption of a species of currency mainly analogous to the emission proposed, viz : the Treasury notes.

The details and illustrations of the proposition are extended in the annexed paper, (marked A,) which the undersigned submits as a part of this memoir, and prays that it may be so considered.

Apprehensions have been entertained, as the undersigned is aware, that the States could not surmount the opposition of private corporations engaged in banking; and that an attempt to carry into effect a general system, as proposed, would, consequently, be found impracticable. But is not such an apprehension of itself enough to invite the encounter, in order that it may be ascertained whether the sovereignty dwells in the creator, or in the creature corporators?

It will be seen, by the plan, that the assent of any five of the States will suffice to commence the system, and it scarcely can be doubted that a larger number, already provided with well-adapted institutions, would promptly accede; and that the action of less favorable regulations, necessarily preexisting, would conduce to the successive accession of others, until the

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entire Union should be embraced by the equitable measures in contemplation.

The predominating principles of policy and interest are enough to warrant this conclusion; as the presented in the liberal distribution of the national currency, and the of the collection and disbursement of the public moneys, operating as inducements on the one hand, whilst the justifiable withholding of that and those , as well as the drains of abstractions by drafts to the public creditors, on those continuing under the control of private corporations, acting adversely on the other hand, would conduce to the establishment of a fiscal confederation, in harmonious accord with the spirit of our political system, and the just rights of all interests and classes of community.

Actuated by the inducements presented, and the incidental advantages anticipated to flow from the plan proposed, it is humbly conceived that the States would severally provide the needful “coin,” and conform, in good faith, to the organic law of your honorable bodies, in all its provisions and requisitions.

The undersigned, therefore, in all humility, submits respectfully his proposition, and prays that its principles and details may be duly considered, and acted upon as in your wisdom may seem meet.

LITTLETON DENNIS TEACKLE, of Maryland.

A.

The proposition is intended to establish the monetary system, and to regulate the currency of the United States according to the following bases and principles, to wit:
1. Five commissioners, to be appointed by the President and Senate, to act, in conjunction with other commissioners to be appointed by the States, in a board, to sit at the seat of the General Government.
2. The board to devise and prepare a national currency, in convenient denominations, from twenty to one thousand dollars, to be apportioned among the States in the ratio of their electoral votes, not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars for every Senator and Representative in Congress.
3. Each of the States assenting to the system to receive its contingent of the currency upon the payment of one per centum on the amount required, and contracting to pay in like manner annually thereafter, and providing not less than one- fourth of that amount in the legal coin of the United States as a basis of its operations.
4. Each of the assenting States to appoint one commissioner to the board, and one in addition for every ten of its electoral votes; deducting the number which may have been appointed from such State by the President and Senate.
5. The principal institution of each of the States to have the custody, and provide for the transmission and disbursement of the public moneys, and for exchanges between the States, under such conditions and regulations as the Congress may prescribe.
6. The national currency to be made receivable in all payments to the United States, at each and every of the institutions, and at all their branches or departments, without regard to its place of emission or redemption.