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H | n n- ‘■ Mr. Cratcfurd t Anmixir — Canrludti. Kmted States and ♦ e Hunk at Hunt*- the cashier of the former drew certain drafts upon the amount stanrl uigat his credit in the latter bunk. — These the Hank at Huntsville declin ed to pay, under an erroneous idea that it was accountable to the treasury lor 1 it: money. As soon as this was made known to the Secretary he wrote to the Hunts ville Hank, to remove the misunder standing. The Hank justified itself, by quoting certain expressions of the ."Secretary’s circular of July 1819. The Secretary replied, that it the bank had quoted correctly, the circu- I.r must have been imperlect, and Jfth ed to have it sent back for exam ination. It was sent back : was found to be inacuratcly copied ; the mis understanding was removed; thedratts were paid ; and t'nere the whole mat ter ended. In the passages relating to this subject notice Was also taken of the accidental omission of the bank to render some returns. These are the parts of the letters in the corres pondence which were not communica ted ; and this explanatioi will show with what little reason it lias been in ferred that every omission in the cor respondence contains something which the Secretary must have an improper motive to conceal. These observations apply to all the extracts transmitted in that corres wmdencp, except the letter ol the President of the Huntsville Hank, of the 30th Sept. 1819. As this letter does not appear to have been trans mitted under the lust resolution, it is presumed to have been mislaid. The purport of the preceding p;yt of it is not recollected but search is now making for it, and as soon as it is found •it will be communicated. An additional importance is attach ed, bv Mr. Edwards to the circum stance ofextracts being sent in this case as contradicting that of the Sec retery’s testimony before a former Se lect Committee of the House, which speaking of the correspondence gene rally states, that in consequence of the presure of business, the original letters and the rough drafts had been communicated under the resolution of the 14th Feb. 1822. No such con tradiction however, can be imagin ed, without misinterpreting the obvi ous import of the Secretary’s words. He spoke of the communications gene rally; and it is a fact well known, that it consisted almost entirely of original and rough drafts. But it is ir reconcilable with common sense to suppose that he meant to con vey the idea that papers which bore Min their face the title of extracts, which he had himself communica ted and described as extracts, were either originals or rough drafts. Neither the Secretary nor Mr. Dickins has any where said,in their testimony, as Mr. Edwards suppos es, that the latter delivered all the originals and rough drafts to the Se cretary,and that the Secretary, sent them all to the House. The fact is otherwise. All the correspondence with the hanks referred to, was not called for,as has been already shown _nor was it ever asserted that all was sent. Mr. Dickins collected, os he has stated, all the correspon dence that he could find,filed & un filled that was likely to have any bear ing on the subject: from this he se lected such as, in his judgment, was required bv the resolution; and such extracts as were made, were made under the exercise of this judgment. After the papers had been thus se lected and arranged, he laid them before the Secretary, together with such statements in relation to other parts of the resolution, as the Sec retary might require for his reports. T hese papers were in the posses sion of the Secretary while he pie part and his report; but were refered to no further than was necessary for that object; and the correspondence thus prepared bv Mr. Dickins was ‘transmitted, in the same state, to the House. This circumstance will explain the appearance ol the mark# on the passages which Mr. Dickins has stated to have beer marked by him for the purpose of calling the Secretary’s attention to them ,an l which,if they had been observed by the Secretary would have been acted on by him, either bv directing the marks to he remov ed or extracts excluding those pas sages to he prepared;* To remove all pretext fur die in tumnd'Oti which Mr. Edwards has tnumled upon the circumstance of Mr. I>. kit-* having been employed to se ll” t the papers m tins case, instead of Mr. J ones, tlie duel cltrk, t • whom ii bad been visual to ctir.mit the selection of papers required by Congress, it is proper to state, that the resolution ol the House did, in this instance, lake the usual course ol reference to Mr. Jones ; and that it was at his request and upon his suggestion of the propri ety of referring it to Mr. Dickins be cause of his better knowledge of the subject, that the duty was transferred to him. There is one omission in the corres pondence which has been emphatical ly alluded to by Mr. Edwards, and which shall, therefore, be particularly noticed. It is a letter from the Sec retary to the President of the Hank of Huntsville, of the 9t!i ol July, 1819, a:ul is more than once referred to in other parts of the correspondeece : whether it had been communicated or not, was never a subject, of investiga tion with the Secretary, until the no tice taken of it in Mr. Edward’s ad dress rendered the inquiry necessary. After a thorough examination, how ever, it could not he found, eitiier among the records or rough drafts; but on referring as a last resort to a file of confidential correspondence which is kept by Mr. Jones, the rough draft of the letter was there discovered. A copy of it is herewith transmitted. — According to the views with which the correspondence was selected un der the first resolution ol the House, this letter was one which would have been then communicated. It is be lieved however,that the sentiments and opinions disclosed in it, are far from furnishing a subject of blame to the Se cretary ; and as he had communicated a letter of similar import, written on the same day to the Tombeckbe /lank it may be inferred that it was not withheld by any improper considera tion of delicacy in respect to the mat ters to which they both relate from communicating this letter also. It is believed that the letter to the I'om beebe Bank, of the 9th Jul y, 1819, was also marked ‘ confidential,’ and the opinion is strengthened by the reler erence made to it as * confidential.’ bv the President of the Bank, in his letter of the 13th Aug. 1819. The word ‘confidential,’ was probably omitted through inadvertence, in the copy that was retained in the Depart ment; and thus it went upon the or dinary record. If this opinion is cor rect, the communication of this let ter coroborates the fact that the omis sion to communicate the letter to the Huntsville Bank was not owing to the matters it contained but to the cir cumstance of its being on a file not before the person by whom the corres pondence was selected. The Secretary is not aware that any other letters on the confidential tile ap pertain to the objects of the present inquiry. He submits however, such of them as arc addressed to banks, to the examination of the committee.— He takes the occasion also, to tender to the committee,as he did to the com mittee appointed under the resolution of the 6th Keb. 1823, the inspection ot any of the records, wr correspon dence in the Department, that may be deemed necessary to cdudicate any of the matters connected with this in quiry. Having disposed of all the minor to pics of accusation brought against the Secretary in Mr. Edwards's Address, it now remains to notice the grave charge which he has preferred, of hav ing mismanaged the national funds.— As far as this charge is founded upon the particular transactions which have . formed the subject of the foregoing ob-! servations, it is presumed to be suffi ciently refuted. The only remaining ground of charge then is, the measure of employing the State Banks asdepo sitories of the public money in the Western Gnu :i try. The circumstances by which this measure was rendeicd necessary, aud the views with which it was adopted under the sanction of the President ot the United States, have already been explained in the Secretary’s report, ol the 14th February, 1822, and in his letter to the Select Committee, of the 24th of February, 1823, to which a re ference h <>w requested. It may be proper, to remark, here, that, throughout the \N estern Country, a general and severe distress had follow ed the resumption of specie payments. On the pait of the Treasury, every disposition had been entertained to make the demands of the government press lightly on a suffering people.— With this view the Deceivers and Col lectors had been authorized, generally to receive in payments to the United States all the specie paying bank notes in circulation; and the /tank of the United States had liberally seconded the views of the Treasury, by author izing the reception of these funds from the Receivers and Collectors. — This experiment, though it gave roliel to tiie public debtors, had been found injurious to the welfare, of the Bank; and, by a proper regard for its own safi v, that institution considered it self constrained to decline the recep tion of almost all of those funds which form the currency of thai portion ol the country, and of those which alone it could prudently take, scarcely any were in circulation. W hat effect this change had upon the state ot things, may be inferred from a lew extracts from some of the communications which were about that time made to the Secretary in relation to the sub ject. “ The debtors of the United States, say the Directors of the /lank of V in cennes, in their memorial of the 9th Jan. 1819,“ in the Western country labor under distressing and almost in superable difficulties in meeting their engagements ; not so much from the want of means, as from the scarcity ol such funds as are receivable in pay ment of public lands. Should the country continue in its present situa tion with respect to these tunds, many an honest citizen, many an industri ous farmer, who has migrated to this country, and has paid his last eighty dollars as a first instalment on his quarter section of land, will be com pelled, at the end of five years, to leave his favorite spot, his cabin, and all the comfortable improvements, which the labor of his own hands has acquired, and, with his wile and chil dren seek anew home, w ithout money to procure it. And why ? Because the produce of his farm, although he may have an abundance to spare, will not command such funds as Govern ment demand for the completion of his payments.” Other representations, which are herewith transmitted, from Senators and Representatives, whose character is a sufficient guarantee for the truth of their statements, corrobo rate these views. The Hon. Mr. Her rick, in a letter of the 11th of March, 1818, considers the adoption ot some measures on the subject as desirable, as well with a view to relieve the peo ple, as to preserve their affections lor the present administration of the Gen eral Government. The lion. Waller Taylor, in a letter of the 31st March, 1818, encloses a letter from a respect able source, stating that 20 per cent, had been given by those who had pay ments to make in the Land Offices, to obtain such money as would be recei ved ; that few entries of land were made ; and that many who had come from a distance to enter land had gone away without doi ig so, because the money they had brought, though con sisting of the notes of banks of estab lished character, could not be receiv ed. And Mr. Taylor concurs in opin ion, that the operation of the existing system was prejudicial to the purcha sers of public lands, as well as the ci tizens of the state. In a joint letter addressed to the Secretary,on the 18th April, 1818, by fourteen Western Members of Congress, viz : the Hon. Joseph Desha, William H. Harrison, Robert Moore, Henry Baldwin, \\ il liam Hendricks, James Noble, Waller Taylor, Richard C. Anderson* Levi Barber, Thomas Speed, John \V. Campbell, Samuel Herrick, Peter Hitchcock, and Philemon Beecher; these gentlemen all concur in stating, that “ every mail from the West brings us the complaints and requests of the people, on the subject of the pecunia ry state of our country;” and they conclude, by recommending, as a mea sure of vital importance, the reception of such Western paper of specie pay ing banks, as were in good credit.— The II on. J. Mr I .eat), of Illinois, in a letter of the si.lt June, 1819, speaking of one of the districts in that state, makes the following representation : “ am well assured, from mv own knowledge, and the letters of respect able gentlemen in that part of the coun try, that, if every note that will be re ceived in payment of land, and every dollar of specie that is in the country, were in the hands of those indebted to the government for land, it would be insufficient to enable more than one tenth man of our settlers to comply with his engagement. I almost daily ; leccive letters from the people of Shawrveetown Land District, and of that part of Illinois included in the Vincennes District, stating that they are in a situation truly distressing,and that, unless there be some ameliora tion in the directions to the Receivers, that the time is but very short* until they expect to see the little farm and dwelling they have provided for the support and shelter of themselves and family, torn from them \>y the merci less avaricious speculator. lam sor ry to be constrained to say, that their apprehensions are but too justly pre dicated, and that they represent facts.” These are letters which have pre sented .themselves on a hasty relerence j to the files of the Department.’ It is well remembered, however, dmtnu-i merousand earnest personal represen tations were made by other gentlemen in Congress, both as to the pecuniary distresses of the Western country,and the necessity of a change in the exist ing regulations. Representations like these could not be received with indifference. It is to be recollected, also, that, at the time when this state of things existed, ffic debt duo for pub-, lie lands amounted to about twenty j millions of dollars; the greatest parti of which had been contracted (luting the suspension ol specie payments.—- Upon mature reflection, therelore, and with the approbation ol the 1 resident, it was deemed advisable to make the arrangements with the W estern banks which are the subject of Mr. Edwuids condemnation. The details of these arrangements are so fully exhibited in the Secreta ry’s former communications on the subject, that it is not thought necessa ry here to explain them. * As far as the interests ol the people and of the Treasury, were concerned, it is believed that those arrangements were not merely defensible, but com - mendable. As far as the measure af fected the interests ol the Bank ot the United *S'tates, it is believed to be equally deserving ol approbation. In a letter written by the Secretary to the President ot that institution on the 14th September, 1819,be thus explain ed the motives, which, as far as the Bank was concerned, influenced his course on the subject. <• ll has been my constantendeavor.for more than twelve months past, to prevent, us )ar os practicable, all collision between the Hank ol the United Males and the Mate Banks ; as fur at least, as that collision might lie connected v\ ilh the transactions ot this Department, it is not my intention, therefore, to give drafts upon the State Banks tor public money, with out previously arranging with them the mode of payment. “ Acting upon the same principle I have endeavoured, in the course ot the present year, to make arrangements with die Mete Banks in the Western States, by which, they should become the depositories ol the public money collected in that section of the l nion. I considered the deposites there positively injurious to the Bank lor the following rea sons,” viz : Ist. That the Offices had already .exten ded their discounts in Ohio and Kentucky, farther than w as consistent with the interest ot the Bank. “ 2d, That every doilar deposited in them an account of the government, that could not be disbursed there, would have to he employ ed in discounts, or transferred to the Bank in Philadelphia, or its Eustern Offices. “3d. That owing to the state of exchange transfers could only he made by the transpor tation of specie across the mountains. “ 4th. That, owing to the geographical po sition of Kentucky and Ohio, the penditurc, would he extremely limited. “sth. That the transportation of specie from the Western to the Eastern States, by the Bank, invariably” had produced und would continue to produce irritation in the public mind against the Bank.” “ An additional reason for endeavouring to make state banks in that section of the Union tne depositories of the public money, was to increase the receipts by enabling the public debtors to pay in the notes ot specie paying banks, which would not be received by the officers of the bank, aud whjah could not he received by them, without increasing that collision, which it was my desire to dimin ish.” These views, if is believed, w ere too just, r.ot to meet tlie approbation of the distinguished individual who presided over, and of the en lightened Board which then directed the affairs of, that institution. Accordingly, Air. Cheves, in his answer ot the sth October, 1819, thus expresses himself. *• The Board entirely con curs w ith you in the views you take, as to the Government collections and deposites in the western states’ which thev believe to be calcu lated to case the moneyed pressure on that portion of the country, as well ns to meet the interests of the Government, and relieve the bank from embarrassing collisions w ith local banking institutions.” It happened, however, that in three of the places where the banks were situated, with winch the Secretary hail made these arrangements, bran ches of the Bank of the United States were also established. By the char ter of that bank, it was the duty of the Secretary to have stated to Congress, at its next session, the reasons why he had directed deposites of the pub lic money to be made in these three Banks. This statement, through in advertance was not made as the Secretary has stated in his letter of the £4th February, 1823, to the select committee of the House, But, as a full explanation of the motives of these arrangements had been made to the Bank of the U. S. whose interests it was the object of that provision in the charter to guard, and as that institution had approved of the arrangements, and as the arrangements themselves had been published in various newspapers; and as the facts which were to be re ported to Congress were of genital notoriety, it is submitted, whether the Secretary could have had any motive for withholding the formal commu nication of the information to Con gress. Os the policy of the measure adop ted by the Secretary in the employ ment o| the Western banks, it is pre sumed there can be no doubt. That it has not been entirely successful, is considered to be a subject rather of re gret than censure. Hut,’ that it has been mainly beneficial, it is thought will not be denied by those who can didly examine the subject in all its bearings. And, although very little ultimate loss is expected, yet/ if the whole suio now due by those banks which have stopped payment, were to h ~ lost, it is believed that the advan tages which have resulted to the coun try, w ill have been cheaply purchased at that cost. As some misunderstanding in res pect to the special depositee, seems to ptev'i in the public iniiiil, ret, li oni tue misrepresentations t|i ; ,t i , been made on th subject, it ‘i proper lo take this occasion toren^i About the time that the pros,* Secretary of the Treasury took cW ul that Department, the special ‘* polite amounted to upwards of t| ir ’ millions of dollars, being,on sh e \u, us December, 1810, 53,031,459, all which has since been converted int cash funds, except 8291,803. At th date of the Secretary’s report off 27th of February, 1823, the amount the special deposite was £927,107 i eluding the £291,803 above mem!,. , ed. Os this sum of 8927,107, ak,’ 864,000 have since been paid. || t , it appears, that of the whole sum Z* on special deposite, only about gj*- 000, including the sum due bv 0 = defaulting Western banks, have b come special during the present retary’s administration of the Depart” merit. When it is considered u,,. this embraces a period of about .sew t years, during which, great disorder, have existed and a great revoluf has been efl’ected in the currencv, ; t during which, upwards of one l lun ’ dred and sixty-three millions of <]„]. lars have been paid into the Treasury exclusive of loans and Treasury notes ; and that of this sum, upwards of twenty-one millions and a half ot dollars having been received, fror’ the sale of lands, and internal duties ar.d taxes, must have been toiler, ted in those portions of the country where the greatest disorders cxis ted ; when these circumstances are considered, it is believed that the sum which lias become uncurrent durian the Secretary’s administration of the Treasury,instead ot furnishing ground either of censure or surprize, by its magnitude justifies the conclusion, that in this respect as he trusts, will be found the case in all others, the Secretary of the Treasury lias not ms. managed the national lunds. In conclusion, the Secretary has the honor to state, that, although it is be lieved that every material charge con. tained in the address of Mr. Ed wards has now been satisfactorily - plained, yet, if, in the opinion of the committee, any further explanation*, deemed necessary,it will afford hint pleasure to give it, either personalit, or in writing. * This sum consists of £5,220,75 received from the Miami Exporting Company, jW,- 726,40 from the Bank of Huntsville, and $,• 943,-38 in discharge of the debt due by ike Brnnch Bank of Kentucky, at Louisville. It is believed, however, that it will now be proper to include in the qeecial deposite lie sum due hv the Bank of Columbia, amouniai; to £279,361,87; of this sum, all hut £# were special when the present Secrettry came into the the Treasury, and. was plated in this hank for tiie purpose ol being cower ted into cash funds, assisted in the ry’s report of the 14th ot February, M -1 laving effected this object, the bank not now in condition lo refund the money, Mm arrangement has been made by whirl 4* payment of it, with interest, has been, ithbe lieved, well secured. Charleston, May sl Official intelligence from the squad ron off Algiers, had been received in London. 7’he Deyr bad refused to treat, and was in consequence prepar ing to sustain a bombardment. .% sures have been taken by the British to blockade the port of Algiers. A private letter from Coriu, dlftd March 9th, gives a very flattering*’ count of the prospects of the Grea’- Much harmony ami good order eii>f ed, and a strong hope was expresseu “ 1 accomplishing the complete regecera tion of that people. Lord Byron narrowly escaped k* ing captured by the vessels of the Up” tain Bey, near Cape Papas. ’l’heves sel containing his companions, hit ses, money, and a large quantity 0 ammunitions was taken,but afterw <r<ls released, in consequence orthe t J P’ tain Bey being deceived by a brtf ■ wjio pretended that lie had saved L! - life of tlß* Turkish vice admiral. Letters fioin an eminent jf urkff merchant, confirm most ur.cqui v< '; , ly the report of the declaration 1,1 in dependence by the Pacha of Egyr Letters received in London i* l /’ that Ferdinand continues obstinate 1 , resolved not to listen to the rem o stranees of the French court on ■ subject of the loans of the Corley Accounts from Constantinople sert that the Sultan, althongh 1 ‘'l/ ed to treat w ith the Greeks, a> 111 great exertions to raise an army * 000 men for the Morea. A report of the fall of Patrah P , vailed at Constantinople, but n° in ligence which could be relieu on l been received. .. urV The Bill for the repeal of the v Laws has been lost in the lb" 1 Commons. ....J The last letters from Madr” Cadi/., state, that the Spanish ‘ , inent is about to remove the Pj tion on the importation of cot o other articles into Spain, ant ‘ port duties generally will