Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/326

 and the circumstances which have involved it in its present unfortunate dilemma.

Aware of the attitude in which the country must be placed, the present Executive, upon coming into office, recommended such measures of finance as he Was satisfied would, to some extent, relieve the existing embarrassments, and eventually extricate the country from its involvements. The system recommended was not adopted. The issue of Exchequer bills, the representative part of the system, was adopted; but the foundation of the issue was not regarded. Authority to hypothecate the Cherokee lands, or to make sale of them or any portion thereof, was omitted to be given. The collection of the direct tax was, also, postponed for six months after the usual period for its collection; and the Exchequer bills of necessity referred for redemption to imports and licenses alone. The excitements in the country have prevented importations; and persons owing their license tax have refused to pay. The process of collection is so tedious that unless some prompt remedy is devised by Congress, it is useless to regard such tax as a source of public revenue. The Exchequer bills being thus left dependent upon import duties for their redemption—no other demand existing for them—depreciated, and at one time were worth in market but twenty-five cents on the dollar, though the whole amount issued up to this time is only about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and the amount now in circulation can not by possibility exceed thirty thousand. Had the requisite authority been given for the hypothecation of the Cherokee country for the redemption of these bills, and had the time for the collection of the direct tax not been postponed, and the license tax been collectable, and the warehousing system been abolished, it is believed a sum more than double the amount of two hundred thousand dollars could have already been brought into the treasury.

At the extra session in June last, a law was passed authorizing the Executive to have surveyed and brought into market four hundred thousand acres of the Cherokee lands, but under such restrictions that they amounted to a prohibition. Competent surveyors, after contracting tor the execution of the work, declined its prosecution, having been assured that such hindrances would be interposed as would render their efforts, if not abortive, at least unpleasant. For the purpose of placing this subject at rest in future, and that the just may not be prejudiced any longer in its interests, there will be laid before the honorable Congress at an early day an opinion of the Attorney-General which for ability, clearness, and conclusion must place the question of right in the Government forever at rest, and enable the Congress to adopt such measures as will convert some of the most valuable resources of the nation into means; and have a tendency, with other measures, to sustain further issues, if needful, under the Exchequer law, to an extent double that now authorized to be issued. It is recommended to the honorable Congress that a law be passed prohibiting the circulation within the limits of the Republic, of the notes of all foreign banks, and that all individual and corporation notes intended for circulation as currency in the Republic be suppressed; and that engraved Exchequer bills of denominations ranging from twelve and a half cents to one dollar, and from one dollar to one hundred dollars, be issued and made receivable for all dues to the Government, except those arising from imports and tonnage; and that these latter be receivable in nothing but gold and silver. That the Exchequers can be sustained by