Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/338

 but about thirteen thousand dollars of these bills are now in circulation; and there is but little reason to anticipate an emergency while the Government is administered upon its present economical system, which would require a larger issue than the Government will have it in its power to control or redeem.

The Executive believes that one of the strongest supports to our currency will be the exclusion by law from circulation wiithin our limits after some given period, say three months, all foreign bank paper. Within the last few years, the people of this country have sustained frequent and heavy losses by the failure of foreign banks, and the depreciation of their paper, as well as from the circulation of spurious notes, purporting to be issued by banks which never had existence. To these may be added the circulation of counterfeits. It is impossible for the community generally to judge of the genuine character or real value of this foreign currency, and of their liability to be cheated and defrauded by every swindler, whether he be the special agent of some broken bank, or a dealer in spurious or counterfeit notes. These evils have not been light; and, as it is the right as well as the duty of Government to regulate its currency and protect its citizens from imposition and harm, the Executive recommends, as the most efficient means of performing this duty, the entire exclusion of the bills of all foreign banks. Congress has the undoubted right of inhibiting by law counterfeiting and the passing of counterfeit paper; and they have equally clearly the power to inhibit the introduction and circulation of all valueless foreign bank issues, or those liable to become so in the hands of our citizens. In connection with this, I would also recommend the prohibition and suppression by statute of every description of paper in the character of bank, individual, or corporation notes issued within the Republic, and intended or used for circulation as currency. If the honorable Congress should concur in the adoption of this measure, the Executive is convinced, by experience, that it would go far to sustain the national currency; and better enable the Government to furnish a circulating medium.

The defects in the system now in force for the collection of the revenues are of such a magnitude as to require the particular attention of the honorable Congress. The reliance heretofore placed upon the collection of the direct taxes for the purposes of Government has, under the existing system, proved almost wholly fallacious. That the Government must be supported, and that those who render service to it must be remunerated, all who have an abiding interest in the Government will admit. To insure efficient government, or even to supply its absolute wants, some system must be devised which will secure the prompt and faithful collection of the revenues provided by law. Hitherto, in many parts of the country, the most flagrant dereliction of duty has occurred on the part of collectors of direct taxes. In several instances sheriffs have failed and refused to give bond for the faithful performance of their duties, and for the payment to Government of the public moneys received by them. In this way there can no longer be any doubt the Government has been deprived of the revenues paid by the people for its support, which have been used by unfaithful agents for purposes of speculation and private emolument.

It is believed that this state of things arises, in a great degree, from the mode of selecting the collectors of the revenue. Our sheriffs are elected by the people, and, as a consequence, are not readily controlled, except through the same tardy and uncertain medium. The control of the Treasury Department in the collection