The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
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TO ALEXANDER J. DALLAS.
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 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
TO ALEXANDER J. DALLAS.[106]
Dear Sir,—I have recd. yours of the 29 June,
with the several papers sent with it.
Under the difficult circumstances of the currency,
and the obligation to attempt a remedy or at least
an alleviation of them, the plan you have in view
is entitled to a fair experiment. You do right
however in reserving a discretion to judge of the
sufficiency of accessions by the State Banks. Should
there be a single State, in which a failure of the
necessity of payg. their taxes in coin, or treasury
notes, or a bank paper out of their reach, the pressure
and the complaint would be intense, and the more
so from the inequality with which the measure wd.
operate.[107]
Can the suspension of payments in coin by the
principal Banks, be regarded as the precise cause of
the undue depreciation of treasury notes, as intimated
in the 3d paragraph of your Circular? A
slight modification, if you think it requisite, would
obviate the remark.
As your statement to the President will remain
an official document, I suggest for your consideration,
the expression that the Treasy. "cannot discriminate
in the mode of payment between the revenue of the
customs and the internal revenue" as liable to be
turned agst. the Distinction proposed in the payment
of them.
With respect to the validity of this distinction,
I should yield my doubts if they were stronger than
they are, to the unanimous opinion which has
sanctioned it.
I anxiously wish that the State Banks may enter
promptly & heartily into the means of re-establishing
the proper Currency. Nothing but their
general co-operation, is wanting for the purpose;
to their own interest, as much as they do
to the immediate & vital interest of the Nation.
Shd. they sacrifice all these powerful obligations to
the unfair gain of the moment, it must remain with
the State Legislatures to apply the remedy, and it
is to be hoped that they will not be diverted from
it either by their share in the gains of the Banks, or
the influence of the Banks on their deliberations.
If they will not enforce the obligation of the Banks
to redeem their notes in specie, they cannot surely
forbear to enforce the alternatives of redeeming
them with public stock, or with national Bank
notes, or, finally of paying interest on all their notes
presented for payment. The expedient also of
restricting their circulating paper in a reasonable
proportion to their metallic fund, may merit attention
as at once aiding the credit of their paper, and
accelerating a resumption of specie payments.
I enclose the papers marked A, B, & C, to guard
agst. the possibility, that you may not have copies
of them with you.
Dallas was nominated to be Secretary of the Treasury October 5,
1814; confirmed at once and entered upon his duties October 14.
He resigned April 8, 1816, and served to October 21, when William
H. Crawford succeeded him. On April 9, Madison wrote to Dallas:
"I have recd. your letter of yesterday communicating your purpose
of resigning the Dept. of the Treasury. I need not express to you the
regret at such an event which will be inspired by my recollection of
the distinguished ability and unwearied zeal, with which you have
filled a station at all times deeply responsible in its duties, through
a period rendering them particularly arduous & laborious.
"Should the intention you have formed be nowise open to reconsideration,
I can only avail myself of your consent to prolong your functions
to the date and for the object which your letter intimates. It
cannot but be advantageous that the important measure in which you
have had so material an agency, should be put into its active state
by the same hands.
"Be assured Sir, that whatever may be the time of your leaving the
Department, you will carry from it, my testimony of the invaluable
services you have rendered to your Country, my thankfulness for
the aid they have afforded in my discharge of the Executive trust,
and my best wishes for your prosperity & happiness."—Mad. MSS.
| The writings of James Madison, | |