n of all bank bills below $20, it is apparent that gold
and silver will take their place and become the principal circulating
medium in the common business of the farmers and mechanics of the
country. The attainment of such a result will form an era in the history
of our country which will be dwelt upon with delight by every true
friend of its liberty and independence. It will lighten the great
tax which our paper system has so long collected from the earnings of
labor, and do more to revive and perpetuate those habits of economy and
simplicity which are so congenial to the character of republicans than
all the legislation which has yet been attempted.

To this subject I feel that I can not too earnestly invite the special
attention of Congress, without the exercise of whose authority the
opportunity to accomplish so much public good must pass unimproved.
Deeply impressed with its vital importance, the Executive has taken all
the steps within his constitutional power to guard the public revenue
and defeat the expectation which the Bank of the United States indulged
of renewing and perpetuating its monopoly on the ground of its necessity
as a fiscal agent and as affording a sounder currency than could be
obtained without such an institution. In the performance of this duty
much responsibility was incurred which would have been gladly avoided if
the stake which the public had in the question could have been otherwise
preserved. Although clothed with the legal authority and supported by
precedent, I was aware that there was in the act of the removal of the
deposits a liability to excite that sensitiveness to Executive power
which it is the characteristic and the duty of freemen to indulge; but
I relied on this feeling also, directed by patriotism and intelligence,
to vindicate the conduct which in the end would appear to have been
called for by the best interests of my country. The apprehensions
natural to this feeling that there may have been a desire, through the
instrumentality of that measure, to extend the Executive influence, or
that it may have been prompted by motives not sufficiently free from
ambition, were not overlooked. Under the operation of our institutions
the public servant who is called on to take a step of high
responsibility should feel in the freedom which gives rise to such
apprehensions his highest security. When unfounded the attention which
they arouse and the discussions they excite deprive those w