he
Bank of the United States, _as by law provided and declared_, or in
notes of banks which are payable and paid on demand in the said legal
currency of the United States, and that from and after the 20th day of
February next no such duties, taxes, debts, or sums of money accruing or
becoming payable to the United States as aforesaid ought to be collected
or received otherwise than in the legal currency of the United States,
or Treasury notes, or notes of the Bank of the United States, or in
notes of banks which are payable and paid on demand in the legal
currency of the United States." According to the opinion given by me as
a member of your Cabinet in the month of July last, and to which I still
adhere, this resolution was mandatory only as it respected the legal
currency of the United States, Treasury notes, and notes of the Bank
of the United States, and in respect to the notes of the State banks,
though payable and paid in specie, was permissive merely in the
discretion of the Secretary; and in accordance with this opinion has
been the practical construction given to the resolution by the Treasury
Department. It is known to you, however, that distinguished names have
been vouched for the opinion that the resolution was mandatory as to the
notes of all specie-paying banks; that the debtor had the right, at his
option, to make payment in such notes, and that if tendered by him the
Treasury officers had no discretion to refuse them.

It is thus seen that the laws now in force, so far as they _positively
enjoin_ the receipt of any particular currency in payment of public
dues, are confined to gold and silver, except that in certain cases
Virginia land scrip and Treasury certificates are directed to be
received on the sale of public lands. In my opinion, there is nothing in
the bill before me repugnant to those laws. The bill does not _expressly
_ declare and enact that any particular species of currency _shall be
receivable _in payment of the public revenue. On the contrary, as the
provisions of the first and second sections are chiefly of a _negative_
character, I think they do not take away the power of the Secretary,
previously possessed under the acts of Congress, and as the agent of
the President, to _forbid_ the receipt of any bank notes which are not
by some act of Congress expressly made absolutely receivable in payment
of the public dues.

The above view will, I think, be confirmed by a closer examination
of