mated at 55 to 1, although the ratio is 1 to 15 relatively. This depends upon various causes, among which is the great demand for silver for use in the arts, gold being too dear for such purposes, and this fact lowers its value much below what it would be if the demand for it for use was proportionably as great as for silver, which, although much more abundant than tin or bismuth, is much superior in price to those metals. Under the joint operation of the Californian and Russian mines, the value of gold may again fall to the relative proportion it held to silver before the discovery of America, viz. 1 to 10; both metals, however, being far cheaper in proportion to other products of industry. The mines of California, rich, numerous, and easily worked by augmenting the mass of gold and silver, must lessen the value of these metals as compared with the objects of commerce, so that, other things being equal, there will be required a larger amount of money to transact the same basiness. The productions of the Russian and Californian mines may also have the effect of causing many old mines to be discontinued, through the fall in the value of the metal, and not because the auriferous sands or veins become less rich. If a sufficient supply of the metals are obtained at one ounce for a day's labor, those mines that yield but one-fourth of an ounce for the same labor will be abandoned, and the supply thus curtailed. It will also result from the relative fall in the value of gold, that that metal will displace silver in many works of art. Gold plate will certainly be preferred to silver, if it can be obtained as readily. Gold is more easily hoarded and concealed than silver, and will therefore to a far greater extent bury itself among the savings of the people of Europe and Asia. In relation to the quantities of precious metals in the United States, it is perhaps more easy to approximate a result than in the countries of Europe, but it must be still far from accurate. Thus, when the country was first settled, there was none here, yet as the population increased large sums were found to be here. Adam Smith remarks, in relation to exchanges, that through the operation of colonial laws, what is called "balance of trade," was found uniformly to be against the American colonies, which did not produce the metal, yet nevertheless always found sufficient wherewith to pay the balances. Very large sums came, doubtless, into the country in the hands of immigrants, particularly in New-England, as coin and as plate, some of which exist to this day. Down to 1820, there is no distinct record of the quantities imported and exported, in that year Mr. Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, in his report on the currency, stated the quantity of specie in the banks to be $28,000,000, and estimated $4,500,000 in circulation, making $32,500,000 in the country. From that time to the close of 1847, the import and export of the precious metals have given an excess of $103,170,012 of importation of foreign coins and metals. Coin. IMPORT AND EXPORT OF GOLD AND SILVER INTO THE UNITED STATES. 3.290,264.. 5,111,699.. 4,008,431. 66,103.. 1,753,747.. 41,275.. 3,210,117. 14.150.. 892.263.. 33,589.. 2,833,740 151,748..21,423,182.. 71,873.. 2,474,435. To 1839 1840. 1841. 1842. 1843. 1844 1845 1846 1847. Excess Import. 1,134,002.. 2,508.783 450.. 299,808.. 1,113,104 1.183,116.. 1,629,346.. 1,212,270 5,585,388 74,821,809 13,735,619 152,645,817 514,124 21,373,127 991,291 120.740.009 .5,071,394 53,448,682 12,744,328 31,915,608 In addition to this sum, there has been derived from the United States mines, and coined in the mint and branches, $12,711,647. There has also been received from abroad, in the hands of immigrants, very considerable and annually increasing sums, which cannot be estimated at less than an average of $1,000,000 per annum since 1820, making $27,000,000. These sums together will make $142,911,659 as the accession of the precious metals since 1820, when $32,500,000 was reported on hand. From that sum must be deducted $21,083,551 of United States coin exported from 1820 to 1847, leaving $11,416,449 to be added to the supply, making $154,328,108 as the present quantity of metals in the country. In this estimation the demand for the use of the arts is supposed to be supplied by old plate and jewelry, and by the quantities of such articles brought constantly into the country. The operations of the United States mint have, from its establishment, been as follows: 1793 to 1848.. Prior to 1820. 1820 to 1848...... .72,565,927 70.... .71,426,464 90... .143,992.392 40 .7,431,545 00.. .10,780,431 00. .18,411,976 00 .65,134,372 50......60,446,033 90.....,$125,580,416 40 Now, it is observable that the coinage of the mints, from 1820 to 1848, exceeds, by $22,410,404 the whole net import of the foreign metals in the same period, as follows: In relation to the amount of coin brought into the country by immigrants, it will be remarked, that $9,668,457 more money has been coined at the mint than has been derived from the mines and from importation together. It would, therefore, follow that there was at the close of the year 1847, no foreign coin in the country; but we have the fact, that from the port of New-York alone there was, for the year ending with November 1848, a nett export of $13,000,000, nearly all foreign coin, which could have been derived from no other source than the hands of immigrants, who did not report it on arrival at the Custom House. We have only doubled this large apparent supply for one year, as the whole sum derived from that source since 1820. It is probably the case, that in the last fifty years the demand for the precious metals has been, for purposes of commerce, quite equal to the supply. As all the nations of Europe have advanced in agriculture and manufactures and become more wealthy, they have required more of the precious metals, notwithstanding that pari passu with that advance inwealth, the supply has been virtually enhanced through the increased activity of the circulation and the decrease of hoarding. Thus the United States, as an example, had at the commencement of the present century, as estimated by Blodget, Cox, and others, $20,000,000 specie in the country. This has increased, as shown above, to $150,000,000, being a demand for $130,000,000, or an increase of near $3,000,000 per annum in the United States alone. Thus, the demand of the United States has been in fifty years, equal The to one-fourth of the production of Mexico in the same period. amount habitually held by the Bank of England has in the same time increased $50,000,000. In Great Britain, and in all countries that advance in riches, the demand for gold and silver increases, like that for all articles of use and ostentation, and consequently they flow toward the richest country as that which pays the best for them. Among poor nations gold and silver will not remain, even although those countries produce the metals. Great Britain has, at this moment, in her banks, a sum of money equal to $85,000,000, which has been dispensed with, partially as a currency, through supposed economizing expedients; and the Bank of France holds under the same circumstances, $44,100,000. These reserves of the precious metals, although much greater than in former years, are now scarcely adequate to the demands which a season of bad harvests makes upon them for the purchase of corn, because the quantity of corn required is much greater, and the expense of transporting heavier, than in former years. The Bank of England held over $80,000,000 in 1846, yet that sum was regarded with solicitude when the magnitude of the demands for the purchase of corn developed itself. Throughout Europe the hoards of the precious metals are at all times large in private hands. Every banker has at command a greater or less metallic reserve, and as these are multiplied and business becomes more extensive, a larger reserve is required. The United States will now present themselves in the attitude not only of a gold-producing country, but one which can produce it cheaper than all others. An object of universal demand becomes here in abundant supply, and if poured into the great channels of trade in the shape of circulable coin, it becomes in the hands of the possessors an instrument of demand for all the products of industry, Gold itself is neither wealth nor productive property. The profit in it consists in parting with it. If a quantity equal to the amount now in the country is produced, it will create a demand to an equal extent for all other products of industry. This has already partly taken place. Very nearly one hundred vessels, and large quantities of all kinds of goods and produce, has already been demanded by the possessors of the gold; and this demand will continue, and spread to real estate and all branches of industry in the country. Those who profit by the demand from the gold mines directly, will enhance their own demands for the product of others. This universal demand enhances prices. Thus every possessor of property and labor will in some degree be benefitted by the gold dug. It then must result that goods and produce from abroad will come hither to sell at the high prices so created, while the exports of goods and produce must be checked from the same cause; hence the specie will go abroad to the richest country, or that which gives the best prices for it; that is to say, the most goods for a given quantity. From that country, and for similar reasons, the gold will spread over the face of the earth, until it has found its level, as manifested in the general equalization of prices at a higher level, than that which existed prior to the influx of the metals. The supply must, however, be very large to affect prices perceptibly. The importation of $23,000,000, in 1847, probably equal to one-sixth of all in the country, neither perceptibly affected prices nor promoted speculation, because, at that juncture, the reduction of all paper credits simultaneously with a great increase of national prosperity, caused an equal demand for the metals, and the conservative action of the Treasury department was to coin and circulate actively in all the channels of trade the metals so imported. Had they been allowed to remain, unfit for circulation, in cumbrous masses of foreign coin, in bank, an excess of paper would have been created that would speedily have driven forth the coin. This continued action of the Independent Treasury system, aided by mints, upon the gold as it is produced, is necessary in the highest degree to check the inevitable rise in prices, and prevent the gold from flowing out of the country before it shall have fully operated upon property in the interior of the country. The country must be saturated with gold in order that every individual in it may partake of its advantages. If the action of the Independent Treasury is disturbed the gold will go into bank vaults, and be exported abroad for the benefit of speculators, before the people of the Union have derived any benefits from it. It is to be hoped that some plan similar to that above suggested will immediately be adopted by the government, and that in so doing, it will derive as much profit from a per centage on the gold as will pay the whole expenses of the government, and permit the entire abrogation of the Custom Houses, with their troops of officers, without the necessity of levying any tax upon the people at large. The constant attempts to tax the many for the benefit of the few, and to extend executive patronage, have already been renewed in Congress. Small, superficial politicians, have already sought to take advantage of the defeat of the democratic party, through the infamous treachery of Mr. Van Buren and his free-soil followers, to disturb the commerce of the country, and tax its industry for the benefit of those who carried certain representative districts in New-York and Philadelphia, by the corrupt and direct disbursements of large sums of money, and who openly boast that they " will attain the highest offices in the gift of the people through the power of money." The gold deposites in the new territory may now offer the means, without resorting to direct taxation to abolish all customs duties, discharge 10,000 officers from the pay of the government, and from interference with the elective franchise; and also to abolish all postages, and defray the whole expense of the department from the same source, carrying all letters and newspapers free to all parts of the Union. By this means we may present to the world the glorious spectacle of a free people, governed absolutely without taxation, or the creationof any machinery like the pernicious protective system, contrived to fleece the many in order to pamper the wealth of the few. THE EXECUTIVE VETO. "Nostra autem respublica non unius esset ingenio sed multorum ; nec una hominis vita, sed aliquot constituta sæculis et ætalibus."-Cicero de Republia. To devise forms of government which shall be adapted to the condition of future generations, requires an almost unearthly wisdom. The ancients, convinced of this truth, pretended that their law-givers, imperfect as experience proved their labors, held counsel with superior beings. In modern times, when sober reason has refused to credit this imaginary intercourse of man with divinity, the favorite schemes of legislating philosophers have signally failed. Fifty years have, however, elapsed since the framers of our Constitution completed the great work of their lives, and the impartial observer of American history can find but few defects in the edifice which they constructed. Its value is to be measured by the undisturbed prosperity of our country for half a century, and by the undisputed supremacy of order and law over twenty millions of people. It has acquired beauty, and received no detriment from foreign criticism, and has gathered strength from its contests with internal faction. Selfish agitators, defeated by its wise provisions, have at different times charged almost every portion of it with imperfection, and endeavoured to have it reconstructed anew. Within a few years the executive veto has been the object of frequent and virulent attack. It is said to be a blemish on the Constitution, and to require repeal. It is alleged to have been exercised in violation of the spirit of that instrument, and of the intentions of its authors, as well as in wanton disregard of the rights and wishes of the people. It may not be an unprofitable study to inquire into the reasons which caused the veto power to be intrusted to the executive; to ascertain whether those reasons still exist, and whether that power has been sufficiently abused to authorize its abolition. The federal convention were nearly unanimous in the opinion that it was politic to give the executive a negative upon the acts of the legislature.* Instead of being vehemently resisted, as has been asserted, it encountered but feeble opposition. The question discussed was not whether there should be a negative or not, but whether it should be limited or unlimited, and whether it should be intrusted solely to the executive, or jointly to the executive and the judiciary. Among those who advocated an absolute negative, were numbered, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Wilson. It was opposed by Dr. Franklin, Mr. Mason, and Mr. Sherman. The majority in favor of a limited negative was decided. It was argued, conclusively, that the British executive had given his consent to salutary laws only on condition of having his prerogative increased; and by provoking Parliament to assert its legitimate rights, had invited their usurpation of his own; and that an absolute negative would operate in a similar manner in this country, as it had already in its colonial history, and disarrange the very balance of power which it was instituted to maintain. A portion of the convention were in favor of constituting the judiciary a part of the revisionary council. This proposition was ably supported by Mr. Madison, on the ground that . Mr. Gorham All agree that a check on the legislature is necessary." |