Douglas or his friends to escape the force of
them by a round and groundless assertion that we "dare not meet them in
argument."
Of the subtreasury, then, as contrasted with a national bank for the
before-enumerated purposes, I lay down the following propositions, to
wit: (1) It will injuriously affect the community by its operation on the
circulating medium. (2) It will be a more expensive fiscal agent. (3)
It will be a less secure depository of the public money. To show the
truth of the first proposition, let us take a short review of our
condition under the operation of a national bank. It was the depository
of the public revenues. Between the collection of those revenues and the
disbursement of them by the government, the bank was permitted to and did
actually loan them out to individuals, and hence the large amount of
money actually collected for revenue purposes, which by any other plan
would have been idle a great portion of the time, was kept almost
constantly in circulation. Any person who will reflect that money is only
valuable while in circulation will readily perceive that any device which
will keep the government revenues in constant circulation, instead of
being locked up in idleness, is no inconsiderable advantage.
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