Van Buren, drafted and introduced into the
Senate the first subtreasury bill, and that bill provided for ultimately
collecting the revenue in specie. It is true, I know, that that clause
was stricken from the bill, but it was done by the votes of the Whigs,
aided by a portion only of the Van Buren senators. No subtreasury bill
has yet become a law, though two or three have been considered by
Congress, some with and some without the specie clause; so that I admit
there is room for quibbling upon the question of whether the
administration favor the exclusive specie doctrine or not; but I take it
that the fact that the President at first urged the specie doctrine, and
that under his recommendation the first bill introduced embraced it,
warrants us in charging it as the policy of the party until their head as
publicly recants it as he at first espoused it. I repeat, then, that by
the subtreasury the revenue is to be collected in specie. Now mark what
the effect of this must be. By all estimates ever made there are but
between sixty and eighty millions of specie in the United States.
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