The first Roman Emperor, in his
attempt to seize the sacred treasure, silenced the opposition of
the officer to whose charge it had been committed by a significant
allusion to his sword. By a selection of political instruments for
the care of the public money a reference to their commissions by a
President would be quite as effectual an argument as that of
Caesar to the Roman knight. I am not insensible of the great
difficulty that exists in drawing a proper plan for the safe-
keeping and disbursement of the public revenues, and I know the
importance which has been attached by men of great abilities and
patriotism to the divorce, as it is called, of the Treasury from
the banking institutions It is not the divorce which is complained
of, but the unhallowed union of the Treasury with the executive
department, which has created such extensive alarm. To this danger
to our republican institutions and that created by the influence
given to the Executive through the instrumentality of the Federal
officers I propose to apply all the remedies which may be at my
command. It was certainly a great error in the framers of the
Constitution not to have made the officer at the head of the
Treasury Department entirely independent of the Executive. He
should at least have been removable only upon the demand of the
popular branch of the Legislature.
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