Alexandria Advertiser And Commercial Intelligencer

CONGRESS
OF THE UNITED STATES.

House of Representatives.

Wednesday March 2.

DEBATE,

Upon Mr. Griswold's resolution, to institute
an investigation of the report
of the commissioners of the Sinking
Fund.

(Continued.)

This statement (R.) Shows in the sixth
column, the total amount in dollars to be
provided each year in America, in order
to meet the payments in Holland. It
states that in 1801 the sum of 950,965 dls.
50 cents had been remitted to Holland to
meet the debt due there in 1802. and it
likewise states that the sum of 2,171,692
dollars would be required for the year
1802. These two sums added together
make an aggregate of three million two
hundred and twenty two thousand three
hundred and eighty seven dollars 50 cents,
or about 1,300,000 more than the United
States were bound to pay in Holland in
the year 1802. This sixth column of the
statement (R) is transferred to the statement (S) where it forms the second co.
lumn, and clearly proves that the excess
of appropriation was intended to enable
the commissioners of the sinking fund to.
apply the balance of the 7,300,000 dolls.
to the purchase of bills of exchange in the
antecedent year to meet the demands for
the subsequent year. Further to prove
that this was the intention of the law,
it may not be amiss to state that the re.
port of the Secretary of. the Treasury of
the last year before alluded to calculates
upon an amount of revenue equal to a-
bout
10,000,000 dols.

Deduct from the ex.
penfe of government e-
qual to
2,660,000 dols.

And the annual ap-
propriation of
7,300,000 dols.

9,960,000

Which sum of nine
million nine hundred &
fifty thousand deducted
from the ten million of
dollars, the annual re-
venue, would leave on.
ly to be laid in bills to
meet the debt in Hol.
land in each succeeding
year
400,000 dols.

10,000,000

How far it would have been prudent to
have placed the affairs of government in
this situation I leave it for gentlemen to
determine. This last calculation is not
made to prove the necessity of the com-
missioners of the sinking fund, having ap-
plied this balance in this way at this
particular period, but to shew the real
intention in passing the law. It is pos-
sible that this balance might have been ex-
pended in purchasing the stock of the U.
States, and a sufficient sum might have
been drawn out of the treasury to meet the
debt in Holland for 1803 : but this was
a matter of discretion with the commi.
sioners, and they have thought it more
advantageous to employ the money in
purchasing bills than in-purchasing stock.
The whole sum of seven millions three
hundred thousand dollars, and considerably
more has been applied to the payment of
the debt, and after paying all we were
obliged to repay, the Commissioners used
their discretion in applying the balance
to such particular kinds of debt, as they
thought it would be best to provide for at
that time.

I come now, Mr. Speaker, to the se-
cond point of the gentleman from Connec.
ticut, and on which he has dwelt with
great force; viz. that there is in the
hands of the commissioners of the sinking
fund an unaccounted balance of more than
one hundred and fourteen thousand dol.
lars.

The gentleman has taken up this idea.
from the circumstance of his not being
able to make the first and second statement
on the 6th page of the report of the com.
missioners quadrate with each other. I
must beg leave to premise, that it appears
from the face of the report, that the com.
missioners themselves did not intend that
these two statements should quadrate : for
it will be found. by referring to them,
that the second statement is not added up
that nearly six millions of guilders, men-
tioned in the last paragraph of the report,
-are not carried to the statement and that
they refer to sundry protested b.lis of ex-
change, and unexpended balances in the
hands of agents which are all to be carried
to their credit against the host statement. I
will now that the gentleman from
Connecticut in his calculations, has not
given the commissioners the credit that
they are entitled to; that he has given
them no credit for sums appearing from
the face of the report itself to have been
paid; that he.has given them no credit
for the advanced prices of bills of ex-
change, he calculating at 40 cents the
guilder of 4l, which is the average price
at which purchases have been made, as ap-
pears from the report ; that he has given
them no credit for protested bills of ex-
change, which indeed he supposes can
amount to little or nothing: and that he
has given them no credit for unexpended
balances in the hands of agents, although
they expressly state that such balances do
exist. They exist. Sir, from this cause.
In order to purchase such bills of exchange
as are required for the use of the govern-
ment, the commissioners of the sinking
fund find it necessary to authorise the ca-
shiers of the several banks to make the
purchase for them. . Some of these con-
tract for the bills, and wait until they
get a check for the amount of their respec-
tive banks, where the money of the Unit-
ed States is lodged: but this is not the
case with all : for there are some who will
not purchase unless the money is previ-
ously deposited to their credit in the bank.
Of course it is necessary to make advances
at different periods, which are usually
made to the amount of fifty thousand dol-
lars at a time. It follows that there is
an account current between the commi.
sioners and the cashiers, which perhaps is
settled once or twice a year. When the
report was made on the 5th of February,
these accounts were not settled, nor is it
to be expected that they can always be in
such a state, as to enable the treasury of.
ficeers to say, at any one moment, how
much there is in the hands of a particular
agent unexpended.

Mr. N. said he would now offer a state.
ment to meet that of the gentleman from
Connecticut, from which he flattered him.
self he should be enabled to shew, that the
commissioners of the sinking fund were en.
titled not only to a credit equal to the
114,000 mentioned by the gentleman,
but to a credit which would considerably
exceed it in amount.

The commissioners
of the sinking fund in
their report state the
disbursements from the
treasury in the year
1802 to have amount-
ed to the sum of
dolls.
9,372,752 28

To which is to be
added a balance of
2,313,846 guild. re.
remaining unexpended
on the first of January
1802, equal to
dols.
925,538 40

Making an aggre-
gate chargeable to
them for 1802, of
dols.
10,291,290 68

They are to be cre-
dited as follows :

1st. for the payment
of interest which in the
year 1802 accrued on
the whole of the pub.
lic debt, in the report,
not denied.
dolls.
4,065,738 47

2d. for the payment
of the bank debt in.
cluding the proceeds
of the 2,220 bank
shares, 2,400 dollars
paid from iep st du-
ties, making together
dolls.
1,290,000

3d. for the payment
of the principal of the
Dutch debt not denied
dolls.
1,344,000

4th. For the provi.
sion necessary for the
reimbursement of the
5th instalment of the
6 per cent stock and
the 2d instalment of
the deferred stock be-
coming payable Janu.
ary 1. 1803. not de.
1,117,869 37

5th. For the mo.
ney laid out in the
purchase of bills of ex-
change to the amount
of 5,914,606 guilders
calculated by Mr. G.
at 40 cents to the guil.
der equal to dols
2,365,842 40

Which several sums
added together give
the amount of credits
admitted by the gen-
tleman from Connecti-
cut
10,183,450.24

Leaving the balance of 114,840 dolls.
44 cents, yet to be accounted for, and
which the gentleman from Connecticut
declares that he cannot account for. Mr.
N. said he would endeavor to assist him,
and he believed he could shew that the
commissioners of the Sinking Fund, were
entitled to a credit even for a greater
sum.

In the first place the gentleman from
Connecticut has not given credit for
two items stated in the report to have been
paid, and which were paid as follows :

viz.

On account of debts
due to foreign officers,
dolls.
7,994 92

On account of cer-
tain parts of the domes-
tic debt
dolls.
14,996 84

On account of the
difference in the price
of exchange, Mr. Gris-
wold calculating guild.
5,914,609 at 40 cents
the guilder, making a
difference of one cent
the guilder, equal to
dolls.
59,146

One bill of exchange
drawn by a house in
Baltimore. which Mr.
N. said he knew had
come back protested,
and for which the in.
dorsers had not repaid
the money of the Unit.
ed States amounting to
one hundred and twen-
ty thousand guilders,
which, even at par
were equal to 48,000
dolls.
48,000

An unexpended ba-
lance in the hands of
the cashiers of the banks
at Philadelphia and Bos-
ton, which considering
the large advances made
might be fairly estimat.
ed at not less than
dolls.
10,000

Making altogether,
the sum of
dolls.
140,107 82

Which the commissioners of the sinking
fund are entitled to a credit for more than
the gentleman from Connecticut is wil.
ling to allow them, and dols. 25,267 and
38 cents more than the supposed deficien-
cy of dols. 114,840 and 44 cents, which
has been dwelt on so triumphantly to.
day.

From this view, which I have taken
of the subject, as briefly as I could, I ven-
ture to indulge a hope that it will be seen
that the commissioners of the sinking fund
have applied not only the seven million
three hundred thousand dollars agreeably
to law but a considerably larger sum, and
that no impression will be made even up.
on their greatest enemies, that they hold
a single dollar unaccounted for, or, as the
time of the house is, particularly at this
period, extremely precious, I will not
venture to trespass on it farther, but shall
most cheerfully give my assent to the re-
solution, under the fullest conviction that
every objection can be fully answered
even during the present session of Congress.
although it can continue but one day lon.
ger.

(To be Continued.)