Herald Of The Times

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

It is impossible (says the Baltimore Chronicle) to mistake the remarks of that portion of the message relating to the Bank of the United States and the distribution of the Surplus Revenue. We regret to say that the President has been induced, in a part of this branch of his subject, to state what is inconsistent with well authenticated facts within the personal knowledge of all commercial men.

His recent illness and perhaps his want of opportunity to become acquainted with the subject, have, we would fain believe, led to this palpable violation of well attested truth. The following are the statements to which we allude:

"It is now well ascertained that the real domestic exchanges performed, through discounts, by the United States Bank and the twenty five branches, were at least one third less than those of the deposite banks for an equal period of time, and if a comparison be instituted between the amounts of service rendered by these institutions, on the broader basis which has been used by the advocates of the United States Bank in estimating what they consider the domestic exchanges transacted by it, the result will be still more favorable to the deposite banks."

"These enormous sums of money first mentioned have been transferred with the greatest promptitude and regularity, and the rates at which the exchanges have been negotiated previously to the passage of the deposite act, were generally below those charged by the Bank of the United States."

Apart from the plain error of this statement, taken even literally—an error which may be established by an appeal to the experience of every commercial man in the large cities—there is a disingenuous attempt to conceal the fact that the domestic exchanges of the country are now conducted at rates ruinously exorbitant, and double, treble, quadruple what they were during the existence of the Bank.

Why is this fact concealed? Why, in this laudation of the better currency and of the deposite Banks, is the fact altogether omitted, that, as instruments of Domestic Exchange, they have proven utterly worthless, and that, since the public funds were transferred to them, the rates of exchange have been constantly running up, until they are now higher than at any period within the last twenty years? Such an omission is unpardonable and could not have occurred had Mr. Woodbury been actuated by an honest desire to present the subject impartially and truly to the nation. In this case the suppressio veri is not one whit less censurable than its kindred suggestio falsi.