If the question of a removal of the deposits presented itself to the
Executive in the same attitude that it appeared before the House of
Representatives at their last session, their resolution in relation to
the safety of the deposits would be entitled to more weight, although
the decision of the question of removal has been confided by law to
another department of the Government. But the question now occurs
attended by other circumstances and new disclosures of the most serious
import. It is true that in the message of the President which produced
this inquiry and resolution on the part of the House of Representatives
it was his object to obtain the aid of that body in making a thorough
examination into the conduct and condition of the bank and its branches
in order to enable the executive department to decide whether the public
money was longer safe in its hands. The limited power of the Secretary
of the Treasury over the subject disabled him from making the
investigation as fully and satisfactorily as it could be done by a
committee of the House of Representatives, and hence the President
desired the assistance of Congress to obtain for the Treasury Department
a full knowledge of all the facts which were necessary to guide his
judgment.
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