In my opinion the deposit banks, under the bill in question,
will be the sole judges of the notes to be received by them from any
collector or receiver of public money, and they will not be bound to
receive the notes of any other bank whose notes they may choose to
reject, provided they apply the same rule to the United States which
they apply to their own depositors. In other words, the general rule as
to what notes are to be received as cash, prescribed by each deposit
bank for the regulation of its ordinary business, must be complied with
by the collectors and receivers whose moneys are to be deposited with
that bank. But it will not therefore follow that those officers will be
bound to receive what the bank generally receives, because, as already
stated, they may refuse of their own accord, or under the direction of
the Secretary of the Treasury, any bank notes not expressly directed by
act of Congress to be received in payment of the public dues.
I have thus answered the several questions proposed on the bill before
me; and though I have been necessarily obliged to examine the subject
with much haste, I have no other doubts as to the soundness of the
construction above given than such as belong to discussions of this
nature and to a proper sense of the fallibility of human judgment.
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