Under this system the
public finances have been carried through a foreign war, involving the
necessity of loans and extraordinary expenditures and requiring distant
transfers and disbursements, without embarrassment, and no loss has
occurred of any of the public money deposited under its provisions.
Whilst it has proved to be safe and useful to the Government, its
effects have been most beneficial upon the business of the country. It
has tended powerfully to secure an exemption from that inflation and
fluctuation of the paper currency so injurious to domestic industry
and rendering so uncertain the rewards of labor, and, it is believed,
has largely contributed to preserve the whole country from a serious
commercial revulsion, such as often occurred under the bank deposit
system. In the year 1847 there was a revulsion in the business of Great
Britain of great extent and intensity, which was followed by failures
in that Kingdom unprecedented in number and amount of losses. This is
believed to be the first instance when such disastrous bankruptcies,
occurring in a country with which we have such extensive commerce,
produced little or no injurious effect upon our trade or currency.
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