ning redemption
of notes to one place. Mr. Wallace inquired whether the government
notes should not be receivable and interchangeable at every government
depositary. I answered that the notes should be received everywhere
at par with coin, but I doubted the propriety of paying coin for
United States notes except at one place and that in New York, the
natural center for financial operations, where most of the customs
dues were paid and where coin could be most safely hoarded.

Mr. Beck examined me at considerable length, and, with his usual
Scotch tenacity, insisted, in spite of the attorney general, that
I was not authorized to receive legal tender notes for customs
dues. He asked me by what authority I claimed this power. I quoted
the third section of the resumption act, and gave him a copy of my
circular letter to officers of customs, dated on the 21st of
December, 1878, in which, after calling attention to that section,
I said:

"By reason of this act, you are authorized to receive United State
notes, as well as gold coin and standard silver dollars, in payment
of duties on imports, on and after the first day of January, 1879.

"Notes thus received will in every instance be deposited with the
treasurer, or some assistant treasurer of the United States, as
are other collections of such duties, to be redeemed, from time to
time, in coin, on government account, as the convenience of the
service may demand."

Mr. Beck then said:

"I desire to know, Mr. Secretary, whether it is not better, in your
opinion, that the Congress of the United States should prescribe
the duties of executive officers, so that they can act in pursuance
of law, rather than the executive officer should be acting on his
own notions of what is best?"

I replied:

"I say yes, decidedly."

Mr. Beck inquired:

"Is not that what we are proposing to do now, by the passage of
this law which I seek to have enacted, and are you not opposing
that condition of things?"

I replied:

"An executive officer, when there is a doubt about the law, must
give his own construction of it, but should, of course, readily
conform to the action of Congress as soon as it is declared. The
objection I make is not to the passage of a law, but that the bill
as proposed applies it to a possible future state of affairs such
as did not exist when this order was made and does not now."

The subject then turned to the exchange of trade dollars for standard
doll