f Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury
and in my last annual message. If successfully accomplished, it
will secure a large decrease in the annual interest payment of the
nation; and I earnestly recommend, if the bill before me shall
fail, that another measure for this purpose be adopted before the
present Congress adjourns.

"While in my opinion it would be wise to authorize the Secretary
of the Treasury, in his discretion, to offer, to the public, bonds
bearing three and a half per cent. interest in aid of refunding,
I should not deem it my duty to interpose my constitutional objection
to the passage of the present bill if it did not contain, in its
fifth section, provisions which, in my judgment, seriously impair
the value and tend to the destruction of the present national
banking system of the country. This system has now been in operation
almost twenty years. No safer or more beneficial banking system
was ever established. Its advantages as a business are free to
all who have the necessary capital. It furnishes a currency to
the public which, for convenience and the security of the bill-
holder, has probably never been equaled by that of any other banking
system. Its notes are secured by the deposit with the government
of the interest-bearing bonds of the United States.

"The section of the bill before me which relates to the national
banking system, and to which objection is made, is not an essential
part of a refunding measure. It is as follows:

'Sec. 5. From and after the 1st day of July, 1881, the three per
cent. bonds authorized by the first section of this act shall be
the only bonds receivable as security for national bank circulation,
or as security for the safekeeping and prompt payment of the public
money deposited with such banks; but when any such bonds deposited
for the purposes aforesaid shall be designated for purchase or
redemption by the Secretary of the Treasury, the banking association
depositing the same shall have the right to substitute other issues
of the bonds of the United States in lieu thereof: _Provided_,
That no bond upon which interest has ceased shall be accepted or
shall be continued on deposit as security for circulation or for
the safe-keeping of the public money; and in case bonds so deposited
should not be withdrawn, as provided by law, within thirty days
after interest has ceased thereon, the banking association depositing
the same shall be subject to the liab