I am not
insensible of the great difficulty that exists in drawing a proper plan
for the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public revenues, and I know
the importance which has been attached by men of great abilities and
patriotism to the divorce, as it is called, of the Treasury from the
banking institutions. It is not the divorce which is complained of, but
the unhallowed union of the Treasury with the executive department,
which has created such extensive alarm. To this danger to our republican
institutions and that created by the influence given to the Executive
through the instrumentality of the Federal officers I propose to apply
all the remedies which may be at my command. It was certainly a great
error in the framers of the Constitution not to have made the officer at
the head of the Treasury Department entirely independent of the
Executive. He should at least have been removable only upon the demand
of the popular branch of the Legislature. I have determined never to
remove a Secretary of the Treasury without communicating all the
circumstances attending such removal to both Houses of Congress.
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