Hermitage June 24.th 1837~ My dear Sir, Your kind and interesting letter of the 10,th is now before me, with its enclosures. Your congratulations on my safe arrival at my peaceful home, & your kind solicitude for my health & long life, receives my grateful acknowledgments. There was no necessity for an apology for your delay in writing me - I can well appreciate your situation - particularly under the pressure of business that the sudden & unexpected suspension of specie payments, so dishonest & disgraceful to the deposit Banks, must have brought upon the whole Executive Departments. It will at all times be a great pleasure to me to receive communications from you, still I do not concentrate on that pleasure often - I am well aware from experience that your pressing public duties will leave but little leisure for private friendship. Permit me to assure you that I never have, nor can doubt the sincerity of your friendship - I am too well acquainted with your good morals, and purity of character, ever to doubt of your sincerity & justice - the high estimation in which I have held your talents & moral worth are known to all with whom I have been associated, as well as to those where your name have been introduced and I assure you I must continue [struck: to] [inserted: duly to] appreciate it, as long as I live. I have been wide awake to all the dificulties with which you, all, have been surrounded since I left you, [2] I thought I saw in the movements of some of our professed friends in the Senate [inserted: last winter,] that deep treachery to the administration that the combined, dishonest, & dishonorable conduct of they banks, have so sundenly disclosed, by the suspension of specie payments, with the whole revenue in their vaults - first robbing the Treasury and crying out the Government is bankrupt - the manner in which the Treasury circular was attempted to be repealed, by which the doors of the banks were to be opened to an unchecked issue of paper for the benefit of the speculators, convinced my mind that those members were regardless, [struck: to the,] [inserted: of what] injury [struck: that] [strikeout] [inserted: might] accrue to the Treasury & revenue provided they could carry into effect their interested views - had a proper deposit law [struck: have] been passed, perfect in its details & instead of attempting to make the Banks the regulators of the currency, cloathed the Secretary of the Treasury with ample powers to investigate the actual situation of thy Banks, and upon proper grounds of suspicion of bankruptcy an [struck: any] authority to withdraw the deposits, the present situation of the Banks might have been [inserted: with the operation of the Treasury order] avoided, & the plans of Biddle & the Biorings might have been [strikeout] [inserted: prevented] from being executed - your opinion on the subject of the repeal of the Treasury order I am well advised of, and it has been approved by all but the aristocracy & the enemies to our home industry, & speculators - These classes will never approve of any act that will promote the prosperity of the labouring classes, & the general good - these I have never wished to please, and their opposition will soon vanish [3] as it did on the former money & will result well to our country But it is useless to look back at scenes gone by, unless to guard against the evils, and similar treachery. arising from selfish views for the future - we must now look forward and meet the crisis with our united vigor and energy - I never despair of the republic - I have alway trusted to a benign providence and a virtuous people; & I have never been abandoned , nor will the Executive government be now, - the people will support it. The combined movement in all the Banks to suspend specie payments with all the revenue in their vaults, have destroyed all confidence in Banks - the people view with horror & disgust this treachery - this violation of public faith - this dishonest & fraudulent act, so disgraceful to our country; & our national character, [struck: that] the government must separate itself from all Banks, & provide a safe depository its own for the public revenue - These corrupt institutions, the people [inserted: now] see have first robbed the Treasury & cry out the government is Bankrupt - This has raised a proper indignation in the minds of the people, and their sufferings under the depreciation of the bank paper is daily adding to the indignation, and many are enquiring why is it, that the Secretary of the Treasury has not sued they directors who have dishonoured his drafts. This ought to be done in every instance - This would prevent the banks from parting with their specie, as they would have to hold on to it, to pay the judgements to be recovered against them - and be a just punishment for their dishonesty & treachery it ought to be done. [4] All confidence in Banks as a safe depository for the revenue of the Country [inserted: being lost.] I trust it will not be considered intrusive in me in making a few suggestions upon a system which I have long thought was the only true one, to give us a stable currency, safety to the revenue, prosperity to our Country, and [perspectively] to our glorious Union & happy form of Government. I have always believed that the fiscal concerns could be better managed without, than with banks, and the present crisis is one, when perhaps the members of Congress may yield to reason & common sense, & adopt it - The connection of Banks with the Government I now consider more dangerous to liberty, than the Union of Church & State - but to proceed - 1st Let the revenue be reduced to the actual wants of the Government - no credit for duties or public dues and all paid in gold & silver coin agreable to the fundemental laws of 1789 & 1800 - This will prevent overtrading by our merchants, & also prevent foreign agents from inundating our Country with foreign merchandize, so injurious to our home labour and manufactories. 2nd, Let agents of the Treasury be appointed under proper regulations and restrictions to receive from the collectors the revenue as collected, as the banks have hitherto done, who are to perform the services in transferring the revenue, and disbursing it, agreable to the drafts of the Secretary as heretofore surely the agents can find as secure a vault, & as strong a box as a bank, & under proper regulations do all duties that banks heretoforee did - 3rd -The disbursments all in gold & silver coin will in less than one year give us a general circulation of a sound metalic currency - to the officer & soldiers on our fronting [text loss] the labourers at our arsnels, our shipyards and forth [text loss]tions, and on all other public works - [5] and for all [inserted: public] suppliers, will give throughout the Union a general circulation of our coin from our mints, and for the first time under our present Government that the mint [inserted: will] have been useful to the labour of our Country altho taxed for its [inserted: esertion &] support. Our Gold & Silver thus circulated, will put it out of the power of the Biddles, Biorings and their associates, to ship it to England, and if the States do not prohibit their Banks from issuing ten & five dollars bills, the disbursment of say eighteen, to twenty millions, of our coin will drive the finall bills out of circulation as [inserted: in] no one will receive them [inserted: after this] when the gold or silver can be had - and Banks will have to confine themselves to exchanges for the commercial community - The Government being thus relieved from any connection with Banks, they must then revolve in their proper spheer to accommodate the merchants. The commercial community & the Banks will then be left to regulate their [inserted: own] matters as to them may seem best - The labour of our country, then, enjoying a sound and circulating metalic currency, in return for its product, then, and only then, when freed from the curse of a [inserted: fluctuating] paper credit system so injurious to our morals, can we be a happy, contented, and prosperous people. The notice taking in the Globe of Col Whites letter is just as it ought to be - I had written to MrBlair, that you was present and any statement that you would make - [6] I would acknowledge to be correct - The Col, I always know, was a great success - in this he has verrified it I am aware that your business calls you to New York, but you cannot be spared until all things are made ready for the meeting of Congress - I know the confidence the President has in you, - both him and I, know that it is well placed, and at this momentus crisis your aid is all important to him - present me & my whole household to him in the most kind & affectionate manner - say to him from me, that in due time before the meeting of Congress he must have all his matters matured & arranged, and his friends in Congress advised of them, that with [illegible] and energy they may push them through before the opposition can combine; and by intrigue, defeat them [inserted: say to him] I have read his letter, complied with its contents & will write him soon - say to him I anticipate that he will obtain a great triumph over his enemies - The people will sustain him. I have recovered from the [inserted: affects of the] fall from my horse but my health is not restored - I made an experiment to travel to the Western District where I had a little private business & some connections, but I was obliged to give it up for the present - I could not progress, I returned home & have had a severe attack of pain in the side, breast, & head, and was compelled to resort to the old remedy - the lowest & ca[illegible]hastic I am better, but confined to the house as yet - The weather [7] very cold for the season, as has all the Spring & very backwood; cotton unpromising. I have been delayed in answering your letter by endeavouring to gratify a request [inserted: of] and to fulfill my promise to your amiable Lady to furnish her the autograph of my dear departed wife, - but the fire that consumed my house has, it appears, deprived me of the gratification of complying with my promise & her request - The Bureau that contained all her letters to me I found was consumed with all its contents - I find much more was lost than I anticipated - Mrs. Watson is the only one I know now living, that has one of [text loss] letters - she once said to me if I could not comply with the request of Mrs. Butler that she would spare her the one she had. I find myself so debilitated with what I have written with a severe pain in the side which is sure to seize me when long confined at the desk, which compels me to close - With my best wishes & kind regards to you and your amiable family, in which my whole household unites, I remain very respectfully Your friend Andrew Jackson B. F. Butler Esqr atto. Genl U. States P.S. I keep no copy. A. J I had like to have omitted the nature of your remarks about Genl Jessup - The approval of his military cause was well merited & proper - I have read his reply with much satisfaction and herewith return it to you A. J [address leaf] B. F. Butler Esqr attorney Genl for United States City of Washington [docket] Andrew Jackson June 24th /37 Hermitage