20 EWING EXCHANGE ferred, though he was opposed to granting the prayer of the memorialists. In July, 1836, the secretary of the treasury issued what was known as the " specie circular," directing re- ceivers in land offices to accept payments only in gold, silver, or treasury certificates, except from certain classes of persons for a limited time. In December Mr. Ewing brought in a bill to annul this circular, and another declar- ing it unlawful for the secretary to make such discrimination, but the bills were not carried. His term expired in March, 1837, and he re- sumed the practice of his profession. In 1841 he was appointed secretary of the treasury by President Harrison, and retained that office under President Tyler. His first official report proposed the imposition of 20 per cent, ad va- lorem duties on certain articles for the relief of the national debt, disapproved the indepen- dent treasury act passed the preceding year, and urged the establishment of a national bank. He was requested to prepare a bill for the last purpose, which was passed with some al- teration, but was vetoed by the president. Mr. Tyler thereupon indicated a plan for a bank of moderate capital for the regulation of ex- changes, and at his request Mr. Ewing helped to frame a charter, which was immediately passed and in turn vetoed. Mr. Ewing, with all the other members of the cabinet except Mr. Webster, consequently resigned (Septem- ber, 1841). On the accession of Gen. Taylor to the presidency in 1849, he took office as secretary of the newly created department of the interior, which he organized. Among the measures recommended in his first report, Dec. 3, 1849, were the extension of the public land laws to California, New Mexico, and Ore- gon, the establishment of a mint near the Cal- ifornia gold mines, and the construction of a road to the Pacific. On the death of Taylor and the accession of Fillmore, in 1850, Mr. Corwin became secretary of the treasury, and Mr. Ewing was appointed by the governor of Ohio to serve during Corwin's unexpired term in the senate. In this body he refused to vote for the fugitive slave law, opposed Clay's compromise bill, reported from the commit- tee on finance a bill for the establishment of a branch mint in California, and advo- cated a reduction of postage, river and harbor appropriations, and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. In 1851 he retired from public life. Among the most elaborate of his written professional arguments are those in the cases of Oliver v. Piatt et al., involving the title to a large part of Toledo, Ohio ; the Methodist church division ; the Mclntire poor school i). Zanesville ; and the McMicken will, involving large bequests for education. In February, 1861, he was a delegate from Ohio to the peace conference in Washington. THOMAS, his son, born at Lancaster, Ohio, Aug. 7, 1829, was chief justice of Kansas in 1861, served in the civil war, and received the brevet of major general of volunteers in 1864. EXARCH (Gr. efap^of, leader), in the eastern Roman empire, an ecclesiastical or civil dig- nitary invested with extraordinary authority. At first exarchs were officers delegated by the patriarch or synod to visit a diocese for the purpose of restoring discipline. The exarch was also the superior of several monasteries, in distinction from the archimandrite, who was the superior of one, and was of a rank inferior to that of patriarch and superior to that of metropolitan. In the modern Greek church the exarch is a legate a latere of the patriarch. He visits the provinces to investi- gate ecclesiastical cases, the differences be- tween prelates and people, the monastic dis- cipline, the administration of the sacraments, and the observance of the canons ; and he usu- ally succeeds to the patriarchate. As a civil officer, the exarch was a viceroy intrusted with the administration of one or more provinces. This title was given to the prefects who from the middle of the 6th century to the middle of the 8th governed that part of Italy which was subject to the Byzantine empire. They were instituted after the reconquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths by Narses, to oppose the progress of the Lombards, then threatening to occupy that country. They held their court at Ravenna, and combined civil, military, judicial, and often ecclesiastical authority. They ap- pointed dukes as vice governors for several parts of Italy. The exarchate was destroyed by the Lombards in 752. When Pepin of France conquered Ravenna, it was ceded to the pope. The title of exarch for high civil and military officers remained in the West till the 12th century. EXCELLENCY, a title borne originally by the Lombard kings, and then by the emperors of the West from Charlemagne to Henry VII. It was adopted in the 15th century by the Italian princes, who exchanged it for that of highness (altezzd) after the French and other ambas- sadors had been permitted to assume it. In France it became about the middle of the 17th century a common title for the highest civil and military officers ; and in Germany it was given also to doctors and professors in univer- sities. It is the title of every nobleman in Italy; in France, a duke is addressed as ex- cellence, and a prince as altesse. It is the usual address of foreign ministers and of the govern- ors of British colonies. The president of the United States is sometimes called his excel- lency the president, but the?e is no legal sanc- tion for this, the founders of the government having decided after discussion to bestow no title upon the president. A committee of the senate reported in favor of the style " his high- ness," but the house opposed any title besides those expressed in the constitution. Massa- chusetts is the only state whose constitution grants the title of excellency to its governor. EXCELMANS. See EXELMANS. EXCHANGE, a gathering place for the transac- tion of business. In Venice, Genoa, and other
