JULY 11, 1832.]

The Bank Veto.

[SENATE.

and it is hardly a fair presumption that the States will so is purchased in England? Or does Ohio feel grieved that far abuse their information, that the merely telling them her stock is owned in New York, Philadelphia, and in the secret will sap the liberties and destroy the prosperity London? No such thing. It is, of all others, that which of the commonwealth. advances our prosperity. They have capital which we But, sir, the right of the States to tax the stock held in want. We have industry, enterprise, and the means of this bank by persons residing within their limits, has never applying capital, which they do not possess. It is, therebeen doubted. Many of the States have exercised it; fore, for the common benefit that the transfer should be and all have the power to do it, and to compel the stock- made. It is true it would be better if we had this capital holder, by various modes, generally that of arbitrary of our own, without paying interest; but, as we have it assessment, to disclose under oath the amount of stock not, it is well that we can obtain it on favorable terms which he owns. But the ninth section of this charter from other States, or from foreign nations. No one ever obviates that necessity, and it does nothing more. So heard of any nation prohibiting its citizens from borrowing much for the effect of this provision, which is said to be money of foreigners; and it would be equally absurd in fraught with principles of such dangerous tendency. But us to prohibit ours from selling them stocks in our banks, a word more as to the principles which it does not recog- or our public works. nise, but which, nevertheless, do exist in law.

Capital is, indeed, the great desideratum in our country; it is the want of it which disables us from competing with foreigners in many articles of manufacture, and all the capital which we have received, or shall receive, from England, or elsewhere abroad, and all the interest we pay them, is saved thrice told, in the products of our home industry, which it creates and sustains.

I have said that the States have an undoubted right to tax the stockholders residing within their limits for all the stock which they hold in the Bank of the United States. The right of taxation, as to debts, contracts, stocks, every thing which is of untangible nature, (not issuing out of real estate,) and is, therefore, of no place, is determined by the domicil of the owner; it is supposed to exist there, and, if| There is another clause in the third page of the mestaxed at all, it is in the State or kingdom in which its owner sage, to which I now ask the attention of the Senate. resides. Take, for example, the case of a man resident "It has been urged as an argument in favor of recharin Virginia, loaning money to a citizen of Ohio. Could tering the present bank, that the calling in its loans will Ohio tax the lender in consequence of the loan? Certainly produce great embarrassment and distress. The time not. But the money in the hands of the borrower, dispose allowed to close its concerns is ample; and if it has been of it however he might--whether he retained it on hand, well managed, its pressure will be light, and heavy only or converted it into property, or loaned it again--would in case its management has been bad. If, therefore, it become at once a subject of taxation in Ohio. It is the shall produce distress, the fault will be its own; and it same between kingdoms as States; a long established prin- would furnish a reason against renewing a power which ciple of international law, never departed from in times of has been so obviously abused. But will there ever be a peace and amity: and even in war, confiscation, or the time when this reason will be less powerful? To acknowsuspension of the rights of the creditor, and not taxation, ledge its force, is to admit that the bank ought to be peris the usual resort against the credits of the alien enemy. petual; and, as a consequence, the present stockholders, But a word as to the justice of this principle, as applied and those inheriting their rights as successors, be establishto the Bank of the United States, and the policy of per-ed a privileged order, clothed both with great political mitting the stock to be owned by foreigners. power, and enjoying immense pecuniary advantages, from their connexion with the Government."

The bonus of three millions of dollars, and the several burdens imposed by the bill, was the price which it was This whole clause is assumption, without argument or proposed should be paid by the bank for its privilege to proof to sustain it. The question whether the time to exist, and loan money as a corporation. This was the close the concern of the bank is or is not ample, is one medium sum in the judgment of those who had reflected which depends upon a variety of circumstances, of which on the subject; and every thing considered was about a the most important are the amount of its loans, and ability just equivalent. This matter, however, I do not intend of the individuals and of the country to pay those loans to discuss-suffice it that it was the price proposed for the without serious pressure upon business, and consequent privilege of the charter. The individual stockholders, individual and puòlic distress; but the message avers that then, must, in this bonus, pay an equivalent for vesting if the management of the bank has been good, the prestheir money in the corporate joint stock concern; and, sure, on the withdrawal of its loans, will be light, and having done so, they ought to stand in every other respect heavy only in case its management has been bad. It upon precisely the same footing with individual money would seem, therefore, according to the ideas conveyed in lenders no better and no worse. If an individual resid- the message, that the bank ought to have made no loans ing in Boston send a hundred thousand dollars to his except to individuals who were full handed and always agent at Cincinnati, who lends it for him and in his name, ready to pay; and that they should not have been liberal the State of Ohio cannot, as I have already explained, tax of their loans in any portion of the country where money the Bostonian on account of the loan. The State of Mas-was scarce, and the business and the enterprise of the sachusetts may, but Ohio cannot, for the debt is drawn to people dependent on their capital to put it in motion. In the domicil of the lender, and is property there, and not other words, it were, according to the message, good in Ohio. So, if the lender resides in England, and loans management to loan to the rich who are full of capital, his money in the United States, the same principle applies; and can always pay, and to refuse to the poorer and more we cannot tax him for the loan, but his own Government enterprising sections and citizens of our country, who can. These are principles which we cannot alter, and borrow to create capital from the proceeds of their induskeep within those rules which are respected by all civilized try, aided by their loans. In this I differ from the message nations. Now, the same principles apply, in all their to the whole extent. This bank was little needed in that force, to stockholders in the Bank of the United States. portion of our country where capital has been accumuThey stand in the situation of lenders, and, having paid lating for ages, and therefore abounds. It was not wanted for the privilege of a corporate existence, are, all beyond in Boston--they could do well enough without it in New the peculiar privilege so purchased, in effect, private York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore--but in the West, the money lenders, to the amount of their stock; and where is younger sisters of our confederacy, Ohio, Kentucky, Inthe hardship of all this? Ought we to complain that diana, Illinois, and Missouri, where the whole wealth of foreigners come here and lend their money or invest their the people has sprung from small savings of the industry capital? Does Pennsylvania complain that her canal stock and enterprise of the present generation, who themselves

SENATE.]

The Bank Veto.

[JULY 11, 1832.

Sir, of the whole thirty millions loaned in the Western States, but one hundred and forty thousand two hundred dollars is owned as stock in that section of the country. All besides of the whole thirty millions must be, within the coming five years, collected and withdrawn from our circulation. But this is not all: there is owned by foreigners something more than eight millions of the stock of the bank. This sum can find, at this time, no other safe investment in our country. That eight millions must be shipped from our seaboard in gold and silver to the capitalists of Europe.

entered and subjugated the wilderness, which they have minority who voted originally against the bill, and withcovered with fruitful fields and flourishing villages. In out whose aid our struggle here is fruitless and unavailing; these sections of our country, capital-accumulated capi- but I speak that my own may be heard beyond these walls tal-does not, and, in the very nature of things, cannot, by those whom I represent, that they at least may know exist; and there, of all places else, is there need of capital that I have not been blind to their interest, or unmindful to sustain the enterprise and aid the industry of the people. of my duty towards them. If the Bank of the United States was designed to confer all the benefit, in a national point of view, of which it was capable, this is exactly the portion of the country to which its liberal loans would have effected that object. By lending freely in this youthful section of our country, to the industrious, the honest, and the enterprising, who could apply the loans advantageously, so as to pay the interest and accumulate capital out of the residue of the profits, those who managed the concerns of this institution not only did wisely for the interest of the concern, but well for the general benefit of the nation. But these are, of all others, the loans which it is the most difficult to The withdrawal of that sum from the actual specie cawithdraw, without the pressure being severely felt; pre-pital of our country must of itself cause a sensible prescisely for the reason that they were the loans, of all others, sure in the money market; and that pressure, though the most needed when made. It does not, therefore, striking first on the commercial cities, will be felt throughappear to me to be true in fact, that if the bank cannot out the Union, especially in the West, which has always withdraw its business without injury to the country, it maintained with them a constant and close connexion: for, affords evidence of its mismanagement; but, on the con- sir, scarcely less quickly do the nerves in the animal trary, it proves that it now ministers to the actual wants frame carry sensation between the extremities and the of the country; and when those wants cease to be supplied, brain, their common centre, than do the rapid lines of and the fund is withdrawn, it will produce misery and commercial intercourse bear the vibrations of money capi distress. I, sir, am not the eulogist of the Bank of the tal, the relation of demand and supply in the commercial United States, nor in any respect its especial friend. I world, from our cities, the centre and emporium of that am not, and have not been, its supporter, except so far as commerce, to the extreme points of our Union. What I have seen and felt its existence blended with the interests man of business who has heard of a sudden claim on one of my country, and more especially for the time being, of the commercial cities for a few millions of dollars, but with the vital interests of that portion of the country has felt at once the extended pressure upon the remote which I in part represent, and whose welfare I most espe-point which he may have occupied? The transportation cially regard; and I cannot look forward to the crisis of this eight millions of specie, if it stood alone, and with which awaits that country without feelings of anxiety and the Bank of the United States to aid us, and break the alarm. If this institution is really to be prostrated, if it force of the shock, we should feel, and sensibly feel, even have now received its death blow, and is but to await and to the farthest West. prepare for its final fall, the distress and ruin which it will occasion, rests not with the wealthy money holder, whose funds have found an investment in its stocks; if it did, and this were all, for him I would care little; but it must come with fatal and unbroken force upon the industry, the enterprise, the public prosperity, and the private comfort of the whole extended West.

But sensibly as this would be felt in common times, and under ordinary circumstances, it will be lost in the magnitude of the fiscal and commercial evils of which it must be but an attendant. In the first place, the issues of the Bank of the United States must cease. The man of business, whether engaged in the transportation of the produce of the country--the building and equipping of steamboats for the navigation of our waters-the improvement of our cities-the trade to Santa Fe--or the fur trade on the heads of the Mississippi, or the Northwest coast, finds at once the resources on which he relied to aid his enterprise, cut off--the fountain dried up at its very source. Next, in the whole extent of business, those to whom these funds, in the hands of the first adventurers, had furnished employment as laborers and artisans, or the That the employment of that fund has brought with it farmers to whom it had supplied a cash market for the public improvement and general prosperity, no one who surplus produce of their fields, are thrown out of emhas watched the progress of that section of the Union ployment, and their products left on their hands, or sold since the first establishment of the branches of this bank for credit to the exporter, with all the vexations of delay within its limits, can for a moment doubt. How steady in payment, and the risk of loss.

I have already said that in that section of the Union we are without capital. The Bank of the United States, in pursuing its own interest, has done what motives of public spirit would have prompted. It loaned extensively where it found capital deficient, and the means of employing it abundant-and at this time we have in the valley of the Mississippi thirty millions of its funds invested and employed.

That must be, in the

and how rapid has been our advance, by the aid of this But the bank must not only cease its issues, it must institution, and other concurring causes, from a state of withdraw its paper from circulation, and compel the payfinancial and commercial depression, to one of almost un-ment of its loans; the thirty millions which we owe it in rivalled prosperity. the West must be called in. All the paper of the Bank But, sir, the scene is now to be changed. If the days of the United States in circulation among us will make of this institution be numbered, every principle of self- but a mere pittance of that sum. protection must constrain it at once to prepare for its final first place, all withdrawn; and how is the void to be filled? termination. The capital of the stockholders, now in- The Senator from Tennessee [Mr. WHITE] has said the vested in this bank, must be withdrawn, in order to seek State banks may increase their issues; but never was another investment. Those who have its direction, must, there a more egregious error. The State banks must, therefore, as a matter of duty to their employers, call in in self-defence, cease their loans and withdraw their issues their loans and issues, and prepare for its final withdrawal; also. Look for a moment at its operation: there is not, and I now ask the attention of the Senate to its operation including the whole circulating medium--United States upon my own section of the Union, not with the hope of paper, the paper of the State banks, and specie-an changing the opinion, or the course of any portion of that amount large enough in the Western States to pay the

JULY 11, 1832.]

The Bank Veto.

[SENATE.

after the other, passing from his hands, and hardly producing the cost of sale, few can withstand the temptation to fictitious sales, transfers fraudulent in law, and evasions generally leading on to high legal crime, ending at last in disgrace as well as ruin. Such are the scenes which we once have witnessed; with such are we again threatened: but their second coming, may Heaven in its mercies avert! But, on the supposition that the evils which have been anticipated must flow from the present destruction of the United States' Bank, the President in this message inquires, "will there ever be a time when this reason will be less powerful?" and adds, "that to acknowledge its force is to admit that the bank ought to be perpetual.'

debt which we owe that bank. All the embryo riches of when his farm, his stock, his household goods, are, one the earth we have--every thing which constitutes the germ of great future wealth. It is inherent in our soil and population; but it requires time and means to develop and call it into being. But, sir, of money, gold and silver, and that which will at once command them, we have not in the whole country an amount sufficient to pay this debt. If the State banks enlarge their issues, to supply the pressing wants of the community, their paper, either at once, or after going a few short rounds of trade, must fall into the hands of the debtors of the Bank of the United States; they pay it in, in liquidation of their debts, and it is returned to the State banks, and specie drawn from their vaults, and exported from the country. Is not this, sir, the natural and necessary course of things? Surely it is; and it will be understood at once by the State institutions, which are solvent and wish to continue so; and they, too, must and will lock their counters against their customers, and withdraw their issues. Then follows a scene of calamity and suffering which we have once experienced in that section of the country, and with which I had hoped in God we should never have again been visited. I allude to the commercial revulsions which followed the close of the late war, the consequences of which were so heavily felt, and are still fresh in the recollection of us all.

Now, sir, I must confess I cannot see any clear and cogent reason why we should, at this day, look forward with anxiety to see the final destruction of this bank, any more than to see the ruin of any other of the institutions of our country. If advantages are enjoyed by the stockholders, and their possession of these advantages confer an equal benefit on the people, why should we wish to deprive them of a benefit from which the Government and the people all derive their share of blessing? And is it wise to hasten to do evil to them, with the perfect assurance before us that the evil will recoil with double force upon us who inflict it? I can answer for it, that the nation has no feeling of envy against the bank or its stockholders, or any desire to mar their prosperity.

The Bank of the United States must, then, withdraw its issues and call in its loans, or as much of them as the amount of money in the country will meet. As this me- But if it be essential that the bank should one day be dium disappears from among us, the property of every put down, and that we should hazard our own prosperity individual--land, houses, stock--the fruits of the earth-- for the purpose of destroying it, does wisdom dictate that

the labor of the farmer, the mechanic, and all the pro- the present time should be chosen, when it is certainly in ducts of their labor, must go down, almost to nothing: our power to postpone the mischief to a distant day? still, for years, this debt will press heavier and heavier Shall we rush at once upon a national calamity, because, upon our resources. The man who owes the bank will perchance, it must hereafter come? This, sir, is not the have his debtors, and must press them in order to cast off principle by which we are governed in the affairs of comthe burden from himself. Suits, sales of property under mon life, where plain, unsophisticated reason teaches us the hammer by the officers of the law, come next in the to grasp the good, and put far off the evil which is before progress of events-and this, sir, not upon the rich and us. Why, we know even now, while in the enjoyment purse-proud, the monopolist and the aristocratic son of of life, and health, and vigor, that sickness, and pain, and fortune, to whom the President seems to think the bank is death necessarily await us; but it were folly and madalone of importance, but upon the industrious farmer and ness in us, or those who would counsel us, to wilfully mechanic, the bone and sinew of our republic, they who waste at once our health, or destroy our being, because support the Government by their honest industry, and we cannot enjoy life and health forever. We know, too, whom the rulers of our land ought, in all things, most if we reason from analogies of the past, that our rising recarefully to guard. In this state of things the industrious public, with all that gives it energy and grace—its power, poor would be in effect delivered over, bound hand and its happiness, the freedom of its institutions, at some fufoot, to the voracious moneyed speculator. He who could ture day, far distant, I trust, must sink, too, into ruin, come into the country in the midst of a scene like that and share the fate of the empires and republics which which we once witnessed, and which is again at hand, have gone before it—for nothing human is made to endure armed with a few thousands of ready cash, might, if he forever. had the hardness of heart to do it, buy himself a dukedom Debemur morti nos, nostraque. out of the farms of our industrious but ruined yeomanry. But should we, therefore, with rash impatience and a But this is not all. You sap the morals at the same reckless hand, hurry our country and its institutions to its time you thus rudely shake the prosperity of a people. destruction? Sir, an argument like this is unworthy the Their first resort will be to legislative aid, and relief laws high source from which it has emanated. follow, or, in other words, laws to prevent the collection of In casting my eyes over the message, I find much more debts, (for what Legislature can withstand the appeals of a on which I would wish to comment; but all else has been whole people suffering under a general visitation?) or if touched by other hands, and time admonishes me that I not that, the creation of a host of banks with fictitious should have done. I have addressed you, sir, not in becapital, which may seem for a time to suspend the blow, half of this institution; for, as such, and in the abstract, it but will make it fall the heavier at last. And then, instead has no special regard of mine, and none of my sympaof the safe and sound currency which we now enjoy, we thies; but in behalf of my country, over whose interests, shall again have a depreciated and worthless mass of trash, while here, I am bound to watch as an honest and faithful which will pass into the hands of the people, and there sink sentinel, and whose destinies are now so deeply involved into nothing, leaving them to bear the loss. And at last, in the fate of this institution, I have felt that without this when the pressure becomes intolerable; when the father last effort to avert the evil which I foresee, or give warnof a family who, but a brief space before, thought himself ing of its approach, my duty would not have been perprosperous, rising in the world by his industry to a happy formed.

competence, and able to rear and educate and settle his Mr. CLAYTON rose, he said, for the purpose of addchildren, sees at once, without any fault of his, his whole ing to what had been suggested by gentlemen who property stripped from him to pay a small debt, which, had gone before him in the debate, his own views of the when it was contracted, was entirely within his means-true issue tendered by the President to the country in the

SENATE.]

The Bank Veto.

[JULY 11, 1832.

message under consideration. It was not merely the ques- fatal to all charters by which private individuals are pertion whether the present Bank of the United States should mitted to hold stock, could be obviated only by a grant be rechartered, but whether any bank whatever should of charters for banking purposes to all who ask them--2 be established by the Government after the expiration of mode of avoiding the constitutional objection, not to be the act of Congress incorporating that institution. supposed to have entered into the imagination of him who informed us, in his message of 1829, that even the present bank had entirely failed in the great object of establishing a sound and uniform currency.

What manner of a national bank is that, sir, in which the people of our country are to be prohibited from hold ing stock? Another important feature of this project is disclosed on the ninth page of the message:

This message contains, said Mr. C., two sentences which I will venture to predict will be artfully quoted in the coming contest, to prove the very reverse of the position which I have laid down, and to delude the people who are to decide this question as to the real opinions of the President in reference to the whole subject. We shall be told, sir, that, in the very first page of this document, the President has admitted that "a Bank of the "The Government is the only 'proper' judge where United States is, in many respects, convenient for the its agents should reside and keep their offices, because it Government, and useful to the people;" and that, on the best knows where their presence will be necessary.' It twelfth page of the same paper, he has said "that a Bank cannot, therefore, be necessary' or 'proper' [that is, it is of the United States, competent to all the duties which unconstitutional] to authorize the bank to locate branches may be required by the Government, might be so organ- where it pleases to perform the public service, without ized as not to infringe on our own delegated powers, or consulting the Government, and contrary to its will." the reserved rights of the States, I do not entertain a The inference is then distinctly drawn, that a bank, doubt." Without stopping to inquire for what purpose which can locate branches where it pleases, must be a these declarations have been introduced into the message, bank "for other than public purposes"--or, in other we cannot but anticipate the uses to be made of them words, that the power to establish two branches in any hereafter; and as it is of importance to the whole country State," without the injunction or request of the Govern that no false coloring should be given to the Executive ment," is unconstitutional, because it is not necessary to opinion, by the use of these isolated passages, I will consume so much of your time as may be necessary to dispel the illusion they are calculated to create.

the due execution of the powers delegated to Congress. If any thing were wanted to demonstrate that the only bank to the existence of which the President will ever I repeat, then, sir, that, from the opinions of the Presi- yield his assent, is that "Government bank founded on dent, as fully developed in this paper, it is not to be ex- the revenues of the country," recommended in his former pected that during his administration, and while these sen- messages to Congress, we have it here. For it is in effect timents remain unchanged, any bank whatever can be held by him that no bank can be constitutionally created established by this Government; and to show it, I will over which the Executive is not to exercise absolute con. content myself by referring to a few paragraphs in that trol. The "Government" must have the power at all part of his argument which labors to prove the present times to locate branches where it pleases; and as the bank charter unconstitutional.

power to establish or create involves the power to destroy "On two subjects only does the constitution recognise or remove, it must, of necessity, exercise the authority to in Congress the power to grant exclusive privileges or withdraw those branches whenever, in the exercise of its monopolies. It declares that Congress shall have power discretion, such branches shall appear not "necessary" to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by se- or "proper." By the word "Government,” as here curing, for limited times, to authors and inventors, the used, is meant the Executive alone, and by the Executive exclusive right to their respective writings and discove-is meant the President. That is apparent from the whole ries.' Out of this express delegation of power have context: Congress not being generally in session half the grown our laws of patents and copyrights. As the con- year, could not be alluded to as that "Government," stitution expressly delegates to Congress the power to without the injunction or request of which no branch grant exclusive priveleges, in these cases, as the means of bank ought to be established in the opinion of the Presi executing the substantive power to promote the pro- dent. It could not exercise the power. The fiscal congress of science and useful arts,' it is consistent with the cerns of the Government are entrusted to the Executive, fair rules of construction to conclude that such a power in the absence of Congress, which is a body too unwieldy was not intended to be granted as a means of accomplish- to manage their details, when it is in session, and (with ing any other end. On every other subject which comes deference to our dignity be it spoken) too ignorant of the within the scope of congressional power, there is an ever- practical science of banking to decide properly on the ten living discretion in the use of proper means, which can- thousand questions which would enter into such a subnot be restricted or abolished without an amendment of ject, were it divested of every political or party inducethe constitution. Every act of Congress, therefore, which ment to act improperly when its members shall be conattempts, by grants of monopolies, or sale of exclusive verted into bankers and bank directors. The plan disprivileges for a limited time, or a time without limit, to closed as the only constitutional scheme is, to establish a restrict or extinguish its own discretion in the choice of bank as a "branch of the Treasury Department"--that means to execute its delegated powers, is equivalent to a department whose head or Secretary is, by constitutional legislative amendment of the constitution, and palpably construction, removable by the President alone at his pleasure. In this bank or "branch of the treasury," Here, and elsewhere throughout the document, the grant the funds of the nation--all the revenues of the Govern of a charter to individuals for banking purposes is de- ment, are to be kept by the Secretary, who, being a quasi nounced as the "grant of a monopoly"-the "sale of president and cashier of the bank, can never "locate exclusive privileges" the "grant of exclusive privileges branches" or withdraw them, without the will of the or monopolies," "equivalent to a legislative amendment President; and who, while in perfect subservience to the of the constitution, and palpably unconstitutional." If same will, is to check the issues of all the State banks, by a grant to one incorporated company be a monopoly, refusing to take their notes in deposite and for exchange, we must also consider as monopolies several grants to or by accepting them at pleasure. several such companies. Twenty such grants to twenty In order that the views expressed in the passages cited such companies are as much sales of exclusive privileges may be more distinctly understood, I quote the messages to them, as that which is the peculiar and present sub- of the President for the years 1829 and 1830, which furject of the President's animadversion. This objection, nish the soundest commentaries on that before us, and

unconstitutional."

JULY 11, 1832.]

The Bank Veto.

[SENATE.

exhibit to us fully that plan of a bank which, as we have by taking their notes in deposite and for exchange, only already seen, can have no stockholders, lest exclusive privileges should be granted, and the branches of which are to be located when and where the Executive may direct. In the message of 1829, the President thus introduces the subject to Congress:

so long as they continue to be redeemed with specie. In times of public emergency, the capacities of such an institution might be enlarged by legislative provisions." We see, then, why all other banks except this Government bank are held to be unconstitutional. The rea"The charter of the Bank of the United States ex-sons for which the Government bank is considered as pires in 1836, and its stockholders will most probably the only constitutional compromise to which the Presiapply for a renewal of their privileges. In order to avoid dent can accede, are, the evils resulting from precipitancy in a measure involv ing such important principles, and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that I cannot, in justice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the deliberate consideration of the Legislature and the people. Both the constitutionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank are well questioned by a large portion of our fellow-citizens; and it must be admitted by all that it has failed in the great end of establishing a uniform and sound currency.

"Under these circumstances, if such an institution is deemed essential to the fiscal concerns of the Government, I submit to the wisdom of the Legislature whether a national one, founded upon the credit of the Government and its revenues, might not be devised, which would avoid all constitutional difficulties, and, at the same time, secure all the advantages to the Government and country that were expected to result from the present bank."

First, because it is not to be a corporate body. Of course it is not liable before any court, should it violate its duties, trample the State laws under foot, and prostitute itself to every political and ambitious design of the President, who would hold it in his power as absolutely as the very pen with which he signed this message. Wielding the immense revenues of the whole country, more than twenty millions annually, and vested with all the additional power which the whole credit of the nation could confer, it would, at the same time, stand above every law to the enforcement of which a judicial tribunal should be requisite.

Secondly, because it is to have no stockholders; of course, no countervailing check to Executive influence is to be suffered to exist in the patriotism or interest of the people.

Thirdly, because it is to have no debtors; and consequently it is no part of its design to relieve the commercial embarrassments of the country during any of those fluctuations in trade which will often occur in any community. It is to furnish no relief to distress under any circumstances, and still it is to be a benefit to the poor. Fourthly, because it is to have no property. By this is meant that it shall hold nothing but money. The same idea is thus enforced in the veto message:

In this message, the favorite, and, to the view of the President, the only constitutional project of a Government bank is very respectfully submitted to the wisdom of Congress, although, in the veto message under consideration, Congress is lectured because it did not submit the matter to the Executive before it dared to act. In the message of 1829, the Government bank is suggested as one that would avoid all constitutional difficulties. In "The Government of the United States have no conthe veto message of 1832, all other banks are pronounced stitutional power to purchase lands within the States, exto be unconstitutional: first, because they have stock-cept for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock holders, and therefore are grants of exclusive privileges; yards, and other needful buildings;' and even for these and, secondly, because they are not under the sole guid-objects only by the consent of the Legislature of the ance and control of the Executive. State in which the same shall be.' By making themselves The President, in his message of 1830, is still more ex-stockholders in the bank, and granting to the corporation plicit. the power to purchase lands for other purposes, they as"The importance of the principles involved in the in-sume a power not granted in the constitution, and grant quiry whether it will be proper to recharter the Bank to others what they do not themselves possess. It is not of the United States, requires that I should again call the necessary to the receiving, safe keeping, or transmission attention of Congress to the subject. Nothing has oc- of the funds of the Government, that the bank should curred to lessen in any degree the dangers which many possess this power; and it is not proper that Congress of our citizens apprehend from that institution, as at pre-should thus enlarge the powers delegated to them in the sent organized. In the spirit of improvement and com- constitution." promise which distinguishes our country and its institu- Of course, if it receives the notes of a State bank in tions, it becomes us to inquire whether it be not possible payment of the revenue, which should become insolvent, to secure the advantages afforded by the present bank, or whose paper should depreciate, it can take no land or through the agency of a Bank of the United States, so other property in compromise of the debt. modified in its principles and structure as to obviate con- Another feature of this Government bank is, that it is stitutional and other objections. It is thought practica- to have no loans, and issue no paper. Yet it is to accomble to organize such a bank, with the necessary officers, plish what it is said by the President even the present bank as a branch of the Treasury Department, based on the has failed to achieve the establishment of a uniform and public and individual deposites, without power to make sound currency. A thousand State banks, emitting a loans or purchase property, which shall remit the funds thousand different kinds of paper, in different parts of the of the Government, and the expenses of which may be whole country, with different degrees of credit attached to paid, if thought advisable, by allowing its officers to sell them, are thus to "furnish the local paper currency," bills of exchange to private individuals at a moderate pre-which is to be uniform. Stock, note, and paper banks, mium. Not being a corporate body, having no stock-springing up as they did in 1812, and after the expiration holders, debtors, or property, and but few officers, it of the charter of the old Bank of the United States, in would not be obnoxious to the constitutional objections every part of our immense territory, are to form for us a which are urged against the present bank; and having no sound currency. Such have been the views of the Presi means to operate on the hopes, fears, or interests of large dent, since December, 1829, to this day, of a Bank of the masses of the community, it would be shorn of the in- United States. At every period, under any and all cirfluence which makes that bank formidable. The States cumstances, he holds no bank to be constitutional, but would be strengthened by having in their hands the means such as I have described. Thus, in his message at the of furnishing the local paper currency through their own commencement of the present session, he maintains the banks; while the Bank of the United States, though issu- same views, and puts himself upon the country for a verdict ing no paper, would check the issues of the State banks, in his favor while he expresses them: