was ever denied by Congress, after deliberation. In one of all human legislation. Nothing is more clearly esta instance, at least, there was a report of a select committee blished by the universal experience of mankind, than the of the House of Representatives, in favor of the appoint- impotence of despotism itself to control the value of the ment of signers to the notes of the bank; but the spirit precious metals. Every attempt to exercise such authowhich, in the halls of legislative power, so often defeats rity bears upon its face the stamp of injustice. Charles by procrastination that which if cannot reasonably reject, XII, of Sweden, once transmitted a message to the Senate had always succeeded in arresting the action of Congress of the kingdom, that he would send to govern them one upon this proposal. But the power which was ade-of his boots. The same monarch successively issued eight quate to withhold the means of furnishing, in this form, or ten copper counters, each of about the weight of half uniform currency for circulation, could neither supply a cent, and decreed that they should pass for Swedish silits place, nor suppress the constantly recurring want ver dollars. His own creditors were compelled to receive of it, in the intercourse of business between the different them; but to pass them off upon others, at the same rate, parts of the country. The solicited power was never de- was beyond his power. With two metallic legal tenders nied, but it was never granted; and the omission to grant of different intrinsic value, the bank, like every other it had the effect of denial. The want of circulating cur-corporation or individual, has the option, and always will rency, equivalent to specie, continued with increasing make the option, to pay in the tender of lowest value. pressure upon the people, and especially at the locations Their debtors, having the same option, will as universally of the Southern and Western branches of the bank. An pay the corporation in the same tender of lowest value. expedient was at last resorted to, which, without trans-To forbid the bank from receiving foreign silver or docending the limits of the charter, effected the same pur-mestic gold coins at an advance, would be to expel them, poses which would have been accomplished by notes paya-unless as special deposites, forever from their vaults. To ble at the branches, under the signature of their presidents forbid the bank from paying them at an advance, would and cashiers. It was, that they should be authorized by be prohibition ever to issue them at all. They are comthe directors of the parent bank to draw notes or drafts modities in the market, which will be bought and sold by upon the bank, payable only there. That this expedient all the brokers and State banks in the Union, whether was warranted by law, has been settled by solemn deci-bought and sold by the Bank of the United States or not. sion in the circuit court of the United States. It had pre- The participation of that bank in the traffic, far from viously received the sanction of the Secretary of the Trea- tending to disturb the legal value of the coin, and render sury. An obvious remark upon it is, that its success that portion of the metallic currency uncertain and fluctudepended upon the extensiveness and universality of the ating, has a tendency directly the reverse. To prohibit credit of the bank. The drafts, though payable only at the bank from making an allowance of advance upon the bank in Philadelphia, circulated as specie in every Spanish dollars, would be a prohibition to import specie, part of the country. But for that credit they could not consisting of that coin, at all. Then, either it would be have circulated at all, or only as depreciated currency. imported, to the same extent, by other institutions and They have answered an exceedingly useful purpose, and individual traders, or there would be a deficiency in the proved a great public convenience in the transaction of supply of specie. In the former case, the fluctuation in business, and the circulation of exchanges throughout the the value of that kind of specie would be neither more Union. Under management always prudent and cautious, nor less than it is; and, in the latter, it would be much no serious inconvenience would be anticipated from them. greater. But it is not to be disguised that they offer facilities and The fourth charge reported by the majority of the temptations for improvident and excessive issues. The committee, is that of selling stock obtained from Gobill reported by the Committee of Ways and Means, for vernment under special acts of Congress." rechartering the Bank of the United States, proposes to In this, as in many other parts of the report, the subprohibit the issuing of these branch drafts, but to autho-scriber has had occasion to regret the want of precision rize the presidents and cashiers of the branches to sign in the statement of the charge. Here almost every word bills payable at their respective offices only. The want of in which the charge is conveyed is remarkable for its a circulating currency will not be so effectually supplied looseness and indefiniteness of meaning. Who, for exby this process, as by that now in use; but it will be more ample, under the denomination of "stock obtained from invariably safe to the bank itself. It is understood to be Government," would naturally understand the evidences more acceptable to the president and directors, and the of a loan made to the Government by the bank itself? In subscriber is willing that it should be substituted for the the contract of loan, there must be a debtor and creditor, practice now established, from which, however, he per- neither of whom can with propriety be said to obtain any ceives not that any serious public injury has yet resulted. thing from the other. In the use of ambiguous language, That it is justifiable under the charter, he has no doubt. there is always danger of ambiguity of conception. In The next charge adopted by the majority of the com- this case, if the bank obtained stock from the Governmittee, from the bill of indictment of the chairman, is, ment, it was because the Government obtained money that the president and directors of the bank have been from the bank. The loans could not have been made withguilty of the crime of receiving and paying Spanish dol-out special authority by act of Congress, and that authori lars, and even our own gold coins, at their intrinsic value, ty was expressly given. The bank is prohibited from which is higher than that conferred upon them by statute. purchasing any public debt whatsoever, but it is not proThe objection is, that these are not technically called hibited from selling any certificate of public debt, which bullion; and there seems to be an argument in the report, it may lawfully possess. With regard to the loans to that to give or receive more for foreign coin, or for do- which the report of the majority of the committee refers, mestic coined gold, than their value as established by law, the stock which represented the moneys borrowed was is unlawful. This argument, the subscriber believes, has made transferable by the very acts of Congress which the merit of novelty--to him, at least, it is new. So long authorized the loans. The bank received the certificates as the proportional value in the market of gold to silver, transferable upon their face, and neither that act, nor the whether bullion or coin, shall be seven or eight per cent. charter of the bank, nor any other law of the land, prohigher than the relative value assigned to them by statute, hibited the bank from selling them. If the object of the while both shall be legal tenders; so long as Spanish or argument of the majority report upon this charge be to Mexican dollars shall contain more pure silver than the urge that, in the new charter which may be granted to coinage of our own mint, so long will the coin of highest the bank, a clause should be introduced to prohibit the intrinsic value be bought and sold as commodities, in spite bank from selling the certificates of the stock of autho

rized loans by the bank to the Government, it is obvious perty of the stockholders. For such expenditures, the that such a clause would be precisely equivalent to a pro- board of directors at Philadelphia could have no imaginavision that the bank should never loan to the Government ble motive other than that of promoting the interest of at all: for it is clear that Congress could lay no other com- their stockholders, and making their funds more available. petitor with the bank for the loan under the same restric- With regard to the building of houses, the majority retion; nor could the bank, under such a restriction, ever port quotes the restriction in the charter upon the holding enter into competition with other proposers for the loan of real estate by the bank. The corporation is permitted not so restricted. Among the great public benefits of a to hold lands, tenements, and hereditaments, bona fide national bank, with a capital proportioned to the extent mortgaged to it by way of security, or conveyed to it in of its operations, the subscriber considers this very facility satisfaction of debts previously contracted in the course of furnished to the Government of contracting loans upon its dealings, or purchased at sales upon judgments obtainmoderate terms, as the exigencies of the public interest ed for such debts. It is not alleged that the bank holds may require, holds a conspicuous rank. He believes those one acre more of land than is thus allowed by law. But very loans to which the majority report refers, to be signal the majority report seems to consider the restriction as examples of the benefit of the bank to the nation. He affecting not only the quantity of lands which they might is well assured, that if, at the time when those loans were hold, but the right of improving that which was their contracted, there had been no national bank, the loans own--the common proprietary right. If there had been must have been made upon terms much more burden- any manifestation of a desire on the part of the corporasome to the borrowers, while the public treasury would tion to increase the quantity of their lands, tenements, and have lost all the profit of the participation in the loan to hereditaments, permanently held, the subscriber would the nation as stockholders of one-fifth of the capital of the

bank.

have been among the first to censure their design, and the readiest to restrain them from the indulgence of such a The fifth and sixth subjects of charges, considered by desire by law. But almost all these lands were held in the majority report as amounting to violations of the char- one place-Cincinnati, in the State of Ohio. They had, ter, come within the purview of one and the same princi- according to the declaration of the president of the bank, ple. They consist of expenditures made by authority of come into their possession strongly against their own inthe president and directors of the bank for the purpose clinations. He stated, and it appears to be perfectly naof improving and of adding value to the real estate, of tural, that all the lands which came into their hands were which, in the course of their business, they have become considered by them as incumbrances; that their design lawfully possessed. There are two donations of $1,500 was to dispose of them as speedily as they possibly could. each to turnpike road companies-some appropriations That for this purpose they had erected a small number of for canal basins-for building of six warehouses, and per- houses, to make both the land on which they stood, and haps some other houses. There appears to be in the the adjoining lands, more easily and more freely saleable. principle of these charges something of an instinctive The buildings were also erected, partly by contributions, aversion to internal improvements-a sentiment with which in labor and materials, by debtors to the bank, who had the subscriber must disclaim all sympathy whatever. The no other means of payment. The advantage of all this majority report presents the donations to the two turnpike was principally to the stockholders of the bank; and the road companies as offences highly aggravated by the cir- subscriber believes that the solicitude for their interests, cumstance that the General Government had declined so warmly manifested in the majority report, when denymaking appropriations for similar objects--which declin- ing the right of the president and directors to spend their ing for similar objects becomes, in the very next sentence money in donations and gratuities, will find no responsive of the report, a direct refusal of the Government to voice amongst the stockholders themselves. It was indeed expend its revenues on the very same objects. the unfortunate condition of those to whom the manage

But this assertion, in either of its forms, is liable to ment of the affairs of the corporation was entrusted, much controversy, and must be received with much quali-that whatever they have done, must be made a subject of fication. It is admitted, in a note to the report, to be censure. If they increase their business and their profits possible that the improvements were in the neighborhood by branch drafts upon the bank, it is a heinous offence, of the real estate of the bank, and upon the ground that because Congress had neglected to give a power to sign such donations would increase the value of that real the bank bills to any other officers than the president and estate; and this possibility the majority would have found cashier. If they increase the value of their real estate, to be positive fact, if they had thought proper to ask for by contributing to a turnpike road, it is wasting the proan explanation of it before passing censure upon the perty of the stockholders in gratuities and donations. If they enlarge their discounts and accommodations, they

transaction.

The assertion is therefore altogether gratuitous, that supply temptations to over-trading, and bring the bank to the Government had declined to make appropriations for the verge of ruin. If they contract their issues, they similar objects. The Government has made many and produce unheard of distress in the trading community. very large appropriations for the construction of roads, Do they trade in foreign silver and domestic gold coins, because they would give additional value to the public they are accessory to the pernicious exportation of the lands through or near which the road was to pass. It was precious metals. Do they substitute bills of exchange the main argument upon which the first very expensive for silver dollars in the exportation to China, who does work of internal improvement, the Cumberland road, was not see that they must send to London the coin which undertaken. It has silenced many a stubborn objection, formerly went round the Cape of Good Hope? And, satisfied many a timid scruple, subdued many a constitu- besides, the transaction looks very like respondentia secutional obstacle. So decisive has been its effect, that it rities. The most perfect parallel to the majority report would be difficult to name a single instance of the refusal known to the subscriber, is the lively lady in “ Much Ado of Congress to make an appropriation to assist in the con- about Nothing:" struction of a road, when it has been made apparent to Congress that it would raise the value of the public lands. If, therefore, the proceedings of the bank were to be influenced by the example of the Government, they had the Thus, when the administration of Mr. Cheves can be full sanction of their authority for their appropriations for exhibited in favorable contrast with that of the present these turnpike roads. Nor is it just to consider them in president, it is presented with high and earnest commenthe light of donations or gratuities, wasteful of the pro-dation; but when a charge of usury can be brought to

"Who never yet saw man,

"How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd,
"But she would spell him backward,"

bear upon the bank, upon the credit of a confession im-ness of authoritative power which pervades all its pages, plied in a demurrer, the occasion to stigmatize the bank unmingled with that courtesy which arrays even authority cannot be passed over, though ten long years have slum- itself in the ornaments of a meek and quiet spirit-to the bered over the sin, and though Langdon Cheves himself continual contestation even of facts stated by the presi must be branded as the usurer.

dent of the bank upon oath-to expressions so divested of all semblance of delicacy as these, that "the bank, as it collects the revenue, knows, or ought to know, that it will be called upon by the Government to reimburse it." The subscriber forbears, for he finds it difficult to express his sensations without using terms obnoxious to the same criticism which he is compelled to apply to these.

A large portion of the same report, and that with which it closes, consists of an elaborate argumentative parallel between the condition of the bank in 1819, when it is stated to have been upon the verge of bankruptcy, and its present condition. Without entering into the particu lars of this disquisition, the subscriber will close this his own report with a few general remarks concerning it.

The subscriber will no longer tax the time and patience of the House by pursuing into their microscopic details a series of inculpations and criminations, not one of which, in his deliberate opinion, has a shadow of reasonable foundation. How could he consider otherwise than a waste of time a prying scrutiny into the question-who of the stockholders have usually voted at the election of the directors? Who were the voters present? And who held the proxies of the absent? When it is notorious that in this, as in all similar institutions, whose stockholders have confidence in their presiding officer, the great difficulty is to prevail upon the stockholders to attend and vote at the elections at all. How could he consider as a grievance to be probed to the quick, and reported upon to the And, in the first place, he observes that the bank canHouse, that whereas the charter provides that there shall not, with any propriety, be said to have been upon the be twenty-five directors, there are at this very hour only verge of bankruptcy in 1819. It did not suspend specie twenty-four, because the stockholders at their annual payments for an hour; it had met with heavy losses; its meeting did elect Nicholas Biddle one of their directors, capital had not been punctually paid in, conformably to and the President of the United States did nominate, and, its charter. Imprudent and irregular, if not fraudulent, by and with the advice of the Senate, did appoint the speculations in its stock had been allowed and shared by same Nicholas Biddle one of the five directors on the part one or more of its directors. It had failed in the indisof the Government. Such has for several years been the creet attempts to make all its bills payable at all its fact, and the conclusion naturally and justly to be drawn branches. Had a severe pressure come upon it, a short from it is, that Mr. Biddle has enjoyed the unquestioning interval might have ensued, during which it might have and entire confidence, both of the Government and of the suspended cash payments, and that would greatly, perindividual stockholders. The reason of the double elec-haps permanently, have affected its credit. But the bank tion has been this: the president of the bank is elected was never near the verge of bankruptcy. The majority by the directors on the first Monday of January, and none report itself states that, in April, 1819, when its difficulbut a director is eligible to the office of president. The ties were the greatest, its means of specie, notes of other nomination of Government directors sometimes lingers in banks, and funded debt, amounted to upwards of ten the Senate until after the first Monday of January. The millions of dollars, while the whole demands which could stockholders, therefore, elect Mr. Biddle as one of their come against it in the same month amounted to only about directors, that he may with certainty be re-eligible as pre- fourteen millions. There is nothing like an approach to sident. When the nomination of Mr. Biddle, as a Go-bankruptcy in this. But the pressure on the bank in 1819 vernment director, has been completed in time to be did not proceed from the errors or imprudences of the known to the stockholders at their election, they have not corporation itself only. There is an ebbing and flowing chosen him; when it has not, he has been appointed and of the tides of commerce almost, though irregularly, peelected. And thus there are only twenty-four instead of riodical throughout the world, and there is a sort of gal twenty-five directors. In all former years, however, Mr.vanic sympathy in the contractions and expansions of the Biddle has declined accepting the appointment as a Go- great moneyed institutions in both hemispheres. The vernment director, and his place has been supplied. So restoration of specie payments by the Bank of England in that, until the present year, the board of directors has 1817 and 1818, undoubtedly produced an immense presbeen full. The effect of his not declining the appoint- sure upon the circulation, and, of course, upon the comment from Government the present year is, that he is re-merce of the world. All paper circulation beyond the movable from office at the pleasure of the President of amount representing the precious metals is fictitious capithe United States. tal, or rather it is credit. The question whether the ba

Ten years long has this confidence been enjoyed and lance of moral influence upon the condition of men, arising justified by that distinguished citizen and honorable man. from circulating credit and banking, be a blessing or a No question had ever been insidiously started, how many curse, is a speculation for the closet. Money has long, proxies he held. The more he held, the more extensive and upon divine authority, been pronounced the "root was the confidence of the stockholders in him. No scru- of all evil," and paper money shares in its full proportion ple had ever crossed the mind of any President of the the character of its prototype. Power for good, is power United States, to deter him from nominating him year for evil, even in the hands of Omnipotence. Had there after year as a Government director. Not a voice had been, in 1819, no Bank of the United States, the pres ever been raised in the Senate to cause their hesitation to sure must have been incomparably greater, and the ruin confirm his appointment, and so perfectly in harmony far more widely spread, than it was. The opinions exhiwith this confidence has been that of the public, that not bited in this portion of the majority report are reproduced a rumor has ever been raised of a prospect, or even of a in the interrogatories of the member of the committee to the project, for the election of any other person as president in his place. After ten years of fair fame thus sustained without an adverse whisper being heard, it has been a source of deep mortification to the subscriber to see the But if it were true that the condition of the bank in character and feelings of such a citizen treated by a com- 1819 was upon the verge of bankruptcy; and if it were mittee of the House of Representatives as if he had been also true that the present condition of the bank was of an inmate fresh issued from a penitentiary to preside over exact resemblance to its deplorable state at that time, the Bank of the United States. As an exemplification of the discretion, the patriotism, and the humanity of the this fact, it might be sufficient to refer to the tone of the committee could scarcely have sanctioned the disclosure majority report from beginning to end; to the conscious- of so disastrous a secret to the world. The market price

president of the bank appended to it. The subscriber will barely refer to the answers by the president of the bank, which render all further discussion of them superfluous.

of the bank stock at the time when this inquisition into Now all this has led the mind of the subscriber, reflectthe affairs of the bank was instituted, was at an advance ing upon it with all the anxious intensity of which it is of at least twenty-five per cent. upon its nominal value. capable, to a directly opposite conclusion. That there In spite of all the denunciation against it; in spite of all was overtrading to considerable extent in the course of the learned arguments, all the arithmetical calculations, all the last two years, he has no doubt. That the issues of the statistical theorems, corollaries, and demonstrations, bank credit and circulation, unusually large, partly furwith which it had been for years assailed in and out of rished the means to this over-energy of enterprise, he is Congress, the price current of bank stock, the thermo- not prepared to deny. That, in the earnest and proper meter of public confidence, was still at twenty-five per anxiety to reinvest in productive funds the mass of capicent. advance upon the shares. If the majority of the tal thrown back upon their hands by the payment of the committee had really made the discovery that the affairs seven millions of the Government's debt for the stock of of this bank were in such a desperate state, from the ex- the nation in the bank, the president and directors may traordinary pressure upon the money market and the de-have for a moment overstepped the line where that prupression of trade, considering the large stake which the dence which includes all the attributes of the Divinity nation holds in the stock of the bank, it would have been might have stopped, is possible. The subscriber is far but prudent forecast in the majority of the committee, from affirming that they did. If they did, he is sure that and would have manifested a tender regard for the public it was from motives pure as rectitude itself, and from interest, to have reserved the exposure of this crisis of infirmities of judgment incident to all the labors of man. terror and dismay until it should have exploded or passed The president of the bank very forcibly stated to the away. In such emergencies, the most formidable of all committee the extremely delicate position in which the dangers to banking institutions is the spreading of a panic institution stands towards the commercial community in among its creditors. The issues and circulation of the this respect. So long as the bank keeps within the line bank paper are undoubtedly large, and there has been for of safe operations upon its own funds, it leaves those of some months a severe pressure, though not a universal commerce to regulate themselves. It neither seeks to one on the money market. The president and directors increase nor diminish them. When, from whatever cause, of the bank became aware of this pressure on its first there is among the merchants a tendency to over-tradapproach, and took measures of precaution as carly as ing, it is not the province of the bank, directly, to interOctober last to prepare for meeting it, and breaking its pose against it; for that would be to exercise an invidious force. On the 7th of that month, a circular was issued to and improper control over business with which it has but the cashiers of all the branches, noticing the pressure a remote concern. Its general duty is to grant facilities which was to be expected, particularly upon the offices while it has disposable funds uninvested. The point at at Philadelphia and New York; instructing them so to which it ought to stay its hand, is a matter of difficulty to shape their business as to furnish them, so far as might be determine, and upon which the soundest discretion may practicable, with the means which were likely to be re- come to different results in different men. From the quired. At that time the Government had given notice first appearence of the impending pressure, the measures of a payment of six millions of funded debt to be paid on of the president and directors of the bank appear to the the 1st of January then next. But it had gone further, subscriber to have been marked with great judgment, and authorized the creditors thus to be paid off in Janu- and to have been continued and modified, according to the ary, to claim their payments even at any time of the pre-progress of events, with equal steadiness of purpose and ceding quarter, although the Government had in deposite benevolence of intention. scarcely half the sum required for that anticipated pay- But, whether the corporation issues its circulation with ment. The bank made no complaint, but took this mea- liberality, or curtails it with provident caution, it equally sure of precaution. The same vigilant and restrictive meets the censure of the majority report. After quoting policy was pursued through the winter and spring, except two passages from a report of Mr. Rush, commending when modified by the dispensations of Providence in the the bank for its prudence in limiting the amount of its overflowing of the Ohio at Cincinnati and at Louisville. circulation, it gives two statements, showing that, beAt these places the credits of the bank had been very tween August, 1828, and the 1st of April last, the circularge; yet, immediately upon being informed of this visi-lation had been augmented to what it calls the astonishing tation of calamity, every facility was again extended, increase of upwards of ten millions in less than four by direction of the president and directors at Philadel years. But it omits all notice of two facts, which, if duly phia, to those who had suffered by the floods. Shortly considered, would have taken off all the edge of astonishafter, the Secretary of the Treasury makes a confidential ment. The first is, that, during that same interval, the intimation of a wish to pay off six millions of three per seven millions of stock, held by the Government, were cent. stocks on the 1st of July next. To ease the pres-repaid. The second, that upwards of three millions of sure upon the commerce of New York, and to save the the public debt, held by the bank, were paid off: so that bank from the necessity of curtailing the discounts of the the astonishing increase of circulation is a mere reinmerchants' debts to Government for duties, the presi-vestment of capital, which had been returned upon the dent proceeds to Washington, and, in a conference with hands of the bank, and only the substitution of one spethe Secretary of the Treasury, suggests the expediency cies of productive property for another. And scarcely of postponing until the 1st of October the payment of has the sentence of censure been expressed in the rethe six millions of three per cent. stock. The Secretary port, but it turns and complains, and appeals to the ciraccedes to the arrangement, the bank stipulating to pay cular addressed to the branches, and correspondence with the quarter's interest, in consideration of having, during them since October last, that the chief object of the bank the interval, the use of the money; and this adjustment, has been barely to sustain itself; and that, since that time, so advantageous to the Government, so provident of the the bank has not increased its facilities to the trading cominterests of the stockholders, so beneficent to the debtors, munity in any part of the Union. both of the Government and of the bank, and so facili- The subscriber believes that nothing can be more detating to the collection of the revenue at a time of consi-lusive than the parallel drawn in the majority report bederable commercial embarrassment, is seized upon in the tween the state and condition of the bank in 1819 and in majority report, as if the dearth of reasonable cause of complaint had bred a famine, and harped upon, as if it had been the convulsive gasp of the bank in the very agonies of bankruptcy.

1832; but that report has subjected itself to one test which is already disclosing the true character of its reasoning. It has ventured upon the field of prophecy, and the failure of its predictions is already brightening into demonstration.

In the anticipation that there will be a curtailment of the labors of the committee upon them were abridged by discounts for several months to come, the foresight of the march of time, and of his hope that no committee of the majority report is probably correct. This, of course, Congress will ever again be called to an investigation upon must occasionally happen in all banking establishments. a plan of such interminable outline. He is convinced, that It is incidental to all the unavoidable fluctuations of trade, to fill it up according to the comprehensiveness of its conand is believed to be at this time indispensable, not only ception, and the multifarious complication of its details, a to the bank, but to the whole commercial community. committee appointed at this time, which should sit the year This operation has, indeed, been quietly proceeding in round, and, he might safely add, night and day, would, at the the Bank of the United States ever since the circular of expiration of the charter of the present bank, be left, like 7th October, 1831, which the majority report turns to so the present committee, with a multitude of subjects of large account for its purposes. It has been in progress, complaint, which they would be "compelled to abandon while, at the same time, the direction of the bank has for the want of time." been reserving and husbanding and prudently applying With regard to the numerous matters of vital importthe means to the commercial portion of our fellow-citizens, ance in the reorganization of the bank, specie payments, of meeting and passing through this critical emergency, domestic and foreign exchanges, investments in public with as little detriment to the public and to individuals as debt by the bank in 1824 and 1825, and its ability to make possible. This would explain, one would think, very loans to the Government, the influence of the operations satisfactorily, the fact stated in the letter of the president of the bank upon trade, on the increase of the paper cirof the bank to the Secretary of the Treasury, of the 29th culation of the bank, its agency in diminishing or enof March last, that, in compliance with an intimation from larging the circulation of local banks, and the means of the collector at New York, an extension of loans had permanently regulating our general circulation so as to been promptly acceded to, in the preceding month of prevent its injurious effects upon the trade and currency February, to assist the mercantile debtors of the Govern- of the country, concerning which the committee, or rather ment in the punctual payment of their bonds; without one of its members, submitted a number of inquiries to needing an argument such as that of the majority report the president of the bank: a copy of the answers of the against this plain and direct assertion of a very notorious president of the bank to these inquiries has already been and unquestionable fact. The author of the report finds, submitted to the House. It is hoped they will be satisby reference to the weekly statement of the office at New factory to the House, and that they will contribute with York, from July, 1831, to April, 1832, no aggregate other considerations to the conclusion that the Bank of the increase of loans; but, on the contrary, a reduction of United States ought, with such modifications as may be the amount. He finds that the total amount of discounts deemed expedient by the Legislature, to be immediately at the New York branch, between the 4th of October, rechartered. 1831, and the 28th of March, 1832, was actually dimin- The subscriber has long entertained the opinion that ished four hundred and sixty-eight thousand four hundred the existence of a national bank is indissolubly connected and forty-seven dollars and seventeen cents, while, during with the continuance of our National Union. The fiscal same time, the bonds paid at that port amounted to be- operations of the Government in all its branches, he between nine and ten millions of dollars. Can it be ima- leves, cannot, without the aid of such an institution, be gined that he discovers in this statement, compared with conducted, he will not say well, but at all. He does not that in the letter from the president of the bank, to which say that the present Bank of the United States is indishe refers, not an unanswerable demonstration of the pru-pensable; and his mind has sometimes hesitated upon the dence as well as of the liberality with which the affairs of question, whether, at the expiration of the present charthe bank have, in this respect, been conducted, but an occasion of contesting, by unavoidable implication, the veracity of the president of the bank? and this in a report which, upon an immediately preceding page, charges the bank with the loss of five millions of its specie."

ter of the bank, the establishment of another, though similar institution, might not be more expedient than the renewal of the charter. Inclining rather to the latter of these measures before the institution of this inquiry, he has been very strongly confirmed in that opinion by the result of the investigation in which he has shared.

On the first perusal of the report, the subscriber was himself greatly at a loss to know what was meant by this "loss The management of the affairs of the corporation duof five millions of its specie," of which he was very sure ring the administration of the present president, not exthat no evidence had been given to the committee; and it empt from human error and infirmity, has yet appeared was only after a repeated examination of the paragraph in to him marked with all the characters of sound judgment, comparison with another part of the report, that he found of liberal spirit, of benevolent feeling, and of irreproach this form of expression was only an ingenious mode of ac-able integrity. A large proportion of its officers in suborcusing the bank of a loss of five millions of specie between dinate trust are of the Society of Friends; a class of citizens the 1st of September and the 1st of April, because there peculiarly qualified for the performance of duties, and the was nearly that amount more of specie in the funds of the exercise of qualities appropriate to the successful manbank at the former period than the latter. This construc-agement of moneyed establishments-industry, punctuality, tion, by which payment of debts is converted into loss of temperance, and a conscientious discharge of all moral specie, may serve as a consolation for the disappointment obligations. arising from the inability to convict the bank of any other In considering the numerous and important public serserious loss since 1819. vices, and the large contributions of the present bank With regard to the increase of the number of the to the Government and people of the United States, he branches, to the precise manner in which the annual elec- thinks the least return which they are justly authorized to tion of directors has been conducted, to the alarming mag- expect from the equity of the nation, is the renewal of nitude of the sums recently paid for printing, to the sums their charter. The benefits and profits of the bank have paid to the solicitors and counsellors, distinct from those been enjoyed by the nation far beyond those shared by paid to attorneys, to the number of useful documents not the individual stockholders. Besides the bonus of a milreferrible to any particular head, and to the many state- lion and a half of dollars paid to the public treasury for ments called for, which the business of the bank and the the charter; besides the saving of the expense of loan shortness of the time allowed for the investigation would offices for the payment of the public debt, principal and not admit to be furnished, the subscriber will pass over all interest; besides the obligation of transferring the Gothese subjects as they are passed over by the majority of vernment funds to and from every part of the Union, as the committee, with the expression of his satisfaction that the public exigencies require, the nation has held one.