JAN. 19, 20, 1832.]

Bank of the United States.

[SENATE.

unpaid; for Colonel Laurens had, in his zeal for liberty, poration, to examine into the regularity of its proceedings, refused to demand the payment for his services, and fell and to take cognizance of the infractions of its charter; and a sacrifice to that cause, without leaving a claim upon the this right has become a duty, since the very tribunal seGovernment, or even a statement of his expenditures. lected by the charter to try these infractions had tried The question therefore now was, whether Congress this very question, and that without the formality of a should refuse justice to an orphan child, because the scire facias, or the presence of the adverse party, and had father had too much magnanimity to demand it. He trust-given judgment in favor of the corporation; a decision which he [Mr. B.] was compelled, by the strongest convictions of his judgment, to consider both as extra-judicial and erroneous.

ed not.

At the suggestion of Mr. EWING, the bill was then laid on the table for the present.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19.

Soon after meeting, the Senate went into executive business, and remained with closed doors until 4 o'clock; and then adjourned.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20.

BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.

It is

The resolution, continued Mr. B., which I am asking leave to bring in, expresses its own object. It declares against the legality of these orders, AS A CURRENCY. the currency which I arraign. I make no inquiry, for I will not embarrass my subject with irrelevant and immaterial inquiries--I make no inquiry into the modes of contract and payment which are permitted, or not permitted, to the Bank of the United States, in the conduct of its private dealings and individual transactions. My business Mr. BENTON rose to ask leave to introduce the follow-lies with the currency; for, between public currency and ing resolution, of which he had given notice some days private dealings, the charter of the bank has made a distinction, and that founded in the nature of things, as broad ago, viz. A joint resolution declaratory of the meaning of the char-as lines can draw, and as clear as words can express. ter of the Bank of the United States on the subject of The currency concerns the public; and the soundness of that currency is taken under the particular guardianship the paper currency to be issued by the bank. of the charter; a special code of law is enacted for it: priBe it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives vate dealings concern individuals; and it is for individuals, of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in making their bargains, to take care of their own intethe paper currency, in the form of orders, drawn by the rests. The charter of the Bank of the United States has presidents of the offices of discount and deposite on the authorized, but not regulated, certain private dealings of cashier of the Bank of the United States, is not authorized the bank; it is full and explicit upon the regulation of curby any thing contained in the charter, and that the said rency. Upon this distinction I take my stand. I establish currency is, and is hereby declared to be, illegal; and myself upon the broad and clear distinction which reason that the same ought to be suppressed. makes, and the charter sanctions. I arraign the currency! I eschew all inquiry into the modes of making bargains for the sale or purchase of bills of exchange, buying and selling gold or silver bullion, building houses, hiring officers, clerks, and servants, purchasing necessaries, or laying in supplies of fuel and stationery.

Mr. BENTON rose to ask leave to bring in his promised resolution on the state of the currency. He said he had given his notice for the leave he was about to ask, without concerting or consulting with any member of the Senate. The object of his resolution was judicial, not political; and he had treated the Senators, not as counsel- A preliminary inquiry might have been resorted to, and lors, but as judges. He had conversed with no one, nei- was for some time intended, to know from the bank directher friend nor adversary; not through contempt of coun- tory whether these orders were issued as a currency unsel, or fear of opposition, but from a just and rigorous re-der the charter, and what exemptions were claimed for gard to decorum and propriety. His own opinion had them from the restrictions provided in the charter, for a been made up through the cold, unadulterated process of currency of promissory notes. But this preliminary inlegal research; and he had done nothing, and would do quiry has become unnecessary. A decision has been made nothing, to prevent, or hinder, any other Senator from in a high branch of the federal judiciary--the United making up his opinion in the same way. It was a case in States' circuit court in Philadelphia--affirming the legality which politics, especially partisan politics, could find no of this species of currency, and stating the exemptions place; and in the progress of which every Senator would claimed for it; and this decision has been received with a feel himself retiring into the judicial office-becoming one degree of approbation by the bank directory, which anof the judices selecti--and searching into the stores of nounces it to be accordant with their own opinions. Inhis own legal knowledge, for the judgment and the rea-quiry of the directory is, therefore, unnecessary. A resons of the judgment which he must give in this great sort to the opinion of the court, and that opinion has been cause, in which a nation is the party on one side, and a authoritatively published, may be considered as the answer great moneyed corporation on the other. He [Mr. B.] be- of the bank, and, what is far more material, as the law of lieved the currency, against which his resolution was the land until reversed. directed, to be illegal and dangerous; and so believing, it had long been his determination to bring the question of its legality before the Senate and the people; and that without regard to the powerful resentment, to the effects of which he might be exposing himself. He had adopted the form of a declaratory resolution, because it was in tended to declare the true sense of the charter upon a disputed point. He made his resolution joint in its cha-gatory, or of credit, under its seal, for the payment of a racter, that it might have the action of both Houses of Con- less sum than five thousand dollars; the bills or notes gress, and single in its object, that the main design might issued by order of the corporation, signed by the presinot be embarrassed with minor propositions. The form of dent and cashier, are made as binding and obligatory on the resolution gave him a right to state his reasons for ask-the bank as those of private persons, but all their bills ing leave to bring it in; the importance of it required those reasons to be clearly stated. The Senate, also, has its rights and its duties. It is the right of the Senate and House of Representatives, as the founder of the bank cor

VOL. VIII.--8

Here is the opinion, that part of it which relates to these orders as a currency; for I omit all that relates to the trial of the prisoner for the counterfeiting one of these orders:

"The only restriction on the issuing of any paper is in the proviso to the 12th fundamental article in the 11th

'section of the charter. The bank can make no bill obli

and notes must be payable on demand, unless of a sum not less than one hundred dollars, and payable to order; none of these restraints apply to an order or check; the ' notes or bills alluded to are such as contain a promise to

"The bank is left free to contract debts by any other ⚫ mode than by their promissory note or an obligation un'der seal, with no other limitation than is contained in the 8th fundamental article, which is merely as to amount, the only effect of which is not to exempt the bank from 'liability for the excesses, but to make the directors, under whose administration it shall happen, personally ⚫liable.

[JAN. 20, 1832.

in these particulars, the notes of the bank, is immaterial; their substance and legal effect are the same; they create a 'new debt or duty, obligatory on the bank. It is bound 'to honor all the paper which it issues or gets into circulation by its authority or agents."

After reading the extracts, Mr. B. continued. I take the substance of this decision, Mr. President, to be1. That these branch bank orders are legal currency, under the charter of the Bank of the United States. 2. That the bank may lawfully issue this description of currency to the whole amount of its capital stock. 3. That this currency is free from every regulation, restriction, limitation, and provision, contained in the charter, except the single limitation as to the maximum amount to be issued, to wit, thirty-five millions of dollars. 4. That the bank may employ what agents she pleases in signing and issuing this currency.

"The act of establishing a branch is, per se, the creation of an agency; it is an authority not only to the extent ' of the regulations under which the agent acts, but to the ' extent of all acts and transactions of the officers of the branches, which the bank have been in the habit of I take this to be the substance of the decision. Justice adopting and confirming, on the same principle that in- to that decision, and the fair conducting of my own argu'dividuals are liable on the contracts of their wives and ment, will require me to examine the grounds upon which ⚫ servants, who have been permitted to deal on their credit, the court proceeded. These grounds are found in two and in their names; or a merchant, whose clerk is in the clauses of the charter; one clause in the 18th section; the 'habit of writing letters, signing notes, bills, and checks, other in the 8th fundamental article of the constitution of in his name, though without any written or express au- the bank. The penal clause in the 18th section against thority, by the adoption and recognition of which he counterfeiting "checks or orders," and the phrase "other authorizes the public to consider his clerk as his agent, contract," in the 8th fundamental article, comprise those • authorized to do in future what he has been in the habit grounds. I will examine each in its turn; but must first of doing with his knowledge and assent. It would be make a stand in the name of all that is safe and sure in the strange indeed that the bank should not be liable for administration of law, protesting, as I do hereby protest, checks or orders, drawn by its agents, at their own branches, against going into a penal section, or into the construction 'which not only form a very important item in the curren- of a phrase, to find a power to issue currency, and that cy of the country and the operation of the branches, but without restrictions, when the charter had given that power 'which the bank have, for years, daily ratified and sanc- in the proper place in express words, and subject to nutioned by their payment: the uniform course of business merous and vital restrictions. I make this protest, not 'transacted between the bank and its branches furnishes from the least apprehension of finding in a penal clause, 'such a strong legal inference and presumption of its being or in the construction of a detached phrase, the great power authorized by the regulations under which they have been for the exercise of which the bank was created, that of is⚫ established, that the burden of proof to the contrary is clearly thrown on the bank, or any other person who ⚫ would attempt to show that the paper was not obligatory upon them. It would be a severe reflection on the bank to suppose that they would for a moment refuse payment of these checks and orders; and our system of jurispru'dence would deserve little of public respect or confi'dence, if the law would not coerce it.

suing a paper currency to the people of these States, but as an act of justice to the constitution of the bank, to its cautious prohibitory preamble, and to its seventeen fundamental articles. I make it in the name and upon the behalf of the lawful rights of other parts of the charter. Let us now proceed to the examination; and, first, let us read this 18th section, the whole of it, as the only fair way to find its meaning.

"SEC. 18. If any person shall falsely make, forge, or counterfeit, or cause or procure to be falsely made, forged, or counterfeited, or willingly aid or assist in falsely mak'ing, forging, or counterfeiting, any bill or note in imitation of, or purporting to be a bill or note ISSUED BY ORDER of the president, directors, and company of the said bank, on any

By the 17th article, the bank is bound to pay in gold ' and silver all its notes, bills, and obligations, and all de⚫posites in the bank or its offices; and the proviso enacts, that Congress may enforce and regulate the payment of other debts under the same penalties as are prescribed for the refusal to pay its notes, bills, obligations, and de-order or check on the said bank or corporation, or any cash'posites.

'ier thereof; or shall falsely utter, or cause or procure to 'be falsely uttered, or willingly aid or assist in falsely alter"The mode in which the bank contracts a debt, the ing, any bill or note ISSUED BY ORDER of the president, dishape it assumes, or the places where contracted, is of rectors, and company of the said bank, on any order or check no importance. The offices being its agents, the debts on the said bank, or corporation, or any cashier thereof; contracted by them become the debts of the corpora- or shall pass, utter, or publish, as true, any false, forged, tion, imposing a duty to pay them, which may be done at or counterfeited bill or note purporting to be a bill or note or by the branches or the bank. If the payment is made 1SSUED BY ORDER of the president, directors, and company of in coin, the debt is extinguished; if made by a draft, or- the said bank, or any false, forged, or counterfeited order der, or check, the debt remains until they are actually or check UPON the said bank or corporation, or any cashier 'paid. Unless the holder expressly takes them as pay-thereof, knowing the same to be falsely forged or counment, and at his own risk, they create a new duty or terfeited; or shall pass, utter, or publish, or attempt to obligation, which the bank is as much bound to perform pass, utter, or publish, as true, any falsely altered bill or as the old one for which it is intended to make satisfac-note ISSUED BY ORDER of the president, directors, and comtion. It is a matter of mutual convenience, whether the 'pany of the said bank, or any falsely altered order or 'old debt or duty shall be extinguished by payment or check on the said bank or corporation, or any cashier taking paper, whether in their promissory notes of the 'thereof, knowing the same to falsely altered, with intenbank, or orders or checks drawn upon it. They may be tion to defraud the said corporation, or any other body in large drafts or orders for remittance, or small ones for politic, or person; or shall sell, utter, or deliver, or currency or circulation, and in any form, with or without cause to be sold, uttered, or delivered, any forged or ornaments, devices, or marks. Whether they resemble, counterfeit bill or note ISSUED BY ORDER of the president and

[SENATE.

'If any person shall make or engrave, or cause or procure to be made or engraved, or shall have in his possession or custody, any metallic plate, engraved after the similitude of any plate from which any notes or bills 'issued by the said corporation shall have been printed, with intent to use such plate, or to cause or procure the same to be used, in forging or counterfeiting any of the notes or bills issued by the said corporation; on shall have in his custody or possession any BLANK note or notes, bill or bills, engraved and printed after the similitude of any ' notes or bills issued by the said coporation, with intent to use such blanks, or cause or suffer the same to be used, in forging or counterfeiting any of the notes or bills issued 'by the said corporation; OR shall have in his custody or possession any paper adapted to the making of bank notes or bills, and similar to the paper upon which any notes or bills of the said corporation shall have been issued, with intent to use such paper, or cause or suffer the same to be used, in forging or counterfeiting any of the notes or bills issued 'by the said corporation, every such person, being thereof convicted by due course of law, shall be sentenced, &c."

directors of the said bank, knowing the same to be false, forged, or counterfeited, every such person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of felony, and being there"of convicted by due course of law, shall be sentenced," '&c. I do deny, Mr. President, that any power, of any kind, is given to the bank by this section. It is a mere provision to punish the violation of existing rights. So far as the issues of bills or notes are mentioned, it is a recital of what the bank was authorized to do in the 12th fundamental article of its constitution; so far as checks and orders are mentioned, it is a recital of the pre-existing right which every depositor possesses. The object of the section is to provide for the security of existing rights; namely, the chartered right of the bank to issue bills or notes, and the inherent right of depositors to draw for their own money. This is the object of the section; and the violation of either of these rights is made felony. Both rights are protected, but they are not granted; neither are they confounded. The distinction is clear between them, between the currency which is to issue from the bank, and the orders which are to be drawn upon it. The separation is complete, the contrast is perfect, the antithesis is What fatuity, or unkindness, in the framers of this charregular, the contradistinction is manifest, between these ter! What inattention to this constructive currency, creattwo classes of paper. The whole frame of the section, ed in the 18th section, and abandoned in the 19th! Eight the structure of every member of the long sentence which times the bills or notes, issued by order of the bank, are composes it, the natural and obvious meaning of every named and protected. Eight times the checks and orders word in every sentence, establishes and defends this clear are passed over without a word. No protection for them and emphatic distinction. Five times in five different against the process of being counterfeited. The plates, members of the sentence, the same form of expression, the blanks, the paper, for their imitation, may be paraded the same order of construction, and the same repetition in the face of the world. The whole process may be of words, regularly occur. Five times the line is drawn, carried on in the face of the bank; and no legal authority the distinction is set up, between the bills or notes which to interrupt the forgers, to seize their unfinished work, are to be issued by order of the bank, and the checks or to arrest their persons. Can any thing be more emand orders which are to be drawn upon it. The two phatic of the sense of the Congress which framed the classes of paper are kept distinct, and cannot be con- charter? Could words be more expressive than this sifounded. Let any gentleman try. Let him include, if he lence? Could a positive declaration fix these checks and can, the words "checks and orders" under the action of orders more completely in the class of those private writthe verb which governs the issuing of the bills or notes of ings which have no peculiar plates, no blanks, no pecuthe bank. The thing cannot be done. It is a grammati- liar paper? cal impossibility. I repeat it, the clear, undoubted object The second ground on which the court relied, is the of the section is, not to grant powers, but to protect rights. phrase, "other contract," as used in the 8th fundamental Its object is penal, not concessive; to punish, not to grant. article of the constitution of the bank. In resorting to This is my view, Mr. President, of the 18th section. this phrase, the court has at least got into the right chapDoes any gentleman doubt the correctness of that view? ter, but missed the verse; it has got into the constitution; Then let him follow me into the next section--the 19th-it has got among the seventeen articles; but it has not got still occupied with the crime of counterfeiting, and taking to the article which grants powers, but the one which reup the inchoate class of offences involved in the process cites, and that for the purpose of limitation, the powers of perpetrating the crime. The authorized currency of all banks, in all countries, is protected from the process, from the progressive course, of being counterfeited, as well as from the consummation of the crime itself; but this protection is never extended to private and individual papers. A man is punished for having in his possession, with intent to use it unlawfully, the plate from which bank notes are struck, the notes themselves in blank, and even "The total amount of debts which the said corporathe kind of paper which is used for bank notes. Not sotion shall at any time owe, whether by bond, bill, note, or in the case of private or individual writings. The reason 'other contract, over and above the debt or debts due is obvious. Banks have peculiar plates and paper for for money deposited in the bank, shall not exceed the their notes which are to constitute currency; neither in-sum of 35,000,000 dollars, unless the contracting of any dividuals, nor banks, have any thing peculiar for their greater debt shall have been previously authorized by the private and individual writings. The plate and paper with United States. In case of excess, the directors under which a bank note is to be counterfeited, can be known whose administration it shall happen shall be liable for and identified as such; the goose quill pen, the common the same in their natural and private capacities; and an types, and the common writing paper, which are used for action of debt may, in such case, be brought against all the ordinary transactions of life, cannot be known or 'them or any of them, them or any of their heirs, exeidentified. Upon this distinction turns all the law upon cutors, or administrators, in any court of record in the the subject of punishing the inchoate offence of counter-United States or either of them, by any creditor or feiting; upon this distinction turns the 19th section of the creditors of the said corporation, and may be prosecuted charter; upon this distinction it is that the currency of the to judgment and execution, any condition, covenant, bank, its bills or notes, are protected from the process of contract, or agreement, to the contrary notwithstandbeing counterfeited, and the orders and checks of deposi-ing. But this provision shall not be construed to exempt tors are unnoticed. Listen to the section. 'the said corporation, or the lands, tenements, goods, or

which are elsewhere expressly granted. To crown this error, the court has again had recourse to construction, and has given an import and meaning to the phrase "other contract," which it cannot be made to endure, either in common parlance, nor in legal acceptation, nor without reducing the rest of the charter to a blank. We will read the article.

SENATE.]

chattels of the same from being also liable for, and prentices to the law. What is a contract? The books chargeable with, the said excess. Such of the said directors tell us it is an agreement, upon a sufficient consideration, as may have been absent when the said excess was con- to do, or not to do, a particular thing. Now, bring these tracted or created, or who may have dissented from the orders to the test of this definition; and for that purpose resolution or act whereby the same was so contracted or let us read one: created, may respectively exonerate themselves from "Cashier of the Bank of the United States, 'being so liable, by FORTH WITH giving notice of the fact, Pay to Jas. L. Smith, or order, five dollars. and of their ABSENCE OR DISSENT, to the President of the 'Office of discount and deposite in Utica, United States, and to the stockholders at a general "The 3d day of September, 1831. 'meeting, which they shall have power to call for that 'JOHN B. LEVING, President. 'purpose."

'N. V. GRAZIER, Cashier."
And on the back these words:
"Pay to the bearer.

JAS. L. SMITH."

Here is no agreement, sir! No consideration expressed or understood; no promise or undertaking to do, or not to do, any thing whatever. It is literally an order, such as one neighbor gives to another, and governed by the same law. It is the very opposite of a contract, for it is a command; it is the opposite of a debt, for it implies the extinction of one. It is a mandate, and that an imperious one, from a gentleman in Utica, whose name I cannot read, to a gentleman in Philadelphia, who is not named at all, to pay five dollars to Mr. Jas. L. Smith, or to the person he shall name. Call this a contract? If so, Mr. President, those who studied law twenty-five years ago must burn their books, and recommence in the new school. The only species of contract that can attach to it is in the implied one which the law creates between the giver and receiver of the order; and that is an implied promise, on the part of the giver, that he will pay it if the cashier in Philadelphia does not, provided the receiver of the order will lose no time in going after the money, and bringing the order back if he does not get it.

What is the meaning of this article? Is it to grant authority to the bank to make bonds, issue bills or notes, and form other contracts? No, sir; authority to do all these things is elsewhere granted, namely, in the 12th fundamental article, to make bonds and issue bills or notes; in the tenth section, to form other contracts in dealing and trading in bullion and bills of exchange; and in other places, to do other things. The manifest object of this eighth section is to prohibit the bank from owing more debts, at one time, on all these accounts, than the amount of the capital stock; and to make the directors personally liable if they exceeded that amount. The words "other contract" was evidently intended to include the individual dealings of the bank; to add its private debts to its public ones; and to limit the whole to the amount of its capital. Will any person undertake to derive the right of the bank to make bonds, and issue bills or notes, upon the recital of the names of these instruments in this eighth article, and then argue that they are free from all limitations, except the single one as to maximum amount found in that article? Certainly not, and yet this would be the precise mode of reasoning with respect to the phrase "other contract," if it is to be treated as a grant of power, instead of a reference to the various contracts for bullion, bills of exchange, I object to these orders as coming under the phrase in buildings, salaries, expenses, &c., which the bank was the eighth article, because they are issued from branch elsewhere authorized to make, and for the form or terms banks, and by the presidents of these banks, while the of which contracts the charter nowhere made any re-words and the tenor of the eighth article require the whole gulations or provisions. I repeat it, bonds, bills, or notes, of the debts which are there referred to; those by "other are merely recited in this article for the purpose of adding contract," as well as those by bond, bill, or note, to be a new limitation and a new penalty; reference to other con- contracted by the directors of the parent bank in person. tracts is made for the purpose of including them in the Observe the words. The directors under whose administrasame limitation, and subjecting them to the same penalty. tion the excess may happen; the exception in favor of those This is the construction which satisfies the phrase; which who shall have been absent when the excess was contracted; gives it a full and natural operation, and that without con- the further exception in favor of those who dissented from the ficting with any other part of the charter, much less re-resolution which created the excess; and the qualification of ducing all the rest to a blank. both exceptions to a notice forthwith to be given to the PresiI have given to this phrase, Mr. President, the meaning dent of the United States and to the stockholders of such diswhich fairly and naturally belongs to it, and which har-sent or absence: all these expressions refer to the directors monizes it with every other part of the charter. This is of the parent bank, and imply personal presence at the what the books tell us it is the duty of courts to do in con- formation of every contract, at the creation of every debt, struing statutes. I will now take three specific objec-those by "other contract," as well as those by bond, bill, and tions to the courts' construction, and show it to be erro-note, which enters into the aggregate mass of the thirtyneous in every point of view in which it can be examined. five millions, which the bank, at any one time, may owe. 1. I object to it because it authorizes an issue of currency According to the opinion of the court, not only a part, upon construction. The issue of currency, sir, was the but the whole of these thirty-five millions may be congreat and main business for which the bank was created, tracted by agents, scattered all over the Union. The and which it is, in the twelfth article, expressly autho- whole currency of the bank may be issued by Tom, Dick, rized to perform; and I cannot pay so poor a compliment and Harry; and if they issue a thousand millions instead of to the understandings of the eminent men who framed that thirty-five, why, tl:e directors are not responsible; the charter, as to suppose that they left the main business of corporators are not responsible; the United States of the bank to be found, by construction, in an independent America are not responsible; the assets of the bank only phrase, and that phrase to be found but once in the whole are liable; and who ever heard of assets in a broken bank? charter. I cannot compliment their understandings with the supposition that, after having authorized and defined a currency, and subjected it to numerous restrictions, they had left open the door to the issue of another sort of currency, upon construction, which should supersede the kind they had prescribed, and be free from every restriction to which the prescribed currency was subject.

The opinion of the court, that agents may issue currency, and create these thirty-five millions of debt, is at war not only with the words and tenor of the eighth article, but with the whole tenor of the entire charter. By that instrument, the great business of issuing currency is confided to the directors of the parent bank. It is a personal trust which they cannot devolve upon agents. There is a per2. I object to the courts' assumption that these orders sonal liability attached to the abuse of that trust, of which are contracts; and this objection leads to a definition, and they cannot divest themselves. These directors are to be to the recollection of our early reading, when we were ap-numerous, not less than twenty-five. One-fifth of their

"The following rules, restrictions, limitations, and pro'visions, shall form and be fundamental articles of the constitution of the said corporation."

This preamble is sufficiently expressive of the intention of Congress to bind the bank, and to regulate its conduct, a difficult task, I admit, but bravely attempted by the Congress of 1816. We pass over many regulations to come to the main article, the 12th, which applies to the currency, and which we will read:

[SENATE.

number must pass the ordeal of this Senate upon the no-poration to make payable at any time not exceeding sixty mination of the President of the United States. The days from the date thereof." whole of them must be stockholders. Here is something This is the article, Mr. President, which authorizes the like responsibility. Not so with the president and direc- Bank of the United States to make bonds to individuals, tors of the branch banks. They may be but seven in num- and to issue a currency to the public. This is the article ber, and four of them a quorum. None of them required which prescribes the manner in which the assents of the to be stockholders; none to pass this body. The Presi- numerous individuals who compose the corporation shall dent of the United States has no voice in their appoint-be expressed, and their corporate effects bound for the ment or removal. They are breath in the nostrils of the payment of money. This article establishes two species Philadelphia directors. One breath they are made; an- of paper securities; first, bonds under the common seal other they are gone. And upon these evanescent and of the corporation; secondly, bills or notes signed and shadowy beings the power of issuing a national currency countersigned by named officers. Thus sealed, or signed, is to be devolved! the article declares these securities to be binding and This finishes, Mr. President, the examination which I obligatory on the corporation; and other articles go on to have felt it proper to make into the grounds of the de- attach a multitude of limitations, restrictions, provisions, cision pronounced by the federal court in Philadelphia. and penalties, all referring to these bonds, bills, or notes, I will now take up the constitution of the bank, and bring by a precise allegation, and intended to guard their solthis constructive currency to the ordeals of prohibitions, vency, to secure the public in the safe handling of them, as well as of the grants to be found in that instrument. and to facilitate the recovery of their contents, with heavy The Congress of 1816 gave to the Bank of the United damages, in the case of non-payment on demand. I here States a constitution, with a preamble to it, and seventeen remark, for the purpose of freeing a material part of this fundamental articles in it; and if the bank has construed discussion from any ambiguity, that the bills or notes menitself out of this congressional constitution, it may seem to tioned in this article, and referred to throughout the charsome to be an act of retributive justice on the Congress for ter, are one and the same thing. A bank bill, and a bank construing itself out of the constitution of the United note, are equivalent terms in common parlance; they are States to give a constitution to the bank. We will see. the same thing in legal acceptation; they are the same inThe preamble stands at the head of the eleventh section, strument in the eye of the charter. They are created and runs thus: together, and created not as two things, but as one thing, having the same origin, the same qualities, and the same design. The bill or note (for the charter never once uses the phrase, bill and note) are to be issued by order of the president and directors, are to be for the payment of money, are to be signed by the same officers, are to be transferable in the same mode, are not to be on credit for a less sum than one hundred dollars, nor for a longer time than sixty days, and are subjected to a great variety of regulations and restrictions. The federal court in Phila"The bills, obligatory and of credit, under the seal of delphia pronounces these branch bank orders to be free the said corporation, which shall be made to any person from all the limitations, restrictions, and provisions which for persons, shall be assignable by endorsement there- apply to bills or notes; and so do I. But the court proupon, under the hand or hands of such person or per-nounces these orders to be legal currency under the charsons, and his, her, or their executors or administrators, ter; I say they are not; and this is the question for the and of his or their assignee or assignees, and so as abso- Senate and the American people to decide. I take the lutely to transfer and vest the property thereof in each and every assignee or assignees successively, and to enable such assignee or assignees, and his, her, or their executors, or administrators, to maintain an action thereupon, in his, her, or their own name or names: Provided, That said corporation shall not make any bill obligatory, or of credit, or other obligation under its seal, for the payment of a less sum than five thousand dollars. And How stand these branch bank orders under the enactthe BILLS OF NOTES which may be ISSUED by ORDER of ments of this fundamental article? I leave out what rethe said corporation, signed by the PRESIDENT, and coun- lates to bonds in the first clause of the article, for they tersigned by the principal CASHIER OF TREASURER there- were evidently intended for large operations and special of, PROMISING THE PAYMENT OF MONEY to any person or transactions, and confine my examination to the issue of persons, his, her, or their ORDER, or to BEARER, although currency under the second clause. Is this order a bill or not under the seal of the said corporation, shall be BINDING note promising the payment of money? It is not. Is it and OBLIGATORY upon the same, in like manner, and signed by the president of the bank, and countersigned with like force and effect, as upon any PRIVATE PERSON, by the principal cashier? It is not. Is it subject to the if issued by him, her, or them, in his, her, or their NA-limitation which prevents a bill or note of less size than TURAL capacity or capacities, and shall be assignable and one hundred dollars to be on credit, and that for a longer negotiable in like manner as if they were so issued by time than sixty days? It is not. Then it is condemned, such private person or persons; that is to say, those which utterly condemned, upon the words of the 12th fundashall be payable to any person or persons, his, her, or their mental article. In the next place, how does it stand under ORDER, shall be assignable by endorsement in like manner the restrictions, limitations, and provisions which were to and with LIKE EFFECT as FOREIGN bills of exchange now govern and control the prescribed currency of the bank? are; and those which are payable to BEARER shall be as- We will see, and that in detail; but, first, let us have signable and negotiable by DELIVERY only: Provided, another quotation from another part of the bank charter. 'That all bills or notes so to be issued by said corporation, It is in the 7th section, at the end of the enumeration 'shall be made payable on DEMAND, other than bills or of the general powers of the bank. The section begins *notes for the payment of a sum not less than one hundred with creating the corporation, giving it a name, and enu'dollars each, and payable to the order of some person or merating its powers; and, after a long enumeration, winds 'persons, which bills or notes it shall be lawful for said cor-up in these words:

position, that every species of paper currency issued by the bank, upon the construction of words and phrases, found in, or out of, penal sections, and differing in form or substance from the paper currency prescribed in the 12th fundamental article, or violating the rules and provisions to which that currency is subject, is unauthorized and illegal.