FEB. 2, 1831.] Bank of the United States. [SENATE. inson] had protested against the idea of straining any be apparent to all who will reflect upon the great privipoint to the prejudice of the bank; he thought, how-leges which these stockholders will have enjoyed for ever, that the bank had very little to complain of, when twenty years, and the large profits they have already detheir stock, after all their past profits, was at 238." The Chancellor of the Exchequer "deprecated the discussion, as leading to no practical result." Mr. Alexander Baring "objected to it as premature and unnecessary." * * * rived from their charter. They have been dividing seven per cent. per annum, unless when prevented by their own mismanagement; and have laid up a real estate of three millions of dollars for future division; and the money which has done these handsome things, instead of Sir William Pulteney (in another debate.) "The pre-being diminished or impaired in the process, is still worth judices in favor of the present bank have proceeded largely upwards of one hundred cents to the dollar: say, from the long habit of considering it as a sort of pillar one hundred and twenty-five cents. For the peculiar which nothing can shake. The bank privileges which enabled them to make these profits, the has been supported, and is still supported, by the fear stockholders ought to be grateful; but, like all persons and terror of which, by means of its monopoly, it has who have been highly favored with undue benefits, they had the power to inspire. It is well known, that there mistake a privilege for a right-a favor for a duty-and is hardly an extensive trader, a manufacturer, or a bank-resent, as an attack upon their property, a refusal to proer, either in London, or at a distance from it, to whom the long their undue advantages. There is no ground for these bank could not do a serious injury, and could often complaints, but for thanks and benedictions rather, for bring on even insolvency. I consi- permitting the bank to live out its numbered days! That der the power given by the monopoly to be of the na-institution has forfeited its charter. It may be shut up ture of all other despotic power, which corrupts the des- at any hour. It lives from day to day by the indulgence pot as much as it corrupts the slave. of those whom it daily attacks; and, if any one is igno * * It is in the nature of man, that a monopoly must neces-rant of this fact, let him look at the case of the Bank of sarily be ill-conducted. Whatever the United States against Owens and others, decided in language the [private] bankers may feel themselves the Supreme Court, and reported in the 2d Peters. obliged to hold, yet no one can believe that they have [Here Mr. B. read a part of this case, showing that it any satisfaction in being, and continuing, under a domin-was a case of usury at the rate of forty-six per cent. and ion which has proved so grievous and so disastrous. *that Mr. Sergeant, counsel for the bank, resisted the deI can never believe that the merchants and cision of the Supreme Court, upon the ground that it bankers of this country will prove unwilling to emanci- would expose the charter of the bank to forfeiture; and pate themselves, if they can do it without risking the re- that the decision was, nevertheless, given upon that sentment of the bank. No man in France, was heard to ground; so that the bank, being convicted of taking usucomplain, openly, of the Bastile while it existed. The ry, in violation of its charter, was liable to be deprived merchants and bankers of this country have the blood of of its charter, at any time that a scire facias should issue Englishmen, and will be happy to relieve themselves against it.] It from a situation of perpetual terror, if they could do it Mr. B. resumed. Before I proceed to the consideraconsistently with a due regard to their own interest." tion of the resolution, I wish to be indulged in adverting Here is authority added to reason--the force of a great to a rule or principle of parliamentary practice, which example added to the weight of unanswerable reasons, it is only necessary to read now in order to avoid the posin favor of early discussion; so that, I trust, I have ef-sibility of any necessity for recurring to it hereafter. fectually put aside that old and convenient objection to is the rule which forbids any member to be presentthe "time" that most flexible and accommodating ob- which, in fact, requires him to withdraw-during the jection, which applies to all seasons, and all subjects, and discussion of any question in which his private interest is just as available for cutting off a late debate, because may be concerned; and authorizes the expurgation from it is too late, as it is for stifling an early one, because it the Journal of any vote which may have been given unis too early. der the predicament of an interested motive. I demand But, it is said that the debate will injure the stockhold-that the Secretary of the Senate may read the rule to ers; that it depreciates the value of their property, and which I allude. that it is wrong to sport with the vested rights of individ- [The Secretary read the following rule:] als. This complaint, supposing it to come from the stock- "Where the private interests of a member are conholders themselves, is both absurd and ungrateful. It is cerned in a bill or question, he is to withdraw. And absurd, because the stockholders, at least so many of where such an interest has appeared, his voice has been them as are not foreigners, must have known when they disallowed, even after a division. In a case so contrary, accepted a charter of limited duration, that the approach not only to the laws of decency, but to the fundamental of its expiration would renew the debate upon the pro- principles of the social compact, which denies to any man priety of its existence; that every citizen had a right, to be a judge in his own cause, it is for the honor of the and every public man was under an obligation, to declare House that this rule, of immemorial observance, should his sentiments freely; that there was nothing in the char-be strictly adhered to." ter, numerous as its peculiar privileges were, to exempt First: Mr. President, I object to the renewal of the the bank from that freedom of speech and writing, which charter of the Bank of the United States, because I look extends to all our public affairs; and that the charter was upon the bank as an institution too great and pownot to be renewed here, as the Bank of England charter erful to be tolerated in a Government of free and equal had formerly been renewed, by a private arrangement laws. Its power is that of a purse; a power more potent among its friends, suddenly produced in Congress, and than that of the sword; and this power it possesses to a galloped through without the knowledge of the coun-degree and extent that will enable this bank to draw to try. The American part of the stockholders (for itself too much of the political power of this Union; and would not reply to the complaints of the foreigners) too much of the individual property of the citizens of must have known all this; and known it when they ac- these States. The money power of the bank is both dicepted the charter. They accepted it, subject to this known rect and indirect. consequence; and, therefore, the complaint about injur. [The VICE PRESIDENT here intimated to Mr. B. that ing their property is absurd. That it is ungrateful, must he was out of order, and had not a right to go into the VOL. VII.--4 SENATE.] Bank of the United States. [FEB. 2, 1831. merits of the bank upon the motion upon which he had the great cities, corporate bodies, merchants, traders, made. Mr. B. begged pardon of the Vice President, and every private citizen, must, of necessity apply, for and respectfully insisted that he was in order, and had a right to proceed. He said he was proceeding upon the parliamentary rule of asking leave to bring in a joint resolution, and, in doing which, he had a right to state his reasons, which reasons constituted his speech; that the motion was debateable, and the whole Senate might answer him. The VICE PRESIDENT then directed Mr. B. to proceed.] But "It is the wish of the Court of Directors that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would settle his arrangements of finances for the present year, in such manner as not to depend upon any further assistance from them, beyond what is already agreed for." every loan which their exigencies may demand. The rich ruleth the poor, and the borrower is the servant of the lender." Such are the the words of holy writ; and if the authority of the Bible adınitted of corroboration, the history of the world is at hand to give it. I will not cite the history of the world, but one eminent example only, and that of a nature so high and commanding, as to include all others; and so near and recent, as Mr. B. resumed. The direct power of the bank is to be directly applicable to our own situation. I speak now prodigious, and, in the event of the renewal of the of what happened in Great Britain, in the year 1795, charter, must speedily become boundless and uncontrol- when the Bank of England, by a brief and unceremonilable. The bank is now authorized to own effects, lands ous letter to Mr. Pitt, such as a miser would write to a inclusive, to the amount of fifty-five millions of dollars, prodigal in a pinch, gave the proof of what a great moand to issue notes to the amount of thirty-five millions neyed power could do, and would do, to promote its more. This makes ninety millions; and, in addition to own interest, in a crisis of national alarm and difficulty. this vast sum, there is an opening for an unlimited in- I will read the letter. It is exceedingly short; for after crease: for, there is a dispensation in the charter to issue the compliments are omitted, there are but three lines of as many more notes as Congress, by law, may permit. it. It is, in fact, about as long as a sentence of execuThis opens the door to boundless emissions; for what can tion, leaving out the prayer of the judge. It runs thus: be more unbounded than the will and pleasure of successive Congresses? The indirect power of the bank cannot be stated in figures; but it can be shown to be immense. In the first place, it has the keeping of the public moneys, now amounting to twenty-six millions per annum, (the Post Office Department included,) and the Such were the words of this memorable note, suffigratuitous use of the undrawn balances, large enough to ciently explicit and intelligible; but to appreciate it fully, constitute, in themselves, the capital of a great State we must know what was the condition of Great Britain at bank. In the next place, its promissory notes are re- that time? Remember it was the year 1795, and the beceivable, by law, in purchase of all property owned by ginning of that year, than which a more portentous one the United States, and in payment of all debts due them; never opened upon the British empire. The war with the and this may increase its power to the amount of the an- French republic had been raging for two years; Spain had nual revenue, by creating a demand for its notes to that just declared war against Great Britain; Ireland was burstamount. In the third place, it wears the name of the ing into rebellion; the fleet in the Nore was in open muUnited States, and has the Federal Government for a tiny; and a cry for the reform of abuses, and the reducpartner; and this name, and this partnership, identifies tion of taxes, resounded through the land. It was a season the credit of the bank with the credit of the Union. In of alarm and consternation, and of imminent actual danger the fourth place, it is armed with authority to disparage to Great Britain; and this was the moment which the Bank and discredit the notes of other banks, by excluding selected to notify the minister that no more loans were to them from all payments to the United States; and this, be expected! What was the effect of this notification? It added to all its other powers, direct and indirect, makes was to paralyze the Government, and to subdue the minthis institution the uncontrollable monarch of the moister to the purposes of the bank. From that day forth Mr. Pitt became the minister of the bank; and, before neyed system of the Union. To whom is all this power granted? To a company of private individuals, many of two years were out, he had succeeded in bringing all the dethem foreigners, and the mass of them residing in a re-the Privy Council, to his own slavish condition. He stopped partments of Government, King, Lords, and Commons, and mote and narrow corner of the Union, unconnected by any sympathy with the fertile regions of the Great Valley, in the specie payments of the bank, and made its notes the lawful currency of the land. In 1797 he obtained an orwhich the natural power of this Union-the power of der in council for this purpose; in the same year an act of numbers-will be found to reside long before the re- Parliament to confirm the order for a month, and afternewed term of a second charter would expire. By whom wards a series of acts to continue it for twenty years. This is all this power to be exercised? By a directory of was the reign of the bank. For twenty years it was a seven, (it may be,) governed by a majority, of four, (it dominant power in England, and, during that disastrous may be:) and none of these elected by the people, or period, the public debt was increased about £400,000,000 responsible to them. Where is it to be exercised? At sterling, equal nearly to two thousand millions of dollars, a single city, distant a thousand miles from some of and that by paper loans from a bank which, according to the States, receiving the produce of none of them (ex-its own declarations, had not a shilling to lend at the comcept one;) no interest in the welfare of any of them mencement of the period! I omit the rest. I say nothing (except one;) no commerce with the people; with of the general subjugation of the country banks, the rise branches in every State; and every branch subject to in the price of food, the decline in wages, the increase of the secret and absolute orders of the supreme central crimes and taxes, the multiplication of lords and beggars, head: thus constituting a system of centralism, hostile and the frightful demoralization of society. I omit all this. to the federative principle of our Union, encroaching I only seize the prominent figure in the picture, that of a upon the wealth and power of the States, and organized Government arrested in the midst of war and danger by upon a principle to give the highest effect to the greatest the veto of a moneyed corporation; and only permitted to power. This mass of power, thus concentrated, thus go on upon condition of assuming the odium of stopping ramified, and thus directed, must necessarily become, specie payments, and sustaining the promissory notes of under a prolonged existence, the absolute monopolist of an insolvent bank, as the lawful currency of the land. American money, the sole manufacturer of paper cur-This single figure suffices to fix the character of the times; rency, and the sole authority (for authority it will be) to for when the Government becomes the "servant of the which the Federal Government, the State Governments, lender," the people themselves become its slaves. Cannot FEB. 2, 1831.] Bank of the United States. [SENATE. the Bank of the United States, if re-chartered, act in the 5. It tends to aggravate the inequality of fortunes; to same way? It certainly can, and just as certainly will, make the rich richer, and the poor poorer; to multiply when time and opportunity shall serve, and interest may nabobs and paupers; and to deepen and widen the gulf prompt. It is to no purpose that gentlemen may come which separates Dives from Lazarus. A great moneyed forward, and vaunt the character of the United States' power is favorable to great capitalists; for it is the princiBank, and proclaim it too just and merciful to oppress ple of money to favor money. It is unfavorable to small the State. I must be permitted to repudiate both the capitalists; for it is the principle of money to eschew the pledge and the praise. The security is insufficient, and needy and unfortunate. It is injurious to the laboring the encomium belongs to Constantinople. There were classes; because they receive no favors, and have the enough such in the British Parliament the year before, price of the property they wish to acquire raised to the nay, the day before the bank stopped; yet their pledges paper maximum, while wages remain at the silver miniand praises neither prevented the stoppage, nor made mum. good the damage that ensued. There were gentlemen in 6. It tends to make and to break fortunes, by the flux our Congress to pledge themselves in 1810 for the then and reflux of paper. Profuse issues, and sudden conexpiring bank, of which the one now existing is a second tractions, perform this operation, which can be repeated, and deteriorated edition; and if their securityship had like planetary and pestilential visitations, in every cycle been accepted, and the old bank re-chartered, we should of so many years; at every periodical return, transferring have seen this Government greeted with a note, about Au- millions from the actual possessors of property to the gust, 1814-about the time the British were burning this Neptunes who preside over the flux and reflux of paper. capitol--of the same tenor with the one received by the The last operation of this kind performed by the Bank of younger Pitt in the year 1795; for, it is incontestable, that England, about five years ago, was described by Mr. that bank was owned by men who would have glorified Alexander Baring, in the House of Commons, in terms in arresting the Government, and the war itself, for want which are entitled to the knowledge and remembrance of of money. Happily, the wisdom and patriotism of Jef- American citizens. I will read his description, which is ferson, under the providence of God, prevented that in- brief but impressive. After describing the profuse issues famy and ruin, by preventing the renewal of the old bank of 1823-24, he painted the re-action in the following charter. Secondly. I object to the continuance of this bank, because its tendencies are dangerous and pernicious to the Government and the people. What are the tendencies of a great moneyed power, connected with the Government, and controlling its fiscal operations? Are they not dangerous to every interest, public and private-political as well as pecuniary? I say they are; and briefly enumerate the heads of each mis chief. 1. Such a bank tends to subjugate the Government, as I have already shown in the history of what happened to the British minister in the year 1795. terms: "They, therefore, all at once, gave a sudden jerk to the horse on whose neck they had before suffered the reins to hang loose. They contracted their issues to a considerable extent. The change was at once felt throughout the country. A few days before that, no one knew what to do with his money: now, no one knew where to get it. The London bankers found it necessary to follow the same course towards their country correspondents, and these again towards their customers, and each individual towards his debtor. The consequence was obvious, in the late panic. Every one, desirous to obtain what was due to him, ran to his banker, or to any other 2. It tends to collusions between the Government and on whom he had a claim; and even those who had no imthe bank in the terms of the loans, as has been fully ex-mediate use for their money, took it back, and let it lie unperienced in England in those frauds upon the people, and insults upon the understanding, called three per cent. Joans, in which the Government, for about £50 borrowed, became liable to pay £100. employed in their pockets, thinking it unsafe in others' hands. The effect of this alarm was, that houses which were weak went immediately. Then went second rate houses; and, lastly, houses which were solvent went, be3. It tends to create public debt, by facilitating public cause their securities were unavailable. The daily calls loans, and substituting unlimited supplies of paper, for to which each individual was subject put it out of his powlimited supplies of coin. The British debt is born of the er to assist his neighbor. Men were known to seek for Bank of England. That bank was chartered in 1694, and assistance, and, that, too, without finding it, who, on examwas nothing more nor less in the beginning than an act of ination of their affairs, were proved to be worth 200,000 Parliament for the incorporation of a company of sub- pounds,-men, too, who held themselves so secure, that, scribers to a Government loan. The loan was £1,200,000; if asked six months before whether they could contemthe interest £80,000; and the expenses of management plate such an event, they would have said it would be im£4,000. And this is the birth and origin, the germ and possible, unless the sky should fall, or some other event nucleus of that debt, which is now £900,000,000, (the equally improbable should occur." unfunded items included) which bears an interest of This is what was done in England five years ago; it is £30,000,000, and costs £260,000 for annual management. what may be done here in every five years to come, if the 4. It tends to beget and prolong unnecessary wars, by bank charter is renewed. Sole dispenser of money, it canfurnishing the means of carrying them on without recur- not omit the oldest and most obvious means of amassing rence to the people. England is the ready example for this calamity. Her wars for the restoration of the Capet Bourbons were kept up by loans and subsidies created out of bank paper. The people of England had no interest in these wars, which cost them about £600,000,000 of debt in twenty-five years, in addition to the supplies raised within the year. The Kings she put back upon the French throne were not able to sit on it. Twice she put them on; twice they tumbled off in the mud; and all that now remains of so much sacrifice of life and money is, the debt, which is eternal, the taxes, which are intolerable, the pensions and titles of some warriors, and the keeping of the Capet Bourbons, who are returned upon their ha nds. wealth by the flux and reflux of paper. The game will be in its own hands, and the only answer to be given is that to which I have alluded: "The Sultan is too just and merciful to abuse his power." Thirdly. I object to the renewal of the charter, on account of the exclusive privileges, and anti-republican monopoly, which it gives to the stockholders. It gives, and that by an act of Congress, to a company of individuals, the exclusive legal privileges: 1. To carry on the trade of banking upon the revenue and credit, and in the name, of the United States of America. 2. To pay the revenues of the Union in their own promissory notes. 9. To have the United States for a partner. 10. To have foreigners for partners. 11. To be exempt from the regular administration of justice for the violations of their charter. 12. To have all these exclusive privileges secured to them as a monopoly, in a pledge of the public faith not to grant the like privileges to any other company. These are the privileges, and this the monopoly, of the bank. Now, let us examine them, and ascertain their effect and bearing. Let us contemplate the magnitude of the power which they create; and ascertain the compatibility of this power with the safety of this republican Government, and the rights and interests of its free and equal constituents. 1. The name, the credit, and the revenues of the United States, are given up to the use of this company, and constitute in themselves an immense capital to bank upon.The name of the United States, like that of the King, is a tower of strength; and this strong tower is now an outwork to defend the citadel of a moneyed corporation. The credit of the Union is incalculable; and, of this credit, as going with the name, and being in partnership with the United States, the same corporation now has possession. The revenues of the Union are twenty-six millions of dollars, including the Post Office; and all this is so much capiin the hands of the bank, because the revenue is received by it, and is payable in its promissory notes. [FEB. 2, 1831. upon the interest of the community: and, in the first place, let us have a full and accurate view of the amount of these undrawn balances, from the establishment of the bank to the present day. Here it is! Look! Read! *518,910 09 Years. First Quarter. Second Quarter. Third Quarter. Fourth Quarter. Average. 5,635,568 68 6,910,836 83 543,468 70 310,942 75 908,566 55 946,115 17 1,390,349 61 388,210 94 1821, *Overdrawn. 754,962 41 761,468 54 256,953 41 1822, 1,021,523 74 1,406,112 48 1,826,605 42 1,852,535 82 1823, 2,759,000 70 5,630,372 84 6,409,577 80 6,862,058 14 5,415,252 37 1824, 5,429,432 88 5,252,004 44 4,906,814 02 *Overdrawn. 3,767,335 31 1825, 3,994,757 66 6,116,027 30 1,122,118 97 3,101,776 20 1826, 4,682,378 25 1,586,604 23 3,836,165 86 4,042,958 00 3,537,026 58 1827, 4,844,375 84 2,352,843 90 3,747,731 71 4,400,738 84 4,413,574 95 4,107,429 89 4,895,244 64 3,836,422 57 3,765,102 96 3,986,095 82 1817, to 30th June, 1830. A statement of public money in the Bank of the United States and its branches at the end of each quarter, from the year 2. To pay the revenues of the United States in their own notes, until Congress, by law, shall otherwise direct.-This is a part of the charter, incredible and extraordinary as it may appear. The promissory notes of the bank are to be received in payment of every thing the United States may have to sell-in discharge of every debt due to her, until Congress,, by law, shall otherwise direct; so that, if this bank, like its prototype in England, should stop payment, its promissory notes would still be receivable at every custom house, land office, post office, and by every collector of public moneys, throughout the Union, until Congress shall meet, pass a repealing law, and promulgate the repeal. Other banks depend upon their credit for the receivability of their notes; but this favored institution has law on its side, and a chartered right to compel the reception of its paper by the Federal Government. The immediate consequence of this extraordinary privilege is, that the United States becomes virtually bound to stand security for the bank, as much so as if she had signed a on hand. The paper is covered all over with millions: masses bond to that effect; and must stand forward to sustain the and yet, for all these vast sums, no interest is allowed; institution in all emergencies, in order to save her own re- no compensation is made to the United States. The Bank venue. This is what has already happened, some ten years of England, for the undrawn balances of the public money, ago, in the early progress of the bank, and when the im- has made an equitable compensation to the British Govmense aid given it by the Federal Government enabled ernment; namely, a permanent loan of half a million sterit to survive the crisis of its own overwhelming mismanage- ling, and a temporary loan of three millions for twenty 3. To hold the moneys of the United States in deposite, compensation to the United States, the proposition was years, without interest. Yet, when I moved for a like without making compensation for the use of the undrawn utterly rejected by the Finance Committee, and treated balances.--This is a right which I deny; but, as the bank as an attempt to violate the charter of the bank. At the claims it, and, what is more material, enjoys it; and as the same time it is incontestable, that the United States have people of the United States have suffered to a vast extent been borrowing these undrawn balances from the bank, in consequence of this claim and enjoyment, I shall not and paying an interest upon their own money. I think hesitate to set it down to the account of the bank. Let us we can identify one of these loans. Let us try. In May, then examine the value of this privilege, and its effect 1824, Congress authorized a loan of five millions of dollars ment. See, Mr. President, what of money, and always FEB. 2, 1831.] Bank of the United States. [SENATE. to pay the awards under the treaty with Spain, com- might be kept in the treasury, to two millions of dollars; monly called the Florida treaty. The Bank of the United but, by the power of construction, was made to authorize States took that loan, and paid the money for the United the keeping of two millions in addition to the surplus. I States in January and March, 1825. In looking over the wished to repeal this section, which had thus been constatement of undrawn balances, it will be seen that they strued into the reverse of its intention, and to revive the amounted to near four millions at the end of the first, and first section of the Sinking Fund act of 1790, which disix millions at the end of the second quarter of that year. rected the whole of the surplus on hand to be applied, at The inference is irresistible, and I leave every Senator to the end of each year, to the payment of the public debt. make it; only adding, that we have paid $1,469,375 in My argument was this: that there was no necessity to keep interest upon that loan, either to the bank or its trans- any surplus; that the revenue, coming in as fast as it went ferees. This is a strong case, but I have a stronger one. out, was like a perennial fountain, which you might drain It is known to every body that the United States sub- to the last drop, and not exhaust; for the place of the last scribed seven millions to the capital stock of the bank, for drop would be supplied the instant it was out. And I which she gave her stock note, bearing an interest of five supported this reasoning by a reference to the annual per cent. per annum. I have a statement from the Regis- treasury reports, which always exhibit a surplus of four ter of the Treasury, from which it appears that, up to the or five millions; and which were equally in the treasury 30th day of June last, the United States had paid four the whole year round, as on the last day of every year. millions seven hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars This was the argument, which, in fact, availed nothing; in interest upon that note; when it is proved by the state- but now I have mathematical proof of the truth of my poment of balances exhibited, that the United States, for the sition. Look at this statement of balances; look for the whole period in which that interest was accruing, had the year 1819, and you will find but three hundred thousand half, or the whole, and once the double, of these seven dollars on hand for that year; look still lower for 1821, millions in the hands of the bank. This is a stronger case and you will find this balance but one hundred and eightythan that of the five million loan, but it is not the strongest. two thousand dollars. And what was the consequence? The strongest case is this. In the year 1817, when the Did the Government stop? Did the wheels of the state bank went into operation, the United States owed, among chariot cease to turn round in those years for want of other debts, a sum of about fourteen millions and three- treasury oil? Not at all. Every thing went on as well as quarters, bearing an interest of three per cent. In the before; the operations of the treasury were as perfect and same year, the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund were regular in those two years of insignificant balances, as in authorized by an act of Congress to purchase that stock 1817 and 1818, when five and ten millions were on hand. at sixty-five per cent., which was then its market price. This is proof; this is demonstration: it is the indubitable Under this authority, the amount of about one million and evidence of the senses which concludes argument, and a half was purchased; the remainder, amounting to about dispels uncertainty; and, as my proposal for the repeal of thirteen millions and a quarter, has continued unpurchased the 4th section of the Sinking Fund act of 1817 was enactto this day; and, after costing the United States about six ed into a law at the last session of Congress, upon the remillions in interest since 1817, the stock has risen about commendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, a vigilant four millions in value; that is to say, from sixty-five to and exemplary officer, I trust that the repeal will be acted nearly ninety-five. Now, here is a clear loss of ten mil- upon, and that the bank platter will be wiped as clean of lions of dollars to the United States. In 1817 she could federal money in 1831, as it was in 1821. Such cleanhave paid off thirteen millions and a quarter of debt, with taking from that dish, will allow two or three millions eight millions and a half of dollars; now, after paying six more to go to the reduction of the public debt; and there millions of interest, it would require twelve millions and a can be no danger in taking the last dollar, as reason and half to pay off the same debt. By referring to the state- experience both prove. But, to quiet every apprehension ment of undrawn balances, it will be seen that the United on this point, to silence the last suggestion of a possibility States had, during the whole year 1817, an average sum of any temporary deficit, I recur to a provision contained of above ten millions of dollars in the hands of the bank, in two different clauses in the bank charter, copied from being a million and a half more than enough to have an amendment in the charter of the Bank of England, and bought in the whole of the three per cent. stock. The expressly made, at the instance of the ministry, to meet question, therefore, naturally comes up, why was it not the contingency of a temporary deficiency in the annual applied to the redemption of these thirteen millions and a revenue. The English provision is this: that the Governquarter, according to the authority contained in the act of ment may borrow of the bank half a million sterling, at Congress of that year? Certainly the bank needed the any time, without a special act of Parliament to authorize money; for it was just getting into operation, and was it. The provision in our charter is the same, with the hard run to escape bankruptcy about that time, as any single substitution of dollars for pounds. It is, in words bank that ever was saved from the brink of destruction. and intention, a standing authority to borrow that limited This is the largest injury which we have sustained, on ac- sum, for the obvious purpose of preventing a constant count of accommodating the bank with the gratuitous use keeping of a sum of money in hand as a reserve, to meet of these vast deposites. But, to show myself impartial, I contingencies which hardly ever occur. This contingent will now state the smallest case of injury that has come authority to effect a small loan, has often been used in within my knowledge: It is the case of the bonus of fifteen England-in the United States, never; possibly, because hundred thousand dollars which the bank was to pay to there has been no occasion for it; probably, because the the United States, in three equal instalments, for the pur-clause was copied mechanically from the English charter, chase of its charter. Nominally, this bonus has been paid, and without the perception of its practical bearing. Be but out of what moneys? Certainly out of our own; for this as it may, it is certainly a wise and prudent provision, the statement shows our money was there, and further, such as all Governments should, at all times, be clothed shows that it is still there; for, on the 30th day of June with. last, which is the latest return, there was still $2,550,664 If any Senator thinks that I have exaggerated the injury in the hands of the bank, which is above $750,000 more suffered by the United States, on account of the uncomthan the amount of the bonus. pensated masses of public money in the hands of the bank, One word more upon the subject of these balances. It I am now going to convince him that he is wrong. is now two years since I made an effort to repeal the 4th going to prove to him that I have understated the case; section of the Sinking Fund act of 1817; a section which that I have purposely kept back a large part of it; and was intended to limit the amount of surplus money which that justice requires a further development. The fact is, I am |