a mind capacious of such things," ccessful. The city had just been ravaged How fever, and its need of water in purity ariance had been more felt than ever. At portune moment the petitioners asked the ent to incorporate them for the benevolent *se of supplying this great want. It was a ject, and met with favor. As they could ce how much these works would cost, they ..sed the liberal sum of $2,000,000 capital. And more, as it was possible that these watermight not absorb the entire amount, they for a provision authorizing the proposed coren to employ its surplus capital "in the purof public or other stock, or in any other

transactions or operations not inconsistent he Constitution and laws of this State, or of United States." And still further, as the object

supply a want that would never end, it was able that the grant should be perpetual. was the charter which Aaron Burr carried gh the unsuspecting legislature of 1799, and

, under the modest name of the Manhattan ag, soon turned out to be a genuine Banking tion, endowed with great power and endless

coser to be an admitted fact, that at the time the act was passed, 3. Mahattan Company, a majority of the members of the the Council of Revision, did not suspect that it conplam Hist. i., 129, 130, 325-828; 1 Burr, 413, 415; Questa a v taget (♥ Wend. 864); Laws, Web. ed. p. 370, § 8.)

The incorporation of the New York State Bank at Albany in 1803, of the Merchants' Bank in New York, 1805, and of the Bank of America in 1812, was much mixed up with and influenced by the partizan strifes of that stormy period. In each of these cases there were numerous charges of briband some of them were but too well substantiated.

ery,

Mr. Hammond, in his Political History of New York, says "The odium attached to all those implicated in the corrupt means used to promote the incorporation of the Bank of America, was so great and so lasting, that no attempts were made for a long time afterwards; and the iniquitous proceedings of former legislatures in relation to granting charters to moneyed institutions, had been so disgraceful to the State and were so fresh in the recollection of the members of the Convention of 1821, as beyond all question induced them, with a view to the prevention of these practices, to insert the clause in the Constitution of 1821 which rendered necessary the assent of two-thirds of both houses of the legislature, in order to incorporate any moneyed institution." (g)

Mr. Hammond gives a history of the means adopted to procure the charter of the Manhattan

(g) Hammond's History, vol. i. p. 337.

---- Bank, in
= 12. (h)
e present
forty-two

employ a

estions at this

very numerous, alleged corruption

in the Courts of and disinclined the of banks. A cominto alleged violarance Companies in rman, Mr. Spencer,

...referred to, were in bonds on promissory

at they claimed this supposed to be conexpressions in their s of these securities had in the community; that had the right by their but that the committee sue bonds or notes for "; that this was strictly ithin the laws to restrain ssociations. He reported

** £A, 309–315, 325, 327, 332-338. See

also that certain other Insurance Companies, incorporated with the obvious intention that they should be located in the interior of the State, had been, after lying dormant for years, resuscitated and brought into operation in the city of New York; that although a location was not expressly directed in the charters of these companies, yet from their titles, and known residence of the persons incorporated, and of the citizens appointed directors and commissioners, there could be no reasonable doubt of the intention of the legislature; and that the Committee did not believe, that such palpable violations of that intention, and of the spirit of their charters, would be sanctioned or sustained by the courts of the State. (hh)

bill of 1825,

to prevent

bankrupt

porations.

Mr. Spencer also reported a bill to prevent Spencer's fraudulent bankruptcies by incorporated companies. fraudulent This was the most important bill acted upon by the bylegislature of 1825; and on the 21st day of April of that year, it was enacted, and became a law of this State, under the title of, "An Act to prevent fraudulent bankruptcies by incorporated companies, -to facilitate proceedings against them,—and for other purposes." (j)

(hh) The report of MR. SPENCER will be found at length in the N. Y. Evening Post of May 11, 1825. In all acts passed in 1825, incorporating Insurance Companies, a prohibition was inserted against such Companies keeping an office for the transaction of business in any place except the city, town, or village designated in their charters. (Laws 1825, p. 46, 15; p. 52, § 15; p. 153, § 1.) See Note 37, p. 92, post.

(j) Laws of 1825, p. 448.

This celebrated act contained many stringent regulations, calculated to check abuses in all moneyed corporations, to prevent their insolvency, and to expedite proceedings against them. All transfers or assignments by incorporated companies, in contemplation of insolvency, were declared by this act utterly void; and if any incorporated bank should become insolvent, or violate its charter, or any other law binding upon it, the chancellor was authorized, upon the petition of any creditor, or upon the application of the attorney-general, by process of injunction, to restrain the exercise of its powers, and to appoint a Receiver of its effects, to be distributed แ among the fair and honest creditors thereof." "This," says Chancellor Kent, "was a statute of bankruptcy in relation to incorporated banks; and it was an unusual provision, for the English bankrupt laws, or the general insolvent laws of the several States, never extended to corporations." (k)

By the Revised Statutes of this State, the provisions of the act of 1825 have been re-enacted and greatly enlarged. (1)

Only two of the numerous applications for bank charters were granted by the legislature of 1825. The "Commercial Bank of Albany" and the

(k) 2 Kent's Com. 315.

(7) See Chap. 18, Part I., Titles 2, 3, 4, of 1 Revised Statutes; also the Act concerning the Revised Statutes, passed Dec. 10, 1828, in Sess. Laws of 1829, p. 24, § 17. See pages 1-17, post.