America who would not deem it a treasure. It covered the whole saline kingdom; and those unacquainted with its nature had no more idea of it than a blind man had of the solar rays. It was of the highest value to the farmer and the CHAPTER LXVI. RECHARTER REPORTED IN THE SENATE-AND grazier. It showed the effect of the mineral king- BANK OF THE UNITED STATES-BILL FOR THE dom upon the animal kingdom; and its views were the results of the wisdom, experience, and first talents of Great Britain. The assertion of the senator, that the bank aided in producing a THE first bank of the United States, chartered sound currency, he would disprove by facts and in 1791, was a federal measure, conducted under dates. In 1817 the bank went into operation. the lead of General Hamilton-opposed by Mr. In three or four years after, forty-four banks Jefferson, Mr. Madison and the republican party; were chartered in Kentucky, and forty in Ohio; and the United States Bank, so far from being and became a great landmark of party, not able to put them down, was on the verge of merely for the bank itself, but for the latitudibankruptcy. With the use of eight millions of narian construction of the constitution in which public money, it was hardly able, from day to it was founded, and the great door which it day to sustain itself. Eleven millions of dollars, as he could demonstrate, the people had lost by opened to the discretion of Congress to do what maintaining the bank during this crisis. But it pleased, under the plea of being "necessary" for a waggon load of specie from the mint, as to carry into effect some granted power. The Mr. Cheves informs us, it would have become non-renewal of the charter in 1811, was the act bankrupt. In addition to this, the use of gov- of the republican party, then in possession of ernment deposits, to the extent of eight millions, was necessary to sustain it; and the country lost the government, and taking the opportunity to eleven millions by the diversion of those deposits terminate, upon its own limitation, the existence to this purpose. Congress authorized the pur- of an institution, whose creation they had not chase of the thirteen millions of three per cents. been able to prevent. The charter of the second -at that time, they could have been purchased at sixty-five cents, now they were at ninety-six bank, in 1816, was the act of the republican per cent. This was one item of the amount party, and to aid them in the administration of lost, and the other was the interest on the the government, and, as such, was opposed by stock from that time to the present, amounting the federal party-not seeming then to underto six millions more. It was shown by Mr. Cheves that the United States Bank owed its stand that, by its instincts, a great moneyed existence to the local banks-to the indulgence corporation was in sympathy with their own and forbearance of the banks of Philadelphia and party, and would soon be with it in action Boston, notwithstanding its receipt of the silver-which this bank soon was-and now struggled from Ohio and Kentucky, which drained that country, destroyed its local banks, and threw down the value of every description of its property. The United States Bank currency was called by the senator the poor man's friend. The orders on the branches-these drafts issued in Dan and made payable in Beersheba-had their origin with a Scotchman; and, when their character was discovered, they were stopped as oppressive to the poor; and this bank, which was cried up as the poor man's friend, issued those same orders, in paper so similar to that of the bank notes, that the people could not readily discern the difference between them. It was thought that the people might mistake the signature of the little cashier and the little president for the great cashier and the great president. The stockholders were foreigners, to a great extent-they were lords and ladies-reverend clergymen and military officers. The widows, in whose behalf our sympathy was required, were countess dowagers, and the Barings, some of whom owned more of the stock than was possessed in sixteen States of this Union." for a continuation of its existence under the lead of those who had opposed its birth, and against the party which created it. Mr. Webster was a federal leader on both occasions— against the charter, in 1816; for the recharter, in 1832-and in his opening speech in favor of the renewal, according to the bill reported by the Senate's select committee, and in allusion to these reversals of positions, and in justification of his own, he spoke thus, addressing himself to the Vice-President, Mr. Calhoun : "A considerable portion of the active part of life has elapsed, said Mr. W., since you and I, Mr. President, and three or four other gentlemen, now in the Senate, acted our respective parts in the passage of the bill creating the present Bank of the United States. We have lived to little purpose, as public men, if the experience of this period has not enlightened our judgments, and enabled us to revise our opinions; and to correct any errors into which we may have fallen, if such errors there were, either in regard to the He also spoke truly on the subject of the small quantity of silver currency in the United States-only some twenty-two millions-and not a particle of gold; and deprecated the small bank note currency as the cause of that evil. general utility of a national bank, or the details necessary for the support of the social system, of its constitution. I trust it will not be unbe- and encourages propensities destructive of its coming the occasion, if I allude to your own happiness. It wars against industry, fruimportant agency in that transaction. The bill gality, and economy; and it fosters the evil incorporating the bank, and giving it a constitu- spirits of extravagance and speculation. Of all tion, proceeded from a committee of the House the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of Representatives, of which you were chairman, of mankind, none has been more effectual than and was conducted through that House under that which deludes them with paper money. your distinguished lead. Having recently looked This is the most effectual of inventions to ferback to the proceedings of that day, I must be tilize the rich man's field, by the sweat of the permitted to say that I have perused the speech poor man's brow. Ordinary tyranny, oppresby which the subject was introduced to the con- sion, excessive taxation, these bear lightly on sideration of the House, with a revival of the the happiness of the mass of the community, feeling of approbation and pleasure with which compared with fraudulent currencies, and the I heard it; and I will add, that it would not, robberies committed by depreciated paper. Our perhaps, now, be easy to find a better brief own history has recorded for our instruction synopsis of those principles of currency and of enough, and more than enough, of the demorbanking, which, since they spring from the na-alizing tendency, the injustice, and the intolerature of money and of commerce, must be essen- ble oppression on the virtuous and well disposed, tially the same, at all times, in all commercial of a degraded paper currency, authorized by law, communities, than that speech contains. The or any way countenanced by government. other gentlemen now with us in the Senate, all of them, I believe, concurred with the chairman of the committee, and voted for the bill. My own vote was against it. This is a matter of little importance; but it is connected with other circumstances, to which I will, for a moment, advert. The gentlemen with whom I acted on that occasion, had no doubts of the constitutional power of Congress to establish a national bank; nor had we any doubts of the general utility of an institution of that kind. We had, indeed, most of us, voted for a bank, at a preceding session. But the object of our regard was not whatever might be called a bank. We required that it should be established on certain principles, which alone we deemed safe and useful, made subject to certain fixed liabilities, and so guarded that it could neither move voluntarily, nor be moved by others out of its proper sphere of action. The bill, when first introduced, con- "Why have we so small an amount of specie in tained features, to which we should never have circulation? Certainly the only reason is, beassented, and we set ourselves accordingly to cause we do not require more. We have but to work with a good deal of zeal, in order to effect ask its presence, and it would return. sundry amendments. In some of those proposed voluntarily banish it by the great amount of amendments, the chairman, and those who acted small bank notes. In most of the States the with him, finally concurred. Others they banks issue notes of all low denominations, opposed. The result was, that several most down even to a single dollar. How is it possiimportant amendments, as I thought, prevailed. ble, under such circumstances, to retain specie But there still remained, in my opinion, objec-in circulation? All experience shows it to be tions to the bill, which justified a persevering opposition till they should be removed." He spoke forcibly and justly against the evils of paper money, and a depreciated currency, meaning the debased issues of the local banks, for the cure of which the national bank was to be the instrument-not foreseeing that this great bank was itself to be the most striking exemplification of all the evils which he depicted. He said: He said: "The paper circulation of the country is, at this time, probably seventy-five or eighty millions of dollars. Of specie we may have twenty or twenty-two millions: and this, principally, in masses in the vaults of the banks. Now, sir, this is a state of things which, in my judgment, leads constantly to overtrading, and to the consequent excesses and revulsions which so often disturb the regular course of commercial affairs. But we impossible. The paper will take the place of the gold and silver. When Mr. Pitt, in the year 1797, proposed in Parliament to authorize the Bank of England to issue one pound notes, Mr. Burke lay sick at Bath of an illness from which he never recovered; and he is said to have written to the late Mr. Canning, 'Tell Mr. Pitt that if he consents to the issuing of one pound notes, he must never expect to see a guinea again. The bill provided that a bonus of $500,000 "A disordered currency is one of the greatest in three equal annual instalments should be of political evils. It undermines the virtues paid by the bank to the United States for its exclusive privileges: Mr. Webster moved to the directors and politicians, or rather of the modify the section, so as to spread the payment politicians and directors; for the former govover the entire term of the bank's proposed ex-erned the decision. The stockholders in their istence-$150,000 a year for fifteen years. I meeting last September only authorized the was opposed both to the bonus, and the exclu- president and directors to apply at any time sive privilege, and said: before the next triennial meeting-at any time within three years; and that would carry the application to the right time. I, therefore, inveighed against the present application, and insisted that: "The proper compensation for the bank to make, provided this exclusive privilege was sold to it, would be to reduce the rate of interest on loans and discounts. A reduction of interest would be felt by the people; the payment of a bonus would not be felt by them. It would come into the treasury, and probably be lavished immediately on some scheme, possibly unconstitutional in its nature, and sectional in its application. He was not in favor of any scheme for getting money into the treasury at present. The difficulty lay the other way. The struggle now was to keep money out of the treasury,―to prevent the accumulation of a surplus; and the reception of this bonus would go to aggravate that difficulty, by increasing that surplus. Kings might receive bonuses for selling exclusive privileges to monopolizing companies. In that case his subjects would bear the loss, and he would receive the profit; but, in a republic, it was incomprehensible that the people should sell to a company the privilege of making money out of themselves. He was opposed to the grant of an exclusive privilege; he was opposed to the sale of privileges; but if granted, or sold, he was in favor of receiving the price in the way that would be most beneficial to the whole body of the people; and, in this case, a reduction of interest would best accomplish that object. A bank, which had the benefit of the credit and revenue of the United States to bank upon, could well afford to make loans and discounts for less than six per centum. Five per centum would be high interest for such a bank; and he had no doubt, if time was allowed for the application, that applications enough would be made to take the charter upon these terms." I opposed action on the subject at this session. The bank charter had yet four years to run, and two years after that to remain in force for winding up its affairs; in all, six years before the dissolution of the corporation: and this would remit the final decision to the Congress which would sit between 1836 and 1838, and there was not only to be a new Congress elected before that time, but a new Congress under a new apportionment of the representation, in which there would be a great augmentation of members, and especially in the West, where the operation of the present bank was most injurious. The stockholders had not applied for the recharter at this session: that was the act of "Many reasons oppose the final action of Congress upon this subject at the present time. We are exhausted with the tedium, if not with the labors of a six months' session. Our hearts and minds must be at home, though our bodies are here. Mentally and bodily we are unable to give the attention and consideration to this question, which the magnitude of its principles, the extent and variety of its details, demand from us. Other subjects of more immediate and pressing interest must be thrown aside, to make way for it. The reduction of the price of the public lands, for which the new States have been petitioning for so many years, and the modification of the tariff, the continuance of which seems to be weakening the cement which binds this Union together, must be postponed, and possibly lost for the session, if we go on with the bank question. Why has the tariff been dropped in the Senate? Every one recollects the haste with which that subject was taken up in this chamber; how it was pushed to a certain point; and how suddenly and gently it has given way to the bank bill! Is there any union of interest-any conjunction of forces any combined plan of action-any alliance, offensive or defensive, between the United States Bank and the American system? Certainly they enter the field together, one here, the other yonder (pointing to the House of Representatives), and leaving a clear stage to each other, they press at once upon both wings, and announce a perfect non-interference, if not achieved. Why have the two bills reported by mutual aid, in the double victory which is to be the Committee on Manufactures, and for taking up which notices have been given: why are they so suddenly, so easily, so gently, abandoned? committee, and a pledge given to call it up Why is the land bill, reported by the same when the Committee on Public Lands had made their counter report, also suffered to sleep on the table? The counter report is made; it is with the lands, when the settlement of the quesprinted; it lies on every table; why not go on tion of the amount of revenue to be derived from that source precedes the tariff question, and must be settled before we can know how much revenue should be raised from imports. "An unfinished investigation presented another reason for delaying the final action of Con gress on this subject. The House of Representa tives had appointed a committee to investigate sudden haste which interrupts an unfinished the affairs of the bank; they had proceeded to investigation-sets aside the immediate business the limit of the time allotted them-had report- of the people-and usurps the rights of our suced adversely to the bank-and especially against cessors? No plea in the world, except that a the renewal of the charter at this session; and gigantic moneyed institution refuses to wait, had argued the necessity of further examina- and must have her imperial wishes immediately tions. Would the Senate proceed while this gratified. If a charter was to be granted, it unfinished investigation was depending in the should be done with as little invasion of the other end of the building? Would they rights of posterity-with as little encroachment act so as to limit the investigation to the few upon the privileges of our successors-as possiweeks which were allowed to the committee, ble. Once in ten years, and that at the comwhen we have from four to six years on hand mencement of each full representation under a within which to make it? The reports of new census, would be the most appropriate this committee, to the amount of some 15,000 time; and then charters should be for ten, and copies had been ordered to be printed by the not twenty years. two Houses, to be distributed among the people. For what purpose? Certainly that the people might read them-make up their minds upon their contents and communicate their sentiments to their representatives. But these reports are not yet distributed; they are not yet read by the people; and why order this distribution without waiting for its effect, when there is so much time on hand? Why treat the peo--in the opinion of some, may decide it-which ple with this mockery of a pretended consultation-this illusive reference to their judgmentwhile proceeding to act before they can read what we have sent to them? Nay, more; the very documents upon which the reports are founded are yet unprinted! The Senate is actually pushed into this discussion without having seen the evidence which has been collected by the investigating committee, and which the Senate itself has ordered to be printed for the information of its members. "The decision of this question does not belong to this Congress, but to the Congress to be elected under the new census of 1830. It looked to him like usurpation for this Congress to seize upon a question of this magnitude, which required no decision until the new and full representation of the people shall come in; and which, if decided now, though prematurely and by usurpation, is irrevocable, although it cannot take effect until 1836;-that is to say, until three years after the new and full representation would be in power. What Congress is this? It is the apportionment of 1820, formed on a population of ten millions. It is just going out of existence. A new Congress, apportioned upon a representation of thirteen millions, is already provided for by law; and after the 4th of March next-within nine months from this day-will be in power, and entitled to the seats in which we sit. That Congress will contain thirty members more than the present one. Three millions of people-a number equal to that which made the revolution-are now unrepresented, who will be then represented. The West alone-that section of the Union which suffers most from the depredations of the bank -loses twenty votes! In that section alone a million of people lose their voice in the decision of this great question. And why? What excuse? What necessity? What plea for this "Mr. B. had nothing to do with motives. He neither preferred accusations, nor pronounced absolutions: but it was impossible to shut his eyes upon facts, and to close up his reason against the induction of inevitable inferences. The presidental election was at hand;-it would come in four months;-and here was a question which, in the opinion of all, must affect that election is pressed on for decision four years before it is necessary to decide it, and six years before it ought to be decided. Why this sudden pressure? Is it to throw the bank bill into the hands of the President, to solve, by a practical reference, the disputed problem of the executive veto, and to place the President under a cross fire from the opposite banks of the Potomac River? He [Mr. B.] knew nothing about that veto, but he knew something of human nature, and something of the rights of the people under our representative form of government; and he would be free to say that a veto which would stop the encroachment of a minority of Congress upon the rights of its successors—which would arrest a frightful act of legislative usurpation-which would retrieve for the people the right of deliberation, and of action-which would arrest the overwhelming progress of a gigantic moneyed institution— which would prevent Ohio from being deprived of five votes, Indiana from losing four, Tennessee four, Illinois two, Alabama two, Kentucky, Mississippi and Missouri one each-which would lose six votes to New-York and two to Pennsylvania; a veto, in short, which would protect the rights of three millions of people, now unrepresented in Congress, would be an act of constitutional justice to the people, which ought to raise the President, and certainly would raise him, to a higher degree of favor in the estimation of every republican citizen of the community than he now enjoyed. By passing on the charter now, Congress would lose all check and control over the institution for the four years it had yet to run. The pendency of the question was a rod over its head for these four years; to decide the question now, is to free it from all restraint, and turn it loose to play what part it pleased in all our affairs-elections, State, federal, presidential. "Mr. B. turned to the example of England, 247 nations the realization of the Abbé Sieyes's fa- and begged the republican Senate of the United A motion was made by Mr. Moore of Alabama, declaratory of the right of the States to admit, or deny the establishment of branches of the mother bank within their limits, and to tax their loans and issues, if she chose to admit them: and in support of that motion Mr. Benton made this speech: "The amendment offered by the senator from Alabama [Mr. Moore] was declaratory of the rights of the States, both to refuse admission of these branch banks into their limits, and to tax them, like other property, if admitted: if this amendment was struck out, it was tantamount to a legislative declaration that no such rights existed, and would operate as a confirmation of the decision of the Supreme Court to that effect. It is to no purpose to say that the rejection of the amendment will leave the charter silent upon the subject; and the rights of the States, whatsoever they may be, will remain in full force. That is the state of the existing charter. It is silent upon the subject of State taxation; and in that silence the Supreme Court has spoken, and nullified the rights of the States. That court has decided that the Bank of the United States is independent of State legislation! consequently, that she may send branches into the States in defiance of their laws, and keep This them there without the payment of tax. is the decision; and the decision of the court is the law of the land; so that, if no declaratory clause is put into the charter, it cannot be said that the new charter will be silent, as the old The voice of the Supreme Court is now heard in that silence, proclaiming the supremacy of the bank, and the degradation of the States; and, unless we interpose now to countervail that voice by a legislative declaration, it will be impossible for the States to resit it, except by measures which no one wishes to contemplate. one was. "Mr. B. regretted that he had not seen in the papers any report of the argument of the senator from Virginia [Mr. Tazewell] in vindication of the right of the States to tax these branches. It was an argument brief, powerful, and conclusive-lucid as a sunbeam, direct as an arrow, and mortal as the stroke of fate to the adversary speakers. Since the delivery of that argument, they had sat in dumb show, silent as the grave, mute as the dead, and presenting to our imagi the act of the surrender, which is the constitution, they abridged this unlimited right but in two particulars-exports and imports-which they agreed no longer to tax, and therefore retained the taxing power entire over all other subjects. This was the substance of the argument which dumbfounded the adversary; and the distinction which was attempted to be set up between tangible and intangible, visible and ses and privileges on one side, and material subinvisible, objects of taxation; between franchistances on the other, was so completely blasted and annihilated by one additional stroke of believed that they had never made it! and sung lightning, that the fathers of the distinction really their palinodes in the face of the House. "The argument that these branches are necessary to enable the federal government to carry on its fiscal operations, and, therefore, ought to be independent of State legislation, is answered and expunged by a matter of fact, namely, that Congress itself has determined otherwise, and that in the very charter of the bank. The The charter limits the right of the federal government to the establishment of a single branch, and that one in the District of Columbia! branch at this place, and the parent bank at Philadelphia, are all that the federal government has stipulated for. All beyond that, is left to the bank itself; to establish branches in the States or not, as it suited its own interest; or to employ State banks, with the approbation of the Secretary of the Treasury, to do the business of the branches for the United States. Congress is contented with State banks to do the business of the branches in the States; and, therefore, authorizes the very case which gentlemen apprehend and so loudly deprecate, that New-York may refuse her assent to the continuance of the branches within her limits, and send the public deposits to the State banks. This is what the charter contemplates. Look at the charter; see the fourteenth article of the constitution of the bank; it makes it optionary with the directors of the bank to establish branches in such States as they shall think fit, with the alternative of using State banks as their substitutes in States in which they do not choose to establish branchThis brings the establishment of branches es. to a private affair, a mere question of profit and loss to the bank itself; and cuts up by the roots the whole argument of the necessity of these branches to the fiscal operations of the federal government. The establishment of branches in the States is, then, a private concern, and presents this question: Shall non-residents and aliens -even alien enemies, for such they may behave a right to carry on the trade of banking within the limits of the States, without their consent, without liability to taxation, and with |