The Committee of Ways and Means, of 1829, Mr. M'Duffie chairman, to whom was referred so much of the President's Message as related to the Bank, declared themselves "constrained to express their respectful but decided dissent from his assertion that the Bank had failed to establish a uniform and sound currency, and that in this respect it had been productive of results more salutary than were anticipated by the most sanguine advocates of the policy of establishing it. It has actually furnished a circulating medium more uniform than specie; giving drafts, commanding specie at any point of the Union, at a per centage greatly less than it would cost to transport specie, and in many instances, at par." "When," add the Committee, "it is, moreover, considered, that, the Bank performs with the most scrupulous punctuality, the stipulation to transfer the funds of the government to any point, where they may be wanted, free of expense, it must be apparent, that the Committee are correct, to the very letter, in stating that the Bank has furnished, both to the government and the people, a currency of absolute uniform value, in all places, for all the purposes of paying the public contributions, and disbursing the public revenue. And when it is recollected, that the government annually collects and disburses more than twenty-three millions of dollars, those who are at all familiar with the subject, will, at once, perceive, that bills, which are of absolutely uniform value, for this vast operation, must be very nearly so, for all the purposes of general commerce.”

The stability and uniformity of the currency is so important a result of the Bank, being the great object of the government in chartering it, and so indispensable to the uniformity and equality of taxation, and the security and facility of business, that we proceed to establish it by yet further testimony.

The Committee of the Senate, on Finance, to which was referred a resolution of the 30th December, 1829, directing the Committee to inquire into the expediency of establishing an uniform national currency, reported among other things,

"That the government had, for ten years preceding the first of January, 1830, received from 9000 agents, $230,068,855 17. This sum has been collected in every section of this widely extended country. It has been disbursed at other points, many thousand miles distant from the places where it was collected; and yet, it has been so collected and distributed without the loss, so far as the committee can learn, of a single dollar, and without the expense of a single dollar to the government. That a currency by which the government has been enabled to collect and transfer such an amount of revenue to pay its army and navy, and alkits expenses and the national debt, is unsafe and unsound, cannot readily be believed; for there can be no surer test of its sufficiency, than the simple fact, that every dollar received in the form of a bank note, in the remotest parts of the interior. is without charge converted into a silver dollar, at every one of the vast number of places where the service of the government requires its dis

bursement. The Secretary of the Treasury, in his report of the 6th December, 1828, declares, that, during the four years preceding, the receipts of the government had amounted to more than ninety-seven millions of dollars, and that all the payments had been punctually met, and that it is the preservation of a good currency that can alone impart stability to property, and prevent those fluctuations in its value, hurtful alike to individuals and the nation. This advantage the Bank has secured to the community."

In the meantime let it be observed, that this declaration of the Secretary was made one year before the declaration of the President, that the Bank had failed to establish a sound and uniform currency.

After exhibiting and commenting upon the low rates to which the Bank had reduced exchange, the committee proceed:

"This seems to present a state of currency approaching as near to perfection as could be desired; for here is a currency, issued at twenty-four different parts of the Union, obtainable by any citizen who has money or credit. When in his possession, it is equivalent to silver, in all his dealings, with all the 9000 agents of the government, throughout the Union. In all his dealings with the interior, it is better than silver; in all his dealings in the commercial cities, equal to silver; and if, for any purpose, he desires the silver with which he bought it, it is at his disposal, almost universally, without any diminution, and never more than a diminution of one quarter of one per cent. It is not easy to imagine, it is scarcely necessary to desire, any currency better than this."

These reports, approved by the most august bodies of the United States, to whom the subject peculiarly belonged, and was confided, by the Constitution, were entitled to the respect of the President, as the sincere sentiments of men distinguished by their zeal in support of his election, but, more on account of their truth. But, he has wholly disregarded them; opposing his own judgment, unenlightened by experience or study, to the voice of practical wisdom, speaking in the most conciliatory tones.

We will add to this evidence, the testimony of Mr. Calhoun, whose agency in the establishment of the Bank, and uninterrupted connection with the government of the country for many years, render it highly important.

"But, while I shall not condescend to notice the charges of the Secretary against the Bank, beyond the extent which I have stated, a sense of duty to the institution, and regard to the part which I took in its creation, compels me to notice two allegations against it, which have fallen from another quarter. It is said, that the Bank had no agency, or at least efficient agency, in the restoration of specie payment in 1817, and that it had failed to furnish the country with a uniform and sound currency, as had been promised at its creation. Both of these allegations I pronounce to be without just foundation. To enter into a minute examination of them, would carry me too far from the subject, and I must content myself with saying, that having been on the political stage, without interruption, from that day to thishaving been an attentive observer of the question of the currency throughout the whole period that the Bank has been an indispensable agent in

the restoration of specie payments; that, without it, the restoration could not have been effected short of the utter prostration of all the moneyed insti→ tutions of the country, and an entire depreciation of Bank paper; and that, it has not only restored specie payment, but has given a currency far more uniform, between the extremes of the country, than was anticipated or even dreamed of, at the time of its creation. I will say for myself, that I did not believe, at that time, that the exchange between the Atlantic and the West would be brought lower than two and a half per cent-the estimated expense, then, including insurance and loss of time, of transporting specie between the two points. How much it was below the anticipated point, I need not state; the whole commercial world knows, that it was not a fourth part, at the time of the removal of the deposits."

But, there is another branch of the message of 1829, relating to this subject, which, taken in connection with subsequent events, is of the highest importance. It is observable, already, that the destruction of the Bank is not the sole passion of the President's mind. Another, equally strong, is intimately blended with it, and is the true cause of the first. It is the establishment of a national bank, wholly dependant upon the government. The project is, now, for the first time, presented, wild and undigested, to be moulded upon "the credit of the government and its revenues;" but it is never again lost sight of. The Committee of Ways and Means instantly seized the cub, and showed that, into whatever form it might be licked, it would be a monster too hideous for sight. Apprehending at once the design of the Executive, they observe, that,

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Deeply impressed with the conviction that the weak point of a free government is the absorbing tendency of executive patronage, and sincerely believing that the proposed Bank would invest that branch of the government with a weight of moneyed influence, more dangerous in its character, and more powerful in its operation, than the entire mass of its present patronage, the Committee have felt, that they were, imperiously, called upon, by the highest considerations of public duty, to express the views they have presented, with a frankness and freedom demanded by the occasion."

This first attack upon the Bank and the nation was repelled at every point. The Committee of Ways and Means distinctly put, and ably maintained, the following propositions: 1. That Congress had the constitutional power to incorporate a bank, such as that, of the United States. 2. That it is expedient to establish and maintain such an institution. And, 3. That it is inexpedient to establish a National Bank, founded upon the credit of the government and its revenues.

Thus rebuked and instructed, a decent respect for the legislature required, that the President should have left the subject to them and the people, until he was called to act upon it, officially, by the presentation of a bill for his approval. If, then, constitutional scruples prevailed to its rejection, however the veto might be regretted, it could not be condemned. But this, the only proper course, did not quadrate with the views of the

party. The nation, if suffered to discuss it, solely, as a question of policy, would, it was to be feared, recognise and pursue its true interests, and, in due season, recharter the Bank, and thus mar, forever, the design upon the Treasury. An appeal, therefore, was to be made from the councils of the nation to the Jackson party, whose energy was to be roused by incessant agitation. It was with this view, and certainly, with no hope of legislative action, that the President, in December, 1830, brought the Bank question again before the same Congress. With an invitation to reconsider the subject, he submitted, in a more specific form, the condemned project of a Treasury Bank; by which, at once claiming, as now, the right of the Treasury to dispose of the public deposits, an influence over the whole monetary power of the Union might be acquired. The evils of such an institution have been adverted to by Mr. Gallatin, and abundantly displayed in the congressional speeches on the removal of the deposits. As was to be expected, the Committee of Ways and Means, to whom that portion of the President's message was referred, gave no further attention to the subject.

On the convention of a new Congress in 1831, the President, in the concise manner we have already noticed, repeated his invitation; and, at the same session, the Bank applied for the renewal of its charter. This act of the Bank, to which it was stimulated by the course of the Executive for three successive years, has been denounced as premature, and as originating, solely, in hostility to the President.

"There are strong reasons," says that officer in his communication to his cabinet, 18th September, 1833, "for believing, that the motive of the Bank, in asking for a recharter, at that session of Congress, was to make it a leading question in the election of a President of the United States, the ensuing November." What was the motive of the President for calling the attention of Congress so repeatedly to the charter? Was it the design. to make it a political question? If so, surely the Bank was at liberty to seek the arena in which the question must be debated. Were the President's views to obtain a decision of Congress against the charter, six years before it would expire? If so, surely, there was no impropriety in the Bank in submitting the question to Congress, 'in a form that could not be evaded, only four years before the expiration of the charter. The reasons

which could render it proper and expedient for the President, on the part of the nation, to obtain an early decision upon this momentous subject, were equally operative upon the Bank, when acting for itself and for the country.

Charges had been raised against the propriety of the conduct of the Bank, into which the moment, when it asked a renewal of its charter, was the proper one for inquiry. A

Committee of Investigation, clothed with ample powers, was appointed; which, after a very full examination, divided in opinion; and three reports were made of their proceedings-one by a majority, another by a minority, of the Committee, and a third by an individual member, Mr. Adams. The effect of these proceedings is sufficiently apparent, in the passage of a bill, from the Senate, rechartering the Bank, by a vote of 107 to 85, in the House of Representatives. This bill, as we have seen, was rejected by the President upon the ground of the unconstitutionality and inexpediency of its provisions, but not on the ground, that Congress could not, constitutionally, charter a Bank of the United States.

Although the floodgates of party violence had been opened upon the Bank, in its corporate capacity, and upon its president and directors, individually, and all its acts had been grossly misrepresented by the members of the party in Congress, by its thousand presses, and by its orators in the primary meetings of the people, General Jackson, with self-respect, and respect for his station, had, hitherto, refrained from committing himself upon any definite charge of misconduct against the institution. But, the contest, which he had provoked, had but given triumph to the Bank. So far as the voice of the nation could be legitimately known, it was in favour of the Bank. Some more direct measure of hostility became necessary, and as vague charges of unconstitutionality and mismanagement had not rendered the people adverse to the institution, it was boldly and rashly resolved, by the administration, to create doubts of its insolvency. In his message to Congress of the 3d of December, 1832, after the arrangement made by the Bank, in relation to the payment of the three per cents, (which we shall have occasion to consider hereafter) the President observes,

"Such measures as are within the reach of the Secretary of the Treasury have been taken, to enable him to judge, whether the public deposits in that institution may be regarded as entirely safe. But, as his limited power may prove inadequate to this object, I recommend the subject to the attention of Congress, under the firm belief, that it is worthy of their serious investigation. An inquiry into the transactions of that institution, embracing the branches, as well as the principal Bank, seems called for, by the credit which is given throughout the country to many serious charges, impeaching its character, and which, if true, may justly excite the apprehension that it is no longer a safe depository of the money of the people."

And the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. M'Lane, (it is necessary now, from the frequent changes in this office, to give the name of the officer, to avoid confusion) by a paragraph, in his annual report, which he can never cease to regret whilst he continues to live, gave colour to this accusation of insolvency.