MAY 22, 1832] Columbian College.--Internal Improvements. bia on the legislative action of Congress had been neglected during the present session, moved to postpone all the preceding orders, for the purpose of acting on some of the bills relating to the District of Columbia. The motion being agreed to, Several of those bills were passed through; when The Senate took up the bill to grant certain public lots in the city of Washington, to the value of $25,000, for the benefit of the COLUMBIAN COLLEGE, in the District of Columbia. [SENATE. doubted the constitutional power of Congress to appropriate, for the benefit of the District, the fund placed in the hands of the Government for that purpose. If the bill was laid on the table now, as proposed by the gentleman from Tennessee, there is no probability that it will come up again this session. The college had never received any thing from the Government, and the sum proposed would establish it on a firm basis. Mr. GRUNDY said his object was, in part, to obtain, by the delay proposed, the very information which the chairman had now given. He did not wish to be understood as opposed to the appropriation; but he still thought Mr. CHAMBERS having explained the object of the that the question was one of sufficient magnitude to be disbill. cussed in a fuller Senate. Mr. GRUNDY moved that the bill be laid on the table, with the understanding that its consideration should be resumed in a fuller Senate. He was willing to go on with the ordinary business of the District of Columbia, but this bill involved a principle of grave importance. Whether Congress has the power to make appropriations for education in this District, was a question deserving of consideration. Mr. HOLMES said it would not be doubted that Congress had the power, as the local legislature of the District, over which it had exclusive jurisdiction, to make appropriations for any beneficial purposes within the Dis trict. Mr. TYLER was, he said, in favor of the donation, but he denied that Congress was chargeable with any neglect of this institution. He remembered that some time ago we released the college from a debt of thirty thousand dollars, due by it to the Government. The college had no right to complain of the Government. Mr. CLAY wished to inquire who composed the government of this college. Some years ago it was in the hands of those to whom no money should go by his vote. Unless there had been, since that time, a real reform, a radical change, in the management of this institution, he would not vote to it a cent. Mr. TAZEWELL asked whether the college was incorporated. Being told that it was, he wished to know what were the objects of the institution. The college was not a "noves hospes" here. It had often been before us, and never in a very attractive form. It had then been objected to it that its purposes were sectarian. If it was established and incorporated with a view to sectarian purposes, he should hold himself bound to withhold from it any aid or countenance. Mr. HAYNE expressed the opinion that all the avails of the public lots in the District should be appropriated to the improvement of the District. But it would be improper to go into the treasury for that purpose. If we pass the limits of this appropriate fund, we might proceed to establish, in the District, schools of agriculture, a national university, silk-reeling schools, duck factories; and we might establish a free system of education for the whole United States, located in the District of Columbia. He Mr. CHAMBERS and Mr. HOLMES replied, at some was favorably disposed towards the District, and he wished length, to the suggestion and queries of Messrs. CLAY and to see adopted some general scheme of improvement, TAZEWELL. They stated that the funds of the college adapted to the wants and to the means of the District. He were now judiciously managed, and that though it was prinwished, therefore, to know how the account stands between cipally founded by the Baptists, who still lent it their aid, the District and the Goverment; what sums have been yet its objects were exclusively literary and scientific. Mr. received, and what expended, in the District of Columbia CHAMBERS explained the character of the former transsince its cession to the Government. actions of the college with the Government, showing that the college gained nothing, and that the Government lost nothing in consequence of them. Mr. SMITH thought, as the proprietor of a portion of the land in the District, the Government was bound to make appropriations for the benefit of the District. In The motion to lay the bill on the table was rejected by the new States, we pursued this course. The original a vote of 20 to 9, and the bill was ordered to a third proprietors of this land ceded a portion of it to the Govern- reading. ment for the benefit, not of the public treasury, but of the District. TUESDAY, MAY 22. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. The bill from the House, making appropriations for certain internal improvements, having been read a second time, Mr. HENDRICKS moved that it be referred to the Committee on Roads and Canals. Mr. CHAMBERS moved that it be referred to the Committee on Commerce. Mr. CHAMBERS, in reply to Mr. HAYNE's inquiry, stated that the number of city lots formerly held by the Government was about 11,000, of which 6,000 had been sold for the sum of 735,000 dollars. The remaining lots now in the possession of the Government were valued at from twelve to thirteen hundred thousand dollars. The whole amount, therefore, of the fund derived by the Government from the District was but a fraction less than two millions of dollars. The whole amount of appropriations for the benefit of the District, made by Congress since the formation of the Government, was only one hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars, and this sum included appropriations for walks, &c. which are as much for the benefit of individuals connected with the Government as for the benefit of the citizens. He of course excluded, in this statement, the sum of three millions, expended on public buildings, for with them the District had no concern at all; having no representatives in Congress, they had less in- Mr. MILLER wished that the bill might go to the terest in the public edifices than the citizens of any other Committee on Roads and Canals, and that Congress would part of the country. The Government, therefore, held a be checked in the exercise of an unconstitutional power. fund of eighteen hundred thousand dollars, the only legiti Mr. POINDEXTER asked if it would be in order to mate purpose of which was the improvement of this District. refer so much of the bill as related to the Cumberland He could not understand upon what ground gentlemen road to the Committee on Roads and Canals, and the Mr. CLAY expressed a hope that the bill would be sent to the Committee on Commerce. He thought it was proper to look to practical results; and he was apprehensive that if the bill was sent to the Committee on Roads and Canals, it would reach a harbor there from which it would not be able to make its escape. He was desirous to send it to a committee which was not hostile to its objects. SENATE.] Colonial Trade.--Colonel John Laurens. [MAY 22, 1832. residue of the bill to the Committee on Commerce. The sent and to prosecute this claim; and for more than ten bill was of a mixed character. The Cumberland road years of this period it has been, from time to time, before appropriation stood there as a unit, to use the court phrase, Congress, in one House or the other. And let me tell and ought to be sent to the Committee on Roads and Ca-the honorable gentleman that neither House of Congress, nals. He referred to some circumstances which prevent- nor any committee of either House, have ever expressed ed him from attending that committee, and would vote an opinion adverse to these intrinsic merits. Even the rather to send the bill to the Committee on Commerce. committee of whom the honorable gentleman was a memMr. HOLMES regarded the bill as a complete jumble; ber, did not report against its intrinsic merits. They say parts of it might go to any committee, for it embraced expressly, we abstain from giving any opinion upon the almost every thing. But as the principal items were merits; still they recommend that the prayer of the peti commercial in their character, he was in favor of sending tioner be not granted. And why? For certain reasons it to the Committee on Commerce. embodied in the report. And what are these? The same Mr. JOHNSTON took a similar view of the construc-which he now urges against this, and which I am canvasstion of the bill, and said the object seemed to be to take ing. The previous report in favor of this claim, after a this bill from the Committee on Commerce, to which it had, full investigation thereof by the committee, of whom Go year after year, been given, and to give it to the Commit-vernor Barbour was chairman, and the now President of tee on Roads and Canals, a committee which was so con- the United States was then a member, was disagreed to stituted, either from design or from accident, as to be by the Senate, not for the want of merits in the claim, but hostile to the bill. Mr. HENDRICKS said that, although the Committee on Roads and Canals could not go the lengths of some Senators in their construction of the constitutional powers of Congress, there was great liberality in that body. He insisted that there were other items than the Cumberland road in the bill, which rendered the reference to the Committee on Roads and Canals a proper one. But, as he would decline the responsibility of hazarding the fate of the bill, he would withdraw his motion. The motion was then withdrawn, and the bill was referred to the Committee on Commerce. COLONIAL TRADE. Mr. SPRAGUE then rose, and stated that it was his purpose now to redeem a pledge which he had given some time since to the Senator from Maryland, [Mr. SMITH.] During the debate on the colonial trade, that Senator had said that, whenever he [Mr. SPRAGUE] should call up the resolutions which he had laid on the table on this subject, he would be ready to go into the discussion. To enable that Senator to fulfil his purpose, he would now move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of these resolutions. Mr. SMITH said that, whatever disposition he might have felt at that time to go into such discussion, he had no such disposition now. He had expected that the Senator from Maine would take the course he had now taken; but, as that Senator had now redeemed his pledge, he trusted that the motion would not be further pressed. because all the parties to the claim were not at that time parties to the petition. But now no such difficulty exists; all the parties to the claim are parties to the petition, and can give the necessary discharges. I repeat, that neither House of Congress, and no committee of either House, have ever expressed an opinion adverse to the intrinsic merits of this claim; no, not even the gentleman himself, when, as a member of a committee, he investigated this case; nor, indeed, has he now. But to return: I have said that, for more than twenty years of this delay, there was no one in this country to represent and to prosecute this claim. The accounts with Colonel Laurens were adjusted by the treasury in 1790; then, Henry Laurens, his father, was an old man, and this claim, because, as has been before stated, his son had soon after died; he died in 1792. He never preferred kept no account of these expenses, and had made no charge of them against the United States; and because, as he states, he did not know that his son ever meant to make the claim. After his death, the daughter of Colonel Laurens, then a child, went to England to live with her maternal relatives, (Colonel Laurens had married in England,) where she has lived ever since, and now lives. for his education till 1819, when he came to his patrimo Her son, and only surviving child, remained in England nial inheritance in South Carolina, where he now is, in charge of that inheritance. About three years after, in 1823, this claim was made, and a petition for its allowance preferred to Congress. Here let me say that I know to say that I do not know a more amiable young man. I this grandson of Colonel Laurens, and it gives me pleasure think it impossible to know him as I do, without feeling a kindness for him for his amiable disposition, nor without feeling a respect for him, as the grandson of Colonel Laurens. Let me say to the honorable gentleman, that, if he knew him as I do, he never could have the heart to say to him: "Sir, this your hereditary claim may be just in itself; but it has remained a long time unsatisfied, and therefore ought now never to be satisfied; nor shall it be if I can prevent it. Away, sir, with your claim, and never Mr. ROBBINS said, it will be recollected that this is let me hear of it again within the walls of this Senate." a claim for expenses disbursed on a foreign mission, by Is it possible that language like this could be held to Colonel Laurens, due by the then existing usage of the the descendant of Colonel Laurens, appealing to the jus Government, which was to pay these expenses instead of tice of his country to satisfy an hereditary claim, acknow allowing an outfit; due also by an express resolution of ledged to be at least, not denied to be-just in itself? Congress. Nothing has been said, nothing can be said, And all for a laches of three years in prosecuting the claim: against the merits, the intrinsic merits, of this claim: for for that is all the laches that can be imputed. Where, these are obvious, they are palpable, they are undeniable. let me ask, was this objection when the widow of Colonel But it has been said by the honorable gentleman from Hamilton petitioned for the commutation claimed for ac Virginia, [Mr. TAZEWELL,] that the claim (not denying count of her husband?--a claim which he had never made; its intrinsic merits, however,) is stale; that it is a dormant a claim which it has always been understood he had exclaim, now dormant for forty years; and that, therefore, pressly waived; and had recorded that waiver, in order it ought not now to be satisfied. But is the fact so? Has to place his vote for the commutation (he was then a mem this claim been so dormant? For more than twenty years ber of Congress) above the suspicion of an interested of this period there was no one in this country to repre- motive. Yet that claim was allowed, together with the Mr. SPRAGUE said that, as he himself had already occupied much of the time of the Senate in the exposition of his views on the subject, he was not disposed, on his own account, to revive the discussion; and, as the Senator from Maryland declined to avail himself of the opportunity now offered to him, he should withdraw his motion. The motion was then withdrawn. COLONEL JOHN LAURENS. The Senate then took up the bill for the relief of the representatives of Colonel John Laurens. MAY 22, 1832.] Colonel John Laurens. [SENATE. legal interest for the whole interval of time. That claim the treasury, had been disallowed by the treasury, and had indeed slept, was in fact dormant, from 1783 to 1816; were barred thereby, so far as that could bar them; but that more than thirty years; still it was allowed. The act was this claim of Laurens never has been passed upon by the indeed due to the family of that great man, and did honor treasury; never has been before the treasury: it is indisto the justice of the country. But if staleness was a good putable; it is just in itself; it has never been satisfied. And plea against a claim just in itself, compared with this, will the Senate now say it never shall be satisfied? it applied with more than tenfold force against that; A word more, and I have done. Something has been yet, against that, it was not made, or, if made, it did not said by the honorable gentleman from Maine, not to deroprevail. gate from the intrinsic merits of this claim, but to dispaThe same honorable gentleman has also said that the rage the personal merits of Colonel Laurens--how becomaccount of Colonel Laurens has been adjusted and closed ingly, let the history of his country bear witness. That hisby the treasury, and that to open this account would be a tory has recorded laurel after laurel conferred upon him precedent of a dangerous tendency. But let the honor- by his country, to attest her grateful sense of his high and able gentleman reflect that it is not proposed to open this glorious merits. These recorded honors have long since account, nor to unsettle this settlement; no such thing. It gathered round his tomb; they now thicken over it, and is simply proposed to pay a claim just in itself, that never will forever adorn it. So long as the sentiment of gratihas been adjusted by the treasury; never has been passed tude shall beat in the bosom of his country at the recolupon by the treasury; never has been before the treasury. lection of her revolutionary martyrs, these recorded honors Why it was not presented, has been explained, repeatedly shall flourish in immortal verdure; and even if it were explained, and the explanation will, doubtless, be recol- possible for this sentiment of gratitude to die in the bosom lected. Colonel Hamilton's account, too, had been ad- of his country, they would still flourish in history to kindle justed by the treasury, and closed. The claim to his the sentiment of admiration in every other. For, so long commutation did not disturb that settlement, for it had as this language shall last, be spoken, or read; wherever, made no part of the account; it left the settlement good in all future time, the sublime virtues of patriotic devotion for all it professed to settle. Neither does the claim to and heroic bearing shall sway the affections of the human these expenses disturb the settlement in this case, for it heart, the name of Laurens will be the theme of unminhad made no part of the account; nor were they passed gled praise, as the hero above fear, as the patriot beyond upon by the treasury; the settlement is left good for all it reproach. I confess I felt hurt that an American Senaprofessed to settle. tor in the American Senate--the proudest theatre in the world, and that erected on the blood of our revolutionary heroes, should indulge a wish to cast a shade, even if he could, upon one of the brightest names in that host. The fact alluded to, if it were a fact, would not, in my opinion, cast a shade, nor even the shadow of a shade, upon that bright name. It would only prove that, in that instance, as in every other, the love of country predominated, and was his ruling passion. Nor did he pursue his honorable end by dishonorable means. He did, with the funds of his country in his hands, what he had a right to do; what his duty to his country required him to do; and for doing which he had the approbation of his country, and her recorded thanks. I do not complain of the statement, therefore, for its possible effect to prejudice the pure fame of Colonel Laurens, but for its apparent intent. It is true there is a claim to a trifling amount beside, growing out of errors appearing on the face of the account, but for this claim the settlement itself is the voucher; and the claim is made because the settlement itself gives a title to it; just as good a title as a certificate of the treasury, certifying that amount to be unpaid and still due. But one word as to the sacredness of a settlement once made by the treasury. Let it be sacred, if you please, with the treasury itself; let the treasury, thenceforth, cease to have any control over it. But is it to tie the hands of Congress, whatever injustice may have been done by the settlement? If a claim has been disallowed by the treasury, which ought to have been allowed, and that made clearly to appear, is there to be no redress? Neither at the treasury nor by Congress? Is this the mise- For the most precious of all treasure which any counrable situation of a just claimant upon the Government? try can possess, is the fame of her great men. It is that No, sir; no, indeed, sir, it is not. For innumerable alone which renders any country resplendent in the almost have been the appeals from the injustice of trea- eyes of every other. The clarum et venerabile nomen, in sury settlements to the justice of Congress for relief; and every instance, as well as in that which the poet celewhen, let me ask, has relief been denied, if a just claim brates, brings much to our city. That fame endures forto it has been made out clearly and indisputably? That ever: it survives all the revolutions and the ravages of relief, to the honor of the public justice be it spoken, time; even those which leave the country itself a wreck, though it has sometimes, perhaps too often, been delayed, even those which blot the nation itself out of existence; has never, I believe, been finally refused. Had not the even then it still survives, to become the property of manaccounts of Governor Tompkins and President Monroe kind, and to do honor to the species, and especially to do been settled at the treasury? And did not both petition honor to the memory of the departed nation. But its great Congress for relief, against the injustice of that settlement? value is this--it is prolific of great men; beyond any thing And did not Congress grant relief-that settlement to the and every thing else, it awakens and supplies fuel to that contrary notwithstanding? Yes, most certainly. I refer noblest of all sentiments, the love of country; it excites and to high examples, it is true; and perhaps some may think, leads on to a perpetual emulation in the race of glory. What therefore, not applicable to ordinary cases. But justice a heart, then, must I have, if I could indulge a wish to disknows not the face of man in her decrees; she knows honor a name that does honor, and will forever do honor, nothing of high nor low; she gives nothing to renown for itself; she denies nothing to obscurity, because unknown; she says, and she accordingly decrees- "Tros, Tyrius que, mihi nullo discrimine agetur." But, if she did make these discriminations, I should not disparage the names of Tompkins and Monroe; nor would they, if living, think theirs disparaged, by being associated in the regards of their country with the name of Laurens. Neither would they challenge, nor would any one challenge for them, a higher distinction. But let it be remembered that their claims had been passed upon by to the name of my country! Mr. TAZEWELL opposed the claim. Its justice did not rest on the services of the deceased, for he did not deny their merit, or that they entitled him to the eulogium pronounced on his memory, in the language of the Senator from Rhode Island, as clarum et venerabile nomen; but it was right to go back to their merits, and ask, is there any money due or not? The claim had been before the House of Representatives before now, and as often rejected. It had become the practice, when a claim was rejected in one House, to bring it forward in the other, and there it SENATE.] Bank of the United States. [MAY 23, 1832 vibrated, till at length a favorable report was obtained, some days ago, he [Mr. D.] gave notice of his intention to and then it was again preferred with the recommendation call the bill up at the present time, it was supposed that of having passed one of the legislative bodies. But even all these reports and documents would now be upon their this did not hold good respecting the present bill; for as tables, circumstances over which no control could be ex often as it was brought forward in either House, it had re-ercised by himself, or any of the committee of which he ceived reiterated rejections. It was not analogous to the was chairman, have yet prevented their being supplied case of Colonel Hamilton. The claims of Colonel Laurens with them. Nevertheless, the principal facts and deduc had already been settled, even before the formation of the tions were doubtless incorporated in the three reports al present Government, and his receipt received for the pay-ready published in the daily journals; and as the members inent of every cent due. Such was not the case as re- of the Senate have had access to these, he might assume garded Colonel Hamilton; there was no doubt of the debt that they were in possession of all the information desired due, and no such receipt existed, for the strong reason at this moment. He expected to receive the rest of the that nothing had previously been paid. Colonel L. papers from day to day. From these sources, in connex died in 1781 or '82, and now a claim was advanced, with ion with the printed statements and official communica compound interest, four times a year for forty years. Who tions, themselves bulky, already before the Senate, details ever heard of the like? For these several reasons he should so ample and satisfactory can be deduced, that he had oppose the bill. thought any introductory remarks more a matter of for mality than of utility. He should be as brief as possible. The great question involved in the bill then under con sideration was, whether the Congress of the United States would prolong the existence of a national institution erect ed, sixteen years ago, for wise and salutary purposes. Shall it be permitted to expire, agreeably to the limita tion of its charter, on the 3d of March, 1836? Undoubt The bill was supported by Mr. HAYNE, and opposed by Mr. SMITH and Mr. MANGUM. The question was then put, and the bill was ordered to a third reading, by the following vote: YEAS.-Messrs. Buckner, Chambers, Clayton, Clay, NAYS.-Messrs. Bell, Dickerson, Foot, Grundy, Hendricks, Mangum, Marcy, Ruggles, Smith, Tazewell, White.--11. BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. Mr. DALLAS, pursuant to the notice he had given some days before, moved that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of the bill to modify and continue the act incorporating the subscribers to the Bank of the United States. The motion was agreed to-yeas 24. Mr. DALLAS then stated, that, having brought this question before the Senate, he should content himself with this success, and would not, at this late hour of the day, enter into the views which he proposed to present to the Senate. He would therefore move that the Senate now adjourn; and The Senate adjourned. WEDNESDAY, MAY 23. portance to the political, financial, and commercial inte rests of the country, the whole country; of importance to the American people in their diversified transactions of trade, in the every-day affairs of life, in the necessity of preparing themselves for such a shock to their social condition and active employments, as must inevitably follow upon a decision adverse to the continuance of the corporation. High and momentous as the question was, he hoped it would be encountered and canvassed by the Senate as one purely and merely of legislative business: divested of bias or prejudice of every kind; with a single munity at large. It was, indeed, impossible, seeing what view to the discharge of a representative duty to the com we constantly saw, and reading daily what daily appeared in the newspapers of every quarter of the country, not to know that considerations naturally extraneous and irrele vant had gradually become mixed up with this question, and had given it a character and direction alike foreign and injurious to it. He would invoke from the wisdom, and virtue, and patriotism, of the grave council he addressed, the calmest, the most candid, and most upright Mr. POINDEXTER moved that the Senate now pro-reflection: at least, if it were impossible to throw aside all ceed to the consideration of the joint resolution reported by him some time since, authorizing the President to cause an equestrian statue of General Washington to be executed, but the Senate refused to sustain the motion. BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. The Senate then took up the bill to modify and continue the act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank of the United States. feeling or prepossession, he was confident that every Se nator would struggle to repress and subdue it: he felt no doubt that such would be the prevailing, if not universal, disposition. In the absence of all improper feeling, af fecting the subject, he might be allowed to say as to him. self, personally, that he should perhaps stand in need, if not on the present, perhaps on some future occasions, of the indulgence of the Senate; when he confessed the existence of that species of bias which cannot but in some Mr. DALLAS rose, and said, the interest inseparably at- degree, though, he trusted, not in a measure to blind or tached to the subject under consideration, had, since the mislead his judgment, arise from an undying and ever-inmemorials from the stockholders and directors of this creasing veneration for the wisdom and patriotism of the bank were presented to both Houses of Congress, led to author of the charter now under discussion. This was the such exploring investigations, and such ample and authen- only feeling of which he was at all conscious. tic developments, as must make any detailed or elaborate The Senate had been impelled to the discharge of this discussion tedious and unnecessary. It had been the ef- piece of legislative business in a variety of ways, and by fort of the committee of the Senate, to whom the subject countless memorials and petitions. The voluminous pa was confided, to facilitate every inquiry, and to furnish pers which were crowded to the Secretary's desk, ever every information which could be desired. Their labors, since its introduction, speak no ordinary language. A however, were in a great measure superseded by the very large number of the citizens of the United States, course pursued in the other branch of the Legislature; by in their separate and individual capacities, affixed their the appointment of a committee to scrutinize the affairs signatures to these documents, and interposed their earnest of the bank, to examine such matters as were deemed par- prayers that this institution should be prolonged in dura ticularly worthy of examination, and to report at large the tion. Many public corporations, actively engaged in the results. Three reports had recently been made, accom-business of the world, even those of a rival character, panied by voluminous documents; and although, when, competitors in the vast money transactions of the country, MAY 23, 1832.] Bank of the United States. [SENATE. having felt, frankly acknowledge its beneficial influence, principal managers, to listen to any imputations without a and had transmitted their memorials, anxiously as well as conviction of their injustice, and the most sincere regret. generously requesting the renewal of the charter. Rising He would also venture to say, that if any one, for the a step higher, numerous assemblies of the people, in the purpose of depreciating the institution itself, or of awakenEast, the West, and the North, convened solely, but ing jealousies and prejudices, should undertake to impugn openly and undisguisedly, to deliberate upon this matter, the conduct, motives, or personal characters of those by had, with the imposing weight to which such assemblies whom it has been conducted, the materials for complete are always entitled, forwarded their solicitous petitions and final vindication would be found at hand, in the refor the renewal of the charter. And one step still further: ports and documentary evidence furnished from the commany of the legislative bodies of the respective States of mittee of the other House. It ill became him, however, the Union, those very bodies whose voices called into to presuppose that such a course of discussion would be official being the members of the Senate, in the formality introduced. of constitutional representative deliberation, and under The essential and paramount objects for the enactment the solemn responsibilities of their stations, appealed to of the charter of the bank, in 1816, were doubtless well Congress in favor of this bank, and invoked such action as remembered by the Senators present. They were, the would prolong its existence. Indeed, it would seem as if establishment of a sound and uniform national currency; our fellow-citizens, in all parts of the country, individually the creation of a fit instrument for the collection and distriand collectively, had attentively listened to the voice of bution of the public revenue; the restoration of specie their present Chief Magistrate, by whom they had been payments, then unlawfully suspended by all the State wisely invited to the consideration of the subject more banks, the sole manufactories of the circulating medium; than two years ago; and had, now that the proper occa- and the designation of a safe agency wherewith to facilision arrived, come forward to express the results of that tate the general financial operations of the Government. consideration, with unequivocal prayers for the re-enact- Every hour's experience, since the declaration of indement of the charter. To a pressure so perfectly legiti-pendence, had proved the vast importance of these obmate in its character, and distinct and respectful in its jects, from the creation of the Bank of North America, tone, Congress could not be insensible. The Senate, he under the auspices of Robert Morris, in 1781, to that of doubted not, would respond to it, at least by disposing of the first Bank of the United States, projected by Alexanthe question as one of urgent legislative business. It was der Hamilton, in 1791, and especially during the five their duty to terminate it, one way or another. years of peace and of war which intervened between the The chief feature of the bill reported by the committee, expiration of the charter in 1811, and its revival in a new and now before the Senate, was its first section, containing, form in 1816. During the forty-three years which have as it does, an allowance of the prayers of the many me- elapsed since the adoption of the constitution, the country morialists to whom he had referred, by continuing in force has been without a national bank only seven years; the and operation the act incorporating the Bank of the national objects adverted to were, of course, for those United States for the term of fifteen years. In recom-seven years wholly neglected; and it can be asserted mending this, the committee looked to the national insti- without danger of denial, that five of those years teemed tution; its structure, its purposes, its tendencies, its ne- with more commercial disaster, fiscal embarrassment, cessary and natural course of operations, its limitations, trading inconvenience, and fraudulent money transactions, conditions, and restrictions, as it emanated from the than were witnessed before, or than can possibly be legislative mould sixteen years ago. And they could dis- witnessed during the existence of a wisely and discreetly cern no reason for any substantial change. They could administered Bank of the United States. He [Mr. D.] not be affected, in the formation of this judgment, by any forbore making references to historical facts, further than scrutiny into the personal conduct or motives of those to was absolutely necessary. They were familiar in the whose management the general powers of the corporation actual experience, and fresh in the memory of those had, at any time, been confided. The abuse of a public whom he addressed; and they were abundant to prove the office may disqualify its incumbent, but furnishes no argu- vast, the vital importance of the objects he had enumement whatever for the abolition of the office itself. Every rated as the fundamental objects contemplated by the thing which human ingenuity has devised, or can devise, charter of 1816. for good, may be misapplied, and be made the means of The attainment of these great objects was, however, mischief. The most beneficent trusts, guarded in the to be accomplished in a manner compatible with a jealous most careful manner, may be unfaithfully administered by protection of the political liberties, a full security of the bad and selfish agents. What office, legislative, judicial, civil rights, an anxious solicitude for the convenience, and or executive, could be permanent, could escape early de- an ardent desire for the social happiness and prosperity struction, if its existence were made dependent upon the of the whole American people. Hence, while a bank wisdom, purity, and virtue of the human being who hap- was selected as the means for effectuating the desired pened to hold it? With such a principle, we should be purposes, the act of its incorporation, its charter, was forever, and perhaps every year, remodelling our whole loaded with multiplied, efficacious, and insurmountable Government organization, abolishing establishments, offi- restrictions and limitations; the supervisory interposition ces, and institutions; reconstructing a fresh series only of the Government was established; summary proceedings that the perpetually recurring frailties of man might were preordained for investigation and judicial trial; and lead again and unceasingly to the work of destruction and the highest penalties prescribed for infractions of the charter. Every necessary mode of reaching the corpoHe [Mr. D.] would not be supposed, in these re- ration, either to correct its abuses, to control its tendenmarks, to intimate that the committee entertained, for one cies, or to punish its illegal acts, was carefully chalked out moment, the slightest suspicion that the existing charter, in advance, and held within the power of national legislaor any of its privileges, had been, by the stockholders, tion. He [Mr. D.] would not enter upon a detailed redirectors, or any of the officers, perverted or misused, in view of the provisions of the charter; the Senate and the the least degree. Such suspicions could not be entertained people are alike well informed of them all; and he would by any one acquainted with the subject, and with the in- only add, that the committee believed no more perfect dividuals referred to. For his own part, he had been too mode of achieving, and of still preserving now that they long conversant with the general course of operations in are achieved, the great national objects to which he had the institution, and had enjoyed too many opportunities of referred, can be devised, than the one delineated in that orrectly estimating the worth and intelligence of its instrument. renovation. VOL. VIII.-60 |