ii Its rights; but they are those of an official servant. Now, although a servant may claim the enforcement 4>f all his rights as strictly as the master ihay his, the two things are essentially different—a distinction of Which the bank’s whole conduct has marked supreme 'disregard. ? . The'famous resolutions of its directors, one of which authorised the preparation and circulation through the press,of “ 'such documents ^and papers "as may’communicate to the people information in regard to its nature and operations," I hold to have lieen in the highest degree bold and unlawful The language is imperious. Communicate information tp the people ! as if speaking from authority ; as if, like a co-ordinate power entrenched in the state, it Was'about to execute a trust ofcielegated sovereignty ! The very word seemed appropriate to coming elections. The bank was created for no such ends. The avowal of them, is an affront. to the whole country. It was created, so far as the government ^vas concerned, to be the mere" servant of its Treasury; the mere agent of its revenue, officers'. This Was the primary, the sole motive to its creation. Sb fai- as the stockholders were, concerned, and that their interests might be collaterally promoted, it was privileged to do the ordinary business of baiik- ■ing. In both bases, it wah subject to the many and jealous restrictions contained in the law'. To enlighten the people, through the press, on the nature And operations of banking, or on the nature of its own operations, ife among none of the powers grant- !ed to it. It is derivable from none, by any rational or equitable implication. ~ It is in conflict with the entire purpose and spirit of the law, no less than written guards visible in so many other respects'.. It Is notoriously in. conflict with contemporary opinions And feelings in the nation. It was not Without travail, that that law passed. Many obstacles were to be removed, many doubts to be obviated, many ’anxieties to be tranquilized. The illustrious head of the government who finally gave it his sanction, had ancient and heavy scruples to vanquish. The claim suggested is perfectly new. It is destitute of all shadow of excuse. It is as unnecessary as dangerous.' In the calmest mood of investigation, it Is difficult to say if it be most preposterous and offensive. If the bank, indulging its own theories of its own immutability, had taken fire at state papers constitutionally emanating from one branch of the government, if these must be considered attacks, there was defence enough in the state papers issuing from other branches. Each being published under public authority, and thus necessarily circulated, might well have stood, for purposes of justice, merely one against the other. The. stockholders or directors were also at liberty, as other citizens, to. write or print what they chose in their individual capacities, using their own funds. ” But, if, the pretension to prepare (mark the word) and circulate “ do- icitments and ’papers," as corporate acts, and with /the corporate funds, had been set up when the charter was applied for, who does not'see that it would ihavemet with instant reprobation ? Who does not (See, as the committee of ways And means have just- fly remarked, that it woiild have been fatal at once to every hope of obtaining one ? Its friends would ■quickly have disavowedThe pretension. Its oppo- ments would have scouted.it. Yet, when the government directors protested against a usurpation so tm* expected, it maybe added without undue strength, so astounding, what do the managers do ? They show defiance. They fesolve that it shall be follow, ed up with renovated vigor, and for indefinite peri-. ■ odsi Here is a temper sufficient, it might have been supposed, to awaken the reflecting. Never was more signally illustrated the principle of powef adding to itself. The claim is one which the bank, at the time of its origin, or in the days of its weakness,’would never have dreamed of making. It knew too well the sensitiveness of Congress to any thing thaLmight have started the bare possibility of such an institution ever-going into the political field at all,' nd matter what the purpose or provocation. It knew too well what had been said, whether rightfully or not, of the old bank, to run the most remote hazard of exciting fears which, more than any other cause, prevented the renewal of that expired charter. To be told that local banks spend their money freely on contingent objects, is no qn. swer. It is confounding all distinctions. It is like the bank transacting business with less than seven, directors {is a board, though it is made a “fundamental” article in its charter, because local banks act on similar principles. The national bank was for national purposes. Its notes being receivable every where for demands of the nation, gives then! (nothing else would) circulation every where. Hence their restricted or abundant issue makes, for the time being, money scarce or plenty through the nation ; in other words affects its whole currency, its whole property. And hence the wisdoni of Congress in providing that so vast a discretion should not be exercised but by a competent number of the directors. Yet, the analogies of state banks in their business, are to be held up as guides for such an institution, against the words of its charter, and the national objects in granting it! The defenders of the bank treat these extraordinary resolutions as nothing. They take post upon their innocence. It is the only resurce left to .them. They would compare things the most unimportant, with things the most momentous. Let us hear in a word what their ground is. They allege that stationary, for example, must be purchased for the bank.; and would there be harm in the board passing an order to that effect, although they did not accompany it with any appropriation or limit for the sum? Stationary ! and is the common sense of the nation to be so dealt with? The purchase of paper and account books might well enough indeed be ordered, without limiting the sum. But who so wanting in perception aA not to see, that, under the resolutions in question, aw thing may be done in the way of employing and paying the press ? that no line would or could be drawn between the “information” to be written' down and disseminated through the country, and political matter that would run into it ? that the whole country might thus be flooded with partizan publications, of every drift and hue, according to the temper of the pens employed ? . All this is evident. It is scarcely hidden under the surface. Accordingly the positive proof corresponds with the inevitable anticipation. Those who have read Senator Benton’S speech, and other-speeches, may see what description Of “documents and papers” ware prepared and circulated. The resolutions were an entering wedge, wide
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=