A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st term
History
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st term
Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845; Presidents -- United States; United States -- History -- Sources; United States -- Politics and government
The modifications of the existing charter proposed by this act are not
such, in my view, as make it consistent with the rights of the States or
the liberties of the people. The qualification of the right of the bank
to hold real estate, the limitation of its power to establish branches,
and the power reserved to Congress to forbid the circulation of small
notes are restrictions comparatively of little value or importance. All
the objectionable principles of the existing corporation, and most of
its odious features, are retained without alleviation.
The fourth section provides "that the notes or bills of the said
corporation, although the same be, on the faces thereof, respectively
made payable at one place only, shall nevertheless be received by the
said corporation at the bank or at any of the offices of discount and
deposit thereof if tendered in liquidation or payment of any balance or
balances due to said corporation or to such office of discount and
deposit from any other incorporated bank." This provision secures to the
State banks a legal privilege in the Bank of the United States which is
withheld from all private citizens. If a State bank in Philadelphia owe
the Bank of the United States and have notes issued by the St. Louis
branch, it can pay the debt with those notes, but if a merchant,
mechanic, or other private citizen be in like circumstances he can not
by law pay his debt with those notes, but must sell them at a discount
or send them to St. Louis to be cashed. This boon conceded to the State
banks, though not unjust in itself, is most odious because it does not
measure out equal justice to the high and the low, the rich and the
poor. To the extent of its practical effect it is a bond of union among
the banking establishments of the nation, erecting them into an interest
separate from that of the people, and its necessary tendency is to unite
the Bank of the United States and the State banks in any measure which
may be thought conducive to their common interest.
The ninth section of the act recognizes principles of worse tendency
than any provision of the present charter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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