Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
evidence complete as to the past application of the money and power of
the bank to electioneering purposes, but that the resolution of the
board of directors authorized the same course to be pursued in future.
It being thus established by unquestionable proof that the Bank of the
United States was converted into a permanent electioneering engine, it
appeared to me that the path of duty which the executive department of
the Government ought to pursue was not doubtful. As by the terms of the
bank charter no officer but the Secretary of the Treasury could remove
the deposits, it seemed to me that this authority ought to be at once
exerted to deprive that great corporation of the support and
countenance of the Government in such an use of its and such an
exertion of its power. In this point of the case the question is
distinctly presented whether the people of the United States are to
govern through representatives chosen by their unbiased suffrages or
whether the money and power of a great corporation are to be secretly
exerted to influence their judgment and control their decisions. It
must now be determined whether the bank is to have its candidates for
all offices in the country, from the highest to the lowest, or whether
candidates on both sides of political questions shall be brought
forward as heretofore and supported by the usual means.
At this time the efforts of the bank to control public opinion, through
the distresses of some and the fears of others, are equally apparent,
and, if possible, more objectionable. By a curtailment of its
accommodations more rapid than any emergency requires, and even while
it retains specie to an almost unprecedented amount in its vaults, it
is attempting to produce great embarrassment in one portion of the
community, while through presses known to have been sustained by its
money it attempts by unfounded alarms to create a panic in all.
These are the means by which it seems to expect that it can force a
restoration of the deposits, and as a necessary consequence extort from
Congress a renewal of its charter. I am happy to know that through the
good sense of our people the effort to get up a panic has hitherto
failed, and that through the increased accommodations which the State
banks have been enabled to afford, no public distress has followed the
exertions of the bank, and it can not be doubted that the exercise of
its power and the expenditure of its money, as well as its efforts to
spread groundless alarm, will be met and rebuked as they deserve. In my
own sphere of duty I should feel myself called on by the facts
disclosed to order a scire facias against the bank, with a view to put
an end to the chartered rights it has so palpably violated, were it not
that the charter itself will expire as soon as a decision would
probably be obtained from the court of last resort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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