Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
Amongst other acts of questionable validity, the notes of the expired
corporation are known to have been used as its own and again put in
circulation. That the old bank had no right to issue or re-issue its
notes after the expiration of its charter can not be denied, and that
it could not confer any such right on its substitute any more than
exercise it itself is equally plain. In law and honesty the notes of
the bank in circulation at the expiration of its charter should have
been called in by public advertisement, paid up as presented, and,
together with those on hand, canceled and destroyed.
Their re-issue is sanctioned by no law and warranted by no necessity.
If the United States be responsible in their stock for the payment of
these notes, their re-issue by the new corporation for their own profit
is a fraud on the Government. If the United States is not responsible,
then there is no legal responsibility in any quarter, and it is a fraud
on the country. They are the redeemed notes of a dissolved partnership,
but, contrary to the wishes of the retiring partner and without his
consent, are again re-issued and circulated.
It is the high and peculiar duty of Congress to decide whether any
further legislation be necessary for the security of the large amount
of public property now held and in use by the new bank, and for
vindicating the rights of the Government and compelling a speedy and
honest settlement with all the creditors of the old bank, public and
private, or whether the subject shall be left to the power now
possessed by the Executive and judiciary. It remains to be seen whether
the persons who as managers of the old bank undertook to control the
Government, retained the public dividends, shut their doors upon a
committee of the House of Representatives, and filled the country with
panic to accomplish their own sinister objects may now as managers of a
new bank continue with impunity to flood the country with a spurious
currency, use the $7 millions of Government stock for their own profit,
and refuse to the United States all information as to the present
condition of their own property and the prospect of recovering it into
their own possession.
The lessons taught by the Bank of the United States can not well be
lost upon the American people. They will take care never again to place
so tremendous a power in irresponsible hands, and it will be fortunate
if they seriously consider the consequences which are likely to result
on a smaller scale from the facility with which corporate powers are
granted by their State governments.
It is believed that the law of the last session regulating the deposit
banks operates onerously and unjustly upon them in many respects, and
it is hoped that Congress, on proper representations, will adopt the
modifications which are necessary to prevent this consequence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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