SENATE.]

Public Distress.-Removal of the Deposites.

[JAN. 17, 1834.

possessing high and uncontrollable prerogatives, and we ed a body, he felt more disposed to be a listener than a debate here in vain without the concurrence of his will. speaker-to receive instruction from the views and arguIt would be far better at once to appoint a committee to ments of others, rather than to attempt the communicawait on the President, and ask him what we shall do; do tion of his own. But there are questions and occasions it and go home. Mr. P. said he would vote for the re- [said Mr. R.] which leave no other alternative, than a desolution and amendment, though he did not believe that parture from this reserve, or a silence exposed to misthe adoption of either would produce any practical relief. construction Such, sir, is the present question, and such Mr. BENTON said, that, with respect to the state of the circumstances under which I now venture to ask the things existing in the city of New Orleans, as represent-indulgence of the Senate.

ed by the Senator from the State of Mississippi, he merely The subject we are considering, [said Mr. R.] is admitwished to give a brief explanation, derived from informa-ted, on all hands, to be one of the highest importance, tion contained in a letter dated December 19th, that he deriving an especial interest from the distress and emhad received from a gentleman in that city. But first he barrassment which are said at the present moment to perwould ask of the Senator from Louisiana [Mr. WAGGAMAN] vade the community. In regard to the extent of that disif he knew the handwriting in the letter, and whether tress, it may, and probably has been exaggerated, and it the writer was not a gentleman of character and standing. The letter having been shown to Mr. W., Mr. POINDEXTER inquired whether the gentleman was not connected with one of the pet banks. Mr. BENTON then referred the letter to

is destined, I trust, above all, to be of transitory duration. But that it has existed, and still exists to a very considerable extent, there can be no doubt; and we are now called upon to investigate the causes of the evil, and to apply a suitable and effectual remedy. But, in the performance Mr. POINDEXTER, who, on inspecting it, said that of this office, let us be careful not to mistake a mere sympthe writer was President of the Merchants' Bank of New tom for the disease itself, and by an empirical practice Orleans, one of the banks selected to receive the public de-faddressed to the momentary palliation or removal of the posites. one, to add to and confirm the violence and danger of the other.

Mr. BENTON resumed. The letter he said was from a respectable merchant, well acquainted with the com- For myself, sir, I believe that the disease is far more mercial transactions of his city. He gives a very satisfac- deeply seated than the honorable mover of the resolutions tory account of the causes which have produced the pre-now under consideration supposes. It has its origin in the sent state of distress in New Orleans. In the first place, vices of our own legislation, and will require the cautery the Branch Bank there received a peremptory order from and the knife for its extirpation. I am not less sensible, the mother Bank at Philadelphia, directing its discounts I trust, sir, than other gentlemen, to the sufferings of any to be reduced one million of dollars. In the next place, portion of my fellow-citizens, but I must say that the the Branch refuses to buy the best endorsed paper at present crisis, whatever be its severity, comes alleviated sixty days, or to take any bill whatsoever on the West. by one high consolation. It is calculated to awaken, and Then the Branch buys, without limitation, bills on the I trust it will awaken, all of us to the true nature and danNorth; being in conformity to what he had stated when gerous character of that formidable moneyed power he last addressed the Senate on the subject. And, lastly, which we have built up by our own laws, and which now in speaking of the causes of pressure in the money mark-sits enthroned upon our statute book in the pride of charet, the gentleman says: "You are well aware that about tered prerogative. Sir, we have heretofore been singuthe 1st of January and the 1st of March, in consequence larly deaf to the monitory lessons delivered to us by our of the bills for the purchase of produce being made pay-fathers and predecessors. In vain did the republican able at those times, a great scarcity of money was occa-statesmen of '91 warn us of the fatal consequences of this sioned among the merchants." Now, sir, said M. 15. we first transgression "of the sacred mits of the constituhave the whole of the causes which have produced the tion-in vain did Mr. Jefferson, in that prophetic passage distress existing in New Orleans; and to meet this distress which was read to us the other day by the Senator from there is a peremptory order to the Branch Bank to reduce Missouri, [Mr. BENTON,] tell us that of all possible instiits discounts-to refuse good paper and to buy largely tutions "this was the one of most deadly hostility against bills on Philadelphia for the purpose of producing as the principles and form of our constitution," and that if great a distress among her merchants as possible. permitted to exist, it would one day reduce the constituMr. WEBSTER said he was certainly opposed to ted authorities of the nation themselves under vassalage troubling the Senate, at this time; but, as he wished to to its will. In vain, sir, did the eloquent voice of the make some remarks on the subject, and felt a reluctance Senator from Kentucky himself, [Mr. CLAY,] on another to delay the discussion on the general question, he would occasion, warn us that this corporation, though then move to lay the subject, for the present, on the table. wielding less than one-third of its present capital and reNot being perfectly prepared, at this time, to enter into sources, was fraught with the most serious danger to the debate, he hoped his motion for a postponement our liberties"- liberties which the honorable Senator would prevail; with the understanding, however, that seems now to think can be preserved only by upholding the subject should be called up to morrow, or on Mon- this same corporation against the just animadversions of day, with a view to a final disposal of it. the public functionaries appointed to supervise it. Sir, Mr. CLAY assented to the proposition, on the condi-all these warnings have been unheeded by us, till the distion that the further consideration of the resolution be not delayed longer than Monday. He hoped, then, that a final question would be taken on it.

Mr. WEBSTER'S motion was then carried, without a

division.

REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITES.

tresses which it has now wantonly inflicted upon the country, with the obvious design of influencing and controlling our proceedings here, must have brought home to all of us, I trust, a deep conviction of the danger and capacities of mischief inherent in this great monopoly.

It will hardly now be contended, I presume, by any gentleman who has taken the trouble to examine the subThe Senate then resumed the consideration of Mr.ject, that the present distress is the necessary consequence CLAY'S resolutions on the removal of the deposites; when, of the removal of the public deposites from the Bank of Mr. RIVES, of Virginia, took the floor. He said it the United States. It has been expressly admitted, in a was with great reluctance, at all times, that he obtruded quarter entitled to the highest consideration, not only himself on the attention of the Senate. In so enlighten-from the distinguished eminence of the gentleman him

In foreign exchange,

[SENATE.

$241,717,910 13,456,737 $255,174,647

self, but from the special relation in which he stands under one form or another, during the year 1832, to the bank [Mr. R. here alluded to the speech of Mr. amounted to Binney in the House of Representatives,] that the removal of the deposites per se is not a sufficient or justifiable cause for the present distress--that this removal is a thing Total amount of exchange. which might happen, and had happened before in the his- Two hundred and fifty five millions one hundred and tory of the bank, without producing any distress or incon- seventy-four thousand and six hundred and forty-seven venience to the community. Sir, a removal of the pub- dollars! lic deposites from the bank happens, in effect, whenever To which must be added the loans and discounts of the an application of the public moneys to the public debt, bank, which averaged in that year, $66,871,349 or to the current expenses of the Government, exhausts And the circulation of notes of the bank, averaging for the amount which is to the credit of the United States in the same year, $20,309,342 Bank. If we are to credit the book which the bank it- Now, sir, I would ask every candid and reflecting man self has laid on our desks, (the report of its committee on if an institution enjoying such a monopoly as this, of the the exposition of the President to his Cabinet,) a remov- general commerce and circulation of the country, incoral of the deposites, in this way, has occurred at a very re-porating itself, as it has been its policy to do, with the cent period, without leading to any pressure on the com- ordinary transaction of the community to so fearful an munity. The bank informs us, in that document, that in amount, exercising, consequently, a control over the forthe month of March last, when the protested bill on the tunes and interests, the fears and hopes, of so many perFrench Government returned upon it, there was, after sons-if such an institution does not wield a power of the deducting the advances it had niade on that bill, "less most tremendous and alarming character-a power altothan two thousand dollars of the whole funds of the Go-gether unchecked by the State banks, for the Senate will vernment in the bank!" And yet it appears from its recollect the significant statement made by the president monthly returns that, notwithstanding this exhaustion of of the bank to a committee of this House in 1830, that the public deposites, it was at that time actually enlarging, "there are very few banks (State) which might not be instead of curtailing its discounts. destroyed by an exertion of the power of the bank (U, Sir, if the removal of the deposites has produced the S.") Sir, sooner or later, evil, dire evil, must have come, late severe and grinding pressure upon the community, of so tremendous a power, unchecked and irresponsible, there is a singular disproportion, indeed, between the concentrated in the hands of a great moneyed corporacause and the effect. It appears from statements now be- tion. It is well that "by an exertion of that power," so fore me, that, on the 1st day of August last, when the significantly vaunted, and now so wantonly put in pracbank commenced its curtailments, the amount of public tice, we have been aroused to a sense of our danger, bedeposites in its vaults was $7,599,841; on the 1st of De-fore it is too late to provide for our security. cember, that amount was still $5,162,259, making a dim- The true seat of the disease with which the body inution of $2,437,582 only. By the returns of the bank, politic is affected, is here it is in the existence of this it is shown that on the 1st of August its discounts amount-powerful, remorseless, and overshadowing monopoly. ed to $64,160,349. On the 1st of December they were What, then, is the remedy? Is it by succumbing to its $54,453,104, making a reduction of discounts, in four months, of near ten millions, to meet a diminution of deposites of less than two and a half millions; and this by an institution which, according to its own showing, had not only not reduced, but actually enlarged its discounts, at a time when the public deposites in its vaults, had, by rapid and large diminutions, been brought down to "less than two thousand dollars!"

:

dictation, to add to its power by restoring the deposites, (the grand panacea proposed to us,) to increase its resources for future annoyance, to enlarge its means of influence, and multiply the chances of perpetuating its existence; Sir, if we have not firmness to resist the panic which the bank has made a pretext of the removal of the deposites for creating, how much less shall we be able to bear the more serious pressure for which it will It is clear; then, that the removal of the deposites alone find a real and operative cause in the expiration of its has not produced the existing distress. But it was the charter, when, to provide for its returning circulation, removal of the deposites connected (as we are told, from and the payment of its stockholders and its depositors, the same authentic quarter already referred to) with the it must call in, instead of ten millions, the whole sixty or doctrine that the operations of the Government and the seventy millions of debt due to it? Sir, can any one have business of the community, can henceforward be carried been so unreflecting as to suppose that we should ever on without the Bank of the United Ststes-it was the in- be able to throw off the frightful incubus of this bloated tention manifested "of separating the people from the monopoly, without a bitter and painful struggle? Has bank, and the bank from the people," as it is expressed, the experience of 1811, when the charter of the first which produced the convulsion. We are then to pre-bank of the United States expired, been entirely sume, that it was to put down this doctrine-to demon-forgotten? Then, as now, the same scene of bringing strate the dependence of the Government and nation on forward the State banks in Philadelphia, as advocates this great institution-to show that the people cannot be on behalf of the United States Bank, was gotten up, "separated" from it without ruin and confusion—that all with this honorable distinction in favour of the present this distress has been visited upon the country. times, that then all of those banks came forward at the With like views, doubtless, an exhibit was presented bidding of the United States Bank, now, some five or of the annual operations of the bank in the various forms six of them have had the firmness to refuse. Then there of exchange, domestic and foreign, discounts, circulation were not only memorials from boards of trade, and public of notes, &c.; showing the extent, the alarming extent, meetings, as now, but there were formal deputations to which this institution has mixed itself up with, and acquired a control over, the ordinary business and interests of the country. Sir, if there be gentlemen here who do not see in this exhibit a most fearful revelation of the power and influence of the bank, they have, I confess, much firmer nerves than I can pretend to. It appears from this portentous paper, that the operations of the Bank of the United States, in domestic exchanges alone,

sent to this place, to lay their complaints before Congress, and a committee of this body was appointed to hear and investigate them. Then, too, there was a pause in the operations of trade; and the products of agriculture sustained a depression, of which the fact then stated in Congress, that flour had fallen in a few days from ten to seven dollars, may serve as a set-off to all that we have heard on this floor, for some days past, concerning the ominous decline in the price of cotton. But, sir, our

SENATE.]

Removal of the Deposites.

[JAN. 17, 1834.

predecessors had the firmness to stand up against all this about one quarter's revenue remains, at any given time,

terrorism, and to regard the cause of the constitution and the public liberty as dearer to the American people than the transitory state of the money market.

on hand and unexpended. Now, sir, when the deposite of this one-fourth part of the annual revenue, reduced, too, as that revenue will be, by the effect of existing hope, sir, we shall follow their example. If we laws, shall be divided between some thirty or forty State yield to the panic with which we are now assailed, and Banks, is the small share which may fall to the lot of each, restore the deposites, which the bank has, by its miscon- such a consideration as could tempt them from their naduct, justly forfeited, the triumph of this dangerous and tural allegiance to, and sympathies with, the Governments unconstitutional institution is complete, and its re-charter which made and can unmake them? What has just occurvirtually decided. Do we not all here feel that these ques-red in my own State is sufficient to shew the utter incomtions are one and the same? Does not the whole course petency of such a boon to affect the independent exercise of the arguments we have heard on the modus op either of the feelings or the judgments of the State erandi of the removal of the deposites in producing banks. But, to obviate every apprehension, I trust a the existing distress, and in what manner their restoration system will be devised, and I do not hesitate to say such would tend to relieve it, shew that neither the removal an one ought to be devised, providing for a designation of nor the restoration are regarded, except as signs express- the depositories of the public moneys by fixed rules, and ing the termination or renewal of the bank charter; and under the control of Congress. that, in truth, it is the bank itself, and not the deposites, Sir, the honorable Senator from South Carolina has which is in issue? Restore the deposites, and what will also told us that so long as the Government itself receives happen? Another sudden and great expansion of dis- and pays away bank notes, it is an insult to the undercounts by the bank, bringing more and more of the standing to discourse of the pernicious tendency and uncommunity within its power, and at the end of two years constitutionality of the bank of the United States; that when its charter expires, if any resistance should then be while the Government, by so doing, treats bank notes as offered to its renewal, we shall find ourselves in the mer-money, it not only has the right, but it is in duty bound, ciless gripe of another bank contraction, far more agoniz-to incorporate a Bank of the United States; and that the ing than one we now endure--a crisis to which our courage question of the constitutionality of such an institution can and principles must certainly prove inadequate, if we have fairly arise only when the Government shall refuse to renot the firmness to meet the present trial. On the other ceive any thing but gold and silver in payment of the hand, if the deposites, being withdrawn, are permitted to public dues. Without stopping at present to examine remain so, the bauk will see in that resolution its own the correctness of the reasoning of the honorable Senator fate finally determined--with such an admonition, it will go (reasoning, which to my mind is entirely unsatisfactory, inas on gradually to prepare for the winding up of its affairs, much as it makes a great question of constitutional power (for, happily, it will not have it in its power to inflict fur- to depend, not on the fixed and immutable provisions of ther injury on the community, without doing still greater the constitution itself, but, in effect, on the mere will of injury to its own interests,) the States Banks at the the Government, as it may happen to do or not to do a same time, will be enabled progressively to extend their particular thing)—without stopping, I say, sir, to examine accommodations, and we shall finally get rid of this ty- this reasoning, at present, I will say to the honorable rannical and unconstitutional monopoly, at the expense of Senator, that, seeing so many abler gentlemen, himno other suffering than that to which we have already self among the number, while admitting the vital impor been subjected. tance of the object, declining the task of its prosecution, It is in view of this great consummation, Mr. President, I pledge myself to present this great issue in the shape in the final extinction of this dangerous and unconstitutional which only the honorable Senator thinks it can be legitimoneyed corporation, overshadowing alike the Governmately presented.

ment and the People, that I, for one, am willing to let Sir, of all the reforms, social, political, or economical, the measures which have been taken have their course. required by the great interests of the country, that which The honorable Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CAL- is most urgently demanded, and which promises in its acHOUN] tells us, however, that the question is not bank complishment the largest results of utility, security, and or no bank, but whether we are to have a bank organized public benefit, is, beyond comparison, the restoration of and controlled by Congress, or a bank created and go- the Government to what it was intended by the framers of verned by the President alone; for the honorable Senator the constitution to be, a hard-money Government. We seems to consider the State banks which may be selected are too much in the habit, Mr. President, of regarding as deposit of the federal revenue, as forming, in the evils of the paper system as necessary and incurable, effect, a National bank. Rut, sir, if there were no other and of being content with the delusive palliation of those alternative to the agency of the present bank of the evils supposed to be derived from the controlling supreUnited States, than the employment, under the selection macy of a National Bank. Nothing, in my opinion, is of the Secretary of the Treasury, of the State banks, more demonstrable than that the great evil of that sys(a supposition by no means necessary in my opinion,) is tem, its ruinous fluctuations arising from alternate expanit possible that State Banks, deriving their existence from sions and contractions of bank issues, making a lottery, in the State Governments, subjected to the habitual control effect, of private fortunes, and converting all prospective and supervision of those Governments, in the appoint- contracts and transactions into a species of gambling— ment of whose directors, and the management of whose nothing can be more certain than that these ruinous flucaffairs, the Government here would have no participation, tuations (and we have a striking proof of it in the present without a common head, checked and controlled by distresses of the country) are increased, instead of being rival institutions, and the share of the public deposites fall-diminished, by the existence of an institution of such abso ing to each a boon hardly worth the trouble of its keeping; lute ascendency, that when it expands the State Banks is it possible that constitutions thus instituted and thus expand with it, when it contracts, those banks are forced situated, could be made the channels and instruments of a in self-defence to contract also. Whatever influence such formidable influence, like a great central corporation, an institution may be supposed to exert, in preserving "penetrating," as Mr. Jefferson says, "by its branches, the soundness of the currency, that object would be much every part of the Union, acting by command and in more effectually promoted by a return, as far as practicaphalanx," and wielding an enormons accumulation of ble, to a metallic circulation. The first step towards that moneyed power? Sir, the thing is impossible. The gen- return is to let the Bank of the United States go down. eral estimate in the operations of the Treasury is, that Its notes being withdrawn, the convenience of travelling

JAN. 17, 1834.]

Removal of the Deposites.

[SENATE.

reserves to the Government, by its financial officer, the power to deposite the public moneys in other banks, if it should think proper to do so.

alone would immediately create a demand for gold coins, as a substitute, and enforce the necessity of correcting that under-valuation of them at the mint, which is said to have contributed to their disappearance. In concurrence Let, sir, the document I have already referred to, the with this, let measures be taken, as it is believed effectual report of the Secretary of the Treasury transmitting to measures may be taken, to discourage and suppress the Congress the plan of the bank, be examined, and nocirculation of bank notes under a certain denomination, thing can appear clearer than that the true and fundament(ten or twenty dollars,) of which the effect would be, to al contract between the Government and the bank is that produce another accession to the metallic circulating me- which I have stated-the grant of the important corporate dium. The ordinary channels of circulation being thus faculties and privileges already mentioned, on the one supplied with gold and silver, the Government would be side, and the payment of the bonus on the other. The prepared, without hardship to the public creditor, to re- provisions in regard to the deposite of the public moneys quire payment of its dues in specie, and thus realize a by the Government, and the transfer and distribution of reform, than which none could be more deeply interest- them by the bank, were treated as being of an "incidening, in every aspect, to the safety and prosperity of the tal kind," and regarded in the light of "mutual equivacountry. lents," (the one a compensation for the other,) growing Sir, here is an object worthy to engage the most anx- out of the fiscal connexion between the bank and the ious labors of the patriot and statesman, and I feel per- public treasury." So long as the public moneys should suaded that, with a tithe of the effort and talent daily be deposited in the Bank of the United States, the bank expended in the ephemeral contests of party, we should would be bound to transfer and distribute them as the see it happily accomplished. I conjure gentlemen, then, exigencies of the Government should require. When with ability so eminently fitted for this great work, to leave they ceased to be deposited there, the bank would be rethe Bank of the United States to its fate-a fate already lieved from that obligation. The deposites being reserpronounced by, the voice of the nation, and called for by ved under the discretionary control of the Government, the highest considerations connected with the safety of our free institutions—and bring foward their powerful aid in an effort to restore the Government to its true constitutional character and destination-that of a simple, solid, hard-money Government.

which could continue or withhold them at its pleasure, could not rationally form a part of the consideration, for which a fixed and unchangeable equivalent was to be paid in the form of a bonus.

It is, moreover, to be remarked, as is shown likewise But, I shall doubtless be asked, Mr. President, if, in by the important document to which I have referred, that, this instance, the public faith has been broken, and the at the time of the establishment of the bank, the deposites rights of the bank violated, will I not repair the breach, of the public moneys were not regarded solely as a priviand redress the wrong? Sir, if such were the case, I lege or advantage to the bank, but also as a duty or would, but in my humble judgment, and I hope to be able charge. It is evident that they were not contemplated, to show it, the public faith has sustained no violation-at the time, as a source for enlarging the discounts of the the bank no wrong; and this bring us to the consideration bank, to the extent to which they have been actually used of the rights of the bank, as secured by its charter. Gen- for that purpose. It had been stated by Mr. Gallatin, in tlemen have argued as if the bank, by the bonus which it a report made by him as Secretary of the Treasury, on paid, of a million and a half of dollars, had purchased a the 2d of March, 1809, that "the bank" (the first bank right to the deposites of the public money. But nothing of the United States) "has not, in any considerable degree, is more obvious, from the face of the bank charter itself, used the public deposites for the purpose of extending its and especially from the report of the Secretary of the Trea- discounts," and the same course was, doubtless, expected sury, [Mr. Dallas.] which transmitted and explained it, than of the new bank. It certainly never could have been that the bonus was the consideration, not for the public supposed or intended, that the bank, for its own advantage, deposites, but for the charter grant-for the act of incor- should lend out the moneys of the United States commitporation, conferring on the subscribers to that bank the ted to its keeping, to such an extent as to be unable (as faculties and privileges of a body politic and corporate, it will be hereafter shown to have been on several occaempowered, as such, to carry on the trade of banking sions) to meet the calls of the Government for its own with a capital of thirty-five millions of dollars, to hold funds, when required to discharge the public engageproperty to the amount of fifty-five millions, to make by-ments.

laws for the Government of the corporation, to establishi But, sir, even if it could be shown, as is now contended offices of discount and deposite in any of the States or by the bank, that the public deposites, and not the facu!Territories of the Union, and for the express stipulation, ties and privileges conferred on it as a banking corporapledging the faith of the United States that no other bank tion, were the considerations for which it is stipulated to should be established by Congress during the continuance pay, and did pay, the bonus of a million and a half dolof the said corporation. lars, it cannot, by virtue of this alleged contract, claim the

These evidently were the "exclusive privileges and deposites further or otherwise than the terms of the conbenefits conferred by the act" of incorporation, in con-tract have given them. Now, what are the terms of this sideration of which" the bonus was to be paid,-and were alleged contract? The 18th section of the bank charter they not of value enough, Mr. President, of a character furnishes the answer: "The deposites of the money of sufficiently important to merit and justify the price to be the United States, in places in which the said bank and paid for them? Why, sir, among them is a great sovereign branches thereof may be established, shall be made in power granted to this corporation, that of establishing sub- said bank or branches, unless the Secretary of the Treasuordinate banks within the jurisdiction of the States, inde- ry shall, at any time, otherwise order and direct; in which pendent of the consent, and exempt from the legislation case," &c. &c. What is the true nature and extent of of the States in which they may be established-a power the right given by this section? It is an absolute and perwhich Mr. Madison declared, in the debates on the crea- fect right to the public deposites; or rather it is not a right tion of the first bank in 1791, "ought not to be delega- to them, (if right it may be called,) only so long as the ted to any set of men under the sun." The deposite of Government, by its financial organ, the Secretary of the If it the public moneys in the Bank of the United States can Treasury, may not "otherwise order and direct." with no propriety be considered "an exclusive privilege be "otherwise ordered and directed," the right, by the or benefit conferred on the Bank of the United States by terms of the contract itself, ceases. the act of incorporation;" inasmuch as that act expressly

I admit that this discretionary authority in the Secre

SENATE.]

Removal of the Deposites.

[JAN. 17, 1834.

al of the public deposites. The Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] remarked that it was not the conduct of the bank, but the conduct of the Secretary, which wss under review. The honorable gentleman, however, will permit me to say that, as the justification of the Secretary depends on the reasons furnished by the conduct of the bank, for the exercise of his authori ty, an inquiry into the conduct of the one necessarily involves a review of the conduct of the other.

tary of the Treasury is not a mere capricious volition. It the Treasury is justifiable for having ordered the removis to be exercised for reasons, which shall appear to him to be sufficient, and to be reported to and judged of by Congress. But an extraordinary attempt is now made against the clear import of the language used, to limit the power to the single case of the public funds being deemed unsafe in the keeping of the bank. If such had been the intention, nothing could have been easier than to have adopted a form of expression adapted to the object, and to have declared that "the deposites, &c., shall be made in the Bank of the United States, unless the Secretary of the Treasury shall, at any time, consider them unsafe there." But, instead of this restricted phraseology, which would so naturally have occurred, if the intention had been such as is now supposed-the discretionary power of the Secretary is reserved in the broadest and most general terms which the language can supply "unless the Secretary of the Treasury shall, at any time, otherwise order and direct." By what astringent process of interpretation, words of so large a scope have been contracted into so narrow a meaning, I am at a loss to conceive.

[Here Mr CALHOUN rose, and said he did not deny the right of the Secretary to bring the conduct of the bank under review, so far as the safety of the deposites was concerned, but no farther.]

ing of the deposites, and because I am unwilling to occupy the time of the Senate unnecessarily with details of this sort.

The conduct and duties of the bank, Mr. President, may be viewed in two great relations: first to the Government: second, to the community at large.

I hope I have shown, replied Mr. R., that, from the nature and terms of the authority reserved to the Secretary of the Treasury, the whole conduct of the bank, in the discharge of all its duties, is properly open to consideration; and I shall now proceed to enquire into its conduct in several instances, which apppear to me to furnish ample justification for withholding from it the deposites of the public money. In confining myself to these instanThe honorable Senator from South Carolina [Mr. ces, I do not wish to be understood as thinking there is CALHOUN] has contended that a power over the deposites, nothing else in the conduct of the bank worthy of blame, even if it had been retained in the fullest manner by Con- or justly incurring the animadversion of the Government. gress itself, "is, from its very nature, limited solely to the On the contrary, I think there is much more; but I consafekeeping of the public funds." But, sir, if the public fine myself to those instances, because I believe that they deposites be so important a benefit as they have been re-alone are abundantly sufficient to justify the withdrawpresented, to the bank, nothing seems to be more natural than that the power of withdrawing this benefit should be reserved by the Government, as a means of control over the conduct of the bank, as well as to provide for the safety of the public moneys. That such was a proper and important end of the power, seems to have been clearly the opinion of the honorable Senator himself on In the first of these relations, its duties are two foldanother occasion. While a bank bill, providing, among as fiscal agent of the Government, to receive and distri other things, for a subscription of twenty millions of its bute the public moneys, and to have them ready for the stock by the United States, was under consideration in public service, whenever and wherever they may be callthe House of Representatives, of which the honorable ed for by the Government-and as a corporation, deriving gentleman was then a member, a motion being made to its existence from the law, to observe and conform to all strike out so much of the bill as provided for this subscrip- the conditions and securities imposed by the act of its creation by the United States, it was objected to the motion tion. Now, sir, let us first enquire how it has performed that the Government ought to hold a due proportion in the first named of these duties. Has it been always reathe stock of the proposed bank, in order to guard itself against the operation of an unfriendly influence. In answer to this objection and in support of the motion, the honorable Senator, as I find in his speech reported in the volume in my hand, made the following just observation: "But there was another mean of protecting the Government against the bank, more potent and certain than any such provision. Let the United States retain the power reits deposites, and over the receipt of the bank notes in payment of duties and debts to the Government, and it would possess a sufficient control over the bank." Here, it is evident, the honorable Senator considered the power over the public deposites as an important means of control over the general conduct of the bank, as well as a necessary provision for the safety of the public funds; and in this opinion I entirely concur. The power being reserved in the broadest terms by the charter of the existing bank, it is applicable to all the rightful purposes of such a power, and the Secretary of the Treasury, in the exercise of it, may and ought to look to the general conduct of the institution, as well as to the safety of the public funds.

dy and prompt to render up the public moneys committed to its keeping, when they have been required to meet the public engagements? This consideration I hold to be of the highest importance. It is not sufficient that the public moneys should be ultimately safe in the hands of the bank, or, in other words, that the bank be ultimately solvent. But it is necessary that it should be ready to meet promptly and faithfully every call made upon it by the Government for the public funds, when required for the public service. This is daily exemplified in the affairs of private life. When an individual has accumulated a sum of money which he wishes to put out at interest, to await an expected call, or an opportunity of profitable investment, it is a leading consideration with him to put his money in the hands of some one who will not merely be able to pay in the long run, but who will pay promptly and certainly, whenever called upon.

Has the Bank of the United States, sir, displayed these fundamental qualities of promptitude and fidelity in rendering up the public funds, for the public use, when called for by the Government? I confidently appeal to the history of the postponements of the 3 per cents. reThat such has been the uniform construction of the au- demption, to sustain me in the assertion that it has not. It thority, both by the Treasury Department and by Con- is in the recollection of the Senate that, early in the spring gress, appears abundantly from the proceedings and cor- of 1832, it had been determined to pay off six and a half respondence of Mr. Crawford and Mr. Ingham on the one millions of the 3 per cent. on the ensuing 1st day of July, hand, and from the reports of the committee of Investi-and that a correspondence took place in the month of gation in 1819, and of the Committee of Ways and Means March, between the Treasury Department and the bank, in 1830, on the other. We must, therefore, look into with a view to that operation. It soon became evident the conduct of the bank, to see how far the Secretary of that the bank was not in a situation to meet the operation