The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-12 00:00:00

payment of a portion of the national debt, that it might retain
the public money appropriated for that purpose to strengthen
it in a political contest ;_ the extraordinary extension and con-
traction of its accommodations to the community; its corrupt
and partisan loans t its liclusititi tit tilt ptiOic Directors from
a knowledge '6! ids inoa important proceedings; the unlimited
authority conferred on the President to expend its funds in
hiring writers, and procuring the execution of printing, and
the use made of that authority ; the retention of the pension
money and books after the selection of new agents ; the ground-
less claims to heavy damages in consequence of the protest of
the Bill drawn on the French Cthiernment, have through various
channels been laid before Congress. Immediately after the
close of last Session the Bank, through its President, an-
nounced its ability and readiness to abandon the system
of unparalleled curtailment and the interruption of domestic
exchanges which it had practised upon from August 1.
1833, to June 1834, and to extend its accommodations to
the community. The grounds assumed in this annuncia-
tion amounted to an acknowledgment that the curtailment in
the extent to which it had been carried was not necessary to
the safety of the Bank, and had been persisted in merely to
induce Congress to grant the prayer of the Bank in its memo-
rial relative to the removal of the deposits, and to give it a
new Charter. They were substantially a confession that all
the real distresses which individuals and the country had en-
dured for the preceding six or eight months had been need-
lessly produced by it, with the view of effecting through the
sufferings of the people the legislative action of Congress. It
is a subject of congratulation that Congress and the country
had the virtue and firmness to bear the infliction ; that the
energies of our people soon found relief from this wanten ty-
ranny in vast importations of the precious metals from almost
every part of the world ; and at the close of this tremendous
effort to controul our Government, the Bank found itself
powerless and no longer able to loan out its surplus means.
The community had learned to manage its affairs without as-
sistance, and trade had already found new auxiliaries ; so that
on the Ist of Oz..tober last the extraordinary spectacle was pre-
sented of a National Bank, more than one half of whose
capital was either lying unproductive in its vaults or in the
hands of foreign bankers.
To the needless distress brought on the country during the
last Session of Congress has been added the open seizure of
the dividends of the public stock, to the amount of one hun-
dred and twenty thousand and forty-one dollars, under pre-
tence of paying damages, costs, and interest upon the pro-
tested French Bill. This sum constituted a portion of the
estimated revenues for the year 1834, upon which the appro-
priations made by Congress were based. It would as soon
have been expeetel that our collectors would seize on the
customs, or the re-eivers of our land officers on the money
arising from the sale of public lands, under pretences of claims
against the United States, as that the Bank would have re-
tained the dividends. Indeed, if the principle be established,
that any one who chooses to set up a claim against the United
States may, without authority of law, seize on the public
property or money wherever he can find it to pay the claim,
there will remain no assurance that our revenue will reach the
Treasury, or that it will be applied, after the appropriation, to
the purposes designatea in the law. The paymasters of our
army and the pursers of our navy may, under like pretences,
apply to their own use monies appropriated to set in motion
the public force, and in time of war leave the country with-
out defence. This measure resorted to by the Bank is disor-
ganising and revolutionary, and if generally resorted to by
private citizens in like cases, would fill the land with anarchy
and violence.

It is a constitutional provision that "no money shall be
drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropria-
tions made by law." The palpable object of this provision
is to prevent the expenditure of the public money for any
purpose whatsoever which shall not have been first approved
by the Representatives of the people and the States in Con-
gress assembled. It vests the power of declaring for what
purposes the public money shall be expended in the Legisla-
tive Department of the Government, to the exclusion of the
executive and judicial, and it is not within the Constitutional
authority of either of those departments to pay it away with-
out law, or to sanction its payment. According to this plan
of Constitutional provision the claim of the Bank can never
be paid without an appropriation by Act of Congress. But
the Bank has never asked for an appropriation. It attempts
to defeat the provision of the Constitution, and obtain pay-
ment without an Act of Congress. Instead of awaiting an
appropriation passed by both Houses, and approved by the
President, it makes an appropriation for itself, and invites an
appeal to the judicatory to sanction it. That the money
had not technically been paid into the Treasury does net
afil•ct the principle intended to be established by the Con-
stitution. The Executive and Judicatory have as little right
to appropriate and expend the public money without the au-
thority of law before it is placed to the credit of the Treasurer
as to take it from the Treasury.• In the annual report of the
Secretary of the Treasury, and in his correspondence with the
President of the Bank, and the opinion of the Attorney-
General accompanying it, you will fin•l a further examination
of the claims of the Bank and the course it has pursued.

It seems due to the safety of the public funds remaining in
th it Bank, and to the honour of the American people, that
m:asures be taken to separate the Government entirely from
an institution so mischievous to the public prosperity, and so
regardless to the Constitution and laws. By transferring the
public deposits, by appointing other pension agents as far as
it had the power, by ordering the discontinuance of the receipt
of B Ink checks in payment of the public dues after the Ist day
of January next, the Executive has exerted all its lawful au-
thority to sever the connections between the Government and
this faithless Corporation.
The high-handed career of this institution imposes upon
the Constitutional functionaries of this Government duties of
the gravest and most imperative character, duties which they
cannot avoid, and from which I trust there will be incline
tion on the part of any of them to shrink. My own sense
of them is most clear, as is also my readiness to discharge
those which may rightfully fall on me. To continue any
business relations with the Bank of the United States that
may be avoided without a violation of the national faith, after
that institution has set at open defiance the conceded right of
the Government to examine its affairs, after it has done all in
in its power to deride the public authority in other respects,
and to bring it into disrepute at home and abroad ; after
it has attempted to defeat the clearly expressed will of
the people by turning against them them the immense
power entrusted to its hands, and by involving a country
otherwise peaceful, flourishing, and happy, in dissension,
embarrassment, and distress ; would make the nation itself
a party to the degradation so sedulously prepared for its
public agents, and do much to destroy the confidence of man-
kind in popular governments, and to bring into contempt their
authority and efficiency. In guarding against an evil of such
magnitude considerations of temporary convenience should be
thrown out of the question, and we should be influenced by
such motives only as look to the honour and preservation of
the Republican system. Deeply and solemnly
impressed with
the justice of these views I feel it to be my duty to recom-
mend to you that a law be passed authorizing the sale of the
public stock; that the provision of the charter requiring the
receipt of notes of the Bank in payment of public dues shall,
in accordance with the power reserved to Congress in the 14th
section of the charter, be suspended until the the Bank pays
to the Treasury the dividends withheld ; and that all laws
connecting the Government or its officers with the Bank,
directly or indirectly, be repealed ; and that the institution be
left hereafter to its own resources and means.
Events hare satisfied my mind, and I think the minds of the
American people, that the mischiefs and dangers which flow
from a national bank far overbalance all its advantages. The
bold effort the present Bank has made to control the Govern-
ment, the distresses it has wantonly produced, the violence of
which it has been the occasion in one of our cities famed for
its observance of law and order, are but premonitions of the
fate which awaits the American people, should they be deluded
into a perpetuation of this institution, or the establishment of
another like it. It is fervently hoped that, thus admonished,
those who have heretofore favoured the establishment of a
substitute for the present Bank will be induced to abandon it,
as it is evidently better to incur any inconvenience that may
be reasonably expected than to concentrate the whole monied
power of the Republic in any form whatsoever, or under any
restrictions.

Happily it is already illustrated that the agency of such an
institution is not necessary to the fiscal operations of the Go-
vernment. The State banks are found fully adequate to the
performance of all services which were required of the Bank
of the United States, quite as promptly and with the same
cheapness. They have maintained themselves and discharged
all these duties while the Bank of the United States was still
powerful, and in the field was an open enemy ; and it i; not
possible to conceive that they will find greater difficulties in
their operations when that enemy shall cease to exist.
The attention of Congress is earnestly invited to the regu-
lation of the deposits in the State Banks by law. Although
the power not exercised by the Executive Department in this
behalf is only such as was uniformly exerted through every
Administration from the origin of the Government up to the
establishment of the present Bank, yet it is one which is sus-
ceptible of regulation by law, and therefore ought so to be re-
gulated. The power of Congress -to direct in what
places the treasurer shall keep the monies of the Treasury,
and to impose restrictions upon the Executive authority
in relation to their custody and removal, is unlimited,
and its exercise will rather be courted than discouraged
by public officers and agents, on whom rests the responsi-
bility for their safety. It is desirable that as little power
as possible should be left to the President or Secretary
of the Treasury over those institutions, which, being thus
freed from Executive influence, and without a common head
to direct their operations, would have neither the temptation
nor the ability to interfere in the political conflicts of the
country. Not deriving their charters from the national autho-
rities, they would never have those inducements to meddle in
general elections, which have led the Bank of the United States
to agitate and convulse the country for upwards of two years.
The progress of our gold coinage is creditable to the officers
of the mint, and promises in a short period to furnish the
country with a sound and portable currency, should the State
banks not be capable of furnishing it. Those institutions have
already shewn themselves competent to purchase and furnish
domestic exchange for the convenience of trade at reasonable
rates, and not a doubt is entertained that in a short period all
the wants of the country, in bank accommodation and exchange,
will be supplied as promptly and cheaply as they have hereto-
fore been by the Bank of the United States. If the several
States shall be induced gradually to reform their banking sys-
tems, and prohibit the issue of all small notes, we shall in a
few years have a currency as sound and as little liable to fluc-
tuations as any other commercial country.
The r eport of the Secretary of War, together with the ac-
compayiilg documents from the several bureaux of that Depart
ment, will exhibit the situation of the various objects commit-
ted to the: Administration. _

Pio ev ant has occurred since your last Session rendering
necessary/ the movellicats of the army, with the exception of