Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1832-05-25

embodied in the positive declarations of witness
upon oath, and fortified by bold exhibition of
contcmporancOus memorandum, and II confident
appeal to the Books of the Bank he scarcely dared
TO indulge the expectation that this desperate lungc
against a citizen of unsucd honor could have met
so immediate and total discontinue.
f'hc exploration OF the accounts of members of
Congress and officers of the Government with the
Bank, came in the opinion of the subscriber, under
the same category as those Of Editors of ncwspa-
pors. The resolutions of the House of RcprcScn-
totvcs authorized the examination by the Commit
tee OF the books, only as evidence OF the proceed
ingS OF the corporation.
The questions for the Committee were: Had they
violated the charter? Had they violated any law
of tie iondl To these inquiries they were limited,
and upon these alone could they with proPricty
port.
AS an complication of tho odouS nature Of fur
tber nquSi;ions, the subscriber will only mention
the case of the members of Congress, who, during
the present session, have received the compcnSa-
ton for their public service from the Branch Bank
ut Washington in advance of the passage of the
General Appropriation Act. This is one OF the IA
YOURS to members of Congress, equivalent to Il loan
without interest TO each member, of the amount of
money which he thus receives from the time of his
receiving il until the Appropriation Act shall have
become law. Its aggregate amount from tho
commencement of the session to this day. in pay
mcn;s to members of Congress, aud the Executive
officers, falls little short of four hundred thousand
dollars. The amount of interest that woult have
accrued To the Bank, had interest been paid by
each individual member, would have exceeded So
600. The subscriber himself is not without doubts
OF tn" propricty of this indulgence, and confident
ly AYERS that nothing which the investigation OF
tho Committee has discovered in the proceedings
of the President and DIRECTORS Of the Bank is of
more questionable character. The member who
receives his pay in advance Of the appropriation,
docs not indeed receive il in advance of the service
which entities him TO it. But where is the law au-
thorl2ing the Bank to mako the payment! The
member who receives the money is only accessory
to the payment by the Bank, and there is many a
member of this House, who, in voting for this in
vcStgaton, little imagined that his own name would
he returned among the members of Congress- re-
cclvcrs of special favors from the Bank. Many a
member, who perhaps, has received the favor with
out Knowing it yet is obnoxious in principle to
the charge in the original resolution offered by the
Chairman of the committee, quite as obnoxious to
tho mputaion of impure motives in the Bank as
the Bank can be made by all their transactions
with editors OF newspapers printers, James Wat
son W cbb and MOrdccHi NJ. Noah, included.
One great and nsurmountabe objection TO tho
right and justice OF entering into scrutiny of mo-
tires Tor proceedings not forbidden by any law was
That the Committee could exercise no ccnsorial
power OF that nature over the President, Directors
and officers of The Bank, or at all events over in
dviduals, having dealings with that institution
which those individuals had not an equal rirht TO
exercise over the Committee, and every one Of its
Members i'll return. What motive, for examplc
could impcla Memtcr Of the Committee to cali in
exercise all the power OF Congress 10 suppress the
publication of essays speculations favorable to
the Bank in newspapers? Would not the Editor
ot Il newspaper thus inculprted, have the same
right to inquire into the motives OF the Committed
man! Ii, pcradvcnturc, he should have been in the
habit OF making free of the press to assail nd
discredit the Bank, would not this struggle TO de-
prvc the Bank of solf.dcttnce through the me-
dunn OF the press, be attributed TO the desire
OF having tho monopoly of that powerful engine
to himself! Would 1T not argue Il consciousness
of weakness i'll the appeals to public upinion
against the Bank, if to sustain the CHARGES arans,
1t, there should be attempt to suppress all
tho means of set-deencc? Tho freedom of the
press, i'll the language of party spirit, means the
unlicensed use of that instrument for itself to as.
sa ana total introduction of its use to the ad ver
sary for defence. And singular, indeed, would be
The section OF a charter TO u Bank which would
leave it open to every shaft of Islander, and deprive
II OF all possible means of rcPcliing the assault
Among the useless, and worse than useless inGui-
sIilons into which the majority of the Committee
thought themselves justified in DESCENDING vera
imPutatons of political misconduct i'm certain Off.
GERS oil the Branch Ban, at Norfolk in Virginia.
Articles OF complaint, grevous and perhaps as
numerous those of the Chairman of lhis Com
mlttce against the President and Directors at Pha-
dclphia, had been laid before that Board against he
President and Cashier at Norfolk, by Il person who
had been one of the Directors of that Branch A
long and patient investigation OF those charges haC
pSSh Hlidc by the BOARD at InlladclDh n, ard
OF thor Cashiers had been sent to make a thorough
examination of all the facts of the case upon thr
spot llscli. The charges had been found totally de
StItute OF foundation, and there was among the ar
cillHeS OF the Bank Il voiummCus correspondence
which was all submitted 10 the examination Of tn,
Committee TO give the House n faint idea n
the extent oftbis inquiry, it may be sufficient to say
tat the whole controversy respecting the accounts
OF late Navy Agent at Norfolk, and the pamphlet
eerIng anG newspaper between that officer
Il nIIn Of fl,a t,l,tx r. l..
the hImPlest of It's elements. After plunging for a
series OF days into these mysteries, almost deer
enough tor every member of the Committee to axe
his side upon two three by-gone contested elect
IONS at Norfolk; after plodding manuscript
volumes of acrimonious bitterness from the mos
perIlnacIous OF complaints after examining The
long protracted correspondence both of that com
plaInant and OF the inculPatcd officers of the Nor
folk Branch, with the Board at Philadelphia and tho
Cashier who had made the investigation at Norfolk
after giving the complainant himself the trouble o
repairing TO Philadelphia to sustain his charges
ana Try over again ordinations and recriminaton
which JudIclous tribunal, after sunmoning hal
the inhabitants Of the borough of Norfolk and sub
Jccting them to endless list of Undergraduates
and crosse examinations would scarcely have beer
competent to solvc-atter the consumption of scve
raj days in these inquiries the last result of which,
must, under any possible termination Of their i'm.
yestgaiion, have left them precisely where they be
gan, the majority Of the Committee concluded to
"'SiI nun WIlL INC SuDScTlDcT bcllGYeu the Com
mittcc ought never to have undertaken, and what
tho Chairman reports ''thcy have been compelled
to abandon for want of timo"
The complaints made against the Prcsidcat Of
the Bank at Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the
summer of 1929, and the correspondence between
tho Board at Phadcl Phia and the late Secretaries
of the Treasury ana of War, form a portion of the
documents relating to the books and proceedings
of the Bank, called for by the Committee, and com
muncoted to thom. They arc not noticed in the
report of the Chairman, but, in the opinion Of the
subscriber, are more deserving Of the attention o.
Congress, and of the nation, than any other part
OF the papers commented upon in the report. An
effort very thiny yelled the part oftwo ortbo Ex-