Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-05-29

voice of the Administration press was raised
against it, with a concert and rarely
eQualled.
Doubts Of the safety of the public deposites
were now suggested, ana these douDts fecelVeo
some sanction from the message of the Presl-
dent at the opening of the second session OF the
last Congress-. An Executive agent was APP
pointed to investigate that subject, and the Com
mittee of WAYS and Means, Of which a majority
was composed of members friendly to the ad-
ministration, engaged in the same inquiry. The
agent and the committee reported IN favor or
the solvency of the Bank, and the House OF
Representatives, by a majority uneXampled on
such a question, resolved that the public depo-
sites could be safely continued in the Bank of
the United States.
Notwithstanding this vote, the President took
immediate measures to transfer the depoSltes to
the State Banks. The character Of these mea-
sures is known to the House. The undersigned
think themselves safe in saying that 1t was such
as to cause the directors of the Bank the great
est possible inconvenience and anxiety. They
were regarded as men guilty of the most crlml-
nal malpracticeS, and justly obnoxious to the
~seVerest treatment which it was in the power OF
the Executive to infict. TO all that was OIL
cially done was superaded an unbroken strain
of denunciation from the Government press,
and threats OF a purpose to break those branch
es Of the Bank which were supposed to be fee
bic. AT length, without previous authentic no.
tice, the deposites were removed, a short time
before the assembling of Congress. A majority
of members had been elected to the House Of
Representatives, in part previous to the adoption
of this measure, who appeared disposed to srs-
tain the President in the policy he had adopted.
By this majority, resolutions were placed eX-
p~rcssive of their opinion that the Bank ought
not to be rechartered, and that the deposites
ought not to be restored. These resolutions
were adopted after a protracted debate on tie
general merits Of the controversy, in which, on
the part of those who sustained the President,
the most unwarrantable designs and the most
corrupt practices were freely ascribed to those
entrusted with the direction Of the Bank.
1t was under these circumstancesthat the COM
mission of inquiry into the affairs of the Bank
was instituted. AS far as that inquiry was of a
character in which the Bank was, by the char
ter, bound to cooperate, by submitting its books
for inspection, the directors have fully reCog-
Missed their obligation to do so; but the under
signed confess they perceive nothing in the cir
cumstances that preceded the inquiry which
could furnish an inducement to the Bank to 60
further than the law requires of them. BY the
Executive Government, and the majority OF one
House OF Congress-. their case had been adJudg-
ed. The avs which the wisdom OF two former
Congresses enacted for erecting United States
Banks, and of which every department of the
Government, under every administration but
the present, has recognised the validity, have
been declared unconstitutional. The present
inquiry was not needed to ascertain if the depo.
sites should be removed; they were removed
many months before. 1t was not needed to as.
certain whether they could safely be restored;
the House that instituted it had resolved that
they ought not to be restored. The Secretary
Of the Treasury is left, without the instructions
of the House, to deposite the public funds in the.
other Banks he may please to select, but the
House OF Representatives has resolved that they
ought not to be deposited in the Bank Of the
United States. Although the last Congress, by
majorities of both Houses, decided at the Bank
ought to be rechartered, and the next Congress
may be Of the same opinion, the present House
of Representatives has resolved to the contrary,
and, therefore, the inquiry was not needed to
guide its judgment in the recharter OF the Bank.
Various mlSdemeanOrS are imputed to those who
direct the Bank; but supposing their detection
the object of the investigation, every principle
of justice forbids a mode of inquiry, beginning
and proceeding in determination. The only
other legitimate object which the undersigned
can think of, is that of collecting information to
guide the judgment of the House in the question
of a new bank, to be established on the ruins of
the present institution. The directors of the
Bank, in the opinion of the subscribers, may be
safely expected, on all occasions, to do the duty
of public spirited men to their country: but no
principle of public duty fairly calls upOn them
w ~ III III ''idl tii' itNtICo liICili u vi
lag themselves the subjects of a criminatory in
QUESTION, with a view to build up an institution
to discharge that public trust to which they have
been declared unfaithful, by those instituting the
inquiry.
1t is also to be recollected that two years had
scarcely elapsed since the former inquiry, on
which the Directors of the Bank had not attempt
ed to impose any limitation; and that inquiry
had resulted so entirely to the satisfaction of the
two Houses, that they passed a bill for renewing
the charter of the Bank. 1t requires no words
to show that such an examination must be high
ly inconvenient to the officers of the Bank, and
~incommode them in the orderly discharge of
their duties. Still graver inconvenience may be
expected to result from the effect on the public
mind, in reference of such visitations. In the
progress Of the controversy waged with the
Bank, a few new matters of detail may perhaps
have been alleged against it since the report of
the former Committee, but many of the matters
of general inculpation now brought forward are
those sifted to the bottom by that Committee,
and none of them possess a novelty and impor-
lance, furnishing, in the judgment of the under
signed, an equitable ground for a new investi-
cation. Is there to be no end to visitations?-
The House has the undoubted right to institute