Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-05-27

furnished by the Bank to both the former Com
mittees of Investigation, your committee could
very imperfectly to the House the grounds
of their conclusions, or the result OF theT lnSpec-
ton and examination.
In what condition, then, is your committee
placed? The House have commanded them to
inquire s'what corruptiOns and abuses nave eX-
listed in the management of the Bank" whether
if has used its corporate power, or money, to
interfere in politics, or influence elections"
To do this, they have attempted to use the on
y means that can, by possibility, enable them
to fulfil this duty; and they are refused by the
Directors access to those means when are IN
their custody, and which, by their charter, they
are bound to furnish.
Because, say they, the inquiry this committee
has been charged to make, "can only be right
fully extended to aledged violations OF the char
ter" And even these violations OF charter are
not to be inquired of until the Board is furnish
ed with " a specification of all the charges IN,
tended to be inquired into" Should supposed
violations Of charter be specifically charged,
then the Directors are to decide whether the
facts if true as stated, would amount to technl-
Cal violations Of charter and them and not till
then, will your committee be permitted to "pro-
coed with them in order as stated" 1t must be
said that these pretences, by which the Bank
would Justify its bold disregard Of the provisions
of its charter are, in themselves, derogatory to
the dignity, and contemptuous to the authority,
of the House, to which it in fact owes It's Delng
The Committee believe, that these proceed
ings of the Bank Directors, denying vital ana
| essential powers to the two Houses OF Congress-
and asserting, in effect, paramount and con-
trolling authority over both in executing pow.
er devised as check upon the Bank itself,
would Justify more extended comment But
confiding in the disposition of the House to NAM
tain its own rights and dignity, and to sustain
your committee in the faithful discharge of their
duty they present as part of this report the
various resolutions adopted by your committee,
with those received from the agents OF the Bank
as an appendix, declaratory OF the powers be-
! lieved to be possessed and the purposes OF your
| committee.
They believe that these resolutions will of
| themselves vindicate their conduct and proceed
ngs from all those imputations which are to be
| found in the various communications OF the d.
| rectors, and their committee, and will serve to
show that they have afforded no justification
whatever for the extraordinary position uti-
matey taken by the Committee OF Directors ana
| the Board. But that their determination not to
| permit any conduct of theirs not involving
| breach Of charter, to be investigated must have
been entertained long before it was made known
to your committeeman that it was not commu-
nicated until every other means of preventing
the examination had proved unavalng. But
for this conduct, which your committee cannot
regard as distinguished by frankness and can
| dor, the absence Of your committee, from their
duties in the House would have been of much
| shorter continuance.
Believing they had now exhausted in their eff
forts to execute the duty devolved upon them,
all reasonable means depending solely upon the
provisions Of the Bank charter, to obtain the in.
spection of the books of this corporation your
Committee were at last reluctantly compelled
to resort to the subpgnas which had been fur
nished to them under the seal of this House. and
attested by its Clerk. They, thereby, on the 9th
inst directed the Marshal Of the Eastern Dis
| trict of Pennsylvania to summon Nicholas BID
de- President, and thirteen other persons, Dl-
| rectors Of the Bank to attend at their Commit
tee-room, on the next day, at II O'Clock, at noon,
to testify concerning the matters Of which your
Committee were authorized to inquire and to
| bring with them certain books therein named
for inspection. The Marshal served the sum-
mons in due form of law, and at the time APP
pointed, the persons therein named appeared
| before the Committee and presented written
communication signed by each of them, as the
| answer of each to the requirements Of the sub
pena (Which is in the appendix to this report
In this paper they declare "that they do not
produce the books required because they are
not in the custody ofeither of u.s. but as has here
tofore been stated of the Board" and add, econ.
| siderng that as corporatOrS and Directors, we
are parties to the proceeding-we do not cons-
DER ourselves W lCStlly, anu tuCIClOIC ~
specially decline to do So"
Your committee will not dwell long to answer
these technical excuses for this contempt of the
lawful mandate of the House. They are to be
found at large in the written document above
referred to. Most of them, it is believed, have
been already satisfactorily answered Thetwo
novel excuses herein set forth, cannot but be
condemned as insufficient. The first is founded
o very refined distinction between the power
of the Directors as persons and as corporators.
The same persons have and have not power to
submit the books. AS corporators, the custody
of the books is in them but as individuals, al
though collectively assembled, the same books
are not under their control. Thus by an ate
nuated technically, the lawful authority of the
House is to be defed. If, in one room Of the
Bank, they must be esteemed as individual
citizens" who may lawfully disregard subpe-
ma duces tecum, because they have not the books
demanded-if in another room of the same
house, by transmigration not known to
Heather philosophy, their identity is gone
they have become mere ideal creatures, on
which not even subpoena ad testifcandum can
be served. To make this excuse still more ex-
traordnary, let it be remembered that seven OF