Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1834-06-19

oa"N, Vi any insurance office, trust com
Pany, turnpike, canal, or rail road com
Pahy; orany other private citizens
The right therefore claimed by the ma
yority of the committee, If it transcen,
in the slightest degree the limitations O
the charter, must flow frhm claim o
power, which would bring within it
grasp every corporation, every citizen
and every book and paper in the Uniteo
states, and subject them, at any time, te
a general search of committee of eli
Their house of congress.
Should it be commended that, as a
great stakeholder, the government has a
!. right to institute this search, the answer
Is obvious, the house of representatives
Is not the government, as stakeholder.
has no rights not possessed by other
stockholders, or TO be exercised in any
other way. In the contract between the
government and the stockholders, by
which the bank was created CORPORA
tion OF character partly private, and
partly public, the government reserved
to-ltself all the powers which itthoughl
we're required to protect its interests as
#Stockhoder, or which were needed in
reference to any other relations of the
hank to the contrary. To these rcser.
vations, the stockholders, accepting the
charter assented. They cannot now be
extended to the prejudice of the baak,
without violation Of law and breach
Of faith.
The undersigned are far from intend
Ing to charge their respected colleagues
with whom they differed with pain, with
the design consciously to institute a
search of this character into the affairs
of the bank, but they felt obliged to dis
sent from a considerable portion oflheir
measures, deeming them, in effect, Ohio
certainly not intended,) to have all the
essential characters of such a general
and unlawful search. The justice of
this remark will, as the undersigned
think, abundantly appear, from "a re-
velw Of the principal measures adopted
by the committee, which will now, for
this reason, be briefly examined.
|. The first step taken was call by
the committee Of investigation on the
committee of directors, for ga list Of the
books Of the bank, with an explanation
OF the purposes for which each is de.
signed, and the name IF the clerks to
whose care and custody they are re-
spective.y committed" This was
step preliminary to the process by which
tie committee Of investigation, in the
judgment ofthe majority, could call for,
and take into their possession, by IA pre-
cept addressed to the clerks in the bank,
any or all of the books Of the institution,
in which the business transactions of the
bank are entered by the said clerks
This list was furnished by the commits
tee of the directors, with the statement,
however, that the books were not in the
custody of the clerks, but in the general
custody of the board. In consequence
OF this statement, no attempt was made
to obtain possession of the books by
demand Of the clerks.
9. OF a similar character, but more
Objectionable, because tending more d.
rectly to the institution of IA general
search, and forming an immediate pre-
peration for it, was the right, insisted on
by the committee, of an exclusive occu.
patton ofthe room in the banking house,
offered by the directors for their accom-
mediation during the inspection Of the
books. The undersigned refer to the
correspondence between the committee
of Investigation and the committee Of
the bank on this subject. They would
only brihy observe, that committee of
seven had been appointed by the board
of directors, to receive the committee
Of investigation, and submit for their in
spection such books and papers of the
bank as might BE- necessary to EXHIBIT its
proceedings according to the require
ment Of the charter. A loom in the
clearinghouse was, by this committee,
offered for the accommodation of the
house of representatives. 1t appeared
at very early stage Of the proceedinns
ma conference between the two com
mitteess, that the committee of the d.
reotors proposed to exhibit their books
in person to the committee Of investiga-
ton, expressing, at the same time, their
expectation and readiness to "withdraw
from the room, whenever the committee
of the house should see fit" in order 10