, 1840-03-28

~ hh6iS ohohSs "iH " suou ~ efhNsSh
number of state banks already in existence,
could not have furnished employment for its
immense capital. 1t would have starved
within such narrow limits.
Did it, in point of fact, %confine its opera
lions to Pennsylvania ? No. sir ; it aspired
to regulate the currency and exchanges Of
the whole union. This was the high poli;i-
cal duty TO the performance of which it pfo-
claimed itself destined. To tell me .nat this
bank all at once changed its character and
became a mere state institution, simply be-
cause it had received q charter from the le-
gislature Of Pennsylvania, is to deny the evil
dence of our senses. Was not the curren
cy issued under the new charter, as well as
that under the old, declared, in 1886, to be
the best currency which the world had ever
seen Did not the new notes command the
same premium, all over the union, with the
old ones; and would they not still continue
10 command the same premium if it had not
fallen-fallen fromits high estate
Why, sir, it became, in fact, more a bank
Of the United States after it received its
Pennsylvania charter than it ever had been
before. 1t bought up State banks and con-
verted them into branches in Louisiana and
in Georgia; and it shot out its branches
agencies over the whole Union. In New
York il has established a branch bank under
their free banking law.
Since its new charter, not content with
the whole United States as the theatre OF
its operations, ii has established an agency
in England, and aspired " to beared the lion
in his den," and to become the rival Of the
Bank of England in London itself. 1t scorn-
ed TO confne itself to banking operations
alone; but las invaded the province Of the
merchant, and has attempted to monopolize
and regulate the whole cotton trade be-
tween Europe and this country. And yet
this bank is now said TO be mere P~ennsylva.
mia institution |!
Now, sir, how has it succeeded in the
task which it imposed upon i,self-of regu-
lating the bank issues and the foreign and
domestic exchanges Of the Union In little
more than one year after its charters from
Congress had expired, whilst, in all respects,
it was under the some government, and con-
tinued to pursue the very same course Of
policy that it had doEe before, it became
insolvent, and suspended specie payments
with less than one million and a half Of gold
and silver in its vaults, or less than one dol
lar for twentythree Of its capitals, to meet
all its immense liabilities. Their amount at
the time l do not recollsct at present, nor
have l the means Of ascersainin! 1t in my
possession.
Now, sir, | would ask the Senator, is there
the least reason to believe that, If this bank
had continued to be the depository Of the
public revenue until May, 1887, its fate
would have been averted, or that we should
not then have had a general suspension Of
specie payments? Why, sir, the public de-
posites would only have added fuel to the
flame, and would have tempted the bank to
engage in still wilder specula,ions. The
orerbanking and overtrading Of 1886, which
were conducted under its auspices, would
have become still greater-the expansion
would have been still more extravagant-the
bloated credit system, which enabled US in
that year to import foreign merchandise TO
the value of nearly one hundred and ninety
millions o! dollars, might have raised our i'm
ports up to two hundred and fifty millions;
and the catastrophe which followed would
have been still more dreadful.
In order to repair its fallen fortunes, true
to the law Of its nature, this bank has since
proceeded from one extravaganza to anoth.
or, until it is nov almost a heap Of ruins
Instead of controlling and regulating The
other banks Of the country, it has notorious.
ly been the chief, nay, almost the only
cause of the existing suspension, Of specie
payments. The glory Of which its friends
now boast is, that it has been able to borrow
100000 sterling, at an e1travagant rate
Of interest, from private bankers in England.
TO save it from immediate bankruptcy and
ruin. Alas! how are The mighty fallen
And it is by the creation of another such
institution that the Senatorseeks to regulate
the currency and control the bank issues o.
the country! Why, this is faith against
fact /; speculation against experience. Thi.
would be to adopt, as our grand regulator
and institution precisely similar to that which
has been the great author of our vast banh
expansions and our bloated credit system
and which has fallen under the weight Of its
own extravaganza. With all the expert
ence which the People of the United States
have had upon this subject, it will be long,
trust, very long, before they return to a Banl
of the United States.
But l proposed TO prove that, even if ;