Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1841-07-31

claimed by both, and over which both
agree, for the present, to refrain from ex-
ercising any &C, of ownership or authority.
In pursuance of this leading idea, the Sc
cretary of the Treasury, in the plan he has
submitted to us, has avoided altogether the
Uered question of the power of Congress to
create corporations within the limits of
the States. The institution which he pro-
poses to establish as the fiscal agent of the
Government is to be incorporated pithin the
District Of Columbia, in virtue of the pow
er to create banking corporations here, ex-
ercised from the origin of the Constitution
to the present day, and never contested
Here it is to have its corporate existence,
ats local habitation and name," in proxim-
ity to the Government, whose fiscal con-
Germs it is to be employed to transact, and
under the immediate supervision of the rep
resentatives of the people, to whom it is
made responsible. Such branches, or off,
ces of discount and deposite, as it may find
it expedient 10 establish in any of the States,
are to be established there upon the assent
of the States previously obtained, and in
virtue of those general rights of sovereign
ty which each State possesses within its
own limits. The long contested question of
the power of Congress to create corpora
tions within the States-a question growing
not merely out of the limited nature, in gen.
eral, of the powers delegated to Congress,
but also out of the rejection by the Conven-
ton OF an express proposition to give to
Congress the general authority to grant
charters of incorporation for the Union--the
whole of this ancient field of controversy
is prudently avoided by the Secretary's
plan. 1t is the disputed territory on which
no entry is to be made; but by the conioint
exercise of admitted powers within the well
defined and ascertained limits on either side
of the contested boundary-of the power
of Congress "to exercise exclusive legisla-
ton in all cases whatever" within the Dis
trict, and the power of the States to give
their assent to the establishment of branches
of the proposed institution, within their res
pective limits,--the whole machinery of
this new fiscal and banking agency is organ
lied and put in motion, without occupying
a single point of the disputed ground of the
Constitution.
Still, however, Mr.. President, said Mr..
Rives, an objection has been somewhere
started to this arrangement, that though the
power of Congress to create banking cor
porations within this District is unquestion-
| able, yet they can be constitutionally crea-
ted here only for local. and not for national
uses. On what principle can such dis
tinction as this be sustained! The District
itself was created, and set apart as an ex-
elusive jurisdiction, wholly for national con-
siderations-to give entire freedom and in
dependence to the deliberations and action
of the national authorities established here.
Mr.. Rives said he had the sanction of the
highest judicial authority known to our in
situations, for saying that the power of tex
elusive legislation" over this District was
conferred on Congress, not, as is sometimes
loosely said, as a local Legislature for the
District, but emphatically as "the Legisla-
ture of the Union" What is this magnifi.
cent Capitol erected here for,-for what
the Treasury Building, and all the other
public editices connected with the opera.
tious of the Government, unless for nation
al purposes! And for what more legitimate
national object can any establishment be
founded here, than to be an auxiliary, and
in some sort, an adjunct to the great Reve-
nue. Department of the Government!
IT'S true, said Mr.. RIvEs, that acts done
here, in virtue of the power of exclusive
Legislation" over this District, are limited, in
their intrinsic force, to the District. They
have no operation, per Sc, beyond the Dis
trict. Accordingly, the corporation pro-
posed to be created here as the fiscal agent
of the Government, will have its legal cor
porate existence here, and no where else
| ha Inn Of ha
of the U. s., in recent cases. having an
important bearing on the questions we are
now discussing, it is "to d,ceU here IN the
place of its creation" But this does not
prevent it, any more than corporations Gre
ated by State authority, from extending its
operations by branches or agencies, into the
States of the Union, 10Th the assent of those
States. In every such case, the extra-ter-
ritorial operation of the institution would
be the result, not of any intrinsic force de.
rived from the act of incorporation, but OF
the sovereign assent of the States permit
ting it to extend its operations within their
limits. But this (said Mr.. R.) is to antici
pate question shall presently have occa
sion to discuss much more at large, re-
turn to the competency of Congress TO in
corporate Dahk III tEis Distrlct lor hdtt0h
al uses.
1t will be seen, said Mr., Rives, if we trace
+ the history of all the legislative discussions
which have ever taken place on the consti
tutional power Of Congress to establish ;
! National Bank within the limits of tn,
. States, that the most determined opponent
of the general power have invariably ad
mitted the authority of Congress to incor
porate and establish such Bank within tn,
District of Columbia. In 1871. when tn,