Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1842-03-12

| New York; and that of Massachusetts, in
Boston; all of them established before the
adoption of the Constitution. Each of
these banks was State corporation; for.
though the Bank of North America was
oI iginally established by Congress in 1871,
yet it had since accepted and now acted
under charter from Pennsylvania.
These banks it was thought were unfit,
or incompetent, to perform The fiscal bust
ness of the Government besides which,
they could not absorb any amount of the
| public debt, NOR he relied on for advances
of money to the United States.
The incorporation Of the Bank of the
United States originated in an order of
Congress calling on the Secretary of the
Treasury TO prepare and report proper
plan for establishing the public credit; in
obedience to which, the Secretary pre-
sented two reports; in one Of them, re-
commencing that the public debt be funded,
and additional taxes raised to pay the in
ierest~on II; and, in the other, recommend
ING the Incorporation of National Bank
as being of "primary importance to the
prosperous administration of the finances"
and of 'the greatest utility in the opera
tions connectrd with the support-of public
credit or, as set forth in the preamble OF
the act, "as tcndpg to give facilityto the
obtaining of bans for the use of the Gov
elkment;" to which, in the same preamble,
vas added the further reason of "advan-
tages to trade and industry"
This bank answered Immediately three
purposes of the Government, namely: l..
OF its capital of ten million of dollars,
three fourths was composed of funded
debt; 2. 1t was made the fiscal agent of
the United States; and 8. Its notes were
alegaized currency, being receivable in all
payments at the Treasury.
And the system of the Government was
completed by the act of the second of
April. 1899, establishing a mint, and regu-
lating the coin of the United States, upon
the basis of the dollar unit previously pre-
srrbed by the Continental Congress.
The Incorporation of this bank was
r"sstet in III" outset on considerations ot
iexpetiIrury ali .: consttutionality; which
Irlns.a"rGHuIs led 10 the refusal of Con-
rucss Co re0.W its charter. On the expra.
ton oi rs charter II does not appear Ia
have been ts"lnGd necessary or expedienr
It,, ,"g.st@'c ti!rihar. either as the means n
c.'..c:i ug ~ the IN Iie of keeping the pub-
Is Moneys; but this was left to stand or
the authority vested in the Treasury, by
the act of 1889, to receive and keep the
mnneys of the United States.
Meanwhile, the number of banks, incor.
porated by the several States, had been
increased previous TO, or at this time, to
one hundred. and in 1912 about twenty
more were Incorporated, with an aggre-
gate capital in the whole Of upwards Of
seventy-seven millions of dollars; and the
business of the Treasury was conducted
In the progress of the war with Great
Britain all the Slate banks south OF
, New England ceased to pay coin for thcil
bills, in 1914, as the United States Bank
would in all probability have done, if it hac
, continued to exist, as this suspension was
chiefly in consequences of advances made
by them to the Government; but notwith
!, standing the non-redeemabili,y of thei
bills, they continued from the necessity o
the case. TO be received and paid in the
business of the Treasury, though gold ano
silver coin was at this time, by expires:
enactment, the only legal currency of the
United States.
Under this condition of things the ac
of the 10th of April, 1916, was passed
establishing the second Bank of the Uniteo
States.
The primary inducement to the estab
lishment of this corporation, as stated by
the President, (Mr. Madison9 in the Mes
sage recommending 1t, was to restore &c
the community "a uniform national cur
rency," to provide substitute" for coin
(which might engage the confidence anc
accommodate the wants of the citizen:
, throughout the Union" until the time wher
f the precious metals could again be rem
| dered 1.-THE general medium Of exchanges.
, The same precise object was dwell upor
| more at length by the Secretary of Tx
: Treasury (Mr. Dallas.)
: The President in his Message, in dicateC
three means of providing common (pa
, peri medium of circulation" namely:-l
By the bills of the United States Banks.
BY National Bank; and, 3. By the note
of the Government.
, In deciding for the second of these meas
ures rather than the third, the Secretary o
the Treasury put his decision simply OF
the point that there was no adequate mo
t tive" that is, no Government exigency Il
induce the use of its credit as the basis o
circulation; expressly asserting at thu
: sametime the power Of Government "t'
e supply and maintain paper medium o
D exchange"
S This Bank, then, like its predecessor
] furnished a paper currency declared b.
+ law TO be receivable in all payments at tn
Treasury; it was made the fiscal agent ant
: the depository of the Treasury; and it alb
2 Snrheu in lis canitol "A norton of the DuhII