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Page: 251 (continue) "The conduct and present
condition of that bank and the great amount of capital
vested in it by the United States require your careful
attention. Its charter expired on the 3d day of March
last, and it has now no power but that given in the
twenty-first section, "to use the corporate name, style,
and capacity for the purpose of suits for the final
settlement and liquidation of the affairs and accounts
of the corporation, and for the sale and disposition of
their estate--real, personal, and mixed--but not for any
other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever, nor for
a period exceeding two years after the expiration of the
said term of incorporation."
Before the expiration of the charter the stockholders
of the bank obtained an act of incorporation from the
legislature of Pennsylvania, excluding only the United
States. Instead of proceeding to wind up their concerns
and pay over to the United States the amount due on
account of the stock held by them, the president and
directors of the old bank appear to have transferred the
books, papers, notes, obligations, and most or all of
its property to this new corporation, which entered upon
business as a continuation of the old concern. Amongst
other acts of questionable validity, the notes of the
expired corporation are known to have been used as its
own and again put in circulation. That the old bank had
no right to issue or reissue its notes after the
expiration of its charter can not be denied, and that it
could not confer any such right on its substitute any
more than exercise it itself is equally plain.
In law and honesty the notes of the bank in circulation
at the expiration of its charter should have been called
in by public advertisement , paid up as presented, and,
together with those on hand, canceled and destroyed.
Their reissue is sanctioned by no law and warranted by
no necessity. If the United States be responsible in
their stock for the payment of these notes, their
reissue by the new corporation for their own profit is a
fraud on the Government. If the United States is not
responsible, then there is no legal responsibility in
any quarter, and it is a fraud on the country. They are
the redeemed notes of a dissolved partnership, but,
contrary to the wishes of the retiring partner and
without his consent, are again reissued and circulated.
It is the high and peculiar duty of Congress to decide
whether any further legislation be necessary for the
security of the large amount of public property now held
and in use by the new bank, and for vindicating the
rights of the Government and compelling a speedy and
honest settlement with all the creditors of the old
bank, public and private, or whether the subject shall
be left to the power now possessed by the Executive and
judiciary.
It remains to be seen whether the persons who as
managers of the old bank undertook to control the
Government, retained the public dividends, shut their
doors upon a committee of the House of Representatives,
and filled the country with panic to accomplish their
own sinister objects may now as managers of a new bank
continue with impunity to flood the country with a
spurious currency, use the seven millions of Government
stock for their own profit, and refuse to the United
States all information as to the present condition of
their own property and the prospect of recovering it
into their own possession.
The lessons taught by the Bank of the United States can
not well be lost upon the American people. They will
take care never again to place so tremendous a power in
irresponsible hands, and it will be fortunate if they
seriously consider the consequences which are likely to
result on a smaller scale from the facility with which
corporate powers are granted by their State governments.
It is believed that the law of the last session
regulating the deposit banks operates onerously and
unjustly upon them in many respects, and it is hoped
that Congress, on proper representations, will adopt the
modifications which are necessary to prevent this
consequence.
[END OF ARTICLE]
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