H. OF R.]

Deposite Banks.

[FEB. 10, 1835.

this amendment, nor said a word upon the subject, were it not that he stood pledged to his constituents to vindicate their interests, whenever the subject of the currency shall be agitated in Congress. And, on this occasion, he deemed it his duty to urge the proposition submitted by him, under a sincere conviction that their immediate and ultimate prosperity are deeply involved in the question now before the House.

Mr. E. then moved that the bill, with the amendments, be referred to a select committee, to consist of one member from each State of the Union.

Mr. BOON demanded the yeas and nays, but withdrew his motion; and the question being put, the commitment was negatived.

agement of the Executive, in banks whose abuses they can only know through their own voluntary exhibitions? Bills of credit of the States at the present day might form a sort of general currency, but their issue is prohibited by the constitution. Surely they are not authorized to allow corporate associations to do what they are denied the power of doing themselves. He held that the name did not change the character of the issue, and that there is no practical distinction between bills of credit and notes of State corporations. The powers of Congress were granted not for local but for general purposes, and when they are not exercised for the general good, they must be abused. He contended for the power to create a bank; but it must be a bank to benefit the people whose power should be exercised in its creation. He viewed Mr. ROBERTSON said he had supposed that a bill a specie currency impracticable, and operating as a se- so deeply interesting to the whole people of the United vere tax upon the interior, in their commercial inter- States as that under consideration would, in the regular course and exchanges with the seaboard, independent of course of proceeding, have been committed to a Commitits delay, hazard, and inconvenience. With equal priv- tee of the Whole on the state of the Union. It was with ileges and equal rights, the people of the interior will no little surprise he perceived an effort made to carry it not rest satisfied with any description of currency that to its final passage, without affording to all the fullest shall operate as a tax or inconvenience exclusively on opportunity of presenting their views. It was true, the them. And between State bank paper, which must de- chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means had inpreciate according to distance from the place of issue, vited amendments, and more had already been offered and a promised specie currency, known to be imprac- than the House would, perhaps, be disposed to digest. ticable, the certain advantages of the currency afforded Favoring, himself, the principle of that proposed by his by the bill he had offered must be obvious. colleague, [Mr. GORDON,] so far as it dispensed with the agency of banking corporations, and desirous of seeing that principle imbodied into some practicable plan, he should move a commitment of the bill to the committee which had reported it, with instructions to report a plan to effect that object.

That bill, sir, (said Mr. E.,) will increase the capital, enlarge the resources, perform all the functions of a national bank, and afford all the facilities of exchange and transfer which the wants of the people and the Government absolutely require. It is evidently free from all valid constitutional objections; and, under the direction of responsible men, having no peculiar interest in the institution, excepting that which arises from their salaries, it cannot fail to be exempted from all political influence, other than that which may be directly imparted to it by Congress. The equality of rights and privileges under the bill proposed cannot be departed from; and if, from time to time, it should require amendment, no particular individual or party interest can be properly consulted. Indeed, the stock being inalienable in the States, the people will scarcely sanction any sinister changes. It were folly to assert that such an institution would be dangerous to liberty. It will belong to the people, be regulated and governed by them, and neither the Executive nor any other branch of the Government will exercise any permanent or paramount control over it. The good of the many will, by the establishment, be substituted for that of the few; the relative interest of the States cemented, the perpetuity of the Union secured, and an additional safeguard afforded for the equal rights and independence of the people. That the powers directly granted to Congress, to regulate the currency with a view to the general welfare, and the power to make all laws necessary to carry into effect such delegated powers, and all others, vested in the Government of the United States, or any department or officer there. of, are perfectly consistent with the features of my proposed amendment, I hold myself in readiness to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the committee contemplated to be appointed. He was sensible, if the committee be refused, this amendment cannot prevail, inasmuch as his hasty and superficial views will hardly be understood by the House. When he took his seat this morning, he had no suspicion that the subject would be called up to-day; and, unless a decided change of opinion be effected in both branches of the Legislature, (which is hardly to be expected,) a protracted discussion of the measure will operate a wanton waste of time, and have a tendency to defeat much legislation of the utmost importance to the country.

Entertaining these views, he should not have offered

It would be recollected that, at an early period of the session, a gentleman from Georgia [Mr. GAMBLE] submitted a resolution calling on the Secretary of the Treas. ury for his opinion of the practicability of dispensing with bank agency; and, subsequently, requiring him to lay before the House the best plan he could devise for that purpose. Nothing could be more fair, more reasonable, than that the House should have been furnished with all the light which could be thrown on this subject by the officer whose situation best enabled him, and whose duty required him, to communicate it. Yet the resolutions had been vehemently opposed. The chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, as a reason for his opposition, averred that the necessary information was already furnished in a report made by the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. R. said he had read that document with great attention, but had been unable to find in it any such information. It contained a learned dissertation on political panics-whether designed for political effect, or to aid the House in its deliberations, he would leave it to the House to decide. It gave, too, a full history of the abuses imputed to the Bank of the United States. If the object be to inquire into these, to see how vigorously the Secretary had attacked an enemy already vanquished, you might look to this report. As valiantly as Shakspeare's redoubted hero fought-a full hour by the Shrewsbury clock-with the lifeless body of Hotspur, so long and so valiantly the Secretary contended with the dead monster, and thrice he slew the slain."

The report, it is true, contains a clear admission that banks are by no means necessary to the Government. But no other plan is proposed, no other alternative presented, than that contained in the bill. Adverting to the contingency of all banks ceasing to exist, or of their refusing to receive and manage the public deposites, the Secretary distinctly asserts the power of the Government to "proceed through personal agencies." "It is admitted," he says, "that it would be at some inconvenience, and some increase of expense, unless remedied in a manner that may be hereafter developed; and would

not, in the opinion of this Department, and in the present condition of things, be so eligible a system as the present one. Because banks, though exposed to some dangers and evils, and though not believed to be neces sary for the fiscal purposes of any Government, and much less of one in the present happy financial situation of ours, are frankly acknowledged to be, in many respects, a class of agents, economical, convenient, and useful." Granted they are more convenient, less expensive. But much inconvenience, much expense, ought to be encountered, rather than resort to this pernicious agency. Let us, then, have the Secretary's aid in devising such a plan. This was his sole object in submitting the motion to commit, that we might have such a plan, and compare it with the one now proposed. The chairman of the committee, he presumed, was on terms of confidential intercourse with the Secretary; it seemed, indeed, to be regarded by some as indispensable that the chairman of that and other committees should be on a confidential footing with those who presided over the executive departments. When it was recollected what an outcry was raised against all banks, what a horror was expressed against rags, by the friends of the administration, it could not be doubted that the head of the Treasury Department must have maturely reflected on this subject, and could at once present a scheme for effectuating what he had himself declared to be practicable. The chairman could report it without delay. As little delay would be occasioned by taking this course as hy pressing the bill, with its various amendments, upon the House, in the mode now pursued.

The chairman of the committee seemed unwilling, however, to consider any other plan. He asserts that the system now proposed is no longer an experiment. If he date the system from the time of the removal of the deposites, sixteen months is too short a period to justify the assertion. It could scarcely be said to have been fairly begun, much less fairly tried. Strange would it have been if the favored banks, with every inducement to sustain their credit, aided by all the influence and power of the Government, political as well as pecuniary, should not have been able, for so brief a space, to keep their heads above water.

[H. OF R.

lars, by using the State banks as fiscal agents, and receiving their notes; this, too, while they were used occasionally only. Adding interest, the sum would amount to somewhere about a million and a half, at the rate (taking the period at which it occurred) of eighty or one hundred thousand dollars per annum. The loss is spoken of in the report as a trivial affair; not more, it seems, than we had sustained from one or two mercantile firms. This was truly consolatory: it was a great consolation to know that there was nothing so bad in one branch of Treasury operations, but that there was something fully as bad in another; and nothing so bad in the Treasury, but that there was something, it was not to be doubted, still worse in the Post Office, or some other Department.

But all danger would be avoided by the provisions of the bill. He would briefly advert to some of these, not being prepared, nor indeed competent, to give them the full examination they deserved. In presenting the objections which occurred to his mind, he declared he had no wish to add to the embarrassment of the Treasury Department; still less to witness the public calamitres incident to such embarrassment. He sincerely desired to adopt the best method that could be devised for managing the public funds without connecting the Government with moneyed corporations. If none such should be found practicable, without incurring greater evils than the plan proposed by the bill, he was ready, in good faith, to lend his humble aid in rendering that as guarded and as perfect as possible.

it would be too late to expect it.

The selected banks, the bill provides, may be required to give collateral security. Will such security be exacted, or can it be obtained? Of forty-four now used by the Government, twenty-seven are employed on what are called "the usual terms.' This vague expression is believed to import, not that they have given security, but have engaged to give it when required. The remaining seventeen are used "for deposite and payment only;" and these had neither given security, nor engaged to give it. The Bank of Virginia had been selected as a fiscal agent "on the usual terms;" but the stockholders subsequently rescinded the contract. Security would rarely be demanded unless danger was The chairman, he feared, had drawn rather too flat-apprehended; when it should be considered necessary tering a picture of the local banks. The calculations he had just made, apparently with a view of showing their superior fitness for fiscal purposes, did not seem altogether accurate. It was not necessary to examine them in detail. In alluding to the loss supposed to have been incurred by the Government from its connexion with the Bank of the United States, he had adverted to the occasional smallness of its dividends; but he had forgotten that this was perhaps fully compensated by the largeness of those dividends at other periods. He had forgotten to take into his estimate the great profit the Government might have realized by the sale of its stock; he had forgotten to mention the bonus paid by that bank, and the fact that none such was or could be expected from the State banks. He had forgotten that, throughout the whole period of its existence, we had never lost one dollar of the immense treasures we had deposited in its vaults, nor on account of the depreciation of its notes. Whether we had gained or lost, however, by that connexion, it seemed now unnecessary to examine. That bank was about to expire. It might, indeed, be regarded as dead-never, he trusted, to rise again. The true question was, whether the public money could be safely or properly managed in the mode now proposed.

In

If we cast our eyes back to the trials already made, we should have little reason to anticipate success. the lapse of a few years we had lost a sum, now reported as unavailable funds, of upwards of a million of dol VOL. XI.-82

here the Government is to contract with fifty or sixty There are two parties at least to every contract; but different corporations; to consult all their directors; their stockholders; the States which created or have an interest in them. The United States, it is understood, as a creditor, claims priority over all others. Will the States, the stockholders, the depositors, interested in any bank, consent to admit a customer who, in case of its inability to meet its engagements, will refuse to participate in the loss, and grasp all that is left.

Who were the parties, besides, he would ask, with whom contracts were to be made? Ephemeral existences, dependent in some instances on the will of the Legislatures creating them; liable to be cut off, prematurely, by legal prosecutions, or by the strong arm of Government; to be withered by the breath of suspicion; to be overthrown by a panic; liable, as the Secretary had forcibly observed, to a thousand accidents by flood and field. Even if permitted to die a natural death, two or three of those employed by the Government must, on an average, expire every year, and new ones be substituted, and new contracts made. Looking to their extinction, the vigilance of the Government must be constantly exerted in making a timely withdrawal of the public deposites; or, if left till the winding up, it may find, instead of its money, a right of action against insolvent debtors.

[Mr. ROBERTSON here gave way at the suggestion of

FEB. 11, 1835.]

Washington and Baltimore Railroad.

[H. OF R.

ernment with numerous banking corporations. Would those interested in them dare to assert their political rights? Would they not be cautious, after what had

tive measures of being thought inimical to the administration? He dreaded, in this aspect, the operation of the system. We had experienced the advantage of separating the patronage of the Government from religion. He would rejoice to see it in like manner separated from moneyed corporations, and from the political press. The influence of religion, of money, of the press, over the human mind, was too tremendous to be wielded safely by any Government. Let the Government support the church, the banks, the press-the church, the banks, the press, will in turn support the Government in all its abuses. History testified to the truth of the proposition; and he could not but deprecate so dangerous a connexion. He should move, therefore, that the bill, with the proposed amendments, be committed to the Committee of Ways and Means, with instructions to report the best practicable plan of conducting the fiscal concerns of the Government without connecting it with moneyed corporations.

the different members of the Union. If the revenues could not be kept down to the amount necessary to meet the proper expenses of the Government, some constitutional method should be devised for making a just dispo-occurred, how they ventured to find fault with execu sition of the surplus. That surplus had been estimated, for a series of years to come, at about nine millions. The amount would necessarily depend on the continuance of what was termed the compromise, and the sincerity with which the friends of reform should endeavor to curtail the expenses of the Government. The present party, it would be recollected, had come into power denouncing the wasteful extravagance of Mr. Adams's administration. The charge had greatly contributed to the downfall of that administration. The retrenching party had now been in power six years; and, in that period, the expenses of the Government had been reduced from eleven or twelve down to twenty-two or twenty-three millions per annum. He did not think the extravagance of the general Government ought to be ascribed to the administration; though it was as justly imputable to the present as to the preceding one. The blame rested on Congress, which alone could authorize appropriations of the public money. He hoped the era of retrenchment was at length about to commence. A gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. SPEIGHT] had called on the friends of the administration to redeem the pledges they had given. He thought there was no reason to appre hend, with the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. HAWES,] that they would not obey the call. The friends of the administration had not been deceived. They had beenhe meant no disrespect to the members of the Housegenerously fed out of the public garner. He trusted the trumpet-call of the gentleman from North Carolina would again be sounded; and he pledged himself to unite with the friends of the administration in every effort to make this Government, what they said it should be, a hard-money Government; and to curtail the wasteful expenditures of the Government till they should even fall below the scale adopted during the extravagant administration of Mr. Adams.

Mr. R. said he was glad to find that the power of regulating the custody of the public money was distinctly conceded to be in Congress; and that the exercise of that power was courted by the Executive. Indeed, he did not understand the President, in his late message, as contending that it ever properly belonged to the Executive. If it truly and constitutionally belonged to the Executive, it could not, even with the consent of the President, be transferred to Congress; for Congress can exercise no executive power. If it be a legislative power, as seems now admitted, Congress alone could ever constitutionally exert it. This is the proper occasion to assert and maintain it; and to provide that the public treasure shall never again be controlled, except by the representatives of the people.

The chairman of the committee tells us this bill gives no power to the Secretary or the President over the public money. This is a mistake. It authorizes the Secretary, during the recess of Congress, to remove the deposites. It is true, it requires him to assign his reasons. So did the former law; yet, with the acknowledgment that the power of regulating the custody of the public money properly belonged to Congress, and with every reason to believe that they would not approve the act, he undertook to remove it. What he had done once he may do again; and it may be thought quite a sufficient reason to justify the act, that such is the will of him whose will is above the law.

Mr. R. said there were many objections to the bill which, in his desultory remarks, he had not noticed. He would, in conclusion, merely advert to the consequences, without meaning to discuss them, which, in a political view, might result from connecting the Gov

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11.

WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE RAILROAD. Mr. CHINN, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, reported a bill supplemental to an act entitled "An act to authorize the extension, construction, and use, of a lateral branch of the Baltimore and Obio railroad into and within the District of Columbia," passed December, 1829.

Mr. C., after stating that the bill merely altered, in some unessential particulars, as far as the public were concerned, the act already passed on the subject, moved that the bill be engrossed.

After a few words of explanation from Mr. MERCER, Mr. PARKER said all he knew about this bill was, that it contained four or five sections. He objected to any further action upon it until he had examined it.

Mr. McKIM was surprised, he said, that any one could for a moment entertain any hostility to this bill. He had no personal interest in its passage. He did not own a dollar in the stock of the company, and he never should, for he did not believe that the stock would ever yield any profit. He was authorized to say, by the president of the company, that, if no difficulty was interposed by the Government, the railroad would be completed on the 4th of July next. Mr. McK. explained the object of the bill, which, he said, proposed a change in the route of the road, which would be highly advantageous to the public.

The company had conferred with the authorities of this District in regard to the new route, and no obThe road jection whatever was made to it by them. would pass along the Tiber, through ground which was wholly worthless, for any purpose; and the depot was to be on the avenue, somewhere near Gadsby's hotel. The value of the ground was to be assessed, and paid for by the company. Unless the bill was passed, this great public work, on which the mail between this city and Baltimore was to be transported in two hours, must stop. He was surprised at the opposition to the bill manifested by the gentleman from New Jersey.

Mr. PARKER said the gentleman ought not to be surprised that he should object to the hurried passage of a bill which he knew nothing about. He could not possibly be in favor of a bill which he did not understand. He wished to see the bill, and ascertain what it There was no probability that the work would be stopped if this bill did not pass this morning. All bills were on the same footing of emergency, and if we

was.