most tempting, as well as the most fatal source of weakness in our political system. The regulation of the personal relations of the people of the several States, he believed to belong to the State Governments. He had become painfully apprized of the manifold disturbances of these relations, throughout all the ordinary transactions of life, by the management of the late Bank, having served on the committee of investigation, appointed by the House of Representatives in 1818,-as well as on that appointed by the Senate in 1834. These solemn inquiries into the operations of the system, had practically confirmed the opinions he had derived from Jefferson, Madison, and the other apostles of the old republican school, with regard to the want of power in Congress to charter such a corporation. The results of his deliberations may be most appropriately stated in his own forcible and expressive language, contained in his message returning the Senate bill:

"It will suffice for me to say, that my own opinion has been uniformly proclaimed to be against the exercise of any such power by this government. On all suitable occasions, during a period of twentyfive years, the opinion thus entertained has been unreservedly expressed. I declared it in the Legislature of my native State. In the House of Representatives of the United States, it has been openly vindicated by me. In the Senate chamber, in the presence and hearing of many who are at this time members of that body, it has been affirmed, and reaffirmed, in speeches and reports there made, and by votes there recorded. In popular assemblies, I have unhesitatingly announced it; and in the last public declaration which I made, and that but a short time before the late Presidential election, I referred to my previously expressed opinions as being those then entertained by me. With a full knowledge of the opinions thus entertained, and never concealed, I was elected, by the people, Vice President of the United States. By the occurrence of a contingency provided for in the Constitution, and arising under an impressive dispensation of Providence, I succeeded to the Presidential office. Before entering upon the duties of that office, I took an oath that I would preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.' Entertaining the opinions alluded to, and having taken this oath, the Senate and the country will see that I could not give my sanction to a measure of the character described, without surrendering all claims to the respect of honorable men-all confidence on the part of the people-all self-respect, all regard for moral and religious obligations— without an observance of which, no government can be prosperous,

and no people can be happy. It would be to commit a crime which I would not wilfully commit to gain any earthly reward, and which would justly subject me to the ridicule and scorn of all virtuous men. "I deem it entirely unnecessary, at this time, to enter upon the reasons which have brought my mind to the convictions I feel and entertain on this subject. They have been over and over again repeated. If some of those who have preceded me in this high office, have entertained and avowed different opinions, I yield all confidence that their convictions were sincere. I claim only to have the same measure meted out to myself. Without going further into the argument, I will say, that in looking to the powers of this Government to collect, safely keep, and disburse the public revenue, and incidentally to regulate the commerce and exchanges, I have not been able to satisfy myself that the establishment, by this government, of a bank of discount, in the ordinary acceptation of that term, was a necessary means, or one demanded by propriety, to execute those powers. What can the local discounts of the bank have to do with the collecting, safe-keeping, and disbursing of the revenue? So far as the mere discounting of paper is concerned, it is quite immaterial to this question whether the discount is obtained at a State bank or a United States bank. They are both equally local-both beginning and both ending in a local accommodation. What influence have local discounts, granted by any form of bank, in the regulating of the currency and the exchanges? Let the history of the late United States Bank, aid us in answering this inquiry."

When the similar bill passed by the House of Representatives, under the circumstances we have narrated, came before the President, he encountered, as was seen from the publications soon afterwards, the cajoleries, the importunities, and even the threats of those who had surrounded him, with a degree of conciliatory calmness, more consonant with his high, personal, and official character, than with such attempts to trample upon his solemnly promulgated convictions. The dignified firmness manifested by the President, in returning this second bill to the House where it originated, with his reasons for declining to approve it, not only confirmed public confidence in him, personally, but has given additional lustre to the reputation of the nation.

Having occupied so much space in showing the effects of similar powers with those contained in the two bills before us, it is unnecessary to discuss these objections in detail. Some notice of the general question presented by these

messages, to the consideration and final award of the people of the United States, seems proper.

Whether the power should be granted to Congress, to create corporations, with privileges coëxtensive with the Union, was brought distinctly to the consideration of the framers of the Constitution, as appears by the authentic debates of the Convention, recently published from Mr. Madison's papers. After discussing the consequences, the grant of this power was explicitly refused. As all powers not granted are, in terms, reserved either to the States, respectively, or to the people, it would seem difficult to satisfy the understanding and conscience of any upright person, meeting this question, free from all prepossession, that such power was granted by the Constitution, in spite of the contrary determination of its framers. It has been, indeed, said, that the axioms of geometry-the foundation of every mathematical truth,—are only universally admitted, because it has never happened to become the personal interest of any one to contradict them.

A glance at the previous history of this country, will show the ground on which the framers of the Constitution refused to Congress the power of indirectly depreciating the standard of value, by creating private corporations for that purpose, as well as explain the prohibition of the issue of bills of credit by the States. Early after the settlement of the colonies, they began the issue of paper money. In the course of a few years, it was found so convenient, that its abundance and consequent cheapness, expelled from circulation all currency of intrinsic value. But the evils of a factitious currency were not long in making themselves felt. The power of creating a commercial equivalent by law, enabled needy and profligate legislators to exercise the prerogative which only belongs to the Deity, that of creating an object of the highest value out of nonentity, and making it equal to the products of long and painful labor of the rest of the community. Such flagrant usurpation and injustice, tended to demoralize the people, and overturn the most sacred sanctions of society. Popular favor was sought by the constant recurrence of schemes of relief, by lightening the burden of all obligations, both public and private, through new issues, and increased depreciations of the legal measure of value. So

gross were these frauds, and so oppressive became their operation upon the industrious and unprotected part of the community, that some indemnity was indispensable, against the enormous, and continually increasing depreciation, in which several of the colonies became rivals of each other. Unprincipled and short-sighted men had urged the reductions of immediate profit, at the expense of others, to such an extent, in several colonies, as nearly to destroy all commercial interchange between them and others. The practical remedy attempted was, to establish, by law, the prices of the most important articles of consumption, and to fix severe penalties upon every demand for higher prices. It was soon found, that transactions could not be carried on under such shackles, and these laws were allowed to sink into oblivion, when it was finally discovered, that commercial equivalents cannot be created by acts of human legislation. Legal paper currency was so universally contemned, that no prudent individual could enter into contracts, payable at a future period, except in specific commodities, and all commerce was reduced to the primitive state of barter, as though no legal currency existed. The practical measure of value was governed by local circumstances. Tobacco, in some of the colonies, in others, wheat, or other grain, were recognized as the medium of payment. Throughout extensive sections, raccoon skins, and other furs, were employed, while, in some parts of the Eastern States, rum became a standard of value.* Singular as it may appear, this was a commodity which possessed many advantages over others employed for the same purpose. It could be readily divided into any quantities desired, its purity was easily ascertained, it was not exposed to deteriorate by long keeping, and as it could not be produced but at much expense and labor, there was no danger that it would become depreciated from sudden excess. All these expedients,

*Intelligent men have expressed surprise, that the hundred and fifty hogsheads of rum, furnished to the State of New-Hampshire, by the late John Langdon, should have enabled that State to put in motion her militia, under Gen. Stark, who, by the victory at Bennington, led to the capitulation of Gen. Burgoyne, and turned the tide of events, at the darkest period of the Revolution. This rum was not used to inspire that patriotic militia with subtle courage, but performed an office which no currency in the command of the State could do, at that juncture. It was a commercial equivalent, which would purchase indispensable supplies; this result could not have been accomplished with paper money to any

amount.

resorted to, from time to time, for more than half a century, had clearly illustrated to the framers of the Constitution, the causes which had led to the decline of commerce, and the continual overturns to which property was exposed, throughout the continent, previous to the Revolution. The general impoverishment of the most devoted and patriotic friends of popular rights, during the war, by means of the paper money then issued, served to enforce these results upon the minds of all reflecting men.

In 1781, the United States having received, from the crown of France, about half a million of dollars, in gold and silver, on public account, the superintendent of the finances of that period, Mr. Robert Morris, conceived the plan of using this money to establish the credit of a private corporation to issue notes payable on demand, in specie, by which the operations of the public service might be facilitated, at the same time that the interests of the individuals composing the corporation might be advanced. The Bank of North America was accordingly chartered, first by the Congress of the Confederation, and subsequently by the State of Pennsylvania. The capital stock of the Bank was nominally paid by the corporation, in their bonds-its origi nal efficient means having been wholly furnished by the public treasury. As this Bank was incorporated by law, only the securities paid in for its capital were available for its engagements. The individual property of the corporators, who derived, exclusively, the profits from its operations, was held to be wholly absolved from liability on this account. The temptations for profligate issues of paper currency, which neither rested upon public faith, as the former paper money had done, nor upon individual responsibility, were so obviously aggravated by this plan, that the charter was subsequently repealed. This description of corporation appears, by the debates, to have been brought to the consideration of the convention, when it refused to Congress the power to grant any charters of incorporation whatever.

Reflecting upon the deleterious influence which the excess of commercial currency, issued by private corporations, without practical obligation for its redemption, has recently exercised upon the security of property, and mercantile morality, a passing remark or two, upon the origin of this