"May 25, 45,000

Mr. Beck and Mr. Whitney were summoned produced, and left with the committee on a to appear and testify. The character and res- small slip of paper, worn out and torn, and it pectability of Mr. Beck are so universally known is among the papers reported by the committee; at Philadelphia, that all remark upon them and as it formed the main stay of Mr. Whitney's would be superfluous. He had been a director first testimony, a copy of the whole of it is here of the bank in the years 1824, '25, and '26, and subjoined: again in the years 1828, '29, and '30, and of course not only at the time alluded to by Mr. Wilson, but for five of the years which have elapsed since then, and till within less than two 21, C. Biddle, 38,319, 16 days 5–8 June." years past. Mr. Beck remembered the communications made to him by Mr. Wilson, shortly Of the two first notes, Mr. Whitney declared, before his removal, and had thought them to in answer to a leading question from the chair. proceed from irritation. man, that no entry had been made upon the

26, 24,000

May 13, 15 days $20,000 collateral.

.

He had seen no cause to doubt the correct-books: that he took his note of them from a ness of the official conduct of the president, and memorandum in the teller's drawer, and that has retained his perfect confidence in it unim- on making the discovery, he directed the officers paired to the present day. of the bank, one or both the cashiers, to enter

The testimony of Mr. Whitney was of a dif- this money upon the books; that it was done— ferent character. This person had been a di- that he did not see it done, but subsequently rector of the bank in the years 1822, '23, and saw on the books, the entry of "bills receiva'24, and a very active member of the board.-ble," which he knew was the entry made by He was a native American, but from the year his order.

1808 to 1816, had been a resident in Montreal, He further stated, that immediately after makin Canada-during the war, by permission of ing this discovery, and giving this order, he had the British government, on his taking an oath gone into the President's room, where he found to obey the laws of the country, which he him alone: that he told him what he had disco- & did not consider as an oath of allegiance-vered and done, and requested that no such but he had not asked or received the permis-transaction should be repeated while he was a sion to remain in Canada from his own Govern- director of the institution. That the president ment. About a year after the expiration of his did not deny the facts as he had stated themservice as a director of the bank, he failed in that he colored up very much, and promised business. Of his present standing in the com- that no such thing should happen again munity, no evidence has been taken by the com- This testimony appeared to be in all respects mittee. so extraordinary, and so deeply to affect the The story that Mr. Whitney told on his first moral character of the president of the bank, in examination was, that some time in 1824, Mr. which the subscriber had been long accustomed Wilson and Mr. Andrews, then cashiers of the to repose the most unbounded confidence, that bank, had mentioned to him certain transactions he deemed it proper to trace its introduction, in the bank, in which T. and J. G. Biddle were so far as possible, to its origin. As the question concerned, which they were not willing should of the chairman of the committee which drew exist without some member of the board being forth this testimony indicated that he had previinformed of them. Upon his inquiring what ously been made acquainted with it in detail, they were, they replied that T. and J. G. Biddle and as he had, on first stating his expectation had been in the habit of coming to the bank, to prove these charges, declined naming the and getting money, and leaving certificates of witness by whom he expected to prove them, stock, which represented it in the first teller's the subscriber resorted, by interrogation of the drawer, without paying interest, and without witness, to ascertain that which the chairman being entered on the books. That they had, had declined communicating to the committee. also, stated that the Messrs. Biddles had had He inquired of Mr. Whitney whether he had notes discounted for them by the president, had previous communication on the subject with which were entered on the books of the preced-any member of the committee? What had been ing discount day that upon Mr. Whitney's ask- his motive for giving the testimony? Whether ing them what sums there were of the kind in it had been voluntary or solicited? To these existence at that time, they went with him to questions he answered, that he had made prethe first teller's drawer, and found one sum of vious communications to the chairman at his a45,000 dollars, dated 25th of May, and one for partment, in presence of another member of the 24,000, dated 26th May; that they then went to committee; that he had no particular, but genthe discount clerk's desk, and found one note at neral motives for giving the testimony; that he fifteen days, dated 13th May, for 20,000 dollars, did not recollect whether it had been voluntary of T. Biddle's, and one note of Charles Biddle's, or asked of him; but upon being pressed by a dated 21st May, at sixteen days, for 38,319 dol- further question, he answered that Judge Claylars: that the two former sums represented cash, ton had been recommended to him by a letter and the two latter were notes, which the two from Mr. Benton. This disclosure was then cashiers stated to him had been discounted by confirmed by the chairman.

order of the president. Of all this, Mr. Whit- The subscriber requested that his objections ney declared, a memorandum at the time had to the admission of this evidence, while anony. been taken by him. Such a memorandum he mous, should be entered on the journals of the

comente, and an explanatory entry was also ordered the entries of the two sums of 45,000 made at the request of the chairman. and 24,000 dollars to be made upon the books, Mr. Whitney appealed, with great confi- and placed the affirmance in an alternative posidence, to his memorandum, and to the books of tion, to meet the evidence as it appeared in fact the bank corresponding with it, to confirm his upon the books. He now said, he had ordered story; but there was nothing in the memoran- the entries to be made, or had found them aldum to show that it had not been taken from the ready made, and confirmed them. But he nevbooks of the bank. There was internal evidence er attempted to show to the committee whence in the memorandum, that it could not have been or how he, as a single director, had derived the taken before the 26th of May; and there was authority of ordering the keepers of the reevidence on the books of the bank, that it was spective books to make any entry upon the probably taken from them on the 27th of May: books whatever; an authority which all the that was the only day on which one of the keepers of the books denied to belong to a dibooks of the bank corresponded with the memo-rector.

randum of Mr. Whitney.

The question was put to Mr. Whitney, whethBut Mr. Whitney testified, that no entries had er, upon his making his discoveries, he had conbeen made of the certificates of stock in the sidered himself as having fully discharged his teller's drawer, of the two sums of 45,000 and own duty, as a director, by a mere private ex24,000 dollars, minuted on his memoradum, on postulation with the president, without making the books, until after he had ordered the entries known the transaction to the board of directors to be made; while the books of the bank proved at all? To which he answered, that he had not that entries of both those sums, had been regu-considered the subject in that point of view. larly made on those respective days-the 25th Mr. Whitney, to sustain his character, proand 26th of May: Mr. Whitney's own testimony duced evidence that he had been very extenshowed, that he had seen the books after the sively engaged in business; had paid large sums en es were mnde, and there was nothing, ex- for duties on imported articles to the Governcept his own declara ion, to show that he had ment of the United States; that, while a direcnot taken his memorandum from them. tor of the bank, he had been a very active and

Mr. Andrews and Mr. Wilson, the two cash-industrous member of the board; and that he iers from whom Mr. Whitney alleged that he had had been employed by the board in confidenreceived the first information of this embezzle-tial trusts, which he had faithfully executed. ment of the moneys of the bank, denied in the As a last resort to sustain his charge of embezzlemst explicit and unqualified terms that any such ment against the president of the bank, although tractions had ever taken place; denied not he admitted he had never mentioned it to the oly that they had ever given to Mr. Whitney board of directors, he insisted that he had, soon sch information as he had affirmed to have re-after it happened, spoken freely of it to others, cved from them, but the existence, at any and particularly to Mr. Wilson Hunt, who, he time, of any facts which would have justified requested, might be called, and who according them in giving such information. ly was called as a witness before the cominit

Mr. Burtis, the first teller, and Mr. Patterson, tee. the discount clerk, at whose drawers Mr. Whit- Had there remained a fragment of doubt upney's narrative represented him as having made on the mind of the subscriber with regard to his discoveries, and given his orders for making the character of the testimony of Mr. Whitney, the entries, with equally earnest asseveration, before the examination of Mr. Hunt, it would demed that any such transaction had ever taken have vanished upon hearing what he testified. place, so far as they were concerned. It was, that Mr. Whitney, some years since, at

The president of the bank, confronted with the time when he was a director of the bank, Whitney, declared, upon oath, that there was had confidentially shown him a memorandum of not one word of truth in his statement of his in some loans on stocks, which, he said, had been terview with him. And Mr. Whitney was left, made to Mr. Thomas Biddle, by the president, with his ragged memorandum and his oath, fal-without the knowledge of the directors. Mr sified by the concurring oaths of he five indi- Hunt thought that Mr. Whitney had further viduals who, with certainty of knowledge, averred, that these loans had not been entered could contradict him. on the books of the bank, but he did not re

Nor was this all. Mr. Whitney's statement collect that he had told him that he had ordered was confined, by the purport of his memoran-them to be entered on the books, and he was dum, and the context of the books of the bank, very sure he never had told him that the loans to a dare of time of no wider range than the were without payment of interest. Mr. Hunt 26th or 27th of May, 1824. The president had been impressed with the idea, derived from of the bank, on a subsequent day, proved, Mr. Whitney's communications to him, that he by the correspondence of the bank, that, from was not friendly to the president of the bank; the 22d to the last day of that month, he was and he said he had thought them serious enough. not at Philadelphia, but on a visit to the city of But Mr. Hunt manifested astonishment at the Washington, on the business of the bank. For very question, whether Whitney had told him these discrepancies from the testimony of Mr. the loans were made without payment of inWhitney, as upon his examination he termed terest? He not only denied that fact, but, with them, he did not attempt to account. He a very natural asseveration, that if it had been withdrew, however, the statement, that he had so stated to him, it was impossible he should have forgotten it

The subscriber, in charity to the infirmities the amount of many millions. That their de of human nature, would willingly believe, that posites in bank, have been to similar amount, the testimony of Mr. Whitney, upon his first and that they have occasionally been responsiexamination, was the result of self-delusions, ble to the bank for more than a million of dolproduced by long cherished and pampered sus-lars at once. Brokers of this description are, picions of trivial crror, till imagination, supply-to all essential purposes, bankers themselves, as ing the place of memory, had swoln them into as bank in the plenitude of its power and opeimputations of embezzlement and fraud. Mr. rations, is a broker upon a large scale. Among Whitney had been stimulated to bear testimony the transactions of Messrs. Thomas Biddle & against the bank from abroad. The more ag- Co. with the bank, there was a deposite made gravated the charges which he could bring to by them to a considerable amount, upon which, bear on public opinion against the president of by agreement, an allowance was once, for a the bank, the fairer would be the prospect of short time, made to them for interest. It ap success in defeating the renewal of the charter, peared upon explanation, that the money thus and the more acceptable to the spirit of party deposited, was in the possession of Thomas would be the service he might render by the Biddle & Co. as agents of a certain foreign go. testimony he should give. The defaced and vernment, and that the pressure on the money tattered memorandum, taken, in years long market was very great. That the use of the past, from the books, would, give a sort money, for the time during which the interest of mysterious pre-emption right of credibility was allowed, would have been of more value to to any colorable detail of circumstantial nara- them than that interest, and the bank having tive to be connected with it. The instinct of urgent occasion for the use of the money, the calumny is inventive of details, precisely be interest upon it for a few weeks was allowed, cause details make their way most easily to the as a consideration for its being left in bank for credit of the hearer, and it has long been re- employment there, instead of being withdrawn marked by keen observers of human action, for the use of the depositors. It was substanthat he who accustoms himself to make a truant tially a loan for a time, the principal profit of of his memory, is oftentimes the first to credit which was on the side of the bank, and in his own lie. Whether it was so with Mr. Whit- which the allowance of interest was not equiney, the subscriber cannot undertake to say valent to the profit which Thomas Biddle & Co. with certainy; but certain it is that an affirma- would have realized from the same money by tion most material, and most confidently made, withdrawing it. As in the cases of moneys in the first examination of Mr. Whitney, that paid out to them from the teller's drawer, upon the notes, which he had discovered in the tel- equivalent deposites of stocks transferred, it ler's drawer, had not been entered on the books was done for transactions in which the Biddles when he discovered them, and that they were so were purchasing bills for the bank, acting, not entered by his direction, was retracted by him- for themselves, but as agents for the bank. In self, after it had been blasted by the produc- such cases the cash was wanted to pay for the tion of the entries upon the face of the books bills purchased. The brokers not having the themselves. Yet the retraction itself was not cash on hand, received it from the bank itself, frank and candid. It was by assuming an alter leaving United States' stocks of equal value in native, which, while it abandoned all pretence its place, for a few days, until the brokers, of sustaining the fact, was yet unwilling to agents for the bank, restored the cash, took abandon the offensive imputation. When the back their certifiates of stock, and paid inimpossibility of his pretended interview with terest for the cash they had received, for every the president, of rebuke on the part of Whit-day during which it had been withdrawn. ney, and of tacit confession and blushing pro- This complicated character of the pecuniary mise of future amendment on the part of Mr. operations between the house of Thomas BidBiddle, was demonstrated by the president's die & Co. as brokers, and the bank, must also be absence from Philadelphia at the time, Mr. remembered in considering the very large Whitney was not prepared with any substituted amount of their notes discounted at the bank. invention of details to supply its place. He They might appear, on the books of the bank, admitted that there was a discrepancy between indebted to it for the amount of a million, when tish demostration and his previous asseverance, their debt might not amount to a thousand dol but he neither attempted to reconcile them, lars; the money for which they appeared innor to fortify his own statement by explanation debted, being only the sums requisite to pay for Or commutation of its terms. His dishonored the bills purchased for the bank itself. memorandum found no endorsement for the In reviewing the whole investigation by the honor of the drawer. committee of the transactions between the Bank Other charges of partiality by the president of the United States and the brokers, there is of the bank, in behalf of his distant relatives, one consideration which most forcibly struck Thomas Biddle & Co., had also been scattered the mind of the subscriber, and which he thinks abroad upon no better foundation than the fact pre-eminently worthy of the consideration of that Thomas Biddle & Co. are, and have for Congress, and of the nation. The charge of years been, among the brokers of the first emi- favoritism to certain brokers, of connivance with nence and most extensive business at Philadel- them, to speculate and prey upon the public inphia or in the Union. That their transactions terests for purposes of usury and extortion of business have been, and are, every year, to formed a very prominent item in the original

resolutions of the Chairman of the Committee all, does he believe that a man of honest and upon which this investigation was instituted. It candid mind, who has been induced by false rewas one of those charges which, in its essential presentations to admit and to countenance imnature, imported, not simple inadvertence, in-putations upon the honor of another, owes him, discretion, error of judgment, or mismanage- when disabused by the evidence of unquestionment in the president and directors of the bank, able testimony, the signal reparation of a candid but the sordid peculations of a swindler. It acknowledgment of error. He never, for a sinwas impossible that those charges should be gle instance, believed that those dishonorable true, if the president of the Bank of the United imputations upon the president of the bank were States was a man of common honesty. founded in truth; but when he found them emThere was no sparing of commentary upon bodied in the positive declarations of a witness the scanty coincidence of facts which the pro- upon oath, and fortified by a bold exhibition of poser of the resolution was willing to consider a contemporaneous memorandum, and a confias giving sufficient color to the charge to enti-dent appeal to the books of the bank, he scarcetle it to the honor of an inquiry. That there ly dared to indulge the expectation that this had been, and still were, large dealings between desperate lunge against a citizen of unsullied the brokers and the bank was sufficiently noto-honor could have met so immediate and so total rious. That the bank and the brokers had com a discomfiture. petitors, rivals, and enemies, whose rancor was The exploration of the accounts of members sharpened by all the stimulants of avarice and of Congress and officers of the Government ambition, was not less apparent. These pas with the bank, came, in the opinion of the subsions never fail to have watchful observers in scriber, under the same category as those of their train. Whispers, it now appears, had editors of newspapers. The resolutions of the been in circulation even from the year 1824, House of Representatives authorized the examiripening for a term of seven years into rumors nation by the committee of the books, only as of combined and concerted frauds, and embez-evidence of the proceedings of the corporazlement of the funds of the bank to the private tion.

purposes of the president of the bank, and the The questions for the committee were: Had principal brokers of Philadelphia. What was they violated the charter? Had they violated their foundation? Extensive dealings between any law of the land? To these inquiries they the bank and the brokers-of course very large were limited, and upon these alone could they discounts to the brokers. Interest to the amount with propriety report.

of a few hundred dollars once or twice allowed As an exemplification of the odious nature of for the use of money by the bank to the bro- further inquisitions, the subscriber will now kers. Cash taken out of the bank by the bro- mention the case of the members of Congress, kers for a few days, upon deposite of stock left who, during the present session, have received in its place. Enormous loans to the brokers, the compensation for their public service from sometimes even at a rate of interest less than the Branch Bank at Washington in advance of six per cent. a year. Superadded to all which the passage of the General Appropriation Act. the name of the president of the bank was Bid- This is one of the favors to members of Condle. The name of the supposed accomplice gress, equivalent to a loan without interest to broker was Biddle, and they were descended each member, of the amount of money which he from one great grandfather. To the suspicions thus receives from the time of his receiving it of awakened jealousy here were abundant ele- until the appropriation act shall have become a ments for the most nauseous compound of fraud law. Its aggregate amount from the commenceand corruption. Secret communications are ac-ment of the session to this day, in payments to cordingly made to the proposer of the resolution members of Congress, and the Executive offifor inquiry, and with a predisposition of hostili-cers, falls little short of four hundred thousand ty to the bank, a plausible denunciation of guilt dollars. The amount of interest that would and dishonor on the part of the president of the have accrued to the bank, had interest been bank, assumes the formidable aspect of a pub-paid by each individual member, would have lic accusation, and invokes the sanction of a le-exceeded $3,000. The subscriber himself is gislative investigation. Had the reflection once not without doubts of the propriety of this inoccurred, that to all these great operations, be-dulgence, and confidently avers that nothing tween the brokers and the bank, the govern- which the investigation of the committee has ment itself was a party, though unseen, the mys-discovered in the proceedings of the president tery would have been explained, without need- and directors of the bank is of a more questioning a resort to the injurious suspicion that a man able character. The member who receives his honored annually by a series of re-elections to a pay in advance of the appropriation, does not station of high trust and confidence, was reduc- indeed receive it in advance of the service ing himself, to the level of a common counter- which entitles him to it. But where is the law feiter of coins. The subscriber believes that authorizing the bank to make the payment? suspicion, though a necessary auxiliary to the The member who receives the money is only faithful discharge of a public trust, should itself accessary to the payment by the bank, and be trusted with great reserve. A man, con- here is many a member of this House, who, in scious himself of integrity of purpose, should voting for this investigation, little imagined that not readily admit into his mind the belief that his own name would be returned among the thers are reckless and unprincipled. Above members of Congress, receivers of special fa

vors from the bank. Many a member, who be sufficient to say that the whole controversy tperhaps, has received the favor without know respecting the accounts of a late navy agent at ing it; yet is obnoxious in principle to the Norfolk, and the pamphleteering and newspacharge in the original resolution offered by the per war between that officer and one of the auChairman of the Committee, quite as obnoxious ditors of the Treasury, were among the simplest to the imputation of impure motives in the bank, of its elements. After plunging for a series of as the bank can be made by all their transac-days into these mysteries, almost deep enough tions with editors of newspapers or printers, for every member of the committee to take his James Watson Webb and Mordecai M. Noah, side upon two or three by-gone contested elecincluded. tions at Norfolk, after plodding over manuscript One great and insurmountable objection to volumes of acrimonious bitterness from the most the right and justice of entering into a scrutiny pertinacious of complainants; after examining of motives for proceedings not forbidden by any the long protracted correspondence both of law, was that the committee could exercise no that complainant and of the inculpated officers censorial power of that nature over the presi- of the Norfolk branch, with the board at Philadent, directors, and officers of the bank, or, at delphia, and the cashier who had made the inall events, over individuals having dealings vestigation at Norfolk; after giving the comwith that institution, which those individuals plainant himself the trouble of repairing to Phihad not an equal right to exercise over the com-adelphia to sustain his charges, and try over mittee, and every one of its members in return. again criminations and recriminations, which a What motive, for example, could impel a mem-judicial tribunal, after summoning half the inhaber of the committee to call in exercise all the bitants of the borough of Norfolk, and subjectpower of Congress to suppress the publication ing them to an endless list of interrogatories, of essays or speculations favorable to the bank and cross examinations, would scarcely have in newspapers? Would not the editor of a been competent to solve-after the consumpnewspaper thus inculpated have the same right tion of several days in these inquiries, the last to inquire into the motives of the committee- result of which, must, under any possible termen If, peradventure, he should have been mination of their investigation, have left them in the habit of making free use of the press to precisely where they began, the majority of the assail and discredit the bank, would not this committee concluded to desist from what the struggle to deprive the bank of self-defence subscriber believed the committee ought never through the medium of the press, be attributed to have undertaken, and what the chairman reo the desire of having the monopoly of that ports "they have been compelled to abandon powerful engine to himself? Would it not argue for want of time."

a consciousness of weakness in the appeals to The complaints made against the president public opinion against the bank, if, to sustain of the bank at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the charges against it, there should be an at- the summer of 1829, and the correspondence tempt to suppress all the means of self-defence? between the board at Philadelphia, and the late The freedom of the press, in the language of Secretaries ofthe Treasury and of War, form a party spirt, means the unlicensed use of that portion of the documents relating to the books instrument for itself to assail, and a total inter-and proceedings of the bank, called for by the diction of its use to the adversary for defence. committee, and communicated to them. They And singular, indeed, would be the section of a charter to a bank which would leave it open to every shaft of slander, and deprive it of all possible means of repelling the assault.

are not noticed in the report of the chairman, but, in the opinion of the subscriber, are more deserving of the attention of Congress, and of the nation, than any other part of the papers Among the useless, and worse than useless, commented upon in the report. An effort very inquisitions into which the majority of the com- thinly veiled on the part of two of the Exccumittee thought themselves justified in descend- tive Departments of the General Government Ing, were imputations of political misconduct in to exercise a control, political and pecuniary, certain officers of the branch bank at Norfolk, over the proceedings of the bank and its branin Virginia. Articles of complaint, as grievous ches, a control highly exceptionable in prin and perhaps as numerous as those of the chair-ple, acd even contrary to law, appears to him to man of this committee against the president and be fully disclosed in those papers. He will not directors at Philadelphia, had been laid before permit himself to inquire iuto the motives of that board against the president and cashier at the agents in those transactions. It is sufficient Norfolk, by a person who had been one of the for the protection of the public interest that directors of that branch. A long and patient the projected encroachments of power were investigation of those charges had been made disconcerted and laid aside. by the board at Philadelphia, and one of their Among the objects of investigation authorizcashiers had been sent to make a thorough exa-ed by the majority of the committee, transcendmination of all the facts of the case upon the ing, in the opinion of the subscriber, the powers spot itself. The charges had been found total-delegated to them by the resolution of the ly destitute of foundation, and there was among House, and therefore unwarranted and improthe archives of the bank a voluminous corres-per, were six sets of interrogatories, amounting pondence, which was all submitted to the exa- in all to one hundred and sixty one questions, mination of the committee. To give the House addressed by one member of the committee to & faint idea of the extent of this inquiry, it may the president of the bank, nevar submitted to