with that of the present President, it is present insidiously started, how many proxies he held? ed with high and earnest commendation; but The more he held, the more extensive was the when a charge of usury can be brought to bear confidence of the stockholders in him. No scru- . upon the bank, upon the credit of a confession ple had ever crossed the mind of any President implied in a demurrer, the occasion to stigma- of the United States, to deter him from nomitize the bank cannot be passed over, though nating him, year after year, as a government diten long years have slumbered over the sin, and rector. Not a voice had ever been raised in the though Langdon Cheves himself must be brand- Senate to cause their hesitation to confirm his ed as the usurer. appointment; and so perfectly in harmony with The subscriber will no longer tax the time this confidence has been that of the public, that and patience of the House by pursuing, into not a rumor has ever been raised of a prospect, their microscopic details, a series of inculpa- or even of a project, for the election of any tions and criminations, not one of which, in his other person as President in his place. After deliberate opinion, has a shadow of reasonable ten years of fair fame, thus sustained without an foundation. How could he consider otherwise adverse whisper being heard, it has been a than a waste of time a prying scrutiny into the source of deep mortification to the subscriber question-who of the stockholders have usually to see the character and feelings of such a citivoted at the election of directors? Who were zen treated, by a Committee of the House of the voters present? And who held the proxies Representatives, as if he had been an inmate of the absent? When it is notorious that in this fresh issued from the penitentiary to preside case, as in all similar institutions, whose stock-over the Bank of the United States. As an exholders have confidence in their presiding offi- emplification of this fact, it might be sufficient cer, the great difficulty is to prevail upon the to refer to the tone of the majority report from stockholders to attend and vote at the elections beginning to end; to the consciousness of authoat all. How could he consider as a grievance ritative power which pervades all its pages, unto be probed to the quick, and reported upon mingled with that courtesy which arrays even to the House, that whereas, the charter pro-authority itself in the ornaments of a meek and vides that there shall be twenty-five directors, quiet spirit; to the continual contestation even there are, at this very hour, only twenty-four, of facts stated by the president of the bank because the stockholders, at their annual meet-upon bath; to expressions so divested of all sem ing, did elect Nicholas Biddle one of their di-blance of delicacy as these; that "the bank, as it rectors, and the President of the United States collects the revenue, knows, or ought to know, did nominate, and by, and with, the advice of that it will be called upon by the government to the Senate, did appoint the same Nicholas Bid- reimburse it." The subscriber forbears, for he dle one of the five directors on the part of the finds it difficult to express his sensations without government? Such has for several years been using terms obnoxious to the same criticism the fact, and the conclusion naturally and justly which he is compelled to apply to these. to be drawn from it is, that Mr. Biddle has en- A large portion of the sa ne report, and that joyed the unquestioning and entire confidence, with which it closes, consists of an elaborate arboth of the government and of the individual gumentative parallel between the condition of stockholders. The reason of the double elec- the bank in 1819, when it is stated to have been tion has been this: the president of the bank is upon the verge of bankruptcy, and its present elected by the directors on the first Monday of condition. Without entering into the particuJanuary, and none but a director is eligible to lars of this disquisition, the subscriber will close the office of president. The nomination of this, his own report, with a few general regovernment directors sometimes lingers in the marks concerning it.

Senate until after the first Monday in January. And in the first place he observes that the The stockholders, therefore, elect Mr. Biddle bank cannot with any propriety be said to have as one of their directors, that he may with cer- been upon the verge of bankruptcy in 1819. tainty be re-eligible as President. When the no- It did not suspend specie payments for an hour mination of Mr. Biddle, as a government direc-it had met with heavy losses-its capital had tor, has been completed in time to be known to not been punctually paid in, conformably to its the stockholders at their election, they have not charter. Imprudent and irregular, if not frauchosen him; when it has not, he has been ap-dulent speculations in its stock had been allowpointed and elected. And thus there are only ed and shared by one or more of its directors. twenty-four instead of twenty-five directors. In It had failed in the indiscreet attempts to make all former years, however, Mr. Biddle has de-all its bills payable at all its branches. Had a clined accepting the appointment as a govern- severe pressure come upon it, a short interval ment director, and his place has been supplied. might have ensued during which it might have So that, until the present year, the board of di- suspended cash payments, and that would greatrectors has been full. The effect of his not de- ly, perhaps permanently, have affected its creclining the appointment from government the dit. But the bank was never near the verge of present year, is, that he is removable from of bankruptcy. The majority report itself states fice at the pleasure of the President of the Uni- that in April, 1819, when its difficulties were ted States. the greatest, its means of specie, notes of other Ten years long has this confidence been en- banks, and funded debt, amounted to upwards joyed and justified by that distinguished citizen of ten millions of dollars, while the whole deand honorable man. No question had ever been mands which could come against it in the same

month, amounted to only fourteen millions. exploded or passed away. In such emergenThere is nothing like an approach to bankrupt- cies, the most formidable of all dangers to bankcy in this. But the pressure on the bank in ing institutions is the spreading of a panic 1819 did not proceed from the errors or impru- among its creditors. The issues and circuladence of the corporation itself only. There is tion of the bank paper are undoubtedly large, an ebbing and flowing of the tides of commerce and there has been for some months a severe almost, though irregularly, periodical through-pressure, though not a universal one, on the out the world, and there is a sort of galvanic money market. The president and directors of sympathy in the contractions and expansions of the bank became aware of this pressure on its the great moneyed institutions in both hemis- first approach and took measures of precaution pheres. The restoration of specie payments as early as October last to prepare for meeting by the Bank of England in 1817 and 1818, un-fit, and breaking its force. On the 7th of that doubtedly produced an immense pressure upon month a circular was issued to the cashiers of the circulation, and of course, upon the com- all the branches, noticing the pressure which merce of the world. All paper circulation be was to be expected, particularly upon the offiyond the amount representing the precious me- ces at Philadelphia and New York; instructing tals is fictitious capital, or rather it is credit. them so to shape their business as to furnish The question whether the balance of moral in-them so far as might be practicable with the fluence upon the condition of men, arising from means which were likely to be required. At circulating credit and banking, be a blessing or that time the Government had given notice of a curse, is a speculation for the closet. Money a payment of six millions of funded debt to be has long, and upon divine authority, been pro- paid on the first of January then next. But it nounced the "root of all evil," and paper me- had gone further, and authorized the creditors ney shares in its full proportion the character of thus to be paid off in January, to claim their its prototype. Power for good, is power for payments even at any time of the preceding evil, even in the hands of Omnipotence. Had quarter, although the Government had in dethere been in 1819, no Bank of the United posite scarcely half the sum required for that States, the pressure must have been incompar-anticipated payment. The bank made no comably greater, and the ruin far more widely plaint, but took this measure of precaution. spread than it was. The opinions exhibited in The same vigilant and restrictive policy was this portion of the majority report are reproduc- pursued through the winter and spring, except ed in the interrogatories of the member of the when mollified by the dispensations of Provicommittee to the president of the bank append-dence in the overflowings of the Ohio at Cincined to it. The subscriber will barely refer to nati and Louisville. the answers by the president of the bank, At these places the credits of the bank had which render all further discussion of them su-been very large; yet, immediately upon being perfluous. informed of this visitation of calamity, every fa

But if it were true that the condition of the cility was again extended, by the direction of bank in 1819, was upon the verge of bank- the president and directors at Philadelphia, to ruptcy; and if it were also true that the pre- those who had suffered by the floods. Shortly sent condition of the bank were of exact re-after, the Secretary of the Treasury makes a semblance to its deplorable state at that time, confidential intimation of a wish to pay off six the discretion, the patriotism, and the humanity millions of 3 per cent. stocks on the first of July of the committee could scarcely have sanction-next. To ease the pressure upon the comed the disclosure of so disastrous a secret to merce of New York, and to save the bank from the world. The market price of the bank stock the necessity of curtailing the discounts of the at the time when this inquisition into the affairs merchants' debts to Government for duties-the of the bank was instituted was at an advance president proceeds to Washington, and, in a of at least 25 per cent. upon its nominal value. conference with the Secretary of the Treasury, In spite of all the denunciation against it, in suggests the expediency of postponing until the spite of all the learned arguments, all the arith-first of October the payment of the six millions metical calculations, all the statistical theorems, of three per cent. stock. The Secretary accorollaries, and demonstrations, with which it cedes to the arrangement, the bank stipulating had been for years assailed in and out of Con-to pay the quarter's interest, in consideration of gress, the price current of bank stock, the ther- having, during the interval, the use of the momometer of public confidence, was still at 25 ney; and this adjustment, so advantageous to per cent. advance upon the shares. If the ma- the Government, so provident of the interests jority of the committee had really made the dis- of the stockholders, so beneficent to the debtcovery that the affairs of this bank were in ors, both of the Government and of the bank, such a desperate state, from the extraordinary and so facilitating to the collection of the revepressure upon the money market and the de-nue at a time of considerable commercial empression of trade, considering the large stake barrassment, is seized upon in the majority rewhich the nation holds in the stock of the port, as if the dearth of reasonable cause of combank, it would have been but prudent forecast plaint had bred a famine, and harped upon, as in the majority of the committee, and would if it had been the convulsive gasp of the bank have manifested a tender regard for the public in the very agonies of bankruptcy. interest, to have reserved the exposure of this Now all this has led the mind of the subcrisis of terror and dismay until it should have scriber, reflecting upon it with all the anxious

intensity of which it is capable, to a directly op- productive property for another. And scarceposite conclusion. That there was over-trading ly has the sentence of censure been expressed to considerable extent in the course of the last in the report, but it turns and complains, and two years, he has no doubt. That the issues appeals to the circular addressed to the bran of bank credit and circulation, unusually large, ches, and correspondence with them since Ocpartly furnished the means to this over-energy tober last, that the chief object of the bank has of enterprise, he is not prepared to deny. That been barely to sustain itself, and that, since that in the earnest and proper anxiety to re-invest time, the bank has not increased its facilities in productive funds the mass of capital thrown to the trading community, in any part of the back upon their hands by the payment of the Union.

incident to all the labors of man.

seven millions of the Government's debt for the The subscriber believes that nothing can be stock of the nation in the bank, the president more delusive than the parallel drawn, in the and directors may have for a moment overstep- majority report, between the state and condition ped the line where that prudence which in- of the bank in 1819 and in 1832, but that recludes all the attributes of the Divinity might port has subjected itself to one test which is have stopped, if possible. The subscriber is already disclosing the true character of its reafar from affirming that they did. If they did, soning. It has ventured upon the field of prohe is sure that it was from motives pure as rec- phecy, and the failure of its predictions is alreatitude itself, and from infirmities of judgment dy brightening into demonstration. In the anticipation that there will be a cur The president of the bank very forcibly stat-tailment of discounts for several months to come, ed to the committee, the extremely delicate po- the foresight of the majority report is probably sition in which the institution stands towards the correct. This, of course, must occasionally commercial community in this respect. So long happen in all banking establishments. It is inas the bank keeps within the line of safe opera-cidental to all the unavoidable fluctuations of tions upon its own funds, it leaves those of com- trade, and is believed to be at this time indismerce to regulate themselves. It neither seeks pensable, not only to the bank, but to the whole to increase nor diminish them. When, from commercial community. This operation has, whatever cause, there is among the merchants indeed, been quietly proceeding in the Bank of a tendency to over-trading, it is not the pro- the United States ever since the circular of 7th vince of the bank, directly, to interpose against October, 1831; which the majority report turns it; for that would be to exercise an invidious to so large account for its purposes. It has been and improper control over business with which in progress, while, at the same time, the direcit has but a remote concern. Its general duty tion of the bank has been reserving and husis to grant facilities while it has disposable funds banding and prudently applying the means to universal. The point at which it ought to stay the commercial portion of our fellow citizens, of its hand is a matter of difficulty to determine, meeting and passing through this critical emerand upon which the soundest discretion may gency, with as little detriment to the public and come to different results in different men. From to the individuals as possible. This would exthe first appearance of the impending pressure, plain, one would think, very satisfactorily, the the measures of the president and directors of fact stated in the letter of the President of the the bank appear to the subscriber to have been Bank to the Secretary of the Treasury, of the marked with great judgment, and to have been 29th of March last, that, in compliance with an continued and modified according to the pro- intimation from the Collector at New York, an gress of events with equal steadiness of purpose extension of loans had been promptly acceded and benevolence of intention. to, in the preceding month of February, to as

But, whether the corporation issues its circu-sist the mercantile debtors of the Government lation with liberality, or curtails it with prudent in the punctual payment of their bonds; withcaution, it equally meets the censure of the ma- out needing an argument such as that of the jority report. After quoting two passages from majority report against this plain and direct asthe report of Mr. Rush, commending the bank sertion of a very notorious and unquestionable for its prudence in holding the amount of its fact. The author of the report finds, by refecirculation, it gives two statements, showing rence to the weekly statement of the office at that, between August, 1828, and the first of New York, from July, 1831, to April, 1832, no April last, the circulation had been augmented aggregate increase of loans; but, on the conto what it calls the astonishing increase of up- trary, a reduction of the amount. He finds that wards of ten millions in less than four years. the total amount of discounts at the New York But it omits all notice of two facts which, if branch, between the 4th of October, 1831, and duly considered, would have taken off all the the 28th of March, 1832, was actually diminishedge of astonishment. The first is, that during ed $468,447 17, while, during the same time, that same interval, the seven millions of stock, the bonds paid at that port, amounted to beheld by the Government, were repaid. The tween nine and ten millions of dollars. Can it second, that upwards of three millions of the be imagined that he discovers in this statement, public debt, held by the bank, were paid off compared with that in the letter from the presiso that the astonishing increase of circulation is dent of the bank, to which he refers, not an una mere re-investment of capital, which had been answerable demonstration of the prudence as returned upon the hands of the bank, and only well as of the liberality with which the affairs of the substitution of one species of productive the bank have, in this respect been conducted,

but an occasion of contesting, by unavoidable copy of the answers of the president of the bank implication, the veracity of the president of the to these inquiries has already been submitted to bank?-and this in a report which, upon an im- the House. It is hoped they will be satisfactomediately preceding page,charges the bank with ry to the House, and that they will contribute "the loss of five millions of its specie." with other considerations to the conclusion that

On the first perusal of the report the sub- the Bank of the United States ought, with such scriber was himself greatly at a loss to know modifications as may be deemed expedient by what was meant by this "loss of five millions of the Legislature, to be immediately re-chartered. its specie" of which he was very sure that no The subscriber has long entertained the opievidence had been given to the committee; and nion that the existence of a National Bank is init was only after a repeated examination of the dissolubly connected with the continuance of our paragraph in comparison with another part of National Union. The fiscal operations of the the report, that he found this form of expression Government in all its branches, he believes, was only an ingenious mode of accusing the cannot, without the aid of such an institution, be bank of a loss of five millions of its specie be- conducted, he will not say well, but at all. He tween the first of September and the first of does not say that the present Bank of the United April, because there was nearly that amount States is indispensable, and his mind has somemore of specie in the funds of the bank at the times hesitated upon the question, whether, at former period than at the latter. This construc- the expiration of the present charter of the bank, tion, by which payment of debts is converted the establishment of another, though similar innto loss of specie, may serve as a consolation stitution, might not be more expedient than the for the disappointment arising from the inability renewal of the charter. Inclining rather to the to convict the bank of any other serious loss latter of these measures before the institution of since 1819. this inquiry, he has been very strongly confirmWith regard to the increase of the number of ed in that opinion by the result of the investigathe branches, to the precise manner in which the tion in which he has shared.

annual election of directors has been conducted, The management of the affairs of the corpoto the alarming magnitude of the sums recently ration, during the administration of the present paid for printing, to the sums paid to the solici- president, not exempt from human error and intors and counsellors, distinct from those paid to firmity, has yet appeared to him marked with attorneys, to the number of useful documents all the characters of sound judgment, of liberal not referrable to any particular head, and to the spirit, of benevolent feeling, and of irreproach many statements called for, which the business of able integrity. A large proportion of its officers the Bank and the shortnessof the time allowed for in subordinate trust are of the Society of Friends; the investigation would not admit to be furnish- a class of citizens peculiarly qualified for the ed, the subscriber will pass over all these sub-performance of duties, and the exercise of quajects as they are passed over by the majority of lities appropriate to the successful management the committee, with the exception of his satis- of moneyed establishments-industry, punctuali faction that the labors of the committee upon ty, temperance, and a conscientious discharge of them were abridged by the march of time, and all moral obligations.

of his hope that no committee of Congress will In considering the numerous and important ever again be called to an investigation upon a public services, and the large contributions of plan of such interminable outline. He is con- the present bank to the Government and people vinced, that to fill it up according to the com- of the United States, he thinks the least return prehensiveness of its conception and the multi- which they are justly authorized to expect from farious complication of its details, a committee the equity of the nation, is the renewal of their appointed at this time which should sit the year charter. The benefits and profits of the bank round, and he might safely add night and day, have been enjoyed by the nation far beyond would,at the expiration of the charter of the pre- those shared by the individual stockholders. sent bank, be left like the present committee, Besides the bonus of a million and a half of dolwith a multitude of subjects of complaint, which lars paid to the public treasury for the charter they would be " compelled to abandon for the besides the saving of the expense of loan offices want of time." for the payment of the public debt, principal With regard to the numerous matters of vital and interest-besides the obligation of transferimportance in the re-organization of the bank, ring the Government funds to and from every specie payments, domestic and foreign ex- part of the Union, as the public exigencies rechanges, investments in public debt by the bank quire-the nation has held one-fifth part of the in 1824 and 1825, and its ability to make loans stock from the commencement of the institution to the Government, the influence of the opera- to this time, without payment of one dollar to its tions of the bank upon trade, on the increase capital, until the last two years. It has received of the paper-circulation of the bank, its agency the dividends in common with the other stockin diminishing or enlarging the circulation of lo- holders; has exercised the exclusive right of apcal banks, and the means of permanently regu- pointing one-fifth of the directors; has been sup lating our general circulation so as to prevent plied with loans whenever the occasions of the its injurious effects upon the trade and currency Government have needed them, upon terms of the country, concerning which the committee, more advantageous to the public than could or rather one of its members, submitted a num- have been secured from any other institution or ber of inquiries to the president of the bank: a company of individuals: while the bank, by its

salutary control, and ts universally extended The majority of the committee thought othercredit, has compelled the restoration of cash wise. Editors of newspapers, printers, attorpayments, and furnished a currency equivalent, neys, counsellors, solicitors, brokers, members in substantial value, to specie, throughout the of Congress, and officers of Government, they Union. These have been advantages of the thought game fairly to be hunted down, if they bank to the nation, while the individual stock-had an account in bank, because the committee holders have realized, upon their invested capi- were authorized to examine the books and the tals, scarcely more than a yearly interest of six proceedings of the corporation. They thought per cent. even including the advance of the this a liberal construction of their powers. Dif stock at this time in the market. This circum-fering from them in their definition of liberality, stance has afforded proof, nothing short of de- he has seen no cause to question the liberality monstration, of the rashness and folly of all those of disposition of any one of them, according to He does all possible projects for the establishment of a new bank, their sense of the term. which have been presented to Congress, with a justice to their intentions, though often and eslure of enormous premiums for the grant of a sentially dissenting from their reasoning, and charter. The subscriber has no doubt that the from their philology. Liberality, in his vocabudestruction of such an establishment would be lary, is a word of very different import, and as speedy and inevitable, either by the absorption unintelligible to them, as in theirs it is to him. of all its profits to pay the premium, or, by forcing its direction into a wild and reckless extent of business, ruinous to the commerce of the country, not less than to the bank itself.

From this remark, he deems it a tribute of candor to except the member of the committee who constituted the majority, and the generosity of whose nature licensed the report made by the In considering the expediency of renewing chairman of the committee to the House. That the charter, the subscriber discards all consider- same generosity of his nature impelled him, ations of the interests or wishes-not only of the when the report was presented, to rise in his president and directors of the bank, but of all place, and declare, that, in the whole course of the individual stockholders of the corporation. this investigation, he had seen in the conduct of In the question between chartering a new cor- the president and directors of the bank nothing poration, and re-chartering the old one, if the in- inconsistent with the purest honor and integrity. terests of the individual adventurers are to be Had that same candid and explicit declaration, considered at all, like opposite quantities in al- due, as the subscriber believes, to the most rigebra, they annul each other. It is the public gorous justice, been made by the other meminterest alone that can determine the question, bers who sanctioned the majority report, many and in that view alone, the subscriber would a painful remark in the paper now submitted, prefer the renewal of this institution to the esta- perhaps the whole paper itself, would have blishment of another. The present establish- been suppressed. But to vindicate the honor of ment has the advantage of long experience, and injured worth, is, in his opinion, among the first of a system matured by the acquired knowledge of moral obligations; and, in concluding these of many years, and by the correction of its own observations, he would say to every individual errors. That knowledge has been purchased of the House, and to every fellow citizen of the at no inconsiderable cost, and a set of new un-nation, inquisitive of the cause of any over anxidertakers would most probably have to pass ous sensibility to imputations upon the good through a similar noviciate. The result of his name of other men which they may here findexamination has been an entire conviction, that," When truth and virtue an affront endures, with a view to the public interest alone, the The offence is mine, my friend, and should be charter of the Bank of the United States ought forthwith to be renewed.

yours.

14th May, 1832.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

I concur fully in all the statements made, and principles developed, in the above report.

J. G. WATMOUGH.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

LATE FROM FRANCE.

In the free and unreserved animadversion upon the course of proceedings pursued in this investigation by the majority of the committee, and upon the consequences to which they necessarily led, which he has felt it his duty to indulge, he trusts it will not be understood as his intention to speak in censure of any individual member of the committee. He imputes no injustice of intention to any one, even where he FROM THE NEW YORK COURIER AND ENQUIRER. sees it most flagrant in the result of measures. We have exclusively received the news If, in the examination of the books and proceedings of the bank, a penetrating and severe scru- brought by the fast sailing ship Edward Questiny into the official conduct of the president el, Captain Peirce. She was off the port and directors of that institution was within the scope of the labors of the committee, and he has no doubt it was, he was equally clear in the conviction that the resolution of the House gave them no right, and that the first principle of national justice denied them the right, to bring be fore themselves for censure or vindication the persons or concerns of any other individual.

yesterday, but owing to our new schooner Courier and Enquirer having sprung both her masts, she was unable to board her before this. morning.

We are indebted to the politeness of Capt. Pierce for Havre papers to the 5th of May, with Paris dates of the 4th.

M. Montalivet is performing the duties of