increasing votes by colorable transfers of stock, and its abhorrence of inordinate speculations by officers who had control of the institution; yet my distaste in this respect confines itself to moral censure, for there is no law to prohibit the wealthy stockholder from using his utmost influence in elections, by so arranging his shares as to count the greatest number of votes; nor have the president or directors been prohibited from buying and selling stock, as other members of the community; and I had thought that history, if not experience, had taught our Government, that corporations of trade, with their hosts of officers and servants, were at all times prepared to commit every offence which avarice could instigate, except when restrained by the force of a wholesome police. The fault, then, rests on the head of this Government, t, which which has created and sent forth this mighty corporation of avarice, with all the exclusive privileges which could render it odious and dangerous, and without those checks which a due regard to public security imperiously required. The 14th page of the report of the committee discloses a transaction of usury on the part of the bank, which, if imputed to any private man, would assuredly consign his character to infamy. The bank, in this instance, affects to make a loan, by discounting a note of $20,000, payable in sixty days, and receives the whole interest thereon, as if it had actually loaned the money in hand, whereas it only advanced a post note, payable also at sixty days, by which the bank was not to advance a dollar before the note it discounted would become payable, and, as the discounted note and post note became payable on the same day, the nominal borrower might have claimed interest of the bank, with as much grace and justice as the bank claimed and actually received it of him; and, this, it seems, is only a single instance of what the bank frequently practised. Indeed the directors on the 30th January, 1817, adopted advisedly a resolution to enter extensively into the practice. The report hesitated to pronounce the transaction usurious; the hesitation, sir, of a moment, a flitting instant; for I am satisfied that the superior intelligence and forensic acquirments of the members of that committee would, with less than five minutes reflection, have dissipated all doubt of the true character of this affair. Without embarking in legal or technical disquisition (which must always be irksome on this floor) I will venture the assertion, that no member who has turned his attention to the subject will deny that the transaction was usurious, not merely in taking more than legal interest, but in taking any interest whatever. The committee has recommended no provision in relation to this scandalous depravity, from a supposition that the parties have their remedy in the courts of justice. Here, with all deference, I must venture to believe the committee is mistaken, and to hazard an opinion that we have here found a mischief that will haunt our country until this mighty institution shall be no more. How shall the injured party acquire redress? This Govern H. or R. ment has neither inserted anything in the charter nor passed any other law to afford him redress, and probably is unable to do so, for the affair having transpired in the interior of a State, between citizens of the same State, neither the Constitution of the United States, nor any law we could constitutionally pass, could give the Federal courts jurisdiction; and I understand that the friends of the bank contend that the State Legislatures have no authority to tax or control the conduct of the United States Bank. But if the State courts had what may be taken as a right of jurisdiction over this bank, it would of necessity be an abstract sort of power, to which the bank would not be tangible. The State punishes the natural persons of its territory for crimes, by fine, imprisonment, or death-it punishes or restrains State corporations by stipulations of charter, and its visitatorial power as the founder of such institutions. If you yield an authority to the State courts to punish the United States Bank, then inform me how the power shall be exercised, or admit its impracticability. The State cannot certainly revoke the charter of the United States Bank, nor can it imprison it. In truth, the laws of the States only recognise and adapt themselves to ideal personages, existing by the enactment of the same public authority which spake those laws into force, and has no more application to this corporation, than to ghosts of the dead. I differ in opinion with my honorable colleague (Mr. JOHNSON) who would repeal the bank charter, because he believes that Congress had no Constitutional power to establish a bank. I entertain (as I always did) the conviction that Congress has power to pass a law chartering a bank, and moreover believe that it possesses the power to repeal the act of incorporation, or any other law which it has previously enacted. Gentlemen who believe with me that the charter is Constitutional, and yet contend that Congress has no power to repeal it, must chalk a new course of reasoning, different from that usually pursued by those who have hitherto opposed the extension of Federal power. The customary allegation has been, that this or that power is not of the subject-matter conferred by the Federal Constitution; but the passage of the act of incorporation, in 1816, admits a national bank may be a subject of Federal legislation, and, if so, we may make or repeal laws applicable to that subject. Even those who deny us the power to legislate on banks, will vote for our power to repeal; for, if an unconstitutional law has been passed, it would become our duty, by a declaratory act, to annihilate the illicit force of such a measure. Exclusive of the rules for the government of the bank, the act of incorporation furnishes certain conditions which affect the existence of the institution. The Government agreed to enter into partnership with the other stockholders, and to form a trading company, to deal in exchange, &c., the capital to consist of $35,000,000. One condition not only stipulated the advance of twenty-eight millions of dollars, (the capital of the concern,) by the subscribers, but required that the funds should consist of a certain quality H. or R. Bank of the United States. FEBRUARY, 1819. so much in specie, and the residue in specie or ance. A visitatorial power is found to exist some public securities-which condition was not less essential, in calling for quality, than with regard to quantity. Another important feature of this condition was, that those funds should be collected into an aggregate capital within a limited time-six and twelve months. But the essential conditions, thus affecting the nature and existence of the institution, have failed, by the non-compliance of the subscribers, or, more properly speaking, by the default of the corporation, or its controlling officers, who were the legitimate representatives of the collective subscribers. It is true, the corporation was authorized to commence operations on the payment of the first instalment of eight millions four hundred thousand dollars of specie and stock. This sum, however, was considered as only a fraction of the capital; and the legislative expectation dwelt as strongly on the second and third as the first instalment, and considered its advance and quality as conditions which must have been material, as the amount and sort of capital is always material in the formation of companies of limited partnership. The advance of the first instalment, in the language of municipal lawyers, would be a condition precedent, whilst the payment of the second and third instalments were properly conditions subsequent; and it will not be denied that conditions subsequent are as material to defeat an estate, or right, as conditions precedent. If there has been a non-performance of the conditions affecting the very existence of the corporation, nothing more can be necessary, on our part, than a declaratory act of legislation, apprizing society that, the conditions being unperformed, the company of subscribers are not entitled to exercise or continue the corporate powers, which could not be claimed except on a supposition of a performance of conditions. In illustration of this idea, let us imagine a non-payment of the first instalment required by the charter, and that the subscribers, after paying but a tenth of that instalment, had usurped the powers of a corporation, under pretence of the charter: would any gentleman doubt the power or propriety of enacting a law declaring the nonperformance, and announcing the invalidity of the charter? Congress has the same right to announce, by a declaratory law, to the community over which it presides, the non-performance of the conditions of the two last instalments, and to make such provisions as will insure a just distribution of the funds which would revert to its individual owners. Gentlemen may talk of the unconstitutional strides of convicting the corporation or its members of offences without judicial investigation or jury trial. In the view I have this moment presented, neither the corporation nor its members are convicted of crimes, as the mere non-performance of a condition is no crime; for if you give or promise me an estate, on my performance of a certain act, and I omit the performance, no one imagines that I am to be charged with crime, or dragged to court, or tried by a jury, for my neglect: the issue of the affair is, that I cannot claim the estate without showing a perform where over all corporations-a power competent to correct its abuses, or revoke its charter when violated and forfeited. In England, corporations are frequently created by the mere grant of the Executive magistrate; and of such corporations, the Court of King's Bench (which in that country is, or originally was, an arm of the Executive department) is the visitor, and, by mandamus or quo warranto, corrects or destroys the corporation; and the Parliament may exercise the same power without the aid of the King's Bench. The act of incorporation here, as regards its nature and incidents, must be interpreted by a reference to the common law, from whence, and not from the civil law, we have borrowed our notions on this subject. At common law, every corporation is subject to the visitatorial power of its founder. But Congress is the founder of this corporation, and therefore possessed of that visitatorial power which, for sufficient cause, may correct or destroy the institution. I submit another view. This mighty institution had its inception in an act of sovereignty; and, having derived its existence from legislation, it seems peculiarly fit, or probably absolutely necessary, that its fate should be sealed by a like act of legislation, if it be worthy of death. The courts of England, by judgment, will oust corporations of their privileges, where those privileges are merely derived from the Executive Magistrate, or for good cause repeal or revoke other Executive grants; but the courts have never revoked acts of Parliament, or grants contained in them. So if Congress, by a general law, authorizes the President to grant lands to soldiers, and he grants land to one who was not a soldier, the courts would repeal the grant, as having issued without authority. But if Congress by a particular law grants land to an individual, the courts would not revoke the grant for any cause; for this would be to repeal a law, and consequently the exercise of legislative power. If it be said that Congress has conferred the power on the court by the act of incorporation to repeal the charter, I reply that this charter is nevertheless an act of Congress; that its repeal must be an act of legislation; and that Congress cannot confer on the courts the power of legislation. The corporations of England and of every State of the Union are subject in some shape to visitatorial powers, by which they are restrained or destroyed, when they pervert the ends for which they were called into being. But this bank, if not subject to the legislative authority of Congress, is incapable of subjection by any power on earth, and may with impunity extend its ravages of injustice on the people and States of this continent, from Maine to Mexico, and laugh into insignificance the Federal compact which has hitherto afforded protection to the people, and to which the Federal family has sworn obedience. If then this great corporation has thus become too powerful for the Government, and acknowledges itself subject to no law, and yet retains all its capacity to sin, I would aim a blow at its ex istence, even at the risk of wrenching out of joint the Constitution of the Union, which we all revere. The advocates of this bank and of the old Bank of the United States deduce the authority of this Government to establish a bank from its powers over the Treasury and fiscal concerns of the Union. Admitting, as I do, the correctness of their deduction, permit me to ask whether the authors of American polity could have anticipated that Congress would ever find itself disabled to make, repeal, alter or modify, any of the laws in relation to the Treasury. Conceiving that the bank has forfeited its charter, not only by a non-compliance with the conditions, but by the commission of crime, and that Congress has power to repeal the act of incorporation, I have never had a moment's hesitation of the expediency of the repeal. It has been said that we ought not to repeal, because the good faith of the Government is pledged to this institution. What is the import or force of this pledge of good faith? These expressions are resorted to on such variety of occasions, of late, as might warrant a suspicion that they were susceptible of application to all cases; and, if so, ought not to be used in any case. Is it that moral obligation, perfect or imperfect, imposed on Government in consequence of a promise or promises? Be it so, unless you afford me another definition. But, if the Bank has failed to comply with the express condition on which the promise of the Government depended, and has, by the enormity of repeated crimes, violated those wholesome conditions implied in all charters, how can it speak of that good faith which vanished whenever the bank ceased to dwell under its protection? The charter being forfeited, we are remitted, if we think proper to enforce the forfeiture, to the free condition of the Congress that granted the charter, with the additional advantage of two years' experience of the harm evinced by the bank in its infancy, and the ability to anticipate our fate from its growing strength. When viewing the alleged violations of charter, I hold my self bound to yield to every fair claim or expectation of the corporation, respecting its connexion with Government, without bias from popular feeling. But having found a violated and forfeited charter, and a corporation begging reprieve from the fatal evils of its own wrong, then it is I find the hand of my constituents on me; nor will I be so deaf to the wishes of the people or the dictates of justice as to raise the monster from the dead, or relieve it by renewing its capacity to visit the public with its complicated mischiefs. I have acknowledged my utter dislike to corporations of traffic, by which a few favored personages are admitted to privileges from which the people are excluded; by which a few are permitted to trade to an indefinite extent on a definite fund without subjecting their estates to liability for their debts, whilst the rest of the people are liable, in their persons and whole fortunes, on every of their contracts. I dislike these corporations, because, the rights of all men being equal, H. or R. every grant of exclusive rights to potent combinations or companies, being carved out of the previous claim of others, operates as a proportionate alienation of the liberty of all other persons in the community. But, above all, I abhor the thing we call a bank bonus, it being the price at which a legislative body sells to a combination of speculators peculiar political, civil, or commercial privileges from which the people are prohibited. The price offered and accepted at the creation of this corporation was $1,500,000. The old Bank of the United States never insulted the Government by the offer of a bonus or bribe. Say nothing of the pious or useful objects to which such money may be appropriated, (for it can never be just to obtain money by injustice,) let the disbursement of such money be such as it may. If corporations are absolutely necessary, the public good would justify their creation without the immorality of selling political rights at auction. But, the plea of necessity never holds in these bargains, for, however proper corporations may be, the bonus is never offered for a mere charter, but always in consideration of some peculiar and exclusive privileges which may be dispensed with. This notion of a bonus, lately so familiar as to startle nobody, has found its precedent in Europe, the institutions from whence are annually gaining popularity with the mercantile class of this country. The Bank of England is bound to renew its charter each twenty years, by the advance of pecuniary advantages to that Government; but it is due to the character of our English ancestors to remember that their early resort to this degrading practice was the consequence of misfortune and evils, which gives them, at least, the show of an excuse, to which our Government has no pretension. I remember the circumstances attending one renewal of the English bank charter, which are not materially different from those accompanying all the earlier renovations of charter. In 1708, Parliament, by its vote, granted to the Queen upwards of £2,000,000 for maintaining the forces in her pay in Spain and Portugal, for subsidies payable to her allies, et cetera. Whilst this measure was depending, the Ministers, having exhausted their ingenuity, found it impossible to raise even a moiety of the sum, although the whole was indispensable. At that critical juncture the Bank appeared before Parliament, as a saving angel, with propositions for a renewal of charter, and an offer to advance the sums wanted. It is scarcely necessary to observe that the offer was accepted. We have no such palliative to cover our departure from principle in respect to this bank. We copy the vices of Europeans, without the trimmings to make them passable; or, in truth, endeavor, in our day of national prosperity, to imitate the traits of evil deformity which circumstances, and not choice, have imposed on European nations. It is no cause of surprise that the State banks in every quarter of the continent are terrified by the threatening aspect of this institution of thirtyfive millions. The Government of the Union has also entered into partnership with the specu lators of this great bank, and not only become the proprietor of one-fifth of the stock, but has presented the company with the whole national revenue, as a capital to trade with, in exchange. In short, the strong box of the nation has been delivered and locked in the bank vaults. No rival institution can compete with one which finds itself in partnership with the national Government, and in possession of its revenues. Not only the State banks, but the State governments, must be inspired with apprehensions of insecurity from such a combination of influential force, and gentlemen who have, on other occasions, displayed so much ingenuity and eloquence on this floor in defence of State sovereignties and State rights, will, I hope, see in the question now on hand an object worthy of their exertions; ons; they will not, I am convinced, after having rescued the States from open attacks, tamely suffer the General Government to organize and strengthen a moneyed aristocracy which would devour the State banks, intimidate the State governments, and swallow the annual revenues of the country. For my own part, I shall, with a cheerful conscience, vote for the resolution of my honorable colleague, (Mr. JOHNSON,) to repeal the bank charter. Mr. LowNDES then intimated a wish to make some rematks on the subject, which, late as it was, he would proceed to do, at once, if the Committee were disposed now to hear him; but, if they were desirous of rising, he would give way. A motion being made to that effect, the Committee rose, and the House adjourned. FRIDAY, February 19. Mr. POINDEXTER presented a petition of the General Assembly of the State of Mississippi, praying that provision may be made for quieting the claims to land in that part of said State, formerly comprised within the province of West Florida, derived from the British Government, so far as the said grants interfere with those derived from the Spanish Government; which said petition was ordered to lie on the table. Mr. LITTLE, from the joint committee upon the subject of the public printing, made a report; which was read, and ordered to lie on the table. Mr. WILLIAMS, of North Carolina, from the Committee of Claims, to which was referred bills of the Senate, of the following titles to wit: "An act for the relief of David Henley;" and "An act for the relief of James H. Clarke," reported the said bills without amendment; hent; and they were respectively committed to a Committee of the Whole to-morrow. The House having resumed the consideration of the bill to divide the United States into four districts for the regulation of the coasting trade, and of the amendment thereto proposed, by Mr. SILSBEE, for reducing the number of districts from four to two Mr. MILLS moved to postpone the bill indefinitely; in which motion he was supported by Mr. ORR; and opposed by Messrs. SILSBEE, WHIT FEBRUARY, 1819. The MAN, HOLMES, and LINCOLN. This debate was confined to the representation from Massachusetts, and turned principally on considerations connected with the relative interests of the District of Maine and of Massachusetts proper. motion to postpone was negatived, but not before an effort had been made, in order to end the debate, to lay the bill on the table, which was negatived. The question was then taken on the amendment moved by Mr. SILSBEE, as above, and decided in the affirmative. The motion was then renewed to lay the bill on the table, and carried. The bill inaking further provision for the sale of the public lands; and the bill for designating boundaries of land districts, and establishing offices for the sale of lands remaining unsold in Indiana and Ohio, were received from the Senate, severally twice read, and referred. Bills from the Senate, of the following titles, to wit: An act to regulate the pay of the Army, when employed on fatigue duty; An act for the relief of John B. Timberlake; and, An act to enable the people of the Territory of Alabama, to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States, were severally read a third time, the last as amended, and passed. ARKANSAS TERRITORY. The House then proceeded to the consideration of the bill to establish a separate Territorial government in the southern part of the Missouri Territory. A motion was made by Mr. ROBERTSON, of Kentucky, with the view of obtaining the erasure of the amendment yesterday adopted, to recommit the bill to a select committee, with instructions to strike out these words: "And all children born of slaves within the said Territory, shall be free, but may be held to service until the age of twenty-five years." And the question being taken thereon, was decided as follows: For the recommitment 88, against it 88. YEAS-Messrs. Abbot, Anderson of Kentucky, Austin, Baldwin, Ball, Barbour of Virginia, Bassett, Bayley, Beecher, Bloomfield, Blount, Bryan, Burwell, Butler of Louisiana, Campbell, Cobb, Colston, Cook, Crawford, Cruger, Davidson, Desha, Earle, Edwards, Ervin of South Carolina, Fisher, Floyd, Garnett, Hall of North Carolina, Harrison, Hogg, Holmes, Johnson of Virginia, Johnson of Kentucky, Jones, Kinsey, Lewis, Little, Lowndes, McLane of Del., McLean of Illinois, McCoy, Marr, Mason of Massachusetts, Mercer, Middleton, H. Nelson, T. M. Nelson, Nesbitt, New, Newton, Ogden, Owen, Parrott, Pegram, Peter, Pindall, Pleasants, Poindexter, Quarles, Reed of Md., Reed of Georgia, Rhea, Ringgold, Robertson, Sawyer, Settle, Shaw, Simkins, Slocumb, S. Smith, Ballard Smith, Alex. Smyth, J. S. Smith, Speed, Stewart of North Carolina, Storrs, Strother, Stuart of Maryland, Terrell, Trimble, Tucker of Virginia, Tucker of South Carolina, Tyler, Walker of North Carolina, Walker of Kentucky, Whitman, and Williams of North Carolina. NAYS-Messrs. Adams, Allen of Massachusetts, Anderson of Pennsylvania, Barber of Ohio, Bateman, Bennett, Boden, Boss, Clagett, Comstock, Crafts, Cushman, Darlington, Drake, Ellicott, Folger, Fuller, Gage, Gilbert, Hale, Hall of Delaware, Hasbrouck, Hendricks, Herkimer, Herrick, Heister, Hitchcock, Hopkinson, Hostetter, Hubbard, Hunter, Huntington, Irving of New York, Kirtland, Lawyer, Lincoln, Linn, Livermore, W. Maclay, W. P. Maclay, Marchand, Mason of Rhode Island, Merrill, Mills, Robert Moore, Samuel Moore, Morton, Moseley, Murray, Jeremiah Nelson, Ogle, Orr, Palmer, Patterson, Pawling, Pitkin, Porter, Rice, Rich, Richards, Rogers, Ruggles, Sampson, Savage, Schuyler, Scudder, Sergeant, Seybert, Sherwood, Silsbee, Southard, Spencer, Tallmadge, Tarr, Taylor, Terry, Tompkins, Townsend, Upham, Wallace, Wendover, Westerlo, Whiteside, Wilkin, Williams of Connecticut, Williams of New York, Wilson of Massachusetts, and Wilson of Pennsylvania. There being an equal division, the SPEAKER declared himself in the affirmative; and so the said motion was carried; and Messrs. ROBERTSON, SILSBEE, BURWELL, MILLS, and LowNDES, were appointed the said committee. tion in a short speech. The question was then taken, to concur with the select committee, in striking out the said words, and passed in the affirmative-yeas 89, nays 87, as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Abbot, Anderson of Kentucky, Austin, Baldwin, Ball, Barbour of Virginia, Bassett, Bayley, Beecher, Bloomfield, Blount, Bryan, Burwell, Butler of Louisiana, Campbell, Cobb, Colston, Cook, Crawford, Cruger, Culbreth, Davidson, Desha, Earle, Edwards, Ervin of South Carolina, Fisher, Floyd, Garnett, Hall of North Carolina, Harrison, Hogg, Holmes, Johnson of Virginia, Johnson of Kentucky, Jones, Kinsey, Lewis, Little, Lowndes, McLane of Delaware, McLean of Illinois, McCoy, Marr, Mason of Massachusetts, Mercer, Middleton, H. Nelson, T. M. Nelson, Nesbitt, New, Newton, Ogden, Owen, Parrott, Pegram, Peter, Pindall, Pleasants, Poindexter, Quarles, Reed of Maryland, Reed of Georgia, Rhea, Ringgold, Robertson, Sawyer, Settle, Shaw, Simkins, Slocumb, S. Smith, Ballard Smith, Alexander Smyth, J. S. Smith, Speed, Stewart of North Carolina, Storrs, Strother, Stuart of Maryland, Terrell Trimble, Tucker of Virginia, Tucker of South Carolina, Tyler, Walker of North Carolina, Walker of Kentucky, Whitman, and Williams of North Carolina. H. or R. Gilbert, Hale, Hall of Delaware, Hasbrouck, Hendricks, Herkimer, Herrick, Heister, Hitchcock, Hopkinson, Hostetter, Hubbard, Hunter, Huntington, Irving of New York, Kirtland, Lawyer, Lincoln, Linn, Livermore, W. Maclay, W. P. Maclay, Marchand, Mason of Rhode Island, Merrill, Mills, Robert Moore, Samuel Moore, Morton, Moseley, Murray, Jeremiah Nelson, Ogle, Orr, Palmer, Patterson, Pawling, Pitkin, Porter, Rice, Rich, Richards, Rogers, Ruggles, Savage, Schuyler, Scudder, Sergeant, Seybert, Sherwood, Silsbee, Southard, Spencer, Tallmadge, Tarr, Taylor, Terry, Tompkins, Townsend, Upham, Wallace, Wendover, Westerlo, Whiteside, Wilkin, Williams of Connecticut, Williams of New York, Wilson of Massachusetts, and Wilson of Pennsylvania. So the House determined, by a majority of two votes, to strike out the clause imposing a restriction on slavery in the proposed new Territory of Arkansas. Mr. TAYLOR then moved to amend the bill by inserting a provision "that, during the existence of the Territorial government of Arkansas, no slaves shall be brought into the said Territory, ' to remain therein for a longer time than nine 'months from the date of their arrival." Mr. PITKIN supported, at some length, the amendment. Mr. WHITMAN, of Massachusetts, addressed the Chair as follows: Mr. Speaker, I am impelled, by a sense of duty to myself, as well as by a hope to be able to throw some light on this subject, to endeavor to exhibit the view which I have taken of it. At this stage of the debate, the House having become weary, I cannot expect to gain much attention; and, had any other gentleman exhibited the view which influences my mind, I should have been silent. Without some explanation, the vote which I am about to give might seem inconsistent with that which I gave in Committee of the Whole, and should have given in the House, on a similar amendment proposed, in the case of the admission of Missouri as a State. I voted in that case against the admission of slavery into that State. I did not so vote, however, in expectation that it would diminish slavery in the United States. I do not view the subject as necessarily involving that question; and, if it be involved in it, I think it can be made manifest that the reasons are in favor of its admission, rather than its rejection, if we would promote emancipation, and provide for the amelioration of the condition of the slaves. No man would abhor more a contrary tendency than I should. I should shudder at the idea of adopting a measure tending to the increase of such misery and wretchedness. The slaves already in the United States, as the laws now are, can only be increased by procreation. The penalties against further importation, and the measures adopted to enforce them, are such that we cannot reasonably fear that many, if any more, will be smuggled into the Union. The permission of slavery in the Territory of Arkansas will afford no additional facilities to the introduction of this unfortunate race from NAYS-Messrs. Adams, Allen of Massachusetts, Anderson of Pennsylvania, Barber of Ohio, Bateman, Bennett, Boden, Boss, Clagett, Comstock, Crafts, Cushman, Darlington, Drake, Ellicott, Folger, Fuller, Gage, abroad. The State of Louisiana, already estab : |