gold or silver coin; or in any public debt of the United States, contracted, or to be contracted, which at the time of payment shall bear an accruing interest of six per centum, per annum; and to extend the time of opening the subscriptions at New Orleans, Lexington, and Chillicothe; and also, to strike out so much of the eighteenth fundamental rule, as directs that all the money payments, made by said bank, during the present war, shall be made at Philadelphia.

And the question being taken thereon, it passed in the affirmative: Yeas 79, Nays 76.

DECEMBER 29, 1814.

Mr. ARCHER, of Maryland, from the Committee of Ways and Means, to whom the bill was re-committed, reported three amendments thereto, in con formity to the instructions of the House.

The first amendment proposes to substitute the second Monday in February for the third Monday in January, as the day on which the books of subscription to the bank shall be opened.-Agreed to.

The second amendment proposes to strike out so much of the bill as describes the (war) stock which shall be subscribable to the bank, and in lieu thereof to insert," any public debt of the United States contracted, or to be contracted, which, at the time of payment, shall bear an accruing interest of six per centum per annum."

After a few words from Mr. GASTON and Mr. OAKLEY, expressive of a hope that this amendment would pass, and from Mr. INGHAM and Mr. DESHA, to the contrary, the question on this amendment was decided, without debate, by the following vote:

For the amendment,

Against it,

So the House refused to accept this amendment.

72,

73.

The other amendment proposes to strike out that part of the eighteenth rule which restricts the payment of the notes in specie to such as are presented at the principal bank.

The adoption of this amendment was opposed by Mr. ARCHER, Mr. FORSYTH, Mr. INGHAM, Mr. HAWKINS, and others, on the ground, generally, that the provision would not, in fact, be effectual, because it would be in the power of the bank, notwithstanding such provision, to issue notes payable at the principal bank; but, if it would be operative, its effect would be injurious in the highest degree, inasmuch as it would, in a very few days after the bank commenced operation, compel it to cease payment in specie, owing to its liability to pay it at so many points, and the great demand for specie now existing, and likely to continue during the war, to the end of which this proposition was limited.

The amendment was supported by Mr. SHARP and Mr. OAKLEY, and others, on the ground, principally, that it would be infinitely better that the notes should bear on their face their actual value, and place of payment, than that they should purport to be payable at places at which in fact they would not be payable in specie. If made payable at Philadelphia only, the persons receiving the paper would know its real value, and not under a deceptive aspect of being payable at any of the branches, where in fact no payment in specie was to be made, &c. It was also objected to the bill, as it stood, that it would drain all the specie in the country, to accumulate it at Philadelphia.

The question on the amendment resulted, by Yeas and Nays, as follows: For the amendment,

Against it,

76,

76.

The Speaker (Mr. CHEVES) decided it in the affirmative by his casting vote.

Mr. FARROW then moved to amend the bill, by striking out so much as describes the stock to be subscribable, and inserting, in lieu thereof, a provision limiting the privilege of subscription in the stock of the bank, to such public debt as shall be hereafter contracted.

This motion was opposed by Mr. INGHAM, and Mr. FORSYTH, and others, and supported by Mr. GASTON, Mr. OAKLEY, Mr. POTTER, and others. The latter gentleman took this occasion to make a speech of some length against the bill generally.

The question on Mr. FARROW's motion was, after a warm debate, at length decided as follows:

For the motion, -
Against it,

65,

89.

Mr. PITKIN then proposed a further amendment to the bill, viz. to strike out the word "fifty," so as to leave the amount of the capital blank.

The previous question having been thereupon demanded by Mr. HARRIS, of Tennessee, and supported by a sufficient number, viz. 75 for it, 67 against it, Mr. WEBSTER moved to lay the bill on the table; which motion was negatived by Yeas and Nays, by the following vote:

Another motion was then made to adjourn, and negatived.

56,

93.

The previous question was then put, in the usual form: "Shall the main question be now put?" And decided as follows:

Yeas,
Nays,

83, 63.

The question on ordering the bill to a third reading was then decided in the affirmative without a division.

On the question when the bill should be read a third time, to-morrow and to-day were named. The question being taken on to-morrow, it was decided in the negative.

The bill was then ordered to be read a third time to-day.

A motion was then made to adjourn, and negatived by a vote of 75 to 60. The bill was then announced for a third reading.

Mr. BIGELOW raised a question of order, whether it was proper to read the bill a third time before the other orders of the day were disposed of. The Speaker having decided that bills on their reading had preference in the orders of the day, Mr. B. appealed from the decision of the Speaker, (Mr. MACON) which was affirmed by the House.

Mr. WEBSTER moved to re-commit the bill to a select committee, with instructions, substantially, as follows:

1. To reduce the capital to twenty-five millions of dollars, with liberty to the Government to subscribe five millions additional at any future time,

2. To strike out the provision allowing the bank to cease specie payment.

3. To strike out so much of the bill as makes it obligatory on the bank to lend money to the Government.

4. To introduce a provision, that, if the bank shall not commence operations within months after the passage of the act, the charter shall be forfeited.

5. To allow an interest of per cent. per annum, on any note, payment of which shall have been demanded of the bank, and refused.

6. To provide that, of the twenty-five millions, five shall be payable in specie, and twenty in any United States' six per cent. stock, or in treasury notes.

7. To strike out that provision which restrains the bank from selling its stock during the war.

Mr. W. supported his motion by a number of remarks, the general purport of which was, that he had resorted to this method to show to the world what sort of a bank he and his friends were willing to support.

Mr. GASTON followed, in a short speech in favor of this motion, and with the zeal he has uniformly exhibited on this subject, in opposition to the bill.

Mr. WM. REED, of Massachusetts, next took the floor in decided opposition to this bill, of which he expressed the utmost abhorrence, and the greatest dread of its effects.

After the rejection of several motions to adjourn—

Mr. BIGELOW made a speech on the same side of the question as the two gentlemen who had preceded him in debate.

Before Mr. BIGELOW finished his speech, however, a motion to adjourn prevailed

JANUARY 2, 1815.

The House resumed the consideration of the bill-Mr. WEBSTER'S motion to re-commit the bill being still under consideration.

It was supported by Messrs. PICKERING, Webster, ShiphERD, and WHEATON, in speeches of considerable length, and opposed by Messrs. FORSYTH and RHEA, of Tenn.

Mr. WEBSTER, in support of his motion, spoke as follows:

However the House may dispose of the motion before it, I do not regret that it has been made. One object intended by it, at least, is accomplished. It presents a choice, and it shows that the opposition which exists to the bill in its present state, is not an undistinguishing hostility to whatever may be proposed as a national bank, but a hostility to an institution of such a useless and dangerous nature, as it is believed the existing provisions of the bill would establish.

If the bill should be recommitted and amended according to the instructions which I have moved, its principles will be materially changed. The capital of the proposed bank will be reduced from fifty to thirty millions; and composed of specie and stocks in nearly the same proportions as the capital of the former Bank of the United States. The obligation to lend thirty millions of dollars to Government, an obligation which cannot be performed without committing an act of bankruptcy, will be struck out. The power to suspend the payment of its notes and bills will be abolished, and the prompt and faithful execution of its contracts secured, as far as, from the nature of things, it can be secured. The restriction on the sale of its stocks will be removed, and as it is a monopoly, provision will be made that, if it should not commence its operations in reasonable time, the grant shall be forfeited. Thus amended, the bill would establish an institution not unlike the last Bank of the United States in any particular which is deemed material, excepting only the legalized amount of capital.

To a bank of this nature, I should at any time be willing to give my support, not as a measure of temporary policy, or as an expedient to find means of relief from the present proverty of the treasury; but as an institution of permanent interest and importance, useful to the Government and country at all times, and most useful in times of commerce and prosperity.

I am sure, sir, that the advantages which would at present result from any bank, are greatly overrated. To look to a bank, as a source capable, not only of affording a circulating medium to the country, but also of supplying the ways and means of carrying on the war, especially at a time wl.cn the country is without commerce, is to expect much more than ever will be obtained. Such high-wrought hopes can end only in disappointment. The means of supporting an expensive war are not of quite so easy acquisition. Banks are not revenue. They cannot supply its place. They may afford facilities to its collection and distribution; they may furnish, with convenience. temporary loans to Government, in anticipation of its taxes, and render important assistance, in divers ways, to the general operation of finance; they are use

ful to the State in their proper place and sphere; but they are not sources of national income.

The fountains of revenue must be sunk deeper. The credit and circulation of bank paper are the effects, rather than the causes of a profitable commerce, and a well ordered system of finance. They are the props of national wealth and prosperity, not the foundations of them. Whoever shall attempt to restore the fallen credit of this country, by the creating of new banks, merely that they may create new paper, and that Government may have a chance of borrowing where it has not borrowed before, will find himself miserably deceived. It is under the influence of no such vain hopes, that I yield my assent to the establishment of a bank on sound and proper principles. The principal good I expect from it is rather future than present. indeed, that it is likely to produce evil at any time. In times to come, it will, I do not see, I hope, be useful. If it were only to be harmless, there would be sufficient reason why it should be supported, in preference to such a contrivance as is now in contemplation.

The bank which will be erected by the bill, if it should pass in its present form, is of a most extraordinary, and, as I think, alarming nature. The capital is to be fifty millons of dollars; five millions in gold and silver, twenty millions in the public debt created since the war, ten millions in treasury notes, and fifteen millions to be subscribed by Government, in stock to be created for that purpose. The ten millions in treasury notes, when received in payment of subscriptions to the bank, are to be funded also in United' States' stocks. The stock subscribed by Government on its own account, and those in which the treasury notes are to be funded, to be redeemable only at the pleasure of the Government. The war stock will be redeemable ac cording to the terms upon which the late loans have been negotiated.

The capital of the bank, then, will be five millions of specie and forty-five millions of Government stocks. In other words, the bank will possess five millions of dollars, and the Government will owe it forty-five millions. This debt from Government, the bank is restrained from selling during the war, and Government is excused from paying, until it shall see fit. The bank is also to be under obligation to loan Government thirty millions of dollars on demand, to be repaid, not when the convenience or necessity of the bank may require, but when debts due to the bank, from Government, are paid; that is, when it shall be the good pleasure of Government. This sum of thirty millions is to supply the necessities of Government, and to supersede the occasion of other loans. This loan will doubtless be made on the first day of the existence of the bank, because the public wants can admit of no delay. Its condition, then, will be, that it has five millions of specie, if it has been able to obtain so much, and a debt of seventy-five millions, no part of which it can either sell or call in, due to it from Government.

The loan of thirty millions to Government can only be made by an immediate issue of bills to that amount. If these bills should return, the bank will not be able to pay them. This is certain; and to remedy this inconvenience, power is given to the directors, by the act, to suspend, at their own discretion, the payment of their notes, until the President of the United States shall otherwise order. The President will give no such order, because the necessities of Government will compel it to draw on the bank till the bank becomes as necessitous as itself. Indeed, whatever orders may be given or withheld, it will be utterly impossible for the bank to pay its notes. No such thing is expected from it. The first note it issues will be dishonored on its return, and yet it will continue to pour out its paper, so long as Government can apply it in any degree to its purposes.

What sort of an institution, sir, is this? It looks less like a bank, than a department of Government. It will be properly the paper-money department. Its capital is Government debts; the amount of its issues will depend on Government necessities; Government, in effect, absolves itself from its own debts to the bank, and by way of compensation, absolves the bank from its own contracts with others. This is, indeed, a wonderful scheme of finance.

The Government is to grow rich, because it is to borrow without the obligation of repaying, and is to borrow of a bank which issues paper without fiability to redeem it. If this bank, like other institutions which dull and plodding common sense has erected, were to pay its debts, it must have some limits to its issues of paper, and therefore, there would be a point beyond which it could not make loans to Government. This would fall short of the wishes of the contrivers of this system. They provide for an unlimited issue of paper, in an entire exemption from payment. They found their bank, in the first place, on the discredit of Government, and then hope to enrich Government out of the insolvency of their bank. With them, poverty itself is the main source of supply, and bankruptcy a mine of inexhaustible treasure. They rely not in the ability of the bank, but in its beggary; not in gold and silver collected in its vaults, to pay its debts, and fulfil its promises, but in its locks and bars, provided by statute, to fasten its doors against the solicitations and clamors of importunate creditors. Such an institution, they flatter themselves, will not only be able to sustain itself, but to buoy up the sinking credit of the Government. A bank which does not pay, is to guaranty the engagements of a Goverment which does not pay! John Doe is to become security for Richard Roe." Thus the empty vaults of the treasury are to be filled from the equally empty vaults of the bank, and the ingenious invention of a partnership between insolvents, is to restore and re-establish the credit of both.

Sir, I can view this only as a system of rank speculation, and enormous mischief. Nothing in our condition is worse, in my opinion, than the inclination of Government to throw itself upon such desperate courses. If we are to be saved, it is not to be by such means. If public credit is to be restored, this is not one of the measures that will help to restore it. If the treasury is exhausted, this bank will not fill it with any thing valuable. If a safe circulating medium be wanted for the community, it will not be found in the paper of such a corporation.

I wish, sir, that those who imagine that these objects, or any of them, will be effected by such a bank as this, would describe the manner in which they expect it to be done. What is the process which is to produce these results? If it is perceived, it can be described. The bank will not operate either by miracle or magic. Whoever expects any good from it, ought to be able to tell us in what way that good is to be produced. As yet, we have had nothing but general ideas, and vague and loose expressions. An indefinite and indistinct notion is entertained, nobody here seems to know on what ground, that this bank is to reanimate public credit, fill the treasury, and remove all the evils that have arisen from the depreciation of the paper of the existing banks. Some gentlemen, who do not profess themselves to be, in all respects, pleased with the provisions of the bill, seem to content themselves with an idea that nothing better can be obtained, and that it is necessary to do something. A strong impression that something must be done, is the origin of many bad measures. It is easy, sir, to do something, but the object is to do something useful. It is better to do nothing than to do mischief. It is much better, in my opinion, to make no bank, than to pass the bill as it now is.

The interests to be affected by this measure, the finances, the public credit, and the circulating medium of the country, are too important to be hazarded in schemes like these. If we wish to restore the public credit, and to reestablish the finances, we have the beaten road before us. All true analogy, all experience, and all just knowledge of ourselves and our condition, point one way. A wise and systematic economy, and a settled and substantial revenue, are the means to be relied on; not excessive issues of bank notes, a forced circulation, and all the miserable contrivances to which political folly can resort, with the idle expectation of giving to mere paper the quality of

money.

These are all the inventions of a shortsighted policy, vexed and goaded by the necessities of the moment, and thinking less of a permanent remedy, than of shifts and expedients to avoid the present distress. They have been a