made by them. This is a question of charter power, of power over a corporation, all of whose privileges are rights of property. The charter gives to the President no such right. It expressly gives to the Secretary of the Treasury a right of limited inquiry, by investigat ing such general accounts, in the books of the Bank, as relate to the statements which the Bank is bound to furnish to the Treasury Department, but not further. Congress have the power to inspect the books of the Bank, and the proceedings of the corporation generally. These powers have been expressly given, and they have been so given because they would not have been derived by implication from the charter. But here is a power to be implied greater than all, and worse than all-a power to be exercised secretly, and without avowal, ex parte, without notice, without opportunity of reply or explanation being given to those whom it affects, and by persons who are holding, to all appear ance, the relations of amity with their co-directors, sitting on the same seats, and professing the same general objects. Sir, the Board did right not to aid them; it would have done right to resist them; and I inquire of the members of this House, and ask them to follow out their honorable feelings into the reply-would they consent to sit in committee by the side of men who professed principles like these, and submitted themselves to the direction of another as to the manner in which they should carry them into execution? This question concerns all banks, and this Bank most intimately. A hue and cry is raised against the directors of this Bank, because the Bank will not tell the Government

adverted to, in connection with both the charge of › concealment by the Board,and another charge, hereafter to be noticed, of a graver description. It is a document that may be considered as a sort of small martyrology-a history of the sufferings incident to disappointed efforts and mortified pretensions; and it contains, as is natural, a confession of the faith by which the sufferers have been sustained at the stake where they have placed themselves. I beg permission to exhibit it to the House." It has pleased the majority of the Board of Directors," says the memorial, “in the document to which we refer, in order, we suppose, in some degree to extenuate their conduct, in systematically nullifying the representatives of the Government and the People," [doubtless meaning themselves,]"to deny that the public directors are seated at the Board in any other relation than themselves; to deny the existence of any difference in the official character and duty of themselves and us. This extraordinary denial, in the face of all experience of the familiar history of the country, and of palpable reasoning, must rather be ascribed to the presumption which moneyed power is apt to inspire, than to the ignorance or wilful misrepresentation of those who make it. Nothing can be plainer than that the PUBLIC DIRECTORS WERE DEVISED AS INSTRUMENTS" -[I beg the House to advert to the felicity of the language" were devised as instruments."] "Nothing can be plainer than that the public directors were devised as instruments for the attainment of public objects; that their being insisted upon in the charter itself was in obedience to the will of those who elected the legislative body by which it was passed; and that their ap-directors, that they may tell the Secretary, precisely how pointment was given to the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, (not to the mere fiscal representative,) in order to clothe them with all the character of official representation, and to exact from them a discharge of all the duties, public, political, and patriotic, incident to a trust so conferred. If we are mistaken in this, we acknowledge that our solicitude about the rights and morals, the practical purity and freedom of our countrymen, has misled us. But we know that we are not."

Devised as instruments, and given to the President, to exact from them a discharge of all the duties, public, political, and patriotic, incident to a trust so conferred! The sense would not have been more complete, sir, - though the alliteration would have been more perfect, if they had described their functions as extending to all duties, public, political, patriotic, and party, incident

to a trust so conferred.

not warrant.

they mean to wind up, if they do mean it; and here is a new theory of banking, to place by the side of the new theory of political power-that all which the Bank intends to do for its own defence, is to be told to an enemy, that, if he thinks fit, he may defeat the measure; that it is not sufficient for him to continue to know the precise condition of the Bank, in point of fact, as it actually is, and as he must perceive it to be by the weekly statements, but that he must also know what it is going to be by the operation of the measures of defence, that if it is in his power, and he also thinks fit, he may frustrate the purpose. The private direc tors of this Bank have upon them the responsibility of taking care of all the stockholders-the nation, for its seven millions, included. If others forget this duty, they will not. This House, I hope, will not; nor will they join in censuring these faithful men for refusing, under the challenge of political power, to give up the direc Now, sir, without at present saying whether this the- tion of the Bank, by allowing to any department an inory was true, the other directors had a right to a coun-quisition into their concerns, which the charter does teracting theory for themselves; and if it is true that the Government directors were devised as instruments, and that they are, by their creation, political directors, the other directors, who have not been so devised, are entitled to consider themselves as anti-political directors, and not bound to assist the political operations of the other branch, but rather, by the momentum of their greater numbers to keep them from moving the Bank out of place. But, sir, the heads of the memorialists have been made dizzy by their elevation. Their theory has no foundation in reason, or in the charter. I deny that they were devised as instruments, whatever they may have made of themselves. There is not a shadow of difference between the rights and duties, the powers, or the obligations, of any of the directors: they are all directors, neither more nor less, and owing the same duties to all the interests confided to them. The directors appointed by the President owe a duty to the nation, and so do the others,and, in my poor judgment, they have performed it. The directors elected by the stockholders owe a duty to the Bank, and so do the directors appointed by the President; but they have neither performed nor acknowledged it. They are not placed there to make inquiries for the President. The President has no authority to direct inquiries to be

Mr. Speaker, it is in connection with this asserted right of inquiry into the affairs of the Bank, that the contracts, made by the Secretary with the new deposit Banks, become an object of the deepest interest. The 15th fundamental law of the Bank charter enables the Secretary to require of the Bank a weekly statement of the capital stock of the corporation, debts due to the same, monies deposited therein, notes in circulation, and the specie in hand; and gives him a right to inspect the general accounts relating to it in the books of the Bank, but not the right of inspecting the account of any private individual. This ought to have been sufficient for the Secretary, as, in the judgment of Congress, was sufficient for the safe-keeping of the public monies. It was enough for safety, which Congress wanted, but not enough for interference and control of the Bank, which Congress did not want. the Secretary has made with the deposit Banks hold a very different language, as may be seen by that with the Girard Bank, The Bank is bound, not only to make weekly returns of its entire condition, and to submits its books and transactions to a critical examination by the Secretary, or an agent duly authorized by him, but its expressly provided that this examination may ex·

The contracts which

it

tend to all the books and accounts, to the cash on hand, and to all the acts and concerns of the Bank, except the current accounts of individuals. Sir, I am happy to learn that the Stockholders of the Bank of Virginia have disavowed the act of their directors, in giving this power to the Secretary. It is a fearful power, and, with the Treasury interpretation of current accounts, (which is not the language of the charter, but accounts generally of any private individual,) we may see the extent of control, which, with the aid of the deposits, this clause of the contract will give. It is an authority for universal supervision of all the operations of the Bank, including its discounts, and for granting and withhold ing accommodations at the pleasure of the Secretary. I humbly submit to all who feel any kindred sympa thies with honorable men, whether, in the absence of the mandate of a judicial decision, in a case in which such a decision has been avoided by the power that has a right to invoke it, whether this is a fit occasion to justify the removal of the deposits for violation of the charter, because the directors have not adopted or assisted such principles, interpretations, and aims as these?

have followed them fearlessly wherever they led, and with unshaken confidence that they could not lead me where either wisdom or virtue would be exposed to reproach. But, sir, I had not this honor. I was not a director of the Bank in 1829, nor in 1830, nor in 1831; and, though chosen a director in 1832, I left Philadel phia in January, to pass my winter here, and met the Board but once after my return, to show respect to the Committee of Inquiry appointed by this House. Of the measure now to be adverted to I was not informed, except as the public and this House have been informed. I can speak of them, therefore, without the influ ence arising from either participation or privity. As to my professional relations to the Bank, I am proud to belong to a profession which has many distinguished members in both Houses of this Congress-a profession which the confidence and affection of this people have raised, in more than one instance, to the highest office in their gift. I will not degrade this honorable profession! I will not degrade my own rank in it, however humble, by condescending to inquire what extent of compensation would induce an honorable man to sell his conscience, and his principles, as slaves, to his client!

The affair of the French bill I shall briefly notice, as I pass to the remaining topic of the Secretary's answer. Sir, the great accusation against the Bank is, that she I will take the history of that bill, as it is given by the has endeavored to obtain political power, and interferhonorable member from Tennessee-that it was a billed with the election of the President of the United bought by the Bank, refused payment by the French States. Grant the design of the Bank, sir; and what Government, and upon protest, the amount was paid by then? It has not succeeded. The letter of the Secreta the agent, for the honor of the Bank, to the foreign ry is an argument to show that it has not succeeded, and holder; that the money was not used by the Treasury that the question of re-charter is settled against the Bank here; and that the Bank suffered nothing but a few ex- by the voice of the People at the last election. The penses, which the Secretary is willing to refund. I election of the President-the appointment of the Sewill agree that there is nothing but an old statute of Ma cretary-the elections for this House-were all completryland to give damages on the protest, and that it does ed before the deposits were removed; and these are not include the sovereign of the country. I cannot ar- held up to show that the design imputed to the Bank gue the case, because the honorable member assumes has failed and fallen to the ground. Then I ask, sir, all the law and all the facts, and the Secretary's letter what is the character of that act which has removed the gives us none. I must, therefore, agree to the case as deposits? Is it preventive, or is it vindictive? It is vinhe presents it. But the thing which passes my com- dictive, sir. It is punishment directed against the Bank prehension is, that a mere claim by the Bank-a claim for an imputed design that has wholly failed in its exewithout suit or other act-a claim which it is the privi- cution, and the victim of the infliction is not the Bank, lege of the lowest and poorest to make upon the highest but the country. If it is a matter of grave belief that the and richest in the land, without incurring either for purpose of the Bank was that which is imputed, and feiture or damage-that this should be gravely put that the elections have given out the answer of the Peo forth as a brand of faithlessness upon the Bank, and a ple to it, what more triumphant refutation can be addu. forfeiture of her right to the public deposits. Sir, there ced of the reasons that find either a ground of appremust be a strange perversion of mind in myself, or in hension, or a motive of punishment, in acts which have the honorable Secretary, in regard to this conclusion. thus failed of effect? If the premises belongs to the It would have been the occasion of infinite surprise to case, the true conclusion is, that the people are in no me, if the faculty of being surprised had not been re danger from attempts to gain political power by the decently so much impaired by use, that I am no longer vices of the Bank, and that she may go on to the conconscious of its existence. clusion of her charter, performing her constitutional duties to the country, as she has always done, with fidelity and success; leaving the question of renewing the charter to settle the extent of her punishment.

The last reason of the Secretary for removing the deposits is, that the Bank had employed her means with the view of obtaining political power.

I beg permission of the House to say a word concern- But, sir, I deny the charge. I say the design was not ing the humble individual who has the honor of address entertained, and that not a particle of evidence has been ing it. Had I been a director of the Bank of the United produced to infer the contrary. The Board have printStates, during the years in which it has been its misfor ed and published, and have assisted in printing and tune not to have received the approbation of the Secre publishing, "for the purpose of communicating to the tary, I should have been associated with men who are people information in regard to the nature and operaan ornament to the city in which they live, and an hon- tions of the Bank, and to remove unfounded prejudices, or to their country-men, who, from earliest youth to or repel injurious calumnies on the institution intrus'ed their present mature age, have been beloved, respected, to their care.' This is the declared purpose of all they and honored by all around them, and who are as much have done, and they stand upon the sacred principle of the standard of all the virtues, private, social, and pa- self-defence in asserting their right to do it. That there triotic, as the coins of your mint are the standard of was nothing in the veto message to justify the circulayour currency, and without any of the base alloy which tion of the review which the gentleman from Tennessee you mingle in your coins to make them fit for the use has noticed, is more than I admit; and when the gentleand abuse of the world. If I had been called upon to man shall assert, upon his own authority, that the Board act with such men as these, in regard to measures of have given currency to a scurrilous pamphlet against any kind, and had differed from them in my judgement, any one, he will find me ready either to deny the fact, I should have deemed it almost an act of treason agains or to admit its impropriety. The constitution secures the authority of superior intelligence, or of arrogance, to every person, natural and political, the right of printexposing myself to reprehension or contempt. I shoulding and publishing, being responsible for the abuse of

it. It prohibits Congress from passing any law abridg. ing the freedom of the press. If the charter had inserted a provision to restrain the Board of Directors from printing or publishing, it would have been null and void. An interpretation of the charter to restrain it is equally so. They have the universal right, subject to the constitutional corrective through the judicial tribunals of the country; but to condemn, and then to try them-to punish and then to hear-belongs not to the tribunals of this earth, nor to the constitution of this country.

Sir, the change of the deposits is an extraordinary mode of preventing their application to the purposes of political power. Before their removal, they were in a Bank not possessing political power, nor capable of using it. They are now wielded by those who possess it, and who are more or less than men if they do not wish to keep it. Then they were in one bank, under one direction; now they will be in fifty. Then they were in a Bank which political power could not lay open to its inquiries and control; now they are in Banks that have given a stipulation for submitting all their acts and concerns to review. Then, if these deposits sustained any action at all, it was in the safest form for the people action against power in office; now its action is in support of that power, and tends to the augmentation of what is already great enough.

vancement. Dolbin, a judge of the King's Bench, was
found not to be clear; so he was turned out, and Wilkins
When sentence was be given,
came in his room.
Sanders was struck with an apoplexy, upon which great
reflections were made; but he sent his judgment in wri-
ting, and died a few days after." As the only prece-
dent which the books present to us of forfeiture of char-
ter for sedition, or an interference with political power,
it is not without instruction.

Sir, the reasons of the Secretary being one and all insufficient to justify the removal of the deposits, the question of remedy is the only one that remains. The state of the country requires the return; but the question of return has nothing to do with the renewal of the charter. If renewal were the object, I should say, do not put them back, leave them as they are; make no provision for the future, and see, at the end of two years, to what relief the people will fly. But, sir, let us save the country from this unnecessary suffering. Return them, and the mists will clear off from the horizon, and the face of nature smile as it did before. Return them, and make some provision for the day when the capital of this Bank is to be withdrawn from the country, if it is to be withdrawn. Provide some control, some regulation of your currency. The time is still sufficient for it, and the country requires it. If, indeed, this Bank I say, in conclusion upon this point, if these publica- is not to be continued, nor another to be supplied, nor tions are deemed by this House to have been unlawful, a control devised to prevent the State Banks from shoot. return the deposits till the Bank has been heard. Going out of their orbits, and bringing on confusion and to the scire facias-give to the Bank that trial by jury which is secured by its charter, and is the birthright of all. Ask the unspotted and unsuspected tribunals of the country for their instruction. Arraign the Bank upon the ground either of sedition, or grasping at political power. There was ample time for it, and still is; and there is a great precedent for it, which I commend to the consideration of this House.

ruin, then, I confess that I see no benefit in putting off the evil for two years longer. The storm must come, in which every one must seize such plank of safety as he may out of the common wreck; and it is not the part, either of true courage or of provident caution, to wish it deferred for a little time longer.

Sir, I have done. I have now closed my remarks upon the question of the public deposits, second in imSir, in the worst days of one of the worst princes of portance to none that has occurred in the course of the England, (I mean Charles the 2d,) the love of absolute present administration, whether we regard its relations rule induced him to make an attempt upon the liberties to the public faith, to the currency, or to the equipoise of the city of London, whose charter he desired to over- of the different departments of our Government. It is throw. He complained that the Common Council had with unfeigned satisfaction that I have raised my feeble taxed him with a delay of justice, and had possessed the voice in behalf of the amendment offered by the gentlepeople with an ill opinion of him; and, by means of his man from South Carolina, whose enlightened labors in ministers of the law, and by infamously packing the this great cause, through a course of years, have insebench, having promoted one judge, who was not satis-parably connected his name with those principles upon fied on the point, and turned out another who was not clear, he succeeded in obtaining a judgment, under which the liberties of that ancient city were seized by the crown. But, when the revolution expelled his successor, and the principles of the British constitution came in with the House of Orange, an early statute of William and Mary reversed the judgment as illegal and arbitrary; and from that time it has been the opprobrium of the bench, and the scorn of the profession. The account of it which is given by Burnet, is thus: "The court, finding that the city of London could not be wrought on to surrender their charter, resolved to have it condemned by a judgment in the King's Bench. Jones had died in May; so now Pollexfen and Treby were chiefly relied on by the city in this matter. Saw yer was the attorney General, a dull, hot man, and forward to serve all the designs of the court. He undertook, by the advice of Sanders, a learned, but very immoral man, to overthrow the charter. The two points upon which they rested the cause were, that the Common Council had petitioned the King upon a prorogation of Parliament, that it might meet on the day to which it was prorogued, and had taxed the prorogation as that which had occasioned a delay of justice: this was construed to be the raising of sedition, and the possessing the people with an ill opinion of the King.' "When the matter was brought near judgment, Sanders, who had laid the whole thing, was made Chief Justice; Pemberton, who was not satisfied on the point, being removed to the Common Pleas, on North's ad

which the security, the value, and the enjoyment of pro-
perty depend; and it will be a sufficient reward for me if
I shall be thought not to have impaired the effect of his
efforts; nor to have retarded the progress of those prin
ciples to their ultimate establishment. For myself, I
claim the advantage of saying, that, as I have not con-
sciously uttered a sentiment in the spirit of mere party
politics, so I trust that my answers to the Secretary will
not be encountered in that spirit. If the great and per
manent interests of the country should be above the in-
fluence of party, so should be the discussions which in-
volve them. It ought not to be, it cannot be, that such
questions shall be decided in this House as party ques
tions. The question of the Bank is one of public faith;
that of the currency is a question of national prosperity;
that of the constitutional control of the Treasury is a
question of national existence.
It is impossible that
such momentous interests shall be tried and determined
by those rules and standards which, in things indifferent
'They concern
in themselves, parties usually resort to.
our country at home and abroad, now, and to all future
time; they concern the cause of freedom every where;
and, if they shall be settled under the influence of any
considerations but justice and patriotism-sacred jus
tice and enlightened patriotism-the dejected friends of
freedom dispersed throughout the earth, the patriots of
this land, and the patriots of all lands, must finally sur
render their extinguished hopes to the bitter conviction
that the SPIRIT OF PARTY is a more deadly foe to free
institutions than the SPIRIT OF DESPOTISM.

REPORT OF THE CONTROLLERS OF THE annual report, and the erection of an additional one in PUBLIC SCHOOLS. the city, all of which are now in full operation and numerously attended.

Sixteenth Annual Report of the Controllers of the Public Schools for the city and county of Philadelphia, composing the first school district of the State of Pennsylvania: with their accounts.

The Controllers of the Public Schools of the city and county of Philadelphia, composing the First School District of Pennsylvania, in compliance with the requisitions of the Act of Assembly, present their Sixteenth Annual Report of "the amount of Expenditure, and the number of children educated in their Schools."

The Lancasterian Schools of the First District now have on their rolls. (as appears by the semi-annual_returns from the several sections, duly vouched,) six thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven pupils of which number three thousand seven hundred and thirteen are boys, and three thousand and fifty-four are girls. The annexed statement will show the distribution into the various Schools, viz:

Boys. Girls. Total.
424
180

87

322 69 35

182

95

85

167

Lombard street, (coloured,)

Second Section.

Northern Liberties,

329

Do. coloured School,

+Coates street,

174

In pursuance of authority granted by this Board, the Directors of the First (City) Section, during the past season, have obtained a lot and erected a commodious and excellent brick School House in Front street below Pine, intended to supply the want of such an establishment so long and severely felt on the eastern front of the city. This has been recently completed. Although but three weeks have elapsed since it was opened for the reception of pupils, it now counts near four hundred children in attendance, and gives the fullest promise of a numerous and improving School.

From the extended accommodations thus provided, the Controllers are led to hope that it will not be requi site to incur further expense during the coming season in the purchase of ground or construction of school houses. The natural growth of the population, however, and the greater desire for education, which they earnestly strive to excite in the minds of both parents and children, will not allow any long pause in multiply. ing edifices and supplying materials for the prosecution of this great and indispensable work.

The experimental Infant School established by the 485 Controllers in a portion of the Chester street School 496 House has been enlarged during the summer, and the 230 results obtained are highly satisfactory. It has exhibit379 ed, under the direction of its accomplished teacher, a 490 constant and rapid improvement in the children, and at the same time has furnished an admirable Seminary for 651 the instruction of Infant School Teachers, numbers of 104 whom have regularly devoted their time to the acquire 174 ment of practical skill in conducting these Schools, and are believed in several instances, to be now competent 754 to take charge of similar establishments. 177

534

175

With a view to prepare for a full and efficient connec. tion of a series of Infant Schools with the other Public Schools, the Controllers have recommended the addition of one large room to each of the new buildings mention. ed above, in Race street, in Moyamensing, in Kensing ton, and in Front street. These rooms are finished, and 452 in all respects well adapted to the purpose, They are about 40 by 75 or 80 feet, and will furnish ample ac 471 commodation for three hundred pupils in each, if so ma 591 ny can be profitably taught in the same apartment. Schools have been ordered, and will be organized in each of these four buildings as soon as the fixtures, &c. can be arranged.

6767

In the Fourth, Fifth, part of Sixth, the Seventh and The annexed returns, duly certified by the AccountEighth Sections, where Lancasterian Schools do not ex-ing Officers of the county, show that the orders of this ist, and are not adapted to the scattered population, Board on the treasury during the past year, amounted the School Directors have, during the same period, pla- to the sum of seventy-four thousand one hundred and ced in the Schools adjacent to the residence of the pa- seventy dollars and forty-one cents-of which sum, rents and pupils, one thousand ninety-eight children, Lancasterian Schools are charged with the sum of making with those above enumerated,seven thousand eight twenty-three thousand one hundred and twenty four dol hundred and sixty five, instructed at the general expense, lars and seventy cents-Schools not on Lancasterian since the report of last year. The aggregate number of plan, with ten thousand one hundred and twenty-seven children enrolled in the public schools of this District, dollars and twenty cents-School furniture, with two since the adoption of the present laws, will thus be hundred and ninety-eight dollars and twenty-seven cents found, by reference to the former returns of this Board, and Real Estate, (which remains to the credit of the to exceed FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND, all of whom have re- county with forty-thousand six hundred and twenty dolceived the benefits of this practical and successful modelars and twenty-four cents. of instruction, and enjoyed full opportunity for acquir ing the rudiments of useful learning and imbibing the purest principles of Christian morals.

The regular expenditure of the Board during the year 1833, for the maintenance and conducting of the Lancasterian and other Schools of the District (including the new schools) does not essentially vary from that of the preceding season; but the total is largely increased by payments on the completion and furnishing of the three new brick School Houses, mentioned in the last

Opened 4th February, 1834.

An immunity, almost entire, from pestilential or epidemic disease, has been enjoyed throughout the First School District during the past year. The unusual por tion of health bestowed has permitted an uninterrupted prosecution of the School exercises, a blessing which calls for grateful and fervent acknowledgments to Di vine Providence from our community at large, but most signally from those to whose guardianship is entrusted the welfare, physical and moral, of so many thousands of youthful pupils.

In their periodical visitations to the various Schools, the Controllers have found them, almost without excep. Opened July 16th, 1833, when 118 boys were tion, in satisfactory order and cleanliness--under effitransferred from the Northern Liberties School, cient instruction, and management, and furnishing, in