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Statement of property conveyed on Pennsylvania canal and railway, continued.

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A GENERAL STATEMENT

Showing the amount of tolls received, number of beats cleared, and quantity of tonnage cleared, at the several collector's offices; and the number of miles travelled by passengers on the Pennsylvania canal and railway, during the year ending on the thirty-first of October, 1833.

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DEPOSITS-BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.

(Continued from page 400.)

The next evidence adduced of the Bank's opposition to him, is its claims for damages. Of this he gives the following account:

"The Bank became the purchaser of a bill drawn by our Government on that of France for about 900,000 dollars, being the first instalment of the French indemnity. The purchase money was left in the use of the Bank,being simply added to the Treasury deposits. The Bank sold the Bill in England, and the holder sent it to France for collection, and arrangements not having been made by the French government for its payment it was taken up by the agents of the Bank in Paris, with the funds of the Bank in their hands. Under these circumstances it has, through its organs, openly assa led the credit of the Government, and has actually made and persists in a demand of fifteen per cent or $158,842 77 as damages, when no damage, or none beyond some trifling expense has in fact been sustained, fand when the Bank had in its own possession on deposit, several millions of the public money which it was then using for its own profit. Is a fiscal agent to the Government, which thus seeks to enrich itself at the expense of the public, worthy of further trust?"

First. It is not correct to state that the Bank was the "fiscal agent" of the Government in this matter. On the contrary, the fiscal agency of the Bank was offered without any charge to the Government, and declined. The Bank did not wish to purchase the Bill at all, but proposed to collect it, paying the money only after it had been received by the agents of the Bank in France. Thus when the Secretary of the Treasury wrote to the Bank about this bill, the President of the Bank in his answer dated November 5, 1832, said

"The Bank has already in Paris a larger sum than it has any immediate use for yet it is not indisposed to in

crease it because it may hereafter have occasion for the funds, and because it is believed that if the terms can be made acceptable, the purchase of the whole by the Bank, would be the best operation for the Government;"-and again in the same letter

"In regard to the rate, you are the most competent judge of its fitness, and I will merely add, that the Bank not wanting funds in Paris, and believing that they will be lower hereafter, would not make a similar purchase from any other quarter, and is influenced ex clusively by the belief that any other arrangement would be less advantageous to the Treasury"

So in his letter of the 11th of February, 1833, "The purchase of the bill is not in the least desirable to the Bank, nor would the rate now allowed be given to any other drawer than the Government, for we shall send by the same conveyance which carries your bill,a large amount of bills purchased at 5.45, being nearly 1 per cent.less than the price actually given to the Treasury.

The Bank then did not wish to purchase the bill. But the Bank offered its agency to collect it on the following terms, on the 5th November, 1832.

"Should you prefer not fixing a rate at present, but to take the chances of a higher rate hereafter, the Bank on receiving your bill, would place the amount of it to the credit of the Government on the 2d of March, at the current rate of exchange of the best bills on that day in Philadelphia.

Here then was a distinct proposal to collect the bill just as the Bank collects bills for individuals, so that if the bill had, in Nov. 1832, been sent to the Rank, it would have been forwarded to Europe; and if on the 2d of Feb. 1833, when it was payable in Paris, it had not been paid, the Bank would have been apprised of that fact and would not have made the payment on the 2d of March, and the whole transaction would have been closed. This course, however, the Government did not adopt-but after considering the offers for the bill made

from other quarters, decided to sell it to the Bank. Secondly. It is not the fact that this money "was left in the use of the Bank, being simply added to the Treasury Deposits."

Suppose that it had been, it would not in the slightest degree affect the question of damages. When a party sells a bill, and is paid for it, that is, has the funds placed to his credit to be drawn whenever he chooses without further notice, the party is as much paid the fund belongs as little to the Bank-as if the party had actually withdrawn the whole sum in specie. But not only was the fund in this case drawn from the general resources of the Bank, and placed to the credit of the Treasury, but immediately after that was done Congress passed a law to lend the money, and the Secretary of the Treasury issued a notice that this money was to be forthwith lent out to capitalists, that is to say to be immediately withdrawn. The credit given to the Treasurer was on the 11th of February, 1833. The notice of the Secretary dated the 6th of March,offered to lend out this money after the 20th of March-of course the Bank could make no use of it-on the contrary, as it would probably be withdrawn immediately, it became not merely useless as a deposit, but required the Bank to shape its loans to others, so as to provide for the immediate payment.

a credit for the proceeds of the sale of the bill in London, but its actual disbursements on account of the bill were upwards of $1,800,000.

What makes the case stronger is this-that on the 2d of March, the day when the protested bill came back to the Bank, the whole amount in the credit of the Treasury throughout the whole United States, with the exception of the Danish indemnity money, was $1,827,048 88. Now the Bank had advanced $903,565 89 in Philadelphia, and $921,590 18 in Paris, making $1,825,156 07, so that although it had credit in England for the bill sold there, the Bank had actually advanced on account of this bill a sum equal within less than two thousand dollars, of the whole funds of the Government in the Bank.

When the bill returned protested, the Bank, as the endorser, called upon the Government to pay the principal and the damages. It did this as a matter of course. It did it as a matter of the clearest duty to the Government, because if the Government had any right at all to draw the bill, it had a right to make France pay the damages for its breach of contract, and it had no mode of claiming against France, unless in the first instance it paid the damages to the Bank, which it might the more readily do, as being one-fifth partner of the Bank, its own share of the $158,000 would be $31,600. But whether the French Government pays these da

Nor is this all. Not only was this sum passed to the credit of the Treasurer-not only was the early with-mages or not, it is manifest that the American Governdrawal of it from the Bank announced by the Secreta- ment must pay them-and this upon the simple princiry, but the identical proceeds of this identical French ples, not of equity, but of ordinary honesty. bill, were actually used by the Government for the pay-sent day, whenever the Government has purchased a ment of its ordinary expenses.

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when the money was paid.

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$717,264 22 1,735,460 40

1,842,658 14 1,620,699 89 1,551,627 97 1,560,783 63 1,496,907 43 1,052,862 10 1,082,560 88 918,816 61 746,613 61 826,070 90 814,046 61 774,630 47 431,560 43

It will thus be seen, that there was at the credit of the Treasurer on the 18th of February, the sum of $1,735,460 40, of which $903,565 89 were the proceeds of the French bill, and as in the month of April there was to his credit only $746,613 61, the difference between these two sums, that is to say $156,952 28 had been drawn for out of that fund of $903,565 89.

Accordingly when the Treasurer came to repay the money, he had not enough of it remaining-but was obliged to draw on funds elsewhere, so that in acknowledging the receipt of his draft on the 11th of May, 1833, the Cashier of the Bank added,

"Your transfer check for $700,000 on the office of the Bank of the United States at New York will appear at the credit of your account this day, and will thus prevent the overdraft which the change now advised would otherwise have ocasioned."

In the United States then the Bank had paid the amount of the bill in its least convenient form. But when it was protested in Paris, the agents of the Bank finding a bill with its name upon it protested, came for ward and paid it on account of the Bank-so that the Bank had actually,paid for this bill twice over-once in Philadelphia and once in Paris-that is, it had of course.

From the foundation of the Government to the pre

bill from a private citizen, and that bill has from whatever cause returned protested, no matter how hard the case may be, no matter what circumstances of excuse or mitigation may be offered by the citizen, no matter whether damages were actually sustained or not, the Government has rigorously enforced its claim for damages. It has not merely forced a solvent merchant to pay, but has insisted that its claim for damages should have its legal precedence over all the just rights of the other creditors of an insolvent; and now when the case is changed, when the Government sells its own bill to its own citizens, and that bill returns protested, with what propriety, nay with what pretensions to common honesty, can the Government presume to deny the same justice to its own citizens. The books of the Treasury are crowded with cases of damages exacted by the Government from American citizens-and one is now selected merely from its peculiar aptness to the present occasion.

Some years ago Mr. Stephen Girard sold to the Treasury four bills, two of which returned protested owing to the insolvency of his correspondent in London; when the two others became due they were paid for the hohour of Mr. Girard, by the Messrs. Barings, who also agreed to pay the two first in London, as of the day on which they were payable. Mr. Girard applied to Congress for exoneration from the claim of twenty per cent. damages, alleging

"That from the said sum of £22,500 stesling, due on the 18th August last, being passed by Sir Francis Baring & Co. to the credit of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, as on the day the same became due' no real loss or damage can accrue to the United States from the said bills being returned under protest.'

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Congress rejected the claim, and Mr. Girard paid the damages of twenty per cent.

On that occasion, the Committee of Claims called on the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Gallatin, and in his answer, which makes part of their report, he says that he had rejected Mr. Girard's claim for four reasons, of which the two most essential are:

"1st. Because, considering the large amount of bills (more than two millions of dollars,) annually purchased on account of Government, it appeared absolutely ne

cessary never to give up the damages whenever a legal But the business of the Board is not exclusively nor right to them had accrued, and because that right has in primarily to make loans:-its business is to govern the every instance, without regard to persons or circumstances, been enforced.

"2d. Because if abandoned in this instance and for that reason, every drawer who was solvent might by making a remittance to the bankers in Europe, after bills protested for non-payment had been returned to the Treasury, induce them to make a similar offer, and evade the payment of damages.

whole Institution. If the charter required seven Directors to make a discount, it would have said so of the Boards of Directors of the Branches, whose more exclusive business it is to discount. But it places no such restriction on the Branches, where by far the greater discounts are made. The business of the Board is to prescribe how the details of the operations of the Bank are to be made--it may delegate a portion of its

require a Board of seven Directors to meet before any bill could be discounted, would entirely destroy the most useful operations of the Bank—and accordingly the Exchange Committee meet every day for the purchase of bills, and their purchases are submitted to the Board at their next meeting. It would be supposed from the manner in which it is stated, that this was some recent innovation So far from it, the discount.

The lapse of years at last reversed the state of the par-power of making loans to Committees; for in truth to ties. Mr. Girard becomes the largest stockholder in a corporation called the Bank of the United States, and he and his partners, in the course of their business, purchase a bill from the same officer, the Secretary of the Treasury, which comes back protested after having been twice paid for. Mr. Girard's heirs and his associates apply to the Secretary-not even for the same amount which Mr. Girard formerly paid-not for twenty per cent. the damages in Pennsylvania-but for fif-ing of bills of exchange was formerly done by a smallteen per cent. the damages in Washington; and the only answer vouchsafed by the Treasury Department is, that the claim "has no foundation in law or equity"-to which the President now adds, that it is an attempt to "impair the credit of the Government, and tarnish the honour of the country." Such a course tends to an utter confusion of all ideas of justice; nor is it a thing tolerable by the American people, that an individual shall go among the citizens purchasing bills and exacting damages, and when his own bill, sold to these same citizens, returns protested, he shall wrap himself up in his official immunity, and refuse to do to his fellow citizens what he has compelled them to do to him.

er number than at present. On the 13th of February, 1821, during the administration of Mr. Cheves, and before the time of the present officers, a rule was adopted that

"In the absence of the Exchange Committee, the President and Cashier shall be authorized to purchase exchange which may be offered for sale, if an immedi ate answer be desired, and report such purchases to the Exchange Committee at its next meeting thereafter."

Thus giving the power here complained of to only a single director of the Bank. Yet no one ever imagined that it was a violation of the charter. In truth it is a power exercised very generally by the officers of Banks throughout the United States.

But supposing all this to be directly the reverse of what it really is-supposing the claim to be questiona- The second is-"To cut off all the means of commuble instead of equitable, is there any thing in it which nication with the Government in relation to its most imcan at all justify this denunciation of the Bank? Here portant acts, at the commencement of the present is a claim made by certain American cititizens for dama- year, not one of the Government Directors was placed ges on a bill of exchange, which they have purchased on any one Committee. And although, since, by an unu of the Government. The question is a legal one. The sual remodelling of those bodies, some of those Direcjudicial tribunals are to decide it. Yet while the Bank tors have been placed on some of the Committees, they is quietly waiting the action of the laws, the President are yet entirely excluded from the Committee of Exof the United States prejudges the question-denounces change, through which the greatest and most objectionthe Bank for having presumed to make the claim-and able loans have been made.” gives that to the country as a reason why he should instantly remove a Secretary of the Treasury, in order to subject the whole public revenue of the United States to his own disposal.

There are two things remarkable in this paragraph first, the strangeness of the confession; and next, the fallacy of the statement. It is here asserted that not to have the Government Directors on Committees is to In further illustration of the opposition of the Bank to "cut off all means of communication with the Governhis election, he next proceeds to treat of certain acts of ment in relation to its most important acts;" that is to the Board of Directors. The annunciation of these is say, that the confidential opinions and the unreserved prefaced by remarks on the magnitude and importance expressions used by their colleagues on a Committee of the facts, their recent disclosure and their great are to be communicated to the Government. It is preenormity; and the whole is concluded by a complaint of cisely this fact, thus officially announced, which would the "hundreds of thousands and even millions" which make these Directors unsafe depositories of the confi may be employed in subverting the liberties of the coun-dence of their colleagues. "At the commencement of try, and in disparaging the Executive. How little foun dation in fact there is for all this will be readily seen by examining the allegations in the order in which they are presented.

the present year," he proceeds, "not one of the Government Directors was placed on any one Committee." Now of these Directors, who could then be appointed, there were but two residents of Philadelphia-the third First. He says, that "although the charter and the not having yet been appointed. Why these two Di rules of the Bank both declare that not less than seven rectors, one of whom had just come, for the first time, directors' shall be necessary to the transaction of busi- into a banking institution, were not named on the ness, yet the most important business, even that of Committees, in the place of old and valued Directors, granting discounts to any extent, is entrusted to a comit would be more invidious than difficult to decide; but mittee of five members who do not report to the that there was no studied exclusion was obvious from Board." the fact that at the very next quarterly appointment,

Now, the charter does not require seven directors to two out of the three Government Directors were placed make discounts. on Committees. Nor is there any foundation for the Nor do the rules of the Bank require seven direc-assertion that an "unusual remodelling" of these Com.

tors.

mittees has taken place. On the contrary, the Com Nor is it true that any committee of five have this mittees were appointed quarterly, as they have for power to discount. years been appointed, and not the slightest remodelNor does any committee discount without reporting ling of them, usual or unusual, has taken place. As to the Exchange Committees, who are charged with the The charter says that "not less than seven directors arrangement of the Foreign and Domestic Exchanges shall constitute a Board for the transaction of business." of the Bank, requiring commercial experience and

to the Board,

knowledge of the business and the credit of individuals, those who are presumed most qualified are most naturally chosen. These Directors have no claim to the slightest distinction above their colleagues, and they must take their chance with the other members in the formation of the Committees. In truth, meu will choose their associates on committees. as in every thing else, from confidence in their capacity of their personal qualities; and not to be chosen to places of trust implies only that others are more trusted.

The third is "It has long been known that the President of the Bank, by his single will originates and executes many of the most important measures connected with the management of the credit of the Bank; and that the Committee as well as the Board of Directors, are left in entire ignorance of many acts done, and correspondence carried on in their names and apparently under their authority."

An assertion so general can only be met by as general a denial; at the same time, the Committee deem it their duty to declare, that this allegation so positively made, as of a known and acknowledged fact, while it charges the Board of Directors with a dereliction of their duty, and a surrender of their trust, does the greatest and most flagrant wrong to the officer who presides over this Institution. This officer has devoted eleven years of the best portion of his life, and all his time and all his talents during that period, to the service of the the Bank: he has at all times, consulted freely with the Directors, and has never sought to make his "single will" the law of the Bank. The proofs of the ability and integrity of his administration, are to be read in the prosperity and strength of the Institution; in the reiterated approbation of the stockholders; and in the unwavering confidence of the successive Boards of Directors, who have been the witnesses of his labours. And the Committee confidently believe that such proofs can never be obliterated by such sweeping declarations, let them emanate from what source they

may.

The fourth is in the following passage:

"The expenditures purporting to have been made under authority of these resolutions, during the years 1831 and 1832, were about 80,000 dollars."

This, too, is another mis-statement. The expenditures purporting to be made under these resolutions during the years 1831 and 1832 were, as will be explained in this report, exactly $48,287 90.

The fifth is; "That publications have been prepared and extensively circulated containing the grossest in vectives against the officers of the Government; and the money which belongs to the stockholders and to the public, has been freely applied in efforts to degrade, in public estimation, those who were supposed to be instrumental in resisting the wishes of this grasping and dangerous Institution."

"The fact has been recently disclosed, that an unlimited discretion has been, and is now vested in the President of the Bank to expend its funds in payment for preparing and circulating articles, and purchasing pamphlets and newspapers, calculated by their contents to operate on elections and secure a renewal of its charter."

substantially owns and by its money supports, some of the leading presses of the country, is now more clearly understood."

This whole allegation is denied.

The Bank does not now control, and never did control any press whatever-the Bank does not own and never did own any press-the Bank does not now support, nor did it ever support, by its money, any press. Created for the purpose of giving aid to every branch of industry, it has not presumed to proscribe the conductors of the press from their share of the accommodation due to their capital and industry. Of the extent and the security of these loans the Directors claim the exclusive privilege of judging.

The course of this inquiry has now brought the Com. mittee to the second paper referred to them by the Board signed by the Government Directors. It appears from their report that the President of the United States addressed a letter to them, "directing them to examine and report upon the expense account of the Bank of the United States for the last two years," and particularly "that portion which embraced expenditures calculated to operate on the election”—which examination they state "undoubtedly presents circumstances which in our opinion warrant the belief you have been led to entertain." This assertion of a right in the President of the United States to inquire into the expenses of the Bank, with a view to ascertain whether any money was expended which might directly or indirectly interfere with his own personal election, is alike novel and un tenable. His authority, as we have seen, is limited to the power of issuing a scire facias. But in no part of the charter of the Bank, in no law of this country is there found any power in the President to interfere in the internal concerns of the institution, or to direct secret investigations. But that which they regard with surprise and regret is, that these Directors, having such a commission to execute from the President, never communicated the fact to their colleagues nor to the Officers of the Bank; and while these Officers were giving to them the freest and most unreserved access to all the books and papers of the Bank, and while their colleagues were sitting in perfect confidence by their sides, neither those Officers nor the Directors had the remotest suspicion of this official investigation into their conduct, begun nearly two months before under orders of the President-until they read it in the newspapers. When at the meeting of the Board, after its publication, the subject was introduced, one of the Government Directors in effect acknowledged that they had purposely concealed their object, lest if their colleagues had been aware of it, they would not have permitted it. What the Committee deem therefore a subject of just complaint, is the want of candour in thus trying their colleagues, without apprizing them that they were on trial, or giving them any chance of knowing or answering the charges made against them by the President.

The report itself bears manifest evidence of the haste with which it was prepared. Thus "we proceeded," say they, "to look into such of the vouchers on which they are founded as we had time and opportunity to do." They state that they would have sent coHere are two mistakes: It is not true that any "pub-pies of these vouchers, but, "the time and labour nelications have been prepared and extensively circulat- cessary for this mode would have prevented our reed containing the grossest invectives against the offi- sorting to it at present" When the truth is, that a cers of the Government." Nor is it true that any pow-few hours of tranquil industry would have enabled er is vested in the President "for preparing and circu- them to copy every word of these vouchers. lating articles, and purchasing pamphlets and newspapers, calculated by their contents to operate on elections and secure a renewal of its charter." No such power is given, and no such power is exercised.

The power actually given which has been exercised, and will continue to be exercised, is for the defence of the Bank against the calumnies with which for four years, the institution has been pursued.

Again they say, "we were obliged to depend on our own partial inquiries." The errors of this hasty and partial enquiry the Committee will now proceed to no. tice.

1st. The first impression attempted to be made is that, whatever is here stated are discoveries of things hitherto concealed, and which now see the light in consequence of their exertions. Thus they speak of the expenditures "discovered by us," and of their "inves"The fact that the Bank controls, and in some cases tigations," that they requested a particular statement

The sixth is,

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