In the second place, as the banks would not exchange specie for their notes, people who did not know all about a bank would not take its bills except at very much less than their face value. That is, a dollar bill of a Philadelphia bank was not worth more than ninety cents in paper money at New York, and seventy-five cents at Boston. This state of things greatly increased the cost of travel and business between the states, and prevented the government using the money collected at the seaports in the East to pay debts due in the West.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's History, Vol. IV., pp. 280-318.]
%290. The Second Bank of the United States.%—Lest this state of affairs should occur again, Congress, exercising its constitutional "power to regulate the currency," chartered a second National Bank in 1816, and modeled it after the old one. Again the parent bank was at Philadelphia; but the capital was now $35,000,000. Again the public money might be deposited in the bank and its branches, which could be established wherever the directors thought proper. Again the bank could issue paper money to be received by the government in payment of taxes, land, and all debts.
The Republicans had always denied the right of Congress to charter a bank. But the question was never tested until 1819, when Maryland attempted to collect a tax laid on the branch at Baltimore. The case reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which decided that a state could not tax a corporation chartered by Congress; and that Congress had power to charter anything, even a bank.
SUMMARY
1. The census returns of 1790 showed that population was going west along three highways.
2. As a result of this movement, Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796), and Ohio (1803) entered the Union.
3. The population of the country increased from 3,380,000 in 1790 to 7,200,000 in 1810; and the area from about 828,000 to 2,000,000 square miles.
4. The period 1790-1810 was one of marked industrial progress, and of great commercial and agricultural prosperity. It was during this time that manufactures arose, that many roads and highways and bridges were built, and that the steamboat was introduced.
5. A national mint had been established. The charter of the National Bank had expired, and numbers of state banks had arisen to take its place. These banks had suspended specie payment, and the government had been forced to charter a new National Bank.