It has been said that the power to incorporate a bank for the United States is a substantive and original, and not a derivative or implied power. This has been repeated, but I have heard no arguments in support of the position; it is naked assertion.
It has also been called "act of sovereignty;" as if to alarm and deter us by its awful magnitude. But, sir, the sovereign power of Congress is sometimes exercised on subjects of comparatively little moment. A few days since we passed a bill to authorize the erection of a bridge; and another, to change the name of an individual, to enable him to inherit an estate. The power of Congress is sovereign to all the purposes of the constitution. They can lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; borrow money, regulate commerce, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property of the United States. And they have the power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry the foregoing and all other constitutional powers into execution. When proposing to exercise this general power, in any case not expressly mentioned, we have to consider whether it be "necessary and proper." It has been said that "necessary" here means indispensable; something without which a particular power expressly granted cannot be carried into execution. But, sir, I see no ground for this interpretation. In the affairs of a nation, or other community, whatever the public good requires to be done, is necessary and proper to be done. It is a moral, not an absolute necessity. It is necessary for me to be here in my place, because it is my duty to be here. Necessary and proper are opposed to unnecessary and improper. Congress should do no act unnecessary and improper; but, like State Legislatures, do whatever is necessary and proper to attain the objects for which they are respectively constituted.
In determining whether any proposed measure be necessary and proper to carry into execution any power expressly given to Congress, we have to consider whether that measure has a just or useful relation to the end. For instance, the constitution having prescribed no mode of collecting the revenues, it rested in the discretion of Congress to adopt such a mode or such modes as should appear to them best adapted to that object. Instead of appointing custom-house officers in the large commercial cities and towns, where a banking establishment could be supported, Congress might there have erected banks, as the most certain, punctual, and cheap mode of collection. Suitable officers of a bank might have performed all the duties of entering and clearing vessels, and all other duties pertaining to the custom-house, without any charge to the public; the deposits of the public moneys so collected in those banks, upon which the usual banking operations might be carried on, yielding an adequate compensation for all the services so performed.
The public revenues, when collected, must also be safely kept. An experience has demonstrated that, of all depositaries, banks are the safest. And the same experience has shown that, as the public moneys are required to be frequently transferred, for the public expenditures, from one State to another, the Bank of the United States, with its branches, has furnished the best mode of transfer; it being effected with despatch, with certainty, and without any risk or expense to the United States.
The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Clay) asked, if banks are necessary for collecting the public revenues, why give them any other power? The answer is, that it is the essential nature of banks, which renders them so peculiarly fit to collect the revenues. The merchants, whose bonds are lodged in the banks for collection, are also borrowers of money from the banks; and if they fail of paying their bonds, as they become due, their credit will fail; they can obtain no more loans until their bonds are paid. This has just been presented to our view, in the most striking manner, by my colleague.
"To borrow money," is another of the great powers expressly vested in Congress. And in this, as in the power first considered, no mode of borrowing being prescribed in the constitution, Congress are to devise and provide the means in their judgment most sure, expeditious, and ample, to obtain loans. And this was one of the great objects for which the Bank of the United States was originally incorporated. The gentleman from Virginia, near me, (Mr. Brent,) and the gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. Taylor,) have, in very forcible language, displayed the impolicy of depending on State banks or individuals for loans, in public emergencies. At such times, these banks and individuals may be most hardly pressed by their usual customers. To suffer the Bank of the United States to dissolve, and to have recourse to State banks, will be so far going back to the condition of the United States under the articles of Confederation, when our Union was but a rope of sand. When the pressure of the Revolutionary war was over, indeed, while that pressure remained, Congress in vain made requisitions on the individual States; no money, or none in any measure adequate to the public exigencies, could be obtained. After the war, when the public treasury was empty, Congress importuned—implored the States, individually, to grant the power to raise a revenue from commerce, to defray the current expenses of the General Government, and to fulfil the public obligations, but the power could not be obtained. States, deriving large revenues from commerce, chose to retain them for their own treasuries.
It was this helpless, forlorn condition of our country, which forcibly convinced the nation of the necessity of forming a new system of Government; and our present Government was the fruit of that necessity.
"To regulate commerce" is a third great power vested in Congress. And it is conceived that the exercise of any power well adapted to give safety, facility, and prosperity to commerce, must be comprised in the power to regulate it. Hence the erecting of light-houses has been mentioned as an instance in which an implied power, incidental to the regulating of commerce, has been exercised. But it has been said that this power is expressly given in another part of the constitution; that by which Congress is vested with exclusive legislation over the district which is the seat of Government, and over places ceded to the United States "for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings." But if we had no commerce, no navigation, light-houses would not be "needful buildings," they would be of no use whatever. Hence it is clear that they have a direct relation to commerce and to nothing else; and, therefore, the erecting of them is properly adduced as an instance of the exercise of a power implied in the general express power to regulate commerce.
The safety and facility of commercial operations was also greatly to be promoted by means of a general currency which should have equal credit throughout the Union. This has been accomplished by the notes issued from the Bank of the United States, under the authority of Congress, exercising the power incidental to that of regulating commerce.
A fourth great power, which I mentioned to have been vested in Congress, is that of "making all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property of the United States." This "other property" consists partly of money. And, as Congress have power to make any regulations concerning it which are needful, that is, which may, in their opinion, best promote the general welfare, this money may be (as some of it has been) vested in bank stock; and with the truest regard to its safety and good management, in the stock of a bank erected by Congress, of which they may have a suitable inspection; and where it may safely deposit the public revenues, there to await the public demand; and, in the mean time, usefully aid those banking operations which give facility to commerce and to public loans.