Much of this prosperity is to be attributed to the active capital which has excited industry, and a spirit of enterprise among us, and the activity of this capital has been in a great degree created and promoted by the Bank of the United States. Its operations have been extensive in all our trading towns. It has aided in loans and discounts, and assisted in the collection, safe-keeping, and transmission of our revenues. It has been the depository of our Treasury, and is now become incorporated with the administration of the fiscal department of our Government. The connection which it has formed with almost every branch of business in the country, is not slight and trifling, and so easily to be severed as some seem to believe. Its operations are deeply interwoven with the dealings and concerns of all the men of business in the United States.
With a capital of ten millions, it has furnished accommodations of fifteen millions a year. This has been employed principally in trade; in making prompt and cash payments to our farmers for their produce. This, again, has furnished to our citizens a ready and profitable market for every article of produce. These high profits of a good market have gone into the hands of the farmer, to cultivate, improve, and enrich the country. And travel through any State in the Union, and their effects may be readily seen, affording a prospect, consoling and elevating to the philanthropist and the patriot. The land is highly cultivated, good buildings, turnpike roads, bridges, and other expensive improvement, indicate the wealth of our citizens, and the prosperity of the country. Money has been freely circulated, trade has been active, produce high, and our country has been improved by these unexampled advantages to a degree far beyond what the most sanguine calculations, twenty years ago, could have anticipated. And yet, sir, we are gravely told that this bank has nearly ruined the country; that it is threatening our best interests with destruction. As well might gentlemen tell us that total darkness prevails at noon-day, or that the sun, in his meridian splendor, affords neither light nor heat to any part of this globe.
The principal portion of the trade and business of the United States has been conducted by a paper medium; metallic has scarcely been seen. The amount of this circulating medium is, say fifty millions. Now what is proposed by denying a renewal of the United States' Bank charter? That this bank shall close its concerns, and of course stop all its accommodations. This must necessarily check and change at least one-third of the circulating medium of the country. It will undeniably require $24,000,000 to be directed to one operation, and for a time to one point—for the capital is $10,000,000; this is to be collected to divide among the stockholders. There are $19,000,000 due to the bank; this must be collected. This will occasion a demand for this amount from other sources; it must be paid. And the $5,000,000 in the bank makes the sum of $24,000,000, which must be suddenly called in. The effect this will have upon the various interests in the country can neither be described nor conceived. It must inevitably give a general and heavy shock to all paper credit; this credit, so much and profitably in operation, must receive a severe, if not a mortal wound. And what substitute have we for this when it shall be destroyed? Silver and gold coin cannot be relied on. There is not from the best estimate an amount to exceed $10,000,000 specie in all our cities and trading towns, and this will be collected by this bank. The price of all stocks, and every kind of produce and species of property must suffer a great depression, for a scarcity of money enhances its value, and consequently depresses the value of every other species of property. That this sudden, if not total change in our system, must occasion great embarrassment, produce failures, disappointments, and distress, among our citizens, is certain.
Put down this bank, and how then are your revenues to be collected? Through the medium of the State banks? You do what no prudent man, in his individual concerns, would think of doing. You discard a faithful, honest, responsible agent, whose integrity and fidelity you have known for twenty years, and you place your estate in the hands and at the disposal of twenty or thirty entire strangers, of whose character and responsibility you know nothing, nor have the means of acquiring any knowledge, and over whose conduct you have no control. Should an individual act thus with his property, he would be deemed to have lost all regard for it, if not considered a madman. In resorting to the State banks, we are offering the amount of our revenue as a bounty for intrigues, cabals, and factions, through the country. In almost every State there are a number of banks, and each will endeavor to get the revenue collected in that State, to keep and trade with. It must be given to one, or divided among them all. If one is selected as the favorite, all the rest become jealous, dissatisfied, and exert their capital and influence against the favorite bank and its patron, the Government. This will awaken a spirit of faction in every State, yet unknown in this country. If all are to be gratified in their request for the deposits, the Government must open separate accounts with all the different banks in the country, to the amount of fifty or sixty; and new companies will be formed, and new applicants request to divide the business, and share the profits. Indeed, there will be no end to the scenes of speculation and intrigue, which will soon appear, if this course is adopted by the Government.
Mr. Seybert.—It may be said that this subject has been exhausted by the discussions of the ablest politicians of the country. I will premise, the remarks which I shall offer are intended solely to justify the vote which it is my intention to give on this momentous occasion.
The question pending the United States' Bank has excited a peculiar interest throughout this nation, more especially in our seaports. The dissolution of this institution, which from its limitation, will expire on the fourth of March next, has been portrayed in colors of the darkest shades, and the distresses which many maintain will be consequent to that event, call seriously for a fair and deliberate investigation. I hope, sir, I shall be pardoned for imposing on the patience of the House, when it is recollected that the community which I represent have employed four-tenths of the capital stock of the United States' Bank. If evil consequences are to attend the dissolution of this establishment, or if beneficial results proceed from its continuance, in either case I must feel myself essentially interested; it is therefore my wish to be distinctly understood upon the important principles which have connection with the great question now before us.
At the last session of Congress, I presented the memorial of the President, Directors, and Stockholders of the Bank of the United States; at that time I entertained no positive opinion on the subject; the discussions which took place in the committee to whom the memorial was referred, necessarily, as a duty on my part, excited that attention which the importance of the question imperiously demanded. Under circumstances of doubt, I voted in favor of reporting a resolution in support of the bank, for the purpose of giving to the establishment every chance which reason could urge; at the same time reserving to myself the right to pronounce a final decision, according as policy and expediency, but more especially as principle should dictate. I will admit, sir, that this is not the time or place to institute the general inquiry, whether banks are or are not beneficial to a nation? Because, whether the charter of the United States' Bank be renewed or not, the several States, who have the unquestioned authority to incorporate bank establishments, have already created many, which it is not in our power to control. I do not hesitate to declare, though many persons in the United States are decidedly opposed to a banking system, under every possible circumstance, I am not of this class. Experience has proved, in a manner very satisfactory to my mind, the advantages which are derived from the banks when they are impartially directed, and when the accommodation afforded by them is prudently employed; the great difficulty seems to be to confine the system within its proper limits. I understand the proposition as applicable to the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial interests of the United States.
For my proofs of this proposition, I will not rely upon the famous Bank of St. George, at Genoa, whose authority, by a gentleman from New York, (Mr. Fisk,) has been considered of much weight. I will recall to the mind of my friend the remark of an intelligent traveller, who, when he visited this bank of antiquity, exclaimed: Here lies concealed the enigma, whether the bank possesses millions of millions, or whether it is indebted millions of millions! He concludes, Upon this important secret rests the safety of the State. Unhappy State, say I, whose safety depends upon a secret concealed within the vaults of a bank. Perhaps to a development of this secret may we attribute the present servile condition of the people of the once far-famed and powerful Republic of Genoa.
Sir, I am decidedly opposed to a prominent, and what to me appears to be a very dangerous feature in the bill now under consideration. I allude to the eighth section, which admits of an increase of the present capital stock of the bank. Adopt this provision, you will thereby create an Herculean power, which will have at its mercy all the minor institutions of the States; thus constituted, it can oppress and destroy them, as whim or interest may dictate. The steps which have been taken preparatory to a dissolution of the present bank, it is said, occasion much embarrassment, and threaten with ruin many of our citizens; if the present capital of ten millions can thus affect society, who will pretend to accumulate present evils, or risk entailing misery on posterity, solely for the purpose of a temporary gain to the Government? In this question Pennsylvania is deeply concerned; she has several millions of dollars invested in her banks; this to her is a valuable source of revenue; upon this may she predicate much of her future prosperity; hence will she derive the funds requisite for future internal improvements; but if you fill up the blanks in this section with a considerable sum, all these prospects will be blasted forever; you will thereby destroy the tree from whose ramifications were to emanate the blessings of peace and the sinews of war. Those of her representatives who may deem it politic and constitutional to vote for a continuance of the charter of the United States' Bank, ought surely to oppose any increase of the present capital; we have been told that that which now exists has been found sufficient for all purposes, at a time when our commerce was much more extensive than we have reason to suppose will soon again be the case.
The history of the banks in our country informs us, that the one usually termed the Bank of North America was the first establishment of the kind which received the sanction of the Government. This institution was incorporated by an act of Congress, in the month of May, 1781, under the authority of the "Articles of Confederation." The present Bank of the United States was incorporated by an act of Congress, on the 25th of February, 1791, during the operation of the present Constitution of the United States.