THE BANK OF THE UNITED * STATES. 301 



8,000,000 dollars, which amounts to less than a quarter of the entire 

 stock of 35 ,,000,000, and upon the principle of joint-stock companies, by 

 which individuals are only responsible for the amount of their respective 

 shares ; the real security thus had upon the government consists of less 

 than a quarter of a dollar in the dollar. Nor is there any law to restrain 

 the government from selling out even this amount of 8,000,000 dollars ; 

 and we perceive indeed that the sale of the government shares in the 

 Bank is already proposed by Mr. Secretary M'Lean, to take place in 

 the present year, for the purpose of raising the means for the final 

 extinction of the national debt. Even this slight security will then 

 cease to exist ; the remaining proprietors will consist of indiscriminate 

 merchants, citizens, and traders ; the security being equally precarious 

 with that of any other crowd of speculators ; it being apparent that, ex- 

 cepting in the transitory manner described, this is an institution with 

 which the people, government, and revenue of the United States have in 

 reality no connexion whatsoever. 



Having thus divested this Bank of its supposed connexion with the 

 government of the United States, we proceed to examine it upon its real 

 foundations as a common joint-stock company. Considered then in this 

 its true light, the Bank of the United States merely stands upon a level 

 with all the other banking institutions of that country, and its success or 

 failure must depend upon its successful management of discounts, 

 loans, issues of papers, and the other operations of the trade in money. 

 Judging then of the tree by its fruit, we find in the report of Mr. Gal- 

 latin that the Bank, since its establishment, has not paid the shareholders 

 an average dividend of three and a half per cent., although in the United 

 States the scarcity of capital renders money at all times easy to be in- 

 vested in solid property at the rate of five and a half and six per cent. 

 It appears also that much mismanagement has occurred in the numerous, 

 distant, and unwieldy branches of the Bank ; and that in addition to the 

 losses peculiar to bankers in dishonoured bills, forgeries, and common 

 defalcations, the President of the Branch Bank at Baltimore, in the year 

 1819, became a defaulter to the amount of 1,300,000 dollars. More- 

 over, the expenses of the institution in patronage, extravagant salaries, 

 and the other corruptions incident to all incorporated bodies, have been 

 very extensive ; and the Directors of the mother Bank at Philadelphia, 

 though paying a dividend of only three and a half per cent., and though 

 always liable to the non-renewal of the charter, have yet built a magni- 

 ficent bank in that city of pure and solid marble. The buildings of 

 the Branch Banks in the various states of the Union, are also of a 

 similarly expensive construction, and upon the expiration of the charter 

 will not produce a twentieth part of the value at which they are rated 

 in the assets of the Bankers. Moreover, a very extensive portion of the 

 deposits in the Bank are invested in canals, of which the value is about 

 to be annihilated by the railways which are spreading over every part 

 of the United States. Thus, after all the efforts of the Directors, and 

 the great sums expended in corrupting the press in favour of the re- 

 newal of the charter, and the preservation of their own enormous 

 salaries and patronage, we fear that General Jackson has caused the 

 bubble to explode, and that the Bank of the United States will now 

 make a lame and impotent conclusion. 



English speculators do not sufficiently perceive the relative disadvan- 

 tages of the Bank of the United States as compared to the Bank of 



