"The importance of the principles involved in the inquiry,
whether it will be proper to re-charter the Bank of the United
States, requires that I should again call the attention of
congress to the subject. Nothing has occurred to lessen, in any
degree, the dangers which many of our citizens apprehended from
that institution, as at present organized. In the spirit of
improvement and compromise which distinguishes our country and
its institutions, it becomes us to inquire whether it be not
possible to secure the advantages afforded by the present bank
through the agency of a bank of the United States, so modified
in its principles and structure as to obviate constitutional
and other objections.
"It is thought practicable to organize such a bank, with the
necessary officers, as a branch of the treasury department,
based on the public and individual deposits, without power to
make loans or purchase property, which shall remit the funds of
the government, and the expenses of which may be paid, if
thought advisable, by allowing its officers to sell bills of
exchange to private individuals at a moderate premium. Not
being a corporate body, having no stockholders, debtors, or
property, and but few officers, it would not be obnoxious to
the constitutional objections which are urged against the
present bank; and having no means to operate on the hopes,
fears, or interests, of large masses of the community, it would
be shorn of the influence which makes that bank formidable. The
states would be strengthened by having in their hands the means
of furnishing the local paper currency through their own banks;
while the bank of the United States, though issuing no paper,
would check the issues of the state banks, by taking their
notes in deposit, and for exchange, only so long as they
continue to be redeemed with specie. In times of public
emergency, the capacities of such an institution might be
enlarged by legislative provisions.
"These suggestions are made, not so much as a recommendation,
as with a view of calling the attention of congress to the
possible modifications of a system, which cannot continue to
exist in its present form without occasional collisions with
the local authorities, and perpetual apprehensions and
discontent on the part of the states and the people."
When the president's views, as here disclosed, are analyzed, they seem
to involve the following propositions, to each of which we will give a
separate consideration.