Constitution, any means may be employed which are appropriate and not prohibited. It remained uncertain whether the operations of discount and deposit were included under the affirmation of this decision. In Osborn vs. the Bank of the United States,[1] this point was discussed, and it was held that, although it was only as an aid to the national fiscus that a national bank was constitutional, yet it might be a true bank, adopted and used for this purpose, and hence endowed with the power of banking, and protected in the same. Kentucky and Ohio levied taxes on the branches in those States[2] and Tennessee established a tax as a barrier to keep a branch out.[3] In joint resolutions of the Georgia Legislature, December 18, 1819, it was affirmed that the law of the State taxing banks applied to the Bank of the United States, but the Treasurer was directed to suspend the execution of the law as to that Bank for the present.[4]
In the spring of 1819 the exchanges rapidly grew worse, and so continued through the summer. The quotations at Baltimore in August were, in the local currency: Specie at a small premium; Boston, one or two discount; Massachusetts country banks, one to eight discount according to their repute in the city; Rhode Island and Connecticut, two to six discount; New Jersey, "specie paying," one or two discount; Philadelphia, par to a quarter premium; country notes, from one to sixty discount; "specie paying," one to five discount; Delaware, "specie paying," one discount; the rest eight to fifty; Maryland country notes, "specie paying," three to six discount; others, twelve to forty; District of Columbia, one discount; old banks of Virginia, one and a half to two discount; Bank of the Valley, two and a half to three; unchartered, seven and a half to twenty-five; North Carolina, twenty to twenty-five discount, nominal; South Carolina, eight to ten discount; Georgia, seven to eight discount; old banks of Tennessee and Kentucky, fifteen discount, nominal; new ones, twenty to twenty-five; Ohio, the best, ten discount, generally fifteen to twenty, many forty to fifty; the rest of the Mississippi Valley, fifteen to sixty discount.[5]
Adams' notes in his Diary, June 10, 1819, a conversation with Crawford about the "operations of the Bank and the gigantic frauds practicing upon the people by means of these institutions. The banks are breaking all over the country; some in a sneaking, and some in an impudent manner; some with sophisticating evasion and others with the front of highwaymen. * * * * Crawford has labors and perils enough before him in the management of the finances for the three succeeding years."[6] This prediction was soon amply fulfilled. The Secretary of the Treasury was drawn into most serious difficulty by attempting to exercise those powers of supervision of banks and
- ↑ 9 Wheaton, 860. See p. 154.
- ↑ See pages 109, 153.
- ↑ See page 146.
- ↑ An act of South Carolina, December 18, 1830, laying a tax of one per cent. on the dlvidend of the Bank of the United States and all other banks, not chartered by the State, was sustained by the State Supreme Court. (a Bailey, 654.)
- ↑ 16 Niles, 434.
- ↑ 4 Adams' Diary, 391.
