specie or the notes of specie paying banks; to receive deposits of specie to an amount not exceeding $15 millions and give certificates of deposit redeemable only where issued, with interest at one-half of one per cent.; to make no local discount; one branch may sell drafts on another at a premium never exceeding the cost of transporting specie and never exceeding two per cent.; such drafts on places distant 500 miles or less to be for no longer time than 30 days from date, on places distant over 500 miles, not longer than 30 days from sight; drafts to be discounted at not over six per cent.; no branch is to deal in bills of exchange or accept deposits in any State if the State forbids it; to make settlements with neighboring banks weekly; all dues of the United States to be paid in specie, notes of this bank or notes of specie paying banks immediately convertible where received; the amount of specie on hand at each branch to be always equal to one-third of the amount of its issues; the note issue to be $15 millions; the resources of the bank to consist of government bonds, of which the head bank at Washington may issue not more than $5 millions at five per cent.; a contingent fund of $2 millions to be formed from the profits, after which the profits to go to the Treasury; the accounts of the government and of individuals to be kept in separate books; its own officers to have no dealings with it on their private account; to report to Congress at the beginning of each session; defalcations by the officers are felonies to be punished by fine and imprisonment; it may appoint State banks as its agents; suits to be in the name of the United States; it is to be a corporation with five commissioners constituting a Board, two being ex-officio, as above stated, the other three holding office for six years with a vacancy every two years and irremovable except "for physical inability, incompetency, or neglect or violation of duties;" the officers of the branches to be irremovable without limit of time, "except for physical inability or incompetency, or neglect or violation of duty;" the bank may be dissolved by the concurrent action of the President, the House, and the Senate. This scheme was called the "Exchequer." It was clearly a long advance towards a mere Issue Department of the Treasury. The whigs had said of the proposed banks of 1841 that they offered no inducements to capitalists, which would cause the capital to be subscribed. This one called for no subscriptions, but, for that reason, it had no interest for those who wanted a bank as a business enterprise and chance of profitable investment. It therefore never received serious attention, although it was made a text for long speeches in the party warfare.
Although the whigs had fought fiercely in 1841 for almost any kind of a national bank, yet in 1842 they nearly all agreed with Webster that a Bank of the United States, founded on a private subscription, was an "obsolete idea."[1] Perhaps the "unkindest cut of all" was that the Whig Almanac for 1843 called "Nick Biddle a rascal" and spoke of his Bank as one which was "corruptly managed."
- ↑ 1 Webster's Works, 135.
