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THE TCEPUBLTVJW.
MONDAY BYEWIKG.'Jmwmt 35, 1819.
.{■mi tt>« return* received-it the executive de
pt rixenvTjr tire vacancy in coiigrest, it teem*
that Judge Bun is elected, by s handsome majo-
• city.
The follow-g ger.Uemcn were elected, this diy,
by the city council, .port wardens for the year
1819, v»r.—
I T. V. Gear,
-I Jusern Davies.
A Ntsaais,
A'.!tiiiun,
1'. "at;.!;., jur.. |
.Jhnieriatoudci't city witch —Pens Since
L’oft-iv vup'~'v.itciv!ent'iaja»ir» Ui»ax.
The , it. I frilc Ugrticrr, of the 17lb instant,
8ay»—
lhe Senate did not sit yesterday.
i. -In the of /iefimeni'Uivet, shortly after
i the opening of the house, the report of the com
■ ' "nittce appointed to niventiyate tiie concerns of the
Uwilc of th: U ii’ed liutes was made; the reading
of which occupied a considerable time. [tVe
have c ntmtmced this report in this day’s Repuh
■Mca ij t)f this report, ami the documents ac-
c.moViyiug it, two. thousand five hundred copies
• were, ordered to be printed, and an order was
passed directing the clerk to expedite the print
ing of them. Soon after which, the house ad
journed.
Of this report we cliai! at present only say, that
if. carries with it internal evidence cf uncommon
industry and ample ability on the part of the com
nutlec. It appears, we were mistaken in suppos
in,; it unlikely that any legiilative act would grow
um of it. I ntie is so much likelihood of it, we
now find, that a hill is re..cried, embracing the
te vs of U e committee as to what is proper to be
done; which bill wa» tw,ce read.
V.'e have alto suggested, dut it was probable
there in got he some variance of opinion among
the members of the committee in regard to their
report In this respect it is at least possible we
were not mistaken. U is explicitly stated, in the
uondusioi. of the report, that the committee are
unanimous m regard to t ie correctness of the
clatemenls of the fact contained in it. Of the de
ductions from tiwse facts nothing is said; and ii
■s not a vioient presumption, that the report had
shat, in that ;iari.cuU?,ihc unanimous concurrence
v uf the committee.
It is nevertheless a document entitled to high
—spec'; from which v’e have so little disposition
to derugnte, that, although arrangements were
.TOde-to give to another paper the preference in
•he publication of it, we have thought it a com
pliment no more than due to our highly respecta
ble readers, to anticipate our usual day of publica
tion, so as to lay die report before Ihem as early
practicable. We have, therefore, issued this
pSper On Sunday, and no publication will of course
be expected from this office to-morn. \r.
Congress of the United States.
HOUSE or REPRESENTATIVES.
Saturday, January 16, 181.9.
TulaVTC O F TEE UX1LEO S TA TES.
Mr. Spurcui, from the committee appointed to
nvest.gale the proceedings of the ll tuk of the
United .Stains, marie the following report:—
The committee appointed to inspect the'books
and to evaminiiintn the proceedings of the Bank
of the United Slates, with directions :o report
thereon, and to report tv tv tlier the provisions of
its chaner have been violated or not, respect-
•fully report—
That, under the leave grunted by the house,
the C’mtnittee repaired to Philadelphia, and
there personally iospfcfrt! ?| le books of lhe bark;
Sl>d as a further meuns of examining its proceed-
iings, they interrogated, on oath, the president,
the cashier, all the directors of the bank whose
attendence could be ob!#iiiuI, and several of its
dltrki and ( dicers. Examinations also have been
made at the office at Ualnmore, at Richmond,
and at the city of Washington, in order to obtain:
specific information upon certain subjects on
which the hooks of the parent bank were ne
cessarily delicient- From these enquiries, con
ducted with great labor, and, the committee trust,
with great care, they have collected a mass of
information, which they uowstthmi; to the home
and which will ■ he referred to in the course of
this report. This information consists of tables,
statements, and extracts made hy the committee
from the books of the bank, or by them coinpar
ed with those books and verified; and of the testi
mony of witnesses, and of letters from the presi
dent of the institution.
The committee are aware, that from these
•sources of information various important infer
ences may be drawn, and upon them the most in
veresting opinions may be predicted; it has been
•.heir intention, however, to go no further than
was required by the resolution of the house; to
avoid speculative opinions on general subjects;
sard to confine themselves to what they deemed
•practical object* of inquiry, which they settled
among themselves previous to entering upon the
• investigation. These objects seemed to divide
themselves into tw o classes: those which related
to tlie'gencral management of the bank, and the
conduct of its officers; and those which were con
nected with the question of a violation of its
charter. As to the general management of the
, concerns of the institution—among the points of
inquiry which appeared to be most immediately
interesting, where those which related to the re
fusal of the batik and its offices to pay its notes
in specie at any other place tha.'. that where they
were made payable, and to the practice of selling
drafts on eath other.
Itappeers that the direetorr, of the bank, on its
first institution, and up to the 28 of August, 1818,
streniymsly endeavoured to redeem its notes at
all its offices, indiscriminately, north of the city
af Charleston. On the Vth day of January. 1817,
it commenced operations by discounting notes
on pledged stock, and to stockholders only, and
by the issue of its bills. The officer at the head
of the treasury department had repeatedly urged
the commencement of operations, with the lauda
ble view, as it appears, of hastening the redemp
tion, by the state 'banks, of their notes, in specie.
Vide fetters from the secretary of '.he treasury to
the president of the bank of the United Scutes,
lath August and the29th November, 1816, mark
ed 1. H.
Efforts or. the part of the treasury to induce
the local banks to that measure, appear to have
been abortive, until the bank of the United States
made certain propositions which induced nego
tiations between it and the state institutions,
which finally resulted in a compact contained
in the resolutions of the hoard of directors, of
the 3tst January, JS17. herewith mubmitted, and
marked III: and in order to exhibit how far the
bank complied with its compact, a statement of
•the loans and of notes issued, up to the 20th
.February, 1817, is submitted, marked IV r . Jt can
be necessary, only, to refer to the state of the.
paper currency of the country at this period
The notes of the state banks were variously de
preciated, some as much as 20 per cent, while
others were at a premium. The excessive issue
of paper by Hie local banka, bad caused an unna
tural and artificial depreciation of such paper,
which required only time, and moderate but
4teady reductions, to restore, not to an uniform
par, but to its true value. Under these circum
stance*, the bank of thy United States had, on
(the last day of February, 1817, (ride statement
marked V ) &8,8*Rji0d due to it from the state
bulks at Philadelphia, New-Vork and Baltimore.
With such a credit, constantly accumulating by
tbeCrsus fer of the treasury funds, and by the pay.
< rafnt of the second instalment m the notes of the
stale banks, it was in' the power of the U. States
tank to have coerced the local authorities into a
moderate and reachable reduction of their ciicu-
3etto£ notes. An attempt to do sa kfts made by
the compact, I1T; and, although the bank <1
the United States appears to have been anxious to
effect the object, it did -rot persevere in the tle-
sign. By iti subsequent sets, it improvider.tly af
forded * temptation, to the western banks parti
cularly, to extend their ci rculation of notes, by
insisting on its branches paying out their own
notes, in preference to thoi.e of the state bank-;
and on their delivering drafts on the eastern cities,
whenever it could be done, to prevent the remit
tance of their own notes. The branch notes, arid
the drafts issued in consequence of those instnic
tions, were swept away by the facility of remit
•ance thus unwarily given, as well as by the ordi
nary balance of trade. A vacuum in the circula.
tion was thus produced, which-could be supplied
only by the local notes, which were readily re
ceived by the offices of the bank of the U. States,
and were retained by them ss a funt. upon which
interest was charged to the state hanks. Tne let-
ter of the President, marked VI exhibits I lie
course pursued by the bank in this respect,
The bank of the United Slates received from t he
Treasury the notes of the local institutions, m
many cases ar special deposits, to be paid out in
sundar bills. From April, 3817, to this time, lhe
ament so received appears, from statement,VII, to
be Si 752 750. of which 87,041 continues on hand,
leaving 2,665,4 ,9 as the amount, voluntarily as
sumed by the bank of the United States. The
committee have not found any evidence of the
bank hiving attempted to oppress the state banks,
either by wanton demands of specie, or by the re
jection of their notes. Much complaint has in
deed existed, but in tile instances which ln,ve
come to the knowledge of the committee, the
state banks have been in the wrong, and some of
them at the westward have refused the must equi
table propositions of (lie bank, and have met its
demands for its just dues with complaints and re-
proaches It was not intended to trouble the house
with any of the various letters which have parsed
on that subject, but as the president of the bank
transmitted a letter from the office at Charleston,
exhibiting the conduct of the local banks in that
place, it is presented to the house marked VU1.
The committee are of opinion, that instead of
conducting with the alledged rigor towards the
state banks, the bank of the United States is lia
ble to the more serious cha rge of having increas
ed the amount of notea in circulation, by its ac
ceptance of them in those places, where it was
known they would rot be redeemed in specie, and
by making them, in the manner before mentioned,
the only circulating medium in that part of the
country. The forbearance of the bank, towards
the state banks, is vindicated on the ground of its
being the only means to induce the resumption of
spec e payment*. This effect, if really owing to
that cause, has been proved to be but temporary,
and experience .has shewn that, at the same time,
or soon after the refusal of the bank of the Unit ed
States to receive : he notes of its offices, many of
the state banks began to suspend and evade their
specie payments.
So long as the notes of each office were paya
ble at all the others, and the office issuing them
was not exclusively liable for their redemption,
the discounts at those places, against which there
was a balance rf trade, became larger in propor
tion to their indemnity against demands. As the
nolesofthe offices were rapidly carried ofT, the
payment of these discounts were necessarily made
in the notes of the local institutions; and thu9 it
was one inevitable effect of the old system to in
crease the debts of the state banks to the offices
of the bank of the United States at those places
The demands of the bank were suffered to accu
mulate improperly, instead of being gradually re
duced, as specie was required at other offices, and
in s nail quantities that would not have been felt.
Their reduction was not insisted upon sufficient,
ly early; and, when the bank began to call for
specie, its demands were so considerable as nut
only to expose the local banks, but the citizens in
(heir vicinity, generally, to very ssvere pressure.
By substituting the credit of individuals tor the
payment of the second instalment, which will be
iresentiy stated, instead of coin or notes of state
anks, the bank of the United States in a great
measure deprived itself cf the early and prompt
check which the possession of their notes would
have afforded, to the more extensive increase of
local paper. In July, 1817, the debts due from
the state banks are reduced to g3,972,000, while
the notes of the bank of the United States, in cir
culation, amounted to 554,754,000, by which it
might have been subjected to embarrassments ar
ising from ;lli calls of the local institutions. The
committee think it evident, from this resn't, that
the bank did not exercise, wi'h sufficient energy,
the power which it possessed, and might have re
tained, but rather afforded inducements to the
siate banks to extend the amount of their circu-
iiting notes, and thus increased one of the evils
it was intended to correct.
In answer to an enquiry addressed by
the committee on this subject to the pre
sident of the bank, they were furnished
with his views, and a letter from the office
at Boston, marked IX, ami were referred
to a report of the committee of directors
on the 28th of August, 1818, marked X.—
Those documents exhibit the reasons of
the bank for adopting the resolutions of
that date, by which the notes of the offices
were refused acceptance. In the letter
of the Boston office much stress is placed
upon the large accumulation of paper and
drafts at Boston, issued by the southern
and western offices. And this became an
important object of enquiry. The books
of the parent bank do not furnish informa
tion respecting the drafts made by, and
upon, the officers, excepting those which
wore made on it. And the committee
have not asceitained their amount, except
at the offices in Baltimore and this city.—
From the local situation of Baltimore, the
statements obtained at that office, marked
XI. XII. may be considered as furnishing
sufficient proof of the correctness of the
opinion expressed by the Boston office.—
To the office at Boston, its debt fluctuat
ed between 834,000, and S215,000, spitil
May last, since which it has been indebted
to Baltimore from g500 to 857.000. Its
debt to the office at New-Ymk has varied
from 8100,000 to gl,947,000, and until
October last, it has generally owed that
office more than g 1,500,000. At that
time tne New-York office was brought in
debt to Baltimore $97,278; its debt in
November fast was 810,948. The ex
planation of these extraordinary reducti-
on*of the Baltimorcdebtsisgiven from the
circumstances of treasury drafts on the
north being delivered directly to the Bal
timore office, or sent to it through the
office at this city; by a check on New-York
for more than a million, given by the pa
rent bank in payment of foreigu bills of
exchaoge, hereinafter mentioned. The
Baltimore debt to the parent bank has
varied from 1,500,000 to nine millions, and
has generally exceeded six millions.—
Notwithstanding their heavy debts to
New-York, Boston, and Philadelphia, the
drafts of the Baltimore office on those
places continued uninterrupted, and ex
cessive iu amount: that office was origin
ally supplied with notes to the amount of
8872,000, and had returned to it from
Philadelphia 81,697,000, in its notes, and
yet it is stated by the teller, that it never
had a sufficient quantity of notes to meet
its demands; that they did cot remaiu
twentyfour hours in the office, but were
no doobt. on a comparison of the state
ments referred to, connected with these
facts, that the drafts from Baltimore, giv
en for the proceeds of notes discounied,
were unwarrantably large, and much more
than the balance of trade required.
In a letter of the president, dated June
27, 1857, he observes, “lhe directors con
sidering (among other things mentioned)
the low state of the specie and individual
deporiles at your office, and the magni
tude of your discounts and those at this
bank, as well far Baltimore as this place,
and the very inadequate and dispropor
tinned amount of discounts to which the
office at New-York has been restricted in
consequence of the daily and extessiv'
drafts from your office and this bank,
which has become the subject of great
animadversion,” direct tligt the than
amount of discounts should not be exceed
ed- The same language is held in other
letters, (XII. XIV.) but it terminated in
unavailing remonstrances; the Baltimore
office continued its drafts and its dis
counts and drained the specie from tht
northern offices. And such was the want-
of firmness or of foresight in the p .rent
board, that after finding its repeated re
monstrances disregarded, it never remov
ed one of the offending directors, and - took
no effectual step to control them, until
the adoption of the general resolutions of
of August 26, 1818, forbidding the offices
to draw on each other. The effect of
these excessive drafts on the northern
offices was to compel the constant remit
tance of specie there, to cripple them in all
their opperations, to limit their discounts
to a trilling amount, to cause the revenue
paid there, and which would itself have
been a capital for business, to be drawn
southward, thu9 compelling them to deny
to the debtors of the government any in
dulgence or accommodation in their pay
ments; to bring these offices into debt with
the state banks, to produce a general de-.
prrssion of credit and a severe pressure
for money. Those places were, in fact,
made tributary to Baltimore; and all thsir
means and energies were required to sup-,
ply itsextravagant issues.
A sudden reduction of the ■Baltimore'
debt to the northern offices appears to have '
taken place in March ami April last, and ;
within a few months past those offices have
been brought ;n debt > if. This is ao
counted for by the c . ..it that office,by
saying that it arose prio. n,y f..,ti trea
sury drafts, and hi tiie sue of tortign bills
of exchange. Drafts were given, in som
instances, and to Considerable amount-
direct ly to Baltimore on the northern offi
ces, and, in other instances, such draft:
went through the office in this City. Iti:
not to be presumed that these drafts were
given by the treasury with a knowledge
of all the circumstances, or with a view to
draw the revenue collected at the north to
Baltimore, merely to aid that office in.pay
ing its debts. Yet such was the effect
and, although it enabled Baltimore do con
tinue its large discounts, it impoverished
the northern offices, and the cities where
they were established were made to feel
the pressure. The Baltimore debt to the
parent bank will be found to have regular
ly increased with the reduction of its debts
to the other offices, until it remitted 1,007,
000 dollarsin bills of exchange on London;
which remittance is connected, by the tes
timony of J. \V. M‘Cullor.h, esq- with the
negotiation explained in the letter of the
president, XV. The loan which resulted
from that negotiation was on pledge of
stock that had been pledged at Baltimore;
the bank assumed it and received the bills
of exchange, and paid for them, by giving
a check on the New York office for the
amount, at the time the Baltimore office
was indebted to the parent bank more than
six millions of dollars.
It might have been gupposed that the
pressure of the Baltimore office upon those
more north, was owing to its being pressed
by the southern and western offices. The
fact will however appear from the table
XI, that until September last it was in
debted to the office at Lexington, that the
debts of Cinciuatti, Chiliccthe and Louis
villeto it were small in amount, and that
the only office which has constantly owed
it is New Orleans, and that office not to a
large amount until lately.
From these tacts it would seem to result,
that the embarrassments of the bank of the
United States, in receiving the notes of all
its ofiices did notarise so much from the
fair atid ordinary balance of trade which
might have been calculated and provided
for, as from the excessive discounts gran
ted at some of the offices, particularly Bal
timore and Philadelphia, and the drafts
consequent upon those discounts which
were made upon the other offices. From
the correspondence of the bank with its
offices, it is obvious that this was the opin
ion of the directors and the officers; it is
distinctly assigned as one of the grounds
lor refusing the notes of the offices in the
report of the committee, X, and it is more
strongly urged in the letter of the Boston
office submitted and adopted by the presi
dent, IX, and is eloquently enforced in
several of his letters.
This committee is not prepared to say
that an uniformly equal currency could
have been maintained ander the mo«t aus
picious circumstances; they are inclined to
the opinion that sack an attempt would be
hopeless, but they consider its abandon
ment at the time as having been produced
by the causes before stated. Tne efforts
of the bank to meet the paymeut of its
notes at all its offices north of Charleston,
were certainly great and pai ticularly at
New York and Boston, a< will appear from
the resolutions marked XVI, and the ac
count of specie remitted XVII. The re
linquishment of the attempt was involun
tary and reluctant.
From the testimony of the cashier and
teller of the bank, tire teller of the bank o<
North America, and of the cashier ami
teller of the office at Baltimore, it wii;
appear-, very satisfactorily, that the con
duct of the'bank and that office in adopt-
xonstantlv remitted (o the north with the.ing the new system oTrefusing the notes offi those places weretoa very trifling amount,
drafts which it issued. And there can be the branches, was perfectly fair and equit-, it any. The committee enn see no reason
" ‘ able; that the bank and the Baltimore of-- to justify these premature efforts, to Aid
fice promptly paid and received all the the payment of the second instalment, be-
notes of the other offices which they had fore it fell due, and before the experiment
paid out previous to the change-of the sys- was made to ascertain how much could be
tern, whenever application was made fur paid in specie. Those oHurts do not ap-
the purpose, and that in no instance haw pear to have been very successful; for
they rt fused to do so. Injury probably j 839;085 dollars only were paid during tha
wts suffered hy those who had recerveil j month of Jauuary 1817, while 1,078,319
the depreciated note* in tha usual course j was paid after that period, the greatest
of business, but the committee cannot per- j proportion in May and June, as will ap-
ceive how the bank coulil have changed its i pear from an abstract prepared by the
svstem in any manner less in jurious to it-! committee, and now submitted marked
:it to the pnbli
self ami less inconveni
than that «! : .ch ••"is 5
From - 'I -;-tt . • :.'(•.
placed tr.e ti.tra :* the *:f.«■'-> • • ■ • .
footing with those of the local ba,.k.- i.
their vicinity, resulted a greater differenc-
in the exchange between the different parts
of the union. The offices at New-Orleans.
Savannah, and Charleston, had never been
included in the plan of equalizing the cur
rency. They had always been left to their
j..:. Uisrr a, in recciviu" o: refusing
the notes of the ot’.er offices. In May.
1817, the offices at C • eston and Savan
nail were authorized to draw on these at
the north, at a premium. In April, those
at Lexington and Cincinnati were author
ized to purchase bills on the eastern and
northern cities. In December, 1817, the
southern offices were authorized to draw
at a premium on tliose at the north. In
October and November, 1817, the western
offices were authorized to draw at a pre
mium on Philadelphia, and the offices
south of it; and it appears that the offices
at Lexington and Cincinnati, before Fe
bruary : 1818, were in the practice of draw
ing on 4he eastern citie9. These facts
show that the bank, and most of its offices,
sold drafts upon each other long bo-fnre
the adoption of the resolution of the 28th
August, 1818, refusing the notes of the of
fices; and establish that, while the bank
was attempting to equalize the currency
by the payment of its notes at ail its of
fices north ofCliarleston, it was at the
time selling drafts between those offices at
a premium. A system of domestic ex
change was adopted by the bank on the
18th July, 1817, marked XVIII. It con
tains some provisions which appear cx
ceptionable; but, as the plat! never was
acted upon, it is not deemed necessary to
notice them. It has been impracticable
lor the committee to ascertain the amount,
■<r the rates of the drafts, sold by and upon
tiie office-. On examination of the books:
of the parent bank, it appears that drafts
were sold by it on Charleston, New-Or-
leans, and Savannah, within a few days
of each other, at very different rates; on
one day at one per cent, and on another
day at five per cent, on the same office. It
would be in vain to attempt to account for
these fluctuations.
However dangerous to the community
may oe the power of selling drafts, in the
hands of au institution whose resources
may be adequate to the control of domes
tic exchange, according to its interest or
caprice, yet the coromitte cannot enter
tain a doubt that the bank possesses the
power. Excepting the fluctuations before
noticed, the rate of premium has not hith
erto been extortionate, in any instance
which has come to the knowledge of the
committee. The proceedings of lhe bank
and tls offices, and the reason and views
entertained by them, are exhibited in the
report XVIII, in the letter of the presi
dent, XIX, and in extracts from his cor
respondence, XX.
Various opinions are entertained on the
expediency of the bank’s selling itsdrafts.
While many suppose that it would con
sult its own dignity and interest, in re
fraining from the practice, and would re
ceive an equivalent for the loss of prem
ium in the confidence and support of the
commercial community, by delivering its
drafts gratuitously, when it was conven
ient to draw at all; others contend that the
system of gratuitous drafts would open an
avenue' to favoritism, and at all events,
would expose the bank to the charge in a
greater degree than if it sold its drafts.—
Without expressing any opinion upon
these subjects upon which the community
is much divided, and to which the atten
tion of the committee has not been partic
ularly directed, they content themselves
with observing, that, if, drafts are sold,
they ought to be at fixed, known, and per
manent prices, not exceeding the price of
transportation of specie, on the fair agio
of business: tne want of these fixed prices
in the bank and its offices, appears to your
committee censurable.
Connected with the subject of exchange,
is that of dealing in the notes of the state
banks. In a letter of the president to the
Charleston office, whiclureceived the sanc
tion of the board of directors, marked
XXI. an opinion in favor of the legality
and propriety of such purchases is expres
sed. No evidence, however, has been ob
tained, that they have actually been made
The practice, in the opinion of the com
mittee, would be highly improper and dan
gerous, and contrary to the spirit, if nat
'the words, of the 9th fundamental article.
Among the resolutions of the directors,
are two on the subject of discounts on a
pledge of stock marked XXII and XXIII,
passed the 18th and 27th Dec. 1816. These
resolutions obviously contemplate only
discounts to the stockholders, and one
avowed object was to facilitate the pay
ment of the specie part of the second in
stalment, which was ten dollars on a share,
and to be paid by the 22d of Jauuary, 1817.
The ’.uaus were to be confined to the pro
portions of the coin part of the .second m-
talment, on the shares which had been
ubscribed at the places where offices
were.then in operation—New-Yoik, Bos
ton, and Baltimore. The total amount of
these loans to pay the specie part of the
said instalment on the 20th of February,
1817, at Philadelphia, was 8199,921 S7,
at Baltimore at that date, was 8138,320 00.
The committee have not obtained infor-
nation of the amount at New-York, and
Boston, but they are informed by the offi
cers of the bank, that the discounts at
XXIV.
T'ne amount paid by checks, also ap
pears from abstracts, the most, if not the
- iioie, <d wnicli were to draw the proceeds
, i notes discounted for the purpose. And
..•pears, that in many instances, par-
i.arly in one related in Mr. M’Eucn’t
testimony, hereinafter referred to, and ia
an other referred to in the president's Jot
ter of May 27th, 1817, merited XXV. that
the dircctuis did not confine themselves
to the amount prescribed in the resolution
of the 27th December, that is to the pto-
p ; rLi.).i of the coin part of the second in
stalment, but discounted to the fufl value
of the stock, which was paid for by the
proceeds of the same discounts; and the
discount, the payment of the second^ in
stalment, the payment of tiie price to the
owner, the transfer and the pledge of the
stock, were, as it is ternud, simultaneous
‘acts. All the discounts on stock, after
the 20th February, 1817, were made at the
par value of the shares, which enabled the
discounter cot only to pay the whole of hit
instalments, including the specie pa't and
the funded debt part, but also to draw out
of the bank the amount which might hare
been paid in on his shares. It is alledged
in justification of those discounts, that spe
cie bore a very high premium, and that
the bank could not have commenced bu
siness, unless that mode of detaining - tbe
specie payment had been adopted. With
respect to the price of specie, it appears
to have been 6 per cent, at Philadelphia,
on the Gth Jasuary, 1817, and aboot the
same price at Baltimore; and that it had
been much higher. Admitting,however,
that the price would have been much en
hanced, in consequence of its being under
stood that the coin payment on the socoad
instalment would be rigidly exacted, yet
the committee cannot perceive the justice
of enabling some of the stockholders to
evade that payment, and the consequent
loss of the premeum on specie, while the
majority had been compelled to incur the
same loss, in order, strictly to comply with
the law and their engagements; particu
larly unjust was it to those who resided
at such a distance from the bank that the*
could not avail themselves of the privilege
granted: And the injustice appears the
greater, when it is known, that the expense
of the specie afterwards imported by the
bank, in order to supply the deficiency
produced by the evasion it had authorise^
was assessed equally upon those stock
holders who had neglected to pay, upon
those who had already, at considerable
loss, furnished their quota of coin, and up
on the government. Seven millions was
the whole sum required to be paid in euin
—the specie part of the first instalment,
amounting to 1,400,000 dollars was paid:
of the 2,800,000, which was to have been
paid at the second instalment, it is impos
sible to say what amount was actually paid
it> coin.
The statement before referred to, mark
ed XXIV will shew the payments in coin
at Philadelphia; and abstract marked
XXVI will exhibitthe nominal payments
on all the instalments, of which 15,872,610
lollars was paid by the stockholders iu
funded debt, (exclusive of tire 7,000,000
subscribed by the government,) instead of
21,000,000 which were required by the
law; and 14,100,167 dollars was paid, as
stated in the abstract, in coin. But, in
that abstract, a check on the bank, or -on
other banks supposed to pay specie, is
desmed a^iayment in coin; and as the pay
ments on the second instalment continued
to be made and received for six ninths
and more, after it was due, and, as daring
thattime, large discounts on stock were
constantly made, it i9 obvious that the ab
stract cannot be relied on .19 exhibiting au
actual amount paid in specie. Nor, oa
the other hand, could the w hole amount of
the discounts on stock be considered as
having been applied to the payment of the
second instalment: By statement mark
ed (B) referred to in the cashier’s answer,
and by this committee marked XXVII it
appears that the discounts on the 30th Ju
ly, 1817, an pledged stock, amounted to
8,046,932 dollars; of that amount, a part
was applied to the payment of the third in
stalment, and a part drawn out of the
bank by the discounters. A large portion:
of it, is believed, however, to have been
used to pay the second instalment. Of the
2,800,000 dollars, which was to have been
paid at the third instalment, it is beSeved
that a very trifling amount was paid ia
coin, and as little of the funded debt, but
that nearly the whole of both wa3 paid by
the proceeds of notes discounted on the
pledge of 9tock. The total amount of spe
cie imported from Eurupe by the bank
since its institution to this time, appears,
by statement marked XXVII to be
7,311,750 53, the expense of which, in
cluding interest, premeum, and twenty
thousand dollars paid to the agent for
going to London, amounts to 525,297
28. The contract made for a part of
that specie, and the authority to Mr. Ser
geant, the agent, are submitted, marked
XXIX. XXX. To the reason urged by the
officers of the bank, that such was the scar
city of specie, that it could not have been
obtained, and that, without facilitating the
payments by making discounts, the bank
could not have gone into operation—-the i
committee observe that they are at a loss
to perceive how the simple act of discoun
ting could make the specie more plenty;
that, if it was not actually in the bank at.
the time of making those discounts, the
checks of Lhe discounters could not be con
sidered as equivalent to specie.