ew bank, and for vindicating
the rights of the Government and compelling a speedy and honest
settlement with all the creditors of the old bank, public and private,
or whether the subject shall be left to the power now possessed by the
Executive and judiciary. It remains to be seen whether the persons
who as managers of the old bank undertook to control the Government,
retained the public dividends, shut their doors upon a committee of
the House of Representatives, and filled the country with panic to
accomplish their own sinister objects may now as managers of a new bank
continue with impunity to flood the country with a spurious currency,
use the seven millions of Government stock for their own profit, and
refuse to the United States all information as to the present condition
of their own property and the prospect of recovering it into their
own possession.

The lessons taught by the Bank of the United States can not well be lost
upon the American people. They will take care never again to place so
tremendous a power in irresponsible hands, and it will be fortunate if
they seriously consider the consequences which are likely to result on a
smaller scale from the facility with which corporate powers are granted
by their State governments.

It is believed that the law of the last session regulating the deposit
banks operates onerously and unjustly upon them in many respects, and
it is hoped that Congress, on proper representations, will adopt the
modifications which are necessary to prevent this consequence.

The report of the Secretary of War _ad interim_ and the accompanying
documents, all which are herewith laid before you, will give you a full
view of the diversified and important operations of that Department
during the past year.

The military movements rendered necessary by the aggressions of the
hostile portions of the Seminole and Creek tribes of Indians, and by
other circumstances, have required the active employment of nearly our
whole regular force, including the Marine Corps, and of large bodies of
militia and volunteers. With all these events so far as they were known
at the seat of Government before the termination of your last session
you are already acquainted, and it is therefore only needful in this
place to lay before you a brief summary of what has since occurred.

The war with the Seminoles during the summer was on our part chiefly
confined to the protection of our frontier settlements from th