has taken the station of a bank
of Pennsylvania only. This is a strong argument for a new institution,
or for a renovation of the old, to restore it to the situation in which
it originally stood in the view of the United States. But--there may be
room to allege that the Government of the United States ought not, in
point of candor or equity, to establish any rival or interfering
institution in prejudice of the one already established, especially as
this has, from services rendered, well-founded claims to protection and
regard.

"The justice of this observation ought, within proper bounds, to be
admitted. A new establishment of the sort ought not to be made without
cogent and sincere reasons of public good. And in the manner of doing it
every facility should be given to a consolidation of the old with the
new, upon terms not injurious to the parties concerned. But there is no
ground to maintain that in a case in which the Government has made no
condition restricting its authority, it ought voluntarily to restrict
it, through regard to the interests of a particular institution, when
those of the State dictate a different course; especially, too, after
such circumstances have intervened as characterize the actual situation
of the Bank of North America.

"If the objections, which have been stated, to the constitution of the
Bank of North America are admitted to be well founded, they,
nevertheless, will not derogate from the merit of the main design, or of
the services which that bank has rendered, or of the benefits which it
has produced. The creation of such an institution, at the time it took
place, was a measure dictated by wisdom. Its utility has been amply
evinced by its fruits. American independence owes much to it.

"The Secretary begs leave to conclude with this general observation,
that if the Bank of North America shall come forward with any
propositions which have for their object the ingrafting upon that
institution the characteristics which shall appear to the Legislature
necessary to the due extent and safety of a national bank, there are, in
his judgment, weighty inducements to giving every reasonable facility to
the measure. Not only the pretensions of that institution, from its
original relation to the Government of the United States, and from the
services it has rendered, are such as to claim a disposition favorable
to it, if those who are interested in it are willing, on their part, to
place it on a fo