htful consequences. The thing cannot be done
without distress, bankruptcy, and ruin, to many. If the President had
seen any practical manner in which this change might be effected without
producing these consequences, he would have rendered infinite service to
the community by pointing it out. But he has pointed out nothing, he has
suggested nothing; he contents himself with saying, without giving any
reason, that, if the pressure be heavy, the fault will be the bank's. I
hope this is not merely an attempt to forestall opinion, and to throw on
the bank the responsibility of those evils which threaten the country,
for the sake of removing it from himself.

The responsibility justly lies with him, and there it ought to remain. A
great majority of the people are satisfied with the bank as it is, and
desirous that it should be continued. They wished no change. The
strength of this public sentiment has carried the bill through Congress,
against all the influence of the administration, and all the power of
organized party. But the President has undertaken, on his own
responsibility, to arrest the measure, by refusing his assent to the
bill. He is answerable for the consequences, therefore, which
necessarily follow the change which the expiration of the bank charter
may produce; and if these consequences shall prove disastrous, they can
fairly be ascribed to his policy only, and the policy of his
administration.

Although, Sir, I have spoken of the effects of this _veto_ in the
Western country, it has not been because I considered that part of the
United States exclusively affected by it. Some of the Atlantic States
may feel its consequences, perhaps, as sensibly as those of the West,
though not for the same reasons. The concern manifested by Pennsylvania
for the renewal of the charter shows her sense of the importance of the
bank to her own interest, and that of the nation. That great and
enterprising State has entered into an extensive system of internal
improvements, which necessarily makes heavy demands on her credit and
her resources; and by the sound and acceptable currency which the bank
affords, by the stability which it gives to private credit, and by
occasional advances, made in anticipation of her revenues, and in aid of
her great objects, she has found herself benefited, doubtless, in no
inconsiderable degree. Her legislature has instructed her Senators here
to advocate the renewal of the charter, at this session.