The truth is, Mr. President, that if the general object, the
subject-matter, properly belong to Congress, all its incidents belong to
Congress also. If Congress is to establish post-offices and post-roads,
it may, for that end, adopt one set of regulations or another; and
either would be constitutional. So the details of one bank are as
constitutional as those of another, if they are confined fairly and
honestly to the purpose of organizing the institution, and rendering it
useful. One _bank_ is as constitutional as another _bank_. If Congress
possesses the power to make a bank, it possesses the power to make it
efficient, and competent to produce the good expected from it. It may
clothe it with all such power and privileges, not otherwise inconsistent
with the Constitution, as may be necessary, in its own judgment, to make
it what government deems it should be. It may confer on it such
immunities as may induce individuals to become stockholders, and to
furnish the capital; and since the extent of these immunities and
privileges is matter of discretion, and matter of opinion, Congress only
can decide it, because Congress alone can frame or grant the charter. A
charter, thus granted to individuals, becomes a contract with them, upon
their compliance with its terms. The bank becomes an agent, bound to
perform certain duties, and entitled to certain stipulated rights and
privileges, in compensation for the proper discharge of these duties;
and all these stipulations, so long as they are appropriate to the
object professed, and not repugnant to any other constitutional
injunction, are entirely within the competency of Congress. And yet,
Sir, the message of the President toils through all the commonplace
topics of monopoly, the right of taxation, the suffering of the poor,
and the arrogance of the rich, with as much painful effort, as if one,
or another, or all of them, had something to do with the constitutional
question.

What is called the "monopoly" is made the subject of repeated rehearsal,
in terms of special complaint. By this "monopoly," I suppose, is
understood the restriction contained in the charter, that Congress shall
not, during the twenty years, create another bank. Now, Sir, let me ask,
Who would think of creating a bank, inviting stockholders into it, with
large investments, imposing upon it heavy duties, as connected with the
government, receiving some millions of dollars as a _bonus_ or premium,
and ye