nd
sent to the President for his approval.

Washington was so beset with doubts as to the constitutionality of the
bank bill that he asked his secretaries and the Attorney-General to
express their opinions. Jefferson argued that the power to incorporate a
bank was not given by the Constitution to Congress, for it was not among
the enumerated powers and it was not a power which belonged to any of
the enumerated powers as indispensably necessary to their exercise.
Hamilton deprecated this attempt to confine the general Government
either to powers expressly granted or to powers absolutely necessary to
carry out the enumerated powers. There was another class, he contended,
which might be termed "resulting" powers. If the end to be gained by a
measure was comprehended within the specified powers, and the measure
was obviously a means to that end and not forbidden by the Constitution,
then it was clearly within the compass of the national authority.
Washington finally yielded to Hamilton's persuasions, and signed the
bill.

The charter of the bank fixed the capital stock at ten million dollars,
of which the Government was to subscribe one fifth; the rest was open to
public subscription. Three fourths of the public subscriptions might be
paid in bonds of the Government. The notes issued by the bank were made
receivable for all payments to the United States. The bank was to be the
repository of the government funds. Its management was committed to a
board of twenty-five directors chosen annually, who could establish
branch banks as they deemed advisable. The charter was to run for twenty
years.

The stock of the bank was not only subscribed at once, but soon sold at
a premium which invited the wildest sort of speculation in Philadelphia,
New York, and Boston. Stock-jobbing became a mania. "The coffee house is
in an eternal buzz with the gamblers," Madison wrote from the seat of
government. Sinister aspects of this speculative craze soon began to
appear. "Of all the shameful circumstances of this business," said
Madison, "it is among the greatest to see the members of the Legislature
who were most active in pushing this job openly grasping its
emoluments." It was reported that Schuyler, Hamilton's father-in-law,
was to head the board of directors.

As the wide reach of Hamilton's financial policy became clear, men like
Madison, whose sympathies had hitherto been enlisted on the side of more
efficient government, had grave m