national resources, strengthen the public
credit, aid the Treasury Department in its administration, and provide a
secure and sound circulating medium for the people. On December 13,
1790, he sent in to Congress a report on the subject of a national bank.
The Republican party, then in the minority, opposed the plan as
unconstitutional, on the ground that the power of creating banks or any
corporate body had not been expressly delegated to Congress, and was
therefore not possessed by it. Washington's cabinet was divided;
Jefferson opposing the measure as not within the implied powers, because
it was an expediency and not a paramount necessity. Later he used
stronger language, and denounced the institution as "one of the most
deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our
Constitution," nor did he ever abandon these views. There is the
authority of Mr. Gallatin for saying that Jefferson "died a decided
enemy to our banking system generally, and specially to a bank of the
United States." But Hamilton's views prevailed. Washington, who in the
weary years of war had seen the imperative necessity of some national
organization of the finances, after mature deliberation approved the
plan, and on February 25, 1791, the Bank of the United States was
incorporated. The capital stock was limited to twenty-five thousand
shares of four hundred dollars each, or ten millions of dollars, payable
one fourth in gold and silver, and three fourths in public securities
bearing an interest of six and three per cent. The stock was immediately
subscribed for, the government taking five thousand shares, two millions
of dollars, under the right reserved in the charter. The subscription of
the United States was paid in ten equal annual installments. A large
proportion of the stock was held abroad, and the shares soon rose above
par. By an act of March 2, 1791, the funded three per cents. were also
made receivable in payment of subscriptions to the bank, whence it has
been said that out of the funding system sprung the bank, as three
fourths of its capital consisted of public stocks. Authority was given
the bank to establish offices of discount and deposit within the United
States. The chief bank was placed in Philadelphia, and branches were
established in eight cities, with capitals in proportion to their
commercial importance.

In 1809 the stockholders of the Bank of the United States memorialized
the government for a renewal of