not to go to the other extreme,
and so fetter the constituted authorities of the nation, by a spirit of
interpretation which will deprive them of all salutary power, except by
usurping it. Let us not lose sight of "the expedient," in discussing
"the right;" but rather, as the common sense of mankind dictates in
ordinary cases of conscience or morality, be liberal in construing the
constitution, when its power is to be used for the good of the people,
and captious and astute only when its exercise may be pernicious.

On these grounds, we earnestly beseech those who are friendly to our
political institutions--who believe that no other than the complex
government we have adopted can unite the adaptation of laws to local
circumstances with the strength and security of a great empire, to
discountenance the pestilent and absurd doctrine that the constitution
is to be on all points forever unsettled. We beseech them to save this
monument of our country's wisdom--this instrument of its safety, its
liberty, and its future greatness, from the peril and reproach to which
it is thus exposed. It is in their power to protect it from an evil
which would convert a government intended to secure domestic peace, into
one of perpetual civil strife, and which would confide the destinies of
the country to sophists, and quibblers, and casuists--or rather to those
political managers who would use them as tools to persuade the people
that a good measure was unconstitutional, that they might pursue a bad
one with impunity.

2. The next objection is, that the bank possesses a "formidable"
influence on the community. It must be admitted, that this complaint of
bank influence is not now brought forward for the first time. It was a
favourite theme of the demagogue, from the time the first Bank of the
United States was established, until its charter expired, when it
appeared that its influence was not equal to its own preservation.

If, indeed, no other corporation had the right to issue notes of
circulation, then the power of enlarging or contracting the common
currency at pleasure would be a very great one--greater than ought to be
put into the hands of any others than persons chosen by the people, or
their representatives, and responsible to them. But as the bank and its
offices are every where surrounded by competitors, some of which have a
yet larger capital than themselves, they have no such exclusive control
over the amount of money in circ