novices in political economy. If their citizens do
not want the money, they need not borrow it; and if they do, it is
better to find it at home, than to be dependant on New-York,
Philadelphia, or Boston, for it. In the state of Alabama, if we are to
believe the public prints, the United States Bank there has afforded
great and most seasonable aid to the state bank. Nor do we know of a
single state, in which there are any manifestations of popular
discontent with the bank, notwithstanding the pains taken by some of the
friends of the president to excite them.

Perhaps the apprehensions mentioned in the message may refer to the
state banks rather than the people; and the president has presumed,
that, as some of the states are interested in the stock of these
institutions, and as their interests may conflict with those of the Bank
of the United States, the people would be likely to side with their own
institutions. The presumption is far from being unfounded. The
sympathies of the people will always be with the states, rather than the
general government, when the two are in conflict--a fact of which
politicians are sufficiently apt to avail themselves. Thus, when the
present Bank of the United States first went into operation, fears were
entertained by the state banks and their friends, that the United States
Bank and its branches would prove troublesome and dangerous neighbours.
Their strength to oppress, and even crush, a rival, was supposed to be
in proportion to their capital; and, comparing them with things with
which they had no sort of analogy, it was argued, that a state bank, in
the neighbourhood of a branch of the national bank, would be not more
likely to thrive, than a delicate shrub under the shade of a spreading
oak, or to find safety, than a light armed brig under the battery of a
seventy-four. These arguments prevailed for a season in some of the
states; but at length the experiment was made, in spite of these gloomy
predictions, and it was found, as well it might be, that a small
capital, _if prudently managed_, is as independent of the attacks of a
rival, in banking, as in any other business. And why should there be a
difference? A tailor or shoemaker who employs but two or three
journeymen, may do as safe, though not so profitable a business, as he
who employs twenty or thirty--in the same way as a small vessel may
navigate the ocean as safely as a large one, and may be even less likely
to overset in a s