time
this act is intended to take effect twenty years. It enjoys an exclusive
privilege of banking under the authority of the General Government, a
monopoly of its favor and support, and, as a necessary consequence,
almost a monopoly of the foreign and domestic exchange. The powers,
privileges, and favors bestowed upon it in the original charter, by
increasing the value of the stock far above its par value, operated as a
gratuity of many millions to the stockholders.

An apology may be found for the failure to guard against this result in
the consideration that the effect of the original act of incorporation
could not be certainly foreseen at the time of its passage. The act
before me proposes another gratuity to the holders of the same stock,
and in many cases to the same men, of at least seven millions more. This
donation finds no apology in any uncertainty as to the effect of the
act. On all hands it is conceded that its passage will increase at least
20 or 30 per cent more the market price of the stock, subject to the
payment of the annuity of $200,000 per year secured by the act, thus
adding in a moment one-fourth to its par value. It is not our own
citizens only who are to receive the bounty of our Government. More than
eight millions of the stock of this bank are held by foreigners. By this
act the American Republic proposes virtually to make them a present of
some millions of dollars. For these gratuities to foreigners and to some
of our own opulent citizens the act secures no equivalent whatever. They
are the certain gains of the present stockholders under the operation of
this act, after making full allowance for the payment of the bonus.

Every monopoly and all exclusive privileges are granted at the expense
of the public, which ought to receive a fair equivalent. The many
millions which this act proposes to bestow on the stockholders of the
existing bank must come directly or indirectly out of the earnings of
the American people. It is due to them, therefore, if their Government
sell monopolies and exclusive privileges, that they should at least
exact for them as much as they are worth in open market. The value of
the monopoly in this case may be correctly ascertained. The twenty-eight
millions of stock would probably be at an advance of 50 per cent, and
command in market at least $42,000,000, subject to the payment of the
present bonus. The present value of the monopoly, therefore, is
$17,000,000, and this