the act proposes to sell for three millions,
payable in fifteen annual installments of $200,000 each.

It is not conceivable how the present stockholders can have any claim to
the special favor of the Government. The present corporation has enjoyed
its monopoly during the period stipulated in the original contract. If
we must have such a corporation, why should not the Government sell out
the whole stock and thus secure to the people the full market value of
the privileges granted? Why should not Congress create and sell
twenty-eight millions of stock, incorporating the purchasers with all
the powers and privileges secured in this act and putting the premium
upon the sales into the Treasury?

But this act does not permit competition in the purchase of this
monopoly. It seems to be predicated on the erroneous idea that the
present stockholders have a prescriptive right not only to the favor but
to the bounty of Government. It appears that more than a fourth part of
the stock is held by foreigners and the residue is held by a few hundred
of our own citizens, chiefly of the richest class. For their benefit
does this act exclude the whole American people from competition in the
purchase of this monopoly and dispose of it for many millions less than
it is worth. This seems the less excusable because some of our citizens
not now stockholders petitioned that the door of competition might be
opened, and offered to take a charter on terms much more favorable to
the Government and country.

But this proposition, although made by men whose aggregate wealth is
believed to be equal to all the private stock in the existing bank, has
been set aside, and the bounty of our Government is proposed to be again
bestowed on the few who have been fortunate enough to secure the stock
and at this moment wield the power of the existing institution. I can
not perceive the justice or policy of this course. If our Government
must sell monopolies, it would seem to be its duty to take nothing less
than their full value, and if gratuities must be made once in fifteen or
twenty years let them not be bestowed on the subjects of a foreign
government nor upon a designated and favored class of men in our own
country. It is but justice and good policy, as far as the nature of the
case will admit, to confine our favors to our own fellow citizens, and
let each in his turn enjoy an opportunity to profit by our bounty. In
the bearings of the act before me up