guard our national rights? To such embarrassments and to
such dangers will this Government be always exposed whilst it takes the
moneys raised for and necessary to the public service out of the hands
of its own officers and converts them into a mere right of action
against corporations intrusted with the possession of them. Nor can
such results be effectually guarded against in such a system without
investing the Executive with a control over the banks themselves,
whether State or national, that might with reason be objected to. Ours
is probably the only Government in the world that is liable in the
management of its fiscal concerns to occurrences like these.

But this imminent risk is not the only danger attendant on the surrender
of the public money to the custody and control of local corporations.
Though the object is aid to the Treasury, its effect may be to introduce
into the operations of the Government influences the most subtle,
founded on interests the most selfish.

The use by the banks, for their own benefit, of the money deposited with
them has received the sanction of the Government from the commencement
of this connection. The money received from the people, instead of
being kept till it is needed for their use, is, in consequence of this
authority, a fund on which discounts are made for the profit of those
who happen to be owners of stock in the banks selected as depositories.
The supposed and often exaggerated advantages of such a boon will always
cause it to be sought for with avidity. I will not stop to consider
on whom the patronage incident to it is to be conferred. Whether the
selection and control be trusted to Congress or to the Executive, either
will be subjected to appeals made in every form which the sagacity of
interest can suggest. The banks under such a system are stimulated to
make the most of their fortunate acquisition; the deposits are treated
as an increase of capital; loans and circulation are rashly augmented,
and when the public exigencies require a return it is attended with
embarrassments not provided for nor foreseen. Thus banks that thought
themselves most fortunate when the public funds were received find
themselves most embarrassed when the season of payment suddenly arrives.

Unfortunately, too, the evils of the system are not limited to the
banks. It stimulates a general rashness of enterprise and aggravates the
fluctuations of commerce and the currency. This result was stri