d in securing to the community that abundant supply
of the precious metals which adds so much to their prosperity and gives
such increased stability to all their dealings.

In a country so commercial as ours banks in some form will probably
always exist, but this serves only to render it the more incumbent on
us, notwithstanding the discouragements of the past, to strive in our
respective stations to mitigate the evils they produce; to take from
them as rapidly as the obligations of public faith and a careful
consideration of the immediate interests of the community will permit
the unjust character of monopolies; to check, so far as may be
practicable, by prudent legislation those temptations of interest and
those opportunities for their dangerous indulgence which beset them on
every side, and to confine them strictly to the performance of their
paramount duty--that of aiding the operations of commerce rather than
consulting their own exclusive advantage. These and other salutary
reforms may, it is believed, be accomplished without the violation of
any of the great principles of the social compact, the observance of
which is indispensable to its existence, or interfering in any way with
the useful and profitable employment of real capital.

Institutions so framed have existed and still exist elsewhere, giving
to commercial intercourse all necessary facilities without inflating or
depreciating the currency or stimulating speculation. Thus accomplishing
their legitimate ends, they have gained the surest guaranty for their
protection and encouragement in the good will of the community. Among
a people so just as ours the same results could not fail to attend a
similar course. The direct supervision of the banks belongs, from the
nature of our Government, to the States who authorize them. It is to
their legislatures that the people must mainly look for action on that
subject. But as the conduct of the Federal Government in the management
of its revenue has also a powerful, though less immediate, influence
upon them, it becomes our duty to see that a proper direction is given
to it. While the keeping of the public revenue in a separate and
independent treasury and of collecting it in gold and silver will have
a salutary influence on the system of paper credit with which all banks
are connected, and thus aid those that are sound and well managed, it
will at the same time sensibly check such as are otherwise by at once
withhol