ilton made no secret of his design so closely to attach the wealthy
men of the country to the central Government that they must stand or
fall with it, coming to its rescue in every crisis; and time has
vindicated his far-sighted policy. But when the National Bank was in the
preliminary stages of its journey, certain of its hosts in Congress saw
but another horrid menace to the liberties of the people, another step
toward the final establishment of a monarchy after the British pattern.
The old arguments of subservience to British institutions in the matter
of funding, and other successful pets of the Secretary, were dragged
forth and wrangled over, in connection with this new and doubly
pernicious measure of a National Bank.

Hamilton recommended that a number of subscribers should be incorporated
into a bank, to be known as the Bank of the United States; the capital
to be ten million dollars; the number of shares twenty-five thousand;
the par value of each share four hundred dollars; the Government to
become a subscriber to the amount of two millions, and to require in
return a loan of an equal sum, payable in ten yearly instalments of two
hundred thousand dollars each. The rest of the capital stock would be
open to the public, to be paid for, one-quarter in gold and silver, and
three-quarters in the six or three per cent certificates of the national
debt. The life of the bank was to end in 1811. As an inducement for
prompt subscriptions a pledge would be given that for twenty years to
come Congress would incorporate no other.

It is odd reading for us, with a bank in every street, not only those
old diatribes in Congress against banks of all sorts, but Hamilton's
elaborate arguments in favour of banks in general, the benefits and
conveniences they confer upon individuals as well as nations. But in
those days there were but three banks in the Union, and each had been
established against violent opposition, Hamilton, in particular, having
carried the Bank of New York through by unremitting personal effort. The
average man preferred his stocking. Representatives from backwoods
districts were used to such circulating mediums as military warrants,
guard certificates, horses, cattle, cow-bells, land, and whiskey. They
looked askance at a bank as a sort of whirlpool into which wealth would
disappear, and bolt out at the bottom into the pockets of a few
individuals who understood what was beyond the average intellect. But by