ne
would hesitate, from motives of delicacy, to offer a member shares in
a bank," said Root. This was Purdy's view also; but Thorn and German
thought such an offer had the "semblance of a corrupt influence," and
they made affidavits that Purdy had attempted to corrupt their votes.
According to these affidavits the Senator promised German fifty shares
of stock, with a profit of twenty dollars a share, and Thorn thirty
shares, with a profit of twenty-five dollars a share. Similar
affidavits were made by other members.

Erastus Root took exception to such transactions. "The Merchants' Bank
in 1805," he says, "had powerful opposition to encounter, and, of
course, made use of powerful means to accomplish the object. Then the
shares and the assurance became down-right corruption."[161] But it is
not easy to observe the difference between the methods of the State
Bank managers, which Root affirms "had not the least semblance of a
corrupt influence," and those of the Merchants' Bank, which he
pronounces "down-right corruption," except that the one was open
bribery and the other secret bribery. In either case, votes were
obtained by the promise of profits. It is likely the methods of the
Merchants' would have escaped notice, as did those of the State Bank,
had not Clinton, determined to beat it, complained of Purdy's bribery.
The latter resigned to escape expulsion, but the bank received its
charter. This aroused the public conscience, and in the following
winter the Legislature provided suitable punishment for the crime of
bribery.

[Footnote 161: Jabez D. Hammond, _Political History of New York_, Vol.
2. Appendix, p. 582.]

It was not until 1812 that any one had the hardihood to suggest
another bank. Then the Federalists sought a charter for the Bank of
America, with a capital of six millions, to be located in New York
City. The applicants proposed to pay the school fund four hundred
thousand dollars, the literature fund one hundred thousand, and the
State one hundred thousand, provided no other bank be chartered for
twenty years. In addition to this extravagant bonus, its managers
agreed to loan the State one million dollars at five per cent. for the
construction of canals, and one million to farmers at six per cent.
for the improvement of their real estate. This bold and liberal
proposal recalls John Law's South Sea Bubble of the century before;
for, although the Bank of America sought no monopoly and promised the
payme