The Works of John C. Calhoun Volume 2 by John C. Calhoun

Author:John C. Calhoun [Calhoun, John C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Politikwissenschaft
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2018-02-28T23:00:00+00:00

The Secretary has brought forward many and grievous charges against the Bank. I will not condescend to notice them—it is the conduct of the Secretary, and not that of the Bank, which is immediately under examination; and he has no right to drag the conduct of the Bank into the issue, beyond its operations in regard to the deposits. To that extent I am prepared to examine his allegations against it, but beyond that he has no right—no, not the least—to arraign the conduct of the Bank; and I, for one, will not, by noticing his charges beyond that point, sanction his authority to call its conduct in question. But let the point in issue be determined, and I, as far as my voice extends, will give to those who desire it, the means of the freest and most unlimited inquiry into its conduct. I am no partisan of the Bank—I am connected with it in no way, by moneyed or political ties. I might say, with truth, that the Bank owes as much to me as any other individual in the country; and I might even add, that had it not been for my efforts, it would not have been chartered. Standing in this relation to the institution, a high sense of delicacy—a regard to independence and character—has restrained me from any connection with the institution whatever, except some trifling accommodations in the way of ordinary business, which were not of the slightest importance either to the Bank or myself.

But while I shall not condescend to notice the charges of the Secretary against the Bank, beyond the extent which I have stated, a sense of duty to the institution, and regard to the part which I took in its creation, compels me to notice two allegations against it which have fallen from another quarter. It is said that the Bank had no agency, or at least efficient agency, in the restoration of specie payments in 1817, and that it had failed to furnish the country with a uniform and sound currency, as had been promised at its creation.

Both of these allegations I pronounce to be without just foundation. To enter into a minute examination of them would carry me too far from the subject, and I must content myself with saying that, having been on the political stage, without interruption, from that day to this—having been an attentive observer of the question of the currency throughout the whole period—the Bank has been an indispensable agent in the restoration of specie payments; that, without it, the restoration could not have been effected short of the utter prostration of all the moneyed institutions of the country, and an entire depreciation of bank paper; and that it has not only restored specie payments, but has given a currency far more uniform between the extremes of the country than was anticipated, or even dreamed of, at the time of its creation. I will say for myself, that I did not believe at the

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