The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. IX, Part 91

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870
Publication date: 1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ;
Number of Pages: 440

USA > Pennsylvania > The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. IX > Part 91

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[MAY

The capital invested in coal lands will amount

to $5,000,000

In buildings,

2,500,000

In rail-roads,

8,000,000

In rail-road cars,

75,000

In canal boats and horses,

165,000

$8,540,000

The cost of the construction of canals within and without the state of Pennsylvania expressly to serve as means of transporting her mineral to market, may be computed at TWENTY-FOUR MILLION OF DOLLARS! inclu- ding the Schuylkill Navigation, Lehigh Coal and Navi- gation Company's works, Delaware and Hudson canal and rail-road, Morris canal, and the Pennsylvania canals, making an aggregate amount of funds embarked in the prosperity of the Coal Trade, of 32,540,000 dollars! without calculating the capital invested in the Lehigh, Lackawana and Susquehanna regions.

The saving in the price of fuel in the different cities since the introduction of anthracite, has been estimated by competent individuals, at six millions of dollars annu- ally.

A report made by an intelligent gentleman, to the American System Convention, lately held at New York, expresses the belief that in ten years hence, the Coal Trade will employ TEN THOUSAND VESSELS in the coasting trade. This must be understood as involving the sup- position that the coal trade will be left to its regular and natural course of development. It will be recol- lected that more than 1200 vessels were employed du- ring the past year, in the business of transportation.

We are under the impression that the public abroad will be enabled to form some tolerable conclusions as to the value and importance of the coal trade, with the collateral improvements created and sustained by it, from the foregoing remarks and representations. This view of the liberal enterprize and industry of those who have identified their fortunes with the success of domes- tic coal operations, isrendered necessary by the present crisis. We would moreover state THAT NOT AN INDI- DIDUAL MINER ENGAGED IN THE DUSINESS SINCE ITS COMMENCEMENT, HAS REALIZED A CENT OF PROFIT !- nor have any of the canal companies ever declared a dividend out of their profils, except the Schuylkill Navigation Com- pany.

It is proposed to impose an ad valorem duty of 15 per centum on all importations of foreign coal. The price of coal delivered on board of a vessel at New Castle, in 1829, was $3 10 per chaldron. The proposed duty would be about 46 cents per chaldron. The pre- sent duty is $2 16 per chaldron, and the reduction would consequently be equal to $1 70. The scarcity of coal during the rigors of last winter was a subject of general complaint, and occasioned much suffering among poorer classes in the northern cities. The efforts which are now making to guard against the calamitous effects of future scarcity, are on a more extended scale -more vigorously prosecuted-and will no doubt be fully successful if unmolested by unwise and impolitic legislation. But, on the other hand, if the contemplat- ed measure is allowed to take effect, a total prostration of the domestic coal trade must inevitably follow. 17 THERE WILL BE ANOTHER AND A GREATER SCARCI- TY. DO They who are now so active in contributing supplies of the article, will be compelled to abandon their undertaking and seek other employment. Deso- lation and misery stare them in the face-their hopes of remuneration must be at once crushed-the only fruit of their early sacrifices and their former privations inci- dent to the settlement of a solitary wilderness, will be the consciousness of having labored in vain .- Miner's Journal.

DOMESTIC SUGAR.

At this office, may be seen a beautiful specimen of Sugar, made from the sap of the sugar maple, by Mr.

B. RYNEARSON, of Muncy Creek township. It has been pronounced hy judges, no wise inferior to the best im- ported sugar. Mr. R. has kindly offered to furnish us with a description of the process by which this article was made, which we shall be pleased to lay before our read- ers, as soon as it is received .- Muncy Tel.

THE REGISTER.

MAY 19, 1832.

Much of the present number is occupied, (to the ex- clusion of the usual variety, ) with the very interesting subject of the Bank of the United States. When the examination of the president was placed in the hands of the printer, it was not expected that the report of the minority would have arrived so soon-unwilling there- fore, to postpone the latter, we have placed both in our present number. They are well entitled to a perusal and preservation. The replies of the president, furnish much information on the subject of banking, indepen- dent of their immediate relation to the institution over which he presides. The remainder of them will follow hereafter. We have now on file the report of JOHN Q. ADAMS, which will appear in our next number.

On Wednesday, the subscription books for the Gi- rard Bank were opened at the Masonic Hall, and con- tinued for three days. A scene of confusion and riot at- tended this operation altogether disgraceful to our city. It is high time, that some other mode was devised for conducting business of this kind; which, while it should afford a fair opportunity to all citizens to subscribe, would not endanger their lives, nor disturb the tran- quility of the city.

The Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church- the State Convention of the Protestant Episcopal church-the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church-and the Synod of the Catholic church, are now, or have been during the week, in session in this ci- ty. It is estimated, that the members attending these different bodies, amount to 8 or 900-clergy and laity.

The proceedings of two or three meetings of Councils are on hand-which, though possessing more than usu- al importance, we are compelled, for want of room, to postpone. Plans have been submitted for the improve- ment of Water street, agreeably to the will of S. Girard; as also, for ornamenting Dock street, and the public ground at the Drawbridge. Indeed, the spirit of im- provement seems to be pervading our city-new build- ings rise in every part of it, with astonishing rapidity.

Connected with the proceedings of Councils, we would notice with satisfaction, their determination to SUBSCRIBE FOR THREE COMPLETE SETS OF THE REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Printed every SATURDAY MORNING by WILLIAM F. GED- DES, No. 9 Library Street. Philadelphia; where, and at the PUB- LICATION OFFICE, IN FRANKLIN PLACE, second door back of the Post Office, (front room) subscriptions will be thankfully re- ceived. Price FIVE DOLLARS per annum, payable annually by subscribers residing in or near ibe city, or where there is au agent. Other subscribers pay in advance.

HAZARD'S REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA

DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE.

EDITED BY SAMUEL IIAZARD.

VOL: IX .- NO. 21. PHILADELPHIA, MAY 26, 1832. NO. 230.

UNITED STATES BANK.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. MONDAY, May 14, 1832.

Mr. ADAMS, of the committee appointed on the 15th of March, 1832, to examine and report on the books and proceedings of the Bank of the United States, sub- mitted the following

REPORT:

The subscriber, one of the members of the committee appointed on the 15th of March last, to proceed to Philadelphia to inspect the books, and to examine the proceedings of the president and directors of the Bank of the United States, and report thereon-and particu- larly to report whether the charter of the bank has been violated or not, dissenting from the report agreed upon by the majority of the committee, deems it bis duty to submit to the House the considerations upon which his own conduct in the proceedings of the committee has been governed, and the conclusion to which they have brought his mind in relation to this subject.

It will be recollected by the House, that the appoint- ment of the committee was made upon a resolution of- fered by the subscriber as an amendment to a resolu- tion previously offered by the chairman of the commit- tee. The amended resolution adopted by the House was predicated on the principle avowed by the propo- ser of the amendment, that the original resolution pre- sented objects of inquiry, not authorized by the charter of the bank, nor within the legitimate powers of the House-particularly that it looked to investigations which must necessarily implicate not only the president and directors of the bank, and their proceedings, but the rights, the interests, the fortunes, and the reputa- tion of individuals, notresponsible for those proceedings, and whom neither the committee nor the House had the power to try, or even to accuse before any other tribunal. In the examination of the books and pro- ceedings of the bank, the pecuniary transactions of multitudes of individuals with it, must necessarily be dis- closed to the committee, and the proceedings of the president and directors of the banks, in relation therc- to, formed just and proper subject of inquiry-not, however, in the opinion of the subscriber to any extent, which would authorize them to criminate any individual other than the president, directors, and officers of the bank or its branches-nor them, otherwise than as form- ing part of their official proceedings. The subscriber believed that the authority of the committee, and of the House itself, did not extend, under color of examining into the books and proceedings of the bank, to scruti- nize, for animadversion or censurc, the religious or po- litical opinions, even of the president and directors of the bank-nor their domestic or family concerns-nor their private lives or characters-nor their moral, or po- litical, or pecuniary standing in society-still less could he believe the committee invested with a power to cm- brace in their sphere of investigation, researches so in- vidious and inquisitorial over multitudes of individuals having no connection with the bank other than that of dealing with them in their appropriate business of dis- counts, deposits, and exchange.

In these views he felt himself the more confirmed, because he perceived no other course of inquiry that could be pursued, without invading the sanctuary of pri- vate life, and committing outrage upon the most pre- cious of social rights. The transactions of the bank with their customers, are in the ordinary course of their business, highly confidential; an examination into them by strangers, so far as it implicates the individuals with whom the bank has dealings, bears all the exception- able and odious properties of general warrants and domi- ciliary visits. The principle of this protection to indi- vidual rights, is recognized in the charter of the bank itself and in its by-laws. By the fifteenth fundamental article of the charter, a limited power is given to the of- ficer at the head of the treasury department, to inspect the general accounts and books of the bank, with an express exception of the account of any individual, and in the by-laws of the bank, there is a provision that 110 stockholders shall be permitted to inspect any account of any person with the bank other than his own. The

· same restriction is not indeed applied to the authority given in the 23d section of the charter to the commit- tees of either House of Congress appointed to inspect the books, and examine the proceedings of the corporation; but that section neither gave nor could give powers of judicial authority to be exercised over any individual for purposes of crimination nr of trial. The committee are to inspect the books and examine the proceedings of the corporation, and to report thereon. But they are not authorized to examine or report upon the ac- counts or proceedings of individuals. The examina- tions by committees authorized by the charter, are from the context of the sections, evidently given as pre- liminary means, for bringing the corporation, in the event of mal-practice, on their part, real or suspected, before a judicial tribunal for trial-whenever a committee so ap- pointed, reports that the ebarter has been violated, the final action of Congress in the case is limited to the dis- cretionary power of directing that a scire facias should be sued out from the Circuit Court of the United States, for the district of Pennsylvania, requiring the corporation, to show cause why their charter should not be declared forfeited. But so justly and so wisely tender was the Congress which constituted the corpo- ration to reserve to the president and directors of the hank the enjoyment of their civil rights, that the same section that gives to Congress this control over them, expressly provides that for the trial of the facts at issue between them and the United States, upon the return of the scire facias, they shall be entitled to the benefit of a jury. The corporation, therefore, cannot ultimately suffer by deprivation of their rights, upon the unfavor- able report of any committee of Congress, nor even by the order of Congress itself, that a scire facias should be sued out. The protective shield of the constitution, trial by jury, is extended over them; the sacred trust of their franchises is expressly placed under the guardian- ship of that power conservative of all individual rights- the verdict of their peers.

In the present case, the resolution originally offered by the chairman of this committee, was avowedly pre- sented for another purpose-not with a view that the final action of the House upon the result of the exami- nation should be the direction that a scire facias should

VOL. IX.

322

UNITED STATES BANK.

[MAY

be sued out to give the corporation the benefit provided for them by the law itself, of a fair trial by jury, but that by ransacking all the books and proceedings of the cor- poration from its first organization to the present day, some latent fraud, looseness, or irregularity, might be detected in the proceedings of the president and di- rectors, present or past, of the company, which might be elaborated and wrought up into an argument against the renewal of the charter of the institution. This was the avowed purpose of a member claiming the right of being considered as a perfectly fair, cool, and impartial in- vestigator of those proceedings, and, at the same time, that if the result of them should be to exonerate from all blame the responsible officers of the company, theinqui- sitor should still be at liberty to vote and speak against the renewal of the charter upon the ground of constitutional scruples.

It was only by virtue of the 23d section of the act of incorporation of the bank, that the House possessed the power of appointing a committee with authority to ex- amine the books and proceedings of the corporation; and that section distinctly indicates the purposes for which this power was reserved. It was to furnish the means in the event of the commission of gross abuses on the part of the president and directors, to put them upon trial. The right of trying them is not reserved to the House itself-nor can it by the House be conferred up- on any committee. It belongs exclusively to the Judi- cial courts. It is a familiar argument to many expound- ers of the Constitution of the U. S. that no power grant- ed to Congress, can be exercised for any other purpose than that for which it was granted. The importance of this principle may be seen in the consideration that it is the only foundation of the argument against the consti- tutionality of a protective tariff. It is contended that a grant of power to levy taxes, duties and imposts, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare, cannot justly be construed into a power to levy the same duties, taxes, imposts, and ex- cises, for the protection of manufactures.

If there be any soundness in this principle, apply it to this reserva tion of power in either House of Congress to appoint investigating and examining committees .on the books and proceedings of the bank. The power is reserved for the purpose of enabling either House of Congress to put the President and directors upon trial for delinquency-upon trial by the judges of the land- upon trial by a jury of the vicinage-It is not reserved for the purpose of enabling a committee of the House to ruin the president and directors in fortune or reputation, by a partial, prejudiced, electioneering report; con- demning them as victims of political rancour, without law or justice; without judge or jury; noris it reserved even to enable the House to determine the expediency of re- newing the charter of the bank. The power is not re- served for that purpose; nor, if there be any soundness in the argument against the constitutionality of the pro- tective tariff, can it be exercised for that purpose. In this view of the subject, the House would not even have possessed the lawful power of appointing the com- mittee. The committee was appointed not for the purpose of putting the president and directors of the bank upon trial; nor was it intended by the mover of the resolution, that they should have the benefit of a trial by jury.

It is not the intention of the subscriber to press this course of reasoning; to which, in its application to the tariff, he does not yield his assent. To those who hold the doctrine that the purpose for which a power is grant- ed forms an indispensable condition for the lawfulness of its exercise, he leaves the argument, to bear with its proper weight. But if under a power to appoint investiga- ting committees, to ascertain by the verdict of a jury, whe- ther the charter has been violated or not, a constructive power is given to sport with the feelings, and fortunes, and reputation of honest and honorable men, because they happen to hold the offices of president and directors of |

the Bank of the United States, there is surely no author- ity given in the bank charter, to pry into the accounts and pecuniary transactions, and to scrutinize the for- tunes and characters of thousands of individual citizens of the Union, merely because they have an account in bank, which in the examination of the books and pro- ceedings of the corporation must accidentally be dis- closed. The subscriber is under a deep and indelible impression, that no such power is given to Congress by the charter of the bank, nor does he believe that such a power can be exercised, without a flagrant violation of the principles upon which the freedom of this peo- ple has been founded.

It was under this impression that he moved the amendment, which received the sanction of the House, to the resolution originally offered for the appointment of an investigating committee. That amendment was carried by a considerable majority of votes in the house. The course of investigation pursued by the majority of the committee has, however, been not conformable to the principles of the resolution adopted by the house, but to those of the original resolution, which the house did not accept; a consequence which was naturally to be expected, from the circumstance that a majority of the committee was appointed from the minority of the house-that is, from those who had voted against the amendment adopted by the house.

The question of the principles upon which the ex- amination was to be conducted, occurred immediately after the arrival of the committee at Philadelphia, and it was determined conformably to the view of a majori- ty of the committee, representing, so far as the views of the house had been manifested, a minority of the house.

There was accordingly no restriction to the latitude of investigation, as it had been proposed in the original motion of the chairman of the committee. No objection was made on the part of the president and directors of the bank, excepting that the president did remind the committee of the confidential nature of the transactions between the bank and its customers, with the assurance of his reliance that it would be considered and respect- ed. All their books, and all the accounts of individu- als with the bank, called for 'oy any member of the committee, were exhibited to them. Had there been a member of the committee thirsting for the ruin of a per- sonal enemy, or a political adversary, and who, by this inquisition into the accounts of all who had dealt with the bank, could have been put in possession of facts, the disclosure of which might have destroyed his peace, his fortune, or his fame, the opportunity afforded him by this course of proceeding, would have been too inviting to have been resisted. That there was such a member upon the committee the subscriber does notaffirm. The eagerness with which private accounts were sought for, and in an especial manner those of editors of newspa- pers, members of congress, officers of government, and all indeed possessing political influence themselves, or likely to suffer in public estimation, by exposure of their private and pecuniary concerns, flowed, it is to be presumed, altogether from patriotic principles, and a stern abhorrence of corruption. The natural and irre- sistible tendency of all investigations conducted on such principles, must be to substitute passion in the place of justice, and political rancour in the place of impartiali- ty. In all times of party excitement, the members of the legislative assembly are placed in attitudes of keen and ardent opposition to each other. We have con- stant experience of the personal animosities into which all debates on questions of deep public interest are con- tinually running. An individual member of this house, who presents himself in the attitude of an accuser, not only calls for the investment in himself of an extraordi- nary power; but if he prosecutes himself, the accusation claims the exercise of powers which in no general sys- tem for the administration of equal justice can ever be united. The spirit of the prosecutor, is not the spirit of the judge. Whoever voluntarily assumes the former

1832.]

UNITED STATES BANK.

323

capacity, disqualifies himself for the unimpeachable performance of the latter.

During the present session of Congress, two instances have occurred of inquiries instituted into the conduct of executive officers of this Government-one bearing upon the second auditor of the treasury, and the other upon the commissioner of the general land office. In each of those cases, the member instituting the inquiry, moved its reference to a committee of which he was not himselfa member. There was no law, nor even any rule of the House which imperatively required this; but the members themselves felt the delicacy of their situations, and of their own accord divested themselves of that invidious combination of character which unites the prosecutor and the judge. The prosecution of the bank has been the only exception to this course of pro- ceeding. The chairman of the committee commenced his career as a prosecutor by exhibiting an indictment, so called by himself, of twenty-two charges against the bank. The bank is a corporation consisting of a presi- dent, directors, and company of stockholders. The bill of indictment, therefore, being ostensibly against the bank, seemed to be divested of personal animosity, and this, perhaps may have induced the chairman to lose the consciousness of incongruity in the exercise at once of prosecuting and of judicial powers. These obser- vations are deemed indispensably necessary to elucidate the spirit in which the examination was conducted- partaking throughout of this unusual union of the pros- ecuting and of the judicial character. Among the charges exhibited by the indictment, not ostensibly against any individual, but against the bank, was one of subsidizing the press by special favors and accommoda- tions to editors of newspapers-another, for special fa- vors and accommodations to members of congress. In all this the chairman of the committee appears to have entertained the opinion that because the charges were in form against the bank, they were not all to be consid- ered as affecting the integrity of the persons upon whom they might chance to fall. He frequently disclaim- ed all intention of putting upon trial the character of the president of the bank, and he appears to have been quite unaware upon whom his denunciations might eventually be found to descend. The subscriber be- lieved that there was a great want of precision in the definitions by the chairman of the committee in his ori- ginal motion, of the crimes which he denounced. Take, for example, the charge of subsidizing the press. If a violation of the law be an essential ingredient in the composition of crime, there was no law which prohibit- ed the bank from subsidizing the press-nor was there any law which prohibited the president and directors of the bank from affording facilities and accommodations to editors of newspapers.

On the other hand, there is perhaps, no class of citi- zens in the community, who, by the nature of their pro- fession, may more frequently need the aid of bank faci- lities, or to whom they may be more signally useful, and in proportion to the extensiveness of a printing esta- blishment, will of course, be the amount of the accom- modations which they may require. Why then should the bank be laid under an interdict for subsidizing the Press? Why then should the president and directors of the bank be chargeable with gross and palpable corrup- tion, because large accommodations and facilities, in the regular course of banking operations, have been afford- ed to editors of newspapers? There appears to the subscriber to be included in the principle of this charge a very dangerous assault upon the freedom of the press. A principle proscriptive in its nature, and the applica- tion of which, if once assumed by the authority of the Legislature, could be successful only in reducing the press to servile subserviency to whatever party might command a momentary majority in the two Houses of Congress. The editors of newspapers are not respon- sible to Congress for the political principles which they may advocate or oppose. Nor can the legislature take

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The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. IX, Part 91

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870 Publication date: 1828 Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ; Number of Pages: 440

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870
Publication date: 1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ;
Number of Pages: 440