"On April 3rd, 1816, however, another bill for a Bank of the United States, which had previously passed the House of Representatives, was adopted by the Senate. The corporate title of this institution was ' The President, Directors, and Company of the Bank of the United States.' Its capital was to be $35,000,000, composed of 350,000 shares of $100 each. $7,000,000 of the stock was to be subscribed by the United States, and the remaining $28,000,000 by individuals, companies, or corporations. The charter was to extend to March 3rd, 1836, and the bank was authorized to organize and commence business as soon as $8,400,000, exclusive of the subscription of the United States, had been paid in. It was prohibited from lending on account of the United States more than $500,000 or to any state more than $50,000, or to any foreign prince or power any sum whatever, without the sanction of law previously being obtained.

"The bank was also obliged, by its charter, to give the Government the necessary facilities for transferring the public funds from place to place within the United States without charging commissions, or claiming any allowance on account of the difference of exchange, and to transact all business of commissioners of loans when required so to do. The bank was prohibited from issuing bills under the denomination of $5.

"This bill was approved by the President, James Madison, on the 10th of April, 1816, and the Bank went into operation on the 7th of January, 1817.

"In the latter end of the same month a meeting of delegates from the banks of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Virginia, took place at Philadelphia, with a view to a general and simultaneous resumption of specie payments. In consequence of a compact between them and the Bank of the United States, sanctioned by the Secretary of the Treasury, cash payments were resumed. To facilitate this object, the Bank of the United States imported from abroad seven millions of dollars in specie, and agreed to afford reasonable assistance to such of the State Banks as might require it. The resumption of cash payments was now general throughout the Union.

"The year 1819 was one of great commercial difficulty in America. This distress was attributed to those measures which it had found necessary to adopt in order to effect a return to specie payments. To accomplish this object, the State Banks had been compelled to restrict their issues by limiting their discounts.

"Many of those Banks which were formed at the dissolution of the first Bank of the United States, which had in the first instance made very liberal advances to the Western States, were obliged to resort to measures for compelling the repayment of their loans. Those too who had contracted debts either to the banks or to private parties in the depreciated currency, sustained considerable loss when required to discharge their obligations in a currency convertible into gold.

"Specie payment having been firmly established after the organization of the Second Bank of the United States, the finances of the Government were in a good condition down to 1833-4. A uniform currency upon a specie basis was furnished to the people in all parts of the United States. From 1820 to 1834 the business of the country was in a prosperous condition, and the Government accumulated a large surplus.

"Mr. Dallas was succeeded in the Treasury by William H. Crawford, of Georgia. On the 12th of February, 1820, he made an able report on the currency which was very favorable to the bank for so conducting its operations as to establish and maintain a specie basis for all business transactions.

"Hon. Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, succeeded Mr. Crawford in the Treasury, who gives the following picture of the state of the commerce subsequent to that date :

"'No term of eight years since the establishment of the Government was so exempt from the influence of external events that disturb the regular operations of national industry and commerce as the term ending with 1828/ In the Secretary's report of December 6th of that year will be found a general view of the state of the currency, before and after the establishment of the Bank of the United States, sustaining the views already presented by Mr. Crawford concerning the healthful influences of the institution over the general affairs of trade. ' It received the paper of the State banks paid on public account, and, by placing it to the credit of the United States as cash, rendered it available wherever the public service required.' This was in effect to guarantee the State Bank currency on the footing of par in gold and silver. This gave steadiness and prosperity to the legitimate business of the country, and was a salutary check upon too great an expansion of credit, either in the form of currency or bank loans.

"The Bank of the United States located in Philadelphia established a branch or office in each state. At each branch deposits were received, bills and notes of hand discounted, and letters of credit granted payable on demand upon all other branches. Their notes were legally payable at the respective branches where they were issued, but were often paid as a matter of courtesy at the other branches. The five-dollar notes, the lowest issued by any branch, were made legally payable at every branch.

"On April 2nd, 1829, the 'Safety Fund Act,' so called, was passed. Mr. Van Buren and his friends then in the control of the State Government at Albany, exerted an important influence in procuring its passage. Banking under special charters was then a monopoly in that State.

"It was very difficult to obtain new charters, and there was considerable hostility manifested at that early period to the United States Bank by those who controlled the State Government."

In December, 1829, President Jackson, more than six years before the expiration of the charter, showed hostility in his first annual message to Congress in these words : "The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its stockholders will most probably apply for a renewal of their privileges. Both the constitutionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank are well questioned by a large portion of our fellow citizens; and it must be admitted by all that it has failed in the great end of establishing a uniform and sound currency" - views which were repeated in his annual messages in 1830 and 1831.