diately to Washington, and upon representing that the bank was
desirous of accommodating the importing merchants at New York (which it
failed to do) and undertaking to pay the interest itself, procured the
consent of the Secretary, after consultation with the President, to
postpone the payment until the succeeding 1st of October.

Conscious that at the end of that quarter the bank would not be able
to pay over the deposits, and that further indulgence was not to be
expected of the Government, an agent was dispatched to England secretly
to negotiate with the holders of the public debt in Europe and induce
them by the offer of an equal or higher interest than that paid by the
Government to hold back their claims for one year, during which the bank
expected thus to retain the use of $5,000,000 of the public money, which
the Government should set apart for the payment of that debt. The agent
made an arrangement on terms, in part, which were in direct violation
of the charter of the bank, and when some incidents connected with this
secret negotiation accidentally came to the knowledge of the public and
the Government, then, and not before, so much of it as was palpably in
violation of the charter was disavowed. A modification of the rest was
attempted with the view of getting the certificates without payment of
the money, and thus absolving the Government from its liability to the
holders. In this scheme the bank was partially successful, but to this
day the certificates of a portion of these stocks have not been paid and
the bank retains the use of the money.

This effort to thwart the Government in the payment of the public debt
that it might retain the public money to be used for their private
interests, palliated by pretenses notoriously unfounded and insincere,
would have justified the instant withdrawal of the public deposits.
The negotiation itself rendered doubtful the ability of the bank to meet
the demands of the Treasury, and the misrepresentations by which it was
attempted to be justified proved that no reliance could be placed upon
its allegations.

If the question of a removal of the deposits presented itself to the
Executive in the same attitude that it appeared before the House of
Representatives at their last session, their resolution in relation to
the safety of the deposits would be entitled to more weight, although
the decision of the question of removal has been confided by law to
another department of