Congress a renewal of its charter. I am happy to know that through the
good sense of our people the effort to get up a panic has hitherto
failed, and that through the increased accommodations which the State
banks have been enabled to afford, no public distress has followed the
exertions of the bank, and it can not be doubted that the exercise of
its power and the expenditure of its money, as well as its efforts to
spread groundless alarm, will be met and rebuked as they deserve. In my
own sphere of duty I should feel myself called on by the facts disclosed
to order a _scire facias_ against the bank, with a view to put an end to
the chartered rights it has so palpably violated, were it not that the
charter itself will expire as soon as a decision would probably be
obtained from the court of last resort.

I called the attention of Congress to this subject in my last annual
message, and informed them that such measures as were within the reach
of the Secretary of the Treasury had been taken to enable him to judge
whether the public deposits in the Bank of the United States were
entirely safe; but that as his single powers might be inadequate to the
object, I recommended the subject to Congress as worthy of their serious
investigation, declaring it as my opinion that an inquiry into the
transactions of that institution, embracing the branches as well as the
principal bank, was called for by the credit which was given throughout
the country to many serious charges impeaching their character, and
which, if true, might justly excite the apprehension that they were no
longer a safe depository for the public money. The extent to which the
examination thus recommended was gone into is spread upon your journals,
and is too well known to require to be stated. Such as was made resulted
in a report from a majority of the Committee of Ways and Means touching
certain specified points only, concluding with a resolution that the
Government deposits might safely be continued in the Bank of the United
States. This resolution was adopted at the close of the session by the
vote of a majority of the House of Representatives.

Although I may not always be able to concur in the views of the
public interest or the duties of its agents which may be taken by the
other departments of the Government or either of its branches, I am,
notwithstanding, wholly incapable of receiving otherwise than with the
most sincere respect all opinions or suggestio