he
Legislature, at its last session, passed a supplemental Bank charter,
which the Bank has since accepted, and which, according to his doctrine,
has legalized all the alleged violations of its original charter in the
distribution of its stock.

I now proceed to the resolution. By examination it will be found that
the first thirty-three lines, being precisely one third of the whole,
relate exclusively to the distribution of the stock by the commissioners
appointed by the State. Now, Sir, it is clear that no question can arise
on this portion of the resolution, except a question between capitalists
in regard to the ownership of stock. Some gentlemen have their stock in
their hands, while others, who have more money than they know what to
do with, want it; and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle
which we are called on to squander thousands of the people's money.
What interest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement of this
question? What difference is it to them whether the stock is owned by
Judge Smith or Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman be entitled to stock in the
Bank, which he is kept out of possession of by others, let him assert
his right in the Supreme Court, and let him or his antagonist, whichever
may be found in the wrong, pay the costs of suit. It is an old maxim,
and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler.
Now, Sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden
to them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the
people's money being used to pay the fiddler. No one can doubt that the
examination proposed by this resolution must cost the State some ten or
twelve thousand dollars; and all this to settle a question in which
the people have no interest, and about which they care nothing. These
capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the
people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves we are
called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel.

I leave this part of the resolution and proceed to the remainder. It
will be found that no charge in the remaining part of the resolution, if
true, amounts to the violation of the Bank charter, except one, which I
will notice in due time. It might seem quite sufficient to say no more
upon any of these charges or insinuations than enough to show they are
not violations of the charter; yet, as they are ingeniously framed and
handled, with a v