mness? To believe it, would be to disregard all experience, and to
shut our eyes to what is passing before them every day. When the
officers of the government--themselves dependant more or less directly
on popular favour--were to have the power of discriminating between what
paper they would take and what refuse, how many motives would be for
ever presenting themselves for exercising it improperly? To reject the
paper of a substantial bank, that was hostile to the administration, if
there were any such, and to take that of a tottering one, which was
friendly. Let us suppose, by way of illustration, that some orator, or
political manager, no matter which, being about to set out for congress,
should apply to one of the treasury banks for a draft on Washington for
a few thousand dollars, and should offer in payment of it the paper, not
of a substantial bank, but of one which though poorer, was more
patriotic,--this being the best he could get--is it probable that his
application would be rejected? or that the officer would do more than
inquire whether the bank then paid specie, without troubling his head to
ascertain whether it merely made a show of paying it, and whether it
would not be insolvent in a month. Let it not be said, that if doubts
were entertained of the solidity of the bank, its paper might be
immediately converted into specie; for, in the first place, the bank may
be some hundreds of miles distant; and though it were in the immediate
vicinity, payment of specie would not always be demanded before it was
too late. Besides, the very demand of specie may, like a new weight
breaking down an overloaded packhorse, make it stop payment at once. The
bill now before congress, for allowing the treasury credit for certain
"unavailable funds," received some years since, would form an excellent
precedent for such occurrences, and it is one to which there would be
frequent occasions of appealing. And this mode of managing the public
revenue is proposed to take the place of that which now exists through
the Bank of the United States, by which the government has not lost a
dollar; and it is next to impossible can lose one. Verily, if the nation
were to suffer itself to be gulled by such a scheme as this, they would
deserve to suffer the loss they would be sure to incur.

But pecuniary loss may be but a small part of the price which the nation
would pay for this new treasury bank. It may be made to pay, in
addition, the riche