The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this
bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States,
by the Constitution.
I. They are not among the powers specially enumerated: for
these are: 1st. A power to lay taxes for the purpose of paying the
debts of the United States; but no debt is paid by this bill, nor any
tax laid. Were it a bill to raise money, its origination in the
Senate would condemn it by the Constitution.
2d. "To borrow money." But this bill neither borrows money nor
ensures the borrowing it. The proprietors of the bank will be just
as free as any other money holders, to lend or not to lend their
money to the public. The operation proposed in the bill, first, to
lend them two millions, and then to borrow them back again, cannot
change the nature of the latter act, which will still be a payment,
and not a loan, call it by what name you please.
3. To "regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the
States, and with the Indian tribes." To erect a bank, and to regulate
commerce, are very different acts. He who erects a bank, creates a
subject of commerce in its bills; so does he who makes a bushel of
wheat, or digs a dollar out of the mines; yet neither of these
persons regulates commerce thereby.
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