Amongst other acts of questionable
validity, the notes of the expired corporation are known to have been
used as its own and again put in circulation. That the old bank had no
right to issue or reissue its notes after the expiration of its charter
can not be denied, and that it could not confer any such right on its
substitute any more than exercise it itself is equally plain. In law and
honesty the notes of the bank in circulation at the expiration of its
charter should have been called in by public advertisement, paid up as
presented, and, together with those on hand, canceled and destroyed.
Their reissue is sanctioned by no law and warranted by no necessity.
If the United States be responsible in their stock for the payment of
these notes, their reissue by the new corporation for their own profit
is a fraud on the Government. If the United States is not responsible,
then there is no legal responsibility in any quarter, and it is a fraud
on the country. They are the redeemed notes of a dissolved partnership,
but, contrary to the wishes of the retiring partner and without his
consent, are again reissued and circulated.
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