But when the charter for the Bank of the United States was obtained
from Congress it perfected the schemes of the paper system and gave
to its advocates the position they have struggled to obtain from the
commencement of the Federal Government to the present hour. The immense
capital and peculiar privileges bestowed upon it enabled it to exercise
despotic sway over the other banks in every part of the country. From
its superior strength it could seriously injure, if not destroy, the
business of any one of them which might incur its resentment; and
it openly claimed for itself the power of regulating the currency
throughout the United States. In other words, it asserted (and it
undoubtedly possessed) the power to make money plenty or scarce at its
pleasure, at any time and in any quarter of the Union, by controlling
the issues of other banks and permitting an expansion or compelling
a general contraction of the circulating medium, according to its own
will. The other banking institutions were sensible of its strength, and
they soon generally became its obedient instruments, ready at all times
to execute its mandates; and with the banks necessarily went also that
numerous class of persons in our commercial cities who depend altogether
on bank credits for their solvency and means of business, and who are
therefore obliged, for their own safety, to propitiate the favor of
the money power by distinguished zeal and devotion in its service.
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