The powers enumerated in that instrument do not
confer on Congress the right to establish such a corporation as the Bank
of the United States, and the evil consequences which followed may warn
us of the danger of departing from the true rule of construction and of
permitting temporary circumstances or the hope of better promoting the
public welfare to influence in any degree our decisions upon the extent
of the authority of the General Government. Let us abide by the
Constitution as it is written, or amend it in the constitutional mode
if it is found to be defective.
The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt not, be sufficient to
prevent Congress from again chartering such a monopoly, even if the
Constitution did not present an insuperable objection to it. But you
must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people
is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to
secure the blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your
States as well as in the Federal Government. The power which the moneyed
interest can exercise, when concentrated under a single head and with
our present system of currency, was sufficiently demonstrated in the
struggle made by the Bank of the United States.
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