In his message in 1832, after his re-election in November of that year, the President again fulminates against a recharter of the institution, recommending that the seven millions of stock of the bank held by the United States should be sold, and going further intimates that the United States deposits in the bank were not safe. He either was or affected to be im pressed with the idea that so long as the bank was the holder of the public funds it might use them to corrupt Congress to secure an extension of its existence. In consequence of the message bank stock fell from 112 to 104. A Treasury agent who made an examination of the institu tion reported it solvent and the stock went back to 112. Congress did not coincide with the views expressed by the President, and refusing to sell the bank stock, passed a resolution, by a vote of 110 to 46, of confidence in the safety of the deposits.
The President had made up his mind to cripple the bank by taking away from it the public deposits, and the then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Duane, refusing to carry out his wishes, he was superseded by Attorney-General Taney, who on 26 Sept. 1833, issued the order for the removal. In consequence of this act, the following resolution was introduced in the Senate by Mr. Clay: "That the President, in the late executive proceedings in relation to the public revenue, has assumed on himself authority and power not conferred by the Con stitution and laws but in derogation thereof.° This, known as the "censure resolution,* was passed by a vote of 26 to 20. On 28 March, 1834, this resolution was expunged from the records of the Senate.
Jackson's opposition, on one ground or an other, continued, and the bank gave up all hopes of obtaining a new lease of life, but on 13 Feb. 1836, 13 days before the expiration of its charter, obtained a charter from the legislature of Pennsylvania. The subsequent career of the bank was short and disastrous. A constantly increasing amount of loans on stocks gradually tied up its resources, so that by 1840 it was found that the assets of the institution con sisted chiefly of all kinds of internal improve ment stocks and bonds as well as of State stocks and bonds and bank stocks.
But the United States was not a loser by the bank's failure.
The $7,000,000 of stock held by the United States, previous to the change to a State char ter, was paid back in full, and the government realized a handsome profit on its investment, as will appear by the following statement derived from the records of the Treasury Department: Bonus paid by bank to the United States $1,500,000 00 Dividends received from the bank 7,118,416 29 Proceeds of stock sold and other moneys received from the bank 9.424.750 78
Total $18,043,167 07 Subscription to capital stock paid in United States. 5 cent bonds $7,000,000 Interest paid by United States on same 4,950,000 11,950,000 00Profit on investment $6,093,167 07 The history of the United States Bank under its Pennsylvania charter, subsequent to the crisis of 1837, was a most disastrous one. It sus pended specie payments during the ticklish period from 1837 to 1841 as often as other State banks, and finally went down under circum stances that might, with prudent management, have been turned to a successful result. It made three several assignments in 1841 to secure various liabilities, the last and final assignment being on 4 September of that year.
The final result of the liquidation of the bank was briefly stated in a letter from Thomas Robins, Esq., then president of the Philadelphia National Bank who was the last survivor of its numerous assignees: "All the circulating notes of the Bank of the United States, together with the deposits, were paid in full, principal and interest, and the accounts of the assignees were finally settled in 1856. There were no funds, and no dividend was paid to the stockholders of the bank; the whole twenty-eight millions of dollars were a total loss to them." Nicholas Biddle was president of the bank from January 1823 to March 1839, being presi dent of the Bank of the United States until its charter expired in 1836, and for the next three years president of the United States Bank of Pennsylvania. At the time of his resignation the shares were selling at 111, having in 1837 sold at 137; but, in 1843, after the failure, its shares were quoted at IA per cent.
Both the first and second Banks of the United States were killed by the prejudice against banks, which exists to an even greater extent to-day. The fall of the latter institution was hastened by bad management.