Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/565

 ST. LOUIS NAT. BANK V. ALLEN. 553 �rule apply to a national bank created by act of congress, but located and established within a particular state ? It is clear that a corporation acquires no attributs of citizenship by being organized under, or created by, a state law that it would not possess if created by a law of the United States. The diffi- culties in the way of permitting corporations to sue in the federal courts on the ground of citizenship, apply with the same force whether a corporation derives its existence from a state or a national law. The difficulties have been overcome, with respect to state corporations, by adopting an arbitrary presumption as to the citizenship of the stockholders — a pre- sumption, no doubt, often contrary to the fact, but justified, in the opinion of the supreme court, by considerations of great public importance. These considerations apply alike to ail cor|orations located and doing business within a state, whether chartered under state or federal authority. The policy of the adjudications referred to is to treat corporations as eitizens of the state in which they are located ; the oircumstance that they derive their existence from a state law makes no differ- ence. If they are created by an act of congress, and located within a state, they become, within the reason of the rule, eitizens of the state as muoh as state corporations. In deliv- ering the opinion of the supreme court in Letson's Case, (the leading case upon this subject,) Mr. Justice Wayne said: "When a corporation exercises its powers in the state which chartered it, that is its residence." 2 How. 497. An exam- ination of the national bank act will clearly show that national banks are, in most respects, purely local institutions. They are distributed among the states and territories with due regard to their several wants, and by a fixed rule of appor- tionment. It is provided by the sixth section of the act of 1864 that the organization certificate of every national bank "shall specify the place where the operations of discount and deposit of the association are to be carried on, designating the state, territory, or district, and also the particular county and city, town, or village." Numerous other provisions of the act refer to the associations to be organized under it as ����