Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/731

695 POWERS OF CORPORATIONS CREATED BY CONGRESS 695 to incorporate a national bank was passed by Congress, but was vetoed by President Madison. In 18 16 Congress granted a charter for twenty years to the second bank of the United States, but before the charter expired President Jackson, on September 24, 1833, found a Secretary of the Treasury who would consent to obey his order to withdraw the funds of the United States from the bank. In 1863 Congress passed a statute authorizing the formation of national banks ^^ and the existing National Bank Act was approved June 3, 1864. In 1862 Congress chartered the Union Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company ,^^ and by the same act granted franchises to certain state railroad companies with provision for their future consolidation, which was effected in part in 1880, and it was held by the Supreme Court in 1883 ^^ that a suit relating to the validity of the consolidation was a suit arising under the laws of the United States. In 1866 Congress chartered the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company to build a line from Missouri to the Pacific coast,^® and in 187 1 a charter was granted to the Texas and Pacific Railroad Company.^^ The Supreme Court in 1884^^ held that these and similar com- panies were strictly suits arising under the laws of the United States, and this is now the settled law." Justice Bradley, in 1887, speaking of these statutes granting franchises to the Pacific Railroad companies, said: "It cannot at the present day be doubted that Congress, under the power to regulate commerce among the several States, as well as to provide for postal accommodations and military exigencies, had authority to pass these laws." ^" In 1865 Congress incorporated the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company and in 1866 the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, but both of these were made corporations of the District of Columbia; but the Forty-ninth Congress went further and incorporated the National Trade Union of the District of Columbia, with authority to establish branches in all the states. "12 Stat, at L. 665. " Ibid., 489. " Ames V. Kansas, iii U. S. 449 (1883). " 14 Stat, at L. 292. " 16 Stat, at L. 573. " Pacific Railroad Removal Cases, 115 U. S. i (1884). " MORAWETZ ON CORPORATIONS, §§ 984, 985. 20 California v. Pacific R. R. Co., 127 U. S. i, 39 (1887).