Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/75

Rh Bank, strongly favored the renewal of its charter. He was especially anxious to preserve the powerful working force of this financial agency in view of necessities which the impending war with Great Britain would inevitably bring upon the government.

The opposition which the re-charter met in Congress sprang from a variety of sources. Although for twenty years the constitutionality of the charter had been practically recognized by every department of the government, the constitutional question was raised again. As the Bank had been organized while the Federalists were in power, and many of its officers and directors belonged to that party, its management was accused of political partiality in the distribution of its favors and accommodations. Some of its stock was owned by British subjects; hence the charge that its operations were conducted under too strong a foreign influence. All these things were used to inflame the popular mind, and the opponents of the Bank actually succeeded in creating so strong a current of feeling against it, that several state legislatures passed resolves calling upon members of Congress to refuse the renewal of the charter.

Gallatin, the ablest public financier of his time, and indeed one of the few great finance ministers in our history, ranking second only to Hamilton, knew the importance of the Bank as a fiscal agent of the government at that time too well not to make every honorable effort to sustain it. With-