I recommend the subject, therefore,
to the consideration of Congress, and in deciding upon it I am persuaded
that they will sufficiently estimate the policy of manifesting to the
world a desire on all occasions to cultivate harmony with other nations
by any reasonable accommodations which do not impair the enjoyment
of any of the essential rights of a free and independent people. The
example on the part of the American Government will merit and may be
expected to receive a reciprocal attention from all the friendly powers
of Europe.
JAMES MADISON.
VETO MESSAGE.
WASHINGTON, _January 30, 1815_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
Having bestowed on the bill entitled "An act to incorporate the
subscribers to the Bank of the United States of America" that full
consideration which is due to the great importance of the subject, and
dictated by the respect which I feel for the two Houses of Congress, I
am constrained by a deep and solemn conviction that the bill ought not
to become a law to return it to the Senate, in which it originated, with
my objections to the same.
Waiving the question of the constitutional authority of the Legislature
to establish an incorporated bank as being precluded in my judgment by
repeated recognitions under varied circumstances of the validity of such
an institution in acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial
branches of the Government, accompanied by indications, in different
modes, of a concurrence of the general will of the nation, the proposed
bank does not appear to be calculated to answer the purposes of reviving
the public credit, of providing a national medium of circulation, and of
aiding the Treasury by facilitating the indispensable anticipations of
the revenue and by affording to the public more durable loans.
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