But the bank proposed will be free from all legal
obligation to cooperate with the public measures, and whatever might be
the patriotic disposition of its directors to contribute to the removal
of those embarrassments, and to invigorate the prosecution of the war,
fidelity to the pecuniary and general interest of the institution
according to their estimate of it might oblige them to decline a
connection of their operations with those of the National Treasury
during the continuance of the war and the difficulties incident to it.
Temporary sacrifices of interest, though overbalanced by the future
and permanent profits of the charter, not being requirable of right in
behalf of the public, might not be gratuitously made, and the bank would
reap the full benefit of the grant, whilst the public would lose the
equivalent expected from it; for it must be kept in view that the sole
inducement to such a grant on the part of the public would be the
prospect of substantial aids to its pecuniary means at the present
crisis and during the sequel of the war. It is evident that the stock of
the bank will on the return of peace, if not sooner, rise in the market
to a value which, if the bank were established in a period of peace,
would authorize and obtain for the public a bonus to a very large
amount. In lieu of such a bonus the Government is fairly entitled to and
ought not to relinquish or risk the needful services of the bank under
the pressing circumstances of war.
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