To James Madison from James Williams, 2 January 1815
From James Williams
Battle Town Virga. Jany. 2. 1815
Sir
The only apology that I make in again Addressing you1 is That The United States, from the joint operations of a number of Causes, aided by an Extensive Geographical Situation, appear to be destined to become One of the most populous, most prosperous, powerfull and Splendid Empires. It is Therefore of the greatest Importance To Establish their fiscal Concerns on Unchangeable Principles, and To introduce a System of Finance, the best Calculated to a give a Solid Foundation to public Credit; sufficiently simple to admit of an unembarrassed Execution; conformable To Strict Justice in its Operations on Individuals; and equally suitable To our Present Circumstances, and to a Population such as we may calculate upon in the Progress of Time. A National Bank is part of such a System—altho’ there may be some doubt of the Constitutionalty yet It might be Adopted, as Readily, To be Obtain, the Sanction of the Different States, and upon such Principles, as will Tend, To their mutual Strength, and Interest. There can be no Doubt If a Bank Bill Passes into a Law that the whole Amount of the Stock for the Individuals will be Rapidly Taken in the great Commercial Atlantic Cities—having Lately been in some of them I am Confident of this Result. I Beg Leave To Refer you To some Remarks that I did myself the Honor To Enclose To you—being informd that the Bank Bill has been again Recommitted for amended I Take the Liberty To Suggest the Propriety (for Consideration) of additional amendments Thereto.2
Where the General Government Possesses one Half of the Capital of the Bank or say Thirty millions of a Capital. In it a Sinking fund could be Created that would Gradually Pay Off at Least Sixty millions of Dollars in Twenty years and would gradually Pay off any Debt that is or may be Incurred under your administration. It, Being, the Sinking fund, one Link in the Chain of a System of Finance, that I Lately mentiond To our mutual friend Ferdinando Fairfax Esquire and which If Adopted will not only Command the Thanks of the Nation for Establishing a System for the gradual discharge of the Public Debt But you would Obtain the Admiration of the World. Perhaps the Capital for a Bank now contemplated may be Sufficient for the Present but when Peace Takes Place Double that Capital could be Readily used. The Amendment Submitted is That in say five or Ten or more years That The President of the united States or the Congress shall have Liberty To Encrease the Capital of the said Bank To the sum of One Hundred millions of Dollars. That the Stock subscribed for the General Goverment be made up fifty millions of the said Capital and The Ballance of Capital Stock To be Taken or Sold by the Bank for their Interest.
A Section for a Sinking fund.
A Bank Established upon this Plan will give great Resources great Relief To the Government and To Individuals Also. I Have the Honor To be Sir with great Respect your most Obdt. Servant
James Williams
RC (DLC).
1. No previous correspondence between Williams and JM has been found. Williams had, however, written James Monroe on 31 Dec. 1813, offering to carry government dispatches to London and naming Walter Jones, Ferdinando Fairfax, and John Tayloe as references (DNA: RG 59, ML). On 3 Dec. 1815 he arrived in Washington bearing official letters for the government from U.S. minister to Great Britain John Quincy Adams (Georgetown, D.C., Daily Federal Republican, 5 Dec. 1815).
2. For the initial proceedings on a national bank bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, see Anthony Charles Cazenove to JM, 30 Sept. 1814, n. 2; for the Senate bill that followed, see David Jones to JM, 10 Dec. 1814, n. 10. On 9 Dec. the Senate bill was sent to the House, where the Committee of Ways and Means reported it with amendments five days later. It was debated from 23 to 28 Dec., at the conclusion of which the recommitment to which Williams evidently referred took place. The following day the bill was reported with three amendments, of which the House adopted two, including one that eliminated the bank’s power to refuse payment in specie. Various delaying tactics by the bill’s opponents prevented a vote until 2 Jan. 1815, when the initial count was eighty-one in favor and eighty opposed. Speaker Langdon Cheves, however, citing House rules that gave him this “right and duty,” voted against it to even the count and then declared the bill rejected. A motion to reconsider was immediately made, and upon its adoption on 3 Jan. 1815, the bill was sent to a select committee for amendment. When it came before the House again on 6 Jan., committee chairman Samuel McKee of Kentucky introduced amendments that reduced the capital of the bank from $50 to $30 million, consisting of $5 million in specie, $10 million in U.S. stock, and $15 million in Treasury notes; eliminated the proviso that the bank lend $30 million to the government; and, once again, required that it pay specie on demand. All of the proposed amendments were adopted, and the following day the bill passed, one hundred and twenty to thirty-eight. After some further maneuvering but no substantial changes, the Senate and House reached agreement on the bill on 20 Jan. 1815 ( 13th Cong., 3d sess., 165–69, 173–77, 799, 902, 976–91, 994–1032, 1039–45).