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Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

"The Writings of Abraham Lincoln - Volume 1: 1832-1843"


The next insinuation is, that the Bank has refused specie payments.
This, if true is a violation of the charter. But there is not the least
probability of its truth; because, if such had been the fact, the
individual to whom payment was refused would have had an interest in
making it public, by suing for the damages to which the charter entitles
him. Yet no such thing has been done; and the strong presumption is,
that the insinuation is false and groundless.
From this to the end of the resolution, there is nothing that merits
attention--I therefore drop the particular examination of it.
By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen that a principal
object of the committee is to examine into, and ferret out, a mass of
corruption supposed to have been committed by the commissioners who
apportioned the stock of the Bank. I believe it is universally
understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly unless
they have a motive to do otherwise. If this be true, we can only suppose
that the commissioners acted corruptly by also supposing that they were
bribed to do so.


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