in behalf of those interested as shall appear just and proper in the
case.

ANDREW JACKSON.



FEBRUARY 4, 1834.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I deem it my duty to communicate to Congress the recent conduct of the
Bank of the United States in refusing to deliver the books, papers, and
funds in its possession relating to the execution of the act of Congress
of June 7, 1832, entitled "An act supplementary to the 'Act for the
relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution.'"
The correspondence reported by the Secretary of War, and herewith
transmitted, will show the grounds assumed by the bank to justify its
refusal to make the transfer directed by the War Department. It does not
profess to claim the privilege of this agency as a right secured to it
by contract, nor as a benefit conferred by the Government, but as a
burden, from which it is willing to be relieved. It places its refusal
upon the extraordinary ground that the corporation has a right to sit in
judgment upon the legality of the acts of the constituted authorities in
a matter in which the stockholders are admitted to have no interest, and
it impedes and defeats, as far as its power will permit, the execution
of a measure of the Administration, because the opinion of the
corporation upon the construction of an act of Congress differs from
that of the proper officers of the United States.