of this question? What difference is it to them whether the
stock is owned by Judge Smith or Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman
be entitled to stock in the bank, which he is kept out of
possession of by others, let him assert his right in the
Supreme Court, and let him or his antagonist, whichever may be
found in the wrong, pay the costs of suit. It is an old maxim,
and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay
the fiddler. Now, sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen
whose money is a burden to them, choose to lead off a dance,
I am decidedly opposed to the people's money being used to pay
the fiddler. No one can doubt that the examination proposed
by this resolution must cost the State some ten or twelve
thousand dollars; and all this to settle a question in
which the people have no interest, and about which they care
nothing. These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in
concert to fleece the people; and now that they have got into
a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate
the people's money to settle the quarrel."

The resolution had declared that the bank practised various methods
which were "to the great injury of the people." Lincoln took the
occasion to announce his ideas of the people and the politicians.

"If the bank really be a grievance, why is it that no one of
the real people is found to ask redress of it? The truth is,
no such oppression exists. If it did, our people would groan
with memorials and petitions, and we would not be permitted
to rest day or night till we had put it down. The people know
their rights, and they are never slow to assert and
maintain them when they are invaded. Let them call for an