That I am partial to the disaffected is among those threadbare topics of defamation, which have been so generally applied, that they have lost their effect. But I have remarked, that this particular aspersion is generally cast on those who least deserve it, and by those who are in a fair way of becoming disaffected themselves. I am not very sorry for this charge, because it shows, that while I have inveterate enemies, they have nothing to allege against me, and must resort to the regions of fiction for the ground of calumny.
That I have established the bank I shall confess. That bank has already saved America from the efforts of her avowed, and the intrigues of her concealed enemies; and it has saved her from those, who, while they clamor loudly against the administration for doing so little, sedulously labor to deprive it of the means of doing anything. The bank will exist in spite of calumny, operate in spite of opposition, and do good in spite of malevolence. If there be sinister purposes in view, it must be easy to show what they are. The operations of a bank are such plain matters of arithmetic, that those who run may read. There is nothing of mystery, disguise, or concealment. If, therefore, these sinister views cannot be shown, (and I know that they cannot) that defect of proof, after the charge made, is itself a proof that the thing does not exist. But the matter does not terminate here. A groundless unfounded opposition against measures of public utility, must proceed from some cause. If it proceed from an opposition to the public interests, their conduct is dangerous; but if it proceed from aversion to me, I pity them.
That I should, or that Pennsylvania should have a plan to keep Virginia poor, is a strange assertion. I believe that Pennsylvania will probably be rich, the soil and climate are good, and the people are quiet and industrious. Their rulers also begin to be sensible of their true interests. They encourage commerce, have laid aside all the idle systems of specific supplies, and content themselves with laying money taxes. There can be no doubt but that such a people must become rich. On the other hand, if Virginia, or any other State, be poor, it must be their own fault. Prudence, diligence, and economy, promote national prosperity; and vice, indolence, and prodigality, involve national ruin. I am so far from wishing to impoverish Virginia, that I have constantly labored, both in my public and private applications to bring about those measures, which are calculated to make her wealthy and powerful. In the moment of cool reflection this will be acknowledged; whenever my measures are adopted, it will be known, and in that moment those who from ignorance, or wickedness, have opposed themselves to their country's good, will be known and despised. The charge of speculating, in conjunction with the Secretary of Congress and Mr Coffin, is one of those foolish things, which are not worth an answer. The whole business was known to the General, and after him, to a committee of Congress, before anything was done.