Our whole system of banks is a violation of every honest principle of banks. There is no honest bank but a bank of deposit. A bank that issues paper at interest is a pickpocket or a robber. But the delusion will have its course.... An aristocracy is growing out of them that will be as fatal as the feudal barons if unchecked in time.

Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle... Series A-[B] (ed. 1892)