It is idle to say that, because such bills were not a "legal tender," they were therefore not of the character which the Constitution forbade.

Necessity knows no law, and in the absence of any other currency the people were perforce compelled to take what they could get.
Experience later showed that large amounts of paper money manufactured in one State were easily put in circulation in far distant communities, and considerable sums, through the operations of wear and tear and the vicissitudes incident to its fragile nature, never returned to plague the inventor.
At the time of the organization of the National Bank by Hamilton, there were but three banks in the United States: the Bank of North America, the Bank of New York, and the Bank of Massachusetts.

Their added capital amounted to two millions of dollars, and their issues were inconsiderable.
Mr.Gallatin estimated that in January, 1811, just before the expiration of the bank charter, there were in the United States eighty-eight state banks with a capital of $42,612,000.
-- ------------------------+-------------+---------------+------------ | | Notes in | | Capital.

| Circulation.

| Specie.
-- ------------------------+-------------+---------------+------------ Bank of the United States | $10,000,000 | $5,400,000 | $5,800,000 Eighty-eight State Banks | 42,610,601 | 22,700,000 | 9,600,000 -- ------------------------+-------------+---------------+------------ | $52,610,601 | $28,100,000 | $15,400,000 -- ------------------------+-------------+---------------+------------ Over the local institutions the Bank of the United States always exercised a salutary control, checking any disposition to overtrade by restraining their issues and holding them to a proper specie reserve; and this by no other interference except its countenance or ill favor, as such banks severally observed or disregarded the ordinary rules of financial prudence.