tion, but continued the course which it had began at the commencement of the session; and which was in exact conformity to the legislative course, and exactly contrary to the course of the Senate. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury, the memorial of the bank, and that of the government directors, were all referred to the Committee of Ways and Means; and by that committee a report was made, by their chairman, Mr. Polk, sustaining the action of the Secretary, and concluding with the four following resolutions: "1. Resolved, That the Bank of the United States ought not to be re-chartered. "2. Resolved, That the public deposits ought not to be restored to the Bank of the United States. "3. Resolved, That the State banks ought to be continued as the places of deposit of the public money, and that it is expedient for Congress to make further provision by law, prescribing the mode of selection, the securities to be taken, and the manner and terms on which they are to be employed. jority. The first one, being that upon the question of the recharter, was carried by a majority of more than fifty votes-134 to 82; showing an immense difference to the prejudice of the bank since the veto session of 1832. The names of the voters on this great question, so long debated in every form in the halls of Congress, the chambers of the State legislatures, and in the forum of the people, deserve to be commemorated—and are as follows: "YEAS.-Messrs. John Adams, William Allen, Anthony, Archer, Beale, Bean, Beardsley, Beaumont, John Bell, John Blair, Bockee, Boon, Bouldin, Brown, Bunch, Bynum, Cambreleng, Campbell, Carmichael, Carr, Casey, Chaney, Chinn, Claiborne, Samuel Clark, Clay, Clayton, Clowney, Coffee, Connor, Cramer, W. R. Davis, Davenport, Day, Dickerson, Dickinson, Dunlap, Felder, Forester, Foster, W. K. Fuller, Fulton, Galbraith, Gholson, Gillet, Gilmer, Gordon, Grayson, Griffin, Jos. Hall, T. H. Hall, Halsey, Hamer, Hannegan, Jos. M. Harper, Harrison, Hathaway, Hawkins, Hawes, Heath, Henderson, Howell, Hubbard, Abel Huntington, Inge, Jar4. Resolved, That, for the purpose of ascervis, Richard M. Johnson, Noadiah Johnson, taining, as far as practicable, the cause of the Cave Johnson, Seaborn Jones, Benjamin Jones, commercial embarrassment and distress comKavanagh, Kinnard, Lane, Lansing, Laporte, plained of by numerous citizens of the United Lawrence, Lay, Luke Lea, Thomas Lee, Leavitt, States, in sundry memorials, which have been Loyall, Lucas, Lyon, Lytle, Abijah Mann, Joel presented to Congress at the present session, K. Mann, Mardis, John Y. Mason, Moses Maand of inquiring whether the charter of the son, McIntire, McKay, McKinley, McLene, Bank of the United States has been violated; McVean, Miller, Henry Mitchell, Robert Mitand, also, what corruptions and abuses have exchell, Muhlenberg, Murphy, Osgood, Page, isted in its management; whether it has used Parks, Parker, Patterson, Ď. J. Pearce, Peyits corporate power or money to control the ton, Franklin Pierce, Pierson, Pinckney, Plumpress, to interfere in politics, or influence elec-mer, Polk, Rencher, Schenck, Schley, Shinn, tions; and whether it has had any agency: through its management or money, in producing the existing pressure; a select committee be appointed to inspect the books and examine into the proceedings of the said bank, who shall report whether the provisions of the charter have been violated or not; and, also, what abuses, corruptions, or malpractices have existed in the management of said bank; and that the said committee be authorized to send for persons and papers, and to summon and examine witnesses, on oath, and to examine into the affairs of the said bank and branches; and they are further authorized to visit the principal bank, or any of its branches, for the purpose of inspecting the books, correspondence, accounts, and other papers connected with its management or business; and that the said committee be required to report the result of such investigation, together with the evidence they may take, at as early a day as practicable." These resolutions were long and vehemently debated, and eventually, each and every one, adopted by decided, and some by a great ma land, William Taylor, Wm. P. Taylor, FranSmith, Speight, Standifer, Stoddert, Suthercis Thomas, Thomson, Turner, Turrill, Vanderpoel, Wagener, Ward, Wardwell, Wayne, Webster, Whallon.—134. "NAYS.-Messrs. John Quincy Adams, John J. Allen, Heman Allen, Chilton Allan, Ashley, The second and third resolutions were carried he could imagine that one branch of the legisby good majorities, and the fourth overwhelm-lature under certain circumstances might have ingly-175 to 42. Mr. Polk immediately moved a right to call for it; but the Senate was not the appointment of the committee, and that it that branch. If the paper was to be the ground consist of seven members. It was appointed of a criminal charge against the President, and accordingly, and consisted of Messrs. Francis upon which he is to be brought to trial, it Thomas of Maryland, chairman; Everett of should come from the House of Representatives, Massachusetts; Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania; with the charges on which he was to be tried. John Y. Mason of Virginia; Ellsworth of Con- Mr. Clay rejoined, that as to the uses which necticut; Mann of New-York; and Lytle of were to be made of this "paper" nothing seemed Ohio. The proceedings of this committee, and to run in the head of the Senator from Georgia the reception it met with from the bank, will but an impeachment. This seemed to be the be the subject of a future and separate chapter. only idea he could connect with the call. But Under the third resolution the Committee of there were many other purposes for which it Ways and Means soon brought in a bill in con- might be used, and he had never intended to formity to its provisions, which was passed by make it the ground of impeachment. It might a majority of 22, that is to say, by 112 votes show who was the real author of the removal against 90. And thus all the conduct of the of the deposits-whether the President, or the President in relation to the bank, received the Secretary of the Treasury? and whether this full sanction of the popular representation; and latter might not have been a mere automaton. presented the singular spectacle of full support Mr. Benton said there was no parliamentary in one House, and that one specially charged use that could be made of it, and no such use with the subject, while meeting condemnation had been, or could be specified. Only two uses in the other. can be made of a paper that may be rightfully called for one for legislation; the other for impeachment; and not even in the latter case when self-crimination was intended. No legislative use is intimated for this one; and the criminal use is disavowed, and is obliged to be, as the Senate is the tribunal to try, not the inquest to originate impeachments. But this paper cannot be rightfully called for. It is a communication to a cabinet; and communications to the cabinet are the same whether in writing, or in a speech. It is all parol. Could the copy of a speech made to the cabinet be called for? Could an account of the President's conversation with his cabinet be called for? Certainly not! and there is no difference between the written and the spoken communication-between the set speech and a conversation-between a thing made public, or kept secret. The President may refuse to give the copy; and certainly will consult his rights and his self-respect by so refusing. As for the contents of the paper, he has given them to the country, and courts the judgment of the country upon it. He avows his act—gives his reasons-and leaves it to all to judge. He is not a man of concealments, or of irresponsibility. He gave the paper to the public instantly, and authentically, with his name fully signed to it; and any one can say what they please of it. If CHAPTER XCVII. CALL ON THE PRESIDENT FOR A COPY OF THE "PAPER READ TO THE CABINET." In the first days of the session Mr. Clay submitted a resolution, calling on the President to inform the Senate whether the "paper," published as alleged by his authority, and purporting to have been read to the cabinet in relation to the removal of the deposits, "be genuine or not;" and if it be "genuine," requesting him to cause a copy of it to be laid before the Senate. Mr. Forsyth considered this an unusual call, and wished to know for what purpose it was made. He presumed no one had any doubt of the authenticity of the published copy. He certainly had not. Mr. Clay justified his call on the ground that the "paper" had been published had become public-and was a thing of general notoriety. If otherwise, and it had remained a confidential communication to his cabinet, he certainly should not ask for it; but not answering as to the use he proposed to make of it, Mr. Forsyth returned to that point, and said it is wanted for an invective, or philippic, there it is! ready for use, and seeking no shelter for want of authenticity. It is given to the world, and is expected to stand the test of all examination. Mr. Forsyth asked the yeas and nays on Mr. Clay's call; they were ordered; and the resolution passed by 23 to 18. The next day the President replied to it, and to the effect that was generally foreseen. He declared the Executive to be a co-ordinate branch of the government, and denied the right of the Senate to call upon him for any copies of his communications to his cabinet-either written or spoken. Feeling his responsibility to the American people, he said he should be always ready to explain to them his conduct; knowing the constitutional rights of the Senate, he should never withhold from it any information in his power to give, and necessary to the discharge of its duties. This was the end of the call; and such an end was the full proof that it ought not to have been made. No act could be predicated upon it-no action taken on its communication-none upon the refusal, either of censure or coercion. The President stood upon his rights; and the Senate could not, and did not, say that he was wrong. The call was a wrong step, and gave the President an easy and a graceful victory. himself back into power: and this being seen, his efforts became unavailing, and distasteful to the public; and he lost his power and influence with the people, and sunk his friends with him. More than one hundred and sixty of his supporters in the House of Commons, lost their places at the ensuing election, and were sportively called "Fox's Martyrs ;" and when they had a procession in London, wearing the tails of foxes in their hats, and some one wondered where so many tails of that animal had come from, Mr. Pitt slyly said a great many foxes had been lately taken: one, upon an average, in every borough. Mr. Fox, young at that time, lived to recover from this prostration; but his mistake was one of those of which history is full, and the lesson of which is in vain read to succeeding generations. Public men continue to attack their adversaries in power, and oppose their measures, while having private griefs of their own to redress, and personal ends of their own to accomplish; and the instinctive sagacity of the people always sees the sinister motive, and condemns the conduct founded upon it. Mr. Clay, Mr. Calhoun, and Mr. Webster were now all united against General Jackson, with all their friends, and the Bank of the United States. The two former had their private griefs: Mr. Clay in the results of the election, and Mr. Calhoun in the quarrel growing out of the discovery of his conduct in Mr. Monroe's cabinet; and it would have been difficult so to have conducted their opposition, and attack, as to have avoided the imputation of a personal motive. But they so conducted it as to authorize and suggest that imputation. Their movements all took a personal and vindictive, instead of a legislative and remedial, nature. Mr. Taney's reasons for removing the deposits were declared to be IN the year 1783, Mr. Fox, the great parliamentary debater, was in the zenith of his power"unsatisfactory and insufficient "--being words and popularity, and the victorious leader in the House of Commons. He gave offence to the King, and was dismised from the ministry, and immediately formed a coalition with Lord North; and commenced a violent opposition to the acts of the government. Patriotism, love of liberty, hatred of misrule and oppression, were the avowed objects of his attacks; "but every one saw (to adopt the language of history), that the real difficulty was his own exclusion from office; and that his coalition with his old enemy and all these violent assaults, were only to force of reproach, and no remedy; nor was the remedy of restoration proposed until driven into it. The resolution, in relation to Gen. Jackson, was still more objectionable. The Senate had nothing to do with him personally, yet a resolve was proposed against him entirely personal, charging him with violating the laws and the constitution; and proposing no remedy for this imputed violation, nor for the act of which it was the subject. It was purely and simply a personal censure-a personal condemnation that was proposed; and, to aggravate the proposition, it came from the suggestion of the bank directors' me- of the resolution condemning General Jackson, morial to Congress. on which all this machinery of distress and panic The combination was formidable. The bank was hung, required no part of that time. There itself was a great power, and was able to carry was the same majority to vote it the first day distress into all the business departments of the as the last; but the time was wanted to get up country; the political array against the President the alarm and the distress; and the vote, when was unprecedented in point of number, and great taken, was not from any exhaustion of the means in point of ability. Besides the three eminent of terrifying and agonizing the country, but for chiefs, there were, in the Senate: Messrs. Bibb the purpose of having the sentence of condemof Kentucky; Ezekiel Chambers of Maryland; nation ready for the Virginia elections-ready Clayton of Delaware; Ewing of Ohio; Free- for spreading over Virginia at the approach of linghuysen of New Jersey; Watkins Leigh of the April elections. The end proposed to themVirginia; Mangum of North Carolina; Poindex-selves by the combined parties, was, for the bank, ter of Mississippi; Alexander Porter of Louisi-a recharter and the restoration of the deposits; ana; William C. Preston of South Carolina; for the politicians, an ascent to power upon the Southard of New Jersey; Tyler of Virginia. overthrow of Jackson. In the House of Representatives, besides the The friends of General Jackson saw the adex-President, Mr. Adams, and the eminent jurist vantages which were presented to them in the from Pennsylvania, Mr. Horace Binney, there unhallowed combination between the moneyed was a long catalogue of able speakers: Messrs. and a political power-in the personal and vinArcher of Virginia; Bell of Tennessee; Burgess dictive character which they gave to the proof Rhode Island; Rufus Choate of Massachu- ceedings-the private griefs of the leading assetts; Corwin of Ohio; Warren R. Davis of sailants-the unworthy objects to be attained South Carolina; John Davis of Massachusetts; and the cruel means to be used for their atEdward Everett of Massachusetts; Millard Fill-tainment. These friends were also numerous, more of New-York, afterwards President; Robert P. Letcher of Kentucky; Benjamin Hardin of Kentucky; McDuffie of South Carolina; Peyton of Tennessee; Vance of Ohio; Wilde of Georgia; Wise of Virginia: in all, above thirty able speakers, many of whom spoke many times; besides many others of good ability, but without extensive national reputations. The business of the combination was divided-distress and panic the object and the parts distributed, and separately cast to produce the effect. The bank was to make the distress—a thing easy for it to do, from its own moneyed power, and its power over other moneyed institutions and money dealers; also to get up distress meetings and memorials, and to lead the public press: the politicians were to make the panic, by the alarms which they created for the safety of the laws, of the constitution, the public liberty, and the public money and most zealously did each division of the combination perform its part, and for the long period of three full months. The decision VOL. I.-26 zealous, able, determined; and animated by the consciousness that they were on the side of their country. They were, in the Senate :Messrs. Forsyth of Georgia; Grundy of Tennessee; Hill of New Hampshire; Kane of Illinois; King of Alabama; Rives of Virginia; Nathaniel Tallmadge of New York; Hugh L. White of Tennessee; Wilkins of Pennsylvania; Silas Wright of New-York; and the author of this THIRTY YEARS' VIEW. In the House, were:-Messrs. Beardsley of New-York; Cambreleng of New-York; Clay of Alabama; Gillett of New-York; Hubbard of New Hampshire; McKay of North Carolina; Polk of Tennessee; Francis Thomas of Maryland; Vanderpoel of New-York; and Wayne of Georgia. Mr. Clay opened the debate in a prepared speech, commencing in the style which the rhetoricians call ex abruptu-being the style of opening which the occasion required-that of rousing and alarming the passions. It will be found (its essential parts) in the next chapter. CHAPTER XCIX. MR. CLAY'S SPEECH AGAINST PRESIDENT JACKSON ON THE REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS-EX TRACTS. "MR. CLAY addressed the Senate as follows: We are, said he, in the midst of a revolution, hitherto bloodless, but rapidly tending towards a total change of the pure republican character of the government, and to the concentration of all power in the hands of one man. The powers of Congress are paralyzed, except when exerted in conformity with his will, by frequent and an extraordinary exercise of the executive veto, not anticipated by the founders of the constitution, and not practised by any of the predecessors of the present Chief Magistrate. And, to cramp them still more, a new expedient is springing into use, of withholding altogether bills which have received the sanction of both Houses of Congress, thereby cutting off all opportunity of passing them, even if, after their return, the members should be unanimous in their favor. The constitutional participation of the Senate in the appointing power is virtually abolished, by the constant use of the power of removal from office without any known cause, and by the appointment of the same individual to the same office, after his rejection by the Senate. How often have we, senators, felt that the check of the Senate, instead of being, as the constitution intended, a salutary control, was an idle ceremony? How often, when acting on the case of the nominated successor, have we felt the injustice of the removal? How often have we said to each other, well, what can we do? the office cannot remain vacant without prejudice to the public interests; and, if we reject the proposed substitute, we cannot restore the displaced, and perhaps some more unworthy man may be nominated. "The judiciary has not been exempted from the prevailing rage for innovation. Decisions of the tribunals, deliberately pronounced, have been contemptuously disregarded, and the sanctity of numerous treaties openly violated. Our Indian relations, coeval with the existence of the government, and recognized and established by numerous laws and treaties, have been subverted; the rights of the helpless and unfortunate aborigines trampled in the dust, and they brought under subjection to unknown laws, in which they have no voice, promulgated in an unknown language. The most extensive and most valuable public domain that ever fell to the lot of one nation is threatened with a total sacrifice. The general currency of the country, the life-blood of all its business, is in the most imminent danger of universal disorder and confusion. The power of internal improvement lies crushed beneath the veto. The system of pro tection of American industry was snatched from impending destruction at the last session; but we are now coolly told by the Secretary of the Treasury, without a blush, 'that it is understood to be conceded on all hands that a tariff for protection merely is to be finally abandoned.' By the 3d of March, 1837, if the progress of innovation continue, there will be scarcely a vestige remaining of the government and its policy, as they existed prior to the 3d of March, 1829. In a term of years, a little more than equal to that which was required to establish our liberties, the government will have been transformed into an elective monarchy-the worst of all forms of government. "Such is a melancholy but faithful picture of the present condition of our public affairs. It is not sketched or exhibited to excite, here or elsewhere, irritated feeling; I have no such purpose. I would, on the contrary, implore the Senate and the people to discard all passion and prejudice, and to look calmly but resolutely upon the actual state of the constitution and the country. Although I bring into the Senate the same unabated spirit, and the same firm determination, which have ever guided me in the support of civil liberty, and the defence of our constitution, I contemplate the prospect before us with feelings of deep humiliation and profound mortification. "It is not among the least unfortunate symptoms of the times, that a large proportion of the good and enlightened men of the Union, of all parties, are yielding to sentiments of despondency. There is, unhappily, a feeling of distrust and insecurity pervading the community. Many of our best citizens entertain serious apprehensions that our Union and our institutions are destined to a speedy overthrow. Sir, I trust that the hopes and confidence of the country will revive. There is much occasion for manly independence and patriotic vigor, but none for despair. Thank God, we are yet free; and, if we put on the chains which are forging for us, it will be because we deserve to wear them. We should never despair of the repub lic. If our ancestors had been capable of surrendering themselves to such ignoble sentiments, our independence and our liberties would never have been achieved. The winter of 1776-'77, was one of the gloomiest periods of our revolution; but on this day, fifty-seven years ago, the father of his country achieved a glorious victory, which diffused joy, and gladness, and animation throughout the States, Let us cherish the hope that, since he has gone from among us, Providence, in the dispensation of his mercies, has near at hand, in reserve for us, though yet unseen by us, some sure and happy deliverance from all impending dangers. When we assembled here last year, we were full of dreadful forebodings. On the one hand, we were menaced with a civil war, which, lighting up in a single State, might spread its flames throughout one of the largest sections of the |