"After Mr. B. had concluded his remarks, Mr. Clay rose and said:

promise and threaten in each other's behalf. -perish in corruption-no! A field of arms, For this campaign the bank created its debt of and of glory, should be her end. She had a thirty millions in the West; in this campaign right to a battle-a great, immortal battlethe associate leaders use that debt for their own where heroes and patriots could die with the purposes. Vote for Jackson! and suits, judg-liberty which they scorned to survive, and conments, and executions shall sweep, like the besom secrate, with their blood, the spot which marked of destruction, throughout the vast region of the a nation's fall. West! Vote against him! and indefinite indulgence is basely promised! The debt itself, it is pretended, will, perhaps, be forgiven; or, at all events, hardly ever collected! Thus, an open bribe of thirty millions is virtually offered to the West; and, lest the seductions of the bribe may not be sufficient on one hand, the terrors of destruction are brandished on the other! Wretched, infatuated men, cried Mr. B. Do they think the West is to be bought? Little do they know of the generous sons of that magnificent region! poor, indeed, in point of money, but rich in all the treasures of the heart! rich in all the qualities of freemen and republicans! rich in all the noble feelings which look with equal scorn upon a bribe or a threat. The hunter of the West, with moccasins on his feet, and a hunting shirt drawn around him, would repel with indignation the highest bribe that the bank could offer him. The wretch (said Mr. Benton, with a significant gesture) who dared to offer it, would expiate the insult with his blood.

"Mr. B. rapidly summed up with a view of the dangerous power of the bank, and the present audacity of her conduct. She wielded a debt of seventy millions of dollars, with an organization which extended to every part of the Union, and she was sole mistress of the moneyed power of the republic. She had thrown herself into the political arena, to control and govern the presidential election. If she succeeded in that election, she would wish to consolidate her power by getting control of all other elections. Governors of States, judges of the courts, representatives and senators in Congress, all must belong to her. The Senate especially must belong to her; for, there lay the power to confirm nominations and to try impeachments; and, to get possession of the Senate, the legislatures of a majority of the States would have to be acquired. The war is now upon Jackson, and if he is defeated, all the rest will fall an easy prey. What individual could stand in the States against the power of the bank, and that bank flushed with a victory over the conqueror of the conquerors of Bonaparte? The whole government would fall into the hands of this moneyed power. An oligarchy would be immediately established; and that oligarchy, in a few generations, would ripen into a monarchy. All governments must have their end; in the lapse of time, this republic must perish; but that time, he now trusted, was far distant; and when it comes, it should come in glory, and not in shame. Rome had her Pharsalia, and Greece her Charonea; and this republic, more illustrious in her birth than Greece or Rome, was entitled to a death as glorious as theirs. She would not die by poison

"The senator from Missouri expresses dissatisfaction that the speeches of some senators should fill the galleries. He has no ground for uneasiness on this score. For if it be the fortune of some senators to fill the galleries when they speak, it is the fortune of others to empty them, with whatever else they fill the chamber. The senator from Missouri has every reason to be well satisfied with the effect of his performance to day; for among his auditors is a lady of great literary eminence. [Pointing to Mrs. Royal.] The senator intimates, that in my remarks on the message of the President, I was deficient in a proper degree of courtesy towards that officer. Whether my deportment here be decorous or not, I should not choose to be decided upon by the gentleman from Missouri. I answered the President's arguments, and gave my own views of the facts and inferences introduced by him into his message. The President states that the bank has an injurious operation on the interests of the West, and dwells upon its exhausting effects, its stripping the country of its currency, &c., and upon these views and statements I commented in a manner which the occasion called for. But, if I am to be indoctrinated in the rules of decorum, I shall not look to the gentleman for instruction. I shall not strip him of his Indian blankets to go to Boon's Lick for lessons in deportment, nor yet to the Court of Versailles, which he eulogizes. There are some peculiar reasons why I should not go to that senator for my views of decorum, in regard to my bearing towards the chief magistrate, and why he is not a fit instructor. I never had any personal rencontre with the President of the United States. I never complained of any outrages on my person committed by him. I never published any bulletins respecting his private brawls. The gentleman will understand my allusion. [Mr. B. said: He will understand you, sir, and so will you him.] I never complained, that while a brother of mine was down on the ground, senseless or dead, he received another blow. I have never made any declaration like these relative to the individual who is President. There is also a singular prophecy as to the consequences of the election of this individual, which far surpasses, in evil foreboding, whatever I may have ever said in regard to his election. I never made any prediction so sinister, nor made any declaration so harsh, as that which is contained in the prediction to which I allude. I never declared my apprehension and belief, that if he were elected, we should be obliged to legislate with pistols and dirks by

our side. At this last stage of the session I do not rise to renew the discussion of this question. I only rose to give the senator from Missouri a full acquittance, and I trust there will be no further occasion for opening a new account with him.

tain charge against me, and he referred to witnesses to prove it. I denied the truth of the charge. He called upon his witness to prove it. I leave it to the country to say, whether that witness sustained the truth of the Presi dent's allegation. That witness is now on his passage to St. Petersburg, with a commission in his pocket. [Mr. B. here said aloud, in his place, the Mississippi and the fisheries-Mr. Adams and the fisheries-every body understands it.] Mr. C. said, I do not yet understand the senator. He then remarked upon the ‘prediction' which the senator from Missouri had disclaimed. Can he, said Mr. C., look to me, and say that he never used the language attri buted to him in the placard which he refers to? He says, Col. Lawless denies that he used the words in the State of Missouri. Can you look me in the face, sir [addressing Mr. B.], and say that you never used that language out of the State of Missouri?

"Mr. B. I look, sir, and repeat that it is an atrocious calumny; and I will pin it to him who

Mr. Clay. Then I declare before the Senate that you said to me the very words"[Mr. B. in his place, while Mr. Clay was yet speaking, several times loudly repeated the word 'false, false, false.']

"Mr. Clay said, I fling back the charge of atrocious calumny upon the senator from Missouri. A call to order was here heard from several senators.

"Mr. B. replied. It is true, sir, that I had an affray with General Jackson, and that I did complain of his conduct. We fought, sir; and we fought, I hope, like men. When the explosion was over, there remained no ill will, on either side. No vituperation or system of petty persecution was kept up between us. Yes, sir, it is true, that I had the personal difficulty, which the senator from Kentucky has had the delicacy to bring before the Senate. But let me tell the senator from Kentucky there is no ad'journed question of veracity' between me and General Jackson. All difficulty between us ended with the conflict; and a few months after it, I believe that either party would cheerfully have relieved the other from any peril; and now we shake hands and are friendly when we meet. I repeat, sir, that there is no adjourned ques-repeats it here. tion of veracity' between me and General Jackson, standing over for settlement. If there had been, a gulf would have separated us as deep as hell. "Mr. B. then referred to the prediction alleged by Mr. Clay, to have been made by him. I have seen, he said, a placard, first issued in Missouri, and republished lately. It first appeared in 1825, and stated that I had said, in a public address, that if General Jackson should be elected, we must be guarded with pistols and dirks to defend ourselves while legislating here. This went the rounds of the papers at the time. A gentleman, well acquainted in the State of Missouri (Col. Lawless), published a handbill denying the truth of the statement, and calling upon any person in the State to name the time and place, when and where, any such address had been heard from me, or any such declaration made. Colonel Lawless was perfectly familiar with the campaign, but he could never meet with a single individual, man, woman, or child, in the State, who could recollect to have ever heard any such remarks from me. No one came forward to reply to the call. No one had ever heard me make the declaration which was charged upon me. The same thing has lately been printed here, and, in the night, stuck up in a placard upon the posts and walls of this city. While its author remained concealed, it was impossible for me to hold him to account, nor could I make him responsible, who, in the dark, sticks it to the posts and walls: but since it is in open day introduced into this chamber I am enabled to meet it as it deserves to be met. I see who it is that uses it here, and to his face [pointing to Mr. Clay] I am enabled to pronounce it, as I now do, an atrocious calumny.

"Mr. Clay. The assertion that there is 'an adjourned question of veracity' between me and Gen. Jackson, is, whether made by man or master, absolutely false. The President made a cer

"The President, pro tem., said, the senator from Kentucky is not in order, and must take his seat.

"Mr. Clay. Will the Chair state the point of order?

"The Chair, said Mr. Tazewell (the President pro tem.), can enter in no explanations with the senator.

"Mr. Clay. I shall be heard. I demand to know what point of order can be taken against me, which was not equally applicable to the senator from Missouri.

"The President, pro tem., stated, that he considered the. whole discussion as out of order. He would not have permitted it, had he been in the chair at its commencement.

"Mr. Poindexter said, he was in the chair at the commencement of the discussion, and did not then see fit to check it. But he was now of the opinion that it was in not in order.

"Mr. B. I apologize to the Senate for the manner in which I have spoken; but not to the senator from Kentucky.

"Mr. Clay. To the Senate I also offer an apology. To the senator from Missouri none. "The question was here called for, by several senators, and it was taken, as heretofore reported.

The conclusion of the debate on the side of the bank was in the most impressive form to the fears and apprehensions of the country, and

well calculated to alarm and rouse a community. Mr. Webster concluded with this peroration, presenting a direful picture of distress if the veto was sustained, and portrayed the death of the constitution before it had attained the fiftieth year of its age. He concluded thus-little foreseeing in how few years he was to invoke the charity of the world's silence and oblivion for the institution which his rhetoric then exalted into a great and beneficent power, indispensable to the well working of the government, and the well conducting of their affairs by all the people:

These

here avowed and their government.
cannot subsist together. The one or the other
must be rejected. If the sentiments of the
message shall receive general approbation, the
constitution will have perished even earlier than
the moment which its enemies originally allowed
for the termination of its existence. It will not
have survived to its fiftieth year."

On the other hand, Mr. White, of Tennessee, exalted the merit of the veto message above all the acts of General Jackson's life, and claimed for it a more enduring fame, and deeper gratitude than for the greatest of his victories: and concluded his speech thus:

"Mr. President, we have arrived at a new epoch. We are entering on experiments with "When the excitement of the time in which the government and the constitution of the we act shall have passed away, and the historicountry, hitherto untried, and of fearful and an and biographer shall be employed in giving appalling aspect. This message calls us to the his account of the acts of our most distinguished contemplation of a future, which little resem- public men, and comes to the name of Andrew bles the past. Its principles are at war with all Jackson; when he shall have recounted all the that public opinion has sustained, and all which great and good deeds done by this man in the the experience of the government has sanctioned. course of a long and eventful life, and the cirIt denies first principles. It contradicts truths cumstances under which this message was comheretofore received as indisputable. It denies municated shall have been stated, the conclusion to the judiciary the interpretation of law, and will be, that, in doing this, he has shown a demands to divide with Congress the origination willingness to risk more to promote the happiof statutes. It extends the grasp of Executiveness of his fellow-men, and to secure their libpretension over every power of the government. erties, than by the doing of any other act whatBut this is not all. It presents the Chief Mag- ever." istrate of the Union in the attitude of arguing away the powers of that government over which And such, in my opinion, will be the judghe has been chosen to preside; and adopting, ment of posterity-the judgment of posterity, for this purpose, modes of reasoning which, if furnished with the material to appreciate the even under the influence of all proper feeling towards high official station, it is difficult to circumstances under which he acted when signregard as respectable. It appeals to every pre-ing the message which was to decide the quesjudice which may betray men into a mistaken tion of supremacy between the bank and the view of their own interests; and to every pas-. sion which may lead them to disobey the impulses of their understanding. It urges all the specious topics of State rights, and national encroachment, against that which a great majority of the States have affirmed to be rightful, and in which all of them have acquiesced. It sows, in an unsparing manner, the seeds of jealousy and ill-will against that government of which its author is the official head. It raises a cry that liberty is in danger, at the very moment when it puts forth claims to power heretofore unknown and unheard of. It affects alarm for the public freedom, when nothing so much endangers that freedom as its own unparalleled pretences. This, even, is not all. It manifestly seeks to influence the poor against the rich. It wantonly attacks whole classes of the people, and the fourth year from the last presidential for the purpose of turning against them the pre-election, and being the long session which prejudices and resentments of other classes. It is a state paper which finds no topic too exciting for its use; no passion too inflammable for its address and its solicitation. Such is this message. It remains, now, for the people of the United States to choose between the principles

government.

CHAPTER LXIX.

THE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM.

THE cycle had come round which, periodically, and once in four years, brings up a presidential election and a tariff discussion. The two events seemed to be inseparable; and this being the fourth year from the great tariff debate of 1828,

cedes the election, it was the one in regular course in which the candidates and their friends make the greatest efforts to operate upon public opinion through the measures which they propose, or oppose in Congress. Added to this, the

election being one on which not only a change comfort, not produced at home. Mr. Clay pro

of political parties depended, but also a second posed to make the reduction in subordination to trial of the election in the House of Representa- the preservation of the "American system:" tives in 1824-25, in which Mr. Adams and Mr. and this opened the whole question of free trade Clay triumphed over General Jackson, with the and protection; and occasioned that field to be advantage on their side now of both being in Con- trod over again with all the vigor of a fresh exgress: for these reasons this session became the ploration. Mr. Clay opened his great speech with most prolific of party topics, and of party con- a retrospect of what the condition of the country tests, of any one ever seen in the annals of our was for seven years before the tarriff of 1824, Congress. And certainly there were large sub- and what it had been since-the first a period of jects to be brought before the people, and great unprecedented calamity, the latter of equally talents to appear in their support and defence. unprecedented prosperity:-and he made the The renewal of the national bank charter-the two conditions equally dependent upon the abcontinuance of the protective system-internal sence and presence of the protective system. improvement by the federal government-divi- He said: sion of the public land money, or of the lands themselves-colonization society-extension of pension list-Georgia and the Cherokees-Georgia and the Supreme Court-imprisoned missionaries-were all brought forward, and pressed with zeal, by the party out of power; and pressed in a way to show their connection with the presidential canvass, and the reliance upon them to govern its result. The party in power were chiefly on the defensive; and it was the complete civil representation of a military attack and defence of a fortified place—a siege—with its open and covert attacks on one side, its repulses and sallies on the other-its sappings and minings, as well as its open thundering assaults. And this continued for seven long months-from December to July; fierce in the beginning, and becoming more so from day to day until the last hour of the last day of the exhausted session. It was the most fiery and

"Eight years ago, it was my painful duty to present to the other House of Congress an unexaggerated picture of the general distress per vading the whole land. We must all yet remember some of its frightful features. We all know that the people were then oppressed and borne down by an enormous load of debt; that the value of property was at the lowest point of depression; that ruinous sales and sacrifices were every where made of real estate; that stop laws and relief laws and paper money were adopted to save the people from impending destruction; that a deficit in the public revenue existed, which compelled government to seize upon, and divert from its legitimate object, the appropriation to the sinking fund, to redeem the national debt; and that our commerce and navigation were threatened with a complete paralysis. In short, sir, if I were to select any term of seven years since the adoption of the present constitution, which exhibited a scene of the most wide-spread dismay and desolation, it would be exactly the term of seven years which immediately preceded the establishment of the tariff of 1824."

eventful session that I had then seen-or since seen, except one-the panic session of 1834-35. This was a faithful picture of that calamitous The two leading measures in this plan of opera-period, but the argument derived from it was a tions-the bank and the tariff-were brought forward simultaneously and quickly-on the same day, and under the same lead. The memorial for the renewal of the bank charter was presented in the Senate on the 9th day of January: on the same day, and as soon as it was referred, Mr. Clay submitted a resolution in relation to the tariff, and delivered a speech of three days' duration in support of the American system. The President, in his message, and in view of the approaching extinction of the public debtthen reduced to an event of certainty within the ensuing year-recommended the abolition of duties on numerous articles of neccessity or

two-edged sword, which cut, and deeply, into another measure, also lauded as the cause of the public prosperity. These seven years of national distress which immediately preceded the tariff of 1824, were also the same seven years which immediately followed the establishment of the national bank; and which, at the time it was chartered, was to be the remedy for all the distress under which the country labored: besides, the protective system was actually commenced in the year 1816-contemporaneously with the establishment of the national bank. Before 1816, protection to home industry had been an incident to the levy of revenue; but in 1816 it be