1652 SENATE.] President's Protest. [MAY 6, 1834. received. A member under the rule presents a memorial tion are resting upon our firmness and integrity. That in his place, states its contents, and if no objection is remains to be seen. made, it is received. If objection is made, the sense of moderation, and wisdom did not govern the Senate, it the Senate is taken-the memorial remaining, until the will come to be considered a blot upon our system. It In his opinion, if greater caution, Senate agrees to receive it, in the hands of the Senator will lose its title to public confidence and regard whenwho offered it. How is it with an official message from ever the shield put under its care to interpose between the President to either House of Congress, or from one other departments and the people, is thrown away, to asbranch of the Legislature to the other? The Secretary sume the sword to assault co-ordinate branches of the of the Executive or of the House presents himself at our Government. bar: "I am directed to lay before the Senate a message in writing," &c. It is laid on our table-it is beyond the tells us that the President has assaulted the Senate-that The Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] control of the Executive or of the House--without our this protest is a declaration of war by the Chief Magis permission it cannot be withdrawn-it lies on the table of trate against the Senate. War on the Senate! What the Senate, in our possession, before and after it is read. was the resolution of the Senate? Whatever may be its contents, we cannot refuse to receive tion of war against the President? An appeal to the it, without acting absurdly. Admit our right to examine people to condemn and punish him? But the President's Was it not a declarathe paper, and decide upon its character before it is re-integrity is not put in issue by the resolution. Ah! ceived, and then, when passion, or reason, or prejudice, What, then, is put in issue? prevails, to refuse to receive a message disagreeable to his integrity. Can a man be accused of usurpation, of us, what becomes of the rights of the President and the tyranny, in office? Can an appeal be made to the peoHis understanding, if not two Houses, in their intercourse with the Executive and ple to rush to the rescue of their dearest rights, by one with each other? A bill is sent to the President. He re- who has seized the purse and the sword, without calling turns it with his veto-examining freely the powers of in question the integrity of the accused? Yet after angry Congress, and placing his refusal to pass the bill on the debates and unmeasured denunciations by his political ground of want of constitutional power in the Federal opponents, and they have imbodied their censure in one Government to legislate on the subject of it-speaks free- resolution, worded cautiously, to convey every thing ly or harshly of usurpations of power-and can we or the against him, and commit themselves as little as possible, House of Representatives refuse to receive it? What his temperate and respectful answer is, making war upon becomes of the bill? It is a law, if not returned to the the Senate-is appealing to the people against the judg House where it originates, in ten days. The message and ment of the representatives of the States! returned bill are not on file or on the Journals of either no war-he has made no appeal-he has answered a deHouse; no record of the veto, where alone it can or ought liberate accusation-he has met the appeal of the Senate He has made to be looked for, is on the Journals of the House where to the people. Did honorable members suppose the Pres the bill originated. ident would shrink from the tribunal to which the Senate Could What can the President appeal to? In the dispute called him, and refuse to plead? They could not know which will inevitably arise, who is to decide, and how? the President and have indulged such a thought. In the intercourse between us and the President, the right any President, however timid and irresolute, fail to deof the Executive is our right. ceive his messages, he could refuse to receive ours. If we could refuse to re- fend himself when thus assailed? That the Chief Magisbill is sent to him, he will not receive it. A trate had the right to answer his accusers, will not be debecome a law? He is allowed ten days to decide upon scrutiny might be demanded of the House of Represen When does it nied. How it should be done is more questionable. A giving or withholding his sanction. He denies having tatives, and in ordinary cases this might be the proper had the consideration of the bill-he has not received it. course. What is to become of the Government, if such questions House, the President had demanded an inquiry into his What would have been said if, going to the are permitted to be raised? In the intercourse between conduct, thus assailed as he was by the Senate unjustly, the two Houses of Congress, confusion and controversy and in disregard of the provisions of the constitution? would every day arise; in that between the two or either We should have been told that a conspiracy was on foot branch of Congress and the Executive, disastrous hostili- to destroy the Senate by a union of the Executive and of ty, followed by violent convulsions, would be the una- the House of Representatives-that the President was voidable result. It was too late, out of time, to talk of perfectly safe in demanding an inquiry, because a constireceiving the message. It was there. cial character of the President, or his personal honor, was tained by the vote on the resolution of censure, found to As far as the offi- tutional majority of the Senate could not be, as was ascerconcerned, it was indifferent whether the Senate refused pronounce him guilty. The course pursued of sending to receive the message, or what treatment it met. F. thought it had been addressed by the proper channel tainly just and fair. There is his defence made necesMr. the defence to those who made the accusation, was certo the people. As an act of justice to the body, it was sary by the act of the Senate. It is denounced as a comsent through the Senate. they would form and act upon a fair judgment of it. Mr. the record. Does he command? The language is, "I It was before the people, and mand to stain our records by recording a contradiction of F. was anxious that a proper disposition should be made request." of it, from regard to the character of the Senate. more disrespectfully it was treated, the worse for the Sen- bled by a sense of guilt and penitent for his transgresBut this request is not made, says the Senator The from Kentucky, [Mr. CLAY,] as a convicted criminal, bumate, the better for the Executive. In this question, which sion. No, indeed, it is not. had been most unnecessarily raised between them, Mr. and moderate, but firm tone of an officer conscious of inF. believed the Senate were in the wrong, and feared nocence, and forgetting the injury inflicted upon him in it is made in the respectful that the true character and just influence of the body his just reliance on the justice of his fellow-citizens and would be most dangerously impaired, if the message of of posterity. He requests only that it may be recorded the Chief Magistrate, chosen by the people, and vested with the accusation, that it may be preserved for the inwith their executive powers, was not treated with due spection of all those who shall see the charge. decorum and respect. Recent events have fixed public Senate refuse this request? It may he thrown in the fire attention, with intense anxiety, upon the Senate. Will the character was scrutinized, and on its future conduct de- consequence of such treatment will fall upon the Senate. Its treated with any and every species of contumely-the pended its fate. Honorable Senators tell us that we possess the public confidence, and that the hopes of the na- who have given occasion for it, ought to rejoice. True, or false, it should be preserved. If false, those A fair MAY 6, 1834.] President's Protest. [SENATE. The argu scrutiny into it, will be just and appropriate. Examine should be beyond Executive interference. it facts, prove them to be assumed, doubtful, or false.ment would be good, if the constitution said any thing Sift its arguments, show them to be loose, illogical, or about separate resolutions. As it did not, the fairer inillusory. Weigh its conclusions, demonstrate them to be ference was, that separate resolutions were not thought unsound. The Senate owes to itself, and to the Pres- of by the framers or authors of the Government. The ident, and to the people of the States, to place the sub- authority of each House to regulate its own proceedings, ject in all its true lights, before the world. The Sen- referred to, could not apply, as the object of these cenator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] asks for the con- sorial resolutions was to regulate the course, or, more stitutional authority of the President to send such a mes- properly, to influence the proceedings of others. age? Mr. F. would answer this question distinctly. The President can, of course, have no business with The authority is given in the concluding paragraph of what is done in the regulation of the proceedings of either that part of the constitution which authorized the Senate House; but when the resolutions are exclusively external to pass the resolution. Where is that to be found? No- in their operation, and operate directly on his official and where. The right of the Senate rests upon implication-personal conduct and character, his right to interfere is requires demonstration. Demonstrate the theorem by much more clear than the right of either House thus to what process ye may, the President's right to reply and operate upon him. It is, in fact, but the mere right of protest, is the corollary. The same honorable Senator, self-defence, not denied to any individual or body corhowever, says, the Executive can take no power by im- porate, however humble, or however exalted. The Pres. plication or construction; there are constructive powers, ident had, as was said by the same Senator, the audacity but they are all legislative. The Senator had, in a for- to enter the Senate hall, and interfere between members mer discussion, acknowledged distinctly the power of re- and their constituents. Was that a fair statement? The moval in the President of the United States. Where was President had not only not interfered, but expressly disthe express grant for that? It was strictly a constructive claimed all right or intention to interfere between Senpower-1 power implied. Admitting, for argument's ators and their constituents and their consciences. lle sake, the accuracy of this distinction, where does the stated, in his own defence, naked facts, according to eviSenator find the power of the Senate by construction? dence recorded in the archives of the Senate. He has The whole Legislature, it is asserted, has constructive had the audacity to use simple facts, without drawing power; but each branch must have it separately. Where even an inference, in his defence. And why not use is the constructive power of either? Such is the argu- these facts, as well as any other facts, for that purpose? ment. The argument is, all have it; therefore each has The Senate is not very scrupulous in its treatment of the it. How very unsatisfactory, Mr. F. said, it was scarcely President; and the Senators who are so sensitive at this necessary, after stating it, to assert. Admitting, how- asserted, but denied, interference between them and ever, this ingenious fallacy to be sound reasoning, how their constituents, interfere between the President and does the Senator exclude the President from the benefit his constituents, without hesitation or delicacy. of it The President is an important portion of the Legis- Are we to use the rod without mercy, and treat the tive authority. How can it be denied, that the implied Executive as a whipped school-boy; charge him with auconstructive power belonging to the whole Legislature, dacity if he does not kiss the rod which has been applied if divisible, and to be severally assumed by two branches to his shoulders merely for his own good? If the Presof the three, among whom it is parcelled out, is not pos-ident had appealed to the States, had sent his address to sessed in any degree by the third? the State Legislatures, he would have been justified by the example set him here. He has not. He has left the Senators to their constituents, and no doubt the parties would, in due season, come to a right understanding. The power of passing censorial resolutions, by either House of Congress, was not to be found in the constitution. The framers of the constitution probably supposed such never could be necessary, the powers exThe Senator from South Carolina has called the attenpressly granted to both, united or separately, being suf- tion of his adversaries to the late general application of ficient to prevent or to punish irregularity or criminality the term whig to the discordant fragments of all parties in the other departments of Government. Nor was it to opposed to the administration. He seemed to imagine be denied that the powers granted are amply sufficient, it arose from the peculiar applicability of the term. The except in cases of most extraordinary character, none of general application of the name did not prove any fitness which had, and, Mr. F. trusted, never could, occur. to the thing to which it was applied. It proceeded not Esther can prevent improvident legislation at its own will; from the harmony between the name and the thing, but the two Houses can correct misconstruction of laws, by from concert between those who were desirous of giving repealing or amending statutes-abuse of power by enact- a new and popular name to old and unpopular things. ng new limitations on its exercise; while the great rem- There was an organized and associated press, directed, edy of impeachment is at hand to prevent flagrant viola- if not by one impulse here, at least directed to one end tions of Executive duty. The inquiry alone into the con- by different impulses. The press, through all its ramifi. duct of the Executive, in any of its branches, with a view cations, taking up the watch-word "whig" from its pure to impeachment by the House of Representatives, was a source in New York, sounded it through the country, and more powerful corrective than any separate resolution of the secretary of the Hartford convention, and the 03disapprobation either House could pass. While, how-goods and Parishes of the pulpits of the East, and all ever, it may be admitted that either could, in its own like spirits of the West, and South, and Middle States, defence, or in cases of pressing danger, resort to this joined in the concerted cry. Mr. F. did not believe in Constructive authority to act by a separate resolution, it the possibility of deluding the people to embrace concannot be, never has been before, denied that the party demned doctrines and politicians, by the simultaneous censured, upbraided, with usurping power, or violating application to them of a respectable and venerated name. the obligation of duty, had a right to be heard in any He was sorry to see the attempt, because the effect would form he chose to present himself, justice and decorum to be to degrade a name associated with our glorious recolothers being duly regarded. lections of exalted patriotism and disinterested suffering; From the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] of great public services, and holy devotion to freedom. one singular idea fell. He had said, that, as joint resolu- Mr. F. asked if the name of whig would not be detions were constitutionally subjected to the President's graded if applied indiscriminately to persons who had velo, like acts of Congress, it followed that the framers disregarded, in the days of the country's peril, the obligaof the constitution intended that separate resolutions [tions of duty and patriotism. Ask the Northern section of SENATE.] President's Protest. [MAY 6, 1834. the opposition, if the nullifiers are whigs-twelve months Senate were now likely to have a discussion on the propsince they were rebels. Ask the Southern section if the ositions offered by the gentleman from South Carolina, Hartford conventionists are whigs—a few years since they with the prospect of a new discussion on those about were a disgrace to the country; were then the open ene- to be offered by the gentleman from Georgia. If the mies of the constitution. Ask the nationals and the con- vote were now taken, the way would be clear for the dissolidationists, the high tariff and internal improvement cussion of the resolutions which were yet to be offered. men, the State rights men, par excellence, if they are Mr. PRESTON said, it was not without surprise that each and all whigs, in the English or American accepta- he had remarked a great degree of acute sensibility among tion of the word—and the answer may be: Oh, yes! now, certain Senators, on any motion being submitted touching but not a short time since, and they will not be some short the encroachments of Executive power; when he did not time hence, if things go as the hope is that things will go. perceive the slightest degree of sensitiveness, if any mo Mr. F. felt how difficult it was to find an appropriate tion was made touching the power or rights of the Legis. name for the union of such discordant materials; but he lature of the United States. We seem (said Mr. P.) to thought he could furnish one sufficiently descriptive. look at things through different media, to which our own Unlike the party to which he would apply it, it was the peculiar interests or prejudices impart the hue which name of a compound, good in itself, and made of materi- tinges whatever we rest upon. I am far from supposing als all of which were good in their way. Suppose we that gentlemen, who seem so sensitive as to every thing call it the Punch party. Punch is the union of insipid which touches Executive power, can entertain the slightwater--the deluded men who are the chief material of the est idea that any motion of that sort will have the effect of party; acid, from the lime of Southern growth-it is pro- touching what may be their privileges and powers on duced in the open air in Mississippi; sweetness-the tariff some future occasion. I am sure they do not take the sugar from Louisiana; the spirit-rum of New England; view, that, in any limitation now prescribed to Executive home-made arrack from South Carolina; whiskey from power, they will be infringed on in any of their future the West, Monongahela or elsewhere; a dash of poteen rights. But I remark it as a curiosity of the times, that from the shop of Dr. McNeven, to catch the Irish-an this sensitiveness exists whenever Executive power is Irishman loves the smell of turf-smoke-the smack of un- touched, but that there is nothing of squeamishness exJawful distillation. Casting an eye to futurity, and sup-hibited when the rights and privileges of the Senate are posing that, unlike prophetic forebodings of war, pesti- assailed. Has not the lence, and famine, and of the coffin-hand bills, the pro The gentleman from Georgia has said that the Senate phecy of a day or two since, that the last nail was driven has made an assault on the President of the United States, into the coffin of Jacksonism, was realized--what a rous-and has rebuked my colleague for saying that the Presi ing wake we should have, punch being the order of the dent has made an assault on the Senate. Now, surely, night, when the veteran was carefully rolled in his pall, the Senate stands in the same relation to the President to be restored to the great mother of us all. The genius that the President stands in to the Senate. of discord might interrupt the harmony of the scene. If President sent here an attack on the Senate in its india question should arise about the division of the "spoils vidual and its corporate character and capacity, and deof victory," a glorious scratch would follow to deter- sired it to be put on our records that he has done so, and mine who should be administrator "de bonis non" of to let our Journal exhibit the accusation to the world? Uncle Sam. The insipid would stand no chance. Who And is there in this act any similarity to any thing which ever heard of a good cold-water administration? The has been done by the Senate? What is the state of acid is quite the thing to give a flavor to the compound, things? The Senate has passed sundry resolutions. Has but by itself it serves only to set the teeth of edge. The the President contented himself with passing resolutions sugar must be satisfied with the preservation of the 24 on his part, and entering them on his Journal? No: he cents per lb. duty. The struggle must rest among the has sent here his opinions, couched in his own peculiar spirits. Of arrack, there is not enough for a broad-bottom-terms, and expressive of his own peculiar principles; and ed administration. The poteen is of foreign birth, and the Senator from Georgia says the President, Andrew therefore excluded by the constitution. Nothing, then, Jackson, comes here with an humble request of the Senis left, but the New England rum and Western whiskey. ate to record his communication on their Journal, and How stands the account between them? Rum is made that we are bound to comply with it. Now, what would of domestic materials, in New England, the region of the President have said, if we had sent an officer to him, Faneuil hall, the cradle of American liberty. Yes, says and asked him to put our resolutions on his Executive Whiskey, but it is not always made of Southern molasses. Journal? Why, sir, he and his friends here would have And then there is the Hartford convention-and the called it, and justly called it, a usurpation of power, and cradle would have been made the grave of liberty, had the President would have rejected the application with not the child grown too great to be smothered in the shell scorn. If we had sent a copy to him in an official and in which its infant limbs were rocked. Whiskey is made private manner, would he have listened to any one who of home materials always--it is exclusively agricultural in should have advised him to put it on his Journal? What its origin but not in its tendency, says Rum--and then re-example have we had already. On a subject concerning collect the whiskey insurrection, when this rebellious li- the custody of the public treasure, the President has pro quid had almost stopped the wheels of the Government.' tested against the opinions of his own cabinet. His cabiThe balance of merit, especially as it regarded the Amer net expressed an opinion that he ought not to remove the ican system, being nearly even, the fate of empire would treasure. He made his protest against that opinion, and have to be decided by wager of battle, or the neighing of a horse. entered that protest on the Executive Journal. We sent to the President, by our resolution, to request a copy of Mr. POINDEXTER said, that notice had been given that paper; and what did the President answer to our re by the Senator from Georgia, of his intention to move two quest? Did he comply with that request? No, sir. What resolutions by way of amendment. This notification in he had communicated to his cabinet, what he had circuduced him (Mr. P.) now to ask that the vote be taken on lated to the whole world through the public newspapers, the resolutions offered by the Senator from South Caro- he refused to our request, because he said that, in malina, so as to have a distinct vote upon them. He was king that request, we had transcended our constitutions! desirous that then the discussion should go on as between powers. Now, when he comes to us with a request that the proposition to be made by the gentleman from Geor- we shall record on our Journal his protest against our gin, and the resolutions as they may be amended. The act, and when he has refused an application to him for MAY 6, 1834.] President's Protest. [SENATE. a copy of a paper on his Journal, the same Senators who table, and in the process of being read, this very paper, advised him to refuse our request, wish us to comply which the gentleman from Georgia says should not have with his. been sent to the people in any other way than through The principle on which the gentleman from Georgia the Senate, is scattered by the President's press, to the acts, is, that the Senate acted wrong in passing the accu- amount, it is said, of 40,000 copies, to the whole world. satory resolutions, and he thus justifies the President for What is sent here, therefore, as a protest, is a proclamasending his protest against the act. Can our wrong make tion to the people against the Senate, as a constitutional the President right? If we have been wrong in regard part and department of the Government. It is a stroke to him, does it follow that he may do wrong in regard to aimed at the constitution, intended to violate the constituus or, because we have been wrong, that wrong makes tion, by overturning and destroying the Senate. It is him right? Is Executive authority to stand so high, as said that we do not represent the people, because we are to be beyond all interference? Here is a protest sent to elected for six years, and that it is he who represents us to be recorded in perpetuam memoriam rei, on our the people. What is this? It is war against the Senate. Journals. The Senate have not gone out of their own The whole protes, from beginning to end, is reeking department. They have passed their own resolutions, with it. This protest of the poor old man, is, throughout, and placed them on their own Journal, which are in the war to the knife, and the knife to the hilt, against the hands of their own executive officer. And when the Senate. President has recorded his opinions on the Executive It is easy to see the object of all this war. We are the Journal, surely we have the same right to record our representatives of the States. The President is elected opinions on our Journal. But the President is not dis- by a majority of the people of each State, not of the States posed for mere defensive warfare. He is not contented as they are represented here. The gentleman from New with our entering our opinions on our own Journal, as he York and myself are on an equality here, but the Presi did his on the Executive Journal, but he steps out of his dent gets forty votes from New York, and only nine from department and comes here, as Andrew Jackson, with a South Carolina. Here, we who represent the State of request that we shall receive his opinions and record them South Carolina, and the gentlemen who represent the on our Journal. Suppose the Senate should go beyond State of Rhode Island, and the State of Delaware, reprctheir own Journal, and ask the President to enter on the sent as much as the gentlemen from the great State of Executive Journal the resolutions disapproving of his con- New York, or of Ohio, or of Pennsylvania; and, if the duct-would it be right? Should we not deserve to have President could destroy this body, three-fourths of the inour request thrown back upon us with scorn? Certainly fluence of the States would be annihilated. Here, the we should. Each department ought to be kept separate. States may successfully stand in the way of usurpation of The President may act as he pleases at the white house. power. If the great Middle States stood alone, the PresWe will act as we please here. ident could appeal to them against the smaller States, The gentleman from Georgia says that this question and, with these, the constitution would be crushed. This, had been made by the President, to repel an assault made then, is the tendency of things--to break down the Senon him by the Senate. What! Has Andrew Jackson aate and the States, which form a barrier between the lib. right to use his official character to come here, and to erties of the people and the approach of usurpation. The throw off that character as soon as he has obtained ad- President hints that the irresponsibility of this body to mission? It is not Andrew Jackson, but the President, the people, has induced him to make this attack on the who has come here. He comes, and by virtue of his of Senate. Of the number of Senators who go out next ficial character, forces open the doors of the Senate, year, eleven are opposed to the administration, to five walks up your avenue to the Chair, and then throws off who support it; they are going to meet their responsibil the disguise, and says, I am not the President, but only ity. Sixteen Senators go out; and these are of the older Andrew Jackson. And thus, by this Protean legerde- members of the body, who were here in 1824 and 1825. main, he comes in one form, and suddenly assumes anoth- Is it they who oppose the Executive? They have been er. This, sir, cannot be done. He is always the Presi- here the longest; subject to the absorbing influence of the dent when he comes here, and he is now complaining to Executive; they have always sustained Executive power; the Senate in the capacity and character of President. it has become their habit; they have grown up with it, This is a contest between the President and the Senate, and have a natural proclivity to fall into the arms of powand I am sorry that gentlemen should have put it on any er. The President may talk as he will of irresponsibility, other ground. We have not adverted to the man in any but the longer Senators have been here, the more favoract of ours; our reference has been to him in virtute officii; able have they become towards him. and, when he presents himself before the Senate, armed But as to him, he is elected by a small body of electors, and plumed as President, gentlemen are ready to strip who are removed from the people. It is true, we are tryhim of his official habiliments, to divest him of his plumes, ing to give the election directly to the people, and I hope and bring him hobbling to the door of the Senate, ejacu- we shall accomplish it. It is said the Senate does not latingspeak the will of the people, not being elected with a view to represent immediately the people; and that they "Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door," are not so near the people as the other branch. There My respect for the office will not permit me to acqui- may be something in the argument; but, if we are not so esce in such a construction. If the hand of power were near the people, we are nearer to the States; and it more to touch the meanest beggar in the street, I should say especially becomes our duty to regard this as one great that he had the right to come here with his prayer for confederacy of States. redress. But when the President of the United States I have no objection, that, when there is a difference comes here with his "Open Sesame!" and opens the por-between the departments of the Government, the Presitals of this chamber with the magic word, let me not be dent shall appeal to the people: but my objection is this, told that he comes here in his weakness and unpretending that, when the co-ordinate departments differ, one depoverty. partment shall not be required to register the proceed. Is it true that the sole object of this paper is to pro-ings of another. For the first time, it has now been seclaim to all future times, that an assault has been made riously broached within these walls, that the Senate is by the Senate on the President of the United States? Let confined in its operations to its duties, executive, legisla it be received, and this document is sent to the people tive, or judicial; and that it has no power to declare its through the medium of the Senate. While lying on our opinions out of the limits of these duties. I recollect, Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, SENATE.] President's Protest. [MAY 6, 1834. when such a question arose as to the State Governments ligament will again be broken; but I tell gentlemen on and the Government of the United States, they who read the other side, that it will not be broken until the danger the constitution better than we do, asserted that a State is passed away, and oppression has relaxed its grasp upon Government could not express an opinion as to any dif- the country. Then, if we choose to fall back into our ference between the President and any other department original minority, and shall discover danger from another of the Government. The contest between federalism and majority, we shall again be found warring against that democracy went on that principle. We have an unques- majority with the same energy as we are now contending. tionable right here to express any kind of opinions we We are the advocates of State rights-although small, may think proper, and the more readily, when that ex-resolved and consistent in our purpose. When we were pression can lead to no legislative provisions, because, if before the world contending for our principles toe to toe, they were so to lead, it might require the co-operation of against our opponents, where was the President? Of what the co-ordinate branches; but we have the right to ex-party was he? He stood by until the dispute was nearly press opinions. If gentlemen would put their sentiments settled, and then drew his sword, and calling his party to in the form of a negative proposition, that we shall not rally to the gleam of it, directed his exterminating hostil pass any resolutions disapproving of any act of the Ex-ity against us. And when we were cold and stiff, true ecutive, we shall then understand that we have only still to his military propensity, he sought for some other the power to become a body of flatterers of the Executive. object for his attack, and struck at the Bank of the United The other House have passed a resolution that the States. In vain did the bank hold up the constitution for bank shall not be re-chartered, because it is unconstitu- its protection-he struck through it-in vain did the ventional. This resolution leads to no legislative action. On erated instrument resist the Executive mace. We, not the contrary, it excludes all legislation. Suppose a ven-yet dead, struck with horror at the baseness of the act, erable old man, not dead, but standing on the verge, rushed with all our energies to the rescue, and now we were to rise up from his almost sepulchre at Montpelier, find ourselves in mingled ranks. If the struggle shall be and to say, "I, at one period, pronounced a bank un- pressed, let what may happen, whoever he be that joins constitutional; but, at another time, I approved of an act himself to us, it is immaterial what name he comes with, to charter a bank. You have made me liable to impeach-I greet him as my brother in arms, until we shall have put ment for doing an unconstitutional act." Mr. Madison down the danger which threatens us. But the gentleman declared a bank to be unconstitutional, yet he signed from Georgia says, Who are ye? Ye are the sugar men the bank charter; and, if the positions in this protest are and the cotton men of the South; the rum men of the sustainable, he is liable to impeachment for that act. West, and the molasses men of New England. I stand What is the course of proceeding of all legislative bodies, on a cotton bale; where does the gentleman from Georgia as to matters of impeachment? Resolutions are passed, stand? Whom have we to oppose? A unit, an anti-bank in the first place, declaring certain acts done to be un- party? Why, the gentleman from Georgia is a bank man. constitutional; and, upon these resolutions, are founded An anti-tariff party? Why, the gentleman from Penncharges which are sent to this body and exhibited here sylvania [Mr. WILKINS] is a tariff man. An anti-internal for our judgment upon them. This is every day's improvement party? Why, many of the gentleman's col practice. leagues are of that party. The gentleman from Missouri The gentleman from Georgia says that the constitution voted for the Cumberland road bill. But the gentlemen gives to this body no power to pass separate resolutions.are all leashed together, I will not say to hunt in covers, It is true, the constitution gives no specific power; but but they exhibit as great a variety of principles as is to be will any gentleman pretend that neither House has a right found in any party in the opposition-at least, I find as to pass any resolutions, except such as are joint resolu- many among them. tions? When it is desired to try the sense of a party, a resolution may be separate in its character, and then the President has no veto upon it. And resolutions, separate in their character, and consentaneous, but not joint, might be adopted by both Houses, against the reasons of the President for the removal of the deposites, and the President could not then apply his veto power to them. But the gentleman from Georgia says we are the punch party. Let the people understand this appellation. If the South forms the acid, who is it, I would ask, that has held the press upon us? Who brought us out from the South, and squeezed and pressed us until they have driven our vitals out? Why, the gentleman from Georgia, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and those with whom The gentleman from Georgia protests against the op- they act. They have pressed us until they have forced position taking the name of whigs, and recommends to us into this mixture, such as the mixture is, and I believe them to adopt the name of the punch party. I am not it is one which has been found to be not quite so agreea very anxious to take the name of whig, but no power on ble to the President's palate as the real mixture is to the earth can take from me the whig principles. Whenever palate of the gentleman from Georgia. The punch party! a name has been seized on, and the denomination has Let it go abroad, let it be told in the nurseries, that we struck all who are opposed to the administration with are the punch party, and every one will supply the corol such instant and universal sympathy-when the gentle-lary. Punch and the devil! The gentleman from Georman from Georgia has seen the same chord vibrating gia, and his friends, will have to take the cognomen of through the bosoms of those who stood in the contest the opposite party. against power in former times and now, and working up I think it proper to say, in a word, what are my views. everywhere, and in every heart, one common feeling of I concur with the gentleman from Massachusetts, that we harmony; and when he has seen all who have previously ought to receive the message. Indeed, we have already differed from each other, bring here their differences, received it, and cannot now help ourselves. But I agree and lay them down together on the altar of their coun- with my colleague, that the President ought not to have try-loes it not strike him that there is something of a sent it here, and our best plan is to enter on our Journal peculiar character in the course of things? When all are the resolution that we deem the practice wrong, and shall driven together by the same foreign pressure; when na- decline receiving such communications in Tuture. But, tionals and nullifiers, New England, South Carolina, Mis- although we may characterize the document as wrong, sissippi, New York-ay, New York!-are all penetrated let us not be guilty of the solecism of saying we will not by the same deep feeling, should it not strike with terror receive it, when we have already received and read it. the alministration, and those who are linked with it? It may be, when the danger shall be over, and the suffering to a committee, a report might have been drawn, which Mr. WEBSTER said, if the protest had been referred of the country shall have been relieved, that this strong might stand forever on the files of the Senate, as an an |