SENATE.] President's Protest. [MAY 7, 1834. Judge Chase-"dangerous to the liberties of the people!" circumstance, or a description of any one act, on which The first form contained three specifications of violated an issue could be taken? Why all this? Sir, said Mr. B., law and constitution, to wit, dismissing Mr. Duane, the why and the wherefore of all this was nothing more appointing Mr. Taney, and exercising ungranted power nor less than this: that no majority could be found in the over the Treasury of the United States, with an averment Senate (and that after three months' drumming and drillthat all this was dangerous to the liberties of the people. ing) to vote that the dismissal of Mr. Duane was a violaThe next shape it assumed left out the specifications on tion of the laws and constitution; no majority could be the subject of dismissing Mr. Duane and appointing Mr. found to vote that the appointment of Mr. Taney was a Taney, but retained the clause about exercising ungrant- violation of the laws and constitution; no majority could ed power over the Treasury, and the danger to the liber-be found to vote that the President had exercised unties of the people! The third metamorphosis of this granted power over the Treasury of the United States; most flexible and pliant resolution, left out all the speci- no majority could be found to vote that he had done any fications, and even the concluding averment of "danger thing that was dangerous to the liberties of the people; ous to the liberties of the people!” and assumed a shape-no majority could be found to vote that the Bank of the "if shape it can be called, which shape has none," of United States was the Treasury of the United States; for such vagueness and generality, such studied ambiguity it was over that Treasury, and by assuming the responsi and duplicity of signification, such total independence of bility of recommending the removal of the public moneys facts, date, and circumstances, that the identification of it from that Treasury, that the specification was predicated, with the bank denunciation became impossible; the most of having exercised ungranted powers over the Treasury discordant confederates could unite in its support, for of the United States. No such majority could be found there was nothing specified to require their assent; and in this chamber; but a majority was found to hang a genall responsibility to public opinion was apparently evaded, eral charge over his head, which malignity and faction in the omission to specify the acts under the general might fill up and interpret as it pleased; but which concharges for which the President was condemned, and to tained no averment of any one illegal act whatever. the justification of which the accusing Senators could be was well understood that this general charge would be held down. received by the public, (which has neither means nor To expose the true nature of these resolutions, and to time to examine such things to the bottom,) as the full exhibit the variations which their flexible forms had un-conviction of that eminent magistrate of all that was laid dergone, Mr. B. contrasted them together in the Senate, to his charge in the first and second resolutions, and of all as they are here exhibited, in three parallel and confront- the fanfaronade about “seizing the Treasury," and uniting ing columns. "the sword and the purse,' ," which was bruited in the speeches made in their support. Every speech made was made upon the specifications in the first and second resolutions; and these being abandoned, the speeches should share the same fate. But it was well known that the case would be otherwise; that the speeches would stand, and the specifications in the first and second resolutions would be considered as adopted; and that deluded and deceived multitudes would go on repeating, maintaining, and promulgating, as truths, the statements which the opposition Senators had to give up, abandon, and surrender, as untruths, in the full face of the whole Senate. First Form. Second Form. Third Form. "Resolved, That, by "Resolved, That, in "Resolved, That the dismissing the late taking upon himself President, in the late Secretary of the Treas-the responsibility of re-executive proceedings ury, because he would moving the deposites in relation to the pubnot, contrary to his of the public money lie revenue, has as sense of his own duty, from the Bank of the sumed upon himself remove the money of United States, the authority and power the United States in President of the Uni-not conferred by the deposite with the Bank ted States has assumed constitution and laws, of the United States the exercise of a power but in derogation of and its branches, in over the Treasury of both." conformity with the the United States not President's opinion, granted to him by the and by appointing his constitution and laws, successor to effect such and dangerous to the removal, which has liberties of the peobeen done, the Presi-ple." dent has assumed the exercise of a power over the Treasury of the United States not granted to him by the constitution and laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the peo ple." It Mr. B. took a nearer view of the resolution, as finally altered for the third time, and adopted by the Senate. He did so to show its studied ambiguity, its total want of certainty, and utter destitution of one visible or tangible point, either of law or fact, on which an issue could be taken. "Late executive proceedings." Here, said he, are three words, and three ambiguities. 1. Late. How late? When? at what time? this year? last year? or the year before. 2. Executive. Which part of the execu Mr. B. analysed these resolutions, more changeable tive? The Presidential, or the departmental? the act of than the chameleon, which only changes color, while these! change their form; he analysed these protean resolutions, the President, or the act of Mr. Taney? 3. Proceedings. which had changed their form three times in the face of Which of them? what proceedings? The dismission of the Senate; and found that the first contained three speci- Mr. Duane? the appointment of Mr. Taney? the cabinet fications of violated law and constitution, to wit: 1. The opinion? or the exercise of ungranted power over the dismission of Mr. Duane. 2. The appointment of Mr. Treasury? "In relation to the public revenue." What Taney. 3. The exercise of ungranted power over the part of the revenue? That which is in bond, or in the Treasury of the United States. The second contained hands of the collectors? or in the deposite banks, or in the one specification, to wit, the exercise of ungranted power in the first and second forms of the resolution, is definite, Bank of the United States? The expression, said Mr. B., over the Treasury of the United States; and the third contained no specification whatever, and dropped the clause and susceptible of an issue. It is this: "over the Treas contained in both the others-dangerous to the liberties ury of the United States;" a phrase which imparts to the of the people mind a precise idea, while the phrase, "in relation to the Mr. B. wished to invoke and concentrate the attention public revenue," which is substituted for it, is not only of the Senate, and of all good citizens, upon these not equivalent in precision, but entirely different in meanchanges in the forms of the resolutions. Why were they ing; the first implying mastership over the money in the changed, and specification after specification dropped, Treasury; the second only indicating an action towards until not one remained? Why were all these facts, public money, which might be in the hands of collectors, charged upon the President, and sustained in elaborate never passed to the credit of the Treasurer, and, there"Assumed upon himself speeches for three months, why were they all dropped on fore, never in the Treasury. Assumed, but not exercised. the last day of the debate, and the vote taken upon a authority and power." Why not use the word exercised? Assume the exercise vague and general resolution, without a fact, a date, or a MAY 7, 1834.] President's Protest. [SENATE. of power, is the language of the first and second resolu- ident Jackson and Mr. Secretary Taney to do, in 1833, tion. Now, "exercised" is dropped, and the resolution precisely what President Madison and Mr. Secretary Galcharges a naked assumption without action. The import latin had done in 1811? He affirmed that what had now of the resolution is lost in ambiguity, by the omission of been done in relation to the revenue, had previously been the word exercised, which would not have been dropped done in 1811; that Mr. Gallatin had made the same transwithout a motive, after having been twice retained; and fer of the public moneys from the Bank of the United that motive was found in the fact, that no majority in the States to the local banks, which Mr. Taney did, and upon Senate could be brought to vote upon yeas and nays, that the same contingency, to wit, as soon as he ascertained the President had exercised unwarranted powers. As-that a new charter would not be granted to the national sume is the word; and that will signify either the claim of bank; that he entered into the same arrangements with power, or the taking of power; the abstract legal poten-them that Mr. Taney did; signing written contracts to tial assumption, without exercise; or the concrete actual keep the public moneys safely; to pay the Treasury drafts assumption manifested in acts. "In derogation of both in specie, if required by the holder; to give the neceslaw and constitution." Derogation! What is intended? sary facilities for transferring the public moneys; and to the common parlance, or the common law signification of make the periodical return of their affairs which was nethe word? If the common parlance signification is intend-cessary to enable the Treasury to understand their condied, then the President is accused of defaming and scandal-tion; in a word, that he created the same league of izing the constitution-a new species of scandalum mag-banks-in some instances composed of the same identinatum--whose nature and punishment is yet to be de-cal banks-which Mr. Taney has created, and which is fined. If the common law meaning is to be understood, considered by some as being more unconstitutional than then no offence of any kind, not even defamation, is im-Jan unconstitutional bank would be; that he made the same puted to the President; for the only law meaning of the seizure of the public moneys which President Jackson term is to make less-to take away a part-to repeal in has made; effected the same portentous union of the part, as a statute is said to derogate from the common law purse and the sword; and that no person looked upon when it repeals a part of it. And the phrase implies no these things, at that time, as the robbery of the Treasreproach, for the repeal is a legal act, done by competent ury-the exercise of ungranted power over the Treas authority, and is no way synonymous with violate, which ury-the concentration of all power in the hands of one always implies lawless force. "Laws and constitution." man; not even the bitterest of the old federal party; to Each word an ambiguity again! What more indefinite say nothing of others, now here leading the assault upon than “the laws,” in a nation that makes a volume a year? President Jackson and Mr. Taney, then in the House of What more vague than the constitution," when we have Representatives, acting in harmony with President Madia constitution of a dozen articles, every article a dozen son and Mr. Gallatin, and who can say, of all their acts, sections, every section some hundred clauses, and every quæque ipse vidi; all of which I saw; if not, et quorum clause a distinct and substantive branch in itself? pars magna fui; great part of which I was. Such, said Mr. B., is the resolution adopted; a vague, indefinite, studied, elaborate piece of ambiguity, in which the President is condemned, not only without hearing, but without specification, in which the President cannot make defence, except by guessing at what was intended; in which his judges cannot be held down to their responsibility, before the bar of the public, for any one charge whatever; and under which they can, and will, set up as many different and contradictory specifications, as there were votes in favor of the resolution. Mr. B. deemed this part of his case so material, and so necessary to be placed beyond the reach of cavil or contradiction, that he should drop the narrative, and have recourse to proof. He would quote the report-at least so much of it as was necessary to establish his statements of Mr. Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury, made to the House of Representatives, in obedience to a call from that body, in the month of January, 1812, nearly a year after the removal of the public deposites from the Bank of the United States, and the establishment of that Having shown that every specified offence charged league of banks now so formidable to liberty, so fatal to upon the President in the resolutions, had been abandon-the constitution; then so innocent and so harmless. ed on the record, or lost in the mystification of amphibo- Extracts of Mr. Gallatin's report, January 8, 1812. logical phrases, Mr. B. would take his leave of that part "As soon as it had been ascertained that the charter of of the subject, and pay his respects to the extent, at all the Bank of the United States would not be renewed, a events, of one salute, to the speeches which had been letter was addressed to the collectors of Boston, New sent out in amplification and explanation of the resolu-York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, and tions, and especially to that part of them which charged New Orleans, directing them to cease to deposite customthe President with seizing the Treasury-" uniting the house bonds for collection in the Bank of the United sword and the purse-creating a state of things (in the States, or its branches; to withdraw those bonds falling deposite banks) more unconstitutional than an unconsti- due after the 3d of March, 1811, and to deposite thereaf tutional bank"-and violating the constitution, by rec-ter the bonds in one or more State banks, which were, ommending the public moneys to be removed from the according to the information already received, either Bank of the United States to the State banks. To relieve pointed out, or left to the option of the collector." the Senate from the apprehended infliction of the extended speech which his undertaking implied, he would say at once that he meant to make short work and quick work of a large job; to take the whole of the speeches in a hump, and after reminding the Senate that every thing worth answering in these speeches, had been already answered by the speakers themselves, in the abandonment 1. "The bank to receive such sums as may be offered of their specifications, and in the adoption of the emascu- by individuals who have payments to make into the Treaslated resolution, he would show that if they had not been ury, and to pass the same to the credit of the Treasurer so abandoned, their overthrow was as ready and easy as of the United States. the demonstration of any plain problem in the circle of 2. "The payments by the bank to be made on Treasthe exact sciences. ury, War, or Navy warrants, directed to the bank by the Mr. B. wished to know whether the constitution had Treasurer, or in drafts drawn by him. The payment is, been altered since 1811' and if not, he wished further of course, always to be made in specie, if required by the to know whether it was constitutional and lawful for Pres-holder of the warrant or draft. [Here follows a list of the selected deposite banks, twenty-four in number, extending from Boston to New Orleans, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and including several since selected by Mr. Taney.] The following are the conditions of the contracts made with the deposite banks thus selected: 6. That persons having custom-house bonds to pay at the deposite bank, will be accommodated in preference to others, in discounting for them, if necessary, to promote the punctual collection of the revenue, the usual precautions for the safety of the bank, and its own decision on the sufficiency of the paper, being reserved for the exclusive judgment of the bank." [MAY 7, 1834. 3. "On Monday of each week, a copy of the Treasu- "No difficulty in the transmission of public moneys," rer's account with the bank, for the preceding week, is exclaimed Mr. B.-"as well collected as heretofore." to be sent to the Secretary of the Treasury; and if the What a testimony in favor of the constitution! How conTreasurer shall find it more convenient to receive a state-clusive that Jefferson was right; and that a national bank, ment of his account, in that way, than to keep a bank of any kind, or in any place, is not necessary to the fiscal book, the bank will also furnish him with a similar copy. action of the Federal Government! Unhappily it did not 4. At the end of every month, a statement of the occur to the statesmen of 1812 to restore the gold cursituation of the bank, made out agreeably to the annexed rency, to invite the importation of foreign coins, and to form, is to be sent to the Secretary of the Treasury. suppress the circulation of small notes. That wise and 5. "The dividends on the public debt will be made masterly conception was reserved for the administration through the medium of the Bank of Columbia, &c. of the military chieftain; and if it ripens into law, will forever save the country from the frightful evils of the paper system, and from all those losses which the Federal Government incurred, some fifteen years ago, when it lost a million and a half by the explosion of the local banks, and about eleven millions more in preserving the present Bank of the United States from the same fate. Having shown the illegality of the Senate's conduct, Having read these extracts, Mr. B. said the things Mr. B. would next expose the extreme and peculiar indone by Mr. Gallatin were identical, in the eye of the law justice of it. Every part of the protest was subjected to and the constitution, with what had been done by Mr. the rack and torture of misconstruction and misrepre Taney. They acted upon the same contingency, to wit, sentation. Studied, far-fetched, lawyer-like, unnatural, when it was ascertained that the United States Bank would forced, strained interpretations, were accumulated upon not be re-chartered. They acted in the same way, entering its every clause, and every phrase. Tragic and theatrical into arrangements and contracts with the State banks, to calls were made for the advisers and writers of such a act as the fiscal agents of the Treasury. They both re-paper, as if some sacrilege or treason had been committed; ported to Congress; but how differently were their re-and the impending wrath of heaven itself, impatient at ports received? That of Mr. Gallatin without a word of the impunity of such enormous guilt, had already seized censure, with full approbation; and his league of banks, the fatal thunderbolt, and scanned, with menacing eye, subsequently increased to a hundred, remained in full the trembling world that hid the guilty wretch. The vigor for six years, and that without any law to regulate right of the President to correct the misrepresentation of them. The beautiful and classic phrase of "pet banks" his own language, is heroically denied; and notwithstandwas not then invented. Mr. Taney's report, on the con- ing the disclaimer of the supplemental message, and the trary, is received in a temper of clamor and indignation! fair import of the protest itself, an obstinate imputation is No language severe enough to characterize his conduct; still made upon the President of a claim to keep and disno epithets odious enough to stigmatize his "pets;" no pose of the public money and property of the United punishment great enough to atone for his offence. And States, by virtue of his own prerogative, and without rewho is it that raises this storm against Mr. Taney? The gard to the authority of Congress. His right to send in same gentlemen that sat in the 12th, 13th, and 14th Con- the protest is denied;† as if the Senate possessed the right gresses; and who saw nothing to censure or to fear, then, in what fills them with fear and horror now. of ex parte and extra-judicial condemnation over the first magistrate of the republic; and that magistrate did not Mr. B. said it was in vain to attempt any distinction be- possess the poor privilege of telling them that he was not tween the two cases. There was no distinction but in guilty, even after they had pronounced a sentence. The the times, the men, and the impelling power. Tempora judges in hell, exclaimed Mr. B., did better than that! mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis. Times have changed, Rhadamanthus himself, in some stage of his infernal proand men have altered; and the second Bank of the United cess, would, at least, listen to his victim. "First he punStates, displaying an audacity at which the first one would isheth; then he listeneth; and lastly he compelleth to con have crimsoned with shame, openly demands the impeach- fess." Such was the process in the gloomy regions of ment of the President, and the rejection of Mr. Taney, Pluto. The inventors of the mythology of the ancients for having done now what was done formerly. No con- could not even conceive of a hell, so regardless of the stitutional difference can be taken between the two cases. forms of justice, as not to allow the souls of the damned to The 16th section makes no difference; for, in the first place, Congress could not, if it would, contract away the keeping of the public moneys; and, in the second place, the power of the Secretary to direct the removal, "at any time," is absolute and unconditional. speak. But, this Senate, trampling upon all laws known to heaven, earth, and hell, denies to the President of the United States the privilege of saying that he is not guilty, even after their condemnation pronounced upon him; and affects to treat, as an invasion of privilege, and as a design But, Mr. B. said he had not yet done reading from Mr. to rout them from their seats, as Cromwell routed the Gallatin's report to Congress in 1812. He had another rump Parliament of England, the transmission of that extract to read; one that would be refreshing to all the temperate paper, called the protest, and the respectful republicans of the old Jeffersonian school, and who recol-request with which it concludes to have it entered on the lect that, in his cabinet opinion to President Washington, Journals! The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Taney, in opposition to the charter of the first Bank of the United God save the mark! comes in for a full share of the misStates, he said there was no necessity for a national bank construction and misrepresentation which seems to be the as the fiscal agent of the Treasury; that the State banks order of the day in the American Senate. The Senator would enter into arrangements to do all the fiscal business from Massachusetts, [Mr. WEBSTER,] who has spoken of the Treasury; would do it well, and on better terms last, has made him the object of a particular and concenthan a national bank, created by the Government, and trated accumulation of hideous and frightful accusation, having privileges granted, and claims secured, upon it. Now hear what Mr. Gallatin says, after his experiment of twelve months, with the league of deposite banks: * By Mr. Webster, + The editor of the Richmond Enquirer has, since the right of the President to send in a protest has been denied, obtained from Thomas Randolph, Esq., grandson of Mr. Jefferson, the authentie copy of protest prepared by him when Secretary of State, for Fresident Mr. Jefferson had of a right which is now denied by the Senate. Washington, to be sent to the Senate; which shows the opinion which MAY 7, 1834.] President's Protest. [SENATE. But can all founded upon the "baseless fabric of a vision!" He as an adjunct, subaltern, fiduciary dependency of its own accuses Mr. Taney of having appointed an officer to su- paramount self! The Senate of the United States was perintend the deposite banks; of having allowed that offi- not expected to have been the theatre of this exhibition. cer a salary; and of having caused that salary to be paid Yet it has been! And America will look for that reparaout of moneys due to the United States; and he speaks of tion to the character of a patriot President, which Engsome official report to prove all this grave and serious land has often seen rendered to the memory of her illusmatter. Sir, said Mr. B., this is a charge against Mr. trious sons, whose attainders, pronounced in times of facTaney, not only without evidence, but against evidence; tious misrule, have been reversed by the power of the not only not proved, but disproved, and that by the people, at the overthrow of faction, and the re-establishvery document referred to. No, sir, no such officer has ment of law and order. been appointed; no such salary has been allowed; no such Judges, said Mr. B., who stimulate prosecutions, espemoney has been paid. The whole charge is a child of the cially prosecutions to be tried at their own bar, are themimagination, a figment of the brain! one of the litter of selves guilty of impeachable conduct. It was for such inventions which are daily spawned upon the floor of the conduct that one of the articles of impeachment, on which Senate, and bruited to the world, to destroy the character Judge Chase was tried, was preferred against him. The of the man, and to prepare the public for the rejection of seventh of the articles recited that, descending from the officer, who has had the fidelity to stand by the Pres- the dignity of a judge, and stooping to the level of an inident in his hour of greatest trial, and the courage to in- former," he had endeavored to lay the ground-work for cur the vengeance of the Bank of the United States. the prosecution of a printer, to be tried before himself; Mr. B. took a rapid view of the deplorable and disas-"thereby degrading his high judicial functions." Judge trous effects resulting from the Senate's conduct in joining Chase, said Mr. B., plead not guilty to this charge; and the Bank of the United States, and in becoming the ally to his own honor, and that of the bench, was acquitted and instrument of that great moneyed power, in its at- upon the facts. But what would become of this Senate, tempt to destroy and to ostracise the President of the if, like Judge Chase, they were liable to be impeached people. The deposite of the resolution upon the table for stimulating an impeachment which they themselves of the Senate, which condemned the President for a vio-were to try? Could they plead not guilty? Could they lation of the laws and the constitution of the country, for say that the House of Representatives had not been stimdismissing Mr. Duane because he would not remove the ulated from this floor to begin the impeachment, and republic deposites, and appointing Mr. Taney to make the proached for not doing it? Could they go to trial, as removal, and for exercising ungranted power over the Judge Chase did, upon an issue of fact? Certainly not! Treasury-a resolution couched in the precise terms and the safety of this august body lies, not in its innowhich the bank press had indicated before the meeting cence, but in its exemption from liability to be held to of the Senate the deposite of that resolution upon the the same accountability that Judge Chase was. table of the Senate, and the first sentence in the first it escape the judgment of the public, and of posterity? speech in support of it, was the opening of the Pandora's It cannot escape that judgment! The Senate itself will box, from which issued forth every imaginable evil to af be judged, and is already beginning to feel the sentence flict and alarm the people, and to wound and degrade the of condemnation. A voice from the ranks of the people institutions of the country. Violation of the constitution, demands a change in its organization, a diminished duinsult, outrage, and ex parte condemnation of the Presi-ration of term, and an increased responsibility to the dent; neglect of all the proper business of the Senate; States; and in that voice he, Mr. B., most heartily contotal change and perversion of its character; a new and curred. Six years was too long for a Senator to trample furious spirit of attack and crimination in this chamber; with impunity upon the will and the interests of his State! agitation and alarm of the country; assaults upon all the Aware of its danger, the Senate-Mr. B. spoke of the State banks; the overthrow of some, and a relentless war body collectively, as the least invidious mode of stating a upon the New York banks, the safety fund, and the re-disagreeable truth-aware of its danger, the Senate seeks gency. Such were the fruits of that flagrant and unjusti- to avoid its impending fate, by raising an affected cry of fiable proceeding, to carry out in the Senate, without the alarm; proclaiming themselves to be standing in a breach, forms of law, that vindictive impeachment of the Presi- and charging the President with a design to overthrow it! dent which the bank had vainly demanded according to as if any Senate was ever overthrown by a military chiefthe forms of law, from any member of the legitimate tri-tain, until its own conduct had made it odious and conbunal, the House of Representatives. temptible to the people! If the President entertained the The Senate, said Mr. B., was intended to be the con- belief, (a point on which he, Mr. B., had no information,) servative tribunal of the constitution-the peculiar guard but if he entertained the opinion that the duration of Senof its inviolability—the impregnable citadel of its strength atorial terms should be shortened, or that Senatorial com--and the holy temple of its sanctity. The age of the missions should be made revocable by State Legislatures, Senators-intended to exclude the intemperance and the he certainly was neither singular, nor novel, in entertainturbulence of youth; the presumed moderation of their ing such sentiments, for they were doctrines of the revopassions, and the gravity of their characters; the long du- lutionary school, and belong to the fathers of the republic. ration of their terms of service, exceeding that of the By the articles of the confederation, each State had the President by one-half; their high functions, and extraor- right, through its Legislalure, to recall its deputy, at any dinary participation in the executive, judicial, and legis- time, from the Federal Congress, and to appoint another lative characters of the Government, all combined to pro- in his stead; and this right to recall resulted from the idea mise, for the constitution, in this chamber, an inviolate of State representation; an idea peculiarly applicable to respect and sacred regard. It was not to have been ex- the Senate of the United States! Mr. B. considered himpected that, in this chamber, in the first half century of self to be standing on Virginia ground, as well as on revthe age of the constitution, an attempt should be made to olutionary ground, when he professed himself to be in ostracise an eminent citizen, the first magistrate of the favor of such modifications of the Senatorial tenure as republic, whose sole offence consists in having been three would shorten the duration of the appointment, and intimes preferred by the people to the highest office in crease the responsibility of the Senator. He believed their gift, and to his now standing the impassable barrier that the Legislature of Virginia bad recommended such to the march of a new power, which aspires to the con- alterations in the Federal constitution. trol of the republic; aiming to install its pensioners into all [Mr. LEIGH rose and asked leave to assure Mr. B. that offices, and to hold the administration of this Government he was mistaken.] SENATE.] President's Protest. [MAY 7, 1834. Mr. BENTON was unwilling to admit a mistake, though against the pet banks, the safety-fund, and the regencyready to acknowledge that the accuracy and extent of always a tripod for vaticinating wo, and chanting jereinformation possessed by the Senator from Virginia, [Mr. | miads over the desolation of the land, and the ruin of LEIGH,] especially on every point connected with the America. history, politics, and legislation of his own State, was such Is not this picture, said Mr. B., revolting as it may be, as to leave the fair inference, that what was unknown to and humiliating as it must be-is it not too truly and too him, did not exist. He would certainly submit to the faithfully drawn? Ask that multitude which fills our correction of the Senator from Virginia, [Mr. LEIGH,] circling galleries. Ask this assembled multitude if they the next day; after there should have been time to look come here to listen to the dry details of legislative labors, into the point, and to examine the sources of his own be- or to amuse themselves with scenes of attack and defence; lief; but, for the present he must be permitted to retain of forensic legislation and parliamentary warfare; of thehis belief that he was standing on Virginia ground in ad-atrical display and scenic representation, in which the vocating such an alteration in the organization of the player that pleases them most, is sure to be rewarded Senate as would shorten the terms of the Senators, and with a clap in the galleries, if not with a treat in the celmake their commissions revocable at the will of their Le- lar. Ask them if they do not come here as to a cockgislatures.* fight, or a milling-match; to a race-field, or a bear-garden; Mr. B. continued his remarks upon the lamentable efto a circus, or a theatre; to a court-house, or a clubfects resulting from the Senate's attempt to ostracise the room; and where they are sure to be entertained to the President. To the President himself it was a deep and full extent of our theatrical powers. real injury, and intended to injure him, notwithstanding Mr. B. continued: The effect upon the public mind, the modest disclaimer of an imputation of motives. A all over the country, has been prodigious and deplorable. President of the United States is presumed to know the It is the first time that the American Senate has underlaws and the constitution, and to violate them with wick-taken to alarm and agitate the country. The people ed intents when he violates them at all. Why else his oath were unprepared for the assault, and staggered under its to preserve and maintain them? To his present feelings force. The cry of revolution was startling. Hitherto it is an outrage; in the minds of his contemporaries it is bloodless, was an appalling intimation of the near ap an injury; to posterity, if permitted to remain on the proach of the fatal moment when the flow of blood could Journal, it works all the effect upon his memory of an old no longer be restrained. Peaceful and quiet citizens English attainder. The power of attainting, said Mr. B., were alarmed; the land was filled with terror; and the is forbid to our Congress by the constitution; and forbid boding apprehension took place that the verdant spring from a full knowledge of the lamentable uses which fac- would open, not with the joyful tasks of the husbandman, tious Parliaments in England had made of that engine of but with the clangor of arms, the storm of battle, and persecution to destroy the best of patriots. Our Con-all the woes of fraternal strife and domestic war. In this gress is wisely forbid to exercise a power so susceptible gloomy state of the public feeling, the New York and of abuse; yet the Senate alone exercises it, and inflicts, Virginia elections came on, and the results bore witness by this lawless condemnation, all the consequences of a to the extent of the panic which had been gotten up—rereal attainder upon President Jackson; for what has he sults which were received in this chamber with an excess to suffer from a real attainder but the attaint of his memo- of exultation, and a show of frantic exhibition, worthy to ry? He has no children to inherit corrupted blood; none grace the feast of the Lapithæ and Centaurs, or the nocto lament the loss of forfeited estates. He has nothing turnal orgies of a Saturnalian celebration. It was then but his name, his character, and the fame of his great that there was daily witnessed in this Senate that detailed actions, to go down to posterity; and shall that memory succession of Senators rising in their places, every morngo down lawlessly attainted? Shall the Journals of this ing, the instant the Journal was read, grief on the tongue, Senate bear, to the remotest age, the record of that out-joy in the eye, triumph in the heart, to announce some rage, inflicted by those who should have found in the calamity just happened-a merchant failed, a factory state of their own feelings, and in the impulsions of an stopped, a bank broke, and to foretel greater calamities honorable heart, the most powerful motives for absenting to come. It was then that the distress orators immortal themselves from a lawful trial, on which they might law-ized themselves, diurnally, on the presentation of a d fully have sat. tress memorial. It was then that the chaste and classic The changed character, the metamorphosis, and the metaphor, worthy to charm the ears of a Roman or degradation of the Senate itself, was another of those Athenian auditory, was heard, that the last lick on the deplorable consequences. It no longer wore the aspect head of the last nail in the coffin of Jacksonism, had been of a Senate! A stranger coming in, would, at one time, struck. A figure of speech in which congruity of imatake it for a club-room, where partisan politicians assem-ges, beauty of diction, elevation of sentiment, and historbled to lay plans for the elevation of themselves and the ical truth, vied for pre-eminence, and revived the recprostration of their enemies. At another time, he would ollection of those immortal productions—the coffin handsuppose it to be a hustings, for the delivery of election-bills. eering harangues. At another, an areopagus, for the Upon the property of the country, great mischief was condemnation of all eminent men. Then a theatre, for for some time done. Stocks of all kinds were made to the entertainment of a most diverted auditory. Then a fall-the price of produce sunk-the rent of money rose temple, for celebrating le deums over village elections, real and persona! estate lost a sensible proportion of even those of Negro-foot, Hell-town, and Long-and-Hungry; always a laboratory, for the manufacture of alarms and panics-always a forum for the delivery of tirades The following entry on the Journals of the Senate of the United States, has since been re-examined by Mr. B., and is given as the authority for the opinions expressed by him, with respect to the Virginia doctrine on this point. MONDAY, APRIL 11, 1818. their value. Many merchants were ruined—several banks stopped payments-but the pet banks, and the safetyfund system, these selected objects of persevering attack these marked and devoted victims of Senatorial and United States Bank denunciation-they rode out the storm, and live to expose to the world the source of the blow, and the instrument of its infliction. The safetyfund especially, saw in the Senate of the United States, Mr. Giles communicated the instructions of the Legislature of the instrument of the Bank of the United States in wathe commonwealth of Virginia, to their Senators in Congress, to endeavor to obtain an amendment to the constitution, respecting the removal from office, by a vote of a majority of the whole number of the members of the respective State Legislatures, their Senators who have been, or may be, appointed to Congress." ging that ignoble war upon their character and credit, which the bank, through its servile periodical, called a Review, had marked out as far back as March, 1831, and |