from me a cordial and sincere support; and no one would more heartily rejoice than myself, to meet with propositions which would render such an effort in any degree practicable.

Still are we told by the senator from Massachusetts, that things cannot remain as they are; that unless something, which, according to his views of the subject, would afford relief, be done, the pressure, the distress, and the agitation will continue. I have already stated the source from which, and from which alone, in my judgment, the present pressure proceeds. I have stated, also, without reserve, the object which is, in my opinion, intended to be accomplished by it. Of the correctness of my conclusions, the Senate and the country must judge. If they are, as I believe them to be, wellfounded, it is undoubtedly in the power of the bank to continue the pressure, and consequently the agitation of the public mind, to some extent, so long as it shall think it to be for its interest, and not incompatible with its safety to do so. It is not for me to speak as with a knowledge of its intentions in this respect, and the senator from Massachusetts disclaims all information upon the point. I can, therefore, only state my opinion; and it is, that the bank has not entered upon this bold measure without the deepest consideration, and that it will not abandon it, the design not being accomplished, but upon the most stern necessity.

Yet, Mr. President, I trust in God that that necessity will soon, very soon, be made manifest, by the attitude which the nation will assume towards this daring and dangerous institution. The glorious American Revolution was but resistance to moneyed poweryes, sir, to the exercise of a moneyed power, without the consent, and beyond the reach, of the people of this country. To this our fathers opposed a stern and uncompromising resistance. Appeals were made to their fears. Distresses in their pecuniary affairs were pictured to them in colors to have deterred any but the pure spirit of patriotism and love of liberty which led them forward. Then the pictures were not imaginary but real; the distresses were not fancy but fact. The country was not then strong, and rich, and prosperous, but weak, and poor, and disheartened and still their march was onward. They armed themselves upon the side of their country, and stood by their Government; and when their hard and perilous services were paid in paper, worth a fortieth or sixtieth part of its nominal value, the representative of the dollar was the dollar to them, for it gave liberty to the people, and freed them from the

rule of avarice. And have we, their immediate descendants, so soon lost their noble spirit? Are we to fold our arms and obey the dictates of a moneyed power, not removed from our soil, and wielded by stronger hands, but taking root among us: a power spoken into existence by our breath, and dependent upon that breath for life and being? Are our fears, our avarice, our selfish and base passions to be appealed to, and to compel us to re-create this power, when we are told that the circulation of the country is in its hands? That the institutions established by all the independent states of the confederacy are subject to its control, and exist only by its clemency? When we see it setting itself up against the Government and vaunting its power? throwing from its doors our representatives placed at its board, and pronouncing them unskilful, ungenteel, or incorrigible? Nay, Mr. President, when it lays upon our tables in this chamber, its annunciation to the public, classing the President of the United States with counterfeiters and felons, and declaring, that as kindred subjects, both should receive like treatment at its hands? I say, sir, are we to be driven by our fears to recharter such an institution, with such evidences of its power, and of its disposition to use that power, lying before us authenticated by the bank itself? Are we to do this after the question has been referred to the people of the country, fully argued before them, and their decision pronounced against the bank, and in favor of the President, by a majority such as has never before in this Government marked the result of a contest at the ballot boxes?

Gentlemen talk of revolutions in progress. When this action shall take place in the American Congress, then indeed will a revolution have been accomplished ;-then will your constitution have been yielded up to fear and favor, and your legislation be the sic volo, sic jubeo, of a bank. But, Mr. President, I do not distress myself with any such forebodings. I know the crisis will be trying, and I know too, that the spirit and patriotism of the people will be equal to the trial. As I read the indications of public opinion, I see clearly that the true question is understood by the country, and that it is assuming an attitude towards the bank which the occasion calls for. Be assured, sir, whatever nice distinctions may be drawn here as to the share of influence, which expressions of the popular will upon such a subject are entitled to from us, it is possible for that will to assume a constitutional shape which the Senate cannot misunderstand, and understanding, will not unwisely resist. The

country, Mr. President, has approved of the course of the executive, in his attempts to relieve us from the corrupt and corrupting power and influence of a national bank, and it will sustain him in the experiment now making to substitute the state institutions for such a fiscal agent. I have the fullest confidence in the ultimate and complete success of the trial; but should it not prove satisfactory to the country, it will then be time enough to resort to the conceded powers of Congress, or to ask from the people what, until every other experiment be fairly and fully tried, they will never grant, the power to establish a National Bank.

SPEECH,

RELATIVE TO THE REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS FROM THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES, THE SPECIAL ORDER BEING THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, ASSIGN

ING HIS REASONS FOR SUCH REMOVAL, AND THE

TWO RESOLUTIONS OF MR. CLAY.

[Delivered in the United States Senate, March 26th, 1834.]

MR. PRESIDENT:

I rise with unfeigned reluctance to address the Senate. The debate has been so long protracted, and has been so full and able upon all the points involved in the discussion, that I feel fully conscious I can give no light, and add no interest, to what has been already advanced. I would decline troubling the Senate at all, at this late stage of the debate, were it not that I consider the first resolution as particularly exceptionable, in every sense in which I have been able to view it. I had intended, at an early period of the debate, to offer my views at large upon the whole subject, and I had made some preparations to fulfil that intention; but the progress of the discussion induced me to abandon position after position which it had been my purpose to occupy, in consequence of the full and able views given of them by others, until I have brought myself to the conclusion, to confine my remarks wholly to the first of the resolutions offered by the senator from Kentucky. I came to the conclusion definitely, after the very able argument of my honorable colleague [Mr. Tallmadge], recently made to the Senate, upon all the grounds covered by the second resolution, and generally embracing all the reasons of the secretary of the treasury. I can add nothing more to that argument, and any attempt on my part to do so, would be more likely to weaken the positions which have been so well defended, than to secure the defences, already, in my judgment, sufficiently impregnable. I may also say, that I do not expect to advance anything in relation to the first resolution, which has not be

fore, in the course of the debate, been suggested; but I do hope to offer a more detailed and connected argument upon that single point, than has been offered by those who have preceded me, and who have embraced the whole scope of the special order. I owe it to myself, however, as well as to the Senate, to say that it is my intention to confine myself to a strict legal argument, of the most dry and uninteresting character, and that I can neither expect, nor ask, that attention which I might hope, were the subject less exhausted, and the topics less technical.

The resolution is in the following words :—

"Resolved, That by dismissing the late secretary of the treasury, because he could not, contrary to his sense of his own duty, remove the money of the United States, in deposit with the Bank of the United States and its branches, in conformity with the President's opinion, and by appointing his successor to effect such removal, which has been done, the President has assumed the exercise of a power over the treasury of the United States, not granted by the constitution and laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the people."

This is the resolution, and I consider it, in the broadest sense, judicial, so far as the action of the Senate upon it is concerned. I therefore, preliminarily, lay down the following proposition, which I believe I shall be able to sustain, not only from the language and import of the resolution itself, but from an examination of the grounds upon which its friends seek to justify the action by this body. My proposition is :

That the resolution contains matter of impeachment, and matter of impeachment only, and therefore that it is unconstitutional for the Senate to act upon it, other than judicially, and upon an impeachment sent up from the House of Representatives.

Art. 1, sec. 2, clause 5, of the Constitution of the United States, reads as follows:

"The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker, and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment."

Sec. 3, clause 6, of the same article, says :

"The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments." Here then, sir, are the constitutional divisions of power, between the two branches of Congress, as to impeachments.

Does the resolution under consideration contain impeachable matter, so as to call upon these powers to enable us properly to act upon it?