[THE agitation of the public mind on the subject of the removal
of the deposits from the bank of the United States, continued
during the session of congress in 1834, and memorials were
constantly presented to that body, asking for relief to the
people from the pecuniary pressure occasioned by the arbitrary
measures of president Jackson. On presenting one of these
memorials Mr. Clay made the following brief remarks.]
(From the National Intelligencer of May 22.)
MR. CLAY took occasion, yesterday, in presenting to the senate
some memorials, and especially one from Doylestown, in Bucks county,
Pennsylvania, to animadvert seriously for the most part, but in part
playfully, to the present state of the country. Among the opinions
expressed by the memorialists is one which Mr. Clay said he most
decidedly entertained in common with them, that, after the vote by one
branch of congress, that the removal of the deposits by the secretary
of the treasury was unjustifiable and unconstitutional, it was the
duty of the secretary of the treasury instantly to have restored the
deposits to the place from which they had been illegally taken; and
such, he said, would have been the course of any secretary of the
treasury who entertained a proper sense of the fallibility of his own
judgment, and of the respect which was due to the deliberate opinion
of the senate, or of the house of representatives, on such a question
as this, when it came in conflict with his own. Mr. Clay added, that
if there was, in either house of congress, a single individual whose
private judgment approved of the removal of the deposits as an original
act, independently of party considerations or posterior circumstances,
he had yet to meet with that man.
As to the question yesterday addressed by the senator from
Massachusetts, to those who hold the power, whether they meant to
adjourn without taking any measure to relieve the country from its
present suffering, Mr. Clay said, he verily believed that they do not
know what to do; they are afraid to stay, and afraid to return; they
are between two fires――afraid of Jackson if they remain, and of their
constituents if they go home. If, however, they mean to do _nothing_
to recover possession of the public treasure; if they mean to do
nothing to relieve the distress which pervades the country, Mr. Clay
said he was himself ready to concur with them in fixing the earliest
practicable day for adjournment, after passing the bills necessary to
carry on the government.
What would be the consequence of such contempt, by these in power,
of the successive evidences of public opinion, presented from day to
day, and from week to week, it was easy to foresee. Already, he said,
the whole ‘party’ was crumbling away; sinking, like the banks of the
Mississippi undermined by the torrent, whole acres at a time. Why,
(said Mr. Clay,) I am told that the whole regency of New York, taking
the alarm, has fled from Albany, and taken refuge in this city. Whether
they would or would not be redemanded by governor Marcy, under the
laws in such cases made and provided, he could not say; but if they
remained, he hoped they would be allowed the benefit of all the rights
of hospitality due to such distinguished strangers. For himself,
he condoled with the gentlemen, in this the trying time of their
misfortunes, and trusted that they would be able to _bear_ them with
manly fortitude and christian resignation.
If any one who heard this part of Mr. Clay’s speech was able to look
grave upon it, thank heaven, it was not we.
In the course of Wednesday’s debate, Mr. Clay having denounced,
as contrary to the spirit of the constitution, the omission of
the president of the United States to nominate to the senate, for
confirmation or rejection, the present secretary of the treasury and
other officers, though the senate has been now nearly six months in
session; Mr. Webster rose, for the purpose of showing the views of this
subject entertained by the great first president of the United States,
and practiced upon by every administration in this government, up to
the beginning of the present. For this purpose, Mr. Webster quoted from
the record the following:
_Message from the president of the United States to the senate
of the United States._
_United States, February 9, 1790._