CHAPTER LXVIII.

THE VETO.

The act which had passed the two Houses for the renewal of the bank

charter, was presented to the President on the 4th day of July,

and returned by him to the House in which it originated, on the

10th, with his objections. His first objection was to the exclusive

privileges which it granted to corporators who had already enjoyed

them, the great value of these privileges, and the inadequacy of the

sum to be paid for them. He said:

"Every monopoly, and all exclusive privileges, are granted

at the expense of the public, which ought to receive a fair

equivalent. The many millions which this act proposes to bestow

on the stockholders of the existing bank, must come directly

or indirectly out of the earnings of the American people. It

is due to them, therefore, if their government sell monopolies

and exclusive privileges, that they should at least exact

for them as much as they are worth in open market. The value

of the monopoly in this case may be correctly ascertained.

The twenty-eight millions of stock would probably be at an

advance of fifty per cent., and command, in market, at least

forty-two millions of dollars, subject to the payment of the

present loans. The present value of the monopoly, therefore, is

seventeen millions of dollars, and this the act proposes to sell

for three millions, payable in fifteen annual instalments of

$200,000 each.

"It is not conceivable how the present stockholders can

have any claim to the special favor of the government. The

present corporation has enjoyed its monopoly during the period

stipulated in the original contract. If we must have such a

corporation, why should not the government sell out the whole

stock, and thus secure to the people the full market value of

the privileges granted? Why should not Congress create and sell

the twenty-eight millions of stock, incorporating the purchasers

with all the powers and privileges secured in this act, and

putting the premium upon the sales into the treasury?

"But this act does not permit competition in the purchase of

this monopoly. It seems to be predicated on the erroneous idea

that the present stockholders have a prescriptive right, not

only to the favor, but to the bounty of the government. It

appears that more than a fourth part of the stock is held by

foreigners, and the residue is held by a few hundred of our

citizens, chiefly of the richest class. For their benefit does

this act exclude the whole American people from competition

in the purchase of this monopoly, and dispose of it for many

millions less than it is worth. This seems the less excusable,

because some of our citizens, not now stockholders, petitioned

that the door of competition might be opened, and offered to

take a charter on terms much more favorable to the government

and country.

"But this proposition, although made by men whose aggregate

wealth is believed to be equal to all the private stock in

the existing bank, has been set aside, and the bounty of our

government is proposed to be again bestowed on the few who have

been fortunate enough to secure the stock, and at this moment

wield the power of the existing institution. I cannot perceive

the justice or policy of this course. If our government must

sell monopolies, it would seem to be its duty to take nothing

less than their full value; and if gratuities must be made

once in fifteen or twenty years, let them not be bestowed on

the subjects of a foreign government, nor upon a designated or

favored class of men in our own country. It is but justice and

good policy, as far as the nature of the case will admit, to

confine our favors to our own fellow-citizens, and let each in

his turn enjoy an opportunity to profit by our bounty. In the

bearings of the act before me upon these points, I find ample

reasons why it should not become a law."

The President objected to the constitutionality of the bank, and

argued against the force of precedents in this case, and against the

applicability and the decision of the Supreme Court in its favor.

That decision was in the case of the Maryland branch, and sustained

it upon an argument which carries error, in point of fact, upon its

face. The ground of the decision was, that the bank was "necessary"

to the successful conducting of the "fiscal operations" of the

government; and that Congress was the judge of that necessity. Upon

this ground the Maryland branch, and every branch except the one in

the District of Columbia, was without the constitutional warrant

which the court required. Congress had given no judgment in favor

of its necessity--but the contrary--a judgment against it: for

after providing for the mother bank at Philadelphia, and one branch

at Washington City, the establishment of all other branches was

referred to the judgment of the bank itself, or to circumstances

over which Congress had no control, as the request of a State

legislature founded upon a subscription of 2000 shares within the

State--with a dispensation in favor of substituting local banks in

places where the Secretary of the Treasury, and the directors of the

national bank should agree. All this was contained in the fourteenth

fundamental article of the constitution of the corporation--which

says:

"The directors of said corporation shall establish a competent

office of discount and deposit in the District of Columbia,

whenever any law of the United States shall require such an

establishment: also one such office of discount and deposit

in any State in which two thousand shares shall have been

subscribed or may be held, whenever, upon application of the

legislature of such State, Congress may, by law, require the

same: _Provided_, the directors aforesaid shall not be bound

to establish such office before the whole of the capital of

the bank shall be paid up. And it shall be lawful for the

directors of the corporation to establish offices of discount

and deposit where they think fit, within the United States or

the territories thereof, and to commit the management of the

said, and the business thereof, respectively to such persons,

and under such regulations, as they shall deem proper, not

being contrary to the laws or the constitution of the bank. Or,

instead of establishing such offices, it shall be lawful for the

directors of the said corporation, from time to time, to employ

any other bank or banks, to be first approved by the Secretary

of the Treasury, at any place or places that they may deem

safe and proper, to manage and transact the business proposed

aforesaid, other than for the purposes of discount; to be

managed and transacted by such offices, under such agreements,

and subject to such regulations as they shall deem just and

proper."

These are the words of the fourteenth fundamental article of the

constitution of the bank, and the conduct of the corporation in

establishing its branches was in accordance with this article.

They placed them where they pleased--at first, governed wholly by

the question of profit and loss to itself--afterwards, and when

it was seen that the renewed charter was to be resisted by the

members from some States, governed by the political consideration

of creating an interest to defeat the election, or control the

action of the dissenting members. Thus it was in my own case. A

branch in St. Louis was refused to the application of the business

community--established afterwards to govern me. And thus, it is

seen the Supreme Court was in error--that the judgment of Congress

in favor of the "necessity" of branches only extended to one in the

District of Columbia; and as for the bank itself, the argument in

its favor and upon which the Supreme Court made its decision, was an

argument which made the constitutionality of a measure dependent,

not upon the words of the constitution, but upon the opinion of

Congress for the time being upon the question of the "necessity"

of a particular measure--a question subject to receive different

decisions from Congress at different times--which actually received

different decisions in 1791, 1811, and 1816: and, we may now add

the decision of experience since 1836--during which term we have

had no national bank; and the fiscal business of the government,

as well as the commercial and trading business of the country, has

been carried on with a degree of success never equalled in the time

of the existence of the national bank. I, therefore, believe that

the President was well warranted in challenging both the validity

of the decision of the Supreme Court, and the obligatory force of

precedents: which he did, as follows:

"It is maintained by the advocates of the bank, that its

constitutionality, in all its features, ought to be considered

as settled by precedent, and by the decision of the Supreme

Court. To this conclusion I cannot assent. Mere precedence is

a dangerous source of authority, and should not be regarded as

deciding questions of constitutional power, except where the

acquiescence of the people and the States can be considered as

well settled. So far from this being the case on this subject,

an argument against the bank might be based on precedent. One

Congress, in 1791, decided in favor of a bank; another, in 1811,

decided against it. One Congress, in 1815, decided against a

bank; another, in 1816, decided in its favor. Prior to the

present Congress, therefore, the precedents drawn from that

source were equal. If we report to the States, the expressions

of legislative, judicial, and executive opinions against the

bank have been, probably, to those in its favor, as four to

one. There is nothing in precedent, therefore, which, if its

authority were admitted, ought to weigh in favor of the act

before me.

"If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of

this act, it ought not to control the co-ordinate authorities

of this government. The Congress, the Executive, and the

court, must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of

the constitution. Each public officer who takes an oath to

support the constitution, swears that he will support it as he

understands it, and not as it is understood by others. It is as

much the duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate,

and of the President, to decide upon the constitutionality

of any bill or resolution which may be presented to them for

passage or approval, as it is of the supreme judges, when it may

be brought before them for judicial decision. The opinion of the

judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of

Congress has over the judges; and on that point the President

is independent of both. The authority of the Supreme Court must

not, therefore, be permitted to control the Congress, or the

Executive, when acting in their legislative capacities, but to

have only such influence as the force of their reasoning may

deserve.

"But in the case relied upon, the Supreme Court have not decided

that all the features of this corporation are compatible with

the constitution. It is true that the court have said that the

law incorporating the bank is a constitutional exercise of

power by Congress. But taking into view the whole opinion of

the court, and the reasoning by which they have come to that

conclusion, I understand them to have decided that, inasmuch

as a bank is an appropriate means for carrying into effect

the enumerated powers of the general government, therefore

the law incorporating it is in accordance with that provision

of the constitution which declares that Congress shall have

power 'to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper

for carrying those powers into execution.' Having satisfied

themselves that the word 'necessary,' in the constitution, means

'needful,' 'requisite,' 'essential,' 'conducive to,' and that

'a bank' is a convenient, a useful, and essential instrument

in the prosecution of the government's 'fiscal operations,'

they conclude that to 'use one must be within the discretion

of Congress;' and that 'the act to incorporate the Bank of the

United States, is a law made in pursuance of the constitution.'

'But,' say they, 'where the law is not prohibited, and is

really calculated to effect any of the objects intrusted to the

government, to undertake here to inquire into the degree of its

necessity, would be to pass the line which circumscribes the

judicial department, and to tread on legislative ground.'

"The principle, here affirmed, is, that the 'degree of its

necessity,' involving all the details of a banking institution,

is a question exclusively for legislative consideration. A bank

is constitutional; but it is the province of the legislature

to determine whether this or that particular power, privilege,

or exemption, is 'necessary and proper' to enable the bank to

discharge its duties to the government; and from their decision

there is no appeal to the courts of justice. Under the decision

of the Supreme Court, therefore, it is the exclusive province

of Congress and the President to decide whether the particular

features of this act are 'necessary and proper,' in order to

enable the bank to perform, conveniently and efficiently, the

public duties assigned to it as a fiscal agent, and therefore

constitutional; or unnecessary and improper, and therefore

unconstitutional."

With regard to the misconduct of the institution, both in conducting

its business and in resisting investigation, the message spoke the

general sentiment of the disinterested country when it said:

"Suspicions are entertained, and charges are made, of gross

abuses and violations of its charter. An investigation

unwillingly conceded, and so restricted in time as necessarily

to make it incomplete and unsatisfactory, discloses enough to

excite suspicion and alarm. In the practices of the principal

bank, partially unveiled in the absence of important witnesses,

and in numerous charges confidently made, and as yet wholly

uninvestigated, there was enough to induce a majority of the

committee of investigation, a committee which was selected

from the most able and honorable members of the House of

Representatives, to recommend a suspension of further action

upon the bill, and a prosecution of the inquiry. As the charter

had yet four years to run, and as a renewal now was not

necessary to the successful prosecution of its business, it was

to have been expected that the bank itself, conscious of its

purity, and proud of its character, would have withdrawn its

application for the present, and demanded the severest scrutiny

into all its transactions. In their declining to do so, there

seems to be an additional reason why the functionaries of the

government should proceed with less haste, and more caution, in

the renewal of their monopoly."

The appearance of the veto message was the signal for the delivery

of the great speeches of the advocates of the bank. Thus far

they had held back, refraining from general debate, and limiting

themselves to brief answers to current objections. Now they came

forth in all their strength, in speeches elaborate and studied, and

covering the whole ground of constitutionality and expediency; and

delivered with unusual warmth and vehemence. Mr. Webster, Mr. Clay,

Mr. Clayton of Delaware, and Mr. Ewing of Ohio, thus entered the

lists for the bank. And why these speeches, at this time, when it

was certain that speaking would have no effect in overcoming the

veto--that the constitutional majority of two thirds of each House

to carry it, so far from being attainable, would but little exceed a

bare majority? The reason was told by the speakers themselves--fully

told, as an appeal to the people--as a transfer of the question to

the political arena--to the election fields, and especially to the

presidential election, then impending, and within four months of its

consummation--and a refusal on the part of the corporation to submit

to the decision of the constituted authorities. This was plainly

told by Mr. Webster in the opening of his argument; frightful

distress was predicted: and the change of the chief magistrate was

presented as the only means of averting an immense calamity on one

hand, or of securing an immense benefit on the other. He said:

"It is now certain that, without a change in our public

councils, this bank will not be continued, nor will any other be

established, which, according to the general sense and language

of mankind, can be entitled to the name. In three years and

nine months from the present moment, the charter of the bank

expires; within that period, therefore, it must wind up its

concerns. It must call in its debts, withdraw its bills from

circulation, and cease from all its ordinary operations. All

this is to be done in three years and nine months; because,

although there is a provision in the charter rendering it lawful

to use the corporate name for two years after the expiration of

the charter, yet this is allowed only for the purpose of suits,

and for the sale of the estate belonging to the bank, and for no

other purpose whatever. The whole active business of the bank,

its custody of public deposits, its transfers of public moneys,

its dealing in exchange, all its loans and discounts, and all

its issues of bills for circulation, must cease and determine

on or before the 3d day of March, 1836; and, within the same

period, its debts must be collected, as no new contract can be

made with it, as a corporation, for the renewal of loans, or

discount of notes or bills, after that time."

Mr. Senator White of Tennessee, seizing upon this open entrance into

the political arena by the bank, thanked Mr. Webster for his candor,

and summoned the people to the combat of the great moneyed power,

now openly at the head of a great political party, and carrying

the fortunes of that party in the question of its own continued

existence. He said:

"I thank the senator for the candid avowal that unless the

President will sign such a charter as will suit the directors,

they intend to interfere in the election, and endeavor to

displace him. With the same candor I state that, after this

declaration, this charter shall never be renewed with my consent.

"Let us look at this matter as it is. Immediately before the

election, the directors apply for a charter, which they think

the President at any other time will not sign, for the express

purpose of compelling him to sign contrary to his judgment,

or of encountering all their hostility in the canvass, and

at the polls. Suppose this attempt to have succeeded, and

the President, through fear of his election, had signed this

charter, although he conscientiously believes it will be

destructive of the liberty of the people who have elected him

to preside over them, and preserve their liberties, so far as

in his power. What next? Why, whenever the charter is likely to

expire hereafter, they will come, as they do now, on the eve

of the election, and compel the chief magistrate to sign such

a charter as they may dictate, on pain of being turned out and

disgraced. Would it not be far better to gratify this moneyed

aristocracy, to the whole extent at once, and renew their

charter for ever? The temptation to a periodical interference in

our elections would then be taken away.

"Sir, if, under these circumstances, the charter is renewed,

the elective franchise is destroyed, and the liberties and

prosperity of the people are delivered over to this moneyed

institution, to be disposed of at their discretion. Against this

I enter my solemn protest."

The distress to be brought upon the country by the sudden winding

up of the bank, the sudden calling in of all its debts, the sudden

withdrawal of all its capital, was pathetically dwelt upon by all

the speakers, and the alarming picture thus presented by Mr. Clayton:

"I ask, what is to be done for the country? All thinking men

must now admit that, as the present bank must close its concerns

in less than four years, the pecuniary distress, the commercial

embarrassments, consequent upon its destruction, must exceed

any thing which has ever been known in our history, unless

some other bank can be established to relieve us. Eight and a

half millions of the bank capital, belonging to foreigners,

must be drawn from us to Europe. Seven millions of the capital

must be paid to the government, not to be loaned again, but to

remain, as the President proposes, deposited in a branch of the

treasury, to check the issues of the local banks. The immense

available resources of the present institution, amounting, as

appears by the report in the other House, to $82,057,483, are

to be used for banking no longer, and nearly fifty millions of

dollars in notes discounted, on personal and other security,

must be paid to the bank. The State banks must pay over all

their debts to the expiring institution, and curtail their

discounts to do so, or resort, for the relief of their debtors,

to the old plan of emitting more paper, to be bought up by

speculators at a heavy discount."

This was an alarming picture to present, and especially as the

corporation had it in its power to create the distress which it

foretold--a consummation frightfully realized three years later--but

a picture equally unjustifiable and gratuitous. Two years was the

extent of the time, after the expiration of its charter, that the

corporation had accepted in its charter for winding up its business;

and there were now four years to run before these two years

would commence. The section 21, of the charter, provided for the

contingency thus:

"And notwithstanding the expiration of the term for which the

said corporation is created, it shall be lawful to use the

corporate name, style and capacity, for the purpose of suits for

the final settlement and liquidation of the affairs and accounts

of the corporation, and for the sale and disposition of their

estate real, personal and mixed: but not for any other purpose,

or in any other manner whatever, nor for a period exceeding two

years after the expiration of said term of incorporation."

Besides the two years given to the institution after the expiration

of its charter, it was perfectly well known, and has since been

done in its own case, and was done by the first national bank, and

may be by any expiring corporation, that the directors may appoint

trustees to wind up their concerns; and who will not be subject to

any limited time. The first national bank--that which was created in

1791, and expired in 1811--had no two years, or any time whatever,

allowed for winding up its affairs after the expiration of its

charter--and the question of the renewal was not decided until

within the last days of the existence of its charter--yet there was

no distress, and no pressure upon its debtors. A trust was created;

and the collection of debts conducted so gently that it is not yet

finished. The trustees are still at work: and within this year, and

while this application for a renewed charter to the second bank is

going on, they announce a dividend of some cents on the share out of

the last annual collections; and intimate no time within which they

will finish; so that this menace of distress from the second bank,

if denied a renewal four years before the expiration of its charter,

and four years before the commencement of the two years to which it

is entitled, was entirely gratuitous, and would have been wicked if

executed.

Mr. Clay concluded the debate on the side of the bank application,

and spoke with great ardor and vehemence, and with much latitude of

style and topic--though as a rival candidate for the Presidency, it

was considered by some, that a greater degree of reserve might have

been commendable. The veto, and its imputed undue exercise, was the

theme of his vehement declamation. Besides discrediting its use, and

denouncing it as of monarchial origin, he alluded to the popular

odium brought upon Louis the 16th by its exercise, and the nickname

which it caused to be fastened upon him. He said:

"The veto is hardly reconcilable with the genius of

representative government. It is totally irreconcilable with

it, if it is to be frequently employed in respect to the

expediency of measures, as well as their constitutionality. It

is a feature of our government borrowed from a prerogative of

the British King. And it is remarkable that in England it has

grown obsolete, not having been used for upwards of a century.

At the commencement of the French Revolution, in discussing the

principles of their constitution, in the national convention,

the veto held a conspicuous figure. The gay, laughing population

of Paris bestowed on the King the appellation of Monsieur Veto,

and on the Queen that of Madame Veto."

Mr. Benton saw the advantage which this denunciation and allusion

presented, and made relentless use of it. He first vindicated

the use and origin of the veto, as derived from the institution

of the tribunes of the people among the Romans, and its exercise

always intended for the benefit of the people; and, under our

constitution, its only effect to refer a measure to the people,

for their consideration, and to stay its execution until the

people could pass upon it, and to adopt or reject it at an

ensuing Congress. It was a power eminently just and proper in a

representative government, and intended for the benefit of the

whole people; and, therefore, placed in the hands of the magistrate

elected by the whole. On the allusion to the nickname on the King

and Queen of France, he said:

"He not only recollected the historical incident to which the

senator from Kentucky had alluded, but also the character

of the decrees to which the unfortunate Louis the 16th had

affixed his vetoes. One was the decree against the emigrants,

dooming to death and confiscation of estate every man, woman,

and child who should attempt to save their lives by flying

from the pike, the guillotine, and the lamp-post. The other

was a decree exposing to death the ministers of religion who

could not take an oath which their consciences repulsed. To

save tottering age, trembling mothers, and affrighted children

from massacre--to save the temples and altars of God from

being stained by the blood of his ministers--were the sacred

objects of those vetoes; and was there any thing to justify a

light or reproachful allusion to them in the American Senate?

The King put his constitutional vetoes to these decrees; and

the _canaille_ of Saint Antoine and Marceau--not the gay and

laughing Parisians, but the bloody _canaille_, instigated by

leaders more ferocious than themselves--began to salute the King

as Monsieur Veto, and demand his head for the guillotine. And

the Queen, when seen at the windows of her prison, her locks

pale with premature white, the effect of an agonized mind at the

ruin she witnessed, the _poissardes_ saluted her also as Madame

Veto; and the Dauphin came in for the epithet of the Little

Veto. All this was terrible in France, and in the disorders of a

revolution; but why revive their remembrance in this Congress,

successor to those which were accustomed to call this king our

great ally? and to compliment him on the birth of that child,

stigmatized _le petit veto_, and perishing prematurely under the

inhumanities of the convention inflicted by the hand of Simon,

the jailer? The two elder vetoes, Monsieur and Madame, came to

the guillotine in Paris, and the young one to a death, compared

to which the guillotine was mercy. And now, why this allusion?

what application of its moral? Surely it is not pointless; not

devoid of meaning and practical application. We have no bloody

guillotines here, but we have political ones: sharp axes falling

from high, and cutting off political heads! Is the service of

that axe invoked here upon 'General Andrew Veto?' If so, and

the invocation should be successful, then Andrew Jackson, like

Louis 16th, will cease to be in any body's way in their march to

power."

Mr. Clay also introduced a fable, not taken from Æsop--that of

the cat and the eagle--the moral of which was attempted to be

turned against him. It was in allusion to the President's message

in relation to the bank, and the conduct of his friends since in

"attacking" the institution; and said:

"They have done so; and their condition now reminds mo of the

fable invented by Dr. Franklin, of the Eagle and the Cat, to

demonstrate that Æsop had not exhausted invention, in the

construction of his memorable fables. The eagle, you know, Mr.

President, pounced, from his lofty flight in the air, upon a

cat, taking it to be a pig. Having borne off his prize, he

quickly felt most painfully the claws of the cat thrust deeply

into his sides and body. Whilst flying, he held a parley with

the supposed pig, and proposed to let go his hold, if the other

would let him alone. No, says puss, you brought me from yonder

earth below, and I will hold fast to you until you carry me

back; a condition to which the eagle readily assented."

Mr. Benton gave a poetical commencement to this fable; and said:

"An eagle towering in his pride of height was--not by a

mousing owl, but by a pig under a jimpson weed--not hawked and

killed, but caught and whipt. The opening he thought grand;

the conclusion rather bathotic. The mistake of the sharp-eyed

bird of Jove, he thought might be attributed to old age dimming

the sight, and to his neglect of his spectacles that morning.

He was rather surprised at the whim of the cat in not choosing

to fall, seeing that a cat (unlike a politician sometimes),

always falls on its legs; but concluded it was a piece of pride

in puss, and a wish to assimilate itself still closer to an

æronaut; and having gone up pendant to a balloon, it would come

down artistically, with a parachute spread over its head. It was

a pretty fable, and well told; but the moral--the application?

Æsop always had a moral to his fable; and Dr. Franklin, his

imputed continuator in this particular, though not yet the rival

of his master in fabulous reputation, yet had a large sprinkling

of practical sense; and never wrote or spoke without a point and

an application. And now, what is the point here? And the senator

from Kentucky has not left that to be inferred; he has told it

himself. General Jackson is the eagle; the bank is the cat; the

parley is the proposition of the bank to the President to sign

its charter, and it will support him for the presidency--if not,

will keep his claws stuck in his sides. But, Jackson, different

from the eagle with his cat, will have no compromise, or bargain

with the bank. One or the other shall fall! and be dashed into

atoms!

"Having disposed of these preliminary topics Mr. B. came to

the matter in hand--the debate on the bank, which had only

commenced on the side of the friends of that institution since

the return of the veto message. Why debate the bank question

now, he exclaimed, and not debate it before? Then was the time

to make converts; now, none can be expected. Why are lips

unsealed now, which were silent as the grave when this act was

on its passage through the Senate? The senator from Kentucky

himself, at the end of one of his numerous perorations, declared

that he expected to make no converts. Then, why speak three

hours? and other gentlemen speak a whole day? Why this _post

facto_--_post mortem_--this _posthumous_--debate?--The deed is

done. The bank bill is finished. Speaking cannot change the

minds of senators, and make them reverse their votes; still

less can it change the President, and make him recall his veto.

Then why speak? To whom do they speak? With what object do

they speak? Sir! exclaimed Mr. B., this _post facto_ debate is

not for the Senate, nor the President, nor to alter the fate

of the bank bill. It is to rouse the officers of the bank--to

direct the efforts of its mercenaries in their designs upon

the people--to bring out its stream of corrupting influence,

by inspiring hope, and to embody all its recruits at the polls

to vote against President Jackson. Without an avowal we would

all know this; but we have not been left without an avowal. The

senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster), who opened yesterday,

commenced his speech with showing that Jackson must be put down;

that he stood as an impassable barrier between the bank and a

new charter; and that the road to success was through the ballot

boxes at the presidential election. The object of this debate

is then known, confessed, declared, avowed; the bank is in the

field; enlisted for the war; a battering ram--the _catapulta_,

not of the Romans, but of the National Republicans; not to beat

down the walls of hostile cities, but to beat down the citadel

of American liberty; to batter down the rights of the people;

to destroy a hero and patriot; to command the elections, and to

elect a Bank President by dint of bank power.

"The bank is in the field (said Mr. B.), a combatant, and a

fearful and tremendous one, in the presidential election. If

she succeeds, there is an end of American liberty--an end of

the republic. The forms of election may be permitted for a

while, as the forms of the consular elections were permitted

in Rome, during the last years of the republic; but it will be

for a while only. The President of the bank, and the President

of the United States, will be cousins, and cousins in the

royal sense of the word. They will elect each other. They will

elect their successors; they will transmit their thrones to

their descendants, and that by legislative construction. The

great Napoleon was decreed to be hereditary emperor by virtue

of the 22d article of the constitution of the republic. The

conservative Senate and the Tribunitial Assembly made him

emperor by construction; and the same construction which was

put upon the 22d article of the French constitution of the year

VIII. may be as easily placed upon the 'general welfare' clause

in the constitution of these United States.

"The Bank is in the field, and the West,--the Great West, is

the selected theatre of her operations. There her terrors, her

seductions, her energies, her rewards and her punishments, are

to be directed. The senator from Massachusetts opened yesterday

with a picture of the ruin in the West, if the bank were not

rechartered; and the senator from Kentucky, Mr. Clay, wound up

with a retouch of the same picture to day, with a closeness of

coincidence which showed that this part of the battle ground had

been reviewed in company by the associate generals and duplicate

senators. Both agree that the West is to be ruined if the bank

be not rechartered; and rechartered it cannot be, unless the

_veto_ President is himself _vetoed_. This is certainly candid.

But the gentlemen's candor did not stop there. They went on to

show the _modus operandi_; to show how the ruin would be worked,

how the country would be devastated,--if Jackson was not put

down, and the bank rechartered. The way was this: The West owes

thirty millions of dollars to the bank; the bank will sue every

debtor within two years after its charter expires; there will

be no money in the country to pay the judgments, all property

will be sold at auction; the price of all property will fall;

even the growing crops, quite up to Boon's Lick, will sink in

value and lose half their price! This is the picture of ruin

now drawn by the senator from Massachusetts; these the words

of a voice now pleading the cause of the West against Jackson,

the sound of which voice never happened to be heard in favor of

the West during the late war, when her sons were bleeding under

the British and the Indians, and Jackson was perilling life and

fortune to save and redeem her.

"This is to be the punishment of the West if she votes for

Jackson; and by a plain and natural inference, she is to

have her reward for putting him down and putting up another.

Thirty millions is the bank debt in the West; and these thirty

millions they threaten to collect by writs of execution if

Jackson is re-elected; but if he be not elected, and somebody

else be elected, then they promise no forced payments shall be

exacted,--hardly any payment at all! The thirty millions it is

pretended will almost be forgiven; and thus a bribe of thirty

millions is deceitfully offered for the Western vote, with a

threat of punishment, if it be not taken! But the West, and

especially the State of Ohio, is aware that Mr. Clay does not

use the bank power, in extending charities--coercion is his

mode of appeal--and when President Clay and President Biddle

have obtained their double sway, all these fair promises will

be forgotten. Mr. B. had read in the Roman history of the

empire being put up to sale; he had read of victorious generals,

returning from Asiatic conquests, and loaded with oriental

spoil, bidding in the market for the consulship, and purchasing

their elections with the wealth of conquered kingdoms; but he

had never expected to witness a bid for the presidency in this

young and free republic. He thought he lived too early,--too

near the birth of the republic,--while every thing was yet

too young and innocent,--to see the American presidency put

up at auction. But he affirmed this to be the case now; and

called upon every senator, and every auditor, who had heard the

senator from Massachusetts the day before, or the senator from

Kentucky on that day, to put any other construction, if they

could, upon this seductive offer to the West, of indefinite

accommodation for thirty millions of debt, if she would vote for

one gentleman, and the threat of a merciless exaction of that

debt, if she voted for another?

"Mr. B. demanded how the West came to be selected by these two

senators as the theatre for the operation of all the terrors and

seductions of the bank debt? Did no other part of the country

owe money to the bank? Yes! certainly, fifteen millions in the

South, and twenty-five millions north of the Potomac. Why then

were not the North and the South included in the fancied fate

of the West? Simply because the presidential election could not

be affected by the bank debt in those quarters. The South was

irrevocably fixed; and the terror, or seduction, of the payment,

or non-payment, of her bank debt, would operate nothing there.

The North owed but little, compared to its means of payment, and

the presidential election would turn upon other points in that

region. The bank debt was the argument for the West; and the

bank and the orators had worked hand in hand, to produce, and

to use, this argument. Mr. B. then affirmed, that the debt had

been created for the very purpose to which it was now applied;

an electioneering, political purpose; and this he proved by a

reference to authentic documents.

"_First_: He took the total bank debt, as it existed when

President Jackson first brought the bank charter before the view

of Congress in December, 1829, and showed it to be $40,216,000;

then he took the total debt as it stood at present, being

$70,428,000; and thus showed an increase of thirty millions

in the short space of two years and four months. This great

increase had occurred since the President had delivered opinions

against the bank, and when as a prudent, and law abiding

institution, it ought to have been reducing and curtailing its

business, or at all events, keeping it stationary. He then

showed the annual progress of this increase, to demonstrate

that the increase was faster and faster, as the charter drew

nearer and nearer to its termination, and the question of its

renewal pressed closer and closer upon the people. He showed

that the increase the first year after the message of 1829 was

four millions and a quarter; in the second year, which was

last year, about nineteen millions, to wit, from $44,052,000,

to $63,026,452; and the increase in the four first mouths of

the present year was nearly five millions, being at the rate

of about one million and a quarter a month since the bank had

applied for a renewal of her charter! After having shown this

enormous increase in the sum total of the debt, Mr. B. went

on to show where it had taken place; and this he proved to be

chiefly in the West, and not merely in the West, but principally

in those parts of the West in which the presidential election

was held to be most doubtful and critical.

"He began with the State of Louisiana, and showed that the

increase there, since the delivery of the message of 1829, was

$5,061,161; in Kentucky, that the increase was $3,009,838; that

in Ohio, it was $2,079,207. Here was an increase of ten millions

in three critical and doubtful States. And so on, in others.

Having shown this enormous increase of debt in the West, Mr. B.

went on to show, from the time and circumstances and subsequent

events, that they were created for a political purpose, and had

already been used by the bank with that view. He then recurred

to the two-and-twenty circulars, or writs of execution, as he

called them, issued against the South and West, in January

and February last, ordering curtailments of all debts, and

the supply of reinforcements to the Northeast. He showed that

the reasons assigned by the bank for issuing the orders of

curtailments were false; that she was not deprived of public

deposits, as she asserted; for she then had twelve millions, and

now has twelve millions of these deposits; that she was not in

distress for money, as she asserted, for she was then increasing

her loans in other quarters, at the rate of a million and a

quarter a month, and had actually increased them ten millions

and a half from the date of the first order of curtailment,

in October, 1831, to the end of May, 1832! Her reasons then

assigned for curtailing at the Western branches, were false,

infamously false, and were proved to be so by her own returns.

The true reasons were political: a foretaste and prelude to what

is now threatened. It was a manoeuvre to press the debtors--a

turn of the screw upon the borrowers--to make them all cry out

and join in the clamors and petitions for a renewed charter!

This was the reason, this the object; and a most wanton and

cruel sporting it was with the property and feelings of the

unfortunate debtors. The overflowing of the river at Louisville

and Cincinnati, gave the bank an opportunity of showing its

gracious condescension in the temporary and slight relaxation of

her orders at those places; but there, and every where else in

the West, the screw was turned far enough to make the screams

of the victims reach their representatives in Congress. In

Mobile, alone, half a million was curtailed out of a million

and a half; at every other branch, curtailments are going on;

and all this for political effect, and to be followed up by the

electioneering fabrication that it is the effect of the veto

message. Yes! the veto message and President, are to be held up

as the cause of these curtailments, which have been going on for

half a year past!

"Connected with the creation of this new debt, was the

establishment of several new branches, and the promise of many

more. Instead of remaining stationary, and awaiting the action

of Congress, the bank showed itself determined to spread and

extend its business, not only in debts, but in new branches.

Nashville, Natchez, St. Louis, were favored with branches at the

eleventh hour. New-York had the same favor done her; and, at one

of these (the branch at Utica), the Senate could judge of the

necessity to the federal government which occasioned it to be

established, and which necessity, in the opinion of the Supreme

Court, is sufficient to overturn the laws and constitution of

a State: the Senate could judge of this necessity, from the

fact that twenty-five dollars is rather a large deposit to the

credit of the United States Treasurer, and that, at the last

returns, the federal deposit was precisely two dollars and fifty

cents! This extension of branches and increase of debt, at the

approaching termination of the charter, was evidence of the

determination of the bank to be rechartered at all hazards. It

was done to create an interest to carry her through, in spite

of the will of the people. Numerous promises for new branches,

is another trick of the same kind. Thirty new branches are said

to be in contemplation, and about three hundred villages have

been induced each to believe that itself was the favored spot of

location; but, always upon the condition, well understood, that

Jackson should not be re-elected, and that they should elect a

representative to vote for the re-charter.

"Mr. B., having shown when and why this Western debt was

created, examined next into the alleged necessity for its prompt

and rigorous collection, if the charter was not renewed; he

denied the existence of any such necessity in point of law. He

affirmed that the bank could take as much time as she pleased to

collect her debts, and could be just as gentle with her debtors

as she chose. All that she had to do was to convert a few of

her directors into trustees, as the old Bank of the United

States had done, the affairs of which were wound up so gently

that the country did not know when it ended. Mr. B. appealed to

what would be admitted to be bank authority on this point: it

was the opinion of the senator from Kentucky (Mr. Clay), not

in his speech against renewing the bank charter, in 1811, but

in his report of that year against allowing it time to wind up

its affairs. The bank then asked time to wind up its affairs;

a cry was raised that the country would be ruined, if time

was not allowed; but the senator from Kentucky then answered

that cry, by referring the bank to its common law right to

constitute trustees to wind up its affairs. The Congress acted

upon the suggestion by refusing the time; the bank acted upon

the suggestion by appointing trustees; the debtors hushed their

cries, and the public never heard of the subject afterwards. The

pretext of an unrenewed charter is not necessary to stimulate

the bank to the pressure of Western debtors. Look at Cincinnati!

what but a determination to make its power felt and feared

occasioned the pressure at that place? And will that disposition

ever be wanting to such an institution as that of the Bank of

the United States?

"The senator from Kentucky has changed his opinion about the

constitutionality of the bank; but has he changed it about the

legality of the trust? If he has not, he must surrender his

alarms for the ruin of the West; if he has, the law itself is

unchanged. The bank may act under it; and if she does not, it

is because she will not; and because she chooses to punish the

West for refusing to support her candidate for the presidency.

What then becomes of all this cry about ruined fortunes, fallen

prices, and the loss of growing crops? All imagination or cruel

tyranny! The bank debt of the West is thirty millions. She has

six years to pay it in; and, at all events, he that cannot pay

in six years, can hardly do it at all. Ten millions are in bills

of exchange; and, if they are real bills, they will be payable

at maturity, in ninety or one hundred and twenty days; if not

real hills, but disguised loans, drawing interest as a debt, and

premium as a bill of exchange, they are usurious and void, and

may be vacated in any upright court.

"But, the great point for the West to fix its attention upon is

the fact that, once in every ten years, the capital of this debt

is paid in annual interest; and that, after paying the capital

many times over in interest, the principal will have to be paid

at last. The sooner, then, the capital is paid and interest

stopped, the better for the country.

"Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster had dilated largely upon the

withdrawal of bank capital from the West. Mr. B. showed, from

the bank documents, that they had sent but 938,000 dollars of

capital there; that the operation was the other way, a ruinous

drain of capital, and that in hard money, from the West. He went

over the tables which showed the annual amount of these drains,

and demonstrated its ruinous nature upon the South and West.

He showed the tendency of all branch bank paper to flow to the

Northeast; the necessity to redeem it annually with gold and

silver, and bills of exchange, and the inevitable result, that

the West would eventually be left without either hard money, or

branch bank paper.

"Mr. Clay had attributed all the disasters of the late war,

especially the surrender of Detroit, and the Bladensburg rout,

to the want of this bank. Mr. B. asked if bank credits, or

bank advances, could have inspired courage into the bosom of

the unhappy old man who had been the cause of the surrender

of Detroit? or, could have made those fight who could not

be inspired by the view of their capitol, the presence of

their President, and the near proximity of their families and

firesides? Andrew Jackson conquered at New Orleans, without

money, without arms, without credit--aye, without a bank. He got

even his flints from the pirates. He scouted the idea of brave

men being produced by the bank. If it had existed, it would have

been a burthen upon the hands of the government. It was now,

at this hour, a burthen upon the hands of the government, and

an obstacle to the payment of the public debt. It had procured

a payment of six millions of the public debt to be delayed,

from July to October, under the pretext that the merchants

could not pay their bonds, when these bonds were now paid, and

twelve millions of dollars--twice the amount intended to have

been paid--lies in the vaults of the bank to be used by her in

beating down the veto message, the author of the message, and

all who share his opinions. The bank was not only a burthen

upon the hands of the government now, but had been a burthen

upon it in three years after it started--when it would have

stopped payment, as all America knows, in April 1819, had it not

been for the use of eight millions of public deposits, and the

seasonable arrival of wagons loaded with specie from Kentucky

and Ohio.

"Mr. B. defended the old banks in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee,

from the aspersions which had been cast upon them. They had

aided the government when the Northern bankers, who now scoff

at them, refused to advance a dollar. They had advanced the

money which enabled the warriors of the West to go forth to

battle. They had crippled themselves to aid their government.

After the war they resumed specie payments, which had been

suspended with the consent of the legislatures, to enable them

to extend all their means in aid of the national struggle. This

resumption was made practicable by the Treasury deposit, in

the State institutions. They were withdrawn to give capital to

the branches of the great monopoly, when first extended to the

West. These branches, then, produced again the draining of the

local banks, which they had voluntarily suffered for the sake of

government during the war. They had sacrificed their interests

and credit to sustain the credit of the national treasury--and

the treasury surrendered them, as a sacrifice to the national

bank. They stopped payment under the pressure and extortion of

the new establishments, introduced against the consent of the

people and legislatures of the Western States. The paper of

the Western banks depreciated--the stock of the States and of

individual stockholders was sacrificed--the country was filled

with a spurious currency, by the course of an institution which,

it was pretended, was established to prevent such a calamity.

The Bank of the United States was thus established on the ruins

of the banks, and foreigners and non-residents were fattened on

their spoils. They were stripped of their specie to pamper the

imperial bank. They fell victims to their patriotism, and to the

establishment of the United States bank; and it was unjust and

unkind to reproach them with a fate which their patriotism, and

the establishment of the federal bank brought upon them.

"Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster had rebuked the President for his

allusion to the manner in which the bank charter had been

pushed through Congress, pending an unfinished investigation,

reluctantly conceded. Mr. B. demanded if that was not true? He

asked if it was not wrong to push the charter through in that

manner, and if the President had not done right to stop it,

to balk this hurried process, and to give the people time for

consideration and enable them to act? He had only brought the

subject to the notice of the Congress and the people, but had

not recommended immediate legislation, before the subject had

been canvassed before the nation. It was a gross perversion

of his messages to quote them in favor of immediate decision

without previous investigation. He was not evading the question.

The veto message proved that. He sought time for the people, not

for himself, and in that he coincided with a sentiment lately

expressed by the senator himself (from Kentucky) at Cincinnati;

he was coinciding with the example of the British parliament,

which had not yet decided the question of rechartering the

Bank of England, and which had just raised an extraordinary

committee of thirty-one members to examine the bank through

all her departments; and, what was much more material, he had

coincided with the spirit of our constitution, and the rights

of the people, in preventing an expiring minority Congress

from usurping the powers and rights of their successors. The

President had not evaded the question. He had met it fully. He

might have said nothing about it in his messages of 1829, '30,

and '31. He might have remained silent, and had the support

of both parties; but the safety and interest of the country

required the people to be awakened to the consideration of the

subject. He had waked them up; and now that they are awake, he

has secured them time for consideration. Is this evasion?

"Messrs. C. and W. had attacked the President for objecting

to foreign stockholders in the Bank of the United States. Mr.

B. maintained the solidity of the objection, and exposed the

futility of the argument urged by the duplicate senators. They

had asked if foreigners did not hold stock in road and canal

companies? Mr. B. said, yes! but these road and canal companies

did not happen to be the bankers of the United States! The

foreign stockholders in this bank were the bankers of the United

States. They held its moneys; they collected its revenues; they

almost controlled its finances; they were to give or withhold

aid in war as well as peace, and, it might be, against their own

government. Was the United States to depend upon foreigners in

a point so material to our existence? The bank was a national

institution. Ought a national institution to be the private

property of aliens? It was called the Bank of the United States,

and ought it to be the bank of the nobility and gentry of Great

Britain? The senator from Kentucky had once objected to foreign

stockholders himself. He did this in his speech against the

bank in 1811; and although he had revoked the constitutional

doctrines of that speech, he [Mr. B.] never understood that

he had revoked the sentiments then expressed of the danger of

corruption in our councils and elections, if foreigners wielded

the moneyed power of our country. He told us then that the power

of the purse commanded that of the sword--and would he commit

both to the hands of foreigners? All the lessons of history,

said Mr. B., admonish us to keep clear of foreign influence.

The most dangerous influence from foreigners is through money.

The corruption of orators and statesmen, is the ready way to

poison the councils, and to betray the interest of a country.

Foreigners now own one fourth of this bank; they may own

the whole of it! What a temptation to them to engage in our

elections! By carrying a President, and a majority of Congress,

to suit themselves, they not only become masters of the moneyed

power, but also of the political power, of this republic. And

can it be supposed that the British stockholders are indifferent

to the issue of this election? that they, and their agents,

can see with indifference, the re-election of a man who may

disappoint their hopes of fortune, and whose achievement at New

Orleans is a continued memento of the most signal defeat the

arms of England ever sustained?

"The President, in his message, had characterized the exclusive

privilege of the bank as 'a monopoly.' To this Mr. Webster had

taken exception, and ascended to the Greek root of the word to

demonstrate its true signification, and the incorrectness of

the President's application. Mr. B. defended the President's

use of the term, and said that he would give authority too,

but not Greek authority. He would ascend, not to the Greek

root, but to the English test of the word, and show that a whig

baronet had applied the term to the Bank of England with still

more offensive epithets than any the President had used. Mr. B.

then read, and commented upon several passages of a speech of

Sir William Pulteney, in the British House of Commons, against

renewing the charter of the Bank of England, in which the term

monopoly was repeatedly applied to that bank; and other terms to

display its dangerous and odious charter. In one of the passages

the whig baronet said: 'The bank has been supported, and is

still supported, by the fear and terror which, by the means of

its monopoly, it has had the power to inspire.' In another, he

said: 'I consider the power given by the monopoly to be of the

nature of all other despotic power, which corrupts the despot

as much as it corrupts the slave!' In a third passage he said:

'Whatever language the private bankers may feel themselves

bound to hold, he could not believe they had any satisfaction

in remaining subject to a power which might destroy them at any

moment.' In a fourth: 'No man in France was heard to complain

of the Bastile while it existed; yet when it fell, it came down

amidst the universal acclamations of the nation!'

"Here, continued Mr. B., is authority, English authority, for

calling the British bank in England a monopoly; and the British

bank in America is copied from it. Sir Wm. Pulteney goes further

than President Jackson. He says, that the Bank of England rules

by fear and terror. He calls it a despot, and a corrupt despot.

He speaks of the slaves corrupted by the bank; by whom he

doubtless means the nominal debtors who have received ostensible

loans, real douceurs--never to be repaid, except in dishonorable

services. He considers the praises of the country bankers as the

unwilling homage of the weak and helpless to the corrupt and

powerful. He assimilates the Bank of England, by the terrors

which it inspires, to the old Bastile in France, and anticipates

the same burst of emancipated joy on the fall of the bank, which

was heard in France on the fall of the Bastile. And is he not

right? And may not every word of his invective be applied to the

British bank in America, and find its appropriate application in

well-known, and incontestable facts here? Well has he likened

it to the Bastile; well will the term apply in our own country.

Great is the fear and terror now inspired by this bank. Silent

are millions of tongues, under its terrors which are impatient

for the downfall of the monument of despotism, that they may

break forth into joy and thanksgiving. The real Bastile was

terrible to all France; the figurative Bastile is terrible to

all America; but above all to the West, where the duplicate

senators of Kentucky and Massachusetts, have pointed to the

reign of terror that is approaching, and drawn up the victims

for an anticipated immolation. But, exclaimed Mr. B., this is

the month of July; a month auspicious to liberty, and fatal to

Bastiles. Our dependence on the crown of Great Britain ceased in

the month of July; the Bastile in France fell in the month of

July; Charles X. was chased from France by the three glorious

days of July; and the veto message, which is the Declaration of

Independence against the British bank, originated on the fourth

of July, and is the signal for the downfall of the American

Bastile, and the end of despotism. The time is auspicious; the

work will go on; down with the British bank; down with the

Bastile; away with the tyrant, will be the patriotic cry of

Americans; and down it will go.

"The duplicate senators, said Mr. B., have occupied themselves

with criticising the President's idea of the obligation of his

oath in construing the constitution for himself. They also

think that the President ought to be bound, the Congress ought

to be bound, to take the constitution which the Supreme Court

may deal out to them! If so, why take an oath? The oath is to

bind the conscience, not to enlighten the head. Every officer

takes the oath for himself; the President took the oath for

himself; administered by the Chief Justice, but not _to_ the

Chief Justice. He bound himself to observe the constitution,

not the Chief Justice's interpretation of the constitution;

and his message is in conformity to his oath. This is the oath

of duty and of right. It is the path of Jefferson, also, who

has laid it down in his writings, that each department judges

the constitution for itself, and that the President is as

independent of the Supreme Court as the Supreme Court is of the

President.

"The senators from Kentucky and Massachusetts have not only

attacked the President's idea of his own independence in

construing the constitution, but also the construction he

has put upon it in reference to this bank. They deny its

correctness, and enter into arguments to disprove it, and have

even quoted authorities which may be quoted on both sides. One

of the senators, the gentleman from Kentucky, might have spared

his objection to the President on this point. He happened to

think the same way once himself; and while all will accord to

him the right of changing for himself, few will allow him the

privilege of rebuking others for not keeping up with him in the

rigadoon dance of changeable opinions.

"The President is assailed for showing the drain upon the

resources of the West, which is made by this bank. How assailed?

With any documents to show that he is in error? No! not at all!

no such document exists. The President is right, and the fact

goes to a far greater extent than is stated in his message. He

took the dividend profits of the bank,--the net, and not the

gross profits; the latter is the true measure of the burthen

upon the people. The annual drain for net dividends from the

West, is $1,600,000. This is an enormous tax. But the gross

profits are still larger. Then there is the specie drain, which

now exceeds three millions of dollars per annum. Then there is

the annual mortgage of the growing crop to redeem the fictitious

and usurious bills of exchange which are now substituted for

ordinary loans, and which sweeps off the staple products of

the South and West to the Northeastern cities.--The West is

ravaged by this bank. New Orleans, especially, is ravaged by

it; and in her impoverishment, the whole West suffers; for she

is thereby disabled from giving adequate prices for Western

produce. Mr. B. declared that this British bank, in his opinion,

had done, and would do, more pecuniary damage to New Orleans,

than the British army would have done if they had conquered it

in 1815. He verified this opinion by referring to the immense

dividend, upwards of half a million a year, drawn from the

branch there; the immense amounts of specie drawn from it; the

produce carried off to meet the domestic bills of exchange;

and the eight and a half millions of debt existing there, of

which five millions were created in the last two years to

answer electioneering purposes, and the collection of which

must paralyze, for years, the growth of the city. From further

damage to New Orleans, the veto message would save that great

city. Jackson would be her saviour a second time. He would save

her from the British bank as he had done from the British army;

and if any federal bank must be there, let it be an independent

one; a separate and distinct bank, which would save to that

city, and to the Valley of the Mississippi, of which it was the

great and cherished emporium, the command of their own moneyed

system, the regulation of their own commerce and finances, and

the accommodation of their own citizens.

"Mr. B. addressed himself to the Jackson bank men, present and

absent. They might continue to be for a bank and for Jackson;

but they could not be for _this_ bank, and for Jackson. This

bank is now the open, as it long has been the secret, enemy of

Jackson. It is now in the hands of his enemies, wielding all

its own money--wielding even the revenues and the credit of

the Union--wielding twelve millions of dollars, half of which

were intended to be paid to the public creditors on the first

day of July, but which the bank has retained to itself by a

false representation in the pretended behalf of the merchants.

All this moneyed power, with an organization which pervades

the continent, working every where with unseen hands, is now

operating against the President; and it is impossible to be

in favor of this power and also in favor of him at the same

time. Choose ye between them! To those who think a bank to be

indispensable, other alternatives present themselves. They are

not bound nor wedded to this. New American banks may be created.

Read, sir, Henry Parnell. See his invincible reasoning, and

indisputable facts, to show that the Bank of England is too

powerful for the monarchy of Great Britain! Study his plan for

breaking up that gigantic institution, and establishing three

or four independent banks in its place, which would be so much

less dangerous to liberty, and so much safer and better for the

people. In these alternatives, the friends of Jackson, who are

in favor of national banks, may find the accomplishment of their

wishes without a sacrifice of their principles, and without

committing the suicidal solecism of fighting against him while

professing to be for him.

"Mr. B. addressed himself to the West--the great, the generous,

the brave, the patriotic, the devoted West. It was the selected

field of battle. There the combined forces, the national

republicans, and the national republican bank, were to work

together, and to fight together. The holy allies understand each

other. They are able to speak in each other's names, and to

promise and threaten in each other's behalf. For this campaign

the bank created its debt of thirty millions in the West; in

this campaign the associate leaders use that debt for their own

purposes. Vote for Jackson! and suits, judgments, and executions

shall sweep, like the besom of destruction, throughout the vast

region of the West! Vote against him! and indefinite indulgence

is basely promised! The debt itself, it is pretended, will,

perhaps, be forgiven; or, at all events, hardly ever collected!

Thus, an open bribe of thirty millions is virtually offered

to the West; and, lest the seductions of the bribe may not

be sufficient on one hand, the terrors of destruction are

brandished on the other! Wretched, infatuated men, cried Mr. B.

Do they think the West is to be bought? Little do they know of

the generous sons of that magnificent region! poor, indeed, in

point of money, but rich in all the treasures of the heart! rich

in all the qualities of freemen and republicans! rich in all the

noble feelings which look with equal scorn upon a bribe or a

threat. The hunter of the West, with moccasins on his feet, and

a hunting shirt drawn around him, would repel with indignation

the highest bribe that the bank could offer him. The wretch

(said Mr. Benton, with a significant gesture) who dared to offer

it, would expiate the insult with his blood.

"Mr. B. rapidly summed up with a view of the dangerous power of

the bank, and the present audacity of her conduct. She wielded

a debt of seventy millions of dollars, with an organization

which extended to every part of the Union, and she was sole

mistress of the moneyed power of the republic. She had thrown

herself into the political arena, to control and govern the

presidential election. If she succeeded in that election, she

would wish to consolidate her power by getting control of all

other elections. Governors of States, judges of the courts,

representatives and senators in Congress, all must belong to

her. The Senate especially must belong to her; for, there lay

the power to confirm nominations and to try impeachments;

and, to get possession of the Senate, the legislatures of a

majority of the States would have to be acquired. The war is

now upon Jackson, and if he is defeated, all the rest will

fall an easy prey. What individual could stand in the States

against the power of the bank, and that bank flushed with a

victory over the conqueror of the conquerors of Bonaparte? The

whole government would fall into the hands of this moneyed

power. An oligarchy would be immediately established; and that

oligarchy, in a few generations, would ripen into a monarchy.

All governments must have their end; in the lapse of time, this

republic must perish; but that time, he now trusted, was far

distant; and when it comes, it should come in glory, and not

in shame. Rome had her Pharsalia, and Greece her Chæronea; and

this republic, more illustrious in her birth than Greece or

Rome, was entitled to a death as glorious as theirs. She would

not die by poison--perish in corruption--no! A field of arms,

and of glory, should be her end. She had a right to a battle--a

great, immortal battle--where heroes and patriots could die with

the liberty which they scorned to survive, and consecrate, with

their blood, the spot which marked a nation's fall.

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

said:--

"The senator from Missouri expresses dissatisfaction that the

speeches of some senators should fill the galleries. He has no

ground for uneasiness on this score. For if it be the fortune

of some senators to fill the galleries when they speak, it is

the fortune of others to empty them, with whatever else they

fill the chamber. The senator from Missouri has every reason to

be well satisfied with the effect of his performance to-day;

for among his auditors is a lady of great literary eminence.

[Pointing to Mrs. Royal.] The senator intimates, that in my

remarks on the message of the President, I was deficient in

a proper degree of courtesy towards that officer. Whether my

deportment here be decorous or not, I should not choose to be

decided upon by the gentleman from Missouri. I answered the

President's arguments, and gave my own views of the facts and

inferences introduced by him into his message. The President

states that the bank has an injurious operation on the interests

of the West, and dwells upon its exhausting effects, its

stripping the country of its currency, &c., and upon these

views and statements I commented in a manner which the occasion

called for. But, if I am to be indoctrinated in the rules of

decorum, I shall not look to the gentleman for instruction. I

shall not strip him of his Indian blankets to go to Boon's Lick

for lessons in deportment, nor yet to the Court of Versailles,

which he eulogizes. There are some peculiar reasons why I should

not go to that senator for my views of decorum, in regard to

my bearing towards the chief magistrate, and why he is not a

fit instructor. I never had any personal rencontre with the

President of the United States. I never complained of any

outrages on my person committed by him. I never published any

bulletins respecting his private brawls. The gentleman will

understand my allusion. [Mr. B. said: He will understand you,

sir, and so will you him.] I never complained, that while a

brother of mine was down on the ground, senseless or dead, he

received another blow. I have never made any declaration like

these relative to the individual who is President. There is

also a singular prophecy as to the consequences of the election

of this individual, which far surpasses, in evil foreboding,

whatever I may have ever said in regard to his election. I never

made any prediction so sinister, nor made any declaration so

harsh, as that which is contained in the prediction to which I

allude. I never declared my apprehension and belief, that if he

were elected, we should be obliged to legislate with pistols and

dirks by our side. At this last stage of the session I do not

rise to renew the discussion of this question. I only rose to

give the senator from Missouri a full acquittance, and I trust

there will be no further occasion for opening a new account with

him.

"Mr. B. replied. It is true, sir, that I had an affray with

General Jackson, and that I did complain of his conduct. We

fought, sir; and we fought, I hope, like men. When the explosion

was over, there remained no ill will, on either side. No

vituperation or system of petty persecution was kept up between

us. Yes, sir, it is true, that I had the personal difficulty,

which the senator from Kentucky has had the delicacy to bring

before the Senate. But let me tell the senator from Kentucky

there is no 'adjourned question of veracity' between me and

General Jackson. All difficulty between us ended with the

conflict; and a few months after it, I believe that either party

would cheerfully have relieved the other from any peril; and now

we shake hands and are friendly when we meet. I repeat, sir,

that there is no 'adjourned question of veracity' between me

and General Jackson, standing over for settlement. If there had

been, a gulf would have separated us as deep as hell.

"Mr. B. then referred to the prediction alleged by Mr. Clay,

to have been made by him. I have seen, he said, a placard,

first issued in Missouri, and republished lately. It first

appeared in 1825; and stated that I had said, in a public

address, that if General Jackson should be elected, we must

be guarded with pistols and dirks to defend ourselves while

legislating here. This went the rounds of the papers at the

time. A gentleman, well acquainted in the State of Missouri

(Col. Lawless), published a handbill denying the truth of the

statement, and calling upon any person in the State to name

the time and place, when and where, any such address had been

heard from me, or any such declaration made. Colonel Lawless was

perfectly familiar with the campaign, but he could never meet

with a single individual, man, woman, or child, in the State,

who could recollect to have ever heard any such remarks from me.

No one came forward to reply to the call. No one had ever heard

me make the declaration which was charged upon me. The same

thing has lately been printed here, and, in the night, stuck

up in a placard upon the posts and walls of this city. While

its author remained concealed, it was impossible for me to hold

him to account, nor could I make him responsible, who, in the

dark, sticks it to the posts and walls: but since it is in open

day introduced into this chamber I am enabled to meet it as it

deserves to be met. I see who it is that uses it here, and to

his face [pointing to Mr. Clay] I am enabled to pronounce it, as

I now do, an atrocious calumny.

"Mr. Clay.--The assertion that there is 'an adjourned question

of veracity' between me and Gen. Jackson, is, whether made by

man or master absolutely false. The President made a certain

charge against me, and he referred to witnesses to prove it.

I denied the truth of the charge. He called upon his witness

to prove it. I leave it to the country to say, whether that

witness sustained the truth of the President's allegation.

That witness is now on his passage to St. Petersburg, with

a commission in his pocket. [Mr. B. here said aloud, in his

place, the Mississippi and the fisheries--Mr. Adams and the

fisheries--every body understands it.] Mr. C. said, I do not yet

understand the senator. He then remarked upon the 'prediction'

which the senator from Missouri had disclaimed. Can he, said

Mr. C, look to me, and say that he never used the language

attributed to him in the placard which he refers to? He says,

Col. Lawless denies that he used the words in the State of

Missouri. Can you look me in the face, sir [addressing Mr. B.],

and say that you never used that language out of the State of

Missouri?

"Mr. B. I look, sir, and repeat that it is an atrocious calumny;

and I will pin it to him who repeats it here.

"Mr. Clay. Then I declare before the Senate that you said to me

the very words--

"[Mr. B. in his place, while Mr. Clay was yet speaking, several

times loudly repeated the word 'false, false, false.']

Mr. Clay said, I fling back the charge of atrocious calumny upon

the senator from Missouri.

A call to order was here heard from several senators.

"The President, pro tem., said, the senator from Kentucky is not

in order, and must take his seat.

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

"The Chair, said Mr. Tazewell (the President pro tem.), can

enter in no explanations with the senator.

"Mr. Clay. I shall be heard. I demand to know what point of

order can be taken against me, which was not equally applicable

to the senator from Missouri.

"The President, pro tem., stated, that he considered the whole

discussion as out of order. He would not have permitted it, had

he been in the chair at its commencement.

"Mr. Poindexter said, he was in the chair at the commencement of

the discussion, and did not then see fit to check it. But he was

now of the opinion that it was not in order.

"Mr. B. I apologize to the Senate for the manner in which I have

spoken; but not to the senator from Kentucky.

"Mr. Clay. To the Senate I also offer an apology. To the senator

from Missouri none.

"The question was here called for, by several senators, and it

was taken, as heretofore reported."

The conclusion of the debate on the side of the bank was in the

most impressive form to the fears and apprehensions of the country,

and well calculated to alarm and rouse a community.' Mr. Webster

concluded with this peroration, presenting a direful picture of

distress if the veto was sustained, and portrayed the death of the

constitution before it had attained the fiftieth year of its age. He

concluded thus--little foreseeing in how few years he was to invoke

the charity of the world's silence and oblivion for the institution

which his rhetoric then exalted into a great and beneficent power,

indispensable to the well working of the government, and the well

conducting of their affairs by all the people:

"Mr. President, we have arrived at a new epoch. We are entering

on experiments with the government and the constitution of

the country, hitherto untried, and of fearful and appalling

aspect. This message calls us to the contemplation of a future,

which little resembles the past. Its principles are at war

with all that public opinion has sustained, and all which the

experience of the government has sanctioned. It denies first

principles. It contradicts truths heretofore received as

indisputable. It denies to the judiciary the interpretation of

law, and demands to divide with Congress the origination of

statutes. It extends the grasp of Executive pretension over

every power of the government. But this is not all. It presents

the Chief Magistrate of the Union in the attitude of arguing

away the powers of that government over which he has been

chosen to preside; and adopting, for this purpose, modes of

reasoning which, even under the influence of all proper feeling

towards high official station, it is difficult to regard as

respectable. It appeals to every prejudice which may betray

men into a mistaken view of their own interests; and to every

passion which may lead them to disobey the impulses of their

understanding. It urges all the specious topics of State rights,

and national encroachment, against that which a great majority

of the States have affirmed to be rightful, and in which all

of them have acquiesced. It sows, in an unsparing manner, the

seeds of jealousy and ill-will against that government of which

its author is the official head. It raises a cry that liberty

is in danger, at the very moment when it puts forth claims to

power heretofore unknown and unheard of. It affects alarm for

the public freedom, when nothing so much endangers that freedom

as its own unparalleled pretences. This, even, is not all. It

manifestly seeks to influence the poor against the rich. It

wantonly attacks whole classes of the people, for the purpose

of turning against them the prejudices and resentments of other

classes. It is a state paper which finds no topic too exciting

for its use; no passion too inflammable for its address and its

solicitation. Such is this message. It remains, now, for the

people of the United States to choose between the principles

here avowed and their government. These cannot subsist together.

The one or the other must be rejected. If the sentiments of the

message shall receive general approbation, the constitution will

have perished even earlier than the moment which its enemies

originally allowed for the termination of its existence. It will

not have survived to its fiftieth year."

On the other hand, Mr. White, of Tennessee, exalted the merit of

the veto message above all the acts of General Jackson's life, and

claimed for it a more enduring fame, and deeper gratitude than for

the greatest of his victories: and concluded his speech thus:

"When the excitement of the time in which we act shall have

passed away, and the historian and biographer shall be employed

in giving his account of the acts of our most distinguished

public men, and comes to the name of Andrew Jackson; when he

shall have recounted all the great and good deeds done by

this man in the course of a long and eventful life, and the

circumstances under which this message was communicated shall

have been stated, the conclusion will be, that, in doing this,

he has shown a willingness to risk more to promote the happiness

of his fellow-men, and to secure their liberties, than by the

doing of any other act whatever."

And such, in my opinion, will be the judgment of posterity--the

judgment of posterity, if furnished with the material to appreciate

the circumstances under which he acted when signing the message

which was to decide the question of supremacy between the bank and

the government.