CONDEMNATION OF PRESIDENT JACKSON--MR. CALHOUN'S SPEECH--EXTRACTS.
It was foreseen at the time of the coalition between Mr. Calhoun
and Mr. Clay, in which they came together--a conjunction of the two
political poles--on the subject of the tariff, and laid it away for
a term to include two presidential elections--that the effect would
be (even if it was not the design), to bring them together upon
all other subjects against General Jackson. This expectation was
not disappointed. Early in the debate on Mr. Clay's condemnatory
resolution, Mr. Calhoun took the floor in its support; and did Mr.
Clay the honor to adopt his leading ideas of a revolution, and of
a robbery of the treasury. He not only agreed that we were in the
middle of a revolution, but also asserted, by way of consolation to
those who loved it, that revolutions never go backwards--an aphorism
destined, in this case, to be deceived by the event. In the pleasing
anticipation of this aid from Mr. Calhoun and his friends, Mr.
Clay had complacently intimated the expectation of this aid in his
opening speech; and in that intimation there was no mistake. Mr.
Calhoun responded to it thus:
"The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay] anticipates with
confidence that the small party, who were denounced at the
last session as traitors and disunionists, will be found, on
this trying occasion, standing in the front rank, and manfully
resisting the advance of despotic power. I (said Mr. C.)
heard the anticipation with pleasure, not on account of the
compliment which it implied, but the evidence which it affords
that the cloud which has been so industriously thrown, over
the character and motive of that small but patriotic party
begins to be dissipated. The Senator hazarded nothing in the
prediction. That party is the determined, the fixed, and sworn
enemy to usurpation, come from what quarter and under what form
it may--whether from the executive upon the other departments
of this government, or from this government on the sovereignty
and rights of the States. The resolution and fortitude with
which it maintained its position at the last session, under so
many difficulties and dangers, in defence of the States against
the encroachments of the general government, furnished evidence
not to be mistaken, that that party, in the present momentous
struggle, would be found arrayed in defence of the rights of
Congress against the encroachments of the President. And let
me tell the Senator from Kentucky (said Mr. C.) that, if the
present struggle against executive usurpation be successful, it
will be owing to the success with which we, the nullifiers--I
am not afraid of the word--maintained the rights of the States
against the encroachment of the general government at the last
session."
This assurance of aid was no sooner given than complied with. Mr.
Calhoun, and all his friends came immediately to the support of the
resolution, and even exceeded their author in their zeal against
the President and his Secretary. Notwithstanding the private grief
which Mr. Calhoun had against General Jackson in the affair of
the "correspondence" and the "exposition"--the contents of which
latter were well known though not published--and notwithstanding
every person was obliged to remember that grief while Mr. Calhoun
was assailing the General, and alleging patriotism for the motive,
and therefore expected that it should have imposed a reserve upon
him; yet, on the contrary he was most personally bitter, and used
language which would be incredible, if not found, as it is, in his
revised reports of his speeches. Thus, in enforcing Mr. Clay's idea
of a robbery of the treasury after the manner of Julius Cæsar, he
said:
"The senator from Kentucky, in connection with this part of
his argument, read a striking passage from one of the most
pleasing and instructive writers in any language [Plutarch],
the description of Cæsar forcing himself, sword in hand, into
the treasury of the Roman commonwealth. We are at the same
stage of our political revolution, and the analogy between the
two cases is complete, varied only by the character of the
actors and the circumstances of the times. That was a case of
an intrepid and bold warrior, as an open plunderer, seizing
forcibly the treasury of the country, which, in that republic,
as well as ours, was confined to the custody of the legislative
department of the government. The actors in our case are of a
different character--artful, cunning, and corrupt politicians,
and not fearless warriors. They have entered the treasury, not
sword in hand, as public plunderers, but, with the false keys
of sophistry, as pilferers, under the silence of midnight. The
motive and the object are the same, varied in like manner by
circumstances and character. 'With money I will get men, and
with men money,' was the maxim of the Roman plunderer. With
money we will get partisans, with partisans votes, and with
votes money, is the maxim of our public pilferers. With men and
money Cæsar struck down Roman liberty, at the fatal battle of
Pharsalia, never to rise again; from which disastrous hour all
the powers of the Roman republic were consolidated in the person
of Cæsar, and perpetuated in his line. With money and corrupt
partisans a great effort is now making to choke and stifle the
voice of American liberty, through all its natural organs;
by corrupting the press; by overawing the other departments;
and, finally, by setting up a new and polluted organ, composed
of office-holders and corrupt partisans, under the name of
a national convention, which, counterfeiting the voice of
the people, will, if not resisted, in their name dictate the
succession; when the deed will be done, the revolution be
completed, and all the powers of our republic, in like manner,
be consolidated in the President, and perpetuated by his
dictation."
On the subject of the revolution, "bloodless as yet," in the middle
of which we were engaged, and which was not to go backwards, Mr.
Calhoun said:
"Viewing the question in its true light, as a struggle on the
part of the Executive to seize on the power of Congress, and to
unite in the President the power of the sword and the purse,
the senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay] said truly, and, let me
add, philosophically, that we are in the midst of a revolution.
Yes, the very existence of free governments rests on the proper
distribution and organization of power; and, to destroy this
distribution, and thereby concentrate power in any one of the
departments, is to effect a revolution. But while I agree with
the senator that we are in the midst of a revolution, I cannot
agree with him as to the time at which it commenced, or the
point to which it has progressed. Looking to the distribution
of the powers of the general government, into the legislative,
executive, and judicial departments, and confining his views
to the encroachment of the executive upon the legislative, he
dates the commencement of the revolution but sixty days previous
to the meeting of the present Congress. I (said Mr. C.) take a
wider range, and date it from an earlier period. Besides the
distribution among the departments of the general government,
there belongs to our system another, and a far more important
division or distribution of power--that between the States and
the general government, the reserved and delegated rights, the
maintenance of which is still more essential to the preservation
of our institutions. Taking this wide view of our political
system, the revolution, in the midst of which we are, began,
not as supposed by the senator from Kentucky, shortly before
the commencement of the present session, but many years ago,
with the commencement of the restrictive system, and terminated
its first stage with the passage of the force bill of the last
session, which absorbed all the rights and sovereignty of
the States, and consolidated them in this government. Whilst
this process was going on, of absorbing the reserved powers
of the States, on the part of the general government, another
commenced, of concentrating in the executive the powers of
the other two--the legislative and judicial departments of
the government; which constitutes the second stage of the
revolution, in which we have advanced almost to the termination."
Mr. Calhoun brought out in this debate the assertion, in which
he persevered afterwards until it produced the quarrel in the
Senate between himself and Mr. Clay, that it was entirely owing to
the military and nullifying attitude of South Carolina that the
"compromise" act was passed, and that Mr. Clay himself would have
been prostrated in the attempt to compromise. He thus, boldly put
forward that pretension:
"To the interposition of the State of South Carolina we are
indebted for the adjustment of the tariff question; without
it, all the influence of the senator from Kentucky over the
manufacturing interest, great as it deservedly is, would have
been wholly incompetent, if he had even thought proper to exert
it, to adjust the question. The attempt would have prostrated
him, and those who acted with him, and not the system. It
was the separate action of the State that gave him the place
to stand upon, created the necessity for the adjustment, and
disposed the minds of all to compromise."
The necessity of his own position, and the indispensability of
Mr. Calhoun's support, restrained Mr. Clay, and kept him quiet
under this cutting taunt; but he took ample satisfaction for it
some years later, when the triumph of General Jackson in the
"expunging resolution," and the decline of their own prospects for
the Presidency, dissolved their coalition, and remitted them to
their long previous antagonistic feelings. But there was another
point in which Mr. Calhoun intelligibly indicated what was fully
believed at the time, namely, that the basis of the coalition which
ostensibly had for its object the reduction of the tariff, was
in reality a political coalition to act against General Jackson,
and to the success of which it was essential that their own great
bone of contention was to be laid aside, and kept out of the
way, while the coalition was in force. It was to enable them to
unite their forces against the "encroachments and corruptions of
the Executive" that the tariff was then laid away; and although
the removal of the deposits was not then foreseen, as the first
occasion for this conjunction, yet there could have been no failure
of finding occasions enough for the same purpose when the will was
so strong--as subsequent events so fully proved. General Jackson
could do but little during the remainder of his Presidency which
was not found to be "unconstitutional, illegal, corrupt, usurping,
and dangerous to the liberties of the people;" and as such, subject
to the combined attack of Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun and their
respective friends. All this was as good as told, and with an air of
self-satisfaction at the foresight of it, in these paragraphs of Mr.
Calhoun's speech:
"Now, I put the solemn question to all who hear me: if the
tariff had not then been adjusted--if it was now an open
question--what hope of successful resistance against the
usurpations of the Executive, on the part of this or any other
branch of the government, could be entertained? Let it not be
said that this is the result of accident--of an unforeseen
contingency. It was clearly perceived, and openly stated,
that no successful resistance could be made to the corruption
and encroachments of the Executive, while the tariff question
remained open, while it separated the North from the South,
and wasted the energy of the honest and patriotic portions of
the community against each other, the joint effort of which
is indispensably necessary to expel those from authority who
are converting the entire powers of government into a corrupt
electioneering machine; and that, without separate State
interposition, the adjustment was impossible. The truth of this
position rests not upon the accidental state of things, but on
a profound principle growing out of the nature of government,
and party struggles in a free State. History and reflection
teach us, that when great interests come into conflict, and the
passions and the prejudices of men are aroused, such struggles
can never be composed by the influence of any individuals,
however great; and if there be not somewhere in the system some
high constitutional power to arrest their progress, and compel
the parties to adjust the difference, they go on till the State
falls by corruption or violence.
"I will (said Mr. C.) venture to add to these remarks another,
in connection with the point under consideration, not less
true. We are not only indebted to the cause which I have stated
for our present strength in this body against the present
usurpation of the Executive, but if the adjustment of the tariff
had stood alone, as it ought to have done, without the odious
bill which accompanied it--if those who led in the compromise
had joined the State-rights party in their resistance to that
unconstitutional measure, and thrown the responsibility on its
real authors, the administration, their party would have been
so prostrated throughout the entire South, and their power,
in consequence, so reduced, that they would not have dared to
attempt the present measure; or, if they had, they would have
been broken and defeated."
Mr. Calhoun took high ground of contempt and scorn against the
Secretary's reasons for removing the deposits, so far as founded in
the misconduct of the bank directors--declaring that he would not
condescend to notice them--repulsing them as intrusive--and shutting
his eyes upon these accusations, although heinous in their nature,
then fully proved; and since discovered to be far more criminal than
then suspected, and such as to subject their authors, a few years
afterwards, to indictments in the Court of General Sessions, for
the county of Philadelphia, for a "conspiracy to cheat and defraud
the stockholders;"--indictments on which they were saved from jury
trials by being "_habeas corpus'd_" out of the custody of the
sheriff of the county, who had arrested them on bench warrants. Mr.
Calhoun thus repulsed all notice of these accusations:
"The Secretary has brought forward many and grievous charges
against the bank. I will not condescend to notice them. It is
the conduct of the Secretary, and not that of the bank, which
is immediately under examination; and he has no right to drag
the conduct of the bank into the issue, beyond its operations
in regard to the deposits. To that extent I am prepared to
examine his allegations against it; but beyond that he has no
right--no, not the least--to arraign the conduct of the bank;
and I, for one, will not, by noticing his charges beyond that
point, sanction his authority to call its conduct in question.
But let the point in issue be determined, and I, as far as my
voice extends, will give to those who desire it the means of the
freest and most unlimited inquiry into its conduct."
But, while supporting Mr. Clay generally in his movement against the
President, Mr. Calhoun disagreed with him in the essential averment
in his resolve, that his removal of Mr. Duane because he would not,
and the appointment of Mr. Taney because he would, remove them was a
usurpation of power. Mr. Calhoun held it to be only an "abuse;" and
upon that point he procured a modification of his resolve from Mr.
Clay, notwithstanding the earnestness of his speech on the charge
of usurpation. And he thus stated his objection:
"But, while I thus severely condemn the conduct of the President
in removing the former Secretary and appointing the present, I
must say, that in my opinion it is a case of the abuse, and not
of the usurpation of power. I cannot doubt that the President
has, under the constitution, the right of removal from office;
nor can I doubt that the power of removal, wherever it exists,
does, from necessity, involve the power of general supervision;
nor can I doubt that it might be constitutionally exercised in
reference to the deposits. Reverse the present case; suppose the
late Secretary, instead of being against, had been in favor of
the removal; and that the President, instead of being for, had
been against it, deeming the removal not only inexpedient, but,
under circumstances illegal; would any man doubt that, under
such circumstances, he had a right to remove his Secretary,
if it were the only means of preventing the removal of the
deposits? Nay, would it not be his indispensable duty to have
removed him? and, had he not, would not he have been universally
and justly held responsible?"
In all the vituperation of the Secretary, as being the servile
instrument of the President's will, the members who indulged in
that species of attack were acting against public and recorded
testimony. Mr. Taney was complying with his own sense of public duty
when he ordered the removal. He had been attorney-general of the
United States when the deposit-removal question arose, and in all
the stages of that question had been in favor of the removal; so
that his conduct was the result of his own judgment and conscience;
and the only interference of the President was to place him in a
situation where he would carry out his convictions of duty. Mr.
Calhoun, in this speech, absolved himself from all connection with
the bank, or dependence upon it, or favors from it. Though its chief
author, he would have none of its accommodations: and said:
"I am no partisan of the bank; I am connected with it in no
way, by moneyed or political ties. I might say, with truth,
that the bank owes as much to me as to any other individual
in the country; and I might even add that, had it not been
for my efforts, it would not have been chartered. Standing in
this relation to the institution, a high sense of delicacy, a
regard to independence and character, has restrained me from any
connection with the institution whatever, except some trifling
accommodations, in the way of ordinary business, which were not
of the slightest importance either to the bank or myself."
Certainly there was no necessity for Mr. Calhoun to make this
disclaimer. His character for pecuniary integrity placed him above
the suspicion of a venal motive. His errors came from a different
source--from the one that Cæsar thought excusable when empire was
to be attained. Mr. Clay also took the opportunity to disclaim any
present connection with, or past favors from the bank; and,
"Begged permission to trespass a few moments longer on the
Senate, to make a statement concerning himself personally. He
had heard that one high in office had allowed himself to assert
that a dishonorable connection had subsisted between him (Mr.
C), and the Bank of the United States. When the present charter
was granted, he voted for it; and, having done so, he did not
feel himself at liberty to subscribe, and he did not subscribe,
for a single share in the stock of the bank, although he
confidently anticipated a great rise in the value of the stock.
A few years afterwards, during the presidency of Mr. Jones, is
was thought, by some of his friends at Philadelphia, expedient
to make him (Mr. C), a director of the Bank of the United
States; and he was made a director without any consultation with
him. For that purpose five shares were purchased for him, by a
friend, for which he (Mr. C), afterwards paid. When he ceased to
be a director, a short time subsequently, he disposed of those
shares. He does not now own, and has not for many years been the
proprietor of, a single share.
"When Mr. Cheves was appointed president of the bank, its
affairs in the States of Kentucky and Ohio were in great
disorder; and his (Mr. C.'s), professional services were
engaged during several years for the bank in those States. He
brought a vast number of suits, and transacted a great amount
of professional business for the bank. Among other suits was
that for the recovery of the one hundred thousand dollars,
seized under the authority of a law of Ohio, which he carried
through the inferior and supreme courts. He was paid by the
bank the usual compensation for these services, and no more.
And he ventured to assert that no professional fees were ever
more honestly and fairly earned. He had not, however, been
the counsel for the bank for upwards of eight years past. He
does not owe the bank, or any one of its branches, a solitary
cent. About twelve or fifteen years ago, owing to the failure
of a highly estimable (now deceased), friend, a large amount
of debt had been, as his indorser, thrown upon him (Mr. C),
and it was principally due to the Bank of the United States.
He (Mr C.) established for himself a rigid economy, a sinking
fund, and worked hard, and paid off the debt long since,
without receiving from the bank the slightest favor. Whilst
others around him were discharging their debts in property, at
high valuations, he periodically renewed his note, paying the
discount, until it was wholly extinguished."
But it was not every member who could thus absolve himself from
bank connection, favor, or dependence. The list of congressional
borrowers, or retainers, was large--not less than fifty of the
former at a time, and a score of the latter; and even after the
failure of the bank and the assignment of its effects, and after
all possible liquidations had been effected by taking property at
"high valuation," allowing largely for "professional services," and
liberal resorts to the "profit and loss" account, there remained
many to be sued by the assignees to whom their notes were passed;
and some of such early date as to be met by a plea of the statute
of limitations in bar of the stale demand. Mr. Calhoun concluded
with a "lift to the panic" in a reference to the "fearful crisis"
in which we were involved--the dangers ahead to the liberties of
the country--the perils of our institutions--and a hint at his
permanent remedy--his panacea for all the diseases of the body
politic--dissolution of the Union. He ended thus:
"We have (said Mr. C), arrived at a fearful crisis; things
cannot long remain as they are. It behooves all who love their
country, who have affection for their offspring, or who have
any stake in our institutions, to pause and reflect. Confidence
is daily withdrawing from the general government. Alienation
is hourly going on. These will necessarily create a state of
things inimical to the existence of our institutions, and, if
not speedily arrested, convulsions must follow, and then comes
dissolution or despotism; when a thick cloud will be thrown over
the cause of liberty and the future prospects of our country."