EXPUNGING RESOLUTION--PREPARATION FOR DECISION.
It was now the last session of the last term of the presidency
of General Jackson, and the work of the American Senate doing
justice to itself by undoing the wrong which it had done to itself
in its condemnation of the President, was at hand. The appeal to
the people had produced its full effect; and, in less time than
had been expected. Confident from the beginning in the verdict of
the people, the author of the movement had not counted upon its
delivery until several years--probably until after the retirement
of General Jackson, and until the subsidence of the passions
which usually pursue a public man while he remains on the stage
of action. Contrary to all expectation, the public mind was made
up in less than three years, and before the termination of that
second administration which was half run when the sentence of
condemnation was passed. At the commencement of this session,
1836-'37, the public voice had come in, and in an imperative form.
A majority of the States had acted decisively on the subject--some
superseding their senators at the end of their terms who had given
the obnoxious vote, and replacing them by those who would expunge
it; others sending legislative instructions to their senators, which
carried along with them, in the democratic States, the obligation
of obedience or resignation; and of which it was known there were
enough to obey to accomplish the desired expurgation. Great was
the number superseded, or forced to resign. The great leaders, Mr.
Clay, Mr. Webster, Mr. Calhoun, easily maintained themselves in
their respective States; but the mortality fell heavily upon their
followers, and left them in a helpless minority. The time had come
for action; and on the second day after the meeting of the Senate,
Mr. Benton gave notice of his intention to bring in at an early
period the unwelcome resolution, and to press it to a decision.
Heretofore he had introduced it without any view to action, but
merely for an occasion for a speech, to go to the people; but the
opposition, exulting in their strength, would of themselves call it
up, against the wishes of the mover, to receive the rejection which
they were able to give it. Now these dispositions were reversed; the
mover was for decision--they for staving it off. On the 26th day of
December--the third anniversary of the day on which Mr. Clay had
moved the condemnatory resolution--Mr. Benton laid upon the table
the resolve to expunge it--followed by his third and last speech on
the subject. The following is the resolution; the speech constitutes
the next chapter:
_Resolution to expunge from the Journal the Resolution of the
Senate of March 28, 1834, in relation to President Jackson and
the Removal of the Deposits._
"Whereas, on the 26th day of December, in the year 1833, the
following resolve was moved in the Senate:
"'_Resolved_, That, by dismissing the late Secretary of the
Treasury, because he would not, contrary to his own sense of
duty, remove the money of the United States in deposit with
the Bank of the United States and its branches, in conformity
with the President's opinion, and by appointing his successor
to effect such removal, which has been done, the President
has assumed the exercise of a power over the Treasury of the
United States, not granted him by the Constitution and laws, and
dangerous to the liberties of the people.'
"Which proposed resolve was altered and changed by the mover
thereof, on the 28th day of March, in the year 1834, so as to
read as follows:
"'_Resolved_, That, in taking upon himself the responsibility of
removing the deposit of the public money from the Bank of the
United States, the President of the United States has assumed
the exercise of a power over the Treasury of the United States
not granted to him by the constitution and laws, and dangerous
to the liberties of the people.'
"Which resolve, so changed and modified by the mover thereof, on
the same day and year last mentioned, was further altered, so as
to read in these words:
"'_Resolved_, That the President, in the late executive
proceedings in relation to the revenue has assumed upon himself
authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws,
but in derogation of both:'
"In which last mentioned form the said resolve, on the same day
and year last mentioned, was adopted by the Senate, and became
the act and judgment of that body, and, as such, now remains
upon the journal thereof:
"And whereas the said resolve was not warranted by the
constitution, and was irregularly and illegally adopted by the
Senate, in violation of the rights of defence which belong to
every citizen, and in subversion of the fundamental principles
of law and justice; _because_ President Jackson was thereby
adjudged and pronounced to be guilty of an impeachable offence,
and a stigma placed upon him as a violator of his oath of
office, and of the laws and constitution which he was sworn to
preserve, protect, and defend, _without_ going through the forms
of an impeachment, and without allowing to him the benefits of a
trial, or the means of defence:
"And whereas the said resolve, in all its various shapes and
forms, was unfounded and erroneous in point of fact, and
therefore unjust and unrighteous, as well as irregular and
unauthorized by the constitution; _because_ the said President
Jackson neither in the act of dismissing Mr. Duane, nor in the
appointment of Mr. Taney, as specified in the first form of
the resolve; nor in taking upon himself the responsibility of
removing the deposits, as specified in the second form of the
same resolve; nor in any act which was then, or can now, be
specified under the vague and ambiguous terms of the general
denunciation contained in the third and last form of the
resolve, did do or commit any act in violation or in derogation
of the laws and constitution; or dangerous to the liberties of
the people:
"And whereas the said resolve, as adopted, was uncertain and
ambiguous, containing nothing but a loose and floating charge
for derogating from the laws and constitution, and assuming
ungranted power and authority in the late executive proceedings
in relation to the public revenue; _without_ specifying what
part of the executive proceedings, or what part of the public
revenue was intended to be referred to; or what parts of the
laws and constitution were supposed to have been infringed;
or in what part of the Union, or at what period of his
administration, these late proceedings were supposed to have
taken place; _thereby_ putting each senator at liberty to vote
in favor of the resolve upon a separate and secret reason of
his own, and leaving the ground of the Senate's judgment to be
guessed at by the public, and to be differently and diversely
interpreted by individual senators, according to the private and
particular understanding of each: _contrary_ to all the ends of
justice, and to all the forms of legal or judicial proceeding;
to the great prejudice of the accused, who could not know
against what to defend himself; and to the loss of senatorial
responsibility, by shielding senators from public accountability
for making up a judgment upon grounds which the public cannot
know, and which, if known, might prove to be insufficient in
law, or unfounded in fact:
"And whereas the specification contained in the first and
second forms of the resolve having been objected to in debate,
and shown to be insufficient to sustain the charges they were
adduced to support, and it being well believed that no majority
could be obtained to vote for the said specifications, and the
same having been actually withdrawn by the mover in the face of
the whole Senate, in consequence of such objection and belief,
and before any vote taken thereupon; the said specifications
could not afterwards be admitted by any rule of parliamentary
practice, or by any principle of legal implication, secret
intendment, or mental reservation, to remain and continue a part
of the written and public resolve from which they were thus
withdrawn; and, if they could be so admitted, they would not be
sufficient to sustain the charges thereto contained:
"And whereas the Senate being the constitutional tribunal
for the trial of the President, when charged by the House
of Representatives with offences against the laws and the
constitution, the adoption of the said resolve, before any
impeachment preferred by the House, was a breach of the
privileges of the House; not warranted by the constitution;
a subversion of justice; a prejudication of a question which
might legally come before the Senate; and a disqualification of
that body to perform its constitutional duty with fairness and
impartiality, if the President should thereafter be regularly
impeached by the House of Representatives for the same offence:
"And whereas the temperate, respectful, and argumentative
defence and protest of the President against the aforesaid
proceeding of the Senate was rejected and repulsed by that
body, and was voted to be a breach of its privileges, and was
not permitted to be entered on its journal or printed among
its documents; while all memorials, petitions, resolves,
and remonstrances against the President, however violent or
unfounded, and calculated to inflame the people against him,
were duly and honorably received, encomiastically commented upon
in speeches, read at the table, ordered to be printed with the
long list of names attached, referred to the Finance Committee
for consideration, filed away among the public archives, and now
constitute a part of the public documents of the Senate, to be
handed down to the latest posterity:
"And whereas the said resolve was introduced, debated, and
adopted, at a time and under circumstances which had the effect
of co-operating with the Bank of the United States in the
parricidal attempt which that institution was then making to
produce a panic and pressure in the country; to destroy the
confidence of the people in President Jackson; to paralyze his
administration; to govern the elections; to bankrupt the State
banks; ruin their currency; fill the whole Union with terror
and distress; and thereby to extort from the sufferings and the
alarms of the people, the restoration of the deposits and the
renewal of its charter:
"And whereas the said resolve is of evil example and dangerous
precedent, and should never have been received, debated, or
adopted by the Senate, or admitted to entry upon its journal:
Wherefore,
"_Resolved_, That the said resolve be expunged from the journal;
and, for that purpose, that the Secretary of the Senate, at
such time as the Senate may appoint, shall bring the manuscript
journal of the session 1833 '34 into the Senate, and, in the
presence of the Senate, draw black lines round the said resolve,
and write across the face thereof, in strong letters, the
following words: 'Expunged by order of the Senate, this -- day
of ----, in the year of our Lord 1837.'"