REPEAL OF THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY ACT
This was the first measure of the new dominant party, and pursued
with a zeal that bespoke a resentment which required gratification,
and indicated a criminal which required punishment. It seemed to
be considered as a malefactor which had just fallen into the hands
of justice, and whose instant death was necessary to expiate his
offences. Mr. Clay took the measure into his own charge. It was No.
1, in his list of bills to be passed; and the bill brought in by
himself, was No. 1, on the Senate's calendar; and it was rapidly
pushed on to immediate decision. The provisions of the bill were
as summary as the proceedings upon it were rapid. It provided for
instant repeal--to take effect as soon as passed, although it was
in full operation all over the United States, and the officers at a
distance, charged with its execution, could not know of the repeal
until ten or twelve days after the event, and during all which time
they would be acting without authority; and, consequently, without
official liability for accident or misconduct. No substitute was
provided; and when passed, the public moneys were to remain without
legal guardianship until a substitute should be provided--intended
to be a national bank; but a substitute which would require time to
pass it, whether a bank or some other measure. These considerations
were presented, but presented in vain to an impatient majority.
A respite of a few days, for the act to be known before it took
effect, was in vain urged. In vain was it urged that promulgation
was part of a law: that no statute was to take effect until it
was promulgated; and that time must be allowed for that essential
formality. The delay of passing a substitute was urged as certain:
the possibility of not passing one at all, was suggested: and then
the reality of that alarm of danger to the Treasury--the union of
the purse and the sword--which had so haunted the minds of senators
at the time of the removal of the deposits; and which alarm,
groundless then, was now to have a real foundation. All in vain. The
days of the devoted act were numbered: the sun was not to set upon
it alive: and late in the evening of a long and hot day in June,
the question was called, with a refusal upon yeas and nays by the
majority, to allow a postponement until the next day for the purpose
of debate. Thus, refused one night's postponement, Mr. Benton,
irritated at such unparliamentary haste, and at the unmeasured terms
of abuse which were lavished upon the doomed act, rose and delivered
the speech, of which some extracts are given in the next chapter.
In the progress of this bill a clause was proposed by Mr. Benton to
exclude the Bank of the United States from becoming a depository of
public moneys, under the new order of things which the repeal of
the Sub-treasury system would bring about; and he gave as a reason,
her criminal and corrupt conduct, and her insolvent condition. The
clause was rejected by a strict party vote, with the exception of
Mr. Archer--who voted for the exclusion. The repeal bill was carried
in the Senate by a strict party vote:
YEAS--Messrs. Archer, Barrow, Bates, Bayard, Berrien, Choate,
Clay of Kentucky, Clayton, Dixon, Evans, Graham, Henderson,
Huntington, Ker, Mangum, Merrick, Miller, Morehead, Phelps,
Porter, Prentiss, Preston, Rives, Simmons, Smith of Indiana,
Southard, Tallmadge, White, and Woodbridge--29.
NAYS--Messrs. Allen, Benton, Calhoun, Clay of Alabama,
Fulton, King, McRoberts, Nicholson, Pierce, Sevier, Smith of
Connecticut, Sturgeon, Tappan, Walker, Williams, Woodbury,
Wright, and Young--18.
In the House the repeal was carried by a decided vote--134 to 87.
The negative voters were:
Messrs. Archibald H. Arrington, Charles G. Atherton, Linn
Banks, Henry W. Beeson, Benjamin A. Bidlack, Samuel S. Bowne,
Linn Boyd, Aaron V. Brown, Charles Brown, Edmund Burke, Sampson
H. Butler, William O. Butler, Green W. Caldwell, Patrick C.
Caldwell, George B. Cary, Reuben Chapman, Nathan Clifford,
James G. Clinton, Walter Coles, Edward Cross, John R. J.
Daniel, Richard D. Davis, John B. Dawson, Ezra Dean, William
Doan, Andrew W. Doig, John C. Edwards, Joseph Egbert, Charles
G. Ferris, John G. Floyd, Charles A. Floyd, Joseph Fornance,
William O. Goode, Samuel Gordon, Amos Gustine, William A.
Harris, John Hastings, Samuel L. Hays, Isaac E. Holmes, George
W. Hopkins, Jacob Houck, jr., George S. Houston, Edmund W.
Hubard, Robert M. T. Hunter, Charles J. Ingersoll, Wiliam
Jack, Cave Johnson, John W. Jones, George M. Keim, Andrew
Kennedy, Dixon H. Lewis, Nathaniel S. Littlefied, Joshua A.
Lowell, Abraham McClellan, Robert McClellan, James J. McKay,
Albert G. Marchand, Alfred Marshall, John Thompson Mason,
James Mathews, William Medill, John Miller, William M. Oliver,
William Parmenter, Samuel Patridge, William W. Payne, Francis
W. Pickens, Arnold Plumer, John R. Reding, Lewis Riggs, James
Rogers, James I. Roosevelt, John Sanford, Romulus M. Saunders,
Tristram Shaw, Benjamin G. Shields, John Snyder, C. Sprigg,
Lewis Steenrod, Hopkins L. Turney, John Van Buren, Aaron Ward,
Harvey M. Watterson, John B. Weller, John Westbrook, James W.
Williams, Fernando Wood.