Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

360 ABRIDGMENT OF THE SENATE.] President's Protest. [MAY, 1834. dent for a violation of the laws and the consti- ders, pronounced in times of factious misrule, tution of the country, for dismissing Mr. Duane have been reversed by the power of the people, because he would not remove the public depos- at the overthrow of faction, and the re-estabits, and appointing Mr. Taney to make the re- lishment of law and order. moval, and for exercising ungranted power over Judges, said Mr. B., who stimulate prosecuthe Treasury-a resolution couched in the tions, especially prosecutions to be tried at precise terms which the bank press had indi- their own bar, are themselves guilty of imcated before the meeting of the Senate-the de- peachable conduct. It was for such conposit of that resolution upon the table of the duct that one of the articles of impeachSenate, and the first sentence in the first speech ment, on which Judge Chase was tried, was in support of it, was the opening of the Pando- preferred against him. The seventh of the ra's box, fiom which issued forth every imag- articles recited " that, descending from the diginable evil to afflict and alarm the people, and nity of a judge, and stooping to the level of an to wound and degrade the institutions of the informer," he had endeavored to lay the groundcountry. Violation of the constitution, insult, work for the prosecution of a printer, to be outrage, and exparte condemnation of the Presi- tried before himself; " thereby degrading his dent; neglect of all the proper business of the high judicial functions." Judge Chase, said Senate; total change and perversion of its Mr. B., plead not guilty to this charge; and to character; a new and furious spirit of attack his own honor, and that of the bench, was acand crimination in this chamber; agitation and quitted upon the facts. But what would bealarm of the country; assaults upon all the come of this Senate, if, like Judge Chase, they State banks; the overthrow of some, and a re- were liable to be impeached for stimulating an lentless war upon the New York banks, the impeachment which they themselves were to safety fund, and the regency. Such were the try? Could they plead not guilty? Could fruits of that flagrant and unjustifiable proceed- they say that the House of Representatives had ing, to carry out in the Senate, without the not been stimulated from this floor to begin the forms of law, that vindictive impeachment of impeachment, and reproached for not doing it? the President which the bank had vainly de- Could they go to trial, as Judge Chase did, upmanded according to the forms of law, from on an issue of fact? Certainly not! and the any member of the legitimate tribunal, the House safety of this august body lies, not in its innoof Representatives. cence, but in its exemption from liability to be The Senate, said Mr. B., was intended to be held to the same accountability that Judge the conservative tribunal of the constitution- Chase was. But can it escape the judgment of the peculiar guard of its inviolability-the im- the public, and of posterity? It cannot escape pregnable citadel of its strength —and the holy that judgment! The Senate itself will be judgtemple of its sanctity. The age of the Sena- ed, and is already beginning to feel the sentence tors-intended to exclude the intemperance and of condemnation. A voice from the ranks of the turbulence of youth; the presumed moder- the people demands a change in its organization, ation of their passions, and the gravity of their a diminished duration of term, and an increased characters; the long duration of their terms of responsibility to the States; and in that voice service, exceeding that of the President by one- he, Mr. B., most heartily concurred. Six years half; their high functions, and extraordinary was too long for a Senator to trample with imparticipation in the executive, judicial, and leg- punity upon the will and the interests of his islative characters of the Government, all State! Aware of its danger, the Senate-Mr. combined to promise, for the constitution, in B. spoke of the body collectively, as the least this chamber, an inviolate respect and sacred invidious mode of stating a disagreeable truth regard. It was not to have been expected that, -aware of its danger, the Senate seeks to avoid in this chamber, in the first half century of its impending fate, by raising an affected cry of the age of the constitution, an attempt should alarm; proclaiming themselves to be standing be made to ostracize an eminent citizen, the in a breach, and charging the President with a first magistrate of the republic, whose sole of- design to overthrow it! as if any Senate was fence consists in having been three times pre- ever overthrown by a military chieftain, until ferred by the people to the highest office in its own conduct had made it odious and contheir gift, and to his now standing the impas- temptible to the people! sable barrier to the march of a new power, Mr. B. continued his remarks upon the which aspires to the control of the republic; lamentable effects resulting from the Senate's aiming to install its pensioners into all offices, attempt to ostracize the President. To the and to hold the administration of this Govern- President himself it was a deep and real injury, ment as an adjunct, subaltern, fiduciary depend- and intended to injure him, notwithstanding ency of its own paramount self! The Senate the modest disclaimer of an imputation of moof the United States was not expected to have tives. A President of the United States is prebeen the theatre of this exhibition. Yet it has sumed to know the laws and the constitution, been! And America will look for that repara- and to violate them with wicked intents when tion to the character of a patriot President, he violates them at all. Why else his oath to which England has often seen rendered to the preserve and maintain them? To his present memory of her illustrious sons, whose attain- feelings it is an outrage; in the minds of his

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Title: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
Author: United States. Congress.
Canvas: Page 360
Publication: New York, [etc.]: D. Appleton and company [etc.]; 1857-61.
Subject terms: United States -- Politics and government

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Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

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