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

DEBATES OF CONGRESS. 359 MAY, 1834.] President's Protest. [SENATE, make the periodical return of their affairs this storm against Mr. Taney? The same genwhich was necessary to enable the Treasury to tlemen that sat in the 12th, 13th, and 14th understand their condition; in a word, that he Congresses; and who saw nothing to censure created the same league of banks-in some in- or to fear, then, in what fills them with fear stances composed of the same identical banks and horror now. -which Mr. Taney has created, and which is Having shown the illegality of the Senate's considered by some as being more unconstitu- conduct, Mr. B. would next expose the extreme tional than an unconstitutional bank would be; and peculiar injustice of it. Every part of the that he made the same seizure of the public protest was subjected to the rack and torture moneys which President Jackson has made; of misconstruction and misrepresentation. Studeffected the same portentous union of the purse ied, far-fetched, lawyer-like, unnatural, forced, and the sword; and that no person looked upon strained interpretations, were accumulated upon these things, at that time, as the robbery of the its every clause, and every phrase. Tragic and Treasury-the exercise of ungranted power theatrical calls were made for the advisers and over the Treasury-the concentration of all writers of such a paper, as if some sacrilege or power in the hands of one man; not even the treason had been committed; and the impendbitterest of the old federal party; to say noth- ing wrath of heaven itself, impatient at the ing of the others, now here leading the assault impunity of such enormous guilt, had already upon President Jackson and Mr. Taney, then seized the fatal thunderbolt, and scanned, with in the House of Representatives, acting in har- menacing eye, the trembling world that hid the mony with President Madison and Mr. Gallatin, guilty wretch. The right of the President to and who can say, of all their acts, quceque ipse correct the misrepresentation of his own lanvidi; all of which I saw; if not, et quorum guage, is heroically denied; and notwithpars magnafui; great part of which I was. standing the disclaimer of the supplementary Mr. B. deemed this part of his case so mate- message, and the fair import of the protest rial, and so necessary to be placed beyond the itself, an obstinate imputation is still made upon reach of cavil or contradiction, that he should the President of a claim to keep and dispose of drop the narrative, and have recourse to proof. the public money and property of the United He would quote the report-at least so much States, by virtue of his owvn prerogative, and of it as was necessary to establish his state- without regard to the authority of Congress. ments of Mr. Gallatin, then Secretary of the His right to send in the protest is denied, Treasury, made to the House of Representa- as if the Senate possessed the right of ex parte tives, in obedience to a call from that body, in and extra-judicial condemnation over the first the month of January, 1812, nearly a year after magistrate of the republic; and that magistrate the removal of the public deposits from the did not possess the poor privilege of telling Bank of the United States, and the establish- them that he was not guilty, even after they had ment of that league of banks now so formidable pronounced a sentence. The judges in hell, to liberty, so fatal to the constitution; then so exclaimed Mr. B., did better than that! Rhadainnocent and so harmless. manthus himself, in some stage of his infernal [Here Mr. B. read the extracts from Mr. Gallatin's process, would, at least, listen to his victim. "First he punisheth; then he listeneth; and report of January 8th, 1812, which he referred to.] lastly he compelleth to confess." Such was Having read these extracts, Mr. B. said the the process in the gloomy regions of Pluto. things done by Mr. Gallatin were identical, in The inventors of the mythology of the ancients the eye of the law and the constitution, with could not even conceive of a hell, so regardless of what had been done by Mr. Taney. They the forms of justice, as not to allow the souls acted upon the same contingency, to wit, when of the damned to speak. But this Senate, it was ascertained that the United States Bank trampling upon all the laws known to heaven, would not be rechartered. They acted in the and earth, and hell, denies to the President of same way, entering into arrangements and the United States the privilege of saying that contracts with the State banks, to act as the he is not guilty, even after their condemnation fiscal agents of the Treasury. They both pronounced upon him; and affects to treat, as reported to Congress; but how differently an invasion of privilege, and as a design to rout were their reports received? That of Mr. Gal- them from their seats, as Cromwell routed the latin without a word of censure, with full ap- rump Parliament of England, the transmission probation; and his league of banks, subse- of that temperate paper, called the protest, and quently increased to a hundred, remained in full the respectful request with which it concludes vigor for six years, and that without any law to have it entered on the Journals! to regulate them. The beautiful and classic Mr. B. took a rapid view of the deplorable phrase of " pet banks " was not then invented. and disastrous effects resulting from the Senate's Mr. Taney's report, on the contrary, is received conduct in joining the Bank of the United in a tempest of clamor and indignation! No lan- States, and in becoming the ally and instrument guage severe enough to characterize his con- of that great moneyed power, in its attempt to duct; no epithets odious enough to stigmatize destroy and to ostracize the President of the his "pets;" no punishment great enough to people. The deposit of the resolution upon the atone for his offence. And who is it that raises table of the Senate, which condemned the Presi

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Title: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
Author: United States. Congress.
Canvas: Page 359
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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