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gress, and declared by them to be secure. pointed out the inconsistency of denying the right to blame him, while he accepted with pleasure the resolutions of the same body in his favor. While one House had exceeded its legislative limits, the other was strictly within them; though both had passed judgment upon the chief head of the government, the sole difference being that the latter had eulogized and supported him. Allusion was made in the message to some of the senators, who had voted contrary to the instructions they had received from their constituents. This interference with the privileges and duties of the House, was at once to influence its deliberations and shackle its independence; and when it was asserted that "Congress could not take out of the hands of the executive department the custody of the public property, without an assumption of executive power, and a subversion of the first principles of the constitution", the sovereign power, if the attempt were not resisted, would be placed in the hands of the president; and the other parts of the government would have nothing to do but to register his edicts, and confirm his appointments. Such a prerogative was never claimed by any king of England; and no minister would dare to take down such a message to either House of the British legislature. "When Dunning's memorable resolutions were passed," exclaimed the senator, "did the elder Pitt,-one of the proudest men that

ever existed, did he come down to the House of Commons, and tell them from his master that they had wandered from their legislative functions, and had condemned, without an impeachment, their sovereign? There was no man but one who would venture upon such a step; and that man was Andrew Jackson."

Mr. Leigh, having very successfully exposed the fallacies and false principles which the document in question contained, and its tendency to subvert the constitution, expressed his entire concurrence in the motion that the message should not be received. There was something so impressive in the tone of his voice, the unaffected order in which he arranged his ideas and his language, the ease with which he delivered his sentiments, and the solemn manner in which he expressed his conviction of the great emergency the nation was placed in, and his resolution to defend the constitution by defending the privileges of the senate,-that my ideas of the importance of this branch of the legislature, and the dignity which attends its proceedings, were much more highly raised than by what I had heard from Mr. Clay, or any other member.

Mr. Leigh succeeded Mr. Rives, as one of the senators from Virginia, the latter having resigned his seat in consequence of a declaration from the legislature of that State in opposition to the measures of the federal administration. Mr. Leigh, however,

had previously declared his resolution to obey the dictates of his own judgement as a legislator, and

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not to consider himself the mere agent and advocate," as Burke calls it, of those whose interests he was to take care of.

An incident took place while Mr. Leigh was on his legs, that shewed how sensitive the supporters of the government are to any thing like the loss of popularity. An allusion made by him to the bill, by which Mr. Clay had, for the time, pacified the nullifiers, elicited from the gallery the mixed sounds of applause and disapprobation. The former, it is to be presumed, predominated, since Mr. Benton-as closely united by personal and political friendship to the president, as he was formerly separated from him by the most deadly hatred-rose abruptly from his seat, and ordering the galleries to be cleared by the proper officer, moved that the disturbers should be taken into custody by the serjeant-at-arms. This was as promptly opposed; it being impossible to discover the offenders, and to issue a general warrant would be an odious measure. The gallery was cleared, not without remonstrance or resistance; as dirks were drawn on the occasion, and Mr. Benton hoped he should not be represented, by the gentlemen he saw taking notes, as a friend to general warrants. If any one present dared to throw such an imputation upon him, he called upon him to come forward with the charge.

The senate subsequently refused, by a majority of twenty-seven to sixteen, to place the President's protest on the journals of the house. This rejected reproof was aimed at the following condemnation of the reprover by the Senate:-" Resolved, that the President, in the late executive proceedings, in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both." The above was offered by Mr. Clay, Dec. 26, 1833, and passed March 28, 1834, by a majority of 26 to 20.

CHAPTER XVII.

Bank Deposits.-System of Credit.-Mercantile Failures.Principle of Federal Bank.-Paper Money.-Safety Fund of New York. Fallacies about Bankers.—Whigs and Tories.Mr. Van Buren; rejected by the Senate.-Reasons.-Senate not aristocratical.-Party Feeling.-Post Office. Purity of Bag secured.-Franking.-Assaults upon Members.-Duelling. -President Jackson a Soul-driver.- Abolition of Slavetrade. Principles of Federal Union illusory.

THE government deposits were removed from the custody of the Bank of the United States about the beginning of October 1833. From that time to April 1st, 1834, the Bank reduced its loans to the amount of rather more than five millions and a half of dollars; while it underwent, during the same period, a reduction of the public moneys of 7,778,403 dollars.

According to Mr. Hardin, (representative from Kentucky,) the whole amount of deposits removed or withheld from the bank was 11,485,525 dollars. The "pet" banks (as those were called to which they were transferred) had but 3,386,309 dollars in

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