CHAPTER XIII.

Ir was the fortune of General Jackson's administration to have provoked or undergone more public excitement, springing from causes of a domestic character, than that of either of his predecessors. A constant agitation pursued it throughout. The Hayne controversy roused the public mind from its apathetic state under the preceding administration, and stimulated it to apprehension and entertainment of elevated yet fearful themes. The war of nullification followed, ere the public pulse had recovered its accustomed tone, and gave a more turbulent motion to opinion. The passions excited by this quarrel had not subsided, but swayed the minds of men to and fro, as if tempest-tossed, when the REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITES Supervened, and raised the whole country.

The later history of the Bank of the United States may have reflected the necessity of this measure. Its subsequent mismanagement and explosion should, perhaps, be holden a retrospective justification of the decisive proceeding. But, at the time the removal of the deposites took place, the policy

of the measure was not generally understood, while the immediate consequences thereof were everywhere felt, and felt disastrously.

It was no time for argument, however cogent; because no argument is listened to, when interest or passion speaks. That the powers of the Bank were too extensive, its immunities and privileges too unrestricted, few could now gainsay. Among the many dangerous powers enjoyed by this institution, the control over the contraction and expansion of the currency was not the least so. By the exercise of this power it could affect, to a most calamitous extent, the business of the whole nation. It was a power that existed not merely in theory, but had been felt in practice. In 1818-19, the directors of the institution availed themselves of its fatal character, to enrich themselves and friends, to the great calamity of the country; and, in 1831-32, to effect a political purpose, nearly thirty millions of loans were made in a few months, and called in again within as brief a time; great individual and national distress following the experiment. A power liable to such dangerous abuse should be checked, though at the hazard of temporary inconvenience.

The immediate consequence of General Jackson's decisive act was, undoubtedly, disastrous. The country was in a state of seeming prosperity, commercial and agricultural; but it was rather the hectic flush of consumption, than the color of robust health.

All kinds of operations had been stimulated by easy

credits.

Every branch of business was pushed to its utmost extent, and stocks of every kind inflated, to near the limits of ro

mance.

The withdrawal of eight millions from the bank, and the vindictive contraction of its issues by the bank, broke the bubble of speculation, and a collapse ensued. A severe pressure in the money market, the consequent high rate of interest, the depression of every kind of stock, and the low price of commodities, were the immediate results of these measures; and, no less, a strong, almost fierce agitation of the community.

The removal of the deposites took place in September, 1833; abont two months afterwards, in the greatest heat of the public feeling upon the subject, Congress met. The debates in that body are not only the safety valves of public excitement, but to an almost exclusive degree, the record of its existence. What might be otherwise as frail in memory as evanescent in feeling becomes, by incorporation in the proceedings of Congress, a permanent fact. Parliamentary action, with a free people, is a history of their sentiments, their wishes, and, too often, of their follies.

In the earliest of this session, Mr. Clay introduced a resolution into the Senate, calling upon the President for a copy of a paper said to have been read by him to the cabinet, in relation to the removal of the deposites, on the 18th of September preceding; which resolution he supported in an animated speech. It was carried, by a vote of twenty-three

to eighteen. The State Rights men, who had not forgotten or forgiven General Jackson's decided course in the South Carolina controversy left the "Treasury Benches" in a body, and went over to the opposition, thereby reducing the strength of the administration in the Senate to a minority.

The answer of General Jackson to the resolution of the Senate was characteristic: "The Executive"-he said, in his communication to the Senate, "is a co-ordinate and independent branch of the Government equally with the Senate; and I have yet to learn under what constituted authority that branch of the legislature has a right to require of me an account of any communication, either verbally or in writing, made to the heads of departments acting as a cabinetcouncil. As well might I be required to detail to the Senate the free and private conversation I have held with those officers on any subjects relating to their duties and my own."

With this implied, if not direct, rebuke of the Senate for its unconstitutional interference in matters strictly executive, General Jackson declined compliance with the resolution.

His answer was received by the Senate with no demonstration of disrespectful anger; but in calmness and necessary acquiescence.

In the document which General Jackson submitted to his cabinet previous to the removal of the deposites-an official copy of which Mr. Clay had been unable to obtain for the Senate-he said: "The President deems it his duty to communicate in this manner to his cabinet, the final conclusions

of his own mind, and the reasons on which they are founded;" and, in concluding his address to them, he said: "The President again repeats that he begs his cabinet to consider the proposed measure as his own, in support of which he shall require no one of them to make a sacrifice of opinion or principle. Its responsibility has been assumed, after the most mature deliberation and reflection, as necessary to preserve the morals of the people, the freedom of the press, and the purity of the elective franchise; without which, all will unite in saying that the blood and treasure expended by our forefathers, in the establishment of our happy system of government, will have been vain and fruitless." A fierce clamor was raised against the President for the communication of these sentiments, by the less moderate of the Opposition, in and out of Congress. They denounced him as an usurper of powers unrecognized by the Constitution; and charged upon him the intention of overthrowing the liberties of the country. Heated faction poured forth against him its choicest language of abuse, likening him to every variety of tyrant, lands most fertile in such products, ever nourished; so that many honest, though most credulous people, in different parts of the country, were sadly imposed upon. The fanaticism of party never achieved a more decided victory over sober truth.

But truth has this advantage over error; its conquests, if not so rapid, are permanent. And now that the delusion of the moment has passed away, with the excitement of which it