Chapter LXXX: National Bank: First Bill (1)

This was the great measure of the session, and the great object of the whig party, and the one without which all other measures would be deemed to be incomplete, and the victorious election itself little better than a defeat. Though kept out of view as an issue during the canvass, it was known to every member of the party to be the alpha and omega of the contest, and the crowning consummation of ten years labor in favor of a national bank. It was kept in the background for a reason perfectly understood. Both General Harrison and Mr. Tyler had been ultra against a national bank while members of the democratic party: they had both, as members of the House of Representatives voted in a small minority in favor of issuing a writ of _scire facias_ against the late Bank of the United States soon after it was chartered; and this could be quoted in the parts of the country where a bank was unpopular. At the same time the party was perfectly satisfied with their present sentiments, and wanted no discussion which might scare off anti-bank men without doing any good on their own side. The bank, then, was the great measure of the session--the great cause of the called session--and as such taken by Mr. Clay into his own care from the first day. He submitted a schedule of measures for the consideration of the body, and for acting on which he said it might be understood the extraordinary session was convoked; he moved for a select committee to report a bill, of which committee he was of course to be chairman: and he moved a call upon the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Ewing) for the plan of a bank. It was furnished accordingly, and studiously contrived so as to avoid the President's objections, and save his consistency--a point upon which he was exceedingly sensitive. The bill of the select committee was modelled upon it. Even the title was made ridiculous to please the President, though not as much so as he wished. He objected to the name of bank, either in the title or the body of the charter, and proposed to style it "The Fiscal Institute;" and afterwards the "Fiscal Agent;" and finally the "Fiscal Corporation." Mr. Clay and his friends could not stand these titles; but finding the President tenacious on the title of the bill, and having all the properties of all sorts of banks--discount--deposit--circulation--exchange--all in the plan so studiously contrived, they yielded to the word Fiscal--rejecting each of its proposed addenda--and substituted bank. The title of the instrument then ran thus: "A Bill to incorporate the subscribers to the Fiscal Bank of the United States." Thus entitled, and thus arranged out of doors, it was brought into the Senate, not to be perfected by the collective legislative wisdom of the body, but to be carried through the forms of legislation, without alteration except from its friends, and made into law. The deliberative power of the body had nothing to do with it. Registration of what had been agreed upon was its only office. The democratic members resisted strenuously in order to make the measure odious. Successful resistance was impossible, and a repeal of the act at a subsequent Congress was the only hope--a veto not being then dreamed of. Repeal, therefore, was taken as the watchword, and formal notice of it proclaimed in successive speeches, that all subscribers to the bank should be warned in time, and deprived of the plea of innocence when the repeal should be moved. Mr. Allen, of Ohio, besides an argument in favor of the right of this repeal, produced a resolve from the House Journal of 1819, in which General Harrison, then a member of that body, voted with others for a resolve directing the Judiciary Committee to report a bill to repeal the then United States Bank charter--not to inquire into the expediency of repealing, but to repeal absolutely.

The bill was passed through both Houses--in the Senate by a close vote, 26 to 23--in the House by a better majority, 128 to 98. This was the sixth of August. All was considered finished by the democracy, and a future repeal their only alternative. Suddenly light began to dawn upon them. Rumors came that President Tyler would disapprove the act; which, in fact he did: but with such expressions of readiness to approve another bill which should be free from the objections which he named, as still to keep his party together, and to prevent the explosion of his cabinet. But it made an explosion elsewhere. Mr. Clay was not of a temper to be balked in a measure so dear to his heart without giving expression to his dissatisfaction; and did so in the debate on the veto message; and in terms to assert that Mr. Tyler had violated his faith to the whig party, and had been led off from them by new associations. He said:

"On the 4th of April last, the lamented Harrison, the President
of the United States, paid the debt of nature. President Tyler,
who, as Vice-President, succeeded to the duties of that office,
arrived in the city of Washington on the 6th of that month. He
found the whole metropolis wrapt in gloom, every heart filled
with sorrow and sadness, every eye streaming with tears, and
the surrounding hills yet flinging back the echo of the bells
which were tolled on that melancholy occasion. On entering
the Presidential mansion he contemplated the pale body of his
predecessor stretched before him, and clothed in the black
habiliments of death. At that solemn moment, I have no doubt
that the heart of President Tyler was overflowing with mingled
emotions of grief, of patriotism and gratitude--above all, of
gratitude to that country by a majority of whose suffrages,
bestowed at the preceding November, he then stood the most
distinguished, the most elevated, the most honored of all living
whigs of the United States.

"It was under these circumstances, and in this probable state of
mind, that President Tyler, on the 10th day of the same month
of April, voluntary promulgated an address to the people of the
United States. That address was in the nature of a coronation
oath, which the chief of the State, in other countries, and
under other forms, takes upon ascending the throne. It referred
to the solemn obligations, and the profound sense of duty under
which the new President entered upon the high trust which had
devolved upon him, by the joint acts of the people and of
Providence, and it stated the principles and delineated the
policy by which he would be governed in his exalted station. It
was emphatically a whig address from beginning to end--every
inch of it was whig, and was patriotic.

"In that address the President, in respect to the subject-matter
embraced in the present bill, held the following conclusive and
emphatic language: 'I shall promptly give my sanction to any
constitutional measure which, originating in Congress, shall
have for its object the restoration of a sound circulating
medium, so essentially necessary to give confidence in all
the transactions of life, to secure to industry its just and
adequate rewards, and to re-establish the public prosperity.
In deciding upon the adaptation of any such measure to the end
proposed, as well as its conformity to the Constitution, I shall
resort to the fathers of the great republican school for advice
and instruction, to be drawn from their sage views of our system
of government, and the light of their ever glorious example.'

"To this clause in the address of the President, I believe but
one interpretation was given throughout this whole country,
by friend and foe, by whig and democrat, and by the presses
of both parties. It was by every man with whom I conversed on
the subject at the time of its appearance, or of whom I have
since inquired, construed to mean that the President intended
to occupy the Madison ground, and to regard the question of
the power to establish a national bank as immovably settled.
And I think I may confidently appeal to the Senate, and to the
country, to sustain the fact that this was the contemporaneous
and unanimous judgment of the public. Reverting back to the
period of the promulgation of the address, could any other
construction have been given to its language? What is it? 'I
shall promptly give my sanction to any constitutional measure
which, originating in Congress,' shall have certain defined
objects in view. He concedes the vital importance of a sound
circulating medium to industry and to the public prosperity. He
concedes that its origin must be in Congress. And, to prevent
any inference from the qualification, which he prefixes to
the measure, being interpreted to mean that a United States
Bank was unconstitutional, he declares that, in deciding on
the adaptation of the measure to the end proposed, and its
conformity to the constitution, he will resort to the fathers of
the great Republican school. And who were they? If the Father
of his country is to be excluded, are Madison (the father of
the constitution), Jefferson, Monroe, Gerry, Gallatin, and the
long list of Republicans who acted with them, not to be regarded
as among those fathers? But President Tyler declares not only
that he should appeal to them for advice and instruction, but
to the light of their ever glorious example. What example? What
other meaning could have been possibly applied to the phrase,
than that he intended to refer to what had been done during the
administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe?

"Entertaining this opinion of the address, I came to Washington,
at the commencement of the session, with the most confident
and buoyant hopes that the Whigs would be able to carry all
their prominent measures, and especially a Bank of the United
States, by far that one of the greatest immediate importance.
I anticipated nothing but cordial co-operation between the two
departments of government; and I reflected with pleasure that
I should find at the head of the Executive branch, a personal
and political friend, whom I had long and intimately known,
and highly esteemed. It will not be my fault if our amicable
relations should unhappily cease, in consequence of any
difference of opinion between us on this occasion. The President
has been always perfectly familiar with my opinion on this bank
question.

"Upon the opening of the session, but especially on the receipt
of the plan of a national bank, as proposed by the Secretary
of the Treasury, fears were excited that the President had
been misunderstood in his address, and that he had not waived
but adhered to his constitutional scruples. Under these
circumstances it was hoped that, by the indulgence of a mutual
spirit of compromise and concession, a bank, competent to fulfil
the expectations and satisfy the wants of the people, might be
established.

"Under the influence of that spirit, the Senate and the House
agreed, 1st, as to the name of the proposed bank. I confess,
sir, that there was something exceedingly _outré_ and revolting
to my ears in the term 'Fiscal Bank;' but I thought, 'What
is there in a name? A rose, by any other name, would smell
as sweet.' Looking, therefore, rather to the utility of the
substantial faculties than to the name of the contemplated
institution, we consented to that which was proposed."

In his veto message Mr. Tyler fell back upon his early opinions against the constitutionality of a national bank, so often and so publicly expressed; and recurring to these early opinions he now declared that it would be a crime and an infamy in him to sign the bill which had been presented to him. In this sense he thus expressed himself:

"Entertaining the opinions alluded to, and having taken this
oath, the Senate and the country will see that I could not give
my sanction to a measure of the character described without
surrendering all claim to the respect of honorable men--all
confidence on the part of the people--all self-respect--all
regard for moral and religious obligations; without an
observance of which no government can be prosperous, and no
people can be happy. It would be to commit a _crime_ which I
would not wilfully commit to gain any earthly reward, and which
would _justly_ subject me to the ridicule and scorn of all
virtuous men."

Mr. Clay found these expressions of self-condemnation entirely too strong, showing too much sensibility in a President to personal considerations--laying too much stress upon early opinions--ignoring too completely later opinions--and not sufficiently deferring to those fathers of the government to whom, in his inaugural address, he had promised to look for advice and instruction, both as to the constitutionality of a bank, and its adaptation to the public wants. And he thus animadverted on the passage:

"I must think, and hope I may be allowed to say, with profound
deference to the Chief Magistrate, that it appears to me he has
viewed with too lively sensibility the personal consequences
to himself of his approval of the bill; and that, surrendering
himself to a vivid imagination, he has depicted them in much too
glowing and exaggerated colors, and that it would have been most
happy if he had looked more to the deplorable consequences of
a veto upon the hopes, the interests, and the happiness of his
country. Does it follow that a magistrate who yields his private
judgment to the concurring authority of numerous decisions,
repeatedly and deliberately pronounced, after the lapse of
long intervals, by all the departments of government, and by
all parties, incurs the dreadful penalties described by the
President? Can any man be disgraced and dishonored who yields
his private opinion to the judgment of the nation? In this case,
the country (I mean a majority), Congress, and, according to
common fame, an unanimous cabinet, were all united in favor of
the bill. Should any man feel himself humbled and degraded in
yielding to the conjoint force of such high authority? Does
any man, who at one period of his life shall have expressed
a particular opinion, and at a subsequent period shall act
upon the opposite opinion, expose himself to the terrible
consequences which have been portrayed by the President? How
is it with the judge, in the case by no means rare, who bows
to the authority of repeated precedents, settling a particular
question, whilst in his private judgment the law was otherwise?
How is it with that numerous class of public men in this
country, and with the two great parties that have divided it,
who, at different periods, have maintained and acted on opposite
opinions in respect to this very bank question?

"How is it with James Madison, the father of the
constitution--that great man whose services to his country
placed him only second to Washington--whose virtues and purity
in private life--whose patriotism, intelligence, and wisdom
in public councils, stand unsurpassed? He was a member of the
national convention that formed, and of the Virginia convention
that adopted the constitution. No man understood it better
than he did. He was opposed in 1791 to the establishment of
the Bank of the United States upon constitutional ground; and
in 1816 he approved and signed the charter of the late Bank of
the United States. It is a part of the secret history connected
with the first Bank, that James Madison had, at the instance of
General Washington, prepared a veto for him in the contingency
of his rejection of the bill. Thus stood James Madison when,
in 1815, he applied the veto to a bill to charter a bank upon
considerations of expediency, but with a clear and express
admission of the existence of a constitutional power in Congress
to charter one. In 1816, the bill which was then presented to
him being free from the objections applicable to that of the
previous year, he sanctioned and signed it. Did James Madison
surrender 'all claim to the respect of honorable men--all
confidence on the part of the people--all self-respect--all
regard for moral and religious obligations?' Did the pure,
the virtuous, the gifted James Madison, by his sanction and
signature to the charter of the late Bank of the United States,
commit a crime which justly subjected him 'to the ridicule and
scorn of all virtuous men?'"

But in view of these strong personal consequences to his (Mr. Tyler's) own character in the event of signing the bill, Mr. Clay pointed out a course which the President might have taken which would have saved his consistency--conformed to the constitution--fulfilled his obligations to the party that elected him--and permitted the establishment of that sound currency, and that relief from the public distress, which his inaugural address, and his message to Congress, and his veto message, all so earnestly declared to be necessary. It was to have let the bill lie in his hands without approval or disapproval: in which case it would have become a law without any act of his. The constitution had made provision for the case in that clause in which it declares that--"If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a law." In this case there was no danger of Congress adjourning before the lapse of the ten days; and Mr. Clay adverted to this course as the one, under his embarrassing circumstances the President ought to have adopted, and saved both his consistency and faith to his party. He urged it as a proper course--saying:

"And why should not President Tyler have suffered the bill
to become a law without his signature? Without meaning the
slightest possible disrespect to him (nothing is further from
my heart than the exhibition of any such feeling towards that
distinguished citizen, long my personal friend), it cannot be
forgotten that he came into his present office under peculiar
circumstances. The people did not foresee the contingency which
has happened. They voted for him as Vice-President. They did
not, therefore, scrutinize his opinions with the care which
they probably ought to have done, and would have done, if they
could have looked into futurity. If the present state of the
fact could have been anticipated--if at Harrisburg, or at the
polls, it had been foreseen that General Harrison would die in
one short month after the commencement of his administration;
that Vice-President Tyler would be elevated to the presidential
chair; that a bill, passed by decisive majorities of the first
whig Congress, chartering a national bank, would be presented
for his sanction; and that he would veto the bill, do I hazard
any thing when I express the conviction that he would not have
received a solitary vote in the nominating convention, nor one
solitary electoral vote in any State in the Union?"

Not having taken this course with the bill, Mr. Clay pointed out a third one, suggested by the conduct of the President himself under analogous circumstances, and which, while preserving his self-respect, would accomplish all the objects in view by the party which elected him, by simply removing the obstacle which stood between them and the object of their hopes; it was to resign the presidency. For this contingency--that of neither President nor Vice-President--the constitution had also made provision in declaring--"In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President; and the Congress may by law provide for the case of the removal, death, resignation, or inability both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President; and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected." Congress had acted under this injunction and had devolved the duties of President, first on the president of the Senate _pro tempore_; and if no such temporary president, then on the speaker of the House of Representatives; and requiring a new election to be held on the first Wednesday of the ensuing December if there was time before it for a notification of two months; and if not, then the new election to take place (if the vacant term had not expired on the third day of March after they happened) on the like Wednesday of the next ensuing month of December. Here was provision made for the case, and the new election might have been held in less than four months--the temporary president of the Senate, Mr. Southard, acting as President in the mean time. The legal path was then clear for Mr. Tyler's resignation, and Mr. Clay thus enforced the propriety of that step upon him:

"But, sir, there was still a third alternative, to which
I allude not because I mean to intimate that it should be
embraced, but because I am reminded of it by a memorable event
in the life of President Tyler. It will be recollected that,
after the Senate had passed the resolution declaring the removal
of the deposits from the Bank of the United States to have been
derogatory from the constitution and laws of the United States,
for which resolution President (then senator) Tyler had voted,
the General Assembly of Virginia instructed the senators from
that State to vote for the expunging of that resolution. Senator
Tyler declined voting in conformity with that instruction, and
resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States. This he
did because he could not conform, and did not think it right
to go counter to the wishes of those who had placed him in the
Senate. If, when the people of Virginia, or the General Assembly
of Virginia, were his only constituency, he would not set up
his own particular opinion in opposition to theirs, what ought
to be the rule of his conduct when the people of twenty-six
States--a whole nation--compose his constituency? Is the will
of the constituency of one State to be respected, and that of
twenty-six to be wholly disregarded? Is obedience due only to
the single State of Virginia? The President admits that the Bank
question deeply agitated, and continues to agitate, the nation.
It is incontestable that it was the great, absorbing, and
controlling question, in all our recent divisions and exertions.
I am firmly convinced, and it is my deliberate judgment, that an
immense majority, not less than two-thirds of the nation, desire
such an institution. All doubts in this respect ought to be
dispelled by the recent decisions of the two Houses of Congress.
I speak of them as evidence of popular opinion. In the House of
Representatives, the majority was 131 to 100. If the House had
been full, and but for the modification of the 16th fundamental
condition, there would have been a probable majority of 47. Is
it to be believed that this large majority of the immediate
representatives of the people, fresh from amongst them, and to
whom the President seemed inclined, in his opening message, to
refer this very question, have mistaken the wishes of their
constituents?"

The acting President did not feel it to be his duty to resign, although it may be the judgment of history (after seeing the expositions of his secretaries at the resignation of their places consequent upon a second veto to a second bank act), that he ought to have done so. In his veto message he seemed to leave the way open for his approval of a charter free from the exceptions he had taken; and rumor was positive in asserting that he was then engaged in arranging with some friends the details of a bill which he could approve. In allusion to this rumor, Mr. Clay remarked:

"On a former occasion I stated that, in the event of an
unfortunate difference of opinion between the legislative
and executive departments, the point of difference might be
developed, and it would be then seen whether they could be
brought to coincide in any measure corresponding with the public
hopes and expectations. I regret that the President has not,
in this message, favored us with a more clear and explicit
exhibition of his views. It is sufficiently manifest that he
is decidedly opposed to the establishment of a new Bank of the
United States formed after two old models. I think it is fairly
to be inferred that the plan of the Secretary of the Treasury
could not have received his sanction. He is opposed to the
passage of the bill which he has returned; but whether he would
give his approbation to any bank, and, if any, what sort of a
bank, is not absolutely clear. I think it may be collected from
the message, with the aid of information derived through other
sources, that the President would concur in the establishment of
a bank whose operations should be limited to dealing in bills
of exchange to deposits, and to the supply of a circulation,
excluding the power of discounting promissory notes. And I
understand that some of our friends are now considering the
practicability of arranging and passing a bill in conformity
with the views of President Tyler. Whilst I regret that I can
take no active part in such an experiment, and must reserve to
myself the right of determining whether I can or cannot vote
for such a bill after I see it in its matured form, I assure my
friends that they shall find no obstacle or impediment in me. On
the contrary, I say to them, go on: God speed you in any measure
which will serve the country, and preserve or restore harmony
and concert between the departments of government. An executive
veto of a Bank of the United States, after the sad experience
of late years, is an event which was not anticipated by the
political friends of the President; certainly not by me. But it
has come upon us with tremendous weight, and amidst the greatest
excitement within and without the metropolis. The question now
is, what shall be done? What, under this most embarrassing and
unexpected state of things, will our constituents expect of
us? What is required by the duty and the dignity of Congress?
I repeat that if, after a careful examination of the executive
message, a bank can be devised which will afford any remedy to
existing evils, and secure the President's approbation, let
the project of such a bank be presented. It shall encounter no
opposition, if it should receive no support, from me."

The speech of Mr. Clay brought out Mr. Rives in defence of the President, who commenced with saying:

"He came to the Senate that morning to give a silent vote on
the bill, and he should have contented himself with doing so
but for the observations which had fallen from the senator from
Kentucky in respect to the conduct of the President of the
United States. Mr. R. had hoped the senator would have confined
himself strictly to the merits of the question before the
Senate. He told us, said Mr. R., that the question was this: the
President having returned the bill for a fiscal bank with his
exceptions thereto, the bill was such an one as ought to pass by
the constitutional majority of two-thirds; and thus become a law
of the land. Now what was the real issue before the Senate? Was
it not the naked question between the bill and the objections
to it, as compared with each other? I really had hoped that the
honorable senator, after announcing to us the issue in this
very proper manner, would have confined his observations to
it alone; and if he had done so I should not have troubled the
Senate with a single word. But what has been the course of the
honorable senator? I do not reproach him with it. He, no doubt,
felt it necessary, in order to vindicate his own position before
the country, to inculpate the course taken by the President: and
accordingly about two-thirds of his speech, howsoever qualified
by expressions of personal kindness and respect, were taken up
in a solemn arraignment of the President of the United States.
Most of the allegations put forth by the senator seem to arrange
themselves under the general charge of perfidy--of faithlessness
to his party, and to the people."

Mr. Rives went on to defend the President at all points, declaring the question of a bank was not an issue in the election--repelling the imputation of perfidy--scouting the suggestions of resignation and of pocketing the bill to let it become law--arguing that General Harrison himself would have disapproved the same bill if he had lived and it had been presented to him. In support of this opinion he referred to the General's early opposition to the national bank of 1816, and to his written answer given during the canvass--"that he would not give his sanction to a Bank of the United States, unless by the failure of all other expedients, it should be demonstrated to be necessary to carry on the operations of government; and unless there should be a general and unequivocal manifestation of the will of the Union in favor of such an institution; and then only as a fiscal, and not as a commercial bank." But this authentic declaration seemed to prove the contrary of that for which it was quoted. It contained two conditions, on the happening of which General Harrison would sign a bank charter--first, the failure of all other plans for carrying on the financial operations of the government; and, secondly, the manifestation of public opinion in favor of it. That the first of these conditions had been fulfilled was well shown by Mr. Rives himself in the concluding passages of his speech where he said: "All previous systems have been rejected and condemned--the sub-treasury--the pet banks--an old-fashioned Bank of the United States--a new-fashioned fiscal agent." The second condition was fulfilled in the presidential election in the success of the whig party, whose first object was a bank; and in the election of members of the House and the Senate, where the majorities were in favor of a bank. The conditions were fulfilled then on which General Harrison was to approve a bank charter; and the writer of this View has no doubt that he would have given his signature to a usual bank charter if he had lived; and from an obligatory sense of duty, and with no more dishonor than Mr. Madison had incurred in signing the act for the second bank charter after having been the great opponent of the first one; and for which signing, as for no act of his life, was dishonor imputed to him. The writer of this View believes that General Harrison would have signed a fair bank charter, and under its proper name; and he believes it, not from words spoken between them, but from public manifestations, seen by every body. 1. His own declaration, stating the conditions on which he would do it; and which conditions were fulfilled. 2. The fact that he was the presidential candidate of the party which was emphatically the bank party. 3. The selection of his cabinet, every member of which was in favor of a national bank. 4. The declaration of Mr. Clay at the head of the list of measures proposed by him for the consideration of Congress at its extra session, in which a national bank was included; and which measures he stated were probably those for which the extraordinary session had been convened by President Harrison--a point on which Mr. Clay must be admitted to be well informed, for he was the well reputed adviser of President Harrison on the occasion.

Mr. Clay rejoined to Mr. Rives, and became more close and pointed in his personal remarks upon Mr. Tyler's conduct, commencing with Mr. Rives' lodgment in the "half-way house," _i.e._ the pet bank system--which was supposed to have been a camping station in the transition from the democratic to the whig camp. He began thus:

"I have no desire, said he, to prolong this unpleasant
discussion, but I must say that I heard with great surprise
and regret the closing remark, especially, of the honorable
gentleman from Virginia, as, indeed, I did many of those which
preceded it. That gentleman stands in a peculiar situation. I
found him several years ago in the half-way house, where he
seems afraid to remain, and from which he is yet unwilling to
go. I had thought, after the thorough riddling which the roof
of the house had received in the breaking up of the pet bank
system, he would have fled somewhere else for refuge; but, there
he still stands, solitary and alone, shivering and pelted by
the pitiless storm. The sub-treasury is repealed--the pet bank
system is abandoned--the United States Bank bill is vetoed--and
now, when there is as complete and perfect a reunion of the
purse and the sword in the hands of the executive as ever there
was under General Jackson or Mr. Van Buren, the senator is for
doing nothing."

There was a whisper at this time that Mr. Tyler had an inner circle of advisers, some democratic and some whig, and most of whom had sojourned in the "half-way house," and who were more confidential and influential with the President than the members of his cabinet. To this Mr. Clay caustically adverted.

"Although the honorable senator professes not to know the
opinions of the President, it certainly does turn out in the
sequel that there is a most remarkable coincidence between those
opinions and his own; and he has, on the present occasion,
defended the motives and the course of the President with all
the solicitude and all the fervent zeal of a member of his
privy council. There is a rumor abroad that a cabal exists--a
new sort of kitchen cabinet--whose object is the dissolution
of the regular cabinet--the dissolution of the whig party--the
dispersion of Congress, without accomplishing any of the great
purposes of the extra session--and a total change, in fact, in
the whole face of our political affairs. I hope, and I persuade
myself, that the honorable senator is not, cannot be, one of the
component members of such a cabal; but I must say that there has
been displayed by the honorable senator to-day a predisposition,
astonishing and inexplicable, to misconceive almost all of what
I have said, and a perseverance, after repeated corrections, in
misunderstanding--for I will not charge him with wilfully and
intentionally misrepresenting--the whole spirit and character of
the address which, as a man of honor and as a senator, I felt
myself bound in duty to make to this body."

There was also a rumor of a design to make a third party, of which Mr. Tyler was to be the head; and, as part of the scheme, to make a quarrel between Mr. Tyler and Mr. Clay, in which Mr. Clay was to be made the aggressor; and he brought this rumor to the notice of Mr. Rives, repelling the part which inculpated himself, and leaving the rest for Mr. Rives to answer.

"Why, sir, what possible, what conceivable motive can I have
to quarrel with the President, or to break up the whig party?
What earthly motive can impel me to wish for any other result
than that that party shall remain in perfect harmony, undivided,
and shall move undismayed, boldly, and unitedly forward to the
accomplishment of the all-important public objects which it has
avowed to be its aim? What imaginable interest or feeling can I
have other than the success, the triumph, the glory of the whig
party? But that there may be designs and purposes on the part of
certain other individuals to place me in inimical relations with
the President, and to represent me as personally opposed to him,
I can well imagine--individuals who are beating up for recruits,
and endeavoring to form a third party, with materials so scanty
as to be wholly insufficient to compose a decent corporal's
guard. I fear there are such individuals, though I do not charge
the senator as being himself one of them. What a spectacle has
been presented to this nation during this entire session of
Congress! That of the cherished and confidential friends of John
Tyler, persons who boast and claim to be _par excellence_, his
exclusive and genuine friends, being the bitter, systematic,
determined, uncompromising opponents of every leading measure
of John Tyler's administration! Was there ever before such an
example presented, in this or any other age, in this or any
other country? I have myself known the President too long, and
cherished towards him too sincere a friendship, to allow my
feelings to be affected or alienated by any thing which has
passed here to-day. If the President chooses--which I am sure
he cannot, unless falsehood has been whispered into his ears or
poison poured into his heart--to detach himself from me, I shall
deeply regret it, for the sake of our common friendship and our
common country. I now repeat, what I before said, that, of all
the measures of relief which the American people have called
upon us for, that of a National Bank and a sound and uniform
currency has been the most loudly and importunately demanded."

Mr. Clay reiterated his assertion that bank, or no bank, was the great issue of the presidential canvass wherever he was, let what else might have been the issue in Virginia, where Mr. Rives led for General Harrison.

"The senator says that the question of a Bank was not the issue
made before the people at the late election. I can say, for one,
my own conviction is diametrically the contrary. What may have
been the character of the canvass in Virginia, I will not say;
probably gentlemen on both sides were, every where, governed in
some degree by considerations of local policy. What issues may
therefore have been presented to the people of Virginia, either
above or below tide water, I am not prepared to say. The great
error, however, of the honorable senator, is in thinking that
the sentiments of a particular party in Virginia are always a
fair exponent of the sentiments of the whole Union. I can tell
the senator, that, wherever I was--in the great valley of the
Mississippi, in Kentucky, in Tennessee, in Maryland--in all the
circles in which I moved, every where, 'Bank or no Bank' was the
great, the leading, the vital question."

In conclusion, Mr Clay apostrophized himself in a powerful peroration as not having moral courage enough (though he claimed as much as fell to the share of most men) to make himself an obstacle to the success of a great measure for the public good; in which the allusion to Mr. Tyler and his veto was too palpable to miss the apprehension of any person.

"The senator says that, if placed in like circumstances, I
would have been the last man to avoid putting a direct veto
upon the bill, had it met my disapprobation; and he does me
the honor to attribute to me high qualities of stern and
unbending intrepidity. I hope that in all that relates to
personal firmness--all that concerns a just appreciation of
the insignificance of human life--whatever may be attempted
to threaten or alarm a soul not easily swayed by opposition,
or awed or intimidated by menace--a stout heart and a steady
eye, that can survey, unmoved and undaunted, any mere personal
perils that assail this poor transient, perishing frame--I
may, without disparagement, compare with other men. But there
is a sort of courage which, I frankly confess it, I do not
possess--a boldness to which I dare not aspire--a valor which
I cannot covet. I cannot lay myself down in the way of the
welfare and happiness of my country. That I cannot, I have not
the courage to do. I cannot interpose the power with which I may
be invested--a power conferred not for my personal benefit, not
for my aggrandizement, but for my country's good--to check her
onward march to greatness and glory. I have not courage enough,
I am too cowardly for that. I would not, I dare not, in the
exercise of such a trust, lie down, and place my body across
the path that leads my country to prosperity and happiness.
This is a sort of courage widely different from that which a
man may display in his private conduct and personal relations.
Personal or private courage is totally distinct from that higher
and nobler courage, which prompts the patriot to offer himself
a voluntary sacrifice to his country's good. Apprehensions of
the imputation of the want of firmness sometimes impel us to
perform rash and inconsiderate acts. It is the greatest courage
to be able to bear the imputation of the want of courage. But
pride, vanity, egotism, so unamiable and offensive in private
life, are vices which partake of the character of crimes in
the conduct of public affairs. The unfortunate victim of these
passions cannot see beyond the little, petty, contemptible
circle of his own personal interests. All his thoughts are
withdrawn from his country, and concentrated on his consistency,
his firmness, himself. The high, the exalted, the sublime
emotions of a patriotism, which, soaring towards Heaven, rises
far above all mean, low, or selfish things, and is absorbed
by one soul-transporting thought of the good and the glory of
one's country, are never felt in his impenetrable bosom. That
patriotism which, catching its inspiration from the immortal
God, and leaving at an immeasurable distance below, all lesser,
grovelling, personal interests and feelings, animates and
prompts to deeds of self-sacrifice, of valor, of devotion, and
of death itself--that is public virtue--that is the noblest, the
sublimest of all public virtues!"

Mr. Rives replied to Mr. Clay, and with respect to the imputed cabal, the privy council, and his own zealous defence of Mr. Tyler, said:

"The senator has indulged his fancy in regard to a certain
cabal, which he says it is alleged by rumor (an authority he
seems prone to quote of late) has been formed for the wicked
purpose of breaking up the regular cabinet, and dissolving the
whig party. Though the senator is pleased to acquit me of being
a member of the supposed cabal, he says he should infer, from
the zeal and promptitude with which I have come forward to
defend the motives and conduct of the President, that I was at
least a member of his privy council! I thank God, Mr. President,
that in his gracious goodness he has been pleased to give me a
heart to repel injustice and to defend the innocent, without
being laid under any special engagement, as a privy councillor
or otherwise, to do justice to my fellow-man; and if there be
any gentleman who cannot find in the consciousness of his own
bosom a satisfactory explanation of so natural an impulse, I,
for one, envy him neither his temperament nor his philosophy. If
Mr. Tyler, instead of being a distinguished citizen of my own
State, and filling at this moment, a station of the most painful
responsibility, which entitles him to a candid interpretation of
his official acts at the hands of all his countrymen, had been
a total stranger, unknown to me in the relations of private or
political friendship, I should yet have felt myself irresistibly
impelled by the common sympathies of humanity to undertake his
defence, to the best of my poor ability, when I have seen him
this day so powerfully assailed for an act, as I verily believe,
of conscientious devotion to the constitution of his country and
the sacred obligation of his high trust."

With respect to the half-way house, Mr. Rives admitted his sojourn there, and claimed a sometime companionship in it with the senator from Kentucky, just escaped from the lordly mansion, gaudy without, but rotten and rat-eaten within (the Bank of the United States); and glad to shelter in this humble but comfortable stopping place.

"The senator from Kentucky says he found me several years ago
in this half-way house, which, after the thorough riddling the
roof had received in the breaking up of the pet bank system, he
had supposed I would have abandoned. How could I find it in my
heart, Mr. President, to abandon it when I found the honorable
senator from Kentucky (even after what he calls the riddling of
the roof) so anxious to take refuge in it from the ruins of his
own condemned and repudiated system, and where he actually took
refuge for four long years, as I have already stated. When I
first had the honor to meet the honorable senator in this body,
I found him not occupying the humble but comfortable half-way
house, which has given him shelter from the storm for the last
four years, but a more lordly mansion, gaudy to look upon, but
altogether unsafe to inhabit; old, decayed, rat-eaten, which has
since tumbled to the ground with its own rottenness, devoted to
destruction alike by the indignation of man and the wrath of
heaven. Yet the honorable senator, unmindful of the past, and
heedless of the warnings of the present, which are still ringing
in his ears, will hear of nothing but the instant reconstruction
of this devoted edifice."

Mr. Rives returned to the imputed cabal, washed his hands of it entirely, and abjured all desire for a cabinet office, or any public station, except a seat in the Senate: thus:

"I owe it to myself, Mr. President, before I close, to say one
or two words in regard to this gorgon of a cabal, which the
senator tells us, upon the authority of dame Rumor, has been
formed to break up the cabinet, to dissolve the whig party, and
to form a new or third party. Although the senator was pleased
to acquit me of being a member of this supposed cabal, he yet
seemed to have some lurking jealousies and suspicions in his
mind on the subject. I will tell the honorable senator, then,
that I know of no such cabal, and I should really think that
I was the last man that ought to be suspected of any wish or
design to form a new or third party. I have shown myself at all
times restive under mere party influence and control from any
quarter. All party, in my humble judgment, tends, in its modern
degeneracy, to tyranny, and is attended with serious hazard of
sacrificing an honest sense of duty, and the great interests
of the country, to an arbitrary lead, directed by other aims.
I desire, therefore, to take upon myself no new party bonds,
while I am anxious to fulfil, to the fullest extent that a sense
of duty to the country will permit, every honorable engagement
implied in existing ones. In regard to the breaking up of the
cabinet, I had hoped that I was as far above the suspicion of
having any personal interest in such an event as any man. I
have never sought office, but have often declined it; and will
now give the honorable senator from Kentucky a full quit-claim
and release of all cabinet pretensions now and for ever. He may
rest satisfied that he will never see me in any cabinet, under
this or any other administration. During the brief remnant of my
public life, the measure of my ambition will be filled by the
humble, but honest part I may be permitted to take on this floor
in consultations for the common good."

Mr. Rives finished with informing Mr. Clay of a rumor which he had heard--the rumor of a dictatorship installed in the capitol, seeking to govern the country, and to intimidate the President, and to bend every thing to its own will, thus:

"Having disposed of this rumor of a cabal, to the satisfaction,
I trust, of the honorable senator, I will tell him of another
rumor I have heard, which, I trust, may be equally destitute
of foundation. Rumor is busy in alleging that there is an
organized dictatorship, in permanent session in this capitol,
seeking to control the whole action of the government, in both
the legislative and executive branches, and sending deputation
after deputation to the President of the United States to teach
him his duty, and bring him to terms. I do not vouch for the
correctness of this rumor. I humbly hope it may not be true; but
if it should unfortunately be so, I will say that it is fraught
with far more danger to the regular and salutary action of our
balanced constitution, and to the liberties of the people, than
any secret cabal that ever has existed or ever will exist."

The allusion, of course, was to Mr. Clay, who promptly disavowed all knowledge of this imputed dictatorship. In this interlude between Mr. Clay and Mr. Rives, both members of the same party, the democratic senators took no part; and the subject was dropped, to be followed by a little conversational debate, of kindred interest, growing out of it, between Mr. Archer of Virginia, and Mr. Clay--which appears thus in the Register of Debates:

"Mr. ARCHER, in rising on the present occasion, did not intend
to enter into a discussion on the subject of the President's
message. He thought enough had been said on the subject by the
two senators who had preceded him, and was disposed, for his
part, to let the question be taken without any more debate. His
object in rising was to call the attention of the senator from
Kentucky to a certain portion of his remarks, in which he hoped
the senator, upon reflection, would see that the language used
by him had been too harsh. His honorable friend from Kentucky
had taken occasion to apply some very harsh observations to
the conduct of certain persons who he supposed had instigated
the President of the United States in the course he had taken
in regard to the bill for chartering the Fiscal Bank of the
United States. The honorable senator took occasion to disclaim
any allusion to his colleague [Mr. RIVES], and he would say
beforehand that he knew the honorable senator would except him
also.

"Mr. CLAY said, certainly, sir!"

This was not a parliamentary disclaimer, but a disclaimer from the heart, and was all that Mr. Archer could ask on his own account; but he was a man of generous spirit as well as of high sense of honor, and taking up the case of his colleagues in the House, who seemed to be implicated, and could not appear in the chamber and ask for a disclaimer, Mr. Archer generously did so for them; but without getting what he asked for. The Register says:

"Mr. _Archer_. He would say, however, that the remarks of the
senator, harsh as they were, might well be construed as having
allusion to his colleagues in the other House. He (Mr. A.)
discharged no more than the duty which he knew his honorable
colleagues in the other House would discharge towards him were
an offensive allusion supposed to be made to him where he could
not defend himself, to ask of the honorable senator to make some
disclaimer as regarded them.

"Mr. _Clay_ here said, no, no.

"Mr. ARCHER. The words of the senator were: 'A low, vulgar,
and profligate cabal;' which the senator also designated as
a kitchen cabinet, had surrounded the President, and were
endeavoring to turn out the present cabinet. Now, who would the
public suppose to be that low and infamous cabal? Would the
people of the United States suppose it to be composed of any
other than those who were sent here by the people to represent
them in Congress? He asked the senator from Kentucky to say, in
that spirit of candor and frankness which always characterized
him, who he meant by that cabal, and to disclaim any allusion
to his colleagues in the other House, as he had done for his
colleague and himself in this body.

"Mr. CLAY said, if the honorable senator would make an inquiry
of him, and stop at the inquiry, without going on to make an
argument, he would answer him. He had said this and he would
repeat it, and make no disclaimer--that certain gentlemen,
professing to be the friends, _par excellence_, of the President
of the United States, had put themselves in opposition to all
the leading measures of his administration. He said that rumor
stated that a cabal was formed, for the purpose of breaking down
the present cabinet and forming a new one; and that that cabal
did not amount to enough to make a corporal's guard. He did not
say who they were; but he spoke of rumor only. Now, he would ask
his friend from Virginia [Mr. ARCHER] if he never heard of that
rumor? If the gentleman would tell him that he never heard of
that rumor, it would give him some claims to an answer.

"Mr. ARCHER confessed that he had heard of such a rumor, but he
never heard of any evidence to support it.