Chapter LXXX: National Bank: First Bill (2)

"Mr. CLAY. I repeat it here, in the face of the country, that
there are persons who call themselves, _par excellence_, the
friends of John Tyler, and yet oppose all the leading measures
of the administration of John Tyler. I will say that the
gentleman himself is not of that cabal, and that his colleague
is not. Farther than that, this deponent saith not, and will not
say.

"Mr. ARCHER. The gentleman has not adverted to the extreme
harshness of the language he employed when he was first up,
and he would appeal to gentlemen present for the correctness
of the version he (Mr. A.) had given of it. The gentleman said
there was a cabal formed--a vile kitchen cabinet--low and
infamous, who surrounded the President and instigated him to
the course he had taken. That was the language employed by the
honorable senator. Now suppose language such as this had been
used in the other branch of the national legislature, which
might be supposed to refer to him (Mr. A.) where he had not
an opportunity of defending himself; what would be the course
of his colleagues there? The course of those high-minded and
honorable men there toward him, would be similar to that he had
taken in regard to them.

"Mr. CLAY. Mr. President, did I say one word about the
colleagues of the gentleman? I said there was a cabal formed for
the purpose of breaking down the present cabinet, and that that
cabal did not number a corporal's guard; but I did not say who
that cabal was, and do not mean to be interrogated. Any member
on this floor has a right to ask me if I alluded to him; but
nobody else has. I spoke of rumor only.

"Mr. ARCHER said a few words, but he was not heard distinctly
enough to be reported.

"Mr. CLAY. I said no such thing. I said there was a rumor--that
public fame had stated that there was a cabal formed for the
purpose of removing the cabinet, and I ask the gentleman if he
has not heard of that rumor?

"Mr. ARCHER, after some remarks too low to be heard in the
gallery, said it was not the words the gentleman had quoted
to which he referred. It was the remark of the gentleman that
there was a low and infamous cabal--a vile kitchen cabinet--and
the gentleman knew that to his view there could not be a more
odious phrase used than kitchen cabinet--and that it was these
expressions that he wished an explanation of.

"Mr. BERRIEN said it was the concurrent opinion of all the
senators around him, that the senator from Kentucky had spoken
of the cabal as a rumor, and as not coming within his own
knowledge. He hoped the senator would understand him in rising
to make this explanation.

"Mr. ARCHER said he was glad to hear the disclaimer made by the
gentleman from Georgia, and he would therefore sit down, under
the conviction that the gentleman from Kentucky had made no such
blow at his colleagues of the other House, as he had supposed."

Mr. Clay could not disclaim for the Virginia members of the House--that is to say, for all those members. Rumor was too loud with respect to some of them to allow him to do that. He rested upon the rumor; and public opinion justified him in doing so. He named no one, nor was it necessary. They soon named themselves by the virulence with which they attacked him.

The vote was taken on the bill over again, as required by the constitution, and so far from receiving a two-thirds vote, it barely escaped defeat by a simple majority. The vote was 24 to 24; and the yeas and nays were:

"YEAS--Messrs. Barrow, Bates, Bayard, Berrien, Choate, Clay
of Kentucky, Dixon, Evans, Graham, Henderson, Huntington,
Kerr, Mangum, Merrick, Miller, Morehead, Porter, Prentiss,
Preston, Simmons, Smith of Indiana, Southard, Tallmadge, White,
Woodbridge.

"NAYS--Messrs. Allen, Archer, Benton, Buchanan, Calhoun, Clay
of Alabama, Clayton, Cuthbert, Fulton, King, Linn, McRoberts,
Mouton, Nicholson, Pierce, Rives, Sevier, Sturgeon, Tappan,
Walker, Williams, Woodbury, Wright, Young."

The rejection of the bank bill gave great vexation to one side, and equal exultation to the other. Hisses resounded from the galleries of the Senate: the President was outraged in his house, in the night, by the language and conduct of a disorderly crowd assembled about it. Mr. Woodbury moved an inquiry into the extent of these two disturbances, and their authors; and a committee was proposed to be charged with the inquiry: but the perpetrators were found to be of too low an order to be pursued, and the proceeding was dropped. Some manifestations of joy or sorrow took place, however, by actors of high order, and went into the parliamentary debates. Some senators deemed it proper to make a complimentary visit to Mr. Tyler, on the night of the reception of the veto message, and to manifest their satisfaction at the service which he had rendered in arresting the bank charter; and it so happened that this complimentary visit took place on the same night on which the President's house had been beset and outraged. It was doubtless a very consolatory compliment to the President, then sorely assailed by his late whig friends; and very proper on the part of those who paid it, though there were senators who declined to join in it--among others, the writer of this View, though sharing the exultation of his party. On the other hand the chagrin of the whig party was profound, and especially that of Mr. Clay, its chief--too frank and impetuous to restrain his feelings, and often giving vent to them--generally bitterly, but sometimes playfully. An occasion for a display of the latter kind was found in the occasion of this complimentary visit of democratic senators to the President, and in the offering of Mr. Woodbury's resolution of inquiry into the disturbances; and he amusingly availed himself of it in a brief speech, of which some extracts are here given:

"An honorable senator from New Hampshire [Mr. WOODBURY] proposed
some days ago a resolution of inquiry into certain disturbances
which are said to have occurred at the presidential mansion on
the night of the memorable 16th of August last. If any such
proceedings did occur, they were certainly very wrong and highly
culpable. The chief magistrate, whoever he may be, should be
treated by every good citizen with all becoming respect, if not
for his personal character, on account of the exalted office
he holds for and from the people. And I will here say, that I
read with great pleasure the acts and resolutions of an early
meeting, promptly held by the orderly and respectable citizens
of this metropolis, in reference to, and in condemnation of,
those disturbances. But, if the resolution had been adopted, I
had intended to move for the appointment of a select committee,
and that the honorable senator from New Hampshire himself should
be placed at the head of it, with a majority of his friends. And
will tell you why, Mr. President. I did hear that about eight or
nine o'clock on that same night of the famous 16th of August,
there was an irruption on the President's house of the whole
loco foco party in Congress; and I did not know but that the
alleged disorders might have grown out of or had some connection
with that fact. I understand that the whole party were there.
No spectacle, I am sure, could have been more supremely
amusing and ridiculous. If I could have been in a position in
which, without being seen, I could have witnessed that most
extraordinary reunion, I should have had an enjoyment which no
dramatic performance could possibly communicate. I think that
I can now see the principal _dramatis personæ_ who figured in
the scene. There stood the grave and distinguished senator from
South Carolina--

["Mr. CALHOUN here instantly rose, and earnestly insisted on
explaining; but Mr. CLAY refused to be interrupted or to yield
the floor.]

"Mr. CLAY. There, I say, I can imagine stood the senator from
South Carolina--tall, careworn, with furrowed brow, haggard, and
intensely gazing, looking as if he were dissecting the last and
newest abstraction which sprung from metaphysician's brain, and
muttering to himself, in half-uttered sounds, 'This is indeed
a real crisis!' Then there was the senator from Alabama [Mr.
KING], standing upright and gracefully, as if he were ready to
settle in the most authoritative manner any question of order,
or of etiquette, that might possibly arise between the high
assembled parties on that new and unprecedented occasion. Not
far off stood the honorable senators from Arkansas and from
Missouri [Mr. SEVIER and Mr. BENTON], the latter looking at the
senator from South Carolina, with an indignant curl on his lip
and scorn in his eye, and pointing his finger with contempt
towards that senator [Mr. CALHOUN], whilst he said, or rather
seemed to say, 'He call himself a statesman! why, he has never
even produced a decent humbug!'

["Mr. BENTON. The senator from Missouri was not there."]

Mr. Clay had doubtless been informed that the senator from Missouri was one of the senatorial procession that night, and the readiness with which he gave his remarks an imaginative turn with respect to him, and the facility with which he went on with his scene, were instances of that versatility of genius, and presence of mind, of which his parliamentary life was so full, and which generally gave him the advantage in sharp encounters. Though refusing to permit explanations from Mr. Calhoun, he readily accepted the correction from Mr. Benton--(probably because neither Mr. Benton, nor his immediate friends, were suspected of any attempt to alienate Mr. Tyler from his whig friends)--and continued his remarks, with great apparent good humor, and certainly to the amusement of all except the immediate objects of his attention.

"Mr. CLAY. I stand corrected; I was only imagining what you
would have said if you had been there. Then there stood the
senator from Georgia [Mr. CUTHBERT], conning over in his mind
on what point he should make his next attack upon the senator
from Kentucky. On yonder ottoman reclined the other senator
from Missouri on my left [Mr. LINN], indulging, with smiles
on his face, in pleasing meditations on the rise, growth, and
future power of his new colony of Oregon. The honorable senator
from Pennsylvania [Mr. BUCHANAN], I presume, stood forward as
spokesman for his whole party; and, although I cannot pretend to
imitate his well-known eloquence, I beg leave to make an humble
essay towards what I presume to have been the kind of speech
delivered by him on that august occasion:

"May it please your Excellency: A number of your present
political friends, late your political opponents, in company
with myself, have come to deposit at your Excellency's feet the
evidences of our loyalty and devotion; and they have done me the
honor to make me the organ of their sentiments and feelings.
We are here more particularly to present to your Excellency
our grateful and most cordial congratulations on your rescue
of the country from a flagrant and alarming violation of the
constitution, by the creation of a Bank of the United States;
and also our profound acknowledgments for the veto, by which
you have illustrated the wisdom of your administration, and so
greatly honored yourself. And we would dwell particularly on
the unanswerable reasons and cogent arguments with which the
notification of the act to the legislature had been accompanied.
We had been, ourselves, struggling for days and weeks to arrest
the passage of the bill, and to prevent the creation of the
monster to which it gives birth. We had expended all our logic,
exerted all our ability, employed all our eloquence; but in
spite of all our utmost efforts, the friends of your Excellency
in the Senate and House of Representatives proved too strong for
us. And we have now come most heartily to thank your Excellency,
that you have accomplished for us that against your friends,
which we, with our most strenuous exertions, were unable to
achieve."

After this pleasant impersonation of the Pennsylvania senator, Mr. Clay went on with his own remarks.

"I hope the senator will view with indulgence this effort to
represent him, although I am but too sensible how far it falls
short of the merits of the original. At all events he will
feel that there is not a greater error than was committed by
the stenographer of the Intelligencer the other day, when he
put into my mouth a part of the honorable senator's speech. I
hope the honorable senators on the other side of the chamber
will pardon me for having conceived it possible that, amidst
the popping of champagne, the intoxication of their joy, the
ecstasy of their glorification, they might have been the parties
who created a disturbance, of which they never could have been
guilty had they waited for their '_sober second thoughts_.'
I have no doubt the very learned ex-Secretary of the Treasury,
who conducted that department with such distinguished ability,
and such happy results to the country, and who now has such a
profound abhorrence of all the taxes on tea and coffee, though,
in his own official reports, he so distinctly recommended them,
would, if appointed chairman of the committee, have conducted
the investigation with that industry which so eminently
distinguishes him; and would have favored the Senate with a
report, marked with all his accustomed precision and ability,
and with the most perfect lucid clearness."

Mr. Buchanan, who had been made the principal figure in Mr. Clay's imaginary scene, took his satisfaction on the spot, and balanced the account by the description of another night scene, at the east end of the avenue, not entirely imaginary if Dame Rumor may be credited on one side of the question, as well as on the other. He said:

"The honorable senator has, with great power of humor, and much
felicity of description, drawn for us a picture of the scene
which he supposes to have been presented at the President's
house on the ever-memorable evening of the veto. It was a happy
effort; but, unfortunately, it was but a fancy sketch--at least
so far as I am concerned. I was not there at all upon the
occasion. But, I ask, what scenes were enacted on that eventful
night at this end of the avenue? The senator would have no cause
to complain if I should attempt, in humble imitation of him,
to present a picture, true to the life, of the proceedings of
himself and his friends. Amidst the dark and lowering clouds of
that never-to-be-forgotten night, a caucus assembled in one of
the apartments of this gloomy building, and sat in melancholy
conclave, deploring the unhappy fate of the whig party. Some
rose, and advocated vengeance; 'their voice was still for war.'
Others, more moderate, sought to repress the ardent zeal of
their fiery compatriots, and advised to peace and prudence.
It was finally concluded that, instead of making open war
upon Captain Tyler, they should resort to stratagem, and, in
the elegant language of one of their number, that they should
endeavor 'to head' him. The question was earnestly debated by
what means they could best accomplish this purpose; and it was
resolved to try the effect of the 'Fiscality' now before us.
Unfortunately for the success of the scheme, 'Captain Tyler' was
forewarned and forearmed, by means of a private and confidential
letter, addressed by mistake to a Virginia coffee-house. It is
by means like this that 'enterprises of great pith and moment'
often fail. But so desperately intent are the whig party still
on the creation of a bank, that one of my friends on this side
of the House told me that a bank they would have, though its
exchanges should be made in bacon hams, and its currency be
small patatoes."

Other senators took the imaginary scene, in which they had been made to act parts, in perfect good temper; and thus the debate on the first Fiscal Bank charter was brought to a conclusion with more amicability than it had been conducted with.

In the course of the consideration of this bill in the Senate, a vote took place which showed to what degree the belief of corrupt practices between the old bank and members of Congress had taken place. A motion was made by Mr. Walker to amend the Fiscal Bank bill so as to prevent any member of Congress from borrowing money from that institution. The motion was resisted by Mr. Clay, and supported by democratic senators on the grounds of the corruptions already practised, and of which repetitions might be expected. Mr. Pierce, of New Hampshire, spoke most fully in favor of the motion, and said:

"It was idle--if it were not offensive, he would say absurd--for
gentlemen to discourse here upon the _incorruptibility_ of
members of Congress. They were like other men--and no better,
he believed no worse. They were subject to like passions,
influenced by like motives, and capable of being reached by
similar _appliances_. History affirmed it. The experience of
past years afforded humiliating evidence of the fact. Were
we wiser than our fathers? Wiser than the most sagacious and
patriotic assemblage of men that the world ever saw? Wiser
than the framers of the constitution? What protection did they
provide for the country against the _corruptibility_ of members
of Congress? Why, that no member should hold any office, however
humble, which should be created, or the emoluments of which
should be increased, during his term of service. How could
the influence of a petty office be compared with that of the
large _bank accommodations_ which had been granted and would be
granted again? And yet they were to be told, that in proposing
this guard for the whole people, they were fixing an ignominious
brand upon themselves and their associates. It seemed to him,
that such remarks could hardly be serious; but whether sincere
or otherwise, they were not legislating for themselves--not
legislating for _individuals_--and he felt no apprehension
that the mass, whose rights and interests were involved, would
consider themselves aggrieved by such a _brand_.

"The senator from Pennsylvania [Mr. BUCHANAN] while pressing
his unanswerable argument in favor of the provision, remarked,
that should this bill become a law, no member of Congress
'having a proper sense of delicacy and honor,' with the
question of _repeal_ before him, could accept a loan from the
Bank. That question of 'delicacy and honor' was one to which
he (Mr. P.) did not choose now to address himself. He would,
however, be guided by the light of experience, and he would
take leave to say, that that light made the path before him,
upon this proposition, perfectly luminous. By no vote of his
should a provision be stricken from this bill, the omission
of which would tend to establish a corrupt and corrupting
influence--secret and intangible--in the very bosom of the two
Houses whose province and duty it would be to pass upon that
great question of _repeal_. What had taken place was liable to
occur again. Those who were now here and those who would succeed
to their places, were not more virtuous, not more secure from
the approach of venality, not more elevated above the influence
of _certain appliances_, than their predecessors. Well, what did
history teach in relation to the course of members of Congress
during that most extraordinary struggle between the Bank and the
people for supremacy, which convulsed the whole continent from
1831 to 1834?

"He rose chiefly to advert to that page of history, and whether
noticed here or not, it would be noticed by his constituents,
who, with their children, had an infinitely higher stake in this
absorbing question than members of Congress, politicians, or
bankers.

"He read from the bank report presented to the Senate in
1834, by the present President of the United States, 'Senate
Documents, second session, twenty-third Congress,' p. 320.
From that document it appeared that in 1831 there was loaned
to fifty-nine members of Congress, the sum of three hundred
and twenty-two thousand one hundred and ninety-nine dollars.
In 1832, the year when the bank charter was arrested by the
veto of that stern old man who occupied the house and hearts
of his countrymen, there was loaned to fifty-four members of
Congress, the sum of four hundred and seventy-eight thousand and
sixty-nine dollars. In 1833, the memorable panic year, there was
loaned to fifty-eight members, three hundred and seventy-four
thousand seven hundred and sixty-six dollars. In 1834, hope
began to decline with the Bank, and so, also, did its line of
discounts to members of Congress; but even in that year the loan
to fifty-two members amounted to two hundred and thirty-eight
thousand five hundred and eighty-six dollars.

"Thus in four years of unparalleled political excitement,
growing out of a struggle with the people for the mastery,
did that institution grant accommodations to two hundred and
twenty-three of the people's representatives, amounting to the
vast sum of one million four hundred and thirteen thousand six
hundred and twenty dollars. He presented no argument on these
facts. He would regard it not merely as supererogation, but an
insult to the intelligence of his countrymen. A tribunal of
higher authority than the executive and Congress combined, would
pass upon the question of 'delicacy and honor,' started by the
senator from Pennsylvania, and it would also decide whether in
the bank to loan was dangerous or otherwise. He indulged no
fears as to the decision of the tribunal in the last resort--the
sovereign people."

Mr. Clay remarked that the greater part of these loans were made to members opposed to the bank. Mr. Buchanan answered, no doubt of that. A significant smile went through the chamber, with inquiries whether any one had remained opposed? The yeas and nays were called upon the question--and it was carried; the two Virginia senators, Messrs. Archer and Rives, and Mr. Preston, a Virginian by birth, voting with the democracy, and making the vote 25 yeas to 24 nays. The yeas were: Messrs. Allen, Archer, Benton, Buchanan, Calhoun, Clay of Alabama, Cuthbert, Fulton, King, Linn, McRoberts, Mouton, Nicholson, Pierce, Preston, Rives, Sevier, Smith of Connecticut, Sturgeon, Tappan, Walker, Williams, Woodbury, Wright and Young. The nays were: Messrs. Barrow, Bates, Berrien, Choate, Clay of Kentucky, Clayton, Dixon, Evans, Graham, Henderson, Huntingdon, Leeds Kerr, Mangum, Merrick, Miller, Morehead, Phelps, Porter, Simmons, Smith of Indiana, Southard, Tallmadge, White, Woodbridge. This vote, after the grounds on which the question was put, was considered an explicit senatorial condemnation of the bank for corrupt practices with members of Congress.