DUANE 
 Letters, addressed to the 
 people of the United States, 
 in vindication of his conduct
 
 ft . 
 
 L.ETTERS, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 THE PEOPLE OF THE UIWTED STATES, 
 
 nr VINDICATION OF HIS CONDrCT, 
 
 BT 
 
 Wm. J. DUAWE, 
 
 LATK SECHETAKT OF THE TREASUUT. 
 
 1§34.
 
 •' Euiherus replied, ' I should find it very difficult to submit to be a slave.' 
 ' ' Yet,' said Socrates, • the magistrates in republics, and all that are in employ- 
 
 • * ments, are not therefore reputed slaves : on the contrary they are esteemed 
 ' ' honourable.' ' Be it how it will,' said Eutherus, • I can never bring my mind 
 ' 'to suffer that another man should blame me.' 'And yet,' said Socrates, 
 ' • you would be very much puzzled to find any one action, whose every cir- 
 ' * cumstance was exempt from blame. For it is very difficult to be so exact as 
 ' • not to fail sometimes, and even though we should not have failed, it is hard 
 ' ' to escape the censure of bad judges : And I should very much wonder if in 
 ' ' what you now do, no man should find any thing amiss. What you are, there- 
 ' ' fore, to observe is, to avoid those who make it their business to find fault 
 
 * ' without reason, and to have to do with more equitable persons.' " 
 
 " The Memorable Things of Socrates." — Book II. p. 85. 
 
 f
 
 TO 
 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE U]¥ITED STATES. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens ; 
 
 When I was rudely thrust from office, on the 23d of Sep- 
 tember last, I resolved, for the reasons stated in my letter to 
 Governor Tazewell, to rest upon my acts as an officer and my 
 reputation as a man, unless the one should be misrepresented, or 
 the other assailed. And in order that the responsibility of any 
 disclosure of past occurrences should rest upon the President, 
 I notified him, ere I left Washington, on the 27th of September 
 last, that I should hold him accountable for the malconduct of 
 the publisher of his official paper ; and that, as the public repu- 
 tation usually suffered in conllicts between the chief magistrate 
 and e>f-ministers, 1 would avoid a controversy, and only repel 
 assaults which he should sanction. 
 
 So little effisct had this suggestion, and so necessary did it ap- 
 pear to the President to prevent sympathy for me, which would 
 be censure upon himself, that the official paper continued, after 
 my retirement to private life, td circulate the most flagitious im- 
 putations upon my character : and j'et, when the Presiilent saw, 
 in a public pVint, an extract from one of my private letters, pub- 
 lished without my consent, and containing nothing but the truth, 
 he affected to be very much oifended ; and, instead of directing 
 
 A
 
 4 
 •i ( 2 ) 
 
 a refutation of what I had said, he broke the seals that closed 
 the cabinet and our correspondence, in order to sustain a false 
 and malignant attack upon me on the 19th of November last. 
 
 It was necessary to notice this ; but, even on that occasion, I 
 did not become an assailant ; nor did I invite the people to look 
 upon the stage, much less behind the scenes, where their dearest 
 rights and interests are sported with by incognito performers. 
 On the contrary, I merely published a brief defensive address, 
 so little indicative of resentment, that it was pronounced, even 
 by dispassionate men, as reprehensibly mild. - ^ 
 
 Several grave questions, connected with my case, nave long 
 been discussed, not only in congress, but throughout the coun- 
 try. The instructions given to the President's agent for making 
 inquiries as to state banks, are before the senate of the United 
 States; and in my own defence, I ought to give some explanation 
 respecting them. Doubts have been expressed on the floor of that 
 body, whether there had been due foresight and warning as to 
 the evils that now exist ; and it is due to myself at least, that I 
 should show, that in this respect, as well as in others, I did my 
 duty. In September last, the President appealed to the people, by 
 publishing his reasons for directing a removal of the public de- 
 posites; and as soon as congress assembled, my successor in the 
 treasury department presented a statement in relation to his 
 agency in removing them. It seems, therefore, to be a duty to 
 myself, if not to the public, to present, in detail, my reasons for 
 resisting the President; and, at least his friends cannot complain 
 of my appealing to the people, since in doing so I barely imitate 
 his own example. 
 
 If I had heretofore felt any doubts of the propriety of address- 
 ing you, they would be now removed. My correspondence and 
 conversations with the President were again misrepresented in 
 his official paper of the 7th instant ; and, at the same time vile 
 aspersions, palpably sanctioned by him, were again cast upon 
 my reputation. So that, even if no obligation of a public nature 
 required some explanaj^ion now, it is demanded and justified by 
 this new display of vindictiveness. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances some of my fellow-citizens 
 might, perhaps with propriety, censure any exhibition of docu- 
 ments, or exposition offsets on my part; but, I trust, that they 
 will now reflect, that it is in self defence I resort to the course 
 pursued by the President himself; and that I have preserved 
 
 ^
 
 #•?. 
 
 ( 3 ) ^^ 
 
 silence for nearly five months, amidst invitations and even taunts 
 on one side, and a slanderous persecution on th&,other. # 
 
 Without saying, therefore, at the outset, how far I may go, I 
 consider myself released from all impediments, but those, which 
 a sense of duty to the public and respect for myself may impose. 
 
 ^ 
 
 n 
 
 Although personally unacquainted with General Jackson until 
 1829, I ardently supported him as a canclidate for the Presi- 
 dency as early as 1823. I thought that fi^f country owed him 
 a large debt of gratitude ; that it would be useful to our institu- 
 tions, to have in the executive chair a person unaccustomed to 
 intrigues, but too prevalent at the seat of government; and that 
 he, who had given such sound advice to Mr. Monroe, whilst 
 President, would never contradict in practice himself, what he 
 had then declared to be the only patriotic and, honourable course 
 of the chief magistrate of a free and enlightened people. 
 
 In 1828, I renewed my exertions in his favour, at no little sa- 
 crifice of personal friendship and pecuniary interest, and, when 
 he was successful, I heartily rejoiced ; but, I confess, that as soon 
 as I saw some former professions contradicted by subsequent 
 practice, I felt sincere regret. I respected the President's in- 
 tentions, and flattered myself that he would return to the path, 
 from which he might have incautiously wandered. I was not, 
 however, a partisan ; General Jackson, now in power, did not 
 need aid from me. Men, who had stood in the ranks of his op- 
 ponents when I advocated him, passed over to his side when 
 he won "the spoils of victory," and got no inconsiderable por- 
 tion of them. As to myself personally, I desired to partake of the 
 fruits of the triumph, only as a member of the great family of the 
 people. 
 
 It was not to be expected, that I should cease to support the 
 general course of the President, because he erred, as I believed, 
 in various instances ; much less, that I should cease to be a member 
 of a party, to which I had always belonged, because its favourite 
 had not redeemed all his pledges. Accordingly, I sustained such of 
 his measures as were consistent with the fundamental principles 
 of the old republican party ; and, without considering who advo- 
 cated, I censured such as were at variance with them. And as 
 on the subject of the Bank of the Uuited States more than on any 
 other, I have been grossly slandered, with the sanction of the P e-
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 sident, I will add, that I have invariably opposed that institution, 
 atff. still do so. Whether wisely or not, I adhere to the doctrine 
 of the Virginia school as to a national bank ; and it is quite as ar- 
 bitrary to condemn my independent exercise of judgment on this 
 point, as it was in the President to expect me to change at will 
 my convictions in relation to the public deposites, or to accept 
 his reasons for doing an act, which my own judgment condemned. 
 
 Whilst alluding to this subject, I will take occasion to repel 
 the vile imputations of the official paper, in relation to my mo- 
 tives for resisting a removal of the deposites. Under the Presi- 
 dent's sanction, it has been insinuated, that my course was dic- 
 tated by a corrupt understanding with the Bank of the United 
 States; and, in the official paper of the 15th instant, I am even 
 called "the emissary of the bank." 
 
 Without any desire for office on my part, I had been called to 
 a high station. The selection was generally approved of; and 
 yet in less than four months, I was contumeliously removed. To 
 excuse this act of outrage, became a matter of much consequence. 
 Sympathy for me would be condemnation of my oppressor ; and, 
 therefore, the official paper sought to infuse into the public mind 
 suspicions as to my purity — suspicions, which found a ready re- 
 ception on the part of men, who, being base themselves, natural- 
 ly supposed, that I could not have made a sacrifice of office under 
 the public, without an equivalent elsewhere. 
 
 In the community of which I am a member, there are many 
 devoted friends of the President who disagree with me ; but I 
 think, there is not one, who believes the insinuations of the offi- 
 cial paper to have any foundation. So far, therefore, as my im- 
 mediate fellow-citizens are concerned, I might with propriety 
 treat these derogatory imputations with silent contempt. But, 
 beyond this community I am not generally known, and hence 
 it may be expected by my fellow-citizens at large, that I should 
 notice them ; and I feel the less disinclination to do so, since 
 distinguished senators have condescended in their places to repel 
 similar imputations. Accordingly, I pronounce each and every 
 assertion or insinuation of the official paper, imputing corrupt 
 or improper motives to me for resisting a removal of the depo- 
 sites, to be false, foul, and malignant. Further, I aver, that there 
 is not even a colourable pretext or apology for any of the impu- 
 tations cast upon me. I have never, directly or indirectly, re- 
 ceived, nor have I ever had the promise or expectation of re- 
 

 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 celving, any loan, fee, gilt, benefit, favour, consideration, or 
 other advantage whataoever from tiie Bank of the United States, 
 or from any of its officers. I have never been jDresently nor 
 contingently responsible to it, nor to any of its officers. 1 have 
 had no direct or indirect correspondence or communication with 
 the bank, nor with any officer thereof, with the exception of let- 
 ters on file in the treasury department, and with the exception also 
 of a single letter, received from tlfe president of the bank, en- 
 closing to me, as a friend of the late Mr. Girard, his oration on 
 the occasion of laying the corner stone of tlJ$.^Girard College, 
 on the 4tli of July last ; to which letter I merely gave such a 
 reply as courtesy calls for on like occasions. Fur from desiring 
 to favour the bank, I have at all proper times avowed and 
 maintained my opposition to it. And, if any words can express 
 more fully and emphatically my absolute freedom from all design 
 to favour the bank, I desire that they may be considered as 
 used. I believed that the bank was entitled to tKe deposites ac- 
 cording to solemn contract ; I believed that it had a right to 
 them, unless the secretary of the treasury could give satisfactory 
 reasons to congress for removing them. As secretary of the trea- 
 sury I could not give reasons satisfactory to myself. I believed 
 that the act of removing the deposites would be unnecessary, 
 unwise, vindictive, arbitrar}-, and unjust ; and although opposed 
 to the bank, 1 would not consent to be made an instrument to 
 effect any such scheme, as that which was proposed. Therefore, 
 laying aside, as I was bound to do, my personal prepossessions 
 as a man, I acted solely from considerations, which I dared not 
 to disregard as an officer. 
 
 It must be manifest, from the conduct of the President, that it 
 would give him pleasure, if he could exhibit a shadow of pruof 
 of the charges of corruption insinuated against me. I according- 
 ly invite and defy him, and all those vviio may desire to gratify 
 his vindictiveness, or their own passions, to point out any act on 
 my part, which can sustain the infamous imputations of collu- 
 sion, corrupt understanding, or even concert of action in tlie 
 slightest particular, with the United States Bank. 
 
 \V. J. DUANE. 
 February 17, 1834. 

 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens ; 
 
 In my first letter, I apologized for appearing before you, 
 showed that I had been the early and steadfast friend of General 
 Jackson, pointed out the motive for the persecution directed 
 against me which he now sanctions, and defied him and his adher- 
 ents to prove any of their foul imputations. 
 
 Even when oppressed in September last, it will be seen, on 
 reference to my letters of the 21st of that month, heretofore pub- 
 lished, that I did not attribute the conduct of the President to 
 any malignant motive. I then considered him the mere instru- 
 ment of men around him w-ho were unworthy of his confidence ; 
 and believed that he had become the executioner of their ven- 
 geance against all who checked their rapacity. But I confess, that, 
 whilst 1 still believe the President to be ruled by extraneous in- 
 fluences operating on his passions, it is difficult charitably to ap- 
 count for his silence, whilst before his eyes acts are deliberately 
 executed, which are at variance with truth, justice, and charity. 
 
 What can be a more serious charge, than to say, that, under 
 the mask of friendship, I entered the cabinet to thwart the Pre- 
 sident, and favour an institution, which I professed to oppose ? 
 Yet serious as this imputation is, it is sanctioned by the chief 
 magistrate! It is sanctioned in opposition to all facts, nay, in 
 contradiction to his declarations made to me in writing as well as 
 personally, up to the last moments of our separation ! 
 
 To sustain so grave a charge, proof should have been given ; 
 but all that is said to sustain it is, that I resisted the removal of 
 the deposites, and that, in a letter, published at New Orleans, I 
 expressed such sentiments, as showed that 1 had been " indoctri- 
 nated with all the hostility of the bank opposition." My reasons 
 for resisting the removal of the deposites will be given in a future 
 letter, when the public will be able to judge how far that re- 
 sistance sustains the vile imputation which I am now considering. 
 At present I shall refer to the second pretext only for this ca- 
 lumny. iHj 
 
 To a letter from a friend at New Orleans, I wrote a reply in 
 October last, which I regretted to see published without my con-
 
 u 
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 sent. From that reply the official paper of tlie 20th of December 
 last made this quotation : 
 
 << It is but too obvious, either that we misunderstood the (jua- 
 lities of General Jackson's head, or else he has been wonderfully 
 altered. On all the cardinal questions agitated, he has failed to 
 be consistent : he promised purity in selections for office, yet few 
 have been purely made : he professed to be a friend to domestic 
 industry, yet he has done more than any body else to prostrate 
 it : he advocated a national government bank, and yet affects to 
 dread a monied aristocracy: he complained of the corruption of 
 one bank, and yet takes forty or fifty irresponsible paper-circu- 
 lating banks under the national wing: he has been for, and 
 against, internal improvement: he denounced nullification, yet 
 he has been of late unsaying all that he had said in his procla- 
 mation. In sliort, I do not believe, he ever had fixed principles, 
 r ever arrived at any result by the exercise of the mind; im- 
 fpulses and passions have ruled.^^ 
 
 The sketch here presented was drawn after my retirement to 
 private life, and consequently after I had availed myself of an 
 opportunity, not before enjoyed, of closely examining the original. 
 When I became one of the President's advisers, it was my duty 
 to study his moral and intellectual qualities, as well as his poli- 
 tical principles and views; and to this end, I exerted such powers 
 of discrimination as I possessed. The result was a conviction, 
 either that, in the portraits which I had drawn, to gain popular 
 approbation, in 1823 and 1828, I had flattered General Jackson, 
 owing to my having had before me outlines only, taken by his 
 intimate friends ; or else that his features had been of kte greatly 
 altered under the influence of pride and power. I naturally stated, 
 in a private letter to a friend, the result of my observations, espe- 
 cially as that friend like myself had been originally a great ad- 
 mirer of General Jackson ; and I am sure, it grieved him to hear, 
 as it did me to have occasion to communicate, what contradicted 
 so many of our fond anticipations. 
 
 The prominent characteristics of General Jackson, according 
 to my representations in 1823 and 1828, were purity of purpose, 
 and steadiness in execution. Hut, in 1833, I became satisfied, 
 that his principles, even on cardinal points, were not fixed; that 
 purposes were created for him, the true nature of which was con- 
 cealed by artful management ; and that, in carrying them into exe- 
 cution, impulse and passion impressed a character of obstinacy on
 
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 his conduct, which, under the exercise of the mind, would have 
 been steadiness in execution. 
 
 It is true, that, before my entrance into office, I Avas aware 
 that the President had been imposed upon in relation to some ap- 
 pointments. 1 also knew that he had been unsteady in his course as 
 to domestic industry, internal improvement, and a national bank. 
 But, what was my duty, when the President invited me, as his 
 friend, to become one of his advisers? If I could reconcile the 
 acceptance of office with the doubts which I felt as to my ability, 
 and with private obligations, I considered it my duty to do so, in 
 the hope that I might render some service, by striving to recon- 
 cile his practice with former profession ; by trying to persuade 
 him to abandon a vacillating course as to manufactures, since 
 nothing could be more pernicious to this interest than uncertainty 
 in legislation ; and by urging him to adhere to a strict interpreta- 
 tion of the constitution, instead of wandering in the mazes of con- 
 struction, in relation to the United States Bank, or other disputed 
 subjects. 
 
 Such are the remarks which I consider myself called upon to 
 make, in relation to one of the pretexts for the aspersion, that I 
 entered the President's cabinet to thwart him. But, fest any 
 doubt should exist on your minds as to my disinterestedness or 
 to the manner in which the appointment of secretary of the trea- 
 sury was conferred on me, I think it proper to make you ac- 
 quainted with the following details bearing on these points. 
 
 Although 1 never directly or indirectly asked any personal 
 favour from the President, I do him the justice to say, that he 
 manifested desire on several occasions to promote what he doubt- 
 less considered my advancement. With the advice and consent 
 of the senate, he appointed me a director of the Bank of the 
 United States, but I declined the trust. He afterwards tendered 
 me the office of attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, 
 which I also refused. Without my knowledge, he appointed me, 
 with the concurrence of the senate, a commissioner under the con- 
 vention with Denmark ; and, when I hesitated to accept, he press- 
 ed the trust upon me, on the ground that my acceptance would be 
 a duty to the public, and a relief to himself from embarrassment. 
 
 Before I had executed the duty under the convention with 
 Denmark, I was, on the 4th December 1S32, unexpectedly in- 
 vited to accept the office of secretary of the treasury. And lest 
 any representation of the circumstances, attending the offer, 
 
 I
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 should be open to cavil on that account, I shall not trust to my 
 memory, hut present the following statement extracted from a 
 confidential letter, which I wrote on the 5th of December 1832. 
 Extracts. "The President has in a formal, kind, and pressing 
 manner asked me to accept a seat in his cabinet. I confess, I was 
 surprised, and not only surprised but distressed : but it is best, 
 whilst the incidents are all fresh in my memory, that I should 
 give you a sketch. A member of the cabinet said — * ^Ir. Duane, 
 I have been particularly desired by the President to seek this 
 interview with you, on matters of much consequence, not only 
 to himself, but to the country. The President has for some time 
 past meditated a change in his cabinet: it has been deferred until 
 after the termination of the elections in the states; and, as they 
 are now over, the proposed change is urged anevv. The present 
 secretary of state is to go to France ; the present secretary of the 
 treasury is to take his place in the department of state; and the 
 question is, who is to go into the treasury? It is settled, that a 
 citizen of Pennsylvania is to be appointed ; the President and his 
 friends have sought in that state for a person in all respects com- 
 petent as an officer, and faithful as a friend. A list of names has 
 been looked at, and, after due inquiry, the President is decided- 
 ly convinced, that you. Sir, present the fairest claims to official 
 and personal consideration. You are of the old democratic party 
 of Pennsylvania, and have grown with its growth ; you are known 
 as a mild but unvarying friend of the great political principles, 
 which Pennsylvania cherishes. Your personal reputation, too, 
 gives you a moral influence, of the extent of which you arc not per- 
 haps yourself aware ; you were the early, and have been the stead- 
 fast friend of General Jackson, and should continue in every pro- 
 per way to sustain him whom you contributed to elevate. So sa- 
 tisffed, indeed, is the President, of your peculiar fitness for the 
 department, and of your being just such a person as he can poli- 
 tically as well as personally rely upon, that I cannot use too 
 strong terms, in describing his solicitude that you should not re- 
 fuse the station.' 
 
 " This is more brief than the reality, but pertectly correct. I 
 replied — 'I have listened, Sir, to what you have stated, with 
 surprise, and distress ; so that it cannot be supposed that I can 
 give a positive reply. I cannot express how gratified and proud 
 I am at this mark of confidence. If, however, I am now to give 
 utterance to what 1 feel, it is to ask the President to blot this 
 
 B
 
 ( 10 ) 
 
 matter from his mind. It is true that I have been and am sincere- 
 ly friendly to the President; that I possess the personal and 
 political confidence of many worthy men in Pennsj'lvania; 
 and that I have a strong inclination to do all in my power to 
 evince my principles and promote the welfare of the people. But 
 it is also true, that my abilities are over-rated ; that my influence 
 in Pennsylvania is more limited than is supposed, and that no 
 weight can be given, by my accession, to the administration. 
 Such an occasion as the present cannot be heedlessly regarded by 
 me, but all considerations united forbid me to assent. I have 
 through life sought the shade, and whenever I have been out of 
 it, it has not been from choice. I have always desired to tread on 
 the earth, lest in ascending even a single step of the political lad- 
 der, I should be obliged to resume my former place. Perhaps 
 this is morbid pride, but be it what it may, it has a powerful in- 
 fluence over me.' 
 
 "To this it was rejoined, — 'all you have said, Mr. Duane, 
 shows you have the merit, you deny yourself the possession of. 
 You have, by declining office on several occasions, omitted to 
 advance yourself. I am the President's friend and yours, and 
 am not the man to advocate any thing of a doubtful nature, by 
 which the public may be affected. Others are more competent 
 perhaps to judge of your qualifications than you are yourself. 
 Heretofore there have been difficulties ; there may be some at this 
 time, owing to excitement in the South ; but that will soon cease, 
 and in a few months you will be perfectly an fait as to all gene- 
 ral duties. As to your standing in Pennsylvania, we have infor- 
 mation to be relied on ; we believe your appointjnent would be 
 pleasing there, and the President desires to do what will gratify 
 that state. Apart from other considerations, the President's own 
 spontaneous preference of you is a compliment not to be over- 
 looked ; you will derive credit from it, where you are not known, 
 amongst all who respect the patriotism and pure intentions, as 
 well as tlie natural sagacity of the President. I am persuaded 
 that the appointment would be acceptable to many of the Presi- 
 dent's most distinguished friends. Indeed, the fact that he goes 
 to the people, and not to congress, to select, will give weight to 
 the choice. You will earn a high reputation in the office proposed ; 
 and the labours will be less burdensome than those to which you 
 have been accustomed,' &c. 
 
 "I then said 'that to tear up, as it were, by the roots, my 
 
 1
 
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 business in Philadelphia, on the uncertainty, or even certainty of 
 continuing in oirice here for four years, would be very impru- 
 dent; that changes of residence, associations, and expenditure, 
 were sound objections; that friends to me ought not to urge a 
 proceeding of so doubtful a character,' &c. 
 
 "To this it was replied — 'that every man owed something 
 to his country ; that even on the question of mere interest, the 
 change would be advantageous; that I might be certain of em- 
 ployment for four years, at six thousand dollars per year; that 
 the mode of living was that of a private gentleman in Philadel- 
 ])hia; that by identifying myself with General Jackson and his 
 friends, and making a sacrifice, if it was one, I established a claim 
 for continuance in this, or appointment to some other station/ 
 
 '* I closed by saying 'that, out of thankfulness and a desire 
 to make a return for such confidence, my heart urged me to say 
 "yes," but my head by no means assented; that it would be 
 rude as well as unkind to the President to decide at once, and 
 upon so sudden an appeal on so serious a subject; and that, there- 
 fore, I would reflect.'" 
 
 Such, fellow-citizens, is a brief but faithful representation of 
 the manner, in which I was invited to enter the cabinet. INIy 
 disinclination to take office as above expressed, remained unal- 
 tered. Valued friends, whom I consulted, exerted themselves to 
 induce me to serve; and, when I was called upon for a decision 
 on the 30th of January 1833, I reluctantly consented. When 
 my consent was given, the President, on the 1st of February, 
 caused his satisfaction to be expressed at my determination, and 
 his " wishes that it might confer a lasting benefit upon the coun- 
 try and myself." When I saw him in iSlarch, he reiterated what 
 had been before communicated to me, assuring me that he had 
 himself selected my name from the list before him. This declara- 
 tion he also made to several of our mutual friends, whom I might 
 name if needful, and who, I doubt not, when they see this letter, 
 will be mortified to find, that there should have arisen the least 
 necessity to sustain what never should have been brought in 
 question. But if any thing further is necessary to prove that the 
 President spontaneously selected me, I refer to his own letter to 
 me of the 17th of July last, in which he avows the fact, and 
 gives, amongst other reasons, for the selection, his desire to 
 elevate a name, which, although in an humble sphere, had earned 
 reputation in the eyes of the people. 
 
 i
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 Yet, in utter disregard of all these facts, the President had the 
 hardihood to assert, in his official paper of the 20th of December 
 last, that 1 "palmed myself or was palmed upon him." 
 
 W. J. DUANE. 
 February 19, 1834. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens ; 
 
 In my preceding letter, I have shown, that the President spon- 
 taneously elevated me to the station from which I was so soon 
 afterwards removed ; and that far from taking office to thwart 
 him, I sought to remain in the shade of private life. I have also 
 shown, that, rather than not gratify his vindictive feelings against 
 me, he is even content to be considered a dupe ; for he says that 
 I palmed myself, or was palmed upon him. It must be evident, 
 however, that if any one was imposed upon, I was that person. 
 I do not aver that I was imposed upon, much less have 1 a sus- 
 picion, that the member of the cabinet, referred to in my last 
 letter, did not state the reasons of the President for selecting me, 
 of which he had knowledge. Amongst those reasons, the views 
 or wishes of the President in relation to the United States 
 Bank were not enumerated ; nor was the subject ever referred 
 to in the letters or conversations, that passed between the mem- 
 ber of the cabinet and myself. In the official paper of the 19th 
 November last, however, it was avowed, that the President se- 
 lected me because he supposed I accorded with his views in re- 
 lation to the bank. So that the main motive for my selection, 
 was not before stated. I do not say, that the President concealed 
 his views, until after my entrance into office, in order to render 
 my accordance more certain, after I had made so serious a change 
 as that from private to public life ; I do not believe that he did ; 
 but I have much more reason to presume, that such was the case, 
 than the President has to suspect, that I entered into office on 
 purpose to thwart him. 
 
 Were I fully to admit, what the official paper alleges, that I 
 knew that the removal of the deposites was agitated ; that would 
 not affect the question between the President and me. If he had 
 asked my opinion, I would have concurred in the course, which 
 he was pursuing in December, 1833, namely, an appeal to con-
 
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 gress. It was the same course which I advocated whilst I was 
 in office, and which I offered to pursue myself. I could have 
 had no suspicion, however, that the President intended to aban- 
 don in future the very course which he had himself sanctioned. 
 All antecedent public acts, even the respect I then entertained for 
 him, forbade me to suppose, that he meant to anticipate the action 
 of congress, evade the judiciary, and trample on the law itself. 
 Thus, 1. In his veto message, he left the subject of the United 
 States Bank to the congress of 1S33-4. 2. When, during the last 
 congress, he doubted the safety of the public deposites In the 
 United States Bank, instead of taking upon himself the respon- 
 sibility of their removal, he appealed to congress. 3. His per- 
 sonal and political friend was appointed to inquire into the con- 
 dition of the bank, and on his report, the representatives of the 
 people, by a vote of 109 to 46, directed the public money to be 
 retained, where the law had placed it. 4. It is fair to infer that 
 the President himself was satisfied with this decision ; for he 
 soon after approved of an act of congress, authorising the secre- 
 tary of the treasury to lend to the United States Bank, or upon 
 its stock, several millions of dollars, trust money receivable from 
 France, for American citizens having claims upon that country. 
 
 Had I intuitive or prophetic skill ? Because banks and specu- 
 lators continued to agitate the deposite question, notwithstanding 
 the decision of congress, was I to suppose, that the President 
 would become their prey? Could I suspect, that they would be 
 able to persuade him to consider congress corruptible, and the 
 judiciary already contaminated ? Is it credible that I, who sought 
 to avoid office altogether, wilfully placed myself in sucli a posi- 
 tion, that my removal by the President for disobeying, or my 
 rejection by the senate for obeying, him, would have been in- 
 evitable? 
 
 When he thought proper to ask the written opinions of the 
 members of the cabinet, upon whom no responsibility would 
 rest; was it not due to me, then shortly to enter his cabinet, that 
 he should have frankly informed me that the removal of the de- 
 posites, before the meeting of the next congress, was definitively 
 fixed upon, and that I shonld be expected to do the act? Never- 
 theless, I had no sort of intimation that the opinions of the 
 members of the cabinet had been asked, or that, whether I ap- 
 proved of it or not, the task of removing the deposites would be 
 imposed upon me without inquiry by congress.
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
 When I entered upon my official duties, and found, much to 
 my surprise, that the measure was determined upon, and that I 
 would be expected to carry it into execution, my charitable con- 
 clusion was, that, as I really accorded with the President in op- 
 posing the United States Bank, he had no doubt of my readiness 
 to act on this point with him. He fancied, perhaps, that my hos- 
 tility was so unqualified, that I would be willing to assail that 
 institution after the manner of Indian warfare, and it was on this 
 point that all our difficulties arose. 
 
 When I went into office, I supposed that 1 was to be the agent 
 of the country, and not the mere instrument of the Chief Magis- 
 trate. I contemplated some changes which I hoped would be be- 
 neficial to the country, and felt indignant when I found that 
 measures were to be pressed upon me, useful only to those who 
 prey upon its vitals; an indignation, which, I confess, was in- 
 creased by the circumstance, that the duty prepared for me was 
 announced, not by those who had been selected by the President 
 as most worthy to be his constitutional advisers, but by irrespon- 
 sible persons, who possessed the confidence, if not the places, 
 properly belonging to them. 
 
 I wish that it may be here borne in mind, that, 
 
 notwithstanding the occurrences connected with my removal 
 from office, I actually desired to avoid even complaint. I regard- 
 ed the President as the victim of unworthy influences and un- 
 happy passions ; and therefore, as well as on the public account, 
 I was desirous of preventing any angry public discussion, or any 
 exhibition of my official relations with the President. To this 
 end I wrote a letter to the President's secretary, on the 27th of 
 September, complaining of the course of the official paper in re- 
 lation to me. In this letter, I say, "I do not deprecate such a 
 course for my own sake ; if it is desirable that our relations should 
 be placed before the public eye, I am ready. But it seems to me 
 that, in such conflicts, the public reputation suflers, and that in- 
 jury and insult have been administered to me in such quantity 
 as to demand no further aid of that kind," &c. Nothwithstand- 
 ing this appeal, it will be found, on reference to the file of the of- 
 ficial paper, that vile insinuations were subsequently made re- 
 specting my motives for resisting the President. Yet out of re- 
 .spect for our institutions I forbore to repel imputations upon my 
 character for nearly five months ; and if I shall now mention any 
 facts, which, under ordinary circumstances, it might be improper
 
 ( 15 ) 
 
 to state, I hope it will be remembered, that 1 do so, nut under 
 the influence of resentment, but in self-defence. Parts of my 
 correspondence and conversations have been used, in order to in- 
 fuse foul suspicions respecting nie; and I now barely show that 
 I am not the only accused or suspected person ; but that I share 
 the fate of all who will not sacrifice their principles, not at the 
 feet of the President, but at those of men who govern the coun- 
 try through the instrumentality of his passions and prejudices. 
 
 My commission bore the date of May 29, 1833, 
 
 and on the 30th I reached Washington. After waiting upon the 
 President, on the next day, I went to the treasury department, 
 and took the oath of office on the 1st of June. On the evening 
 of that day, Mr. Reuben M. Whitney called upon me at my 
 lodgings, at the desire, as he said, of the President, to make 
 known to me what had been done, and what was contemplated, in 
 relation to the United States Bank. He stated, that the President 
 had concluded to take upon himself the responsibility of direct- 
 ing the secretary of the treasury to remove the public deposites 
 from that bank, and to transfer them to state banks; that he had 
 asked the members of the cabinet to give him their opinions on 
 the subject; that the President had said, " Mr. Taney and Mr. 
 Barry had come out like men for the removal ;" that Mr. M'Lane 
 had given a long opinion against it; that jNIr. Cass was supposed 
 to be against it, but had given no written opinion; and that Mr. 
 Woodbury* had given an opinion which was "yes" and "no;" 
 that the President would make the act his own by addressing a 
 paper or order to the secretary of the treasury ; that JMr. Amos 
 Kendall, who was high in the President's confidence, was now 
 preparing that paper; that there had been delay owing to the 
 affair at Alexandria; but, no doubt, the President would soon 
 speak to me on the subject ; tiiat the paper referred to, would be 
 put forth as the Proclamation had been, and would be made a 
 rallying point; that he (Mr. Whitney) had, at the desire of the 
 President, drawn up a memoir or exposition, showing that the 
 measure might be safely adopted, and that the state banks would 
 be fully adequate to all the purposes of government. He then 
 read the exposition to me, antl as I desired to understand mat- 
 ters so important and so singularly presented, I asked him to 
 
 • It is due to this gentleman to state, that 1 subsequently learned, he was op- 
 posed to a removal prior to July, 1834, and was for only a gradual cliaiigc aflei-- 
 wards.
 
 ( 16 ) 
 
 leave the paper with me, which he accordingly did. He also 
 read to me divers letters from individuals connected with state 
 banks. The drift of his further observations was to satisfy me 
 that the executive arm alone could be relied on to prevent a re- 
 newal of the United States Bank charter. 
 
 The communication thus made to me created surprise and mor- 
 tification. I was surprised at the position of affairs which it re- 
 vealed, and mortified at the low estimate which had been formed 
 of the independence of my character. I listened, however, re- 
 spectfully to one who gave such evidence of the confidence re- 
 posed in him, and awaited the explanation which he intimated 
 the President would give. 
 
 Soon after this interview I took occasion to express my mor- 
 tification at my position, to the member of the cabinet, who had 
 represented the President in asking me to accept office. 
 
 On the next evening (Sunday) Mr. Whitney again called on 
 me in company with a stranger, whom he introduced as Mr. 
 Amos Kendall, a gentleman in the President's confidence, who 
 would give me any further explanations that I might desire, as to 
 what was meditated in relation to the United States Bank, and 
 who then called on me because he was about to proceed forthwith 
 to Baltimore. I did not invite nor check communication. Very 
 little was said, and perhaps because I could not wholly conceal 
 my mortification at an attempt, apparently made with the sanction 
 of the President, to reduce me to a mere cypher in the adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 The next morning, June 3d, I waited upon the President, and, 
 as I had been apprized by Mr. Whitney would be the case, he 
 soon introduced the subject of the bank. I stated that Mr. Whit- 
 ney had made known to me what had been done, and what was 
 intended, and had intimated that his communication was made 
 at the President's desire. The President replied, in a tone of 
 dissatisfaction, that it was true he had conferred with Mr. Whit- 
 ney, and obtained information from him as to the bank, but that he 
 did not make him his confidant, nor had he told him to call on me. 
 I enumerated the representations which Mr. Whitney had made, 
 and their correctness was admitted. I said I feared that I should 
 not be able to see the subject in the light in which the President 
 viewed it; to which he remarked that he liked frankness, that 
 my predecessor and himself had sometimes differed in opinion, 
 but it had made no difference in feeling, and should not in my
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
 case ; that the matter under consideration was of vast consequence 
 to the country ; that unless the bank was broken down, it would 
 break us down ; that if the last congress had remained a week 
 longer in session, two-thirds would have been secured for the bank 
 by corrupt means ; and that the like result might be apprehended 
 at the next congress; that such a state bank agency must be put 
 in operation, before the meeting of congress, as would show that 
 the United States Bank was not necessary, and thus some mem- 
 bers would have no excuse for voting for it. My suggestions as 
 to an inquiry by congress, as in December, 1832, or a recourse 
 to the judiciary, the President repelled, saying it would be idle 
 to rely upon either; referring, as to the judiciary, to decisions 
 already made, as indications of what would be the effect of an 
 appeal to tliem in future. After mentioning, that he would speak 
 to me again, before he departed for the eastward, he said he meant 
 to take the opinions of the members of the cabinet with him, 
 but would send them to me from New York, together with his 
 vieivSf and would expect me, on his return, to give him my sen- 
 timents frankly and fully. 
 
 On the 5th of June, I had a brief conversation with the Presi- 
 dent, in the course of which, as at all other times, I do him the 
 justice to say, he emphatically declared that his views were al- 
 together public spirited. He concluded by saying, "remember, 
 I do not wish any body to conceal his sentiments ; I give you my 
 views, you give yours; all I ask is that you will reflect with a 
 view to the public good." 
 
 The President left Washington on the 6th of June. During 
 his absence, further circumstances came to my knowledge, which 
 induced me to believe, that the removal of the dcposites was 
 not advocated with any view to public utility, but urged to ac- 
 complish selfish, if not factious purposes. 1 sought no inter- 
 course with those, who, I felt satisfied, had an undue influence 
 over the President, at least in relation to the grave questions 
 connected with the removal of the deposites. Whenever any of 
 them called on me, there was no hesitation in urging me to ac- 
 cord in the proposed measure. It was contended that the re- 
 moval of the depositcs would be made a rallying point at the 
 opening of congress, or a flag up for the new members. When- 
 ever I urged a recourse, in the first instance, to congress, or the 
 judiciary, such a step was scouted, and delay represented as ha- 
 zardous.
 
 ( 18 ) 
 
 I had heard rumours of the existence of an influence at Wash- 
 ington, unknown to the constitution. The conviction, that such 
 an influence existed, at least in relation to the matters then press- 
 ed upon me, was irresistible. I knew that four of the six mem- 
 bers of the cabinet, before I became a member of it, had been 
 opposed to any present action in relation to the deposites ; and I 
 also knew that four of the six members of the existing cabinet 
 entertained the same views. I felt satisfied, not only that the 
 President was not in the hands of his constitutional advisers ; but 
 that their advice was successfully resisted by persons, whose 
 views I considered at variance with the public interest, and the 
 President's fame. 
 
 Such were my impressions, when, on the 1st of July, I re- 
 ceived a letter from the President, dated ''Boston, June 26th, 
 1833," together with his vieivs, and the opinio7is of four of the 
 members of the cabinet, voluminous papers, in the examination 
 of which I was engaged when the President unexpectedly re- 
 turned to Washington on the 4th of July. 
 
 In the views given by the President, he expressed his opinion, 
 that the secretary of the treasury would be wisely exercising the 
 discretion conferred upon him by law, by directing the deposites 
 to be made in the state banks, from and after the 15th of Sep- 
 tember, if arrangements to be made with them should be then 
 completed. 
 
 In his letter, he stated that the only difficulty he for some time 
 had, was as to the time when the change should commence ; that 
 he thought the time should be from the 1st to the 15th of Sep- 
 tember ; that an agent should be sent to consult with state banks 
 upon the practicability of an arrangement such as the President 
 then proceeded to detail ; but that he did not contemplate a re- 
 moval of funds deposited, unless when wanted for public pur- 
 poses. The letter closed with this emphatic assurance : — 
 
 *' In making to you, my dear sir, this frank and explicit avow- 
 al of my opinions and feelings, it is not my intention to interfere 
 with the independent exercise of the discretion committed to you 
 by law over the subject. I have thought it however due to you, 
 under the circumstances, to place before you, with this restric- 
 tion, my sentiments upon the subject; to the end that you may, 
 on my responsibility, allow them to enter into your decision 
 upon the subject, and into any future exposition of it, so far as 
 you may deem it proper. " 
 
 (*-
 
 ( 19 ) 
 
 Prior to the reception of these communications, I had felt em- 
 barrassment, not only in relation to the general subject, but as to 
 constitutional and legal questions. I was in doubt as to the view 
 which the President would take of the 16th section of the law, 
 chartering the United States Bank, which gave the discretion, 
 as to the deposites, to the secretary of the treasury. When, how- 
 ever, I read the above passage in his letter, my anxiety was in a 
 great measure, if not wholly, removed. If it meant any thing, 
 I concluded, that the President now confirmed, what the law had 
 already declared, that the secretary of the treasury had the ex- 
 clusive right to exercise that discretion independently of the Pre- 
 sident; and that in thus writing to me, he had pledged himself 
 not to interfere beyond the expression of his own opinions, and 
 the employment of argument to have an influence upon mine. 
 Reflecting, however, upon the means that might be used to induce 
 the President to disregard this pledge, I considered it my duty 
 to comply strictly with his direction, to give him my sentiments 
 frankly and fully ; and these you will find in my next letter. 
 
 W. J. DUANE. 
 Philadelphia, February 22, 1834. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens ; 
 
 In my last letter I related some of the incidents, which oc- 
 curred immediately after my entrance into office. Those inci- 
 dents will have shown you, that the true nature of the service 
 required of me was to employ a conservative power to eflect 
 penal ends, and to evade legislative or judicial action in relation 
 to the United States Bank. 
 
 Believing as I did, that the President really thought that the 
 prostration of the United States Bank would be another victory, 
 of which he might be proud, and that he was stimulated to con- 
 sider any means justifiable to attain that end ; I resolved to inter- 
 pose, if I could, between him and tbosc who were impelling him 
 in his rash career. I was especially anxious to disabuse him as 
 to the legislature and the judiciary ; and, therefore, in writing 
 the following letter, endeavoured to meet his oral declarations, 
 as well as written arguments. 
 
 Vf
 
 *r. ( 20 ) 
 
 In my defence I now submit this letter to you. Is it such a 
 letter as "an emissary of the bank" would have written? Does 
 it indicate hostility to the President; or a desire to remain in 
 office to thwart him? Could any friend struggle more anxiously 
 than I did to snatch him from the brink of a precipice? Instead 
 of considering my resistance favourable to the bank, I felt satis- 
 fied that the President's course would aid it. 
 
 Under these impressions, as an act of duty to the country as 
 well as to the President, and, I confess, dissatisfied with the part 
 I was expected to play, I wrote the following letter. 
 
 Respectfully, yours, 
 
 W. J. DUANE. 
 
 February 25, 1834. 
 
 " Treasury Department, July 10, 1833. 
 " Sir— 
 
 I. On the first of the present month, the undersigned had the 
 honour to receive the letter, which the President addressed to 
 him, from Boston, on the 26th ultimo, transmitting a detailed 
 statement of his views <' upon the subject of a discontinuance of 
 the government deposites in the Bank of the United States, and 
 the substitution of certain state banks, as the fiscal agents of the 
 United States, so far as those duties are now performed by that 
 institution." 
 
 If, when, early in December last, the desire of the President 
 that the undersigned should assume the station, which he now 
 holds, was communicated to him, it had been intimated, that a 
 cessation to deposite the public moneys in the Bank of the United 
 States, without any legislation upon the subject, was to constitute 
 a part of the executive policy, and that the undersigned would 
 be called upon to carry the measure into effect upon his own re- 
 sponsibility, it would have been in his power to consider, whether 
 he ought to enter into office or not; and he would not have been 
 compelled, as he now is, either to incur the censure of congress, 
 or to commence his service by acting in opposition to the Pre- 
 sident's wishes. But, as no intimation of any kind was given, 
 and as the undersigned was thus to come into office, in a manner 
 as honourable to the President's liberality, as it was flattering to 
 his own pride, he accepted the proffered honour, but still not 
 without reluctance, resolved to perform his duty so faithfully as
 
 ^ ^ . f 
 
 ( 21 ) / t* 
 
 to merit public confidence, justify the President's choice, and 
 preserve that invaluiiblc treasure, his own self-respect. 
 
 If, when, on the 30th of Jaiuiary last, the undersigned con- 
 sented to serve, and before he had entered on the duties of his 
 station, he had known that a change of the depository of the pub- 
 lic money, notwithstanding the decision of the house of repre- 
 sentatives, was a part of the President's policy, and very anx- 
 iously discussed in the cabinet, it would still have been his 
 pleasure, as well as duty, to consider the questions involved, 
 carefully. But, although late in the month of March, the Presi- 
 dent intimated, that he was agitating the subject himself, the 
 undersigned had no conception, that it was with a view to any 
 proceeding prior to the meeting of the new congress. 
 
 It was not, indeed, until the evening of the day, or of the day 
 after, the undersigned entered into office, that he was informed, 
 that a change, of the depository of the public money, had been the 
 subject of cabinet discussion, and that upon the undersigned 
 would rest the responsibility. 
 
 It will not surprise the President, therefore, to learn the sen- 
 timents of the undersigned now for the first time ; nor that he may 
 fail to present such an exposition of his views, as, under different 
 circumstances, he would at least have attempted to prepare- 
 Subsequently to the 1st of June, the President was so good as to 
 say, that he would send to the undersigned, the opinions of the 
 members of his cabinet, with his own views, to be deliberately 
 reflected upon, with a view to a frank declaration of the opinions 
 of the undersigned to the President, on his return from his eastern 
 tour. Those documents were received on the 1st instant, and the 
 President returned on the 4th ; so that the brevity of the interval, 
 and other circumstances interfering, will, he trusts, be regarded 
 as adequate apologies for imperfection. Whilst, however, he re- 
 grets the imperfection, he is consoled with the knowledge, that 
 he is but a gleaner in the field of inquiry, after officers, superior 
 to the undersigned in all the advantages of experience, and with 
 whom he will not assert an equality, except in purity of purpose, 
 and in regard for the chief magistrate, who has made him their 
 associate. 
 
 II. In the conclusion of the President's letter, he has the 
 goodness to say, that, whilst he frankly avows his own opinions, 
 and feelings, he does not intend to interfere with the indci)ondent 
 exercise of the discretion, committed to the undersigned by law,
 
 » .;f 
 
 ( 22 ) • 
 
 over the subject ; and that the undersigned may adopt, on the Pre- 
 sident's responsibility, the sentiments expressed by him, in his 
 letter, as the basis in part of his own decision. The undersigned, 
 therefore, concludes, that he has not received the direction of the 
 chief magistrate, to perform an act of executive duty ; but that 
 the President believes, that congress had a right to direct, and 
 hold responsible, an executive agent. And, accordingly, without 
 expressing a doubt on that point, that might be thought pre- 
 sumptuous, the undersigned will decide on his responsibility to 
 congress, and that decision shall be the same, as if he had re- 
 ceived an executive order. This, however, will not, for a mo- 
 ment, be regarded by the President as indicative of the least 
 abbreviation of the respect and attachment, which, on many ac- 
 counts, he entertains for the President. The expression is used, 
 in order to evince the perfect sincerity of the undersigned in the 
 matter referred to him ; it is used, in order to make known to 
 the President, that, however grateful to him the undersigned 
 may be, and however unwilling to incur the risk of separating 
 from him so soon, a separation so likely to expose the under- 
 signed to the shafts of envy or of malice, if such exist, such con- 
 siderations are overcome by a sense of the high duties imposed 
 on him as a public agent. 
 
 It is not more consistent with the principles of the undersign- 
 ed to pay a homage to the President, than it would be the desire 
 of the President to receive it; but since it is so soon his fate to 
 diflfer in opinion from the President, the undersigned boldly says, 
 that no one could have been called to the station, now filled by 
 him, who could have had a more anxious desire than the under- 
 signed had, to render the evening of the President's life as tran- 
 quil, as its noon had been glorious. It is very painful to him, 
 therefore, to be obliged to decline to adopt the course described 
 in the President's letter. He has the consolation, however, that 
 the very opposition establishes a claim to the President's respect, 
 and is a sure guarantee of sincerity. 
 
 Trusting, therefore, to that magnanimity, on the part of the 
 President, which is inseparable from the purity of his own io- 
 tentions, the undersigned will frankly state some of the reasons, 
 that have drawn him to the conclusion, at which he has arrived. 
 In doing so, he will present the results of brief, but anxious, re- 
 flection, and incidentally such observations as a perusal of the 
 President's letter demands.
 
 . ( 23 ) •• 
 
 III. With regard to the Bank of the United States, even if 
 the undersigned did not consider it unauthorized by the consti- 
 tution, he avows his deliberate and unl)iassed belief, that the re- 
 newal of its charter would be inconsistent, with the duration of 
 the happiness and liberties of the people. These sentiments are 
 not formed as a potter moulds his clay, to suit the fashion of the 
 times, or the order of a customer ; they are not the sentiments of 
 a man, who has a latent grief to assuage, or an injury \o avenge; 
 they are the opinions of an individual, who, although bowing to 
 the law, as every good citizen should do, and respecting the 
 opinions of others, has never omitted a fair occasion to utter his 
 dispassionate belief, in opposition not only to the present, and 
 to the former Bank of the United States, but to all such mono- 
 polies. 
 
 Without any desire, therefore, to arraign uncharitably the 
 motives of others, the undersigned is satisfied that many of the 
 acts of the bank, that are complained of, do but justify his uni- 
 form apprehension of such institutions. He conceives that the 
 bank htis forfeited all claims to favour, and that, if chartered, 
 with such a weight of complaint against it, the charter might al- 
 most as well be perpetual as limited. _,' 
 
 But, whilst these are the sentiments he entertains, and whilst 
 as an individual he might, in every fair way, utter and publish, 
 in language becoming a freeman, his strong remonstrances and 
 upbraidings at the 3 per cent, transaction, and others; he does 
 not consider it proper, as a public officer, to pursue any other 
 than an open, decided, and authorised course. He is persuaded 
 that vindictive justice is so much at variance with the best feel- 
 ings of the human heart, that a resort to a measure of that kind, 
 would, by the repugnance that it would create, tend to merge 
 the more essential consideration of the future destinies of the 
 country. 
 
 At present the bank stands, if not convicted, arraigned before 
 the country. It has put itself in the wrong, and the stockholders 
 have not manifested an inclination even to inquire into the causes 
 of complaint against the directors. Public opinion is unfavourable 
 to the continuance of the institution. It is obviously the conviction 
 of dispassionate men, that no modification can control an institu- 
 tion, that has the elements of evil in its composition and exist- 
 ence. The dictates of prudence and policy, therefore, demand, that
 
 ( 24 ) 
 
 nothing should be done against the bank, that might altogether 
 conceal justice under the veil of sympathy. 
 
 The main question was put to the people by the President, 
 and left to them, in such terms, and in such forms, as to absolve 
 him from all accountability. In this, as in other instances, pos- 
 terity will do justice to the purity of his purposes, and the vigour 
 of his acts. And there is no occasion, either for the present or 
 the future, to adopt a course different from the open and manly 
 one heretofore pursued. It is not requisite, in order fo prevent a 
 renewal of legal life, to resort to measures, that might be regard- 
 ed as extreme, if not utterly needless. 
 
 IV. The undersigned is persuaded, that the measure would be 
 regarded as extreme and arbitrary, for these reasons. 
 
 1. The charter is the law of the land ; it is a contract, that can- 
 not be dissolved, or altered, without mutual consent, or forfeited 
 without inquiry. The public deposites are a benefit to the bank, 
 for which it has paid a consideration, and their continuance is a 
 part of the contract. 
 
 Has the undersigned a right to rescind this contract? It is cer- 
 tainly true, that he has the power to change the depository, but 
 he is bound to give his reasons. What reasons can the undersigned 
 give ? He must not rely on the reasons of others, unless he 
 adopts them as his own : he must be satisfied, that the measure 
 is sound in itself and defensible. 
 
 If, indeed, there were not other tribunals, before which acts 
 involving forfeiture might be inquired into, and acts involving 
 forfeiture were apparent, there might be some apology for an 
 exercise of extraordinary power by an individual. But if there 
 has been such misconduct in the corporation as warrants a forfeiture 
 of its charter, or if there have been such acts done by the direct- 
 ors or officers, as bring them within the penalties of the act of 
 incorporation, what reasons can be given, for visiting the sins of 
 the officers upon the stockholders, without a trial by jury, or 
 other judicial proceeding? How could the undersigned justify 
 himself before congress, even if his opinions were sound, in declin- 
 ing a judicial inquiry, and in condemning the accused unheard? 
 
 If the President is satisfied, that there has been misconduct, 
 such as would warrant punishment by judicial agency, why has 
 it not been, why may it not yet be, resorted to ? But if no such 
 step has been taken, or can be sustained, how can the undersigned 
 justify the assumption of the powers of jury, judge, and cxecu-
 
 ( ''^5 ) 
 
 tioner? Is he to punish unheard, at his own pleasure, and without 
 being able to assi<^n to congress reasons for such an arbitrary act ? 
 Is it consistent with the principles of justice, or the genius of our 
 institutions, that any man should be able to constitute himself a 
 dictator, in matters affecting the character of the country, the 
 welfare of the people, and the fame of men, who are entitled at 
 least to the rights of felons ? 
 
 The undersigned has been, like other men, under excitement, 
 in relation to the Bankof the United States,anduponpublicgrounds 
 has been desirous to see its existence closed ; yet he would not, 
 under excitement, exercise such a power as is now conferred upon 
 him; much less will he, now in a high station, and under the 
 guidance of deliberate reason, do any act, that has not the stamp 
 of manliness upon its front. He does not think that the end jus- 
 t'fies the means, or that there is any distinction between moral 
 and political integrity. No doubt, the President believes the pro- 
 ceeding, under consideration, to be fair, manly, and sound. The 
 undersigned has learned not to say dogmatically, that he is right, 
 and that another is wrong. It is sufficient for him, that, whilst 
 he sincerely respects the sentiments of the President, the under- 
 signed cannot at his pleasure change his own convictions, or pre- 
 sent to congress reasons for an act, that he believes to be arbitrary 
 and needless. 
 
 It is true, that congress gave to the undersigned the right to 
 use this arbitrary power ; but for what purposes ? Surely not to 
 enable him to usurp executive or judicial authority. It is the right 
 of the President to arraign, and the riglil of the judiciary to try, 
 the bank. Upon what jjretext can the undersigned wrest these 
 powers from the legitimate organs? Or can it be fancied, that con- 
 gress transferred to theundersigned, powers not possessed bytlieni- 
 selves? What, then, is the fair conclusion, in tlie absence of all 
 explanation, as to the motives of congress ? Surely, that dictato- 
 rial power was conferred on the secretary of the treasury for 
 occasions demanding sudden and extreme action, or as a salutary 
 check upon the bank, or a means to promote the conclusion of its 
 affairs. It never could have been conferreil to enable an individual, 
 whose appointment has not yet been confirmed by the constitu- 
 tional advisers of the President, to execute vindictive justice. 
 
 Is there, then, any cause for sudden and extreme action ? The 
 undersigned admits, that the views in the President's letter, are 
 very striking. They must, when presented to the people, or their 
 
 D
 
 ( 26 ) 
 
 represcMitatives, have a powerful influence upon the question of 
 the renewal of the charter ; but he does not believe that they 
 warrant the undersigned in resorting to the proposed measure. 
 It must be a very strong case, indeed, that would justify the nul- 
 lification of a contract, made by all the departments of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 2. The measure would be considered extreme and arbitrary, 
 because the last congress acted upon complaints against the bank, 
 and because the next congress may follow the example of the last. 
 It cannot be pretended, that, the last congress doubted the ability 
 of the bank to meet its engagements. The house of representatives, 
 by a vote 109 to 46, decided that the bank was a safe place of 
 deposite ; and one of the last acts of congress authorised the 
 secretary of the treasury to lend a million of dollars to the bank 
 without security. What has since occurred, that should warrant 
 the undersigned, in treating these evidences of confidence with 
 contempt ? What reasons could the undersigned give for revers- 
 ing the judgment of those, of whom he is the mere agent? What 
 has occurred, since the last session of congress, to change the 
 ground then held ? If any thing occurred, prior to the entry of 
 the undersigned into office, on the first of June, why was not his 
 predecessor called upon to act ? And if nothing occurred prior to 
 that time, what has since happened, that could justify the under- 
 signed, who has not yet become acquainted with his duties, or 
 been above forty days in office, in exerting powers, affecting not 
 merely the bank, but the whole community? Is he to take it for 
 granted that the last house of representatives was ignorant or 
 corrupt ? Or is he to conclude that there has been fraud or mis- 
 management on the part of the bank ? He does not pretend, that 
 an adequate investigation was made by the last house of represen- 
 tatives, but that house decided on the evidence produced. It was 
 not competent for any agent to furnish adequate proofs. The mi- 
 nority of the committee of investigation declare, that a full and 
 protracted inquiry by congress is necessary to the developement 
 of truth ; and yet it is expected that the undersigned shall either 
 have faculties superior to those of congress, or hardihood that 
 disregards their censure. It is supposed, that although a body with 
 power to send for persons and papers were unable to come to a 
 decision unfavourable to the bank, or even to express a disbe- 
 lief of its safety ; the undersigned, without any such inquiry or 
 power to inquire, is first to do what congress would not do, and
 
 INF 
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 then refer to the reasons of the President as a justification. Such 
 a reference would not, and oufrhi not to, answer as a defence. The 
 undersigned is thrown on his own rciisons ; and if he acts, and has 
 none, he must stand in a posture before the world, not more 
 lionourable to the President than grateful to himself. It would, 
 in these malevolent times, be said, that the President had pur- 
 chased the conscience of the undersigned, and that the undersign- 
 ed had basely sold for office, the only inheritance that he may 
 have to leave to his children, the unblemished integrity of their 
 father. 
 
 If it does not become the undersigned to treat with disrespect 
 the decision of the last congress, why should he refuse to await 
 the interference of the next? Any proceeding now, especially in 
 the absence of adequate reasons, would seem to arise from an ap- 
 prehension, that the representatives of the people are incompe- 
 tent or corruptible ; and that the people themselves are incapable 
 of preserving the institutions of their country, in the event of a 
 general depravity of their agents. The undersigned is not wil- 
 ling, by an act on his part, to give sanction to heresies, as 
 groundless in themselves, as they are pernicious in their tenden- 
 cies. He would despair of all that is calculated to cheer and ex- 
 alt mankind, if he could fancy that his act, or the act of any 
 man, even if endowed with intellect, or crowned with glory, were 
 essentially necessary to save the people from themselves. He can- 
 not have the arrogance to think, or to give colour of conjecture 
 that he thinks, that he can save the republic, or that without him 
 it would be lost. It is his duty, on the contrary, to follow the 
 President's own example, who, instead of proceed i ng, as he might 
 have done, by scire facias, against the bank, waited until the 
 representatives of the people assembled, and submitted his com- 
 plaint to them. In the absence of peril, the undersigned, does 
 not consider it his duty to forestal the opinion of congress. If 
 there is just ground for complaint, it is consistent with our love 
 of our institutions, and our jealousy of their purity, to believe 
 that an inquiry, if made, will be fairly conducted ; and that the 
 representatives of the people will act, in consonance with their 
 duty to Heaven, their countr}*, and themselves. 
 
 But if, contrary to the lessons of experience, the representa- 
 tives of the people, should be faithless, the bare suggestion of 
 which the undersigned regrets to utter, the people have the in- 
 clination as well as the power to change them, and to annul any
 
 ( -s 
 
 act, that may have been the progeny of fraud or corruption. Have 
 they not the inclination, as well as the power? If not, then 
 the boasted excellence of our institutions must be a phantom. 
 But, if it is a substance and not a shadow, as the undersigned thinks 
 it is, it does not become him at least to decide upon a supposed 
 imperfection, and substitute means, justifiable only in an insur- 
 rection or a siege. 
 
 With great deference, therefore, for the President's opinions, 
 the undersigned concludes, that it would be arbitrary and need- 
 less to adopt the proposed measure at this time. 
 
 V. But, suppose, that the undersigned had reasons, to submit 
 to congress, to show, that the measure was not arbitrary or need- 
 less, ought the substitutes for the present fiscal depository to be 
 accepted ? The undersigned respectfully conceives that he has not 
 authority, and that it would be unwise, to adopt th'? scheme pro- 
 posed. Undoubtedly, if the undersigned were to cease to deposits 
 the public money in the Bank of the United States, it would 
 be his duty to direct its deposite to the credit of the treasurer, 
 in some safe place. But, at the threshold he is met with the ques- 
 tion, what would be a safe place ? Does it become him to judge 
 of the solidity of an institution by hearsay ? But, even if he chose 
 to take that responsibility, has he any right to go further? The 
 plan suggested by the President proposes a contract with divers 
 banks, according to which certain service is to be rendered by 
 one party, for the privilege of trading upon the money of the 
 other. Has the undersigned authority to create a sort of charter? 
 Has he a right, in any way, or for any time, to bind the United 
 States? Have the local banks any right to bind themselves? If they 
 have, what is the security, and who is the judge of it? Has the 
 undersigned a right to contract, that certain banks may contract 
 with other banks unknown to him? Has the undersigned any 
 right, or is it discreet to leave to any agent the right, to decide, 
 in the course of two months, upon the condition of all the banks, 
 that may be necessary for the operations of government? If there 
 is no law, granting powers needful in doubtful cases, can the un- 
 dersigned discreetly take them on his own responsibility ? Can it 
 be, for one moment, fancied, that, beside the summary power 
 to take away, the legislative power to authorise a disposition of 
 the public money, was conferred upon the undersigned ? Is it to 
 be believed, that a section of a charter, obviously meant for ex- 
 treme cases only, authorised the undersigned, in the absence of
 
 ( '^y ) 
 
 any necessity, to take the public money from a hank, over which 
 there is a control, and distribute it amongst institutions, over 
 which no control exists? The ItJth scrtion of the United States 
 Bank charter directs, that the public Tiioney shall be deposited 
 in that institution, unless the secretary of the treasury shall di- 
 rect otherwise ; but so jealous were congress of (he power, to 
 withhold, thus conferred, that the secretary is enjoined to give 
 reasons immediately to them ; obviously showing, that congress 
 considered themselves alone competent to judge of the nrcessity 
 of a removal from one agent, and the propriety of the sidisti- 
 tute. So that the undersigned deems it proper to use extreme 
 caution on ground untrodden. 
 
 The undersigned is indeed aware, that certain local banks are 
 now, from a supposed necessity, used as fiscal agents ; and that 
 several of his predecessors, as an act of ministerial duty or sup- 
 posed necessity, at various times, and under various circum- 
 stances, made arrangements with state banks (the particulars of 
 which he cannot now ascertain, owing to the destruction of the 
 treasury office); but he also knows, that under those arrange- 
 ments, the country lost between one and two millions of dollars, 
 whilst of upwards of four hundred millions, from time to time 
 in the custody of the United States Bank, not one cent has been 
 lost. The undersigned does not use this as an argument in favour 
 of a renewal of the charter, to which he is opposed, but he states 
 the facts, to show, that he ought to have very strong reasons, 
 indeed, to present to congress, for exchanging a certainty for an 
 uncertainty. Me repeats, an uncertainty ; for if one of his prede- 
 cessors was justified in saying, in 1814, that <'the multiplication 
 of banks, in tlie several states, has so increased the paper cur- 
 rency, that it would be difficult to calculate its amount, and still 
 more difficult to ascertain its value," how much more doubt 
 should the undersigned entertain at the present day? 
 
 Besides, the undersigned plca-.ls the autliority of the President 
 himself, in the letter now under cunsideration, as ground for 
 hesitation. The President does not pretend, that the proposed 
 scheme will answer; he barely says he thinks it will. No doubt, 
 he thinks so, and possibly in some measure upon premises jire- 
 sented by local institutions. But even upon such representations 
 the President does not rely ; for he does not suggest a p'an for 
 actual or continued operation, but merely as an experiment. Has 
 the undersigned the right to make experiments upon such im-
 
 ) m- 
 
 portant matters? Did congress, in allowing him to retain out of 
 bank the public money, confer on him legislative and executive 
 power united? As already alluded to, the anxious care, that at 
 once the undersigned should report to congress, after resolving 
 to retain the money out of bank, shows that it was not meant that 
 the undersigned should make experiments. As it is clear, there- 
 fore, on the President's own view, that he is in doubt as to a 
 substitute, that he is prepared for a test only, and as the power 
 of the undersigned will end on his report to congress, can it sur- 
 prise the President, that the undersigned is in doubt also? If an 
 experiment must be made, is it not courteous to those, of whom 
 the President considers the undersigned in this case the agent, 
 to await their instruction? Have not the constitutional holders of 
 the public purse, the only means, that can be safely used for mak- 
 ing such trials? 
 
 But if congress should not interrupt an experiment, and the 
 experiment should fail, as the undersigned thinks it would, is he 
 then to make another? Will not a failure of any precipitate, undi- 
 gested, and unsanctioned scheme, give vigour to the claim of the 
 United States Bank for a renewal of its charter? Will it not be 
 urged, that the inadequacy of the President's own project proved 
 the necessity of retaining an organ, that, for fiscal purposes, had 
 such obvious advantages over local banks? The President, be- 
 sides, seems to think, that time will be necessary to test the pro- 
 ject, and desires that the trial may be made, so as to meet the 
 dissolution of the United States Bank. This rests on the pre- 
 sumption that congress will not interfere, whereas the under- 
 signed believes, that the operations will have scarcely been com- 
 menced, ere the apparatus will be demolished ; an occurrence, 
 which, for the sake of the President as well as himself, the un- 
 dersig-ned desires not to witness. 
 
 Then, is it likely that banks of any solidity will embark in 
 such a project, when they know that it may, and probably will, 
 be arrested by congress? Is there the least reason to suppose, that 
 banks of good standing will guarantee the acts of banks in remote 
 parts of the Union ? Would the undersigned be prudent in allying 
 the country with banks willing to make such a common cause? 
 So great were the difficulties of the Bank of Pennsylvania, and so 
 great were the losses, arising out of transactions with distant 
 banks, after the dissolution of the old bank of the United States, 
 that it declined to be accountable to the Union for the public mo-
 
 31 ) 
 
 ney placed in those bantiC Does not the President see, that, 
 however selfish the United States Bank may be, the local banks 
 have not more extended principles of action ? Will not the anxiety 
 to make money, the ignorance, or the imprudence of, particularly 
 remote, local banks, tempt them so to extend their loans, and trade 
 upon the public money, that when that money shall be called for, 
 they may either fail to pay it, or ruin their debtors by demanding 
 its return? Upon whom would reproach, in such events, be cast? 
 Not on the banks, but on the secretary of the treasury, as an op- 
 pressive, perhaps a party, measure. It is manifest that the welfare 
 of the people demands, that, instead of being a partner of cither, 
 tliey should be independent of both United States and local 
 banks. 
 
 VI. If the President knew, certainly, that the United States 
 Bank charter would not be extended, would he advise a change 
 of the depository of the public money ? Would he urge the under- 
 signed to execute articles of co-partnership between the good 
 people of the United States and divers banking companies, that 
 may be very well conducted; but whose solvency materially de- 
 pends on the solvency of each other, and the solvency of the 
 whole upon events beyond the control of any or of all ? As the 
 corporators, who have so long enjoyed a profitable part of the 
 sovereign power, who have had the opportunity to amass fortune, 
 and who have not been free from abuses to which monopolies 
 are liable, are soon to cease in their operations ; does it not become 
 the duty of the representatives of the people, whose lives, liber- 
 ties, and happiness are more or less affected by those institutions, 
 to consider, whether the fiscal operations of the government may 
 not be conducted without such agency ? Could the inquiry be made 
 at a more propitious time? Is it wise to make entangling alliances 
 either with an institution not authorized by the constitution of 
 the United States, or with loose corporations, which interfere 
 with, derange, depreciate, and banish the only currency known 
 to the constitution, that of gold and silver? Is it not inconsistent 
 with the dignity of the government, to be obliged to grant fa- 
 vours or exclusive privileges to particular descriptions of per- 
 sons, that would not be otherwise granted, merely to secure a 
 free and safe receipt and disbursement of the public Income and 
 expenditure? Is it consistent with the public spirit and intelli- 
 gence of the representatives of the people to suppose, that they 
 cannot devise a method to escape such thraldom? But, if, in the
 
 ( 3^ ) 
 
 wisdom of congress, no such mode can be found, as will enable 
 the government to conduct its fiscal operations without the aid 
 of a bank; then it is respectfully suggested, whether some con- 
 stitutional provision should not be made, to ensure all the good, 
 with as little as possible of the evil, of a bank. 
 
 Although the undersigned limits the inquiry to the mere want 
 of the government, it is not because he thinks this the only 
 question worthy of consideration. On the contrary, an inquiry 
 into the state of the entire currency, if not now demanded, must 
 soon be required. But it is not to the agents of banks, that resort 
 may be safely had, in inquiries of this nature. Good and useful 
 as those agents may be, and no doubt are, in all the private re- 
 lations of life, they are not so free from bias, as voluntarily to 
 develope the nature and results of their own operations. The la- 
 boratory of the people is preferable, their representatives the 
 manipulators. 
 
 The inquiry, that must, at last, be made, and for which pre- 
 paration may be necessary, is not, which, of two descriptions of 
 monopolies alike at variance with the sovereign attributes of the 
 United States, and the general good of the people, is the least 
 pernicious; but how their abuses, and the consequences of those 
 abuses, may be gradually corrected and averted. Such a scrutiny 
 would be worthy of the wisdom of congress. It might be so con- 
 ducted as not to affect injuriously, by its results, any interest ; 
 and an opportunity might be presented to th^ Union and the 
 states, gradually to limit, or remove, institutions, which, whilst 
 they have some uses, are yet so partial in their operations, and 
 so liable to be perverted, as to affect seriously the morals, im- 
 pair the earnings, and endanger the liberties of the people. 
 
 Those institutions are now so powerful, and have such a com- 
 mon interest ; men in companies arc so prone to do, what as in- 
 dividuals they would scarcely think of, that any change affecting 
 them will be stoutly resisted. Can they be resisted at all, if their 
 power shall have no check ere long? Or is the evil only to be 
 remedied, by one of those convulsions, in which, as in war, the 
 ruin usually falls on those, who ought to escape? 
 
 But if there is any illusion in this suggestion of a general in- 
 quiry, at least there can be none in the particular or preliminary 
 inquiry Hrst suggested. The fiscal operations of the government 
 should be safely, steadily, and speedily conducted. How shall 
 they be so conducted? what shall be the machinery? who the
 
 ( 33 ) I 
 
 agents? the undersigned, in the voice of experience, cannot err 
 in saying, that local banks are not the best. 
 
 Vir. Supposing, that in adopting the proposed measure, the 
 faith of the country would not be violated ; that contempt to the 
 last, and the next congress would not be evinced ; that the power 
 to contract with state banks exists; and that it would not be un- 
 wise to make the contract; still the question presents itself, what 
 would be the effect upon society? Would the operations of the 
 government, or of the commercial world, be facilitated? Would 
 confidence between man and man be promoted? Would the fa- 
 cility to stand a shock, in the event of a war in Europe, for in- 
 stance, be given to the local banks ? 
 
 These questions, and others of an analogous character, need 
 not be discussed by the undersigned ; for, his predecessor, on all 
 accounts so much more competent to advise the President than 
 he is, has placed this part of the subject especially, in a point of 
 view, that cannot, he respectfully thinks, be overlooked by a 
 chief magistrate, so anxious as the President has proved himself 
 to be, to protect the mass of the community from embarrassment. 
 From want of experience or information, the undersigned may 
 not anticipate evil so extensive as that apprehended by his pre- 
 decessor; but his fears are still so strong, that he is quite unwil- 
 ling to be the one, who is to put the match to a train, the end 
 of which he has not the sagacity to discern. 
 
 Even, if he doubted, whether the United States Bank could 
 meet every demand of government, as made upon it, he would 
 hesitate, whether it would not be his duty to forbear, rather than 
 to increase the evil, by abridging the power of the bank to sur- 
 mount its difBculties. So that in the absence of all doubt of the 
 kind, the undersigned would be at a loss for an excuse, were he 
 to produce, by an act on his part, the very mischief that is ap- 
 prehended. Credit, like female fame, is of such a peculiar nature, 
 that its blossoms may be blighted even by the breath of inquiry ; 
 what then, might not be the consequence of the blast of the in- 
 dignation of government against an agent, in whose interest it 
 was itself so deeplv concerned ? Much more trivial changes, than 
 that proposed by the President, have produced great commercial 
 convulsions. Such a measure, as is urged, would be regarded by 
 the bank, so decidedly hostile, as to aflbrd it an excuse to shake 
 the fabric of credit, for the purpose of throwing odium on the 
 government, and producing a persuasion, that in the extension 
 
 E
 
 of the charter would be found the only remedy for the mischief. 
 That it would not hesitate to do so, the President believes — that 
 it ought not to have an excuse for doing so, the undersigned is 
 certain. 
 
 It is, indeed, mentioned, in the letter of the President, that the 
 United States Bank will not be able to effect any such purpose. 
 But the undersigned is not satisfied, that an institution with so 
 large a capital, with branches at so many important points, act- 
 ing with one accord, and for a single end, with specie equal to 
 half its circulation, has it not in its power to affect the operations 
 of local banks, with specie equal to about a sixth of their circu- 
 lation only. If the bank is really so harmless as this part of the 
 President's letter supposes, then the alarm that the undersigned 
 has at all times entertained, at the existence of such a power, is 
 unfounded, and one of the most serious objections to the renewal 
 of the charter is obviated. But the undersigned is not able to ar- 
 rive at such a conclusion ; he is convinced, that it is in the power 
 of the United States Bank, so organized and so secured, griev- 
 ously to affect the local banks and the community ; the under- 
 signed thinks that the trial ought not to be made. 
 
 Beyond doubt, the power of the United States Bank to control 
 the local banks, and, through them, masses of the people, and 
 through those masses, some of the constituted authorities of the 
 country, is of such a character and tendency, as to excite alarm. 
 But the very existence of such a power teaches extreme caution ; 
 such an adversary should gain no advantage from an abortive ex- 
 periment to limit its influence. 
 
 The struggle to be made, is not to see, which can do the other 
 the most harm, the government or the bank. The government 
 has but one duty to execute, to inform the people and their re- 
 presentatives of the apprehended danger. It is not called upon to 
 maim the bank, lest the bank should master the country. In any 
 attempt to maim, the agents of the bank would be those most 
 likely to escape, the wound would be felt in the cottage of the 
 farmer, rather than in the palace of the banker. 
 
 On the other hand, if the suggestion of the President is sound, 
 that the United States Bank dare not operate oppressively, be- 
 cause the state banks, having government deposites, jnight run 
 upon the branches, then there is a check at all times, in the hands 
 of the government ; and the bank, during its legal existence, will
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 be careful not to do or omit, what might warrant a total removal 
 of the (leposites. 
 
 So that the United States Bank is represented by some of the 
 local banks as an engine so powerful as to be an object of univer- 
 sal alarm ; and, the next moment, so utterly feeble, that by the 
 simple operation of a treasury order, the entire branches may be 
 broken up one after the other, and the paper flung upon them in 
 masses, which they will not be prepared to redeem ! Which of 
 these is the true picture ? If a treasury order has such talismanic 
 influence, can there be a better pledge for the safety of the public 
 deposites ? But, if it has no such power, is it discreet to commence 
 the war ? In all such calculations, as those referred to, the fling- 
 ing back masses of bank paper, and breaking up the branches, 
 are items, that seem to have caused no compassion for the ulti- 
 mate sufferers. It appears to have been forgotten, that a large 
 portion of the good and pure people of the land would be ruined 
 — and why ruined ? because the government of their country had 
 put the power to ruin them into the hands of corporations, in- 
 tent alone upon their own aggrandizement ! Whether it is wise 
 to make such experiments, the undersigned, with confidence, re- 
 spectfully submits. 
 
 He submits, with confidence, because he knows the purity of 
 the President's purposes, and that he will not press for a measure, 
 to say the least of it, of doubtful and portentous character. He 
 is not at all surprised, that excitement should exist ; it was almost 
 unavoidable on the part of those, who are pure themselves, and 
 who sincerely believe that they see impurity in others ; its ex- 
 istence is even honourable to those, who, to avert a catastrophe 
 really apprehended, are content to incur some risk on their own 
 part. No one can imagine, that the President can have had, or 
 can now have, any other than the purest intentions ; his appre- 
 hensions are sincere, not factitious ; but, still, the apprehensions, 
 that are entertained, warrant those measures only which will bear 
 the cool examination of the future historian, rather than the test 
 of contemporary feeling. It is of such measures as are now pro- 
 posed, that history will be the record. It will be to the adoption 
 or rejection of then), that public men, in after times, will look 
 for examples. It is all important, therefore, that the most exalted 
 ground should be taken, when about to direct movements, that 
 will be compared with the past, that will affect the present, and 
 be an enduring guide in future.
 
 The President, indeed, seems to think, that he is but obeying 
 the will of the people ; he believes that his veto message became 
 the deciding as well as dividing point at elections. But the un- 
 dersigned is unable to concur with him, that his election was the 
 result of a contest on that point. In many parts of the Union, the 
 bank question formed no part of the materials of dispute ; in 
 others, many friends of the bank voted for the President ; and 
 every where, thousands voted, for the same reasons, that had in- 
 duced them to call him from his farm — they knew his services to | 
 be glorious, and his patriotism to be greater still. 
 
 But, if it is true, that, when the President said he left the 
 question to the people, they really took it up, then the under- 
 signed respectfully asks, whether it was ever supposed, that the 
 secretary of the treasury was to be their champion? Was it not 
 rather the design of the President, that the people should send 
 to congress agents, who would be true to their trusts ? Surely 
 this is the constitutional and the patriotic course, and if it shall 
 not answer, then the undersigned thinks that the days of the re- 
 public are counted. But, he does not so think, neither will the 
 President so think, if he shall reflect upon the career of his 
 country ; on the contrary, the undersigned is persuaded, that, as 
 the sun of the President's eventful life shall be setting, he will 
 see his country in the full enjoyment of all the liberty and hap- 
 piness, which he has done so much to transmit unimpaired to 
 posterity. 
 
 VIII. It may perhaps, be asked, whether the power, confer- 
 red, by the United States Bank charter, upon the secretary of 
 the treasury, is to remain a dead letter upon the statute book? 
 In the first place, it may be replied, that, if it should so remain, 
 it may be honourable to the country as well as beneficial ; for it 
 will appear, that arbitrary principles are not resorted to, what- 
 ever may be the force of extraneous excitement — it will appear, 
 that the power given, was not exercised as a substitute for the 
 constitutional prerogatives of the legislature or judiciary. In the 
 next place, it by no means follows, that because the undersigned 
 is unwilling to enter into an alliance with divers banks, that have 
 interests adverse to each other, and no common interest but to 
 make all the money they can out of the treasure of the country, 
 he is to be perfectly passive, in all other respects. It is the opi- 
 nion of the undersigned, that the public deposites will not consti- 
 tute such a fund, as to warrant extensive operations on the part
 
 ^^It 
 
 of any bank. If the revenue of the present year shall meet the 
 demands upon the treasury, it does not seem to be probable, that 
 the surplus will be considerable. It is the present j)olicy of the 
 constituted authorities to keep down the income to the wants of 
 the government. The results of legislative proceedings, of late 
 adopted, cannot be very clearly anticipated. So that, it will be- 
 hoove the United Slates Bank to regulate its operations accord- 
 ingly. But, it will be the duty of the bank, whatever may be 
 the amount of deposites, to reduce gradually the circle of its busi- 
 ness, in order to avoid the pressure, upon the community, aris- 
 ing from a sudden suspension — a pressure injurious to the bank, 
 as well as to the public and the government. And the undersign- 
 ed thinks, that the country, as the proprietor of one-fifth of the 
 capital, and upon general principles also, has a right to call on 
 the bank so gradually to abridge its business. 
 
 If the bank sliould not do, what any prudent private banker, in 
 the certain assurance of an early death, or any incorporated local 
 bank destined to close its business, would do ; then, it will be the 
 duty of the undersigned to consider, in what way he may so 
 exercise the power vested in him, as to cause a reduction of its 
 business. The welfare of the country, the convenience of the go- 
 vernment, and the interests of the bank itself, demand, that all 
 concerned should so co-operate, as to prevent any of those evils, 
 which flow from changes in the character or amount of a circu- 
 lating medium. It may, besides, be in the power of the under- 
 signed, without any risk of censure, to resort to means, that 
 would be productive of benefit to all concerned, or at least not 
 prejudicial to any. 
 
 Whatever may be deemed best, should be done cautiously, 
 gradually, and with a due regard to the rights and interests of the 
 weak as well as the strong. VB^ 
 
 IX. The undersigned might proceed, in a more extended dis-^^fc| 
 cussion of the subject,under consideration, if such were necessary. 
 He has tried to shun the paths, already beaten by those, whose 
 opinions the President has availed himself of. He has indeed con- 
 sulted his own heart and head as his arbiters. He has appealed to 
 the aid of common sense, as well as of ollicial intelligence, and 
 will here close his remarks. Nothing but a profound conviction 
 of being in the right, could have induced the undersigned to take 
 his first step in opposition to what is so obviously the President's 
 sincere desire. The undersigned has too great a respect for
 
 ( 38 ) 
 
 the judgment of the President, and too little confidence in his 
 own, dogmatically to say, that the President is mistaken, and 
 that the undersigned cannot be so. Happily, if the proposed mea- 
 sure really is essential to any great or good end, it is not in the 
 power of any man, much less of the undersigned, to set himself 
 up successfully against a chief magistrate, to whom the country 
 owes so much. Far from seeking such a celebrity, the undersigned 
 is prepared to make any personal sacrifice, except an acquies- 
 cence in a measure, that he positively believes to be at variance 
 with his obligations to the country, the President, and himself. 
 In any event, no change can be made in those sentiments of 
 sincere respect and attachment, which will ever be entertained 
 for the President, by his obedient servant, 
 
 W. J. DUANE." 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens ; 
 
 Mt principal object in addressing these letters to you, has 
 been to repel attacks upon my reputation, obviously sanctioned 
 by the President of the United States. And if I had made; no 
 other defence than the letter, which I addressed to him on the 
 10th of July, I am satisfied it would have protected me from the 
 false and malignant aspersions of his official paper. 
 
 In submitting that letter to you, I have defended myself against 
 the President's assaults, and at the same time removed the doubt, 
 which appeared to have been entertained by some of the mem- 
 bers of the senate of the United States, whether the President 
 had been duly warned as to the consequences of his proceedings. 
 So that of all my objects in addressing you, so far as the public 
 are concerned, but one remains to be executed ; that of explain- 
 ing the circumstances connected with the mission of an agent to 
 make inquiries as to the substitution of state banks for the Bank 
 of the United States, for conducting the fiscal operations of the 
 government. In giving this explanation, I shall remove another 
 doubt, expressed in the senate of the United States, whether an 
 effort had been made to ascertain the consequences of the re- 
 
 1
 
 ■5jys ( 39 ) 
 
 moval of the deposites upon the relations of the United States 
 Bank and the state banks towards each other. I shall -show that, 
 important as such an inquiry was, the President would not con- 
 sent that it should be made. 
 
 But before I proceed to these explanations, you may desire to 
 know the incidents, which followed the delivery of my letter of 
 the 10th of July ; a desire on your part which may be the more 
 readily gratified, as a narrative of those incidents will naturally 
 lead to the subject of the mission, which I have just referred to. 
 I delivered to the President, on the 12th of July, my letter of 
 the 10th of that month. If he had been disposed to respect the 
 frankness on my part, which he had not only invited but required, 
 no sort of dissatisfaction would have been felt by him, when he 
 read my letter. On the contrary, as it was his boasted rule of 
 conduct always to do what he thought right himself, he should 
 have commended me for following his own example. And if he 
 meant to respect the promise, which he gave me, not to interfere 
 with the independent exercise of the discretion committed to the 
 secretary of the treasury over the deposites, he would have con- 
 sidered our correspondence closed by the letter before him. 
 
 But rumour, particularly agile at Washington, soon removed 
 suspense on my part ; and its report was confirmed by a cold and 
 almost querulous note from the President himself, which, in ef- 
 fect, announced that he would not respect my sincerity or his 
 own promise. He inquired what fiscal agent I proposed in lieu 
 of the Bank of the United States, since I objected to that bank 
 and the state banks also ; and desired an interview on the subject 
 on the 15th of July. 
 
 Accordingly, on that day I waited upon the President ; but as 
 it is not needful to my defence to mention the particulars of our 
 conversation, I will barely say, that as to a fiscal agency, I refer- 
 red to my letter of the 10th of July. In that letter I had repre- 
 sented, that the adoption of a fiscal agency was a legislative duty, 
 and that the whole subject of the currency must be considered 
 by congress, in providing for the safety and transmission of the 
 public funds. Consequently, as the mere agent of congress, I 
 would not venture beyond my own sphere, however inclined I 
 might be respectfully to make suggestions thereafter. The Pre- 
 sident finally said, he would send me an answer to my letter of 
 the 10th of July, and he accordingly did so on the 17th of that 
 month. This reply was explanatory, and perhaps I may add
 
 ( 40 ) 
 
 exculpatory also. As soon as I received it, I wrote a commen- 
 tary, dated the 19th of July, and would have delivered it but for 
 the considerations which I shall now mention. 
 
 When the President was at Boston, he necessarily addressed 
 me by letter; but, when he returned, although his letter to me 
 claimed a written reply, I perceived no necessity for the con- 
 tinuance of a formal correspondence. On the contrary, it seem- 
 ed to be incorrect, that two agents of the same people, who 
 met every day for the common good, should act as if they were 
 the representatives of antagonist powers. On other subjects, the 
 President and heads of departments had no such formal inter- 
 course ; and I considered it my duty not to encourage it, although 
 by withholding this letter 1 did violence to my personal feelings. 
 
 Besides, it was perfectly obvious, that it was not with the 
 President I was measuring the weapons of argument, but that I 
 was thrust at from behind the tapestry, without any power on 
 my part to return the blow, except upon the President, who 
 really seemed to be unconscious that it had been struck. By 
 this I mean, that in writing the President was made to insinuate 
 what was at variance with his own declarations; so that I was 
 compelled to believe either that he was unconscious of what was 
 written for him, or else that he was deceitful to me. I adopted 
 the former of these alternatives as the most charitable conclusion, 
 especially as I became more and more satisfied that the President 
 was not guided, as to the deposite question at least, by his con- 
 stitutional advisers, but impelled by persons who had sinister 
 views. 
 
 Accordingly, I concluded to promote personal intercourse 
 onl}^, and even flattered myself, that if communication by letters 
 could be terminated, the President would adhere to his assurance 
 not to " interfere with the independent exercise of the discretion 
 committed to the secretary of the treasury by law over the sub- 
 ject" of the deposites. Under the influence of these feelings, 
 and to avoid suspense, I waited upon the President twice on the 
 19th, and again on the 20th of July. At these interviews he said 
 he wanted an inquiry only ; and, on my saying that his letter of 
 June 26th indicated an actual removal by the 15th of Septem- 
 ber, he remarked that the banks might not agree to the only 
 plan he thought safe, that of mutual guarantee ; that information 
 ought to be obtained, even for the use of congress; that he con- 
 ceived I ought to co-operate in collecting it; that he was de-
 
 ( 41 ) 
 
 sirous that Mr. Kendall should make inquiries; and that we 
 might rem;iin uncommitted, until after a consideration of the 
 questions that were connected with a change of the depository. 
 
 Well disposed to obtain information, which I believed would 
 undeceive the President, and considering that a knowledge of 
 the facts to be collected must he useful, in any event, 1 consent- 
 ed, as a ministerial act, to prepare a letter of instruction for the 
 President's agent. When I had written it, I waited upon the 
 President on the 22d of July, not doubting but that he would 
 confer with me as to the points of inquiry embraced in it, and 
 indicate any imperfection or omission. But in this I was greatly 
 disappointed, for he desired me to leave the letter of instruction 
 for his examination, adding, that he would see me after he had 
 considered it. 
 
 I will here lay that letter before you. The paragraphs e, f, g, 
 u, I, K, L, were embraced in the President's plan of state bank 
 agency, quoted from his letter from Boston, dated June 26th. 
 The remaining paragraphs were introduced by myself. 
 
 Instriictio7%s. 
 
 (a) "Sir — The operations of the Bank of the United States, 
 excepting such as may be necessary for winding up its affairs, 
 will cease on the 4th of March 1836. If, in the opinion of the 
 secretary of the treasury, adequate reasons shall justify the mea- 
 sure, he may at any time prior to that period cease to deposite 
 the public money in that bank. 
 
 (b) "The President, therefore, considers it his duty to ascer- 
 tain whether a substitute for the present public depository may 
 not be had ; in the event of a change prior to the termination of 
 the charter, or at the dissolution of the bank, should it until then 
 remain the depository. 
 
 (c) "It is the opinion of the President, that to conduct the 
 fiscal operations of the government, bank agency is necessary; 
 and, as he cannot, consistently with his avowed sentiments, sanc- 
 tion any national institution, he desires to seek for agents amongst 
 the banks incorporated by the several states in their individual 
 capacity. 
 
 (d) "The President, having' designated you as the agent to 
 make the necessary inquiries, I beg leave to present to you the 
 views that he entertains as your guide; it being understood that 
 you are to make inquiries of all the banks in the principal 
 
 y
 
 ( 42 ) 
 
 cities, in which primary banks are to be selected in order that 
 an ample scope for selection may be had. 
 
 (e) *'1. That one bank be selected in Baltimore, one in Phila- 
 delphia, two in New York, and one in Boston, with a right on 
 the part of the government to add one in Savannah, one in 
 Charleston, S.C., one in the state of Alabama, one in New Or- 
 leans, and one in Norfolk, upon their acceding to the terms pro- 
 posed, all which shall receive the deposites in those places re- 
 spectively, and be each responsible to the government for the 
 whole public deposites of the United States, wherever made. 
 
 (r) "2. That those banks shall have the right, by a conven- 
 tion of their presidents or otherwise, to select all the banks at 
 other points throughout the United States, in which the public 
 money shall be deposited, with an absolute negative by the secre- 
 tary of the treasury. 
 
 (g) "3. That the secretary of the treasury shall have power 
 to discontinue the deposites in any bank or banks, or break up 
 the whole arrangement, whenever he may think proper, he giv- 
 ing in such case the longest notice of his intention to do so, 
 which the public interest may warrant. 
 
 (h) "4. That the primary and secondary banks shall make re- 
 turns of their entire condition to the secretary of the treasury 
 monthly, or oftener if he shall require it, and report to the trea- 
 surer weekly the state of his deposites with them respectively; 
 and that they shall also subject themselves to a critical examina- 
 tion of their books and transactions by the secretary of the trea- 
 sury, or an authorised agent, whenever the secretary may re- 
 quire it. 
 
 (i) "5. That the arrangement of the government be only with 
 the primary banks, which shall be responsible to it, not only for 
 the safety of the entire deposites, wherever made, but for making 
 payment at any places in the United States, (without charge to 
 the government,) in gold or silver, or its equivalent, of any sum 
 which may be required there to be paid by the secretary of the 
 treasury : that they will also pay any expenses of an agent, tem- 
 porary or permanent, whom the secretary may appoint to examine 
 into their affairs. 
 
 (k) <'6. That they will render, or cause to be rendered, with- 
 out charge, every service, which can now be lawfully required 
 of the United States Bank. 
 
 (l) "7. [Unimportant]
 
 ( 43 ) . '■* 
 
 (m) <'8. If the banks, or any sufficient number of them, shall 
 be disposed to make such arrangements as are contemplated by 
 the President, it will be necessary to inquire of them whether 
 their several charters authorise them to make such an arrange- 
 ment as is contemplated ; that is, whether the president and direc- 
 tors may lawfully enter into the engagements required. 
 
 (n) "9. In order to ascertain whether the proposed arrange- 
 ment is practicable, under circumstances, that may be expected 
 to arise, inquiry should be made of all the banks, whether, if 
 this arrangement should be made prior to the 4th of March 1836, 
 it will be in the power of the Bank of the United States to em- 
 barrass or interrupt it; and whether any proceeding of that kind 
 is to be apprehended. In case any such proceeding may be ap- 
 prehended, it will be proper to inquire, what would be the pro- 
 bable effects of any collision or contest (between the selected 
 banks and the Bank of the United States, or other banks favour- 
 able to or combining with it), not only upon the banks them- 
 selves, but upon the community at large. 
 
 (o) ''10. In order that a full investigation may be had upon 
 matters deeply interesting to the country, it is desirable that the 
 views of the President herein expressed should be fully commu- 
 nicated to the banks proposed to be made public depositories ; 
 and that the banks should be required to give specific replies in 
 writing, embracing statements of their affairs respectively, on 
 the first day of the present month — the capital actually paid in 
 — the amount of notes in circulation — the amount of specie ac- 
 tually on hand — the amount of deposites — the amount of debts 
 due to the banks respectively — the amount due by them respec- 
 tively — the nature and amount of the bank property of each — 
 and all other facts that you may (teem necessary to be known tp tv 
 enable the government to act advisedly, and to understand th^^j^ 
 true condition of the banks proposed to be made depositories. 1^^ 
 
 (p) <' Apprehending that any proceeding whatever, especial- 
 ly at the present time, may be likely to promote what is called 
 stock speculation, with all the mischiefs and tendency of gaming, 
 I respectfully express my conviction, that your agency ought 
 not to be regarded as a matter to be kept secret, but on the con- 
 trary, that its objects should be explicitly avowed upon all pro- 
 per occasions. Secrecy is not necessary, nor is it practicable if 
 it were so ; so that to attain a public object, the means should be 
 open in themselves and in their developments. It will of course
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 be proper to communicate from time to time the progress you 
 may make. 
 
 (q) " Having thus, Sir, placed before you the views of the Pre- 
 sident, and such suggestions on my own part as seemed to be 
 called for, it becomes my duty to myself, in order to guard 
 against expectations, on the part of the banks, that may not be 
 realized, or misapprehension elsewhere, distinctly to say that my 
 performance of the present act of duty, as an executive agent, is 
 not to be understood as an indication of any intention on my 
 part, under existing circumstances, to exei'cise the power vested 
 in me by law. Whether such an emergency may not arise as 
 may warrant the exercise of that power, it is unnecessary now 
 to anticipate; it is sufficient to observe, that in my opinion none 
 such exists at present." 
 
 • • • • In the afternoon of the day on which I delivered these 
 instructions, to the President, for examination, instead of a mes- 
 sage for a personal explanation, I received a letter, of which this 
 is a copy. 
 
 The President of the United States to the Secretary 
 
 OP the Treasury. 
 
 (' Washington, July 22, 1833. 
 
 ''My dear sir: I cannot perceive the propriety of the conr 
 eluding paragraph q in the draft of instructions, proposed to the 
 agent of inquiry, which you have submitted to me this morn- 
 ing; unless you are determined not to acquiesce in the decision 
 which the President, on advisement with his cabinet, may make 
 after a full view of all the circumstances of the case. You may 
 not be aware that such is the construction which the paragraph 
 authorises, and that it is manifestly at variance with the views 
 which render the inquiry expedient. The great object to be ob- 
 tained by the inquiry is to ascertain whether the state banks will 
 agree to become the agents of the government, on the terms pro- 
 posed, for the safe keeping and transmission of the public mo- 
 neys. If they will, the ground taken by the President, should 
 circumstances remain as they now arc, is that it will be then ex- 
 pedient and just to resort to them as a substitute for the Bank of 
 the United States as a fiscal agent. But lest in the course of the 
 inquiry something might arise which would justify a different 
 course, it was deemed best by us, at our last interview, that there
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 •' 
 
 should be no commitment bej-ond the inquiry at this time, as to 
 the action of the government in regard to the change of the de- 
 positcs; and that on the latter point a decision should be post- 
 poned until the report of the agent should be received, when 
 there would be a full consideration of the conduct of the bank, 
 and of all the matters connected with the substitution of another 
 fiscal agent. 
 
 <« Previously to inquiry, however, you declare that nothing 
 has yet occurred to render necessary the movement anticipated 
 by it, and thus leave me to infer that should the inquiry estab- 
 lish the competency of the state banks to perform the agency 
 proposed to them, you will not feel yourself at liberty to carry 
 into effect, the decision, transferring the public deposites to them, 
 which the President, on advisement with his cabinet, may make. 
 Please inform me whether I am correct in supposing that this is 
 your determination. If I am, it will then be my duty in frank- 
 ness and candour to suggest the course which will be necessary 
 on my part. 
 
 <'I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON." 
 
 I considered this a palpable violation of the President's assur- 
 ance, given to me in his letter of the 2Glh of June, from Boston, 
 that <' it was not his intention to interfere with the independent 
 exercise of the discretion committed to the secretary of the trea- 
 sury, by law, over the subject" of the deposites; and I was at 
 first inclined peremptorily to adhere to the last paragraph q of 
 the instructions. It occurred to me, however, that the President 
 still admitted in his letter, that <'all ma'tlcrs connected with the 
 substitution of another fiscal agent" for the United States Bank, 
 were to be <' fully considered." I knew that the instructions (an 
 alteration of which was then unknown to nic) contemplated the 
 President's bank plan alone, the practicability of which I doubted. 
 I also knew that the instructions contemplated the collection of 
 information, as to the effect of a removal of the deposites upon 
 the mutual relations of banks, and upon society, which if faith- 
 fully collected, would, I believed, disabuse the President's mind. 
 And I could not with propriety say tiiat I would not at a future 
 period act, because it might become my duty to do so. Under 
 these impressions. I forthwith wrote the following reply:
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 The Secretary of the Treasury to the President op the 
 
 United States. 
 
 " Treasury department, July 22, 1833. 
 
 " Sir: In answer to the letter which I have had the honour to 
 receive from you, this afternoon, I beg leave to state that, hav- 
 ing understood your present object to be merely an inquiry into 
 the practicability of the arrangement, which you desire to make 
 with the state banks, in case it should be deemed proper to em- 
 ploy them as substitutes for the Bank of the United States, and 
 that there should be no commitment beyond that inquiry, it oc- 
 curred to me that it would be prudent to insert in the instructions 
 to the agent, a paragraph, which would prevent misconception, 
 that might otherwise be produced, undesignedly on his part, in 
 the minds of the directors of the state banks, or of those of the 
 public. If such misconceptions should be otherwise guarded 
 against, as they may be, I have no desire on my own account 
 that the paragraph q should be retained. 
 
 <' I have already, both in writing and verbally, had the honour 
 to state to you, that, after the fullest consideration which I have 
 been able to give the subject, I do not, under existing circum- 
 stances, feel myself justified in substituting state banks for the 
 Bank of the United States, as the depository of the public mo- 
 ney ; but that I am ready to make, under your direction, the 
 fullest inquiry as to the propriety of the change. In the discharge 
 of the high trust confided to me, it has been my desire to act 
 according to my best judgment, with all the lights before me. 
 And although 1 do not anticipate such a change in my views on 
 the subject, even if the inquiry should establish the practicability 
 of employing the state hanks, as will lead me to remove the de- 
 posites for any cause now known to me, before congress shall 
 haye had an opportunity to act upon the matter, yet I am open 
 to conviction, and will not fail to give the fullest consideration 
 to any new facts which may be presented, and to any informa- 
 tion that may be obtained in the proposed inquiry. I shall also 
 be ready to enter into a full examination of the whole subject, 
 when you shall, as you propose, bring it before your cabinet. 
 But if, after receiving the information, and hearing the discus- 
 sions, I shall not consider it my duty, as the responsible agent 
 of the law, to carry into effect the decision that you may make, 
 I will, from my respect for you and for myself, promptly afford
 
 ( 47 ) ^ 
 
 you an opportunity to select a successor, whose views may ac- 
 cord with your own on the important subject in contemplation. 
 
 ''Beyond tliis conclusion I respectfully dbnceive I cannot go 
 without improperly committing myself; a position in which I 
 understood I was not to be put before inquiry. Were I now to 
 say, that I would persist in my present opinions, be the results 
 of inquiry and discussion what they may, I should evince a reck- 
 lessness to be rebuked ; on the other hand, were I to pledge my- 
 self hereafter to abandon my present sentiments, without knowing 
 whether any thing may arise to justify the change, 1 should be- 
 tray a weakness to be pitied, perhaps despised. All that I can 
 promise, therefore, consistently with the respect due to you as 
 well as myself, is, that, when the moment for decision, after in- 
 quiry and discussion, shall arrive, I will concur with you, or 
 retire. 
 
 "With the utmost consideration, your obedient servant. 
 
 W. J. DUANE." 
 
 On the next day. after I had with the utmost sincerity given 
 the assurance contained in the above letter, in the confidence that 
 a full inquiry was meditated by the President, he returned the 
 instructions to me altered in the very particulars which had been 
 in my contemplation when that assurance was given. That is, 
 I had embraced in the instructions the President's plan of state 
 bank agency, for on the 19th of July he declared no otlier would 
 be safe ; 1 had also incorporated a direction to collect information 
 as to the effects of a removal of the deposites upon the mutual 
 relations of the banks, and upon society ; and in his letter above 
 quoted, the President admitted that inquify was to be made into 
 "all matters connected with the'substitution of another fiscal 
 agent." In this state of things, I assured the President, that, if 
 after receiving the information, to be obtained by the agent, and 
 consequent discussion, I could not agree witji him, I would re- 
 tire. On the receipt of this assurance, the Presiilcnt struck out 
 the direction to collect information, and inserted a new provi- 
 sion, empowering the agent to propose or accept new plans. 
 
 My confidence now began to waver. I perceived that a full 
 and fair inquiry into "all matters connected with the substitution 
 of another fiscal agent," was not meditated. And the question 
 inevitably presented itself, whether, in the altered circumstances, 
 I was not absolved from an obligation to respect the assurance T
 
 ( 48 ) 
 
 had given. But, I still flattered myself that the President would 
 be undeceived, and that the time of the meeting of congress 
 would be so closely 'approximated, ere a suitable inquiry could 
 be made, as to render any action by the President altogether in- 
 delicate and improper. I, therefore, prepared the instructions as 
 altered; not with a view to retain a post which had no longer 
 any attractions for me, not to thwart the President in his legi- 
 timate course, not to mar a salutary measure, but to prevent the 
 execution of a scheme which I believed would be detrimental to 
 the country and the President himself. 
 
 The alterations made in the instructions were these — 
 
 Instead of paragraph c, according to which I had made the 
 President, as I supposed he was, an opponent of any national bank, 
 he introduced the following : — 
 
 " It is the opinion of the President, that hereafter as heretofore 
 bank agency will be found convenient, in managing the fiscal 
 operations of the government ; and, as he cannot, consistently 
 with his avowed sentiments, sanction any national institution, or- 
 ganized upon the principles of the existing Bank of the United 
 States, he deems it proper to ascertain whether all the services 
 now rendered by it may not be performed by the banks incorpo- 
 rated by the several states, on terms equally or more favourable 
 to the government." 
 
 The paragraph d was altered by striking out these words : 
 <' It being understood that you are to make inquiries of all the 
 banks in the principal cities, in which the primary banks are to 
 be selected, in order that ample scope for selection may be had." 
 
 Paragraphs l, n and q were wholly struck out. 1 have not 
 copied L in the instructions, as it was not thought proper to be 
 embraced in them, on justifiable considerations : its omission does 
 not affect any existing question. 
 
 This new paragraph was added : — 
 
 "You are not to consider yourself precluded by these instruc- 
 tions from making any other propositions to the said banks, for 
 the purpose of ascertaining on what terms they will undertake 
 the service referred to ; and you are at liberty to receive any pro- 
 positions from them that they may think proper to make." 
 
 The instructions, thus altered, were on the 23d of July sent to 
 the agent, who soon after proceeded on his mission. He returned 
 early in September, and on the 9th of that month his report was 
 submitted to the President. The plan of bank agency, deemed
 
 ( 49 ) 
 
 by the President the only safe one, had been almost unanimously 
 rejected by the state banks. The materials (paragraph o) from 
 which the condition of the state banks was to be ascertained, were 
 very imperfectly furnished. No inquiry, beyond that which re- 
 sulted in the agent's report and correspondence, was, to my 
 knowledge, made. Nor was there any discussion in my presence, 
 or otherwise to my knowledge, as to the agent's report and cor- 
 respondence, or any plan of state bank agency. If any member 
 of the administration understood what was to be the system of 
 future fiscal operations, T was not tliat person, although I atten- 
 tively read all that was submitted. Yet it was into this chaos I 
 was required precipitately to plunge the fiscal operations of the 
 country, at a moment when they were conducted by the legiti- 
 mate agent with the utmost simplicity, safety, and despatch. 
 
 In my own defence, as well as from public considerations, I 
 have submitted to you this account of the instructions given to 
 the President's agent. It was due to myself to show that the in- .' 
 structions, as reported to the senate, are not in the shape in which ^'- 
 I presented them to the President. My principal object, however, 
 has been to state the important fact that the President would not 
 permit his own agent to collect information, that might have dis- 
 abused his own mind, or instructed his cabinet, whom he affect- 
 ed to consult. If the information, called for by the instructions 
 as at first proposed, had been collected, I feel satisfied, that it 
 would have indicated the evil consequences, which have follow- 
 ed the measures of the President. Whether these acts, thus wan- 
 tonly executed, evinced patriotism and magnanimity, or a sub- 
 serviency to a selfish cabal, you are competent to determine. 
 
 W. J. DUANE. 
 
 Philadelphia, March 3d, 1834. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens ; 
 
 In my last letter, I reached the period in my narrative, when 
 the President's a<rent returned from his mission to the state banks, 
 and when his report was placed in the President's hands. I 
 
 G
 
 ( 50 ) 
 
 might, if at all needful to my defence, here notice various inci- 
 dents, that occurred between the 23d of July and the 9th of 
 September. There is but one, however, which 1 feel myself at 
 liberty to notice at present, and that liberty I take, in conse- 
 quence of the publication of an insidious article in the official 
 paper of the 7th of February last, founded upon a passage in 
 my letter to Governor Tazewell. 
 
 In that letter I mentioned my previous unwillingness to give 
 a full exposition of the incidents of my brief official career ; but 
 added that I would so far depart from the rule of silence, as to 
 state the true nature of the service, which I had been required 
 to perform, especially as the official reasons given for its execu- 
 tion did not afford such an explanation. That the true nature of 
 the service was not to substitute one fiscal agent for another, but 
 to pervert a power, reserved by law for the public protection, 
 into a weapon to punish the legitimate fiscal agent, at such a time 
 and in such a manner as to evade legislative and judicial action. 
 The official paper of the 7th ult., perceiving the position in 
 which the President was thus placed, relatively to the other two 
 co-ordinate branches of the government, put forth a publication 
 to mislead the public mind, and to excuse the President for not 
 having awaited the action of congress. I propose in the present 
 letter to examine this publication. 
 
 My explanation to Governor Tazewell is described, in the offi- 
 cial publication referred to, as ''Mr. Duane's second thoughts;" 
 by which it is meant, I presume, that I had not before thought 
 of what I had then stated. But it is barely necessary to read my 
 letter to the President of the 10th of July, in order to perceive, 
 that I then gave to him the very "thoughts," which in January 
 following I very briefly expressed to Governor Tazewell. 
 
 It is in the next place said, that my explanation to Governor 
 Tazewell is a "revelation;" and this is correct, if the assertion 
 means, that it is the first public exposition of what had not been 
 before stated. In December last, 1 declined to reveal some inci- 
 dents, which I have now mentioned ; and I now forbear to state 
 particulars which I may hereafter refer to ; but my correspondence 
 with the President shows that I might have long since disclosed 
 what I now relate. I declined, however, until compelled to do 
 so in self defence. 
 
 It is further said, that I have added a new reason, for refusing 
 to remove the deposites, to those given in my letter to the Pre-
 
 ( 51 ) 
 
 sldent of the 21st of September last; but it will appear, on an 
 examination of that letter, that this is a fallacy. It is true, I did 
 not say in my letter to the President, <'Sir — You required me 
 to remove the deposites in order to forestall the action of con- 
 gress;" the occasion did not call for that mode of expression, 
 and courtesy forbade it. But I stated the fact in a different way ; 
 I refused to remove the deposites, because congress and the judi- 
 ciar}'' ought to be first resorted to, and both were shunned. 
 
 The official paper then insinuates, that my explanation to Go- 
 vernor Tazewell was intended to operate on the pride of power 
 in congress. That it ought so to operate is true, but that it was 
 designed for that end is unfounded. My object in showing what 
 was the true nature of the service required of me was, to prove 
 that I could not execute it without detriment to the public and 
 reproach to myself, and that my course was not unworthy of the 
 approbation of the citizens of Norfolk. 
 
 "We have understood," says the official paper, <'that Mr. 
 Duane was willing to fix a day after the meeting of congress, on 
 which he would remove the deposites, in case congress did not 
 act upon the subject. And we know that some of those in favour 
 of the removal, and among others the agent employed in making 
 preparation for the transfer, were persuaded that Mr. Duane was 
 sincere and honest in making this proposition, and entered into 
 his views; but the President saw that it was utterly inconsistent 
 with the principles which Mr. Duane had previously laid down 
 in writing as those which would direct his conduct, and he con- 
 sidered the proposition as a mere finesse for the benefit of the 
 bank, and treated it accordingly." 
 
 1 will not here stop to comment upon the President's secret 
 sentiments respecting me, which seem to have been so well 
 known to "the agent" and "others," writers for his official 
 paper, but will show what was my proposition. 
 
 When it was known early in September that I persisted in my 
 refusal to remove the deposites, and even hesitated whether my 
 duty to the country did not forbid a surrender of the post in my 
 care, some of the members of the cabinet appeared to desire that 
 a middle course might be pursued. I was asked whether I would 
 fix upon a day, on which I would remove the deposites, after the 
 meeting of congress, in case that body should not act on the sub- 
 ject. Whether this inquiry was or was not made with a view 
 to an explanation with the President, I do not know ; but when
 
 ( 52 ) 
 
 I was requested to state my sentiments in writing, I did so in a 
 letter, dated September 8th, of which the following is an extract: 
 
 " ISIy conviction has been and is, that no cause for a change 
 of the depository does exist, such as warrants the exercise of the 
 power conferred on the secretary of the treasury ; that, until 
 adequate cause to change shall arise, it will be his duty to de- 
 posite as at present, unless congress shall otherwise direct. So that 
 I can give no assurances but these ; I will change the depository 
 as soon as congress shall direct me to do so, or as soon as such 
 cause shall arise as will, in my judgment, justify the act; but, if 
 congress shall not sanction the removal of the deposites (that is, 
 do so previous to removal) I am not at liberty to say, that I will 
 act at a given time; for I do not know that at that time there 
 will be any more reason than there is now for a change. 
 
 "Tliis is the result of reflection. I will respectfully and with- 
 out bias listen to what may be said hereafter ; but I have no ex- 
 pectation of varying in the least from my present position. I am 
 willing, and ready, and anxious to go home, as soon as the Pre- 
 sident shall say such is his preference, rather than do what I 
 should ever after regret and condemn." [See Appendix A.] 
 
 Thus it appears, I refused to fix a day, consented to remove 
 the deposites in case congress desired it, and stated my readiness 
 to retire as soon as the President should express his preference 
 for that course. Here I might rest my defence, but consider it 
 a duty to proceed. 
 
 In my letter of the 10th of July, I said, that, to justify my 
 own act in removing the deposites,'! must rely on my own rea- 
 sons and not on those of others, obviously alluding to the offer 
 made to me by the President of his reasons, in case I should not 
 consider my own sufficient. The official paper, however, says, 
 I refused to act even upon reasons " legislative" or " executive." 
 This is not onl}' contradicted by the proposition above quoted, 
 but by the whole course of my written and oral discussion with 
 the President ; it is also controverted by what I stated to the le- 
 gal adviser of the President, my successor in office, at an inter- 
 view had with him by the desire of the President himself. And 
 to show more precisely the nature of my argument, I quote the 
 following passage from a paper drawn up on the 19th of July for 
 the purpose of meeting the President's statements: — 
 
 " You [the President] are of opinion that there is a radical 
 error in my view of that part of the subject discussed, which re-
 
 lates to a reference of the question of the depositos to fhe next 
 congress. In order to demonstrate my supposed error, you ask, 
 whether the deposites can be removed except by the secretary 
 of the treasury ? to which there can be no other reply than, that 
 the secretary alone can remove them. You, then, however, in- 
 quire whetiicr congress can make any provision for a deposite 
 of the public money before its removal? to which you reply it 
 cannot, and that a removal, therefore, must be the fir?t step. In 
 this, however, I cannot concur; on the contrary, I am satisfied 
 that congress may control the whole matter. Your conclusions 
 are that the existing grounds for removing the deposites are suf- 
 ficient, and that, so far, congress have nothing to do with the 
 question ; that it would be throwing on them a responsibilit}'^, 
 not belonging to them but to another branch of the government; 
 that when a change shall be made, it will be time enough to sub- 
 mit it to the revision of congress, but that until the change be 
 made they cannot act. But, Sir, I cannot concur in this view 
 of the subject; the positions assumed, I humbly conceive, are 
 untenable. The bank charter reserves to congress the right to 
 decide after removal, whether the removal was proper or not. 
 So that I respectfully contend that congress have a right to de- 
 cide whether a removal should or should not be made at a future 
 day, for they are to judge of the reasons. Nor do I admit that 
 the responsibility rests upon the executive branch of the govern- 
 ment; on the contrary you grant, in your letter of the 26th of 
 June, that the secretary of the treasury has by law a discretion, 
 which he may use independently. Independently of whom? 
 Surely of every authority but that of the law, and of congress to 
 whom his conduct is to be submitted. I may, indeed, be in er- 
 ror, but it would appear to me to be at least singular, that the 
 secretary of the treasury should be clothed with a power, which 
 his superiors could not exercise, guide, or control without his 
 previous action ; that if they should think the public funds ia 
 danger, they could not protect them, if he thought otherwise. 
 According to my impressions, the power of congress must be 
 wholly unsuited to its objects ; if it may not be exercised to in- 
 struct its agent to do, or how to do, or not to do, the act, for 
 which, if done, he is obliged to give them his reasons. So tliat 
 in the absence of all necessity, I desire to submit the question of 
 the removal of the deposites, at first y to those who are to decide 
 upon it at last.''^
 
 Aflt 
 
 ( 
 
 Whetlier I was correct or not, these were the positions, which 
 I maintained in discussion with the President, and with the then 
 attorney general, as they must both remember. So that it is 
 wholly fallacious to pretend, either that I declined to be governed 
 by the will of congress, or that the President had the least incli- 
 nation to await their action. On the contrary, if the official pa- 
 per is to be credited, the President determined to break down 
 the bank, ere he had left Tennessee, and of course long before 
 any of those occurrences took place, upon which he rested the 
 propriety of removing the deposltes. And I will here remark, 
 that this hostility could not have been founded on constitutional 
 scruples, for, when I introduced into the instructions for his 
 agent, a declaration that the President was opposed to any na- 
 tional bank, he struck this out, and substituted a declaration, that 
 he was only opposed to an institution organized upon the prin- 
 ciples of the existing bank, a declaration meaning any thing or 
 nothing. 
 
 Notwithstanding the facts, which I have stated in this letter, 
 the official paper declares, that the President refused to listen to 
 any application for delay, because he considered my effort "a 
 mere finesse" "a stratagem" ''for the benefit of the Bank of 
 the United States." 
 
 I ask you, fellow-citizens, to mark this, and compare it with 
 prior declarations of the same paper. Behold the character given 
 of your chief magistrate by his official organ ! Some time ago, 
 it asserted that the President had been uniformly kind to me ; 
 and I admit that his professions were occasionally very ardent, 
 so much so that I confess I thought them sincere ; I also admit, 
 that he offered the mission to Russia "to save the feelings and 
 pride of myself, family and friends." But, observe, what the of- 
 ficial paper now confesses. It declares that the President was in 
 secret representing me to " the agent and others," as utterly un- 
 worthy of confidence ; at the very time when he was professing 
 the utmost friendship to myself! In the cabinet on the 10th of 
 September, in particular, the President declared, "I am well 
 pleased with you all." On the 14th and 18th of the same month, 
 he said to me, "if you will stand by me, it will be the happiest 
 day of my life." Yet the official paper of the 7th of February last 
 shows, that the President was defaming me in private, when he 
 was in company with "the agent and others ;" — he was doing so, 
 although he had not a solitary fact to excuse even suspicion !
 
 •^^if 
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 This charge of duplicity is not made hy me. It is the official 
 paper which places the President in this odious position. I was 
 his early and disinterested friend. To gratify him I ahandoned 
 my home and business. I committed no offence, unless in exer- 
 cising independently a discretion, which the President promised 
 I should so exercise. Yet, if his official paper is to be credited, he 
 was secretly assailing the reputation of one of the members of 
 his own cabinet, whom he daily met as a friend. Which am I to 
 believe — what he said to me, or what his official paper now as- 
 serts ? 
 
 W. J. DUANE. 
 
 Philadelphia, March Sth, 1834. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens ; 
 
 In the brief defensive address, which I published on the 2d 
 of December last, I stated the circumstances connected with my 
 removal from office in September. So that, when, in my recent 
 letters to you, I reached the latter period, I was disposed to con- 
 sider my vindication complete. As, however, much had been said 
 in the President's official paper respecting my refusal to resign, 
 it occurred to me that it might be proper to be more explicit on 
 that point, and to state unreservedly the incidents, feelings, and 
 considerations, which led to that result. 
 
 If I had entertained any doubts as to the propriety of further 
 explanation on the point referred to, these would be now remov- 
 ed. In a paper, styled a "p)'ofesf,'' which the President, on the 
 17th inst. sent to the senate and caused to be published in the 
 newspapers, there is a new demonstration of his disposition to 
 injure me. Not content with the anonymous slanders published 
 with his sanction in his official paper, the President, in his "pro- 
 test," has gratuitously and insidiously intimated, that, at the 
 time of my removal from office, "other causes sufficient to jus- 
 tify it existed," besides my refusal to remove the depositcs. lie 
 admits that I was removed for not removing the deposites, and 
 that my removal was a painful alternative, yet he insinuates that
 
 ( 56 ) 
 
 "other causes to justify it existed !" He thus barely says enough 
 to excite suspicion, but refrains from any explanation that might 
 enable me to repel, as I have hitherto triumphantly done, every 
 attack upon my character. 
 
 That this imputation was insidiously made must be obvious. 
 It was not necessary on the public account, nor was it material 
 to the President's defence. If "other causes" of complaint ex- 
 isted, and it was justifiable to refer to them at all, the reference 
 should have been explicit. The imputation, however, is alto- 
 gether vague; and, therefore, as a "substitute for that defence 
 which I have not been allowed to present in the ordinary form," 
 I deny that "other causes existed to justify" my removal from 
 office, and call on the President to show them if he can. 
 
 In the mean time, I refer to the letters which the President 
 wrote to me in September last. He was then in a state of high 
 excitement, if not anger, and not disposed to suppress reproof. 
 Until he shall specify "other causes," therefore, I proceed to 
 notice the only tangible complaint that has been made, namely, 
 that I refused to retire after having said I would do so ; and I 
 feel confident that my refusal will be pronounced perfectly justi- 
 fiable. 
 
 No dispassionate person can have read the letters which I have 
 addressed to you without being satisfied, that I had been the 
 early, steadfast, and disinterested friend of General Jackson. It 
 must be equally evident that I reluctantly left the shade of pri- 
 vate life, and was content to return to it rather than execute a 
 measure which I condemned. I think it must be apparent, also, 
 that so far as hopes and fears could have had an influence, there 
 was every inducement to concur with the President, if I could 
 do so consistently with my obligations to the country. 
 
 I had scarcely assumed the office which had been assigned to 
 me, when doubts of the solidity of my position arose. It cer- 
 tainly was not of choice that I concluded that the President 
 was not in the hands of his constitutional advisers. The convic- 
 tion that such was the fact was forced upon me by evidence 
 which it was impossible to resist. The individuals who were 
 the first to announce to me what had been done, and what was 
 meditated, upon a momentous subject, were scarcely known to 
 me. As I have already stated, one of them gave me evidence
 
 ( 57 ) 
 
 of his intimacy with the President, of the most conclusive kind ; 
 and if another did not personally press his views upon me, he 
 sought to accomplish his purpose in a way, which he no douht 
 considered equally clBcicnt. 
 
 The majority of the memhers of two successive cahinots were 
 opposed to a removal of the dcposites, and their resistance was 
 successfully combated by individuals wiio now urged me to enter 
 into their views. I naturally weighed not only the question of 
 the dcposites itself, but the motives of the rival parties. It was 
 impossible to attribute the course of the cabinet ministers to any 
 sinister purpose; and I certainly could not believe that their 
 opponents were actuated by anxiety either for the liberties or 
 morals of the people. 
 
 No public-spirited individual, so far as I knew, called for the 
 removal of the dcposites. All the letters urging the measure, of 
 which I had any knowledge, were obviously written under fac- 
 tious and selfish influences. The persons, whom I heard named, as 
 prominently connected with the subject in agitation, were in my 
 estimation gamblers, at least in politics and stocks. 
 
 So that I was irresistibly led to the conviction, not only that 
 the measure proposed was pernicious in its nature and tendency, 
 but that it was successfully urged upon the President by a cabal, 
 in opposition to his constitutional advisers. The experience of 
 every succeeding day gave new strength to this conclusion. I 
 doubt whether there was a solitary spontaneous movement made 
 by the President upon the subject. I do not believe there was 
 more than one paper addressed to me, or to the public, with 
 his signature, which was not from the pen of one of the irre- 
 sponsible persons referred to. If any doubt as to this sinister 
 influence can still exist, it must be removed by a reference to the 
 official paper of the 7th of February last; wherein an intimate 
 intercourse between the President and his ''agent" and "others," 
 is explicitly asserted. 
 
 It may be true that the predecessors of General Jackson con- 
 sidered themselves at liberty to seek for information out of the 
 cabinet; but if they did so, whom did they consult, and with 
 what view was information given? The objection is not that the 
 ^President should have confidential friends, but that they should 
 be individuals, whose intimacy he is unwilling to acknowledge. 
 If the object of private conference was laudable, and if the per- 
 sons consulted were virtuous and wise, there would be no occa- 
 
 H
 
 '^ -{58) 
 
 sion for concealment, nor ground for so much anger at the sug- 
 gestion of a cabal. 
 
 Being satisfied that a cabal did exist, I considered it my duty to 
 the President as well as to the country to resist it. My resist- 
 ance, however, was not made by covert means, but by an appeal 
 to the President in my letter of the 10th of July. So little effect 
 did that appeal produce, that it was followed by the first breach 
 of faith on the part of the executive, of which I have reason to 
 complain. The President spontaneously assured me, in his let- 
 ter from Boston of the 26th of June, that I might independently 
 exercise the discretion, as to the deposites, conferred on the se- 
 cretary of the treasury by law ; yet he utterly disregarded this 
 promise, and never attempted to excuse its violation. 
 
 This was soon after followed by another breach of faith on the 
 part of the President. In his letter to me of the 22d of July, 
 while he still held in his hands the instructions that I had drawn 
 up for his agent, he objected to the concluding paragraph thereof 
 only, and did not intimate a desire to alter them otherwise. On 
 the contrary he declared that there was to be "a full considera- 
 tion of all matters connected with the substitution of another fis- 
 cal agent" for the United States Bank. Trusting to this declara- 
 tion, I expressed in my reply of the same date my willingness 
 to retire, " if, after receiving the information" to be collected 
 by the agent, I could not concur with the President. Immedi- 
 ately after this assurance was given, the letter of instruction to 
 the agent was altered by the President, so as to forbid the col- 
 lection of the very information, which I deemed chiefly important 
 to ''a full consideration" of the subject. It is thus evident that 
 my assurance to retire was conditional ; it rested on the condition, 
 that the information, contemplated by the instructions as exist- 
 ing when I gave the assurance, should be collected. The con- 
 dition not being complied with, I was clearly absolved from all 
 obli2;ation to observe my promise. 
 
 That I was fully justified in connecting my assurance to retire 
 with the condition here mentioned can be easily shown. My 
 view of the propriety of retiring, in case I should not be able to 
 concur, was based upon the expectation, that the amicable discus- 
 sion, which was then going on between the President and myself, 
 was to be conducted with entire fairness, without suppression of 
 facts and apart from sinister influences; and if it had been so 
 conducted I stood ready to redeem my promise. But in a con-
 
 trary state of things I could not be expected to resign ; and henre 
 I was rij^jht in connectinp; my assurance with the condition that 
 information should be, collected by the agent, necessar)- for the 
 full consideration of all matters connected with the |)roposed 
 change of the fiscal agent. 
 
 As I stated to you, fellow-citizens, in my fifth letter, as soon 
 as the President forbade his agent to collect the information on i 
 which 1 chiefly relied, my confidence began to waver. I had 
 treated the President as an honourable friend ; but I now found 
 that his crafty advisers determined to make me their instrument, 
 or else to effect my removal from office. Doubts arose, whether 
 I had not been indiscreet in giving any assurance at all ; and 
 whether I was under an obligation to observe that which had 
 been given, after the circumstances under which it had been made 
 had been changed by the President. 
 
 My mind was filled with these doubts, when other considera- 
 tions presented themselves. By voluntarily retiring, I might re- 
 linquish the right of publicly defending myself when assailed; 
 and that I should be attacked, I was well convinced from what I 
 already knew. As soon as it was understood that 1 resisted a re- 
 moval of the deposites, cowardly menaces and foul insinuations 
 appeared in newspapers of a particular class in various parts of 
 the Union. I was satisfied that those publications originated at 
 Washington ; and it was at length formally announced, not only 
 to myself, but to the President, that his << agent," Mr. Amos 
 Kendall, while on his mission to the state banks, had stimulated 
 similar attacks. To such an extent, indeed, was this shameful 
 course pursued, that I was not sure that the mind of the Presi- 
 dent himself was not the seat of dissatisfaction or distrust. Ac- 
 cordingly, to remove all doubt, I waited upon him on the 14th 
 of September, expressly to inquire, whether he had any com- 
 plaint to make in relation to my conduct, and whether any one 
 had dared to call my motives in question. To my several inqui- 
 ries the President gavea negative reply in the most emphatic terms, 
 declaring that his friendship and confidence were undiminished. 
 
 It cannot be supposed that I then disbelieved the President; 
 nor need I now decide upon his sincerity. It is impossible, how- 
 ever, to pass this incident wholly in silence. In the official paper 
 of the 7th of February last, it is asserted, that early in September 
 the President declared to <'the agent" and "others," that 1 was 
 in league with the United States Bank to thwart him — that is, at
 
 ^ 
 
 ( 60' 
 
 the very time he was professing to myself unabated confidence 
 and almost parental kindness ! 
 
 Such was the state of the relations between the President and 
 myself, when, after his exposition had been read in cabinet on 
 the ISlh of September, he delivered that document to me for 
 consideration. When I retired, I had to consider not merely 
 whether I ought to remove the deposites, but whether it was 
 my duty to resign. I was sensible that I had erred in giving any 
 assurance on the subject, and doubted whether subsequent occur- 
 rences had not absolved me from all obligation to respect it. I 
 desired to avoid a surrender of an important post, and yet wished 
 to part from the President without unkind feeling. It occurred to 
 me that I might accomplish both these ends by asking for a writ- 
 ten expression of the President's wish that I should retire ; and 
 in giving me such a memorandum, I did not perceive that there 
 would be any committal of himself. It seemed to me that, assail- 
 ed as I had been, and menaced with new attacks, the President, 
 if really my friend, would not desire to tie up my hands. 
 
 I was reflecting upon these points, when early on the morning 
 of the 19th of September, the President sent to inquire whether 
 I had come to a decision. I replied that I would communicate it 
 on the 21st. On the morning of the same day (19th), the Presi- 
 dent's secretary called on me to state, that the President had de- 
 termined to announce the decision on the deposite question in the 
 Globe of the next day. He then proposed to read to me a paper 
 prepared for that purpose ; but I refused to listen to it, stating that 
 I had the President's exposition then before me, and was prepar- 
 ing a defensive paper on my own part ; that the President ought 
 to wait one day longer to enable me to present that paper ; and 
 that any such publication in the Globe as was proposed would 
 be a gross indignity to me as an officer and a man. The secretary 
 said, he believed the President would proceed, that the New 
 York Evening Post was urging a decision, and that as to himself 
 he had no wish to express. I then delivered to him a written re- 
 monstrance against the proposed publication. [See Appendix B.] 
 
 On the following day, 20th of September, the decision, that the 
 deposites would be removed on or before the 1st of October was 
 officially announced. [See Appendix C] 
 
 On seeing this announcement, all doubt as to my proper course 
 vanished. I not only persisted in my uniform determination not 
 to remove the deposites, but I now resolved not to resign. Put-
 
 • Wr-^ 
 
 ting aside the defensive exposition, which I had now nearly 
 completed, I wrote on the 21st of September a brief emphatic 
 letter, [see Appendix D,J and on that day personally presented 
 it to the President. On^lhat occasion, I refused " to aid, assist 
 or in any way participate in the proposed change of the public 
 depository." I also refused to resign; and, '< without in the 
 most remote degree meaning any sort of disrespect to the Presi- 
 dent, I protested against his interference with powers and duties, 
 which I believed were designedly withheld from him, and com- 
 mitted to the secretary of the treasury, the fiscal agent of the 
 law." A long conversation ensued, the particulars of which I 
 have it in my power minutely to state; but as I have throughout 
 my narrative avoided all reference to conversations, unless in- 
 dispensably necessary, I shall adhere to that course still. I will 
 barely add, that I made the suggestion, heretofore alluded to, 
 that a memorandum should be given to me to retire: this I con- 
 sidered would be a shield to myself, and would prevent any un- 
 kind feeling on either side. The President, however, insisted 
 upon an unconditional surrender, to which I would not submit, 
 and we separated. 
 
 Such is a brief view of some of the incidents, feelings on my 
 part, and considerations, which led to my refusal to resign. For a 
 further explanation I refer to my letter of the 21st of September, 
 [Appendix D]. As to the imputation of the official paper, that, 
 when I consented to retire, I meditated a non-compliance, it is 
 contradicted by the tenor of my whole life, as well as by the par- 
 ticular facts of the case. I erred, perhaps, in giving any assurance 
 whatever ; for although it was given on a condition wiiich was 
 never fulfilled by the President, and although annulled in fact by 
 the outrage on my feelings of announcing, without my consent, the 
 decision of the deposite question, while I was still secretary of the 
 treasury ; yet the fact of there having been a ])romise, has given a 
 colourable ground to my traduccrs for charging me with bad faith. 
 But even supposing for a moment that my conditional assurance to 
 retire was in full force on the 21st of September, still the President 
 did not give me the opportunity of choosing between the alterna- 
 tives presented in my letter of the 22d of July. In that letter I 
 had said, that <' when the moment for decision, after inquiry and 
 ' discussion, should arrive, I would concur or retire." On the 19th 
 of September I required until the 21st to present my decision. 
 By taking, on the 20th of September, the arbitrary and illegal
 
 { 152 
 
 ) 
 
 course of announcing tlic intended removal of the deposites, 
 while, as secretary of the treasury, I yet held the President's 
 exposition in my hands for consideration, he forestalled my de- 
 cision, and, by the affront thus put upon me, absolved me from 
 all obliiiation whatever. 
 
 Thus, fellow-citizens, after having been allured from my home 
 and business; after having been promised that I imghiindepen- 
 dently exercise the discretion conferred on me as an officer by 
 law ; after having struggled against a selfish cabal ; after having 
 endured every thing but a direct affront, it is pretended, that, 
 when that affront was given, 1 was bound to gratify the very ob- 
 ject of those who insulted me, by tamely relinquishing office by 
 a voluntary act, when such a course would have deprived me of 
 the right of self-defence, the privilege which you now see is so 
 essential to my safety. 
 
 W. J. DUANE. 
 
 Philadelphia, April 2\st, 1834. ^ 
 
 '^' 
 
 m:
 
 ♦ A 
 
 APPEXDIX. 
 
 4h 
 
 if 
 
 A. 
 
 The official paper having]; called in question the genuineness 
 of the letter, from which this extract was taken, as well as re- 
 peated the assertion that I had made a proposition to the Presi- 
 dent, I addressed this note to the editor of the Commercial In- 
 telligencer : — 
 
 <4SiR — There is in the President's official paper of Ihe 15th 
 inst. an article, which bears the executive stamp, and I therefore 
 notice it. Commenting upon a part of my sixth letter, recently 
 addressed to the people of the United States, it says : — 
 
 " • It is understood Mr. Duane had proposed in person to the President, that 
 " ' if he would postpone the removal of the deposites until the 1st of January, 
 " • he would then comply with iiis wishes.' 
 
 "There is no foundation for this statement. 
 <' The official paper proceeds : — 
 
 "_♦ It was afterwards distinctly, submitted as a formal proposition, and as a 
 *• • Hieaiis of uniting liie whole cabi'iet in the siipporl of llie measure, tliut an 
 •' * application should be made to congress to act in the matter — the measure 
 " • to be taken in the event of congress r<>/u,«n^'- to do any thinjj on the subject.' 
 
 <<It is enough for me to say, I submitted no such formal pro- 
 position. What others may have done or omitted ought not to be 
 conjectured, much less believed, on the authority of the official 
 paper. ^ 
 
 "In my sixth letter to the people, in order to show the con-- 
 sistency of my course, I quoted a letter which I wrote on the Slh 
 of September to a member of the cabinet. The official paper says 
 the President never heard of such a letter, and tliis may be true. 
 Iiut when it says < no member of the cabinet has any knowledge 
 of his [Mr. DuancJ having written siich a letter,' the official pa- 
 per speaks without authority. 
 
 "Here I might rest, and call on the official paper to produce 
 its authority for this alleged denial of knowledge. But there is 
 no occasion for special pleading. I have had no secrets nor am I 
 aware that others have had any — all thai I wrote and spoke while 
 I was in office, 1 should be glad to see printed and in the hands 
 
 ■^-
 
 ( 64 ) 
 
 of my fellow-citizens. I proceed, therefore, to the subject now in 
 question. 
 
 ''The cabinet was divided on the measure of the proposed re- 
 moval of the deposites, two members for removal, and four against 
 it. It was the desire, as well as the duty of the constitutional ad- 
 visers of the President to produce unity of action if possible. The 
 President himself said to them, 'I want harmony, gentlemen ; I 
 do not want to lose any of you ; 1 am pleased with you all.' Con- 
 versations between the members of the cabinet necessarily took 
 place. On one occasion the President himself recommended them 
 to confer together. It was naturally desired, that my views should 
 be distinctly understood. The possibility of some middle course, 
 or compromise, was spoken of with a view, perhaps, to obtain the 
 President's concurrence. After an anxious conversation on the 
 general subject between the secretary of state and myself, at his 
 instance, and as I understood with a view to explanation with other 
 members of the cabinet, I wrote a letter, of which I will now lay 
 before you a copy. Prefixed to this letter there were extracts 
 quoted from official documents, for the purpose of elucidation. In 
 the draught of my letter, I did not copy those extracts ; I merely 
 stated at the head of the draught, ' [Extracts as to continuance 
 of deposites].' Of the letter itself, the following is a copy ; the 
 original is, no doubt, in the hands of the secretary of state. 
 
 " < Dear Sir — The foregoing are the extracts, the force of which 
 you consider greater than I do. My conviction has been and is, 
 that no cause for a change of the depository does exist, such as 
 warrants the exercise of the power of the secretary of the trea- 
 sury ; that until adequate cause to change shall arise, it will 
 be his duty to deposite as at present, unless congress shall other- 
 wise direct : so that I can give no assurances but these — I will 
 change the depository as soon as congress shall direct me to do 
 so, or as soon as such cause shall arise as will in my judgment 
 justify the act : but if congress shall not sanction a removal of the 
 deposites (that is, do so previous to removal) I am not at liberty 
 to say that I will act at a given time, for I do not know that at 
 that time there will be any more cause than there is now for a 
 
 change. • 
 
 " < This is the result of reflection since I saw you last evening. 
 I will respectfully and without bias listen to what may be said 
 hereafter, but I have no expectation of varying in the least from 
 my present position. I am willing, and ready, and anxious to go 
 home, as soon as the President shall say such is his preference, 
 rather than do what I should ever after regret and condemn. JJ| 
 
 <Most kindly and respectfully yours, '^ 
 
 ^ ' W. J. DUANE. » 
 
 < Hon. L. M'Lane, &c.' "* 
 
 isjb 
 
 mJ
 
 ( 65 ) 
 
 M 
 
 "Whether this letter, or its nature, was made known to the 
 President, I do not know. Probably it was not, as its assurances 
 presented no course that might be considered middle, or likely 
 to be acceded to. All tliat it becomes me to do is to present the 
 letter as written. ^. 
 
 t J <' W. J. DUANE. *- 
 
 ''March 19, 1834." >^ 
 
 The official paper of the 24/A of March, commenting upon 
 the foregoing letter, asserted, that it previou.sly " had assurances 
 from all the members of the cabinet, disclaiming any knowledge 
 on their part of the letter" of the Sth of September, above quoted ; 
 ^^ and added, "such assurances we now have." On the 26th of 
 March, the following note appeared in the official paper : — 
 
 " JVashins^ton, March 25th, 1834. 
 " To Mr. Blair, Editor of the Globe : 
 
 ♦P"* " In an editorial article in the * Globe' of yesterday, relative to 
 a recent letter of Mr. Duane to the Commercial Intelligencer, it 
 is among other things, stated, 'that we had assurances from all 
 the members of the cabinet, disclaiming any knowledge on their 
 part, of the letter to which Mr. Duane has referred,' &:c. ; and it 
 is also stated, <such assurances we now have.' 
 
 "Being disappointed in the expectation that the < Globe' of this 
 morning would have contained such an explanation as would re- 
 move the misapprehension which the statement is calculated to 
 produce, I deem it proper to inform the public that I have at no 
 time had any personal or written communication with the editor 
 of the 'Globe' on the subject, and have given him no assurances 
 in regard to Mr. Duanc's letter. It is true that, upon one occa- 
 sion, immediately after the appearance of Mr. Duane's sixth let- 
 ter, I stated to one gentleman, in answer to an inquiry from him, 
 that I had then no recollection of receiving from JNIr. Duane such 
 a letter as he had referred to, but that it was not impossible that 
 he had written, and that I had received it ; because I remembered 
 that I had held with him the conversation to which he alluded, 
 and that, remaining silent at the time, he returned me the next 
 morning, or soon afterwards, an answer — according to my recol- 
 lection, a verbal one — substantially the same as that which it was 
 asserted his letter contained. On the same occasion, I particularly 
 urged that no notice should be taken of it in the ' Globe.' 
 L "I have only to add, that since Mr. Duane's recent letter, I 
 
 W have given no assurances to any one, nor expressed any doubt 
 ,^ that Mr. Duane wrote the letter according to his statement; but 
 w neither that letter, nor any thing that passed between Mr. Duan6 
 and myself on the subject, was communicated by me to the Pre- 
 sident. 
 
 " 1 am, your obedient servant, 
 
 "LOUIS M'LANE." 
 I
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
 "A. J. DoNELsoN, Esq. ' 
 
 <'Dear Sir — 
 " The world is so censorious, that I am obliged upon reflection 
 to express to you my hope, that you will not regard me as ap- 
 proving of any publication ; it would seem to be but delicate to 
 defer such an act, until I shall either concur or decline ; how- 
 ever, all that I desire to have understood is, that I do not approve 
 of the course you mentioned. Were I the President, I would 
 consult, at least reasonably, the feelings of a man, who has al- 
 ready anxiety enough. As to the newspapers, they will know 
 what has been done, without an official communication. 
 
 "Very respectfully, yours, 
 
 " W. J. DUANE. 
 ''September 19th, 1833." 
 
 From the Globe of Friday, September 20th, 1833. 
 
 "We are authorized to state that the deposites of the public 
 money will be changed, from the Bank of the United States to 
 the State Banks, as soon as necessary arrangements can be made 
 for that purpose, and that it is believed they can be completed in 
 Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, in time to 
 make the change by the 1st of October, and perhaps sooner, if 
 circumstances should render an earlier action necessary on the 
 part of the government. 
 
 "It is contemplated, we understand, not to remove at once, 
 the whole of the public money now in deposite in the Bank of 
 the United States, but to suffer it to remain there until it shall 
 be gradually withdrawn by the usual operation of the govern- 
 ment. And this plan is adopted in order to prevent any neces- 
 sity, on the part of the Bank of the United States, for pressing 
 upon the commercial community ; and to enable it to afford, if it 
 think proper, the usual facilities to the merchants. It is believed, 
 that by this means the change need not produce any inconveni- 
 ence to the commercial community, and that circumstances will 
 not require a sudden and heavy call on the Bank of the United 
 States, so as to occasion embarrassment to the institution or the 
 public." 
 
 The agency of the President, as to the removal of the depo- 
 sites, and the above quoted annunciation, appears from the fol- 
 lowing note addressed to me by the President's secretary. It 
 also appears from this note, that at the time the intended removal 
 of the deposites was announced, I held in my hands the exposi- 
 tion which had been read in the cabinet on the 18th of September. 
 
 * mL-7!
 
 ''September 2\sf, 1833. 
 " Dear Sib — 
 "The PresidiMit has rfqiiestcd mo lo call upon you this morn- 
 ing, and ask for tlie paoer containing; his decision of the question 
 of the dcposites. IJcin^oo unwell to walk down to )'Our odice, 
 I must communicate the President's wish in this form. He de- 
 sires to refer to the paper in preparino; for the public a full ac- 
 count of the reasons which have letl him to ado])t the step which 
 has'been already announced. 
 
 : "Yours, truly, 
 
 ''A. J. DONELSON. 
 <'HoN. W. J. DuANE, Secretart of the Treasury." 
 
 D. 
 
 The Secretary of the Treasury to the President of the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Treasury Department, September 2\st, 1833. 
 
 Sir — I have the honour to lay before you : 
 
 1. A copy of my commission, empowering and enjoining me 
 to execute my duly according to law, and authorizing me to 
 hold my office at your pleasure. 
 
 2. A copy of my oath of office, wherein I solemnly pledged 
 myself to execute the trust committed to me with fidelity. 
 
 3. A copy of the 16th section of the law chartering the Bank 
 of the United States, whereby the discretion to discontinue the 
 deposites of the public money in that bank, was committed to 
 the secretary of the treasury alone. 
 
 4. An extract from your letter to me of the 26th of June, 
 wherein you promise not to interfere with the independent ex- 
 ercise of the discretion, committed to me by the above mention- 
 ed law over the subject. ^ 
 
 5. An extract from your exposition of the ISth inst., wherein 
 you state, that you do not expect me, at your request, order, or 
 dictation, to do any act which I may believe to be illegal, or 
 which my conscience may condemn. 
 
 When you delivered to me, on the ISth inst., the exposition 
 of your views, above referred to, 1 asked you whetiier 1 was to 
 regard it as direction, by you to me, to remove the depo^tes. 
 You replied that it was your direction to me to remove the de- 
 posites, but upon your responsibility ; and you had the goodness 
 |to add, that, if I would stand by you, it would be the happiest 
 day of your life. * 
 
 Solemnly impressed with a profound sense of my obligations 
 to my country and myself, after painful reflection, and upon my 
 own impressions, unaided by any advice such as I expected, 1
 
 ( 68 ) 
 
 respectful!}' announce to you, Sir, that I refuse to carry your 
 directions into effect: 
 
 Not because I desire to frustrate your wishes ; for it would be 
 my pleasure to promote them, if I could do so, consistently with 
 superior obligations. 
 
 Not because I desire to favour the Bank of the United States, 
 to which I have ever been, am, and ever shall be opposed. 
 
 Not to gratify any views, passions, or feelings of my own — 
 but ?, 
 
 1. Because I consider the proposed change of the depository, 
 in the absence of all necessity, a breach of the public faith. 
 
 2. Because the measure^ if not in reality, appears to be vin- 
 dictive and arbitrary, not conservative or just. 
 
 3. Because, if the bank has abused or perverted its powers, 
 the judiciary are able and willing to punish; and in the last re- 
 sort, the representatives of the people may do so. 
 
 4. Because the last House of Representatives of the United 
 States pronounced the public money in the Bank of the United 
 States safe. 
 
 5. Because, if under new circumstances, a change of deposi- 
 tory ought to be made, the representatives of the people, chosen 
 since your appeal to them in your veto message, will in a few 
 weeks assemble, and be willing and able to do their duty.' 
 
 6. Because a change to local and irresponsible banks will 
 tend to shake public confidence, and promote doubt and mischief 
 in the operations of society. 
 
 7. Because it is not sound policy in the Union to foster local 
 banks, which, in their multiplication and cupidity, derange, de- 
 preciate and banish the only currency known to the constitution, 
 that of gold and silver. 
 
 S. Because it is not prudent to confide, in the crude way pro- 
 posed by your agent, in local banks; when on an average of all 
 the banks, dependent in a great degree upon each other, one 
 dollar in silver cannot be paid for six dollars of the paper in cir- 
 culation. 
 
 9. Because it is dangerous to place in the hands of a secretary 
 of the treasury, dependent for office on executive will, a power 
 to favour or punish local banks, and consequently make them 
 political machinery. 
 
 10. Because the whole proceeding must tend to diminish the 
 confidence of the world in our regard for national credit and re- 
 putation ; inasmuch as, whatever may be the abuses of the Di- 
 rectors of the Bank of the United States, the evil now to be en- 
 dured must be borne by innocent persons, many of whom, abroad, 
 had a right to confide in the law that authorized them to be hold- 
 ers of stock. 
 
 1 1. Because I believe that the efforts made in various quarters
 
 ( 69 ) 
 
 to hasten the removal of the deposites, did not ori<^inate with 
 patriots or statesmen, tut in schemes to promote selfish and fac- 
 tious purposes. 
 
 12. Because it^lias ^ccn attempfrd by persons and presses 
 known to be in the confidence and pay of the administration, to 
 intimidate and constrain the secretary of the treasury, to execute 
 an act in direct opposition to his own solemn convictions. 
 
 And now, sir, having with a frankness that means no disre- 
 spcaL and with feelings such as I lately declared them to be, 
 staajpto you why I refuse to execute what you direct ; I proce(/d 
 to perform a necessarily connected act of duty, by announcing 
 to you, that I do not intend voluntarily to leave the post, which 
 the law has placed under my charge, and by giving you my rea- 
 sons for so refusing. ^ 
 
 It is true, that, on the 22d of July, you signified in language 
 sufficiently intelligible, that you would then remove me from 
 office, unless I would consent to remove the deposites, on your 
 final decision. It may also be true that I should then have put 
 it to the test; and it is also true, that under a well grounded as- 
 surance, that your bank plan, the only one then embodied in the 
 instructions drawn up by me for your agent, would be, as it 
 proved, abortive, that for this and other causes, you would be 
 content, I did state my willii.gness to retire, if I could not con- 
 cur with you. * 
 
 But I am not afraid to meet the verdict of generous men, upon 
 ray refusal, on reflection, and after what has since occurred, to 
 do voluntarily what I tlien believed I never should be asked to 
 do. If I had a frail reputation, or had any sinister purpose to 
 answer, I might be open to censure, for a neglect of punctilious 
 delicacy; but I can have no impure motives, much less can I 
 attain any selfish end. I barely choose between one mode of re- 
 tirement and another; and I choose that mode, which I should 
 least of all have preferred, if I had not exalted and redeeming 
 considerations in its favour. 
 
 I bave, besides, your own example: I do not say, that, after 
 you had promised "not to interfere with the independent exer- 
 cise of the discretion vested in me by law," you were wrong in" 
 interfering, if you really thought the public welfare a superior 
 consideration to a mere observance of assurances made to me ; 
 nor can you say thai 1 err, when, upon a solemn sense of duly, 
 I prefer one mode of removal from this station to another. 
 
 The course is due to my own self-preservation, as well as to 
 the public; for you have in all your papers held out an assur- 
 ■^ance, that you would not "interfere with the independent exer- 
 cise of the discretion committed to me by law'' over the depo- 
 sites; and yet, every thing but actual removal of me from office, 
 ^ has been done to effect that end. So that, were I to go out of
 
 JT ^-T- PtO^I = ^""""^ '-^ 
 
 "" office voluntarily, you might be able to point to official papers, 
 that would contradict me, if I said you interfered; and I should 
 thus be held up as a weak and faithless agent, who regarded de- 
 licacy not shown to himself more than duty to his trust. 
 
 Sir, after all, I confess to you, that I have had scruples, for it 
 is the first time that 1 have ever condescended to weigh a ques- 
 tion of the kind ; but I am content, that it shall be said of me, 
 that in July last I forgot myself and my duty too, rather than 
 that it should bo said, that, now, knowing the course that you 
 pursue, I had in any way favoured it. On the contrary, if I have 
 erred, I am willing to be reproved, but my motives no man can 
 impugn. 
 
 My refusal to resign cannot keep me one moment longer than 
 you please in an office that 1 never sought, and at a removal from 
 which I shall not grieve on my own account; it must, on the 
 contrary, hasten my exit. So that, if you shall proceed in wrest- 
 ing from the secretary of the treasury the citadel in his posses- 
 sion, the act can only be accomplished by a mandate, which will 
 be my apology for no longer standing in the breach. 
 
 And now, sir, allow me to repeat to you in sincerity of heart, 
 that, in taking the present course, under a solemn sense of my 
 obligations, I feel a sorrow on your account, far greater than on 
 my own. I have been your early, uniform, and steadfast friend ; 
 I can have no unkind disposition, but shall cherish those of a 
 kind nature that I feel. You proudly occupy the hearts of your 
 countrymen ; but still it is the lot of humanity at times to err. 
 I do ample justice to your motives, but I am constrained to re- 
 gret your present proceedings ; and I devoutly wish that you 
 may live to see all my forebodings contradicted, and your mea- 
 sures followed by results beneficial to your country, and ho- 
 nourable to yourself. 
 
 With the utmost consideration. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 . W. J. DUANE. 
 
 Note. — Whether there is any thing in the above letter, which 
 warranted a contumelious return of it to me, dispassionate per- 
 sons will determine. It was so returned to me, with an inquiry 
 whether I would remove the deposites. I again refused, and on 
 the 23d of September, I received the "mandate" which forced 
 me to abandon <'the citadel" in my possession. 
 
 W. J. DUANE. 
 
 ^pril2\st, 1834.
 
 SPE EDY BINDER 
 
 ZZ:^Z Syroc«««, N. Y. 
 " Stockton, Coin. 
 
 AA 000 588 669 ^