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 SPEECH 
 
 HON. THOMAS EWING, 
 
 (1780-1871) 
 
 UKL1VKKED AT A 
 
 PUBLIC FESTIVAL, 
 
 GIVEN HIM BY THE 
 
 of 3&oss Olmuttu, 
 
 JUNK 1O. 1S:!T. 
 
 Senera W. Ely, printer, Clnllicothc. 
 
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This speech, in which my grandfather reviews the 
 administration of President Jackson, is reprinted from 
 a copy found in the Congressional Library. 
 
 THOMAS EWING. 
 Yonkers, N. Y., July, 1924. 
 
* 
 
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EWING S SPEECH. 
 
 I thank you, Mr. President, for the sentiment of 
 approbation just delivered; and you, my fellow-citi 
 zens, I thank you heartily, for the approving spirit 
 in which it has been responded to. I look upon the 
 scene which is before me upon the vast concourse 
 of intelligent and patriotic citizens assembled on this 
 occasion, who fill the grove around us, with feelings, 
 to which I will not attempt to give utterance. The 
 impression sinks deep in my heart, and will remain 
 among its most cherished recollections. 
 
 I am just relieved, gentlemen, from a long and 
 arduous term of service in the Councils of the Nation, 
 to which the partiality of my fellow-citizens assigned 
 me. That service is ended ; and I will devote this oc 
 casion, which so happily occurs, when the public mind 
 is aroused and public attention awakened, to speak of 
 what I have seen and believe, as to the movement and 
 tendency of our Government during the time that I 
 have watched its progress studied to comprehend its 
 course. There are epochs in the history of nations, 
 short, perhaps, in their development, but enduring in 
 their effects, which give them a tendency and a char 
 acter that remains for ages. Such was the accession 
 of Augustus Csesar to the consular and tribunitian 
 power in Rome: such the revolution of 1688 in 
 England. The two instances were opposite in their 
 effects, but alike in their power, and in their perma 
 nence. All agree that the Administration which is just 
 passed has engraven itself deeply on the history of 
 our country; that our institutions have felt, and must 
 continue to feel its influence; that not only the prac- 
 
 5505G8 
 
but the principles of our Government have been 
 somewhat clmnged: all agree in this. Some say that 
 they have been improved, others say they have been 
 perverted ; but all agree that a bold and strong hand 
 has been upon them, and marked them with his grasp. 
 It were instructive, then, to inquire what has been 
 the tendency of our Government during the past Ad 
 ministration, what are the principles, or what the great 
 principle, which gave it direction and impulse, and 
 which the present Chief Magistrate has pledged him 
 self to carry out; or, to use the language of a modern 
 philosopher, as original as he is profound, What is 
 the IDEA which the past administration has tended to 
 develope? I affirm, that it is the IDEA OF UNITY a 
 tendency to concentrate all the powers of the Gov 
 ernment in the hands of one man; and I hold my 
 self prepared to prove it by a review, brief though 
 it be, of the leading measures of the Administration 
 during the last eight years. 
 
 I will place first in order, for it was the first that 
 attracted my attention, and called forth my remon 
 strance, the exercise, for party objects merely, of the 
 power of appointment and removal by the President. 
 That we may have a fair field before us that we 
 may take a somewhat comprehensive view of this 
 important subject let us look back to the time of the 
 second Adams, and hear the opinion of those now in 
 power and influence, on the nature and tendency of 
 this branch of Executive patronage. 
 
 During the four years of that Administration, two 
 individuals, and two only, whose names appear on the 
 records of the Senate, were removed from office; nor 
 was it pretended that those removals were for party 
 purposes: and, within the same four years, some five 
 or six printers of the public laws were changed. The 
 change of printers was alleged to be made for party 
 
purposes, with how much or how little truth I will 
 not now stop to inquire ; but it became a standing 
 theme of declamation and reproach ; and during that 
 Administration, a few but the number was small in 
 deed of- the members of Congress, were appointed 
 to office by the President. They were, in fact, treated 
 just as other citizens were treated; neither preferred 
 nor rejected t>ecause of their station. Still the 
 patriots of that day, who are the supporters of power 
 in this, saw danger to our institutions, from the ex 
 ercise of the appointing and removing power. So im 
 portant was the subject deemed so imminent the 
 danger that, in the session of 1825- 6, a committee 
 of the Senate was raised specially to examine and re 
 port upon the subject ; and it is but justice to say 
 that they did their duty well. They do, in their Re 
 port, with great accuracy and exactness, point out as 
 probable, the very mischief, which they, when they 
 possessed themselves of that power, hastened to in 
 flict on the country. The Report to which I refer was 
 made by Mr. Benton, as chairman of the committee, 
 on the 4th day of May, 1826. I will trouble you 
 with reading a few extracts, which contain, as I think, 
 much theoretic truth and speculative wisdom. 
 
 After speaking of the theory of a Government, 
 when the laws should execute themselves without 
 human agency, "the scene," says the Report, "shifts 
 to the theatre of real life, when they are executed 
 by civil and military officers ; by armies and navies ; 
 by courts of justice, by the collection and disburse 
 ment of revenue, with all its train of jobs and con 
 tracts ; and, in this aspect of the reality, we behold 
 the working of PATRONAGE, and discover the reason 
 why so many stand ready in any country, and in all 
 ages, to flock to the standard of power, wheresoever 
 and by whomsoever it may be raised. The report 
 
then refers to the Blue Book the political register of 
 that day to show the extent of that patronage, and 
 adds, that "the reduction of the public debt, and the 
 income of the public revenue, will multiply in a four 
 fold degree the number of persons in the service of 
 the Federal Government, the quantity of money in 
 their hands, and the objects to which it is applicable ;" 
 which, it adds, will increase in geometrical progres 
 sion the powers of the Government and bring it to 
 a degree of energy beyond the power of mind to cal 
 culate or to comprehend." I would that I had the 
 Blue Book of that year and of this, to show, by the 
 contrast, how true has been the prediction, and how 
 vast the increase of the number of the officers who 
 subsist on the patronage of the Executive. "The 
 amount of money to be applied," says the Report, "will 
 increase in a fourfold degree;" and so it has. The 
 appropriations for all purposes, except the public debt, 
 was then less than twelve millions ; ten years after, 
 in 1836, it was upwards of forty-eight millions, and 
 the author of that Report, now arrayed on the side 
 of power, and supporting its "STANDARD," attempted 
 to swell that appropriation to more than eighty mil 
 lions ! 
 
 But the direct effect of Executive influence over 
 and through these public offices and the public funds, 
 is further developed, in another paragraph of the 
 same Report. Having presented a bit from the Blue 
 Book, the paper proceeds: "A formidable bit indeed! 
 formidable in numbers, and still more so from the 
 vast amount of money in their hands. The action of 
 such a body of men, supposing them to be animated 
 by the same spirit must be tremendous in an election: 
 and that they will be so animated is a proposition too 
 plain to need demonstration. Power over a man s 
 support has always been held and admitted to be power 
 
over his ivill. The President has power over the sup 
 port of all these officers; and they again have power 
 over the support of debtor merchants, to the amount 
 of ten millions of dollars per annum ; and they again 
 have power over the support of an immense number 
 of individuals, professional mechanics, and day-labor 
 ers, to whom they can, and will extend or deny a 
 valuable public and private patronage, according to the 
 part which they shall act in State, as well as in Fed 
 eral elections." The Report goes on to show that this 
 mighty concentration of patronage and power, in the 
 hands of the Executive "is an overmatch for the 
 power and influence of STATE patronage; that its 
 workings will contaminate the purity of all elections, 
 and enable the Federal Government eventually to gov 
 ern throughout the States as effectually as if they were 
 so many provinces of our vast empire." 
 
 No one can doubt that the dangers to the purity 
 of elections and to the liberties of the country, here 
 pointed out, were imminent, if the Government should 
 fall into the hands of men disposed to make the worst 
 possible use of power. So the Report views it; so 
 we all must feel it. But might it not have been hoped, 
 that in the Senate and House of Representatives, 
 some checks would be interposed to this perverted 
 political action ; that they, the guardians of the peo 
 ple s rights, would interpose and save the country 
 from ruin and the people from bondage? No the 
 Report goes on to show, that such hope would be 
 vain. "The intended check and control of the Senate, 
 without new constitutional or statutary provisions, 
 will cease to operate ; patronage will penetrate this 
 body; subdue its capacity of resistance, chain it to the 
 car of power, and enable the President to rule as 
 easily, and much more securely, with than without this 
 nominal check of the Senate. It then looks forward 
 
to the time when the nomination by the President can 
 carry any man through the Senate, and any measure 
 through the two Houses of Congress; when the prin 
 ciple of public action shall be open and avowed, the 
 president wants my vote and I want his patronage: 
 I will vote as he wishes and he ivill give me the office 
 I -wish for. What will this be but a government of 
 one man, and what is a Government of one man but a 
 monarchy." 
 
 These are the weapons, which, in the opinion of that 
 committee, a President who should wish to concen 
 trate all the powers of the Government in his hands, 
 could at once seize and wield against the liberties of 
 his country; and I have quoted it the more at large, 
 as it goes to establish a full and perfect knowledge 
 on the part of those lately in power, and those who 
 still retain it, that the abuse of the power of appoint 
 ment and removal its application to mere party pur 
 poses its direction to the sole object of sustaining 
 those in power without regard to the public welfare, 
 must, in time, go far to establish the Government of 
 one man, which, whatever name it may assume, is in 
 substance a monarchy. 
 
 I have said that in four years next preceding the 
 Administration of General Jackson, there were two 
 removals from office, among those higher officers 
 which require the confirmation of the Senate. In 
 the two first years of General Jackson s Administra 
 tion, there were upwards of three hundred in the same 
 class of officers more than three times the number 
 of all that were removed during the first forty years 
 of the existence of our Government. Nor was the 
 hand of power limited even there. The doctrine was 
 openly avowed in the Senate of the United States, 
 "that to the victors belong the spoils of victory." 
 The change of parties and the transfer of power, was 
 like the sack of a city. The public weal was not cared 
 
for, but the public property was seized. Within the 
 same two years, in all the offices, high and low, the 
 removals amounted to more than eleven hundred, and 
 no appointment was made except of active polit 
 ical partizans. During the six following years the 
 eye of the Executive has been upon the officers, great 
 and small, throughout the United States, watching, 
 not the faithful discharge of their official duty, but 
 their due adherence to party discipline, and their strict 
 discharge of party obligation. If any but a political 
 adherent remained in the discharge of a public trust, 
 no matter how small the office, or how faithful the 
 officer, he was removed, and a partizan fills his place. 
 If any political partizan remits his exertion, or his 
 thorough adherence is doubted, he is removed, and 
 another more active and efficient supplies his place. 
 Thus, in time, the whole corps of office holders, whose 
 names, closely printed, fill a volume of five hundred 
 pages, has become, what it was predicted in the Re 
 port just referred to, they would become, an active, 
 efficient, organized band throughout all the States, 
 from the centre to the extremity of the Union, whose 
 efforts are constant to support the party that sustain 
 them, and centre all the powers of the Government 
 in the hands of the man who is the head of that party. 
 All that could be done, in this particular, to carry 
 out to its worst results this defective feature in our 
 Constitution, pointed out by the Report, has been done, 
 and still is in progress. 
 
 I have spoken of the removal of those from office 
 who were not active and efficient electioneering parti 
 zans. The record of the Senate and the several De 
 partments shows the fact of their removal, and I have 
 only to appeal to your own consciousness here and in 
 every other town and city in the United States, where 
 there are any officers of the Government stationed, 
 
8 
 
 whether the present incumbents do not act, as if they 
 held it a part of their official duty to take charge of 
 the polls at your elections, and use all their power, 
 personally and officially to control them. This has 
 been the tenure by which they held their offices ; and 
 if any one hesitated to do the work assigned him 
 if he were tardy or scrupulous as to the means he 
 was thrown out of employment; perhaps deprived of 
 support, and his character vilified by the pensioned 
 presses. 
 
 Another point of attack through this same power, 
 when it could be brought to bear with full force 
 against the liberties of the country, is pointed out in 
 a part of that Report which I have just read. The 
 Senate, by the Constitution, holds the negative on 
 all the principle appointments to office, but the Com 
 mittee say, that "patronage will enter into and cor 
 rupt that body; that the President can govern as 
 absolutely and in more security with, than without, 
 its nominal check; and that his power, will in time, 
 be sufficient to carry any man through the Senate. "- 
 Was this verified in the result? Did patronage en 
 ter that body, on the accession of the late Adminis 
 tration to power? Have we forgotten how many 
 Senators were at once selected to fill important Ex 
 ecutive offices? More in the last eight years than 
 under all the previous administrations of our Gov 
 ernment. I need not name them, or say to you that 
 our present Chief Magistrate heads the list. Such 
 were the means that were fixed upon and pursued 
 to subjugate the Senate the Executive was there 
 manifest in that chamber, ready to raise to offices of 
 distinction, all who gave him their unflinching sup 
 port. The effort was early made, and it was con 
 tinued long to subdue the independence of the Senate. 
 But the resistance was noble, and, for a long time, 
 successful. The single weapon, Patronage, was not 
 
enough to overthrow it. But, to subdue its capacity 
 of resistance and chain it to the car of power, an 
 other effective engine, moved by the same hand, was 
 brought into action. Executive patronage was suc 
 cessively and carefully applied to the States whose 
 Legislatures held, successively, the appointment of 
 Senators, until, in the language of the Report, "its 
 workings contaminated the purity of elections" and 
 enabled the Executive, at last, to select a large pro 
 portion of the members of the body. The effect was 
 at last successful, and the Senate s capacity of resist 
 ance was subdued. 
 
 This atrocious principle of reward for partisan 
 service, and punishment for opposition, was carried 
 beyond the mere Executive offices, into the two Houses 
 of Congress, and the whole weight of Executive pow 
 er was brought to bear on each member of Congress, 
 in either House, who dared to oppose an Executive 
 measure, or expose the abuse and corruption of an 
 Executive Department. Sometimes the weight of the 
 Executive arm was sufficient to crush, at once, its 
 virtues. If that were withstood, arrangements, ar 
 tifice and fraud did the work. This was followed 
 out as a fixed and constant system, until the Presi 
 dent, and not the People, or the Representatives of 
 the People, is looked to as the source of all power, 
 and distributor of all patronage. 
 
 To give this system its full and extended influence, 
 to enlarge its sphere of action and increase its ef 
 fects, new offices were created; old ones multiplied 
 or used as multipliers, and salaries were increased. 
 Witness the Indian agents and sub-agents ; Commis 
 sioners to make treaties ; Commissioners to appraise 
 property, and agents to remove Indians and locate 
 reservations ; and witness, especially, our diplomatic 
 relations with foreign powers. Take, for example, 
 the mission to Russia. Mr. Middleton was re-called to 
 
10 
 
 make place for Mr. Randolph. Mr. Randolph re 
 turned to make place for Mr. Buchanan ; Mr. Buchan 
 an, for Mr. Wilkins, who yields to Mr. Dallas, mak 
 ing, in eight years, four new Foreign Ministers, at 
 an extra expense a waste of money on that Mission 
 of $52,500. No one will pretend that the country was 
 better served than if the first named Minister had 
 remained at his post; but the appointing power was 
 extended, and the reward of political partizans in 
 creased. 
 
 In some of the great Departments of our Govern 
 ment, commonly styled "Executive," and for the last 
 eight years, under the most entire and absolute Ex 
 ecutive control, the public money has been corruptly 
 squandered to acquire and extend Executive influence ; 
 or the subordinate officers of those Departments have 
 been permitted, through the medium of their offices, 
 to enrich themselves and their friends and partizans 
 out of the public property, or by illegal speculations 
 upon individuals whom their offices placed in their 
 power; thus making submission to the Executive and 
 adherence to the party in power a road to wealth 
 open to the restless and ambitious. Much of this has 
 been disclosed in the Indian branch of the War De 
 partment; much more in that part of the Treasury 
 which has charge of Public Lands and Deposite 
 Banks: and still more for that office alone has been 
 investigated fully, and its frauds exposed still more 
 in the General Post Office, which, in consequence of 
 the extent of its corruptions, and its efficiency as an 
 electioneering agent, has also risen to the dignity of 
 an Executive Department. I am not, gentlemen, either 
 uncharitable or unjust in charging upon the late Ex 
 ecutive and his Cabinets, (actual and potential,) the 
 frauds which were disclosed in the General Post Of 
 fice. They were not the affairs of a day or the single 
 
11 
 
 act of peculation or fraud of an obscure or subor 
 dinate agent; no, it was a system adopted and acted 
 upon for a series of years commencing by a false 
 Report from the head of the Department, in the ses 
 sion of 1830, and continued by acts, year after year, 
 more corrupt, and Reports more false, until the veil 
 that half covered, but did not conceal their abomina 
 tions, was, finally, in 1835, rent from them, and they 
 were exposed to the world in all their naked deformity. 
 It were vain to attempt the casting off of those crimes 
 which even a political pensioned press could not open 
 ly sustain it were vain to cast those crimes upon the 
 miserably inefficient individual who was the nominal 
 head of that Department. It was the work of those 
 who made up the Executive. The measures of that 
 Department were Executive measures, and its corrup 
 tions were of Executive counsel and head. I make not 
 these assertions without evidence to my own mind, at 
 least, entirely conclusive. 
 
 In the session of 1830- 31, a proposition was made 
 in the Senate to investigate the affairs of the Gen 
 eral Post Office, founded upon the great and flagrant 
 abuses which were alleged to have crept into the ad 
 ministration of its affairs. The committee was ap 
 pointed, they detected many abuses ; among others 
 the altering of a word in sundry places for the evi 
 dent purpose of impeaching the oath of an individual 
 who had been dismissed from office for lack of sub 
 serviency. When the proof thickened, and the ap 
 pearance of guilt became strong, the wily Chairman 
 of the standing committee on the Post Office and 
 Post Roads, (Mr. Grundy,) who was also on the 
 select committee, raised an objection to evidence, 
 without having that objection acted on in the com 
 mittee ; he brought it before the Senate, and on that 
 a debate arose which wore out the session. Thus the 
 
12 
 
 investigation was for that time eluded. Afterwards, 
 I think it was in the year 1832- 3, another investiga 
 tion was elicited by the loud and continued complaints 
 of abuses in the Department. I was at that time a 
 member of the Post Office committee, of which Mr. 
 Grundy was still chairman. I was in a minority, and, 
 during the whole investigation, I never saw a wit 
 ness, or a paper of any kind relating to the affairs of 
 the office, until the chairman produced his report and 
 read it, denying all the charges touching the conduct 
 of the Postmaster General and his subordinates, and 
 speaking in high terms of the flourishing condition of 
 the Department, its facilities and its finances. In 
 1833- 4, the majorities were changed, and then took 
 place an investigation in good faith : and then it was 
 that all those enormous abuses, which had before 
 forced themselves upon the knowledge of the public, 
 were disclosed and exposed. The Executive, and the 
 minions of the Executive, did not yield to the point. 
 They denied what was proved to demonstration it 
 self. They assailed, with all the fierceness of baffled 
 avarice and deep seated malignity, all who were con 
 cerned in forwarding the investigation, and especially 
 men who supported its most active mover and pro 
 moter. 
 
 Accompanying the Report, which I, as the organ 
 of the committee, at that time presented, was a resolu 
 tion condemnatory of one of the secret and lawless 
 acts done by the head of the Department. That reso 
 lution, the only one voted on, was carried unanimously 
 in the Senate no one, however strong his party 
 feelings, choosing to stain his own character with his 
 support of the act. This, however, did not silence 
 the pensioned press, or the clamors of those who were 
 battening on the spoils. The investigation was con 
 tinued and carried out ; a committee of the House 
 
13 
 
 joined in the inquiry, and fully corroborated all that 
 had been shown by that of the Senate ; and then, and 
 not till then, were the Executive engines silenced, and 
 their blood hounds called of? from the chase. But 
 how were those who had been detected and exposed in 
 official falsehood in aiding his friends and political 
 retainers, and political partizans, to peculate upon 
 the revenues of the department; and how were those 
 who themselves joined in the peculation and shared 
 the spoils, dealt with by the head of our free and just 
 republic? Barry, who had been the actor or the in 
 strument who had committed much, and permitted 
 all was allowed to retire upon a foreign mission ; and 
 Obadiah B. Brown, convicted of altering and falsify 
 ing the books of the Department with 40,000 dollars 
 of the Public money in his hands unaccounted for 
 was allowed to resign : and when, at last, the Gen 
 eral Post Office was consumed, he was made the 
 keeper of all the books and papers which were saved 
 from the flames. 
 
 Now, from the very face of this narrative, plain 
 and simple detailing events in their order, as they 
 occurred can any one doubt, that the keen-sighted, 
 intelligent leaders of the party in Washington 
 those whom the President most counselled and most 
 telied on knew and approved what was done and 
 doing in the General Post Office? Why, when all the 
 Cabinet was dismissed, for the purpose of making it 
 a UNIT, was Mr. Barry alone excepted, unless it were 
 to carry on the scheme of corruption which was be 
 gun, and was to be persevered in without fear of 
 scruples which might arise in the mind of a successor, 
 and interfere with the system? Whv, when in either 
 House of Congress, that Department was especially 
 challenged and accused by the opposition why did 
 not the Executive himself cause its conduct and con- 
 
14 
 
 dition to be specially inquired into, and its errors cor 
 rected? And how is it possible to believe, that we, of 
 the Opposition, to whom the doors of that Depart 
 ment were, in a great degree closed, should discover 
 and expose abuses unknown to those who were as 
 familiar in the Department as they were at their own 
 firesides? Why, at last, when condemning proof 
 was adduced against it, did the Executive, and his 
 presses, and his minions of all grades, sustain those 
 who had betrayed their public trust, and attack and 
 pursue, with a fiend-like fury, all who had aided in 
 its exposure? And why, at last, appoint to an hon 
 orable office the head of that Department whom public 
 opinion compelled to retire from it for flagrant abuse 
 of his official trust? The answer to all these inquir 
 ies is obvious ; it was a part of the general system of 
 the Administration so to conduct that Department, 
 because, by so conducting it, they released it from 
 the restraint and obligation of law it became subject 
 to Execute discretion. The amount of money to be 
 disbursed on "jobs and contracts" was increased ; and 
 the number of men who could be employed and in 
 fluenced was increased also. The abuse, therefore, of 
 that Department was an Executive measure, adopted 
 for the purpose of strengthening the Executive arm. 
 The VETO was another weapon used by the Presi 
 dent to place his power above all other powers of the 
 Government, and to absorb them all. He found in it 
 a safeguard of Executive rights, placed in the Consti 
 tution to guard against legislative encroachment : 
 he so used it, that it gave him sovereign power over 
 all active legislation power to permit or to forbid it. 
 The means of patronage and influence which I have 
 already considered, were sufficient, in all most all 
 cases, to control, if not a majority, at least one third 
 of one branch of Congress. When this number was 
 
15 
 
 once secured, no law could pass which was displeas 
 ing to the President, for his VETO was efficient to ar 
 rest and defeat it; but if the country called so loudly 
 for the measure, that even Executive influence could 
 not command a third part of either House; if the 
 majority of both branches were overwhelming, as to 
 amount almost to unanimity, there was still another 
 resource a choice few could be obtained who would 
 devise pretexts for delays: the measure demanded by 
 the People, but obnoxious to the Executive, would be 
 postponed to within ten days of the close of the ses 
 sion, and instead of returning the bill, with a veto, 
 his mode was to destroy, by withholding it. Such, for 
 example, was the case with the bill rescinding the 
 Treasury Circular, which is fresh in the recollection 
 of you all, and which, with other acts, equally arbi 
 trary, has inflicted unparalleled injury and suffering 
 on our country. 
 
 The exercise of the Veto, aided by the other, more 
 important, because more effectual, Executive preroga 
 tive, of retaining a bill passed by more than two-thirds 
 of both branches, and thus preventing the further 
 action of Congress upon it, has, for the last eight 
 years, made the President of the United States abso 
 lute in his power of preventing legislation. No law 
 could be passed, however much it might be demanded 
 by the country, if it did not suit his purposes and meet 
 his concurrence. As to active legislation, this was 
 assumed in another manner. 
 
 The President was sworn to support the Constitu 
 tion, and see that the laws were faithfully executed. 
 By virtue of this oath of office, and of this Constitu 
 tional injunction, the late President claimed the right 
 to expound and construe the Laws, and determine for 
 himself their meaning and extent, and also their 
 agreement with the Constitution. Although the 
 
16 
 
 judicial power is placed in other hands though the 
 Supreme Court of the United States would be but a 
 useless toy, if this power of construction were vested 
 in the President ; nevertheless, he claimed and exer 
 cised it and that, too, against a decision of the Su 
 preme Court upon the very point. It will be at once 
 seen, that if such claim be admitted and sustained, 
 the President if he be unscrupulous or capricious, may 
 make our laws say whatsoever may suit his own pur 
 poses. The Judicial power cannot correct nor con 
 trol him, for in the construction of the laws, his very 
 claim is the power of revising and correcting the de 
 cisions of the Courts. The Legislative branches can 
 not control him ; for his ^^eto poiver, his power to post 
 pone, and finally, to retain bills which conflict with his 
 purposes, make him absolute in saying what the lan> 
 shalt be or is, and perfectly absolute in making it re 
 main as he has pronounced it. Nothing more strongly 
 evinces the wantonness and absurdity of uncontrolled 
 power than the distinctions which the late President 
 built up for himself, on which to rest a reason for 
 doing what he willed to do, and for refusing to do 
 what was not pleasing to him. For instance, he ve 
 toed the bill making an appropriation for the Mays- 
 ville and Lexington road which was urged and 
 passed as part of a great line of communication from 
 Washington City to Florence, in Alabama, branching 
 off from the Cumberland Road at Zanesville: he 
 vetoed the bill giving aid to this all important and 
 national work, on the ground of alleged unconstitu- 
 tionality, while at the same time he signed the bills 
 w r hich, year after year, made heavy appropriations 
 on the Cumberland road, a part of the same great 
 undertaking, and resting on precisely the same prin 
 ciple, so far as I could conceive, of nationality in its 
 object. The distinction taken by General Jackson 
 
17 
 
 was, that the appropriation for the Cumberland road 
 was made obligatory a contract with the new States ; 
 as if a contract to violate the Constitution could give 
 a right to violate it. No, fellow-citizens, it was a 
 mere pretence to extend Executive discretion, and to 
 compel those who sought the passage of laws favour 
 able to their sections of the country, to seek it through 
 Executive, rather than the Legislative, action. That 
 no actual constitutional scruple ever did rest upon the 
 mind of the President, and prevent his sanction of 
 that law, I infer from another distinction still more 
 ridiculous, which he adopted in another class of 
 cases. Many appropriations were made by Congress 
 for the improvement of our rivers, which, (with some 
 exceptions, that I need not here stop to point out,) 
 rest on precisely the same ground with roads and 
 canals. The President undertook to discriminate 
 among them, and to make some constitutional and 
 others not; and the rule which he lay down was, that 
 all which were below a port of entry were constitu 
 tional, and he gave them his sanction ; all above, vio 
 lated the Constitution. The Senators from Indiana 
 made several attempts to get an appropriation for 
 improving the navigation of the Wabash river, but 
 their bills were vetoed. They then endeavored to 
 get a port of entry established higher up the river, so 
 that it might become constitutional to make the con 
 templated improvements. This suggested to a friend 
 of ours in the House of Representatives a most com 
 pendious remedy for the evil He drew up a resolu 
 tion, (I believe he did not offer it,) making the High 
 Lands which separate the waters falling into the Gulf 
 of Mexico from those falling into the Atlantic and 
 the St. Lawrence, one continuous port of entry, so 
 that it might become constitutional to improve the 
 navigation of all below. But ridiculous as these dis- 
 
18 
 
 tinctions were, they served to concentrate power and 
 influence in the hands of the Executive. It caused 
 those who sought favors from Government to seek 
 them through him, and it made his very caprices more 
 potent than the sound intelligence of the nation be 
 sides, backed and supported by the constitution of 
 the country. 
 
 It has been another favorite pursuit of the past Ad 
 ministration, by every means which could be used 
 with effect, either by new legislation, or by new and 
 arbitrary construction, to render the laws vague, so 
 that much discretion should be left to the public offi 
 cers in their execution. I need instance only the in 
 roads which have been made upon our land system, 
 formerly the most perfect perhaps that was ever de 
 vised. 
 
 Instead of regular sales to the highest bidders, a 
 fair competition and equal privileges to all purchasers, 
 and the universal right to make entries after closing 
 the sales, such as it was under our old and well tried 
 system, a set of pre-emption laws were commenced 
 under the last Administration, and continued until the 
 winter of 1835-6, when we succeeded, at last, in ar 
 resting their progress: but we could not put an end 
 to the evils which they had produced. I need not de 
 tail to you, gentlemen, the frauds, the peculation, the 
 lawless violence that had its origin in these pre-emp 
 tion laws, which were feigned to be intended for the 
 benefit of the poor, while, in fact, they only increased 
 the already overgrown fortunes of the rich speculator 
 and monopolist. I look at it here in a different and 
 more important aspect as a measure, a part of a 
 system, whose whole tendency was to put down the 
 law and the power of the law, and substitute in its 
 place personal caprice and Executive discretion. The 
 right to pre-emptions had to be proved before the 
 
19 
 
 Registers and Receivers of the Land offices, and their 
 certificate was generally conclusive of the claim. A 
 legal right might be lost by the ill-will of those offi 
 cers; a claim not legal might be sustained by their 
 favor. In some cases they became partners in the 
 claims which had to pass under their sanction: In 
 others, they contented themselves with advancing the 
 interests of their personal friends and political parti- 
 zans. Sometimes appeals were taken from the deci 
 sions of Registers and Receivers to the Commissioner 
 of the General Land Office; and while our fellow- 
 citizen, Governor Brown, was at the head of that 
 bureau, neither private fraud nor political favoritism 
 was countenanced there. But he was too honest to 
 hold office in those times, and under that Administra 
 tion. His situation was rendered unpleasant ; he was 
 annoyed, assailed, ridiculed, and at last resigned. 
 
 As the measures of the past Administration are to 
 be carried out by the present, we shall, no doubt, 
 have forced upon the country another set of pre-emp 
 tion laws; the vocation of the professional squatter 
 will become again a profitable vocation, and, if any 
 of you venture to go to the West to bid for land at 
 the public sales, with the hope of securing a favorite 
 spot on which to settle your children, your bid will 
 be drowned by the voice of an angry multitude, or 
 yourselves assailed for daring to oppose the new power 
 which has risen up and taken the place of law under 
 the late glorious Administration. 
 
 By means like these, which I have touched upon, 
 but have not been able fully to detail, all the patronage 
 and power of the Government, the power of removal, 
 the Legislative power, the dispensing power, the Ju 
 dicial power all the powers of the Government ex 
 cept the control over the public purse, have been drawn 
 together and centered in a single hand: and did he 
 
20 
 
 leave the PUBLIC PURSE, the other great lever with 
 which nations are moved and directed, did he leave 
 that untouched, or unattempted ? No ; the struggle for 
 that, is too recent, was too long continued and too 
 fierce, to have teen overlooked or forgotten. We 
 see too many of the consequences of that contest 
 around us, we feel too strongly its effects to let it pass 
 suddenly or lightly from our memory. 
 
 At the time of the charter of the Bank of the United 
 States, in 1816, that Bank was made the depositary of 
 the public monies, and also the fiscal agent of the 
 Government. In its capacity as depositary it belonged 
 to the representatives of the States and the people 
 the two Houses of Congress and was properly re 
 sponsible to them alone. As the disbursing agent it 
 was the agent of the Executive, subject to the per 
 formance of certain duties prescribed by law in all 
 other respects it was a private corporation, subject to 
 individual control, and partook no more of a political 
 character than any other chartered institution of the 
 country. So it was considered, so it acted, and dur 
 ing the Administration of Mr. Adams and the first 
 year of President Jackson, no one attributed to it a 
 party or political character. 
 
 But when the new Administration got in power, the 
 possible use that might be made of this moneyed in 
 stitution in cementing the influence or rewarding the 
 partizans of the new Administration was not over 
 looked. 
 
 Gen. Jackson was elected to the Presidency in No 
 vember 1828, and took the oath of office on the 4th 
 day of March, 1829; and between the time of his 
 election and inauguration the first efforts were begun 
 to gain over the Bank of the United States, in which 
 were the public deposites, so as to make it and the 
 deposites the instruments of Executive will. The first 
 
21 
 
 effort was made in Kentucky by certain members of 
 Congress from that State, friendly to the new Ad 
 ministration, who caused a paper to be presented to 
 the cashier of the bank of Lexington, naming several 
 individuals as directors of the branch at that place, 
 who, it was said, would be acceptable to the party in 
 power. The character and standing of the individuals 
 named did not, as it appears from the accompanying 
 documents, stand too high to justify an opinion that 
 if appointed by the instruction of party leaders they 
 would be used for party purposes. The attempt at 
 dictation was at once repelled by the Bank. 
 
 The second effort was made by Isaac Hill and 
 some other prominent party leaders in New Hamp 
 shire, to remove a President of the Portsmouth 
 Rank, because his politics were not agreeable to the 
 party in power. This proposition assumed a semi 
 official character, and though believed to have the 
 sanction of the cabinet, it was rejected without hesi 
 tation. But this rejection was followed by a long 
 and deadly war waged by the Executive against that 
 Rank, which ended in its destruction as a national 
 institution. The first decisive attack is made by the 
 President, in his message of the 7th December, 1830, 
 in which he proposes to organize a bank as a branch 
 of the Treasury Department, with the necessary of 
 fices, based on public and individual deposites, with 
 permission to sell bills of exchange to individuals. 
 A bank in which the public money was to be deposited, 
 with president, directors, cashier, every officer ap 
 pointed, and its whole machinery moved by the Execu 
 tive hand. This is what he essayed to make of the 
 Rank of the United States ; failing in this he then 
 disclosed his purpose to pull down that bank and 
 build up another institution which should do his 
 bidding. Hence followed the VETO upon the bill 
 
22 
 
 rechartering the Bank of the United States. At the 
 time, in the message containing this Veto and the 
 reasons, wild and inconsistent as they were, I saw the 
 fixed purpose of the President, and I saw, or thought 
 I saw, the consequences which would follow the pur 
 suit of that purpose. But much as was said of the 
 injury to our currency, the destruction of exchanges, 
 the general prostration of business and commerce, the 
 suffering of the poor, the misery of the debtor, and 
 all the evil rind unhappy consequences which must 
 follow a shock, such as this which was to come upon 
 our country, I felt that it was all of small importance 
 compared with the danger to our institutions from 
 following out the Executive plans for the assump 
 tion of the public purse, with the other powers of 
 government that he had gathered in his hands. But 
 there was one circumstance which I long hoped 
 would save us from the final consummation of all 
 these mischiefs and the full concentration of all 
 power in the bold hand that was so eager to grasp it. 
 The plans of the President could not be carried out 
 a Treasury bank could not be established, filled to 
 overflowing with the accumulating and increasing 
 revenues, until the year 1836, when the charter of the 
 bank which held the public deposites by law should 
 expire, and within one year of which time his term 
 of service would expire also. It was not to be ore- 
 sumed that any man would succeed him having the 
 will and the POWER to carry his purposes to their 
 result. 
 
 But it was determined by the President not to wait 
 the slow efflux of time. Hence the message of 1830, 
 calling the attention of Congress to the subject of 
 the Bank, or rather a bank, to be built upon its ruins. 
 Hence, his message to Congress in December, 1832, 
 in which he suggested doubts whether the Bank of 
 the United States were a safe depositary of the pub- 
 
23 
 
 lie funds. That it was not in good faith with a view 
 of ascertaining whether it was safe, I infer from the 
 fact that after a full investigation had been made by 
 an agent appointed by himself after a most elabo 
 rate and careful examination by the House of Repre 
 sentatives on the same subject, both of which ended 
 in conclusive, absolute proof that the public deposites 
 were safe, and that the bank was well conducted for 
 the interests of the country, a conclusion in which 
 the House of Representatives almost unanimously 
 concurred ; he set on foot at once, immediately on the 
 adjournment of Congress, negociations and arrange 
 ments for removing those deposites on his own re 
 sponsibility. This was one of his most powerful and 
 determined efforts. To accomplish this he set at de 
 fiance the Constitution and the Laws and a sacred 
 compact of the nation. To effect this, he removed 
 two Secretaries of the Treasury, the one to another 
 department, the other he dismissed from service be 
 fore he could find an instrument subservient and 
 reckless enough to do the deed. This violation of 
 the faith of the nation in a monied transaction 
 this blow upon the credit of the country the plac 
 ing of the immense public treasure in a number of 
 irresponsible banks where it would remain to tempt 
 the cupidity of those who had it in their reach, and 
 awaken an inordinate spirit of speculation all com 
 bined, were decisive of the present fate of our com 
 merce and our currency. Its destiny was sealed; no 
 human power could afterwards save us from the 
 shock, though wise counsels might have weakened its 
 force, and have put off for awhile the evil day. But 
 our doom was from that moment fixed, the day of 
 tribulation was coming and must come, and it must 
 and did come through these new fiscal agents, got 
 up by Executive usurpation. I need not tell you, 
 fellow-citizens, for you all remember with what energy 
 
24 
 
 this act of the President was opposed in the Senate 
 how much the consequences were deprecated and 
 how justly depicted, and how deep the wound that 
 was alleged to be inflicted upon the Constitution and 
 Liberty of our country. They cannot be forgotten 
 they have been kept constantly before the public 
 charged by the agents and advocates of Executive 
 power as effusions of disappointed ambition or party 
 malevolence, while those who urged and those who 
 uttered them have constantly asserted and reiterated 
 the same opinions and renewed the same predictions. 
 It was the removal of the deposites, with all its train 
 of abominations, that the Legislature of Ohio, in the 
 winter of 1834- 5, instructed me to sustain, and it 
 was because I would not betray my trust and connive 
 at a violation of the Constitution of our country, 
 and Income a party to all the mischiefs which were 
 to follow in the train of that lawless act it was for 
 this that I was denounced and pursued by the mar 
 shalled host of political Janissaries. 
 
 Though the disease which has been brought upon 
 our currency has now become so inveterate that no 
 remedy which will be applied can effect a cure, yet 
 it may be interesting for a moment to trace the sev 
 eral stages by which it has been brought to its pres 
 ent degree of virulence. The first blow that was dealt 
 by the Executive arm at the great moneyed institu 
 tion, was the origin of the evil, though its effects 
 were not at once apparent. The removal of the de 
 posites aggravated and hastened the crisis, not so 
 much by weakening the Bank of the United States, 
 as by placing an immense amount of public money 
 in the hands of the Executive and his subordinate 
 agents. Shortly after the removal of the deposites 
 the amount of public money arose to an immense 
 sum, and as it was credit only, it possessed the at 
 tribute of multiplying itself to an indefinite extent. 
 
25 
 
 There was, for example, one million of dollars of 
 the public money in a deposite bank, more than would 
 be probably drawn out in the current year for the 
 purposes of Government ; that bank would therefore 
 lend this million for the purpose of making interest 
 upon it. The money so loaned would be paid into 
 the Land-Offices or for Customs and immediately 
 deposited in the same bank, to be loaned again and 
 again for the same purpose. Such was the course of 
 thin;;- s occurring in numerous banks, which the abun 
 dance of fictitious capital multiplied beyond any former 
 precedent, until speculation, instigated by the fictitious 
 state of things, run out into wild excess. 
 
 The unparallelled sales of the public lands which 
 took place last year, amounting to more than twenty- 
 three millions of dollars, were the legitimate 
 fruits of the removal of the deposites. This is no 
 new thought of mine. In my speech on the Land 
 Bill, on the 15th and 16th days of March, 1836, I 
 advanced the idea, and somewhat at large developed 
 the mode of its operation; and I added, that what 
 the government receives for their land "is not money 
 hut a cheat," mere trash, and that "every thing is 
 tending to a catastrophe similar to that of 1818." I 
 believe I had not the date of the past commercial 
 catastrophe exactly right, but as to the then future 
 catastrophe, no one will say that I erred very widely 
 in my prediction of its coming. 
 
 In the session of 1833- 4, familiarly called the 
 "panic session," (we hear of no "panic" now) Mr. 
 Clay in speaking of the change of the public deposites, 
 likened the Bank in which they had been placed, to a 
 good strong ship, the Constitution, and the several 
 new depositaries to a fleet of "bark canoes tied to 
 gether by a grape vine." He thought they might float 
 awhile in fair weather and on a smooth sea, but the 
 first fresh breeze that passed over them would, he 
 said, send them and their freight to the bottom. The 
 
26 
 
 only mistake in those who predicted the event, was 
 in entertaining the hope that they would not sink so 
 suddenly. But I have often said, and I repeat it, I 
 look upon the injury to our currency the mischiefs 
 done to the present interests of the community, as of 
 small importance compared with that inflicted upon 
 the Constitution, and the danger which it involves to 
 the liberties of our republic. I have not spoken, nor 
 will I speak, of that miserably ill-judged expedient, 
 the Treasury Circular, the last arbitrary act of a 
 retiring despot, intended to strengthen the deposite 
 banks by emptying into them the vaults of all others, 
 but which led to private hoarding and took from 
 those banks more than it gave. I will not speak of 
 it nor dwell upon it: In truth, I sicken at the mere 
 recital of the usurpations of power and the wrongs 
 which have been borne for years by this misgoverned 
 nation. If it were but the miserable, silly experiment 
 of a hard money currency which was, in truth, the 
 object of those who guide the Executive counsels, 
 we might consider it as ended, and laugh at it and 
 at the suffering which it has brought upon us ; but 
 let us not flatter ourselves with such a belief. The 
 hard money currency the new mints at Dahlonega 
 and Orleans which were to coin the yellow boys, the 
 real mint drops, that were to shine through the long 
 silken purses of our farmers, was a mere hoax a 
 tub for the whale. The projectors were never silly 
 enough to doubt how this would all end. They 
 knew, and all of us knew, that it would end in the de 
 struction of the subject which they professed to im 
 prove but they knew also, while the experiment was 
 in progress it would cover their march to absolute 
 power. So far, the Executive has moved on with 
 giant strides toward this object, and will the present 
 incumbent, who is pledged to carry out the prin 
 ciples of his predecessor, go forward in his foot- 
 
27 
 
 steps? If that be his purpoes he will seize upon the 
 present disturbed condition of the country, and the 
 excited state of the public mind and attempt at once, 
 without argument or discussion, to establish a 
 TREASURY BANK which shall be the mere creature 
 of the Executive will. And why, if this be not his 
 purpose why was Congress on a sudden convened 
 after the state of things became irremediable, when 
 their convention was refused, though demanded by the 
 united voice of the commercial community while re 
 lief was yet possible? But let not the friends of the 
 Constitution and of the country be for a moment 
 deceived by any bait which he may throw out, or 
 drawn into any snare which he may set for them. 
 Tf the President be now ready to resign a portion of 
 his ill-gotten and misused power if he will truly sur 
 render the public purse into the hands of the Repre 
 sentatives of the People, let them go hand in hand 
 with him in counting the mischiefs of the past, but let 
 them not compromise or yield up any of the sacred 
 rights and duties with which they are entrusted ; es 
 pecially not by a vote of theirs, surrender the public 
 purse into the hands which have assumed it, and thus 
 make legal the plunder. If their stand be firm in this 
 last crisis, and their effort vigorous, success will at 
 tend them, for the crown and strength of the adver 
 sary are departed. The present Executive may pledge 
 himself to "carry out the principles of the past," but, 
 thank God, the power the moral energy is want 
 ing. The pigmy that occupies the hold cannot hurl 
 the lance nor wear the armour of the absent giant. 
 He has the sword but not the arm to wield it. Des 
 potism, which has made long and rapid strides, may 
 be bid to stand nay, it may be driven back in its 
 footsteps the country, though long misgoverned, may 
 be still saved, if the friends of the Constitution, in 
 every part of the Union, will rally, unite and come to 
 the rescue. 
 
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