Imatges de pàgina
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365. Appeal of the President to the people.
366. Effect of party operations on the people.
367. Result of the election of 1832.

402. Bank of the United States a depositary of the public revenue.
403. Condition on which this privilege was granted.

404. The administration resolves to abstract the deposits.

405. Cabinet councils at Washington-opposed the removal--which was
sustained by the kitchen cabinet.

406. Change of the Secretary of the Treasury made to effect the removal
-Mr. Duane, the new incumbent proves refractory.

407. His views of the object of the removal-The President's dissimulation.

408. Mr. Duane prepares instructions for inquiry-is compelled to alter

them by the President.

427. Reason of fact assigned by the Secretary for removing the deposits.
428. Secretary not warranted in presuming that the Bank would not be
rechartered-his reasons considered.

429. Public opinion not against the Bank.

430. Reduction of the discounts of the Bank refuted.

431. Charges of mismanagement of the Bank.

1. That it endeavoured to conceal its affairs, by transacting them

through committees, from which it excluded the Government Di

2. That it concealed its conduct relative to the payment of the three
percent stocks.

432. Charge against the Bank for consulting its own interests-Case of

433. Charge against the Bank of interference in politics, considered.

434. Case of the pension agency.

435. Case of Branch drafts.

436. Charge of multiplying branches.

438. He is protected by the influence of the President and party.

439. Remonstrances of the people against the removal of the deposits.
440. Undignified conduct of the President-He is secluded from the people
441. Disposition of the Secretary's reasons in the House of Representa.
tives.

442. Committee of inquiry appointed-Its reception by the Bank.
443. Committee of inquiry from the Senate-How received.
444. Report of the Committee from House of Representatives.
445. Proceedings on the Secretary's resolutions in Senate.

446. Bill for the disposition of the public monies-How disposed of.

CHAPTER XX.

EXECUTIVE ASSUMPTIONS OF POWER.

447. Exposition of the claim made by the President to control all officers
appointed by him.

448. Rebuke of this power by the Senate, as exercised over the Secretary
of the Treasury.

449. The doctrine of responsibility as set forth in the President's protest
to the Senate.

450. Review of those doctrines.

451. President claims the right, independent of Congress, to manage the
Treasury.

452. Senatorial rebuke of the protest.

453. Efforts of the President to engross exclusively the power of appoint.
ment. Cases of the Bank Directors-and others.

454. Case of the Turkish mission.

455. Defeat of the President's efforts to subject the Senate.

456. Success of those efforts in the House of Representatives.-Case of Mr.
Stevenson, the Speaker.

457. Mismanagement of the Post Office Department.

RECAPITULATION.

458. Future influence of the principles of General Jackson-Principles of
the present parties in the country,

I. On the President's right of appointment to, and removal from

office.

II. On the influence of office-holders in elections.

III. On protecting duties and internal improvements.

IV. On the disposition of the public lands.

V. On the veto power.

VI. On the presidential pretence to initiate laws.

VII. On appeals from Congress to the people, by the President.

VIII. On the right of the Senate to seek and expose abuses in public
affairs.

IX. On the obligation of treaties and laws, upon the Executive, and
of justice and contracts, upon the nation.

459. The country again divided into two great parties-the revolution in
progress can be stayed only by reformation-unanimity indispensa-
ble to this end.

TO THE

PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.

FELLOW CITIZENS :

1.. We are admonished by history, that the principal dangers to popular governments arise from the interference of foreign nations, either by force or fraud, in their concerns; or from the corrupt ambition of their own citizens seeking exclusive and forbidden powers. Our geographical position, in relation to foreign states, happily preserves us from the one, but incessant vigilance and activity on the part of the people are indispensable to protect us from the other. The workings of ambition, are frequently secret and insidious and are to be detected only by the closest scrutiny. The grasp of power is tenacious, and demands prompt and energetic means to loose it.

2. Our unique and admirable Constitution, in the distribution of the political power, has provided excellent safeguards against unhallowed ambition; but these barriers may be broken down, virtually or formally; in either case, the union of the Executive department with the Legislative, or Judiciary, or the amalgamation of the three departments will convert our free government into despotism.

3. A change in the form of the Government is not necessary to political revolution. That will be effected when the substantive distinctions in the organs of the Government ure abolished. Thus, if the Executive, preserving the forms of law, but perverting its spirit, seize the public treasure designed to be kept from his grasp-if, by the same means, he convert the agents of the people into the creatures and dependents of his will,-if, by the abuse of official patronage, he control the legislature-or if, by this or other means, he make the judiciary subservient to his wishes, he effects a revolution as complete as if, like, Cæsar, he had entered the treasury with an armed force-like Cromwell and Bonaparte had, expelled the representatives of the people from their seats, or

like James, through another Jefferies, administered vengeance instead of the law.

4. Such a revolution is in actual progress. The administration of the country has combined to vest in the Executive department virtually, the whole powers of the Government; and so far has this revolution already advanced, that its course can be arrested only by the power of the PEOPLE. By the People we do not mean that portion of society in which ephemeral politicians are generated, who, like Esau, will sell their birthright for a mess of pottage, but, that mass of citizens who have no other interest in the Government, than the protection of the great rights of personal and political liberty of personal security and of private property.

5. Our nation, as every other, is divisible into two great classes; which, for want of more appropriate terms, we designate, as the speculative and the practical. The one consists generally of citizens who do not live by the sweat of their brows; but is not exclusively composed of these, embracing labourers who would substitute the work of their heads for the work of their hands. In the speculative class, where leisure and disposition for public affairs exist, our statesmen, great and small, are commonly found. It is the proper sphere for party, and is always divided between the parties of the day; and though formed of a small minority of the people, it directs the national concerns upon ordinary occasions; the practical class, comprehending the mass of the nation, being moved by its convulsions. But when deep interests of the State are endangered, the latter class comes into voluntary action, and possessing irresistible physical and moral force, compels obedience to its will. Generally the individuals of this class, absorbed in their domestic concerns, give too little attention to public affairs. Time is necessary for instructing and maturing their judgment; but when enlightened, that judgment is as sound as it is conclusive.

6. To that portion of the speculative class, unhappily large, which is bound to the dominant party by the possession of official, treasury, or treasury-bank favours, exposition of the errors or crimes of the Administration would be useless-it profits by them; and it may be truly said, that there is no placeman nor expectant of place, whether in a high or low class, priest or layman, who is his own master. Of this truth, we shall give some striking illustrations. But the practical class, whose members neither hold places nor expect them, has every inducement to detect and correct abuses: They

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