Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Twenty-Third Congress Page: 2,937
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of debates in congress.
2938
Mabch 10, 1834.]
Virginia Resolutions.
[II. OF R.
removing the deposites "can in no event be regarded as
a violation of the contract with the stockholders, nor im-
pair any right secured to them by the charter/' he again
declares that "the faith of the United States is pledged,
according' to the terms of the section quoted above, that
the public money shall be deposited in this bank, unless
the Secretary of the Treasury shall otherwise order and: .
direct; and, as this agreement has been entered into by
Congress ir. behalf of the United Slates, the place of de-
posite could not be changed by a legislative,-act* without
disregarding a pledge which the Legislature has given."
To whom is the "faith" of the United States "pledged ?"
To the Secretary of the Treasury? Congress pledging
its faith to its own agent and servant! No, sir; but Con-
gress, one of the contracting parties, pledges its faith to
the bank, the other contracting party; and the Secretary
of the Treasury is made the common trustee of both in its
execution.
The relation established between the Government and
the bank, by the sixteenth section of the charter, is a
financial one, ancl its superintendence is confided to the
financial officer of the Government. It would, therefore,
seem but rational that financial reasons and considerations
should govern his conduct; and where the Secretary of
the Treasury has found authority to constitute himself the
general censor of the bank, or the political monitor of
Congress, I am unable to conceive. By. what means of
official information can he pronounce the bank guilty of
But a new and sovereign panacea has been discovered
for all those evils, and for the cure of the deep and dan-
gerous wounds they would otherwise inflict on the consti-
tution. " The President is bound to see the laws are
faithfully executed;" and, r pray you, sir, to tell me what
would have been the effect of the full exercise of this
power, under a plain, fair, and common-sense construc-
tion of it, on the question now under consideration? The
bank charter of 1816 is a law, and the sixteenth section
is a part of it; and the same obligation exists "faithfully
to execute" that provision as any other portion of it; but
that provision confers on the Secretary of the Treasury a
discretion—a discretion for the wise exercise of which,
as has been said before, he is made responsible, not to
the President, but to Congress; and the President, in
faithfully executing the law, was bound, instead of sub-
jecting it to his own will, to shield it from the slightest
invasion or molestation. But this' is not the reading of
the constitution in the school of modern construction.
A "faithful execution of the laws" is now read to mean
a " wise execution of the laws," and a simple ministerial
duty elevated to the dignity of a judicial function. I will!
not consume the time of the House in exposing the fal-
lacy and mischief of such a doctrine. I have heard its
annunciation with sincere apprehension and alarm, but I
cannot be brought to believe that it will outlive the pre-
sent extraordinary crisis, in which an appeal to it has
been found necessary. A kindr.ed pretension, "the ge-
neral welfare," under the darkness and obscurity of which j interference with the politics and elections of the coun-
the rights of.the States were heretofore alarmed and'try? The charge maybe true; it may, moreover, well
invaded, is exploded and abandoned. I trust that this 'justify the issue of a scire facias, or a refusal to recharter.
will soon follow its fate, and that one common oblivion
will rest on both. If, however, it shall survive, then shall
I reckon the days of our constitution as numbered; all its
checks and balances as lost and destroyed; and all the pow-
ers of the Government, as hastening in rapid confusion to
be swallowed in the wide and ingulphing vortex of Ex-
ecutive discretion.
Mr. Speaker: I have now closed the investigation of
this question in its relation to the constitution, and the
principles of the Government. I have viewed it in those
relations simply, separate and apart from persons or par-
ty. I have not charged, I have not designed to charge,
the present Chief Magistrate with corrupt motives or bad
intentions; but the purity of his purpose cannot change
the nature of the act itself, nor counteract its legitimate
I stand here as no apologist for the bank, but I utterly
deny the right of the Secretary to investigate or puss
judgment on them. What would be thought of the civil
engineer who, being charged with the duty of locating an
improvement along a given direction, unless he should
think another more eligible, should make the change, and
assign as his reason that the one originally proposed
passed through a population opposed to a particular
" succession" to the Presidency? Or what of the subal-
tern military officer* who, in time of war, being ordered
with men and munitions to occupy a particular post, and
there to remain, unless, in his judgment, it became ad-
visable to remove them to another, should order the
removal, and assign a§ his reason that the abandoned post
was opposed to the war, and the administration which
and necessary consequences; and long after Andrew Jack- j conducted it? And especially, what, if, as in the present
son shall have passed from the busy and tumultuous; instance, the shaft of the enemy, which was designed for
scenes of life, and history done impartial justice to his!the refractory post, should glance, and sink deep in the
motives, the power now claimed will be a staff in the hands; heart of the country? Sir, the bank may be sunk irre-
of wily ambition conducting it along the path which leads trievably deep in all guilt, moral and political; but let her
over prostrate liberty to absolute power.
Here I might stop; for, solemnly impressed with the
truth of what I have advanced, I am bound by every con-1
sideration of honor and duty to defend the consfitution
from the dangers which threaten it. But, since I am up,
1 hope to be permitted to take a cursory view of the Sec-
retary's reasons for the act which has been done, and
some considerations connected with them.
I will not enter on a labored argument to show that the
deposife of the public money in the bank constituted a
portion of the contract entered into between it and the
Government, to be observed in canddr and good faith.
The country must perceive that, had it not been so in-
tended, it would not have formed one of the provisions of
the charter itself, but have been the subject of a separate
and independent statute; and that, otherwise, the twentieth
section would have provided the payment of a bonus of a
million and a half of dollars, in consideration of the exclu-
sive privileges conferred by the act, and not in considera-
tion of the " exclusive privileges and benefits" conferred.
I need do no more on this point than to quote the Secre-
tary against himself; for, while he asserts that his order
enjoy the privilege secured to the vilest criminal of the
land—let her at least suffer and die according to law.
Had the public money been unsafe in her custody, the
financial interest of the country would have required the
financial officer of the Government to remove them; had
she failed or refused to transmit the funds from place to
place, to meet the demands of Government, the fiscal
operations of the Government would have been stopped,
and it would have been the duty of its financial officer to
select another and more faithful agent; had she violated
any of the duties pertaining to .her fiscal agency, the im-
mediate removal of the deposites would have been just,
proper, and necessary. But has any default, in these
respects, been charged upon her?
Sir, the Secretary has not assigned to Congress one
solitary financial reason for his conduct. He has thrown
aside his leger/'and, seizing on the political pamphlets and
newspapers of the day, has proceeded, in a few hours
after he entered on the duties of his office, to pass politi-
cal condemnation on the bank, and to do—what, sir? In-
flict the punishment called for by retributive justice. In
this country we have been useU to see the punishment
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Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841. Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Twenty-Third Congress, book, 1834; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30766/m1/79/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.