Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1834-01-23
on oress of The United States
From the National Intclligencer.
SPEECH OF Mr.. CLAY.


III SPEECH OF Mr.. CLAY.
the United States Senate, Monday,
II Dec. 80, 1888, on has second Reso-
lutiou. relative TO The removal Of the
DepoSites. :.
Mr.. CLAY resumed his speech.
before proceed to consideration oil
he Report of the Secretary of the
treasury, and the second resolution,
rish to anticipate and answer an OBJ
ec,ion, which may be made to the a.
EoOtion of the first. 1t may be urged
hal the Senate, being, in certain con-
ngency, a court of impeachment,
kught not to PREJUDICE question which
may be called upon to decide judici-
lIy. But by the Constitution, the
Senate has three characters, legisla-
i've, executive, and judicial. Its ordi-
barry, and by far its most important,
character, is that of its being a compo-
tent part of the Legislative Depart
nent. Only three or four cases, since
he establishment Of the Government,
that is, during a period of near half a
Eentury,) have occurred, in which it
WAS necessary that the Senate should
bet as judicial tribunal, the least i'm
portant of all its characters. Now it
would be most strange, if, when its
Constitutional powers were assaulted, it
could not assert and vindicate them,
because, by possibility, it might be re-
CURED to act as court of justice.
The first resolution asserts, only, that
the President has assumed the exercise
Of a power over the public treasury not
granted by the Constitution and laws.
/ It is silent as to motive; and, without
the quo animo-the deliberate purpose
| Of usurpation-the President would not
be liable to impeachment. But if
Concurrence Of all the elements be ne
|cessary to make out charge of wilful
|yolation OF the Constitution, does any
lone believe that the President will now
|be impeached? And shall we silently
|Slt by, and see ourselves strpt Of one
of the most essential of our legislative
powers, and the exercise of it assumed
by the President, to whom it is not
delegated, without effort to maintain
BIT, because, against all human probabi-
Pity, he may be hereafter impeached!
The Report of the Secretary OF the
Treasury, in the first paragraph, CON-
mences with mis-statement of the
fact. He says 81 haze directed" that
the deposites of the money Of the Uni
ted States shall not be made in the
Bank of the United States. If this as.
sertlon is regarded in any other than
mere formal sense, it is not true. The
Secretary may have been the instru-
ment, the clerk, the automaton, in
whose name the order was issued; but
the measure was that of the President,
by whose authority or command the
order was given; and Of this we have
the highest and most authentic evil
dence. The President has told the
world that the measure was his own;
and that he took it upon his own re-
sponsibility. And he has exonerated
his Cabinet from all responsibility a.
bout it. The Secretary ought to have
frankly disclosed all the circumstances
OF the case, and told the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
II he had done so, he would have in
formed Congress that the removal had
been decided by the President on the
18th Of September last: that it had
been announced to the public on the
10th; and that Mr.. Duane remained
IN office until the 23d. He would have
informed Congress that this important
measure was decided before he enter
ed into his new office, and was the
cause of his appointment. Yes, sir;
the present Secretary stood by, wit
ness to the struggle in the mind of his
predecessor, between his attachment to
the President, and his duty to the coun-
try; saw him dismissed from office be-
cause he would not violate the consci-
entlous obligations, and came into Mr..
Duane's place, to do what he could not
honsrably, and would not perform.
A son of one Of the fathers of demo-
cracy, by an administration profess
ing to be democratic, was expelled
from office, and his place supplied by a
gentleman who, throughout his whole
career, has been uniformly opposed TO
democracy! A gentleman who, at an.
other epoch of the Republic, when it
was threatened with civil war and dis
solution o. the Union, voted, (although
resident of a slave State, in the Le-
glsiature OF Maryland, against the adj
mission of Missouri into the Union,
without restriction incompatible with
her rights as a member the Confede-
racy." Mr.. Duane was dismissed be.
THE following is the proceeding TO which Mr.
CLAY referred: "Resolved, BY the General AS
sembly Of Maryland, that the Senators and Re