Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-10-14

being foregone conclusion of the fate Of the bill
the debate did not run to any great length. Mr.
WEBSTER opened the debate on one side, to whom
Senator WHITE, of Tennessee, replied. Mr..
HOLMES, of Massachusetts, followed in opposition
to the Message, and was succeeded by Mr. EwNc
on the same side, chiefly upon the practical value
and merits of such an institution as National
Bank Mr.. CLAY addressed the Senate on the
second day, to the effect which we have already
stated, and was succeeded by Senator BENTON in
support of the Veto Message, and in decided CON.
demnation of the Bank and its administration
being the last speaker in the main debate The
question was then taken upon the re-passage of the
Bill and decided by yeas and nays, as required by
the Constitution: the yeas being % and the nays
10, Twothirds of the Members present not having
voted in the affirmative, the bill was finally lost
| This achievement of the defeat of Congress and
victory over the Bank neither satisfied the enmity
of President JACKSON to the Bank nor his deter
mination to master the two Houses of Congress-
| The first session of this Congress having been
brought to close day or two after the foregoing
vote, the second session of the same Congress com
menced on the first Monday in December following.
In his opening Message to Congress the President
recommended that an inquiry be made by them
into the solyency of the Bank and its safety as a
depository of the money Of the people" for there
mainder of its existence The inquiry was made
accordingly, and the House of Representatives, be-
fore the end of the session. passed. by vote of 100
to 46, a resolution declaring "hat the Government
deposites may, IN Meopiaion Of the House, be safely
continued in the Bank of The United States"
Nosooner had Congress adjourned, after this vote,
than the President and (what was then called, the
Kitchen Cabinet set to work to accomplish what
Congress had refused to grant them the authority
for doing. This was no easy matter, for the Cabi-
net proper required to be moulded to the purpose,
onehalf Of it at least being averse to the PROJECT
But, energetic and peremptory in the Cabinet AZ he
eral found means to remove that obstacle to his in
exorable will. He sent the Secretary Of Stat as
Minister Plenpotentiary to France, and transferred
the Secretary of the Treasury to the Department Of
State filling the vacancy thus created in the Treasury
Department by appointing to it citizen Of Pennsyl-
vania of unimpeachable character, and political
friend of the Administration Having thus reorgan-
lied his Cabinet for this especial purpose, the new
Secretary of the Treasury, after being some time in
his Office, was required by the President to remove
the public deposites from the Bank Of the United
States, which requirement, after remonstrance and
expostulation all in vain he felt himself obliged, by
his oath of Office, to refuse, and was forthwith con-
tumeliously removed from Office, and the then At
torney General as promptly appointed in his place.
The Cabinet being now reformed, the public
deposites were forthwith removed from the Bank of
the United States, in defiance of law, and, as we
have shown, of the expressed will of the Represen-
tatives of the People.
A few days before the removal of the deposites
and before the last Of the changes in the Treasury
Department was made-that is to say, on the 18th Of
September certain paper was read to the Cabinet
purporting to assign the I" Reasons of the Presi-
dent" Qor the removal Of the deposites,) the main
and only new ground in which was that a Presi-
dental election had taken place since the Pres-
dental Veto upon the Bank, and that HE the Pre-
sident had been reelected for second term to the
office which he held. Can it be now said" asked
he, that the question of recharter of the Bank
was not decided at the election which ensued p
adding, "whatever may be the opinions of others,
| the PRESIDENT considers his reelection as a de-
cision Of the People against the Bank !" and then
presenting, as conclusive view Of the subject, what
follows:
son the WHOLE the President considers it as conclu-
svely settled that the charter of the Bank Of the United
States will not be renewed and he has no reasonable
ground to believe that any substitute will be established
Being bound regulate has the ascs as they exist
and not to anticipate OF THE LEa1sLA
TIVE POWER for the purpose Of framing new systems it is
for him seasonab consider the means by which
services rendered by the Bank of the United States
are to be performed after its charter shall expire"
The first information that the Public had of the
contamination of this act of violence and defiance
OF the will of the Representatives of the People was
notice in the Washington g GLOBE" of September
goth in the following words:
We are authorized that the deposites Of the
public money will be changed from the Bank of the
United States as necessary arrangements can
| be made for that purpose"
| And the deposites ~ere " changed" accordingly,
as soon as necessary arrangements" could be made
for that purpose
This last shred of history is here referred to- not
because it embraces any thing particularly new to
well-informed persons, but as necessary link in
| the history of the contact bat,roo, AZ r