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commission is to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States exclusively. Their protest is on such a subject, that no consideration on earth could have induced them to sign such a paper, had it not been for that alarming, shocking state of things, so deeply affecting the public interests. Has not all incredulity on the subject been satisfied? Have not the whole of the population, from Maine to New Orleans, been satisfied? Have not all their doubts been silenced? If there be, on the vast surface of this happy country, on the sides of its fertile hills, and in the soil of its rich valleys, — if there be any spot so favored that distress has not reached it, let the inhabitants of that spot rejoice; but let them rejoice with fear and with trembling, for so sure as the light of the sun, if I may compare what is beneficent in action with that which is deleterious, so sure as the light of the sun will, in due time, penetrate the deepest shades of the forest, so sure is it that the distress which now affects the industry and prosperity of a great part of the country must act everywhere and be felt everywhere. In the opinion of these memorialists, the act of the Secretary of the Treasury in removing the public deposits from the Bank of the United States plainly violates the chartered rights of that corporation. And is it not so? The act is unrepealed. The benefit that was intended to be conferred on the bank for the services it was to render the government is not at present enjoyed by it. It has been deprived, then, of one part, and that the principal part, of the consideration which formed the ground of the contract which has been entered into with the government. How has it been deprived? The courts are open; has it been summoned into them? The law is in operation; has it been made to act on the bank as a delinquent corporation? No. No one arraigns it before a tribunal. Nobody brings it to trial for a violation of law. It exists, has its functions, as a corporation; but it is deprived of one of the principal advantages secured to it by its charter, and deprived for such reasons as are before the Senate and before the country.

The memorialists are not unaware, that, if rights are attacked, attempts will be made to render odious those whose rights are violated. Power always seeks such subjects upon which to try its experiments. The individuals to whom I have reference protest against the executive denunciation of the bank. They

protest against the executive chief magistrate raising, waging, and carrying on war against that corporation. They think they see the cause that has produced their present distress in the relations that have existed between the government and the bank. May we not distinctly see the origin of that controversy which has so much agitated, and still agitates, the country, and which carries so much distress to every family? Has it not assumed from the beginning, and does it not still assume, the character of a warfare between the President of the United States and the government of the Bank of the United States? It has not only been said in the common vehicles of party exultation and commendation, but it has been said within the walls of Congress, that, in triumphing over that institution, in conquering it, in bringing it to the feet of the President, he would earn for himself a more flourishing garland, a more glorious victory, than he won by the battle of New Orleans. The sentiment from which that mode of commendation sprung is easy to be seen. I fear there is a love of conquest, a thirst for victorious struggles, a delight in triumphing, which has brought on the conflict between the administration and the bank, while the interests of the people are crushed between active and defensive operations.

The memorialists think that such a controversy is out of place between the President and the bank, that the origin of his action should be far above it, that neither the bank nor any other corporation should entitle itself to any share of his personal hostility. They therefore protest against the continuance of that war between the executive on the one hand and the bank on the other, as it is destructive to them, injurious to the whole country, and not a little discreditable to its character in the eyes of the world. They protest against the act of the executive in regard to the public treasure, as tending to bring about that state of things which the gentleman from Kentucky has so often presented to the Senate, the union of the purse and the sword. They recognize the chief magistrate as the commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States; they recognize in Congress the power and duty to guard the national resources; and they think that the withdrawal of the public revenue from a place fixed by law, and settled by the charter of the bank, for reasons connected in no way with the safe-keeping of the moneys, but for opinion's sake, is an unauthorized act. After rea

soning, and after inquiry upon the subject, the moneys were acknowledged to be safe. Congress having recently acted on the subject, and having seen no reason for the change, they are of opinion, that the reasons given for the removal of the public treasure are altogether insufficient.

They think that the effect of the measure is to augment the rapidity of a tendency which they believe to have been cherished by the government for some years past; and that is a tendency to increase power and influence in the executive hands. They are of opinion, that the removal of the public revenue from a custody where it was under the eye of Congress to a custody where it is only under the eye of the Secretary of the Treasury, is one great proof of the existence of the tendency to increase executive power. Are they not right? Where are the public treasures of the United States? No man in this Senate knows; no man in the other house knows. The last time that the Senate heard of them, they were deposited in certain banks not created or fixed by the will of Congress. They may have been changed, for aught the Senate knows, within the last half-hour, to some place which it knows not. What was the condition of the treasure six months ago? Was it situated as it is now? Did not every member know where the money was then? and had not Congress an account of it, and could it not see that it was all there? Has Congress any such right now? Has that house, or the other, the power to go to the Bank of the Metropolis in this city, or to the Manhattan Bank in New York, in order to see that the money deposited in those places is safe? The executive has now the possession of the public treasure, and Congress has no control over it. It is a fact not to be denied, that every dollar of the public money, ordinarily eight to ten millions, from the moment of its receipt at the custom-house and the land-offices to the moment of its appropriation under the authority of law, is under the entire, exclusive government of the Secretary of the Treasury, Congress knows not where, Congress has not directed how.

The memorialists think that this withdrawing of the public money from the inspection of Congress, from the guardianship of Congress, and placing it where it is subject to the guardianship and control of the officers of the executive government, is an encroachment upon the just rights of both houses of Con

gress. They protest against that violation of the spirit of the Constitution. They profess themselves to be in favor of a national bank; but that is a matter which they would leave most cheerfully to the wisdom of Congress. They do not insist upon a national bank; that may be a measure of expediency or inexpediency; but they do insist that the law shall be upheld, that the power of Congress shall continue to be exercised in regard to the disposal of the public revenue, and that the public treasure shall be under the authority of those who have a right to the control of it according to law. They declare that, in the present state of the country, looking to the effect of those measures and the extent of the evil, they see no remedy but in Congress; they see no remedy till Congress shall take up the subject, and determine to act by its authority, and establish such measures of relief as its wisdom shall dictate.

Mr. President, I entirely agree with them, I agree with them altogether, that relief must come from Congress, or through Congress. But I wish to say that relief, though it come through the instrumentality of Congress, must have a higher origin. It cannot come from the executive department in the first place; the case is past the surgery of all such practitioners. No state doctors, beginning where they may, or ending where they may, have power over the present affliction of the community. Not one of them can pluck up this deep-rooted sorrow. It is a case in which the patient must minister to himself. The people must take the remedy into their own hands; they must act, indeed, on the case through Congress, but they must act by their own will and their own power.

The spirit, and the only spirit, that can move over the face of these waters, with power to reduce chaos to order; the only spirit that can cause this elemental strife to subside, and the sun again to appear in the east, — is the intelligent, manly, free spirit of the American people, summoned by the state of the country, and by the state of their own interests, to come and put a check to such usurpations of power, and to apply that remedy which they, and they alone, can apply.

On Friday, March 28th, on presenting a memorial from citizens of Albany, Mr. Webster said:

MR. PRESIDENT, I have the honor to present to the Senate a memorial from the city of Albany.

New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston have already laid before Congress the opinions entertained in those cities by men in all classes of society, and of all occupations and conditions in life, respecting the conduct of the administration in removing the public deposits. To these Albany now joins her voice, a voice not less clear, not less strong, not less unanimous, than that of her sister cities.

It is well known to you, Sir, and to gentlemen on the floor of the Senate, that Albany, for its size, is an extremely commercial city. Connected with the sea by one of the noblest rivers on earth, it is placed, also, at a point at or near which many hundred miles of inland navigation, from the West and from the North, accumulate the products of a vast and fertile interior, and deliver them for further transport down the North River, by sailing vessels or steamers. In return for these riches of inland industry, thus abundantly poured forth to the sea, Albany receives, of course, large amounts of foreign merchandise, to be forwarded to the interior, and to be distributed for consumption in the western districts of the State, along the shores of the lakes, and even to the banks of the Mississippi itself. It is necessarily, therefore, a place of vast exchanges of property; in other words, a place of great trade.

Albany, I believe, Sir, has a population of twenty-eight or thirty thousand people. It has given, I learn, on interesting occasions, nearly, but not quite, thirty-eight hundred votes. The paper whose folds I am now unrolling, and which I have risen to present to the chair, bears twenty-eight hundred. names, all believed to be qualified electors. Great pains has been taken to be accurate in this particular; and if there be a single name to this paper not belonging to a qualified voter, it is here not only by mistake, but after careful scrutiny has been had, for the purpose of avoiding such mistakes.

Every man, Sir, whose name is here, is believed to have a right to say, "I am an American citizen; I possess the elective franchise; I hold the right of suffrage; I possess and I