that the great staples of the State are without a market; that many of its mines are nearly or quite abandoned; that the manufactures of iron and cotton have fallen off one third; and the products of the field sell only at reduced prices, when they sell at all. "Turn where we will," it continues, "your memorialists perceive one universal sense of present or impending ruin, depressing the energies and darkening the prospects of the citizen."

Now, Sir, if these statements, put deliberately on paper by this convention, and brought hither by its committee, will not convince the administration and its friends of the fact of dissatisfaction and distress among the people, all effort to produce conviction must fail. We are indeed, I fear, attempting a hopeless task. All fact and all reasoning seem to fall powerless on the unimpressible, impenetrable surface of party opinion. Every blow, however often repeated, rebounds from it as from the face of an anvil. Men have become so committed, they have so far stepped in already, all their hopes are so entirely pledged and staked on the success of this grand "experiment," that any change of purpose appears to be out of the question.

I can only repeat, therefore, Sir, what I have so often said, that I entertain faint hopes of relief, till public opinion shall produce it, by some change of public agents. The authors of this experiment have made up their minds to share its fate, to float with it, if they can keep it above water, and to sink with it, if it must go down. They still cry out that all is well, all is safe, all is prosperous, all is glorious; and argument, experience, the importunity, even the supplications, of the people, have no more influence than the idle wind.

Sir, I am happy to believe, as I do believe, that the citizens of the great State of Pennsylvania are awaking to a just sense of the condition of the country. Since all our fortunes are so much connected with her own; since all that she does, and all that 'she omits to do, may affect the happiness of every man, not only within her own limits, but in all the other States; it is natural that the whole country should regard her with interest. I doubt not, Sir, she will examine the conduct of government, and take counsel with her own thoughts about the security of the Constitution, and the preservation of the authority of the laws. I doubt not that she will well consider the present, and

look to the future; and if she finds all well, and all safe, if she feels no evil and perceives no danger, she will repose in her accustomed tranquillity. But if she feels that evil, and great evil, does exist, and if she sees that danger is before the country, it is not to be doubted that she will bring to the crisis her intelligence, her patriotism, and her power.

In acquiring the liberty which we enjoy, she had her full share both of the sacrifice and the glory; and she knows that that rich possession is held only on the condition of watchfulness and vigilance. God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it. In establishing our admirable Constitution, she bore a leading part, and contributed to the counsels which framed it the wisdom of Franklin, and Morris, and Wilson. None can have a deeper stake in the preservation of this Constitution than the citizens of Pennsylvania; and I verily believe that none are more strongly attached to its true principles. It is natural, therefore, that those who think that high principles or great interests are in danger should look to her for succor.

If, as this memorial alleges, the manufacturing industry of the country is depressed and suffering, if it be discouraged, crippled, and threatened with ruin, who shall save it, if Pennsylvania shall not aid in its rescue? Where will it find support, if she abandon it? We have followed her lead in fostering manufactures and sustaining domestic industry, believing this to be a part of her settled policy, interwoven with her system, and that her purposes in regard to it were fixed and settled. I still think so; and therefore I cannot readily believe that she will approve measures which undo all that has been done, or counteract its good effect.

Above all, Sir, I cannot believe that the political doctrines of the times can stand a chance for adoption in Pennsylvania. I cannot believe that men who have been educated in that school, which has been called emphatically the Democratic school, and who hold their political opinions in common with McKean, and Snyder, and William Findlay, will have a relish for the sentiments of the Protest.* When they are asked, Who ought to

On the 28th of March, 1834, the Senate adopted a resolution declaring that "in the late executive proceedings in relation to the public revenue, the President had assumed a power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in dero

hold the public purse? I think they will not agree with the Protest in their answer. Nor has it ever been taught for doctrine, in the school of which they are disciples, that the execu tive power is the natural guardian of liberty, and that it is not for the representatives of the people, or the representatives of the States, to question its acts, or to proclaim its encroachments. Sir, Pennsylvania is deeply interested in that in which we are all interested, THE WELFARE OF THE WHOLE; and if she be true to herself, as I trust she will be, she cannot be false to the country.

Mr. President, we are approaching to the end of a long session, and we are likely to leave off where we began. We have done nothing, and I fear we shall do nothing, for the relief of the people. The government has nothing to propose which even its own friends will support. On what does it rely? A proposition is before the other house, which has been represented as the only scheme of the administration. It is a law for keeping the public treasures in the State banks. It was offered here, the other day, as you remember, Sir, by way of amendment to a bill, and was rejected by more than two thirds. It is put to rest here; nor is its sleep elsewhere likely to be disturbed.

The administration will not consent that the deposits be restored; it will not consent to give the present bank time to collect its debts and wind up its affairs without distressing the people; it will not consent to prolong its existence a single day; it will not consent to any new bank; it will not suffer the public money to depart, in any way, from executive control. It sees employment cut off, but it does nothing to restore it; it sees confidence destroyed, but it does nothing to revive it; it sees the revenue diminished, and dwindling, but it does nothing to improve it. And yet it would appear, that the administration is now desirous that Congress should adjourn and go home. For one, I feel that Congress has not done its duty; it has not fulfilled the objects of the session; it has done nothing to relieve the country.

The responsibility, Sir, must rest where it ought to rest; and we must prepare ourselves, as best we may, to account to the

gation of both." On the 17th of April, a Protest against this resolution was sent to the Senate by the President of the United States, with a request that it should be entered at length on the journals of the Senate."

people for the disappointment of their just hopes, and the disastrous consequences of rash, unlawful, ill-advised measures of government.

Mr. President, I hardly intended, when I rose, to occupy more than a moment of the time of the Senate. I know how many important subjects are upon the table. But this one subject, the general condition of the country, is so superior to all, it is of such overwhelming importance, that every thing else necessarily gives way to it. It has been so through the session; it will be so next session; and it will continue to be so, till the Constitution shall be vindicated, the violated law redressed, the public treasures restored to their proper custody, and general confidence reëstablished. How soon this may be done, it remains with the people themselves to decide; but until it is done, and all done, we shall look in vain, either for an end to distraction in the public councils, or an end to embarrassment and suffering among the people.

REPORT ON THE REMOVAL OF THE

DEPOSITS.*

IN Senate of the United States, February 5, 1834, Mr. Webster, from the Committee on Finance, made the following report:

THE Committee on Finance, to whom has been referred the report of the Secretary of the Treasury of the 3d of December, 1833, on the removal of the public deposits from the Bank of the United States, and a resolution, submitted to the Senate by an honorable member from Kentucky, declaring that the reasons assigned by the Secretary for the removal of the said deposits are unsatisfactory and insufficient, have agreed on the following report: ·

THE act incorporating the Bank of the United States, as is justly remarked by the Secretary, is a contract, containing stipulations on the part of the government, and on the part of the corporation, entered into for full and adequate consideration.

The government became party to this contract by granting the charter, and the stockholders by accepting it. "In consideration," says the charter, " of the exclusive privileges and benefits conferred by this act on the said bank, the president and directors thereof shall pay to the United States, out of the corporate funds thereof, one million and five hundred thousand dollars, in three equal payments"; and in another section it declares that, “ during the continuance of this act, and whenever required by the Secretary of the Treasury, the said corporation shall give the necessary facilities for transferring the public funds from place to place within the United States or the territories thereof,

* A Report on the Removal of the Deposits, made by Mr. Webster, from the Committee on Finance of the Senate of the United States, on the 5th of February, 1834.