Chapter XCI

COMMENCEMENT OF THE TWENTY-THIRD CONGRESS.--THE MEMBERS, AND PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

On the second day of December, 1833, commenced the first session of the Twenty-third Congress, commonly called the Panic session--one of the most eventful and exciting which the country had ever seen, and abounding with high talent. The following is the list of members:

SENATE.

MAINE--Peleg Sprague, Ether Shepley.

NEW HAMPSHIRE--Samuel Bell, Isaac Hill.

MASSACHUSETTS--Daniel Webster, Nathaniel Silsbee.

RHODE ISLAND--Nehemiah R. Knight, Asher Robbins.

CONNECTICUT--Gideon Tomlinson, Nathan Smith.

VERMONT--Samuel Prentiss, Benjamin Swift.

NEW YORK--Silas Wright, N. P. Tallmadge.

NEW JERSEY--Theodore Frelinghuysen, S. L. Southard.

PENNSYLVANIA--William Wilkins, Samuel McKean.

DELAWARE--John M. Clayton, Arnold Naudain.

MARYLAND--Ezekiel F. Chambers, Joseph Kent.

VIRGINIA--Wm. C. Rives, John Tyler.

NORTH CAROLINA--Bedford Brown, W. P. Mangum.

SOUTH CAROLINA--J. C. Calhoun, William C. Preston.

GEORGIA--John Forsyth, John P. King.

KENTUCKY--George M. Bibb, Henry Clay.

TENNESSEE--Felix Grundy, Hugh L. White.

OHIO--Thomas Ewing, Thomas Morris.

LOUISIANA--G. A. Waggaman, Alexander Porter.

INDIANA--Wm. Hendricks, John Tipton.

MISSISSIPPI--George Poindexter, John Black.

ILLINOIS--Elias K. Kane, John M. Robinson.

ALABAMA--William R. King, Gabriel Moore.

MISSOURI--Thomas H. Benton, Lewis F. Linn.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

MAINE--George Evans, Joseph Hall, Leonard Jarvis, Edward
Kavanagh, Moses Mason, Rufus McIntyre, Gorham Parks, Francis O.
J. Smith.

NEW HAMPSHIRE--Benning M. Bean, Robert Burns, Joseph M. Harper,
Henry Hubbard, Franklin Pierce.

MASSACHUSETTS--John Quincy Adams, Isaac C. Bates, William
Baylies, George N. Briggs, Rufus Choate, John Davis, Edward
Everett, Benjamin Gorham, George Grennell, jr., Gayton P.
Osgood, John Reed.

RHODE ISLAND--Tristam Burges, Dutea J. Pearce.

CONNECTICUT--Noyes Barber, William W. Ellsworth, Samuel A. Foot,
Jabez W. Huntington, Samuel Tweedy, Ebenezer Young.

VERMONT--Heman Allen, Benjamin F. Deming, Horace Everett, Hiland
Hall, William Slade.

NEW YORK--John Adams, Samuel Beardsley, Abraham Bockee, Charles
Bodle, John W. Brown, Churchill C. Cambreleng, Samuel Clark,
John Cramer, Rowland Day, John Dickson, Millard Fillmore,
Philo C. Fuller, William K. Fuller, Ransom H. Gillet, Nicoll
Halsey, Gideon Hard, Samuel C. Hathaway, Abner Hazeltine, Edward
Howell, Abel Huntington, Noadiah Johnson, Gerrit Y. Lansing,
Cornelius W. Lawrence, George W. Lay, Abijah Mann, jr., Henry
C. Martindale, Charles McVean, Henry Mitchell, Sherman Page,
Job Pierson, Dudley Selden, William Taylor, Joel Turrill, Aaron
Vanderpoel, Isaac B. Van Houten, Aaron Ward, Daniel Wardwell,
Reuben Whallon, Campbell P. White, Frederick Whittlesey.

NEW JERSEY--Philemon Dickerson, Samuel Fowler, Thomas Lee, James
Parker, Ferdinand S. Schenck, William N. Shinn.

PENNSYLVANIA--Joseph B. Anthony, John Banks, Charles A. Barnitz,
Andrew Beaumont, Horace Binney, George Burd, George Chambers,
William Clark, Richard Coulter, Edward Darlington, Harmar Denny,
John Galbraith, James Harper, Samuel S. Harrison, William
Hiester, Joseph Henderson, Henry King, John Laporte, Joel K.
Mann, Thomas M. T. McKennan, Jesse Miller, Henry A. Muhlenberg,
David Potts, jr., Robert Ramsay, Andrew Stewart, Joel B.
Sutherland, David E. Wagener, John G. Watmough.

DELAWARE--John J. Milligan.

MARYLAND--Richard B. Carmichael, Littleton P. Dennis, James P.
Heath, William Cost Johnson, Isaac McKim, John T. Stoddert,
Francis Thomas, James Turner.

VIRGINIA--John J. Allen, William S. Archer, James M. H. Beale,
Thomas T. Bouldin, Joseph W. Chinn, Nathaniel H. Claiborne,
Thomas Davenport, John H. Fulton, James H. Gholson, William F.
Gordon, George Loyall, Edward Lucas, John Y. Mason, William
McComas, Charles F. Mercer, Samuel McDowell Moore, John M.
Patton, Andrew Stevenson, William P. Taylor, Edgar C. Wilson,
Henry A. Wise.

NORTH CAROLINA--Daniel L. Barringer, Jesse A. Bynum, Henry W.
Connor, Edmund Deberry, James Graham, Thomas H. Hall, Micajah T.
Hawkins, James J. McKay, Abraham Rencher, William B. Shepard,
Augustine H. Shepperd, Jesse Speight, Lewis Williams.

SOUTH CAROLINA--James Blair, William K. Clowney, Warren R.
Davis, John M. Felder, William J. Grayson, John K. Griffin,
George McDuffie, Henry L. Pinckney.

GEORGIA--Augustine S. Clayton, John Coffee, Thomas F. Foster,
Roger L. Gamble, George R. Gilmer, Seaborn Jones, William
Schley, James M. Wayne, Richard H. Wilde.

KENTUCKY--Chilton Allan, Martin Beaty, Thomas Chilton, Amos
Davis, Benjamin Hardin, Albert G. Hawes, Richard M. Johnson,
James Love, Chittenden Lyon, Thomas A. Marshall, Patrick H.
Pope, Christopher Tompkins.

TENNESSEE--John Bell, John Blair, Samuel Bunch, David Crockett,
David W. Dickinson, William C. Dunlap, John B. Forester, William
M. Inge, Cave Johnson, Luke Lea, Balie Peyton, James K. Polk,
James Standifer.

OHIO--William Allen, James M. Bell, John Chaney, Thomas Corwin,
Joseph H. Crane, Thomas L. Hamer, Benjamin Jones, Henry H.
Leavitt, Robert T. Lytle, Jeremiah McLean, Robert Mitchell,
William Patterson, Jonathan Sloane, David Spangler, John
Thomson, Joseph Vance, Samuel F. Vinton, Taylor Webster, Elisha
Whittlesey.

LOUISIANA--Philemon Thomas, Edward D. White.

INDIANA--Ratliff Boon, John Carr, John Ewing, Edward A.
Hannegan, George L. Kinnard, Amos Lane, Jonathan McCarty.

MISSISSIPPI--Harry Cage, Franklin E. Plumer.

ILLINOIS--Zadok Casey, Joseph Duncan, Charles Slade.

ALABAMA--Clement C. Clay, Dixon H. Lewis, Samuel W. Mardis, John
McKinley, John Murphy.

MISSOURI--William H. Ashley, John Bull.

Lucius Lyon also appeared as the delegate from the territory of
Michigan.

Ambrose H. Sevier also appeared as the delegate from the
territory of Arkansas,--Joseph M. White from Florida.

Mr. Andrew Stevenson, who had been chosen Speaker of the House for the three succeeding Congresses, was re-elected by a great majority--indicating the administration strength, and his own popularity. The annual message was immediately sent in, and presented a gratifying view of our foreign relations--all nations being in peace and amity with us, and many giving fresh proofs of friendship, either in new treaties formed, or indemnities made for previous injuries. The state of the finances was then adverted to, and shown to be in the most favorable condition. The message said:

"It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you upon the
prosperous condition of the finances of the country, as will
appear from the report which the Secretary of the Treasury will,
in due time, lay before you. The receipts into the Treasury
during the present year will amount to more than thirty-two
millions of dollars. The revenue derived from customs will, it
is believed, be more than twenty-eight millions, and the public
lands will yield about three millions. The expenditures within
the year, for all objects, including two millions five hundred
and seventy-two thousand two hundred and forty dollars and
ninety-nine cents on account of the public debt, will not amount
to twenty-five millions, and a large balance will remain in the
Treasury after satisfying all the appropriations chargeable on
the revenue for the present year."

The act of the last session, called the "compromise," the President recommended to observance, "unless it should be found to produce more revenue than the necessities of the government required." The extinction of the public debt presented, in the opinion of the President, the proper occasion for organizing a system of expenditure on the principles of the strictest economy consistent with the public interest; and the passage of the message in relation to that point was particularly grateful to the old friends of an economical administration of the government. It said:

"But, while I forbear to recommend any further reduction of
the duties, beyond that already provided for by the existing
laws, I must earnestly and respectfully press upon Congress the
importance of abstaining from all appropriations which are not
absolutely required for the public interests, and authorized
by the powers clearly legated to the United States. We are
beginning a new era in our government. The national debt, which
has so long been a burden on the Treasury, will be finally
discharged in the course of the ensuing year. No more money
will afterwards be needed than what may be necessary to meet
the ordinary expenses of the government. Now then is the proper
moment to fix our system of expenditure on firm and durable
principles; and I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of a
rigid economy, and an inflexible determination not to enlarge
the income beyond the real necessities of the government, and
not to increase the wants of the government by unnecessary and
profuse expenditures. If a contrary course should be pursued,
it may happen that the revenue of 1834 will fall short of the
demands upon it; and after reducing the tariff in order to
lighten the burdens of the people, and providing for a still
further reduction to take effect hereafter, it would be much
to be deplored if, at the end of another year, we should find
ourselves obliged to retrace our steps, and impose additional
taxes to meet unnecessary expenditures."

The part of the message, however, which gave the paper uncommon emphasis, and caused it to be received with opposite, and violent emotions by different parts of the community, was that which related to the Bank of the United States--its believed condition--and the consequent removal of the public deposits from its keeping. The deposits had been removed--done in vacation by the order of the President--on the ground of insecurity, as well as of misconduct in the corporation: and as Congress, at the previous session had declared its belief of their safety, this act of the President had already become a point of vehement newspaper attack upon him--destined to be continued in the halls of Congress. His conduct in this removal, and the reasons for it, were thus communicated:

"Since the last adjournment of Congress, the Secretary of the
Treasury has directed the money of the United States to be
deposited in certain State banks designated by him, and he will
immediately lay before you his reasons for this direction.
I concur with him entirely in the view he has taken of the
subject; and, some months before the removal, I urged upon the
department the propriety of taking that step. The near approach
of the day on which the charter will expire, as well as the
conduct of the bank, appeared to me to call for this measure
upon the high considerations of public interest and public
duty. The extent of its misconduct, however, although known
to be great, was not at that time fully developed by proof.
It was not until late in the month of August, that I received
from the government directors an official report, establishing
beyond question that this great and powerful institution had
been actively engaged in attempting to influence the elections
of the public officers by means of its money; and that, in
violation of the express provisions of its charter, it had, by
a formal resolution, placed its funds at the disposition of its
President, to be employed in sustaining the political power of
the bank. A copy of this resolution is contained in the report
of the government directors, before referred to; and however
the object may be disguised by cautious language, no one can
doubt that this money was in truth intended for electioneering
purposes, and the particular uses to which it was proved to have
been applied, abundantly show that it was so understood. Not
only was the evidence complete as to the past application of the
money and power of the bank to electioneering purposes, but that
the resolution of the board of directors authorized the same
course to be pursued in future.

"It being thus established, by unquestionable proof, that
the Bank of the United States was converted into a permanent
electioneering engine, it appeared to me that the path of duty
which the Executive department of the government ought to
pursue, was not doubtful. As by the terms of the bank charter,
no officer but the Secretary of the Treasury could remove the
deposits, it seemed to me that this authority ought to be at
once exerted to deprive that great corporation of the support
and countenance of the government in such a use of its funds,
and such an exertion of its power. In this point of the case,
the question is distinctly presented, whether the people of the
United States are to govern through representatives chosen by
their unbiassed suffrages, or whether the money and power of a
great corporation are to be secretly exerted to influence their
judgment, and control their decisions. It must now be determined
whether the bank is to have its candidates for all offices
in the country, from the highest to the lowest, or whether
candidates on both sides of political questions shall be brought
forward as heretofore, and supported by the usual means.

"At this time, the efforts of the bank to control public
opinion, through the distresses of some and the fears of others,
are equally apparent, and, if possible, more objectionable. By a
curtailment of its accommodations, more rapid than any emergency
requires, and even while it retains specie to an almost
unprecedented amount in its vaults, it is attempting to produce
great embarrassment in one portion of the community, while,
through presses known to have been sustained by its money, it
attempts, by unfounded alarms, to create a panic in all.

"These are the means by which it seems to expect that it can
force a restoration of the deposits, and, as a necessary
consequence, extort from Congress a renewal of its charter. I am
happy to know that, through the good sense of our people, the
effort to get up a panic has hitherto failed, and that, through
the increased accommodations which the State banks have been
enabled to afford, no public distress has followed the exertions
of the bank; and it cannot be doubted that the exercise of its
power, and the expenditure of its money, as well as its efforts
to spread groundless alarm, will be met and rebuked as they
deserve. In my own sphere of duty, I should feel myself called
on, by the facts disclosed, to order a _scire facias_ against
the bank, with a view to put an end to the chartered rights it
has so palpably violated, were it not that the charter itself
will expire as soon as a decision would probably be obtained
from the court of last resort.

"I called the attention of Congress to this subject in my last
annual message, and informed them that such measures as were
within the reach of the Secretary of the Treasury, had been
taken to enable him to judge whether the public deposits in
the Bank of the United States were entirely safe; but that
as his single powers might be inadequate to the object, I
recommended the subject to Congress, as worthy of their serious
investigation: declaring it as my opinion that an inquiry
into the transactions of that institution, embracing the
branches as well as the principal bank, was called for by the
credit which was given throughout the country to many serious
charges impeaching their character, and which, if true, might
justly excite the apprehension that they were no longer a
safe depository for the public money. The extent to which the
examination, thus recommended, was gone into, is spread upon
your journals, and is too well known to require to be stated.
Such as was made resulted in a report from a majority of the
Committee of Ways and Means, touching certain specified points
only, concluding with a resolution that the government deposits
might safely be continued in the Bank of the United States. This
resolution was adopted at the close of the session, by the vote
of a majority of the House of Representatives."

The message concluded with renewing the recommendation, which the President had annually made since his first election, in favor of so amending the constitution in the article of the presidential and vice-presidential elections, as to give the choice of the two first officers of the government to a direct vote of the people, and that "every intermediate agency in the election of those officers should be removed." This recommendation, like all which preceded it, remained without practical results. For ten years committees had reported amendments, and members had supported them, but without obtaining in Congress the requisite two thirds to refer the proposition of amendment to the vote of the people. Three causes combined always to prevent the concurrence of that majority: 1. The conservative spirit of many, who are unwilling, under any circumstances, to touch an existing institution. 2. The enemies of popular elections, who deem it unsafe to lodge the high power of the presidential election, directly in the hands of the people. 3. The intriguers, who wish to manage these elections for their own benefit, and have no means of doing it except through the agency of intermediate bodies. The most potent of these agencies, and the one in fact which controls all the others, is the one of latest and most spontaneous growth, called "conventions"--originally adopted to supersede the caucus system of nominations, but which retains all the evils of that system, and others peculiar to itself. They are still attended by members of Congress, and with less responsibility to their constituents than when acting in a Congress caucus. A large proportion of the delegates are either self-appointed or so intriguingly appointed, and by such small numbers, as to constitute a burlesque upon popular representation. Delegates even transfer their functions, and make proxies--a prerogative only allowed to peers of the realm, in England, in their parliamentary voting, because they are legislators in their own right, and represent, each one, himself, as his own constituent body, and owing responsibility to no one. They meet in taverns, the delegates of some of the large States, attended by one or two thousand backers, supplied with money, and making all the public appliances of feasting and speaking, to conciliate or control votes, which ample means and determined zeal can supply, in a case in which a personal benefit is expected. The minority rules, that is to say, baffles the majority until it yields, and consents to a "compromise," accepting for that purpose the person whom the minority has held in reserve for that purpose; and this minority of one third, which governs two thirds, is itself usually governed by a few managers. And to complete the exclusion of the people from all efficient control, in the selection of a presidential candidate, an interlocutory committee is generally appointed out of its members to act from one convention to another--during the whole interval of four years between their periodical assemblages--to guide and conduct the public mind, in the different States, to the support of the person on whom they have secretly agreed. After the nomination is over, and the election effected, the managers in these nominations openly repair to the new President, if they have been successful, and demand rewards for their labor, in the shape of offices for themselves and connections. This is the way that presidential elections are now made in the United States; for, a party nomination is an election, if the party is strong enough to make it; and, if one is not, the other is; for, both parties act alike, and thus the mass of the people have no more part in selecting the person who is to be their President than the subjects of hereditary monarchs have in begetting the child who is to rule over them. To such a point is the greatest of our elections now sunk by the arts of "intermediate agencies;" and it may be safely assumed, that the history of free elective governments affords no instance of such an abandonment, on the part of legal voters, of their great constitutional privileges, and quiet sinking down of the millions to the automaton performance of delivering their votes as the few have directed.