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diff --git a/old/thbrs10.txt b/old/thbrs10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8fe4147 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/thbrs10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,548 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of +Thomas Hart Benton's Remarks to the United States Senate +"ON THE EXPUNGING RESOLUTION" + +#1 in our series by Thomas Hart Benton + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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At the +moment that this resolve was adopted, I gave notice of my intention to +move to expunge it; and then expressed my confident belief that the +motion would eventually prevail. That expression of confidence was +not an ebullition of vanity, or a presumptuous calculation, intended to +accelerate the event it affected to foretell. It was not a vain boast, or +an idle assumption, but was the result of a deep conviction of the +injustice done President Jackson, and a thorough reliance upon the +justice of the American people. I felt that the President had been +wronged; and my heart told me that this wrong would be redressed! +The event proves that I was not mistaken. The question of expunging +this resolution has been carried to the people, and their decision has +been had upon it. They decide in favor of the expurgation; and their +decision has been both made and manifested, and communicated to us +in a great variety +of ways. A great number of States have expressly instructed their +Senators to vote for this expurgation. A very great majority of the +States have elected Senators and Representatives to Congress, upon +the express ground of favoring this expurgation. The Bank of the +United States, which took the initiative in the accusation against the +President, and furnished the material, and worked the machinery +which was used against him, and which was then so powerful on this +floor, has become more and more odious to the public mind, and +musters now but a slender phalanx of friends in the two Houses of +Congress. The late Presidential election furnishes additional +evidence of public sentiment. The candidate who was the friend of +President Jackson, the supporter of his administration, and the avowed +advocate for the expurgation, has received a large majority of the +suffrages of the whole Union, and that after an express declaration of +his sentiments on this precise point. The evidence of the public will, +exhibited in all these forms, is too manifest to be mistaken, too explicit +to require illustration, and too imperative to be disregarded. Omitting +details and specific enumeration of proofs, I refer to our own files for +the instructions to expunge--to the complexion of the two Houses for +the temper of the people--to the +denationalized condition of the Bank of the United States for the +fate of the imperious accuser--and to the issue of the Presidential +election for the answer of the Union. + +All these are pregnant proofs of the public will, and the last +pre-eminently so: because, both the question of the expurgation, and +the form of the process, were directly put in issue upon it.... + +Assuming, then, that we have ascertained the will of the people on +this great question, the inquiry presents itself, how far the expression +of that will ought to be conclusive of our action here. I hold that it +ought to be binding and obligatory upon us; and that, not only upon +the principles of representative government, which require obedience +to the known will of the people, but also in conformity to the principles +upon which the proceeding against President Jackson was conducted +when the sentence against him was adopted. Then everything was +done with especial reference to the will of the people. Their impulsion +was assumed to be the sole motive to action; and to them the ultimate +verdict was expressly referred. The whole machinery of alarm and +pressure--every engine of political and moneyed power--was put in +motion, and worked for many months, to excite the people against the +President; and to stir up meetings, memorials, petitions, travelling +committees, and distress deputations against him; and each symptom +of popular +discontent was hailed as an evidence of public will, and quoted here +as proof that the people demanded the condemnation of the President. +Not only legislative assemblies, and memorials from large assemblies, +were then produced here as evidence of public opinion, but the +petitions of boys under age, the remonstrances of a few signers, and +the results of the most inconsiderable elections were ostentatiously +paraded and magnified, as the evidence of the sovereign will of our +constituents. Thus, sir, the public voice was everything, while that +voice, partially obtained through political and pecuniary machinations, +was adverse to the President. Then the popular will was the shrine at +which all worshipped. Now, when that will is regularly, soberly, +repeatedly, and almost universally expressed through the ballot-boxes, +at the various elections, and turns out to be in favor of the President, +certainly no one can disregard it, nor otherwise look at it than as the +solemn verdict of the competent and ultimate tribunal upon an issue +fairly made up, fully argued, and duly submitted for decision. As such +verdict, I receive it. As the deliberate verdict of the sovereign people, +I bow to it. I am content. I do not mean to reopen the case nor to +recommence the argument. I leave that work to others, if any others +choose to perform it. For myself, I am content; and, dispensing with +further argument, I shall call for judgment, and ask to have execution +done, upon that unhappy journal, which the verdict of millions of +freemen finds guilty of bearing on its face an untrue, illegal, and +unconstitutional sentence of condemnation against the +approved President of the Republic. + +But, while declining to reopen the argument of this question, and +refusing to tread over again the ground already traversed, there is +another and a different task to perform; one which the approaching +termination of President Jackson's administration makes peculiarly +proper at this time, and which it is my privilege, and perhaps my duty, +to execute, as being the suitable conclusion to the arduous contest in +which we have been so long engaged. I allude to the general tenor of +his administration, and to its effect, for good or for evil, upon the +condition of his country. This is the proper time for such a view to be +taken. The political existence of this great man now draws to a close. +In little more than forty days he ceases to be an object of political hope +to any, and should cease to be an object of political hate, or envy, to +all. Whatever of motive the servile and time-serving might have found +in his exalted station for raising the altar of adulation, and burning the +incense of praise before him, that motive can no longer exist. The +dispenser of the patronage of an empire, the chief of this great +confederacy of States, is soon to be a private individual, stripped of all +power to reward, or to punish. His own thoughts, as he has shown us +in the concluding paragraph of that message which is to be the last of +its kind that we shall ever receive from him, are directed to that +beloved retirement from which he was drawn by the voice of millions +of freemen, and to which he now looks for that interval of repose +which age and infirmities require. Under these circumstances, he +ceases to be a subject for the ebullition of the passions, and passes into +a character for the contemplation of history. Historically, then, shall +I view him; and limiting this view to his civil administration, I +demand, where is there a Chief Magistrate of whom so much evil has +been predicted, and from whom so much good has come? Never has +any man entered upon the Chief Magistracy of a country under such +appalling predictions of ruin and woe! never has any one been so +pursued with direful prognostications! never has any one been so beset +and impeded by a powerful combination of political and moneyed +confederates! never has any one in any country where the +administration of justice has risen above the knife or the bowstring, +been so lawlessly and shamelessly tried and condemned by rivals and +enemies, without hearing, without defence, without the forms of law +and justice! History has been ransacked to find examples of tyrants +sufficiently odious to illustrate him by comparison. +Language has been tortured to find epithets sufficiently strong to paint +him in description. Imagination has been exhausted in her efforts to +deck him with revolting and inhuman attributes. Tyrant, despot, +usurper; destroyer of the liberties of his country; rash, ignorant, +imbecile; endangering the public peace with all foreign nations; +destroying domestic prosperity at home; ruining all industry, all +commerce, all manufactures; annihilating confidence between man +and man; delivering up the streets of populous cities to grass and +weeds, and the wharves of commercial towns to the encumbrance of +decaying vessels; depriving labor of all reward; +depriving industry of all employment; destroying the currency; +plunging an innocent and happy people from the summit of felicity +to the depths of misery, want, and despair. Such is the faint outline, +followed up by actual condemnation, of the appalling denunciations +daily uttered against this one MAN, from the moment he became an +object of political competition, down to the concluding moment of +his political existence. + +The sacred voice of inspiration has told us that there is a time for +all things. There certainly has been a time for every evil that human +nature admits of to be vaticinated of President Jackson's +administration; equally certain the time has now come for all rational +and well-disposed people to compare the predictions with the facts, +and to ask themselves if these calamitous prognostications have been +verified by events? Have we peace, or war, with foreign nations? +Certainly, we have peace with all the world! peace with all its benign, +and felicitous, and beneficent influences! Are we respected, or +despised abroad? Certainly the American name never +was more honored throughout the four quarters of the globe than in +this very moment. Do we hear of indignity or outrage in any quarter? +of merchants robbed in foreign ports? of vessels searched on the high +seas? of American citizens impressed into foreign service? of the +national flag insulted anywhere? On the contrary, we see former +wrongs repaired; no new ones inflicted. France pays twenty-five +millions of francs for spoliations committed thirty years ago; Naples +pays two millions one hundred thousand ducats for wrongs of the +same date; Denmark pays six hundred and fifty thousand rix-dollars +for wrongs done a quarter of a century ago; Spain engages to pay +twelve millions of reals vellon for injuries of fifteen years' date; and +Portugal, the last in the list of former aggressors, admits her liability +and only waits the adjustment of details to close her account by +adequate indemnity. So far from war, insult, contempt, and spoliation +from abroad, this denounced administration has been the season of +peace and goodwill and the auspicious era of universal reparation. So +far from suffering injury at the hands of foreign powers, our merchants +have received indemnities for all former injuries. It has been the day +of accounting, of settlement, and of retribution. The total list of +arrearages, extending through four successive previous +administrations, has been closed and settled up. The wrongs done to +commerce for thirty years back, and under so many different +Presidents, and indemnities withheld from all, have been repaired and +paid over under the beneficent and glorious administration of President +Jackson. But one single instance of outrage has occurred, and that at +the extremities of the world, and by a piratical horde, amenable to no +law but the law of force. The Malays of Sumatra +committed a robbery and massacre upon an American vessel. +Wretches! they did not then know that JACKSON was President of the +United States! and that no distance, no time, no idle ceremonial of +treating with robbers and assassins, was to hold back the arm of +justice. Commodore Downes went out. His cannon and his bayonets +struck the outlaws in their den. They paid in terror and blood for the +outrage which was committed; and the great lesson was taught to +these distant pirates--to our antipodes themselves --that not even the +entire diameter of this globe could protect them, and that the name of +American citizen, like that of Roman citizen in +the great days of the Republic and of the empire, was to be the +inviolable passport of all that wore it throughout the whole extent of +the habitable world.... + +From President Jackson, the country has first learned the true +theory and practical intent of the Constitution, in giving to the +Executive a qualified negative on the legislative power of Congress. +Far from being an odious, dangerous, or kingly prerogative, this +power, as vested in the President, is nothing but a qualified copy of the +famous veto power vested in the tribunes of the people among the +Romans, and intended to suspend the passage of a law until the people +themselves should have time to consider it. The qualified veto of the +President destroys nothing; it only delays the passage of a law, and +refers it to the people for their consideration and decision. It is the +reference of a law, not to a committee of the House, or of the whole +House, but to the committee of the whole Union. It is a recommitment +of the bill to the people, for them to examine and consider; and if, upon +this examination, they are content to pass it, it will pass at the next +session. The delay of a few months is the only effect of a veto, in a +case where the people shall ultimately approve a law; where they do +not approve it, the interposition of the veto is the barrier which saves +them the adoption of a law, the repeal of which might afterward be +almost impossible. The qualified negative is, therefore, a beneficent +power, intended as General Hamilton expressly declares in the +"Federalist," to protect, first, the executive department from the +encroachments of the legislative department; and, secondly, to +preserve the people from hasty, dangerous or criminal legislation on +the part of their representatives. This is the design and intention of the +veto power; and the fear expressed by General Hamilton was, that +Presidents, so +far from exercising it too often, would not exercise it as often as the +safety of the people required; that they might lack the moral courage +to stake themselves in opposition to a favorite measure of the majority +of the two Houses of Congress; and thus deprive the people, in many +instances, of their right to pass upon a bill before it becomes a final +law. The cases in which President Jackson has exercised the veto +power have shown the soundness of these observations. No ordinary +President would have staked himself against the Bank of the United +States and the two Houses of Congress in 1832. It required President +Jackson to confront that power--to stem that torrent--to stay the +progress of that charter, and to refer it to the people for their decision. +His moral courage was equal to the crisis. He arrested the charter until +it could be got to the people, and they have arrested it forever. Had he +not done so, the charter would have become law, and its repeal almost +impossible. The people of the whole Union would now have been in +the condition of the people of Pennsylvania, bestrode by the monster, +in daily conflict with him, and maintaining a doubtful contest for +supremacy between the government of a State and the directory of a +moneyed corporation.... + +Sir, I think it right, in approaching the termination of this great +question, to present this faint and rapid sketch of the brilliant, +beneficent, and glorious administration of President Jackson. It is not +for me to attempt to do it justice; it is not for ordinary men to attempt +its history. His military life, resplendent with dazzling events, will +demand the pen of a nervous writer; his civil administration, replete +with scenes which have called into action so many and such various +passions of the human heart, and which has given to native sagacity +so many victories over practiced politicians, will require the profound, +luminous, and philosophical conceptions of a Livy, a Plutarch, or a +Sallust. This history is not to be written in our day. The +contemporaries of such events are not the hands to describe them. +Time must first do its office--must silence the passions, remove the +actors, develop consequences, and canonize all that is sacred to honor, +patriotism, and glory. In after ages the historic genius of our America +shall produce the writers which the subject demands--men far removed +from the contests of this day, who will know how to estimate this great +epoch, and how to acquire an immortality for their own names by +painting, with a master's hand, the immortal events of the patriot +President's life. + +And now, sir, I finish the task which, three years ago, I imposed on +myself. Solitary and alone, and amid the jeers and taunts of my +opponents, I put this ball in motion. The people have taken it up, and +rolled it forward, and I am no longer anything but a unit in the vast +mass which now propels it. In the name of that mass I speak. I +demand the execution of the edict of the people; I demand the +expurgation of that sentence which the voice of a few Senators, and the +power of their confederate, the Bank of the United States, has caused +to be placed on the journal of the Senate; and which the voice of +millions of freemen has ordered to be expunged from it. + + + + + +END OF PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT "ON THE EXPUNGING RESOLUTION" +by Thomas Hart Benton |