convention assembled at San Felippe, received the nomination for vice presiin Texas, in April, 1833, and declared dent. That portion of the party opthe independence of that state or prov- posed to Mr. Van Buren's elevation, ince. Santa Anna, who had made him- named Hugh L. White as their candiself dictator in 1834, marched into Tex- date. The whigs had three candidates Tex-date. as in the spring of 1835, in order to in the field, viz.: William Henry Harcompel the submission of the inhabit- rison, John M'Lean, and Daniel Webants to his rule. In March, 1836, a ster.* number of delegates assembled at Washington, and a republican government was established, David G. Burnet being chosen first president. The victory at San Jacinto was gained by General Houston, April 21st, 1836, and application was made to be annexed to the United States. Houston was elected president of Texas. The Mexican minister at Washington solemnly protested against the proceedings with regard to Texas, and soon after took his departure; but this was looked upon as a matter of no great moment. The question of annexing Texas was only a question of time; it was certain to be accomplished at no distant day. Accordingly, as a preliminary step, in February, 1837, it was resolved by Congress to recognize the independence of Texas, and establish diplomatic relations with it. The population at the time was about twenty thousand; but from that date it rapidly increased. On the 7th of December, 1835, the twenty-fourth Congress commenced its first session. James K. Polk was elected speaker of the House, and the next day the president's message was received. Beside the usual narrations in regard to foreign negotiations and affairs, a very flattering account was given of the national finances, and the general prosperity of the country. The public debt had been extinguished, and there was a balance of some $19,000,000 in hand. The president anticipated a surplus of $6,000,000 over and above the necessary appropriations which were to be made. This surplus, it was suggested, might be laid out in navy yards, or new national works, rather than distributed amongst the states, or "reduced faster than would be effected by the existing laws." The receipt of $11,000,000 from the sale of public lands in the current year was announced; and the need of some great changes in the general land office was intimated; together with the abolition of the offices of commissioners of loans and of the sinking fund. Other topics of the message we need not dwell upon, as the army, the navy, * The venerable Chief-Justice Marshall died, at a ripe old age, on the 6th of July, 1835. In March, of the following year, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Roger B. Taney to fill the vacancy caused by Marshall's decease. the post-office, etc. For details, the reader must consult the document itself. 1936. Notwithstanding the session was prolonged into the summer of 1836, its proceedings were not of very special interest.* One of the most important acts passed was that for regulating the deposits of the public moneys in the state banks. The majorities in its favor were unusually large, and it was approved by the president at the close of June, 1836. "That fatal act," as Mr. Ingersoll terms it, gave direction to deposit all the surplus beyond $5,000,000 in the treasury of the United States, on the 1st day of January, 1837, with the states pledging their faith to keep safe, and repay the said moneys, from time to time, whenever required; (in proportion to their several representations in Congress ;) pursuant to which act, $37,000,000, so called, that is, credit to that amount, were transferred from the national treasury to commonwealths greedy of gain, and who will never repay. By the same act, Congress required the secretary of the treasury to select and employ such state banks for depositories of the money of the United States, as redeemed their notes in specie on demand, and issued none for less than five dollars. Happily, in one aspect of the matter, the pecuniary difficulties of the government in 1837 prevented the deposit of the fourth instalment with the *On the 1st of July, 1836, Congress accepted the trust offered to it by James Smithson, of London, in England, of employing £100,000 in the establishment of "The Smithsonian Institution," at Washington, "for the Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge amongst Men." 403 states, and thus that part of the surplus was preserved to the Union. The effect of this distribution of the surplus revenue among the states was what was naturally to be expected. New banks sprang suddenly into existence, with nominal capital, and the country was deluged with paper money. Speculations of the wildest character were set on foot; and it seems almost incredible, that infatuation, and folly, and greed of gain, should have seized upon nearly the entire community. No scheme seemed to be too wild or chimerical to receive attention, and so easi ly deluded were the people, that prodigious frauds were perpetrated without producing that shock to the moral sensibilities which is always felt in a healthy state of the body politic. A calamitous reverse was, of course, ere long to be looked for, and it came with terrible effect within a short time. The United States Bank, two weeks before the expiration of its charter from Congress, obtained from the legislature of Pennsylvania (at the cost of $2,000,000, in the form of a bonus,) a charter, with its original amount of capital, viz., $35,000,000. But it was found, ere long, that its prestige was gone, and that it could never, in this shape, exercise the vast influence which it formerly possessed. Internal improvements, the patent laws, the admission of Arkansas and Michigan, as independent and sovereign states, into the Union, and the military academy, (against which Franklin Pierce indulged in a speech, which Benton has quoted in his "Thirty Years' View,") were amongst the sub 1836. jects of minor importance to which Congress devoted its time and labor now. There was one bill vetoed, (June 9th ;) it fixed the time of meeting and adjournment of Congress, annually, to a day; and when examined by the eyes of General Jackson, disclosed some unconstitutional provision, about adjourning to the second Monday in May, which led him to deny it his sanction. from free to slave." Some further remarks of the Senator from Missouri may not inaptly be here quoted. Speaking of the chapter in which he has set forth his views at large, he goes on to say: "It relates to a period when a new point of departure was taken on the slave question; when the question was carried into Congress, with avowed alternatives of dissolving the Union; and conducted in a way to show that dissoThe subject of slavery came before lution was an object to be attained, not Congress again, and gave rise to much prevented; and this being the starting excitement. It was brought on by the point of the slavery agitation, which has presentation of memorials praying that since menaced the Union, it is right slavery be abolished in the District of that every citizen should have a clear Columbia, over which, it was pleaded, view of its origin, progress, and design. Congress had entire authority. John From the beginning of the Missouri Quincy Adams took an active share in controversy, up to the year 1835, the this whole matter, and planted himself author of this View looked to the north upon the inalienable right of petition; as the point of danger from the slavery but the southern influence was too agitation; since that time, he has looked | strong for the abolitionist memorialists to the south for that danger, as Mr. to obtain anything. Congress refused Madison did two years earlier. Equally to interfere with slavery in the district, opposed to it in either quarter, he has and resolved to lay upon the table, opposed it in both.' without printing or reference, or taking any action whatever on them, all petitions, etc., "relating in any way to the subject of slavery, or the abolition of slavery." Congress was also called upon to consider this exciting topic in connection with the admission of Arkansas; and with a change in the boundary line of Missouri, effected through Mr. Benton's exertions, he assures us; which was accomplished," as he writes, "by the extraordinary process of altering a compromise line, intended to be perpetual, and the reconversion of soil, which had 66 Congress closed its session on the 4th of July, 1836. On the 11th of the same month, a circular was issued by the secretary of the treasury, "by order of the president," instructing the receivers of public money to take silver and gold alone (with the exception of Virginia land scrip in certain cases) in payment for the public lands. It had been attempted, in April, by means of Mr. Benton, to secure this object by a joint resolution of the two Houses 1836. of Congress; but the Senate refusing to entertain the proposal, it was been slave and made free, back again * See Benton's "Thirty Years' View," vol. i. p. 623. CH. II.] BENTON'S EXPUNGING RESOLUTION. left to the president to act on his own responsibility in this matter. numerous; 405 elect one of the two highest on the roll, and Johnson was accordingly placed in the vacant chair. 1836. Large purchases of public lands had been made on speculation, principally The twenty-fourth Congress met for through the facilities afforded by the its second session on the 5th of Decemstate banks; and the immediate effect ber, 1836, and General Jackson sent in of this order was necessarily to make his last annual message on the following specie abundant in the states where the day. It gave a very favorable account of purchasers of public lands were most the state of affairs, and showed over and to make it scarce in the that a large surplus$41,000,000--would be in the treasury on the 1st of January, 1837. The specie circular was defended; the operation of the local banks as fiscal agents of the government, was highly praised; a number of recommendations on various subjects were made; and the message concluded with the president's thanking his fellow-citizens for their partiality and indulgence, in which he had "found encouragement and support in the many difficult and trying scenes through which it had been his lot to pass during his public career.” older states, where trade and commerce During the autumn, the presidential election took place, and resulted as follows: Martin Van Buren received one hundred and seventy votes; General Harrison, seventy-three; Hugh L. White, twenty-six; Daniel Webster, fourteen; and W. P. Mangum, eleven. For the vice presidency, R. M. Johnson received one hundred and forty-seven; Francis Granger, seventy-seven; John Tyler, forty-seven; and William Smith, twenty-three. No election having been made for vice president, when the votes were counted, the Senate proceeded to 1837. Senator Benton's famous "expunging resolution" gave rise to animated debate, but it was carried on the 16th of January, 1837. Nearly three years before (see p. 396) the Senate had condemned General Jackson for removing the deposits from the United States Bank; and Mr. Benton, with unabated zeal, had labored to have the record of this condemnation effaced from the journal of the Senate. It was accordingly done, amid no little excitement, and broad black lines were drawn round the offensive resolution, by the secretary of the Senate, and across it these words were written, "expunged by order of the Senate, this 16th day of January, 1837." The vote wards. on the expunging resolution was twen- in his possession, thus preventing its bety-four to nineteen.* coming a law. His reasons were pubA vigorous attempt was made to re-lished in the "Globe" a few days afterscind the treasury circular respecting specie payments for land sales. A resolution to this effect having been referred to the committee on public lands, a bill was reported, purporting the designation and limitation of the funds receivable for the revenues of the United States, and, in fact, providing for the reception of the notes of specie-paying banks, in certain cases. Mr. Benton, the "hard money" man, vehemently opposed it, but it passed by an overwhelming majority-forty-one against five. In the House an attempt was made to amend it, so as to save the specie circular, but it failed; a hundred and forty-three Representatives voted. for the bill as it came from the Senate, and only fifty-nine against it. On the last day but one of the session it was sent to the president, who retained it * "The gratification of General Jackson was extreme. He gave a grand dinner to the expungers (as they were called) and their wives; and being too weak to sit ing mercy' of his civil, as New Orleans had been of his military life."-Benton's "Thirty Years' View," vol. - P. 731. Few acts of general interest having been passed during the session, the twenty-fourth Congress reached its termination on the 3d of March, 1837. At the same time General Jackson finished his eight years of public service, and gave way to his successor. The events of these years are too near the day on which we are writing to be impartially viewed, and calmly judged, as they will be by the future historian of our country. Hence we do not attempt any review of Jackson's administration, being conscious that it would be of no avail. The ardent admirers and partizans of the hero of New Orleans would be satisfied with nothing less than an unqualified laudation; and on the other hand, his political enemies would receive as justly due no sentence short of condemnation of his acts and his principles. Let the reader of these pages judge, from the narrative of facts now before him, and let him meditate upon the life and career of the man whom so many thousands of Americans have regarded with an enthusiastic admiration, unequalled in the annals of our country. |