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whenever required by the Secretary of the Treasury, the Bank should give the necessary facilities for transferring the public funds, and distributing them, in payment of the public creditors, without charge, and should also perform the duties of commissioners of loans.

By section 16, the deposits of the money of the United States, in places, where the Bank and branches may be established, are to be made in the Bank or branches, unless the Secretary of the Treasury shall, at any time, otherwise order and direct; in which case, he is required, immediately, to lay before Congress, if in session, and if not, immediately, after the commencement of the next session, the reasons of such order or direction. And by section 20, in consideration of the exclusive privileges and benefits conferred by the act, the Bank agrees to pay, to the United States, one million and a half of dollars.

From these provisions, it is apparent, that the Bank purchased, from the United States, the right to have the deposits of the public money during the continuance of the charter, an advantage equal to a loan of eight millions, without interest, for which it paid a consideration in money and services; subject, however, to the condition, that, the Secretary of the Treasury might, at any time, otherwise direct. It becomes, therefore, necessary to inquire, what is the nature of this condition.

This controlling power was given for extreme cases, only, and for cases touching the conduct of the Bank. It could not be, that the Bank should consent to pay a large consideration for a privilege, whose duration would depend upon the favour of an individual, or upon events, in which it had no part or interest. The power of the Secretary of the Treasury was limited, by principles of justice, and its exercise must be predicated on some cause affecting the safety of the public monies in the Bank or their distribution for the public service. 404. We have seen, that, such cause for action against the Bank did not exist, and that, its non-existence had been proclaimed by Congress when the safety of the public monies in the Bank had been submitted for their consideration. Resolute to obtain the absolute control of the Treasury, the administration assumed higher ground, overlooking all considerations of contract, all legislative provision for the security of the revenue, and giving to the Secretary of the Treasury, possession of the funds, whenever, in his opinion, “the general interest and convenience of the people required it.

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Thus authorizing the Secretary, and, as we shall see, hereafter, the President, to dispense at pleasure with the laws, the grievous assumption of power in the Stuarts, and which brought the ill-starred Charles I. to the block. This resolution was adopted, with a hardihood for which modern times have no parallel, at the moment when the determination of Congress against the measure was made known.

405. From the time of Washington, the heads of the executive departments have formed a cabinet council, whose members the President consults, either singly or together. By the Constitution, he may require their opinion in writing, So uniform has been the practice of advising with them, that, although the President is under no obligation to consult them, an opinion prevails, that they form, and they are, frequently, called, his constitutional advisers; and the case was an extraordinary one, which was not resolved by the sense of the majority. Their situation renders them responsible to the country; and their influence is, therefore, the safest which can be exercised over the Chief Magistrate. President Jackson, however, upon evidence incontrovertible, has submitted himself to advisers of another and less responsible class; who, from their residence in the palace, have been denominated the Kitchen Cabinet. Devoted to the succession of Mr. Van Buren, they may be considered the guardians whom he has established around the Chief Magistrate, to protect his interests and promote his views. In this secret council have the most important measures of the President originated. The members of the Cabinet proper, since the retirement of Mr. Van Buren, are, occasionally and formally, consulted; but they are content, it seems, with the honours and emoluments of office, whilst, in the estimation of the country, their most important duties are performed by irresponsible persons, who possess the confidence, if not the place, properly belonging to them. Whilst Mr. Van Buren was a member of the administration, no formal meetings of the Cabinet Council were holden. The established practice of every preceding administration was abolished, and the secret machinery of political intrigue was put into successful operation, worked by the skill of the master spirit behind the curtain. No board of consultation around the green cloth was held, where each member was required to unfold his sentiments, freely and frankly, of men and measures connected with national policy. Every effort made to restore the ancient usage of Cabinet Councils, by the devoted friends of General Jackson, was repelled with

indignation, and the interposition ascribed to personal hostility to the Secretary of State, whose selfish policy would have been therein detected, exposed and defeated.

406. The Cabinet Council to whom the President communicated his purpose of removing the government deposits from the Bank of the United States, disapproved of it, and Mr. McLane, the Secretary of the Treasury, the indispensable agent in the business, refused to give the order, and remonstrated, it is said, earnestly and ably, against it. But the advise of the secret Cabinet prevailed. Mr. McLane was translated to the office of Secretary of State, vacated by the appointment of Mr. Livingston to the French mission, and Mr. William J. Duane, supposed to be of more ductile metal, was nominated Secretary of the Treasury.

The low estimate which had been formed of the independence of this gentleman's character, proved erroneous. Though inexperienced in office, he lacked neither the firmness nor intelligence which his place and the occasion required. Believing that the President really thought the prostration of the Bank would be another victory of which he might be proud, and that he was stimulated to consider any means justifiable to attain that end, he resolved to interpose between him and those who were impelling him in his rash career. He, resolutely, refused to direct the deposits to be withdrawn from the Bank, upon the grounds, that, the measure was extreme and arbitrary,-unauthorized by law,-and inexpedient.

407. To Mr. Duane, the President distinctly averred, that his hostility to the Bank was of a party character. "Circumstances," the new Secretary said, “came to his knowledge which induced him to believe, that the removal of the deposits was not advocated with any view to public utility, but urged to accomplish selfish, if not factious, purposes;" and that, an influence existed, at Washington, unknown to the Constitution. "I knew," he observed, "that, four of the six members of the Cabinet, before I became a member of it, bad been opposed to any present action, in relation to the deposits; and I also knew that four of the six members of the existing Cabinet entertained the same views. I felt satisfied, not only, that, the President was not in the hands of his constitutional advisers, but that their advice was successfully resisted by persons whose views I considered at variance with the public interest, and the President's fame." In breaking the intentions of the President, Mr. Reuben M. Whitney, the confuted and disgraced witness before the Bank Committee of

1831, was the President's agent, and Mr. Amos Kendall the expositor of his views.

Now this testimony, of the President's unfitness for his station, of the Chief Magistrate of the Union, being in the hands of a selfish cabal, comes from an unwilling witness; from one who had been an original Jackson man, who had been, and still is, a devoted party man, who is not only the enemy of the Bank of the United States, but of all incorporated Banks, and who has the great merit of sacrificing his personal predilection, his party feelings and his prejudices, to his sense of justice and the public welfare. The testimony of such a witness upon such a subject, ought to be conclusive.

Mr. Duane communicated his opinions to the President, with his regrets that he could not view the proposition to remove the deposits in the light which the President saw it; and suggested recourse to an inquiry by Congress, or to the judiciary. The President commended the frankness of the Secretary, as one may, from politeness, an unpalatable wine; observed that the matter under consideration was of great importance; "that unless the Bank was broken down, it would break us (the administration) down; that if the last Congress had remained a week longer in session, two-thirds would have been secured for the Bank, by corrupt means; and that the like result might be apprehended at the next Congress; that such a bank agency must be put in operation before the meeting of Congress, as would show, that, the Bank of the United States was not necessary, and that thus some members would have no excuse to vote for it. As to the Judiciary, resort to it would be idle, as their previous decisions sufficiently in-. dicated future ones."

Whilst on his northern tour, the President, by a letter from Boston, of June 25, 1833, expressed to the Secretary his opinion that he (the Secretary) would be wisely exercising the discretion conferred upon him by law, by directing the deposits to be made in the State Banks, from and after the 15th September, if arrangements, to be made with them, should be then completed." He added, "It is not my intention to interfere with the independent exercise of the discretion committed to you by law, over the subject." This assurance, which recognized the right of the Secretary, as exclusive and independent of the President, relieved the anxiety of that officer, whose self-complacency had been not a little disturbed, and he complied with an invitation from the Presi dent, to give him his sentiments frankly and fully.

In this exposition the Secretary urged-the contract which the law had made with the Bank;-the confidence which Congress had but a few weeks before expressed in its solvency and its faith,-particularly by the act authorizing the loan to it of nearly one million of dollars, the first instalment under the French treaty, without security,-the want of authority in the Secretary to deposit the public monies elsewhere, and to contract for their disposition and preservation -his inability to assign to Congress satisfactory reasons for such conduct the folly of making rash and unwarranted experiments on so important a matter-the great probability that such an experiment would be indignantly interrupted by Congress-and the great injury which must necessarily result to the commercial community, by the derangement of the currency which would follow the deed. These considerations had been all submitted to the President, in vain, by the preceding Secretary; and the paper containing their recapitulation, by Mr. Duane, was presented to the President on the 12th July.

He displayed, in several interviews, much dissatisfaction with his refractory subordinate; but, at length, asserted, that, he wanted inquiry only; that, the Banks might not agree to the only plan he thought safe, that of mutual guarantee; (a second New York Safety Fund)-that information ought to be obtained, even for Congress, and the Secretary ought to co-operate in collecting it; that he was desirous that Mr. Kendall should make inquiries; and that they might remain uncommitted, (Mr. Van Buren again) until after a consideration of the questions, that were connected with the depositary.

408. Mr. Duane was, thus, induced to prepare instructions for Mr. Kendall. During this labor several modifications were proposed and enforced by the President. The cover of "inquiry only," which had been assumed to amuse the Secretary, was abandoned, and he was distinctly told, that, “the great object to be ascertained was, whether the State Banks would agree to become the agents of the Government on the terms proposed; that if they would, then they would be substituted for the Bank of the United States, as the fiscal agent. With this undisguised declaration of purpose came a very intelligible threat, to the Secretary, of dismissal. And as the robes of office, like the shirt of Næssus is not easily torn from him who once indues them, the Secretary "consented to give up the offensive paragraphs; and after reiterating his

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