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1 Speech of Mr. M'Duffie, On the Subject of the Removal of the Deposites, December 19, 1833 1833

handle is hein.trials/aceu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SPEECH OF MR. M'DUFFIE, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITES. DEC EMBER 19, 1833. THE PUBLIC DEPOSITES. The amendment proposed by Mr. McDUFFIE to the proposition of Mr. POLK, torefer the re- port of the Secretary of the Treasury to the Com- mittee of Ways and Means, being under con- sideration, Mr. MCDUFFIE said- Mr. SPEAKER-I shall now proceed, Sir, to state the reasons which have induced me to sub- mit the resolution just read. In strict justice, I believe that it is due to the Bank of the United States, that the public money taken from its vaults should be restored; but as this would now add greatly to the embarrassment and distress of the community, I have confined my resolution to the revenue hereafter to be collected,leaving it to the justice of Congress to indemnify the Bank for any loss it may sustain by the violation of its chartered rights. I believe that we are under the most solemn obligations to adopt this mea- sure -obligations founded in the highest consi- derations of public justice, plighted faith, and po. litical expediency. The whole public treasure of the United States has been removed from the depository es- tablished by law, by an arbitrary and lawless exercise of Executive power. I affirm that the act has been done by the President of the Unit- ed States, not only without legal authority, but I might almost say, in contempt of the authori- ty of Congress. We were told by the President, in his annual message-and told with great gravity-that the Secretary of the Treasury had deemed it expe- dient to remove the deposites from the Bank of the United States, and that he, (the President,) approving of the reasons of the Secretary, ac- quiesced in the measure. Now, Sir, I do not mean to charge the President of the United States with statingto Congress what is not the fact according to his view of the subject,-but f undertake to assert broadly, that the Secretary -of the Treasury did not remove the deposites, but that to 'all legal and rational intents and purposes, the remov:l was made by the Presi- dent of the United States, against the opinion and. will of the officer to whom the power of removal was entrusted by law. This, then, is the great legal and constitutional question which we are now to determine. Who is it that has removed the public treasure from the depository establish- ed by law, and by what authority has the act been done? I maintain that the President of the United States is the author of this whole proceedingand shall proceed to show that, notwithstanding the devices by which this asumption of power is covered over and disguised, he has assumed the responsibility, or more properly speaking, usurped the power, of removing the deposites. I presume that, on this point at least, the word of the President will be regarded by all parties as conclusive evidence of his agency in the bu- siness. Fortunately the author and the reasons of this measure are not left to conjecture, but are openly disclosed to the world in a printed manifesto; and from what has occurred in the other branch of the legislature, we are now au- thorised to consider that manifesto as an official document, containing the reasons on which the President of the United States--not the ,Secreta- ry of the Treasury--ordered the removal of the public deposites. From that. document I pro- pose to read a few sentences, which are perfectly coiclusive of the agency of the President in this measure. After stating the various reasons which rendered it, in his opinion, expedient to remove the deposites, the President proceeds to add, From all these considerstions the Presi- nt thinks that the State banks ought to be im- mediately employed in the collection and dis- bursement of the public revenue, and the funds now in the Bank of the United States drawn out -with all convenient despatch. Then, towards the conclusion of the document, he says, The President again repeats that he begs his cabinet to consider the proposd measure as nis owm,

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