posing factions; and while he maintained in the insidious but determined hostility of the all its integrity his leading principle of Protec President and his friends, and to the alarming tion and Encouragement to American Industry, attitude of South Carolina, became at once the he brought forward a proposition for the reduc- great business of the session. The nullification of duties upon those articles which did tion party in Congress of course, as such, had not come into competition with those of Ame-little strength; and a bill was reported by the rican production, except those upon luxuries, Judiciary Committee to enforce the collection such as wines and silks. The Committee on of the revenue. The aspect of affairs was Manufactures, through Hon. MAHLON DICKER-now, in the highest degree, serious and alarmSON, their Chairman, accordingly, on the 13th ing. Civil war with all its horrors seemed of March, reported a bill moulded by these impending and about to burst. South Carolina, suggestions, repealing the duties on certain though not formidable by her own power, was specified articles, but maintaining inviolate so closely linked with the other Southern the protective features of the existing Tariff. States, that war with her would, beyond doubt, This bill, however, did little to allay the soon become a war between the North and the feverish discontent of the South. The sec-South; the beautiful fields of our happy countional prejudices of that portion of the country, try must be drenched with the best blood of which are far stronger and more unscrupulous her sons ; distress and agony, beyond estimate, than those of any other part of the Union, were must brood over us for years; and if the Fede thoroughly aroused, and nothing that a desire ral Union should finally be preserved, which for peace and reconciliation could accomplish was an issue scarcely to be expected, a dark effected any thing towards their removal. blot, never to be effaced, must have rested upon Their strength may be inferred from the fact, our history for ever. All these considerations that they had seduced from all his former prin- presented themselves with terrible force to the ciples and professions one of the greatest and mind of Mr. CLAY. He saw, too, that in the most powerful men in the Union: and JOHN C. threatened event of a bloody struggle, final CALHOUN, who had been among the earliest peace could scarcely be hoped without yielding and most ardent friends of a Protective Tariff for ever the great principle of PROTECTION, in 1816, was now found foremost among those on which, in his view, was to be based all the rash spirits who declared that the laws of the national prosperity and happiness for which Union, and the Union itself, should be destroyed America could ever hope. He addressed himbefore the established Tariff should be binding self to the averting of the overwhelming calamiupon the South. The excitement on the sub-ties which now hung over his beloved country. ject was becoming fiercely intense. The His noble heart throbbed with the highest love ground was taken by a State Convention in for every portion of the Union. Sectional parSouth Carolina, held November 24, 1832, that tiality, and that narrow, illiberal patriotism the State had a right to nullify, at her dis- which bounds its sympathies and exertions by cretion, any law of Congress; and the Legis- the limits of a State, found no place within his lature immediately after ratified the proceed-breast. The American Union was his country; ings of the Convention, echoed the destructive he respected the rights, honored the chivalry, sentiment, and declared that the whole mili- and was as tender of the lives and interests of tary power of the State should sustain and the people of South Carolina as of those of his enforce it against the forces of the Federal own noble Kentucky. He gave to the crisis his Government. Measures were taken to carry most attentive thought. He consulted with his this into effect. President JACKSON, though friends, and invited the counsel of those best achis Administration was hostile to the principle quainted with all the several interests of the of Protection, issued his Proclamation enjoin-nation. After the most deliberate study, and as ing obedience to the laws of the land, and de- the result of the most careful consideration, he nouncing armed opposition to them as treason brought forward, as best adapted to the existto the Governinent; and this was answered by ing state of the country, his celebrated Com a counter Proclamation from Gov. HAYNE, of PROMISE BILL, settling the policy of the nation South Carolina. on the subject of the Tariff upon a conciliatory and mutually acceptable basis, until the 30th of June, 1842-when the whole subject would again become open for reconsideration, and

Thus the matter stood at the beginning of the session of 1833. The preservation of the principle of Protection, in opposition alike to

when he firmly believed the increased intelli-ments of ancient or of modern times. It call. gence and experience of the Country would ed forth the warmest eulogies of men of all have removed all effective opposition to the parties, and from every section of the country. principles of Protection to American Industry For years since it has been a standing theme and complete Independence of all Foreign for eloquent applause; and at the present time Powers. By the provisions of the act, the it will not be regarded, as in other circumrate of duties was to undergo a gradual reduc-stances it might, as a fact of no significance, tion up to the time of its limitation, when 20 that so lately as in 1839, JOHN TYLER, then a per cent. at a home valuation was to be its Member of the Virginia House of Delegates, lowest point; and then it was to be left to such spoke of it in the following emphatic terms: legislation as the condition of the country, the " It rarely happens," said he, "to the most state of her finances, and the necessities of her gifted, and talented, and patriotic, to record Industry might demand, and the increased in their names upon the page of history in cha telligence of the people might justify. At the racters indelible and enduring. But if to have time the act was devised, measures had been rescued his country from civil war-if to have commenced by the Administration party to preserved the Constitution and the Union from ensure a total abolition of all protective duties, hazard and total wreck, constitute any ground and a resort to the policy of what was called for an immortal and undying name among Free Trade. The Compromise Act, in Mr. men, then do I believe that HENRY CLAY has CLAY's opinion, would avert this danger from won for himself that high renown." The feelhis cherished system, and would lead the ings of gratitude entertained by the whole public mind to more considerate and better Eastern portion of the Union for his services, grounded opinions upon this vitally important were fully proved by the demonstrations of subject. popular respect and love which marked every With these views, and actuated by as true step of a visit he paid, in the autumn of 1833, and self-denying patriotism as ever moved the to the Eastern States. The time to which, by heart of any statesman of any age, Mr. CLAY its own provisions, the operation of this celeintroduced his Compromise Bill, and upheld it brated act was limited, has now expired; and by the ablest and most eloquent efforts. It though the struggle which, even on its first was accepted by the Southern members in proposal, he saw must attend the revision of Congress, became a law, and swept at once the Tariff, upon the expiration of the act, has from the political sky of our country that black been rendered fiercer by accidental circumstancloud of lowering war which had hidden the ces than he hoped, the sense of gratitude for brightness of its morning star. The storm of his exertions has not been cooled one jot by more than Apocalyptic horror which was about subsequent occurrences.

to burst upon the land, rolled away in silence, In 1832, towards the close of the session, and again the sun of peace, with its gleamings Mr. CLAY, being a candidate for the Presidency of glory and of hope, shed upon the nation its at the next election, surprised his enemies, but brightest effulgence. completely fulfilled the expectation of his The joy which the adoption of this celebra- friends, who knew his unselfish nature and his ted act spread over the land was general, and uncompromising love of justice and of right, of thrilling intensity. From one extremity to by reporting a Bill-referred to an inappro the other, the name of HENRY CLAY was ut-priate Committee of which he was Chairmantered, in connection with it, with the highest for the express purpose of setting a trap to honor national gratitude could bestow. The catch his consciencce,' providing for the Dismeasure of his glory, for this act of his life, is tribution of the Proceeds of the Public Lands not yet full, for the secret history of that act to the several States of the Union. That a has not been written. When it shall be given candidate for the Presidency should not, when to the world, by the hand of some man who so tempting an opportunity was offered, secure mingled in its scenes, then will shine forth to himself the votes of the Western States by from the part sustained by Mr. CLAY, a sacri- advocating the cession to them of the Public fice of personal feeling, a zeal for the best Domain within their borders, was an act of good of the nation, a love of country, and a voluntary virtue, of which they certainly had high devotion to her cause, which, for sublimi- never been guilty, and of which they could by ty and worth, will match the proudest achieve- no means conceive the possibility. But they

were disappointed. The bill was reported by The arbitrary power thus assumed and exMr. CLAY, and supported in a speech of sur-ercised by the President, created the most passing power. It passed the Senate, but was anxious alarm in Congress. It was a stride postponed in the House. At the next session, towards tyranny of the most dangerous porhowever, it had become so popular throughout tent, and on the 26th of December, 1833, Mr. the country, that it was taken up again and CLAY introduced resolutions censuring the passed by an overwhelming majority. It was President for his removal of Secretary Duane, sent to the President for his approval. He because he would not do his unlawful bidding, dared not veto it, for then it would have gone and condemning Mr. TANEY for his remova. of back, and, beyond all question, become a law the Deposites. He supported them with an by a two-thirds vote. The adjournment of eloquence and a power seldom exhibited in the Congress within the ten days, during which its Council Chambers of any nation. The fundadetention was allowed, gave an opportunity for mental principles of our Government were luits destruction too favorable to be neglected. cidly discussed, and their palpable violation And thus it was lost. In his Message of De- by General Jackson was most clearly shown. cember 4, 1832, President Jackson had recom- He pointed out the dangerous tendency of mended the measure; and there is every rea- these encroachments on the public liberty, and son to believe that if any other man than HEN- called, with a commanding voice, upon the Rep RY CLAY, his rival for the Presidency, had se-resentatives of a Free People to crush this atcured the glory of its passage, it would have tempt to defraud them of their rights, and to been signed without scruple or hesitation. set at defiance their will on subjects of the The question of Currency now began to ex-highest national interest. The resolutions cite the deepest interest. As early as 1829, were adopted by a vote of twenty-six to twenGeneral Jackson had made suggestions, vague ty. President Jackson immediately sent in a and indefinite, concerning the improvement of Protest, declaring that he was responsible for the Currency; and in the year 1832 he had the acts of all his Secretaries, that Congress vetoed the bill for a re-charter of the Bank has no right to take from him the control of of the United States. The doctrines of that the Public Moneys, and that he is to be bound Vęto had encountered the warmest condem-in his administration of the government solely nation of Mr. CLAY, for he saw involved in by his own understanding of the Constitution. them principles that must inevitably, if car- After a long and most animated debate, in ried to their ultimate results, establish a pow-which Mr. CLAY made another most powerful er higher than that of the People, and convert speech in refutation and utter reprobation of our Republic into a monarchy of the most ty- the novel and alarming doctrines put forth by rannical character In the prosecution of his the President, resolutions were adopted, declascheme of destroying the Bank, in the Session ring that the President had no right to protest of 1833, the President suggested that the U. S. against the doings of either House of Congress, Deposites in the Bank were unsafe. The and excluding his protest from the journals of House of Representatives examined the sub- the Senate. It is worthy of remark, that ject, and resolved that they were safe. Thus among the names of the large majority by thwarted, the President resolved to remove whom these resolutions were adopted, is recordthem on his own responsibility; and after ed that of JOHN TYLER.

ejecting from office two Secretaries of the On the 28th of May, 1834, Mr. CLAY introTreasury, before he could find a tool sufficient-duced resolutions reasserting his often repeatly pliable for his purposes, through Mr. Taney ed opinions concerning Executive usurpation, he finally succeeded, and ordered the Public and the general policy of the high-handed and Moneys to be removed from the United States dangerous measures of President Jackson, and Bank, the depository selected by Congress, providing for the restoration to the Bank of and to be distributed among the Banking In- the United States of the Public Moneys, then stitutions of the several States. Circulars scattered, by the command of the President, were at the same time addressed to these throughout the several States. They were Banks, directing them to use the money, thus adopted in the Senate, but never acted upon in deposited with them, for the stimulating of the House. This Session of 1833 and '34 was business, and to loan it out to the people, as distinguished by the ability and earnestness they might desire. with which the usurpations of the President

were discussed and condemned; and in all the a close. No candid and considerate man could debates, clear, loud, and powerful, above all contrast the two conditions of the countrythe rest, was heard the denunciation of HEN- that in which he found, and that in which he RY CLAY. left it-without acknowledging the sad change

At the next session, the most important fea- that had come over every interest, blighted ture was the discussion and settlement of our the fairest hopes of every patriot, and cast the French relations. That nation had failed to whole country into a deep shade of despondenfulfil a treaty stipulation for the payment of cy and hopeless suffering. In 1829 the Curclaims of our citizens for losses sustained by rency was safe and equable; our Credit, at aggressions upon our commerce; and Presi- home and abroad, stood upon a level with that dent Jackson, with blame-worthy rashness, of any other nation; Industry and Economy had in his Message recommended measures of were the sure avenues to wealth and happiimmediate hostility. That portion of the Mes-ness; the produce of the farmer commanded a sage was referred to a Committee, in whose fair price in every market; the goods of the behalf Mr. CLAY reported a resolution decla- manufacturer and the wares of the mechanic ring it inexpedient to adopt any legislative found ready sales, and gave employment to measures in regard to the Executive recom-thousands of industrious laborers in every mendations. It was supported in a long re-walk of business; and this great People were port of unequaled force of argument, and was emphatically, and in the best sense of the perfectly satisfactory to men of every party in words, 'prosperous and happy.'

the Senate, who vied with each other in the But the National Bank had now been dewarmth of their admiration for its temper and stroyed. The country had no practical circuability. The resolution was unanimously lating medium of equal value in every portion adopted, and in the early part of the succeed-of the Union. The Deposites of the Governing year the difficulties were amicably ad-ment had been removed from the National Injusted. stitution, where never one dollar of the im

On the 14th of April, 1836, Mr. CLAY again mense amount committed to its keeping had brought his bill for the Distribution of the Pro- been lost, nor one cent paid for its secure cusceeds of the Public Lands before the Senate. tody, and scattered throughout the land in the It was ably discussed for more than two weeks, State Banks; and these Banks, by a Circular and passed that body by a vote of twenty-five issued from the Treasury Department, under to twenty. In the House, however, it failed, the President's direction, had been instructed as was foreseen, through the influence of the to loan it out to the People; every man, therePresident. At the same Session, Mr. CLAY fore, who could procure an endorser, good or made powerful arguments in defence of the bad, filled his pockets with Bank notes; new right of petition, the acknowledgment of Tex- and enormous issues were made, and the whole an Independence, and upon various questions nation at once rushed into the most rash and of local or temporary interest which came extravagant speculations. Land and its probefore the honorable body of which he was so ducts rose to an enormous price; purchases distinguished a member. were made, and debts incurred to an unparalUpon the adjournment of Congress, on the leled extent, and the whole nation finally stood 4th of July, 1836, Mr. CLAY returned to Ken- still, at the height of the phrensy to which the tucky, and, in a masterly speech delivered at Government had urged her, each man owing a complimentary dinner given him by the citi- his neighbor for purchases made at prices he zens of Woodford, he reviewed, in a clear and could never again hope to realize. The moneloquent manner, the whole policy of the ex-ey of the countless Banks that had sprung up isting Administration, and declared his wish all over the land began to depreciate, business to retire from public life. The wishes of his affairs were, of their own accord, tending friends, however, that he should resume his downward, when the catastrophe was hastened legislative duties, and the large majority by by the issue from the Treasury of the SPECIE which, in the Legislature of his adopted State, CIRCULAR, and the crash of universal suspenhe was re-elected to the Senate, induced him sion fell upon the Banks, and all the business to return; and he accordingly took his seat at of the nation was whelmed in ruin, and vast the ensuing Session of Congress. The Admin-numbers of the people into utter and hopeless istration of Gen. Jackson was just drawing to bankruptcy. So complete a scheme, for the

destruction of the country's hopes, could participation in the iniquities of the Jackson scarcely have been devised by the ingenuity dynasty, to carry out that same ruinous poliof man. The derangements of the Currency, cy, and who gave, at once, a signal proof of of course, involved in the ensuing ruin all the his own imbecility and lack of personal indeTariff regulations of the Compromise Act; pendence, and a foretaste of the 'relief' the our credit became stained abroad, and hooted people might expect from his administration, at at home; the States, stimulated by the pre- by a public declaration that he considered it vailing madness, had plunged recklessly into glory enough to walk in the footsteps of so debt and consequent embarrassment, and the illustrious a predecessor.' Driven to the act, whole internal administration of the Govern- by the terrible distress which prevailed ment was corrupted to the core by the prosti- throughout the country, he issued his procla tution to party purposes of Executive patron-mation convening Congress in Extra Session; age, and the crushing supremacy of the Execu- and on the 1st of September, 1837, that Session tive will. commenced. His first act was an embodiThe Session of 1836-7 did little to ward off ment, in tangible shape, and a bold presenta these gathering ills, for the Administration tion to Congress for their legislative sanction, had a large majority in both Houses of Con- of the extraordinary assumptions of his predegress. His Land Bill was again brought up cessor. He devised a bill proposing to place by Mr. CLAY; but the desire on the part of in the hands of the President, and officers apthose, who were looking for the Presidential pointed by him, all the Public Moneys of the Succession, to make political capital out of Union-thus asking Congress to place in his this convenient fund, secured its virtual rejec- hands by law, what Gen. Jackson had seized tion; for it was forced to yield to a direct in defiance of law. The Session at which the proposition of Mr. CALHOUN to cede the land to Message, embodying this plan, was received, the States in which it lay; but, fortunately was signalized by two striking events:—the for the country, this most extraordinary bill defection of a large and most respectable porfailed to reach its third reading in the Senate, tion of the Administration party, and the coawhere it originated. At the same session, and lition of the remainder with the friends of in opposition to the ardent efforts of Mr. CLAY JOHN C. CALHOUN, who had, ever since the and his friends, a bill was passed regulating Anti-Nullification Proclamation of Gen. Jackthe duties on imports; another passed both son, opposed that Administration with a bitHouses, but was destroyed by the contemptu- terness and a power which far outstripped all ous Veto of the President, and a resolution, rival denunciation.

offered in a spirit of truckling sycophancy, of The Sub-Treasury Scheme, as it was called, which few other men in the nation are capa-was, of course, the great topic of discussion at ble, by Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, to Ex- this Extra Session. Mr. CLAY took the lead punge from the records of the Senate the reso- in an opposition to its doctrines, more able, lution of censure upon the President, passed and urged with more determined effort, than on the occasion of his removal of the Public any other measure which for a long time had Deposites, obtained the sanction of a majority come before Congress. Besides the tyrannical of that body. Upon this question Mr. CLAY control of the funds of the Government, which made a powerful speech, exhibiting, in all its this obnoxious bill proposed to vest in the odium and corruption, this extraordinary pro- President, it contained also other no less odiposition, and lashing with a whip of scorpions, ous and dangerous features; one of these was the men who would thus disgrace the honora- a provision that all duties, and other Governble body of which they were such unworthy ment dues, should be paid in gold and silvermembers. thus at once creating one Currency for the use Under these circumstances, the Executive of the Government, and leaving one, acknowlpower having become, through abuse of pat-ledged by that very act to be worse, for the ronage, and all the machinery which corrup- People. The speech of Mr. CLAY in opposi tion and ingenuity could devise, even stronger tion to the bill, was one of the ablest he had than that of the people, came on the election ever made. But the bill passed in the Senate for President to succeed Gen. Jackson. It re- by a vote of twenty-five to twenty, and was sulted in the choice of Mr. Van Buren, a man sent to the House.

pledged, by the most active and influential Here it was fated to encounter a still sterner