day of January last, relative to the president of the United States, the bank of the United States, and the course of Mr. Taney in removing the gov ernment deposites.

"Resolved, That the legislature of New Jersey have not seen any reason to depart from such resolutions since the passage thereof; and it is their wish that they should receive from our senators and representatives of this state in the Congress of the United States that attention and obedience which are due to the opinion of a sovereign state, openly expressed in its legislative capacity."

On the 2d of January, 1834, the senate and house of representatives composing the legislature of Ohio passed a preamble and resolution in the following words :

"Whereas, there is reason to believe that the bank of the United States will attempt to obtain a renewal of its charter at the present session of Congress and whereas, it is abundantly evident that the said bank has exercised powers derogatory to the spirit of our free institutions, and dangerous to the liberties of these United States: and whereas, there is just reason to doubt the constitutional power of Congress to grant acts of incorporation for banking purposes out of the District of Columbia and whereas, we believe the proper disposal of the public lands to be of the utmost importance to the people of these United States, and that honor and good faith require their equitable distribution: therefore

"Resolved by the general assembly of the state of Ohio, That we consider the removal of the public deposites from the bank of the United States as required by the best interests of our country, and that a proper sense of public duty imperiously demanded that that institution should be no longer used as a depository of the public funds.

"Resolved, also, That we view, with decided disapprobation, the renewed attempts in Congress to secure the passage of the bill providing for the disposal of the public domain upon the principle proposed by Mr. Clay, inasmuch as we believe that such a law would be unequal in its operations, and unjust in its results.

Resolved, also, That we heartily approve of the principles set forth in the late veto message upon that subject, and

"Resolved, That our senators in Congress be instructed, and our representatives requested, to use their influence to prevent the rechartering of the bank of the United States; to sustain the administration in its removal of the public deposites; and to oppose the passage of a land bill containing the principles adopted in the act upon that subject passed at the last session of Congress.

"Resolved, That the governor be requested to transmit copies of the foregoing preamble and resolutions to each of our senators and representatives."

It is thus seen that four senators have declared by their votes that the president, in the late executive proceedings in relation to the revenue, had been guilty of the impeachable offence of "assuming upon himself authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both," while the legislatures of their respective states had deliberately approved those very proceedings, as consistent with the constitution and demanded by the public good. If these four votes had been given in accordance with the sentiments of the legislatures, as above expressed, there would have been but twenty-two votes out of forty-six for

censuring the president, and the unprecedented record of his conviction could not have been placed upon the journals of the senate.

In thus referring to the resolutions and instructions of the state legislatures, I disclaim and repudiate all authority or design to interfere with the responsibility due from members of the senate to their own consciences, their constituents, and their country. The facts now stated belong to the history of these proceedings, and are important to the just development of the principles and interests involved in them, as well as to the proper vindication of the executive department; and with that view, and that view only, are they here made the topic of remark.

The dangerous tendency of the doctrine which denies to the president the power of supervising, directing, and removing the secretary of the treasury in like manner with other executive officers, would soon be manifest in practice, were the doctrine to be established. The president is the direct representative of the American people, but the secretaries are not. If the secretary of the treasury be independent of the president in the execution of the laws, then is there no direct responsibility to the people in that important branch of this government, to which is committed the care of the national finances. And it is in the power of the bank of the United States, or any other corporation, body of men, or individuals, if a secretary shall be found to accord with them in opinion, or can be induced in practice to promote their views, to control through him the whole action of government (so far as it is exercised by his department), in defiance of the chief magistrate elected by the people and responsible to them.

But the evil tendency of the particular doctrine adverted to, though superficially serious, would be as nothing in comparison with the pernicious consequences which would inevitably flow from the high approbation and allowance by the people, and the practice by the senate, of the unconstitutional power of arraigning and censuring the official conduct of the executive, in the manner recently pursued. Such proceedings are eminently calculated to unsettle the foundations of the government; to disturb the harmonious action of its different departments; and to break down the checks and balances by which the wisdom of its framers sought to insure its stability and usefulness.

The honest differences of opinion which occasionally exist between the senate and the president, in regard to matters in which both are obliged to participate, are sufficiently embarrassing. But if the course recently adopted by the senate shall hereafter be frequently pursued, it is not only obvious that the harmony of the relations between the president and the senate will be destroyed, but that other and graver effects will ultimately ensue. If the censures of the senate be submitted to by the president, the confidence of the people in his ability and virtue, and the character and usefulness of his administration will soon be at an end, and the real power of the government will fall into the hands of a body, holding their offices for long terms, not elected by the people, and not to them directly responsible. If, on the other hand, the illegal censures of the senate should be resisted by the president, collisions and angry controversies might ensue, discreditable in their progress, and in the end compelling the people to adopt the conclusion, either that their chief magistrate was unworthy of their respect, or that the senate was chargeable with calumny and injustice. Either of these results would impair public confidence in the perfection of the system, and lead to serious alterations of its framework, or to the practical abandonment of some of its provisions.

The influence of such proceedings on the other departments of the government, and more especially on the states, could not fail to be extensively pernicious. When the judges, in the last resort of official misconduct, themselves overleaped the bounds of their authority, as prescribed by the constitution, what general disregard of its provisions might not their example be expected to produce? And who does not perceive that such contempt of the federal constitution, by one of its most important departments, would hold out the strongest temptations to resistance on the part of the state sovereignties, whenever they shall suppose their just rights to have been invaded? Thus all the independent departments of the government, and the states which compose our confederated union, instead of attending to their appropriate duties, and leaving those who may offend to be reclaimed or punished in the manner pointed out in the constitution, would fall to mutual crimination and recrimination, and give to the people confusion and anarchy, instead of order and law; until at length some form of aristocratic power would be established on the ruins of the constitution, or the states be broken into separate communities.

Far be it from me to charge, or to insinuate, that the present senate of the United States intended, in the most distant way, to encourage such a result. It is not of their motives or designs, but only of the tendency of their acts, that it is my duty to speak. It is, if possible, to make senators themselves sensible of the danger which lurks under the precedent set in their resolution; and at any rate to perform my duty, as the responsible head of one of the coequal departments of the government, that I have been compelled to point out the consequences to which the discussion and passage of the resolutions may lead, if the tendency of the measure be not checked in its inception. It is due to the high trust with which I have been charged; to those who may be called to succeed me in it; to the representatives of the people, whose constitutional prerogative has been unlawfully assumed; to the people of the states; and to the constitution they have established; that I shall not permit its provisions to be broken down by such an attack on the executive department, without at least some effort "to preserve, protect, and defend them." With this view, and for the reasons which have been stated, I do hereby SOLEMNLY PROTEST against the aforementioned proceedings of the senate, as unauthorized by the constitution; contrary to its spirit and to several of its express provisions; subversive of that distribution of the powers of government which it has ordained and established; destructive of the checks and safeguards by which those powers were intended, on the one hand to be controlled, and on the other to be protected; and calculated by their immediate and collateral effects, by their character and tendency, to concentrate in the hands of a body not directly amenable to the people, a degree of influence and power dangerous to their liberties, and fatal to the constitution of their choice.

The resolution of the senate contains an imputation upon my private as well as upon my public character; and as it must stand for ever on their journals, I can not close this substitute for that defence which I have not been allowed to present in the ordinary form, without remarking, that I have lived in vain, if it be necessary to enter into a formal vindication of my character and purposes from such an imputation. In vain do I bear upon my person enduring memorials of that contest in which American liberty was purchased-in vain have I since perilled property, fame, and life, in defence of the rights and privileges so dearly bought-in vain am I now, without a personal aspiration, or the hope of individual advantage, encoun

tering responsibilities and dangers, from which, by mere inactivity in relation to a single point, I might have been exempt-if any serious doubts can be entertained as to the purity of my purposes and motives. If I had been ambitious, I should have sought an alliance with that powerful institution, which even now aspires to no divided empire. If I had been venal, I should have sold myself to its designs. Had I preferred personal comfort and official ease to the performance of my arduous duty, I should cease to molest it. In the history of conquerors and usurpers, never, in the fire of youth, nor in the vigor of manhood, could I find an attraction to lure me from the path of duty; and now, I shall scarcely find an inducement to commence their career of ambition, when gray hairs and a decaying frame, instead of inviting to toil and battle, call me to the contemplation of other worlds, where conquerors cease to be honored, and usurpers expiate their crimes. The only ambition I can feel is, to acquit myself to Him to whom I must soon render an account of my stewardship, to serve my fellowmen, and live respected and honored in the history of my country. No! the ambition which leads me on is an anxious desire and a fixed determination to return to the people unimpaired, the sacred trust they have confided to my charge; to heal the wounds of the constitution, and preserve it from further violation; to persuade my countrymen, so far as I may, that it is not in a splendid government, supported by powerful monopolies and aristocratical establishments, that they will find happiness, or their liberties protection; but in a plain system, void of pomp-protecting all, and granting favors to none-dispensing its blessings like the dews of Heaven, unseen and unfelt, save in the freshness and beauty they contribute to produce. It is such a government that the genius of our people requiressuch a one only under which our states may remain for ages to come, united, prosperous, and free. If the Almighty Being who has hitherto sustained and protected me, will but vouchsafe to make my feeble powers instrumental to such a result, I shall anticipate with pleasure the place to be assigned me in the history of my country, and die contented with the belief that I have contributed, in some small degree, to increase the value and prolong the duration of American liberty.

To the end that the resolution of the senate may not be hereafter drawn into precedent, with the authority of silent acquiescence on the part of the executive department, and to the end, also, that my motives and views in the executive proceedings denounced in that resolution, may be known to my fellow-citizens, to the world, and to all posterity, I respectfully request that this message and protest may be entered at length on the journals of the senate.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

JUNE 21, 1834.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:— THE afflicting intelligence of the death of the illustrious La Fayette has been received by me this morning.

I have issued the general order enclosed, to cause appropriate honors to be paid by the army and navy to the memory of one so highly venera

ted and beloved by my countrymen, and whom Providence has been pleased to remove so unexpectedly from the agitating scenes of life.

(GENERAL ORDER.)

Information having been received of the death of General La Fayette, the president considers it due to his own feelings, as well as to the character and services of that lamented man, to announce this event to the army and navy.

La Fayette was a citizen of France, but he was the distinguished friend of the United States. In early life he embarked in that contest which gave freedom and independence to our country. His services and sacrifices constitute a part of our revolutionary history, and his memory will be second only to that of Washington in the hearts of the American people. In his own country, and in ours, he has been the zealous and uniform friend and advocate of rational liberty. Consistent in his principles and conduct, he never, during a long life, committed an act which exposed him to just accusation, or which will expose his memory to reproach. Living at a period of great excitement, and of moral and political revolutions, engaged in many of the important events which fixed the attention of the world, and called to guide the destinies of France at two of the most momentous eras of her history, his political integrity and personal disinterestedness have never been called in question. Happy in such a life, he has been happy in his death. He has been called from the theatre of action with faculties unimpaired, with a reputation unquestioned, and an object of veneration wherever civilization and the rights of man have extended; and mourning, as we may and must, his departure, let us rejoice that this associate of Washington has gone, as we humbly hope, to rejoin his illustrious commander, in the fulness of days and of honor.

He came in his youth to defend our country. He came in the maturity of his age to witness her growth in all the elements of prosperity; and, while witnessing these, he received those testimonials of national gratitude which proved how strong was his hold upon the affections of the American people.

One melancholy duty remains to be performed. The last major-general of the revolutionary army has died. Himself a young and humble participator in the struggles of that period, the president feels himself called on, as well by personal as public considerations, to direct that appropriate honors be paid to the memory of this distinguished patriot and soldier. He therefore orders, that the same honors be rendered upon this occasion, at the different military and naval stations, as were observed upon the decease of Washington, the father of his country, and his contemporary in arms. In ordering this homage to be paid to the memory of one so eminent in the field, so wise in council, so endeared in private life, and so well and favorably known to both hemispheres, the president feels assured that he anticipates the sentiments, not of the army and navy only, but of the whole American people.