SENATE.] Expunging Resolution. [JANUARY, 1837. there, at any time, any other regular and legal | members who may demand it, to the entry and proof of any act done by the Senate than the journal itself? The idea, therefore, that the Senate is bound to preserve its journal only until it is published, and then may alter, mutilate, or destroy it at pleasure, appears to us one of the most extraordinary sentiments ever advanced. We are deeply grateful to those friends who have shown, with so much clearness, that all the precedents relied on to justify or to excuse this proceeding, are either not to the purpose, or, from the times and circumstances at and under which they happened, are no way entitled to respect in a free Government existing under a written constitution. But, for ourselves, we stand on the plain words of that constitution itself. A thousand precedents elsewhere made, whether ancient or modern, can neither rescind, nor control, nor explain away, these words. The words are, "each House shall KEEP a journal of its proceedings." No gloss, no ingenuity, no specious interpretation, and much less can any fair or just reasoning, reconcile the process of expunging with the plain meaning of these words to the satisfaction of the common sense and honest understanding of mankind. If the Senate may now expunge one part of the journal of a former session, it may, with equal authority, expunge another part, or the whole. It may expunge the entire record of any one session, or of all sessions. It seems to us inconceivable how any men can regard such a power, and its exercise at pleasure, as consistent with the injunction of the constitution. It can make no difference what is the completeness or incompleteness of the act of expunging, or by what means done, whether by erasure, obliteration, or defacement; if by defacement, as here proposed, whether one word or many words are written on the face of the record; whether little ink or much ink is shed on the paper; or whether some part, or the whole, of the original written journal may yet by possibility be traced. If the act done be an act to expunge, to blot out, obliterate, to erase the record, then the record is expunged, blotted out, obliterated, and erased. And mutilation and alteration violate the record as much as obliteration or erasure. A record, subsequently altered, is not the original record. It no longer gives a just account of the proceedings of the Senate. It is no longer true. It is, in short, no journal of the real and actual proceedings of the Senate, such as the constitution says each House shall keep. The constitution, therefore, is, in our deliberate judgment, violated by this proceeding in the most plain and open manner. The constitution, moreover, provides that the yeas and nays, on any question, shall, at the request of one-fifth of the members present, be entered on the journal. This provision, most manifestly, gives a personal right to those preservation of their votes on the record of the proceedings of the body, not for one day or one year only, but for all time. There the yeas and nays are to stand, forever, as permanent and lasting proof of the manner in which members have voted on great and important questions before them. But it is now insisted that the votes of members, taken by yeas and nays, and thus entered on the journal, as matter of right, may still be expunged; so that that, which it requires more than four-fifths of the Senators to prevent from being put on the journal, may, nevertheless, be struck off, and erased, the next moment, or at any period afterwards, by the will of a mere majority; or, if this be not admitted, then the absurdity is adopted of maintaining that this provision of the constitution is fulfilled by merely preserving the yeas and nays on the journal, after having expunged and obliterated the very resolution, or the very question, on which they were given, and to which alone they refer; leaving the yeas and nays thus a mere list of names, connected with no subject, no question, no vote. We put it to the impartial judgment of mankind, if this proceeding be not, in this respect also, directly and palpably inconsistent with the constitution. We protest, in the most solemn manner, that other Senators have no authority to deprive us of our personal rights, secured to us by the constitution, either by expunging, or obliterating, or mutilating, or defacing, the record of our votes, duly entered by yeas and nays; or by expunging and obliterating the resolutions or questions on which those votes were given and recorded. We have seen, with deep and sincere pain, the Legislatures of respectable States instructing the Senators of those States to vote for and support this violation of the journal of the Senate; and this pain is infinitely increased by our full belief, and entire conviction, that most, if not all these proceedings of States, had their origin in promptings from Washington; that they have been urgently requested and insisted on as being necessary to the accomplishment of the intended purpose; and that it is nothing else but the influence and power of the executive branch of this Government which has brought the Legislatures of so many of the free States of this Union to quit the sphere of their ordinary duties, for the purpose of co-operating to accomplish a measure, in our judgment, so unconstitutional, so derogatory to the character of the Senate, and marked with so broad an impression of compliance with power. But this resolution is to pass. We expect it. That cause, which has been powerful enough to influence so many State Legislatures, will show itself powerful enough, especially with such aids, to secure the passage of the resolution here. We make up our minds to behold the spectable which is to ensue. [SENATE. Resolved, That by dismissing the late Secretary of the Treasury, because he would not, contrary to his own sense of duty, remove the money of the United States in deposit with the Bank of the United States and its branches, in conformity with the Presieffect such removal, which has been done, the President's opinion, and by appointing his successor to dent has assumed the exercise of a power over the Treasury of the United States not granted him by the constitution and laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the people; " "Resolved, That, in taking upon himself the responsibility of removing the deposit of the public money from the Bank of the United States, the President of the United States has assumed the exercise of a power over the Treasury of the United States not granted to him by the constitution and laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the people; " Which resolve, so changed and modified by the tioned, was further altered, so as to read in these mover thereof, on the same day and year last menwords: We collect ourselves to look on, in silence, | year 1833, the following resolve was moved by the while a scene is exhibited which, if we did not Senate: regard it as ruthless violation of a sacred instrument, would appear to us to be little elevated above the character of a contemptible farce. The scene we shall behold, and hundreds of American citizens, as many as may crowd into these lobbies and galleries, will behold it also: with what feelings, I do not undertake to say. But we PROTEST, we most solemnly PROTEST, against the substance and against the manner of this proceeding, against its object, against its form, and against its effect. We tell you that Which proposed resolve was altered and changed you have no right to mar or mutilate the rec-by the mover thereof, on the 28th day of March, ord of our votes given here, and recorded ac- in the year 1834, so as to read as follows: cording to the constitution; we tell you that you may as well erase the yeas and nays on any other question or resolution, or on all questions and resolutions, as on this; we tell you that you have just as much right to falsify the record, by so altering it as to make us appear to have voted, on any question, as we did not vote, as you have to erase a record, and make that page a blank, in which our votes, as they were actually given and recorded, now stand. The one proceeding, as it appears to us, is as "Resolved, That the President, in the late execumuch a falsification of the record as the other. tive proceedings in relation to the revenue, has Having made this PROTEST, our duty is assumed upon himself authority and power not conperformed. We rescue our own names, char-ferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogaacter, and honor, from all participation in this tion of both; matter; and whatever the wayward character of the times, the headlong and plunging spirit of party devotion, or the fear or the love of power, may have been able to bring about else where, we desire to thank God that they have not, as yet, overcome the love of liberty, fidelity to true republican principles, and a sacred by the constitution, and was irregularly and illegally regard for the constitution, in that State whose adopted by the Senate, in violation of the rights of defence which belonged to every citizen, and in soil was drenched, to a mire, by the first and subversion of the fundamental principles of law and best blood of the Revolution. Massachusetts, justice; because President Jackson was thereby as yet, has not been conquered; and while we adjudged and pronounced to be guilty of an impeachhave the honor to hold seats here as her Sena-able offence, and a stigma placed upon him, as a tors, we shall never consent to a sacrifice either of her rights, or our own; we shall never fail to oppose what we regard as a plain and open violation of the constitution of the country; and we should have thought ourselves wholly unworthy of her if we had not, with all the solemnity and earnestness in our power, PRO-shapes and forms, was unfounded and erroneous in TESTED against the adoption of the resolution now before the Senate. The question being on the adoption of the resolution, as amended, Mr. BENTON demanded the yeas and nays; which were ordered. In which last-mentioned form the said resolve, on the same day and year last mentioned, was adopted by the Senate, and became the act and judgment of that body, and, as such, now remains upon the jour nal thereof: And whereas the said resolve was not warranted violator of his oath of office, and of the laws and constitution, which he was sworn to preserve, protect, and defend, without going through the forms of an impeachment, and without allowing to him the benefits of a trial, or the means of defence: And whereas the said resolve, in all its various point of fact, and therefore unjust and unrighteous, as well as irregular and unauthorized by the constitution; because the said President Jackson, neither in the act of dismissing Mr. Duane, nor in the appointment of Mr. Taney, as specified in the first form of the resolve; nor in taking upon himself the responsibility of removing the deposits, as specified He then moved that the blanks in the resolu- in the second form of the same resolve; nor in any tion be filled by inserting the 16th day of Jan-act which was then or can now be specified under uary. It was agreed to; and, having been done, The question was taken, by yeas and nays, on the adoption of the resolution in the following form: Resolution to expunge from the journal the resolu tion of the Senate of March 28, 1834, in relation to President Jackson and the removal of the deposits. Whereas, on the 26th day of December, in the the vague and ambiguous terms of the general denunciation contained in the third and last form of the resolve, did do or commit any act in violation or in derogation of the laws and constitution, or dangerous to the liberties of the people : And whereas the said resolve, as adopted, was uncertain and ambiguous, containing nothing but a loose and floating charge for derogating from the laws and constitution, and assuming ungranted power and authority in the late executive proceedings SENATE.] Expunging Resolution. [JANUARY, 1837. stances which had the effect of co-operating with the Bank of the United States in the parricidal attempt which that institution was then making to produce a panic and pressure in the country; to destroy the confidence of the people in President Jackson, to paralyze his administration; to govern the elections; to bankrupt the State banks; ruin their currency; fill the whole Union with terror and distress; and thereby to extort from the sufferings and the alarms of the people the restoration of the deposits and the renewal of its charter: in relation to the public revenue; without specifying | debated, and adopted at a time and under circumwhat part of the executive proceedings, or what part of the public revenue, was intended to be referred to; or what parts of the laws and constitution were supposed to have been infringed; or in what part of the Union, or at what period of his administration, these late proceedings were supposed to have taken place; thereby putting each Senator at liberty to vote in favor of the resolve upon a separate and secret reason of his own, and leaving the ground of the Senate's judgment to be guessed at by the public, and to be differently and diversely interrupted by individual Senators, according to the private and particular understanding of each: contrary to all the ends of justice, and to all the forms of legal or judicial proceedings; to the great prejudice of the accused, who could not know against what to defend himself; and to the loss of senatorial responsibility, by shielding Senators from public accountability for making up a judgment upon grounds which the public cannot know, and which, if known, might prove insufficient in law, or unfounded in fact: And whereas the specification contained in the first and second forms of the resolve having been objected to in debate, and shown to be insufficient to sustain the charges they were adduced to support, and it being well believed that no majority could be obtained to vote for the said specifications, and the same having been actually withdrawn by the mover, in the face of the whole Senate, in consequence of such objection and belief, and before any vote taken thereupon; the said specifications could not afterwards be admitted by any rule of parliamentary practice, or by any principle of legal implication, secret intendment, or mental reservation, to remain and continue a part of the written and public resolve from which they were thus withdrawn; and, if they could be so admitted, they would not be sufficient to sustain the charges therein contained: And whereas the Senate being the constitutional tribunal for the trial of the President, when charged by the House of Representatives with offences against the laws and the constitution, the adoption of the said resolve, before any impeachment preferred by the House, was a breach of the privileges of the House; not warranted by the constitution; a subversion of justice; a prejudication of a question which might legally come before the Senate; and a disqualification of that body to perform its constitutional duty with fairness and impartiality, if the President should thereafter be regularly impeached by the House of Representatives for the same offence: And whereas the temperate, respectful, and argumentative defence and protest of the President against the aforesaid proceeding of the Senate was rejected and repulsed by that body, and was voted to be a breach of its privileges, and was not permitted to be entered on its journal or printed among its documents, while all memorials, petitions, resolves, and remonstrances, against the President, however violent or unfounded and calculated to inflame the people against him, were duly and honorably received, encomiastically commented upon in speeches, read at the table, ordered to be printed with the long list of names attached, referred to the Finance Committee for consideration, filed away among the public archives, and now constitute a part of the public documents of the Senate, to be handed down to the latest posterity: And whereas the said resolve was introduced, And whereas the said resolve is of evil example and dangerous precedent, and should never have been received, debated, or adopted by the Senate, or admitted to entry upon its journal: Wherefore, Resolved, That the said resolve be expunged from the journal; and, for that purpose, that the Secre tary of the Senate, at such time as the Senate may appoint, shall bring the manuscript journal of the session 1833-34 into the Senate, and, in the presence of the Senate, draw black lines round the said resolve, and write across the face thereof, in strong letters, the following words: "Expunged by order of the Senate, this 16th day of January, in the year of our Lord 1837." On agreeing to this resolution, the vote was as follows: YEAS.-Messrs. Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Dana, Crittenden, Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Hendricks, Kent, So the resolution was agreed to. Mr. BENTON, observing that nothing now remained but for the Secretary to carry into effect the order of the Senate, moved that that be forthwith done. The Secretary thereupon produced the record of the Senate, and, opening it at the page which contained the resolution to be expunged, did, in the presence of such of the members of the Senate as remained, (many having retired,) proceed to draw black lines entirely round the resolution, and to indorse across the lines the words "Expunged by order of the Senate, this 16th day of January, 1837." No sooner had this been done, than hisses, loud and repeated, were heard from various parts of the gallery. The CHAIR, (Mr. KING, of Alabama.) Clear the galleries. Mr. BENTON. I hope the galleries will not be cleared, as many innocent persons will be excluded, who have been guilty of no violation of order. Let the ruffians who have made the disturbance alone be apprehended. I hope the Sergeant-at-arms will be directed to enter the gallery, and seize the ruffians, ascertaining who Let him apthey are in the best way he can. prehend them, and bring them to the bar of the Senate. Let him seize the bank ruffians. I hope that they will not now be suffered to insult the Senate, as they did when it was under the power of the Bank of the United States, when ruffians, with arms upon them, insulted us with impunity. Let them be taken and brought to the bar of the Senate. Here is one just above me, that may easily be identified the bank ruffians! The order to clear the galleries was revoked, and the Sergeant-at-arms directed to proceed into the galleries and apprehend the persons who had created the disorder. In a very few minutes the Sergeant-at-arms returned, and reported to the Chair that he had apprehended an individual, and had him in custody. Mr. BENTON moved that he be brought to the bar of the Senate. Mr. MORRIS Opposed the motion, and demanded the yeas and nays; which, being ordered and taken, stood-yeas 17, nays 8. So the motion was carried. It was suggested by Mr. MOORE that there was not a quorum present, and the Chair at first so decided. But, on being reminded that one of the Senators from Louisiana had resigned, 25 was a majority of the 49 remaining, he declared that a quorum was present. Mr. MOORE now moved an adjournment; but the motion was lost. The Sergeant-at-arms now produced and presented an individual at the bar of the Sen ate. [He was a tall, well-dressed man, wrapped in a black overcoat.] Mr. BENTON said that, as the individual had been taken from among the respectable audience in the gallery, and had been presented in this public manner with all eyes fixed upon him, he had perhaps been sufficiently punished in his feelings. Mr. B. was not disposed to push the proceedings any further, and therefore moved that he be discharged from custody. Mr. MORRIS considered the whole proceeding as very extraordinary. If the individual had been worthy of arrest, he ought to have an opportunity of defence. A citizen had been brought to the bar of the Senate, and not informed for what reason, nor of what offence he stood charged; and now it was moved that, without a hearing, he be discharged from custody. Call you this (said Mr. M.) the justice of the Senate of the United States? Is it in this manner that citizens are to be treated? It appears to me a most extraordinary proceeding. Mr. SEVIER moved an adjournment; but the motion did not prevail. Mr. ROBINSON, near whose seat the person apprehended then stood, proposed that the individual have an opportunity to purge himself by oath from the contempt. The Senate were not to presume him guilty; and if he was willing to swear that he intended no contempt, he ought to have an opportunity to do so. Mr. MORRIS demanded the yeas and nays on the motion for his discharge; and they were ordered accordingly. Mr. BENTON observed that if the individual [SENATE. was ready to go to the Clerk's table, and there, by oath, to purge himself of the contempt, he had no objection. Let him do so. Mr. ROBINSON now stated, on behalf of the person apprehended, that he was willing and ready to answer interrogatories. Mr. BENTON thereupon withdrew his motion for his discharge. The CHAIR reminded him that he could not do this, inasmuch as the yeas and nays upon it had been ordered. Mr. MORRIS was strongly opposed to having the individual suddenly, without warning, and without opportunity to consult counsel, brought forward to take his oath, and undergo interrogatories. It would be better to give him until to-morrow, that he might have some leisure for reflection. He had been brought up here before the Senate of the United States, and before the people of the United States, and to require him thus suddenly to be put upon oath in his defence was wrong. He concluded by moving an adjournment. The yeas and nays were demanded and ordered on the motion to adjourn. Mr. STRANGE thought that if the individual was willing now to be sworn, and to undergo interrogatories, he was certainly the best judge of his own rights. He best knew what he could undergo, and there was no need that Senators should become his advocates. Mr. BENTON said that if the man wished to purge himself on oath, now, here, in the presence of the Senate, it was very well. Let him do so. But if he wanted to go away and consult a lawyer, if he must ask a lawyer to-morrow before he could tell whether he meant to insult the Senate to-night, he was opposed to it. If he was ready to swear, let him do it, but no consulting with lawyers. The CHAIR stated to Mr. MORRIS that the individual in custody was not brought up without a charge, as that Senator seemed to intimate. He was charged with disorderly conduct in the presence of the Senate, and the law gave the Senate, as it gave a court of justice, power to protect itself in all such cases, by a summary proceeding, and on the evidence of its own senses. Mr. ROBINSON again said that the individual in custody wished for an opportunity of purging himself from the contempt. Some confusion prevailed. But the motion for his discharge being pressed, the question was put, and decided as follows: YEAS.-Messrs. Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Dana, Ewing of Illinois, Fulton, Grundy, Hendricks, Hubbard, King of Alabama, Linn, Nicholas, Niles, Page, Rives, Robinson, Ruggles, Sevier, Tallmadge, Tipton, Walker, White, Wright-23. NAY.-Mr. Wall-1. The individual was accordingly discharged from custody. The individual referred to thereupon advanced, and, addressing the Chair, said: "Mr. President, am I not to be permitted to speak in my own defence?" SENATE.] Abolition in the District of Columbia. The CHAIR, to the Sergeant-at-arms: "Take him out!" The Senate then adjourned. TUESDAY, January 17. Abolition of Slavery in the District of Mr. KENT, having presented a memorial from the grand jury of Washington county, protesting against the interference of citizens from distant States in respect to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, moved that it be laid on the table and printed. [JANUARY, 1837. cussed by the public, and when it was desirable that tranquillity should be preserved, why, he asked, should the Senate of the United States agitate the question now? He recollected perfectly well, that at the last session the gentleman from South Carolina went so far as to protest against the reception of a single petition, though, to be sure, coming from those not having the same interest as the gentleman whose memorial was now before the Senate, but still such an interest as gave them a right to come here. The rule in regard to the right of petition must apply equally and fairly, and give no preference to one portion of the community over another. He was, then, he must say, altogether opposed to printing the memori course. The printing of an extra number of copies would produce no good effect, but, on the contrary, would cause the subject to be again agitated in various parts of the Union. His honorable friend (Mr. HUBBARD) seemed to think that by the distribution of the memorial a good effect might be produced on the public mind. He could not agree with him on that point, and must repeat that the subject was one which Congress ought not to entertain, inasmuch as it was not proper that they should act on one side of the question and not on the other. Mr. MORRIS said that he had hundreds of petitions to present for the abolition of salvery; | al, and should vote against the adoption of that and, therefore, he would ask for the yeas and nays on the question of printing the memorial which had just been presented. Not ordered. Mr. HUBBARD Suggested to the Senator from Maryland, (Mr. KENT,) whether it would not be as well to print an extra number of copies of this important document, for the purpose of distribution, as it might be productive of good. Mr. CALHOUN said that he would make that motion. It was a most important paper, and there was one part of it at which he most heartily rejoiced. It took the true position that abolition petitions should not be received. There was a dangerous and mischievous spirit at work in various parts of the country, connected with this question. It was only at the last session that he had contended for what the memorialists suggest to Congress. He had urged that very point, and he found himself in a very considerable minority. He hoped that such would not be the case now he was supporting this motion. He would second the motion of the Senator from Ohio, trusting that he would renew it, and be indulged with the yeas and nays. Mr. HUBBARD remarked that he had suggested to the Senator the printing of an extra number, not on account of his own feelings particularly, but because he believed the proceedings of individuals in different parts of the country on this subject were predicated upon the supposed fact that the people living in the District of Columbia were in favor of the abolition of slavery from among them. Mr. BROWN said he intended to vote against the extra number. If he were to vote to print an extraordinary number of the memorial sent here by the grand jury, it would imply that there was some danger of Congress being about to legislate on the subject. He repeated that should an extra number be ordered, the idea would be spread abroad, and reasons given to suspect, that Congress intended to act in the matter. Now, as he did not believe that there was the slightest ground for any such apprehension, as no such action was entertained by either branch of the National Legislature, he was utterly averse to do any act which had a tendency to create that idea. But, besides that, it did appear to him somewhat novel to ask for the printing of an extraordinary number of a document coming from private individuals. Undoubtedly, the proper course of gentlemen was, not to do any act here which would promote agitation. Now, he contended that the printing of the document in question, and the dissemination of it throughout the country, did, in some degree, tend to increase the agitation in reference to this question. Mr. NILES said that the question was not whether petitioners in general stood upon a somewhat different ground from the present residents in the District of Columbia, but whether the subject-matter was proper for Why, then, he would ask, should the Senate of Congress to entertain, even so far as to print a the United States lend its sanction to a course petition which might operate on public senti- which would induce the country to believe that ment. For his own part, he wished that Con-it purposed acting on the subject of slavery? gress would act decidedly on this agitating There being no ground to apprehend any such topic. He had no doubt that these petitioners movement on the part of Congress, he would had a deep interest in what they requested. do nothing to lend his sanction to the supposiBut, nevertheless, the question was the same tion that Congress intended to interfere with as respected both classes of petitioners, and the matter. was one which Congress could not go into at all. When the subject was not at present dis Mr. LINN said he would be pleased to know whether any practical benefits were likely to |