law by which the Bank of the United States was created, had undoubtedly intended that the bank should have the public deposits; that the Secretary of the Treasury should be empowered to remove them only for weighty reasons; that those reasons should be as promptly as possible reported to Congress, not to satisfy mere curiosity, but to enable Congress to judge of them and to sanction or disapprove the act; that it was certainly not contemplated to give, either to the President or to the Secretary, power to effect so great a change in the fiscal system of the government as was involved in the transfer of the public deposits from the United States Bank to a number of hastily selected state banks, without consulting Congress; and that in these respects the action of President Jackson in removing the deposits was a very high-handed proceeding. Clay's review of the reasons given by the Secretary for the removal was crushing, and remained in almost all points entirely unanswered.
It is interesting that in the course of his speech Clay quoted Gallatin as authority, adding, “who, whatever I said of him on a former occasion, — and that I do not mean to retract, — possessed more practical knowledge of currency, banks, and finance than any man I have ever met in the public councils.” He did not retract what he had said before, but it looked as if he had become ashamed of it.
The debate on Clay's resolutions lasted, with some interruptions, three months, calling out on
