Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/53

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS.
43

brawling politician and electioneerer, but especially of the reappointment of no officer presented to us who shall have prostituted the influence of his office to partisan and electioneering purposes.”

With alacrity the Senate rejected the nomination for reappointment of four government directors of the Bank of the United States. Jackson repeated the same nominations, soundly scolding the Senate for having rejected them; but they were rejected again. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Stephenson of Virginia, was nominated for the mission to England, apparently as a reward for ardent partisanship, and was sternly voted down. Roger B. Taney had been put into the Treasury Department more than two months before the meeting of Congress, and Jackson did not send in his nomination until six months after the opening of the session. It was promptly rejected, which infuriated Jackson beyond measure. He nominated Levi Woodbury in Taney's place, and Taney was subsequently put on the bench of the Supreme Court.

Congress adjourned in June. Few sessions had ever been so prolific of exciting debates. Crowds of people, gathered from far and near, went day after day to the galleries of the Senate as they would go to a play. But few sessions also had been so barren of practical results. The brilliant arraignment of the President's course, combined with the business depression, was indeed not altogether without effect. In the spring of 1834 there