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member of the Confederacy during the following year. Arkansas was received as a State.

Bills for appropriations to subjects of internal improvements were passed and received the sanction of the Executive.

Mr. Benton offered a resolution in the Senate, providing that gold and silver only should be received in payment for the public lands, and that the committee on public lands be instructed to report a bill accordingly. No action was had on the resolution.

SPECIE CIRCULAR.

On the 22d of February an order was issued, the object of which was to diminish the circulation of small bank notes. This was followed, on the 11th July, with the famed "Specie Circular; " which, in the excitement produced, was second only to the removal of the deposits.

This circular was issued a few days subsequent to the adjournment of Congress; having been withheld, as intimated by the friends of the President, to prevent the interference of Congress, a majority of which, as well as the Cabinet, being opposed to it.

Paper money had been issued to an unprecedented extent. The breaking up of the National Bank was the signal for the charter of State banks. And the capital withdrawn by closing up the affairs of the United States Bank was increased several fold by that issued by those recently chartered by the States. The spirit of speculation grew apace. Money was easily obtained, and the annual receipts from the sales of public lands increased from three to four millions, to more than three times that amount. These lands were paid for in paper money. To prevent its accu

mulation in the treasury, and the monopoly of the lands by speculators, was the object of the Specie Circular.

For lands sold after the 15th of August, to non-residents of the States, and those who were not to become actual settlers, and in quantities not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres, payment was to be made in specie. For those sold after the 15th of December, all payments were to be made in gold and silver. The revulsion in the business of the country was tremendous. In that the circular prevented the absorption of lands by speculators, it accomplished a good work for the country.

This order was issued under the law authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to receive or reject bank paper at his discretion.

Roger B. Taney was nominated and confirmed by the Senate, March 1836, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, in the place of John Marshall, deceased. P. P. Barbour was appointed to a judgeship in the same court. Mr. Kendall was appointed Postmaster-General to succeed Mr. Barry, who had resigned on being censured by the Senate's unanimous vote, for borrowing money illegally of banks, on behalf of the postal department. He was subsequently appointed by the President, Minister to Spain. He did not live to reach that country. Mr. Eaton, former Secretary of War, succeeded to the appointment.

Great interest was manifested as to who should be the successor of General Jackson in the Presidency. The Executive was known to be strongly in favor of the promotion of Mr. Van Buren, and in 1835 he wrote a letter, committing himself in favor of a National Democratic Convention. This was a pet object with Mr. Van Buren. The Convention was substituted in the place of the old system of congressional caucus. The friends of Mr. Van Buren earnestly insisted on a nominating convention.

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Others of the same party denounced bitterly this mode of putting men in nomination. A large number of the administration party evinced an early and decided partiality for the promotion to the Presidency of Hugh L. White, Senator from Tennessee. In the winter of 1835, he was nominated by the Legislature of Alabama, by the people of Tennessee, and the representatives of that State in Congress, save J. K. Polk and Cave Johnson. A State convention in Mississippi nominated Mr. Van Buren.

The National Democratic Convention met at Baltimore on the 20th of May, 1835. Over six hundred dele. gates were present, representing twenty-two States. Mr. Van Buren was nominated on the first ballot, as none but his friends participated in the convention. Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was nominated for Vice-President, receiving 178 votes to 87 for William C. Rives, of Virginia. The delegation from Virginia protested against the nomination of Mr. Johnson.

The candidates named by the Whigs were three; William H. Harrison, of Ohio, Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, and John McLean, of Ohio.

The opponents of Mr. Van Buren were unable to harmonize on any one candidate; yet conducted the contest with energy and determination. It was hoped to lessen the chances of the Democratic candidate by throwing the election into the House. These calculations failed of a realization. The triumph of Mr. Van Buren with a clear majority over the combined opposition, attests the efficiency and power of party discipline.

There were 294 electoral votes, of which Mr. Van Buren received 170; General Harrison, 73; Judge White, 26; Mr. Webster, 14; and Mr. Mangum, 11. For Vice-President, Mr. Johnson received 144; Francis Granger, who was supported by the friends of General

Harrison, 77; John Tyler, indorsed by the supporters of Mr. White, 47; and William Smith, 23.

The final session of the twenty-fourth Congress, commenced December 5, 1836, and closed by its constitutional limitation, March 3, 1837. Little was transacted of general interest. Internal improvements were again indorsed by the passage of acts making appropriations for rivers, roads, and harbors.

COL. BENTON'S EXPUNGING RESOLUTION.

Mr. Benton gave notice, on the passage of the resolution introduced into the Senate by Mr. Clay, pronouncing the President's proceedings in the removal of the deposits "in derogation of the Constitution and laws," that he should move from time to time to have the same expunged. He should continue so to do until its erasure was effected, or he ceased to be a member of the Senate. He accordingly moved, February 18, 1835, that the resolution be expunged, because it was "illegal and unjust, of evil example, indefinite and vague, expressing a criminal charge without specification; and was irregularly and unconstitutionally adopted by the Senate, in subversion of the rights of defence which belong to an accused and impeachable officer; and at a time and under circumstances to endanger the political rights, and to injure the pecuniary interests of the people of the United States." The resolution was laid upon the table.

Mr. Benton faithfully kept his word, by moving, at each succeeding session, to expunge the resolution of Mr. Clay from the records of the Senate. The subject came up for the last time, at the 2d session of the twenty-fourth Congress. Such changes had been wrought in that body as to give the Administration the majority. The resolu

EXPUNGING RESOLUTION-SPECIE CIRCULAR. 171

tion to expunge was discussed at some length, and with a bitterness of feeling which the circumstances tended to engender. Those who had triumphed before were now to be prostrated and humbled by defeat.

The subject was discussed on Friday and Saturday, and arrangements were made for its final settlement on Monday. The session on Monday was a protracted one. The opposition Senators uttered a solemn protest against the defacement of the Journal, and the act which they foresaw was about to be consummated. The fiat had gone forth; the vote was taken about midnight :-yeas 24, nays 19, absent 5. Immediately after the passage of the resolution, the Secretary of the Senate, as ordered, took the manuscript journal of the Senate, and drew a square of broad black lines around the resolution of the 28th of March, 1834, and wrote across it, "Expunged, by order of the Senate, this 16th day of January, 1837."

The specie circular issued by the Secretary of the Treasury, soon after the expiration of the last session of Congress, created so wide-spread and universal dissatisfaction that a bill passed both branches of Congress, designating and limiting the funds receivable for the revenues of the United States. It provided that the government should receive the paper of such banks only as should thereafter issue no notes less than five dollars, and after Dec. 30, 1839, none less than ten dollars, and should pay their notes on demand in gold and silver. It was amended, on motion of Mr. Rives, to restrict those banks to the issue, after 1841, of notes less than twenty dollars; and, on motion of Mr. Clay, to rescind the treasury order. So amended, it passed the Senate, by a vote of 41 to 5-Messrs. Benton, Linn, Morris, Ruggles, and Wright. It received the sanction of the House, 143 to

59.