On December 26, 1833 Henry Clay kicked off a political firestorm when he submitted a resolution accusing Andrew Jackson for abuse of power. After three months of debate the Senate took the unprecedented move, never repeated to censure Andrew Jackson. It was a culmination of the battle over the removal of federal deposits from the Second Bank of the United States. During the previous summer, Jackson appointed Attorney General Roger Taney as treasury secretary with instructions to remove the deposits from the bank. It was a power, the Treasury Secretary had under the Bank's charter, but an action that Congress vehemently disapproved of.
Treasury Secretary William J. Duane refused to remove the deposits, so Jackson dismissed him and used a recess appointment to put Mr. Taney in his place. Several days after removing the funds, Jackson's administration published a message that was delivered to his cabinet laying out the defense of the President’s right to take unilateral action to defund the Bank. They argued that the "power of the Secretary of the Treasury over the deposits is unqualified" excepting only that Congress is informed of the action immediately if in session, and if not immediately after the next session convened. Furthermore, they argued that Jackson should be acquitted of any suspicion of acting in any manner unbefitting of the office or of taking any action not in the best interest of the people. The message went into great detail describing Jackson's reasons for removing the deposits from the bank and transferring them to the state banks. In summary, President Jackson believed that the Bank was providing cushy loans to struggling newspapers who were using the funds to prop up political candidates favorable to the bank, while at the same time spreading false rumors that the American economy was heading for downfall and the federal government was on the verge of bankruptcy. Jackson believed that the bank had become a corrupt political machine that had used the government's own money to influence past elections and if not stopped would do so again.
The report was published in the administration-friendly Washington Globe infuriating Henry Clay and his anti-administration coalition. By time Congress convened in December 1833, they had an eight-vote majority over Jackson's Democratic party and demanded further explanation from the President. Clay's first order of business was to request a copy of a message that Jackson delivered to his cabinet so that it could be submitted as official documentation. When Jackson refused to provide it, Clay escalated the conflict and on December 26, submitted a two-part resolution accusing Jackson of abusing his power by assuming "the exercise of a power over the Treasury of the U. States not granted to him by the Constitution and Laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the People" and re-asserting Congressional oversight by calling the reasons provided by Taney to be "unsatisfactory and insufficient.”
Just two weeks prior to Clay submitting his resolution, Jackson put himself at the mercy of Congress. In his State of the Union Address, he explained the behavior of the bank and the dangers of not taking action, Jackson reminded Congress, that he had requested that they do a serious investigation into the safety of the public funds in the Bank last session, but Congress did nothing but a very limited study by the Committee of Ways and Means. According to Jackson the Committee erroneously reported that the government deposits were safe in the Bank, forcing him to take action in opposition to Congress. It was now up to Congress to act on behalf of the people they represent to "to decide whether the executive department of the Government, in the steps which it has taken on this subject, has been found in the line of its duty."
"I called the attention of Congress to this subject in my last annual message, and informed them that such measures as were within the reach of the Secretary of the Treasury had been taken to enable him to judge whether the public deposits in the Bank of the United States were entirely safe; but that as his single powers might be inadequate to the object, I recommended the subject to Congress as worthy of their serious investigation, declaring it as my opinion that an inquiry into the transactions of that institution, embracing the branches as well as the principal bank, was called for by the credit which was given throughout the country to many serious charges impeaching their character, and which, if true, might justly excite the apprehension that they were no longer a safe depository for the public money. The extent to which the examination thus recommended was gone into is spread upon your journals, and is too well known to require to be stated. Such as was made resulted in a report from a majority of the Committee of Ways and Means touching certain specified points only, concluding with a resolution that the Government deposits might safely be continued in the Bank of the United States. This resolution was adopted at the close of the session by the vote of a majority of the House of Representatives.
Although I may not always be able to concur in the views of the public interest or the duties of its agents which may be taken by the other departments of the Government or either of its branches, I am, not withstanding, wholly incapable of receiving otherwise than with the most sincere respect all opinions or suggestions proceeding from such a source, and in respect to none am I more inclined to do so than to the House of Representatives. But it will be seen from the brief views at this time taken of the subject by myself, as well as the more ample ones presented by the Secretary of the Treasury, that the change in the deposits which has been ordered has been deemed to be called for by considerations which are not affected by the proceedings referred to, and which, if correctly viewed by that Department, rendered its act a matter of imperious duty.
Coming as you do, for the most part, immediately from the people and the States by election, and possessing the fullest opportunity to know their sentiments, the present Congress will be sincerely solicitous to carry into full and fair effect the will of their constituents in regard to this institution. It will be for those in whose behalf we all act to decide whether the executive department of the Government, in the steps which it has taken on this subject, has been found in the line of its duty."After ten weeks of debate, the Senate voted to censure Andrew Jackson. They adopted a revised resolution stating that "the President, in the late executive proceeding in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both".
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. 2020. Fifth Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fifth-annual-message-2 [Accessed 11 March 2020].Miller Center. 2020. September 18, 1833: Message Regarding The Bank Of The United States | Miller Center. [online] Available at: https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/september-18-1833-message-regarding-bank-united-states [Accessed 11 March 2020].
Rice on History. 2020. Henry Clay’S Resolution Censuring Andrew Jackson (1834). [online] Available at: https://riceonhistory.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/clay-censure-resolution/ [Accessed 11 March 2020].
Senate.gov. 2020. U.S. Senate: Senate Censures President. [online] Available at: https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Senate_Censures_President.htm [Accessed 11 March 2020].
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