Henry Clays Remarks in House and Senate | Page 3

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Henry Clay, "On the Seminole War," U.S. House of Representatives 19
January 1819.
Henry Clay, "On the Expunging Resolutions," U.S. Senate 16 January
1837

Prepared by: Anthony J. Adam

Part 1
Henry Clay, "On the Expunging Resolutions," U.S. Senate, 16 January
1837
Mr. President:
WHAT patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this Expunging
resolution? What new honor or fresh laurels will it win for our common
country? Is the power of the Senate so vast that it ought to be
circumscribed, and that of the President so restricted that it ought to be
extended? What power has the Senate? None, separately. It can only act

jointly with the other House, or jointly with the Executive. And
although the theory of the Constitution supposes, when consulted by
him, it may freely give an affirmative or negative response, according
to the practice, as it now exists, it has lost the faculty of pronouncing
the negative monosylllable. When the Senate expresses its deliberate
judgment, in the form of resolution, that resolution has no compulsory
force, but appeals only to the dispassionate intelligence, the calm
reason, and the sober judgment, of the community. The Senate has no
army, no navy, no patronage, no lucrative offices, no glittering honors,
to bestow. Around us there is no swarm of greedy expectants, rendering
us homage, anticipating our wishes, and ready to execute our
commands.
How is it with the President? Is he powerless? He is felt from one
extremity to the other of this vast Republic. By means of principles
which he has introduced, and innovations which he has made in our
institutions, alas! but too much countenanced by Congress and a
confiding people, he exercises, uncontrolled, the power of the State. In
one hand he holds the purse, and in the other brandishes the sword of
the country. Myriads of dependants and partisans, scattered over the
land, are ever ready to sing hosannas to him, and to laud to the skies
whatever he does. He has swept over the government, during the last
eight years, like a tropical tornado. Every department exhibits traces of
the ravages of the storm. Take as one example the Bank of the United
States. No institution could have been more popular with the people,
with Congress, and with State Legislatures. None ever better fulfilled
the great purposes of its establishment. But it unfortunately incurred the
displeasure of the President; he spoke, and the bank lies prostrate. And
those who were loudest in its praise are now loudest in its
condemnation. What object of his ambition is unsatisfied? When
disabled from age any longer to hold the sceptre of power, he
designates his successor, and transmits it to his favorite! What more
does he want? Must we blot, deface, and mutilate the records of the
country, to punish the presumptuousness of expressing an opinion
contrary to his own? What patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by
this Expunging resolution? Can you make that not to be which has been?
Can you eradicate from memory and from history the fact that in March,
1834, a majority of the Senate of the United States passed the

resolution which excites your enmity? Is it your vain and wicked object
to arrogate to yourselves that power of annihilating the past which has
been denied to Omnipotence itself? Do you intend to thrust your hands
into our hearts, and to pluck out the deeply rooted convictions which
are there? Or is it your design merely to stigmatize us? You cannot
stigmatize us.
"Ne'er yet did base dishonor blur our name."
Standing securely upon our conscious rectitude, and bearing aloft the
shield of the Constitution of our country, your puny efforts