" Firmly allied with the Bank interests, the National
Republicans resolved to bring all possible discomfiture upon the
Administration.
The House of Representatives was controlled by the Democrats, and
little could be accomplished there. But the Senate contained not only
the three ablest anti-Jacksonians of the day--Clay, Webster,
Calhoun--but an absolute majority of anti-Administration men; and
there the attack was launched. On December 26, 1833, Clay introduced
two resolutions declaring that in the removal of the deposits the
President had "assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred
by the Constitution and laws but in derogation of both," and
pronouncing Taney's statement of reasons "unsatisfactory and
insufficient." After a stormy debate, both resolutions in slightly
amended form were carried by substantial majorities.
Jackson was not in the habit of meekly swallowing censure, and on the
15th of April he sent to the Senate a formal protest, characterizing
the action of the body as "unauthorized by the Constitution, contrary
to its spirit and to several of its express provisions," and
"subversive of that distribution of the powers of government which it
has ordained and established.
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