ablished." Aside from a general defense of his
course, the chief point that the President made was that the
Constitution provided a procedure in cases of this kind, namely
impeachment, which alone could be properly resorted to if the
legislative branch desired to bring charges against the Executive. The
Senate was asked respectfully to spread the protest on its records.
This, however, it refused to do. On the contrary, it voted that the
right of protest could not be recognized; and it found additional
satisfaction in negativing an unusual number of the President's
nominations.

Throughout the remainder of his second Administration Jackson
maintained his hold upon the country and kept firm control in the
lower branch of Congress. Until very near the end, the Senate,
however, continued hostile. During the debate on the protest Benton
served notice that he would introduce, at each succeeding session, a
motion to expunge the resolution of censure. Such a motion was made in
1835, and again in 1836, without result. But at last, in January,
1837, after a debate lasting thirteen hours, the Senate adopted, by a
vote of 24 to 19, a resolution meeting the Jacksonian demand.

The manuscript journal of the session of 1833-1834 was brought into
the Senate, and the secretary, in obedience to the resolution, drew
black lines around the resolution of censure, and wrote across the
face thereof, "in strong letters," the words: "Expunged by order of
the Senate, this sixteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
1837." Many members withdrew rather than witness the proceeding; but a
crowded gallery looked on, while Benton strengthened his supporters by
providing "an ample supply of cold hams, turkeys, rounds of beef,
pickles, wines, and cups of hot coffee" in a near-by committee-room.
Jackson gave a dinner to the "ex-pungers" and their wives, and placed
Benton at the head of the table. That the action of the Senate was
unconstitutional interested no one save the lawyers, for the Bank was
dead. Jackson was vindicated, and the people were enthroned.[12]

The struggle thus brought to a triumphant close was one of the
severest in American political history. In 1836 the Bank obtained a
charter from Pennsylvania, under the name of the Bank of the United
States of Pennsylvania, and all connection between it and the Federal
Government ceased. The institution and the controversies centering
about it left, however, a deep impress upon the finan