his fellow-citizens. At the latter hour he proceeded on horseback to Arch-street, where he reviewed the military. The President was dressed in a suit of deep black, and passed along a great portion of the route with his hat off. The appearance of the military who assembled to an immense number was imposing and effective. Towards five o'clock the procession reached the City Hotel, and the President alighted, evidently gratified with a reception at once so respectful and so general.

The next day the President embarked on board the People's Line steam-boat Philadelphia; she moved off from the wharf, and a salute of twenty-one guns announced the departure of the President on his northern tour. He stopped for about twenty minutes at Burlington, and thence crossed over to Bristol, whence he proceeded to Bordentown. After a short delay in this place, he next proceeded to Lamberton, where he took carriage for Trenton. Here he dined, and soon after passed on to Princeton, where he spent the night. The next morning he proceeded in a carriage to New Brunswick, and thence to Perth Amboy.

Having spent half an hour at Amboy, he went on board the North America, and was received with proper honors by the company, with whom he dined. On passing the Narrows, salutes were fired from forts Hamilton and La Fayette. The General took his station on the upper quarter deck, where he appeared to be highly delighted with the beautiful Appearance of the bay, harbor, and fortifications. Salutes were fired by vessels of various nations; three steamers, elegantly decorated, and crowded with passengers, attended the North America all the way, and, on approaching the city, numerous steam and sail boats were plying about the river, which, with the crowds of men and women in the Castle and Battery, and on the housetops in the neighborhood, gave to the whole scene a singular brilliancy of effect.

On Saturday, the President and his suite embarked from New York, and arrived at New Haven, at about three in the afternoon. Having passed through Newport, Providence and Dedham, the President arrived on the 21st of June, at Roxbury, where he was very handsomely received. He arrived in Boston the same afternoon, and was greeted by an immense concourse of citizens. On Wednesday, he visited Cambridge, where the degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by the President of Harvard University. From Cambridge he passed with his suite to Charlestown, accompanied by the Governor and other officers of State.

On Thursday, June 27, the President passed through Lynn, Salem, Marblehead, and Andover, to Lowell. He had intended to proceed as far north as Portland, but on reaching Concord, N. H., he found that his strength would not enable him to undergo a repetition of the labors which the various engagements he had made would require of him. He was therefore under the necessity of giving up his journey, and returning to Washington. He would have found it impossible to have borne up so long under the fatigue of exchanging salutations and greetings with so many thousands of his fellow-citizens, but for the animation inspired by their enthusiastic kindness.

It was during his absence on this journey that the order was given for the removal of the deposites from the Bank of the United States, which led

to the expulsion of Mr. Duane from the cabinet, and the temporary elevation of Mr. Taney to the office of Secretary of the Treasury. This act rendered the last years of his administration a scene of continued agitation and disorder. By one party it was sustained as a bold and patriotic movement, necessary to arrest the political action of a dangerous moneyed institution. By the other it was denounced with equal ardor, as an act equally contrary to the good faith of the Republic, the spirit of our institutions, and the letter of the law. Sufficient time has not yet elapsed for the calm and reflective discussion of this exciting topic. The question was duly brought before both Houses of Congress. In the Representative branch, where the administration held a firm majority, no definite action was ever held on the precise point at issue; the debate turned and resolutions were adopted on topics merely collateral and not involving the main subject of controversy.

In the Senate the following resolution was adopted: "Resolved, that the President, in the late executive proceedings in relation to the revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both." This was passed on the 28th of March, 1834, by the following vote: YEAS. Messrs. Bibb, Black, Calhoun, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, Frelinghuysen, Kent, Knight, Leigh, Mangum, Naudain, Poindexter, Porter, Prentiss, Preston, Robbins, Silsbee, Smith, Southard, Sprague, Swift, Tomlinson, Tyler, Waggaman, Webster-26. NAYS. Messrs. Benton, Brown, Forsyth, Grundy, Hendricks, Hill, Kane, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Linn, McKean, Moore, Morris, Robinson, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, White, Wilkins, Wright -20.

In the session of 1836-37, on motion of Mr. Benton of Missouri, the following resolution was adopted by the Senate: "Resolved, that the said resolve (above given) be expunged from the journal; and for that purpose, that the secretary of the Senate, at such time as the Senate may appoint, shall bring the manuscript journal of the session 1833-34 into the Senate, and, in the presence of the Senate, draw black lines round the said resolve, and write across the face thereof, in strong letters, the following words: Expunged, by order of the Senate, this 16th day of January, in the year of our Lord 1837.'”

On agreeing to this resolution the vote was as follows: YEAS. Messrs. Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Dana, Ewing of Illinois, Fulton, Grundy, Hubbard, King of Alabama, Linn, Morris, Nicholas, Niles, Page, Rives, Robinson, Ruggles, Sevier, Strange, Tallmadge, Tipton, Walker, Wall, Wright-24. NAYS. Messrs. Bayard, Black, Calhoun, Clay, Crittenden, Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Hendricks, Kent, Knight, Moore, Prentiss, Preston, Robbins, Southard, Swift, Tomlinson, Webster, White-19.

The resolution having been agreed to, Mr. Benton observed that nothing now remained but for the secretary to carry it into effect, and moved that it be executed upon the spot. The secretary thereupon produced the record, and expunged the obnoxious resolution. No sooner had this been done, than loud and repeated hisses were heard from various parts of the gallery. The chair immediately ordered the galleries to be cleared. Mr. Benton hoped that the galleries would not be cleared, but that the

bank ruffians who had created the disturbance would be arrested. The order to clear the galleries was revoked, and the sergeant-at-arms proceeded to arrest one of the supposed culprits. Mr. Benton moved that he be brought to the bar of the Senate; the motion was carried. It was af terward suggested by the same Senator that he should go to the clerk's table and there purge himself of the contempt by oath. A motion was here made for his discharge; much confusion prevailed, but the motion was pressed and carried. On being discharged from custody, the individual referred to advanced and addressed the chair. "Mr. President, am I not to be permitted to speak in my own defence?" Chair to the ser geant-at-arms. "Take him out." The occupant of the chair was Mr. Senator King of Alabama.

The question of the removal of the deposites, and the important questions connected with their subsequent disposition, and the regulation of the currency, were the engrossing and exciting topics during the last three years of President Jackson's administration. These topics are too near, too fa miliar, and too much involved in the partisan discussions of the day, to form legitimate subjects of historical comment. The end of General Jackson's policy is not yet wrought out. It began in the veto of the United States Bank, and has resulted in the universal suspension of specie payments. His first objection to the bank was on the ground that it had failed to furnish "a sound and uniform currency." It is for the historian to tell us how much his measures have improved it.

General Jackson went into retirement at the Hermitage immediately on quitting the Presidential chair. He still continues to take an active interest in public affairs. We can only hope that the venerable Ex-President may live long enough to witness the restoration of his beloved country to her old prosperity.

MARTIN VAN BUREN.

MARTIN VAN BUREN, eighth president of the United States, was born at Kinderhook, in the State of New York, on the 5th day of December, 1782. His parents were of Dutch descent, and in humble circumstances. He received the elements of his education in an academy of his native village, which he left at the age of fourteen years, to commence the study of the law, in the office of Francis Sylvester, Esq. a respectable practitioner of Kinderhook. The term of study required of candidates not educated in college was then seven years. Six of them young Van Buren passed in his native village, the last in the city of York, in the office and under the direction of Mr. William P. Van Ness, a distinguished member of the bar, and a prominent leader of the Democratic party. By this gentleman he was introduced to the celebrated Aaron Burr, who manifested an unusual interest in his welfare, and is said by one of his biographers to have treated him "with marked attention, and to have made every reasonable effort to secure his favorable regard.'

In November, 1803, in the twenty-first year of his age, Mr. Van Buren was admitted as an attorney at law to the bar of the Supreme Court, in the State of New York, and immediately commenced the practice of his profession at Kinderhook. At the first succeeding session of the Columbia County Court, he was enrolled in the list of its attorneys and counsellors. He took an early interest in local politics, and professed the principles of the Democratic party. When this party, therefore, obtained a temporary ascendency in the appointing department of the State, Mr. Van Buren was appointed Surrogate of Columbia county. In 1809, he removed from the village of Kinderhook to the city of Hudson, for the improvement of his professional prospects. Thus established in the capital of his native county, he may be considered to have entered on the most successful period of his professional life.

The bar of Columbia county numbered several members of distinguished ability. Among them the most eminent, perhaps, was the celebrated Elisha Williams, who was a resident of Hudson at the time of Mr. Van Buren's removal there. The first jury lawyer of his State, if not of the country, Mr. Williams was at the same time an active and zealous politician of the Federal school, and a prominent leader of the party in his section. Mr. Van Buren occupied a corresponding position in the Democratic ranks; and aspired to a distant competition with Mr. Williams in his efforts at the bar. Of Mr. Van Buren's speeches at the bar hardly a fragment has been preserved, and it is therefore impossible to form any estimate of his powers from printed reports. Of his appearance at the bar, in contrast with Mr. Williams, we have the following sketch from the pen of Mr. Attorney General Butler. It is to be taken with some degree

of allowance, as the tribute of a pupil to his patron is too apt to be the language of panegyric; and as the natural relations of Mr. Butler and Mr. Van Buren render neither of them a disinterested witness to the claims and merits of the other.

"Never," says Mr. Butler, "were two men more dissimilar. Both were eloquent; but the eloquence of Williams was declamatory and exciting; that of Van Buren insinuating and delightful. Williams had the livelier imagination; Van Buren the sounder judgment. The former presented the strong points of his case in bolder relief, invested them in a more brilliant coloring, indulged a more unlicensed and magnificent invective, and gave more life and variety to his arguments by his peculiar wit and inimitable humor: but Van Buren was his superior in analyzing, arranging, and combining the insulated materials, in comparing and weighing testimony, in unravelling the web of intricate affairs, in eviscerating truth from the mass of diversified and conflicting evidence, in softening the heart and moulding it to his purpose, and in working into the judgments of his hearers the conclusions of his own perspicuous and persuasive reasonings." We think this picture altogether too highly charged. That Mr. Williams was much the superior of Mr. Van Buren in a commanding and attractive eloquence there is no doubt; and it is equally true that he excelled him in vivacity, wit, humor, and invective. Mr. Van Buren was never distinguished for any of these qualities, and though he undoubtedly possessed the faculty of arranging, combining, unravelling intricate affairs, eviscerating truth, and insinuating himself into the judgments of his hearers, it is gross injustice to Mr. Williams to intimate that he was inferior in any of these powers.

Mr. Van Buren resided for seven years in Hudson, engaged in the active practice of his profession; and managed with no little address as a party leader. His legal and partisan merits were so well appreciated, that on the accession of the Republican party, in 1815, he was appointed Attorney General of the State.

In 1812, he had been elected a member of the State Senate from the then middle district; by which election he became a member of the Court for the revision of Errors. This simultaneous occupancy for a considerable period of the attorney generalship, and of a seat in the State Senate, accounts for the infrequency of his opinions in the Court of Errors. In 1816, in consequence of his official duties and his professional engagements, he removed from Hudson to Albany, where his practice became extensive and lucrative. In 1819, his party had lost their ascendency in the council of appointment, and Mr. Van Buren was removed from the office of Attorney General. In the following year the tables were turned, and a re-appointment was offered and declined. His last professional effort before a jury is said to have been in the trials of the celebrated Astor case, and the case of the Sailors' Snug Harbor, in the city of New York, in the fall of 1827. It was during the trial of the latter case that the cele brated Mr. Emmet fell in an apoplectic fit which terminated his life. In the spring of 1828, Mr. Van Buren appeared in the case of Varick vs. Jackson, before the Court of Errors at Albany.

Of Mr. Van Buren's legal efforts, his biographer presents but a single