Thomas Hart Benton, "On the Expunging Resolution."
U.S. Senate, January 12, 1837



Mr. President:

It is now three years since the resolve was adopted by the Senate,
which it is my present motion to expunge from the journal. At the
moment that this resolve was adopted, I gave notice of my intention to
move to expunge it; and then expressed my confident belief that the
motion would eventually prevail. That expression of confidence was
not an ebullition of vanity, or a presumptuous calculation, intended to
accelerate the event it affected to foretell. It was not a vain boast, or
an idle assumption, but was the result of a deep conviction of the
injustice done President Jackson, and a thorough reliance upon the
justice of the American people. I felt that the President had been
wronged; and my heart told me that this wrong would be redressed!
The event proves that I was not mistaken. The question of expunging
this resolution has been carried to the people, and their decision has
been had upon it. They decide in favor of the expurgation; and their
decision has been both made and manifested, and communicated to us
in a great variety
of ways. A great number of States have expressly instructed their
Senators to vote for this expurgation. A very great majority of the
States have elected Senators and Representatives to Congress, upon
the express ground of favoring this expurgation. The Bank of the
United States, which took the initiative in the accusation against the
President, and furnished the material, and worked the machinery
which was used against him, and which was then so powerful on this