he Administration to act. Mr. Webster was
in the opposition, and, excepting in regard to the integrity of
the Union and the just power of the Government, there was a wide
gulf between the Administration and him. He was absent from his
seat for several days when the Force bill was about to be introduced
as an Administration measure. A portion of General Jackson's
original supporters hung back from that issue. At this juncture
there was much inquiry among the President's friends in the House
as to where Mr. Webster was. At length a member of General Jackson's
Cabinet went to Mr. Webster's rooms, told him the nature of the
bill about to be introduced, and asked him, as a public duty, to
go into the Senate and defend the bill and the President. It is
well known to the whole country that Mr. Webster did so; and it is
known to me that General Jackson personally thanked him for his
powerful aid, that many of the President's best friends afterward
sought to make a union between him and Mr. Webster, and that nothing
continued to separate them but an irreconcilable difference of
opinion about the questions relating to the currency.

While Mr. Calhoun was undoubtedly the leading Democrat in the
Senate, after his return to that body, Mr. Benton was the recognized
leader of President Jackson's adherents in that body. His fierce
opposition to "Biddle and the Bank," with his prediction that the
time would come when there would be no paper money, but when every
laboring man would have a knit silk purse, through the meshes of
which the gold coin within could be seen, obtained for him the
sobriquet of "Old Bullion." His greatest triumph was the passage
of a resolution by the Senate "expunging" from its journal a
resolution censuring General Jackson for the removal of deposits
from the Bank of the United States. This expunging resolution was
kept before the Senate for nearly three years, and was then passed
by only five majority. The closing debate was able and exhaustive,
Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, Thomas Ewing, William C. Rives,
William Hendricks, John M. Niles, Richard H. Bayard, and others
participating, while Daniel Webster read a protest signed by himself
and his sturdy colleague, John Davis. The Democrats had provided
a bountiful supply of refreshments in the room of the Committee on
Finance, and several Senators showed by their actions that they
were not members of the then newly organized Congressional Temperance