tion of the laws attempt to execute them in a sense different from that enter-
tained by the president, he may prevent it or withhold his co-operation. It
would follow, that if the judiciary give to the law an interpretation variant
from that of the president, he would not be bound to afford means which
mi'dit become necessary to execute their decision. If these pretensions are
weTl founded, it is manifest that the president, by means of a veto, in arrest-
ing the passage of laws which he disapproves, and the power of expounding
those which are passed, according to his own sense of them, will become
possessed of all the practical authority of the whole government. If the
judiciary decide a law contrary to the president's opinion of its meaning, he
may command the marshal not to execute the decision, and urge his consti-
tutional obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. It will
be recollected, perhaps, by the Senate, that during the discussion on the
deposit question, I predicted that the day would arrive when a president,
disposed to enlarge his powers, would appeal to his official oath as a source
of power. In that oath he undertakes that he will " to the best of his abil-
ity preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." The
fulfillment of the prediction quickly followed ; and during the same session,
in the protest of the president, we find him referring to this oath as a source
of power and duty. Now, if the president, in virtue of his oath, may inter-
pose and prevent anything from being done contrary to the Constitution, as
he understands it, and may, in virtue of the injunction to take care that the
laws be faithfully executed, prevent the enforcement of any law contrary to
the sense in which he understands it, I would ask what i)Owers remain to any
other branch of the government ? Are they not all substantially absorbed
in the will of one man ? '

"Mr. Chairman, while I am reading the opinions of the great men of
this nation upon the danger of exercising the tremendous power of removal,
I will read a part of report made by Mr. Benton, in 1826, in which he
said :

" * •' The king of England is the fountain of honor;" the president of
the United States is the source of patronage. He presides over the entire
system of federal appointments, jobs, and contracts. He has power over
the "support" of the individuals who administer the system. He makes
and unmakes them. He chooses from the circles of his friends and sup-
porters, and may dismiss them; and, upon all the principles of human
actions, he will dismiss them as often as they disappoint his expectations.
There may be exceptions, but the truth of the general rule is proved by the
exception. The intended check and control of the Senate, without new
constitutional or statutory provisions, will cease to operate. Patronage will
penetrate this body, subdue its capacity of resistance, chain it to the car of
power, and enable the president to rule as easily, and much more securely,
with than without the nominal check of the Senate. If the president him-
self was the officer of the people, elected by them and responsible to them,
there would be less danger from this concentration of all power in his
hands ; but it is the business of statesmen to act upon things as they are,
and not as they would wish them to be. We must look forward to the time
when the public revenue will be doubled; when the civil and military offi-
cers of the government will be quadrupled ; when its influence over indi-
viduals will be multipUed to an indefinite extent ; when the nomination of



THE OWSLEY SPEECH. 44 1

the president can carry any man through the Senate, and his recommenda-
tion can carry any measure through the two Houses of Congress; when the
principle of pubhc action will be open and avowed — the president wants
my vote, and I want his patronage ; I will vote as he wishes, and he will
give me the office I wish for. What will this be but the government of one
man ? And what is the government of one man but a monarchy ? Names
are nothing. The nature of a thing is in its substance, and the name soon
accommodates itself to the substance. Those who make the president must
support him. Their jjolitical fate becomes identified, and they must stand
■or fall together. Right or wrong, they must support him,' etc.

" All this was prophecy then — it is now history.

" In the year 1835, Mr. Calhoun took up the subject of executive patron-
age generally, and submitted to the Senate a measure for its reduction,
accompanied by a most elaborate and able report, part of v/hich reads in
these words :

" ' It is only within the last four years that removals from office have
been introduced as a system ; and, for the first time, an opportunity has been
afforded of testing the tendency of the practice and witnessing the mighty
increase which it has given to the force of executive patronage, and the
entire and fearful change, in conjunction with other causes, it is effecting
in our political system. Nor will it require much reflection to perceive in
what manner it contributes to increase so vastly the extent of executive
patronage.

" ' So long as offices were considered as public trusts, to be conferred on
the honest, the faithful, and the capable, for the common good, and not for
the benefit or gain of the incumbent or his party, and so long as it was the
practice of the government to continue in office those who faithfully per-
formed their duties, its patronage, in point of fact, was limited to the mere
power of nominating to accidental vacancies or to newly-created offices, and
would, of course, exercise but a moderate influence, either over the body of
the community or over the office-holders themselves ; but when this practice
was reversed — when offices, instead of being considered as public trusts, to
be conferred on the deserving, were regarded as the spoils of victory, to be
bestowed as rewards for partisan service — it is easy to see that the certain,
direct, and inevitable tendency of such a state of things is to convert the
entire body of those in office into corrupt and supple instruments of power,
and to raise up a host of hungry, greedy, and subservient partisans, ready
for every service, however base and corrupt. Were a premium offered for
the best means of extending, to the utmost, the power of patronage ; lo
destroy the love of country, and to substitute a spirit of subserviency and
man-worship ; to encourage vice and to discourage virtue ; and, in a word,
to prepare for the subversion of liberty and the establishment of a despotism,
no scheme more perfect could be devised ; and such must be the tendency
of the practice, with whatever intention adopted, or to whatever extent
pursued."

" Mr. Webster supported the measure of Mr. Calhoun in a speech of
great ability, in which he uses these words :

" ' I concur with those who think that, looking to the present, and look-
ing also to the future, and regarding all the probabilities of what is before



442



BEX HARDIN.



US, as to the qualities which shall belong to those who may fill the executive
chair, it is important to the stability of government and the welfare of the
people that there should be a check to the progress of official influence and
patronage. The unlimited power to grant office, and to take it away, gives
a command over the hopes and fears of a vast multitude of men. It is
generally true that he who controls another man's means of living controls
his will. Where there are favors to be granted, there are usually enough to
solicit for them ; and when fLUors once granted may be withdrawn at pleas-
ure, there is ordinarily little security for personal independence of character.
The power of giving" office thus, affects the fears of all who are in, and the
hopes of all who are out. Those who are out endeavor to distinguish them-
selves by active political friendship, by warm personal devotion, by clamor-
ous support of men in whose hands is the power of reward; while those
who are in, ordinarily take care that others shall not surpass them in such
qualities or such conduct as is most likely to secure favor. They resolve
not to be outdone in any of the works of partisanship. The consequence
of all this is obvious, A comi)etition ensues, not of political labors, not of
rough and severe toils for the ]jublic good, not of manliness, independence,
and public spirit, but of complaisance, of indiscriminate support of execu-
tive measures, of pliant subserviency, and gross adulation. All throng and
rush together to the altar of man worship ; and there they offer sacrifices,
and pour out libations till the thick fumes of their incense turn their own
heads, and turn, also, the head of him who is the object of their idolatry.

" ' Sir, we can not disregard our own experience. We can not shut our
eyes to what is around us and upon us. No candid man can denv that a
great, a very great change has taken place, within a few years, in the prac-
tice of the executive government, which produced a corresponding change
in oAir political condition. No one can deny that office of every kind is
now sought with extraordinary avidity, and that the condition well under-
stood to be attached to every office, high or low, is indiscriminate support of
executive measures, and implicit obedience to executive will. For these
reasons, sir. I am for arresting the further progress of executive patronage,
if we can arrest it. I am for staying the further contagion of this plague.'

"I have read, Mr. Chairman, all the authorities I intended to read to
the committee upon this branch of the question. I will leave it with one
remark more. It is a strong argument against the power now claimed by
the governor, that it has never been exercised before — nay, never asserted.
It belongs only to the boldness of Governor Owsley to put forward such
high claims to power — perhaps the more appropriate expression would be,
instead of boldness, the obstinate malignity of Governor Owsley.

"Mr. Chairman, the tenure of the office of secretary of the State of
Kentucky has been assimilated to that of secretary of State of the United
States. The analogy does not hold good in any one particular, except the
mere name. The office of secretary for the State of Kentucky is created by the
Constitution of Kentucky. That of the United States, by act of Congress.
The duties of secretary of State for Kentucky are pointed out by the Con-
stitution and the laws of Kentucky. The duties of the secretary of State
for the United States are those things pointed out to him by the President of



THE OWSLEY SPEECH. 443

the United States. The secretary of State is to hold his office for four
years, if he shall so long behave well. The secretary of the United States
is removable at the pleasure of the president. I will dismiss that part of
this subject as unworthy of further notice, by reading the act of Congress,
which reads in these words :

" ' Section i. Be it enacted, etc., that there shall be an executive depart-
ment, to be denominated the department of foreign affairs [name since
changed to department of State], and that there shall be a principal officer
therein, to be called the secretary of the department of foreign affairs [since
changed to secretary of State], who shall perform and execute such duties as
shall, from time to time, be enjoined on or entrusted to him by the President
of the United States, agreeable to the Constitution, relative to correspond-
ence, commissions, or instructions, to or with public ministers or consuls,
from the United States, or to negotiations with public ministers from foreign
States, or princes, or to memorials or other applications from foreign public
ministers, or other foreigners, or to such other matters respecting foreign
affairs as the President of the United States shall assign to the said depart-
ment; and, furthermore, that the said principal officer shall conduct the business
of said department in such manner as the President of the United States shall,
from time to time, order or instruct.

" ' Sec. 2. That there shall be in the said department an inferior officer,
to be appointed by the principal officer, and to be employed therein as he
shall deem proper, and to be called the chief clerk in the department of for-
eign affairs ; and 7C'ho, whenever the said principal officer shall be removed from
office by the President of the United States, or in any other case of vacancy, have
the charge and custody of all records, books, and papers appertaining to the
said department, i Storey's Laws U. S., page 5.'

" Mr. Chairman, there are a few general remarks I wish to make, which
come under no regular head. I have signed my name to not less than fifteen
thousand State bonds and coupons, for which I never got one cent or asked
one cent. It was no part of my duty as secretary. Mr. Harlan got, when
secretary, two hundred and fifty dollars for signing State bonds and coupons.
When the Legislature, in the session of 1845, called upon Mr. Cates and
myself to compile the revenue laws, Mr. Cates copied the laws, for which he
got three hundred dollars. \, in obedience to a resolution of the Legislature,
digested a revenue system and reported it to each House of the General
Assembly in 1846. That cost me much labor. I charged not one cent for
it. That was no part of my business as secretary. When I was called upon
as one of the arbitrators in the case of the claim of John Tilford, to meet
the other arbitrators and settle if we could, I met the other gentlemen. We
used every effort we could to settle it, but we could not on account of my
disagreement with the other two. The Legislature called on the arbitrators
for a report. I made out mine with much labor, and which was approved by
a majority of both Houses of the General Assembly. For that I neither got
nor charged a cent. I paid out of my own pocket, Charles Morris, for copy-
ing the two reports — one in the case of Tilford and the other the system



444



BEN HARDIN.



of revenue — five dollars. I never asked to be reimbursed even that sum.
The secretary and some other gentlemen were directed to examine the pub-
lic library, and report the state of the books, etc. I spent near two weeks
in performing that labor, and drew a report— the other gentlemen signed it
but never looked at a book. I do not, Mr. Chairman, make these remarks
to boast of what I have done, out of my duty as secretary, for nothing ; but
to repel the imputation of the governor, that I took the oftice to make money
out of it, without rendering services. Such malignant insinuations I throw
back in the teeth of the governor with scorn and contempt.

" I have not continued in oftice for either the honor of holding it or the
emoluments of the office. It is no honor for me to hold office under Gov-
ernor Owsley. I was advised by a lady of this town, the day I entered the
office, not to accept. She warned me against it, and pointed out, with the
spirit of prophecy, the indignities I would have to submit to and the persecu-
tions I would have to endure. She knew the governor and the Owsley
family much better and more intimately than I did. She was like Cassandra,
the daughter of Priam, king of ancient Troy. In her advice to me, she had
the gift of prophecy; but, yet, like Cassandra, she was not credited.

" I have held the office, seeking a fit opportunity to resign, without appear-
ing to be driven out of it. I spurn Governor Owsley, the office, and salary
as I do the dust I tread on. If I could have honorably got clear of the com-
mission, I could in my heart have torn it to pieces, dashed it on the ground,
and stamped it under my feet.

" No, Mr. Chairman, I fight this battle singly and alone against the whole
power of the administration. I fight for my honor, my character, my repu-
tation, and for the proud feelings of my family, who are, both by blood and
marriage, equal to any in America. Thank God. I have now an opportunity
to do it before the Senate, the House of Representatives, the crowded assem-
bly, the State, and nation at large. I fight the batde, also, to restore the Con-
stitution of my country— broken and violated by an invasion of my political
rights. If the Senate decide that the governor has a right, without cause, to
remove me, then I leave the office cheerfully, for I would not hold an office
at his will and pleasure. If the Senate decides this question in my favor, it
will put it in my power to resign, which I will do. So, in either event, I get
clear of this miserable office. I would not continue to hold office under Gov-
ernor Owsley. His name shall not be on a paper to contaminate my pocket.
To stay in the secretary's office the residue of his time, and be associated
with him and his minions is more than I can endure. If I am to die, I had
rather be thrown into the lion's den and torn to pieces, than be stung to death
by gnats, mosquitoes, and yellow-jackets.

" Mr. Mitchell said, in his evidence, that I opposed some of the gov-
ernor's nominations and measures. If he means that I opposed his nomina-
tions after they were made, I deny it. As to his measures, I said but little



THE OWSLEY SPEECH. 4^.^

about them. I saw no system in his measures, but to hunt offices and employ-
ment for his relations. I know what Mr. Mitchell alludes to— the report, I
suppose, I had the honor, in obedience to a resolution of both Houses, to
make to the Legislature last session. In that report I recommended the aboli-
tion of the office of first auditor. His salary is twelve hundred and fifty dollars
a year; the office expenses about three hundred dollars a year; making fif-
teen hundred and fifty dollars. And, also, the abolition of the clerk's office
to the commissioners of the sinking fund. The clerk's salary is five hundred
dollars a year, and office expenses about fifty dollars a year. The two offices
cost the State now about twenty-one hundred dollars. Throw the business
of those two offices into the second auditor's office. It would require but
an additional clerk, at a salary of five hundred dollars. By the measure
I recommended, the State would save sixteen hundred dollars a year, and the
fiscal and financial concerns and business of the State much simplified. It is
plain why the measure was not acceptable to the governor. It touched the
salary of Mr. Bodley and the ' duke,' two members of the governor's family.
There is very little business to do in the first auditor's office, and the clerk of
the commissioners of the sinking fund, I do not believe, has more than one
hour's work a week upon an average. It mattered not how wise the measure
of abolishing those two useless offices ; yet it would not be relished by the
governor, because his family would feel it.

" I saw from the governor's message a proposition to abolish the board
of internal improvement. I knew that would injure the whole system.
The message said Governor Metcalfe wanted to resign. I solicited him not
to resign. He said his situation was an uneasy one. I thought he alluded
to some persons finding fault with him. However, he promised me not to
resign, and has not done it. I will ask you, Mr. Chairman, when I was
called on by the Legislature for a system of revenue, if that did not embrace
retrenchment, as well as taxation, and if I would not have been faithless to
the high trust refjosed in me by the Legislature if I had shrunk from the
performance of that duty, for fear of offending the governor, the ' duke,'
and his father-in-law, Mr. Bodley ?

" I will ask Governor Owsley if he did not, this winter four years ago,
as I have stated, promise me, if elected governor, he would not know the
politics of any applicant for office, and if qualification alone would not
be the test? I will demand of him, when you twice appointed a judge
for the upper district, could you find no lawyer there? and if you could,
was it not your duty to select a judge who lived in that district ? I will
answer those questions for the governor. You could have found eminent
lawyers, residents in that district ; and if you could, you should have
appointed one of them. But the governor has a further answer, which he
will give himself — they were Democrats, and voted for Butler. When offi-
cers were appointed to command our volunteers, last summer, could you



446



BEN HARDIN.



not, governor, have found a Democrat qualified to fill some office as high as
a colonel or major? You will answer no. I say you could have found
many who, in the language of Lord Byron, ' are valorous and sage.' The
governor can not find one fit lor Commonwealth's Attorney. All the pledges
I made for the governor, when a candidate — and I made them by his
authority, in a hundred speeches — are to remain unredeemed.

" I have, Mr. Chairman, frequently contemplated the vanities of this
vain world — its pomjj and show. I have imagined to myself the proud
emperor of all the Russias ; how proud and arrogant he was ; yet not more
so than a little petty constable strutting about witli his saddle-bags on his
arm. I have imagined to myself Bonaparte, the day after a celebrated bat-
tle — such as Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland — reviewing his mighty army
and distributing honors on the battlefield. Then I have looked upon Gov-
ernor Owsley in the after part of the day, when His Grace would put on his
table a Tribune, with the articles marked that praised and extolled him to
the sky, all made up to order in the secretary's office by the 'duke,' and
sent to Danville for publication. I have seen him read them and smile, and
sjnile and read again and again. At last, toward night, he would rise from
his chair, fold his cloak around himself, and step out of the office. His
Grace would follow him and soon overtake him, get a foot or two in advance,
look around and up in his face, uttering, I have no doubt, about these
words, or something like them : ' You are a distinguished Whig ; the breath
of thy nostrils consumeth thy enemies like a devouring flame a dry stubble.'
The governor's steps would be measured, ' like a wounded snake as it drags
its slow length along.' They would prolong the walk to the palace as much
as possible, that the common people, the vulgar crowd, might gaze at them,
and say to themselves, ' But behold the wonderful men !' How near are the
ridiculous and sublime to each other ! But behold Bonaparte and his proud
marshals prancing over the bloody fields of battle. Then look on Governor
Owsley, when going from the secretary's office to the palace, and his little
ill-shaped Grace, the Duke of Buckingham, by his side. How great is the
folly of man !

" Mr. Chairman, I have a few more remarks to make, and then, for the
present, I shall say no more until I hear from Mr. Kinkead. I have been
a Whig according to the common acceptation of the term, and still firmly
believe in the great principle that the labor of America must be protected
from the pauper labor of starving Europe. I have served the Whig party
for eighteen years. I lack only two years to make the number Jacob served
Laban. I have fought the Whig battles everywhere — in the Senate of this
State, in Congress, and all over this State — as you all know. Whenever the
Whig drum tapped to fall into ranks I was there. In calling the roll, when
my name was called, I answered, here am I, ready to do your bidding, as
far as a gentleman can do. If the Whigs said, ride over the State and speak



THE OWSLEY SPEECH.



447



to the people, that they may hear our principles discussed, become converts,
and be of our party, I did so ; and never hesitated one moment. Now,
behold ! what is my reward ? A man who professed to be a Whig governor
is persecuting me and speaking evil of me, most unjustly. He never did
the Whig party good, but much evil; and, as St. Paul said of Alexander, the
coppersmith, ' may the Lord reward him according to his works.' He has
been a vile and putrefying sore on the Whigs ; but next August come a year
he will scab off from the Whig party, and that will be an end of him. His
political sun will then set — never more again to rise. In the midst of all my
troubles and difficulties, I appeal to the generosity and magnanimity of the
Democratic party, to come to the rescue and show me fair play. That is all
I want. I know the Democrats have no personal prejudices against me. In
all our political conflicts, I have treated them as noble, virtuous, high-minded,
and honorable men — zealous and true-hearted — and well they deserved such