Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/390

378 What individual could stand in the states against the power of that bank, and that bank flushed with a victory over the conqueror of the conquerors of Bonaparte? The whole government would fall into the hands of the moneyed power. An oligarchy would be immediately established, and that oligarchy in a few generations would ripen into a monarchy.”

He declared that this Republic deserved a more glorious death, and he preferred that she should end in “a great immortal battle, where heroes and patriots could die with the liberty they scorned to survive.”

After a wild wrangle between Benton and Clay about a street fight between the Benton brothers and Jackson, which had occurred years ago, — for the debate degenerated into bitter personalities, — the vote was taken, and the bill, the President's objections notwithstanding, received 22 against 19 votes, not the necessary two thirds. Thus the veto was sustained.

Clay and his friends were still in good spirits. The veto, they thought, would severely shock the sober sense of the people, and, in effect, be Jackson's death-warrant. Nicholas Biddle wrote to Clay that he was “delighted with it.” Anti-Jackson newspapers found the veto message “beneath contempt,” and advised that it be given the widest possible publicity. So it was, and with a startling result.

The Democratic National Convention had been held in May, while the struggle in Congress was