During the celebrated session, of 1833–34, known as the _panic session_, Mr. Clay performed an amount of labor seldom equalled. He let no suitable occasion pass, without opposing the despotic proceedings of the president, and raising his warning voice against his suicidal policy. The distress caused by the removal of the deposits, and consequent curtailment of the issues of the United States bank, called forth memorials from the people, which poured into congress continually, denouncing the president’s financial experiment, and calling for relief. Many of these were presented by Mr. Clay, who generally accompanied them by a brief speech. One, which he made in presenting a memorial from Kentucky, and one from Troy, contains an accurate and faithful picture of the condition of the country at that period. The evils of the ‘pet bank system,’ soon began to develope themselves. On one occasion, in alluding to it, Mr. Clay remarked as follows. ‘The idea of uniting thirty or forty local banks for the establishment and security of an equal currency, could never be realized. As well might the crew of a national vessel be put on board thirty or forty bark canoes, tied together by a grape vine, and sent out upon the troubled ocean, while the billows were rising mountains high, and the tempest was exhausting its rage on the foaming elements, in the hope that they might weather the storm, and reach their distant destination in safety. The people would be contented by no such fleet of bark canoes, with admiral Taney in their command. They would be heard again calling out for old Ironsides, which had never failed them in the hour of trial, whether amidst the ocean storm, or in the hour of battle.’ The session terminated the last of June, when Mr. Clay set out for Kentucky. While travelling in the stage-coach from Charlestown to Winchester, Virginia, he narrowly escaped death, by its upsetting, a young gentleman being instantly killed by his side.