In the next session, which commenced in December, 1836, Mr. Buchanan delivered a speech which may perhaps be regarded as the ablest of his efforts in the Senate. It related to a topic that had long been attended with intense political excitement. President Jackson’s removal of the public deposits from the Bank of the United States furnished to the Whig opponents of his administration a means of attack, of which they were not slow to avail themselves. The powerful opposition, which at the time of that occurrence controlled the proceedings of the Senate, was led by Mr. Clay, who was the defeated Whig candidate for the Presidency at the election of 1832. Swaying his party in the Senate with an imperious will, and enforcing his determinations by a fascinating eloquence, Mr. Clay, on the 28th of March, 1834, carried a resolution, which was inscribed on the journal of the Senate in the following words: “That the President, in the late executive proceedings, in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both.” On the 3d of March, 1835, a resolution introduced by Col. Benton, of Missouri, ordering Mr. Clay’s resolution to be “expunged” from the journal, came up for consideration. The word “expunged” was stricken out by a vote in which the mover and other friends of the administration concurred, so that some other less objectionable phrase might be substituted. But as soon as this word was stricken out, Mr. Webster moved to lay the resolution on the table, giving notice that he would not withdraw his motion “for friend or foe.” The motion was not debatable, and as the Whigs still had a majority, it was carried by a party vote. The Democratic Senators then determined that the word “expunged” should never be again surrendered. At the next session they had a majority; and Col. Benton’s resolution then came up, in a form which directed that Mr. Clay’s resolution of 1834 be expunged from the journal of the Senate, by drawing black lines around it, and writing across its face the words, “Expunged by order of the Senate, this —— day of —— in the year of our Lord 1837.” It was upon this proposal, in reply to an impassioned speech by Mr. Clay, that Mr. Buchanan, on the 16th of January, 1837, addressed the Senate.