"armed to the teeth, attempting to overawe the proceedings of this senate"

To the honorable senate of the United States:

   The memorial of William B. Lloyd, a citizen the state of Ohio, respectfully represents: That Monday, the 16th of January, at a late hour of the night, your memorialist was present, with a number of citizens, (all of whom to him were entire strangers), in the gallery of the senate.

   That while the clerk of the senate was discharging the office imposed upon him of "expunging" a certain resolution from the journals of your body, a loud, sudden and continued hiss proceeded from the people in various parts of the galleries, apparently at the same instant.

   That your memorialist heard an order issued by the presiding officer to clear the galleries, which  order your memorialist was ready and willing to obey. But immediately after the issuing of that order, and before it was carried into effect, he heard the doors ordered to be closed. And your memorialist then heard an individual senator, in a tone of command, say in substance, and as nearly as your memorialist can recollect, in the words that follow:

   "Let the hired ruffians of the bank, who are here, as when the bank was in power, armed to the teeth, attempting to overawe the proceedings of this senate, not escape. Let them be seized! Seize the ruffians! There!--there is one who can be easily recognized. Seize him!"

   Your memorialist was then arrested by the sergeant-at-arms, and imprisoned in one of the of the rooms of the capitol until conducted into the presence of the senate, where he was also detained in close custody, until, after being declared by an individual senator to have been "SUFFICIENTLY PUNISHED," your memorialist was ordered by the presiding officer to be discharged.

   Your memorialist heard no charge preferred against him, except as implied in the conversation of senators during the time he was in custody, from the language of the individual senator referred to. He saw no written process, nor does he know or believe that any warrant or legal authority existed for his arrest.

   Nor were any interrogatories addressed to him. And when your memorialist, in a respectful manner, asked the presiding officer "if he might permitted to speak a word in his own behalf," the privilege of speech and defence was denied him--his voice was attempted to be drowned by cries of "remove him"--"remove him," and, by order the presiding officer, he was thrust ignominiously from the door of the senate.

   Your memorialist believes that he was thus deprived of those rights and privileges which guarantied to him by the letter and spirit of the  constitution--of those rights which the people of England so long struggled to secure--which our forefathers deemed of so high importance that they have individually specified them in our own sacred charter, and one of which was reaffirmed by your body in the eighth sentence of the preamble of the expunging resolutions which were passed a few minutes previous to the arrest of your memorialist, in the following words: "And whereas, the said resolve not warranted by the constitution, and was irregularly and illegally adopted by the senate in VIOLATION OF THE RIGHTS OF DEFENCE WHICH BELONG TO EVERY INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN," &C. And, also, of the declaration contained in the tenth sentence of the same preamble.

   Your memorialist has heretofore, from his earliest youth, entertained the most exalted feeling of respect for the senate of the United States, as a constituent branch of the government. He has ever regarded its members as the guardians of the sacred liberties of the people, as well as of the dignity of the nation, and he has ever considered it his duty as well as his high privilege, in that capacity, to honor and respect them. That belief and those he wishes ever to be able to maintain.

   Your memorialist, therefore, confidently and respectfully asks of the senate that his denial of the truth and propriety of the degrading epithets applied to him on the floor of the senate, and that this his statement and protestation against the course pursued in thus prejudging and punishing him without a hearing, may be read and received by senate.

   Your memorialist denies that he is a "ruffian." And so far from being, as charged and CONVICTED, "hired by the bank," he is not even acquainted with any of its officers, nor does he know that he has seen any one of them within the last ten years. Nor has your memorialist at any time been indebted in any sum of money, or in any amount of service, to that bank, nor has he any amount of interest or concern in that or any bank whatever.

   Your memorialist, with all due respect to your constituted body, cannot allow his own private character to be considered of less importance than that of any other man living; nor can he, for a moment, believe that his own conscious rectitude of intention is not equally well founded with that of any member of your honorable body.

   As a free born American citizen, entitled to the full and free enjoyment of all those rights, and to that protection which the constitution and laws our country promise to the humblest as well as the highest individual, your memorialist respectfully demands the only redress which can now be extended to him--the reading and reception of this his solemn declaration and protest.
   Washington, January 18, 1837.

[NILES' WEEKLY REGISTER, CONTAINING POLITICAL, HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, SCIENTIFICAL, STATISTICAL, ECONOMICAL, AND BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTS, ESSAYS AND FACTS: TOGETHER WITH NOTICES OF THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES, AND A RECORD OF THE EVENTS OF THE TIMES. WM. OGDEN NILES, EDITOR. THE PAST--THE PRESENT--FOR THE FUTURE. FROM SEPTEMBER 1836, TO MARCH, 1837--VOL. LI. OR, VOLUME XV.--FIFTH SERIES. BALTIMORE: PRINTED BY THE EDITOR, AT THE FRANKLIN PRESS, WATER-STREET, EAST OF SOUTH STREET. (JAN. 28, 1837) Pg. 345]