A day after receiving President Andrew Jackson’s nomination of Roger B. Taney, the Senate acted. A majority of senators supported the second Bank of the United States, and they disapproved of Taney as secretary of the Treasury by a vote of 18–28. Taney was the first presidential cabinet nominee in U.S. history rejected by a Senate vote.
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
Senate Vote Tally Sheet for Roger B. Taney’s Nomination to be Secretary of the Treasury, June 24, 1834
Congress Defies President Andrew Jackson
Conflict between Congress and the White House marked the administrations of President Andrew Jackson, particularly concerning the second Bank of the United States, which Jackson opposed. During a congressional recess in 1833, he appointed Attorney General Roger B. Taney as secretary of the Treasury. As a recess appointee, Taney could act without Senate confirmation to remove the bank’s federal deposits. When the Senate reconvened, it refused to confirm Taney’s appointment––for the first time formally rejecting a cabinet secretary.
To the Senate: Commissions having been granted during the recess of the Senate to Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, as Secretary of the Treasury… I now nominate them to those offices respectively.
Andrew Jackson, Message to the Senate, June 23, 1834
A day after receiving President Andrew Jackson’s nomination of Roger B. Taney, the Senate acted. A majority of senators supported the second Bank of the United States, and they disapproved of Taney as secretary of the Treasury by a vote of 18–28. Taney was the first presidential cabinet nominee in U.S. history rejected by a Senate vote.
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
