249

resolution failed. The Republican majority leader of the House 

remarked, "Louis T. McFadden is now politically dead."

On May 23, 1933, McFadden introduced House Resolution No. 158, 

Articles of Impeachment against the Secretary of the Treasury, two 

Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board of 

Governors, and officers and directors of the Federal Reserve Banks for 

their guilt and collusion in causing the Great Depression. "I charge 

them with having unlawfully taken over 80 billion dollars from the 

United States Government in the year 1928, the said unlawful taking 

consisting of the unlawful recreation of claims against the United States 

Treasury to the extent of over 80 billion dollars in the year 1928, and in 

each year subsequent, and by having robbed the United States 

Government and the people of the United States by their theft and 

sale of the gold reserve of the United States."

The Resolution never reached the floor. A whispering campaign that 

McFadden was insane swept Washington, and in the next 

Congressional elections, he was overwhelmingly defeated by 

thousands of dollars poured into his home district of Canton, 

Pennsylvania.

In 1932, the American people elected Franklin D. Roosevelt President 

of the United States. This was hailed as the freeing of the American 

people from the evil influence which had brought on the Great 

Depres-

154

sion, the ending of Wall Street domination, and the disappearance of 

the banker from Washington.