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diff --git a/44851-0.txt b/44851-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..822cd1c --- /dev/null +++ b/44851-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,72105 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44851 *** + +Transcriber's note: + +Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + +Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. + +Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). + + * * * * * + + + + +[Illustration: frontispiece] + + + + +[Illustration: Thomas H. Benton] + + + + + THIRTY YEARS' VIEW; + + OR, + + A HISTORY OF THE WORKING OF THE AMERICAN + GOVERNMENT FOR THIRTY YEARS, + + FROM 1820 TO 1850. + + CHIEFLY TAKEN + + FROM THE CONGRESS DEBATES, THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF GENERAL JACKSON + AND THE SPEECHES OF EX-SENATOR BENTON, WITH HIS + ACTUAL VIEW OF MEN AND AFFAIRS: + + WITH + + HISTORICAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, AND SOME NOTICES OF EMINENT + DECEASED COTEMPORARIES: + + BY A SENATOR OF THIRTY YEARS. + + IN TWO VOLUMES. + + VOL. I. + + NEW YORK: + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, + 1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET. + LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN. + 1883. + + + + + ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by + D. APPLETON & CO., + In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States + for the Southern District of New York. + + + + +AUTO-BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. + + [The outlines of the life of the lately deceased Thomas H. + Benton, which are contained in the following pages, were + prepared by the author and subject of them whilst he was + suffering excruciating pain from the disease that, a few weeks + later, closed his earthly career. They were not intended + for a Biography, properly so called, but rather to present + some salient points of character and some chief incidents of + life, and in respect of them, at least, to govern subsequent + Biographies.] + + +Thomas Hart Benton, known as a senator for thirty years in Congress, +and as the author of several works, was born in Orange County, +near Hillsborough, North Carolina, March 14th, 1782; and was the +son of Col. Jesse Benton, an able lawyer of that State, and of Ann +Gooch, of Hanover county, Virginia, of the family of the Gooches of +colonial residence in that State. By this descent, on the mother's +side, he took his name from the head of the Hart family (Col. Thomas +Hart, of Lexington, Kentucky), his mother's maternal uncle; and so +became related to the numerous Hart family. He was cousin to Mrs. +Clay, born Lucretia Hart, the wife of Henry Clay; and, by an easy +mistake, was often quoted during his public life as the relative of +Mr. Clay himself. He lost his father before he was eight years of +age, and fell under the care of a mother still young, and charged +with a numerous family, all of tender age--and devoting herself to +them. She was a woman of reading and observation--solid reading, +and observation of the men of the Revolution, brought together by +course of hospitality of that time, in which the houses of friends, +and not taverns, were the universal stopping places. Thomas was +the oldest son, and at the age of ten and twelve was reading solid +books with his mother, and studying the great examples of history, +and receiving encouragement to emulate these examples. His father's +library, among others, contained the famous State Trials, in the +large folios of that time, and here he got a foundation of British +history, in reading the treason, and other trials, with which +these volumes abound. She was also a pious and religious woman, +cultivating the moral and religious education of her children, and +connected all her life with the Christian church; _first_, as a +member of the English Episcopalian, and when removal to the Great +West, then in the wilderness, had broken that connection, then +in the Methodist Episcopalian--in which she died. All the minor +virtues, as well as the greater, were cherished by her; and her +house, the resort of the eminent men of the time, was the abode of +temperance, modesty, decorum. A pack of cards was never seen in her +house. From such a mother all the children received the impress +of future character; and she lived to see the fruits of her pious +and liberal cares--living a widow above fifty years, and to see her +eldest son half through his senatorial career, and taking his place +among the historic men of the country for which she had begun so +early to train him. These details deserve to be noted, though small +in themselves, as showing how much the after life of the man may +depend upon the early cares and guidance of a mother. + +His scholastic education was imperfect: _first_, at a grammar +school taught by Richard Stanford, Esq., then a young New England +emigrant, soon after, and for many years, and until death, a +representative in Congress, noted as the life-long friend of Macon +and Randolph. Afterwards he was at Chapel Hill, the University of +North Carolina, but finished no course of study there, his mother +removing to Tennessee, where his father had acquired great landed +property (40,000 acres), and intended to make Nashville his home; +and now, as the eldest of the family, though not grown, the care and +management of a new settlement, in a new country, fell upon him. +The family went upon a choice tract of 3000 acres, on West Harpeth, +twenty-five miles south of Nashville, where for several years the +main care was the opening a farm in the wilderness. Wilderness! for +such was the state of the country at that time within half a day's +ride of the city of Nashville. "The widow Benton's settlement" +was the outside settlement between civilization and the powerful +southern tribes which spread to the Gulf of Mexico. The Indian wars +had just been terminated, and the boundary which these great tribes +were enabled to exact brought their frontier almost to the gates +of Nashville--within 25 miles! for the line actually touched the +outside line of the estate. The Indians swarmed about it. Their +great war trace (the trace on which they came for blood and plunder +in time of war, for trade in time of peace) led through it. Such a +position was not to be maintained by a small family alone--a widow, +and every child under age, only some twenty odd slaves. It required +strength! and found it in the idea of a little colony--leases to +settlers without price, for seven years; moderate rents afterwards. +The tract was well formed for the purpose, being four miles +square, with every attraction for settlement--rich land fine wood, +living streams. Settlers came; the ground was covered over: it was +called "Benton Town," and retains the name to this day. A rude log +school-house, a meeting house of the same primitive structure, with +roads and mills, completed the rapid conversion of this wilderness +into an abode of civilization. The scholastic education of her son +had ceased, but reading continued; and books of solid instruction +became his incessant companions. He has been heard to say that, in +no period of his life, has he ever read so much, nor with as much +system and regularity, nor with the same profit and delight. History +and geography was (what he considered) his light reading; national +law, the civil law, the common law--and, finally, the law itself, +so usually read by law students--constituted his studies. And all +this reading, and study, was carried on during the active personal +exertions which he gave to the opening of the farm and to the +ameliorations upon it which comfort exacted. + +Then came the law license, indulgently granted by the three Superior +Court Judges--White, Overton, and Campbell--the former afterwards +senator in Congress, Overton an eminent lawyer before he was a +Superior Court judge, and Campbell, one of the respectable early +settlers and lawyers of the State. The law license signed, practice +followed, and successful--Gen. Jackson, Gen. James Robertson, Judge +McNairy, Major Thomas Hardeman, and the old heads of the population +giving him their support and countenance as a young man that might +become useful to the State, and so deserved to be encouraged. +Scarcely at the bar, and a legislative career was opened to him. +He was elected to the General Assembly of the State; and, though +serving but for a single session, left the impress of his mind and +principles on the statute book, and on the public policy. He was +the author of the Judicial Reform Act, by which the old system of +Superior Courts was substituted by the circuit system, in which the +administration of justice was relieved of great part of its delay, +of its expense, and of much of its inconvenience to parties and +witnesses. And he was the author of a humane law, giving to slaves +the same full benefit of jury trial which was the right of the +white man under the same accusation--a law which still remains on +the statute book, but has lost its effect under the fatal outside +interference which has checked the progress of Southern slave policy +amelioration, and turned back the current which was setting so +strongly in favor of mitigating the condition of the slave. + +Returning to the practice of the law, the war of 1812 broke out. +Volunteers were called for, to descend the rivers to New Orleans, +to meet the British, expected there in the winter of 1812-'13, but +not coming until the winter of 1814-'15. Three thousand volunteers +were raised! raised in a flash! under the _prestige_ of Jackson's +name--his patriotic proclamation--and the ardent addresses of +Benton, flying from muster ground to muster ground, and stimulating +the inherent courage and patriotism of the young men. They were +formed into three regiments, of which Benton was colonel of one. He +had been appointed aide-de-camp to Jackson (then a major-general +in the Tennessee militia), on the first symptoms of war with Great +Britain, and continued to perform many of the most intimate duties +of that station, though, as colonel of a regiment, he could not +hold the place. The force descended to the Lower Mississippi: the +British did not come; the volunteers returned to Tennessee, were +temporarily disbanded, but called again into service by Gen. Jackson +at the breaking out of the Creek war. These volunteers were the +foundation of all Jackson's subsequent splendid career; and the +way in which, through their means, he was enabled to get into the +regular army, is a most curious piece of history, not told anywhere +but by Col. Benton, as a member of the House of Representatives, on +the presentation of Jackson's sword (Feb. 26th, 1855). That piece +of unknown history, which could only come from one who was part and +parcel of the transaction, deserves to be known, and to be studied +by every one who is charged with the administration of government, +and by every one who would see with what difficulties genius and +patriotism may have to contend--with what chances they may have to +wrestle--before they get an opportunity to fulfil a destiny for +which they were born. + +The volunteers disbanded, Col. Benton proceeded to Washington, and +was appointed by Mr. Madison a lieutenant-colonel of infantry in the +army (1813); and afterwards (1814-15) proceeding to Canada, where +he had obtained service, he met the news of peace; and desiring no +service in time of peace, he was within a few months on the west +bank of the Mississippi, St. Louis his home, and the profession of +the law ardently recommenced. In four years the State of Missouri +was admitted into the Union, and Col. Benton was elected one of her +first senators; and, continuously by successive elections, until +1851. From that time his life was in the public eye, and the bare +enumeration of the measures of which he was the author, and the +prime promoter, would be almost a history of Congress legislation. +The enumeration is unnecessary here: the long list is known +throughout the length and breadth of the land--repeated with the +familiarity of household words from the great cities on the seaboard +to the lonely cabins on the frontier--and studied by the little +boys who feel an honorable ambition beginning to stir within their +bosoms, and a laudable desire to learn something of the history of +their country. + +Omitting this detail of well-known measures, we proceed to something +else characteristic of Senator Benton's legislative life, less +known, but necessary to be known to know the man. He never had a +clerk, nor even a copyist; but did his own writing, and made his +own copies. He never had office, or contract, for himself, or any +one of his blood. He detested office seeking, and office hunting, +and all changes in politics followed by demand for office. He was +never in any Congress caucus, or convention to nominate a President +or Vice-President, nor even suffered his name to go before such a +body for any such nominations. He refused many offices which were +pressed upon him--the mission to Russia, by President Jackson; war +minister, by Mr. Van Buren; minister to France, by Mr. Polk. Three +appointments were intended for him, which he would have accepted if +the occasions had occurred--command of the army by General Jackson, +if war took place with Mexico during his administration; the same +command by the same President, if war had taken place with France, +in 1836; the command of the army in Mexico, by President Polk, +with the rank of lieutenant-general, if the bill for the rank had +not been defeated in the Senate after having passed the House by a +general vote. And none of these military appointments could have +wounded professional honor, as Col. Benton, at the time of his +retiring from the army, ranked all those who have since reached its +head. + +Politically, Col. Benton always classed democratically, but with +very little regard for modern democracy, founded on the platforms +which the little political carpenters reconstruct about every +four years, generally out of office-timber, sometimes green and +sometimes rotten, and in either case equally good, as the platform +was only wanted to last until after the election. He admitted no +platform of political principles but the constitution, and viewed as +impertinent and mischievous the attempt to expound the constitution, +periodically, in a set of hurrah resolutions, juggled through the +fag-end of a packed convention, and held to be the only test of +political salvation during its brief day of supremacy. + +His going to Missouri, then a Territory under the pupillage of +Congress, was at a period of great interest both for the Territory +and the Union. Violent parties were there, as usual in Territories, +and great questions coming on upon which the future fate of the +State, and perhaps of the Union, depended. The Missouri controversy +soon raged in Congress, throughout the States, and into the +Territory. An active restriction party was in the Territory, largely +reinforced by outside aid, and a decided paper was wanting to +give the proper tone to the public mind. Col. Benton had one set +up, and wrote for it with such point and vigor that the Territory +soon presented a united front, and when the convention election +came round there was but one single delegate elected on the side of +restriction. This united front had an immense effect in saving the +question in Congress. + +Besides his legislative reports, bills and speeches, sufficient +to fill many volumes, Col. Benton is known as the author of some +literary works--the Thirty Years' View of the inside working of the +Federal Government; the Abridgment of Debates of Congress from 1789 +to (intended) 1856; and an examination of the political part (as he +deemed it) of the Supreme Court's decision in the Dred Scott case, +that part of it which pronounced the abrogation of the Missouri +Compromise line and the self-extension of the Constitution to +Territories carrying African slavery along with it, and keeping it +there in defiance of Congress or the people of the Territory. There +was also a class of speeches, of which he delivered many, which were +out of the line of political or legislative discussion; and may be +viewed as literary. They were the funeral eulogiums which the custom +of Congress began to admit, though not to the degree at present +practised, over deceased members. These eulogiums were universally +admired, and were read over Europe, and found their charm in the +_perception of character which they exhibited_; in the perception +of the qualities which constituted the man, and gave him identity +and individuality. These qualities, thus perceived (and it requires +intimate acquaintance with the man, and some natural gift, to make +the perception), and presented with truth and simplicity, imparted +the interest to these eulogiums which survives many readings, and +will claim lasting places in biographies. + +While in the early part of life, at Nashville and at St. Louis, +duels and affrays were common; and the young Benton had his share +of them: a very violent affray between himself and brother on one +side, and Genl. Jackson and some friends on the other, in which +severe pistol and dagger wounds were given, but fortunately without +loss of life; and the only use for which that violent collision +now finds a reference is in its total oblivion by the parties, and +the cordiality with which they acted together for the public good +in their subsequent long and intimate public career. A duel at St. +Louis ended fatally, of which Col. Benton has not been heard to +speak except among intimate friends, and to tell of the pang which +went through his heart when he saw the young man fall, and would +have given the world to see him restored to life. As the proof of +the manner in which he looks upon all these scenes, and his desire +to bury all remembrance of them forever, he has had all the papers +burnt which relate to them, that no future curiosity or industry +should bring to light what he wishes had never happened. + +Col. Benton was married, after becoming Senator, to Elizabeth, +daughter of Col. James McDowell, of Rockbridge county, Virginia, and +of Sarah his wife, born Sarah Preston; and has surviving issue four +daughters: Mrs. William Carey Jones, Mrs. Jessie Ann Benton Fremont, +Mrs. Sarah Benton Jacob, and Madame Susan Benton Boilleau, now at +Calcutta, wife of the French consul general--all respectable in +life and worthy of their mother, who was a woman of singular merit, +judgment, elevation of character, and regard for every social duty, +crowned by a life-long connection with the church in which she was +bred, the Presbyterian old school. Following the example of their +mother, all the daughters are members of some church. Mrs. Benton +died in 1854, having been struck with paralysis in 1844, and from +the time of that calamity her husband was never known to go to any +place of festivity or amusement. + + + + +PREFACE + +[Illustration: decorative] + + +1.--MOTIVES FOR WRITING THIS WORK. + +Justice to the men with whom I acted, and to the cause in which +we were engaged, is my chief motive for engaging in this work. A +secondary motive is the hope of being useful to our republican +form of government in after ages by showing its working through a +long and eventful period; working well all the time, and thereby +justifying the hope of its permanent good operation in all time to +come, if maintained in its purity and integrity. Justice to the wise +and patriotic men who established our independence, and founded this +government, is another motive with me. I do not know how young I +was when I first read in the speeches of Lord Chatham, the encomium +which he pronounced in the House of Lords on these founders of our +republic; but it sunk deep into my memory at the time, and, what is +more, went deep into the heart: and has remained there ever since. +"When your lordships look at the papers transmitted us from America; +when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot +but respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I +must declare and avow, that in all my reading and observation--and +it has been my favorite study--I have read Thucydides, and have +studied and admired the master states of the world--that for +solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, +under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation, +or body of men, can stand in preference to the general congress +at Philadelphia." This encomium, so just and so grand, so grave +and so measured, and the more impressive on account of its gravity +and measure, was pronounced in the early part of our revolutionary +struggle--in its first stage--and before a long succession of +crowning events had come to convert it into history, and to show +of how much more those men were capable than they had then done. +If the great William Pitt--greater under that name than under the +title he so long refused--had lived in this day, had lived to see +these men making themselves exceptions to the maxim of the world, +and finishing the revolution which they began--seen them found a +new government and administer it in their day and generation, and +until "gathered to their fathers," and all with the same wisdom, +justice, moderation, and decorum, with which they began it: if he +had lived to have seen all this, even his lofty genius might have +recoiled from the task of doing them justice;--and, I may add, from +the task of doing justice to the PEOPLE who sustained such men. +Eulogy is not my task; but gratitude and veneration is the debt of +my birth and inheritance, and of the benefits which I have enjoyed +from their labors; and I have proposed to acknowledge this debt--to +discharge it is impossible--in laboring to preserve their work +during my day, and in now commending it, by the fruits it has borne, +to the love and care of posterity. Another motive, hardly entitled +to the dignity of being named, has its weight with me, and belongs +to the rights of "self-defence." I have made a great many speeches, +and have an apprehension that they may be published after I am +gone--published in the gross, without due discrimination--and so +preserve, or perpetuate, things said, both of men and of measures, +which I no longer approve, and would wish to leave to oblivion. By +making selections of suitable parts of these speeches, and weaving +them into this work, I may hope to prevent a general publication--or +to render it harmless if made. But I do not condemn all that I leave +out. + + +2.--QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE WORK. + +Of these I have one, admitted by all to be considerable, but by no +means enough of itself. Mr. Macaulay says of Fox and Mackintosh, +speaking of their histories of the last of the Stuarts, and of the +Revolution of 1688: "They had one eminent qualification for writing +history; they had spoken history, acted history, lived history. The +turns of political fortune, the ebb and flow of popular feeling, the +hidden mechanism by which parties are moved, all these things were +the subject of their constant thought, and of their most familiar +conversation. Gibbon has remarked, that his history is much the +better for his having been an officer in the militia, and a member +of the House of Commons. The remark is most just. We have not the +smallest doubt that his campaigns, though he never saw an enemy, and +his parliamentary attendance, though he never made a speech, were of +far more use to him than years of retirement and study would have +been. If the time that he spent on parade and at mess in Hampshire, +or on the Treasury bench and at Brooke's, during the storms which +overthrew Lord North and Lord Shelburne, had been passed in the +Bodleian Library, he might have avoided some inaccuracies; he might +have enriched his notes with a greater number of references; but +he never could have produced so lively a picture of the court, the +camp, and the senate-house. In this respect Mr. Fox and Sir James +Mackintosh had great advantages over almost every English historian +since the time of Burnet."--I can say I have these advantages. I was +in the Senate the whole time of which I write--an active business +member, attending and attentive--in the confidence of half the +administrations, and a close observer of the others--had an inside +view of transactions of which the public only saw the outside, +and of many of which the two sides were very different--saw the +secret springs and hidden machinery by which men and parties were +to be moved, and measures promoted or thwarted--saw patriotism and +ambition at their respective labors, and was generally able to +discriminate between them. So far, I have one qualification; but +Mr. Macaulay says that Lord Lyttleton had the same, and made but a +poor history, because unable to use his material. So it may be with +me; but in addition to my senatorial means of knowledge, I have +access to the unpublished papers of General Jackson, and find among +them some that he intended for publication, and which will be used +according to his intention. + + +3.--THE SCOPE OF THE WORK. + +I do not propose a regular history, but a political work, to show +the practical working of the government, and speak of men and events +in subordination to that design, and to illustrate the character of +Institutions which are new and complex--the first of their kind, +and upon the fate of which the eyes of the world are now fixed. Our +duplicate form of government, State and Federal, is a novelty which +has no precedent, and has found no practical imitation, and is still +believed by some to be an experiment. I believe in its excellence, +and wish to contribute to its permanence, and believe I can do so by +giving a faithful account of what I have seen of its working, and of +the trials to which I have seen it subjected. + + +4.--THE SPIRIT OF THE WORK. + +I write in the spirit of Truth, but not of unnecessary or irrelevant +truth, only giving that which is essential to the object of the +work, and the omission of which would be an imperfection, and a +subtraction from what ought to be known. I have no animosities, +and shall find far greater pleasure in bringing out the good +and the great acts of those with whom I have differed, than in +noting the points on which I deemed them wrong. My ambition is +to make a veracious work, reliable in its statements, candid in +its conclusions, just in its views, and which cotemporaries and +posterity may read without fear of being misled. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. + +[Illustration: decorative] + + PAGE. + + PRELIMINARY VIEW from 1815 to 1820 1 + + CHAP. + + I. Personal Aspect of the Government 7 + + II. Admission of the State of Missouri 8 + + III. Finances--Reduction of the Army 11 + + IV. Relief of Public Land Debtors 11 + + V. Oregon Territory 13 + + VI. Florida Treaty and Cession of Texas 14 + + VII. Death of Mr. Lowndes 18 + + VIII. Death of William Pinkney 19 + + IX. Abolition of the Indian Factory System 20 + + X. Internal Improvement 21 + + XI. General Removal of Indians 27 + + XII. Visit of Lafayette to the United States 29 + + XIII. The Tariff, and American System 32 + + XIV. The A. B. Plot 34 + + XV. Amendment of the Constitution, in relation + to the Election of President and Vice-President 37 + + XVI. Internal Trade with New Mexico 41 + + XVII. Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections + in the Electoral Colleges 44 + + XVIII. Death of John Taylor, of Caroline 45 + + XIX. Presidential Election in the House of Representatives 46 + + XX. The Occupation of the Columbia 50 + + XXI. Commencement of Mr. Adams's Administration 54 + + XXII. Case of Mr. Lanman--Temporary Senatorial + Appointment from Connecticut 56 + + XXIII. Retiring of Mr. Rufus King 57 + + XXIV. Removal of the Creek Indians from Georgia 58 + + XXV. The Panama Mission 65 + + XXVI. Duel Between Mr. Clay and Mr. Randolph 70 + + XXVII. Death of Mr. Gaillard 77 + + XXVIII. Amendment of the Constitution, in relation + to the Election of President and Vice-President 78 + + XXIX. Reduction of Executive Patronage 80 + + XXX. Exclusion of Members of Congress from + Civil Office Appointments 82 + + XXXI. Death of the ex-Presidents, John Adams + and Thomas Jefferson 87 + + XXXII. British Indemnity for Deported Slaves 88 + + XXXIII. Meeting of the first Congress Elected under + the Administration of Mr. Adams 91 + + XXXIV. Revision of the Tariff 95 + + XXXV. The Public Lands--Their Proper Disposition--Graduated + Prices--Pre-emption + Rights--Donations to Settlers 102 + + XXXVI. Cession of a Part of the Territory of Arkansas + to the Cherokee Indians 107 + + XXXVII. Renewal of the Oregon Joint Occupation + Convention 109 + + XXXVIII. Presidential Election of 1828, and Further + Errors of Mons. de Tocqueville 111 + + XXXIX. Retiring and Death of Mr. Macon 114 + + XL. Commencement of General Jackson's Administration 119 + + XLI. First Message of General Jackson to the + two Houses of Congress 121 + + XLII. The recovery of the Direct Trade with the + British West India Islands 124 + + XLIII. Establishment of the _Globe_ Newspaper 128 + + XLIV. Limitation of Public Land Sales--Suspension + of Surveys--Abolition of the Office + of Surveyor General--Origin of the + United States Land System--Authorship + of the Anti-slavery Ordinance of + 1778--Slavery Controversy--Protective + Tariff--Inception of the Doctrine of Nullification 130 + + XLV. Repeal of the Salt Tax 143 + + XLVI. Birthday of Mr. Jefferson, and the Doctrine + of Nullification 148 + + XLVII. Regulation of Commerce 149 + + XLVIII. Alum Salt--The Abolition of the Duty + upon it, and Repeal of the Fishing Bounty + and Allowances Founded on It 154 + + XLIX. Bank of the United States 158 + + L. Removals from Office 159 + + LI. Indian Sovereignties within the States 163 + + LII. Veto on the Maysville Road Bill 167 + + LIII. Rupture between President Jackson and + Vice-President Calhoun 167 + + LIV. Breaking up of the Cabinet, and Appointment + of another 180 + + LV. Military Academy 182 + + LVI. Bank of the United States--Non-renewal + of Charter 187 + + LVII. Error of De Tocqueville, in relation to the + House of Representatives 205 + + LVIII. The Twenty-second Congress 208 + + LIX. Rejection of Mr. Van Buren, Minister to + England 214 + + LX. Bank of the United States--Illegal, and + Vicious Currency 220 + + LXI. Error of Mons. de Tocqueville, in relation + to the Bank of the United States, the + President, and the People 224 + + LXII. Expenses of the Government 229 + + LXIII. Bank of the United States--Recharter--Commencement + of the Proceedings 232 + + LXIV. Bank of the United States--Committee + of Investigation Ordered 235 + + LXV. The Three per Cent. Debt, and Loss in + not Paying it when the Rate was Low, + and the Money in the Bank of the + United States without Interest 242 + + LXVI. Bank of the United States--Bill for the + Recharter Reported in the Senate, and + Passed that Body 243 + + LXVII. Bank of the United States--Bill for the + Renewed Charter Passed in the House + of Representatives 250 + + LXVIII. The Veto 251 + + LXXIX. The Protective System 265 + + LXX. Public Lands--Distribution to the States 275 + + LXXI. Settlement of French and Spanish Land + Claims 279 + + LXXII. "Effects of the Veto" 280 + + LXXIII. Presidential Election of 1832 282 + + LXXIV. First Annual Message of President Jackson, + after his Second Election 283 + + LXXV. Bank of The United States--Delay in + Paying the Three per Cents.--Committee + of Investigation 287 + + LXXVI. Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt 291 + + LXXVII. Sale of United States Stock in the National + Bank 294 + + LXXVIII. Nullification Ordinance in South Carolina 297 + + LXXIX. Proclamation against Nullification 299 + + LXXX. Message on the South Carolina Proceedings 303 + + LXXXI. Reduction of Duties--Mr. Verplanck's + Bill 308 + + LXXXII. Reduction of Duties--Mr. Clay's Bill 313 + + LXXXIII. Revenue Collection, or Force Bill 330 + + LXXXIV. Mr. Calhoun's Nullification Resolutions 334 + + LXXXV. Secret History of the "Compromise" of + 1833 342 + + LXXXVI. Compromise Legislation; and the Act, + so called, of 1833 344 + + LXXXVII. Virginia resolutions of '98-'99--Disabused + of their South Carolina Interpretation--1. + Upon their Own Words--2. + Upon Contemporaneous Interpretation 347 + + LXXXVIII. Virginia Resolutions of 1798--Disabused + of Nullification by their Author 354 + + LXXXIX. The Author's own View of the Nature + of Our Government, as being a Union + in Contradistinction to a League--Presented + in a Subsequent Speech on Missouri + Resolutions 360 + + XC. Public Lands--Distribution of Proceeds 362 + + XCI. Commencement of the Twenty-third + Congress--The Members', and President's + Message 369 + + XCII. Removal of the Deposits from the Bank + of the United States 373 + + XCIII. Bank Proceedings, on Seeing the Decision + of the President, in relation to the + Removal of the Deposits 379 + + XCIV. Report of the Secretary of the Treasury + to Congress on the Removal of the Deposits 381 + + XCV. Nomination of Government Directors, + and their Rejection 385 + + XCVI. Secretary's Report on the Removal of + Deposits 393 + + XCVII. Call on the President for a Copy of the + "Paper Read to the Cabinet" 399 + + XCVIII. Mistakes of Public Men--Great Combination + against General Jackson--Commencement + of the Panic 400 + + XCIX. Mr. Clay's Speech against President Jackson + on the Removal of the Deposits--Extracts 402 + + C. Mr. Benton's Speech in Reply to Mr. Clay--Extracts 406 + + CI. Condemnation of President Jackson--Mr. + Calhoun's Speech--Extracts 411 + + CII. Public Distress 415 + + CIII. Senatorial Condemnation of President + Jackson--his Protest--Notice of the + Expunging Resolution 423 + + CIV. Mr. Webster's Plan of Relief 433 + + CV. Revival of the Gold Currency--Mr. Benton's + Speech 436 + + CVI. Attempted Investigation of the Bank of + the United States 458 + + CVII. Mr. Taney's Report on the Finances--Exposure + of the Distress Alarms--End of the Panic 462 + + CVIII. Revival of the Gold Currency 469 + + CIX. Rejection of Mr. Taney--Nominated for + Secretary of the Treasury 470 + + CX. Senatorial Investigation of the Bank of + the United States 470 + + CXI. Downfall of the Bank of the United States 471 + + CXII. Death of John Randolph, of Roanoake 473 + + CXIII. Death of Mr. Wirt 475 + + CXIV. Death of the last of the Signers of the + Declaration of Independence 476 + + CXV. Commencement of the Session, 1834-'35: + President's Message 477 + + CXVI. Report of the Bank Committee 481 + + CXVII. French Spoliations before 1800 487 + + CXVIII. French Spoliations--Speech of Mr. + Wright, of New-York 489 + + CXIX. French Spoliations--Mr. Webster's Speech 505 + + CXX. French Spoliations--Mr. Benton's Speech 514 + + CXXI. Attempted Assassination of President + Jackson 521 + + CXXII. Alabama Expunging Resolutions 524 + + CXXIII. The Expunging Resolution 528 + + CXXIV. Expunging Resolution: Rejected, and + Renewed 549 + + CXXV. Branch Mints at New Orleans, and in the + Gold Regions of Georgia and North + Carolina 550 + + CXXVI. Regulation Deposit Bill 553 + + CXXVII. Defeat of the Defence Appropriation, and + loss of the Fortification Bill 554 + + CXXVIII. Distribution of Revenue 556 + + CXXIX. Commencement of Twenty-Fourth Congress-- + President's Message 568 + + CXXX. Abolition of Slavery in the District of + Columbia 576 + + CXXXI. Mail Circulation of Incendiary Publications 580 + + CXXXII. French Affairs--Approach at a French + Squadron--Apology Required 588 + + CXXXIII. French Indemnities--British Mediation-- + Indemnities Paid 600 + + CXXXIV. President Jackson's Foreign Diplomacy 601 + + CXXXV. Slavery Agitation 609 + + CXXXVI. Removal of the Cherokees from Georgia 624 + + CXXXVII. Extension of the Missouri Boundary 626 + + CXXXVIII. Admission of the States of Arkansas and + Michigan into the Union 627 + + CXXXIX. Attempted Inquiry into the Military + Academy 638 + + CXL. Military Academy--Speech of Mr. Pierce 641 + + CXLI. Expunging Resolution--Peroration of + Senator Benton's Second Speech 645 + + CXLII. Distribution of the Land Revenue 649 + + CXLIII. Recharter of the District Banks--Speech + of Mr. Benton--The Parts of Local and + Temporary Interest Omitted 658 + + CXLIV. Independence of Texas 665 + + CXLV. Texas Independence--Mr. Benton's + Speech 670 + + CXLVI. The Specie Circular 676 + + CXLVII. Death of Mr. Madison, Fourth President + of the United States 678 + + CXLVIII. Death of Mr. Monroe, Fifth President of + the United States 679 + + CXLIX. Death of Chief Justice Marshall 681 + + CL. Death of Col. Burr, Third Vice-President + of the United States 681 + + CLI. Death of William B. Giles, of Virginia 682 + + CLII. Presidential Election of 1836 683 + + CLIII. Last Annual Message of President Jackson 684 + + CLIV. Final Removal of the Indians 690 + + CLV. Recision of the Treasury Circular 694 + + CLVI. Distribution of Lands and Money--Various + Propositions 707 + + CLVII. Military Academy--Its Riding House 712 + + CLVIII. Salt Tax--Mr. Benton's Fourth Speech 714 + + CLIX. Expunging Resolution--Preparation for + Decision 717 + + CLX. Expunging Resolution--Mr. Benton's + Third Speech 719 + + CLXI. Expunging Resolution--Mr. Clay, Mr. + Calhoun, Mr. Webster--Last Scene--Resolution + Passed and Executed 727 + + CLXII. The Supreme Court--Judges and Officers 731 + + CLXIII. Farewell Address of President Jackson--Extract 732 + + CLXIV. Conclusion of General Jackson's Administration 733 + + CLXV. Retiring and Death of General Jackson-- + Administration of Martin Van Buren 735 + + + + +PRELIMINARY VIEW. + +FROM 1815 TO 1820 + + +The war with Great Britain commenced in 1812 and ended in 1815. It +was a short war, but a necessary and important one, and introduced +several changes, and made some new points of departure in American +policy, which are necessary to be understood in order to understand +the subsequent working of the government, and the VIEW of that +working which is proposed to be given. + +1. It struggled and labored under the state of the finances and +the currency, and terminated without any professed settlement of +the cause for which it began. There was no national currency--no +money, or its equivalent, which represented the same value in +all places. The first Bank of the United States had ceased to +exist in 1811. Gold, from being undervalued, had ceased to be a +currency--had become an article of merchandise, and of export--and +was carried to foreign countries. Silver had been banished by the +general use of bank notes, had been reduced to a small quantity, +insufficient for a public demand; and, besides, would have been +too cumbrous for a national currency. Local banks overspread the +land; and upon these the federal government, having lost the +currency of the constitution, was thrown for a currency and for +loans. They, unequal to the task, and having removed their own +foundations by banishing specie with profuse paper issues, sunk +under the double load of national and local wants, and stopped +specie payments--all except those of New England, which section +of the Union was unfavorable to the war. Treasury notes were then +the resort of the federal government. They were issued in great +quantities; and not being convertible into coin at the will of the +holder, soon began to depreciate. In the second year of the war +the depreciation had already become enormous, especially towards +the Canada frontier, where the war raged, and where money was most +wanted. An officer setting out from Washington with a supply of +these notes found them sunk one-third by the time he arrived at the +northern frontier--his every three dollars counting but two. After +all, the treasury notes could not be used as a currency, neither +legally, nor in fact: they could only be used to obtain local bank +paper--itself greatly depreciated. All government securities were +under par, even for depreciated bank notes. Loans were obtained with +great difficulty--at large discount--almost on the lender's own +terms; and still attainable only in depreciated local bank notes. +In less than three years the government, paralyzed by the state of +the finances, was forced to seek peace, and to make it, without +securing, by any treaty stipulation, the object for which war had +been declared. Impressment was the object--the main one, with the +insults and the outrages connected with it--and without which there +would have been no declaration of war. The treaty of peace did +not mention or allude to the subject--the first time, perhaps, in +modern history, in which a war was terminated by treaty without any +stipulation derived from its cause. Mr. Jefferson, in 1807, rejected +upon his own responsibility, without even its communication to the +Senate, the treaty of that year negotiated by Messrs. Monroe and +Pinkney, because it did not contain an express renunciation of the +practice of impressment--because it was silent on that point. It +was a treaty of great moment, settled many troublesome questions, +was very desirable for what it contained; but as it was silent on +the main point, it was rejected, without even a reference to the +Senate. Now we were in a like condition after a war. The war was +struggling for its own existence under the state of the finances, +and had to be stopped without securing by treaty the object for +which it was declared. The object was obtained, however, by the war +itself. It showed the British government that the people of the +United States would fight upon that point--that she would have war +again if she impressed again: and there has been no impressment +since. Near forty years without a case! when we were not as many +days, oftentimes, without cases before, and of the most insulting +and outrageous nature. The spirit and patriotism of the people +in furnishing the supplies, volunteering for the service, and +standing to the contest in the general wreck of the finances and +the currency, without regard to their own losses--and the heroic +courage of the army and navy, and of the militia and volunteers, +made the war successful and glorious in spite of empty treasuries; +and extorted from a proud empire that security in point of fact +which diplomacy could not obtain as a treaty stipulation. And it +was well. Since, and now, and henceforth, we hold exemption from +impressment as we hold our independence--by right, and by might--and +now want the treaty acknowledgment of no nation on either point. +But the glorious termination of the war did not cure the evil of a +ruined currency and defective finances, nor render less impressive +the financial lesson which it taught. A return to the currency of +the constitution--to the hard-money government which our fathers +gave us--no connection with banks--no bank paper for federal +uses--the establishment of an independent treasury for the federal +government; this was the financial lesson which the war taught. +The new generation into whose hands the working of the government +fell during the THIRTY YEARS, eventually availed themselves of +that lesson:--with what effect, the state of the country since, +unprecedentedly prosperous; the state of the currency, never +deranged; of the federal treasury, never polluted with "unavailable +funds," and constantly crammed to repletion with solid gold; +the issue of the Mexican war, carried on triumphantly without a +national bank, and with the public securities constantly above +par--sufficiently proclaim. No other tongue but these results is +necessary to show the value of that financial lesson, taught us by +the war of 1812. + +2. The establishment of the second national bank grew out of +this war. The failure of the local banks was enough to prove the +necessity of a national currency, and the re-establishment of a +national bank was the accepted remedy. No one seemed to think of +the currency of the constitution--especially of that gold currency +upon which the business of the world had been carried on from the +beginning of the world, and by empires whose expenses for a week +were equal to those of the United States for a year, and which the +framers of the constitution had so carefully secured and guarded +for their country. A national bank was the only remedy thought of. +Its constitutionality was believed by some to have been vindicated +by the events of the war. Its expediency was generally admitted. +The whole argument turned upon the word "necessary," as used in the +grant of implied powers at the end of the enumeration of powers +expressly granted to Congress; and this _necessity_ was affirmed +and denied on each side at the time of the establishment of the +first national bank, with a firmness and steadiness which showed +that these fathers of the constitution knew that the whole field of +argument lay there. Washington's queries to his cabinet went to that +point; the close reasoning of Hamilton and Jefferson turned upon it. +And it is worthy of note, in order to show how much war has to do +with the working of government, and the trying of its powers, that +the strongest illustration used by General Hamilton, and the one, +perhaps, which turned the question in Washington's mind, was the +state of the Indian war in the Northwest, then just become a charge +upon the new federal government, and beginning to assume the serious +character which it afterward attained. To carry on war at that time, +with such Indians as were then, supported by the British traders, +themselves countenanced by their government, at such a distance in +the wilderness, and by the young federal government, was a severe +trial upon the finances of the federal treasury, as well as upon the +courage and discipline of the troops; and General Hamilton, the head +of the treasury, argued that with the aid of a national bank, the +war would be better and more successfully conducted: and, therefore, +that it was "_necessary_," and might be established as a means of +executing a granted power, to wit, the power of making war. That war +terminated well; and the bank having been established in the mean +time, got the credit of having furnished its "sinews." The war of +1812 languished under the state of the finances and the currency, +no national bank existing; and this want seemed to all to be the +cause of its difficulties, and to show the necessity for a bank. +The second national bank was then established--many of its old, +most able, and conscientious opponents giving in to it, Mr. Madison +at their head. Thus the question of a national bank again grew +up--grew up out of the events of the war--and was decided against +the strict construction of the constitution--to the weakening of a +principle which was fundamental in the working of the government, +and to the damage of the party which stood upon the doctrine of a +strict construction of the constitution. But in the course of the +"Thirty Years" of which it is proposed to take a "View," some of +the younger generation became impressed with the belief that the +constitutional currency had not had a fair trial in that war of +1812! that, in fact, it had had no trial at all! that it was not +even in the field! not even present at the time when it was supposed +to have failed! and that it was entitled to a trial before it was +condemned. That trial has been obtained. The second national bank +was left to expire upon its own limitation. The gold currency and +the independent treasury were established. The Mexican war tried +them. They triumphed. And thus a national bank was shown to be +"unnecessary," and therefore unconstitutional. And thus a great +question of constitutional construction, and of party division, +three times decided by the events of war, and twice against the +constitution and the strict constructionists, was decided the last +time in their favor; and is entitled to stand, being the last, and +the only one in which the constitutional currency had a trial. + +3. The protection of American industry, as a substantive object, +independent of the object of revenue, was a third question growing +out of the war. Its incidental protection, under the revenue clause +in the constitution, had been always acknowledged, and granted; but +protection as a substantive object was a new question growing out +of the state of things produced by the war. Domestic manufactures +had taken root and grown up during the non-importation periods +of the embargo, and of hostilities with Great Britain, and under +the temporary double duties which ensued the war, and which were +laid for revenue. They had grown up to be a large interest, and a +new one, classing in importance after agriculture and commerce. +The want of articles necessary to national defence, and of others +essential to individual comfort--then neither imported nor made at +home--had been felt during the interruption of commerce occasioned +by the war; and the advantage of a domestic supply was brought home +to the conviction of the public mind. The question of protection +for the sake of protection was brought forward, and carried (in the +year 1816); and very unequivocally in the _minimum_ provision in +relation to duties on cotton goods. This reversed the old course of +legislation--made protection the object instead of the incident, +and revenue the incident instead of the object; and was another +instance of constitutional construction being made dependent, not +upon its own words but upon extrinsic, accidental and transient +circumstances. It introduced a new and a large question of +constitutional law, and of national expediency, fraught with many +and great consequences, which fell upon the period of the THIRTY +YEARS' VIEW to settle, or to grapple with. + +4. The question of internal improvement within the States, by the +federal government, took a new and large development after the +war. The want of facilities of transportation had been felt in +our military operations. Roads were bad, and canals few; and the +question of their construction became a prominent topic in Congress +common turnpike roads--for railways had not then been invented, +nor had MacAdam yet given his name to the class of roads which has +since borne it. The power was claimed as an incident to the granted +powers--as a means of doing what was authorized--as a means of +accomplishing an end: and the word "necessary" at the end of the +enumerated powers, was the phrase in which this incidental power was +claimed to have been found. It was the same derivation which was +found for the creation of a national bank, and involved very nearly +the same division of parties. It greatly complicated the national +legislation from 1820 to 1850, bringing the two parts of our double +system of government--State and Federal--into serious disagreement, +and threatening to compromise their harmonious action. Grappled with +by a strong hand, it seemed at one time to have been settled, and +consistently with the rights of the States; but sometimes returns to +vex the deliberations of Congress. To territories the question did +not extend. They have no political rights under the constitution, +and are governed by Congress according to its discretion, under that +clause which authorizes it to "dispose of and make all needful rules +and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging +to the United States." The improvement of rivers and harbors, was +a branch of the internal improvement question, but resting on a +different clause in the constitution--the commercial and revenue +clause--and became complex and difficult from its extension to small +and local objects. The party of strict construction contend for its +restriction to national objects--rivers of national character, and +harbors yielding revenue. + +5. The boundaries between the treaty-making and the legislative +departments of the government, became a subject of examination after +the war, and gave rise to questions deeply affecting the working +of these two departments. A treaty is the supreme law of the land, +and as such it becomes obligatory on the House of Representatives +to vote the money which it stipulates, and to co-operate in forming +the laws necessary to carry it into effect. That is the broad +proposition. The qualification is in the question whether the treaty +is confined to the business of the treaty-making power? to the +subjects which fall under its jurisdiction? and does not encroach +upon the legislative power of Congress? This is the qualification, +and a vital one: for if the President and Senate, by a treaty with +a foreign power, or a tribe of Indians, could exercise ordinary +legislation, and make it supreme, a double injury would have been +done, and to the prejudice of that branch of the government which +lies closest to the people, and emanates most directly from them. +Confinement to their separate jurisdictions is the duty of each; but +if encroachments take place, which is to judge? If the President and +Senate invade the legislative field of Congress, which is to judge? +or who is to judge between them? or is each to judge for itself? +The House of Representatives, and the Senate in its legislative +capacity, but especially the House, as the great constitutional +depository of the legislative power, becomes its natural guardian +and defender, and is entitled to deference, in the event of a +difference of opinion between the two branches of the government. +The discussions in Congress between 1815 and 1820 greatly elucidated +this question; and while leaving unimpugned the obligation of the +House to carry into effect a treaty duly made by the President and +Senate within the limits of the treaty making power--upon matters +subject to treaty regulation--yet it belongs to the House to judge +when these limits have been transcended, and to preserve inviolate +the field of legislation which the constitution has intrusted to the +immediate representatives of the people. + +6. The doctrine of secession--the right of a State, or a combination +of States, to withdraw from the Union, was born of that war. It +was repugnant to the New England States, and opposed by them, not +with arms, but with argument and remonstrance, and refusal to vote +supplies. They had a convention, famous under the name of Hartford, +to which the design of secession was imputed. That design was never +avowed by the convention, or authentically admitted by any leading +member; nor is it the intent of this reference to decide upon the +fact of that design. The only intent is to show that the existence +of that convention raised the question of secession, and presented +the first instance of the greatest danger in the working of the +double form of our government--that of a collision between a part +of the States and the federal government. This question, and this +danger, first arose then--grew out of the war of 1812--and were +hushed by its sudden termination; but they have reappeared in a +different quarter, and will come in to swell the objects of the +THIRTY YEARS' VIEW. At the time of its first appearance the right of +secession was repulsed and repudiated by the democracy generally, +and in a large degree by the federal party--the difference between +a UNION and a LEAGUE being better understood at that time when so +many of the fathers of the new government were still alive. The +leading language in respect to it south of the Potomac was, that no +State had a right to withdraw from the Union--that it required the +same power to dissolve as to form the Union--and that any attempt +to dissolve it, or to obstruct the action of constitutional laws, +was treason. If, since that time, political parties and sectional +localities, have exchanged attitudes on this question, it cannot +alter the question of right, and may receive some interest from +the development of causes which produce such changes. Secession, +a question of speculation during the war of 1812, has become a +practical question (almost) during the THIRTY YEARS; and thus far +has been "compromised," not settled. + +7. Slavery agitation took its rise during this time (1819-'20), +in the form of attempted restriction on the State of Missouri--a +prohibition to hold slaves, to be placed upon her as a condition of +her admission into the Union, and to be binding upon her afterwards. +This agitation came from the North, and under a federal lead, +and soon swept both parties into its vortex. It was quieted, so +far as that form of the question was concerned, by admitting the +State without restriction, and imposing it on the remainder of +the Louisiana territory north and west of that State, and above +the parallel of 36 degrees, 30 minutes; which is the prolongation +of the southern boundary line of Virginia and Kentucky. This was +called a "compromise," and was all clear gain to the antislavery +side of the question, and was done under the lead of the united +slave state vote in the Senate, the majority of that vote in the +House of Representatives, and the undivided sanction of a Southern +administration. It was a Southern measure, and divided free and +slave soil far more favorably to the North than the ordinance of +1787. That divided about equally: this of 1820 gave about all +to the North. It abolished slavery over an immense extent of +territory where it might then legally exist, over nearly the whole +of Louisiana, left it only in Florida and Arkansas territory, +and opened no new territory to its existence. It was an immense +concession to the non-slaveholding States; but the genius of slavery +agitation was not laid. It reappeared, and under different forms, +first from the North, in the shape of petitions to Congress to +influence legislation on the subject; then from the South, as a +means of exciting one half the Union against the other, and laying +the foundation for a Southern confederacy. With this new question, +in all its forms, the men of the new generation have had to grapple +for the whole period of the "Thirty Years." + +8. The war had created a debt, which, added to a balance of that of +the Revolution, the purchase of Louisiana, and some other items, +still amounted to ninety-two millions of dollars at the period of +the commencement of this "View;" and the problem was to be solved, +whether a national debt could be paid and extinguished in a season +of peace, leaving a nation wholly free from that encumbrance; +or whether it was to go on increasing, a burthen in itself, and +absorbing with its interest and changes an annual portion of the +public revenues. That problem was solved, contrary to the experience +of the world, and the debt paid; and the practical benefit added to +the moral, of a corresponding reduction in the public taxes. + +9. Public distress was a prominent feature of the times to be +embraced in this PRELIMINARY VIEW. The Bank of the United States +was chartered in 1816, and before 1820 had performed one of its +cycles of delusive and bubble prosperity, followed by actual and +wide-spread calamity. The whole paper system, of which it was +the head and the citadel, after a vast expansion, had suddenly +collapsed, spreading desolation over the land, and carrying ruin +to debtors. The years 1819 and '20 were a period of gloom and +agony. No money, either gold or silver: no paper convertible into +specie: no measure, or standard of value, left remaining. The local +banks (all but those of New England), after a brief resumption of +specie payments, again sank into a state of suspension. The Bank +of the United States, created as a remedy for all those evils, now +at the head of the evil, prostrate and helpless, with no power +left but that of suing its debtors, and selling their property, +and purchasing for itself at its own nominal price. No price +for property, or produce. No sales but those of the sheriff and +the marshal. No purchasers at execution sales but the creditor, +or some hoarder of money. No employment for industry--no demand +for labor--no sale for the product of the farm--no sound of the +hammer, but that of the auctioneer, knocking down property. +Stop laws--property laws--replevin laws--stay laws--loan office +laws--the intervention of the legislator between the creditor and +the debtor: this was the business of legislation in three-fourths +of the States of the Union--of all south and west of New England. +No medium of exchange but depreciated paper: no change even, but +little bits of foul paper, marked so many cents, and signed by some +tradesman, barber, or innkeeper: exchanges deranged to the extent +of fifty or one hundred per cent. DISTRESS, the universal cry of +the people: RELIEF, the universal demand thundered at the doors of +all legislatures, State and federal. It was at the moment when this +distress had reached its maximum--1820-'21--and had come with its +accumulated force upon the machine of the federal government, that +this "VIEW" of its working begins. It is a doleful starting point, +and may furnish great matter for contrast, or comparison, at its +concluding period in 1850. + +Such were some of the questions growing out of the war of 1812, +or immediately ensuing its termination. That war brought some +difficulties to the new generation, but also great advantages, at +the head of them the elevation of the national character throughout +the world. It immensely elevated the national character, and, as a +consequence, put an end to insults and outrages to which we had +been subject. No more impressments: no more searching our ships: +no more killing: no more carrying off to be forced to serve on +British ships against their own country. The national flag became +respected. It became the Ægis of those who were under it. The +national character appeared in a new light abroad. We were no longer +considered as a people so addicted to commerce as to be insensible +to insult: and we reaped all the advantages, social, political, +commercial, of this auspicious change. It was a war necessary to the +honor and interest of the United States, and was bravely fought, and +honorably concluded, and makes a proud era in our history. I was +not in public life at the time it was declared, but have understood +from those who were, that, except for the exertions of two men (Mr. +Monroe in the Cabinet, and Mr. Clay in Congress), the declaration of +war could not have been obtained. Honor to their memories! + + + + +THIRTY YEARS' VIEW. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +PERSONAL ASPECT OF THE GOVERNMENT. + + +All the departments of the government appeared to great advantage +in the personal character of their administrators at the time of +my arrival as Senator at Washington. Mr. Monroe was President; +Governor Tompkins, Vice-President; Mr. John Quincy Adams, Secretary +of State; Mr. William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. +John C. Calhoun, Secretary at War; Mr. Smith Thompson, of New-York, +Secretary of the Navy; Mr. John McLean, Postmaster General; William +Wirt, Esq., Attorney General. These constituted the Executive +Department, and it would be difficult to find in any government, +in any country, at any time, more talent and experience, more +dignity and decorum, more purity of private life, a larger mass of +information, and more addiction to business, than was comprised +in this list of celebrated names. The legislative department was +equally impressive. The Senate presented a long list of eminent +men who had become known by their services in the federal or State +governments, and some of them connected with its earliest history. +From New-York there were Mr. Rufus King and Nathan Sanford; from +Massachusetts, Mr. Harrison Gray Otis; from North Carolina, Mr. +Macon and Governor Stokes; from Virginia, the two Governors, +James Barbour and James Pleasants; from South Carolina, Mr. John +Gaillard, so often and so long President, _pro tempore_, of the +Senate, and Judge William Smith; from Rhode Island, Mr. William +Hunter; from Kentucky, Colonel Richard M. Johnson; from Louisiana, +Mr. James Brown and Governor Henry Johnson; from Maryland, Mr. +William Pinkney and Governor Edward Lloyd from New Jersey, Mr. +Samuel L. Southard; Colonel John Williams, of Tennessee; William +R. King and Judge Walker, from Alabama; and many others of later +date, afterwards becoming eminent, and who will be noted in their +places. In the House of Representatives there was a great array +of distinguished and of business talent. Mr. Clay, Mr. Randolph, +Mr. Lowndes were there. Mr. Henry Baldwin and Mr. John Sergeant, +from Pennsylvania; Mr. John W. Taylor, Speaker, and Henry Storrs, +from New-York; Dr. Eustis, of revolutionary memory, and Nathaniel +Silsbee, of Massachusetts; Mr. Louis McLane, from Delaware; General +Samuel Smith, from Maryland; Mr. William S. Archer, Mr. Philip P. +Barbour, General John Floyd, General Alexander Smythe, Mr. John +Tyler, Charles Fenton Mercer, George Tucker, from Virginia; Mr. +Lewis Williams, who entered the House young, and remained long +enough to be called its "Father," Thomas H. Hall, Weldon N. Edwards, +Governor Hutchins G. Burton, from North Carolina; Governor Earle and +Mr. Charles Pinckney, from South Carolina; Mr. Thomas W. Cobb and +Governor George Gilmer, from Georgia; Messrs. Richard C. Anderson, +Jr., David Trimble, George Robertson, Benjamin Hardin, and Governor +Metcalfe, from Kentucky; Mr. John Rhea, of revolutionary service, +Governor Newton Cannon, Francis Jones, General John Cocke, from +Tennessee; Messrs. John W. Campbell, John Sloan and Henry Bush, +from Ohio; Mr. William Hendricks, from Indiana; Thomas Butler, +from Louisiana; Daniel P. Cook, from Illinois; John Crowell, from +Alabama; Mr. Christopher Rankin, from Mississippi; and a great +many other business men of worth and character from the different +States, constituting a national representation of great weight, +efficiency and decorum. The Supreme Court was still presided over +by Chief Justice Marshall, almost septuagenarian, and still in the +vigor of his intellect, associated with Mr. Justice Story, Mr. +Justice Johnson, of South Carolina, Mr. Justice Duval, and Mr. +Justice Washington, of Virginia. Thus all the departments, and all +the branches of the government, were ably and decorously filled, and +the friends of popular representative institutions might contemplate +their administration with pride and pleasure, and challenge their +comparison with any government in the world. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ADMISSION OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI. + + +This was the exciting and agitating question of the session of +1820-'21. The question of restriction, that is, of prescribing the +abolition of slavery within her limits, had been "compromised" the +session before, by agreeing to admit the State without restriction, +and abolishing it in all the remainder of the province of Louisiana, +north and west of the State of Missouri, and north of the parallel +of 36 degrees, 30 minutes. This "compromise" was the work of the +South, sustained by the united voice of Mr. Monroe's cabinet, the +united voices of the Southern senators, and a majority of the +Southern representatives. The unanimity of the cabinet has been +shown, impliedly, by a letter of Mr. Monroe, and positively by +the Diary of Mr. John Quincy Adams. The unanimity of the slave +States in the Senate, where the measure originated, is shown by its +journal, not on the motion to insert the section constituting the +compromise (for on that motion the yeas and nays were not taken), +but on the motion to strike it out, when they were taken, and +showed 30 votes for the compromise, and 15 against it--every one of +the latter from non-slaveholding States--the former comprehending +every slave State vote present, and a few from the North. As the +constitutionality of this compromise, and its binding force, have, +in these latter times, begun to be disputed, it is well to give +the list of the senators names voting for it, that it may be seen +that they were men of judgment and weight, able to know what the +constitution was, and not apt to violate it. They were Governor +Barbour and Governor Pleasants, of Virginia; Mr. James Brown and +Governor Henry Johnson, of Louisiana; Governor Edwards and Judge +Jesse B. Thomas, of Illinois; Mr. Elliott and Mr. Walker, of +Georgia; Mr. Gaillard, President, _pro tempore_, of the Senate and +Judge William Smith, from South Carolina; Messrs. Horsey and Van +Dyke, of Delaware; Colonel Richard M. Johnson and Judge Logan, from +Kentucky; Mr. William R. King, since Vice-President of the United +States, and Judge John W. Walker, from Alabama; Messrs. Leake and +Thomas H. Williams, of Mississippi; Governor Edward Lloyd, and the +great jurist and orator, William Pinkney, from Maryland; Mr. Macon +and Governor Stokes, from North Carolina; Messrs. Walter Lowrie and +Jonathan Roberts, from Pennsylvania; Mr. Noble and Judge Taylor, +from Indiana; Mr. Palmer, from Vermont; Mr. Parrott, from New +Hampshire. This was the vote of the Senate for the compromise. In +the House, there was some division among Southern members; but the +whole vote in favor of it was 134, to 42 in the negative--the latter +comprising some Northern members, as the former did a majority +of the Southern--among them one whose opinion had a weight never +exceeded by that of any other American statesman, William Lowndes, +of South Carolina. This array of names shows the Missouri compromise +to have been a Southern measure, and the event put the seal upon +that character by showing it to be acceptable to the South. But +it had not allayed the Northern feeling against an increase of +slave States, then openly avowed to be a question of political +power between the two sections of the Union. The State of Missouri +made her constitution, sanctioning slavery, and forbidding the +legislature to interfere with it. This prohibition, not usual in +State constitutions, was the effect of the Missouri controversy +and of foreign interference, and was adopted for the sake of +peace--for the sake of internal tranquillity--and to prevent the +agitation of the slave question, which could only be accomplished +by excluding it wholly from the forum of elections and legislation. +I was myself the instigator of that prohibition, and the cause +of its being put into the constitution--though not a member of +the convention--being equally opposed to slavery agitation and to +slavery extension. There was also a clause in it, authorizing the +legislature to prohibit the emigration of free people of color +into the State; and this clause was laid hold of in Congress to +resist the admission of the State. It was treated as a breach of +that clause in the federal constitution, which guarantees equal +privileges in all the States to the citizens of every State, of +which privileges the right of emigration was one; and free people +of color being admitted to citizenship in some of the States, +this prohibition of emigration was held to be a violation of that +privilege in their persons. But the real point of objection was the +slavery clause, and the existence of slavery in the State, which +it sanctioned, and seemed to perpetuate. The constitution of the +State, and her application for admission, was presented by her +late delegate and representative elect, Mr. John Scott; and on his +motion, was referred to a select committee. Mr. Lowndes, of South +Carolina, Mr. John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, and General Samuel +Smith, of Maryland, were appointed the committee; and the majority +being from slave States, a resolution was quickly reported in favor +of the admission of the State. But the majority of the House being +the other way, the resolution was rejected, 79 to 83--and by a clear +slavery and anti-slavery vote, the exceptions being but three, and +they on the side of admission, and contrary to the sentiment of +their own State. They were Mr. Henry Shaw, of Massachusetts, and +General Bloomfield and Mr. Bernard Smith, of New-Jersey. In the +Senate, the application of the State shared a similar fate. The +constitution was referred to a committee of three, Messrs. Judge +William Smith, of South Carolina, Mr. James Burrill, of Rhode +Island, and Mr. Macon, of North Carolina, a majority of whom being +from slave States, a resolution of admission was reported, and +passed the Senate--Messrs. Chandler and Holmes, of Maine, voting +with the friends of admission; but was rejected in the House of +Representatives. A second resolution to the same effect passed the +Senate, and was again rejected in the House. A motion was then made +in the House by Mr. Clay to raise a committee to act jointly with +any committee which might be appointed by the Senate, "to consider +and report to the Senate and the House respectively, whether it be +expedient or not, to make provision for the admission of Missouri +into the Union on the same footing as the original States, and +for the due execution of the laws of the United States within +Missouri? and if not, whether any other, and what provision adapted +to her actual condition ought to be made by law." This motion +was adopted by a majority of nearly two to one--101 to 55--which +shows a large vote in its favor from the non-slaveholding States. +Twenty-three, being a number equal to the number of the States, were +then appointed on the part of the House, and were: Messrs. Clay, +Thomas W. Cobb, of Georgia; Mark Langdon Hill, of Massachusetts; +Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia; Henry R. Storrs, of New-York; John +Cocke, of Tennessee; Christopher Rankin, of Mississippi; William +S. Archer, of Virginia; William Brown, of Kentucky; Samuel Eddy, +from Rhode Island; William D. Ford, of New-York; William Culbreth, +Aaron Hackley, of New-York; Samuel Moore, of Pennsylvania; James +Stevens, of Connecticut; Thomas J. Rogers, from Pennsylvania; Henry +Southard, of New-Jersey; John Randolph; James S. Smith, of North +Carolina; William Darlington, of Pennsylvania; Nathaniel Pitcher, of +New-York; John Sloan, of Ohio, and Henry Baldwin, of Pennsylvania. +The Senate by a vote almost unanimous--29 to 7--agreed to the joint +committee proposed by the House of Representatives; and Messrs. John +Holmes, of Maine; James Barbour, of Virginia; Jonathan Roberts, +of Pennsylvania; David L. Morril, of New-Hampshire; Samuel L. +Southard, of New-Jersey; Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky; +and Rufus King, of New-York, to be a committee on its part. The +joint committee acted, and soon reported a resolution in favor of +the admission of the State, upon the condition that her legislature +should first declare that the clause in her constitution relative +to the free colored emigration into the State, should never be +construed to authorize the passage of any act by which any citizen +of either of the States of the Union should be excluded from the +enjoyment of any privilege to which he may be entitled under +the constitution of the United States; and the President of the +United States being furnished with a copy of said act, should, by +proclamation, declare the State to be admitted. This resolution was +passed in the House by a close vote--86 to 82--several members from +non-slaveholding States voting for it. In the Senate it was passed +by two to one--28 to 14; and the required declaration having been +soon made by the General Assembly of Missouri, and communicated to +the President, his proclamation was issued accordingly, and the +State admitted. And thus ended the "Missouri controversy," or that +form of the slavery question which undertook to restrict a State +from the privilege of having slaves if she chose. The question +itself, under other forms, has survived, and still survives, but not +under the formidable aspect which it wore during that controversy, +when it divided Congress geographically, and upon the slave line. +The real struggle was political, and for the balance of power, as +frankly declared by Mr. Rufus King, who disdained dissimulation; and +in that struggle the non-slaveholding States, though defeated in the +State of Missouri, were successful in producing the "compromise," +conceived and passed as a Southern measure. The resistance made to +the admission of the State on account of the clause in relation +to free people of color, was only a mask to the real cause of +opposition, and has since shown to be so by the facility with +which many States, then voting in a body against the admission +of Missouri on that account, now exclude the whole class of the +free colored emigrant population from their borders, and without +question, by statute, or by constitutional amendment. For a while +this formidable Missouri question threatened the total overthrow +of all political parties upon principle, and the substitution of +geographical parties discriminated by the slave line, and of course +destroying the just and proper action of the federal government, and +leading eventually to a separation of the States. It was a federal +movement, accruing to the benefit of that party, and at first was +overwhelming, sweeping all the Northern democracy into its current, +and giving the supremacy to their adversaries. When this effect was +perceived the Northern democracy became alarmed, and only wanted a +turn or abatement in the popular feeling at home, to take the first +opportunity to get rid of the question by admitting the State, and +re-establishing party lines upon the basis of political principle. +This was the decided feeling when I arrived at Washington, and many +of the old Northern democracy took early opportunities to declare +themselves to me to that effect, and showed that they were ready +to vote the admission of the State in any form which would answer +the purpose, and save themselves from going so far as to lose their +own States, and give the ascendant to their political adversaries. +In the Senate, Messrs. Lowrie and Roberts, from Pennsylvania; +Messrs. Morril and Parrott, from New-Hampshire; Messrs. Chandler and +Holmes, from Maine; Mr. William Hunter, from Rhode Island; and Mr. +Southard, from New-Jersey, were of that class; and I cannot refrain +from classing with them Messrs. Horsey and Vandyke, from Delaware, +which, though counted as a slave State, yet from its isolated and +salient position, and small number of slaves, seems more justly to +belong to the other side. In the House the vote of nearly two to +one in favor of Mr. Clay's resolution for a joint committee, and +his being allowed to make out his own list of the House committee +(for it was well known that he drew up the list of names himself, +and distributed it through the House to be voted), sufficiently +attest the temper of that body, and showed the determination of the +great majority to have the question settled. Mr. Clay has been often +complimented as the author of the "compromise" of 1820, in spite of +his repeated declaration to the contrary, that measure coming from +the Senate; but he is the undisputed author of the final settlement +of the Missouri controversy in the actual admission of the State. +He had many valuable coadjutors from the North--Baldwin, of +Pennsylvania; Storrs and Meigs, of New-York; Shaw, of Massachusetts: +and he had also some opponents from the South--members refusing to +vote for the "conditional" admission of the State, holding her to +be entitled to absolute admission--among them Mr. Randolph. I have +been minute in stating this controversy, and its settlement, deeming +it advantageous to the public interest that history and posterity +should see it in the proper point of view; and that it was a +political movement for the balance of power, balked by the Northern +democracy, who saw their own overthrow, and the eventual separation +of the States, in the establishment of geographical parties divided +by a slavery and anti-slavery line. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +FINANCES.--REDUCTION OF THE ARMY. + + +The distress of the country became that of the government. Small as +the government expenditure then was, only about twenty-one millions +of dollars (including eleven millions for permanent or incidental +objects), it was still too great for the revenues of the government +at this disastrous period. Reductions of expense, and loans, became +the resort, and economy--that virtuous policy in all times--became +the obligatory and the forced policy of this time. The small regular +army was the first, and the largest object on which the reduction +fell. Small as it was, it was reduced nearly one-half--from 10,000 +to 6,000 men. The navy felt it next--the annual appropriation of +one million for its increase being reduced to half a million. The +construction and armament of fortifications underwent the like +process. Reductions of expense took place at many other points, +and even the abolition of a clerkship of $800 in the office of the +Attorney General, was not deemed an object below the economical +attention of Congress. After all a loan became indispensable, and +the President was authorized to borrow five millions of dollars. +The sum of twenty-one millions then to be raised for the service +of the government, small as it now appears, was more than double +the amount required for the actual expenses of the government--for +the actual expense of its administration, or the working its +machinery. More than half went to permanent or incidental objects, +to wit: principal and interest of the public debt, five and a half +millions; gradual increase of the navy, one million; pensions, one +and a half millions; fortifications, $800,000; arms, munitions, +ordnance, and other small items, about two millions; making in the +whole about eleven millions, and leaving for the expense of keeping +the machinery of government in operation, about ten millions of +dollars; and which was reduced to less than nine millions after +the reductions of this year were effected. A sum of one million of +dollars, over and above the estimated expenditure of the government, +was always deemed necessary to be provided and left in the treasury +to meet contingencies--a sum which, though small in itself, was +absolutely unnecessary for that purpose, and the necessity for +which was founded in the mistaken idea that the government expends +every year, within the year, the amount of its income. This is +entirely fallacious, and never did and never can take place; for +a large portion of the government payments accruing within the +latter quarters of any year are not paid until the next year. And +so on in every quarter of every year. The sums becoming payable in +each quarter being in many instances, and from the nature of the +service, only paid in the next quarter, while new revenue is coming +in. This process regularly going on always leaves a balance in the +treasury at the end of the year, not called for until the beginning +of the next year, and when there is a receipt of money to meet the +demand, even if there had been no balance in hand. Thus, at the end +of the year 1820, one of the greatest depression, and when demands +pressed most rapidly upon the treasury, there was a balance of above +two millions of dollars in the treasury--to be precise, $2,076,607 +14, being one-tenth of the annual revenue. In prosperous years the +balance is still larger, sometimes amounting to the fourth, or +the fifth of the annual revenue; as may be seen in the successive +annual reports of the finances. There is, therefore, no necessity to +provide for keeping any balance as a reserve in the treasury, though +in later times this provision has been carried up to six millions--a +mistake which economy, the science of administration, and the purity +of the government, requires to be corrected. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RELIEF OF PUBLIC LAND DEBTORS. + + +Distress was the cry of the day; relief the general demand. State +legislatures were occupied in devising measures of local relief; +Congress in granting it to national debtors. Among these was the +great and prominent class of the public land purchasers. The +credit system then prevailed, and the debt to the government had +accumulated to twenty-three millions of dollars--a large sum in +itself, but enormous when considered in reference to the payors, +only a small proportion of the population, and they chiefly the +inhabitants of the new States and territories, whose resources +were few. Their situation was deplorable. A heavy debt to pay, and +lands already partly paid for to be forfeited if full payment was +not made. The system was this: the land was sold at a minimum price +of two dollars per acre, one payment in hand and the remainder in +four annual instalments, with forfeiture of all that had been paid +if each successive instalment was not delivered to the day. In the +eagerness to procure fresh lands, and stimulated by the delusive +prosperity which multitudes of banks created after the war, there +was no limit to purchasers except in the ability to make the +first payment. That being accomplished, it was left to the future +to provide for the remainder. The banks failed; money vanished; +instalments were becoming due which could not be met; and the +opening of Congress in November, 1820, was saluted by the arrival +of memorials from all the new States, showing the distress, and +praying relief to the purchasers of the public lands. The President, +in his annual message to Congress, deemed it his duty to bring the +subject before that body, and in doing so recommended indulgence in +consideration of the unfavorable change which had occurred since +the sales. Both Houses of Congress took up the subject, and a +measure of relief was devised by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. +Crawford, which was equally desirable both to the purchaser and the +government. The principle of the relief was to change all future +sales from the credit to the cash system, and to reduce the minimum +price of the lands to one dollar, twenty-five cents per acre, and +to give all present debtors the benefit of that system, by allowing +them to consolidate payments already made on different tracts on +any particular one, relinquishing the rest; and allowing a discount +for ready pay on all that had been entered, equal to the difference +between the former and present minimum price. This released the +purchasers from debt, and the government from the inconvenient +relation of creditor to its own citizens. A debt of twenty-three +millions of dollars was quietly got rid of; and purchasers were +enabled to save lands, at the reduced price, to the amount of their +payments already made: and thus saved in all cases their homes and +fields, and as much more of their purchases as they were able to +pay for at the reduced rate. It was an equitable arrangement of a +difficult subject, and lacked but two features to make it perfect; +_first_, a pre-emptive right to all first settlers; and, _secondly_, +a periodical reduction of price according to the length of time +the land should have been in market, so as to allow of different +prices for different qualities, and to accomplish in a reasonable +time the sale of the whole. Applications were made at that time for +the establishment of the pre-emptive system; but without effect, +and, apparently without the prospect of eventual success. Not +even a report of a committee could be got in its favor--nothing +more than temporary provisions, as special favors, in particular +circumstances. But perseverance was successful. The new States +continued to press the question, and finally prevailed; and now the +pre-emptive principle has become a fixed part of our land system, +permanently incorporated with it, and to the equal advantage of the +settler and the government. The settler gets a choice home in a new +country, due to his enterprise, courage, hardships and privations in +subduing the wilderness: the government gets a body of cultivators +whose labor gives value to the surrounding public lands, and whose +courage and patriotism volunteers for the public defence whenever +it is necessary. The second, or graduation principle, though much +pressed, has not yet been established, but its justice and policy +are self-evident, and the exertions to procure it should not be +intermitted until successful. The passage of this land relief bill +was attended by incidents which showed the delicacy of members at +that time, in voting on questions in which they might be interested. +Many members of Congress were among the public land debtors, and +entitled to the relief to be granted. One of their number, Senator +William Smith, from South Carolina, brought the point before the +Senate on a motion to be excused from voting on account of his +interest. The motion to excuse was rejected, on the ground that +his interest was general, in common with the country, and not +particular, in relation to himself: and that his constituents were +entitled to the benefit of his vote. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +OREGON TERRITORY. + + +The session of 1820-21 is remarkable as being the first at which any +proposition was made in Congress for the occupation and settlement +of our territory on the Columbia River--the only part then owned by +the United States on the Pacific coast. It was made by Dr. Floyd, a +representative from Virginia, an ardent man, of great ability, and +decision of character, and, from an early residence in Kentucky, +strongly imbued with western feelings. He took up this subject +with the energy which belonged to him, and it required not only +energy, but courage, to embrace a subject which, at that time, +seemed more likely to bring ridicule than credit to its advocate. +I had written and published some essays on the subject the year +before, which he had read. Two gentlemen (Mr. Ramsay Crooks, of +New-York, and Mr. Russell Farnham, of Massachusetts), who had been +in the employment of Mr. John Jacob Astor in founding his colony +of Astoria, and carrying on the fur trade on the northwest coast +of America, were at Washington that winter, and had their quarters +at the same hotel (Brown's), where Dr. Floyd and I had ours. Their +acquaintance was naturally made by Western men like us--in fact, +I knew them before; and their conversation, rich in information +upon a new and interesting country, was eagerly devoured by the +ardent spirit of Floyd. He resolved to bring forward the question +of occupation, and did so. He moved for a select committee to +consider and report upon the subject. The committee was granted by +the House, more through courtesy to a respected member, than with +any view to business results. It was a committee of three, himself +chairman, according to parliamentary rule, and Thomas Metcalfe, of +Kentucky (since Governor of the State), and Thomas V. Swearingen, +from Western Virginia, for his associates--both like himself ardent +men, and strong in western feeling. They reported a bill within six +days after the committee was raised, "to authorize the occupation +of the Columbia River, and to regulate trade and intercourse with +the Indian tribes thereon," accompanied by an elaborate report, +replete with valuable statistics, in support of the measure. The +fur trade, the Asiatic trade, and the preservation of our own +territory, were the advantages proposed. The bill was treated with +the parliamentary courtesy which respect for the committee required: +it was read twice, and committed to a committee of the whole House +for the next day--most of the members not considering it a serious +proceeding. Nothing further was done in the House that session, but +the first blow was struck: public attention was awakened, and the +geographical, historical, and statistical facts set forth in the +report, made a lodgment in the public mind which promised eventual +favorable consideration. I had not been admitted to my seat in the +Senate at the time, but was soon after, and quickly came to the +support of Dr. Floyd's measure (who continued to pursue it with zeal +and ability); and at a subsequent session presented some views on +the subject which will bear reproduction at this time. The danger +of a contest with Great Britain, to whom we had admitted a joint +possession, and who had already taken possession, was strongly +suggested, if we delayed longer our own occupation; "and a vigorous +effort of policy, and perhaps of arms, might be necessary to break +her hold." Unauthorized, or individual occupation was intimated as +a consequence of government neglect, and what has since taken place +was foreshadowed in this sentence: "mere adventurers may enter +upon it, as Æneas entered upon the Tiber, and as our forefathers +came upon the Potomac, the Delaware and the Hudson, and renew the +phenomenon of individuals laying the foundation of a future empire." +The effect upon Asia of the arrival of an American population on the +coast of the Pacific Ocean was thus exhibited: "Upon the people of +Eastern Asia the establishment of a civilized power on the opposite +coast of America, could not fail to produce great and wonderful +benefits. Science, liberal principles in government, and the true +religion, might cast their lights across the intervening sea. The +valley of the Columbia might become the granary of China and Japan, +and an outlet to their imprisoned and exuberant population. The +inhabitants of the oldest and the newest, the most despotic and the +freest governments, would become the neighbors, and the friends +of each other. To my mind the proposition is clear, that Eastern +Asia and the two Americas, as they become neighbors should become +friends and I for one had as lief see American ministers going to +the emperors of China and Japan, to the king of Persia, and even +to the Grand Turk, as to see them dancing attendance upon those +European legitimates who hold every thing American in contempt and +detestation." Thus I spoke; and this I believe was the first time +that a suggestion for sending ministers to the Oriental nations was +publicly made in the United States. It was then a "wild" suggestion: +it is now history. Besides the preservation of our own territory +on the Pacific, the establishment of a port there for the shelter +of our commercial and military marine, the protection of the fur +trade and aid to the whaling vessels, the accomplishment of Mr. +Jefferson's idea of a commercial communication with Asia through +the heart of our own continent, was constantly insisted upon as +a consequence of planting an American colony at the mouth of the +Columbia. That man of large and useful ideas--that statesman who +could conceive measures useful to all mankind, and in all time to +come--was the first to propose that commercial communication, and +may also be considered the first discoverer of the Columbia River. +His philosophic mind told him that where a snow-clad mountain, +like that of the Rocky Mountains, shed the waters on one side +which collected into such a river as the Missouri, there must be a +corresponding shedding and collection of waters on the other; and +thus he was perfectly assured of the existence of a river where +the Columbia has since been found to be, although no navigator had +seen its mouth and no explorer trod its banks. His conviction was +complete; but the idea was too grand and useful to be permitted to +rest in speculation. He was then minister to France, and the famous +traveller Ledyard, having arrived at Paris on his expedition of +discovery to the Nile, was prevailed upon by Mr. Jefferson to enter +upon a fresher and more useful field of discovery. He proposed +to him to change his theatre from the Old to the New World, and, +proceeding to St. Petersburg upon a passport he would obtain for +him, he should there obtain permission from the Empress Catharine +to traverse her dominions in a high northern latitude to their +eastern extremity--cross the sea from Kamschatka, or at Behring's +Straits, and descending the northwest coast of America, come down +upon the river which must head opposite the head of the Missouri, +ascend it to its source in the Rocky Mountains, and then follow the +Missouri to the French settlements on the Upper Mississippi; and +thence home. It was a magnificent and a daring project of discovery, +and on that account the more captivating to the ardent spirit of +Ledyard. He undertook it--went to St. Petersburg--received the +permission of the Empress--and had arrived in Siberia when he was +overtaken by a revocation of the permission, and conducted as a +spy out of the country. He then returned to Paris, and resumed his +original design of that exploration of the Nile to its sources which +terminated in his premature death, and deprived the world of a young +and adventurous explorer, from whose ardour, courage, perseverance +and genius, great and useful results were to have been expected. +Mr. Jefferson was balked in that, his first attempt, to establish +the existence of the Columbia River. But a time was coming for +him to undertake it under better auspices. He became President of +the United States, and in that character projected the expedition +of Lewis and Clark, obtained the sanction of Congress, and sent +them forth to discover the head and course of the river (whose +mouth was then known), for the double purpose of opening an inland +commercial communication with Asia, and enlarging the boundaries of +geographical science. The commercial object was placed first in his +message, and as the object to legitimate the expedition. And thus +Mr. Jefferson was the first to propose the North American road to +India, and the introduction of Asiatic trade on that road; and all +that I myself have either said or written on that subject from the +year 1819, when I first took it up, down to the present day when I +still contend for it, is nothing but the fruit of the seed planted +in my mind by the philosophic hand of Mr. Jefferson. Honor to all +those who shall assist in accomplishing his great idea. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +FLORIDA TREATY AND CESSION OF TEXAS. + + +I was a member of the bar at St. Louis, in the then territory of +Missouri, in the year 1818, when the Washington City newspapers +made known the progress of that treaty with Spain, which was signed +on the 22d day of February following, and which, in acquiring +Florida, gave away Texas. I was shocked at it--at the cession of +Texas, and the new boundaries proposed for the United States on +the southwest. The acquisition of Florida was a desirable object, +long sought, and sure to be obtained in the progress of events; +but the new boundaries, besides cutting off Texas, dismembered the +valley of the Mississippi, mutilated two of its noblest rivers, +brought a foreign dominion (and it non-slave-holding), to the +neighborhood of New Orleans, and established a wilderness barrier +between Missouri and New Mexico--to interrupt their trade, separate +their inhabitants, and shelter the wild Indian depredators upon +the lives and property of all who undertook to pass from one to +the other. I was not then in politics, and had nothing to do with +political affairs; but I saw at once the whole evil of this great +sacrifice, and instantly raised my voice against it in articles +published in the St. Louis newspapers, and in which were given, in +advance, all the national reasons against giving away the country, +which were afterwards, and by so many tongues, and at the expense of +war and a hundred millions, given to get it back. I denounced the +treaty, and attacked its authors and their motives, and imprecated +a woe on the heads of those who should continue to favor it. +"The magnificent valley of the Mississippi is ours, with all its +fountains, springs and floods; and woe to the statesman who shall +undertake to surrender one drop of its water, one inch of its soil, +to any foreign power." In these terms I spoke, and in this spirit I +wrote, before the treaty was even ratified. Mr. John Quincy Adams, +the Secretary of State, negotiator and ostensible author of the +treaty, was the statesman against whom my censure was directed, +and I was certainly sincere in my belief of his great culpability. +But the declaration which he afterwards made on the floor of the +House, absolved him from censure on account of that treaty, and +placed the blame on the majority in Mr. Monroe's cabinet, southern +men, by whose vote he had been governed in ceding Texas and fixing +the boundary which I so much condemned. After this authoritative +declaration, I made, in my place in the Senate, the honorable amends +to Mr. Adams, which was equally due to him and to myself. The +treaty was signed on the anniversary of the birth-day of Washington, +and sent to the Senate the same day, and unanimously ratified on +the next day, with the general approbation of the country, and the +warm applause of the newspaper press. This unanimity of the Senate, +and applause of the press, made no impression upon me. I continued +to assail the treaty and its authors, and the more bitterly, +because the official correspondence, when published, showed that +this great sacrifice of territory, rivers, and proper boundaries, +was all gratuitous and voluntary on our part--"_that the Spanish +government had offered us more than we accepted_;" and that it was +our policy, and not hers, which had deprived us of Texas and the +large country, in addition to Texas, which lay between the Red River +and Upper Arkansas. This was an enigma, the solution of which, in +my mind, strongly connected itself with the Missouri controversy +then raging (1819) with its greatest violence, threatening existing +political parties with subversion, and the Union with dissolution. +My mind went there--to that controversy--for the solution, but with +a misdirection of its application. I blamed the northern men in Mr. +Monroe's cabinet: the private papers of General Jackson, which have +come to my hands, enable me to correct that error, and give me an +inside view of that which I could only see on the outside before. +In a private letter from Mr. Monroe to General Jackson, dated at +Washington, May 22d, 1820--more than one year after the negotiation +of the treaty, written to justify it, and evidently called out by +Mr. Clay's attack upon it--are these passages: "Having long known +the repugnance with which the eastern portion of our Union, or +rather some of those who have enjoyed its confidence (for I do not +think that the people themselves have any interest or wish of that +kind), have seen its aggrandizement to the West and South, I have +been decidedly of opinion that we ought to be content with Florida +for the present, and until the public opinion in that quarter shall +be reconciled to any further change. I mention these circumstances +to show you that our difficulties are not with Spain alone, but are +likewise internal, proceeding from various causes, which certain men +are prompt to seize and turn to the account of their own ambitious +views." This paragraph from Mr. Monroe's letter lifts the curtain +which concealed the secret reason for ceding Texas--that secret +which explains what was incomprehensible--our having refused to +accept as much as Spain had offered. Internal difficulties, it was +thus shown, had induced that refusal; and these difficulties grew +out of the repugnance of leading men in the northeast to see the +further aggrandizement of the Union upon the South and West. This +repugnance was then taking an operative form in the shape of the +Missouri controversy; and, as an immediate consequence, threatened +the subversion of political party lines, and the introduction of the +slavery question into the federal elections and legislation, and +bringing into the highest of those elections--those of President +and Vice-President--a test which no southern candidate could stand. +The repugnance in the northeast was not merely to territorial +aggrandizement in the southwest, but to the consequent extension +of slavery in that quarter; and to allay that repugnance, and to +prevent the slavery extension question from becoming a test in the +presidential election, was the true reason for giving away Texas, +and the true solution of the enigma involved in the strange refusal +to accept as much as Spain offered. The treaty was disapproved +by Mr. Jefferson, to whom a similar letter was written to that +sent to General Jackson, and for the same purpose--to obtain his +approbation; but he who had acquired Louisiana, and justly gloried +in the act, could not bear to see that noble province mutilated, +and returned his dissent to the act, and his condemnation of the +policy on which it was done. General Jackson had yielded to the +arguments of Mr. Monroe, and consented to the cession of Texas as a +temporary measure. The words of his answer to Mr. Monroe's letter +were: "I am clearly of your opinion, that, for the present, we ought +to be contented with the Floridas." But Mr. Jefferson would yield +to no temporary views of policy, and remained inflexibly opposed to +the treaty; and in this he was consistent with his own conduct in +similar circumstances. Sixteen years before, he had been in the same +circumstances--at the time of the acquisition of Louisiana--when he +had the same repugnance to southwestern aggrandizement to contend +with, and the same bait (Florida) to tempt him. Then eastern men +raised the same objections; and as early as August 1803--only +four months after the purchase of Louisiana--he wrote to Dr. +Breckenridge: "Objections are raising to the eastward to the vast +extent of our boundaries, and propositions are made to exchange +Louisiana, or a part of it, for the Floridas; but as I have said, +we shall get the Floridas without; and I would not give one inch +of the waters of the Mississippi to any foreign nation." So that +Mr. Jefferson, neither in 1803 nor in 1819, would have mutilated +Louisiana to obtain the cession of Florida, which he knew would be +obtained without that mutilation; nor would he have yielded to the +threatening discontent in the east. I have a gratification that, +without knowing it, and at a thousand miles from him, I took the +same ground that Mr. Jefferson stood on, and even used his own +words: "Not an inch of the waters of the Mississippi to any nation." +But I was mortified at the time, that not a paper in the United +States backed my essays. It was my first experience in standing +"solitary and alone;" but I stood it without flinching, and even +incurred the imputation of being opposed to the administration--had +to encounter that objection in my first election to the Senate, +and was even viewed as an opponent by Mr. Monroe himself, when I +first came to Washington. He had reason to know before his office +expired, and still more after it expired, that no one (of the young +generation) had a more exalted opinion of his honesty, patriotism, +firmness and general soundness of judgment; or would be more ready, +whenever the occasion permitted, to do justice to his long and +illustrious career of public service. The treaty, as I have said, +was promptly and unanimously ratified by the American Senate; not so +on the part of Spain. She hesitated, delayed, procrastinated; and +finally suffered the time limited for the exchange of ratifications +to expire, with out having gone through that indispensable +formality. Of course this put an end to the treaty, unless it +could be revived; and, thereupon, new negotiations and vehement +expostulations against the conduct which refused to ratify a treaty +negotiated upon full powers and in conformity to instructions. It +was in the course of this renewed negotiation, and of these warm +expostulations, that Mr. Adams used the strong expressions to the +Spanish ministry, so enigmatical at the time, "That Spain had +offered more than we accepted, and that she dare not deny it." +Finally, after the lapse of a year or so, the treaty was ratified by +Spain. In the mean time Mr. Clay had made a movement against it in +the House of Representatives, unsuccessful, of course, but exciting +some sensation, both for the reasons he gave and the vote of some +thirty-odd members who concurred with him. This movement very +certainly induced the letters of Mr. Monroe to General Jackson and +Mr. Jefferson, as they were contemporaneous (May, 1820), and also +some expressions in the letter to General Jackson, which evidently +referred to Mr. Clay's movement. The ratification of Spain was given +October, 1820, and being after the time limited, it became necessary +to submit it again to the American Senate, which was done at the +session of 1820-21. It was ratified again, and almost unanimously, +but not quite, four votes being given against it, and all by western +senators, namely: Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky; Colonel +John Williams, of Tennessee; Mr. James Brown, of Louisiana, and +Colonel Trimble, of Ohio. I was then in Washington, and a senator +elect, though not yet entitled to a seat, in consequence of the +delayed admission of the new State of Missouri into the Union, and +so had no opportunity to record my vote against the treaty. But +the progress of events soon gave me an opportunity to manifest my +opposition, and to appear in the parliamentary history as an enemy +to it. The case was this: While the treaty was still encountering +Spanish procrastination in the delay of exchanging ratifications, +Mexico (to which the amputated part of Louisiana and the whole of +Texas was to be attached), itself ceased to belong to Spain. She +established her independence, repulsed all Spanish authority, and +remained at war with the mother country. The law for giving effect +to the treaty by providing for commissioners to run and mark the +new boundary, had not been passed at the time of the ratification +of the treaty; it came up after I took my seat, and was opposed by +me. I opposed it, not only upon the grounds of original objections +to the treaty, but on the further and obvious ground, that the +revolution in Mexico--her actual independence--had superseded the +Spanish treaty in the whole article of the boundaries, and that it +was with Mexico herself that we should now settle them. The act was +passed, however, by a sweeping majority, the administration being +for it, and senators holding themselves committed by previous +votes; but the progress of events soon justified my opposition +to it. The country being in possession of Mexico, and she at war +with Spain, no Spanish commissioners could go there to join ours +in executing it; and so the act remained a dead letter upon the +statute-book. Its futility was afterwards acknowledged by our +government, and the misstep corrected by establishing the boundary +with Mexico herself. This was done by treaty in the year 1828, +adopting the boundaries previously agreed upon with Spain, and +consequently amputating our rivers (the Red and the Arkansas), and +dismembering the valley of the Mississippi, to the same extent as +was done by the Spanish treaty of 1819. I opposed the ratification +of the treaty with Mexico for the same reason that I opposed its +original with Spain, but without success. Only two senators voted +with me, namely, Judge William Smith, of South Carolina, and Mr. +Powhatan Ellis, of Mississippi. Thus I saw this treaty, which +repulsed Texas, and dismembered the valley of the Mississippi--which +placed a foreign dominion on the upper halves of the Red River +and the Arkansas--placed a foreign power and a wilderness between +Missouri and New Mexico, and which brought a non-slaveholding empire +to the boundary line of the State of Louisiana, and almost to the +southwest corner of Missouri--saw this treaty three times ratified +by the American Senate, as good as unanimously every time, and with +the hearty concurrence of the American press. Yet I remained in the +Senate to see, within a few years, a political tempest sweeping the +land and overturning all that stood before it, to get back this very +country which this treaty had given away; and menacing the Union +itself with dissolution, if it was not immediately done, and without +regard to consequences. But of this hereafter. The point to be now +noted of this treaty of 1819, is, that it completed, very nearly, +the extinction of slave territory within the limits of the United +States, and that it was the work of southern men, with the sanction +of the South. It extinguished or cut off the slave territory beyond +the Mississippi, below 36 degrees, 30 minutes, all except the +diagram in Arkansas, which was soon to become a State. The Missouri +compromise line had interdicted slavery in all the vast expanse of +Louisiana north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes; this treaty gave away, +first to Spain, and then to Mexico, nearly all the slave territory +south of that line; and what little was left by the Spanish treaty +was assigned in perpetuity by laws and by treaties to different +Indian tribes. These treaties (Indian and Spanish), together with +the Missouri compromise line--a measure contemporaneous with the +treaty--extinguished slave soil in all the United States territory +west of the Mississippi, except in the diagram which was to +constitute the State of Arkansas; and, including the extinction +in Texas consequent upon its cession to a non-slaveholding power, +constituted the largest territorial abolition of slavery that was +ever effected by the political power of any nation. The ordinance +of 1787 had previously extinguished slavery in all the northwest +territory--all the country east of the Mississippi, above the Ohio, +and out to the great lakes; so that, at this moment--era of the +second election of Mr. Monroe--slave soil, except in Arkansas and +Florida, was extinct in the territory of the United States. The +growth of slave States (except of Arkansas and Florida) was stopped; +the increase of free States was permitted in all the vast expanse +from Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, +and to Oregon; and there was not a ripple of discontent visible on +the surface of the public mind at this mighty transformation of +slave into free territory. No talk then about dissolving the Union, +if every citizen was not allowed to go with all his "property," +that is, all his slaves, to all the territory acquired by the +"common blood and treasure" of all the Union. But this belongs to +the chapter of 1844, whereof I have the material to write the true +and secret history, and hope to use it with fairness, with justice, +and with moderation. The outside view of the slave question in the +United States at this time, which any chronicler can write, is, +that the extension of slavery was then arrested, circumscribed, +and confined within narrow territorial limits, while free States +were permitted an almost unlimited expansion. That is the outside +view; the inside is, that all this was the work of southern men, +candidates for the presidency, some in abeyance, some in _præsenti_; +and all yielding to that repugnance to territorial aggrandizement, +and slavery extension in the southwest, which Mr. Monroe mentioned +in his letter to General Jackson as the "internal difficulty" which +occasioned the cession of Texas to Spain. This chapter is a point +in the history of the times which will require to be understood by +all who wish to understand and appreciate the events and actors of +twenty years later. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +DEATH OF MR. LOWNDES. + + +I had but a slight acquaintance with Mr. Lowndes. He resigned +his place on account of declining health soon after I came into +Congress; but all that I saw of him confirmed the impression of +the exalted character which the public voice had ascribed to him. +Virtue, modesty, benevolence, patriotism were the qualities of +his heart; a sound judgment, a mild persuasive elocution were the +attributes of his mind; his manners gentle, natural, cordial, +and inexpressibly engaging. He was one of the galaxy, as it was +well called, of the brilliant young men which South Carolina sent +to the House of Representatives at the beginning of the war of +1812--Calhoun, Cheves, Lowndes;--and was soon the brightest star +in that constellation. He was one of those members, rare in all +assemblies, who, when he spoke, had a cluster around him, not of +friends, but of the House--members quitting their distant seats, and +gathering up close about him, and showing by their attention, that +each one would feel it a personal loss to have missed a word that he +said. It was the attention of affectionate confidence. He imparted +to others the harmony of his own feelings, and was the moderator as +well as the leader of the House and was followed by its sentiment +in all cases in which inexorable party feeling, or some powerful +interest, did not rule the action of the members; and even then he +was courteously and deferentially treated. It was so the only time +I ever heard him speak--session of 1820-21--and on the inflammable +subject of the admission of the State of Missouri--a question on +which the inflamed passions left no room for the influence of reason +and judgment, and in which the members voted by a geographical line. +Mr. Lowndes was of the democratic school, and strongly indicated +for an early elevation to the presidency--indicated by the public +will and judgment, and not by any machinery or individual or party +management--from the approach of which he shrunk, as from the touch +of contamination. He was nominated by the legislature of his native +State for the election of 1824; but died before the event came +round. It was he who expressed that sentiment, so just and beautiful +in itself, and so becoming in him because in him it was true, "That +the presidency was an office neither to be sought, nor declined." +He died at the age of forty-two; and his death at that early age, +and in the impending circumstances of the country, was felt by +those who knew him as a public and national calamity. I do not +write biographies, but note the death and character of some eminent +deceased contemporaries, whose fame belongs to the country, and goes +to make up its own title to the respect of the world. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DEATH OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. + + +He died at Washington during the session of the Congress of which +he was a member, and of the Supreme Court of which he was a +practitioner. He fell like the warrior, in the plenitude of his +strength, and on the field of his fame--under the double labors +of the Supreme Court and of the Senate, and under the immense +concentration of thought which he gave to the preparation of his +speeches. He was considered in his day the first of American +orators, but will hardly keep that place with posterity, because he +spoke more to the hearer than to the reader--to the present than to +the absent--and avoided the careful publication of his own speeches. +He labored them hard, but it was for the effect of their delivery, +and the triumph of present victory. He loved the admiration of the +crowded gallery--the trumpet-tongued fame which went forth from +the forum--the victory which crowned the effort; but avoided the +publication of what was received with so much applause, giving as +a reason that the published speech would not sustain the renown of +the delivered one. His _forte_ as a speaker lay in his judgment, +his logic, his power of argument; but, like many other men of +acknowledged pre-eminence in some great gift of nature, and who are +still ambitious of some inferior gift, he courted his imagination +too much, and laid too much stress upon action and delivery--so +potent upon the small circle of actual hearers, but so lost upon +the national audience which the press now gives to a great speaker. +In other respects Mr. Pinkney was truly a great orator, rich in his +material, strong in his argument--clear, natural and regular in the +exposition of his subject, comprehensive in his views, and chaste +in his diction. His speeches, both senatorial and forensic, were +fully studied and laboriously prepared--all the argumentative parts +carefully digested under appropriate heads, and the showy passages +often fully written out and committed to memory. He would not speak +at all except upon preparation; and at sexagenarian age--that at +which I knew him--was a model of study and of labor to all young +men. His last speech in the Senate was in reply to Mr. Rufus King, +on the Missouri question, and was the master effort of his life. +The subject, the place, the audience, the antagonist, were all such +as to excite him to the utmost exertion. The subject was a national +controversy convulsing the Union and menacing it with dissolution; +the place was the American Senate; the audience was Europe and +America; the antagonist was PRINCEPS SENATUS, illustrious for +thirty years of diplomatic and senatorial service, and for great +dignity of life and character. He had ample time for preparation, +and availed himself of it. Mr. King had spoken the session before, +and published the "Substance" of his speeches (for there were two +of them), after the adjournment of Congress. They were the signal +guns for the Missouri controversy. It was to these published +speeches that Mr. Pinkney replied, and with the interval between +two sessions to prepare. It was a dazzling and overpowering reply, +with the prestige of having the union and the harmony of the States +for its object, and crowded with rich material. The most brilliant +part of it was a highly-wrought and splendid amplification (with +illustrations from Greek and Roman history), of that passage in Mr. +Burke's speech upon "Conciliation with the Colonies," in which, +and in looking to the elements of American resistance to British +power, he looks to the spirit of the slaveholding colonies as a +main ingredient, and attributes to the masters of slaves, who are +not themselves slaves, the highest love of liberty and the most +difficult task of subjection. It was the most gorgeous speech +ever delivered in the Senate, and the most applauded; but it was +only a magnificent exhibition, as Mr. Pinkney knew, and could not +sustain in the reading the plaudits it received in delivery; and +therefore he avoided its publication. He gave but little attention +to the current business of the Senate, only appearing in his place +when the "Salaminian galley was to be launched," or some special +occasion called him--giving his time and labor to the bar, where +his pride and glory was. He had previously served in the House +of Representatives, and his first speech there was attended by +an incident illustrative of Mr. Randolph's talent for delicate +intimation, and his punctilious sense of parliamentary etiquette. +Mr. Pinkney came into the House with a national reputation, in +the fulness of his fame, and exciting a great expectation--which +he was obliged to fulfil. He spoke on the treaty-making power--a +question of diplomatic and constitutional law; and he having been +minister to half the courts of Europe, attorney general of the +United States, and a jurist by profession, could only speak upon it +in one way--as a great master of the subject; and, consequently, +appeared as if instructing the House. Mr. Randolph--a veteran of +twenty years' parliamentary service--thought a new member should +serve a little apprenticeship before he became an instructor, and +wished to signify that to Mr. Pinkney. He had a gift, such as man +never had, at a delicate intimation where he desired to give a hint, +without offence; and he displayed it on this occasion. He replied +to Mr. Pinkney, referring to him by the parliamentary designation +of "the member from Maryland;" and then pausing, as if not certain, +added, "I believe he is from Maryland." This implied doubt as to +where he came from, and consequently as to who he was, amused Mr. +Pinkney, who understood it perfectly, and taking it right, went over +to Mr. Randolph's seat, introduced himself, and assured him that +he was "from Maryland." They became close friends for ever after; +and it was Mr. Randolph who first made known his death in the House +of Representatives, interrupting for that purpose an angry debate, +then raging, with a beautiful and apt quotation from the quarrel of +Adam and Eve at their expulsion from paradise. The published debates +give this account of it: "Mr. Randolph rose to announce to the House +an event which he hoped would put an end, at least for this day, to +all further jar or collision, here or elsewhere, among the members +of this body. Yes, for this one day, at least, let us say, as our +first mother said to our first father-- + + 'While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps, + Between us two let there be peace.' + +"I rise to announce to the House the not unlooked for death of a man +who filled the first place in the public estimation, in the first +profession in that estimation, in this or in any other country. We +have been talking of General Jackson, and a greater than him is, not +here, but gone for ever. I allude, sir, to the boast of Maryland, +and the pride of the United States--the pride of all of us, but more +particularly the pride and ornament of the profession of which you, +Mr. Speaker (Mr. Philip P. Barbour), are a member, and an eminent +one." + +Mr. Pinkney was kind and affable in his temper, free from every +taint of envy or jealousy, conscious of his powers, and relying upon +them alone for success. He was a model, as I have already said, and +it will bear repetition, to all young men in his habits of study and +application, and at more than sixty years of age was still a severe +student. In politics he classed democratically, and was one of the +few of our eminent public men who never seemed to think of the +presidency. Oratory was his glory, the law his profession, the bar +his theatre; and his service in Congress was only a brief episode, +dazzling each House, for he was a momentary member of each, with a +single and splendid speech. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ABOLITION OF THE INDIAN FACTORY SYSTEM. + + +The experience of the Indian factory system, is an illustration of +the unfitness of the federal government to carry on any system of +trade, the liability of the benevolent designs of the government +to be abused, and the difficulty of detecting and redressing abuses +in the management of our Indian affairs. This system originated in +the year 1796, under the recommendation of President Washington, and +was intended to counteract the influence of the British traders, +then allowed to trade with the Indians of the United States within +our limits; also to protect the Indians from impositions from our +own traders, and for that purpose to sell them goods at cost and +carriage, and receive their furs and peltries at fair and liberal +prices; and which being sold on account of the United States, +would defray the expenses of the establishment, and preserve the +capital undiminished--to be returned to the treasury at the end +of the experiment. The goods were purchased at the expense of +the United States--the superintendent and factors were paid out +of the treasury, and the whole system was to be one of favor and +benevolence to the Indians, guarded by the usual amount of bonds +and oaths prescribed by custom in such cases. Being an experiment, +it was first established by a temporary act, limited to two +years--the usual way in which equivocal measures get a foothold in +legislation. It was soon suspected that this system did not work +as disinterestedly as had been expected--that it was of no benefit +to the Indians--no counteraction to British traders--an injury +to our own fur trade--and a loss to the United States; and many +attempts were made to get rid of it, but in vain. It was kept up +by continued temporary renewals for a quarter of a century--from +1796 to 1822--the name of Washington being always invoked to +continue abuses which he would have been the first to repress and +punish. As a citizen of a frontier State, I had seen the working +of the system--seen its inside working, and knew its operation to +be entirely contrary to the benevolent designs of its projectors. +I communicated all this, soon after my admission to a seat in the +Senate, to Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary at War, to whose department +the supervision of this branch of service belonged, and proposed to +him the abolition of the system; but he had too good an opinion of +the superintendent (then Mr. Thomas L. McKinney), to believe that +any thing was wrong in the business, and refused his countenance +to my proposition. Confident that I was right, I determined to +bring the question before the Senate--did so--brought in a bill to +abolish the factories, and throw open the fur trade to individual +enterprise, and supported the bill with all the facts and reasons +of which I was master. The bill was carried through both Houses, +and became a law; but not without the strenuous opposition which +the attack of every abuse for ever encounters--not that any member +favored the abuse, but that those interested in it were vigilant +and active, visiting the members who would permit such visits, +furnishing them with adverse statements, lauding the operation +of the system, and constantly lugging in the name of Washington +as its author. When the system was closed up, and the inside of +it seen, and the balance struck, it was found how true all the +representations were which had been made against it. The Indians +had been imposed upon in the quality and prices of the goods sold +them; a general trade had been carried on with the whites as well +as with the Indians; large per centums had been charged upon every +thing sold; and the total capital of three hundred thousand dollars +was lost and gone. It was a loss which, at that time (1822), was +considered large, but now (1850) would be considered small; but its +history still has its uses, in showing how differently from its +theory a well intended act may operate--how long the Indians and +the government may be cheated without knowing it--and how difficult +it is to get a bad law discontinued (where there is an interest in +keeping it up), even though first adopted as a temporary measure, +and as a mere experiment. It cost me a strenuous exertion--much +labor in collecting facts, and much speaking in laying them +before the Senate--to get this two years' law discontinued, after +twenty-five years of injurious operation and costly experience. Of +all the branches of our service, that of the Indian affairs is most +liable to abuse, and its abuses the most difficult of detection. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. + + +The Presidential election of 1824 was approaching, the candidates +in the field, their respective friends active and busy, and popular +topics for the canvass in earnest requisition. The New-York canal +had just been completed, and had brought great popularity to its +principal advocate (De Witt Clinton), and excited a great appetite +in public men for that kind of fame. Roads and canals--meaning +common turnpike, for the steam car had not then been invented, nor +McAdam impressed his name on the new class of roads which afterwards +wore it--were all the vogue; and the candidates for the Presidency +spread their sails upon the ocean of internal improvements. Congress +was full of projects for different objects of improvement, and the +friends of each candidate exerted themselves in rivalry of each +other, under the supposition that their opinions would stand for +those of their principals. Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay, and Mr. Calhoun, +were the avowed advocates of the measure, going thoroughly for +a general national system of internal improvement: Mr. Crawford +and General Jackson, under limitations and qualifications. The +Cumberland road, and the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, were the +two prominent objects discussed; but the design extended to a +general system, and an act was finally passed, intended to be +annual and permanent, to appropriate $30,000 to make surveys of +national routes. Mr. Monroe signed this bill as being merely for +the collection of information, but the subject drew from him the +most elaborate and thoroughly considered opinion upon the general +question which has ever been delivered by any of our statesmen. +It was drawn out by the passage of an act to provide for the +preservation and repair of the Cumberland road, and was returned +by him to the House in which it originated, with his objections, +accompanied by a state paper, in exposition of his opinions upon +the whole subject; for the whole subject was properly before him. +The act which he had to consider, though modestly entitled for the +"preservation" and "repair" of the Cumberland road, yet, in its +mode of accomplishing that purpose, assumed the whole of the powers +which were necessary to the execution of a general system. It passed +with singular unanimity through both Houses, in the Senate, only +seven votes against it, of which I afterwards felt proud to have +been one. He denied the power; but before examining the arguments +for and against it, very properly laid down the amount and variety +of jurisdiction and authority which it would require the federal +government to exercise within the States, in order to execute a +system, and that in each and every part--in every mile of each and +every canal road--it should undertake to construct. He began with +acquiring the right of way, and pursued it to its results in the +construction and preservation of the work, involving jurisdiction, +ownership, penal laws, and administration. Commissioners, he said, +must first be appointed to trace a route, and to acquire a right +to the ground over which the road or canal was to pass, with a +sufficient breadth for each. The ground could only be acquired +by voluntary grants from individuals, or by purchases, or by +condemnation of the property, and fixing its value through a jury +of the vicinage, if they refused to give or sell, or demanded an +exorbitant price. After all this was done, then came the repairs, +the care of which was to be of perpetual duration, and of a kind to +provide against criminal and wilful injuries, as well as against +the damages of accident, and deterioration from time and use. There +are persons in every community capable of committing voluntary +injuries, of pulling down walls that are made to sustain the road; +of breaking the bridges over water-courses, and breaking the road +itself. Some living near it might be disappointed that it did not +pass through their lands, and commit these acts of violence and +waste from revenge. To prevent these crimes Congress must have a +power to pass laws to punish the offenders, wherever they may be +found. Jurisdiction over the road would not be sufficient, though it +were exclusive. There must be power to follow the offenders wherever +they might go. It would seldom happen that the parties would be +detected in the act. They would generally commit it in the night, +and fly far off before the sun appeared. Right of pursuit must +attach, or the power of punishing become nugatory. Tribunals, State +or federal, must be invested with power to execute the law. Wilful +injuries would require all this assumption of power, and machinery +of administration, to punish and prevent them. Repair of natural +deteriorations would require the application of a different remedy. +Toll gates, and persons to collect the tolls, were the usual resort +for repairing this class of injuries, and keeping the road in order. +Congress must have power to make such an establishment, and to enact +a code of regulations for it, with fines and penalties, and agents +to execute it. To all these exercises of authority the question of +the constitutionality of the law may be raised by the prosecuted +party. But opposition might not stop with individuals. States might +contest the right of the federal government thus to possess and +to manage all the great roads and canals within their limits; and +then a collision would be brought on between two governments, each +claiming to be sovereign and independent in its actions over the +subject in dispute. + +Thus did Mr. Monroe state the question in its practical bearings, +traced to their legitimate results, and the various assumptions +of power, and difficulties with States or individuals which +they involved; and the bare statement which he made--the bare +presentation of the practical working of the system, constituted a +complete argument against it, as an invasion of State rights, and +therefore unconstitutional, and, he might have added, as complex and +unmanageable by the federal government, and therefore inexpedient. +But, after stating the question, he examined it under every head +of constitutional derivation under which its advocates claimed the +power, and found it to be granted by no one of them, and virtually +prohibited by some of them. These were, _first_, the right to +establish post-offices and post-roads; _second_, to declare war; +_third_, to regulate commerce among the States; _fourth_, the power +to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general +welfare of the United States; _fifth_, to make all laws necessary +and proper to carry into effect the granted (enumerated) powers; +_sixth_, from the power to dispose of, and make all needful rules +and regulations respecting the territory or other property of the +United States. Upon this long enumeration of these claimed sources +of power, Mr. Monroe well remarked that their very multiplicity +was an argument against them, and that each one was repudiated by +some of the advocates for each of the others: that these advocates +could not agree among themselves upon any one single source of +the power; and that it was sought for from place to place, with +an assiduity which proclaimed its non-existence any where. Still +he examined each head of derivation in its order, and effectually +disposed of each in its turn. 1. The post-office and post-road +grant. The word "establish" was the ruling term: roads and offices +were the subjects on which it was to act. And how? Ask any number of +enlightened citizens, who had no connection with public affairs, +and whose minds were unprejudiced, what was the meaning of the word +"establish," and the extent of the grant it controls, and there +would not be a difference of opinion among them. They would answer +that it was a power given to Congress to legalize existing roads +as post routes, and existing places as post-offices--to fix on the +towns, court-houses, and other places throughout the Union, at +which there should be post-offices; the routes by which the mails +should be carried; to fix the postages to be paid; and to protect +the post-offices and mails from robbery, by punishing those who +commit the offence. The idea of a right to lay off roads to take the +soil from the proprietor against his will; to establish turnpikes +and tolls; to establish a criminal code for the punishment of +injuries to the road; to do what the protection and repair of a road +requires: these are things which would never enter into his head. +The use of the existing road would be all that would be thought +of; the jurisdiction and soil remaining in the State, or in those +authorized by its legislature to change the road at pleasure. + +2. The war power. Mr. Monroe shows the object of this grant of +power to the federal government--the terms of the grant itself--its +incidents as enumerated in the constitution--the exclusion of +constructive incidents--and the pervading interference with the +soil and jurisdiction of the States which the assumption of the +internal improvement power by Congress would carry along with it. He +recites the grant of the power to make war, as given to Congress, +and prohibited to the States, and enumerates the incidents granted +along with it, and necessary to carrying on war: which are, to raise +money by taxes, duties, excises, and by loans; to raise and support +armies and a navy; to provide for calling out, arming, disciplining, +and governing the militia, when in the service of the United States; +establishing fortifications, and to exercise exclusive jurisdiction +over the places granted by the State legislatures for the sites of +forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings. +And having shown this enumeration of incidents, he very naturally +concludes that it is an exclusion of constructive incidents, and +especially of one so great in itself, and so much interfering with +the soil and jurisdiction of the States, as the federal exercise +of the road-making power would be. He exhibits the enormity of +this interference by a view of the extensive field over which it +would operate. The United States are exposed to invasion through +the whole extent of their Atlantic coast (to which may now be added +seventeen degrees of the Pacific coast) by any European power with +whom we might be engaged in war: on the northern and northwestern +frontier, on the side of Canada, by Great Britain, and on the +southern by Spain, or any power in alliance with her. If internal +improvements are to be carried on to the full extent to which they +may be useful for military purposes, the power, as it exists, must +apply to all the roads of the Union, there being no limitation to +it. Wherever such improvements may facilitate the march of troops, +the transportation of cannon, or otherwise aid the operations, or +mitigate the calamities of war along the coast, or in the interior, +they would be useful for military purposes, and might therefore be +made. They must be coextensive with the Union. The power following +as an incident to another power can be measured, as to its extent, +by reference only to the obvious extent of the power to which it is +incidental. It has been shown, after the most liberal construction +of all the enumerated powers of the general government, that the +territory within the limits of the respective States belonged to +them; that the United States had no right, under the powers granted +to them (with the exceptions specified), to any the smallest portion +of territory within a State, all those powers operating on a +different principle, and having their full effect without impairing, +in the slightest degree, this territorial right in the States. +By specifically granting the right, as to such small portions of +territory as might be necessary for these purposes (forts, arsenals, +magazines, dock-yards and other needful _buildings_), and, on +certain conditions, minutely and well defined, it is manifest that +it was not intended to grant it, as to any other portion, for +any purpose, or in any manner whatever. The right of the general +government must be complete, if a right at all. It must extend to +every thing necessary to the enjoyment and protection of the right. +It must extend to the seizure and condemnation of the property, if +necessary; to the punishment of the offenders for injuries to the +roads and canals; to the establishment and enforcement of tolls; to +the unobstructed construction protection, and preservation of the +roads. It must be a complete right, to the extent above stated, or +it will be of no avail. That right does not exist. + +3. The commercial power. Mr. Monroe argues that the sense in which +the power to regulate commerce was understood and exercised by the +States, was doubtless that in which it was transferred to the United +States; and then shows that their regulation of commerce was by the +imposition of duties and imposts; and that it was so regulated by +them (before the adoption of the constitution), equally in respect +to each other, and to foreign powers. The goods, and the vessels +employed in the trade, are the only subject of regulation. It can +act on none other. He then shows the evil out of which that grant +of power grew, and which evil was, in fact, the predominating +cause in the call for the convention which framed the federal +constitution. Each State had the right to lay duties and imposts, +and exercised the right on narrow, jealous, and selfish principles. +Instead of acting as a nation in regard to foreign powers, the +States, individually, had commenced a system of restraint upon +each other, whereby the interests of foreign powers were promoted +at their expense. This contracted policy in some of the States was +counteracted by others. Restraints were immediately laid on such +commerce by the suffering States; and hence grew up a system of +restrictions and retaliations, which destroyed the harmony of the +States, and threatened the confederacy with dissolution. From this +evil the new constitution relieved us; and the federal government, +as successors to the States in the power to regulate commerce, +immediately exercised it as they had done, by laying duties and +imposts, to act upon goods and vessels: and that was the end of the +power. + +4. To pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general +welfare of the Union. Mr. Monroe considers this "common defence" +and "general welfare" clause as being no grant of power, but, in +themselves, only an object and end to be attained by the exercise of +the enumerated powers. They are found in that sense in the preamble +to the constitution, in company with others, as inducing causes to +the formation of the instrument, and as benefits to be obtained by +the powers granted in it. They stand thus in the preamble: "In order +to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic +tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general +welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our +posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution." These are +the objects to be accomplished, but not by allowing Congress to +do what it pleased to accomplish them (in which case there would +have been no need for investing it with specific powers), but to +be accomplished by the exercise of the powers granted in the body +of the instrument. Considered as a distinct and separate grant, +the power to provide for the "common defence" and the "general +welfare," or either of them, would give to Congress the command of +the whole force, and of all the resources of the Union--absorbing +in their transcendental power all other powers, and rendering all +the grants and restrictions nugatory and vain. The idea of these +words forming an original grant, with unlimited power, superseding +every other grant, is (must be) abandoned. The government of the +United States is a limited government, instituted for great national +purposes, and for those only. Other interests are left to the States +individually, whose duty it is to provide for them. Roads and +canals fall into this class, the powers of the General Government +being utterly incompetent to the exercise of the rights which their +construction, and protection, and preservation require. Mr. Monroe +examines the instances of roads made in territories, and through +the Indian countries, and the one upon Spanish territory below the +31st degree of north latitude (with the consent of Spain), on the +route from Athens in Georgia to New Orleans, before we acquired the +Floridas; and shows that there was no objection to these territorial +roads, being all of them, to the States, ex-territorial. He examines +the case of the Cumberland road, made within the States, and upon +compact, but in which the United States exercised no power, founded +on any principle of "jurisdiction or right." He says of it: This +road was founded on an article of compact between the United States +and the State of Ohio, under which that State came into the Union, +and by which the expense attending it was to be defrayed by the +application of a certain portion of the money arising from the sales +of the public lands within the State. And, in this instance, the +United States have exercised no act of jurisdiction or sovereignty +within either of the States through which the road runs, by +taking the land from the proprietors by force--by passing acts for +the protection of the road--or to raise a revenue from it by the +establishment of turnpikes and tolls--or any other act founded on +the principles of jurisdiction or right. And I can add, that the +bill passed by Congress, and which received his veto, died under +his veto message, and has never been revised, or attempted to be +revised, since; and the road itself has been abandoned to the States. + +5. The power to make all laws which shall be necessary and +proper to carry into effect the powers specifically granted to +Congress. This power, as being the one which chiefly gave rise +to the latitudinarian constructions which discriminated parties, +when parties were founded upon principle, is closely and clearly +examined by Mr. Monroe, and shown to be no grant of power at all, +nor authorizing Congress to do any thing which might not have been +done without it, and only added to the enumerated powers, through +caution, to secure their complete execution. He says: I have always +considered this power as having been granted on a principle of +greater caution, to secure the complete execution of all the powers +which had been vested in the General Government. It contains no +distinct and specific power, as every other grant does, such as to +lay and collect taxes, to declare war, to regulate commerce, and +the like. Looking to the whole scheme of the General Government, it +gives to Congress authority to make all laws which should be deemed +necessary and proper for carrying all its powers into effect. My +impression has invariably been, that this power would have existed, +substantially, if this grant had not been made. It results, by +necessary implication (such is the tenor of the argument), from +the granted powers, and was only added from caution, and to leave +nothing to implication. To act under it, it must first be shown that +the thing to be done is already specified in one of the enumerated +powers. This is the point and substance of Mr. Monroe's opinion on +this incidental grant, and which has been the source of division +between parties from the foundation of the government--the fountain +of latitudinous construction--and which, taking the judgment of +Congress as the rule and measure of what was "necessary and proper" +in legislation, takes a rule which puts an end to the limitations +of the constitution, refers all the powers of the body to its own +discretion, and becomes as absorbing and transcendental in its scope +as the "general welfare" and "common defence clauses" would be +themselves. + +6. The power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and +regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United +States. This clause, as a source of power for making roads and +canals within a State, Mr. Monroe disposes of summarily, as having +no relation whatever to the subject. It grew out of the cessions of +territory which different States had made to the United States, and +relates solely to that territory (and to such as has been acquired +since the adoption of the constitution), and which lay without the +limits of a State. Special provision was deemed necessary for such +territory, the main powers of the constitution operating internally, +not being applicable or adequate thereto; and it follows that this +power gives no authority, and has even no bearing on the subject. + +Such was this great state paper, delivered at a time when internal +improvement by the federal government, having become an issue +in the canvass for the Presidency, and ardently advocated by +three of the candidates, and qualifiedly by two others, had an +immense current in its favor, carrying many of the old strict +constitutionists along with it. Mr. Monroe stood firm vetoed the +bill which assumed jurisdiction over the Cumberland road, and drew +up his sentiments in full, for the consideration of Congress and +the country. His argument is abridged and condensed in this view of +it; but his positions and conclusions preserved in full, and with +scrupulous correctness. And the whole paper, as an exposition of +the differently understood parts of the constitution, by one among +those most intimately acquainted with it, and as applicable to the +whole question of constructive powers, deserves to be read and +studied by every student of our constitutional law. The only point +at which Mr. Monroe gave way, or yielded in the least, to the temper +of the times, was in admitting the power of appropriation--the right +of Congress to appropriate, but not to apply money--to internal +improvements; and in that he yielded against his earlier, and, +as I believe, better judgment. He had previously condemned the +appropriation as well as the application, but finally yielded on +this point to the counsels that beset him; but nugatorially, as +appropriation without application was inoperative, and a balk to +the whole system. But an act was passed soon after for surreys--for +making surveys of routes for roads and canals of general and +national importance, and the sum of $30,000 was appropriated for +that purpose. The act was as carefully guarded as words could do +so, in its limitation to objects of national importance, but only +presented another to the innumerable instances of the impotency of +words in securing the execution of a law. The selection of routes +under the act, rapidly degenerated from national to sectional, +from sectional to local, and from local to mere neighborhood +improvements. Early in the succeeding administration, a list of +some ninety routes were reported to Congress, from the Engineer +Department, in which occurred names of places hardly heard of +before outside of the State or section in which they were found. +Saugatuck, Amounisuck, Pasumic, Winnispiseogee, Piscataqua, Titonic +Falls, Lake Memphramagog, Conneaut Creek, Holmes' Hole, Lovejoy's +Narrows, Steele's Ledge, Cowhegan, Androscoggin, Cobbiesconte, +Ponceaupechaux, alias Soapy Joe, were among the objects which +figured in the list for national improvement. The bare reading +of the list was a condemnation of the act under which they were +selected, and put an end to the annual appropriations which were in +the course of being made for these surveys. No appropriation was +made after the year 1827. Afterwards the veto message of President +Jackson put an end to legislation upon local routes, and the +progress of events has withdrawn the whole subject--the subject of +a _system_ of national internal improvement, once so formidable and +engrossing in the public mind--from the halls of Congress, and the +discussions of the people. Steamboats and steam-cars have superseded +turnpikes and canals; individual enterprise has dispensed with +national legislation. Hardly a great route exists in any State which +is not occupied under State authority. Even great works accomplished +by Congress, at vast cost and long and bitter debates in Congress, +and deemed eminently national at the time, have lost that character, +and sunk into the class of common routes. The Cumberland road, which +cost $6,670,000 in money, and was a prominent subject in Congress +for thirty-four years--from 1802, when it was conceived to 1836, +when it was abandoned to the States: this road, once so absorbing +both of public money and public attention, has degenerated into a +common highway, and is entirely superseded by the parallel railroad +route. The same may be said, in a less degree, of the Chesapeake +and Ohio canal, once a national object of federal legislation +intended, as its name imports, to connect the tide water of the +Atlantic with the great rivers of the West; now a local canal, +chiefly used by some companies, very beneficial in its place, but +sunk from the national character which commanded for it the votes +of Congress and large appropriations from the federal treasury. Mr. +Monroe was one of the most cautious and deliberate of our public +men, thoroughly acquainted with the theory and the working of the +constitution, his opinions upon it entitled to great weight; and +on this point (of internal improvement within the States by the +federal government) his opinion has become law. But it does not +touch the question of improving national rivers or harbors yielding +revenue--appropriations for the Ohio and Mississippi and other large +streams, being easily had when unincumbered with local objects, as +shown by the appropriation, in a separate bill, in 1824, of $75,000 +for the improvement of these two rivers, and which was approved and +signed by Mr. Monroe. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +GENERAL REMOVAL OF INDIANS. + + +The Indian tribes in the different sections of the Union, had +experienced very different fates--in the northern and middle States +nearly extinct--in the south and west they remained numerous and +formidable. Before the war of 1812, with Great Britain, these +southern and western tribes held vast, compact bodies of land in +these States, preventing the expansion of the white settlements +within their limits, and retaining a dangerous neighbor within +their borders. The victories of General Jackson over the Creeks, +and the territorial cessions which ensued made the first great +breach in this vast Indian domain; but much remained to be done +to free the southern and western States from a useless and +dangerous population--to give them the use and jurisdiction of +all the territory within their limits, and to place them, in that +respect, on an equality with the northern and middle States. +From the earliest periods of the colonial settlements, it had +been the policy of the government, by successive purchases of +their territory, to remove these tribes further and further to the +west; and that policy, vigorously pursued after the war with Great +Britain, had made much progress in freeing several of these States +(Kentucky entirely, and Tennessee almost) from this population, +which so greatly hindered the expansion of their settlements and +so much checked the increase of their growth and strength. Still +there remained up to the year 1824--the last year of Mr. Monroe's +administration--large portions of many of these States, and of the +territories, in the hands of the Indian tribes; in Georgia, nine and +a half millions of acres; in Alabama, seven and a half millions; in +Mississippi, fifteen and three quarter millions; in the territory +of Florida, four millions; in the territory of Arkansas, fifteen +and a half millions; in the State of Missouri, two millions and +three quarters; in Indiana and Illinois, fifteen millions; and in +Michigan, east of the lake, seven millions. All these States and +territories were desirous, and most justly and naturally so, to get +possession of these vast bodies of land, generally the best within +their limits. Georgia held the United States bound by a compact to +relieve her. Justice to the other States and territories required +the same relief; and the applications to the federal government, +to which the right of purchasing Indian lands, even within the +States, exclusively belonged, were incessant and urgent. Piecemeal +acquisitions, to end in getting the whole, were the constant effort; +and it was evident that the encumbered States and territories would +not, and certainly ought not to be satisfied, until all their soil +was open to settlement, and subject to their jurisdiction. To the +Indians themselves it was equally essential to be removed. The +contact and pressure of the white race was fatal to them. They had +dwindled under it, degenerated, become depraved, and whole tribes +extinct, or reduced to a few individuals, wherever they attempted to +remain in the old States; and could look for no other fate in the +new ones. + +"What," exclaimed Mr. Elliott, senator from Georgia, in advocating +a system of general removal--"what has become of the immense hordes +of these people who once occupied the soil of the older States? +In New England, where numerous and warlike tribes once so fiercely +contended for supremacy with our forefathers, but two thousand +five hundred of their descendants remain, and they are dispirited +and degraded. Of the powerful league of the Six Nations, so long +the scourge and terror of New-York, only about five thousand souls +remain. In New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, the numerous +and powerful tribes once seen there, are either extinct, or so +reduced as to escape observation in any enumeration of the States' +inhabitants. In Virginia, Mr. Jefferson informs us that there were +at the commencement of its colonization (1607), in the comparatively +small portion of her extent which lies between the sea-coast and +the mountains, and from the Potomac to the most southern waters of +James River, upwards of forty tribes of Indians: now there are but +forty-seven individuals in the whole State! In North Carolina none +are counted: in South Carolina only four hundred and fifty. While in +Georgia, where thirty years since there were not less than thirty +thousand souls, there now remain some fifteen thousand--the one half +having disappeared in a single generation. That many of these people +have removed, and others perished by the sword in the frequent +wars which have occurred in the progress of our settlements, I am +free to admit. But where are the hundreds of thousands, with their +descendants, who neither removed, nor were thus destroyed? Sir, like +a promontory of sand, exposed to the ceaseless encroachments of the +ocean, they have been gradually wasting away before the current of +the advancing white population which set in upon them from every +quarter; and unless speedily removed beyond the influence of this +cause, of the many tens of thousands now within the limits of the +southern and western States, a remnant will not long be found to +point you to the graves of their ancestors, or to relate the sad +story of their disappearance from earth." + +Mr. Jefferson, that statesman in fact as well as in name, that +man of enlarged and comprehensive views, whose prerogative it was +to foresee evils and provide against them, had long foreseen the +evils both to the Indians and to the whites, in retaining any +part of these tribes within our organized limits; and upon the +first acquisition of Louisiana--within three months after the +acquisition--proposed it for the future residence of all the +tribes on the east of the Mississippi; and his plan had been acted +upon in some degree, both by himself and his immediate successor. +But it was reserved for Mr. Monroe's administration to take up +the subject in its full sense, to move upon it as a system, and +to accomplish at a single operation the removal of all the tribes +from the east to the west side of the Mississippi--from the settled +States and territories, to the wide and wild expanse of Louisiana. +Their preservation and civilization, and permanency in their new +possessions, were to be their advantages in this removal--delusive, +it might be, but still a respite from impending destruction if they +remained where they were. This comprehensive plan was advocated +by Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, and charged with the +administration of Indian affairs. It was a plan of incalculable +value to the southern and western States, but impracticable without +the hearty concurrence of the northern and non-slaveholding States. +It might awaken the slavery question, hardly got to sleep after the +alarming agitations of the Missouri controversy. The States and +territories to be relieved were slaveholding. To remove the Indians +would make room for the spread of slaves. No removal could be +effected without the double process of a treaty and an appropriation +act--the treaty to be ratified by two thirds of the Senate, where +the slave and free States were equal, and the appropriation to be +obtained from Congress, where free States held the majority of +members. It was evident that the execution of the whole plan was +in the hands of the free States; and nobly did they do their duty +by the South. Some societies, and some individuals, no doubt, with +very humane motives, but with the folly, and blindness, and injury +to the objects of their care which generally attend a gratuitous +interference with the affairs of others, attempted to raise an +outcry, and made themselves busy to frustrate the plan; but the free +States themselves, in their federal action, and through the proper +exponents of their will--their delegations in Congress--cordially +concurred in it, and faithfully lent it a helping and efficient +hand. The President, Mr. Monroe, in the session 1824-'25, +recommended its adoption to Congress, and asked the necessary +appropriation to begin from the Congress. A bill was reported in the +Senate for that purpose, and unanimously passed that body. What is +more, the treaties made with the Kansas and Osage tribes in 1825, +for the cession to the United States of all their vast territory +west of Missouri and Arkansas, except small reserves to themselves, +and which treaties had been made without previous authority from the +government, and for the purpose of acquiring new homes for all the +Indians east of the Mississippi, were duly and readily ratified. +Those treaties were made at St. Louis by General Clarke, without any +authority, so far as this large acquisition was concerned, at my +instance, and upon my assurance that the Senate would ratify them. +It was done. They were ratified: a great act of justice was rendered +to the South. The foundation was laid for the future removal of +the Indians, which was followed up by subsequent treaties and acts +of Congress, until the southern and western States were as free +as the northern from the incumbrance of an Indian population; and +I, who was an actor in these transactions, who reported the bills +and advocated the treaties which brought this great benefit to the +south and west, and witnessed the cordial support of the members +from the free States, without whose concurrence they could not have +been passed--I, who wish for harmony and concord among all the +States, and all the sections of this Union, owe it to the cause of +truth and justice, and to the cultivation of fraternal feelings, +to bear this faithful testimony to the just and liberal conduct of +the non-slaveholding States, in relieving the southern and western +States from so large an incumbrance, and aiding the extension of +their settlement and cultivation. The recommendation of Mr. Monroe, +and the treaties of 1825, were the beginning of the system of total +removal; but it was a beginning which assured the success of the +whole plan, and was followed up, as will be seen, in the history of +each case, until the entire system was accomplished. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +VISIT OF LAFAYETTE TO THE UNITED STATES. + + +In the summer of this year General Lafayette, accompanied by his +son, Mr. George Washington Lafayette, and under an invitation +from the President, revisited the United States after a lapse +of forty years. He was received with unbounded honor, affection, +and gratitude by the American people. To the survivors of the +Revolution, it was the return of a brother; to the new generation, +born since that time, it was the apparition of an historical +character, familiar from the cradle; and combining all the titles to +love, admiration, gratitude, enthusiasm, which could act upon the +heart and the imagination of the young and the ardent. He visited +every State in the Union, doubled in number since, as the friend +and pupil of Washington, he had spilt his blood, and lavished his +fortune, for their independence. His progress through the States was +a triumphal procession, such as no Roman ever led up--a procession +not through a city, but over a continent--followed, not by captives +in chains of iron, but by a nation in the bonds of affection. To +him it was an unexpected and overpowering reception. His modest +estimate of himself had not allowed him to suppose that he was to +electrify a continent. He expected kindness, but not enthusiasm. +He expected to meet with surviving friends--not to rouse a young +generation. As he approached the harbor of New-York, he made inquiry +of some acquaintance to know whether he could find a hack to convey +him to a hotel? Illustrious man, and modest as illustrious! Little +did he know that all America was on foot to receive him--to take +possession of him the moment he touched her soil--to fetch and +to carry him--to feast and applaud him--to make him the guest of +cities, States, and the nation, as long as he could he detained. +Many were the happy meetings which he had with old comrades, +survivors for near half a century of their early hardships and +dangers; and most grateful to his heart it was to see them, so many +of them, exceptions to the maxim which denies to the beginners of +revolutions the good fortune to conclude them (and of which maxim +his own country had just been so sad an exemplification), and to +see his old comrades not only conclude the one they began, but live +to enjoy its fruits and honors. Three of his old associates he +found ex-presidents (Adams, Jefferson, and Madison), enjoying the +respect and affection of their country, after having reached its +highest honors. Another, and the last one that _Time_ would admit +to the Presidency (Mr. Monroe), now in the Presidential chair, and +inviting him to revisit the land of his adoption. Many of his +early associates seen in the two Houses of Congress--many in the +State governments, and many more in all the walks of private life, +patriarchal sires, respected for their characters, and venerated for +their patriotic services. It was a grateful spectacle, and the more +impressive from the calamitous fate which he had seen attend so many +of the revolutionary patriots of the Old World. But the enthusiasm +of the young generation astonished and excited him, and gave him a +new view of himself--a future glimpse of himself--and such as he +would be seen in after ages. Before _them_, he was in the presence +of posterity; and in their applause and admiration he saw his own +future place in history, passing down to the latest time as one of +the most perfect and beautiful characters which one of the most +eventful periods of the world had produced. Mr. Clay, as Speaker of +the House of Representatives, and the organ of their congratulations +to Lafayette (when he was received in the hall of the House), +very felicitously seized the idea of his present confrontation +with posterity, and adorned and amplified it with the graces of +oratory. He said: "The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that +Providence would allow the patriot, after death, to return to his +country, and to contemplate the intermediate changes which had taken +place--to view the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains +levelled, the canals cut, the highways opened, the progress of the +arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase of population. +General! your present visit to the United States is the realization +of the consoling object of that wish, hitherto vain. You are in +the midst of posterity! Every where you must have been struck with +the great changes, physical and moral, which have occurred since +you left us. Even this very city, bearing a venerated name, alike +endearing to you and to us, has since emerged from the forest which +then covered its site. In one respect you behold us unaltered, and +that is, in the sentiment of continued devotion to liberty, and of +ardent affection and profound gratitude to your departed friend, +the father of his country, and to your illustrious associates in +the field and in the cabinet, for the multiplied blessings which +surround us, and for the very privilege of addressing you, which I +now have." He was received in both Houses of Congress with equal +honor; but the Houses did not limit themselves to honors: they +added substantial rewards for long past services and sacrifices--two +hundred thousand dollars in money, and twenty-four thousand acres +of fertile land in Florida. These noble grants did not pass without +objection--objection to the principle, not to the amount. The +ingratitude of republics is the theme of any declaimer: it required +a _Tacitus_ to say, that gratitude was the death of republics, and +the birth of monarchies; and it belongs to the people of the United +States to exhibit an exception to that profound remark (as they do +to so many other lessons of history), and show a young republic that +knows how to be grateful without being unwise, and is able to pay +the debt of gratitude without giving its liberties in the discharge +of the obligation. The venerable Mr. Macon, yielding to no one in +love and admiration of Lafayette, and appreciation of his services +and sacrifices in the American cause, opposed the grants in the +Senate, and did it with the honesty of purpose and the simplicity +of language which distinguished all the acts of his life. He said: +"It was with painful reluctance that he felt himself obliged to +oppose his voice to the passage of this bill. He admitted, to the +full extent claimed for them, the great and meritorious services of +General Lafayette, and he did not object to the precise sum which +this bill proposed to award him; but he objected to the bill on +this ground: he considered General Lafayette, to all intents and +purposes, as having been, during our revolution, a son adopted into +the family, taken into the household, and placed, in every respect, +on the same footing with the other sons of the same family. To treat +him as others were treated, was all, in this view of his relation +to us, that could be required, and this had been done. That General +Lafayette made great sacrifices, and spent much of his money in the +service of this country (said Mr. M.), I as firmly believe as I do +any other thing under the sun. I have no doubt that every faculty of +his mind and body were exerted in the Revolutionary war, in defence +of this country; but this was equally the case with all the sons +of the family. Many native Americans spent their all, made great +sacrifices, and devoted their lives in the same cause. This was the +ground of his objection to this bill, which, he repeated, it was +as disagreeable to him to state as it could be to the Senate to +hear. He did not mean to take up the time of the Senate in debate +upon the principle of the bill, or to move any amendment to it. He +admitted that, when such things were done, they should be done with +a free hand. It was to the principle of the bill, therefore, and not +to the sum proposed to be given by it, that he objected." + +The ardent Mr. Hayne, of South Carolina, reporter of the bill +in the Senate, replied to the objections, and first showed from +history (not from Lafayette, who would have nothing to do with +the proposed grant), his advances, losses, and sacrifices in our +cause. He had expended for the American service, in six years, from +1777 to 1783, the sum of 700,000 francs ($140,000), and under what +circumstances?--a foreigner, owing us nothing, and throwing his +fortune into the scale with his life, to be lavished in our cause. +He left the enjoyments of rank and fortune, and the endearments of +his family, to come and serve in our almost destitute armies, and +without pay. He equipped and armed a regiment for our service, and +freighted a vessel to us, loaded with arms and munitions. It was not +until the year 1794, when almost ruined by the French revolution, +and by his efforts in the cause of liberty, that he would receive +the naked pay, without interest, of a general officer for the +time he had served with us. He was entitled to land as one of the +officers of the Revolution, and 11,500 acres was granted to him, +to be located on any of the public lands of the United States. His +agent located 1000 acres adjoining the city of New Orleans; and +Congress afterwards, not being informed of the location, granted the +same ground to the city of New Orleans. His location was valid, and +he was so informed; but he refused to adhere to it, saying that he +would have no contest with any portion of the American people, and +ordered the location to be removed; which was done, and carried upon +ground of little value--thus giving up what was then worth $50,000, +and now $500,000. These were his moneyed advances, losses, and +sacrifices, great in themselves, and of great value to our cause, +but perhaps exceeded by the moral effect of his example in joining +us, and his influence with the king and ministry, which procured us +the alliance of France. + +The grants were voted with great unanimity, and with the general +concurrence of the American people. Mr. Jefferson was warmly for +them, giving as a reason, in a conversation with me while the +grants were depending (for the bill was passed in the Christmas +holidays, when I had gone to Virginia, and took the opportunity +to call upon that great man), which showed his regard for liberty +abroad as well as at home, and his far-seeing sagacity into future +events. He said there would be a change in France and Lafayette +would be at the head of it, and ought to be easy and independent +in his circumstances, to be able to act efficiently in conducting +the movement. This he said to me on Christmas day, 1824. Six +years afterwards this view into futurity was verified. The old +Bourbons had to retire: the Duke of Orleans, a brave general in +the republican armies, at the commencement of the Revolution, was +handed to the throne by Lafayette, and became the "citizen king, +surrounded by republican institutions." And in this Lafayette was +consistent and sincere. He was a republican himself, but deemed +a constitutional monarchy the proper government for France, and +labored for that form in the person of Louis XVI. as well as in that +of Louis Philippe. + +Loaded with honors, and with every feeling of his heart gratified +in the noble reception he had met in the country of his adoption, +Lafayette returned to the country of his birth the following summer, +still as the guest of the United States, and under its flag. +He was carried back in a national ship of war, the new frigate +Brandywine--a delicate compliment (in the name and selection of the +ship) from the new President, Mr. Adams, Lafayette having wet with +his blood the sanguinary battle-field which takes its name from the +little stream which gave it first to the field, and then to the +frigate. Mr. Monroe, then a subaltern in the service of the United +States, was wounded at the same time. How honorable to themselves +and to the American people, that nearly fifty years afterwards, +they should again appear together, and in exalted station; one as +President, inviting the other to the great republic, and signing the +acts which testified a nation's gratitude; the other as a patriot +hero, tried in the revolutions of two countries, and resplendent in +the glory of virtuous and consistent fame. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE TARIFF, AND AMERICAN SYSTEM. + + +The revision of the Tariff, with a view to the protection of home +industry, and to the establishment of what was then called, "The +American System," was one of the large subjects before Congress +at the session 1823-24, and was the regular commencement of the +heated debates on that question which afterwards ripened into a +serious difficulty between the federal government and some of the +southern States. The presidential election being then depending, +the subject became tinctured with party politics, in which, so far +as that ingredient was concerned, and was not controlled by other +considerations, members divided pretty much on the line which always +divided them on a question of constructive powers. The protection +of domestic industry not being among the granted powers, was looked +for in the incidental; and denied by the strict constructionists +to be a substantive power, to be exercised for the direct purpose +of protection; but admitted by all at that time, and ever since +the first tariff act of 1789, to be an incident to the revenue +raising power, and an incident to be regarded in the exercise of +that power. Revenue the object, protection the incident, had been +the rule in the earlier tariffs: now that rule was sought to be +reversed, and to make protection the object of the law, and revenue +the incident. The revision, and the augmentation of duties which it +contemplated, turned, not so much on the emptiness of the treasury +and the necessity for raising money to fill it, as upon the distress +of the country, and the necessity of creating a home demand for +labor, provisions and materials, by turning a larger proportion of +our national industry into the channel of domestic manufactures. +Mr. Clay, the leader in the proposed revision, and the champion of +the American System, expressly placed the proposed augmentation of +duties on this ground; and in his main speech upon the question, +dwelt upon the state of the country, and gave a picture of the +public distress, which deserves to be reproduced in this VIEW of +the working of our government, both as the leading argument for the +new tariff, and as an exhibition of a national distress, which +those who were not cotemporary with the state of things which he +described, would find it difficult to conceive or to realize. He +said: + + "In casting our eyes around us, the most prominent circumstance + which fixes our attention and challenges our deepest regret, + is the general distress which pervades the whole country. It + is forced upon us by numerous facts of the most incontestable + character. It is indicated by the diminished exports of native + produce; by the depressed and reduced state of our foreign + navigation; by our diminished commerce; by successive unthreshed + crops of grain perishing in our barns for want of a market; + by the alarming diminution of the circulating medium; by the + numerous bankruptcies; by a universal complaint of the want + of employment, and a consequent reduction of the wages of + labor; by the ravenous pursuit after public situations, not + for the sake of their honors, and the performance of their + public duties, but as a means of private subsistence; by the + reluctant resort to the perilous use of paper money; by the + intervention of legislation in the delicate relation between + debtor and creditor; and, above all, by the low and depressed + state of the value of almost every description of the whole + mass of the property of the nation, which has, on an average, + sunk not less than about fifty per centum within a few years. + This distress pervades every part of the Union, every class + of society; all feel it, though it may be felt, at different + places, in different degrees. It is like the atmosphere which + surrounds us: all must inhale it, and none can escape from it. + A few years ago, the planting interest consoled itself with + its happy exemptions from the general calamity; but it has now + reached this interest also, which experiences, though with less + severity, the general suffering. It is most painful to me to + attempt to sketch, or to dwell on the gloom of this picture. But + I have exaggerated nothing. Perfect fidelity to the original + would have authorized me to have thrown on deeper and darker + hues." + +Mr. Clay was the leading speaker on the part of the bill in the +House of Representatives, but he was well supported by many able +and effective speakers--by Messrs. Storrs, Tracy, John W. Taylor, +from New-York; by Messrs. Buchanan, Todd, Ingham, Hemphill, Andrew +Stewart, from Pennsylvania; by Mr. Louis McLane, from Delaware; +by Messrs. Buckner F. Johnson, Letcher, Metcalfe, Trimble, White +Wickliffe, from Kentucky; by Messrs. Campbell, Vance, John W. +Wright, Vinton, Whittlesey, from Ohio; Mr. Daniel P. Cook, from +Illinois. + +Mr. Webster was the leading speaker on the other side, and disputed +the universality of the distress which had been described; claiming +exemption from it in New England; denied the assumed cause for it +where it did exist, and attributed it to over expansion and collapse +of the paper system, as in Great Britain, after the long suspension +of the Bank of England; denied the necessity for increased +protection to manufactures, and its inadequacy, if granted, to the +relief of the country where distress prevailed; and contested the +propriety of high or prohibitory duties, in the present active +and intelligent state of the world, to stimulate industry and +manufacturing enterprise. He said: + + "Within my own observation, there is no cause for such gloomy + and terrifying a representation. In respect to the New England + States, with the condition of which I am best acquainted, they + present to me a period of very general prosperity. Supposing + the evil then to be a depression of prices, and a partial + pecuniary pressure; the next inquiry is into the causes of + that evil. A depreciated currency existed in a great part of + the country--depreciated to such a degree as that, at one + time, exchange between the centre and the north was as high as + twenty per cent. The Bank of the United States was instituted + to correct this evil; but, for causes which it is not now + necessary to enumerate, it did not for some years bring back + the currency of the country to a sound state. In May, 1819, the + British House of Commons, by an unanimous vote, decided that + the resumption of cash payments by the Bank of England should + not be deferred beyond the ensuing February (it had then been + in a state of suspension near twenty-five years). The paper + system of England had certainly communicated an artificial + value to property. It had encouraged speculation, and excited + overtrading. When the shock therefore came, and this violent + pressure for money acted at the same moment on the Continent + and in England, inflated and unnatural prices could be kept up + no longer. A reduction took place, which has been estimated to + have been at least equal to a fall of thirty, if not forty, per + cent. The depression was universal; and the change was felt in + the United States severely, though not equally so in every part + of them. About the time of these foreign events, our own bank + system underwent a change; and all these causes, in my view of + the subject, concurred to produce the great shock which took + place in our commercial cities, and through many parts of the + country. The year 1819 was a year of numerous failures, and + very considerable distress, and would have furnished far better + grounds than exist at present for that gloomy representation + which has been presented. Mr. Speaker (Clay) has alluded to + the strong inclination which exists, or has existed, in various + parts of the country, to issue paper money, as a proof of great + existing difficulties. I regard it rather as a very productive + cause of those difficulties; and we cannot fail to observe, + that there is at this moment much the loudest complaint of + distress precisely where there has been the greatest attempt + to relieve it by a system of paper credit. Let us not suppose + that we are _beginning_ the protection of manufactures by + duties on imports. Look to the history of our laws; look to the + present state of our laws. Consider that our whole revenue, + with a trifling exception, is collected from the custom-house, + and always has been; and then say what propriety there is in + calling on the government for protection, as if no protection + had heretofore been afforded. On the general question, allow me + to ask if the doctrine of prohibition, as a general doctrine, + be not preposterous? Suppose all nations to act upon it: they + would be prosperous, then, according to the argument, precisely + in the proportion in which they abolished intercourse with one + another. The best apology for laws of prohibition and laws of + monopoly, will be found in that state of society, not only + unenlightened, but sluggish, in which they are most generally + established. Private industry in those days, required strong + provocatives, which government was seeking to administer by + these means. Something was wanted to actuate and stimulate men, + and the prospects of such profits as would, in our times, excite + unbounded competition, would hardly move the sloth of former + ages. In some instances, no doubt, these laws produced an effect + which, in that period, would not have taken place without them. + (Instancing the protection to the English woollen manufactures + in the time of the Henrys and the Edwards). But our age is + wholly of a different character, and its legislation takes + another turn. Society is full of excitement: competition comes + in place of monopoly; and intelligence and industry ask only for + fair play and an open field." + +With Mr. Webster were numerous and able speakers on the side of +free trade: From his own State, Mr. Baylies; from New-York, Mr. +Cambreling; from Virginia, Messrs. Randolph, Philip P. Barbour, +John S. Barbour, Garnet, Alexander Smythe, Floyd, Mercer, Archer, +Stevenson, Rives, Tucker, Mark Alexander; from North Carolina, +Messrs. Mangum, Saunders, Spaight, Lewis Williams, Burton, Weldon +N. Edwards; from South Carolina, Messrs. McDuffie, James Hamilton, +Poinsett; from Georgia, Messrs. Forsyth, Tatnall, Cuthbert, Cobb; +from Tennessee, Messrs. Blair, Isaaks, Reynolds; from Louisiana, +Mr. Edward Livingston; from Alabama, Mr. Owen; from Maryland, Mr. +Warfield; from Mississippi, Mr. Christopher Rankin. + +The bill was carried in the House, after a protracted contest of ten +weeks, by the lean majority of five--107 to 102--only two members +absent, and the voting so zealous that several members were brought +in upon their sick couches. In the Senate the bill encountered a +strenuous resistance. Mr. Edward Lloyd, of Maryland, moved to refer +it to the committee on finance--a motion considered hostile to the +bill; and which was lost by one vote--22 to 23. It was then, on the +motion of Mr. Dickerson, of New Jersey, referred to the committee +on manufactures; a reference deemed favorable to the bill, and by +which committee it was soon returned to the Senate without any +proposed amendment. It gave rise to a most earnest debate, and many +propositions of amendment, some of which, of slight import, were +carried. The bill itself was carried by the small majority of four +votes--25 to 21. The principal speakers in favor of the bill were: +Messrs. Dickerson, of New Jersey; D'Wolf, of Rhode Island; Holmes, +of Maine; E. M. Johnson, of Kentucky; Lowrie, of Pennsylvania; +Talbot, of Kentucky; Van Buren. Against it the principal speakers +were: Messrs. James Barbour and John Taylor, of Virginia (usually +called John Taylor of Caroline); Messrs. Branch, of North Carolina; +Hayne, of South Carolina; Henry Johnson and Josiah Johnston, of +Louisiana; Kelly and King, of Alabama; Rufus King, of New-York; +James Lloyd, of Massachusetts; Edward Lloyd and Samuel Smith, of +Maryland; Macon, of North Carolina; Van Dyke, of Delaware. The bill, +though brought forward avowedly for the protection of domestic +manufactures, was not entirely supported on that ground. An increase +of revenue was the motive with some, the public debt being still +near ninety millions, and a loan of five millions being authorized +at that session. An increased protection to the products of several +States, as lead in Missouri and Illinois, hemp in Kentucky, iron in +Pennsylvania, wool in Ohio and New-York, commanded many votes for +the bill; and the impending presidential election had its influence +in its favor. Two of the candidates, Messrs. Adams and Clay, were +avowedly for it; General Jackson, who voted for the bill, was for +it, as tending to give a home supply of the articles necessary in +time of war, and as raising revenue to pay the public debt. Mr. +Crawford was opposed to it; and Mr. Calhoun had been withdrawn from +the list of presidential candidates, and become a candidate for +the Vice-Presidency. The Southern planting States were extremely +dissatisfied with the passage of the bill, believing that the new +burdens upon imports which it imposed fell upon the producers of +the exports, and tended to enrich one section of the Union at the +expense of another. The attack and support of the bill took much of +a sectional aspect; Virginia, the two Carolinas, Georgia, and some +others being nearly unanimous against it. Pennsylvania, New-York, +Ohio, Kentucky being nearly unanimous for it. Massachusetts, which +up to this time had a predominating interest in commerce, voted +all, except one member, against it. With this sectional aspect, +a tariff for protection also began to assume a political aspect, +being taken under the care of the party since discriminated as Whig, +which drew from Mr. Van Buren a sagacious remark, addressed to the +manufacturers themselves; that if they suffered their interests +to become identified with a political party (any one), they would +share the fate of that party, and go down with it whenever it sunk. +Without the increased advantages to some States, the pendency of the +presidential election, and the political tincture which the question +began to receive, the bill would not have passed--so difficult is +it to prevent national legislation from falling under the influence +of extrinsic and accidental causes. The bill was approved by Mr. +Monroe--a proof that that careful and strict constructionist of +the Constitution did not consider it as deprived of its revenue +character by the degree of protection which it extended. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE A. B. PLOT. + + +On Monday, the 19th of April, the Speaker of the House (Mr. Clay) +laid before that body a note just received from Ninian Edwards, +Esq., late Senator in Congress, from Illinois, and then Minister to +Mexico, and then on his way to his post, requesting him to present +to the House a communication which accompanied the note, and +which charged illegalities and misconduct on the Secretary of the +Treasury, Mr. William H. Crawford. The charges and specifications, +spread through a voluminous communication, were condensed at its +close into six regular heads of accusation, containing matter of +impeachment; and declaring them all to be susceptible of proof, +if the House would order an investigation. The communication was +accompanied by ten numbers of certain newspaper publications, signed +A. B., of which Mr. Edwards avowed himself to be the author, and +asked that they might be received as a part of his communication, +and printed along with it, and taken as the specifications under the +six charges. Mr. Crawford was then a prominent candidate for the +Presidency, and the A. B. papers, thus communicated to the House, +were a series of publications made in a Washington City paper, +during the canvass, to defeat his election, and would doubtless +have shared the usual fate of such publications, and sunk into +oblivion after the election was over, had it not been for this +formal appeal to the House (the grand inquest of the nation) and +this call for investigation. The communication, however, did not +seem to contemplate an early investigation, and certainly not at +the then session of Congress. Congress was near its adjournment; +the accuser was on his way to Mexico; the charges were grave; +the specifications under them numerous and complex; and many of +them relating to transactions with the remote western banks. The +evident expectation of the accuser was, that the matter would +lie over to the next session, before which time the presidential +election would take place, and all the mischief be done to Mr. +Crawford's character, resulting from unanswered accusations of so +much gravity, and so imposingly laid before the impeaching branch +of Congress. The friends of Mr. Crawford saw the necessity of +immediate action; and Mr. Floyd of Virginia, instantly, upon the +reading of the communication, moved that a committee be appointed +to take it into consideration, and that it be empowered to send +for persons and papers--to administer oaths--take testimony--and +report it to the House; with leave to sit after the adjournment, +if the investigation was not finished before; and publish their +report. The committee was granted, with all the powers asked for, +and was most unexceptionably composed by the speaker (Mr. Clay); a +task of delicacy and responsibility, the Speaker being himself a +candidate for the Presidency, and every member of the House a friend +to some one of the candidates, including the accused. It consisted +of Mr. Floyd, the mover; Mr. Livingston, of Louisiana; Mr. Webster, +of Massachusetts; Mr. Randolph, of Virginia; Mr. J. W. Taylor, of +New-York; Mr. Duncan McArthur, of Ohio; and Mr. Owen, of Alabama. + +The sergeant-at-arms of the House was immediately dispatched by the +committee in pursuit of Mr. Edwards: overtook him at fifteen hundred +miles; brought him back to Washington; but did not arrive until +Congress had adjourned. In the mean time, the committee sat, and +received from Mr. Crawford his answer to the six charges: an answer +pronounced by Mr. Randolph to be "a triumphant and irresistible +vindication; the most temperate, passionless, mild, dignified, and +irrefragable exposure of falsehood that ever met a base accusation; +and without one harsh word towards their author." This was the true +character of the answer; but Mr. Crawford did not write it. He was +unable at that time to write any thing. It was written and read +to him as it went on, by a treasury clerk, familiar with all the +transactions to which the accusations related--Mr. Asbury Dickens, +since secretary of the Senate. This Mr. Crawford told himself at +the time, with his accustomed frankness. His answer being mentioned +by a friend, as a proof that his paralytic stroke had not affected +his strength, he replied, that was no proof--that Dickens wrote +it. The committee went on with the case (Mr. Edwards represented +by his son-in-law, Mr. Cook), examined all the evidence in their +reach, made a report unanimously concurred in, and exonerating Mr. +Crawford from every dishonorable or illegal imputation. The report +was accepted by the House; but Mr. Edwards, having far to travel +on his return journey, had not yet been examined; and to hear him +the committee continued to sit after Congress had adjourned. He was +examined fully, but could prove nothing; and the committee made +a second report, corroborating the former, and declaring it as +their unanimous opinion--the opinion of every one present--"that +nothing had been proved to impeach the integrity of the Secretary, +or to bring into doubt the general correctness and ability of his +administration of the public finances." + +The committee also reported all the testimony taken, from which +it appeared that Mr. Edwards himself had contradicted all the +accusations in the A. B. papers; had denied the authorship of +them; had applauded the conduct of Mr. Crawford in the use of the +western banks, and their currency in payment of the public lands, +as having saved farmers from the loss of their homes; and declared +his belief, that no man in the government could have conducted the +fiscal and financial concerns of the government with more integrity +and propriety than he had done. This was while his nomination as +minister to Mexico was depending in the Senate, and to Mr. Noble, a +Senator from Indiana, and a friend to Mr. Crawford. He testified: + + "That he had had a conversation with Mr. Edwards, introduced + by Mr. E. himself, concerning Mr. Crawford's management of the + western banks, and the authorship of the A. B. letters. That it + was pending his nomination made by the President to the Senate, + as minister to Mexico. He (Mr. E.) stated that he was about to + be attacked in the Senate, for the purpose of defeating his + nomination: that party and political spirit was now high; that + he understood that charges would be exhibited against him, + and that it had been so declared in the Senate. He further + remarked, that he knew me to be the decided friend of William H. + Crawford, and said, I am considered as being his bitter enemy; + and I am charged with being the author of the numbers signed A. + B.; but (raising his hand) I pledge you my honor, I am not the + author, nor do I know who the author is. Crawford and I, said + Mr. Edwards, have had a little difference; but I have always + considered him a high-minded, honorable, and vigilant officer + of the government. He has been abused about the western banks + and the unavailable funds. Leaning forward, and extending his + hand, he added, now damn it, you know we both live in States + where there are many poor debtors to the government for lands, + together with a deranged currency. The notes on various banks + being depreciated, after the effect and operation of the war + in that portion of the Union, and the banks, by attempting to + call in their paper, having exhausted their specie, the notes + that were in circulation became of little or no value. Many men + of influence in that country, said he, have united to induce + the Secretary of the Treasury to select certain banks as banks + of deposit, and to take the notes of certain banks in payment + for public land. Had he (Mr. Crawford) not done so, many of our + inhabitants would have been turned out of doors, and lost their + land; and the people of the country would have had a universal + disgust against Mr. Crawford. And I will venture to say, said + Mr. Edwards, notwithstanding I am considered his enemy, that + no man in this government could have managed the fiscal and + financial concerns of the government with more integrity and + propriety than Mr. Crawford did. He (Mr. Noble) had never + repeated this conversation to any body until the evening of the + day that I (he) was informed that Gov. Edwards' 'address' was + presented to the House of Representatives. On that evening, in + conversation with several members of the House, amongst whom + were Mr. Reid and Mr. Nelson, some of whom said that Governor + Edwards had avowed himself to be the author of A. B., and others + said that he had not done so, I remarked, that they must have + misunderstood the 'address,' for Gov. Edwards had pledged his + honor to me that he was not the author of A. B." + +Other witnesses testified to his denials, while the nomination was +depending, of all authorship of these publications: among them, the +editors of the National Intelligencer,--friends to Mr. Crawford. Mr. +Edwards called at their office at that time (the first time he had +been there within a year), to exculpate himself from the imputed +authorship; and did it so earnestly that the editors believed him, +and published a contradiction of the report against him in their +paper, stating that they had a "good reason" to know that he was +not the author of these publications. That "good reason," they +testified, was his own voluntary denial in this unexpected visit +to their office, and his declarations in what he called a "frank +and free" conversation with them on the subject. Such testimony, +and the absence of all proof on the other side, was fatal to the +accusations, and to the accuser. The committee reported honorably +and unanimously in favor of Mr. Crawford; the Congress and the +country accepted it; Mr. Edwards resigned his commission, and +disappeared from the federal political theatre: and that was the +end of the A. B. plot, which had filled some newspapers for a year +with publications against Mr. Crawford, and which might have passed +into oblivion, as the current productions and usual concomitants +of a Presidential canvass, had it not been for their formal +communication to Congress as ground of impeachment against a high +officer. That communication carried the "six charges," and their +ten chapters of specifications, into our parliamentary history, +where their fate becomes one of the instructive lessons which it +is the province of history to teach. The newspaper in which the A. +B. papers were published, was edited by a war-office clerk, in the +interest of the war Secretary (Mr. Calhoun), to the serious injury +of that gentleman, who received no vote in any State voting for Mr. +Crawford. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION IN RELATION TO THE ELECTION OF +PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT. + + +European writers on American affairs are full of mistakes on the +working of our government; and these mistakes are generally to the +prejudice of the democratic element. Of these mistakes, and in their +ignorance of the difference between the theory and the working of +our system in the election of the two first officers, two eminent +French writers are striking instances: Messrs. de Tocqueville and +Thiers. Taking the working and the theory of our government in this +particular to be the same, they laud the institution of electors, +to whom they believe the whole power of election belongs (as it was +intended);--and hence attribute to the superior sagacity of these +electors the merit of choosing all the eminent Presidents who have +adorned the presidential chair. This mistake between theory and +practice is known to every body in America, and should be known +to enlightened men in Europe, who wish to do justice to popular +government. The electors have no practical power over the election, +and have had none since their institution. From the beginning +they have stood pledged to vote for the candidates indicated (in +the early elections) by the public will; afterwards, by Congress +caucuses, as long as those caucuses followed the public will; and +since, by assemblages called conventions, whether they follow +the public will or not. In every case the elector has been an +instrument, bound to obey a particular impulsion; and disobedience +to which would be attended with infamy, and with every penalty which +public indignation could inflict. From the beginning these electors +have been useless, and an inconvenient intervention between the +people and the object of their choice; and, in time, may become +dangerous: and being useless, inconvenient, and subject to abuse and +danger; having wholly failed to answer the purpose for which they +were instituted (and for which purpose no one would now contend); it +becomes a just conclusion that the institution should be abolished, +and the election committed to the direct vote of the people. And, +to obviate all excuse for previous nominations by intermediate +bodies, a second election to be held forthwith between the two +highest or leading candidates, if no one had had a majority of the +whole number on the first trial. These are not new ideas, born of +a spirit of change and innovation; but old doctrine, advocated in +the convention which framed the Constitution, by wise and good men; +by Dr. Franklin and others, of Pennsylvania; by John Dickinson and +others, of Delaware. But the opinion prevailed in the convention, +that the mass of the people would not be sufficiently informed, +discreet, and temperate to exercise with advantage so great a +privilege as that of choosing the chief magistrate of a great +republic; and hence the institution of an intermediate body, called +the electoral college--its members to be chosen by the people--and +when assembled in conclave (I use the word in the Latin sense of +_con_ and _clavis_, under key), to select whomsoever they should +think proper for President and Vice-President. All this scheme +having failed, and the people having taken hold of the election, it +became just and regular to attempt to legalize their acquisition +by securing to them constitutionally the full enjoyment of the +rights which they imperfectly exercised. The feeling to this effect +became strong as the election of 1824 approached, when there were +many candidates in the field, and Congress caucuses fallen into +disrepute; and several attempts were made to obtain a constitutional +amendment to accomplish the purpose. Mr. McDuffie, in the House +of Representatives, and myself in the Senate, both proposed such +amendments; the mode of taking the direct votes to be in districts, +and the persons receiving the greatest number of votes for President +or Vice-President in any district, to count one vote for such office +respectively; which is nothing but substituting the candidates +themselves for their electoral representatives, while simplifying +the election, insuring its integrity, and securing the rights of +the people. In support of my proposition in the Senate, I delivered +some arguments in the form of a speech, from which I here add some +extracts, in the hope of keeping the question alive, and obtaining +for it a better success at some future day. + + "The evil of a want of uniformity in the choice of presidential + electors, is not limited to its disfiguring effect upon the + face of our government, but goes to endanger the rights of + the people, by permitting sudden alterations on the eve of an + election, and to annihilate the right of the small States, by + enabling the large ones to combine, and to throw all their votes + into the scale of a particular candidate. These obvious evils + make it certain that _any uniform rule_ would be preferable to + the present state of things. But, in fixing on one, it is the + duty of statesmen to select that which is calculated to give + to every portion of the Union its due share in the choice of + the Chief Magistrate, and to every individual citizen, a fair + opportunity of voting according to his will. This would be + effected by adopting the _District System_. It would divide + every State into districts, equal to the whole number of votes + to be given, and the people of each district would be governed + by its own majority, and not by a majority existing in some + remote part of the State. This would be agreeable to the + _rights_ of individuals: for, in entering into society, and + submitting to be bound by the decision of the majority, each + individual retained the right of voting for himself wherever + it was practicable, and of being governed by a majority of the + vicinage, and not by majorities brought from remote sections + to overwhelm him with their accumulated numbers. It would be + agreeable to the _interests_ of all parts of the States; for + each State may have different interests in different parts; + one part may be agricultural, another manufacturing, another + commercial; and it would be unjust that the strongest should + govern, or that two should combine and sacrifice the third. + The district system would be agreeable to the _intention_ of + our present constitution, which, in giving to each elector a + separate vote, instead of giving to each State a consolidated + vote, composed of all its electoral suffrages, clearly intended + that each mass of persons entitled to one elector, should have + the right of giving one vote, according to their own sense of + their own interest. + + "The general ticket system now existing in ten States, was the + offspring of policy, and not of any disposition to give fair + play to the will of the people. It was adopted by the leading + men of those States, to enable them to consolidate the vote + of the State. It would be easy to prove this by referring to + facts of historical notoriety. It contributes to give power and + consequence to the leaders who manage the elections, but it is + a departure from the intention of the constitution; violates + the rights of the minorities, and is attended with many other + evils. The intention of the constitution is violated, because + it was the intention of that instrument to give to each mass + of persons, entitled to one elector, the power of giving an + electoral vote to any candidate they preferred. The rights of + minorities are violated, because a majority of _one_ will carry + the vote of the whole State. This principle is the same, whether + the elector is chosen by general ticket or by legislative + ballot; a majority of _one_, in either case, carries the + vote of the whole State. In New-York, thirty-six electors are + chosen; nineteen is a majority, and the candidate receiving + this majority is fairly entitled to count nineteen votes; but + he counts in reality, thirty-six: because the minority of + seventeen are added to the majority. Those seventeen votes + belong to seventeen masses of people, of 40,000 souls each, in + all 680,000 people, whose votes are seized upon, taken away, and + presented to whom the majority pleases. Extend the calculation + to the seventeen States now choosing electors by general ticket + or legislative ballot, and it will show that three millions of + souls, a population equal to that which carried us through the + Revolution, may have their votes taken from them in the same + way. To _lose_ their votes, is the fate of all minorities, + and it is their duty to submit; but this is not a case of + votes _lost_, but of votes _taken away_, added to those of the + majority, and given to a person to whom the minority was opposed. + + "He said, this objection (to the direct vote of the people) had + a weight in the year 1787, to which it is not entitled in the + year 1824. Our government was then young, schools and colleges + were scarce, political science was then confined to few, and + the means of diffusing intelligence were both inadequate and + uncertain. The experiment of a popular government was just + beginning; the people had been just released from subjection + to an hereditary king, and were not yet practised in the art + of choosing a temporary chief for themselves. But thirty-six + years have reversed this picture. Thirty-six years, which + have produced so many wonderful changes in America, have + accomplished the work of many centuries upon the intelligence + of its inhabitants. Within that period, school, colleges, and + universities have multiplied to an amazing extent. The means of + diffusing intelligence have been wonderfully augmented by the + establishment of six hundred newspapers, and upwards of five + thousand post-offices. The whole course of an American's life, + civil, social, and religious, has become one continued scene of + intellectual and of moral improvement. Once in every week, more + than eleven thousand men, eminent for learning and for piety, + perform the double duty of amending the hearts, and enlightening + the understandings, of more than eleven thousand congregations + of people. Under the benign influence of a free government, + both our public institutions and private pursuits, our juries, + elections, courts of justice, the liberal professions and + the mechanic arts, have each become a school of political + science and of mental improvement. The federal legislature, + in the annual message of the President, in reports from heads + of departments, and committees of Congress, and speeches of + members, pours forth a flood of intelligence which carries its + waves to the remotest confines of the republic. In the different + States, twenty-four State executives and State legislatures + are annually repeating the same process within a more limited + sphere. The habit of universal travelling, and the practice of + universal interchange of thought, are continually circulating + the intelligence of the country, and augmenting its mass. The + face of our country itself, its vast extent, its grand and + varied features, contribute to expand the human intellect, and + to magnify its power. Less than half a century of the enjoyment + of liberty has given practical evidence of the great moral + truth, that, under a free government, the power of the intellect + is the only power which rules the affairs of men; and virtue and + intelligence the only durable passports to honor and preferment. + The conviction of this great truth has created an universal + taste for learning and for reading, and has convinced every + parent that the endowments of the mind, and the virtues of the + heart, are the only imperishable, the only inestimable riches + which he can leave to his posterity. + + "This objection (the danger of tumults and violence at the + elections) is taken from the history of the ancient republics; + from the tumultuary elections of Rome and Greece. But the + justness of the example is denied. There is nothing in the laws + of physiology which admits a parallel between the sanguinary + Roman, the volatile Greek, and the phlegmatic American. There is + nothing in the state of the respective countries, or in their + manner of voting, which makes one an example for the other. The + Romans voted in a mass, at a single voting place, even when the + qualified voters amounted to millions of persons. They came + to the polls armed, and divided into classes, and voted, not + by heads, but by centuries. In the Grecian Republics all the + voters were brought together in one great city, and decided the + contest in one great struggle. In such assemblages, both the + inducement to violence, and the means of committing it, were + prepared by the government itself. In the United States all + this is different. The voters are assembled in small bodies, at + innumerable voting places, distributed over a vast extent of + country. They come to the polls without arms, without odious + distinctions, without any temptation to violence, and with every + inducement to harmony. If heated during the day of election, + they cool off upon returning to their homes, and resuming their + ordinary occupations. + + "But let us admit the truth of the objection. Let us admit that + the American people would be as tumultuary at their presidential + elections, as were the citizens of the ancient republics at + the election of their chief magistrates. What then? Are we + thence to infer the inferiority of the officers thus elected, + and the consequent degradation of the countries over which + they presided? I answer no. So far from it, that I assert the + superiority of these officers over all others ever obtained for + the same countries, either by hereditary succession, or the most + select mode of election. I affirm those periods of history to + be the most glorious in arms, the most renowned in arts, the + most celebrated in letters, the most useful in practice, and + the most happy in the condition of the people, in which the + whole body of the citizens voted direct for the chief officer + of their country. Take the history of that commonwealth which + yet shines as the leading star in the firmament of nations. Of + the twenty-five centuries that the Roman state has existed, to + what period do we look for the generals and statesmen, the poets + and orators, the philosophers and historians, the sculptors, + painters, and architects, whose immortal works have fixed upon + their country the admiring eyes of all succeeding ages? Is it + to the reigns of the seven first kings?--to the reigns of the + emperors, proclaimed by the prætorian bands?--to the reigns of + the Sovereign Pontiffs, chosen by a select body of electors + in a conclave of most holy cardinals? No--We look to none of + these, but to that short interval of four centuries and a half + which lies between the expulsion of the Tarquins, and the + re-establishment of monarchy in the person of Octavius Cæsar. It + is to this short period, during which the consuls, tribunes, and + prætors, were annually elected by a direct vote of the people, + to which we look ourselves, and to which we direct the infant + minds of our children, for all the works and monuments of Roman + greatness; for roads, bridges, and aqueducts, constructed; + for victories gained, nations vanquished, commerce extended, + treasure imported, libraries founded, learning encouraged, the + arts flourishing, the city embellished, and the kings of the + earth humbly suing to be admitted into the friendship, and + taken under the protection, of the Roman people. It was of this + magnificent period that Cicero spoke, when he proclaimed the + people of Rome to be the masters of kings, and the conquerors + and commanders of all the nations of the earth. And, what is + wonderful, during this whole period, in a succession of four + hundred and fifty annual elections, the people never once + preferred a citizen to the consulship who did not carry the + prosperity and the glory of the Republic to a point beyond that + at which he had found it. + + "It is the same with the Grecian Republics. Thirty centuries + have elapsed since they were founded; yet it is to an ephemeral + period of one hundred and fifty years only, the period of + popular elections which intervened between the dispersion of a + cloud of petty tyrants, and the coming of a great one in the + person of Philip, king of Macedon, that we are to look for that + galaxy of names which shed so much lustre upon their country, + and in which we are to find the first cause of that intense + sympathy which now burns in our bosoms at the name of Greece. + + "These short and brilliant periods exhibit the great triumph of + popular elections; often tumultuary, often stained with blood, + but always ending gloriously for the country. Then the right + of suffrage was enjoyed; the sovereignty of the people was no + fiction. Then a sublime spectacle was seen, when the Roman + citizen advanced to the polls and proclaimed: '_I vote for Cato + to be Consul_;' the Athenian, '_I vote for Aristides to be + Archon_;' the Theban, '_I vote for Pelopidas to be Bæotrach_;' + the Lacedemonian, '_I vote for Leonidas to be first of the + Ephori_.' And why may not an American citizen do the same? + Why may not he go up to the poll and proclaim, '_I vote for + Thomas Jefferson to be President of the United States?_' Why + is he compelled to put his vote in the hands of another, and + to incur all the hazards of an irresponsible agency, when he + himself could immediately give his own vote for his own chosen + candidate, without the slightest assistance from agents or + managers? + + "But, said Mr. Benton, I have other objections to these + intermediate electors. They are the peculiar and favorite + institution of aristocratic republics, and elective monarchies. + I refer the Senate to the late republics of Venice and Genoa; of + France, and her litter; to the kingdom of Poland; the empire of + Germany, and the Pontificate of Rome. On the contrary, a direct + vote by the people is the peculiar and favorite institution of + democratic republics; as we have just seen in the governments + of Rome, Athens, Thebes, and Sparta; to which may be added the + principal cities of the Amphyctionic and Achaian leagues, and + the renowned republic of Carthage when the rival of Rome. + + "I have now answered the objections which were brought forward + in the year '87. I ask for no judgment upon their validity + at that day, but I affirm them to be without force or reason + in the year 1824. TIME and EXPERIENCE have so decided. Yes, + _time_ and _experience_, the only infallible tests of good or + bad institutions, have now shown that the continuance of the + electoral system will be both useless and dangerous to the + liberties of the people; and that '_the only effectual mode + of preserving our government from the corruptions which have + undermined the liberty of so many nations, is, to confide the + election of our chief magistrate to those who are farthest + removed from the influence of his patronage_;'[1] that is to + say, TO THE WHOLE BODY OF AMERICAN CITIZENS! + + [1] Report of a Committee of the House of Representatives on Mr. + McDuffie's proposition. + + "The electors are not independent; they have no superior + intelligence; they are not left to their own judgment in the + choice of President; they are not above the control of the + people; on the contrary, every elector is pledged, before he + is chosen, to give his vote according to the will of those + who choose him. He is nothing but an agent, tied down to the + execution of a precise trust. Every reason which induced the + convention to institute electors has failed. They are no longer + of any use, and may be dangerous to the liberties of the + people. They are not useful, because they have no power over + their own vote, and because the people can vote for a President + as easily as they can vote for an elector. They are dangerous + to the liberties of the people, because, in the _first_ place, + they introduce extraneous considerations into the election of + President; and, in the _second_ place, they may sell the vote + which is intrusted to their keeping. They introduce extraneous + considerations, by bringing their own character and their + own exertions into the presidential canvass. Every one sees + this. Candidates for electors are now selected, not for the + reasons mentioned in the Federalist, but for their devotion + to a particular party, for their manners, and their talent at + electioneering. The elector may betray the liberties of the + people, by selling his vote. The operation is easy, because he + votes by ballot; detection is impossible, because he does not + sign his vote; the restraint is nothing but his own conscience, + for there is no legal punishment for his breach of trust. If + a swindler defrauds you out of a few dollars in property or + money, he is whipped and pilloried, and rendered infamous in + the eye of the law; but, if an elector should defraud 40,000 + people of their vote, there is no remedy but to abuse him in the + newspapers, where the best men in the country may be abused, as + much as Benedict Arnold, or Judas Iscariot. Every reason for + instituting electors has failed, and every consideration of + prudence requires them to be discontinued. They are nothing but + agents, in a case which requires no agent; and no prudent man + would, or ought, to employ an agent to take care of his money, + his property, or his liberty, when he is equally capable to take + care of them himself. + + "But, if the plan of the constitution had not failed--if we + were now deriving from electors all the advantages expected + from their institution--I, for one, said Mr. B., would still + be in favor of getting rid of them. I should esteem the + incorruptibility of the people, their disinterested desire to + get the best man for President, to be more than a counterpoise + to all the advantages which might be derived from the superior + intelligence of a more enlightened, but smaller, and therefore, + more corruptible body. I should be opposed to the intervention + of electors, because the double process of electing a man + to elect a man, would paralyze the spirit of the people, + and destroy the life of the election itself. Doubtless this + machinery was introduced into our constitution for the purpose + of softening the action of the democratic element; but it also + softens the interest of the people in the result of the election + itself. It places them at too great a distance from their first + servant. It interposes a body of men between the people and + the object of their choice, and gives a false direction to the + gratitude of the President elected. He feels himself indebted to + the electors who collected the votes of the people, and not to + the people, who gave their votes to the electors. It enables a + few men to govern many, and, in time, it will transfer the whole + power of the election into the hands of a few, leaving to the + people the humble occupation of confirming what has been done by + superior authority. + + "Mr Benton referred to historical examples to prove the + correctness of his opinion. + + "He mentioned the constitution of the French Republic, of the + year III. of French liberty. The people to choose electors; + these to choose the Councils of Five Hundred, and of Ancients; + and these, by a further process of filtration, to choose the + Five Directors. The effect was, that the people had no concern + in the election of their Chief Magistrates, and felt no interest + in their fate. They saw them enter and expel each other from the + political theatre, with the same indifference with which they + would see the entrance and the exit of so many players on the + stage. It was the same thing in all the subaltern Republics of + which the French armies were delivered, while overturning the + thrones of Europe. The constitutions of the Ligurian, Cisalpine, + and Parthenopian Republics, were all duplicates of the mother + institution, at Paris; and all shared the same fate. The French + consular constitution of the year VIII. (the last year of French + liberty) preserved all the vices of the electoral system; and + from this fact, alone, that profound observer, NECKAR, from the + bosom of his retreat, in the midst of the Alps, predicted and + proclaimed the death of Liberty in France. He wrote a book to + prove that 'LIBERTY WOULD BE RUINED BY PROVIDING ANY KIND OF + SUBSTITUTE FOR POPULAR ELECTIONS:' and the result verified his + prediction in four years." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +INTERNAL TRADE WITH NEW MEXICO. + + +The name of Mexico, the synonyme of gold and silver mines, possessed +always an invincible charm for the people of the western States. +Guarded from intrusion by Spanish jealousy and despotic power, and +imprisonment for life, or labor in the mines, the inexorable penalty +for every attempt to penetrate the forbidden country, still the +dazzled imaginations and daring spirits of the Great West adventured +upon the enterprise; and failure and misfortune, chains and labor, +were not sufficient to intimidate others. The journal of (the then +lieutenant, afterwards) General Pike inflamed this spirit, and +induced new adventurers to hazard the enterprise, only to meet +the fate of their predecessors. It was not until the Independence +of Mexico, in the year 1821, that the frontiers of this vast and +hitherto sealed up country, were thrown open to foreign ingress, +and trade and intercourse allowed to take their course. The State +of Missouri, from her geographical position, and the adventurous +spirit of her inhabitants, was among the first to engage in it; and +the "Western Internal Provinces"--the vast region comprehending +New Mexico, El Paso del Norte, New Biscay, Chihuahua, Sonora, +Sinaloa, and all the wide slope spreading down towards the Gulf of +California, the ancient "Sea of Cortez"--was the remote theatre of +their courageous enterprise--the further off and the less known, so +much the more attractive to their daring spirits. It was the work +of individual enterprise, without the protection or countenance of +the government--without even its knowledge--and exposed to constant +danger of life and property from the untamed and predatory savages, +Arabs of the New World, which roamed over the intermediate country +of a thousand miles, and considered the merchant and his goods +their lawful prey. In three years it had grown up to be a new and +regular branch of interior commerce, profitable to those engaged in +it, valuable to the country from the articles it carried out, and +for the silver, the furs, and the mules which it brought back; and +well entitled to the protection and care of the government. That +protection was sought, and in the form which the character of the +trade required--a right of way through the countries of the tribes +between Missouri and New Mexico, a road marked out and security in +travelling it, stipulations for good behavior from the Indians, +and a consular establishment in the provinces to be traded with. +The consuls could be appointed by the order of the government; but +the road, the treaty stipulations, and the substantial protection +against savages, required the aid of the federal legislative power, +and for that purpose a Bill was brought into the Senate by me in +the session of 1824-25; and being a novel and strange subject, and +asking for extraordinary legislation, it became necessary to lay a +foundation of facts, and to furnish a reason and an argument for +every thing that was asked. I produced a statement from those +engaged in the trade, among others from Mr. Augustus Storrs, late +of New Hampshire, then of Missouri--a gentleman of character and +intelligence, very capable of relating things as they were, and +incapable of relating them otherwise; and who had been personally +engaged in the trade. In presenting his statement, and moving to +have it printed for the use of the Senate, I said: + + "This gentleman had been one of a caravan of eighty persons, + one hundred and fifty-six horses, and twenty-three wagons + and carriages, which had made the expedition from Missouri + to Santa Fé (of New Mexico), in the months of May and June + last. His account was full of interest and novelty. It sounded + like romance to hear of caravans of men, horses, and wagons, + traversing with their merchandise the vast plain which lies + between the Mississippi and the _Rio del Norte_. The story + seemed better adapted to Asia than to North America. But, + romantic as it might seem, the reality had already exceeded the + visions of the wildest imagination. The journey to New Mexico, + but lately deemed a chimerical project, had become an affair of + ordinary occurrence. Santa Fé, but lately the _Ultima Thule_ of + American enterprise, was now considered as a stage only in the + progress, or rather, a new point of departure to our invincible + citizens. Instead of turning back from that point, the caravans + broke up there, and the subdivisions branched off in different + directions in search of new theatres for their enterprise. + Some proceeded down the river to the _Paso del Norte_; some + to the mines of Chihuahua and Durango, in the province of New + Biscay; some to Sonora and Sinaloa, on the Gulf of California; + and some, seeking new lines of communication with the Pacific, + had undertaken to descend the western slope of our continent, + through the unexplored regions of the Colorado. The fruit of + these enterprises, for the present year, amounted to $190,000 + in gold and silver bullion, and coin, and precious furs; a sum + considerable, in itself, in the commerce of an infant State, + but chiefly deserving a statesman's notice, as an earnest of + what might be expected from a regulated and protected trade. The + principal article given in exchange, is that of which we have + the greatest abundance, and which has the peculiar advantage + of making the circuit of the Union before it departs from the + territories of the republic--cotton--which grows in the South, + is manufactured in the North, and exported from the West. + + "That the trade will be beneficial to the inhabitants of the + Internal Provinces, is a proposition too plain to be argued. + They are a people among whom all the arts are lost--the ample + catalogue of whose wants may be inferred from the lamentable + details of Mr. Storrs. No books! no newspapers! iron a dollar + a pound! cultivating the earth with wooden tools! and spinning + upon a stick! Such is the picture of a people whose fathers wore + the proud title of "_Conquerors_;" whose ancestors, in the time + of Charles the Fifth, were the pride, the terror, and the model + of Europe; and such has been the power of civil and religious + despotism in accomplishing the degradation of the human species! + To a people thus abased, and so lately arrived at the possession + of their liberties, a supply of merchandise, upon the cheapest + terms, is the least of the benefits to be derived from a + commerce with the people of the United States. The consolidation + of their republican institutions, the improvement of their moral + and social condition, the restoration of their lost arts, and + the development of their national resources, are among the grand + results which philanthropy anticipates from such a commerce. + + "To the Indians themselves, the opening of a road through their + country is an object of vital importance. It is connected with + the preservation and improvement of their race. For two hundred + years the problem of Indian civilization has been successively + presented to each generation of the Americans, and solved + by each in the same way. Schools have been set up, colleges + founded, and missions established; a wonderful success has + attended the commencement of every undertaking; and, after some + time, the schools, the colleges, the missions, and the Indians, + have all disappeared together. In the south alone have we seen + an exception. There the nations have preserved themselves, and + have made a cheering progress in the arts of civilization. Their + advance is the work of twenty years. It dates its commencement + from the opening of roads through their country. Roads induced + separate families to settle at the crossing of rivers, to + establish themselves at the best springs and tracts of land, and + to begin to sell grain and provisions to the travellers, whom, + a few years before, they would kill and plunder. This imparted + the idea of exclusive property in the soil, and created an + attachment for a fixed residence. Gradually, fields were opened, + houses built, orchards planted, flocks and herds acquired, and + slaves bought. The acquisition of these comforts, relieving + the body from the torturing wants of cold and hunger, placed + the mind in a condition to pursue its improvement.--This, Mr. + President, is the true secret of the happy advance which the + southern tribes have made in acquiring the arts of civilization; + this has fitted them for the reception of schools and missions; + and doubtless, the same cause will produce the same effects + among the tribes beyond, which it has produced among the tribes + on this side of the Mississippi. + + "The right of way is indispensable, and the committee have + begun with directing a bill to be reported for that purpose. + Happily, there are no constitutional objections to it. State + rights are in no danger! The road which is contemplated will + trespass upon the soil, or infringe upon the jurisdiction of + no State whatsoever. It runs a course and a distance to avoid + all that; for it begins upon the outside line of the outside + State, and runs directly off towards the setting sun--far away + from all the States. The Congress and the Indians are alone + to be consulted, and the statute book is full of precedents. + Protesting against the necessity of producing precedents for an + act in itself pregnant with propriety, I will yet name a few in + order to illustrate the policy of the government, and show its + readiness to make roads through Indian countries to facilitate + the intercourse of its citizens, and even upon foreign territory + to promote commerce and national communications." + +Precedents were then shown. 1, A road from Nashville, Tennessee, +through the Chicasaw and Choctaw tribes, to Natchez, 1806; 2, a +road through the Creek nations, from Athens, in Georgia, to the +31st degree of north latitude, in the direction to New Orleans, +1806, and continued by act of 1807, with the consent of the Spanish +government, through the then Spanish territory of West Florida to +New Orleans; 3, three roads through the Cherokee nation, to open an +intercourse between Georgia, Tennessee, and the lower Mississippi; +and more than twenty others upon the territory of the United States. +But the precedent chiefly relied upon was that from Athens through +the Creek Indian territory and the Spanish dominions to New Orleans. +It was up to the exigency of the occasion in every particular--being +both upon Indian territory within our dominions, and upon foreign +territory beyond them. The road I wanted fell within the terms of +both these qualifications. It was to pass through tribes within our +own territory, until it reached the Arkansas River: there it met +the foreign boundary established by the treaty of 1819, which gave +away, not only Texas, but half the Arkansas besides; and the bill +which I brought in provided for continuing the road, with the assent +of Mexico, from this boundary to Santa Fé, on the Upper del Norte. +I deemed it fair to give additional emphasis to this precedent, by +showing that I had it from Mr. Jefferson, and said: + + "For a knowledge of this precedent, I am indebted to a + conversation with Mr. Jefferson himself. In a late excursion + to Virginia, I availed myself of a broken day to call and pay + my respects to that patriarchal statesman. The individual + must manage badly, Mr. President, who can find himself in + the presence of that great man, and retire from it without + bringing off some fact, or some maxim, of eminent utility to the + human race. I trust that I did not so manage. I trust that, in + bringing off a fact which led to the discovery of the precedent, + which is to remove the only serious objection to the road in + question, I have done a service, if not to the human family, + at least to the citizens of the two greatest Republics in the + world. It was on the evening of Christmas day that I called upon + Mr. Jefferson. The conversation, among other things, turned upon + roads. He spoke of one from Georgia to New Orleans, made during + the last term of his own administration. He said there was a + manuscript map of it in the library of Congress (formerly his + own), bound up in a certain volume of maps, which he described + to me. On my return to Washington, I searched the statute book, + and I found the acts which authorized the road to be made: they + are the same which I have just read to the Senate. I searched + the Congress Library, and I found the volume of maps which he + had described; and here it is (presenting a huge folio), and + there is the map of the road from Georgia to New Orleans, more + than two hundred miles of which, marked in blue ink, is traced + through the then dominions of the King of Spain!" + +The foreign part of the road was the difficulty and was not entirely +covered by the precedent. That was a road to our own city, and no +other direct territorial way from the Southern States than through +the Spanish province of West Florida: this was a road to be, not +only on foreign territory, but to go to a foreign country. Some +Senators, favorable to the bill, were startled at it, and Mr. Lloyd, +of Massachusetts, moved to strike out the part of the section which +provided for this ex-territorial national highway; but not in a +spirit of hostility to the bill itself providing for protection to +a branch of commerce. Mr. Lowrie, of Pennsylvania, could not admit +the force of the objection, and held it to be only a modification of +what was now done for the protection of commerce--the substitution +of land for water; and instanced the sums annually spent in +maintaining a fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, and in the most +remote oceans for the same purpose. Mr. Van Buren, thought the +government was bound to extend the same protection to this branch +of trade as to any other; and the road upon the foreign territory +was only to be marked out, not made. Mr. Macon thought the question +no great matter. Formerly Indian traders followed "_traces"_ now +they must have roads. He did not care for precedents: they are +generally good or bad as they suit or cross our purposes. The case +of the road made by Mr. Jefferson was different. That road was made +among Indians comparatively civilized, and who had some notions of +property. But the proposed road now to be marked out would pass +through wild tribes who think of nothing but killing and robbing a +white man the moment they see him, and would not be restrained by +treaty obligations even if they entered into them. Col. Johnson, of +Kentucky, had never hesitated to vote the money which was necessary +to protect the lives or property of our sea-faring men, or for +Atlantic fortifications, or to suppress piracies. We had, at this +session voted $500,000 to suppress piracy in the West Indies. We +build ships of war, erect light-houses, spend annual millions for +the protection of ocean commerce; and he could not suppose that the +sum proposed in this bill for the protection of an inland branch +of trade so valuable to the West could be denied. Mr. Kelly, of +Alabama, said the great object of the bill was to cherish and foster +a branch of commerce already in existence. It is carried on by land +through several Indian tribes. To be safe, a road must be had--a +right of way--"_a trace_," if you please. To answer its purpose, +this road, or "_trace_," must pass the boundary of the United +States, and extend several hundred miles through the wilderness +country, in the Mexican Republic to the settlements with which the +traffic must be carried on. It may be well to remember that the +Mexican government is in the germ of its existence, struggling with +difficulties that we have long since surmounted, and may not feel +it convenient to make the road, and that it is enough to permit us +to mark it out upon her soil; which is all that this bill proposes +to do within her limits. Mr. Smith, of Maryland, would vote for the +bill. The only question with him was, whether commerce could be +carried on to advantage on the proposed route; and, being satisfied +that it could be, he should vote for the bill. Mr. Brown, of Ohio +(Ethan A.), was very glad to hear such sentiments from the Senator +from Maryland, and hoped that a reciprocal good feeling would +always prevail between different sections of the Union. He thought +there could be no objection to the bill, and approved the policy of +getting the road upon Mexican territory with the consent of the +Mexican government. The bill passed the Senate by a large vote--30 +to 12; and these are the names of the Senators voting for and +against it: + +YEAS.--Messrs. Barton, Benton, Bouligny, Brown, D'Wolf, Eaton, +Edwards, Elliott, Holmes of Miss., Jackson (the General), Johnson of +Kentucky, Johnston of Lou., Kelly, Knight, Lanman, Lloyd of Mass., +Lowrie, McIlvaine, McLean, Noble, Palmer, Parrott, Ruggles, Seymour, +Smith, Talbot, Taylor, Thomas, Van Buren, Van Dyke--30. + +NAYS.--Messrs. Branch, Chandler, Clayton, Cobb, Gaillard, Hayne, +Holmes of Maine, King of Ala., King of N. Y., Macon, Tazewell, +Williams--12. + +It passed the House of Representatives by a majority of +thirty--received the approving signature of Mr. Monroe, among +the last acts of his public life--was carried into effect by his +successor, Mr. John Quincy Adams--and this road has remained a +thoroughfare of commerce between Missouri and New Mexico, and all +the western internal provinces ever since. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE-PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN THE ELECTORAL +COLLEGES. + + +Four candidates were before the people for the office of +President--General Jackson, Mr. John Quincy Adams, Mr. William H. +Crawford, and Mr. Henry Clay. Mr. Crawford had been nominated in +a caucus of democratic members of Congress; but being a minority +of the members, and the nomination not in accordance with public +opinion, it carried no authority along with it, and was of no +service to the object of its choice. General Jackson was the +candidate of the people, brought forward by the masses. Mr. Adams +and Mr. Clay were brought forward by bodies of their friends in +different States. The whole number of electoral votes was 261 of +which it required 131 to make an election. No one had that number. +General Jackson was the highest on the list, and had 99 votes; Mr. +Adams 84; Mr. Crawford 41; Mr. Clay 37. No one having a majority +of the whole of electors, the election devolved upon the House of +Representatives; of which an account will be given in a separate +chapter. + +In the vice-presidential election it was different. Mr. John C. +Calhoun (who in the beginning of the canvass had been a candidate +for the Presidency, but had been withdrawn by his friends in +Pennsylvania, and put forward for Vice-President), received 182 +votes in the electoral college, and was elected. Mr. Nathan +Sandford, Senator in Congress from New-York, had been placed on +the ticket with Mr. Clay, and received 30 votes. The 24 votes of +Virginia were given to Mr. Macon, as a compliment, he not being +a candidate, and having refused to become one. The nine votes of +Georgia were given to Mr. Van Buren, also as a compliment, he not +being on the list of candidates. Mr. Albert Gallatin had been +nominated in the Congress caucus with Mr. Crawford, but finding +the proceedings of that caucus unacceptable to the people he had +withdrawn from the canvass. Mr. Calhoun was the only substantive +vice-presidential candidate before the people, and his election was +an evidence of good feeling in the North towards southern men--he +receiving the main part of his votes from that quarter--114 votes +from the non-slaveholding States, and only 68 from the slaveholding. +A southern man, and a slaveholder, Mr. Calhoun was indebted to +northern men and non-slaveholders, for the honorable distinction of +an election in the electoral colleges--the only one in the electoral +colleges--the only one on all the lists of presidential and +vice-presidential candidates who had that honor. Surely there was no +disposition in the free States at that time to be unjust, or unkind +to the South. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +DEATH OF JOHN TAYLOR, OF CAROLINE. + + +For by that designation was discriminated, in his own State, the +eminent republican statesman of Virginia, who was a Senator in +Congress in the first term of General Washington's administration, +and in the last term of Mr. Monroe--and who, having voluntarily +withdrawn himself from that high station during the intermediate +thirty years, devoted himself to the noble pursuits of agriculture, +literature, the study of political economy, and the service of his +State or county when called by his fellow-citizens. Personally I +knew him but slightly, our meeting in the Senate being our first +acquaintance, and our senatorial association limited to the single +session of which he was a member--1823-24;--at the end of which he +died. But all my observation of him, and his whole appearance and +deportment, went to confirm the reputation of his individuality +of character, and high qualities of the head and the heart. I +can hardly figure to myself the ideal of a republican statesman +more perfect and complete than he was in reality:--plain and +solid, a wise counsellor, a ready and vigorous debater, acute and +comprehensive, ripe in all historical and political knowledge, +innately republican--modest, courteous, benevolent, hospitable--a +skilful, practical farmer, giving his time to his farm and his +books, when not called by an emergency to the public service--and +returning to his books and his farm when the emergency was over. +His whole character was announced in his looks and deportment, +and in his uniform (senatorial) dress--the coat, waistcoat, and +pantaloons of the same "London brown," and in the cut of a former +fashion--beaver hat with ample brim--fine white linen--and a +gold-headed cane, carried not for show, but for use and support +when walking and bending under the heaviness of years. He seemed +to have been cast in the same mould with Mr. Macon, and it was +pleasant to see them together, looking like two Grecian sages, and +showing that regard for each other which every one felt for them +both. He belonged to that constellation of great men which shone +so brightly in Virginia in his day, and the light of which was +not limited to Virginia, or our America, but spread through the +bounds of the civilized world. He was the author of several works, +political and agricultural, of which his _Arator_ in one class, and +his _Construction Construed_ in another, were the principal--one +adorning and exalting the plough with the attributes of science; +the other exploring the confines of the federal and the State +governments, and presenting a mine of constitutional law very +profitably to be examined by the political student who will not be +repulsed from a banquet of rich ideas, by the quaint Sir Edward +Coke style--(the only point of resemblance between the republican +statesman, and the crown officer of Elizabeth and James)--in which +it is dressed. Devotion to State rights was the ruling feature +of his policy; and to keep both governments, State and federal, +within their respective constitutional orbits, was the labor of his +political life. + +In the years 1798 and '99, Mr. Taylor was a member of the General +Assembly of his State, called into service by the circumstances +of the times; and was selected on account of the dignity and +gravity of his character, his power and readiness in debate, and +his signal devotion to the rights of the States, to bring forward +those celebrated resolutions which Mr. Jefferson conceived, which +his friends sanctioned, which Mr. Madison drew up, and which "John +Taylor, of Caroline," presented;--which are a perfect exposition +of the principles of our duplicate form of government, and of the +limitations upon the power of the federal government;--and which, +in their declaration of the unconstitutionality of the alien and +sedition laws, and appeal to other States for their co-operation, +had nothing in view but to initiate a State movement by two-thirds +of the States (the number required by the fifth article of the +federal constitution), to amend, or authoritatively expound the +constitution;--the idea of forcible resistance to the execution of +any act of Congress being expressly disclaimed at the time. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + + +It has already been shown that the theory of the constitution, +and its practical working, was entirely different in the election +of President and Vice-President--that by the theory, the people +were only to choose electors, to whose superior intelligence +the choice of fit persons for these high stations was entirely +committed--and that, in practice, this theory had entirely failed +from the beginning. From the very first election the electors were +made subordinate to the people, having no choice of their own, and +pledged to deliver their votes for a particular person, according +to the will of those who elected them. Thus the theory had failed +in its application to the electoral college; but there might be a +second or contingent election, and has been; and here the theory of +the constitution has failed again. In the event of no choice being +made by the electors, either for want of a majority of electoral +votes being given to any one, or on account of an equal majority for +two, the House of Representatives became an electoral college for +the occasion, limited to a choice out of the five highest (before +the constitution was amended), or the two highest having an equal +majority. The President and Vice-President were not then voted for +separately, or with any designation of their office. All appeared +upon the record as presidential nominees--the highest on the list +having a majority, to be President; the next highest, also having a +majority, to be Vice-President; but the people, from the beginning, +had discriminated between the persons for these respective places, +always meaning one on their ticket for President, the other for +Vice-President. But, by the theory of the constitution and its +words, those intended Vice-Presidents might be elected President +in the House of Representatives, either by being among the five +highest when there was no majority, or being one of two in an +equal majority. This theory failed in the House of Representatives +from the first election, the _demos krateo_ principle--the people +to govern--prevailing there as in the electoral colleges, and +overruling the constitutional design in each. + +The first election in the House of Representatives was that of Mr. +Jefferson and Mr. Burr, in the session of 1800-1801. These gentlemen +had each a majority of the whole number of electoral votes, and an +equal majority--73 each--Mr. Burr being intended for Vice-President. +One of the contingencies had then occurred in which the election +went to the House of Representatives. The federalists had acted +more wisely, one of their State electoral colleges (that of Rhode +Island), having withheld a vote from the intended Vice-President +on their side, Mr. Charles Colesworth Pinckney, of South Carolina; +and so prevented an equality of votes between him and Mr. John +Adams. It would have been entirely constitutional in the House of +Representatives to have elected Mr. Burr President, but at the same +time, a gross violation of the democratic principle, which requires +the will of the majority to be complied with. The federal States +undertook to elect Mr. Burr, and kept up the struggle for seven +days and nights, and until the thirty-sixth ballot. There were +sixteen States, and it required the concurrence of nine to effect an +election. Until the thirty-sixth Mr. Jefferson had eight, Mr. Burr +six, and two were divided. On the thirty-sixth ballot Mr. Jefferson +had ten States and was elected. General Hamilton, though not then in +public life, took a decided part in this election, rising above all +personal and all party considerations, and urging the federalists +from the beginning to vote for Mr. Jefferson. Thus the democratic +principle prevailed. The choice of the people was elected by the +House of Representatives; and the struggle was fatal to those who +had opposed that principle. The federal party was broken down, and +at the ensuing Congress elections, was left in a small minority. +Its candidate at the ensuing presidential election received but +fourteen votes out of one hundred and seventy-six. Burr, in whose +favor, and with whose connivance the struggle had been made, was +ruined--fell under the ban of the republican party, disappeared from +public life, and was only seen afterwards in criminal enterprises, +and ending his life in want and misery. The constitution itself, +in that particular (the mode of election), was broken down, and +had to be amended so as to separate the presidential from the +vice-presidential ticket, giving each a separate vote; and in the +event of no election by the electoral colleges, sending each to +separate houses--the three highest on the presidential lists to the +House of Representatives,--the two highest on the vice-presidential, +to the Senate. And thus ended the first struggle in the House of +Representatives (in relation to the election of President), between +the theory of the constitution and the democratic principle--triumph +to the principle, ruin to its opposers, and destruction to the +clause in the constitution, which permitted such a struggle. + +The second presidential election in the House of Representatives was +after the lapse of a quarter of a century, and under the amended +constitution, which carried the three highest on the list to the +House when no one had a majority of the electoral votes. General +Jackson, Mr. John Quincy Adams, and Mr. William H. Crawford, were +the three, their respective votes being 99, 84, 41; and in this +case a second struggle took place between the theory of the +constitution and the democratic principle; and with eventual defeat +to the opposers of that principle, though temporarily successful. +Mr. Adams was elected, though General Jackson was the choice of the +people, having received the greatest number of votes, and being +undoubtedly the second choice of several States whose votes had been +given to Mr. Crawford and Mr. Clay (at the general election). The +representatives from some of these States gave the vote of the State +to Mr. Adams, upon the argument that he was best qualified for the +station, and that it was dangerous to our institutions to elect a +military chieftain--an argument which assumed a guardianship over +the people, and implied the necessity of a superior intelligence +to guide them for their own good. The election of Mr. Adams was +perfectly constitutional, and as such fully submitted to by the +people; but it was also a violation of the _demos krateo_ principle; +and that violation was signally rebuked. All the representatives who +voted against the will of their constituents, lost their favor, and +disappeared from public life. The representation in the House of +Representatives was largely changed at the first general election, +and presented a full opposition to the new President. Mr. Adams +himself was injured by it, and at the ensuing presidential election +was beaten by General Jackson more than two to one--178 to 83. Mr. +Clay, who took the lead in the House for Mr. Adams, and afterwards +took upon himself the mission of reconciling the people to his +election in a series of public speeches, was himself crippled in +the effort, lost his place in the democratic party, joined the +whigs (then called national republicans), and has since presented +the disheartening spectacle of a former great leader figuring at +the head of his ancient foes in all their defeats, and lingering on +their rear in their victories. The democratic principle was again +victor over the theory of the constitution, and great and good were +the results that ensued. It vindicated the _demos_ in their right +and their power, and showed that the prefix to the constitution, +"We, the people, do ordain and establish," &c., may also be added +to its administration, showing them to be as able to administer as +to make that instrument. It re-established parties upon the basis +of principle, and drew anew party lines, then almost obliterated +under the fusion of parties during the "era of good feeling," and +the efforts of leading men to make personal parties for themselves. +It showed the conservative power of our government to lie in the +people, more than in its constituted authorities. It showed that +they were capable of exercising the function of self-government. +It assured the supremacy of the democracy for a long time, and +until temporarily lost by causes to be shown in their proper place. +Finally, it was a caution to all public men against future attempts +to govern presidential elections in the House of Representatives. + +It is no part of the object of this "Thirty Years' View" to dwell +upon the conduct of individuals, except as showing the causes and +the consequences of events; and, under this aspect, it becomes the +gravity of history to tell that, in these two struggles for the +election of President, those who struggled against the democratic +principle lost their places on the political theatre,--the mere +voting members being put down in their States and districts, and the +eminent actors for ever ostracised from the high object of their +ambition. A subordinate cause may have had its effect, and unjustly, +in prejudicing the public mind against Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay. They +had been political adversaries, had co-operated in the election, and +went into the administration together. Mr. Clay received the office +of Secretary of State from Mr. Adams, and this gave rise to the +imputation of a bargain between them. + +It came within my knowledge (for I was then intimate with Mr. +Clay), long before the election, and probably before Mr. Adams +knew it himself, that Mr. Clay intended to support him against +General Jackson; and for the reasons afterward averred in his public +speeches. I made this known when occasions required me to speak of +it, and in the presence of the friends of the impugned parties. It +went into the newspapers upon the information of these friends, and +Mr. Clay made me acknowledgments for it in a letter, of which this +is the exact copy: + +"_I have received a paper published on the 20th ultimo, at +Lemington, in Virginia, in which is contained an article stating +that you had, to a gentleman of that place, expressed your disbelief +of a charge injurious to me, touching the late presidential +election, and that I had communicated to you unequivocally, before +the 15th of December, 1824, my determination to vote for Mr. +Adams and not for General Jackson. Presuming that the publication +was with your authority, I cannot deny the expression of proper +acknowledgments for the sense of justice which has prompted you to +render this voluntary and faithful testimony._" + +This letter, of which I now have the original, was dated at +Washington City, December 6th, 1827--that is to say, in the very +heat and middle of the canvass in which Mr. Adams was beaten by +General Jackson, and when the testimony could be of most service +to him. It went the rounds of the papers, and was quoted and +relied upon in debates in Congress, greatly to the dissatisfaction +of many of my own party. There was no mistake in the date, or +the fact. I left Washington the 15th of December, on a visit to +my father-in-law, Colonel James McDowell, of Rockbridge county, +Virginia, where Mrs. Benton then was; and it was before I left +Washington that I learned from Mr. Clay himself that his intention +was to support Mr. Adams. I told this at _that_ time to Colonel +McDowell, and any friends that chanced to be present, and gave it +to the public in a letter which was copied into many newspapers, +and is preserved in Niles' Register. I told it as my _belief_ +to Mr. Jefferson on Christmas evening of the same year, when +returning to Washington and making a call on that illustrious man +at his seat, Monticello; and believing then that Mr. Adams would +be elected, and, from the necessity of the case, would have to +make up a mixed cabinet, I expressed that belief to Mr. Jefferson, +using the term, familiar in English history, of "_broad bottomed_;" +and asked him how it would do? He answered, "Not at all--would +never succeed--would ruin all engaged in it." Mr. Clay told his +intentions to others of his friends from an early period, but as +they remained his friends, their testimony was but little heeded. +Even my own, in the violence of party, and from my relationship +to Mrs. Clay, seemed to have but little effect. The imputation of +"bargain" stuck, and doubtless had an influence in the election. In +fact, the circumstances of the whole affair--previous antagonism +between the parties, actual support in the election, and acceptance +of high office, made up a case against Messrs. Adams and Clay which +it was hardly safe for public men to create and to brave, however +strong in their own consciousness of integrity. Still, the great +objection to the election of Mr. Adams was in the violation of the +principle _demos krateo_; and in the question which it raised of the +capacity of the _demos_ to choose a safe President for themselves. +A letter which I wrote to the representative from Missouri, before +he gave the vote of the State to Mr. Adams, and which was published +immediately afterwards, placed the objection upon this high ground; +and upon it the battle was mainly fought, and won. It was a victory +of principle, and should not be disparaged by the admission of an +unfounded and subordinate cause. + +This presidential election of 1824 is remarkable under another +aspect--as having put an end to the practice of caucus nominations +for the Presidency by members of Congress. This mode of +concentrating public opinion began to be practised as the eminent +men of the Revolution, to whom public opinion awarded a preference, +were passing away, and when new men, of more equal pretensions, +were coming upon the stage. It was tried several times with success +and general approbation, public sentiment having been followed, +and not led, by the caucus. It was attempted in 1824, and failed, +the friends of Mr. Crawford only attending--others not attending, +not from any repugnance to the practice, as their previous conduct +had shown, but because it was known that Mr. Crawford had the +largest number of friends in Congress, and would assuredly receive +the nomination. All the rest, therefore, refused to go into it: +all joined in opposing the "caucus candidate," as Mr. Crawford +was called; all united in painting the intrigue and corruption of +these caucus nominations, and the anomaly of members of Congress +joining in them. By their joint efforts they succeeded, and justly +in the fact though not in the motive, in rendering these Congress +caucus nominations odious to the people, and broke them down. They +were dropped, and a different mode of concentrating public opinion +was adopted--that of party nominations by conventions of delegates +from the States. This worked well at first, the will of the people +being strictly obeyed by the delegates, and the majority making +the nomination. But it quickly degenerated, and became obnoxious +to all the objections to Congress caucus nominations, and many +others besides. Members of Congress still attended them, either as +delegates or as lobby managers. Persons attended as delegates who +had no constituency. Delegates attended upon equivocal appointments. +Double sets of delegates sometimes came from the State, and either +were admitted or repulsed, as suited the views of the majority. +Proxies were invented. Many delegates attended with the sole view +of establishing a claim for office, and voted accordingly. The +two-thirds rule was invented, to enable the minority to control +the majority; and the whole proceeding became anomalous and +irresponsible, and subversive of the will of the people, leaving +them no more control over the nomination than the subjects of kings +have over the birth of the child which is born to rule over them. +King Caucus is as potent as any other king in this respect; for +whoever gets the nomination--no matter how effected--becomes the +candidate of the party, from the necessity of union against the +opposite party, and from the indisposition of the great States to go +into the House of Representatives to be balanced by the small ones. +This is the mode of making Presidents, practised by both parties +now. It is the virtual election! and thus the election of the +President and Vice-President of the United States has passed--not +only from the college of electors to which the constitution +confided it, and from the people to whom the practice under the +constitution gave it, and from the House of Representatives which +the constitution provided as ultimate arbiter--but has gone to an +anomalous, irresponsible body, unknown to law or constitution, +unknown to the early ages of our government, and of which a large +proportion of the members composing it, and a much larger proportion +of interlopers attending it, have no other view either in attending +or in promoting the nomination of any particular man, than to get +one elected who will enable them to eat out of the public crib--who +will give them a key to the public crib. + +The evil is destructive to the rights and sovereignty of the people, +and to the purity of elections. The remedy is in the application of +the democratic principle--the people to vote direct for President +and Vice-President; and a second election to be held immediately +between the two highest, if no one has a majority of the whole +number on the first trial. But this would require an amendment of +the constitution, not to be effected but by a concurrence of two +thirds of each house of Congress, and the sanction of three fourths +of the States--a consummation to which the strength of the people +has not yet been equal, but of which there is no reason to despair. +The great parliamentary reform in Great Britain was only carried +after forty years of continued, annual, persevering exertion. Our +constitutional reform, in this point of the presidential election, +may require but a few years; in the meanwhile I am for the people to +_select_, as well as _elect_, their candidates, and for a reference +to the House to choose one out of three presented by the people, +instead of a caucus nomination of whom it pleased. The House of +Representatives is no longer the small and dangerous electoral +college that it once was. Instead of thirteen States we now have +thirty-one; instead of sixty-five representatives, we have now above +two hundred. Responsibility in the House is now well established, +and political ruin, and personal humiliation, attend the violation +of the will of the State. No man could be elected now, or endeavor +to be elected (after the experience of 1800 and 1824), who is not +at the head of the list, and the choice of a majority of the Union. +The lesson of those times would deter imitation, and the democratic +principle would again crush all that were instrumental in thwarting +the public will. There is no longer the former danger from the House +of Representatives, nor any thing in it to justify a previous resort +to such assemblages as our national conventions have got to be. The +House is legal and responsible, which the convention is not, with +a better chance for integrity, as having been actually elected by +the people; and more restrained by position, by public opinion, and +a clause in the constitution from the acceptance of office from +the man they elect. It is the constitutional umpire; and until the +constitution is amended, I am for acting upon it as it is. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE OCCUPATION OF THE COLUMBIA. + + +This subject had begun to make a lodgment in the public mind, +and I brought a bill into the Senate to enable the President to +possess and retain the country. The joint occupation treaty of +1818 was drawing to a close, and it was my policy to terminate +such occupation, and hold the Columbia (or Oregon) exclusively, as +we had the admitted right to do while the question of title was +depending. The British had no title, and were simply working for +a division--for the right bank of the river, and the harbor at +its mouth--and waiting on _time_ to ripen their joint occupation +into a claim for half. I knew this, and wished to terminate a +joint tenancy which could only be injurious to ourselves while it +lasted, and jeopard our rights when it terminated. The bill which I +brought in proposed an appropriation to enable the President to act +efficiently, with a detatchment of the army and navy; and in the +discussion of this bill the whole question of title and of policy +came up; and, in a reply to Mr. Dickerson, of New Jersey, I found +it to be my duty to defend both. I now give some extracts from that +reply, as a careful examination of the British pretension, founded +upon her own exhibition of title, and showing that she had none +south of forty-nine degrees, and that we were only giving her a +claim, by putting her possession on an equality with our own. These +extracts will show the history of the case as it then stood--as it +remained invalidated in all subsequent discussion--and according to +which, and after twenty years, and when the question had assumed +a war aspect, it was finally settled. The bill did not pass, but +received an encouraging vote--fourteen senators voting favorably to +it. They were: + +Messrs. Barbour, Benton, Bouligny, Cobb, Hayne, Jackson (the +General), Johnson of Kentucky, Johnston of Louisiana, Lloyd of +Massachusetts, Mills, Noble, Ruggles, Talbot, Thomas. + + "Mr. Benton, in reply to Mr. Dickerson, said that he had not + intended to speak to this bill. Always unwilling to trespass + upon the time and patience of the Senate, he was particularly so + at this moment, when the session was drawing to a close, and a + hundred bills upon the table were each demanding attention. The + occupation of the Columbia River was a subject which had engaged + the deliberations of Congress for four years past, and the minds + of gentlemen might be supposed to be made up upon it. Resting + upon this belief, Mr. B., as reporter of the bill, had limited + himself to the duty of watching its progress, and of holding + himself in readiness to answer any inquiries which might be + put. Inquiries he certainly expected; but a general assault, at + this late stage of the session, upon the principle, the policy, + and the details of the bill, had not been anticipated. Such an + assault had, however, been made by the senator from New Jersey + (Mr. D.), and Mr. B. would be unfaithful to his duty if he did + not repel it. In discharging this duty, he would lose no time + in going over the gentleman's calculations about the expense of + getting a member of Congress from the Oregon to the Potomac; + nor would he solve his difficulties about the shortest and best + route--whether Cape Horn should be doubled, a new route explored + under the north pole, or mountains climbed, whose aspiring + summits present twelve feet of defying snow to the burning + rays of a July sun. Mr. B. looked upon these calculations and + problems as so many dashes of the gentleman's wit, and admitted + that wit was an excellent article in debate, equally convenient + for embellishing an argument, and concealing the want of one. + For which of these purposes the senator from New Jersey had + amused the Senate with the wit in question, it was not for Mr. + B. to say, nor should he undertake to disturb him in the quiet + enjoyment of the honor which he had won thereby, and would + proceed directly to speak to the merits of the bill. + + "It is now, Mr. President, continued Mr. B., precisely two and + twenty years since a contest for the Columbia has been going + on between the United States and Great Britain. The contest + originated with the discovery of the river itself. The moment + that we discovered it she claimed it; and without a color of + title in her hand, she has labored ever since to overreach us in + the arts of negotiation, or to bully us out of our discovery by + menaces of war. + + "In the year 1790, a citizen of the United States, Capt. Gray, + of Boston, discovered the Columbia at its entrance into the sea; + and in 1803, Lewis and Clarke were sent by the government of + the United States to complete the discovery of the whole river, + from its source downwards, and to take formal possession in the + name of their government. In 1793 Sir Alexander McKenzie had + been sent from Canada by the British Government to effect the + same object; but he missed the sources of the river, fell upon + the _Tacoutche Tesse_, and struck the Pacific about five hundred + miles to the north of the mouth of the Columbia. + + "In 1803, the United States acquired Louisiana, and with it an + open question of boundaries for that vast province. On the side + of Mexico and Florida this question was to be settled with the + King of Spain; on the north and northwest, with the King of + Great Britain. It happened in the very time that we were signing + a treaty in Paris for the acquisition of Louisiana, that we were + signing another in London for the adjustment of the boundary + line between the northwest possessions of the United States and + the King of Great Britain. The negotiators of each were ignorant + of what the others had done; and on remitting the two treaties + to the Senate of the United States for ratification, that for + the purchase of Louisiana was ratified without restriction; + the other, with the exception of the fifth article. It was this + article which adjusted the boundary line between the United + States and Great Britain, from the Lake of the Woods to the + head of the Mississippi; and the Senate refused to ratify it, + because, by possibility, it might jeopard the northern boundary + of Louisiana. The treaty was sent back to London, the fifth + article expunged; and the British Government, acting then as + upon a late occasion, rejected the whole treaty, when it failed + in securing the precise advantage of which it was in search. + + "In the year 1807, another treaty was negotiated between the + United States and Great Britain. The negotiators on both sides + were then possessed of the fact that Louisiana belonged to the + United States, and that her boundaries to the north and west + were undefined. The settlement of this boundary was a point + in the negotiation, and continued efforts were made by the + British plenipotentiaries to overreach the Americans, with + respect to the country west of the Rocky Mountains. Without + presenting any claim, they endeavored to '_leave a nest egg + for future pretensions in that quarter_.' (_State Papers_, + 1822-3.) Finally, an article was agreed to. The forty-ninth + degree of north latitude was to be followed west, as far as the + territories of the two countries extended in that direction, + with a proviso against its application to the country west of + the Rocky Mountains. This treaty shared the fate of that of + 1803. It was never ratified. For causes unconnected with the + questions of boundary, it was rejected by Mr. Jefferson without + a reference to the Senate. + + "At Ghent, in 1814, the attempts of 1803 and 1807 were renewed. + The British plenipotentiaries offered articles upon the subject + of the boundary, and of the northwest coast, of the same + character with those previously offered; but nothing could be + agreed upon, and nothing upon the subject was inserted in the + treaty signed at that place. + + "At London, in 1818, the negotiations upon this point were + renewed; and the British Government, for the first time, + uncovered the ground upon which its pretensions rested. Its + plenipotentiaries, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Goulbourn, asserted + (to give them the benefit of their own words, as reported by + Messrs. Gallatin and Rush) 'That former voyages, and principally + that of Captain Cook, gave to Great Britain the rights derived + from discovery; and they alluded to purchases from the natives + south of the river Columbia, which they alleged to have been + made prior to the American Revolution. They did not make any + formal proposition for a boundary, but intimated that the + _river_ itself was the most convenient that could be adopted, + and that they would not agree to any which did not give them the + _harbor_ at the _mouth_ of the _river_ in common with the United + States.'"--_Letter from Messrs. Gallatin and Rush_, _October_ + 20th, 1820. + + To this the American plenipotentiaries answered, in a way + better calculated to encourage than to repulse the groundless + pretensions of Great Britain. 'We did not assert (continue these + gentlemen in the same letter), we did not assert that the United + States had a perfect right to that country, but insisted that + their claim was at least good against Great Britain. We did not + know with precision what value our government set on the country + to the westward of these mountains; but we were not authorized + to enter into any agreement which should be tantamount to an + abandonment of the claim to it. It was at last agreed, but, as + we thought, with some _reluctance_ on the part of the _British_ + plenipotentiaries, that the country on the northwest coast, + claimed by either party, should, without prejudice to the claims + of either, and for a _limited_ time, be opened for the purposes + of trade to the inhabitants of both countries.' + + "The substance of this agreement was inserted in the convention + of October, 1818. It constitutes the third article of that + treaty, and is the same upon which the senator from New Jersey + (Mr. Dickerson) relies for excluding the United States from the + occupation of the Columbia. + + "In subsequent negotiations, the British agents further rested + their claim upon the discoveries of McKenzie, in 1793, the + seizure of Astoria during the late war, and the Nootka Sound + Treaty, of 1790. + + "Such an exhibition of title, said Mr. B., is ridiculous, and + would be contemptible in the hands of any other power than + that of Great Britain. Of the five grounds of claim which she + has set up, not one of them is tenable against the slightest + examination. Cook never saw, much less took possession of + any part of the northwest coast of America, in the latitude + of the Columbia River. All his discoveries were far north of + that point, and not one of them was followed up by possession, + without which the fact of discovery would confer no title. The + Indians were not even named from whom the purchases are stated + to have been made anterior to the Revolutionary War. Not a + single particular is given which could identify a transaction + of the kind. The only circumstance mentioned applies to the + locality of the Indians supposed to have made the sale; and that + circumstance invalidates the whole claim. They are said to have + resided to the '_south_' of the Columbia; by consequence they + did not reside _upon it_, and could have no right to sell a + country of which they were not the possessors. + + "McKenzie was sent out from Canada, in the year 1793, to + discover, at its head, the river which Captain Gray had + discovered at its mouth, three years before. But McKenzie missed + the object of his search, and struck the Pacific five hundred + miles to the north, as I have already stated. The seizure of + Astoria, during the war, was an operation of arms, conferring + no more title upon Great Britain to the Columbia, than the + capture of Castine and Detroit gave her to Maine and Michigan. + This new ground of claim was set up by Mr. Bagot, his Britannic + Majesty's minister to this republic, in 1817, and set up in + a way to contradict and relinquish all their other pretended + titles. Mr. Bagot was remonstrating against the occupation, by + the United States, of the Columbia River, and reciting that it + had been taken possession of, in his Majesty's name, during + the late war, '_and had_ SINCE _been_ CONSIDERED _as forming + a part of his Majesty's dominions_.' The word '_since_,' is + exclusive of all previous pretension, and the Ghent Treaty, + which stipulates for the restoration of all the captured posts, + is a complete extinguisher to this idle pretension. Finally, + the British negotiators have been driven to take shelter under + the Nootka Sound Treaty of 1790. The character of that treaty + was well understood at the time that it was made, and its terms + will speak for themselves at the present day. It was a treaty + of concession, and not of acquisition of rights, on the part of + Great Britain. It was so characterized by the opposition, and so + admitted to be by the ministry, at the time of its communication + to the British Parliament. + +[Here Mr. B. read passages from the speeches of Mr. Fox and Mr. +Pitt, to prove the character of this Treaty.] + + "Mr. Fox said, 'What, then, was the extent of our rights before + the convention--(whether admitted or denied by Spain was of + no consequence)--and to what extent were they now secured to + us? We possessed and exercised the free navigation of the + Pacific Ocean, without restraint or limitation. We possessed + and exercised the right of carrying on fisheries in the South + Seas equally unlimited. This was no barren right, but a right + of which we had availed ourselves, as appeared by the papers on + the table, which showed that the produce of it had increased, + in five years, from twelve to ninety-seven thousand pounds + sterling. This estate we had, and were daily improving; it + was not to be disgraced by the name of an acquisition. The + admission of part of these rights by Spain, was all we had + obtained. Our right, before, was to settle in any part of the + South or Northwest Coast of America, not fortified against us + by previous occupancy; and we were now restricted to settle in + certain places only, and under certain restrictions. This was an + important concession on our part. Our rights of fishing extended + to the whole ocean, and now it, too, was limited, and to be + carried on within certain distances of the Spanish settlements. + Our right of making settlements was not, as now, a right to + build huts, but to plant colonies, if we thought proper. Surely + these were not acquisitions, or rather conquests, as they must + be considered, if we were to judge by the triumphant language + respecting them, but great and important concessions. By the + third article, we are authorized to navigate the Pacific Ocean + and South Seas, unmolested, for the purpose of carrying on our + fisheries, and to land on the unsettled coasts, for the purpose + of trading with the natives; but, after this pompous recognition + of right to navigation, fishery, and commerce, comes another + article, the sixth, which takes away the right of landing, + and erecting even temporary huts, for any purpose but that of + carrying on the fishery, and amounts to a complete dereliction + of all right to settle in any way for the purpose of commerce + with the natives.'--_British Parliamentary History_, Vol. 28, p. + 990. + + "Mr. Pitt, in reply. 'Having finished that part of Mr. Fox's + speech which referred to the reparation, Mr. Pitt proceeded to + the next point, namely, that gentleman's argument to prove, that + the other articles of the convention were mere concessions, and + not acquisitions. In answer to this, Mr. Pitt maintained, that, + though what this country had gained consisted not of new rights, + it certainly did of new advantages. We had, before, a right to + the Southern whale fishery, and a right to navigate and carry on + fisheries in the Pacific Ocean, and to trade on the coasts of + any part of Northwest America; but that right not only had not + been acknowledged, but disputed and resisted: whereas, by the + convention, it was secured to us--a circumstance which, though + no new right, was a new advantage.'--_Same_--p. 1002. + + "But, continued Mr. Benton, we need not take the character of + the treaty even from the high authority of these rival leaders + in the British Parliament. The treaty will speak for itself. I + have it in my hand, and will read the article relied upon to + sustain the British claim to the Columbia River. + + + "'ARTICLE THIRD OF THE NOOTKA SOUND TREATY. + + "'In order to strengthen the bonds of friendship, and to + preserve, in future, a perfect harmony and good understanding + between the two contracting parties, it is agreed that their + respective subjects shall not be disturbed or molested, either + in navigating or carrying on their fisheries in the Pacific + Ocean, or in the South Seas, or in landing on the coasts of + those seas in places not already occupied, for the purpose of + carrying on their commerce with the natives of the country, or + of making settlements there; the whole subject, nevertheless, to + the restrictions and provisions specified in the three following + articles.' + + "The particular clause of this article, relied upon by the + advocates for the British claim, is that which gives the right + of _landing_ on parts of the Northwest Coast, not already + _occupied_, for the purpose of carrying on _commerce_ and making + _settlements_. The first inquiry arising upon this clause is, + whether the coast, in the latitude of the Columbia River, was + unoccupied at the date of the Nootka Sound Treaty? The answer is + in the affirmative. The second is, whether the English landed + upon this coast while it was so unoccupied? The answer is in + the negative; and this answer puts an end to all pretension of + British claim founded upon this treaty, without leaving us + under the necessity of recurring to the fact that the permission + to _land_, and to _make settlements_, so far from contemplating + an acquisition of territory, was limited by subsequent + restrictions, to the erection of temporary huts for the personal + accommodation of fishermen and traders only. + + "Mr. B. adverted to the inconsistency, on the part of Great + Britain, of following the 49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains, + and refusing to follow it any further. He affirmed that the + principle which would make that parallel a boundary to the + top of the mountain, would carry it out to the Pacific Ocean. + He proved this assertion by recurring to the origin of that + line. It grew out of the treaty of Utrecht, that treaty which, + in 1704, put an end to the wars of Queen Anne and Louis the + XIVth and fixed the boundaries of their respective dominions in + North America. The tenth article of that treaty was applicable + to Louisiana and to Canada. It provided that commissioners + should be appointed by the two powers to adjust the boundary + between them. The commissioners were appointed, and did fix + it. The parallel of 49 degrees was fixed upon as the common + boundary from the Lake of the Woods, "_indefinitely to the + West_." This boundary was acquiesced in for a hundred years. + By proposing to follow it to the Rocky Mountains, the British + Government admits its validity; by refusing to follow it out, + they become obnoxious to the charge of inconsistency, and betray + a determination to encroach upon the territory of the United + States, for the undisguised purpose of selfish aggrandizement. + + "The truth is, Mr. President, continued Mr. B., Great Britain + has no color of title to the country in question. She sets up + none. There is not a paper upon the face of the earth in which + a British minister has stated a claim. I speak of the king's + ministers, and not of the agents employed by them. The claims + we have been examining are thrown out in the conversations and + notes of diplomatic agents. No English minister has ever put + his name to them, and no one will ever risk his character as a + statesman by venturing to do so. The claim of Great Britain is + nothing but a naked pretension, founded on the double prospect + of benefiting herself and injuring the United States. The + fur trader, Sir Alexander McKenzie, is at the bottom of this + policy. Failing in his attempt to explore the Columbia River, + in 1793, he, nevertheless, urged upon the British Government + the advantages of taking it to herself, and of expelling the + Americans from the whole region west of the Rocky Mountains. The + advice accorded too well with the passions and policy of that + government, to be disregarded. It is a government which has lost + no opportunity, since the peace of '83, of aggrandizing itself + at the expense of the United States. It is a government which + listens to the suggestions of its experienced subjects, and + thus an individual, in the humble station of a fur trader, has + pointed out the policy which has been pursued by every Minister + of Great Britain, from Pitt to Canning, and for the maintenance + of which a war is now menaced. + + "For a boundary line between the United States and Great + Britain, west of the Mississippi, McKenzie proposes the latitude + of 45 degrees, because that latitude is necessary to give the + Columbia River to Great Britain. His words are: 'Let the line + begin where it may on the Mississippi, it must be continued + west, till it terminates in the Pacific Ocean, _to the south of + the Columbia_.' + + "Mr. B. said it was curious to observe with what closeness every + suggestion of McKenzie had been followed up by the British + Government. He recommended that the Hudson Bay and Northwest + Company should be united; and they have been united. He proposed + to extend the fur trade of Canada to the shore of the Pacific + Ocean; and it has been so extended. He proposed that a chain of + trading posts should be formed through the continent, from sea + to sea; and it has been formed. He recommended that no boundary + line should be agreed upon with the United States, which did not + give the Columbia River to the British; and the British ministry + declare that none other shall be formed. He proposed to obtain + the command of the fur trade from latitude 45 degrees north; and + they have it even to the Mandan villages, and the neighborhood + of the Council Bluffs. He recommended the expulsion of American + traders from the whole region west of the Rocky Mountains, and + they are expelled from it. He proposed to command the commerce + of the Pacific Ocean; and it will be commanded the moment a + British fleet takes position in the mouth of the Columbia. + Besides these specified advantages, McKenzie alludes to other + '_political considerations_,' which it was not necessary for him + to particularize. Doubtless it was not. They were sufficiently + understood. They are the same which induced the retention of the + northwestern posts, in violation of the treaty of 1783; the same + which induced the acquisition of Gibraltar, Malta, the Cape of + Good Hope, the Islands of Ceylon and Madagascar; the same which + makes Great Britain covet the possession of every commanding + position in the four quarters of the globe." + +I do not argue the question of title on the part of the United +States, but only state it as founded upon--1. Discovery of the +Columbia River by Capt. Gray, in 1790; 2. Purchase of Louisiana in +1803; 3. Discovery of the Columbia from its head to its mouth, by +Lewis and Clarke, in 1803; 4. Settlement of Astoria, in 1811; 5. +Treaty with Spain, 1819; 6. Contiguity and continuity of settlement +and possession. Nor do I argue the question of the advantages of +retaining the Columbia, and refusing to divide or alienate our +territory upon it. I merely state them, and leave their value to +result from the enumeration. 1. To keep out a foreign power; 2. To +gain a seaport with a military and naval station, on the coast of +the Pacific; 3. To save the fur trade in that region, and prevent +our Indians from being tampered with by British traders; 4. To open +a communication for commercial purposes between the Mississippi and +the Pacific; 5. To send the lights of science and of religion into +eastern Asia. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +COMMENCEMENT OF MR. ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. + + +On the 4th of March he delivered his inaugural address, and took the +oath of office. That address--the main feature of the inauguration +of every President, as giving the outline of the policy of his +administration--furnished a topic against Mr. Adams, and went +to the reconstruction of parties on the old line of strict, or +latitudinous, construction of the constitution. It was the topic of +internal national improvement by the federal government. The address +extolled the value of such works, considered the constitutional +objection as yielding to the force of argument, expressed the hope +that every speculative (constitutional) scruple would be solved in a +practical blessing; and declared the belief that, in the execution +of such works posterity would derive a fervent gratitude to the +founders of our Union, and most deeply feel and acknowledge the +beneficent action of our government. The declaration of principles +which would give so much power to the government; and the danger of +which had just been so fully set forth by Mr. Monroe in his veto +message on the Cumberland road bill, alarmed the old republicans, +and gave a new ground of opposition to Mr. Adams's administration, +in addition to the strong one growing out of the election in the +House of Representatives, in which the fundamental principle of +representative government had been disregarded. This new ground of +opposition was greatly strengthened at the delivery of the first +annual message, in which the topic of internal improvement was again +largely enforced, other subjects recommended which would require +a liberal use of constructive powers, and Congress informed that +the President had accepted an invitation from the American States +of Spanish origin, to send ministers to their proposed Congress on +the Isthmus of Panama. It was, therefore, clear from the beginning +that the new administration was to have a settled and strong +opposition, and that founded in principles of government--the same +principles, under different forms, which had discriminated parties +at the commencement of the federal government. Men of the old +school--survivors of the contest of the Adams and Jefferson times, +with some exceptions, divided accordingly--the federalists going for +Mr. Adams, the republicans against him, with the mass of the younger +generation. + +In the Senate a decided majority was against him, comprehending (not +to speak of younger men afterwards become eminent,) Mr. Macon of +North Carolina, Mr. Tazewell of Virginia, Mr. Van Buren of New-York, +General Samuel Smith of Maryland, Mr. Gaillard of South Carolina +(the long-continued temporary President of the Senate), Dickerson of +New Jersey, Governor Edward Lloyd of Maryland, Rowan of Kentucky, +and Findlay of Pennsylvania. In the House of Representatives there +was a strong minority opposed to the new President, destined to +be increased at the first election to a decided majority: so that +no President could have commenced his administration under more +unfavorable auspices, or with less expectation of a popular career. + +The cabinet was composed of able and experienced men--Mr. Clay, +Secretary of State; Mr. Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of +the Treasury, recalled from the London mission for that purpose; +Mr. James Barbour, of Virginia, Secretary at War; Mr. Samuel L. +Southard, of New Jersey, Secretary of the Navy under Mr. Monroe, +continued in that place; the same of Mr. John McLean, of Ohio, +Postmaster General, and of Mr. Wirt, Attorney General--both +occupying the same places respectively under Mr. Monroe, and +continued by his successor. The place of Secretary of the Treasury +was offered by Mr. Adams to Mr. William H. Crawford, and declined by +him--an offer which deserves to be commemorated to show how little +there was of personal feeling between these two eminent citizens, +who had just been rival candidates for the Presidency of the United +States. If Mr. Crawford had accepted the Treasury department, the +administration of Mr. John Quincy Adams would have been entirely +composed of the same individuals which composed that of Mr. Monroe, +with the exception of the two (himself and Mr. Calhoun) elected +President and Vice-President;--a fact which ought to have been known +to Mons. de Tocqueville, when he wrote, that "Mr. Quincy Adams, on +his entry into office, discharged the majority of the individuals +who had been appointed by his predecessor." + +There was opposition in the Senate to the confirmation of Mr. Clay's +nomination to the State department, growing out of his support of +Mr. Adams in the election of the House of Representatives, and +acceptance of office from him; but overruled by a majority of two +to one. The affirmative votes were Messrs. Barton and Benton of +Missouri; Mr. Bell of New Hampshire; Messrs. Bouligny and Josiah F. +Johnston of Louisiana; Messrs. Chandler and Holmes of Maine; Messrs. +Chase and Seymour of Vermont; Messrs. Thomas Clayton and Van Dyke +of Delaware; Messrs. DeWolf and Knight of Rhode Island; Mr. Mahlon +Dickerson of New Jersey; Mr. Henry W. Edwards of Connecticut; Mr. +Gaillard of South Carolina; Messrs. Harrison (the General) and +Ruggles of Ohio; Mr. Hendrics of Indiana; Mr. Elias Kent Kane of +Illinois; Mr. William R. King of Alabama; Messrs. Edward Lloyd and +General Samuel Smith from Maryland; Messrs. James Lloyd and Elijah +H. Mills from Massachusetts; Mr. John Rowan of Kentucky; Mr. Van +Buren of New-York--27. The negatives were: Messrs. Berrien and Thos. +W. Cobb of Georgia; Messrs. Branch and Macon of North Carolina; +Messrs. Jackson (the General) and Eaton of Tennessee; Messrs. +Findlay and Marks of Pennsylvania; Mr. Hayne of South Carolina; +Messrs. David Holmes and Thomas A. Williams of Mississippi; Mr. +McIlvaine of New Jersey; Messrs. Littleton W. Tazewell and John +Randolph of Virginia; Mr. Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois. Seven +senators were absent, one of whom (Mr. Noble of Indiana) declared he +should have voted for the confirmation of Mr. Clay, if he had been +present; and of those voting for him about the one half were his +political opponents. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +CASE OF MR. LANMAN--TEMPORARY SENATORIAL APPOINTMENT FROM +CONNECTICUT. + + +Mr. Lanman had served a regular term as senator from Connecticut. +His term of service expired on the 3d of March of this year, and +the General Assembly of the State having failed to make an election +of senator in his place, he received a temporary appointment from +the governor. On presenting himself to take the oath of office, on +the 4th day of March, being the first day of the special senatorial +session convoked by the retiring President (Mr. Monroe), according +to usage, for the inauguration of his successor; his appointment +was objected to, as not having been made in a case in which a +governor of a State could fill a vacancy by making a temporary +appointment. Mr. Tazewell was the principal speaker against the +validity of the appointment, arguing against it both on the words +of the constitution, and the reason for the provision. The words +of the constitution are: "If vacancies happen (in the Senate) by +resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of +any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments, +until the next meeting of the legislature." "Happen" was held by +Mr. Tazewell to be the governing word in this provision, and it +always implied a contingency, and an unexpected one. It could not +apply to a foreseen event, bound to occur at a fixed period. Here +the vacancy was foreseen; there was no contingency in it. It was +regular and certain. It was the right of the legislature to fill +it, and if they failed, no matter from what cause, there was no +right in the governor to supply their omission. The reason of the +phraseology was evident. The Assembly was the appointing body. It +was the regular authority to elect senators. It was a body of more +or less members, but always representing the whole body of the +State, and every county in the State, and on that account vested +by the constitution with the power of choosing senators. The terms +choose and elect are the words applied to the legislative election +of senators. The term appoint is the word applied to a gubernatorial +appointment. The election was the regular mode of the constitution, +and was not to be superseded by an appointment in any case in which +the legislature could act, whether they acted or not. Some debate +took place, and precedents were called for. On motion of Mr. Eaton, +a committee was appointed to search for them and found several. +The committee consisted of Mr. Eaton, of Tennessee; Mr. Edwards, +of Connecticut; and Mr. Tazewell, of Virginia. They reported the +cases of William Cooke, of Tennessee, appointed by the governor of +the State, in April, 1797, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the +expiration of his own term, the 3d of March preceding; of Uriah +Tracy, of Connecticut, appointed by the governor of the State, in +February, 1801, to fill the vacancy to occur upon the expiration +of his own term, on the 3d of March following; of Joseph Anderson, +of Tennessee, appointed by the governor of the State, in February, +1809, to fill the vacancy which the expiration of his own term would +make on the 4th of March following; of John Williams, of Tennessee, +appointed by the governor of the State, in January, 1817, to fill +the vacancy to occur from the expiration of his term, on the ensuing +3d of March; and in all these cases the persons so appointed had +been admitted to their seats, and all of them, except in the case +of Mr. Tracy, without any question being raised; and in his case by +a vote of 13 to 10. These precedents were not satisfactory to the +Senate; and after considering Mr. Lanman's case, from the 4th to the +7th of March, the motion to admit him to a seat was rejected by a +vote of 23 to 18. The senators voting in favor of the motion were +Messrs. Bell, Bouligny, Chase, Clayton, DeWolf, Edwards, Harrison +(General), Hendricks, Johnston of Louisiana, Kane, Knight, Lloyd of +Massachusetts, McIlvaine, Mills, Noble, Rowan, Seymour, Thomas--10. +Those voting against it were Messrs. Barton, Benton, Berrien, +Branch, Chandler, Dickerson, Eaton, Findlay, Gaillard, Hayne, Holmes +of Maine, Holmes of Mississippi, Jackson (General), King of Alabama, +Lloyd of Maryland, Marks, Macon, Ruggles, Smith of Maryland, +Tazewell, Van Buren, Vandyke, Williams, of Mississippi--23; and +with this decision, the subsequent practice of the Senate has +conformed, leaving States in part or in whole unrepresented, when +the legislature failed to fill a regular vacancy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +RETIRING OF MR. RUFUS KING. + + +In the summer of this year, this gentleman terminated a long and +high career in the legislative department of the federal government, +but not entirely to quit its service. He was appointed by the +new President, Mr. John Quincy Adams, to the place of Minister +Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of St. James, +the same place to which he had been appointed thirty years before, +and from the same place (the Senate) by President Washington; and +from which he had _not_ been removed by President Jefferson, at +the revolution of parties, which took place in 1800. He had been +connected with the government forty years, having served in the +Congress of the Confederation, and in the convention which framed +the federal constitution (in both places from his native State of +Massachusetts), in the Senate from the State of New-York, being +one of the first senators from that State, elected in 1789, with +General Philip Schuyler, the father-in-law of General Hamilton. +He was afterwards minister to Great Britain,--again senator, and +again minister--having, in the mean time, declined the invitation +of President Washington to be his Secretary of State. He was a +federalist of the old school, and the head of that party after +the death of General Hamilton; and when the name discriminated a +party, with whose views on government and systems of policy, General +Washington greatly coincided. As chief of that party, he was voted +for as Vice-President in 1808, and as President in 1816. He was +one of the federalists who supported the government in the war of +1812 against Great Britain. Opposed to its declaration, he went +into its support as soon as it was declared, and in his place in +the Senate voted the measures and supplies required; and (what was +most essential) exerted himself in providing for the defence of +his adopted State, New-York (on the strength and conduct of which +so much then depended); assisting to raise and equip her volunteer +regiments and militia quotas, and co-operating with the republican +leaders (Gov. Tompkins and Mr. Van Buren), to maintain the great +State of New-York in the strong and united position which the +war in Canada and repugnance to the war in New England, rendered +essential to the welfare of the Union. History should remember this +patriotic conduct of Mr. King, and record it for the beautiful and +instructive lesson which it teaches. + +Like Mr. Macon and John Taylor of Carolina, Mr. King had his +individuality of character, manners and dress, but of different +type; they, of plain country gentlemen; and he, a high model of +courtly refinement. He always appeared in the Senate in full dress; +short small-clothes, silk stockings, and shoes, and was habitually +observant of all the courtesies of life. His colleague in the +Senate, during the chief time that I saw him there, was Mr. Van +Buren: and it was singular to see a great State represented in +the Senate, at the same time, by the chiefs of opposite political +parties; Mr. Van Buren was much the younger, and it was delightful +to behold the deferential regard which he paid to his elder +colleague, always returned with marked kindness and respect. + +I felt it to be a privilege to serve in the Senate with three such +senators as Mr. King, Mr. Macon, and John Taylor of Carolina, and +was anxious to improve such an opportunity into a means of benefit +to myself. With Mr. Macon it came easily, as he was the cotemporary +and friend of my father and grandfather; with the venerable John +Taylor there was no time for any intimacy to grow up, as we only +served together for one session; with Mr. King it required a little +system of advances on my part, which I had time to make, and which +the urbanity of his manners rendered easy. He became kind to me; +readily supplied me with information from his own vast stores, +allowed me to consult him, and assisted me in the business of the +State (of whose admission he had been the great opponent), whenever +I could satisfy him that I was right,--even down to the small bills +which were entirely local, or merely individual. More, he gave me +proofs of real regard, and in that most difficult of all friendly +offices,--admonition, counselling against a fault; one instance of +which was so marked and so agreeable to me (reproof as it was), that +I immediately wrote down the very words of it in a letter to Mrs. +Benton (who was then absent from the city), and now copy it, both to +do honor to an aged senator, who could thus act a "_father's_" part +towards a young one, and because I am proud of the words he used to +me. The letter says: + + "Yesterday (May 20th, 1824), we carried $75,000 for improving + the navigation of the Mississippi and the Ohio. I made a good + speech, but no part of it will be published. I spoke in _reply_, + and with force and animation. When it was over, Mr. King, of + N. Y., came and sat down in a chair by me, and took hold of + my hand and said he would speak to me as a father--that I had + great powers, and that he felt a sincere pleasure in seeing + me advance and rise in the world, and that he would take the + liberty of warning me against an effect of my temperament when + heated by opposition; that under these circumstances I took an + authoritative manner, and a look and tone of defiance, which + sat ill upon the older members; and advised me to moderate my + manner." + +This was real friendship, enhanced by the kindness of manner, and +had its effect. I suppressed that speech, through compliment to him, +and have studied moderation and forbearance ever since. Twenty-five +years later I served in Congress with two of Mr. King's sons (Mr. +James Gore King, representative from New-York, and Mr. John Alsop +King, a representative from New Jersey); and was glad to let them +both see the sincere respect which I had for the memory of their +father. + +In one of our conversations, and upon the formation of the +constitution in the federal convention of 1787, he said some things +to me which, I think ought to be remembered by future generations, +to enable them to appreciate justly those founders of our government +who were in favor of a stronger organization than was adopted. He +said: "You young men who have been born since the Revolution, look +with horror upon the name of a King, and upon all propositions for a +strong government. It was not so with us. We were born the subjects +of a King, and were accustomed to subscribe ourselves 'His Majesty's +most faithful subjects;' and we began the quarrel which ended in the +Revolution, not against the King, but against his parliament; and +in making the new government many propositions were submitted which +would not bear discussion; and ought not to be quoted against their +authors, being offered for consideration, and to bring out opinions, +and which, though behind the opinions of this day, were in advance +of those of that day."--These things were said chiefly in relation +to General Hamilton, who had submitted propositions stronger than +those adopted, but nothing like those which party spirit attributed +to him. I heard these words, I hope, with profit; and commit them, +in the same hope, to after generations. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +REMOVAL OF THE CREEK INDIANS FROM GEORGIA. + + +By an agreement with the State of Georgia in the year 1802, the +United States became bound, in consideration of the cession of +the western territory, now constituting the States of Alabama +and Mississippi, to extinguish the remainder of the Indian title +within her limits, and to remove the Indians from the State; of +which large and valuable portions were then occupied by the Creeks +and Cherokees. No time was limited for the fulfilment of this +obligation, and near a quarter of a century had passed away without +seeing its full execution. At length Georgia, seeing no end to +this delay, became impatient, and justly so, the long delay being +equivalent to a breach of the agreement; for, although no time was +limited for its execution, yet a reasonable time was naturally +understood, and that incessant and faithful endeavors should be +made by the United States to comply with her undertaking. In the +years 1824-'25 this had become a serious question between the United +States and Georgia--the compact being but partly complied with--and +Mr. Monroe, in the last year of his Administration, and among its +last acts, had the satisfaction to conclude a treaty with the +Creek Indians for a cession of all their claims in the State, and +their removal from it. This was the treaty of the Indian Springs, +negotiated the 12th of February, 1825, the famous chief, Gen. Wm. +McIntosh, and some fifty other chiefs signing it in the presence +of Mr. Crowell, the United States Indian agent. It ceded all the +Creek country in Georgia, and also several millions of acres in the +State of Alabama. Complaints followed it to Washington as having +been concluded by McIntosh without the authority of the nation. The +ratification of the treaty was opposed, but finally carried, and by +the strong vote of 34 to 4. Disappointed in their opposition to the +treaty at Washington, the discontented party became violent at home, +killed McIntosh and another chief, declared forcible resistance to +the execution of the treaty, and prepared to resist. Georgia, on her +part, determined to execute it by taking possession of the ceded +territory. The Government of the United States felt itself bound +to interfere. The new President, Mr. Adams, became impressed with +the conviction that the treaty had been made without due authority, +and that its execution ought not to be enforced; and sent Gen. +Gaines with federal troops to the confines of Georgia. All Georgia +was in a flame at this view of force, and the neighboring States +sympathized with her. In the mean time the President, anxious to +avoid violence, and to obtain justice for Georgia, treated further; +and assembling the head men and chiefs of the Creeks at Washington +City, concluded a new treaty with them (January, 1826); by which +the treaty of Indian Springs was annulled, and a substitute for +it negotiated, ceding all the Creek lands in Georgia, but none in +Alabama. This treaty, with a message detailing all the difficulties +of the question, was immediately communicated by the President to +the Senate, and by it referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs, +of which I was chairman. The committee reported against the +ratification of the treaty, earnestly deprecated a collision of arms +between the federal government and a State, and recommended further +negotiations--a thing the more easy as the Creek chiefs were still +at Washington. The objections to the new treaty were: + +1. That it annulled the McIntosh treaty; thereby implying its +illegality, and apparently justifying the fate of its authors. + +2. Because it did not cede the whole of the Creek lands in Georgia. + +3. Because it ceded none in Alabama. + +Further negotiations according to the recommendation of the Senate, +were had by the President; and on the 31st of March of the same +year, a supplemental article was concluded, by which all the Creek +lands in Georgia were ceded to her; and the Creeks within her +borders bound to emigrate to a new home beyond the Mississippi. +The vote in the Senate on ratifying this new treaty, and its +supplemental article, was full and emphatic--thirty to seven: and +the seven negatives all Southern senators favorable to the object, +but dissatisfied with the clause which annulled the McIntosh treaty +and implied a censure upon its authors. Northern senators voted in +a body to do this great act of justice to Georgia, restrained by +no unworthy feeling against the growth and prosperity of a slave +State. And thus was carried into effect, after a delay of a quarter +of a century, and after great and just complaint on the part of +Georgia, the compact between that State and the United States of +1802. Georgia was paid at last for her great cession of territory, +and obtained the removal of an Indian community out of her limits, +and the use and dominion of all her soil for settlement and +jurisdiction. It was an incalculable advantage to her, and sought +in vain under three successive Southern Presidents--Jefferson, +Madison, Monroe--(who could only obtain part concessions from the +Indians)--and now accomplished under a Northern President, with +the full concurrence and support of the Northern delegations in +Congress: for the Northern representatives in the House voted the +appropriations to carry the treaty into effect as readily as the +senators had voted the ratification of the treaty itself. Candid +men, friends to the harmony and stability of this Union, should +remember these things when they hear the Northern States, on account +of the conduct of some societies and individuals, charged with +unjust and criminal designs towards the South. + +An incident which attended the negotiation of the supplemental +article to the treaty of January deserves to be commemorated, as +an instance of the frauds which may attend Indian negotiations, +and for which there is so little chance of detection by either of +the injured parties,--by the Indians themselves, or by the federal +government. When the President sent in the treaty of January, and +after its rejection by the Senate became certain, thereby leaving +the federal government and Georgia upon the point of collision, +I urged upon Mr. James Barbour, the Secretary at War (of whose +department the Indian Office was then a branch) the necessity of +a supplemental article ceding all the Creek lands in Georgia; and +assured him that, with that additional article, the treaty would be +ratified, and the question settled. The Secretary was very willing +to do all this, but said it was impossible,--that the chiefs would +not agree to it. I recommended to him to make them some presents, so +as to overcome their opposition; which he most innocently declined, +because it would savor of bribery. In the mean time it had been +communicated, to me, that the treaty already made was itself the +work of great bribery; the sum of $160,000 out of $247,000, which +it stipulated to the Creek nation, as a first payment, being a +fund for private distribution among the chiefs who negotiated it. +Having received this information, I felt quite sure that the fear +of the rejection of the treaty, and the consequent loss of these +$160,000, to the negotiating chiefs, would insure their assent to +the supplemental article without the inducement of further presents. +I had an interview with the leading chiefs, and made known to them +the inevitable fact that the Senate would reject the treaty as it +stood, but would ratify it with a supplemental article ceding all +their lands in Georgia. With this information they agreed to the +additional article: and then the whole was ratified, as I have +already stated. But a further work remained behind. It was to balk +the fraud of the corrupt distribution of $160,000 among a few +chiefs; and that was to be done in the appropriation bill, and by +a clause directing the whole treaty money to be paid to the nation +instead of the chiefs. The case was communicated to the Senate in +secret session, and a committee of conference appointed (Messrs. +Benton, Van Buren, and Berrien) to agree with the House committee +upon the proper clause to be put into the appropriation bill. It was +also communicated to the Secretary at War. He sent in a report from +Mr. McKinney, the Indian bureau clerk, and actual negotiator of the +treaty, admitting the fact of the intended private distribution; +which, in fact, could not be denied, as I held an original paper +showing the names of all the intended recipients, with the sum +allowed to each, beginning at $20,000 and ranging down to $5000: and +that it was done with his cognizance. + +Some extracts from speeches delivered on that occasion will well +finish this view of a transaction which at one time threatened +violence between a State and the federal government, and in which a +great fraud in an Indian treaty Was detected and frustrated. + +EXTRACTS FROM THE SPEECHES IN THE SENATE AND IN THE HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES. + + "Mr. Van Buren said he should state the circumstances of this + case, and the views of the committee of conference. A treaty + was made in this city, in which it was stipulated on the part + of the United States, that $247,000, together with an annuity + of $20,000 a year, and other considerations, should be paid to + the Creeks, as a consideration for the extinguishment of their + title to lands in the State of Georgia, which the United States, + under the cession of 1802, were under obligations to extinguish. + The bill from the other House to carry this treaty into effect, + directed that the money should be paid and distributed among + the chiefs and warriors. That bill came to the Senate, and a + confidential communication was made to the Senate, from which + it appeared that strong suspicions were entertained that a + design existed on the part of the chiefs who made the treaty, + to practise a fraud on the Creek nation, by dividing the money + amongst themselves and associates. An amendment was proposed by + the Senate, which provided for the payment of those moneys in + the usual way, and the distribution of them in the usual manner, + and in the usual proportion to which the Indians were entitled. + That amendment was sent to the other House, who, unadvised as to + the facts which were known to the Senate, refused to concur in + it, and asked a conference. The conferees, on the part of the + Senate, communicated their suspicions to the conferees on the + part of the House, and asked them to unite in an application + to the Department of War, for information on the subject. This + was accordingly done, and the documents sent, in answer, were a + letter from the Secretary of War, and a report by Mr. McKenney. + From that report it appeared clear and satisfactory, that a + design thus existed on the part of the Indians, by whom the + treaty was negotiated, to distribute of the $247,000 to be paid + for the cession by the United States, $159,750 among themselves, + and a few favorite chiefs at home, and three Cherokee chiefs + who had no interest in the property. Ridge and Vann were to + receive by the original treaty $5000 each. By this agreement + of the distribution of the money each was to receive $15,000 + more, making $20,000 for each. Ridge, the father of Ridge who + is here, was to receive $10,000. The other $100,000 was to be + distributed, $5000, and, in some instances, $10,000 to the + chiefs who negotiated the treaty here, varying from one to ten + thousand dollars each. + + "Mr. V. B. said, in his judgment, the character of the + government was involved in this subject, and it would require, + under the circumstances of this case, that they should take + every step they could rightfully take to exculpate themselves + from having, in any degree or form, concurred in this fraud. The + sentiment of the American people where he resided was, and had + been, highly excited on this subject; they had applauded, in the + most ardent manner, the zeal manifested by the government to + preserve themselves pure in their negotiations with the Indians; + and though he was satisfied--though he deemed it impossible to + suppose for a moment that government could have countenanced + the practice of this fraud, yet there were circumstances in the + case which required exculpation. Between the negotiation of the + treaty and the negotiation of the supplementary article on which + the treaty was finally adopted, all these circumstances were + communicated to the Department of War by the two Cherokees. Mr. + V. B. said it was not his purpose, because the necessity of the + case did not require it, to say what the Secretary of War ought + to have done, or to censure what he did do, when the information + was given to him. He had known him many years, and there was not + an honester man, or a man more devoted to his country, than that + gentleman was. Mr. V. B. said it was not for him to have said + what should have been the course of the President of the United + States, if the information had been given to him on the subject. + It could not fail to make a mortifying and most injurious + impression on the minds of the people of this country, to find + that no means whatever were taken for the suppression of this + fraud. There was, and there ought to be, an excitement on the + subject in the public mind." + + "Mr. Benton said, that after the explanation of the views of the + committee of conference which had been given by the senator from + New-York (Mr. Van Buren), he would limit himself to a statement + of facts on two or three points, on which references had been + made to his personal knowledge. + + "The Secretary of War had referred to him, in his letter to the + committee, as knowing the fact that the Secretary had refused + to give private gratuities to the Creek chiefs to promote the + success of the negotiation. The reference was correct. Mr. B. + had himself recommended the Secretary to do so; it was, however, + about forty days after the treaty had been signed. He referred + to a paper which fixed the date to the 9th or 10th of March, and + the treaty had been signed in the month of January preceding. + It was done at the time that Mr. B. had offered his services to + procure the supplemental article to be adopted. The Secretary + entirely condemned the practice of giving these gratuities. + Mr. B. said he had recommended it as the only way of treating + with barbarians; that, if not gratified in this way, the chiefs + would prolong the negotiation, at a great daily expense to the + government, until they got their gratuity in one way or other, + or defeated the treaty altogether. He considered the practice + to be sanctioned by the usage of the United States: he believed + it to be common in all barbarous nations, and in many that + were civilized; and referred to the article in the federal + constitution against receiving "_presents_" from foreign powers, + as a proof that the convention thought such a restriction to be + necessary, even among ourselves. + + "The _time_ at which Mr. B. had offered his services to aid + this negotiation, had appeared to him to be eminently critical, + and big with consequences which he was anxious to avert. It + was after this committee had resolved to report against the + new treaty, and before they had made the report to the Senate. + The decision, whatsoever it might be, and the consequent + discussions, criminations, and recriminations, were calculated + to bring on a violent struggle in the Senate itself; between the + Senate and the Executive; perhaps between the two Houses (for a + reference of the subject to both would have taken place); and + between one or more States and the federal government. Mr. B. + had concurred in the report against the new treaty, because it + divested Georgia of vested rights; and, though objectionable + in many other respects, he was willing, for the sake of peace, + to ratify it, provided the vested rights of Georgia were not + invaded. The supplemental article had relieved him upon this + point. He thought that _Georgia_ had no further cause of + dissatisfaction with the treaty; it was _Alabama_ that was + injured by the loss of some millions of acres, which she had + acquired under the treaty of 1825, and lost under that of 1826. + Her case commanded his regrets and sympathy. She had lost the + right of jurisdiction over a considerable extent of territory; + and the advantages of settling, cultivating, and taxing the + same, were postponed; but, he hoped, not indefinitely. But these + were _consequential_ advantages, resulting from an act which + the government was not _bound_ to do; and, though the loss of + them was an injury, yet this injury could not be considered as + a violation of vested rights; but the circumstance certainly + increased the strength of her claim to the total extinction of + the Indian titles within her limits and, he trusted, would have + its due effect upon the Government of the United States. + + "The third and last point on which Mr. B. thought references to + his name had made it proper for him to give a statement, related + to the circumstance which had induced the Senate to make the + amendment which had become the subject of the conference between + the two Houses. He had himself come to the knowledge of that + circumstance in the last days of April, some weeks after the + supplemental article had been ratified. He had deemed it to be + his duty to communicate it to the Senate, and do it in a way + that would avoid a groundless agitation of the public feeling, + or unjust reflections upon any individual, white or red, if, + peradventure, his information should turn out to have been + untrue. He therefore communicated it to the Senate in secret + session; and the effect of the information was immediately + manifested in the unanimous determination of the Senate to adopt + the amendment which was now under consideration. He deemed the + amendment, or one that would effect the same object, to be + called for by the circumstances of the case, and the relative + state of the parties. It was apparent that a few chiefs were + to have an undue proportion of the money--they had realized + what he had foretold to the Secretary; and it was certain + that the knowledge of this, whenever it should be found out + by the nation, would occasion disturbances, and, perhaps, + bloodshed. He thought that the United States should prevent + these consequences, by preventing the cause of them, and, for + this purpose, he would concur in any amendment that would effect + a fair distribution of the money, or any distribution that was + agreeable to the nation in open counsel." + + Mr. Berrien: "You have arrived at the last scene in the present + act of the great political drama of the Creek controversy. + In its progress, you have seen two of the sovereign States + of the American Confederation--especially, you have seen one + of those States, which has always been faithful and forward + in the discharge of her duties to this Union, driven to the + wall, by the combined force of the administration and its + allies consisting of a portion of the Creek nation, and certain + Cherokee diplomatists. Hitherto, in the discussions before the + Senate on this subject, I have imposed a restraint upon my own + feelings under the influence of motives which have now ceased + to operate. It was my first duty to obtain an acknowledgment, + on this floor, of the rights of Georgia, repressing, for that + purpose, even the story of her wrongs. It was my first duty, + sir, and I have sacrificed to it every other consideration. As a + motive to forbearance it no longer exists. The rights of Georgia + have been prostrated. + + "Sir, in the progress of that controversy, which has grown out + of the treaty of the Indian Springs, the people of Georgia + have been grossly and wantonly calumniated, and the acts of + the administration have assisted to give currency to these + calumnies. Her chief magistrate has been traduced. The solemn + act of her legislature has been set at naught by a rescript of + the federal Executive. A military force has been quartered on + her borders to coerce her to submission; and without a trial, + without the privilege of being heard, without the semblance of + evidence, she has been deprived of rights secured to her by the + solemn stipulations of treaty. + + "When, in obedience to the will of the legislature of Georgia, + her chief magistrate had communicated to the President his + determination to survey the ceded territory, his right to do + so was admitted. It was declared by the President that the act + would be 'wholly' on the responsibility of the government of + Georgia, and that 'the Government of the United States would not + be in any manner responsible for any consequences which might + result from the measure.' When his willingness to encounter this + responsibility was announced, it was met by the declaration that + the President would 'not permit the survey to be made,' and + he was referred to a major-general of the army of the United + States, and one thousand regulars. + + "The murder of McIntosh--the defamation of the chief magistrate + of Georgia--the menace of military force to coerce her to + submission--were followed by the traduction of two of her + cherished citizens, employed as the agents of the General + Government in negotiating the treaty--gentlemen whose integrity + will not shrink from a comparison with that of the proudest + and loftiest of their accusers. Then the sympathies of the + people of the Union were excited in behalf of 'the children of + the forest,' who were represented as indignantly spurning the + gold, which was offered to entice them from the graves of their + fathers, and resolutely determined never to abandon them. The + incidents of the plot being thus prepared, the affair hastens + to its consummation. A new treaty is negotiated here--_a pure + and spotless treaty_. The rights of Georgia and of Alabama are + sacrificed; the United States obtain a part of the lands, and + pay double the amount stipulated by the old treaty; and those + poor and noble, and unsophisticated sons of the forest, having + succeeded in imposing on the simplicity of this government, next + concert, under its eye, and with its knowledge, the means of + defrauding their own constituents, the chiefs and warriors of + the Creek nation. + + "For their agency in exciting the Creeks to resist the former + treaty, and in deluding this government to annul it, _three + Cherokees--Ridge, Vann, and the father of the former_--are to + receive FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS of the money stipulated to be + paid by the United States to the chiefs of the _Creek_ nation; + and the government, when informed of the projected fraud, + deems itself powerless to avert it. Nay, when apprised by your + amendment, that you had also detected it, that government does + not hesitate to interpose, by one of its high functionaries, to + resist your proceeding, by a singular fatuity, thus giving its + countenance and support to the commission of the fraud. Sir, I + speak of what has passed before your eyes even in this hall. + + "One fifth of the whole purchase money is to be given to _three + Cherokees_. TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS reward one of the heroes of + Fort Mims--a boon which it so well becomes us to bestow. A few + chosen favorites divide among themselves upwards of ONE HUNDRED + AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, leaving a pittance for distribution + among the great body of the chiefs and warriors of the nation. + + "But the administration, though it condemns the fraud, thinks + that we have no power to prevent its consummation. What, sir, + have we no power to see that our own treaty is carried into + effect? Have we no interest in doing so? Have we no power? We + have stipulated for the payment of two hundred and forty-seven + thousand dollars to the chiefs of the Creek nation, _to be + distributed among the chiefs and warriors of that nation_. Is + not the _distribution_ part of the contract as well as the + _payment_? We know that a few of those chiefs, in fraudulent + violation of the rights secured by that treaty, are about to + appropriate this money to themselves. Are we powerless to + prevent it? Nay, must we, too, suffer ourselves to be made + the conscious instruments of its consummation? We have made + a bargain with a savage tribe which you choose to dignify + with the name of a treaty concerning whom we legislate with + their consent, or without it, as it seems good in our eyes. We + know that some ten or twenty of them are about to cheat the + remainder. We have the means in our hands, without which their + corrupt purpose cannot be effected. Have we not the right to + see that our own bargain is honestly fulfilled? Consistently + with common honesty, can we put the consideration money of + the contract into the hands of those who we know are about to + defraud the people who trusted them? Sir, the proposition is + absurd. + + "Mr. Forsyth (of the House of Representatives) said: A + stupendous fraud, it seems, was intended by the delegation who + had formed, with the Secretary of War, the new contract. The + chiefs composing the Creek diplomatic train, assisted by their + Cherokee secretaries of legation, had combined to put into their + own pockets, and those of a few select friends, somewhere about + three fourths of the first payment to be made for the second + cession of the lands lying in Georgia. The facts connected + with this transaction, although concealed from the Senate when + the second contract was before them for ratification, and from + the House when the appropriation bill to carry it into effect + was under consideration, were perfectly understood at the War + Department by the Secretary, and by his clerk, who is called the + head of the Indian Bureau (Mr. Thomas L. McKinney). The Senate + having, by some strange fortune, discovered the intended fraud, + after the ratification of the contract, and before they acted + on the appropriation bill, wished, by an amendment to the bill, + to prevent the success of the profitable scheme of villany. + The House, entirely ignorant of the facts, and not suspecting + the motive of the amendment, had rejected it, insisted upon + their disagreement to it, and a committee of the two Houses, as + usual, had conferred on the subject. Now, that the facts are + ascertained by the separate reports of the Committees, there + can be no difference of opinion on the great point of defeating + the intended treachery of the delegation and secretaries to the + Creek tribe. The only matter which can bear discussion, is, how + shall the treachery be punished?--how shall the Creek tribe + be protected from the abominable designs of their worthless + and unprincipled agents? Will the amendment proposed by the + committee reach their object? The plan is, to pay the money to + the chiefs, to be divided among the chiefs and warriors, under + the direction of the Secretary of War, in a full council of the + nation, convened for the purpose. Suppose the council in solemn + session, the money before them, and the division about to be + made, under the direction of the Secretary of War--may not the + chiefs and their secretaries claim the money, as promised to + them under the treaty, and how will the Secretary or his agent + resist the claim? They assented--the House will perceive that + the only difficulty was the amount of the bribe. The Secretary + was willing to go as high as five thousand dollars, but could + not stretch to ten thousand dollars. Notwithstanding the + assent of the Cherokees, and the declaration of the Secretary, + that five thousand dollars each was the extent that they could + be allowed, Ridge and Vann, after the treaty was signed, and + before it was acted on by the Senate, or submitted to that + body, brought a paper, the precious list of the price of each + traitor, for the inspection and information of the head of the + bureau and the head of the department; and what answer did they + receive from both? The head of the bureau said it was their own + affair. The Secretary said he presumed it was their own affair. + But I ask this House, if the engagement for the five thousand + dollars, and the list of the sums to be distributed, may not + be claimed as part of this new contract? If these persons have + not a right to claim, in the face of the tribe, these sums, + as promised to them by their Great Father? Ay, sir; and, if + they are powerful enough in the tribe, they will enforce their + claim. Under what pretext will your Secretary of War direct a + different disposition or division of the money, after his often + repeated declaration, 'it is their own affair'--the affair of + the delegation? Yes, sir, so happily has this business been + managed at the seat of government, under the Executive eye, + that this division which the negotiators proposed to make of + the spoil, may be termed a part of the consideration of the + contract. It must be confessed that these exquisite ambassadors + were quite liberal to themselves, their secretaries, and + particular friends: one hundred and fifty-nine thousand seven + hundred dollars, to be divided among some twenty persons, is + pretty well! What name shall we give to this division of money + among them? To call it a bribe, would shock the delicacy of + the War Department, and possibly offend those gentle spirited + politicians, who resemble Cowper's preachers, 'who could not + mention hell to ears polite.' The transcendent criminality of + this design cannot be well understood, without recalling to + recollection the dark and bloody scenes of the year past. The + chief McIntosh, distinguished at all times by his courage and + devotion to the whites, deriving his name of the White Warrior, + from his mixed parentage, had formed, with his party, the treaty + of the Indian Springs. He was denounced for it. His midnight + sleep was broken by the crackling flames of his dwelling burning + over his head. Escaping from the flames, he was shot down by a + party acting under the orders of the persons who accused him + of betraying, for his own selfish purposes, the interest of + the tribe. Those who condemned that chief, the incendiaries + and the murderers, are the negotiators of this new contract; + the one hundred and fifty-nine thousand dollars, is to be + the fruit of their victory over the assassinated chief. What + evidence of fraud, and selfishness, and treachery, has red or + white malice been able to exhibit against the dead warrior? A + reservation of land for him, in the contract of 1821, was sold + by him to the United States, for twenty-five thousand dollars; + a price he could have obtained from individuals, if his title + had been deemed secure. This sale of property given to him by + the tribe, was the foundation of the calumnies that have been + heaped upon his memory, and the cause which, in the eyes of our + administration newspaper editors, scribblers, and reviewers, + justified his execution. Now, sir, the executioners are to be + rewarded by pillaging the public Treasury. I look with some + curiosity for the indignant denunciations of this accidentally + discovered treachery. Perhaps it will be discovered that all + this new business of the Creeks is 'their own affair,' with + which the white editors and reviewers have nothing to do. + Fortunately, Mr. F. said, Congress had something to do with + this affair. We owe a justice to the tribe. This amendment, he + feared, would not do justice. The power of Congress should be + exerted, not only to keep the money out of the hands of these + wretches, but to secure a faithful and equal distribution of it + among the whole Creek nation. The whole tribe hold the land; + their title by occupancy resides in all; all are rightfully + claimants to equal portions of the price of their removal from + it. The country is not aware how the Indian annuities are + distributed, or the moneys paid to the tribes disposed of. + They are divided according to the discretion of the Indian + government, completely aristocratical--all the powers vested in + a few chiefs. Mr. F. had it from authority he could not doubt, + that the Creek annuities had, for years past, been divided in + very unequal proportions, not among the twenty thousand souls of + which the tribe was believed to be composed, but among about one + thousand five hundred chiefs and warriors. + + "Mr. Forsyth expressed his hope that the House would reject + the report of the committee. Before taking his seat, he asked + the indulgence of the House, while he made a few comments on + this list of worthies, and the prices to be paid to each. + At the head of the list stands Mr. Ridge, with the sum of + $15,000 opposite to his elevated name. This man is no Creek, + but a Cherokee, educated among the whites, allied to them by + marriage--has received lessons in Christianity, morality, + and sentiment--perfectly civilized, according to the rules + and customs of Cornwall. This negotiation, of which he has + been, either as actor or instrument, the principal manager is + an admirable proof of the benefits he has derived from his + residence among a moral and religious people. Vann, another + Cherokee, half savage and half civilized, succeeds him with + $15,000 bounty. A few inches below comes another Ridge, the + major, father to the secretary--a gallant old fellow, who did + some service against the hostile Creeks, during the late war, + for which he deserved and received acknowledgments--but what + claims he had to this Creek money, Mr. F. could not comprehend. + Probably his name was used merely to cover another gratuity + for the son, whose modesty would not permit him to take more + than $15,000 in his own name. These Cherokees were together to + receive $40,000 of Creek money, and the Secretary of War is of + opinion it is quite consistent with the contract, which provides + for the distribution of it among the chiefs and warriors of + the Creeks. Look, sir, at the distinction made for these + exquisites. Yopothle Yoholo, whose word General Gaines would + take against the congregated world, is set down for but $10,000. + The Little Prince but $10,000. Even Menawee, distinguished as + he is as the leader of the party who murdered McIntosh and + Etome Tustunnuggee--as one of the accursed band who butchered + three hundred men, women, and children, at Fort Mims--has but + $10,000. A distinguished Red Stick, in these days, when kindness + to Indians is shown in proportion to their opposition to the + policy of the General Government, might have expected better + treatment--only ten thousand dollars to our enemy in war and in + peace! But, sir, I will not detain the House longer. I should + hold myself criminal if I had exposed these things unnecessarily + or uselessly. That patriotism only is lovely which, imitating + the filial piety of the sons of the Patriarch, seeks, with + averted face, to cover the nakedness of the country from the eye + of a vulgar and invidious curiosity. But the commands of public + duty must be obeyed; let those who have imposed this duty upon + us answer for it to the people." + + "Mr. Tatnall, of Geo. (H. R.) He was as confident as his + colleagues could be, that the foulest fraud had been projected + by some of the individuals calling themselves a part of the + Creek delegation, and that it was known to the department of war + before the ratification of the treaty, and was not communicated + by that department to the Senate, either before or during the + pendency of the consideration of the treaty by that body. Mr. + T. said he would not, however, for the reasons just mentioned, + dwell on this ground, but would proceed to state, that he was in + favor of the amendment offered by the committee of conference, + (and therein he differed from his colleague), which, whilst it + would effectually prevent the commission of the fraud intended, + would, also, avoid a violation of the terms of 'the new treaty,' + as it was styled. He stated, that the list which he held in his + hand was, itself, conclusive evidence of a corrupt intention + to divide the greater part of the money among the few persons + named in it. In this list, different sums were written opposite + the names of different individuals, such, for instance, as the + following: 'John Ridge, $15,000--Joseph Vann, 15,000' (both + Cherokees, and not Creeks, and, therefore, not entitled to one + cent). The next, a long and barbarous Indian name, which I + shall not attempt to pronounce. '$10,000'--next, John Stedham, + '$10,000,' &c. This list, as it appears in the documents + received from the Secretary of War, was presented to the war + department by Ridge and Vann." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE PANAMA MISSION. + + +The history of this mission, or attempted mission (for it never +took effect, though eventually sanctioned by both Houses of +Congress), deserves a place in this inside view of the working +of our government. Though long since sunk into oblivion, and its +name almost forgotten, it was a master subject on the political +theatre during its day; and gave rise to questions of national, and +of constitutional law, and of national policy, the importance of +which survive the occasion from which they sprung; and the solution +of which (as then solved), may be some guide to future action, if +similar questions again occur. Besides the grave questions to which +the subject gave rise, the subject itself became one of unusual and +painful excitement. It agitated the people, made a violent debate +in the two Houses of Congress, inflamed the passions of parties +and individuals, raised a tempest before which Congress bent, made +bad feeling between the President and the Senate; and led to the +duel between Mr. Randolph and Mr. Clay. It was an administration +measure, and pressed by all the means known to an administration. It +was evidently relied upon as a means of acting upon the people--as +a popular movement, which might have the effect of turning the +tide which was then running high against Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay on +account of the election in the House of Representatives, and the +broad doctrines of the inaugural address, and of the first annual +message; and it was doubtless well imagined for that purpose. It +was an American movement, and republican. It was the assembly of +the American states of Spanish origin, counselling for their mutual +safety and independence; and presenting the natural wish for the +United States to place herself at their head, as the eldest sister +of the new republics, and the one whose example and institutions the +others had followed. The monarchies of Europe had formed a "Holy +Alliance," to check the progress of liberty: it seemed just that the +republics of the New World should confederate against the dangers of +despotism. The subject had a charm in it; and the name and place of +meeting recalled classic and cherished recollections. It was on an +isthmus--the Isthmus of Panama--which connected the two Americas, +the Grecian republics had their isthmus--that of Corinth--where +their deputies assembled. All the advantages in the presentation of +the question were on the side of the administration. It addressed +itself to the imagination--to the passions--to the prejudices;--and +could only be met by the cold and sober suggestions of reason and +judgment. It had the prestige of name and subject, and was half +victor before the contest began; and it required bold men to make +head against it. + +The debate began in the Senate, upon the nomination of ministers; +and as the Senate sat with closed doors, their objections were not +heard, while numerous presses, and popular speakers, excited the +public mind in favor of the measure, and inflamed it against the +Senate for delaying its sanction. It was a plan conceived by the new +Spanish American republics, and prepared as a sort of amphictyonic +council for the settlement of questions among themselves; and, +to which, in a manner which had much the appearance of our own +procuring, we had received an invitation to send deputies. The +invitation was most seductively exhibited in all the administration +presses; and captivated all young and ardent imaginations. The +people were roused: the majority in both Houses of Congress gave way +(many against their convictions, as they frankly told me), while the +project itself--our participation in it--was utterly condemned by +the principles of our constitution, and by the policy which forbade +"entangling alliances," and the proposed congress itself was not +even a diplomatic body to which ministers could be sent under the +law of nations. To counteract the effect of this outside current, +the Senate, on the motion of Mr. Van Buren, adopted a resolve to +debate the question with open doors, "unless, in the opinion of the +President, the publication of documents necessary to be referred +to in debate should be prejudicial to existing negotiations:" and +a copy of the resolve was sent to Mr. Adams for his opinion on +that point. He declined to give it, and left it to the Senate to +decide for itself, "_the question of an unexampled departure from +its own usages, and upon the motives of which not being himself +informed, he did not feel himself competent to decide_." This +reference to the motives of the members, and the usages of the +Senate, with its clear implication of the badness of one, and the +violation of the other, gave great offence in the Senate, and even +led to a proposition (made by Mr. Rowan of Kentucky), not to act on +the nominations until the information requested should be given. +In the end the Senate relinquished the idea of a public debate, +and contented itself with its publication after it was over. Mr. +John Sergeant of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Richard Clark Anderson of +Kentucky, were the ministers nominated; and, the question turning +wholly upon the mission itself, and not upon the persons nominated +(to whose fitness there was no objection), they were confirmed +by a close vote--24 to 20. The negatives were: _Messrs._ Benton, +Berrien, Branch, Chandler, Cobb (Thomas W. of Georgia), Dickerson, +Eaton, Findlay, Hayne, Holmes of Maine, Kane, King of Alabama, +Macon, Randolph, Tazewell, Rowan, Van Buren, White of Tennessee, +Williams of Mississippi, Woodbury. The Vice-President, Mr. Calhoun, +presiding in the Senate, had no vote, the constitutional contingency +to authorize it not having occurred: but he was full and free in the +expression of his opinion against the mission. + +It was very nearly a party vote, the democracy as a party, +being against it: but of those of the party who voted for it, +the design of this history (which is to show the working of the +government) requires it to be told that there was afterwards, +either to themselves or relatives, some large dispensations of +executive patronage. Their votes may have been conscientious; but +in that case, it would have been better to have vindicated the +disinterestedness of the act, by the total refusal of executive +favor. Mr. Adams commenced right, by asking the advice of the +Senate, before he instituted the mission; but the manner in which +the object was pursued, made it a matter of opposition to the +administration to refuse it, and greatly impaired the harmony which +ought to exist between the President and the Senate. After all, the +whole conception of the Panama congress was an abortion. It died +out of itself, without ever having been once held--not even by the +states which had conceived it. It was incongruous and impracticable, +even for them,--more apt to engender disputes among themselves +than to harmonize action against Spain,--and utterly foreign to +us, and dangerous to our peace and institutions. The basis of the +agreement for the congress, was the existing state of war between +all the new states and the mother country--Spanish pride and policy +being slow to acknowledge the independence of revolted colonies, +no matter how independent in fact;--and the wish to establish +concert among themselves, in the mode of treating her commerce, and +that of such of her American possessions (Cuba, Porto Rico), as +had not thrown off their subjection. We were at peace with Spain, +and could not go into any such council without compromising our +neutrality, and impairing the integrity of our national character. +Besides the difficulties it would involve with Spain, there was one +subject specified in the treaties for discussion and settlement +in that congress, namely, the considerations of future relations +with the government of Haiti, which would have been a firebrand in +the southern half of our Union,--not to be handled or touched by +our government any where. The publication of the secret debates +in the Senate on the nomination of the ministers, and the public +discussion in the House of Representatives on the appropriation +clauses, to carry the mission into effect, succeeded, after some +time, in dissipating all the illusions which had fascinated the +public mind--turned the current against the administration--made +the project a new head of objection to its authors; and in a short +time it would have been impossible to obtain any consideration for +it, either in Congress or before the people. It is now entirely +forgotten, but deserves to be remembered in this View of the working +of the government, to show the questions of policy, of national and +constitutional law which were discussed--the excitement which can be +got up without foundation, and against reason--how public men can +bend before a storm--how all the departments of the government can +go wrong:--and how the true conservative power in our country is in +the people, in their judgment and reason, and in steady appeals to +their intelligence and patriotism. + +Mr. Adams communicated the objects of the proposed congress, so far +as the United States could engage in them, in a special message to +the Senate; in which, disclaiming all part in any deliberations +of a belligerent character, or design to contract alliances, +or to engage in any project importing hostility to any other +nation, he enumerated, as the measures in which we could well take +part, 1. The establishment of liberal principles of commercial +intercourse, which he supposed could be best done in an assembly +of all the American states together. 2. The consentaneous adoption +of principles of maritime neutrality. 3. The doctrine that free +ships make free goods. 4. An agreement that the "Monroe doctrine," +as it is called, should be adopted by the congress, each state to +guard, by its own means, its own territory from future European +colonization. The enunciation of this doctrine, so different from +what it has of late been supposed to be, as binding the United +States to guard all the territory of the New World from European +colonization, makes it proper to give this passage from Mr. Adams's +message in his own words. They are these: "An agreement between +all the parties represented at the meeting, that each will guard, +by its own means, against the establishment of any future European +colony within its borders, may be found advisable. This was, more +than two years since, announced by my predecessor to the world, as +a principle resulting from the emancipation of both the American +continents. It may be so developed to the new southern nations, that +they may feel it as an essential appendage to their independence." +These were the words of Mr. Adams, who had been a member of Mr. +Monroe's cabinet, and filling the department from which the doctrine +would emanate; written at a time when the enunciation of it was +still fresh, and when he himself, in a communication to the American +Senate, was laying it down for the adoption of all the American +nations in a general congress of their deputies. The circumstances +of the communication render it incredible that Mr. Adams could be +deceived in his understanding; and, according to him, this "Monroe +doctrine" (according to which it has been of late believed that the +United States were to stand guard over the two Americas, and repulse +all intrusive colonists from their shores), was entirely confined to +our own borders: that it was only proposed to get the other states +of the New World to agree that, each for itself, and by its own +means, should guard its own territories: and, consequently, that +the United States, so far from extending gratuitous protection to +the territories of other states, would neither give, nor receive, +aid in any such enterprise, but that each should use its own +means, within its own borders, for its own exemption from European +colonial intrusion. 5. A fifth object proposed by Mr. Adams, in +which he supposed our participation in the business of the Panama +congress might be rightfully and beneficially admitted, related to +the advancement of religious liberty: and as this was a point at +which the message encountered much censure, I will give it in its +own words. They are these "There is yet another subject upon which, +with out entering into any treaty, the moral influence of the United +States may, perhaps, be exerted with beneficial influence at such +meeting--the advancement of religious liberty. Some of the southern +nations are, even yet, so far under the dominion of prejudice, that +they have incorporated, with their political constitutions, an +exclusive Church, without toleration of any other than the dominant +sect. The abandonment of this last badge of religious bigotry and +oppression, may be pressed more effectually by the united exertions +of those who concur in the principles of freedom of conscience, upon +those who are yet to be convinced of their justice and wisdom, than +by the solitary efforts of a minister to any one of their separate +governments." 6. The sixth and last object named by Mr. Adams was, +to give proofs of our good will to all the new southern republics, +by accepting their invitation to join them in the congress which +they proposed of American nations. The President enumerated no +others of the objects to which the discussions of the congress +might be directed; but in the papers which he communicated with the +invitations he had received, many others were mentioned, one of +which was, "the basis on which the relations with Haiti should be +placed;" and the other, "to consider and settle the future relations +with Cuba and Porto Rico." + +The message was referred to the Senate's Committee on Foreign +Affairs, consisting of Mr. Macon, Mr. Tazewell, and Mr. Gaillard +of South Carolina, Mr. Mills of Massachusetts, and Mr. Hugh L. +White of Tennessee. The committee reported adversely to the +President's recommendation, and replied to the message, point by +point. It is an elaborate document, of great ability and research, +and well expressed the democratic doctrines of that day. It was +presented by Mr. Macon, the chairman of the committee, and was +drawn, by Mr. Tazewell, and was the report of which Mr. Macon, when +complimented upon it, was accustomed to answer, "Yes: it is a +good report. Tazewell wrote it." But it was his also; for no power +could have made him present it, without declaring the fact, if he +had not approved it. The general principle of the report was that +of good will and friendship to all the young republics, and the +cultivation of social, commercial and political relations with each +one individually; but no entangling connection, and no internal +interference with any one. On the suggestion of advancing religious +freedom, the committee remark: + + "In the opinion of this committee, there is no proposition, + concerning which the people of the United States are now and + ever have been more unanimous, than that which denies, not + merely the expediency, but the right of intermeddling with the + internal affairs of other states; and especially of seeking to + alter any provision they may have thought proper to adopt as a + fundamental law, or may have incorporated with their political + constitutions. And if there be any such subject more sacred + and delicate than another, as to which the United States ought + never to intermeddle, even by obtrusive advice, it is that which + concerns religious liberty. The most cruel and devastating + wars have been produced by such interferences; the blood of + man has been poured out in torrents; and, from the days of the + crusades to the present hour, no benefit has resulted to the + human family, from discussions carried on by nations upon such + subjects. Among the variety even of Christian nations which now + inhabit the earth, rare indeed are the examples to be found + of states who have not established an exclusive church; and + to far the greater number of these toleration is yet unknown. + In none of the communications which have taken place, is the + most distant allusion made to this delicate subject, by any + of the ministers who have given this invitation; and the + committee feel very confident in the opinion, that, if ever an + intimation shall be made to the sovereignties they represent, + that it was the purpose of the United States to discuss at the + proposed congress, their plans of internal civil polity, or + any thing touching the supposed interests of their religious + establishments, the invitation given would soon be withdrawn." + +On the subject of the "Monroe doctrine," the report shows that, +one of the new republics (Colombia) proposed that this doctrine +should be enforced "by the joint and united efforts of all the +states to be represented in the congress, who should be bound by +a solemn convention to secure this end. It was in answer to this +proposition that the President in his message showed the extent +of that doctrine to be limited to our own territories, and that +all that we could do, would be to enter into agreement that each +should guard, by its own means, against the establishment of any +foreign colony within its borders. Even such an agreement the +committee deemed unadvisable, and that there was no more reason +for making it a treaty stipulation than there was for reducing to +such stipulations any other of the "high, just, and universally +admitted rights of all nations." The favorable commercial treaties +which the President expected to obtain, the committee believed +would be more readily obtained from each nation separately (in +which opinion their foresight has been justified by the event); +and that each treaty would be the more easily kept in proportion +to the smaller number of parties to it. The ameliorations of the +laws of nations which the President proposed, in the adoption of +principles of maritime neutrality, and that free ships should make +free goods, and the restriction of paper blockades, were deemed by +the committee objects beyond the enforcement of the American states +alone; and the enforcement of which, if agreed to, might bring +the chief burthen of enforcement upon the United States; and the +committee doubted the policy of undertaking, by negotiation with +these nations, to settle abstract propositions, as parts of public +law. On the subject of Cuba and Porto Rico, the report declared that +the United States could never regard with indifference their actual +condition, or future destiny;--but deprecated any joint action in +relation to them, or any action to which they themselves were not +parties; and it totally discountenanced any joint discussion or +action in relation to the future of Haïti. To the whole of the new +republics, the report expressed the belief that, the retention of +our present unconnected and friendly position towards them, would be +most for their own benefit, and enable the United States to act most +effectually for them in the case of needing our good offices. It +said: + + "While the United States retain the position which they have + hitherto occupied, and manifest a constant determination not + to mingle their interests with those of the other states of + America, they may continue to employ the influence which they + possess, and have already happily exerted, with the nations of + Europe, in favor of these new republics. But, if ever the United + States permit themselves to be associated with these nations in + any general congress, assembled for the discussion of common + plans, in the way affecting European interests, they will, + by such an act, not only deprive themselves of the ability + they now possess, of rendering useful assistance to the other + American states, but also produce other effects, prejudicial + to their own interests. Then, the powers of Europe, who have + hitherto confided in the sagacity, vigilance, and impartiality + of the United States, to watch, detect, announce, and restrain + any disposition that the heat of the existing contest might + excite in the new states of America, to extend their empires + beyond their own limits, and who have, therefore, considered + their possessions and commerce in America safe, while so + guarded, would no longer feel this confidence." + +The advantage of pursuing our old policy, and maintaining friendly +relations with all powers, "entangling alliances with none," was +forcibly presented in a brief and striking paragraph: + + "And the United States, who have grown up in happiness, to + their present prosperity, by a strict observance of their old + well-known course of policy, and by manifesting entire good + will and most profound respect for all other nations, must + prepare to embark their future destinies upon an unknown and + turbulent ocean, directed by little experience, and destined for + no certain haven. In such a voyage the dissimilitude existing + between themselves and their associates, in interest, character, + language, religion, manners, customs, habits, laws, and almost + every other particular: and the rivalship these discrepancies + must surely produce amongst them, would generate discords, + which, if they did not destroy all hope of its successful + termination, would make even success itself the ultimate cause + of new and direful conflicts between themselves. Such has been + the issue of all such enterprises in past time; and we have + therefore strong reasons to expect in the future, similar + results from similar causes." + +The committee dissented from the President on the point of his right +to institute the mission without the previous advice and consent of +the Senate. The President averred his right to do so: but deemed it +advisable, under all the circumstances, to waive the right, and ask +the advice. The committee averred the right of the Senate to decide +directly upon the expedience of this _new mission_; grounding the +right upon its originality, and holding that when a _new mission_ is +to be instituted it is the creation of an office, not the filling +of a vacancy; and that the Senate have a right to decide upon the +expediency of the _office itself_. + +I spoke myself on this question, and to all the points which it +presented, and on the subject of relations with Haiti (on which a +uniform rule was to be determined on, or a rule with modifications, +according to the proposition of Colombia) I held that our policy was +fixed, and could be neither altered, nor discussed in any foreign +assembly; and especially in the one proposed; all the other parties +to which had already placed the two races (black and white) on the +basis of political equality. I said: + + "Our policy towards Haïti, the old San Domingo, has been fixed + for three and thirty years. We trade with her, but no diplomatic + relations have been established between us. We purchase coffee + from her, and pay her for it; but we interchange no consuls or + ministers. We receive no mulatto consuls, or black ambassadors + from her. And why? Because the peace of eleven States in + this Union will not permit the fruits of a successful negro + insurrection to be exhibited among them. It will not permit + black consuls and ambassadors to establish themselves in our + cities, and to parade through our country, and give to their + fellow blacks in the United States, proof in hand of the + honors which await them, for a like successful effort on their + part. It will not permit the fact to be seen, and told, that + for the murder of their masters and mistresses, they are to + find _friends_ among the white people of these United States. + No, this is a question which has been _determined_ HERE for + three and thirty years; one which has never been open for + discussion, at home or abroad, neither under the Presidency of + Gen. Washington, of the first Mr. Adams, of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. + Madison, or Mr. Monroe. It is one which cannot be discussed + in _this_ chamber on _this_ day; and shall we go to Panama to + discuss it? I take it in the mildest supposed character of this + Congress--shall we go there to _advise_ and _consult_ in council + about it? Who are to advise and sit in judgment upon it? Five + nations who have already put the black man upon an equality with + the white, not only in their constitutions but in real life: + five nations who have at this moment (at least some of them) + black generals in their armies and mulatto senators in their + congresses!" + +No question, in its day, excited more heat and intemperate +discussion, or more feeling between a President and Senate, than +this proposed mission to the congress of American nations at Panama; +and no heated question ever cooled off, and died out so suddenly +and completely. And now the chief benefit to be derived from its +retrospect--and that indeed is a real one--is a view of the firmness +with which was then maintained by a minority, the old policy of the +United States, to avoid entangling alliances and interference with +the affairs of other nations;--and the exposition of the Monroe +doctrine, from one so competent to give it as Mr. Adams. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +DUEL BETWEEN MR. CLAY AND MR. RANDOLPH. + + +It was Saturday, the first day of April, towards noon, the Senate +not being that day in session, that Mr. Randolph came to my room at +Brown's Hotel, and (without explaining the reason of the question) +asked me if I was a blood-relation of Mrs. Clay? I answered that I +was, and he immediately replied that that put an end to a request +which he had wished to make of me; and then went on to tell me that +he had just received a challenge from Mr. Clay, had accepted it, was +ready to go out, and would apply to Col. Tatnall to be his second. +Before leaving, he told me he would make my bosom the depository of +a secret which he should commit to no other person: it was, that +he did not intend to fire at Mr. Clay. He told it to me because he +wanted a witness of his intention, and did not mean to tell it to +his second or any body else; and enjoined inviolable secrecy until +the duel was over. This was the first notice I had of the affair. +The circumstances of the delivery of the challenge I had from Gen. +Jesup, Mr. Clay's second, and they were so perfectly characteristic +of Mr. Randolph that I give them in detail, and in the General's own +words: + + "I was unable to see Mr. Randolph until the morning of the 1st + of April, when I called on him for the purpose of delivering the + note. Previous to presenting it however, I thought it proper + to ascertain from Mr. Randolph himself whether the information + which Mr. Clay had received--that he considered himself + personally accountable for the attack on him--was correct. I + accordingly informed Mr. Randolph that I was the bearer of a + message from Mr. Clay, in consequence of an attack which he + had made upon his private as well as public character in the + Senate; that I was aware no one had the right to question him + out of the Senate for any thing said in debate, unless he chose + voluntarily to waive his privileges as a member of that body. + Mr. Randolph replied, that the constitution did protect him, + but he would never shield himself under such a subterfuge as + the pleading of his privilege as a senator from Virginia; that + he did hold himself accountable to Mr. Clay; but he said that + gentleman had first two pledges to redeem: one that he had bound + himself to fight any member of the House of Representatives, who + should acknowledge himself the author of a certain publication + in a Philadelphia paper; and the other that he stood pledged + to establish certain facts in regard to a great man, whom he + would not name; but, he added he could receive no verbal message + from Mr. Clay--that any message from him must be in writing. + I replied that I was not authorized by Mr. Clay to enter + into or receive any verbal explanations--that the inquiries + I had made were for my own satisfaction and upon my own + responsibility--that the only message of which I was the bearer + was in writing. I then presented the note, and remarked that I + knew nothing of Mr. Clay's pledges; but that if they existed as + he (Mr. Randolph) understood them, and he was aware of them when + he made the attack complained of, he could not avail himself of + them--that by making the attack I thought he had waived them + himself. He said he had not the remotest intention of taking + advantage of the pledges referred to; that he had mentioned them + merely to remind me that he was waiving his privilege, not only + as a senator from Virginia, but as a private gentleman; that he + was ready to respond to Mr. Clay, and would be obliged to me if + I would bear his note in reply; and that he would in the course + of the day look out for a friend. I declined being the bearer + of his note, but informed him my only reason for declining was, + that I thought he owed it to himself to consult his friends + before taking so important a step. He seized my hand, saying, + 'You are right, sir. I thank you for the suggestion: but as you + do not take my note, you must not be impatient if you should not + hear from me to-day. I now think of only two friends, and there + are circumstances connected with one of them which may deprive + me of his services, and the other is in bad health--he was sick + yesterday, and may not be out to-day.' I assured him that any + reasonable time which he might find necessary to take would be + satisfactory. I took leave of him; and it is due to his memory + to say that his bearing was, throughout the interview, that of a + high-toned, chivalrous gentleman of the old school." + +These were the circumstances of the delivery of the challenge, +and the only thing necessary to give them their character is to +recollect that, with this prompt acceptance and positive refusal +to explain, and this extra cut about the two pledges, there was a +perfect determination not to fire at Mr. Clay. That determination +rested on two grounds; first, an entire unwillingness to hurt Mr. +Clay; and, next, a conviction that to return the fire would be to +answer, and would be an implied acknowledgment of Mr. Clay's right +to make him answer. This he would not do, neither by implication +nor in words. He denied the right of any person to question him out +of the Senate for words spoken within it. He took a distinction +between man and senator. As senator he had a constitutional +immunity, given for a wise purpose, and which he would neither +surrender nor compromise; as individual he was ready to give +satisfaction for what was deemed an injury. He would receive, but +not return a fire. It was as much as to say: Mr. Clay may fire at +me for what has offended him; I will not, by returning the fire, +admit his right to do so. This was a subtle distinction, and that in +case of life and death, and not very clear to the common intellect; +but to Mr. Randolph both clear and convincing. His allusion to +the "two pledges unredeemed," which he might have plead in bar to +Mr. Clay's challenge, and would not, was another sarcastic cut +at Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, while rendering satisfaction for cuts +already given. The "member of the House" was Mr. George Kremer, +of Pennsylvania, who, at the time of the presidential election in +the House of Representatives, had avowed himself to be the author +of an anonymous publication, the writer of which Mr. Clay had +threatened to call to account if he would avow himself--and did not. +The "great man" was President Adams, with whom Mr. Clay had had a +newspaper controversy, involving a question of fact,--which had been +postponed. The cause of this sarcastic cut, and of all the keen +personality in the Panama speech, was the belief that the President +and Secretary, the latter especially, encouraged the newspapers in +their interest to attack him, which they did incessantly; and he +chose to overlook the editors and retaliate upon the instigators, as +he believed them to be. This he did to his heart's content in that +speech--and to their great annoyance, as the coming of the challenge +proved. The "two friends" alluded to were Col. Tatnall and myself, +and the circumstances which might disqualify one of the two were +those of my relationship to Mrs. Clay, of which he did not know +the degree, and whether of affinity or consanguinity--considering +the first no obstacle, the other a complete bar to my appearing as +his second--holding, as he did, with the tenacity of an Indian, to +the obligations of blood, and laying but little stress on marriage +connections. His affable reception and courteous demeanor to Gen. +Jesup were according to his own high breeding, and the decorum +which belonged to such occasions. A duel in the circle to which he +belonged was "an affair of honor;" and high honor, according to its +code, must pervade every part of it. General Jesup had come upon +an unpleasant business. Mr. Randolph determined to put him at his +ease; and did it so effectually as to charm him into admiration. The +whole plan of his conduct, down to contingent details, was cast in +his mind instantly, as if by intuition, and never departed from. The +acceptance, the refusal to explain, the determination not to fire, +the first and second choice of a friend, and the circumstances which +might disqualify one and delay the other, the additional cut, and +the resolve to fall, if he fell, on the soil of Virginia--was all, +to his mind, a single emanation, the flash of an instant. He needed +no consultations, no deliberations to arrive at all these important +conclusions. I dwell upon these small circumstances because they are +characteristic, and show the man--a man who belongs to history, and +had his own history, and should be known as he was. That character +can only be shown in his own conduct, his own words and acts: and +this duel with Mr. Clay illustrates it at many points. It is in +that point of view that I dwell upon circumstances which might seem +trivial, but which are not so, being illustrative of character and +significant to their smallest particulars. + +The acceptance of the challenge was in keeping with the whole +proceeding--prompt in the agreement to meet, exact in protesting +against the _right_ to call him out, clear in the waiver of his +constitutional privilege, brief and cogent in presenting the case as +one of some reprehension--the case of a member of an administration +challenging a senator for words spoken in debate of that +administration; and all in brief, terse, and superlatively decorous +language. It ran thus: + + "Mr. Randolph accepts the challenge of Mr. Clay. At the same + time he protests against the _right_ of any minister of + the Executive Government of the United States to hold him + responsible for words spoken in debate, as a senator from + Virginia, in crimination of such minister, or the administration + under which he shall have taken office. Colonel Tatnall, of + Georgia, the bearer of this letter, is authorized to arrange + with General Jesup (the bearer of Mr. Clay's challenge) the + terms of the meeting to which Mr. Randolph is invited by that + note." + +This _protest_ which Mr. Randolph entered against the right of +Mr. Clay to challenge him, led to an explanation between their +mutual friends on that delicate point--a point which concerned the +independence of debate, the privileges of the Senate, the immunity +of a member, and the sanctity of the constitution. It was a point +which Mr. Clay felt; and the explanation which was had between +the mutual friends presented an excuse, if not a justification, +for his proceeding. He had been informed that Mr. Randolph, in +his speech, had avowed his responsibility to Mr. Clay, and waived +his privilege--a thing which, if it had been done, would have +been a defiance, and stood for an invitation to Mr. Clay to send +a challenge. Mr. Randolph, through Col. Tatnall, disavowed that +imputed avowal, and confined his waiver of privilege to the time of +the delivery of the challenge, and in answer to an inquiry before it +was delivered. + +The following are the communications between the respective seconds +on this point: + + "In regard to the _protest_ with which Mr. Randolph's note + concludes, it is due to Mr. Clay to say that he had been + informed Mr. Randolph did, and would, hold himself responsible + to him for any observations he might make in relation to him; + and that I (Gen. Jesup) distinctly understood from Mr. Randolph, + before I delivered the note of Mr. Clay, that he waived his + privilege as a senator." + +To this Col. Tatnall replied: + + "As this expression (did and would hold himself responsible, + &c.) may be construed to mean that Mr. Randolph had given this + intimation not only before called upon, but in such a manner as + to throw out to Mr. Clay something like an invitation to make + such a call, I have, on the part of Mr. Randolph, to disavow + any disposition, when expressing his readiness to waive his + privilege as a senator from Virginia, to invite, in any case, + a call upon him for personal satisfaction. The concluding + paragraph of your note, I presume, is intended to show merely + that you did not present a note, such as that of Mr. Clay to Mr. + Randolph, until you had ascertained his willingness to waive + his privilege as a senator. This I infer, as it was in your + recollection that the expression of such a readiness on the part + of Mr. Randolph was in reply to an inquiry on that point made by + yourself." + +Thus an irritating circumstance in the affair was virtually +negatived, and its offensive import wholly disavowed. For my part, I +do not believe that Mr. Randolph used such language in his speech. +I have no recollection of having heard it. The published report of +the speech, as taken down by the reporters and not revised by the +speaker, contains nothing of it. Such gasconade was foreign to +Mr. Randolph's character. The occasion was not one in which these +sort of defiances are thrown out, which are either to purchase a +cheap reputation when it is known they will be despised, or to +get an advantage in extracting a challenge when there is a design +to kill. Mr. Randolph had none of these views with respect to Mr. +Clay. He had no desire to fight him, or to hurt him, or gain cheap +character by appearing to bully him. He was above all that, and had +settled accounts with him in his speech, and wanted no more. I do +not believe it was said; but there was a part of the speech which +might have received a wrong application, and led to the erroneous +report: a part which applied to a quoted passage in Mr. Adams's +Panama message, which he condemned and denounced, and dared the +President and his friends to defend. His words were, as reported +unrevised: "Here I plant my foot; here I fling defiance right into +his (the President's) teeth; here I throw the gauntlet to him and +the bravest of his compeers to come forward and defend these lines," +&c. A very palpable defiance this, but very different from a summons +to personal combat, and from what was related to Mr. Clay. It was an +unfortunate report, doubtless the effect of indistinct apprehension, +and the more to be regretted as, after having been a main cause +inducing the challenge, the disavowal could not stop it. + +Thus the agreement for the meeting was absolute; and, according +to the expectation of the principals, the meeting itself would be +immediately; but their seconds, from the most laudable feelings, +determined to delay it, with the hope to prevent it, and did keep +it off a week, admitting me to a participation in the good work, +as being already privy to the affair and friendly to both parties. +The challenge stated no specific ground of offence, specified +no exceptionable words. It was peremptory and general, for an +"unprovoked attack on his (Mr. Clay's) character," and it dispensed +with explanations by alleging that the notoriety and indisputable +existence of the injury superseded the necessity for them. Of +course this demand was bottomed on a report of the words spoken--a +verbal report, the full daily publication of the debates having not +then begun--and that verbal report was of a character greatly to +exasperate Mr. Clay. It stated that in the course of the debate Mr. +Randolph said: + + "That a letter from General Salazar, the Mexican Minister at + Washington, submitted by the Executive to the Senate, bore + the ear-mark of having been manufactured or forged by the + Secretary of State, and denounced the administration as a + corrupt coalition between the puritan and blackleg; and added, + at the same time, that he (Mr. Randolph) held himself personally + responsible for all that he had said." + +This was the report to Mr. Clay, and upon which he gave the absolute +challenge, and received the absolute acceptance, which shut out all +inquiry between the principals into the causes of the quarrel. The +seconds determined to open it, and to attempt an accommodation, or a +peaceable determination of the difficulty. In consequence, General +Jesup stated the complaint in a note to Col. Tatnall, thus: + + "The injury of which Mr. Clay complains consists in this, that + Mr. Randolph has charged him with having forged or manufactured + a paper connected with the Panama mission; also, that he + has applied to him in debate the epithet of blackleg. The + explanation which I consider necessary is, that Mr. Randolph + declare that he had no intention of charging Mr. Clay, either + in his public or private capacity, with forging or falsifying + any paper, or misrepresenting any fact; and also that the term + blackleg was not intended to apply to him." + +To this exposition of the grounds of the complaint, Col. Tatnall +answered: + + "Mr. Randolph informs me that the words used by him in + debate were as follows: 'That I thought it would be in my + power to show evidence sufficiently presumptive to satisfy a + Charlotte (county) jury that this invitation was manufactured + here--that Salazar's letter struck me as bearing a strong + likeness in point of style to the other papers. I did not + undertake to prove this, but expressed my suspicion that the + fact was so. I applied to the administration the epithet, + puritanic-diplomatic-black-legged administration.' Mr. Randolph, + in giving these words as those uttered by him in debate, is + unwilling to afford any explanation as to their meaning and + application." + +In this answer Mr. Randolph remained upon his original ground of +refusing to answer out of the Senate for words spoken within it. In +other respects the statement of the words actually spoken greatly +ameliorated the offensive report, the coarse and insulting words, +"_forging and falsifying_," being disavowed, as in fact they were +not used, and are not to be found in the published report. The +speech was a bitter philippic, and intended to be so, taking for +its point the alleged coalition between Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams with +respect to the election, and their efforts to get up a popular +question contrary to our policy of non-entanglement with foreign +nations, in sending ministers to the congress of the American +states of Spanish origin at the Isthmus of Panama. I heard it all, +and, though sharp and cutting, I think it might have been heard, +had he been present, without any manifestation of resentment by +Mr. Clay. The part which he took so seriously to heart, that of +having the Panama invitations manufactured in his office, was to my +mind nothing more than attributing to him a diplomatic superiority +which enabled him to obtain from the South American ministers the +invitations that he wanted; and not at all that they were spurious +fabrications. As to the expression, "_blackleg and puritan_," it was +merely a sarcasm to strike by antithesis, and which, being without +foundation, might have been disregarded. I presented these views to +the parties, and if they had come from Mr. Randolph they might have +been sufficient; but he was inexorable, and would not authorize a +word to be said beyond what he had written. + +All hope of accommodation having vanished, the seconds proceeded +to arrange for the duel. The afternoon of Saturday, the 8th of +April, was fixed upon for the time; the right bank of the Potomac, +within the State of Virginia, above the Little Falls bridge, was +the place,--pistols the weapons,--distance ten paces; each party +to be attended by two seconds and a surgeon, and myself at liberty +to attend as a mutual friend. There was to be no practising with +pistols, and there was none; and the words "one," "two," "three," +"stop," after the word "fire," were, by agreement between the +seconds, and for the humane purpose of reducing the result as +near as possible to chance, to be given out in quick succession. +The Virginia side of the Potomac was taken at the instance of Mr. +Randolph. He went out as a Virginia senator, refusing to compromise +that character, and, if he fell in defence of its rights, Virginia +soil was to him the chosen ground to receive his blood. There was a +statute of the State against duelling within her limits; but, as he +merely went out to receive a fire without returning it, he deemed +that no fighting, and consequently no breach of her statute. This +reason for choosing Virginia could only be explained to me, as I +alone was the depository of his secret. + +The week's delay which the seconds had contrived was about expiring. +It was Friday evening, or rather night, when I went to see Mr. Clay +for the last time before the duel. There had been some alienation +between us since the time of the presidential election in the House +of Representatives, and I wished to give evidence that there was +nothing personal in it. The family were in the parlor--company +present--and some of it staid late. The youngest child, I believe +James, went to sleep on the sofa--a circumstance which availed me +for a purpose the next day. Mrs. Clay was, as always since the death +of her daughters, the picture of desolation, but calm, conversable, +and without the slightest apparent consciousness of the impending +event. When all were gone, and she also had left the parlor, I did +what I came for, and said to Mr. Clay, that, notwithstanding our +late political differences, my personal feelings towards him were +the same as formerly, and that, in whatever concerned his life or +honor my best wishes were with him. He expressed his gratification +at the visit and the declaration, and said it was what he would have +expected of me. We parted at midnight. + +Saturday, the 8th of April--the day for the duel--had come, and +almost the hour. It was noon, and the meeting was to take place at +4-1/2 o'clock. I had gone to see Mr. Randolph before the hour, and +for a purpose; and, besides, it was so far on the way, as he lived +half way to Georgetown, and we had to pass through that place to +cross the Potomac into Virginia at the Little Falls bridge. I had +heard nothing from him on the point of not returning the fire since +the first communication to that effect, eight days before. I had +no reason to doubt the steadiness of his determination, but felt +a desire to have fresh assurance of it after so many days' delay, +and so near approach of the trying moment. I knew it would not do +to ask him the question--any question which would imply a doubt of +his word. His sensitive feelings would be hurt and annoyed at it. +So I fell upon a scheme to get at the inquiry without seeming to +make it. I told him of my visit to Mr. Clay the night before--of +the late sitting--the child asleep--the unconscious tranquillity +of Mrs. Clay; and added, I could not help reflecting how different +all that might be the next night. He understood me perfectly, +and immediately said, with a quietude of look and expression +which seemed to rebuke an unworthy doubt, "_I shall do nothing to +disturb the sleep of the child or the repose of the mother_," and +went on with his employment--(his seconds being engaged in their +preparations in a different room)--which was, making codicils to his +will, all in the way of remembrance to friends; the bequests slight +in value, but invaluable in tenderness of feeling and beauty of +expression, and always appropriate to the receiver. To Mr. Macon he +gave some English shillings, to keep the game when he played whist. +His namesake, John Randolph Bryan, then at school in Baltimore, and +since married to his niece, had been sent for to see him, but sent +off before the hour for going out, to save the boy from a possible +shock at seeing him brought back. He wanted some gold--that coin +not being then in circulation, and only to be obtained by favor or +purchase--and sent his faithful man, Johnny, to the United States +Branch Bank to get a few pieces, American being the kind asked for. +Johnny returned without the gold, and delivered the excuse that the +bank had none. Instantly Mr. Randolph's clear silver-toned voice was +heard above its natural pitch, exclaiming, "Their name is legion! +and they are liars from the beginning. Johnny, bring me my horse." +His own saddle-horse was brought him--for he never rode Johnny's, +nor Johnny his, though both, and all his hundred horses, were of the +finest English blood--and rode off to the bank down Pennsylvania +avenue, now Corcoran & Riggs's--Johnny following, as always, forty +paces behind. Arrived at the bank, this scene, according to my +informant, took place: + + "Mr. Randolph asked for the state of his account, was shown it, + and found to be some four thousand dollars in his favor. He + asked for it. The teller took up packages of bills, and civilly + asked in what sized notes he would have it. 'I want money,' said + Mr. Randolph, putting emphasis on the word; and at that time it + required a bold man to intimate that United States Bank notes + were not money. The teller, beginning to understand him, and + willing to make sure, said, inquiringly, 'You want silver?' 'I + want my money!' was the reply. Then the teller, lifting boxes to + the counter, said politely: 'Have you a cart, Mr. Randolph, to + put it in?' 'That is my business, sir,' said he. By that time + the attention of the cashier (Mr. Richard Smith) was attracted + to what was going on, who came up, and understanding the + question, and its cause, told Mr. Randolph there was a mistake + in the answer given to his servant; that they had gold, and he + should have what he wanted." + +In fact, he had only applied for a few pieces, which he wanted for +a special purpose. This brought about a compromise. The pieces of +gold were received, the cart and the silver dispensed with; but +the account in bank was closed, and a check taken for the amount +on New-York. He returned and delivered me a sealed paper, which I +was to open if he was killed--give back to him if he was not; also +an open slip, which I was to read before I got to the ground. This +slip was a request to feel in his left breeches pocket, if he was +killed, and find so many pieces of gold--I believe nine--take three +for myself, and give the same number to Tatnall and Hamilton each, +to make seals to wear in remembrance of him. We were all three at +Mr. Randolph's lodgings then, and soon set out, Mr. Randolph and his +seconds in a carriage, I following him on horseback. + +I have already said that the count was to be quick after giving +the word "fire," and for a reason which could not be told to the +principals. To Mr. Randolph, who did not mean to fire, and who, +though agreeing to be shot at, had no desire to be hit, this +rapidity of counting out the time and quick arrival at the command +"stop" presented no objection. With Mr. Clay it was different. With +him it was all a real transaction, and gave rise to some proposal +for more deliberateness in counting off the time; which being +communicated to Col. Tatnall, and by him to Mr. Randolph, had an ill +effect upon his feelings, and, aided by an untoward accident on the +ground, unsettled for a moment the noble determination which he had +formed not to fire at Mr. Clay. I now give the words of Gen. Jesup: + + "When I repeated to Mr. Clay the 'word' in the manner in which + it would be given, he expressed some apprehension that, as he + was not accustomed to the use of the pistol, he might not be + able to fire within the time, and for that reason alone desired + that it might be prolonged. I mentioned to Col. Tatnall the + desire of Mr. Clay. He replied, 'If you insist upon it, the time + must be prolonged, but I should very much regret it.' I informed + him I did not insist upon prolonging the time, and I was sure + Mr. Clay would acquiesce. The original agreement was carried + out." + +I knew nothing of this until it was too late to speak with the +seconds or principals. I had crossed the Little Falls bridge just +after them, and come to the place where the servants and carriages +had stopped. I saw none of the gentlemen, and supposed they had +all gone to the spot where the ground was being marked off; but on +speaking to Johnny, Mr. Randolph, who was still in his carriage +and heard my voice, looked out from the window, and said to me: +"Colonel, since I saw you, and since I have been in this carriage, +I have heard something which _may_ make me change my determination. +Col. Hamilton will give you a note which will explain it." Col. +Hamilton was then in the carriage, and gave me the note, in the +course of the evening, of which Mr. Randolph spoke. I readily +comprehended that this possible change of determination related +to his firing; but the emphasis with which he pronounced the word +"_may_" clearly showed that his mind was undecided, and left it +doubtful whether he would fire or not. No further conversation took +place between us; the preparations for the duel were finished; the +parties went to their places; and I went forward to a piece of +rising ground, from which I could see what passed and hear what was +said. The faithful Johnny followed me close, speaking not a word, +but evincing the deepest anxiety for his beloved master. The place +was a thick forest, and the immediate spot a little depression, +or basin, in which the parties stood. The principals saluted each +other courteously as they took their stands. Col. Tatnall had won +the choice of position, which gave to Gen. Jesup the delivery of the +word. They stood on a line east and west--a small stump just behind +Mr. Clay; a low gravelly bank rose just behind Mr. Randolph. This +latter asked Gen. Jesup to repeat the word as he would give it; and +while in the act of doing so, and Mr. Randolph adjusting the butt of +his pistol to his hand, the muzzle pointing downwards, and almost to +the ground, it fired. Instantly Mr. Randolph turned to Col. Tatnall +and said: "I protested against that hair trigger." Col. Tatnall took +blame to himself for having sprung the hair. Mr. Clay had not then +received his pistol. Senator Johnson, of Louisiana (Josiah), one of +his seconds, was carrying it to him, and still several steps from +him. This untimely fire, though clearly an accident, necessarily +gave rise to some remarks, and a species of inquiry, which was +conducted with the utmost delicacy, but which, in itself, was of a +nature to be inexpressibly painful to a gentleman's feelings. Mr. +Clay stopped it with the generous remark that the fire was clearly +an accident: and it was so unanimously declared. Another pistol +was immediately furnished; and exchange of shots took place, and, +happily, without effect upon the persons. Mr. Randolph's bullet +struck the stump behind Mr. Clay, and Mr. Clay's knocked up the +earth and gravel behind Mr. Randolph, and in a line with the level +of his hips, both bullets having gone so true and close that it was +a marvel how they missed. The moment had come for me to interpose. +I went in among the parties and offered my mediation; but nothing +could be done. Mr. Clay said, with that wave of the hand with which +he was accustomed to put away a trifle, "_This is child's play!_" +and required another fire. Mr. Randolph also demanded another +fire. The seconds were directed to reload. While this was doing I +prevailed on Mr. Randolph to walk away from his post, and renewed +to him, more pressingly than ever, my importunities to yield to +some accommodation; but I found him more determined than I had ever +seen him, and for the first time impatient, and seemingly annoyed +and dissatisfied at what I was doing. He was indeed annoyed and +dissatisfied. The accidental fire of his pistol preyed upon his +feelings. He was doubly chagrined at it, both as a circumstance +susceptible in itself of an unfair interpretation, and as having +been the immediate and controlling cause of his firing at Mr. Clay. +He regretted this fire the instant it was over. He felt that it +had subjected him to imputations from which he knew himself to be +free--a desire to kill Mr. Clay, and a contempt for the laws of his +beloved State; and the annoyances which he felt at these vexatious +circumstances revived his original determination, and decided him +irrevocably to carry it out. + +It was in this interval that he told me what he had heard since we +parted, and to which he alluded when he spoke to me from the window +of the carriage. It was to this effect: That he had been informed +by Col. Tatnall that it was proposed to give out the words with +more deliberateness, so as to prolong the time for taking aim. This +information grated harshly upon his feelings. It unsettled his +purpose, and brought his mind to the inquiry (as he now told me, +and as I found it expressed in the note which he had immediately +written in pencil to apprise me of his possible change), whether, +under these circumstances, he might not "_disable_" his adversary? +This note is so characteristic, and such an essential part of this +affair, that I here give its very words, so far as relates to this +point. It ran thus: + + "Information received from Col. Tatnall since I got into the + carriage _may_ induce me to change my mind, of not returning + Mr. Clay's fire. I seek not his death. I would not have his + blood upon my hands--it will not be upon my soul if shed in + self-defence--for the world. He has determined, by the use of a + long, preparatory caution by words, to get time to kill me. May + I not, then, disable him? Yes, if I please." + +It has been seen, by the statement of Gen. Jesup, already given, +that this "_information_" was a misapprehension; that Mr. Clay had +not applied for a prolongation of time for the purpose of getting +sure aim, but only to enable his unused hand, long unfamiliar +with the pistol, to fire within the limited time; that there was +no prolongation, in fact, either granted or insisted upon; but he +was in doubt, and General Jesup having won the word, he was having +him repeat it in the way he was to give it out, when his finger +touched the hair-trigger. How unfortunate that I did not know of +this in time to speak to General Jesup, when one word from him +would have set all right, and saved the imminent risks incurred! +This inquiry, "May I not disable him?" was still on Mr. Randolph's +mind, and dependent for its solution on the rising incidents of the +moment, when the accidental fire of his pistol gave the turn to his +feelings which solved the doubt. But he declared to me that he had +not aimed at the life of Mr. Clay; that he did not level as high as +the knees--not higher than the knee-band; "for it was no mercy to +shoot a man in the knee;" that his only object was to disable him +and spoil his aim. And then added, with a beauty of expression and +a depth of feeling which no studied oratory can ever attain, and +which I shall never forget, these impressive words: "_I would not +have seen him fall mortally, or even doubtfully wounded, for all the +land that is watered by the King of Floods and all his tributary +streams._" He left me to resume his post, utterly refusing to +explain out of the Senate any thing that he had said in it, and with +the positive declaration that he would not return the next fire. I +withdrew a little way into the woods, and kept my eyes fixed on Mr. +Randolph, who I then knew to be the only one in danger. I saw him +receive the fire of Mr. Clay, saw the gravel knocked up in the same +place, saw Mr. Randolph raise his pistol--discharge it in the air; +heard him say, '_I do not fire at you, Mr. Clay_;' and immediately +advancing and offering his hand. He was met in the same spirit. They +met half way, shook hands, Mr. Randolph saying, jocosely, '_You owe +me a coat, Mr. Clay_'--(the bullet had passed through the skirt of +the coat, very near the hip)--to which Mr. Clay promptly and happily +replied, '_I am glad the debt is no greater._' I had come up, and +was prompt to proclaim what I had been obliged to keep secret for +eight days. The joy of all was extreme at this happy termination +of a most critical affair; and we immediately left, with lighter +hearts than we brought. I stopped to sup with Mr. Randolph and his +friends--none of us wanted dinner that day--and had a characteristic +time of it. A runner came in from the bank to say that they had +overpaid him, by mistake, $130 that day. He answered, 'I believe +_it is your rule not to correct mistakes, except at the time, and +at your counter_.' And with that answer the runner had to return. +When gone, Mr. Randolph said, '_I will pay it on Monday: people must +be honest, if banks are not._' He asked for the sealed paper he had +given me, opened it, took out a check for $1,000, drawn in my favor, +and with which I was requested to have him carried, if killed, to +Virginia, and buried under his patrimonial oaks--not let him be +buried at Washington, with an hundred hacks after him. He took +the gold from his left breeches pocket, and said to us (Hamilton, +Tatnall, and I), 'Gentlemen, Clay's bad shooting shan't rob you +of your seals. I am going to London, and will have them made for +you;' which he did, and most characteristically, so far as mine was +concerned. He went to the herald's office in London and inquired for +the Benton family, of which I had often told him there was none, as +we only dated on that side from my grandfather in North Carolina. +But the name was found, and with it a coat of arms--among the +quarterings a lion rampant. That is the family, said he; and had the +arms engraved on the seal, the same which I have since habitually +worn; and added the motto, _Factis non verbis_: of which he was +afterwards accustomed to say the non should be changed into et. But, +enough. I run into these details, not merely to relate an event, but +to show character; and if I have not done it, it is not for want of +material, but of ability to use it. + +On Monday the parties exchanged cards, and social relations were +formally and courteously restored. It was about the last high-toned +duel that I have witnessed, and among the highest-toned that I +have ever witnessed, and so happily conducted to a fortunate +issue--a result due to the noble character of the seconds as well +as to the generous and heroic spirit of the principals. Certainly +duelling is bad, and has been put down, but not quite so bad +as its substitute--revolvers, bowie-knives, blackguarding, and +street-assassinations under the pretext of self-defence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +DEATH OF MR. GAILLARD. + + +He was a senator from South Carolina, and had been continuously, +from the year 1804. He was five times elected to the Senate--the +first time for an unexpired term--and died in the course of a term; +so that the years for which he had been elected were nearly thirty. +He was nine times elected president of the Senate _pro tempore_, and +presided fourteen years over the deliberations of that body,--the +deaths of two Vice-Presidents during his time (Messrs. Clinton and +Gerry), and the much absence of another (Gov. Tompkins), making +long continued vacancies in the President's chair,--which he was +called to fill. So many elections, and such long continued service, +terminated at last only by death, bespeaks an eminent fitness +both for the place of Senator, and that of presiding officer over +the Senate. In the language of Mr. Macon, he seemed born for that +station. Urbane in his manners, amiable in temper, scrupulously +impartial, attentive to his duties, exemplary patience, perfect +knowledge of the rules, quick and clear discernment, uniting +absolute firmness of purpose, with the greatest gentleness of +manners, setting young Senators right with a delicacy and amenity, +which spared the confusion of a mistake--preserving order, not by +authority of rules, but by the graces of deportment: such were the +qualifications which commended him to the presidency of the Senate, +and which facilitated the transaction of business while preserving +the decorum of the body. There was probably not an instance of +disorder, or a disagreeable scene in the chamber, during his long +continued presidency. He classed democratically in politics, but was +as much the favorite of one side of the house as of the other, and +that in the high party times of the war with Great Britain, which so +much exasperated party spirit. + +Mr. Gaillard was, as his name would indicate, of French descent, +having issued from one of those Huguenot families, of which the +bigotry of Louis XIV., dominated by an old woman, deprived France, +for the benefit of other countries. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION IN RELATION TO THE ELECTION OF +PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT. + + +The attempt was renewed at the session of 1825-'26 to procure an +amendment to the constitution, in relation to the election of the +two first magistrates of the republic, so as to do away with all +intermediate agencies, and give the election to the direct vote +of the people. Several specific propositions were offered in the +Senate to that effect, and all substituted by a general proposition +submitted by Mr. Macon--"that a select committee be appointed to +report upon the best and most practicable mode of electing the +President and Vice-President:" and, on the motion of Mr. Van Buren, +the number of the committee was raised to nine--instead of five--the +usual number. The members of it were appointed by Mr. Calhoun, the +Vice-President, and were carefully selected, both geographically +as coming from different sections of the Union, and personally +and politically as being friendly to the object and known to the +country. They were: Mr. Benton, chairman, Mr. Macon, Mr. Van Buren, +Mr. Hugh L. White of Tennessee, Mr. Findlay of Pennsylvania, Mr. +Dickerson of New Jersey, Mr. Holmes of Maine, Mr. Hayne of South +Carolina, and Col. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky. The committee +agreed upon a proposition of amendment, dispensing with electors, +providing for districts in which the direct vote of the people was +to be taken; and obviating all excuse for caucuses and conventions +to concentrate public opinion by proposing a second election between +the two highest in the event of no one receiving a majority of the +whole number of district votes in the first election. The plan +reported was in these words: + + "That, hereafter the President and Vice-President of the United + States shall be chosen by the People of the respective States, + in the manner following: Each State shall be divided by the + legislature thereof, into districts, equal in number to the + whole number of senators and representatives, to which such + State may be entitled in the Congress of the United States; + the said districts to be composed of contiguous territory, + and to contain, as nearly as may be, an equal number of + persons, entitled to be represented, under the constitution, + and to be laid off, for the first time, immediately after + the ratification of this amendment, and afterwards at the + session of the legislature next ensuing the appointment of + representatives, by the Congress of the United States; or + oftener, if deemed necessary by the State; but no alteration, + after the first, or after each decennial formation of + districts, shall take effect, at the next ensuing election, + after such alteration is made. That, on the first Thursday, + and succeeding Friday, in the month of August, of the year one + thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and on the same days + in every fourth year thereafter, the citizens of each State, + who possess the qualifications requisite for electors of the + most numerous branch of the State Legislature, shall meet + within their respective districts, and vote for a President and + Vice-President of the United States, one of whom, at least, + shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with himself: + and the person receiving the greatest number of votes for + President, and the one receiving the greatest number of votes + for Vice-President in each district shall be holden to have + received one vote: which fact shall be immediately certified to + the Governor of the State, to each of the senators in Congress + from such State, and to the President of the Senate. The right + of affixing the places in the districts at which the elections + shall be held, the manner of holding the same, and of canvassing + the votes, and certifying the returns, is reserved, exclusively, + to the legislatures of the States. The Congress of the United + States shall be in session on the second Monday of October, in + the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and on + the same day in every fourth year thereafter: and the President + of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and House of + Representatives, shall open all the certificates, and the votes + shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number + of votes for President, shall be President, if such number be + equal to a majority of the whole number of votes given; but if + no person have such majority, then a second election shall be + held, on the first Thursday and succeeding Friday, in the month + of December, then next ensuing, between the persons having the + two highest numbers, for the office of President: which second + election shall be conducted, the result certified, and the votes + counted, in the same manner as in the first; and the person + having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the + President. But, if two or more persons shall have received the + greatest and equal number of votes, at the second election, + the House of Representatives shall choose one of them for + President, as is now prescribed by the constitution. The person + having the greatest number of votes for Vice-President, at the + first election, shall be the Vice-President, if such number + be equal to a majority of the whole number of votes given, + and, if no person have such majority, then a second election + shall take place, between the persons having the two highest + numbers, on the same day that the second election is held for + President, and the person having the highest number of votes + for Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President. But if two or + more persons shall have received the greatest number of votes in + the second election, then the Senate shall choose one of them + for Vice-President, as is now provided in the constitution. + But, when a second election shall be necessary, in the case of + Vice-President, and not necessary in the case of President, + then the Senate shall choose a Vice-President, from the persons + having the two highest numbers in the first election, as is now + prescribed in the constitution." + +The prominent features of this plan of election are: 1. The +abolition of electors, and the direct vote of the people; 2. +A second election between the two highest on each list, when +no one has a majority of the whole; 3. Uniformity in the mode +of election.--The advantages of this plan would be to get rid +of all the machinery by which the _selection_ of their two +first magistrates is now taken out of the hands of the people, +and usurped by self-constituted, illegal, and irresponsible +bodies,--and place it in the only safe, proper, and disinterested +hands--those of the people themselves. If adopted, there would be +no pretext for caucuses or conventions, and no resort to the House +of Representatives,--where the largest State is balanced by the +smallest. If any one received a majority of the whole number of +districts in the first election, then the democratic principle--the +_demos krateo_--the majority to govern--is satisfied. If no one +receives such majority, then the first election stands for a +popular nomination of the two highest--a nomination by the people +themselves--out of which two the election is sure to be made on +the second trial. But to provide for a possible contingency--too +improbable almost ever to occur--and to save in that case the +trouble of a third popular election, a resort to the House of +Representatives is allowed; it being _nationally_ unimportant which +is elected where the candidates were exactly equal in the public +estimation.--Such was the plan the committee reported; and it is +the perfect plan of a popular election, and has the advantage of +being applicable to all elections, federal and State, from the +highest to the lowest. The machinery of its operation is easy and +simple, and it is recommended by every consideration of public good, +which requires the abandonment of a defective system, which has +failed--the overthrow of usurping bodies, which have seized upon +the elections--and the preservation to the people of the business +of selecting, as well as electing, their own high officers. The +plan was unanimously recommended by the whole committee, composed +as it was of experienced men taken from every section of the Union. +But it did not receive the requisite support of two-thirds of the +Senate to carry it through that body; and a similar plan proposed in +the House of Representatives received the same fate there--reported +by a committee, and unsustained by two-thirds of the House: and +such, there is too much reason to apprehend, may be the fate of +future similar propositions, originating in Congress, without the +powerful impulsion of the people to urge them through. Select bodies +are not the places for popular reforms. These reforms are for +the benefit of the people, and should begin with the people; and +the constitution itself, sensible of that necessity in this very +case, has very wisely made provision for the popular initiative of +constitutional amendments. The fifth article of that instrument +gives the power of beginning the reform of itself to the States, +in their legislatures, as well as to the federal government in its +Congress: and there is the place to begin, and before the people +themselves in their elections to the general assembly. And there +should be no despair on account of the failures already suffered. No +great reform is carried suddenly. It requires years of persevering +exertion to produce the unanimity of opinion which is necessary to +a great popular reformation: but because it is difficult, it is not +impossible. The greatest reform ever effected by peaceful means in +the history of any government was that of the parliamentary reform +of Great Britain, by which the rotten boroughs were disfranchised, +populous towns admitted to representation, the elective franchise +extended, the House of Commons purified, and made the predominant +branch--the master branch of the British government. And how was +that great reform effected? By a few desultory exertions in the +parliament itself? No, but by forty years of continued exertion, +and by incessant appeals to the people themselves. The society +for parliamentary reform, founded in 1792, by Earl Grey and Major +Cartwright, succeeded in its efforts in 1832; and in their success +there is matter for encouragement, as in their conduct there is an +example for imitation. They carried the question to the people, and +kept it there forty years, and saw it triumph--the two patriotic +founders of the society living to see the consummation of their +labors, and the country in the enjoyment of the inestimable +advantage of a "Reformed Parliament." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +REDUCTION OF EXECUTIVE PATRONAGE. + + +In the session 1825-'26, Mr. Macon moved that the select committee, +to which had been committed the consideration of the propositions +for amending the constitution in relation to the election of +President and Vice-President, should also be charged with an inquiry +into the expediency of reducing Executive patronage, in cases in +which it could be done by law consistently with the constitution, +and without impairing the efficiency of the government. The motion +was adopted, and the committee (Messrs. Benton, Macon, Van Buren, +White of Tennessee, Findlay of Pennsylvania, Dickerson, Holmes, +Hayne, and Johnson of Kentucky) made a report, accompanied by six +bills; which report and bills, though not acted upon at the time, +may still have their use in showing the democratic principles, +on practical points of that day (when some of the fathers of the +democratic church were still among us);--and in recalling the +administration of the government, to the simplicity and economy of +its early days. The six bills reported were. 1. To regulate the +publication of the laws of the United States, and of the public +advertisements. 2. To secure in office the faithful collectors +and disbursers of the revenue, and to displace defaulters. 3. +To regulate the appointment of postmasters. 4. To regulate the +appointment of cadets. 5. To regulate the appointment of midshipmen. +6. To prevent military and naval officers from being dismissed the +service at the pleasure of the President.--In favor of the general +principle, and objects of all the bills, the report accompanying +them, said: + + "In coming to the conclusion that Executive patronage ought to + be diminished and regulated, on the plan proposed, the committee + rest their opinion on the ground that the exercise of great + patronage in the hands of one man, has a constant tendency + to sully the purity of our institutions, and to endanger the + liberties of the country. This doctrine is not new. A jealousy + of power, and of the influence of patronage, which must always + accompany its exercise, has ever been a distinguished feature + in the American character. It displayed itself strongly at + the period of the formation, and of the adoption, of the + federal constitution. At that time the feebleness of the old + confederation had excited a much greater dread of anarchy + than of power--'of anarchy among the members than of power in + the head'--and although the impression was nearly universal + that a government of more energetic character had become + indispensably necessary, yet, even under the influence of this + conviction--such was the dread of power and patronage--that + the States, with extreme reluctance, yielded their assent to + the establishment of the federal government. Nor was this the + effect of idle and visionary fears, on the part of an ignorant + multitude, without knowledge of the nature and tendency of + power. On the contrary, it resulted from the most extensive and + profound political knowledge,--from the heads of statesmen, + unsurpassed, in any age, in sagacity and patriotism. Nothing + could reconcile the great men of that day to a constitution + of so much power, but the guards which were put upon it + against the abuse of power. Dread and jealousy of this abuse + displayed itself throughout the instrument. To this spirit + we are indebted for the freedom of the press, trial by jury, + liberty of conscience, freedom of debate, responsibility to + constituents, power of impeachment, the control of the Senate + over appointments to office; and many other provisions of a like + character. But the committee cannot imagine that the jealous + foresight of the time, great as it was, or that any human + sagacity, could have foreseen, and placed a competent guard + upon, every possible avenue to the abuse of power. The nature + of a constitutional act excludes the possibility of combining + minute perfection with general excellence. After the exertion + of all possible vigilance, something of what ought to have been + done, has been omitted; and much of what has been attempted, + has been found insufficient and unavailing in practice. Much + remains for us to do, and much will still remain for posterity + to do--for those unborn generations to do, on whom will devolve + the sacred task of guarding the temple of the constitution, and + of keeping alive the vestal flame of liberty. + + "The committee believe that they will be acting in the spirit + of the constitution, in laboring to multiply the guards, and to + strengthen the barriers, against the possible abuse of power. If + a community could be imagined in which the laws should execute + themselves--in which the power of government should consist in + the enactment of laws--in such a state the machine of government + would carry on its operations without jar or friction. Parties + would be unknown, and the movements of the political machine + would but little more disturb the passions of men, than they + are disturbed by the operations of the great laws of the + material world. But this is not the case. The scene shifts from + this imaginary region, where laws execute themselves, to the + theatre of real life, wherein they are executed by civil and + military officers, by armies and navies, by courts of justice, + by the collection and disbursement of revenue, with all its + train of salaries, jobs, and contracts; and in this aspect of + the reality, we behold the working of PATRONAGE, and discover + the reason why so many stand ready, in any country, and in all + ages, to flock to the standard of POWER, wheresoever, and by + whomsoever, it may be raised. + + "The patronage of the federal government at the beginning, was + founded upon a revenue of two millions of dollars. It is now + operating upon twenty-two millions; and, within the lifetime + of many now living, must operate upon fifty. The whole revenue + must, in a few years, be wholly applicable to subjects of + patronage. At present about one half, say ten millions of it, + are appropriated to the principal and interest of the public + debt, which, from the nature of the object, involves but little + patronage. In the course of a few years, this debt, without + great mismanagement, must be paid off. A short period of peace, + and a faithful application of the sinking fund, must speedily + accomplish that most desirable object. Unless the revenue be + then reduced, a work as difficult in republics as in monarchies, + the patronage of the federal government, great as it already is, + must, in the lapse of a few years, receive a vast accession of + strength. The revenue itself will be doubled, and instead of one + half being applicable to objects of patronage, the whole will + take that direction. Thus, the reduction of the public debt, and + the increase of revenue, will multiply in a four-fold degree + the number of persons in the service of the federal government, + the quantity of public money in their hands, and the number of + objects to which it is applicable; but as each person employed + will have a circle of greater or less diameter, of which he + is the centre and the soul--a circle composed of friends and + relations, and of individuals employed by himself on public + or on private account--the actual increase of federal power + and patronage by the duplication of the revenue, will be, not + in the arithmetical ratio, but in geometrical progression--an + increase almost beyond the power of the mind to calculate or to + comprehend." + +This was written twenty-five years ago. Its anticipations of +increased revenue and patronage are more than realized. Instead of +fifty millions of annual revenue during the lifetime of persons +then living, and then deemed a visionary speculation, I saw it +rise to sixty millions before I ceased to be a senator; and saw +all the objects of patronage expanding and multiplying in the same +degree, extending the circle of its influence, and, in many cases, +reversing the end of its creation. Government was instituted for +the protection of individuals--not for their support. Office was +to be given upon qualifications to fill it--not upon the personal +wants of the recipient. Proper persons were to be sought out and +appointed--(by the President in the higher appointments, and by the +heads of the different branches of service in the lower ones); and +importunate suppliants were not to beg themselves into an office +which belonged to the public, and was only to be administered for +the public good. Such was the theory of the government. Practice has +reversed it. Now office is sought for support, and for the repair +of dilapidated fortunes; applicants obtrude themselves, and prefer +"claims" to office. Their personal condition and party services, +not qualification, are made the basis of the demand: and the crowds +which congregate at Washington, at the change of an administration, +supplicants for office, are humiliating to behold, and threaten to +change the contests of parties from a contest for principle into a +struggle for plunder. + +The bills which were reported were intended to control, and +regulate different branches of the public service, and to limit +some exercises of executive power. 1. The publication of the +government advertisements had been found to be subject to great +abuse--large advertisements, and for long periods, having been often +found to be given to papers of little circulation, and sometimes +of no circulation at all, in places where the advertisement was +to operate--the only effect of that favor being to conciliate the +support of the paper, or to sustain an efficient one. For remedy, +the bill for that purpose provided for the selection, and the +limitation of the numbers, of the newspapers which were to publish +the federal laws and advertisements, and for the periodical report +of their names to Congress. 2. The four years' limitation law +was found to operate contrary to its intent, and to have become +the facile means of getting rid of faithful disbursing officers, +instead of retaining them. The object of the law was to pass the +disbursing officers every four years under the supervision of the +appointing power, for the inspection of their accounts, in order +that defaulters might be detected and dropped, while the faithful +should be ascertained and continued. Instead of this wholesome +discrimination, the expiration of the four years' term came to be +considered as the termination and vacation of all the offices on +which it fell, and the creation of vacancies to be filled by new +appointments at the option of the President. The bill to remedy +this evil gave legal effect to the original intention of the law by +confining the vacation of office to actual defaulters. The power +of the President to dismiss civil officers was not attempted to be +curtailed, but the restraints of responsibility were placed upon its +exercise by requiring the cause of dismission to be communicated +to Congress in each case. The section of the bill to that effect +was in these words: "_That in all nominations made by the President +to the Senate, to fill vacancies occasioned by an exercise of the +President's power to remove from office, the fact of the removal +shall be stated to the Senate at the same time that the nomination +is made, with a statement of the reasons for which such officer may +have been removed._" This was intended to operate as a restraint +upon removals without cause, and to make legal and general what the +Senate itself, and the members of the committee individually, had +constantly refused to do in isolated cases. It was the recognition +of a principle essential to the proper exercise of the appointing +power, and entirely consonant to Mr. Jefferson's idea of removals; +but never admitted by any administration, nor enforced by the Senate +against any one--always waiting the legal enactment. The opinion +of nine such senators as composed the committee who proposed to +legalize this principle, all of them democratic, and most of them +aged and experienced, should stand for a persuasive reason why this +principle should be legalized. 3. The appointment of military cadets +was distributed according to the Congressional representation, +and which has been adopted in practice, and perhaps become the +patronage of the member from a district instead of the President. +5. The selection of midshipmen was placed on the same footing, and +has been followed by the same practical consequence. 6. To secure +the independence of the army and navy officers, the bill proposed +to do, what never has been done by law,--define the tenure by which +they held their commissions, and substitute "good behavior" for the +clause which now runs "during the pleasure of the President." The +clause in the existing commission was copied from those then in use, +derived from the British government; and, in making army and navy +officers subject to dismission at the will of the President, departs +from the principle of our republican institutions, and lessens the +independence of the officers. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +EXCLUSION OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS FROM CIVIL OFFICE APPOINTMENTS + + +An inquiry into the expediency of amending the constitution so as +to prevent the appointment of any member of Congress to any federal +office of trust or profit, during the period for which he was +elected, was moved at the session 1825-26, by Mr. Senator Thomas W. +Cobb, of Georgia; and his motion was committed to the consideration +of the same select committee to which had been referred the +inquiries into the expediency of reducing executive patronage, and +amending the constitution in relation to the election of President +and Vice-President. The motion as submitted only applied to the +term for which the senator or representative was elected--only +carried the exclusion to the end of his constitutional term; but the +committee were of opinion that such appointments were injurious to +the independence of Congress and to the purity of legislation; and +believed that the limitation on the eligibility of members should +be more comprehensive than the one proposed, and should extend to +the President's term under whom the member served as well as to +his own--so as to cut off the possibility for a member to receive +an appointment from the President to whom he might have lent a +subservient vote: and the committee directed their chairman (Mr. +Benton) to report accordingly. This was done; and a report was made, +chiefly founded upon the proceedings of the federal convention which +framed the constitution, and the proceedings of the conventions +of the States which adopted it--showing that the total exclusion +of members of Congress from all federal appointments was actually +adopted in the convention on a full vote, and struck out in the +absence of some members; and afterwards modified so as to leave an +inadequate, and easily evaded clause in the constitution in place +of the full remedy which had been at first provided. It also showed +that conventions of several of the States, and some of the earlier +Congresses, endeavored to obtain amendments to the constitution to +cut off members of Congress entirely from executive patronage. Some +extracts from that report are here given to show the sense of the +early friends of the constitution on this important point. Thus: + + "That, having had recourse to the history of the times in + which the constitution was formed, the committee find that the + proposition now referred to them, had engaged the deliberations + of the federal convention which framed the constitution, and of + several of the State conventions which ratified it. + + "In an early stage of the session of the federal convention, it + was resolved, as follows: + + "'Article 6, section 9. The members of each House (of Congress) + shall be ineligible to, and incapable of holding, any office + under the authority of the United States, during the time for + which they shall respectively be elected; and the members of the + Senate shall be ineligible to, and incapable of holding any such + office for one year afterwards.' + + "It further appears from the journal, that this clause, in + the first draft of the constitution, was adopted with great + unanimity; and that afterwards, in the concluding days of the + session, it was altered, and its intention defeated, by a + majority of a single vote, in the absence of one of the States + by which it had been supported. + + "Following the constitution into the State conventions which + ratified it, and the committee find, that, in the New-York + convention, it was recommended, as follows: + + "'That no senator or representative shall, during the time for + which he was elected, be appointed to any office under the + authority of the United States. + + "By the Virginia convention, as follows: + + "'That the members of the Senate and House of Representatives + shall be ineligible to, and incapable of holding, any civil + office under the authority of the United States, during the term + for which they shall respectively be elected.' + + "By the North Carolina convention, the same amendment was + recommended, in the same words. + + "In the first session of the first Congress, which was held + under the constitution, a member of the House of Representatives + submitted a similar proposition of amendment; and, in the third + session of the eleventh Congress, James Madison being President, + a like proposition was again submitted, and being referred to a + committee of the House, was reported by them in the following + words: + + "'No senator or representative shall be appointed to any civil + office, place, or emolument, under the authority of the United + States, untill the expiration of the presidential term in which + such person shall have served as a senator or representative.' + + "Upon the question to adopt this resolution, the vote stood 71 + yeas, 40 nays.--wanting but three votes of the constitutional + number for referring it to the decision of the States. + + "Having thus shown, by a reference to the venerable evidence of + our early history, that the principle of the amendment now under + consideration, has had the support and approbation of the first + friends of the constitution, the committee will now declare + their own opinion in favor of its correctness, and expresses + its belief that the ruling principle in the organization of the + federal government demands its adoption." + +It is thus seen that in the formation of the constitution, and +in the early ages of our government, there was great jealousy on +this head--great fear of tampering between the President and the +members--and great efforts made to keep each independent of the +other. For the safety of the President, and that Congress should +not have him in their power, he was made independent of them in +point of salary. By a constitutional provision his compensation +was neither to be diminished nor increased during the term for +which he was elected;--not diminished, lest Congress should +starve him into acquiescence in their views;--not increased, +lest Congress should seduce him by tempting his cupidity with an +augmented compensation. That provision secured the independence +of the President; but the independence of the two Houses was +still to be provided for; and that was imperfectly effected by +two provisions--the first, prohibiting office holders under the +federal government from taking a seat in either House; the second, +by prohibiting their appointment to any civil office that might +have been created, or its emoluments increased, during the term for +which he should have been elected. These provisions were deemed by +the authors of the federalist (No. 55) sufficient to protect the +independence of Congress, and would have been, if still observed +in their spirit, as well as in their letter, as was done by the +earlier Presidents. A very strong instance of this observance +was the case of Mr. Alexander Smythe, of Virginia, during the +administration of President Monroe. Mr. Smythe had been a member +of the House of Representatives, and in that capacity had voted +for the establishment of a judicial district in Western Virginia, +and by which the office of judge was created. His term of service +had expired: he was proposed for the judgeship: the letter of the +constitution permitted the appointment: but its spirit did not. +Mr. Smythe was entirely fit for the place, and Mr. Monroe entirely +willing to bestow it upon him. But he looked to the spirit of +the act, and the mischief it was intended to prevent, as well as +to its letter; and could see no difference between bestowing the +appointment the day after, or the day before, the expiration of Mr. +Smythe's term of service: and he refused to make the appointment. +This was protecting the purity of legislation according to the +intent of the constitution; but it has not always been so. A glaring +case to the contrary occurred in the person of Mr. Thomas Butler +King, under the presidency of Mr. Fillmore. Mr. King was elected a +member of Congress for the term at which the office of collector +of the customs at San Francisco had been created, and had resigned +his place: but the resignation could not work an evasion of the +constitution, nor affect the principle of its provision. He had +been appointed in the recess of Congress, and sent to take the +place before his two years had expired--and did take it; and that +was against the words of the constitution. His nomination was not +sent in until his term expired--the day after it expired--having +been held back during the regular session; and was confirmed by the +Senate. I had then ceased to be a member of the Senate, and know +not whether any question was raised on the nomination; but if I had +been, there should have been a question. + +But the constitutional limitation upon the appointment of members +of Congress, even when executed beyond its letter and according to +its spirit, as done by Mr. Monroe, is but a very small restraint +upon their appointment, only applying to the few cases of new +offices created, or of compensation increased, during the period +of their membership. The whole class of regular vacancies remain +open! All the vacancies which the President pleases to create, by an +exercise of the removing power, are opened! and between these two +sources of supply, the fund is ample for as large a commerce between +members and the President--between subservient votes on one side, +and executive appointments on the other--as any President, or any +set of members, might choose to carry on. And here is to be noted +a wide departure from the theory of the government on this point, +and how differently it has worked from what its early friends and +advocates expected. I limit myself now to Hamilton, Madison and +Jay; and it is no narrow limit which includes three such men. Their +names would have lived for ever in American history, among those of +the wise and able founders of our government, without the crowning +work of the "ESSAYS" in behalf of the constitution which have been +embodied under the name of "FEDERALIST"--and which made that name so +respectable before party assumed it. The defects of the constitution +were not hidden from them in the depths of the admiration which +they felt for its perfections; and these defects were noted, and as +far as possible excused, in a work devoted to its just advocation. +This point (of dangerous commerce between the executive and the +legislative body) was obliged to be noticed--forced upon their +notice by the jealous attacks of the "ANTI-FEDERALISTS"--as the +opponents of the constitution were called: and in the number 55 of +their work, they excused, and diminished, this defect in these terms: + + "Sometimes we are told, that this fund of corruption (Executive + appointments) is to be exhausted by the President in subduing + the virtue of the Senate. Now, the fidelity of the other House + is to be the victim. The improbability of such a mercenary and + perfidious combination of the several members of the government, + standing on as different foundations as republican principles + will well admit, and at the same time accountable to the + society over which they are placed, ought alone to quiet this + apprehension. But, fortunately, the constitution has provided + a still further safeguard. The members of the Congress are + rendered ineligible to any civil offices that may be created, + or of which the emoluments may be increased, during the term + of their election. No offices, therefore, can be dealt out to + the existing members, but such as may become vacant by _ordinary + casualties_; and to suppose that these would be sufficient to + purchase the guardians of the people, selected by the people + themselves, is to renounce every rule by which events ought to + be calculated, and to substitute an indiscriminate and unbounded + jealousy, with which all reasoning must be vain." + +Such was their defence--the best which their great abilities, and +ardent zeal, and patriotic devotion, could furnish. They could +not deny the danger. To diminish its quantum, and to cover with a +brilliant declamation the little that remained, was their resource. +And, certainly if the working of the government had been according +to their supposition, their defence would have been good, I have +taken the liberty to mark in italics the ruling words contained +in the quotation which I have made from their works--"_ordinary +casualties_." And what were they? deaths, resignations, removals +upon impeachment, and dismissions by the President and Senate. This, +in fact, would constitute a very small amount of vacancies during +the presidential term; and as new offices, and those of increased +compensation, were excluded, the answer was undoubtedly good, and +even justified the visible contempt with which the objection was +repulsed. But what has been the fact? what has been the working of +the government at this point? and how stands this narrow limitation +of vacancies to "_ordinary casualties_?" In the first place, the +main stay of the argument in the Federalist was knocked from under +it at the outset of the government; and so knocked by a side-blow +from construction. In the very first year of the constitution a +construction was put on that instrument which enabled the President +to create as many vacancies as he pleased, and at any moment +that he pleased. This was effected by yielding to him the kingly +prerogative of dismissing officers without the formality of a trial, +or the consent of the other part of the appointing power. The +authors of the Federalist had not foreseen this construction: so +far from it they had asserted the contrary: and arguing logically +from the premises, "_that the dismissing power was appurtenant +to the appointing power_," they had maintained in that able and +patriotic work--(No. 77)--that, as the consent of the Senate was +necessary to the appointment of an officer, so the consent of the +same body would be equally necessary to his dismission from office. +But this construction was overruled by the first Congress which +sat under the constitution. The power of dismission from office +was abandoned to the President alone; and, with the acquisition +of this prerogative, the power and patronage of the presidential +office was instantly increased to an indefinite extent; and the +argument of the Federalist against the capacity of the President +to corrupt members of Congress, founded on the small number of +places which he could use for that purpose, was totally overthrown. +This is what has been done by construction. Now for the effects +of legislation: and without going into an enumeration of statutes +so widely extending and increasing executive patronage in the +multiplication of offices, jobs, contracts, agencies, retainers, and +sequiturs of all sorts, holding at the will of the President, it is +enough to point to a single act--the four years' limitation act; +which, by vacating almost the entire civil list--the whole "Blue +Book"--the 40,000 places which it registers--in every period of a +presidential term--puts more offices at the command of the President +than the authors of the Federalist ever dreamed of; and enough to +equip all the members and all their kin if they chose to accept +his favors. But this is not the end. Large as it opens the field +of patronage, it is not the end. There is a practice grown up in +these latter times, which, upon every revolution of parties, makes a +political exodus among the adversary office-holders, marching them +off into the wilderness, and leaving their places for new-comers. +This practice of itself, also unforeseen by the authors of the +Federalist, again over-sets their whole argument, and leaves the +mischief from which they undertook to defend the constitution in a +degree of vigor and universality of which the original opposers of +that mischief had never formed the slightest conception. + +Besides the direct commerce which may take place between the +Executive and a member, there are other evils resulting from +their appointment to office, wholly at war with the theory of our +government, and the purity of its action. Responsibility to his +constituents is the corner-stone and sheet-anchor, in the system +of representative government. It is the substance without which +representation is but a shadow. To secure that responsibility the +constitution has provided that the members shall be periodically +returned to their constituents--those of the House at the end of +every two years, those of the Senate at the end of every six--to +pass in review before them--to account for what may have been done +amiss, and to receive the reward or censure of good or bad conduct. +This responsibility is totally destroyed if the President takes a +member out of the hands of his constituents, prevents his return +home, and places him in a situation where he is independent of their +censure. Again: the constitution intended that the three departments +of the government,--the executive, the legislative, and the +judicial--should be independent of each other: and this independence +ceases, between the executive and legislative, the moment the +members become expectants and recipients of presidential favor;--the +more so if the President should have owed his office to their +nomination. Then it becomes a commerce, upon the regular principle +of trade--a commerce of mutual benefit. For this reason Congress +caucuses for the nomination of presidential candidates fell under +the ban of public opinion, and were ostracised above twenty years +ago--only to be followed by the same evil in a worse form, that of +illegal and irresponsible "conventions;" in which the nomination is +an election, so far as party power is concerned; and into which the +member glides who no longer dares to go to a Congress caucus;--whom +the constitution interdicts from being an elector--and of whom some +do not blush to receive office, and even to demand it, from the +President whom they have created. The framers of our government +never foresaw--far-seeing as they were--this state of things, +otherwise the exclusion of members from presidential appointments +could never have failed as part of the constitution, (after having +been first adopted in the original draught of that instrument); nor +repulsed when recommended by so many States at the adoption of the +constitution; nor rejected by a majority of one in the Congress of +1789, when proposed as an amendment, and coming so near to adoption +by the House. + +Thus far I have spoken of this abuse as a potentiality--as a +possibility--as a thing which might happen: the inexorable law +of history requires it to be written that it has happened, is +happening, becomes more intense, and is ripening into a chronic +disease of the body politic. When I first came to the Senate +thirty years ago, aged members were accustomed to tell me that +there were always members in the market, waiting to render votes, +and to receive office; and that in any closely contested, or nearly +balanced question, in which the administration took an interest, +they could turn the decision which way they pleased by the help of +these marketable votes. It was a humiliating revelation to a young +senator--but true; and I have seen too much of it in my time--seen +members whose every vote was at the service of government--to +whom a seat in Congress was but the stepping-stone to executive +appointment--to whom federal office was the pabulum for which +their stomachs yearned--and who to obtain it, were ready to forget +that they had either constituents or country. And now, why this +mortifying exhibition of a disgusting depravity? I answer--to +correct it:--if not by law and constitutional amendment (for it +is hard to get lawgivers to work against themselves), at least +by the force of public opinion, and the stern rebuke of popular +condemnation. + +I have mentioned Mr. Monroe as a President who would not depart, +even from the spirit of the constitution, in appointing, not a +member, but an ex-member of Congress, to office. Others of the +earlier Presidents were governed by the same principle, of whom I +will only mention (for his example should stand for all) General +Washington, who entirely condemned the practice. In a letter to +General Hamilton (vol. 6, page 53, of Hamilton's Works), he speaks +of his objections to these appointments as a thing well known to +that gentleman, and which he was only driven to think of in a +particular instance, from the difficulty of finding a Secretary of +State, successor to Mr. Edmund Randolph. No less than four persons +had declined the offer of it; and seeing no other suitable person +without going into the Senate, he offered it to Mr. Rufus King of +that body--who did not accept it: and for this offer, thus made +in a case of so much urgency, and to a citizen so eminently fit, +Washington felt that the honor of his administration required him +to show a justification. What would the Father of his country +have thought if members had come to him to solicit office? and +especially, if these members (a thing almost blasphemous to be +imagined in connection with his name) had mixed in caucuses and +conventions to procure his nomination for President? Certainly he +would have given them a look which would have sent such suppliants +for ever from his presence. And I, who was senator for thirty years, +and never had office for myself or any one of my blood, have a right +to condemn a practice which my conduct rebukes, and which the purity +of the government requires to be abolished, and which the early +Presidents carefully avoided. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +DEATH OF THE EX-PRESIDENTS JOHN ADAMS AND THOMAS JEFFERSON. + + +It comes within the scope of this View to notice the deaths and +characters of eminent public men who have died during my time, +although not my contemporaries, and who have been connected with +the founding or early working of the federal government. This gives +me a right to head a chapter with the names of Mr. John Adams +and Mr. Jefferson--two of the most eminent political men of the +revolution, who, entering public life together, died on the same +day,--July 4th, 1826,--exactly fifty years after they had both put +their hands to that Declaration of Independence which placed a new +nation upon the theatre of the world. Doubtless there was enough of +similitude in their lives and deaths to excuse the belief in the +interposition of a direct providence, and to justify the feeling of +mysterious reverence with which the news of their coincident demise +was received throughout the country. The parallel between them was +complete. Born nearly at the same time, Mr. Adams the elder, they +took the same course in life--with the same success--and ended +their earthly career at the same time, and in the same way:--in +the regular course of nature, in the repose and tranquillity of +retirement, in the bosom of their families, and on the soil which +their labors had contributed to make free. + +Born, one in Massachusetts, the other in Virginia, they both +received liberal educations, embraced the same profession (that of +the law), mixed literature and science with their legal studies and +pursuits, and entered early into the ripening contest with Great +Britain--first in their counties and States, and then on the broader +field of the General Congress of the Confederated Colonies. They +were both members of the Congress which declared Independence--both +of the committee which reported the Declaration--both signed +it--were both employed in foreign missions--both became Vice +Presidents--and both became Presidents. They were both working +men; and, in the great number of efficient laborers in the cause +of Independence which the Congresses of the Revolution contained, +they were doubtless the two most efficient--and Mr. Adams the more +so of the two. He was, as Mr. Jefferson styled him, "the Colossus" +of the Congress--speaking, writing, counselling--a member of +ninety different committees, and (during his three years' service) +chairman of twenty five--chairman also of the board of war and +board of appeals: his soul on fire with the cause, left no rest to +his head, hands, or tongue. Mr. Jefferson drew the Declaration of +Independence, but Mr. Adams was "the pillar of its support, and its +ablest advocate and defender," during the forty days it was before +the Congress. In the letter which he wrote that night to Mrs. Adams +(for, after all the labors of the day, and such a day, he could +still write to her), he took a glowing view of the future, and used +those expressions, "gloom" and "glory," which his son repeated in +the paragraph of his message to Congress in relation to the deaths +of the two ex-Presidents, which I have heard criticized by those +who did not know their historical allusion, and could not feel the +force and beauty of their application. They were words of hope and +confidence when he wrote them, and of history when he died. "I +am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will +cost to maintain this Declaration, and to support and defend these +States; yet through all the _gloom_, I can see the rays of light +and _glory_!" and he lived to see it--to see the glory--with the +bodily, as well as with the mental eye. And (for the great fact +will bear endless repetition) it was he that conceived the idea of +making Washington commander-in-chief, and prepared the way for his +unanimous nomination. + +In the division of parties which ensued the establishment of the +federal government, Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson differed in systems +of policy, and became heads of opposite divisions, but without +becoming either unjust or unkind to each other. Mr. Adams sided +with the party discriminated as federal; and in that character +became the subject of political attacks, from which his competitor +generously defended him, declaring that "a more perfectly honest man +never issued from the hands of his Creator;" and, though opposing +candidates for the presidency, neither would have any thing to do +with the election, which they considered a question between the +systems of policy which they represented, and not a question between +themselves. Mr. Jefferson became the head of the party then called +republican--now democratic; and in that character became the founder +of the political school which has since chiefly prevailed in the +United States. He was a statesman: that is to say, a man capable of +conceiving measures useful to the country and to mankind--able to +recommend them to adoption, and to administer them when adopted. +I have seen many politicians--a few statesmen--and, of these few, +he their pre-eminent head. He was a republican by nature and +constitution, and gave proofs of it in the legislation of his State, +as well as in the policy of the United States. He was no speaker, +but a most instructive and fascinating talker; and the Declaration +of Independence, even if it had not been sistered by innumerable +classic productions, would have placed him at the head of political +writers. I never saw him but once, when I went to visit him in his +retirement; and then I felt, for four hours, the charms of his +bewitching talk. I was then a young senator, just coming on the +stage of public life--he a patriarchal statesman just going off the +stage of natural life, and evidently desirous to impress some views +of policy upon me--a design in which he certainly did not fail. I +honor him as a patriot of the Revolution--as one of the Founders +of the Republic--as the founder of the political school to which I +belong; and for the purity of character which he possessed in common +with his compatriots, and which gives to the birth of the United +States a beauty of parentage which the genealogy of no other nation +can show. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +BRITISH INDEMNITY FOR DEPORTED SLAVES. + + +In this year was brought to a conclusion the long-continued +controversy with Great Britain in relation to the non-fulfilment of +the first article of the treaty of Ghent (1814), for the restitution +of slaves carried off by the British troops in the war of 1812. It +was a renewal of the misunderstanding, but with a better issue, +which grew up under the seventh article of the treaty of peace of +1783 upon the same subject. The power of Washington's administration +was not able to procure the execution of that article, either by +restoration of the slaves or indemnity. The slaves then taken away +were carried to Nova Scotia, where, becoming an annoyance, they +were transferred to Sierra Leone; and thus became the foundation +of the British African colony there. The restitution of deported +slaves, stipulated in the first article of the Ghent treaty, could +not be accomplished between the two powers; they disagreed as to +the meaning of words; and, after seven years of vain efforts to +come to an understanding, it was agreed to refer the question +to arbitrament. The Emperor Alexander accepted the office of +arbitrator, executed it, and decided in favor of the United States. +That decision was as unintelligible to Great Britain as all the +previous treaty stipulations on this same subject had been. She +could not understand it. A second misunderstanding grew up, giving +rise to a second negotiation, which was concluded by a final +agreement to pay the value of the slaves carried off. In 1827 +payment was made--twelve years after the injury and the stipulation +to repair it, and after continued and most strenuous exertions to +obtain redress. + +The case was this: it was a part of the system of warfare adopted +by the British, when operating in the slave States, to encourage +the slaves to desert from their owners, promising them freedom; +and at the end of the war these slaves were carried off. This +carrying off was foreseen by the United States Commissioners at +Ghent, and in the first article of the treaty was provided against +in these words; "all places taken, &c. shall be restored without +delay, &c., or carrying away any of the artillery, or other public +property originally captured in the said posts or places, and +which shall remain therein upon the exchange of the ratifications +of this treaty, or any slaves or other private property." The +British Government undertook to extend the limitation which applied +to public property to that which was private also; and so to +restore only such slaves as were originally captured within the +forts, and which remained therein at the time of the exchange of +ratifications--a construction which would have excluded all that +were induced to run away, being nearly the whole; and all that left +the forts before the exchange of ratifications, which would have +included the rest. She adhered to the construction given to the +parallel article in the treaty of 1783, and by which all slaves +taken during the war were held to be lawful prize of war, and free +under the British proclamation, and not to be compensated for. The +United States, on the contrary, confined this local limitation to +things appurtenant to the forts; and held the slaves to be private +property, subject to restitution, or claim for compensation, if +carried away at all, no matter how acquired. + +The point was solemnly carried before the Emperor Alexander, the +United States represented by their minister, Mr. Henry Middleton, +and Great Britain by Sir Charles Bagot--the Counts Nesselrode +and Capo D'Istrias receiving the arguments to be laid before the +Emperor. His Majesty's decision was peremptory; "that the United +States of America are entitled to a just indemnification from +Great Britain for all private property carried away by the British +forces; and, as the question regards slaves more especially, for +all such slaves as were carried away by the British forces from the +places and territories of which the restitution was stipulated by +the treaty, in quitting the said places and territories." This was +explicit; but the British minister undertook to understand it as +not applying to slaves who _voluntarily_ joined the British troops +to free themselves from bondage, and who came from places never +in _possession_ of the British troops; and he submitted a note to +that effect to the Russian minister, Count Nesselrode, to be laid +before the Emperor. To this note Alexander gave an answer which is +a model of categorical reply to unfounded dubitation. He said: "the +Emperor having, by the mutual consent of the two plenipotentiaries, +given an opinion, founded solely upon the sense which results from +the text of the article in dispute, does not think himself called +upon to decide here any question relative to what the laws of war +permit or forbid to the belligerents; but, always faithful to the +grammatical interpretation of the first article of the treaty of +Ghent, his Imperial Majesty declares, a second time, that it appears +to him, according to this interpretation, that, in quitting the +places and territories of which the treaty of Ghent stipulates the +restitution to the United States, his Britannic Majesty's forces +had no right to carry away from the same places and territories, +absolutely, any slave, by whatever means he had fallen or come into +their power." This was the second declaration, the second decision +of the point; and both parties having bound themselves to abide +the decision, be it what it might, a convention was immediately +concluded for the purpose of carrying the Emperor's decision into +effect, by establishing a board to ascertain the number and value +of the deported slaves. It was a convention formally drawn up, +signed by the ministers of the three powers, done in triplicate, +ratified, and ratifications exchanged, and the affair considered +finished. Not so the fact! New misunderstanding, new negotiation, +five years more consumed in diplomatic notes, and finally a new +convention concluded! Certainly it was not the value of the property +in controversy, not the amount of money to be paid, that led Great +Britain to that pertinacious resistance, bordering upon cavilling +and bad faith. It was the loss of an advantage in war--the loss of +the future advantage of operating upon the slave States through +their slave property, and which advantage would be lost if this +compensation was enforced,--which induced her to stand out so long +against her own stipulations, and the decisions of her own accepted +arbitrator. + +This new or third treaty, making indemnity for these slaves, was +negotiated at London, November, 1826, between Mr. Gallatin on the +part of the United States, and Messrs. Huskisson and Addington +on the part of Great Britain. It commenced with reciting that +"difficulties having arisen in the execution of the convention +concluded at St. Petersburg, July 12th, 1822, under the mediation +of his majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, between the United +States of America and Great Britain, for the purpose of carrying +into effect the decision of his Imperial Majesty upon the +differences which had arisen between the said United States and +Great Britain as to the true construction and meaning of the first +article of the treaty of Ghent, _therefore_ the said parties agree +to treat again," &c. The result of this third negotiation was to +stipulate for the payment of a gross sum to the government of the +United States, to be by it divided among those whose slaves had +been carried off: and the sum of one million two hundred and four +thousand nine hundred and sixty dollars was the amount agreed upon. +This sum was satisfactory to the claimants, and was paid to the +United States for their benefit in the year 1827--just twelve years +after the conclusion of the war, and after two treaties had been +made, and two arbitrations rendered to explain the meaning of the +first treaty, and which fully explained itself. Twelve years of +persevering exertion to obtain the execution of a treaty stipulation +which solely related to private property, and which good faith and +sheer justice required to have been complied with immediately! At +the commencement of the session of Congress, 1827-28, the President, +Mr. John Quincy Adams, was able to communicate the fact of the +final settling and closing up of this demand upon the British +government for the value of the slaves carried off by its troops. +The sum received was large, and ample to pay the damages; but that +was the smallest part of the advantage gained. The example and the +principle were the main points--the enforcement of such a demand +against a government so powerful, and after so much resistance, and +the condemnation which it carried, and the responsibility which it +implied--this was the grand advantage. Liberation and abduction +of slaves was one of the modes of warfare adopted by the British, +and largely counted on as a means of harassing and injuring one +half of the Union. It had been practised during the Revolution, +and indemnity avoided. If avoided a second time, impunity would +have sanctioned the practice and rendered it inveterate; and in +future wars, not only with Great Britain but with all powers, this +mode of annoyance would have become an ordinary resort, leading to +servile insurrections. The indemnity exacted carried along with +it the condemnation of the practice, as a spoliation of private +property to be atoned for; and was both a compensation for the past +and a warning for the future. It implied a responsibility which no +power, or art, or time could evade, and the principle of which being +established, there will be no need for future arbitrations. + +I have said that this article in the treaty of Ghent for +restitution, or compensation, for deported slaves was brought +to a better issue than its parallel in the treaty of peace of +1783. By the seventh article of this treaty it was declared that +the evacuation (by the British troops) should be made "without +carrying away any negroes or other property belonging to the +American inhabitants." Yet three thousand slaves were carried away +(besides ten times that number--27,000 in Virginia alone--perishing +of disease in the British camps); and neither restitution nor +compensation made for any part of them. Both were resisted--the +restitution by Sir Guy Carleton in his letter of reply to +Washington's demand, declaring it to be an impossible infamy in a +British officer to give up those whom they had invited to their +standard; but reserving the point for the consideration of his +government, and, in the mean time, allowing and facilitating the +taking of schedules of all slaves taken away--names, ages, sex, +former owners, and States from which taken. The British government +resisted compensation upon the ground of war captures; that, being +taken in war, no matter how, they became, like other plunder, the +property of the captors, who had a right to dispose of it as they +pleased, and had chosen to set it free; that the slaves, having +become free, belonged to nobody, and consequently it was no breach +of the treaty stipulation to carry them away. This ground was +contested by the Congress of the confederation to the end of its +existence, and afterwards by the new federal government, from its +commencement until the claim for indemnity was waived or abandoned, +at the conclusion of Jay's treaty, in 1796. The very first message +of Washington to Congress when he became President, presented the +inexecution of the treaty of peace in this particular, among others, +as one of the complaints justly existing against Great Britain; +and all the diplomacy of his administration was exerted to obtain +redress--in vain. The treaties of '94 and '96 were both signed +without allusion to the subject; and, being left unprovided for in +these treaties, the claim sunk into the class of obsolete demands; +and the stipulation remained in the treaty a dead letter, although +containing the precise words, and the additional one "negroes," +on which the Emperor Alexander took the stand which commanded +compensation and dispensed with arguments founded in the laws of +war. Not a shilling had been received for that immense depredation +upon private property; although the Congress of the confederation +adopted the strongest resolves, and even ordered each State to be +furnished with copies of the schedules of the slaves taken from it; +and hopes of indemnity were kept alive until extinguished by the +treaty of '96. It was a bitter complaint against that treaty, as the +Congress debates of the time, and the public press, abundantly show. + +Northern men did their duty to the South in getting compensation +(and, what is infinitely more, establishing the principle that there +shall be compensation in such cases) for the slaves carried away +in the war of 1812. A majority of the commissioners at Ghent who +obtained the stipulation for indemnity were Northern men--Adams, +Russell, Gallatin, from the free, and Clay and Bayard from the slave +States. A Northern negotiator (Mr. Gallatin), under a Northern +President (Mr. John Quincy Adams), finally obtained it; and it is a +coincidence worthy of remark that this Northern negotiator, who was +finally successful, was the same debater in Congress, in '96, who +delivered the best argument (in my opinion surpassing even that of +Mr. Madison), against the grounds on which the British Government +resisted the execution of this article of the treaty. + +I am no man to stir up old claims against the federal government; +and, I detest the trade which exhumes such claims, and deplore the +facility with which they are considered--too often in the hands of +speculators who gave nothing, or next to nothing, for them. But I +must say that the argument on which the French spoliation claim is +now receiving so much consideration, applies with infinitely more +force to the planters whose slaves were taken during the war of the +Revolution than in behalf of these French spoliation claims. They +were contributing--some in their persons in the camp or council, +all in their voluntary or tax contributions--to the independence +of their country when they were thus despoiled of their property. +They depended upon these slaves to support their families while +they were supporting their country. They were in debt to British +merchants, and relied upon compensation for these slaves to pay +those debts, at the very moment when compensation was abandoned by +the same treaty which enforced the payment of the debts. They had +a treaty obligation for indemnity, express in its terms, and since +shown to be valid, when deprived of this stipulation by another +treaty, in order to obtain general advantages for the whole Union. +This is something like taking private property for public use. Three +thousand slaves, the property of ascertained individuals, protected +by a treaty stipulation, and afterwards abandoned by another treaty, +against the entreaties and remonstrances of the owners, in order to +obtain the British commercial treaty of '94, and its supplement of +'96: such is the case which this revolutionary spoliation of slave +property presents, and which puts it immeasurably ahead of the +French spoliation claims prior to 1800. There is but four years' +difference in their ages--in the dates of the two treaties by which +they were respectively surrendered--and every other difference +between the two cases is an argument of preference in favor of +the losers under the treaty of 1796. Yet I am against both, and +each, separately or together; and put them in contrast to make one +stand as an argument against the other. But the primary reason for +introducing the slave spoliation case of 1783, and comparing its +less fortunate issue with that of 1812, was to show that Northern +men will do justice to the South; that Northern men obtained for +the South an indemnity and security in our day which a Southern +Administration, with Washington at its head, had not been able to +obtain in the days of our fathers. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +MEETING OF THE FIRST CONGRESS ELECTED UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF +MR. ADAMS. + + +The nineteenth Congress, commencing its legal existence, March the +4th, 1825, had been chiefly elected at the time that Mr. Adams' +administration commenced, and the two Houses stood divided with +respect to him--the majority of the Representatives being favorable +to him, while the majority of the Senate was in opposition. +The elections for the twentieth Congress--the first under his +administration--were looked to with great interest, both as showing +whether the new President was supported by the country, and his +election by the House sanctioned, and also as an index to the issue +of the ensuing presidential election. For, simultaneously with the +election in the House of Representatives did the canvass for the +succeeding election begin--General Jackson being the announced +candidate on one side, and Mr. Adams on the other; and the event +involving not only the question of merits between the parties, +but also the question of approved or disapproved conduct on the +part of the representatives who elected Mr. Adams. The elections +took place, and resulted in placing an opposition majority in +the House of Representatives, and increasing the strength of the +opposition majority in the Senate. The state of parties in the House +was immediately tested by the election of speaker, Mr. John W. +Taylor, of New-York, the administration candidate, being defeated +by Mr. Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, in the opposition. The +appointment of the majority of members on all the committees, and +their chairmen, in both Houses adverse to the administration, was +a regular consequence of the inflamed state of parties, although +the proper conducting of the public business would demand for the +administration the chairman of several important committees, as +enabling it to place its measures fairly before the House. The +speaker (Mr. Stevenson) could only yield to this just sense of +propriety in the case of one of the committees, that of foreign +relations, to which Mr. Edward Everett, classing as the political +and personal friend of the President, was appointed chairman. In +other committees, and in both Houses, the stern spirit of the times +prevailed; and the organization of the whole Congress was adverse to +the administration. + +The presidential message contained no new recommendations, but +referred to those previously made, and not yet acted upon; among +which internal improvement, and the encouragement of home industry, +were most prominent. It gave an account of the failure of the +proposed congress of Panama; and, consequently, of the inutility +of all our exertions to be represented there. And, as in this +final and valedictory notice by Mr. Adams of that once far-famed +congress, he took occasion to disclaim some views attributed to +him, I deem it just to give him the benefit of his own words, both +in making the disclaimer, and in giving the account of the abortion +of an impracticable scheme which had so lately been prosecuted, and +opposed, with so much heat and violence in our own country. He said +of it: + + "Disclaiming alike all right and all intention of interfering in + those concerns which it is the prerogative of their independence + to regulate as to them shall seem fit, we hail with joy every + indication of their prosperity, of their harmony, of their + persevering and inflexible homage to those principles of freedom + and of equal rights, which are alone suited to the genius and + temper of the American nations. It has been therefore with some + concern that we have observed indications of intestine divisions + in some of the republics of the South, and appearances of less + union with one another, than we believe to be the interest of + all. Among the results of this state of things has been that the + treaties concluded at Panama do not appear to have been ratified + by the contracting parties, and that the meeting of the Congress + at Tacubaya has been indefinitely postponed. In accepting + the invitations to be represented at this Congress, while a + manifestation was intended on the part of the United States, of + the most friendly disposition towards the Southern republics by + whom it had been proposed, it was hoped that it would furnish + an opportunity for bringing all the nations of this hemisphere + to the common acknowledgment and adoption of the principles, in + the regulation of their international relations, which would + have secured a lasting peace and harmony between them, and have + promoted the cause of mutual benevolence throughout the globe. + But as obstacles appear to have arisen to the reassembling of + the Congress, one of the two ministers commissioned on the part + of the United States has returned to the bosom of his country, + while the minister charged with the ordinary mission to Mexico + remains authorized to attend at the conferences of the Congress + whenever they may be resumed." + +This is the last that was heard of that so much vaunted Congress of +American nations, and in the manner in which it died out of itself, +among those who proposed it, without ever having been reached by a +minister from the United States, we have the highest confirmation +of the soundness of the objections taken to it by the opposition +members of the two Houses of our Congress. + +In stating the condition of the finances, the message, without +intending it, gave proof of the paradoxical proposition, first, I +believe, broached by myself, that an annual revenue to the extent +of a fourth or a fifth below the annual expenditure, is sufficient +to meet that annual expenditure; and consequently that there is +no necessity to levy as much as is expended, or to provide by law +for keeping a certain amount in the treasury when the receipts are +equal, or superior to the expenditure. He said: + + "The balance in the treasury on the first of January last + was six millions three hundred and fifty-eight thousand six + hundred and eighty-six dollars and eighteen cents. The receipts + from that day to the 30th of September last, as near as the + returns of them yet received can show, amount to sixteen + millions eight hundred and eighty-six thousand five hundred + and eighty-one dollars and thirty-two cents. The receipts of + the present quarter, estimated at four millions five hundred + and fifteen thousand, added to the above, form an aggregate of + twenty-one millions four hundred thousand dollars of receipts. + The expenditures of the year may perhaps amount to twenty-two + millions three hundred thousand dollars, presenting a small + excess over the receipts. But of these twenty-two millions, + upwards of six have been applied to the discharge of the + principal of the public debt; the whole amount of which, + approaching seventy-four millions on the first of January last, + will on the first day of next year fall short of sixty-seven + millions and a half. The balance in the treasury on the first + of January next, it is expected, will exceed five millions four + hundred and fifty thousand dollars; a sum exceeding that of the + first of January, 1825, though falling short of that exhibited + on the first of January last." + +In this statement the expenditures of the year are shown to exceed +the income, and yet to leave a balance, about equal to one fourth +of the whole in the treasury at the end of the year; also that the +balance was larger at the end of the preceding year, and nearly +the same at the end of the year before. And the message might +have added, that these balances were about the same at the end of +every quarter of every year, and every day of every quarter--all +resulting from the impossibility of applying money to objects until +there has been time to apply it. Yet in the time of those balances +of which Mr. Adams speaks, there was a law to retain two millions +in the treasury; and now there is a law to retain six millions; +while the current balances, at the rate of a fourth or a fifth +of the income, are many times greater than the sum ordered to be +retained; and cannot be reduced to that sum, by regular payments +from the treasury, until the revenue itself is reduced below the +expenditure. This is a financial paradox, sustainable upon reason, +proved by facts, and visible in the state of the treasury at all +times; yet I have endeavored in vain to establish it; and Congress +is as careful as ever to provide an annual income equal to the +annual expenditure; and to make permanent provision by law to keep +up a reserve in the treasury; which would be there of itself without +such law as long as the revenue comes within a fourth or a fifth of +the expenditure. + +The following members composed the two Houses at this, the first +session of the twentieth Congress: + +SENATE. + +MAINE--John Chandler, Albion K. Parris. + +NEW HAMPSHIRE--Samuel Bell, Levi Woodbury. + +MASSACHUSETTS--Nathaniel Silsbee, Daniel Webster. + +CONNECTICUT--Samuel A. Foot, Calvin Willey. + +RHODE ISLAND--Nehemiah R. Knight, Asher Robbins. + +VERMONT--Dudley Chase, Horatio Seymour. + +NEW-YORK--Martin Van Buren, Nathan Sanford. + +NEW JERSEY--Mahlon Dickerson, Ephraim Bateman. + +PENNSYLVANIA--William Marks, Isaac D. Barnard. + +DELAWARE--Louis M'Lane, Henry M. Ridgeley. + +MARYLAND--Ezekiel F. Chambers, Samuel Smith. + +VIRGINIA--Littleton W. Tazewell, John Tyler. + +NORTH CAROLINA--John Branch, Nathaniel Macon. + +SOUTH CAROLINA--William Smith, Robert Y. Hayne. + +GEORGIA--John M'Pherson Berrien, Thomas W. Cobb. + +KENTUCKY--Richard M. Johnson, John Rowan. + +TENNESSEE--John H. Eaton, Hugh L. White. + +OHIO--William H. Harrison, Benjamin Ruggles. + +LOUISIANA--Dominique Bouligny, Josiah S. Johnston. + +INDIANA--William Hendricks, James Noble. + +MISSISSIPPI--Powhatan Ellis, Thomas H. Williams. + +ILLINOIS--Elias K. Kane, Jesse B. Thomas. + +ALABAMA--John McKinley, William R. King. + +MISSOURI--David Barton, Thomas H. Benton. + + +HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + +MAINE--John Anderson, Samuel Butman, Rufus M'Intire, Jeremiah +O'Brien, James W. Ripley, Peleg Sprague, Joseph F. Wingate--7. + +NEW HAMPSHIRE--Ichabod Bartlett, David Barker, jr., Titus Brown, +Joseph Healey, Jonathan Harvey, Thomas Whipple, jr.--6. + +MASSACHUSETTS--Samuel C. Allen, John Bailey, Isaac C. Bates, B. W. +Crowninshield, John Davis, Henry W. Dwight, Edward Everett, Benjamin +Gorham, James L. Hodges, John Locke, John Reed, Joseph Richardson, +John Varnum--15. + +RHODE ISLAND--Tristam Burges; Dutee J. Pearce--2. + +CONNECTICUT--John Baldwin, Noyes Barber, Ralph J. Ingersoll, Orange +Merwin, Elisha Phelps, David Plant--6. + +VERMONT--Daniel A. A. Buck, Jonathan Hunt, Rolin C. Mallary, +Benjamin Swift, George E. Wales--5. + +NEW-YORK--Daniel D. Barnard, George O. Belden, Rudolph Bunner, C. +C. Cambreleng, Samuel Chase, John C. Clark, John D. Dickinson, +Jonas Earll, jr., Daniel G. Garnsey, Nathaniel Garrow, John I. +De Graff, John Hallock, jr., Selah R. Hobbie, Michael Hoffman, +Jeromus Johnson, Richard Keese, Henry Markell, H. C. Martindale, +Dudley Marvin, John Magee, John Maynard, Thomas J. Oakley, S. Van +Rensselaer, Henry R. Storrs, James Strong, John G. Stower, Phineas +L. Tracy, John W. Taylor, G. C. Verplanck, Aaron Ward, John J. Wood, +Silas Wood, David Woodcock, Silas Wright, jr.--34. + +NEW JERSEY--Lewis Condict, George Holcombe, Isaac Pierson, Samuel +Swan, Edge Thompson, Ebenezer Tucker--6. + +PENNSYLVANIA--William Addams, Samuel Anderson, Stephen Barlow, James +Buchanan, Richard Coulter, Chauncey Forward, Joseph Fry, jr., Innes +Green, Samuel D. Ingham, George Kremer, Adam King, Joseph Lawrence, +Daniel H. Miller, Charles Miner, John Mitchell, Samuel M'Kean, +Robert Orr, jr., William Ramsay, John Sergeant, James S. Stevenson, +John B. Sterigere, Andrew Stewart, Joel B. Sutherland, Espy Van +Horn, James Wilson, George Wolf--26. + +DELAWARE--Kensy Johns, jr.--1. + +MARYLAND--John Barney, Clement Dorsey, Levin Gale, John Leeds Kerr, +Peter Little, Michael C. Sprigg, G. C. Washington, John C. Weems, +Ephraim K. Wilson--9. + +VIRGINIA--Mark Alexander, Robert Allen, Wm. S. Archer, Wm. +Armstrong, jr., John S. Barbour, Philip P. Barbour, Burwell Bassett, +N. H. Claiborne, Thomas Davenport, John Floyd, Isaac Leffler, +Lewis Maxwell, Charles F. Mercer, William M'Coy, Thomas Newton, +John Randolph, William C. Rives, John Roane, Alexander Smyth, A. +Stevenson, John Talliaferro, James Trezvant--22. + +NORTH CAROLINA--Willis Alston, Daniel L. Barringer, John H. Bryan, +Samuel P. Carson, Henry W. Conner, John Culpeper, Thomas H. Hall, +Gabriel Holmes, John Long, Lemuel Sawyer, A. H. Shepperd, Daniel +Turner, Lewis Williams--13. + +SOUTH CAROLINA--John Carter, Warren R. Davis, William Drayton, +James Hamilton, jr., George M'Duffie, William D. Martin, Thomas R. +Mitchell, Wm. T. Nuckolls, Starling Tucker--9. + +GEORGIA--John Floyd, Tomlinson Fort, Charles E. Haynes, George R. +Gilmer, Wilson Lumpkin, Wiley Thompson, Richard H. Wilde--7. + +KENTUCKY--Richard A. Buckner, James Clark, Henry Daniel, Joseph +Lecompte, Robert P. Letcher, Chittenden Lyon, Thomas Metcalfe, +Robert M'Hatton, Thomas P. Moore, Charles A. Wickliffe, Joel Yancey, +Thomas Chilton--12. + +TENNESSEE--John Bell, John Blair, David Crockett, Robert Desha, +Jacob C. Isacks, Pryor Lea, John H. Marable, James C. Mitchell, +James K. Polk--9. + +OHIO--Mordecai Bartley, Philemon Beecher, William Creighton, jr., +John Davenport, James Findlay, Wm. M'Lean, William Russell, John +Sloane, William Stanberry, Joseph Vance, Samuel F. Vinton, Elisha +Whittlesey, John Woods, John C. Wright--14. + +LOUISIANA--William L. Brent, Henry H. Gurley, Edward Livingston--3. + +INDIANA--Thomas H. Blake, Jonathan Jennings, Oliver H. Smith--3. + +MISSISSIPPI--William Haile--1. + +ILLINOIS--Joseph Duncan--1. + +ALABAMA--Gabriel Moore, John M'Kee, George W. Owen--3. + +MISSOURI--Edward Bates--1. + + +DELEGATES. + +ARKANSAS TERRITORY--A. H. Sevier. + +MICHIGAN TERRITORY--Austin E. Wing. + +FLORIDA TERRITORY--Joseph M. White. + +This list of members presents an immense array of talent, and +especially of business talent; and in its long succession of +respectable names, many will be noted as having attained national +reputations--others destined to attain that distinction--while +many more, in the first class of useful and respectable members, +remained without national renown for want of that faculty which +nature seems most capriciously to have scattered among the children +of men--the faculty of fluent and copious speech;--giving it to +some of great judgment--denying it to others of equal, or still +greater judgment--and lavishing it upon some of no judgment at all. +The national eyes are fixed upon the first of these classes--the +men of judgment and copious speech; and even those in the third +class obtain national notoriety; while the men in the second +class--the men of judgment and few words--are extremely valued and +respected in the bodies to which they belong and have great weight +in the conduct of business. They are, in fact, the business men, +often more practical and efficient than the great orators. This +twentieth Congress, as all others that have been, contained a large +proportion of these most useful and respectable members; and it will +be the pleasant task of this work to do them the justice which their +modest merit would not do for themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +REVISION OF THE TARIFF. + + +The tariff of 1828 is an era in our legislation, being the event +from which the doctrine of "nullification" takes its origin, and +from which a serious division dates between the North and the +South. It was the work of politicians and manufacturers; and was +commenced for the benefit of the woollen interest, and upon a bill +chiefly designed to favor that branch of manufacturing industry. +But, like all other bills of the kind, it required help from other +interests to get itself along; and that help was only to be obtained +by admitting other interests into the benefits of the bill. And +so, what began as a special benefit, intended for the advantage of +a particular interest, became general, and ended with including +all manufacturing interests--or at least as many as were necessary +to make up the strength necessary to carry it. The productions of +different States, chiefly in the West, were favored by additional +duties on their rival imports; as lead in Missouri and Illinois, +and hemp of Kentucky; and thus, though opposed to the object of the +bill, many members were necessitated to vote for it. Mr. Rowan, of +Kentucky, well exposed the condition of others in this respect, in +showing his own in some remarks which he made, and in which he said: + + "He was not opposed to the tariff as a system of revenue, + honestly devoted to the objects and purposes of revenue--on + the contrary, he was friendly to a tariff of that character; + but when perverted by the ambition of political aspirants, and + the secret influence of inordinate cupidity, to purposes of + individual, and sectional ascendency, he could not be seduced by + the captivation of names, or terms, however attractive, to lend + it his individual support. + + "It is in vain, Mr. President, said he, that it is called + the American System--names do not alter things. There is but + one American System, and that is delineated in the State and + Federal constitutions. It is the system of equal rights and + privileges secured by the representative principle--a system, + which, instead of subjecting the proceeds of the labor of some + to taxation, in the view to enrich others, secures to all the + proceeds of their labor--exempts all from taxation, except + for the support of the protecting power of the government. As + a tax necessary to the support of the government, he would + support it--call it by what name you please;--as a tax for any + other purpose, and especially for the purposes to which he had + alluded--it had his individual reprobation, under whatever name + it might assume. + + "It might, he observed, be inferred from what he had said, that + he would vote against the bill. He did not wish any doubts to + be entertained as to the vote he should give upon this measure, + or the reasons which would influence him to give it. He was not + at liberty to substitute his individual opinion for that of his + State. He was one of the organs here, of a State, that had, + by the tariff of 1824, been chained to the car of the Eastern + manufacturers--a State that had been from that time, and was + now groaning under the pressure of that unequal and unjust + measure--a measure from the pressure of which, owing to the + prevailing illusion throughout the United States, she saw no + hope of escape, by a speedy return to correct principles;--and + seeing no hope of escaping from the ills of the system, she is + constrained, on principles of self-defence, to avail herself of + the mitigation which this bill presents, in the duties which + it imposes upon foreign hemp, spirits, iron, and molasses. The + hemp, iron, and distilled spirits of the West, will, like the + woollens of the Eastern States, be encouraged to the extent + of the tax indirectly imposed by this bill, upon those who + shall buy and consume them. Those who may need, and buy those + articles, must pay to the grower, or manufacturer of them, an + increased price to the amount of the duties imposed upon the + like articles of foreign growth or fabric. To this tax upon the + labor of the consumer, his individual opinion was opposed. But, + as the organ of the State of Kentucky, he felt himself bound to + surrender his individual opinion, and express the opinion of his + State." + +Thus, this tariff bill, like every one admitting a variety of +items, contains a vicious principle, by which a majority may be +made up to pass a measure which they do not approve. But besides +variety of agricultural and manufacturing items collected into this +bill, there was another of very different import admitted into +it, namely, that of party politics. A presidential election was +approaching: General Jackson and Mr. Adams were the candidates--the +latter in favor of the "American System"--of which Mr. Clay (his +Secretary of State) was the champion, and indissolubly connected +with him in the public mind in the issue of the election. This +tariff was made an administration measure, and became an issue in +the canvass; and to this Mr. Rowan significantly alluded when he +spoke of a tariff as being "perverted by the ambition of political +aspirants." It was in vain that the manufacturers were warned +not to mix their interests with the doubtful game of politics. +They yielded to the temptation--yielded as a class, though with +individual exceptions--for the sake of the temporary benefit, +without seeming to realize the danger of connecting their interests +with the fortunes of a political party. This tariff of '28, +besides being remarkable for giving birth to "nullification," and +heart-burning between the North and the South, was also remarkable +for a change of policy in the New England States, in relation to +the protective system. Being strongly commercial, these States had +hitherto favored free trade; and Mr. Webster was the champion of +that trade up to 1824. At this session a majority of those States, +and especially those which classed politically with Mr. Adams and +Mr. Clay, changed their policy: and Webster became a champion of +the protective system. The cause of this change, as then alleged, +was the fact that the protective system had become the established +policy of the government, and that these States had adapted their +industry to it; though it was insisted, on the other hand, that +political calculation had more to do with the change than federal +legislation: and, in fact, the question of this protection was one +of those which lay at the foundation of parties, and was advocated +by General Hamilton in one of his celebrated reports of fifty years +ago. But on this point it is right that New England should speak for +herself, which she did at the time of the discussion of the tariff +in '28; and through the member, now a senator (Mr. Webster), who +typified in his own person the change which his section of the Union +had undergone. He said: + + "New England, sir, has not been a leader in this policy. On the + contrary, she held back, herself, and tried to hold others back + from it, from the adoption of the constitution to 1824. Up to + 1824, she was accused of sinister and selfish designs, because + she discountenanced the progress of this policy. It was laid + to her charge, then, that having established her manufactures + herself, she wished that others should not have the power of + rivalling her; and, for that reason, opposed all legislative + encouragement. Under this angry denunciation against her, + the act of 1824 passed. Now the imputation is precisely of + an opposite character. The present measure is pronounced to + be exclusively for the benefit of New England; to be brought + forward by her agency, and designed to gratify the cupidity of + her wealthy establishments. + + "Both charges, sir, are equally without the slightest + foundation. The opinion of New England, up to 1824, was founded + in the conviction, that, on the whole, it was wisest and best, + both for herself and others, that manufacturers should make + haste slowly. She felt a reluctance to trust great interests + on the foundation of government patronage; for who could tell + how long such patronage would last, or with what steadiness, + skill, or perseverance, it would continue to be granted? It is + now nearly fifteen years, since, among the first things which + I ever ventured to say here, was the expression of a serious + doubt, whether this government was fitted by its construction, + to administer aid and protection to particular pursuits; + whether, having called such pursuits into being by indications + of its favor, it would not, afterwards, desert them, when + troubles come upon them; and leave them to their fate. Whether + this prediction, the result, certainly, of chance, and not of + sagacity, will so soon be fulfilled, remains to be seen. + + "At the same time it is true, that from the very first + commencement of the government, those who have administered + its concerns have held a tone of encouragement and invitation + towards those who should embark in manufactures. All the + Presidents, I believe, without exception, have concurred in + this general sentiment; and the very first act of Congress, + laying duties of impost, adopted the then unusual expedient + of a preamble, apparently for little other purpose than that + of declaring, that the duties, which it imposed, were imposed + for the encouragement and protection of manufactures. When, + at the commencement of the late war, duties were doubled, we + were told that we should find a mitigation of the weight of + taxation in the new aid and succor which would be thus afforded + to our own manufacturing labor. Like arguments were urged, and + prevailed, but not by the aid of New England votes, when the + tariff was afterwards arranged at the close of the war, in 1816. + Finally, after a whole winter's deliberation, the act of 1824 + received the sanction of both Houses of Congress, and settled + the policy of the country. What, then, was New England to do? + She was fitted for manufacturing operations, by the amount and + character of her population, by her capital, by the vigor and + energy of her free labor, by the skill, economy, enterprise, + and perseverance of her people. I repeat, what was she, under + these circumstances, to do? A great and prosperous rival in + her near neighborhood, threatening to draw from her a part, + perhaps a great part, of her foreign commerce; was she to use, + or to neglect, those other means of seeking her own prosperity + which belonged to her character and her condition? Was she to + hold out, forever, against the course of the government, and + see herself losing, on one side, and yet making no efforts to + sustain herself on the other? No, sir. Nothing was left to New + England, after the act of 1824, but to conform herself to the + will of others. Nothing was left to her, but to consider that + the government had fixed and determined its own policy; and that + policy was protection." + +The question of a protective tariff had now not only become +political, but sectional. In the early years of the federal +government it was not so. The tariff bills, as the first and the +second, that were passed, declared in their preambles that they +were for the encouragement of manufactures, as well as for raising +revenue; but then the duties imposed were all moderate--such as a +revenue system really required; and there were no "_minimums_" to +make a false basis for the calculation of duties, by enacting that +all which cost less than a certain amount should be counted to have +cost that amount; and be rated at the custom-house accordingly. In +this early period the Southern States were as ready as any part +of the Union in extending the protection to home industry which +resulted from the imposition of revenue duties on rival imported +articles, and on articles necessary to ourselves in time of war; +and some of her statesmen were amongst the foremost members of +Congress in promoting that policy. As late as 1816, some of +her statesmen were still in favor of protection, not merely as +an incident to revenue, but as a substantive object: and among +these was Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina--who even advocated the +minimum provision--then for the first time introduced into a +tariff bill, and upon his motion--and applied to the cotton goods +imported. After that year (1816) the tariff bills took a sectional +aspect--the Southern States, with the exception of Louisiana (led +by her sugar-planting interest), against them: the New England +States also against them: the Middle and Western States for them. +After 1824 the New England States (always meaning the greatest +portion when a section is spoken of) classed with the protective +States--leaving the South alone, as a section, against that policy. +My personal position was that of a great many others in the three +protective sections--opposed to the policy, but going with it, on +account of the interest of the State in the protection of some +of its productions. I moved an additional duty upon lead, equal +to one hundred per centum; and it was carried. I moved a duty +upon indigo, a former staple of the South, but now declined to a +slight production; and I proposed a rate of duty in harmony with +the protective features of the bill. No southern member would move +that duty, because he opposed the principle: I moved it, that the +"American System," as it was called, should work alike in all parts +of our America. I supported the motion with some reasons, and some +views of the former cultivation of that plant in the Southern +States, and its present decline, thus: + + "Mr. Benton then proposed an amendment, to impose a duty of 25 + cents per pound on imported indigo, with a progressive increase + at the rate of 25 cents per pound per annum, until the whole + duty amounted to $1 per pound. He stated his object to be + two-fold in proposing this duty, first, to place the American + System beyond the reach of its enemies, by procuring a home + supply of an article indispensable to its existence; and next, + to benefit the South by reviving the cultivation of one of its + ancient and valuable staples. + + "Indigo was first planted in the Carolinas and Georgia about the + year 1740, and succeeded so well as to command the attention of + the British manufacturers and the British parliament. An act + was passed for the encouragement of its production in these + colonies, in the reign of George the Second; the preamble to + which Mr. B. read, and recommended to the consideration of + the Senate. It recited that a regular, ample, and certain + supply of indigo was indispensable to the success of British + manufacturers; that these manufacturers were then dependent + upon foreigners for a supply of this article; and that it was + the dictate of a wise policy to encourage the production of + it at home. The act then went on to direct that a premium of + sixpence sterling should be paid out of the British treasury + for every pound of indigo imported into Great Britain, from the + Carolinas and Georgia. Under the fostering influence of this + bounty, said Mr. B., the cultivation of indigo became great and + extensive. In six years after the passage of the act, the export + was 217,000 lbs. and at the breaking out of the Revolution it + amounted to 1,100,000 lbs. The Southern colonies became rich + upon it; for the cultivation of cotton was then unknown; rice + and indigo were the staples of the South. After the Revolution, + and especially after the great territorial acquisitions which + the British made in India, the cultivation of American indigo + declined. The premium was no longer paid; and the British + government, actuated by the same wise policy which made them + look for a home supply of this article from the Carolinas, + when they were a part of the British possessions, now looked + to India for the same reason. The export of American indigo + rapidly declined. In 1800 it had fallen to 400,000 lbs.; in 1814 + to 40,000 lbs,; and in the last few years to 6 or 8,000 lbs. + In the mean time our manufactories were growing up; and having + no supply of indigo at home, they had to import from abroad. + In 1826 this importation amounted to 1,150,000 lbs., costing a + fraction less than two millions of dollars, and had to be paid + for almost entirely in ready money, as it was chiefly obtained + from places where American produce was in no demand. Upon this + state of facts, Mr. B. conceived it to be the part of a wise and + prudent policy to follow the example of the British parliament + in the reign of George II. and provide a home supply of this + indispensable article. Our manufacturers now paid a high price + for fine indigo, no less than $2 50 per pound, as testified by + one of themselves before the Committee on Manufactures raised + in the House of Representatives. The duty which he proposed was + only 40 per cent. upon that value, and would not even reach that + rate for four years. It was less than one half the duty which + the same bill proposed to lay instanter upon the very cloth + which this indigo was intended to dye. In the end it would make + all indigo come cheaper to the manufacturer, as the home supply + would soon be equal, if not superior to the demand; and in the + mean time, it could not be considered a tax on the manufacturer, + as he would levy the advance which he had to pay, with a good + interest, upon the wearer of the cloth. + + "Mr. B. then went into an exposition of the reasons for + encouraging the home production of indigo, and showed that the + life of the American System depended upon it. Neither cotton nor + woollen manufactures could be carried on without indigo. The + consumption of that article was prodigious. Even now, in the + infant state of our manufactories, the importation was worth two + millions of dollars: and must soon be worth double or treble + that sum. For this great supply of an indispensable article, + we were chiefly indebted to the jealous rival, and vigilant + enemy, of these very manufactures, to Great Britain herself. Of + the 1,150,000 lbs. of indigo imported, we bring 620,000 lbs. + from the British East Indies; which one word from the British + government would stop for ever; we bring the further quantity + of 120,000 lbs. from Manilla, a Spanish possession, which + British influence and diplomacy could immediately stop: and the + remainder came from different parts of South America, and might + be taken from us by the arts of diplomacy, or by a monopoly of + the whole on the part of our rival. A stoppage of a supply of + indigo for one year, would prostrate all our manufactories, + and give them a blow from which they would not recover in many + years. Great Britain could effect this stoppage to the amount of + three fourths of the whole quantity by speaking a single word, + and of the remainder by a slight exertion of policy, or the + expenditure of a sum sufficient to monopolize for one year, the + purchase of what South America sent into the market. + + "Mr. B. said he expected a unanimous vote in favor of his + amendment. The North should vote for it to secure the life of + the American System; to give a proof of their regard for the + South; to show that the country south of the Potomac is included + in the bill for some other purpose besides that of oppression. + The South itself, although opposed to the further increase of + duties, should vote for this duty; that the bill, if it passes, + may contain one provision favorable to its interests. The West + should vote for it through gratitude for fifty years of guardian + protection, generous defence, and kind assistance, which the + South had given it under all its trials; and for the purpose of + enlarging the market, increasing the demand in the South and + its ability to purchase the horses, mules, and provisions which + the West can sell nowhere else. For himself he had personal + reasons for wishing to do this little justice to the South. He + was a native of one of these States (N. Carolina)--the bones of + his father and his grandfathers rested there. Her Senators and + Representatives were his early and his hereditary friends. The + venerable Senator before him (Mr. Macon) had been the friend + of him and his, through four generations in a straight line; + the other Senator (Mr. Branch) was his schoolfellow: the other + branch of the legislature, the House of Representatives, also + showed him in the North Carolina delegation, the friends of + him and his through successive generations. Nor was this all. + He felt for the sad changes which had taken place in the South + in the last fifty years. Before the Revolution it was the seat + of wealth as well as of hospitality. Money, and all that it + commanded, abounded there. But how now? All this is reversed. + + "Wealth has fled from the South, and settled in the regions + north of the Potomac, and this in the midst of the fact that + the South, in four staples alone, in cotton, tobacco, rice and + indigo (while indigo was one of its staples), had exported + produce since the Revolution, to the value of eight hundred + million of dollars, and the North had exported comparatively + nothing. This sum was prodigious; it was nearly equal to half + the coinage of the mint of Mexico since the conquest by Cortez. + It was twice or thrice the amount of the product of the three + thousand gold and silver mines of Mexico, for the same period + of fifty years. Such an export would indicate unparalleled + wealth; but what was the fact? In place of wealth, a universal + pressure for money was felt; not enough for current expenses; + the price of all property down; the country drooping and + languishing; towns and cities decaying; and the frugal habits of + the people pushed to the verge of universal self-denial, for the + preservation of their family estates. Such a result is a strange + and wonderful phenomenon. It calls upon statesmen to inquire + into the cause; and if they inquire upon the theatre of this + strange metamorphosis, they will receive one universal answer + from all ranks and all ages, that it is federal legislation + which has worked this ruin. Under this legislation the exports + of the South have been made the basis of the federal revenue. + The twenty odd millions annually levied upon imported goods, + are deducted out of the price of their cotton, rice and tobacco, + either in the diminished price which they receive for these + staples in foreign ports, or in the increased price which they + pay for the articles they have to consume at home. Virginia, the + two Carolinas and Georgia, may be said to defray three fourths + of the annual expense of supporting the federal government; + and of this great sum annually furnished by them, nothing, or + next to nothing, is returned to them in the shape of government + expenditure. That expenditure flows in an opposite direction; it + flows northwardly, in one uniform, uninterrupted and perennial + stream; it takes the course of trade and of exchange; and this + is the reason why wealth disappears from the South and rises up + in the North. Federal legislation does all this; it does it by + the simple process of eternally taking away from the South, and + returning nothing to it. If it returned to the South the whole, + or even a good part of what it exacted, the four States south of + the Potomac might stand the action of this system, as the earth + is enabled to stand the exhausting influence of the sun's daily + heat by the refreshing dews which are returned to it at night; + but as the earth is dried up, and all vegetation destroyed in + regions where the heat is great, and no dews returned, so must + the South be exhausted of its money and its property by a course + of legislation which is for ever taking from it, and never + returning any thing to it. + + "Every new tariff increases the force of this action. No tariff + has ever yet included Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia, + within its provisions, except to increase the burdens imposed + upon them. This one alone, presents the opportunity to form an + exception, by reviving and restoring the cultivation of one of + its ancient staples,--one of the sources of its wealth before + the Revolution. The tariff of 1828 owes this reparation to the + South, because the tariff of 1816 contributed to destroy the + cultivation of indigo; sunk the duty on the foreign article, + from twenty-five to fifteen cents per pound. These are the + reasons for imposing the duty on indigo, now proposed. What + objections can possibly be raised to it? Not to the quality; + for it is the same which laid the foundation of the British + manufactures, and sustained their reputation for more than + half a century; not to the quantity; for the two Carolinas + and Georgia alone raised as much fifty years ago as we now + import, and we have now the States of Louisiana, Alabama, and + Mississippi, and the Territories of Florida and Arkansas, to + add to the countries which produce it; not to the amount of + the duty; for its maximum will be but forty per cent., only + one half of the duty laid by this bill on the cloth it is to + dye; and that maximum, not immediate, but attained by slow + degrees at the end of four years, in order to give time for the + domestic article to supply the place of the imported. And after + all, it is not a duty on the manufacturer, but on the wearer + of the goods; from whom he levies, with a good interest on + the price of the cloths, all that he expends in the purchase + of materials. For once, said Mr. B., I expect a unanimous vote + on a clause in the tariff. This indigo clause must have the + singular and unprecedented honor of an unanimous voice in its + favor. The South must vote for it, to revive the cultivation + of one of its most ancient and valuable staples; the West must + vote for it through gratitude for past favors--through gratitude + for the vote on hemp this night[2]--and to save, enlarge, and + increase the market for its own productions; the North must + vote for it to show their disinterestedness; to give one proof + of just feeling towards the South; and, above all, to save + their favorite American System from the deadly blow which Great + Britain can at any moment give it by stopping or interrupting + the supplies of foreign indigo; and the whole Union, the entire + legislative body, must vote for it, and vote for it with joy and + enthusiasm, because it is impossible that Americans can deny + to sister States of the Confederacy what a British King and a + British Parliament granted to these same States when they were + colonies and dependencies of the British crown." + + [2] "The vote on hemp this night." In rejecting Mr. Webster's + motion to strike out the duty on hemp, and a vote in which the + South went unanimously with the West.--_Note by Mr. B._ + +Mr. Hayne, of South Carolina, seconded my motion in a speech of +which this is an extract: + + "Mr. Hayne said he was opposed to this bill in its principles + as well as in its details. It could assume no shape which would + make it acceptable to him, or which could prevent it from + operating most oppressively and unjustly on his constituents. + With these views, he had determined to make no motion to amend + the bill in any respect whatever; but when such motions were + made by others, and he was compelled to vote on them, he knew + no better rule than to endeavor to make the bill consistent + with itself. On this principle he had acted in all the votes he + had given on this bill. He had endeavored to carry out to its + legitimate consequences what gentlemen are pleased to miscall + the 'American System.' With a fixed resolution to vote against + the bill, he still considered himself at liberty to assist in so + arranging the details as to extend to every great interest, and + to all portions of the country, as far as may be practicable, + equal protection, and to distribute the burdens of the system + equally, in order that its benefits as well as its evils may + be fully tested. On this principle, he should vote for the + amendment of the gentleman from Missouri, because it was in + strict conformity with all the principles of the bill. As a + southern man, he would ask no boon for the South--he should + propose nothing; but he must say that the protection of indigo + rested on the same principles as every other article proposed + to be protected by this bill, and he did not see how gentlemen + could, consistently with their maxims, vote against it. What + was the principle on which this bill was professedly founded? + If there was any principle at all in the bill, it was that, + whenever the country had the capacity to produce an article + with which any imported article could enter into competition, + the domestic product was to be protected by a duty. Now, had + the Southern States the capacity to produce indigo? The soil + and climate of those States were well suited to the culture of + the article. At the commencement of the Revolution our exports + of the article amounted to no less than 1,100,000 lbs. The + whole quantity now imported into the United States is only + 1,150,000 lbs.; so that the capacity of the country to produce + a sufficient quantity of indigo to supply the wants of the + manufacturers is unquestionable. It is true that the quantity + now produced in the country is not great. + + "In 1818 only 700 lbs. of domestic indigo were exported. + + "In 1825 9,955 do. + + "In 1826 5,289 do. + + "This proves that the attention of the country is now directed + to the subject. The senator from Indiana, in some remarks which + he made on this subject yesterday, stated that, according to the + principles of the American System (so called), protection was + not extended to any article which the country was not in the + habit of exporting. This is entirely a mistake. Of the articles + protected by the tariff of 1824, as well as those included in + this bill, very few are exported at all. Among these are iron, + woollens, hemp, flax, and several others. If indigo is to be + protected at all, the duties proposed must surely be considered + extremely reasonable, the maximum proposed being much below that + imposed by this bill on wool, woollens, and other articles. The + duty on indigo till 1816, was 25 cents per pound. It was then + (in favor of the manufacturers) reduced to 15 cents. The first + increase of duty proposed here, is only to put back the old + duty of 25 cents per pound, equal to an ad valorem duty of from + 10 to 15 per cent.--and the maximum is only from 40 to 58 per + cent. ad valorem, and that will not accrue for several years to + come. With this statement of facts, Mr. H. said he would leave + the question in the hands of those gentlemen who were engaged in + giving this bill the form in which it is to be submitted to the + final decision of the Senate." + +The proposition for this duty on imported indigo did not prevail. +In lieu of the amount proposed, and which was less than any +protective duty in the bill, the friends of the "American System" +(constituting a majority of the Senate) substituted a nominal duty +of five cents on the pound--to be increased five cents annually for +ten years--and to remain at fifty. This was only about twenty per +centum on the cost of the article, and that only to be attained +after a progression of ten years; while all other duties in the +bill were from four to ten times that amount--and to take effect +immediately. A duty so contemptible, so out of proportion to the +other provisions of the bill, and doled out in such miserable drops, +was a mockery and insult; and so viewed by the southern members. It +increased the odiousness of the bill, by showing that the southern +section of the Union was only included in the "American System" for +its burdens, and not for its benefits. Mr. McDuffie, in the House +of Representatives, inveighed bitterly against it, and spoke the +general feeling of the Southern States when he said: + + "Sir, if the union of these States shall ever be severed, + and their liberties subverted, the historian who records + these disasters will have to ascribe them to measures of this + description. I do sincerely believe that neither this government + nor any free government, can exist for a quarter of a century, + under such a system of legislation. Its inevitable tendency + is to corrupt, not only the public functionaries, but all + those portions of the Union and classes of society who have + an interest, real or imaginary, in the bounties it provides, + by taxing other sections and other classes. What, sir, is the + essential characteristic of a freeman? It is that independence + which results from an habitual reliance upon his own resources + and his own labor for his support. He is not in fact a freeman, + who habitually looks to the government for pecuniary bounties. + And I confess that nothing in the conduct of those who are + the prominent advocates of this system, has excited more + apprehension and alarm in my mind, than the constant efforts + made by all of them, from the Secretary of the Treasury down + to the humblest coadjutor, to impress upon the public mind, + the idea that national prosperity and individual wealth are + to be derived, not from individual industry and economy, but + from government bounties. An idea more fatal to liberty could + not be inculcated. I said, on another occasion, that the days + of Roman liberty were numbered when the people consented to + receive bread from the public granaries. From that moment it + was not the patriot who had shown the greatest capacity and + made the greatest sacrifices to serve the republic, but the + demagogue who would promise to distribute most profusely the + spoils of the plundered provinces, that was elevated to office + by a degenerate and mercenary populace. Every thing became + venal, even in the country of Fabricius, until finally the + empire itself was sold at public auction! And what, sir, is + the nature and tendency of the system we are discussing? It + bears an analogy, but too lamentably striking, to that which + corrupted the republican purity of the Roman people. God forbid + that it should consummate its triumph over the public liberty, + by a similar catastrophe, though even that is an event by no + means improbable, if we continue to legislate periodically in + this way, and to connect the election of our Chief Magistrate + with the question of dividing out the spoils of certain + States--degraded into Roman provinces--among the influential + capitalists of the other States of this Union! Sir, when I + consider that, by a single act like the present, from five to + ten millions of dollars may be transferred annually from one + part of the community to another; when I consider the disguise + of disinterested patriotism under which the basest and most + profligate ambition may perpetrate such an act of injustice + and political prostitution, I cannot hesitate, for a moment, + to pronounce this very system of indirect bounties, the most + stupendous instrument of corruption ever placed in the hands + of public functionaries. It brings ambition and avarice and + wealth into a combination, which it is fearful to contemplate, + because it is almost impossible to resist. Do we not perceive, + at this very moment, the extraordinary and melancholy spectacle + of less than one hundred thousand capitalists, by means of this + unhallowed combination, exercising an absolute and despotic + control over the opinions of eight millions of free citizens, + and the fortunes and destinies of ten millions? Sir, I will + not anticipate or forebode evil. I will not permit myself to + believe that the Presidency of the United States will ever be + bought and sold, by this system of bounties and prohibitions. + But I must say that there are certain quarters of this Union in + which, if a candidate for the Presidency were to come forward + with the Harrisburg tariff in his hand, nothing could resist his + pretensions, if his adversary were opposed to this unjust system + of oppression. Yes, sir, that bill would be a talisman which + would give a charmed existence to the candidate who would pledge + himself to support it. And although he were covered with all the + "multiplying villanies of nature," the most immaculate patriot + and profound statesman in the nation could hold no competition + with him, if he should refuse to grant this new species of + imperial donative." + +Allusions were constantly made to the combination of manufacturing +capitalists and politicians in pressing this bill. There was +evidently foundation for the imputation. The scheme of it had +been conceived in a convention of manufacturers in the State of +Pennsylvania, and had been taken up by politicians, and was pushed +as a party measure, and with the visible purpose of influencing the +presidential election. In fact these tariff bills, each exceeding +the other in its degree of protection, had become a regular +appendage of our presidential elections--coming round in every cycle +of four years, with that returning event. The year 1816 was the +starting point: 1820, and 1824, and now 1828, having successively +renewed the measure, with successive augmentations of duties. The +South believed itself impoverished to enrich the North by this +system; and certainly a singular and unexpected result had been seen +in these two sections. In the colonial state, the Southern were +the rich part of the colonies, and expected to do well in a state +of independence. They had the exports, and felt secure of their +prosperity: not so of the North, whose agricultural resources were +few, and who expected privations from the loss of British favor. +But in the first half century after Independence this expectation +was reversed. The wealth of the North was enormously aggrandized: +that of the South had declined. Northern towns had become great +cities: Southern cities had decayed, or become stationary; and +Charleston, the principal port of the South, was less considerable +than before the Revolution. The North became a money-lender to the +South, and southern citizens made pilgrimages to northern cities, +to raise money upon the hypothecation of their patrimonial estates. +And this in the face of a southern export since the Revolution to +the value of eight hundred millions of dollars!--a sum equal to +the product of the Mexican mines since the days of Cortez! and +twice or thrice the amount of their product in the same fifty +years. The Southern States attributed this result to the action +of the federal government--its double action of levying revenue +upon the industry of one section of the Union and expending it in +another--and especially to its protective tariffs. To some degree +this attribution was just, but not to the degree assumed; which is +evident from the fact that the protective system had then only been +in force for a short time--since the year 1816; and the reversed +condition of the two sections of the Union had commenced before that +time. Other causes must have had some effect: but for the present +we look to the protective system; and, without admitting it to have +done all the mischief of which the South complained, it had yet done +enough to cause it to be condemned by every friend to equal justice +among the States--by every friend to the harmony and stability of +the Union--by all who detested sectional legislation--by every +enemy to the mischievous combination of partisan politics with +national legislation. And this was the feeling with the mass of +the democratic members who voted for the tariff of 1828, and who +were determined to act upon that feeling upon the overthrow of the +political party which advocated the protective system; and which +overthrow they believed to be certain at the ensuing presidential +election. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +THE PUBLIC LANDS--THEIR PROPER DISPOSITION--GRADUATED +PRICES--PRE-EMPTION RIGHTS--DONATIONS TO SETTLERS. + + +About the year 1785 the celebrated Edmund Burke brought a bill +into the British House of Commons for the sale of the crown +lands, in which he laid down principles in political economy, in +relation to such property, profoundly sagacious in themselves, +applicable to all sovereign landed possessions, whether of kings or +republics--applicable in all countries--and nowhere more applicable +and less known or observed, than in the United States. In the course +of the speech in support of his bill he said: + + "Lands sell at the current rate, and nothing can sell for more. + But be the price what it may; a great object is always answered, + whenever any property is transferred from hands which are not + fit for that property, to those that are. The buyer and the + seller must mutually profit by such a bargain; and, what rarely + happens in matters of revenue, the relief of the subject will + go hand in hand with the profit of the Exchequer. * * * The + revenue to be derived from the sale of the forest lands will + not be so considerable as many have imagined; and I conceive it + would be unwise to screw it up to the utmost, or even to suffer + bidders to enhance, according to their eagerness, the purchase + of objects, wherein the expense of that purchase may weaken the + capital to be employed in their cultivation. * * * The principal + revenue which I propose to draw from these uncultivated wastes, + is to spring from the improvement and population of the kingdom; + events infinitely more advantageous to the revenues of the crown + than the rents of the best landed estate which it can hold. + * * * It is thus I would dispose of the unprofitable landed + estates of the crown: _throw them into the mass of private + property_: by which they will come, through the course of + circulation and through the political secretions of the State + into well-regulated revenue. * * * Thus would fall an expensive + agency, with all the influence which attends it." + +I do not know how old, or rather, how young I was, when I first +took up the notion that sales of land by a government to its own +citizens, and to the highest bidder, was false policy; and that +gratuitous grants to actual settlers was the true policy, and their +labor the true way of extracting national wealth and strength from +the soil. It might have been in childhood, when reading the Bible, +and seeing the division of the promised land among the children of +Israel: it might have been later, and in learning the operation +of the feudal system in giving lands to those who would defend +them: it might have been in early life in Tennessee, in seeing the +fortunes and respectability of many families derived from the 640 +acre head-rights which the State of North Carolina had bestowed upon +the first settlers. It was certainly before I had read the speech +of Burke from which the extract above is taken; for I did not see +that speech until 1826; and seventeen years before that time, when +a very young member of the General Assembly of Tennessee, I was +fully imbued with the doctrine of donations to settlers, and acted +upon the principle that was in me, as far as the case admitted, +in advocating the pre-emption claims of the settlers on Big and +Little Pigeon, French Broad, and Nolichucky. And when I came to the +then Territory of Missouri in 1815, and saw land exposed to sale +to the highest bidder, and lead mines and salt springs reserved +from sale, and rented out for the profit of the federal treasury, +I felt repugnance to the whole system, and determined to make war +upon it whenever I should have the power. The time came round with +my election to the Senate of the United States in 1820: and the +years 1824, '26, and '28, found me doing battle for an ameliorated +system of disposing of our public lands; and with some success. +The pre-emption system was established, though at first the +pre-emption claimant was stigmatized as a trespasser, and repulsed +as a criminal; the reserved lead mines and salt springs, in the +State of Missouri, were brought into market, like other lands; iron +ore lands, intended to have been withheld from sale, were rescued +from that fate, and brought into market. Still the two repulsive +features of the federal land system--sales to the highest bidder, +and donations to no one--with an arbitrary minimum price which +placed the cost of all lands, good and bad, at the same uniform rate +(after the auctions were over), at one dollar twenty-five cents per +acre. I resolved to move against the whole system, and especially +in favor of graduated prices, and donations to actual and destitute +settlers. I did so in a bill, renewed annually for a long time; and +in speeches which had more effect upon the public mind than upon +the federal legislation--counteracted as my plan was by schemes of +dividing the public lands, or the money arising from their sale, +among the States. It was in support of one of these bills that I +produced the authority of Burke in the extract quoted; and no one +took its spirit and letter more promptly and entirely than President +Jackson. He adopted the principle fully, and in one of his annual +messages to Congress recommended that, as soon as the public +(revolutionary) debt should be discharged (to the payment of which +the lands ceded by the States were pledged), that they should CEASE +TO BE A SUBJECT OF REVENUE, AND BE DISPOSED OF CHIEFLY WITH A VIEW +TO SETTLEMENT AND CULTIVATION. His terms of service expired soon +after the extinction of the debt, so that he had not an opportunity +to carry out his wise and beneficent design. + +Mr. Burke considered the revenue derived from the sale of crown +lands as a trifle, and of no account, compared to the amount of +revenue derivable from the same lands through their settlement and +cultivation. He was profoundly right! and provably so, both upon +reason and experience. The sale of the land is a single operation. +Some money is received, and the cultivation is disabled to that +extent from its improvement and cultivation. The cultivation is +perennial, and the improved condition of the farmer enables him to +pay taxes, and consume dutiable goods, and to sell the products +which command the imports which pay duties to the government, and +this is the "well-regulated revenue" which comes through the course +of circulation, and through the "political secretions" of the State, +and which Mr. Burke commends above all revenue derived from the +sale of lands. Does any one know the comparative amount of revenue +derived respectively from the sales and from the cultivation of +lands in any one of our new States where the federal government +was the proprietor, and the auctioneer, of the lands? and can he +tell which mode of raising money has been most productive? Take +Alabama, for example. How much has the treasury received for lands +sold within her limits? and how much in duties paid on imports +purchased with the exports derived from her soil? Perfect exactitude +cannot be attained in the answer, but exact enough to know that +the latter already exceeds the former several times, ten times +over; and is perennial and increasing for ever! while the sale of +the land has been a single operation, performed once, and not to +be repeated; and disabling the cultivator by the loss of the money +it took from him. Taken on a large scale, and applied to the whole +United States, and the answer becomes more definite--but still not +entirely exact. The whole annual receipts from land sales at this +time (1850) are about two millions of dollars: the annual receipts +from customs, founded almost entirely upon the direct or indirect +productions of the earth, exceed fifty millions of dollars! giving +a comparative difference of twenty-five to one for cultivation +over sales; and triumphantly sustaining Mr. Burke's theory. I have +looked into the respective amounts of federal revenue, received +into the treasury from these two sources, since the establishment +of the federal government; and find the customs to have yielded, +in that time, a fraction over one thousand millions of dollars +net--the lands to have yielded a little less than one hundred and +thirty millions gross, not forty millions clear after paying all +expenses of surveys, sales and management. This is a difference of +twenty-five to one--with the further difference of endless future +production from one, and no future production from the land once +sold; that is to say, the same acre of land is paying for ever +through cultivation, and pays but once for itself in purchase. + +Thus far I have considered Mr. Burke's theory only under one of +its aspects--the revenue aspect: he presents another--that of +population--and here all measure of comparison ceases. The sale of +land brings no people: cultivation produces population: and people +are the true wealth and strength of nations. These various views +were presented, and often enforced, in the course of the several +speeches which I made in support of my graduation and donation +bills: and, on the point of population, and of freeholders, against +tenants, I gave utterance to these sentiments: + +"Tenantry is unfavorable to freedom. It lays the foundation for +separate orders in society, annihilates the love of country, and +weakens the spirit of independence. The farming tenant has, in +fact, no country, no hearth, no domestic altar, no household god. +The freeholder, on the contrary, is the natural supporter of a free +government; and it should be the policy of republics to multiply +their freeholders, as it is the policy of monarchies to multiply +tenants. We are a republic, and we wish to continue so: then +multiply the class of freeholders; pass the public lands cheaply and +easily into the hands of the people; sell, for a reasonable price, +to those who are able to pay; and give, without price, to those who +are not. I say give, without price, to those who are not able to +pay; and that which is given, I consider as sold for the best of +prices; for a price above gold and silver; a price which cannot be +carried away by delinquent officers, nor lost in failing banks, nor +stolen by thieves, nor squandered by an improvident and extravagant +administration. It brings a price above rubies--a race of virtuous +and independent laborers, the true supporters of their country, and +the stock from which its best defenders must be drawn. + + "'What constitutes a State? + Not high-rais'd battlements, nor labored mound, + Thick wall, nor moated gate; + Nor cities proud, with spires and turrets crown'd, + Nor starr'd and spangled courts, + Where low-born baseness wafts perfume to pride: + But MEN! high-minded men, + Who their _duties_ know, but know their RIGHTS, + And, knowing, _dare_ maintain them.'" + +In favor of low prices, and donations, I quoted the example and +condition of the Atlantic States of this Union--all settled under +liberal systems of land distribution which dispensed almost (or +altogether in many instances) with sales for money. I said: + + "These Atlantic States were donations from the British crown; and + the great proprietors distributed out their possessions with a free + and generous hand. A few shillings for a hundred acres, a nominal + quitrent, and gifts of a hundred, five hundred, and a thousand + acres, to actual settlers: such were the terms on which they dealt + out the soil which is now covered by a nation of freemen. Provinces, + which now form sovereign States, were sold from hand to hand, for + a less sum than the federal government now demands for an area of + two miles square. I could name instances. I could name the State of + Maine--a name, for more reasons than one, familiar and agreeable to + Missouri, and whose pristine territory was sold by Sir Ferdinando + Gorges to the proprietors of the Massachusetts Bay, for twelve + hundred pounds, provincial money. And well it was for Maine that she + was so sold; well it was for her that the modern policy of waiting + for the rise, and sticking at a _minimum_ of $1 25, was not then + in vogue, or else Maine would have been a desert now. Instead of a + numerous, intelligent, and virtuous population, we should have had + trees and wild beasts. My respectable friend, the senator from that + State (Gen. Chandler), would not have been here to watch so steadily + the interest of the public, and to oppose the bills which I bring in + for the relief of the land claimants. And I mention this to have an + opportunity to do justice to the integrity of his heart, and to the + soundness of his understanding--qualities in which he is excelled + by no senator--and to express my belief that we will come together + upon the final passage of this bill: for the cardinal points in + our policy are the same--economy in the public expenditures, and + the prompt extinction of the public debt. I say, well it was for + Maine that she was sold for the federal price of four sections of + Alabama pine, Louisiana swamp, or Missouri prairie. Well it was for + every State in this Union, that their soil was sold for a song, + or given as a gift to whomsoever would take it. Happy for them, + and for the liberty of the human race, that the kings of England + and the "Lords Proprietors," did not conceive the luminous idea of + waiting for the rise, and sticking to a _minimum_ of $1 25 per acre. + Happy for Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, that they were settled + under _States_, and not under the federal government. To this happy + exemption they owe their present greatness and prosperity. When + they were settled, the State laws prevailed in the acquisition of + lands; and donations, pre-emptions, and settlement rights, and + sales at two cents the acre, were the order of the day. I include + Ohio, and I do it with a knowledge of what I say: for ten millions + of her soil,--that which now constitutes her chief wealth and + strength,--were settled upon the liberal principles which I mention. + The federal system only fell upon fifteen millions of her soil; + and, of that quantity, the one half now lies waste and useless, + paying no tax to the State, yielding nothing to agriculture, desert + spots in the midst of a smiling garden, "waiting for the rise," + and exhibiting, in high and bold relief, the miserable folly of + prescribing an arbitrary _minimum_ upon that article which is the + gift of God to man, and which no parental government has ever + attempted to convert into a source of revenue and an article of + merchandise." + +Against the policy of holding up refuse lands until they should rise +to the price of good land, and against the reservation of saline and +mineral lands, and making money by boiling salt water, and digging +lead ore, or holding a body of tenantry to boil and dig, I delivered +these sentiments: + + "I do trust and believe, Mr. President, that the Executive of + this free government will not be second to George the Third + in patriotism, nor an American Congress prove itself inferior + to a British Parliament in political wisdom. I do trust and + believe that this whole system of holding up land for the rise, + endeavoring to make revenue out of the soil of the country, + leasing and renting lead mines, salt springs, and iron banks, + with all its train of penal laws and civil and military agents, + will be condemned and abolished. I trust that the President + himself will give the subject a place in his next message, and + lend the aid of his recommendation to the success of so great + an object. The mining operations, especially, should fix the + attention of the Congress. They are a reproach to the age in + which we live. National mining is condemned by every dictate of + prudence, by every maxim of political economy, and by the voice + of experience in every age and country. And yet we are engaged + in that business. This splendid federal government, created + for great _national_ purposes, has gone to work among the lead + mines of Upper Louisiana, to give us a second edition, no doubt, + of the celebrated "_Mississippi Scheme_" of John Law. For that + scheme was nothing more nor less than a project of making money + out of the same identical mines. Yes, Mr. President, upon the + same identical theatre, among the same holes and pits, dug by + _John Law's_ men in 1720; among the cinders, ashes, broken + picks, and mouldering furnaces, of that celebrated projector, is + our federal government now at work; and, that no circumstance + should be wanting to complete the folly of such an undertaking, + the task of extracting "_revenue_" from these operations, is + confided, not to the _Treasury_, but to the War Department. + + "Salines and salt springs are subjected to the same + system--reserved from sale, and leased for the purpose of + raising revenue. But I flatter myself that I see the end of this + branch of the system. The debate which took place a few weeks + ago on the bill to repeal the existing duty upon salt, is every + word of it applicable to the bill which I have introduced for + the sale of the reserved salt springs. I claim the benefit of it + accordingly, and shall expect the support of all the advocates + for the repeal of that tax, whenever the bill for the sale of + the salines shall be put to the vote." + +Argument and sarcasm had their effect, in relation to the mineral +and saline reserves in the State in which I lived--the State of +Missouri. An act was passed in 1828 to throw them into the mass of +private property--to sell them like other public lands. And thus +the federal government, in that State, got rid of a degrading and +unprofitable pursuit; and the State got citizen freeholders instead +of federal tenants; and profitably were developed in the hands of +individuals the pursuits of private industry which languished and +stagnated in the hands of federal agents and tenants. But it was +continued for some time longer (so far as lead ore was concerned) +on the Upper Mississippi, and until an argument arrived which +commanded the respect of the legislature: it was the argument of +profit and loss--an argument which often touches a nerve which is +dead to reason. Mr. Polk, in his message to Congress at the session +of 1845-'46 (the first of his administration), stated that the +expenses of the system during the preceding four years--those of +Mr. Tyler's administration--were twenty-six thousand one hundred +and eleven dollars, and eleven cents; and the whole amount of rents +received during the same period was six thousand three hundred and +fifty-four dollars, and seventy-four cents: and recommended the +abolition of the whole system, and the sale of the reserved mines; +which was done; and thus was completed for the Upper Mississippi +what I had done for Missouri near twenty years before. + +The advantage of giving land to those who would settle and cultivate +it, was illustrated in one of my speeches, by reciting the case of +"Granny White"--well known in her time to all the population of +Middle Tennessee, and especially to all who travelled south from +Nashville, along the great road which crossed the "divide" between +the Cumberland and Harpeth waters, at the evergreen tree which +gave name to the gap--the Holly Tree Gap. The aged woman, and her +fortunes, were thus introduced into our senatorial debates and +lodged on a page of our parliamentary history, to enlighten, by her +incidents, the councils of national legislation: + + "At the age of sixty, she had been left a widow, in one of + the counties in the tide-water region of North Carolina. Her + poverty was so extreme, that when she went to the county court + to get a couple of little orphan grandchildren bound to her, the + Justices refused to let her have them, because she could not + give security to keep them off the parish. This compelled her + to emigrate; and she set off with the two little boys, upon a + journey of eight or nine hundred miles, to what was then called + "_the Cumberland Settlement_." Arrived in the neighborhood of + Nashville, a generous-hearted Irishman (his name deserves to be + remembered--Thomas McCrory) let her have a corner of his land, + on her own terms,--a nominal price and indefinite credit. It was + fifty acres in extent, and comprised the two faces of a pair of + confronting hills, whose precipitous declivities lacked a few + degrees, and but a few, of mathematical perpendicularity. Mr. B. + said he knew it well, for he had seen the old lady's pumpkins + propped and supported with stakes, to prevent their ponderous + weight from tearing up the vine, and rolling to the bottom of + the hills. There was just room at their base for a road to run + between, and not room for a house, to find a level place for its + foundation; for which purpose a part of the hill had to be dug + away. Yet, from this hopeless beginning, with the advantage of + a little piece of ground that was her own, this aged widow, and + two little grandchildren, of eight or nine years old, advanced + herself to comparative wealth: money, slaves, horses, cattle; + and her fields extended into the valley below, and her orphan + grandchildren, raised up to honor and independence: these were + the fruits of economy and industry, and a noble illustration + of the advantage _of giving land to the poor_. But the federal + government would have demanded sixty-two dollars and fifty + cents for that land, cash in hand; and old Granny White and her + grandchildren might have lived in misery and sunk into vice, + before the opponents of this bill would have taken less." + +I quoted the example of all nations, ancient and modern, republican +and monarchical, in favor of giving lands, in parcels suitable to +their wants, to meritorious cultivators; and denied that there was +an instance upon earth, except that of our own federal government, +which made merchandise of land to its citizens--exacted the highest +price it could obtain--and refused to suffer the country to be +settled until it was paid for. The "promised land" was divided +among the children of Israel--the women getting a share where +there was no man at the head of the family--as with the daughters +of Manasseh. All the Atlantic States, when British colonies, were +settled upon gratuitous donations, or nominal sales. Kentucky and +Tennessee were chiefly settled in the same way. The two Floridas, +and Upper and Lower Louisiana, were gratuitously distributed by +the kings of Spain to settlers, in quantities adapted to their +means of cultivation--and with the whole vacant domain to select +from according to their pleasure. Land is now given to settlers in +Canada; and £30,000 sterling, has been voted at a single session +of Parliament, to aid emigrants in their removal to these homes, +and commencing life upon them. The republic of Colombia now gives +400 acres to a settler: other South American republics give more or +less. Quoting these examples, I added: + + "Such, Mr. President, is the conduct of the free republics of + the South. I say republics: for it is the same in all of them, + and it would be tedious and monotonous to repeat their numerous + decrees. In fact, throughout the New World, from Hudson's + Bay to Cape Horn (with the single exception of these United + States), land, the gift of God to man, is also the gift of the + government to its citizens. Nor is this wise policy confined to + the New World. It prevails even in Asia; and the present age has + seen--we ourselves have seen--published in the capital of the + European world, the proclamation of the King of Persia, inviting + Christians to go to the ancient kingdom of Cyrus, Cambyses + and Darius, and there receive gifts of land--first rate, + not refuse--with a total exemption from taxes, and the free + enjoyment of their religion. Here is the proclamation: listen to + it. + + _The Proclamation._ + + "'Mirza Mahomed Saul, Ambassador to England, in the name, and + by the authority of Abbas Mirza, King of Persia, offers to + those who shall emigrate to Persia, gratuitous grants of land, + good for the production of wheat, barley, rice, cotton, and + fruits,--free from taxes or contributions of any kind, and with + the free enjoyment of their religion; THE KING'S OBJECT BEING TO + IMPROVE HIS COUNTRY. + + "'London, July 8th, 1823.'" + +The injustice of holding all lands at one uniform price, waiting +for the cultivation of the good land to give value to the poor, +and for the poorest to rise to the value of the richest, was shown +in a reference to private sales, of all articles; in the whole of +which sales the price was graduated to suit different qualities +of the same article. The heartless and miserly policy of waiting +for government land to be enhanced in value by the neighboring +cultivation of private land, was denounced as unjust as well as +unwise. The new States of the West were the sufferers by this +federal land policy. They were in a different condition from other +States. In these others, the local legislatures held the primary +disposal of the soil,--so much as remained vacant within their +limits,--and being of the same community, made equitable alienations +among their constituents. In the new States it was different. The +federal government held the primary disposition of the soil; and +the majority of Congress (being independent of the people of these +States), was less heedful of their wants and wishes. They were as a +stepmother, instead of a natural mother: and the federal government +being sole purchaser from foreign nations, and sole recipient of +Indian cessions, it became the monopolizer of vacant lands in the +West: and this monopoly, like all monopolies, resulted in hardships +to those upon whom it acted. Few, or none of our public men, had +raised their voice against this hard policy before I came into the +national councils. My own was soon raised there against it: and it +is certain that a great amelioration has taken place in our federal +land policy during my time: and that the sentiment of Congress, and +that of the public generally, has become much more liberal in land +alienations; and is approximating towards the beneficent systems +of the rest of the world. But the members in Congress from the new +States should not intermit their exertions, nor vary their policy; +and should fix their eyes steadily upon the period of the speedy +extinction of the federal title to all the lands within the limits +of their respective States;--to be effected by pre-emption rights, +by donations, and by the sale (of so much as shall be sold), at +graduated prices,--adapted to the different qualities of the tracts, +to be estimated according to the time it has remained in market +unsold--and by liberal grants to objects of general improvement, +both national and territorial. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +CESSION OF A PART OF THE TERRITORY OF ARKANSAS TO THE CHEROKEE +INDIANS. + + +Arkansas was an organized territory, and had been so since the +year 1819. Her western boundary was established by act of Congress +in May 1824 (chiefly by the exertions of her then delegate, Henry +W. Conway),--and was an extension of her existing boundary on +that side; and for national and State reasons. It was an outside +territory--beyond the Mississippi--a frontier both to Mexico (then +brought deep into the Valley of the Mississippi by the Florida +treaty which gave away Texas), and to the numerous Indian tribes +then being removed from the South Atlantic States to the west of +the Mississippi. It was, therefore, a point of national policy to +make her strong--to make her a first class State,--both for her own +sake and that of the Union,--and equal to all the exigencies of her +advanced and frontier position. The extension was on the west--the +boundaries on the other three sides being fixed and immovable--and +added a fertile belt--a parallelogram of forty miles by three +hundred along her whole western border--and which was necessary to +compensate for the swamp lands in front on the river, and to give +to her certain valuable salt springs there existing, and naturally +appurtenant to the territory, and essential to its inhabitants. Even +with this extension the territory was still deficient in arable +land--not as strong as her frontier position required her to be, +nor susceptible (on account of swamps and sterile districts) of +the population and cultivation which her superficial contents and +large boundaries would imply her to be. Territorially, and in mere +extent, the western addition was a fourth part of the territory: +agriculturally, and in capacity for population, the addition might +be equal to half of the whole territory; and its acquisition was +celebrated as a most auspicious event for Arkansas at the time that +it occurred. + +In the month of May, 1828, by a treaty negotiated at Washington by +the Secretary at War, Mr. James Barbour, on one side, and the chiefs +of the Cherokee nation on the other, this new western boundary +for the territory was abolished--the old line re-established: +and what had been an addition to the territory of Arkansas, was +ceded to the Cherokees. On the ratification of this treaty several +questions arose, all raised by myself--some of principle, some of +expediency--as, whether a law of Congress could be abolished by +an Indian treaty? and whether it was expedient so to reduce, and +thus weaken the territory (and future State) of Arkansas? I was +opposed to the treaty, and held the negative of both questions, and +argued against them with zeal and perseverance. The supremacy of +the treaty-making power I held to be confined to subjects within +its sphere, and quoted "Jefferson's Manual," to show that that was +the sense in which the clause in the constitution was understood. +The treaty-making power was supreme; but that supremacy was within +its proper orbit, and free from the invasion of the legislative, +executive, or judicial department. The proper objects of treaties +were international interests, which neither party could regulate +by municipal law, and which required a joint consent, and a +double execution, to give it effect. Tried by this test, and this +Indian treaty lost its supremacy. The subject was one of ordinary +legislation, and specially and exclusively confined to Congress. +It was to repeal a law which Congress had made in relation to +territory; and to reverse the disposition which Congress had made +of a part of its territory. To Congress it belonged to dispose of +territory; and to her it belonged to repeal her own laws. The treaty +avoided the word "repeal," while doing the thing: it used the word +"abolish"--which was the same in effect, and more arrogant and +offensive--not appropriate to legislation, and evidently used to +avoid the use of a word which would challenge objection. If the word +"repeal" had been used, every one would have felt that the ordinary +legislation of Congress was flagrantly invaded; and the avoidance +of that word, and the substitution of another of the same meaning, +could have no effect in legalizing a transaction which would be +condemned under its proper name. And so I held the treaty to be +invalid for want of a proper subject to act upon, and because it +invaded the legislative department. + +The inexpediency of the treaty was in the question of crippling and +mutilating Arkansas, reducing her to the class of weak States, and +that against all the reasons which had induced Congress, four years +before, to add on twelve thousand square miles to her domain; and +to almost double the productive and inhabitable capacity of the +Territory, and future State, by the character of the country added. +I felt this wrong to Arkansas doubly, both as a neighbor to my own +State, and because, having a friendship for the delegate, as well +as for his territory, I had exerted myself to obtain the addition +which had been thus cut off. I argued, as I thought, conclusively; +but in vain. The treaty was largely ratified, and by a strong +slaveholding vote, notwithstanding it curtailed slave territory, and +made soil free which was then slave. Anxious to defeat the treaty +for the benefit of Arkansas, I strongly presented this consequence, +showing that there was, not only legal, but actually slavery upon +the amputated part--that these twelve thousand square miles were +inhabited, organized into counties, populous in some parts, and +with the due proportion of slaves found in a southern and planting +State. Nothing would do. It was a southern measure, negotiated, on +the record, by a southern secretary at war, in reality by the clerk +McKinney; and voted for by nineteen approving slaveholding senators +against four dissenting. The affirmative vote was: Messrs. Barton, +Berrien, Bouligny, Branch, Ezekiel Chambers, Cobb, King of Alabama, +McKinley, McLane of Delaware, Macon, Ridgely, Smith of Maryland, +Smith of South Carolina, John Tyler of Virginia, and Williams of +Mississippi. The negative was, Messrs. Benton, Eaton, Rowan, and +Tazewell.--Mr. Calhoun was then Vice-President, and did not vote; +but he was in favor of the treaty, and assisted its ratification +through his friends. The House of Representatives voted the +appropriations to carry it into effect; and thus acquiesced in the +repeal of an act of Congress by the President, Senate, and Cherokee +Indians; and these appropriations were voted with the general +concurrence of the southern members of the House. And thus another +slice, and a pretty large one (twelve thousand square miles), was +taken off of slave territory in the former province of Louisiana; +which about completed the excision of what had been left for slave +State occupation after the Missouri compromise of 1820, and the +cession to Texas of contemporaneous date, and previous cessions +to Indian tribes. And all this was the work of southern men, who +then saw no objection to the Congressional legislation which acted +upon slavery in territories--which further curtailed, and even +extinguished slave soil in all the vast expanse of the former +Louisiana--save and except the comparative little that was left in +the State of Missouri and in the mutilated Territory of Arkansas. +The reason of the southern members for promoting this amputation of +Arkansas in favor of the Cherokees, was simply to assist in inducing +their removal by adding the best part of Arkansas, with its salt +springs, to the ample millions of acres west of that territory +already granted to them; but it was a gratuitous sacrifice, as the +large part of the tribe had already emigrated to the seven millions +of acres, and the remainder were waiting for moneyed inducements +to follow. And besides, the desire for this removal could have +no effect upon the constitutional power of Congress to legislate +upon slavery in territories, or upon the policy which curtails the +boundaries of a future slave State. + +I have said that the amputated part of Arkansas was an organized +part of the territory, divided into counties, settled and +cultivated. Now, what became of these inhabitants?--their property? +and possessions? They were bought out by the federal government! +A simultaneous act was passed, making a donation of three hundred +and twenty acres of land (within the remaining part of Arkansas), +to each head of a family who would retire from the amputated part; +and subjecting all to military removal that did not retire. It was +done. They all withdrew. Three hundred and twenty acres of land in +front to attract them, and regular troops in the rear to push them, +presented a motive power adequate to its object; and twelve thousand +square miles of slave territory was evacuated by its inhabitants, +with their flocks, and herds, and slaves; and not a word was said +about it; and the event has been forgotten. But it is necessary to +recall its recollection, as an important act, in itself, in relation +to the new State of Arkansas--as being the work of the South--and as +being necessary to be known in order to understand subsequent events. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +RENEWAL OF THE OREGON JOINT OCCUPATION CONVENTION. + + +The American settlement at the mouth of the Columbia, or Oregon, +was made in 1811. It was an act of private enterprise, done by the +eminent merchant, Mr. John Jacob Astor, of New-York; and the young +town christened after his own name, Astoria: but it was done with +the countenance and stipulated approbation of the government of +the United States; and an officer of the United States navy--the +brave Lieutenant Thorn, who was with Decatur at Tripoli, and who +afterwards blew up his ship in Nootka Sound to avoid her capture +by the savages (blowing himself, crew and savages all into the +air),--was allowed to command his (Mr. Astor's) leading vessel, in +order to impress upon the enterprise the seal of nationality. This +town was captured during the war of 1812, by a ship of war detached +for that purpose, by Commodore Hillyar, commanding a British +squadron in the Pacific Ocean. No attempt was made to recover it +during the war; and, at Ghent, after some efforts on the part of +the British commissioners, to set up a title to it, its restitution +was stipulated under the general clause which provided for the +restoration of all places captured by either party. But it was not +restored. An empty ceremony was gone through to satisfy the words of +the treaty, and to leave the place in the hands of the British. An +American agent, Mr. John Baptist Prevost, was sent to Valparaiso, +to go in a British sloop of war (the Blossom) to receive the place, +to sign a receipt for it, and leave it in the hands of the British. +This was in the autumn of the year 1818; and coincident with that +nominal restitution was the conclusion of a convention in London +between the United States and British government, for the joint +occupation of the Columbia for ten years--Mr. Gallatin and Mr. +Rush the American negotiators--if those can be called negotiators +who are tied down to particular instructions. The joint occupancy +was provided for, and in these words: "That any country claimed by +either party on the northwest coast of America, together with its +harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within +the same, be free and open, for the term of ten years, to the +subjects, citizens, and vessels of the two powers; without prejudice +to any claim which either party might have to any part of the +country."--I was a practising lawyer at St. Louis, no way engaged in +politics, at the time this convention was published; but I no sooner +saw it than I saw its delusive nature--its one-sidedness--and the +whole disastrous consequences which were to result from it to the +United States; and immediately wrote and published articles against +it: of which the following is an extract: + + "This is a specimen of the skill with which the diplomatic + art deposits the seeds of a new contestation in the assumed + settlement of an existing one,--and gives unequal privileges in + words of equality,--and breeds a serious question, to be ended + perhaps by war, where no question at all existed. Every word + of the article for this joint occupation is a deception and a + blunder--suggesting a belief for which there is no foundation, + granting privileges for which there is no equivalent, and + presenting ambiguities which require to be solved--peradventure + by the sword. It speaks as if there was a mutuality of countries + on the northwest coast to which the article was applicable, + and a mutuality of benefits to accrue to the citizens of both + governments by each occupying the country claimed by the other. + Not so the fact. There is but one country in question, and + that is our own;--and of this the British are to have equal + possession with ourselves, and we no possession of theirs. The + Columbia is ours; Frazer's River is a British possession to + which no American ever went, or ever will go. The convention + gives a joint right of occupying the ports and harbors, and of + navigating the rivers of each other. This would imply that each + government possessed in that quarter, ports, and harbors, and + navigable rivers; and were about to bring them into hotch-potch + for mutual enjoyment. No such thing. There is but one port, + and that the mouth of the Columbia--but one river, and that + the Columbia itself: and both port and river our own. We give + the equal use of these to the British, and receive nothing in + return. The convention says that the "claim" of neither party + is to be prejudiced by the joint possession. This admits that + Great Britain has a claim--a thing never admitted before by + us, nor pretended by her. At Ghent she stated no claim, and + could state none. Her ministers merely asked for the river as + a boundary, as being the most convenient; and for the use of + the harbor at its mouth, as being necessary to their ships and + trade; but stated no claim. Our commissioners reported that they + (the British commissioners) endeavored 'to lay a nest-egg' for + a future pretension; which they failed to do at Ghent in 1815, + but succeeded in laying in London in 1818; and before the ten + years are out, a full grown fighting chicken will be hatched + of that egg. There is no mutuality in any thing. We furnish + the whole stake--country, river, harbor; and shall not even + maintain the joint use of our own. We shall be driven out of it, + and the British remain sole possessors. The fur trade is the + object. It will fare with our traders on the Columbia under this + convention as it fared with them on the Miami of the Lakes (and + on the lakes themselves), under the British treaties of '94 and + '96, which admitted British traders into our territories. Our + traders will be driven out; and that by the fair competition + of trade, even if there should be no foul play. The difference + between free and dutied goods, would work that result. The + British traders pay no duties: ours pay above an average of + fifty per centum. No trade can stand against such odds. But the + competition will not be fair. The savages will be incited to + kill and rob our traders, and they will be expelled by violence, + without waiting the slower, but equally certain process, of + expulsion by underselling. The result then is, that we admit + the British into our country, our river, and our harbor; and + we get no admittance into theirs, for they have none--Frazer's + River and New Caledonia being out of the question--that they + will become sole possessors of our river, our harbor, and our + country; and at the end of the ten years will have an admitted + 'claim' to our property, and the actual possession of it." + +Thus I wrote in the year 1818, when the joint occupation convention +of that year was promulgated. I wrote in advance; and long before +the ten years were out, it was all far more than verified. Our +traders were not only driven from the mouth of the Columbia River, +but from all its springs and branches;--not only from all the Valley +of the Columbia, but from the whole region of the Rocky Mountains +between 49 and 42 degrees;--not only from all this mountain region, +but from the upper waters of all our far distant rivers--the +Missouri, the Yellow Stone, the Big Horn, the North Platte; and +all their mountain tributaries. And, by authentic reports made to +our government, not less than five hundred of our citizens had +been killed, nor less than five hundred thousand dollars worth +of goods and furs robbed from them;--the British remaining the +undisturbed possessors of all the Valley of the Columbia, acting +as its masters, and building forts from the sea to the mountains. +This was the effect of the first joint occupation treaty, and every +body in the West saw its approaching termination with pleasure; but +the false step which the government had made induced another. They +had admitted a "claim" on the part of Great Britain, and given her +the sole, under the name of a joint, possession; and now to get +her out was the difficulty. It could not be done; and the United +States agreed to a further continued "joint" occupation (as it was +illusively called in the renewed convention), not for ten years +more, but "indefinitely," determinable on one year's notice from +either party to the other. The reason for this indefinite, and +injurious continuance, was set forth in the preamble to the renewed +convention (Mr. Gallatin now the sole United States negotiator); +and recited that the two governments "being desirous to prevent, as +far as possible, all hazard of misunderstanding, and with a view to +give further time for maturing measures which shall have for their +object a more definite settlement of the claims of each party to the +said territory;" did thereupon agree to renew the joint occupation +article of the convention of 1818, &c. Thus, we had, by our +diplomacy in 1818, and by the permitted non-execution of the Ghent +treaty in the delivery of the post and country, hatched a question +which threatened a "misunderstanding" between the two countries; +and for maturing measures for the settlement of which indefinite +time was required--and granted--Great Britain remaining, in the +mean time, sole occupant of the whole country. This was all that she +could ask, and all that we could grant, even if we actually intended +to give up the country. + +I was a member of the Senate when this renewed convention was +sent in for ratification, and opposed it with all the zeal and +ability of which I was master: but in vain. The weight of the +administration, the indifference of many to a remote object, the +desire to put off a difficulty, and the delusive argument that we +could terminate it at any time--(a consolation so captivating to +gentle temperaments)--were too strong for reason and fact; and I was +left in a small minority on the question of ratification. But I did +not limit myself to opposition to the treaty. I proposed, as well as +opposed; and digested my opinions into three resolves; and had them +spread on the executive journal, and made part of our parliamentary +history for future reference. + +The resolves were: 1. "That it is not expedient for the United +States and Great Britain to treat further in relation to their +claims on the northwest coast of America, on the basis of a joint +occupation by their respective citizens. 2. That it is expedient +that the joint-occupation article in the convention of 1818 be +allowed to expire upon its own limitation. 3. That it is expedient +for the government of the United States to continue to treat with +His Britannic Majesty in relation to said claims, on the basis of +a separation of interests, and the establishment of a permanent +boundary between their dominions westward of the Rocky Mountains, in +the shortest possible time." These resolves were not voted upon; but +the negative vote on the ratification of the convention showed what +the vote would have been if it had been taken. That negative vote +was--Messrs. Benton, Thomas W. Cobb of Georgia, Eaton of Tennessee, +Ellis of Mississippi, Johnson of Kentucky, Kane of Illinois, and +Rowan of Kentucky--in all 7. Eighteen years afterwards, and when +we had got to the cry of "inevitable war," I had the gratification +to see the whole Senate, all Congress, and all the United States, +occupy the same ground in relation to this joint occupation on which +only seven senators stood at the time the convention for it was +ratified. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1828, AND FURTHER ERRORS OF MONS. DE +TOCQUEVILLE. + + +General Jackson and Mr. Adams were the candidates;--with the latter, +Mr. Clay (his Secretary of State), so intimately associated in +the public mind, on account of the circumstances of the previous +presidential election in the House of Representatives, that their +names and interests were inseparable during the canvass. General +Jackson was elected, having received 178 electoral votes to 83 +received by Mr. Adams. Mr. Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, was +the vice-presidential candidate on the ticket of Mr. Adams, and +received an equal vote with that gentleman: Mr. Calhoun was the +vice-presidential candidate on the ticket with General Jackson, and +received a slightly less vote--the deficiency being in Georgia, +where the friends of Mr. Crawford still resented his believed +connection with the "A. B. plot." In the previous election, he had +been neutral between General Jackson and Mr. Adams; but was now +decided on the part of the General, and received the same vote every +where, except in Georgia. In this election there was a circumstance +to be known and remembered. Mr. Adams and Mr. Rush were both from +the non-slaveholding--General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun from the +slaveholding States, and both large slave owners themselves--and +both received a large vote (73 each) in the free States--and of +which at least forty were indispensable to their election. There was +no jealousy, or hostile, or aggressive spirit in the North at that +time against the South! + +The election of General Jackson was a triumph of democratic +principle, and an assertion of the people's right to govern +themselves. That principle had been violated in the presidential +election in the House of Representatives in the session of 1824-'25; +and the sanction, or rebuke, of that violation was a leading +question in the whole canvass. It was also a triumph over the high +protective policy, and the federal internal improvement policy, +and the latitudinous construction of the constitution; and of the +democracy over the federalists, then called national republicans; +and was the re-establishment of parties on principle, according to +the landmarks of the early ages of the government. For although Mr. +Adams had received confidence and office from Mr. Madison and Mr. +Monroe, and had classed with the democratic party during the fusion +of parties in the "era of good feeling," yet he had previously +been federal; and in the re-establishment of old party lines which +began to take place after the election of Mr. Adams in the House +of Representatives, his affinities, and policy, became those of +his former party: and as a party, with many individual exceptions, +they became his supporters and his strength. General Jackson, on +the contrary, had always been democratic, so classing when he was a +senator in Congress under the administration of the first Mr. Adams, +and when party lines were most straightly drawn, and upon principle: +and as such now receiving the support of men and States which took +their political position at that time, and had maintained it ever +since--Mr. Macon and Mr. Randolph, for example, and the States of +Virginia and Pennsylvania. And here it becomes my duty to notice +an error, or a congeries of errors, of Mons. de Tocqueville, in +relation to the causes of General Jackson's election; and which he +finds exclusively in the glare of a military fame resulting from "a +very ordinary achievement, only to be remembered where battles are +rare." He says: + + "General Jackson, whom the Americans have twice elected to the + head of their government, is a man of a violent temper and + mediocre talents. No one circumstance in the whole course of + his career ever proved that he is qualified to govern a free + people; and, indeed, the majority of the enlightened classes of + the Union has always been opposed to him. But he was raised to + the Presidency, and has been maintained in that lofty station, + solely by the recollection of a victory which he gained twenty + years ago, under the walls of New Orleans;--a victory which, + however, was a very ordinary achievement, and which could only + be remembered in a country where battles are rare."--(_Chapter + 17._) + +This may pass for American history, in Europe and in a foreign +language, and even finds abettors here to make it American history +in the United States, with a preface and notes to enforce and +commend it: but America will find historians of her own to do +justice to the national, and to individual character. In the mean +time I have some knowledge of General Jackson, and the American +people, and the two presidential elections with which they +honored the General; and will oppose it, that is, my knowledge, +to the flippant and shallow statements of Mons. de Tocqueville. +"_A man of violent temper._" I ought to know something about +that--contemporaries will understand the allusion--and I can say +that General Jackson had a good temper, kind and hospitable to +every body, and a feeling of protection in it for the whole human +race, and especially the weaker and humbler part of it. He had few +quarrels on his own account; and probably the very ones of which +Mons. de Tocqueville had heard were accidental, against his will, +and for the succor of friends. "_Mediocre talent, and no capacity +to govern a free people._" In the first place, free people are not +governed by any man, but by laws. But to understand the phrase as +perhaps intended, that he had no capacity for civil administration, +let the condition of the country at the respective periods when +he took up, and when he laid down the administration, answer. He +found the country in domestic distress--pecuniary distress--and +the national and state legislation invoked by leading politicians +to relieve it by empirical remedies;--tariffs, to relieve one part +of the community by taxing the other;--internal improvement, to +distribute pubic money;--a national bank, to cure the paper money +evils of which it was the author;--the public lands the pillage of +broken bank paper;--depreciated currency and ruined exchanges;--a +million and a half of "unavailable funds" in the treasury;--a large +public debt;--the public money the prey of banks;--no gold in the +country--only twenty millions of dollars in silver, and that in +banks which refused, when they pleased, to pay it down in redemption +of their own notes, or even to render back to depositors. Stay +laws, stop laws, replevin laws, baseless paper, the resource in +half the States to save the debtor from his creditor; and national +bankrupt laws from Congress, and local insolvent laws, in the +States, the demand of every session. Indian tribes occupying a +half, or a quarter of the area of southern States, and unsettled +questions of wrong and insult, with half the powers of Europe. Such +was the state of the country when General Jackson became President: +what was it when he left the Presidency? Protective tariffs, and +federal internal improvement discarded; the national bank left to +expire upon its own limitation; the public lands redeemed from +the pillage of broken bank paper; no more "unavailable funds;" +an abundant gold and silver currency; the public debt paid off; +the treasury made independent of banks; the Indian tribes removed +from the States; indemnities obtained from all foreign powers for +all past aggressions, and to new ones committed; several treaties +obtained from great powers that never would treat with us before; +peace, friendship, and commerce with all the world; and the measures +established which, after one great conflict with the expiring Bank +of the United States, and all her affiliated banks in 1837, put an +end to bank dominion in the United States, and all its train of +contractions and expansions, panic and suspension, distress and +empirical relief. This is the answer which the respective periods +of the beginning and the ending of General Jackson's administration +gives to the flippant imputation of no capacity for civil +government. I pass on to the next. "_The majority of the enlightened +classes always opposed to him._" A majority of those classes which +Mons. de Tocqueville would chiefly see in the cities, and along the +highways--bankers, brokers, jobbers, contractors, politicians, and +speculators--were certainly against him, and he as certainly against +them: but the mass of the intelligence of the country was with him! +and sustained him in retrieving the country from the deplorable +condition in which the "enlightened classes" had sunk it! and in +advancing it to that state of felicity at home, and respect abroad, +which has made it the envy and admiration of the civilized world, +and the absorbent of populations of Europe. I pass on. "_Raised to +the Presidency and maintained there solely by the recollection of +the victory at New Orleans._" Here recollection, and military glare, +reverse the action of their ever previous attributes, and become +stronger, instead of weaker, upon the lapse of time. The victory +at New Orleans was gained in the first week of the year 1815; and +did not bear this presidential fruit until fourteen and eighteen +years afterwards, and until three previous good seasons had passed +without production. There was a presidential election in 1816, when +the victory was fresh, and the country ringing, and imaginations +dazzled with it: but it did not make Jackson President, or even +bring him forward as a candidate. The same four years afterwards, at +the election of 1820--not even a candidate then. Four years still +later, at the election of 1824, he became a candidate, and--was +not elected;--receiving but 99 electoral votes out of 261. In the +year 1828 he was first elected, receiving 178 out of 261 votes; +and in 1832 he was a second time elected, receiving 219 out of +288 votes. Surely there must have been something besides an old +military recollection to make these two elections so different from +the two former; and there was! That something else was principle! +and the same that I have stated in the beginning of this chapter +as entering into the canvass of 1828, and ruling its issue. I +pass on to the last disparagement. "A victory which was a very +ordinary achievement, and only to be remembered where battles were +rare." Such was not the battle at New Orleans. It was no ordinary +achievement. It was a victory if 4,600 citizens just called from +their homes, without knowledge of scientific war, under a leader +as little schooled as themselves in that particular, without other +advantages than a slight field work (a ditch and a bank of earth) +hastily thrown up--over double their numbers of British veterans, +survivors of the wars of the French Revolution, victors in the +Peninsula and at Toulouse, under trained generals of the Wellington +school, and with a disparity of loss never before witnessed. On one +side 700 killed (including the first, second and third generals); +1400 wounded; 500 taken prisoners. On the other, six privates +killed, and seven wounded; and the total repulse of an invading army +which instantly fled to its "wooden walls," and never again placed a +hostile foot on American soil. Such an achievement is not ordinary, +much less "very" ordinary. Does Mons. de Tocqueville judge the +importance of victories by the numbers engaged, and the quantity of +blood shed, or by their consequences? If the former, the cannonade +on the heights of Valmy (which was not a battle, nor even a combat, +but a distant cannon firing in which few were hurt), must seem to +him a very insignificant affair. Yet it did what the marvellous +victories of Champaubert, Montmirail, Château-Thierry, Vauchamps +and Montereau could not do--turned back the invader, and saved the +soil of France from the iron hoof of the conqueror's horse! and +was commemorated twelve years afterwards by the great emperor in a +ducal title bestowed upon one of its generals. The victory at New +Orleans did what the connonade at Valmy did--drove back the invader! +and also what it did not do--destroyed the one fourth part of his +force. And, therefore, it is not to be disparaged, and will not +be, by any one who judges victories by their consequences, instead +of by the numbers engaged. And so the victory at New Orleans will +remain in history as one of the great achievements of the world, +in spite of the low opinion which the writer on American democracy +entertains of it. But Mons. de Tocqueville's disparagement of +General Jackson, and his achievement, does not stop at him and his +victory. It goes beyond both, and reaches the American people, their +republican institutions, and the elective franchise: It represents +the people as incapable of self-government--as led off by a little +military glare to elect a man twice President who had not one +qualification for the place, who was violent and mediocre, and whom +the enlightened classes opposed: all most unjustly said, but still +to pass for American history in Europe, and with some Americans at +home. + +Regard for Mons. de Tocqueville is the cause of this correction of +his errors: it is a piece of respect which I do not extend to the +riffraff of European writers who come here to pick up the gossip +of the highways, to sell it in Europe for American history, and to +requite with defamation the hospitalities of our houses. He is not +of that class: he is above it: he is evidently not intentionally +unjust. But he is the victim of the company which he kept while +among us; and his book must pay the penalty of the impositions +practised upon him. The character of our country, and the cause of +republican government, require his errors to be corrected: and, +unhappily, I shall have further occasion to perform that duty. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +RETIRING OF MR. MACON. + + +Philosophic in his temperament and wise in his conduct, governed +in all his actions by reason and judgment, and deeply imbued with +Bible images, this virtuous and patriotic man (whom Mr. Jefferson +called "the last of the Romans)" had long fixed the term of his +political existence at the age which the Psalmist assigns for the +limit of manly life: "The days of our years are threescore years +and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet +is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and +we fly away." He touched that age in 1828; and, true to all his +purposes, he was true to his resolve in this, and executed it with +the quietude and indifference of an ordinary transaction. He was in +the middle of a third senatorial term, and in the full possession of +all his faculties of mind and body; but his time for retirement had +come--the time fixed by himself; but fixed upon conviction and for +well-considered reasons, and inexorable to him as if fixed by fate. +To the friends who urged him to remain to the end of his term, and +who insisted that his mind was as good as ever, he would answer, +that it was good enough yet to let him know that he ought to quit +office before his mind quit him, and that he did not mean to risk +the fate of the Archbishop of Grenada. He resigned his senatorial +honors as he had worn them--meekly, unostentatiously, in a letter of +thanks and gratitude to the General Assembly of his State;--and gave +to repose at home that interval of thought and quietude which every +wise man would wish to place between the turmoil of life and the +stillness of eternity. He had nine years of this tranquil enjoyment, +and died without pain or suffering June 29th, 1837,--characteristic +in death as in life. It was eight o'clock in the morning when he +felt that the supreme hour had come, had himself full-dressed with +his habitual neatness, walked in the room and lay upon the bed, by +turns conversing kindly with those who were about him, and showing +by his conduct that he was ready and waiting, but hurrying nothing. +It was the death of Socrates, all but the hemlock, and in that full +faith of which the Grecian sage had only a glimmering. He directed +his own grave on the point of a sterile ridge (where nobody would +wish to plough), and covered with a pile of rough flint-stone, +(which nobody would wish to build with), deeming this sterility and +the uselessness of this rock the best security for that undisturbed +repose of the bones which is still desirable to those who are +indifferent to monuments. + +In almost all strongly-marked characters there is usually some +incident or sign, in early life, which shows that character, and +reveals to the close observer the type of the future man. So it was +with Mr. Macon. His firmness, his patriotism, his self-denial, +his devotion to duty and disregard of office and emolument; his +modesty, integrity, self-control, and subjection of conduct to the +convictions of reason and the dictates of virtue, all so steadily +exemplified in a long life, were all shown from the early age of +eighteen, in the miniature representation of individual action, +and only confirmed in the subsequent public exhibitions of a long, +beautiful, and exalted career. + +He was of that age, and a student at Princeton college, at the time +of the Declaration of American Independence. A small volunteer +corps was then on the Delaware. He quit his books, joined it, +served a term, returned to Princeton, and resumed his studies. In +the year 1778 the Southern States had become a battle-field, big +with their own fate, and possibly involving the issue of the war. +British fleets and armies appeared there, strongly supported by +the friends of the British cause; and the conquest of the South +was fully counted upon. Help was needed in these States; and Mr. +Macon, quitting college, returned to his native county in North +Carolina, joined a militia company as a private, and marched to +South Carolina--then the theatre of the enemy's operations. He had +his share in all the hardships and disasters of that trying time; +was at the fall of Fort Moultrie, surrender of Charleston, defeat +at Camden; and in the rapid winter retreat across the upper part of +North Carolina. He was in the camp on the left bank of the Yadkin +when the sudden flooding of that river, in the brief interval +between the crossing of the Americans and the coming up of the +British, arrested the pursuit of Cornwallis, and enabled Greene to +allow some rest to his wearied and exhausted men. In this camp, +destitute of every thing and with gloomy prospects ahead, a summons +came to Mr. Macon from the Governor of North Carolina, requiring +him to attend a meeting of the General Assembly, of which he had +been elected a member, without his knowledge, by the people of his +county. He refused to go: and the incident being talked of through +the camp, came to the knowledge of the general. Greene was a _man_ +himself, and able to know a _man_. He felt at once that, if this +report was true, this young soldier was no common character; and +determined to verify the fact. He sent for the young man, inquired +of him, heard the truth, and then asked for the reason of this +unexpected conduct--this preference for a suffering camp over a +comfortable seat in the General Assembly? Mr. Macon answered him, +in his quaint and sententious way, that he had seen the _faces_ of +the British many times, but had never seen their _backs_, and meant +to stay in the army till he did. Greene instantly saw the material +the young man was made of, and the handle by which he was to be +worked. That material was patriotism; that handle a sense of duty; +and laying hold of this handle, he quickly worked the young soldier +into a different conclusion from the one that he had arrived at. He +told him he could do more good as a member of the General Assembly +than as a soldier; that in the army he was but one man, and in +the General Assembly he might obtain many, with the supplies they +needed, by showing the destitution and suffering which he had seen +in the camp; and that it was his duty to go. This view of duty and +usefulness was decisive. Mr. Macon obeyed the Governor's summons; +and by his representations contributed to obtain the supplies which +enabled Greene to turn back and face Cornwallis,--fight him, cripple +him, drive him further back than he had advanced (for Wilmington is +South of Camden), disable him from remaining in the South (of which, +up to the battle of Guilford, he believed himself to be master); and +sending him to Yorktown, where he was captured, and the war ended. + +The philosophy of history has not yet laid hold of the battle of +Guilford, its consequences and effects. That battle made the capture +at Yorktown. The events are told in every history; their connection +and dependence in none. It broke up the plan of Cornwallis in the +South, and changed the plan of Washington in the North. Cornwallis +was to subdue the Southern States, and was doing it until Greene +turned upon him at Guilford. Washington was occupied with Sir Henry +Clinton, then in New-York, with 12,000 British troops. He had formed +the heroic design to capture Clinton and his army (the French fleet +co-operating) in that city, and thereby putting an end to the war. +All his preparations were going on for that grand consummation when +he got the news of the battle of Guilford; the retreat of Cornwallis +to Wilmington, his inability to keep the field in the South, and +his return northward through the lower part of Virginia. He saw his +advantage--an easier prey--and the same result, if successful. +Cornwallis or Clinton, either of them captured, would put an end +to the war. Washington changed his plan, deceived Clinton, moved +rapidly upon the weaker general, captured him and his 7000 men; and +ended the revolutionary war. The battle of Guilford put that capture +into Washington's hands; and thus Guilford and Yorktown became +connected; and the philosophy of history shows their dependence, and +that the lesser event was father to the greater. The State of North +Carolina gave General Greene 25,000 acres of western land for that +day's work, now worth a million of dollars; but the day itself has +not yet obtained its proper place in American history. + +The military life of Mr. Macon finished with his departure from +the camp on the Yadkin, and his civil public life commenced on his +arrival at the General Assembly, to which he had been summoned--that +civil public life in which he was continued above forty years +by free elections--representative in Congress under Washington, +Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, and long the Speaker of the House; +senator in Congress under Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams; +and often elected President of the Senate, and until voluntarily +declining; twice refusing to be Postmaster General under Jefferson; +never taking any office but that to which he was elected; and +resigning his last senatorial term when it was only half run. But a +characteristic trait remains to be told of his military life--one +that has neither precedent nor imitation (the example of Washington +being out of the line of comparison): he refused to receive pay, or +to accept promotion, and served three years as a private through +mere devotion to his country. And all the long length of his life +was conformable to this patriotic and disinterested beginning: +and thus the patriotic principles of the future senator were +all revealed in early life, and in the obscurity of an unknown +situation. Conformably to this beginning, he refused to take any +thing under the modern acts of Congress for the benefit of the +surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution, and voted against +them all, saying they had suffered alike (citizens and military), +and all been rewarded together in the establishment of independence; +that the debt to the army had been settled by pay, by pensions to +the wounded, by half-pay and land to the officers; that no military +claim could be founded on depreciated continental paper money, from +which the civil functionaries who performed service, and the farmers +who furnished supplies, suffered as much as any. On this principle +he voted against the bill for Lafayette, against all the modern +revolutionary pensions and land bounty acts, and refused to take any +thing under them (for many were applicable to himself). + +His political principles were deep-rooted, innate, subject to no +change and to no machinery of party. He was democratic in the +broad sense of the word, as signifying a capacity in the people +for self-government; and in its party sense, as in favor of a +plain and economical administration of the federal government, and +against latitudinarian constructions of the constitution. He was a +party man, not in the hackneyed sense of the word, but only where +principle was concerned and was independent of party in all his +social relations, and in all the proceedings which he disapproved. +Of this he gave a strong instance in the case of General Hamilton, +whom he deemed honorable and patriotic; and utterly refused to be +concerned in a movement proposed to affect him personally, though +politically opposed to him. He venerated Washington, admired the +varied abilities and high qualities of Hamilton; and esteemed +and respected the eminent federal gentlemen of his time. He had +affectionate regard for Madison and Monroe; but Mr. Jefferson was +to him the full and perfect exemplification of the republican +statesman. His almost fifty years of personal and political +friendship and association with Mr. Randolph is historical, and +indissolubly connects their names in memories in the recollection +of their friends, and in history, if it does them justice. He was +the early friend of General Jackson, and intimate with him when he +was a senator in Congress under the administration of the elder Mr. +Adams; and was able to tell Congress and the world who he was when +he began to astonish Europe and America by his victories. He was +the kind observer of the conduct of young men, encouraging them by +judicious commendation when he saw them making efforts to become +useful and respectable, and never noting their faults. He was just +in all things, and in that most difficult of all things, judging +political opponents,--to whom he would do no wrong, not merely in +word or act, but in thought. He spoke frequently in Congress, always +to the point, and briefly and wisely; and was one of those speakers +which Mr. Jefferson described Dr. Franklin to have been--a speaker +of no pretension and great performance,--who spoke more good sense +while he was getting up out of his chair, and getting back into it, +than many others did in long discourses; and he suffered no reporter +to dress up a speech for him. + +He was above the pursuit of wealth, but also above dependence and +idleness; and, like an old Roman of the elder Cato's time, worked +in the fields at the head of his slaves in the intervals of public +duty; and did not cease this labor until advancing age rendered him +unable to stand the hot sun of summer--the only season of the year +when senatorial duties left him at liberty to follow the plough, +or handle the hoe. I think it was the summer of 1817,--that was +the last time (he told me) he tried it, and found the sun too hot +for him--then sixty years of age, a senator, and the refuser of +all office. How often I think of him, when I see at Washington +robustious men going through a scene of supplication, tribulation, +and degradation, to obtain office, which the salvation of the soul +does not impose upon the vilest sinner! His fields, his flocks, and +his herds yielded an ample supply of domestic productions. A small +crop of tobacco--three hogsheads when the season was good, two when +bad--purchased the exotics which comfort and necessity required, and +which the farm did not produce. He was not rich, but rich enough +to dispense hospitality and charity, to receive all guests in his +house, from the President to the day laborer--no other title being +necessary to enter his house but that of an honest man; rich enough +to bring up his family (two daughters) as accomplished ladies, and +marry them to accomplished gentlemen--one to William Martin, Esq., +the other to William Eaton, Esq., of Roanoke, my early school-fellow +and friend for more than half a century; and, above all, he was rich +enough to pay as he went, and never to owe a dollar to any man. + +He was steadfast in his friendships, and would stake himself for +a friend, but would violate no point of public duty to please +or oblige him. Of this his relations with Mr. Randolph gave a +signal instance. He drew a knife to defend him in the theatre at +Philadelphia, when menaced by some naval and military officers for +words spoken in debate, and deemed offensive to their professions; +yet, when speaker of the House of Representatives, he displaced Mr. +Randolph from the head of the committee of ways and means, because +the chairman of that committee should be on terms of political +friendship with the administration,--which Mr. Randolph had then +ceased to be with Mr. Jefferson's. He was above executive office, +even the highest the President could give; but not above the lowest +the people could give, taking that of justice of the peace in his +county, and refusing that of Postmaster-General at Washington. He +was opposed to nepotism, and to all quartering of his connections +on the government; and in the course of his forty-years' service, +with the absolute friendship of many administrations and the perfect +respect of all, he never had office or contract for any of his +blood. He refused to be a candidate for the vice-presidency, but +took the place of elector on the Van Buren ticket in 1836. He was +against paper money and the paper system, and was accustomed to +present the strong argument against both in the simple phrase, that +this was a hard-money government, made by hard-money men, who had +seen the evil of paper-money, and meant to save their posterity +from it. He was opposed to securityships, and held that no man +ought to be entangled in the affairs of another, and that the +interested parties alone--those who expected to find their profit +in the transaction--should bear the bad consequences, as well as +enjoy the good ones, of their own dealings. He never called any one +"friend" without being so; and never expressed faith in the honor +and integrity of a man without acting up to the declaration when +the occasion required it. Thus, in constituting his friend Weldon +N. Edwards, Esq., his testamentary and sole executor, with large +discretionary powers, he left all to his honor, and forbid him to +account to any court or power for the manner in which he should +execute that trust. This prohibition so characteristic, and so +honorable to both parties, and has been so well justified by the +event, that I give it in his own words, as copied from his will, to +wit: + + "I subjoin the following, in my own handwriting, as a codicil to + this my last will and testament, and direct that it be a part + thereof--that is to say, having full faith in the honor and + integrity of my executor above named, he shall not be held to + account to any court or power whatever for the discharge of the + trust confided by me to him in and by the foregoing will." + +And the event has proved that his judgment, as always, committed +no mistake when it bestowed that confidence. He had his +peculiarities--idiosyncracies, if any one pleases--but they were +born with him, suited to him, constituting a part of his character, +and necessary to its completeness. He never subscribed to charities, +but gave, and freely, according to his means--the left hand not +knowing what the right hand did. He never subscribed for new books, +giving as a reason to the soliciting agent, that nobody purchased +his tobacco until it was inspected; and he could buy no book until +he had examined it. He would not attend the Congress Presidential +Caucus of 1824, although it was sure to nominate his own choice (Mr. +Crawford); and, when a reason was wanted, he gave it in the brief +answer that he attended one once and they cheated him, and he had +said that he would never attend another. He always wore the same +dress--that is to say a suit of the same material, cut, and color, +superfine navy blue--the whole suit from the same piece, and in the +fashion of the time of the Revolution; and always replaced by a new +one before it showed age. He was neat in his person, always wore +fine linen, a fine cambric stock, a fine fur hat with a brim to it, +fair top-boots--the boot outside of the pantaloons, on the principle +that leather was stronger than cloth. He would wear no man's honors, +and when complimented on the report on the Panama mission, which, +as chairman of the committee on foreign relations, he had presented +to the Senate, he would answer, "Yes; it is a good report; Tazewell +wrote it." Left to himself, he was ready to take the last place, +and the lowest seat any where; but in his representative capacity +he would suffer no derogation of a constitutional or of a popular +right. Thus, when Speaker of the House, and a place behind the +President's Secretaries had been assigned him in some ceremony, +he disregarded the programme; and, as the elect of the elect of +all the people, took his place next after those whom the national +vote had elected. And in 1803, on the question to change the form +of voting for President and Vice-President, and the vote wanting +one of the constitutional number of two thirds, he resisted the +rule of the House which restricted the speaker's vote to a tie, +or to a vote which would make a tie,--claimed his constitutional +right to vote as a member, obtained it, gave the vote, made the two +thirds, and carried the amendment. And, what may well be deemed +idiosyncratic in these days, he was punctual in the performance of +all his minor duties to the Senate, attending its sittings to the +moment, attending all the committees to which he was appointed, +attending all the funerals of the members and officers of the +Houses, always in time at every place where duty required him; and +refusing double mileage for one travelling, when elected from the +House of Representatives to the Senate, or summoned to an extra +session. He was an habitual reader and student of the Bible, a pious +and religious man, and of the "_Baptist persuasion_," as he was +accustomed to express it. + +I have a pleasure in recalling the recollections of this wise, just, +and good man, and in writing them down, not without profit, I hope, +to rising generations, and at least as extending the knowledge of +the kind of men to whom we are indebted for our independence, and +for the form of government which they established for us. Mr. Macon +was the real Cincinnatus of America, the pride and ornament of my +native State, my hereditary friend through four generations, my +mentor in the first seven years of my senatorial, and the last seven +of his senatorial life; and a feeling of gratitude and of filial +affection mingles itself with this discharge of historical duty to +his memory. + + + + +ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JACKSON. + +[Illustration: decorative] + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +COMMENCEMENT OF GENERAL JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. + + +On the 4th of March, 1829, the new President was inaugurated, +with the usual ceremonies, and delivered the address which +belongs to the occasion; and which, like all of its class, was +a general declaration of the political principles by which the +new administration would be guided. The general terms in which +such addresses are necessarily conceived preclude the possibility +of minute practical views, and leave to time and events the +qualification of the general declarations. Such declarations are +always in harmony with the grounds upon which the new President's +election had been made, and generally agreeable to his supporters, +without being repulsive to his opponents; harmony and conciliation +being an especial object with every new administration. So of +General Jackson's inaugural address on this occasion. It was +a general chart of democratic principles; but of which a few +paragraphs will bear reproduction in this work, as being either +new and strong, or a revival of good old principles, of late +neglected. Thus: as a military man his election had been deprecated +as possibly leading to a military administration: on the contrary +he thus expressed himself on the subject of standing armies, and +subordination of the military to the civil authority: "Considering +standing armies as dangerous to free government, in time of peace, I +shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment; nor disregard +that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches that +the military should be held subordinate to the civil power." On +the cardinal doctrine of economy, and freedom from public debt, he +said: "Under every aspect in which it can be considered, it would +appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict +and faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously, both +because it will facilitate the extinguishment of the national +debt--the unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with real +independence;--and because it will counteract that tendency to +public and private profligacy which a profuse expenditure of money +by the government is but too apt to engender." Reform of abuses +and non-interference with elections, were thus enforced: "The +recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes, on the list of +executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the +task of reform, which will require, particularly, the correction +of those abuses that have brought the patronage of the federal +government into conflict with the freedom of elections." The oath of +office was administered by the venerable Chief Justice, Marshall, +to whom that duty had belonged for about thirty years. The Senate, +according to custom, having been convened in extra session for the +occasion, the cabinet appointments were immediately sent in and +confirmed. They were, Martin Van Buren, of New-York, Secretary of +State (Mr. James A. Hamilton, of New-York, son of the late General +Hamilton, being charged with the duties of the office until Mr. Van +Buren could enter upon them); Samuel D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, +Secretary of the Treasury; John H. Eaton, of Tennessee, Secretary +at War; John Branch, of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy; +John M. Berrien, of Georgia, Attorney General; William T. Harry, +of Kentucky, Postmaster General; those who constituted the late +cabinet, under Mr. Adams, only one of them, (Mr. John McLean, the +Postmaster General,) classed politically with General Jackson; and +a vacancy having occurred on the bench of the Supreme Court by the +death of Mr. Justice Trimble, of Kentucky, Mr. McLean was appointed +to fill it; and a further vacancy soon after occurring, the death +of Mr. Justice Bushrod Washington (nephew of General Washington), +Mr. Henry Baldwin, of Pennsylvania, was appointed in his place. The +Twenty-first Congress dated the commencement of its legal existence +on the day of the commencement of the new administration, and its +members were as follows: + + SENATE. + + MAINE--John Holmes, Peleg Sprague. + + NEW HAMPSHIRE--Samuel Bell, Levi Woodbury. + + MASSACHUSETTS--Nathaniel Silsbee, Daniel Webster. + + CONNECTICUT--Samuel A. Foot, Calvin Willey. + + RHODE ISLAND--Nehemiah R. Knight, Asher Robbins. + + VERMONT--Dudley Chase, Horatio Seymour. + + NEW-YORK--Nathan Sanford, Charles E. Dudley. + + NEW JERSEY--Theodore Frelinghuysen, Mahlon Dickerson. + + PENNSYLVANIA--William Marks, Isaac D. Barnard. + + DELAWARE--John M. Clayton, (_Vacant._) + + MARYLAND--Samuel Smith, Ezekiel F. Chambers. + + VIRGINIA--L. W. Tazewell, John Tyler. + + NORTH CAROLINA--James Iredell, (_Vacant._) + + SOUTH CAROLINA--William Smith, Robert Y. Hayne. + + GEORGIA--George M. Troup, John Forsyth. + + KENTUCKY--John Rowan, George M. Bibb. + + TENNESSEE--Hugh L. White, Felix Grundy. + + OHIO--Benjamin Ruggles, Jacob Burnet. + + LOUISIANA--Josiah S. Johnston, Edward Livingston. + + INDIANA--William Hendricks, James Noble. + + MISSISSIPPI--Powhatan Ellis, (_Vacant._) + + ILLINOIS--Elias K. Kane, John McLane. + + ALABAMA--John McKinley, William R. King. + + MISSOURI--David Barton, Thomas H. Benton. + + + HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + + MAINE--John Anderson, Samuel Butman, George Evans, Rufus + McIntire, James W. Ripley, Joseph F. Wingate--6. (_One vacant._) + + NEW HAMPSHIRE--John Brodhead, Thomas Chandler, Joseph Hammons, + Jonathan Harvey, Henry Hubbard, John W. Weeks--6. + + MASSACHUSETTS--John Bailey, Issac C. Bates, B. W. Crowninshield, + John Davis, Henry W. Dwight, Edward Everett, Benjamin Gorham, + George Grennell, jr., James L. Hodges, Joseph G. Kendall, John + Reed, Joseph Richardson, John Varnum--13. + + RHODE ISLAND--Tristam Burgess, Dutee J. Pearce--2. + + CONNECTICUT--Noyes Barber, Wm. W. Ellsworth, J. W. Huntington, + Ralph J. Ingersoll, W. L. Storrs, Eben Young--6. + + VERMONT--William Cahoon, Horace Everett, Jonathan Hunt, Rollin + C. Mallary, Benjamin Swift--5. + + NEW-YORK--William G. Angel, Benedict Arnold, Thomas Beekman, + Abraham Bockee, Peter I. Borst, C. C. Cambreleng, Jacob + Crocheron, Timothy Childs, Henry B. Cowles, Hector Craig, + Charles G. Dewitt, John D. Dickinson, Jonas Earll, jr., George + Fisher, Isaac Finch, Michael Hoffman, Joseph Hawkins, Jehiel + H. Halsey, Perkins King, James W. Lent, John Magee, Henry C. + Martindale, Robert Monell, Thomas Maxwell, E. Norton, Gershom + Powers, Robert S. Rose, Henry R. Storrs, James Strong, Ambrose + Spencer, John W. Taylor, Phineas L. Tracy, Gulian. C. Verplanck, + Campbell P. White--34. + + NEW JERSEY--Lewis Condict, Richard M. Cooper, Thomas H. Hughes, + Isaac Pierson, James F. Randolph, Samuel Swan--6. + + PENNSYLVANIA--James Buchanan, Richard Coulter, Thomas H. + Crawford, Joshua Evans, Chauncey Forward, Joseph Fry, jr., + James Ford, Innes Green, John Gilmore, Joseph Hemphill, Peter + Ihrie, jr., Thomas Irwin, Adam King, George G. Leiper, H. A. + Muhlenburg, Alem Marr, Daniel H. Miller, William McCreery, + William Ramsay, John Scott, Philander Stephens, John B. + Sterigere, Joel B. Sutherland, Samuel Smith, Thomas H. Sill--25. + (_One vacant._) + + DELAWARE--Kensy Johns, jr.--1. + + MARYLAND--Elias Brown, Clement Dorsey, Benjamin C. Howard, + George E. Mitchell, Michael C. Sprigg, Benedict I. Semmes, + Richard Spencer, George C. Washington, Ephraim K. Wilson--9. + + VIRGINIA--Mark Alexander, Robert Allen, Wm. S. Archer, Wm. + Armstrong, jr., John S. Barbour, Philip P. Barbour, J. T. + Boulding, Richard Coke, jr., Nathaniel H. Claiborne, Robert B. + Craig, Philip Doddridge, Thomas Davenport, William F. Gordon, + Lewis Maxwell, Charles F. Mercer, William McCoy, Thomas Newton, + John Roane, Alexander Smyth, Andrew Stevenson, John Taliaferro, + James Trezvant--22. + + NORTH CAROLINA--Willis Alston, Daniel L. Barringer, Samuel + P. Carson, H. W. Conner, Edmund Deberry, Edward B. Dudley, + Thomas H. Hall, Robert Potter, William B. Shepard, Augustine H. + Shepperd, Jesse Speight, Lewis Williams--12. (_One vacant._) + + SOUTH CAROLINA--Robert W. Barnwell, James Blair, John Campbell, + Warren R. Davis, William Drayton, William D. Martin, George + McDuffie, William T. Nuckolls, Starling Tucker--9. + + GEORGIA--Thomas F. Forster, Charles E. Haynes, Wilson Lumpkin, + Henry G. Lamar, Wiley Thompson, Richard H. Wilde, James M. + Wayne--7. + + KENTUCKY--James Clark, N. D. Coleman, Thomas Chilton, Henry + Daniel, Nathan Gaither, R. M. Johnson, John Kinkaid, Joseph + Lecompte, Chittenden Lyon, Robert P. Letcher, Charles A. + Wickliffe, Joel Yancey--12. + + TENNESSEE--John Blair, John Bell, David Crockett, Robert Desha, + Jacob C. Isacks, Cave Johnson, Pryor Lea, James K. Polk, James + Standifer--9. + + OHIO--Mordecai Bartley, Joseph H. Crane, William Creighton, + James Findlay, John M. Goodenow, Wm. W. Irwin, Wm. Kennon, Wm. + Russell, William Stanberry, James Shields, John Thomson, Joseph + Vance, Samuel F. Vinton, Elisha Whittlesey--14. + + LOUISIANA--Henry H. Gurley, W. H. Overton, Edward D. White--3. + + INDIANA--Ratliff Boon, Jonathan Jennings, John Test--3. + + ALABAMA--R. E. B. Baylor, C. C. Clay, Dixon H. Lewis--3. + + MISSISSIPPI--Thomas Hinds--1. + + ILLINOIS--Joseph Duncan--1. + + MISSOURI--Spencer Pettis--1. + + + DELEGATES. + + MICHIGAN TERRITORY--John Biddle--1. + + ARKANSAS TERRITORY--A. H. Sevier--1. + + FLORIDA TERRITORY--Joseph M. White--1. + +Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, was re-elected speaker of the House, +receiving 152 votes out of 191; and he classing politically with +General Jackson, this large vote in his favor, and the small one +against him (and that scattered and thrown away on several different +names not candidates), announced a pervading sentiment among the +people, in harmony with the presidential election--and showing that +political principles, and not military glare, had produced the +General's election. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE OF GENERAL JACKSON TO THE TWO HOUSES OF +CONGRESS. + + +The first annual message of a new President, being always a +recommendation of practical measures, is looked to with more +interest than the inaugural address, confined as this latter must +be, to a declaration of general principles. That of General Jackson, +delivered the 8th of December, 1829, was therefore anxiously looked +for; and did not disappoint the public expectation. It was strongly +democratic, and contained many recommendations of a nature to +simplify, and purify the working of the government, and to carry +it back to the times of Mr. Jefferson--to promote its economy and +efficiency, and to maintain the rights of the people, and of the +States in its administration. On the subject of electing a President +and Vice-President of the United States, he spoke thus: + + "I consider it one of the most urgent of my duties to bring + to your attention the propriety of amending that part of our + Constitution which relates to the election of President and + Vice-President. Our system of government was, by its framers, + deemed an experiment; and they, therefore, consistently provided + a mode of remedying its defects. + + "To the people belongs the right of electing their chief + magistrate: it was never designed that their choice should, + in any case, be defeated, either by the intervention of + electoral colleges, or by the agency confided, under certain + contingencies, to the House of Representatives. Experience + proves, that, in proportion as agents to execute the will of the + people are multiplied, there is danger of their wishes being + frustrated. Some may be unfaithful: all are liable to err. So + far, therefore, as the people can, with convenience, speak, it + is safer for them to express their own will. + + "In this, as in all other matters of public concern, policy + requires that as few impediments as possible should exist to + the free operation of the public will. Let us, then, endeavor + so to amend our system, as that the office of chief magistrate + may not be conferred upon any citizen but in pursuance of a fair + expression of the will of the majority. + + "I would therefore recommend such an amendment of the + constitution as may remove all intermediate agency in the + election of President and Vice-President. The mode may be so + regulated as to preserve to each State its present relative + weight in the election; and a failure in the first attempt may + be provided for, by confining the second to a choice between the + two highest candidates. In connection with such an amendment, + it would seem advisable to limit the service of the chief + magistrate to a single term, of either four or six years. If, + however, it should not be adopted, it is worthy of consideration + whether a provision disqualifying for office the Representatives + in Congress on whom such an election may have devolved, would + not be proper." + +This recommendation in relation to our election system has not yet +been carried into effect, though doubtless in harmony with the +principles of our government, necessary to prevent abuses, and now +generally demanded by the voice of the people. But the initiation +of amendments to the federal constitution is too far removed +from the people. It is in the hands of Congress and of the State +legislatures; but even there an almost impossible majority--that +of two thirds of each House, or two thirds of the State +legislatures--is required to commence the amendment; and a still +more difficult majority--that of three fourths of the States--to +complete it. Hitherto all attempts to procure the desired amendment +has failed; but the friends of that reform should not despair. The +great British parliamentary reform was only obtained after forty +years of annual motions in parliament; and forty years of organized +action upon the public mind through societies, clubs, and speeches; +and the incessant action of the daily and periodical press. In the +meantime events are becoming more impressive advocates for this +amendment than any language could be. The selection of President +has gone from the hands of the people--usurped by irresponsible and +nearly self-constituted bodies--in which the selection becomes the +result of a juggle, conducted by a few adroit managers, who baffle +the nomination until they are able to govern it, and to substitute +their own will for that of the people. Perhaps another example +is not upon earth of a free people voluntarily relinquishing the +elective franchise, in a case so great as that of electing their +own chief magistrate, and becoming the passive followers of an +irresponsible body--juggled, and baffled, and governed by a few +dextrous contrivers, always looking to their own interest in the +game which they play in putting down and putting up men. Certainly +the convention system, now more unfair and irresponsible than the +exploded congress caucus system, must eventually share the same +fate, and be consigned to oblivion and disgrace. In the meantime +the friends of popular election should press the constitutional +amendment which would give the Presidential election to the people, +and discard the use of an intermediate body which disregards the +public will and reduces the people to the condition of political +automatons. + +Closely allied to this proposed reform was another recommended by +the President in relation to members of Congress, and to exclude +them generally from executive appointments; and especially from +appointments conferred by the President for whom they voted. +The evil is the same whether the member votes in the House of +Representatives when the election goes to that body, or votes and +manages in a Congress caucus, or in a nominating convention. The +act in either case opens the door to corrupt practices; and should +be prevented by legal, or constitutional enactments, if it cannot +be restrained by the feelings of decorum, or repressed by public +opinion. On this point the message thus recommended: + + "While members of Congress can be constitutionally appointed + to offices of trust and profit, it will be the practice, even + under the most conscientious adherence to duty, to select them + for such stations as they are believed to be better qualified to + fill than other citizens; but the purity of our government would + doubtless be promoted by their exclusion from all appointments + in the gift of the President in whose election they may have + been officially concerned. The nature of the judicial office, + and the necessity of securing in the cabinet and in diplomatic + stations of the highest rank, the best talents and political + experience, should, perhaps, except these from the exclusion." + +On the subject of a navy, the message contained sentiments worthy +of the democracy in its early day, and when General Jackson was +a member of the United States Senate. The republican party had +a POLICY then in respect to a navy: it was, a navy for DEFENCE, +instead of CONQUEST; and limited to the protection of our coasts and +commerce. That policy was impressively set forth in the celebrated +instructions to the Virginia senators in the year 1800, in which it +was said: + + "With respect to the navy, it may be proper to remind you that + whatever may be the proposed object of its establishment, or + whatever may be the prospect of temporary advantages resulting + therefrom, it is demonstrated by the experience of all nations, + who have ventured far into naval policy, that such prospect is + ultimately delusive; and that a navy has ever in practice been + known more as an instrument of power, a source of expense, and + an occasion of collisions and wars with other nations, than + as an instrument of defence, of economy, or of protection to + commerce." + +These were the doctrines of the republican party, in the early +stage of our government--in the great days of Jefferson and his +compeers. We had a policy then--the result of thought, of judgment, +and of experience: a navy for defence, and not for conquest: and, +consequently, confinable to a limited number of ships, adequate to +their defensive object--instead of thousands, aiming at the dominion +of the seas. That policy was overthrown by the success of our +naval combats during the war; and the idea of a great navy became +popular, without any definite view of its cost and consequences. +Admiration for good fighting did it, without having the same effect +on the military policy. Our army fought well also, and excited +admiration; but without subverting the policy which interdicted +standing armies in time of peace. The army was cut down in peace: +the navy was building up in peace. In this condition President +Jackson found the two branches of the service--the army reduced +by two successive reductions from a large body to a very small +one--6000 men--and although illustrated with military glory yet +refusing to recommend an army increase: the navy, from a small one +during the war, becoming large during the peace--gradual increase +the law--ship-building the active process, and rotting down the +active effect; and thus we have been going on for near forty years. +Correspondent to his army policy was that of President Jackson +in relation to the navy; he proposed a pause in the process of +ship-building and ship-rotting. He recommended a total cessation of +the further building of vessels of the first and second class--ships +of the line, and frigates--with a collection of materials for +future use--and the limitation of our naval policy to the object of +commercial protection. He did not even include coast defence, his +experience having shown him that the men on shore could defend the +land. In a word, he recommended a naval policy; and that was the +same which the republicans of 1798 had adopted, and which Virginia +made obligatory upon her senators in 1800; and which, under the +blaze of shining victories, had yielded to the blind, and aimless, +and endless operation of building and rotting peaceful ships of war. +He said: + + "In time of peace, we have need of no more ships of war than + are requisite to the protection of our commerce. Those not + wanted for this object must lay in the harbors, where, without + proper covering, they rapidly decay; and, even under the best + precautions for their preservation, must soon become useless. + Such is already the case with many of our finest vessels; + which, though unfinished, will now require immense sums of + money to be restored to the condition in which they were, when + committed to their proper element. On this subject there can be + but little doubt that our best policy would be, to discontinue + the building of ships of the first and second class, and look + rather to the possession of ample materials, prepared for the + emergencies of war, than to the number of vessels which we can + float in a season of peace, as the index of our naval power." + +This was written twenty years ago, and by a President who saw +what he described--many of our finest ships going to decay before +they were finished--demanding repairs before they had sailed--and +costing millions for which there was no return. We have been going +on at the same rate ever since--building, and rotting, and sinking +millions; but little to show for forty years of ship-carpentry; +and that little nothing to do but to cruise where there is nothing +to catch, and to carry out ministers to foreign courts who are not +quite equal to the Franklins, Adamses and Jeffersons--the Pinckneys, +Rufus Kings, and Marshalls--the Clays, Gallatins and Bayards--that +went out in common merchant vessels. Mr. Jefferson told me that this +would be the case twenty-five years ago when naval glory overturned +national policy, and when a navy board was created to facilitate +ship-construction. But this is a subject which will require a +chapter of its own, and is only incidentally mentioned now to remark +that we have no policy with respect to a navy, and ought to have +one--that there is no middle point between defence and conquest--and +no sequence to a conquering navy but wars with the world,--and the +debt, taxes, pension list, and pauper list of Great Britain. + +The inutility of a Bank of the United States as a furnisher of a +sound and uniform currency, and of questionable origin under our +constitution, was thus stated: + + "The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, + and its stockholders will most probably apply for a renewal of + their privileges. In order to avoid the evils resulting from + precipitancy in a measure involving such important principles, + and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that I cannot, in + justice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the + deliberate consideration of the legislature and the people. Both + the constitutionality and the expediency of the law creating + this bank, are well questioned by a large portion of our + fellow-citizens; and it must be admitted by all, that it has + failed in the great end of establishing a uniform and sound + currency." + +This is the clause which party spirit, and bank tactics, perverted +at the time (and which has gone into history), into an attack upon +the bank--a war upon the bank--with a bad motive attributed for a +war so wanton. At the same time nothing could be more fair, and +just, and more in consonance with the constitution which requires +the President to make the legislative recommendations which he +believes to be proper. It was notice to all concerned--the bank +on one side, and the people on the other--that there would be +questions, and of high import--constitutionality and expediency--if +the present corporators, at the expiration of their charter, should +apply for a renewal of their privileges. It was an intimation +against the institution, not against its administrators, to whom +a compliment was paid in another part of the same message, in +ascribing to the help of their "judicious arrangement" the averting +of the mercantile pressure which might otherwise have resulted from +the sudden withdrawal of the twelve and a half millions which had +just been taken from the bank and applied to the payment of the +public debt. But of this hereafter. The receipts and expenditures +were stated, respectively, for the preceding year, and estimated for +the current year, the former at a fraction over twenty-four and a +half millions--the latter a fraction over twenty-six millions--with +large balances in the treasury, exhibiting the constant financial +paradox, so difficult to be understood, of permanent annual balances +with an even, or even deficient revenue. The passage of the message +is in these words: + + "The balance in the treasury on the 1st of January, 1829, was + five millions nine hundred and seventy-two thousand four hundred + and thirty-five dollars and eighty-one cents. The receipts of + the current year are estimated at twenty-four millions, six + hundred and two thousand, two hundred and thirty dollars, and + the expenditures for the same time at twenty-six millions one + hundred and sixty-four thousand five hundred and ninety-five + dollars; leaving a balance in the treasury on the 1st of January + next, of four millions four hundred and ten thousand and seventy + dollars, eighty-one cents." + +Other recommendations contained the sound democratic +doctrines--speedy and entire extinction of the public +debt--reduction of custom-house duties--equal and fair incidental +protection to the great national interests (agriculture, +manufactures and commerce)--the disconnection of politics and +tariffs--and the duty of retrenchment by discontinuing and +abolishing all useless offices. In a word, it was a message of the +old republican school, in which President Jackson had been bred; and +from which he had never departed; and which encouraged the young +disciples of democracy, and consoled the old surviving fathers of +that school. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +THE RECOVERY OF THE DIRECT TRADE WITH THE BRITISH WEST INDIA ISLANDS. + + +The recovery of this trade had been a large object with the +American government from the time of its establishment. As British +colonies we enjoyed it before the Revolution; as revolted colonies +we lost it; and as an independent nation we sought to obtain it +again. The position of these islands, so near to our ports and +shores--the character of the exports they received from us, being +almost entirely the product of our farms and forests, and their +large amount, always considerable, and of late some four millions +of dollars per annum--the tropical productions which we received +in return, and the large employment it gave to our navigation--all +combined to give a cherished value to this branch of foreign +trade, and to stimulate our government to the greatest exertions +to obtain and secure its enjoyment; and with the advantage of +being carried on by our own vessels. But these were objects not +easily attainable, and never accomplished until the administration +of President Jackson. All powers are jealous of alien intercourse +with their colonies, and have a natural desire to retain colonial +trade in their own hands, both for commercial and political +reasons; and have a perfect right to do so if they please. Partial +and conditional admission to trade with their colonies, or total +exclusion from them, is in the discretion of the mother country; and +any participation in their trade by virtue of treaty stipulations +or legislative enactment, is the result of concession--generally +founded in a sense of self-interest, or at best in a calculation +of mutual advantage. No less than six negotiations (besides +several attempts at "concerted legislation") had been carried on +between the United States and Great Britain on this subject; and +all, until the second year of General Jackson's administration, +resulting in nothing more than limited concessions for a year, +or for short terms; and sometimes coupled with conditions which +nullified the privilege. It was a primary object of concern with +General Washington's administration; and a knowledge of the action +then had upon it elucidates both the value of the trade, the +difficulty of getting admission to its participation, and the right +of Great Britain to admit or deny its enjoyment to others. General +Washington had practical knowledge on the subject. He had seen it +enjoyed, and lost--enjoyed as British subjects, lost as revolted +colonies and independent states--and knew its value, both from +the use and the loss, and was most anxious to recover it. It was +almost the first thing, in our foreign relations, to which he put +his hand on becoming President; and literally did he put his hand +to it. For as early as the 14th of October, 1789--just six months +after his inauguration--in a letter of unofficial instructions to +Mr. Gouverneur Morris, then in Europe, written with his own hand +(requesting him to sound the British government on the subject of a +commercial treaty with the United States), a point that he made was +to ascertain their views in relation to allowing us the "privilege" +of this trade. Privilege was his word, and the instruction ran thus: +"Let it be strongly impressed on your mind that the privilege of +carrying our productions in our own vessels to their islands, and +bringing, in return, the productions of those islands to our ports +and markets, is regarded here as of the highest importance," &c. + +It was a prominent point in our very first negotiation with Great +Britain in 1794; and the instructions to Mr. Jay, in May of that +year, shows that admission to the trade was then only asked as a +privilege, as in the year '89 and upon terms of limitation and +condition. This is so material to the right understanding of this +question, and to the future history of the case, and especially +of a debate and vote in the Senate, of which President Jackson's +instructions through Mr. Van Buren on the same subject was made +the occasion, that I think it right to give the instructions of +President Washington to Mr. Jay in his own words. They were these: + + "If to the actual footing of our commerce and navigation in + the British European dominions could be added the privilege of + carrying directly from the United States to the British West + Indies in our own bottoms generally, or of certain specified + burthens, the articles which by the Act of Parliament, 28, Geo. + III., chap. 6, may be carried thither in British bottoms, and of + bringing them thence directly to the United States in American + bottoms, this would afford an acceptable basis of treaty for a + term not exceeding fifteen years." + +An article was inserted in the treaty in conformity to these +principles--our carrying vessels limited in point of burthen to +seventy tons and under; the privilege limited in point of duration +to the continuance of the then existing war between Great Britain +and the French Republic, and to two years after its termination; +and restricted in the return cargo both as to the nature of the +articles and the port of their destination. These were hard terms, +and precarious, and the article containing them was "suspended" +by the Senate in the act of ratification, in the hope to obtain +better; and are only quoted here in order to show that this direct +trade to the British West Indies was, from the beginning of our +federal government, only sought as a privilege, to be obtained +under restrictions and limitations, and subordinately to British +policy and legislation. This was the end of the first negotiation; +five others were had in the ensuing thirty years, besides repeated +attempts at "concerted legislation"--all ending either abortively or +in temporary and unsatisfactory arrangements. + +The most important of these attempts was in the years 1822 and 1823: +and as it forms an essential item in the history of this case, and +shows, besides, the good policy of letting "well-enough" alone, and +the great mischief of inserting an apparently harmless word in a +bill of which no one sees the drift but those in the secret, I will +here give its particulars, adopting for that purpose the language +of senator Samuel Smith, of Maryland,--the best qualified of all +our statesmen to speak on the subject, he having the practical +knowledge of a merchant in addition to experience as a legislator. +His statement is this: + + "During the session of 1822, Congress was informed that an + act was pending in Parliament for the opening of the colonial + ports to the commerce of the United States. In consequence, an + act was passed authorizing the President (then Mr. Monroe), + in case the act of Parliament was satisfactory to him, to + open the ports of the United States to British vessels by his + proclamation. The act of Parliament was deemed satisfactory, and + a proclamation was accordingly issued, and the trade commenced. + Unfortunately for our commerce, and I think contrary to justice, + a treasury circular issued, directing the collectors to charge + British vessels entering our ports with the alien tonnage and + discriminating duties. This order was remonstrated against by + the British minister (I think Mr. Vaughan). The trade, however, + went on uninterrupted. Congress met and a bill was drafted in + 1823 by Mr. Adams, then Secretary of State, and passed both + Houses, with little, if any, debate. I voted for it, believing + that it met, in a spirit of reciprocity, the British act of + Parliament. This bill, however, contained one little word, + "elsewhere," which completely defeated all our expectations. + It was noticed by no one. The senator from Massachusetts (Mr. + Webster) may have understood its effect. If he did so understand + it, he was silent. The effect of that word "elsewhere" was to + assume the pretensions alluded to in the instructions to Mr. + McLane. (Pretension to a "right" in the trade.) The result + was, that the British government shut their colonial ports + immediately, and thenceforward. This act of 1822 gave us a + monopoly (virtually) of the West India trade. It admitted, free + of duty, a variety of articles, such as Indian corn, meal, oats, + peas, and beans. The British government thought we entertained a + belief that they could not do without our produce, and by their + acts of the 27th June and 5th July, 1825, they opened their + ports to all the world, on terms far less advantageous to the + United States, than those of the act of 1822." + +Such is the important statement of General Smith. Mr. Webster was +present at the time, and said nothing. Both these acts were clear +rights on the part of Great Britain, and that of 1825 contained a +limitation upon the time within which each nation was to accept the +privilege it offered, or lose the trade for ever. This legislative +privilege was accepted by all nations which had any thing to send to +the British West Indies, except the United States. Mr. Adams did not +accept the proffered privilege--undertook to negotiate for better +terms--failed in the attempt--and lost all. Mr. Clay was Secretary +of State, Mr. Gallatin the United States Minister in London, and the +instructions to him were, to insist upon it as a "right" that our +produce should be admitted on the same terms on which produce from +the British possessions were admitted.--This was the "elsewhere," +&c. The British government refused to negotiate; and then Mr. +Gallatin was instructed to waive temporarily the demand of right, +and accept the privilege offered by the act of 1825. But in the mean +time the year allowed in the act for its acceptance had expired, and +Mr. Gallatin was told that his offer was too late! To that answer +the British ministry adhered; and, from the month of July, 1826, the +direct trade to the British West Indies was lost to our citizens, +leaving them no mode of getting any share in that trade, either +in sending out our productions or receiving theirs, but through +the expensive, tedious, and troublesome process of a circuitous +voyage and the intervention of a foreign vessel. The shock and +dissatisfaction in the United States were extreme at this unexpected +bereavement; and that dissatisfaction entered largely into the +political feelings of the day, and became a point of attack on Mr. +Adams's administration, and an element in the presidential canvass +which ended in his defeat. + +In giving an account of this untoward event to his government, Mr. +Gallatin gave an account of his final interview with Mr. Huskisson, +from which it appeared that the claim of "right" on the part of the +United States, on which Mr. Gallatin had been instructed to "insist" +was "temporarily waived;" but without effect. Irritation, on account +of old scores, as expressed by Mr Gallatin--or resentment at our +pertinacious persistence to secure a "right" where the rest of the +world accepted a "privilege," as intimated by Mr. Huskisson--mixed +itself with the refusal; and the British government adhered to its +absolute right to regulate the foreign trade of its colonies, and to +treat us as it did the rest of the world. The following are passages +from Mr. Gallatin's dispatch, from London, September 11, 1827: + + "Mr. Huskisson said it was the intention of the British + government to consider the intercourse of the British colonies + as being exclusively under its control, and any relaxation from + the colonial system as an indulgence, to be granted on such + terms as might suit the policy of Great Britain at the time + it was granted. I said every question of _right_ had, on this + occasion, been waived on the part of the United States, the + only object of the present inquiry being to ascertain whether, + as a matter of mutual convenience, the intercourse might not + be opened in a manner satisfactory to both countries. He (Mr. + H.) said that it had appeared as if America had entertained + the opinion that the British West Indies could not exist + without her supplies; and that she might, therefore, compel + Great Britain to open the intercourse on any terms she pleased. + I disclaimed any such belief or intention on the part of the + United States. But it appeared to me, and I intimated it, + indeed, to Mr. Huskisson, that he was acting rather under the + influence of irritated feelings, on account of past events, than + with a view to the mutual interests of both parties." + +This was Mr. Gallatin's last dispatch. An order in council was +issued, interdicting the trade to the United States; and he returned +home. Mr. James Barbour, Secretary at War, was sent to London +to replace him, and to attempt again the repulsed negotiation; +but without success. The British government refused to open the +question: and thus the direct access to this valuable commerce +remained sealed against us. President Adams, at the commencement of +the session of Congress, 1827-28, formally communicated this fact +to that body, and in terms which showed at once that an insult had +been received, an injury sustained, redress refused, and ill-will +established between the two governments. He said: + + "At the commencement of the last session of Congress, they were + informed of the sudden and unexpected exclusion by the British + government, of access, in vessels of the United States, to all + their colonial ports, except those immediately bordering upon + our own territory. + + "In the amicable discussions which have succeeded the adoption + of this measure, which, as it affected harshly the interests + of the United States, became a subject of expostulation + on our part, the principles upon which its justification + has been placed have been of a diversified character. It + has at once been ascribed to a mere recurrence to the old + long-established principle of colonial monopoly, and at the + same time to a feeling of resentment, because the offers of + an act of Parliament, opening the colonial ports upon certain + conditions, had not been grasped at with sufficient eagerness + by as instantaneous conformity to them. At a subsequent period + it has been intimated that the new exclusion was in resentment, + because a prior act of Parliament, of 1822, opening certain + colonial ports, under heavy and burdensome restrictions, to + vessels of the United States, had not been reciprocated by + an admission of British vessels from the colonies, and their + cargoes, without any restriction or discrimination whatever. + But, be the motive for the interdiction what it may, the British + government have manifested no disposition, either by negotiation + or by corresponding legislative enactments, to recede from it; + and we have been given distinctly to understand that neither + of the bills which were under the consideration of Congress at + their last session, would have been deemed sufficient in their + concessions to have been rewarded by any relaxation from the + British interdict. The British government have not only declined + negotiation upon the subject, but, by the principle they have + assumed with reference to it, have precluded even the means + of negotiation. It becomes not the self-respect of the United + States, either to solicit gratuitous favours, or to accept, as + the grant of a favor, that for which an ample equivalent is + exacted." + +This was the communication of Mr. Adams to Congress, and certainly +nothing could be more vexatious or hopeless than the case which he +presented--an injury, an insult, a rebuff, and a refusal to talk +with us upon the subject. Negotiation, and the hope of it, having +thus terminated, President Adams did what the laws required of him, +and issued his proclamation making known to the country the total +cessation of all direct commerce between the United States and the +British West India Islands. + +The loss of this trade was a great injury to the United States +(besides the insult), and was attended by circumstances which +gave it the air of punishment for something that was past. It was +a rebuff in the face of Europe; for while the United States were +sternly and unceremoniously cut off from the benefit of the act of +1825, for omission to accept it within the year, yet other powers +in the same predicament (France, Spain and Russia) were permitted +to accept after the year; and the "irritated feelings" manifested +by Mr. Huskisson indicated a resentment which was finding its +gratification. We were ill-treated, and felt it. The people felt it. +It was an ugly case to manage, or to endure; and in this period of +its worst aspect General Jackson was elected President. + +His position was delicate and difficult. His election had been +deprecated as that of a rash and violent man, who would involve us +in quarrels with foreign nations; and here was a dissension with +a great nation lying in wait for him--prepared to his hand--the +legacy of his predecessor--either to be composed satisfactorily, +or to ripen into retaliation and hostility; for it was not to be +supposed that things could remain as they were. He had to choose +between an attempt at amicable recovery of the trade by new +overtures, or retaliation--leading to, it is not known what. He +determined upon the first of these alternatives, and Mr. Louis +McLane, of Delaware, was selected for the delicate occasion. He +was sent minister to London; and in renewing an application which +had been so lately and so categorically rejected, some reason had +to be given for a persistance which might seem both importunate +and desperate, and even deficient in self-respect; and that reason +was found in the simple truth that there had been a change of +administration in the United States, and with it a change of opinion +on the subject, and on the essential point of a "right" in us to +have our productions admitted into her West Indies on the same +terms as British productions were received; that we were willing to +take the trade as a "privilege," and simply and unconditionally, +under the act of Parliament of 1825. Instructions to that effect +had been drawn up by Mr. Van Buren, Secretary of State, under +the special directions of General Jackson, who took this early +occasion to act upon his cardinal maxim in our foreign intercourse: +"_Ask nothing but what is right--submit to nothing wrong._" This +frank and candid policy had its effect. The great object was +accomplished. The trade was recovered; and what had been lost under +one administration, and precariously enjoyed under others, and been +the subject of fruitless negotiation for forty years, and under six +different Presidents--Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, +Monroe, Quincy Adams--with all their accomplished secretaries and +ministers, was now amicably and satisfactorily obtained under the +administration of General Jackson; and upon the basis to give it +perpetuity--that of mutual interest and actual reciprocity. The +act of Parliament gave us the trade on terms nearly as good as +those suggested by Washington in 1789; fully as good as those asked +for by him in 1794; better than those inserted in the treaty of +that year, and suspended by the Senate; and, though nominally on +the same terms as given to the rest of the world, yet practically +better, on account of our proximity to this British market; and our +superabundance of articles (chiefly provisions and lumber) which it +wants. And the trade has been enjoyed under this act ever since, +with such entire satisfaction, that there is already an oblivion +of the forty years' labor which it cost us to obtain it; and a +generation has grown up, almost without knowing to whom they are +indebted for its present enjoyment. But it made its sensation at the +time, and a great one. The friends of the Jackson administration +exulted; the people rejoiced; gratification was general--but not +universal; and these very instructions, under which such great and +lasting advantages had been obtained, were made the occasion in the +Senate of the United States of rejecting their ostensible author as +a minister to London. But of this hereafter. + +The auspicious conclusion of so delicate an affair was doubtless +first induced by General Jackson's frank policy in falling back +upon Washington's ground of "privilege," in contradistinction to +the new pretension of "right,"--helped out a little, it may be, +by the possible after-clap suggested in the second part of his +maxim. Good sense and good feeling may also have had its influence, +the trade in question being as desirable to Great Britain as to +the United States, and better for each to carry it on direct in +their own vessels, than circuitously in the vessels of others; +and the articles on each side being of a kind to solicit mutual +exchange--tropical productions on one part, and those of the +temperate zone on the other. But there was one thing which certainly +contributed to the good result, and that was the act of Congress of +May 29th, of which General Samuel Smith, senator from Maryland, was +the chief promoter; and by which the President was authorized, on +the adoption of certain measures by Great Britain, to open the ports +of the United States to her vessels on reciprocal terms. The effect +of this act was to strengthen General Jackson's candid overture; +and the proclamation opening the trade was issued October the 5th, +1830, in the second year of the first term of the administration of +President Jackson. And under that proclamation this long desired +trade has been enjoyed ever since, and promises to be enjoyed in +after time co-extendingly with the duration of peace between the two +countries. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GLOBE NEWSPAPER. + + +At a presidential levee in the winter of 1830-'31, Mr. Duff Green, +editor of the _Telegraph_ newspaper, addressed a person then and now +a respectable resident of Washington city (Mr. J. M. Duncanson), and +invited him to call at his house, as he had something to say to him +which would require a confidential interview. The call was made, +and the object of the interview disclosed, which was nothing less +than to engage his (Mr. Duncanson's) assistance in the execution of +a scheme in relation to the next presidential election, in which +General Jackson should be prevented from becoming a candidate for +re-election, and Mr. Calhoun should be brought forward in his place. +He informed Mr. Duncanson that a rupture was impending between +General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun; that a correspondence had taken +place between them, brought about (as he alleged) by the intrigues +of Mr. Van Buren; that the correspondence was then in print, but +its publication delayed until certain arrangements could be made; +that the democratic papers at the most prominent points in the +States were to be first secured; and men well known to the people +as democrats, but in the exclusive interest of Mr. Calhoun, placed +in charge of them as editors; that as soon as the arrangements +were complete, the _Telegraph_ would startle the country with the +announcement of the difficulty (between General Jackson and Mr. +Calhoun), and the motive for it; and that all the secured presses, +taking their cue from the _Telegraph_, would take sides with Mr. +Calhoun, and cry out at the same time; and the storm would seem to +be so universal, and the indignation against Mr. Van Buren would +appear to be so great, that even General Jackson's popularity would +be unable to save him. + +Mr. Duncanson was then invited to take part in the execution +of this scheme, and to take charge of the Frankfort (Kentucky) +_Argus_; and flattering inducements held out to encourage him to +do so. Mr. Duncanson expressed surprise and regret at all that he +heard--declared himself the friend of General Jackson, and of his +re-election--opposed to all schemes to prevent him from being a +candidate again--a disbeliever in their success, if attempted--and +made known his determination to reveal the scheme, if it was not +abandoned. Mr. Green begged him not to do so--said that the plan was +not fully agreed upon; and might not be carried out. This was the +end of the first interview. A few days afterwards Mr. Green called +on Mr. Duncanson, and informed him that a rupture was now determined +upon, and renewed his proposition that he should take charge of some +paper, either as proprietor, or as editor on a liberal salary--one +that would tell on the farmers and mechanics of the country, and +made so cheap as to go into every workshop and cabin. Mr. Duncanson +was a practical printer--owned a good job office--was doing a large +business, especially for the departments--and only wished to remain +as he was. Mr. Green offered, in both interviews, to relieve him +from that concern by purchasing it from him, and assured him that +he would otherwise lose the printing of the departments, and be +sacrificed. Mr. Duncanson again refused to have any thing to do +with the scheme, consulted with some friends, and caused the whole +to be communicated to General Jackson. The information did not take +the General by surprise; it was only a confirmation of what he well +suspected, and had been wisely providing against. The history of the +movement in Mr. Monroe's cabinet, to bring him before a military +court, for his invasion of Spanish territory during the Seminole +war, had just come to his knowledge; the doctrine of nullification +had just been broached in Congress; his own patriotic toast: "The +Federal Union: it must be preserved"--had been delivered; his own +intuitive sagacity told him all the rest--the breach with Mr. +Calhoun, the defection of the _Telegraph_, and the necessity for a +new paper at Washington, faithful, fearless and incorruptible. + +The _Telegraph_ had been the central metropolitan organ of his +friends and of the democratic party, during the long and bitter +canvass which ended in the election of General Jackson, in 1828. Its +editor had been gratified with the first rich fruits of victory--the +public printing of the two Houses of Congress, the executive +patronage, and the organship of the administration. The paper was +still (in 1830) in its columns, and to the public eye, the advocate +and supporter of General Jackson; but he knew what was to happen, +and quietly took his measures to meet an inevitable contingency. In +the summer of 1830, a gentleman in one of the public offices showed +him a paper, the Frankfort (Kentucky) _Argus_, containing a powerful +and spirited review of a certain nullification speech in Congress. +He inquired for the author, ascertained him to be Mr. Francis +P. Blair--not the editor, but an occasional contributor to the +_Argus_--and had him written to on the subject of taking charge of +a paper in Washington. The application took Mr. Blair by surprise. +He was not thinking of changing his residence and pursuits. He was +well occupied where he was--clerk of the lucrative office of the +State Circuit Court at the capital of the State, salaried president +of the Commonwealth Bank (by the election of the legislature), and +proprietor of a farm and slaves in that rich State. But he was +devoted to General Jackson and his measures, and did not hesitate +to relinquish his secure advantages at home to engage in the +untried business of editor at Washington. He came--established the +_Globe_ newspaper--and soon after associated with John C. Rives,--a +gentleman worthy of the association and of the confidence of General +Jackson and of the democratic party: and under their management the +paper became the efficient and faithful organ of the administration +during the whole period of his service, and that of his successor, +Mr. Van Buren. It was established in time, and just in time, to +meet the advancing events at Washington City. All that General +Jackson had foreseen in relation to the conduct of the _Telegraph_, +and all that had been communicated to him through Mr. Duncanson, +came to pass: and he found himself, early in the first term of his +administration, engaged in a triple war--with nullification, the +Bank of the United States, and the whig party:--and must have been +without defence or support from the newspaper press at Washington +had it not been for his foresight in establishing the _Globe_. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +LIMITATION OF PUBLIC LAND SALES. SUSPENSION OF SURVEYS. ABOLITION +OF THE OFFICE OF SURVEYOR GENERAL. ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES +LAND SYSTEM. AUTHORSHIP OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY ORDINANCE OF 1778. +SLAVERY CONTROVERSY. PROTECTIVE TARIFF. INCEPTION OF THE DOCTRINE OF +NULLIFICATION. + + +At the commencement of the session 1829-'30, Mr. Foot, of +Connecticut, submitted in the Senate a resolution of inquiry which +excited much feeling among the western members of that body. It +was a proposition to inquire into the expediency of limiting the +sales of the public lands to those then in market--to suspend the +surveys of the public lands--and to abolish the office of Surveyor +General. The effect of such a resolution, if sanctioned upon +inquiry and carried into legislative effect, would have been to +check emigration to the new States in the West--to check the growth +and settlement of these States and territories--and to deliver up +large portions of them to the dominion of wild beasts. In that sense +it was immediately taken up by myself, and other western members, +and treated as an injurious proposition--insulting as well as +injurious--and not fit to be considered by a committee, much less to +be reported upon and adopted. I opened the debate against it in a +speech, of which the following is an extract: + + "Mr. Benton disclaimed all intention of having anything to do + with the motives of the mover of the resolution: he took it + according to its effect and operation, and conceiving this to + be eminently injurious to the rights and interests of the new + States and Territories, he should justify the view which he had + taken, and the vote he intended to give, by an exposition of + facts and reasons which would show the disastrous nature of the + practical effects of this resolution. + + "On the first branch of these effects--checking emigration to + the West--it is clear, that, if the sales are limited to the + lands now in market, emigration will cease to flow; for these + lands are not of a character to attract people at a distance. + In Missouri they are the refuse of forty years picking under + the Spanish Government, and twenty more under the Government + of the United States. The character and value of this refuse + had been shown, officially, in the reports of the Registers and + Receivers, made in obedience to a call from the Senate. Other + gentlemen would show what was said of it in their respective + States; he would confine himself to his own, to the State of + Missouri, and show it to be miserable indeed. The St. Louis + District, containing two and a quarter millions of acres, was + estimated at an average value of fifteen cents per acre; the + Cape Girardeau District, containing four and a half millions + of acres, was estimated at twelve and a half cents per acre; + the Western District, containing one million and three quarters + of acres, was estimated at sixty-two and a half cents; from + the other two districts there was no intelligent or pertinent + return; but assuming them to be equal to the Western District, + and the average value of the lands they contain would be only + one half the amount of the present minimum price. This being the + state of the lands in Missouri which would be subject to sale + under the operation of this resolution, no emigrants would be + attracted to them. Persons who remove to new countries want new + lands, first choices; and if they cannot get these, they have no + sufficient inducement to move. + + "The second ill effect to result from this resolution, supposing + it to ripen into the measures which it implies to be necessary + would be in limiting the settlements in the new States and + Territories. This limitation of settlement would be the + inevitable effect of confining the sales to the lands now in + market. These lands in Missouri, only amount to one third of + the State. By consequence, only one third could be settled. + Two thirds of the State would remain without inhabitants; the + resolution says, for 'a certain period,' and the gentlemen, in + their speeches, expound this certain period to be seventy-two + years. They say seventy-two millions of acres are now in market; + that we sell but one million a year; therefore, we have enough + to supply the demand for seventy-two years. It does not enter + their heads to consider that, if the price was adapted to the + value, all this seventy-two millions that is fit for cultivation + would be sold immediately. They must go on at a million a year + for seventy-two years, the Scripture term of the life of man--a + long period in the age of a nation; the exact period of the + Babylonish captivity--a long and sorrowful period in the history + of the Jews; and not less long nor less sorrowful in the history + of the West, if this resolution should take effect. + + "The third point of objection is, that it would deliver up large + portions of new States and Territories to the dominion of wild + beasts. In Missouri, this surrender would be equal to two-thirds + of the State, comprising about forty thousand square miles, + covering the whole valley of the Osage River, besides many other + parts, and approaching within a dozen miles of the centre and + capital of the State. All this would be delivered up to wild + beasts: for the Indian title is extinguished, and the Indians + gone; the white people would be excluded from it; beasts alone + would take it; and all this in violation of the Divine command + to replenish the earth, to increase and multiply upon it, and + to have dominion over the beasts of the forest, the birds of + the air, the fish in the waters, and the creeping things of the + earth. + + "The fourth point of objection is, in the removal of the land + records--the natural effect of abolishing all the offices of + the Surveyors General. These offices are five in number. It is + proposed to abolish them all, and the reason assigned in debate + is, that they are sinecures; that is to say, offices which + have revenues and no employment. This is the description of a + sinecure. We have one of these offices in Missouri, and I know + something of it. The Surveyor General, Colonel McRee, in point + of fidelity to his trust, belongs to the school of Nathaniel + Macon; in point of science and intelligence, he belongs to the + first order of men that Europe or America contains. He and his + clerks carry labor and drudgery to the ultimate point of human + exertion, and still fall short of the task before them; and this + is an office which it is proposed to abolish under the notion of + a sinecure, as an office with revenues, and without employment. + The abolition of these offices would involve the necessity of + removing all their records, and thus depriving the country of + all the evidences of the foundations of all the land titles. + This would be sweeping work; but the gentleman's plan would be + incomplete without including the General Land Office in this + city, the principal business of which is to superintend the five + Surveyor General's offices, and for which there could be but + little use after they were abolished. + + "These are the practical effects of the resolution. Emigration + to the new States checked their settlement limited; a large + portion of their surface delivered up to the dominion of + beasts; the land records removed. Such are the injuries to be + inflicted upon the new States, and we, the senators from those + States, are called upon to vote in favor of the resolution which + proposes to inquire into the expediency of committing all these + enormities! I, for one, will not do it. I will vote for no such + inquiry. I would as soon vote for inquiries into the expediency + of conflagrating cities, of devastating provinces, and of + submerging fruitful lands under the waves of the ocean. + + "I take my stand upon a great moral principle, that it is never + right to inquire into the expediency of doing wrong. + + "The proposed inquiry is to do wrong; to inflict unmixed, + unmitigated evil upon the new States and Territories. Such + inquiries are not to be tolerated. Courts of law will not + sustain actions which have immoral foundations; legislative + bodies should not sustain inquiries which have iniquitous + conclusions. Courts of law make it an object to give public + satisfaction in the administration of justice; legislative + bodies should consult the public tranquillity in the + prosecution of their measures. They should not alarm and + agitate the country; yet, this inquiry, if it goes on, will + give the greatest dissatisfaction to the new States in the + West and South. It will alarm and agitate them, and ought to + do it. It will connect itself with other inquiries going on + elsewhere--in the other end of this building--in the House of + Representatives--to make the new States a source of revenue + to the old ones, to deliver them up to a new set of masters, + to throw them as grapes into the wine press, to be trod and + squeezed as long as one drop of juice could be pressed from + their hulls. These measures will go together; and if that + resolution passes, and this one passes, the transition will + be easy and natural, from dividing the money after the lands + are sold, to divide the lands before they are sold, and then + to renting the land and drawing an annual income, instead of + selling it for a price in hand. The signs are portentous; the + crisis is alarming; it is time for the new States to wake up to + their danger, and to prepare for a struggle which carries ruin + and disgrace to them, if the issue is against them." + +The debate spread, and took an acrimonious turn, and sectional, +imputing to the quarter of the Union from which it came an old, +and early policy to check the growth of the West at the outset +by proposing to limit the sale of the western lands to a "clean +riddance" as they went--selling no tract in advance until all in the +rear was sold out. It so happened that the first ordinance reported +for the sale and survey of western lands in the Congress of the +Confederation, (1785,) contained a provision to this effect; and +came from a committee strongly Northern--two to one, eight against +four: and was struck out in the House on the motion of southern +members, supported by the whole power of the South. I gave this +account of the circumstance: + + "The ordinance reported by the committee, contained the plan + of surveying the public lands, which has since been followed. + It adopted the scientific principle of ranges of townships, + which has been continued ever since, and found so beneficial + in a variety of ways to the country. The ranges began on the + Pennsylvania line, and proceeded west to the Mississippi; and + since the acquisition of Louisiana, they have proceeded west + of that river; the townships began upon the Ohio River, and + proceeded north to the Lakes. The townships were divided into + sections of a mile square, six hundred and forty acres each; and + the minimum price was fixed at one dollar per acre, and not less + than a section to be sold together. This is the outline of the + present plan of sales and surveys; and, with the modifications + it has received, and may receive, in graduating the price of the + land to the quality, the plan is excellent. But a principle was + incorporated in the ordinance of the most fatal character. It + was, that each township should be sold out complete before any + land could offered in the next one! This was tantamount to a law + that the lands should not be sold; that the country should not + be settled: for it is certain that every township, or almost + every one, would contain land unfit for cultivation, and for + which no person would give six hundred and forty dollars for six + hundred and forty acres. The effect of such a provision may be + judged by the fact that above one hundred thousand acres remain + to this day unsold in the first land district; the district of + Steubenville, in Ohio, which included the first range and first + township. If that provision had remained in the ordinance, + the settlements would not yet have got out of sight of the + Pennsylvania line. It was an unjust and preposterous provision. + It required the people to take the country clean before them; + buy all as they went; mountains, hills, and swamps; rocks, + glens, and prairies. They were to make clean work, as the giant + Polyphemus did when he ate up the companions of Ulysses: + + 'No entrails, blood, nor solid bone remains.' + + Nothing could be more iniquitous than such a provision. It + was like requiring your guest to eat all the bones on his plate + before he should have more meat. To say that township No. 1 + should be sold out complete before township No. 2 should be + offered for sale, was like requiring the bones of the first + turkey to be eat up before the breast of the second one should + be touched. Yet such was the provision contained in the first + ordinance for the sale of the public lands, reported by a + committee of twelve, of which eight were from the north and + four from the south side of the Potomac. How invincible must + have been the determination of some politicians to prevent the + settlement of the West, when they would thus counteract the + sales of the lands which had just been obtained after years of + importunity, for the payment of the public debt! + + "When this ordinance was put upon its passage in Congress, two + Virginians, whose names, for that act alone, would deserve the + lasting gratitude of the West, levelled their blows against the + obnoxious provision. Mr. Grayson moved to strike it out, and Mr. + Monroe seconded him; and, after an animated and arduous contest, + they succeeded. The whole South supported them; not one recreant + arm from the South; many scattering members from the North also + voted with the South, and in favor of the infant West; proving + then, as now, and as it always has been, that the West has true + supporters of her rights and interests--unhappily not enough of + them--in that quarter of the Union from which the measures have + originated that several times threatened to be fatal to her." + +Still enlarging its circle, but as yet still confined to the sale +and disposition of the public lands, the debate went on to discuss +the propriety of selling them to settlers at auction prices, +and at an arbitrary minimum for all qualities, and a refusal of +donations; and in this hard policy the North was again considered +as the exacting part of the Union--the South as the favorer of +liberal terms, and the generous dispenser of gratuitous grants to +the settlers in the new States and Territories. On this point, Mr. +Hayne, of South Carolina, thus expressed himself: + + "The payment of 'a penny,' or a 'pepper corn,' was the + stipulated price which our fathers along the whole Atlantic + coast, now composing the old thirteen States, paid for their + lands; and even when conditions, seemingly more substantial, + were annexed to the grants; such for instance as 'settlement and + cultivation;' these were considered as substantially complied + with, by the cutting down a few trees and erecting a log + cabin--the work of only a few days. Even these conditions very + soon came to be considered as merely nominal, and were never + required to be pursued, in order to vest in the grantee the fee + simple of the soil. Such was the system under which this country + was originally settled, and under which the thirteen colonies + flourished and grew up to that early and vigorous manhood, which + enabled them in a few years to achieve their independence; and + I beg gentlemen to recollect, and note the fact, that, while + they paid substantially nothing to the mother country, the whole + profits of their industry were suffered to remain in their own + hands. Now, what, let us inquire, was the reason which has + induced all nations to adopt this system in the settlement of + new countries? Can it be any other than this; that it affords + the only certain means of building up in a wilderness, great + and prosperous communities? Was not that policy founded on + the universal belief, that the conquest of a new country, the + driving out "the savage beasts and still more savage men," + cutting down and subduing the forest, and encountering all the + hardships and privations necessarily incident to the conversion + of the wilderness into cultivated fields, was worth the fee + simple of the soil? And was it not believed that the mother + country found ample remuneration for the value of the land so + granted, in the additions to her power and the new sources of + commerce and of wealth, furnished by prosperous and populous + States? Now, sir, I submit to the candid consideration of + gentlemen, whether the policy so diametrically opposite to this, + which has been invariably pursued by the United States towards + the new States in the West has been quite so just and liberal, + as we have been accustomed to believe. Certain it is, that the + British colonies to the north of us, and the Spanish and French + to the south and west, have been fostered and reared up under + a very different system. Lands, which had been for fifty or a + hundred years open to every settler, without any charge beyond + the expense of the survey, were, the moment they fell into the + hands of the United States, held up for sale at the highest + price that a public auction, at the most favorable seasons, and + not unfrequently a spirit of the wildest competition, could + produce; with a limitation that they should never be sold below + a certain minimum price; thus making it, as it would seem, the + cardinal point of our policy, not to settle the country, and + facilitate the formation of new States, but to fill our coffers + by coining our lands into gold." + +The debate was taking a turn which was foreign to the expectations +of the mover of the resolution, and which, in leading to sectional +criminations, would only inflame feelings without leading to any +practical result. Mr. Webster saw this; and to get rid of the +whole subject, moved its indefinite postponement; but in arguing +his motion he delivered a speech which introduced new topics, and +greatly enlarged the scope, and extended the length of the debate +which he proposed to terminate. One of these new topics referred +to the authorship, and the merit of passing the famous ordinance +of 1787, for the government of the Northwestern Territory, and +especially in relation to the antislavery clause which that +ordinance contained. Mr. Webster claimed the merit of this +authorship for Mr. Nathan Dane--an eminent jurist of Massachusetts, +and avowed that "_it was carried by the North, and by the North +alone_." I replied, claiming the authorship for Mr. Jefferson, +and showing from the Journals that he (Mr. Jefferson) brought the +measure into Congress in the year 1784 (the 19th of April of that +year), as chairman of a committee, with the antislavery clause in +it, which Mr. Speight, of North Carolina, moved to strike out; and +it was struck out--the three Southern States present voting for the +striking out, because the clause did not then contain the provision +in favor of the recovery of fugitive slaves, which was afterwards +ingrafted upon it. Mr. Webster says it was struck out because "nine +States" did not vote for its retention. That is an error arising +from confounding the powers of the confederation. Nine States were +only required to concur in measures of the highest import, as +declaring war, making peace, negotiating treaties, &c.,--and in all +ordinary legislation the concurrence of a bare majority (seven) was +sufficient; and in this case there were only six States voting for +the retention, New Jersey being erroneously counted by Mr. Webster +to make seven. If she had voted the number would have been seven, +and the clause would have stood. He was led into the error by seeing +the name of Mr. Dick appearing in the call for New Jersey; but New +Jersey was not present as a State, being represented by only one +member, and it requiring two to constitute the presence of a State. +Mr. Dick was indulged with putting his name on the Journal, but his +vote was not counted. Mr. Webster says the ordinance reported by +Mr. Jefferson in 1784 did not pass into a law. This is a mistake +again. It did pass; and that within five days after the antislavery +clause was struck out--and that without any attempt to renew that +clause, although the competent number (seven) of non-slaveholding +States were present--the colleague of Mr. Dick having joined him, +and constituted the presence of New Jersey. Two years afterwards, in +July 1787, the ordinance was passed over again, as it now stands, +and was pre-eminently the work of the South. The ordinance, as it +now stands, was reported by a committee of five members, of whom +three were from slaveholding States, and two (and one of them the +chairman) were from Virginia alone. It received its first reading +the day it was reported--its second reading the next day, when one +other State had appeared--the third reading on the day ensuing; +going through all the forms of legislation, and becoming a law in +three days--receiving the votes of the eight States present, and +the vote of every member of each State, except one; and that one +from a free State north of the Potomac. These details I verified by +producing the Journals, and showed under the dates of July 11th, +1787, and July 12th and 13th, the votes actually given for the +ordinance. The same vote repealed the ordinance (Mr. Jefferson's) +of 1784. I read in the Senate the passages from the Journal of the +Congress of the confederation, the passages which showed these +votes, and incorporated into the speech which I published, the +extract from the Journal which I produced; and now incorporate the +same in this work, that the authorship of that ordinance of 1787, +and its passage through the old Congress, may be known in all +time to come as the indisputable work, both in its conception and +consummation, of the South. This is the extract: + + + THE JOURNAL. + + _Wednesday, July 11th, 1787._ + + "Congress assembled: Present, the seven States above mentioned." + (Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, + South Carolina, and Georgia--7.) + + "The Committee, consisting of Mr. Carrington (of Virginia), + Mr. Dane (of Massachusetts), Mr. R. H. Lee (of Virginia), Mr. + Kean (of South Carolina), and Mr. Smith (of New York), to whom + was referred the report of a committee touching the temporary + government of the Western Territory, reported an ordinance for + the government of the Territory of the United States northwest + of the river Ohio; which was read a first time. + + "Ordered, That to-morrow be assigned for the second reading." + + "_Thursday, July 12th, 1787._ + + "Congress assembled: Present, Massachusetts, New York, New + Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and + Georgia--(8.) + + "According to order, the ordinance for the government of the + Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, was + read a second time. + + "Ordered, That to-morrow be assigned for the third reading of + said ordinance." + + "_Friday, July 13th, 1787._ + + "Congress assembled: Present, as yesterday. + + "According to order, the ordinance for the government of the + Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, was + read a third time, and passed as follows." + + [Here follows the whole ordinance, in the very words in which + it now appears among the laws of the United States, with the + non-slavery clause, the provisions in favor of schools and + education, against impairing the obligation of contracts, + laying the foundation and security of all these stipulations + in compact, in favor of restoring fugitives from service, and + repealing the ordinance of 23d of April, 1784--the one reported + by Mr. Jefferson.] + + "On passing the above ordinance, the yeas and nays being + required by Mr. Yates: + + _Massachusetts_--Mr. Holten, aye; Mr. Dane, aye. + + _New York_--Mr. Smith, aye; Mr. Yates, no; Mr. Harring, aye. + + _New Jersey_--Mr. Clarke, aye; Mr. Scheurman, aye. + + _Delaware_--Mr. Kearney, aye; Mr. Mitchell, aye. + + Virginia--Mr. Grayson, aye; Mr. R. H. Lee, aye; Mr. Carrington, + aye. + + _North Carolina_--Mr. Blount, aye; Mr. Hawkins, aye. + + _South Carolina_--Mr. Kean, aye; Mr. Huger, aye. + + _Georgia_--Mr. Few, aye; Mr. Pierce, aye. + + So it was resolved in the affirmative." (Page 754, volume 4.) + +The bare reading of these passages from the Journals of the Congress +of the old confederation, shows how erroneous Mr. Webster was in +these portions of his speech: + + "At the foundation of the constitution of these new northwestern + States, we are accustomed, sir, to praise the lawgivers + of antiquity; we help to perpetuate the fame of Solon and + Lycurgus; but I doubt whether one single law of any lawgiver, + ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct, + marked, and lasting character, than the ordinance of '87. + That instrument, was drawn by Nathan Dane, then, and now, a + citizen of Massachusetts. It was adopted, as I think I have + understood, without the slightest alteration; and certainly it + has happened to few men to be the authors of a political measure + of more large and enduring consequence. It fixed, for ever, + the character of the population in the vast regions northwest + of the Ohio, by excluding from them involuntary servitude. It + impressed on the soil itself, while it was yet a wilderness, + an incapacity to bear up any other than free men. It laid the + interdict against personal servitude, in original compact, not + only deeper than all local law, but deeper, also, than all + local constitutions. Under the circumstances then existing, + I look upon this original and seasonable provision, as a real + good attained. We see its consequences at this moment, and we + shall never cease to see them, perhaps, while the Ohio shall + flow. It was a great and salutary measure of prevention. Sir, I + should fear the rebuke of no intelligent gentleman of Kentucky, + were I to ask whether if such an ordinance could have been + applied to his own State, while it yet was a wilderness, and + before Boon had passed the gap of the Alleghany, he does not + suppose it would have contributed to the ultimate greatness of + that commonwealth? It is, at any rate, not to be doubted, that + where it did apply it has produced an effect not easily to be + described, or measured in the growth of the States, and the + extent and increase of their population. Now, sir, this great + measure again was carried by the north, and by the north alone. + There were, indeed, individuals elsewhere favorable to it; but + it was supported as a measure, entirely by the votes of the + northern States. If New England had been governed by the narrow + and selfish views now ascribed to her, this very measure was, + of all others, the best calculated to thwart her purposes. It + was, of all things, the very means of rendering certain a vast + emigration from her own population to the west. She looked to + that consequence only to disregard it. She deemed the regulation + a most useful one to the States that would spring up on the + territory, and advantageous to the country at large. She adhered + to the principle of it perseveringly, year after year, until it + was finally accomplished. + + "An attempt has been made to transfer, from the North to + the South, the honor of this exclusion of slavery from the + northwestern territory. The journal, without argument or + comment, refutes such attempt. The cession by Virginia was + made, March, 1784. On the 19th of April following, a committee, + consisting of Messrs. Jefferson, Chase, and Howell, reported a + plan for a temporary government of the territory, in which was + this article: 'that, after the year 1800, there shall be neither + slavery, nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, + otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall + have been convicted.' Mr. Speight, of North Carolina, moved to + strike out this paragraph. The question was put, according to + the form then practised: 'Shall these words stand, as part of + the plan,' &c.? New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, + Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania--seven + States, voted in the affirmative. Maryland, Virginia, and South + Carolina, in the negative. North Carolina was divided. As the + consent of nine States was necessary, the words could not stand, + and were struck out accordingly. Mr. Jefferson voted for the + clause, but was overruled by his colleagues. + + "In March, the next year [1785], Mr. King of Massachusetts, + seconded by Mr. Ellery of Rhode Island, proposed the formerly + rejected article, with this addition: '_And that this + regulation shall be an article of compact, and remain a + fundamental principle of the constitutions between the thirteen + original States, and each of the States described in the + resolve_,' &c. On this clause, which provided the adequate + and thorough security, the eight northern States at that time + voted affirmatively, and the four southern States negatively. + The votes of nine States were not yet obtained, and thus, + the provision was again rejected by the southern States. The + perseverance of the north held out, and two years afterwards the + object was attained." + +This is shown to be all erroneous in relation to this ordinance. +It was not first drawn by Mr. Dane, but by Mr. Jefferson, and that +nearly two years before Mr. Dane came into Congress. It was not +passed by the North alone, but equally by the South--there being +but eight States present at the passing, and they equally of the +North and the South--and the South voting unanimously for it, both +as States and as individual members, while the North had one member +against it. It was not baffled two years for the want of nine +States; if so, and nine States had been necessary, it would not have +been passed when it was, and never by free State votes alone. There +were but eight States (both Northern and Southern) present at the +passing; and there were not nine free States in the confederacy at +that time. There were but thirteen in all: and the half of these, +as nearly as thirteen can be divided, were slave States. The fact +is, that the South only delayed its vote for the antislavery clause +in the ordinance for want of the provision in favor of recovering +fugitives from service. As soon as that was added, she took the lead +again for the ordinance--a fact which gives great emphasis to the +corresponding provision in the constitution. + +Mr. Webster was present when I read these extracts, and said +nothing. He neither reaffirmed his previous statement, that Mr. Dane +was the author of the ordinance, and that "_this great measure was +carried by the North, and by the North alone_." He said nothing; +nor did he afterwards correct the errors of his speech: and they +now remain in it; and have given occasion to a very authentic +newspaper contradiction of his statement, copied, like my statement +to the Senate, from the Journals of the old Congress. It was by +Edward Coles, Esq., formerly of Virginia, and private secretary to +President Madison, afterwards governor of the State of Illinois, and +now a citizen of Pennsylvania, resident of Philadelphia. He made +his correction through the National Intelligencer, of Washington +City; and being drawn from the same sources it agrees entirely with +my own. And thus the South is entitled to the credit of originating +and passing this great measure--a circumstance to be remembered and +quoted, as showing the South at that time in taking the lead in +curtailing and restricting the existence of slavery. The cause of +Mr. Webster's mistakes may be found in the fact that the ordinance +was three times before the old Congress, and once (the third time) +in the hands of a committee of which Mr. Dane was a member. It was +first reported by a committee of three (April, 1784) of which two +were from slave states, (Mr. Jefferson of Virginia and Mr. Chase of +Maryland,) Mr. Howard, of Rhode Island; and this, as stated, was +nearly two years before Mr. Dane became a member. The antislavery +clause was then dropped, there being but six States for it. The next +year, the antislavery clause, with some modification, was moved by +Mr. Rufus King, and sent as a proposition to a committee: but did +not ripen into a law. Afterwards the whole ordinance was passed as +it now stands, upon the report of a committee of six, of whom Mr. +Dane was one; but not the chairman. + +Closely connected with this question of authorship to which Mr. +Webster's remarks give rise, was another which excited some warm +discussion--the topic of slavery--and the effect of its existence +or non-existence in different States. Kentucky and Ohio were taken +for examples, and the superior improvement and population of Ohio +were attributed to its exemption from the evils of slavery. This +was an excitable subject, and the more so because the wounds of +the Missouri controversy, in which the North was the undisputed +aggressor, were still tender, and hardly scarred over. Mr. Hayne +answered with warmth and resented as a reflection upon the slave +States this disadvantageous comparison. I replied to the same topic +myself, and said: + + "I was on the subject of slavery, as connected with the Missouri + question, when last on the floor. The senator from South + Carolina [Mr. Hayne] could see nothing in the question before + the Senate, nor in any previous part of the debate, to justify + the introduction of that topic. Neither could I. He thought he + saw the ghost of the Missouri question brought in among us. + So did I. He was astonished at the apparition. I was not: for + a close observance of the signs in the West had prepared me + for this development from the East. I was well prepared for + that invective against slavery, and for that amplification of + the blessings of exemption from slavery, exemplified in the + condition of Ohio, which the senator from Massachusetts indulged + in, and which the object in view required to be derived from + the Northeast. I cut the root of that derivation by reading a + passage from the Journals of the old Congress; but this will + not prevent the invective and encomium from going forth to do + their office; nor obliterate the line which was drawn between + the free State of Ohio and the slave State of Kentucky. If + the only results of this invective and encomium were to exalt + still higher the oratorical fame of the speaker, I should + spend not a moment in remarking upon them. But it is not to be + forgotten that the terrible Missouri agitation took its rise + from the "substance of two speeches" delivered on this floor; + and since that time, antislavery speeches, coming from the same + political and geographical quarter, are not to be disregarded + here. What was said upon that topic was certainly intended for + the north side of the Potomac and Ohio; to the people, then, + of that division of the Union, I wish to address myself, and + to disabuse them of some erroneous impressions. To them I can + truly say, that slavery, in the abstract, has but few advocates + or defenders in the slave-holding States, and that slavery as + it is, an hereditary institution descended upon us from our + ancestors, would have fewer advocates among us than it has, if + those who have nothing to do with the subject would only let + us alone. The sentiment in favor of slavery was much weaker + before those intermeddlers began their operations than it is + at present. The views of leading men in the North and the + South were indisputably the same in the earlier periods of our + government. Of this our legislative history contains the highest + proof. The foreign-slave trade was prohibited in Virginia, as + soon as the Revolution began. It was one of her first acts of + sovereignty. In the convention of that State which adopted the + federal constitution, it was an objection to that instrument + that it tolerated the African slave-trade for twenty years. + Nothing that has appeared since has surpassed the indignant + denunciations of this traffic by Patrick Henry, George Mason, + and others, in that convention. + + "Sir, I regard with admiration, that is to say, with wonder, + the sublime morality of those who cannot bear the abstract + contemplation of slavery, at the distance of five hundred or a + thousand miles off. It is entirely above, that is to say, it + affects a vast superiority over the morality of the primitive + Christians, the apostles of Christ, and Christ himself. Christ + and the apostles appeared in a province of the Roman empire, + when that empire was called the Roman world, and that world was + filled with slaves. Forty millions was the estimated number, + being one-fourth of the whole population. Single individuals + held twenty thousand slaves. A freed man, one who had himself + been a slave, died the possessor of four thousand--such were + the numbers. The rights of the owners over this multitude of + human beings was that of life and death, without protection + from law or mitigation from public sentiment. The scourge, + the cross, the fish-pond, the den of the wild beast, and the + arena of the gladiator, was the lot of the slave, upon the + slightest expression of the master's will. A law of incredible + atrocity made all slaves responsible with their own lives for + the life of their master; it was the law that condemned the + whole household of slaves to death, in case of the assassination + of the master--a law under which as many as four hundred have + been executed at a time. And these slaves were the white people + of Europe and of Asia Minor, the Greeks and other nations, + from whom the present inhabitants of the world derive the + most valuable productions of the human mind. Christ saw all + this--the number of the slaves--their hapless condition--and + their white color, which was the same with his own; yet he said + nothing against slavery; he preached no doctrines which led to + insurrection and massacre; none which, in their application + to the state of things in our country, would authorize an + inferior race of blacks to exterminate that superior race of + whites, in whose ranks he himself appeared upon earth. He + preached no such doctrines, but those of a contrary tenor, + which inculcated the duty of fidelity and obedience on the + part of the slave--humanity and kindness on the part of the + master. His apostles did the same. St. Paul sent back a runaway + slave. Onesimus, to his owner, with a letter of apology and + supplication. He was not the man to harbor a runaway, much less + to entice him from his master; and, least of all, to excite an + insurrection." + +This allusion to the Missouri controversy, and invective against the +free States for their part in it, brought a reply from Mr. Webster, +showing what their conduct had been at the first introduction of the +slavery topic in the Congress of the United States, and that they +totally refused to interfere between master and slave in any way +whatever. This is what he said: + + "When the present constitution was submitted for the + ratification of the people, there were those who imagined that + the powers of the government which it proposed to establish + might, perhaps, in some possible mode, be exerted in measures + tending to the abolition of slavery. This suggestion would, of + course, attract much attention in the southern conventions. In + that of Virginia, Governor Randolph said: + + "'I hope there is none here who, considering the subject in the + calm light of philosophy, will make an objection dishonorable to + Virginia--that, at the moment they are securing the rights of + their citizens, an objection is started, that there is a spark + of hope that those unfortunate men now held in bondage may, by + the operation of the general government, be made free.' + + "At the very first Congress, petitions on the subject + were presented, if I mistake not, from different States. + The Pennsylvania society for promoting the abolition of + slavery, took a lead, and laid before Congress a memorial, + praying Congress to promote the abolition by such powers as + it possessed. This memorial was referred, in the House of + Representatives, to a select committee consisting of Mr. Foster + of New Hampshire; Mr. Gerry of Massachusetts, Mr. Huntington of + Connecticut; Mr. Lawrence of New-York; Mr. Sinnickson of New + Jersey; Mr. Hartley of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Parker of Virginia; + all of them, sir, as you will observe, northern men, but the + last. This committee made a report, which was committed to a + committee of the whole house, and there considered and discussed + on several days; and being amended, although in no material + respect, it was made to express three distinct propositions on + the subject of slavery and the slave-trade. First, in the words + of the constitution, that Congress could not, prior to the year + 1808, prohibit the migration or importation of such persons as + any of the States, then existing, should think proper to admit. + Second, that Congress had authority to restrain the citizens of + the United States from carrying on the African slave-trade, for + the purpose of supplying foreign countries. On this proposition, + our laws against those who engage in that traffic, are founded. + The third proposition, and that which bears on the present + question, was expressed in the following terms: + + "'_Resolved_, That Congress have no authority to interfere in + the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them in any + of the States; it remaining with the several States alone to + provide rules and regulations therein, which humanity and true + policy may require.' + + "This resolution received the sanction of the House of + Representatives so early as March, 1790. And now, sir, the + honorable member will allow me to remind him, that not only were + the select committee who reported the resolution, with a single + exception, all northern men, but also that of the members then + composing the House of Representatives, a large majority, I + believe nearly two thirds, were northern men also. + + "The house agreed to insert these resolutions in its journal, + and, from that day to this, it has never been maintained or + contended that Congress had any authority to regulate, or + interfere with, the condition of slaves in the several States. + No northern gentleman, to my knowledge, has moved any such + question in either house of Congress. + + "The fears of the South, whatever fears they might have + entertained, were allayed and quieted by this early decision; + and so remained, till they were excited afresh, without cause, + but for collateral and indirect purposes. When it became + necessary, or was thought so, by some political persons, to + find an unvarying ground for the exclusion of northern men + from confidence and from lead in the affairs of the republic, + then, and not till then, the cry was raised, and the feeling + industriously excited, that the influence of northern men in + the public councils would endanger the relation of master and + slave. For myself I claim no other merit than that this gross + and enormous injustice towards the whole North, has not wrought + upon me to change my opinions, or my political conduct. I hope + I am above violating my principles, even under the smart of + injury and false imputations. Unjust suspicions and undeserved + reproach, whatever pain I may experience from them, will not + induce me, I trust, nevertheless, to overstep the limits of + constitutional duty, or to encroach on the rights of others. + The domestic slavery of the South I leave where I find it--in + the hands of their own governments. It is their affair, not + mine. Nor do I complain of the peculiar effect which the + magnitude of that population has had in the distribution of + power under this federal government. We know, sir, that the + representation of the states in the other house is not equal. + We know that great advantage, in that respect, is enjoyed by + the slaveholding States; and we know, too, that the intended + equivalent for that advantage, that is to say, the imposition of + direct taxes in the same ratio, has become merely nominal; the + habit of the government being almost invariably to collect its + revenues from other sources, and in other modes. Nevertheless, + I do not complain: nor would I countenance any movement to + alter this arrangement of representation. It is the original + bargain, the compact--let it stand: let the advantage of it be + fully enjoyed. The Union itself is too full of benefit to be + hazarded in propositions for changing its original basis. I + go for the constitution as it is, and for the Union as it is. + But I am resolved not to submit, in silence, to accusations, + either against myself individually, or against the North, + wholly unfounded and unjust; accusations which impute to us a + disposition to evade the constitutional compact, and to extend + the power of the government over the internal laws and domestic + condition of the States. All such accusations, wherever and + whenever made, all insinuations of the existence of any such + purposes, I know, and feel to be groundless and injurious. And + we must confide in southern gentlemen themselves; we must trust + to those whose integrity of heart and magnanimity of feeling + will lead them to a desire to maintain and disseminate truth, + and who possess the means of its diffusion with the southern + public; we must leave it to them to disabuse that public of its + prejudices. But, in the mean time, for my own part, I shall + continue to act justly, whether those towards whom justice is + exercised, receive it with candor or with contumely." + +This is what Mr. Webster said on the subject of slavery; and +although it was in reply to an invective of my own, excited by +the recent agitation of the Missouri question, I made no answer +impugning its correctness; and must add that I never saw any thing +in Mr. Webster inconsistent with what he then said; and believe that +the same resolves could have been passed in the same way at any time +during the thirty years that I was in Congress. + +But the topic which became the leading feature of the whole +debate; and gave it an interest which cannot die, was that of +nullification--the assumed right of a state to annul an act of +Congress--then first broached in our national legislature--and in +the discussion of which Mr. Webster and Mr. Hayne were the champion +speakers on opposite sides--the latter understood to be speaking the +sentiments of the Vice-President, Mr. Calhoun. This new turn in the +debate was thus brought about: Mr. Hayne, in the sectional nature of +the discussion which had grown up, made allusions to the conduct of +New England during the war of 1812; and especially to the assemblage +known as the Hartford Convention, and to which designs unfriendly to +the Union had been attributed. This gave Mr. Webster the rights both +of defence and of retaliation; and he found material for the first +in the character of the assemblage, and for the second in the public +meetings which had taken place in South Carolina on the subject of +the tariff--and at which resolves were passed, and propositions +adopted significant of resistance to the act; and, consequently, of +disloyalty to the Union. He, in his turn, made allusions to these +resolves and propositions, until he drew out Mr. Hayne into their +defence, and into an avowal of what has since obtained the current +name of "_Nullification_;" although at the time (during the debate) +it did not at all strike me as going the length which it afterwards +avowed; nor have I ever believed that Mr. Hayne contemplated +disunion, in any contingency, as one of its results. In entering +upon the argument, Mr. Webster first summed up the doctrine, as he +conceived it to be avowed, thus: + + "I understand the honorable gentleman from South Carolina + to maintain, that it is a right of the State legislature + to interfere, whenever, in their judgment, this government + transcends its constitutional limits, and to arrest the + operation of its laws. + + "I understand him to maintain this right, as a right existing + under the constitution; not as a right to overthrow it, on the + ground of extreme necessity, such as would justify violent + revolution. + + "I understand him to maintain an authority, on the part of the + States, thus to interfere, for the purpose of correcting the + exercise of power by the general government, of checking it, and + of compelling it to conform to their opinion of the extent of + its powers. + + "I understand him to maintain that the ultimate power of judging + of the constitutional extent of its own authority is not lodged + exclusively in the general government, or any branch of it; + but that, on the contrary, the States may lawfully decide for + themselves, and each State for itself, whether, in a given case, + the act of the general government transcends its power. + + "I understand him to insist that, if the exigency of the case, + in the opinion of any State government, require it, such State + government may, by its own sovereign authority, annul an act + of the general government, which it deems plainly and palpably + unconstitutional." + +Mr. Hayne, evidently unprepared to admit, or fully deny, the +propositions as broadly laid down, had recourse to a statement +of his own; and, adopted for that purpose, the third resolve of +the Virginia resolutions of the year 1798--reaffirmed in 1799. He +rose immediately and said that, for the purpose of being clearly +understood, he would state that his proposition was in the words of +the Virginia resolution; and read it-- + + "That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, + that it views the powers of the federal government as resulting + from the compact, to which the States are parties, as limited + by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting + that compact, as no farther valid than they are authorized by + the grants enumerated in that compact; and that, in case of a + deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, + not granted by the said compact, the States who are parties + thereto have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose, for + arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within + their respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties, + appertaining to them." + +Thus were the propositions stated, and argued--each speaker taking +his own proposition for his text; which in the end, (and as the +Virginia resolutions turned out to be understood in the South +Carolina sense) came to be identical. Mr. Webster, at one point, +giving to his argument a practical form, and showing what the South +Carolina doctrine would have accomplished in New England if it had +been acted upon by the Hartford Convention, said: + + "Let me here say, sir, that, if the gentleman's doctrine had + been received and acted upon in New England, in the times of + the embargo and non-intercourse, we should probably not now + have been here. The government would, very likely, have gone to + pieces, and crumbled into dust. No stronger case can ever arise + than existed under those laws; no States can ever entertain a + clearer conviction than the New England States then entertained; + and if they had been under the influence of that heresy of + opinion, as I must call it which the honorable member espouses, + this Union would, in all probability, have been scattered to + the four winds. I ask the gentleman, therefore, to apply his + principles to that case; I ask him to come forth and declare, + whether, in his opinion, the New England States would have been + justified in interfering to break up the embargo system, under + the conscientious opinions which they held upon it? Had they a + right to annul that law? Does he admit or deny? If that which is + thought palpably unconstitutional in South Carolina, justifies + that State in arresting the progress of the law, tell me, + whether that which was thought palpably unconstitutional also in + Massachusetts, would have justified her in doing the same thing? + Sir, I deny the whole doctrine. It has not a foot of ground in + the constitution to stand on. No public man of reputation ever + advanced it in Massachusetts, in the warmest times, or could + maintain himself upon it there at any time." + +He argued that the doctrine had no foundation either in the +constitution, or in the Virginia resolutions--that the constitution +makes the federal government act upon citizens within the States, +and not upon the States themselves, as in the old confederation: +that within their constitutional limits the laws of Congress were +supreme--and that it was treasonable to resist them with force: and +that the question of their constitutionality was to be decided by +the Supreme Court. On this point, he said: + + "The people, then, sir, erected this government. They gave it + a constitution; and in that constitution they have enumerated + the powers which they bestow on it. They have made it a + limited government. They have defined its authority. They have + restrained it to the exercise of such powers as are granted; and + all others, they declare, are reserved to the States or to the + people. But, sir, they have not stopped here. If they had, they + would have accomplished but half their work. No definition can + be so clear as to avoid possibility of doubt; no limitation so + precise as to exclude all uncertainty. Who then shall construe + this grant of the people? Who shall interpret their will, where + it may be supposed they have left it doubtful? With whom do + they repose this ultimate right of deciding on the powers of + the government? Sir, they have settled all this in the fullest + manner. They have left it with the government itself, in its + appropriate branches. Sir, the very chief end, the main design, + for which the whole constitution was framed and adopted was, to + establish a government that should not be obliged to act through + State agency, or depend on State opinion and State discretion. + The people had had quite enough of that kind of government + under the confederacy. Under that system, the legal action, + the application of law to individuals, belonged exclusively to + the States. Congress could only recommend; their acts were not + of binding force, till the States had adopted and sanctioned + them. Are we in that condition still? Are we yet at the mercy + of State discretion, and State construction? Sir, if we are, + then vain will be our attempt to maintain the constitution under + which we sit. But, sir, the people have wisely provided, in the + constitution itself, a proper, suitable mode and tribunal for + settling questions of constitutional law. There are, in the + constitution, grants of powers to Congress, and restrictions + on these powers. There are, also, prohibitions on the States. + Some authority must, therefore, necessarily exist, having the + ultimate jurisdiction to fix and ascertain the interpretation of + these grants, restrictions, and prohibitions. The constitution + has, itself, pointed out, ordained, and established, that + authority. How has it accomplished this great and essential end? + By declaring, sir, that 'the constitution, and the laws of the + United States made in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme + law of the land, any thing in the constitution or laws of any + State to the contrary notwithstanding.' + + "This, sir, was the first great step. By this, the supremacy + of the constitution and laws of the United States is declared. + The people so will it. No State law is to be valid which comes + in conflict with the constitution or any law of the United + States. But who shall decide this question of interference? To + whom lies the last appeal? This, sir, the constitution itself + decides also, by declaring 'that the judicial power shall + extend to all cases arising under the constitution and laws of + the United States.' These two provisions, sir, cover the whole + ground. They are, in truth, the key-stone of the arch. With + these, it is a constitution; without them it is a confederacy. + In pursuance of these clear and express provisions, Congress + established, at its very first session, in the Judicial Act, a + mode for carrying them into full effect, and for bringing all + questions of constitutional power to the final decision of the + Supreme Court. It then, sir, became a government. It then had + the means of self-protection; and, but for this, it would, in + all probability, have been now among things which are past. + Having constituted the government, and declared its powers, + the people have farther said, that, since somebody must decide + on the extent of these powers, the government shall itself + decide; subject, always, like other popular governments, to its + responsibility to the people. And now, sir, I repeat, how is + it that a State legislature acquires any power to interfere? + Who or what gives them the right to say to the people, 'we, who + are your agents and servants for one purpose, will undertake to + decide that your other agents and servants, appointed by you for + another purpose, have transcended the authority you gave them?' + The reply would be, I think, not impertinent: who made you judge + over another's servants? To their own masters they stand or + fall." + +With respect to the Virginia resolutions, on which Mr. Hayne relied, +Mr. Webster disputed the interpretation put upon them--claimed for +them an innocent and justifiable meaning--and exempted Mr. Madison +from the suspicion of having penned a resolution asserting the right +of a State legislature to annul an act of Congress, and thereby +putting it in the power of one State to destroy a form of government +which he had just labored so hard to establish. To this effect he +said: + + "I wish now, sir, to make a remark upon the Virginia resolutions + of 1798. I cannot undertake to say how these resolutions were + understood by those who passed them. Their language is not a + little indefinite. In the case of the exercise, by Congress, of + a dangerous power, not granted to them, the resolutions assert + the right, on the part of the State, to interfere, and arrest + the progress of the evil. This is susceptible of more than one + interpretation. It may mean no more than that the States may + interfere by complaint and remonstrance; or by proposing to the + people an alteration of the federal constitution. This would all + be quite unobjectionable; or, it may be, that no more is meant + than to assert the general right of revolution, as against all + governments, in cases of intolerable oppression. This no one + doubts; and this, in my opinion, is all that he who framed the + resolutions could have meant by it: for I shall not readily + believe that he (Mr. Madison) was ever of opinion that a State, + under the constitution, and in conformity with it, could, upon + the ground of her own opinion of its unconstitutionality, + however clear and palpable she might think the case, annul a law + of Congress, so far as it should operate on herself, by her own + legislative power." + +Mr. Hayne, on his part, disclaimed all imitation of the Hartford +Convention; and gave (as the practical part of his doctrine) +the pledge of forcible resistance to any attempt to enforce +unconstitutional laws. He said: + + "Sir, unkind as my allusion to the Hartford Convention has been + considered by its supporters, I apprehend that this disclaimer + of the gentleman will be regarded as 'the unkindest cut of + all.' When the gentleman spoke of the Carolina conventions of + Colleton and Abbeville, let me tell him that he spoke of that + which never had existence, except in his own imagination. There + have, indeed, been meetings of the people in those districts, + composed, sir, of as high-minded and patriotic men as any + country can boast; but we have had no 'convention' as yet; and + when South Carolina shall resort to such a measure for the + redress of her grievances, let me tell the gentleman that, of + all the assemblies that have ever been convened in this country, + the Hartford Convention is the very last we shall consent to + take as an example; nor will it find more favor in our eyes, + from being recommended to us by the senator from Massachusetts. + Sir, we would scorn to take advantage of difficulties created + by a foreign war, to wring from the federal government a + redress even of our grievances. We are standing up for our + constitutional rights, in a time of profound peace; but if the + country should, unhappily, be involved in a war to-morrow, we + should be found flying to the standard of our country--first + driving back the common enemy, and then insisting upon the + restoration of our rights. + + "The gentleman has called upon us to carry out our scheme + practically. Now, sir, if I am correct in my view of this + matter, then it follows, of course, that the right of a State + being established, the federal government is bound to acquiesce + in a solemn decision of a State, acting in its sovereign + capacity, at least so far as to make an appeal to the people + for an amendment to the constitution. This solemn decision of + a State (made either through its legislature, or a convention, + as may be supposed to be the proper organ of its sovereign + will--a point I do not propose now to discuss) binds the federal + government, under the highest constitutional obligation, not + to resort to any means of coercion against the citizens of the + dissenting State. How, then, can any collision ensue between + the federal and State governments, unless, indeed, the former + should determine to enforce the law by unconstitutional means? + What could the federal government do, in such a case? Resort, + says the gentleman, to the courts of justice. Now, can any man + believe that, in the face of a solemn decision of a State, + that an act of Congress is 'a gross, palpable, and deliberate + violation of the constitution,' and the interposition of its + sovereign authority to protect its citizens from the usurpation, + that juries could be found ready merely to register the decrees + of the Congress, wholly regardless of the unconstitutional + character of their acts? Will the gentleman contend that juries + are to be coerced to find verdicts at the point of the bayonet? + And if not, how are the United States to enforce an act solemnly + pronounced to be unconstitutional? But, if the attempt should + be made to carry such a law into effect, by force, in what + would the case differ from an attempt to carry into effect an + act nullified by the courts, or to do any other unlawful and + unwarrantable act? Suppose Congress should pass an agrarian law, + or a law emancipating our slaves, or should commit any other + gross violation of our constitutional rights, will any gentleman + contend that the decision of every branch of the federal + government, in favor of such laws, could prevent the States from + declaring them null and void, and protecting their citizens from + their operation? + + "Sir, if Congress should ever attempt to enforce any such laws, + they would put themselves so clearly in the wrong, that no one + could doubt the right of the State to exert its protecting power. + + "Sir, the gentleman has alluded to that portion of the militia + of South Carolina with which I have the honor to be connected, + and asked how they would act in the event of the nullification + of the tariff law by the State of South Carolina? The tone of + the gentleman, on this subject, did not seem to me as respectful + as I could have desired. I hope, sir, no imputation was + intended." + + [Mr. Webster: "Not at all; just the reverse."] + + "Well, sir, the gentleman asks what their leaders would be + able to read to them out of Coke upon Littleton, or any other + law book, to justify their enterprise? Sir, let me assure the + gentleman that, whenever any attempt shall be made from any + quarter, to enforce unconstitutional laws, clearly violating our + essential rights, our leaders (whoever they may be) will not + be found reading black letter from the musty pages of old law + books. They will look to the constitution, and when called upon, + by the sovereign authority of the State, to preserve and protect + the rights secured to them by the charter of their liberties, + they will succeed in defending them, or 'perish in the last + ditch.'" + +I do not pretend to give the arguments of the gentlemen, or even +their substance, but merely to state their propositions and their +conclusions. For myself, I did not believe in any thing serious in +the new interpretation given to the Virginia resolutions--did not +believe in any thing practical from nullification--did not believe +in forcible resistance to the tariff laws from South Carolina--did +not believe in any scheme of disunion--believed, and still believe, +in the patriotism of Mr. Hayne: and as he came into the argument +on my side in the article of the public lands, so my wishes were +with him, and I helped him where I could. Of this desire to help, +and disbelief in disunion, I gave proof, in ridiculing, as well as +I could, Mr. Webster's fine peroration to liberty and union, and +really thought it out of place--a fine piece of rhetoric misplaced, +for want of circumstances to justify it. He had concluded thus: + + "When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, + the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken + and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States + dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil + feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their + last feeble and lingering glance, rather, behold the gorgeous + ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the + earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming + in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor + a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable + interrogatory as, What is all this worth? Nor those other words + of delusion and folly, Liberty first, and Union afterwards; but + every where, spread all over in characters of living light, + blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and + over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that + other sentiment, dear to every true American heart--Liberty + _and_ Union, now and for ever, one and inseparable!" + +These were noble sentiments, oratorically expressed, but too +elaborately and too artistically composed for real grief in presence +of a great calamity--of which calamity I saw no sign; and therefore +deemed it a fit subject for gentle castigation: and essayed it thus: + + "I proceed to a different theme. Among the novelties of + this debate, is that part of the speech of the senator from + Massachusetts which dwells with such elaboration of declamation + and ornament, upon the love and blessings of union--the hatred + and horror of disunion. It was a part of the senator's speech + which brought into full play the favorite Ciceronian figure of + amplification. It was up to the rule in that particular. But, + it seemed to me, that there was another rule, and a higher, + and a precedent one, which it violated. It was the rule of + propriety; that rule which requires the fitness of things to be + considered; which requires the time, the place, the subject, and + the audience, to be considered; and condemns the delivery of + the argument, and all its flowers, if it fails in congruence to + these particulars. I thought the essay upon union and disunion + had so failed. It came to us when we were not prepared for it; + when there was nothing in the Senate, nor in the country to + grace its introduction; nothing to give, or to receive, effect + to, or from, the impassioned scene that we witnessed. It may be, + it was the prophetic cry of the distracted daughter of Priam, + breaking into the council, and alarming its tranquil members + with vaticinations of the fall of Troy; but to me, it all + sounded like the sudden proclamation for an earthquake, when the + sun, the earth, the air, announced no such prodigy; when all the + elements of nature were at rest, and sweet repose pervading the + world. There was a time, and you, and I, and all of us, did see + it, sir, when such a speech would have found, in its delivery, + every attribute of a just and rigorous propriety! It was at a + time, when the five-striped banner was waving over the land of + the North! when the Hartford Convention was in session! when the + language in the capitol was, "Peaceably, if we can; forcibly, + if we must!" when the cry, out of doors, was, "the Potomac the + boundary; the negro States by themselves! The Alleghanies the + boundary; the Western savages by themselves! The Mississippi + the boundary, let Missouri be governed by a prefect, or given + up as a haunt for wild beasts!" That time was the fit occasion + for this speech; and if it had been delivered then, either in + the hall of the House of Representatives, or in the den of the + Hartford Convention, or in the highway among the bearers and + followers of the five-striped banner, what effects must it not + have produced! What terror and consternation among the plotters + of disunion! But, here, in this loyal and quiet assemblage, in + this season of general tranquillity and universal allegiance, + the whole performance has lost its effect for want of affinity, + connection, or relation, to any subject depending, or sentiment + expressed, in the Senate; for want of any application, or + reference, to any event impending in the country." + +I do not quote this passage for any thing that I now see out of +place in that peroration; but for a quite different purpose--for +the purpose of showing that I was slow to believe in any design +to subvert this Union--that at the time of this great debate +(February and March, 1830) I positively discredited it, and publicly +proclaimed my incredulity. I did not want to believe it. I repulsed +the belief. I pushed aside every circumstance that Mr. Webster +relied on, and softened every expression that Mr. Hayne used, and +considered him as limiting (practically) his threatened resistance +to the tariff act, to the kind of resistance which Virginia made +to the alien and sedition laws--which was an appeal to the reason, +judgment and feelings of the other States--and which had its +effect in the speedy repeal of those laws. Mr. Calhoun had not +then uncovered his position in relation to nullification. I knew +that Mr. Webster was speaking at him in all that he said to Mr. +Hayne: but I would believe nothing against him except upon his own +showing, or undoubted evidence. Although not a favorite statesman +with me, I felt admiration for his high intellectual endowments, and +respect for the integrity and purity of his private life. Mr. Hayne +I cordially loved; and believed, and still believe, in the loyalty +of his intentions to the Union. They were both from the South--that +sister Carolina, of which the other was my native State, and in both +of which I have relatives and hereditary friends--and for which I +still have the affections which none but the wicked ever lose for +the land of their birth: and I felt as they did in all that relates +to the tariff--except their remedy. But enough for the present. The +occasion will come, when we arrive at the practical application of +the modern nullification doctrine, to vindicate the constitution +from the political solecism of containing within itself a suicidal +principle, and to vindicate the Virginia resolutions, and their +authors (and, in their own language), from the "_anarchical and +preposterous_" interpretation which has been put upon their words. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +REPEAL OF THE SALT TAX. + + +A tax on Salt is an odious measure, hated by all people and in all +time, and justly, because being an article of prime necessity, +indispensable to man and to beast, and bountifully furnished them +by the Giver of all good, the cost should not be burthened, nor the +use be stinted by government regulation; and the principles of fair +taxation would require it to be spared, because it is an agent, and +a great one, in the development of many branches of agricultural +and mechanical industry which add to the wealth of the country and +produce revenue from the exports and consumption to which they +give rise. People hate the salt tax, because they are obliged to +have the salt, and cannot evade the tax: governments love the tax +for the same reason--because people are obliged to pay it. This +would seem to apply to governments despotic or monarchial, and not +to those which are representative and popular. But representative +governments sometimes have calamities--war for example--when +subjects of taxation diminish as need for revenue increases: and +then representative governments, like others, must resort to the +objects which will supply its necessities. This has twice been the +case with the article of salt in the United States. The duty on that +article was carried up to a high tax in the _quasi_ war with France +(1798), having been small before; and then only imposed as a war +measure--to cease as soon as the war was over. But all governments +work alike on the imposition and release of taxes--easy to get them +on in a time of necessity--hard to get them off when the necessity +has passed. So of this first war tax on salt. The "speck of war" +with France, visible above the horizon in '98, soon sunk below it; +and the sunshine of peace prevailed. In the year 1800--two years +after the duty was raised to its maximum--the countries were on the +most friendly terms; but it was not until 1807, and under the whole +power of Mr. Jefferson's administration, that this temporary tax +was abolished; and with it the whole system of fishing bounties and +allowances founded upon it. + +In the war of 1812, at the commencement of the war with Great +Britain, it was renewed, with its concomitant of fishing bounties +and allowances; but still as a temporary measure, limited to the +termination of the war which induced it, and one year thereafter. +The war terminated in 1815, and the additional year expired in +1816; but before the year was out, the tax was continued, not for +a definite period, but without time--on the specious argument +that, if a time was fixed, it would be difficult to get it off +before the time was out: but if unfixed, it would be easy to get +it off at any time: and all agreed that that was to be soon--that +a temporary continuance of all the taxes was necessary until the +revenue, deranged by the war, should become regular and adequate. +It was continued on this specious argument--and remained in full +until General Jackson's administration--and, in part, until this +day (1850)--the fishing bounties and allowances in full: and that +is the working of all governments in the levy and repeal of taxes. +I found the salt tax in full force when I came to the Senate in +1820, strengthened by time, sustained by a manufacturing interest, +and by the fishing interest (which made the tax a source of profit +in the supposed return of the duty in the shape of bounties and +allowances): and by the whole American system; which took the tax +into its keeping, as a protection to a branch of home industry. I +found efforts being made in each House to suppress this burthen upon +a prime necessary of life; and, in the session 1829-'30, delivered a +speech in support of the laudable endeavor, of which these are some +parts: + + "Mr. Benton commenced his speech, by saying that he was no + advocate for unprofitable debate, and had no ambition to add + his name to the catalogue of barren orators; but that there + were cases in which speaking did good; cases in which moderate + abilities produced great results, and he believed the question + of repealing the salt tax to be one of those cases. It had + certainly been so in England. There the salt tax had been + overthrown by the labors of plain men, under circumstances + much more unfavorable to their undertaking than exist here. + The English salt tax had continued one hundred and fifty + years. It was cherished by the ministry, to whom it yielded a + million and a half sterling of revenue; it was defended by the + domestic salt makers, to whom it gave a monopoly of the home + market; it was consecrated by time, having subsisted for five + generations; it was fortified by the habits of the people, who + were born, and had grown gray under it; and it was sanctioned + by the necessities of the State, which required every resource + of rigorous taxation. Yet it was overthrown; and the overthrow + was effected by two debates, conducted, not by the orators + whose renown has filled the world--not by Sheridan, Burke, + Pitt, and Fox--but by plain, business men--Mr. Calcraft, Mr. + Curwen, and Mr. Egerton. These patriotic members of the British + Parliament commenced the war upon the British salt tax in 1817, + and finished it in 1822. They commenced with the omens and + auspices all against them, and ended with complete success. + They abolished the salt tax _in toto_. They swept it all off, + bravely rejecting all compromises when they had got their + adversaries half vanquished, and carrying their appeals home + to the people, until they had roused a spirit before which the + ministry quailed, the monopolizers trembled, the Parliament gave + way, and the tax fell. This example is encouraging; it is full + of consolation and of hope; it shows what zeal and perseverance + can do in a good cause: it shows that the cause of truth and + justice is triumphant when its advocates are bold and faithful. + It leads to the conviction that the American salt tax will fall + as the British tax did, as soon as the people shall see that its + continuance is a burthen to them, without adequate advantage to + the government, and that its repeal is in their own hands. + + "The enormous amount of the tax was the first point to which Mr. + B. would direct his attention. He said it was near three hundred + per cent. upon Liverpool blown, and four hundred per cent. upon + alum salt; but as the Liverpool was a very inferior salt, and + not much used in the West, he would confine his observations to + the salt of Portugal and the West Indies, called by the general + name of alum. The import price of this salt was from eight to + nine cents a bushel of fifty-six pounds each, and the duty upon + that bushel was twenty cents. Here was a tax of upwards of two + hundred per cent. Then the merchant had his profit upon the duty + as well as the cost of the article: and when it went through + the hands of several merchants before it got to the consumer, + each had his profit upon it; and whenever this profit amounted + to fifty per cent. upon the duty, it was upwards of one hundred + per cent. upon the salt. Then, the tariff laws have deprived the + consumer of thirty-four pounds in the bushel, by substituting + weight for measure, and that weight a false one. The true weight + of a measured bushel of alum salt is eighty-four pounds; but the + British tariff laws, for the sake of multiplying the bushels, + and increasing the product of the tax, substituted weight for + measure; and our tariff laws copied after them, and adopted + their standard of fifty-six pounds to the bushel. + + "Mr. B. entered into statistical details, to show the aggregate + amount of this tax, which he stated to be enormous, and contrary + to every principle of taxation, even if taxes were so necessary + as to justify the taxing of salt. He stated the importation + of foreign salt, in 1829, at six millions of bushels, round + numbers; the value seven hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, + and the tax at twenty cents a bushel, one million two hundred + thousand dollars, the merchant's profit upon that duty at fifty + per cent. is six hundred thousand dollars; and the secret or + hidden tax, in the shape of false weight for true measure, at + the rate of thirty pounds in the bushel, was four hundred and + fifty thousand dollars. Here, then, is taxation to the amount + of about two millions and a quarter of dollars, upon an article + costing seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and that + article one of prime necessity and universal use, ranking next + after bread, in the catalogue of articles for human subsistence. + + "The distribution of this enormous tax upon the different + sections of the Union, was the next object of Mr. B.'s inquiry; + and, for this purpose, he viewed the Union under three great + divisions--the Northeast, the South, and the West. To the + northeast, and especially to some parts of it, he considered + the salt tax to be no burthen, but rather a benefit and a + money-making business. The fishing allowances and bounties + produced this effect. In consideration of the salt duty, the + curers and exporters of fish are allowed money out of the + treasury, to the amount, as it was intended, of the salt duty + paid by them; but it has been proved to be twice as much. + The annual allowance is about two hundred and fifty thousand + dollars, and the aggregate drawn from the treasury since the + first imposition of the salt duty in 1789, is shown by the + treasury returns to be five millions of dollars. Much of this is + drawn by undue means, as is shown by the report of the Secretary + of the Treasury, at the commencement of the present session, + page eight of the annual report on the finances. The Northeast + makes much salt at home, and chiefly by solar evaporation, which + fits it for curing fish and provisions. Much of it is proved, + by the returns of the salt makers, to be used in the fisheries, + while the fisheries are drawing money from the treasury under + the laws which intended to indemnify them for the duty paid on + foreign salt. To this section of the Union, then, the salt tax + is not felt as a burthen. + + "Let us proceed to the South. In this section there are but + few salt works, and no bounties or allowances, as there are no + fisheries. The consumers are thrown almost entirely upon the + foreign supply, and chiefly use the Liverpool blown. The import + price of this is about fifteen cents a bushel; the weight and + strength is less than that of alum salt; and the tax falls + heavily and directly upon the people, to the whole amount of + their consumption. It is a heavy burthen upon the South. + + "The West is the last section to be viewed, and it will be + found to be the true seat of the most oppressive operations of + the salt tax. The domestic supply is high in price, deficient + in quantity, and altogether unfit for one of the greatest + purposes for which salt is there wanted--curing provisions + for exportation. A foreign supply is indispensable, and alum + salt is the kind used. The import price of this kind, from + the West Indies, is nine cents a bushel; from Portugal, eight + cents a bushel. At these prices, the West could be supplied + with this salt at New Orleans, if the duty was abolished; but, + in consequence of the duty, it costs thirty-seven and a half + cents per bushel there, being four times the import price of + the article, and seventy-five cents per bushel at Louisville + and other central parts of the valley of the Mississippi. This + enormous price, resolved into its component parts, is thus made + up: 1. Eight or nine cents a bushel for the salt. 2. Twenty + cents for duty. 3. Eight or ten cents for merchant's profit + at New Orleans. 4. Sixteen or seventeen cents for freight to + Louisville. 5. Fifteen or twenty cents for the second merchant's + profit, who counts his per centum on his whole outlay. In all, + about seventy-five cents for a bushel of fifty pounds, which, + if there was no duty, and the tariff regulations of weight + for measure abolished, would be bought in New Orleans, by the + measured bushel of eighty pounds weight, for eight or nine + cents, and would be brought up the river, by steamboats, at + the rate of thirty-three and a third cents per hundred weight. + It thus appears that the salt tax falls heaviest upon the + West. It is an error to suppose that the South is the greatest + sufferer. The West wants it for every purpose the South does, + and two great purposes besides--curing provision for export, + and salting stock. The West uses alum salt, and on this the + duty is heaviest, because the price is lower, and the weight + greater. Twenty cents on salt which costs eight or nine cents a + bushel is a much heavier duty than on that which costs fifteen + cents; and then the deception in the substitution of weight for + measure is much greater in alum salt, which weighs so much more + than the Liverpool blown. Like the South, the West receives no + bounties or allowances on account of the salt duties. This may + be fair in the South, where the imported salt is not re-exported + upon fish or provisions; but it is unfair in the West, where + the exportation of beef, pork, bacon, cheese, and butter, is + prodigious, and the foreign salt re-exported upon the whole of + it. + + "Mr. B. then argued, with great warmth, that the provision + curers and exporters were entitled to the same bounties and + allowances with the exporters of fish. The claims of each + rested upon the same principle, and upon the principle of all + drawbacks--that of a reimbursement of the duty which was paid + on the imported salt when re-exported on fish and provisions. + The same principle covers the beef and pork of the farmer, + which covers the fish of the fisherman; and such was the law + in the beginning. The first act of Congress, in the year 1789, + which imposed a duty upon salt, allowed a bounty, in lieu of a + drawback, on beef and pork exported, as well as fish. The bounty + was the same in each case; it was five cents a quintal on dried + fish, five cents a barrel on pickled fish, and five on beef + and pork. As the duty on salt was increased, the bounties and + allowances were increased also. Fish and salted beef and pork + fared alike for the first twenty years. + + "They fared alike till the revival of the salt tax at the + commencement of the late war. Then they parted company; bounties + and allowances were continued to the fisheries, and dropped + on beef and pork; and this has been the case ever since. The + exporters of fish are now drawing at the rate of two hundred + and fifty thousand dollars per annum, as a reimbursement for + their salt tax; while exporters of provisions draw nothing. + The aggregate of the fishing bounties and allowances, actually + drawn from the treasury, exceeds five millions of dollars; + while the exporters of provisions, who get nothing, would have + been entitled to draw a greater sum; for the export in salted + provisions exceeds the value of exported fish. + + "Mr. B. could not quit this part of his subject, without + endeavoring to fix the attention of the Senate upon the + provision trade of the West. He took this trade in its largest + sense, as including the export trade of beef, pork, bacon, + cheese, and butter, to foreign countries, especially the West + Indies; the domestic trade to the Lower Mississippi and the + Southern States; the neighborhood trade, as supplying the towns + in the upper States, the miners in Missouri and the Upper + Mississippi, the army and the navy; and the various professions, + which, being otherwise employed, did not raise their own + provisions. The amount of this trade, in this comprehensive + view, was prodigious, and annually increasing, and involving in + its current almost the entire population of the West, either as + the growers and makers of the provisions, the curers, exporters, + or consumers. The amount could scarcely be ascertained. What + was exported from New Orleans was shown to be great; but it + was only a fraction of the whole trade. He declared it to be + entitled to the favorable consideration of Congress, and that + the repeal of the salt duty was the greatest favor, if an act of + justice ought to come under the name of favor, which could be + rendered it, as the salt was necessary in growing the hogs and + cattle, as well as in preparing the beef and pork for market. A + reduction in the price of salt, next to a reduction in the price + of land, was the greatest blessing which the federal government + could now confer upon the West. Mr. B. referred to the example + of England, who favored her provision curers, and permitted + them to import alum salt free of duty, for the encouragement of + the provision trade, even when her own salt manufacturers were + producing an abundant and superfluous supply of common salt. He + showed that she did more; that she extended the same relief and + encouragement to the Irish; and he read from the British statute + book an act of the British Parliament, passed in 1807, entitled + 'An act to encourage the export of salted beef and pork from + Ireland,' which allowed a bounty of ten pence sterling on every + hundred weight of beef and pork so exported, in consideration of + the duty paid on the salt which was used in the curing of it. + He stated, that, at a later period, the duty had been entirely + repealed, and the Irish, in common with other British subjects, + allowed a free trade with all the world, in salt; and then + demanded, in the most emphatic manner, if the people of the West + could not obtain from the American Congress the justice which + the oppressed Irish had procured from a British Parliament, + composed of hereditary nobles, and filled with representatives + of rotten boroughs, and slavish retainers of the king's + ministers. + + "The 'American system' has taken the salt tax under its + shelter and protection. The principles of that system, as I + understand them, and practise upon them, are to tax, through + the custom-house, the foreign rivals of our own essential + productions, when, by that taxation, an adequate supply of the + same article, as good and as cheap, can be made at home. These + were the principles of the system (Mr. B. said) when he was + initiated, and, if they had changed since, he had not changed + with them; and he apprehended a promulgation of the change would + produce a schism amongst its followers. Taking these to be the + principles of the system, let the salt tax be brought to its + test. In the first place, the domestic manufacture had enjoyed + all possible protection. The duty was near three hundred per + cent. on Liverpool salt, and four hundred upon alum salt; and + to this must be added, so far as relates to all the interior + manufactories, the protection arising from transportation, + frequently equal to two or three hundred per cent. more. This + great and excessive protection has been enjoyed, without + interruption, for the last eighteen years, and partially for + twenty years longer. This surely is time enough for the trial + of a manufacture which requires but little skill or experience + to carry it on. Now for the results. Have the domestic + manufactories produced an adequate supply for the country? + They have not; nor half enough. The production of the last + year (1829) as shown in the returns to the Secretary of the + Treasury, is about five millions of bushels; the importation of + foreign salt, for the same period, as shown by the custom-house + returns, is five million nine hundred and forty-five thousand + five hundred and forty-seven bushels. This shows the consumption + to be eleven millions of bushels, of which five are domestic. + Here the failure in the essential particular of an adequate + supply is more than one half. In the next place, how is it in + point of price? Is the domestic article furnished as cheap as + the foreign? Far from it, as already shown, and still further, + as can be shown. The price of the domestic, along the coast of + the Atlantic States, varies, at the works, from thirty-seven + and a half to fifty cents; in the interior, the usual prices, + at the works, are from thirty-three and a third cents to one + dollar for the bushel of fifty pounds, which can nearly be put + into a half bushel measure. The prices of the foreign salt, at + the import cities, as shown in the custom-house returns for + 1829, are, for the Liverpool blown, about fifteen cents for the + bushel of fifty-six pounds; for Turk's Island and other West + India salt, about nine cents; for St. Ubes and other Portugal + salt, about eight cents; for Spanish salt, Bay of Biscay + and Gibraltar, about seven cents; from the Island of Malta, + six cents. Leaving out the Liverpool salt, which is made by + boiling, and, therefore, contains slack and bittern, a septic + ingredient, which promotes putrefaction, and renders that salt + unfit for curing provisions, and which is not used in the West, + and the average price of the strong, pure, alum salt, made by + solar evaporation, in hot climates, is about eight cents to the + bushel. Here, then, is another lamentable failure. Instead of + being sold as cheap as the foreign, the domestic salt is from + four to twelve times the price of alum salt. The last inquiry + is as to the quality of the domestic article. Is it as good + as the foreign? This is the most essential application of the + test: and here again the failure is decisive. The domestic salt + will not cure provisions for exportation (the little excepted + which is made, in the Northeast, by solar evaporation), nor + for consumption in the South, nor for long keeping at the army + posts, nor for voyages with the navy. For all these purposes it + is worthless, and useless, and the provisions which are put up + in it are lost, or have to be repacked, at a great expense, in + alum salt. This fact is well known throughout the West, where + too many citizens have paid the penalty of trusting to domestic + salt, to be duped or injured by it any longer. + + "And here he submitted to the Senate, that the American system, + without a gross departure from its original principles, could + not cover this duty any longer. It has had the full benefit of + that system in high duties, imposed for a long time, on foreign + salt; it had not produced an adequate supply for the country, + nor half a supply; nor at as cheap a rate, by three hundred or + one thousand per cent.; and what it did supply so far from + being equal in quantity, could not even be used as a substitute + for the great and important business of the provision trade. The + amount of so much of that trade as went to foreign countries, + Mr. B. showed to be sixty-six thousand barrels of beef, + fifty-four thousand barrels of pork, two millions of pounds of + bacon, two millions of pounds of butter, and one million of + pounds of cheese; and he considered the supply for the army and + navy, and for consumption in the South, to exceed the quantity + exported. + + "It cannot be necessary here to dilate upon the uses of salt. + But, in repealing that duty in England, it was thought worthy + of notice that salt was necessary to the health, growth, and + fattening of hogs, cattle, sheep, and horses; that it was a + preservative of hay and clover, and restored moulded and flooded + hay to its good and wholesome state, and made even straw and + chaff available as food for cattle. The domestic salt makers + need not speak of protection against alum salt. No quantity of + duty will keep it out. The people must have it for the provision + trade; and the duty upon that kind of salt is a grievous burthen + upon them, without being of the least advantage to the salt + makers. + + "Mr. B. said, there was no argument which could be used here, in + favor of continuing this duty, which was not used, and used in + vain, in England; and many were used there, of much real force, + which cannot be used here. The American system, by name, was not + impressed into the service of the tax there, but its doctrines + were; and he read a part of the report of the committee on + salt duties, in 1817, to prove it. It was the statement of the + agent of the British salt manufacturers, Mr. William Horne, who + was sworn and examined as a witness. He said: 'I will commence + by referring to the evidence I gave upon the subject of rock + salt, in order to establish the presumption of the national + importance of the salt trade, arising from the large extent of + British capital employed in the trade, and the considerable + number of persons dependant upon it for support. I, at the + same time, stated that the salt trade was in a very depressed + state, and that it continued to fall off. I think it cannot be + doubted that the salt trade, in common with all staple British + manufactures, is entitled to the protection of government; and + the British manufacturers of salt consider that, in common + with other manufacturers of this country, they are entitled to + such protection, in particular from a competition at home with + foreign manufacturers; and, in consequence, they hope to see a + prohibitory duty on foreign salt.' + + "Such was the petition of the British manufacturers. They urged + the amount of their capital, the depressed state of their + business, the number of persons dependent upon it for support, + the duty of the government to protect it, the necessity for + a prohibitory duty on foreign salt, and the fact that they + were making more than the country could consume. The ministry + backed them with a call for the continuance of the revenue, + one million five hundred thousand pounds sterling, derived + from the salt tax; and with a threat to lay that amount upon + something else, if it was taken off of salt. All would not + do. Mr. Calcraft, and his friends, appealed to the rights + and interests of the people, as overruling considerations in + questions of taxation. They denounced the tax itself as little + less than impiety, and an attack upon the goodness and wisdom + of God, who had filled the bowels of the earth, and the waves + of the sea, with salt for the use and blessing of man, and to + whom it was denied, its use clogged and fettered, by odious and + abominable taxes. They demanded the whole repeal; and when the + ministry and the manufacturers, overpowered by the voice of + the people, offered to give up three fourths of the tax, they + bravely resisted the proposition, stood out for total repeal, + and carried it. + + "Mr. B. could not doubt a like result here, and he looked + forward, with infinite satisfaction, to the era of a free trade + in salt. The first effect of such a trade would be, to reduce + the price of alum salt, at the import cities, to eight or nine + cents a bushel. The second effect would be, a return to the + measured bushel, by getting rid of the tariff regulation, which + substituted weight for measure, and reduced eighty-four pounds + to fifty. The third effect would be, to establish a great trade, + carried on by barter, between the inhabitants of the United + States and the people of the countries which produce alum salt, + to the infinite advantage and comfort of both parties. He + examined the operation of this barter at New Orleans. He said, + this pure and superior salt, made entirely by solar evaporation, + came from countries which were deficient in the articles of + food, in which the West abounded. It came from the West Indies, + from the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and from places in the + Mediterranean; all of which are at this time consumers of + American provisions, and take from us beef, pork, bacon, rice, + corn, corn meal, flour, potatoes, &c. Their salt costs them + almost nothing. It is made on the sea beach by the power of the + sun, with little care and aid from man. It is brought to the + United States as ballast, costing nothing for the transportation + across the sea. The duty alone prevents it from coming to + the United States in the most unbounded quantity. Remove the + duty, and the trade would be prodigious. A bushel of corn is + worth more than a sack of salt to the half-starved people to + whom the sea and the sun give as much of this salt as they + will rake up and pack away. The levee at New Orleans would be + covered--the warehouses would be crammed with salt; the barter + trade would become extensive and universal, a bushel of corn, + or of potatoes, a few pounds of butter, or a few pounds of beef + or pork, would purchase a sack of salt; the steamboats would + bring it up for a trifle; and all the upper States of the Great + Valley, where salt is so scarce, so dear, and so indispensable + for rearing stock and curing provisions, in addition to all + its obvious uses, would be cheaply and abundantly supplied with + that article. Mr. B. concluded with saying, that, next to the + reduction of the price of public lands, and the free use of the + earth for labor and cultivation, he considered the abolition of + the salt tax, and a free trade in foreign salt, as the greatest + blessing which the federal government could now bestow upon the + people of the West." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +BIRTHDAY OF MR. JEFFERSON, AND THE DOCTRINE OF NULLIFICATION. + + +The anniversary of the birthday of Mr. Jefferson (April 13th) was +celebrated this year by a numerous company at Washington City. Among +the invited guests present were the President and Vice-President of +the United States, three of the Secretaries of departments--Messrs. +Van Buren, Eaton and Branch--and the Postmaster-General, Mr. +Barry--and numerously attended by members of both Houses of +Congress, and by citizens. It was a subscription dinner; and as the +paper imported, to do honor to the memory of Mr. Jefferson as the +founder of the political school to which the subscribers belonged. +In that sense I was a subscriber to the dinner and attended it; +and have no doubt that the mass of the subscribers acted under the +same feeling. There was a full assemblage when I arrived, and I +observed gentlemen standing about in clusters in the ante-rooms, +and talking with animation on something apparently serious, and +which seemed to engross their thoughts. I soon discovered what it +was--that it came from the promulgation of the twenty-four regular +toasts, which savored of the new doctrine of nullification; and +which, acting on some previous misgivings, began to spread the +feeling, that the dinner was got up to inaugurate that doctrine, +and to make Mr. Jefferson its father. Many persons broke off, and +refused to attend further; but the company was still numerous, +and ardent, as was proved by the number of volunteer votes +given--above eighty--in addition to the twenty-four regulars; and +the numerous and animated speeches delivered--the report of the +whole proceedings filling eleven newspaper columns. When the regular +toasts were over, the President was called upon for a volunteer, +and gave it--the one which electrified the country, and has become +historical: "Our Federal Union: It must be preserved." This brief +and simple sentiment, receiving emphasis and interpretation from +all the attendant circumstances, and from the feeling which had +been spreading since the time of Mr. Webster's speech, was received +by the public as a proclamation from the President, to announce a +plot against the Union, and to summon the people to its defence. +Mr. Calhoun gave the next toast; and it did not at all allay the +suspicions which were crowding every bosom. It was this: "The Union: +next to our Liberty the most dear: may we all remember that it +can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States, and +distributing equally the benefit and burthen of the Union." This +toast touched all the tender parts of the new question--liberty +_before_ union--_only_ to be preserved--_State rights_--inequality +of _burthens_ and _benefits_. These phrases, connecting themselves +with Mr. Hayne's speech, and with proceedings and publications +in South Carolina, unveiled NULLIFICATION, as a new and distinct +doctrine in the United States, with Mr. Calhoun for its apostle, and +a new party in the field of which he was the leader. The proceedings +of the day put an end to all doubt about the justice of Mr. +Webster's grand peroration, and revealed to the public mind the fact +of an actual design tending to dissolve the Union. + +Mr. Jefferson was dead at that time, and could not defend himself +from the use which the new party made of his name--endeavoring to +make him its founder;--and putting words in his mouth for that +purpose which he never spoke. He happened to have written in his +lifetime, and without the least suspicion of its future great +materiality, the facts in relation to his concern in the famous +resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, and which absolve him from the +accusation brought against him since his death. He counselled the +resolutions of the Virginia General Assembly; and the word nullify, +or nullification, is not in them, or any equivalent word: he drew +the Kentucky resolutions of 1798: and they are equally destitute of +the same phrases. He had nothing to do with the Kentucky resolutions +of 1799, in which the word "_nullification_," and as the "rightful +remedy," is found; and upon which the South Carolina school relied +as their main argument--and from which their doctrine took its +name. Well, he had nothing to do with it! and so wrote (as a mere +matter of information, and without foreseeing its future use), in a +letter to William C. Cabell shortly before his death. This letter is +in Volume III., page 429, of his published correspondence. Thus, he +left enough to vindicate himself, without knowing that a vindication +would be necessary, and without recurring to the argumentative +demonstration of the peaceful and constitutional remedies which +the resolutions which he did write, alone contemplated. But he +left a friend to stand up for him when he was laid low in his +grave--one qualified by his long and intimate association to be +his compurgator, and entitled from his character to the absolute +credence of all mankind. I speak of Mr. Madison, who, in various +letters published in a quarto volume by Mr. J. C. McGuire, of +Washington City, has given the proofs which I have already used, +and added others equally conclusive. He fully overthrows and justly +resents the attempt "_of the nullifiers to make the name of Mr. +Jefferson the pedestal of their colossal heresy_." (Page 286: letter +to Mr. N. P. Trist.) And he left behind him a State also to come +to the rescue of his assailed integrity--his own native State of +Virginia--whose legislature almost unanimously, immediately after +the attempt to make Mr. Jefferson "_the pedestal of this colossal +heresy_," passed resolves repulsing the imputation, and declaring +that there was nothing in the Virginia resolutions '98 '99, to +support South Carolina in her doctrine of nullification. These +testimonies absolve Mr. Jefferson: but the nullifiers killed his +birthday celebrations! Instead of being renewed annually, in all +time, as his sincere disciples then intended, they have never been +heard of since! and the memory of a great man--benefactor of his +species--has lost an honor which grateful posterity intended to pay +it, and which the preservation and dissemination of his principles +require to be paid. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +REGULATION OF COMMERCE. + + +The constitution of the United States gives to Congress the power +to regulate commerce with foreign nations. That power has not yet +been executed, in the sense intended by the constitution: for the +commercial treaties made by the President and the Senate are not +the legislative regulation intended in that grant of power; nor are +the tariff laws, whether for revenue or protection, any the more +so. They all miss the object, and the mode of operating, intended +by the constitution in that grant--the true nature of which was +explained early in the life of the new federal government by those +most competent to do it--Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Wm. +Smith of South Carolina,--and in the form most considerate and +responsible. Mr. Jefferson, as Secretary of State, in his memorable +report "On the restrictions and privileges of the commerce of the +United States in foreign countries;" Mr. Madison in his resolutions +as a member of the House of Representatives in the year 1793, "For +the regulation of our foreign commerce;" and in his speeches in +support of his resolutions; and the speeches in reply, chiefly by +Mr. William Smith, of South Carolina, speaking (as it was held), +the sense of General Hamilton; so that in the speeches and writing +of these three early members of our government (not to speak of +many other able men then in the House of Representatives), we have +the authentic exposition of the meaning of the clause in question, +and of its intended mode of operation: for they all agreed in +that view of the subject, though differing about the adoption +of a system which would then have borne most heavily upon Great +Britain. The plan was defeated at that time, and only by a very +small majority (52 to 47),--the defeat effected by the mercantile +influence, which favored the British trade, and was averse to any +discrimination to her disadvantage, though only intended to coerce +her into a commercial treaty--of which we then had none with her. +Afterwards the system of treaties was followed up, and protection +to our own industry extended incidentally through the clause in +the constitution authorizing Congress to "Lay and collect taxes, +duties, imports and excises," &c. So that the power granted in the +clause, "To regulate commerce with foreign nations," has never +yet been exercised by Congress:--a neglect or omission, the more +remarkable as, besides the plain and obvious fairness and benefit +of the regulation intended, the power conferred by that clause was +the potential moving cause of forming the present constitution, and +creating the present Union. + +The principle of the regulation was to be that of reciprocity--that +is, that trade was not to be free on one side, and fettered on the +other--that goods were not to be taken from a foreign country, free +of duty, or at a low rate, unless that country should take something +from us, also free, or at a low rate. And the mode of acting was +by discriminating in the imposition of duties between those which +had, and had not, commercial treaties with us--the object to be +accomplished by an act of Congress to that effect; which foreign +nations might meet either by legislation in their imposition of +duties; or, and which is preferable, by treaties of specified and +limited duration. My early study of the theory, and the working of +our government--so often different, and sometimes opposite--led me +to understand the regulation clause in the constitution, and to +admire and approve it: and as in the beginning of General Jackson's +administration, I foresaw the speedy extinction of the public debt, +and the consequent release of great part of our foreign imports +from duty, I wished to be ready to derive all the benefit from the +event which would result from the double process of receiving many +articles free which were then taxed, and of sending abroad many +articles free which were now met by heavy taxation. With this view, +I brought a bill into the Senate in the session 1829-'30, to revive +the policy of Mr. Madison's resolutions of 1793--without effect +then, but without despair of eventual success. And still wishing +to see that policy revived, and seeing near at hand a favorable +opportunity for it in the approaching extinction of our present +public debt--(and I wish I could add, a return to economy in the +administration of the government)--and consequent large room for the +reduction and abolition of duties, I here produce some passages from +the speech I delivered on my bill of 1830, preceded by some passages +from Mr. Madison's speech of 1793, in support of his resolutions, +and showing his view of their policy and operation--not of their +constitutionality, for of that there was no question: and his +complaint was that the identical clause in the constitution which +caused the constitution to be framed, had then remained four years +without execution. He said: + + "Mr. Madison, after some general observations on the report, + entered into a more particular consideration of the subject. + He remarked that the commerce of the United States is not, at + this day, on that respectable footing to which, from its nature + and importance, it is entitled. He recurred to its situation + previous to the adoption of the constitution, when conflicting + systems prevailed in the different States. The then existing + state of things gave rise to that convention of delegates from + the different parts of the Union, who met to deliberate on some + general principles for the regulation of commerce, which might + be conducive, in their operation, to the general welfare, and + that such measures should be adopted as would conciliate the + friendship and good faith of those countries who were disposed + to enter into the nearest commercial connections with us. But + what has been the result of the system which has been pursued + ever since? What is the present situation of our commerce? From + the situation in which we find ourselves after four years' + experiment, he observed, that it appeared incumbent on the + United States to see whether they could not now take measures + promotive of those objects, for which the government was in a + great degree instituted. Measures of moderation, firmness and + decision, he was persuaded, were now necessary to be adopted, in + order to narrow the sphere of our commerce with those nations + who see proper not to meet us on terms of reciprocity. + + "Mr. M. took a general view of the probable effects which the + adoption of something like the resolutions he had proposed, + would produce. They would produce, respecting many articles + imported, a competition which would enable countries who did not + now supply us with those articles, to do it, and would increase + the encouragement on such as we can produce within ourselves. + We should also obtain an equitable share in carrying our own + produce; we should enter into the field of competition on equal + terms, and enjoy the actual benefit of advantages which nature + and the spirit of our people entitle us to. + + "He adverted to the advantageous situation this country is + entitled to stand in, considering the nature of our exports and + returns. Our exports are bulky, and therefore must employ much + shipping, which might be nearly all our own: our exports are + chiefly necessaries of life, or raw materials, the food for the + manufacturers of other nations. On the contrary, the chief of + what we receive from other countries, we can either do without, + or produce substitutes. + + "It is in the power of the United States, he conceived, by + exerting her natural rights, without violating the rights, or + even the equitable pretensions of other nations--by doing no + more than most nations do for the protection of their interests, + and much less than some, to make her interests respected; for, + what we receive from other nations are but luxuries to us, + which, if we choose to throw aside, we could deprive part of the + manufacturers of those luxuries, of even bread, if we are forced + to the contest of self-denial. This being the case, our country + may make her enemies feel the extent of her power. We stand, + with respect to the nation exporting those luxuries, in the + relation of an opulent individual to the laborer, in producing + the superfluities for his accommodation; the former can do + without those luxuries, the consumption of which gives bread to + the latter. + + "He did not propose, or wish that the United States should, at + present, go so far in the line which his resolutions point to, + as they might go. The extent to which the principles involved + in those resolutions should be carried, will depend upon + filling up the blanks. To go the very extent of the principle + immediately, might be inconvenient. He wished, only, that the + Legislature should mark out the ground on which we think we can + stand; perhaps it may produce the effect wished for, without + unnecessary irritation; we need not at first, go every length. + + "Another consideration would induce him, he said, to be moderate + in filling up the blanks--not to wound public credit. He did + not wish to risk any sensible diminution of the public revenue. + He believed that if the blanks were filled with judgment, the + diminution of the revenue, from a diminution in the quantity of + imports, would be counterbalanced by the increase in the duties. + + "The last resolution he had proposed, he said, is, in a manner, + distinct from the rest. The nation is bound by the most sacred + obligation, he conceived, to protect the rights of its citizens + against a violation of them from any quarter; or, if they cannot + protect, they are bound to repay the damage. + + "It is a fact authenticated to this House by communications + from the Executive, that there are regulations established + by some European nations, contrary to the law of nations, by + which our property is seized and disposed of in such a way that + damages have accrued. We are bound either to obtain reparation + for the injustice, or compensate the damage. It is only in the + first instance, no doubt, that the burden is to be thrown upon + the United States. The proper department of government will, + no doubt, take proper steps to obtain redress. The justice + of foreign nations will certainly not permit them to deny + reparation when the breach of the law of nations evidently + appears; at any rate, it is just that the individual should + not suffer. He believed the amount of the damages that would + come within the meaning of this resolution, would not be very + considerable." + +Reproducing these views of Mr. Madison, and with a desire to fortify +myself with his authority, the better to produce a future practical +effect, I now give the extract from my own speech of 1830: + + "Mr. Benton said he rose to ask the leave for which he gave + notice on Friday last; and in doing so, he meant to avail + himself of the parliamentary rule, seldom followed here, but + familiar in the place from whence we drew our rules--the British + Parliament--and strictly right and proper, when any thing new + or unusual is to be proposed, to state the clauses, and make an + exposition of the principles of his bill, before he submitted + the formal motion for leave to bring it in. + + "The tenor of it is, not to abolish, but to provide for the + abolition of duties. This phraseology announces, that something + in addition to the statute--some power in addition to that + of the legislature, is to be concerned in accomplishing the + abolition. Then the duties for abolition are described as + unnecessary ones; and under this idea is included the twofold + conception, that they are useless, either for the protection of + domestic industry, or for supplying the treasury with revenue. + The relief of the people from sixteen millions of taxes is based + upon the idea of an abolition of twelve millions of duties; + the additional four millions being the merchant's profit upon + the duty he advances; which profit the people pay as a part of + the tax, though the government never receives it. It is the + merchant's compensation for advancing the duty, and is the + same as his profit upon the goods. The improved condition of + the four great branches of national industry is presented as + the third object of the bill; and their relative importance, + in my estimation, classes itself according to the order of my + arrangement. Agriculture, as furnishing the means of subsistence + to man, and as the foundation of every thing else, is put + foremost; manufactures, as preparing and fitting things for our + use, stands second, commerce, as exchanging the superfluities of + different countries, comes next; and navigation, as furnishing + the chief means of carrying on commerce, closes the list of + the four great branches of national industry. Though classed + according to their respective importance, neither branch is + disparaged. They are all great interests--all connected--all + dependent upon each other--friends in their nature--for a long + time friends in fact, under the operations of our government: + and only made enemies to each other, as they now are by a + course of legislation, which the approaching extinguishment + of the public debt presents a fit opportunity for reforming + and ameliorating. The title of my bill declares the intention + of the bill to improve the condition of each of them. The + abolition of sixteen millions of taxes would itself operate a + great improvement in the condition of each; but the intention + of the bill is not limited to that incidental and consequential + improvement, great as it may be; it proposes a positive, direct, + visible, tangible, and countable benefit to each; and this I + shall prove and demonstrate, not in this brief illustration of + the title of my bill, but at the proper places, in the course + of the examination into its provisions and exposition of its + principles. + + "I will now proceed with the bill, reading each section in its + order, and making the remarks upon it which are necessary to + explain its object and to illustrate its operation." + + + _The First Section._ + + "That, for the term of ten years, from and after the first day + of January, in the year 1832, or, as soon thereafter as may be + agreed upon between the United States and any foreign power, + the duties now payable on the importation of the following + articles, or such of them as may be agreed upon, shall cease and + determine, or be reduced, in favor of such countries as shall, + by treaty, grant equivalent advantages to the agriculture, + manufactures, commerce, and navigation, of the United States. + + "This section contains the principle of abolishing duties by + the joint act of the legislative and executive departments. The + idea of equivalents, which the section also presents, is not + new, but has for its sanction high and venerated authority, of + which I shall not fail to avail myself. That we ought to have + equivalents for abolishing ten or twelve millions of duties on + foreign merchandise is most clear. Such an abolition will be an + advantage to foreign powers, for which they ought to compensate + us, by reducing duties to an equal amount upon our productions. + This is what no law, or separate act of our own, can command. + Amicable arrangements alone, with foreign powers, can effect it; + and to free such arrangements from serious, perhaps insuperable + difficulties, it would be necessary first to lay a foundation + for them in an act of Congress. This is what my bill proposes + to do. It proposes that Congress shall select the articles + for abolition of duty, and then leave it to the Executive to + extend the provisions of the act to such powers as will grant + us equivalent advantages. The articles enumerated for abolition + of duty are of kinds not made in the United States, so that my + bill presents no ground of alarm or uneasiness to any branch of + domestic industry. + + "The acquisition of equivalents is a striking feature in the + plan which I propose, and for that I have the authority of him + whose opinions will never be invoked in vain, while republican + principles have root in our soil. I speak of Mr. Jefferson, + and of his report on the commerce and navigation of the United + States, in the year '93, an extract from which I will read." + + + _The Extract._ + + "Such being the restrictions on the commerce and navigation of + the United States, the question is, in what way they may best be + removed, modified, or counteracted? + + "As to commerce, two methods occur: 1. By friendly arrangements + with the several nations with whom these restrictions exist: + or, 2. By the separate act of our own legislatures, for + countervailing their effects. + + "There can be no doubt, but that, of these two, friendly + arrangements is the most eligible. Instead of embarrassing + commerce under piles of regulating laws, duties, and + prohibitions, could it be relieved from all its shackles, in + all parts of the world--could every country be employed in + producing that which nature has best fitted it to produce, and + each be free to exchange with others mutual surplusses, for + mutual wants, the greatest mass possible would then be produced, + of those things which contribute to human life and human + happiness, the numbers of mankind would be increased, and their + condition bettered. + + "Would even a single nation begin with the United States this + system of free commerce, it would be advisable to begin it + with that nation; since it is one by one only that it can be + extended to all. Where the circumstances of either party render + it expedient to levy a revenue, by way of impost on commerce, + its freedom might be modified in that particular, by mutual and + equivalent measures, preserving it entire in all others. + + "Some nations, not yet ripe for free commerce, in all its + extent, might be willing to mollify its restrictions and + regulations, for us, in proportion to the advantages which an + intercourse with us might offer. Particularly they may concur + with us in reciprocating the duties to be levied on each side, + or in compensating any excess of duty, by equivalent advantages + of another nature. Our commerce is certainly of a character to + entitle it to favor in most countries. The commodities we offer + are either necessaries of life, or materials for manufacture, or + convenient subjects of revenue; and we take in exchange either + manufactures, when they have received the last finish of art and + industry, or mere luxuries. Such customers may reasonably expect + welcome and friendly treatment at every market--customers, too, + whose demands, increasing with their wealth and population, must + very shortly give full employment to the whole industry of any + nation whatever, in any line of supply they may get into the + habit of calling for from it. + + "But, should any nation, contrary to our wishes, suppose it + may better find its advantage by continuing its system of + prohibitions, duties, and regulations, it behooves us to + protect our citizens, their commerce and navigation, by counter + prohibitions, duties, and regulations, also. Free commerce and + navigation are not to be given in exchange for restrictions and + vexations; nor are they likely to produce a relaxation of them." + + * * * * * + + "The plan which I now propose adopts the idea of equivalents and + retaliation to the whole extent recommended by Mr. Jefferson. + It differs from his plan in two features: first, in the mode of + proceeding, by founding the treaties abroad upon a legislative + act at home; secondly, in combining protection with revenue, in + selecting articles of exception to the system of free trade. + This degree of protection he admitted himself, at a later period + of his life. It corresponds with the recommendation of President + Washington to Congress, in the year '90, and with that of our + present Chief Magistrate, to ourselves, at the commencement of + the present session of Congress. + + "I will not now stop to dilate upon the benefit which will + result to every family from an abolition of duties which will + enable them to get all the articles enumerated in my bill for + about one third, or one half less, than is now paid for them. + Let any one read over the list of articles, and then look to + the sum total which he now pays out annually for them, and from + that sum deduct near fifty per cent., which is about the average + of the duties and merchant's profit included, with which they + now come charged to him. This deduction will be his saving + under one branch of my plan--the abolition clause. To this must + be added the gain under the clause to secure equivalents in + foreign markets, and the two being added together, the saving in + purchases at home being added to the gain in sales abroad, will + give the true measure of the advantages which my plan presents. + + "Let us now see whether the agriculture and manufactures of + the United States do not require better markets abroad than + they possess at this time. What is the state of these markets? + Let facts reply. England imposes a duty of three shillings + sterling a pound upon our tobacco, which is ten times its value. + She imposes duties equivalent to prohibition on our grain and + provisions; and either totally excludes, or enormously taxes, + every article, except cotton, that we send to her ports. In + France, our tobacco is subject to a royal monopoly, which makes + the king the sole purchaser, and subjects the seller to the + necessity of taking the price which his agents will give. In + Germany, our tobacco, and other articles, are heavily dutied, + and liable to a transit duty, in addition, when they have to + ascend the Rhine, or other rivers, to penetrate the interior. In + the West Indies, which is our great provision market, our beef, + pork, and flour, usually pay from eight to ten dollars a barrel: + our bacon, from ten to twenty-five cents a pound; live hogs, + eight dollars each; corn, cornmeal, lumber, whiskey, fruit, + vegetables, and every thing else, in proportion; the duties in + the different islands, on an average, equalling or exceeding + the value of the articles in the United States. We export + about forty-five millions of domestic productions, exclusive + of manufactures, annually; and it may be safely assumed that + we have to pay near that sum in the shape of duties, for the + privilege of selling these exports in foreign markets. So much + for agriculture. Our manufactures are in the same condition. + In many branches they have met the home demand, and are going + abroad in search of foreign markets. They meet with vexatious + restrictions, peremptory exclusions, or oppressive duties, + wherever they go. The quantity already exported entitles them to + national consideration, in the list of exports. Their aggregate + value for 1828 was about five millions of dollars, comprising + domestic cottons, to the amount of a million of dollars; soap + and candles, to the value of nine hundred thousand dollars; + boots, shoes, and saddlery, five hundred thousand dollars; + hats, three hundred thousand dollars; cabinet, coach, and other + wooden work, six hundred thousand dollars; glass and iron, three + hundred thousand dollars; and numerous smaller items. This large + amount of manufactures pays their value, in some instances more, + for the privilege of being sold abroad; and, what is worse, they + are totally excluded from several countries from which we buy + largely. Such restrictions and impositions are highly injurious + to our manufactures; and it is incontestably true, the amount of + exports prove it, that what most of them now need is not more + protection at home, but a better market abroad; and it is one of + the objects of this bill to obtain such a market for them. + + "It appears to me [said Mr. B.] to be a fair and practicable + plan, combining the advantages of legislation and negotiation, + and avoiding the objections to each. It consults the sense of + the people, in leaving it to their Representatives to say on + what articles duties shall be abolished for their relief; on + what they shall be retained for protection and revenue; it then + secures the advantage of obtaining equivalents, by referring + it to the Executive to extend the benefit of the abolition to + such nations as shall reciprocate the favor. To such as will + not reciprocate, it leaves every thing as it now stands. The + success of this plan can hardly be doubted. It addresses itself + to the two most powerful passions of the human heart--interest + and fear; it applies itself to the strongest principles of + human action--profit and loss. For, there is no nation with + whom we trade but will be benefited by the increased trade of + her staple productions, which will result from a free trade in + such productions; none that would not be crippled by the loss + of such a trade, which loss would be the immediate effect of + rejecting our system. Our position enables us to command the + commercial system of the globe; to mould it to our own plan, + for the benefit of the world and ourselves. The approaching + extinction of the public debt puts it into our power to abolish + twelve millions of duties, and to set free more than one-half + of our entire commerce. We should not forego, nor lose the + advantages of such a position. It occurs but seldom in the + life of a nation, and once missed, is irretrievably gone, to + the generation, at least, that saw and neglected the golden + opportunity. We have complained, and justly, of the burthens + upon our exports in foreign countries; a part of our tariff + system rests upon the principle of retaliation for the injury + thus done us. Retaliation, heretofore, has been our only + resource: but reciprocity of injuries is not the way to enrich + nations any more than individuals. It is an 'unprofitable + contest,' under every aspect. But the present conjuncture, + payment of the public debt, in itself a rare and almost + unprecedented occurrence in the history of nations, enables us + to enlarge our system; to present a choice of alternatives: + one fraught with relief, the other presenting a burthen to + foreign nations. The participation, or exclusion, from forty + millions of free trade, annually increasing, would not admit + of a second thought, in the head of any nation with which we + trade. To say nothing of her gains in the participation in + such a commerce, what would be her loss in the exclusion from + it? How would England, France, or Germany, bear the loss of + their linen, silk, or wine trade, with the United States? How + could Cuba, St. Domingo, or Brazil, bear the loss of their + coffee trade with us? They could not bear it at all. Deep and + essential injury, ruin of industry seditions, and bloodshed, + and the overthrow of administrations, would be the consequence + of such loss. Yet such loss would be inevitable (and not to the + few nations, or in the articles only which I have mentioned, + for I have put a few instances only by way of example), but to + every nation with whom we trade, that would not fall into our + system, and throughout the whole list of essential articles to + which our abolition extends. Our present heavy duties would + continue in force against such nations; they would be abolished + in favor of their rivals. We would say to them, in the language + of Mr. Jefferson, free trade and navigation is not to be given + in exchange for restrictions and vexations! But I feel entire + confidence that it would not be necessary to use the language + of menace or coercion. Amicable representations, addressed to + their sense of self-interest, would be more agreeable, and not + less effectual. The plan cannot fail! It is scarcely within the + limits of possibility that it should fail! And if it did, what + then? We have lost nothing. We remain as we were. Our present + duties are still in force, and Congress can act upon them one or + two years hence, in any way they please. + + "Here, then, is the peculiar recommendation to my plan, that, + while it secures a chance, little short of absolute certainty, + of procuring an abolition of twelve millions of duties upon our + exports in foreign countries, in return for an abolition of + twelve millions of duties upon imports from them, it exposes + nothing to risk, the abolition of duty upon the foreign article + here being contingent upon the acquisition of the equivalent + advantage abroad. + + "I close this exposition of the principles of my bill with the + single remark, that these treaties for the mutual abolition + of duties should be for limited terms, say for seven or ten + years, to give room for the modifications which time, and the + varying pursuits of industry, may show to be necessary. Upon + this idea, the bill is framed, and the period of ten years + inserted by way of suggestion and exemplification of the plan. + Another feature is too obvious to need a remark, that the time + for the commencement of the abolition of duties is left to the + Executive, who can accommodate it to the state of the revenue + and the extinction of the public debt." + +The plan which I proposed in this speech adopted the principle +of Mr. Madison's resolutions but reversed their action. The +discrimination which he proposed was a levy of five or ten per cent. +_more_ on the imports from countries which did not enter into our +propositions for reciprocity: my plan, as being the same thing in +substance, and less invidious in form, was a levy of five or ten per +cent. less on the commerce of the reciprocating nations--thereby +holding out an inducement and a benefit, instead of a threat and a +penalty. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +ALUM SALT. THE ABOLITION OF THE DUTY UPON IT, AND REPEAL OF THE +FISHING BOUNTY AND ALLOWANCES FOUNDED ON IT. + + +I look upon a salt tax as a curse--as something worse than a +political blunder, great as that is--as an impiety, in stinting the +use, and enhancing the cost by taxation, of an article which God has +made necessary to the health and comfort, and almost to the life, of +every animated being--the poor dumb animal which can only manifest +its wants in mute signs and frantic actions, as well as the rational +and speaking man who can thank the Creator for his goodness, and +curse the legislator that mars its enjoyment. There is a mystery +in salt. It was used in holy sacrifice from the earliest day; and +to this time, in the Oriental countries, the stranger lodging in +the house, cannot kill or rob while in it, after he has tasted +the master's salt. The disciples of Christ were called by their +master the salt of the earth. Sacred and profane history abound in +instances of people refusing to fight against the kings who had +given them salt: and this mysterious deference for an article so +essential to man and beast takes it out of the class of ordinary +productions, and carries it up close to those vital elements--bread, +water, fire, air--which Providence has made essential to life, and +spread every where, that craving nature may find its supply without +stint, and without tax. The venerable Mr. Macon considered a salt +tax in a sacrilegious point of view--as breaking a sacred law--and +fought against ours as long as his public life lasted; and I, his +disciple, not disesteemed by him, commenced fighting by his side +against the odious imposition; and have continued it since his +death, and shall continue it until the tax ceases, or my political +life terminates. Many are my speeches, and reports, against it +in my senatorial life of thirty years; and among other speeches, +one limited to a particular kind of salt not made in the United +States, and indispensable to dried or pickled provisions. This is +the alum salt, made by solar evaporation out of sea water; and +being a kind not produced at home, indispensable and incapable of +substitute, it had a legitimate claim to exemption from the canons +of the American system. That system protected homemade fire-boiled +common salt, because it had a foreign rival: we had no sun-made +crystallized salt at home; and therefore had nothing to protect in +taxing the foreign article. I had failed--we had all failed--in our +attempts to abolish the salt tax generally: I determined to attempt +the abolition of the alum salt duty separately; and with it, the +fishing bounties and allowances founded upon it: and brought a bill +into the Senate to accomplish that object. The fishing bounties and +allowances being claimed by some, as a bounty to navigation (in +which point of view they would be as unconstitutional as unjust), I +was under the necessity of tracing their origin, as being founded +on the idea of a drawback of the duty paid on the salt put upon the +exported dried or pickled fish--commencing with the salt tax, and +adjusted to the amount of the tax--rising with its increase and +falling with its fall--and that, in the beginning allowed to the +exportation of pickled beef and pork, to the same degree, and upon +the same principle that the bounties and allowances were extended to +the fisheries. In the bill introduced for this purpose, I spoke as +follows: + + "To spare any senator the supposed necessity of rehearsing me + a lecture upon the importance of the fisheries, I will premise + that I have some acquaintance with the subject--that I know + the fisheries to be valuable, for the food they produce, the + commerce they create, the mariners they perfect, the employment + they give to artisans in the building of vessels; and the + consumption they make of wood, hemp and iron. I also know that + the fishermen applied for the bounties, at the commencement + of our present form of government, which the British give to + their fisheries, for the encouragement of navigation; and that + they were denied them upon the report of the then Secretary of + State (Mr. Jefferson). I also know that our fishing bounties and + allowances go, in no part, to that branch of fishing to which + the British give most bounty--whaling--because it is the best + school for mariners; and the interests of navigation are their + principal object in promoting fishing. No part of our bounties + and allowances go to our whale ships, because they do not + consume foreign salt on which they have paid duty, and reclaim + it as drawback. I have also read the six dozen acts of Congress, + general and particular, passed in the last forty years--from + 1789 to 1829 inclusively--giving the bounties and allowances + which it is my present purpose to abolish, with the alum salt + duty on which all this superstructure of legislative enactment + is built up. I say the salt tax, and especially the tax on alum + salt (which is the kind required for the fisheries), is the + foundation of all these bounties and allowances; and that, as + they grew up together, it is fair and regular that they should + sink and fall together. I recite a dozen of the acts: thus: + + "1. Act of Congress, 1789, grants five cents a barrel on pickled + fish and salted provisions, and five cents a quintal on dried + fish, exported from the United States, in lieu of a drawback of + the duties imposed on the importation of the salt used in curing + such fish and provisions. + + "N.B. Duty on salt, at that time, six cents a bushel. + + "2. Act of 1790 increases the bounty in lieu of drawback to + ten cents a barrel on pickled fish and salted provisions, and + ten cents a quintal on dried fish. The duty on salt being then + raised to twelve cents a bushel. + + "3. Act of 1792 repeals the bounty in lieu of drawback on dried + fish, and in lieu of that, and as a commutation and equivalent + therefor, authorizes an allowance to be paid to vessels in + the cod fishery (dried fish) at the rate of one dollar and + fifty cents a ton on vessels of twenty to thirty tons; with a + limitation of one hundred and seventy dollars for the highest + allowance to any vessel. + + "4. A supplementary act, of the same year, adds twenty per cent. + to each head of these allowances. + + "5. Act of 1797 increases the bounty on salted provisions to + eighteen cents a barrel; on pickled fish to twenty-two cents + a barrel; and adds thirty-three and a third per cent. to the + allowance in favor of the cod-fishing vessels. Duty on salt, at + the same time, being raised to twenty cents a bushel. + + "6. Act of 1799 increases the bounty on pickled fish to thirty + cents a barrel, on salted provisions to twenty-five. + + "7. Act of 1800 continues all previous acts (for bounties and + allowances) for ten years, and makes this proviso: That these + allowances shall not be understood to be continued for a longer + time than the correspondent duties on salt, respectively, for + which the said additional allowances were granted, shall be + payable. + + "8. Act of 1807 repeals all laws laying a duty on imported + salt, and for paying bounties on the exportation of pickled + fish and salted provisions, and making allowances to fishing + vessels--Mr. Jefferson being then President. + + "9. Act of 1813 gives a bounty of twenty cents a barrel on + pickled fish exported, and allows to the cod-fishing vessels + at the rate of two dollars and forty cents the ton for vessels + between twenty and thirty tons, four dollars a ton for vessels + above thirty, with a limitation of two hundred and seventy-two + dollars for the highest allowance; and a proviso, that no + bounty or allowance should be paid unless it was proved to the + satisfaction of the collector that the fish was wholly cured + with foreign salt, and the duty on it secured or paid. The salt + duty, at the rate of twenty cents a bushel, was revived as a war + tax at the same time. Bounties on salted provisions were omitted. + + "10. Act of 1816 continued the act of 1813 in force, which, + being for the war only, would otherwise have expired. + + "11. Act of 1819 increases the allowance to vessels in the cod + fishery to three dollars and fifty cents a ton on vessels from + five to thirty; to four dollars a ton on vessels above thirty + tons; with a limitation of three hundred and sixty dollars for + the maximum allowance. + + "12. Act of 1828 authorizes the mackerel fishing vessels to take + out licenses like the cod-fishing vessels, under which it is + reported by the vigilant Secretary of the Treasury that money is + illegally drawn by the mackerel vessels--the newspapers say to + the amount of thirty to fifty thousand dollars per annum. + + "These recitals of legislative enactments are sufficient to + prove that the fishing bounties and allowances are bottomed upon + the salt duty, and must stand or fall with that duty. I will now + give my reasons for proposing to abolish the duty on alum salt, + and will do it in the simplest form of narrative statement; the + reasons themselves being of a nature too weighty and obvious to + need, or even to admit, of coloring or exaggeration from arts of + speech. + + "1. Because it is an article of indispensable necessity in + the provision trade of the United States. No beef or pork for + the army or navy, or for consumption in the South, or for + exportation abroad, can be put up except in this kind of salt. + If put up in common salt it is rejected absolutely by the + commissaries of the army and navy, and if taken to the South + must be repacked in alum salt, at an expense of one dollar + and twelve and a half cents a barrel, before it is exported, + or sold for domestic consumption. The quantity of provisions + which require this salt, and must have it, is prodigious, and + annually increasing. The exports of 1828 were, of beef sixty-six + thousand barrels, of pork fifty-four thousand barrels, of bacon + one million nine hundred thousand pounds weight, butter and + cheese two million pounds weight. The value of these articles + was two millions and a quarter of dollars. To this amount must + be added the supply for the army and navy, and all that was sent + to the South for home consumption, every pound of which had to + be cured in this kind of salt, for common salt will not cure + it. The Western country is the great producer of provisions; + and there is scarcely a farmer in the whole extent of that vast + region whose interest does not require a prompt repeal of the + duty on this description of salt. + + "2. Because no salt of this kind is made in the United States, + nor any rival to it, or substitute for it. It is a foreign + importation, brought from various islands in the West Indies, + belonging to England, France, Spain, and Denmark; and from + Lisbon, St. Ubes, Gibraltar, the Bay of Biscay, and Liverpool. + The principles of the protecting system do not extend to it: for + no quantity of protection can produce a home supply. The present + duty, which is far beyond the rational limit of protection, has + been in force near thirty years, and has not produced a pound. + We are still thrown exclusively upon the foreign supply. The + principles of the protecting system can only apply to common + salt, the product of which is considerable in the United States; + and upon that kind, the present duty is proposed to be left in + full force. + + "3. Because the duty is enormous, and quadruples the price of + the salt to the farmer. The original value of salt is about + fifteen cents the measured bushel of eighty-four pounds. But + the tariff substitutes weight for measure, and fixes that + weight at fifty-six pounds, instead of eighty-four. Upon that + fifty-six pounds, a duty of twenty cents is laid. Upon this + duty, the retail merchant has his profit of eight or ten cents, + and then reduces his bushel from fifty-six to fifty pounds. The + consequence of all these operations is, that the farmer pays + about three times as much for a weighed bushel of fifty pounds, + as he would have paid for a measured bushel of eighty-four + pounds, if this duty had never been imposed. + + "4. Because the duty is unequal in its operation, and falls + heavily on some parts of the community, and produces profit + to others. It is a heavy tax on the farmers of the West, who + export provisions; and no tax at all, but rather a source of + profit, to that branch of the fisheries to which the allowances + of the vessels apply. Exporters of provisions have the same + claim to these allowances that exporters of fish have. Both + claims rest upon the same principle, and upon the principle of + all drawbacks, that of refunding the duty paid on the imported + salt, which is re-exported on salted fish and provisions. The + same principle covers the beef and pork of the farmer which + covers the fish of the fisherman; and such was the law, as I + have shown, for the first eighteen years that these bounties + and allowances were authorized. Fish and provisions fared alike + from 1789 to 1807. Bounties and allowances began upon them + together, and fell together, on the repeal of the salt tax, + in the second term of Mr. Jefferson's administration. At the + renewal of the salt tax, in 1813, at the commencement of the + late war, they parted company, and the law, to the exact sense + of the proverb, has made fish of one and flesh of the other ever + since. The fishing interest is now drawing about two hundred and + fifty thousand dollars annually from the treasury; the provision + raisers draw not a cent, while they export more than double as + much, and ought, upon the same principle, to draw more than + double as much money from the treasury. + + "5. Because it is the means of drawing an undue amount of money + from the public treasury, under the idea of an equivalent for + the drawback of duty on the salt used in the curing of fish. + The amount of money actually drawn in that way is about four + millions seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and is now + going on at the rate of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars + per annum, and constantly augmenting. That this amount is more + than the legal idea recognizes, or contemplates, is proved in + various ways. 1. By comparing the quantity of salt supposed + to have been used, with the quantity of fish known to have + been exported, within a given year. This test, for the year + 1828, would exhibit about seventy millions of pounds weight of + salt on about forty millions of pounds weight of fish. This + would suppose about a pound and three quarters of salt upon + each pound of fish. 2. By comparing the value of the salt + supposed to have been used, with the value of the fish known + to have been exported. This test would give two hundred and + forty-eight thousand dollars for the salt duty on about one + million of dollars' worth of fish; making the duty one fourth + of its value. On this basis, the amount of the duty on the + salt used on exported provisions would be near six hundred + thousand dollars. 3. By comparing the increasing allowances + for salt with the decreasing exportation of fish. This test, + for two given periods, the rate of allowance being the same, + would produce this result: In the year 1820, three hundred and + twenty-one thousand four hundred and nineteen quintals of dried + fish exported, and one hundred and ninety-eight thousand seven + hundred and twenty-four dollars paid for the commutation of the + salt drawback: in 1828, two hundred and sixty-five thousand two + hundred and seventeen quintals of dried fish exported, and two + hundred and thirty-nine thousand one hundred and forty-five + dollars paid for the commutation. These comparisons establish + the fact that money is unlawfully drawn from the treasury by + means of these fishing allowances, bottomed on the salt duty, + and that fact is expressly stated by the Secretary of the + Treasury (Mr. Ingham), in his report upon the finances, at the + commencement of the present session of Congress. [See page eight + of the report.] + + "6. Because it has become a practical violation of one of + the most equitable clauses in the constitution of the United + States--the clause which declares that duties, taxes, and + excises, shall be uniform throughout the Union. There is no + uniformity in the operation of this tax. Far from it. It empties + the pockets of some, and fills the pockets of others. It returns + to some five times as much as they pay, and to others it returns + not a cent. It gives to the fishing interest two hundred and + fifty thousand dollars per annum, and not a cent to the farming + interest, which, upon the same principle, would be entitled to + six hundred thousand dollars per annum. + + "7. Because this duty now rests upon a false basis--a basis + which makes it the interest of one part of the Union to keep + it up, while it is the interest of other parts to get rid of + it. It is the interest of the West to abolish this duty: it + is the interest of the Northeast to perpetuate it. The former + loses money by it; the latter makes money by it; and a tax + that becomes a money-making business is a solecism of the + highest order of absurdity. Yet such is the fact. The treasury + records prove it, and it will afford the Northeast a brilliant + opportunity to manifest their disinterested affection to the + West, by giving up their own profit in this tax, to relieve the + West from the burthen it imposes upon her. + + "8. Because the repeal of the duty will not materially diminish + the revenue, nor delay the extinguishment of the public debt. + It is a tax carrying money out of the treasury, as well as + bringing it in. The issue is two hundred and fifty thousand + dollars, perhaps the full amount which accrues on the kind of + salt to which the abolition extends. The duty, and the fishing + allowances bottomed upon it, falling together as they did when + Mr. Jefferson was President, would probably leave the amount of + revenue unaffected. + + "9. Because it belongs to an unhappy period in the history of + our government, and came to us, in its present magnitude, in + company with an odious and repudiated set of measures. The + maximum of twenty cents a bushel on salt was fixed in the year + '98, and was the fruit of the same system which produced the + alien and sedition laws, the eight per cent. loans, the stamp + act, the black cockade, and the standing army in time of peace. + It was one of the contrivances of that disastrous period for + extorting money from the people, for the support of that strong + and splendid government which was then the cherished vision of + so many exalted heads. The reforming hand of Jefferson overthrew + it, and all the superstructure of fishing allowances which was + erected upon it. The exigencies of the late war caused it to + be revived for the term of the war, and the interest of some, + and the neglect of others, have permitted it to continue ever + since. It is now our duty to sink it a second time. We profess + to be disciples of the Jeffersonian school; let us act up to our + profession, and complete the task which our master set us." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. + + +It has been already shown that General Jackson in his first annual +message to Congress, called in question both the constitutionality +and expediency of the national bank, in a way to show him averse to +the institution, and disposed to see the federal government carried +on without the aid of such an assistant. In the same message he +submitted the question to Congress, that, _if_ such an institution +is deemed essential to the fiscal operations of the government, +whether a national one, founded upon the credit of the government, +and its revenues, might not be devised, which would avoid all +constitutional difficulties, and at the same time secure all the +advantages to the government and country that were expected to +result from the present bank. I was not in Washington when this +message was prepared, and had had no conversation with the President +in relation to a substitute for the national bank, or for the +currency which it furnished, and which having a general circulation +was better entitled to the character of "national" than the issues +of the local or State banks. We knew each other's opinions on the +question of a bank itself: but had gone no further. I had never +mentioned to him the idea of reviving the gold currency--then, and +for twenty years--extinct in the United States: nor had I mentioned +to him the idea of an independent or sub-treasury--that is to say, +a government treasury unconnected with any bank--and which was +to have the receiving and disbursing of the public moneys. When +these ideas were mentioned to him, he took them at once; but it +was not until the Bank of the United States should be disposed of +that any thing could be done on these two subjects; and on the +latter a process had to be gone through in the use of local banks +as depositories of the public moneys which required several years +to show its issue and inculcate its lesson. Though strong in the +confidence of the people, the President was not deemed strong enough +to encounter all the banks of all the States at once. Temporizing +was indispensable--and even the conciliation of a part of them. +Hence the deposit system--or some years' use of local banks as +fiscal agents of the government--which gave to the institutions so +selected, the invidious appellation of "_pet banks_;" meaning that +they were government favorites. + +In the mean time the question which the President had submitted to +Congress in relation to a government fiscal agent, was seized upon +as an admitted design to establish a government bank--stigmatized +at once as a "thousand times more dangerous" than an incorporated +national bank--and held up to alarm the country. Committees in +each House of Congress, and all the public press in the interest +of the existing Bank of the United States, took it up in that +sense, and vehemently inveighed against it. Under an instruction +to the Finance Committee of the Senate, to report upon a plan for +a uniform currency, and under a reference to the Committee of Ways +and Means of the House, of that part of the President's message +which related to the bank and its currency, most ample, elaborate +and argumentative reports were made--wholly repudiating all the +suggestions of the President, and sustaining the actual Bank of +the United States under every aspect of constitutionality and of +expediency: and strongly presenting it for a renewal of its charter. +These reports were multiplied without regard to expense, or numbers, +in all the varieties of newspaper and pamphlet publication and +lauded to the skies for their power and excellence, and triumphant +refutation of all the President's opinions. Thus was the "war of +the bank" commenced at once, in both Houses of Congress, and in +the public press; and openly at the instance of the bank itself, +which, forgetting its position as an institution of the government, +for the convenience of the government, set itself up for a power, +and struggled for a continued existence--in the shape of a new +charter--as a question of its own, and almost as a right. It +allied itself at the same time to the political party opposed to +the President, joined in all their schemes of protective tariff, +and national internal improvement: and became the head of the +American system. With its moneyed and political power, and numerous +interested affiliations, and its control over other banks, brokers +and money dealers, it was truly a power, and a great one: and, in +answer to a question put by General Smith, of Maryland, chairman +of the Finance Committee of the Senate already mentioned (and +appended with other questions and answers to that report), Mr. +Biddle, the president, showed a power in the national bank to save, +relieve or destroy the local banks, which exhibited it as their +absolute master; and, of course able to control them at will. The +question was put in a spirit of friendship to the bank, and with a +view to enable its president to exhibit the institution as great, +just and beneficent. The question was: "_Has the bank at any time +oppressed any of the State banks?_" and the answer: "_Never._" And, +as if that was not enough, Mr. Biddle went on to say: "_There are +very few banks which might not have been destroyed by an exertion +of the power of the bank. None have been injured. Many have been +saved. And more have been, and are constantly relieved, when it +is found that they are solvent but are suffering under temporary +difficulty._" This was proving entirely too much. A power to injure +and destroy--to relieve and to save the thousand banks of all the +States and Territories was a power over the business and fortunes +of nearly all the people of those States and Territories: and might +be used for evil as well as for good; and was a power entirely too +large to be trusted to any man, with a heart in his bosom--or to any +government, responsible to the people; much less to a corporation +without a soul, and irresponsible to heaven or earth. This was a +view of the case which the parties to the question had not foreseen; +but which was noted at the time; and which, in the progress of the +government struggle with the bank, received exemplifications which +will be remembered by the generation of that day while memory lasts; +and afterwards known as long as history has power to transmit to +posterity the knowledge of national calamities. + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +REMOVALS FROM OFFICE. + + +I am led to give a particular examination of this head, from the +great error into which Tocqueville has fallen in relation to it, +and which he has propagated throughout Europe to the prejudice +of republican government; and also, because the power itself is +not generally understood among ourselves as laid down by Mr. +Jefferson; and has been sometimes abused, and by each party, but +never to the degree supposed by Mons. de Tocqueville. He says, in +his chapter 8 on American democracy: "Mr. Quincy Adams, on his +entry into office, discharged the majority of the individuals who +had been appointed by his predecessor; and I am not aware that +General Jackson allowed a single removable functionary employed in +the public service to retain his place beyond the first year which +succeeded his election." Of course, all these imputed sweeping +removals were intended to be understood to have been made on account +of party politics--for difference of political opinion--and not for +misconduct, or unfitness for office. To these classes of removal +(unfitness and misconduct), there could be no objection: on the +contrary, it would have been misconduct in the President not to +have removed in such cases. Of political removals, for difference +of opinion, then, it only remains to speak; and of those officials +appointed by his predecessor, it is probable that Mr. Adams did not +remove one for political cause; and that M. de Tocqueville, with +respect to him, is wrong to the whole amount of his assertion. + +I was a close observer of Mr. Adams's administration, and belonged +to the opposition, which was then keen and powerful, and permitted +nothing to escape which could be rightfully (sometimes wrongfully) +employed against him; yet I never heard of this accusation, +and have no knowledge or recollection at this time of a single +instance on which it could be founded. Mr. Adams's administration +was not a case, in fact, in which such removals--for difference +of political opinion--could occur. They only take place when the +presidential election is a revolution of parties; and that was +not the case when Mr. Adams succeeded Mr. Monroe. He belonged to +the Monroe administration, had occupied the first place in the +cabinet during its whole double term of eight years; and of course, +stood in concurrence with, and not in opposition to, Mr. Monroe's +appointments. Besides, party lines were confused, and nearly +obliterated at that time. It was called "the era of good feeling." +Mr. Adams was himself an illustration of that feeling. He had been +of the federal party--brought early into public life as such--a +minister abroad and a senator at home as such; but having divided +from his party in giving support to several prominent measures of +Mr. Jefferson's administration, he was afterwards several times +nominated by Mr. Madison as minister abroad; and on the election of +Mr. Monroe he was invited from London to be made his Secretary of +State--where he remained till his own election to the Presidency. +There was, then, no case presented to him for political removals; +and in fact none such were made by him; so that the accusation of +M. de Tocqueville, so far as it applied to Mr. Adams, is wholly +erroneous, and inexcusably careless. + +With respect to General Jackson, it is about equally so in the main +assertion--the assertion that he did not allow a single removable +functionary to remain in office beyond the first year after his +election. On the contrary, there were entire classes--all those +whose functions partook of the judicial--which he never touched. +Boards of commissioners for adjudicating land titles; commissioners +for adjudicating claims under indemnity treaties; judges of the +territorial courts; justices of the District of Columbia; none +of these were touched, either in the first or in any subsequent +year of his administration, except a solitary judge in one of +the territories; and he not for political cause, but on specific +complaint, and after taking the written and responsible opinion of +the then Attorney General, Mr. Grundy. Of the seventeen diplomatic +functionaries abroad, only four (three ministers and one chargé des +affaires) were recalled in the first year of his administration. +In the departments at Washington, a majority of the incumbents +remained opposed to him during his administration. Of the near +eight thousand deputy postmasters in the United States, precisely +four hundred and ninety-one were removed in the time mentioned by +Mons. de Tocqueville, and they for all causes--for every variety +of causes. Of the whole number of removable officials, amounting +to many thousands, the totality of removals was about six hundred +and ninety and they for all causes. Thus the government archives +contradict Mons. de Tocqueville, and vindicate General Jackson's +administration from the reproach cast upon it. Yet he came into +office under circumstances well calculated to excite him to make +removals. In the first place, none of his political friends, though +constituting a great majority of the people of the United States, +had been appointed to office during the preceding administration; +and such an exclusion could not be justified on any consideration. +His election was, in some degree, a revolution of parties, or +rather a re-establishment of parties on the old line of federal and +democratic. It was a change of administration, in which a change +of government functionaries, to some extent, became a right and a +duty; but still the removals actually made, when political, were +not merely for opinions, but for conduct under these opinions; +and, unhappily, there was conduct enough in too many officials to +justify their removal. A large proportion of them, including all +the new appointments, were inimical to General Jackson, and divided +against him on the re-establishment of the old party lines; and many +of them actively. Mr. Clay, holding the first place in Mr. Adams's +cabinet, took the field against him, travelled into different +States, declaimed against him at public meetings; and deprecated +his election as the greatest of calamities. The subordinates of +the government, to a great degree, followed his example, if not in +public speeches, at least in public talk and newspaper articles; +and it was notorious that these subordinates were active in the +presidental election. It was a great error in them. It changed +their position. By their position all administrations were the +same to them. Their duties were ministerial, and the same under +all Presidents. They were noncombatants. By engaging in the +election they became combatant, and subjected themselves to the +law of victory and defeat--reward and promotion in one case, loss +of place in the other. General Jackson, then, on his accession to +the Presidency, was in a new situation with respect to parties, +different from that of any President since the time of Mr. +Jefferson, whom he took for his model, and whose rule he followed. +He made many removals, and for cause, but not so many as not to +leave a majority in office against him--even in the executive +departments in Washington City. + +Mr. Jefferson had early and anxiously studied the question of +removals. He was the first President that had occasion to make them, +and with him the occasion was urgent. His election was a complete +revolution of parties, and when elected, he found himself to be +almost the only man of his party in office. The democracy had been +totally excluded from federal appointment during the administration +of his predecessor; almost all offices were in the hands of his +political foes. I recollect to have heard an officer of the army +say that there was but one field officer in the service favorable +to him. This was the type of the civil service. Justice to himself +and his party required this state of things to be altered; required +his friends to have a share proportionate to their numbers in the +distribution of office; and required him to have the assistance +of his friends in the administration of the government. The four +years' limitation law--the law which now vacates within the cycle +of every Presidential term the great mass of the offices--was not +then in force. Resignations then, as now, were few. Removals were +indispensable, and the only question was the principle upon which +they should be made. This question, Mr. Jefferson studied anxiously, +and under all its aspects of principle and policy, of national and +of party duty; and upon consultation with his friends, settled +it to his and their satisfaction. The fundamental principle was, +that each party was to have a share in the ministerial offices, +the control of each branch of the service being in the hands of +the administration; that removals were only to be made for cause; +and, of course, that there should be inquiry into the truth of +imputed delinquencies. "Official misconduct," "personal misconduct," +"negligence," "incapacity," "inherent vice in the appointment," +"partisan electioneering beyond the fair exercise of the elective +franchise;" and where "the heads of some branches of the service +were politically opposed to his administration"--these, with Mr. +Jefferson, constituted the law of removals, and was so written +down by him immediately after his inauguration. Thus, March 7th, +1801--only four days after his induction into office--he wrote to +Mr. Monroe: + + "Some removals, I know, must be made. They must be as few as + possible, done gradually, and bottomed on some malversation, + or inherent disqualification. Where we should draw the line + between retaining all and none, is not yet settled, and will + not be until we get our administration together; and, perhaps, + even then we shall proceed _à tatons_, balancing our measures + according to the impression we perceive them to make." + +On the 23d of March, 1801, being still in the first month of his +administration, Mr. Jefferson wrote thus to Gov. Giles, of Virginia: + + "Good men, to whom there is no objection but a difference + of political opinion, practised on only so far as the right + of a private citizen will justify, are not proper subjects + of removal, except in the case of attorneys and marshals. + The courts being so decidedly federal and irremovable, it is + believed that republican attorneys and marshals, being the doors + of entrance into the courts, are indispensably necessary as a + shield to the republican part of our fellow-citizens; which, I + believe, is the main body of the people." + +Six days after, he wrote to Elbridge Gerry, afterwards +Vice-President, thus: + + "Mr. Adams's last appointments, when he knew he was appointing + counsellors and aids for me, not for himself, I set aside as + fast as depends on me. Officers who have been guilty of gross + abuse of office, such as marshals packing juries, &c., I shall + now remove, as my predecessors ought in justice to have done. + The instances will be few, and governed by strict rule, and not + party passion. The right of opinion shall suffer no invasion + from me. Those who have acted well have nothing to fear, however + they may have differed from me in opinion: those who have + done ill, however, have nothing to hope; nor shall I fail to + do justice, lest it should be ascribed to that difference of + opinion." + +To Mr. Lincoln, his Attorney-General, still writing in the first +year of his administration, he says: + + "I still think our original idea as to office is best; that + is, to depend, for obtaining a just participation, on deaths, + resignations and delinquencies. This will least affect the + tranquillity of the people, and prevent their giving into the + suggestion of our enemies--that ours has been a contest for + office, not for principle. This is rather a slow operation, but + it is sure, if we pursue it steadily, which, however, has not + been done with the undeviating resolution I could have wished. + To these means of obtaining a just share in the transaction of + the public business, shall be added one more, to wit, removal + for electioneering activity, or open and industrious opposition + to the principles of the present government, legislative + and executive. Every officer of the government may vote at + elections according to his conscience; but we should betray the + cause committed to our care, were we to permit the influence + of official patronage to be used to overthrow that cause. + Your present situation will enable you to judge of prominent + offenders in your State in the case of the present election. + I pray you to seek them, to mark them, to be quite sure of + your ground, that we may commit no errors or wrongs; and leave + the rest to me. I have been urged to remove Mr. Whittemore, + the surveyor of Gloucester, on grounds of neglect of duty and + industrious opposition; yet no facts are so distinctly charged + as to make the step sure which we should take in this. Will you + take the trouble to satisfy yourself on the point?" + +This was the law of removals as laid down by Mr. Jefferson, and +practised upon by him, but not to the extent that his principle +required, or that public outcry indicated. He told me himself, not +long before his death (Christmas, 1824), that he had never done +justice to his own party--had never given them the share of office +to which their numbers entitled them--had failed to remove many +who deserved it, but who were spared through the intercession of +friends and concern for their distressed families. General Jackson +acted upon the rule of Mr. Jefferson, but no doubt was often misled +into departures from the rule; but never to the extent of giving to +the party more than their due proportion of office, according to +their numbers. Great clamor was raised against him, and the number +of so-called "removals" was swelled by an abuse of the term, every +case being proclaimed a "removal," where he refused to reappoint an +ex-incumbent whose term had expired under the four years' limitation +act. Far from universal removals for opinion's sake, General +Jackson, as I have already said, left the majority of his opponents +in office, and re-appointed many such whose terms had expired, and +who had approved themselves faithful officers. + +Having vindicated General Jackson and Mr. Adams from the reproach +of Mons. de Tocqueville, and having shown that it was neither a +principle nor a practice of the Jefferson school to remove officers +for political opinions, I now feel bound to make the declaration, +that the doctrine of that school has been too much departed from of +late, and by both parties, and to the great detriment of the right +and proper working of the government. + +The practice of removals for opinion's sake is becoming too +common, and is reducing our presidential elections to what Mr. +Jefferson deprecated, "a contest of office instead of principle," +and converting the victories of each party, so far as office is +concerned, into the political extermination of the other; as it was +in Great Britain between the whigs and tories in the bitter contests +of one hundred years ago, and when the victor made a "clean sweep" +of the vanquished, leaving not a wreck behind. Mr. Macaulay thus +describes one of those "sweepings:" + + "A persecution, such as had never been known before, and has + never been known since, raged in every public department. + Great numbers of humble and laborious clerks were deprived of + their bread, not because they had neglected their duties, not + because they had taken an active part against the ministry, but + merely because they had owed their situations to some (whig) + nobleman who was against the peace. The proscription extended + to tidewaiters, to doorkeepers. One poor man, to whom a pension + had been given for his gallantry in a fight with smugglers, was + deprived of it because he had been befriended by the (whig) Duke + of Grafton. An aged widow, who, on account of her husband's + services in the navy, had, many years before, been made + housekeeper in a public office, was dismissed from her situation + because she was distantly connected by marriage with the (whig) + Cavendish family." + +This, to be sure, was a tory proscription of whigs, and therefore +the less recommendable as an example to either party in the United +States, but too much followed by both--to the injury of individuals, +the damage of the public service, the corruption of elections, and +the degradation of government. De Tocqueville quotes removals as +a reproach to our government, and although untrue to the extent +he represented, the evil has become worse since, and is true to +a sufficient extent to demand reform. The remedy is found in Mr. +Jefferson's rule, and in the four years' limitation act which has +since been passed; and under which, with removals for cause, and +some deaths, and a few resignations, an ample field would be found +for new appointments, without the harshness of general and sweeping +removals. + +I consider "sweeping" removals, as now practised by both parties, a +great political evil in our country, injurious to individuals, to +the public service, to the purity of elections, and to the harmony +and union of the people. Certainly, no individual has a right to an +office: no one has an estate or property in a public employment; but +when a mere ministerial worker in a subordinate station has learned +its duties by experience, and approved his fidelity by his conduct, +it is an injury to the public service to exchange him for a novice, +whose only title to the place may be a political badge or a partisan +service. It is exchanging experience for inexperience, tried ability +for untried, and destroying incentive to good conduct by destroying +its reward. To the party displaced it is an injury, having become a +proficient in that business, expecting to remain in it during good +behavior, and finding it difficult, at an advanced age, and with +fixed habits, to begin a new career in some new walk of life. It +converts elections into scrambles, for office, and degrades the +government into an office for rewards and punishments; and divides +the people of the Union into two adverse parties--each in its turn, +and as it becomes dominant, to strip and proscribe the other. + +Our government is a Union. We want a united _people_, as well as +united _States_--united for benefits as well as for burdens, and +in feeling as well as in compact; and this cannot be while one +half (each in its turn) excludes the other from all share in the +administration of the government. Mr. Jefferson's principle is +perfect, and reconciled public and private interest with party +rights and duties. The party in power is responsible for the +well-working of the government, and has a right, and is bound by +duty to itself, to place its friends at the head of the different +branches of the public service. After that, and in the subordinate +places, the opposite party should have its share of employment; +and this Mr. Jefferson's principle gives to it. But as there are +offices too subordinate for party proscription, so there are others +too elevated and national for it. This is now acknowledged in the +army and navy, and formerly was acknowledged in the diplomatic +department; and should be again. To foreign nations we should, at +least, be one people--an undivided people, and that in peace as +well as in war. Mr. Jefferson's principle reached this case, and +he acted upon it. His election was not a signal gun, fired for the +recall of all the ministers abroad, to be succeeded incontinently +by partisans of its own. Mr. Rufus King, the most eminent of the +federal ministers abroad, and at the most eminent court of Europe, +that of St. James, remained at his post for two years after the +revolution of parties in 1800; and until he requested his own +recall, treated all the while with respect and confidence, and +intrusted with a negotiation which he conducted to its conclusion. +Our early diplomatic policy, eschewing all foreign entanglement, +rejected the office of "minister resident." That early republican +policy would have no permanent representation at foreign courts. The +"envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary," called out on +an emergent occasion, and to return home as soon as the emergency +was over, was the only minister known to our early history; +and then the mission was usually a mixed one, composed of both +parties. And so it should be again. The present permanent supply +and perpetual succession of "envoys extraordinary and ministers +plenipotentiary" is a fraud upon the name, and a breach of the old +policy of the government, and a hitching on American diplomacy to +the tail of the diplomacy of Europe. It is the actual keeping up +of "ministers resident" under a false name, and contrary to a wise +and venerable policy; and requires the reform hand of the House of +Representatives. But this point will require a chapter of its own, +and its elucidation must be adjourned to another and a separate +place. + +Mons. de Tocqueville was right in the principle of his reproach, +wrong in the extent of his application, but would have been less +wrong if he had written of events a dozen years later. I deprecate +the effect of such sweeping removals at each revolution of parties, +and believe it is having a deplorable effect both upon the purity +of elections and the distribution of office, and taking both out +of the hands of the people, and throwing the management of one and +the enjoyment of the other into most unfit hands. I consider it as +working a deleterious change in the government, making it what Mr. +Jefferson feared: and being a disciple of his school, and believing +in the soundness and nationality of the rule which he laid down, I +deem it good to recall it solemnly to public recollection--for the +profit, and hope, of present and of future times. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +INDIAN SOVEREIGNTIES WITHIN THE STATES + + +A political movement on the part of some of the southern tribes +of Indians, brought up a new question between the States and +those Indians, which called for the interposition of the federal +government. Though still called Indians, their primitive and equal +government had lost its form, and had become an oligarchy, governed +chiefly by a few white men, called half-breeds, because there was a +tincture of Indian blood in their veins. These, in some instances, +set up governments within the States, and claimed sovereignty +and dominion within their limits. The States resisted this claim +and extended their laws and jurisdiction over them. The federal +government was appealed to; and at the commencement of the session +of 1829-'30, in his first annual message, President Jackson brought +the subject before the two Houses of Congress, thus: + + "The condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes within + the limits of some of our States, have become objects of + much interest and importance. It has long been the policy of + government to introduce among them the arts of civilization, + in the hope of gradually reclaiming them from a wandering + life. This policy has, however, been coupled with another, + wholly incompatible with its success. Professing a desire to + civilize and settle them, we have, at the same time, lost no + opportunity to purchase their lands and thrust them further + into the wilderness. By this means they have not only been + kept in a wandering state, but been led to look upon us as + unjust, and indifferent to their fate. Thus, though lavish in + its expenditures upon the subject, government has constantly + defeated its own policy, and the Indians, in general, receding + further and further to the West, have retained their savage + habits. A portion, however, of the southern tribes, having + mingled much with the whites, and made some progress in the + arts of civilized life, have lately attempted to erect an + independent government within the limits of Georgia and Alabama. + These States, claiming to be the only sovereigns within their + territories, extended their laws over the Indians; which induced + the latter to call upon the United States for protection. + + "Under these circumstances, the question presented was, whether + the general government had a right to sustain those people in + their pretensions? The constitution declares, that "no new + States shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any + other State," without the consent of its legislature. If the + general government is not permitted to tolerate the erection of + a confederate State within the territory of one of the members + of this Union, against her consent, much less could it allow a + foreign and independent government to establish itself there. + Georgia became a member of the confederacy which eventuated + in our federal union, as a sovereign State, always asserting + her claim to certain limits; which, having been originally + defined in her colonial charter, and subsequently recognized + in the treaty of peace, she has ever since continued to enjoy, + except as they have been circumscribed by her own voluntary + transfer of a portion of her territory to the United States, + in the articles of cession of 1802. Alabama was admitted into + the Union on the same footing with the original States, with + boundaries which were prescribed by Congress. There is no + constitutional, conventional, or legal provision, which allows + them less power over the Indians within their borders, than + is possessed by Maine or New-York. Would the people of Maine + permit the Penobscot tribe to erect an independent government + within their State? and, unless they did, would it not be the + duty of the general government to support them in resisting such + a measure? Would the people of New-York permit each remnant + of the Six Nations within her borders, to declare itself an + independent people, under the protection of the United States? + Could the Indians establish a separate republic on each of their + reservations in Ohio? And if they were so disposed, would it be + the duty of this government to protect them in the attempt? If + the principle involved in the obvious answer to these questions + be abandoned, it will follow that the objects of this government + are reversed; and that it has become a part of its duty to aid + in destroying the States which it was established to protect. + + "Actuated by this view of the subject, I informed the Indians + inhabiting parts of Georgia and Alabama, that their attempt to + establish an independent government would not be countenanced by + the Executive of the United States; and advised them to emigrate + beyond the Mississippi, or submit to the laws of those States." + +Having thus refused to sustain these southern tribes in their +attempt to set up independent governments within the States of +Alabama and Georgia, and foreseeing an unequal and disagreeable +contest between the Indians and the States, the President +recommended the passage of an act to enable him to provide for +their removal to the west of the Mississippi. It was an old policy, +but party spirit now took hold of it, and strenuously resisted the +passage of the act. It was one of the closest, and most earnestly +contested questions of the session; and finally carried by an +inconsiderable majority. The sum of $500,000 was appropriated to +defray the expenses of treating with them for an exchange, or sale +of territory; and under this act, and with the ample means which +it placed at the disposal of the President, the removals were +eventually effected; but with great difficulty, chiefly on account +of a foreign, or outside influence from politicians and intrusive +philanthropists. Georgia was the State where this question took +its most serious form. The legislature of the State laid off the +Cherokee country into counties, and prepared to exercise her laws +within them. The Indians, besides resisting through their political +friends in Congress, took counsel and legal advice, with a view to +get the question into the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. +Wirt, the late Attorney General of the United States, was retained +in their cause, and addressed a communication to the Governor of +the State, apprising him of the fact; and proposing that an "agreed +case" should be made up for the decision of the court. Gov. Gilmer +declined this proposal, and in his answer gave as the reason why +the State had taken the decided step of extending her jurisdiction, +that the Cherokee tribe had become merged in its management in the +"half breeds," or descendants of white men, who possessed wealth and +intelligence, and acting under political and fanatical instigations +from without, were disposed to perpetuate their residence within the +State,--(the part of them still remaining and refusing to join their +half tribe beyond the Mississippi). The governor said: "So long as +the Cherokees retained their primitive habits, no disposition was +shown by the States under the protection of whose government they +resided, to make them subject to their laws. Such policy would have +been cruel; because it would have interfered with their habits of +life, the enjoyments peculiar to Indian people, and the kind of +government which accorded with those habits and enjoyments. It was +the power of the whites, and of their children among the Cherokees, +that destroyed the ancient laws, customs and authority of the +tribe, and subjected the nation to the rule of that most oppressive +of governments--an oligarchy. There is nothing surprising in this +result. From the character of the people, and the causes operating +upon them, it could not have been otherwise. It was this state of +things that rendered it obligatory upon Georgia to vindicate the +rights of her sovereignty by abolishing all Cherokee government +within its limits. Whether of the intelligent, or ignorant class, +the State of Georgia has passed no laws violative of the liberty, +personal security, or private property of any Indian. It has been +the object of humanity, and wisdom, to separate the two classes (the +ignorant, and the informed Indians) among them, giving the rights of +citizenship to those who are capable of performing its duties and +properly estimating its privileges; and increasing the enjoyment and +the probability of future improvement to the ignorant and idle, by +removing them to a situation where the inducements to action will be +more in accordance with the character of the Cherokee people." + +With respect to the foreign interference with this question, by +politicians of other States and pseudo philanthropists, the only +effect of which was to bring upon subaltern agents the punishment +which the laws inflicted upon its violators, the governor said: "It +is well known that the extent of the jurisdiction of Georgia, and +the policy of removing the Cherokees and other Indians to the west +of the Mississippi, have become party questions. It is believed that +the Cherokees in Georgia, had determined to unite with that portion +of the tribe who had removed to the west of the Mississippi, if +the policy of the President was sustained by Congress. To prevent +this result, as soon as it became highly probable that the Indian +bill would pass, the Cherokees were persuaded that the right of +self-government could be secured to them by the power of the Supreme +Court of the United States, in defiance of the legislation of the +general and State governments. It was not known, however, until the +receipt of your letter, that the spirit of resistance to the laws of +the State, and views of the United States, which has of late been +evident among the Indians, had in any manner been occasioned by your +advice." Mr. Wirt had been professionally employed by the Cherokees +to bring their case before the Supreme Court; but as he classed +politically with the party, which took sides with the Indians +against Georgia, the governor was the less ceremonious, or reserved +in his reply to him. + +Judge Clayton, in whose circuit the Indian counties fell, at his +first charge to the grand jury assured the Indians of protection, +warned the intermeddlers of the mischief they were doing, and of +the inutility of applying to the Supreme Court. He said: "My other +purpose is to apprise the Indians that they are not to be oppressed, +as has been sagely foretold: that the same justice which will be +meted to the citizen shall be meted to them." With respect to +intermeddlers he said: "Meetings have been held in all directions, +to express opinions on the conduct of Georgia, and Georgia +alone--when her adjoining sister States had lately done precisely +the same thing; and which she and they had done, in the rightful +exercise of their State sovereignty." The judge even showed that +one of these intrusive philanthropists had endeavored to interest +European sympathy, in behalf of the Cherokees; and quoted from the +address of the reverend Mr. Milner, of New-York, to the Foreign +Missionary Society in London: "That if the cause of the negroes +in the West Indias was interesting to that auditory--and deeply +interesting it ought to be--if the population in Ireland, groaning +beneath the degradation of superstition--excited their sympathies, +he trusted the Indians of North America would also be considered +as the objects of their Christian regard. He was grieved, however, +to state that there were those in America, who acted towards them +in a different spirit; and he lamented to say that, at this very +moment, the State of Georgia was seeking to subjugate and destroy +the liberties both of the Creeks and the Cherokees; the former of +whom possessed in Georgia, ten millions of acres of land, and the +latter three millions." In this manner European sympathies were +sought to be brought to bear upon the question of removal of the +Indians--a political and domestic question, long since resolved upon +by wise and humane American statesmen--and for the benefit of the +Indians themselves, as well as of the States in which they were. If +all that the reverend missionary uttered had been true, it would +still have been a very improper invocation of European sympathies in +an American domestic question, and against a settled governmental +policy: but it was not true. The Creeks, with their imputed ten +millions of acres, owned not one acre in the State; and had not in +five years--not since the treaty of cession in 1825: which shows +the recklessness with which the reverend suppliant for foreign +sympathy, spoke of the people and States of his own country. The few +Cherokees who were there, instead of subjugation and destruction of +their liberties, were to be paid a high price for their land, if +they chose to join their tribe beyond the Mississippi; and if not, +they were to be protected like the white inhabitants of the counties +they lived in. "With respect to the Supreme Court, the judge +declared that he should pay no attention to its mandate--holding +no writ of error to lie from the Supreme Court of the United +States to his State Court--but would execute the sentence of the +law, whatever it might be, in defiance of the Supreme Court; and +such was the fact. Instigated by foreign interference, and relying +upon its protection, one George Tassels, of Indian descent, +committed a homicide in resisting the laws of Georgia--was tried +for murder--convicted--condemned--and sentenced to be hanged on a +given day. A writ of error, to bring the case before itself, was +obtained from the Supreme Court of the United States; and it was +proposed by the counsel, Mr. Wirt, to try the whole question of +the right of Georgia, to exercise jurisdiction over the Indians +and Indian country within her limits, by the trial of this writ +of error at Washington; and for that purpose, and to save the +tedious forms of judicial proceedings, he requested the governor +to consent to make up an "agreed case" for the consideration and +decision of that high court. This proposition Governor Gilmer +declined, in firm but civil terms, saying: "Your suggestion that +it would be convenient and satisfactory if yourself, the Indians, +and the governor would make up a law case to be submitted to the +Supreme Court for the determination of the question, whether the +legislature of Georgia has competent authority to pass laws for +the government of the Indians residing within its limits, however +courteous the manner, and conciliatory the phraseology, cannot but +be considered as exceedingly disrespectful to the government of the +State. No one knows better than yourself, that the governor would +grossly violate his duty, and exceed his authority, by complying +with such a suggestion; and that both the letter and the spirit of +the powers conferred by the constitution upon the Supreme Court +forbid its adjudging such a case. It is hoped that the efforts +of the general government to execute its contract with Georgia +(the compact of 1802), to secure the continuance and advance the +happiness of the Indian tribes, and to give quiet to the country, +may be so effectually successful as to prevent the necessity of any +further intercourse upon the subject." And there was no further +intercourse. The day for the execution of Tassels came round: he was +hanged: and the writ of the Supreme Court was no more heard of. The +remaining Cherokees afterwards made their treaty, and removed to +the west of the Mississippi; and that was the end of the political, +and intrusive philanthropical interference in the domestic policy +of Georgia. One Indian hanged, some missionaries imprisoned, the +writ of the Supreme Court disregarded, the Indians removed: and +the political and pseudo-philanthropic intermeddlers left to the +reflection of having done much mischief in assuming to become the +defenders and guardians of a race which the humanity of our laws and +people were treating with parental kindness. + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +VETO ON THE MAYSVILLE ROAD BILL. + + +This was the third veto on the subject of federal internal +improvements within the States, and by three different Presidents. +The first was by Mr. Madison, on the bill "to set apart, and pledge +certain funds for constructing roads and canals, and improving the +navigation of watercourses, in order to facilitate, promote, and +give security to internal commerce among the several States; and +to render more easy and less expensive the means and provisions of +the common defence"--a very long title, and even argumentative--as +if afraid of the President's veto--which it received in a message +with the reasons for disapproving it. The second was that of Mr. +Monroe on the Cumberland Road bill, which, with an abstract of his +reasons and arguments, has already been given in this View. This +third veto on the same subject, and from President Jackson, and +at a time when internal improvement by the federal government had +become a point of party division, and a part of the American system, +and when concerted action on the public mind had created for it a +degree of popularity: this third veto under such circumstances was +a killing blow to the system--which has shown but little, and only +occasional vitality since. Taken together, the three vetoes, and +the three messages sustaining them, and the action of Congress upon +them (for in no instance did the House in which they originated pass +the bills, or either of them, in opposition to the vetoes), may be +considered as embracing all the constitutional reasoning upon the +question; and enough to be studied by any one who wishes to make +himself master of the subject. + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +RUPTURE BETWEEN PRESIDENT JACKSON, AND VICE-PRESIDENT CALHOUN. + + +With the quarrels of public men history has no concern, except as +they enter into public conduct, and influence public events. In +such case, and as the cause of such events, these quarrels belong +to history, which would be an empty tale, devoid of interest or +instruction, without the development of the causes, and consequences +of the acts which it narrates. Division among chiefs has always been +a cause of mischief to their country; and when so, it is the duty of +history to show it. That mischief points the moral of much history, +and has been made the subject of the greatest of poems: + + "Achille's wrath, to Greece the direful spring + Of woes unnumbered----" + +About the beginning of March, in the year 1831, a pamphlet +appeared in Washington City, issued by Mr. Calhoun, and addressed +to the people of the United States, to explain the cause of a +difference which had taken place between himself and General +Jackson, instigated as the pamphlet alleged by Mr. Van Buren, and +intended to make mischief between the first and second officers +of the government, and to effect the political destruction of +himself (Mr. Calhoun) for the benefit of the contriver of the +quarrel--the then Secretary of State; and indicated as a candidate +for the presidential succession upon the termination of General +Jackson's service. It was the same pamphlet of which Mr. Duncanson, +as heretofore related, had received previous notice from Mr. +Duff Green, as being in print in his office, but the publication +delayed for the maturing of the measures which were to attend its +appearance; namely: the change in the course of the _Telegraph_; its +attacks upon General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren; the defence of Mr. +Calhoun; and the chorus of the affiliated presses, to be engaged "in +getting up the storm which even the popularity of General Jackson +could not stand." + +The pamphlet was entitled, "Correspondence between General Andrew +Jackson and John C. Calhoun, President and Vice-President of the +United States, on the subject of the course of the latter in the +deliberations of the cabinet of Mr. Monroe on the occurrences +of the Seminole war;" and its contents consisted of a prefatory +address, and a number of letters, chiefly from Mr. Calhoun himself, +and his friends--the General's share of the correspondence being +a few brief notes to ascertain if Mr. Crawford's statement was +true and, being informed that, substantially, it was, to decline +any further correspondence with Mr. Calhoun, and to promise a full +public reply when he had the leisure for the purpose and access to +the proofs. His words were: "In your and Mr. Crawford's dispute +I have no interest whatever; but it may become necessary for me +hereafter, when I shall have more leisure and the documents at hand, +to place the subject in its proper light--to notice the historical +facts and references in your communication--which will give a very +different view to the subject.... Understanding you now, no further +communication with you on this subject is necessary."... And none +further appears from General Jackson. + +But the general did what he had intimated he would--drew up a +sustained reply, showing the subject in a different light from +that in which Mr. Calhoun's letters had presented it; and quoting +vouchers for all that he said. The case, as made out in the +published pamphlet, stood before the public as that of an intrigue +on the part of Mr. Van Buren to supplant a rival--of which the +President was the dupe--Mr. Calhoun the victim--and the country the +sufferer: and the _modus operandi_ of the intrigue was, to dig up +the buried proceedings in Mr. Monroe's cabinet, in relation to a +proposed court of inquiry on the general (at the instance of Mr. +Calhoun), for his alleged, unauthorized, and illegal operations in +Florida during the Seminole war. It was this case which the general +felt himself bound to confront--and did; and in confronting which +he showed that Mr. Calhoun himself was the sole cause of breaking +their friendship; and, consequently, the sole cause of all the +consequences which resulted from that breach. Up to that time--up to +the date of the discovery of Mr. Calhoun's now admitted part in the +proposed measure of the court of inquiry--that gentleman had been +the general's _beau ideal_ of a statesman and a man--"the noblest +work of God," as he publicly expressed it in a toast: against whom +he would believe nothing, to whose friends he gave an equal voice in +the cabinet, whom he consulted as if a member of his administration; +and whom he actually preferred for his successor. This reply to the +pamphlet, entitled "_An exposition of Mr. Calhoun's course towards +General Jackson_," though written above twenty years ago, and +intended for publication, has never before been given to the public. +Its publication becomes essential now. It belongs to a dissension +between chiefs which has disturbed the harmony, and loosened the +foundations of the Union; and of which the view, on one side, was +published in pamphlet at the time, registered in the weeklies and +annuals, printed in many papers, carried into the Congress debates, +especially on the nomination of Mr. Van Buren; and so made a part of +the public history of the times--to be used as historical material +in after time. The introductory paragraph to the "Exposition" +shows that it was intended for immediate publication, but with a +feeling of repugnance to the exhibition of the chief magistrate +as a newspaper writer: which feeling in the end predominated, and +delayed the publication until the expiration of his office--and +afterwards, until his death. But it was preserved to fulfil its +original purpose, and went in its manuscript form to Mr. Francis +P. Blair, the literary legatee of General Jackson; and by him was +turned over to me (with trunks full of other papers) to be used +in this Thirty Years' View. It had been previously in the hands +of Mr. Amos Kendall, as material for a life of Jackson, which he +had begun to write, and was by him made known to Mr. Calhoun, who +declined "_furnishing any further information on the subject_."[3] +It is in the fair round-hand writing of a clerk, slightly interlined +in the general's hand, the narrative sometimes in the first and +sometimes in the third person; vouchers referred to and shown for +every allegation; and signed by the general in his own well-known +hand. Its matter consists of three parts: 1. The justification of +himself, under the law of nations and the treaty with Spain of 1795, +for taking military possession of Florida in 1818. 2. The same +justification, under the orders of Mr. Monroe and his Secretary +at War (Mr. Calhoun). 3. The Statement of Mr. Calhoun's conduct +towards him (the general) in all that affair of the Seminole war, +and in the movements in the cabinet, and in the two Houses of +Congress, to which it gave rise. All these parts belong to a life of +Jackson, or a history of the Seminole war; but only the two latter +come within the scope of this View. To these two parts, then, this +publication of the Exposition is confined--omitting the references +to the vouchers in the appendix--which having been examined (the +essential ones) are found in every particular to sustain the text; +and also omitting a separate head of complaint against Mr. Calhoun +on account of his representations in relation to South Carolina +claims. + + [3] Mr. Kendall's letter to the author is in these words: + +"December 29, 1853.--In reply to your note just received, I have to +state that, wishing to do exact justice to all men in my Life of +General Jackson, I addressed a note to Mr. Calhoun stating to him in +substance, that I was in possession of the evidences on which the +general based his imputation of duplicity touching his course in +Mr. Monroe's cabinet upon the Florida war question, and inquiring +whether it was his desire to furnish any further information on the +subject, or rest upon that which was already before the public (in +his publication). A few days afterwards, the Hon. Dixon H. Lewis +told me that Mr. Calhoun had received my letter, and had requested +him to ask me what was the nature of the evidences among General +Jackson's papers to which I alluded. I stated them to him, as +embodied in General Jackson's 'Exposition,' to which you refer. Mr. +Lewis afterwards informed me that Mr. Calhoun had concluded to let +the matter rest as it was. This is all the answer I ever received +from Mr. Calhoun." + + + "EXPOSITION. + + "It will be recollected that in my correspondence with Mr. + Calhoun which he has published, I engaged, when the documents + should be at hand, to give a statement of facts respecting my + conduct in the Seminole campaign, which would present it in a + very different light from the one in which that gentleman has + placed it. + + "Although the time I am able to devote to the subject, engrossed + as I am in the discharge of my public duties, is entirely + inadequate to do it justice, yet from the course pursued by Mr. + Calhoun, from the frequent misrepresentations of my conduct + on that occasion, from the misapprehension of my motives for + entering upon that correspondence, from the solicitations of + numerous friends in different parts of the country, and in + compliance with that engagement, I present to my fellow-citizens + the following statement, with the documents on which it rests. + + "I am aware that there are some among us who deem it unfit + that the chief magistrate of this nation should, under any + circumstances, appear before the public in this manner, to + vindicate his conduct. These opinions or feelings may result + from too great fastidiousness, or from a supposed analogy + between his station and that of the first magistrate of other + countries, of whom it is said they can do no wrong, or they + may be well founded. I, however, entertain different opinions + on this subject. It seems to me that the course I now take of + appealing to the judgment of my fellow-citizens, if not in exact + conformity with past usage, at least springs from the spirit + of our popular institutions, which requires that the conduct + and character of every man, how elevated soever may be his + station should be fairly and freely submitted to the discussion + and decision of the people. Under this conviction I have acted + heretofore, and now act, not wishing this or any other part of + my public life to be concealed. I present my whole conduct in + connection with the subject of that correspondence in this form + to the indulgent but firm and enlightened consideration of my + fellow citizens. + +[Here follows a justification of Gen. Jackson's conduct under the +law of nations, and under the orders to Gen. Gaines, his predecessor +in the command.] + + "Such was the gradation of orders issued by the government. At + first they instructed their general '_not to pass the line_.' + He is next instructed to '_exercise a sound discretion as to + the necessity of crossing the line_.' He is then directed to + _consider himself 'at liberty to march across the Florida + line_,' but to halt, and report to the department in case the + Indians '_should shelter themselves under a Spanish fort_.' + Finally, after being informed of the atrocious massacre of the + men, women and children constituting the party of Lieutenant + Scott, they order a new general into the field, and direct + him to '_adopt the necessary measures to put an end to the + conflict_, without regard to territorial "_lines_," or "_Spanish + forts_."' Mr. Calhoun's own understanding of the order issued + by him, is forcibly and clearly explained in a letter written + by him in reply to the inquiries of Governor Bibb, of Alabama, + dated the 13th of May, 1818, in which he says:--'_General + Jackson is vested with full power to conduct the war as he may + think best._' + + "These orders were received by General Jackson at Nashville, + on the night of the 12th January, 1818, and he instantly took + measures to carry them into effect. + + "In the mean time, however, he had received copies of the orders + to General Gaines, to take possession of Amelia Island, and to + enter Florida, but halt and report to the department, in case + the Indians sheltered themselves under a Spanish fort. Approving + the policy of the former, and perceiving in the latter, dangers + to the army, and injury to the country, on the 6th of January + he addressed a confidential letter to the President, frankly + disclosing his views on both subjects. The following is a copy + of that letter, viz.:-- + + "NASHVILLE, _6th Jan._, 1818. + + "SIR:--a few days since, i received a letter from the Secretary + of War, of the 17th ult., with inclosures. Your order of the + 19th ult. through him to Brevet Major General Gaines to enter + the territory of Spain, and chastise the ruthless savages who + have been depredating on the property and lives of our citizens, + will meet not only the approbation of your country, but the + approbation of heaven. Will you however permit me to suggest + the catastrophe that might arise by General Gaines's compliance + with the last clause of your order? Suppose the case that the + Indians are beaten: they take refuge either in Pensacola or + St. Augustine, which open their gates to them: to profit by + his victory, General Gaines pursues the fugitives, and has to + halt before the garrison until he can communicate with his + government. In the mean time the militia grow restless, and he + is left to defend himself by the regulars. The enemy, with the + aid of their Spanish friends, and Woodbine's British partisans, + or, if you please with Aurey's force, attacks him. What may not + be the result? Defeat and massacre. Permit me to remark that the + arms of the United States must be carried to any point within + the limits of East Florida, where an enemy is permitted and + protected, or disgrace attends. + + "The Executive Government have ordered, and, as I conceive, + very properly, Amelia Island to be taken possession of. This + order ought to be carried into execution at all hazards, and + simultaneously the whole of East Florida seized, and held as an + indemnity for the outrages of Spain upon the property of our + citizens. This done, it puts all opposition down, secures our + citizens a complete indemnity, and saves us from a war with + Great Britain, or some of the continental powers combined with + Spain. This can be done without implicating the government. _Let + it be signified to me through any channel (say Mr. J. Rhea), + that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the + United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished._ + + "The order being given for the possession of Amelia Island, it + ought to be executed, or our enemies, internal and external, + will use it to the disadvantage of the government. If our troops + enter the territory of Spain in pursuit of our Indian enemy, all + opposition that they meet with must be put down, or we will be + involved in danger and disgrace. + + "I have the honor, &c. + + "ANDREW JACKSON. + + "JAMES MONROE, _President U. S._ + +"The course recommended by General Jackson in this letter relative +to the occupation of the Floridas accords with the policy which +dictated the secret act of Congress. He recommended no more than +the President had a right to do. In consequence of the occupation +of Amelia Island by the officers of the Colombian and Mexican +governments, and the attempt to occupy the whole province, the +President had a right, under the act of Congress, to order General +Jackson to take possession of it in the name of the United States. +He would have been the more justifiable in doing so, because the +inhabitants of the province, the Indian subjects of the King of +Spain, whom he was bound not only by the laws of nations, but by +treaty to restrain, were in open war with the United States. + +"Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary of War, was the first man who read this +letter after its reception at Washington. In a letter from Mr. +Monroe to General Jackson, dated 21st December, 1818, published in +the Calhoun correspondence, page 44, is the following account of the +reception, opening and perusal of this letter, viz.: 'Your letter +of January 6th, was received while I was seriously indisposed. +Observing that it was from you, I handed it to Mr. Calhoun to read, +after reading one or two lines only myself. The order to you to take +command in that quarter had before been issued. He remarked after +perusing the letter, that it was a confidential one relating to +Florida, _which I must answer_.' + +"In accordance with the advice of Mr. Calhoun, and availing himself +of the suggestion contained in the letter, Mr. Monroe sent for Mr. +John Rhea (then a member of Congress), showed him the confidential +letter, and requested him to answer it. In conformity with this +request Mr. Rhea did answer the letter, and informed General Jackson +that the President had shown him the confidential letter, and +requested him to state that he approved of its suggestions. This +answer was received by the general on the second night he remained +at Big Creek, which is four miles in advance of Hartford, Georgia, +and before his arrival at Fort Scott, to take command of the troops +in that quarter. + +"General Jackson had already received orders, vesting him with +discretionary powers in relation to the measures necessary to put an +end to the war. He had informed the President in his confidential +letter, that in his judgment it was necessary to seize and occupy +the whole of Florida. This suggestion had been considered by Mr. +Calhoun and the President, and approved. From this confidential +correspondence before he entered Florida, it was understood on _both +sides_, that under the order received by him he would occupy the +whole province, if an occasion to do so should present itself; as +Mr. Calhoun wrote to Governor Bibb, he was 'authorized to conduct +the war as he thought best;' and how he 'thought best' to conduct it +was then made known to the Executive, and approved, before he struck +a blow. + +"In the approval given by Mr. Monroe upon the advice of Mr. Calhoun +to the suggestions of General Jackson, he acted in strict obedience +to the laws of his country. By the secret act of Congress, the +President was authorized, under circumstances then existing, to +seize and occupy all Florida. Orders had been given which were +sufficiently general in their terms to cover that object. The +confidential correspondence, and private understanding, made them, +so far as regarded the parties, as effectually orders _to take and +occupy the Province of Florida as if that object had been declared +on their face_. + +"Under these circumstances General Jackson entered Florida with +a _perfect right_, according to international law, and the +constitution and laws of his country, to take possession of the +whole territory. He was clothed with all the power of the President, +and authorized 'to conduct the war as he thought best.' He had +orders as general and comprehensive as words could make them: he had +the confidential approbation of the President to his confidential +recommendation to seize Florida: and he entered the province with +the full knowledge that not only justice and policy but the laws +of his country, and the orders of the President as publicly and +privately explained and understood, would justify him in expelling +every Spanish garrison, and extending the jurisdiction of the United +States over every inch of its territory. + +"'Nevertheless, General Jackson, from his knowledge of the situation +of affairs in Florida, expected to find a justification for himself +in the conduct of the Spanish authorities. On the contrary, had +he found on entering the province that the agents and officers +of Spain, instead of instigating, encouraging and supplying the +Indians, had used all the means in their power to prevent and put an +end to hostilities, he would not have incurred the responsibility of +seizing their fortresses and expelling them from the country. But +he wrote to the President, and entered upon the campaign with other +expectations, and in these he was not disappointed. + +"As he approached St. Marks it was ascertained that it was a place +of rendezvous and a source of supply for the Indians. Their councils +had been held within its walls: its storehouses were appropriated +to their use: they had there obtained supplies of ammunition: there +they had found a market for their plunder: and in the commandant's +family resided Alexander Arbuthnot, the chief instigator of the +war. Moreover, the negroes and Indians under Ambrister threatened +to drive out the feeble Spanish garrison and take entire possession +of the fort, as a means of protection for themselves and annoyance +to the United States. In these circumstances General Jackson found +enough to justify him in assuming the responsibility of seizing and +occupying that post with an American garrison. + +"The Indians had been dispersed, and St. Marks occupied. No facts +had as yet appeared which would justify General Jackson in assuming +the responsibility of occupying the other Spanish posts in Florida. +He considered the war as at an end, and was about to discharge a +considerable portion of his force, when he was informed that a +portion of the hostile Indians had been received, fed and supplied +by the Spanish authorities in Pensacola. He therefore directed his +march upon that point. On his advance he received a letter from the +governor, denouncing his entry into Florida as a violent outrage +on the rights of Spain, requiring his immediate retreat from the +Territory, and threatening in case of refusal to use force to expel +him. This declaration of hostilities on the part of the Spanish +authorities, instead of removing, tended to increase the necessity +for the General's advance, because it was manifest to both parties +that if the American army then left Florida, the Indians, under +the belief that there they would always find a safe retreat, would +commence their bloody incursions upon our frontiers with redoubled +fury; and General Jackson was warned that if he left any portion of +his army to restrain the Indians, and retired with his main force, +the Spaniards would be openly united with the Indians to expel the +whole, and thus it became as necessary in order to terminate the war +to destroy or capture the Spanish force at Pensacola as the Indians +themselves. In this attitude of the Spanish governor, and in the +fact that the hostile Indians were received, fed, clothed, furnished +with munitions of war, and that their plunder was purchased in +Pensacola, General Jackson found a justification for seizing that +post also, and holding it in the name of the United States. + +"St. Augustine was still in the hands of the Spaniards, and no act +of the authorities or people of that place was known to General +Jackson previous to his return to Tennessee, which would sustain +him in assuming the responsibility of occupying that city. However, +about the 7th of August, 1818, he received information that the +Indians were there also received and supplied. On that day, +therefore, he issued an order to General Gaines, directing him to +collect the evidences of these facts, and if they were well founded, +to take possession of that place. The following is an extract from +that order: + +"'I have noted with attention Major Twiggs' letter marked No. 5. +I contemplated that the agents of Spain or the officers of Fort +St. Augustine would excite the Indians to hostility and furnish +them with the means. It will be necessary to obtain evidence +substantiating this fact, and that the hostile Indians have been +fed and furnished from the garrison of St. Augustine. This being +obtained, should you deem your force sufficient, you will proceed +to take and garrison with American troops, Fort St. Augustine, and +hold the garrison prisoners until you hear from the President of the +United States, or transport them to Cuba, as in your judgment under +existing circumstances you may think best.' + +"An order had some time before been given to the officer of ordnance +at Charleston, to have in readiness a battery train, and to him +General Gaines was referred. + +"The order to take St. Augustine has often been adduced as evidence +of General Jackson's determination to do as he pleased, without +regard to the orders or wishes of his government. Though justifiable +on the ground of self-defence, it would never have been issued but +for the confidential orders given to General Gaines and Colonel +Bankhead, to take possession of Amelia Island forcibly, if not +yielded peaceably, and when possessed, to retain and fortify it; +and the secret understanding which existed between him and the +government, in consequence of which he never doubted that he was +acting in compliance with the wishes, and in accordance with the +orders and expectations of the President and Secretary of War. + +"To show more conclusively the impressions under which General +Jackson acted, reference should be had to the fact that, after the +capture of the Spanish forts, he instructed Captain Gadsden to +prepare and report a plan for the permanent defence of Florida, +which was agreeable to the confidential orders to General Gaines and +Col. Bankhead before referred to. Of this he informed the Secretary +of War in a dispatch dated 2d June, 1818, of which the following is +an extract:-- + +"'Captain Gadsden is instructed to prepare and report on the +necessary defences as far as the military reconnoissances he has +taken will permit, accompanied with plans of existing works; what +additions or improvements are necessary, and what new works should, +in his opinion, be erected to _give permanent security to this +important territorial addition to our republic_. As soon as the +report is prepared, Captain Gadsden will receive orders to repair +to Washington City with some other documents which I may wish to +confide to his charge.' + +"This plan was completed and forwarded to Mr. Calhoun on the 10th +of the succeeding August, by Captain Gadsden himself, with a letter +from General Jackson, urging the necessity not only of retaining +possession of St. Marks, but Pensacola. The following is a part of +that letter: + +"'Captain Gadsden will also deliver you his report made in pursuance +of my order, accompanied with the plans of the fortifications +thought necessary for the defence of the Floridas, in connection +with the line of defence on our Southern frontier. + +"'This was done under the belief that the government will never +jeopardize the safety of the Union, or the security of our frontier, +by surrendering those posts, and the possession of the Floridas, +unless upon a sure guaranty agreeable to the stipulations of +the articles of capitulation, that will insure permanent peace, +tranquillity and security to our Southern frontier. It is believed +that Spain can never furnish this guaranty. As long as there are +Indians in Florida, and it is possessed by Spain, they will be +excited to war, and the indiscriminate murder of our citizens, by +foreign agents combined with the officers of Spain. The duplicity +and conduct of Spain for the last six years fully prove this. It was +on a belief that the Floridas would be held that my order was given +to Captain Gadsden to make the report he has done.' + +"Again: 'By Captain Gadsden you will receive some letters lately +inclosed to me, detailing the information that the Spaniards at Fort +St. Augustine are again exciting the Indians to war against us, and +a copy of my order to General Gaines on this subject. It is what +I expected, and proves the justice and sound policy of not only +holding the posts we are now in possession of, but of possessing +ourselves of St. Augustine. This, and this alone can give us peace +and security on "our Southern frontier."' + +"It is thus clearly shown that in taking possession of St. Marks and +Pensacola, and giving orders to take St. Augustine, I was acting +within the letter as well as spirit of my orders, and in accordance +with the secret understanding between the government and myself, +and under a full persuasion that these fortresses would never +again be permitted by our government to pass under the dominion of +Spain. From the time of writing my confidential letter of the 6th +of January to the date of this dispatch, the 10th of August, 1818, +I never had an intimation that the wishes of the government had +changed, or that less was expected of me, if the occasion should +prove favorable, than the occupation of the whole of Florida. On the +contrary, either by their direct approval of my measures, or their +silence, the President and Mr. Calhoun gave me reason to suppose +that I was to be sustained, and that the Floridas after being +occupied were to be held for the benefit of the United States. Upon +receiving my orders on the 11th of January, I took instant measures +to bring into the field a sufficient force to accomplish all the +objects suggested in my confidential letter of the 6th, of which I +informed the War Department, and Mr. Calhoun in his reply dated 29th +January, 1818, after the receipt of my confidential letter, and a +full knowledge and approbation of my views says:-- + +"'The measures you have taken to bring an efficient force into the +field are approbated, and a confident hope is entertained that a +speedy and successful termination of the Indian war will follow your +exertions.' + +"Having received further details of my preparations, not only to +terminate the Seminole war, but, as the President and his Secretary +well knew, _to occupy Florida also_, Mr. Calhoun on the 6th +February, writes as follows:-- + +"'I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the +20th ult., and to acquaint you with the entire approbation of the +President of all the measures you have adopted to terminate the +rupture with the Indians.' + +"On the 13th of May following, with a full knowledge that I intended +if a favorable occasion presented itself to occupy Florida, and +that the design had the approbation of the President, Mr. Calhoun +wrote to Governor Bibb, of Alabama, the letter already alluded to, +concluding as follows:-- + +"'General Jackson is vested with full powers to conduct the war in +the manner he may deem best.' + +"On the 25th of March, 1818, I informed Mr. Calhoun that I intended +to occupy St. Marks, and on the 8th of April I informed him that it +was done. + +"Not a whisper of disapprobation or of doubt reached me from the +government. + +"On the 5th May I wrote to Mr. Calhoun that I was about to move upon +Pensacola with a view of occupying that place. + +"Again, no reply was ever given disapproving or discountenancing +this movement. + +"On the 2d of June I informed Mr. Calhoun that I had on the 24th May +entered Pensacola, and on the 28th had received the surrender of the +Barrancas. + +"Again no reply was given to this letter expressing any disapproval +of these acts. + +"In fine, from the receipt of the President's reply to my +confidential letter of 6th January, 1818, through Mr. Rhea, until +the receipt of the President's private letter, dated 19th July, +1818, I received no instructions or intimations from the government +public or private that my operations in Florida were other than such +as the President and Secretary of War expected and approved. I had +not a doubt that I had acted in every respect in strict accordance +with their views, and that without publicly avowing that they had +authorized my measures they were ready at all times and under all +circumstances to sustain me; and that as there were sound reasons +and justifiable cause for taking possession of Florida, they would +in pursuance of their private understanding with me retain it as +indemnity for the spoliations committed by Spanish subjects on our +citizens, and as security for the peace of our Southern frontier. +I was willing to rest my vindication for taking the posts on the +hostile conduct of their officers and garrisons, bearing all the +responsibility myself: but I expected my government would find in +their claims upon Spain, and the danger to which our frontier would +again be exposed, sufficient reasons for not again delivering them +into the possession of Spain. + +"It was late in August before I received official information of +the decision of the government to restore the posts, and about the +same time I saw it stated in the Georgia Journal that the cabinet +had been divided in relation to the course pursued by me in Florida; +and also an extract of a letter in a Nashville paper, alleging +that a movement had been made in the cabinet against me which was +attributed to Mr. Crawford, in which extract it is expressly stated +that I had been triumphantly vindicated by _Mr. Calhoun_ and Mr. +Adams. Being convinced that the course I had pursued was justified +by considerations of public policy, by the laws of nations, by the +state of things to which I have referred, and by the instructions, +intimations, and acquiescence of the government, and believing that +the latter had been communicated to all the members of the cabinet, +I considered that such a movement by Mr. Crawford was founded on +considerations foreign to the public interests, and personally +inimical to me; and therefore, after these public and explicit +intimations of what had occurred in the cabinet, I was prepared +to, and did believe that Mr. Crawford was bent on my destruction, +and was the author of the movement in the cabinet to which they +referred. I the more readily entertained this belief in relation to +him (in which I am rejoiced to avail myself of this public occasion +to say I did him injustice) because it was impossible that I should +suspect that any proposition to punish or censure me could come +from either the President or Mr. Calhoun, as I well knew that I +had expressed to the President my opinion that Florida ought to be +taken, and had offered to take it if he would give me an intimation +through Mr. Rhea that it was desirable to do so, which intimation +was given; that they had given me orders broad enough to sanction +all that was done; that Mr. Calhoun had expressly interpreted +those orders vesting me 'with full power to conduct the war as he +(I) might think best;' that they had expressly approved of all my +preparations, and in silence witnessed all my operations. Under +these circumstances it was impossible for me to believe, whatever +change might have taken place in their views of public policy, +that either the President or Mr. Calhoun could have originated or +countenanced any proposition tending to cast censure upon me, much +less to produce my arrest, trial, and punishment. + +"If these facts and statements could have left room for a doubt +in relation to Mr. Calhoun's approval of my conduct and of his +friendship for me, I had other evidence of a nature perfectly +conclusive. In August, 1818, Colonel A. P. Hayne, Inspector General +of the Southern Division, who had served in this campaign, came to +Washington to settle his accounts, and resign his staff appointment +in the army. He was the fellow-citizen and friend of Mr. Calhoun +and held constant personal interviews with him for some weeks in +settling his accounts. On the 24th September he addressed a letter +to me, stating that he had closed his public accounts entirely to +his satisfaction, and in relation to public affairs among other +things remarks:-- + +"'The course the administration has thought proper to adopt is to +me _inexplicable_. They _retain St. Marks_, and in the same breath +_give up_ Pensacola. Who can comprehend this? The American nation +possesses discernment, and will judge for themselves. Indeed, sir, +I fear that Mr. Monroe has on the present occasion yielded to the +opinion of those about him. I cannot believe that it is the result +of his own honest convictions. Mr. Calhoun certainly thinks with you +altogether, although after the decision of the cabinet, he must of +course nominally support what has been done.' And in another letter, +dated 21st January, 1819, he says: 'Since I last saw you I have +travelled through West and East Tennessee, through Kentucky, through +Ohio, through the western and eastern part of Pennsylvania, and the +whole of Virginia--have been much in Baltimore and Philadelphia, and +the united voice of the people of those States and towns (and I have +taken great pains to inform myself) approve of your conduct in every +respect. And the people of the United States at large entertain +precisely the same opinion with the people of those States. So does +the administration, to wit: Mr. Monroe, _Mr. Calhoun_, and Mr. +Adams. Mr. Monroe is your _friend_. He has _identified_ you with +himself. After the most mature reflection and deliberation upon all +of your operations, he has covered your conduct. But I am candid +to confess that he did not adopt this line of conduct (in my mind) +as soon as he ought to have done. Mr. Adams has done honor to his +country and himself.' + +"Colonel Hayne is a man of honor, and did not intend to deceive; I +had no doubt, and have none now, that he derived his impressions +from conversations with Mr. Calhoun himself; nor have I any +doubt that Mr. Calhoun purposely conveyed those impressions that +they might be communicated to me. Without other evidence than +this letter, how could I have understood Mr. Calhoun otherwise +than as approving my whole conduct, and as having defended me in +the cabinet? How could I have understood any seeming dissent in +his official communications otherwise than as arising from his +obligation to give a 'nominal support' to the decision of the +cabinet which in reality he disapproved? + +"The reply to my confidential letter, the approval of my +preparations, the silence of Mr. Calhoun during the campaign, the +enmity of Mr. Crawford, the language of the newspapers, the letters +of Colonel Hayne, and other letters of similar import from other +gentlemen who were on familiar terms with the Secretary of War, +left no doubt on my mind that Mr. Calhoun approved of my conduct in +the Seminole war 'altogether;' had defended me against an attack +of Mr. Crawford in the cabinet, and was, throughout the struggle +in Congress so deeply involving my character and fame, my devoted +and zealous friend. This impression was confirmed by the personal +kindness of Mr. Calhoun towards me, during my visit to this city, +pending the proceedings of Congress relative to the Seminole war, +and on every after occasion. Nor was such conduct confined to me +alone, for however inconsistent with his proposition in the cabinet, +that I should 'be punished in some form,' or in the language of +Mr. Adams, as to what passed there 'that General Jackson should be +brought to trial,' in several conversations with Colonel Richard M. +Johnson, while he was preparing the counter report of the Military +Committee of the House of Representatives, Mr. Calhoun always spoke +of me with respect and kindness, _and approved of my course_. + +"So strong was my faith in Mr. Calhoun's friendship that the +appointment of Mr. Lacock, shortly after he had made his report upon +the Seminole war in the Senate, to an important office, although +inexplicable to me, did not shake it. + +"I was informed by Mr. Rankin (member of the House of +Representatives from Mississippi), and others in 1823 and 1824, +once in the presence of Colonel Thomas H. Williams (of Mississippi) +of the Senate, that I had blamed Mr. Crawford unjustly and that +Mr. Calhoun was the instigator of the attacks made upon me: yet in +consequence of the facts and circumstances already recapitulated +tending to prove Mr. Calhoun's approval of my course, I could not +give the assertion the least credit. + +"Again in 1825 Mr. Cobb told me that I blamed Mr. Crawford +wrongfully both for the attempt to injure me in the cabinet, and +for having an agency in framing the resolutions which he (Mr. +Cobb) offered in Congress censuring my conduct in the Seminole +war. He stated on the contrary that Mr. Crawford was opposed to +those resolutions and always asserted that '_General Jackson had +a sufficient defence whenever he chose to make it, and that the +attempt to censure him would do him good, and recoil upon its +authors_;' yet it was impossible for me to believe that Mr. Calhoun +had been my enemy; on the contrary I did not doubt that he had been +my devoted friend, not only through all those difficulties, but in +the contest for the Presidency which ended in the election of Mr. +Adams. + +"In the Spring of 1828 the impression of Mr. Calhoun's rectitude +and fidelity towards me was confirmed by an incident which occurred +during the progress of an effort to reconcile all misunderstanding +between him and Mr. Crawford and myself. Colonel James A. Hamilton +of New-York inquired of Mr. Calhoun himself, at Washington, +'whether at any meeting of Mr. Monroe's cabinet the propriety of +arresting General Jackson for any thing done during the Seminole +war had been at any time discussed?' Mr. Calhoun replied, 'Never: +such a measure was not thought of, much less discussed. The only +point before the cabinet was the answer to be given to the Spanish +government.' In consequence of this conversation Colonel Hamilton +wrote to Major Lewis, a member of the Nashville committee, that +'the Vice-President, who you know was the member of the cabinet +best acquainted with the subject, told me General Jackson's arrest +was never thought of, much less discussed.' Information of this +statement renewed and strengthened the impression relative to the +friendship of Mr. Calhoun, which I had entertained from the time of +the Seminole war. + +"In a private letter to Mr. Calhoun dated 25th May, 1828, written +after the conversation with Colonel Hamilton had been communicated +to me, I say in relation to the Seminole war: + +"'I can have no wish at this day to obtain an explanation of the +orders under which I acted whilst charged with the campaign against +the Seminole Indians in Florida. I viewed them when received as +plain and explicit, and called for by the situation of the country. +I executed them faithfully, and was happy in reply to my reports to +the Department of War to receive your approbation for it.' + +"Again: 'The fact is, I never had the least ground to believe +(previous to the reception of Mr. Monroe's letter of 19th July, +1818) that any difference of opinion between the government and +myself existed on the subject of my powers. So far from this, to the +communications which I made showing the construction which I placed +upon them, there was not only no difference of opinion indicated in +the replies of the Executive but as far as I received replies, an +entire approval of the measures which I had adopted.' + +"This was addressed directly from me to Mr. Calhoun, in May, 1828. +In his reply Mr. Calhoun does not inform me that I was in error. +He does not tell me that he disapproved my conduct, and thought I +ought to have been punished for a violation of orders. He does not +inform me that he or any other had proposed in the cabinet council a +court of inquiry, or any other court. He says nothing inconsistent +with the impression already made upon my mind--nothing which might +not have been expected from one who had been obliged to give a +'nominal support' to a decision which he disapproved. His reply, +dated 10th July, 1828, is in these words: + +"'Any discussion of them' (the orders) 'now, I agree with you, +would be unnecessary. They are matters of history, and must be +left to the historian as they stand. In fact I never did suppose +that the justification of yourself or the government depended on a +critical construction of them. It is sufficient for both that they +were honestly issued, and honestly executed, without involving the +question whether they were executed strictly in accordance with the +intention that they were issued. Honest and patriotic motives are +all that can be required, and I never doubted that they existed on +both sides.' + +"It was certainly impossible for me to conceive that Mr. Calhoun +had urged in cabinet council a court of inquiry with a view to my +ultimate punishment for violation of orders which he admitted were +'_honestly executed_,' especially as he _never doubted_ that my +'motives' were '_honest and patriotic_.' After this letter I could +not have doubted, if I had before, that Mr. Calhoun had zealously +vindicated my 'honest and patriotic' acts in Mr. Monroe's cabinet +against the supposed attacks of Mr. Crawford, as had long before +been announced. I could not have doubted that Mr. Calhoun 'thought +with me altogether,' as I had been informed by Colonel Hayne. I +could not have conceived that Mr. Calhoun had _ever_ called in +question my compliance with my orders, when he says he '_never +did suppose_' that my '_justification_ depended on a critical +construction of them,' and 'that it was sufficient that they were +honestly executed.' + +"By the unlimited authority conferred on me by my orders; by the +writing and reception of my confidential letter and the answer +thereto advised by Mr. Calhoun; by the positive approval of all my +preparatory measures and the silence of the government during my +operations; by uncontradicted publications in the newspapers; by +positive assurances received through the friends of Mr. Calhoun; by +Mr. Calhoun's declaration to Colonel Hamilton; and finally by his +own assurance that he never doubted the honesty or patriotism with +which I executed my orders, which he '_deemed sufficient_' without +inquiring '_whether they were executed strictly in accordance with +the intention that they were issued_,' I was authorized to believe +and did believe that Mr. Calhoun had been my devoted friend, +defending on all occasions, public and private, my whole conduct +in the Seminole war. With these impressions I entered upon the +discharge of the duties of President, in March, 1829. + +"Recent disclosures prove that these impressions were entirely +erroneous, and that Mr. Calhoun himself was the author of the +proposition made in the cabinet to subject me to a court of inquiry +with a view to my ultimate punishment for a violation of orders. + +"My feelings towards Mr. Calhoun continued of the most friendly +character until my suspicions of his fairness were awakened by the +following incident. The late Marshal of the District of Columbia +(Mr. Tench Ringold), conversing with a friend of mine in relation to +the Seminole war, spoke in strong terms of Mr. Monroe's support of +me; and upon being informed that I had always regarded Mr. Calhoun +as my firm and undeviating friend and supporter, and particularly +on that occasion, Mr. Ringold replied that _Mr. Calhoun was the +first man to move in the cabinet for my punishment, and that he +was against me on that subject_. Informed of this conversation, +and recurring to the repeated declarations that had been made to +me by different persons and at different times, that Mr. Calhoun, +and not Mr. Crawford, was the person who had made that movement +against me in the cabinet, and observing the mysterious opposition +that had shown itself, particularly among those who were known to +be the friends and partisans of Mr. Calhoun, and that the measures +which I had recommended to the consideration of Congress, and +which appeared to have received the approbation of the people, +were neglected or opposed in that quarter whence I had a right to +believe they would have been brought forward and sustained, I felt +a desire to see the written statement which I had been informed Mr. +Crawford had made, in relation to the proceedings of the cabinet, +that I might ascertain its true character. I sought and obtained +it, in the manner heretofore stated, and immediately sent it to +Mr. Calhoun, and asked him frankly whether it was possible that +the information given in it was correct? His answer, which he has +given to the world, indeed, as I have before stated, surprised, nay, +astonished me. I had always refused to believe, notwithstanding +the various assurances I had received, that Mr. Calhoun could be +so far regardless of that duty which the plainest principles of +justice and honor imposed upon him, as to propose the punishment +of a subordinate officer for the violation of orders which were so +evidently discretionary as to permit me as he (Mr. Calhoun) informed +Governor Bibb, 'to conduct the war as he may think best.' But the +fact that he so acted has been affirmed by all who were present on +the occasion, and admitted by himself.[4] + + [4] Mr. Calhoun in his conversation with Colonel Hamilton, + substantially denied that such a proposition as that which he now + admits he made, was ever submitted to the cabinet. He is asked + "whether at any meeting of Mr. Monroe's cabinet the propriety of + arresting General Jackson for any thing done during the Seminole + war had been at any time discussed." He replies "Never; such a + measure was not thought of, much less discussed: _the only point + before the cabinet was the answer to be given to the Spanish + government._" By the last branch of the answer the denial is made + to embrace the whole subject in any form it might have assumed, + and therefore deprives Mr. Calhoun of all grounds of cavil or + escape by alleging that he only proposed a military inquiry, and + not an arrest, and that he did not therefore answer the inquiry + in the negative. But again when Colonel Hamilton submitted to Mr. + Calhoun his recollection of the conversation that Mr. Calhoun might + correct it if erroneous, and informed him that he did so because + he intended to communicate in to Major Lewis, Mr. Calhoun did not + question the correctness of Colonel Hamilton's recollection of the + conversation; he does not qualify or alter it; he does not say, as + in frankness he was bound to do--"It is true, the proposition to + arrest General Jackson was not discussed, but an inquiry into his + conduct in that war was discussed on a proposition to that end made + by me." He does not say that the answer to the Spanish government + was not the only point before the cabinet, but he endeavors, without + denying as was alleged by Colonel Hamilton that this part of the + conversation was understood between them to be confidential, to + prevent him from making it public, and to that end and that alone + he writes a letter of ten pages on the sacredness of cabinet + deliberations. Why, let us ask, did Mr. Calhoun upon reflection feel + so much solicitude to prevent a disclosure of his answer to Colonel + Hamilton, which if true could not injure him? At first, although put + upon his guard, he admits that this part of the conversation was + not confidential, although it referred to what was, as well as what + was not done in cabinet council. The reason is to be found in his + former involutions, and in the fact that the answer was not true, + and in his apprehension that if that answer was made public, Mr. + Crawford, who entertained the worst opinions of Mr. Calhoun, and who + had suffered in General Jackson's opinion on this subject, would + immediately disclose the whole truth, as he has since done; and that + thus the veil worn out, of the sacredness of cabinet deliberations + under which Mr. Calhoun upon second thought had endeavored to + conceal himself, would be raised, and he would be exposed to public + indignation and scorn. This could alone be the motive for his + extreme anxiety to prevent Colonel Hamilton from communicating the + result of an inquiry made by him from the best and purest motives, + to the persons who had prompted that inquiry from like motives. + + "That Mr. Calhoun, with his knowledge of facts and + circumstances, should have dared to make such a proposition, can + only be accounted for from the sacredly confidential character + which he attaches to the proceedings of a cabinet council. His + views of this subject are strongly expressed in his printed + correspondence, page 15. 'I am not at all surprised,' says he, + 'that Mr. Crawford should feel that he stands in need of an + apology for betraying the deliberations of the cabinet. It is, + I believe, not only the first instance in our country, but one + of a very few instances in any country, or any age, that an + individual has felt himself absolved from the high obligations + which honor and duty impose on one situated as he was.' It was + under this veil, which he supposed to be for ever impenetrable, + that Mr. Calhoun came forward and denounced those measures which + he knew were not only impliedly, but positively authorized by + the President himself. He proposed to take preparatory steps for + the punishment of General Jackson, whose '_honest and patriotic + motives he never doubted_,' for the violation of orders which he + admits were '_honestly executed_.' That he expected to succeed + with his proposition so long as there was a particle of honor, + honesty, or prudence left to President Monroe, is not to be + imagined. The movement was intended for some future contingency, + which perhaps Mr. Calhoun himself only can certainly explain. + + "The shape in which this proposition was made is variously + stated. Mr. Calhoun, in the printed correspondence, page 15, + says: 'I was of the impression that you had exceeded your + orders, and acted on your own responsibility, but I neither + questioned your patriotism nor your motives. Believing that + where orders were transcended, investigation as a matter of + course ought to follow, as due in justice to the government and + the officer, unless there be strong reasons to the contrary, + I came to the [cabinet] meeting under the impression that the + usual course ought to be pursued in this case, which I supported + by presenting fully and freely all the arguments that occurred + to me.' + + "Mr. Crawford, in his letter to Mr. Forsyth, published in the + same correspondence, page 9, says: 'Mr. Calhoun's proposition in + the cabinet was, that General Jackson should be punished in some + form, or reprehended in some form, I am not positively certain + which.' + + "Mr. Adams, in a letter to Mr. Crawford, dated 30th July, 1830, + says: 'The main point upon which it was urged that General + Jackson should be _brought to trial_, was, that he had violated + his orders by taking St. Marks and Pensacola.' + + "Mr. Crowninshield, in a letter to Mr. Crawford, dated 25th + July, 1830, says: 'I remember too, that Mr. Calhoun was severe + upon the conduct of General Jackson, but the words particularly + spoken have slipped my memory.' + + "From the united testimony it appears that Mr. Calhoun made a + proposition for a court of inquiry upon the conduct of General + Jackson, upon the charge of having violated his orders in + taking St. Marks and Pensacola, with a view to his ultimate + trial and punishment, and that he was severe in his remarks + upon that conduct. But the President would listen to no such + proposition. Mr. Crawford, in his letter to Mr. Calhoun, dated + 2d October, 1830, says: 'You remembered the excitement which + your proposition produced in the mind and on the feelings of the + President, and did not dare to ask him any question tending to + revive his recollection of that proposition.' This excitement + was very natural. Hearing the very member of his cabinet whom he + had consulted upon the subject of General Jackson's confidential + letter, and who had advised the answer which had approved + beforehand the capture of St. Marks and Pensacola and who on the + 8th September, 1818, wrote to General Jackson, that 'St. Marks + will be retained till Spain shall be ready to garrison it with + a sufficient force, and Fort Gadsden, and any other position + in East or West Florida within the Indian country, which may + be deemed eligible, will be retained so long as there is any + danger, which, it is hoped, will afford the desired security,' + make a proposition which went to stamp his character with + treachery, by the punishment of General Jackson for those very + acts, it was impossible that Mr. Monroe should not be excited. + He must have been more than human, or less, to have beheld Mr. + Calhoun uttering violent philippics against General Jackson for + those acts, without the strongest emotion. + + "Mr. Calhoun's proposition was rejected, as he knew it would be, + and he came from behind the veil of cabinet secrecy all smiles + and professions of regard and friendship for General Jackson! + It was then that by his deceitful conversations he induced + Colonel Hayne and others to inform General Jackson, that so + far from thinking that he had violated his orders and ought to + be punished, he disapproved and only nominally supported the + more friendly decision of the cabinet, and thought with him + altogether! There was no half-way feeling in his friendship! + So complete and entire was the deception, that while General + Jackson was passing through Virginia the next winter on his way + to Washington, he toasted '_John C. Calhoun_,' as '_an honest + man, the noblest work of God._' Who can paint the workings of + the guilty Calhoun's soul when he read that toast!! + + "But Mr. Calhoun was not content with the attack made by him + upon General Jackson's character and fame in the dark recesses + of Mr. Monroe's cabinet. At the next session of Congress + the same subject was taken in hand in both houses. Mr. Cobb + came forward with his resolutions of censure in the House of + Representatives, where, after a long discussion, the assailants + were signally defeated. Mr. Lacock headed a committee in the + Senate which was engaged in the affair from the 18th December, + 1818, to the 24th February, 1819, when they made a report + full of bitterness against General Jackson. It charged him + with a violation of the laws and constitution of his country; + disobedience of orders; disregard of the principles of humanity, + and almost every crime which a military man can commit. + + "It was not suspected at the time that this report owed any of + its bitterness to Mr. Calhoun, yet that such was the fact is now + susceptible of the strongest proof! + + "While the attacks upon General Jackson were in progress in + Congress his presence in the city was thought to be necessary by + his friends. Colonel Robert Butler, then in Washington, wrote to + him to that effect. A few days afterwards Mr. Calhoun accosted + him, and asked him in an abrupt manner why he had written to + General Jackson to come to the city. Colonel Butler answered, + 'that he might see that justice was done him in person.' Mr. + Calhoun turned from him without speaking another word with an + air of anger and vexation which made an indelible impression + on the colonel's mind. It was obvious enough that he did not + desire, but rather feared General Jackson's presence in the + city. Colonel Butler's letter to General Jackson, dated the 9th + June, 1831, is in these words: + + "'When in Washington in the winter of 1818-'19, finding the + course which Congress appeared to be taking on the Seminole + question, I wrote you that I esteemed it necessary that you + should be present at Washington. Having done so, I communicated + this fact to our friend Bronaugh, who held the then Secretary + of War in high estimation. The succeeding evening, while at + the French Minister's, he came to me and inquired in a tone + somewhat abrupt, what could induce me to write for General + Jackson to come to the city--(Bronaugh having informed him that + I had done so)--to which I replied, perhaps as sternly, "_that + he may in person have justice done him_." The Secretary turned + on his heel, and so ended the conversation; but there was a + something inexplicable in the countenance that subsequent events + have given meaning to. After your arrival at Washington, we + were on a visit at the Secretary's, and examining a map--(the + Yellow Stone expedition of the Secretary's being the subject of + conversation)--Mr. Lacock, of the Senate, was announced to the + Secretary, who remarked--"Do not let him come in now, General + Jackson is here, but will soon be gone, when I can see him." + There was nothing strange in all this; but the whispered manner + and apparent agitation fastened on my mind the idea that Mr. + Calhoun and Lacock understood each other on the Seminole matter. + Such were my impressions at the time.' + + "On my arrival, however, in January, 1819, Mr. Calhoun treated + me with marked kindness. The latter part of Colonel Butler's + letter, as to Mr. Lacock, is confirmed by my own recollection + that one day when Mr. Calhoun and myself were together in the + War Department, the messenger announced Mr. Lacock at the door: + Mr. Calhoun, in a hurried manner, pronounced the name of General + Jackson, and Mr. Lacock did not come in. This circumstance + indicated an intimacy between them, but I inferred nothing from + it unfavorable to Mr. Calhoun. + + "In speaking of my confidential letter to Mr. Monroe (printed + correspondence, page 19), Mr. Calhoun states, that after + reading it when received, 'I thought no more of it. Long after, + I think it was at the commencement of the next session of + Congress, I heard some allusion which brought that letter to my + recollection. It was from a quarter which induced me to believe + that it came from Mr. Crawford. I called and mentioned it to Mr. + Monroe, and found that he had entirely forgotten the letter. + After searching some time he found it among some other papers, + and read it, as he told me, for the first time.' + + "The particular '_quarter_' whence the '_allusion_' which + called up the recollection of this confidential letter came, + Mr. Calhoun has not thought proper to state. Probably it was + Mr. Lacock, who was the friend of Mr. Crawford. Probably he + applied to Mr. Calhoun for information, and Mr. Calhoun went + to the President, and requested a sight of that letter that he + might communicate its contents to Mr. Lacock. Mr. Lacock was + appointed upon the committee on the Seminole war, on the 18th + December. On the 21st of that month the recollection of the + confidential letter was first in the mind of Mr. Monroe, for on + that day, in a letter to General Jackson, he gives an account + of its reception, and the disposition made of it. Probably, + therefore, it was about the time that Mr. Lacock undertook the + investigation of this affair in the Senate, and that it was for + his information that Mr. Calhoun called on Mr. Monroe to inquire + about this letter. + + "Nay, it is _certain_ that the existence and contents of this + letter _were_ about that time _communicated to Mr. Lacock: that + he conversed freely and repeatedly with Mr. Calhoun upon the + whole subject: that he was informed of all that had passed: the + views of the President, of Mr. Calhoun, and the cabinet, and + that Mr. Calhoun coincided with Mr. Lacock in all his views_. + + "These facts are stated _upon the authority of Mr. Lacock + himself_. + + "The motives of these secret communications to Mr. Lacock by Mr. + Calhoun cannot be mistaken. By communicating the contents of the + confidential letter, and withholding the fact that an approving + answer had been returned, he wished to impress Mr. Lacock with + the belief that General Jackson had predetermined before he + entered Florida, to seize the Spanish posts, right or wrong, + with orders or without. Acting under this impression, he would + be prepared to discredit and disbelieve all General Jackson's + explanations and defences, and put the worst construction upon + every circumstance disclosed in the investigation. By this + perfidy General Jackson was deprived of all opportunity to make + an effectual defence. To him Mr. Calhoun was all smiles and + kindness. He believed him his friend, seeking by all proper + means, in public and private, to shield him from the attacks + of his enemies. Having implicit confidence in Mr. Calhoun and + the President, he would sooner have endured the tortures of + the inquisition than have disclosed their answer to his letter + through Mr. Rhea. The tie which he felt, Mr. Calhoun felt + not. He did not scruple to use one side of a correspondence + to destroy a man, his friend, who confided in him with the + faith and affection of a brother--when he knew that man felt + bound by obligations from which no considerations short of a + knowledge of his own perfidy could absolve him, to hold the + other side in eternal silence. General Jackson had no objection + to a disclosure of the whole correspondence. There was nothing + in it of which he was ashamed, or which on his own account he + wished to conceal. Public policy made it inexpedient that the + world should know at that time how far the government had + approved beforehand of his proceedings. But had he known that + Mr. Calhoun was attempting to destroy him by secretly using + one side of the correspondence, he would have been justified + by the laws of self-defence in making known the other. He saw + not, heard not, imagined not, that means so perfidious and + dishonorable were in use to destroy him. It never entered his + confiding heart that the hand he shook with the cordiality of a + warm friend was secretly pointing out to his enemies the path by + which they might ambuscade and destroy him. He was incapable of + conceiving that the honeyed tongue, which to him spake nothing + but kindness, was secretly conveying poison into the ears of Mr. + Lacock, and other members of Congress. It could not enter his + mind that his confidential letters, the secrets of the cabinet, + and the opinions of its members, were all secretly arrayed + against him by the friend in whom he implicitly confided, + misinterpreted and distorted, without giving him an opportunity + for self-defence or explanation. + + "Mr. Calhoun's object was accomplished. Mr. Lacock made a + report far transcending in bitterness any thing which even in + the opinion of General Jackson's enemies the evidence seemed + to justify. This extraordinary and unaccountable severity is + now explained. It proceeded from the secret and perfidious + representations of Mr. Calhoun, based on General Jackson's + confidential letter. Mr. Lacock ought to be partially excused, + and stand before the world comparatively justified. For most of + the injustice done by his report to the soldier who had risked + all for his country, Mr. Calhoun _is the responsible man_. + + "As dark as this transaction is, a shade is yet to be added. + It was not enough that General Jackson had been deceived and + betrayed by a professing friend; that the contents of his + confidential correspondence had been secretly communicated + to his open enemies, while all information of the reply was + withheld: it was not enough that an official report overflowing + with bitterness had gone out to the world to blast his fame, + which must stand for ever recorded in the history of his + country. Lest some accident might expose the evidences of the + understanding under which he acted, and the duplicity of his + secret accuser, means must be taken to procure the destruction + of the answer to the confidential letter through Mr. Rhea. They + were these. About the time Mr. Lacock made his report General + Jackson and Mr. Rhea were both in the city of Washington. Mr. + Rhea called on General Jackson, as he said, at the request + of Mr. Monroe, and begged him on his return home to burn his + reply. He said the President feared that by the death of General + Jackson, or some other accident, it might fall into the hands + of those who would make an improper use of it. He therefore + conjured him by the friendship which had always existed between + them (and by his obligations as a brother mason) to destroy it + on his return to Nashville. Believing Mr. Monroe and Mr. Calhoun + to be his devoted friends, and not deeming it _possible_ that + any incident could occur which would require or justify its use, + he gave Mr. Rhea the promise he solicited, and accordingly after + his return to Nashville he burnt Mr. Rhea's letter, and on his + letter-book opposite the copy of his confidential letter to Mr. + Monroe made this entry:-- + + "_'Mr. Rhea's letter in answer is burnt this 12th April, 1819.'_ + + "Mr. Calhoun's management was thus far completely triumphant. + He had secretly assailed General Jackson in cabinet council, + and caused it to be publicly announced that he was his friend. + While the confiding soldier was toasting him as 'an honest man, + the noblest work of God,' he was betraying his confidential + correspondence to his enemy, and laying the basis of a document + which was intended to blast his fame and ruin his character in + the estimation of his countrymen. Lest accident should bring the + truth to light, and expose his duplicity, he procures through + the President and Mr. Rhea the destruction of the approving + answer to the confidential letter. Mr. Rhea was an old man and + General Jackson's health feeble. In a few years all who were + supposed to have any knowledge of the reply would be in their + graves. Every trace of the approval given beforehand by the + government to the operations of General Jackson would soon be + obliterated, and the undivided responsibility would forever + rest on his head. At least, should accident or policy bring to + light the duplicity of Mr. Calhoun, he might deny all knowledge + of this reply, and challenge its production. He might defend + his course in the cabinet and extenuate his disclosures to Mr. + Lacock, by maintaining before the public that he had always + believed General Jackson violated his orders and ought to have + been punished. At the worst, the written reply if once destroyed + could never be recalled from the flames; and should General + Jackson still be living, his assertion might not be considered + more conclusive than Mr. Calhoun's denial. In any view it was + desirable to him that this letter should be destroyed, and + through his management, as is verily believed, it was destroyed. + + "Happily however for the truth of history and the cause of + public justice, the writer of the reply is still alive; and + from a journal kept at the time, is able to give an accurate + account of this transaction. He testifies directly to the + writing of the letter, to its contents, and the means taken to + secure its destruction. Judge Overton, to whom the letter was + confidentially shown, testifies directly to the existence of the + letter, and to the fact that General Jackson afterwards told him + it was destroyed. + + "These, with the statement of General Jackson himself, and the + entry in his letter-book which was seen by several persons many + years ago, fix these facts beyond a doubt. + + "Certainly the history of the world scarcely presents a parallel + to this transaction. It has been seen with what severity + Mr. Calhoun denounced Mr. Crawford for revealing the secret + proceedings of the cabinet: with what justice may a retort of + tenfold severity be made upon him, when he not only reveals to + Mr. Lacock the proceedings of the cabinet, but the confidential + letter of a confiding friend, not for the benefit of that + friend, but through misrepresentation of the transaction and + concealment of the reply, to aid his enemies in accomplishing + his destruction. It was doubtless expected that Mr. Lacock would + produce a document which would overwhelm General Jackson and + destroy him in public estimation. In that event the proceedings + of the cabinet would no longer have been held sacred. The + erroneous impression made on the public mind would have been + corrected, and the world have been informed that Mr. Calhoun + not only disapproved the acts of General Jackson, but had in + the cabinet attempted in vain to procure his punishment. As + the matter stood, the responsibility of attacking the General + rested on Mr. Crawford, and had the decision of the people been + different, the responsibility of _defending_ him would have + been thrown exclusively upon Mr. Adams, and Mr. Calhoun would + have claimed the merit of the attack. But until the public + should decide, it was not prudent to lose the friendship of + General Jackson, which might be of more service to Mr. Calhoun + than the truth. It was thus at the sacrifice of every principle + of honor and friendship that Mr. Calhoun managed to throw all + responsibility on his political rivals, and profit by the result + of these movements whatever it might be. It cannot be doubted, + however, that Mr. Calhoun expected the entire prostration of + General Jackson, and managed to procure the destruction of Mr. + Rhea's letter, for the purpose of disarming the friend he had + betrayed, that he might, with impunity when the public should + have pronounced a sentence of condemnation, have come forward + and claimed the merit of having been the first to denounce him. + + "The people however sustained General Jackson against the + attacks of all his enemies, public and private, open and secret, + and therefore it became convenient for Mr. Calhoun to retain + his mask, to appear as the friend of one whom the people had + pronounced their friend, and to let Mr. Crawford bear the unjust + imputation of having assailed him in the cabinet. + + "It must be confessed that the mask was worn with consummate + skill. Mr. Calhoun was understood by all of General Jackson's + friends to be his warm and able defender. When, in 1824, Mr. + Calhoun was withdrawn from the lists as a candidate for the + Presidency, the impression made on the friends of General + Jackson was that he did it to favor the election of their + favorite, when it is believed to be susceptible of proof that he + secretly flattered the friends of Mr. Adams with the idea that + he was with them. It is certain that for the Vice-Presidency + he continued to secure nearly all the Adams votes, most of the + Jackson votes, and even half of the Clay votes in Kentucky. But + never did the friends of General Jackson doubt his devotion + to their cause in that contest, until the publication of his + correspondence with General Jackson. In a note, page 7, he + undeceives them by saying: + + "'When my name was withdrawn from the list of presidential + candidates, I assumed a perfectly neutral position between + General Jackson and Mr. Adams. I was decidedly opposed to a + congressional caucus, as both those gentlemen were also, and as + I bore very friendly personal and political relations to both, I + would have been well satisfied with the election of either.' + + "I have now given a faithful detail of the circumstances and + facts which transpired touching my movements in Florida, during + the Seminole campaign. + + "When Mr. Calhoun was secretly misinterpreting my views and + conduct through Mr. Speer to the citizens of South Carolina, + I had extended to him my fullest confidence, inasmuch as I + consulted him as if he were one of my cabinet, showed him the + written rules by which my administration was to be governed, + which he apparently approved, received from him the strongest + professions of friendship, so much so that I would have scorned + even a suggestion that he was capable of such unworthy conduct. + + "ANDREW JACKSON." + +Such is the paper which General Jackson left behind him for +publication, and which is so essential to the understanding of +the events of the time. From the rupture between General Jackson +and Mr. Calhoun (beginning to open in 1830, and breaking out in +1831), dates calamitous events to this country, upon which history +cannot shut her eyes, and which would be a barren relation without +the revelation of their cause. Justice to Mr. Monroe (who seemed +to hesitate in the cabinet about the proposition to censure or +punish Gen. Jackson), requires it to be distinctly brought out +that he had either never read, or had entirely forgotten General +Jackson's confidential letter, to be answered through the venerable +representative from Tennessee (Mr. John Rhea), and the production of +which in the cabinet had such a decided influence on Mr. Calhoun's +proposition--and against it. This is well told in the letter of +Mr. Crawford to Mr. Forsyth--is enforced in the "Exposition," and +referred to in the "correspondence," but deserves to be reproduced +in Mr. Crawford's own words. He says: "Indeed, my own views on the +subject had undergone a material change after the cabinet had been +convened. Mr. Calhoun made some allusion to a letter the General had +written to the President, who had forgotten that he had received +such a letter, but said if he had received such an one, he could +find it; and went directly to his cabinet and brought the letter +out. In it General Jackson approved of the determination of the +government to break up Amelia Island and Galveston; and gave it +also as his opinion that the Floridas should be taken by the United +States. He added it might be a delicate matter for the Executive to +decide; but if the President approved of it, he had only to give a +hint to some confidential member of Congress, say Mr. Johnny Ray +(Rhea), and he would do it, and take the responsibility of it on +himself. I asked the President if the letter had been answered. He +replied, No; for that he had no recollection of having received it. +I then said that I had no doubt that General Jackson, in taking +Pensacola, believed he was doing what the Executive wished. After +that letter was produced unanswered I should have opposed the +infliction of punishment upon the General, who had considered the +silence of the President as a tacit consent. Yet it was after this +letter was produced and read that Mr. Calhoun made his proposition +to the cabinet for punishing the General. You may show this letter +to Mr. Calhoun, if you please." It was shown to him by General +Jackson, as shown in the "correspondence," and in the "Exposition;" +and is only reproduced here for the sake of doing justice to Mr. +Monroe. + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + +BREAKING UP OF THE CABINET, AND APPOINTMENT OF ANOTHER. + + +The publication of Mr. Calhoun's pamphlet was quickly followed by +an event which seemed to be its natural consequence--that of a +breaking up, and reconstructing the President's cabinet. Several +of its members classed as the political friends of Mr. Calhoun, +and could hardly expect to remain as ministers to General Jackson +while adhering to that gentleman. The Secretary of State, Mr. +Van Buren, was in the category of future presidential aspirants; +and in that character obnoxious to Mr. Calhoun, and became the +cause of attacks upon the President. He determined to resign; and +that determination carried with it the voluntary, or obligatory +resignations of all the others--each one of whom published his +reasons for his act. Mr. Eaton, Secretary at War, placed his +upon the ground of original disinclination to take the place, +and a design to quit it at the first suitable moment--which he +believed had now arrived. Mr. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury, +Mr. Branch, of the Navy, and Mr. Berrien, Attorney General, placed +theirs upon the ground of compliance with the President's wishes. +Of the three latter, the two first classed as the friends of Mr. +Calhoun; the Attorney General, on this occasion, was considered +as favoring him, but not of his political party. The unpleasant +business was courteously conducted--transacted in writing as well +as in personal conversations, and all in terms of the utmost +decorum. Far from attempting to find an excuse for his conduct in +the imputed misconduct of the retiring Secretaries, the President +gave them letters of respect, in which he bore testimony to their +acceptable deportment while associated with him, and placed the +required resignations exclusively on the ground of a determination +to reorganize his cabinet. And, in fact, that determination became +unavoidable after the appearance of Mr. Calhoun's pamphlet. After +that Mr. Van Buren could not remain, as being viewed under the +aspect of "Mordecai, the Jew, sitting at the king's gate." Mr. +Eaton, as his supporter, found a reason to do what he wished, in +following his example. The supporters of Mr. Calhoun, howsoever +unexceptionable their conduct had been, and might be, could neither +expect, nor desire, to remain among the President's confidential +advisers after the broad rupture with that gentleman. Mr. Barry, +Postmaster General, and the first of that office who had been called +to the cabinet councils, and classing as friendly to Mr. Van Buren, +did not resign, but soon had his place vacated by the appointment +of minister to Spain. Mr. Van Buren's resignation was soon followed +by the appointment of minister to London; and Mr. Eaton was made +Governor of Florida; and, on the early death of Mr. Barry, became +his successor at Madrid. + +The new cabinet was composed of Edward Livingston of Louisiana, +Secretary of State; Louis McLane of Delaware (recalled from the +London mission for that purpose), Secretary of the Treasury; Lewis +Cass of Ohio, Secretary at War; Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire, +Secretary of the Navy; Amos Kendall of Kentucky, Postmaster General; +Roger Brooke Taney of Maryland, Attorney General. This change in +the cabinet made a great figure in the party politics of the day, +and filled all the opposition newspapers, and had many sinister +reasons assigned for it--all to the prejudice of General Jackson, +and Mr. Van Buren--to which neither of them replied, though having +the easy means of vindication in their hands--the former in the then +prepared "Exposition" which is now first given to the public--the +latter in the testimony of General Jackson, also first published +in this THIRTY YEARS' VIEW, and in the history of the real cause +of the breach between General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun, which the +"Exposition" contains. Mr. Crawford was also sought to be injured +in the published "correspondence," chiefly as the alleged divulger, +and for a wicked purpose, of the proceedings in Mr. Monroe's +cabinet in relation to the proposed military court on General +Jackson. Mr. Calhoun arraigned him as the divulger of that cabinet +secret, to the faithful keeping of which, as well as of all the +cabinet proceedings, every member of that council is most strictly +enjoined. Mr. Crawford's answer to this arraignment was brief and +pointed. He denied the divulgation--affirmed that the disclosure +had been made immediately after the cabinet consultation, in a +letter sent to Nashville, Tennessee, and published in a paper of +that city, in which the facts were reversed--Mr. Crawford being +made the mover of the court of inquiry proposition, and Mr. Calhoun +the defender of the General; and he expressed his belief that Mr. +Calhoun procured that letter to be written and published, for the +purpose of exciting General Jackson against him; (which belief the +Exposition seems to confirm)--and declaring that he only spoke of +the cabinet proposition after the publication of that letter, and +for the purpose of contradicting it, and telling the fact, that Mr. +Calhoun made the proposition for the court, and that Mr. Adams and +himself resisted, and defeated it. His words were: "My apology for +having disclosed what passed in a cabinet meeting, is this: In the +summer after that meeting, an extract of a letter from Washington +was published in a Nashville paper, in which it was stated that I +had proposed to arrest General Jackson, but that he was triumphantly +defended by Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Adams. This letter I have always +believed was written by Mr. Calhoun, or by his direction. It had +the desired effect. General Jackson became extremely inimical to +me, and friendly to Mr. Calhoun. In stating the arguments of Mr. +Adams to induce Mr. Monroe to support General Jackson's conduct +throughout, adverting to Mr. Monroe's apparent admission, that if a +young officer had acted so, he might be safely punished, Mr. Adams +said--that if General Jackson had acted so, that if he had been a +subaltern officer, _shooting was too good for him_. This, however, +was said with a view of driving Mr. Monroe to an unlimited support +of what General Jackson had done, and not with an unfriendly view +to the General. Mr. Calhoun's proposition in the cabinet was, +that General Jackson should be punished in some form, I am not +positive which. As Mr. Calhoun did not propose to _arrest_ General +Jackson, I feel confident that I could not have made use of _that_ +word in my relation to you of the circumstances which transpired +in the cabinet." This was in the letter to Mr. Forsyth, of April +30th, 1830, and which was shown to General Jackson, and by him +communicated to Mr. Calhoun; and which was the second thing that +brought him to suspect Mr. Calhoun, having repulsed all previous +intimations of his hostility to the General, or been quieted by Mr. +Calhoun's answers. The Nashville letter is strongly presented in the +"Exposition" as having come from Mr. Calhoun, as believed by Mr. +Crawford. + +Upon the publication of the "correspondence," the _Telegraph_, +formerly the Jackson organ, changed its course, as had been revealed +to Mr. Duncanson--came out for Mr. Calhoun, and against General +Jackson and Mr. Van Buren, followed by all the affiliated presses +which awaited its lead. The _Globe_ took the stand for which it was +established; and became the faithful, fearless, incorruptible, and +powerful supporter of General Jackson and his administration, in +the long, vehement, and eventful contests in which he became engaged. + + + + +CHAPTER LV. + +MILITARY ACADEMY. + + +The small military establishment of the United States seemed to be +almost in a state of dissolution about this time, from the frequency +of desertion; and the wisdom of Congress was taxed to find a remedy +for the evil. It could devise no other than an increase of pay to +the rank and file and non-commissioned officers; which upon trial, +was found to answer but little purpose. In an army of 6000 the +desertions were 1450 in the year; and increasing. Mr. Macon from his +home in North Carolina, having his attention directed to the subject +by the debates in Congress, wrote me a letter, in which he laid his +finger upon the true cause of these desertions, and consequently +showed what should be the true remedy. He wrote thus: + + "Why does the army, of late years, desert more than formerly? + Because the officers have been brought up at West Point, and + not among the people. Soldiers desert because not attached to + the service, or not attached to the officers. West Point cadets + prevent the promotion of good sergeants, and men cannot like + a service which denies them promotion, nor like officers who + get all the commissions. The increase of pay will not cure the + evil, and nothing but promotion will. In the Revolutionary army, + we had many distinguished officers, who entered the army as + privates." + +This is wisdom, and besides carrying conviction for the truth of +all it says, it leads to reflections upon the nature and effects of +our national military school, which extend beyond the evil which +was the cause of writing it. Since the act of 1812, which placed +this institution upon its present footing, giving its students a +legal right to appointment (as constructed and practised), it may be +assumed that there is not a government in Europe, and has been none +since the commencement of the French revolution (when the nobles +had pretty nearly a monopoly of army appointments), so unfriendly +to the rights of the people, and giving such undue advantages to +some parts of the community over the rest. Officers can now rise +from the ranks in all the countries of Europe--in Austria, Russia, +Prussia, as well as in Great Britain, of which there are constant +and illustrious examples. Twenty-three marshals of the empire rose +from the ranks--among them Key, Massena, Oudinot, Murat, Soult, +Bernadotte. In Great Britain, notwithstanding her Royal Military +College, the largest part of the commissions are now given to +citizens in civil life, and to non-commissioned officers. A return +lately made to parliament shows that in eighteen years--from +1830 to 1847--the number of citizens who received commissions, +was 1,266; the number of non-commissioned officers promoted, was +446; and the number of cadets appointed from the Royal Military +College was 473. These citizen appointments were exclusive of those +who purchased commissions--another mode for citizens to get into +the British army, and which largely increases the number in that +class of appointments--sales of commissions, with the approbation +of the government, being there valid. But exclusive of purchased +commissions during the same period of eighteen years, the number +of citizens appointed, and of non-commissioned officers promoted, +were, together, nearly four times the number of government cadets +appointed. Now, how has it been in our service during any equal +number of years, or all the years, since the Military Academy got +into full operation under the act of 1812? I confine the inquiry +to the period subsequent to the war of 1812, for during that war +there were field and general officers in service who came from +civil life, and who procured the promotion of many meritorious +non-commissioned officers; the act not having at first been +construed to exclude them. How many? Few or none, of citizens +appointed, or non-commissioned officers promoted--only in new or +temporary corps--the others being held to belong to the government +cadets. + +I will mention two instances coming within my own knowledge, to +illustrate the difficulty of obtaining a commission for a citizen +in the regular regiments--one the case of the late Capt. Hermann +Thorn, son of Col. Thorn, of New-York. The young man had applied for +the place of cadet at West Point; and not being able to obtain it, +and having a strong military turn, he sought service in Europe, and +found it in Austria; and admitted into a hussar regiment on the +confines of Turkey, without commission, but with the pay, clothing, +and ration of a corporal; with the privilege of associating with +officers, and a right to expect a commission if he proved himself +worthy. These are the exact terms, substituting sergeant for +corporal, on which cadets were received into the army, and attached +to companies, in Washington's time. Young Thorn proved himself to +be worthy; received the commission; rose in five years to the rank +of first lieutenant; when, the war breaking out between the United +States and Mexico, he asked leave to resign, was permitted to do +so, and came home to ask service in the regular army of the United +States. His application was made through Senator Cass and others, +he only asking for the lowest place in the gradation of officers, +so as not to interfere with the right of promotion in any one. The +application was refused on the ground of illegality, he not having +graduated at West Point. Afterwards I took up the case of the young +man, got President Polk to nominate him, sustained the nomination +before the Senate; and thus got a start for a young officer who soon +advanced himself, receiving two brevets for gallant conduct and +several wounds in the great battles of Mexico; and was afterwards +drowned, conducting a detachment to California, in crossing his men +over the great Colorado of the West. + +Thus Thorn was with difficulty saved. The other case was that of +the famous Kit Carson also nominated by President Polk. I was not +present to argue his case when he was rejected, and might have done +no good if I had been, the place being held to belong to a cadet +that was waiting for it. Carson was rejected because he did not come +through the West Point gate. Being a patriotic man, he has since led +many expeditions of his countrymen, and acted as guide to the United +States officers, in New Mexico, where he lives. He was a guide to +the detachment that undertook to rescue the unfortunate Mrs. White, +whose fate excited so much commiseration at the time; and I have the +evidence that if he had been commander, the rescue would have been +effected, and the unhappy woman saved from massacre. + +This rule of appointment (the graduates of the academy to take +all) may now be considered the law of the land, so settled by +construction and senatorial acquiescence; and consequently that +no American citizen is to enter the regular army except through +the gate of the United States Military Academy; and few can reach +that gate except through the weight of a family connection, a +political influence, or the instrumentality of a friend at court. +Genius in obscurity has no chance; and the whole tendency of the +institution is to make a governmental, and not a national army. +Appointed cadet by the President, nominated officer by him, promoted +upon his nomination, holding commission at his pleasure, receiving +his orders as law, looking to him as the fountain of honor, the +source of preferment, and the dispenser of agreeable and profitable +employment--these cadet officers must naturally feel themselves +independent of the people, and dependent upon the President; and be +irresistibly led to acquire the habits and feelings which, in all +ages, have rendered regular armies obnoxious to popular governments. + +The instinctive sagacity of the people has long since comprehended +all this, and conceived an aversion to the institution which has +manifested itself in many demonstrations against it--sometimes in +Congress, sometimes in the State legislatures, always to be met, +and triumphantly met, by adducing Washington as the father and +founder of the institution.--No adduction could be more fallacious. +Washington is no more the father of the present West Point than he +is of the present Mount Vernon. The West Point of his day was a +school of engineering and artillery, and nothing more; the cadet of +his day was a young soldier, attached to a company, and serving with +it in the field and in the camp, "with the pay, clothing, and ration +of sergeant" (act of 1794); and in the intervals of active service, +if he had shown an inclination for the profession, and a capacity +for its higher branches, then he was sent, in the "discretion" of +the President, to West Point, to take instruction in those higher +branches, namely, artillery and engineering, and nothing more. All +the drills both of officer and private--all the camp duty--all +the trainings in the infantry, the cavalry, and the rifle--were +then left to be taught in the field and the camp--a better school +than any academy; and under officers who were to lead them into +action--better teachers than any school-room professors. And all +without any additional expense to the United States. + +All was right in the time of Washington, and afterwards, up to the +act of 1812. None became cadets then but those who had a stomach for +the hardships, as well as taste for the pleasures of a soldier's +life--who, like the Young Norval on the Grampian Hills, had felt +the soldier's blood stir in their veins, and longed to be off to +the scene of war's alarms, instead of standing guard over flocks +and herds. Cadets were not then sent to a superb school, with the +emoluments of officers, to remain four years at public expense, +receiving educations for civil as well as military life, with the +right to have commissions and be provided for by the government; or +with the secret intent to quit the service as soon as they could +do better--which most of them soon do. The act of 1812 did the +mischief and that insidiously and by construction, while ostensibly +keeping up the old idea of cadets serving with their companies, +and only detached when the President pleased, to get instruction +at the academy. It runs thus: "The cadets heretofore appointed in +the service of the United States, whether of artillery, cavalry, +riflemen, or infantry, or may be in future appointed or hereinafter +provided, shall at no time exceed 250; that they may be attached, at +the discretion of the President of the United States as students to +the Military Academy; and be subject to the established regulations +thereof." + +The deception of this clause is in keeping up the old idea of +these cadets being with their companies, and by the judgment of +the President detached from their companies, and attached, as +students, to the Military Academy. The President is to exercise a +"discretion," by which the cadet is transferred for a while from +his company to the school, to be there as a student; that is to +say, like a student, but still retaining his original character of +_quasi_ officer in his company. This change from camp to school, +upon the face of the act, was to be, as formerly, a question for the +President to decide, dependent for its solution upon the military +indications of the young man's character, and his capacity for the +higher branches of the service; and this only permissive in the +President. He "may" attach, &c. Now, all this is illusion. Cadets +are not sent to companies, whether of artillery, infantry, cavalry, +or riflemen. The President exercises no "discretion" about detaching +them from their company and attaching them as students. They are +appointed as students, and go right off to school, and get four +years' education at the public expense, whether they have any taste +for military life, or not. That is the first large deception under +the act: others follow, until it is all deception. Another clause +says, the cadet shall "sign articles, with the consent of his parent +or guardian, to serve five years, unless sooner discharged." This +is deceptive, suggesting a service which has no existence, and +taking a bond for what is not to be performed. It is the language +of a soldier's enlistment, where there is no enlistment; and was a +fiction invented to constitutionalize the act. The language makes +the cadet an enlisted soldier, bound to serve the United States +the usual soldier's term, when this paper soldier--this apparent +private in the ranks--is in reality a gentleman student, with the +emoluments of an officer, obtaining education at public expense, +instead of carrying a musket in the ranks. The whole clause is an +illusion, to use no stronger term, and put in for a purpose which +the legislative history of the day well explains; and that was, +to make the act constitutional on its face, and enable it to get +through the forms, and become a law. There were members who denied +the constitutional right of Congress to establish this national +eleemosynary university; and others who doubted the policy and +expediency of officering the army in this manner. To get over these +objections, the selection of the students took the form, in the +statute, of a soldier's enlistment; and in fact they sign articles +of enlistment, like recruits, but only to appease the constitution +and satisfy scruples; and I have myself, in the early periods of +my service in the Senate, seen the original articles brought into +secret session and exhibited, to prove that the student was an +enlisted soldier, and not a student, and therefore constitutionally +in service. The term of five years being found to be no term of +service at all, as the student might quit the service within a year +after his education, which many of them did, it was extended to +eight; but still without effect, except in procuring a few years of +unwilling service from those who mean to quit; as the greater part +do. I was told by an officer in the time of the Mexican war that, +of thirty-six cadets who had graduated and been commissioned at the +same time with himself, there were only about half a dozen then +in service; so that this great national establishment is mainly a +school for the gratuitous education of those who have influence to +get there. The act provides that these students are to be instructed +in the lower as well as the higher branches of the military art; +they are to be "trained and taught all the duties incident to a +regular camp." Now, all this training and teaching, and regular camp +duty, was done in Washington's time in the regular camp itself, and +about as much better done as substance is better than form, and +reality better than imitation, with the advantage of training each +officer to the particular arm of the service to which he was to +belong, and in which he would be expected to excel. + +Gratuitous instruction to the children of the living is a vicious +principle, which has no foundation in reason or precedent. Such +instruction, to the children of those who have died for their +country, is as old as the first ages of the Grecian republics, as +we learn from the oration which Thucydides puts into the mouth of +Pericles at the funeral of the first slain of the Peloponnesian war: +and as modern as the present British Military Royal Academy; which, +although royal, makes the sons of the living nobility and gentry +pay; and only gives gratuitous instruction and support to the sons +of those who have died in the public service. And so, I believe, of +other European military schools. + +These are vital objections to the institution; but they do not +include the high practical evil which the wisdom of Mr. Macon +discerned, and with which this chapter opened--namely, a monopoly +of the appointments. That is effected in the fourth section, not +openly and in direct terms (for that would have rendered the act +unconstitutional on its face), but by the use of words which admit +the construction and the practice, and therefore make the law, +which now is, the legal right of the cadet to receive a commission +who has received the academical diploma for going through all the +classes. This gives to these cadets a monopoly of the offices, to +the exclusion of citizens and non-commissioned officers; and it +deprives the Senate of its constitutional share in making these +appointments. By a "regulation," the academic professors are to +recommend at each annual examination, five cadets in each class, +on account of their particular merit, whom the President is to +attach to companies. This expunges the Senate, opens the door to +that favoritism which natural parents find it hard to repress among +their own children, and which is proverbial among teachers. By the +constitution, and for a great public purpose, and not as a privilege +of the body, the Senate is to have an advising and consenting power +over the army appointments: by practice and construction it is +not the President and Senate, but the President and the academy +who appoint the officers. The President sends the student to the +academy: the academy gives a diploma, and that gives him a right +to the commission--the Senate's consent being an obligatory form. +The President and the academy are the real appointing power, and +the Senate nothing but an office for the registration of their +appointments. And thus the Senate, by construction of a statute +and its own acquiescence, has ceased to have control over these +appointments: and the whole body of army officers is fast becoming +the mere creation of the President and of the military academy. The +effect of this mode of appointment will be to create a governmental, +instead of a national army; and the effect of this exclusion of +non-commissioned officers and privates from promotion, will be +to degrade the regular soldier into a mercenary, serving for pay +without affection for a country which dishonors him. Hence the +desertions and the correlative evil of diminished enlistments on the +part of native-born Americans. + +Courts of law have invented many fictions to facilitate trials, but +none to give jurisdiction. The jurisdiction must rest upon fact, +and so should the constitutionality of an act of Congress; but this +act of 1812 rests its constitutionality upon fictions. It is a +fiction to suppose that the cadet is an enlisted soldier--a fiction +to suppose that he is attached to a company and thence transferred, +in the "discretion" of the President, to the academy--a fiction +to suppose that he is constitutionally appointed in the army by +the President and Senate. The very title of the act is fictitious, +giving not the least hint, not even in the convenient formula of +"other purposes" of the great school it was about to create. + +It is entitled, "An act making further provision for the corps of +engineers;" when five out of the six sections which it contains go +to make further provision for two hundred and fifty students at +a national military and civil university. As now constituted, our +academy is an imitation of the European military schools, which +create governmental and not national officers--which make routine +officers, but cannot create military genius--and which block up +the way against genius--especially barefooted genius--such as this +country abounds in, and which the field alone can develope. "My +children,"--the French generals were accustomed to say to the young +conscripts during the Revolution--"My children, there are some +captains among you, and the first campaign will show who they are, +and they shall have their places." And such expressions, and the +system in which they are founded, have brought out the military +genius of the country in every age and nation, and produced such +officers as the schools can never make. + +The adequate remedy for these evils is to repeal the act of 1812, +and remit the academy to condition in Washington's time, and as +enlarged by several acts up to 1812. Then no one would wish to +become a cadet but he that had the soldier in him, and meant to +stick to his profession, and work his way up from the "pay, ration, +and clothing of a sergeant," to the rank of field-officer or +general. Struggles for West Point appointments would then cease, +and the boys on the "Grampian Hills" would have their chance. +This is the adequate remedy. If that repeal cannot be had, then a +subordinate and half-way remedy may be found in giving to citizens +and non-commissioned officers a share of the commissions, equal to +what they get in the British service, and restoring the Senate to +its constitutional right of rejecting as well as confirming cadet +nominations. + +These are no new views with me. I have kept aloof from the +institution. During the almost twenty years that I was at the head +of the Senate's Committee on Military Affairs, and would have been +appropriately a "visitor" at West Point at some of the annual +examinations, I never accepted the function, and have never even +seen the place. I have been always against the institution as now +established, and have long intended to bring my views of it before +the country; and now fulfil that intention. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + +BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.--NON-RENEWAL OF CHARTER. + + +From the time of President Jackson's intimations against the +recharter of the Bank, in the annual message of 1829, there had +been a ceaseless and pervading activity in behalf of the Bank in +all parts of the Union, and in all forms--in the newspapers, in +the halls of Congress, in State legislatures, even in much of the +periodical literature, in the elections, and in the conciliation +of presses and individuals--all conducted in a way to operate most +strongly upon the public mind, and to conclude the question in the +forum of the people before it was brought forward in the national +legislature. At the same time but little was done, or could be done +on the other side. The current was all setting one way. I determined +to raise a voice against it in the Senate, and made several efforts +before I succeeded--the thick array of the Bank friends throwing +every obstacle in my way, and even friends holding me back for the +regular course, which was to wait until the application for the +renewed charter to be presented; and then to oppose it. I foresaw +that, if this course was followed, the Bank would triumph without +a contest--that she would wait until a majority was installed in +both Houses of Congress--then present her application--hear a few +barren speeches in opposition;--and then gallop the renewed charter +through. In the session of 1830, '31, I succeeded in creating +the first opportunity of delivering a speech against it; it was +done a little irregularly by submitting a negative resolution +against the renewal of the charter, and taking the opportunity +while asking leave to introduce the resolution, to speak fully +against the re-charter. My mind was fixed upon the character of +the speech which I should make--one which should avoid the beaten +tracks of objection, avoid all settled points, avoid the problem of +constitutionality--and take up the institution in a practical sense, +as having too much power over the people and the government,--over +business and politics--and too much disposed to exercise that power +to the prejudice of the freedom and equality which should prevail +in a republic, to be allowed to exist in our country. But I knew +it was not sufficient to pull down: we must build up also. The men +of 1811 had committed a fatal error, when most wisely refusing to +re-charter the institution of that day, they failed to provide a +substitute for its currency, and fell back upon the local banks, +whose inadequacy speedily made a call for the re-establishment of +a national bank. I felt that error must be avoided--that another +currency of general circulation must be provided to replace its +notes; and I saw that currency in the gold coin of the constitution, +then an ideal currency in the United States, having been totally +banished for many years by the erroneous valuation adopted in the +time of Gen. Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. I proposed to +revive that currency, and brought it forward at the conclusion of my +first speech (February, 1831) against the Bank, thus: + + "I am willing to see the charter expire, without providing + any substitute for the present bank. I am willing to see the + currency of the federal government left to the hard money + mentioned and intended in the constitution; I am willing to have + a hard money government, as that of France has been since the + time of _assignats_ and _mandats_. Every species of paper might + be left to the State authorities, unrecognized by the federal + government, and only touched by it for its own convenience when + equivalent to gold and silver. Such a currency filled France + with the precious metals, when England, with her overgrown + bank, was a prey to all the evils of unconvertible paper. It + furnished money enough for the imperial government when the + population of the empire was three times more numerous, and the + expense of government twelve times greater, than the population + and expenses of the United States; and, when France possessed + no mines of gold or silver, and was destitute of the exports + which command the specie of other countries. The United States + possess gold mines, now yielding half a million per annum, with + every prospect of equalling those of Peru. But this is not the + best dependence. We have what is superior to mines, namely, + the exports which command the money of the world; that is to + say, the food which sustains life and the raw materials which + sustain manufactures. Gold and silver is the best currency for + a republic; it suits the men of middle property and the working + people best; and if I was going to establish a working man's + party, it should be on the basis of hard money:--a hard money + party, against a paper party." + +In the speech which I delivered, I quoted copiously from British +speakers--not the brilliant rhetoricians, but the practical, +sensible, upright business men, to whom countries are usually +indebted for all beneficial legislation: the Sir Henry Parnells, the +Mr. Joseph Humes, the Mr. Edward Ellices, the Sir William Pulteneys; +and men of that class, legislating for the practical concerns of +life, and merging the orator in the man of business. + + + THE SPEECH--EXTRACTS. + + "Mr. Benton commenced his speech in support of the application + for the leave he was about to ask, with a justification of + himself for bringing forward the question of renewal at this + time, when the charter had still five years to run; and bottomed + his vindication chiefly on the right he possessed, and the + necessity he was under to answer certain reports of one of + the committee of the Senate, made in opposition to certain + resolutions relative to the bank, which he had submitted to + the Senate at former sessions, and which reports he had not + had an opportunity of answering. He said it had been his + fortune, or chance, some three years ago, to submit a resolution + in relation to the undrawn balances of public money in the + hands of the bank, and to accompany it with some poor remarks + of unfavorable implication to the future existence of that + institution. My resolution [said Mr. B.] was referred to the + Committee on Finance, who made a report decidedly adverse to + all my views, and eminently favorable to the bank, both as a + present and future institution. This report came on the 13th of + May, just fourteen days before the conclusion of a six months' + session, when all was hurry and precipitation to terminate the + business on hand, and when there was not the least chance to + engage the attention of the Senate in the consideration of any + new subject. The report was, therefore, laid upon the table + unanswered, but was printed by order of the Senate, and that in + extra numbers, and widely diffused over the country by means of + the newspaper press. At the commencement of the next session, + it being irregular to call for the consideration of the past + report, I was under the necessity to begin anew, and accordingly + submitted my resolution a second time, and that quite early in + the session; say on the first day of January. It was my wish + and request that this resolution might be discussed in the + Senate, but the sentiment of the majority was different, and + a second reference of it was made to the Finance Committee. A + second report of the same purport with the first was a matter + of course; but what did not seem to me to be a matter of course + was this; that this second report should not come in until the + 20th day of February, just fourteen days again before the end of + the session, for it was then the short session, and the Senate + as much pinched as before for time to finish the business on + hand. No answer could be made to it, but the report was printed, + with the former report appended to it; and thus, united like + the Siamese twins, and with the apparent, but not real sanction + of the Senate, they went forth together to make the tour of + the Union in the columns of the newspaper press. Thus, I was a + second time out of court; a second time nonsuited for want of a + replication, when there was no time to file one. I had intended + to begin _de novo_, and for the third time, at the opening + of the ensuing session; but, happily, was anticipated and + prevented by the annual message of the new President [General + Jackson], which brought this question of renewing the bank + charter directly before Congress. A reference of this part of + the message was made, of course, to the Finance Committee: the + committee, of course, again reported, and with increased ardor, + in favor of the bank. Unhappily this third report, which was an + amplification and reiteration of the two former, did not come in + until the session was four months advanced, and when the time of + the Senate had become engrossed, and its attention absorbed, by + the numerous and important subjects which had accumulated upon + the calendar. Printing in extra numbers, general circulation + through the newspaper press, and no answer, was the catastrophe + of this third reference to the Finance Committee. Thus was I + nonsuited for the third time. The fourth session has now come + round; the same subject is again before the same committee on + the reference of the part of the President's second annual + message which relates to the bank; and, doubtless, a fourth + report of the same import with the three preceding ones, may be + expected. But when? is the question. And, as I cannot answer + that question, and the session is now two thirds advanced, and + as I have no disposition to be cut off for the fourth time, I + have thought proper to create an occasion to deliver my own + sentiments, by asking leave to introduce a joint resolution, + adverse to the tenor of all the reports, and to give my reasons + against them, while supporting my application for the leave + demanded; a course of proceeding which is just to myself and + unjust to no one, since all are at liberty to answer me. These + are my personal reasons for this step, and a part of my answer + to the objection that I have begun too soon. The conduct of + the bank, and its friends, constitutes the second branch of my + justification. It is certainly not 'too soon' for them, judging + by their conduct, to engage in the question of renewing the bank + charter. In and out of Congress, they all seem to be of one + accord on this point. Three reports of committees in the Senate, + and one from a committee of the House of Representatives, have + been made in favor of the renewal; and all these reports, + instead of being laid away for future use--instead of being + stuck in pigeon holes, and labelled for future attention, as + things coming forth prematurely, and not wanted for present + service--have, on the contrary, been universally received by the + bank and its friends, in one great tempest of applause; greeted + with every species of acclamation; reprinted in most of the + papers, and every effort made to give the widest diffusion, and + the highest effect, to the arguments they contain. In addition + to this, and at the present session, within a few days past, + three thousand copies of the exposition of the affairs of the + Bank have been printed by order of the two Houses, a thing never + before done, and now intended to blazon the merits of the bank. + [Mr. Smith, of Maryland, here expressed some dissent to this + statement; but Mr. B. affirmed its correctness in substance if + not to the letter, and continued.] This does not look as if + the bank advocates thought it was _too soon_ to discuss the + question of renewing the charter; and, upon this exhibition of + their sentiments, I shall rest the assertion and the proof, + that they do not think so. The third branch of my justification + rests upon a sense of public duty; upon a sense of what is just + and advantageous to the people in general, and to the debtors + and stockholders of the bank in particular. The renewal of the + charter is a question which concerns the people at large; and if + they are to have any hand in the decision of this question--if + they are even to know what is done before it is done, it is high + time that they and their representatives in Congress should + understand each other's mind upon it. The charter has but five + years to run; and if renewed at all, will probably be at some + short period, say two or three years, before the time is out, + and at any time sooner that a chance can be seen to gallop the + renewal through Congress. The people, therefore, have no time + to lose, if they mean to have any hand in the decision of this + great question. To the bank itself, it must be advantageous, at + least, if not desirable, to know its fate at once, that it may + avoid (if there is to be no renewal) the trouble and expense + of multiplying branches upon the eve of dissolution, and the + risk and inconvenience of extending loans beyond the term of + its existence. To the debtors upon mortgages, and indefinite + accommodations, it must be also advantageous, if not desirable, + to be notified in advance of the end of their indulgences: + so that, to every interest, public and private, political + and pecuniary, general and particular, full discussion, and + seasonable decision, is just and proper. + + "I hold myself justified, Mr. President, upon the reasons + given, for proceeding in my present application; but, as + example is sometimes more authoritative than reason, I will + take the liberty to produce one, which is as high in point of + authority as it is appropriate in point of application, and + which happens to fit the case before the Senate as completely + as if it had been made for it. I speak of what has lately been + done in the Parliament of Great Britain. It so happens, that + the charter of the Bank of England is to expire, upon its own + limitation, nearly about the same time with the charter of the + Bank of the United States, namely, in the year 1833; and as far + back as 1824, no less than nine years before its expiration, + the question of its renewal was debated, and that with great + freedom, in the British House of Commons. I will read some + extracts from that debate, as the fairest way of presenting the + example to the Senate, and the most effectual mode of securing + to myself the advantage of the sentiments expressed by British + statesman. + + + _The Extracts._ + + "'Sir Henry Parnell.--The House should no longer delay to turn + its attention to the expediency of renewing the charter of the + Bank of England. Heretofore, it had been the regular custom to + renew the charter several years before the existing charter had + expired. The last renewal was made when the existing charter + had eleven years to run: the present charter had nine years + only to continue, and he felt very anxious to prevent the + making of any agreement between the government and the bank for + a renewal, without a full examination of the policy of again + conferring upon the Bank of England any exclusive privilege. The + practice had been for government to make a secret arrangement + with the bank; to submit it immediately to the proprietors of + the bank for their approbation, and to call upon the House the + next day to confirm it, without affording any opportunity of + fair deliberation. So much information had been obtained upon + the banking trade, and upon the nature of currency in the last + fifteen years, that it was particularly necessary to enter upon + a full investigation of the policy of renewing the bank charter + before any negotiation should be entered upon between the + government and the bank; and he trusted the government would not + commence any such negotiation until the sense of Parliament had + been taken on this important subject.' + + "'Mr. Hume said it was of very great importance that his + majesty's ministers should take immediate steps to free + themselves from the trammels in which they had long been held + by the bank. As the interest of money was now nearly on a level + with what it was when the bank lent a large sum to government, + he hoped the Chancellor of the Exchequer would not listen to any + application for a renewal of the bank charter, but would pay off + every shilling that had been borrowed from the bank. * * * * * + Let the country gentlemen recollect that the bank was now acting + as pawn-broker on a large scale, and lending money on estates, + a system entirely contrary to the original intention of that + institution. * * * * * * He hoped, before the expiration of the + charter, that a regular inquiry would be made into the whole + subject.' + + "'Mr. Edward Ellice. It (the Bank of England) is a great + monopolizing body, enjoying privileges which belonged to no + other corporation, and no other class of his majesty's subjects. + * * * * * * * He hoped that the exclusive charter would never + again be granted; and that the conduct of the bank during the + last ten or twelve years would make government very cautious + how they entertained any such propositions. The right honorable + Chancellor of the Exchequer [Mr. Robinson] had protested against + the idea of straining any point to the prejudice of the bank; he + thought, however, that the bank had very little to complain of, + when their stock, after all their past profits, was at 238.' + + "'The Chancellor of the Exchequer deprecated the discussion, as + leading to no practical result.' + + "'Mr. Alexander Baring objected to it as premature and + unnecessary.' + + "'Sir William Pulteney (in another debate). The prejudices in + favor of the present bank have proceeded from the long habit of + considering it as a sort of pillar which nothing can shake. * * + * * * * * The bank has been supported, and is still supported, + by the fear and terror which, by means of its monopoly, it has + had the power to inspire. It is well known, that there is hardly + an extensive trader, a manufacturer, or a banker, either in + London, or at a distance from it, to whom the bank could not do + a serious injury, and could often bring on even insolvency. * * + * * * I consider the power given by the monopoly to be of the + nature of all other despotic power, which corrupts the despot as + much as it corrupts the slave. * * * * * * It is in the nature + of man, that a monopoly must necessarily be ill-conducted. * + * * * * * * Whatever language the [private] bankers may feel + themselves obliged to hold, yet no one can believe that they + have any satisfaction in being, and continuing, under a dominion + which has proved so grievous and so disastrous. * * * * * * I + can never believe that the merchants and bankers of this country + will prove unwilling to emancipate themselves, if they can do + it without risking the resentment of the bank. No man in France + was heard to complain, openly, of the Bastile while it existed. + The merchants and bankers of this country have the blood of + Englishmen, and will be happy to relieve themselves from a + situation of perpetual terror, if they could do it consistently + with a due regard to their own interest.' + + "Here is authority added to reason--the force of a great example + added to the weight of unanswerable reasons, in favor of early + discussion; so that, I trust, I have effectually put aside that + old and convenient objection to the 'time,' that most flexible + and accommodating objection, which applies to all seasons, and + all subjects, and is just as available for cutting off a late + debate, because it is too late, as it is for stifling an early + one, because it is too early. + + "But, it is said that the debate will injure the stockholders; + that it depreciates the value of their property, and that + it is wrong to sport with the vested rights of individuals. + This complaint, supposing it to come from the stockholders + themselves, is both absurd and ungrateful. It is absurd, + because the stockholders, at least so many of them as are not + foreigners, must have known when they accepted a charter of + limited duration, that the approach of its expiration would + renew the debate upon the propriety of its existence; that + every citizen had a right, and every public man was under an + obligation, to declare his sentiments freely; that there was + nothing in the charter, numerous as its peculiar privileges + were, to exempt the bank from that freedom of speech and + writing, which extends to all our public affairs; and that the + charter was not to be renewed here, as the Bank of England + charter had formerly been renewed, by a private arrangement + among its friends, suddenly produced in Congress, and galloped + through without the knowledge of the country. The American part + of the stockholders (for I would not reply to the complaints + of the foreigners) must have known all this; and known it + when they accepted the charter. They adapted it, subject to + this known consequence; and, therefore, the complaint about + injuring their property is absurd. That it is ungrateful, must + be apparent to all who will reflect upon the great privileges + which these stockholders will have enjoyed for twenty years, and + the large profits they have already derived from their charter. + They have been dividing seven per cent. per annum, unless when + prevented by their own mismanagement; and have laid up a real + estate of three millions of dollars for future division; and + the money which has done these handsome things, instead of + being diminished or impaired in the process, is still worth + largely upwards of one hundred cents to the dollar: say, one + hundred and twenty-five cents. For the peculiar privileges which + enabled them to make these profits, the stockholders ought to + be grateful: but, like all persons who have been highly favored + with undue benefits, they mistake a privilege for a right--a + favor for a duty--and resent, as an attack upon their property, + a refusal to prolong their undue advantages. There is no ground + for these complaints, but for thanks and benedictions rather, + for permitting the bank to live out its numbered days! That + institution has forfeited its charter. It may be shut up at any + hour. It lives from day to day by the indulgence of those whom + it daily attacks; and, if any one is ignorant of this fact, let + him look at the case of the Bank of the United States against + Owens and others, decided in the Supreme Court, and reported in + the 2d Peters. + + "[Here Mr. B. read a part of this case, showing that it was + a case of usury at the rate of forty-six per cent. and that + Mr. Sergeant, counsel for the bank, resisted the decision of + the Supreme Court, upon the ground that it would expose the + charter of the bank to forfeiture; and that the decision was, + nevertheless, given upon that ground; so that the bank, being + convicted of taking usury, in violation of its charter, was + liable to be deprived of its charter, at any time that a _scire + facias_ should issue against it.] + + "Mr. B. resumed. Before I proceed to the consideration of + the resolution, I wish to be indulged in adverting to a rule + or principle of parliamentary practice, which it is only + necessary to read now in order to avoid the possibility of any + necessity for recurring to it hereafter. It is the rule which + forbids any member to be present--which, in fact, requires him + to withdraw--during the discussion of any question in which + his private interest may be concerned; and authorizes the + expurgation from the Journal of any vote which may have been + given under the predicament of an interested motive. I demand + that the Secretary of the Senate may read the rule to which I + allude. + + "[The Secretary read the following rule:] + + "'Where the private interests of a member are concerned in + a bill or question, he is to withdraw. And where such an + interest has appeared, his voice has been disallowed, even + after a division. In a case so contrary, not only to the laws + of decency, but to the fundamental principles of the social + compact, which denies to any man to be a judge in his own cause, + it is for the honor of the House that this rule, of immemorial + observance, should be strictly adhered to.' + + "_First_: Mr. President, I object to the renewal of the charter + of the Bank of the United States, because I look upon the bank + as an institution too great and powerful to be tolerated in a + government of free and equal laws. Its power is that of the + purse; a power more potent than that of the sword; and this + power it possesses to a degree and extent that will enable this + bank to draw to itself too much of the political power of this + Union; and too much of the individual property of the citizens + of these States. The money power of the bank is both direct and + indirect. + + "[The Vice-President here intimated to Mr. Benton that he was + out of order, and had not a right to go into the merits of the + bank upon the motion which he had made. Mr. Benton begged pardon + of the Vice-President, and respectfully insisted that he was in + order, and had a right to proceed. He said he was proceeding + upon the parliamentary rule of asking leave to bring in a joint + resolution, and, in doing which, he had a right to state his + reasons, which reasons constituted his speech; that the motion + was debatable, and the whole Senate might answer him. The + Vice-President then directed Mr. Benton to proceed.] + + "Mr. B. resumed. The direct power of the bank is now prodigious, + and in the event of the renewal of the charter, must speedily + become boundless and uncontrollable. The bank is now authorized + to own effects, lands inclusive, to the amount of fifty-five + millions of dollars, and to issue notes to the amount of + thirty-five millions more. This makes ninety millions; and, in + addition to this vast sum, there is an opening for an unlimited + increase: for there is a dispensation in the charter to issue + as many more notes as Congress, by law, may permit. This + opens the door to boundless emissions; for what can be more + unbounded than the will and pleasure of successive Congresses? + The indirect power of the bank cannot be stated in figures; + but it can be shown to be immense. In the first place, it has + the keeping of the public moneys, now amounting to twenty-six + millions per annum (the Post Office Department included), and + the gratuitous use of the undrawn balances, large enough to + constitute, in themselves, the capital of a great State bank. + In the next place, its promissory notes are receivable, by law, + in purchase of all property owned by the United States, and in + payment of all debts due them; and this may increase its power + to the amount of the annual revenue, by creating a demand for + its notes to that amount. In the third place, it wears the + name of the United States, and has the federal government for + a partner; and this name, and this partnership, identifies the + credit of the bank with the credit of the Union. In the fourth + place, it is armed with authority to disparage and discredit + the notes of other banks, by excluding them from all payments + to the United States; and this, added to all its other powers, + direct and indirect, makes this institution the uncontrollable + monarch of the moneyed system of the Union. To whom is all this + power granted? To a company of private individuals, many of + them foreigners, and the mass of them residing in a remote and + narrow corner of the Union, unconnected by any sympathy with the + fertile regions of the Great Valley, in which the natural power + of this Union--the power of numbers--will be found to reside + long before the renewed term of a second charter would expire. + By whom is all this power to be exercised? By a directory of + seven (it may be), governed by a majority, of four (it may be); + and none of these elected by the people, or responsible to + them. Where is it to be exercised? At a single city, distant a + thousand miles from some of the States, receiving the produce of + none of them (except one); no interest in the welfare of any of + them (except one); no commerce with the people; with branches + in every State; and every branch subject to the secret and + absolute orders of the supreme central head: thus constituting + a system of centralism, hostile to the federative principle of + our Union, encroaching upon the wealth and power of the States, + and organized upon a principle to give the highest effect to + the greatest power. This mass of power, thus concentrated, thus + ramified, and thus directed, must necessarily become, under + a prolonged existence, the absolute monopolist of American + money, the sole manufacturer of paper currency, and the sole + authority (for authority it will be) to which the federal + government, the State governments, the great cities, corporate + bodies, merchants, traders, and every private citizen, must, + of necessity apply, for every loan which their exigencies may + demand. 'The rich ruleth the poor, and the borrower is the + servant of the lender.' Such are the words of Holy Writ; and + if the authority of the Bible admitted of corroboration, the + history of the world is at hand to give it. But I will not + cite the history of the world, but one eminent example only, + and that of a nature so high and commanding, as to include all + others; and so near and recent, as to be directly applicable to + our own situation. I speak of what happened in Great Britain, + in the year 1795, when the Bank of England, by a brief and + unceremonious letter to Mr. Pitt, such as a miser would write to + a prodigal in a pinch, gave the proof of what a great moneyed + power could do, and would do, to promote its own interest, in a + crisis of national alarm and difficulty. I will read the letter. + It is exceedingly short; for after the compliments are omitted, + there are but three lines of it. It is, in fact, about as long + as a sentence of execution, leaving out the prayer of the judge. + It runs thus: + + "'It is the wish of the Court of Directors that the Chancellor + of the Exchequer would settle his arrangements of finances for + the present year, in such manner as not to depend upon any + further assistance from them, beyond what is already agreed for.' + + "Such were the words of this memorable note, sufficiently + explicit and intelligible; but to appreciate it fully, we must + know what was the condition of Great Britain at that time? + Remember it was the year 1795, and the beginning of that year, + than which a more portentous one never opened upon the British + empire. The war with the French republic had been raging for + two years; Spain had just declared war against Great Britain; + Ireland was bursting into rebellion; the fleet in the Nore was + in open mutiny; and a cry for the reform of abuses, and the + reduction of taxes, resounded through the land. It was a season + of alarm and consternation, and of imminent actual danger to + Great Britain; and this was the moment which the Bank selected + to notify the minister that no more loans were to be expected! + What was the effect of this notification? It was to paralyze + the government, and to subdue the minister to the purposes of + the bank. From that day forth Mr. Pitt became the minister of + the bank; and, before two years were out, he had succeeded in + bringing all the departments of government, King, Lords, and + Commons, and the Privy Council, to his own slavish condition. + He stopped the specie payments of the bank, and made its + notes the lawful currency of the land. In 1797 he obtained an + order in council for this purpose; in the same year an act of + parliament to confirm the order for a month, and afterwards a + series of acts to continue it for twenty years. This was the + reign of the bank. For twenty years it was a dominant power in + England; and, during that disastrous period, the public debt + was increased about £400,000,000 sterling, equal nearly to two + thousand millions of dollars, and that by paper loans from + a bank which, according to its own declarations, had not a + shilling to lend at the commencement of the period! I omit the + rest. I say nothing of the general subjugation of the country + banks, the rise in the price of food, the decline in wages, the + increase of crimes and taxes, the multiplication of lords and + beggars, and the frightful demoralization of society. I omit all + this. I only seize the prominent figure in the picture, that + of a government arrested in the midst of war and danger by the + veto of a moneyed corporation; and only permitted to go on upon + condition of assuming the odium of stopping specie payments, and + sustaining the promissory notes of an insolvent bank, as the + lawful currency of the land. This single feature suffices to + fix the character of the times; for when the government becomes + the 'servant of the lender,' the people themselves become its + slaves. Cannot the Bank of the United States, if re-chartered, + act in the same way? It certainly can, and just as certainly + will, when time and opportunity shall serve, and interest may + prompt. It is to no purpose that gentlemen may come forward, and + vaunt the character of the United States Bank, and proclaim it + too just and merciful to oppress the state. I must be permitted + to repudiate both the pledge and the praise. The security is + insufficient, and the encomium belongs to Constantinople. There + were enough such in the British Parliament the year before, + nay, the day before the bank stopped; yet their pledges and + praises neither prevented the stoppage, nor made good the damage + that ensued. There were gentlemen in our Congress to pledge + themselves in 1810 for the then expiring bank, of which the one + now existing is a second and deteriorated edition; and if their + securityship had been accepted, and the old bank re-chartered, + we should have seen this government greeted with a note, about + August, 1814--about the time the British were burning this + capitol--of the same tenor with the one received by the younger + Pitt in the year 1795; for, it is incontestable, that that bank + was owned by men who would have glorified in arresting the + government, and the war itself, for want of money. Happily, the + wisdom and patriotism of Jefferson, under the providence of God, + prevented that infamy and ruin, by preventing the renewal of the + old bank charter. + + "_Secondly._ I object to the continuance of this bank, because + its tendencies are dangerous and pernicious to the government + and the people. + + "What are the tendencies of a great moneyed power, connected + with the government, and controlling its fiscal operations? + Are they not dangerous to every interest, public and + private--political as well as pecuniary? I say they are; and + briefly enumerate the heads of each mischief. + + "1. Such a bank tends to subjugate the government, as I have + already shown in the history of what happened to the British + minister in the year 1795. + + "2. It tends to collusions between the government and the + bank in the terms of the loans, as has been fully experienced + in England in those frauds upon the people, and insults upon + the understating, called three per cent. loans, in which the + government, for about £50 borrowed, became liable to pay £100. + + "3. It tends to create public debt, by facilitating public + loans, and substituting unlimited supplies of paper, for + limited supplies of coin. The British debt is born of the Bank + of England. That bank was chartered in 1694, and was nothing + more nor less in the beginning, than an act of Parliament for + the incorporation of a company of subscribers to a government + loan. The loan was £1,200,000; the interest £80,000; and the + expenses of management £4,000. And this is the birth and origin, + the germ and nucleus of that debt, which is now £900,000,000 + (the unfunded items included), which bears an interest of + £30,000,000, and costs £260,000 for annual management. + + "4. It tends to beget and prolong unnecessary wars, by + furnishing the means of carrying them on without recurrence to + the people. England is the ready example for this calamity. Her + wars for the restoration of the Capet Bourbons were kept up by + loans and subsidies created out of bank paper. The people of + England had no interest in these wars, which cost them about + £600,000,000 of debt in twenty-five years, in addition to the + supplies raised within the year. The kings she put back upon the + French throne were not able to sit on it. Twice she put them + on; twice they tumbled off in the mud; and all that now remains + of so much sacrifice of life and money is, the debt, which is + eternal, the taxes, which are intolerable, the pensions and + titles of some warriors, and the keeping of the Capet Bourbons, + who are returned upon their hands. + + "5. It tends to aggravate the inequality of fortunes; to make + the rich richer, and the poor poorer; to multiply nabobs and + paupers; and to deepen and widen the gulf which separates Dives + from Lazarus. A great moneyed power is favorable to great + capitalists; for it is the principle of money to favor money. It + is unfavorable to small capitalists; for it is the principle of + money to eschew the needy and unfortunate. It is injurious to + the laboring classes; because they receive no favors, and have + the price of the property they wish to acquire raised to the + paper maximum, while wages remain at the silver minimum. + + "6. It tends to make and to break fortunes, by the flux and + reflux of paper. Profuse issues, and sudden contractions, + perform this operation, which can be repeated, like planetary + and pestilential visitations, in every cycle of so many years; + at every periodical return, transferring millions from the + actual possessors of property to the Neptunes who preside over + the flux and reflux of paper. The last operation of this kind + performed by the Bank of England, about five years ago, was + described by Mr. Alexander Baring, in the House of Commons, in + terms which are entitled to the knowledge and remembrance of + American citizens. I will read his description, which is brief, + but impressive. After describing the profuse issues of 1823-24, + he painted the reaction in the following terms: + + "'They, therefore, all at once, gave a sudden jerk to the + horse on whose neck they had before suffered the reins to hang + loose. They contracted their issues to a considerable extent. + The change was at once felt throughout the country. A few days + before that, no one knew what to do with his money; now, no + one knew where to get it. * * * * The London bankers found + it necessary to follow the same course towards their country + correspondents, and these again towards their customers, and + each individual towards his debtor. The consequence was obvious + in the late panic. Every one, desirous to obtain what was due to + him, ran to his banker, or to any other on whom he had a claim; + and even those who had no immediate use for their money, took + it back, and let it lie unemployed in their pockets, thinking + it unsafe in others' hands. The effect of this alarm was, that + houses which were weak went immediately. Then went second rate + houses; and, lastly, houses which were solvent went, because + their securities were unavailable. The daily calls to which + each individual was subject put it out of his power to assist + his neighbor. Men were known to seek for assistance, and that, + too, without finding it, who, on examination of their affairs, + were proved to be worth 200,000 pounds,--men, too, who held + themselves so secure, that, if asked six months before whether + they could contemplate such an event, they would have said it + would be impossible, unless the sky should fall, or some other + event equally improbable should occur.' + + "This is what was done in England five years ago, it is what may + be done here in every five years to come, if the bank charter is + renewed. Sole dispenser of money, it cannot omit the oldest and + most obvious means of amassing wealth by the flux and reflux of + paper. The game will be in its own hands, and the only answer + to be given is that to which I have alluded: 'The Sultan is too + just and merciful to abuse his power.' + + "_Thirdly._ I object to the renewal of the charter, on account + of the exclusive privileges, and anti-republican monopoly, which + it gives to the stockholders. It gives, and that by an act of + Congress, to a company of individuals, the exclusive legal + privileges: + + "1. To carry on the trade of banking upon the revenue and + credit, and in the name, of the United States of America. + + "2. To pay the revenues of the Union in their own promissory + notes. + + "3. To hold the moneys of the United States in deposit, without + making compensation for the undrawn balances. + + "4. To discredit and disparage the notes of other banks, by + excluding them from the collection of the federal revenue. + + "5. To hold real estate, receive rents, and retain a body of + tenantry. + + "6. To deal in pawns, merchandise, and bills of exchange. + + "7. To establish branches in the States without their consent. + + "8. To be exempt from liability on the failure of the bank. + + "9. To have the United States for a partner. + + "10. To have foreigners for partners. + + "11. To be exempt from the regular administration of justice for + the violations of their charter. + + "12. To have all these exclusive privileges secured to them as a + monopoly, in a pledge of the public faith not to grant the like + privileges to any other company. + + "These are the privileges, and this the monopoly of the bank. + Now, let us examine them, and ascertain their effect and + bearing. Let us contemplate the magnitude of the power which + they create; and ascertain the compatibility of this power with + the safety of this republican government, and the rights and + interests of its free and equal constituents. + + "1. The name, the credit, and the revenues of the United States + are given up to the use of this company, and constitute in + themselves an immense capital to bank upon. The name of the + United States, like that of the King, is a tower of strength; + and this strong tower is now an outwork to defend the citadel of + a moneyed corporation. The credit of the Union is incalculable; + and, of this credit, as going with the name, and being in + partnership with the United States, the same corporation now has + possession. The revenues of the Union are twenty-six millions + of dollars, including the post-office; and all this is so + much capital in the hands of the bank, because the revenue is + received by it, and is payable in its promissory notes. + + "2. To pay the revenues of the United States in their own + notes, until Congress, by law, shall otherwise direct. This is + a part of the charter, incredible and extraordinary as it may + appear. The promissory notes of the bank are to be received in + payment of every thing the United States may have to sell--in + discharge of every debt due to her, until Congress, by law, + shall otherwise direct; so that, if this bank, like its + prototype in England, should stop payment, its promissory notes + would still be receivable at every custom-house, land-office, + post-office, and by every collector of public moneys, throughout + the Union, until Congress shall meet, pass a repealing law, and + promulgate the repeal. Other banks depend upon their credit for + the receivability of their notes; but this favored institution + has law on its side, and a chartered right to compel the + reception of its paper by the federal government. The immediate + consequence of this extraordinary privilege is, that the United + States becomes virtually bound to stand security for the bank, + as much so as if she had signed a bond to that effect; and must + stand forward to sustain the institution in all emergencies, + in order to save her own revenue. This is what has already + happened, some ten years ago, in the early progress of the bank, + and when the immense aid given it by the federal government + enabled it to survive the crisis of its own overwhelming + mismanagement. + + "3. To hold the moneys of the United States in deposit, without + making compensation for the use of the undrawn balances.--This + is a right which I deny; but, as the bank claims it, and, what + is more material, enjoys it; and as the people of the United + States have suffered to a vast extent in consequence of this + claim and enjoyment, I shall not hesitate to set it down to + the account of the bank. Let us then examine the value of this + privilege, and its effect upon the interest of the community; + and, in the first place, let us have a full and accurate view of + the amount of these undrawn balances, from the establishment of + the bank to the present day. Here it is! Look! Read! + + "See, Mr. President, what masses of money, and always on hand. + The paper is covered all over with millions: and yet, for all + these vast sums, no interest is allowed; no compensation is + made to the United States. The Bank of England, for the undrawn + balances of the public money, has made an equitable compensation + to the British government; namely, a permanent loan of half a + million sterling, and a temporary loan of three millions for + twenty years, without interest. Yet, when I moved for a like + compensation to the United States, the proposition was utterly + rejected by the Finance Committee, and treated as an attempt + to violate the charter of the bank. At the same time it is + incontestable, that the United States have been borrowing these + undrawn balances from the bank, and paying an interest upon + their own money. I think we can identify one of these loans. + Let us try. In May, 1824, Congress authorized a loan of five + millions of dollars to pay the awards under the treaty with + Spain, commonly called the Florida treaty. The bank of the + United States took that loan, and paid the money for the United + States in January and March, 1825. In looking over the statement + of undrawn balances, it will be seen that they amounted to near + four millions at the end of the first, and six millions at + the end of the second quarter of that year. The inference is + irresistible, and I leave every senator to make it; only adding, + that we have paid $1,469,375 in interest upon that loan, either + to the bank or its transferrees. This is a strong case; but I + have a stronger one. It is known to every body, that the United + States subscribed seven millions to the capital stock of the + bank, for which she gave her stock note, bearing an interest of + five per cent. per annum. I have a statement from the Register + of the Treasury, from which it appears that, up to the 30th day + of June last, the United States had paid four millions seven + hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in interest upon that + note; when it is proved by the statement of balances exhibited, + that the United States, for the whole period in which that + interest was accruing, had the half, or the whole, and once the + double, of these seven millions in the hands of the bank. This + is a stronger case than that of the five million loan, but it + is not the strongest. The strongest case is this: in the year + 1817, when the bank went into operation, the United States + owed, among other debts, a sum of about fourteen millions and + three-quarters, bearing an interest of three per cent. In the + same year, the commissioners of the sinking fund were authorized + by an act of Congress to purchase that stock at sixty-five per + cent., which was then its market price. Under this authority, + the amount of about one million and a half was purchased; the + remainder, amounting to about thirteen millions and a quarter, + has continued unpurchased to this day; and, after costing the + United States about six millions in interest since 1817, the + stock has risen about four millions in value; that is to say, + from sixty-five to nearly ninety-five. Now, here is a clear loss + of ten millions of dollars to the United States. In 1817 she + could have paid off thirteen millions and a quarter of debt, + with eight millions and a half of dollars: now, after paying + six millions of interest, it would require twelve millions and + a half to pay off the same debt. By referring to the statement + of undrawn balances, it will be seen that the United States had, + during the whole year 1817, an average sum of above ten millions + of dollars in the hands of the bank, being a million and a half + more than enough to have bought in the whole of the three per + cent. stock. The question, therefore, naturally comes up, why + was it not applied to the redemption of these thirteen millions + and a quarter, according to the authority contained in the act + of Congress of that year? Certainly the bank needed the money; + for it was just getting into operation, and was as hard run to + escape bankruptcy about that time, as any bank that ever was + saved from the brink of destruction. This is the largest injury + which we have sustained, on account of accommodating the bank + with the gratuitous use of these vast deposits. But, to show + myself impartial, I will now state the smallest case of injury + that has come within my knowledge: it is the case of the _bonus_ + of fifteen hundred thousand dollars which the bank was to pay to + the United States, in three equal instalments, for the purchase + of its charter. Nominally, this _bonus_ has been paid, but out + of what moneys? Certainly out of our own; for the statement + shows our money was there, and further, shows that it is still + there; for, on the 30th day of June last, which is the latest + return, there was still $2,550,664 in the hands of the bank, + which is above $750,000 more than the amount of the _bonus_. + + "One word more upon the subject of these balances. It is now two + years since I made an effort to repeal the 4th section of the + Sinking Fund act of 1817; a section which was intended to limit + the amount of surplus money which might be kept in the treasury, + to two millions of dollars; but, by the power of construction, + was made to authorize the keeping of two millions in addition + to the surplus. I wished to repeal this section, which had + thus been construed into the reverse of its intention, and to + revive the first section of the Sinking Fund act of 1790, which + directed the whole of the surplus on hand to be applied, at the + end of each year, to the payment of the public debt. My argument + was this: that there was no necessity to keep any surplus; + that the revenue, coming in as fast as it went out, was like a + perennial fountain, which you might drain to the last drop, and + not exhaust; for the place of the last drop would be supplied + the instant it was out. And I supported this reasoning by a + reference to the annual treasury reports, which always exhibit + a surplus of four or five millions; and which were equally in + the treasury the whole year round, as on the last day of every + year. This was the argument, which in fact availed nothing; + but now I have mathematical proof of the truth of my position. + Look at this statement of balances; look for the year 1819, + and you will find but three hundred thousand dollars on hand + for that year; look still lower for 1821, and you will find + this balance but one hundred and eighty-two thousand dollars. + And what was the consequence? Did the Government stop? Did the + wheels of the State chariot cease to turn round in those years + for want of treasury oil? Not at all. Every thing went on as + well as before; the operations of the treasury were as perfect + and regular in those two years of insignificant balances, as in + 1817 and 1818, when five and ten millions were on hand. This is + proof; this is demonstration; it is the indubitable evidence of + the senses which concludes argument, and dispels uncertainty; + and, as my proposal for the repeal of the 4th Section of the + Sinking Fund act of 1817 was enacted into a law at the last + session of Congress, upon the recommendation of the Secretary + of the Treasury, a vigilant and exemplary officer, I trust that + the repeal will be acted upon, and that the bank platter will be + wiped as clean of federal money in 1831, as it was in 1821. Such + clean-taking from that dish will allow two or three millions + more to go to the reduction of the public debt; and there can be + no danger in taking the last dollar, as reason and experience + both prove. But, to quiet every apprehension on this point, to + silence the last suggestion of a possibility of any temporary + deficit, I recur to a provision contained in two different + clauses in the bank charter, copied from an amendment in the + charter of the Bank of England, and expressly made, at the + instance of the ministry, to meet the contingency of a temporary + deficiency in the annual revenue. The English provision is + this: that the government may borrow of the bank half a million + sterling, at any time, without a special act of parliament to + authorize it. The provision in our charter is the same, with the + single substitution of dollars for pounds. It is, in words and + intention, a standing authority to borrow that limited sum, for + the obvious purpose of preventing a constant keeping of a sum of + money in hand as a reserve, to meet contingencies which hardly + ever occur. This contingent authority to effect a small loan + has often been used in England--in the United States, never; + possibly, because there has been no occasion for it; probably, + because the clause was copied mechanically from the English + charter, and without the perception of its practical bearing. Be + this as it may, it is certainly a wise and prudent provision, + such as all governments should, at all times be clothed with. + + "If any senator thinks that I have exaggerated the injury + suffered by the United States, on account of the uncompensated + masses of public money in the hands of the bank, I am now going + to convince him that he is wrong. I am going to prove to him + that I have understated the case; that I have purposely kept + back a large part of it; and that justice requires a further + development. The fact is, that there are two different deposits + of public money in the bank; one in the name of the Treasurer of + the United States, the other in the name of disbursing officers. + The annual average of the former has been about three and a half + millions of dollars, and of this I have said not a word. But + the essential character of both deposits is the same; they are + both the property of the United States; both permanent; both + available as so much capital to the bank; and both uncompensated. + + "I have not ascertained the average of these deposits since + 1817, but presume it may equal the amount of that _bonus_ of + one million five hundred thousand dollars for which we sold + the charter, and which the Finance Committee of the Senate + compliments the bank for paying in three, instead of seventeen, + annual instalments; and shows how much interest they lost by + doing so. Certainly, this was a disadvantage to the bank. + + "Mr. President, it does seem to me that there is something + ominous to the bank in this contest for compensation on the + undrawn balances. It is the very way in which the struggle began + in the British Parliament which has ended in the overthrow of + the Bank of England. It is the way in which the struggle is + beginning here. My resolutions of two and three years ago are + the causes of the speech which you now hear; and, as I have + reason to believe, some others more worthy of your hearing, + which will come at the proper time. The question of compensation + for balances is now mixing itself up here, as in England, with + the question of renewing the charter; and the two, acting + together, will fall with combined weight upon the public mind, + and certainly eventuate here as they did there. + + "4. To discredit and disparage the notes of all other banks, by + excluding them from the collection of the federal revenue. This + results from the collection--no, not the collection, but the + receipt of the revenue having been communicated to the bank, + and along with it the virtual execution of the joint resolution + of 1816, to regulate the collection of the federal revenue. + The execution of that resolution was intended to be vested in + the Secretary of the Treasury--a disinterested arbiter between + rival banks; but it may be considered as virtually devolved upon + the Bank of the United States, and powerfully increases the + capacity of that institution to destroy, or subjugate, all other + banks. This power to disparage the notes of all other banks, is + a power to injure them; and, added to all the other privileges + of the Bank of the United States, is a power to destroy them! + If any one doubts this assertion, let him read the answers of + the president of the bank to the questions put to him by the + chairman of the Finance Committee. These answers are appended + to the committee's report of the last session in favor of the + bank, and expressly declare the capacity of the federal bank to + destroy the State banks. The worthy chairman [Mr. Smith, of Md.] + puts this question; 'Has the bank at any time oppressed any of + the State banks.' The president [Mr. Biddle] answers, as the + whole world would answer to a question of oppression, that it + never had; and this response was as much as the interrogatory + required. But it did not content the president of the bank; he + chose to go further, and to do honor to the institution over + which he presided, by showing that it was as just and generous + as it was rich and powerful. He, therefore, adds the following + words, for which, as a seeker after evidence, to show the + alarming and dangerous character of the bank, I return him my + unfeigned thanks: 'There are very few banks which might not have + been destroyed by an exertion of the power of the bank.' + + "This is enough! proof enough! not for me alone, but for all + who are unwilling to see a moneyed domination set up--a moneyed + oligarchy established in this land, and the entire Union + subjected to its sovereign will. The power to destroy all other + banks is admitted and declared; the inclination to do so is + known to all rational beings to reside with the power! Policy + may restrain the destroying faculties for the present; but they + exist; and will come forth when interest prompts and policy + permits. They have been exercised; and the general prostration + of the Southern and Western banks attest the fact. They will be + exercised (the charter being renewed), and the remaining State + banks will be swept with the besom of destruction. Not that all + will have their signs knocked down, and their doers closed up. + Far worse than that to many of them. Subjugation, in preference + to destruction, will be the fate of many. Every planet must + have its satellites; every tyranny must have its instruments; + every knight is followed by his squire; even the king of beasts, + the royal quadruped, whose roar subdues the forest, must have + a small, subservient animal to spring his prey. Just so of + this imperial bank, when installed anew in its formidable and + lasting power. The State banks, spared by the sword, will be + passed under the yoke. They will become subordinate parts in the + great machine. Their place in the scale of subordination will + be one degree below the rank of the legitimate branches; their + business, to perform the work which it would be too disreputable + for the legitimate branches to perform. This will be the fate of + the State banks which are allowed to keep up their signs, and to + set open their doors; and thus the entire moneyed power of the + Union would fall into the hands of one single institution, whose + inexorable and invisible mandates, emanating from a centre, + would pervade the Union, giving or withholding money according + to its own sovereign will and absolute pleasure. To a favored + State, to an individual, or a class of individuals, favored + by the central power, the golden stream of Pactolus would + flow direct. To all such the munificent mandates of the High + Directory would come, as the fabled god made his terrestrial + visit of love and desire, enveloped in a shower of gold. But to + others--to those not favored--and to those hated--the mandates + of this same directory would be as 'the planetary plague which + hangs its poison in the sick air;' death to them! death to all + who minister to their wants! What a state of things! What a + condition for a confederacy of States! What grounds for alarm + and terrible apprehension, when in a confederacy of such vast + extent, so many independent States, so many rival commercial + cities, so much sectional jealousy, such violent political + parties, such fierce contests for power, there should be but + one moneyed tribunal, before which all the rival and contending + elements must appear! but one single dispenser of money, to + which every citizen, every trader, every merchant, every + manufacturer, every planter, every corporation, every city, + every State, and the federal government itself, must apply, in + every emergency, for the most indispensable loan! and this, in + the face of the fact, that, in every contest for human rights, + the great moneyed institutions of the world have uniformly been + found on the side of kings and nobles, against the lives and + liberties of the people; + + "5. To hold real estate, receive rents, and retain a body + of tenantry. This privilege is hostile to the nature of our + republican government, and inconsistent with the nature and + design of a banking institution. Republics want freeholders, + not landlords and tenants; and, except the corporators in this + bank, and in the British East India Company, there is not an + incorporated body of landlords in any country upon the face + of the earth whose laws emanate from a legislative body. Banks + are instituted to promote trade and industry, and to aid the + government and its citizens with loans of money. The whole + argument in favor of banking--every argument in favor of this + bank--rests upon that idea. No one, when this charter was + granted, presumed to speak in favor of incorporating a society + of landlords, especially foreign landlords, to buy lands, build + houses, rent tenements, and retain tenantry. Loans of money + was the object in view, and the purchase of real estate is + incompatible with that object. Instead of remaining bankers, + the corporators may turn land speculators: instead of having + money to lend, they may turn you out tenants to vote. To an + application for a loan, they may answer, and answer truly, that + they have no money on hand; and the reason may be, that they + have laid it out in land. This seems to be the case at present. + A committee of the legislature of Pennsylvania has just applied + for a loan; the president of the bank, nothing loth to make + a loan to that great State, for twenty years longer than the + charter has to exist, expresses his regret that he cannot lend + but a limited and inadequate sum. The funds of the institution, + he says, will not permit it to advance more than eight millions + of dollars. And why? because it has invested three millions in + real estate! To this power to hold real estate, is superadded + the means to acquire it. The bank is now the greatest moneyed + power in the Union; in the event of the renewal of its charter, + it will soon be the sole one. Sole dispenser of money, it + will soon be the chief owner of property. To unlimited means + of acquisition, would be united perpetuity of tenure; for a + corporation never dies, and is free from the operation of the + laws which govern the descent and distribution of real estate + in the hands of individuals. The limitations in the charter are + vain and illusory. They insult the understanding, and mock the + credulity of foolish believers. The bank is first limited to + such acquisitions of real estate as are necessary to its own + accommodation; then comes a proviso to undo the limitation, + so far as it concerns purchases upon its own mortgages and + executions! This is the limitation upon the capacity of such an + institution to acquire real estate. As if it had any thing to + do but to make loans upon mortgages, and push executions upon + judgments! Having all the money, it would be the sole lender; + mortgages being the road to loans, all borrowers must travel + that road. When birds enough are in the net, the fowler draws + his string, and the heads are wrung off. So when mortgages + enough are taken, the loans are called in; discounts cease; + curtailments are made; failures to pay ensue; writs issue; + judgments and executions follow; all the mortgaged premises are + for sale at once; and the attorney of the bank appears at the + elbow of the marshal, sole bidder and sole purchaser. + + "What is the legal effect of this vast capacity to acquire, and + this legal power to retain, real estate? Is it not the creation + of a new species of mortmain? And of a kind more odious and + dangerous than that mortmain of the church which it baffled the + English Parliament so many ages to abolish. The mortmain of the + church was a power in an ecclesiastical corporation to hold real + estate, independent of the laws of distribution and descent: + the mortmain of the bank is a power in a lay corporation to do + the same thing. The evil of the two tenures is identical; the + difference between the two corporations is no more than the + difference between parsons and money-changers; the capacity to + do mischief incomparably the greatest on the part of the lay + corporators. The church could only operate upon the few who + were thinking of the other world; the bank, upon all who are + immersed in the business or the pleasures of this. The means + of the church were nothing but prayers; the means of the bank + is money! The church received what it could beg from dying + sinners; the bank may extort what it pleases from the whole + living generation of the just and unjust. Such is the parallel + between the mortmain of the two corporations. They both end in + monopoly of estates and perpetuity of succession; and the bank + is the greatest monopolizer of the two. Monopolies and perpetual + succession are the bane of republics. Our ancestors took care to + provide against them, by abolishing entails and primogeniture. + Even the glebes of the church, lean and few as they were in + most of the States, fell under the republican principle of + limited tenures. All the States abolished the anti-republican + tenures; but Congress re-establishes them, and in a manner more + dangerous and offensive than before the Revolution. They are + now given, not generally, but to few; not to natives only, but + to foreigners also; for foreigners are large owners of this + bank. And thus, the principles of the Revolution sink before the + privileges of an incorporated company. The laws of the States + fall before the mandates of a central directory in Philadelphia. + Foreigners become the landlords of free-born Americans; and the + young and flourishing towns of the United States are verging + to the fate of the family boroughs which belong to the great + aristocracy of England. + + "Let no one say the bank will not avail itself of its capacity + to amass real estate. The fact is, it has already done so. I + know towns, yea, cities, and could name them, if it might not + seem invidious from this elevated theatre to make a public + reference to their misfortunes, in which this bank already + appears as a dominant and engrossing proprietor. I have been in + places where the answers to inquiries for the owners of the most + valuable tenements, would remind you of the answers given by + the Egyptians to similar questions from the French officers, on + their march to Cairo. You recollect, no doubt, sir, the dialogue + to which I allude: 'Who owns that palace?' 'The Mameluke;' 'Who + this country house?' 'The Mameluke;' 'These gardens?' 'The + Mameluke;' 'That field covered with rice?' 'The Mameluke.'--And + thus have I been answered, in the towns and cities referred to, + with the single exception of the name of the Bank of the United + States substituted for that of the military scourge of Egypt. If + this is done under the first charter, what may not be expected + under the second? If this is done while the bank is on its best + behavior, what may she not do when freed from all restraint and + delivered up to the boundless cupidity and remorseless exactions + of a moneyed corporation? + + "6. To deal in pawns, merchandise, and bills of exchange. I + hope the Senate will not require me to read dry passages from + the charter to prove what I say. I know I speak a thing nearly + incredible when I allege that this bank, in addition to all its + other attributes, is an incorporated company of pawnbrokers! The + allegation staggers belief, but a reference to the charter will + dispel incredulity. The charter, in the first part, forbids a + traffic in merchandise; in the after part, permits it. For truly + this instrument seems to have been framed upon the principles + of contraries; one principle making limitations, and the other + following after with provisos to undo them. Thus is it with + lands, as I have just shown; thus is it with merchandise, as I + now show. The bank is forbidden to deal in merchandise--proviso, + unless in the case of goods pledged for money lent, and not + redeemed to the day; and, proviso, again, unless for goods + which shall be the proceeds of its lands. With the help of + these two provisos, it is clear that the limitation is undone; + it is clear that the bank is at liberty to act the pawnbroker + and merchant, to any extent that it pleases. It may say to all + the merchants who want loans, Pledge your stores, gentlemen! + They must do it, or do worse; and, if any accident prevents + redemption on the day, the pawn is forfeited, and the bank takes + possession. On the other hand, it may lay out its rents for + goods; it may sell its real estate, now worth three millions of + dollars, for goods. Thus the bank is an incorporated company + of pawnbrokers and merchants, as well as an incorporation of + landlords and land-speculators; and this derogatory privilege, + like the others, is copied from the old Bank of England charter + of 1694. Bills of exchange are also subjected to the traffic + of this bank. It is a traffic unconnected with the trade of + banking, dangerous for a great bank to hold, and now operating + most injuriously in the South and West. It is the process which + drains these quarters of the Union of their gold and silver, + and stifles the growth of a fair commerce in the products of + the country. The merchants, to make remittances, buy bills of + exchange from the branch banks, instead of buying produce from + the farmers. The bills are paid for in gold and silver; and, + eventually, the gold and silver are sent to the mother bank, + or to the branches in the Eastern cities, either to meet these + bills, or to replenish their coffers, and to furnish vast + loans to favorite States or individuals. The bills sell cheap, + say a fraction of one per cent.; they are, therefore, a good + remittance to the merchant. To the bank the operation is doubly + good; for even the half of one per cent. on bills of exchange + is a great profit to the institution which monopolizes that + business, while the collection and delivery to the branches of + all the hard money in the country is a still more considerable + advantage. Under this system, the best of the Western banks--I + do not speak of those which had no foundations, and sunk under + the weight of neighborhood opinion, but those which deserved + favor and confidence--sunk ten years ago. Under this system, + the entire West is now undergoing a silent, general, and + invisible drain of its hard money; and, if not quickly arrested, + these States will soon be, so far as the precious metals are + concerned, no more than the empty skin of an immolated victim. + + "7. To establish branches in the different States without + their consent, and in defiance of their resistance. No one can + deny the degrading and injurious tendency of this privilege. + It derogates from the sovereignty of a State; tramples upon + her laws; injures her revenue and commerce; lays open her + government to the attacks of centralism; impairs the property + of her citizens; and fastens a vampire on her bosom to suck + out her gold and silver. 1. It derogates from her sovereignty, + because the central institution may impose its intrusive + branches upon the State without her consent, and in defiance + of her resistance. This has already been done. The State of + Alabama, but four years ago, by a resolve of her legislature, + remonstrated against the intrusion of a branch upon her. + She protested against the favor. Was the will of the State + respected? On the contrary, was not a branch instantaneously + forced upon her, as if, by the suddenness of the action, to + make a striking and conspicuous display of the omnipotence of + the bank, and the nullity of the State? 2. It tramples upon + her laws; because, according to the decision of the Supreme + Court, the bank and all its branches are wholly independent + of State legislation; and it tramples on them again, because + it authorizes foreigners to hold lands and tenements in every + State, contrary to the laws of many of them; and because it + admits of the _mortmain_ tenure, which is condemned by all the + republican States in the Union. 3. It injures her revenue, + because the bank stock, under the decision of the Supreme + Court, is not liable to taxation. And thus, foreigners, and + non-resident Americans, who monopolize the money of the State, + who hold its best lands and town lots, who meddle in its + elections, and suck out its gold and silver, and perform no + military duty, are exempted from paying taxes, in proportion + to their wealth, for the support of the State whose laws they + trample upon, and whose benefits they usurp. 4. It subjects the + State to the dangerous manoeuvres and intrigues of centralism, + by means of the tenants, debtors, bank officers, and bank + money, which the central directory retain in the State, and + may embody and direct against it in its elections, and in its + legislative and judicial proceedings. 5. It tends to impair + the property of the citizens, and, in some instances, that of + the States, by destroying the State banks in which they have + invested their money. 6. It is injurious to the commerce of + the States (I speak of the Western States), by substituting a + trade in bills of exchange, for a trade in the products of the + country. 7. It fastens a vampire on the bosom of the State, + to suck away its gold and silver, and to co-operate with the + course of trade, of federal legislation, and of exchange, + in draining the South and West of all their hard money. The + Southern States, with their thirty millions of annual exports in + cotton, rice, and tobacco, and the Western States, with their + twelve millions of provisions and tobacco exported from New + Orleans, and five millions consumed in the South, and on the + lower Mississippi,--that is to say, with three fifths of the + marketable productions of the Union, are not able to sustain + thirty specie paying banks; while the minority of the States + north of the Potomac, without any of the great staples for + export, have above four hundred of such banks. These States, + without rice, without cotton, without tobacco, without sugar, + and with less flour and provisions, to export, are saturated + with gold and silver; while the Southern and Western States, + with all the real sources of wealth, are in a state of the + utmost destitution. For this calamitous reversal of the natural + order of things, the Bank of the United States stands forth + pre-eminently culpable. Yes, it is pre-eminently culpable! and + a statement in the 'National Intelligencer' of this morning + (a paper which would overstate no fact to the prejudice of + the bank), cites and proclaims the fact which proves this + culpability. It dwells, and exults, on the quantity of gold and + silver in the vaults of the United States Bank. It declares + that institution to be 'overburdened' with gold and silver; and + well may it be so overburdened, since it has lifted the load + entirely from the South and West. It calls these metals 'a drug' + in the hands of the bank; that is to say, an article for which + no purchaser can be found. Let this 'drug,' like the treasures + of the dethroned Dey of Algiers, be released from the dominion + of its keeper; let a part go back to the South and West, and the + bank will no longer complain of repletion, nor they of depletion. + + "8. Exemption of the stockholders from individual liability + on the failure of the bank. This privilege derogates from the + common law, is contrary to the principle of partnerships, and + injurious to the rights of the community. It is a peculiar + privilege granted by law to these corporators, and exempting + them from liability, except in their corporate capacity, and to + the amount of the assets of the corporation. Unhappily these + assets are never _assez_, that is to say, enough, when occasion + comes for recurring to them. When a bank fails, its assets are + always less than its debts; so that responsibility fails the + instant that liability accrues. Let no one say that the bank of + the United States is too great to fail. One greater than it, + and its prototype, has failed, and that in our own day, and for + twenty years at a time: the Bank of England failed in 1797, + and the Bank of the United States was on the point of failing + in 1819. The same cause, namely, stockjobbing and overtrading, + carried both to the brink of destruction; the same means saved + both, namely, the name, the credit, and the helping hand of + the governments which protected them. Yes, the Bank of the + United States may fail; and its stockholders live in splendor + upon the princely estates acquired with its notes, while the + industrious classes, who hold these notes, will be unable to + receive a shilling for them. This is unjust. It is a vice in the + charter. The true principle in banking requires each stockholder + to be liable to the amount of his shares; and subjects him + to the summary action of every holder on the failure of the + institution, till he has paid up the amount of his subscription. + This is the true principle. It has prevailed in Scotland for the + last century, and no such thing as a broken bank has been known + there in all that time. + + "9. To have the United States for a partner. Sir, there is one + consequence, one result of all partnerships between a government + and individuals, which should of itself, and in a mere + mercantile point of view, condemn this association on the part + of the federal government. It is the principle which puts the + strong partner forward to bear the burden whenever the concern + is in danger. The weaker members flock to the strong partner at + the approach of the storm, and the necessity of venturing more + to save what he has already staked, leaves him no alternative. + He becomes the Atlas of the firm, and bears all upon his own + shoulders. This is the principle: what is the fact? Why, that + the United States has already been compelled to sustain the + federal bank; to prop it with her revenues and its credit in + the trials and crisis of its early administration. I pass over + other instances of the damage suffered by the United States on + account of this partnership; the immense standing deposits for + which we receive no compensation; the loan of five millions of + our own money, for which we have paid a million and a half in + interest; the five per cent. stock note, on which we have paid + our partners four million seven hundred and twenty-five thousand + dollars in interest; the loss of ten millions on the three per + cent. stock, and the ridiculous catastrophe of the miserable + _bonus_, which has been paid to us with a fraction of our own + money: I pass over all this, and come to the point of a direct + loss, as a partner, in the dividends upon the stock itself. + Upon this naked point of profit and loss, to be decided by a + rule in arithmetic, we have sustained a direct and heavy loss. + The stock held by the United States, as every body knows, was + subscribed, not paid. It was a stock note, deposited for seven + millions of dollars, bearing an interest of five per cent. The + inducement to this subscription was the seductive conception + that, by paying five per cent. on its note, the United States + would clear four or five per cent. in getting a dividend of + eight or ten. This was the inducement; now for the realization + of this fine conception. Let us see it. Here it is; an official + return, from the Register of the Treasury of interest paid, and + of dividends received. The account stands thus: + + Interest paid by the United States, $4,725,000 + Dividends received by the United States, 4,629,426 + ---------- + Loss to the United States, $95,574 + + "Disadvantageous as this partnership must be to the United + States in a moneyed point of view, there is a far more grave + and serious aspect under which to view it. It is the political + aspect, resulting from the union between the bank and the + government. This union has been tried in England, and has been + found there to be just as disastrous a conjunction as the + union between church and state. It is the conjunction of the + lender and the borrower, and Holy Writ has told us which of + these categories will be master of the other. But suppose they + agree to drop rivalry, and unite their resources. Suppose they + combine, and make a push for political power: how great is the + mischief which they may not accomplish! But, on this head, + I wish to use the language of one of the brightest patriots + of Great Britain; one who has shown himself, in these modern + days, to be the worthy successor of those old iron barons whose + patriotism commanded the unpurchasable eulogium of the elder + Pitt. I speak of Sir William Pulteney, and his speech against + the Bank of England, in 1797. + + + "THE SPEECH:--EXTRACT. + + "'I have said enough to show that government has been rendered + dependent on the bank, and more particularly so in the time of + war; and though the bank has not yet fallen into the hands of + ambitious men, yet it is evident that it might, in such hands, + assume a power sufficient to control and overawe, not only the + ministers, but king, lords, and commons. * * * * * * As the bank + has thus become dangerous to government, it might, on the other + hand, by uniting with an ambitious minister, become the means of + establishing a fourth estate, sufficient to involve this nation + in irretrievable slavery, and ought, therefore, to be dreaded + as much as a certain East India bill was justly dreaded, at a + period not very remote. I will not say that the present minister + (the younger Pitt), by endeavoring, at this crisis, to take the + Bank of England under his protection, can have any view to make + use, hereafter, of that engine to perpetuate his own power, and + to enable him to domineer over our constitution: if that could + be supposed, it would only show that men can entertain a very + different train of ideas, when endeavoring to overset a rival, + from what occurs to them when intending to support and fix + themselves. My object is to secure the country against all risk + either from the bank as opposed to government, or as the engine + of ambitious men.' + + "And this is my object also. I wish to secure the Union from all + chance of harm from this bank. I wish to provide against its + friendship, as well as its enmity--against all danger from its + hug, as well as from its blow. I wish to provide against all + risk, and every hazard; for, if this risk and hazard were too + great to be encountered by King, Lords, and Commons, in Great + Britain, they must certainly be too great to be encountered by + the people of the United States, who are but commons alone. + + "10. To have foreigners for partners. This, Mr. President, + will be a strange story to be told in the West. The downright + and upright people of that unsophisticated region believe that + words mean what they signify, and that 'the Bank of the United + States' is the Bank of the United States. How great then must + be their astonishment to learn that this belief is a false + conception, and that this bank (its whole name to the contrary + notwithstanding) is just as much the bank of foreigners as + it is of the federal government. Here I would like to have + the proof--a list of the names and nations, to establish this + almost incredible fact. But I have no access except to public + documents, and from one of these I learn as much as will answer + the present pinch. It is the report of the Committee of Ways and + Means, in the House of Representatives, for the last session of + Congress. That report admits that foreigners own seven millions + of the stock of this bank; and every body knows that the federal + government owns seven millions also. + + "Thus it is proved that foreigners are as deeply interested in + this bank as the United States itself. In the event of a renewal + of the charter they will be much more deeply interested than at + present; for a prospect of a rise in the stock to two hundred + and fifty, and the unsettled state of things in Europe, will + induce them to make great investments. It is to no purpose to + say that the foreign stockholders cannot be voters or directors. + The answer to that suggestion is this: the foreigners have the + money; they pay down the cash, and want no accommodations; they + are lenders, not borrowers; and in a great moneyed institution, + such stockholders must have the greatest influence. The name + of this bank is a deception upon the public. It is not the + bank of the federal government, as its name would import, nor + of the States which compose this Union; but chiefly of private + individuals, foreigners as well as natives, denizens, and + naturalized subjects. They own twenty-eight millions of the + stock, the federal government but seven millions, and these + seven are precisely balanced by the stock of the aliens. The + federal government and the aliens are equal, owning one fifth + each; and there would be as much truth in calling it the English + Bank as the Bank of the United States. Now mark a few of the + privileges which this charter gives to these foreigners. To be + landholders, in defiance of the State laws, which forbid aliens + to hold land; to be landlords by incorporation, and to hold + American citizens for tenants; to hold lands in mortmain; to be + pawnbrokers and merchants by incorporation; to pay the revenue + of the United States in their own notes; in short, to do every + thing which I have endeavored to point out in the long and + hideous list of exclusive privileges granted to this bank. If + I have shown it to be dangerous for the United States to be in + partnership with its own citizens, how much stronger is not the + argument against a partnership with foreigners? What a prospect + for loans when at war with a foreign power, and the subjects of + that power large owners of the bank here, from which alone, or + from banks liable to be destroyed by it, we can obtain money to + carry on the war! What a state of things, if, in the division + of political parties, one of these parties and the foreigners, + coalescing, should have the exclusive control of all the money + in the Union, and, in addition to the money, should have bodies + of debtors, tenants, and bank officers stationed in all the + States, with a supreme and irresponsible system of centralism to + direct the whole! Dangers from such contingencies are too great + and obvious to be insisted upon. They strike the common sense + of all mankind, and were powerful considerations with the old + whig republicans for the non-renewal of the charter of 1791. + Mr. Jefferson and the whig republicans staked their political + existence on the non-renewal of that charter. They succeeded; + and, by succeeding, prevented the country from being laid at the + mercy of British and ultra-federalists for funds to carry on the + last war. It is said the United States lost forty millions by + using depreciated currency during the last war. That, probably, + is a mistake of one half. But be it so! For what are forty + millions compared to the loss of the war itself--compared to the + ruin and infamy of having the government arrested for want of + money--stopped and paralyzed by the reception of such a note as + the younger Pitt received from the Bank of England in 1795? + + "11. Exemption from due course of law for violations of its + charter.--This is a privilege which affects the administration + of justice, and stands without example in the annals of + republican legislation. In the case of all other delinquents, + whether persons or corporations, the laws take their course + against those who offend them. It is the right of every citizen + to set the laws in motion against every offender; and it is the + constitution of the law, when set in motion, to work through, + like a machine, regardless of powers and principalities, and + cutting down the guilty which may stand in its way. Not so in + the case of this bank. In its behalf, there are barriers erected + between the citizen and his oppressor, between the wrong and the + remedy, between the law and the offender. Instead of a right + to sue out a _scire facias_ or a _quo warranto_, the injured + citizen, with an humble petition in his hand, must repair to + the President of the United States, or to Congress, and crave + their leave to do so. If leave is denied (and denied it will be + whenever the bank has a peculiar friend in the President, or a + majority of such friends in Congress, the convenient pretext + being always at hand that the general welfare requires the bank + to be sustained), he can proceed no further. The machinery of + the law cannot be set in motion, and the great offender laughs + from behind his barrier at the impotent resentment of its + helpless victim. Thus the bank, for the plainest violations + of its charter, and the greatest oppressions of the citizen, + may escape the pursuit of justice. Thus the administration + of justice is subject to be strangled in its birth for the + shelter and protection of this bank. But this is not all. + Another and most alarming mischief results from the same + extraordinary privilege. It gives the bank a direct interest in + the presidential and congressional elections: it gives it need + for friends in Congress and in the presidential chair. Its fate, + its very existence, may often depend upon the friendship of the + President and Congress; and, in such cases, it is not in human + nature to avoid using the immense means in the hands of the bank + to influence the elections of these officers. Take the existing + fact--the case to which I alluded at the commencement of this + speech. There is a case made out, ripe with judicial evidence, + and big with the fate of the bank. It is a case of usury at the + rate of forty-six per cent., in violation of the charter, which + only admits an interest of six. The facts were admitted, in the + court below, by the bank's demurrer; the law was decided, in + the court above, by the supreme judges. The admission concludes + the facts; the decision concludes the law. The forfeiture of + the charter is established; the forfeiture is incurred; the + application of the forfeiture alone is wanting to put an end to + the institution. An impartial President or Congress might let + the laws take their course; those of a different temper might + interpose their veto. What a crisis for the bank! It beholds the + sword of Damocles suspended over its head! What an interest in + keeping those away who might suffer the hair to be cut! + + "12. To have all these unjust privileges secured to the + corporators as a monopoly, by a pledge of the public faith to + charter no other bank.--This is the most hideous feature in + the whole mass of deformity. If these banks are beneficial + institutions, why not several? one, at least, and each + independent of the other, to each great section of the Union? + If malignant, why create one? The restriction constitutes the + monopoly, and renders more invidious what was sufficiently + hateful in itself. It is, indeed, a double monopoly, legislative + as well as banking; for the Congress of 1816 monopolized the + power to grant these monopolies. It has tied up the hands + of its successors; and if this can be done on one subject, + and for twenty years, why not upon all subjects, and for all + time? Here is the form of words which operate this double + engrossment of our rights: 'No other bank shall be established + by any future law of Congress, during the continuance of the + corporation hereby enacted, for which the faith of Congress is + hereby pledged;' with a proviso for the District of Columbia. + And that no incident might be wanting to complete the title of + this charter, to the utter reprobation of whig republicans, + this compound monopoly, and the very form of words in which + it is conceived, is copied from the charter of the Bank of + England!--not the charter of William and Mary, as granted in + 1694 (for the Bill of Rights was then fresh in the memories of + Englishmen), but the charter as amended, and that for money, in + the memorable reign of Queen Anne, when a tory queen, a tory + ministry, and a tory parliament, and the apostle of toryism, in + the person of Dr. Sacheverell, with his sermons of divine right, + passive obedience, and non-resistance, were riding and ruling + over the prostrate liberties of England! This is the precious + period, and these the noble authors, from which the idea was + borrowed, and the very form of words copied, which now figure in + the charter of the Bank of the United States, constituting that + double monopoly, which restricts at once the powers of Congress + and the rights of the citizens. + + "These, Mr. President, are the chief of the exclusive privileges + which constitute the monopoly of the Bank of the United States. + I have spoken of them, not as they deserved, but as my abilities + have permitted. I have shown you that they are not only evil in + themselves, but copied from an evil example. I now wish to show + you that the government from which we have made this copy has + condemned the original; and, after showing this fact, I think I + shall be able to appeal, with sensible effect, to all liberal + minds, to follow the enlightened example of Great Britain, in + getting rid of a dangerous and invidious institution, after + having followed her pernicious example in assuming it. For + this purpose, I will have recourse to proof, and will read + from British state papers of 1826. I will read extracts from + the correspondence between Earl Liverpool, first Lord of the + Treasury, and Mr. Robinson, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the + one side, and the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank of + England on the other; the subject being the renewal, or rather + non-renewal, of the charter of the Bank of England. + +_Communications from the First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor +of the Exchequer to the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank of +England.--Extracts._ + + "'The failures which have occurred in England, unaccompanied + as they have been by the same occurrences in Scotland, tend + to prove that there must have been an unsolid and delusive + system of banking in one part of Great Britain, and a solid + and substantial one in the other. * * * * In Scotland, there + are not more than thirty banks (three chartered), and these + banks have stood firm amidst all the convulsions of the money + market in England, and amidst all the distresses to which the + manufacturing and agricultural interests in Scotland, as well + as in England, have occasionally been subject. Banks of this + description must necessarily be conducted upon the generally + understood and approved principles of banking. * * * * The + Bank of England may, perhaps, propose, as they did upon a + former occasion, the extension of the term of their exclusive + privilege, as to the metropolis and its neighborhood, beyond + the year 1833, as the price of this concession [immediate + surrender of exclusive privileges]. It would be very much to be + regretted that they should require any such condition. * * * * + It is obvious, from what passed before, that Parliament will + never agree to it. * * * * Such privileges are out of fashion; + and what expectation can the bank, under present circumstances, + entertain that theirs will be renewed?'--_Jan. 13._ + + +_Answer of the Court of Directors.--Extract._ + + "'Under the uncertainty in which the Court of Directors find + themselves with respect to the death of the bank, and the + effect which they may have on the interests of the bank, this + court cannot feel themselves justified in recommending to the + proprietors to give up the privilege which they now enjoy, + sanctioned and confirmed as it is by the solemn acts of the + legislature.'--_Jan. 20._ + + +_Second communication from the Ministers.--Extract._ + + "'The First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer + have considered the answer of the bank of the 20th instant. + They cannot but regret that the Court of Directors should + have declined to recommend to the Court of Proprietors the + consideration of the paper delivered by the First Lord of the + Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Governor and + Deputy Governor on the 13th instant. The statement contained + in that paper appears to the First Lord of the Treasury and + the Chancellor of the Exchequer so full and explicit on all + the points to which it related, that they have nothing further + to add, although they would have been, and still are, ready to + answer, as far as possible, any specific questions which might + be put, for the purpose of removing the uncertainty in which the + court of directors state themselves to be with respect to the + details of the plan suggested in that paper.'--_Jan. 23._ + + + _Second answer of the Bank.--Extract._ + + "'The Committee of Treasury [bank] having taken into + consideration the paper received from the First Lord of the + Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, dated January + 23d, and finding that His Majesty's ministers persevere in + their desire to propose to restrict immediately the exclusive + privilege of the bank, as to the number of partners engaged in + banking to a certain distance from the metropolis, and also + continue to be of opinion that Parliament would not consent to + renew the privilege at the expiration of the period of their + present charter; finding, also, that the proposal by the bank of + establishing branch banks is deemed by His Majesty's ministers + inadequate to the wants of the country, are of opinion that + it would be desirable for this corporation to propose, as a + basis, the act of 6th of George the Fourth, which states, + the conditions on which the Bank of Ireland relinquished its + exclusive privileges; this corporation waiving the question of + a prolongation of time, although the committee [of the bank] + cannot agree in the opinion of the First Lord of the Treasury + and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that they are not making + a considerable sacrifice, adverting especially to the Bank of + Ireland remaining in possession of that privilege five years + longer than the Bank of England.'--_January 25._ + + * * * * * + + "Here, Mr. President, is the end of all the exclusive privileges + and odious monopoly of the Bank of England. That ancient and + powerful institution, so long the haughty tyrant of the moneyed + world--so long the subsidizer of kings and ministers--so long + the fruitful mother of national debt and useless wars--so + long the prolific manufactory of nabobs and paupers--so long + the dread dictator of its own terms to parliament--now droops + the conquered wing, lowers its proud crest, and quails under + the blows if its late despised assailants. It first puts on a + courageous air, and takes a stand upon privileges sanctioned by + time, and confirmed by solemn acts. Seeing that the ministers + could have no more to say to men who would talk of privileges in + the nineteenth century, and being reminded that parliament was + inexorable, the bully suddenly degenerates into the craven, and, + from showing fight, calls for quarter. The directors condescend + to beg for the smallest remnant of their former power, for five + years only; for the city of London even; and offer to send + branches into all quarters. Denied at every point, the subdued + tyrant acquiesces in his fate; announces his submission to the + spirit and intelligence of the age; and quietly sinks down + into the humble, but safe and useful condition of a Scottish + provincial bank. + + "And here it is profitable to pause; to look back, and see by + what means this ancient and powerful institution--this Babylon + of the banking world--was so suddenly and so totally prostrated. + Who did it? And with what weapons? Sir, it was done by that + power which is now regulating the affairs of the civilized + world. It was done by the power of public opinion, invoked by + the working members of the British parliament. It was done + by Sir Henry Parnell, who led the attack upon the Wellington + ministry, on the night of the 15th of November; by Sir William + Pulteney, Mr. Grenfell, Mr. Hume, Mr. Edward Ellice, and others, + the working members of the House of Commons, such as had, a few + years before, overthrown the gigantic oppressions of the salt + tax. These are the men who have overthrown the Bank of England. + They began the attack in 1824, under the discouraging cry of + too soon, too soon--for the charter had then nine years to run! + and ended with showing that they had began just soon enough. + They began with the ministers in their front, on the side of + the bank, and ended with having them on their own side, and + making them co-operators in the attack, and the instruments and + inflicters of the fatal and final blow. But let us do justice to + these ministers. Though wrong in the beginning, they were right + in the end; though monarchists, they behaved like republicans. + They were not Polignacs. They yielded to the intelligence of the + age; they yielded to the spirit which proscribes monopolies and + privileges, and in their correspondence with the bank directors, + spoke truth and reason and asserted liberal principles, with + a point and power which quickly put an end to dangerous and + obsolete pretensions. They told the bank the mortifying truths, + that its system was unsolid and delusive--that its privileges + and monopoly were out of fashion--that they could not be + prolonged for five years even--nor suffered to exist in London + alone; and, what was still more cutting, that the banks of + Scotland, which had no monopoly, no privilege, no connection + with the government, which paid interest on deposits, and + whose stockholders were responsible to the amount of their + shares--were the solid and substantial banks, which alone the + public interest could hereafter recognize. They did their + business, when they undertook it, like true men; and, in the + single phrase, '_out of fashion_,' achieved the most powerful + combination of solid argument and contemptuous sarcasm, that + ever was compressed into three words. It is a phrase of + electrical power over the senses and passions. It throws back + the mind to the reigns of the Tudors and Stuarts--the termagant + Elizabeth and the pedagogue James--and rouses within us all the + shame and rage we have been accustomed to feel at the view of + the scandalous sales of privileges and monopolies which were + the disgrace and oppression of these wretched times. Out of + fashion! Yes; even in England, the land of their early birth, + and late protection. And shall they remain in fashion here? + Shall republicanism continue to wear, in America, the antique + costume which the doughty champions of antiquated fashion have + been compelled to doff in England? Shall English lords and + ladies continue to find, in the Bank of the United States, the + unjust and odious privileges which they can no longer find in + the Bank of England? Shall the copy survive here, after the + original has been destroyed there? Shall the young whelp triumph + in America, after the old lion has been throttled and strangled + in England? No! never! The thing is impossible! The Bank of the + United States dies, as the Bank of England dies, in all its + odious points, upon the limitation of its charter; and the only + circumstance of regret is, that the generous deliverance is to + take effect two years earlier in the British monarchy than in + the American republic. It came to us of war--it will go away + with peace. It was born of the war of 1812--it will die in the + long peace with which the world is blessed. The arguments on + which it was created will no longer apply. Times have changed; + and the policy of the republic changes with the times. The war + made the bank; peace will unmake it. The baleful planet of fire, + and blood, and every human woe, did bring that pestilence upon + us; the benignant star of peace shall chase it away." + +This speech was not answered. Confident in its strength, and +insolent in its nature, the great moneyed power had adopted a system +in which she persevered, until hard knocks drove her out of it: it +was to have an anti-bank speech treated with the contempt of silence +in the House, and caricatured and belittled in the newspapers; and +according to this system my speech was treated. The instant it was +delivered, Mr. Webster called for the vote, and to be taken by yeas +and nays, which was done; and resulted differently from what was +expected--a strong vote against the bank--20 to 23; enough to excite +uneasiness, but not enough to pass the resolution and legitimate a +debate on the subject. The debate stopped with the single speech; +but it was a speech to be read by the people--the masses--the +millions; and was conceived and delivered for that purpose; and +was read by them; and has been complimented since, as having +crippled the bank, and given it the wound of which it afterwards +died; but not within the year and a day which would make the slayer +responsible for the homicide. The list of yeas and nays was also +favorable to the effect of the speech. Though not a party vote, it +was sufficiently so to show how it stood--the mass of the democracy +against the bank--the mass of the anti-democrats against it. The +names were:-- + + "YEAS.--Messrs. Barnard, Benton, Bibb, Brown, Dickerson, Dudley, + Forsyth, Grundy, Hayne, Iredell, King, McKinley, Poindexter, + Sanford, Smith of S. C., Tazewell, Troup, Tyler, White, + Woodbury--20. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Barton, Bell, Burnet, Chase, Clayton, Root, + Frelinghuysen, Holmes, Hendricks, Johnston, Knight, Livingston, + Marks, Noble, Robbins, Robinson, Ruggles, Seymour, Silsbee, + Smith of Md., Sprague, Webster, Willey--23." + + + + +CHAPTER LVII. + +ERROR OF DE TOCQUEVILLE, IN RELATION TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + + +I have had occasion several times to notice the errors of Monsieur +de Tocqueville, in his work upon American democracy. That work is +authority in Europe, where it has appeared in several languages; +and is sought by some to be made authority here, where it has been +translated into English, and published with notes, and a preface +to recommend it. It was written with a view to enlighten European +opinion in relation to democratic government, and evidently with +a candid intent; but abounds with errors to the prejudice of that +form of government, which must do it great mischief, both at home +and abroad, if not corrected. A fundamental error of this kind--one +which goes to the root of representative government, occurs in +chapter 8 of his work, where he finds a great difference in the +members comprising the two Houses of Congress, attributing an +immense superiority to the Senate, and discovering the cause of +the difference in the different modes of electing the members--the +popular elections of the House, and the legislative elections of the +Senate. He says:-- + + "On entering the House of Representatives at Washington, one + is struck with the vulgar demeanor of that great assembly. The + eye frequently does not discover a man of celebrity within its + walls. Its members are almost all obscure individuals, whose + names present no associations to the mind; they are mostly + village lawyers, men in trade, or even persons belonging to + the lower classes of society. In a country in which education + is very general, it is said that the representatives of the + people do not always know how to write correctly. At a few + yards' distance from this spot is the door of the Senate, + which contains within a small space a large proportion of + the celebrated men in America. Scarcely an individual is to + be found in it, who does not recall this idea of an active + and illustrious career. The Senate is composed of eloquent + advocates, distinguished generals, wise magistrates, and + statesmen of note, whose language would at all times do honor + to the most remarkable parliamentary debates of Europe. What, + then, is the cause of this strange contrast? and why are the + most able citizens to be found in one assembly rather than in + the other? Why is the former body remarkable for its vulgarity, + and its poverty of talent, whilst the latter seems to enjoy a + monopoly of intelligence and of sound judgment? Both of these + assemblies emanate from the people. From what cause, then, + does so startling a difference arise? The only reason which + appears to me adequately to account for it is, that the House of + Representatives is elected by the populace directly, and that of + the Senate is elected by an indirect application of universal + suffrage; but this transmission of the popular authority through + an assembly of chosen men operates an important change in it, by + refining its discretion and improving the forms which it adopts. + Men who are chosen in this manner, accurately represent the + majority of the nation which governs them; but they represent + the elevated thoughts which are current in the community, the + generous propensities which prompt its nobler actions, rather + than the petty passions which disturb, or the vices which + disgrace it. The time may be already anticipated at which the + American republics will be obliged to introduce the plan of + election by an elected body more frequently into their system of + representation, or they will incur no small risk of perishing + miserably among the shoals of democracy."--_Chapter 8._ + +The whole tenor of these paragraphs is to disparage the +democracy--to disparage democratic government--to attack +fundamentally the principle of popular election itself. They +disqualify the people for self-government, hold them to be incapable +of exercising the elective franchise, and predict the downfall +of our republican system, if that franchise is not still further +restricted, and the popular vote--the vote of the people--reduced +to the subaltern choice of persons to vote for them. These are +profound errors on the part of Mons. de Tocqueville, which require +to be exposed and corrected; and the correction of which comes +within the scope of this work, intended to show the capacity of the +people for self-government, and the advantage of extending--instead +of restricting--the privilege of the direct vote. He seems to +look upon the members of the two Houses as different orders of +beings--different classes--a higher and a lower class; the former +placed in the Senate by the wisdom of State legislatures, the latter +in the House of Representatives by the folly of the people--when the +fact is, that they are not only of the same order and class, but +mainly the same individuals. The Senate is almost entirely made up +out of the House! and it is quite certain that every senator whom +Mons. de Tocqueville had in his eye when he bestowed such encomium +on that body had come from the House of Representatives! placed +there by the popular vote, and afterwards transferred to the Senate +by the legislature; not as new men just discovered by the superior +sagacity of that body, but as public men with national reputations, +already illustrated by the operation of popular elections. And +if Mons. de Tocqueville had chanced to make his visit some years +sooner, he would have seen almost every one of these senators, to +whom his exclusive praise is directed, actually sitting in the other +House. + +Away, then, with his fact! and with it, away with all his fanciful +theory of wise elections by small electoral colleges, and silly +ones by the people! and away with all his logical deductions, +from premises which have no existence, and which would have us +still further to "refine popular discretion," by increasing and +extending the number of electoral colleges through which it is to be +filtrated. Not only all vanishes, but his praise goes to the other +side, and redounds to the credit of popular elections; for almost +every distinguished man in the Senate or in any other department +of the government, now or heretofore--from the Congress of +Independence down to the present day--has owed his first elevation +and distinction, to popular elections--to the direct vote of the +people, given, without the intervention of any intermediate body, +to the visible object of their choice; and it is the same in other +countries, now and always. The English, the Scotch and the Irish +have no electoral colleges; they vote direct, and are never without +their ablest men in the House of Commons. The Romans voted direct; +and for five hundred years--until fair elections were destroyed by +force and fraud--never failed to elect consuls and prætors, who +carried the glory of their country beyond the point at which they +had found it. + +The American people know this--know that popular election has +given them every eminent public man that they have ever had--that +it is the safest and wisest mode of political election--most free +from intrigue and corruption; and instead of further restricting +that mode, and reducing the masses to mere electors of electors, +they are, in fact, extending it, and altering constitutions to +carry elections to the people, which were formerly given to the +general assemblies. Many States furnish examples of this. Even the +constitution of the United States has been overruled by universal +public sentiment in the greatest of its elections--that of President +and Vice-President. The electoral college by that instrument, +both its words and intent, was to have been an independent body, +exercising its own discretion in the choice of these high officers. +On the contrary, it has been reduced to a mere formality for the +registration of the votes which the people prepare and exact. The +speculations of Monsieur de Tocqueville are, therefore, groundless; +and must be hurtful to representative government in Europe, where +the facts are unknown; and may be injurious among ourselves, where +his book is translated into English, with a preface and notes to +recommend it. + +Admitting that there might be a difference between the appearance +of the two Houses, and between their talent, at the time that +Mons. de Tocqueville looked in upon them, yet that difference, so +far as it might then have existed, was accidental and temporary, +and has already vanished. And so far as it may have appeared, or +may appear in other times, the difference in favor of the Senate +may be found in causes very different from those of more or less +judgment and virtue in the constituencies which elect the two +Houses. The Senate is a smaller body, and therefore may be more +decorous; it is composed of older men, and therefore should be +graver, its members have usually served in the highest branches of +the State governments, and in the House of Representatives, and +therefore should be more experienced; its terms of service are +longer, and therefore give more time for talent to mature, and for +the measures to be carried which confer fame. Finally, the Senate +is in great part composed of the pick of the House, and therefore +gains double--by brilliant accession to itself and abstraction from +the other. These are causes enough to account for any occasional, +or general difference which may show itself in the decorum or +ability of the two Houses. But there is another cause, which is +found in the practice of some of the States--the caucus system and +rotation in office--which brings in men unknown to the people, and +turns them out as they begin to be useful; to be succeeded by other +new beginners, who are in turn turned out to make room for more +new ones; all by virtue of arrangements which look to individual +interests, and not to the public good. + +The injury of these changes to the business qualities of the House +and the interests of the State, is readily conceivable, and very +visible in the delegations of States where they do, or do not +prevail--in some Southern and some Northern States, for example. To +name them might seem invidious, and is not necessary, the statement +of the general fact being sufficient to indicate an evil which +requires correction. Short terms of service are good on account +of their responsibility, and two years is a good legal term; but +every contrivance is vicious, and also inconsistent with the +re-eligibility permitted by the constitution, which prevents the +people from continuing a member as long as they deem him useful to +them. Statesmen are not improvised in any country; and in our own, +as well as in Great Britain, great political reputations have only +been acquired after long service--20, 30, 40, and even 50 years; and +great measures have only been carried by an equal number of years of +persevering exertion by the same man who commenced them. Earl Grey +and Major Cartwright--I take the aristocratic and the democratic +leaders of the movement--only carried British parliamentry reform +after forty years of annual consecutive exertion. They organized +the Society for Parliamentry Reform in 1792, and carried the reform +in 1832--disfranchising 56 burgs, half disfranchising 31 others, +enfranchising 41 new towns; and doubling the number of voters by +extending the privilege to £10 householders--extorting, perhaps, the +greatest concession from power and corruption to popular right that +was ever obtained by civil and legal means. Yet this was only done +upon forty years' continued annual exertions. Two men did it, but it +took them forty years. + +The same may be said of other great British measures--Catholic +emancipation, corn law repeal, abolition of the slave trade, and +many others; each requiring a lifetime of continued exertion from +devoted men. Short service, and not popular election, is the evil +of the House of Representatives; and this becomes more apparent by +contrast--contrast between the North and the South--the caucus, +or rotary system, not prevailing in the South, and useful members +being usually continued from that quarter as long as useful; and +thus with fewer members, usually showing a greater number of men who +have attained a distinction. Monsieur de Tocqueville is profoundly +wrong, and does great injury to democratic government, as his theory +countenances the monarchial idea of the incapacity of the people for +self-government. They are with us the best and safest depositories +of the political elective power. They have not only furnished to the +Senate its ablest members through the House of Representatives, but +have sometimes repaired the injustice of State legislatures, which +repulsed or discarded some eminent men. The late Mr. John Quincy +Adams, after forty years of illustrious service--after having been +minister to half the great courts of Europe, a senator in Congress, +Secretary of State, and President of the United States--in the full +possession of all his great faculties, was refused an election by +the Massachusetts legislature to the United States Senate, where +he had served thirty years before. Refused by the legislature, he +was taken up by the people, sent to the House of Representatives, +and served there to octogenarian age--attentive, vigilant and +capable--an example to all, and a match for half the House to the +last. The brilliant, incorruptible, sagacious Randolph--friend of +the people, of the constitution, of economy and hard money--scourge +and foe to all corruption, plunder and jobbing--had nearly the same +fate; dropped from the Senate by the Virginia general assembly, +restored to the House of Representatives by the people of his +district, to remain there till, following the example of his friend, +the wise Macon, he voluntarily withdrew. I name no more, confining +myself to instances of the illustrious dead. + +I have been the more particular to correct this error of De +Tocqueville, because, while disparaging democratic government +generally, it especially disparages that branch of our government +which was intended to be the controlling part. Two clauses of the +constitution--one vesting the House of Representatives with the +sole power of originating revenue bills, the other with the sole +power of impeachment--sufficiently attest the high function to which +that House was appointed. They are both borrowed from the British +constitution, where their effect has been seen in controlling the +course of the whole government, and bringing great criminals to +the bar. No sovereign, no ministry holds out an hour against the +decision of the House of Commons. Though an imperfect representation +of the people, even with the great ameliorations of the reform act +of 1832, it is at once the democratic branch, and the master-branch +of the British government. Wellington administrations have to retire +before it. Bengal Governors-General have to appear as criminals +at its bar. It is the theatre which attracts the talent, the +patriotism, the high spirit, and the lofty ambition of the British +empire; and the people look to it as the master-power in the working +of the government, and the one in which their will has weight. No +rising man, with ability to acquire a national reputation, will quit +it for a peerage and a seat in the House of Lords. Our House of +Representatives, with its two commanding prerogatives and a perfect +representation, should not fall below the British House of Commons +in the fulfilment of its mission. It should not become second to +the Senate, and in the beginning it did not. For the first thirty +years it was the controlling branch of the government, and the one +on whose action the public eye was fixed. Since then the Senate +has been taking the first place, and people have looked less to +the House. This is an injury above what concerns the House itself. +It is an injury to our institutions, and to the people. The high +functions of the House were given to it for wise purposes--for +paramount national objects. It is the immediate representation of +the people, and should command their confidence and their hopes. +As the sole originator of tax bills, it is the sole dispenser of +burthens on the people, and of supplies to the government. As sole +authors of impeachment, it is the grand inquest of the nation, and +has supervision over all official delinquencies. Duty to itself, +to its high functions, to the people, to the constitution, and to +the character of democratic government, require it to resume and +maintain its controlling place in the machinery and working of our +federal government: and that is what it has commenced doing in the +last two or three sessions--and with happy results to the economy of +the public service--and in preventing an increase of the evils of +our diplomatic representation abroad. + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII. + +THE TWENTY-SECOND CONGRESS. + + +This body commenced its first session the 5th of December, 1831, +and terminated that session July 17th, 1832; and for this session +alone belongs to the most memorable in the annals of our government. +It was the one at which the great contest for the renewal of the +charter of the Bank of the United States was brought on, and +decided--enough of itself to entitle it to lasting remembrance, +though replete with other important measures. It embraced, in the +list of members of the two Houses, much shining talent, and a great +mass of useful ability, and among their names will be found many, +then most eminent in the Union, and others destined to become so. +The following are the names: + + +SENATE. + + MAINE--John Holmes, Peleg Sprague. + + NEW HAMPSHIRE--Samuel Bell, Isaac Hill. + + MASSACHUSETTS--Daniel Webster, Nathaniel Silsbee. + + RHODE ISLAND--Nehemiah R. Knight, Asher Robbins. + + CONNECTICUT--Samuel A. Foot, Gideon Tomlinson. + + VERMONT--Horatio Seymour, Samuel Prentiss. + + NEW-YORK--Charles E. Dudley, Wm. Marcy. + + NEW JERSEY--M. Dickerson, Theodore Frelinghuysen. + + PENNSYLVANIA--Geo. M. Dallas, Wm. Wilkins. + + DELAWARE--John M. Clayton, Arnold Naudain. + + MARYLAND--E. F. Chambers, Samuel Smith. + + VIRGINIA--Littleton W. Tazewell, John Tyler. + + NORTH CAROLINA--B. Brown, W. P. Mangum. + + SOUTH CAROLINA--Robert Y. Hayne, S. D. Miller. + + GEORGIA--George M. Troup, John Forsyth. + + KENTUCKY--George M. Bibb, Henry Clay. + + TENNESSEE--Felix Grundy, Hugh L. White. + + OHIO--Benjamin Ruggles, Thomas Ewing. + + LOUISIANA--J. S. Johnston, Geo. A. Waggaman. + + INDIANA--William Hendricks, Robert Hanna. + + MISSISSIPPI--Powhatan Ellis, Geo. Poindexter. + + ILLINOIS--Elias K. Kane, John M. Robinson. + + ALABAMA--William R. King, Gabriel Moore. + + MISSOURI--Thomas H. Benton, Alex. Buckner. + +HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + + From MAINE--John Anderson, James Bates, George Evans, Cornelius + Holland, Leonard Jarvis, Edward Kavanagh, Rufus McIntire. + + NEW HAMPSHIRE--John Brodhead, Thomas Chandler, Joseph Hammons, + Henry Hubbard, Joseph M. Harper, John W. Weeks. + + MASSACHUSETTS--John Quincy Adams, Nathan Appleton, Isaac C. + Bates, George N. Briggs, Rufus Choate, Henry A. S. Dearborn, + John Davis, Edward Everett, George Grennell, jun., James L. + Hodges, Joseph G. Kendall, John Reed. (_One vacancy._) + + RHODE ISLAND--Tristam Burgess, Dutee J. Pearce. + + CONNECTICUT--Noyes Barber, William W. Ellsworth, Jabez W. + Huntington, Ralph I. Ingersoll, William L. Storrs, Ebenezer + Young. + + VERMONT--Heman Allen, William Cahoon, Horace Everett, Jonathan + Hunt, William Slade. + + NEW YORK--William G. Angel, Gideon H. Barstow, Joseph Bouck, + William Babcock, John T. Bergen, John C. Brodhead, Samuel + Beardsley, John A. Collier, Bates Cooke, C. C. Cambreleng, + John Dickson, Charles Dayan, Ulysses F. Doubleday, William + Hogan, Michael Hoffman, Freeborn G. Jewett, John King, Gerrit + Y. Lansing, James Lent, Job Pierson, Nathaniel Pitcher, Edmund + H. Pendleton, Edward C. Reed, Erastus Root, Nathan Soule, John + W. Taylor, Phineas L. Tracy, Gulian C. Verplanck, Frederic + Whittlesey, Samuel J. Wilkin, Grattan H. Wheeler, Campbell P. + White, Aaron Ward, Daniel Wardwell. + + NEW JERSEY--Lewis Condict, Silas Condict, Richard M. Cooper, + Thomas H. Hughes, James Fitz Randolph, Isaac Southard. + + PENNSYLVANIA--Robert Allison, John Banks, George Burd, John + C. Bucher, Thomas H. Crawford, Richard Coulter, Harmar Denny, + Lewis Dewart, Joshua Evans, James Ford, John Gilmore, William + Heister, Henry Horn, Peter Ihrie, jun., Adam King, Henry King, + Joel K. Mann, Robert McCoy, Henry A. Muhlenberg, T. M. McKennan, + David Potts, jun., Andrew Stewart, Samuel A. Smith, Philander + Stephens, Joel B. Sutherland, John G. Watmough. + + DELAWARE--John J. Milligan. + + MARYLAND--Benjamin C. Howard, Daniel Jenifer, John L. Kerr, + George E. Mitchell, Benedict I. Semmes, John S. Spence, Francis + Thomas, George C. Washington, J. T. H. Worthington. + + VIRGINIA--Mark Alexander, Robert Allen, William S. Archer, + William Armstrong, John S. Barbour, Thomas T. Bouldin, + Nathaniel H. Claiborne, Robert Craig, Joseph W. Chinn, Richard + Coke, jun., Thomas Davenport, Philip Doddridge, Wm. F. Gordon, + Charles C. Johnston, John Y. Mason, Lewis Maxwell, Charles F. + Mercer, William McCoy, Thomas Newton, John M. Patton, John J. + Roane, Andrew Stevenson. + + NORTH CAROLINA--Dan'l L. Barringer, Laughlin Bethune, John + Branch, Samuel P. Carson, Henry W. Conner, Thomas H. Hall, + Micajah T. Hawkins, James J. McKay, Abraham Rencher, William B. + Shepard, Augustine H. Shepperd, Jesse Speight, Lewis Williams. + + SOUTH CAROLINA--Robert W. Barnwell, Jas. Blair, Warren R. Davis, + William Drayton, John M. Felder, J. R. Griffin, Thomas R. + Mitchell, George McDuffie, Wm. T. Nuckolls. + + GEORGIA--Thomas F. Foster, Henry G. Lamar, Daniel Newnan, Wiley + Thompson, Richard H. Wilde, James M. Wayne. (One vacancy.) + + KENTUCKY--John Adair, Chilton Allan, Henry Daniel, Nathan + Gaither, Albert G. Hawes, R. M. Johnson, Joseph Lecompte, + Chittenden Lyon, Robert P. Letcher, Thomas A. Marshall, + Christopher Tompkins, Charles A. Wickliffe. + + TENNESSEE--Thomas D. Arnold, John Bell, John Blair, William + Fitzgerald, William Hall, Jacob C. Isacks, Cave Johnson, James + K. Polk, James Standifer. + + OHIO--Joseph H. Crane, Eleutheros Cooke, William Creighton, + jun., Thomas Corwin, James Findlay, William W. Irwin, William + Kennon, Humphrey H. Leavitt, William Russel, William Stanberry, + John Thomson, Joseph Vance, Samuel F. Vinton, Elisha Whittlesey. + + LOUISIANA--H. A. Bullard, Philemon Thomas, Edward D. White. + + INDIANA--Ratliff Boon, John Carr, Jonathan McCarty. + + MISSISSIPPI--Franklin E. Plummer. + + ILLINOIS--Joseph Duncan. + + ALABAMA--Clement C. Clay, Dixon H. Lewis, Samuel W. Mardis. + + MISSOURI--William H. Ashley. + + +DELEGATES. + + MICHIGAN--Austin E. Wing. + + ARKANSAS--Ambrose H. Sevier. + + FLORIDA--Joseph M. White. + +Andrew Stevenson, Esq., of Virginia, was re-elected speaker; and +both branches of the body being democratic, they were organized, in +a party sense, as favorable to the administration, although the most +essential of the committees, when the Bank question unexpectedly +sprung up, were found to be on the side of that institution. In +his message to the two Houses, the President presented a condensed +and general view of our relations, political and commercial, with +foreign nations, from which the leading passages are here given: + + "After our transition from the state of colonies to that of + an independent nation, many points were found necessary to + be settled between us and Great Britain. Among them was the + demarcation of boundaries, not described with sufficient + precision in the treaty of peace. Some of the lines that + divide the States and territories of the United States from + the British provinces, have been definitively fixed. That, + however, which separates us from the provinces of Canada and + New Brunswick to the North and the East, was still in dispute + when I came into office. But I found arrangements made for its + settlement, over which I had no control. The commissioners who + had been appointed under the provisions of the treaty of Ghent, + having been unable to agree, a convention was made with Great + Britain by my immediate predecessor in office, with the advice + and consent of the Senate, by which it was agreed 'that the + points of difference which have arisen in the settlement of the + boundary line between the American and British dominions, as + described in the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, shall be + referred, as therein provided, to some friendly sovereign or + State, who shall be invited to investigate, and make a decision + upon such points of difference:' and the King of the Netherlands + having, by the late President and his Britannic Majesty, been + designated as such friendly sovereign, it became my duty to + carry, with good faith, the agreement, so made, into full + effect. To this end I caused all the measures to be taken which + were necessary to a full exposition of our case to the sovereign + arbiter; and nominated as minister plenipotentiary to his court, + a distinguished citizen of the State most interested in the + question, and who had been one of the agents previously employed + for settling the controversy. On the 10th day of January last, + His Majesty the King of the Netherlands delivered to the + plenipotentiaries of the United States, and of Great Britain, + his written opinion on the case referred to him. The papers + in relation to the subject will be communicated, by a special + message, to the proper branch of the government, with the + perfect confidence that its wisdom will adopt such measures as + will secure an amicable settlement of the controversy, without + infringing any constitutional right of the States immediately + interested. + + "In my message at the opening of the last session of Congress, + I expressed a confident hope that the justice of our claims + upon France, urged as they were with perseverance and signal + ability by our minister there, would finally be acknowledged. + This hope has been realized. A treaty has been signed, which + will immediately be laid before the Senate for its approbation; + and which, containing stipulations that require legislative + acts, must have the concurrence of both Houses before it can be + carried into effect. + + "Should this treaty receive the proper sanction, a source of + irritation will be stopped, that has, for so many years, in some + degree alienated from each other two nations who, from interest + as well as the remembrance of early associations, ought to + cherish the most friendly relations--an encouragement will be + given for perseverance in the demands of justice, by this new + proof, that, if steadily pursued, they will be listened to--and + admonition will be offered to those powers, if any, which may be + inclined to evade them, that they will never be abandoned. Above + all, a just confidence will be inspired in our fellow-citizens, + that their government will exert all the powers with which they + have invested it, in support of their just claims upon foreign + nations; at the same time that the frank acknowledgment and + provision for the payment of those which were addressed to our + equity, although unsupported by legal proof, affords a practical + illustration of our submission to the Divine rule of doing to + others what we desire they should do unto us. + + "Sweden and Denmark having made compensation for the + irregularities committed by their vessels, or in their ports, to + the perfect satisfaction of the parties concerned, and having + renewed the treaties of commerce entered into with them, our + political and commercial relations with those powers continue to + be on the most friendly footing. + + "With Spain, our differences up to the 22d of February, 1819, + were settled by the treaty of Washington of that date; but, + at a subsequent period, our commerce with the states formerly + colonies of Spain, on the continent of America, was annoyed and + frequently interrupted by her public and private armed ships. + They captured many of our vessels prosecuting a lawful commerce, + and sold them and their cargoes; and at one time, to our demands + for restoration and indemnity, opposed the allegation, that + they were taken in the violation of a blockade of all the ports + of those states. This blockade was declaratory only, and the + inadequacy of the force to maintain it was so manifest, that + this allegation was varied to a charge of trade in contraband + of war. This, in its turn, was also found untenable; and + the minister whom I sent with instructions to press for the + reparation that was due to our injured fellow-citizens, has + transmitted an answer to his demand, by which the captures + are declared to have been legal, and are justified because + the independence of the states of America never having been + acknowledged by Spain, she had a right to prohibit trade with + them under her old colonial laws. This ground of defence was + contradictory, not only to those which had been formerly + alleged, but to the uniform practice and established laws + of nations; and had been abandoned by Spain herself in the + convention which granted indemnity to British subjects for + captures made at the same time, under the same circumstances, + and for the same allegations with those of which we complain. + + "I, however, indulge the hope that further reflection will lead + to other views, and feel confident, that when his Catholic + Majesty shall be convinced of the justice of the claim, his + desire to preserve friendly relations between the two countries, + which it is my earnest endeavor to maintain, will induce him + to accede to our demand. I have therefore dispatched a special + messenger, with instructions to our minister to bring the case + once more to his consideration; to the end that if, which I + cannot bring myself to believe, the same decision, that cannot + but be deemed an unfriendly denial of justice, should be + persisted in, the matter may, before your adjournment, be laid + before you, the constitutional judges of what is proper to be + done when negotiation for redress of injury fails. + + "The conclusion of a treaty for indemnity with France, seemed + to present a favorable opportunity to renew our claims of a + similar nature on other powers, and particularly in the case of + those upon Naples; more especially as, in the course of former + negotiations with that power, our failure to induce France + to render us justice was used as an argument against us. The + desires of the merchants who were the principal sufferers, have + therefore been acceded to, and a mission has been instituted for + the special purpose of obtaining for them a reparation already + too long delayed. This measure having been resolved on, it was + put in execution without waiting for the meeting of Congress, + because the state of Europe created an apprehension of events + that might have rendered our application ineffectual. + + "Our demands upon the government of the Two Sicilies are of a + peculiar nature. The injuries on which they are founded are + not denied, nor are the atrocity and perfidy under which those + injuries were perpetrated attempted to be extenuated. The sole + ground on which indemnity has been refused is the alleged + illegality of the tenure by which the monarch who made the + seizures held his crown. This defence, always unfounded in any + principle of the law of nations--now universally abandoned, even + by those powers upon whom the responsibility for acts of past + rulers bore the most heavily, will unquestionably be given up + by his Sicilian Majesty, whose counsels will receive an impulse + from that high sense of honor and regard to justice which are + said to characterize him; and I feel the fullest confidence that + the talents of the citizen commissioned for that purpose will + place before him the just claims of our injured citizens in such + a light as will enable me, before your adjournment, to announce + that they have been adjusted and secured. Precise instructions, + to the effect of bringing the negotiation to a speedy issue, + have been given, and will be obeyed. + + "In the late blockade of Terceira, some of the Portuguese fleet + captured several of our vessels, and committed other excesses, + for which reparation was demanded; and I was on the point of + dispatching an armed force, to prevent any recurrence of a + similar violence, and protect our citizens in the prosecution + of their lawful commerce, when official assurances, on which I + relied, made the sailing of the ships unnecessary. Since that + period, frequent promises have been made that full indemnity + shall be given for the injuries inflicted and the losses + sustained. In the performance there has been some, perhaps + unavoidable, delay; but I have the fullest confidence that my + earnest desire that this business may at once be closed, which + our minister has been instructed strongly to express, will very + soon be gratified. I have the better ground for this hope, from + the evidence of a friendly disposition which that government has + shown by an actual reduction in the duty on rice, the produce + of our Southern States, authorizing the anticipation that this + important article of our export will soon be admitted on the + same footing with that produced by the most favored nation. + + "With the other powers of Europe, we have fortunately had no + cause of discussions for the redress of injuries. With the + Empire of the Russias, our political connection is of the + most friendly, and our commercial of the most liberal kind. + We enjoy the advantages of navigation and trade, given to the + most favored nation; but it has not yet suited their policy, or + perhaps has not been found convenient from other considerations, + to give stability and reciprocity to those privileges, by a + commercial treaty. The ill-health of the minister last year + charged with making a proposition for that arrangement, did + not permit him to remain at St. Petersburg; and the attention + of that government, during the whole of the period since his + departure, having been occupied by the war in which it was + engaged, we have been assured that nothing could have been + effected by his presence. A minister will soon be nominated, + as well to effect this important object, as to keep up the + relations of amity and good understanding of which we have + received so many assurances and proofs from his Imperial Majesty + and the Emperor his predecessor. + + "The treaty with Austria is opening to us an important trade + with the hereditary dominions of the Emperor, the value of which + has been hitherto little known, and of course not sufficiently + appreciated. While our commerce finds an entrance into the south + of Germany by means of this treaty, those we have formed with + the Hanseatic towns and Prussia, and others now in negotiation, + will open that vast country to the enterprising spirit of our + merchants on the north; a country abounding in all the materials + for a mutually beneficial commerce, filled with enlightened + and industrious inhabitants, holding an important place in + the politics of Europe, and to which we owe so many valuable + citizens. The ratification of the treaty with the Porte was sent + to be exchanged by the gentleman appointed our chargé d'affaires + to that court. Some difficulties occurred on his arrival; but at + the date of his last official dispatch, he supposed they had + been obviated, and that there was every prospect of the exchange + being speedily effected. + + "This finishes the connected view I have thought it proper to + give of our political and commercial relations in Europe. Every + effort in my power will be continued to strengthen and extend + them by treaties founded on principles of the most perfect + reciprocity of interest, neither asking nor conceding any + exclusive advantage, but liberating, as far as it lies in my + power, the activity and industry of our fellow-citizens from the + shackles which foreign restrictions may impose. + + "To China and the East Indies, our commerce continues in its + usual extent, and with increased facilities, which the credit + and capital of our merchants afford, by substituting bills for + payments in specie. A daring outrage having been committed in + those seas by the plunder of one of our merchantmen engaged + in the pepper trade at a port in Sumatra, and the piratical + perpetrators belonging to tribes in such a state of society that + the usual course of proceeding between civilized nations could + not be pursued, I forthwith dispatched a frigate with orders to + require immediate satisfaction for the injury, and indemnity to + the sufferers. + + "Few changes have taken place in our connections with the + independent States of America since my last communication + to Congress. The ratification of a commercial treaty with + the United Republics of Mexico has been for some time under + deliberation in their Congress, but was still undecided at the + date of our last dispatches. The unhappy civil commotions that + have prevailed there, were undoubtedly the cause of the delay; + but as the government is now said to be tranquillized, we may + hope soon to receive the ratification of the treaty, and an + arrangement for the demarcation of the boundaries between us. + In the mean time, an important trade has been opened, with + mutual benefit, from St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, by + caravans, to the interior provinces of Mexico. This commerce is + protected in its progress through the Indian countries by the + troops of the United States, which have been permitted to escort + the caravans beyond our boundaries to the settled part of the + Mexican territory. + + "From Central America I have received assurances of the most + friendly kind, and a gratifying application for our good offices + to remove a supposed indisposition towards that government + in a neighboring state: this application was immediately and + successfully complied with. They gave us also the pleasing + intelligence, that differences which had prevailed in their + internal affairs had been peaceably adjusted. Our treaty with + this republic continues to be faithfully observed, and promises + a great and beneficial commerce between the two countries; a + commerce of the greatest importance, if the magnificent project + of a ship canal through the dominions of that state, from the + Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, now in serious contemplation, + shall be executed. + + "I have great satisfaction in communicating the success which + has attended the exertions of our minister in Colombia to + procure a very considerable reduction in the duties on our flour + in that republic. Indemnity, also, has been stipulated for + injuries received by our merchants from illegal seizures; and + renewed assurances are given that the treaty between the two + countries shall be faithfully observed. + + "Chili and Peru seem to be still threatened with civil + commotions; and, until they shall be settled, disorders may + naturally be apprehended, requiring the constant presence of a + naval force in the Pacific Ocean, to protect our fisheries and + guard our commerce. + + "The disturbances that took place in the Empire of Brazil, + previously to, and immediately consequent upon, the abdication + of the late Emperor, necessarily suspended any effectual + application for the redress of some past injuries suffered + by our citizens from that government, while they have been + the cause of others, in which all foreigners seem to have + participated. Instructions have been given to our minister + there, to press for indemnity due for losses occasioned by these + irregularities, and to take care that our fellow-citizens shall + enjoy all the privileges stipulated in their favor, by the + treaty lately made between the two powers; all which, the good + intelligence that prevails between our minister at Rio Janeiro + and the regency gives us the best reason to expect. + + "I should have placed Buenos Ayres on the list of South American + powers, in respect to which nothing of importance affecting us + was to be communicated, but for occurrences which have lately + taken place at the Falkland Islands, in which the name of that + republic has been used to cover with a show of authority acts + injurious to our commerce, and to the property and liberty of + our fellow-citizens. In the course of the present year, one of + our vessels engaged in the pursuit of a trade which we have + always enjoyed without molestation, has been captured by a band + acting, as they pretend, under the authority of the government + of Buenos Ayres. I have therefore given orders for the dispatch + of an armed vessel, to join our squadron in those seas, and aid + in affording all lawful protection to our trade which shall be + necessary; and shall, without delay, send a minister to inquire + into the nature of the circumstances, and also of the claim, if + any, that is set up by that government to those islands. In the + mean time, I submit the case to the consideration of Congress, + to the end that they may clothe the Executive with such + authority and means as they may deem necessary for providing a + force adequate to the complete protection of our fellow-citizens + fishing and trading in those seas. + + "This rapid sketch of our foreign relations, it is hoped, + fellow-citizens, may be of some use in so much of your + legislation as may bear on that important subject; while it + affords to the country at large a source of high gratification + in the contemplation of our political and commercial connection + with the rest of the world. At peace with all--having subjects + of future difference with few, and those susceptible of easy + adjustment--extending our commerce gradually on all sides, and + on none by any but the most liberal and mutually beneficial + means--we may, by the blessing of Providence, hope for all that + national prosperity which can be derived from an intercourse + with foreign nations, guided by those eternal principles of + justice and reciprocal good will which are binding as well upon + States as the individuals of whom they are composed. + + "I have great satisfaction in making this statement of our + affairs, because the course of our national policy enables + me to do it without any indiscreet exposure of what in other + governments is usually concealed from the people. Having none + but a straightforward, open course to pursue--guided by a single + principle that will bear the strongest light--we have happily no + political combinations to form, no alliances to entangle us, no + complicated interests to consult; and in subjecting all we have + done to the consideration of our citizens, and to the inspection + of the world, we give no advantage to other nations, and lay + ourselves open to no injury." + +This clear and succinct account of the state of our foreign +relations makes us fully acquainted with these affairs as they +then stood, and presents a view of questions to be settled with +several powers which were to receive their solution from the firm +and friendly spirit in which they would be urged. Turning to our +domestic concerns, the message thus speaks of the finances; showing +a gradual increase, the rapid extinction of the public debt, and +that a revenue of 27-3/4 millions was about double the amount of all +expenditures, exclusive of what that extinction absorbed: + + "The state of the public finances will be fully shown by the + Secretary of the Treasury, in the report which he will presently + lay before you. I will here, however, congratulate you upon + their prosperous condition. The revenue received in the present + year will not fall short of twenty-seven million seven hundred + thousand dollars; and the expenditures for all objects other + than the public debt will not exceed fourteen million seven + hundred thousand. The payment on account of the principal and + interest of the debt, during the year, will exceed sixteen + millions and a half of dollars: a greater sum than has been + applied to that object, out of the revenue, in any year since + the enlargement of the sinking fund, except the two years + following immediately thereafter. The amount which will have + been applied to the public debt from the 4th of March, 1829, to + the 1st of January next, which is less than three years since + the administration has been placed in my hands, will exceed + forty millions of dollars." + +On the subject of government insolvent debtors, the message said: + + "In my annual message of December, 1829, I had the honor to + recommend the adoption of a more liberal policy than that which + then prevailed towards unfortunate debtors to the government; + and I deem it my duty again to invite your attention to this + subject. Actuated by similar views, Congress at their last + session passed an act for the relief of certain insolvent + debtors of the United States: but the provisions of that law + have not been deemed such as were adequate to that relief to + this unfortunate class of our fellow-citizens, which may be + safely extended to them. The points in which the law appears to + be defective will be particularly communicated by the Secretary + of the Treasury: and I take pleasure in recommending such an + extension of its provisions as will unfetter the enterprise of a + valuable portion of our citizens, and restore to them the means + of usefulness to themselves and the community." + +Recurring to his previous recommendation in favor of giving the +election of President and Vice-President to the direct vote of the +people, the message says: + + "I have heretofore recommended amendments of the federal + constitution giving the election of President and Vice-President + to the people, and limiting the service of the former to a + single term. So important do I consider these changes in our + fundamental law, that I cannot, in accordance with my sense + of duty, omit to press them upon the consideration of a new + Congress. For my views more at large, as well in relation to + these points as to the disqualification of members of Congress + to receive an office from a President in whose election they + have had an official agency, which I proposed as a substitute, I + refer you to my former messages." + +And concludes thus in relation to the Bank of the United States: + + "Entertaining the opinions heretofore expressed in relation to + the Bank of the United States, as at present organized, I felt + it my duty, in my former messages, frankly to disclose them, + in order that the attention of the legislature and the people + should be seasonably directed to that important subject, and + that it might be considered and finally disposed of in a manner + best calculated to promote the ends of the constitution, and + subserve the public interests. Having thus conscientiously + discharged a constitutional duty, I deem it proper, on this + occasion, without a more particular reference to the views + of the subject then expressed, to leave it for the present + to the investigation of an enlightened people and their + representatives." + + + + +CHAPTER LIX. + +REJECTION OF MR. VAN BUREN, MINISTER TO ENGLAND. + + +At the period of the election of General Jackson to the Presidency, +four gentlemen stood prominent in the political ranks, each +indicated by his friends for the succession, and each willing to be +the General's successor. They were Messrs. Clay and Webster, and +Messrs. Calhoun and Van Buren; the two former classing politically +against General Jackson--the two latter with him. But an event +soon occurred to override all political distinction, and to bring +discordant and rival elements to work together for a common object. +That event was the appointment of Mr. Van Buren to be Secretary +of State--a post then looked upon as a stepping-stone to the +Presidency--and the imputed predilection of General Jackson for +him. This presented him as an obstacle in the path of the other +three, and which the interest of each required to be got out of +the way. The strife first, and soon, began in the cabinet, where +Mr. Calhoun had several friends; and Mr. Van Buren, seeing that +General Jackson's administration was likely to be embarrassed on +his account, determined to resign his post--having first seen +the triumph of the new administration in the recovery of the +British West India trade, and the successful commencement of other +negotiations, which settled all outstanding difficulties with other +nations, and shed such lustre upon Jackson's diplomacy. He made +known his design to the President, and his wish to retire from the +cabinet--did so--received the appointment of minister to London, and +immediately left the United States; and the cabinet, having been +from the beginning without harmony or cohesion, was dissolved--some +resigning voluntarily, the rest under requisition--as already +related in the chapter on the dissolution of the cabinet. The +voluntary resigning members were classed as friends to Mr. Van +Buren, the involuntary as opposed to him, and two of them (Messrs. +Ingham and Branch) as friends to Mr. Calhoun; and became, of course, +alienated from General Jackson. I was particularly grieved at this +breach between Mr. Branch and the President, having known him from +boyhood--been school-fellows together, and being well acquainted +with his inviolable honor and long and faithful attachment to +General Jackson. It was the complete extinction of the cabinet, and +a new one was formed. + +Mr. Van Buren had nothing to do with this dissolution, of which +General Jackson has borne voluntary and written testimony, to be +used in this chapter; and also left behind him a written account +of the true cause, now first published in this Thirty Years' +View, fully exonerating Mr. Van Buren from all concern in that +event, and showing his regret that it had occurred. But the whole +catastrophe was charged upon him by his political opponents, and +for the unworthy purpose of ousting the friends of Mr. Calhoun, and +procuring a new set of members entirely devoted to his interest. +This imputation was negatived by his immediate departure from the +country, setting out at once upon his mission, without awaiting the +action of the Senate on his nomination. This was in the summer of +1831. Early in the ensuing session--at its very commencement, in +fact--his nomination was sent in, and it was quickly perceptible +that there was to be an attack upon him--a combined one; the three +rival statesmen acting in concert, and each backed by all his +friends. No one outside of the combination, myself alone excepted, +could believe it would be successful. I saw they were masters of +the nomination from the first day, and would reject it when they +were ready to exhibit a case of justification to the country: and so +informed General Jackson from an early period in the session. The +numbers were sufficient: the difficulty was to make up a case to +satisfy the people; and that was found to be a tedious business. + +Fifty days were consumed in these preliminaries--to be precise, +fifty-one; and that in addition to months of preparation before +the Senate met. The preparation was long, but the attack vigorous; +and when commenced, the business was finished in two days. There +were about a dozen set speeches against him, from as many different +speakers--about double the number that spoke against Warren +Hastings--and but four off-hand replies for him; and it was evident +that the three chiefs had brought up all their friends to the +work. It was an unprecedented array of numbers and talent against +one individual, and he absent,--and of such amenity of manners as +usually to disarm political opposition of all its virulence. The +causes of objection were supposed to be found in four different +heads of accusation; each of which was elaborately urged: + +1. The instructions drawn up and signed by Mr. Van Buren as +Secretary of State, under the direction of the President, and +furnished to Mr. McLane, for his guidance in endeavoring to reopen +the negotiation for the West India trade. + +2. Making a breach of friendship between the first and second +officers of the government--President Jackson and Vice-President +Calhoun--for the purpose of thwarting the latter, and helping +himself to the Presidency. + +3. Breaking up the cabinet for the same purpose. + +4. Introducing the system of "proscription" (removal from office for +opinion's sake), for the same purpose. + +A formal motion was made by Mr. Holmes, of Maine, to raise a +committee with power to send for persons and papers, administer +oaths, receive sworn testimony, and report it, with the committee's +opinion, to the Senate; but this looked so much like preferring an +impeachment, as well as trying it, that the procedure was dropped; +and all reliance was placed upon the numerous and elaborate +speeches to be delivered, all carefully prepared, and intended +for publication, though delivered in secret session. Rejection of +the nomination was not enough--a killing off in the public mind +was intended; and therefore the unusual process of the elaborate +preparation and intended publication of the speeches. All the +speakers went through an excusatory formula, repeated with equal +precision and gravity; abjuring all sinister motives; declaring +themselves to be wholly governed by a sense of public duty; +describing the pain which they felt at arraigning a gentleman +whose manners and deportment were so urbane; and protesting that +nothing but a sense of duty to the country could force them to the +reluctant performance of such a painful task. The accomplished +Forsyth complimented, in a way to be perfectly understood, this +excess of patriotism, which could voluntarily inflict so much +self-distress for the sake of the public good; and I, most +unwittingly, brought the misery of one of the gentlemen to a sudden +and ridiculous conclusion by a chance remark. It was Mr. Gabriel +Moore, of Alabama, who sat near me, and to whom I said, when the +vote was declared, "You have broken a minister, and elected a +Vice-President." He asked how? and I told him the people would see +nothing in it but a combination of rivals against a competitor, and +would pull them all down, and set him up. "Good God!" said he, "why +didn't you tell me that before I voted, and I would have voted the +other way." It was only twenty minutes before, for he was the very +last speaker, that Mr. Moore had delivered himself thus, on this +very interesting point of public duty against private feeling: + + "Under all the circumstances of the case, notwithstanding the + able views which have been presented, and the impatience of + the Senate, I feel it a duty incumbent upon me, not only in + justification of myself, and of the motives which govern me + in the vote which I am about to give, but, also, in justice + to the free and independent people whom I have the honor in + part to represent, that I should set forth the reasons which + have reluctantly compelled me to oppose the confirmation of + the present nominee. Sir, it is proper that I should declare + that the evidence adduced against the character and conduct of + the late Secretary of State, and the sources from which this + evidence emanates, have made an impression on my mind that will + require of me, in the conscientious though painful discharge of + my duty, to record my vote against his nomination." + +The famous Madame Roland, when mounting the scaffold, apostrophized +the mock statue upon it with this exclamation: "Oh Liberty! how many +crimes are committed in thy name!" After what I have seen during +my thirty years of inside and outside views in the Congress of the +United States, I feel qualified to paraphrase the apostrophe, and +exclaim: "Oh Politics! how much bamboozling is practised in thy +game!" + +The speakers against the nomination were Messrs. Clay, Webster, John +M. Clayton, Ewing of Ohio, John Holmes, Frelinghuysen, Poindexter, +Chambers of Maryland, Foot of Connecticut, Governor Miller, and +Colonel Hayne of South Carolina, and Governor Moore of Alabama--just +a dozen, and equal to a full jury. Mr. Calhoun, as Vice-President, +presiding in the Senate, could not speak; but he was understood to +be personated by his friends, and twice gave the casting vote, one +interlocutory, against the nominee--a tie being contrived for that +purpose, and the combined plan requiring him to be upon the record. +Only four spoke on the side of the nomination; General Smith of +Maryland, Mr. Forsyth, Mr. Bedford Brown, and Mr. Marcy. Messrs. +Clay and Webster, and their friends, chiefly confined themselves to +the instructions on the West India trade; the friends of Mr. Calhoun +paid most attention to the cabinet rupture, the separation of old +friends, and the system of proscription. Against the instructions +it was alleged, that they begged as a favor what was due as a +right; that they took the side of Great Britain against our own +country; and carried our party contests, and the issue of our party +elections, into diplomatic negotiations with foreign countries; and +the following clause from the instructions to Mr. McLane was quoted +to sustain these allegations: + + "In reviewing the causes which have preceded and more or less + contributed to a result so much regretted, there will be found + three grounds upon which we are most assailable: 1. In our too + long and too tenaciously resisting the right of Great Britain to + impose protecting duties in her colonies. 2. In not relieving + her vessels from the restriction of returning direct from the + United States to the colonies after permission had been given by + Great Britain to our vessels to clear out from the colonies to + any other than a British port. And, 3. In omitting to accept the + terms offered by the act of Parliament of July, 1825, after the + subject had been brought before Congress and deliberately acted + upon by our government. It is, without doubt, to the combined + operation of these (three) causes that we are to attribute the + British interdict; you will therefore see the propriety of + possessing yourself fully of all the explanatory and mitigating + circumstances connected with them, that you may be able to + obviate, as far as practicable, the unfavorable impression which + they have produced." + +This was the clause relied upon to sustain the allegation of putting +his own country in the wrong, and taking the part of Great Britain, +and truckling to her to obtain as a favor what was due as a right, +and mixing up our party contests with our foreign negotiations. The +fallacy of all these allegations was well shown in the replies of +the four senators, and especially by General Smith, of Maryland; +and has been further shown in the course of this work, in the +chapter on the recovery of the British West India trade. But there +was a document at that time in the Department of State, unknown to +the friends of Mr. Van Buren in the Senate, which would not only +have exculpated him, but turned the attacks of his assailants +against themselves. The facts were these: Mr. Gallatin, while +minister at London, on the subject of this trade, of course sent +home dispatches, addressed to the Secretary of State (Mr. Clay), in +which he gave an account of his progress, or rather of the obstacles +which prevented any progress, in the attempted negotiation. There +were two of these dispatches, one dated September 22, 1826, the +other November the 14th, 1827. The latter had been communicated to +Congress in full, and printed among the papers of the case; of the +former only an extract had been communicated, and that relating to +a mere formal point. It so happened that the part of this dispatch +of September, 1826, not communicated, contained Mr. Gallatin's +report of the causes which led to the refusal of the British to +treat--their refusal to permit us to accept the terms of their act +of 1825, after the year limited for acceptance had expired--and +which led to the order in council, cutting us off from the trade; +and it so happened that this report of these causes, so made by +Mr. Gallatin, was the original from which Mr. Van Buren copied +his instructions to Mr. McLane! and which were the subject of so +much censure in the Senate. I have been permitted by Mr. Everett, +Secretary of State under President Fillmore--(Mr. Webster would have +given me the same permission if I had applied during his time, for +he did so in every case that I ever asked)--to examine this dispatch +in the Department of State, and to copy from it whatever I wanted; I +accordingly copied the following: + + "On three points we were perhaps vulnerable. + + "1. The delay of renewing the negotiation. + + "2. The omission of having revoked the restriction on the + indirect intercourse when that of Great Britain had ceased. + + "3. Too long an adherence to the opposition to her right of + laying protecting duties. This might have been given up as soon + as the act of 1825 passed. These are the causes assigned for the + late measure adopted towards the United States on that subject; + and they have, undoubtedly, had a decisive effect as far as + relates to the order in council, assisted as they were by the + belief that our object was to compel this country to regulate + the trade upon our own terms." + +This was a passage in the unpublished part of that dispatch, and it +shows itself to be the original from which Mr. Van Buren copied, +substituting the milder term of "assailable" where Mr. Gallatin +had applied that of "vulnerable" to Mr. Adams's administration. +Doubtless the contents of that dispatch, in this particular, were +entirely forgotten by Mr. Clay at the time he spoke against Mr. +Van Buren, having been received by him above four years before +that time. They were probably as little known to the rest of the +opposition senators as to ourselves; and the omission to communicate +and print them could not have occurred from any design to suppress +what was material to the debate in the Senate, as the communication +and printing had taken place long before this occasion of using the +document had occurred. + +The way I came to the knowledge of this omitted paragraph was this: +When engaged upon the chapter of his rejection, I wrote to Mr. Van +Buren for his view of the case; and he sent me back a manuscript +copy of a speech which he had drawn up in London, to be delivered in +New-York, at some "public dinner," which his friends could get up +for the occasion; but which he never delivered, or published, partly +from an indisposition to go into the newspapers for character--much +from a real forbearance of temper--and possibly from seeing, on his +return to the United States, that he was not at all hurt by his +fall. That manuscript speech contained this omitted extract, and I +trust that I have used it fairly and beneficially for the right, +and without invidiousness to the wrong. It disposes of one point of +attack; but the gentlemen were wrong in their whole broad view of +this British West India trade question. Jackson took the Washington +ground, and he and Washington were both right. The enjoyment of +colonial trade is a privilege to be solicited, and not a right to +be demanded; and the terms of the enjoyment are questions for the +mother country. The assailing senators were wrong again in making +the instructions a matter of attack upon Mr. Van Buren. They were +not his instructions, but President Jackson's. By the constitution +they were the President's, and the senators derogated from that +instrument in treating his secretary as their author. The President +alone is the conductor of our foreign relations, and the dispatches +signed by the Secretaries of State only have force as coming from +him, and are usually authenticated by the formula, "_I am instructed +by the President to say_," &c., &c. It was a constitutional +blunder, then, in the senators to treat Mr. Van Buren as the author +of these instructions; it was also an error in point of fact. +General Jackson himself specially directed them; and so authorized +General Smith to declare in the Senate--which he did. + +Breaking up the cabinet, and making dissension between General +Jackson and Mr. Calhoun, was the second of the allegations against +Mr. Van Buren. Repulsed as this accusation has been by the character +of Mr. Van Buren, and by the narrative of the "Exposition," it has +yet to receive a further and most authoritative contradiction, from +a source which admits of no cavil--from General Jackson himself--in +a voluntary declaration made after that event had passed away, and +when justice alone remained the sole object to be accomplished. It +was a statement addressed to "Martin Van Buren, President of the +United States," dated at the Hermitage, July 31st, 1840, and ran in +these words: + + "It was my intention as soon as I heard that Mr. Calhoun had + expressed his approbation of the leading measures of your + administration, and had paid you a visit, to place in your + possession the statement which I shall now make; but bad health, + and the pressure of other business have constantly led me to + postpone it. What I have reference to is the imputation that + has been sometimes thrown upon you, that you had an agency in + producing the controversy which took place between Mr. Calhoun + and myself, in consequence of Mr. Crawford's disclosure of what + occurred in the cabinet of Mr. Monroe relative to my military + operations in Florida during his administration. Mr. Calhoun is + doubtless already satisfied that he did you injustice in holding + you in the slightest degree responsible for the course I pursued + on that occasion: but as there may be others who may still be + disposed to do you injustice, and who may hereafter use the + circumstance for the purpose of impairing both your character + and his, I think it my duty to place in your possession the + following emphatic declaration, viz.: _That I am not aware of + your ever saying a word to me relative to Mr. Calhoun, which had + a tendency to create an interruption of my friendly relations + with him:--that you were not consulted in any stage of the + correspondence on the subject of his conduct in the cabinet of + Mr. Monroe;--and that, after this correspondence became public, + the only sentiment you ever expressed to me about it was that of + deep regret that it should have occurred._ You are at liberty + to show this letter to Mr. Calhoun and make what other use of + it you may think proper for the purpose of correcting the + erroneous impressions which have prevailed on this subject." + +A testimony more honorable than this in behalf of a public man, was +never delivered, nor one more completely disproving a dishonorable +imputation, and showing that praise was due where censure had +been lavished. Mr. Van Buren was not the cause of breaking up the +cabinet, or of making dissension between old friends, or of raking +up the buried event in Mr. Monroe's cabinet, or of injuring Mr. +Calhoun in any way. Yet this testimony, so honorable to him, was +never given to the public, though furnished for the purpose, and now +appears for the first time in print. + +Equally erroneous was the assumption, taken for granted throughout +the debate, and so extensively and deeply impressed upon the public +mind, that Mr. Calhoun was the uniform friend of General Jackson +in the election--his early supporter in the canvass, and steadfast +adherent to the end. This assumption has been rebutted by Mr. +Calhoun himself, who, in his pamphlet against General Jackson, +shows that he was for _himself_ until withdrawn from the contest +by Mr. Dallas at a public meeting, in Philadelphia, in the winter +of 1823-4; and after that was _perfectly neutral_. His words +are: "_When my name was withdrawn from the list of presidential +candidates, I assumed a perfectly neutral position between Gen. +Jackson and Mr. Adams._" This clears Mr. Van Buren again, as he +could not make a breach of friendship where none existed, or +supplant a supporter where there was no support: and that there was +none from Mr. Calhoun to Gen. Jackson, is now authentically declared +by Mr. Calhoun himself. Yet this head of accusation, with a bad +motive assigned for it, was most perseveringly urged by his friends, +and in his presence, throughout the whole debate. + +Introducing the "New-York system of proscription" into the federal +government, was the last of the accusations on which Mr. Van Buren +was arraigned; and was just as unfounded as all the rest. Both his +temper and his judgment was against the removal of faithful officers +because of difference of political opinion, or even for political +conduct against himself--as the whole tenor of his conduct very +soon after, and when he became President of the United States, +abundantly showed. The departments at Washington, and some part of +every State in the Union, gave proofs of his forbearance in this +particular. + +I have already told that I did not speak in the debate on the +nomination of Mr. Van Buren; and this silence on such an occasion +may require explanation from a man who does not desire the character +of neglecting a friend in a pinch. I had strong reasons for that +abstinence, and they were obliged to be strong to produce it. I was +opposed to Mr. Van Buren's going to England as minister. He was our +intended candidate for the Presidency, and I deemed such a mission +to be prejudicial to him and the party, and apt to leave us with a +candidate weakened with the people by absence, and by a residence +at a foreign court. I was in this state of mind when I saw the +combination formed against him, and felt that the success of it +would be his and our salvation. Rejection was a bitter medicine, but +there was health at the bottom of the draught. Besides, I was not +the guardian of Messrs. Clay, Webster, and Calhoun, and was quite +willing to see them fall into the pit which they were digging for +another. I said nothing in the debate; but as soon as the vote was +over I wrote to Mr. Van Buren a very plain letter, only intended +for himself, and of which I kept no copy; but having applied for +the original for use in this history, he returned it to me, on +the condition that I should tell, if I used it, that in a letter +to General Jackson, he characterized it as "honest and sensible." +Honest, I knew it to be at the time; sensible, I believe the event +has proved it to be; and that there was no mistake in writing +such a letter to Mr. Van Buren, has been proved by our subsequent +intercourse. It was dated January 28, 1832, and I subjoin it in +full, as contemporaneous testimony, and as an evidence of the +independent manner in which I spoke to my friends--even those I was +endeavoring to make President. It ran thus: + + "Your faithful correspondents will have informed you of the + event of the 25th. Nobody would believe it here until after it + happened, but the President can bear me witness that I prepared + him to expect it a month ago. The public will only understand + it as a political movement against a rival; it is right, + however, that you should know that without an auxiliary cause + the political movement against you would not have succeeded. + There were gentlemen voting against you who would not have done + so except for a reason which was strong and clear in their own + minds, and which (it would be improper to dissemble) has hurt + you in the estimation of many candid and disinterested people. + After saying this much, I must also say, that I look upon this + head of objection as temporary, dying out of itself, and to + be swallowed up in the current and accumulating topics of the + day. You doubtless know what is best for yourself, and it does + not become me to make suggestions; but for myself, when I find + myself on the bridge of Lodi, I neither stop to parley, nor turn + back to start again. Forward, is the word. Some say, make you + governor of New-York; I say, you have been governor before: that + is turning back. Some say, come to the Senate in place of some + of your friends; I say, that of itself will be only parleying + with the enemy while on the middle of the bridge, and receiving + their fire. The vice-presidency is the only thing, and if a + place in the Senate can be coupled with the trial for that, + then a place in the Senate might be desirable. The Baltimore + Convention will meet in the month of May, and I presume it will + be in the discretion of your immediate friends in New-York, + and your leading friends here, to have you nominated; and + in all that affair I think you ought to be passive. 'For + Vice-President,' on the Jackson ticket, will identify you with + him; a few cardinal principles of the old democratic school + might make you worth contending for on your own account. The + dynasty of '98 (the federalists) has the Bank of the United + States in its interest; and the Bank of the United States has + drawn into its vortex, and wields at its pleasure, the whole + high tariff and federal internal improvement party. To set up + for yourself, and to raise an interest which can unite the + scattered elements of a nation, you will have to take positions + which are visible, and represent principles which are felt and + understood; you will have to separate yourself from the enemy + by partition lines which the people can see. The dynasty of '98 + (federalists), the Bank of the United States, the high tariff + party, the federal internal improvement party, are against you. + Now, if you are not against them, the people, and myself, as + one of the people, can see nothing between you and them worth + contending for, in a national point of view. This is a very + plain letter, and if you don't like it, you will throw it in + the fire; consider it as not having been written. For myself, I + mean to retire upon my profession, while I have mind and body to + pursue it; but I wish to see the right principles prevail, and + friends instead of foes in power." + +The prominent idea in this letter was, that the people would see +the rejection in the same light that I did--as a combination to put +down a rival--as a political blunder--and that it would work out the +other way. The same idea prevailed in England. On the evening of +the day, on the morning of which all the London newspapers heralded +the rejection of the American minister, there was a great party +at Prince Talleyrand's--then the representative at the British +court, of the new King of the French, Louis Phillippe. Mr. Van +Buren, always master of himself, and of all the proprieties of +his position, was there, as if nothing had happened; and received +distinguished attentions, and complimentary allusions. Lord +Aukland, grandson to the Mr. Eden who was one of the Commissioners +of Conciliation sent to us at the beginning of the revolutionary +troubles, said to him, "It is an advantage to a public man to be +the subject of an outrage"--a remark, wise in itself, and prophetic +in its application to the person to whom it was addressed. He +came home--apparently gave himself no trouble about what had +happened--was taken up by the people--elected, successively, +Vice-President and President--while none of those combined against +him ever attained either position. + +There was, at the time, some doubt among their friends as to the +policy of the rejection, but the three chiefs were positive in +their belief that a senatorial condemnation would be political +death. I heard Mr. Calhoun say to one of his doubting friends, "It +will kill him, sir, kill him dead. He will never kick sir, never +kick;" and the alacrity with which he gave the casting votes, on +the two occasions, both vital, on which they were put into his +hands, attested the sincerity of his belief, and his readiness for +the work. How those tie-votes, for there were two of them, came +to happen twice, "hand-running," and in a case so important, was +matter of marvel and speculation to the public on the outside of +the locked-up senatorial door. It was no marvel to those on the +inside, who saw how it was done. The combination had a superfluity +of votes, and, as Mr. Van Buren's friends were every one known, +and would sit fast, it only required the superfluous votes on one +side to go out; and thus an equilibrium between the two lines was +established. When all was finished, the injunction of secrecy was +taken off the proceedings, and the dozen set speeches delivered in +secret session immediately published--which shows that they were +delivered for effect, not upon the Senate, but upon the public mind. +The whole proceeding illustrates the impolicy, as well as peril to +themselves, of rival public men sitting in judgment upon each other, +and carries a warning along with it which should not be lost. + +As an event affecting the most eminent public men of the day, and +connecting itself with the settlement of one of our important +foreign commercial questions--as belonging to history, and already +carried into it by the senatorial debates--as a key to unlock the +meaning of other conduct--I deem this account of the REJECTION of +Mr. Van Buren a necessary appendage to the settlement of the British +West India trade question--as an act of justice to General Jackson's +administration (the whole of which was involved in the censure then +cast upon his Secretary of State), and as a sunbeam to illuminate +the labyrinth of other less palpable concatenations. + + + + +CHAPTER LX. + +BANK OF THE UNITED STATES--ILLEGAL AND VICIOUS CURRENCY. + + +In his first annual message, in the year 1829, President Jackson, +besides calling in question the unconstitutionality and general +expediency of the Bank, also stated that it had failed in furnishing +a uniform currency. That declaration was greatly contested by +the Bank and its advocates, and I felt myself bound to make an +occasion to show it to be well founded, and to a greater extent +than the President had intimated. It had in fact issued an illegal +and vicious kind of paper--authorized it to be issued at all the +branches--in the shape of drafts or orders payable in Philadelphia, +but voluntarily paid where issued, and at all the branches; and so +made into a local currency, and constituting the mass of all its +paper seen in circulation; and as the greatest quantity was usually +issued at the most remote and inaccessible branches, the payment +of the drafts were well protected by distance and difficulty; and +being of small denominations, loitered and lingered in the hands +of the laboring people until the "wear and tear" became a large +item of gain to the Bank, and the difficulty of presenting them at +Philadelphia an effectual bar to their payment there. The origin of +this kind of currency was thus traced by me: It was invented by +a Scotch banker of Aberdeen, who issued notes payable in London, +always of small denominations, that nobody should take them up to +London for redemption. The Bank of Ireland seeing what a pretty way +it was to issue notes which they could not practically be compelled +to pay, adopted the same trick. Then the English country bankers +followed the example. But their career was short. The British +parliament took hold of the fraud, and suppressed it in the three +kingdoms. That parliament would tolerate no currency issued at one +place, and payable at another. + +The mode of proceeding to get at the question of this vicious +currency was the same as that pursued to get at the question of the +non-renewal of the charter--namely, an application for leave to +bring in a joint resolution declaring it to be illegal, and ordering +it to be suppressed; and in asking that leave to give the reasons +for the motion: which was done, in a speech of which the following +are some parts: + + "Mr. Benton rose to ask leave to bring in his promised + resolution on the state of the currency. He said he had given + his notice for the leave he was about to ask, without concerting + or consulting with any member of the Senate. The object of his + resolution was judicial, not political; and he had treated the + senators not as counsellors, but as judges. He had conversed + with no one, neither friend nor adversary; not through contempt + of counsel, or fear of opposition, but from a just and rigorous + regard to decorum and propriety. His own opinion had been made + up through the cold, unadulterated process of legal research; + and he had done nothing, and would do nothing, to prevent, or + hinder, any other senator from making up his opinion in the + same way. It was a case in which politics, especially partisan + politics, could find no place; and in the progress of which + every senator would feel himself retiring into the judicial + office--becoming one of the _judices selecti_--and searching + into the stores of his own legal knowledge, for the judgment, + and the reasons of the judgment, which he must give in this + great cause, in which a nation is the party on one side, and a + great moneyed corporation on the other. He [Mr. B.] believed + the currency, against which his resolution was directed, + to be illegal and dangerous; and so believing, it had long + been his determination to bring the question of its legality + before the Senate and the people; and that without regard to + the powerful resentment, to the effects of which he might be + exposing himself. He had adopted the form of a declaratory + resolution, because it was intended to declare the true sense + of the charter upon a disputed point. He made his resolution + joint in its character, that it might have the action of both + Houses of Congress; and single in its object, that the main + design might not be embarrassed with minor propositions. The + form of the resolution gave him a right to state his reasons + for asking leave to bring it in; the importance of it required + those reasons to be clearly stated. The Senate, also, has its + rights and its duties. It is the right of the Senate and House + of Representatives, as the founder of the bank corporation, to + examine into the regularity of its proceedings, and to take + cognizance of the infractions of its charter; and this right has + become a duty, since the very tribunal selected by the charter + to try these infractions had tried this very question, and + that without the formality of a _scire facias_ or the presence + of the adverse party, and had given judgment in favor of the + corporation; a decision which he [Mr. B.] was compelled, by + the strongest convictions of his judgment, to consider both as + extrajudicial and erroneous. + + "The resolution, continued Mr. B., which I am asking leave to + bring in, expresses its own object. It declares against the + legality of these orders, AS A CURRENCY. It is the currency + which I arraign. I make no inquiry, for I will not embarrass + my subject with irrelevant and immaterial inquiries--I make + no inquiry into the modes of contract and payment which + are permitted, or not permitted, to the Bank of the United + States, in the conduct of its private dealings and individual + transactions. My business lies with the currency; for, between + public currency and private dealings, the charter of the bank + has made a distinction, and that founded in the nature of + things, as broad as lines can draw, and as clear as words can + express. The currency concerns the public; and the soundness + of that currency is taken under the particular guardianship of + the charter; a special code of law is enacted for it: private + dealings concern individuals: and it is for individuals, in + making their bargains, to take care of their own interests. The + charter of the Bank of the United States has authorized, but not + regulated, certain private dealings of the bank; it is full and + explicit upon the regulation of currency. Upon this distinction + I take my stand. I establish myself upon the broad and clear + distinction which reason makes, and the charter sanctions. I + arraign the currency! I eschew all inquiry into the modes of + making bargains for the sale or purchase of bills of exchange, + buying and selling gold or silver bullion, building houses, + hiring officers, clerks, and servants, purchasing necessaries, + or laying in supplies of fuel and stationery. + + "1. I object to it because it authorizes an issue _of currency + upon construction_. The issue of currency, sir, was the great + and main business for which the bank was created, and which it + is, in the twelfth article, expressly authorized to perform, and + I cannot pay so poor a compliment to the understandings of the + eminent men who framed that charter, as to suppose that they + left the main business of the bank to be found, by construction, + in an independent phrase, and that phrase to be found but once + in the whole charter. I cannot compliment their understandings + with the supposition that, after having authorized and defined + a currency, and subjected it to numerous restrictions, they had + left open the door to the issue of another sort of currency, + upon construction, which should supersede the kind they had + prescribed, and be free from every restriction to which the + prescribed currency was subject. + + "Let us recapitulate. Let us sum up the points of + incompatibility between the characteristics of this currency, + and the requisites of the charter: let us group and contrast the + frightful features of their flagrant illegality. 1. Are they + signed by the president of the bank and his principal cashier? + They are not! 2. Are they under the corporate seal? Not at all! + 3. Are they drawn in the name of the corporation? By no means! + 4. Are they subject to the double limitation of time and amount + in case of credit? They are not; they may exceed sixty days' + time, and be less than one hundred dollars! 5. Are they limited + to the minimum size of five dollars? Not at all! 6. Are they + subject to the supervision of the Secretary of the Treasury? + Not in the least! 7. The prohibition against suspending specie + payments? They are not subject to it! 8. The penalty of double + interest for delayed payment? Not subject to it! 9. Are they + payable where issued? Not at all, neither by their own terms, + nor by any law applicable to them! 10. Are they payable at + other branches? So far from it, that they were invented to + avoid such payment! 11. Are they transferable by delivery? No; + by indorsement! 12. Are they receivable in payment of public + dues? So far from it, that they are twice excluded from such + payments by positive enactments! 13. Are the directors liable + for excessive issues? Not at all! 14. Has the holder a right + to sue at the branch which issues the order? No, sir, he has + a right to go to Philadelphia, and sue the directors there! a + right about equivalent to the privilege of going to Mecca to + sue the successors of Mahomet for the bones of the prophet! + Fourteen points of contrariety and difference. Not a feature + of the charter in the faces of these orders. Every mark a + contrast; every lineament a contradiction; all announcing, or + rather denouncing, to the world, the positive fact of a spurious + progeny; the incontestable evidence of an illegitimate and + bastard issue. + + "I have now, Mr. President, brought this branch bank currency + to the test of several provisions in the charter, not all of + them, but a few which are vital and decisive. The currency + fails at every test; and upon this failure I predicate an + argument of its total illegality. Thus far I have spoken upon + the charter, and have proved that if this currency can prevail, + that instrument, with all its restrictions and limitations, its + jealous, prohibitory constitution, and multiplied enactments for + the safety of the public, is nothing but a blank piece of paper + in the hands of the bank. I will now have recourse to another + class of arguments--a class extrinsic to the charter, but close + to the subject--indispensable to fair examination, and directly + bearing upon the illegal character of this currency. + + "1. In the first place, I must insist that these orders cannot + possibly serve for currency, because they are subject to the + law of indorsable paper. The law which governs all such paper + is too universally known to be enlarged upon here. Presentation + for acceptance and payment, notice of default in either, prompt + return of the dishonored paper; and all this with rigorous + punctuality, and a loss of recourse for the slightest delay at + any point, are the leading features of this law. Now it is too + obvious that no paper subject to the law of indorsement can + answer the purposes of circulation. It will die on the hands + of the holders while passing from one to another, instead of + going to the place of payment. Now it is incontestable that + these orders are instruments negotiable by indorsement, and by + indorsement alone. Whether issued under the charter, or under + the general laws of the land, they are still subject to the law + of indorsable paper. They are the same in either case as if + drawn by one citizen upon another. And this is a point which I + mean to make clear: for many worthy people believe there is some + peculiar law for bank paper, which takes it out of the operation + of the general laws of the land. Not so the fact. The twelfth + fundamental article of the bank constitution declares that the + bills or notes to be issued by the bank shall be negotiable + in the same manner as if issued by a _private person_; that + is to say, those payable to a named person or his _order_, by + _indorsement_, in like manner and with the _like effect_ as + foreign bills of exchange; and those made payable to _bearer_ + shall be negotiable by _delivery_ alone; in the same manner, + we may add, as a silver dollar. So much for these orders, if + drawn under the charter; if not drawn under it, they are then + issued under the general law of the land, or without any law + at all. Taken either under the charter or out of it, it comes + to the same point, namely, that these orders are subject to + the same law as if drawn by one private person upon another. + This is enough to fix their character, and to condemn them as + a circulating medium; it is enough for the people to know; for + every citizen knows enough of law to estimate the legal value + of an _unaccepted order_, drawn upon a man five hundred or one + thousand miles off! But it has the word _bearer_ on the back! + Yes, sir, and why not on the face as easily as on the back? + Our school-time acquaintance, Mr. President, the gentleman + from Cork, with his coat buttoned behind, had a sensible, + and, I will add, a lawful reason for arraying himself in that + grotesque habiliment; but what reason can the bank have for + putting bearer on the back of the order, where it has no effect + upon its negotiable character, and omitting it on the face, + where it would have governed the character, and secured to the + holder all the facilities for the prompt and easy recovery of + the contents of a paper transferable by mere delivery? The only + effect of this preposterous or cunning indorsement must be to + bamboozle the ignorant--pardon the low word, sir--to bamboozle + the ignorant with the belief that they are handling a currency + which may at any time be collected without proof, trouble, or + delay; while in reality it is a currency which reserves to the + bank all the legal defences which can be set up to prevent + the recovery of a parcel of old, unaccepted, unpresented, + unauthorized bills of exchange. + + "2. I take a second exception to these orders as a currency. + It is this, that being once paid, they are done with. A note + transferable by delivery, may be reissued, and its payment + demanded again, and so on forever. But a bill of exchange, or + any paper subject to the same law with a bill of exchange, is + incapable of reissue, and is payable but once. The payment + once made, extinguishes the debt; the paper which evidenced it + is dead in law, and cannot be resuscitated by any act of the + parties. That payment can be plead in bar to any future action. + This law applies to checks and orders as well as to bills of + exchange; it applies to bank checks and orders as well as to + those of private persons, and this allegation alone would + annihilate every pretension of these branch bank orders to the + character of currency. + + "The bank went into operation with the beginning of the year + 1817; established eighteen branches, half a dozen of which in + the South and West; issued its own notes freely, and made large + issues of notes payable at all these branches. The course of + trade carried the branch notes of the South and West to the + Northeast; and nothing in the course of trade brought them back + to the West. They were payable in all demands to the federal + government; merchants in Philadelphia, New-York, and Boston + received them in payment of goods, and gave them--not back + again in payment of Southern and Western produce--but to the + collectors of the customs. Become the money of the government, + the bank had to treat them as cash. The fourteenth section + of the charter made them receivable in all payments to the + government, and another clause required the bank to transfer the + moneys of the government to any point ordered; these two clauses + (the transfer clause being harmless without the receiving one + contained in the fourteenth section) laid the bank under the + obligation to cash all the notes of all the branches wherever + presented; for, if she did not do it, she would be ordered to + transfer the notes to the place where they were payable, and + then to transfer the silver to the place where it was wanted; + and both these operations she had to perform at her own expense. + The Southern and Western branch notes flowed to the Northeast; + the gold and silver of the South and West were ordered to + follow them; and, in a little while, the specie of the South + and West was transferred to the Northeast; but the notes went + faster on horses and in mail stages than the silver could go in + wagons; and the parent bank in Philadelphia, and the branches + in New-York and Boston, exhausted by the double operation of + providing for their own, and for Southern and Western branch + notes besides, were on the point of stopping payment at the + end of two years. Mr. Cheves then came into the presidency; he + stopped the issue of Southern and Western branch paper, and + saved the bank from insolvency! Application was then made to + Congress to repeal the fourteenth section of the charter, and + thus relieve the bank from this obligation to cash its notes + every where. _Congress refused to do so._ Application was made + at the same time to repeal a part of the twelfth fundamental + article of the constitution of the bank, for the purpose of + relieving the president and principal cashier of the parent + bank from the labor of signing the five and ten dollar notes. + _Congress refused that application also._ And here every thing + rested while Mr. Cheves continued president. The Southern and + Western branches ceased to do business _as banks_; no bank + notes or bills were seen but those bearing the signatures of + the president and his principal cashier, and none of these + payable at Southern and Western branches. The profits of the + stockholders became inconsiderable, and the prospect of a + renewed charter was lost in the actual view of the inactivity + and uselessness of the bank in the South and West. Mr. Cheves + retired. He withdrew from an institution he had saved from + bankruptcy, but which he could not render useful to the South + and West; and then ensued a set of operations for enabling the + bank to do the things which Congress had refused to do for + it; that is to say, to avoid the operation of the fourteenth + section, and so much of the twelfth fundamental article as + related to the signature of the notes and bills of the bank. + These operations resulted in the invention of the _branch bank + orders_. These orders, now flooding the country, circulating + as notes, and considered every where as gold and silver + (because they are _voluntarily_ cashed at several branches, and + _erroneously_ received at every land office and custom-house), + have given to the bank its present apparent prosperity, its + temporary popularity, and its delusive cry of a sound and + uniform currency. This is my narrative; an appalling one, it + must be admitted; but let it stand for nothing if not sustained + by the proof. + + "I have now established, Mr. President, as I trust and believe, + the truth of the first branch of my proposition, namely, that + this currency of branch bank orders is unauthorized by the + charter, and illegal. I will now say a few words in support of + the second branch of the proposition, namely, that this currency + ought to be suppressed. + + "The mere fact of the illegality, sir, I should hold to be + sufficient to justify this suppression. In a country of laws, + the laws should be obeyed. No private individual should be + allowed to trample them under foot; much less a public man, + or public body; least of all, a great moneyed corporation + wielding above one hundred millions of dollars per annum, and + boldly contending with the federal government for the sceptre + of political power--_money is power!_ The Bank of the United + States possesses more money than the federal government; and + the question of power is now to be decided between them. That + question is wrapped up in the case before you. It is a case + of clear conviction of a violation of the laws by this great + moneyed corporation; and that not of a single statute, and by + inadvertence, and in a small matter, which concerns but few, but + in one general, sweeping, studied, and systematic infraction + of a whole code of laws--of an entire constitution, made for + its sole government and restraint--and the pernicious effects + of which enter into the revenues of the Union, and extend + themselves to every moneyed transaction between man and man. + This is the case of violated law which stands before you; and + if it goes unpunished, then do I say, the question of political + power is decided between the bank and the government. The + question of supremacy is at an end. Let there be no more talk + of restrictions or limitation in the charter. Grant a new one. + Grant it upon the spot. Grant it without words! Grant it in + blank! to save the directors from the labor of re-examination! + the court from the labor of constructions! and yourselves from + the radation of being publicly trampled under foot. + + "I do insist, Mr. President, that this currency ought to + be suppressed for illegality alone, even if no pernicious + consequences could result from its circulation. But pernicious + consequences do result. The substituted currency is not the + equivalent of the branch bank notes, whose place it has usurped: + it is inferior to those notes in vital particulars, and to the + manifest danger and loss of the people. + + "In the first place, these branch bank orders are _not payable + in the States in which they are issued_. Look at them! they are + nominally payable in Philadelphia! Look at the law! It gives the + holder no right to demand their contents at the branch bank, + until the order has been to Philadelphia, and returned. I lay + no stress upon the insidious circumstance that these orders are + now paid at the branch where issued, and at other branches. That + voluntary, delusive payment may satisfy those who are willing + to swallow a gilded hook; it may satisfy those who are willing + to hold their property at the will of the bank. For my part, I + want law for my rights. I look at the law, to the legal rights + of the holder, and say that he has no right to demand payment at + the branch which issued the order. The present custom of paying + is voluntary, not compulsory; it depends upon the will of the + bank, not upon law; and none but tyrants can require, or slaves + submit to, a tenure at will. These orders, even admitting them + to be legal, are only payable in Philadelphia and to demand + payment there, is a delusive and _impracticable right_. For the + body of the citizens cannot go to Philadelphia to get the change + for the small orders; merchants will not remit them; they would + as soon carry up the fires of hell to Philadelphia; for the bank + would consign them to ruin if they did. These orders are for + the frontiers; and it is made the interest and the policy of + merchants to leave them at home, and take a bill of exchange at + a nominal premium. Brokers alone will ever carry them, and that + as their own, after buying them out of the hands of the people + at a discount fixed by themselves. + + "This contrivance, Mr. President, of issuing bank paper at one + place, payable at another and a distant place, is not a new + thing under the sun; but its success, if it succeeds here, will + be a new thing in the history of banking. This contrivance, sir, + is of European origin. It began in Scotland some years ago, with + a banker in _Aberdeen_, who issued promissory notes payable in + _London_. Then the Bank of Ireland set her branches in _Sligo_, + _Cork_, and _Belfast_, at the same work; and they made their + branch notes payable in _Dublin_. The English country bankers + took the hint, and put out their notes payable in _London_. The + mass of these notes were of the smaller denominations, one or + two pounds sterling, corresponding with our five and ten dollar + orders; such as were handled by the laboring classes, and who + could never carry them to _London_ and _Dublin_ to demand their + contents. At this point the British Imperial Parliament took + cognizance of the matter; treated the issue of such notes as a + vicious practice, violative of the very first idea of a sound + currency, and particularly dangerous to the laboring classes. + The parliament suppressed the practice. This all happened in the + year 1826; and now this practice, thus suppressed in _England_, + _Scotland_, and _Ireland_, is in full operation in our + _America!_ and the directors of the Bank of the United States + are celebrated, as the greatest of financiers, for picking up + an illegal practice of Scottish origin, and putting it into + operation in the United States, and that, too, in the very year + in which it was suppressed in Great Britain!" + +Leave was not given to introduce the joint resolution. The friends +of the bank being a majority in the Senate, refused the motion, but +felt themselves bound to make defence for a currency so illegal +and vicious. Further discussion was stopped for that time; but +afterwards, on the question of the recharter, the illegality of +this kind of currency was fully established, and a clause put into +the new charter to suppress it. The veto message put an end to +the charter, and for the necessity of the remedy in that quarter; +but the practice has been taken up by local institutions and +private bankers in the States, and become an abuse which requires +extirpation. + + + + +CHAPTER LXI. + +ERROR OF MONS. DE TOCQUEVILLE IN RELATION TO THE BANK OF THE UNITED +STATES, THE PRESIDENT, AND THE PEOPLE. + + +The first message of President Jackson, delivered at the +commencement of the session of 1829-30, confirmed the hopes +which the democracy had placed in him. It was a message of the +Jeffersonian school, and re-established the land-marks of party, as +parties were when founded on principle. Its salient point was the +Bank of the United States, and the non-renewal of its charter. He +was opposed to the renewal, both on grounds of constitutionality and +expediency; and took this early opportunity of so declaring, both +for the information of the people, and of the institution, that each +might know what they had to rely upon with respect to him. He said: + + "The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, + and its stockholders will probably apply for a renewal of + their privileges. In order to avoid the evils resulting from + precipitancy in a measure involving such important principles, + and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that I cannot, in + justice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the + deliberate consideration of the legislature and the people. + Both the constitutionality and the expediency of the law + creating this bank are well questioned by a large portion of + our fellow-citizens; and it must be admitted by all that it has + failed in the great end of establishing a uniform and sound + currency." + +This passage was the grand feature of the message, rising above +precedent and judicial decisions going back to the constitution and +the foundation of party on principle; and risking a contest at the +commencement of his administration, which a mere politician would +have put off to the last. The Supreme Court had decided in favor of +the constitutionality of the institution; a democratic Congress, +in chartering a second bank, had yielded the question, both of +constitutionality and expediency. Mr. Madison, in signing the bank +charter in 1816, yielded to the authorities without surrendering +his convictions. But the effect was the same in behalf of the +institution, and against the constitution, and against the integrity +of party founded on principle. It threw down the greatest landmark +of party, and yielded a power of construction which nullified the +limitations of the constitution, and left Congress at liberty to +pass any law which it deemed _necessary_ to carry into effect any +granted power. The whole argument for the bank turned upon the word +"necessary" at the end of the enumerated powers granted to Congress; +and gave rise to the first great division of parties in Washington's +time--the federal party being for the construction which would +authorize a national bank; the democratic party (republican, as then +called,) being against it. + +It was not merely the bank which the democracy opposed, but the +latitudinarian construction which would authorize it, and which +would enable Congress to substitute its own will in other cases for +the words of the constitution, and do what it pleased under the +plea of "necessary"--a plea under which they would be left as much +to their own will as under the "general welfare" clause. It was +the turning point between a strong and splendid government on one +side, doing what it pleased, and a plain economical government on +the other, limited by a written constitution. The construction was +the main point, because it made a gap in the constitution through +which Congress could pass any other measures which it deemed to +be "necessary:" still there were great objections to the bank +itself. Experience had shown such an institution to be a political +machine, adverse to free government, mingling in the elections and +legislation of the country, corrupting the press; and exerting its +influence in the only way known to the moneyed power--by corruption. +General Jackson's objections reached both heads of the case--the +unconstitutionality of the bank, and its inexpediency. It was a +return to the Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian times of the early +administration of General Washington, and went to the words of the +constitution, and not to the interpretations of its administrators, +for its meaning. + +Such a message, from such a man--a man not apt to look back when +he had set his face forward--electrified the democratic spirit of +the country. The old democracy felt as if they were to see the +constitution restored before they died--the young, as if they were +summoned to the reconstruction of the work of their fathers. It was +evident that a great contest was coming on, and the odds entirely +against the President. On the one side, the undivided phalanx +of the federal party (for they had not then taken the name of +whig); a large part of the democratic party, yielding to precedent +and judicial decision; the bank itself, with its colossal money +power--its arms in every State by means of branches--its power over +the State banks--its power over the business community--over public +men who should become its debtors or retainers--its organization +under a single head, issuing its orders in secret, to be obeyed in +all places and by all subordinates at the same moment. Such was the +formidable array on one side: on the other side a divided democratic +party, disheartened by division, with nothing to rely upon but the +goodness of their cause, the _prestige_ of Jackson's name, and the +presidential power;--good against any thing less than two-thirds of +Congress on the final question of the re-charter; but the risk to +run of his non-election before the final question came on. + +Under such circumstances it required a strong sense of duty in the +new President to commence his career by risking such a contest; but +he believed the institution to be unconstitutional and dangerous, +and that it ought to cease to exist; and there was a clause in the +constitution--that constitution which he had sworn to support--which +commanded him to recommend to Congress, for its consideration, such +measures as he should deem expedient and proper. Under this sense +of duty, and under the obligation of this oath, President Jackson +had recommended to Congress the non-renewal of the bank charter, +and the substitution of a different fiscal agent for the operations +of the government--if any such agent was required. And with his +accustomed frankness, and the fairness of a man who has nothing +but the public good in view, and with a disregard of self which +permits no personal consideration to stand in the way of a discharge +of a public duty, he made the recommendation six years before the +expiration of the charter, and in the first message of his first +term; thereby taking upon his hands such an enemy as the Bank of the +United States, at the very commencement of his administration. That +such a recommendation against such an institution should bring upon +the President and his supporters, violent attacks, both personal +and political, with arraignment of motives as well as of reasons, +was naturally to be expected; and that expectation was by no means +disappointed. Both he and they, during the seven years that the +back contest (in different forms) prevailed, received from it--from +the newspaper and periodical press in its interest, and from the +public speakers in its favor of every grade--an accumulation of +obloquy, and even of accusation, only lavished upon the oppressors +and plunderers of nations--a Verres, or a Hastings. This was natural +in such an institution. But President Jackson and his friends had +a right to expect fair treatment from history--from disinterested +history--which should aspire to truth, and which has no right to be +ignorant or careless. He and they had a right to expect justice from +such history; but this is what they have not received. A writer, +whose book takes him out of that class of European travellers +who requite the hospitality of Americans by disparagement of +their institutions, their country, and their character--one whose +general intelligence and candor entitle his errors to the honor of +correction--in brief, M. de Tocqueville--writes thus of President +Jackson and the Bank of the United States: + + "When the President attacked the bank, the country was excited + and parties were formed; the well-informed classes rallied round + the bank, the common people round the President. But it must + not be imagined that the people had formed a rational opinion + upon a question which offers so many difficulties to the most + experienced statesman. The bank is a great establishment, which + enjoys an independent existence, and the people, accustomed + to make and unmake whatever it pleases, is startled to meet + with this obstacle to its authority. In the midst of the + perpetual fluctuation of society, the community is irritated + by so permanent an institution, and is led to attack in order + to see whether it can be shaken or controlled, like all other + institutions of the country."--(Chapter 10.) + +Of this paragraph, so derogatory to President Jackson and the +people of the United States, every word is an error. Where a fact +is alleged, it is an error; where an opinion is expressed, it is an +error; where a theory is invented, it is fanciful and visionary. +President Jackson did not attack the bank; the bank attacked him, +and for political as well as pecuniary motives; and under the +lead of politicians. When General Jackson, in his first message, +of December, 1829, expressed his opinion to Congress against the +renewal of the bank's charter, he attacked no right or interest +which the bank possessed. It was an institution of limited +existence, enjoying great privileges,--among others a monopoly of +national banking, and had no right to any prolongation of existence +or privilege after the termination of its charter--so far from it, +if there was to be another bank, the doctrine of equal rights and no +monopolies or perpetuities required it to be thrown open to the free +competition of all the citizens. The reasons given by the President +were no attack upon the bank. He impugned neither the integrity nor +the skill of the institution, but repeated the objections of the +political school to which he belonged, and which were as old as Mr. +Jefferson's cabinet opinion to President Washington, in the year +1791, and Mr. Madison's great speech in the House of Representatives +in the same year. He, therefore, made no attack upon the bank, +either upon its existence, its character, or any one of its rights. +On the other hand, the bank did attack President Jackson, under the +lead of politicians, and for the purpose of breaking him down. The +facts were these: President Jackson had communicated his opinion +to Congress in December, 1829, against the renewal of the charter; +near three years afterwards, on the 9th of January, 1832, while +the charter had yet above three years to run, and a new Congress +to be elected before its expiration, and the presidential election +impending--(General Jackson and Mr. Clay the candidates)--the +memorial of the president and directors of the bank was suddenly +presented in the Senate of the United States, for the renewal of its +charter. + +Now, how came that memorial to be presented at a time so +inopportune? so premature, so inevitably mixing itself with the +presidential election, and so encroaching upon the rights of the +people, in snatching the question out of their hands, and having +it decided by a Congress not elected for the purpose--and to the +usurpation of the rights of the Congress elected for the purpose? +How came all these anomalies? all these violations of right, +decency and propriety? They came thus, the bank and its leading +anti-Jackson friends believed that the institution was stronger +than the President--that it could beat him in the election--that +it could beat him in Congress (as it then stood), and carry the +charter,--driving him upon the _veto_ power, and rendering him +odious if he used it, and disgracing him if (after what he had +said) he did not. This was the opinion of the leading politicians +friendly to the bank, and inimical to the President. But the bank +had a class of friends in Congress also friendly to Gen. Jackson; +and between these two classes there was vehement opposition of +opinion on the point of moving for the new charter. It was found +impossible, in communications between Washington and Philadelphia, +then slow and uncertain, in stage coach conveyances, over miry roads +and frozen waters, to come to conclusions on the difficult point. +Mr. Biddle and the directors were in doubt, for it would not do to +move in the matter, unless all the friends of the bank in Congress +acted together. In this state of uncertainty, General Cadwallader, +of Philadelphia, friend and confidant of Mr. Biddle, and his usual +envoy in all the delicate bank negotiations or troubles, was sent to +Washington to obtain a result; and the union of both wings of the +bank party in favor of the desired movement. He came, and the mode +of operation was through the machinery of _caucus_--that contrivance +by which a few govern many. The two wings being of different +politics, sat separately, one headed by Mr. Clay, the other by Gen. +Samuel Smith, of Maryland. The two caucuses disagreed, but the +democratic being the smaller, and Mr. Clay's strong will dominating +the other, the resolution was taken to proceed, and all bound to go +together. + +I had a friend in one of these councils who informed me regularly +of the progress made, and eventually that the point was carried for +the bank--that General Cadwallader had returned with the news, and +with injunctions to have the memorial immediately at Washington, +and by a given day. The day arrived, but not the memorial, and my +friend came to inform me the reason why; which was, that the stage +had got overturned in the bad roads and crippled Gen. Cadwallader +in the shoulder, and detained him; but that the delay would only be +of two days; and then the memorial would certainly arrive. It did +so; and on Monday, the 9th of January, 1832, was presented in the +Senate by Mr. Dallas, a senator from Pennsylvania, and resident +of Philadelphia, where the bank was established. Mr. Dallas was +democratic, and the friend of General Jackson, and on presenting the +memorial, as good as told all that I have now written, bating only +personal particulars. He said: + + "That being requested to present this document to the Senate, + praying for a renewal of the existing charter of the bank, he + begged to be indulged in making a few explanatory remarks. With + unhesitating frankness he wished it to be understood by the + Senate, by the good commonwealth which it was alike his duty and + his pride to represent with fidelity on that floor, and by the + people generally, that this application, at this time, had been + discouraged by him. Actuated mainly, if not exclusively, by a + desire to preserve to the nation the practical benefits of the + institution, the expediency of bringing it forward thus early in + the term of its incorporation, during a popular representation + in Congress which must cease to exist some years before that + term expires, and on the eve of all the excitement incident to a + great political movement, struck his mind as more than doubtful. + He felt deep solicitude and apprehension lest, in the progress + of inquiry, and in the development of views, under present + circumstances, it might be drawn into real or imaginary conflict + with some higher, some more favorite, some more immediate wish + or purpose of the American people; and from such a conflict, + what sincere friend of this useful establishment would not + strive to save or rescue it, by at least a temporary forbearance + or delay?" + +This was the language of Mr. Dallas, and it was equivalent to a +protest from a well-wisher of the bank against the perils and +improprieties of its open plunge into the presidential canvass, +for the purpose of defeating General Jackson and electing a friend +of its own. The prudential counsels of such men as Mr. Dallas did +not prevail; political counsels governed; the bank charter was +pushed--was carried through both Houses of Congress--dared the veto +of Jackson--received it--roused the people--and the bank and all +its friends were crushed. Then it affected to have been attacked +by Jackson; and Mons. de Tocqueville has carried that fiction into +history, with all the imaginary reasons for a groundless accusation, +which the bank had invented. + +The remainder of this quotation from Mons. de Tocqueville is +profoundly erroneous, and deserves to be exposed, to prevent the +mischiefs which his book might do in Europe, and even in America, +among that class of our people who look to European writers for +information upon their own country. He speaks of the well-informed +classes who rallied round the bank; and the common people who +had formed no rational opinion upon the subject, and who joined +General Jackson. Certainly the great business community, with few +exceptions, comprising wealth, ability and education, went for the +bank, and the masses for General Jackson; but which had formed +the rational opinion is seen by the event. The "well-informed" +classes have bowed not merely to the decision, but to the +intelligence of the masses. They have adopted their opinion of the +institution--condemned it--repudiated it as an "obsolete idea;" and +of all its former advocates, not one exists now. All have yielded +to that instinctive sagacity of the people, which is an overmatch +for book-learning; and which being the result of common sense, is +usually right; and being disinterested, is always honest. I adduce +this instance--a grand national one--of the succumbing of the +well-informed classes to the instinctive sagacity of the people, not +merely to correct Mons. de Tocqueville, but for the higher purpose +of showing the capacity of the people for self-government. The rest +of the quotation, "the independent existence--the people accustomed +to make and unmake--startled at this obstacle--irritated at a +permanent institution--attack in order to shake and control;" all +this is fancy, or as the old English wrote it, fantasy--enlivened by +French vivacity into witty theory, as fallacious as witty. + +I could wish I were done with quotations from Mons. de Tocqueville +on this subject; but he forces me to make another extract from his +book, and it is found in his chapter 18, thus: + + "The slightest observation enables us to appreciate the + advantages which the country derives from the bank. Its notes + are taken on the borders of the desert for the same value as in + Philadelphia. It is nevertheless the object of great animosity. + Its directors have proclaimed their hostility to the President, + and are accused, not without some show of probability, of having + abused their influence to thwart his election. The President, + therefore, attacks the establishment with all the warmth of + personal enmity; and he is encouraged in the pursuit of his + revenge by the conviction that he is supported by the secret + propensities of the majority. It always holds a great number + of the notes issued by the provincial banks, which it can at + any time oblige them to convert into cash. It has itself + nothing to fear from a similar demand, as the extent of its + resources enables it to meet all claims. But the existence of + the provincial banks is thus threatened, and their operations + are restricted, since they are only able to issue a quantity + of notes duly proportioned to their capital. They submit with + impatience to this salutary control. The newspapers which they + have bought over, and the President, whose interest renders him + their instrument, attack the bank with the greatest vehemence. + They rouse the local passions and the blind democratic instinct + of the country to aid in their cause; and they assert that + the bank directors form a permanent aristocratic body, whose + influence must ultimately be felt in the government, and must + affect those principles of equality--upon which society rests in + America." + +Now, while Mons. de Tocqueville was arranging all this fine +encomium upon the bank, and all this censure upon its adversaries, +the whole of which is nothing but a French translation of the +bank publications of the day, for itself and against President +Jackson--during all this time there was a process going on in the +Congress of the United States, by which it was proved that the bank +was then insolvent, and living from day to day upon expedients; and +getting hold of property and money by contrivances which the law +would qualify as swindling--plundering its own stockholders--and +bribing individuals, institutions, and members of legislative +bodies, wherever it could be done. Those fine notes, of which he +speaks, were then without solid value. The salutary restraint +attributed to its control over local banks was soon exemplified in +its forcing many of them into complicity in its crimes, and all +into two general suspensions of specie payments, headed by itself. +Its solidity and its honor were soon shown in open bankruptcy--in +the dishonor of its notes--the violation of sacred deposits--the +disappearance of its capital--the destruction of institutions +connected with it--the extinction of fifty-six millions of capital +(its own, and that of others drawn into its vortex);--and the ruin +or damage of families, both foreign and American, who had been +induced by its name, and by its delusive exhibitions of credit, +to invest their money in its stock. Placing the opposition of +President Jackson to such an institution to the account of base and +personal motives--to feelings of revenge because he had been unable +to seduce it into his support--is an error of fact manifested by +all the history of the case; to say nothing of his own personal +character. He was a senator in Congress during the existence of +the first national bank, and was against it; and on the same +grounds of unconstitutionality and of inexpediency. He delivered +his opinion against this second one before it had manifested any +hostility to him. His first opposition was abstract--against the +institution--without reference to its conduct; he knew nothing +against it then, and neither said, or insinuated any thing against +it. Subsequently, when misconduct was discovered, he charged it; +and openly and responsibly. Equally unfounded is the insinuation in +another place, of subserviency to local banks. He, the instrument of +local banks! he who could not be made the friend, even, of the great +bank itself; who was all his life a hard money man--an opposer of +all banks--the denouncer of delinquent banks in his own State; who, +with one stroke of his pen, in the recess of Congress, and against +its will, in the summer of 1836, struck all their notes from the +list of land-office payments! and whose last message to Congress, +and in his farewell address to the people, admonished them earnestly +and affectionately against the whole system of paper money--the +evils of which he feelingly described as falling heaviest upon the +most meritorious part of the community, and the part least able to +bear them--the productive classes. + +The object of this chapter is to correct this error of Mons. +de Tocqueville, and to vindicate history, and to do justice to +General Jackson and the democracy: and my task is easy. Events +have done it for me--have answered every question on which the +bank controversy depended, and have nullified every argument in +favor of the bank--and that both with, and without reference +to its misconduct. As an institution, it has been proved to be +"unnecessary," and the country is found to do infinitely better +without it than with it. During the twenty years of its existence +there was pecuniary distress in the country--periodical returns of +expansion and contraction, deranged currency, ruined exchanges, +panics and convulsions in the money market. In the almost twenty +years which have elapsed since, these calamitous words have never +been heard: and the contrast of the two periods will make the +condemnation of one, and the eulogy of the other. There was no gold +during the existence of the bank: there has been an ample gold +currency ever since, and that before we got California. There were +general suspensions of specie payments during its time; and none +since. Exchanges were deranged during its existence: they have been +regular since its death. Labor and property lived the life of "up +and down"--high price one day, no price another day--while the bank +ruled: both have been "up" all the time, since it has been gone. +We have had a war since--a foreign war--which tries the strength +of financial systems in all countries; and have gone through this +war not only without a financial crisis, but with a financial +triumph--the public securities remaining above par the whole time; +and the government paying to its war debt creditors a reward +of twenty dollars upon the hundred to get them to accept their +pay before it is due; and in this shining side of the contrast, +experience has invalidated the decision of the Supreme Court, +by expunging the sole argument upon which the decision rested. +"Necessity," "necessary to carry into effect the granted powers," +was the decision of the court. Not so, the voice of experience. That +has proved such an institution to be unnecessary. Every granted +power, and some not granted, have been carried into effect since the +extinction of the national bank, and since the substitution of the +gold currency and the independent treasury; and all with triumphant +success--the war power above all, and most successfully exercised +of all. And this sole foundation for the court's decision in favor +of the constitutionality of the bank being removed, the decision +itself vanishes--disappears--"like the baseless fabric of a vision, +leaving not a wreck behind." But there will be a time hereafter for +the celebration of this victory of the constitution over the Supreme +Court--the only object of this chapter being to vindicate General +Jackson and the people from the errors of Mons. de Tocqueville in +relation to them and the bank: which is done. + + + + +CHAPTER LXII. + +EXPENSES OF THE GOVERNMENT. + + +Economy in the government expenditures was a cardinal feature in +the democratic policy, and every increase of expense was closely +scrutinized by them, and brought to the test of the clearest +necessity. Some increase was incident to the growing condition +of the country; but every item beyond the exigencies of that +growth was subjected to severe investigation and determined +opposition. In the execution of this policy the expenses proper +of the government--those incident to working its machinery--were, +immediately after my entrance into the Senate, and after the army +and other reductions of 1820 and '21 had taken effect--just about +eight millions of dollars. The same expenditure up to the beginning +of the year 1832--a period of about ten years--had risen to thirteen +and a half millions: and, adverting to this increase in some current +debate, and with a view to fix attention upon the growing evil, I +stated to the Senate that these expenses had nearly doubled since +I had been a member of the Senate. This statement drew a reply +from the veteran chairman of the Senate's committee on finance +(General Smith, of Maryland), in opposition to my statement; which, +of course, drew further remarks from me. Both sets of remarks are +valuable at this day--instructive in the picture they present +between 1822--1832--and 1850. Gen. Smith's estimate of about ten +millions instead of eight--though predicated on the wrong basis of +beginning to count before the expenses of the army reduction had +taken effect, and counting in the purchase of Florida, and some +other items of a nature foreign to the support of government--even +his estimate presents a startling point of comparison with the same +expenditure of the present day; and calls for the revival of that +spirit of economy which distinguished the democracy in the earlier +periods of the government. Some passages from the speech of each +senator (General Smith and Mr. Benton) will present this brief, but +important inquiry, in its proper point of view. Gen. Smith said: + + "I will now come, Mr. President, to my principal object. It is + the assertion, 'that, since the year 1821, the expenses of the + government had nearly doubled;' and I trust I shall be able to + show that the senator from Missouri [Mr. Benton] had been under + some misapprehension. The Senate are aware of the effect which + such an assertion, coming from such high authority, must have + upon the public mind. It certainly had its effect even upon this + enlightened body. I mentioned to an honorable senator a few days + since, that the average ordinary expenditure of the government + for the last nine years did not exceed the sum of twelve and a + half millions. But, said the senator, the expenditures have + greatly increased during that period. I told him I thought they + had not; and I now proceed to prove, that, with the exception of + four years, viz., 1821, 1822, 1823, and 1824, the expenditures + of the government have not increased. I shall endeavor to show + the causes of the reduction of expenses during those years, and + that they afford no criteria by which to judge of the necessary + expenses of government, and that they are exceptions to the + general rate of expenditures, arising from particular causes. + But even they exhibit an expenditure far above the one half of + the present annual ordinary expenses. + + "In the year 1822, which was the period when the senator from + Missouri [Mr. Benton] took his seat in the Senate, the ordinary + expenses of the government amounted to the sum of $9,827,643. + The expenses of the year 1823, amounted to $9,784,154. I + proceed, Mr. President, to show the cause which thus reduced + the ordinary expenses during these years. I speak in the + presence of gentlemen, some of whom were then in the House of + Representatives, and will correct me if my recollection should + lead me into error. During the session of the year 1819-'20 the + President asked a loan, I think, of five millions, to defray the + expenses of the government, which he had deemed necessary, and + for which estimates had, as usual, been laid before Congress. + A loan of three millions only was granted; and, in the next + session, another loan of, I think, seven millions was asked, in + order to enable the Executive to meet the amount of expenses + estimated for, as necessary for the year 1821. A loan of five + millions was granted, and in the succeeding year another loan of + five hundred thousand dollars was asked, and refused. Congress + were dissatisfied that loans should be required in time of + profound peace, to meet the common expenses of the nation; and + they refused to grant the amount asked for in the estimates, + although this amount would have been granted if there had been + money in the treasury to meet them, without resorting to loans. + The Committee of Ways and Means (and it was supported by the + House) lessened some of the items estimated for, and refused + others. No item, except such as was indispensably necessary, + was granted. By the adoption of this course, the expenditures + were reduced, in 1821, to $10,723,479, and to the sums already + mentioned for the two years, 1822 and 1823, and the current + expenses of 1824. $10,330,144. The consequence was, that the + treasury was restored to a sound state, so that Congress was + enabled, in the year 1825, to appropriate the full amount of the + estimate. The expenditures of 1824 amounted to $15,330,144. This + large expenditure is to be attributed to the payment made to + Spain in that year, of $5,000,000 for the purchase of Florida. + I entertained doubts whether I ought to include this sum in the + expenditures; but, on full consideration, I deemed it proper to + include it. It may be said that it was an extraordinary payment, + and such as could not again occur. So is the payment on + account of awards under the Treaty of Ghent, in 1827 and 1828, + amounting to $1,188,716. Of the same character, too, are the + payments made for the purchase of lands from the Indians; for + the removal of the Indians; for payments to the several States + for moneys advanced during the late war; and a variety of other + extraordinary charges on the treasury." + +The error of this statement was in the basis of the calculation, +and in the inclusion of items which did not belong to the expenses +proper of the government, and in beginning to count before the year +of reduction--the whole of which, in a period of ten years made +an excess of twenty-two millions above the ordinary expenses. I +answered thus: + + "Mr. Benton rose in reply to the senator from Maryland. Mr. B. + said that a remark of his, in a former debate, seemed to have + been the occasion of the elaborate financial statements which + the senator from Maryland had just gone through. Mr. B. said he + had made the remark, in debate; it was a general one, and not to + be treated as an account stated by an accounting officer. His + remark was, that the public expenditure had nearly doubled since + he had been a member of the Senate. Neither the words used, nor + the mode of the expression, implied the accuracy of an account; + it was a remark to signify a great and inordinate increase in + a comparatively short time. He had not come to the Senate this + day with the least expectation of being called to justify that + remark, or to hear a long arraignment of it argued; but he was + ready at all times to justify, and he would quickly do it. Mr. + B. said that when he made the remark, he had no statement of + accounts in his eye, but he had two great and broad facts before + him, which all the figures and calculations upon earth, and + all the compound and comparative statements of arithmeticians, + could not shake or alter; which were--first, that when he came + into the Senate the machinery of this government was worked + for between eight and nine millions of dollars; and, secondly, + the actual payments for the last year, in the President's + message, were about fourteen millions and three-quarters. The + sum estimated for the future expenditures, by the Secretary of + the Treasury, was thirteen and a half millions; but fifteen + millions were recommended by him to be levied to meet increased + expenditures. Mr. B. said these were two great facts which he + had in his eye, and which he would justify. He would produce no + proofs as to the second of his facts, because the President's + message and the Secretary's report were so recently sent in, and + so universally reprinted, that every person could recollect, + or turn to their contents, and verify his statement upon their + own examination or recollection. He would verify his first + statement only by proofs, and for that purpose would refer to + the detailed statements of the public expenditures, compiled + by Van Zandt and Watterston, and for which he had just sent to + the room of the Secretary of the Senate. Mr. B. would take the + years 1822-'3; for he was not simple enough to take the years + before the reduction of the army, when he was looking for the + lowest expenditure. Four thousand men were disbanded, and had + remained disbanded ever since; they were disbanded since he came + into the Senate; he would therefore date from that reduction. + This would bring him to the years 1822-'3, when you, sir (the + Vice-President), was Secretary of War. What was the whole + expenditure of the government for each of those years? It stood + thus: + + 1822, $17,676,592 63 + 1823, 15,314,171 00 + + "These two sums include every head of expenditure--they include + public debt, revolutionary and invalid pensions; three heads of + temporary expenditure. The payments on account of the public + debt in those two years, were-- + + In 1822, $7,848,919 12 + 1823, 5,530,016 41 + + "Deduct these two sums from the total expenditure of the years + to which they refer, and you will have-- + + For 1822, $9,727,673 41 + 1823, 9,784,155 59 + + "The pensions for those years were-- + + _Revolutionary._ _Invalid._ _Aggregate._ + + 1822, $1,642,590 94 $305,608 46 $1,947,199 40 + 1823, 1,449,097 04 331,491 48 1,730,588 52 + + "Now, deduct these pensions from the years to which they refer, + and you will have just about $8,000,000 as the expense of + working the machinery of government at the period which I had + in my eye. But the pensions have not yet totally ceased; they + are much diminished since 1822, 1823, and in a few years must + cease. The revolutionary pensioners must now average seventy + years of age; their stipends will soon cease. I hold myself well + justified, then, in saying, as I did, that the expenditures of + the government have nearly doubled in my time. The remark had + no reference to administrations. There was nothing comparative + in it; nothing intended to put up, or put down, any body. The + burdens of the people is the only thing I wish to put down. My + service in the Senate has extended under three administrations, + and my periods of calculation extend to all three. My opinion + now is, that the machinery of this government, after the payment + of the public debt, should be worked for ten millions or less, + and two millions more for extraordinaries; in all twelve + millions; but this is a point for future discussion. My present + object is to show a great increase in a short time; and to show + that, not to affect individuals, but to show the necessity of + practising what we all profess--economy. I am against keeping + up a revenue, after the debt and pensions are paid, as large, + or nearly as large, as the expenditure was in 1822, 1823, with + these items included. I am for throwing down my load, when I get + to the end of my journey. I am for throwing off the burden of + the debt, when I get to the end of the debt. The burden of the + debt is the taxes levied on account of it. I am for abolishing + these taxes; and this is the great question upon which parties + now go to trial before the American people. One word more, and I + am done for the present. The senator for Maryland, to make up a + goodly average for 1822, and 1823, adds the expenditure of 1824, + which includes, besides sixteen millions and a half for the + public debt, and a million and a half for pensions, the sum of + five millions for the purchase of Florida. Sir, he must deduct + twenty-two millions from that computation; and that deduction + will bring his average for those years to agree very closely + with my statement." + +It was something at the time this inquiry took place to know which +was right--General Smith, or myself. Two millions, more or less, +per annum in the public expenditures, was then something--a thing +to be talked about, and accounted for, among the economical men of +that day. It seems to be nothing now, when the increases are many +millions per annum--when personal and job legislation have become +the frequent practice--when contracts are legislated to adventurers +and speculators--when the halls of Congress have come to be +considered the proper place to lay the foundations, or to repair the +dilapidations of millionary fortunes: and when the public fisc, and +the national domain may consider themselves fortunate sometimes in +getting off with a loss of two millions in a single operation. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIII. + +BANK OF THE UNITED STATES--RECHARTER COMMENCEMENT OF THE PROCEEDINGS. + + +In the month of December 1831, the "National Republicans" (as the +party was then called which afterwards took the name of "whig"), +assembled in convention at Baltimore to nominate candidates of +their party for the presidential, and vice-presidential election, +which was to take place in the autumn of the ensuing year. The +nominations were made--Henry Clay of Kentucky, for President; +and John Sergeant of Pennsylvania for Vice-President: and the +nominations accepted by them respectively. Afterwards, and according +to what was usual on such occasions, the convention issued an +address to the people of the United States, setting forth the +merits of their own, and the demerits of the opposite candidate; +and presenting the party issues which were to be tried in the +ensuing elections. So far as these issues were political, they were +legitimate subjects to place before the people: so far as they were +not political, they were illegitimate, and wrongfully dragged into +the political arena, to be made subservient to party elevation. +Of this character were the topics of the tariff, of internal +improvement, the removal of the Cherokee Indians, and the renewal of +the United States Bank charter. Of these four subjects, all of them +in their nature unconnected with politics, and requiring for their +own good to remain so unconnected, I now notice but one--that of the +renewal of the charter of the existing national bank;--and which was +now presented as a party object, and as an issue in the election, +and under all the exaggerated aspects which party tactics consider +lawful in the prosecution of their aims. The address said: + + "Next to the great measures of policy which protect and + encourage domestic industry, the most important question, + connected with the economical policy of the country, is + that of the bank. This great and beneficial institution, by + facilitating exchanges between different parts of the Union, and + maintaining a sound, ample, and healthy state of the currency, + may be said to supply the body politic, economically viewed, + with a continual stream of life-blood, without which it must + inevitably languish, and sink into exhaustion. It was first + conceived and organized by the powerful mind of Hamilton. After + having been temporarily shaken by the honest though groundless + scruples of other statesmen, it has been recalled to existence + by the general consent of all parties, and with the universal + approbation of the people. Under the ablest and most faithful + management it has been for many years past pursuing a course + of steady and constantly increasing influence. Such is the + institution which the President has gone out of his way in + several successive messages, without a pretence of necessity or + plausible motive, in the first instance six years before his + suggestion could with any propriety be acted upon, to denounce + to Congress as a sort of nuisance, and consign, as far as his + influence extends, to immediate destruction. + + "For this denunciation no pretext of any adequate motive is + assigned. At a time when the institution is known to all to + be in the most efficient and prosperous state--to be doing + all that any bank ever did or can do, we are briefly told in + ten words, that it has not effected the objects for which it + was instituted, and must be abolished. Another institution is + recommended as a substitute, which, so far as the description + given of it can be understood, would be no better than a machine + in the hands of the government for fabricating and issuing paper + money without check or responsibility. In his recent message + to Congress, the President declares, for the third time, his + opinion on these subjects, in the same concise and authoritative + style as before, and intimates that he shall consider his + re-election as an expression of the opinion of the people that + they ought to be acted on. If, therefore, the President be + re-elected, it may be considered certain that the bank will be + abolished, and the institution which he has recommended, or + something like it, substituted in its place. + + "Are the people of the United States prepared for this? Are + they ready to destroy one of their most valuable establishments + to gratify the caprice of a chief magistrate, who reasons, + and advises upon a subject, with the details of which he is + evidently unacquainted, in direct contradiction to the opinion + of his own official counsellors? Are the enterprising, liberal, + high-minded, and intelligent _merchants_ of the Union willing + to countenance such a measure? Are the cultivators of the West, + who find in the Bank of the United States a never-failing source + of that _capital_, which is so essential to their prosperity, + and which they can get nowhere else, prepared to lend their + aid in drying up the fountain of their own prosperity? Is + there any class of the people or section of the Union so lost + to every sentiment of common prudence, so regardless of all + the principles of republican government, as to place in the + hands of the executive department the means of an irresponsible + and unlimited issue of paper money--in other words, the means + of corruption without check or bounds? If such be, in fact, + the wishes of the people, they will act with consistency and + propriety in voting for General Jackson, as President of the + United States; for, by his re-election, all these disastrous + effects will certainly be produced. He is fully and three times + over pledged to the people to negative any bill that may be + passed for re-chartering the bank, and there is little doubt + that the additional influence which he would acquire by a + re-election, would be employed to carry through Congress the + extraordinary substitute which he has repeatedly proposed." + +Thus the bank question was fully presented as an issue in the +election by that part of its friends which classed politically +against President Jackson; but it had also democratic friends, +without whose aid the recharter could not be got through Congress; +and the result produced which was contemplated with hope and +pleasure--responsibility of a veto thrown upon the President. +The consent of this wing was necessary: and it was obtained as +related in a previous chapter, through the instrumentality of a +caucus--that contrivance of modern invention by which a few govern +many--by which the many are not only led by the few, but subjugated +by them, and turned against themselves and after having performed +at the caucus as a _figurante_ (to make up a majority), become +real actors in doing what they condemn. The two wings of the bank +friends were brought together by this machinery, as already related +in chapter lxi.; and operations for the new charter immediately +commenced, in conformity to the decision. On the 9th day of January +the memorial of the President, Directors & Company of the Bank +was presented in each House--by Mr. Dallas in the Senate, and Mr. +McDuffie in the House of Representatives; and while condemning the +time of bringing forward the question of the recharter, Mr. Dallas, +in further intimation of his previously signified opinion of its +then dangerous introduction, said: "He became a willing, as he was +virtually an instructed agent, in promoting to the extent of his +humble ability, an object which, _however dangerously timed its +introduction might seem_, was in itself as he conceived, entitled to +every consideration and favor." Mr. Dallas then moved for a select +committee to revise, consider, and report upon the memorial--which +motion was granted, and Messrs. Dallas, Webster, Ewing of Ohio, +Hayne of South Carolina, and Johnston of Louisiana, were appointed +the committee--elected for that purpose by a vote of the Senate--and +all except one favorable to the recharter. + +In the House of Representatives Mr. McDuffie did not ask for the +same reference--a select committee--but to the standing committee +of Ways and Means, of which he was chairman, and which was mainly +composed of the same members as at the previous session when it +reported so elaborately in favor of the bank. The reason of this +difference on the point of the reference was understood to be this: +that in the Senate the committee being elective, and the majority of +the body favorable to the bank, a favorable committee was certain +to be had on ballot--while in the House the appointment of the +committee being in the hands of the Speaker (Mr. Stevenson), and he +adverse to the institution, the same favorable result could not be +safely counted on; and, therefore, the select committee was avoided, +and the one known to be favorable was preferred. This led to an +adverse motion to refer to a select committee--in support of which +motion Mr. Wayne of Georgia, since appointed one of the justices of +the Supreme Court, said: + + "That he had on a former occasion expressed his objection to the + reference of this subject to the Committee of Ways and Means; + and he should not trouble the House by repeating now what he + had advanced at the commencement of the session in favor of the + appointment of a select committee; but he called upon gentlemen + to consider what was the attitude of the Committee of Ways and + Means in reference to the bank question, and to compare it + with the attitude in which that question had been presented + to the House by the President of the United States; and he + would ask, whether it was not manifestly proper to submit the + memorial to a committee entirely uncommitted upon the subject. + But this was not the object for which he had risen; the present + question had not come upon him unexpectedly; he had been aware + before he entered the House that a memorial of this kind would + this morning be presented; and when he looked back upon the + occurrences of the last four weeks, and remembered what had + taken place at a late convention in Baltimore, and the motives + which had been avowed for bringing forward the subject at this + time, he must say that gentlemen ought not to permit a petition + of this kind to receive the attention of the House. Who could + doubt that the presentation of that memorial was in fact a party + measure, intended to have an important operation on persons + occupying the highest offices of the government? If, however, + it should be considered necessary to enter upon the subject at + the present time, Mr. Wayne said he was prepared to meet it. But + when gentlemen saw distinctly before their eyes the motive of + such a proceeding, he hoped that, notwithstanding there might + be a majority in the House in favor of the bank, gentlemen + would not lend themselves to that kind of action. Could it be + necessary to take up the question of rechartering the bank at + the present session? Gentlemen all knew that four years must + pass before its charter would expire, and that Congress had + power to extend the period, if further time was necessary to + wind up its affairs. It was known that other subjects of an + exciting character must come up during the present session and + could there be any necessity or propriety in throwing additional + matter into the House, calculated to raise that excitement yet + higher?" + +Mr. McDuffie absolved himself from all connection with the Baltimore +national republican convention, and claimed like absolution for the +directory of the bank; and intimated that a caucus consultation to +which democratic members were party, had led to the presentation +of the memorial at this time;--an intimation entirely true, only +it should have comprehended all the friends of the bank of both +political parties. A running debate took place on these motions, in +which many members engaged. Admitting that the parliamentary law +required a friendly committee for the application, it was yet urged +that that committee should be a select one, charged with the single +subject, and with leisure to make investigations;--which leisure +the Committee of Ways did not possess--and could merely report as +formerly, and without giving any additional information to the +House. Mr. Archer of Virginia, said: + + "As regarded the disposal of the memorial, it appeared clear + to him that a select committee would be the proper one. This + had been the disposal adopted with all former memorials. Why + vary the mode now? The subject was of a magnitude to entitle it + to a special committee. As regarded the Committee of Ways and + Means, with its important functions, were not its hands to be + regarded as too full for the great attention which this matter + must demand? It was to be remarked, too, that this committee, + at a former session, with little variety in its composition, + had, in the most formal manner, expressed its opinion on the + great question involved. We ought not, as had been said, to put + the memorial to a nurse which would strangle it. Neither would + it be proper to send it to an inquest in which its fate had + been prejudged. Let it go to either the Committee of Ways and + Means, or a select committee; the chairman of that committee + would stand as he ought, in the same relation to it. If the + last disposal were adopted, too, the majority of the committee + would consist, under the usage in that respect, of friends of + the measure. The recommendation of this mode was, that it would + present the nearest approach to equality in the contest, of + which the case admitted. + + "Mr. Mitchell, of South Carolina, said that he concurred + entirely in the views of his friend from Georgia [Mr. Wayne]. + He did not think that the bank question ought to be taken up at + all this session; but if it were, it ought most unquestionably + to be referred to a select committee. He saw no reason, however, + for its being referred at all. The member from South Carolina + [Mr. McDuffie] tells us, said Mr. M., that it involves the vast + amount of fifty millions of dollars; that this is dispersed to + every class of people in our widely extended country; and if + the question of rechartering were not decided now, it would + hazard these great and complicated interests. Mr. M. said he + attached no importance to this argument. The stockholders who + met lately at Philadelphia thought differently, for, by a solemn + resolution, they left it discretionary with the president of + the bank to propose the question to Congress when he saw fit. + If they had thought that a postponement would have endangered + their interests, would they not have said so? This fact does + away the argument of the member from South Carolina. The bank + question was decided by the strongest party question which could + be put to this or any House. It has been twice discussed within + a few years. It was rejected once in the Senate by the vote of + the Vice-President, and it afterwards passed this House with a + majority of two. It would divide the whole country, and excite + on that floor, feelings of the most exasperated bitterness. + Not a party question? Does not the member from South Carolina + [Mr. McDuffie] remember that this question divided the country + into federalists and republicans? It was a great constitutional + question, and he hoped all those who thought with him, would + rally against it in all their strength. But why refer it to + the Committee of Ways and Means? It was committed before to a + select committee on national currency. If this question was + merely financial, as whether we should sell our stock, and, if + we did, whether we should sell it to the bank, he would not + object to its being referred to the Committee of Ways and Means. + But it was not a question of revenue. It was one of policy and + the constitution--one of vast magnitude and of the greatest + complexity--requiring a committee of the most distinguished + abilities on that floor. It was a party question in reference to + men and things out of doors. Those who deny this, must be blind + to every thing around them--we hear it every where--we see it + in all which we read. Sir, we have now on hand a topic which + must engross every thought and feeling--a topic which perhaps + involves the destinies of this nation--a topic of such magnitude + as to occupy us the remainder of the session; I mean the tariff. + I hope, therefore, this memorial will be laid on the table, and, + if not, that it will be referred to a select committee." + +Mr. Charles Johnston, of Virginia, said: + + "The bank has been of late distinctly and repeatedly charged + with using its funds, and the funds of the people of these + States, in operating upon and controlling public opinion. He did + not mean to express any opinion as to the truth or falsehood + of this accusation, but it was of sufficient consequence to + demand an accurate inquiry. The bank was further charged with + violating its charter, in the issue of a great number of small + drafts to a large amount, and payable, in the language of the + honorable member from New-York [Mr. Cambreleng], "nowhere;" + this charge, also, deserved inquiry. There were other charges + of maladministration which equally deserved inquiry; and it was + his [Mr. J.'s] intention, at a future day, unless some other + gentleman more versed in the business of the House anticipated + him, to press these inquiries by a series of instructions to + the committee intrusted with the subject. Mr. J. urged as an + objection to referring this inquiry to the Committee of Ways + and Means, that so much of their time would be occupied with + the regular and important business connected with the fiscal + operations of the government, that they could not spare labor + enough to accomplish the minute investigations wanted at their + hands. We had been further told that all the members of that + committee were friendly to the project of rechartering the bank, + and the honorable gentleman [Mr. Mercer] had relied upon the + fact, as a fair exponent of public opinion in favor of the bank. + He [Mr. J.] added, that although he could by no means assent to + the force of this remark, yet that it furnished strong reason + for those who wished a close scrutiny of the administration of + the bank, to wish some gentlemen placed on the committee of + inquiry, who would be actuated by the zeal of fair opposition to + the bank; he conceded that a majority of the committee should + be composed of its friends. He concluded, by hoping that the + memorial would be referred to a select committee." + +Finally the vote was taken, and the memorial referred to the +Committee of Ways and Means, but by a slender majority--100 against +90--and 24 members absent, or not voting. The members of the +committee were: Messrs. McDuffie, of South Carolina; Verplanck of +New-York; Ingersoll, of Connecticut; Gilmore, of Pennsylvania; Mark +Alexander, of Virginia; Wilde, of Georgia; and Gaither, of Kentucky. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIV. + +BANK OF THE UNITED STATES--COMMITTEE OF INVESTIGATION ORDERED. + + +SEEING the state of parties in Congress, and the tactics of the +bank--that there was a majority in each House for the institution, +and no intention to lose time in arguing for it--our course of +action became obvious, which was--to attack incessantly, assail +at all points, display the evil of the institution, rouse the +people--and prepare them to sustain the veto. It was seen to be the +policy of the bank leaders to carry the charter first, and quietly +through the Senate; and afterwards, in the same way in the House. +We determined to have a contest in both places; and to force the +bank into defences which would engage it in a general combat, and +lay it open to side-blow, as well as direct attacks. With this view +a great many amendments and inquiries were prepared to be offered +in the Senate, all of them proper, or plausible, recommendable in +themselves, and supported by acceptable reasons; which the friends +of the bank must either answer, or reject without answer; and so +incur odium. In the House it was determined to make a move, which, +whether resisted or admitted by the bank majority, would be certain +to have an effect against the institution--namely, an investigation +by a committee of the House, as provided for in the charter. If +the investigation was denied, it would be guilt shrinking from +detection; if admitted, it was well known that misconduct would he +found. I conceived this movement, and had charge of its direction. +I preferred the House for the theatre of investigation, as most +appropriate, being the grand inquest of the nation; and, besides, +wished a contest to be going on there while the Senate was engaged +in passing the charter; and the right to raise the committee was +complete, in either House. Besides the right reserved in the +charter, there was a natural right, when the corporation was asked +for a renewed lease, to inquire how it had acted under the previous +one. I got Mr. Clayton, a new member from Georgia (who had written a +pamphlet against the bank in his own State), to take charge of the +movement; and gave him a memorandum of seven alleged breaches of the +charter, and fifteen instances of imputed misconduct, to inquire +into, if he got his committee; or to allege on the floor, if he +encountered resistance. + +On Thursday, the 23d of February, Mr. Clayton made his motion--"That +a select committee be appointed to examine into the affairs of +the Bank of the United States, with power to send for persons and +papers, and to report the result of their inquiries to the House." +This motion was objected to, and its consideration postponed until +the ensuing Monday. Called up on that day, an attempt was made +to repulse it from the consideration of the House. Mr. Watmough, +a representative from Pennsylvania, and from the city, a friend +to the bank, and from his locality and friendship supposed to be +familiar with its wishes, raised the question of consideration--that +is, called on the House to decide whether they would consider +Mr. Clayton's motion; a question which is only raised under the +parliamentary law where the motion is too frivolous, or flagrantly +improper, to receive the attention of the House. It was a false +move on the part of the institution; and the more so as it seemed +to be the result of deliberation, and came from its immediate +representative. Mr. Polk, of Tennessee, saw the advantage presented; +and as the question of consideration was not debatable, he demanded, +as the only mode of holding the movement to its responsibility, +the yeas and nays on Mr. Watmough's question. But it went off on a +different point--a point of order--the question of consideration +not lying after the House has taken action on the subject; and in +this case that had been done--very little action to be sure--only +postponing the consideration from one day to another; but enough to +satisfy the rule; and so the motion of Mr. Watmough was disallowed; +and the question of consideration let in. Another movement was then +made to cut off discussion, and get rid of the resolution, by a +motion to lay it on the table, also made by a friend of the bank +[Mr. Lewis Williams, of North Carolina]. This motion was withdrawn +at the instance of Mr. McDuffie, who began to see the effect of +these motions to suppress, not only investigation, but congressional +discussion; and, besides, Mr. McDuffie was a bold man, and an able +debater, and had examined the subject, and reported in favor of +the bank, and fully believed in its purity; and was, therefore, +the less averse to debate. But resistance to investigation was +continued by others, and was severely animadverted upon by several +speakers--among others, by Mr. Polk, of Tennessee, who said: + + "The bank asks a renewal of its charter; and ought its friends + to object to the inquiry? He must say that he had been not a + little surprised at the unexpected resistance which had been + offered to the resolution under consideration, by the friends + and admirers of this institution--by those who, no doubt, + sincerely believed its continued existence for another term of + twenty years to be essential to the prosperity of the country. + He repeated his surprise that its friends should be found + shrinking from the investigation proposed. He would not say + that such resistance afforded any fair grounds of inference + that there might be something "rotten in the state of Denmark." + He would not say this; for he did not feel himself authorized + to do so; but was it not perceived that such an inference + might, and probably would, be drawn by the public? On what + ground was the inquiry opposed? Was it that it was improper? + Was it that it was unusual? The charter of the bank itself + authorized a committee of either House of Congress to examine + its books, and report upon its condition, whenever either House + may choose to institute an examination. A committee of this + House, upon a former occasion, did make such an examination, + and he would refer to their report before he sat down. Upon the + presentation of the bank memorial to the other branch of the + legislature, a select committee had been invested with power + to send for persons and papers, if they chose to do so. When + the same memorial was presented to that House, what had been + the course pursued by the friends of the bank? A motion to + refer it to a select committee was opposed. It was committed + to their favorite Committee of Ways and Means. He meant no + disrespect to that committee, when he said that the question + of rechartering the bank was known to have been prejudged by + that committee. When the President of the United States brought + the subject of the bank to the notice of Congress in December, + 1829, a select committee was refused by the friends of the bank, + and that portion of the message was referred to the Committee + of Ways and Means. Precisely the same thing occurred at the + commencement of the last and at the present session of Congress, + in the reference which was made of that part of the messages + of the President upon the subject of the bank. The friends of + this institution have been careful always to commit it to the + same committee, a committee whose opinions were known. Upon + the occasion first referred to, that committee made a report + favorable to the bank, which was sent forth to the public,--not + a report of facts, not a report founded upon an examination + into the affairs of the bank. At the present session, we were + modestly asked to extend this bank monopoly for twenty years, + without any such examination having taken place. The committee + had reported a bill to that effect, but had given us no facts in + relation to the present condition of the bank. They had not even + deemed it necessary to ask to be invested with power to examine + either into its present condition, or into the manner in which + its affairs have been conducted. + + "He would now call the attention of the House to the examination + of the bank, made by a committee of this House in the year 1819, + and under the order of the House. He then held the report of + that committee in his hand. That committee visited the bank + at Philadelphia; they examined its books, and scrutinized its + conduct. They examined on oath the president, a part of the + directors and officers of the bank. And what was the result? + They discovered many and flagrant abuses. They found that the + charter had been violated in divers particulars, and they so + reported to this House. He would not detain the House, however, + with the details of that document. Gentlemen could refer to it, + and satisfy themselves. It contained much valuable information, + as bearing upon the proposition now before the House. It was + sufficient to say that at that period, within three years after + the bank had gone into existence, it was upon the very verge + of bankruptcy. This the gentleman from South Carolina would + not deny. The report of the committee to which he had alluded + authorized him to say that there had been gross mismanagement, + he would not use any stronger term, and in the opinion of that + committee (an opinion never reversed by Congress) a palpable + violation of the charter. Now sir, this was the condition of + the bank in 1819. The indulgence of Congress induced them not + to revoke the charter. The bank had gone on in its operations. + Since that period no investigation or examination had taken + place. All we knew of its doings, since that period, was from + the ex parte reports of its own officers. These may all be + correct, but, if they be so, it could do no harm to ascertain + the fact." + +Mr. Clayton then justified his motion for the committee, _first_ +upon the provisions of the charter (article 23) which gave to either +House of Congress the right at all times to appoint a committee +to inspect the books, and to examine in to the proceedings of the +bank; and to report whether the provisions of the charter had +been violated; and be treated as a revolt against this provision +of the charter, as well as a sign of guilt, this resistance to +an absolute right on the part of Congress, and most proper to be +exercised when the institution was soliciting the continuation +of its privileges; and which right had been exercised by the +House in 1819, when its committee found various violations of the +charter, and proposed a _scire facias_ to vacate it:--which was +only refused by Congress, not for the sake of the bank, but for the +community--whose distresses the closing of the bank might aggravate. +Next, he justified his motion on the ground of misconduct in the +bank in seven instances of violated charter, involving forfeiture; +and fifteen instances of abuse, which required correction, though +not amounting to forfeiture of the charter. All these he read to the +House, one by one, from a narrow slip of paper, which he continued +rolling round his finger all the time. The memorandum was mine--in +my handwriting--given to him to copy, and amplify, as they were +brief memoranda. He had not copied them; and having to justify +suddenly, he used the slip I had given him--rolling it on his +finger, as on a cylinder, to prevent my handwriting from being seen: +so he afterwards told me himself. The reading of these twenty-two +heads of accusation, like so many counts in an indictment, sprung +the friends of the bank to their feet--and its foes also--each +finding in it something to rouse them--one to the defence, the other +to the attack. The accusatory list was as follows: + + "FIRST: _Violations of charter amounting to forfeiture_: + + "1. The issue of seven millions, and more, of branch bank orders + as a currency. + + "2. Usury on broken bank notes in Ohio and Kentucky: nine + hundred thousand dollars in Ohio, and nearly as much in + Kentucky. See 2 Peters' Reports, p. 527, as to the nature of the + case. + + "3. Domestic bills of exchange, disguised loans to take more + than at the rate of six per cent. Sixteen millions of these + bills for December last. See monthly statements. + + "4. Non-user of the charter. In this, that from 1819 to 1826, + a period of seven years, the South and West branches issued + no currency of any kind. See the doctrine on non-user of + charter and duty of corporations to act up to the end of their + institution, and forfeiture for neglect. + + "5. Building houses to rent. See limitation in their charter on + the right to hold real property. + + "6. In the capital stock, not having due proportion of coin. + + "7. Foreigners voting for directors, through their trustees. + + "SECOND: _Abuses worthy of inquiry, not amounting to forfeiture, + but going, if true, clearly to show the inexpediency of renewing + the charter._ + + "1. Not cashing its own notes, or receiving in deposit at each + branch, and at the parent bank, the notes of each other. By + reason of this practice, notes of the mother bank are at a + discount at many, if not all, of her branches, and completely + negatives the assertion of 'sound and uniform currency.' + + "2. Making a difference in receiving notes from the federal + government and the citizens of the States. This is admitted as + to all notes above five dollars. + + "3. Making a difference between members of Congress and the + citizens generally, in both granting loans and selling bills of + exchange. It is believed it can be made to appear that members + can obtain bills of exchange without, citizens with a premium; + the first give nominal endorsers, the other must give two + sufficient resident endorsers. + + "4. The undue accumulation of proxies in the hands of a few to + control the election for directors. + + "5. A strong suspicion of secret understanding between the bank + and brokers to job in stocks, contrary to the charter. For + example, to buy up three per cent. stock at this day; and force + the government to pay at par for that stock; and whether the + government deposits may not be used to enhance its own debts. + + "6. Subsidies and loans, directly or indirectly, to printers, + editors, and lawyers, for purposes other than the regular + business of the bank. + + "7. Distinction in favor of merchants in selling bills of + exchange. + + "8. Practices upon local banks and debtors to make them petition + Congress for a renewal of its charter, and thus impose upon + Congress by false clamor. + + "9. The actual management of the bank, whether safely and + prudently conducted. See monthly statements to the contrary. + + "10. The actual condition of the bank, her debts and credits; + how much she has increased debts and diminished her means to pay + in the last year; how much she has increased her credits and + multiplied her debtors, since the President's message in 1829, + without ability to take up the notes she has issued, and pay her + deposits. + + "11. Excessive issues, all on public deposits. + + "12. Whether the account of the bank's prosperity be real or + delusive. + + "13. The amount of gold and silver coin and bullion sent from + Western and Southern branches of the parent bank since its + establishment in 1817. The amount is supposed to be fifteen + or twenty millions, and, with bank interest on bank debts, + constitutes a system of the most intolerable oppression of the + South and West. The gold and silver of the South and West have + been drawn to the mother bank, mostly by the agency of that + unlawful currency created by branch bank orders, as will be made + fully to appear. + + "14. The establishment of agencies in different States, under + the direction and management of one person only, to deal in + bills of exchange, and to transact other business properly + belonging to branch banks, contrary to the charter. + + "15. Giving authority to State banks to discount their bills + without authority from the Secretary of the Treasury." + +Upon the reading of these charges a heated and prolonged discussion +took place, in which more than thirty members engaged (and about +an equal number on each side); in which the friends of the bank +lost so much ground in the public estimation, in making direct +opposition to investigation, that it became necessary to give up +that species of opposition--declare in favor of examination--but +so conducted as to be nugatory, and worse than useless. One +proposition was to have the investigation made by the Committee +of Ways and Means--a proposition which involved many departures +from parliamentary law--from propriety--and from the respect which +the bank owed to itself, if it was innocent. By all parliamentary +law such a committee must be composed of members friendly to the +inquiry--hearty in the cause--and the mover always to be its +chairman: here, on the contrary, the mover was to be excluded: +the very champion of the Bank defence was to be the investigating +chairman; and the committee to whom it was to go, was the same that +had just reported so warmly for the Bank. But this proposition +had so bad a look that the chairman of the Committee of Ways and +Means (Mr. McDuffie) objected to it himself, utterly refusing to +take the office of prosecutor against an institution of which he +was the public defender. Propositions were then made to have the +committee appointed by ballot, so as to take the appointment of +the committee out of the hands of the Speaker (who, following the +parliamentary rule, would select a majority of members favorable +to inquiry); and in the vote by ballot, the bank having a majority +in the House, could reverse the parliamentary rule, and give to +the institution a committee to shield, instead of to probe it. +Unbecoming, and even suspicious to the institution itself as this +proposition was, it came within a tie vote of passing, and was only +lost by the casting vote of the Speaker. Investigation of some +kind, and by a select committee, becoming then inevitable, the only +thing that could be done in favor of the bank was to restrict its +scope; and this was done both as to time and matter; and also as to +the part of the institution to be examined. Mr. Adams introduced +a resolution to limit the inquiry to the operations of the mother +bank, thereby skipping the twenty-seven branches, though some of +them were nearer than the parent bank; also limiting the points of +inquiry to breaches of the charter, so as to cut off the abuses; +also limiting the time to a short day (the 21st of April)--March +then being far advanced; so as to subject full investigation +to be baffled for the want of time. The reason given for these +restrictions was to bring the investigation within the compass of +the session--so as to insure action on the application before the +adjournment of Congress--thereby openly admitting its connection +with the presidential election. On seeing his proposed inquiry thus +restricted, Mr. Clayton thus gave vent to his feelings: + + "I hope I may be permitted to take a parting leave of my + resolution, as I very plainly perceive that it is going the + way of all flesh. I discover the bank has a complying majority + at present in this House, and at this late hour of the night + are determined to carry things in their own way; but, sir, I + view with astonishment the conduct of that majority. When a + speaker rises in favor of the bank, he is listened to with great + attention; but when one opposed to it attempts to address the + House, such is the intentional noise and confusion, he cannot + be heard; and, sir, the gentleman who last spoke but one in + favor of an inquiry, had to take his seat in a scene little + short of a riot. I do not understand such conduct. When I + introduced my resolution, I predicated it upon the presumption + that every thing in this House would, when respectfully + presented, receive a respectful consideration, and would be + treated precisely as all other questions similarly situated + are treated. I expected the same courtesy that other gentlemen + received in the propositions submitted by them, that it would + go to a committee appointed in the usual form, and that they + would have the usual time to make their report. I believed, + for I had no right to believe otherwise, that all committees + of this House were honest, and that they had too much respect + for themselves, as well as for the House, to trifle with any + matter confided to their investigation. Believing this, I did + expect my resolution would be submitted in the accustomed way; + and if this House had thought proper to trust me, in part, with + the examination of the subject to which it refers, I would have + proceeded to the business in good faith, and reported as early + as was practicable with the important interests at stake. It + has been opposed in every shape; vote upon vote has been taken + upon it, all evidently tending to evade inquiry; and now it is + determined to compel the committee to report in a limited time, + a thing unheard of before in this House, and our inquiries + are to be confined entirely to the mother bank; whereas her + branches, at which more than half the frauds and oppressions + complained of have been committed, are to go unexamined, and we + are to be limited to breaches of the charter when the abuses + charged are numerous and flagrant, and equally injurious to the + community. We are only to examine the books of the parent bank, + the greatest part of which may be accidentally from home, at + some of the branches. If the bank can reconcile it to herself to + meet no other kind of investigation but this, she is welcome to + all the advantages which such an insincere and shuffling course + is calculated to confer; the people of this country are too + intelligent not to understand exactly her object." + +Among the abuses cut off from examinations by these restrictions, +were two modes of extorting double and treble compensation for the +use of money, one by turning a loan note into a bill of exchange, +and the other by forcing the borrower to take his money upon a +domestic bill instead of on a note--both systematically practised +upon in the West, and converting nearly all the Western loans into +enormously usurious transactions. Mr. Clayton gave the following +description of the first of these modes of extorting usury: + + "I will now make a fuller statement; and I think I am authorized + to say that there are gentlemen in this House from the West, + and under my eye at present, who will confirm every word I + say. A person has a note in one of the Western branch banks, + and if the bank determines to extend no further credit, its + custom is, when it sends out the usual notice of the time the + note falls due, to write across the notice, in red ink, these + three fatal words--well understood in that country--'Payment is + expected.' This notice, thus rubricated, becomes a death-warrant + to the credit of that customer, unless he can raise the wind, + as it is called, to pay it off, or can discount a domestic + bill of exchange. This last is done in one of two ways. If he + has a factor in New Orleans who is in the habit of receiving + and selling his produce, he draws upon him to pay it off at + maturity. The bank charges two per centum for two months, the + factor two and a half, and thus, if the draft is at sixty + days, he pays at the rate of twenty-seven per centum. If, + however, he has no factor, he is obliged to get some friend + who has one to make the arrangement to get his draft accepted. + For this accommodation he pays his friend one and a half per + cent., besides the two per cent. to the bank, and the two + and a half per cent. to the acceptor; making, in this mode + of arrangement, thirty-six per cent. which he pays before he + can get out of the clutches of the bank for that time, twelve + per cent. of which, in either case, goes to the bank; and so + little conscience have they, in order to make this, they will + subject a poor and unfortunate debtor to the other enormous + burdens, and consequently to absolute beggary. For it must be + obvious to every one that such a per cent. for money, under the + melancholy depreciation of produce every where in the South + and West, will soon wind up the affairs of such a borrower. No + people under the heavens can bear it; and unless a stop is put + to it, in some way or other, I predict the Western people will + be in the most deplorable situation it is possible to conceive. + There is another great hardship to which this debtor is liable, + if he should not be able to furnish the produce; or, which is + sometimes the case, if it is sacrificed in the sale of it at + the time the draft becomes due, whereby it is protested for + want of funds, it returns upon him with the additional cost + of ten per cent. for non-payment. Now, sir, that is what is + meant by domestic bills of exchange, disguised as loans, to + take more than six per cent.; for, mark, Mr. Speaker, the bank + does not purchase a bill of exchange by paying out cash for it, + and receiving the usual rate of exchange, which varies from + one-quarter to one per cent.; but it merely delivers up the poor + debtor's note which was previously in bank, and, what is worse, + just as well secured as the domestic bill of exchange which they + thus extort from him in lieu thereof. And while they are thus + exacting this per cent. from him, they are discounting bills + for others not in debt to them at the usual premium of one per + cent. The whole scene seems to present the picture of a helpless + sufferer in the hands of a ruffian, who claims the merit of + charity for discharging his victim alive, after having torn away + half his limbs from his body." + +The second mode was to make the loan take the form of a domestic +bill from the beginning; and this soon came to be the most general +practice. The borrowers finding that their notes were to be +metamorphosed into bills payable in a distant city, readily fell +into the more convenient mode of giving a bill in the first instance +payable in some village hard by, where they could go to redeem it +without giving commissions to intermediate agents in the shape of +endorsers and brokers. The profit to the bank in this operation was +to get six per centum interest, and two per cent. exchange; which, +on a sixty days' bill, was twelve per cent. per annum; and, added to +the interest, eighteen per cent. per annum; with the addition of ten +per centum damages if the bill was protested; and of this character +were the mass of the loans in the West--a most scandalous abuse, but +cut off, with a multitude of others, from investigation from the +restrictions placed upon the powers of the committee. + +The supporters of the institution carried their point in the House, +and had the investigation in their own way; but with the country +it was different. The bank stood condemned upon its own conduct, +and badly crippled by the attacks upon her. More than a dozen +speakers assailed her: Clayton, Wayne, Foster of Georgia; J. M. +Patton, Archer, and Mark Alexander of Virginia; James K. Polk of +Tennessee; Cambreleng, Beardsley, Hoffman and Angel of New-York; +Mitchell and Blair of South Carolina; Carson of North Carolina; +Leavitt of Ohio. The speakers on the other side were: McDuffie and +Drayton of South Carolina; Denny, Crawford, Coulter, Watmough, of +Pennsylvania; Daniel of Kentucky; Jenifer of Maryland; Huntington of +Connecticut; Root and Collins of New-York; Evans of Maine; Mercer of +Virginia; Wilde of Georgia. Pretty equally matched both in numbers +and ability; but the difference between attack and defence--between +bold accusation and shrinking palliation--the conduct of the bank +friends, first in resisting all investigation, then in trying to put +it into the hands of friends, then restricting the examination, and +the noise and confusion with which many of the anti-bank speeches +were saluted--gave to the assailants the appearance of right, and +the tone of victory throughout the contest; and created a strong +suspicion against the bank. Certainly its conduct was injudicious, +except upon the hypothesis of a guilt, the worst suspicion of +which would be preferable to open detection and such, eventually, +was found to be the fact. In justice to Mr. McDuffie, the leading +advocate of the bank, it must be remembered that the attempts +to stifle, or evade inquiry, did not come from him but from the +immediate representative of the bank neighborhood--that he twice +discountenanced and stopped such attempts, requesting them to be +withdrawn; and no doubt all the defenders of the bank at the time +believed in its integrity and utility, and only followed the lead of +its immediate friends in the course which they pursued. For myself I +became convinced that the bank was insolvent, as well as criminal; +and that, to her, examination was death; and therefore she could not +face it. + +The committee appointed were: Messrs. Clayton, Richard M. Johnson +of Kentucky, Francis Thomas of Maryland, and Mr. Cambreleng of +New-York, opposed to the recharter of the Bank; Messrs. McDuffie, +John Quincy Adams, and Watmough, in favor of it. The committee was +composed according to the parliamentary rule--the majority in favor +of the object--but one of them (Colonel Johnson of Kentucky), was +disqualified by his charitable and indulgent disposition for the +invidious task of criminal inquisition; and who frankly told the +House, after he returned, that he had never looked at a bank-book, +or asked a question while he was at Philadelphia; and, Mr. Adams in +invalidating the report of the majority against the bank, disputed +the reality of the majority, saying that the good nature of Colonel +Johnson had merely licensed it. On the other hand, the committee was +as favorably composed for the bank--Mr. Adams and Mr. McDuffie both +able writers and speakers, of national reputation, investigating +minds, ardent temperaments, firm believers in the integrity and +usefulness of the corporation; and of character and position to +be friendly to the institution without the imputation of an undue +motive. Mr. Watmough was a new member, but acceptable to the bank +as its immediate representative, as the member that had made the +motions to baffle investigation; and as being from his personal as +well as political and social relations, in the category to form, +if necessary, its channel of confidential communication with the +committee. + +The committee made three reports--one by the majority, one by +the minority, and one by Mr. Adams alone. The first was a severe +recrimination of the bank on many points--usury, issuing branch +bank orders as a currency, selling coin, selling stock obtained +from government under special acts of Congress, donations for +roads and canals, building houses to rent or sell, loans unduly +made to editors, brokers, and members of Congress. The adversary +reports were a defence of the bank on all these points, and the +highest encomiums upon the excellence of its management, and the +universality of its utility; but too much in the spirit of the +advocate to retain the character of legislative reports--which +admit of nothing but facts stated, inductions drawn, and opinions +expressed. Both, or rather all three sets of reports, were received +as veracious, and lauded as victorious, by the respective parties +which they favored; and quoted, as settling for ever the bank +question, each way. But, alas, for the effect of the progress of +events! In a few brief years all this attack and defence--all this +elaboration of accusation, and refinement of vindication--all this +zeal and animosity, for and against the bank--the whole contest--was +eclipsed and superseded by the actualities of the times the majority +report, as being behind the facts: the minority, as resting upon +vanished illusions. And the great bank itself, antagonist of +Jackson, called imperial by its friends, and actually constituting +a power in the State--prostrate in dust and ashes--and invoking from +the community, through the mouth of the greatest of its advocates +(Mr. Webster), the oblivion and amnesty of an "obsolete idea." + +It is not the design of this View to explore these reports for +the names of persons implicated (some perhaps unjustly), in the +criminating statements of the majority. The object proposed in +this work does not require that interference with individuals. The +conduct of the institution is the point of inquiry; and in that +conduct will be found the warning voice against the dangers and +abuses of such an establishment in all time to come. + + + + +CHAPTER LXV. + +THE THREE PER CENT. DEBT, AND LOSS IN NOT PAYING IT WHEN THE RATE +WAS LOW, AND THE MONEY IN THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES WITHOUT +INTEREST. + + +There was a part of the revolutionary debt, incurred by the States +and assumed by Congress, amounting to thirteen and a quarter +millions of dollars, on which an interest of only three per centum +was allowed. Of course, the stock of this debt could be but little +over fifty cents in the dollar in a country where legal interest was +six per centum, and actual interest often more. In 1817, when the +Bank of the United States went into operation, the price of that +stock was sixty-four per centum--the money was in bank, more than +enough to pay it--a gratuitous deposit, bringing no interest--and +which was contained in her vaults--her situation soon requiring the +aid of the federal government to enable her to keep her doors open. +I had submitted a resolve early in my term of service to have this +stock purchased at its market value; and for that purpose to enlarge +the power of the commissioners of the sinking fund, then limited to +a price a little below the current rate: a motion which was resisted +and defeated by the friends of the bank. I then moved a resolve +that the bank pay interest on the deposits: which was opposed and +defeated in like manner. Eventually, and when the rest of the public +debt should be paid off, and the payment of these thirteen and +a quarter millions would become obligatory under a policy which +eschewed all debt--a consummation then rapidly approaching, under +General Jackson's administration--it was clear that the treasury +would pay one hundred cents on the dollar on what could be then +purchased for sixty-odd, losing in the mean time the interest on the +money with which it could be paid. It made a case against the bank, +which it felt itself bound to answer, and did so through senator +Johnson, of Louisiana: who showed that the bank paid the debt which +the commissioners of the sinking fund required. This was true; but +it was not the point in the case. The point was that the money was +kept in deposit to sustain the bank, and the enlargement of the +powers of the commissioners resisted to prevent them from purchasing +this stock at a low rate, in view of its rise to par: which soon +took place; and made palpable the loss to the United States. At the +time of the solicited renewal of the charter, this non-payment of +the three per cents was brought up as an instance of loss incurred +on account of the bank; and gave rise to the defence from Mr. +Johnson; to which I replied: + + "Mr. Benton had not intended, he said, to say a word in relation + to this question, nor should he now rise to speak upon it, but + from what had fallen from the senator from New Jersey. That + gentleman had gone from the resolution to the bank, and from + the bank he had gone to statements respecting his resolutions + on alum salt, which were erroneous. Day by day, memorials were + poured in upon us by command of the bank, all representing, + in the same terms, the necessity of renewing its charter. + These memorials, the tone of which, and the time of their + presentation, showed their common origin, were daily ordered to + be printed. These papers, forming a larger mass than we ever + had on our tables before, and all singing, to the same tune, + the praises of the bank, were ordered to be printed without + hesitation. The report which he had moved to have printed for + the benefit of the farmers, was struck at by the senator of + New Jersey. In the first place, the senator was in error as to + the cost of printing the report. He had stated it to be one + thousand nine hundred dollars, whereas it was only one thousand + one hundred dollars. A few days ago, two thousand copies of + a report of the British House of Commons on the subject of + railroads was ordered to be printed. Following the language of + that resolution, he had moved the printing of another report + of that body, which would interest a thousand of our citizens, + where that report would interest one. There was not a farmer in + America who would not deem it a treasure. It covered the whole + saline kingdom; and those unacquainted with its nature had no + more idea of it than a blind man had of the solar rays. It was + of the highest value to the farmer and the grazier. It showed + the effect of the mineral kingdom upon the animal kingdom; and + its views were the results of the wisdom, experience, and first + talents of Great Britain. The assertion of the senator, that + the bank aided in producing a sound currency, he would disprove + by facts and dates. In 1817 the bank went into operation. In + three or four years after, forty-four banks were chartered + in Kentucky, and forty in Ohio; and the United States Bank, + so far from being able to put them down, was on the verge of + bankruptcy. With the use of eight millions of public money, + it was hardly able, from day to day to sustain itself. Eleven + millions of dollars, as he could demonstrate, the people had + lost by maintaining the bank during this crisis. But for a + waggon load of specie from the mint, as Mr. Cheves informs us, + it would have become bankrupt. In addition to this, the use + of government deposits, to the extent of eight millions, was + necessary to sustain it; and the country lost eleven millions + by the diversion of those deposits to this purpose. Congress + authorized the purchase of the thirteen millions of three + per cents,--at that time, they could have been purchased at + sixty-five cents, now they were at ninety-six per cent. This + was one item of the amount lost, and the other was the interest + on the stock from that time to the present, amounting to six + millions more. It was shown by Mr. Cheves that the United + States Bank owed its existence to the local banks--to the + indulgence and forbearance of the banks of Philadelphia and + Boston, notwithstanding its receipt of the silver from Ohio and + Kentucky, which drained that country, destroyed its local banks, + and threw down the value of every description of its property. + The United States Bank currency was called by the senator the + poor man's friend. The orders on the branches--these drafts + issued in Dan and made payable in Beersheba--had their origin + with a Scotchman; and, when their character was discovered, + they were stopped as oppressive to the poor; and this bank, + which was cried up as the poor man's friend, issued those same + orders, in paper so similar to that of the bank notes, that the + people could not readily discern the difference between them. It + was thought that the people might mistake the signature of the + little cashier and the little president for the great cashier + and the great president. The stockholders were foreigners, to a + great extent--they were lords and ladies--reverend clergymen and + military officers. The widows, in whose behalf our sympathy was + required, were countess dowagers, and the Barings, some of whom + owned more of the stock than was possessed in sixteen States of + this Union." + + + + +CHAPTER LXVI. + +BANK OF THE UNITED STATES--BILL FOR THE RECHARTER REPORTED IN THE +SENATE--AND PASSED THAT BODY. + + +The first bank of the United States, chartered in 1791, +was a federal measure, conducted under the lead of General +Hamilton--opposed by Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison and the republican +party; and became a great landmark of party, not merely for the +bank itself, but for the latitudinarian construction of the +constitution in which it was founded, and the great door which it +opened to the discretion of Congress to do what it pleased, under +the plea of being "_necessary_" to carry into effect some granted +power. The non-renewal of the charter in 1811, was the act of +the republican party, then in possession of the government, and +taking the opportunity to terminate, upon its own limitation, the +existence of an institution, whose creation they had not been able +to prevent. The charter of the second bank, in 1816, was the act +of the republican party, and to aid them in the administration of +the government, and, as such, was opposed by the federal party--not +seeming then to understand that, by its instincts, a great moneyed +corporation was in sympathy with their own party, and would soon +be with it in action--which this bank soon was--and now struggled +for a continuation of its existence under the lead of those who +had opposed its birth, and against the party which created it. Mr. +Webster was a federal leader on both occasions--against the charter, +in 1816; for the recharter, in 1832--and in his opening speech in +favor of the renewal, according to the bill reported by the Senate's +select committee, and in allusion to these reversals of positions, +and in justification of his own, he spoke thus, addressing him self +to the Vice-President, Mr. Calhoun: + + "A considerable portion of the active part of life has elapsed, + said Mr. W., since you and I, Mr. President, and three or + four other gentlemen, now in the Senate, acted our respective + parts in the passage of the bill creating the present Bank of + the United States. We have lived to little purpose, as public + men, if the experience of this period has not enlightened our + judgments, and enabled us to revise our opinions; and to correct + any errors into which we may have fallen, if such errors there + were, either in regard to the general utility of a national + bank, or the details of its constitution. I trust it will not + be unbecoming the occasion, if I allude to your own important + agency in that transaction. The bill incorporating the bank, + and giving it a constitution, proceeded from a committee of the + House of Representatives, of which you were chairman, and was + conducted through that House under your distinguished lead. + Having recently looked back to the proceedings of that day, I + must be permitted to say that I have perused the speech by which + the subject was introduced to the consideration of the House, + with a revival of the feeling of approbation and pleasure with + which I heard it; and I will add, that it would not, perhaps, + now, be easy to find a better brief synopsis of those principles + of currency and of banking, which, since they spring from the + nature of money and of commerce, must be essentially the same, + at all times, in all commercial communities, than that speech + contains. The other gentlemen now with us in the Senate, all of + them, I believe, concurred with the chairman of the committee, + and voted for the bill. My own vote was against it. This is a + matter of little importance; but it is connected with other + circumstances, to which I will, for a moment, advert. The + gentlemen with whom I acted on that occasion, had no doubts of + the constitutional power of Congress to establish a national + bank; nor had we any doubts of the general utility of an + institution of that kind. We had, indeed, most of us, voted for + a bank, at a preceding session. But the object of our regard was + not whatever might be called a bank. We required that it should + be established on certain principles, which alone we deemed safe + and useful, made subject to curtain fixed liabilities, and so + guarded that it could neither move voluntarily, nor be moved by + others out of its proper sphere of action. The bill, when first + introduced, contained features, to which we should never have + assented, and we set ourselves accordingly to work with a good + deal of zeal, in order to effect sundry amendments. In some of + those proposed amendments, the chairman, and those who acted + with him, finally concurred. Others they opposed. The result + was, that several most important amendments, as I thought, + prevailed. But there still remained, in my opinion, objections + to the bill, which justified a persevering opposition till they + should be removed." + +He spoke forcibly and justly against the evils of paper money, +and a depreciated currency, meaning the debased issues of the +local banks, for the cure of which the national bank was to be the +instrument--not foreseeing that this great bank was itself to be the +most striking exemplification of all the evils which he depicted. He +said: + + "A disordered currency is one of the greatest of political + evils. It undermines the virtues necessary for the support + of the social system, and encourages propensities destructive + of its happiness. It wars against industry, frugality, and + economy; and it fosters the evil spirits of extravagance and + speculation. Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring + classes of mankind, none has been more effectual than that which + deludes them with paper money. This is the most effectual of + inventions to fertilize the rich man's field, by the sweat of + the poor man's brow. Ordinary tyranny, oppression, excessive + taxation, these bear lightly on the happiness of the mass of + the community, compared with fraudulent currencies, and the + robberies committed by depreciated paper. Our own history has + recorded for our instruction enough, and more than enough, of + the demoralizing tendency, the injustice, and the intolerable + oppression on the virtuous and well disposed, of a degraded + paper currency, authorized by law, or any way countenanced by + government." + +He also spoke truly on the subject of the small quantity of silver +currency in the United States--only some twenty-two millions--and +not a particle of gold; and deprecated the small bank note currency +as the cause of that evil. He said: + + "The paper circulation of the country is, at this time, probably + seventy-five or eighty millions of dollars. Of specie we may + have twenty or twenty-two millions: and this, principally, in + masses in the vaults of the banks. Now, sir, this is a state of + things which, in my judgment, leads constantly to overtrading, + and to the consequent excesses and revulsions which so often + disturb the regular course of commercial affairs. + + "Why have we so small an amount of specie in circulation? + Certainly the only reason is, because we do not require more. + We have but to ask its presence, and it would return. But + we voluntarily banish it by the great amount of small bank + notes. In most of the States the banks issue notes of all low + denominations, down even to a single dollar. How is it possible, + under such circumstances, to retain specie in circulation? All + experience shows it to be impossible. The paper will take the + place of the gold and silver. When Mr. Pitt, in the year 1797, + proposed in Parliament to authorize the Bank of England to issue + one pound notes, Mr. Burke lay sick at Bath of an illness from + which he never recovered; and he is said to have written to the + late Mr. Canning, 'Tell Mr. Pitt that if he consents to the + issuing of one pound notes, he must never expect to see guinea + again.'" + +The bill provided that a bonus of $500,000 in three equal annual +instalments should be paid by the bank to the United States for its +exclusive privileges: Mr. Webster moved to modify the section, so as +to spread the payment over the entire term of the bank's proposed +existence--$150,000 a year for fifteen years. I was opposed both to +the bonus, and the exclusive privilege, and said: + + "The proper compensation for the bank to make, provided this + exclusive privilege was sold to it, would be to reduce the rate + of interest on loans and discounts. A reduction of interest + would be felt by the people; the payment of a bonus would not be + felt by them. It would come into the treasury, and probably be + lavished immediately on some scheme, possibly unconstitutional + in its nature, and sectional in its application. He was not + in favor of any scheme for getting money into the treasury at + present. The difficulty lay the other way. The struggle now was + to keep money out of the treasury,--to prevent the accumulation + of a surplus; and the reception of this bonus would go to + aggravate that difficulty, by increasing that surplus. Kings + might receive bonuses for selling exclusive privileges to + monopolizing companies. In that case his subjects would bear the + loss, and he would receive the profit; but, in a republic, it + was incomprehensible that the people should sell to a company + the privilege of making money out of themselves. He was opposed + to the grant of an exclusive privilege; he was opposed to the + sale of privileges; but if granted, or sold, he was in favor of + receiving the price in the way that would be most beneficial to + the whole body of the people; and, in this case, a reduction of + interest would best accomplish that object. A bank, which had + the benefit of the credit and revenue of the United States to + bank upon, could well afford to make loans and discounts for + less than six per centum. Five per centum would be high interest + for such a bank; and he had no doubt, if time was allowed for + the application, that applications enough would be made to take + the charter upon these terms." + +I opposed action on the subject at this session. The bank charter +had yet four years to run, and two years after that to remain in +force for winding up its affairs; in all, six years before the +dissolution of the corporation: and this would remit the final +decision to the Congress which would sit between 1836 and 1838, and +there was not only to be a new Congress elected before that time, +but a new Congress under a new apportionment of the representation, +in which there would be a great augmentation of members, and +especially in the West, where the operation of the present bank was +most injurious. The stockholders had not applied for the recharter +at this session: that was the act of the directors and politicians, +or rather of the politicians and directors; for the former governed +the decision. The stockholders in their meeting last September only +authorized the president and directors to apply at any time before +the next triennial meeting--at any time within three years; and +that would carry the application to the right time. I, therefore, +inveighed against the present application, and insisted that: + + "Many reasons oppose the final action of Congress upon this + subject at the present time. We are exhausted with the tedium, + if not with the labors of a six months' session. Our hearts and + minds must be at home, though our bodies are here. Mentally and + bodily we are unable to give the attention and consideration to + this question, which the magnitude of its principles, the extent + and variety of its details, demand from us. Other subjects of + more immediate and pressing interest must be thrown aside, to + make way for it. The reduction of the price of the public lands, + for which the new States have been petitioning for so many + years, and the modification of the tariff, the continuance of + which seems to be weakening the cement which binds this Union + together, must be postponed, and possibly lost for the session, + if we go on with the bank question. Why has the tariff been + dropped in the Senate? Every one recollects the haste with which + that subject was taken up in this chamber; how it was pushed to + a certain point; and how suddenly and gently it has given way to + the bank bill! Is there any union of interest--any conjunction + of forces--any combined plan of action--any alliance, offensive + or defensive, between the United States Bank and the American + system? Certainly they enter the field together, one here, the + other yonder (pointing to the House of Representatives), and + leaving a clear stage to each other, they press at once upon + both wings, and announce a perfect non-interference, if not + mutual aid, in the double victory which is to be achieved. Why + have the two bills reported by the Committee on Manufactures, + and for taking up which notices have been given: why are they + so suddenly, so easily, so gently, abandoned? Why is the land + bill, reported by the same committee, and a pledge given to + call it up when the Committee on Public Lands had made their + counter report, also suffered to sleep on the table? The counter + report is made; it is printed; it lies on every table; why not + go on with the lands, when the settlement of the question of the + amount of revenue to be derived from that source precedes the + tariff question, and must be settled before we can know how much + revenue should be raised from imports. + + "An unfinished investigation presented another reason for + delaying the final action of Congress on this subject. The House + of Representatives had appointed a committee to investigate + the affairs of the bank; they had proceeded to the limit of the + time allotted them--had reported adversely to the bank--and + especially against the renewal of the charter at this session; + and had argued the necessity of further examinations. Would the + Senate proceed while this unfinished investigation was depending + in the other end of the building? Would they act so as to limit + the investigation to the few weeks which were allowed to the + committee, when we have from four to six years on hand within + which to make it? The reports of this committee, to the amount + of some 15,000 copies had been ordered to be printed by the two + Houses, to be distributed among the people. For what purpose? + Certainly that the people might read them--make up their minds + upon their contents--and communicate their sentiments to their + representatives. But these reports are not yet distributed; they + are not yet read by the people; and why order this distribution + without waiting for its effect, when there is so much time on + hand? Why treat the people with this mockery of a pretended + consultation--this illusive reference to their judgment--while + proceeding to act before they can read what we have sent to + them? Nay, more; the very documents upon which the reports are + founded are yet unprinted! The Senate is actually pushed into + this discussion without having seen the evidence which has been + collected by the investigating committee, and which the Senate + itself has ordered to be printed for the information of its + members. + + "The decision of this question does not belong to this Congress, + but to the Congress to be elected under the new census of 1830. + It looked to him like usurpation for this Congress to seize upon + a question of this magnitude, which required no decision until + the new and full representation of the people shall come in; and + which, if decided now, though prematurely and by usurpation, is + irrevocable, although it cannot take effect until 1836;--that is + to say, until three years after the new and full representation + would be in power. What Congress is this? It is the + apportionment of 1820, formed on a population of ten millions. + It is just going out of existence. A new Congress, apportioned + upon a representation of thirteen millions, is already provided + for by law; and after the 4th of March next--within nine months + from this day--will be in power, and entitled to the seats in + which we sit. That Congress will contain thirty members more + than the present one. Three millions of people--a number equal + to that which made the revolution--are now unrepresented, + who will be then represented. The West alone--that section + of the Union which suffers most from the depredations of the + bank--loses twenty votes! In that section alone a million of + people lose their voice in the decision of this great question. + And why? What excuse? What necessity? What plea for this sudden + haste which interrupts an unfinished investigation--sets aside + the immediate business of the people--and usurps the rights of + our successors? No plea in the world, except that a gigantic + moneyed institution refuses to wait, and must have her imperial + wishes immediately gratified. If a charter was to be granted, + it should be done with as little invasion of the rights of + posterity--with as little encroachment upon the privileges of + our successors--as possible. Once in ten years, and that at the + commencement of each full representation under a new census, + would be the most appropriate time; and then charters should be + for ten, and not twenty years. + + "Mr. B. had nothing to do with motives. He neither preferred + accusations, nor pronounced absolutions: but it was impossible + to shut his eyes upon facts, and to close up his reason against + the induction of inevitable inferences. The presidental + election was at hand;--it would come in four months;--and here + was a question which, in the opinion of all, must affect that + election--in the opinion of some, may decide it--which is + pressed on for decision four years before it is necessary to + decide it, and six years before it ought to be decided. Why this + sudden pressure? Is it to throw the bank bill into the hands of + the President, to solve, by a practical reference, the disputed + problem of the executive veto, and to place the President under + a cross fire from the opposite banks of the Potomac River? He + [Mr. B.] knew nothing about that veto, but he knew something + of human nature, and something of the rights of the people + under our representative form of government; and he would be + free to say that a veto which would stop the encroachment of a + minority of Congress upon the rights of its successors--which + would arrest a frightful act of legislative usurpation--which + would retrieve for the people the right of deliberation, + and of action--which would arrest the overwhelming progress + of a gigantic moneyed institution--which would prevent Ohio + from being deprived of five votes, Indiana from losing four, + Tennessee four, Illinois two, Alabama two, Kentucky, Mississippi + and Missouri one each--which would lose six votes to New-York + and two to Pennsylvania; a veto, in short, which would protect + the rights of three millions of people, now unrepresented in + Congress, would be an act of constitutional justice to the + people, which ought to raise the President, and certainly would + raise him, to a higher degree of favor in the estimation of + every republican citizen of the community than he now enjoyed. + By passing on the charter now, Congress would lose all check and + control over the institution for the four years it had yet to + run. The pendency of the question was a rod over its head for + these four years; to decide the question now, is to free it from + all restraint, and turn it loose to play what part it pleased in + all our affairs--elections, State, federal, presidential. + + "Mr. B. turned to the example of England, and begged the + republican Senate of the United States to take a lesson from the + monarchial parliament of Great Britain. We copied their evil + ways; why not their good ones? We copied our bank charter from + theirs; why not imitate them in their improvements upon their + own work? At first the bank had a monopoly resulting from an + exclusive privilege: that is now denied. Formerly the charter + was renewed several years before it was out: it now has less + than a year to run, and is not yet rechartered." + + A motion was made by Mr. Moore of Alabama, declaratory of the + right of the States to admit, or deny the establishment of + branches of the mother bank within their limits, and to tax + their loans and issues, if she chose to admit them: and in + support of that motion Mr. Benton made this speech: + + "The amendment offered by the senator from Alabama [Mr. Moore] + was declaratory of the rights of the States, both to refuse + admission of these branch banks into their limits, and to tax + them, like other property, if admitted: if this amendment was + struck out, it was tantamount to a legislative declaration that + no such rights existed, and would operate as a confirmation of + the decision of the Supreme Court to that effect. It is to no + purpose to say that the rejection of the amendment will leave + the charter silent upon the subject; and the rights of the + States, whatsoever they may be, will remain in full force. That + is the state of the existing charter. It is silent upon the + subject of State taxation; and in that silence the Supreme Court + has spoken, and nullified the rights of the States. That court + has decided that the Bank of the United States is independent + of State legislation! consequently, that she may send branches + into the States in defiance of their laws, and keep them + there without the payment of tax. This is the decision; and + the decision of the court is the law of the land; so that, if + no declaratory clause is put into the charter, it cannot be + said that the new charter will be silent, as the old one was. + The voice of the Supreme Court is now heard in that silence, + proclaiming the supremacy of the bank, and the degradation of + the States; and, unless we interpose now to countervail that + voice by a legislative declaration, it will be impossible for + the States to resit it, except by measures which no one wishes + to contemplate. + + "Mr. B. regretted that he had not seen in the papers any report + of the argument of the senator from Virginia [Mr. Tazewell] in + vindication of the right of the States to tax these branches. + It was an argument brief, powerful, and conclusive--lucid as a + sunbeam, direct as an arrow, and mortal as the stroke of fate + to the adversary speakers. Since the delivery of that argument, + they had sat in dumb show, silent as the grave, mute as the + dead, and presenting to our imaginations the realization of + the Abbé Sieyes's famous conception of a dumb legislature. + Before the States surrendered a portion of their sovereignity + to create this federal government, they possessed the unlimited + power of taxation; in the act of the surrender, which is the + constitution, they abridged this unlimited right but in two + particulars--exports and imports--which they agreed no longer + to tax, and therefore retained the taxing power entire over + all other subjects. This was the substance of the argument + which dumbfounded the adversary; and the distinction which was + attempted to be set up between tangible and intangible, visible + and invisible, objects of taxation; between franchises and + privileges on one side, and material substances on the other, + was so completely blasted and annihilated by one additional + stroke of lightning, that the fathers of the distinction really + believed that they had never made it! and sung their palinodes + in the face of the House. + + "The argument that these branches are necessary to enable the + federal government to carry on its fiscal operations, and, + therefore, ought to be independent of State legislation, is + answered and expunged by a matter of fact, namely, that Congress + itself has determined otherwise, and that in the very charter of + the bank. The charter limits the right of the federal government + to the establishment of a single branch, and that one in the + District of Columbia! The branch at this place, and the parent + bank at Philadelphia, are all that the federal government has + stipulated for. All beyond that, is left to the bank itself; + to establish branches in the States or not, as it suited its + own interest; or to employ State banks, with the approbation + of the Secretary of the Treasury, to do the business of the + branches for the United States. Congress is contented with State + banks to do the business of the branches in the States; and, + therefore, authorizes the very case which gentlemen apprehend + and so loudly deprecate, that New-York may refuse her assent to + the continuance of the branches within her limits, and send the + public deposits to the State banks. This is what the charter + contemplates. Look at the charter; see the fourteenth article + of the constitution of the bank; it makes it optionary with the + directors of the bank to establish branches in such States as + they shall think fit, with the alternative of using State banks + as their substitutes in States in which they do not choose to + establish branches. This brings the establishment of branches + to a private affair, a mere question of profit and loss to the + bank itself; and cuts up by the roots the whole argument of the + necessity of these branches to the fiscal operations of the + federal government. The establishment of branches in the States + is, then, a private concern, and presents this question: Shall + non-residents and aliens--even alien enemies, for such they may + be--have a right to carry on the trade of banking within the + limits of the States, without their consent, without liability + to taxation, and without amenability to State legislation? The + suggestion that the United States owns an interest in this bank, + is of no avail. If she owned it all, it would still be subject + to taxation, like all other property is which she holds in the + States. The lands which she had obtained from individuals in + satisfaction of debts, were all subject to taxation; the public + lands which she held by grants from the States, or purchases + from foreign powers, were only exempted from taxation by virtue + of compacts, and the payment of five per centum on the proceeds + of the sales for that exemption." + +The motion of Mr. Moore was rejected, and by the usual majority. + +Mr. Benton then moved to strike out so much of the bill as gave to +the bank exclusive privileges, and to insert a provision making the +stockholders liable for the debts of the institution; and in support +of his motion quoted the case of the three Scottish banks which had +no exclusive privilege, and in which the stockholders were liable, +and the superior excellence of which over the Bank of England was +admitted and declared by English statesmen. He said: + + "The three Scottish banks had held each other in check, had + proceeded moderately in all their operations, conducted their + business regularly and prudently, and always kept themselves in + a condition to face their creditors; while the single English + bank, having no check from rival institutions, ran riot in the + wantonness of its own unbridled power, deluging the country, + when it pleased, with paper, and filling it with speculation and + extravagance; drawing in again when it pleased, and filling it + with bankruptcy and pauperism; often transcending its limits, + and twice stopping payment, and once for a period of twenty + years. There can be no question of the incomparable superiority + of the Scottish banking system over the English banking system, + even in a monarchy; and this has been officially announced to + the Bank of England by the British ministry, as far back as + the year 1826, with the authentic declaration that the English + system of banking must be assimilated to the Scottish system, + and that her exclusive privilege could never be renewed. This + was done in a correspondence between the Earl of Liverpool, + first Lord of the Treasury, and Mr. Robinson, Chancellor of the + Exchequer, on one side, and the Governor and Deputy Governor of + the Bank of England on the other. In their letter of the 18th + January, 1826, the two ministers, adverting to the fact of the + stoppage of payment, and repeated convulsions of the Bank of + England, while the Scottish banks had been wholly free from + such calamities, declared their conviction that there existed + an unsound and delusive system of banking in England, and a + sound and solid system in Scotland! And they gave the official + assurance of the British government, that neither His Majesty's + ministers, nor parliament, would ever agree to renew the + charter of the Bank of England with their exclusive privileges! + Exclusive privileges, they said, were out of fashion! Nor is it + renewed to this day, though the charter is within nine months of + its expiration! + + "In the peculiar excellence of the Scottish plan, lies a few + plain and obvious principles, closely related to republican + ideas. First. No exclusive privileges. Secondly. Three + independent banks to check and control each other, and diffuse + their benefits, instead of one to do as it pleased, and + monopolize the moneyed power. Thirdly. The liability of each + stockholder for the amount of his stock, on the failure of + the bank to redeem its notes in specie. Fourthly. The payment + of a moderate interest to depositors. Upon these few plain + principles, all of them founded in republican notions, equal + rights, and equal justice, the Scottish banks have advanced + themselves to the first rank in Europe, have eclipsed the Bank + of England, and caused it to be condemned in its own country, + and have made themselves the model of all future banking + institutions in Great Britain. And now, it would be a curious + political phenomenon, and might give rise to some interesting + speculations on the advance of free principles in England, and + their decline in America, if the Scottish republican plan of + banking should be rejected here, while preferred there; and + the British monarchial plan, which is condemned there, should + be perpetuated here! and this double incongruity committed + without necessity, without excuse, without giving the people + time to consider, and to communicate their sentiments to their + constituents, when there is four, if not six years, for them to + consider the subject before final decision is required!" + +The clause for continuing the exclusive privilege of the bank, was +warmly contested in the Senate, and arguments against it drawn from +the nature of our government, as well as from the example of the +British parliament, which had granted the monopoly to the Bank of +England in her previous charters, and denied it on the last renewal. +It owed its origin in England to the high tory times of Queen Anne, +and its extinction to the liberal spirit of the present century. Mr. +Benton was the chief speaker on this point; and-- + + "Pointed out the clauses in the charter which granted the + exclusive privilege, and imposed the restriction, which it + was the object of his motion to abolish; and read a part of + the 21st section, which enacted that no other bank should be + established by any future law of the United States, during the + continuance of that charter, and which pledged the faith of + the United States to the observance of the monopoly thereby + created. He said the privilege of banking, here granted, was + an exclusive privilege, a monopoly, and an invasion of the + rights of all future Congresses, as well as of the rights of + all citizens of the Union, for the term the charter had to + run, and which might be considered perpetual; as this was the + last time that the people could ever make head against the new + political power which raised itself in the form of the bank to + overbalance every other power in the government. This exclusive + privilege is contrary to the genius of our government, which is + a government of equal rights, and not of exclusive privileges; + and it is clearly unauthorized by the constitution, which only + admits of exclusive privileges in two solitary, specified cases, + and each of these founded upon a natural right, the case of + authors and inventors; to whom Congress is authorized to grant, + for a limited time, the exclusive privilege of selling their + own writings and discoveries. But in the case of this charter + there is no natural right, and it may be well said there is + no limited time; and the monopoly is far more glaring and + indefensible now than when first granted; for then the charter + was not granted to any particular set of individuals, but lay + open to all to subscribe to it; but now it is to be continued to + a particular set, and many of them foreigners, and all of whom, + or their assignees, had already enjoyed the privilege for twenty + years. If this company succeeds now in getting their monopoly + continued for fifteen years, they will so intrench themselves + in wealth and power, that they will be enabled to perpetuate + their charter, and transmit it as a private inheritance to their + posterity. Our government delights in rotation of office; all + officers, from the highest to the lowest, are amenable to that + principle; no one is suffered to remain in power thirty-five + years; and why should one company have the command of the + moneyed power of America for that long period? Can it be the + wish of any person to establish an oligarchy with unbounded + wealth and perpetual existence, to lay the foundation for a + nobility and monarchy in this America! + + "The restriction upon future Congresses is at war with every + principle of constitutional right and legislative equality. If + the constitution has given to one Congress the right to charter + banks, it has given it to every one. If this Congress has a + right to establish a bank, every other Congress has. The power + to tie the hands of our successors is nowhere given to us; what + we can do our successors can; a legislative body is always + equal to itself. To make, and to amend; to do, and to undo; is + the prerogative of each. But here the attempt is to do what we + ourselves cannot amend--what our successors cannot amend--and + what our successors are forbidden to imitate, or to do in any + form. This shows the danger of assuming implied powers. If the + power to establish a national bank had been expressly granted, + then the exercise of that power, being once exerted, would + be exhausted, and no further legislation would remain to be + done; but this power is now assumed upon construction, after + having been twice rejected, in the convention which framed + the constitution, and is, therefore, without limitation as to + number or character. Mr. Madison was express in his opinions + in the year 1791, that, if there was one bank chartered, there + ought to be several! The genius of the British monarchy, he + said, favored the concentration of wealth and power. In America + the genius of the government required the diffusion of wealth + and power. The establishment of branches did not satisfy the + principle of diffusion. Several independent banks alone could + do it. The branches, instead of lessening the wealth and power + of the single institution, greatly increased both, by giving to + the great central parent bank an organization and ramification + which pervaded the whole Union, drawing wealth from every part, + and subjecting every part to the operations, political and + pecuniary, of the central institution. But this restriction ties + up the hands of Congress from granting other charters. Behave + as it may--plunge into all elections--convulse the country with + expansions and contractions of paper currency--fail in its + ability to help the merchants to pay their bonds--stop payment, + and leave the government no option but to receive its dishonored + notes in revenue payments--and still it would be secure of its + monopoly; the hands of all future Congresses would be tied up; + and no rival or additional banks could be established, to hold + it in check, or to supply its place. + + "Is this the Congress to do these things? Is this the Congress + to impose restrictions upon the power of their successors? Is + this the Congress to tie the hands of all Congresses till the + year 1851? In nine months this Congress is defunct! A new and + full representation of the people will come into power. Thirty + additional members will be in the House of Representatives; + three millions of additional people will be represented. The + renewed charter is not to take effect till three years after + this full representation is in power! And are we to forestall + and anticipate them? Take their proper business out of their + hands--snatch the sceptre of legislation from them--do an + act which we cannot amend--which they cannot amend--which + is irrevocable and intangible; and, to crown this act of + usurpation, deliberately set about tying the hands, and imposing + a restriction upon a Congress equal to us in constitutional + power, superior to us in representative numbers, and better + entitled to act upon the subject, because the present charter is + not to expire, nor the new one to take effect, until three years + after the new Congress shall be in power! It is in vain to say + that this reasoning would apply to other legislative measures, + and require the postponement of the land bill and the tariff + bill. Both these bills require immediate decision, and therein + differ from the bank bill, which requires no decision for + three years to come. But the difference is greater still; for + the land bill and tariff bill are ordinary acts of legislation, + open to amendment, or repeal, by ourselves and successors; but + the charter is to be irrevocable, unamendable, binding upon all + Congresses till the year 1851. This is rank usurpation; and if + perpetrated by Congress, and afterwards arrested by an Executive + veto, the President will become the true representative of the + people, the faithful defender of their rights, and the defender + of the rights of the new Congress which will assemble under the + new census. + + "Mr. B. concluded his remarks by showing the origin, and also + the extinction, of the doctrine in England. A tory parliament in + the reign of Queen Anne had first granted an exclusive privilege + to the Bank of England, and imposed a restriction upon the + right of future parliaments to establish another bank; and the + ministry of 1826 had condemned this doctrine, and proscribed + its continuance in England. The charter granted to the old Bank + of the United States and to the existing bank had copied those + obnoxious clauses; but now that they were condemned in England + as too unjust and odious for that monarchial country, they + ought certainly to be discarded in this republic, where equal + rights was the vital principle and ruling feature of all our + institutions." + +All the amendments proposed by the opponents of the bank being +inexorably voted down, after a debate which, with some cessations, +continued from January to June, the final vote was taken, several +senators first taking occasion to show they had no interest in the +institution. Mr. Benton had seen the names of some members in the +list of stockholders; and early in the debate had required that +the rule of parliamentary law should be read; which excludes the +interested member from voting, and expunges his vote if he does, +and his interest is afterwards discovered. Mr. Dallas said that he +had sold his stock in the institution as soon as it was known that +the question of the recharter would come before him: Mr. Silsbee +said that he had disposed of his interest before the question came +before Congress: Mr. Webster said that the insertion of his name in +the list of stockholders was a mistake in a clerk of the bank. The +vote was then taken on the passage of the bill, and Stood: YEAS: +Messrs. Bell, of New Hampshire; Buckner, of Missouri; Chambers, +of Maryland; Clay, of Kentucky; Clayton, of Delaware; Dallas of +Pennsylvania; Ewing, of Ohio; Foot, of Connecticut; Frelinghuysen, +of New Jersey; Hendricks, of Indiana; Holmes, of Maine; Josiah +S. Johnston, of Louisiana; Knight, of Rhode Island; Naudain, of +Delaware; Poindexter, of Mississippi; Prentiss, of Vermont; Robbins, +of Rhode Island; Robinson, of Illinois; Ruggles, of Ohio; Seymour, +of Vermont; Silsbee, of Massachusetts; Smith (Gen. Samuel), of +Maryland; Sprague, of Maine; Tipton, of Indiana; Tomlinson, of +Connecticut; Waggaman, of Louisiana; Webster, of Massachusetts; and +Wilkins, of Pennsylvania: 28. Nays: Messrs. Benton, of Missouri; +Bibb, of Kentucky; Brown, of North Carolina; Dickerson, of New +Jersey; Dudley, of New-York; Ellis, of Mississippi; Forsyth, of +Georgia; Grundy, of Tennessee; Hayne, of South Carolina; Hill, of +New Hampshire; Kane, of Illinois; King, of Alabama; Mangum, of North +Carolina; Marcy, of New-York; Miller, of South Carolina; Moore, +of Alabama; Tazewell, of Virginia; Troup, of Georgia; Tyler, of +Virginia; Hugh L. White, of Tennessee: 20. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVII. + +BANK OF THE UNITED STATES--BILL FOR THE RENEWED CHARTER PASSED IN +THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + + +The bill which had passed the Senate, after a long and arduous +contest, quickly passed the House, with little or no contest at +all. The session was near its end; members were wearied; the result +foreseen by every body--that the bill would pass--the veto be +applied--and the whole question of charter or no charter go before +the people in the question of the presidential election. Some +attempts were made by the adversaries of the bill to amend it, by +offering amendments, similar to those which had been offered in the +Senate; but with the same result in one House as in the other. They +were all voted down by an inexorable majority; and it was evident +that the contest was political, and relied upon by one party to +bring them into power; and deprecated by the other as the flagrant +prostitution of a great moneyed corporation to partisan and election +purposes. The question was soon put; and decided by the following +votes: + + YEAS.--Messrs. Adams, C. Allan, H. Allen, Allison, Appleton, + Armstrong, Arnold, Ashley, Babcock, Banks, N. Barber, J. S. + Barbour, Barringer, Barstow, I. C. Bates, Briggs, Bucher, + Bullard, Burd, Burges, Choate, Collier, L. Condict, S. Condit, + E. Cooke, B. Cooke, Cooper, Corwin, Coulter, Craig, Crane, + Crawford, Creighton, Daniel, J. Davis, Dearborn, Denny, Dewart, + Doddridge, Drayton, Ellsworth, G. Evans, J. Evans, E. Everett, + H. Everett, Ford, Gilmore, Grennell, Hodges, Heister, Horn, + Hughes, Huntington, Ihrie, Ingersoll, Irvin, Isacks, Jenifer, + Kendall, H. King, Kerr, Letcher, Mann, Marshall, Maxwell, McCoy, + McDuffie, McKennan, Mercer, Milligan, Newton, Pearce, Pendleton, + Pitcher, Potts, Randolph, J. Reed, Root, Russel, Semmes, W. + B. Shepard, A. H. Shepperd, Slade, Smith, Southard, Spence, + Stanberry, Stephens, Stewart, Storrs, Sutherland, Taylor, P. + Thomas, Tompkins, Tracy, Vance, Verplanck, Vinton, Washington, + Watmough, E. Whittlesey, F. Whittlesey, E. D. White, Wickliffe, + Williams, Young--106. + + NAYS.--Messrs. Adair, Alexander, Anderson, Archer, J. Bates, + Beardsley, Bell, Bergen, Bethune, James Blair, John Blair, + Bouck, Bouldin, Branch, Cambreleng, Carr, Chandler, Chinn, + Claiborne, Clay, Clayton, Coke, Conner, W. R. Davis, Dayan, + Doubleday, Felder, Fitzgerald, Foster, Gaither, Gordon, Griffin, + T. H. Hall, W. Hall, Hammons, Harper, Hawes, Hawkins, Hoffman, + Hogan, Holland, Howard, Hubbard, Jarvis, Cave Johnson, Kavanagh, + Kennon, A. King, J. King, Lamar, Leavitt, Lecompte, Lewis, Lyon, + Mardis, Mason, McCarty, McIntire, McKay, Mitchell, Newnan, + Nuckolls, Patton, Pierson, Polk, E. C. Reed, Rencher, Roane, + Soule, Speight, Standifer, F. Thomas, W. Thompson, J. Thomson, + Ward, Wardwell, Wayne, Weeks, Wheeler, C. P. White, Wilde, + Worthington.--84. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVIII. + +THE VETO. + + +The act which had passed the two Houses for the renewal of the bank +charter, was presented to the President on the 4th day of July, +and returned by him to the House in which it originated, on the +10th, with his objections. His first objection was to the exclusive +privileges which it granted to corporators who had already enjoyed +them, the great value of these privileges, and the inadequacy of the +sum to be paid for them. He said: + + "Every monopoly, and all exclusive privileges, are granted + at the expense of the public, which ought to receive a fair + equivalent. The many millions which this act proposes to bestow + on the stockholders of the existing bank, must come directly + or indirectly out of the earnings of the American people. It + is due to them, therefore, if their government sell monopolies + and exclusive privileges, that they should at least exact + for them as much as they are worth in open market. The value + of the monopoly in this case may be correctly ascertained. + The twenty-eight millions of stock would probably be at an + advance of fifty per cent., and command, in market, at least + forty-two millions of dollars, subject to the payment of the + present loans. The present value of the monopoly, therefore, is + seventeen millions of dollars, and this the act proposes to sell + for three millions, payable in fifteen annual instalments of + $200,000 each. + + "It is not conceivable how the present stockholders can + have any claim to the special favor of the government. The + present corporation has enjoyed its monopoly during the period + stipulated in the original contract. If we must have such a + corporation, why should not the government sell out the whole + stock, and thus secure to the people the full market value of + the privileges granted? Why should not Congress create and sell + the twenty-eight millions of stock, incorporating the purchasers + with all the powers and privileges secured in this act, and + putting the premium upon the sales into the treasury? + + "But this act does not permit competition in the purchase of + this monopoly. It seems to be predicated on the erroneous idea + that the present stockholders have a prescriptive right, not + only to the favor, but to the bounty of the government. It + appears that more than a fourth part of the stock is held by + foreigners, and the residue is held by a few hundred of our + citizens, chiefly of the richest class. For their benefit does + this act exclude the whole American people from competition + in the purchase of this monopoly, and dispose of it for many + millions less than it is worth. This seems the less excusable, + because some of our citizens, not now stockholders, petitioned + that the door of competition might be opened, and offered to + take a charter on terms much more favorable to the government + and country. + + "But this proposition, although made by men whose aggregate + wealth is believed to be equal to all the private stock in + the existing bank, has been set aside, and the bounty of our + government is proposed to be again bestowed on the few who have + been fortunate enough to secure the stock, and at this moment + wield the power of the existing institution. I cannot perceive + the justice or policy of this course. If our government must + sell monopolies, it would seem to be its duty to take nothing + less than their full value; and if gratuities must be made + once in fifteen or twenty years, let them not be bestowed on + the subjects of a foreign government, nor upon a designated or + favored class of men in our own country. It is but justice and + good policy, as far as the nature of the case will admit, to + confine our favors to our own fellow-citizens, and let each in + his turn enjoy an opportunity to profit by our bounty. In the + bearings of the act before me upon these points, I find ample + reasons why it should not become a law." + +The President objected to the constitutionality of the bank, and +argued against the force of precedents in this case, and against the +applicability and the decision of the Supreme Court in its favor. +That decision was in the case of the Maryland branch, and sustained +it upon an argument which carries error, in point of fact, upon its +face. The ground of the decision was, that the bank was "necessary" +to the successful conducting of the "fiscal operations" of the +government; and that Congress was the judge of that necessity. Upon +this ground the Maryland branch, and every branch except the one in +the District of Columbia, was without the constitutional warrant +which the court required. Congress had given no judgment in favor +of its necessity--but the contrary--a judgment against it: for +after providing for the mother bank at Philadelphia, and one branch +at Washington City, the establishment of all other branches was +referred to the judgment of the bank itself, or to circumstances +over which Congress had no control, as the request of a State +legislature founded upon a subscription of 2000 shares within the +State--with a dispensation in favor of substituting local banks in +places where the Secretary of the Treasury, and the directors of the +national bank should agree. All this was contained in the fourteenth +fundamental article of the constitution of the corporation--which +says: + + "The directors of said corporation shall establish a competent + office of discount and deposit in the District of Columbia, + whenever any law of the United States shall require such an + establishment: also one such office of discount and deposit + in any State in which two thousand shares shall have been + subscribed or may be held, whenever, upon application of the + legislature of such State, Congress may, by law, require the + same: _Provided_, the directors aforesaid shall not be bound + to establish such office before the whole of the capital of + the bank shall be paid up. And it shall be lawful for the + directors of the corporation to establish offices of discount + and deposit where they think fit, within the United States or + the territories thereof, and to commit the management of the + said, and the business thereof, respectively to such persons, + and under such regulations, as they shall deem proper, not + being contrary to the laws or the constitution of the bank. Or, + instead of establishing such offices, it shall be lawful for the + directors of the said corporation, from time to time, to employ + any other bank or banks, to be first approved by the Secretary + of the Treasury, at any place or places that they may deem + safe and proper, to manage and transact the business proposed + aforesaid, other than for the purposes of discount; to be + managed and transacted by such offices, under such agreements, + and subject to such regulations as they shall deem just and + proper." + +These are the words of the fourteenth fundamental article of the +constitution of the bank, and the conduct of the corporation in +establishing its branches was in accordance with this article. +They placed them where they pleased--at first, governed wholly by +the question of profit and loss to itself--afterwards, and when +it was seen that the renewed charter was to be resisted by the +members from some States, governed by the political consideration +of creating an interest to defeat the election, or control the +action of the dissenting members. Thus it was in my own case. A +branch in St. Louis was refused to the application of the business +community--established afterwards to govern me. And thus, it is +seen the Supreme Court was in error--that the judgment of Congress +in favor of the "necessity" of branches only extended to one in the +District of Columbia; and as for the bank itself, the argument in +its favor and upon which the Supreme Court made its decision, was an +argument which made the constitutionality of a measure dependent, +not upon the words of the constitution, but upon the opinion of +Congress for the time being upon the question of the "necessity" +of a particular measure--a question subject to receive different +decisions from Congress at different times--which actually received +different decisions in 1791, 1811, and 1816: and, we may now add +the decision of experience since 1836--during which term we have +had no national bank; and the fiscal business of the government, +as well as the commercial and trading business of the country, has +been carried on with a degree of success never equalled in the time +of the existence of the national bank. I, therefore, believe that +the President was well warranted in challenging both the validity +of the decision of the Supreme Court, and the obligatory force of +precedents: which he did, as follows: + + "It is maintained by the advocates of the bank, that its + constitutionality, in all its features, ought to be considered + as settled by precedent, and by the decision of the Supreme + Court. To this conclusion I cannot assent. Mere precedence is + a dangerous source of authority, and should not be regarded as + deciding questions of constitutional power, except where the + acquiescence of the people and the States can be considered as + well settled. So far from this being the case on this subject, + an argument against the bank might be based on precedent. One + Congress, in 1791, decided in favor of a bank; another, in 1811, + decided against it. One Congress, in 1815, decided against a + bank; another, in 1816, decided in its favor. Prior to the + present Congress, therefore, the precedents drawn from that + source were equal. If we report to the States, the expressions + of legislative, judicial, and executive opinions against the + bank have been, probably, to those in its favor, as four to + one. There is nothing in precedent, therefore, which, if its + authority were admitted, ought to weigh in favor of the act + before me. + + "If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of + this act, it ought not to control the co-ordinate authorities + of this government. The Congress, the Executive, and the + court, must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of + the constitution. Each public officer who takes an oath to + support the constitution, swears that he will support it as he + understands it, and not as it is understood by others. It is as + much the duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, + and of the President, to decide upon the constitutionality + of any bill or resolution which may be presented to them for + passage or approval, as it is of the supreme judges, when it may + be brought before them for judicial decision. The opinion of the + judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of + Congress has over the judges; and on that point the President + is independent of both. The authority of the Supreme Court must + not, therefore, be permitted to control the Congress, or the + Executive, when acting in their legislative capacities, but to + have only such influence as the force of their reasoning may + deserve. + + "But in the case relied upon, the Supreme Court have not decided + that all the features of this corporation are compatible with + the constitution. It is true that the court have said that the + law incorporating the bank is a constitutional exercise of + power by Congress. But taking into view the whole opinion of + the court, and the reasoning by which they have come to that + conclusion, I understand them to have decided that, inasmuch + as a bank is an appropriate means for carrying into effect + the enumerated powers of the general government, therefore + the law incorporating it is in accordance with that provision + of the constitution which declares that Congress shall have + power 'to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper + for carrying those powers into execution.' Having satisfied + themselves that the word 'necessary,' in the constitution, means + 'needful,' 'requisite,' 'essential,' 'conducive to,' and that + 'a bank' is a convenient, a useful, and essential instrument + in the prosecution of the government's 'fiscal operations,' + they conclude that to 'use one must be within the discretion + of Congress;' and that 'the act to incorporate the Bank of the + United States, is a law made in pursuance of the constitution.' + 'But,' say they, 'where the law is not prohibited, and is + really calculated to effect any of the objects intrusted to the + government, to undertake here to inquire into the degree of its + necessity, would be to pass the line which circumscribes the + judicial department, and to tread on legislative ground.' + + "The principle, here affirmed, is, that the 'degree of its + necessity,' involving all the details of a banking institution, + is a question exclusively for legislative consideration. A bank + is constitutional; but it is the province of the legislature + to determine whether this or that particular power, privilege, + or exemption, is 'necessary and proper' to enable the bank to + discharge its duties to the government; and from their decision + there is no appeal to the courts of justice. Under the decision + of the Supreme Court, therefore, it is the exclusive province + of Congress and the President to decide whether the particular + features of this act are 'necessary and proper,' in order to + enable the bank to perform, conveniently and efficiently, the + public duties assigned to it as a fiscal agent, and therefore + constitutional; or unnecessary and improper, and therefore + unconstitutional." + +With regard to the misconduct of the institution, both in conducting +its business and in resisting investigation, the message spoke the +general sentiment of the disinterested country when it said: + + "Suspicions are entertained, and charges are made, of gross + abuses and violations of its charter. An investigation + unwillingly conceded, and so restricted in time as necessarily + to make it incomplete and unsatisfactory, discloses enough to + excite suspicion and alarm. In the practices of the principal + bank, partially unveiled in the absence of important witnesses, + and in numerous charges confidently made, and as yet wholly + uninvestigated, there was enough to induce a majority of the + committee of investigation, a committee which was selected + from the most able and honorable members of the House of + Representatives, to recommend a suspension of further action + upon the bill, and a prosecution of the inquiry. As the charter + had yet four years to run, and as a renewal now was not + necessary to the successful prosecution of its business, it was + to have been expected that the bank itself, conscious of its + purity, and proud of its character, would have withdrawn its + application for the present, and demanded the severest scrutiny + into all its transactions. In their declining to do so, there + seems to be an additional reason why the functionaries of the + government should proceed with less haste, and more caution, in + the renewal of their monopoly." + +The appearance of the veto message was the signal for the delivery +of the great speeches of the advocates of the bank. Thus far +they had held back, refraining from general debate, and limiting +themselves to brief answers to current objections. Now they came +forth in all their strength, in speeches elaborate and studied, and +covering the whole ground of constitutionality and expediency; and +delivered with unusual warmth and vehemence. Mr. Webster, Mr. Clay, +Mr. Clayton of Delaware, and Mr. Ewing of Ohio, thus entered the +lists for the bank. And why these speeches, at this time, when it +was certain that speaking would have no effect in overcoming the +veto--that the constitutional majority of two thirds of each House +to carry it, so far from being attainable, would but little exceed a +bare majority? The reason was told by the speakers themselves--fully +told, as an appeal to the people--as a transfer of the question to +the political arena--to the election fields, and especially to the +presidential election, then impending, and within four months of its +consummation--and a refusal on the part of the corporation to submit +to the decision of the constituted authorities. This was plainly +told by Mr. Webster in the opening of his argument; frightful +distress was predicted: and the change of the chief magistrate was +presented as the only means of averting an immense calamity on one +hand, or of securing an immense benefit on the other. He said: + + "It is now certain that, without a change in our public + councils, this bank will not be continued, nor will any other be + established, which, according to the general sense and language + of mankind, can be entitled to the name. In three years and + nine months from the present moment, the charter of the bank + expires; within that period, therefore, it must wind up its + concerns. It must call in its debts, withdraw its bills from + circulation, and cease from all its ordinary operations. All + this is to be done in three years and nine months; because, + although there is a provision in the charter rendering it lawful + to use the corporate name for two years after the expiration of + the charter, yet this is allowed only for the purpose of suits, + and for the sale of the estate belonging to the bank, and for no + other purpose whatever. The whole active business of the bank, + its custody of public deposits, its transfers of public moneys, + its dealing in exchange, all its loans and discounts, and all + its issues of bills for circulation, must cease and determine + on or before the 3d day of March, 1836; and, within the same + period, its debts must be collected, as no new contract can be + made with it, as a corporation, for the renewal of loans, or + discount of notes or bills, after that time." + +Mr. Senator White of Tennessee, seizing upon this open entrance into +the political arena by the bank, thanked Mr. Webster for his candor, +and summoned the people to the combat of the great moneyed power, +now openly at the head of a great political party, and carrying +the fortunes of that party in the question of its own continued +existence. He said: + + "I thank the senator for the candid avowal that unless the + President will sign such a charter as will suit the directors, + they intend to interfere in the election, and endeavor to + displace him. With the same candor I state that, after this + declaration, this charter shall never be renewed with my consent. + + "Let us look at this matter as it is. Immediately before the + election, the directors apply for a charter, which they think + the President at any other time will not sign, for the express + purpose of compelling him to sign contrary to his judgment, + or of encountering all their hostility in the canvass, and + at the polls. Suppose this attempt to have succeeded, and + the President, through fear of his election, had signed this + charter, although he conscientiously believes it will be + destructive of the liberty of the people who have elected him + to preside over them, and preserve their liberties, so far as + in his power. What next? Why, whenever the charter is likely to + expire hereafter, they will come, as they do now, on the eve + of the election, and compel the chief magistrate to sign such + a charter as they may dictate, on pain of being turned out and + disgraced. Would it not be far better to gratify this moneyed + aristocracy, to the whole extent at once, and renew their + charter for ever? The temptation to a periodical interference in + our elections would then be taken away. + + "Sir, if, under these circumstances, the charter is renewed, + the elective franchise is destroyed, and the liberties and + prosperity of the people are delivered over to this moneyed + institution, to be disposed of at their discretion. Against this + I enter my solemn protest." + +The distress to be brought upon the country by the sudden winding +up of the bank, the sudden calling in of all its debts, the sudden +withdrawal of all its capital, was pathetically dwelt upon by all +the speakers, and the alarming picture thus presented by Mr. Clayton: + + "I ask, what is to be done for the country? All thinking men + must now admit that, as the present bank must close its concerns + in less than four years, the pecuniary distress, the commercial + embarrassments, consequent upon its destruction, must exceed + any thing which has ever been known in our history, unless + some other bank can be established to relieve us. Eight and a + half millions of the bank capital, belonging to foreigners, + must be drawn from us to Europe. Seven millions of the capital + must be paid to the government, not to be loaned again, but to + remain, as the President proposes, deposited in a branch of the + treasury, to check the issues of the local banks. The immense + available resources of the present institution, amounting, as + appears by the report in the other House, to $82,057,483, are + to be used for banking no longer, and nearly fifty millions of + dollars in notes discounted, on personal and other security, + must be paid to the bank. The State banks must pay over all + their debts to the expiring institution, and curtail their + discounts to do so, or resort, for the relief of their debtors, + to the old plan of emitting more paper, to be bought up by + speculators at a heavy discount." + +This was an alarming picture to present, and especially as the +corporation had it in its power to create the distress which it +foretold--a consummation frightfully realized three years later--but +a picture equally unjustifiable and gratuitous. Two years was the +extent of the time, after the expiration of its charter, that the +corporation had accepted in its charter for winding up its business; +and there were now four years to run before these two years +would commence. The section 21, of the charter, provided for the +contingency thus: + + "And notwithstanding the expiration of the term for which the + said corporation is created, it shall be lawful to use the + corporate name, style and capacity, for the purpose of suits for + the final settlement and liquidation of the affairs and accounts + of the corporation, and for the sale and disposition of their + estate real, personal and mixed: but not for any other purpose, + or in any other manner whatever, nor for a period exceeding two + years after the expiration of said term of incorporation." + +Besides the two years given to the institution after the expiration +of its charter, it was perfectly well known, and has since been +done in its own case, and was done by the first national bank, and +may be by any expiring corporation, that the directors may appoint +trustees to wind up their concerns; and who will not be subject to +any limited time. The first national bank--that which was created in +1791, and expired in 1811--had no two years, or any time whatever, +allowed for winding up its affairs after the expiration of its +charter--and the question of the renewal was not decided until +within the last days of the existence of its charter--yet there was +no distress, and no pressure upon its debtors. A trust was created; +and the collection of debts conducted so gently that it is not yet +finished. The trustees are still at work: and within this year, and +while this application for a renewed charter to the second bank is +going on, they announce a dividend of some cents on the share out of +the last annual collections; and intimate no time within which they +will finish; so that this menace of distress from the second bank, +if denied a renewal four years before the expiration of its charter, +and four years before the commencement of the two years to which it +is entitled, was entirely gratuitous, and would have been wicked if +executed. + +Mr. Clay concluded the debate on the side of the bank application, +and spoke with great ardor and vehemence, and with much latitude of +style and topic--though as a rival candidate for the Presidency, it +was considered by some, that a greater degree of reserve might have +been commendable. The veto, and its imputed undue exercise, was the +theme of his vehement declamation. Besides discrediting its use, and +denouncing it as of monarchial origin, he alluded to the popular +odium brought upon Louis the 16th by its exercise, and the nickname +which it caused to be fastened upon him. He said: + + "The veto is hardly reconcilable with the genius of + representative government. It is totally irreconcilable with + it, if it is to be frequently employed in respect to the + expediency of measures, as well as their constitutionality. It + is a feature of our government borrowed from a prerogative of + the British King. And it is remarkable that in England it has + grown obsolete, not having been used for upwards of a century. + At the commencement of the French Revolution, in discussing the + principles of their constitution, in the national convention, + the veto held a conspicuous figure. The gay, laughing population + of Paris bestowed on the King the appellation of Monsieur Veto, + and on the Queen that of Madame Veto." + +Mr. Benton saw the advantage which this denunciation and allusion +presented, and made relentless use of it. He first vindicated +the use and origin of the veto, as derived from the institution +of the tribunes of the people among the Romans, and its exercise +always intended for the benefit of the people; and, under our +constitution, its only effect to refer a measure to the people, +for their consideration, and to stay its execution until the +people could pass upon it, and to adopt or reject it at an +ensuing Congress. It was a power eminently just and proper in a +representative government, and intended for the benefit of the +whole people; and, therefore, placed in the hands of the magistrate +elected by the whole. On the allusion to the nickname on the King +and Queen of France, he said: + + "He not only recollected the historical incident to which the + senator from Kentucky had alluded, but also the character + of the decrees to which the unfortunate Louis the 16th had + affixed his vetoes. One was the decree against the emigrants, + dooming to death and confiscation of estate every man, woman, + and child who should attempt to save their lives by flying + from the pike, the guillotine, and the lamp-post. The other + was a decree exposing to death the ministers of religion who + could not take an oath which their consciences repulsed. To + save tottering age, trembling mothers, and affrighted children + from massacre--to save the temples and altars of God from + being stained by the blood of his ministers--were the sacred + objects of those vetoes; and was there any thing to justify a + light or reproachful allusion to them in the American Senate? + The King put his constitutional vetoes to these decrees; and + the _canaille_ of Saint Antoine and Marceau--not the gay and + laughing Parisians, but the bloody _canaille_, instigated by + leaders more ferocious than themselves--began to salute the King + as Monsieur Veto, and demand his head for the guillotine. And + the Queen, when seen at the windows of her prison, her locks + pale with premature white, the effect of an agonized mind at the + ruin she witnessed, the _poissardes_ saluted her also as Madame + Veto; and the Dauphin came in for the epithet of the Little + Veto. All this was terrible in France, and in the disorders of a + revolution; but why revive their remembrance in this Congress, + successor to those which were accustomed to call this king our + great ally? and to compliment him on the birth of that child, + stigmatized _le petit veto_, and perishing prematurely under the + inhumanities of the convention inflicted by the hand of Simon, + the jailer? The two elder vetoes, Monsieur and Madame, came to + the guillotine in Paris, and the young one to a death, compared + to which the guillotine was mercy. And now, why this allusion? + what application of its moral? Surely it is not pointless; not + devoid of meaning and practical application. We have no bloody + guillotines here, but we have political ones: sharp axes falling + from high, and cutting off political heads! Is the service of + that axe invoked here upon 'General Andrew Veto?' If so, and + the invocation should be successful, then Andrew Jackson, like + Louis 16th, will cease to be in any body's way in their march to + power." + +Mr. Clay also introduced a fable, not taken from Æsop--that of +the cat and the eagle--the moral of which was attempted to be +turned against him. It was in allusion to the President's message +in relation to the bank, and the conduct of his friends since in +"attacking" the institution; and said: + + "They have done so; and their condition now reminds mo of the + fable invented by Dr. Franklin, of the Eagle and the Cat, to + demonstrate that Æsop had not exhausted invention, in the + construction of his memorable fables. The eagle, you know, Mr. + President, pounced, from his lofty flight in the air, upon a + cat, taking it to be a pig. Having borne off his prize, he + quickly felt most painfully the claws of the cat thrust deeply + into his sides and body. Whilst flying, he held a parley with + the supposed pig, and proposed to let go his hold, if the other + would let him alone. No, says puss, you brought me from yonder + earth below, and I will hold fast to you until you carry me + back; a condition to which the eagle readily assented." + +Mr. Benton gave a poetical commencement to this fable; and said: + + "An eagle towering in his pride of height was--not by a + mousing owl, but by a pig under a jimpson weed--not hawked and + killed, but caught and whipt. The opening he thought grand; + the conclusion rather bathotic. The mistake of the sharp-eyed + bird of Jove, he thought might be attributed to old age dimming + the sight, and to his neglect of his spectacles that morning. + He was rather surprised at the whim of the cat in not choosing + to fall, seeing that a cat (unlike a politician sometimes), + always falls on its legs; but concluded it was a piece of pride + in puss, and a wish to assimilate itself still closer to an + æronaut; and having gone up pendant to a balloon, it would come + down artistically, with a parachute spread over its head. It was + a pretty fable, and well told; but the moral--the application? + Æsop always had a moral to his fable; and Dr. Franklin, his + imputed continuator in this particular, though not yet the rival + of his master in fabulous reputation, yet had a large sprinkling + of practical sense; and never wrote or spoke without a point and + an application. And now, what is the point here? And the senator + from Kentucky has not left that to be inferred; he has told it + himself. General Jackson is the eagle; the bank is the cat; the + parley is the proposition of the bank to the President to sign + its charter, and it will support him for the presidency--if not, + will keep his claws stuck in his sides. But, Jackson, different + from the eagle with his cat, will have no compromise, or bargain + with the bank. One or the other shall fall! and be dashed into + atoms! + + "Having disposed of these preliminary topics Mr. B. came to + the matter in hand--the debate on the bank, which had only + commenced on the side of the friends of that institution since + the return of the veto message. Why debate the bank question + now, he exclaimed, and not debate it before? Then was the time + to make converts; now, none can be expected. Why are lips + unsealed now, which were silent as the grave when this act was + on its passage through the Senate? The senator from Kentucky + himself, at the end of one of his numerous perorations, declared + that he expected to make no converts. Then, why speak three + hours? and other gentlemen speak a whole day? Why this _post + facto_--_post mortem_--this _posthumous_--debate?--The deed is + done. The bank bill is finished. Speaking cannot change the + minds of senators, and make them reverse their votes; still + less can it change the President, and make him recall his veto. + Then why speak? To whom do they speak? With what object do + they speak? Sir! exclaimed Mr. B., this _post facto_ debate is + not for the Senate, nor the President, nor to alter the fate + of the bank bill. It is to rouse the officers of the bank--to + direct the efforts of its mercenaries in their designs upon + the people--to bring out its stream of corrupting influence, + by inspiring hope, and to embody all its recruits at the polls + to vote against President Jackson. Without an avowal we would + all know this; but we have not been left without an avowal. The + senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster), who opened yesterday, + commenced his speech with showing that Jackson must be put down; + that he stood as an impassable barrier between the bank and a + new charter; and that the road to success was through the ballot + boxes at the presidential election. The object of this debate + is then known, confessed, declared, avowed; the bank is in the + field; enlisted for the war; a battering ram--the _catapulta_, + not of the Romans, but of the National Republicans; not to beat + down the walls of hostile cities, but to beat down the citadel + of American liberty; to batter down the rights of the people; + to destroy a hero and patriot; to command the elections, and to + elect a Bank President by dint of bank power. + + "The bank is in the field (said Mr. B.), a combatant, and a + fearful and tremendous one, in the presidential election. If + she succeeds, there is an end of American liberty--an end of + the republic. The forms of election may be permitted for a + while, as the forms of the consular elections were permitted + in Rome, during the last years of the republic; but it will be + for a while only. The President of the bank, and the President + of the United States, will be cousins, and cousins in the + royal sense of the word. They will elect each other. They will + elect their successors; they will transmit their thrones to + their descendants, and that by legislative construction. The + great Napoleon was decreed to be hereditary emperor by virtue + of the 22d article of the constitution of the republic. The + conservative Senate and the Tribunitial Assembly made him + emperor by construction; and the same construction which was + put upon the 22d article of the French constitution of the year + VIII. may be as easily placed upon the 'general welfare' clause + in the constitution of these United States. + + "The Bank is in the field, and the West,--the Great West, is + the selected theatre of her operations. There her terrors, her + seductions, her energies, her rewards and her punishments, are + to be directed. The senator from Massachusetts opened yesterday + with a picture of the ruin in the West, if the bank were not + rechartered; and the senator from Kentucky, Mr. Clay, wound up + with a retouch of the same picture to day, with a closeness of + coincidence which showed that this part of the battle ground had + been reviewed in company by the associate generals and duplicate + senators. Both agree that the West is to be ruined if the bank + be not rechartered; and rechartered it cannot be, unless the + _veto_ President is himself _vetoed_. This is certainly candid. + But the gentlemen's candor did not stop there. They went on to + show the _modus operandi_; to show how the ruin would be worked, + how the country would be devastated,--if Jackson was not put + down, and the bank rechartered. The way was this: The West owes + thirty millions of dollars to the bank; the bank will sue every + debtor within two years after its charter expires; there will + be no money in the country to pay the judgments, all property + will be sold at auction; the price of all property will fall; + even the growing crops, quite up to Boon's Lick, will sink in + value and lose half their price! This is the picture of ruin + now drawn by the senator from Massachusetts; these the words + of a voice now pleading the cause of the West against Jackson, + the sound of which voice never happened to be heard in favor of + the West during the late war, when her sons were bleeding under + the British and the Indians, and Jackson was perilling life and + fortune to save and redeem her. + + "This is to be the punishment of the West if she votes for + Jackson; and by a plain and natural inference, she is to + have her reward for putting him down and putting up another. + Thirty millions is the bank debt in the West; and these thirty + millions they threaten to collect by writs of execution if + Jackson is re-elected; but if he be not elected, and somebody + else be elected, then they promise no forced payments shall be + exacted,--hardly any payment at all! The thirty millions it is + pretended will almost be forgiven; and thus a bribe of thirty + millions is deceitfully offered for the Western vote, with a + threat of punishment, if it be not taken! But the West, and + especially the State of Ohio, is aware that Mr. Clay does not + use the bank power, in extending charities--coercion is his + mode of appeal--and when President Clay and President Biddle + have obtained their double sway, all these fair promises will + be forgotten. Mr. B. had read in the Roman history of the + empire being put up to sale; he had read of victorious generals, + returning from Asiatic conquests, and loaded with oriental + spoil, bidding in the market for the consulship, and purchasing + their elections with the wealth of conquered kingdoms; but he + had never expected to witness a bid for the presidency in this + young and free republic. He thought he lived too early,--too + near the birth of the republic,--while every thing was yet + too young and innocent,--to see the American presidency put + up at auction. But he affirmed this to be the case now; and + called upon every senator, and every auditor, who had heard the + senator from Massachusetts the day before, or the senator from + Kentucky on that day, to put any other construction, if they + could, upon this seductive offer to the West, of indefinite + accommodation for thirty millions of debt, if she would vote for + one gentleman, and the threat of a merciless exaction of that + debt, if she voted for another? + + "Mr. B. demanded how the West came to be selected by these two + senators as the theatre for the operation of all the terrors and + seductions of the bank debt? Did no other part of the country + owe money to the bank? Yes! certainly, fifteen millions in the + South, and twenty-five millions north of the Potomac. Why then + were not the North and the South included in the fancied fate + of the West? Simply because the presidential election could not + be affected by the bank debt in those quarters. The South was + irrevocably fixed; and the terror, or seduction, of the payment, + or non-payment, of her bank debt, would operate nothing there. + The North owed but little, compared to its means of payment, and + the presidential election would turn upon other points in that + region. The bank debt was the argument for the West; and the + bank and the orators had worked hand in hand, to produce, and + to use, this argument. Mr. B. then affirmed, that the debt had + been created for the very purpose to which it was now applied; + an electioneering, political purpose; and this he proved by a + reference to authentic documents. + + "_First_: He took the total bank debt, as it existed when + President Jackson first brought the bank charter before the view + of Congress in December, 1829, and showed it to be $40,216,000; + then he took the total debt as it stood at present, being + $70,428,000; and thus showed an increase of thirty millions + in the short space of two years and four months. This great + increase had occurred since the President had delivered opinions + against the bank, and when as a prudent, and law abiding + institution, it ought to have been reducing and curtailing its + business, or at all events, keeping it stationary. He then + showed the annual progress of this increase, to demonstrate + that the increase was faster and faster, as the charter drew + nearer and nearer to its termination, and the question of its + renewal pressed closer and closer upon the people. He showed + that the increase the first year after the message of 1829 was + four millions and a quarter; in the second year, which was + last year, about nineteen millions, to wit, from $44,052,000, + to $63,026,452; and the increase in the four first mouths of + the present year was nearly five millions, being at the rate + of about one million and a quarter a month since the bank had + applied for a renewal of her charter! After having shown this + enormous increase in the sum total of the debt, Mr. B. went + on to show where it had taken place; and this he proved to be + chiefly in the West, and not merely in the West, but principally + in those parts of the West in which the presidential election + was held to be most doubtful and critical. + + "He began with the State of Louisiana, and showed that the + increase there, since the delivery of the message of 1829, was + $5,061,161; in Kentucky, that the increase was $3,009,838; that + in Ohio, it was $2,079,207. Here was an increase of ten millions + in three critical and doubtful States. And so on, in others. + Having shown this enormous increase of debt in the West, Mr. B. + went on to show, from the time and circumstances and subsequent + events, that they were created for a political purpose, and had + already been used by the bank with that view. He then recurred + to the two-and-twenty circulars, or writs of execution, as he + called them, issued against the South and West, in January + and February last, ordering curtailments of all debts, and + the supply of reinforcements to the Northeast. He showed that + the reasons assigned by the bank for issuing the orders of + curtailments were false; that she was not deprived of public + deposits, as she asserted; for she then had twelve millions, and + now has twelve millions of these deposits; that she was not in + distress for money, as she asserted, for she was then increasing + her loans in other quarters, at the rate of a million and a + quarter a month, and had actually increased them ten millions + and a half from the date of the first order of curtailment, + in October, 1831, to the end of May, 1832! Her reasons then + assigned for curtailing at the Western branches, were false, + infamously false, and were proved to be so by her own returns. + The true reasons were political: a foretaste and prelude to what + is now threatened. It was a manoeuvre to press the debtors--a + turn of the screw upon the borrowers--to make them all cry out + and join in the clamors and petitions for a renewed charter! + This was the reason, this the object; and a most wanton and + cruel sporting it was with the property and feelings of the + unfortunate debtors. The overflowing of the river at Louisville + and Cincinnati, gave the bank an opportunity of showing its + gracious condescension in the temporary and slight relaxation of + her orders at those places; but there, and every where else in + the West, the screw was turned far enough to make the screams + of the victims reach their representatives in Congress. In + Mobile, alone, half a million was curtailed out of a million + and a half; at every other branch, curtailments are going on; + and all this for political effect, and to be followed up by the + electioneering fabrication that it is the effect of the veto + message. Yes! the veto message and President, are to be held up + as the cause of these curtailments, which have been going on for + half a year past! + + "Connected with the creation of this new debt, was the + establishment of several new branches, and the promise of many + more. Instead of remaining stationary, and awaiting the action + of Congress, the bank showed itself determined to spread and + extend its business, not only in debts, but in new branches. + Nashville, Natchez, St. Louis, were favored with branches at the + eleventh hour. New-York had the same favor done her; and, at one + of these (the branch at Utica), the Senate could judge of the + necessity to the federal government which occasioned it to be + established, and which necessity, in the opinion of the Supreme + Court, is sufficient to overturn the laws and constitution of + a State: the Senate could judge of this necessity, from the + fact that twenty-five dollars is rather a large deposit to the + credit of the United States Treasurer, and that, at the last + returns, the federal deposit was precisely two dollars and fifty + cents! This extension of branches and increase of debt, at the + approaching termination of the charter, was evidence of the + determination of the bank to be rechartered at all hazards. It + was done to create an interest to carry her through, in spite + of the will of the people. Numerous promises for new branches, + is another trick of the same kind. Thirty new branches are said + to be in contemplation, and about three hundred villages have + been induced each to believe that itself was the favored spot of + location; but, always upon the condition, well understood, that + Jackson should not be re-elected, and that they should elect a + representative to vote for the re-charter. + + "Mr. B., having shown when and why this Western debt was + created, examined next into the alleged necessity for its prompt + and rigorous collection, if the charter was not renewed; he + denied the existence of any such necessity in point of law. He + affirmed that the bank could take as much time as she pleased to + collect her debts, and could be just as gentle with her debtors + as she chose. All that she had to do was to convert a few of + her directors into trustees, as the old Bank of the United + States had done, the affairs of which were wound up so gently + that the country did not know when it ended. Mr. B. appealed to + what would be admitted to be bank authority on this point: it + was the opinion of the senator from Kentucky (Mr. Clay), not + in his speech against renewing the bank charter, in 1811, but + in his report of that year against allowing it time to wind up + its affairs. The bank then asked time to wind up its affairs; + a cry was raised that the country would be ruined, if time + was not allowed; but the senator from Kentucky then answered + that cry, by referring the bank to its common law right to + constitute trustees to wind up its affairs. The Congress acted + upon the suggestion by refusing the time; the bank acted upon + the suggestion by appointing trustees; the debtors hushed their + cries, and the public never heard of the subject afterwards. The + pretext of an unrenewed charter is not necessary to stimulate + the bank to the pressure of Western debtors. Look at Cincinnati! + what but a determination to make its power felt and feared + occasioned the pressure at that place? And will that disposition + ever be wanting to such an institution as that of the Bank of + the United States? + + "The senator from Kentucky has changed his opinion about the + constitutionality of the bank; but has he changed it about the + legality of the trust? If he has not, he must surrender his + alarms for the ruin of the West; if he has, the law itself is + unchanged. The bank may act under it; and if she does not, it + is because she will not; and because she chooses to punish the + West for refusing to support her candidate for the presidency. + What then becomes of all this cry about ruined fortunes, fallen + prices, and the loss of growing crops? All imagination or cruel + tyranny! The bank debt of the West is thirty millions. She has + six years to pay it in; and, at all events, he that cannot pay + in six years, can hardly do it at all. Ten millions are in bills + of exchange; and, if they are real bills, they will be payable + at maturity, in ninety or one hundred and twenty days; if not + real hills, but disguised loans, drawing interest as a debt, and + premium as a bill of exchange, they are usurious and void, and + may be vacated in any upright court. + + "But, the great point for the West to fix its attention upon is + the fact that, once in every ten years, the capital of this debt + is paid in annual interest; and that, after paying the capital + many times over in interest, the principal will have to be paid + at last. The sooner, then, the capital is paid and interest + stopped, the better for the country. + + "Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster had dilated largely upon the + withdrawal of bank capital from the West. Mr. B. showed, from + the bank documents, that they had sent but 938,000 dollars of + capital there; that the operation was the other way, a ruinous + drain of capital, and that in hard money, from the West. He went + over the tables which showed the annual amount of these drains, + and demonstrated its ruinous nature upon the South and West. + He showed the tendency of all branch bank paper to flow to the + Northeast; the necessity to redeem it annually with gold and + silver, and bills of exchange, and the inevitable result, that + the West would eventually be left without either hard money, or + branch bank paper. + + "Mr. Clay had attributed all the disasters of the late war, + especially the surrender of Detroit, and the Bladensburg rout, + to the want of this bank. Mr. B. asked if bank credits, or + bank advances, could have inspired courage into the bosom of + the unhappy old man who had been the cause of the surrender + of Detroit? or, could have made those fight who could not + be inspired by the view of their capitol, the presence of + their President, and the near proximity of their families and + firesides? Andrew Jackson conquered at New Orleans, without + money, without arms, without credit--aye, without a bank. He got + even his flints from the pirates. He scouted the idea of brave + men being produced by the bank. If it had existed, it would have + been a burthen upon the hands of the government. It was now, + at this hour, a burthen upon the hands of the government, and + an obstacle to the payment of the public debt. It had procured + a payment of six millions of the public debt to be delayed, + from July to October, under the pretext that the merchants + could not pay their bonds, when these bonds were now paid, and + twelve millions of dollars--twice the amount intended to have + been paid--lies in the vaults of the bank to be used by her in + beating down the veto message, the author of the message, and + all who share his opinions. The bank was not only a burthen + upon the hands of the government now, but had been a burthen + upon it in three years after it started--when it would have + stopped payment, as all America knows, in April 1819, had it not + been for the use of eight millions of public deposits, and the + seasonable arrival of wagons loaded with specie from Kentucky + and Ohio. + + "Mr. B. defended the old banks in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee, + from the aspersions which had been cast upon them. They had + aided the government when the Northern bankers, who now scoff + at them, refused to advance a dollar. They had advanced the + money which enabled the warriors of the West to go forth to + battle. They had crippled themselves to aid their government. + After the war they resumed specie payments, which had been + suspended with the consent of the legislatures, to enable them + to extend all their means in aid of the national struggle. This + resumption was made practicable by the Treasury deposit, in + the State institutions. They were withdrawn to give capital to + the branches of the great monopoly, when first extended to the + West. These branches, then, produced again the draining of the + local banks, which they had voluntarily suffered for the sake of + government during the war. They had sacrificed their interests + and credit to sustain the credit of the national treasury--and + the treasury surrendered them, as a sacrifice to the national + bank. They stopped payment under the pressure and extortion of + the new establishments, introduced against the consent of the + people and legislatures of the Western States. The paper of + the Western banks depreciated--the stock of the States and of + individual stockholders was sacrificed--the country was filled + with a spurious currency, by the course of an institution which, + it was pretended, was established to prevent such a calamity. + The Bank of the United States was thus established on the ruins + of the banks, and foreigners and non-residents were fattened on + their spoils. They were stripped of their specie to pamper the + imperial bank. They fell victims to their patriotism, and to the + establishment of the United States bank; and it was unjust and + unkind to reproach them with a fate which their patriotism, and + the establishment of the federal bank brought upon them. + + "Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster had rebuked the President for his + allusion to the manner in which the bank charter had been + pushed through Congress, pending an unfinished investigation, + reluctantly conceded. Mr. B. demanded if that was not true? He + asked if it was not wrong to push the charter through in that + manner, and if the President had not done right to stop it, + to balk this hurried process, and to give the people time for + consideration and enable them to act? He had only brought the + subject to the notice of the Congress and the people, but had + not recommended immediate legislation, before the subject had + been canvassed before the nation. It was a gross perversion + of his messages to quote them in favor of immediate decision + without previous investigation. He was not evading the question. + The veto message proved that. He sought time for the people, not + for himself, and in that he coincided with a sentiment lately + expressed by the senator himself (from Kentucky) at Cincinnati; + he was coinciding with the example of the British parliament, + which had not yet decided the question of rechartering the + Bank of England, and which had just raised an extraordinary + committee of thirty-one members to examine the bank through + all her departments; and, what was much more material, he had + coincided with the spirit of our constitution, and the rights + of the people, in preventing an expiring minority Congress + from usurping the powers and rights of their successors. The + President had not evaded the question. He had met it fully. He + might have said nothing about it in his messages of 1829, '30, + and '31. He might have remained silent, and had the support + of both parties; but the safety and interest of the country + required the people to be awakened to the consideration of the + subject. He had waked them up; and now that they are awake, he + has secured them time for consideration. Is this evasion? + + "Messrs. C. and W. had attacked the President for objecting + to foreign stockholders in the Bank of the United States. Mr. + B. maintained the solidity of the objection, and exposed the + futility of the argument urged by the duplicate senators. They + had asked if foreigners did not hold stock in road and canal + companies? Mr. B. said, yes! but these road and canal companies + did not happen to be the bankers of the United States! The + foreign stockholders in this bank were the bankers of the United + States. They held its moneys; they collected its revenues; they + almost controlled its finances; they were to give or withhold + aid in war as well as peace, and, it might be, against their own + government. Was the United States to depend upon foreigners in + a point so material to our existence? The bank was a national + institution. Ought a national institution to be the private + property of aliens? It was called the Bank of the United States, + and ought it to be the bank of the nobility and gentry of Great + Britain? The senator from Kentucky had once objected to foreign + stockholders himself. He did this in his speech against the + bank in 1811; and although he had revoked the constitutional + doctrines of that speech, he [Mr. B.] never understood that + he had revoked the sentiments then expressed of the danger of + corruption in our councils and elections, if foreigners wielded + the moneyed power of our country. He told us then that the power + of the purse commanded that of the sword--and would he commit + both to the hands of foreigners? All the lessons of history, + said Mr. B., admonish us to keep clear of foreign influence. + The most dangerous influence from foreigners is through money. + The corruption of orators and statesmen, is the ready way to + poison the councils, and to betray the interest of a country. + Foreigners now own one fourth of this bank; they may own + the whole of it! What a temptation to them to engage in our + elections! By carrying a President, and a majority of Congress, + to suit themselves, they not only become masters of the moneyed + power, but also of the political power, of this republic. And + can it be supposed that the British stockholders are indifferent + to the issue of this election? that they, and their agents, + can see with indifference, the re-election of a man who may + disappoint their hopes of fortune, and whose achievement at New + Orleans is a continued memento of the most signal defeat the + arms of England ever sustained? + + "The President, in his message, had characterized the exclusive + privilege of the bank as 'a monopoly.' To this Mr. Webster had + taken exception, and ascended to the Greek root of the word to + demonstrate its true signification, and the incorrectness of + the President's application. Mr. B. defended the President's + use of the term, and said that he would give authority too, + but not Greek authority. He would ascend, not to the Greek + root, but to the English test of the word, and show that a whig + baronet had applied the term to the Bank of England with still + more offensive epithets than any the President had used. Mr. B. + then read, and commented upon several passages of a speech of + Sir William Pulteney, in the British House of Commons, against + renewing the charter of the Bank of England, in which the term + monopoly was repeatedly applied to that bank; and other terms to + display its dangerous and odious charter. In one of the passages + the whig baronet said: 'The bank has been supported, and is + still supported, by the fear and terror which, by the means of + its monopoly, it has had the power to inspire.' In another, he + said: 'I consider the power given by the monopoly to be of the + nature of all other despotic power, which corrupts the despot + as much as it corrupts the slave!' In a third passage he said: + 'Whatever language the private bankers may feel themselves + bound to hold, he could not believe they had any satisfaction + in remaining subject to a power which might destroy them at any + moment.' In a fourth: 'No man in France was heard to complain + of the Bastile while it existed; yet when it fell, it came down + amidst the universal acclamations of the nation!' + + "Here, continued Mr. B., is authority, English authority, for + calling the British bank in England a monopoly; and the British + bank in America is copied from it. Sir Wm. Pulteney goes further + than President Jackson. He says, that the Bank of England rules + by fear and terror. He calls it a despot, and a corrupt despot. + He speaks of the slaves corrupted by the bank; by whom he + doubtless means the nominal debtors who have received ostensible + loans, real douceurs--never to be repaid, except in dishonorable + services. He considers the praises of the country bankers as the + unwilling homage of the weak and helpless to the corrupt and + powerful. He assimilates the Bank of England, by the terrors + which it inspires, to the old Bastile in France, and anticipates + the same burst of emancipated joy on the fall of the bank, which + was heard in France on the fall of the Bastile. And is he not + right? And may not every word of his invective be applied to the + British bank in America, and find its appropriate application in + well-known, and incontestable facts here? Well has he likened + it to the Bastile; well will the term apply in our own country. + Great is the fear and terror now inspired by this bank. Silent + are millions of tongues, under its terrors which are impatient + for the downfall of the monument of despotism, that they may + break forth into joy and thanksgiving. The real Bastile was + terrible to all France; the figurative Bastile is terrible to + all America; but above all to the West, where the duplicate + senators of Kentucky and Massachusetts, have pointed to the + reign of terror that is approaching, and drawn up the victims + for an anticipated immolation. But, exclaimed Mr. B., this is + the month of July; a month auspicious to liberty, and fatal to + Bastiles. Our dependence on the crown of Great Britain ceased in + the month of July; the Bastile in France fell in the month of + July; Charles X. was chased from France by the three glorious + days of July; and the veto message, which is the Declaration of + Independence against the British bank, originated on the fourth + of July, and is the signal for the downfall of the American + Bastile, and the end of despotism. The time is auspicious; the + work will go on; down with the British bank; down with the + Bastile; away with the tyrant, will be the patriotic cry of + Americans; and down it will go. + + "The duplicate senators, said Mr. B., have occupied themselves + with criticising the President's idea of the obligation of his + oath in construing the constitution for himself. They also + think that the President ought to be bound, the Congress ought + to be bound, to take the constitution which the Supreme Court + may deal out to them! If so, why take an oath? The oath is to + bind the conscience, not to enlighten the head. Every officer + takes the oath for himself; the President took the oath for + himself; administered by the Chief Justice, but not _to_ the + Chief Justice. He bound himself to observe the constitution, + not the Chief Justice's interpretation of the constitution; + and his message is in conformity to his oath. This is the oath + of duty and of right. It is the path of Jefferson, also, who + has laid it down in his writings, that each department judges + the constitution for itself, and that the President is as + independent of the Supreme Court as the Supreme Court is of the + President. + + "The senators from Kentucky and Massachusetts have not only + attacked the President's idea of his own independence in + construing the constitution, but also the construction he + has put upon it in reference to this bank. They deny its + correctness, and enter into arguments to disprove it, and have + even quoted authorities which may be quoted on both sides. One + of the senators, the gentleman from Kentucky, might have spared + his objection to the President on this point. He happened to + think the same way once himself; and while all will accord to + him the right of changing for himself, few will allow him the + privilege of rebuking others for not keeping up with him in the + rigadoon dance of changeable opinions. + + "The President is assailed for showing the drain upon the + resources of the West, which is made by this bank. How assailed? + With any documents to show that he is in error? No! not at all! + no such document exists. The President is right, and the fact + goes to a far greater extent than is stated in his message. He + took the dividend profits of the bank,--the net, and not the + gross profits; the latter is the true measure of the burthen + upon the people. The annual drain for net dividends from the + West, is $1,600,000. This is an enormous tax. But the gross + profits are still larger. Then there is the specie drain, which + now exceeds three millions of dollars per annum. Then there is + the annual mortgage of the growing crop to redeem the fictitious + and usurious bills of exchange which are now substituted for + ordinary loans, and which sweeps off the staple products of + the South and West to the Northeastern cities.--The West is + ravaged by this bank. New Orleans, especially, is ravaged by + it; and in her impoverishment, the whole West suffers; for she + is thereby disabled from giving adequate prices for Western + produce. Mr. B. declared that this British bank, in his opinion, + had done, and would do, more pecuniary damage to New Orleans, + than the British army would have done if they had conquered it + in 1815. He verified this opinion by referring to the immense + dividend, upwards of half a million a year, drawn from the + branch there; the immense amounts of specie drawn from it; the + produce carried off to meet the domestic bills of exchange; + and the eight and a half millions of debt existing there, of + which five millions were created in the last two years to + answer electioneering purposes, and the collection of which + must paralyze, for years, the growth of the city. From further + damage to New Orleans, the veto message would save that great + city. Jackson would be her saviour a second time. He would save + her from the British bank as he had done from the British army; + and if any federal bank must be there, let it be an independent + one; a separate and distinct bank, which would save to that + city, and to the Valley of the Mississippi, of which it was the + great and cherished emporium, the command of their own moneyed + system, the regulation of their own commerce and finances, and + the accommodation of their own citizens. + + "Mr. B. addressed himself to the Jackson bank men, present and + absent. They might continue to be for a bank and for Jackson; + but they could not be for _this_ bank, and for Jackson. This + bank is now the open, as it long has been the secret, enemy of + Jackson. It is now in the hands of his enemies, wielding all + its own money--wielding even the revenues and the credit of + the Union--wielding twelve millions of dollars, half of which + were intended to be paid to the public creditors on the first + day of July, but which the bank has retained to itself by a + false representation in the pretended behalf of the merchants. + All this moneyed power, with an organization which pervades + the continent, working every where with unseen hands, is now + operating against the President; and it is impossible to be + in favor of this power and also in favor of him at the same + time. Choose ye between them! To those who think a bank to be + indispensable, other alternatives present themselves. They are + not bound nor wedded to this. New American banks may be created. + Read, sir, Henry Parnell. See his invincible reasoning, and + indisputable facts, to show that the Bank of England is too + powerful for the monarchy of Great Britain! Study his plan for + breaking up that gigantic institution, and establishing three + or four independent banks in its place, which would be so much + less dangerous to liberty, and so much safer and better for the + people. In these alternatives, the friends of Jackson, who are + in favor of national banks, may find the accomplishment of their + wishes without a sacrifice of their principles, and without + committing the suicidal solecism of fighting against him while + professing to be for him. + + "Mr. B. addressed himself to the West--the great, the generous, + the brave, the patriotic, the devoted West. It was the selected + field of battle. There the combined forces, the national + republicans, and the national republican bank, were to work + together, and to fight together. The holy allies understand each + other. They are able to speak in each other's names, and to + promise and threaten in each other's behalf. For this campaign + the bank created its debt of thirty millions in the West; in + this campaign the associate leaders use that debt for their own + purposes. Vote for Jackson! and suits, judgments, and executions + shall sweep, like the besom of destruction, throughout the vast + region of the West! Vote against him! and indefinite indulgence + is basely promised! The debt itself, it is pretended, will, + perhaps, be forgiven; or, at all events, hardly ever collected! + Thus, an open bribe of thirty millions is virtually offered + to the West; and, lest the seductions of the bribe may not + be sufficient on one hand, the terrors of destruction are + brandished on the other! Wretched, infatuated men, cried Mr. B. + Do they think the West is to be bought? Little do they know of + the generous sons of that magnificent region! poor, indeed, in + point of money, but rich in all the treasures of the heart! rich + in all the qualities of freemen and republicans! rich in all the + noble feelings which look with equal scorn upon a bribe or a + threat. The hunter of the West, with moccasins on his feet, and + a hunting shirt drawn around him, would repel with indignation + the highest bribe that the bank could offer him. The wretch + (said Mr. Benton, with a significant gesture) who dared to offer + it, would expiate the insult with his blood. + + "Mr. B. rapidly summed up with a view of the dangerous power of + the bank, and the present audacity of her conduct. She wielded + a debt of seventy millions of dollars, with an organization + which extended to every part of the Union, and she was sole + mistress of the moneyed power of the republic. She had thrown + herself into the political arena, to control and govern the + presidential election. If she succeeded in that election, she + would wish to consolidate her power by getting control of all + other elections. Governors of States, judges of the courts, + representatives and senators in Congress, all must belong to + her. The Senate especially must belong to her; for, there lay + the power to confirm nominations and to try impeachments; + and, to get possession of the Senate, the legislatures of a + majority of the States would have to be acquired. The war is + now upon Jackson, and if he is defeated, all the rest will + fall an easy prey. What individual could stand in the States + against the power of the bank, and that bank flushed with a + victory over the conqueror of the conquerors of Bonaparte? The + whole government would fall into the hands of this moneyed + power. An oligarchy would be immediately established; and that + oligarchy, in a few generations, would ripen into a monarchy. + All governments must have their end; in the lapse of time, this + republic must perish; but that time, he now trusted, was far + distant; and when it comes, it should come in glory, and not + in shame. Rome had her Pharsalia, and Greece her Chæronea; and + this republic, more illustrious in her birth than Greece or + Rome, was entitled to a death as glorious as theirs. She would + not die by poison--perish in corruption--no! A field of arms, + and of glory, should be her end. She had a right to a battle--a + great, immortal battle--where heroes and patriots could die with + the liberty which they scorned to survive, and consecrate, with + their blood, the spot which marked a nation's fall. + + "After Mr. B. had concluded his remarks, Mr. Clay rose and + said:-- + + "The senator from Missouri expresses dissatisfaction that the + speeches of some senators should fill the galleries. He has no + ground for uneasiness on this score. For if it be the fortune + of some senators to fill the galleries when they speak, it is + the fortune of others to empty them, with whatever else they + fill the chamber. The senator from Missouri has every reason to + be well satisfied with the effect of his performance to-day; + for among his auditors is a lady of great literary eminence. + [Pointing to Mrs. Royal.] The senator intimates, that in my + remarks on the message of the President, I was deficient in + a proper degree of courtesy towards that officer. Whether my + deportment here be decorous or not, I should not choose to be + decided upon by the gentleman from Missouri. I answered the + President's arguments, and gave my own views of the facts and + inferences introduced by him into his message. The President + states that the bank has an injurious operation on the interests + of the West, and dwells upon its exhausting effects, its + stripping the country of its currency, &c., and upon these + views and statements I commented in a manner which the occasion + called for. But, if I am to be indoctrinated in the rules of + decorum, I shall not look to the gentleman for instruction. I + shall not strip him of his Indian blankets to go to Boon's Lick + for lessons in deportment, nor yet to the Court of Versailles, + which he eulogizes. There are some peculiar reasons why I should + not go to that senator for my views of decorum, in regard to + my bearing towards the chief magistrate, and why he is not a + fit instructor. I never had any personal rencontre with the + President of the United States. I never complained of any + outrages on my person committed by him. I never published any + bulletins respecting his private brawls. The gentleman will + understand my allusion. [Mr. B. said: He will understand you, + sir, and so will you him.] I never complained, that while a + brother of mine was down on the ground, senseless or dead, he + received another blow. I have never made any declaration like + these relative to the individual who is President. There is + also a singular prophecy as to the consequences of the election + of this individual, which far surpasses, in evil foreboding, + whatever I may have ever said in regard to his election. I never + made any prediction so sinister, nor made any declaration so + harsh, as that which is contained in the prediction to which I + allude. I never declared my apprehension and belief, that if he + were elected, we should be obliged to legislate with pistols and + dirks by our side. At this last stage of the session I do not + rise to renew the discussion of this question. I only rose to + give the senator from Missouri a full acquittance, and I trust + there will be no further occasion for opening a new account with + him. + + "Mr. B. replied. It is true, sir, that I had an affray with + General Jackson, and that I did complain of his conduct. We + fought, sir; and we fought, I hope, like men. When the explosion + was over, there remained no ill will, on either side. No + vituperation or system of petty persecution was kept up between + us. Yes, sir, it is true, that I had the personal difficulty, + which the senator from Kentucky has had the delicacy to bring + before the Senate. But let me tell the senator from Kentucky + there is no 'adjourned question of veracity' between me and + General Jackson. All difficulty between us ended with the + conflict; and a few months after it, I believe that either party + would cheerfully have relieved the other from any peril; and now + we shake hands and are friendly when we meet. I repeat, sir, + that there is no 'adjourned question of veracity' between me + and General Jackson, standing over for settlement. If there had + been, a gulf would have separated us as deep as hell. + + "Mr. B. then referred to the prediction alleged by Mr. Clay, + to have been made by him. I have seen, he said, a placard, + first issued in Missouri, and republished lately. It first + appeared in 1825; and stated that I had said, in a public + address, that if General Jackson should be elected, we must + be guarded with pistols and dirks to defend ourselves while + legislating here. This went the rounds of the papers at the + time. A gentleman, well acquainted in the State of Missouri + (Col. Lawless), published a handbill denying the truth of the + statement, and calling upon any person in the State to name + the time and place, when and where, any such address had been + heard from me, or any such declaration made. Colonel Lawless was + perfectly familiar with the campaign, but he could never meet + with a single individual, man, woman, or child, in the State, + who could recollect to have ever heard any such remarks from me. + No one came forward to reply to the call. No one had ever heard + me make the declaration which was charged upon me. The same + thing has lately been printed here, and, in the night, stuck + up in a placard upon the posts and walls of this city. While + its author remained concealed, it was impossible for me to hold + him to account, nor could I make him responsible, who, in the + dark, sticks it to the posts and walls: but since it is in open + day introduced into this chamber I am enabled to meet it as it + deserves to be met. I see who it is that uses it here, and to + his face [pointing to Mr. Clay] I am enabled to pronounce it, as + I now do, an atrocious calumny. + + "Mr. Clay.--The assertion that there is 'an adjourned question + of veracity' between me and Gen. Jackson, is, whether made by + man or master absolutely false. The President made a certain + charge against me, and he referred to witnesses to prove it. + I denied the truth of the charge. He called upon his witness + to prove it. I leave it to the country to say, whether that + witness sustained the truth of the President's allegation. + That witness is now on his passage to St. Petersburg, with + a commission in his pocket. [Mr. B. here said aloud, in his + place, the Mississippi and the fisheries--Mr. Adams and the + fisheries--every body understands it.] Mr. C. said, I do not yet + understand the senator. He then remarked upon the 'prediction' + which the senator from Missouri had disclaimed. Can he, said + Mr. C, look to me, and say that he never used the language + attributed to him in the placard which he refers to? He says, + Col. Lawless denies that he used the words in the State of + Missouri. Can you look me in the face, sir [addressing Mr. B.], + and say that you never used that language out of the State of + Missouri? + + "Mr. B. I look, sir, and repeat that it is an atrocious calumny; + and I will pin it to him who repeats it here. + + "Mr. Clay. Then I declare before the Senate that you said to me + the very words-- + + "[Mr. B. in his place, while Mr. Clay was yet speaking, several + times loudly repeated the word 'false, false, false.'] + + Mr. Clay said, I fling back the charge of atrocious calumny upon + the senator from Missouri. + + A call to order was here heard from several senators. + + "The President, pro tem., said, the senator from Kentucky is not + in order, and must take his seat. + + "Mr. Clay. Will the Chair state the point of order? + + "The Chair, said Mr. Tazewell (the President pro tem.), can + enter in no explanations with the senator. + + "Mr. Clay. I shall be heard. I demand to know what point of + order can be taken against me, which was not equally applicable + to the senator from Missouri. + + "The President, pro tem., stated, that he considered the whole + discussion as out of order. He would not have permitted it, had + he been in the chair at its commencement. + + "Mr. Poindexter said, he was in the chair at the commencement of + the discussion, and did not then see fit to check it. But he was + now of the opinion that it was not in order. + + "Mr. B. I apologize to the Senate for the manner in which I have + spoken; but not to the senator from Kentucky. + + "Mr. Clay. To the Senate I also offer an apology. To the senator + from Missouri none. + + "The question was here called for, by several senators, and it + was taken, as heretofore reported." + +The conclusion of the debate on the side of the bank was in the +most impressive form to the fears and apprehensions of the country, +and well calculated to alarm and rouse a community.' Mr. Webster +concluded with this peroration, presenting a direful picture of +distress if the veto was sustained, and portrayed the death of the +constitution before it had attained the fiftieth year of its age. He +concluded thus--little foreseeing in how few years he was to invoke +the charity of the world's silence and oblivion for the institution +which his rhetoric then exalted into a great and beneficent power, +indispensable to the well working of the government, and the well +conducting of their affairs by all the people: + + "Mr. President, we have arrived at a new epoch. We are entering + on experiments with the government and the constitution of + the country, hitherto untried, and of fearful and appalling + aspect. This message calls us to the contemplation of a future, + which little resembles the past. Its principles are at war + with all that public opinion has sustained, and all which the + experience of the government has sanctioned. It denies first + principles. It contradicts truths heretofore received as + indisputable. It denies to the judiciary the interpretation of + law, and demands to divide with Congress the origination of + statutes. It extends the grasp of Executive pretension over + every power of the government. But this is not all. It presents + the Chief Magistrate of the Union in the attitude of arguing + away the powers of that government over which he has been + chosen to preside; and adopting, for this purpose, modes of + reasoning which, even under the influence of all proper feeling + towards high official station, it is difficult to regard as + respectable. It appeals to every prejudice which may betray + men into a mistaken view of their own interests; and to every + passion which may lead them to disobey the impulses of their + understanding. It urges all the specious topics of State rights, + and national encroachment, against that which a great majority + of the States have affirmed to be rightful, and in which all + of them have acquiesced. It sows, in an unsparing manner, the + seeds of jealousy and ill-will against that government of which + its author is the official head. It raises a cry that liberty + is in danger, at the very moment when it puts forth claims to + power heretofore unknown and unheard of. It affects alarm for + the public freedom, when nothing so much endangers that freedom + as its own unparalleled pretences. This, even, is not all. It + manifestly seeks to influence the poor against the rich. It + wantonly attacks whole classes of the people, for the purpose + of turning against them the prejudices and resentments of other + classes. It is a state paper which finds no topic too exciting + for its use; no passion too inflammable for its address and its + solicitation. Such is this message. It remains, now, for the + people of the United States to choose between the principles + here avowed and their government. These cannot subsist together. + The one or the other must be rejected. If the sentiments of the + message shall receive general approbation, the constitution will + have perished even earlier than the moment which its enemies + originally allowed for the termination of its existence. It will + not have survived to its fiftieth year." + +On the other hand, Mr. White, of Tennessee, exalted the merit of +the veto message above all the acts of General Jackson's life, and +claimed for it a more enduring fame, and deeper gratitude than for +the greatest of his victories: and concluded his speech thus: + + "When the excitement of the time in which we act shall have + passed away, and the historian and biographer shall be employed + in giving his account of the acts of our most distinguished + public men, and comes to the name of Andrew Jackson; when he + shall have recounted all the great and good deeds done by + this man in the course of a long and eventful life, and the + circumstances under which this message was communicated shall + have been stated, the conclusion will be, that, in doing this, + he has shown a willingness to risk more to promote the happiness + of his fellow-men, and to secure their liberties, than by the + doing of any other act whatever." + +And such, in my opinion, will be the judgment of posterity--the +judgment of posterity, if furnished with the material to appreciate +the circumstances under which he acted when signing the message +which was to decide the question of supremacy between the bank and +the government. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIX. + +THE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM. + + +The cycle had come round which, periodically, and once in four +years, brings up a presidential election and a tariff discussion. +The two events seemed to be inseparable; and this being the fourth +year from the great tariff debate of 1828, and the fourth year from +the last presidential election, and being the long session which +precedes the election, it was the one in regular course in which the +candidates and their friends make the greatest efforts to operate +upon public opinion through the measures which they propose, or +oppose in Congress. Added to this, the election being one on which +not only a change of political parties depended, but also a second +trial of the election in the House of Representatives in 1824-'25, +in which Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay triumphed over General Jackson, +with the advantage on their side now of both being in Congress: for +these reasons this session became the most prolific of party topics, +and of party contests, of any one ever seen in the annals of our +Congress. And certainly there were large subjects to be brought +before the people, and great talents to appear in their support and +defence. The renewal of the national bank charter--the continuance +of the protective system--internal improvement by the federal +government--division of the public land money, or of the lands +themselves--colonization society--extension of pension list--Georgia +and the Cherokees--Georgia and the Supreme Court--imprisoned +missionaries--were all brought forward, and pressed with zeal, +by the party out of power; and pressed in a way to show their +connection with the presidential canvass, and the reliance upon +them to govern its result. The party in power were chiefly on +the defensive; and it was the complete civil representation of a +military attack and defence of a fortified place--a siege--with its +open and covert attacks on one side, its repulses and sallies on +the other--its sappings and minings, as well as its open thundering +assaults. And this continued for seven long months--from December to +July; fierce in the beginning, and becoming more so from day to day +until the last hour of the last day of the exhausted session. It was +the most fiery and eventful session that I had then seen--or since +seen, except one--the panic session of 1834-'35. + +The two leading measures in this plan of operations--the bank and +the tariff--were brought forward simultaneously and quickly--on the +same day, and under the same lead. The memorial for the renewal +of the bank charter was presented in the Senate on the 9th day of +January: on the same day, and as soon as it was referred, Mr. Clay +submitted a resolution in relation to the tariff, and delivered a +speech of three days' duration in support of the American system. +The President, in his message, and in view of the approaching +extinction of the public debt--then reduced to an event of certainty +within the ensuing year--recommended the abolition of duties on +numerous articles of necessity or comfort, not produced at home. +Mr. Clay proposed to make the reduction in subordination to the +preservation of the "American system" and this opened the whole +question of free trade and protection; and occasioned that field to +be trod over again with all the vigor of a fresh exploration. Mr. +Clay opened his great speech with a retrospect of what the condition +of the country was for seven years before the tarriff of 1824, +and what it had been since--the first a period of unprecedented +calamity, the latter of equally unprecedented prosperity:--and he +made the two conditions equally dependent upon the absence and +presence of the protective system. He said: + + "Eight years ago, it was my painful duty to present to the + other House of Congress an unexaggerated picture of the general + distress pervading the whole land. We must all yet remember some + of its frightful features. We all know that the people were + then oppressed and borne down by an enormous load of debt; that + the value of property was at the lowest point of depression; + that ruinous sales and sacrifices were every where made of + real estate; that stop laws and relief laws and paper money + were adopted to save the people from impending destruction; + that a deficit in the public revenue existed, which compelled + government to seize upon, and divert from its legitimate object, + the appropriation to the sinking fund, to redeem the national + debt; and that our commerce and navigation were threatened + with a complete paralysis. In short, sir, if I were to select + any term of seven years since the adoption of the present + constitution, which exhibited a scene of the most wide-spread + dismay and desolation, it would be exactly the term of seven + years which immediately preceded the establishment of the tariff + of 1824." + +This was a faithful picture of that calamitous period, but the +argument derived from it was a two-edged sword, which cut, and +deeply, into another measure, also lauded as the cause of the +public prosperity. These seven years of national distress which +immediately preceded the tariff of 1824, were also the same +seven years which immediately followed the establishment of the +national bank; and which, at the time it was chartered, was to be +the remedy for all the distress under which the country labored: +besides, the protective system was actually commenced in the year +1816--contemporaneously with the establishment of the national bank. +Before 1816, protection to home industry had been an incident to the +levy of revenue; but in 1816 it became an object. Mr. Clay thus +deduced the origin and progress of the protective policy: + + "It began on the ever memorable 4th day of July--the 4th of + July, 1789. The second act which stands recorded in the statute + book, bearing the illustrious signature of George Washington, + laid the corner stone of the whole system. That there might be + no mistake about the matter, it was then solemly proclaimed to + the American people and to the world, that it was _necessary_ + for "the encouragement and _protection_ of manufactures," that + duties should be laid. It is in vain to urge the small amount + of the measure of protection then extended. The great principle + was then established by the fathers of the constitution, with + the father of his country at their head. And it cannot now be + questioned, that, if the government had not then been new and + the subject untried, a greater measure of protection would have + been applied, if it had been supposed necessary. Shortly after, + the master minds of Jefferson and Hamilton were brought to act + on this interesting subject. Taking views of it appertaining to + the departments of foreign affairs and of the treasury, which + they respectively filled, they presented, severally, reports + which yet remain monuments of their profound wisdom, and came + to the same conclusion of protection to American industry. + Mr. Jefferson argued that foreign restrictions, foreign + prohibitions, and foreign high duties, ought to be met, at home, + by American restrictions, American prohibitions, and American + high duties. Mr. Hamilton, surveying the entire ground, and + looking at the inherent nature of the subject, treated it with + an ability which, if ever equalled, has not been surpassed, and + earnestly recommended protection. + + "The wars of the French revolution commenced about this period, + and streams of gold poured into the United States through a + thousand channels, opened or enlarged by the successful commerce + which our neutrality enabled us to prosecute. We forgot, + or overlooked, in the general prosperity, the necessity of + encouraging our domestic manufactures. Then came the edicts of + Napoleon, and the British orders in council; and our embargo, + non-intercourse, non-importation, and war, followed in rapid + succession. These national measures, amounting to a total + suspension, for the period of their duration, of our foreign + commerce, afforded the most efficacious encouragement to + American manufactures; and accordingly, they every where sprung + up. Whilst these measures of restriction and this state of war + continued the manufacturers were stimulated in their enterprises + by every assurance of support, by public sentiment, and by + legislative resolves. It was about that period (1808) that South + Carolina bore her high testimony to the wisdom of the policy, + in an act of her legislature, the preamble of which, now before + me, reads: 'Whereas the establishment and _encouragement_ of + domestic manufactures is conducive to the interest of a State, + by adding new _incentives to industry_, and as being the means + of disposing, to advantage, the surplus productions of the + _agriculturist_: And whereas, in the present unexampled state + of the world, their establishment in our country is not only + _expedient_, but politic, in rendering us _independent_ of + foreign nations.' The legislature, not being competent to afford + the most efficacious aid, by imposing duties on foreign rival + articles, proceeded to incorporate a company. + + "Peace, under the Treaty of Ghent, returned in 1815, but there + did not return with it the golden days which preceded the + edicts levelled at our commerce by Great Britain and France. It + found all Europe tranquilly resuming the arts and the business + of civil life. It found Europe no longer the consumer of our + surplus, and the employer of our navigation, but excluding, or + heavily burdening, almost all the productions of our agriculture + and our rivals in manufactures, in navigation, and in commerce. + It found our country, in short, in a situation totally different + from all the past--new and untried. It became necessary to + adapt our laws, and especially our laws of impost, to the new + circumstances in which we found ourselves. It has been said that + the tariff of 1816 was a measure of mere revenue; and that it + only reduced the war duties to a peace standard. It is true that + the question then was, how much, and in what way, should the + double duties of the war be reduced? Now, also, the question is, + on what articles shall the duties be reduced so as to subject + the amount of the future revenue to the wants of the government? + Then it was deemed an inquiry of the first importance, as it + should be now, how the reduction should be made, so as to secure + proper encouragement to domestic industry. That this was a + leading object in the arrangement of the tariff of 1816, I well + remember, and it is demonstrated by the language of Mr. Dallas. + + "The subject of the American system was again brought up in + 1820, by the bill reported by the chairman of the Committee + on Manufactures, now a member of the bench of the Supreme + Court of the United States, and the principle was successfully + maintained by the representatives of the people; but the bill + which they passed was defeated in the Senate. It was revived + in 1824, the whole ground carefully and deliberately explored, + and the bill then introduced, receiving all the sanctions of + the constitution. This act of 1824 needed amendments in some + particulars, which were attempted in 1828, but ended in some + injuries to the system; and now the whole aim was to save an + existing system--not to create a new one." + +And he summed up his policy thus: + + "1. That the policy which we have been considering ought to + continue to be regarded as the genuine American system. + + "2. That the free trade system, which is proposed as its + substitute, ought really to be considered as the British + colonial system. + + "3. That the American system is beneficial to all parts of the + Union, and absolutely necessary to much the larger portion. + + "4. That the price of the great staple of cotton, and of all our + chief productions of agriculture, has been sustained and upheld, + and a decline averted by the protective system. + + "5. That, if the foreign demand for cotton has been at all + diminished by the operation of that system, the diminution has + been more than compensated in the additional demand created at + home. + + "6. That the constant tendency of the system, by creating + competition among ourselves, and between American and European + industry, reciprocally acting upon each other, is to reduce + prices of manufactured objects. + + "7. That, in point of fact, objects within the scope of the + policy of protection have greatly fallen in price. + + "8. That if, in a season of peace, these benefits are + experienced, in a season of war, when the foreign supply might + be cut off, they would be much more extensively felt. + + "9. And, finally, that the substitution of the British colonial + system for the American system, without benefiting any section + of the Union, by subjecting us to a foreign legislation, + regulated by foreign interests, would lead to the prostration of + our manufactures, general impoverishment, and ultimate ruin." + +Mr. Clay was supported in his general views by many able +speakers--among them, Dickerson and Frelinghuysen of New Jersey; +Ewing of Ohio; Holmes of Maine; Bell of New Hampshire; Hendricks of +Indiana; Webster and Silsbee of Massachusetts; Robbins and Knight of +Rhode Island; Wilkins and Dallas of Pennsylvania; Sprague of Maine; +Clayton of Delaware; Chambers of Maryland; Foot of Connecticut. On +the other hand the speakers in opposition to the protective policy +were equally numerous, ardent and able. They were: Messrs. Hayne +and Miller of South Carolina; Brown and Mangum of North Carolina; +Forsyth and Troup of Georgia; Grundy and White of Tennessee; Hill +of New Hampshire; Kane of Illinois; Benton of Missouri; King and +Moore of Alabama; Poindexter of Mississippi; Tazewell and Tyler of +Virginia; General Samuel Smith of Maryland. I limit the enumeration +to the Senate. In the House the subject was still more fully +debated, according to its numbers; and like the bank question, gave +rise to heat; and was kept alive to the last day. + +General Smith of Maryland, took up the question at once as bearing +upon the harmony and stability of the Union--as unfit to be pressed +on that account as well as for its own demerits--avowed himself a +friend to incidental protection, for which he had always voted, +and even voted for the act of 1816--which he considered going far +enough; and insisted that all "manufacturers" were doing well under +it, and did not need the acts of 1824 and 1828, which were made for +"capitalists"--to enable them to engage in manufacturing; and who +had not the requisite skill and care, and suffered, and called upon +Congress for more assistance. He said: + + "We have arrived at a crisis. Yes, Mr. President, at a crisis + more appalling than a day of battle. I adjure the Committee on + Manufactures to pause--to reflect on the dissatisfaction of + all the South. South Carolina has expressed itself strongly + against the tariff of 1828--stronger than the other States + are willing to speak. But, sir, the whole of the South feel + deeply the oppression of that tariff. In this respect there + is no difference of opinion. The South--the whole Southern + States--all, consider it as oppressive. They have not yet + spoken; but when they do speak, it will be with a voice that + will not implore, but will demand redress. How much better, + then, to grant redress? How much better that the Committee on + Manufactures heal the wound which has been inflicted? I want + nothing that shall injure the manufacturer. I only want justice. + + "I am, Mr. President, one of the few survivors of those who + fought in the war of the revolution. We then thought we fought + for liberty--for equal rights. We fought against taxation, the + proceeds of which were for the benefit of others. Where is the + difference, if the people are to be taxed by the manufacturers + or by any others? I say manufacturers--and why do I say so? + When the Senate met, there was a strong disposition with all + parties to ameliorate the tariff of 1828; but I now see a + change, which makes me almost despair of any thing effectual + being accomplished. Even the small concessions made by the + senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay] have been reprobated by the + lobby members, the agents of the manufacturers. I am told they + have put their fiat on any change whatever, and hence, as a + consequence, the change in the course and language of gentlemen, + which almost precludes all hope. Those interested men hang on + the Committee on Manufactures like an incubus. I say to that + committee, depend upon your own good judgments--survey the whole + subject as politicians--discard sectional interests, and study + only the common weal--act with these views--and thus relieve the + oppressions of the South. + + "I have ever, Mr. President, supported the interest of + manufactures, as far as it could be done incidentally. I + supported the late Mr. Lowndes's bill of 1816. I was a member + of his committee, and that bill protected the manufactures + sufficiently, except bar iron. Mr. Lowndes had reported fifteen + dollars per ton. The House reduced it to nine dollars per ton. + That act enabled the manufacturers to exclude importations of + certain articles. The hatters carry on their business by their + sons and apprentices, and few, if any, hats are now imported. + Large quantities are exported, and preferred. All articles of + leather, from tanned side to the finest harness or saddle, have + been excluded from importation; and why? Because the business + is conducted by their own hard hands, their own labor, and they + are now heavily taxed by the tariff of 1828, to enable the rich + to enter into the manufactures of the country. Yes, sir, I say + the rich, who entered into the business after the act of 1824, + which proved to be a mushroom affair, and many of them suffered + severely. The act of 1816, I repeat, gave all the protection + that was necessary or proper, under which the industrious and + frugal completely succeeded. But, sir, the capitalist who had + invested his capital in manufactures, was not to be satisfied + with ordinary profit; and therefore the act of 1828." + +Mr. Clay, in his opening speech had adverted to the Southern +discontent at the working of the protective tariff, in a way that +showed he felt it to be serious, and entitled to enter into the +consideration of statesmen; but considered this system an overruling +necessity of such want and value to other parts of the Union, that +the danger to its existence laid in the abandonment, and not in the +continuance of the "American system." On this point he expressed +himself thus: + + "And now, Mr. President, I have to make a few observations + on a delicate subject, which I approach with all the respect + that is due to its serious and grave nature. They have not, + indeed, been rendered necessary by the speech of the gentleman + from South Carolina, whose forbearance to notice the topic + was commendable, as his argument throughout was characterized + by an ability and dignity worthy of him and of the Senate. + The gentleman made one declaration which might possibly be + misinterpreted, and I submit to him whether an explanation of + it be not proper. The declaration, as reported in his printed + speech, is: 'the instinct of self-interest might have taught + us an easier way of relieving ourselves from this oppression. + It wanted but the will to have supplied ourselves with every + article embraced in the protective system, free of duty, + without any other participation, on our part than a simple + consent to receive them.' [Here Mr. Hayne rose, and remarked + that the passages, which immediately preceded and followed the + paragraph cited, he thought, plainly indicated his meaning, + which related to evasions of the system, by illicit introduction + of goods, which they were not disposed to countenance in South + Carolina.] I am happy to hear this explanation. But, sir, it + is impossible to conceal from our view the fact that there is + great excitement in South Carolina; that the protective system + is openly and violently denounced in popular meetings; and that + the legislature itself has declared its purpose of resorting + to counteracting measures: a suspension of which has only been + submitted to, for the purpose of allowing Congress time to + retrace its steps. With respect to this Union, Mr. President, + the truth cannot be too generally proclaimed, nor too strongly + inculcated, that it is necessary to the whole and to all the + parts--necessary to those parts, indeed, in different degrees, + but vitally necessary to each; and that, threats to disturb or + dissolve it, coming from any of the parts, would be quite as + indiscreet and improper, as would be threats from the residue + to exclude those parts from the pale of its benefits. The great + principle, which lies at the foundation of all free governments, + is, that the majority must govern; from which there is nor can + be no appeal but to the sword. That majority ought to govern + wisely, equitably, moderately, and constitutionally; but, + govern it must, subject only to that terrible appeal. If ever + one, or several States, being a minority, can, by menacing a + dissolution of the Union, succeed in forcing an abandonment of + great measures, deemed essential to the interests and prosperity + of the whole, the Union, from that moment, is practically + gone. It may linger on, in form and name, but its vital spirit + has fled for ever! Entertaining these deliberate opinions, + I would entreat the patriotic people of South Carolina--the + land of Marion, Sumpter, and Pickens; of Rutledge, Laurens, + the Pickneys; and Lowndes; of living and present names, which + I would mention if they were not living or present--to pause, + solemnly pause! and contemplate the frightful precipice which + lies directly before them. To retreat, may be painful and + mortifying to their gallantry and pride; but it is to retreat + to the Union, to safety, and to those brethren, with whom, or, + with whose ancestors, they, or their ancestors, have won, on the + fields of glory, imperishable renown. To advance, is to rush on + certain and inevitable disgrace and destruction. + + "The danger to our Union does not lie on the side of persistance + in the American system, but on that of its abandonment. If, as + I have supposed and believe, the inhabitants of all north and + east of James River, and all west of the mountains, including + Louisiana are deeply interested in the preservation of that + system, would they be reconciled to its overthrow? Can it be + expected that two thirds, if not three fourths, of the people of + the United States would consent to the destruction of a policy + believed to be indispensably necessary to their prosperity? + When too, this sacrifice is made at the instance of a single + interest, which they verily believe will not be promoted by + it? In estimating the degree of peril which may be incident to + two opposite courses of human policy, the statesman would be + short-sighted who should content himself with viewing only the + evils, real or imaginary, which belong to that course which + is in practical operation. He should lift himself up to the + contemplation of those greater and more certain dangers which + might inevitably attend the adoption of the alternative course. + What would be the condition of this Union, if Pennsylvania + and New-York, those mammoth members of our confederacy, were + firmly persuaded that their industry was paralyzed, and their + prosperity blighted, by the enforcement of the British colonial + system, under the delusive name of free trade? They are now + tranquil, and happy, and contented, conscious of their welfare + and feeling a salutary and rapid circulation of the products + of home manufactures and home industry throughout all their + great arteries. But let that be checked, let them feel that + a foreign system is to predominate, and the sources of their + subsistence and comfort dried up; let New England and the West, + and the Middle States, all feel that they too are the victims of + a mistaken policy, and let these vast portions of our country + despair of any favorable change, and then, indeed, might we + tremble for the continuance and safety of this Union!" + +Here was an appalling picture presented: dissolution of the Union, +on either hand, and one or the other of the alternatives obliged +to be taken. If persisted in, the opponents to the protective +system, in the South, were to make the dissolution; if abandoned, +its friends, in the North, were to do it. Two citizens, whose +word was law to two great parties, denounced the same event, from +opposite causes, and one of which causes was obliged to occur. The +crisis required a hero-patriot at the head of the government, and +Providence had reserved one for the occasion. There had been a +design, in some, to bring Jackson forward for the Presidency, in +1816, and again, in 1820, when he held back. He was brought forward, +in 1824, and defeated. These three successive postponements brought +him to the right years, for which Providence seemed to have destined +him, and which he would have missed, if elected at either of the +three preceding elections. It was a reservation above human wisdom +or foresight; and gave to the American people (at the moment they +wanted him) the man of head, and heart, and nerve, to do what the +crisis required: who possessed the confidence of the people, and who +knew no course, in any danger, but that of duty and patriotism; and +had no feeling, in any extremity but that God and the people would +sustain him. Such a man was wanted, in 1832, and was found--found +before, but reserved for use now. + +The representatives from the South, generally but especially those +from South Carolina, while depicting the distress of their section +of the Union, and the reversed aspect which had come upon their +affairs, less prosperous now than before the formation of the +Union, attributed the whole cause of this change to the action +of the federal government, in the levy and distribution of the +public revenue; to the protective system, which was now assuming +permanency, and increasing its exactions; and to a course of +expenditure which carried to the North what was levied on the South. +The democratic party generally concurred in the belief that this +system was working injuriously upon the South, and that this injury +ought to be relieved; that it was a cause of dissatisfaction with +the Union, which a regard for the Union required to be redressed; +but all did not concur in the cause of Southern eclipse in the race +of prosperity which their representatives assigned; and, among them, +Mr. Dallas, who thus spoke: + + "The impressive and gloomy description of the senator from + South Carolina [Mr. Hayne], as to the actual state and + wretched prospects of his immediate fellow-citizens, awakens + the liveliest sympathy, and should command our attention. It + is their right; it is our duty. I cannot feel indifferent to + the sufferings of any portion of the American people; and + esteem it inconsistent with the scope and purpose of the + federal constitution, that any majority, no matter how large, + should connive at, or protract the oppression or misery of any + minority, no matter how small. I disclaim and detest the idea + of making one part subservient to another; of feasting upon the + extorted substance of my countrymen; of enriching my own region, + by draining the fertility and resources of a neighbor; of + becoming wealthy with spoils which leave their legitimate owners + impoverished and desolate. But, sir, I want proof of a fact, + whose existence, at least as described, it is difficult even to + conceive; and, above all, I want the true causes of that fact to + be ascertained; to be brought within the reach of legislative + remedy, and to have that remedy of a nature which may be applied + without producing more mischiefs than those it proposes to + cure. The proneness to exaggerate social evils is greatest with + the most patriotic. Temporary embarrassment is sensitively + apprehended to be permanent. Every day's experience teaches + how apt we are to magnify partial into universal distress, + and with what difficulty an excited imagination rescues itself + from despondency. It will not do, sir, to act upon the glowing + or pathetic delineations of a gifted orator; it will not do to + become enlisted, by ardent exhortations, in a crusade against + established systems of policy; it will not do to demolish the + walls of our citadel to the sounds of plaintiff eloquence, or + fire the temple at the call of impassioned enthusiasm. + + "What, sir, is the cause of Southern distress? Has any gentleman + yet ventured to designate it? Can any one do more than suppose, + or argumentatively assume it? I am neither willing nor competent + to flatter. To praise the honorable senator from South Carolina, + would be + + 'To add perfume to the violet-- + Wasteful and ridiculous excess.' + + But, if he has failed to discover the source of the evils he + deplores, who can unfold it? Amid the warm and indiscriminating + denunciations with which he has assailed the policy of + protecting domestic manufactures and native produce, he frankly + avows that he would not 'deny that there are other causes, + besides the tariff, which have contributed to produce the evils + which he has depicted.' What are those 'other causes?' In what + proportion have they acted? How much of this dark shadowing is + ascribable to each singly, and to all in combination? Would + the tariff be at all felt or denounced, if these other causes + were not in operation? Would not, in fact, its influence, its + discriminations, its inequalities, its oppressions, but for + these 'other causes,' be shaken, by the elasticity and energy, + and exhaustless spirit of the South, as 'dew-drops from the + lion's mane?' These inquiries, sir, must be satisfactorily + answered before we can be justly required to legislate away an + entire system. If it be the root of all evil, let it be exposed + and demolished. If its poisonous exhalations be but partial, let + us preserve such portions as are innoxious. If, as the luminary + of day, it be pure and salutary in itself, let us not wish it + extinguished, because of the shadows, clouds, and darkness which + obscure its brightness or impede its vivifying power. + + "That other causes still, Mr. President, for Southern distress, + do exist, cannot be doubted. They combine with the one I have + indicated, and are equally unconnected with the manufacturing + policy. One of these it is peculiarly painful to advert to; + and when I mention it, I beg honorable senators not to suppose + that I do it in the spirit of taunt, of reproach, or of idle + declamation. Regarding it as a misfortune merely, not as a + fault; as a disease inherited, not incurred; perhaps to be + alleviated, but not eradicated, I should feel self-condemned + were I to treat it other than as an existing fact, whose merit + or demerit, apart from the question under debate, is shielded + from commentary by the highest and most just considerations. I + refer, sir, to the character of Southern labor, in itself, and + in its influence on others. Incapable of adaptation to the + ever-varying charges of human society and existence, it retains + the communities in which it is established, in a condition of + apparent and comparative inertness. The lights of science, and + the improvements of art, which vivify and accelerate elsewhere, + cannot penetrate, or, if they do, penetrate with dilatory + inefficiency, among its operatives. They are merely instinctive + and passive. While the intellectual industry of other parts of + this country springs elastically forward at every fresh impulse, + and manual labor is propelled and redoubled by countless + inventions, machines, and contrivances, instantly understood and + at once exercised, the South remains stationary, inaccessible to + such encouraging and invigorating aids. Nor is it possible to be + wholly blind to the moral effect of this species of labor upon + those freemen among whom it exists. A disrelish for humble and + hardy occupation; a pride adverse to drudgery and toil; a dread + that to partake in the employments allotted to color, may be + accompanied also by its degradation, are natural and inevitable. + The high and lofty qualities which, in other scenes and for + other purposes, characterize and adorn our Southern brethren, + are fatal to the enduring patience, the corporal exertion, + and the painstaking simplicity, by which only a successful + yeomanry can be formed. When, in fact, sir, the senator from + South Carolina asserts that 'slaves are too improvident, too + incapable of that minute, constant, delicate attention, and + that persevering industry which is essential to the success of + manufacturing establishments,' he himself admits the defect in + the condition of Southern labor, by which the progress of his + favorite section must be retarded. He admits an inability to + keep pace with the rest of the world. He admits an inherent + weakness; a weakness neither engendered nor aggravated by the + tariff--which, as societies are now constituted and directed, + must drag in the rear, and be distanced in the common race." + +Thus spoke Mr. Dallas, senator from Pennsylvania; and thus speaking, +gave offence to no Southern man; and seemed to be well justified +in what he said, from the historical fact that the loss of ground, +in the race of prosperity, had commenced in the South before the +protective system began--before that epoch year, 1816, when it was +first installed as a system, and so installed by the power of the +South Carolina vote and talent. But the levy and expenditure of the +federal government was, doubtless, the main cause of this Southern +decadence--so unnatural in the midst of her rich staples--and which +had commenced before 1816. + +It so happened, that while the advocates of the American system +were calling so earnestly for government protection, to enable +them to sustain themselves at home, that the custom-house books +were showing that a great many species of our manufactures, +and especially the cotton, were going abroad to far distant +countries; and sustaining themselves on remote theatres against all +competition, and beyond the range of any help from our laws. Mr. +Clay, himself, spoke of this exportation, to show the excellence of +our fabrics, and that they were worth protection; I used the same +fact to show that they were independent of protection; and said: + + "And here I would ask, how many and which are the articles that + require the present high rate of protection? Certainly not the + cotton manufacture; for, the senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay], + who appears on this floor as the leading champion of domestic + manufactures, and whose admissions of fact must be conclusive + against his arguments of theory! this senator tells you, and + dwells upon the disclosure with triumphant exultation, that + American cottons are now exported to Asia, and sold at a profit + in the cotton markets of Canton and Calcutta! Surely, sir, + our tariff laws of 1824 and 1828 are not in force in Bengal + and China. And I appeal to all mankind for the truth of the + inference, that, if our cottons can go to these countries, and + be sold at a profit without any protection at all, they can + stay at home, and be sold to our own citizens, without loss, + under a less protection than fifty and two hundred and fifty per + centum! One fact, Mr. President, is said to be worth a thousand + theories; I will add that it is worth a hundred thousand + speeches; and this fact that the American cottons now traverse + the one-half of the circumference of this globe--cross the + equinoctial line; descend to the antipodes; seek foreign markets + on the double theatre of British and Asiatic competition, + and come off victorious from the contest--is a full and + overwhelming answer to all the speeches that have been made, + or ever can be made, in favor of high protecting duties on + these cottons at home. The only effect of such duties is to + cut off importations--to create monopoly at home--to enable + our manufacturers to sell their goods higher to their own + christian fellow-citizens than to the pagan worshippers of Fo + and of Brahma! to enable the inhabitants of the Ganges and the + Burrampooter to wear American cottons upon cheaper terms than + the inhabitants of the Ohio and Mississippi. And every Western + citizen knows the fact, that when these shipments of American + cottons were making to the extremities of Asia, the price of + these same cottons was actually raised twenty and twenty-five + per cent., in all the towns of the West; with this further + difference to our prejudice, that we can only pay for them + in money, while the inhabitants of Asia make payment in the + products of their own country. + + "This is what the gentleman's admission proved; but I do not + come here to argue upon admissions, whether candid or unguarded, + of the adversary speakers. I bring my own facts and proofs; and, + really, sir, I have a mind to complain that the gentleman's + admission about cottons has crippled the force of my argument; + that it has weakened its effect by letting out half at a time, + and destroyed its novelty, by an anticipated revelation. The + truth is, I have this fact (that we exported domestic cottons) + treasured up in my magazine of material! and intended to produce + it, at the proper time, to show that we exported this article, + not to Canton and Calcutta alone, but to all quarters of the + globe; not a few cargoes only, by way of experiment, but in + great quantities, as a regular trade, to the amount of a million + and a quarter of dollars, annually; and that, of this amount, + no less than forty thousand dollars' worth, in the year 1880, + had done what the combined fleets and armies of the world could + not do; it had scaled the rock of Gibraltar, penetrated to the + heart of the British garrison, taken possession of his Britannic + Majesty's soldiers, bound their arms, legs, and bodies, and + strutted in triumph over the ramparts and batteries of that + unattackable fortress. And now, sir, I will use no more of the + gentleman's admissions; I will draw upon my own resources; and + will show nearly the whole list of our domestic manufacture to + be in the same flourishing condition with cottons, actually + going abroad to seek competition, without protection, in + every foreign clime, and contending victoriously with foreign + manufactures wherever they can encounter them. I read from the + custom-house returns, of 1830--the last that has been printed. + Listen to it: + + "This is the list of domestic manufactures exported to foreign + countries. It comprehends the whole, or nearly the whole, of + that long catalogue of items which the senator from Kentucky + [Mr. Clay] read to us, on the second day of his discourse; + and shows the whole to be going abroad, without a shadow of + protection, to seek competition, in foreign markets, with the + foreign goods of all the world. The list of articles I have + read, contains near fifty varieties of manufactures (and I + have omitted many minor articles) amounting, in value, to + near six millions of dollars! And now behold the diversity of + human reasoning! The senator from Kentucky exhibits a list of + articles manufactured in the United States, and argues that the + slightest diminution in the enormous protection they now enjoy, + will overwhelm the whole in ruin, and cover the country with + distress; I read the same identical list, to show that all these + articles go abroad and contend victoriously with their foreign + rivals in all foreign markets." + +Mr. Clay had attributed to the tariffs of 1824 and 1828 the reviving +and returning prosperity of the country, while in fact it was the +mere effect of recovery from prostration, and in spite of these +tariffs, instead of by their help. Business had been brought to a +stand during the disastrous period which ensued the establishment +of the Bank of the United States. It was a period of stagnation, of +settlement, of paying up, of getting clear of loads of debt; and +starting afresh. It was the strong man, freed from the burthen under +which he had long been prostrate, and getting on his feet again. +In the West I knew that this was the process, and that our revived +prosperity was entirely the result of our own resources, independent +of, and in spite of federal legislation; and so declared it in my +speech. I said: + + "The fine effects of the high tariff upon the prosperity of the + West have been celebrated on this floor: with how much reason, + let facts respond, and the people judge! I do not think we + are indebted to the high tariff for our fertile lands and our + navigable rivers; and I am certain we are indebted to these + blessings for the prosperity we enjoy. In all that comes from + the soil, the people of the West are rich. They have an abundant + supply of food for man and beast, and a large surplus to send + abroad. They have the comfortable living which industry creates + for itself in a rich soil; but, beyond this, they are poor. They + have none of the splendid works which imply the presence of + the moneyed power! No Appian or Flaminian ways; no roads paved + or McAdamized; no canals, except what are made upon borrowed + means; no aqueducts; no bridges of stone across our innumerable + streams; no edifices dedicated to eternity; no schools for the + fine arts: not a public library for which an ordinary scholar + would not apologize. And why none of those things? Have the + people of the West no taste for public improvements, for the + useful and the fine arts, and for literature? Certainly they + have a very strong taste for them; but they have no money! + not enough for private and current uses, not enough to defray + our current expenses, and buy necessaries! without thinking + of public improvements. We have no money! and that is a tale + which has been told too often here--chanted too dolefully in + the book of lamentations which was composed for the death of + the Maysville road--to be denied or suppressed now. They have + no adequate supply of money. And why? Have they no exports? + Nothing to send abroad? Certainly they have exports. Behold + the marching myriads of living animals annually taking their + departure from the heart of the West, defiling through the + gorges of the Cumberland, the Alleghany, and the Apalachian + mountains, or traversing the plains of the South, diverging as + they march, and spreading themselves all over that vast segment + of our territorial circle which lies between the _debouches_ + of the Mississippi and the estuary of the Potomac! Behold, + on the other hand, the flying steamboats, and the fleets of + floating arks, loaded with the products of the forest, the farm, + and the pasture, following the course of our noble rivers, and + bearing their freights to that great city which revives, upon + the banks of the Mississippi, the name[5] of the greatest of + the emperors that ever reigned upon the banks of the Tiber, and + who eclipsed the glory of his own heroic exploits by giving an + order to his legions never to levy a contribution of salt upon a + Roman citizen! Behold this double line of exports, and observe + the refluent currents of gold and silver which result from + them! Large are the supplies--millions are the amount which is + annually poured into the West from these double exportations; + enough to cover the face of the earth with magnificent + improvements, and to cram every industrious pocket with gold and + silver. But where is this money? for it is not in the country! + Where does it go? for go it does, and scarcely leaves a vestige + of its transit behind! Sir, it goes to the Northeast! to the + seat of the American system! there it goes! and thus it goes!" + + [5] "Aurelian," whose name was given to the military station + (presidium) which was afterwards corrupted into "Orleans." + +Mr. Clay had commenced his speech with an apology for what might +be deemed failing powers on account of advancing age. He said he +was getting old, and might not be able to fulfil the expectation, +and requite the attention, of the attending crowd; and wished the +task could have fallen to younger and abler hands. This apology for +age when no diminution of mental or bodily vigor was perceptible, +induced several speakers to commence their replies with allusions +to it, generally complimentary, but not admitting the fact. Mr. +Hayne gracefully said, that he had lamented the advances of age, +and mourned the decay of his eloquence, so eloquently as to prove +that it was still in full vigor; and that he had made an able and +ingenious argument, fully sustaining his high reputation as an +accomplished orator. General Smith, of Maryland, said that he could +not complain himself of the infirmities of age, though older than +the senator from Kentucky, nor could find in his years any apology +for the insufficiency of his speech. Mr. Clay thought this was +intended to be a slur upon him, and replied in a spirit which gave +rise to the following sharp encounter: + + "Mr. Smith then rose, and said he was sorry to find that he had + unintentionally offended the honorable gentleman from Kentucky. + In referring to the vigorous age he himself enjoyed, he had not + supposed he should give offence to others who complained of the + infirmities of age. The gentleman from Kentucky was the last who + should take the remark as disparaging to his vigor and personal + appearance; for, when that gentleman spoke to us of his age, he + heard a young lady near him exclaim--"Old, why I think he is + mighty pretty." The honorable gentleman, on Friday last, made + a similitude where none existed. I, said Mr. S., had suggested + the necessity of mutual forbearance in settling the tariff, + and, thereupon, the gentleman vociferated loudly and angrily + about removals from office. He said I was a leader in the + system. I deny the fact. I never exercised the least influence + in effecting a removal, and on the contrary, I interfered, + successfully, to prevent the removal of two gentlemen in + office. I am charged with making a committee on roads and + canals, adverse to internal improvement. If this be so, it is + by mistake. I certainly supposed every gentleman named on that + committee but one to be friendly to internal improvement. To the + committee on manufactures I assigned four out of five who were + known to be friendly to the protective system. The rights of the + minority, he had endeavored, also, in arranging the committee, + to secure. The appointment of the committees he had found one + of the most difficult and onerous tasks he had ever undertaken. + One-third of the house were lawyers, all of whom wanted to be + put upon some important committee. The oath which the senator + had tendered, he hoped he would not take. In the year 1795, + Mr. S. said, he had sustained a protective duty against the + opposition of a member from Pittsburg. Previous to the year + 1822, he had always given incidental support to manufactures, in + fixing the tariff. He was a warm friend to the tariff of 1816, + which he still regarded as a wise and beneficial law. He hoped, + then, the gentleman would not take his oath. + + "Mr. Clay placed, he said, a high value on the compliment of + which the honorable senator was the channel of communication; + and he the more valued it, inasmuch as he did not recollect + more than once before, in his life, to have received a similar + compliment. He was happy to find that the honorable gentleman + disclaimed the system of proscription; and he should, with his + approbation, hereafter cite his authority in opposition to it. + The Committee on Roads and Canals, whatever were the gentleman's + intentions in constructing it, had a majority of members whose + votes and speeches against internal improvements were matter + of notoriety. The gentleman's appeal to his acts in '95, is + perfectly safe; for, old as I am, my knowledge of his course + does not extend back that far. He would take the period which + the gentleman named, since 1822. It comes, then, to this: The + honorable gentleman was in favor of protecting manufactures; + but he had turned--I need not use the word--he has abandoned + manufactures. Thus: + + "Old politicians chew on wisdom past, + And _totter_ on in blunders to the last." + + "Mr. Smith.--The last allusion is unworthy of the gentleman. + Totter, sir, I totter? Though some twenty years older than the + gentleman, I can yet stand firm, and am yet able to correct his + errors. I could take a view of the gentleman's course, which + would show how inconsistent he has been. Mr. Clay exclaimed: + 'Take it, sir, take it--I dare you.' [Cries of "order."] + No, sir, said Mr. S., I will not take it. I will not so far + disregard what is due to the dignity of the Senate." + +Mr. Hayne concluded one of his speeches with a declaration of the +seriousness of the Southern resistance to the tariff, and with a +feeling appeal to senators on all sides of the house to meet their +Southern brethren in the spirit of conciliation, and restore harmony +to a divided people by removing from among them the never-failing +source of contention. He said: + + "Let not gentlemen so far deceive themselves as to suppose + that the opposition of the South to the protecting system is + not based on high and lofty principles. It has nothing to do + with party politics, or the mere elevation of men. It rises far + above all such considerations. Nor is it influenced chiefly + by calculations of interest, but is founded in much nobler + impulses. The instinct of self-interest might have taught us + an easier way of relieving ourselves from this oppression. It + wanted but the will, to have supplied ourselves with every + article embraced in the protective system, free of duty, without + any other participation on our part than a simple consent to + receive them. But, sir, we have scorned, in a contest for our + rights, to resort to any but open and fair means to maintain + them. The spirit with which we have entered into this business, + is akin to that which was kindled in the bosom of our fathers + when they were made the victims of oppression; and if it has not + displayed itself in the same way, it is because we have ever + cherished the strongest feelings of confraternity towards our + brethren, and the warmest and most devoted attachment to the + Union. If we have been, in any degree, divided among ourselves + in this matter, the source of that division, let gentlemen + be assured, has not arisen so much from any difference of + opinion as to the true character of the oppression, as from the + different degrees of hope of redress. All parties have for years + past been looking forward to this crisis for the fulfilment of + their hopes, or the confirmation of their fears. And God grant + that the result may be auspicious. + + "Sir, I call upon gentlemen on all sides of the House to meet + us in the true spirit of conciliation and concession. Remove, + I earnestly beseech you, from among us, this never-failing + source of contention. Dry up at its source this fountain of + the waters of bitterness. Restore that harmony which has been + disturbed--that mutual affection and confidence which has been + impaired. And it is in your power to do it this day; but there + is but one means under heaven by which it can--by doing equal + justice to all. And be assured that he to whom the country shall + be indebted for this blessing, will be considered as the second + founder of the republic. He will be regarded, in all aftertimes, + as the ministering angel visiting the troubled waters of our + political dissensions, and restoring to the element its healing + virtues." + +I take pleasure in quoting these words of Mr. Hayne. They are +words of moderation and of justice--of sorrow more than anger--of +expostulation more than menace--of loyalty to the Union--of +supplication for forbearance;--and a moving appeal to the high +tariff party to avert a national catastrophe by ceasing to be +unjust. His moderation, his expostulation, his supplication, his +appeal--had no effect on the majority. The protective system +continued to be an exasperating theme throughout the session, which +ended without any sensible amelioration of the system, though with +a reduction of duty on some articles of comfort and convenience: as +recommended by President Jackson. + + + + +CHAPTER LXX. + +PUBLIC LANDS.--DISTRIBUTION TO THE STATES. + + +The efforts which had been making for years to ameliorate the public +land system in the feature of their sale and disposition, had begun +to have their effect--the effect which always attends perseverance +in a just cause. A bill had ripened to a third reading in the +Senate reducing the price of lands which had been long in market +less than one half--to fifty cents per acre--and the pre-emption +principle had been firmly established, securing the settler in his +home at a fixed price. Two other principles, those of donations to +actual settlers, and of the cession to the States in which they lie +of all land not sold within a reasonable and limited period, were +all that was wanting to complete the ameliorated system which the +graduation bills proposed; and these bills were making a progress +which promised them an eventual success. All the indications were +favorable for the speedy accomplishment of these great reforms in +the land system when the session of 1831-'32 opened, and with it +the authentic annunciation of the extinction of the public debt +within two years--which event would remove the objection of many +to interfering with the subject, the lands being pledged to that +object. This session, preceding the presidential election, and +gathering up so many subjects to go into the canvass, fell upon +the lands for that purpose, and in the way in which magazines of +grain in republican Rome, and money in the treasury in democratic +Athens, were accustomed to be dealt with by candidates for office +in the periods of election; that is to say, were proposed for +distribution. A plan for dividing out among the States for a given +period the money arising from the sale of the lands, was reported +from the Committee on Manufactures by Mr. Clay, a member of that +committee--and which properly could have nothing to do with the sale +and disposition of the lands. That report, after a general history, +and view of the public lands, came to these conclusions: + + "Upon full and thorough consideration, the committee have come + to the conclusion that it is inexpedient either to reduce the + price of the public lands, or to cede them to the new States. + They believe, on the contrary, that sound policy coincides with + the duty which has devolved on the general government to the + whole of the States, and the whole of the people of the Union, + and enjoins the preservation of the existing system as having + been tried and approved after long and triumphant experience. + But, in consequence of the extraordinary financial prosperity + which the United States enjoy, the question merits examination, + whether, whilst the general government steadily retains the + control of this great national resource in its own hands, after + the payment of the public debt, the proceeds of the sales of the + public lands, no longer needed to meet the ordinary expenses of + government, may not be beneficially appropriated to some other + objects for a limited time. + + "Governments, no more than individuals, should be seduced or + intoxicated by prosperity, however flattering or great it may + be. The country now happily enjoys it in a most unexampled + degree. We have abundant reason to be grateful for the blessings + of peace and plenty, and freedom from debt. But we must be + forgetful of all history and experience, if we indulge the + delusive hope that we shall always be exempt from calamity and + reverses. Seasons of national adversity, of suffering, and of + war, will assuredly come. A wise government should expect, + and provide for them. Instead of wasting or squandering its + resources in a period of general prosperity, it should husband + and cherish them for those times of trial and difficulty, + which, in the dispensations of Providence, may be certainly + anticipated. Entertaining these views, and as the proceeds + of the sales of the public lands are not wanted for ordinary + revenue, which will be abundantly supplied from the imposts, + the committee respectfully recommend that an appropriation + of them be made to some other purpose, for a limited time, + subject to be resumed in the contingency of war. Should such + an event unfortunately occur, the fund may be withdrawn from + its peaceful destination, and applied in aid of other means, + to the vigorous prosecution of the war, and, afterwards to the + payment of any debt which may be contracted in consequence of + its existence. And when peace shall be again restored, and the + debt of the new war shall have been extinguished, the fund may + be again appropriated to some fit object other than that of the + ordinary expenses of government. Thus may this great resource be + preserved and rendered subservient, in peace and in war, to the + common benefit of all the States composing the Union. + + "The inquiry remains, what ought to be the specific application + of the fund under the restriction stated? After deducting the + ten per cent. proposed to be set apart for the new States, a + portion of the committee would have preferred that the residue + should be applied to the objects of internal improvement, and + colonization of the free blacks, under the direction of the + general government. But a majority of the committee believes it + better, as an alternative for the scheme of cession to the new + States, and as being most likely to give general satisfaction, + that the residue be divided among the twenty-four States, + according to their federal representative population; to be + applied to education, internal improvement, or colonization, or + to the redemption of any existing debt contracted for internal + improvements, as each State, judging for itself, shall deem + most conformable with its own interests and policy. Assuming + the annual product of the sales of the public lands to be three + millions of dollars, the table hereto annexed, marked C, shows + what each State would be entitled to receive, according to the + principle of division which has been stated. In order that the + propriety of the proposed appropriation should again, at a day + not very far distant, be brought under the review of Congress, + the committee would recommend that it be limited to a period + of five years, subject to the condition of war not breaking + out in the mean time. By an appropriation so restricted as to + time, each State will be enabled to estimate the probable extent + of its proportion, and to adapt its measures of education, + improvement, colonization, or extinction of existing debt, + accordingly. + + "In conformity with the views and principles which the committee + have now submitted, they beg leave to report a bill, entitled + 'An act to appropriate, for a limited time, the proceeds of the + sales of the public lands of the United States.'" + +The impropriety of originating such a bill in the committee on +manufactures was so clear that acquiescence in it was impossible. +The chairman of the committee on public lands immediately moved its +reference to that committee; and although there was a majority for +it in the Senate, and for the bill as it came from the committee +on manufactures, yet the reference was immediately voted; and Mr. +Clay's report and bill sent to that committee, invested with general +authority over the whole subject. That committee, through its +chairman, Mr. King of Alabama, made a counter report, from which +some extracts are here given: + + "The committee ventures to suggest that the view which the + committee on manufactures has taken of the federal domain, is + fundamentally erroneous; that it has misconceived the true + principles of national policy with respect to wild lands; and, + from this fundamental mistake, and radical misconception, have + resulted the great errors which pervade the whole structure of + their report and bill. + + "The committee on manufactures seem to contemplate the federal + domain merely as an object of revenue, and to look for that + revenue solely from the receivers of the land offices; when + the science of political economy has ascertained such a fund + to be chiefly, if not exclusively, valuable under the aspect + of population and cultivation, and the eventual extraction of + revenue from the people in its customary modes of taxes and + imposts. + + "The celebrated Edmund Burke is supposed to have expressed the + sum total of political wisdom on this subject, in his well-known + propositions to convert the forest lands of the British crown + into private property; and this committee, to spare themselves + further argument, and to extinguish at once a political fallacy + which ought not to have been broached in the nineteenth century, + will make a brief quotation from the speech of that eminent man. + + "'The revenue to be derived from the sale of the forest lands + will not be so considerable as many have imagined; and I + conceive it would be unwise to screw it up to the utmost, or + even to suffer bidders to enhance, according to their eagerness, + the purchase of objects wherein the expense of that purchase + may weaken the capital to be employed in their cultivation. * + * * The principal revenue which I propose to draw from these + uncultivated wastes, is to spring from the improvement and + cultivation of the kingdom events infinitely more advantageous + to the revenues of the Crown, than the rents of the best landed + estates which it can hold. * * * * It is thus that I would + dispose of the unprofitable landed estates of the Crown--throw + them into the mass of private property--by which they will come, + through the course of circulation, and through the political + secretions of the state, into well-regulated revenue. * * * * + Thus would fall an expensive agency, with all the influence + which attends it.' + + "This committee takes leave to say that the sentiments here + expressed by Mr. Burke are the inspirations of political + wisdom; that their truth and justice have been tested in all + ages and all countries, and particularly in our own age and + in our own country. The history of the public lands of the + United States furnishes the most instructive lessons of the + inutility of sales, the value of cultivation, and the fallacy + of large calculations. These lands were expected, at the time + they were acquired by the United States, to pay off the public + debt immediately, to support the government, and to furnish + large surplusses for distribution. Calculations for a thousand + millions were made upon them, and a charge of treachery was + raised against General Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, + for his report in the year 1791, in which the fallacy of all + these visionary calculations was exposed, and the real value + of the lands soberly set down at an average of twenty cents + per acre. Yet, after an experiment of nearly fifty years, + it is found that the sales of the public lands, so far from + paying the public debt, have barely defrayed the expenses of + managing the lands; while the revenue derived from cultivation + has paid both principal and interest of the debts of two wars, + and supported the federal government in a style of expenditure + infinitely beyond the conceptions of those who established it. + The gross proceeds of the sales are but thirty-eight millions + of dollars, from which the large expenses of the system are to + be deducted; while the clear receipts from the customs, after + paying all expenses of collection, amount to $556,443,830. This + immense amount of revenue springs from the use of soil reduced + to private property. For the duties are derived from imported + goods; the goods are received in exchange for exports; and the + exports, with a small deduction for the products of the sea, are + the produce of the farm and the forest. This is a striking view, + but it is only one half of the picture. The other half must be + shown, and will display the cultivation of the soil, in its + immense exports, as giving birth to commerce and navigation, and + supplying employment to all the trades and professions connected + with these two grand branches of national industry; while the + business of selling the land is a meagre and barren operation, + auxiliary to no useful occupation, injurious to the young + States, by exhausting them of their currency, and extending + the patronage of the federal government in the complicated + machinery of the land office department. Such has been the + difference between the revenue received from the sales and from + the cultivation of the land; but no powers of cultivation can + carry out the difference, and show what it will be: for, while + the sale of the land is a single operation, and can be performed + but once, the extraction of revenue from its cultivation is + an annual and perpetual process, increasing in productiveness + through all time, with the increase of population, the + amelioration of soils, the improvement of the country, and the + application of science to the industrial pursuits. + + "This committee have said that the bill reported by the + Committee on Manufactures, to divide the proceeds of the sales + of public lands among the several States for a limited time, + is a bill wholly inadmissible in principle, and essentially + erroneous in its details. + + "They object to the principle of the bill, because it proposes + to change--and that most injuriously and fatally for the + new States, the character of their relation to the federal + government, on the subject of the public lands. That relation, + at present, imposes on the federal government the character of a + trustee, with the power and the duty of disposing of the public + lands in a liberal and equitable manner. The principle of the + bill proposes to substitute an individual State interest in the + lands, and would be perfectly equivalent to a division of the + lands among the States; for, the power of legislation being + left in their hands, with a direct interest in their sales, the + old and populous States would necessarily consider the lands as + their own, and govern their legislation accordingly. Sales would + be forbid or allowed; surveys stopped or advanced; prices raised + or lowered; donations given or denied; old French and Spanish + claims confirmed or rejected; settlers ousted; emigrations + stopped, precisely as it suited the interest of the old States; + and this interest, in every instance, would be precisely + opposite to the interest of the new States. In vain would some + just men wish to act equitably by these new States; their + generous efforts would expose them to attacks at home. A new + head of electioneering would be opened; candidates for Congress + would rack their imaginations, and exhaust their arithmetic, in + the invention and display of rival projects for the extraction + of gold from the new States; and he that would promise best for + promoting the emigration of dollars from the new States, and + preventing the emigration of people to them, would be considered + the best qualified for federal legislation. If this plan of + distribution had been in force heretofore, the price of the + public lands would not have been reduced, in 1819-'20, nor the + relief laws passed, which exonerated the new States from a debt + of near twenty millions of dollars. If adopted now, these States + may bid adieu to their sovereignty and independence! They will + become the feudatory vassals of the paramount States! Their + subjection and dependence will be without limit or remedy. The + five years mentioned in the bill had as well be fifty or five + hundred. The State that would surrender its sovereignty, for ten + per centum of its own money, would eclipse the folly of Esau, + and become a proverb in the annals of folly with those who have + sold their birthright for 'a mess of pottage.'" + +After these general objections to the principle and policy of the +distribution project, the report of the Committee on Public Lands +went on to show its defects, in detail, and to exhibit the special +injuries to which it would subject the new States, in which the +public lands lay. It said: + + "The details of the bill are pregnant with injustice and unsound + policy. + + "1. The rule of distribution among the States makes no + distinction between those States which did or did not make + cessions of their vacant land to the federal government. + Massachusetts and Maine, which are now selling and enjoying + their vacant lands in their own right, and Connecticut, which + received a deed for two millions of acres from the federal + government, and sold them for her own benefit, are put upon + an equal footing with Virginia, which ceded the immense + domain which lies in the forks of the Ohio and Mississippi, + and Georgia, which ceded territory for two States. This is + manifestly unjust. + + "2. The bill proposes benefits to some of the States, which + they cannot receive without dishonor, nor refuse without + pecuniary prejudice. Several States deny the power of the + federal government to appropriate the public moneys to objects + of internal improvement or to colonization. A refusal to accept + their dividends would subject such States to loss; to receive + them, would imply a sale of their constitutional principles for + so much money. Considerations connected with the harmony and + perpetuity of our confederacy should forbid any State to be + compelled to choose between such alternatives. + + "3. The public lands, in great part, were granted to the federal + government to pay the debts of the Revolutionary War; it is + notorious that other objects of revenue, to wit, duties on + imported goods, have chiefly paid that debt. It would seem, + then, to be just to the donors of the land, after having taxed + them in other ways to pay the debt, that the land should go + in relief of their present taxes; and that, so long as any + revenue may be derived from them, it should go into the common + treasury, and diminish, by so much, the amount of their annual + contributions. + + "4. The colonization of free people of color, on the western + coast of Africa, is a delicate question for Congress to touch. + It connects itself indissolubly with the slave question, and + cannot be agitated by the federal legislature, without rousing + and alarming the apprehensions of all the slaveholding States, + and lighting up the fires of the extinguished conflagration + which lately blazed in the Missouri question. The harmony of + the States, and the durability of this confederacy, interdict + the legislation of the federal legislature upon this subject. + The existence of slavery in the United States is local and + sectional. It is confined to the Southern and Middle States. If + it is an evil, it is an evil to them, and it is their business + to say so. If it is to be removed, it is their business to + remove it. Other States put an end to slavery, at their own + time, and in their own way, and without interference from + federal or State legislation, or organized societies. The rights + of equality demand, for the remaining States, the same freedom + of thought and immunity of action. Instead of assuming the + business of colonization, leave it to the slave-holding States + to do as they please; and leave them their resources to carry + into effect their resolves. Raise no more money from them than + the exigencies of the government require, and then they will + have the means, if they feel the inclination, to rid themselves + of a burden which it is theirs to bear and theirs to remove. + + "5. The sum proposed for distribution, though nominally to + consist of the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands, + is, in reality, to consist of their gross proceeds. The term + net, as applied to revenue from land offices or custom-houses, + is quite different. In the latter, its signification corresponds + with the fact, and implies a deduction of all the expenses of + collection; in the former, it has no such implication, for the + expenses of the land system are defrayed by appropriations out + of the treasury. To make the whole sum received from the land + offices a fund for distribution, would be to devolve the heavy + expenses of the land system upon the custom-house revenue: in + other words, to take so much from the custom-house revenue to be + divided among the States. This would be no small item. According + to the principles of the account drawn up against the lands, it + would embrace-- + + "1. Expenses of the general land office. + + "2. Appropriations for surveying. + + "3. Expenses of six surveyor generals' offices. + + "4. Expenses of forty-four land offices. + + "5. Salaries of eighty-eight registers and receivers. + + "6. Commissions on sales to registers and receivers. + + "7. Allowance to receivers for depositing money. + + "8. Interest on money paid for extinguishing Indian titles. + + "9. Annuities to Indians. + + "10. Future Indian treaties for extinguishing title. + + "11. Expenses of annual removal of Indians. + + "These items exceed a million of dollars. They are on the + increase, and will continue to grow at least until the one + hundred and thirteen million five hundred and seventy-seven + thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine acres of land within the + limits of the States and territories now covered by Indian + title shall be released from such title. The reduction of + these items, present and to come, from the proposed fund for + distribution, must certainly be made to avoid a contradiction + between the profession and the practice of the bill; and this + reduction might leave little or nothing for division among the + distributees. The gross proceeds of the land sales for the + last year were large; they exceeded three millions of dollars; + but they were equally large twelve years ago, and gave birth + to some extravagant calculations then, which vanished with a + sudden decline of the land revenue to less than one million. The + proceeds of 1819 were $3,274,422; those of 1823 were $916,523. + The excessive sales twelve years ago resulted from the excessive + issue of bank paper, while those of 1831 were produced by the + several relief laws passed by Congress. A detached year is no + evidence of the product of the sales; an average of a series + of years presents the only approximation to correctness; and + this average of the last ten years would be about one million + and three quarters. So that after all expenses are deducted, + with the five per centum now payable to the new States, and ten + per centum proposed by the bill, there may be nothing worth + dividing among the States; certainly nothing worth the alarm + and agitation which the assumption of the colonization question + must excite among the slaveholding States; nothing worth the + danger of compelling the old States which deny the power of + federal internal improvement, to choose between alternatives + which involve a sale of their principles on one side, or a loss + of their dividends on the other; certainly nothing worth the + injury to the new States, which must result from the conversion + of their territory into the private property of those who are to + have the power of legislation over it, and a direct interest in + using that power to degrade and impoverish them." + +The two sets of reports were printed in extra numbers, and the +distribution bill largely debated in the Senate, and passed that +body: but it was arrested in the House of Representatives. A +motion to postpone it to a day beyond the session--equivalent to +rejection--prevailed by a small majority: and thus this first +attempt to make distribution of public property, was, for the time, +gotten rid of. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXI. + +SETTLEMENT OF FRENCH AND SPANISH LAND CLAIMS. + + +It was now near thirty years since the province of Louisiana +had been acquired, and with it a mass of population owning and +inhabiting lands, the titles to which in but few instances ever +had been perfected into complete grants; and the want of which +was not felt in a new country where land was a gratuitous gift to +every cultivator, and where the government was more anxious for +cultivation than the people were to give it. The transfer of the +province from France and Spain to the United States, found the +mass of the land titles in an inchoate state; and coming under a +government which made merchandise out of the soil, and among a +people who had the Anglo-Saxon avidity for landed property, some +legislation and tribunal was necessary to separate the perfect +from the imperfect titles; and to provide for the examination and +perfection of the latter. The treaty of cession protected every +thing that was "property;" and an inchoate title fell as well within +that category as a perfect one. Without the treaty stipulation the +law of nations would have operated the same protection, and to the +same degree; and that in the case of a conquered as well as of a +ceded people. The principle was acknowledged: the question was +to apply it, and to carry out the imperfect titles as the ceding +government would have done, if it had continued. This was attempted +through boards of commissioners, placed under limitations and +restrictions, which cut off masses of claims to which there was no +objection except in the confirming law; and with the obligation of +reporting to Congress for its sanction the claims which it found +entitled to confirmation:--a condition which, in the distance of the +lands and claimants from the seat of government, their ignorance of +our laws and customs, their habitude to pay for justice, and their +natural distrust of a new and alien domination, was equivalent +in its effects to the total confiscation of most of the smaller +claims, and the quarter or the half confiscation of the larger +ones in the division they were compelled to make with agents--or +in the forced sales which despair, or necessity forced upon them. +This state of things had been going on for almost thirty years in +all Louisiana--ameliorated occasionally by slight enlargements of +the powers of the boards, and afterwards of the courts to which +the business was transferred, but failing at two essential points, +_first_, of acknowledging the validity of all claims which might in +fact have been completed if the French or Spanish government had +continued under which they originated; _secondly_, in not providing +a cheap, speedy and local tribunal to decide summarily upon claims, +and definitively when their decisions were in their favor. + +In this year--but after an immense number of people had been ruined, +and after the country had been afflicted for a generation with the +curse of unsettled land titles--an act was passed, founded on the +principle which the case required, and approximating to the process +which was necessary to give it effect. The act of 1832 admitted the +validity of all inchoate claims--all that might in fact have been +perfected under the previous governments; and established a local +tribunal to decide on the spot, making two classes of claims--one +coming under the principle acknowledged, the other not coming under +that principle, and destitute of merit in law or equity--but with +the ultimate reference of their decisions to Congress for its final +sanction. The principle of the act, and its mode of operation, was +contained in the first section, and in these words: + + "That it shall be the duty of the recorder of land titles in + the State of Missouri, and two commissioners to be appointed by + the President of the United States, by and with the advice and + consent of the Senate, to examine all the unconfirmed claims + to land in that State, heretofore filed in the office of the + said recorder, according to law, founded upon any incomplete + grant, concession, warrant, or order of survey, issued by the + authority of France or Spain, prior to the tenth day of March, + one thousand eight hundred and four; and to class the same so as + to show, first, what claims, in their opinion, would, in fact, + have been confirmed, according to the laws, usages, and customs + of the Spanish government, and the practices of the Spanish + authorities under them, at New Orleans, if the government under + which said claims originated had continued in Missouri; and + secondly, what claims, in their opinion, are destitute of merit, + in law or equity, under such laws, usages, customs, and practice + of the Spanish authorities aforesaid; and shall also assign + their reasons for the opinions so to be given. And in examining + and classing such claims, the recorder and commissioners shall + take into consideration, as well the testimony heretofore taken + by the boards of commissioners and recorder of land titles upon + those claims, as such other testimony as may be admissible under + the rules heretofore existing for taking such testimony before + said boards and recorder: and all such testimony shall be taken + within twelve months after the passage of this act." + +Under this act a thirty years' disturbance of land titles was +closed (nearly), in that part of Upper Louisiana, now constituting +the State of Missouri. The commissioners executed the act in +the liberal spirit of its own enactment, and Congress confirmed +all they classed as coming under the principles of the act. In +other parts of Louisiana, and in Florida, the same harassing and +ruinous process had been gone through in respect to the claims +of foreign origin--limitations, as in Missouri, upon the kind of +claims which might be confirmed, excluding minerals and saline +waters--limitations upon the quantity to be confirmed, so as +to split or grant, and divide it between the grantee and the +government--the former having to divide again with an agent or +attorney--and limitations upon the inception of the titles which +might be examined, so as to confine the origination to particular +officers, and forms. The act conformed to all previous ones, of +requiring no examination of a title which was complete under the +previous governments. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXII. + +"EFFECTS OF THE VETO." + + +Under this caption a general register commenced in all the +newspapers opposed to the election of General Jackson (and they were +a great majority of the whole number published), immediately after +the delivery of the veto message, and were continued down to the +day of election, all tending to show the disastrous consequences +upon the business of the country, and upon his own popularity, +resulting from that act. To judge from these items it would seem +that the property of the country was nearly destroyed, and the +General's popularity entirely; and that both were to remain in +that state until the bank was rechartered. Their character was +to show the decline which had taken place in the price of labor, +produce, and property--the stoppage and suspension of buildings, +improvements, and useful enterprises--the renunciation of the +President by his old friends--the scarcity of money and the high +rate of interest--and the consequent pervading distress of the whole +community. These lugubrious memorandums of calamities produced by +the conduct of one man were duly collected from the papers in +which they were chronicled and registered in "Niles' Register," for +the information of posterity; and a few items now selected from +the general registration will show to what extent this business +of distressing the country--(taking the facts to be true), or of +alarming it (taking them to be false), was carried by the great +moneyed corporation, which, according to its own showing, had power +to destroy all local banks; and consequently to injure the whole +business of the community. The following are a few of these items--a +small number of each class, by way of showing the character of the +whole: + + "On the day of the receipt of the President's bank veto in + New-York, four hundred and thirty-seven shares of United + States Bank stock were sold at a decline of four per centum + from the rates of the preceding day. We learn from Cincinnati + that, within two days after the veto reached that city, + building-bricks fell from five dollars to three dollars per + thousand. A general consternation is represented to have + pervaded the city. An intelligent friend of General Jackson, + at Cincinnati, states, as the opinion of the best informed men + there, that the veto has caused a depreciation of the real + estate of the city, of from twenty-five to thirty-three and one + third per cent."--"A thousand people assembled at Richmond, + Kentucky, to protest against the veto."--"The veto reached + a meeting of citizens, in Mason county, Kentucky, which had + assembled to hear the speeches of the opposing candidates for + the legislature, on which two of the administration candidates + immediately withdrew themselves from the contest, declaring that + they could support the administration no longer."--"Lexington, + Kentucky: July 25th. A call, signed by fifty citizens of + great respectability, formerly supporters of General Jackson, + announced their renunciation of him, and invited all others, + in the like situation with themselves, to assemble in public + meeting and declare their sentiments. A large and very + respectable meeting ensued."--"Louisville, Kentucky: July 18. + Forty citizens, ex-friends of General Jackson, called a meeting, + to express their sentiments on the veto, declaring that they + could no longer support him. In consequence, one of the largest + meetings ever held in Louisville was convened, and condemned + the veto, the anti-tariff and anti-internal improvement policy + of General Jackson, and accused him of a breach of promise, in + becoming a second time a candidate for the Presidency."--"At + Pittsburg, seventy former friends of General Jackson called a + meeting of those who had renounced him, which was numerously and + respectably attended, the veto condemned, and the bank applauded + as necessary to the prosperity of the country."--"Irish + meeting in Philadelphia. A call, signed by above two thousand + naturalized Irishmen, seceding from General Jackson, invited + their fellow-countrymen to meet and choose between the tyrant + and the bank, and gave rise to a numerous assemblage in + Independence Square, at which strong resolutions were adopted, + renouncing Jackson and his measures, opposing his re-election + and sustaining the bank."--"The New Orleans emporium mentions, + among other deleterious effects of the bank veto, at that place, + that one of the State banks had already commenced discounting + four months' paper, at eight per centum."--"Cincinnati farmers + look here! We are credibly informed that several merchants in + this city, in making contracts for their winter supplies of + pork, are offering to contract to pay two dollars fifty cents + per hundred, if Clay is elected, and one dollar fifty cents, + if Jackson is elected. Such is the effect of the veto. This is + something that people can understand."--"Baltimore. A great + many mechanics are thrown out of employment by the stoppage + of building. The prospect ahead is, that we shall have a very + distressing winter. There will be a swift reduction of prices + to the laboring classes. Many who subsisted upon labor, will + lack regular employment, and have to depend upon chance or + charity; and many will go supperless to bed who deserve to + be filled."--"Cincinnati. Facts are stubborn things. It is + a fact that, last year, before this time, $300,000 had been + advanced, by citizens of this place, to farmers for pork, and + now, not one dollar. So much for the veto."--"Brownsville, + Pennsylvania. We understand, that a large manufacturer has + discharged all his hands, and others have given notice to do + so. We understand, that not a single steamboat will be built + this season, at Wheeling, Pittsburg, or Louisville."--"Niles' + Register editorial. No King of England has dared a practical use + of the word 'veto,' for about two hundred years, or more; and it + has become obsolete in the United Kingdom of Great Britain; and + Louis Philippe would hardly retain his crown three days, were + he to veto a deliberate act of the two French Chambers, though + supported by an army of 100,000 men." + +All this distress and alarm, real and factitious, was according to +the programme which prescribed it, and easily done by the bank, +and its branches in the States: its connection with money-dealers +and brokers; its power over its debtors, and its power over the +thousand local banks, which it could destroy by an exertion of its +strength, or raise up by an extension of its favor. It was a wicked +and infamous attempt, on the part of the great moneyed corporation, +to govern the election by operating on the business and the fears of +the people--destroying some and alarming others. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIII. + +PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1832. + + +General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren were the candidates, on one side; +Mr. Clay and Mr. John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, on the other, +and the result of no election had ever been looked to with more +solicitude. It was a question of systems and of measures, and +tried in the persons of men who stood out boldly and unequivocally +in the representation of their respective sides. Renewal of the +national bank charter, continuance of the high protective policy, +distribution of the public land money, internal improvement by the +federal government, removal of the Indians, interference between +Georgia and the Cherokees, and the whole American system were +staked on the issue, represented on one side by Mr. Clay and Mr. +Sergeant, and opposed, on the other, by General Jackson and Mr. +Van Buren. The defeat of Mr. Clay, and the consequent condemnation +of his measures, was complete and overwhelming. He received but +forty-nine votes out of a totality of two hundred and eighty-eight! +And this result is not to be attributed, as done by Mons. de +Tocqueville, to military fame. General Jackson was now a tried +statesman, and great issues were made in his person, and discussed +in every form of speech and writing, and in every forum, State, +and federal--from the halls of Congress to township meetings--and +his success was not only triumphant but progressive. His vote was +a large increase upon the preceding one of 1828, as that itself +had been upon the previous one of 1824. The result was hailed with +general satisfaction, as settling questions of national disturbance, +and leaving a clear field, as it was hoped, for future temperate +and useful legislation. The vice-presidential election, also, had a +point and a lesson in it. Besides concurring with General Jackson +in his systems of policy, Mr. Van Buren had, in his own person, +questions which concerned himself, and which went to his character +as a fair and honorable man. He had been rejected by the Senate +as minister to the court of Great Britain, under circumstances +to give _éclat_ to the rejection, being then at his post; and on +accusations of prostituting official station to party intrigue and +elevation, and humbling his country before Great Britain to obtain +as a favor what was due as a right. He had also been accused of +breaking up friendship between General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun, for +the purpose of getting a rival out of the way--contriving for that +purpose the dissolution of the cabinet, the resuscitation of the +buried question of the punishment of General Jackson in Mr. Monroe's +cabinet, and a system of intrigues to destroy Mr. Calhoun--all +brought forward imposingly in senatorial and Congress debates, in +pamphlets and periodicals, and in every variety of speech and of +newspaper publication; and all with the avowed purpose of showing +him unworthy to be elected Vice-President. Yet, he was elected--and +triumphantly--receiving the same vote with General Jackson, except +that of Pennsylvania, which went to one of her own citizens, Mr. +William Wilkins, then senator in Congress, and afterwards Minister +to Russia, and Secretary of War. Another circumstance attended +this election, of ominous character, and deriving emphasis from +the state of the times. South Carolina refused to vote in it; +that is to say, voted with neither party, and threw away her vote +upon citizens who were not candidates, and who received no vote +but her own; namely, Governor John Floyd of Virginia, and Mr. +Henry Lee of Massachusetts: a dereliction not to be accounted for +upon any intelligible or consistent reason, seeing that the rival +candidates held the opposite sides of the system of which the State +complained, and that the success of one was to be its overthrow; +of the other, to be its confirmation. This circumstance, coupled +with the nullification attitude which the State had assumed, gave +significance to this separation from the other States in the +matter of the election: a separation too marked not to be noted, +and interpreted by current events too clearly to be misunderstood. +Another circumstance attended this election, of a nature not of +itself to command commemoration, but worthy to be remembered for the +lesson it reads to all political parties founded upon one idea, and +especially when that idea has nothing political in it; it was the +anti-masonic vote of the State of Vermont, for Mr. Wirt, late United +States Attorney-General, for President; and for Mr. Amos Ellmaker of +Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. The cause of that vote was this: +some years before, a citizen of New-York, one Mr. Morgan, a member +of the Freemason fraternity, had disappeared, under circumstances +which induced the belief that he had been secretly put to death, by +order of the society, for divulging their secret. A great popular +ferment grew out of this belief, spreading into neighboring States, +with an outcry against all masons, and all secret societies, and +a demand for their suppression. Politicians embarked on this +current; turned it into the field of elections, and made it potent +in governing many. After obtaining dominion over so many local and +State elections, "anti-masonry," as the new enthusiasm was called, +aspired to higher game, undertook to govern presidential candidates, +subjecting them to interrogatories upon the point of their masonic +faith; and eventually set up candidates of their own for these two +high offices. The trial was made in the persons of Messrs. Wirt +and Ellmaker, and resulted in giving them seven votes--the vote of +Vermont alone--and, in showing the weakness of the party, and its +consequent inutility as a political machine. The rest is soon told. +Anti-masonry soon ceased to have a distinctive existence; died out, +and, in its death, left a lesson to all political parties founded in +one idea--especially when that idea has nothing political in it. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIV. + +FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT JACKSON AFTER HIS SECOND ELECTION. + + +This must have been an occasion of great and honest exultation +to General Jackson--a re-election after a four years' trial of +his administration, over an opposition so formidable, and after +having assumed responsibilities so vast, and by a majority so +triumphant--and his message directed to the same members, who, four +months before, had been denouncing his measures, and consigning +himself to popular condemnation. He doubtless enjoyed a feeling +of elation when drawing up that message, and had a right to the +enjoyment; but no symptom of that feeling appeared in the message +itself, which, abstaining from all reference to the election, wholly +confined itself to business topics, and in the subdued style of +a business paper. Of the foreign relations he was able to give +a good, and therefore, a brief account; and proceeding quickly +to our domestic affairs gave to each head of these concerns a +succinct consideration. The state of the finances, and the public +debt, claimed his first attention. The receipts from the customs +were stated at twenty-eight millions of dollars--from the lands +at two millions--the payments on account of the public debt at +eighteen millions;--and the balance remaining to be paid at seven +millions--to which the current income would be more than adequate +notwithstanding an estimated reduction of three or four millions +from the customs in consequence of reduced duties at the preceding +session. He closed this head with the following view of the success +of his administration in extinguishing a national debt, and his +congratulations to Congress on the auspicious and rare event: + + "I cannot too cordially congratulate Congress and my + fellow-citizens on the near approach of that memorable and happy + event, the extinction of the public debt of this great and + free nation. Faithful to the wise and patriotic policy marked + out by the legislation of the country for this object, the + present administration has devoted to it all the means which + a flourishing commerce has supplied, and a prudent economy + preserved, for the public treasury. Within the four years for + which the people have confided the executive power to my charge, + fifty-eight millions of dollars will have been applied to the + payment of the public debt. That this has been accomplished + without stinting the expenditures for all other proper objects, + will be seen by referring to the liberal provision made, during + the same period, for the support and increase of our means of + maritime and military defence, for internal improvements of a + national character, for the removal and preservation of the + Indians and, lastly, for the gallant veterans of the Revolution." + +To the gratifying fact of the extinction of the debt, General +Jackson wished to add the substantial benefit of release from the +burthens which it imposed--an object desirable in itself, and to +all the States, and particularly to those of the South, greatly +dissatisfied with the burthens of the tariff, and with the large +expenditures which took place in other quarters of the Union. +Sixteen millions of dollars, he stated to be the outlay of the +federal government for all objects exclusive of the public debt; so +that ten millions might be subject to reduction: and this to be +effected so as to retain a protecting duty in favor of the articles +essential to our defence and comfort in time of war. On this point +he said: + + "Those who take an enlarged view of the condition of our + country, must be satisfied that the policy of protection must + be ultimately limited to those articles of domestic manufacture + which are indispensable to our safety in time of war. Within + this scope, on a reasonable scale, it is recommended by every + consideration of patriotism and duty, which will doubtless + always secure to it a liberal and efficient support. But beyond + this object, we have already seen the operation of the system + productive of discontent. In some sections of the republic, its + influence is deprecated as tending to concentrate wealth into a + few hands, and as creating those germs of dependence and vice + which, in other countries, have characterized the existence of + monopolies, and proved so destructive of liberty and the general + good. A large portion of the people, in one section of the + republic, declares it not only inexpedient on these grounds, but + as disturbing the equal relations of property by legislation, + and therefore unconstitutional and unjust." + +On the subject of the public lands his recommendations were brief +and clear, and embraced the subject at the two great points which +distinguish the statesman's view from that of a mere politician. He +looked at them under the great aspect of settlement and cultivation, +and the release of the new States from the presence of a great +foreign landholder within their limits. The sale of the salable +parts to actual settlers at what they cost the United States, and +the cession of the unsold parts within a reasonable time to the +States in which they lie, was his wise recommendation; and thus +expressed: + + "It seems to me to be our true policy that the public lands + shall cease as soon as practicable, to be a source of revenue, + and that they be sold to settlers in limited parcels, at a price + barely sufficient to reimburse to the United States the expense + of the present system, and the cost arising under our Indian + compacts. The advantages of accurate surveys and undoubted + titles, now secured to purchasers, seem to forbid the abolition + of the present system, because none can be substituted which + will more perfectly accomplish these important ends. It is + desirable, however, that, in convenient time, this machinery + be withdrawn from the States, and that the right of soil, and + the future disposition of it, be surrendered to the States, + respectively, in which it lies. + + "The adventurous and hardy population of the West, besides + contributing their equal share of taxation under our impost + system, have, in this progress of our government, for the + lands they occupy, paid into the treasury a large proportion + of forty millions of dollars, and, of the revenue received + therefrom, but a small part has been expended amongst them. + When, to the disadvantage of their situation in this respect, + we add the consideration that it is their labor alone which + gives real value to the lands, and that the proceeds arising + from their sale are distributed chiefly among States which had + not originally any claim to them, and which have enjoyed the + undivided emolument arising from the sale of their own lands, + it cannot be expected that the new States will remain longer + contented with the present policy, after the payment of the + public debt. To avert the consequences which may be apprehended + from this cause, to put an end for ever to all partial and + interested legislation on the subject, and to afford to every + American citizen of enterprise, the opportunity of securing an + independent freehold, it seems to me, therefore, best to abandon + the idea of raising a future revenue out of the public lands." + +These are the grounds upon which the members from the new States +should unite and stand. The Indian title has been extinguished +within their limits; the federal title should be extinguished +also. A stream of agriculturists is constantly pouring into their +bosom--many of them without the means of purchasing land--and to +all of them the whole of their means needed in its improvement and +cultivation. Donations then, or sales at barely reimbursing prices, +is the wise policy of the government; and a day should be fixed by +Congress in every State (regulated by the quantity of public land +within its limits), after which the surrender of the remainder +should take effect within the State; and the whole federal machinery +for the sale of the lands be withdrawn from it. In thus filling +the new States and Territories with independent landholders--with +men having a stake in the soil--the federal government would +itself be receiving, and that for ever, the two things of which +every government has need: namely, perennial revenue, and military +service. The cultivation of the lands would bring in well-regulated +revenue through the course of circulation, and, what Mr. Burke +calls, "the political secretions of the State." Their population +would be a perpetual army for the service of the country when +needed. It is the true and original defence of nations--the +incitement and reward for defence--a freehold, and arms to defend +it. It is a source of defence which preceded standing armies, and +should supersede them; and pre-eminently belongs to a republic, +and above all to the republic of the United States, so abounding +in the means of creating these defenders, and needing them so +much. To say nothing of nearer domains, there is the broad expanse +from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean, all needing settlers +and defenders. Cover it with freeholders, and you have all the +defenders that are required--all that interior savages, or exterior +foreigners, could ever render necessary to appear in arms. In a mere +military point of view, and as assuring the cheap and efficient +defence of the nation, our border, and our distant public territory, +should be promptly covered with freehold settlers. + + * * * * * + +On the subject of the removal of the Indians, the message said: + + "I am happy to inform you, that the wise and humane policy + of transferring from the eastern to the western side of the + Mississippi, the remnants of our aboriginal tribes, with their + own consent, and upon just terms, has been steadily pursued, and + is approaching, I trust, its consummation. By reference to the + report of the Secretary of War, and to the documents submitted + with it, you will see the progress which has been made since + your last session in the arrangement of the various matters + connected with our Indian relations. With one exception, every + subject involving any question of conflicting jurisdiction, or + of peculiar difficulty, has been happily disposed of, and the + conviction evidently gains ground among the Indians, that their + removal to the country assigned by the United States for their + permanent residence, furnishes the only hope of their ultimate + prosperity. + + "With that portion of the Cherokees, however, living within the + State of Georgia, it has been found impracticable, as yet, to + make a satisfactory adjustment. Such was my anxiety to remove + all the grounds of complaint, and to bring to a termination the + difficulties in which they are involved, that I directed the + very liberal propositions to be made to them which accompany + the documents herewith submitted. They cannot but have seen in + these offers the evidence of the strongest disposition, on the + part of the government, to deal justly and liberally with them. + An ample indemnity was offered for their present possessions, + a liberal provision for their future support and improvement, + and full security for their private and political rights. + Whatever difference of opinion may have prevailed respecting + the just claims of these people, there will probably be none + respecting the liberality of the propositions, and very little + respecting the expediency of their immediate acceptance. They + were, however, rejected, and thus the position of these Indians + remains unchanged, as do the views communicated in my message to + the Senate, of February 22, 1831." + +The President does not mention the obstacles which delayed the +humane policy of transferring the Indian tribes to the west of the +Mississippi, nor allude to the causes which prevented the remaining +Cherokees in Georgia from accepting the liberal terms offered +them, and joining the emigrated portion of their tribe on the +Arkansas; but these obstacles and causes were known to the public, +and the knowledge of them was carried into the parliamentary, the +legislative, and the judicial history of the country. These removals +were seized upon by party spirit as soon as General Jackson took +up the policy of his predecessors, and undertook to complete what +they had began. His injustice and tyranny to the Indians became a +theme of political party vituperation; and the South, and Georgia +especially, a new battle-field for political warfare. The extension +of her laws and jurisdiction over the part of her territory +still inhabited by a part of the Cherokees, was the signal for +concentrating upon that theatre the sympathies, and the interference +of politicians and of missionaries. Congress was appealed to; +and refused the intervention of its authority. The Supreme Court +was applied to to stay, by an injunction, the operation of the +laws of Georgia, on the Indian part of the State; and refused the +application, for want of jurisdiction of the question. It was +applied to to bring the case of the missionaries before itself, +and did so, reversing the judgment of the Georgia State Court, and +pronouncing one of its own; which was disregarded. It was applied +to to reverse the judgment in the case of Tassells, and the writ +of error was issued to bring up the case; and on the day appointed +Tassells was hanged. The missionaries were released as soon as they +ceased their appeals to the Supreme Court, and addressed themselves +to the Governor of Georgia, to whom belonged the pardoning power; +and the correspondence and communications which took place between +themselves and Governor Lumpkin showed that they were emissaries, as +well as missionaries, and acting a prescribed part for the "good of +the country"--as they expressed it. They came from the North, and +returned to it as soon as released. All Georgia was outraged, and +justly, at this political interference in her affairs, and this +intrusive philanthropy in behalf of Indians to whom she gave the +same protection as to her own citizens, and at these attempts, so +repeatedly made to bring her before the Supreme Court. Her governors +(Troup, Gilmer, and Lumpkin,) to whom it successively belonged to +represent the rights and dignity of the State, did so with firmness +and moderation; and, in the end, all her objects were attained, +and the interference and intrusion ceased; and the issue of the +presidential election rebuked the political and ecclesiastical +intermeddlers in her affairs. + +A passage in the message startled the friends of the Bank of the +United States, and, in fact, took the public by surprise. It was +an intimation of the insolvency of the bank, and of the insecurity +of the public deposits therein; and a recommendation to have the +affairs of the institution thoroughly investigated. It was in these +terms: + + "Such measures as are within the reach of the Secretary of + the Treasury have been taken to enable him to judge whether + the public deposits in that institution may be regarded as + entirely safe; but as his limited power may prove inadequate + to this object, I recommend the subject to the attention + of Congress, under the firm belief that it is worthy their + serious investigation. An inquiry into the transactions of the + institution, embracing the branches as well as the principal + bank, seems called for by the credit which is given throughout + the country to many serious charges impeaching its character, + and which, if true, may justly excite the apprehension that it + is no longer a safe depository of the money of the people." + +This recommendation gave rise to proceedings in Congress, which will +be noted in their proper place. The intimation of insolvency was +received with scorn by the friends of the great corporation--with +incredulity by the masses--and with a belief that it was true +only by the few who closely observed the signs of the times, and +by those who confided in the sagacity and provident foresight of +Jackson (by no means inconsiderable either in number or judgment). +For my own part I had not suspicioned insolvency when I commenced +my opposition to the renewed charter; and was only brought to that +suspicion, and in fact, conviction, by seeing the flagrant manner in +which the institution resisted investigation, when proposed under +circumstances which rendered it obligatory to its honor; and which +could only be so resisted from a consciousness that, if searched, +something would be found worse than any thing charged. The only +circumstance mentioned by the President to countenance suspicion was +the conduct of the bank in relation to the payment of five millions +of the three per cent. stock, ordered to have been paid at the +bank in the October preceding (and where the money, according to +its returns, was in deposit); and instead of paying which the bank +secretly sent an agent to London to obtain delay from the creditors +for six, nine and twelve months; and even to purchase a part of the +stock on its account--which was done--and in clear violation of its +charter (which forbids the institution to traffic in the stocks of +the United States). This delay, with the insufficient and illegal +reason given for it (for no reason could be legal or sufficient +while admitting the money to be in her hands, and that which the +bank gave related to the cholera, and the ever-ready excuse of +accommodation to the public), could only be accounted for from an +inability to produce the funds; in other words, that while her +returns to the treasury admitted she had the money, the state of her +vaults showed that she had it not. This view was further confirmed +by her attempt to get a virtual loan to meet the payment, if delay +could not be obtained, or the stock purchased, in the application +to the London house of the Barings to draw upon it for the amount +uncovered by delay or by purchase. + +But the salient passage in the message--the one which gave it a new +and broad emphasis in the public mind--was the part which related to +the attitude of South Carolina. The proceedings of that State had +now reached a point which commanded the attention of all America, +and could not be overlooked in the President's message. Organized +opposition, and forcible resistance to the laws, took their open +form; and brought up the question of the governmental enforcement of +these laws, or submission to their violation. The question made a +crisis; and the President thus brought the subject before Congress: + + "It is my painful duty to state, that, in one quarter of the + United States, opposition to the revenue laws has risen to a + height which threatens to thwart their execution, if not to + endanger the integrity of the Union. Whatever obstructions + may be thrown in the way of the judicial authorities of the + general government, it is hoped they will be able, peaceably, + to overcome them by the prudence of their own officers, and + the patriotism of the people. But should this reasonable + reliance on the moderation and good sense of all portions of + our fellow-citizens be disappointed, it is believed that the + laws themselves are fully adequate to the suppression of such + attempts as may be immediately made. Should the exigency arise, + rendering the execution of the existing laws impracticable, + from any cause whatever, prompt notice of it will be given to + Congress, with the suggestion of such views and measures as may + be deemed necessary to meet it." + +Nothing could be more temperate, subdued, and even conciliatory +than the tone and language of this indispensable notice. The +President could not avoid bringing the subject to the notice of +Congress; and could not have done it in a more unexceptionable +manner. His language was that of justice and mildness. The peaceful +administration of the laws were still relied upon, and if any +thing further became necessary he promised an immediate notice to +Congress. In the mean time, and in a previous part of his message, +he had shown his determination, so far as it depended on him, to +remove all just complaint of the burthens of the tariff by effecting +a reduction of many millions of the duties:--a dispensation +permitted by the extinction of the public debt within the current +year, and by the means already provided, and which would admit of an +abolition of ten to twelve millions of dollars of duties. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXV. + +BANK OF THE UNITED STATES--DELAY IN PAYING THE THREE PER +CENTS--COMMITTEE OF INVESTIGATION. + + +The President in his message had made two recommendations which +concerned the bank--one that the seven millions of stock held +therein by the United States should be sold; the other that a +committee should be appointed to investigate its condition. On +the question of referring the different parts of the message to +appropriate committees. Mr. Speight, of North Carolina, moved that +this latter clause be sent to a select committee to which Mr. Wayne, +of Georgia, proposed an amendment, that the committee should have +power to bring persons before them, and to examine them on oath, +and to call upon the bank and its branches for papers. This motion +gave rise to a contest similar to that of the preceding session on +the same point, and by the same actors--and with the same result +in favor of the bank--the debate being modified by some fresh and +material incidents. Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, had previously +procured a call to be made on the Secretary of the Treasury for the +report which his agent was employed in making upon the condition of +the bank; and wished the motion for the committee to be deferred +until that report came in. He said: + + "He had every confidence, both from his own judgment and from + information in his possession, that when the resolution he had + offered should receive its answer, and the House should have the + report of the agent sent by the Secretary of the Treasury to + inquire into the affairs of the bank, with a view to ascertain + whether it was a safe depository for the public funds, the + answer would be favorable to the bank and to the entire security + of the revenue. Mr. W. said he had hoped that the resolution + he had offered would have superseded the necessity of another + bank discussion in that House, and of the consequences upon the + financial and commercial operations of the country, and upon + the credit of our currency. He had not understood, from a hasty + reading of the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, that + that officer had expressed any desire for the appointment of any + committee on the subject. The secretary said that he had taken + steps to obtain such information as was within his control, but + that it was possible he might need further powers hereafter. + What had already been the effect throughout the country of the + broadside discharged by the message at the bank? Its stock had, + on the reception of that message, instantly fallen down to 104 + per cent. Connected with this proposition to sell the stock, + a loss had already been incurred by the government of half a + million of dollars. What further investigations did gentlemen + require? What new bill of indictment was to be presented? There + was one in the secretary's report, which was also alluded to + in the message: it was, that the bank had, by its unwaranted + action, prevented the government from redeeming the three per + cent. stock at the time it desired. But what was the actual + state of the fact? What had the bank done to prevent such + redemption? It had done nothing more nor less than what it had + been required by the government to do." + +The objection to inquiry, made by Mr. Wickliffe, that it depreciated +the stock, and made a loss of the difference to its holders, was +entirely fallacious, as fluctuations in the price of stocks are +greatly under the control of those who gamble in them, and who seize +every circumstance, alternately to depress and exalt them; and the +fluctuations affect nobody but those who are buyers or sellers. Yet +this objection was gravely resorted to every time that any movement +was made which affected the bank; and arithmetical calculations +were gravely gone into to show, upon each decline of the stock, how +much money each stockholder had lost. On this occasion the loss of +the United States was set down at half a million of dollars:--which +was recovered four days afterwards upon the reading of the report +of the treasury agent, favorable to the bank, and which enabled the +dealers to put up the shares to 112 again. In the mean time nobody +lost any thing but the gamblers; and that was nothing to the public, +as the loss of one was the gain of the other: and the thing balanced +itself. Holders for investment neither lost, nor gained. For the +rest, Mr. Wayne, of Georgia, replied: + + "It has been said that nothing was now before the House to + make an inquiry into the condition of the bank desirable or + necessary. He would refer to the President's message, and to + the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, both suggesting + an examination, to ascertain if the bank was, or would be in + future, a safe depository for the public funds. Mr. W. did not + say it was not, but an inquiry into the fact might be very + proper notwithstanding; and the President and Secretary, in + suggesting it, had imputed no suspicion of the insolvency of + the bank. Eventual ability to discharge all of its obligations + is not of itself enough to entitle the bank to the confidence + of the government. Its management, and the spirit in which it + is managed, in direct reference to the government, or to those + administering it, may make investigation proper. What was the + Executive's complaint against the bank? That it had interfered + with the payment of the public debt, and would postpone the + payment of five millions of it for a year after the time fixed + upon for its redemption, by becoming actually or nominally the + possessors of that amount of the three per centum stock, though + the charter prohibited it from holding such stock, and from all + advantages which might accrue from the purchase of it. True, the + bank had disavowed the ownership. But of that sum which had been + bought by Baring, Brothers, & Co., under the agreement with the + agent of the bank, at ninety-one and a half, and the cost of + which had been charged to the bank, who would derive the benefit + of the difference between the cost of it and the par value, + which the government will pay? Mr. W. knew this gain would be + effected by what may be the rate of exchange between the United + States and England, but still there would be gain, and who was + to receive it? Baring, Brothers, & Co.? No. The bank was, by + agreement, charged with the cost of it, in a separate account, + on the books of Baring, Brothers, & Co., and it had agreed to + pay interest upon the amount, until the stock was redeemed. + + "The bank being prohibited to deal in such stock, it would + be well to inquire, even under the present arrangements with + Baring, Brothers, & Co., whether the charter, in this respect, + was substantially complied with. Mr. W. would not now go into + the question of the policy of the arrangement by the bank + concerning the three per cents. It may eventuate in great public + benefit, as regards the commerce of the country; but if it does, + it will be no apology for the temerity of an interference with + the fixed policy of the government, in regard to the payment of + the national debt; a policy, which those who administer the bank + knew had been fixed by all who, by law, can have any agency in + its payment. Nor can any apology be found for it in the letter + of the Secretary of the Treasury of the 19th of July last to Mr. + Biddle; for, at Philadelphia, the day before, on the 18th, he + employed an agent to go to England, and had given instructions + to make an arrangement, by which the payment of the public debt + was to be postponed until October, 1833." + +Mr. Watmough, representative from the district in which the bank was +situated, disclaimed any intention to thwart any course which the +House was disposed to take; but said that the charges against the +bank had painfully affected the feelings of honorable men connected +with the corporation, and injured its character; and deprecated the +appointment of a select committee; and proposed the Committee of +Ways and Means--the same which had twice reported in favor of the +bank:--and he had no objection that this committee should be clothed +with all the powers proposed by Mr. Wayne to be conferred upon the +select committee. In this state of the question the report of the +treasury agent came in, and deserves to be remembered in contrast +with the actual condition of the bank as afterwards discovered, +and as a specimen of the imposing exhibit of its affairs which a +moneyed corporation can make when actually insolvent. The report, +founded on the statements furnished by the institution itself, +presented a superb condition--near eighty millions of assets (to be +precise, $79,593,870), to meet all demands against it, amounting +to thirty-seven millions and a quarter--leaving forty-two millions +and a quarter for the stockholders; of which thirty-five millions +would reimburse the stock, and seven and a quarter millions remain +for dividend. Mr. Polk stated that this report was a mere compendium +of the monthly bank returns, showing nothing which these returns +did not show; and especially nothing of the eight millions of +unavailable funds which had been ascertained to exist, and which +had been accumulating for eighteen years. On the point of the +non-payment of the three per cents, he said: + + "The Secretary of the Treasury had given public notice that the + whole amount of the three per cents would be paid off on the + first of July. The bank was apprised of this arrangement, and + on its application the treasury department consented to suspend + the redemption of one third of this stock until the first of + October, the bank paying the interest in the mean while. But, if + the condition of the bank was so very prosperous, as has been + represented, why did it make so great a sacrifice as to pay + interest on that large amount for three months, for the sake of + deferring the payment? The Secretary of the Treasury, on the + 19th July, determined that two thirds of the stock should be + paid off on the first of October; and, on the 18th of July what + did the bank do? It dispatched an agent to London, without the + knowledge of the treasury, and for what? In effect, to borrow + 5,000,000 dollars, for that was the amount of the transaction. + From this fact Mr. P. inferred that the bank was unable to go + on without the public deposits. They then made a communication + to the treasury, stating that the bank would hold up such + certificates as it could control, to suit the convenience of + the government; but was it on this account that they sent their + agent to London? Did the president of the bank himself assign + this reason? No; he gave a very different account of the matter; + he said that the bank apprehended that the spread of the cholera + might produce great distress in the country, and that the + bank wished to hold itself in an attitude to meet the public + exigencies, and that with this view an agent was sent to make an + arrangement with the Barings for withholding three millions of + the stock." + +The motion of Mr. Watmough to refer the inquiry to the Committee +of Ways and Means, was carried; and that committee soon reported: +_first_, on the point of postponing the payment of a part of the +three per cents, that the business being now closed by the actual +payment of that stock, it no longer presented any important or +practicable point of inquiry, and did not call for any action of +Congress upon it; and, _secondly_, on the point of the safety of +the public deposits, that there could be no doubt of the entire +soundness of the whole bank capital, after meeting all demands upon +it, either by its bill holders or the government; and that such +was the opinion of the committee, who felt great confidence in +the well-known character and intelligence of the directors, whose +testimony supported the facts on which the committee's opinion +rested. And they concluded with a resolve which they recommended to +the adoption of the House, "That the government deposits may, in the +opinion of the House, be safely continued in the Bank of the United +States." Mr. Polk, one of the committee, dissented from the report, +and argued thus against it: + + "He hoped that gentlemen who believed the time of the House, at + this period of the session, to be necessarily valuable, would + not press the consideration of this resolution upon the House + at this juncture. During the small remainder of the session, + there were several measures of the highest public importance + which remained to be acted on. For one, he was extremely anxious + that the session should close by 12 o'clock to-night, in order + that a sitting upon the Sabbath might be avoided. He would not + proceed in expressing his views until he should understand from + gentlemen whether they intended to press the House to a vote + upon this resolution. [A remark was made by Mr. Ingersoll, which + was not heard distinctly by the reporter.] Mr. P. proceeded. + As it had been indicated that gentlemen intended to take a + vote upon the resolution, he would ask whether it was possible + for the members of the House to express their opinions on this + subject with an adequate knowledge of the facts. The Committee + of Ways and Means had spent nearly the whole session in the + examination of one or two points connected with this subject. + The range of investigation had been, of necessity, much less + extensive than the deep importance of the subject required; + but, before any opinion could be properly expressed, it was + important that the facts developed by the committee should be + understood. There had been no opportunity for this, and there + was no necessity for the expression of a premature opinion + unless it was considered essential to whitewash the bank. If + the friends of the bank deemed it indispensably necessary, in + order to sustain the bank, to call for an expression of opinion, + where the House had enjoyed no opportunity of examining the + testimony and proof upon which alone a correct opinion could + be formed, he should be compelled, briefly, to present one or + two facts to the House. It had been one of the objects of the + Committee of Ways and Means to ascertain the circumstances + relative to the postponement of the redemption of the three + per cent. stock by the bank. With the mass of other important + duties devolving upon the committee, as full an investigation + of the condition of the bank as was desirable could not be + expected. The committee, therefore, had been obliged to limit + their inquiries to this subject of the three per cents; the + other subjects of investigation were only incidental. Upon + this main subject of inquiry the whole committee, majority as + well as minority, were of opinion that the bank had exceeded + its legitimate authority, and had taken measures which were in + direct violation of its charter. He would read a single sentence + from the report of the majority, which conclusively established + this position. In the transactions upon this subject, the + majority of the committee expressly say, in their report, that + 'the bank exceeded its legitimate authority, and that this + proceeding had no sufficient warrant in the correspondence of + the Secretary of the Treasury.' Could language be more explicit? + It was then the unanimous opinion of the committee, upon this + main topic of inquiry, that the bank had exceeded its legitimate + authority, and that its proceedings relative to the three per + cents had no sufficient warrant in the correspondence of the + Secretary of the Treasury. The Bank of the United States, it + must be remembered, had been made the place of deposit for the + public revenues, for the purpose of meeting the expenditures + of the government. With the public money in its vaults, it was + bound to pay the demands of the government. Among these demands + upon the public money in the bank, was that portion of the + public debt of which the redemption had been ordered. Had the + bank manifested a willingness to pay out the public money in + its possession for this object? On examination of the evidence + it would be found that, as early as March, 1832, the president + of the bank, without the knowledge of the government directors, + had instituted a correspondence with certain holders of the + public debt, for the purpose of procuring a postponement of its + redemption. There was, at that time, no cholera, which could be + charged with giving occasion to the correspondence. When public + notice had been given by the Secretary of the Treasury of the + redemption of the debt, the president of the bank immediately + came to Washington, and requested that the redemption might + be postponed. And what was the reason then assigned by the + president of the bank for this postponement? Why, that the + measure would enable the bank to afford the merchants great + facilities for the transaction of their business under an + extraordinary pressure upon the money market. What was the + evidence upon this point? The proof distinctly showed that there + was no extraordinary pressure. The monthly statements of the + bank established that there was, in fact, a very considerable + curtailment of the facilities given to the merchants in the + commercial cities. + + "The minority of the Committee of Ways and Means had not + disputed the ability of the bank to discharge its debts in + its own convenient time; but had the bank promptly paid the + public money deposited in its vaults when called for? As early + as October, 1831, the bank had anticipated that during the + course of 1832 it would not be allowed the undisturbed and + permanent use of the public deposits. In the circular orders to + the several branches which were then issued, the necessity was + stated for collecting the means for refunding those deposits + from the loans which were then outstanding. Efforts were made by + the branches of the West to make collections for that object; + but those efforts entirely failed. The debts due upon loans made + by the Western branches had not been curtailed. It was found + impossible to curtail them. As the list of discounts had gone + down, the list of domestic bills of exchange had gone up. The + application before alluded to was made in March to Mr. Ludlow, + of New-York, who represented about 1,700,000 of the public debt + to postpone its redemption. This expedient also failed. Then + the president of the bank came to Washington for the purpose of + procuring the postponement of the period of redemption, upon + the ground that an extraordinary pressure existed, and the + public interest would be promoted by enabling the bank to use + the public money in affording facilities to the merchants of + the commercial cities. And what next? In July, the president of + the bank and the exchange committee, without the knowledge of + the head of the treasury, or of the board of directors of the + bank, instituted a secret mission to England, for the purpose + of negotiating in effect a loan of five millions of dollars, + for which the bank was to pay interest. The propriety or object + of this mission was not laid before the board of directors, and + no clue was afforded to the government. Mr. Cadwalader went to + England upon this secret mission. On the 1st of October the + bank was advised of the arrangement made by Mr. Cadwalader, + by which it was agreed, in behalf of the bank, to purchase + a part of the debt of the foreign holders, and to defer the + redemption of a part. Now, it was well known to every one who + had taken the trouble to read the charter of the bank, that it + was expressly prohibited from purchasing public stock. On the + 15th October it was discovered that Cadwalader had exceeded his + instructions. This discovery by the bank took place immediately + after the circular letter of Baring, Brothers, & Co., of London, + announcing that the arrangement had been published in one of + the New-York papers. This circular gave the first information + to the government, or to any one in this country, as far as he + was advised, excepting the exchange committee of the bank, of + the object of Cadwalader's mission. In the limited time which + could now be spared for this discussion, it was impossible + to go through the particulars of this scheme. It would be + seen, on examination of the transaction, that the bank had + directly interfered with the redemption of the public debt, for + the obvious reason that it was unable to refund the public + deposits. The cholera was not the ground of the correspondence + with Ludlow. It was not the cholera which brought the president + of the bank to Washington, to request the postponement of the + redemption of the debt; nor was it the cholera which led to + the resolution of the exchange committee of the bank to send + Cadwalader to England. The true disorder was, the impossibility + in which the bank found itself to concentrate its funds and + diminish its loans. It had been stated in the report of the + majority of the committee, that the certificates of the greater + portion of the three per cents had been surrendered. It had + been said that there was now less than a million of this + debt outstanding. In point of fact, it would seem, from the + correspondence, that between one and two millions of the debts + of which the certificates had been surrendered, had been paid by + the bank becoming debtor to the foreign holder instead of the + government. The directors appear to suppose this has not been + the case, but the correspondence shows that the certificates + have been sent home under this arrangement. After this brief + explanation of the conduct of the bank in relation to the public + deposits, he would ask whether it was necessary to sustain the + credit of the bank by adopting this resolution." + +The vote on the resolution was taken, and resulted in a large +majority for it--109 to 46. Those who voted in the negative were: +John Anderson of Maine; William G. Angel of New-York; William S. +Archer of Virginia; James Bates of Maine; Samuel Beardsley of +New-York; John T. Bergen of New-York; Laughlin Bethune of North +Carolina; John Blair of Tennessee; Joseph Bouck of New-York; John +C. Brodhead of New-York; John Carr of Indiana; Clement C. Clay +of Alabama; Henry W. Connor of North Carolina; Charles Dayan of +New-York; Thomas Davenport of Virginia; William Fitzgerald of +Tennessee; ---- Clayton of Georgia; Nathan Gaither of Kentucky; +William F. Gordon of Virginia; Thomas H. Hall of North Carolina; +Joseph W. Harper of New Hampshire; ---- Hawkins; Michael Hoffman +of New-York; Henry Horn of Pennsylvania; Henry Hubbard of New +Hampshire; Adam King of Pennsylvania; Joseph Lecompte of Kentucky; +Chittenden Lyon of Kentucky; Joel K. Mann of Kentucky; Samuel W. +Mardis of Alabama; John Y. Mason of Virginia; Jonathan McCarty +of Indiana; Thomas R. Mitchell of South Carolina; Job Pierson of +New-York; James K. Polk of Tennessee; Edward C. Reed of New-York; +Nathan Soule of New-York; Jesse Speight of North Carolina; Jas. +Standifer of Tennessee; Francis Thomas of Maryland; Wiley Thompson +of Georgia; Daniel Wardwell of New-York; James M. Wayne of Georgia; +John W. Weeks of New Hampshire; Campbell P. White of New-York: J. +T. H. Worthington of Maryland. And thus the bank not only escaped +without censure, but received high commendation; while its conduct +in relation to the three per cents placed it unequivocally in the +category of an unfaithful and prevaricating agent; and only left +open the inquiry whether its conduct was the result of inability +to pay the sum required, or a disposition to make something +for itself or to favor its debtors--the most innocent of these +motives being negatived by the sinister concealment of the whole +transaction from the government (after getting delay from it), its +concealment from the public, its concealment even from its own +board of directors--its entire secrecy from beginning to end--until +accidentally discovered through a London letter published in +New-York. These are the same three per cents, the redemption of +which through an enlargement of the powers of the sinking fund +commissioners I had endeavored to effect some years before, when +they could have been bought at about sixty-six cents in the dollar, +and when my attempt was defeated by the friends of the bank. They +were now paid at the rate of one hundred cents to the dollar, losing +all the time the interest on the deposits, in bank, and about four +millions for the appreciation of the stock. The attempt to get this +stock redeemed, or interest on the deposits, was one of my first +financial movements after I came into the Senate; and the ease with +which the bank defeated me, preventing both the extinction of the +debt and the payment of interest on the deposits, convinced me how +futile it was to attempt any legislation unfavorable to the bank in +a case which concerned itself. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVI. + +ABOLITION OF IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. + + +The philanthropic Col. R. M. Johnson, of Kentucky, had labored +for years at this humane consummation; and finally saw his +labors successful. An act of Congress was passed abolishing all +imprisonment for debt, under process from the courts of the United +States: the only extent to which an act of Congress could go, by +force of its enactments; but it could go much further, and did, in +the force of example and influence; and has led to the cessation +of the practice of imprisoning the debtors, in all, or nearly all, +of the States and Territories of the Union; and without the evil +consequences which had been dreaded from the loss of this remedy +over the person. It led to a great many oppressions while it +existed, and was often relied upon in extending credit, or inducing +improvident people to incur debt, where there was no means to pay +it, or property to meet it, in the hands of the debtor himself; but +reliance wholly placed upon the sympathies of third persons, to +save a friend or relative from confinement in a prison. The dower +of wives, and the purses of fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, +were thus laid under contribution by heartless creditors; and scenes +of cruel oppression were witnessed in every State. Insolvent laws +and bankrupt laws were invented to cover the evil, and to separate +the unfortunate from the fraudulent debtor; but they were slow and +imperfect in operation, and did not reach the cases in which a +cold and cruel calculation was made upon the sympathies of friends +and relatives, or upon the chances of catching the debtor in some +strange and unbefriended place. A broader remedy was wanted, and +it was found in the total abolition of the practice, leaving in +full force all the remedies against fraudulent evasions of debt. In +one of his reports on the subject, Col. Johnson thus deduced the +history of this custom, called "barbarous," but only to be found in +civilized countries: + + "In ancient Greece, the power of creditors over the persons + of their debtors was absolute; and, as in all cases where + despotic control is tolerated, their rapacity was boundless. + They compelled the insolvent debtors to cultivate their lands + like cattle, to perform the service of beasts of burden, and to + transfer to them their sons and daughters, whom they exported as + slaves to foreign countries. + + "These acts of cruelty were tolerated in Athens, during her + more barbarous state, and in perfect consonance with the + character of a people who could elevate a Draco, and bow to + his mandates, registered in blood. But the wisdom of Solon + corrected the evil. Athens felt the benefit of the reform; and + the pen of the historian has recorded the name of her lawgiver + as the benefactor of man. In ancient Rome, the condition of + the unfortunate poor was still more abject. The cruelty of the + Twelve Tables against insolvent debtors should be held up as + a beacon of warning to all modern nations. After judgment was + obtained, thirty days of grace were allowed before a Roman was + delivered into the power of his creditor. After this period, he + was retained in a private prison, with twelve ounces of rice for + his daily sustenance. He might be bound with a chain of fifteen + pounds weight; and his misery was three times exposed in the + market-place, to excite the compassion of his friends. At the + expiration of sixty days, the debt was discharged by the loss of + liberty or life. The insolvent debtor was either put to death + or sold in foreign slavery beyond the Tiber. But, if several + creditors were alike obstinate and unrelenting, they might + legally dismember his body, and satiate their revenge by this + horrid partition. Though the refinements of modern criticisms + have endeavored to divest this ancient cruelty of its horrors, + the faithful Gibbon, who is not remarkable for his partiality + to the poorer class, preferring the liberal sense of antiquity, + draws this dark picture of the effect of giving the creditor + power over the person of the debtor. No sooner was the Roman + empire subverted than the delusion of Roman perfection began + to vanish, and then the absurdity and cruelty of this system + began to be exploded--a system which convulsed Greece and Rome, + and filled the world with misery, and, without one redeeming + benefit, could no longer be endured--and, to the honor of + humanity, for about one thousand years, during the middle ages, + imprisonment for debt was generally abolished. They seemed to + have understood what, in more modern times, we are less ready + to comprehend, that power, in any degree, over the person of + the debtor, is the same in principle, varying only in degree, + whether it be to imprison, to enslave, to brand, to dismember, + or to divide his body. But, as the lapse of time removed to a + greater distance the cruelties which had been suffered, the + cupidity of the affluent found means again to introduce the + system; but by such slow gradations, that the unsuspecting poor + were scarcely conscious of the change. + + "The history of English jurisprudence furnishes the remarkable + fact, that, for many centuries, personal liberty could not be + violated for debt. Property alone could be taken to satisfy a + pecuniary demand. It was not until the reign of Henry III., + in the thirteenth century, that the principle of imprisonment + for debt was recognized in the land of our ancestors, and that + was in favor of the barons alone; the nobility against their + bailiffs, who had received their rents and had appropriated them + to their own use. Here was the shadow of a pretext. The great + objection to the punishment was, that it was inflicted at the + pleasure of the baron, without a trial: an evil incident to + aristocracies, but obnoxious to republics. The courts, under + the pretext of imputed crime, or constructive violence, on the + part of the debtor, soon began to extend the principle, but + without legislative sanction. In the eleventh year of the reign + of Edward I., the immediate successor of Henry, the right of + imprisoning debtors was extended to merchants--Jewish merchants + excepted, on account of their heterodoxy in religion--and was + exercised with great severity. This extension was an act of + policy on the part of the monarch. The ascendency obtained by + the barons menaced the power of the throne; and, to counteract + their influence, the merchants, a numerous and wealthy class, + were selected by the monarch, and invested with the same + authority over their debtors. + + "But England was not yet prepared for the yoke. She could endure + an hereditary nobility; she could tolerate a monarchy; but she + could not yet resign her unfortunate sons, indiscriminately, + to the prison. The barons and the merchants had gained the + power over their victims; yet more than sixty years elapsed + before Parliament dared to venture another act recognizing the + principle. During this period, imprisonment for debt had, in + some degree, lost its novelty. The incarceration of the debtor + began to make the impression that fraud, and not misfortune, had + brought on his catastrophe, and that he was, therefore, unworthy + of the protection of the law, and too degraded for the society + of the world. Parliament then ventured, in the reign of Edward + III., in the fourteenth century, to extend the principle to two + other cases--debt and detinue. This measure opened the door for + the impositions which were gradually introduced by judicial + usurpation, and have resulted in the most cruel oppression. + Parliament, for one hundred and fifty years afterwards, did not + venture to outrage the sentiments of an injured and indignant + people, by extending the power to ordinary creditors. But they + had laid the foundation, and an irresponsible judiciary reared + the superstructure. From the twenty-fourth year of the reign + of Edward III., to the nineteenth of Henry VIII., the subject + slumbered in Parliament. In the mean time, all the ingenuity + of the courts was employed, by the introduction of artificial + forms and legal fictions, to extend the power of imprisonment + for debt in cases not provided for by statute. The jurisdiction + of the court called the King's Bench, extended to all crimes or + disturbances against the peace. Under this court of criminal + jurisdiction, the debtor was arrested by what was called the + writ of Middlesex, upon a supposed trespass or outrage against + the peace and dignity of the crown. Thus, by a fictitious + construction, the person who owed his neighbor was supposed to + be, what every one knew him not to be, a violator of the peace, + and an offender against the dignity of the crown; and while + his body was held in custody for this crime, he was proceeded + against in a civil action, for which he was not liable to arrest + under statute. The jurisdiction of the court of common pleas + extended to civil actions arising between individuals upon + private transactions. To sustain its importance upon a scale + equal with that of its rival, this court also adopted its + fictions, and extended its power upon artificial construction, + quite as far beyond its statutory prerogative; and upon the + fictitious plea of trespass, constituting a legal supposition + of outrage against the peace of the kingdom, authorized the + writ of capias, and subsequent imprisonment, in cases where + a summons only was warranted by law. The court of exchequer + was designed to protect the king's revenue, and had no legal + jurisdiction, except in cases of debtors to the public. The + ingenuity of this court found means to extend its jurisdiction + to all cases of debt between individuals, upon the fictitious + plea that the plaintiff, who instituted the suit, was a debtor + to the king, and rendered the less able to discharge the debt + by the default of the defendant. Upon this artificial pretext, + that the defendant was debtor to the king's debtor, the court + of exchequer, to secure the king's revenue, usurped the power + of arraigning and imprisoning debtors of every description. + Thus, these rival courts, each ambitious to sustain its relative + importance, and extend its jurisdiction, introduced, as legal + facts, the most palpable fictions, and sustained the most absurd + solecisms as legal syllogisms. + + "Where the person of the debtor was, by statute, held sacred, + the courts devised the means of construing the demand of a + debt into the supposition of a crime, for which he was subject + to arrest on mesne process; and the evidence of debt, into + the conviction of a crime against the peace of the kingdom, + for which he was deprived of his liberty at the pleasure of + the offended party. These practices of the courts obtained by + regular gradation. Each act of usurpation was a precedent for + similar outrages, until the system became general, and at length + received the sanction of Parliament. The spirit of avarice + finally gained a complete triumph over personal liberty. The + sacred claims of misfortune were disregarded, and, to the iron + grasp of poverty, were added the degradation of infamy, and the + misery of the dungeon. + + "While imprisonment for debt is sanctioned, the threats of the + creditor are a source of perpetual distress to the dependent, + friendless debtor, holding his liberty by sufferance alone. + Temptations to oppression are constantly in view. The means of + injustice are always at hand; and even helpless females are not + exempted from the barbarous practice. In a land of liberty, + enjoying, in all other respects, the freest and happiest + government with which the world was ever blessed, it is matter + of astonishment that this cruel custom, so anomalous to all our + institutions, inflicting so much misery upon society, should + have been so long endured." + +The act was passed soon after this masterly report was made, +followed by similar acts in most of the States; and has been +attended every where with the beneficial effect resulting from the +suppression of any false and vicious principle in legislation. It +is a false and vicious principle in the system of credit to admit a +calculation for the chance of payment, founded on the sympathy and +alarms of third parties, or on the degradation and incarceration +of the debtor himself. Such a principle is morally wrong, and +practically unjust; and there is no excuse for it in the plea of +fraud. The idea of fraud does not enter into the contract at its +original formation; and if occurring afterwards, and the debtor +undertakes to defraud his creditor, there is a code of law made for +the case; and every case should rest upon its own circumstances. +As an element of credit, imprisonment for debt is condemned by +morality, by humanity, and by the science of political economy; and +its abolition has worked well in reducing the elements of credit +to their legitimate derivation in the personal character, visible +means, and present securities of the contracting debtor. And, if +in that way, it has diminished in any degree the wide circle of +credit, that is an additional advantage gained to the good order of +society and to the solidity of the social edifice. And thus, as in +so many other instances, American legislation has ameliorated the +law derived from our English ancestors, and given an example which +British legislation may some day follow.--In addition to the honor +of seeing this humane act passed during his administration, General +Jackson had the further and higher honor of having twice recommended +it to the favorable consideration of Congress. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVII. + +SALE OF UNITED STATES STOCK IN THE NATIONAL BANK. + + +The President in his annual message had recommended the sale of +this stock, and all other stock held by the United States in +corporate companies, with the view to disconnecting the government +from such corporations, and from all pursuits properly belonging +to individuals. And he made the recommendation upon the political +principle which condemns the partnership of the government with a +corporation; and upon the economical principle which condemns the +national pursuit of any branch of industry and leaves the profit, +or loss of all such pursuits to individual enterprise; and upon the +belief, in this instance, that the partnership was unsafe--that +the firm would fail--and the stockholders lose their investment. +In conformity to this recommendation, a bill was brought into the +House of Representatives to sell the public stock held in the Bank +of the United States, being seven millions of dollars in amount, and +consisting of a national stock bearing five per centum interest. +The bill was met at the threshold by the parliamentary motion which +implies the unworthiness of the subject to be considered; namely, +the motion to reject the bill at the first reading. That reading is +never for consideration, but for information only; and, although +debatable, carries the implication of unfitness for debate, and of +some flagrant enormity which requires rejection, without the honor +of the usual forms of legislation. That motion was made by a friend +of the bank, and seconded by the member (Mr. Watmough) supposed to +be familiar with the wishes of the bank directory. The speakers on +each side gave vent to expressions which showed that they felt the +indignity that was offered to the bill, one side in promoting--the +other in opposing the motion. Mr. Wickliffe, the mover, said: "He +was impelled, by a sense of duty to his constituents and to his +country, to do in this case, what he had never done before--to move +the rejection of a bill at its first reading. There are cases in +which courtesy should yield to the demands of justice and public +duty; and this, in my humble opinion, is one of them. It is a bill +fraught with ruin to all private interests, except the interest +of the stockjobbers of Wall-street." Mr. Watmough expressed his +indignation and amazement at the appearance of such a bill, and even +fell upon the committee which reported it with so much personality +as drew a call to order from the Speaker of the House. "He expressed +his sincere regret at the necessity which compelled him to intrude +upon the House, and to express his opinion on the bill, and his +indignation against this persecution of a national institution. +He was at a loss to say which feeling predominated in his +bosom--amazement, at the want of financial skill in the supporters +of the bill--or detestation of the unrelenting spirit of the +administration persecution on that floor of an institution admitted +by the wisest and the best men of the times to be absolutely +essential to the existence and safety of this Union, and almost to +that of the constitution itself which formed its basis. He said, he +was amazed that such a bill, at such a crisis, could emanate from +any committee of this House; but his amazement was diminished when +he recalled to mind the source from which it came. It came from the +Committee of Ways and Means, and was under the parental care of the +gentleman from Tennessee. Need he say more?" + +Now, the member thus referred to, and who, after being pointed +out as the guardian of the bill required nothing more to be said, +was Mr. Polk, afterwards President of the United States. But +parliamentary law is no respecter of persons, and would consider +the indecorum and outrage of the allusion equally reprehensible in +the case of the youngest and least considerable member; and the +language is noted here to show the indignities to which members were +subjected in the House for presuming to take any step concerning +the bank which militated against that corporation. The sale of the +government stock was no injury to the capital of the bank: it was +no extinction of seven millions of capital but a mere transfer of +that amount to private stockholders--such transfer as took place +daily among the private stockholders. The only injury could be to +the market price of the stock in the possible decline involved +in the withdrawal of a large stockholder; but that was a damage, +in the eye of the law and of morality, without injury; that is, +without injustice--the stockholder having a right to do so without +the assignment of reasons to be judged of by the corporation; and +consequently a right to sell out and withdraw when he judged his +money to be unsafe, or unprofitably placed, and susceptible of a +better investment. + +Mr. Polk remarked upon the unusual but not unexpected opposition to +the bill; and said if the House was now forced to a decision, it +would be done without opportunity for deliberation. He vindicated +the bill from any necessary connection with the bank--with its +eulogy or censure. This eulogy or censure had no necessary +connection with a proposition to sell the government stock. It was +a plain business proceeding. The bill authorized the Secretary +of the Treasury to sell the stock upon such terms as he should +deem best for the government. It was an isolated proposition. It +proposed to disenthral the government from a partnership with this +incorporated company. It proposed to get rid of the interest which +the government had in this moneyed monopoly; and to do so by a sale +of the government stocks, and on terms not below the market price. +He was not disposed to depreciate the value of the article which he +wished to sell. He was willing to rest upon the right to sell. The +friends of the bank themselves raised the question of solvency, it +would seem, that they might have an opportunity, to eulogize the +institution under the forms of a defence. This was not the time for +such a discussion--for an inquiry into the conduct and condition of +the bank. + +The argument and the right were with the supporters of the bill; +but they signified nothing against the firm majority, which not +only stood by the corporation in its trials, but supported it in +its wishes. The bill was immediately rejected, and by a summary +process which inflicted a new indignity. It was voted down under +the operation of the "previous question," which, cutting off all +debate, and all amendments, consigns a measure to instant and silent +decision--like the "_mort sans phrase_" (death without talk) of the +Abbé Sièyes, at the condemnation of Louis the Sixteenth. But the +vote was not very triumphant--one of the leanest majorities, in +fact, which the bank had received: one hundred and two to ninety-one. + +The negative votes were: + + "Messrs. Adair, Alexander, R. Allen, Anderson, Angel, Archer, + Barnwell, James Bates, Beardsley Bell, Bergen, Bethune, James + Blair, John Blair, Boon, Bouck, Bouldin, John Brodhead, John C. + Brodhead, Cambreleng, Chandler, Chinn, Claiborne, Clay, Clayton, + Coke, Connor, Davenport, Dayan, Doubleday, Draper, Felder, Ford, + Foster, Gaither, Gilmore, Gordon, Griffin, Thomas H. Hall, + William Hall, Harper, Hawkins, Hoffman, Holland, Horn, Howard, + Hubbard, Isacks, Jarvis, Jewett, Richard M. Johnson, Cave + Johnson, Kavanagh, Kennon, Adam King, John King, Lamar, Lansing, + Leavitt, Lecompte, Lewis, Lyon, Mann, Mardis, Mason, McCarty, + Wm. McCoy, McIntire, McKay, Mitchell, Newnan, Nuckolls, Patton, + Pierson, Plummer, Polk, Edward C. Reed, Roane, Soule, Speight, + Standifer, John Thompson, Verplanck, Ward, Wardwell, Wayne, + Weeks, Campbell, P. White, Worthington.--91." + +Such was the result of this attempt, on the part of the government, +to exercise the most ordinary right of a stockholder to sell its +shares: opposed, insulted, defeated; and by the power of the bank in +Congress, of whose members subsequent investigations showed above +fifty to be borrowers from the institution; and many to be on the +list of its retained attorneys. But this was not the first time +the government had been so treated. The same thing had happened +once before, and about in the same way; but without the same excuse +of persecution and enmity to the corporation; for, it was before +the time of General Jackson's Presidency; to wit, in the year +1827, and under the Presidency of Mr. Quincy Adams. Mr. Philip P. +Barbour, representative from Virginia, moved an inquiry, at that +time, into the expediency of selling the United States stock in the +bank: the consideration of the resolution was delayed a week, the +time necessary for a communication with Philadelphia. At the end +of the week, the resolution was taken up, and summarily rejected. +Mr. Barbour had placed his proposition wholly upon the ground of a +public advantage in selling its stock, unconnected with any reason +disparaging to the bank, and in a way to avoid, as he believed, any +opposition. He said: + + "The House were aware that the government holds, at this time, + stock of the Bank of the United States, to the amount of seven + millions of dollars, which stock was at present worth in market + about twenty-three and one half per cent. advance above its par + value. If the whole of this stock should now be sold by the + government, it would net a profit of one million and six hundred + thousand dollars above the nominal amount of the stock. Such + being the case, he thought it deserved the serious consideration + of the House, whether it would not be a prudent and proper + measure now to sell out that stock. It had been said, Mr. B. + observed, by one of the best writers on political economy, with + whom he was acquainted, that the pecuniary affairs of nations + bore a close analogy to those of private households: in both, + their prosperity mainly depended on a vigilant and effective + management of their resources. There is, said Mr. B., an amount + of between seventeen and eighteen millions of the stock of the + United States now redeemable, and an amount of nine millions + more, which will be redeemable next year. If the interest paid + by the United States on this debt is compared with the dividend + it receives on its stock in the Bank of the United States, it + will be found that a small advantage would be gained by the + sale of the latter, in this respect; since the dividends on + bank stock are received semi-annually, while the interest of + the United States' securities is paid quarterly; this, however, + he waived as a matter of comparatively small moment. It must be + obvious, he said, that the addition of one million six hundred + thousand dollars to the available funds of the United States + will produce the extinguishment of an equivalent amount of the + public debt, and consequently relieve the interest payable + thereon, by which a saving would accrue of about one hundred + thousand dollars per annum." + +This was what Mr. Barbour said, at the time of offering the +resolution. When it came up for consideration, a week after, he +found his motion not only opposed, but his motives impeached, and +the most sinister designs imputed to himself--to him! a Virginian +country gentleman, honest and modest; ignorant of all indirection; +upright and open; a stranger to all guile; and with the simplicity +and integrity of a child. He deeply felt this impeachment of +motives, certainly the first time in his life that an indecent +imputation had ever fallen upon him; and he feelingly deprecated the +intensity of the outrage. He said: + + "We shall have fallen on evil times, indeed, if a member of this + House might not, in the integrity of his heart, rise in his + place, and offer for consideration a measure which he believed + to be for the public weal, without having all that he said and + did imputed to some hidden motive, and referred to some secret + purpose which was never presented to the public eye." + +His proposition was put to the vote, and received eight votes +besides his own. They were: Messrs. Mark Alexander, John Floyd, +John Roane, and himself, from Virginia; Thomas H. Hall, and Daniel +Turner, of North Carolina; Tomlinson Foot of Connecticut; Joseph +Lecompte, and Henry Daniel, of Kentucky. And this was the result +of that first attempt to sell the United States stock in a bank +chartered by itself and bearing its name. And now, why resuscitate +these buried recollections? I answer: for the benefit of posterity! +that they may have the benefit of our experience without the +humiliation of having undergone it, and know what kind of a master +seeks to rule over them if another national bank shall ever seek +incorporation at their hands. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVIII. + +NULLIFICATION ORDINANCE IN SOUTH CAROLINA. + + +It has been seen that the whole question of the American system, +and especially its prominent feature of a high protective tariff, +was put in issue in the presidential canvass of 1832; and that the +long session of Congress of that year was occupied by the friends +of this system in bringing forward to the best advantage all its +points, and staking its fate upon the issue of the election. +That issue was against the system; and the Congress elections +taking place contemporaneously with the presidential were of +the same character. The fate of the American system was sealed. +Its domination in federal legislation was to cease. This was +acknowledged on all hands; and it was naturally expected that all +the States, dissatisfied with that system, would be satisfied with +the view of its speedy and regular extinction, under the legislation +of the approaching session of Congress; and that expectation was +only disappointed in a single State--that of South Carolina. She +had held aloof from the presidential election--throwing away her +vote upon citizens who were not candidates--and doing nothing to aid +the election of General Jackson, with whose success her interests +and wishes were apparently identified. Instead of quieting her +apprehensions, and moderating her passion for violent remedies, the +success of the election seemed to inflame them; and the 24th of +November, just a fortnight after the election which decided the fate +of the tariff, she issued her ordinance of nullification against it, +taking into her own hands the sudden and violent redress which she +prescribed for herself. That ordinance makes an era in the history +of our Union, which requires to be studied in order to understand +the events of the times, and the history of subsequent events. It +was in these words: + + "ORDINANCE. + + "_An ordinance to nullify certain acts of the Congress of the + United States, purporting to be laws laying duties and imposts + on the importation of foreign commodities._ + + "Whereas the Congress of the United States, by various acts, + purporting to be acts laying duties and imposts on foreign + imports, but in reality intended for the protection of + domestic manufactures, and the giving of bounties to classes + and individuals engaged in particular employments, at the + expense and to the injury and oppression of other classes and + individuals, and by wholly exempting from taxation certain + foreign commodities, such as are not produced or manufactured + in the United States, to afford a pretext for imposing higher + and excessive duties on articles similar to those intended to be + protected, hath exceeded its just powers under the constitution, + which confers on it no authority to afford such protection, and + hath violated the true meaning and intent of the constitution, + which provides for equality in imposing the burdens of taxation + upon the several States and portions of the confederacy: And + whereas the said Congress, exceeding its just power to impose + taxes and collect revenue for the purpose of effecting and + accomplishing the specific objects and purposes which the + constitution of the United States authorizes it to effect and + accomplish, hath raised and collected unnecessary revenue for + objects unauthorized by the constitution. + + "We, therefore, the people of the State of South Carolina, in + convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby + declared and ordained, that the several acts and parts of acts + of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws + for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of + foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect + within the United States, and, more especially, an act entitled + 'An act in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on + imports,' approved on the nineteenth day of May, one thousand + eight hundred and twenty-eight, and also an act entitled 'An act + to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports,' + approved on the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight + hundred and thirty-two, are unauthorized by the constitution + of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent + thereof, and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this + State, its officers or citizens; and all promises, contracts, + and obligations, made or entered into, or to be made or entered + into, with purpose to secure the duties imposed by the said + acts, and all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had + in affirmance thereof, are and shall be held utterly null and + void. + + "And it is further ordained, that it shall not be lawful for any + of the constituted authorities, whether of this State or of the + United States, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the + said acts within the limits of this State; but it shall be the + duty of the legislature to adopt such measures and pass such + acts as may be necessary to give full effect to this ordinance, + and to prevent the enforcement and arrest the operation of + the said acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United + States within the limits of this State, from and after the 1st + day of February next, and the duty of all other constituted + authorities, and of all persons residing or being within the + limits of this State, and they are hereby required and enjoined + to obey and give effect to this ordinance, and such acts and + measures of the legislature as may be passed or adopted in + obedience thereto. + + "And it is further ordained, that in no case of law or equity, + decided in the courts of this State, wherein shall be drawn + in question the authority of this ordinance, or the validity + of such act or acts of the legislature as may be passed for + the purpose of giving effect thereto, or the validity of the + aforesaid acts of Congress, imposing duties, shall any appeal be + taken or allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor + shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that + purpose; and if any such appeal shall be attempted to be taken, + the courts of this State shall proceed to execute and enforce + their judgments, according to the laws and usages of the State, + without reference to such attempted appeal, and the person or + persons attempting to take such appeal may be dealt with as for + a contempt of the court. + + "And it is further ordained, that all persons now holding any + office of honor, profit, or trust, civil or military, under this + State (members of the legislature excepted), shall, within such + time, and in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe, + take an oath well and truly to obey, execute, and enforce this + ordinance, and such act or acts of the legislature as may be + passed in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and + meaning of the same; and on the neglect or omission of any such + person or persons so to do, his or their office or offices shall + be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled up as if such person + or persons were dead or had resigned; and no person hereafter + elected to any office of honor, profit, or trust, civil or + military (members of the legislature excepted), shall, until + the legislature shall otherwise provide and direct, enter on + the execution of his office, or be in any respect competent to + discharge the duties thereof, until he shall, in like manner, + have taken a similar oath; and no juror shall be empannelled in + any of the courts of this State, in any cause in which shall be + in question this ordinance, or any act of the legislature passed + in pursuance thereof, unless he shall first, in addition to the + usual oath, have taken an oath that he will well and truly obey, + execute, and enforce this ordinance, and such act or acts of the + legislature as may be passed to carry the same into operation + and effect, according to the true intent and meaning thereof. + + "And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that it may + be fully understood by the government of the United States, and + the people of the co-States, that we are determined to maintain + this our ordinance and declaration, at every hazard, do further + declare that we will not submit to the application of force, on + the part of the federal government, to reduce this State to + obedience; but that we will consider the passage, by Congress, + of any act authorizing the employment of a military or naval + force against the State of South Carolina, her constitutional + authorities or citizens; or any act abolishing or closing the + ports of this State, or any of them, or otherwise obstructing + the free ingress and egress of vessels to and from the said + ports, or any other act on the part of the federal government, + to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her + commerce, or to enforce the acts hereby declared to be null and + void, otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, + as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in + the Union; and that the people of this State wilt thenceforth + hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain + or preserve their political connection with the people of the + other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate + government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and + independent States may of right do. + + "Done in convention at Columbia, the twenty-fourth day of + November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and + thirty-two, and in the fifty-seventh year of the declaration of + the independence of the United States of America." + +This ordinance placed the State in the attitude of open, forcible +resistance to the laws of the United States, to take effect on the +first day of February next ensuing--a period within which it was +hardly possible for the existing Congress, even if so disposed, +to ameliorate obnoxious laws; and a period a month earlier than +the commencement of the legal existence of the new Congress, on +which all reliance was placed. And, in the mean time, if any +attempt should be made in any way to enforce the obnoxious laws +except through her own tribunals sworn against them, the fact of +such attempt was to terminate the continuance of South Carolina +in the Union--to absolve her from all connection with the federal +government--and to establish her as a separate government, not only +unconnected with the United States, but unconnected with any one +State. This ordinance, signed by more than a hundred citizens of +the greatest respectability, was officially communicated to the +President of the United States; and a case presented to him to test +his patriotism, his courage, and his fidelity to his inauguration +oath--an oath taken in the presence of God and man, of Heaven and +earth, "_to take care that the laws of the Union were faithfully +executed_." That President was Jackson; and the event soon proved, +what in fact no one doubted, that he was not false to his duty, his +country, and his oath. Without calling on Congress for extraordinary +powers, he merely adverted in his annual message to the attitude of +the State, and proceeded to meet the exigency by the exercise of the +powers he already possessed. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIX. + +PROCLAMATION AGAINST NULLIFICATION. + + +The ordinance of nullification reached President Jackson in +the first days of December, and on the tenth of that month the +proclamation was issued, of which the following are the essential +and leading parts: + + "Whereas a convention assembled in the State of South Carolina + have passed an ordinance, by which they declare 'that the + several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United + States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and + imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now + having actual operation and effect within the United States, + and more especially' two acts for the same purposes, passed + on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 14th of July, 1832, 'are + unauthorized by the constitution of the United States, and + violate the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null and + void, and no law,' nor binding on the citizens of that State, or + its officers: and by the said ordinance, it is further declared + to be unlawful for any of the constituted authorities of the + State or of the United States to enforce the payment of the + duties imposed by the said acts within the same State, and that + it is the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as may be + necessary to give full effect to the said ordinance: + + "And whereas, by the said ordinance, it is further ordained, + that in no case of law or equity decided in the courts of said + State, wherein shall be drawn in question the validity of the + said ordinance, or of the acts of the legislature that may be + passed to give it effect, or of the said laws of the United + States, no appeal shall be allowed to the Supreme Court of the + United States, nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or + allowed for that purpose, and that any person attempting to take + such appeal shall be punished as for a contempt of court: + + "And, finally, the said ordinance declares that the people of + South Carolina will maintain the said ordinance at every hazard; + and that they will consider the passage of any act, by Congress, + abolishing or closing the ports of the said State, or otherwise + obstructing the free ingress or egress of vessels to and from + the said ports, or any other act of the federal government to + coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her + commerce, or to enforce the said acts otherwise than through the + civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer + continuance of South Carolina in the Union; and that the people + of the said State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from + all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political + connection with the people of the other States, and will + forthwith proceed to organize a separate government, and do all + other acts and things which sovereign and independent States may + of right do: + + "And whereas the said ordinance prescribes to the people of + South Carolina a course of conduct in direct violation of their + duty as citizens of the United States, contrary to the laws + of their country, subversive of its constitution, and having + for its object the destruction of the Union--that Union which, + coeval with our political existence, led our fathers, without + any other ties to unite them than those of patriotism and a + common cause, through a sanguinary struggle to a glorious + independence--that sacred Union, hitherto inviolate, which, + perfected by our happy constitution, has brought us, by + the favor of Heaven, to a state of prosperity at home, and + high consideration abroad, rarely, if ever, equalled in the + history of nations: To preserve this bond of our political + existence from destruction, to maintain inviolate this state of + national honor and prosperity, and to justify the confidence + my fellow-citizens have reposed in me, I, Andrew Jackson, + President of the United States, have thought proper to issue + this my proclamation, stating my views of the constitution + and laws applicable to the measures adopted by the convention + of South Carolina, and to the reasons they have put forth to + sustain them, declaring the course which duty will require me to + pursue, and, appealing to the understanding and patriotism of + the people, warn them of the consequences that must inevitably + result from an observance of the dictates of the convention. + + "Strict duty would require of me nothing more than the exercise + of those powers with which I am now, or may hereafter be, + invested, for preserving the peace of the Union, and for + the execution of the laws. But the imposing aspect which + opposition has assumed in this case, by clothing itself with + State authority, and the deep interest which the people of the + United States must all feel in preventing a resort to stronger + measures, while there is a hope that any thing will be yielded + to reasoning and remonstrance, perhaps demanded, and will + certainly justify, a full exposition to South Carolina and the + nation of the views I entertain of this important question, as + well as a distinct enunciation of the course which my sense of + duty will require me to pursue. + + "The ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible right of + resisting acts which are plainly unconstitutional and too + oppressive to be endured, but on the strange position that any + one State may not only declare an act of Congress void, but + prohibit its execution; that they may do this consistently + with the constitution; that the true construction of that + instrument permits a State to retain its place in the Union, + and yet be bound by no other of its laws than those it may + choose to consider as constitutional. It is true, they add, + that to justify this abrogation of a law, it must be palpably + contrary to the constitution; but it is evident, that to give + the right of resisting laws of that description, coupled + with the uncontrolled right to decide what laws deserve that + character, is to give the power of resisting all laws. For as, + by the theory, there is no appeal, the reasons alleged by the + State, good or bad, must prevail. If it should be said that + public opinion is a sufficient check against the abuse of this + power, it may be asked why it is not deemed a sufficient guard + against the passage of an unconstitutional act by Congress. + There is, however, a restraint in this last case, which makes + the assumed power of a State more indefensible, and which + does not exist in the other. There are two appeals from an + unconstitutional act passed by Congress--one to the judiciary, + the other to the people and the States. There is no appeal from + the State decision in theory, and the practical illustration + shows that the courts are closed against an application to + review it, both judges and jurors being sworn to decide in its + favor. But reasoning on this subject is superfluous, when our + social compact, in express terms, declares that the laws of + the United States, its constitution, and treaties made under + it, are the supreme law of the land; and, for greater caution, + adds 'that the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, + any thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the + contrary notwithstanding.' And it may be asserted without fear + of refutation, that no federative government could exist without + a similar provision. Look for a moment to the consequence. If + South Carolina considers the revenue laws unconstitutional, + and has a right to prevent their execution in the port of + Charleston, there would be a clear constitutional objection to + their collection in every other port, and no revenue could be + collected any where; for all imposts must be equal. It is no + answer to repeat, that an unconstitutional law is no law, so + long as the question of its legality is to be decided by the + State itself; for every law operating injuriously upon any local + interest will be perhaps thought, and certainly represented, as + unconstitutional, and, as has been shown, there is no appeal. + + "If this doctrine had been established at an earlier day, the + Union would have been dissolved in its infancy. The excise law + in Pennsylvania, the embargo and non-intercourse law in the + Eastern States, the carriage tax in Virginia, were all deemed + unconstitutional, and were more unequal in their operation than + any of the laws now complained of; but fortunately none of + those States discovered that they had the right now claimed by + South Carolina. The war, into which we were forced to support + the dignity of the nation and the rights of our citizens, might + have ended in defeat and disgrace, instead of victory and honor, + if the States who supposed it a ruinous and unconstitutional + measure, had thought they possessed the right of nullifying + the act by which it was declared, and denying supplies for + its prosecution. Hardly and unequally as those measures bore + upon several members of the Union, to the legislatures of none + did this efficient and peaceable remedy, as it is called, + suggest itself. The discovery of this important feature in our + constitution was reserved to the present day. To the statesmen + of South Carolina belongs the invention, and upon the citizens + of that State will unfortunately fall the evils of reducing it + to practice. + + "If the doctrine of a State veto upon the laws of the Union + carries with it internal evidence of its impracticable + absurdity, our constitutional history will also afford abundant + proof that it would have been repudiated with indignation had it + been proposed to form a feature in our government. + + "In our colonial state, although dependent on another power, we + very early considered ourselves as connected by common interest + with each other. Leagues were formed for common defence, and, + before the declaration of independence, we were known in our + aggregate character as the United Colonies of America. That + decisive and important step was taken jointly. We declared + ourselves a nation by a joint, not by several acts, and when + the terms of our confederation were reduced to form, it was in + that of a solemn league of several States, by which they agreed + that they would collectively form one nation for the purpose + of conducting some certain domestic concerns and all foreign + relations. In the instrument forming that Union is found an + article which declares that 'every State shall abide by the + determinations of Congress on all questions which, by that + confederation, should be submitted to them.' + + "Under the confederation, then, no State could legally annul + a decision of the Congress, or refuse to submit to its + execution; but no provision was made to enforce these decisions. + Congress made requisitions, but they were not complied with. + The government could not operate on individuals. They had no + judiciary, no means of collecting revenue. + + "But the defects of the confederation need not be detailed. + Under its operation we could scarcely be called a nation. We + had neither prosperity at home, nor consideration abroad. This + state of things could not be endured, and our present happy + constitution was formed, but formed in vain, if this fatal + doctrine prevail. It was formed for important objects that are + announced in the preamble made in the name and by the authority + of the people of the United States, whose delegates framed, + and whose conventions approved it. The most important among + these objects, that which is placed first in rank, on which all + the others rest, is 'to form a more perfect Union.' Now, is it + possible that even if there were no express provision giving + supremacy to the constitution and laws of the United States over + those of the States--can it be conceived that an instrument made + for the purpose of 'forming a more perfect Union' than that of + the confederation, could be so constructed by the assembled + wisdom of our country, as to substitute for that confederation + a form of government dependent for its existence on the local + interest, the party spirit of a State, or of a prevailing + faction in a State? Every man of plain, unsophisticated + understanding, who hears the question, will give such an answer + as will preserve the Union. Metaphysical subtlety, in pursuit of + an impracticable theory, could alone have devised one that is + calculated to destroy it. + + "The constitution declares that the judicial powers of the + United States extend to cases arising under the laws of the + United States, and that such laws, the constitution and treaties + shall be paramount to the State constitutions and laws. The + judiciary act prescribes the mode by which the case may be + brought before a court of the United States: by appeal, when + a State tribunal shall decide against this provision of the + constitution. The ordinance declares there shall be no appeal; + makes the State law paramount to the constitution and laws of + the United States; forces judges and jurors to swear that they + will disregard their provisions; and even makes it penal in a + suitor to attempt relief by appeal. It further declares that it + shall not be lawful for the authorities of the United States, or + of that State, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the + revenue laws within its limits. + + "Here is a law of the United States, not even pretended to be + unconstitutional, repealed by the authority of a small majority + of the voters of a single State. Here is a provision of the + constitution which is solemnly abrogated by the same authority. + + "On such expositions and reasonings, the ordinance grounds not + only an assertion of the right to annul the laws of which it + complains, but to enforce it by a threat of seceding from the + Union, if any attempt is made to execute them. + + "This right to secede is deduced from the nature of the + constitution, which, they say, is a compact between sovereign + States, who have preserved their whole sovereignty, and, + therefore, are subject to no superior; that, because they made + the compact, they can break it when, in their opinion, it has + been departed from, by the other States. Fallacious as this + course of reasoning is, it enlists State pride, and finds + advocates in the honest prejudices of those who have not studied + the nature of our government sufficiently to see the radical + error on which it rests. + + "The people of the United States formed the constitution, acting + through the State legislatures in making the compact, to meet + and discuss its provisions, and acting in separate conventions + when they ratified those provisions; but, the terms used in its + construction show it to be a government in which the people of + all the States collectively are represented. We are one people + in the choice of the President and Vice-President. Here the + States have no other agency than to direct the mode in which + the votes shall be given. Candidates having the majority of all + the votes are chosen. The electors of a majority of States may + have given their votes for one candidate, and yet another may be + chosen. The people, then, and not the States, are represented in + the executive branch. + + "In the House of Representatives, there is this difference: that + the people of one State do not, as in the case of President + and Vice-President, all vote for the same officers. The people + of all the States do not vote for all the members, each State + electing only its own representatives. But this creates no + material distinction. When chosen, they are all representatives + of the United States, not representatives of the particular + State from which they come. They are paid by the United States, + not by the State, nor are they accountable to it for any act + done in the performance of their legislative functions; and + however they may in practice, as it is their duty to do, consult + and prefer the interests of their particular constituents, when + they come in conflict with any other partial or local interest, + yet it is their first and highest duty, as representatives of + the United States, to promote the general good. + + "The constitution of the United States, then, forms a + government, not a league; and whether it be formed by compact + between the States, or in any other manner, its character + is the same. It is a government in which all the people are + represented, which operates directly on the people individually, + not upon the States--they retained all the power they did not + grant. But each State, having expressly parted with so many + powers as to constitute, jointly with the other States, a + single nation, cannot, from that period, possess any right to + secede, because such secession does not break a league, but + destroys the unity of a nation; and any injury to that unity + is not only a breach which would result from the contravention + of a compact, but it is an offence against the whole Union. + To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union, + is to say that the United States are not a nation; because it + would be a solecism to contend that any part of a nation might + dissolve its connection with the other parts, to their injury or + ruin, without committing any offence. Secession, like any other + revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity + of oppression; but, to call it a constitutional right, is + confounding the meaning of terms; and can only be done through + gross error, or to deceive those who are willing to assert a + right, but would pause before they made a revolution, or incur + the penalties consequent on a failure. + + "Fellow-citizens of my native State, let me not only admonish + you, as the First Magistrate of our common country, not to incur + the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a father + would over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In + that paternal language, with that paternal feeling, let me tell + you, my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are either + deceived themselves, or wish to deceive you. Mark under what + pretences you have been led on to the brink of insurrection and + treason, on which you stand! First, a diminution of the value + of your staple commodity, lowered by over production in other + quarters, and the consequent diminution in the value of your + lands, were the sole effect of the tariff laws. + + "The effect of those laws was confessedly injurious, but the + evil was greatly exaggerated by the unfounded theory you were + taught to believe, that its burdens were in proportion to your + exports, not to your consumption of imported articles. Your + pride was roused by the assertion that a submission to those + laws was a state of vassalage, and that resistance to them + was equal, in patriotic merit, to the oppositions our fathers + offered to the oppressive laws of Great Britain. You were told + this opposition might be peaceably, might be constitutionally + made; that you might enjoy all the advantages of the Union, and + bear none of its burdens. Eloquent appeals to your passions, + to your State pride, to your native courage, to your sense + of real injury, were used to prepare you for the period when + the mask, which concealed the hideous features of disunion, + should be taken off. It fell, and you were made to look with + complacency on objects which, not long since, you would have + regarded with horror. Look back to the arts which have brought + you to this state; look forward to the consequences to which + it must inevitably lead! Look back to what was first told you + as an inducement to enter into this dangerous course. The + great political truth was repeated to you, that you had the + revolutionary right of resisting all laws that were palpably + unconstitutional and intolerably oppressive; it was added + that the right to nullify a law rested on the same principle, + but that it was a peaceable remedy! This character which was + given to it, made you receive with too much confidence the + assertions that were made of the unconstitutionality of the + law, and its oppressive effects. Mark, my fellow-citizens, + that, by the admission of your leaders, the unconstitutionality + must be palpable, or it will not justify either resistance or + nullification! What is the meaning of the word palpable, in + the sense in which it is here used? That which is apparent to + every one; that which no man of ordinary intellect will fail + to perceive. Is the unconstitutionality of these laws of that + description? Let those among your leaders who once approved + and advocated the principle of protective duties, answer the + question; and let them choose whether they will be considered + as incapable, then, of perceiving that which must have been + apparent to every man of common understanding, or as imposing + upon your confidence, and endeavoring to mislead you now. In + either case they are unsafe guides in the perilous path they + urge you to tread. Ponder well on this circumstance, and you + will know how to appreciate the exaggerated language they + address to you. They are not champions of liberty emulating the + fame of our revolutionary fathers; nor are you an oppressed + people, contending, as they repeat to you, against worse than + colonial vassalage. + + "You are free members of a flourishing and happy Union. There + is no settled design to oppress you. You have indeed felt the + unequal operation of laws which may have been unwisely, not + unconstitutionally passed; but that inequality must necessarily + be removed. At the very moment when you were madly urged on + to the unfortunate course you have begun, a change in public + opinion had commenced. The nearly approaching payment of the + public debt, and the consequent necessity of a diminution of + duties, had already produced a considerable reduction, and that, + too, on some articles of general consumption in your State. + The importance of this change was underrated, and you were + authoritatively told that no further alleviation of your burdens + was to be expected, at the very time when the condition of the + country imperiously demanded such a modification of the duties + as should reduce them to a just and equitable scale. But, as + if apprehensive of the effect of this change in allaying your + discontents, you were precipitated into the fearful state in + which you now find yourselves. + + "I adjure you, as you honor their memory; as you love the cause + of freedom, to which they dedicated their lives; as you prize + the peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens, + and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. Snatch from + the archives of your State the disorganizing edict of its + convention; bid its members to reassemble, and promulgate the + decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which + alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity and honor. Tell + them that, compared to disunion, all other evils are light, + because that brings with it an accumulation of all. Declare + that you will never take the field unless the star-spangled + banner of your country shall float over you; that you will not + be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you + live, as the authors of the first attack on the constitution of + your country. Its destroyers you cannot be. You may disturb its + peace, you may interrupt the course of its prosperity, you may + cloud its reputation for stability, but its tranquillity will + be restored, its prosperity will return, and the stain upon its + national character will be transferred, and remain an eternal + blot on the memory of those who caused the disorder. + + "Fellow-citizens of the United States, the threat of unhallowed + disunion, the names of those, once respected, by whom it is + uttered the array of military force to support it, denote the + approach of a crisis in our affairs, on which the continuance of + our unexampled prosperity, our political existence, and perhaps + that of all free governments, may depend. The conjuncture + demanded a free, a full, and explicit enunciation, not only + of my intentions, but of my principles of action; and, as the + claim was asserted of a right by a State to annul the laws of + the Union, and even to secede from it at pleasure, a frank + exposition of my opinions in relation to the origin and form of + our government, and the construction I give to the instrument by + which it was created, seemed to be proper. Having the fullest + confidence in the justness of the legal and constitutional + opinion of my duties, which has been expressed, I rely, with + equal confidence, on your undivided support in my determination + to execute the laws, to preserve the Union by all constitutional + means, to arrest, if possible, by moderate, but firm measures, + the necessity of a recourse to force; and, if it be the will of + Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the + shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that + it be not called down by any offensive act on the part of the + United States. + + "Fellow-citizens: The momentous case is before you. On your + undivided support of your government depends the decision of + the great question it involves, whether your sacred Union will + be preserved, and the blessings it secures to us as one people + shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt that the unanimity with + which that decision will be expressed, will be such as to + inspire new confidence in republican institutions, and that the + prudence, the wisdom, and the courage which it will bring to + their defence, will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to + our children." + + + + +CHAPTER LXXX. + +MESSAGE ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA PROCEEDINGS. + + +In his annual message to Congress at the opening of the session +1832-'33, the President had adverted to the proceedings in South +Carolina, hinting at their character as inimical to the Union, +expressing his belief that the action in reducing the duties which +the extinction of the public debt would permit and require, would +put an end to those proceedings; and if they did not, and those +proceedings continued, and the executive government should need +greater powers than it possessed to overcome them, he promised +to make a communication to Congress, showing the state of the +question,--what had been done to compose it,--and asking for the +powers which the exigency demanded. The proceedings not ceasing, and +taking daily a more aggravated form in the organization of troops, +the collection of arms and of munitions of war, and in declarations +hostile to the Union, he found himself required, early in January, +to make the promised communication; and did so in a message to both +Houses, of which the following are the essential parts which belong +to history and posterity: + + "Since the date of my last annual message, I have had officially + transmitted to me by the Governor of South Carolina, which I + now communicate to Congress, a copy of the ordinance passed by + the convention which assembled at Columbia, in the State of + South Carolina, in November last, declaring certain acts of + Congress therein mentioned, within the limits of that State, + to be absolutely null and void, and making it the duty of the + legislature to pass such laws as would be necessary to carry the + same into effect from and after the 1st of February next. + + "The consequences to which this extraordinary defiance of the + just authority of the government might too surely lead, were + clearly foreseen, and it was impossible for me to hesitate as to + my own duty in such an emergency. + + "The ordinance had been passed, however, without any certain + knowledge of the recommendation which, from a view of the + interests of the nation at large, the Executive had determined + to submit to Congress; and a hope was indulged that, by frankly + explaining his sentiments, and the nature of those duties which + the crisis would devolve upon him, the authorities of South + Carolina might be induced to retrace their steps. In this hope, + I determined to issue my proclamation of the 10th of December + last, a copy of which I now lay before Congress. + + "I regret to inform you that these reasonable expectations have + not been realized, and that the several acts of the legislature + of South Carolina, which I now lay before you, and which have, + all and each of them, finally passed, after a knowledge of the + desire of the administration to modify the laws complained of, + are too well calculated, both in their positive enactments, and + in the spirit of opposition which they obviously encourage, + wholly to obstruct the collection of the revenue within the + limits of that State. + + "Up to this period, neither the recommendation of the Executive + in regard to our financial policy and impost system, nor the + disposition manifested by Congress promptly to act upon that + subject, nor the unequivocal expression of the public will, in + all parts of the Union, appears to have produced any relaxation + in the measures of opposition adopted by the State of South + Carolina; nor is there any reason to hope that the ordinance and + laws will be abandoned. + + "I have no knowledge that an attempt has been made, or that it + is in contemplation, to reassemble either the convention or the + legislature; and it will be perceived that the interval before + the 1st of February is too short to admit of the preliminary + steps necessary for that purpose. It appears, moreover, that + the State authorities are actively organizing their military + resources, and providing the means, and giving the most solemn + assurances of protection and support to all who shall enlist in + opposition to the revenue laws. + + "A recent proclamation of the present Governor of South Carolina + has openly defied the authority of the Executive of the Union, + and general orders from the head quarters of the State announced + his determination to accept the services of volunteers, and his + belief that, should their country need their services, they will + be found at the post of honor and duty, ready to lay down their + lives in her defence. Under these orders, the forces referred to + are directed to 'hold themselves in readiness to take the field + at a moment's warning;' and in the city of Charleston, within a + collection district and a port of entry, a rendezvous has been + opened for the purpose of enlisting men for the magazine and + municipal guard. Thus, South Carolina presents herself in the + attitude of hostile preparation, and ready even for military + violence, if need be, to enforce her laws for preventing the + collection of the duties within her limits. + + "Proceedings thus announced and matured must be distinguished + from menaces of unlawful resistance by irregular bodies of + people, who, acting under temporary delusion, may be restrained + by reflection, and the influence of public opinion, from + the commission of actual outrage. In the present instance, + aggression may be regarded as committed when it is officially + authorized, and the means of enforcing it fully provided. + + "Under these circumstances, there can be no doubt that it is + the determination of the authorities of South Carolina fully + to carry into effect their ordinance and laws after the 1st of + February. It therefore becomes my duty to bring the subject + to the serious consideration of Congress, in order that such + measures as they, in their wisdom, may deem fit, shall be + seasonably provided; and that it may be thereby understood that, + while the government is disposed to remove all just cause of + complaint, as far as may be practicable consistently with a + proper regard to the interests of the community at large, it is, + nevertheless, determined that the supremacy of the laws shall be + maintained. + + "In making this communication, it appears to me to be proper not + only that I should lay before you the acts and proceedings of + South Carolina, but that I should also fully acquaint you with + those steps which I have already caused to be taken for the + due collection of the revenue, and with my views of the subject + generally, that the suggestions which the constitution requires + me to make, in regard to your future legislation, may be better + understood. + + "This subject, having early attracted the anxious attention of + the Executive, as soon as it was probable that the authorities + of South Carolina seriously meditated resistance to the faithful + execution of the revenue laws, it was deemed advisable that + the Secretary of the Treasury should particularly instruct the + officers of the United States, in that part of the Union, as to + the nature of the duties prescribed by the existing laws. + + "Instructions were accordingly issued, on the sixth of November, + to the collectors in that State, pointing out their respective + duties, and enjoining upon each a firm and vigilant, but + discreet performance of them in the emergency then apprehended. + + "I herewith transmit copies of these instructions, and of the + letter addressed to the district attorney, requesting his + co-operation. These instructions were dictated in the hope that, + as the opposition to the laws, by the anomalous proceeding + of nullification, was represented to be of a pacific nature, + to be pursued, substantially, according to the forms of the + constitution, and without resorting, in any event, to force + or violence, the measures of its advocates would be taken in + conformity with that profession, and, on such supposition, the + means afforded by the existing laws would have been adequate to + meet any emergency likely to arise. + + "It was, however, not possible altogether to suppress + apprehension of the excesses to which the excitement prevailing + in that quarter might lead; but it certainly was not foreseen + that the meditated obstruction to the laws would so soon openly + assume its present character. + + "Subsequently to the date of those instructions, however, the + ordinance of the convention was passed, which, if complied with + by the people of that State, must effectually render inoperative + the present revenue laws within her limits. + + "This solemn denunciation of the laws and authority of the + United States has been followed up by a series of acts, on + the part of the authorities of that State, which manifest a + determination to render inevitable a resort to those measures of + self-defence which the paramount duty of the federal government + requires; but, upon the adoption of which, that State will + proceed to execute the purpose it has avowed in this ordinance, + of withdrawing from the Union. + + "On the 27th of November, the legislature assembled at Columbia; + and, on their meeting, the Governor laid before them the + ordinance of the convention. In his message, on that occasion, + he acquaints them that 'this ordinance has thus become a part of + the fundamental law of South Carolina;' that 'the die has been + at last cast, and South Carolina has at length appealed to her + ulterior sovereignty as a member of this confederacy, and has + planted herself on her reserved rights. The rightful exercise of + this power is not a question which we shall any longer argue. + It is sufficient that she has willed it, and that the act is + done; nor is its strict compatibility with our constitutional + obligation to all laws passed by the general government, within + the authorized grants of power, to be drawn in question, when + this interposition is exerted in a case in which the compact + has been palpably, deliberately, and dangerously violated. That + it brings up a conjuncture of deep and momentous interest, + is neither to be concealed nor denied. This crisis presents + a class of duties which is referable to yourselves. You have + been commanded by the people, in their highest sovereignty, + to take care that, within the limits of this State, their + will shall be obeyed.' 'The measure of legislation,' he says, + 'which you have to employ at this crisis, is the precise amount + of such enactments as may be necessary to render it utterly + impossible to collect, within our limits, the duties imposed + by the protective tariffs thus nullified.' He proceeds: 'That + you should arm every citizen with a civil process, by which he + may claim, if he pleases, a restitution of his goods, seized + under the existing imposts, on his giving security to abide the + issue of a suit at law, and, at the same time, define what shall + constitute treason against the State, and, by a bill of pains + and penalties, compel obedience, and punish disobedience to your + own laws, are points too obvious to require any discussion. In + one word, you must survey the whole ground. You must look to and + provide for all possible contingencies. In your own limits, your + own courts of judicature must not only be supreme, but you must + look to the ultimate issue of any conflict of jurisdiction and + power between them and the courts of the United States.' + + "The Governor also asks for power to grant clearances, in + violation of the laws of the Union; and, to prepare for the + alternative which must happen, unless the United States shall + passively surrender their authority, and the Executive, + disregarding his oath, refrain from executing the laws of + the Union, he recommends a thorough revision of the militia + system, and that the Governor 'be authorized to accept, for + the defence of Charleston and its dependencies, the services + of two thousand volunteers, either by companies or files;' and + that they be formed into a legionary brigade, consisting of + infantry, riflemen, cavalry, field and heavy artillery; and + that they be 'armed and equipped, from the public arsenals, + completely for the field; and that appropriations be made for + supplying all deficiencies in our munitions of war.' In addition + to these volunteer draughts, he recommends that the Governor be + authorized 'to accept the services of ten thousand volunteers + from the other divisions of the State, to be organized and + arranged in regiments and brigades;' the officers to be selected + by the commander-in-chief; and that this whole force be called + the 'State Guard.' + + "If these measures cannot be defeated and overcome, by the + power conferred by the constitution on the federal government, + the constitution must be considered as incompetent to its + own defence, the supremacy of the laws is at an end, and the + rights and liberties of the citizens can no longer receive + protection from the government of the Union. They not only + abrogate the acts of Congress, commonly called the tariff + acts of 1828 and 1832, but they prostrate and sweep away, at + once, and without exception, every act, and every part of + every act, imposing any amount whatever of duty on any foreign + merchandise; and, virtually, every existing act which has ever + been passed authorizing the collection of the revenue, including + the act of 1816, and, also, the collection law of 1799, the + constitutionality of which has never been questioned. It is + not only those duties which are charged to have been imposed + for the protection of manufactures that are thereby repealed, + but all others, though laid for the purpose of revenue merely, + and upon articles in no degree suspected of being objects of + protection. The whole revenue system of the United States, in + South Carolina, is obstructed and overthrown; and the government + is absolutely prohibited from collecting any part of the public + revenue within the limits of that State. Henceforth, not only + the citizens of South Carolina and of the United States, but + the subjects of foreign states, may import any description + or quantity of merchandise into the ports of South Carolina, + without the payment of any duty whatsoever. That State is thus + relieved from the payment of any part of the public burdens, and + duties and imposts are not only rendered not uniform throughout + the United States, but a direct and ruinous preference is given + to the ports of that State over those of all the other States of + the Union, in manifest violation of the positive provisions of + the constitution. + + "In point of duration, also, those aggressions upon the + authority of Congress, which, by the ordinance, are made part of + the fundamental law of South Carolina, are absolute, indefinite, + and without limitation. They neither prescribe the period when + they shall cease, nor indicate any conditions upon which those + who have thus undertaken to arrest the operation of the laws + are to retrace their steps, and rescind their measures. They + offer to the United States no alternative but unconditional + submission. If the scope of the ordinance is to be received as + the scale of concession, their demands can be satisfied only by + a repeal of the whole system of revenue laws, and by abstaining + from the collection of any duties or imposts whatsoever. + + "By these various proceedings, therefore, the State of South + Carolina has forced the general government, unavoidably, to + decide the new and dangerous alternative of permitting a State + to obstruct the execution of the laws within its limits, or + seeing it attempt to execute a threat of withdrawing from + the Union. That portion of the people at present exercising + the authority of the State, solemnly assert their right to do + either, and as solemnly announce their determination to do one + or the other. + + "In my opinion, both purposes are to be regarded as + revolutionary in their character and tendency, and subversive + of the supremacy of the laws and of the integrity of the Union. + The result of each is the same; since a State in which, by a + usurpation of power, the constitutional authority of the federal + government is openly defied and set aside, wants only the form + to be independent of the Union. + + "The right of the people of a single State to absolve themselves + at will, and without the consent of the other States, from their + most solemn obligations, and hazard the liberties and happiness + of the millions composing this Union, cannot be acknowledged. + Such authority is believed to be utterly repugnant both to the + principles upon which the general government is constituted, and + to the objects which it is expressly formed to attain. + + "Against all acts which may be alleged to transcend the + constitutional power of the government, or which may be + inconvenient or oppressive in their operation, the constitution + itself has prescribed the modes of redress. It is the + acknowledged attribute of free institutions, that, under them, + the empire of reason and law is substituted for the power of the + sword. To no other source can appeals for supposed wrongs be + made, consistently with the obligations of South Carolina; to no + other can such appeals be made with safety at any time; and to + their decisions, when constitutionally pronounced, it becomes + the duty, no less of the public authorities than of the people, + in every case to yield a patriotic submission. + + "In deciding upon the course which a high sense of duty to all + the people of the United States imposes upon the authorities of + the Union, in this emergency, it cannot be overlooked that there + is no sufficient cause for the acts of South Carolina, or for + her thus placing in jeopardy the happiness of so many millions + of people. Misrule and oppression, to warrant the disruption of + the free institutions of the Union of these States, should be + great and lasting, defying all other remedy. For causes of minor + character, the government could not submit to such a catastrophe + without a violation of its most sacred obligations to the other + States of the Union who have submitted their destiny to its + hands. + + "There is, in the present instance, no such cause, either in + the degree of misrule or oppression complained of, or in the + hopelessness of redress by constitutional means. The long + sanction they have received from the proper authorities, and + from the people, not less than the unexampled growth and + increasing prosperity of so many millions of freemen, attest + that no such oppression as would justify or even palliate such + a resort, can be justly imputed either to the present policy + or past measures of the federal government. The same mode of + collecting duties, and for the same general objects, which + began with the foundation of the government, and which has + conducted the country, through its subsequent steps, to its + present enviable condition of happiness and renown, has not been + changed. Taxation and representation, the great principle of the + American Revolution, have continually gone hand in hand; and + at all times, and in every instance, no tax, of any kind, has + been imposed without their participation; and in some instances, + which have been complained of, with the express assent of a part + of the representatives of South Carolina in the councils of the + government. Up to the present period, no revenue has been raised + beyond the necessary wants of the country, and the authorized + expenditures of the government. And as soon as the burden of the + public debt is removed, those charged with the administration + have promptly recommended a corresponding reduction of revenue. + + "That this system, thus pursued, has resulted in no such + oppression upon South Carolina, needs no other proof than the + solemn and official declaration of the late Chief Magistrate + of that State, in his address to the legislature. In that he + says, that 'the occurrences of the past year, in connection with + our domestic concerns, are to be reviewed with a sentiment of + fervent gratitude to the Great Disposer of human events; that + tributes of grateful acknowledgment are due for the various + and multiplied blessings he has been pleased to bestow on our + people; that abundant harvests, in every quarter of the State, + have crowned the exertions of agricultural labor; that health, + almost beyond former precedent, has blessed our homes; and that + there is not less reason for thankfulness in surveying our + social condition.' It would, indeed, be difficult to imagine + oppression where, in the social condition of a people, there + was equal cause of thankfulness as for abundant harvests, and + varied and multiplied blessings with which a kind Providence had + favored them. + + "Independently of these considerations, it will not escape + observation that South Carolina still claims to be a component + part of the Union, to participate in the national councils, + and to share in the public benefits, without contributing to + the public burdens; thus asserting the dangerous anomaly of + continuing in an association without acknowledging any other + obligation to its laws than what depends upon her own will. + + "In this posture of affairs, the duty of the government seems + to be plain. It inculcates a recognition of that State as a + member of the Union, and subject to its authority; a vindication + of the just power of the constitution; the preservation of the + integrity of the Union; and the execution of the laws by all + constitutional means. + + "The constitution, which his oath of office obliges him to + support, declares that the Executive 'shall take care that the + laws be faithfully executed;' and, in providing that he shall, + from time to time, give to Congress information of the state of + the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as + he shall judge necessary and expedient, imposes the additional + obligation of recommending to Congress such more efficient + provision for executing the laws as may, from time to time, be + found requisite. + + "It being thus shown to be the duty of the Executive to execute + the laws by all constitutional means, it remains to consider + the extent of those already at his disposal, and what it may be + proper further to provide. + + "In the instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury to the + collectors in South Carolina, the provisions and regulations + made by the act of 1799, and also the fines, penalties, and + forfeitures, for their enforcement, are particularly detailed + and explained. It may be well apprehended, however, that these + provisions may prove inadequate to meet such an open, powerful, + organized opposition as is to be commenced after the first day + of February next. + + "Under these circumstances, and the provisions of the acts + of South Carolina, the execution of the laws is rendered + impracticable even through the ordinary judicial tribunals of + the United States. There would certainly be fewer difficulties, + and less opportunity of actual collision between the officers of + the United States and of the State, and the collection of the + revenue would be more effectually secured--if indeed it can be + done in any other way--by placing the custom-house beyond the + immediate power of the county. + + "For this purpose, it might be proper to provide that whenever, + by any unlawful combination or obstruction in any State, or + in any port, it should become impracticable faithfully to + collect the duties, the President of the United States should + be authorized to alter and abolish such of the districts and + ports of entry as should be necessary, and to establish the + custom-house at some secure place within some port or harbor of + such State; and, in such cases, it should be the duty of the + collector to reside at such place, and to detain all vessels + and cargoes until the duties imposed by law should be properly + secured or paid in cash, deducting interest; that, in such cases + it should be unlawful to take the vessel and cargo from the + custody of the proper officer of the customs, unless by process + from the ordinary judicial tribunals of the United States; and + that, in case of an attempt otherwise to take the property by a + force too great to be overcome by the officers of the customs, + it should be lawful to protect the possession of the officers by + the employment of the land and naval forces, and militia, under + provisions similar to those authorized by the 11th section of + the act of the ninth of January, 1809. + + "It may, therefore, be desirable to revive, with some + modifications better adapted to the occasion, the 6th section + of the act of the 3d of March, 1815, which expired on the 4th + of March, 1817, by the limitation of that of the 27th of April, + 1816; and to provide that, in any case where suit shall be + brought against any individual in the courts of the State, for + any act done under the laws of the United States, he should + be authorized to remove the said cause, by petition, into the + Circuit Court of the United States, without any copy of the + record, and that the courts should proceed to hear and determine + the same as if it had been originally instituted therein. And + that in all cases of injuries to the persons or property of + individuals for disobedience to the ordinance, and laws of + South Carolina in pursuance thereof, redress may be sought in + the courts of the United States. It may be expedient, also, by + modifying the resolution of the 3d of March, 1791, to authorize + the marshals to make the necessary provision for the safe + keeping of prisoners committed under the authority of the United + States. + + "Provisions less than these, consisting, as they do, for the + most part, rather of a revival of the policy of former acts + called for by the existing emergency, than of the introduction + of any unusual or rigorous enactments, would not cause the + laws of the Union to be properly respected or enforced. It + is believed these would prove adequate, unless the military + forces of the State of South Carolina, authorized by the late + act of the legislature, should be actually embodied and called + out in aid of their proceedings, and of the provisions of the + ordinance generally. Even in that case, however, it is believed + that no more will be necessary than a few modifications of its + terms, to adapt the act of 1795 to the present emergency, as, + by the act, the provisions of the law of 1792 were accommodated + to the crisis then existing; and by conferring authority upon + the President to give it operation during the session of + Congress, and without the ceremony of a proclamation, whenever + it shall be officially made known to him by the authority of + any State, or by the courts of the United States, that, within + the limits of such State, the laws of the United States will + be openly opposed, and their execution obstructed, by the + actual employment of military force, or by any unlawful means + whatsoever, too great to be otherwise overcome. + + "In closing this communication, I should do injustice to my + own feelings not to express my confident reliance upon the + disposition of each department of the government to perform its + duty, and to co-operate in all measures necessary in the present + emergency. + + "The crisis undoubtedly invokes the fidelity of the patriot and + the sagacity of the statesman, not more in removing such portion + of the public burden as may be necessary, than in preserving the + good order of society, and in the maintenance of well-regulated + liberty. + + "While a forbearing spirit may, and I trust will be exercised + towards the errors of our brethren in a particular quarter, + duty to the rest of the Union demands that open and organized + resistance to the laws should not be executed with impunity." + +Such was the message which President Jackson sent to the two +Houses, in relation to the South Carolina proceedings, and his own +to counteract them; and it was worthy to follow the proclamation, +and conceived in the same spirit of justice and patriotism, and, +therefore, wise and moderate. He knew that there was a deep feeling +of discontent in the South, founded in a conviction that the federal +government was working disadvantageously to that part of the Union +in the vital points of the levy, and the expenditure of the federal +revenue; and that it was upon this feeling that politicians operated +to produce disaffection to the Union. That feeling of the masses +he knew to be just and reasonable, and removable by the action of +Congress in removing its cause; and when removed the politicians +who stirred up discontent for "_personal and ambitious objects_," +would become harmless for want of followers, or manageable by the +ordinary process of law. His proclamation, his message, and all his +proceedings therefore bore a two-fold aspect--one of relief and +justice in reducing the revenue to the wants of the government in +the economical administration of its affairs; the other of firm and +mild authority in enforcing the laws against offenders. He drew no +line between the honest discontented masses, wanting only relief and +justice, and the ambitious politicians inflaming this discontent for +ulterior and personal objects. He merely affirmed the existence of +these two classes of discontent, leaving to every one to classify +himself by his conduct; and, certain that the honest discontents +were the mass, and only wanted relief from a real grievance, he +therefore pursued the measures necessary to extend that relief while +preparing to execute the laws upon those who should violate them. +Bills for the reduction of the tariff--one commenced in the Finance +Committee of the Senate, and one reported from the Committee of +Ways and Means of the House of Representatives--and both moved in +the first days of the session, and by committees politically and +personally favorable to the President, went hand in hand with the +exhortations in the proclamation and the steady preparations for +enforcing the laws, if the extension of justice and the appeals of +reason and patriotism should prove insufficient. Many thought that +he ought to relax in his civil measures for allaying discontent +while South Carolina held the military attitude of armed defiance to +the United States--and among them Mr. Quincy Adams. But he adhered +steadily to his purpose of going on with what justice required for +the relief of the South, and promoted, by all the means in his +power, the success of the bills to reduce the revenue, especially +the bill in the House; and which, being framed upon that of 1816 +(which had the support of Mr. Calhoun), and which was (now that +the public debt was paid), sufficient both for revenue and the +incidental protection which manufactures required, and for the +relief of the South, must have the effect of satisfying every honest +discontent, and of exposing and estopping that which was not. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXI. + +REDUCTION OF DUTIES.--MR. VERPLANK'S BILL. + + +Reduction of duties to the estimated amount of three or four +millions of dollars, had been provided for in the bill of the +preceding session, passed in July, 1832, to take effect on the 4th +of March, ensuing. The amount of reduction was not such as the state +of the finances admitted, or the voice of the country demanded, but +was a step in the right direction, and a good one, considering that +the protective policy was still dominant in Congress, and on trial, +as it were, for its life, before the people, as one of the issues +of the presidential election. That election was over; the issue had +been tried; had been found against the "American system," and with +this finding, a further and larger reduction of duties was expected. +The President had recommended it, in his annual message; and the +recommendation, being referred to the Committee of Ways and Means, +quickly produced a bill, known as Mr. Verplank's, because reported +by the member of that name. It was taken up promptly by the House, +and received a very perspicuous explanation from the reporter, who +gave a brief view of the financial history of the country, since the +late war and stated that--"During the last six years, an annual +average income of 27,000,000 of dollars had been received; the far +greater part from the customs. That this sum had been appropriated, +the one half towards the necessary expenses of the government, and +the other half in the payment of the public debt. In reviewing +the regular calls upon the treasury, during the last seven years, +for the civil, naval, and military departments of the government, +including all ordinary contingencies, about 13,000,000 of dollars a +year had been expended. The amount of 13,000,000 of dollars would +seem, even now, sufficient to cover the standing necessary expenses +of government. A long delayed debt of public justice, for he would +not call it bounty, to the soldiers of the Revolution, had added, +for the present, since it could be but for a few years only, an +additional annual million. Fourteen millions of dollars then covered +the necessary expenditures of our government. But, however rigid and +economical we ought to be in actual expenditures, in providing the +sources of the revenue, which might be called upon for unforeseen +contingencies, it was wise to arrange it on a liberal scale. This +would be done by allowing an additional million, which would cover, +not only extra expenses in time of peace, but meet those of Indian +warfare, if such should arise, as well as those of increased naval +expenditure, from temporary collisions with foreign powers, short +of permanent warfare. We are not, therefore, justifiable in raising +more than 15,000,000 dollars as a permanent revenue. In other words, +at least 13,000,000 dollars of the revenue that would have been +collected, under the tariff system of 1828, may now be dispensed +with; and, in years of great importation, a much larger sum. The act +of last summer removed a large portion of this excess; yet, taking +the importation of the last year as a standard, the revenues derived +from that source, if calculated according to the act of 1832, would +produce 19,500,000, and, with the other sources of revenue, an +income of 22,000,000 dollars. This is, at least, seven millions +above the wants of the treasury." + +This was a very satisfactory statement. The public debt paid +off; thirteen millions (the one half) of our revenue rendered +unnecessary; its reduction provided for in the bill; and the +tariff of duties by that reduction brought down to the standard +substantially of 1816. It was carrying back the protective +system to the year of its commencement, a little increased in +some particulars, as in the article of iron, but more than +compensated for, in this increase, in the total abolition of the +_minimums_, or arbitrary valuations--first introduced into that +act, and afterwards greatly extended--by which goods costing below +a certain sum were to be assumed to have cost that sum, and +rated for duty accordingly. Such a bill, in the judgment of the +practical and experienced legislator (General Smith, of Maryland, +himself a friend to the manufacturing interest), was entirely +sufficient for the manufacturer--the man engaged in the business, +and understanding it--though not sufficient for the capitalists +who turned their money into that channel, under the stimulus of +legislative protection, and lacked skill and care to conduct their +enterprise with the economy which gives legitimate profit, and +to such real manufacturers, it was bound to be satisfactory. To +the great opponents of the tariff (the South Carolina school), it +was also bound to be satisfactory, as it carried back the whole +system of duties to the standard at which that school had fixed +them, with the great amelioration of the total abolition of the +arbitrary and injurious minimums. The bill, then, seemed bound to +conciliate every fair interest: the government, because it gave +all the revenue it needed; the real manufacturers, because it gave +them an adequate incidental protection; the South, because it gave +them their own bill, and that ameliorated. A prompt passage of the +bill might have been expected; on the contrary, it lingered in the +House, under interminable debates on systems and theories, in which +ominous signs of conjunction were seen between the two extremes +which had been lately pitted against each other, for and against +the protective system. The immediate friends of the administration +seemed to be the only ones hearty in the support of the bill; but +they were no match, in numbers, for those who acted in concert +against it--spinning out the time in sterile and vagrant debate. +The 25th of February had arrived, and found the bill still afloat +upon the wordy sea of stormy debate, when, all of a sudden, it was +arrested, knocked over, run under, and merged and lost in a new one +which expunged the old one and took its place. It was late in the +afternoon of that day (Monday, the 25th of February), and within a +week of the end of the Congress, when Mr. Letcher, of Kentucky, the +fast friend of Mr. Clay, rose in his place, and moved to strike out +the whole Verplank bill--every word, except the enacting clause--and +insert, in lieu of it, a bill offered in the Senate by Mr. Clay, +since called the "compromise," and which lingered at the door of the +Senate, upon a question of leave for its admittance, and opposition +to its entrance there, on account of its revenue character. This +was offered in the House, without notice, without signal, without +premonitory symptom, and just as the members were preparing to +adjourn. Some were taken by surprise, and looked about in amazement; +but the majority showed consciousness, and, what was more, readiness +for action. The Northern members, from the great manufacturing +States, were astounded, and asked for delay, which, not being +granted, Mr. John Davis, of Massachusetts, one of their number, thus +gave vent to his amazed feelings: + + "He was greatly surprised at the sudden movement made in this + House. One short hour ago, said he, we were collecting our + papers, and putting on our outside garments to go home, when + the gentleman from Kentucky rose, and proposed to send this + bill to a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, + with instructions to strike it all out, and insert, by way of + amendment, an entire new bill formed upon entirely different + principles; yes, to insert, I believe, the bill which the Senate + now have under consideration. This motion was carried; the + business has passed through the hands of the committee, is now + in the House, and there is a cry of question, question, around + me, upon the engrossment of the bill. Who that was not a party + to this arrangement, could one hour ago have credited this? We + have, I believe, been laboriously engaged for eight weeks upon + this topic, discussing and amending the bill which has been + before the House. Such obstacles and difficulties have been met + at every move, that, I believe, very little hope has of late + been entertained of the passage of any bill. But a gleam of + light has suddenly burst upon us; those that groped in the dark + seemed suddenly to see their course; those that halted, doubted, + hesitated, are in a moment made firm; and even some of those + that have made an immediate abandonment of the protective system + a _sine qua non_ of their approbation of any legislation, seem + almost to favor this measure. I am obliged to acknowledge that + gentlemen have sprung the proposition upon us at a moment when I + did not expect it. And as the measure is one of great interest + to the people of the United States, I must, even at this late + hour, when I know the House is both hungry and impatient, and + when I perceive distinctly it is their pleasure to vote rather + than debate, beg their indulgence for a few minutes while + I state some of the reasons which impose on me the duty of + opposing the passage of this act. [Cries from different parts of + the House, 'go on, go on, we will hear.'] + + "Mr. Speaker, I do not approve of hasty legislation under + any circumstances, but it is especially to be deprecated in + matters of great importance. That this is a measure of great + importance, affecting, more or less, the entire population of + the United States, will not be denied, and ought, therefore, to + be matured with care, and well understood by every gentleman who + votes upon it. And yet, sir, a copy has, for the first time, + been laid upon our tables, since I rose to address you; and this + is the first opportunity we have had even to read it. I hope + others feel well prepared to act in this precipitate matter; but + I am obliged to acknowledge I do not; for I hold even the best + of intentions will not, in legislation, excuse the errors of + haste. + + "I am aware that this measure assumes an imposing attitude. + It is called a bill of compromise; a measure of harmony, of + conciliation; a measure to heal disaffection, and to save the + Union. Sir, I am aware of the imposing effect of these bland + titles; men love to be thought generous, noble, magnanimous; + but they ought to be equally anxious to acquire the reputation + of being just. While they are anxious to compose difficulties + in one direction, I entreat them not to oppress and wrong + the people in another. In their efforts to save the Union, I + hope their zeal will not go so far as to create stronger and + better-founded discontents than those they compose. Peacemakers, + mediators, men who allay excitements, and tranquillize public + feeling, should, above all considerations, study to do it by + means not offensive to the contending parties, by means which + will not inflict a deeper wound than the one which is healed. + Sir, what is demanded by those that threaten the integrity of + the Union? An abandonment of the American system; a formal + renunciation of the right to protect American industry. This + is the language of the nullification convention; they declare + they regard the abandonment of the principle as vastly more + important than any other matter; they look to that, and not to + an abatement of duties without it; and the gentleman from South + Carolina [Mr. Davis], with his usual frankness, told us this + morning it was not a question of dollars and cents; the money + they regarded not, but they required a change of policy. + + "This is a bill to tranquillize feeling, to harmonize jarring + opinions; it is oil poured into inflamed wounds; it is to + definitively settle the matters of complaint. What assurance + have we of that? Have those who threatened the Union accepted + it? Has any one here risen in his place, and announced his + satisfaction and his determination to abide by it? Not a word + has been uttered, nor any sign or assurance of satisfaction + given. Suppose they should vote for the bill, what then? They + voted for the bill of July last, and that was a bill passed + expressly to save the Union; but did they not flout at it? Did + they not spurn it with contempt? And did not South Carolina, + in derision of that compromise, nullify the law? This is a + practical illustration of the exercise of a philanthropic + spirit of condescension to save the Union. Your folly and your + imbecility was treated as a jest. It has already been said that + this law will be no more binding than any other, and may be + altered and modified at pleasure by any subsequent legislature. + In what sense then is it a compromise? Does not a compromise + imply an adjustment on terms of agreement? Suppose, then, that + South Carolina should abide by the compromise while she supposes + it beneficial to the tariff States, and injurious to her; and + when that period shall close, the friends of protection shall + then propose to re-establish the system. What honorable man, who + votes for this bill, could sustain such a measure? Would not + South Carolina say, you have no right to change this law, it was + founded on compromise; you have had the benefit of your side of + the bargains, and now I demand mine? Who could answer such a + declaration? If, under such circumstances, you were to proceed + to abolish the law, would not South Carolina have much more just + cause of complaint and disaffection than she now has? + + "It has been said, we ought to legislate now, because the next + Congress will be hostile to the tariff. I am aware that such + a sentiment has been industriously circulated, and we have + been exhorted to escape from the hands of that body as from a + lion. But, sir, who knows the sentiments of that body on this + question? Do you, or does any one, possess any information which + justifies him in asserting that it is more unfriendly than this + House? There is, in my opinion, little known about this matter. + But suppose the members shall prove as ferocious towards the + tariff as those who profess to know their opinions represent, + will the passage of this bill stop their action? Can you tie + their hands? Give what pledges you please, make what bargains + you may, and that body will act its pleasure without respecting + them. If you fall short of their wishes in warring upon the + tariff, they will not stay their hand; but all attempts to limit + their power by abiding compromises, will be considered by them + as a stimulus to act upon the subject, that they may manifest + their disapprobation. It seems to me, therefore, that if the + next Congress is to be feared, we are pursuing the right course + to rouse their jealousy, and excite them to action. + + "Mr. Speaker, I rose to express my views on this very important + question, I regret to say, without the slightest preparation, + as it is drawn before us at a very unexpected moment. But, as + some things in this bill are at variance with the principles of + public policy which I have uniformly maintained, I could not + suffer it to pass into a law without stating such objections as + have hastily occurred to me. + + "Let me, however, before sitting down, be understood on one + point. I do not object to a reasonable adjustment of the + controversies which exist. I have said repeatedly on this floor, + that I would go for a gradual reduction on protected articles; + but it must be very gradual, so that no violence shall be done + to business; for all reduction is necessarily full of hazard. My + objections to this bill are not so much against the first seven + years, for I would take the consequences of that experiment, + if the provisions beyond that were not of that fatal character + which will at once stop all enterprise. But I do object to a + compromise which destines the East for the altar. No victim, + in my judgement, is required, none is necessary; and yet you + propose to bind us, hand and foot, to pour out our blood upon + the altar, and sacrifice us as a burnt offering, to appease the + unnatural and unfounded discontent of the South; _a discontent, + I fear, having deeper root than the tariff, and will continue + when that is forgotten_. I am far from meaning to use the + language of menace, when I say such a compromise cannot endure, + nor can any adjustment endure, which disregards the interests, + and sports with the rights of a large portion of the people of + the United States. It has been said that we shall never reach + the lowest point of reduction, before the country will become + satisfied of the folly of the experiment, and will restore the + protective policy; and it seems to me a large number in this + body act under the influence of that opinion. But I cannot vote + down my principles, on the ground that some one may come after + me who will vote them up." + +This is one of the most sensible speeches ever delivered in +Congress; and, for the side on which it was delivered, perfect; +containing also much that was valuable to the other side. The +dangers of hasty legislation are well adverted to. The seductive and +treacherous nature of compromise legislation, and the probable fate +of the act of legislation then so called, so pointedly foretold, +was only writing history a few years in advance. The folly of +attempting to bind future Congresses by extending ordinary laws +years ahead, with a prohibition to touch them, was also a judicious +reflection; soon to become history; while the fear expressed that +South Carolina would not be satisfied with the overthrow of the +protective policy--"_that the root of her discontent lay deeper +than the tariff, and would continue when that was forgotten_"--was +an apprehension felt in common with many others, and to which +subsequent events gave a sad realization. But all in vain. The bill +which made its first appearance in the House late in the evening, +when members were gathering up their overcoats for a walk home to +their dinners, was passed before those coats had got on the back; +and the dinner which was waiting had but little time to cool before +the astonished members, their work done, were at the table to eat +it. A bill without precedent in the annals of our legislation, and +pretending to the sanctity of a compromise, and to settle great +questions for ever, went through to its consummation in the fragment +of an evening session, without the compliance with any form which +experience and parliamentary law have devised for the safety of +legislation. This evasion of all salutary forms was effected under +the idea of an amendment to a bill, though the substitute introduced +was an entire bill in itself, no way amending the other, or even +connecting with it, but rubbing it all out from the enacting clause, +and substituting a new bill entirely foreign, inconsistent, and +incongruous to it. The proceeding was a gross perversion of the +idea of an amendment, which always implies an improvement and not a +destruction of the bill to be amended. But there was a majority in +waiting, ready to consummate what had been agreed upon, and the vote +was immediately taken, and the substitute passed--105 to 71:--the +mass of the manufacturing interest voting against it. And this was +called a "compromise," a species of arrangement heretofore always +considered as founded in the mutual consent of adversaries--an +agreement by which contending parties voluntarily settle disputes +or questions. But here one of the parties dissented, or rather was +never asked for assent, nor had any knowledge of the compromise +by which they were to be bound, until it was revealed to their +vision, and executed upon their consciences, in the style of a +surprise from a vigilant foe upon a sleeping adversary. To call +this a "compromise" was to make sport of language--to burlesque +misfortune--to turn force into stipulation--and to confound fraud +and violence with concession and contract. It was like calling +the rape of the Romans upon the Sabine women, a marriage. The +suddenness of the movement, and the want of all time for reflection +or concert--even one night for private communion--led to the most +incongruous association of voters--to such a mixture of persons and +parties as had never been seen confounded together before, or since: +and the reading of which must be a puzzle to any man acquainted with +the political actors of that day, the unravelling of which would +set at defiance both his knowledge and his ingenuity. The following +is the list--the voters with Mr. Clay, headed by Mr. Mark Alexander +of Virginia, one of his stiffest opponents: the voters against +him, headed by Mr. John Quincy Adams, for eight years past his +indissoluble colleague in every system of policy, in every measure +of public concern, and in every enterprise of political victory or +defeat. Here is the list! + + YEAS.--Messrs. Mark Alexander, Chilton Allan, Robert Allen, + John Anderson, William G. Angel, William S. Archer, John S. + Barbour, Daniel L. Barringer, James Bates, John Bell, John T. + Bergen, Laughlin Bethune, James Blair, John Blair, Ratliff + Boon, Joseph Bouck, Thomas T. Bouldin, John Branch, Henry A. + Bullard, Churchill C. Cambreleng, John Carr, Joseph W. Chinn, + Nathaniel H. Claiborne, Clement C. Clay, Augustin S. Clayton, + Richard Coke, jr., Henry W. Connor, Thomas Corwin, Richard + Coulter, Robert Craig, William Creighton, jr., Henry Daniel, + Thomas Davenport, Warren R. Davis, Ulysses F. Doubleday, Joseph + Draper, John M. Felder, James Findlay, William Fitzgerald, + Nathan Gaither, John Gilmore, William F. Gordon, Thomas H. + Hall, William Hall, Joseph M. Harper, Albert G. Hawes, Micajah + T. Hawkins, Michael Hoffman, Cornelius Holland, Henry Horn, + Benjamin C. Howard, Henry Hubbard, William W. Irvin, Jacob C. + Isaacs, Leonard Jarvis, Daniel Jenifer, Richard M. Johnson, + Cave Johnson, Joseph Johnson, Edward Kavanagh, John Leeds Kerr, + Henry G. Lamar, Garret Y. Lansing, Joseph Lecompte, Robert P. + Letcher, Dixon H. Lewis, Chittenden Lyon, Samuel W. Mardis, John + Y. Mason, Thomas A. Marshall, Lewis Maxwell, Rufus McIntire, + James McKay, Thomas Newton, William T. Nuckolls, John M. Patton, + Franklin E. Plummer, James K. Polk, Abraham Rencher, John J. + Roane, Erastus Root, Charles S. Sewall, William B. Shepard, + Augustine H. Shepperd, Samuel A. Smith, Isaac Southard, Jesse + Speight, John S. Spence, William Stanberry, James Standefer, + Francis Thomas, Wiley Thompson, John Thomson, Christopher + Tompkins, Phineas L. Tracy, Joseph Vance, Gulian C. Verplanck, + Aaron Ward, George C. Washington, James M. Wayne, John W. Weeks, + Elisha Whittlesey, Campbell P. White, Charles A. Wickliffe, John + T. H. Worthington. + + NAYS.--Messrs. John Q. Adams, Heman Allen, Robert Allison, + Nathan Appleton, Thomas D. Arnold, William Babcock, John Banks, + Noyes Barber, Gamaliel H. Barstow, Thomas Chandler, Bates + Cooke, Richard M. Cooper, Joseph H. Crane, Thomas H. Crawford, + John Davis, Charles Dayan, Henry A. S. Dearborn, Harmar Denny, + Lewis Dewart, John Dickson, William W. Ellsworth, George Evans, + Joshua Evans, Edward Everett, Horace Everett, George Grennell, + jr., Hiland Hall, William Heister, Michael Hoffman, Thomas + H. Hughes, Jabez W. Huntington, Peter Ihrie, jr., Ralph I. + Ingersoll, Joseph G. Kendall, Henry King, Humphrey H. Leavitt, + Robert McCoy, Thomas M. T. McKennan, John J. Milligan, Henry + A. Muhlenberg, Jeremiah Nelson, Dutee J. Pearce, Edmund H. + Pendleton, Job Pierson, David Potts, jr., James F. Randolph, + John Reed, Edward C. Reed, William Slade, Nathan Soule, William + L. Storrs, Joel B. Sutherland, John W. Taylor, Samuel F. Vinton, + Daniel Wardwell, John G. Watmough, Grattan H. Wheeler, Frederick + Whittlesey, Ebenezer Young. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXII. + +REDUCTION OF DUTIES.--MR. CLAY'S BILL. + + +On the 12th of February Mr. Clay asked leave to introduce a bill +for the reduction of duties, styled by him a "compromise" measure; +and prefaced the question with a speech, of which the following are +parts: + + "In presenting the modification of the tariff laws which I + am now about to submit, I have two great objects in view. My + first object looks to the tariff. I am compelled to express the + opinion, formed after the most deliberate reflection, and on a + full survey of the whole country, that, whether rightfully or + wrongfully, the tariff stands in imminent danger. If it should + even be preserved during this session, it must fall at the + next session. By what circumstances, and through what causes, + has arisen the necessity for this change in the policy of our + country, I will not pretend now to elucidate. Others there are + who may differ from the impressions which my mind has received + upon this point. Owing, however, to a variety of concurrent + causes, the tariff, as it now exists, is in imminent danger; and + if the system can be preserved beyond the next session, it must + be by some means not now within the reach of human sagacity. The + fall of that policy, sir, would be productive of consequences + calamitous indeed. When I look to the variety of interests which + are involved, to the number of individuals interested, the + amount of capital invested, the value of the buildings erected, + and the whole arrangement of the business for the prosecution + of the various branches of the manufacturing art which have + sprung up under the fostering care of this government, I cannot + contemplate any evil equal to the sudden overthrow of all those + interests. History can produce no parallel to the extent of the + mischief which would be produced by such a disaster. The repeal + of the Edict of Nantes itself was nothing in comparison with + it. That condemned to exile and brought to ruin a great number + of persons. The most respectable portion of the population of + France were condemned to exile and ruin by that measure. But in + my opinion, sir, the sudden repeal of the tariff policy would + bring ruin and destruction on the whole people of this country. + There is no evil, in my opinion, equal to the consequences which + would result from such a catastrophe. + + "I believe the American system to be in the greatest danger; + and I believe it can be placed on a better and safer foundation + at this session than at the next. I heard, with surprise, + my friend from Massachusetts say that nothing had occurred + within the last six months to increase its hazard. I entreat + him to review that opinion. Is it correct? Is the issue of + numerous elections, including that of the highest officer of + the government, nothing? Is the explicit recommendation of that + officer, in his message at the opening of the session sustained, + as he is, by a recent triumphant election, nothing? Is his + declaration in his proclamation, that the burdens of the South + ought to be relieved, nothing? Is the introduction of the bill + in the House of Representatives during this session, sanctioned + by the head of the treasury and the administration, prostrating + the greater part of the manufactures of the country, nothing? + Are the increasing discontents, nothing? Is the tendency of + recent events to unite the whole South, nothing? What have we + not witnessed in this chamber? Friends of the administration + bursting all the ties which seemed indissolubly to unite them + to its chief, and, with few exceptions south of the Potomac, + opposing, and vehemently opposing, a favorite measure of that + administration, which three short months ago they contributed + to establish? Let us not deceive ourselves. Now is the time to + adjust the question in a manner satisfactory to both parties. + Put it off until the next session, and the alternative may, and + probably then would be, a speedy and ruinous reduction of the + tariff, or a civil war with the entire South. + + "It is well known that the majority of the dominant party is + adverse to the tariff. There are many honorable exceptions, the + senator from New Jersey [Mr. Dickerson] among them. But for the + exertions of the other party, the tariff would have been long + since sacrificed. Now let us look at the composition of the two + branches of Congress at the next session. In this body we lose + three friends of the protective policy, without being sure of + gaining one. Here, judging from the present appearances, we + shall, at the next session, be in the minority. In the House + it is notorious that there is a considerable accession to the + number of the dominant party. How, then, I ask, is the system + to be sustained against numbers, against the whole weight of + the administration, against the united South, and against the + increased impending danger of civil war? + + "I have been represented as the father of the system, and I am + charged with an unnatural abandonment of my own offspring. I + have never arrogated to myself any such intimate relation to + it. I have, indeed, cherished it with parental fondness, and my + affection is undiminished. But in what condition do I find this + child? It is in the hands of the Philistines, who would strangle + it. I fly to its rescue, to snatch it from their custody, and + to place it on a bed of security and repose for nine years, + where it may grow and strengthen, and become acceptable to the + whole people. I behold a torch about being applied to a favorite + edifice, and I would save it, if possible, before it was wrapt + in flames, or at least preserve the precious furniture which it + contains." + +Mr. Clay further advanced another reason for his bill, and which +was a wish to separate the tariff from politics and elections--a +wish which admitted their connection--and which, being afterwards +interpreted by events, was supposed to be the basis of the coalition +with Mr. Calhoun; both of them having tried the virtue of the +tariff question in elections, and found it unavailing either to +friends or foes. Mr. Clay, its champion, could not become President +upon its support. Mr. Calhoun, its antagonist, could not become +President upon its opposition. To both it was equally desirable, as +an unavailable element in elections, and as a stumbling-block to +both in future, that it should be withdrawn for some years from the +political arena; and Mr. Clay thus expressed himself in relation to +that withdrawal: + + "_I wish to see the tariff separated from the politics of the + country, that business men may go to work in security, with some + prospect of stability in our laws, and without every thing being + staked on the issue of elections, as it were on the hazards of + the die._" + +Mr. Clay then explained the principle of his bill, which was a +series of annual reductions of one tenth per cent. on the value +of all duties above twenty per cent. for eight successive years; +and after that, the reduction of all the remainder above twenty +per centum to that rate by two annual reductions of the excess: +so as to complete the reduction to twenty per centum on the value +of all imported goods on the 30th day of September, 1842; with +a total abolition of duties on about one hundred articles after +that time; and with a proviso in favor of the right of Congress, +in the event of war with any foreign power to impose such duties +as might be necessary to prosecute the war. And this was called +a "_compromise_," although there was no stipulation for the +permanency of the reduced, and of the abolished duties; and no such +stipulation could be made to bind future Congresses; and the only +equivalent which the South received from the party of protection, +was the stipulated surrender of their principle in the clause which +provided that after the said 30th of September, 1842, "_duties +should only be laid for raising such revenue as might be necessary +for an economical administration of the government_;" an attempt +to bind future Congresses, the value of which was seen before the +time was out. Mr. Clay proceeded to touch the tender parts of his +plan--the number of years the protective policy had to run, and +the guaranties for its abandonment at the end of the stipulated +protection. On these points he said: + + "Viewing it in this light, it appeared that there were eight + years and a half, and nine years and a half, taking the + ultimate time, which would be an efficient protection; the + remaining duties would be withdrawn by a biennial reduction. + The protective principle must be said to be, in some measure, + relinquished at the end of eight years and a half. This period + could not appear unreasonable, and he thought that no member + of the Senate, or any portion of the country, ought to make + the slightest objection. It now remained for him to consider + the other objection--the want of a guaranty to there being an + ulterior continuance of the duties imposed by the bill, on the + expiration of the term which it prescribes. The best guaranties + would be found in the circumstances under which the measure + would be passed. If it were passed by common consent; if it were + passed with the assent of a portion, a considerable portion, of + those who had hitherto directly supported this system, and by a + considerable portion of those who opposed it; if they declared + their satisfaction with the measure, he had no doubt the rate of + duties guarantied would be continued after the expiration of the + term, if the country continued at peace." + +Here was a stipulation to continue the protective principle for +nine years and a half, and the bill contained no stipulation to +abandon it at that time, and consequently no guaranty that it would +be abandoned; and certainly the guaranty would have been void if +stipulated, as it is not in the power of one Congress to abridge by +law the constitutional power of its successors. Mr. Clay, therefore, +had recourse to moral guaranties; and found them good, and best +in the circumstances in which the bill would be passed, and the +common consent with which it was expected to be done--a calculation +which found its value, as to the "common consent," before the bill +was passed, as to its binding force before the time fixed for its +efficacy to begin. + +Mr. Forsyth, of Georgia, replied to Mr. Clay, and said: + + "The avowed object of the bill would meet with universal + approbation. It was a project to harmonize the people, and it + could have come from no better source than from the gentleman + from Kentucky: for to no one were we more indebted than to him + for the discord and discontent which agitate us. But a few + months ago it was in the power of the gentleman, and those with + whom he acted, to settle this question at once and for ever. + The opportunity was not seized, but he hoped it was not passed. + In the project now offered, he could not see the elements of + success. The time was not auspicious. But fourteen days remained + to the session; and we had better wait the action of the House + on the bill before them, than by taking up this new measure + here, produce a cessation of their action. Was there not danger + that the fourteen days would be exhausted in useless debate? + Why, twenty men, with a sufficiency of breath (for words they + would not want), could annihilate the bill, though a majority + in both Houses were in favor of it. He objected, too, that the + bill was a violation of the constitution, because the Senate + had no power to raise revenue. Two years ago, the same senator + made a proposition, which was rejected on this very ground. + The offer, however, would not be useless; it would be attended + with all the advantages which could follow its discussion here. + We shall see it, and take it into consideration as the offer + of the manufacturers. The other party, as we are called, will + view it as a scheme of diplomacy; not as their _ultimatum_, + but as their first offer. But the bargain was all on one side. + After they are defeated, and can no longer sustain a conflict, + they come to make the best bargain they can. The senator from + Kentucky says, the tariff is in danger; aye, sir, it is at its + last gasp. It has received the immedicable wound; no hellebore + can cure it. He considered the confession of the gentleman to + be of immense importance. Yes, sir, the whole feeling of the + country is opposed to the high protective system. The wily + serpent that crept into our Eden has been touched by the spear + of Ithuriel. The senator is anxious to prevent the ruin which a + sudden abolition of the system will produce. No one desires to + inflict ruin upon the manufacturers; but suppose the Southern + people, having the power to control the subject, should totally + and suddenly abolish the system; what right would those have + to complain who had combined to oppress the South? What has + the tariff led us to already? From one end of the country + to the other, it has produced evils which are worse than a + thousand tariffs. The necessity of appealing now to fraternal + feeling shows that that feeling is not sleeping, but nearly + extinguished. He opposed the introduction of the bill as a + revenue measure, and upon it demanded the yeas and nays: which + were ordered." + +The practical, clear-headed, straightforward Gen. Smith, of +Maryland, put his finger at once upon the fallacy and insecurity +of the whole scheme, and used a word, the point and application of +which was more visible afterwards than at the time it was uttered. +He said: + + "That the bill was no cure at all for the evils complained + of by the South. They wished to try the constitutionality + of protecting duties. In this bill there was nothing but + protection, from beginning to end. We had been told that if the + bill passed with common consent, the system established by it + would not be touched. But he had once been _cheated_ in that + way, and would not be _cheated_ again. In 1816 it was said the + manufacturers would be satisfied with the protection afforded by + the bill of that year; but in a few years after they came and + insisted for more, and got more. After the first four years, an + attempt would be made to repeal all the balance of this bill. He + would go no further than four years in prospective reduction. + The reduction was on some articles too great." + +He spoke history, except in the time. The manufacturers retained +the benefits of the bill to the end of the protection which it +gave them, and then re-established the protective system in more +amplitude than ever. + + "Mr. Calhoun rose and said, he would make but one or two + observations. Entirely approving of the object for which + this bill was introduced, he should give his vote in favor + of the motion for leave to introduce it. He who loved the + Union must desire to see this agitating question brought to a + termination. Until it should be terminated, we could not expect + the restoration of peace or harmony, or a sound condition of + things, throughout the country. He believed that to the unhappy + divisions which had kept the Northern and Southern States apart + from each other, the present entirely degraded condition of the + country (for entirely degraded he believed it to be) was solely + attributable. The general principles of this bill received his + approbation. He believed that if the present difficulties were + to be adjusted, they must be adjusted on the principles embraced + in the bill, of fixing ad valorem duties, except in the few + cases in the bill to which specific duties were assigned. He + said that it had been his fate to occupy a position as hostile + as any one could, in reference to the protecting policy; but, + if it depended on his will, he would not give his vote for + the prostration of the manufacturing interest. A very large + capital had been invested in manufactures, which had been of + great service to the country; and he would never give his vote + to suddenly withdraw all those duties by which that capital was + sustained in the channel into which it had been directed. But + he would only vote for the ad valorem system of duties, which + he deemed the most beneficial and the most equitable. At this + time, he did not rise to go into a consideration of any of the + details of this bill, as such a course would be premature, and + contrary to the practice of the Senate. There were some of the + provisions which had his entire approbation, and there were some + to which he objected. But he looked upon these minor points of + difference as points in the settlement of which no difficulty + would occur, when gentlemen meet together in that spirit of + mutual compromise which, he doubted not, would be brought into + their deliberations, without at all yielding the constitutional + question as to the right of protection." + +This union of Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay in the belief of the harmony +and brotherly affection which this bill would produce, professing +as it did, and bearing on its face the termination of the American +system, afforded a strong instance of the fallibility of political +opinions. It was only six months before that the dissolution of the +Union would be the effect, in the opinion of one of them, of the +continuance of the American system--and of its abandonment in the +opinion of the other. Now, both agreed that the bill which professed +to destroy it would restore peace and harmony to a distracted +country. How far Mr. Clay then saw the preservation, and not the +destruction, of the American system in the compromise he was making, +may be judged by what he said two weeks later, when he declared that +he looked forward to a re-action which would restore the protective +system at the end of the time. + +The first news of Mr. Clay's bill was heard with dismay by the +manufacturers. Niles' Register, the most authentic organ and devoted +advocate of that class, heralded it thus: "_Mr. Clay's new tariff +project will be received like a crash of thunder in the winter +season, and some will hardly trust the evidence of their senses on +a first examination of it--so radical and sudden is the change of +policy proposed because of a combination of circumstances which, in +the judgment of Mr. Clay, has rendered such a change necessary. It +may be that our favorite systems are all to be destroyed. If so +the majority determine--so be it._" The manufacturers flocked in +crowds to Washington City--leaving home to stop the bill--arriving +at Washington to promote it. Those practical men soon saw that they +had gained a reprieve of nine years and a half in the benefits of +protection, with a certainty of the re-establishment of the system +at the end of that time, from the revulsion which would be made in +the revenue--in the abrupt plunge at the end of that time in the +scale of duties from a high rate to an ad valorem of twenty per +centum; and that leaving one hundred articles free. This nine years +and a half reprieve, with the certain chance for the revulsion, +they found to be a good escape from the possible passage of Mr. +Verplank's bill, or its equivalent, at that session; and its +certain passage, if it failed then, at the ensuing session of the +new Congress. They found the protective system dead without this +reprieve, and now received as a deliverance what had been viewed as +a sentence of execution; and having helped the bill through, they +went home rejoicing, and more devoted to Mr. Clay than ever. + +Mr. Webster had not been consulted, in the formation of this bill, +and was strongly opposed to it, as well as naturally dissatisfied +at the neglect with which he had been treated. As the ablest +champion of the tariff, and the representative of the chief seat of +manufactures, he would naturally have been consulted, and made a +party, and a leading one, in any scheme of tariff adjustment; on the +contrary, the whole concoction of the bill between Mr. Clay and Mr. +Calhoun had been entirely concealed from him. Symptoms of discontent +appeared, at times, in their speeches; and, on the night of the 23d, +some sharp words passed--composed the next day by their friends: but +it was a strange idea of a "compromise," from which the main party +was to be excluded in its formation, and bound in its conclusion. +And Mr. Webster took an immediate opportunity to show that he had +not been consulted, and would not be bound by the arrangement that +had been made. He said: + + "It is impossible that this proposition of the honorable member + from Kentucky should not excite in the country a very strong + sensation; and, in the relation in which I stand to the subject, + I am anxious at an early moment, to say, that, as far as I + understand the bill, from the gentleman's statement of it, there + are principles in it to which I do not at present see how I can + ever concur. If I understand the plan, the result of it will + be a well-understood surrender of the power of discrimination, + or a stipulation not to use that power, in the laying duties + on imports, after the eight or nine years have expired. This + appears to me to be matter of great moment. I hesitate to be a + party to any such stipulation. The honorable member admits, that + though there will be no positive surrender of the power, there + will be a stipulation not to exercise it; a treaty of peace and + amity, as he says, which no American statesman can, hereafter, + stand up to violate. For one, sir, I am not ready to enter into + the treaty. I propose, so far as depends on me, to leave all our + successors in Congress as free to act as we are ourselves. + + "The honorable member from Kentucky says the tariff is in + imminent danger; that, if not destroyed this session, it cannot + hope to survive the next. This may be so, sir. This may be so. + But, if it be so, it is because the American people will not + sanction the tariff; and, if they will not, why, then, sir, it + cannot be sustained at all. I am not quite so despairing as the + honorable member seems to be. I know nothing which has happened, + within the last six or eight months, changing so materially the + prospects of the tariff. I do not despair of the success of an + appeal to the American people, to take a just care of their own + interest, and not to sacrifice those vast interests which have + grown up under the laws of Congress." + +There was a significant intimation in these few remarks, that Mr. +Webster had not been consulted in the preparation of this bill. +He shows that he had no knowledge of it, except from Mr. Clay's +statement of its contents, on the floor, for it had not then been +read; and the statement made by Mr. Clay was his only means of +understanding it. This is the only public intimation which he gave +of that exclusion of himself from all knowledge of what Mr. Clay and +Mr. Calhoun were doing; but, on the Sunday after the sharp words +between him and Mr. Clay, the fact was fully communicated to me, by +a mutual friend, and as an injurious exclusion which Mr. Webster +naturally and sensibly felt. On the next day, he delivered his +opinions of the bill, in an unusually formal manner--in a set of +resolutions, instead of a speech--thus: + + "_Resolved_, That the annual revenues of the country ought not + to be allowed to exceed a just estimate of the wants of the + government; and that, as soon as it shall be ascertained, with + reasonable certainty, that the rates of duties on imports, as + established by the act of July, 1832, will yield an excess over + those wants, provision ought to be made for their reduction; + and that, in making this reduction, just regard should be had + to the various interests and opinions of different parts of the + country, so as most effectually to preserve the integrity and + harmony of the Union, and to provide for the common defence, and + promote the general welfare of the whole. + + "But, whereas it is certain that the diminution of the rates of + duties on some articles would increase, instead of reducing, the + aggregate amount of revenue on such articles; and whereas, in + regard to such articles as it has been the policy of the country + to protect, a slight reduction on one might produce essential + injury, and even distress, to large classes of the community, + while another might bear a larger reduction without any such + consequences; and whereas, also, there are many articles, the + duties on which might be reduced, or altogether abolished, + without producing any other effect than the reduction of + revenue: Therefore, + + "_Resolved_, That, in reducing the rates of duties imposed + on imports, by the act of the 14th of July aforesaid, it is + not wise or judicious to proceed by way of an equal reduction + per centum on all articles; but that, as well the amount as + the time of reduction ought to be fixed, in respect to the + several articles, distinctly, having due regard, in each case, + to the questions whether the proposed reduction will affect + revenue alone, or how far it will operate injuriously on those + domestic manufactures hitherto protected; especially such as + are essential in time of war, and such, also, as have been + established on the faith of existing laws; and, above all, how + far such proposed reduction will affect the rates of wages and + the earnings of American manual labor. + + "_Resolved_, That it is unwise and injudicious, in regulating + imposts, to adopt a plan, hitherto equally unknown in the + history of this government, and in the practice of all + enlightened nations, which shall, either immediately or + prospectively, reject all discrimination on articles to be + taxed, whether they be articles of necessity or of luxury, of + general consumption or of limited consumption; and whether they + be or be not such as are manufactured and produced at home, and + which shall confine all duties to one equal rate per centum on + all articles. + + "_Resolved_, That, since the people of the United States have + deprived the State governments of all power of fostering + manufactures, however indispensable in peace or in war, or + however important to national independence, by commercial + regulations, or by laying duties on imports, and have + transferred the whole authority to make such regulations, and to + lay such duties, to the Congress of the United States, Congress + cannot surrender or abandon such power, compatibly with its + constitutional duty; and, therefore, + + "_Resolved_, That no law ought to be passed on the subject + of imposts, containing any stipulation, express or implied, + or giving any pledge or assurance, direct or indirect, which + shall tend to restrain Congress from the full exercise, at all + times hereafter, of all its constitutional powers, in giving + reasonable protection to American industry, countervailing the + policy of foreign nations, and maintaining the substantial + independence of the United States." + +These resolutions brought the sentiments of Mr. Webster, on the +tariff and federal revenue, very nearly to the standard recommended +by General Jackson, in his annual message; which was a limitation +of the revenue to the wants of the government, with incidental +protection to essential articles; and this approximation of +policy, with that which had already taken place on the doctrine +of nullification and its measures, and his present support of the +"Force Bill," may have occasioned the exclusion of Mr. Webster from +all knowledge of this "compromise." Certain it is, that, with these +sentiments on the subject of the tariff and the revenue, and with +the decision of the people, in their late elections against the +American system, that Mr. Webster and his friends would have acted +with the friends of General Jackson and the democratic party, in the +ensuing Congress, in reducing the duties in a way to be satisfactory +to every reasonable interest; and, above all, to be stable; and to +free the country from the agitation of the tariff question, the +manufacturers from uncertainty, and the revenue from fluctuations +which alternately gave overflowing and empty treasuries. It was +a consummation devoutly to be wished; and frustrated by the +intervention of the delusive "compromise," concocted out of doors, +and in conclave by two senators; and to be carried through Congress +by their joint adherents, and by the fears of some and the interests +of others. + +Mr. Wright, of New-York, saw objections to the bill, which would be +insurmountable in other circumstances. He proceeded to state these +objections, and the reason which would outweigh them in his mind: + + "He thought the reduction too slow for the first eight years, + and vastly too rapid afterwards. Again, he objected to the + inequality of the rule of reduction which had been adopted. + It will be seen, at once, that on articles paying one hundred + per cent. duty, the reduction is dangerously rapid. There was + uniformity in the rule adopted by the bill, as regards its + operation on existing laws. The first object of the bill was to + effect a compromise between the conflicting views of the friends + and the opponents of protection. It purports to extend relief to + Southern interest; and yet it enhances the duty on one of the + most material articles of Southern consumption--negro cloths. + Again, while it increases this duty, it imposes no corresponding + duty on the raw material from which the fabric is made. + + "Another objection arose from his mature conviction that the + principle of home valuation was absurd, impracticable, and + of very unequal operation. The reduction on some articles of + prime necessity--iron, for example--was so great and so rapid, + that he was perfectly satisfied that it would stop all further + production before the expiration of eight years. The principle + of discrimination was one of the points introduced into the + discussion; and, as to this, he would say that the bill did + not recognize, after a limited period, the power of Congress + to afford protection by discriminating duties. It provides + protection for a certain length of time, but does not ultimately + recognize the principle of protection. The bill proposes + ultimately to reduce all articles which pay duty to the same + rate of duty. This principle of revenue was entirely unknown to + our laws, and, in his opinion, was an unwarrantable innovation. + Gentlemen advocating the principle and policy of free trade + admit the power of Congress to lay and collect such duties as + are necessary for the purpose of revenue; and to that extent + they will incidentally afford protection to manufactures. He + would, upon all occasions, contend that no more money should + be raised from duties on imports than the government needs; + and this principle he wished now to state in plain terms. He + adverted to the proceedings of the Free Trade Convention to + show that, by a large majority, (120 to 7,) they recognized + the constitutional power of Congress to afford incidental + protection to domestic manufactures. They expressly agreed that + the principle of discrimination was in consonance with the + constitution. + + "Still another objection he had to the bill. It proposed on + its face, and, as he thought, directly, to restrict the action + of our successors. We had no power, he contended, to bind our + successors. We might legislate prospectively, and a future + Congress could stop the course of this prospective legislation. + He had, however, no alternative but to vote for the bill, with + all its defects, because it contained some provisions which the + state of the country rendered indispensably necessary." + +He then stated the reason which would induce him to vote for the +bill notwithstanding these objections. It was found in the attitude +of South Carolina, and in the extreme desire which he had to remove +all cause of discontent in that State, and to enable her to return +to the state of feeling which belonged to an affectionate member of +the Union. For that reason he would do what was satisfactory to her, +though not agreeable to himself. + +While the bill was still depending before the Senate, the bill +itself for which the leave was being asked, made its appearance at +the door of the chamber, with a right to enter it, in the shape of +an act passed by the House, and sent to the Senate for concurrence. +This was a new feature in the game, and occasioned the Senate bill +to be immediately dropped, and the House bill put in its place; and +which, being quickly put to the vote, was passed, 29 to 16. + + "YEAS.--Messrs. Bell, Bibb, Black, Calhoun, Chambers, Clay, + Clayton, Ewing, Foot, Forsyth, Frelinghuysen, Grundy, Hill, + Holmes, Johnston, King, Mangum, Miller, Moore, Maudain, + Poindexter, Rives, Robinson, Sprague, Tomlinson, Tyler, + Waggaman, White, Wright. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Benton, Buckner, Dallas, Dickerson, Dudley, + Hendricks, Knight, Prentiss, Robbins, Ruggles, Seymour, Silsbee, + Smith, Tipton, Webster, Wilkins." + +And the bill was then called a "compromise," which the +dictionaries define to be an "agreement without the intervention +of arbitrators;" and so called, it was immediately proclaimed to +be sacred and inviolable, as founded on mutual consent, although +the only share which the manufacturing States (Pennsylvania, New +Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont) had in +making this "compromise," was to see it sprung upon them without +notice, executed upon them as a surprise, and forced upon them +by anti-tariff votes, against the strenuous resistance of their +senators and representatives in both Houses of Congress. + +An incident which attended the discussion of this bill shows +the manner in which great measures--especially a bill of many +particulars, like the tariff, which affords an opportunity of +gratifying small interests--may be worked through a legislative +body, even the Senate of the United States, by other reasons than +those derived from its merits. The case was this: There were a +few small manufactories in Connecticut and some other New England +States, of a coarse cloth called, not Kendall green, but Kendall +cotton--quite antithetically, as the article was made wholly +of wool--of which much was also imported. As it was an article +exclusively for the laboring population, the tariff of the preceding +session made it virtually free, imposing only a duty of five per +centum on the value of the cloth and the same on the wool of which +it was made. Now this article was put up in this "compromise" bill +which was to reduce duties, to fifty per centum, aggravated by an +arbitrary minimum valuation, and by the legerdemain of retaining +the five per centum duty on the foreign wool which they used, and +which was equivalent to making it free, and reduced to that low rate +to harmonize the duty on the raw material and the cloth. General +Smith, of Maryland, moved to strike out this duty, so flagrantly in +contrast to the professed objects of the bill, and in fraud of the +wool duty; and that motion brought out the reason why it was put +there--which was, that it was necessary to secure the passage of +the bill. Mr. Foot, of Connecticut, said: "_This was an important +feature of the bill, in which his constituents had a great interest. +Gentlemen from the South had agreed to it; and they were competent +to guard their own interest._" Mr. Clay said: "_The provision +proposed to be stricken out was an essential part of the compromise, +which, if struck out, would destroy the whole._" Mr. Bell of New +Hampshire, said: "_The passage of the bill depended upon it. If +struck out, he should feel himself compelled to vote against the +bill._" So it was admitted by those who knew what they said, that +this item had been put into the bill while in a state of concoction +out of doors, and as a _douceur_ to conciliate the votes which were +to pass it. Thereupon Mr. Benton stood up, and + + "Animadverted on the reason which was alleged for this + extraordinary augmentation of duties in a bill which was to + reduce duties. The reason was candidly expressed on this floor. + There were a few small manufactories of these woollens in + Connecticut; and unless these manufactories be protected by an + increase of duties, certain members avow their determination + to vote against the whole bill! This is the secret--no! not + a secret, for it is proclaimed. It was a secret, but is not + now. Two or three little factories in Connecticut must be + protected; and that by imposing an annual tax upon the wearers + of these coarse woollens of four or five times the value of + the fee-simple estate of the factories. Better far, as a point + of economy and justice, to purchase them and burn them. The + whole American system is to be given up in the year 1842; + and why impose an annual tax of near five hundred thousand + dollars, upon the laboring community, to prolong, for a few + years, a few small branches of that system, when the whole bill + has the axe to the root, and nods to its fall? But, said Mr. + B., these manufactories of coarse woollens, to be protected + by this bill, are not even American; they are rather Asiatic + establishments in America; for they get their wool from Asia, + and not from America. The importation of this wool is one + million two hundred and fifty thousand pounds weight; it comes + chiefly from Smyrna, and costs less than eight cents a pound. + It was made free of duty at the last session of Congress, as + an equivalent to these very manufactories for the reduction of + the duty on coarse woollens to five per cent. The two measures + went together, and were, each, a consideration for the other. + Before that time, and by the act of 1828, this coarse wool was + heavily dutied for the benefit of the home wool growers. It was + subjected to a double duty, one of four cents on the pound, + and the other of fifty per cent. on the value. As a measure of + compromise, this double duty was abolished at the last session. + The wool for these factories was admitted duty free, and, as + an equivalent to the community, the woollens made out of the + corresponding kind of wool were admitted at a nominal duty. It + was a bargain, entered into in open Congress, and sealed with + all the forms of law. Now, in six months after the bargain was + made, it is to be broken. The manufacturers are to have the + duty on woollens run up to fifty per cent. for protection, and + are still to receive the foreign wool free of duty. In plain + English, they are to retain the pay which was given them for + reducing the duties on these coarse woollens, and they are to + have the duties restored. + + "He said it was contrary to the whole tenor and policy of the + bill, and presented the strange contradiction of multiplying + duties tenfold, upon an article of prime necessity, used + exclusively by the laboring part of the community, while + reducing duties or abolishing them _in toto_, upon every article + used by the rich and luxurious. Silks were to be free; cambrics + and fine linens were to be free; muslins, and casimeres, and + broad cloths were to be reduced; but the coarse woollens, worn + by the laborers of every color and every occupation, of every + sex and of every age, bond or free--these coarse woollens, + necessary to shelter the exposed laborer from cold and damp, are + to be put up tenfold in point of tax, and the cost of procuring + them doubled to the wearer. + + "The American value, and not the foreign cost, will be the basis + of computation for the twenty per cent. The difference, when all + is fair, is about thirty-five per cent. in the value; so that an + importation of coarse woollens, costing one million in Europe, + and now to pay five per cent. on that cost, will be valued, if + all is fair, at one million three hundred and fifty thousand + dollars; and the twenty per cent. will be calculated on that + sum, and will give two hundred and seventy thousand dollars, + instead of two hundred thousand dollars, for the quantum of the + tax. It will be near sixfold, instead of four-fold, and that if + all is fair; but if there are gross errors or gross frauds in + the valuation, as every human being knows there must be, the + real tax may be far above sixfold. On this very floor, and in + this very debate, we hear it computed, by way of recommending + this bill to the manufacturers, that the twenty per cent. on + the statute book will exceed thirty in the custom-house. + + "Mr. B. took a view of the circumstances which had attended the + duties on these coarse woollens since he had been in Congress. + Every act had discriminated in favor of these goods, because + they were used by the poor and the laborer. The act of 1824 + fixed the duties upon them at a rate one third less than on + other woollens; the act of 1828 fixed it at upwards of one half + less; the act of 1832 fixed it nine tenths less. All these + discriminations in favor of coarse woollens were made upon the + avowed principle of favoring the laborers, bond and free,--the + slave which works the field for his master, the mariner, the + miner, the steamboat hand, the worker in stone and wood, and + every out-door occupation. It was intended by the framers of + all these acts, and especially by the supporters of the act of + 1832, that this class of our population, so meritorious from + their daily labor, so much overlooked in the operations of the + government, because of their little weight in the political + scale, should at least receive one boon from Congress--they + should receive their working clothes free of tax. This was the + intention of successive Congresses; it was the performance of + this Congress in its act of the last session; and now, in six + short months since this boon was granted, before the act had + gone into effect, the very week before the act was to go into + effect, the boon so lately granted, is to be snatched away, and + the day laborer taxed higher than ever; taxed fifty per cent. + upon his working clothes! while gentlemen and ladies are to have + silks and cambrics, and fine linen, free of any tax at all! + + "In allusion to the alleged competency of the South to guard its + own interest, as averred by Mr. Foot, Mr. Benton said that was a + species of ability not confined to the South, but existent also + in the North--whether indigenous or exotic he could not say--but + certainly existent there, at least in some of the small States; + and active when duties were to be raised on Kendal cotton cloth, + and the wool of which it was made to remain free." + +The motion of General Smith was rejected, of course, and by the same +vote which passed the bill, no one of those giving way an inch of +ground in the House who had promised out of doors to stand by the +bill. Another incident to which the discussion of this bill gave +rise, and the memory of which is necessary to the understanding +of the times, was the character of "_protection_" which Mr. Clay +openly claimed for it; and the peremptory manner in which he and his +friends vindicated that claim in open Senate, and to the face of +Mr. Calhoun. The circumstances were these: Mr. Forsyth objected to +the leave asked by Mr. Clay to introduce his bill, because it was +a revenue bill, the origination of which under the constitution +exclusively belonged to the House of Representatives, the immediate +representative of the people. And this gave rise to an episodical +debate, in which Mr. Clay said: "_The main object of the bill is not +revenue, but protection._"--In answer to several senators who said +the bill was an abandonment of the protective principle, Mr. Clay +said: "_The language of the bill authorized no such construction, +and that no one would be justified in inferring that there was to be +an abandonment of the system of protection._"--And Mr. Clayton, of +Delaware, a supporter of the bill, said: "_The government cannot be +kept together if the principle of protection were to be discarded in +our policy; and declared that he would pause before he surrendered +that principle, even to save the Union._"--Mr. Webster said: "_The +bill is brought forward by the distinguished senator from Kentucky, +who professes to have renounced none of his former opinions as to +the constitutionality and expediency of protection._"--And Mr. Clay +said further: "_The bill assumes, as a basis, adequate protection +for nine years, and less (protection) beyond that term. The friends +of protection say to their opponents, we are willing to take a +lease of nine years, with the long chapter of accidents beyond that +period, including the chance of war, the restoration of concord, +and along with it a conviction common to all, of the utility of +protection; and in consideration of it, if, in 1842 none of these +contingencies shall have been realized, we are willing to submit, +as long as Congress may think proper, with a maximum of twenty per +centum_," &c.--"_He avowed his object in framing the bill was to +secure that protection to manufactures which every one foresaw must +otherwise soon be swept away._" So that the bill was declared _to +be one of protection_ (_and upon sufficient data_), upon a lease of +nine years and a half, with many chances for converting the lease +into a fee simple at the end of its run; which, in fact, was done; +but with such excess of protection as to produce a revulsion, and +another tariff catastrophe in 1846. The continuance of protection +was claimed in argument by Mr. Clay and his friends throughout the +discussion, but here it was made a point on which the fate of the +bill depended, and on which enough of its friends to defeat it +declared they would not support it except as a protective measure. +Mr. Calhoun in other parts of the debate had declared the bill to +be an abandonment of protection; but at this critical point, when +such a denial from him would have been the instant death warrant of +the bill, he said nothing. His desire for its passage must have been +overpowering when he could hear such declarations without repeating +his denial. + +On the main point, that of the constitutionality of originating the +bill in the Senate, Mr. Webster spoke the law of Parliament when he +said: + + "It was purely a question of privilege, and the decision of + it belonged alone to the other House. The Senate, by the + constitution, could not originate bills for raising revenue. It + was of no consequence whether the rate of duty were increased + or decreased; if it was a money bill it belonged to the House + to originate it. In the House there was a Committee of Ways + and Means organized expressly for such objects. There was no + such committee in the Senate. The constitutional provision was + taken from the practice of the British Parliament, whose usages + were well known to the framers of the constitution, with the + modification that the Senate might alter and amend money bills, + which was denied by the House of Commons to the Lords. This + subject belongs exclusively to the House of Representatives. The + attempt to evade the question, by contending that the present + bill was intended for protection and not for revenue, afforded + no relief, for it was protection by means of revenue. It was + not the less a money bill from its object being protection. + After 1842 this bill would raise the revenue, or it would not + be raised by existing laws. He was altogether opposed to the + provisions of this bill; but this objection was one which + belonged to the House of Representatives." + +Another incident which illustrates the vice and tyranny of this +outside concoction of measures between chiefs, to be supported +in the House by their adherents as they fix it, occurred in the +progress of this bill. Mr. Benton, perceiving that there was no +corresponding reduction of drawback provided for on the exportation +of the manufactured article made out of an imported material on +which duty was to be reduced, and supposing it to have been an +oversight in the framing of the bill, moved an amendment to that +effect; and meeting resistance, stood up, and said: + + "His motion did not extend to the general system of drawbacks, + but only to those special cases in which the exporter was + authorized to draw from the treasury the amount of money which + he had paid into it on the importation of the materials which + he had manufactured. The amount of drawback to be allowed in + every case had been adjusted to the amount of duty paid, and as + all these duties were to be periodically reduced by the bill, + it would follow, as a regular consequence, that the drawback + should undergo equal reductions at the same time. Mr. B. would + illustrate his motion by stating a single case--the case of + refined sugar. The drawback payable on this sugar was five + cents a pound. These five cents rested upon a duty of three + cents, now payable on the importation of foreign brown sugar. + It was ascertained that it required nearly two pounds of brown + sugar to make a pound of refined sugar, and five cents was + held to be the amount of duty paid on the quantity of brown + sugar which made the pound of refined sugar. It was simply a + reimbursement of what he had paid. By this bill the duty of + foreign brown sugar will be reduced immediately to two and a + half cents a pound, and afterwards will be periodically reduced + until the year 1842, when it will be but six-tenths of a cent, + very little more than one-sixth of the duty when five cents + the pound were allowed for a drawback. Now, if the drawback is + not reduced in proportion to the reduction of the duty on the + raw sugar, two very injurious consequences will result to the + public: first, that a large sum of money will be annually taken + out of the treasury in gratuitous bounties to sugar refiners; + and next, that the consumers of refined sugar will have to pay + more for American refined sugar than foreigners will; for the + refiners getting a bounty of five cents a pound on all that is + exported, will export all, unless the American consumer will + pay the bounty also. Mr. B. could not undertake to say how much + money would be drawn from the treasury, as a mere bounty, if + this amendment did not prevail. It must, however, be great. The + drawback was now frequently a hundred thousand dollars a year, + and great frauds were committed to obtain it. Frauds to the + amount of forty thousand dollars a year had been detected, and + this while the inducement was small and inconsiderable; but, as + fast as that inducement swells from year to year, the temptation + to commit frauds must increase; and the amount drawn by fraud, + added to that drawn by the letter of the law, must be enormous. + Mr. B. did not think it necessary to illustrate his motion by + further examples, but said there were other cases which would be + as strong as that of refined sugar; and justice to the public + required all to be checked at once, by adopting the amendment he + had offered." + +This amendment was lost, although its necessity was self-evident, +and supported by Mr. Calhoun's vote; but Mr. Clay was inexorable, +and would allow of no amendment which was not offered by friends +of the bill: a qualification which usually attends all this class +of outside legislation. In the end, I saw the amendment adopted, +as it regarded refined sugars, after it began to take hundreds of +thousands per annum from the treasury, and was hastening on to +millions per annum. The vote on its rejection in the compromise +bill, was: + + "YEAS.--Messrs. Benton, Buckner, Calhoun, Dallas, Dickerson, + Dudley, Forsyth, Johnson, Kane, King, Rives, Robinson, Seymour, + Tomlinson, Webster, White, Wilkins, Wright--18. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Bell, Bibb, Black, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, Foot, + Grundy, Hendricks, Holmes, Knight, Mangum, Miller, Moore, + Naudain, Poindexter, Prentiss, Robbins, Silsbee, Smith, Sprague, + Tipton, Troup, Tyler.--24." + +But the protective feature of the bill, which sat hardest upon +the Southern members, and, at one time, seemed to put an end to +the "compromise," was a proposition, by Mr. Clay, to substitute +home valuations for foreign on imported goods; and on which home +valuation, the duty was to be computed. This was no part of the +bill concocted by Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun; and, when offered, +evidently took the latter gentleman by surprise, who pronounced it +unconstitutional, unequal, and unjust; averred the objections to the +proposition to be insurmountable; and declared that, if adopted, +would compel him to vote against the whole bill. On the other hand, +Mr. Clayton and others, declared the adoption of the amendment to +be indispensable; and boldly made known their determination to +sacrifice the bill, if it was not adopted. A brief and sharp debate +took place, in the course of which Mr. Calhoun declared his opinions +to remain unaltered, and Mr. Clayton moved to lay the bill upon the +table. Its fate seemed, at that time, to be sealed; and certainly +would have been, if the vote on its passage had then been taken; but +an adjournment was moved, and carried; and, on the next day, and +after further debate, and the question on Mr. Clay's proposition +about to be taken, Mr. Calhoun declared that it had become necessary +for him to determine whether he would vote for or against it; said +he would vote for it, otherwise the bill would be lost. He then +called upon the reporters in the gallery to notice well what he +said, as he intended his declaration to be part of the proceedings: +and that he voted upon the conditions: first, that no valuation +should be adopted, which would make the duties unequal in different +parts; and secondly, that the duties themselves should not become +an element in the valuation. The practical sense of General Smith +immediately exposed the futility of these conditions, which were +looked upon, on all sides, as a mere salvo for an inevitable vote, +extorted from him by the exigencies of his position; and several +senators reminded him that his intentions and motives could have no +effect upon the law, which would be executed according to its own +words. The following is the debate on this point, very curious in +itself, even in the outside view it gives of the manner of affecting +great national legislation; and much more so in the inside view of +the manner of passing this particular measure, so lauded in its day; +and to understand which, the outside view must first be seen. It +appears thus, in the prepared debates: + + "Mr. Clay now rose to propose the amendment, of which he had + previously given notice. The object was, that, after the period + prescribed by the bill, all duties should thereafter be assessed + on a valuation made at the port in which the goods are first + imported, and under 'such regulations as may be prescribed by + law.' Mr. C. said it would be seen, by this amendment, that, in + place of having a foreign valuation, it was intended to have + a home one. It was believed by the friends of the protective + system, that such a regulation was necessary. It was believed + by many of the friends of the system, that, after the period + of nine and a half years, the most of our manufactures will be + sufficiently grown to be able to support themselves under a duty + of twenty per cent., if properly laid; but that, under a system + of foreign valuation, such would not be the case. They say that + it would be more detrimental to their interests than the lowest + scale of duties that could be imposed; and you propose to fix a + standard of duties. They are willing to take you at your word, + provided you regulate this in a way to do them justice. + + "Mr. Smith opposed the amendment, on the ground that it would + be an increase of duties; that it had been tried before; that + it would be impracticable, unequal, unjust, and productive of + confusion, inasmuch as imported goods were constantly varying + in value, and were well known to be, at all times, cheaper in + New-York than in the commercial cities south of it. This would + have the effect of drawing all the trade of the United States to + New-York. + + "Mr. Clay said he did not think it expedient, in deciding this + question, to go forward five or six years, and make that an + obstacle to the passage of a great national measure, which + is not to go into operation until after that period. The + honorable senator from Maryland said that the measure would be + impracticable. Well, sir, if so, it will not be adopted. We + do not adopt it now, said Mr. C.; we only adopt the principle, + leaving it to future legislation to adjust the details. Besides, + it would be the restoration of an ancient principle, known since + the foundation of the government. It was but at the last session + that the discriminating duty on goods coming from this side, + and beyond the Cape of Good Hope, ten per cent. on one, and + twenty per cent. on the other, was repealed. On what principle + was it, said he, that this discrimination ever prevailed? On + the principle of the home value. Were it not for the fraudulent + invoices which every gentleman in this country was familiar + with, he would not urge the amendment; but it was to detect and + prevent these frauds that he looked upon the insertion of the + clause as essentially necessary. + + "Mr. Smith replied that he had not said that the measure + was impracticable. He only intended to say that it would be + inconvenient and unjust. Neither did he say that it would be + adopted by a future Congress; but he said, if the principle + was adopted now, it would be an entering wedge that might lead + to the adoption of the measure. We all recollect, said Mr. + S., that appropriations were made for surveys for internal + improvements; and that these operated as entering wedges, and + led to appropriations for roads and canals. The adoption of the + principle contended for, by the senator from Kentucky, would + not, in his (Mr. S.'s) opinion, prevent frauds in the invoices. + That very principle was the foundation of all the frauds on the + revenue of France and Spain, where the duties were assessed + according to the value of the goods in the ports where entered. + He again said that the effect of the amendment would be to draw + the principal commerce of the country to the great city of + New-York, where goods were cheaper. + + "Mr. Forsyth understood, from what had fallen from the senator + from Kentucky, that this was a vital question, and on it + depended the success of this measure of conciliation and + compromise, which was said to settle the distracted condition of + the country. In one respect, it was said to be a vital question; + and the next was, it was useful; and a strange contradiction + followed: that the fate of this measure, to unite the jarrings + of brother with brother, depended on the adoption of a principle + which might or might not be adopted. He considered the amendment + wrong in principle, because it would be both unequal and unjust + in its operation, and because it would raise the revenue: as the + duties would be assessed, not only on the value of the goods + at the place whence imported, but on their value at the place + of importation. He would, however, vote for the bill, even if + the amendment were incorporated in it, provided he had the + assurances, from the proper quarter, that it would effect the + conciliation and compromise it was intended for. + + "Mr. Clay had brought forward this measure, with the hope that, + in the course of its discussion, it would ultimately assume + such a shape as to reconcile all parties to its adoption, and + tend to end the agitation of this unsettled question. If there + be any member of this Congress (Mr. C. said), who says that he + will take this bill now for as much as it is worth, and that he + will, at the next Congress, again open the question, for the + purpose of getting a better bill, of bringing down the tariff to + a lower standard, without considering it as a final measure of + compromise and conciliation, calculated also to give stability + to a man of business, the bill, in his eyes, would lose all its + value, and he should be constrained to vote against it. + + "It was for the sake of conciliation, of nine years of peace, + to give tranquility to a disturbed and agitated country, that + he had, even at this late period of the session, introduced + this measure, which, his respect for the other branch of the + legislature, now sitting in that building, and who had a + measure, looking to the same end, before them, had prevented + him from bringing forward at an earlier period. But, when he + had seen the session wearing away, without the prospect of any + action in that other body, he felt himself compelled to come + forward, though contrary to his wishes, and the advice of some + of his best friends, with whom he had acted in the most perilous + times. + + "Mr. Calhoun said, he regretted, exceedingly, that the senator + from Kentucky had felt it his duty to move the amendment. + According to his present impressions, the objections to it + were insurmountable; and, unless these were removed, he should + be compelled to vote against the whole bill, should the + amendment be adopted. The measure proposed was, in his opinion, + unconstitutional. The constitution expressly provided that no + preference should be given, by any regulation of commerce, to + the ports of one State over those of another; and this would + be the effect of adopting the amendment. Thus, great injustice + and inequality must necessarily result from it; for the price + of goods being cheaper in the Northern than in the Southern + cities, a home valuation would give to the former a preference + in the payment of duties. Again, the price of goods being higher + at New Orleans and Charleston than at New-York, the freight + and insurance also being higher, together with the increased + expenses of a sickly climate, would give such advantages in the + amount of duties to the Northern city, as to draw to it much of + the trade of the Southern ones. In his view of the subject, this + was not all. He was not merchant enough to say what would be + the extent of duties under this system of home valuation; but, + as he understood it, they must, of consequence, be progressive. + For instance, an article is brought into New-York, value there + 100 dollars. Twenty per cent. on that would raise the value + of the article to one hundred and twenty dollars, on which + value a duty of twenty per cent. would be assessed at the next + importation, and so on. It would, therefore, be impossible to + say to what extent the duties would run up. He regretted the + more that the senator from Kentucky had felt it his duty to + offer this amendment, as he was willing to leave the matter to + the decision of a future Congress, though he did not see how + they could get over the insuperable constitutional objections he + had glanced at. Mr. C. appealed to the senator from Kentucky, + whether, with these views, he would press his amendment, when he + had eight or nine years in advance before it could take effect. + He understood the argument of the senator from Kentucky to be an + admission that the amendment was not now absolutely necessary. + With respect to the apprehension of frauds on the revenue, Mr. + C. said that every future Congress would have the strongest + disposition to guard against them. The very reduction of duties, + he said, would have that effect; it would strike at the root of + the evil. Mr. C. said he agreed with the senator from Kentucky, + that this bill will be the final effort at conciliation and + compromise; and he, for one, was not disposed, if it passed, to + violate it by future legislation. + + "Mr. Clayton said that he could not vote for this bill without + this amendment, nor would he admit any idea of an abandonment + of the protective system; while he was willing to pass this + measure, as one of concession from the stronger to the weaker + party, he never could agree that twenty per cent. was adequate + protection to our domestic manufactures. He had been anxious to + do something to relieve South Carolina from her present perilous + position; though he had never been driven by the taunts of + Southern gentlemen to do that, which he now did, for the sake + of conciliation. I vote for this bill, said Mr. C., only on the + ground that it may save South Carolina from herself. + + "Here Mr. C. yielded the floor to Mr. Calhoun, who said he hoped + the gentleman would not touch that question. He entreated him + to believe that South Carolina had no fears for herself. The + noble and disinterested attitude she had assumed was intended + for the whole nation, while it was also calculated to relieve + herself, as well as them, from oppressive legislation. It was + not for them to consider the condition of South Carolina only, + in passing on a measure of this importance. + + "Mr. Clayton resumed. Sir, said he, I must be permitted to + explain, in my own way, the reasons which will govern me + in the vote I am about to give. As I said before, I never + have permitted the fears of losing the protective system, as + expressed by the senator from Georgia, when he taunted us with + the majority that they would have in the next Congress, when + they would get a better bill, to influence my opinion upon this + occasion. That we have been driven by our fears into this act of + concession, I will not admit. Sir, I tell gentlemen that they + may never get such another offer as the present; for, though + they may think otherwise, I do not believe that the people of + this country will ever be brought to consent to the abandonment + of the protective system. + + "Does any man believe that fifty per cent. is an adequate + protection on woollens? No, sir; the protection is brought + down to twenty per cent.; and when gentlemen come to me and + say that this is a compromise, I answer, with my friend from + Maine, that I will not vote for it, unless you will give me + the fair twenty per cent.; and this cannot be done without + adopting the principle of a home valuation. I do not vote for + this bill because I think it better than the tariff of 1832, nor + because I fear nullification or secession; but from a motive of + concession, yielding my own opinions. But if Southern gentlemen + will not accept this measure in the spirit for which it was + tendered, I have no reason to vote for it. I voted, said Mr. + C., against the bill of '32, for the very reason that Southern + gentlemen declared that it was no concession; and I may vote + against this for the same reasons. I thought it bad policy to + pass the bill of '32. I thought it a bad bargain, and I think so + now. I have no fear of nullification or secession; I am not to + be intimidated by threats of Southern gentlemen, that they will + get a better bill at the next session. "Rebellion made young + Harry Percy's spurs grow cold." I will vote for this measure as + one of conciliation and compromise; but if the clause of the + senator from Kentucky is not inserted, I shall be compelled to + vote against it. The protective system never can be abandoned; + and I, for one, will not now, or at any time, admit the idea. + + "Mr. Dallas was opposed to the proposition from the committee, + and agreed with Mr. Calhoun. He would state briefly his + objection to the proposition of the committee. Although he + was from a State strongly disposed to maintain the protective + policy, he labored under an impression, that if any thing could + be done to conciliate the Southern States, it was his duty to go + for a measure for that purpose; but he should not go beyond it. + He could do nothing in this way, as representing his particular + district of the country, but only for the general good. He + could not agree to incorporate in the bill any principle which + he thought erroneous or improper. He would sanction nothing in + the bill as an abandonment of the principle of protection. Mr. + D. then made a few remarks on home and foreign valuation, to + show the ground of his objections to the amendment of Mr. Clay, + though it did not prevent his strong desire to compromise and + conciliation. + + "Mr. Clay thought it was premature to agitate now the details + of a legislation which might take place nine years hence. The + senator from South Carolina had objected to the amendment on + constitutional grounds. He thought he could satisfy him, and + every senator, that there was no objection from the constitution. + + "He asked if it was probable that a valuation in Liverpool + could escape a constitutional objection, if a home valuation + were unconstitutional? There was a distinction in the foreign + value, and in the thing valued. An invoice might be made of + articles at one price in one port of England, and in another + port at another price. The price, too, must vary with the time. + But all this could not affect the rule. There was a distinction + which gentlemen did not observe, between the value and the + rule of valuation; one of these might vary, while the other + continued always the same. The rule was uniform with regard to + direct taxation; yet the value of houses and lands of the same + quality are very different in different places. One mode of home + valuation was, to give the government, or its officers, the + right to make the valuation after the one which the importer had + given. It would prevent fraud, and the rule would not violate + the constitution. It was an error that it was unconstitutional; + the constitution said nothing about it. It was absurd that + all values must be established in foreign countries; no other + country on earth should assume the right of judging. Objections + had been made to leaving the business of valuation in the hands + of a few executive officers; but the objections were at least + equally great to leaving it in the hands of foreigners. He + thought there was nothing in the constitutional objection, and + hoped the measure would not be embarrassed by such objections. + + "Mr. Calhoun said that he listened with great care to the + remarks of the gentleman from Kentucky, and other gentlemen, who + had advocated the same side, in hopes of having his objection + to the mode of valuation proposed in the amendment removed; but + he must say, that the difficulties he first expressed still + remained. Passing over what seemed to him to be a constitutional + objection, he would direct his observation to what appeared + to him to be its unequal operation. If by the home valuation + be meant the foreign price, with the addition of freight, + insurance, and other expenses at the port of destination, it is + manifest that as these are unequal between the several ports + in the Union--for instance, between the ports New-York and New + Orleans--the duty must also be unequal in the same degree, if + laid on value thus estimated. But if, by the home valuation be + meant the prices current at the place of importation, then, + in addition to the inequality already stated, there would + have to be added the additional inequality resulting from the + different rates of profits, and other circumstances, which must + necessarily render prices very unequal in the several ports of + this widely-extended country. There would, in the same view, + be another and a stronger objection, which he alluded to in + his former remarks, which remained unanswered--that the duties + themselves constitute part of the elements of the current prices + of the imported articles; and that, to impose a duty on a + valuation ascertained by the current prices, would be to impose, + in reality, a duty upon a duty, and must necessarily produce + that increased progression in duties, which he had already + attempted to illustrate. + + "He knew it had been stated, in reply, that a system which + would produce such absurd results could not be contemplated; + that Congress, under the power of regulating, reserved in + the amendment, would adopt some mode that would obviate + these objections; and, if none such could be devised, that + the provisions of the amendment would be simply useless. His + difficulty was not removed by the answer to the objection. He + was at a loss to understand what mode could be devised free + from objection; and, as he wished to be candid and explicit, + he felt the difficulty, as an honest man, to assent to a + general measure, which, in all the modifications under which + he had viewed it, was objectionable. He again repeated, that + he regretted the amendment had been offered, as he felt a + solicitude that the present controversy should be honorably and + fairly terminated. It was not his wish that there should be a + feeling of victory on either side. But, in thus expressing his + solicitude for an adjustment, he was not governed by motives + derived from the attitude which South Carolina occupied, and + which the senator from Delaware stated to influence him. He + wished that senator, as well as all others, to understand that + that gallant and patriotic State was far from considering her + situation as one requiring sympathy, and was equally far from + desiring that any adjustment of this question should take place + with the view of relieving her, or with any other motive than + a regard to the general interests of the country. So far from + requiring commiseration, she regarded her position with very + opposite light, as one of high responsibility, and exposing her + to no inconsiderable danger; but a position voluntarily and + firmly assumed, with a full view of consequences, and which she + was determined to maintain till the oppression under which she + and the other Southern States were suffering was removed. + + "In wishing, then, to see a termination to the present state of + things, he turned not his eyes to South Carolina, but to the + general interests of the country. He did not believe it was + possible to maintain our institutions and our liberty, under + the continuance of the controversy which had for so long a time + distracted us, and brought into conflict the two great sections + of the country. He was in the last stage of madness who did not + see, if not terminated, that this admirable system of ours, + reared by the wisdom and virtue of our ancestors--virtue, he + feared, which had fled forever--would fall under its shocks. It + was to arrest this catastrophe, if possible, by restoring peace + and harmony to the Union, that governed him in desiring to see + an adjustment of the question. + + "Mr. Clayton said, this point had been discussed in the + committee; and it was because this amendment was not adopted + that he had withheld his assent from the bill. They had now + but seven business days of this session remaining; and it + would require the greatest unanimity, both in that body and + in the other House, to pass any bill on this subject. Were + gentlemen coming from the opposite extremes of the Union, and + representing opposite interests, to agree to combine together, + there would hardly be time to pass this bill into a law; yet if + he saw that it could be done, he would gladly go on with the + consideration of the bill, and with the determination to do all + that could be done. The honorable member from South Carolina had + found insuperable obstacles where he (Mr. C.) had found none. On + their part, if they agreed to this bill, it would only be for + the sake of conciliation; if South Carolina would not accept the + measure in that light, then their motive for arrangement was + at an end. He (Mr. C.) apprehended, however, that good might + result from bringing the proposition forward at that time. It + would be placed before the view of the people, who would have + time to reflect and make up their minds upon it against the + meeting of the next Congress. He did not hold any man as pledged + by their action at this time. If the arrangement was found to + be a proper one, the next Congress might adopt it. But, for + the reasons he had already stated, he had little hope that any + bill would be passed at this session; and, to go on debating + it, day after day, would only have the effect of defeating the + many private bills and other business which were waiting the + action of Congress. He would therefore propose to lay the bill + for the present on the table; if it were found, at a future + period, before the expiration of the session, that there was + a prospect of overcoming the difficulties which now presented + themselves, and of acting upon it, the bill might be again taken + up. If no other gentleman wished to make any observations on the + amendment, he would move to lay the bill on the table. + + "Mr. Bibb requested the senator from Delaware to withdraw + his motion, whilst he (Mr. B.) offered an amendment to the + amendment, having for its object to get rid of that interminable + series of duties of which gentlemen had spoken. + + "Mr. Clayton withdrew his motion. + + "Mr. Bibb proceeded to say, that his design was to obviate the + objection of the great increase that would arise from a system + of home valuation. He hoped that something satisfactory would + be done this session yet. He should vote for every respectable + proposition calculated to settle the difficulty. He hoped there + would be corresponding concessions on both sides; he wished much + for the harmony of the country. It was well known that he (Mr. + B.) was opposed to any tariff system other than one for revenue, + and such incidental protection as that might afford. His hope + was to strike out a middle course; otherwise, he would concur in + the motion that had been made by the senator from Delaware [Mr. + Clayton]. Mr. B. then submitted his amendment, to insert the + words 'before payment of,' &c. + + "Mr. Clay was opposed to the amendment, and he hoped his worthy + colleague would withdraw it. If one amendment were offered and + debated, another, and another would follow; and thus, the + remaining time would be wasted. To fix any precise system would + be extremely difficult at present. He only wished the principle + to be adopted. + + "Mr. Bibb acceded to the wish of the senator from Kentucky, and + withdrew his amendment accordingly. + + "Mr. Tyler was opposed to the principle of this home valuation. + The duties would be taken into consideration in making the + valuations; and thus, after going down hill for nine and a half + years, we would as suddenly rise up again to prohibition. He + complained that there were not merchants enough on this floor + from the South; and, in this respect, the Northern States had + the advantage. But satisfy me, said Mr. T., that the views of + the senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] are not correct, + and I shall vote for the proposition. + + "Mr. Moore said he would move an amendment which he hoped would + meet the views of the gentlemen on the other side; it was to + this effect: + + "_Provided_, That no valuation be adopted that will operate + unequally in different ports of the United States. + + "Mr. Calhoun also wished that the amendment would prevail, + though he felt it would be ineffectual to counteract the + inequality of the system. But he would raise no cavilling + objections; he wished to act in perfect good faith; and he only + wished to see what could be done. + + "Mr. Moore said he had but two motives in offering the amendment + to the amendment of the senator. The first was, to get rid of + the constitutional objections to the amendment of the senator + from Kentucky; and the second was, to do justice to those he + had the honor to represent. The honorable gentleman said that + Mobile and New Orleans would not pay higher duties, because the + goods imported there would be of more value; and this was the + very reason, Mr. M. contended, why the duties would be higher. + Did not every one see that if the same article was valued in + New-York at one hundred dollars, and in Mobile at one hundred + and thirty-five dollars, the duty of twenty per cent. would be + higher at the latter place? He had nothing but the spirit of + compromise in view, and hoped gentlemen would meet him in the + same spirit. He would now propose, with the permission of the + senator from Maine, to vary his motion, and offer a substitute + in exact conformity with the language of the constitution. + This proposition being admitted by general consent, Mr. Moore + modified his amendment accordingly. (It was an affirmation of + the constitution, that all duties should be uniform, &c). + + "Mr. Forsyth supported the amendment of the senator from + Alabama, and hoped it would meet the approbation of the Senate. + It would get rid of all difficulty about words. No one, he + presumed, wished to violate the constitution; and if the + measure of the senator from Kentucky was consistent with the + constitution, it would prevail; if not, it would not be adopted. + + "Mr. Holmes moved an adjournment. + + "Mr. Moore asked for the yeas and nays on the motion to adjourn, + and they were accordingly ordered, when the question was taken + and decided in the affirmative--Yeas 22, nays 19, as follows: + + "YEAS.--Messrs. Bell, Clayton, Dallas, Dickerson, Ewing, + Foot, Frelinghuysen, Holmes, Johnston, Kane, Knight, Naudain, + Prentiss, Robbins, Robinson, Silsbee, Smith, Tipton, Tomlinson, + Waggaman, Webster, Wilkins.--22. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Bibb, Black, Buckner, Calhoun, Clay, Dudley, + Grundy, Hendricks, Hill, King, Miller, Moore, Poindexter, + Sprague, Rives, Troup, Tyler, White, Wright.--19. + + "The Senate then, at half-past four o'clock, adjourned. + + + "_Friday, February 22._ + + "Mr. Smith (of Md.) said, the motion to amend by the word + 'uniform' was unnecessary. That was provided for by the + constitution. 'All duties must be uniform.' An addition to + the cost of goods of forty, fifty, or sixty per cent. would + be uniform, but would not prevent fraud, nor the certainty of + great inequality in the valuation in the several ports. The + value of goods at New Orleans particularly, and at almost every + other port, will be higher than at New-York. I have not said + that such mode was unconstitutional, nor have I said that it + was impracticable; few things are so. But I have said, and do + now say, that the mode is open to fraud, and more so than the + present. At present the merchant enters his goods, and swears + to the truth of his invoice. One package in every five or ten + is sent to the public warehouse, and there carefully examined + by two appraisers on oath. If they find fraud, or suspect + fraud, then all the goods belonging to such merchants are sent + to the appraisers; and if frauds be discovered, the goods are + forfeited. No American merchant has ever been convicted of such + fraud. Foreigners have even been severely punished by loss of + their property. The laws are good and sufficiently safe as + they now stand on our statutes. I wish no stronger; we know + the one, we are ignorant how the other will work. Such a mode + of valuation is unknown to any nation except Spain, where the + valuation is arbitrary; and the goods are valued agreeably to + the amount of the bribe given. This is perfectly understood and + practised. It is in the nature of such mode of valuation to + be arbitrary. No rule can be established that will make such + mode uniform throughout the Union, and some of the small ports + will value low to bring business to their towns. A scene of + connivance and injustice will take place that no law can prevent. + + "The merchant will be put to great inconvenience by the mode + proposed. All his goods must be sent to the public warehouses, + and there opened piece by piece; by which process they will + sustain essential injury. The goods will be detained from the + owners for a week or a month, or still more, unless you have one + or two hundred appraisers in New-York, and proportionately in + other ports; thus increasing patronage; and with such a host, + can we expect either uniformity or equality in the valuation? + All will not be honest, and the Spanish mode will be adopted. + One set of appraisers, who value low, will have a priority. In + fact, if this mode should ever be adopted, it will cause great + discontent, and must soon be changed. As all understand the + cause to be to flatter the manufacturers with a plan which they + think will be beneficial to them, but which, we all know, can + never be realized, it is deception on its face, as is almost the + whole of the bill now under our consideration. + + "Remember, Mr. President, that the senators from Kentucky and + South Carolina [Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun], have declared this + bill (if it should become a law), to be permanent, and that no + honorable man who shall vote for it can ever attempt a change; + yet, sir, the pressure against it will be such at the next + session that Congress will be compelled to revise it; and as the + storm may then have passed over Congress, a new Congress, with + better feelings, will be able to act with more deliberation, and + may pass a law that will be generally approved. Nearly all agree + that this bill is a bad bill. A similar opinion prevailed on the + passage of the tariff of 1828, and yet it passed, and caused + all our present danger and difficulties. All admit that the act + of 1828, as it stands on our statutes, is constitutional. But + the senator [Mr. Calhoun] has said that it is unconstitutional, + because of the motive under which it passed; and he said that + that motive was protection to the manufacturers. How, sir, I + ask, are we to know the motives of men? I thought then, and + think now, that the approaching election for President tended + greatly to the enactments of the acts of 1824 and 1828; many + of my friends thought so at the time. I have somewhere read + of the minister of a king or emperor in Asia, who was anxious + to be considered a man of truth, and always boasted of his + veracity. He hypocritically prayed to God that he might always + speak the truth. A genii appeared and told him that his prayer + had been heard, touched him with his spear, and said, hereafter + you will speak truth on all occasions. The next day he waited + on his majesty and said, Sire, I intended to have assassinated + you yesterday, but was prevented by the nod of the officer + behind you, who is to kill you to-morrow. The result I will not + mention. Now, Mr. President, if the same genii was to touch with + his spear each of the senators who voted for the act of 1828, + and an interrogator was appointed, he would ask, what induced + you to give that vote? Why sir, I acted on sound principles. I + believe it is the duty of every good government to promote the + manufactures of the nation; all historians eulogize the kings + who have done so, and censure those kings who have neglected + them. I refer you to the history of Alfred. It is known that + the staple of England was wool, which was sent to Flanders + to be exchanged for cloths. The civil wars, by the invasions + of that nation, kept them long dependent on the Flemings for + the cloths they wore. At length a good king governed; and he + invited Flemish manufacturers to England, and gave them great + privileges. They taught the youth of England, the manufacture + succeeded, and now England supplies all the world with woollen + cloth. The interrogator asked another the same question. His + answer might have been, that he thought the passing of the law + would secure the votes of the manufacturers in favor of his + friend who wanted to be the President. Another answer might + have been, a large duty was imposed on an article which my + constituents raised; and I voted for it, although I disliked + all the residue of the bill. Sir, the motives, no doubt, were + different that induced the voting for that bill, and were, as we + all know, not confined to the protective system. Many voted on + political grounds, as many will on this bill, and as they did on + the enforcing bill. We cannot declare a bill unconstitutional, + because of the motives that may govern the voters. It is idle + to assign such a cause for the part that is now acting in South + Carolina. I know, Mr. President, that no argument will have any + effect on the passage of this bill. The high contracting parties + have agreed. But I owed it to myself to make these remarks. + + "Mr. Webster said, that he held the home valuation to be, to + any extent, impracticable; and that it was unprecedented, and + unknown in any legislation. Both the home and foreign valuation + ought to be excluded as far as possible, and specific duties + should be resorted to. This keeping out of view specific duties, + and turning us back to the principle of a valuation was, in + his view, the great vice of this bill. In England five out of + six, or nine out of ten articles, pay specific duties, and the + valuation is on the remnant. Among the articles which pay _ad + valorem_ duties in England are silk goods, which are imported + either from India, whence they are brought to one port only; + or from Europe, in which case there is a specific and an _ad + valorem_ duty; and the officer has the option to take either + the one or the other. He suggested that the Senate, before they + adopted the _ad valorem_ principle, should look to the effects + on the importation of the country. + + "He took a view of the iron trade, to show that evil would + result to that branch from a substitution of the _ad valorem_ + for the specific system of duties. He admitted himself to + be unable to comprehend the elements of a home valuation, + and mentioned cases where it would be impossible to find an + accurate standard of valuation of this character. The plan was + impracticable and illusory. + + "Mr. Clayton said, I would go for this bill only for the sake + of concession. The senator from South Carolina can tell whether + it is likely to be received as such, and to attain the object + proposed; if not, I have a plain course to pursue; I am opposed + to the bill. Unless I can obtain for the manufacturers the + assurance that the principle of the bill will not be disturbed, + and that it will be received in the light of a concession, I + shall oppose it. + + "Mr. Benton objected to the home valuation, as tending to a + violation of the constitution of the United States, and cited + the following clause: 'Congress shall have power to lay and + collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; but all duties, + imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United + States.' All uniformity of duties and imposts, he contended, + would be destroyed by this amendment. No human judgment could + fix the value of the same goods at the same rate, in all the + various ports of the United States. If the same individual + valued the goods in every port, and every cargo in every + port, he would commit innumerable errors and mistakes in the + valuation; and, according to the diversity of these errors and + mistakes, would be the diversity in the amount of duties and + imposts laid and collected in the different ports. + + "Mr. B. objected to the home valuation, because it would be + injurious and almost fatal to the southern ports. He confined + his remarks to New Orleans. The standard of valuation would + be fifteen or twenty per cent. higher in New Orleans than in + New-York, and other northern ports. All importers will go to + the northeastern cities, to evade high duties at New Orleans; + and that great emporium of the West will be doomed to sink + into a mere exporting city, while all the money which it pays + for exports must be carried off and expended elsewhere for + imports. Without an import trade, no city can flourish, or even + furnish a good market for exports. It will be drained of its + effective cash, and deprived of its legitimate gains, and must + languish far in the rear of what it would be, if enriched with + the profits of an import trade. As an exporter, it will buy; + as an importer, it will sell. All buying, and no selling, must + impoverish cities as well as individuals. New Orleans is now + a great exporting city; she exports more domestic productions + than any city in the Union; her imports have been increasing, + for some years; and, with fair play, would soon become next to + New-York, and furnish the whole valley of the Mississippi with + its immense supplies of foreign goods; but, under the influence + of a home valuation, it must lose a greater part of the import + trade which it now possesses. In that loss, its wealth must + decline; its capacity to purchase produce for exportation must + decline; and as the western produce must go there, at all + events, every western farmer will suffer a decline in the value + of his own productions, in proportion to the decline of the + ability of New Orleans to purchase it. It was as a western + citizen that he pleaded the cause of New Orleans, and objected + to this measure of home valuation, which was to have the most + baneful effect upon her prosperity. + + "Mr. B. further objected to the home valuation, on account of + the great additional expense it would create; the amount of + patronage it would confer; the rivalry it would beget between + importing cities; and the injury it would occasion to merchants, + from the detention and handling of their goods; and concluded + with saying, that the home valuation was the most obnoxious + feature ever introduced into the tariff acts; that it was + itself equivalent to a separate tariff of ten per cent.; that + it had always been resisted, and successfully resisted, by the + anti-tariff interest, in the highest and most palmy days of the + American system, and ought not now to be introduced when that + system is admitted to be nodding to its fall; when its death + is actually fixed to the 30th day of June, 1842, and when the + restoration of harmonious feelings is proclaimed to be the whole + object of this bill. + + "Mr. B. said this was a strange principle to bring into a + bill to reduce duties. It was an increase, in a new form--an + indefinable form--and would be tax upon tax, as the whole + cost of getting the goods ready for a market valuation here, + would have to be included: original cost, freight, insurance, + commissions, duties here. It was new protection, in a new + form, and in an extraordinary form, and such as never could be + carried before. It had often been attempted, as as a part of the + American system, but never received countenance before. + + "Mr. Calhoun rose and said: + + "As the question is now about to be put on the amendment offered + by the senator from Kentucky, it became necessary for him to + determine whether he should vote for or against it. He must + be permitted again to express his regret that the senator had + thought proper to move it. His objection still remained strong + against it; but, as it seemed to be admitted, on all hands, that + the fate of the bill depended on the fate of the amendment, + feeling, as he did, a solicitude to see the question terminated, + he had made up his mind, not, however, without much hesitation, + not to interpose his vote against the adoption of the amendment; + but, in voting for it, he wished to be distinctly understood, + he did it upon two conditions: first, that no valuation would + be adopted that should come in conflict with the provision + in the constitution which declares that duties, excises, and + imposts shall be uniform; and, in the next place, that none + would be adopted which would make the duties themselves a part + of the element of a home valuation. He felt himself justified + in concluding that none such would be adopted; as it had been + declared by the supporters of the amendment, that no such + regulation was contemplated; and, in fact, he could not imagine + that any such could be contemplated, whatever interpretation + might be attempted hereafter to be given to the expression + of the home market. The first could scarcely be contemplated, + as it would be in violation of the constitution itself; nor + the latter, as it would, by necessary consequence, restore the + very duties, which it was the object of this bill to reduce, + and would involve the glaring absurdity of imposing duties on + duties, taxes on taxes. He wished the reporters for the public + press to notice particularly what he said, as he intended his + declaration to be part of the proceedings. + + "Believing, then, for the reasons which he had stated, that it + was not contemplated that any regulation of the home valuation + should come in conflict with the provisions of the constitution + which he had cited, nor involve the absurdity of laying taxes + upon taxes, he had made up his mind to vote in favor of the + amendment. + + "Mr. Smith said, any declaration of the views and motives, + under which any individual senator might now vote, could have + no influence, in 1842; they would be forgotten long before that + time had arrived. The law must rest upon the interpretation of + its words alone. + + "Mr. Calhoun said he could not help that; he should endeavor to + do his duty. + + "Mr. Clayton said there was certainly no ambiguity whatever + in the phraseology of the amendment. In advocating it, he had + desired to deceive no man; he sincerely hoped no one would + suffer himself to be deceived by it. + + "Mr. Wilkins said, if it had been his intention to have voted + against the amendment, he should have remained silent; but, + after the explicit declaration of the honorable gentleman from + South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] of the reason of his vote, and + believing, himself, that the amendment would have a different + construction from that given it by the gentleman, he [Mr. W.] + would as expressly state, that he would vote on the question, + with the impression that it would not hereafter be expounded by + the declaration of any senator on this floor, but by the plain + meaning of the words in the text. + + "The amendment of Mr. Clay, fixing the principle of home + valuation as a part of the bill, was then adopted, by the + following vote: + + "YEAS.--Messrs. Bell, Black, Bibb, Calhoun, Chambers, Clay, + Clayton, Ewing, Foot, Frelinghuysen, Hill, Holmes, Johnson, + King, Knight, Miller, Moore, Naudain, Poindexter, Prentiss, + Rives, Robbins, Sprague, Tomlinson, Tyler, Wilkins.--26. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Benton, Buckner, Dallas, Dickerson, Dudley, + Forsyth, Grundy, Kane, Robinson, Seymour, Silsbee, Smith, + Waggaman, Webster, White, Wright.--16." + +And thus a new principle of protection, never before engrafted +on the American system, and to get at which the constitution had +to be violated in the article of the uniformity of duties, was +established! and established by the aid of those who declared all +protection to be unconstitutional, and just cause for the secession +of a State from the Union! and were then acting on that assumption. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIII. + +REVENUE COLLECTION, OR FORCE BILL. + + +The President in his message on the South Carolina proceedings had +recommended to Congress the revival of some acts, heretofore in +force, to enable him to execute the laws in that State; and the +Senate's committee on the Judiciary had reported a bill accordingly +early in the session. It was immediately assailed by several +members as violent and unconstitutional, tending to civil war, and +denounced as "the bloody bill"--"the force bill," &c. Mr. Wilkins +of Pennsylvania, the reporter of the bill, vindicated it from this +injurious character, showed that it was made out of previous laws, +and contained nothing novel but the harmless contingent authority to +remove the office of the customs from one building to another in the +case of need. He said: + + "The Judiciary Committee, in framing it, had been particularly + anxious not to introduce any novel principle--any which could + not be found on the statute book. The only novel one which + the bill presented was one of a very simple nature. It was + that which authorized the President, under the particular + circumstances which were specified in the bill, to remove the + custom-house. This was the only novel principle, and care was + taken that in providing for such removal no authority was given + to use force. + + "The committee were apprehensive that some collision might take + place after the 1st of February, either between the conflicting + parties of the citizens of South Carolina, or between the + officers of the federal government and the citizens. And to + remove, as far as possible, all chance of such collision, + provision was made that the collector might, at the moment of + imminent danger, remove the custom-house to a place of security; + or, to use a plain phrase, put it out of harm's way. He admitted + the importance of this bill; but he viewed its importance as + arising not out of the provisions of the bill itself, but out of + the state of affairs in South Carolina, to which the bill had + reference. In this view, it was of paramount importance. + + "It had become necessary to legislate on this subject; whether + it was necessary to pass the bill or not, he would not say; + but legislation, in reference to South Carolina, previous to + the 1st of February, had become necessary. Something must be + done; and it behooves the government to adopt every measure of + precaution, to prevent those awful consequences which all must + foresee as necessarily resulting from the position which South + Carolina has thought proper to assume. + + "Here nullification is declaimed, on one hand, unless we abolish + our revenue system. We consenting to do this, they remain quiet. + But if we go a hair's breadth towards enforcing that system, + they present secession. We have secession on one hand, and + nullification on the other. The senator from South Carolina + admitted the other day that no such thing as constitutional + secession could exist. Then civil war, disunion, and anarchy + must accompany secession. No one denies the right of revolution. + That is a natural, indefeasible, inherent right--a right which + we have exercised and held out, by our example, to the civilized + world. Who denies it? Then we have revolution by force, not + constitutional secession. That violence must come by secession + is certain. Another law passed by the legislature of South + Carolina, is entitled a bill to provide for the safety of the + people of South Carolina. It advises them to put on their armor. + It puts them in military array; and for what purpose but for + the use of force? The provisions of these laws are infinitely + worse than those of the feudal system, so far as they apply to + the citizens of Carolina. But with its operations on their own + citizens he had nothing to do. Resistance was just as inevitable + as the arrival of the day on the calendar. In addition to these + documents, what did rumor say--rumor, which often falsifies, + but sometimes utters truth. If we judge by newspaper and other + reports, more men were now ready to take up arms in Carolina, + than there were during the revolutionary struggle. The whole + State was at this moment in arms, and its citizens are ready + to be embattled the moment any attempt was made to enforce the + revenue laws. The city of Charleston wore the appearance of a + military depot." + +The Bill was opposed with a vehemence rarely witnessed, and every +effort made to render it odious to the people, and even to extend +the odium to the President, and to all persons instrumental in +bringing it forward, or urging it through. Mr. Tyler of Virginia, +was one of its warmest opposers, and in the course of an elaborate +speech, said: + + "In the course of the examination I have made into this subject, + I have been led to analyze certain doctrines which have gone out + to the world over the signature of the President. I know that my + language may be seized on by those who are disposed to carp at + my course and to misrepresent me. Since I have held a place on + this floor, I have not courted the smiles of the Executive; but + whenever he had done any act in violation of the constitutional + rights of the citizen, or trenching on the rights of the Senate, + I have been found in opposition to him. When he appointed corps + of editors to office, I thought it was my duty to oppose his + course. When he appointed a minister to a foreign court without + the sanction of the law, I also went against him, because, on + my conscience, I believed that the act was wrong. Such was my + course, acting, as I did, under a sense of the duty I owed to + my constituents; and I will now say, I care not how loudly the + trumpet may be sounded, nor how low the priests may bend their + knees before the object of their idolatry, I will be at the side + of the President, crying in his ear, 'Remember, Philip, thou art + mortal!' + + "I object to the first section, because it confers on the + President the power of closing old ports of entry and + establishing new ones. It has been rightly said by the gentleman + from Kentucky [Mr. Bibb] that this was a prominent cause which + led to the Revolution. The Boston port bill, which removed the + custom-house from Boston to Salem, first roused the people to + resistance. To guard against this very abuse, the constitution + had confided to Congress the power to regulate commerce; the + establishment of ports of entry formed a material part of this + power, and one which required legislative enactment. Now I + deny that Congress can deputize its legislative powers. If it + may one, it may all; and thus, a majority here can, at their + pleasure, change the very character of the government. The + President might come to be invested with authority to make all + laws which his discretion might dictate. It is vain to tell me + (said Mr. T.) that I imagine a case which will never exist. I + tell you, sir, that power is cumulative, and that patronage + begets power. The reasoning is unanswerable. If you can part + with your power in one instance, you may in another and another. + You may confer upon the President the right to declare war; and + this very provision may fairly be considered as investing him + with authority to make war at his mere will and pleasure on + cities, towns, and villages. The prosperity of a city depends + on the position of its custom-house and port of entry. Take the + case of Norfolk, Richmond, and Fredericksburg, in my own State; + who doubts but that to remove the custom-house from Norfolk to + Old Point Comfort, of Richmond to the mouth of Chickahominy, + or of Fredericksburg to Tappahannock or Urbanna, would utterly + annihilate those towns? I have no tongue to express my sense + of the probable injustice of the measure. Sir, it involves the + innocent with the guilty. Take the case of Charleston; what if + ninety-nine merchants were ready and willing to comply with your + revenue laws, and that but one man could be found to resist + them; would you run the hazard of destroying the ninety-nine + in order to punish one? Trade is a delicate subject to touch; + once divert it out of its regular channels, and nothing is + more difficult than to restore it. This measure may involve the + actual property of every man, woman, and child in that city; + and this, too, when you have a redundancy of millions in your + treasury, and when no interest can sustain injury by awaiting + the actual occurrence of a case of resistance to your laws, + before you would have an opportunity to legislate. + + "He is further empowered to employ the land and naval forces, + to put down all 'aiders and abettors.' How far will this + authority extend? Suppose the legislature of South Carolina + should happen to be in session: I will not blink the question, + suppose the legislature to be in session at the time of any + disturbance, passing laws in furtherance of the ordinance which + has been adopted by the convention of that State; might they + not be considered by the President as aiders and abettors? The + President might not, perhaps, march at the head of his troops, + with a flourish of drums and trumpets, and with bayonets fixed, + into the state-house yard, at Columbia; but, if he did so, he + would find a precedent for it in English history. + + "There was no ambiguity about this measure. The prophecy had + already gone forth; the President has said that the laws will + be obstructed. The President had not only foretold the coming + difficulties, but he has also assembled an army. The city of + Charleston, if report spoke true, was now a beleagured city; the + cannon of Fort Pinckney are pointing at it; and although they + are now quietly sleeping, they are ready to open their thunders + whenever the voice of authority shall give the command. And + shall these terrors be let loose because some one man may refuse + to pay some small modicum of revenue, which Congress, the day + after it came into the treasury, might vote in satisfaction of + some unfounded claim? Shall we set so small a value upon the + lives of the people? Let us at least wait to see the course of + measures. We can never be too tardy in commencing the work of + blood. + + "If the majority shall pass this bill, they must do it on their + own responsibility; I will have no part in it. When gentlemen + recount the blessings of union; when they dwell upon the past, + and sketch out, in bright perspective, the future, they awaken + in my breast all the pride of an American; my pulse beats + responsive to theirs, and I regard union, next to freedom, as + the greatest of blessings. Yes, sir, 'the federal Union must + be preserved.' But how? Will you seek to preserve it by force? + Will you appease the angry spirit of discord by an oblation + of blood? Suppose that the proud and haughty spirit of South + Carolina shall not bend to your high edicts in token of fealty; + that you make war upon her, hang her Governor, her legislators, + and judges, as traitors, and reduce her to the condition of a + conquered province--have you preserved the Union? This Union + consists of twenty-four States; would you have preserved + the Union by striking out one of the States--one of the old + thirteen? Gentlemen had boasted of the flag of our country, + with its thirteen stars. When the light of one of these stars + shall have been extinguished, will the flag wave over us, under + which our fathers fought? If we are to go on striking out star + after star, what will finally remain but a central and a burning + sun, blighting and destroying every germ of liberty? The flag + which I wish to wave over me, is that which floated in triumph + at Saratoga and Yorktown. It bore upon it thirteen States, of + which South Carolina was one. Sir, there is a great difference + between preserving Union and preserving government; the Union + may be annihilated, yet government preserved; but, under such a + government, no man ought to desire to live." + +Mr. Webster, one of the committee which reported the bill, justly +rebuked all this vituperation, and justified the bill, both for the +equity of its provisions, and the necessity for enacting them. He +said: + + "The President, charged by the constitution with the duty + of executing the laws, has sent us a message, alleging that + powerful combinations are forming to resist their execution; + that the existing laws are not sufficient to meet the crisis; + and recommending sundry enactments as necessary for the + occasion. The message being referred to the Judiciary Committee, + that committee has reported a bill in compliance with the + President's recommendation. It has not gone beyond the message. + Every thing in the bill, every single provision, which is now + complained of, is in the message. Yet the whole war is raised + against the bill, and against the committee, as if the committee + had originated the whole matter. Gentlemen get up and address + us, as if they were arguing against some measure of a factious + opposition. They look the same way, sir, and speak with the same + vehemence, as they used to do when they raised their patriotic + voices against what they called a 'coalition.' + + "Now, sir, let it be known, once for all, that this is an + administration measure; that it is the President's own measure; + and I pray gentlemen to have the goodness, if they call it hard + names, and talk loudly against its friends, not to overlook its + source. Let them attack it, if they choose to attack it, in its + origin. + + "Let it be known, also, that a majority of the committee + reporting the bill are friends and supporters of the + administration; and that it is maintained in this house by those + who are among his steadfast friends, of long standing. + + "It is, sir, as I have already said, the President's own + measure. Let those who oppose it, oppose it as such. Let them + fairly acknowledge its origin, and meet it accordingly. + + "The honorable member from Kentucky, who spoke first against the + bill, said he found in it another Jersey prison-ship; let him + state, then, that the President has sent a message to Congress, + recommending a renewal of the sufferings and horrors of the + Jersey prison-ship. He says, too, that the bill snuffs of the + alien and sedition law. But the bill is fragrant of no flower + except the same which perfumes the message. Let him, then, say, + if he thinks so, that General Jackson advises a revival of the + principles of the alien and sedition laws. + + "The honorable member from Virginia [Mr. Tyler], finds out a + resemblance between this bill and the Boston port bill. Sir, if + one of these be imitated from the other, the imitation is the + President's. The bill makes the President, he says, sole judge + of the constitution. Does he mean to say that the President has + recommended a measure which is to make him sole judge of the + constitution? The bill, he declares, sacrifices every thing to + arbitrary power--he will lend no aid to its passage--he would + rather 'be a dog, and bay the moon, than such a Roman.' He did + not say 'the old Roman.' Yet the gentleman well knows, that + if any thing is sacrificed to arbitrary power, the sacrifice + has been demanded by the 'old Roman,' as he and others have + called him; by the President whom he has supported, so often + and so ably, for the chief magistracy of the country. He says, + too, that one of the sections is an English Botany Bay law, + except that it is much worse. This section, sir, whatever it + may be, is just what the President's message recommended. + Similar observations are applicable to the remarks of both the + honorable gentlemen from North Carolina. It is not necessary to + particularize those remarks. They were in the same strain. + + "Therefore, sir, let it be understood, let it be known, that the + war which these gentlemen choose to wage, is waged against the + measures of the administration, against the President of their + own choice. The controversy has arisen between him and them, + and, in its progress, they will probably come to a distinct + understanding. + + "Mr. President, I am not to be understood as admitting that + these charges against the bill are just, or that they would + be just if made against the message. On the contrary, I think + them wholly unjust. No one of them, in my opinion, can be made + good. I think the bill, or some similar measure, had become + indispensable, and that the President could not do otherwise + than to recommend it to the consideration of Congress. He + was not at liberty to look on and be silent, while dangers + threatened the Union, which existing laws were not competent, in + his judgment, to avert. + + "Mr. President, I take this occasion to say, that I support + this measure, as an independent member of the Senate, in the + discharge of the dictates of my own conscience. I am no man's + leader; and, on the other hand, I follow no lead, but that + of public duty, and the star of the constitution. I believe + the country is in considerable danger; I believe an unlawful + combination threatens the integrity of the Union. I believe the + crisis calls for a mild, temperate, forbearing, but inflexibly + firm execution of the laws. And, under this conviction, I give + a hearty support to the administration, in all measures which I + deem to be fair, just, and necessary. And in supporting these + measures, I mean to take my fair share of responsibility, to + support them frankly and fairly, without reflections on the + past, and without mixing other topics in their discussion. + + "Mr. President, I think I understand the sentiment of the + country on this subject. I think public opinion sets with an + irresistible force in favor of the Union, in favor of the + measures recommended by the President, and against the new + doctrines which threaten the dissolution of the Union. I + think the people of the United States demand of us, who are + intrusted with the government, to maintain that government; + to be just, and fear not; to make all and suitable provisions + for the execution of the laws, and to sustain the Union and + the constitution against whatsoever may endanger them. For + one, I obey this public voice; I comply with this demand of + the people. I support the administration in measures which I + believe to be necessary; and, while pursuing this course, I + look unhesitatingly, and with the utmost confidence, for the + approbation of the country." + +The support which Mr. Webster gave to all the President's measures +in relation to South Carolina, and his exposure of the doctrine of +nullification, being the first to detect and denounce that heresy, +made him extremely obnoxious to Mr. Calhoun, and his friends; and +must have been the main cause of his exclusion from the confidence +of Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun in the concoction of their bill, called +a compromise. His motives as well as his actions were attacked, +and he was accused of subserviency to the President for the sake +of future favor. At the same time all the support which he gave +to these measures was the regular result of the principles which +he laid down in his first speeches against nullification in the +debate with Mr. Hayne, and he could not have done less without being +derelict to his own principles then avowed. It was a proud era in +his life, supporting with transcendent ability the cause of the +constitution and of the country, in the person of a chief magistrate +to whom he was politically opposed bursting the bonds of party at +the call of duty, and displaying a patriotism worthy of admiration +and imitation. General Jackson felt the debt of gratitude and +admiration which he owed him; the country, without distinction of +party, felt the same; and the universality of the feeling was one of +the grateful instances of popular applause and justice when great +talents are seen exerting themselves for the good of the country. He +was the colossal figure on the political stage during that eventful +time; and his labors, splendid in their day, survive for the benefit +of distant posterity. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIV. + +MR. CALHOUN'S NULLIFICATION RESOLUTIONS. + + +Simultaneously with the commencement of the discussions on the +South Carolina proceedings, was the introduction in the Senate of a +set of resolutions by Mr. Calhoun, entitled by him, "_Resolutions +on the powers of the government_;" but all involving the doctrine +of nullification; and the debate upon them deriving its point and +character from the discussion of that doctrine. The following were +the resolutions: + + "_Resolved_, That the people of the several States composing + these United States are united as parties to a constitutional + compact, to which the people of each State acceded as a separate + sovereign community, each binding itself by its own particular + ratification; and that the Union, of which the said compact is + the bond, is a union between the States ratifying the same. + + "_Resolved_, That the people of the several States, thus united + by the constitutional compact, in forming that instrument, + and in creating a general government to carry into effect + the objects for which they were formed, delegated to that + government, for that purpose, certain definite powers, to be + exercised jointly, reserving at the same time, each State to + itself, the residuary mass of powers, to be exercised by its own + separate government; and that whenever the general government + assumes the exercise of powers not delegated by the compact, + its acts are unauthorized, and are of no effect; and that the + same government is not made the final judge of the powers + delegated to it, since that would make its discretion, and not + the constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in + all other cases of compact among sovereign parties, without any + common judge, each has an equal right to judge for itself, as + well as of the infraction as of the mode and measure of redress. + + "_Resolved_, That the assertions that the people of these United + States, taken collectively as individualss, are now, or ever + have been, united on the principle of the social compact, and + as such are now formed into one nation or people, or that they + have ever been so united in any one stage of their political + existence; that the people of the several States composing the + Union have not, as members thereof, retained their sovereignty; + that the allegiance of their citizens has been transferred to + the general government; that they have parted with the right of + punishing treason through their respective State governments; + and that they have not the right of judging in the last resort + as to the extent of the powers reserved, and, of consequence, + of those delegated; are not only without foundation in truth, + but are contrary to the most certain and plain historical facts, + and the dearest deductions of reason; and that all exercise + of power on the part of the general government, or any of its + departments, claiming authority from so erroneous assumptions, + must of necessity be unconstitutional, must tend directly and + inevitably to subvert the sovereignty of the States, to destroy + the federal character of the Union, and to rear on its ruins + a consolidated government, without constitutional check or + limitation, and which must necessarily terminate in the loss of + liberty itself." + +To which Mr. Grundy offered a counter set, as follows: + + "1. _Resolved_, That by the constitution of the United States, + certain powers are delegated to the general government, and + those not delegated, or prohibited to the States, are reserved + to the States respectively, or to the people. + + "2. _Resolved_, That one of the powers expressly granted by the + constitution to the general government, and prohibited to the + States, is that of laying duties on imports. + + "3. _Resolved_, That the power to lay imposts is by the + constitution wholly transferred from the State authorities to + the general government, without any reservation of power or + right on the part of the State. + + "4. _Resolved_, That the tariff laws of 1828 and 1832 are + exercises of the constitutional power possessed by the Congress + of the United States, whatever various opinions may exist as to + their policy and justice. + + "5. _Resolved_, That an attempt on the part of a State to annul + an act of Congress passed upon any subject exclusively confided + by the constitution to Congress, is an encroachment on the + rights of the general government. + + "6. _Resolved_, That attempts to obstruct or prevent the + execution of the several acts of Congress imposing duties on + imports, whether by ordinances of conventions or legislative + enactments, are not warranted by the constitution and are + dangerous to the political institutions of the country." + +It was in the discussion of these resolutions, and the kindred +subjects of the "force bill" and the "revenue collection bill," +that Mr. Calhoun first publicly revealed the source from which +he obtained the seminal idea of nullification as a remedy in a +government. The Virginia resolutions of '98-'99, were the assumed +source of the power itself as applicable to our federal and State +governments; but the essential idea of nullification as a peaceful +and lawful mode of arresting a measure of the general government +by the action of one of the States, was derived from the _veto_ +power of the tribunes of the people in the Roman government. I had +often heard him talk of that tribunitian power, and celebrate it +as the perfection of good government--as being for the benefit of +the weaker part, and operating negatively to prevent oppression, +and not positively to do injustice--but I never saw him carry that +idea into a public speech but once, and that was on the discussion +of his resolutions of this session; for though actually delivered +while the "force bill" was before the Senate, yet all his doctrinal +argument on that bill was the amplification of his nullification +resolutions. On that occasion he traced the Roman tribunitian power, +and considered it a cure for all the disorders to which the Roman +state had been subject, and the cause to which all her subsequent +greatness was to be attributed. This remarkable speech was delivered +February 15th, 1833, and after depicting a government of the +majority--a majority unchecked by a right in the minority of staying +their measures--to be unmitigated despotism, he then proceeded to +argue in favor of the excellence of the _veto_ and the _secession_ +power; and thus delivered himself: + + "He might appeal to history for the truth of these remarks, of + which the Roman furnished the most familiar and striking. It was + a well-known fact, that, from the expulsion of the Tarquins, + to the time of the establishment of the tribunitian power, + the government fell into a state of the greatest disorder and + distraction, and, he might add, corruption. How did this happen? + The explanation will throw important light on the subject under + consideration. The community was divided into two parts, the + patricians and the plebeians, with the powers of the state + principally in the hands of the former, without adequate check + to protect the rights of the latter. The result was as might be + expected. The patricians converted the powers of the government + into the means of making money, to enrich themselves and their + dependants. They, in a word, had their American system, growing + out of the peculiar character of the government and condition + of the country. This requires explanation. At that period, + according to the laws of nations, when one nation conquered + another, the lands of the vanquished belonged to the victors; + and, according to the Roman law the lands thus acquired were + divided into parts, one allotted to the poorer class of the + people, and the other assigned to the use of the treasury, of + which the patricians had the distribution and administration. + The patricians abused their power, by withholding from the + people that which ought to have been allotted to them, and by + converting to their own use that which ought to have gone to + the treasury. In a word, they took to themselves the entire + spoils of victory, and they had thus the most powerful motive + to keep the state perpetually involved in war, to the utter + impoverishment and oppression of the people. After resisting + the abuse of power, by all peaceable means, and the oppression + becoming intolerable, the people at last withdrew from the city; + they, in a word, seceded; and, to induce them to reunite, the + patricians conceded to the plebeians, as the means of protecting + their separate interests, the very power which he contended is + necessary to protect the rights of the States, but which is now + represented as necessarily leading to disunion. They granted + to the people the right of choosing three tribunes from among + themselves, whose persons should be sacred, and who should + have the right of interposing their veto, not only against the + passage of laws, but even against their execution; a power + which those who take a shallow insight into human nature would + pronounce inconsistent with the strength and unity of the state, + if not utterly impracticable. Yet, so far from that being the + effect, from that day the genius of Rome became ascendant, and + victory followed her steps till she had established an almost + universal dominion. + + "How can a result so contrary to all anticipation be explained? + The explanation appeared to him to be simple. No measure or + movement could be adopted without the concurring consent of both + the patricians and plebeians, and each thus became dependent + on the other, and, of consequence, the desire and objects of + neither could be effected without the concurrence of the other. + To obtain this concurrence, each was compelled to consult the + good will of the other, and to elevate to office not simply + those who might have the confidence of the order to which he + belonged, but also that of the other. The result was, that + men possessing those qualities which would naturally command + confidence, moderation, wisdom, justice, and patriotism, were + elevated to office; and these, by the weight of their authority + and the prudence of their counsel, together with that spirit of + unanimity necessarily resulting from the concurring assent of + the two orders, furnishes the real explanation of the power of + the Roman state, and of that extraordinary wisdom, moderation, + and firmness, which in so remarkable a degree characterized + her public men. He might illustrate the truth of the position + which he had laid down, by a reference to the history of all + free states, ancient and modern, distinguished for their power + and patriotism; and conclusively show not only that there was + not one which had not some contrivance, under some form, by + which the concurring assent of the different portions of the + community was made necessary in the action of government, but + also that the virtue, patriotism, and strength of the state were + in direct proportion to the strength of the means of securing + such assent. In estimating the operation of this principle in + our system, which depends, as he had stated, on the right of + interposition on the part of the State, we must not omit to + take into consideration the amending power, by which new powers + may be granted, or any derangement of the system be corrected, + by the concurring assent of three-fourths of the States; and + thus, in the same degree, strengthening the power of repairing + any derangement occasioned by the executive action of a State. + In fact, the power of interposition, fairly understood, may be + considered in the light of an appeal against the usurpations + of the general government, the joint agent of all the States, + to the States themselves, to be decided, under the amending + power, affirmatively, in favor of the government, by the voice + of three-fourths of the States, as the highest power known under + the system. + + "Mr. C. said that he knew the difficulty, in our country, + of establishing the truth of the principle for which he + contended, though resting upon the clearest reason, and tested + by the universal experience of free nations. He knew that the + governments of the several States would be cited as an argument + against the conclusion to which he had arrived, and which, for + the most part, were constructed on the principle of the absolute + majority; but, in his opinion, a satisfactory answer could be + given; that the objects of expenditure which fell within the + sphere of a State government were few and inconsiderable; so + that, be their action ever so irregular, it could occasion + but little derangement. If, instead of being members of this + great confederacy, they formed distinct communities, and + were compelled to raise armies, and incur other expenses + necessary for their defence, the laws which he had laid down as + necessarily controlling the action of a State, where the will + of an absolute and unchecked majority prevailed, would speedily + disclose themselves in faction, anarchy, and corruption. + Even as the case is, the operation of the causes to which he + had referred were perceptible in some of the larger and more + populous members of the Union, whose governments had a powerful + central action, and which already showed a strong tendency + to that moneyed action which is the invariable forerunner of + corruption and convulsions. + + "But to return to the general government; we have now sufficient + experience to ascertain that the tendency to conflict in this + action is between Southern and other sections. The latter, + having a decided majority, must habitually be possessed of + the powers of the government, both in this and in the other + House; and, being governed by that instinctive love of power + so natural to the human breast, they must become the advocates + of the power of government, and in the same degree opposed + to the limitations; while the other and weaker section is as + necessarily thrown on the side of the limitations. In one + word, the one section is the natural guardian of the delegated + powers, and the other of the reserved; and the struggle on the + side of the former will be to enlarge the powers, while that + on the opposite side will be to restrain them within their + constitutional limits. The contest will, in fact, be a contest + between power and liberty, and such he considered the present; + a contest in which the weaker section, with its peculiar labor, + productions, and situation, has at stake all that can be dear + to freemen. Should they be able to maintain in their full vigor + their reserved rights, liberty and prosperity will be their + portion; but if they yield, and permit the stronger interest to + consolidate within itself all the powers of the government, then + will its fate be more wretched than that of the aborigines whom + they have expelled, or of their slaves. In this great struggle + between the delegated and reserved powers, so far from repining + that his lot and that of those whom he represented is cast on + the side of the latter, he rejoiced that such is the fact; + for though we participate in but few of the advantages of the + government, we are compensated, and more than compensated, in + not being so much exposed to its corruption. Nor did he repine + that the duty, so difficult to be discharged, as the defence + of the reserved powers against, apparently, such fearful odds, + had been assigned to them. To discharge successfully this high + duty requires the highest qualities, moral and intellectual; + and, should you perform it with a zeal and ability in proportion + to its magnitude, instead of being mere planters, our section + will become distinguished for its patriots and statesmen. But, + on the other hand, if we prove unworthy of this high destiny, + if we yield to the steady encroachment of power, the severest + and most debasing calamity and corruption will overspread the + land. Every Southern man, true to the interests of his section, + and faithful to the duties which Providence has allotted him, + will be for ever excluded from the honors and emoluments of + this government, which will be reserved for those only who have + qualified themselves, by political prostitution, for admission + into the Magdalen Asylum." + +In this extract from that remarkable speech, the first one in which +Mr. Calhoun defended nullification and secession in the Senate, and +in which every word bears the impress of intense thought, there is +distinctly to be seen his opinion of the defects of our duplicate +form of government (State and federal), and of the remedy for +those defects. I say, in our form of government; for his speech +had a practical application to ourselves, and was a defence, or +justification of the actual measures of the State he represented. +And this defect was, _the unchecked authority of a majority_; +and the remedy was, _an authority in the minority to check that +majority, and to secede_. This clearly was an absolute condemnation +of the fundamental principle upon which the administration of the +federal constitution, and of the State constitutions rested. But +he did not limit himself to the benefits of the _veto_ and of +_secession_, as shown in Roman history; he had recourse to the +Jewish for the same purpose--and found it--not in a _veto_ in each +of the twelve tribes, but in the right of secession; and found it, +not in the minority, but the majority, in the reign of Jeroboam, +when ten tribes seceded. That example is thus introduced: + + "Among the few exceptions in the Asiatic nations, the government + of the twelve tribes of Israel, in its early period, was + the most striking. Their government, at first, was a mere + confederation, without any central power, till a military + chieftain, with the title of king, was placed at its head, + without, however, merging the original organization of the + twelve distinct tribes. This was the commencement of that + central action among that peculiar people, which, in three + generations, terminated in a permanent division of their + tribes. It is impossible even for a careless reader to peruse + the history of that event without being forcibly struck with + the analogy in the causes which led to their separation, and + those which now threaten us with a similar calamity. With the + establishment of the central power in the king commenced a + system of taxation, which, under king Solomon, was greatly + increased, to defray the expense of rearing the temple, + of enlarging and embellishing Jerusalem, the seat of the + central government, and the other profuse expenditures of his + magnificent reign. Increased taxation was followed by its + natural consequences--discontent and complaint, which before + his death began to excite resistance. On the succession of his + son, Rehoboam, the ten tribes, headed by Jeroboam, demanded + a reduction of the taxes; the temple being finished, and the + embellishment of Jerusalem completed, and the money which had + been raised for that purpose being no longer required, or, in + other words, the debt being paid, they demanded a reduction + of the duties--a repeal of the tariff. The demand was taken + under consideration, and, after consulting the old men (the + counsellors of '98), who advised a reduction, he then took the + opinion of the younger politicians, who had since grown up, and + knew not the doctrines of their fathers. He hearkened unto their + counsel, and refused to make the reduction; and the secession + of the ten tribes, under Jeroboam, followed. The tribes of + Judah and Benjamin, which had received the disbursements, alone + remained to the house of David." + +This example also had a practical application, and a squint at the +Virginia resolutions of '98-'99, and at the military chieftain then +at the head of our government, with a broad intimation of what was +to happen if the taxes were not reduced; and that happened to be +_secession_. And all this, and the elaborate speech from which it is +taken, and many others of the same character at the same time, was +delivered at a time when the elections had decided for a reduction +of the taxes--when a bill in the House was under consideration for +that purpose--and when his own "compromise" bill was in a state of +concoction, and advanced to a stage to assure its final passing. +Strong must have been Mr. Calhoun's desire for his favorite remedy, +when he could contend for it under such circumstances--under +circumstances which showed that it could not be wanted for the +purpose which he then avowed. Satisfied of the excellence, and +even necessity in our system, of this remedy, the next question +was to create it, or to find it; create it, by an amendment to the +constitution; or find it already existing there; and this latter was +done by a new reading of the famous Virginia resolutions of '98-'99. +The right in any State to arrest an act of Congress, and to stay it +until three fourths of the States ordered it to proceed, and with a +right forcibly to resist if any attempt was made in the mean time to +enforce it, with the correlative right of secession and permanent +separation, were all found by him in these resolutions--the third +especially, which was read, and commented upon for the purpose. Mr. +Rives, of Virginia, repulsed that interpretation of the act of his +State, and showed that an appeal to public opinion was all that was +intended; and quoted the message of Governor Monroe to show that the +judgment of the federal court, under one of the acts declared to be +unconstitutional, was carried into effect in the capital of Virginia +with the order and tranquillity of any other judgment. He said: + + "But, sir, the proceedings of my State, on another occasion of + far higher importance, have been so frequently referred to, in + the course of this debate, as an example to justify the present + proceedings of South Carolina, that I may be excused for saying + something of them. What, then, was the conduct of Virginia, + in the memorable era of '98 and '99? She solemnly protested + against the alien and sedition acts, as 'palpable and alarming + infractions of the constitution;' she communicated that protest + to the other States of the Union, and earnestly appealed to them + to unite with her in a like declaration, that this deliberate + and solemn expression of the opinion of the States, as parties + to the constitutional compact, should have its proper effect on + the councils of the nation, in procuring a revision and repeal + of the obnoxious acts. This was 'the head and front of her + offending'--no more. The whole object of the proceedings was, + by the peaceful force of public opinion, embodied through the + organ of the State legislatures, to obtain a repeal of the laws + in question, not to oppose or arrest their execution, while + they remained unrepealed. That this was the true spirit and + real purpose of the proceeding, is abundantly manifested by the + whole of the able debate which took place in the legislature of + the State, on the occasion. All the speakers, who advocated the + resolutions which were finally adopted, distinctly placed them + on that legitimate, constitutional ground. I need only refer + to the emphatic declaration of John Taylor, of Caroline, the + distinguished mover and able champion of the resolutions. He + said 'the appeal was to public opinion; if that is against us, + we must yield.' The same sentiment was avowed and maintained by + every friend of the resolutions, throughout the debate. + + "But, sir, the real intentions and policy of Virginia were + proved, not by declarations and speeches merely, but by facts. + If there ever was a law odious to a whole people, by its daring + violation of the fundamental guaranties of public liberty, the + freedom of speech and freedom of the press, it was the sedition + law to the people of Virginia. Yet, amid all this indignant + dissatisfaction, after the solemn protest of the legislature, + in '98, and the renewal of that protest, in '99, this most + odious and arbitrary law was peaceably carried into execution, + in the capital of the State, by the prosecution and punishment + of Callender, who was fined and imprisoned for daring to + canvass the conduct of our public men (as Lyon and Cooper had + been elsewhere), and was still actually imprisoned, when the + legislature assembled, in December, 1800. Notwithstanding the + excited sensibility of the public mind, no popular tumult, no + legislative interference, disturbed, in any manner, the full and + peaceable execution of the law. The Senate will excuse me, I + trust, for calling their attention to a most forcible commentary + on the true character of the Virginia proceedings of '98 and + '99 (as illustrated in this transaction), which was contained + in the official communication of Mr. Monroe, then Governor of + the State, to the legislature, at its assembling, in December, + 1800. After referring to the distribution which had been ordered + to be made among the people, of Mr. Madison's celebrated report, + of '99, he says 'In connection with this subject, it is proper + to add, that, since your last session, the sedition law, one + of the acts complained of, has been carried into effect, in + this commonwealth, by the decision of a federal court. I notice + this event, not with a view of censuring or criticising it. The + transaction has gone to the world, and the impartial will judge + of it as it deserves. I notice it for the purpose of remarking + that the decision was executed with the same order and tranquil + submission, on the part of the people, as could have been shown + by them, on a similar occasion, to any the most necessary, + constitutional and popular acts of the government.'" + +Mr. Webster, in denying the derivation of nullification and +secession from the constitution, said: + + "The constitution does not provide for events which must be + preceded by its own destruction. Secession, therefore, since it + must bring these consequences with it, is revolutionary. And + nullification is equally revolutionary. What is revolution? + Why, sir, that is revolution which overturns, or controls, or + successfully resists the existing public authority; that which + arrests the exercise of the supreme power; that which introduces + a new paramount authority into the rule of the state. Now, sir, + this is the precise object of nullification. It attempts to + supersede the supreme legislative authority. It arrests the arm + of the Executive Magistrate. It interrupts the exercise of the + accustomed judicial power. Under the name of an ordinance, it + declares null and void, within the State, all the revenue laws + of the United States. Is not this revolutionary? Sir, so soon as + this ordinance shall be carried into effect, a revolution will + have commenced in South Carolina. She will have thrown off the + authority to which her citizens have, heretofore, been subject. + She will have declared her own opinions and her own will to be + above the laws, and above the power of those who are intrusted + with their administration. If she makes good these declarations, + she is revolutionized. As to her, it is as distinctly a change + of the supreme power as the American Revolution, of 1776. That + revolution did not subvert government, in all its forms. It + did not subvert local laws and municipal administrations. It + only threw off the dominion of a power claiming to be superior, + and to have a right, in many important respects, to exercise + legislative authority. Thinking this authority to have been + usurped or abused, the American colonies, now the United States, + bade it defiance, and freed themselves from it, by means of + a revolution. But that revolution left them with their own + municipal laws still, and the forms of local government. If + Carolina now shall effectually resist the laws of Congress--if + she shall be her own judge, take her remedy into her own hands, + obey the laws of the Union when she pleases, and disobey them + when she pleases--she will relieve herself from a paramount + power, as distinctly as did the American colonies, in 1776. In + other words, she will achieve, as to herself, a revolution." + +The speaker then proceeded to show what nullification was, as +reduced to practice in the ordinance, and other proceedings of South +Carolina; and said: + + "But, sir, while practical nullification in South Carolina would + be, as to herself, actual and distinct revolution, its necessary + tendency must also be to spread revolution, and to break up the + constitution, as to all the other States. It strikes a deadly + blow at the vital principle of the whole Union. To allow State + resistance to the laws of Congress to be rightful and proper, + to admit nullification in some States, and yet not expect + to see a dismemberment of the entire government, appears to + me the wildest illusion and the most extravagant folly. The + gentleman seems not conscious of the direction or the rapidity + of his own course. The current of his opinions sweeps him + along, he knows not whither. To begin with nullification, with + the avowed intent, nevertheless, not to proceed to secession, + dismemberment, and general revolution, is as if one were to take + the plunge of Niagara, and cry out that he would stop half-way + down. In the one case, as in the other, the rash adventurer must + go to the bottom of the dark abyss below, were it not that that + abyss has no discovered bottom. + + "Nullification, if successful, arrests the power of the law, + absolves citizens from their duty, subverts the foundation + both of protection and obedience, dispenses with oaths and + obligations of allegiance, and elevates another authority to + supreme command. Is not this revolution? And it raises to + supreme command four-and-twenty distinct powers, each professing + to be under a general government, and yet each setting its + laws at defiance at pleasure. Is not this anarchy, as well as + revolution? Sir, the constitution of the United States was + received as a whole, and for the whole country. If it cannot + stand altogether, it cannot stand in parts; and, if the laws + cannot be executed every where, they cannot long be executed + any where. The gentleman very well knows that all duties and + imposts must be uniform throughout the country. He knows that + we cannot have one rule or one law for South Carolina, and + another for other States. He must see, therefore, and does + see--every man sees--that the only alternative is a repeal of + the laws throughout the whole Union, or their execution in + Carolina as well as elsewhere. And this repeal is demanded, + because a single State interposes her veto, and threatens + resistance! The result of the gentleman's opinions, or rather + the very text of his doctrine, is, that no act of Congress can + bind all the States, the constitutionality of which is not + admitted by all; or, in other words, that no single State is + bound, against its own dissent, by a law of imposts. This was + precisely the evil experienced under the old confederation, and + for remedy of which this constitution was adopted. The leading + object in establishing this government, an object forced on + the country by the condition of the times, and the absolute + necessity of the law, was to give to Congress power to lay and + collect imposts without the consent of particular States. The + revolutionary debt remained unpaid; the national treasury was + bankrupt; the country was destitute of credit; Congress issued + its requisitions on the States, and the States neglected them; + there was no power of coercion but war; Congress could not lay + imposts, or other taxes, by its own authority; the whole general + government, therefore, was little more than a name. The articles + of confederation, as to purposes of revenue and finance, were + nearly a dead letter. The country sought to escape from this + condition, at once feeble and disgraceful, by constituting a + government which should have power of itself to lay duties + and taxes, and to pay the public debt, and provide for the + general welfare; and to lay these duties and taxes in all the + States, without asking the consent of the State governments. + This was the very power on which the new constitution was to + depend for all its ability to do good; and, without it, it + can be no government, now or at any time. Yet, sir, it is + precisely against this power, so absolutely indispensable to + the very being of the government, that South Carolina directs + her ordinance. She attacks the government in its authority to + raise revenue, the very mainspring of the whole system; and, + if she succeed, every movement of that system must inevitably + cease. It is of no avail that she declares that she does not + resist the law as a revenue law, but as a law for protecting + manufactures. It is a revenue law; it is the very law by force + of which the revenue is collected; if it be arrested in any + State, the revenue ceases in that State; it is, in a word, the + sole reliance of the government for the means of maintaining + itself and performing its duties." + +Mr. Webster condensed into four brief and pointed propositions his +opinion of the nature of our federal government, as being a UNION +in contradistinction to a LEAGUE, and as acting upon INDIVIDUALS +in contradistinction to STATES, and as being, in these features +discriminated from the old confederation. + + "1. That the constitution of the United States is not a league, + confederacy, or compact, between the people of the several + States in their sovereign capacities; but a government proper, + founded on the adoption of the people, and creating direct + relations between itself and individuals. + + "2. That no State authority has power to dissolve these + relations; that nothing can dissolve them but revolution; and + that, consequently, there can be no such thing as secession + without revolution. + + "3. That there is a supreme law, consisting of the constitution + of the United States, acts of Congress passed in pursuance of + it, and treaties; and that, in cases not capable of assuming + the character of a suit in law or equity, Congress must judge + of, and finally interpret, this supreme law, so often as it has + occasion to pass acts of legislation; and, in cases capable of + assuming, and actually assuming, the character of a suit, the + Supreme Court of the United States is the final interpreter. + + "4. That an attempt by a State to abrogate, annul, or nullify + an act of Congress, or to arrest its operation within her + limits, on the ground that, in her opinion, such law is + unconstitutional, is a direct usurpation on the just powers + of the general government, and on the equal rights of other + States; a plain violation of the constitution, and a proceeding + essentially revolutionary in its character and tendency." + +Mr. Webster concluded his speech, an elaborate and able one, in +which he appeared in the high character of patriot still more than +that of orator, in which he intimated that some other cause, besides +the alleged one, must be at the bottom of this desire for secession. +He was explicit that the world could hardly believe in such a +reason, and that we ourselves who hear and see all that is said and +done, could not believe it. He concluded thus: + + "Sir, the world will scarcely believe that this whole + controversy, and all the desperate measures which its support + requires, have no other foundation than a difference of opinion, + upon a provision of the constitution, between a majority of the + people of South Carolina, on one side, and a vast majority of + the whole people of the United States on the other. It will not + credit the fact, it will not admit the possibility, that, in an + enlightened age, in a free, popular republic, under a government + where the people govern, as they must always govern, under such + systems, by majorities, at a time of unprecedented happiness, + without practical oppression, without evils, such as may not + only be pretended, but felt and experienced; evils not slight + or temporary, but deep, permanent, and intolerable; a single + State should rush into conflict with all the rest, attempt to + put down the power of the Union by her own laws, and to support + those laws by her military power, and thus break up and destroy + the world's last hope. And well the world may be incredulous. + We, who hear and see it, can ourselves hardly yet believe it. + Even after all that had preceded it, this ordinance struck the + country with amazement. It was incredible and inconceivable, + that South Carolina should thus plunge headlong into resistance + to the laws, on a matter of opinion, and on a question in which + the preponderance of opinion, both of the present day and of + all past time, was so overwhelmingly against her. The ordinance + declares that Congress has exceeded its just power, by laying + duties on imports, intended for the protection of manufactures. + This is the opinion of South Carolina; and on the strength of + that opinion she nullifies the laws. Yet has the rest of the + country no right to its opinions also? Is one State to sit sole + arbitress? She maintains that those laws are plain, deliberate, + and palpable violations of the constitution; that she has a + sovereign right to decide this matter; and, that, having so + decided, she is authorized to resist their execution, by her + own sovereign power; and she declares that she will resist it, + though such resistance should shatter the Union into atoms." + +Mr. Davis, of Massachusetts, had been still more explicit, in +the expression of the belief already given (in the extract from +his speech contained in this work), that the discontent in South +Carolina had a root deeper than that of the tariff; and General +Jackson intimated the same thing in his message to the two Houses +on the South Carolina proceedings, and in which he alluded to the +ambitious and personal feelings which might be involved in them. +Certainly it was absolutely incomprehensible that this doctrine of +nullification and secession, prefigured in the Roman secession to +the sacred mount, and the Jewish disruption of the twelve tribes, +should be thus enforced, and impressed, for that cause of the tariff +alone; when, to say nothing of the intention of the President, the +Congress and the country to reduce it, Mr. Calhoun himself had +provided for its reduction, satisfactorily to himself, in the act +called a "compromise;" to which he was a full contracting party. +It was impossible to believe in the soleness of that reason, in +the presence of circumstances which annulled it; and Mr. Calhoun +himself, in a part of his speech which had been quoted, seemed to +reveal a glimpse of two others--slavery, about which there was at +that time no agitation--and the presidency, to which patriotic +Southern men could not be elected. The glimpse exhibited of the +first of these causes, was in this sentence: "_The contest_ (between +the North and the South) _will, in fact, be a contest between +power and liberty, and such he considered the present; a contest +in which the weaker section, with its peculiar labor, productions +and situation, has at stake all that is dear to freemen._" Here is a +distinct declaration that there was then a contest between the two +sections of the Union, and that that contest was between power and +liberty, in which the freedom and the slave property of the South +were at stake. This declaration at the time attracted but little +attention, there being then no sign of a slavery agitation; but to +close observers it was an ominous revelation of something to come, +and an apparent laying an anchor to windward for a new agitation on +a new subject, after the tariff was done with. The second intimation +which he gave out, and which referred to the exclusion of the +patriotic men of the South from the presidency was in this sentence: +"_Every Southern man, true to the interests of his section, and +faithful to the duties which Providence has allotted him, will be +forever excluded from the honors and emoluments of this government, +which will be reserved for those only who have qualified themselves, +by political prostitution, for admission into the Magdalen asylum._" +This was bitter; and while revealing his own feelings at the +prospect of his own failure for the presidency (which from the +brightness of the noon-day sun was dimming down to the obscurity of +dark night), was, at the same time, unjust, and contradicted by all +history, previous and subsequent, of our national elections; and by +his own history in connection with them. The North had supported +Southern men for President--a long succession of them--and even +twice concurred in dropping a Northern President at the end of a +single term, and taking a Southern in his place. He himself had had +signal proofs of good will from the North in his two elections to +the vice-presidency; in which he had been better supported in the +North than in the South, getting the whole party vote in the former +while losing part of it in the latter. It was evident then, that +the protective tariff was not the sole, or the main cause of the +South Carolina discontent; that nullification and secession were to +continue, though their ostensible cause ceased; that resistance was +to continue on a new ground, upon the same principle, until a new +and impossible point was attained. This was declared by Mr. Calhoun +in his place, on the day of the passage of the "compromise" bill, +and on hearing that the "force bill" had finally passed the House of +Representatives. He then stood up, and spoke thus: + + "He had said, that as far as this subject was concerned, he + believed that peace and harmony would follow. But there is + another connected with it, which had passed this House, and + which had just been reported as having passed the other, which + would prevent the return of quiet. He considered the measure to + which he referred as a virtual repeal of the constitution; and, + in fact, worse than a positive and direct repeal; as it would + leave the majority without any shackles on its power, while the + minority, hoping to shelter itself under its protection, and + having still some respect left for the instrument, would be + trammelled without being protected by its provisions. It would + be idle to attempt to disguise that the bill will be a practical + assertion of one theory of the constitution against another--the + theory advocated by the supporters of the bill, that ours is a + consolidated government, in which the States have no rights, + and in which, in fact, they bear the same relation to the whole + community as the counties do to the States; and against that + view of the constitution which considers it as a compact formed + by the States as separate communities, and binding between the + States, and not between the individual citizens. No man of + candor, who admitted that our constitution is a compact, and was + formed and is binding in the manner he had just stated, but must + acknowledge that this bill utterly overthrows and prostrates + the constitution; and that it leaves the government under the + control of the will of an absolute majority. + + "If the measure be acquiesced in, it will be the termination of + that long controversy which began in the convention, and which + has been continued under various fortunes until the present + day. But it ought not--it will not--it cannot be acquiesced + in--unless the South is dead to the sense of her liberty, and + blind to those dangers which surround and menace them; she never + will cease resistance until the act is erased from the statute + book. To suppose that the entire power of the Union may be + placed in the hands of this government, and that all the various + interests in this widely extended country may be safely placed + under the will of an unchecked majority, is the extreme of folly + and madness. The result would be inevitable, that power would + be exclusively centered in the dominant interest north of this + river, and that all the south of it would be held as subjected + provinces, to be controlled for the exclusive benefit of the + stronger section. Such a state of things could not endure; and + the constitution and liberty of the country would fall in the + contest, if permitted to continue. + + "He trusted that that would not be the case, but that the + advocates of liberty every where, as well in the North as in + the South; that those who maintained the doctrines of '98, and + the sovereignties of the States; that the republican party + throughout the country would rally against this attempt to + establish, by law, doctrines which must subvert the principles + on which free institutions could be maintained." + +Here was a new departure, upon a new point, as violent as the former +complaint, looking to the same remedy, and unfounded and impossible. +This force bill, which was a repeal of the constitution, in the eyes +of Mr. Calhoun, was a mere revival of formerly existing statutes, +and could have no operation, if resistance to the tariff laws +ceased. Yet, nullification and secession were to proceed until it +was erased from the statute book; and all the morbid views of the +constitution, and of the Virginia resolutions of '98 and '99, were +to hold their places in Mr. Calhoun's imagination, and dominate his +conduct in all his political action, until this statute was erased. +But it is due to many of his friends and followers, to say that, +while concurring in his complaints against the federal government, +and in his remedies, they dissented from his source of derivation +of these remedies. He found them in the constitution, shown to +be there by the '98-'99 Virginia resolutions; the manly sense of +McDuffie, and some others, rejected that sophistry, and found their +justification wholly in the revolutionary right of self-defence from +intolerable oppression. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXV. + +SECRET HISTORY OF THE "COMPROMISE" OF 1833. + + +Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay were early, and long, rival aspirants for +the Presidency, and antagonistic leaders in opposite political +systems; and the coalition between them in 1833 was only a hollow +truce (embittered by the humiliations to which Mr. Calhoun was +subjected in the protective features of the "compromise") and only +kept alive for a few years by their mutual interest with respect to +General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren. A rupture was foreseen by every +observer; and in a few years it took place, and in open Senate, +and in a way to give the key to the secret motives which led to +that compromise. It became a question between them which had the +upper hand of the other--in their own language--which was master of +the other--on that occasion. Mr. Calhoun declared that he had Mr. +Clay down--had him on his back--was his master. Mr. Clay retorted: +He my master! I would not own him for the meanest of my slaves. +Of course, there were calls to order about that time; but the +question of mastery, and the causes which produced the passage of +the act, were still points of contestation between them, and came +up for altercation in other forms. Mr. Calhoun claimed a controling +influence for the military attitude of South Carolina, and its +intimidating effect upon the federal government. Mr. Clay ridiculed +this idea of intimidation, and said the little boys that muster in +the streets with their tiny wooden swords, had as well pretend to +terrify the grand army of Bonaparte: and afterwards said he would +tell how it happened, which was thus: His friend from Delaware (Mr. +John M. Clayton), said to him one day--these South Carolinians +act very badly, but they are good fellows, and it is a pity to +let Jackson hang them. This was after Mr. Clay had brought in his +bill, and while it lingered without the least apparent chance of +passing--paralyzed by the vehement opposition of the manufacturers: +and he urged Mr. Clay to take a new move with his bill--to get it +referred to a committee--and by them got into a shape in which it +could pass. Mr. Clay did so--had the reference made--and a committee +appointed suitable for the measure--some of strong will, and +earnest for the bill, and some of gentle temperament, inclined to +easy measures on hard occasions. They were: Messrs. Clay, Calhoun, +Clayton, Dallas, Grundy, Rives. + +This was the movement, and the inducing cause on one side: now +for the cause on the other. Mr. Letcher, a representative from +Kentucky, was the first to conceive an idea of some compromise +to release South Carolina from her position; and communicated +it to Mr. Clay; who received it at first coolly and doubtfully. +Afterwards, beginning to entertain the idea, he mentioned it to Mr. +Webster, who repulsed it entirely, saying--"It would be yielding +great principles to faction; and that the time had come to test +the strength of the constitution and the government." After that +he was no more consulted. Mr. Clay drew up his bill, and sent it +to Mr. Calhoun through Mr. Letcher--he and Mr. Calhoun not being +on speaking terms. He objected decidedly to parts of the bill; +and said, if Mr. Clay knew his reasons, he certainly would yield +the objectionable parts. Mr. Letcher undertook to arrange an +interview;--which was effected--to take place in Mr. Clay's room. +The meeting was cold, distant and civil. Mr. Clay rose, bowed to his +visitor, and asked him to take a seat. Mr. Letcher, to relieve the +embarrassment, immediately opened the business of the interview: +which ended without results. Mr. Clay remained inflexible, saying +that if he gave up the parts of the bill objected to, it could not +be passed; and that it would be better to give it up at once. In +the mean time Mr. Letcher had seen the President, and sounded him +on the subject of a compromise: the President answered, he would +have no negotiation, and would execute the laws. This was told by +Mr. Letcher to Mr. McDuffie, to go to Mr. Calhoun. Soon after, Mr. +Letcher found himself required to make a direct communication to +Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Josiah S. Johnson, senator from Louisiana, came +to his room in the night, after he had gone to bed--and informed +him of what he had just learnt:--which was, that General Jackson +would admit of no further delay, and was determined to take at once +a decided course with Mr. Calhoun (an arrest and trial for high +treason being understood). Mr. Johnson deemed it of the utmost +moment that Mr. Calhoun should be instantly warned of his danger; +and urged Mr. Letcher to go and apprise him. He went--found Mr. +Calhoun in bed--was admitted to him--informed him. "He was evidently +disturbed." Mr. Letcher and Mr. Clay were in constant communication +with Mr. Clayton. + +After the committee had been appointed, Mr. Clayton assembled the +manufacturers, for without their consent nothing could be done; +and in the meeting with them it was resolved to pass the bill, +provided the Southern senators, including the nullifiers, should +vote both for the amendments which should be proposed, and for the +passage of the bill itself--the amendments being the same afterwards +offered in the Senate by Mr. Clay, and especially the home valuation +feature. When these amendments, thus agreed upon by the friends of +the tariff, were proposed in the committee, they were voted down; +and not being able to agree upon any thing, the bill was carried +back to the senate without alteration. But Mr. Clayton did not give +up. Moved by a feeling of concern for those who were in peril, and +for the state of the country, and for the safety of the protective +system of which he was the decided advocate, he determined to have +the same amendments, so agreed upon by the friends of the tariff +and rejected by the committee, offered in the Senate; and, to +help Mr. Clay with the manufacturers, he put them into his hands +to be so offered--notifying Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay that unless +the amendments were adopted, and that by the Southern vote, every +nullifier inclusively, that the bill should not pass--that he +himself would move to lay it on the table. His reasons for making +the nullification vote a _sine qua non_ both on the amendments and +on the bill, and for them all, separately and collectively, was to +cut them off from pleading their unconstitutionality after they were +passed; and to make the authors of disturbance and armed resistance, +after resistance, parties upon the record to the measures, and +every part of the measures, which were to pacify them. Unless these +leaders were thus bound, he looked upon any pacification as a hollow +truce, to be succeeded by some new disturbance in a short time; and +therefore he was peremptory with both Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, +denouncing the sacrifice of the bill if his terms were not complied +with; and letting them know that he had friends enough bound to his +support. They wished to know the names of the senators who were to +stand by him in this extreme course--which he refused to give; no +doubt restrained by an injunction of secrecy, there being many men +of gentle temperaments who are unwilling to commit themselves to +a measure until they see its issue, that the eclat of success may +consecrate what the gloom of defeat would damn. Being inexorable in +his claims, Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun agreed to the amendments, and +all voted for them, one by one, as Mr. Clay offered them, until it +came to the last--that revolting measure of the home valuation. As +soon as it was proposed, Mr. Calhoun and his friends met it with +violent opposition, declaring it to be unconstitutional, and an +insurmountable obstacle to their votes for the bill if put into +it. It was then late in the day, and the last day but one of the +session, and Mr. Clayton found himself in the predicament which +required the execution of his threat. He executed it, and moved to +lay it on the table, with the declaration that it was to lie there. +Mr. Clay went to him and besought him to withdraw the motion; but +in vain. He remained inflexible; and the bill then appeared to be +dead. In this extremity, the Calhoun wing retired to the colonnade +behind the Vice-President's chair, and held a brief consultation +among themselves: and presently Mr. Bibb, of Kentucky, came out, and +went to Mr. Clayton and asked him to withdraw his motion to give him +time to consider the amendment. Seeing this sign of yielding, Mr. +Clayton withdrew his motion--to be renewed if the amendment was not +voted for. A friend of the parties immediately moved an adjournment, +which was carried; and that night's reflections brought them to +the conclusion that the amendment must be passed; but still with +the belief, that, there being enough to pass it without him, Mr. +Calhoun should be spared the humiliation of appearing on the record +in its favor. This was told to Mr. Clayton, who declared it to be +impossible--that Mr. Calhoun's vote was indispensable, as nothing +would be considered secured by the passage of the bill unless his +vote appeared for every amendment separately, and for the whole +bill collectively. When the Senate met, and the bill was taken up, +it was still unknown what he would do; but his friends fell in, one +after the other, yielding their objections upon different grounds, +and giving their assent to this most flagrant instance (and that a +new one), of that protective legislation, against which they were +then raising troops in South Carolina! and limiting a day, and that +a short one, on which she was to be, _ipso facto_, a seceder from +the Union. Mr. Calhoun remained to the last, and only rose when the +vote was ready to be taken, and prefaced a few remarks with the +very notable declaration that he had then to "determine" which way +he would vote. He then declared in favor of the amendment, but upon +conditions which he desired the reporters to note; and which being +futile in themselves, only showed the desperation of his condition, +and the state of impossibility to which he was reduced. Several +senators let him know immediately the futility of his conditions; +and without saying more, he voted on ayes and noes for the +amendment; and afterwards for the whole bill. And this concluding +scene appears quite correctly reported in the authentic debates. +And thus the question of mastery in this famous "compromise," mooted +in the Senate by Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun as a problem between +themselves, is shown by the inside view of this bit of history, +to belong to neither of them, but to Mr. John M. Clayton, under +the instrumentality of Gen. Jackson, who, in the presidential +election, had unhorsed Mr. Clay and all his systems; and, in his +determination to execute the laws upon Mr. Calhoun, had left him +without remedy, except in the resource of this "compromise." Upon +the outside history of this measure which I have compiled, like a +chronicler, from the documentary materials, Mr. Calhoun and Mr. +Clay appear as master spirits, appeasing the storm which they had +raised; on the inside view they appear as subaltern agents dominated +by the necessities of their condition, and providing for themselves +instead of their country--Mr. Clay, in saving the protective policy, +and preserving the support of the manufacturers; and Mr. Calhoun, +in saving himself from the perils of his condition: and both, in +leaving themselves at liberty to act together in future against +General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVI. + +COMPROMISE LEGISLATION; AND THE ACT, SO CALLED, OF 1833. + + +This is a species of legislation which wears a misnomer--which has +no foundation in the constitution--and which generally begets more +mischief than it assumes to prevent; and which, nevertheless, is +very popular--the name, though fictitious, being generally accepted +for the reality. There are compromises in the constitution, founded +upon what gives them validity, namely, mutual consent; and they +are sacred. All compromises are agreements, made voluntarily by +independent parties--not imposed by one upon another. They may +be made by compact--not by votes. The majority cannot subject +the minority to its will, except in the present decision--cannot +bind future Congresses--cannot claim any sanctity for their acts +beyond that which grows out of the circumstances in which they +originate, and which address themselves to the moral sense of their +successors, and to reasons of justice or policy which should exempt +an act from the inherent fate of all legislation. The act of 1820, +called the Missouri Compromise, is one of the most respectable and +intelligible of this species of legislation. It composed a national +controversy, and upon a consideration. It divided a great province, +and about equally, between slaveholding and non-slaveholding States. +It admitted a State into the Union; and that State accepted that +admission upon the condition of fidelity to that compromise. And +being founded in the material operation of a line drawn upon the +earth under an astronomical law, subject to no change and open +to all observation, visible and tangible, it became an object +susceptible of certainty, both in its breach and in its observance. +That act is entitled to respect, especially from the party which +imposed it upon the other; and has been respected; for it has +remained inviolate for thirty years--neither side attempting to +break or abolish it--each having the advantage of it--and receiving +all the while, like the first _magna charta_, many confirmations +from successive Congresses, and from State legislatures. + +The act of 1833, called a "compromise," was a breach of all the +rules, and all the principles of legislation--concocted out of +doors, managed by politicians dominated by an outside interest--kept +a secret--passed by a majority pledged to its support, and pledged +against any amendment except from its managers;--and issuing +from the conjunction of rival politicians who had lately, and +long, been in the most violent state of legislative as well as +political antagonism. It comprised every title necessary to stamp +a vicious and reprehensible act--bad in the matter--foul in the +manner--full of abuse--and carried through upon the terrors of +some, the interests of others, the political calculations of many, +and the dupery of more; and all upon a plea which was an outrage +upon representative government--upon the actual government--and +upon the people of the States. That plea was, that the elections +(presidential and congressional), had decided the fate of the +protective system--had condemned it--had sentenced it to death--and +charged a new Congress with the execution of the sentence; and, +therefore, that it should be taken out of the hands of that +new Congress, withdrawn from it before it met--and laid away +for nine years and a half under the sanction of a, so called, +compromise--intangible to the people--safe in its existence during +all that time; and trusting to the chapter of accidents, and the +skill of management, for its complete restoration at the end of the +term. This was an outrage upon popular representation--an estoppel +upon the popular will--the arrest of a judgment which the people +had given--the usurpation of the rights of ensuing Congresses. +It was the conception of some rival politicians who had lately +distracted the country by their contention, and now undertook to +compose it by their conjunction; and having failed in the game of +agitation, threw it up for the game of pacification; and, in this +new character, undertook to settle and regulate the affairs of +their country for a term only half a year less than the duration +of the siege of Troy; and long enough to cover two presidential +elections. This was a bold pretension. Rome had existed above five +hundred years, and citizens had become masters of armies, and the +people humbled to the cry of _panem et circenses_--bread and the +circus--before two or three rivals could go together in a corner, +and arrange the affairs of the republic for five years: now this was +done among us for double that time, and in the forty-fourth year +of our age, and by citizens neither of whom had headed, though one +had raised, an army. And now how could this be effected, and in a +country so vast and intelligent? I answer: The inside view which I +have given of the transaction explains it. It was an operation upon +the best, as well as upon the worst feelings of our nature--upon +the patriotic alarms of many, the political calculations of others, +the interested schemes of more, and the proclivity of multitudes +to be deceived. Some political rivals finding tariff no longer +available for political elevation, either in its attack or defence; +and, from a ladder to climb on, become a stumbling-block to fall +over, and a pit to fall into, agree to lay it aside for the term +of two presidential elections; upon the pretext of quieting the +country which they had been disturbing; but in reality to get the +crippled hobby out of the way, and act in concert against an old +foe in power, and a new adversary, lately supposed to have been +killed off, but now appearing high in the political firmament, and +verging to its zenith. That new adversary was Mr. Van Buren, just +elected Vice-President, and in the line of old precedents for the +presidency; and the main object to be able to work against him, and +for themselves, with preservation to the tariff, and extrication +of Mr. Calhoun. The masses were alarmed at the cry of civil war, +concerted and spread for the purpose of alarm; and therefore +ready to hail any scheme of deliverance from that calamity. The +manufacturers saw their advantage in saving their high protecting +duties from immediate reduction. The friends of Mr. Clay believed +that the title of pacificator, which he was to earn, would win for +him a return of the glory of the Missouri compromise. Mr. Calhoun's +friends saw, for him, in any arrangement, a release from his +untenable and perilous position. Members of gentle temperaments in +both Houses, saw relief in middle courses, and felt safety in the +very word "compromise," no matter how fictitious and fallacious. The +friends of Mr. Van Buren saw his advantage at getting the tariff +out of his way also; and General Jackson felt a positive relief in +being spared the dire necessity of enforcing the laws by the sword +and by criminal prosecutions. All these parties united to pass the +act; and after it was passed, to praise it; and so it passed easily, +and was ushered into life in the midst of thundering applause. Only +a few of the well-known senators voted against it--Mr. Webster, Mr. +Dickerson, General Samuel Smith, Mr. Benton. + +My objections to this bill, and its mode of being passed, were deep +and abiding, and went far beyond its own obnoxious provisions, and +all the transient and temporary considerations connected with it. +As a friend to popular representative government, I could not see, +without insurmountable repugnance, two citizens set themselves up +for a _power_ in the State, and undertake to regulate, by their +private agreement (to be invested with the forms of law), the +public affairs for years to come. I admit no man to stand for +a _power_ in our country, and to assume to be able to save the +Union. Its safety does not depend upon the bargains of any two +men. Its safety is in its own constitution--in its laws--and in +the affections of the people; and all that is wanted in public men +is to administer the constitution in its integrity, and to enforce +the laws without fear or affection. A compromise made with a State +in arms, is a capitulation to that State; and in this light, Mr. +Calhoun constantly presented the act of 1833 and if it had emanated +from the government, he would have been right in his fact, and +in his inductions; and all discontented States would have been +justified, so far as successful precedent was concerned, in all +future interpositions of its _fiat_ to arrest the action of the +federal government. But it did not emanate from the government. It +(the government) was proceeding wisely, justly, constitutionally +in settling with South Carolina, by removing the cause of her real +grievance, and by enforcing the laws against their violators. It +(the constituted government) was proceeding regularly in this way, +with a prospect of a successful issue at the actual session, and a +certainty of it at the next one, when the whole subject was taken +out of its hands by an arrangement between a few members. The +injury was great then, and of permanent evil example. It remitted +the government to the condition of the old confederation, acting +upon sovereignties instead of individuals. It violated the feature +of our Union which discriminated it from all confederacies which +ever existed, and which was wisely and patriotically put into +the constitution to save it from the fate which had attended all +confederacies, ancient and modern. All these previous confederacies +in their general, or collective capacity, acted upon communities, +and met organized resistance as often as they decreed any thing +disagreeable to one of its strong members. This opposition could +only be subdued by force; and the application of force has always +brought on civil war; which has ended in the destruction of the +confederacy. The framers of our constitutional Union knew all this, +and had seen the danger of it in history, and felt the danger of it +in our confederation; and therefore established a UNION instead of +a LEAGUE--to be sovereign and independent within its sphere, acting +upon persons through its own laws and courts, instead of acting +on communities through persuasion or force. It was the crowning +wisdom of the new constitution; and the effect of this compromise +legislation, was to destroy that great feature of our Union--to +bring the general and State governments into conflict--and to +substitute a sovereign State for an offending individual as often as +a State chose to make the cause of that individual her own. A State +cannot commit treason, but a citizen can, and that against the laws +of the United States; and so, if a citizen commits treason against +the United States he may (if this interposition be admitted), be +shielded by a State. Our whole frame of government is unhinged +when the federal government shifts from its foundation, and goes +to acting upon States instead of individuals and, therefore, the +"compromise," as it was called, with South Carolina in 1833 was in +violation of the great Union principle of our government--remitting +it to the imbecility of the old confederation, giving inducement of +the Nashville convention of the present year (1850); and which has +only to be followed up to see the States of this Union, like those +of the Mexican republic, issuing their _pronunciamientos_ at every +discontent; and bringing the general government to a fight, or a +capitulation, as often as they please. + +I omit all consideration of the minor vices of the act--great +and flagrant in themselves, but subordinate in comparison to the +mischiefs done to the frame of our government. At any other time +these vices of matter, and manner, would have been crushing to a +bill. No bill containing a tithe of the vices, crowded into this +one, could ever have got through Congress before. The overthrow +of the old revenue principle, that duties were to be levied on +luxuries, and not on necessaries--substitution of universal _ad +valorems_ to the exclusion of all specific duties--the substitution +of the home for the foreign valuation--the abolition of all +discrimination upon articles in the imposition of duties--the +preposterous stipulation against protection, while giving +protection, and even in new and unheard of forms; all these were +flagrant vices of the bill, no one of which could ever have been +carried through in a bill before; and which perished in this one +before they arrived at their period of operation. The year 1842 was +to have been the jubilee of all these inventions, and set them all +off in their career of usefulness; but that year saw all these fine +anticipations fail! saw the high protective policy re-established, +more burthensome than ever: but of this hereafter. Then the vices +in the passage of the bill, being a political, not a legislative +action--dominated by an outside interest of manufacturers--and +openly carried in the Senate by a _douceur_ to some men, not in +"Kendal Green," but Kendal cotton. Yet it was received by the +country as a deliverance, and the ostensible authors of it greeted +as public benefactors; and their work declared by legislatures to +be sacred and inviolable, and every citizen doomed to political +outlawry that did not give in his adhesion, and bind himself to +the perpetuity of the act. I was one of those who refused this +adhesion--who continued to speak of the act as I thought--and who, +in a few years, saw it sink into neglect and oblivion--die without +the solace of pity or sorrow--and go into the grave without mourners +or witnesses, or a stone to mark the place of its interment. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVII. + +VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS OF '98-'99--DISABUSED OF THEIR SOUTH CAROLINA +INTERPRETATION--1. UPON THEIR OWN WORDS--2. UPON CONTEMPORANEOUS +INTERPRETATION. + + +The debate in the Senate, in 1830, on Mr. Foot's resolutions, +has been regarded as the dawn of those ideas which, three years +later, under the name of "nullification," but with the character +and bearing the seeds of disorganization and civil war, agitated +and endangered the Union. In that debate, Mr. Hayne, as heretofore +stated, quoted the third clause of the Virginia resolutions of +1798, as the extent of the doctrines he intended to avow. Though +Mr. Webster, at the time, gave a different and more portentous +interpretation to Mr. Hayne's course of argument, I did not believe +that Mr. Hayne purposed to use those resolutions to any other effect +than that intended by their authors and adopters; and they, I well +knew, never supposed any right in a State of the Union, of its +own motion, to annul an act of Congress, or resist its operation. +Soon after the discussion of 1830, however, nullification assumed +its name, with a clear annunciation of its purpose, namely, to +maintain an inherent right in a State to annul the acts of the +federal government, and resist their operation, in any case in which +the State might judge an act of Congress to exceed the limits of +the constitution. And to support this disorganizing doctrine, the +resolutions of 1798, were boldly and perseveringly appealed to, and +attempted to be wrested from their real intent. Nor is this effort +yet abandoned; nor can we expect it to be whilst nullification still +exists, either avowed or covert. The illustrious authorship of the +Resolutions of 1798; the character and reputation of the legislators +who adopted them; their general acceptance by the republican party, +the influence they exercised, not only on questions of the day, +but on the fate of parties, and in shaping the government itself, +all combine to give them importance, and a high place in public +esteem; and would go far to persuade the country that nullification +was right, if _they_ were nullification. In connection, therefore, +with the period and events in which nullification had its rise, the +necessity is imposed of an examination into the scope and objects of +those resolutions; and the same reasons that have made, and make, +the partisans of nullification so urgent to identify their fallacies +with the resolutions, must make every patriot solicitous for the +_vindication_ of them and their author and adopters from any such +affinity. + +Fortunately, the material is at hand, and abundant. The resolutions +are vindicated on their text alone; and contemporaneous +authentic interpretation, and the reiterated, earnest--even +indignant--disclaimers of the illustrious author himself, utterly +repudiate the intent that nullification attempts to impute to them. +I propose, therefore, to treat them in these three aspects: + + +I. _Vindicated on their text._ + +The clause of the resolutions, chiefly relied on as countenancing +nullification, is the third resolution of the series, and is as +follows: + + "That this assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare + that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting + from the compact, to which the States are parties, as limited + by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting + that compact; and that, in case of a deliberate, palpable, + and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the + said compact, the States, who are the parties thereto, have + the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting + the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their + respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties + appertaining to them." + +The right and duty of interposition is certainly here claimed for +the States, in case of a "deliberate, palpable, and dangerous +assumption of powers, by the federal government;" but, looking +alone to the words of the text, it is an unreasonable inference, +that forcible or nullifying interposition is meant. The word does +not import resistance, but rather the contrary; and can only be +understood in a hostile sense, when the connection in which it +is used necessarily implies force. Such is not the case in this +resolution; and no one has a right to suppose that, if its authors +had intended to assert a principle of such transcendent importance, +as that the States were severally possessed of the right to annul +an act of Congress, and resist its execution, they would not have +used words to declare that meaning explicitly, or, that they would +intimate covertly a doctrine they dared not avow. + +The constitution itself suggests several modes of interposition, +competent for either the States or the people. It provides for the +election (by a mixed system, popular and State), at brief intervals, +of all the functionaries of the federal government; and hence, +the interposition of the will of the States and people to effect +a change of rulers; hence, of policy. It provides that freedom of +speech and the press, shall not be abridged, which is equivalent to +a provision that those powerful means be perpetually interposed to +affect the public conscience and sentiment--to counsel and alarm +the public servants; to influence public policy--to restrain and +remedy government abuses. It recognizes the right, and provides that +it shall not be abridged, of the people "to assemble and petition +the government for the redress of grievances;" hence, contemplating +that there may be grievances on the part of the government, and +suggesting a means of meeting and overcoming them. Finally, it +provides that, on the application of a designated proportion of +the States, Congress shall cause a convention to be called, to +provide, in the constitution itself, should it be judged necessary, +additional securities to the States and the people, and additional +restraints on the government. + +To act on the sentiments of the country then; to bring to their aid +the potent engines of the press and public harangues; to move the +people to petition and remonstrance against the obnoxious measures; +to draw the attention of other States to the abuses complained +of, and to the latitudinous construction the federal authorities +were giving to their powers; and thus bring those States, in like +manner, to act on their senators and representatives, and on the +public voice, so as to produce an immediate remedy, or to co-operate +in calling a convention to provide further securities--one or +both; these alone are the modes of "interposition" the Virginia +resolutions of 1798 contemplated; all they professed; all they +attempted; all that the resolutions, or their history, warrant to +be imputed to them. These modes of interposition are all consistent +with peace and order; with obedience to the laws, and respect +to the lawful authorities; the very means, as was well argued +by the supporters of the resolutions, to prevent civil strife, +insubordination, or revolution; in all respects, the antipodes of +nullification. + +To enlarge somewhat on the force of the words of the resolutions: +The right and duty of "the States" to interpose, certainly does +not mean the right of "a State" to nullify and set at nought. The +States--less than the whole number--have a right to interpose, +secured, as already shown, in the constitution; and this, not only +persuasively, but peremptorily; to compel the action they may +desire; and it is demonstrable, that it was this constitutional +provision that the Virginia legislature had in mind, as a last +resort. The resolutions do not speak any where of the right of a +State; but use the plural number, States. Virginia exercises the +right that pertains to a State--all the right that, in the premises, +she pretends to--in passing the resolutions, declaring her views, +and inviting the like action of her co-States. Instead, therefore, +of the resolutions being identical with nullification, the two +doctrines are not merely hostile, but exactly opposites; the sum of +the Virginia doctrine being, that it belongs to a State to take, +as Virginia does in this instance, the initiative in impeaching +any objectionable action of the federal government, and to ask +her co-States to co-operate in procuring the repeal of a law, a +change of policy, or an amendment of the constitution--according +as one or the other, or all, may be required to remedy the evil +complained of; whereas, nullification claims, that a single State +may, of its own motion, nullify any act of the federal government it +objects to, and stay its operation, until three fourths of all the +States come to the aid of the national authority, and re-enact the +nullified measure. One submits to the law, till a majority repeal +it, or a convention provides a constitutional remedy for it; the +other undertakes to annul the law, and suspend its operation, so +long as three fourths of the States are not brought into active +co-operation to declare it valid. The resolutions maintain the +government in all its functions, only seeking to call into use the +particular function of repeal or amendment: nullification would +stop the functions of government, and arrest laws indefinitely; +and is incapable of being brought to actual experiment, in a +single instance, without a subversion of authority, or civil war. +To this essential, radical, antagonistic degree do the Virginia +resolutions and the doctrine of nullification differ, one from the +other; and thus unjustly are the Virginia republicans, of 1798, +accused of planting the seeds of dissolution--a "deadly poison," +as Mr. Madison, himself, emphatically calls the doctrine of +nullification--in the institutions they had so labored to construct. + + +II. _Upon their contemporaneous interpretation._ + +The contemporaneous construction of the resolutions is found in the +debates on their adoption; in the responses to them of other State +legislatures; and in the confirmatory report prepared by the same +author, and adopted by the Virginia general assembly, in January, +1800; and by the conduct of the State, in the case of Callender. +And it is remarkable (when we consider the uses to which the +resolutions have subsequently been turned), that, while the friends +of the resolutions nowhere claim more than a declaratory right for +the legislature, and deny all idea of force or resistance, their +adversaries, in the heat of debate, nor the States which manifested +the utmost bitterness in their responses, have not attributed to +the resolutions any doctrine like that of nullification. Both +in the debates and in the State responses, the opponents of the +resolutions denounce them as inflamatory, and "tending" to produce +insubordination, and whatever other evil could then be thought of, +concerning them; but no one attributes to them the absurdity of +claiming for the State a right to arrest, of its own motion, the +operation of the acts of Congress. + +The principal speakers, in the Virginia legislature, in opposition +to the resolutions, were: Mr. George Keith Taylor, Mr. Magill, Mr. +Brooke, Mr. Cowan, Gen. Henry Lee, and Mr. Cureton. Nearly the whole +debate turned, not on the abstract propriety or expediency of such +resolutions, on the question whether the acts of Congress, which +were specially complained of, were, in fact, unconstitutional. +It was admitted, indeed, by Gen. Lee, who spoke elaborately and +argumentatively against the resolutions, that, if the acts were +unconstitutional, it was "proper to interfere;" but the extreme +notions of the powers of the federal government that then prevailed +in the federal party, led them to contend that those powers extended +to the acts in question, though, at this day, they are universally +acknowledged to be out of the pale of federal legislation. +Beyond the discussion of this point, and one or two others not +pertinent to the present matter, the speakers dwelt only on the +supposed "tendency" of such declarations to excite the people to +insubordination and non-submission to the law. + +Mr. George K. Taylor complained at the commencement of his speech, +that the resolutions "contained a declaration, not of opinion, but +of fact;" and he apprehended that "the consequences of pursuing the +advice of the resolutions would be insurrection, confusion, and +anarchy;" but the legal effect and character that he attributed to +the resolutions, is shown in his concluding sentence, as follows: + + "The members of that Congress which had passed those laws, had + been, so far as he could understand, since generally re-elected; + therefore he thought the people of the United States had decided + in favor of their constitutionality, and that such an attempt + as they were then making to induce Congress to repeal the laws + would be nugatory." + +Mr. Brooke thought resolutions "declaring laws which had been made +by the government of the United States to be unconstitutional, null +and void," were "dangerous and improper;" that they had a "tendency +to inflame the public mind;" to lessen the confidence that ought to +subsist between the representatives of the people in the general +government and their constituents; and to "sap the very foundations +of the government, by producing resistance to its laws." But that +he did not apprehend the resolutions to be, or to intend, any thing +beyond an expression of sentiment, is evident from his further +declaration, that he was opposed to the resolutions, and equally +opposed to any modification of them, that should be "intended as +an expression of the general sentiment on the subject, because he +conceived it to be an improper mode by which to express the wishes +of the people of the State on the subject." + +General Lee thought the alien and sedition laws "not +unconstitutional;" but if they were unconstitutional he "admitted +the right of interposition on the part of the general assembly." +But he thought these resolutions showed "indecorum and hostility," +and were "not the likeliest way to obtain a repeal of the laws." +He "suspected," in fact, that "the repeal of the laws was not +the leading point in view," but that they "covered" the objects +of "promotion of disunion and separation of the States." The +resolutions "struck him as recommending resistance. They declared +the laws null and void. Our citizens thus thinking would disobey the +laws." His plan would be, if he thought the laws unconstitutional, +to let the people petition, or that the legislature come forward at +once, "with a proposition for amending the doubtful parts of the +constitution;" or with a "respectful or friendly memorial, urging +Congress to repeal the laws." But he "admitted" the only right +which the resolutions assert for the State, namely, the right "to +interpose." The remarks of the other opponents to the resolutions +were to the same effect. + +On behalf of the resolutions, the principal speakers were, Mr. +John Taylor, of Caroline, who had introduced them, Mr. Ruffin, Mr. +Mercer, Mr. Pope, Mr. Foushee, Mr. Daniel, Mr. Peter Johnston, Mr. +Giles, Mr. James Barbour. + +They obviated the objection of the speakers on the other side, +that the resolutions "contained a declaration, not of opinion, +but of fact," by striking out the words which, in the original +draft, declared the acts in question to be "null, void, and of +no force or effect;" so as to make it manifest, as the advocates +of the resolutions maintained, that they intended nothing beyond +an expression of sentiment. They obviated another objection +which appeared in the original draft, which asserted the States +_alone_ to be the parties to the constitution, by striking out +the word "alone." They thoroughly and successfully combated both +the "suspicion" that they hid any ulterior object of dissension +or disunion, and the "apprehension" that the resolutions would +encourage insubordination among the people. They acceded to +and affirmed, that their object was to obtain a repeal of the +offensive measures, that the resolutions might ultimately lead to +a convention for amending the constitution, and that they were +intended both to express and to affect public opinion; but nothing +more. + +Says Mr. Taylor, of Caroline: + + "If Congress should, as was certainly possible, legislate + unconstitutionally, it was evident that in theory they have + done wrong, and it only remained to consider whether the + constitution is so defective as to have established limitations + and reservations, without the means of enforcing them, in a + mode by which they could be made practically useful. Suppose + a clashing of opinion should exist between Congress and the + States, respecting the true limits of their constitutional + territories, it was easy to see, that if the right of decision + had been vested in either party, that party, deciding in the + spirit of party, would inevitably have swallowed up the other. + The constitution must not only have foreseen the possibility of + such a clashing, but also the consequence of a preference on + either side as to its construction. And out of this foresight + most have arisen the fifth article, by which two thirds of + Congress may call upon the States for an explanation of any + such controversy as the present; and thus correct an erroneous + construction of its own acts by a minority of the States, whilst + two thirds of the States are also allowed to compel Congress to + call a convention, in case so many should think an amendment + necessary for the purpose of checking the unconstitutional acts + of that body.... Congress is the creature of the States and the + people; but neither the States nor the people are the creatures + of Congress. It would be eminently absurd, that the creature + should exclusively construe the instrument of its own existence; + and therefore this construction was reserved indiscriminately + to one or the other of those powers, of which Congress was the + joint work; namely, to the people whenever a convention was + resorted to, or to the States whenever the operation should be + carried on by three fourths." + + "Mr. Taylor then proceeded to apply these observations to + the threats of war, and the apprehension of civil commotion, + 'towards which the resolutions were said to have a tendency.' + Are the republicans, said he, possessed of fleets and armies? + If not, to what could they appeal for defence and support? + To nothing, except public opinion. If that should be against + them, they must yield; if for them, did gentlemen mean to say, + that public will should be assailed by force?... And against a + State which was pursuing the only possible and ordinary mode + of ascertaining the opinion of two thirds of the States, by + declaring its own and asking theirs?" + + "He observed that the resolutions had been objected to, as + couched in language too strong and offensive; whilst it + had also been said on the same side, that if the laws were + unconstitutional, the people ought to fly to arms and resist + them. To this he replied that he was not surprised to hear + the enemies of the resolutions recommending measures which + were either feeble or rash. Timidity only served to invite a + repetition of injury, whilst an unconstitutional resort to arms + would not only justly exasperate all good men, but invite those + who differed from the friends of the resolutions to the same + appeal, and produce a civil war. Hence, those who wished to + preserve the peace, as well as the constitution, had rejected + both alternatives, and chosen the middle way. They had uttered + what they conceived to be truth, and they had pursued a system + which was only an appeal to public opinion; because that appeal + was warranted by the constitution and by principle." + +Mr. Mercer, in reply to Mr. G. K. Taylor, said: + + "The gentleman from Prince George had told the committee + that the resolutions were calculated to rouse the people to + resistance, to excite the people of Virginia against the federal + government. Mr. Mercer did not see how such consequences could + result from their adoption. They contained nothing more than + the sentiment which the people in many parts of the State had + expressed, and which had been conveyed to the legislature in + their memorials and resolutions then lying on the table. He + would venture to say that an attention to the resolutions from + the committee would prove that the qualities attempted to be + attached to them by the gentleman could not be found." + + "The right of the State government to interfere in the manner + proposed by the resolutions, Mr. Mercer contended was clear to + his mind.... The State believed some of its rights had been + invaded by the late acts of the general government, and proposed + a remedy whereby to obtain a repeal of them. The plan contained + in the resolutions appeared to Mr. Mercer the most advisable. + Force was not thought of by any one.... The States were equally + concerned, as their rights had been equally invaded; and nothing + seemed more likely to produce a temper in Congress for a repeal." + + "The object (of the friends of the resolutions), in addressing + the States, is to obtain a similar declaration of opinion, with + respect to several late acts of the general government, ... and + thereby to obtain a repeal." + +Mr. Barbour, likewise, in reply to Mr. G. K. Taylor, said: + + "The gentleman from Prince George had remarked that those + resolutions invited the people to insurrection and to arms; but, + if he could conceive that the consequences foretold would grow + out of the measure, he would become its bitterest enemy."... + The resolutions were "addressed, not to the people but to the + sister States; praying, in a pacific way, their co-operation, in + arresting the tendency and effect of unconstitutional laws. + + "For his part, he was for using no violence. It was the peculiar + blessing of the American people to have redress within their + reach, by constitutional and peaceful means." + +On the same point, Mr. Daniel spoke as follows: + + "If the other States think, with this, that the laws are + unconstitutional, the laws will be repealed, and the + constitutional question will be settled by this declaration of a + majority of the States."... "If, on the contrary, a sufficient + majority of the States should declare their opinion, that the + constitution gave Congress authority to pass these laws, the + constitutional question would still be settled; but an attempt + might be made so to amend the constitution as to take from + Congress this authority." + +And, finally, Mr. Taylor of Caroline, in closing the debate, and +in explanation of his former remarks in respect to calling a +convention, said: + + "He would explain, in a few words, what he had before said. That + the plan proposed by the resolutions would not eventuate in war, + but might in a convention. He did not admit, or contemplate, + that a convention would be called. He only said, that if + Congress, upon being addressed to have these laws repealed, + should persist, they might, by a concurrence of three fourths of + the States, be compelled to call a convention." + +It is seen, then, by these extracts, that the opposers of the +resolutions did not charge upon them, nor their supporters in any +manner contend for, any principle like that of nullification; +that, on the contrary, the supporters of the resolutions, so far +from the absurd proposition that each State could, for itself, +annul the acts of Congress, and to that extent stop the operation +of the federal government, they did not recognize that power in a +majority of the States, nor even in all the States together, by +any extra-constitutional combination or process, or to annul a law +otherwise than through the prescribed forms of legislative repeal, +or constitutional amendment. + +The resolutions were, however, vigorously assailed by the federal +party throughout the Union, especially in the responses of +several of the States; and at the ensuing session of the Virginia +legislature, those State responses were sent to a committee, +who made an elaborate examination of the resolutions, and of +the objections that had been made to them, concluding by a +justification of them in all particulars, and reiterating their +declarations. This report was adopted by the general assembly and is +a part of the contemporaneous and authentic interpretation of the +resolutions. The report says: + + "A declaration that proceedings of the federal government are + not warranted by the constitution, is a novelty neither among + the citizens, nor among the legislatures of the States. + + "Nor can the declarations of either, whether affirming or + denying the constitutionality of measures of the federal + government, or whether made before or after judicial decisions + thereon, be deemed, in any point of view, an assumption of + the office of judge. The declarations, in such cases, are + expressions of opinion, unaccompanied by any other effect than + what they may produce on opinion, by exciting reflection. The + expositions of the judiciary, on the other hand, are carried + into immediate effect by force." + + Again: "In the example given by the State, of declaring + the alien and sedition acts to be unconstitutional, and of + communicating the declaration to other States, no trace of + improper means has appeared. And if the other States had + concurred in making a like declaration, supported too, by the + numerous applications flowing immediately from the people, it + can scarcely be doubted, that these simple means would have been + as sufficient, as they are unexceptionable. + + "It is no less certain that other means might have been + employed, which are strictly within the limits of the + constitution. The legislatures of the States might have made + a direct representation to Congress, with a view to obtain + a rescinding of the two offensive acts; or they might have + represented to their respective senators in Congress their wish, + that two-thirds thereof would propose an explanatory amendment + to the constitution; or two-thirds of themselves, if such had + been their option, might, by an application to Congress, have + obtained a convention for the same object. + + "These several means, though not equally eligible in themselves, + nor probably to the States, were all constitutionally open for + consideration. And if the general assembly, after declaring the + two acts to be unconstitutional, the first and most obvious + proceeding on the subject, did not undertake to point out to + the other States a choice among the farther measures that + might become necessary and proper, the resource will not be + misconstrued by liberal minds into any culpable imputation." + +These extracts are valuable, not only for their positive testimony +that the Resolution of 1798, nor their authors, had ever +contemplated such a doctrine as Nullification; but also for their +precise definition and enumeration of the powers which, in the +premises, were really claimed for the States, by the State-Rights +Republicans of that day. They are all distinctly laid down: + +1. By a solemn declaration of opinion, calculated to operate on the +public sentiment, and to induce the co-operation of other States in +like declarations. + +2. To make a direct representation to Congress, with a view to +obtain a repeal of the acts complained of. + +3. To represent to their respective senators their wish that +two-thirds thereof would propose an explanatory amendment to the +constitution. + +4. By the concurrence of two-thirds of the States to cause Congress +to call a convention for the same object. + +These are the entire list of the remedial powers suspected, by +the Resolutions of 1798, and their author and adopters, to exist +in the States with reference to federal enactments. Their variant +character from the peremptory arrest of acts of Congress proposed +by nullification, is well illustrated in the comparison made in the +report between expressions of opinion like those of the resolutions, +and the compulsory operation of a judicial process. Supposing, +says the report, "that it belongs to the judiciary of the United +States, and not the State legislatures, to declare the meaning of +the federal constitution," yet the declarations either of a State, +or the people, "whether affirming or denying the constitutionality +of measures of the federal government, or whether made before or +after judicial decisions thereon," cannot "be deemed in any point +of view an assumption of the office of the judge;" because, "the +declarations in such cases are expressions of opinions unaccompanied +with any other effect than what they may produce on opinion, by +exciting reflection;"--whereas, "the expositions of the judiciary +are carried into immediate effect by force." + +The Republicans who adopted the Resolutions of 1798, never +contemplated carrying their expositions into effect by force; never +contemplated imparting to them the character of decisions, or +decrees, or the legal determination of a question; or of arresting +by means of them the operation of the acts they condemned. The +worst the enemies of the resolutions undertook to say of them, +was that they were intemperate, and might mislead the people into +disobedience of the laws. This was successfully combated; but had +it been true--had the authors of the resolutions even intended any +thing so base, it would still have been nothing comparable to the +crime of State nullification; of placing the State itself in hostile +array to the federal government. Insubordination of individuals +may usually be overcome by ordinary judicial process, or by the +_posse_ of the county where it occurs; or even if so extensive as +to require the peace-officers to be aided by the military, it is +still but a matter of police, and in our country cannot endanger the +existence of the government. But the array of a _State_ of the Union +against the federal authority, is _war_--a war between powers--both +sovereign in their respective spheres--and that could only terminate +in the destruction of the one, or the subjugation and abasement of +the other. + +But neither the one or the other of these crimes was contemplated by +the authors of the Resolutions of 1798. The remedies they claimed a +right to exercise are all pointed out in the constitution itself; +capable of application without disturbing the processes of the +law, or suggesting an idea of insubordination; remedies capable of +saving the liberties of the people and the rights of the States, +and bringing back the federal government to its constitutional +track, without a jar or a check to its machinery; remedies felt to +be sufficient, and by crowning experience soon proven to be so. It +is due to the memory of those men and those times that their acts +should no longer be misconstrued to cover a doctrine synonymous with +disorganization and civil war. The conduct both of the government, +and the people, on the occasion of these resolutions, show how far +they were from any nullifying or insubordinate intention; and this +furnishes us with another convincing proof of the contemporaneous +interpretation of the resolutions. So far (as Mr. Madison justly +says,)[6] was the State of Virginia from countenancing the +nullifying doctrine, that the occasion was viewed as a proper one +for exemplifying its devotion to public order, and acquiescence in +laws which it deemed unconstitutional, while those laws were not +repealed. The language of the Governor of the State (Mr. James +Monroe), in a letter to Mr. Madison, in May and June of 1800, will +attest the principles and feelings which dictated the course pursued +on the occasion, and whether the people understood the resolutions +in any inflammatory or vicious sense. + + [6] Selections from the correspondence of Madison, p. 399. + +On the 15th May, 1800, Governor Monroe writes to Mr. Madison as +follows: + + "Besides, I think there is cause to suspect the sedition law + will be carried into effect in this State at the approaching + federal court, and I ought to be there (Richmond) to aid in + preventing trouble.... I think it possible an idea may be + entertained of opposition, and by means whereof the fair + prospect of the republican party may be overcast. But in this + they are deceived, as certain characters in Richmond and some + neighboring counties are already warned of their danger, so that + an attempt to excite a hot-water insurrection will fail." + +And on the 4th of June, 1800, he wrote again, as follows: + + "The conduct of the people on this occasion was exemplary, and + does them the highest honor. They seemed aware that the crisis + demanded of them a proof of their respect for law and order, + and resolved to show they were equal to it. I am satisfied a + different conduct was expected from them, for every thing that + could was done to provoke it. It only remains that this business + be closed on the part of the people, as it has been so far + acted; that the judge, after finishing his career, go off in + peace, without experiencing the slightest insult from any one; + and that this will be the case I have no doubt." + +Governor Monroe was correct in the supposition that the sedition +law would be carried into effect, at the approaching session of the +federal court, and he was also right in the anticipation that the +people would know how to distinguish between the exercise of means +to procure the repeal of an act, and the exercise of violence to +stop its operation. The act was enforced; was "carried into effect" +in their midst, and a fellow-citizen incarcerated under its odious +provisions, without a suggestion of official or other interference. +Thus we have the contemporaneous interpretation of the resolutions +exemplified and set at rest, by the most powerful of arguments: by +the impressive fact, that when the public indignation was at its +height, subsequent to the resolutions of 1798, and subsequent to the +report of '99, and when both had been universally disseminated and +read, and they had had, with the debates upon them, their entire +influence on the public mind; that at that moment, the act of +Congress against which the resolutions were chiefly aimed, and the +indignation of the community chiefly kindled, was then and there +carried into execution, and that in a form--the unjust deprivation +of a citizen of his liberty--the most obnoxious to a free people, +and the most likely to rouse their opposition; yet quietly and +peaceably done, by the simple, ordinary process of the federal +court. This fact, so creditable to the people of Virginia, is thus +noted in the annual message of Governor Monroe, to the general +assembly, at their next meeting, December, 1800: + + "In connection with this subject [of the resolutions] it is + proper to add, that, since your last session, the sedition law, + one of the acts complained of, has been carried into effect in + this commonwealth by the decision of a federal court. I notice + this event, not with a view of censuring or criticising it. The + transaction has gone to the world, and the impartial will judge + of it as it deserves. I notice it for the purpose of remarking + that the decision was executed with the same order and tranquil + submission on the part of the people, as could have been shown + by them on a similar occasion, to any the most necessary, + constitutional and popular acts of the government." + +Governor Monroe then adds his official and personal testimony to +the proper intent and character of the proceedings of '98, '9, as +follows: + + "The general assembly and the good people of this commonwealth + have acquitted themselves to their own consciences, and to their + brethren in America, in support of a cause which they deem a + national one, by the stand which they made, and the sentiments + they expressed of these acts of the general government; but + they have looked for a change in that respect, to a change in + the public opinion, which ought to be free; not to measures of + violence, discord and disunion, which they abhor." + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVIII. + +VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS OF 1798:--DISABUSED OF NULLIFICATION, BY THEIR +AUTHOR. + + +Vindicated upon their words, and upon contemporaneous +interpretation, another vindication, superfluous in point of proof, +but due to those whose work has been perverted, awaits these +resolutions, derived from the words of their author (after seeing +their perversion); and to absolve himself and his associates from +the criminal absurdity attributed to them. + +The contemporary opponents of the Resolutions of 1798 said all the +evil of them, and represented them in every odious light, that +persevering, keen and enlightened opposition could discover or +imagine. Their defenders successfully repelled the charges then made +against them; but could not vindicate them from intending the modern +doctrine of Nullification, because that doctrine had not then been +invented, and the ingenuity of their adversaries did not conceive +of that ground of attack. Their venerable author, however--the +illustrious MADISON[7]--was still alive, when this new perversion +of his resolutions had been invented, and when they were quoted to +sustain doctrines synonymous with disorganization and disunion. He +was still alive, in retirement on his farm. His modesty and sense +of propriety hindered him from carrying the prestige and influence +of his name into the politics of the day; but his vigorous mind +still watched with anxious and patriotic interest the current of +public affairs, and recoiled with instinctive horror both from the +doctrine and attempted practice of Nullification, and the attempted +connection of his name and acts with the origination of it. He held +aloof from the public contest; but his sentiments were no secret. +His private correspondence, embracing in its range distinguished men +of all sections of the Union and of all parties, was full of the +subject, from the commencement of the Nullification excitement down +to the time of his death: sometimes at length, and argumentatively; +sometimes with a brief indignant disclaimer; always earnestly +and unequivocally. Some of these letters, although private, were +published during Mr. Madison's lifetime, especially an elaborate one +to Mr. Edward Everett; and many of the remainder have recently been +put into print, through the liberality of a patriotic citizen of +Washington (Mr. J. Maguire), but only for private distribution, and +hence not accessible to the public. They are a complete storehouse +of material, not only for the vindication of Madison and his +compeers, from the doctrine of Nullification, but of argument and +reasons against Nullification and every kindred suggestion. + + [7] Mr. Madison did not introduce the Resolutions into the Virginia + legislature. He was not a member of that body in 1798. The + resolutions were reported by John Taylor, of Caroline. Mr. Madison, + however, was always reputed to be their author, and in a letter to + Mr. James Robertson, written in March, 1831, he distinctly avows it. + He was both the author and reporter of the Report and Resolution of + 1799-1800. + +From the letter to Mr. Everett, published in the North American +Review, shortly after it was written (August, 1830), the following +extracts are taken: + + "It (the constitution of the United States) was formed by the + States, that is, by the people in each of the States, acting in + their highest sovereign capacity; and formed consequently by the + same authority which formed the State constitutions. + + "Being thus derived from the same source as the constitutions of + the States, it has, within each State, the same authority as the + constitution of the State, and is as much a constitution in the + strict sense of the term within its prescribed sphere, as the + constitutions of the States are within their respective spheres; + but with this obvious and essential difference, that being a + compact among the States in their highest sovereign capacity, + and constituting the people thereof one people for certain + purposes, it cannot be altered or annulled at the will of the + States individually, as the constitution of a State may be at + its individual will." + + "Nor is the government of the United States, created by the + constitution, less a government in the strict sense of the term, + within the sphere of its powers, than the governments created + by the constitutions of the States are, within their several + spheres. It is like them organized into legislative, executive + and judiciary departments. It operates, like them, directly on + persons and things. And, like them, it has at command a physical + force for executing the powers committed to it. + + "Between these different constitutional governments, the one + operating in all the States, the others operating separately in + each, with the aggregate powers of government divided between + them, it could not escape attention, that controversies would + arise concerning the boundaries of jurisdiction." + + "That to have left a final decision, in such cases, to each + of the States, could not fail to make the constitution and + laws of the United States different in different States, was + obvious, and not less obvious that this diversity of independent + decisions, must altogether distract the government of the Union, + and speedily put an end to the Union itself." + + "To have made the decision under the authority of the individual + States, co-ordinate in all cases, with decisions under the + authority of the United States, would unavoidably produce + collisions incompatible with the peace of society." + + "To have referred every clashing decision, under the two + authorities, for a final decision, to the States as parties + to the constitution, would be attended with delays, with + inconveniences and expenses, amounting to a prohibition of the + expedient." + + "To have trusted to 'negotiation' for adjusting disputes between + the government of the United States and the State governments, + as between independent and separate sovereignties, would have + lost sight altogether of a constitution and government of the + Union, and opened a direct road, from a failure of that resort, + to the _ultima ratio_, between nations wholly independent of, + and alien to each other.... Although the issue of negotiation + might sometimes avoid this extremity, how often would it happen + among so many States, that an unaccommodating spirit in some + would render that resource unavailing?" + +After thus stating, with other powerful reasons, why all those +fanciful and impracticable theories were rejected in the +constitution, the letter proceeds to show what the constitution does +adopt and rely on, "as a security of the rights and powers of the +States," namely: + + "1. The responsibility of the senators and representatives in + the legislature of the United States to the legislatures and + people of the States; 2. The responsibility of the President to + the people of the United States; and, 3. The liability of the + executive and judicial functionaries of the United States to + impeachment by the representatives of the people of the States + in one branch of the legislature of the United States, and trial + by the representatives of the States, in the other branch." + +And then, in order to mark how complete these provisions are for +the security of the States, shows that while the States thus +hold the functionaries of the United States to these several +responsibilities, the State functionaries, on the other hand, in +their appointment and responsibility, are "altogether independent of +the agency or authority of the United States." + +Of the doctrine of nullification, "the expedient lately advanced," +the letter says: + + "The distinguished names and high authorities which appear to + have asserted and given a practical scope to this doctrine, + entitle it to a respect which it might be difficult otherwise to + feel for it." + + "The resolutions of Virginia, as vindicated in the report + on them, will be found entitled to an exposition, showing a + consistency in their parts, and an inconsistency of the whole + with the doctrine under consideration." + + "That the legislature could not have intended to sanction + any such doctrine is to be inferred from the debates in the + House of Delegates. The tenor of the debates, which were ably + conducted, discloses no reference whatever to a constitutional + right in an individual State to arrest by force a law of the + United States." + + "If any further light on the subject could be needed, a very + strong one is reflected in the answers to the resolutions, by + the States which protested against them.... Had the resolutions + been regarded as avowing and maintaining a right, in an + individual State, to arrest by force the execution of a law of + the United States, it must be presumed that it would have been a + conspicuous object of their denunciation." + +In a letter to Mr. Joseph C. Cabell, May 31, 1830, Mr. Madison says: + + "I received yesterday yours of the 26th. Having never concealed + my opinions of the nullifying doctrines of South Carolina, I did + not regard the allusion to it in the _Whig_, especially as the + manner of the allusion showed that I did not obtrude it.... I + have latterly been drawn into a correspondence with an advocate + of the doctrine, which led me to a review of it to some extent, + and particularly to a vindication of the proceedings of Virginia + in 1798, '99, against the misuse made of them. That you may see + the views I have taken of the aberrations of South Carolina, I + enclose you an extract." + +And in a letter to Mr. Daniel Webster, written a few days +previously, he uses nearly the same language; as also in a letter in +February, 1830, to Mr. Trist. + +To Mr. James Robertson, March 27, 1831, Mr. Madison writes as +follows: + + "The veil which was originally over the draft of the resolutions + offered in 1798 to the Virginia Assembly having been long since + removed, I may say, in answer to your inquiries, that it was + penned by me." + + "With respect to the terms following the term + 'unconstitutional,' viz., 'not law, but null, void, and of + no force or effect,' which were stricken out of the seventh + resolution, my memory cannot say positively whether they were + or were not in the original draft, and no copy of it appears + to have been retained. On the presumption that they were in + the draft as it went from me, I am confident that they must + have been regarded only as giving accumulated emphasis to the + declaration, that the alien and sedition acts had, in the + opinion of the assembly, violated the constitution of the United + States, and not that the addition of them could annul the acts + or sanction a resistance of them. The resolution was expressly + _declaratory_, and, proceeding from the legislature only, which + was not even a party to the constitution, could be declaratory + of opinion only." + +To Joseph C. Cabell, Sept. 16, 1831: + + "I congratulate you on the event which restores you to the + public councils, where your services will be valuable, + particularly in defending the constitution and Union against the + false doctrines which assail them. That of nullification seems + to be generally abandoned in Virginia, by those who had most + leaning towards it. But it still flourishes in the hot-bed where + it sprung up." + + "I know not whence the idea could proceed that I concurred in + the doctrine, that although a State could not nullify a law of + the Union, it had a right to secede from the Union. Both spring + from the same poisonous root." + +To Mr. N. P. Trist, December, 1831: + + "I cannot see the advantage of this perseverance of South + Carolina in claiming the authority of the Virginia proceedings + in 1798, '99, as asserting a right in a single State to nullify + an act of the United States. Where, indeed, is the fairness + of attempting to palm on Virginia an intention which is + contradicted by such a variety of contradictory proofs; which + has at no intervening period, received the slightest countenance + from her, and which with one voice she now disclaims?" + + "To view the doctrine in its true character, it must be + recollected that it asserts a right in a single State to stop + the execution of a federal law, until a convention of the States + could be brought about by a process requiring an uncertain time; + and, finally, in the convention, when formed, a vote of seven + States, if in favor of the veto, to give it a prevalence over + the vast majority of seventeen States. For this preposterous and + anarchical pretension there is not a shadow of countenance in + the constitution; and well that there is not, for it is certain + that, with such a deadly poison in it, no constitution could be + sure of lasting a year." + +To Mr. C. E. Haynes, August 26, 1832: + + "In the very crippled and feeble state of my health, I cannot + undertake an extended answer to your inquiries, nor should + I suppose it necessary if you have seen my letter to Mr. + Everett, in August, 1830, in which the proceedings of Virginia, + in 1798-'99, were explained, and the novel doctrine of + nullification adverted to. + + "The distinction is obvious between such interpositions on + the part of the States against unjustifiable acts of the + federal government as are within the provisions and forms of + the constitution. These provisions and forms certainly do not + embrace the nullifying process proclaimed in South Carolina, + which begins with a single State, and ends with the ascendency + of a minority of States over a majority; of seven over + seventeen; a federal law, during the process, being arrested + within the nullifying State; and, if a revenue law, frustrated + through all the States." + +To Mr. Trist, December 23, 1832: + + "If one State can, at will, withdraw from the others, the + others can, at will, withdraw from her, and turn her _nolentem + volentem_ out of the Union. Until of late, there is not a + State that would have abhorred such a doctrine more than South + Carolina, or more dreaded an application of it to herself. The + same may be said of the doctrine of nullification which she now + preaches as the only faith by which the Union can be saved." + +In a letter to Mr. Joseph C. Cabell, December 28, 1832: + + "It is not probable that (in the adoption of the resolutions + of 1798), such an idea as the South Carolina nullification had + ever entered the thoughts of a single member, or even that of a + citizen of South Carolina herself." + +To Andrew Stevenson, February 4, 1833: + + "I have received your communication of the 29th ultimo, and + have read it with much pleasure. It presents the doctrine of + nullification and secession in lights that must confound, + if failing to convince their patrons. You have done well in + rescuing the proceedings of Virginia in 1798-'99, from the many + misconstructions and misapplications of them." + + "Of late, attempts are observed to shelter the heresy of + secession under the case of expatriation, from which it + essentially differs. The expatriating party removes only his + person and his movable property, and does not incommode those + whom he leaves. A seceding State mutilates the domain, and + disturbs the whole system from which it separates itself. Pushed + to the extent in which the right is sometimes asserted, it might + break into fragments every single community." + +To Mr. Stevenson, February 10, 1833, in reference to the South +Carolina nullifying ordinance: + + "I consider a successful resistance to the laws as now + attempted, if not immediately mortal to the Union, as at least a + mortal wound to it." + +To "a Friend of the Union and State rights," 1833: + + "It is not usual to answer communications without proper names + to them. But the ability and motives disclosed in the essays + induce me to say, in compliance with the wish expressed, that + I do not consider the proceedings of Virginia, in 1798-'99, as + countenancing the doctrine that a State may, at will, secede + from its constitutional compact with the other States." + +To Mr. Joseph C. Cabell, April 1, 1833: + + "The attempt to prove me a nullifier, by a misconstruction + of the resolutions of 1798-'99, though so often and so + lately corrected, was, I observe, renewed some days ago in + the 'Richmond Whig,' by an inference from an erasure in the + House of Delegates from one of those resolutions, of the + words 'are null, void and of no effect,' which followed the + word 'unconstitutional.' These words, though synonymous + with 'unconstitutional,' were alleged by the critic to mean + nullification; and being, of course, ascribed to me, I was, of + course, a nullifier. It seems not to have occurred, that if the + insertion of the words could convict me of being a nullifier, + the erasure of them (unanimous, I believe), by the legislature, + was the strongest of protests against the doctrine.... The vote, + in that case seems not to have engaged the attention due to + it. It not merely deprives South Carolina of the authority of + Virginia, on which she has relied and exulted so much in support + of her cause, but turns that authority pointedly against her." + +From a memorandum "On Nullification," written in 1835-'36: + + "Although the legislature of Virginia declared, at a late + session, almost unanimously, that South Carolina was not + supported in her doctrine of nullification by the resolutions of + 1798, it appears that those resolutions are still appealed to as + expressly or constructively favoring the doctrine." + + "And what is the text in the proceedings of Virginia which this + spurious doctrine of nullification claims for its patronage? It + is found in the third of the resolutions of 1798." + + "Now is there any thing here from which a 'single' State + can infer a right to arrest or annul an act of the general + government, which it may deem unconstitutional? So far from it, + that the obvious and proper inference precludes such a right." + + "In a word, the nullifying claims, if reduced to practice, + instead of being the conservative principle of the constitution, + would necessarily, and it may be said, obviously, be a deadly + poison." + + "The true question, therefore, is, whether there be a + 'constitutional' right in a single State to nullify a law of + the United States? We have seen the absurdity of such a claim, + in its naked and suicidal form. Let us turn to it, as modified + by South Carolina, into a right in every State to resist within + itself the execution of a federal law, deemed by it to be + unconstitutional, and to demand a convention of the States to + decide the question of constitutionality, the annulment of the + law to continue in the mean time, and to be permanent unless + three fourths of the States concur in overruling the annulment. + + "Thus, during the temporary nullification of the law, the + results would be the same as those proceeding from an + unqualified nullification, and the result of a convention + might be that seven out of twenty-four States might make the + temporary results permanent. It follows, that any State which + could obtain the concurrence of six others, might abrogate any + law of the United States whatever, and give to the constitution, + constructively, any shape they pleased, in opposition to the + construction and will of the other seventeen.[8] Every feature + of the constitution might thus be successively changed; and + after a scene of unexampled confusion and distraction, what had + been unanimously agreed to as a whole, would not, as a whole, be + agreed to by a single party." + + [8] The above was written when the number of the States was + twenty-four. Now, when there are thirty-one States, the proportion + would be _eight to twenty-three_! that is, that a single State + nullifying, the nullification would hold good till a convention were + called, and then if the nullifying State could procure seven others + to join, the nullification would become absolute--the eight States + overruling the twenty-three. + +To this graphic picture of the disorders which even the first stages +of nullification would necessarily produce, drawn when the graphic +limner was in the eighty-sixth and last year of his life, the +following warning pages, written only a few months earlier, may be +properly appended: + + "What more dangerous than nullification, or more evident than + the progress it continues to make, either in its original shape + or in the disguises it assumes? Nullification has the effect + of putting powder under the constitution and Union, and a + match in the hand of every party to blow them up, at pleasure. + And for its progress, hearken to the tone in which it is now + preached; cast your eyes on its increasing minorities in most + of the Southern States, without a decrease in any one of them. + Look at Virginia herself, and read in the gazettes, and in the + proceedings of popular meetings, the figure which the anarchical + principle now makes, in contrast with the scouting reception + given to it but a short time ago. + + "It is not probable that this offspring of the discontents of + South Carolina will ever approach success in a majority of the + States. But a susceptibility of the contagion in the Southern + States is visible; and the danger not to be concealed, that + the sympathy arising from known causes, and the inculcated + impression of a permanent incompatibility of interests between + the South and the North, may put it in the power of popular + leaders, aspiring to the highest stations, to unite the South, + on some critical occasion, in a course that will end in creating + a new theatre of great though inferior extent. In pursuing this + course, the first and most obvious step is nullification, the + next, secession, and the last, a farewell separation. How near + has this course been lately exemplified! and the danger of its + recurrence, in the same or some other quarter, may be increased + by an increase of restless aspirants, and by the increasing + impracticability of retaining in the Union a large and cemented + section against its will. It may, indeed, happen, that a return + of danger from abroad, or a revived apprehension of danger at + home, may aid in binding the States in one political system, + or that the geographical and commercial ligatures may have + that effect, or that the present discord of interests between + the North and the South may give way to a less diversity in + the application of labor, or to the mutual advantage of a safe + and constant interchange of the different products of labor in + different sections. All this may happen, and with the exception + of foreign hostility, hoped for. But, in the mean time, local + prejudices and ambitious leaders may be but too successful in + finding or creating occasions for the nullifying experiment of + breaking a more beautiful China vase[9] than the British empire + ever was, into parts which a miracle only could reunite." + + [9] See Franklin's letter to Lord Howe, in 1776. + +Incidentally, Mr. Madison, in these letters, vindicates also his +compeers, Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Monroe. In the letter to Mr. Cabell, +of May 31, 1830, he says: + + "You will see, in vol. iii., page 429, of Mr. Jefferson's + Correspondence, a letter to W. C. Nicholas, proving that he + had nothing to do with the Kentucky resolutions, of 1799, in + which the word 'nullification' is found. The resolutions of + that State, in 1798, which were drawn by him, and have been + republished with the proceedings of Virginia, do not contain + this or any equivalent word." + +In the letter to Mr. Trist, of December, 1831, after developing at +some length the inconsistencies and fatuity of the "nullification +prerogative," Mr. Madison says: + + "Yet this has boldly sought a sanction, under the name of Mr. + Jefferson, because, in his letter to Mr. Cartwright, he held + out a convention of the States as, with us, a peaceful remedy, + in cases to be decided in Europe by intestine wars. Who can + believe that Mr. Jefferson referred to a convention summoned + at the pleasure of a single State, with an interregnum during + its deliberations; and, above all, with a rule of decision + subjecting nearly three fourths to one fourth? No man's creed + was more opposed to such an inversion of the republican order of + things." + +In a letter to Mr. Townsend of South Carolina, December 18, 1831: + + "You ask 'whether Mr. Jefferson was really the author of the + Kentucky resolutions, of 1799;' [in which the word 'nullify' is + used, though not in the sense of South Carolina nullification.] + The inference that he was not is as conclusive as it is + obvious, from his letter to Col. Wilson Cary Nicholas, of + September 5, 1799, in which he expressly declines, for reasons + stated, preparing any thing for the legislature of that year. + + "That he (Mr. Jefferson) ever asserted a right in a single State + to arrest the execution of an act of Congress--the arrest to be + valid and permanent, unless reversed by three fourths of the + States--is countenanced by nothing known to have been said or + done by him. In his letter to Major Cartwright, he refers to + a convention as a peaceable remedy for conflicting claims of + power in our compound government; but, whether he alluded to a + convention as prescribed by the constitution, or brought about + by any other mode, his respect for the will of majorities, as + the vital principle of republican government, makes it certain + that he could not have meant a convention in which a minority of + seven States was to prevail over seventeen, either in amending + or expounding the constitution." + +In the letter (before quoted) to Mr. Trist, December 23, 1832: + + "It is remarkable how closely the nullifiers, who make the name + of Mr. Jefferson the pedestal for their colossal heresy, shut + their eyes and lips whenever his authority is ever so clearly + and emphatically against them. You have noticed what he says in + his letters to Monroe and Carrington, pages 43 and 302, vol. + ii., with respect to the powers of the old Congress to coerce + delinquent States, and his reasons for preferring for the + purpose a naval to a military force; and, moreover, that it was + not necessary to find a right to coerce in the federal articles, + that being inherent in the nature of a compact." + +In another letter to Mr. Trist, dated August 25, 1834: + + "The letter from Mr. Monroe to Mr. Jefferson, of which you + inclose an extract, is important. I have one from Mr. Monroe, on + the same occasion, more in detail, and not less emphatic in its + anti-nullifying language." + +In the notes "On Nullification," written in 1835-'6: + + "The amount of this modified right of nullification is, that a + single State may arrest the operation of a law of the United + States, and institute a process which is to terminate in the + ascendency of a minority over a large majority. And this + new-fangled theory is attempted to be fathered on Mr. Jefferson, + the apostle of republicanism, and whose own words declare, + that 'acquiescence in the decision of the majority is the + vital principle of it.' Well may the friends of Mr. Jefferson + disclaim any sanction to it, or to any constitutional right of + nullification from his opinions." + +In a paper drawn by Mr. Madison, in September, 1829, when his +anxieties began first to be disturbed by the portentous approach +of the nullification doctrine, he concludes with this earnest +admonition, appropriate to the time when it was written, and not +less so to the present time, and to posterity: + + "In all the views that may be taken of questions between + the State governments and the general government, the awful + consequences of a final rupture and dissolution of the Union + should never for a moment be lost sight of. Such a prospect + must be deprecated--must be shuddered at by every friend of his + country, to liberty, to the happiness of man. For, in the event + of a dissolution of the Union, an impossibility of ever renewing + it is brought home to every mind by the difficulties encountered + in establishing it. The propensity of all communities to divide, + when not pressed into a unity by external dangers, is a truth + well understood. There is no instance of a people inhabiting + even a small island, if remote from foreign danger, and + sometimes in spite of that pressure, who are not divided into + alien, rival, hostile tribes. The happy union of these States is + a wonder; their constitution a miracle; their example the hope + of liberty throughout the world. Wo to the ambition that would + meditate the destruction of either." + +These extracts, voluminous as they are, are far from exhausting the +abundant material which these admirable writings of Mr. Madison +contain, on the topic of nullification. They come to us, for our +admonition and guidance, with the solemnity of a voice from the +grave; and I leave them, without comment, to be pondered in the +hearts of his countrymen. Notwithstanding the advanced age and +growing bodily infirmities of Mr. Madison, at the time when these +letters were written, his mind was never more vigorous nor more +luminous. Every generous mind must sympathize with him, in this +necessity, in which he felt himself in his extreme age, and when +done, not only with the public affairs of the country, but nearly +done with all the affairs of the world, to defend himself and +associates from the attempt to fasten upon him and them, in spite of +his denials, a criminal and anarchical design--wicked in itself, and +subversive of the government which he had labored so hard to found, +and utterly destructive to that particular feature considered the +crowning merit of the constitution; and which wise men and patriotic +had specially devised to save our Union from the fate of all +leagues. We sympathize with him in such a necessity. We should feel +for any man, in the most ordinary case, to whose words a criminal +intention should be imputed in defiance of his disclaimers; but, +in the case of Mr. Madison--a man so modest, so pure, so just--of +such dignity and gravity, both for his age, his personal qualities, +and the exalted offices which he had held; and in a case which went +to civil war, and to the destruction of a government of which he +was one of the most faithful and zealous founders--in such a case, +an attempt to force upon such a man a meaning which he disavows, +becomes not only outrageous and odious, but criminal and impious. +And if, after the authentic disclaimers which he has made in his +advanced age, and which are now published, any one continues to +attribute this heresy to him, such a person must be viewed by the +public as having a mind that has lost its balance! or, as having a +heart void of social duty, and fatally bent on a crime, the guilt +of which must be thrown upon the tenants of the tomb--speechless, +but not helpless! for, every just man must feel their cause his own! +and rush to a defence which public duty, private honor, patriotism, +filial affection, and gratitude to benefactors impose on every man +(born wheresoever he may have been) that enjoys the blessings of the +government which their labors gave us. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIX. + +THE AUTHOR'S OWN VIEW OF THE NATURE OF OUR GOVERNMENT, AS BEING A +UNION IN CONTRADISTINCTION TO A LEAGUE: PRESENTED IN A SUBSEQUENT +SPEECH ON MISSOURI RESOLUTIONS. + + +I do not discuss these resolutions at this time. That discussion +is no part of my present object. I speak of the pledge which they +contain, and call it a mistake; and say, that whatever may be the +wishes or the opinions of the people of Missouri on the subject of +the extension or non-extention of slavery to the Territories, they +have no idea of resisting any act of Congress on the subject. They +abide the law, when it comes, be it what it may, subject to the +decision of the ballot-box and the judiciary. + +I concur with the people of Missouri in this view of their duty, +and believe it to be the only course consistent with the terms and +intention of our constitution, and the only one which can save this +Union from the fate of all the confederacies which have successively +appeared and disappeared in the history of nations. Anarchy among +the members, and not tyranny in the head, has been the rock on which +all such confederacies have split. The authors of our present form +of government knew the danger of this rock, and they endeavored to +provide against it. They formed a Union--not a league--a federal +legislature to act upon persons, not upon States; and they provided +peaceful remedies for all the questions which could arise between +the people and the government. They provided a federal judiciary +to execute the federal laws when found to be constitutional; and +popular elections to repeal them when found to be bad. They formed a +government in which the law and the popular will, and not the sword, +was to decide questions; and they looked upon the first resort to +the sword for the decision of such questions as the death of the +Union. + +The old confederation was a league, with a legislature acting upon +sovereignties, without power to enforce its decrees, and without +union except at the will of the parties. It was powerless for +government, and a rope of sand for union. It was to escape from that +helpless and tottering government that the present constitution +was formed; and no less than ten numbers of the federalist--from +the tenth to the twentieth--were devoted to this defect of the old +system, and the necessity of the new one. I will read some extracts +from these numbers--the joint product of Hamilton and Madison--to +show the difference between the league which we abandoned and the +Union which we formed--the dangers of the former and the benefits of +the latter--that it may be seen that the resolutions of the general +assembly of Missouri, if carried out to their conclusions, carry +back this Union to the league of the confederation--make it a rope +of sand, and the sword the arbiter between the federal head and its +members. + +Mr. B. then read as follows: + +"The great and radical vice, in the structure of the existing +confederation, is in the principle of legislation for States or +governments, in their corporate or collective capacities, and as +contra-distinguished from the individuals of which they consist. +Though this principle does not run through all the powers delegated +to the Union, yet it prevades and governs those on which the +efficacy of the rest depends. The consequence of this is, that, +though in theory constitutionally binding on the members of the +Union, yet in practice they are mere recommendations, which the +States observe or disregard at their option. Government implies +the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law +that it be attended with a sanction, or, in other words, a penalty +or punishment for disobedience. This penalty, whatever it may be, +can only be inflicted in two ways--by the agency of the courts and +ministers of justice, or by military force; by the coercion of the +magistracy, or by the coercion of arms. The first kind can evidently +apply only to men; the last kind must of necessity be employed +against bodies politic, or communities, or States. It is evident +there is no process of a court by which their observance of the laws +can, in the last resort, be enforced. Sentences may be denounced +against them for violations of their duty; but these sentences can +only be carried into execution by the sword. In an association where +the general authority is confined to the collective bodies of the +communities that compose it, every breach of the laws must involve a +state of war; and military execution must become the only instrument +of civil obedience. Such a state of things can certainly not deserve +the name of government, nor would any prudent man choose to commit +his happiness to it." + +Of the certain destruction of the Union when the sword is once drawn +between the members of a Union and their head, they speak thus: + +"When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds +of moderation. The suggestions of wounded pride, the instigations +of irritated resentment, would be apt to carry the States, against +which the arms of the Union were exerted, to any extremes necessary +to avenge the affront, or to avoid the disgrace of submission. The +first war of this kind would probably terminate in a dissolution of +the Union." + +Of the advantage and facility of the working of the federal +system, and its peaceful, efficient, and harmonious operation--if +the federal laws are made to operate upon citizens, and not upon +States--they speak in these terms: + +"But if the execution of the laws of the national government +should not require the intervention of the State legislatures; +if they were to pass into immediate operation upon the citizens +themselves, the particular governments could not interrupt their +progress without an open and violent exertion of unconstitutional +power. They would be obliged to act, and in such manner as would +leave no doubt that they had encroached on the national rights. An +experiment of this nature would always be hazardous in the face of +a constitution in any degree competent to its own defence, and of a +people enlightened enough to distinguish between a legal exercise +and an illegal usurpation of authority. The success of it would +require not merely a factious majority in the legislature, but +the concurrence of the courts of justice, and of the body of the +people. If the judges were not embarked in a conspiracy with the +legislature, they would pronounce the resolutions of such a majority +to be contrary to the supreme law of the land, unconstitutional and +void. If the people were not tainted with the spirit of their State +representatives, they, as the natural guardians of the constitution, +would throw their weight into the national scale, and give it a +decided preponderance in the contest." + +Of the ruinous effects of these civil wars among the members of a +republican confederacy, and their disastrous influence upon the +cause of civil liberty itself throughout the world, they thus speak: + +"It is impossible to read the history of the petty republics of +Greece and Italy, without feeling sensations of disgust and horror +at the distractions with which they were continually agitated, and +at the rapid succession of revolutions by which they were kept +continually vibrating between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy. +From the disorders which disfigure the annals of those republics, +the advocates of despotism have drawn arguments, not only against +the forms of republican government, but against the very principles +of civil liberty. They have decried all free government as +inconsistent with the order of society, and have indulged themselves +in malicious exultation over its friends and partisans." + +And again they say: + +"It must carry its agency to the persons of the citizens. It must +stand in need of no intermediate legislation; but must itself be +empowered to employ the arm of the ordinary magistrate to execute +its own resolutions. The majesty of the national authority must be +manifested through the medium of the courts of justice." + +After reading these extracts, Mr. B. said: It was to get rid of the +evils of the old confederation that the present Union was formed; +and, having formed it, they who formed it undertook to make it +perpetual, and for that purpose had recourse to all the sanctions +held sacred among men--commands, prohibitions, oaths. The States +were forbid to form compacts or agreements with each other; the +constitution and the laws made in pursuance of it, were declared +to be the supreme law of the land; and all authorities, State and +federal, legislative, executive, and judicial, were to be sworn to +support it. The resolutions which have been read contradict all +this; and the General Assembly mistook their own powers as much as +they mistook the sentiments of the people of Missouri when they +adopted them. + + + + +CHAPTER XC. + +PUBLIC LANDS:--DISTRIBUTION OF PROCEEDS. + + +Mr. Clay renewed, at this session, 1832-'33, the bill which he had +brought in the session before, and which had passed the Senate, +to divide the net proceeds of the sales of public lands among the +States, to be applied to such purposes as the legislatures of the +respective States should think proper. His principal arguments, in +favor of the bill, were: _first_, the aid which the distribution +would give to the States, in developing their resources and +promoting their prosperity; _secondly_, the advantage to the federal +government, in settling the question of the mode of disposing of the +public lands. He explained his bill, which, at first, contained a +specification of the objects to which the States should apply the +dividends they received, which was struck out, in the progress of +the bill, and stated its provisions to be: + + "To set apart, for the benefit of the new States, twelve and a + half per cent., out of the aggregate proceeds, in addition to + the five per cent., which was now allowed to them by compact, + before any division took place among the States generally. + It was thus proposed to assign, in the first place, seventeen + and a half per cent. to the new States, and then to divide the + whole of the residue among the twenty-four States. And, in order + to do away any inequality among the new States, grants are + specifically made by the bill to those who had not received, + heretofore, as much lands as the rest of the new States, from + the general government, so as to put all the new States on + an equal footing. This twelve and a half per cent., to the + new States, to be at their disposal, for either education or + internal improvement, and the residue to be at the disposition + of the States, subject to no other limitation than this: that it + shall be at their option to apply the amount received either to + the purposes of education, or the colonization of free people of + color, or for internal improvements, or in debts which may have + been contracted for internal improvements. And, with respect + to the duration of this scheme of distribution proposed by the + bill, it is limited to five years, unless hostilities shall + occur between the United States and any foreign power; in which + event, the proceeds are to be applied to the carrying on such + war, with vigor and effect, against any common enemy with whom + we may be brought in contact. After the conclusion of peace, + and after the discharge of the debt created by any such war, + the aggregate funds to return to that peaceful destination to + which it was the intention of the bill that they should now be + directed, that is, to the improvement of the moral and physical + condition of the country, and the promotion of the public + happiness and prosperity." + +He then spoke of the advantages of settling the question of the +manner of disposing of the public lands, and said: + + "The first remark which seemed to him to be called for, in + reference to this subject, was as to the expediency, he would + say the necessity, of its immediate settlement. On this point, + he was happy to believe that there was a unanimous concurrence + of opinion in that body. However they might differ as to the + terms on which the distribution of these lands should be + made, they all agreed that it was a question which ought to + be promptly and finally, he hoped amicably, adjusted. No time + more favorable than the present moment could be selected for + the settlement of this question. The last session was much less + favorable for the accomplishment of this object; and the reasons + were sufficiently obvious, without any waste of time in their + specification. If the question were not now settled, but if it + were to be made the subject of an annual discussion, mixing + itself up with all the measures of legislation, it would be + felt in its influence upon all, would produce great dissensions + both in and out of the House, and affect extensively all the + great and important objects which might be before that body. + They had had, in the several States, some experience on that + subject; and, without going into any details on the subject, he + would merely state that it was known, that, for a long period, + the small amount of the public domain possessed by some of the + States, in comparison with the quantity possessed by the general + government, had been a cause of great agitation in the public + mind, and had greatly influenced the course of legislation. + Persons coming from the quarter of the State in which the + public land was situated, united in sympathy and interest, + constituted always a body who acted together, to promote their + common object, either by donations to settlers, or reduction in + the price of the public lands, or the relief of those who are + debtors for the public domain; and were always ready, as men + always will be, to second all those measures which look towards + the accomplishment of the main object which they have in view. + So, if this question were not now settled, it would be a source + of inexpressible difficulty hereafter, influencing all the great + interests of the country, in Congress, affecting great events + without, and perhaps adding another to those unhappy causes of + division, which unfortunately exist at this moment." + +In his arguments in support of his bill, Mr. Clay looked to +the lands as a source of revenue to the States or the federal +government, from their sale, and not from their settlement and +cultivation, and the revenue to be derived from the wealth and +population to which their settlement would give rise; and, +concluding with an encomium on his bill under the aspect of revenue +from sales, he said: + + "He could not conceive a more happy disposition of the proceeds + of the public lands, than that which was provided by this bill. + It was supposed that five years would be neither too long nor + too short a period for a fair experiment. In case a war should + break out, we may withdraw from its peaceful destination a sum + of from two and a half to three and a half millions of dollars + per annum, and apply it to a vigorous prosecution of the war--a + sum which would pay the interest on sixty millions of dollars, + which might be required to sustain the war, and a sum which is + constantly and progressively increasing. It proposes, now that + the general government has no use for the money, now that the + surplus treasure is really a source of vexatious embarrassment + to us, and gives rise to a succession of projects, to supply for + a short time a fund to the States which want our assistance, + to advance to them that which we do not want, and which they + will apply to great beneficial national purposes; and, should + war take place, to divert it to the vigorous support of the + war; and, when it ceases, to apply it again to its peaceful + purposes. And thus we may grow, from time to time, with a fund + which will endure for centuries, and which will augment with the + growth of the nation, aiding the States in seasons of peace, and + sustaining the general government in periods of war." + +Mr. Calhoun deprecated this distribution of the land money as being +dangerous in itself and unconstitutional, and as leading to the +distribution of other revenue--in which he was prophetic. He said: + + "He could not yield his assent to the mode which this bill + proposed to settle the agitated question of the public lands. + In addition to several objections of a minor character, he + had an insuperable objection to the leading principle of the + bill, which proposed to distribute the proceeds of the lands + among the States. He believed it to be both dangerous and + unconstitutional. He could not assent to the principle, that + Congress had a right to denationalize the public funds. He + agreed that the objection was not so decided in case of the + proceeds of lands, as in that of revenue collected from taxes + or duties. The senator from Ohio had adduced evidence from the + deed of cession, which certainly countenanced the idea that + the proceeds of the lands might be subject to the distribution + proposed in the bill; but he was far from being satisfied that + the argument was solid or conclusive. If the principle of + distribution could be confined to the proceeds of the lands, he + would acknowledge that his objection to the principle would be + weakened. + + "He dreaded the force of precedent, and he foresaw that the time + would come when the example of the distribution of the proceeds + of the public lands would be urged as a reason for distributing + the revenue derived from other sources. Nor would the argument + be devoid of plausibility. If we, of the Atlantic States, + insist that the revenue of the West, derived from lands, should + be equally distributed among all the States, we must not be + surprised if the interior States should, in like manner, insist + to distribute the proceeds of the customs, the great source + of revenue in the Atlantic States. Should such a movement be + successful, it must be obvious to every one, who is the least + acquainted with the workings of the human heart, and the nature + of government, that nothing would more certainly endanger the + existence of the Union. The revenue is the power of the State, + and to distribute its revenue is to dissolve its power into its + original elements." + +Attempts were made to postpone the bill to the next session, which +failed; and it passed the Senate by a vote of 24 to 20. + + YEAS.--Messrs. Bell, Chambers, Clay, Clayton, Dallas, Dickerson, + Dudley, Ewing, Foot, Frelinghuysen, Hendricks, Holmes, + Johnston, Knight, Poindexter, Prentiss, Robbins, Ruggles, + Seymour, Silsbee, Sprague, Tomlinson, Waggaman, Wilkins--24. + + NAYS.--Messrs. Benton, Black, Brown, Buckner, Calhoun, Forsyth, + Grundy, Hill, Kane, King, Mangum, Miller, Moore, Rives, + Robinson, Smith, Tipton, Tyler, White, Wright--20. + +The bill went to the House and received amendments, which did not +obtain the concurrence of the Senate until midnight of the first +of March, which, being the short session, was within twenty-four +hours of the constitutional termination of the Congress, which was +limited to the 3d--which falling this year on Sunday, the Congress +would adjourn at midnight of the 2nd. Further efforts were made to +postpone it, and upon the ground that, in a bill of that magnitude +and novelty, the President was entitled to the full ten days for +the consideration of it which the constitution allowed him, and he +would have but half a day; for if passed that night it could only +reach him in the forenoon of the next day--leaving him but half a +day for his consideration of the measure, where the constitution +allowed him ten; and that half day engrossed with all crowded +business of an expiring session. The next evening, the President +attended, as usual, in a room adjoining the Senate chamber, to be +at hand to sign bills and make nominations. It was some hours in +the night when the President sent for me, and withdrawing into the +recess of a window, told me that he had a veto message ready on the +land bill, but doubted about sending it in, lest there should not +be a full Senate; and intimated his apprehension that Mr. Calhoun +and some of his friends might be absent, and endanger the bill: and +wished to consult me upon that point. I told him I would go and +reconnoitre the chamber, and adjacent rooms; did so--found that Mr. +Calhoun and his immediate friends were absent--returned and informed +him, when he said he would keep the bill until the next session, +and then return it with a fully considered message--his present one +being brief, and not such as to show his views fully. I told him +I thought he ought to do so--that such a measure ought not to be +passed in the last hours of a session, in a thin Senate, and upon an +imperfect view of his objections; and that the public good required +it to be held up. It was so; and during the long vacation of nine +months which intervened before the next session, the opposition +presses and orators kept the country filled with denunciations of +the enormity of his conduct in "_pocketing_" the hill--as if it +had been a case of "flat burglary," instead of being the exercise +of a constitutional right, rendered most just and proper under the +extraordinary circumstances which had attended the passage, and +intended return of the bill. At the commencement of the ensuing +session he returned the bill, with his well-considered objections, +in an ample message, which, after going over a full history of the +derivation of the lands, came to the following conclusions: + + "1. That one of the fundamental principles, on which the + confederation of the United States was originally based, was, + that the waste lands of the West, within their limits, should be + the common property of the United States. + + "2. That those lands were ceded to the United States by the + States which claimed them, and the cessions were accepted, on + the express condition that they should be disposed of for the + common benefit of the States, according to their respective + proportions in the general charge and expenditure, and for no + other purpose whatsoever. + + "3. That, in execution of these solemn compacts, the Congress of + the United States did, under the confederation, proceed to sell + these lands, and put the avails into the common treasury; and, + under the new constitution, did repeatedly pledge them for the + payment of the public debt of the United States, by which pledge + each State was expected to profit in proportion to the general + charge to be made upon it for that object. + + "These are the first principles of this whole subject, which, + I think, cannot be contested by any one who examines the + proceedings of the revolutionary Congress, the sessions of + the several States, and the acts of Congress, under the new + constitution. Keeping them deeply impressed upon the mind, let + us proceed to examine how far the objects of the cessions have + been completed, and see whether those compacts are not still + obligatory upon the United States. + + "The debt, for which these lands were pledged by Congress, + may be considered as paid, and they are consequently released + from that lien. But that pledge formed no part of the compacts + with the States, or of the conditions upon which the cessions + were made. It was a contract between new parties--between the + United States and their creditors. Upon payment of the debt, + the compacts remain in full force, and the obligation of the + United States to dispose of the lands for the common benefit, is + neither destroyed nor impaired. As they cannot now be executed + in that mode, the only legitimate question which can arise is, + in what other way are these lands to be hereafter disposed of + for the common benefit of the several States, 'according to + their respective and usual proportion in the general charge and + expenditure?' The cessions of Virginia, North Carolina, and + Georgia, in express terms, and all the rest impliedly, not only + provide thus specifically the proportion, according to which + each State shall profit by the proceeds of the land sales, but + they proceed to declare that they shall be 'faithfully and _bona + fide_ disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or + purpose whatsoever.' This is the fundamental law of the land, at + this moment, growing out of compacts which are older than the + constitution, and formed the corner stone on which the Union + itself was erected. + + "In the practice of the government, the proceeds of the public + lands have not been set apart as a separate fund for the payment + of the public debt, but have been, and are now, paid into + the treasury, where they constitute a part of the aggregate + of revenue, upon which the government draws, as well for its + current expenditures as for payment of the public debt. In this + manner, they have heretofore, and do now, lessen the general + charge upon the people of the several States, in the exact + proportions stipulated in the compacts. + + "These general charges have been composed, not only of the + public debt and the usual expenditures attending the civil and + military administrations of the government, but of the amounts + paid to the States, with which these compacts were formed; the + amounts paid the Indians for their right of possession; the + amounts paid for the purchase of Louisiana and Florida; and + the amounts paid surveyors, registers, receivers, clerks, &c., + employed in preparing for market, and selling, the western + domain. From the origin of the land system, down to the 30th + September, 1832, the amount expended for all these purposes has + been about $49,701,280 and the amount received from the sales, + deducting payments on account of roads, &c., about $38,386,624. + The revenue arising from the public lands, therefore, has not + been sufficient to meet the general charges on the treasury, + which have grown out of them, by about $11,314,656. Yet, in + having been applied to lessen those charges, the conditions + of the compacts have been thus far fulfilled, and each State + has profited according to its usual proportion in the general + charge and expenditure. The annual proceeds of land sales have + increased, and the charges have diminished; so that, at a + reduced price, those lands would now defray all current charges + growing out of them, and save the treasury from further advances + on their account. Their original intent and object, therefore, + would be accomplished, as fully as it has hitherto been, by + reducing the price, and hereafter, as heretofore, bringing the + proceeds into the treasury. Indeed, as this is the only mode in + which the objects of the original compact can be attained, it + may be considered, for all practical purposes, that it is one of + their requirements. + + "The bill before me begins with an entire subversion of every + one of the compacts by which the United States became possessed + of their western domain, and treats the subject as if they never + had existence, and as if the United States were the original and + unconditional owners of all the public lands. The first section + directs-- + + "'That, from and after the 31st day of December, 1832, there + shall be allowed and paid to each of the States of Ohio, + Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, and + Louisiana, over and above what each of the said States is + entitled to by the terms of the compacts entered into between + them, respectively, upon their admission into the Union and the + United States, the sum of twelve and a half per centum upon the + net amount of the sales of the public lands, which, subsequent + to the day aforesaid, shall be made within the several limits + of the said States; which said sum of twelve and a half per + centum shall be applied to some object or objects of internal + improvement or education, within the said States, under the + direction of their several legislatures.' + + "This twelve and a half per centum is to be taken out of the + net proceeds of the land sales, before any apportionment is + made; and the same seven States, which are first to receive this + proportion, are also to receive their due proportion of the + residue, according to the ratio of general distribution. + + "Now, waiving all considerations of equity or policy, in regard + to this provision, what more need be said to demonstrate + its objectionable character, than that it is in direct and + undisguised violation of the pledge given by Congress to the + States, before a single cession was made; that it abrogates the + condition upon which some of the States came into the Union; + and that it sets at nought the terms of cession spread upon the + face of every grant under which the title to that portion of the + public land is held by the federal government? + + "In the apportionment of the remaining seven eighths of + the proceeds, this bill, in a manner equally undisguised, + violates the conditions upon which the United States acquired + title to the ceded lands. Abandoning altogether the ratio of + distribution, according to the general charge and expenditure + provided by the compacts, it adopts that of the federal + representative population. Virginia, and other States, which + ceded their lands upon the express condition that they should + receive a benefit from their sales, in proportion to their + part of the general charge, are, by the bill, allowed only a + portion of seven eighths of their proceeds, and that not in the + proportion of general charge and expenditure, but in the ratio + of their federal representative population. + + "The constitution of the United States did not delegate to + Congress the power to abrogate these compacts. On the contrary, + by declaring that nothing in it 'shall be so construed as to + prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular + State,' it virtually provides that these compacts, and the + rights they secure, shall remain untouched by the legislative + power, which shall only make all 'needful rules and regulations' + for carrying them into effect. All beyond this, would seem to be + an assumption of undelegated power. + + "These ancient compacts are invaluable monuments of an age of + virtue, patriotism, and disinterestedness. They exhibit the + price that great States, which had won liberty, were willing to + pay for that Union, without which, they plainly saw, it could + not be preserved. It was not for territory or State power that + our revolutionary fathers took up arms; it was for individual + liberty, and the right of self-government. The expulsion, from + the continent, of British armies and British power was to them + a barren conquest, if, through the collisions of the redeemed + States, the individual rights for which they fought should + become the prey of petty military tyrannies established at + home. To avert such consequences, and throw around liberty the + shield of union, States, whose relative strength, at the time, + gave them a preponderating power, magnanimously sacrificed + domains which would have made them the rivals of empires, only + stipulating that they should be disposed of for the common + benefit of themselves and the other confederated States. This + enlightened policy produced union, and has secured liberty. It + has made our waste lands to swarm with a busy people, and added + many powerful States to our confederation. As well for the + fruits which these noble works of our ancestors have produced, + as for the devotedness in which they originated, we should + hesitate before we demolish them. + + "But there are other principles asserted in the bill, which + would have impelled me to withhold my signature, had I not + seen in it a violation of the compacts by which the United + States acquired title to a large portion of the public lands. + It reasserts the principle contained in the bill authorizing + a subscription to the stock of the Maysville, Washington, + Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, from which I was + compelled to withhold my consent, for reasons contained in my + message of the 27th May 1830, to the House of Representatives. + The leading principle, then asserted, was, that Congress + possesses no constitutional power to appropriate any part of the + moneys of the United States for objects of a local character + within the States. That principle, I cannot be mistaken in + supposing, has received the unequivocal sanction of the American + people, and all subsequent reflection has but satisfied me + more thoroughly that the interests of our people, and the + purity of our government, if not its existence, depend on its + observance. The public lands are the common property of the + United States, and the moneys arising from their sales are a + part of the public revenue. This bill proposes to raise from, + and appropriate a portion of, this public revenue to certain + States, providing expressly that it shall 'be applied to objects + of internal improvement or education within those States,' and + then proceeds to appropriate the balance to all the States, + with the declaration that it shall be applied 'to such purposes + as the legislatures of the said respective States shall deem + proper.' The former appropriation is expressly for internal + improvements or education, without qualification as to the kind + of improvements, and, therefore, in express violation of the + principle maintained in my objections to the turnpike road bill, + above referred to. The latter appropriation is more broad, and + gives the money to be applied to any local purpose whatsoever. + It will not be denied, that, under the provisions of the bill, + a portion of the money might have been applied to making the + very road to which the bill of 1830 had reference, and must, + of course, come within the scope of the same principle. If the + money of the United States cannot be applied to local purposes + through its own agents, as little can it be permitted to be thus + expended through the agency of the State governments. + + "It has been supposed that, with all the reductions in our + revenue which could be speedily effected by Congress, without + injury to the substantial interests of the country, there might + be, for some years to come, a surplus of moneys in the treasury; + and that there was, in principle, no objection to returning + them to the people by whom they were paid. As the literal + accomplishment of such an object is obviously impracticable, + it was thought admissible, as the nearest approximation to + it, to hand them over to the State governments, the more + immediate representatives of the people, to be by them applied + to the benefit of those to whom they properly belonged. The + principle and the object was, to return to the people an + unavoidable surplus of revenue which might have been paid by + them under a system which could not at once be abandoned; but + even this resource, which at one time seemed to be almost the + only alternative to save the general government from grasping + unlimited power over internal improvements, was suggested with + doubts of its constitutionality. + + "But this bill assumes a new principle. Its object is not to + return to the people an unavoidable surplus of revenue paid in + by them, but to create a surplus for distribution among the + States. It seizes the entire proceeds of one source of revenue, + and sets them apart as a surplus, making it necessary to raise + the money for supporting the government, and meeting the general + charges, from other sources. It even throws the entire land + system upon the customs for its support, and makes the public + lands a perpetual charge upon the treasury. It does not return + to the people moneys accidentally or unavoidably paid by them + to the government by which they are not wanted; but compels the + people to pay moneys into the treasury for the mere purpose of + creating a surplus for distribution to their State governments. + If this principle be once admitted, it is not difficult to + perceive to what consequences it may lead. Already this bill, + by throwing the land system on the revenues from imports for + support, virtually distributes among the States a part of those + revenues. The proportion may be increased from time to time, + without any departure from the principle now asserted, until + the State governments shall derive all the funds necessary for + their support from the treasury of the United States; or, if + a sufficient supply should be obtained by some States and not + by others, the deficient States might complain, and, to put + an end to all further difficulty, Congress, without assuming + any new principle, need go but one step further, and put the + salaries of all the State governors, judges, and other officers, + with a sufficient sum for other expenses, in their general + appropriation bill. + + "It appears to me that a more direct road to consolidation + cannot be devised. Money is power, and in that government which + pays all the public officers of the States, will all political + power be substantially concentrated. The State governments, + if governments they might be called, would lose all their + independence and dignity. The economy which now distinguishes + them would be converted into a profusion, limited only by the + extent of the supply. Being the dependants of the general + government, and looking to its treasury as the source of all + their emoluments, the State officers, under whatever names + they might pass, and by whatever forms their duties might be + prescribed, would, in effect, be the mere stipendaries and + instruments of the central power. + + "I am quite sure that the intelligent people of our several + States will be satisfied, on a little reflection, that it is + neither wise nor safe to release the members of their local + legislatures from the responsibility of levying the taxes + necessary to support their State governments, and vest it in + Congress, over most of whose members they have no control. + They will not think it expedient that Congress shall be the + tax-gatherer and paymaster of all their State governments, thus + amalgamating all their officers into one mass of common interest + and common feeling. It is too obvious that such a course would + subvert our well-balanced system of government, and ultimately + deprive us of the blessings now derived from our happy union. + + "However willing I might be that any unavoidable surplus in the + treasury should be returned to the people through their State + governments, I cannot assent to the principle that a surplus may + be created for the purpose of distribution. Viewing this bill + as, in effect, assuming the right not only to create a surplus + for that purpose, but to divide the contents of the treasury + among the States without limitation, from whatever source they + may be derived, and asserting the power to raise and appropriate + money for the support of every State government and institution, + as well as for making every local improvement, however trivial, + I cannot give it my assent. + + "It is difficult to perceive what advantages would accrue to + the old States or the new from the system of distribution which + this bill proposes, if it were otherwise unobjectionable. It + requires no argument to prove, that if three millions of dollars + a year, or any other sum, shall be taken out of the treasury + by this bill for distribution, it must be replaced by the same + sum collected from the people through some other means. The old + States will receive annually a sum of money from the treasury, + but they will pay in a larger sum, together with the expenses + of collection and distribution. It is only their proportion of + seven eights of the proceeds of land sales which they are to + receive, but they must pay their due proportion of the whole. + Disguise it as we may, the bill proposes to them a dead loss in + the ratio of eight to seven, in addition to expenses and other + incidental losses. This assertion is not the less true because + it may not at first be palpable. Their receipts will be in + large sums, but their payments in small ones. The governments + of the States will receive seven dollars, for which the people + of the States will pay eight. The large sums received will be + palpable to the senses; the small sums paid, it requires thought + to identify. But a little consideration will satisfy the people + that the effect is the same as if seven hundred dollars were + given them from the public treasury, for which they were at the + same time required to pay in taxes, direct or indirect, eight + hundred. + + "I deceive myself greatly if the new States would find their + interests promoted by such a system as this bill proposes. Their + true policy consists in the rapid settling and improvement of + the waste lands within their limits. As a means of hastening + those events, they have long been looking to a reduction in the + price of public lands upon the final payment of the national + debt. The effect of the proposed system would be to prevent + that reduction. It is true, the bill reserves to Congress the + power to reduce the price, but the effect of its details, as now + arranged, would probably be forever to prevent its exercise. + + "With the just men who inhabit the new States, it is a + sufficient reason to reject this system, that it is in violation + of the fundamental laws of the republic and its constitution. + But if it were a mere question of interest or expediency, they + would still reject it. They would not sell their bright prospect + of increasing wealth and growing power at such a price. They + would not place a sum of money to be paid into their treasuries, + in competition with the settlement of their waste lands, and + the increase of their population. They would not consider a + small or large annual sum to be paid to their governments, and + immediately expended, as an equivalent for that enduring wealth + which is composed of flocks and herds, and cultivated farms. + No temptation will allure them from that object of abiding + interest, the settlement of their waste lands, and the increase + of a hardy race of free citizens, their glory in peace and their + defence in war. + + "On the whole, I adhere to the opinion expressed by me in my + annual message of 1832, that it is our true policy that the + public lands shall cease, as soon as practicable, to be a source + of revenue, except for the payment of those general charges + which grow out of the acquisition of the lands, their survey, + and sale. Although these expenses have not been met by the + proceeds of sales heretofore, it is quite certain they will be + hereafter, even after a considerable reduction in the price. By + meeting in the treasury so much of the general charge as arises + from that source, they will be hereafter, as they have been + heretofore, disposed of for the common benefit of the United + States, according to the compacts of cession. I do not doubt + that it is the real interest of each and all the States in the + Union, and particularly of the new States, that the price of + these lands shall be reduced and graduated; and that, after they + have been offered for a certain number of years, the refuse, + remaining unsold, shall be abandoned to the States, and the + machinery of our land system entirely withdrawn. It cannot be + supposed the compacts intended that the United States should + retain forever a title to lands within the States, which are of + no value; and no doubt is entertained that the general interest + would be best promoted by surrendering such lands to the States. + + "This plan for disposing of the public lands impairs no + principle, violates no compact, and deranges no system. Already + has the price of those lands been reduced from two dollars + per acre to one dollar and a quarter; and upon the will of + Congress, it depends whether there shall be a further reduction. + While the burdens of the East are diminishing by the reduction + of the duties upon imports, it seems but equal justice that + the chief burden of the West should be lightened in an equal + degree at least. It would be just to the old States and the + new, conciliate every interest, disarm the subject of all its + dangers, and add another guaranty to the perpetuity of our happy + Union." + +_Statement respecting the revenue derived from the public lands, +accompanying the President's Message to the Senate, December 4th, +1833, stating his reasons for not approving the Land Bill:_ + + Statement of the amount of money which has been paid by the + United States for the title to the public lands, including the + payments made under the Louisiana and Florida treaties; the + compact with Georgia; the settlement with the Yazoo claimants; + the contracts with the Indian tribes; and the expenditures for + compensation to commissioners, clerks, surveyors, and other + officers, employed by the United States for the management and + sale of the Western domain; the gross amount of money received + into the treasury, as the proceeds of public lands, to the 30th + of September, 1832; also, the net amount, after deducting five + per cent., expended on account of roads within, and leading to + the Western States, &c., and sums refunded on account of errors + in the entries of public lands. + + Payment on account of the purchase of Louisiana: + + Principal, $14,984,872 28 + Interest on $11,250,000 8,529,353 43 + ------------- $23,514,225 71 + + Payment on account of the purchase of Florida: + + Principal, $4,985,599 82 + Interest to 30th September, 1832, 1,489,768 66 + ------------- $6,475,368 48 + Payment of compact with Georgia, 1,065,484 06 + Payment of the settlement with the Yazoo + claimants, 1,830,808 04 + Payment of contracts with the several Indian + tribes (all expenses on account of Indians), 13,064,677 45 + Payment of commissioners, clerks, and other + officers, employed by the United States for + the management and sale of the Western + domain, 3,750,716 43 + -------------- + $49,701,280 17 + -------------- + Amount of money received into the treasury + as the proceeds of public lands to 30th + September, 1832, $39,614,000 07 + Deduct payments from the treasury on account + of roads, &c., 1,227,375 94 + -------------- + $38,386,624 13 + -------------- + + T. L. SMITH, _Reg._ + + TREASURY DEPARTMENT, } + _Register's Office, March 1, 1833_. } + + +Such was this ample and well-considered message, one of the wisest +and most patriotic ever delivered by any President, and presenting +General Jackson under the aspect of an immense elevation over the +ordinary arts of men who run a popular career, and become candidates +for popular votes. Such arts require addresses to popular interests, +the conciliation of the interested passions, the gratification of +cupidity, the favoring of the masses in the distribution of money or +property as well as the enrichment of classes in undue advantages. +General Jackson exhibits himself as equally elevated above all +these arts--as far above seducing the masses with agrarian laws as +above enriching the few with the plundering legislation of banks +and tariffs; and the people felt this elevation, and did honor to +themselves in the manner in which they appreciated it. Far from +losing his popularity, he increased it, by every act of disdain +which he exhibited for the ordinary arts of conciliating popular +favor. His veto message, on this occasion was an exemplification of +all the high qualities of the public man. He sat out with showing +that these lands, so far as they were divided from the States, +were granted as a common fund, to be disposed of for the benefit +of all the States, according to their usual respective proportions +in the general charge and expenditure, and for no other use or +purpose whatsoever; and that by the principles of our government +and sound policy, those acquired from foreign governments could +only be disposed of in the same manner. In addition to these great +reasons of principle and policy, the message clearly points out the +mischief which any scheme of distribution will inflict upon the new +States in preventing reductions in the price of the public lands--in +preventing donations to settlers--and in preventing the cession of +the unsalable lands to the States in which they lie; and recurs to +his early messages in support of the policy, now that the public +debt was paid, of looking to settlement and population as the chief +objects to be derived from these lands, and for that purpose that +they be sold to settlers at cost. + + + + +CHAPTER XCI. + +COMMENCEMENT OF THE TWENTY-THIRD CONGRESS.--THE MEMBERS, AND +PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. + + +On the second day of December, 1833, commenced the first session of +the Twenty-third Congress, commonly called the Panic session--one of +the most eventful and exciting which the country had ever seen, and +abounding with high talent. The following is the list of members: + + + SENATE. + + MAINE--Peleg Sprague, Ether Shepley. + + NEW HAMPSHIRE--Samuel Bell, Isaac Hill. + + MASSACHUSETTS--Daniel Webster, Nathaniel Silsbee. + + RHODE ISLAND--Nehemiah R. Knight, Asher Robbins. + + CONNECTICUT--Gideon Tomlinson, Nathan Smith. + + VERMONT--Samuel Prentiss, Benjamin Swift. + + NEW YORK--Silas Wright, N. P. Tallmadge. + + NEW JERSEY--Theodore Frelinghuysen, S. L. Southard. + + PENNSYLVANIA--William Wilkins, Samuel McKean. + + DELAWARE--John M. Clayton, Arnold Naudain. + + MARYLAND--Ezekiel F. Chambers, Joseph Kent. + + VIRGINIA--Wm. C. Rives, John Tyler. + + NORTH CAROLINA--Bedford Brown, W. P. Mangum. + + SOUTH CAROLINA--J. C. Calhoun, William C. Preston. + + GEORGIA--John Forsyth, John P. King. + + KENTUCKY--George M. Bibb, Henry Clay. + + TENNESSEE--Felix Grundy, Hugh L. White. + + OHIO--Thomas Ewing, Thomas Morris. + + LOUISIANA--G. A. Waggaman, Alexander Porter. + + INDIANA--Wm. Hendricks, John Tipton. + + MISSISSIPPI--George Poindexter, John Black. + + ILLINOIS--Elias K. Kane, John M. Robinson. + + ALABAMA--William R. King, Gabriel Moore. + + MISSOURI--Thomas H. Benton, Lewis F. Linn. + + + HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + + MAINE--George Evans, Joseph Hall, Leonard Jarvis, Edward + Kavanagh, Moses Mason, Rufus McIntyre, Gorham Parks, Francis O. + J. Smith. + + NEW HAMPSHIRE--Benning M. Bean, Robert Burns, Joseph M. Harper, + Henry Hubbard, Franklin Pierce. + + MASSACHUSETTS--John Quincy Adams, Isaac C. Bates, William + Baylies, George N. Briggs, Rufus Choate, John Davis, Edward + Everett, Benjamin Gorham, George Grennell, jr., Gayton P. + Osgood, John Reed. + + RHODE ISLAND--Tristam Burges, Dutea J. Pearce. + + CONNECTICUT--Noyes Barber, William W. Ellsworth, Samuel A. Foot, + Jabez W. Huntington, Samuel Tweedy, Ebenezer Young. + + VERMONT--Heman Allen, Benjamin F. Deming, Horace Everett, Hiland + Hall, William Slade. + + NEW YORK--John Adams, Samuel Beardsley, Abraham Bockee, Charles + Bodle, John W. Brown, Churchill C. Cambreleng, Samuel Clark, + John Cramer, Rowland Day, John Dickson, Millard Fillmore, + Philo C. Fuller, William K. Fuller, Ransom H. Gillet, Nicoll + Halsey, Gideon Hard, Samuel C. Hathaway, Abner Hazeltine, Edward + Howell, Abel Huntington, Noadiah Johnson, Gerrit Y. Lansing, + Cornelius W. Lawrence, George W. Lay, Abijah Mann, jr., Henry + C. Martindale, Charles McVean, Henry Mitchell, Sherman Page, + Job Pierson, Dudley Selden, William Taylor, Joel Turrill, Aaron + Vanderpoel, Isaac B. Van Houten, Aaron Ward, Daniel Wardwell, + Reuben Whallon, Campbell P. White, Frederick Whittlesey. + + NEW JERSEY--Philemon Dickerson, Samuel Fowler, Thomas Lee, James + Parker, Ferdinand S. Schenck, William N. Shinn. + + PENNSYLVANIA--Joseph B. Anthony, John Banks, Charles A. Barnitz, + Andrew Beaumont, Horace Binney, George Burd, George Chambers, + William Clark, Richard Coulter, Edward Darlington, Harmar Denny, + John Galbraith, James Harper, Samuel S. Harrison, William + Hiester, Joseph Henderson, Henry King, John Laporte, Joel K. + Mann, Thomas M. T. McKennan, Jesse Miller, Henry A. Muhlenberg, + David Potts, jr., Robert Ramsay, Andrew Stewart, Joel B. + Sutherland, David E. Wagener, John G. Watmough. + + DELAWARE--John J. Milligan. + + MARYLAND--Richard B. Carmichael, Littleton P. Dennis, James P. + Heath, William Cost Johnson, Isaac McKim, John T. Stoddert, + Francis Thomas, James Turner. + + VIRGINIA--John J. Allen, William S. Archer, James M. H. Beale, + Thomas T. Bouldin, Joseph W. Chinn, Nathaniel H. Claiborne, + Thomas Davenport, John H. Fulton, James H. Gholson, William F. + Gordon, George Loyall, Edward Lucas, John Y. Mason, William + McComas, Charles F. Mercer, Samuel McDowell Moore, John M. + Patton, Andrew Stevenson, William P. Taylor, Edgar C. Wilson, + Henry A. Wise. + + NORTH CAROLINA--Daniel L. Barringer, Jesse A. Bynum, Henry W. + Connor, Edmund Deberry, James Graham, Thomas H. Hall, Micajah T. + Hawkins, James J. McKay, Abraham Rencher, William B. Shepard, + Augustine H. Shepperd, Jesse Speight, Lewis Williams. + + SOUTH CAROLINA--James Blair, William K. Clowney, Warren R. + Davis, John M. Felder, William J. Grayson, John K. Griffin, + George McDuffie, Henry L. Pinckney. + + GEORGIA--Augustine S. Clayton, John Coffee, Thomas F. Foster, + Roger L. Gamble, George R. Gilmer, Seaborn Jones, William + Schley, James M. Wayne, Richard H. Wilde. + + KENTUCKY--Chilton Allan, Martin Beaty, Thomas Chilton, Amos + Davis, Benjamin Hardin, Albert G. Hawes, Richard M. Johnson, + James Love, Chittenden Lyon, Thomas A. Marshall, Patrick H. + Pope, Christopher Tompkins. + + TENNESSEE--John Bell, John Blair, Samuel Bunch, David Crockett, + David W. Dickinson, William C. Dunlap, John B. Forester, William + M. Inge, Cave Johnson, Luke Lea, Balie Peyton, James K. Polk, + James Standifer. + + OHIO--William Allen, James M. Bell, John Chaney, Thomas Corwin, + Joseph H. Crane, Thomas L. Hamer, Benjamin Jones, Henry H. + Leavitt, Robert T. Lytle, Jeremiah McLean, Robert Mitchell, + William Patterson, Jonathan Sloane, David Spangler, John + Thomson, Joseph Vance, Samuel F. Vinton, Taylor Webster, Elisha + Whittlesey. + + LOUISIANA--Philemon Thomas, Edward D. White. + + INDIANA--Ratliff Boon, John Carr, John Ewing, Edward A. + Hannegan, George L. Kinnard, Amos Lane, Jonathan McCarty. + + MISSISSIPPI--Harry Cage, Franklin E. Plumer. + + ILLINOIS--Zadok Casey, Joseph Duncan, Charles Slade. + + ALABAMA--Clement C. Clay, Dixon H. Lewis, Samuel W. Mardis, John + McKinley, John Murphy. + + MISSOURI--William H. Ashley, John Bull. + + Lucius Lyon also appeared as the delegate from the territory of + Michigan. + + Ambrose H. Sevier also appeared as the delegate from the + territory of Arkansas,--Joseph M. White from Florida. + +Mr. Andrew Stevenson, who had been chosen Speaker of the House +for the three succeeding Congresses, was re-elected by a great +majority--indicating the administration strength, and his own +popularity. The annual message was immediately sent in, and +presented a gratifying view of our foreign relations--all nations +being in peace and amity with us, and many giving fresh proofs of +friendship, either in new treaties formed, or indemnities made for +previous injuries. The state of the finances was then adverted to, +and shown to be in the most favorable condition. The message said: + + "It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you upon the + prosperous condition of the finances of the country, as will + appear from the report which the Secretary of the Treasury will, + in due time, lay before you. The receipts into the Treasury + during the present year will amount to more than thirty-two + millions of dollars. The revenue derived from customs will, it + is believed, be more than twenty-eight millions, and the public + lands will yield about three millions. The expenditures within + the year, for all objects, including two millions five hundred + and seventy-two thousand two hundred and forty dollars and + ninety-nine cents on account of the public debt, will not amount + to twenty-five millions, and a large balance will remain in the + Treasury after satisfying all the appropriations chargeable on + the revenue for the present year." + +The act of the last session, called the "compromise," the President +recommended to observance, "unless it should be found to produce +more revenue than the necessities of the government required." +The extinction of the public debt presented, in the opinion of +the President, the proper occasion for organizing a system of +expenditure on the principles of the strictest economy consistent +with the public interest; and the passage of the message in relation +to that point was particularly grateful to the old friends of an +economical administration of the government. It said: + + "But, while I forbear to recommend any further reduction of + the duties, beyond that already provided for by the existing + laws, I must earnestly and respectfully press upon Congress the + importance of abstaining from all appropriations which are not + absolutely required for the public interests, and authorized + by the powers clearly legated to the United States. We are + beginning a new era in our government. The national debt, which + has so long been a burden on the Treasury, will be finally + discharged in the course of the ensuing year. No more money + will afterwards be needed than what may be necessary to meet + the ordinary expenses of the government. Now then is the proper + moment to fix our system of expenditure on firm and durable + principles; and I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of a + rigid economy, and an inflexible determination not to enlarge + the income beyond the real necessities of the government, and + not to increase the wants of the government by unnecessary and + profuse expenditures. If a contrary course should be pursued, + it may happen that the revenue of 1834 will fall short of the + demands upon it; and after reducing the tariff in order to + lighten the burdens of the people, and providing for a still + further reduction to take effect hereafter, it would be much + to be deplored if, at the end of another year, we should find + ourselves obliged to retrace our steps, and impose additional + taxes to meet unnecessary expenditures." + +The part of the message, however, which gave the paper uncommon +emphasis, and caused it to be received with opposite, and violent +emotions by different parts of the community, was that which related +to the Bank of the United States--its believed condition--and the +consequent removal of the public deposits from its keeping. The +deposits had been removed--done in vacation by the order of the +President--on the ground of insecurity, as well as of misconduct +in the corporation: and as Congress, at the previous session had +declared its belief of their safety, this act of the President +had already become a point of vehement newspaper attack upon +him--destined to be continued in the halls of Congress. His conduct +in this removal, and the reasons for it, were thus communicated: + + "Since the last adjournment of Congress, the Secretary of the + Treasury has directed the money of the United States to be + deposited in certain State banks designated by him, and he will + immediately lay before you his reasons for this direction. + I concur with him entirely in the view he has taken of the + subject; and, some months before the removal, I urged upon the + department the propriety of taking that step. The near approach + of the day on which the charter will expire, as well as the + conduct of the bank, appeared to me to call for this measure + upon the high considerations of public interest and public + duty. The extent of its misconduct, however, although known + to be great, was not at that time fully developed by proof. + It was not until late in the month of August, that I received + from the government directors an official report, establishing + beyond question that this great and powerful institution had + been actively engaged in attempting to influence the elections + of the public officers by means of its money; and that, in + violation of the express provisions of its charter, it had, by + a formal resolution, placed its funds at the disposition of its + President, to be employed in sustaining the political power of + the bank. A copy of this resolution is contained in the report + of the government directors, before referred to; and however + the object may be disguised by cautious language, no one can + doubt that this money was in truth intended for electioneering + purposes, and the particular uses to which it was proved to have + been applied, abundantly show that it was so understood. Not + only was the evidence complete as to the past application of the + money and power of the bank to electioneering purposes, but that + the resolution of the board of directors authorized the same + course to be pursued in future. + + "It being thus established, by unquestionable proof, that + the Bank of the United States was converted into a permanent + electioneering engine, it appeared to me that the path of duty + which the Executive department of the government ought to + pursue, was not doubtful. As by the terms of the bank charter, + no officer but the Secretary of the Treasury could remove the + deposits, it seemed to me that this authority ought to be at + once exerted to deprive that great corporation of the support + and countenance of the government in such a use of its funds, + and such an exertion of its power. In this point of the case, + the question is distinctly presented, whether the people of the + United States are to govern through representatives chosen by + their unbiassed suffrages, or whether the money and power of a + great corporation are to be secretly exerted to influence their + judgment, and control their decisions. It must now be determined + whether the bank is to have its candidates for all offices + in the country, from the highest to the lowest, or whether + candidates on both sides of political questions shall be brought + forward as heretofore, and supported by the usual means. + + "At this time, the efforts of the bank to control public + opinion, through the distresses of some and the fears of others, + are equally apparent, and, if possible, more objectionable. By a + curtailment of its accommodations, more rapid than any emergency + requires, and even while it retains specie to an almost + unprecedented amount in its vaults, it is attempting to produce + great embarrassment in one portion of the community, while, + through presses known to have been sustained by its money, it + attempts, by unfounded alarms, to create a panic in all. + + "These are the means by which it seems to expect that it can + force a restoration of the deposits, and, as a necessary + consequence, extort from Congress a renewal of its charter. I am + happy to know that, through the good sense of our people, the + effort to get up a panic has hitherto failed, and that, through + the increased accommodations which the State banks have been + enabled to afford, no public distress has followed the exertions + of the bank; and it cannot be doubted that the exercise of its + power, and the expenditure of its money, as well as its efforts + to spread groundless alarm, will be met and rebuked as they + deserve. In my own sphere of duty, I should feel myself called + on, by the facts disclosed, to order a _scire facias_ against + the bank, with a view to put an end to the chartered rights it + has so palpably violated, were it not that the charter itself + will expire as soon as a decision would probably be obtained + from the court of last resort. + + "I called the attention of Congress to this subject in my last + annual message, and informed them that such measures as were + within the reach of the Secretary of the Treasury, had been + taken to enable him to judge whether the public deposits in + the Bank of the United States were entirely safe; but that + as his single powers might be inadequate to the object, I + recommended the subject to Congress, as worthy of their serious + investigation: declaring it as my opinion that an inquiry + into the transactions of that institution, embracing the + branches as well as the principal bank, was called for by the + credit which was given throughout the country to many serious + charges impeaching their character, and which, if true, might + justly excite the apprehension that they were no longer a + safe depository for the public money. The extent to which the + examination, thus recommended, was gone into, is spread upon + your journals, and is too well known to require to be stated. + Such as was made resulted in a report from a majority of the + Committee of Ways and Means, touching certain specified points + only, concluding with a resolution that the government deposits + might safely be continued in the Bank of the United States. This + resolution was adopted at the close of the session, by the vote + of a majority of the House of Representatives." + +The message concluded with renewing the recommendation, which the +President had annually made since his first election, in favor of +so amending the constitution in the article of the presidential +and vice-presidential elections, as to give the choice of the two +first officers of the government to a direct vote of the people, and +that "every intermediate agency in the election of those officers +should be removed." This recommendation, like all which preceded +it, remained without practical results. For ten years committees +had reported amendments, and members had supported them, but +without obtaining in Congress the requisite two thirds to refer +the proposition of amendment to the vote of the people. Three +causes combined always to prevent the concurrence of that majority: +1. The conservative spirit of many, who are unwilling, under any +circumstances, to touch an existing institution. 2. The enemies of +popular elections, who deem it unsafe to lodge the high power of +the presidential election, directly in the hands of the people. 3. +The intriguers, who wish to manage these elections for their own +benefit, and have no means of doing it except through the agency +of intermediate bodies. The most potent of these agencies, and the +one in fact which controls all the others, is the one of latest and +most spontaneous growth, called "conventions"--originally adopted to +supersede the caucus system of nominations, but which retains all +the evils of that system, and others peculiar to itself. They are +still attended by members of Congress, and with less responsibility +to their constituents than when acting in a Congress caucus. A +large proportion of the delegates are either self-appointed or so +intriguingly appointed, and by such small numbers, as to constitute +a burlesque upon popular representation. Delegates even transfer +their functions, and make proxies--a prerogative only allowed to +peers of the realm, in England, in their parliamentary voting, +because they are legislators in their own right, and represent, each +one, himself, as his own constituent body, and owing responsibility +to no one. They meet in taverns, the delegates of some of the +large States, attended by one or two thousand backers, supplied +with money, and making all the public appliances of feasting and +speaking, to conciliate or control votes, which ample means and +determined zeal can supply, in a case in which a personal benefit is +expected. The minority rules, that is to say, baffles the majority +until it yields, and consents to a "compromise," accepting for that +purpose the person whom the minority has held in reserve for that +purpose; and this minority of one third, which governs two thirds, +is itself usually governed by a few managers. And to complete +the exclusion of the people from all efficient control, in the +selection of a presidential candidate, an interlocutory committee is +generally appointed out of its members to act from one convention +to another--during the whole interval of four years between their +periodical assemblages--to guide and conduct the public mind, in +the different States, to the support of the person on whom they have +secretly agreed. After the nomination is over, and the election +effected, the managers in these nominations openly repair to the +new President, if they have been successful, and demand rewards for +their labor, in the shape of offices for themselves and connections. +This is the way that presidential elections are now made in the +United States; for, a party nomination is an election, if the party +is strong enough to make it; and, if one is not, the other is; for, +both parties act alike, and thus the mass of the people have no +more part in selecting the person who is to be their President than +the subjects of hereditary monarchs have in begetting the child +who is to rule over them. To such a point is the greatest of our +elections now sunk by the arts of "intermediate agencies;" and it +may be safely assumed, that the history of free elective governments +affords no instance of such an abandonment, on the part of legal +voters, of their great constitutional privileges, and quiet sinking +down of the millions to the automaton performance of delivering +their votes as the few have directed. + + + + +CHAPTER XCII. + +REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS FROM THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. + + +The fact of this removal was communicated to Congress, in the +annual message of the President; the reasons for it, and the mode +of doing it, were reserved for a separate communication; and +especially a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, to whom +belonged the absolute right of the removal, without assignment of +any reasons except to Congress, after the act was done. The order +for the removal, as it was called--for it was only an order to the +collectors of revenue to cease making their deposits in that bank, +leaving the amount actually in it, to be drawn out of intervals, +and in different sums, according to the course at the government +disbursements--was issued the 22d of September, and signed by Roger +B. Taney, Esq., the new Secretary of the Treasury, appointed in +place of Mr. Wm. J. Duane, who, refusing to make the removal, upon +the request of the President, was himself removed. This measure (the +ceasing to deposit the public moneys with the Bank of the United +States) was the President's own measure, conceived by him, carried +out by him, defended by him, and its fate dependent upon him. He +had coadjutors in every part of the business, but the measure was +his own; for this heroic civil measure, like a heroic military +resolve, had to be the offspring of one great mind--self-acting and +poised--seeing its way through all difficulties and dangers; and +discerning ultimate triumph over all obstacles in the determination +to conquer them, or to perish. Councils are good for safety, not +for heroism--good for escapes from perils, and for retreats, but +for action, and especially high and daring action, but one mind is +wanted. The removal of the deposits was an act of that kind--high +and daring, and requiring as much nerve as any enterprise of arms, +in which the President had ever been engaged. His military exploits +had been of his own conception; his great civil acts were to be +the same: more impeded than promoted by councils. And thus it was +in this case. The majority of his cabinet was against him. His +Secretary of the Treasury refused to execute his will. A few only--a +fraction of the cabinet and some friends--concurred heartily in the +act: Mr. Taney, attorney general, Mr. Kendall, Mr. Francis P. Blair, +editor of the _Globe_; and some few others. + +He took his measures carefully and deliberately, and with due +regard to keeping himself demonstrably, as well as actually right. +Observation had only confirmed his opinion, communicated to the +previous Congress, of the misconduct of the institution, and the +insecurity of the public moneys in it: and the almost unanimous vote +of the House of Representatives to the contrary, made no impression +upon his strong conviction. Denied a legislative examination into +its affairs, he determined upon an executive one, through inquiries +put to the government directors, and the researches into the state +of the books, which the Secretary of the Treasury had a right to +make. Four of those directors, namely, Messrs. Henry D. Gilpin, John +T. Sullivan, Peter Wager, and Hugh McEldery, made two reports to +the President, according to the duty assigned them, in which they +showed great misconduct in its management, and a great perversion +of its funds to undue and political purposes. Some extracts from +these reports will show the nature of this report, the names of +persons to whom money was paid being omitted, as the only object, in +making the extracts, is to show the conduct of the bank, and not to +disturb or affect any individuals. + + "On the 30th November, 1830, it is stated on the minutes, that + 'the president submitted to the board a copy of an article on + banks and currency, just published in the _American Quarterly + Review_ of this city, containing a favorable notice of this + institution, and suggested the expediency of making the views of + the author more extensively known to the public than they can + be by means of the subscription list.' Whereupon, it was, on + motion, '_Resolved_, That the president be authorized to take + such measures, in regard to the circulation of the contents of + the said article, either in whole or in part, as he may deem + most for the interests of the bank.' On the 11th March, 1831, + it again appears by the minutes that 'the president stated to + the board, that, in consequence of the general desire expressed + by the directors, at one of their meetings of the last year, + subsequent to the adjournment of Congress, and a verbal + understanding with the board, measures had been taken by him, + in the course of that year, for furnishing numerous copies of + the reports of General Smith and Mr. McDuffie on the subject of + this bank, and for widely disseminating their contents through + the United States; and that he has since, by virtue of the + authority given him by a resolution of this board, on the 30th + day of November last, caused a large edition of Mr. Gallatin's + essay on banks and currency to be published and circulated, + in like manner, at the expense of the bank. He suggested, at + the same time, the propriety and expediency of extending still + more widely a knowledge of the concerns of this institution, by + means of the republication of other valuable articles, which had + issued from the daily and periodical press.' Whereupon, it was, + on motion, '_Resolved_, That the president is hereby authorized + to cause to be prepared and circulated, such documents and + papers as may communicate to the people information, in regard + to the nature and operations of the bank.' + + "In pursuance, it is presumed, of these resolutions, the item + of stationary and printing was increased, during the first half + year of 1831, to the enormous sum of $29,979 92, exceeding + that of the previous half year by $23,000, and exceeding the + semi-annual expenditure of 1829, upwards of $26,000. The expense + account itself, as made up in the book which was submitted + to us, contained very little information relative to the + particulars of this expenditure, and we are obliged, in order + to obtain them, to resort to an inspection of the vouchers. + Among other sums, was one of $7,801, stated to have been paid + on orders of the president, under the resolution of 11th March, + 1831, and the orders themselves were the only vouchers of the + expenditure which we found on file. Some of the orders, to the + amount of about $1,800, stated that the expenditure was for + distributing General Smith's and Mr. McDuffie's reports, and + Mr. Gallatin's pamphlet; but the rest stated generally that it + was made under the resolution of 11th of March, 1831. There + were also numerous bills and receipts for expenditures to + individuals: $1,300 for distributing Mr. Gallatin's pamphlet; + $1,675 75 for 5,000 copies of General Smith's and Mr. McDuffie's + reports, &c.; $440 for 11,000 extra papers; of the _American + Sentinel_, $125 74 for printing, folding, packing, and postage + on 3,000 extras; $1,830 27 for upwards of 50,000 copies of the + _National Gazette_, and supplements containing addresses to + members of State legislatures, reviews of Mr. Benton's speech, + abstracts of Mr. Gallatin's article from the _American Quarterly + Review_, and editorial article on the project of a Treasury + Bank; $1,447 75 for 25,000 copies of the reports of Mr. McDuffie + and General Smith, and for 25,000 copies of the address to + members of the State legislatures, agreeably to order; $2,850 + for 10,000 copies of 'Gallatin on Banking,' and 2,000 copies of + Professor Tucker's article. + + "During the second half year of 1831, the item of stationery and + printing was $13,224 87, of which $5,010 were paid on orders of + the president, and stated generally to be under the resolution + of 11th March, 1831, and other sums were paid to individuals, as + in the previous account, for printing and distributing documents. + + "During the first half year of 1832, the item of stationery and + printing was $12,134 16, of which $2,150 was stated to have + been paid on orders of the president, under the resolution of + 11th March, 1831. There are also various individual payments, + of which we noticed $106 38 for one thousand copies of the + review of Mr. Benton's speech; $200 for one thousand copies of + the _Saturday Courier_; $1,176 for twenty thousand copies of a + pamphlet concerning the bank, and six thousand copies of the + minority report relative to the bank; $1,800 for three hundred + copies of Clarke & Hall's bank book. During the last half year + of 1832, the item of stationery and printing rose to $26,543 + 72, of which $6,350 are stated to have been paid on orders + of the president, under the resolution of 11th March, 1831. + Among the specified charges we observe $821 78 for printing a + review of the veto; $1,371 04 for four thousand copies of Mr. + Ewing's speech, bank documents, and review of the veto; $4,106 + 13 for sixty-three thousand copies of Mr. Webster's speech, + Mr. Adams's and Mr. McDuffie's reports, and the majority and + minority reports; $295 for fourteen thousand extras of _The + Protector_, containing bank documents; $2,583 50 for printing + and distributing reports, Mr. Webster's speech, &c. $150 12 + for printing the speeches of Messrs. Clay, Ewing, and Smith, + and Mr. Adams's report; $1,512 75 to Mr. Clark, for printing + Mr. Webster's speech and articles on the veto, and $2,422 65 + for fifty-two thousand five hundred copies of Mr. Webster's + speech. There is also a charge of $4,040 paid on orders of the + president, stating that it is for expenses in measures for + protecting the bank against a run on the Western branches. + + "During the first half year of 1833, the item of stationery and + printing was $9,093 59, of which $2,600 are stated to have been + paid on orders of the president, under the resolution of 11th + March, 1831. There is also a charge of $800 for printing the + report of the exchange committee." + +These various items, amounting to about $80,000, all explain +themselves by their names and dates--every name of an item referring +to a political purpose, and every date corresponding with the +impending questions of the recharter and the presidential election; +and all charged to the expense account of the bank--a head of +account limited, by the nature of the institution, so far as +printing was concerned, to the printing necessary for the conducting +of its own business; yet in the whole sum, making the total of +$80,000, there is not an item of that kind included. To expose, +or correct these abuses, the government directors submitted the +following resolution to the board: + + "Whereas, it appears by the expense account of the bank for + the years 1831 and 1832, that upwards of $80,000 were expended + and charged under the head of stationery and printing during + that period; that a large proportion of this sum was paid to + the proprietors of newspapers and periodical journals, and for + the printing, distribution, and postage of immense numbers of + pamphlets and newspapers; and that about $20,000 were expended + under the resolutions of 30th November, 1830, and 11th March, + 1831, without any account of the manner in which, or the persons + to whom, they were disbursed: and whereas it is expedient and + proper that the particulars of this expenditure, so large and + unusual, which can now be ascertained only by the examination + of numerous bills and receipts, should be so stated as to be + readily submitted to, and examined by, the board of directors + and the stockholders: Therefore, _Resolved_, That the cashier + furnish to the board, at as early a day as possible, a full and + particular statement of all these expenditures, designating + the sums of money paid to each person, the quantity and names + of the documents furnished by him, and his charges for the + distribution and postage of the same; together with as full a + statement as may be of the expenditures under the resolutions + of 30th November, 1830, and 11th March, 1831. That he ascertain + whether expenditures of the same character have been made at any + of the offices, and if so, procure similar statements thereof, + with the authority on which they were made. That the said + resolutions be rescinded, and no further expenditures made under + the same." + +This resolution was rejected by the board, and in place of it +another was adopted, declaring perfect confidence in the president +of the bank, and directing him to continue his expenditures +under the two resolves of November and March according to his +discretion;--thus continuing to him the power of irresponsible +expenditure, both in amount and object, to any extent that he +pleased. The reports also showed that the government directors were +treated with the indignity of being virtually excluded, both from +the transactions of the bank, and the knowledge of them; and that +the charter was violated to effect these outrages. As an instance, +this is given: the exchange committee was in itself, and even +confined to its proper duties, that of buying and selling exchange, +was a very important one, having the application of an immense +amount of the funds of the bank. While confined to its proper +duties, it was changed monthly, and the directors served upon it by +turns; so that by the process of rotation and speedy renewal, every +member of the directory was kept well informed of the transactions +of this committee, and had their due share in all its great +operations. But at this time--(time of the renewed charter and the +presidential election)--both the duties of the committee, and its +mode of appointment were altered; discounting of notes was permitted +to it, and the appointment of its members was invested in Mr. +Biddle; and no government director was henceforth put upon it. Thus, +a few directors made the loans in the committee's room, which by the +charter could only be made by seven directors at the board; and the +government directors, far from having any voice in these exchange +loans, were ignorant of them until afterwards found on the books. It +was in this exchange committee that most of the loans to members of +Congress were made, and under whose operations the greatest losses +were eventually incurred. The report of the four directors also +showed other great misconduct on the part of the bank, one of which +was to nearly double its discounts at the approaching termination +of the charter, running them up in less than a year and a half from +about forty-two and a half to about seventy and a half millions +of dollars. General Jackson was not the man to tolerate these +illegalities, corruptions and indignities. He, therefore, determined +on ceasing to use the institution any longer as a place of deposit +for the public moneys; and accordingly communicated his intention +to the cabinet, all of whom had been requested to assist him in his +deliberations on the subject. The major part of them dissented from +his design; whereupon he assembled them the 22nd of September, and +read to them a paper, of which the following are the more essential +parts: + + "Having carefully and anxiously considered all the facts and + arguments which have been submitted to him, relative to a + removal of the public deposits from the Bank of the United + States, the President deems it his duty to communicate in this + manner to his cabinet the final conclusions of his own mind, and + the reasons on which they are founded, in order to put them in + durable form, and to prevent misconceptions. + + "The President's convictions of the dangerous tendencies of the + Bank of the United States, since signally illustrated by its + own acts, were so overpowering when he entered on the duties + of chief magistrate, that he felt it his duty, notwithstanding + the objections of the friends by whom he was surrounded, to + avail himself of the first occasion to call the attention of + Congress and the people to the question of its recharter. The + opinions expressed in his annual message of December, 1829, + were reiterated in those of December, 1830 and 1831, and in + that of 1830, he threw out for consideration some suggestions + in relation to a substitute. At the session of 1831-'32 an act + was passed by a majority of both Houses of Congress rechartering + the present bank, upon which the President felt it his duty to + put his constitutional veto. In his message, returning that + act, he repeated and enlarged upon the principles and views + briefly asserted in his annual messages, declaring the bank + to be, in his opinion, both inexpedient and unconstitutional, + and announcing to his countrymen, very unequivocally, his + firm determination never to sanction, by his approval, the + continuance of that institution or the establishment of any + other upon similar principles. + + "There are strong reasons for believing that the motive of the + bank in asking for a recharter at that session of Congress, was + to make it a leading question in the election of a President of + the United States the ensuing November, and all steps deemed + necessary were taken to procure from the people a reversal of + the President's decision. + + "Although the charter was approaching its termination, and the + bank was aware that it was the intention of the government to + use the public deposit as fast as it has accrued, in the payment + of the public debt, yet did it extend its loans from January, + 1831, to May, 1832, from $42,402,304 24 to $70,428,070 72, + being an increase of $28,025,766 48, in sixteen months. It is + confidently believed that the leading object of this immense + extension of its loans was to bring as large a portion of the + people as possible under its power and influence; and it has + been disclosed that some of the largest sums were granted on + very unusual terms to the conductors of the public press. + In some of these cases, the motive was made manifest by the + nominal or insufficient security taken for the loans, by the + large amounts discounted, by the extraordinary time allowed + for payment, and especially by the subsequent conduct of those + receiving the accommodations. + + "Having taken these preliminary steps to obtain control over + public opinion, the bank came into Congress and asked a new + charter. The object avowed by many of the advocates of the bank, + was to _put the President to the test_, that the country might + know his final determination relative to the bank prior to the + ensuing election. Many documents and articles were printed and + circulated at the expense of the bank, to bring the people to + a favorable decision upon its pretensions. Those whom the bank + appears to have made its debtors for the special occasion, were + warned of the ruin which awaited them, should the President be + sustained, and attempts were made to alarm the whole people by + painting the depression in the price of property and produce, + and the general loss, inconvenience, and distress, which it was + represented would immediately follow the re-election of the + President in opposition to the bank. + + "Can it now be said that the question of a recharter of the + bank was not decided at the election which ensued? Had the veto + been equivocal, or had it not covered the whole ground--if it + had merely taken exceptions to the details of the bill, or to + the time of its passage--if it had not met the whole ground + of constitutionality and expediency, then there might have + been some plausibility for the allegation that the question + was not decided by the people. It was to compel the President + to take his stand, that the question was brought forward at + that particular time. He met the challenge, willingly took the + position into which his adversaries sought to force him, and + frankly declared his unalterable opposition to the bank as + being both unconstitutional and inexpedient. On that ground the + case was argued to the people, and now that the people have + sustained the President, notwithstanding the array of influence + and power which was brought to bear upon him, it is too late, + he confidently thinks, to say that the question has not been + decided. Whatever may be the opinions of others, the President + considers his re-election as a decision of the people against + the bank. In the concluding paragraph of his veto message he + said: + + "'I have now done my duty to my country. If sustained by my + fellow-citizens, I shall be grateful and happy; if not, I + shall find in the motives which impel me, ample grounds for + contentment and peace.' + + "He was sustained by a just people, and he desires to evince his + gratitude by carrying into effect their decision, so far as it + depends upon him. + + "Of all the substitutes for the present bank, which have been + suggested, none seems to have united any considerable portion + of the public in its favor. Most of them are liable to the same + constitutional objections for which the present bank has been + condemned, and perhaps to all there are strong objections on the + score of expediency. In ridding the country of an irresponsible + power which has attempted to control the government, care must + be taken not to unite the same power with the executive branch. + To give a President the control over the currency and the power + over individuals now possessed by the Bank of the United States, + even with the material difference that he is responsible to the + people, would be as objectionable and as dangerous as to leave + it as it is. Neither the one nor the other is necessary, and + therefore ought not to be resorted to. + + "But in the conduct of the bank may be found other reasons, + very imperative in their character, and which require prompt + action. Developments have been made from time to time of its + faithlessness as a public agent, its misapplication of public + funds, its interference in elections, its efforts, by the + machinery of committees, to deprive the government directors + of a full knowledge of its concerns, and above all, its + flagrant misconduct as recently and unexpectedly disclosed, in + placing all the funds of the bank, including the money of the + government, at the disposition of the president of the bank, + as means of operating upon public opinion and procuring a new + charter without requiring him to render a voucher for their + disbursement. A brief recapitulation of the facts which justify + these charges and which have come to the knowledge of the public + and the President, will, he thinks, remove every reasonable + doubt as to the course which it is now the duty of the President + to pursue. + + "We have seen that in sixteen months, ending in May, 1832, the + bank had extended its loans more than $28,000,000, although it + knew the government intended to appropriate most of its large + deposit during that year in payment of the public debt. It was + in May, 1832, that its loans arrived at the maximum, and in the + preceding March, so sensible was the bank that it would not be + able to pay over the public deposit when it would be required by + the government, that it commenced a secret negotiation without + the approbation or knowledge of the government, with the agents, + for about $2,700,000 of the three per cent. stocks held in + Holland, with a view of inducing them not to come forward for + payment for one or more years after notice should be given by + the Treasury Department. This arrangement would have enabled the + bank to keep and use during that time the public money set apart + for the payment of these stocks. + + "Although the charter and the rules of the bank, both, declare + that 'not less than seven directors' shall be necessary to the + transaction of business, yet, the most important business, even + that of granting discounts to any extent, is intrusted to a + committee of five members who do not report to the board. + + "To cut off all means of communication with the government, in + relation to its most important acts, at the commencement of the + present year, not one of the government directors was placed on + any one committee. And although since, by an unusual remodelling + of those bodies, some of those directors have been placed on + some of the committees, they are yet entirely excluded from + the committee of exchange, through which the greatest and most + objectionable loans have been made. + + "When the government directors made an effort to bring back the + business of the bank to the board, in obedience to the charter + and the existing regulations, the board not only overruled + their attempt, but altered the rule so as to make it conform to + the practice, in direct violation of one of the most important + provisions of the charter which gave them existence. + + "It has long been known that the president of the bank, by + his single will, originates and executes many of the most + important measures connected with the management and credit + of the bank, and that the committee, as well as the board of + directors, are left in entire ignorance of many acts done, + and correspondence carried on, in their names, and apparently + under their authority. The fact has been recently disclosed, + that an unlimited discretion has been, and is now, vested in + the president of the bank to expend its funds in payment for + preparing and circulating articles, and purchasing pamphlets and + newspapers, calculated by their contents to operate on elections + and secure a renewal of its charter. + + "With these facts before him, in an official report from the + government directors, the President would feel that he was + not only responsible for all the abuses and corruptions the + bank has committed, or may commit, but almost an accomplice + in a conspiracy against that government which he has sworn + honestly to administer, if he did not take every step, within + his constitutional and legal power, likely to be efficient in + putting an end to these enormities. If it be possible, within + the scope of human affairs, to find a reason for removing the + government deposits, and leaving the bank to its own resource + for the means of effecting its criminal designs, we have it + here. Was it expected, when the moneys of the United States + were directed to be placed in that bank, that they would be + put under the control of one man, empowered to spend millions + without rendering a voucher or specifying the object? Can they + be considered safe, with the evidence before us that tens of + thousands have been spent for highly improper, if not corrupt, + purposes, and that the same motive may lead to the expenditure + of hundreds of thousands and even millions more? And can we + justify ourselves to the people by longer lending to it the + money and power of the government, to be employed for such + purposes? + + "In conclusion, the President must be permitted to remark that + he looks upon the pending question as of higher consideration + than the mere transfer of a sum of money from one bank to + another. Its decision may affect the character of our government + for ages to come. Should the bank be suffered longer to use + the public moneys, in the accomplishment of its purposes, + with the proof of its faithlessness and corruption before our + eyes, the patriotic among our citizens will despair of success + in struggling against its power; and we shall be responsible + for entailing it upon our country for ever. Viewing it as a + question of transcendent importance, both in the principles and + consequences it involves, the President could not, in justice + to the responsibility which he owes to the country, refrain + from pressing upon the Secretary of the Treasury his view of + the considerations which impel to immediate action. Upon him + has been devolved, by the constitution and the suffrages of the + American people, the duty of superintending the operation of + the Executive departments of the governments, and seeing that + the laws are faithfully executed. In the performance of this + high trust, it is his undoubted right to express to those whom + the laws and his own choice have made his associates in the + administration of the government, his opinion of their duties, + under circumstances, as they arise. It is this right which he + now exercises. Far be it from him to expect or require that + any member of the cabinet should, at his request, order, or + dictation, do any act which he believes unlawful, or in his + conscience condemns. From them, and from his fellow-citizens in + general, he desires only that aid and support which their reason + approves and their conscience sanctions. + + "The President again repeats that he begs his cabinet to + consider the proposed measure as his own, in the support of + which he shall require no one of them to make a sacrifice of + opinion or principle. Its responsibility has been assumed, after + the most mature deliberation and reflection, as necessary to + preserve the morals of the people, the freedom of the press, + and the parity of the elective franchise, without which, all + will unite in saying that the blood and treasure expended by + our forefathers, in the establishment of our happy system of + government, will have been vain and fruitless. Under these + convictions, he feels that a measure so important to the + American people cannot be commenced too soon; and he, therefore, + names the first day of October next as a period proper for + the change of the deposits, or sooner, provided the necessary + arrangements with the State banks can be made." + +I was in the State of Virginia, when the _Globe_ newspaper arrived, +towards the end of September, bringing this "paper," which the +President had read to his cabinet, and the further information +that he had carried his announced design into affect. I felt an +emotion of the moral sublime at beholding such an instance of +civic heroism. Here was a President, not bred up in the political +profession, taking a great step upon his own responsibility from +which many of his advisers shrunk; and magnanimously, in the act +itself, releasing all from the peril that he encountered, and boldly +taking the whole upon himself. I say peril; for if the bank should +conquer, there was an end to the political prospects of every public +man concurring in the removal. He believed the act to be necessary; +and believing that, he did the act--leaving the consequences to +God and the country. I felt that a great blow had been struck, and +that a great contest must come on, which could only be crowned with +success by acting up to the spirit with which it had commenced. +And I repaired to Washington at the approach of the session with +a full determination to stand by the President, which I believed +to be standing by the country; and to do my part in justifying his +conduct, and in exposing and resisting the powerful combination +which it was certain would be formed against him. + + + + +CHAPTER XCIII. + +BANK PROCEEDINGS, ON SEEING THE DECISION OF THE PRESIDENT, IN +RELATION TO THE REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. + + +Immediately on the publication in the _Globe_ of the "Paper read +to the Cabinet," the bank took it into consideration in all +the forms of a co-ordinate body. It summoned a meeting of the +directors--appointed a committee--referred the President's "Paper" +to it--ordered it to report--held another meeting to receive the +report--adopted it (the government directors, Gilpin, Wager, and +Sullivan voting against it)--and ordered five thousand copies of +the report to be printed. A few extracts from the report, entitled +a Memorial to Congress, are here given, for the purpose of showing, +_First_, The temper and style in which this moneyed corporation, +deriving its existence from the national Congress, indulged itself, +and that in its corporate capacity, in speaking of the President of +the United States and his cabinet; and, _next_, to show the lead +which it gave to the proceedings which were to be had in Congress. +Under the first head, the following passages are given: + + "The committee to whom was referred on the 24th of September, + a paper signed 'Andrew Jackson,' purporting to have been read + to a cabinet on the 18th, and also another paper signed 'H. + D. Gilpin, John T. Sullivan, Peter Wager, and Hugh McEldery,' + bearing date August 19th, 1833--with instructions to consider + the same, and report to the board 'whether any, and what steps + may be deemed necessary on the part of the board in consequence + of the publication of said letter and report,' beg leave to + state-- + + "To justify this measure is the purpose of the paper signed + 'Andrew Jackson.' Of the paper itself, and of the individual who + has signed it, the committee find it difficult to speak with the + plainness by which alone such a document, from such a source, + should be described, without wounding their own self-respect, + and violating the consideration which all American citizens + must feel for the chief magistracy of their country. Subduing, + however, their feelings and their language down to that + respectful tone which is due to the office, they will proceed + to examine the history of this measure, its character and the + pretexts offered in palliation of it. + + "1st. It would appear from its contents and from other sources + of information, that the President had a meeting of what is + called the cabinet, on Wednesday, the 18th September, and there + read this paper. Finding that it made no impression on the + majority of persons assembled, the subject was postponed, and + in the mean time this document was put into the newspapers. + It was obviously published for two reasons. The first was to + influence the members of the cabinet by bringing to bear upon + their immediate decision the first public impression excited by + misrepresentations, which the objects of them could not refute + in time--the second was, by the same excitement, to affect the + approaching elections in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. + Its assailants are what are called politicians (i.e., the + assailants of the bank)." + +Such is the temper and style in which the President of the United +States is spoken of by this great moneyed corporation, in a memorial +addressed to Congress. Erecting itself into a co-ordinate body, +and assuming in its corporate capacity an authority over the +President's act, it does not even condescend to call him President. +It is "Andrew Jackson," and the name always placed between inverted +commas to mark the higher degree of contempt. Then the corporation +shrinks from remarking on the "paper" itself, and the "individual" +who signed it, as a thing injurious to their own self-respect, +and only to be done in consideration of the "office" which he +fills, and that after "subduing" their feelings--and this was the +insolence of the moneyed power in defeat, when its champion had +received but forty-nine votes for the Presidency out of two hundred +and eighty-eight given in! What would it have been in victory? The +lead which it gave to the intended proceedings in Congress, is well +indicated in these two paragraphs, and the specifications under them: + + "The indelicacy of the form of those proceedings corresponds + well with the substance of them, which is equally in violation + of the rights of the bank and the laws of the country. + + "The committee willingly leave to the Congress of the United + States, the assertion of their own constitutional power, and the + vindication of the principles of our government, against the + most violent assault they have ever yet encountered; and will + now confine themselves to the more limited purpose of showing + that the reasons assigned for this measure are as unfounded as + the object itself is illegal." + +The illegality of the proceeding, and the vindication of the +constitution, and the principles of the government, from a most +violent assault, are the main objects left by the bank to the +Congress; the invalidity of the reasons assigned for the removal, +are more limited, and lest the Congress might not discover these +violations of law and constitution, the corporation proceeds to +enumerate and establish them. It says: + + "Certainly since the foundation of this government, nothing + has ever been done which more deeply wounds the spirit of + our free institutions. It, in fact, resolves itself into + this--that whenever the laws prescribe certain duties to an + officer, if that officer, acting under the sanctions of his + official oath and his private character, refuses to violate + that law, the President of the United States may dismiss + him and appoint another; and if he too should prove to be a + 'refractory subordinate,' to continue his removals until he + at last discovers in the descending scale of degradation some + irresponsible individual fit to be the tool of his designs. + Unhappily, there are never wanting men who will think as + their superiors wish them to think--men who regard more the + compensation than the duties of their office--men to whom daily + bread is sufficient consolation for daily shame. + + "The present state of this question is a fearful illustration + of the danger of it. At this moment the whole revenue of + this country is at the disposal--the absolute, uncontrolled + disposal--of the President of the United States. The laws + declare that the public funds shall be placed in the Bank of the + United States, unless the Secretary of the Treasury forbids it. + The Secretary of the Treasury will not forbid it. The President + dismisses him, and appoints somebody who will. So the laws + declare that no money shall be drawn from the Treasury, except + on warrants for appropriations made by law. If the Treasurer + refuses to draw his warrant for any disbursement, the President + may dismiss him and appoint some more flexible agent, who will + not hesitate to gratify his patron. The text is in the official + gazette, announcing the fate of the dismissed Secretary to + all who follow him. 'The agent cannot conscientiously perform + the service, and refuses to co-operate, and desires to remain + to thwart the President's measures. To put an end to this + difficulty between the head and the hands of the executive + department, the constitution arms the chief magistrate with + authority to remove the refractory subordinate.' The theory thus + avowed, and the recent practice under it, convert the whole free + institutions of this country into the mere absolute will of a + single individual. They break down all the restraints which the + framers of the government hoped they had imposed on arbitrary + power, and place the whole revenue of the United States in the + hands of the President. + + "For it is manifest that this removal of the deposits is not + made by the order of the Secretary of the Treasury. It is a + perversion of language so to describe it. On the contrary, the + reverse is openly avowed. The Secretary of the Treasury refused + to remove them, believing, as his published letter declares, + that the removal was 'unnecessary, unwise, vindictive, arbitrary + and unjust.' He was then dismissed because he would not remove + them, and another was appointed because he would remove them. + Now this is a palpable violation of the charter. The bank and + Congress agree upon certain terms, which no one can change but + a particular officer; who, although necessarily nominated to + the Senate by the President, was designated by the bank and by + Congress as the umpire between them. Both Congress and the bank + have a right to the free and honest and impartial judgment of + that officer, whoever he may be--the bank, because the removal + may injure its interests--the Congress, because the removal + may greatly incommode and distress their constituents. In this + case, they are deprived of it by the unlawful interference of + the President, who 'assumes the responsibility,' which, being + interpreted, means, usurps the power of the Secretary. + + "The whole structure of the Treasury shows that the design of + Congress was to make the Secretary as independent as possible + of the President. The other Secretaries are merely executive + officers; but the Secretary of the Treasury, the guardian of + the public revenue, comes into more immediate sympathy with + the representatives of the people who pay that revenue; and + although, according to the general scheme of appointment, he is + nominated by the President to the Senate, yet he is in fact the + officer of Congress, not the officer of the President. + + "This independence of the Secretary of the Treasury--if it be + true in general--is more especially true in regard to the bank. + It was in fact the leading principle in organizing the bank, + that the President should be excluded from all control of it. + The question which most divided the House of Representatives + was, whether there should be any government directors at all; + and although this was finally adopted, yet its tendency to + create executive influence over the bank was qualified by two + restrictions: first, that no more than three directors should be + appointed from any one State; and, second, that the president + of the bank should not be, as was originally designed by the + Secretary of the Treasury, chosen from among the government + directors. Accordingly, by the charter, the Secretary of the + Treasury is every thing--the President comparatively nothing. + The Secretary has the exclusive supervision of all the relations + of the bank with the government." + +These extracts are sufficient to show that the corporation charged +the President with illegal and unconstitutional conduct, subversive +of the principles of our government, and dangerous to our liberties +in causing the deposits to be removed--that they looked upon this +illegal, unconstitutional, and dangerous conduct as the principal +wrong--and left to Congress the assertion of its own constitutional +power, and the vindication of the principles of the government +from the assault which they had received. And this in a memorial +addressed to Congress, of which five thousand copies, in pamphlet +form, were printed, and the members of Congress liberally supplied +with copies. It will be seen, when we come to the proceedings of +Congress, how far the intimations of the memorial in showing what +ought to be done, and leaving Congress to do it, was complied with +by that body. + + + + +CHAPTER XCIV. + +REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY TO CONGRESS ON THE REMOVAL +OF THE DEPOSITS. + + +By the clause in the charter authorizing the Secretary of the +Treasury to remove the deposits, that officer was required to +communicate the fact immediately to Congress, if in session, if +not, at the first meeting; together with his reasons for so doing. +The act which had been done was not a "removal," in the sense of +that word; for not a dollar was taken from the Bank of the United +States to be deposited elsewhere; and the order given was not for +a "removal," but for a cessation of deposits in that institution, +leaving the public moneys which were in it to be drawn out in the +regular course of expenditure. An immediate and total removal might +have been well justified by the misconduct of the bank; a cessation +to deposit might have been equally well justified on the ground +of the approaching expiration of the charter, and the propriety +of providing in time for the new places of deposit which that +expiration would render necessary. The two reasons put together +made a clear case, both of justification and of propriety, for the +order which had been given; and the secretary, Mr. Taney, well set +them forth in the report which he made, and which was laid before +Congress on the day after its meeting. The following are extracts +from it: + + "The Treasury department being intrusted with the administration + of the finances of the country, it was always the duty of the + Secretary, in the absence of any legislative provision on the + subject, to take care that the public money was deposited in + safe keeping, in the hands of faithful agents, and in convenient + places, ready to be applied according to the wants of the + government. The law incorporating the bank has reserved to him, + in its full extent, the power he before possessed. It does + not confer on him a new power, but reserves to him his former + authority, without any new limitation. The obligation to assign + the reasons for his direction to deposit the money of the United + States elsewhere, cannot be considered as a restriction of + the power, because the right of the Secretary to designate the + place of deposit was always necessarily subject to the control + of Congress. And as the Secretary of the Treasury presides over + one of the executive departments of the government, and his + power over this subject forms a part of the executive duties of + his office, the manner in which it is exercised must be subject + to the supervision of the officer to whom the constitution has + confided the whole executive power, and has required to take + care that the laws be faithfully executed. + + "The faith of the United States is, however, pledged, according + to the terms of the section above stated, that the public + money shall be deposited in this bank, unless 'the Secretary + of the Treasury shall otherwise order and direct.' And as this + agreement has been entered into by Congress, in behalf of the + United States, the place of deposit could not be changed by + a legislative act, without disregarding a pledge, which the + legislature has given; and the money of the United States must + therefore continue to be deposited in the bank, until the last + hour of its existence, unless it shall be otherwise ordered by + the authority mentioned in the charter. The power over the place + of deposit for the public money would seem properly to belong + to the legislative department of the government, and it is + difficult to imagine why the authority to withdraw it from this + bank was confided exclusively to the Executive. But the terms + of the charter appear to be too plain to admit of question; and + although Congress should be satisfied that the public money was + not safe in the care of the bank, or should be convinced that + the interests of the people of the United States imperiously + demanded the removal, yet the passage of a law directing it to + be done, would be a breach of the agreement into which they have + entered. + + "In deciding upon the course which it was my duty to pursue + in relation to the deposits, I did not feel myself justified + in anticipating the renewal of the charter on either of the + above-mentioned grounds. It is very evident that the bank has + no claim to renewal, founded on the justice of Congress. For, + independently of the many serious and insurmountable objections, + which its own conduct has furnished, it cannot be supposed that + the grant to this corporation of exclusive privileges, at the + expense of the rest of the community, for twenty years, can + give it a right to demand the still further enjoyment of its + profitable monopoly. Neither could I act upon the assumption + that the public interest required the recharter of the bank, + because I am firmly persuaded that the law which created this + corporation, in many of its provisions, is not warranted by the + constitution, and that the existence of such a powerful moneyed + monopoly, is dangerous to the liberties of the people, and to + the purity of our political institutions. + + "The manifestations of public opinion, instead of being + favorable to a renewal, have been decidedly to the contrary. + And I have always regarded the result of the last election + of the President of the United States, as the declaration of + a majority of the people that the charter ought not to be + renewed. It is not necessary to state here, what is now a + matter of history. The question of the renewal of the charter + was introduced into the election by the corporation itself. Its + voluntary application to Congress for the renewal of its charter + four years before it expired, and upon the eve of the election + of President, was understood on all sides as bringing forward + that question for incidental decision, at the then approaching + election. It was accordingly argued on both sides, before the + tribunal of the people, and their verdict pronounced against the + bank, by the election of the candidate who was known to have + been always inflexibly opposed to it. + + "The monthly statement of the bank, of the 2d September last, + before referred to, shows that the notes of the bank and its + branches, then in circulation, amounted to $18,413,287 07, + and that its discounts amounted to the sum of $62,653,359 59. + The immense circulation above stated, pervading every part of + the United States, and most commonly used in the business of + commerce between distant places, must all be withdrawn from + circulation when the charter expires. If any of the notes then + remain in the hands of individuals, remote from the branches + at which they are payable, their immediate depreciation will + subject the holders to certain loss. Those payable in the + principal commercial cities would, perhaps, retain nearly their + nominal value; but this would not be the case with the notes of + the interior branches, remote from the great marts of trade. + And the statements of the bank will show that a great part of + its circulation is composed of notes of this description. The + bank would seem to have taken pains to introduce into common use + such a description of paper as it could depreciate, or raise to + its par value, as best suited its own views; and it is of the + first importance to the interests of the public that these notes + should all be taken out of circulation, before they depreciate + in the hands of the individuals who hold them; and they ought + to be withdrawn gradually, and their places supplied, as they + retire, by the currency which will become the substitute for + them. How long will it require, for the ordinary operations + of commerce, and the reduction of discounts by the bank, to + withdraw the amount of circulation before mentioned, without + giving a shock to the currency, or producing a distressing + pressure on the community? I am convinced that the time which + remained for the charter to run, after the 1st of October (the + day on which the first order for removal took effect), was not + more than was proper to accomplish the object with safety to the + community. + + "There is, however, another view of the subject, which in my + opinion, made it impossible further to postpone the removal. + About the 1st of December, 1832, it had been ascertained that + the present Chief Magistrate was re-elected, that his decision + against the bank had thus been sanctioned by the people. At + that time the discounts of the bank amounted to $61,571,625 66. + Although the issue which the bank took so much pains to frame + had now been tried, and the decision pronounced against it, + yet no steps were taken to prepare for its approaching end. On + the contrary, it proceeded to enlarge its discounts, and, on + the 2d of August, 1833, they amounted to $64,160,349 14, being + an increase of more than two and a half millions in the eight + months immediately following the decision against them. And so + far from preparing to arrange its affairs with a view to wind + up its business, it seemed from this course of conduct, to be + the design of the bank to put itself in such an attitude, that, + at the close of its charter, the country would be compelled + to submit to its renewal, or to bear all the consequences of + a currency suddenly deranged, and also a severe pressure for + the immense outstanding claims which would then be due to the + corporation. While the bank was thus proceeding to enlarge + its discounts, an agent was appointed by the Secretary of the + Treasury to inquire upon what terms the State banks would + undertake to perform the services to the government which have + heretofore been rendered by the Bank of the United States; and + also to ascertain their condition in four of the principal + commercial cities, for the purpose of enabling the department to + judge whether they would be safe and convenient depositories for + the public money. It was deemed necessary that suitable fiscal + agents should be prepared in due season, and it was proper + that time should be allowed them to make arrangements with + one another throughout the country, in order that they might + perform their duties in concert, and in a manner that would be + convenient and acceptable to the public. It was essential that + a change so important in its character, and so extensive in its + operation upon the financial concerns of the country, should not + be introduced without timely preparation. + + "The United States, by the charter, reserved the right of + appointing five directors of the bank. It was intended by this + means not only to provide guardians for the interests of the + public in the general administration of its affairs, but also + to have faithful officers, whose situation would enable them to + become intimately acquainted with all the transactions of the + institution, and whose duty it would be to apprize the proper + authorities of any misconduct on the part of the corporation + likely to affect the public interest. The fourth fundamental + article of the constitution of the corporation declares that + not less than seven directors shall constitute a board for + the transaction of business. At these meetings of the board, + the directors on the part of the United States had of course + a right to be present; and, consequently, if the business of + the corporation had been transacted in the manner which the + law requires, there was abundant security that nothing could + be done, injuriously affecting the interests of the people, + without being immediately communicated to the public servants, + who were authorized to apply the remedy. And if the corporation + has so arranged its concerns as to conceal from the public + directors some of its most important operations, and has thereby + destroyed the safeguards which were designed to secure the + interests of the United States, it would seem to be very clear + that it has forfeited its claim to confidence, and is no longer + worthy of trust. + + "Instead of a board constituted of at least seven directors, + according to the charter, at which those appointed by the United + States have a right to be present, many of the most important + money transactions of the bank have been, and still are, placed + under the control of a committee, denominated the exchange + committee, of which no one of the public directors has been + allowed to be a member since the commencement of the present + year. This committee is not even elected by the board, and + the public directors have no voice in their appointment. They + are chosen by thy president of the bank, and the business of + the institution, which ought to be decided on by the board of + directors, is, in many instances, transacted by this committee; + and no one had a right to be present at their proceedings but + the president, and those whom he shall please to name as members + of this committee. Thus, loans are made, unknown at the time + to a majority of the board, and paper discounted which might + probably be rejected at a regular meeting of the directors. The + most important operations of the bank are sometimes resolved + on and executed by this committee; and its measures are, it + appears, designedly, and by regular system, so arranged, as to + conceal from the officers of the government transactions in + which the public interests are deeply involved. And this fact + alone furnishes evidence too strong to be resisted, that the + concealment of certain important operations of the corporation + from the officers of the government is one of the objects which + is intended to be accomplished by means of this committee. The + plain words of the charter are violated, in order to deprive the + people of the United States of one of the principal securities + which the law had provided to guard their interests, and to + render more safe the public money intrusted to the care of the + bank. Would any individual of ordinary discretion continue his + money in the hands of an agent who violated his instructions + for the purpose of hiding from him the manner in which he + was conducting the business confided to his charge? Would + he continue his property in his hands, when he had not only + ascertained that concealment had been practised towards him, + but when the agent avowed his determination to continue in the + same course, and to withhold from him, as far as he could, all + knowledge of the manner in which he was employing his funds? If + an individual would not be expected to continue his confidence + under such circumstances, upon what principle could a different + line of conduct be required from the officers of the United + States, charged with the care of the public interests? The + public money is surely entitled to the same care and protection + as that of an individual; and if the latter would be bound, + in justice to himself, to withdraw his money from the hands + of an agent thus regardless of his duty, the same principle + requires that the money of the United States should, under the + like circumstances, be withdrawn from the hands of their fiscal + agent." + +Having shown ample reasons for ceasing to make the public deposits +in the Bank of the United States, and that it was done, the +Secretary proceeds to the next division of his subject, naturally +resulting from his authority to remove, though not expressed in +the charter; and that was, to show where he had ordered them to be +placed. + + "The propriety of removing the deposits being thus evident, and + it being consequently my duty to select the places to which + they were to be removed, it became necessary that arrangements + should be immediately made with the new depositories of the + public money, which would not only render it safe, but would at + the same time secure to the government, and to the community + at large, the conveniencies and facilities that were intended + to be obtained by incorporating the Bank of the United States. + Measures were accordingly taken for that purpose, and copies of + the contracts which have been made with the selected banks, and + of the letters of instructions to them from this department, + are herewith submitted. The contracts with the banks in the + interior are not precisely the same with those in the Atlantic + cities. The difference between them arises from the nature + of the business transacted by the banks in these different + places. The State banks selected are all institutions of high + character and undoubted strength, and are under the management + and control of persons of unquestioned probity and intelligence. + And, in order to insure the safety of the public money, each + of them is required, and has agreed, to give security whenever + the amount of the deposit shall exceed the half of the amount + of the capital actually paid in; and this department has + reserved to itself the right to demand security whenever it + may think it advisable, although this amount on deposit may + not be equal to the sum above stated. The banks selected have + also severally engaged to transmit money to any point at which + it may be required by the direction of this department for + the public service, and to perform all the services to the + government which were heretofore rendered by the Bank of the + United States. And, by agreements among themselves to honor each + other's notes and drafts, they are providing a general currency + at least as sound as that of the Bank of the United States, + and will afford facilities to commerce and in the business + of domestic exchange, quite equal to any which the community + heretofore enjoyed. There has not been yet sufficient time to + perfect these arrangements, but enough has already been done + to show that, even on the score of expediency, a Bank of the + United States is not necessary, either for the fiscal operations + of the government, or the public convenience; and that every + object which the charter to the present bank was designed to + attain, may be as effectually accomplished by the State banks. + And, if this can be done, nothing that is useful will be lost + or endangered by the change, while much that is desirable will + be gained by it. For no one of these corporations will possess + that absolute and almost unlimited dominion over the property + of the citizens of the United States which the present bank + holds, and which enables it at any moment, at its own pleasure, + to bring distress upon any portion of the community whenever it + may deem it useful to its interest to make its power felt. The + influence of each of the State banks is necessarily limited to + its own immediate neighborhood, and they will be kept in check + by the other local banks. They will not, therefore, be tempted + by the consciousness of power to aspire to political influence, + nor likely to interfere in the elections of the public servants. + They will, moreover, be managed by persons who reside in the + midst of the people who are to be immediately affected by their + measures; and they cannot be insensible or indifferent to the + opinions and peculiar interests of those by whom they are daily + surrounded, and with whom they are constantly associated. + These circumstances always furnish strong safeguards against + an oppressive exercise of power, and forcibly recommend the + employment of State banks in preference to a Bank of the United + States, with its numerous and distant branches. + + "In the selection, therefore, of the State banks as the fiscal + agents of the government, no disadvantages appear to have been + incurred on the score of safety or convenience, or the general + interests of the country, while much that is valuable will be + gained by the change. I am, however, well aware of the vast + power of the Bank of the United States, and of its ability to + bring distress and suffering on the country. This is one of + the evils of chartering a bank with such an amount of capital, + with the right of shooting its branches into every part of the + Union, so as to extend its influence to every neighborhood. + The immense loan of more than twenty-eight millions of dollars + suddenly poured out, chiefly in the Western States, in 1831, + and the first four months in 1832, sufficiently attests that + the bank is sensible of the power which its money gives it, + and has placed itself in an attitude to make the people of + the United States feel the weight of its resentment, if they + presume to disappoint the wishes of the corporation. By a severe + curtailment it has already made it proper to withdraw a portion + of the money it held on deposit, and transfer it to the custody + of the new fiscal agents, in order to shield the community from + the injustice of the Bank of the United States. But I have not + supposed that the course of the government ought to be regulated + by the fear of the power of the bank. If such a motive could + be allowed to influence the legislation of Congress, or the + action of the executive departments of the government, there is + an end to the sovereignty of the people; and the liberties of + the country are at once surrendered at the feet of a moneyed + corporation. They may now demand the possession of the public + money, or the renewal of the charter; and if these objects + are yielded to them from apprehensions of their power, or + from the suffering which rapid curtailments on their part are + inflicting on the community, what may they not next require? + Will submission render such a corporation more forbearing in its + course? What law may it not hereafter demand, that it will not, + if it pleases, be able to enforce by the same means?" + +Thus the keeping of the public moneys went to the local banks, the +system of an independent treasury being not then established; and +the notes of these banks necessarily required their notes to be +temporarily used in the federal payments, the gold currency not +being at that time revived. Upon these local banks the federal +government was thrown--_first_, for the safe keeping of its public +moneys; _secondly_, to supply the place of the nineteen millions +of bank notes which the national had in circulation; _thirdly_, to +relieve the community from the pressure which the Bank of the United +States had already commenced upon it, and which, it was known, was +to be pushed to the ultimate point of oppression. But a difficulty +was experienced in obtaining these local banks, which would be +incredible without understanding the cause. Instead of a competition +among them to obtain the deposits, there was holding off, and an +absolute refusal on the part of many. Local banks were shy of +receiving them--shy of receiving the greatest possible apparent +benefit to themselves--shy of receiving the aliment upon which they +lived and grew! and why this so great apparent contradiction? It +was the fear of the Bank of the United States! and of that capacity +to destroy them to which Mr. Biddle had testified in his answers to +the Senate's Finance Committee; and which capacity was now known to +be joined to the will; for the bank placed in the same category all +who should be concerned in the removal--both the government that +ordered it, and the local banks which received what it lost. But +a competent number were found; and this first attempt to prevent +a removal, by preventing a reception of the deposits elsewhere, +entirely failed. + + + + +CHAPTER XCV. + +NOMINATION OF GOVERNMENT DIRECTORS, AND THEIR REJECTION. + + +By the charter of the bank, the government was entitled to five +directors, to be nominated annually by the President, and confirmed +by the Senate. At the commencement of the session of 1833-'34, +the President nominated the five, four of them being the same who +had served during the current year, and who had made the report +on which the order for the removal of the deposits was chiefly +founded. This drew upon them the resentment of the bank, and caused +them to receive a large share of reproach and condemnation in the +report which the committee of the bank drew up, and which the +board of directors adopted and published. When these nominations +came into the Senate it was soon perceived that there was to be +opposition to these four; and for the purpose of testing the truth +of the objections, Mr. Kane, of Illinois, submitted the following +resolution: + + "_Resolved_, That the nominations of H. D. Gilpin, John T. + Sullivan, Peter Wager, and Hugh McEldery, be recommitted to the + Committee on Finance, with instructions to inquire into their + several qualifications and fitness for the stations to which + they have been nominated; also into the truth of all charges + preferred by them against the board of directors of the Bank + of the United States, and into the conduct of each of the said + nominees during the time he may have acted as director of the + said bank; and that the said nominees have notice of the times + and places of meetings of said committee, and have leave to + attend the same." + +Which was immediately rejected by the following vote: + + "YEAS.--Messrs. Benton, Brown, Forsyth, Grundy, Hendricks, + Hill, Kane, King of Alabama, Linn, McKean, Moor, Morris, + Rives, Robinson, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, White, Wilkins, + Wright.--20. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Bell, Bibb, Black, Calhoun, Chambers, Clay, + Clayton, Ewing, Frelinghuysen, Kent, King of Georgia, Knight, + Mangum, Naudain, Poindexter, Porter, Prentiss, Robbins, Silsbee, + Smith, Southard, Sprague, Swift, Tomlinson, Tyler, Waggaman, + Webster.--27." + +And this resolution being rejected, requiring a two-fold +examination--one into the character and qualifications of the +nominees, the other into the truth of their representations against +the bank, it was deemed proper to submit another, limited to an +inquiry into the character and fitness of the nominees; which was +rejected by the same vote. The nominations were then voted upon +separately, and each of the four was rejected by the same vote which +applied to the first one, to wit, Mr. Gilpin: and which was as +follows: + + "YEAS.--Messrs. Benton, Black, Brown, Forsyth, Grundy, + Hendricks, Hill, Kane, King of Alabama, Linn, McKean, Moore, + Morris, Robinson, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, White, Wilkins, + Wright.--20. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Bell, Bibb, Calhoun, Chambers, Clay, Ewing, + Frelinghuysen, Kent, Knight, Mangum, Naudain, Poindexter, + Porter, Prentiss, Preston, Robbins, Silsbee, Smith, Sprague, + Swift, Tomlinson, Tyler, Waggaman, Webster.--24." + +These rejections being communicated to the President, he immediately +felt that it presented a new case for his energy and decision of +conduct. The whole of the rejected gentlemen had been confirmed +the year before--had all acted as directors for the current +year--and there was no complaint against them except from the Bank +of the United States; and that limited to their conduct in giving +information of transactions in the bank to President Jackson at his +written request. Their characters and fitness were above question. +That was admitted by the Senate, both by its previous confirmation +for the same places, and its present refusal to inquire into those +points. The information which they had given to the President had +been copied from the books of the bank, and the transactions which +they communicated had been objected to by them at the time as +illegal and improper; and its truth, unimpeachable in itself, was +unimpeached by the Senate in their refusal to inquire into their +conduct while directors. It was evident then that they had been +rejected for the report which they made to the President; and this +brought up the question, whether it was right to punish them for +that act? and whether the bank should have the virtual nomination +of the government directors by causing those to be rejected which +the government nominated? and permitting none to serve but those +whose conduct should be subordinate to the views and policy of the +bank? These were questions, first, for the Senate, and then for the +country; and the President determined to bring it before both in a +formal message of re-nomination. He accordingly sent back the names +of the four rejected nominations in a message which contained, among +others, these passages: + + "I disclaim all pretension of right on the part of the President + officially to inquire into, or call in question, the reasons + of the Senate for rejecting any nomination whatsoever. As the + President is not responsible to them for the reasons which + induce him to make a nomination, so they are not responsible to + him for the reasons which induce them to reject it. In these + respects, each is independent of the other and both responsible + to their respective constituents. Nevertheless, the attitude + in which certain vital interests of the country are placed by + the rejection of the gentlemen now re-nominated require of me, + frankly, to communicate my views of the consequences which + must necessarily follow this act of the Senate, if it be not + reconsidered. + + "The characters and standing of these gentlemen are well known + to the community, and eminently qualify them for the offices + to which I propose to appoint them. Their confirmation by the + Senate at its last session to the same offices is proof that + such was the opinion of them entertained by the Senate at that + time; and unless some thing has occurred since to change it, + this act may now be referred to as evidence that their talents + and pursuits justified their selection. + + "The refusal, however, to confirm their nominations to the + same offices, shows that there is something in the conduct of + these gentlemen during the last year which, in the opinion of + the Senate, disqualifies them; and as no charge has been made + against them as men or citizens, nothing which impeaches the + fair private character they possessed when the Senate gave + them their sanction at its last session, and as it moreover + appears from the journal of the Senate recently transmitted for + my inspection, that it was deemed unnecessary to inquire into + their qualifications or character, it is to be inferred that the + change in the opinion of the Senate has arisen from the official + conduct of these gentlemen. The only circumstances in their + official conduct which have been deemed of sufficient importance + to attract public attention are the two reports made by them + to the executive department of the government, the one bearing + date the 22d day of April, and the other the 19th day of August + last; both of which reports were communicated to the Senate by + the Secretary of the Treasury with his reasons for removing the + deposits. + + "The truth of the facts stated in these reports, is not, I + presume, questioned by any one. The high character and standing + of the citizens by whom they were made prevent any doubt upon + the subject. Indeed the statements have not been denied by the + president of the bank, and the other directors. On the contrary, + they have insisted that they were authorized to use the money of + the bank in the manner stated in the two reports, and have not + denied that the charges there made against the corporation are + substantially true. + + "It must be taken, therefore, as admitted that the statements + of the public directors, in the reports above mentioned, are + correct: and they disclose the most alarming abuses on the part + of the corporation, and the most strenuous exertions on their + part to put an end to them. They prove that enormous sums were + secretly lavished in a manner, and for purposes that cannot be + justified; and that the whole of the immense capital of the + bank has been virtually placed at the disposal of a single + individual, to be used, if he thinks proper, to corrupt the + press, and to control the proceedings of the government by + exercising an undue influence over elections. + + "The reports were made in obedience to my official directions; + and I herewith transmit copies of my letter calling for + information of the proceedings of the bank. Were they bound to + disregard the call? Was it their duty to remain silent while + abuses of the most injurious and dangerous character were daily + practised? Were they bound to conceal from the constituted + authorities a course of measures destructive to the best + interests of the country, and intended, gradually and secretly, + to subvert the foundations of our government, and to transfer + its powers from the hands of the people to a great moneyed + corporation? Was it their duty to sit in silence at the board, + and witness all these abuses without an attempt to correct them; + or, in case of failure there, not to appeal to higher authority? + The eighth fundamental rule authorizes any one of the directors, + whether elected or appointed, who may have been absent when an + excess of debt was created, or who may have dissented from the + act, to exonerate himself from personal responsibility by giving + notice of the fact to the President of the United States; thus + recognizing the propriety of communicating to that officer the + proceedings of the board in such cases. But, independently of + any argument to be derived from the principle recognized in the + rule referred to, I cannot doubt for a moment that it is the + right and the duty of every director at the board to attempt + to correct all illegal proceedings, and in case of failure, + to disclose them; and that every one of them, whether elected + by the stockholders or appointed by the government, who had + knowledge of the facts, and concealed them, would be justly + amenable to the severest censure. + + "But, in the case of the public directors, it was their peculiar + and official duty to make the disclosures; and the call upon + them for information could not have been disregarded without a + flagrant breach of their trust. The directors appointed by the + United States cannot be regarded in the light of the ordinary + directors of a bank appointed by the stockholders, and charged + with the care of their pecuniary interests in the corporation. + They have higher and more important duties. They are public + officers. They are placed at the board not merely to represent + the stock held by the United States, but to observe the conduct + of the corporation, and to watch over the public interests. + It was foreseen that this great moneyed monopoly might be so + managed as to endanger the interests of the country; and it + was therefore deemed necessary, as a measure of precaution, to + place at the board watchful sentinels, who should observe its + conduct, and stand ready to report to the proper officers of the + government every act of the board which might affect injuriously + the interests of the people. + + "It was, perhaps, scarcely necessary to present to the Senate + these views of the powers of the Executive, and of the duties + of the five directors appointed by the United States. But the + bank is believed to be now striving to obtain for itself the + government of the country, and is seeking, by new and strained + constructions, to wrest from the hands of the constituted + authorities the salutary control reserved by the charter. And as + misrepresentation is one of its most usual weapons of attack, I + have deemed it my duty to put before the Senate, in a manner not + to be misunderstood, the principles on which I have acted. + + "Entertaining, as I do, a solemn conviction of the truth of + these principles, I must adhere to them, and act upon them, with + constancy and firmness. + + "Aware, as I now am, of the dangerous machinations of the bank, + it is more than ever my duty to be vigilant in guarding the + rights of the people from the impending danger. And I should + feel that I ought to forfeit the confidence with which my + countrymen have honored me, if I did not require regular and + full reports of every thing in the proceedings of the bank + calculated to affect injuriously the public interests, from + the public directors, and if the directors should fail to give + the information called for, it would be my imperious duty to + exercise the power conferred on me by the law of removing them + from office, and of appointing others who would discharge their + duties with more fidelity to the public. I can never suffer any + one to hold office under me, who would connive at corruption, + or who should fail to give the alarm when he saw the enemies + of liberty endeavoring to sap the foundations of our free + institutions, and to subject the free people of the United + States to the dominion of a great moneyed corporation. + + "Any directors of the bank, therefore, who might be appointed + by the government, would be required to report to the Executive + as fully as the late directors have done, and more frequently, + because the danger is more imminent; and it would be my duty to + require of them a full detail of every part of the proceedings + of the corporation, or any of its officers, in order that I + might be enabled to decide whether I should exercise the power + of ordering a _scire facias_, which is reserved to the President + by the charter, or adopt such other lawful measures as the + interests of the country might require. It is too obvious to be + doubted, that the misconduct of the corporation would never have + been brought to light by the aid of a public proceeding at the + board of directors. + + "The board, when called on by the government directors, refused + to institute an inquiry or require an account, and the mode + adopted by the latter was the only one by which the object + could be attained. It would be absurd to admit the right of the + government directors to give information, and at the same time + deny the means of obtaining it. It would be but another mode + of enabling the bank to conceal its proceedings, and practice + with impunity its corruptions. In the mode of obtaining the + information, therefore, and in their efforts to put an end to + the abuses disclosed, as well as in reporting them, the conduct + of the late directors was judicious and praiseworthy, and the + honesty, firmness, and intelligence, which they have displayed, + entitle them, in my opinion, to the gratitude of the country. + + "If the views of the Senate be such as I have supposed, the + difficulty of sending to the Senate any other names than those + of the late directors will be at once apparent. I cannot consent + to place before the Senate the name of any one who is not + prepared, with firmness and honesty, to discharge the duties of + a public director in the manner they were fulfilled by those + whom the Senate have refused to confirm. If, for performing a + duty lawfully required of them by the Executive, they are to be + punished by the subsequent rejection of the Senate, it would not + only be useless but cruel to place men of character and honor in + that situation, if even such men could be found to accept it. If + they failed to give the required information, or to take proper + measures to obtain it, they would be removed by the Executive. + If they gave the information, and took proper measures to obtain + it, they would, upon the next nomination, be rejected by the + Senate. It would be unjust in me to place any other citizens + in the predicament in which this unlooked for decision of the + Senate has placed the estimable and honorable men who were + directors during the last year. + + "If I am not in error in relation to the principles upon which + these gentlemen have been rejected, the necessary consequence + will be that the bank will hereafter be without government + directors and the people of the United States must be deprived + of their chief means of protection against its abuses; for, + whatever conflicting opinions may exist as to the right of the + directors appointed in January, 1833, to hold over until new + appointments shall be made, it is very obvious that, whilst + their rejection by the Senate remains in force, they cannot, + with propriety, attempt to exercise such a power. In the + present state of things, therefore, the corporation will be + enabled effectually to accomplish the object it has been so + long endeavoring to attain. Its exchange committees, and its + delegated powers to its president, may hereafter be dispensed + with, without incurring the danger of exposing its proceedings + to the public view. The sentinels which the law had placed at + its board can no longer appear there. + + "Justice to myself, and to the faithful officers by whom the + public has been so well and so honorably served, without + compensation or reward, during the last year, has required of + me this full and frank exposition of my motives for nominating + them again after their rejection by the Senate. I repeat, that + I do not question the right of the Senate to confirm or reject + at their pleasure; and if there had been any reason to suppose + that the rejection, in this case, had not been produced by the + causes to which I have attributed it, or of my views of their + duties, and the present importance of their rigid performance, + were other than they are, I should have cheerfully acquiesced, + and attempted to find others who would accept the unenviable + trust. But I cannot consent to appoint directors of the bank to + be the subservient instruments, or silent spectators, of its + abuses and corruptions; nor can I ask honorable men to undertake + the thankless duty, with the certain prospect of being rebuked + by the Senate for its faithful performance, in pursuance of the + lawful directions of the Executive." + +This message brought up the question, virtually, Which was the +nominating power, in the case of the government directors of the +bank? was it the President and Senate? or the bank and the Senate? +for it was evident that the four now nominated were rejected +to gratify the bank, and for reasons that would apply to every +director that would discharge his duties in the way these four had +done--namely, as government directors, representing its stock, +guarding its interest, and acting for the government in all cases +which concerned the welfare of an institution whose notes were a +national currency, whose coffers were the depository of the public +moneys, and in which it had a direct interest of seven millions +of dollars in its stock. It brought up this question: and if +negatived, virtually decided that the nominating power should be +in the bank; and that the government directors should no more give +such information to the President as these four had given. And +this question it was determined to try, and that definitively, in +the persons of these four nominated directors, with the declared +determination to nominate no others if they were rejected; and +so leave the government without representation in the bank. This +message of re-nomination was referred to the Senate's Committee of +Finance, of which Mr. Tyler was chairman, and who made a report +adverse to the re-nominations, and in favor of again rejecting +the nominees. The points made in the report were, _first_, the +absolute right of the Senate to reject nominations; _secondly_, +their privilege to give no reasons for their rejections (which +the President had not asked); and, _thirdly_, against the general +impolicy of making re-nominations, while admitting both the right +and the practice in extraordinary occasions. Some extracts will show +its character: thus: + + "The President disclaims, indeed, in terms, all right to inquire + into the reasons of the Senate for rejecting any nomination; + and yet the message immediately undertakes to infer, from facts + and circumstances, what those reasons, which influenced the + Senate in this case, must have been; and goes on to argue, much + at large, against the validity of such supposed reasons. The + committee are of opinion that, if, as the President admits, he + cannot inquire into the reasons of the Senate for refusing its + assent to nominations, it is still more clear that these reasons + cannot, with propriety, be assumed, and made subjects of comment. + + "In cases in which nominations are rejected for reasons + affecting the character of the persons nominated, the committee + think that no inference is to be drawn except what the vote + shows; that is to say, that the Senate withholds its advice + and consent from the nominations. And the Senate, not being + bound to give reasons for its votes in these cases, it is not + bound, nor would it be proper for it, as the committee think, + to give any answer to remarks founded on the presumption of + what such reasons must have been in the present case. They feel + themselves, therefore, compelled to forego any response whatever + to the message of the President, in this particular, as well + by the reasons before assigned, as out of respect to that high + officer. + + "The President acts upon his own views of public policy, in + making nominations to the Senate; and the Senate does no more, + when it confirms or rejects such nominations. + + "For either of these co-ordinate departments to enter into the + consideration of the motives of the other, would not, and could + not, fail, in the end, to break up all harmonious intercourse + between them. This your committee would deplore as highly + injurious to the best interests of the country. The President, + doubtless, asks himself, in the case of every nomination for + office, whether the person be fit for the office; whether he + be actuated by correct views and motives; and whether he be + likely to be influenced by those considerations which should + alone govern him in the discharge of his duties--is he honest, + capable, and faithful? Being satisfied in these particulars, + the President submits his name to the Senate, where the same + inquiries arise, and its decision should be presumed to be + dictated by the same high considerations as those which govern + the President in originating the nomination. + + "For these reasons, the committee have altogether refrained from + entering into any discussion of the legal duties and obligations + of directors of the bank, appointed by the President and Senate, + which forms the main topic of the message. + + "The committee would not feel that it had fully acquitted itself + of its obligations, if it did not avail itself of this occasion + to call the attention of the Senate to the general subject of + renomination. + + "The committee do not deny that a right of renomination + exists; but they are of opinion that, in very clear and strong + cases only should the Senate reverse decisions which it has + deliberately formed, and officially communicated to the + President. + + "The committee perceive, with regret, an intimation in the + message that the President may not see fit to send to the Senate + the names of any other persons to be directors of the bank, + except those whose nominations have been already rejected. + While the Senate will exercise its own rights according to its + own views of its duty, it will leave to other officers of the + government to decide for themselves on the manner they will + perform their duties. The committee know no reasons why these + offices should not be filled; or why, in this case, no further + nomination should be made, after the Senate has exercised its + unquestionable right of rejecting particular persons who have + been nominated, any more than in other cases. The Senate will be + ready at all times to receive and consider any such nominations + as the President may present to it. + + "The committee recommend that the Senate do not advise and + consent to the appointment of the persons thus renominated." + +While these proceedings were going on in the Senate, the four +rejected gentlemen were paying some attention to their own case; +and, in a "memorial" addressed to the Senate and to the House of +Representatives, answered the charges against them in the Directors' +Report, and vindicated their own conduct in giving the information +which the President requested--reasserted the truth of that +information; and gave further details upon the manner in which they +had been systematically excluded from a participation in conducting +the main business of the bank, and even from a knowledge of what was +done. They said: + + "Selected by the President and Senate as government directors + of the Bank of the United States, we have endeavored, during + the present year, faithfully to discharge the duties of that + responsible trust. Appointed without solicitation, deriving from + the office no emolument, we have been guided in our conduct by + no views but a determination to uphold, so far as was in our + power, those principles which we believe actuated the people + of the United States in establishing a national bank, and in + providing by its charter that they should be represented at + the board of directors. We have regarded that institution, not + merely as a source of profit to individuals, but as an organ of + the government, established by the nation for its own benefit. + We have regarded ourselves, not as mere agents of those whose + funds have been subscribed towards the capital of the bank, but + as officers appointed on behalf of the American people. We have + endeavored to govern all our conduct as faithful representatives + of them. We have been deterred from this by no preconcerted + system to deprive us of our rights, by no impeachment of our + motives, by no false views of policy, by no course of management + which might be supposed to promote the interests of those + concerned in the institution, at the danger or sacrifice of + the general good. We have left the other directors to govern + themselves as they may think best for the interests of those by + whom they were chosen. For ourselves, we have been determined, + that where any differences have arisen, involving on the one + hand that open and correct course which is beneficial to the + whole community, and, on the other, what are supposed to be + the interests of the bank, our efforts should be steadily + directed to uphold the former, our remonstrances against the + latter should be resolute and constant; and, when they proved + unavailing, our appeal should be made to those who were more + immediately intrusted with the protection of the public welfare. + + "In pursuing this course we have been met by an organized system + of opposition, on the part of the majority. Our efforts have + been thwarted, our motives and actions have been misrepresented, + our rights have been denied, and the limits of our duties have + been gratuitously pointed out to us, by those who have sought + to curtail them to meet their own policy, not that which we + believe led to the creation of the offices we hold. Asserting + that injury has been done to them by the late measure of the + Secretary of the Treasury, in removing the public deposits, an + elaborate statement has been prepared and widely circulated; + and taking that as their basis, it has been resolved by the + majority to present a memorial to the Senate and House of + Representatives. We have not, and do not interfere in the + controversy which exists between the majority of the board + and the executive department of the government; but unjustly + assailed as we have been in the statement to which we have + referred, we respectfully claim the same right of submitting + our conduct to the same tribunal, and asking of the assembled + representatives of the American people that impartial hearing, + and that fair protection, which all their officers and all + citizens have a right to demand. We shall endeavor to present + the view we have taken of the relation in which we are placed, + as well towards the institution in question as towards the + government and people of the United States, to prove that from + the moment we took our seats among the directors of the bank, + we have been the objects of a systematic opposition; our rights + trampled upon, our just interference prevented, and our offices + rendered utterly useless, for all the purposes required by the + charter; and to show that the statements by the majority of the + board, in the document to which we refer, convey an account of + their proceedings and conduct altogether illusory and incorrect." + +The four gentlemen then state their opinions of their rights, and +their duties, as government directors--that they were devised as +instruments for the attainment of public objects--that they were +public directors, not elected by stockholders, but appointed by +the President and Senate--that their duties were not merely to +represent a moneyed interest and promote the largest dividend +for stockholders, but also to guard all the public and political +interest of the government in an institution so largely sharing +its support and so deeply interested in its safe and honorable +management. And in support of this opinion of their duties they +quoted the authority of Gen. Hamilton, founder of the first bank +of the United States; and that of Mr. Alexander Dallas, founder of +the second and present bank; showing that each of them, and at the +time of establishing the two banks respectively, considered the +government directors as public officers, bound to watch over the +operations of the bank, to oppose all malpractices, and to report +them to the government whenever they occurred. And they thus quoted +the opinions of those two gentlemen: + + "In the celebrated report of Alexander Hamilton, in 1790, that + eminent statesman and financier, although then impressed with a + persuasion that the government of the country might well leave + the management of a national bank to 'the keen, steady, and, as + it were, magnetic sense of their own interest,' existing among + the private stockholders, yet holds the following remarkable + and pregnant language: 'If the paper of a bank is permitted + to insinuate itself into all the revenues and receipts of + a country; if it is even to be tolerated as the substitute + for gold and silver, in all the transactions of business; + it becomes, in either view, a national concern of the first + magnitude. As such, the ordinary rules of prudence require + that the government should possess the means of ascertaining, + whenever it thinks fit, that so delicate a trust is executed + with fidelity and care. A right of this nature is not only + desirable, as it respects the government, but it ought to be + equally so to all those concerned in the institution, as an + additional title to public and private confidence, and as a + thing which can only be formidable to practices that imply + mismanagement.' + + "In the letter addressed by Alexander James Dallas, the author + of the existing bank, to the chairman of the committee on + a national currency, in 1815, the sentiments of that truly + distinguished and patriotic statesman are explicitly conveyed + upon this very point. 'Nor can it be doubted,' he remarks, + 'that the department of the government which is invested with + the power of appointment to all the important offices of + the State, is a proper department to exercise the power of + appointment in relation to a national trust of incalculable + magnitude. The national bank ought not to be regarded simply + as a commercial bank. It will not operate on the funds of the + stockholders alone, but much more on the funds of the nation. + Its conduct, good or bad, will not affect the corporate credit + and resources alone, but much more the credit and resources + of the government. In fine, it is not an institution created + for the purposes of commerce and profit alone, but much more + for the purposes of national policy, as an auxiliary in the + exercise of some of the highest powers of the government. + Under such circumstances, the public interests cannot be too + cautiously guarded, and the guards proposed can never be + injurious to the commercial interests of the institution. The + right to inspect the general accounts of the bank, may be + employed to detect the evils of a mal-administration, but an + interior agency in the direction of its affairs will best serve + to prevent them.' This last sentence, extracted from the able + document of Secretary Dallas, developes at a glance what had + been the experience of the American government and people, in + the period which elapsed between the time of Alexander Hamilton + and that immediately preceding the formation of the present + bank. Hamilton conceived that 'a right to inspect the general + accounts of the bank,' would enable government 'to detect the + evils of a mal-administration,' and their detection he thought + sufficient. He was mistaken: at least so thought Congress and + their constituents, in 1815. Hence the inflexible spirit which + prevailed at the organization of a new bank, in establishing + 'an interior agency in the direction of its affairs,' by the + appointment of public officers, through whom the evils of a + mal-administration might be carefully watched and prevented." + +The four gentlemen also showed, in their memorial, that when the +bill for the charter of the present bank was under consideration in +the Senate, a motion was made to strike out the clause authorizing +the appointment of the government directors; and that that motion +was resisted, and successfully, upon the ground that they were to +be the guardians of the public interests, and to secure a just +and honorable administration of the affairs of the bank; that +they were not mere bank directors, but government officers, bound +to watch over the rights and interests of the government, and to +secure a safe and honest management of an institution which bore +the name of the United States--was created by it--and in which the +United States had so much at stake in its stock, in its deposits, +in its circulation, and in the safety of the community which put +their faith in it. Having vindicated the official quality of +their characters, and shown their duty as well as their right to +inform the government of all mal-practices, they entered upon an +examination of the information actually given, showing the truth of +all that was communicated, and declaring it to be susceptible of +proof, by the inspection of the books of the institution, and by an +examination of its directors and clerks. + + "We confidently assert that there is in it no statement or + charge that can be invalidated; that every one is substantiated + by the books and records of the bank; that no real error has + been pointed out in this elaborate attack upon us by the + majority. It is by suppressing facts well known to them, by + misrepresenting what we say, by drawing unjust and unfair + inferences from particular sentences, by selecting insulated + phrases, and by exhibiting partial statements; by making + unfounded insinuations, and by unworthily impeaching our + motives, that they endeavor to controvert that which they are + unable to refute. When the expense account shall be truly and + fully exhibited to any tribunal, if it shall be found that the + charges we have stated do not exist; when the minutes of the + board shall be laid open, if it shall be found the resolutions + we have quoted are not recorded; we shall acknowledge that we + have been guilty of injustice and of error, but not till then. + + "We have thus endeavored to present to the assembled + representatives of the American people, a view of the course + which, for nearly a year, the majority in a large moneyed + institution, established by them for their benefit, have thought + proper to pursue towards those who have been placed there, to + guard their interests and to watch and control their conduct. We + have briefly stated the systematic series of actions by which + they have endeavored to deprive them of every right that was + conferred on them by the charter, and to assume to themselves a + secret, irresponsible, and unlimited power. We have shown that, + in endeavoring to vindicate or to save themselves, they have + resorted to accusations against us, which they are unable to + sustain, and left unanswered charges which, were they not true, + it would be easy to repel. We have been urged to this from no + desire to enter into the lists with an adversary sustained by + all the resources which boundless wealth affords. We have been + driven to it by the nature and manner of the attack made upon + us, in the document on which the intended memorial to Congress + is founded." + +But all their representations were in vain. Their nominations +were immediately rejected, a second time, and the seal of secrecy +preserved inviolate upon the reasons of the rejection. The +"proceedings" of the Senate were allowed to be published; that is to +say, the acts of the Senate, as a body, such as its motions, votes, +reports, &c., but nothing of what was said pending the nominations. +A motion was made by Mr. Wright to authorize the publication of the +debates, which was voted down; and so differently from what was +done in the case of Mr. Van Buren. In that case, the debates on the +nomination were published; the reasons for the rejection were shown; +and the public were enabled to judge of their validity. In this case +no publication of debates was allowed; the report presented by Mr. +Tyler gave no hint of the reasons for the rejection; and the act +remained where that report put it--on the absolute right to reject, +without the exhibition of any reason. + +And thus the nomination of the government directors was rejected by +the United States Senate, not for the declared, but for the known +reason of reporting the misconduct of the bank to the President, +and especially as it related to the appointment and the conduct of +the exchange committee. A few years afterwards a committee of the +stockholders, called the "Committee of Investigation," made a report +upon the conduct and condition of the bank, in which this exchange +committee is thus spoken of: "The mode in which the committee of +exchange transacted their business, shows that there really existed +no check whatever upon the officers, and that the funds of the bank +were almost entirely at their disposition. That committee met daily, +and were attended by the cashier, and at times, by the president. +They exercised the power of making the loans and settlements, to +full as great an extent as the board itself. They kept no minutes +of their proceedings--no book in which the loans made, and business +done, were entered; but their decisions and directions were given +verbally to the officers, to be by them carried into execution. The +established course of business seems to have been, for the first +teller to pay on presentation at the counter, all checks, notes, +or due bills having indorsed the order, or the initials, of one of +the cashiers, and to place these as vouchers in his drawer, for +so much cash, where they remained, until just before the regular +periodical counting of the cash by the standing committee of the +board on the state of the bank. These vouchers were then taken out, +and entered as 'bills receivable,' in a small memorandum-book, under +the charge of one of the clerks. These bills were not discounted, +but bore interest semi-annually, and were secured by a pledge of +stock, or some other kind of property. It is evidently impossible +under such circumstances, to ascertain or be assured, in regard +to any particular loan or settlement, that it was authorized by a +majority of the exchange committee. It can be said, however, with +entire certainty, that the very large business transacted in this +way does not appear upon the face of the discount books--was never +submitted to the examination of the members of the board at its +regular meetings, nor is any where entered on the minutes as having +been reported to that body for their information or approbation." + + + + +CHAPTER XCVI. + +SECRETARY'S REPORT ON THE REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. + + +In the first days of the session Mr. Clay called the attention +of the Senate to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, +communicating the fact that he had ordered the public deposits to +cease to be made in the Bank of the United States, and giving his +reasons for that act, and said: + + "When Congress, at the time of the passage of the charter of the + bank, made it necessary that these reasons should be submitted, + they must have had some purpose in their mind. It must have + been intended that Congress should look into these reasons, + determine as to their validity; and approve or disapprove them, + as might be thought proper. The reasons had now been submitted, + and it was the duty of Congress to decide whether or not they + were sufficient to justify the act. If there was a subject + which, more than any other, seemed to require the prompt action + of Congress, it certainly was that which had reference to the + custody and care of the public treasury. The Senate, therefore, + could not, at too early a period, enter on the question--what + was the actual condition of the treasury? + + "It was not his purpose to go into a discussion, but he had + risen to state that it appeared to him to be his duty as a + senator, and he hoped that other senators took similar views + of their duty, to look into this subject, and to see what was + to be done. As the report of the Secretary of the Treasury + had declared the reasons which had led to the removal of the + public deposits, and as the Senate had to judge whether, on + investigation of these reasons, the act was a wise one or not, + he considered that it would not be right to refer the subject to + any committee, but that the Senate should at once act on it, not + taking it up in the form of a report of a committee, but going + into an examination of the reasons as they had been submitted." + +Mr. Benton saw two objections to proceeding as Mr. Clay +proposed--one, as to the form of his proposition--the other, as +to the place in which it was made. The report of the Secretary, +charging acts of misconduct as a cause of removal, would require +an investigation into their truth. The House of Representatives +being the grand inquest of the nation, and properly chargeable +with all inquiries into abuses, would be the proper place for the +consideration of the Secretary's report--though he admitted that +the Senate could also make the inquiry if it pleased; but should do +it in the proper way, namely, by inquiring into the truth of the +allegations against the bank. He said: + + "He requested the Senate to bear in mind that the Secretary + had announced, among other reasons which he had assigned for + the removal of the deposits, that it had been caused by the + misconduct of the bank, and he had gone into a variety of + specifications, charging the bank with interfering with the + liberties of the people in their most vital elements--the + liberty of the press, and the purity of elections. The Secretary + had also charged the bank with dishonoring its own paper on + several occasions, and that it became necessary to compel it + to receive paper of its own branches. Here, then, were grave + charges of misconduct, and he wished to know whether, in the + face of such charges, this Congress was to go at once, without + the previous examination of a committee, into action upon the + subject? + + "He desired to know whether the Senate were now about to + proceed to the consideration of this report as it stood, and, + without receiving any evidence of the charges, or taking any + course to establish their truth, to give back the money to this + institution? He thought it would be only becoming in the bank + itself to ask for a committee of scrutiny into its conduct, + and that the subject ought to be taken up by the House of + Representatives, which, on account of its numbers, its character + as the popular branch, and the fact that all money bills + originated there, was the most proper tribunal for the hearing + of this case. He did not mean to deny that the Senate had the + power to go into the examination. But to fix a day now for the + decision of so important a case, he considered as premature. + Were the whole of the charges to be blown out of the paper by + the breath of the Senate? Were they to decide on the question, + each senator sitting there as witness and juror in the case? + He did not wish to stand there in the character of a witness, + unless he was to be examined on oath either at the bar of the + Senate, or before a committee of that body, where the evidence + would be taken down. He wished to know the manner in which the + examination was to be conducted; for he regarded this motion as + an admission of the truth of every charge which had been made in + the report, and as a flight from investigation." + +Mr. Clay then submitted two resolutions in relation to the subject, +the second of which after debate, was referred to the committee on +finance. They were in these words: + + "1st. That, by dismissing the late Secretary of the Treasury, + because he would not, contrary to his sense of his own duty, + remove the money of the United States in deposit with the Bank + of the United States and its branches, in conformity with the + President's opinion, and by appointing his successor to effect + such removal, which has been done, the President has assumed the + exercise of a power over the Treasury of the United States, not + granted to him by the constitution and laws, and dangerous to + the liberties of the people. + + "2d. That the reasons assigned by the Secretary of the Treasury + for the removal of the money of the United States deposited in + the Bank of the United States and its branches, communicated to + Congress on the 3d day of December, 1833, are unsatisfactory and + insufficient." + +The order for the reference to the finance committee was made in +the Senate at four o'clock in the afternoon of one day; and the +report upon it was made at noon the next day; a very elaborate +argumentative paper, the reading of which by its reporter (Mr. +Webster) consumed one hour and a quarter of time. It recommended +the adoption of the resolution; and 6000 copies of the report were +ordered to be printed. Mr. Forsyth, of Georgia, complimented the +committee on their activity in getting out a report of such length +and labor, in so short a time, and in the time usually given to the +refreshment of dinner and sleep. He said: + + "Certainly great credit was due to the committee on finance for + the zeal, ability, and industry with which the report had been + brought out. He thought the reference was made yesterday at four + o'clock; and the committee could hardly have had time to agree + on and write out so long a report in the short space of time + intervening since then. It was possible that the subject might + have been discussed and well understood in the committee before, + and that the chairman had time to embody the sentiments of the + various members of the committee previous to the reference. If + such was the case, it reminded him of what had once happened in + one of the courts of justice of the State of Georgia. A grave + question of constitutional law was presented before that court, + was argued for days with great ability, and when the argument + was concluded, the judge drew from his coat pocket a written + opinion, which he read, and ordered to be recorded as the + opinion of the court. It appeared, therefore, that unless the + senator from Massachusetts carried the opinion of the committee + in his coat pocket, he could not have presented his report with + the unexampled dispatch that had been witnessed." + +Mr. Webster, evidently nettled at the sarcastic compliment of Mr. +Forsyth, replied to him in a way to show his irritated feelings, but +without showing how he came to do so much work in so short a time. +He said: + + "Had the gentleman come to the Senate this morning in his + usual good humor, he would have been easily satisfied on + that point. He will recollect that the subject now under + discussion was deemed, by every body, to be peculiarly fitted + for the consideration of the committee on finance; and that, + three weeks ago, I had intimated my intention of moving for + such a reference. I had, however, delayed the motion, from + considerations of courtesy to other gentlemen, on all sides. + But the general subject of the removal of the deposits, had + been referred to the committee on finance, by reference of + that part of the President's message; and various memorials, + in relation to it, had also been referred. The subject has + undergone an ample discussion in committee. I had been more + than once instructed by the committee to move for the reference + of the Secretary's letter, but the motion was postponed, + from time to time, for the reasons I have before given. Had + the gentleman from Georgia been in the Senate yesterday, he + would have known that this particular mode of proceeding was + adopted, as was then well understood, for the sole purpose of + facilitating the business of the Senate, and of giving the + committee an opportunity to express an opinion, the result of + their consideration. If the gentleman had heard what had passed + yesterday, when the reference was made, he would not have + expressed surprise." + +The fact was the report had been drawn by the counsel for the +bank, and differed in no way in substance, and but little in form, +from the report which the bank committee had made on the paper, +"purporting to have been signed by Andrew Jackson, and read to what +was called a cabinet." But the substance of the resolution (No. +2, of Mr. Clay's), gave rise to more serious objections than the +marvellous activity of the committee in reporting upon it with the +elaboration and rapidity with which they had done. It was an empty +and inoperative expression of opinion, that the Secretary's reasons +were "unsatisfactory and insufficient;" without any proposition +to do any thing in consequence of that dissatisfaction and +insufficiency; and, consequently, of no legislative avail, and of +no import except to bring the opinion of senators, thus imposingly +pronounced, against the act of the Secretary. The resolve was not +practical--was not legislative--was not in conformity to any mode +of doing business--and led to no action;--neither to a restoration +of the deposits nor to a condemnation of their keeping by the State +banks. Certainly the charter, in ordering the Secretary to report, +and to report at the first practicable moment, both the fact of a +removal, and the reasons for it, was to enable Congress to act--to +do something--to legislate upon the subject--to judge the validity +of the reasons--and to order a restoration if they were found to +be untrue or insufficient; or to condemn the new place of deposit, +if it was deemed insecure or improper. All this was too obvious to +escape the attention of the democratic members who inveighed against +the futility and irrelevance of the resolve, unfit for a legislative +body, and only suitable for a town meeting; and answering no purpose +as a senatorial resolve but that of political effect against public +men. On this point Mr. Forsyth said: + + "The subject had then been taken out of the hands of the Senate, + and sent to the committee on finance; and for what purpose was + it sent thither? Did any one doubt what would be the opinion of + the committee on finance? Would such a movement have been made, + had it not been intended thereby to give strength to the course + of the opposition? He was not in the Senate when the reference + was yesterday made, but he had supposed that it was made for + the purpose of some report in a legislative form, but it has + come back with an argument, and a recommendation of the adoption + of the resolution of the senator from Kentucky; and when the + resolutions were adopted, would they not still be sent back to + that committee for examination? Why had not the committee, who + seemed to know so well what would be the opinion of the Senate, + imbodied that opinion in a legislative form?" + +To the same effect spoke many members, and among others, Mr. Silas +Wright, of New-York, who said: + + "He took occasion to say, that with regard to the reference + made yesterday, he was not so unfortunate as his friend from + Georgia, to be absent at the time, and he then, while the motion + was pending, expressed his opinion that a reference at four + o'clock in the afternoon, to be returned with a report at twelve + the next day, would materially change the aspect of the case + before the Senate. He was also of opinion, that the natural + effect of sending this proposition to the committee on finance + would be, to have it returned with a recommendation for some + legislative action. In this, however, he had been disappointed, + the proposition had been brought back to the Senate in the same + form as sent to the committee, with the exception of the very + able argument read that morning." + +Mr. Webster felt himself called upon to answer these objections, +and did so in a way to intimate that the committee were not "green" +enough,--that is to say, were too wise--to propose any legislative +action on the part of Congress in relation to this removal. He said: + + "There is another thing, sir, to which the gentleman has + objected. He would have preferred that some legislative + recommendation should have accompanied the report--that some + law, or joint resolution, should have been recommended. Sir, do + we not see what the gentleman probably desires? If not, we must + be green politicians. It was not my intention, at this stage + of the business, to propose any law, or joint resolution. I do + not, at present, know the opinions of the committee on this + subject. On this question, at least, to use the gentleman's + expression, I do not carry their opinions in my coat pocket. The + question, when it arrives, will be a very grave one--one of deep + and solemn import--and when the proper time for its discussion + arrives, the gentleman from Georgia will have an opportunity to + examine it. The first thing is, to ascertain the judgment of the + Senate, on the Secretary's reasons for his act." + +The meaning of Mr. Webster in this reply--this intimation that +the finance committee had got out of the sap, and were no longer +"green"--was a declaration that any legislative measure they +might have recommended, would have been rejected in the House +of Representatives, and so lost its efficacy as a senatorial +opinion; and to avoid that rejection, and save the effect of the +Senate's opinion, it must be a single and not a joint resolution; +and so confined to the Senate alone. The reply of Mr. Webster was +certainly candid, but unparliamentary, and at war with all ideas +of legislation, thus to refuse to propose a legislative enactment +because it would be negatived in the other branch of the national +legislature. Finally, the resolution was adopted, and by a vote of +28 to 18; thus: + + "YEAS.--Messrs. Bibb, Black, Calhoun, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, + Frelinghuysen, Hendricks, Kent, King of Georgia, Knight, Leigh, + Mangum, Naudain, Poindexter, Porter, Prentiss, Preston, Robbins, + Silsbee, Smith, Southard, Sprague, Swift, Tomlinson, Tyler, + Waggaman, Webster. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Benton, Brown, Forsyth, Grundy, Hill, Kane, King + of Alabama, Linn, McKean, Moore, Robinson, Shepley, Tallmadge, + Tipton, White, Wilkins, Wright." + +The futility of this resolve was made manifest soon after its +passage. It was nugatory, and remained naked. It required nothing +to be done, and nothing was done under it. It became ridiculous. +And eventually, and near the end of the session, Mr. Clay proposed +it over again, with another resolve attached, directing the return +of the deposits to the Bank of the United States; and making it +joint, so as to require the consent of both houses, and thus lead to +legislative action. In submitting his resolution in this new form +he took occasion to allude to their fate in the other branch of the +legislature, where rejection was certain, and to intimate censure +upon the President for not conforming to the opinion of the Senate +in its resolves; as if the adverse opinion of the House (from its +recent election, its superior numbers, and its particular charge of +the revenue), was not more than a counterpoise to the opinion of the +Senate. In this sense, he stood up, and said: + + "Whatever might be the fate of these resolutions at the other + end of the capitol, or in another building, that consideration + ought to have no influence on the course of this body. The + Senate owed it to its own character, and to the country, to + proceed in the discharge of its duties, and to leave it to + others, whether at the other end of the capitol or in another + building, to perform their own obligations to the country, + according to their own sense of their duty, and their own + convictions of responsibility. To them it ought to be left to + determine what was their duty, and to discharge that duty as + they might think best. For himself, he should be ashamed to + return to his constituents without having made every lawful + effort in his power to cause the restoration of the public + deposits to the United States Bank. While a chance yet remained + of effecting the restoration of the reign of the constitution + and the laws, he felt that he should not have discharged this + duty if he failed to make every effort to accomplish that + desirable object. + + "The Senate, after passing the resolution which they had already + passed, and waiting two months to see whether the Executive + would conform his course to the views expressed by this branch + of the legislature; after waiting all this time, and perceiving + that the error, as the Senate had declared it to be, was still + persevered in, and seeing the wide and rapid sweep of ruin over + every section of the country, there was still one measure left + which might arrest the evil, and that was in the offering of + these resolutions--to present them to this body; and, if they + passed here, to send them to the other House; and, should they + pass them, to present to the President the plain question, if he + will return to the constitutional track; or, in opposition to + the expressed will of the legislature, retain the control over + the millions of public money which are already deposited in the + local banks, and which are still coming in there." + +Mr. Benton replied to Mr. Clay, showing the propriety of these +resolutions if offered at the commencement of the session--their +inutility now, so near its end; and the indelicacy in the Senate, in +throwing itself between the bank and the House of Representatives, +at a moment when the bank directors were standing out in contempt +against the House, refusing to be examined by its committee, and +a motion actually depending to punish them for this contempt. +For this was then the actual condition of the corporation; and, +for the Senate to pass a resolution to restore the deposits in +these circumstances, was to take the part of the bank against the +House--to justify its contumacy--and to express an opinion in favor +of its re-charter; as all admitted that restoration of the deposits +was wrong unless a re-charter was granted. Mr. B. said: + + "He deemed the present moment to be the most objectionable time + that could have been selected for proposing to restore the + public deposits to the United States Bank. Such a proposition + might have been a proper proceeding at the commencement of the + session. A joint resolution, at that time, would have been the + proper mode; it could have been followed by action; and, if + constitutionally passed, would have compelled the restoration + of these deposits. But the course was different. A separate + resolution was brought in, and passed the Senate; and there it + stopped. It was a nugatory resolution, leading to no action. + It was such a one as a State legislature, or a public meeting, + might adopt, because they had no power to legislate on the + subject. But the Senate had the power of legislation; and, six + months ago, when the separate resolution was brought in, the + Senate, if it intended to act legislatively on the subject at + all, ought to have proceeded by joint resolution, or by bill, at + that time. But it thought otherwise. The separate resolution was + adopted; after adoption, no instruction was given to a committee + to bring in a bill; nothing was done to give legislative effect + to the decision of the Senate; and now, at the end of six + months, the first attempt is made to move in our legislative + capacity, and to pass a joint resolution--equivalent to a + statute--to compel the restoration of these deposits. This is + the state of the proceeding; and, Mr. B. must be permitted to + say, and to give his reasons for saying, that the time selected + for this first step, in our legislative capacity, in a case so + long depending, is most inappropriate and objectionable. Mr. B. + would not dwell upon the palpable objections to this proceeding, + which must strike every mind. The advanced stage of the + session--the propositions to adjourn--the quantity of business + on hand--the little probability that the House and the President + would concur with the Senate, or that two thirds of the two + Houses could be brought to pass the resolution, if the President + declined to give it his approbation. These palpable objections + must strike every mind and make it appear to be a useless + consumption of time for the Senate to pass the resolution. + + "Virtually, it included a proposition to re-charter the bank; + for the most confidential friends of that institution admitted + that it was improper to restore the deposits, unless the bank + charter was to be continued. The proposition to restore them, + virtually included the proposition to re-charter; and that was + a proposition which, after having been openly made on this + floor, and leave asked to bring in a bill to that effect, had + been abandoned, under the clear conviction that the measure + could not pass. Passing from these palpable objections, Mr. B. + proceeded to state another reason, of a different kind, and + which he held to be imperative of the course which the Senate + should now pursue: he alluded to the state of the questions at + this moment depending between the Bank of the United States and + the House of Representatives, and the nature of which exacted + from the Senate the observance of a strict neutrality, and an + absolute non-interference between those two bodies. The House + of Representatives had ordered an inquiry into the affairs and + conduct of the bank. The points of inquiry indicated misconduct + of the gravest import, and had been ordered by the largest + majority, not less than three or four to one. That inquiry + was not yet finished; it was still depending; the committee + appointed to conduct it remains organized, and has only reported + in part. That report is before the Senate and the public; and + shows that the directors of the Bank of the United States have + resisted the authority of the House--have made an issue of power + between itself and the House--for the trial of which issue a + resolution is now depending in the House, and is made the order + of the day for Tuesday next. + + "Here, then, are two questions depending between the House and + the bank; the first, an inquiry into the misconduct of the + bank; the second, a proposition to compel the bank to submit + to the authority of the House. Was it right for the Senate to + interpose between those bodies, while these questions were + depending? Was it right to interfere on the part of the bank? + Was it right for the Senate to leap into the arena, throw itself + between the contending parties, take sides with the bank, and + virtually declare to the American people that there was no + cause for inquiry into the conduct of the bank, and no ground of + censure for resisting the authority of the House? Such would, + doubtless, be the effect of the conduct of the Senate, if it + should entertain the proposition which is now submitted to it. + That proposition is one of honor and confidence to the bank. It + proceeds upon the assumption that the bank is right, and the + House is wrong, in the questions now depending between them; + that the bank has done nothing to merit inquiry, or to deserve + censure; and that the public moneys ought to be restored to her + keeping, without waiting the end of the investigation which + the House has ordered, or the decision of the resolution which + affirms that the bank has resisted the authority of the House, + and committed a contempt against it. This is the full and fair + interpretation--the clear and speaking effect--of the measure + now proposed to the Senate. Is it right to treat the House thus? + Will the Senate, virtually, intelligibly, and practically, + acquit the bank, when the bank will not acquit itself?--will + not suffer its innocence to be tested by the recorded voice + of its own books, and the living voice of its own directors? + These directors have refused to testify; they have refused to + be sworn; they have refused to touch the book; because, being + directors and corporators, and therefore parties, they cannot + be required to give evidence against themselves. And this + refusal, the public is gravely told, is made upon the advice of + eminent counsel. What counsel? The counsel of the law, or of + fear? Certainly, no lawyer--not even a junior apprentice to the + law--could give such advice. The right to stand mute, does not + extend to the privilege of refusing to be sworn. The right does + not attach until after the oath is taken, and is then limited + to the specific question, the answer to which might inculpate + the witness, and which he may refuse to answer, because he will + say, upon his oath, that the answer will criminate himself. But + these bank directors refuse to be sworn at all. They refuse to + touch the book; and, in that refusal, commit a flagrant contempt + against the House of Representatives, and do an act for which + any citizen would be sent to jail by any justice of the peace, + in America. And is the Senate to justify the directors for + this contempt? to get between them and the House? to adopt a + resolution beforehand--before the day fixed for the decision of + the contempt, which shall throw the weight of the Senate into + the scale of the directors against the House, and virtually + declare that they are right in refusing to be sworn?" + +The resolutions were, nevertheless, adopted, and by the fixed +majority of twenty-eight to eighteen, and sent to the House of +Representatives for concurrence, where they met the fate which all +knew they were to receive. The House did not even take them up for +consideration, but continued the course which it had began at the +commencement of the session; and which was in exact conformity to +the legislative course, and exactly contrary to the course of the +Senate. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury, the memorial of +the bank, and that of the government directors, were all referred +to the Committee of Ways and Means; and by that committee a report +was made, by their chairman, Mr. Polk, sustaining the action of the +Secretary, and concluding with the four following resolutions: + + "1. _Resolved_, That the Bank of the United States ought not to + be re-chartered. + + "2. _Resolved_, That the public deposits ought not to be + restored to the Bank of the United States. + + "3. _Resolved_, That the State banks ought to be continued + as the places of deposit of the public money, and that it + is expedient for Congress to make further provision by law, + prescribing the mode of selection, the securities to be taken, + and the manner and terms on which they are to be employed. + + "4. _Resolved_, That, for the purpose of ascertaining, as far + as practicable, the cause of the commercial embarrassment and + distress complained of by numerous citizens of the United + States, in sundry memorials which have been presented to + Congress at the present session, and of inquiring whether the + charter of the Bank of the United States has been violated; + and, also, what corruptions and abuses have existed in its + management; whether it has used its corporate power or money + to control the press, to interfere in politics, or influence + elections; and whether it has had any agency, through its + management or money, in producing the existing pressure; a + select committee be appointed to inspect the books and examine + into the proceedings of the said bank, who shall report whether + the provisions of the charter have been violated or not; and, + also, what abuses, corruptions, or malpractices have existed + in the management of said bank; and that the said committee be + authorized to send for persons and papers, and to summon and + examine witnesses, on oath, and to examine into the affairs of + the said bank and branches; and they are further authorized + to visit the principal bank, or any of its branches, for the + purpose of inspecting the books, correspondence, accounts, and + other papers connected with its management or business; and that + the said committee be required to report the result of such + investigation, together with the evidence they may take, at as + early a day as practicable." + +These resolutions were long and vehemently debated, and eventually, +each and every one, adopted by decided, and some by a great +majority. The first one, being that upon the question of the +recharter, was carried by a majority of more than fifty votes--134 +to 82; showing an immense difference to the prejudice of the bank +since the veto session of 1832. The names of the voters on this +great question, so long debated in every form in the halls of +Congress, the chambers of the State legislatures, and in the forum +of the people, deserve to be commemorated--and are as follows: + + "YEAS.--Messrs. John Adams, William Allen, Anthony, Archer, + Beale, Bean, Beardsley, Beaumont, John Bell, John Blair, Bockee, + Boon, Bouldin, Brown, Bunch, Bynum, Cambreleng, Campbell, + Carmichael, Carr, Casey, Chaney, Chinn, Claiborne, Samuel Clark, + Clay, Clayton, Clowney, Coffee, Connor, Cramer, W. R. Davis, + Davenport, Day, Dickerson, Dickinson, Dunlap, Felder, Forester, + Foster, W. K. Fuller, Fulton, Galbraith, Gholson, Gillet, + Gilmer, Gordon, Grayson, Griffin, Jos. Hall, T. H. Hall, Halsey, + Hamer, Hannegan, Jos. M. Harper, Harrison, Hathaway, Hawkins, + Hawes, Heath, Henderson, Howell, Hubbard, Abel Huntington, Inge, + Jarvis, Richard M. Johnson, Noadiah Johnson, Cave Johnson, + Seaborn Jones, Benjamin Jones, Kavanagh, Kinnard, Lane, Lansing, + Laporte, Lawrence, Lay, Luke Lea, Thomas Lee, Leavitt, Loyall, + Lucas, Lyon, Lytle, Abijah Mann, Joel K. Mann, Mardis, John Y. + Mason, Moses Mason, McIntire, McKay, McKinley, McLene McVean, + Miller, Henry Mitchell, Robert Mitchell, Muhlenberg, Murphy, + Osgood, Page, Parks, Parker, Patterson, D. J. Pearce, Peyton, + Franklin Pierce, Pierson, Pinckney, Plummer, Polk, Rencher, + Schenck, Schley, Shinn, Smith, Speight, Standifer, Stoddert, + Sutherland, William Taylor, Wm. P. Taylor, Francis Thomas, + Thomson, Turner, Turrill, Vanderpoel, Wagener, Ward, Wardwell, + Wayne, Webster, Whallon.--134. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. John Quincy Adams, John J. Allen, Heman Allen, + Chilton Allan, Ashley, Banks, Barber, Barnitz, Barringer, + Baylies Beaty, James M. Bell, Binney, Briggs, Bull, Burges, + Cage, Chambers, Chilton, Choate, William Clark, Corwin, Coulter, + Crane, Crockett, Darlington, Amos Davis, Deberry, Deming, Denny, + Dennis, Dickson, Duncan, Ellsworth, Evans, Edward Everett, + Horace Everett, Fillmore, Foot, Philo C. Fuller, Graham, + Grennel, Hiland Hall, Hard, Hardin, James Harper, Hazeltine, + Jabez W. Huntington, Jackson, William C. Johnson, Lincoln, + Martindale, Marshall, McCarty, McComas, McDuffie, McKennan, + Mercer, Milligan, Moore, Pope, Potts, Reed, William B. Shepherd, + Aug. H. Shepperd, William Slade, Charles Slade, Sloane, Spangler + Philemon Thomas, Tompkins, Tweedy, Vance, Vinton, Watmough, + Edward D. White, Frederick Whittlesey, Elisha Whittlesey, Wilde, + Williams, Wilson, Young.--82." + +The second and third resolutions were carried by good majorities, +and the fourth overwhelm overwhelmingly--175 to 42. Mr. Polk +immediately moved the appointment of the committee, and that +it consist of seven members. It was appointed accordingly, and +consisted of Messrs. Francis Thomas of Maryland, chairman; Everett +of Massachusetts; Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania; John Y. Mason of +Virginia; Ellsworth of Connecticut; Mann of New-York; and Lytle of +Ohio. The proceedings of this committee, and the reception it met +with from the bank, will be the subject of a future and separate +chapter. Under the third resolution the Committee of Ways and Means +soon brought in a bill in conformity to its provisions, which was +passed by a majority of 22, that is to say, by 112 votes against +90. And thus all the conduct of the President in relation to the +bank, received the full sanction of the popular representation; +and presented the singular spectacle of full support in one House, +and that one specially charged with the subject, while meeting +condemnation in the other. + + + + +CHAPTER XCVII. + +CALL ON THE PRESIDENT FOR A COPY OF THE "PAPER READ TO THE CABINET." + + +In the first days of the session Mr. Clay submitted a resolution, +calling on the President to inform the Senate whether the "paper," +published as alleged by his authority, and purporting to have been +read to the cabinet in relation to the removal of the deposits, "be +genuine or not;" and if it be "genuine," requesting him to cause a +copy of it to be laid before the Senate. Mr. Forsyth considered this +an unusual call, and wished to know for what purpose it was made. He +presumed no one had any doubt of the authenticity of the published +copy. He certainly had not. Mr. Clay justified his call on the +ground that the "paper" had been published--had become public--and +was a thing of general notoriety. If otherwise, and it had remained +a confidential communication to his cabinet, he certainly should not +ask for it; but not answering as to the use he proposed to make of +it, Mr. Forsyth returned to that point, and said he could imagine +that one branch of the legislature under certain circumstances might +have a right to call for it; but the Senate was not that branch. +If the paper was to be the ground of a criminal charge against the +President, and upon which he is to be brought to trial, it should +come from the House of Representatives, with the charges on which +he was to be tried. Mr. Clay rejoined, that as to the uses which +were to be made of this "paper" nothing seemed to run in the head of +the Senator from Georgia but an impeachment. This seemed to be the +only idea he could connect with the call. But there were many other +purposes for which it might be used, and he had never intended to +make it the ground of impeachment. It might show who was the real +author of the removal of the deposits--whether the President, or the +Secretary of the Treasury? and whether this latter might not have +been a mere automaton. Mr. Benton said there was no parliamentary +use that could be made of it, and no such use had been, or could +be specified. Only two uses can be made of a paper that may +be rightfully called for--one for legislation; the other for +impeachment; and not even in the latter case when self-crimination +was intended. No legislative use is intimated for this one; and the +criminal use is disavowed, and is obliged to be, as the Senate is +the tribunal to try, not the inquest to originate impeachments. But +this paper cannot be rightfully called for. It is a communication to +a cabinet; and communications to the cabinet are the same whether +in writing, or in a speech. It is all parol. Could the copy of a +speech made to the cabinet be called for? Could an account of the +President's conversation with his cabinet be called for? Certainly +not! and there is no difference between the written and the spoken +communication--between the set speech and a conversation--between a +thing made public, or kept secret. The President may refuse to give +the copy; and certainly will consult his rights and his self-respect +by so refusing. As for the contents of the paper, he has given them +to the country, and courts the judgment of the country upon it. He +avows his act--gives his reasons--and leaves it to all to judge. +He is not a man of concealments, or of irresponsibility. He gave +the paper to the public instantly, and authentically, with his name +fully signed to it; and any one can say what they please of it. If +it is wanted for an invective, or philippic, there it is! ready for +use, and seeking no shelter for want of authenticity. It is given +to the world, and is expected to stand the test of all examination. +Mr. Forsyth asked the yeas and nays on Mr. Clay's call; they were +ordered; and the resolution passed by 23 to 18. The next day the +President replied to it, and to the effect that was generally +foreseen. He declared the Executive to be a co-ordinate branch of +the government, and denied the right of the Senate to call upon him +for any copies of his communications to his cabinet--either written +or spoken. Feeling his responsibility to the American people, he +said he should be always ready to explain to them his conduct; +knowing the constitutional rights of the Senate, he should never +withhold from it any information in his power to give, and necessary +to the discharge of its duties. This was the end of the call; and +such an end was the full proof that it ought not to have been +made. No act could be predicated upon it--no action taken on its +communication--none upon the refusal, either of censure or coercion. +The President stood upon his rights; and the Senate could not, and +did not, say that he was wrong. The call was a wrong step, and gave +the President an easy and a graceful victory. + + + + +CHAPTER XCVIII. + +MISTAKES OF PUBLIC MEN:--GREAT COMBINATION AGAINST GENERAL +JACKSON:--COMMENCEMENT OF THE PANIC. + + +In the year 1783, Mr. Fox, the great parliamentary debater, was in +the zenith of his power and popularity, and the victorious leader +in the House of Commons. He gave offence to the King, and was +dismissed from the ministry, and immediately formed a coalition +with Lord North; and commenced a violent opposition to the acts of +the government. Patriotism, love of liberty, hatred of misrule and +oppression, were the avowed objects of his attacks; but every one +saw (to adopt the language of history), that the real difficulty was +his own exclusion from office; and that his coalition with his old +enemy and all these violent assaults, were only to force himself +back into power: and this being seen, his efforts became unavailing, +and distasteful to the public; and he lost his power and influence +with the people, and sunk his friends with him. More than one +hundred and sixty of his supporters in the House of Commons, lost +their places at the ensuing election, and were sportively called +"Fox's Martyrs;" and when they had a procession in London, wearing +the tails of foxes in their hats, and some one wondered where so +many tails of that animal had come from, Mr. Pitt slyly said a +great many foxes had been lately taken: one, upon an average, in +every borough. Mr. Fox, young at that time, lived to recover from +this prostration; but his mistake was one of those of which history +is full and the lesson of which is in vain read to succeeding +generations. Public men continue to attack their adversaries in +power, and oppose their measures, while having private griefs of +their own to redress, and personal ends of their own to accomplish; +and the instinctive sagacity of the people always sees the sinister +motive, and condemns the conduct founded upon it. + +Mr. Clay, Mr. Calhoun, and Mr. Webster were now all united against +General Jackson, with all their friends, and the Bank of the United +States. The two former had their private griefs: Mr. Clay in the +results of the election, and Mr. Calhoun in the quarrel growing out +of the discovery of his conduct in Mr. Monroe's cabinet, and it +would have been difficult so to have conducted their opposition, +and attack, as to have avoided the imputation of a personal +motive. But they so conducted it as to authorize and suggest that +imputation. Their movements all took a personal and vindictive, +instead of a legislative and remedial, nature. Mr. Taney's reasons +for removing the deposits were declared to be "unsatisfactory and +insufficient"--being words of reproach, and no remedy; nor was the +remedy of restoration proposed until driven into it. The resolution, +in relation to Gen. Jackson, was still more objectionable. The +Senate had nothing to do with him personally, yet a resolve was +proposed, against him entirely personal, charging him with violating +the laws and the constitution; and proposing no remedy for this +imputed violation, nor for the act of which it was the subject. It +was purely and simply a personal censure--a personal condemnation +that was proposed; and, to aggravate the proposition, it came from +the suggestion of the bank directors' memorial to Congress. + +The combination was formidable. The bank itself was a great power, +and was able to carry distress into all the business departments +of the country; the political array against the President was +unprecedented in point of number, and great in point of ability. +Besides the three eminent chiefs, there were, in the Senate: +Messrs. Bibb of Kentucky; Ezekiel Chambers of Maryland; Clayton of +Delaware; Ewing of Ohio; Frelinghuysen of New Jersey; Watkins Leigh +of Virginia; Mangum of North Carolina; Poindexter of Mississippi; +Alexander Porter of Louisiana; William C. Preston of South +Carolina; Southard of New Jersey; Tyler of Virginia. In the House +of Representatives, besides the ex-President, Mr. Adams, and the +eminent jurist from Pennsylvania, Mr. Horace Binney, there was a +long catalogue of able speakers: Messrs. Archer of Virginia; Bell of +Tennessee; Burgess of Rhode Island; Rufus Choate of Massachusetts; +Corwin of Ohio; Warren R. Davis of South Carolina; John Davis of +Massachusetts; Edward Everett of Massachusetts; Millard Fillmore +of New-York, afterwards President; Robert P. Letcher of Kentucky; +Benjamin Hardin of Kentucky; McDuffie of South Carolina; Peyton of +Tennessee; Vance of Ohio; Wilde of Georgia; Wise of Virginia: in +all, above thirty able speakers, many of whom spoke many times; +besides many others of good ability, but without extensive national +reputations. The business of the combination was divided--distress +and panic the object--and the parts distributed, and separately +cast to produce the effect. The bank was to make the distress--a +thing easy for it to do, from its own moneyed power, and its power +over other moneyed institutions and money dealers; also to get up +distress meetings and memorials, and to lead the public press: the +politicians were to make the panic, by the alarms which they created +for the safety of the laws, of the constitution, the public liberty, +and the public money: and most zealously did each division of the +combination perform its part, and for the long period of three +full months. The decision of the resolution condemning General +Jackson, on which all this machinery of distress and panic was hung, +required no part of that time. There was the same majority to vote +it the first day as the last; but the time was wanted to get up the +alarm and the distress; and the vote, when taken, was not from any +exhaustion of the means of terrifying and agonizing the country, +but for the purpose of having the sentence of condemnation ready +for the Virginia elections--ready for spreading over Virginia at +the approach of the April elections. The end proposed to themselves +by the combined parties, was, for the bank, a recharter and the +restoration of the deposits; for the politicians, an ascent to power +upon the overthrow of Jackson. + +The friends of General Jackson saw the advantages which were +presented to them in the unhallowed combination between the moneyed +and a political power--in the personal and vindictive character +which they gave to the proceedings--the private griefs of the +leading assailants--the unworthy objects to be attained--and +the cruel means to be used for their attainment. These friends +were also numerous, zealous, able, determined; and animated by +the consciousness that they were on the side of their country. +They were, in the Senate:--Messrs. Forsyth of Georgia; Grundy of +Tennessee; Hill of New Hampshire; Kane of Illinois; King of Alabama; +Rives of Virginia; Nathaniel Tallmadge of New York; Hugh L. White of +Tennessee; Wilkins of Pennsylvania; Silas Wright of New-York; and +the author of this THIRTY YEARS' VIEW. In the House, were:--Messrs. +Beardsley of New-York; Cambreleng of New-York; Clay of Alabama; +Gillett of New-York; Hubbard of New Hampshire; McKay of North +Carolina; Polk of Tennessee; Francis Thomas of Maryland; Vanderpoel +of New-York; and Wayne of Georgia. + +Mr. Clay opened the debate in a prepared speech, commencing in the +style which the rhetoricians call _ex abruptu_--being the style of +opening which the occasion required--that of rousing and alarming +the passions. It will be found (its essential parts) in the next +chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XCIX. + +MR. CLAY'S SPEECH AGAINST PRESIDENT JACKSON ON THE REMOVAL OF THE +DEPOSITS--EXTRACTS. + + + "Mr. Clay addressed the Senate as follows: We are, said he, + in the midst of a revolution, hitherto bloodless, but rapidly + tending towards a total change of the pure republican character + of the government, and to the concentration of all power in the + hands of one man. The powers of Congress are paralyzed, except + when exerted in conformity with his will, by frequent and an + extraordinary exercise of the executive veto, not anticipated + by the founders of the constitution, and not practised by any + of the predecessors of the present Chief Magistrate. And, to + cramp them still more, a new expedient is springing into use, of + withholding altogether bills which have received the sanction of + both Houses of Congress, thereby cutting off all opportunity of + passing them, even if, after their return, the members should + be unanimous in their favor. The constitutional participation + of the Senate in the appointing power is virtually abolished, + by the constant use of the power of removal from office without + any known cause, and by the appointment of the same individual + to the same office, after his rejection by the Senate. How often + have we, senators, felt that the check of the Senate, instead + of being, as the constitution intended, a salutary control, was + an idle ceremony? How often, when acting on the case of the + nominated successor, have we felt the injustice of the removal? + How often have we said to each other, well, what can we do? the + office cannot remain vacant without prejudice to the public + interests; and, if we reject the proposed substitute, we cannot + restore the displaced, and perhaps some more unworthy man may be + nominated. + + "The judiciary has not been exempted from the prevailing rage + for innovation. Decisions of the tribunals, deliberately + pronounced, have been contemptuously disregarded, and the + sanctity of numerous treaties openly violated. Our Indian + relations, coeval with the existence of the government, and + recognized and established by numerous laws and treaties, have + been subverted; the rights of the helpless and unfortunate + aborigines trampled in the dust, and they brought under + subjection to unknown laws, in which they have no voice, + promulgated in an unknown language. The most extensive and most + valuable public domain that ever fell to the lot of one nation + is threatened with a total sacrifice. The general currency of + the country, the life-blood of all its business, is in the most + imminent danger of universal disorder and confusion. The power + of internal improvement lies crushed beneath the veto. The + system of protection of American industry was snatched from + impending destruction at the last session; but we are now coolly + told by the Secretary of the Treasury, without a blush, 'that + it is understood to be _conceded on all hands_ that a tariff + for protection merely is to be finally abandoned.' By the 3d + of March, 1837, if the progress of innovation continue, there + will be scarcely a vestige remaining of the government and its + policy as they existed prior to the 3d of March, 1829. In a term + of years, a little more than equal to that which was required + to establish our liberties, the government will have been + transformed into an elective monarchy--the worst of all forms of + government. + + "Such is a melancholy but faithful picture of the present + condition of our public affairs. It is not sketched or exhibited + to excite, here or elsewhere, irritated feeling; I have no such + purpose. I would, on the contrary, implore the Senate and the + people to discard all passion and prejudice, and to look calmly + but resolutely upon the actual state of the constitution and + the country. Although I bring into the Senate the same unabated + spirit, and the same firm determination, which have ever guided + me in the support of civil liberty, and the defence of our + constitution, I contemplate the prospect before us with feelings + of deep humiliation and profound mortification. + + "It is not among the least unfortunate symptoms of the times, + that a large proportion of the good and enlightened men of + the Union, of all parties, are yielding to sentiments of + despondency. There is, unhappily, a feeling of distrust and + insecurity pervading the community. Many of our best citizens + entertain serious apprehensions that our Union and our + institutions are destined to a speedy overthrow. Sir, I trust + that the hopes and confidence of the country will revive. There + is much occasion for manly independence and patriotic vigor, but + none for despair. Thank God, we are yet free; and, if we put + on the chains which are forging for us, it will be because we + deserve to wear them. We should never despair of the republic. + If our ancestors had been capable of surrendering themselves + to such ignoble sentiments, our independence and our liberties + would never have been achieved. The winter of 1776-'77, was + one of the gloomiest periods of our revolution; but on this + day, fifty-seven years ago, the father of his country achieved + a glorious victory, which diffused joy, and gladness, and + animation throughout the States. Let us cherish the hope that, + since he has gone from among us, Providence, in the dispensation + of his mercies, has near at hand, in reserve for us, though yet + unseen by us, some sure and happy deliverance from all impending + dangers. + + "When we assembled here last year, we were full of dreadful + forebodings. On the one hand, we were menaced with a civil war, + which, lighting up in a single State, might spread its flames + throughout one of the largest sections of the Union. On the + other, a cherished system of policy, essential to the successful + prosecution of the industry of our countrymen, was exposed to + imminent danger of destruction. Means were happily applied by + Congress to avert both calamities, the country was reconciled, + and our Union once more became a band of friends and brothers. + And I shall be greatly disappointed, if we do not find those who + were denounced as being unfriendly to the continuance of our + confederacy, among the foremost to fly to its preservation, and + to resist all executive encroachments. + + "Mr. President, when Congress adjourned at the termination of + the last session, there was one remnant of its powers--that + over the purse--left untouched. The two most important powers + of civil government are those of the sword and purse; the + first, with some restrictions, is confided by the constitution + to the Executive, and the last to the legislative department. + If they are separate, and exercised by different responsible + departments, civil liberty is safe; but if they are united in + the hands of the same individual, it is gone. That clear-sighted + and revolutionary orator and patriot, Patrick Henry, justly + said, in the Virginia convention, in reply to one of his + opponents, 'Let him candidly tell me where and when did freedom + exist, when the sword and purse were given up from the people? + Unless a miracle in human affairs interposed, no nation ever + retained its liberty after the loss of the sword and the purse. + Can you prove, by any argumentative deduction, that it is + possible to be safe without one of them? If you give them up, + you are gone.' + + "Up to the period of the termination of the last session of + Congress, the exclusive constitutional power of Congress over + the treasury of the United States had never been contested. + Among its earliest acts was one to establish the treasury + department, which provided for the appointment of a treasurer, + who was required to give bond and security, in a very large + amount, 'to receive and keep the moneys of the United States, + and disburse the same upon warrants drawn by the Secretary of + the Treasury, countersigned by the Comptroller, recorded by the + Register, and not otherwise.' Prior to the establishment of the + present Bank of the United States, no treasury or place had + been provided or designated by law for the safe keeping of the + public moneys, but the treasurer was left to his own discretion + and responsibility. When the existing bank was established, it + was provided that the public moneys should be deposited with + it, and, consequently, that bank became the treasury of the + United States; for, whatever place is designated by law for the + keeping of the public money of the United States, under the + care of the treasurer of the United States, is, for the time + being, the treasury. Its safety was drawn in question by the + Chief Magistrate, and an agent was appointed a little more + than a year ago to investigate its ability. He reported to the + Executive that it was perfectly safe. His apprehensions of its + solidity were communicated by the President to Congress, and + a committee was appointed to examine the subject; they, also, + reported in favor of its security. And, finally, among the last + acts of the House of Representatives, prior to the close of the + last session, was the adoption of a resolution, manifesting its + entire confidence in the ability and solidity of the bank. + + "After all these testimonies to the perfect safety of the + public moneys in the place appointed by Congress, who could + have supposed that the place would have been changed? Who + could have imagined that, within sixty days of the meeting of + Congress, and, as it were, in utter contempt of its authority, + the change should have been ordered? Who would have dreamed that + the treasurer should have thrown away the single key to the + treasury, over which Congress held ample control, and accepted, + in lieu of it, some dozens of keys, over which neither Congress + nor he has any adequate control? Yet, sir, all this has been + done; and it is now our solemn duty to inquire, 1st. By whose + authority it has been ordered; and, 2d. Whether the order has + been given in conformity with the constitution and laws of the + United States. + + "I agree, sir, and I am very happy whenever I can agree with the + President, as to the immense importance of these questions. He + says, in the paper which I hold in my hand, that he looks upon + the pending question as involving higher considerations than the + 'mere transfer of a sum of money from one bank to another. Its + decision may affect the character of our government for ages to + come.' And, with him. I view it as 'of transcendent importance, + both in the principles and the consequences it involves.' It + is a question of all time, for posterity as well as for us--of + constitutional government or monarchy--of liberty or slavery. + As I regard it, I hold the bank as nothing, as perfectly + insignificant, faithful as it has been in the performance of all + its duties. I hold a sound currency as nothing, essential as it + is to the prosperity of every branch of business, and to all + conditions of society, and efficient as the agency of the bank + has been in providing the country with a currency as sound as + ever existed, and unsurpassed by any in Christendom. I consider + even the public faith, sacred and inviolable as it ever should + be, as comparatively nothing. All these questions are merged + in the greater and mightier question of the constitutional + distribution of the powers of the government, as affected by + the recent executive innovation. The real inquiry is, shall all + the barriers which have been erected by the caution and wisdom + of our ancestors, for the preservation of civil liberty, be + prostrated and trodden under foot, and the sword and the purse + be at once united in the hands of one man? Shall the power of + Congress over the treasury of the United States, hitherto never + contested, be wrested from its possession, and be henceforward + wielded by the Chief Magistrate? Entertaining these views of + the magnitude of the question before us, I shall not, at least + to-day, examine the reasons which the President has assigned for + his act. If he has no power to perform it, no reasons, however + cogent, can justify the deed. None can sanctify an illegal or + unconstitutional act. + + "The question is, by virtue of whose will, power, dictation, + was the removal of the deposits effected? By whose authority + and determination were they transferred from the Bank of the + United States, where they were required by the law to be placed, + and put in banks which the law had never designated? And I + tell gentlemen opposed to me, that I am not to be answered by + the exhibition of a formal order bearing the signature of R. + B. Taney, or any one else. I want to know, not the amanuensis + or clerk who prepared or signed the official form, but the + authority or the individual who dictated or commanded it; not + the hangman who executes the culprit, but the tribunal which + pronounced the sentence. I want to know that power in the + government, that original and controlling authority, which + required and commanded the removal of the deposits. And, I + repeat the question, is there a senator, or intelligent man in + the whole country, who entertains a solitary doubt? + + "Hear what the President himself says in his manifesto read to + his cabinet: 'The President deems it his duty to communicate + in this manner to his cabinet the final conclusions of his own + mind, and the reasons on which they are founded.' And, at the + conclusion of this paper, what does he say? 'The President + again repeats that he begs his cabinet to consider the proposed + measure as his own, in the support of which he shall require + no one of them to make a sacrifice of opinion or principle. + Its responsibility has been assumed, after the most mature + deliberation and reflection, as necessary to preserve the morals + of the people, the freedom of the press, and the purity of the + elective franchise, without which all will unite in saying that + the blood and treasure expended by our forefathers, in the + establishment of our happy system of government, will have been + vain and fruitless. Under these convictions, he feels that a + measure so important to the American people cannot be commenced + too soon; and he therefore names the 1st day of October next + as a period proper for the change of the deposits, or sooner, + provided the necessary arrangements with the State banks can be + made.' Sir, is there a senator here who will now tell me that + the removal was not the measure and the act of the President? + + "Thus is it evident that the President, neither by the act + creating the treasury department, nor by the bank charter, + has any power over the public treasury. Has he any by + the constitution? None, none. We have already seen that + the constitution positively forbids any money from being + drawn from the treasury but in virtue of a previous act of + appropriation. But the President himself says that 'upon him + has been devolved, by the constitution, and the suffrages of + the American people, the duty of superintending the operation + of the executive departments of the government, and seeing that + the laws are faithfully executed.' If there existed any such + double source of executive power, it has been seen that the + treasury department is not an executive department; but that, + in all that concerns the public treasury, the Secretary is the + agent or representative of Congress, acting in obedience to + their will, and maintaining a direct intercourse with them. By + what authority does the President derive power from the mere + result of an election? In another part of this same cabinet + paper he refers to the suffrages of the people as a source of + power independent of a system in which power has been most + carefully separated, and distributed between three separate + and independent departments. We have been told a thousand + times, and all experience assures us, that such a division is + indispensable to the existence and preservation of freedom. We + have established and designated offices, and appointed officers + in each of those departments, to execute the duties respectively + allotted to them. The President, it is true, presides over the + whole; specific duties are often assigned by particular laws + to him alone, or to other officers under his superintendence. + His parental eye is presumed to survey the whole extent of the + system in all its movements; but has he power to come into + Congress, and to say such laws only shall you pass; to go + into the courts, and prescribe the decisions which they may + pronounce; or even to enter the offices of administration, + and, where duties are specifically confided to those officers, + to substitute his will to their duty? Or, has he a right, + when those functionaries, deliberating upon their own solemn + obligations to the people, have moved forward in their assigned + spheres, to arrest their lawful progress, because they have + dared to act contrary to his pleasure? No, sir; no, sir. His is + a high and glorious station, but it is one of observation and + superintendence. It is to see that obstructions in the forward + movement of government, unlawfully interposed, shall be abated + by legitimate and competent means. + + "Such are the powers on which the President relies to justify + his seizure of the treasury of the United States. I have + examined them, one by one, and they all fail, utterly fail, + to bear out the act. We are brought irresistibly to the + conclusions, 1st, That the invasion of the public treasury + has been perpetrated by the removal of one Secretary of the + Treasury, who would not violate his conscientious obligations, + and by the appointment of another, who stood ready to subscribe + his name to the orders of the President; and, 2dly, That the + President has no color of authority in the constitution or laws + for the act which he has thus caused to be performed. + + "And now let us glance at some of the tremendous consequences + which may ensue from this high-handed measure. If the President + may, in a case in which the law has assigned a specific duty + exclusively to a designated officer, command it to be executed, + contrary to his own judgment, under the penalty of an expulsion + from office, and, upon his refusal, may appoint some obsequious + tool to perform the required act, where is the limit to his + authority? Has he not the same right to interfere in every + other case, and remove from office all that he can remove, who + hesitate or refuse to do his bidding contrary to their own + solemn convictions of their duty? There is no resisting this + inevitable conclusion. Well, then, how stands the matter of the + public treasury? It has been seen that the issue of warrants + upon the treasury is guarded by four independent and hitherto + responsible checks, each controlling every other, and all bound + by the law, but all holding their offices, according to the + existing practice of the government, at the pleasure of the + President. The Secretary signs, the Comptroller countersigns, + the Register records, and the Treasurer pays the warrant. We + have seen that the President has gone to the first and highest + link in the chain, and coerced a conformity to his will. What is + to prevent, whenever he desires to draw money from the public + treasury, his applying the same penalty of expulsion, under + which Mr. Duane suffered, to every link of the chain, from the + Secretary of the Treasury down, and thus to obtain whatever he + demands? What is to prevent a more compendious accomplishment + of his object, by the agency of transfer drafts, drawn on the + sole authority of the Secretary, and placing the money at once + wherever, or in whatsoever hands, the President pleases? + + "What security have the people against the lawless conduct of + any President? Where is the boundary to the tremendous power + which he has assumed? Sir, every barrier around the public + treasury is broken down and annihilated. From the moment that + the President pronounced the words, 'This measure is my own; + I take upon myself the responsibility of it,' every safeguard + around the treasury was prostrated, and henceforward it might as + well be at the Hermitage. The measure adopted by the President + is without precedent. I beg pardon--there is one; but we must go + down for it to the commencement of the Christian era. It will + be recollected by those who are conversant with Roman history, + that, after Pompey was compelled to retire to Brundusium, Cæsar, + who had been anxious to give him battle, returned to Rome, + 'having reduced Italy,' says the venerable biographer, 'in sixty + days--[the exact period between the day of the removal of the + deposits and that of the commencement of the present session of + Congress, without the usual allowance of any days of grace]--in + sixty days, without bloodshed.' The biographer proceeds: + + "'Finding the city in a more settled condition than he expected, + and many senators there, he addressed them in a mild and + gracious manner [as the President addressed his late Secretary + of the Treasury], and desired them to send deputies to Pompey + with an offer of honorable terms of peace,' &c. As Metellus, the + tribune, opposed his taking money out of the public treasury, + and cited some laws against it--[such, Sir, I suppose, as I have + endeavored to cite on this occasion]--Cæsar said 'Arms and laws + do not flourish together. If you are not pleased at what I am + about, you have only to withdraw. [Leave the office, Mr. Duane!] + War, indeed, will not tolerate much liberty of speech. When I + say this, I am renouncing my own right; for you, and all those + whom I have found exciting a spirit of faction against me, are + at my disposal.' Having said this, he approached the doors of + the treasury, and, as the keys were not produced, he sent for + workmen to break them open. Metellus again opposed him, and + gained credit with some for his firmness; but Cæsar, with an + elevated voice, threatened to put him to death if he gave him + any further trouble. 'And you know very well, young man,' said + he, 'that this is harder for me to say than to do.' Metellus, + terrified by the menace, retired; and Cæsar was afterwards + easily and readily supplied with every thing necessary for that + war. + + "Mr. President (said Mr. C.) the people of the United States are + indebted to the President for the boldness of this movement; and + as one, among the humblest of them, I profess my obligations + to him. He has told the Senate, in his message refusing an + official copy of his cabinet paper, that it has been published + for the information of the people. As a part of the people, the + Senate, if not in their official character, have a right to its + use. In that extraordinary paper he has proclaimed that the + measure is _his_ own and that _he_ has _taken_ upon himself the + responsibility of it. In plain English, he has proclaimed an + open, palpable and daring usurpation! + + "For more than fifteen years, Mr. President, I have been + struggling to avoid the present state of things. I thought + I perceived, in some proceedings, during the conduct of the + Seminole war, a spirit of defiance to the constitution and to + all law. With what sincerity and truth--with what earnestness + and devotion to civil liberty, I have struggled, the Searcher + of all human hearts best knows. With what fortune, the bleeding + constitution of my country now fatally attests. + + "I have, nevertheless, persevered; and, under every + discouragement, during the short time that I expect to remain + in the public councils, I will persevere. And if a bountiful + Providence would allow an unworthy sinner to approach the + throne of grace, I would beseech Him, as the greatest favor + He could grant to me here below, to spare me until I live to + behold the people, rising in their majesty, with a peaceful and + constitutional exercise of their power, to expel the Goths from + Rome; to rescue the public treasury from pillage, to preserve + the constitution of the United States; to uphold the Union + against the danger of the concentration and consolidation of + _all_ power in the hands of the Executive; and to sustain the + liberties of the people of this country against the imminent + perils to which they now stand exposed. + + "And now, Mr. President, what, under all these circumstances, + is it our duty to do? Is there a senator who can hesitate to + affirm, in the language of the resolutions, that the President + has assumed a dangerous power over the treasury of the United + States, not granted to him by the constitution and the laws; and + that the reasons assigned for the act by the Secretary of the + Treasury are insufficient and unsatisfactory? + + "The eyes and the hopes of the American people are anxiously + turned to Congress. They feel that they have been deceived and + insulted; their confidence abused; their interests betrayed; + and their liberties in danger. They see a rapid and alarming + concentration of all power in one man's hands. They see that, + by the exercise of the positive authority of the Executive, + and his negative power exerted over Congress, the will of one + man alone prevails, and governs the republic. The question + is no longer what laws will Congress pass, but what will + the Executive not veto? The President, and not Congress, is + addressed for legislative action. We have seen a corporation, + charged with the execution of a great national work, dismiss + an experienced, faithful, and zealous president, afterwards + testify to his ability by a voluntary resolution, and reward + his extraordinary services by a large gratuity, and appoint + in his place an executive favorite, totally inexperienced and + incompetent, to propitiate the President. We behold the usual + incidents of approaching tyranny. The land is filled with spies + and informers, and detraction and denunciation are the orders of + the day. People, especially official incumbents in this place, + no longer dare speak in the fearless tones of manly freemen, but + in the cautious whispers of trembling slaves. The premonitory + symptoms of despotism are upon us; and if Congress do not apply + an instantaneous and effective remedy, the fatal collapse will + soon come on, and we shall die--ignobly die--base, mean, and + abject slaves; the scorn and contempt of mankind; unpitied, + unwept, unmourned!" + + + + +CHAPTER C. + +MR. BENTON'S SPEECH IN REPLY TO MR. CLAY--EXTRACTS. + + +Mr. Clay had spoken on three successive days, being the last days of +the year 1833. Mr. Benton followed him,--and seeing the advantage +which was presented in the character of the resolve, and that of +the speech in support of it, all bearing the impress of a criminal +proceeding, without other result than to procure a sentence of +condemnation against the President for violating the laws and the +constitution, endangering the public liberty and establishing a +tyranny,--he took up the proceeding in that sense; and immediately +turned all the charges against the resolution itself and its mover, +as a usurpation of the rights of the House of Representatives in +originating an impeachment, and a violation of law and constitution +in trying it _ex parte_; and said: + + "The first of these resolutions contained impeachable matter, + and was in fact, though not in form, a direct impeachment of the + President of the United States. He recited the constitutional + provision, that the President might be impeached--1st, for + treason; 2d, for bribery; 3d, for high crimes; 4th, for + misdemeanors; and said that the first resolution charged both a + high crime and a misdemeanor upon the President; a high crime, + in violating the laws and constitution, to obtain a power over + the public treasure, to the danger of the liberties of the + people; and a misdemeanor, in dismissing the late Secretary + of the Treasury from office. Mr. B. said that the terms of + the resolution were sufficiently explicit to define a high + crime, within the meaning of the constitution, without having + recourse to the arguments and declarations used by the mover in + illustration of his meaning; but, if any doubt remained on that + head, it would be removed by the whole tenor of the argument, + and especially that part of it which compared the President's + conduct to that of Cæsar, in seizing the public treasure, to aid + him in putting an end to the liberties of his country; and every + senator, in voting upon it, would vote as directly upon the + guilt or innocence of the President, as if he was responding to + the question of guilty or not guilty, in the concluding sentence + of a formal impeachment. + + "We are, then, said Mr. B., trying an impeachment! But how? + The constitution gives to the House of Representatives the + sole power to originate impeachments; yet we originate this + impeachment ourselves. The constitution gives the accused a + right to be present; but he is not here. It requires the Senate + to be sworn as judges; but we are not so sworn. It requires the + Chief Justice of the United States to preside when the President + is tried; but the Chief Justice is not presiding. It gives the + House of Representatives a right to be present, and to manage + the prosecution; but neither the House nor its managers are + here. It requires the forms of criminal justice to be strictly + observed; yet all these forms are neglected and violated. It is + a proceeding in which the First Magistrate of the republic is to + be tried without being heard, and in which his accusers are to + act as his judges! + + "Mr. B. called upon the Senate to consider well what they did + before they proceeded further in the consideration of this + resolution. He called upon them to consider what was due to the + House of Representatives, whose privilege was invaded, and who + had a right to send a message to the Senate, complaining of the + proceeding, and demanding its abandonment. He conjured them to + consider what was due to the President, who was thus to be tried + in his absence for a most enormous crime; what was due to the + Senate itself, in thus combining the incompatible characters + of accusers and judges, and which would itself be judged by + Europe and America. He dwelt particularly on the figure which + the Senate would make in going on with the consideration of + this resolution. It accused the President of violating the + constitution; and itself committed twenty violations of the + same constitution in making the accusation! It accused him of + violating a single law, and itself violated all the laws of + criminal justice in prosecuting him for it. It charged him + with designs dangerous to the liberties of the citizens, and + immediately trampled upon the rights of all citizens, in the + person of their Chief Magistrate. + + "Mr. B. descanted upon the extraordinary organization of the + Senate, and drew an argument from it in favor of the reserve + and decorum of their proceedings. The Senate were lawgivers, + and ought to respect the laws already made; they were the + constitutional advisers of the President, and should observe, + as nearly as possible, the civil relations which the office + of adviser presumes; they might be his judges, and should be + the last in the world to stir up an accusation against him, to + prejudge his guilt, or to attack his character with defamatory + language. Decorum, the becoming ornament of every functionary, + should be the distinguishing trait of an American senator, + who combines, in his own office, the united dignities of the + executive, the legislative, and the judicial character. In his + judicial capacity especially, he should sacrifice to decorum + and propriety; and shun, as he would the contagious touch of + sin and pestilence, the slightest approach to the character + of prosecutor. He referred to British parliamentary law to + show that the Lords could not join in an accusation, because + they were to try it; but here the Senate was sole accuser, + and had nothing from the House of Representatives to join; but + made the accusation out and out, and tried it themselves. He + said the accusation was a double one--for a high crime and a + misdemeanor--and the latter a more flagrant proceeding than the + former; for it assumed to know for what cause the President had + dismissed his late Secretary, and undertook to try the President + for a thing which was not triable or impeachable. + + "From the foundation of the government, it had been settled + that the President's right to dismiss his secretaries resulted + from his constitutional obligation to see that the laws were + faithfully executed. Many Presidents had dismissed secretaries, + and this was the first time that the Senate had ever undertaken + to found an impeachment upon it, or had assumed to know the + reasons for which it was done. + + "Mr. B. said that two other impeachments seemed to be going on, + at the same time, against two other officers, the Secretary of + the Treasury and the Treasurer; so that the Senate was brimful + of criminal business. The Treasurer and the Secretary of the + Treasury were both civil officers, and were both liable to + impeachment for misdemeanors in office; and great misdemeanors + were charged upon them. They were, in fact, upon trial, without + the formality of a resolution; and, if hereafter impeached by + the House of Representatives, the Senate, if they believed what + they heard, would be ready to pronounce judgment and remove them + from office, without delay or further examination. + + "Mr. B. then addressed himself to the Vice-President (Mr. Van + Buren), upon the novelty of the scene which was going on before + him, and the great change which had taken place since he had + served in the Senate. He commended the peculiar delicacy and + decorum of the Vice-President himself, who, in six years' + service, in high party times, and in a decided opposition, + never uttered a word, either in open or secret session, which + could have wounded the feelings of a political adversary, if + he had been present and heard it. He extolled the decorum of + the opposition to President Adams' administration. If there + was one brilliant exception, the error was redeemed by classic + wit, and the heroic readiness with which a noble heart bared + its bosom to the bullets of those who felt aggrieved. Still + addressing himself to the Vice-President, Mr. B. said that if + he should receive some hits in the place where he sat, without + the right to reply, he must find consolation in the case of his + most illustrious predecessor, the great apostle of American + liberty (Mr. Jefferson), who often told his friends of the + manner in which he had been cut at when presiding over the + Senate, and personally annoyed by the inferior--no, young and + inconsiderate--members of the federal party. + + "Mr. B. returned to the point in debate. The President, he + repeated, was on trial for a high crime, in seizing the public + treasure in violation of the laws and the constitution. Was + the charge true? Does the act which he has done deserve the + definition which has been put upon it? He had made up his own + mind that the public deposits ought to be removed from the + Bank of the United States. He communicated that opinion to the + Secretary of the Treasury; the Secretary refused to remove them; + the President removed him, and appointed a Secretary who gave + the order which he thought the occasion required. All this he + did in virtue of his constitutional obligation to see the laws + faithfully executed; and in obedience to the same sense of duty + which would lead him to dismiss a Secretary of War, or of the + Navy, who would refuse to give an order for troops to march, + or a fleet to sail. True, it is made the duty of the Secretary + of the Treasury to direct the removal of the deposits; but the + constitution makes it the duty of the President to see that the + Secretary performs his duty; and the constitution is as much + above law as the President is above the Secretary. + + "The President is on trial for a misdemeanor--for dismissing his + Secretary without sufficient cause. To this accusation there + are ready answers: first, that the President may dismiss his + Secretaries without cause; secondly, that the Senate has no + cognizance of the case; thirdly, that the Senate cannot assume + to know for what cause the Secretary in question was dismissed. + + "The Secretary of the Treasury is on trial. In order to get at + the President, it was found necessary to get at a gentleman + who had no voice on this floor. It had been found necessary to + assail the Secretary of the Treasury in a manner heretofore + unexampled in the history of the Senate. His religion, his + politics, his veracity, his understanding, his Missouri + restriction vote, had all been arraigned. Mr. B. said he would + leave his religion to the constitution of the United States, + Catholic as he was, and although 'the Presbyterian might cut + off his head the first time he went to mass;' for he could see + no other point to the anecdote of Cromwell and the capitulating + Catholics, to whom he granted the free exercise of their + religion, only he would cut off their heads if they went to + mass. His understanding he would leave to himself. The head + which could throw the paper which was taken for a stone on this + floor, but which was, in fact, a double-headed chain-shot fired + from a forty-eight pounder, carrying sails, masts, rigging, + all before it, was a head that could take care of itself. His + veracity would be adjourned to the trial which was to take + place for misquoting a letter of Secretary Crawford, and he + had no doubt would end as the charge did for suppressing a + letter which was printed _in extenso_ among our documents, and + withholding the name and compensation of an agent; when that + name and the fact of no compensation was lying on the table. + The Secretary of the Treasury was arraigned for some incidental + vote on the Missouri restriction, when he was a member of the + Maryland legislature. Mr. B. did not know what that vote was; + but he did know that a certain gentleman, who lately stood in + the relation of _sergeant_ to another gentleman, in a certain + high election, was the leader of the forces which deforced + Missouri of her place in the Union for the entire session which + he first attended (not served) in the Congress of the United + States. His politics could not be severely tried in the time + of the alien and sedition law, when he was scarce of age; but + were well tried during the late war, when he sided with his + country, and received the constant denunciations of that great + organ of federalism, the Federal Republican newspaper. For the + rest, Mr. B. admitted that the Secretary had voted for the + elder Adams to be President of the United States, but denied + the right of certain persons to make that an objection to him. + Mr. B. dismissed these personal charges, for the present, and + would adjourn their consideration until his (Mr. Taney's) trial + came on, for which the senator from Kentucky (Mr. Clay), stood + pledged; and after the trial was over, he had no doubt but + that the Secretary of the Treasury, although a Catholic and a + federalist, would be found to maintain his station in the first + rank of American gentlemen and American patriots. + + "Mr. B. took up the serious charges against the Secretary: + that of being the mere instrument of the President in removing + the deposits, and violating the constitution and laws of the + land. How far he was this mere instrument, making up his mind, + in three days, to do what others would not do at all, might + be judged by every person who would refer to the opposition + papers for the division in the cabinet about the removal of + the deposits; and which constantly classed Mr. Taney, then the + Attorney General, on the side of removal. This classification + was correct, and notorious, and ought to exempt an honorable + man, if any thing could exempt him, from the imputation of being + a mere instrument in a great transaction of which he was a prime + counsellor. The fact is, he had long since, in his character of + legal adviser to the President, advised the removal of these + deposits; and when suddenly and unexpectedly called upon to take + the office which would make it his duty to act upon his own + advice, he accepted it from the single sense of honor and duty; + and that he might not seem to desert the President in flinching + from the performance of what he had recommended. His personal + honor was clean; his personal conduct magnanimous; his official + deeds would abide the test of law and truth. + + "Mr. B. said he would make short work of long accusations, + and demolish, in three minutes, what had been concocting for + three months, and delivering for three days in the Senate. He + would call the attention of the Senate to certain clauses of + law, and certain treasury instructions which had been left out + of view, but which were decisive of the accusation against + the Secretary. The first was the clause in the bank charter, + which invested the Secretary with the power of transferring + the public funds from place to place. It was the 15th section + of the charter: he would read it. It enacted that whenever + required by the Secretary of the Treasury, the bank should give + the necessary facilities for transferring the public funds + from place to place, within the United States, or territories + thereof; and for distributing the same in payment of the public + creditors, &c. + + "Here is authority to the Secretary to transfer the public + moneys from place to place, limited only by the bounds of the + United States and its territories; and this clause of three + lines of law puts to flight all the nonsense about the United + States Bank being the treasury, and the Treasurer being the + keeper of the public moneys, with which some politicians and + newspaper writers have been worrying their brains for the last + three months. In virtue of this clause, the Secretary of the + Treasury gave certain transfer drafts to the amount of two + millions and a quarter; and his legal right to give the draft + was just as clear, under this clause of the bank charter, as his + right to remove the deposits was under another clause of it. The + transfer is made by draft; a payment out of the treasury is made + upon a warrant; and the difference between a transfer draft and + a treasury warrant was a thing necessary to be known by every + man who aspired to the office of illuminating a nation, or of + conducting a criminal prosecution, or even of understanding what + he is talking about. They have no relation to each other. The + warrant takes the money out of the treasury: the draft transfers + it from point to point, for the purpose of making payment: and + all this attack upon the Secretary of the Treasury is simply + upon the blunder of mistaking the draft for the warrant. + + "The senator from Kentucky calls upon the people to rise, and + drive the Goths from the capital. Who are those Goths? They + are General Jackson and the democratic party,--he just elected + President over the senator himself, and the party just been + made the majority in the House--all by the vote of the people. + It is their act that has put these Goths in possession of the + capital to the discomfiture of the senator and his friends; and + he ought to be quite sure that he felt no resentment at an event + so disastrous to his hopes, when he has indulged himself with so + much license in vituperating those whom the country has put over + him. + + "The senator from Kentucky says the eyes and the hopes of the + country are now turned upon Congress. Yes, Congress is his + word, and I hold him to it. And what do they see? They see one + House of Congress--the one to which the constitution gives the + care of the purse, and the origination of impeachments, and + which is fresh from the popular elections: they see that body + with a majority of above fifty in favor of the President and + the Secretary of the Treasury, and approving the act which + the senator condemns. They see that popular approbation in + looking at one branch of Congress, and the one charged by the + constitution with the inquisition into federal grievances. In + the other branch they see a body far removed from the people, + neglecting its proper duties, seizing upon those of another + branch, converting itself into a grand inquest, and trying + offences which itself prefers; and in a spirit which bespeaks + a zeal quickened by the sting of personal mortification. He + says the country feels itself deceived and betrayed--insulted + and wronged--its liberties endangered--and the treasury robbed: + the representatives of the people in the other House, say the + reverse of all this--that the President has saved the country + from the corrupt dominion of a great corrupting bank, by taking + away from her the public money which she was using in bribing + the press, subsidizing members, purchasing the venal, and + installing herself in supreme political power. + + "The senator wishes to know what we are to do? What is + our duty to do? I answer, to keep ourselves within our + constitutional duties--to leave this impeachment to the House of + Representatives--leave it to the House to which it belongs, and + to those who have no private griefs to avenge--and to judges, + each of whom should retire from the bench, if he happened to + feel in his heart the spirit of a prosecutor instead of a judge. + The Senate now tries General Jackson; it is subject to trial + itself--to be tried by the people, and to have its sentence + reversed." + +The corner-stone of Mr. Clay's whole argument was, that the Bank of +the United States was the treasury of the United States. This was +his fundamental position, and utterly unfounded, and shown to be so +by the fourteenth article of what was called the constitution of +the bank. It was the article which provided for the establishment +of branches of the mother institution, and all of which except the +branch at Washington city, were to be employed, or not employed, +as the directors pleased, as depositories of the public money; and +consequently were not made so by any law of Congress. The article +said: + + "The directors of said corporation shall establish a competent + office of discount and deposit in the District of Columbia, + whenever any law of the United States shall require such an + establishment; also one such office of discount and deposit + in any State in which two thousand shares shall have been + subscribed, or may be held, whenever, upon application of the + legislature of such State, Congress may, by law, require the + same: Provided, The directors aforesaid shall not be bound + to establish such office before the whole of the capital of + the bank shall have been paid up. And it shall be lawful for + the directors of the said corporation to establish offices of + discount and deposit wheresoever they shall think fit, within + the United States or the territories thereof, to such persons, + and under such regulations, as they shall deem proper, not + being contrary to law, or the constitution of the bank. Or, + instead of establishing such offices, it shall be lawful for the + directors of the said corporation, from time to time, to employ + any other bank or banks, to be first approved by the Secretary + of the Treasury, at any place or places that they may deem + safe and proper, to manage and transact the business proposed + as aforesaid, other than for the purposes of discount, to be + managed and transacted by such officers, under such agreements, + and subject to such regulations, as they shall deem just and + proper. + + "Mr. B. went on to remark upon this article, that it placed + the establishment of but one branch in the reach or power of + Congress, and that one was in the District of Columbia--in + a district of ten miles square--leaving the vast extent of + twenty-four States, and three Territories, to obtain branches + for themselves upon contingencies not dependent upon the will + or power of Congress; or requiring her necessities, or even her + convenience, to be taken into the account. A law of Congress + could obtain a branch in this district; but with respect to + every State, the establishment of the branch depended, first, + upon the mere will and pleasure of the bank; and, secondly, upon + the double contingency of a subscription, and a legislative + act, within the State. If then, the mother bank does not think + fit, for its own advantage, to establish a branch; or, if the + people of a State do not acquire 2,000 shares of the stock of + the bank, and the legislature, therefore, demand it, no branch + will be established in any State, or any Territory of the Union. + Congress can only require a branch, in any State, after two + contingencies have happened in the State; neither of them having + the slightest reference to the necessities, or even convenience, + of the federal government. + + "Here, then, said Mr. B., is the Treasury established for the + United States! A Treasury which is to have an existence but + at the will of the bank, or the will of a State legislature, + and a few of its citizens, enough to own 2,000 shares of stock + worth $100 a share! A Treasury which Congress has no hand in + establishing, and cannot preserve after it is established; for + the mother bank, after establishing her branches, may shut + them up, or withdraw them. Such a thing has already happened. + Branches in the West have been, some shut up, some withdrawn; + and, in these cases, the Treasury was broken up, according to + the new-fangled conception of a national Treasury. No! said + Mr. B., the Federal bank is no more the Treasury of the United + States than the State banks are. One is just as much the + Treasury as the other; and made so by this very 14th fundamental + article of the constitution of the bank. Look at it! Look at + the alternative! Where branches are not established, the State + banks are to be employed! + + "The Bank of the United States is to select the State bank; the + Secretary of the Treasury is to approve the selection; and if + he does so the State bank so selected, and so approved becomes + the keeper of the public moneys; it becomes the depository of + the public moneys; it transfers them; it pays them out; it does + every thing except make discounts for the mother bank and issue + notes; it does everything which the federal government wants + done; and that is nothing but what a bank of deposit can do. The + government makes no choice between State banks and branch banks. + They are all one to her. They stand equal in her eyes; they + stand equal in the charter of the bank itself; and the horror + that has now broken out against the State banks is a thing of + recent conception--a very modern impulsion; which is rebuked and + condemned by the very authority to which it traces its source. + Mr. B. said, the State banks were just as much made the federal + treasury by the bank charter, as the United States Bank itself + was: and that was sufficient to annihilate the argument which + now sets up the federal bank for the federal treasury. But the + fact was, that neither was made the Treasury; and it would be + absurd to entertain such an idea for an instant; for the federal + bank may surrender her charter, and cease to exist--it can do + so at any moment it pleases--the State banks may expire upon + their limitation; they may surrender; they may be dissolved in + many ways, and so cease to exist; and then there would be no + Treasury! What an idea, that the existence of the Treasury of + this great republic is to depend, not upon itself, but upon + corporations, which may cease to exist, on any day, by their own + will, or their own crimes." + +The debates on this subject brought out the conclusion that +the treasury of the United States had a legal, not a material +existence--that the Treasurer having no buildings, and keepers, to +hold the public moneys, resorted (when the treasury department was +first established), to the collectors of the revenue, leaving the +money in their hands until drawn out for the public service--which +was never long, as the revenues were then barely adequate to meet +the daily expenses of the government; afterwards to the first Bank +of the United States--then to local banks; again to the second bank; +and now again to local banks. In all these cases the keepers of +the public moneys were nothing but keepers, being the mere agents +of the Secretary of the treasury in holding the moneys which he +had no means of holding himself. From these discussions came the +train of ideas which led to the establishment of the independent +treasury--that is to say, to the creation of officers, and the +erection of buildings, to hold the public moneys. + + + + +CHAPTER CI. + +CONDEMNATION OF PRESIDENT JACKSON--MR. CALHOUN'S SPEECH--EXTRACTS. + + +It was foreseen at the time of the coalition between Mr. Calhoun +and Mr. Clay, in which they came together--a conjunction of the two +political poles--on the subject of the tariff, and laid it away for +a term to include two presidential elections--that the effect would +be (even if it was not the design), to bring them together upon +all other subjects against General Jackson. This expectation was +not disappointed. Early in the debate on Mr. Clay's condemnatory +resolution, Mr. Calhoun took the floor in its support; and did Mr. +Clay the honor to adopt his leading ideas of a revolution, and of +a robbery of the treasury. He not only agreed that we were in the +middle of a revolution, but also asserted, by way of consolation to +those who loved it, that revolutions never go backwards--an aphorism +destined, in this case, to be deceived by the event. In the pleasing +anticipation of this aid from Mr. Calhoun and his friends, Mr. +Clay had complacently intimated the expectation of this aid in his +opening speech; and in that intimation there was no mistake. Mr. +Calhoun responded to it thus: + + "The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay] anticipates with + confidence that the small party, who were denounced at the + last session as traitors and disunionists, will be found, on + this trying occasion, standing in the front rank, and manfully + resisting the advance of despotic power. I (said Mr. C.) + heard the anticipation with pleasure, not on account of the + compliment which it implied, but the evidence which it affords + that the cloud which has been so industriously thrown, over + the character and motive of that small but patriotic party + begins to be dissipated. The Senator hazarded nothing in the + prediction. That party is the determined, the fixed, and sworn + enemy to usurpation, come from what quarter and under what form + it may--whether from the executive upon the other departments + of this government, or from this government on the sovereignty + and rights of the States. The resolution and fortitude with + which it maintained its position at the last session, under so + many difficulties and dangers, in defence of the States against + the encroachments of the general government, furnished evidence + not to be mistaken, that that party, in the present momentous + struggle, would be found arrayed in defence of the rights of + Congress against the encroachments of the President. And let + me tell the Senator from Kentucky (said Mr. C.) that, if the + present struggle against executive usurpation be successful, it + will be owing to the success with which we, the nullifiers--I + am not afraid of the word--maintained the rights of the States + against the encroachment of the general government at the last + session." + +This assurance of aid was no sooner given than complied with. Mr. +Calhoun, and all his friends came immediately to the support of the +resolution, and even exceeded their author in their zeal against +the President and his Secretary. Notwithstanding the private grief +which Mr. Calhoun had against General Jackson in the affair of +the "correspondence" and the "exposition"--the contents of which +latter were well known though not published--and notwithstanding +every person was obliged to remember that grief while Mr. Calhoun +was assailing the General, and alleging patriotism for the motive, +and therefore expected that it should have imposed a reserve upon +him; yet, on the contrary he was most personally bitter, and used +language which would be incredible, if not found, as it is, in his +revised reports of his speeches. Thus, in enforcing Mr. Clay's idea +of a robbery of the treasury after the manner of Julius Cæsar, he +said: + + "The senator from Kentucky, in connection with this part of + his argument, read a striking passage from one of the most + pleasing and instructive writers in any language [Plutarch], + the description of Cæsar forcing himself, sword in hand, into + the treasury of the Roman commonwealth. We are at the same + stage of our political revolution, and the analogy between the + two cases is complete, varied only by the character of the + actors and the circumstances of the times. That was a case of + an intrepid and bold warrior, as an open plunderer, seizing + forcibly the treasury of the country, which, in that republic, + as well as ours, was confined to the custody of the legislative + department of the government. The actors in our case are of a + different character--artful, cunning, and corrupt politicians, + and not fearless warriors. They have entered the treasury, not + sword in hand, as public plunderers, but, with the false keys + of sophistry, as pilferers, under the silence of midnight. The + motive and the object are the same, varied in like manner by + circumstances and character. 'With money I will get men, and + with men money,' was the maxim of the Roman plunderer. With + money we will get partisans, with partisans votes, and with + votes money, is the maxim of our public pilferers. With men and + money Cæsar struck down Roman liberty, at the fatal battle of + Pharsalia, never to rise again; from which disastrous hour all + the powers of the Roman republic were consolidated in the person + of Cæsar, and perpetuated in his line. With money and corrupt + partisans a great effort is now making to choke and stifle the + voice of American liberty, through all its natural organs; + by corrupting the press; by overawing the other departments; + and, finally, by setting up a new and polluted organ, composed + of office-holders and corrupt partisans, under the name of + a national convention, which, counterfeiting the voice of + the people, will, if not resisted, in their name dictate the + succession; when the deed will be done, the revolution be + completed, and all the powers of our republic, in like manner, + be consolidated in the President, and perpetuated by his + dictation." + +On the subject of the revolution, "bloodless as yet," in the middle +of which we were engaged, and which was not to go backwards, Mr. +Calhoun said: + + "Viewing the question in its true light, as a struggle on the + part of the Executive to seize on the power of Congress, and to + unite in the President the power of the sword and the purse, + the senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay] said truly, and, let me + add, philosophically, that we are in the midst of a revolution. + Yes, the very existence of free governments rests on the proper + distribution and organization of power; and, to destroy this + distribution, and thereby concentrate power in any one of the + departments, is to effect a revolution. But while I agree with + the senator that we are in the midst of a revolution, I cannot + agree with him as to the time at which it commenced, or the + point to which it has progressed. Looking to the distribution + of the powers of the general government, into the legislative, + executive, and judicial departments, and confining his views + to the encroachment of the executive upon the legislative, he + dates the commencement of the revolution but sixty days previous + to the meeting of the present Congress. I (said Mr. C.) take a + wider range, and date it from an earlier period. Besides the + distribution among the departments of the general government, + there belongs to our system another, and a far more important + division or distribution of power--that between the States and + the general government, the reserved and delegated rights, the + maintenance of which is still more essential to the preservation + of our institutions. Taking this wide view of our political + system, the revolution, in the midst of which we are, began, + not as supposed by the senator from Kentucky, shortly before + the commencement of the present session, but many years ago, + with the commencement of the restrictive system, and terminated + its first stage with the passage of the force bill of the last + session, which absorbed all the rights and sovereignty of + the States, and consolidated them in this government. Whilst + this process was going on, of absorbing the reserved powers + of the States, on the part of the general government, another + commenced, of concentrating in the executive the powers of + the other two--the legislative and judicial departments of + the government; which constitutes the second stage of the + revolution, in which we have advanced almost to the termination." + +Mr. Calhoun brought out in this debate the assertion, in which +he persevered afterwards until it produced the quarrel in the +Senate between himself and Mr. Clay, that it was entirely owing to +the military and nullifying attitude of South Carolina that the +"compromise" act was passed, and that Mr. Clay himself would have +been prostrated in the attempt to compromise. He thus, boldly put +forward that pretension: + + "To the interposition of the State of South Carolina we are + indebted for the adjustment of the tariff question; without + it, all the influence of the senator from Kentucky over the + manufacturing interest, great as it deservedly is, would have + been wholly incompetent, if he had even thought proper to exert + it, to adjust the question. The attempt would have prostrated + him, and those who acted with him, and not the system. It + was the separate action of the State that gave him the place + to stand upon, created the necessity for the adjustment, and + disposed the minds of all to compromise." + +The necessity of his own position, and the indispensability of +Mr. Calhoun's support, restrained Mr. Clay, and kept him quiet +under this cutting taunt; but he took ample satisfaction for it +some years later, when the triumph of General Jackson in the +"expunging resolution," and the decline of their own prospects for +the Presidency, dissolved their coalition, and remitted them to +their long previous antagonistic feelings. But there was another +point in which Mr. Calhoun intelligibly indicated what was fully +believed at the time, namely, that the basis of the coalition which +ostensibly had for its object the reduction of the tariff, was +in reality a political coalition to act against General Jackson, +and to the success of which it was essential that their own great +bone of contention was to be laid aside, and kept out of the +way, while the coalition was in force. It was to enable them to +unite their forces against the "encroachments and corruptions of +the Executive" that the tariff was then laid away; and although +the removal of the deposits was not then foreseen, as the first +occasion for this conjunction, yet there could have been no failure +of finding occasions enough for the same purpose when the will was +so strong--as subsequent events so fully proved. General Jackson +could do but little during the remainder of his Presidency which +was not found to be "unconstitutional, illegal, corrupt, usurping, +and dangerous to the liberties of the people;" and as such, subject +to the combined attack of Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun and their +respective friends. All this was as good as told, and with an air of +self-satisfaction at the foresight of it, in these paragraphs of Mr. +Calhoun's speech: + + "Now, I put the solemn question to all who hear me: if the + tariff had not then been adjusted--if it was now an open + question--what hope of successful resistance against the + usurpations of the Executive, on the part of this or any other + branch of the government, could be entertained? Let it not be + said that this is the result of accident--of an unforeseen + contingency. It was clearly perceived, and openly stated, + that no successful resistance could be made to the corruption + and encroachments of the Executive, while the tariff question + remained open, while it separated the North from the South, + and wasted the energy of the honest and patriotic portions of + the community against each other, the joint effort of which + is indispensably necessary to expel those from authority who + are converting the entire powers of government into a corrupt + electioneering machine; and that, without separate State + interposition, the adjustment was impossible. The truth of this + position rests not upon the accidental state of things, but on + a profound principle growing out of the nature of government, + and party struggles in a free State. History and reflection + teach us, that when great interests come into conflict, and the + passions and the prejudices of men are aroused, such struggles + can never be composed by the influence of any individuals, + however great; and if there be not somewhere in the system some + high constitutional power to arrest their progress, and compel + the parties to adjust the difference, they go on till the State + falls by corruption or violence. + + "I will (said Mr. C.) venture to add to these remarks another, + in connection with the point under consideration, not less + true. We are not only indebted to the cause which I have stated + for our present strength in this body against the present + usurpation of the Executive, but if the adjustment of the tariff + had stood alone, as it ought to have done, without the odious + bill which accompanied it--if those who led in the compromise + had joined the State-rights party in their resistance to that + unconstitutional measure, and thrown the responsibility on its + real authors, the administration, their party would have been + so prostrated throughout the entire South, and their power, + in consequence, so reduced, that they would not have dared to + attempt the present measure; or, if they had, they would have + been broken and defeated." + +Mr. Calhoun took high ground of contempt and scorn against the +Secretary's reasons for removing the deposits, so far as founded in +the misconduct of the bank directors--declaring that he would not +condescend to notice them--repulsing them as intrusive--and shutting +his eyes upon these accusations, although heinous in their nature, +then fully proved; and since discovered to be far more criminal than +then suspected, and such as to subject their authors, a few years +afterwards, to indictments in the Court of General Sessions, for +the county of Philadelphia, for a "conspiracy to cheat and defraud +the stockholders;"--indictments on which they were saved from jury +trials by being "_habeas corpus'd_" out of the custody of the +sheriff of the county, who had arrested them on bench warrants. Mr. +Calhoun thus repulsed all notice of these accusations: + + "The Secretary has brought forward many and grievous charges + against the bank. I will not condescend to notice them. It is + the conduct of the Secretary, and not that of the bank, which + is immediately under examination; and he has no right to drag + the conduct of the bank into the issue, beyond its operations + in regard to the deposits. To that extent I am prepared to + examine his allegations against it; but beyond that he has no + right--no, not the least--to arraign the conduct of the bank; + and I, for one, will not, by noticing his charges beyond that + point, sanction his authority to call its conduct in question. + But let the point in issue be determined, and I, as far as my + voice extends, will give to those who desire it the means of the + freest and most unlimited inquiry into its conduct." + +But, while supporting Mr. Clay generally in his movement against the +President, Mr. Calhoun disagreed with him in the essential averment +in his resolve, that his removal of Mr. Duane because he would not, +and the appointment of Mr. Taney because he would, remove them was a +usurpation of power. Mr. Calhoun held it to be only an "abuse;" and +upon that point he procured a modification of his resolve from Mr. +Clay, notwithstanding the earnestness of his speech on the charge +of usurpation. And he thus stated his objection: + + "But, while I thus severely condemn the conduct of the President + in removing the former Secretary and appointing the present, I + must say, that in my opinion it is a case of the abuse, and not + of the usurpation of power. I cannot doubt that the President + has, under the constitution, the right of removal from office; + nor can I doubt that the power of removal, wherever it exists, + does, from necessity, involve the power of general supervision; + nor can I doubt that it might be constitutionally exercised in + reference to the deposits. Reverse the present case; suppose the + late Secretary, instead of being against, had been in favor of + the removal; and that the President, instead of being for, had + been against it, deeming the removal not only inexpedient, but, + under circumstances illegal; would any man doubt that, under + such circumstances, he had a right to remove his Secretary, + if it were the only means of preventing the removal of the + deposits? Nay, would it not be his indispensable duty to have + removed him? and, had he not, would not he have been universally + and justly held responsible?" + +In all the vituperation of the Secretary, as being the servile +instrument of the President's will, the members who indulged in +that species of attack were acting against public and recorded +testimony. Mr. Taney was complying with his own sense of public duty +when he ordered the removal. He had been attorney-general of the +United States when the deposit-removal question arose, and in all +the stages of that question had been in favor of the removal; so +that his conduct was the result of his own judgment and conscience; +and the only interference of the President was to place him in a +situation where he would carry out his convictions of duty. Mr. +Calhoun, in this speech, absolved himself from all connection with +the bank, or dependence upon it, or favors from it. Though its chief +author, he would have none of its accommodations: and said: + + "I am no partisan of the bank; I am connected with it in no + way, by moneyed or political ties. I might say, with truth, + that the bank owes as much to me as to any other individual + in the country; and I might even add that, had it not been + for my efforts, it would not have been chartered. Standing in + this relation to the institution, a high sense of delicacy, a + regard to independence and character, has restrained me from any + connection with the institution whatever, except some trifling + accommodations, in the way of ordinary business, which were not + of the slightest importance either to the bank or myself." + +Certainly there was no necessity for Mr. Calhoun to make this +disclaimer. His character for pecuniary integrity placed him above +the suspicion of a venal motive. His errors came from a different +source--from the one that Cæsar thought excusable when empire was +to be attained. Mr. Clay also took the opportunity to disclaim any +present connection with, or past favors from the bank; and, + + "Begged permission to trespass a few moments longer on the + Senate, to make a statement concerning himself personally. He + had heard that one high in office had allowed himself to assert + that a dishonorable connection had subsisted between him (Mr. + C), and the Bank of the United States. When the present charter + was granted, he voted for it; and, having done so, he did not + feel himself at liberty to subscribe, and he did not subscribe, + for a single share in the stock of the bank, although he + confidently anticipated a great rise in the value of the stock. + A few years afterwards, during the presidency of Mr. Jones, is + was thought, by some of his friends at Philadelphia, expedient + to make him (Mr. C), a director of the Bank of the United + States; and he was made a director without any consultation with + him. For that purpose five shares were purchased for him, by a + friend, for which he (Mr. C), afterwards paid. When he ceased to + be a director, a short time subsequently, he disposed of those + shares. He does not now own, and has not for many years been the + proprietor of, a single share. + + "When Mr. Cheves was appointed president of the bank, its + affairs in the States of Kentucky and Ohio were in great + disorder; and his (Mr. C.'s), professional services were + engaged during several years for the bank in those States. He + brought a vast number of suits, and transacted a great amount + of professional business for the bank. Among other suits was + that for the recovery of the one hundred thousand dollars, + seized under the authority of a law of Ohio, which he carried + through the inferior and supreme courts. He was paid by the + bank the usual compensation for these services, and no more. + And he ventured to assert that no professional fees were ever + more honestly and fairly earned. He had not, however, been + the counsel for the bank for upwards of eight years past. He + does not owe the bank, or any one of its branches, a solitary + cent. About twelve or fifteen years ago, owing to the failure + of a highly estimable (now deceased), friend, a large amount + of debt had been, as his indorser, thrown upon him (Mr. C), + and it was principally due to the Bank of the United States. + He (Mr C.) established for himself a rigid economy, a sinking + fund, and worked hard, and paid off the debt long since, + without receiving from the bank the slightest favor. Whilst + others around him were discharging their debts in property, at + high valuations, he periodically renewed his note, paying the + discount, until it was wholly extinguished." + +But it was not every member who could thus absolve himself from +bank connection, favor, or dependence. The list of congressional +borrowers, or retainers, was large--not less than fifty of the +former at a time, and a score of the latter; and even after the +failure of the bank and the assignment of its effects, and after +all possible liquidations had been effected by taking property at +"high valuation," allowing largely for "professional services," and +liberal resorts to the "profit and loss" account, there remained +many to be sued by the assignees to whom their notes were passed; +and some of such early date as to be met by a plea of the statute +of limitations in bar of the stale demand. Mr. Calhoun concluded +with a "lift to the panic" in a reference to the "fearful crisis" +in which we were involved--the dangers ahead to the liberties of +the country--the perils of our institutions--and a hint at his +permanent remedy--his panacea for all the diseases of the body +politic--dissolution of the Union. He ended thus: + + "We have (said Mr. C), arrived at a fearful crisis; things + cannot long remain as they are. It behooves all who love their + country, who have affection for their offspring, or who have + any stake in our institutions, to pause and reflect. Confidence + is daily withdrawing from the general government. Alienation + is hourly going on. These will necessarily create a state of + things inimical to the existence of our institutions, and, if + not speedily arrested, convulsions must follow, and then comes + dissolution or despotism; when a thick cloud will be thrown over + the cause of liberty and the future prospects of our country." + + + + +CHAPTER CII. + +PUBLIC DISTRESS. + + +From the moment of the removal of the deposits, it was seen that +the plan of the Bank of the United States was to force their +return, and with it a renewal of its charter, by operating on the +business of the country and the alarms of the people. For this +purpose, loans and accommodations were to cease at the mother bank +and all its branches, and in all the local banks over which the +national bank had control; and at the same time that discounts were +stopped, curtailments were made; and all business men called on for +the payment of all they owed, at the same time that all the usual +sources of supply were stopped. This pressure was made to fall +upon the business community, especially upon large establishments +employing a great many operatives; so as to throw as many laboring +people as possible out of employment. At the same time, politicians +engaged in making panic, had what amounts they pleased, an instance +of a loan of $100,000 to a single one of these agitators, being +detected; and a loan of $1,100,000 to a broker, employed in making +distress, and in relieving it in favored cases at a usury of two and +a half per centum per month. In this manner, the business community +was oppressed, and in all parts of the Union at the same time: the +organization of the national bank, with branches in every State, +and its control over local banks, being sufficient to enable it +to have its policy carried into effect in all places, and at the +same moment. The first step in this policy was to get up distress +meetings--a thing easily done--and then to have these meetings +properly officered and conducted. Men who had voted for Jackson, but +now renounced him, were procured for president, vice-presidents, +secretaries, and orators; distress orations were delivered; and, +after sufficient exercise in that way, a memorial and a set of +resolves, prepared for the occasion, were presented and adopted. +After adoption, the old way of sending by the mail was discarded, +and a deputation selected to proceed to Washington and make delivery +of their lugubrious document. These memorials generally came in +duplicate, to be presented, in both Houses at once, by a senator +from the State and the representative from the district. These, +on presenting the petition, delivered a distress harangue on its +contents, often supported by two or three adjunct speakers, although +there was a rule to forbid any thing being said on such occasions, +except to make a brief statement of the contents. Now they were read +in violation of the rule, and spoke upon in violation of the rule, +and printed never to be read again, and referred to a committee, +never more to be seen by it; and bound up in volumes to encumber the +shelves of the public documents. Every morning, for three months, +the presentation of these memorials, with speeches to enforce them, +was the occupation of each House: all the memorials bearing the +impress of the same mint, and the orations generally cast after +the same pattern. These harangues generally gave, in the first +place, some topographical or historical notice of the county or +town from which it came--sometimes with a hint of its revolutionary +services--then a description of the felicity which it enjoyed while +the bank had the deposits; then the ruin which came upon it, at +their loss; winding up usually with a great quantity of indignation +against the man whose illegal and cruel conduct had occasioned such +destruction upon their business. The meetings were sometimes held +by young men; sometimes by old men; sometimes by the laboring, +sometimes by the mercantile class; sometimes miscellaneous, and +irrespective of party; and usually sprinkled over with a smart +number of former Jackson-men, who had abjured him on account of +this conduct to the bank. Some passages will be given from a few of +these speeches, as specimens of the whole; the quantity of which +contributed to swell the publication of the debates of that Congress +to four large volumes of more than one thousand pages each. Thus, +Mr. Tyler of Virginia, in presenting a memorial from Culpeper +county, and hinting at the military character of the county, said: + + "The county of Culpeper, as he had before observed, had been + distinguished for its whiggism from the commencement of the + Revolution; and, if it had not been the first to hoist the + revolutionary banner, at the tap of the drum, they were second + to but one county, and that was the good county of Hanover, + which had expressed the same opinion with them on this + all-important subject. He presented the memorial of these sons + of the whigs of the Revolution, and asked that it might be read, + referred to the appropriate committee, and printed." + +Mr. Robbins of Rhode Island, in presenting memorials from the towns +of Smithfield and Cumberland in that State: + + "A small river runs through these towns, called Blackstone + River; a narrow stream, of no great volume of water, but + perennial and unfailing, and possessing great power from the + frequency and greatness of its falls. Prior to 1791, this + power had always run to waste, except here and there a saw + mill or a grist mill, to supply the exigencies of a sparse + neighborhood, and one inconsiderable forge. Since that period, + from time to time, and from place to place, that power, instead + of running to waste, has been applied to the use of propelling + machinery, till the valley of that small river has become the + Manchester of America. That power is so unlimited, that scarcely + any limitation can be fixed to its capability of progressive + increase in its application. That valley, in these towns, + already has in it over thirty different establishments; it has + in it two millions of fixed capital in those establishments; + it has expended in it annually, in the wages of manual labor, + five hundred thousand dollars; it has in it one hundred thousand + spindles in operation. I should say it had--for one half of + these spindles are already suspended, and the other half soon + must be suspended, if the present state of things continues. On + the bank of that river, the first cotton spindle was established + in America. The invention of Arkwright, in 1791, escaped from + the jealous prohibitions of England, and planted itself there. + It was brought over by a Mr. Slater, who had been a laboring + manufacturer in England, but who was not a machinist. He brought + it over, not in models, but in his own mind, and fortunately he + was blessed with a mind capacious of such things, and which by + its fair fruits, has made him a man of immense fortune, and one + of the greatest benefactors to his adopted country. There he + made the first essays that laid the foundation of that system + which has spread so far and wide in this country, and risen to + such a height that it makes a demand annually for two hundred + and fifty thousand bales of cotton--about one fourth of all + the cotton crop of all our cotton-growing States; makes for + those States, for their staple, the best market in the world, + except that of England: it was rapidly becoming to them the + best market in the world, not excepting that of England; still + better, it was rapidly becoming for them a market to weigh down + and preponderate in the scale against all the other markets of + the world taken together. Now, all those prospects are blasted + by one breath of the Executive administration of this country. + Now every thing in that valley, every thing in possession, every + thing in prospect, is tottering to its fall. One half of those + one hundred thousand spindles are, as I before stated, already + stopped; the other half are still continued, but at a loss to + the owners, and purely from charity to the laborers; but this + charity has its limit; and regard to their own safety will + soon constrain them to stop the other half. Five months ago, + had one travelled through that valley and witnessed the scenes + then displayed there--their numerous and dense population, all + industrious, and thriving, and contented--had heard the busy + hum of industry in their hours of labor--the notes of joy in + their hours of relaxation--had seen the plenty of their tables, + the comforts of their firesides--had, in a word, seen in every + countenance the content of every heart; and if that same person + should travel through the same valley hereafter, and should find + it then deserted, and desolate, and silent as the valley of + death, and covered over with the solitary and mouldering ruins + of those numerous establishments, he would say, 'Surely the hand + of the ruthless destroyer has been here!' Now, if the present + state of things is to be continued, as surely as blood follows + the knife that has been plunged to the heart, and death ensues, + so surely that change there is to take place; and he who ought + to have been their guardian angel, will have been that ruthless + destroyer." + +And thus Mr. Webster, in presenting a memorial from Franklin county, +in the State of Pennsylvania: + + "The county of Franklin was one of the most respectable and + wealthy in the great State of Pennsylvania. It was situated + in a rich limestone Valley, and, in its main character, was + agricultural. He had the pleasure, last year, to pass through + it, and see it for the first time, when its rich fields of wheat + and rye were ripening, and, certainly, he little thought then, + that he should, at this time have to present to the Senate + such undeniable proofs of their actual, severe and pressing + distress. As he had said, the inhabitants of Franklin county + were principally agriculturists, and, of these, the majority + were the tillers of their own land. They were interested, also, + in manufactures to a great extent; they had ten or twelve + forges, and upwards of four thousand persons engaged in the + manufacture of iron, dependent for their daily bread on the + product of their own labor. The hands employed in this business + were a peculiar race--miners, colliers, &c.--and, if other + employment was to be afforded them, they would find themselves + unsuited for it. These manufactories had been depressed, from + causes so well explained, and so well understood, that nobody + could now doubt them. They were precisely in the situation of + the cotton factories he had adverted to some days ago. There + was no demand for their products. The consignee did not receive + them--he did not hope to dispose of them, and would not give + his paper for them. It was well known that, when a manufactured + article was sent to the cities, the manufacturer expected to + obtain an advance on them, which he got cashed. This whole + operation having stopped, in consequence of the derangement + of the currency, the source of business was dried up. There + were other manufactories in that county that also felt the + pressure--paper factories and manufactories of straw paper, + which increased the gains of agriculture. These, too, have + been under the necessity of dismissing many of those employed + by them, which necessity brought this matter of Executive + interference home to every man's labor and property. He had + ascertained the prices of produce as now, and in November last, + in the State of Pennsylvania, and from these, it would be seen + that, in the interior region, on the threshing floors, they had + not escaped the evils which had affected the prices of corn and + rye at Chambersburg. They were hardly to be got rid of at any + price. The loss on wheat, the great product of the county, was + thirty cents. Clover seed, another great product, had fallen + from six dollars per bushel to four dollars. This downfall of + agricultural produce described the effect of the measure of the + Executive better than all the evidences that had been hitherto + offered. These memorialists, for themselves, were sick, sick + enough of the Executive experiment." + +And thus Mr. Southard in presenting the memorial of four thousand +"young men" of the city of Philadelphia: + + "With but very few of them am I personally acquainted--and + must rely, in what I say of them, upon what I know of those + few, and upon the information received from others, which I + regard as sure and safe. And on these, I venture to assure the + Senate, that no meeting of young men can be collected, in any + portion of our wide country, on any occasion, containing more + intelligence--more virtuous purpose--more manly and honorable + feeling--more decided and energetic character. What they say, + they think. What they resolve they will accomplish. Their + proceedings were ardent and animated--their resolutions are + drawn with spirit; but are such as, I think, may be properly + received and respected by the Senate. They relate to the conduct + of the Executive--to the present condition of the country--to + the councils which now direct its destinies. They admit that + older and more mature judgments may better understand the + science of government and its practical operations, but they act + upon a feeling just in itself, and valuable in its effects, that + they are fit to form and express opinions on public measures + and public principles, which shall be their own guide in their + present and future conduct; and they express a confident + reliance on the moral and physical vigor and untamable love of + freedom of the young men of the United States to save us from + despotism, open and avowed, or silent, insidious, and deceitful. + They were attracted, or rather urged, sir, to this meeting, and + to the expression of their feelings and opinions, by what they + saw around, and knew of the action of the Executive upon the + currency and prosperity of the country. They have just entered, + or are about entering, on the busy occupations of manhood, and + are suddenly surprised by a state of things around them, new to + their observation and experience. Calamity had been a stranger + in their pathway. They have grown up through their boyhood in + the enjoyments of present comfort, and the anticipations of + future prosperity--their seniors actively and successfully + engaged in the various occupations of the community, and the + whole circle of employments open before their own industry + and hopes--the institutions of their country beloved, and + their protecting influence covering the exertions of all for + their benefit and happiness. In this state they saw the public + prosperity, with which alone they were familiar, blasted, and + for the time destroyed. The whole scene, their whole country, + was changed; they witnessed fortunes falling, homesteads ruined, + merchants failing, artisans broken, mechanics impoverished, all + the employments on which they were about to enter, paralyzed; + labor denied to the needy, and reward to the industrious; + losses of millions of property and gloom settling where joy and + happiness before existed. They felt the sirocco pass by, and + desolate the plains where peace, and animation, and happiness + exulted." + +And thus Mr. Clay in presenting a memorial from Lexington, Kentucky: + + "If there was any spot in the Union, likely to be exempt from + the calamities that had afflicted the others, it would be the + region about Lexington and its immediate neighborhood. Nowhere, + to no other country, has Providence been more bountiful in its + gifts. A country so rich and fertile that it yielded in fair and + good seasons from sixty to seventy bushels of corn to the acre. + It was a most beautiful country--all the land in it, not in a + state of cultivation, was in parks (natural meadows), filled + with flocks and herds, fattening on its luxuriant grass. But + in what country, in what climate, the most favored by Heaven, + can happiness and prosperity exist against bad government, + against misrule, and against rash and ill-advised experiments? + On the mountain's top, in the mountain's cavern, in the remotest + borders of the country, every where, every interest has been + affected by the mistaken policy of the Executive. While he + admitted that the solicitude of his neighbors and friends was + excited in some degree by the embarrassments of the country, + yet they felt a deeper solicitude for the restoration of the + rightful authority of the constitution and the laws. It is + this which excites their apprehensions, and creates all their + alarm. He would not, at this time, enlarge further on the + subject of this memorial. He would only remark, that hemp, + the great staple of the part of the country from whence the + memorial came, had fallen twenty per cent. since he left home, + and that Indian corn, another of its greatest staples, the + most valuable of the fruits of the earth for the use of man, + which the farmer converted into most of the articles of his + consumption, furnishing him with food and raiment, had fallen + to a equal extent. There were in that county six thousand fat + bullocks now remaining unsold, when, long before this time last + year, there was scarcely one to be purchased. They were not + sold, because the butchers could not obtain from the banks the + usual facilities in the way of discounts; they could not obtain + funds in anticipation of their sales wherewith to purchase; and + now $100,000 worth of this species of property remains on hand, + which, if sold, would have been scattered through the country + by the graziers, producing all the advantages to be derived + from so large a circulation. Every farmer was too well aware of + these facts one moment to doubt them. We are, said Mr. C., not + a complaining people. We think not so much of distress. Give + us our laws--guarantee to us our constitution--and we will be + content with almost any form of government." + +And Mr. Webster thus, in presenting a memorial from Lynn, +Massachusetts: + + "Those members of the Senate, said Mr. W., who have travelled + from Boston to Salem, or to Nahant, will remember the town of + Lynn. It is a beautiful town, situated upon the sea, is highly + industrious, and has been hitherto prosperous and flourishing. + With a population of eight thousand souls, its great business is + the manufacture of shoes. Three thousand persons, men, women, + and children, are engaged in this manufacture. They make and + sell, ordinarily, two millions of pairs of shoes a year, for + which, at 75 cents a pair, they receive one million five hundred + thousand dollars. They consume half a million of dollars worth + of leather, of which they buy a large portion in Philadelphia + and Baltimore, and the rest in their own neighborhood. The + articles manufactured by them are sent to all parts of the + country, finding their way into every principal port, from + Eastport round to St. Louis. Now, sir, when I was last among the + people of this handsome town, all was prosperity and happiness. + Their business was not extravagantly profitable; they were not + growing rich over fast, but they were comfortable, all employed, + and all satisfied and contented. But, sir, with them, as with + others, a most serious change has taken place. They find their + usual employments suddenly arrested, from the same cause which + has smitten other parts of the country with like effects; and + they have sent forward a memorial, which I have now the honor + of laying before the Senate. This memorial, sir, is signed by + nine hundred of the legal voters of the town; and I understand + the largest number of votes known to have been given is one + thousand. Their memorial is short; it complains of the illegal + removal of the deposits, of the attack on the bank, and of the + effect of these measures on their business." + +And thus Mr. Kent, of Maryland, in presenting petitions from +Washington county in that State: + + "They depict in strong colors the daily increasing distress with + which they are surrounded. They deeply deplore it, without the + ability to relieve it, and they ascribe their condition to the + derangement of the currency, and a total want of confidence, + not only between man and man, but between banks situated even + in the same neighborhood--all proceeding, as they believe, + from the removal of the public deposits from the Bank of the + United States. Four mouths since, and the counties from whence + these memorials proceed, presented a population as contented + and prosperous as could be found in any section of the country. + But, sir, in that short period, the picture is reversed. Their + rich and productive lands, which last fall were sought after + with avidity at high prices, they inform us, have fallen 25 per + cent., and no purchasers are to be found even at that reduced + price. Wheat, the staple of that region of the country, was + never much lower, if as low. Flour is quoted in Alexandria at + $3 75, where a large portion of their crops seek a market. + These honest, industrious people cannot withstand the cruel + and ruinous consequences of this desperate and unnecessary + experiment. The country cannot bear it, and unless speedy relief + is afforded, the result of it will be as disastrous to those who + projected it, as to the country at large, who are afflicted with + it." + +And thus Mr. Webster, presenting a petition from the master builders +of Philadelphia, sent on by a large deputation: + + "I rise, sir, to perform a pleasing duty. It is to lay before + the Senate the proceedings of a meeting of the building + mechanics of the city and county of Philadelphia, convened for + the purpose of expressing their opinions on the present state of + the country, on the 24th of February. This meeting consisted of + three thousand persons, and was composed of carpenters, masons, + brickmakers, bricklayers, painters and glaziers, lime burners, + plasterers, lumber merchants and others, whose occupations + are connected with the building of houses. I am proud, sir, + that so respectable, so important, and so substantial a class + of mechanics, have intrusted me with the presentment of their + opinions and feelings respecting the present distress of the + country, to the Senate. I am happy if they have seen, in the + course pursued by me here, a policy favorable to the protection + of their interest, and the prosperity of their families. These + intelligent and sensible men, these highly useful citizens, have + witnessed the effect of the late measures of government upon + their own concerns; and the resolutions which I have now to + present, fully express their convictions on the subject. They + propose not to reason, but to testify; they speak what they do + know. + + "Sir, listen to the statement; hear the facts. The committee + state, sir, that eight thousand persons are ordinarily employed + in building houses, in the city and county of Philadelphia; + a number which, with their families, would make quite a + considerable town. They further state, that the average number + of houses, which this body of mechanics has built, for the last + five years, is twelve hundred houses a year. The average cost + of these houses is computed at two thousand dollars each. Here + is a business, then, sir, of two millions four hundred thousand + dollars a year. Such has been the average of the last five + years. And what is it now? Sir, the committee state that the + business has fallen off seventy-five per cent. at least; that + is to say, that, at most, only one-quarter part of their usual + employment now remains. This is the season of the year in which + building contracts are made. It is now known what is to be the + business of the year. Many of these persons, who have heretofore + had, every year, contracts for several houses on hand, have this + year no contract at all. They have been obliged to dismiss their + hands, to turn them over to any scraps of employment they could + find, or to leave them in idleness, for want of any employment. + + "Sir, the agitations of the country are not to be hushed by + authority. Opinions, from however high quarters, will not + quiet them. The condition of the nation calls for action, for + measures, for the prompt interposition of Congress; and until + Congress shall act, be it sooner or be it later, there will be + no content, no repose, no restoration of former prosperity. + Whoever supposes, sir, that he, or that any man, can quiet the + discontents, or hush the complaints of the people by merely + saying, "peace, be still!" mistakes, shockingly mistakes, the + real condition of things. It is an agitation of interests, not + of opinions; a severe pressure on men's property and their means + of living, not a barren contest about abstract sentiments. Even, + sir, the voice of party, often so sovereign, is not of power to + subdue discontents and stifle complaints. The people, sir, feel + great interests to be at stake, and they are rousing themselves + to protect those interests. They consider the question to be, + whether the government is made for the people, or the people for + the government. They hold the former of these two propositions, + and they mean to prove it. + + "Mr. President, this measure of the Secretary has produced a + degree of evil that cannot be borne. Talk about it as we will, + it cannot be borne. A tottering state of credit, cramped means, + loss of property and loss of employment, doubts of the condition + of others, doubts of their own condition, constant fear of + failures and new explosions, an awful dread of the future--sir + when a consciousness of all these things accompanies a man, at + his breakfast, his dinner and his supper; when it attends him + through his hours, both of labor and rest; when it even disturbs + and haunts his dreams, and when he feels, too, that that which + is thus gnawing upon him is the pure result of foolish and + rash measures of government, depend upon it he will not bear + it. A deranged and disordered currency the ruin of occupation, + distress for present means the prostration of credit and + confidence, and all this without hope of improvement or change, + is a state of things which no intelligent people can long + endure." + +Mr. Clay rose to second the motion of Mr Webster to refer and print +this memorial; and, after giving it as his opinion that the property +of the country had been reduced four hundred millions of dollars +in value, by the measures of the government, thus apostrophized +the Vice-President (Mr. Van Buren), charging him with a message of +prayer and supplication to President Jackson: + + "But there is another quarter which possesses sufficient power + and influence to relieve the public distresses. In twenty-four + hours, the executive branch could adopt a measure which would + afford an efficacious and substantial remedy, and re-establish + confidence. And those who, in this chamber, support the + administration, could not render a better service than to + repair to the executive mansion, and, placing before the Chief + Magistrate the naked and undisguised truth, prevail upon him + to retrace his steps and abandon his fatal experiment. No one, + sir, can perform that duty with more propriety than yourself. + [The Vice-President.] You can, if you will, induce him to change + his course. To you, then, sir, in no unfriendly spirit, but + with feelings softened and subdued by the deep distress which + pervades every class of our countrymen, I make the appeal. By + your official and personal relations with the President, you + maintain with him an intercourse which I neither enjoy nor + covet. Go to him and tell him, without exaggeration, but in + the language of truth and sincerity, the actual condition of + his bleeding country. Tell him it is nearly ruined and undone + by the measures which he has been induced to put in operation. + Tell him that his experiment is operating on the nation like + the philosopher's experiment upon a convulsed animal, in an + exhausted receiver, and that it must expire, in agony, if he + does not pause, give it free and sound circulation, and suffer + the energies of the people to be revived and restored. Tell + him that, in a single city, more than sixty bankruptcies, + involving a loss of upwards of fifteen millions of dollars, have + occurred. Tell him of the alarming decline in the value of all + property, of the depreciation of all the products of industry, + of the stagnation in every branch of business, and of the close + of numerous manufacturing establishments, which, a few short + months ago, were in active and flourishing operation. Depict + to him, if you can find language to portray, the heart-rending + wretchedness of thousands of the working classes cast out of + employment. Tell him of the tears of helpless widows, no longer + able to earn their bread, and of unclad and unfed orphans who + have been driven, by his policy, out of the busy pursuits in + which but yesterday they were gaining an honest livelihood. + Say to him that if firmness be honorable, when guided by truth + and justice, it is intimately allied to another quality, of the + most pernicious tendency, in the prosecution of an erroneous + system. Tell him how much more true glory is to be won by + retracing false steps, than by blindly rushing on until his + country is overwhelmed in bankruptcy and ruin. Tell him of the + ardent attachment, the unbounded devotion, the enthusiastic + gratitude, towards him, so often signally manifested by the + American people, and that they deserve, at his hands, better + treatment. Tell him to guard himself against the possibility + of an odious comparison with that worst of the Roman emperors, + who, contemplating with indifference the conflagration of the + mistress of the world, regaled himself during the terrific + scene in the throng of his dancing courtiers. If you desire + to secure for yourself the reputation of a public benefactor, + describe to him truly the universal distress already produced, + and the certain ruin which must ensue from perseverance in his + measures. Tell him that he has been abused, deceived, betrayed, + by the wicked counsels of unprincipled men around him. Inform + him that all efforts in Congress to alleviate or terminate + the public distress are paralyzed and likely to prove totally + unavailing, from his influence upon a large portion of the + members, who are unwilling to withdraw their support, or to + take a course repugnant to his wishes and feelings. Tell him + that, in his bosom alone, under actual circumstances, does the + power abide to relieve the country; and that, unless he opens it + to conviction, and corrects the errors of his administration, + no human imagination can conceive, and no human tongue can + express the awful consequences which may follow. Entreat him to + pause, and to reflect that there is a point beyond which human + endurance cannot go; and let him not drive this brave, generous, + and patriotic people to madness and despair." + +During the delivery of this apostrophe, the Vice-President +maintained the utmost decorum of countenance, looking respectfully, +and even innocently at the speaker, all the while, as if treasuring +up every word he said to be faithfully repeated to the President. +After it was over, and the Vice-President had called some senator +to the chair, he went up to Mr. Clay, and asked him for a pinch of +his fine maccoboy snuff (as he often did); and, having received +it, walked away. But a public meeting in Philadelphia took the +performance seriously to heart, and adopted this resolution, which +the indefatigable Hezekiah Niles "registered" for the information of +posterity: + + "_Resolved_, That Martin Van Buren deserves, and will receive + the execrations of all good men, should he shrink from the + responsibility of conveying to Andrew Jackson the message sent + by the honorable Henry Clay, when the builders' memorial was + presented to the Senate. I charge you, said he, go the President + and tell him--tell him if he would save his country--if he + would save himself--tell him to stop short, and ponder well + his course--tell him to retrace his steps, before the injured + and insulted people, infuriated by his experiment upon their + happiness, rises in the majesty of power, and hurls the usurper + down from the seat he occupies, like Lucifer, never to rise + again." + +Mr. Benton replied to these distress petitions, and distress +harangues, by showing that they were nothing but a reproduction, +with a change of names and dates, of the same kind of speeches and +petitions which were heard in the year 1811, when the charter of the +first national bank was expiring, and when General Jackson was not +President--when Mr. Taney was not Secretary of the Treasury--when +no deposits had been removed, and when there was no quarrel between +the bank and the government; and he read copiously from the Congress +debates of that day to justify what he said; and declared the two +scenes, so far as the distress was concerned, to be identical. After +reading from these petitions and speeches, he proceeded to say: + + "All the machinery of alarm and distress was in as full activity + at that time as at present, and with the same identical + effects. Town meetings--memorials--resolutions--deputations + to Congress--alarming speeches in Congress. The price of all + property was shown to be depressed. Hemp sunk in Philadelphia + from $350 to $250 per ton; flour sunk from $11 a barrel to + $7 75; all real estate fell thirty per cent.; five hundred + houses were suspended in their erection; the rent of money + rose to one and a half per month on the best paper. Confidence + destroyed--manufactories stopped--workmen dismissed--and the + ruin of the country confidently predicted. This was the scene + then; and for what object? Purely and simply to obtain a + recharter of the bank--purely and simply to force a recharter + from the alarm and distress of the country; for there was no + removal of deposits then to be complained of, and to be made the + scape-goat of a studied and premeditated attempt to operate upon + Congress through the alarms of the people and the destruction of + their property. There was not even a curtailment of discounts + then. The whole scene was fictitious; but it was a case in + which fiction does the mischief of truth. A false alarm in + the money market produces all the effects of real danger; and + thus, as much distress was proclaimed in Congress in 1811--as + much distress was proved to exist, and really did exist--then + as now; without a single cause to be alleged then, which is + alleged now. But the power and organization of the bank made + the alarm then; its power and organization make it now; and + fictitious on both occasions; and men were ruined then, as now, + by the power of imaginary danger, which in the moneyed world, + has all the ruinous effects of real danger. No deposits were + removed then, and the reason was, as assigned by Mr. Gallatin to + Congress, that the government had borrowed more than the amount + of the deposits from the bank; and this loan would enable her + to protect her interest in every contingency. The open object + of the bank then was a recharter. The knights entered the lists + with their visors off--no war in disguise then for the renewal + of a charter under the tilting and jousting of a masquerade + scuffle for recovery of deposits." + +This was a complete reply, to which no one could make any answer; +and the two distresses all proved the same thing, that a powerful +national bank could make distress when it pleased; and would always +please to do it when it had an object to gain by it--either in +forcing a recharter or in reaping a harvest of profit by making a +contraction of debts after having made an expansion of credits. + +It will be difficult for people in after times to realize the degree +of excitement, of agitation and of commotion which was produced +by this organized attempt to make panic and distress. The great +cities especially were the scene of commotions but little short +of frenzy--public meetings of thousands, the most inflammatory +harangues, cannon firing, great feasts--and the members of Congress +who spoke against the President received when they travelled with +public honors, like conquering generals returning from victorious +battle fields--met by masses, saluted with acclamations, escorted +by processions, and their lodgings surrounded by thousands calling +for a view of their persons. The gaining of a municipal election in +the city of New-York put the climax upon this enthusiasm; and some +instances taken from the every day occurrences of the time may give +some faint idea of this extravagant exaltation. Thus: + + "Mr. Webster, on his late journey to Boston, was received and + parted with at Philadelphia, New-York, Providence, &c., by + thousands of the people." + + "Messrs. Poindexter, Preston and McDuffie visited Philadelphia + the beginning of this week, and received the most flattering + attention of the citizens--thousands having waited upon to honor + them; and they were dined, &c., with great enthusiasm." + + "A very large public meeting was held at the Musical Fund + Hall, Philadelphia, on Monday afternoon last, to compliment + the 'whigs' of New-York on the late victory gained by them. + Though thousands were in the huge room, other thousands could + not get in! It was a complete 'jam.' John Sergeant was called + to the chair, and delivered an address of 'great power and + ability'--'one of the happiest efforts' of that distinguished + man. Mr. Preston of the Senate, and Mr. McDuffie of the House of + Representatives, were present. The first was loudly called for, + when Mr. Sergeant had concluded, and he addressed the meeting + at considerable length. Mr. McDuffie was then as loudly named, + and he also spoke with his usual ardency and power, in which + he paid a handsome compliment to Mr. Sergeant, who, though he + had differed in opinion with him, he regarded as a 'sterling + patriot,' &C. Each of these speeches were received with hearty + and continued marks of approbation, and often interrupted with + shouts of applause. The like, it is said, had never before + been witnessed in Philadelphia. The people were in the highest + possible state of enthusiasm." + + "An immense multitude of people partook of a collation in + Castle Garden, New-York, on Tuesday afternoon, to celebrate + the victory gained in the 'three days.' The garden was dressed + with flags, and every thing prepared on a grand scale. Pipes + of wine and barrels of beer were present in abundance, with a + full supply of eatables. After partaking of refreshments (in + which a great deal of business was done in a short time, by + the thousands employed--for many mouths, like many hands, make + quick work!) the meeting was organized, by appointing Benjamin + Wells, carpenter, president, twelve vice-presidents, and four + secretaries, of whom there was one cartman, one sail maker, + one grocer, one watchmaker, one ship carpenter, one potter, + one mariner, one physician, one printer, one surveyor, four + merchants, &c. The president briefly, but strongly, addressed + the multitude, as did several other gentlemen. A committee of + congratulation from Philadelphia was presented to the people and + received with shouts. When the time for adjournment arrived, + the vast multitude, in a solid column, taking a considerable + circuit, proceeded to Greenwich-street, where Mr. Webster was + dining with a friend. Loudly called for, he came forward, and + was instantly surrounded by a dense mass of merchants and + cartmen, sailors and mechanics, professional men and laborers, + &c., seizing him by his hands. He was asked to say a few words + to the people, and did so. He exhorted them to perseverance in + support of the constitution, and, as a dead silence prevailed, + he was heard by thousands. He thanked them, and ended by hoping + that God would bless them all." + + "Saturday Messrs. Webster, Preston and Binney were expected at + Baltimore; and, though raining hard, thousands assembled to meet + them. Sunday they arrived, and were met by a dense mass, and + speeches exacted. A reverend minister of the Gospel, in excuse + of such a gathering on the Sabbath, said that in revolutionary + times there were no Sabbaths. They were conducted to the hotel, + where 5,000 well-dressed citizens received them with enthusiasm." + + "Mr. McDuffie reached Baltimore in the afternoon of Saturday + last, on his return to Washington, and was received by from + 1,500 to 2,000 people, who were waiting on the wharf for the + purpose. He was escorted to the City Hotel, and, from the steps, + addressed the crowd (now increased to about 3,000 persons), in + as earnest a speech, perhaps, as he ever pronounced--and the + _manner_ of his delivery was not less forcible than the _matter_ + of his remarks. Mr. McD. spoke for about half an hour; and, + while at one moment he produced a roar of laughter, in the next + he commanded the entire attention of the audience, or elicited + loud shouts of applause. + + "The brief addresses of Messrs. Webster, Binney, McDuffie, and + Preston, to assembled multitudes in Baltimore, and the manner in + which they were received, show a new state of feelings and of + things in this city. When Mr. McDuffie said that ten days after + the entrance of soldiers into the Senate chamber, to send the + senators home, that 200,000 volunteers would be in Washington, + there was such a shout as we have seldom before heard." + + "There was a mighty meeting of the people, and such a feast + as was never before prepared in the United States, held near + Philadelphia, on Tuesday last, as a rallying 'to support + the constitution,' and 'in honor of the late whig victory + at New-York,' a very large delegation from that city being + in attendance, bringing with them their frigate-rigged and + highly-finished boat, called the 'Constitution,' which had + been passed through the streets during the 'three days.' The + arrival of the steamboat with this delegation on board, and + the procession that was then formed, are described in glowing + terms. The whole number congregated was supposed not to be + less than fifty thousand, multitudes attending from adjacent + parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, &c. Many cattle + and other animals had been roasted whole, and there were 200 + great rounds of beef, 400 hams, as many beeves' tongues, &c. + and 15,000 loaves of bread, with crackers and cheese, &c., and + equal supplies of wine, beer, and cider. This may give some idea + of the magnitude of the feast. John Sergeant presided, assisted + by a large number of vice-presidents, &c. Strong bands of + music played at intervals, and several salutes were fired from + the miniature frigate, which were returned by heavy artillery + provided for the purpose." + +Notices, such as these, might be cited in any number; but those +given are enough to show to what a degree people can be excited, +when a great moneyed power, and a great political party, combine for +the purpose of exciting the passions through the public sufferings +and the public alarms. Immense amounts of money were expended in +these operations; and it was notorious that it chiefly came from the +great moneyed corporation in Philadelphia. + + + + +CHAPTER CIII. + +SENATORIAL CONDEMNATION OF PRESIDENT JACKSON: HIS PROTEST: NOTICE OF +THE EXPUNGING RESOLUTION. + + +Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun were the two leading spirits in the +condemnation of President Jackson. Mr. Webster did not speak in +favor of their resolution, but aided it incidentally in the delivery +of his distress speeches. The resolution was theirs, modified from +time to time by themselves, without any vote of the Senate, and by +virtue of the privilege which belongs to the mover of any motion +to change it as he pleases, until the Senate, by some action upon +it, makes it its own. It was altered repeatedly, and up to the last +moment; and after undergoing its final mutation, at the moment +when the yeas and nays were about to be called, it was passed by +the same majority that would have voted for it on the first day of +its introduction. The yeas were: Messrs. Bibb of Kentucky; Black +of Mississippi; Calhoun; Clay; Clayton of Delaware; Ewing of Ohio; +Frelinghuysen of New Jersey; Kent of Maryland; Knight of Rhode +Island; Leigh of Virginia; Mangum of North Carolina; Naudain of +Delaware; Poindexter of Mississippi; Porter of Louisiana; Prentiss +of Vermont; Preston of South Carolina; Robbins of Rhode Island; +Silsbee of Massachusetts; Nathan Smith of Connecticut; Southard +of New Jersey; Sprague of Maine; Swift of Vermont; Tomlinson of +Connecticut; Tyler of Virginia; Waggaman of Louisiana; Webster.--26. +The nays were: Messrs. Benton; Brown of North Carolina; Forsyth of +Georgia; Grundy of Tennessee; Hendricks of Indiana; Hill of New +Hampshire; Kane of Illinois; King of Alabama; King of Georgia; +Linn of Missouri; McKean of Pennsylvania; Moore of Alabama; Morris +of Ohio; Robinson of Illinois; Shepley of Maine; Tallmadge of New +York; Tipton of Indiana; Hugh L. White of Tennessee; Wilkins of +Pennsylvania; Silas Wright of New York.--20. And thus the resolution +was passed, and was nothing but an empty fulmination--a mere +personal censure--having no relation to any business or proceeding +in the Senate; and evidently intended for effect on the people. To +increase this effect, Mr. Clay proposed a resolve that the Secretary +should count the names of the signers to the memorials for and +against the act of the removal, and strike the balance between them, +which he computed at an hundred thousand: evidently intending to add +the effect of this popular voice to the weight of the senatorial +condemnation. The number turned out to be unexpectedly small, +considering the means by which they were collected. + +When passed, the total irrelevance of the resolution to any right +or duty of the Senate was made manifest by the insignificance +that attended its decision. There was nothing to be done with +it, or upon it, or under it, or in relation to it. It went to no +committee, laid the foundation for no action, was not communicable +to the other House, or to the President; and remained an intrusive +fulmination on the Senate Journal: put there not for any legislative +purpose, but purely and simply for popular effect. Great reliance +was placed upon that effect. It was fully believed--notwithstanding +the experience of the Senate, in Mr. Van Buren's case--that a +senatorial condemnation would destroy whomsoever it struck--even +General Jackson. Vain calculation! and equally condemned by the +lessons of history, and by the impulsions of the human heart. Fair +play is the first feeling of the masses; a fair and impartial trial +is the law of the heart, as well as of the land; and no condemnation +is tolerated of any man by his enemies. All such are required to +retire from the box and the bench, on a real trial: much more to +refrain from a simulated one; and above all from instigating one. +Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay were both known to have their private +griefs against General Jackson and also to have been in vehement +opposition to each other, and that they had "compromised" their +own bone of contention to be able to act in conjunction against +him. The instinctive sagacity of the people saw all this; and their +innate sense of justice and decorum revolted at it; and at the end +of these proceedings, the results were in exact contradiction to +the calculation of their effect. General Jackson was more popular +than ever; the leaders in the movement against him were nationally +crippled; their friends, in many instances, were politically +destroyed in their States. It was a second edition of "Fox's +martyrs." + +During all the progress of this proceeding--while a phalanx of +orators and speakers were daily fulminating against him--while many +hundred newspapers incessantly assailed him--while public meetings +were held in all parts, and men of all sorts, even beardless youths, +harangued against him as if he had been a Nero--while a stream of +committees was pouring upon him (as they were called), and whom +he soon refused to receive in that character; during the hundred +days that all this was going on, and to judge from the imposing +appearance which the crowds made that came to Washington to bring up +the "distress," and to give countenance to the Senate, and emphasis +to its proceedings, and to fill the daily gallery, applauding the +speakers against the President--saluting with noise and confusion +those who spoke on his side: during all this time, and when a +nation seemed to be in arms, and the earth in commotion against +him, he was tranquil and quiet, confident of eventual victory, and +firmly relying upon God and the people to set all right. I was +accustomed to see him often during that time, always in the night +(for I had no time to quit my seat during the day); and never saw +him appear more truly heroic and grand than at this time. He was +perfectly mild in his language, cheerful in his temper, firm in his +conviction; and confident in his reliance on the power in which +he put his trust. I have seen him in a great many situations of +peril, and even of desperation, both civil and military, and always +saw him firmly relying upon the success of the right through God +and the people; and never saw that confidence more firm and steady +than now. After giving him an account of the day's proceedings, +talking over the state of the contest, and ready to return to sleep +a little, and prepare much, for the combats of the next day, he +would usually say: "We shall whip them yet. The people will take +it up after a while." But he also had good defenders present, and +in both Houses, and men who did not confine themselves to the +defensive--did not limit themselves to returning blow for blow--but +assailed the assailants--boldly charging upon them their own illegal +conduct--exposing the rottenness of their ally, the bank--showing +its corruption in conciliating politicians, and its criminality in +distressing the people--and the unholiness of the combination which, +to attain political power and secure a bank charter, were seducing +the venal, terrifying the timid, disturbing the country, destroying +business and property, and falsely accusing the President of great +crimes and misdemeanors; because, faithful and fearless, he stood +sole obstacle to the success of the combined powers. Our labors were +great and incessant, for we had superior numbers, and great ability +to contend against. I spoke myself above thirty times; others as +often; all many times; and all strained to the utmost; for we felt, +that the cause of Jackson was that of the country--his defeat that +of the people--and the success of the combination, the delivering +up of the government to the domination of a moneyed power which +knew no mode of government but that of corruption and oppression. +We contended strenuously in both Houses; and as courageously in +the Senate against a fixed majority as if we had some chance for +success; but our exertions were not for the Senate, but for the +people--not to change senatorial votes, but to rouse the masses +throughout the land; and while borne down by a majority of ten in +the Senate, we looked with pride to the other end of the building; +and derived confidence from the contemplation of a majority of +fifty, fresh from the elections of the people, and strong in their +good cause. It was a scene for Mons. De Tocqueville to have looked +on to have learnt which way the difference lay between the men of +the direct vote of the people, and those of the indirect vote of the +General Assembly, "filtrated" through the "refining" process of an +intermediate body. + +But although fictitious and forged, yet the distress was real, +and did an immensity of mischief. Vast numbers of individuals +were ruined, or crippled in their affairs; a great many banks +were broken--a run being made upon all that would not come +into the system of the national bank. The deposit banks above +all were selected for pressure. Several of them were driven +to suspension--some to give up the deposits--and the bank in +Washington, in which the treasury did its business, was only saved +from closing its doors by running wagons with specie through mud +and mire from the mint in Philadelphia to the bank in Washington, to +supply the place of what was hauled from the bank in Washington to +the national bank in Philadelphia--the two sets of wagons, one going +and one coming, often passing each other on the road. But, while +ruin was going on upon others, the great corporation in Philadelphia +was doing well. The distress of the country was its harvest; and its +monthly returns showed constant increases of specie. + +When all was over, and the Senate's sentence had been sent out to +do its office among the people, General Jackson felt that the time +had come for him to speak; and did so in a "Protest," addressed to +the Senate, and remarkable for the temperance and moderation of +its language. He had considered the proceeding against him, from +the beginning, as illegal and void--as having no legislative aim +or object--as being intended merely for censure; and, therefore, +not coming within any power or duty of the Senate. He deemed it +extra-judicial and unparliamentary, legally no more than the act of +a town meeting, while invested with the forms of a legal proceeding; +and intended to act upon the public mind with the force of a +sentence of conviction on an impeachment, while in reality but a +personal act against him in his personal, and not in his official +character. This idea he prominently put forth in his "Protest;" from +which some passages are here given: + + "The resolution in question was introduced, discussed, and + passed, not as a joint, but as a separate resolution. It + asserts no legislative power, proposes no legislative action; + and neither possesses the form nor any of the attributes of a + legislative measure. It does not appear to have been entertained + or passed, with any view or expectation of its issuing in a + law or joint resolution, or in the repeal of any law or joint + resolution, or in any other legislative action. + + "Whilst wanting both the form and substance of a legislative + measure, it is equally manifest, that the resolution was not + justified by any of the executive powers conferred on the + Senate. These powers relate exclusively to the consideration of + treaties and nominations to office; and they are exercised in + secret session, and with closed doors. This resolution does not + apply to any treaty or nomination, and was passed in a public + session. + + "Nor does this proceeding in any way belong to that class + of incidental resolutions which relate to the officers of + the Senate, to their chamber, and other appurtenances, or to + subjects of order, and other matters of the like nature--in all + which either House may lawfully proceed without any co-operation + with the other, or with the President. + + "On the contrary the whole phraseology and sense of the + resolution seem to be judicial. Its essence, true character, + and only practical effect, are to be found in the conduct which + it charges upon the President, and in the judgment which it + pronounces on that conduct. The resolution, therefore, though + discussed and adopted by the Senate in its legislative capacity, + is, in its office, and in all its characteristics, essentially + judicial. + + "That the Senate possesses a high judicial power, and that + instances may occur in which the President of the United States + will be amenable to it, is undeniable. But under the provisions + of the constitution, it would seem to be equally plain that + neither the President nor any other officer can be rightfully + subjected to the operation of the judicial power of the Senate + except in the cases and under the forms prescribed by the + constitution. + + "The constitution declares that 'the President, Vice-President, + and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed + from office on impeachment for, and conviction of treason, + bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors'--that the + House of Representatives 'shall have the sole power of + impeachment'--that the Senate 'shall have the sole power to + try all impeachments'--that 'when sitting for that purpose, + they shall be on oath or affirmation'--that 'when the + President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice + shall preside'--that no person shall be convicted without the + concurrence of two-thirds of the members present'--and that + 'judgment shall not extend further than to remove from office, + and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, + trust or profit, under the United States.' + + "The resolution above quoted, charges in substance that in + certain proceedings relating to the public revenue, the + President has usurped authority and power not conferred upon him + by the constitution and laws, and that in doing so he violated + both. Any such act constitutes a high crime--one of the highest, + indeed, which the President can commit--a crime which justly + exposes him to impeachment by the House of Representatives, and + upon due conviction, to removal from office, and to the complete + and immutable disfranchisement prescribed by the constitution. + + "The resolution, then, was in substance an impeachment of the + President; and in its passage amounts to a declaration by a + majority of the Senate, that he is guilty of an impeachable + offence. As such it is spread upon the journals of the + Senate--published to the nation and to the world--made part + of our enduring archives--and incorporated in the history of + the age. The punishment of removal from office and future + disqualification, does not, it is true, follow this decision; + nor would it have followed the like decision, if the regular + forms of proceeding had been pursued, because the requisite + number did not concur in the result. But the moral influence + of a solemn declaration, by a majority of the Senate, that the + accused is guilty of the offence charged upon him, has been + as effectually secured, as if the like declaration had been + made upon an impeachment expressed in the same terms. Indeed, + a greater practical effect has been gained, because the votes + given for the resolution, though not sufficient to authorize a + judgment of guilty on an impeachment, were numerous enough to + carry that resolution. + + "That the resolution does not expressly allege that the + assumption of power and authority, which it condemns, was + intentional and corrupt, is no answer to the preceding view of + its character and effect. The act thus condemned, necessarily + implies volition and design in the individual to whom it + is imputed, and being unlawful in its character, the legal + conclusion is, that it was prompted by improper motives, + and committed with an unlawful intent. The charge is not of + a mistake in the exercise of supposed powers, but of the + assumption of powers not conferred by the constitution and laws, + but in derogation of both, and nothing is suggested to excuse or + palliate the turpitude of the act. In the absence of any such + excuse, or palliation, there is room only for one inference; + and that is, that the intent was unlawful and corrupt. Besides, + the resolution not only contains no mitigating suggestion, but + on the contrary, it holds up the act complained of as justly + obnoxious to censure and reprobation; and thus as distinctly + stamps it with impurity of motive, as if the strongest epithets + had been used. + + "The President of the United States, therefore, has been by a + majority of his constitutional triers, accused and found guilty + of an impeachable offence; but in no part of this proceeding + have the directions of the constitution been observed. + + "The impeachment, instead of being preferred and prosecuted by + the House of Representatives, originated in the Senate, and was + prosecuted without the aid or concurrence of the other House. + The oath or affirmation prescribed by the constitution, was + not taken by the senators; the Chief Justice did not preside; + no notice of the charge was given to the accused; and no + opportunity afforded him to respond to the accusation, to meet + his accusers face to face, to cross-examine the witnesses, to + procure counteracting testimony, or to be heard in his defence. + The safeguards and formalities which the constitution has + connected with the power of impeachment, were doubtless supposed + by the framers of that instrument, to be essential to the + protection of the public servant, to the attainment of justice, + and to the order, impartiality, and dignity of the procedure. + These safeguards and formalities were not only practically + disregarded, in the commencement and conduct of these + proceedings, but in their result, I find myself convicted by + less than two-thirds of the members present, of an impeachable + offence." + +Having thus shown the proceedings of the Senate to have been +extra-judicial and the mere fulmination of a censure, such as might +come from a "mass meeting," and finding no warrant in any right or +duty of the body, and intended for nothing but to operate upon him +personally, he then showed that senators from three States had voted +contrary to the sense of their respective State legislatures. On +this point he said: + + "There are also some other circumstances connected with the + discussion and passage of the resolution, to which I feel it + to be, not only my right, but my duty to refer. It appears by + the journal of the Senate, that among the twenty-six senators + who voted for the resolution on its final passage, and who had + supported it in debate, in its original form, were one of the + senators from the State of Maine, the two senators from New + Jersey, and one of the senators from Ohio. It also appears by + the same journal, and by the files of the Senate, that the + legislatures of these States had severally expressed their + opinions in respect to the Executive proceedings drawn in + question before the Senate. + + "It is thus seen that four senators have declared by their + votes that the President, in the late Executive proceedings in + relation to the revenue, had been guilty of the impeachable + offence of 'assuming upon himself authority and power not + conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of + both,' whilst the legislatures of their respective States had + deliberately approved those very proceedings, as consistent with + the constitution, and demanded by the public good. If these + four votes had been given in accordance with the sentiments of + the legislatures, as above expressed, there would have been but + twenty-four votes out of forty-six for censuring the President, + and the unprecedented record of his conviction could not have + been placed upon the journals of the Senate. + + "In thus referring to the resolutions and instructions of State + legislatures, I disclaim and repudiate all authority or design + to interfere with the responsibility due from members of the + Senate to their own consciences, their constituents and their + country. The facts now stated belong to the history of these + proceedings, and are important to the just development of the + principles and interests involved in them, as well as to the + proper vindication of the Executive department, and with that + view, and that view only, are they here made the topic of + remark." + +The President then entered his solemn protest against the Senate's +proceedings in these words: + + "With this view, and for the reasons which have been stated, + I do hereby solemnly protest against the aforementioned + proceedings of the Senate, as unauthorized by the constitution; + contrary to its spirit and to several of its express provisions; + subversive of that distribution of the powers of government + which it has ordained and established; destructive of the checks + and safeguards by which those powers were intended, on the one + hand, to be controlled, and, on the other, to be protected; + and calculated, by their immediate and collateral effects, by + their character and tendency, to concentrate in the hands of a + body not directly amenable to the people, a degree of influence + and power dangerous to their liberties, and fatal to the + constitution of their choice." + +And it concluded with an affecting appeal to his private history +for the patriotism and integrity of his life, and the illustration +of his conduct in relation to the bank, and showed his reliance on +God and the People to sustain him; and looked with confidence to the +place which justice would assign him on the page of history. This +moving peroration was in these words: + + "The resolution of the Senate contains an imputation upon my + private as well as upon my public character; and as it must + stand for ever on their journals, I cannot close this substitute + for that defence which I have not been allowed to present in + the ordinary form, without remarking, that I have lived in + vain, if it be necessary to enter into a formal vindication + of my character and purposes from such an imputation. In vain + do I bear upon my person, enduring memorials of that contest + in which American liberty was purchased; in vain have I since + perilled property, fame, and life, in defence of the rights + and privileges so dearly bought: in vain am I now, without + a personal aspiration, or the hope of individual advantage, + encountering responsibilities and dangers, from which, by mere + inactivity in relation to a single point, I might have been + exempt--if any serious doubts can be entertained as to the + purity of my purposes and motives. If I had been ambitious, I + should have sought an alliance with that powerful institution, + which even now aspires to no divided empire. If I had been + venal, I should have sold myself to its designs. Had I preferred + personal comfort and official ease to the performance of my + arduous duty, I should have ceased to molest it. In the history + of conquerors and usurpers, never, in the fire of youth, nor + in the vigor of manhood, could I find an attraction to lure + me from the path of duty; and now, I shall scarcely find an + inducement to commence the career of ambition, when gray hairs + and a decaying frame, instead of inviting to toil and battle, + call me to the contemplation of other worlds, where conquerors + cease to be honored, and usurpers expiate their crimes. The + only ambition I can feel, is to acquit myself to Him to whom + I must soon render an account of my stewardship, to serve my + fellow-men, and live respected and honored in the history of + my country. No; the ambition which leads me on, is an anxious + desire and a fixed determination, to return to the people, + unimpaired, the sacred trust they have confided to my charge--to + heal the wounds of the constitution and preserve it from + further violation; to persuade my countrymen, so far as I may, + that it is not in a splendid government, supported by powerful + monopolies and aristocratical establishments, that they will + find happiness, or their liberties protected, but in a plain + system, void of pomp--protecting all, and granting favors to + none--dispensing its blessings like the dews of heaven, unseen + and unfelt, save in the freshness and beauty they contribute + to produce. It is such a government that the genius of our + people requires--such a one only under which our States may + remain for ages to come, united, prosperous, and free. If the + Almighty Being who has hitherto sustained and protected me, + will but vouchsafe to make my feeble powers instrumental to + such a result, I shall anticipate with pleasure the place to be + assigned me in the history of my country, and die contented with + the belief, that I have contributed in some small degree, to + increase the value and prolong the duration of American liberty. + + "To the end that the resolution of the Senate may not be + hereafter drawn into precedent, with the authority of silent + acquiescence on the part of the Executive department; and to the + end, also, that my motives and views in the Executive proceeding + denounced in that resolution may be known to my fellow-citizens, + to the world, and to all posterity, I respectfully request + that this message and protest may be entered at length on the + journals of the Senate." + +No sooner was this Protest read in the Senate than it gave rise to +a scene of the greatest excitement. Mr. Poindexter, of Mississippi, +immediately assailed it as a breach of the privileges of the +Senate, and unfit to be received by the body. He said: "I will not +dignify this paper by considering it in the light of an Executive +message: it is no such thing. I regard it simply as a paper, with +the signature of Andrew Jackson; and, should the Senate refuse to +receive it, it will not be the first paper with the same signature +which has been refused a hearing in this body, on the ground of the +abusive and vituperative language which it contained. This effort to +denounce and overawe the deliberations of the Senate may properly +be regarded as capping the climax of that systematic plan of +operations which had for several years been in progress, designed +to bring this body into disrepute among the people, and thereby +remove the only existing barrier to the arbitrary encroachments +and usurpations of Executive power:"--and he moved that the paper, +as he called it, should not be received. Mr. Benton deemed this a +proper occasion to give notice of his intention to move a strong +measure which he contemplated--an expunging resolution against the +sentence of the Senate:--a determination to which he had come from +his own convictions of right, and which he now announced without +consultation with any of his friends. He deemed this movement too +bold to be submitted to a council of friends--too daring to expect +their concurrence;--and believed it was better to proceed without +their knowledge, than against their decision. He, therefore, +delivered his notice _ex abruptu_, accompanied by an earnest +invective against the conduct of the Senate; and committed himself +irrevocably to the prosecution of the "expunging resolution" until +he should succeed in the effort, or terminate his political life: He +said: + + "The public mind was now to be occupied with a question of the + very first moment and importance, and identical in all its + features with the great question growing out of the famous + resolutions of the English House of Commons in the case of the + Middlesex election in the year 1768; and which engrossed the + attention of the British empire for fourteen years before it was + settled. That question was one in which the House of Commons was + judged, and condemned, for adopting a resolution which was held + by the subjects of the British crown to be a violation of their + constitution, and a subversion of the rights of Englishmen: the + question now before the Senate, and which will go before the + American people, grows out of a resolution in which he (Mr. B.) + believed that the constitution had been violated--the privileges + of the House of Representatives invaded--and the rights of an + American citizen, in the person of the President, subverted. + The resolution of the House of Commons, after fourteen years of + annual motions, was expunged from the Journal of the House; and + he pledged himself to the American people to commence a similar + series of motions with respect to this resolution of the Senate. + He had made up his mind to do so without consultation with any + human being, and without deigning to calculate the chances or + the time of success. He rested under the firm conviction that + the resolution of the Senate, which had drawn from the President + the calm, temperate, and dignified protest, which had been read + at the table, was a resolution which ought to be expunged from + the Journal of the Senate; and if any thing was necessary to + stimulate his sense of duty in making a motion to that effect, + and in encouraging others after he was gone, in following up + that motion to success, it would be found in the history and + termination of the similar motion which was made in the English + House of Commons to which he had referred. That motion was + renewed for fourteen years--from 1768 to 1782--before it was + successful. For the first seven years, the lofty and indignant + majority did not condescend to reply to the motion. They sunk it + under a dead vote as often as presented. The second seven years + they replied; and at the end of the term, and on the assembling + of a new Parliament, the veteran motion was carried by more than + two to one; and the gratifying spectacle was beheld of a public + expurgation, in the face of the assembled Commons of England, + of the obnoxious resolution from the Journal of the House. The + elections in England were septennial, and it took two terms of + seven years, or two general elections, to bring the sense of the + kingdom to bear upon their representatives. The elections of the + Senate were sexennial, with intercalary exits and entrances, + and it might take a less, or a longer period, he would not + presume to say which, to bring the sense of the American people + to bear upon an act of the American Senate. Of that, he would + make no calculation; but the final success of the motion in the + English House of Commons, after fourteen years' perseverance, + was a sufficient encouragement for him to begin, and doubtless + would encourage others to continue, until the good work should + be crowned with success; and the only atonement made which it + was in the Senate's power to make, to the violated majesty + of the constitution, the invaded privileges of the House of + Representatives and the subverted rights of an American citizen. + + "In bringing this great question before the American people, Mr. + B. should consider himself as addressing the calm intelligence + of an enlightened community. He believed the body of the + American people to be the most enlightened community upon earth; + and, without the least disparagement to the present Senate, he + must be permitted to believe that many such Senates might be + drawn from the ranks of the people, and still leave no dearth + of intelligence behind. To such a community--in an appeal, on + a great question of constitutional law, to the understandings + of such a people--declamation, passion, epithets, opprobrious + language, would stand for nothing. They would float, harmless + and unheeded, through the empty air, and strike in vain upon + the ear of a sober and dispassionate tribunal. Indignation, + real or affected; wrath, however hot; fury, however enraged; + asseverations, however violent; denunciation, however furious; + will avail nothing. Facts--inexorable facts--are all that will + be attended to; reason, calm and self-possessed, is all that + will be listened to. An intelligent tribunal will exact the + respect of an address to their understandings; and he that + wishes to be heard in this great question, or being heard, + would wish to be heeded, will have occasion to be clear and + correct in his facts; close and perspicuous in his application + of law; fair and candid in his conclusions and inferences; + temperate and decorous in his language; and scrupulously free + from every taint of vengeance and malice. Solemnly impressed + with the truth of all these convictions, it was the intention of + himself (Mr. B.), whatever the example or the provocation might + be--never to forget his place, his subject, his audience, and + his object--never to forget that he was speaking in the American + Senate, on a question of violated constitution and outraged + individual right, to an audience comprehending the whole body + of the American people, and for the purpose of obtaining a + righteous decision from the calm and sober judgment of a + high-minded, intelligent, and patriotic community. + + "The question immediately before the Senate was one of minor + consequence; it might be called a question of small import, + except for the effect which the decision might have upon the + Senate itself. In that point of view, it might be a question + of some moment; for, without reference to individuals, it + was essential to the cause of free governments, that every + department of the government, the Senate inclusive, should so + act as to preserve to itself the respect and the confidence of + the country. The immediate question was, upon the rejection of + the President's message. It was moved to reject it--to reject + it, not after it was considered, but before it was considered! + and thus to tell the American people that their President shall + not be heard--should not be allowed to plead his defence--in + the presence of the body that condemned him--neither before the + condemnation, nor after it! This is the motion: and certainly no + enemy to the Senate could wish it to miscarry. The President, + in the conclusion of his message, has respectfully requested + that his defence might be entered upon the Journal of the + Senate--upon that same Journal which contains the record of + his conviction. This is the request of the President. Will the + Senate deny it? Will they refuse this act of sheer justice + and common decency? Will they go further, and not only refuse + to place it on the Journal, but refuse even to suffer it to + remain in the Senate? Will they refuse to permit it to remain + on file, but send it back, or throw it out of doors, without + condescending to reply to it? For that is the exact import of + the motion now made! Will senators exhaust their minds, and + their bodies also, in loading this very communication with + epithets, and then say that it shall not be received? Will they + receive memorials, resolutions, essays, from all that choose + to abuse the President, and not receive a word of defence from + him? Will they continue the spectacle which had been presented + here for three months--a daily presentation of attacks upon the + President from all that choose to attack him, young and old, + boys and men--attacks echoing the very sound of this resolution, + and which are not only received and filed here, but printed, + which, possibly, the twenty-six could not unite here, nor go + to trial upon any where! He remarked, in the third place, upon + the effect produced in the character of the resolution, and + affirmed that it was nothing. He said that the same charge ran + through all three. They all three imputed to the President a + violation of the constitution and laws of the country--of that + constitution which he was sworn to support, and of those laws + which he was not only bound to observe himself, but to cause to + be faithfully observed by all others. + + "A violation of the constitution and of the laws, Mr. B. said, + were not abstractions and metaphysical subtleties. They must + relate to persons or things. The violations cannot rest in + the air; they must affix themselves to men or to property; + they must connect themselves with the transactions of real + life. They cannot be ideal and contemplative. In omitting the + specifications relative to the dismission of one Secretary + of the Treasury, and the appointment of another, what other + specifications were adopted or substituted? Certainly none! What + others were mentally intended? Surely none! What others were + suggested? Certainly none! The general charge then rests upon + the same specification; and so completely is this the fact, + that no supporter of the resolutions has thought it necessary + to make the least alteration in his speeches which supported + the original resolution, or to say a single additional word in + favor of the altered resolution as finally passed. The omission + of the specification is then an omission of form and not of + substance; it is a change of words and not of things; and the + substitution of a derogation of the laws and constitution, + for dangerous to the liberties of the people, is a still more + flagrant instance of change of words without change of things. + It is tautologous and nonsensical. It adds nothing to the + general charge, and takes nothing from it. It neither explains + it nor qualifies it. In the technical sense it is absurd; for + it is not the case of a statute in derogation of the common + law, to wit, repealing a part of it; in the common parlance + understanding, it is ridiculous, for the President is not even + charged with defaming the constitution and the laws; and, if he + was so charged, it would present a curious trial of _scandalum + magnatum_ for the American Senate to engage in. No! said Mr. B., + this derogation clause is an expletion! It is put in to fill up! + The regular impeaching clause of dangerous to the liberties of + the people, had to be taken out. There was danger, not in the + people certainly, but to the character of the resolution, if it + staid in. It identified that resolution as an impeachment, and, + therefore, constituted a piece of internal evidence which it was + necessary to withdraw; but in withdrawing which, the character + of the resolution was not altered. The charge for violating + the laws and the constitution still stood; and the substituted + clause was nothing but a stopper to a vacuum--additional sound + without additional sense, to fill up a blank and round off a + sentence. + + "After showing the impeaching character of the Senate's + resolution, from its own internal evidence, Mr. B. had recourse + to another description of evidence, scarcely inferior to the + resolutions themselves, in the authentic interpretations of + their meaning. He alluded to the speeches made in support + of them, and which had resounded in this chamber for three + months, and were now circulating all over the country in every + variety of newspaper and pamphlet form. These speeches were + made by the friends of the resolution to procure its adoption + here, and to justify its adoption before the country. Let the + country then read, let the people read, what has been sent to + them for the purpose of justifying these resolutions which they + are now to try! They will find them to be in the character of + prosecution pleadings against an accused man, on his trial + for the commission of great crimes! Let them look over these + speeches, and mark the passages; they will find language + ransacked, history rummaged, to find words sufficiently strong, + and examples sufficiently odious, to paint and exemplify the + enormity of the crime of which the President was alleged to be + guilty. After reading these passages, let any one doubt, if he + can, as to the character of the resolution which was adopted. + Let him doubt, if he can, of the impeachable nature of the + offence which was charged upon the President. Let him doubt, + if he can, that every Senator who voted for that resolution, + voted the President to be guilty of an impeachable offence--an + offence, for the trial of which this Senate is the appointed + tribunal--an offence which it will be the immediate duty of the + House of Representatives to bring before the Senate, in a formal + impeachment, unless they disbelieve in the truth and justice of + the resolution which has been adopted. + + "Mr. B. said there were three characters in which the Senate + could act; and every time it acted it necessarily did so in + one or the other of these characters. It possessed executive, + legislative, and judicial characters. As a part of the + executive, it acted on treaties and nominations to office; + as a part of the legislative, it assisted in making laws; as + a judicial tribunal, it decided impeachments. Now, in which + of these characters did the Senate act when it adopted the + resolution in question? Not in its executive character, it + will be admitted; not in its legislative character, it will be + proved: for the resolution was, in its nature, wholly foreign to + legislation. It was directed, not to the formation of a law, but + to the condemnation of the President. It was to condemn him for + dismissing one Secretary, because he would not do a thing, and + appointing another that he might do it; and certainly this was + not matter for legislation; for Mr. Duane could not be restored + by law, nor Mr. Taney be put out by law. It was to convict the + President of violating the constitution and the laws; and surely + these infractions are not to be amended by laws, but avenged by + trial and punishment. The very nature of the resolution proves + it to be foreign to all legislation; its form proves the same + thing; for it is not joint, to require the action of the House + of Representatives, and thus ripen into law; nor is it followed + by an instruction to a committee to report a bill in conformity + to it. No such instruction could even now be added without + committing an absurdity of the most ridiculous character. There + was another resolution, with which this must not be confounded, + and upon which an instruction to a committee might have been + bottomed; it was the resolution which declared the Secretary's + reasons for removing the deposits to be insufficient and + unsatisfactory; but no such instruction has been bottomed even + upon that resolution; so that it is evident that no legislation + of any kind was intended to follow either resolution, even that + to which legislation might have been appropriate, much less + that to which it would have been an absurdity. Four months have + elapsed since the resolutions were brought in. In all that + time, there has been no attempt to found a legislative act + upon either of them; and it is too late now to assume that the + one which, in its nature and in its form, is wholly foreign to + legislation, is a legislative act, and adopted by the Senate + in its legislative character. No! This resolution is judicial; + it is a judgment pronounced upon an imputed offence; it is the + declared sense of a majority of the Senate, of the guilt of the + President of a high crime and misdemeanor. It is, in substance, + an impeachment--an impeachment in violation of all the forms + prescribed by the constitution--in violation of the privileges + of the House of Representatives--in subversion of the rights of + the accused, and the record of which ought to be expunged from + the Journal of the Senate. + + "Mr. B. said the selection of a tribunal for the trial of + impeachments was felt, by the convention which framed the + constitution, as one of the most delicate and difficult tasks + which they had to perform. Those great men were well read in + history, both ancient and modern, and knew that the impeaching + power--the usual mode for trying political men for political + offences--was often an engine for the gratification of factious + and ambitious feelings. An impeachment was well known to + be the beaten road for running down a hated or successful + political rival. After great deliberation--after weighing all + the tribunals, even that of the Supreme Court--the Senate + of the United States was fixed upon as the body which, from + its constitution, would be the most impartial, neutral, and + equitable, that could be selected, and, with the check of a + previous inquisition, and presentment of charges by the House of + Representatives, would be the safest tribunal to which could + be confided a power so great in itself, and so susceptible of + being abused. The Senate was selected; and to show that he had + not overstated the difficulties of the convention in making the + selection, he would take leave to read a passage from a work + which was canonical on this subject, and from an article in that + work which was written by the gentleman whose authority would + have most weight on this occasion. He spoke of the Federalist, + and of the article written by General Hamilton on the impeaching + power: + + "'A well-constituted court for the trial of impeachments is an + object not more to be desired than difficult to be obtained, in + a government wholly elective. The subjects of its jurisdiction + are those offences which proceed from the misconduct of public + men; or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some + public trust. They are of a nature which may, with peculiar + propriety, be denominated political, as they relate chiefly to + injuries done immediately to society itself. The prosecution of + them, for this reason, will seldom fail to agitate the passions + of the whole community, and to divide it into parties more or + less friendly or inimical to the accused. In many cases, it will + connect itself with the pre-existing factions, and will enlist + all their animosities, partialities, influence, and interest, on + one side or on the other; and, in such cases, there will always + be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated + more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real + demonstrations of innocence or guilt. The delicacy and magnitude + of a trust which so deeply concerns the political reputation + and existence of every man engaged in the administration of + public affairs, speak for themselves. The difficulty of placing + it rightly in a government resting entirely on the basis of + periodical elections, will as readily be perceived, when it is + considered that the most conspicuous characters in it will, from + that circumstance, be too often the leaders or the tools of the + most cunning or the most numerous faction; and, on this account, + can hardly be expected to possess the requisite neutrality + towards those whose conduct may be the subject of scrutiny. + + "'The division of the powers of impeachment between the two + branches of the legislature, assigning to one the right + of accusing, to the other the right of trying, avoids the + inconvenience of making the same persons both accusers and + judges; and guards against the danger of persecution from the + prevalency of a factious spirit in either of those branches.' + + "Mr. B. said there was much matter for elucidation of the + present object of discussion in the extract which he had read. + Its definition of an impeachable offence covered the identical + charge which was contained in the resolution adopted by the + Senate against the President. The offence charged upon him + possessed every feature of the impeachment defined by General + Hamilton. It imputes misconduct to a public man, for the abuse + and violation of a public trust. The discussion of the charge + has agitated the passions of the whole community; it has + divided the people into parties, some friendly, some inimical, + to the accused; it has connected itself with the pre-existing + parties, enlisting the whole of the opposition parties under + one banner, and calling forth all their animosities--all their + partialities--all their influence--all their interest; and, + what was not foreseen by General Hamilton, it has called forth + the tremendous moneyed power, and the pervading organization + of a great moneyed power, wielding a mass of forty millions of + money, and sixty millions of debt; wielding the whole in aid + and support of this charge upon the President, and working the + double battery of seduction, on one hand, and oppression on the + other, to put down the man against whom it is directed! This is + what General Hamilton did not foresee; but the next feature in + the picture he did foresee, and most accurately describe, as + it is now seen by us all. He said that the decision of these + impeachments would often be regulated more by the comparative + strength of parties than by the guilt or innocence of the + accused. How prophetic! Look to the memorials, resolutions, and + petitions, sent in here to criminate the President, so clearly + marked by a party line, that when an exception occurs, it is + made the special subject of public remark. Look at the vote in + the Senate, upon the adoption of the resolution, also as clearly + defined by a party line as any party question can ever be + expected to be. + + "To guard the most conspicuous characters from being + persecuted--Mr. B. said he was using the language of General + Hamilton--to guard the most conspicuous characters from being + persecuted by the leaders or the tools of the most cunning or + the most numerous faction--the convention had placed the power + of trying impeachments, not in the Supreme Court, not even in + a body of select judges chosen for the occasion, but in the + Senate of the United States, and not even in them without an + intervening check to the abuse of that power, by associating + the House of Representatives, and forbidding the Senate to + proceed against any officer until that grand inquest of the + nation should demand his trial. How far fortunate, or otherwise, + the convention may have been in the selection of its tribunal + for the trial of impeachments, it was not for him, Mr. B., to + say. It was not for him to say how far the requisite neutrality + towards those whose conduct may be under scrutiny, may be found, + or has been found, in this body. But he must take leave to + say, that if a public man may be virtually impeached--actually + condemned by the Senate of an impeachable offence, without the + intervention of the House of Representatives, then has the + constitution failed at one of its most vital points and a ready + means found for doing a thing which had filled other countries + with persecution, faction, and violence, and which it was + intended should never be done here. + + "Mr. B. called upon the Senate to recollect what was the feature + in the famous court of the Star Chamber, which rendered that + court the most odious that ever sat in England. It was not the + mass of its enormities--great as they were--for the regular + tribunals which yet existed, exceeded that court, both in the + mass and in the atrocity of their crimes and oppressions. The + regular courts in the compass of a single reign--that of James + the Second; a single judge, in a single riding--Jeffries, + on the Western Circuit--surpassed all the enormities of the + Star Chamber, in the whole course of its existence. What then + rendered that court so intolerably odious to the English + people? Sir, said Mr. B., it was because that court had no + grand jury--because it proceeded without presentment, without + indictment--upon information alone--and thus got at its victims + without the intervention, without the restraint, of an accusing + body. This is the feature which sunk the Star Chamber in + England. It is the feature which no criminal tribunal in this + America is allowed to possess. The most inconsiderable offender, + in any State of the Union, must be charged by a grand jury + before he can be tried by the court. In this Senate, sitting as + a high court of impeachment, a charge must first be presented + by the House of Representatives, sitting as the grand inquest + of the nation. But if the Senate can proceed, without the + intervention of this grand inquest, wherein is it to differ from + the Star Chamber, except in the mere execution of its decrees? + And what other execution is now required for delinquent public + men, than the force of public opinion? No! said Mr. B., we live + in an age when public opinion over public men, is omnipotent and + irreversible!--when public sentiment annihilates a public man + more effectually than the scaffold. To this new and omnipotent + tribunal, all the public men of Europe and America are now + happily subject. The fiat of public opinion has superseded + the axe of the executioner. Struck by that opinion, kings + and emperors in Europe, and the highest functionaries among + ourselves, fall powerless from the political stage, and wander, + while their bodies live, as shadows and phantoms over the land. + Should he give examples? It might be invidious; yet all would + recollect an eminent example of a citizen, once sitting at + the head of this Senate, afterwards falling under a judicial + prosecution, from which he escaped untouched by the sword of the + law, yet that eminent citizen was more utterly annihilated by + public opinion, than any execution of a capital sentence could + ever have accomplished upon his name. + + "What occasion then has the Senate, sitting as a court of + impeachment, for the power of execution? The only effect of + a regular impeachment now, is to remove from office, and + disqualification for office. An irregular impeachment will be + tantamount to removal and disqualification, if the justice of + the sentence is confided in by the people. If this condemnation + of the President had been pronounced in the first term of his + administration, and the people had believed in the truth and + justice of the sentence, certainly President Jackson would + not have been elected a second time; and every object that a + political rival, or a political party, could have wished from + his removal from office, and disqualification for office, would + have been accomplished. Disqualification for office--loss of + public favor--political death--is now the object of political + rivalship; and all this can be accomplished by an informal, + as well as by a formal impeachment, if the sentence is only + confided in by the people. If the people believed that the + President has violated the constitution and the laws, he ceases + to be the object of their respect and their confidence; he + loses their favor; he dies a political death; and that this + might be the object of the resolution, Mr. B. would leave to + the determination of those who should read the speeches which + were delivered in support of the measure, and which would + constitute a public and lasting monument of the temper in which + the resolution was presented, and the object intended to be + accomplished by it. + + "It was in vain to say there could be no object, at this + time, in annihilating the political influence of President + Jackson, and killing him off as a public man, with a senatorial + conviction for violating the laws and constitution of the + country. Such an assertion, if ventured upon by any one, would + stand contradicted by facts, of which Europe and America are + witnesses. Does he not stand between the country and the bank? + Is he not proclaimed the sole obstacle to the recharter of + the bank; and in its recharter is there not wrapped up the + destinies of a political party, now panting for power? Remove + this sole obstacle--annihilate its influence--kill off President + Jackson with a sentence of condemnation for a high crime and + misdemeanor, and the charter of the bank will be renewed, and in + its renewal, a political party, now thundering at the gates of + the capitol, will leap into power. Here then is an object for + desiring the extinction of the political influence of President + Jackson! An object large enough to be seen by all America! and + attractive enough to enlist the combined interest of a great + moneyed power, and of a great political party." + +Thus spoke Mr. Benton; but the debate on the protest went on; +and the motion of Mr. Poindexter, digested into four different +propositions, after undergoing repeated modifications upon +consultations among its friends, and after much acrimony on both +sides, was adopted by the fixed majority of twenty-seven. In voting +that the protest was a breach of the privileges of the Senate, +that body virtually affirmed the impeachment character of the +condemnatory resolutions, and involved itself in the predicament of +voting an impeachable matter without observing a single rule for +the conduct of impeachments. The protest placed it in a dilemma. +It averred the Senate's judgment to be without authority--without +any warrant in the constitution--any right in the body to pronounce +it. To receive that protest, and enter it on the journal, was to +record a strong evidence against themselves; to reject it as a +breach of privilege was to claim for their proceeding the immunity +of a regular and constitutional act; and as the proceeding was on +criminal matter, amounting to a high crime and misdemeanor, on +which matter the Senate could only act in its judicial capacity; +therefore it had to claim the immunity that would belong to it in +that capacity; and assume a violation of privilege. Certainly if the +Senate had tried an impeachment in due form, the protest, impeaching +its justice, might have been a breach of privilege; but the Senate +had no privilege to vote an impeachable matter without a regular +impeachment; and therefore it was no breach of privilege to impugn +the act which they had no privilege to commit. + + + + +CHAPTER CIV. + +MR. WEBSTER'S PLAN OF RELIEF. + + +It has already been seen that Mr. Webster took no direct part in +promoting the adoption of the resolutions against General Jackson. +He had no private grief to incite him against the President; and, +as first drawn up, it would have been impossible for him, honored +with the titles of "expounder and defender of the constitution," to +have supported the resolve: bearing plainly on its face impeachable +matter. After several modifications, he voted for it; but, from the +beginning, he had his own plan in view, which was entirely different +from an attack on the President; and solely looked to the advantage +of the bank, and the relief of the distress, in a practical and +parliamentary mode of legislation. He looked to a renewal of the +bank charter for a short term, and with such modifications as +would tend to disarm opposition, and to conciliate favor for it. +The term of the renewal was only to be for six years: a length of +time well chosen; because, from the shortness of the period, it +would have an attraction for all that class of members--always +more or less numerous in every assembly--who, in every difficulty, +are disposed to temporize and compromise; while, to the bank, in +carrying its existence beyond the presidential term of General +Jackson, it felt secure in the future acquisition of a full term. +Besides the attraction in the short period, Mr. Webster proposed +another amelioration, calculated to have serious effect; it was to +give up the exclusive or monopoly feature in the charter--leaving +to Congress to grant any other charter, in the mean time, to a new +company, if it pleased. The objectionable branch bank currency +of petty drafts was also given up. Besides this, and as an +understanding that the corporation would not attempt to obtain a +further existence beyond the six years, the directors were to be +at liberty to begin to return the capital to the stockholders at +any time within the period of three years, before the expiration of +the six renewed years. The deposits were not to be restored until +after the first day of July; and, as an agreeable concession to +the enemies of small paper currency the bank was to issue, or use, +no note under the amount of twenty dollars. He had drawn up a bill +with these provisions, and asked leave to bring it in; and, asking +the leave, made a very plausible business speech in its favor: the +best perhaps that could have been devised. In addition to his own +weight, and the recommendations in the bill, it was understood to +be the preference of Mr. Biddle himself--his own choice of remedies +in the difficulties which surrounded his institution. But he met +opposition from quarters not to be expected: from Mr. Clay, who +went for the full term of twenty years; and Mr. Calhoun, who went +for twelve. It was difficult to comprehend why these two gentlemen +should wish to procure for the bank more than it asked, and which +it was manifestly impossible for it to gain. Mr. Webster's bill was +the only one that stood the least chance of getting through the two +Houses; and on that point he had private assurances of support from +friends of the administration, if all the friends of the bank stood +firm. In favoring this charter for twelve years, Mr. Calhoun felt +that an explanation of his conduct was due to the public, as he was +well known to have been opposed to the renewed charter, when so +vehemently attempted, in 1832; and also against banks generally. His +explanation was, that he considered it a currency question, and a +question between the national and local banks; and that the renewed +charter was to operate against them; and, in winding itself up, was +to cease for ever, having first established a safe currency. His +frequent expression was, that his plan was to "unbank the banks:" a +process not very intelligibly explained at the time, and on which +he should be allowed to speak for himself. Some passages are, +therefore, given from his speech: + + "After a full survey of the whole subject, I can see no means of + extricating the country from its present danger, and to arrest + its further increase, but a bank, the agency of which, in some + form; or under some authority, is indispensable. The country has + been brought into the present diseased state of the currency + by banks, and must be extricated by their agency. We must, in + a word, use a bank to unbank the banks, to the extent that may + be necessary to restore a safe and stable currency--just as + we apply snow to a frozen limb, in order to restore vitality + and circulation, or hold up a burn to the flame to extract the + inflammation. All must see that it is impossible to suppress + the banking system at once. It must continue for a time. Its + greatest enemies, and the advocates of an exclusive specie + circulation, must make it a part of their system to tolerate + the banks for a longer or a shorter period. To suppress them at + once, would, if it were possible, work a greater revolution: a + greater change in the relative condition of the various classes + of the community than would the conquest of the country by a + savage enemy. What, then, must be done? I answer, a new and + safe system must gradually grow up under, and replace, the old; + imitating, in this respect, the beautiful process which we + sometimes see, of a wounded or diseased part in a living organic + body, gradually superseded by the healing process of nature. + + "How is this to be effected? How is a bank to be used as the + means of correcting the excess of the banking system? And what + bank is to be selected as the agent to effect this salutary + change? I know, said Mr. C., that a diversity of opinion will + be found to exist, as to the agent to be selected, among those + who agree on every other point, and who, in particular, agree + on the necessity of using some bank as the means of effecting + the object intended; one preferring a simple recharter of + the existing bank--another, the charter of a new bank of the + United States--a third, a new bank ingrafted upon the old--and + a fourth, the use of the State banks, as the agent. I wish, + said Mr. C., to leave all these as open questions, to be + carefully surveyed and compared with each other, calmly and + dispassionately, without prejudice or party feeling; and that to + be selected which, on the whole, shall appear to be best--the + most safe; the most efficient; the most prompt in application, + and the least liable to constitutional objection. It would, + however, be wanting in candor on my part, not to declare that my + impression is, that a new Bank of the United States, ingrafted + upon the old, will be found, under all the circumstances of + the case, to combine the greatest advantages, and to be liable + to the fewest objections; but this impression is not so firmly + fixed as to be inconsistent with a calm review of the whole + ground, or to prevent my yielding to the conviction of reason, + should the result of such review prove that any other is + preferable. Among its peculiar recommendations, may be ranked + the consideration, that, while it would afford the means of a + prompt and effectual application for mitigating and finally + removing the existing distress, it would, at the same time, open + to the whole community a fair opportunity of participation in + the advantages of the institution, be they what they may. + + "Let us then suppose (in order to illustrate and not to indicate + a preference) that the present bank be selected as the agent to + effect the intended object. What provisions will be necessary? + I will suggest those that have occurred to me, mainly, however, + with a view of exciting the reflection of those much more + familiar with banking operations than myself, and who, of + course, are more competent to form a correct judgment on their + practical effect. + + "Let, then, the bank charter be renewed for twelve years after + the expiration of the present term, with such modifications and + limitations as may be judged proper, and that after that period, + it shall issue no notes under ten dollars; that government + shall not receive in its dues any sum less than ten dollars, + except in the legal coins of the United States; that it shall + not receive in its dues the notes of any bank that issues notes + of a denomination less than five dollars; and that the United + States Bank shall not receive in payment, or on deposit, the + notes of any bank whose notes are not receivable in dues of + the government; nor the notes of any bank which may receive + the notes of any bank whose notes are not receivable by the + government. At the expiration of six years from the commencement + of the renewed charter, let the bank be prohibited from issuing + any note under twenty dollars, and let no sum under that amount + be received in the dues of the government, except in specie; + and let the value of gold be raised at least equal to that of + silver, to take effect immediately, so that the country may be + replenished with the coin, the lightest and the most portable + in proportion to its value, to take the place of the receding + bank notes. It is unnecessary for me to state, that at present, + the standard value of gold is several per cent. less than that + of silver, the necessary effect of which has been to expel gold + entirely from our circulation, and thus to deprive us of a coin + so well calculated for the circulation of a country so great in + extent, and having so vast an intercourse, commercial, social, + and political, between all its parts, as ours. As an additional + recommendation to raise its relative value, gold has, of late, + become an important product of three considerable States of the + Union, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia--to the industry + of which, the measure proposed would give a strong impulse, and + which in turn would greatly increase the quantity produced. + + "Such are the means which have occurred to me. There are members + of this body far more competent to judge of their practical + operation than myself, and as my object is simply to suggest + them for their reflection, and for that of others who are more + familiar with this part of the subject, I will not at present + enter into an inquiry as to their efficiency, with a view of + determining whether they are fully adequate to effect the + object in view or not. There are doubtless others of a similar + description, and perhaps more efficacious, that may occur to + the experienced, which I would freely embrace, as my object + is to adopt the best and most efficient. And it may be hoped + that, if on experience it should be found that neither these + provisions nor any other in the power of Congress, are fully + adequate to effect the important reform which I have proposed, + the co-operation of the States may be afforded, at least to + the extent of suppressing the circulation of notes under five + dollars, where such are permitted to be issued under their + authority." + +The ultimate object proposed to be accomplished by Mr. Calhoun in +this process of "unbanking the banks," was to arrive eventually +and by slow degrees, at a metallic currency, and the revival of +gold. This had been my object, and so declared in the Senate, from +the time of the first opposition to the United States Bank. He had +talked his plan over to myself and others: we had talked over ours +to him. There was a point at which we all agreed--the restoration +of a metallic currency; but differed about the means--he expecting +to attain it slowly and eventually, through the process which he +mentioned; and we immediately, through the revival of the gold +currency, the extinction of the Bank of the United States, the +establishment of an independent treasury, and the exclusion of all +paper money from the federal receipts and payments. Laying hold of +the point on which we agreed, (and which was also the known policy +of the President), Mr. Calhoun appealed to Mr. Silas Wright and +myself and other friends of the administration, to support his plan. +He said: + + "If I understand their views, as expressed by the senator from + Missouri, behind me (Mr. Benton)--the senator from New-York (Mr. + Wright); and other distinguished members of the party, and the + views of the President, as expressed in reported conversations, + I see not how they can reject the measure (_to wit_: his plan). + They profess to be the advocates of a metallic currency. I + propose to restore it by the most effectual measures that can be + devised, gradually and slowly, and to the extent that experience + may show that it can be done consistently with due regard to the + public interest. Further, no one can desire to go." + +The reference here made by Mr. Calhoun to the views of the senator +from Missouri was to conversations held between them; in which each +freely communicated his own plan. Mr. Benton had not then brought +forward his proposition for the revival of the gold currency; but +did so, (in a speech which he had studied), the moment Mr. Calhoun +concluded. That was a thing understood between them. Mr. Calhoun +had signified his wish to speak first; to which Mr. Benton readily +assented: and both took the opportunity presented by Mr. Webster's +motion, and the presentation of his plan, to present their own +respectively. Mr. Benton presented his the moment Mr. Calhoun sat +down, in a much considered speech, which will be given in the next +chapter; and which was the first of his formal speeches in favor of +reviving the gold currency. In the mean time, Mr. Webster's plan +lingered on the motion for leave to bring in his bill. That leave +was not granted. Things took a strange turn. The friends of the bank +refused in a body to give Mr. Webster the leave asked: the enemies +of the bank were in favor of giving him the leave--chiefly, perhaps, +because his friends refused it. In this state of contrariety among +his friends, Mr. Webster moved to lay his own motion on the table; +and Mr. Forsyth, to show that this balk came from his own side of +the chamber, asked the yeas and nays; which were granted and were as +follows: + + "YEAS.--Messrs Black, Calhoun, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, + Frelinghuysen, Hendricks, King of Georgia, Mangum, Moore, + Naudain, Poindexter, Porter, Prentiss, Preston, Robbins, + Silsbee, Smith, Southard, Sprague, Swift, Tomlinson, Waggaman, + Webster. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Benton, Brown, Forsyth, Grundy, Hill, Kane, King + of Alabama, Morris, Robinson, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, White, + Wilkins, Wright." + +The excuse for the movement--for this unexpected termination to Mr. +Webster's motion--was that the Senate might proceed with Mr. Clay's +resolution against General Jackson, and come to a conclusion upon +it. It was now time for that conclusion. It was near the last of +March, and the Virginia elections came on in April: but the real +cause for Mr. Webster's motion was the settled opposition of his +political friends to his plan; and that was proved by its subsequent +fate. In his motion to lay his application on the table, he treated +it as a temporary disposition of it--the application to be renewed +it some future time: which it never was. + + + + +CHAPTER CV. + +REVIVAL OF THE GOLD CURRENCY--MR. BENTON'S SPEECH. + + +Mr. Benton said it was now six years since he had begun to oppose +the renewal of the charter of this bank, but he had not, until the +present moment, found a suitable occasion for showing the people the +kind of currency which they were entitled to possess, and probably +would possess, on the dissolution of the Bank of the United States. +This was a view of the subject which many wished to see, and which +he felt bound to give; and which he should proceed to present, with +all the brevity and perspicuity of which he was master. + +1. In the first place, he was one of those who believed that the +government of the United States was intended to be a hard money +government: that it was the intention, and the declaration of the +constitution of the United States, that the federal currency should +consist of gold and silver; and that there is no power in Congress +to issue, or to authorize any company of individuals to issue, any +species of federal paper currency whatsoever. + +Every clause in the constitution, said Mr. B., which bears upon the +subject of money--every early statute of Congress which interprets +the meaning of these clauses--and every historic recollection which +refers to them, go hand in hand, in giving to that instrument the +meaning which this proposition ascribes to it. The power granted to +Congress to coin money is an authority to stamp metallic money, and +is not an authority for emitting slips of paper containing promises +to pay money. The authority granted to Congress to regulate the +value of coin, is an authority to regulate the value of the metallic +money, not of paper. The prohibition upon the States against +making any thing but gold and silver a legal tender, is a moral +prohibition, founded in virtue and honesty, and is just as binding +upon the federal government as upon the State governments; and that +without a written prohibition; for the difference in the nature of +the two governments is such, that the States may do all things which +they are not forbid to do; and the federal government can do nothing +which it is not authorized by the constitution to do. The power to +punish the crime of counterfeiting is limited to the current coin +of the United States, and to the securities of the United States; +and cannot be extended to the offence of forging paper money, but by +that unjustifiable power of construction which founds an implication +upon an implication, and hangs one implied power upon another. The +word currency is not in the constitution, nor any word which can +be made to cover a circulation of bank notes. Gold and silver is +the only thing recognized for money. It is the money, and the only +money, of the constitution; and every historic recollection, as +well as every phrase in the constitution, and every early statute +on the subject of money, confirms that idea. People were sick of +paper money about the time that this constitution was formed. The +Congress of the confederation, in the time of the Revolution, had +issued a currency of paper money. It had run the full career of +that currency. The wreck of two hundred millions of paper dollars +lay upon the land. The framers of that constitution worked in the +midst of that wreck. They saw the havoc which paper money had made +upon the fortunes of individuals, and the morals of the public. They +determined to have no more federal paper money. They created a hard +money government; they intended the new government to recognize +nothing for money but gold and silver; and every word admitted into +the constitution, upon the subject of money, defines and establishes +that sacred intention. + +Legislative enactment, continued Mr. B., came quickly to the aid +of constitutional intention and historic recollection. The fifth +statute passed at the first session of the first Congress that +ever sat under the present constitution, was full and explicit on +this head. It defined the kind of money which the federal treasury +should receive. The enactments of the statute are remarkable +for their brevity and comprehension, as well as for their clear +interpretation of the constitution; and deserve to be repeated +and remembered. They are: That the fees and duties payable to the +federal government shall be received in gold and silver coin only; +the gold coins of France, Spain, Portugal, and England, and all +other gold coins of equal fineness, at eighty-nine cents for every +pennyweight; the Mexican dollar at one hundred cents; the crown of +France at one hundred and eleven cents; and all other silver coins +of equal fineness, at one hundred and eleven cents per ounce. This +statute was passed the 30th day of July, 1789--just one month after +Congress had commenced the work of legislation. It shows the sense +of the Congress composed of the men, in great part, who had framed +the constitution, and who, by using the word only, clearly expressed +their intention that gold and silver alone was to constitute the +currency of the new government. + +In support of this construction of the constitution, Mr. B. referred +to the phrase so often used by our most aged and eminent statesmen, +that this was intended to be a hard money government. Yes, said +Mr. B., the framers of the constitution were hard money men; but +the chief expounder and executor of that constitution was not a +hard money man, but a paper system man! a man devoted to the paper +system of England, with all the firmness of conviction, and all +the fervor of enthusiasm. God forbid, said Mr. B., that I should +do injustice to Gen. Hamilton--that I should say, or insinuate, +aught to derogate from the just fame of that great man! He has many +titles to the gratitude and admiration of his countrymen, and the +heart could not be American which could dishonor or disparage his +memory. But his ideas of government did not receive the sanction of +general approbation; and of all his political tenets, his attachment +to the paper system was most strongly opposed at the time, and has +produced the most lasting and deplorable results upon the country. +In the year 1791, this great man, then Secretary of the Treasury, +brought forward his celebrated plan for the support of public +credit--that plan which unfolded the entire scheme of the paper +system, and immediately developed the great political line between +the federalists and the republicans. The establishment of a national +bank was the leading and predominant feature of that plan; and the +original report of the Secretary, in favor of establishing the bank, +contained this fatal and deplorable recommendation: + +"The bills and notes of the bank, originally made payable, or which +shall have become payable, on demand, in gold and silver coin, shall +be receivable in all payments to the United States." + +This fatal recommendation became a clause in the charter of the +bank. It was transferred from the report of the Secretary to +the pages of the statute book; and from that moment the moneyed +character of the federal government stood changed and reversed. +Federal bank notes took the place of hard money; and the whole +edifice of the new government slid, at once, from the solid rock of +gold and silver money, on which its framers had placed it, into the +troubled and tempestuous ocean of a paper currency. + +Mr. B. said it was no answer to this most serious charge of having +changed the moneyed character of the federal government, and of +the whole Union, to say that the notes of the Bank of the United +States are not made a legal tender between man and man. There +was no necessity, he said, for a statute law to that effect; it +was sufficient that they were made a legal tender to the federal +government; the law of necessity, far superior to that of the +statute book, would do the rest. A law of tender was not necessary; +a forced, incidental tender, resulted as an inevitable consequence +from the credit and circulation which the federal government +gave them. Whatever was received at the custom-houses, at the +land-offices, at the post-offices, at the marshals' and district +attorneys' offices, and in all the various dues to the federal +government, must be received and will be received by the people. +It becomes the actual and practical currency of the land. People +must take it, or get nothing; and thus the federal government, +establishing a paper currency for itself, establishes it also for +the States and for the people; and every body must use it from +necessity, whether compelled by law or not. + +Mr. B. said it was not to be supposed that the objection which he +now took to the unconstitutionality of the clause which made the +notes of the federal bank a legal tender to the federal government, +was an objection which could be overlooked, or disregarded, by +the adversaries of the bank in 1791. It was not overlooked, or +disregarded; on the contrary, it was denounced, and combated, as in +itself a separate and distinct breach of the constitution, going +the whole length of emitting paper money; and the more odious and +reprehensible because a privileged company was to have the monopoly +of the emission. The genius of Hamilton was put in requisition +to answer this objection; and the best answer which that great +man could give it, was a confession of the omnipotence of the +objection, and the total impossibility of doing it away. His answer +surrendered the whole question of a currency. It sunk the notes of +the bank, which were then to be tendered to the federal government, +to the condition of supplies furnished to the government, and +to be consumed by it. The answer took refuge under the natural +power, independent of all constitutions, for the tax receiver to +receive his taxes in what articles he pleased. To do justice to +General Hamilton, and to detect and expose the true character +of this bank paper, Mr. B. read a clause from Gen. Hamilton's +reply to the cabinet opinions of Mr. Jefferson, and the Attorney +General Randolph, when President Washington had the charter of +the first bank under advisement with his Secretaries. It was the +clause in which General Hamilton replied to the objection to the +constitutionality of making the notes of the bank receivable in +payment of public dues. "To designate or appoint the money or thing +in which taxes are to be paid, is not only a proper, but a necessary +exercise of the power of collecting them. Accordingly, Congress, +in the law concerning the collection of the duties, imposts, and +tonnage, has provided that they shall be payable in gold and silver. +But, while it was an indispensable part of the work to say in what +they should be paid, the choice of the specific thing was a mere +matter of discretion. The payment might have been required in the +commodities themselves. Taxes in kind, however ill judged, are not +without precedents, even in the United States; or it might have +been in the paper money of the several States; or in the bills +of the Bank of North America, New-York, and Massachusetts, all, +or either of them; it might have been in bills issued under the +authority of the United States. No part of this, it is presumed, +can be disputed. The appointment of the money or thing in which the +taxes are to be paid, is an incident of the power of collection. And +among the expedients which may be adopted, is that of bills issued +under the authority of the United States." Mr. B. would read no +further, although the argument of General Hamilton extended through +several pages. The nature of the argument is fully disclosed in +what is read. It surrenders the whole question of a paper currency. +Neither the power to furnish a currency, or to regulate currency, +is pretended to be claimed. The notes of the new bank are put upon +the footing, not of money, but of commodities--things--articles in +kind--which the tax receiver may accept from the tax payer; and +which are to be used and consumed by the tax receiver, and not to be +returned to the people, much less to be diffused over the country in +place of money. This is the original idea and conception of these +notes. It is the idea under which they obtained the legal capacity +of receivability in payment of public dues; and from this humble +conception, this degraded assimilation to corn and grain, to clothes +and provisions, they have, by virtue of that clause in the charter, +crept up to the character of money--become the real, practical +currency of the land--driven the currency of the constitution from +the land--and so depraved the public intellect as now to be called +for as money, and proclaimed to be indispensable to the country, +when the author of the bank could not rank it higher than an +expedient for paying a tax. + +2. In the next place, Mr. B. believed that the quantity of specie +derivable from foreign commerce, added to the quantity of gold +derivable from our own mines, were fully sufficient, if not expelled +from the country by unwise laws, to furnish the people with an +abundant circulation of gold and silver coin, for their common +currency, without having recourse to a circulation of small bank +notes. + +The truth of these propositions, Mr. B. held to be susceptible of +complete and ready proof. He spoke first of the domestic supply +of native gold, and said that no mines had ever developed more +rapidly than these had done, or promised more abundantly than they +now do. In the year 1824 they were a spot in the State of North +Carolina; they are now a region spreading into six States. In the +year 1824 the product was $5,000; in the last year the product, +in coined gold, was $868,000; in uncoined, as much more; and the +product of the present year computed at two millions; with every +prospect of continued and permanent increase. The probability was +that these mines alone, in the lapse of a few years, would furnish +an abundant supply of gold to establish a plentiful circulation +of that metal, if not expelled from the country by unwise laws. +But the great source of supply, both for gold and silver, Mr. B. +said, was in our foreign commerce. It was this foreign commerce +which filled the States with hard money immediately after the close +of the Revolutionary War, when the domestic mines were unknown; +and it is the same foreign commerce which, even now, when federal +laws discourage the importation of foreign coins and compel their +exportation, is bringing in an annual supply of seven or eight +millions. With an amendment of the laws which now discourage the +importation of foreign coins, and compel their exportation, there +could be no delay in the rapid accumulation of a sufficient stock +of the precious metals to supply the largest circulation which the +common business of the country could require. + +Mr. B. believed the product of foreign mines, and the quantity +of gold and silver now in existence, to be much greater than was +commonly supposed; and, as a statement of its amount would establish +his proposition in favor of an adequate supply of these metals for +the common currency of the country, he would state that amount, as +he found it calculated in approved works of political economy. He +looked to the three great sources of supply: 1. Mexico and South +America; 2. Europe and Northern Asia; 3. The coast of Africa. Taking +the discovery of the New World as the starting point from which the +calculation would commence, and the product was: + + 1. Mexico and South America, $6,458,000,000 + 2. Europe and Northern Asia, 628,000,000 + 3. The coast of Africa, 150,000,000 + +--making a total product of seven thousand two hundred and +thirty-six millions, in the short space of three centuries and a +half. To this is to be added the quantity existing at the time the +New World was discovered, and which was computed at $2,300,000,000. +Upon all these data, the political economists, Mr. B. said, after +deducting $2,000,000,000 for waste and consumption, still computed +the actual stock of gold and silver in Europe, Asia, and America, in +1832, at about seven thousand millions of dollars; and that quantity +constantly and rapidly increasing. + +Mr. B. had no doubt but that the quantity of gold and silver in +Europe, Asia, and America, was sufficient to carry on the whole +business of the world. He said that states and empires--far greater +in wealth and population than any now existing--far superior in +public and private magnificence--had carried on all the business +of private life, and all the affairs of national government, upon +gold and silver alone; and that before the mines of Mexico and +Peru were known, or dreamed of. He alluded to the great nations of +antiquity--to the Assyrian and Persian empires; to Egypt, Carthage, +Rome; to the Grecian republics; the kingdoms of Asia Minor; and +to the empire, transcending all these put together--the Saracenic +empire of the Caliphs, which, taking for its centre the eastern +limit of the Roman world, extended its dominion as far west as +Rome had conquered, and further east than Alexander had marched. +These great nations, whose armies crushed empires at a blow, whose +monumental edifices still attest their grandeur, had no idea of +bank credits and paper money. They used gold and silver alone. Such +degenerate phrases as sound currency, paper medium, circulating +media, never once sounded in their heroic ears. But why go back, +exclaimed Mr. B., to the nations of antiquity? Why quit our own +day? Why look beyond the boundaries of Europe? We have seen an +empire in our own day, of almost fabulous grandeur and magnificence, +carrying on all its vast undertakings upon a currency of gold and +silver, without deigning to recognize paper for money. I speak, +said Mr. B., of France--great and imperial France--and have my eye +upon that first year of the consulate, when a young and victorious +general, just transferred from the camp to a council, announced to +his astonished ministers that specie payments should commence in +France by a given day!--in that France which, for so many years, had +seen nothing but a miserable currency of depreciated mandats and +assignats! The annunciation was heard with the inward contempt, and +open distrust, which the whole tribe of hack politicians every where +feel for the statesmanship of military men. It was followed by the +success which it belongs to genius to inspire and to command. Specie +payments commenced in France on the day named; and a hard money +currency has been the sole currency of France from that day to this. + +Such, said Mr. B., is the currency of France; a country whose taxes +exceed a thousand millions of francs--whose public and private +expenditures require a circulation of three hundred and fifty +millions of dollars--and which possesses that circulation, every +dollar of it, in gold and silver. After this example, can any one +doubt the capacity of the United States to supply itself with +specie? Reason and history forbid the doubt. Reason informs us that +hard money flows into the vacuum the instant that small bank notes +are driven out. France recovered a specie circulation within a year +after the consular government refused to recognize paper for money. +England recovered a gold circulation of about one hundred millions +of dollars within four years after the one and two pound notes were +suppressed. Our own country filled up with Spanish milled dollars, +French crowns, doubloons, half joes, and guineas, as by magic, at +the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, and the suppression of +the continental bills. The business of the United States would not +require above sixty or seventy millions of gold and silver for the +common currency of the people, and the basis of large bank notes +and bills of exchange. Of that sum, more than one third is now in +the country, but not in circulation. The Bank of the United States +hoards above ten millions. At the expiration of her charter, in +1836, that sum will be paid out in redemption of its notes--will go +into the hands of the people--and, of itself, will nearly double +the quantity of silver now in circulation. Our native mines will be +yielding, annually, some millions of gold; foreign commerce will be +pouring in her accustomed copious supply; the correction of the +erroneous value of gold, the liberal admission of foreign coins, and +the suppression of small notes, will invite and retain an adequate +metallic currency. The present moment is peculiarly favorable for +these measures. Foreign exchanges are now in our favor; silver is +coming here, although not current by our laws; both gold and silver +would flow in, and that immediately, to an immense amount, if +raised to their proper value, and put on a proper footing, by our +laws. Three days' legislation on these subjects would turn copious +supplies of gold and silver into the country, diffuse them through +every neighborhood, and astonish gentlemen when they get home at +midsummer, at finding hard money where they had left paper. + +3. In the third place, Mr. B. undertook to affirm, as a proposition +free from dispute or contestation, that the value now set upon gold, +by the laws of the United States, was unjust and erroneous; that +these laws had expelled gold from circulation; and that it was the +bounden duty of Congress to restore that coin to circulation, by +restoring it to its just value. + +That gold was undervalued by the laws of the United States, and +expelled from circulation, was a fact, Mr. B. said, which every body +knew; but there was something else which every body did not know; +which few, in reality, had an opportunity of knowing, but which was +necessary to be known, to enable the friends of gold to go to work +at the right place to effect the recovery of that precious metal +which their fathers once possessed--which the subjects of European +kings now possess--which the citizens of the young republics to +the South all possess--which even the free negroes of San Domingo +possess--but which the yeomanry of this America have been deprived +of for more than twenty years, and will be deprived of for ever, +unless they discover the cause of the evil, and apply the remedy to +its root. + +I have already shown, said Mr. B., that the plan for the support of +public credit which General Hamilton brought forward, in 1791, was +a plan for the establishment of the paper system in our America. We +had at that time a gold currency which was circulating freely and +fully all over the country. Gold is the antagonist of paper, and, +with fair play, will keep a paper currency within just and proper +limits. It will keep down the small notes; for, no man will carry +a five, a ten, or a twenty dollar note in his pocket, when he can +get guineas, eagles, half eagles, doubloons, and half joes to carry +in their place. The notes of the new Bank of the United States, +which bank formed the leading feature in the plan for the support +of public credit, had already derived one undue advantage over +gold, in being put on a level with it in point of legal tender to +the federal government, and universal receivability in all payments +to that government: they were now to derive another, and a still +greater undue advantage over gold, in the law for the establishment +of the national mint; an institution which also formed a feature of +the plan for the support of public credit. It is to that plan that +we trace the origin of the erroneous valuation of gold, which has +banished that metal from the country. Mr. Secretary Hamilton, in his +proposition for the establishment of a mint, recommended that the +relative value of gold to silver should be fixed at fifteen for one; +and that recommendation became the law of the land; and has remained +so ever since. At the same time, the relative value of these metals +in Spain and Portugal, and throughout their vast dominions in the +new world, whence our principal supplies of gold were derived, was +at the rate of sixteen for one; thus making our standard six per +cent. below the standard of the countries which chiefly produced +gold. It was also below the English standard, and the French +standard, and below the standard which prevailed in these States, +before the adoption of the constitution, and which was actually +prevailing in the States, at the time that this new proportion of +fifteen to one was established. + +Mr. B. was ready to admit that there was some nicety requisite in +adjusting the relative value of two different kinds of money--gold +and silver for example--so as to preserve an exact equipoise between +them, and to prevent either from expelling the other. There was some +nicety, but no insuperable or even extraordinary difficulty, in +making the adjustment. The nicety of the question was aggravated in +the year '92, by the difficulty of obtaining exact knowledge of the +relative value of these metals, at that time, in France and England; +and Mr. Gallatin has since shown that the information which was then +relied upon was clearly erroneous. The consequence of any mistake +in fixing our standard, was also well known in the year '92. Mr. +Secretary Hamilton, in his proposition for the establishment of a +mint, expressly declared that the consequence of a mistake in the +relative value of the two metals, would be the expulsion of the one +that was undervalued. Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, in his +cotemporaneous report upon foreign coins, declared the same thing. +Mr. Robert Morris, financier to the revolutionary government, in +his proposal to establish a mint, in 1782, was equally explicit to +the same effect. The delicacy of the question and the consequence +of a mistake, were then fully understood forty years ago, when the +relative value of gold and silver was fixed at fifteen to one. But, +at that time, it unfortunately happened that the paper system, +then omnipotent in England, was making its transit to our America; +and every thing that would go to establish that system--every +thing that would go to sustain the new-born Bank of the United +States--that eldest daughter and _spem gregis_ of the paper system +in America--fell in with the prevailing current, and became +incorporated in the federal legislation of the day. Gold, it was +well known, was the antagonist of paper; from its intrinsic value, +the natural predilection of all mankind for it, its small bulk, and +the facility of carrying it about, it would be preferred to paper, +either for travelling or keeping in the house; and thus would limit +and circumscribe the general circulation of bank notes, and prevent +all plea of necessity for issuing smaller notes. Silver, on the +contrary, from its inconvenience of transportation, would favor the +circulation of bank notes. Hence the birth of the doctrine, that if +a mistake was to be committed, it should be on the side of silver! +Mr. Secretary Hamilton declares the existence of this feeling when, +in his report upon the establishment of a mint, he says: "It is +sometimes observed, that silver ought to be encouraged, rather than +gold, as being more conducive to the extension of bank circulation, +from the greater difficulty and inconvenience which its greater +bulk, compared with its value, occasions in the transportation of +it." This passage in the Secretary's report, proves the existence +of the feeling in favor of silver against gold, and the cause of +that feeling. Quotations might be made from the speeches of others +to show that they acted upon that feeling; but it is due to General +Hamilton to say that he disclaimed such a motive for himself, and +expressed a desire to retain both metals in circulation, and even to +have a gold dollar. + +The proportion of fifteen to one was established. The 11th section +of the act of April, 1792, enacted that every fifteen pounds weight +of pure silver, should be equal in value, in all payments, with +one pound of pure gold; and so in proportion for less quantities +of the respective metals. This act was the death warrant to the +gold currency. The diminished circulation of that coin soon began +to be observable; but it was not immediately extinguished. Several +circumstances delayed, but could not prevent that catastrophe. +1. The Bank of the United States then issued no note of less +denomination than ten dollars, and but few of them. 2. There were +but three other banks in the United States, and they issued but few +small notes; so that a small note currency did not come directly +into conflict with gold. 3. The trade to the lower Mississippi +continued to bring up from Natchez and New Orleans, for many years, +a large supply of doubloons; and long supplied a gold currency +to the new States in the West. Thus, the absence of a small note +currency, and the constant arrivals of doubloons from the lower +Mississippi, deferred the fate of the gold currency; and it was +not until the lapse of near twenty years after the adoption of the +erroneous standard of 1792, that the circulation of that metal, both +foreign and domestic, became completely and totally extinguished in +the United States. The extinction is now complete, and must remain +so until the laws are altered. + +In making this annunciation, and in thus standing forward to expose +the error, and to demand the reform of the gold currency, he (Mr. +B.) was not setting up for the honors of a first discoverer, or +first inventor. Far from it. He was treading in the steps of other, +and abler men, who had gone before him. Four Secretaries of the +Treasury, Gallatin, Dallas, Crawford, Ingham, had, each in their +day, pointed out the error in the gold standard, and recommended +its correction. Repeated reports of committees, in both Houses of +Congress, had done the same thing. Of these reports he would name +those of the late Mr. Lowndes of South Carolina; of Mr. Sanford, +late a senator from New-York; of Mr. Campbell P. White, now a +representative from the city of New-York. Mr. B. took pleasure in +recalling and presenting to public notice, the names of the eminent +men who had gone before him in the exploration of this path. It was +due to them, now that the good cause seemed to be in the road to +success, to yield to them all the honors of first explorers; it was +due to the cause also, in this hour of final trial, to give it the +high sanction of their names and labors. + +Mr. B. would arrest for an instant the current of his remarks, to +fix the attention of the Senate upon a reflection which must suggest +itself to the minds of all considerate persons. He would ask how +it could happen that so many men, and such men as he had named, +laboring for so many years, in a cause so just, for an object so +beneficial, upon a state of facts so undeniable, could so long and +so uniformly fail of success? How could this happen? Sir, exclaimed +Mr. B., it happened because the policy of the Bank of the United +States required it to happen! The same policy which required gold +to be undervalued in 1792, when the first bank was chartered, has +required it to be undervalued ever since, now that a second bank +has been established; and the same strength which enabled these +banks to keep themselves up, also enabled them to keep gold down. +This is the answer to the question; and this the secret of the +failure of all these eminent men in their laudable efforts to raise +gold again to the dignity of money. This is the secret of their +failure; and this secret being now known, the road which leads to +the reformation of the gold currency lies uncovered and revealed +before us: it is the road which leads to the overthrow of the Bank +of the United States--to the sepulchre of that institution: for, +while that bank lives, or has the hope of life, gold cannot be +restored to life. Here then lies the question of the reform of the +gold currency. If the bank is defeated, that currency is reformed; +if the bank is victorious, gold remains degraded; to continue an +article of merchandise in the hands of the bank, and to be expelled +from circulation to make room for its five, its ten, and its twenty +dollar notes. Let the people then, who are in favor of restoring +gold to circulation, go to work in the right place, and put down the +power that first put down gold, and which will never suffer that +coin to rise while it has power to prevent it. + +Mr. B. did not think it necessary to descant and expatiate upon the +merits and advantages of a gold currency. These advantages had been +too well known, from the earliest ages of the world, to be a subject +of discussion in the nineteenth century; but, as it was the policy +of the paper system to disparage that metal, and as that system, +in its forty years' reign over the American people, had nearly +destroyed a knowledge of that currency, he would briefly enumerate +its leading and prominent advantages. 1. It had an intrinsic value, +which gave it currency all over the world, to the full amount of +that value, without regard to laws or circumstances. 2. It had a +uniformity of value, which made it the safest standard of the value +of property which the wisdom of man had ever yet discovered. 3. Its +portability; which made it easy for the traveller to carry it about +with him. 4. Its indestructibility; which made it the safest money +that people could keep in their houses. 5. Its inherent purity; +which made it the hardest money to be counterfeited, and the easiest +to be detected, and, therefore, the safest money for the people to +handle. 6. Its superiority over all other money; which gave to its +possessor the choice and command of all other money. 7. Its power +over exchanges; gold being the currency which contributes most to +the equalization of exchange, and keeping down the rate of exchange +to the lowest and most uniform point. 8. Its power over the paper +money; gold being the natural enemy of that system, and, with fair +play, able to hold it in check. 9. It is a constitutional currency +and the people have a right to demand it, for their currency, as +long as the present constitution is permitted to exist. + +Mr. B. said, that the false valuation put upon gold had rendered the +mint of the United States, so far as the gold coinage is concerned, +a most ridiculous and absurd institution. It has coined, and that +at a large expense to the United States, 2,262,717 pieces of gold, +worth $11,852,890; and where are these pieces now? Not one of them +to be seen! all sold, and exported! and so regular is this operation +that the director of the mint, in his latest report to Congress, +says that the new coined gold frequently remains in the mint, +uncalled for, though ready for delivery, until the day arrives for a +packet to sail to Europe. He calculates that two millions of native +gold will be coined annually hereafter; the whole of which, without +a reform of the gold standard, will be conducted, like exiles, from +the national mint to the sea-shore, and transported to foreign +regions, to be sold for the benefit of the Bank of the United States. + +Mr. B. said this was not the time to discuss the relative value of +gold and silver, nor to urge the particular proportion which ought +to be established between them. That would be the proper work of a +committee. At present it might be sufficient, and not irrelevant, +to say that this question was one of commerce--that it was purely +and simply a mercantile problem--as much so as an acquisition of +any ordinary merchandise from foreign countries could be. Gold +goes where it finds its value, and that value is what the laws of +great nations give it. In Mexico and South America--the countries +which produce gold, and from which the United States must derive +their chief supply--the value of gold is 16 to 1 over silver; in +the island of Cuba it is 17 to 1; in Spain and Portugal it is 16 +to 1; in the West Indies, generally, it is the same. It is not to +be supposed that gold will come from these countries to the United +States, if the importer is to lose one dollar in every sixteen +that he brings; or that our own gold will remain with us, when an +exporter can gain a dollar upon every fifteen that he carries out. +Such results would be contrary to the laws of trade; and therefore +we must place the same value upon gold that other nations do, +if we wish to gain any part of theirs, or to regain any part of +our own. Mr. B. said that the case of England and France was no +exception to this rule. They rated gold at something less than 16 +for 1, and still retained gold in circulation; but it was retained +by force of peculiar laws and advantages which do not prevail in +the United States. In England the circulation of gold was aided +and protected by four subsidiary laws, neither of which exist +here: one which prevented silver from being a tender for more than +forty shillings; another which required the Bank of England to pay +all its notes in gold; a third which suppressed the small note +circulation; a fourth which alloyed their silver nine per cent. +below the relative value of gold. In France the relative proportion +of the two metals was also below what it was in Spain, Portugal, +Mexico, and South America, and still a plentiful supply of gold +remained in circulation; but this result was aided by two peculiar +causes; first, the total absence of a paper currency; secondly, the +proximity of Spain, and the inferiority of Spanish manufactures, +which gave to France a ready and a near market for the sale of her +fine fabrics, which were paid for in the gold of the New World. In +the United States, gold would have none of these subsidiary helps; +on the contrary it would have to contend with a paper currency, and +would have to be obtained, the product of our own mines excepted, +from Mexico and South America, where it is rated as sixteen to one +for silver. All these circumstances, and many others, would have +to be taken into consideration in fixing a standard for the United +States. Mr. B. repeated that there was nicety, but no difficulty, +in adjusting the relative value of gold and silver so as to retain +both in circulation. Several nations of antiquity had done it; some +modern nations also. The English have both in circulation at this +time. The French have both, and have had for thirty years. The +States of this Union also had both in the time of the confederation; +and retained them until this federal government was established, and +the paper system adopted. Congress should not admit that it cannot +do for the citizens of the United States, what so many monarchies +have done for their subjects. Gentlemen, especially, who decry +military chieftains, should not confess that they themselves cannot +do for America, what a military chieftain did for France. + +Mr. B. made his acknowledgments to the great apostle of American +liberty (Mr. Jefferson), for the wise, practical idea, that the +value of gold was a commercial question, to be settled by its value +in other countries. He had seen that remark in the works of that +great man, and treasured it up as teaching the plain and ready way +to accomplish an apparently difficult object; and he fully concurred +with the senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun], that gold, in +the United States, ought to be the preferred metal; not that silver +should be expelled, but both retained; the mistake, of any, to be in +favor of gold, instead of being against it. + +IV. Mr. B. believed that it was the intention and declared meaning +of the constitution, that foreign coins should pass currently as +money, and at their full value, within the United States; that +it was the duty of Congress to promote the circulation of these +coins by giving them their full value; that this was the design +of the States in conferring upon Congress the exclusive power of +regulating the value of these coins; that all the laws of Congress +for preventing the circulation of foreign coins, and underrating +their value, were so many breaches of the constitution, and so many +mischiefs inflicted upon the States; and that it was the bounden +duty of Congress to repeal all such laws; and to restore foreign +coins to the same free and favored circulation which they possessed +when the federal constitution was adopted. + +In support of the first branch of his first position Mr. B. +quoted the words of the constitution which authorized Congress to +regulate the value of foreign coins; secondly, the clause in the +constitution which authorized Congress to provide for punishing +the counterfeiting of current coin, in which term, foreign coin +was included; thirdly, the clause which prohibited the States from +making any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of +debts; a clause which did not limit the prohibition to domestic +coins, and therefore included foreign ones. These three clauses, +he said, were concurrent, and put foreign coin and domestic coin +upon the same precise footing of equality, in every particular +which concerned their current circulation, their value, and their +protection from counterfeiters. Historical recollections were the +next evidence to which Mr. B. referred to sustain his position. He +said that foreign coins were the only coins known to the United +States at the adoption of the constitution. No mint had been +established up to that time. The coins of other nations furnished +the currency, the exclusive metallic currency, which the States had +used from the close of the Revolutionary War up to the formation +of this federal government. It was these foreign coins then which +the framers of the constitution had in view when they inserted +all the clauses in the constitution which bear upon the value and +current circulation of coin; its protection from counterfeiters, +and the prohibitory restriction upon the States with respect to the +illegality of tenders of any thing except of gold and silver. To +make this point still plainer, if plainer it could be made, Mr. B. +adverted to the early statutes of Congress which related to foreign +coins. He had seen no less than nine statutes, passed in the first +four years of the action of this federal government, all enacted +for the purpose of regulating the value, protecting the purity, and +promoting the circulation of these coins. Not only the well-known +coins of the principal nations were provided for in these statutes, +but the coins of all the nations with whom we traded, how rare or +small might be the coin, or how remote or inconsiderable might be +the nation. By a general provision of the act of 1789, the gold +coins of all nations, which equalled those of England, France, +Spain and Portugal, in fineness, were to be current at 89 cents the +pennyweight; and the silver coins of all nations, which equalled +the Spanish dollar in fineness, were to be current at 111 cents +the ounce. Under these general provisions, a great influx of the +precious metals took place; doubloons, guineas, half joes, were +the common and familiar currency of farmers and laborers, as well +as of merchants and traders. Every substantial citizen then kept +in his house a pair of small scales to weigh gold, which are now +used by his posterity to weigh physic. It is a great many years--a +whole generation has grown up--since these scales were used for +their original purpose; nor will they ever be needed again for that +use until the just and wise laws of '89 and '90, for the general +circulation of foreign coins, shall again be put in force. These +early statutes, added to historical recollections, could leave no +doubt of the true meaning of the constitution, and that foreign +coins were intended to be for ever current within the United States. + +With this obvious meaning of the constitution, and the undeniable +advantage which redounded to the United States from the acquisition +of the precious metals from all foreign nations, the inquiry +naturally presents itself, to know for what reason these coins +have been outlawed by the Congress of the United States, and +driven from circulation? The inquiring mind wishes to know how +Congress could be brought, in a few short years after the adoption +of the constitution, to contradict that instrument in a vital +particular--to repeal the nine statutes which they had passed in +favor of foreign coin--and to illegalize the circulation of that +coin whose value they were to regulate, and whose purity to protect? + +Sir, said Mr. B., I am unwilling to appear always in the same train, +tracing up all the evils of our currency to the same fountain of +mischiefs--the introduction of the paper system, and the first +establishment of a federal bank among us. But justice must have its +sway; historical truth must take its course; facts must be told; and +authentic proof shall supply the place of narrative and assertion. +We ascend, then, to the year '91--to the exhibition of the plan for +the support of public credit--and see in that plan, as one of its +features, a proposition for the establishment of a national mint; +and in that establishment a subsidiary engine for the support of +the federal bank. We have already seen that in the proposition for +the establishment of the mint, gold was largely undervalued; and +that this undervaluation has driven gold from the country and left +a vacuum for the circulation of federal bank notes; we are now to +see that the same mint establishment was to give further aid to +the circulation of these notes, by excluding foreign coins, both +gold and silver, from circulation, and thus enlarging the vacuum +which was to be filled by bank paper. This is what we are now to +see; and to see it, we will look at the plan for the support of +public credit, and that feature of the plan which proposes the +establishment of a national mint. + +Mr. B. would remark, that four points were presented in this plan: +1. The eventual abolition of the currency of foreign coins; 2. +The reduction of their value while allowed to circulate; 3. The +substitution of domestic coins; and, 4. The substitution of bank +notes in place of the uncurrent and undervalued foreign coins. Such +were the recommendations of Secretary Hamilton; and legislative +enactments quickly followed to convert his recommendations into +law. The only power the constitution had given to Congress over +foreign coins, was a power to regulate their value, and to protect +them from debasement by counterfeiters. It was certainly a most +strange construction of that authority, first, to underrate the +value of these coins, and next, to prohibit their circulation! Yet +both things were done. The mint went into operation in 1794; foreign +coins were to cease to be a legal tender in 1797; but, at the end of +that time, the contingencies on which the Secretary calculated, to +enable the country to do without foreign coins, had not occurred; +the substitutes had not appeared; the mint had not supplied the +adequate quantity of domestic coin, nor had the circulation of +bank notes become sufficiently familiar to the people to supersede +gold. The law for the exclusion of foreign coins was found to be +impracticable; and a suspension of it for three years was enacted. +At the end of this time the evil was found to be as great as ever; +and a further suspension of three years was made. This third term +of three years also rolled over, the supply of domestic coins was +still found to be inadequate, and the people continued to be as +averse as ever to the bank note substitute. A fourth suspension of +the law became necessary, and in 1806 a further suspension for three +years was made; after that a fifth, and finally a sixth suspension, +each for the period of three years; which brought the period for +the actual and final cessation of the circulation of foreign coins, +to the month of November, 1819. From that time there was no further +suspension of the prohibitory act. An exception was continued, +and still remains, in favor of Spanish milled dollars and parts +of dollars; but all other foreign coins, even those of Mexico and +all the South American States, have ceased to be a legal tender, +and have lost their character of current money within the United +States. Their value is degraded to the mint price of bullion; and +thus the constitutional currency becomes an article of merchandise +and exportation. Even the Spanish milled dollar, though continued +as a legal tender, is valued, not as money, but for the pure silver +in it, and is therefore undervalued three or four per cent. and +becomes an article of merchandise. The Bank of the United States has +collected and sold 4,450,000 of them. Every money dealer is employed +in buying, selling, and exporting them. The South and West, which +receives them, is stripped of them. + +Having gone through this narrative of facts, and shown the exclusion +of foreign coins from circulation to be a part of the paper system, +and intended to facilitate the substitution of a bank note currency, +Mr B. went on to state the injuries resulting from the measure. +At the head of these injuries he was bound to place the violation +of the constitution of the United States, which clearly intended +that foreign coins should circulate among us, and which, in giving +Congress authority to regulate their value, and to protect them from +counterfeiters, could never have intended to stop their circulation, +and to abandon them to debasement. 2. He denounced this exclusion +of foreign coins as a fraud, and a fraud of the most injurious +nature, upon the people of the States. The States had surrendered +their power over the coinage to Congress; they made the surrender in +language which clearly implied that their currency of foreign coins +was to be continued to them; yet that currency is suppressed; a +currency of intrinsic value, for which they paid interest to nobody, +is suppressed; and a currency without intrinsic value, a currency +of paper subject to every fluctuation, and for the supply of which +corporate bodies receive interest, is substituted in its place. 3. +He objected to this suppression as depriving the whole Union, and +especially the Western States, of their due and necessary supply of +hard money. Since that law took effect, the United States had only +been a thoroughfare for foreign coins to pass through. All that +was brought into the country, had to go out of the country. It was +exported as fast as imported. The custom-house books proved this +fact. They proved, that from 1821 to 1833, the imports of specie +were $89,428,462; the exports, for the same time, were $88,821,433; +lacking but three quarters of a million of being precisely equal +to the imports! Some of this coin was recoined before it was +exported, a foolish and expensive operation on the part of the +United States; but the greater part was exported in the same form +that it was received. Mr. B. had only been able to get the exports +and imports from 1821; if he could have obtained those of 1820, and +the concluding part of 1819, when the prohibitory law took effect, +the amount would have been about ninety-six millions of dollars; +the whole of which was lost to the country by the prohibitory law, +while much of it would have been saved, and retained for home +circulation, if it had not been for this law. The loss of this great +sum in specie was an injury to the whole Union, but especially to +the Western States, whose sole resource for coin was from foreign +countries; for the coinage of the mint could never flow into that +region; there was nothing in the course of trade and exchanges, to +carry money from the Atlantic States to the West, and the mint, +if it coined thousands of millions, could not supply them. The +taking effect of the law in the year 1819, was an aggravation of +the injury. It was the most unfortunate and ruinous of all times +for driving specie from the country. The Western banks, from their +exertions to aid the country during the war, had stretched their +issues to the utmost limit; their notes had gone into the land +offices; the federal government turned them over to the Bank of the +United States; and that bank demanded specie. Thus, the necessity +for specie was increased at the very moment that the supply was +diminished; and the general stoppage of the Western banks, was the +inevitable and natural result of these combined circumstances. + +Having shown the great evils resulting to the country from the +operation of this law, Mr. B. called upon its friends to tell what +reason could now be given for not repealing it? He affirmed that, +of the two causes to which the law owed its origin, one had failed +_in toto_, and the other had succeeded to a degree to make it the +curse and the nuisance of the country. One reason was to induce an +adequate supply of foreign coins to be brought to the mint, to be +recoined; the other to facilitate the substitution of a bank note +currency. The foreign coins did not go to the mint, those excepted +which were imported in its own neighborhood; and even these were +exported nearly as fast as recoined. The authority of the director +of the mint had already been quoted to show that the new coined +gold was transferred direct from the national mint to the packet +ships, bound to Europe. The custom-house returns showed the large +exportation of domestic coins. They would be found under the head +of "Domestic Manufactures Exported;" and made a large figure +in the list of these exports. In the year 1832, it amounted to +$2,058,474, and in the year 1833, to $1,410,941; and every year it +was more or less; so that the national mint had degenerated into a +domestic manufactory of gold and silver, for exportation to foreign +countries. But the coins imported at New Orleans, at Charleston, +and at other points remote from Philadelphia, did not go there to +be recoined. They were, in part, exported direct from the place +of import, and in part used by the people as current money, in +disregard of the prohibitory law of 1819. But the greater part was +exported--for no owner of foreign coin could incur the trouble, +risk, and expense, of sending it some hundred or a thousand miles +to Philadelphia, to have it recoined; and then incurring the same +expense, risk, and trouble (lying out of the use of the money, and +receiving no interest all the while), of bringing it back to be put +into circulation; with the further risk of a deduction for want of +standard fineness at the mint, when he could sell and export it +upon the spot. Foreign coins could not be recoined, so as to supply +the Union, by a solitary mint on the Atlantic coast. The great West +could only be supplied from New Orleans. A branch of the mint, +placed there, could supply the West with domestic coins. Mexico, +since she became a free country, has established seven mints in +different places, because it was troublesome and expensive to carry +bullion from all parts of the country to be coined in the capital; +and when coined there, there was nothing in the course of trade to +carry them back into the country; and the owners of it would not +be at the expense and trouble of carrying it back, and getting it +into circulation, being the exact state of things at present in the +gold mines of the Southern States. The United States, upon the same +principles and for the same reasons, should establish branches of +the mint in the South, convenient to the gold mine region, and at +New Orleans, for the benefit of that city and the West. Without a +branch of the mint at New Orleans, the admission of foreign coins +is indispensable to the West; and thus the interest of that region +joins itself to the voice of the constitution in demanding the +immediate repeal of all laws for illegalizing the circulation of +these coins, and for sinking them from their current value as money, +to their mint value as bullion. The design of supplying the mint +with foreign coins, for recoinage, had then failed; and in that +respect the exclusion of foreign coins has failed in one of its +objects--in the other, that of making room for a substitute of bank +notes, the success of the scheme has been complete, excessive, and +deplorable. + +Foreign coins were again made a legal tender, their value regulated +and their importation encouraged, at the expiration of the charter +of the first Bank of the United States. This continued to be +the case until after the present Bank of the United States was +chartered; as soon as that event happened, and bank policy again +became predominant in the halls of Congress, the circulation of +foreign coins was again struck at and, in the second year of the +existence of the bank, the old act of 1793, for rendering these +coins uncurrent, was carried into final and complete effect. Since +that time, the bank has enjoyed all her advantages from this +exclusion. The expulsion of these coins has created a vacuum, to +be filled up by her small note circulation; the traffic and trade +in them has been as large a source of profit to her as of loss to +the country. Gold coin she has sold at an advance of five or six +per cent.; silver coin at about two or three per cent.; and, her +hand being in, she made no difference between selling domestic coin +and foreign coin. Although forbid by her charter to deal in coin, +she has employed her branches to gather $40,040,000 of coin from +the States; a large part of which she admits that she has sold and +transported to Europe. For the sale of the foreign coin, she sets +up the lawyer-like plea, that it is not coin, but bullion! resting +the validity of the plea upon English statute law! while, by the +constitution of the United States, all foreign coins are coin; +while, by her own charter, the coins, both gold and silver, of Great +Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal, and their dominions, are +declared to be coin; and, as such, made receivable in payment of the +specie proportion of the bank stock--and, worse yet! while Spanish +dollars, by statute, remain the current coin of the United States, +the bank admits the sale of 4,450,142 of these identical Spanish +milled dollars! + +Mr. B. then took a rapid view of the present condition of the +statute currency of the United States--of that currency which was +a legal tender--that currency with which a debtor had a right by +law to protect his property from execution, and his body from jail, +by offering it as a matter of right, to his creditor in payment of +his debt. He stated this statute currency to be: 1st. Coins from +the mint of the United States; 2dly. Spanish milled dollars, and +the parts of such dollars. This was the sum total of the statute +currency of the United States; for happily no paper of any bank, +State or federal, could be made a legal tender. This is the sum +total out of which any man in debt can legally pay his debt: and +what is his chance for making payment out of this brief list? +Let us see. Coinage from the mint: not a particle of gold, nor a +single whole dollar to be found; very few half dollars, except in +the neighborhood of the mint, and in the hands of the Bank of the +United States and its branches; the twenty, ten, and five cent +pieces scarcely seen, except as a curiosity, in the interior parts +of the country. So much for the domestic coinage. Now for the +Spanish milled dollars--how do they stand in the United States? +Nearly as scarce as our own dollars; for, there has been none coined +since Spain lost her dominion over her colonies in the New World; +and the coinage of these colonies, now independent States, neither +is in law, nor in fact, Spanish milled. That term belongs to the +coinage of the Spanish crown, with a Spanish king's head upon the +face of it; although the coin of the new States, the silver dollars +of Mexico, Central America, Peru, and Chili, are superior to Spanish +dollars, in value, because they contain more pure silver, still they +are not a tender; and all the francs from France, in a word, all +foreign coin except Spanish milled dollars, the coinage of which +has ceased, and the country stripped of all that were in it, by the +Bank of the United States, are uncurrent, and illegal as tenders: +so that the people of the United States are reduced to so small a +list, and so small a supply of statute currency, out of which debts +can legally be paid, that it may be fairly assumed that the whole +debtor part of the community lie at the mercy of their creditors, to +have their bodies sent to jail, or their property sold for nothing, +at any time that their creditors please. To such a condition are +the free and high-minded inhabitants of this country reduced! and +reduced by the power and policy of the first and second Banks of +the United States, and the controlling influence which they have +exercised over the moneyed system of the Union, from the year 1791 +down to the present day. + +Mr. B. would conclude what he had to say, on this head, with one +remark; it was this: that while the gold and silver coin of all the +monarchs of Europe were excluded from circulation in the United +States, the paper notes of their subjects were received as current +money. The Bank of the United States was, in a great degree, a +foreign institution. Foreigners held a great part of its stock, +and may hold it all. The paper notes issued by this institution, +thus composed in great part of the subjects of European kings, +are made legal tenders to the federal government, and thus forced +into circulation among the people; while the gold and silver coin +of the kings to which they belong, is rejected and excluded, and +expelled from the country! He demanded if any thing could display +the vice and deformity of the paper system in a more revolting and +humiliating point of view than this single fact? + +V. Mr. B. expressed his satisfaction at finding so many points +of concurrence between his sentiments on currency, and those of +the senator from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun). Reform of the gold +currency--recovery of specie--evils of excessive banking--and the +eventual suppression of small notes--were all points in which they +agreed, and on which he hoped they should be found acting together +when these measures should be put to the test of legislative action. +He regretted that he could not concur with that senator on the great +points to which all the others might be found to be subordinate and +accessorial. He alluded to the prolonged existence of the Bank of +the United States! and especially to the practical views which that +senator had taken of the beneficial operation of that institution, +first, as the regulator of the local currencies, and next, as the +supplier of a general currency to the Union. On both these points, +he differed--immeasurably differed--from that senator; and dropping +all other views of that bank, he came at once to the point which the +senator from South Carolina marked out as the true and practical +question of debate; and would discuss that question simply under +its relation to the currency; he would view the bank simply as +the regulator of local currencies and the supplier of a national +currency, and would give his reasons for differing--irreconcilably +differing--from the senator from South Carolina on these points. + +Mr. B. took three distinct objections to the Bank of the United +States, as a regulator of currency: 1, that this was a power which +belonged to the government of the United States; 2, that it could +not be delegated; 3, that it ought not be delegated to any bank. + +1. The regulation of the currency of a nation, Mr. B. said, was one +of the highest and most delicate acts of sovereign power. It was +precisely equivalent to the power to create currency; for, a power +to make more or less, was, in effect, a power to make much or none. +It was the coining power; a power that belonged to the sovereign; +and, where a paper currency was tolerated, the coining power was +swallowed up and superseded by the manufactory which emitted paper. +In the present state of the currency of the United States, the +federal bank was the mint for issuing money; the federal mint was +a manufactory for preparing gold and silver for exportation. The +States, in the formation of the constitution, gave the coining power +to Congress; with that power, they gave authority to regulate the +currency of the Union, by regulating the value of gold and silver, +and preventing any thing but metallic money from being made a +tender in payment of debts. It is by the exercise of these powers +that the federal government is to regulate the currency of the +Union; and all the departments of the government are required to +act their parts in effecting the regulation: the Congress, as the +department that passes the law; the President, as the authority that +recommends it, approves it, and sees that it is faithfully executed; +the judiciary, as standing between the debtor and creditor, and +preventing the execution from being discharged by any thing but gold +and silver and that at the rate which the legislative department has +fixed. This is the power, and sole power, of regulating currency +which the federal constitution contains; this power is vested in +the federal government, not in one department of it, but in the +joint action of the three departments; and while this power is +exercised by the government, the currency of the whole Union will be +regulated, and the regulation effected according to the intention +of the constitution, by keeping all the local banks up to the point +of specie payment; and thereby making the value of their notes +equivalent to specie. + +2. This great and delicate power, thus involving the sacred +relations of debtor and creditor, and the actual rise or fall in the +value of every man's property, Mr. B. undertook to affirm, could +not be delegated. It was a trust from the State governments to the +federal government. The State governments divested themselves of +this power, and invested the federal government with it, and made +its exercise depend upon the three branches of the new government; +and this new government could no more delegate it, than they +could delegate any other great power which they were bound to +execute themselves. Not a word of this regulating power, Mr. E. +said, was heard of when the first bank was chartered, in the year +1791. No person whispered such a reason for the establishment +of a bank at that time; the whole conception is newfangled--an +afterthought--growing out of the very evils which the bank itself +has brought upon the country, and which are to be cured by putting +down that great bank; after which, the Congress and the judiciary +will easily manage the small banks, by holding them up to specie +payments, and excluding every unsolid note from revenue payments. + +3. Mr. B. said that the government ought not to delegate this +power, if it could. It was too great a power to be trusted to any +banking company whatever, or to any authority but the highest +and most responsible which was known to our form of government. +The government itself ceased to be independent--it ceases to be +safe--when the national currency is at the will of a company. The +government can undertake no great enterprise, neither of war nor +peace, without the consent and co-operation of that company; it +cannot count its revenues for six months ahead without referring +to the action of that company--its friendship or its enmity--its +concurrence or opposition--to see how far that company will permit +money to be plenty, or make it scarce; how far it will let the +moneyed system go on regularly, or throw it into disorder; how far +it will suit the interests, or policy, of that company to create a +tempest, or to suffer a calm, in the moneyed ocean. The people are +not safe when a company has such a power. The temptation is too +great--the opportunity too easy--to put up and put down prices; +to make and break fortunes; to bring the whole community upon its +knees to the Neptunes who preside over the flux and reflux of +paper. All property is at their mercy. The price of real estate--of +every growing crop--of every staple article in market--is at their +command. Stocks are their playthings--their gambling theatre--on +which they gamble daily, with as little secrecy, and as little +morality, and far more mischief to fortunes, than common gamblers +carry on their operations. The philosophic Voltaire, a century +ago, from his retreat in Ferney, gave a lively description of this +operation, by which he was made a winner, without the trouble of +playing. I have a friend, said he, who is a director in the Bank of +France, who writes to me when they are going to make money plenty, +and make stocks rise, and then I give orders to my broker to sell; +and he writes to me when they are going to make money scarce, and +make stocks fall, and then I write to my broker to buy; and thus, +at a hundred leagues from Paris, and without moving from my chair, +I make money. This, said Mr. B., is the operation on stocks to the +present day; and it cannot be safe to the holders of stock that +there should be a moneyed power great enough in this country to +raise and depress the prices of their property at pleasure. The +great cities of the Union are not safe, while a company, in any +other city, have power over their moneyed system, and are able, by +making money scarce or plenty--by exciting panics and alarms--to +put up, or put down, the price of the staple articles in which +they deal. Every commercial city, for its own safety, should have +an independent moneyed system--should be free from the control and +regulation of a distant, possibly a rival city, in the means of +carrying on its own trade. Thus, the safety of the government, the +safety of the people, the interest of all owners of property--of +all growing crops--the holders of all stocks--the exporters of +all staple articles--require that the regulation of the currency +should be kept out of the hands of a great banking company; that it +should remain where the constitution placed it--in the hands of the +federal government--in the hands of their representatives who are +elected by them, responsible to them, may be exchanged by them, who +can pass no law for regulating currency which will not bear upon +themselves as well as upon their constituents. This is what the +safety of the community requires; and, for one, he (Mr. B.) would +not, if he could, delegate the power of regulating the currency of +this great country to any banking company whatsoever. It was a power +too tremendous to be trusted to a company. The States thought it too +great a power to be trusted to the State governments; he (Mr. B.) +thought so too. The States confided it to the federal government; +he, for one, would confine it to the federal government, and would +make that government exercise it. Above all, he would not confer it +upon a bank which was itself above regulation; and on this point +he called upon the Senate to recollect the question, apparently +trite, but replete with profound sagacity--that sagacity which it +belongs to great men to possess, and to express--which was put to +the Congress of 1816, when this bank charter was under discussion, +and the regulation of the currency was one of the attributes with +which it was to be invested; he alluded to his late esteemed friend +(Mr. Randolph), and to his call upon the House to tell him who was +to bell the cat? That single question contains in its answer, and in +its allusion, the exact history of the people of the United States, +and of the Bank of the United States, at this day. It was a flash of +lightning into the dark vista of futurity, showing in 1816 what we +all see in 1834. + +Mr. B. took up the second point on which he disagreed with the +Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun], namely, the capacity +of the Bank of the United States to supply a general currency +to the Union. In handling this question he would drop all other +inquiries--lay aside every other objection--overlook every +consideration of the constitutionality and expediency of the bank, +and confine himself to the strict question of its ability to diffuse +and retain in circulation a paper currency over this extended +Union. He would come to the question as a banker would come to it +at his table, or a merchant in his counting-room, looking to the +mere operation of a money system. It was a question for wise men to +think of, and for abler men than himself to discuss. It involved the +theory and the science of banking--Mr. B. would say the philosophy +of banking, if such a term could be applied to a moneyed system. +It was a question to be studied as the philosopher studies the +laws which govern the material world--as he would study the laws +of gravitation and attraction which govern the movements of the +planets, or draw the waters of the mountains to the level of the +ocean. The moneyed system, said Mr. B., has its laws of attraction +and gravitation--of repulsion and adhesion; and no man may be +permitted to indulge the hope of establishing a moneyed system +contrary to its own laws. The genius of man has not yet devised +a bank--the historic page is yet to be written which tells of a +bank--which has diffused over an extensive country, and retained +in circulation, a general paper currency. England is too small a +theatre for a complete example; but even there the impossibility +is confessed, and has been confessed for a century. The Bank of +England, in her greatest day of pre-eminence, could not furnish a +general currency for England alone--a territory not larger than +Virginia. The country banks furnished the local paper currency, and +still furnish it as far as it is used. They carried on their banking +upon Bank of England notes, until the gold currency was restored; +and local paper formed the mass of local circulation. The notes of +the Bank of England flowed to the great commercial capitals, and +made but brief sojourn in the counties. But England is not a fair +example for the United States; it is too small; a fairer example +is to be found nearer home, in our own country, and in this very +Bank of the United States which is now existing, and in favor of +which the function of supplying a general currency to this extended +confederacy is claimed. We have the experiment of this bank, not +once, but twice made; and each experiment proves the truth of the +laws which govern the system. The theory of bank circulation, +over an extended territory, is this, that you may put out as many +notes as you may in any one place, they will immediately fall into +the track of commerce--into the current of trade--into the course +of exchange--and follow that current wherever it leads. In these +United States the current sets from every part of the interior, +and especially from the South and West into the Northeast--into +the four commercial cities north of the Potomac; Baltimore, +Philadelphia, New-York, and Boston: and all the bank notes which +will pass for money in those places, fall into the current which +sets in that direction. When there, there is nothing in the course +of trade to bring them back. There is no reflux in that current! It +is a trade-wind which blows twelve months in the year in the same +direction. This is the theory of bank circulation over extended +territory; and the history of the present bank is an exemplification +of the truth of that theory. Listen to Mr. Cheves. Read his report +made to the stockholders at their triennial meeting in 1822. He +stated this law of circulation, and explained the inevitable +tendency of the branch bank notes to flow to the Northeast; the +impossibility of preventing it; and the resolution which he had +taken and executed, to close all the Southern and Western branches, +and prevent them from issuing any more notes. Even while issuing +their own notes, they had so far forgot their charter as to carry +on operations, in part, upon the notes of the local banks--having +collected those notes in great quantity, and loaned them out. This +was reported by the investigating committee of 1819, and made one +of the charges of misconduct against the bank at that time. To +counteract this tendency, the bank applied to Congress for leave to +issue their bank notes on terms which would have made them a mere +local currency. Congress refused it; but the bank is now attempting +to do it herself, by refusing to take the notes received in payment +of the federal revenue, and sending it back to be paid where issued. +Such was the history of the branch bank notes, and which caused +that currency to disappear from all the interior, and from the +whole South and West, so soon after the bank got into operation. +The attempt to keep out branch notes, or to send the notes of the +mother bank to any distance, being found impracticable, there was +no branch currency of any kind in circulation for a period of eight +or nine years, until the year 1827, when the branch checks were +invented, to perform the miracle which notes could not. Mr. B. would +say nothing about the legality of that invention; he would now treat +them as a legal issue under the charter; and in that most favorable +point of view for them, he would show that these branch checks were +nothing but a quack remedy--an empirical contrivance--which made +things worse. By their nature they were as strongly attracted to +the Northeast as the branch notes had been; by their terms they +were still more strongly attracted, for they bore Philadelphia on +their face! they were payable at the mother bank! and, of course, +would naturally flow to that place for use or payment. This was +their destiny, and most punctually did they fulfil it. Never did the +trade-winds blow more truly--never did the gulf stream flow more +regularly--than those checks flowed to the Northeast! The average +of four years next ensuing the invention of these checks, which +went to the mother bank, or to the Atlantic branches north of the +Potomac, including the branch notes which flowed with them, was +about nineteen millions of dollars per annum! Mr. B. then exhibited +a table to prove what he alleged, and from which it appeared that +the flow of the branch paper to the Northeast was as regular and +uniform as an operation of nature; that each city according to its +commercial importance, received a greater or less proportion of +this inland paper gulf stream; and that the annual variation was so +slight as only to prove the regularity of the laws by which it was +governed. The following is the table which he exhibited. It was one +of the tabular statements obtained by the investigating committee in +1832: + + _Amount of Branch Bank Paper received at_-- + + 1828. 1829. 1830. 1831. + 1. New-York, 11,938,350 11,294,960 9,168,370 12,284,320 + 2. Philadelphia, 4,453,150 4,106,985 4,579,725 5,398,800 + 3. Boston, 1,010,730 1,844,170 1,794,750 1,816,430 + 4. Baltimore, 1,437,100 1,420,360 1,376,320 1,588,680 + ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- + 18,888,330 18,666,475 16,919,160 21,092,230 + +After exhibiting this table, and taking it for complete proof of the +truth of the theory which he had laid down, and that it demonstrated +the impossibility of keeping up a circulation of the United States +Bank paper in the remote and interior parts of the Union, Mr. B. +went on to say that the story was yet but half told--the mischief +of this systematic flow of national currency to the Northeast, was +but half disclosed; another curtain was yet to be lifted--another +vista was yet to be opened--and the effect of the system upon the +metallic currency of the States was to be shown to the people and +the States. This view would show, that as fast as the checks or +notes of any branch were taken up at the mother bank, or at the +branches north of the Potomac, an account was opened against the +branch from which they came. The branch was charged with the amount +of the notes or checks taken up; and periodically served with a +copy of the account, and commanded to send on specie or bills of +exchange to redeem them. When redeemed, they were remitted to the +branch from which they came; while on the road they were called +notes in transitu; and when arrived they were put into circulation +again at that place--fell into the current immediately, which +carried them back to the Northeast--there taken up again, charged +to the branch--the branch required to redeem them again with specie +or bills of exchange; and then returned to her, to be again put +into circulation, and to undergo again and again, and until the +branch could no longer redeem them, the endless process of flowing +to the Northeast. The result of the whole was, is, and for ever +will be, that the branch will have to redeem its circulation till +redemption is impossible; until it has exhausted the country of +its specie; and then the country in which the branch is situated +is worse off than before she had a branch; for she had neither +notes nor specie left. Mr. B. said that this was too important a +view of the case to be rested on argument and assertion alone; it +required evidence to vanquish incredulity, and to prove it up; and +that evidence was at hand. He then referred to two tables to show +the amount of hard money which the mother bank, under the operation +of this system, had drawn from the States in which her branches +were situated. All the tables were up to the year 1831, the period +to which the last investigating committee had brought up their +inquiries. One of these statements showed the amount abstracted from +the whole Union; it was $40,040,622 20; another showed the amount +taken from the Southern and Western States; it was $22,523,387 94; +another showed the amount taken from the branch at New Orleans; it +was $12,815,798 10. Such, said Mr. B., has been the result of the +experiment to diffuse a national paper currency over this extended +Union. Twice in eighteen years it has totally failed, leaving the +country exhausted of its specie, and destitute of paper. This was +proof enough, but there was still another mode of proving the same +thing; it was the fact of the present amount of United States Bank +notes in circulation. Mr. B. had heard with pain the assertion made +in so many memorials presented to the Senate, that there was a great +scarcity of currency; that the Bank of the United States had been +obliged to contract her circulation in consequence of the removal +of the deposits, and that her notes had become so scarce that none +could be found; and strongly contrasting the present dearth which +now prevails with the abundant plenty of these notes which reigned +over a happy land before that fatal measure came to blast a state +of unparalleled prosperity. The fact was, Mr. B. said, that the +actual circulation of the bank is greater now than it was before the +removal of the deposits; greater than it has been in any month but +one for upwards of a year past. The discounts were diminished, he +said, but the circulation was increased. + +Mr. B. then exhibited a table of the actual circulation of the Bank +of the United States for the whole year 1833, and for the two past +months of the present year; and stated it to be taken from the +monthly statements of the bank, as printed and laid upon the tables +of members. It was the net circulation--the quantity of notes and +checks actually out--excluding all that were on the road returning +to the branch banks, called notes in transitu, and which would +not be counted till again issued by the branch to which they were +returned. + + _The following is the table_: + + January, 1833, $17,666,444 + February, " 18,384,050 + March, " 18,033,205 + April, " 18,384,075 + May, " 18,991,200 + June, " 19,366,555 + July, " 18,890,505 + August, " 18,413,287 + September, " 19,128,189 + October, " 18,518,000 + November, " 18,650,912 + December, " not found. + January, 1834, 19,208,375 + February, " 19,260,472 + +By comparing the circulation of each month, as exhibited on this +table, Mr. B. said, it would be seen that the quantity of United +States Bank notes now in circulation is three quarters of a million +greater than it was in October last, and a million and a half +greater than it was in January, 1833. How, then, are we to account +for this cry of no money, in which so many respectable men join? It +is in the single fact of their flow to the Northeast. The pigeons, +which lately obscured the air with their numbers, have all taken +their flight to the North! But pigeons will return of themselves, +whereas these bank notes will never return till they are purchased +with gold and silver, and brought back. Mr. B. then alluded to a +petition from a meeting in his native State, North Carolina, and +in which one of his esteemed friends (Mr. Carson) late a member +of the House of Representatives, was a principal actor, and which +stated the absolute disappearance of United States Bank notes +from all that region of country. Certainly the petition was true +in that statement; but it is equally true that it was mistaken in +supposing that the circulation of the bank was diminished. The table +which he had read had shown the contrary; it showed an increase, +instead of a diminution, of the circulation. The only difference +was that it had all left that part of the country, and that it would +do for ever! If a hundred millions of United States Bank notes +were carried to the upper parts of North Carolina, and put into +circulation, it would be but a short time before the whole would +have fallen into the current which sweeps the paper of that bank to +the Northeast. Mr. B. said there were four other classes of proof +which he could bring in, but it would be a consumption of time, +and a work of supererogation. He would not detail them, but state +their heads: 1. One was the innumerable orders which the mother +bank had forwarded to her branches to send on specie and bills of +exchange to redeem their circulation--to pour in reinforcements +to the points to which their circulation tends; 2. Another was +in the examination of Mr. Biddle, president of the bank, by the +investigating committee, in 1832, in which this absorbing tendency +of the branch paper to flow to the Northeast was fully charged and +admitted; 3. A third was in the monthly statement of the notes _in +transitu_, which amount to an average of four millions and a half +for the last twelve months, making fifty millions for the year; and +which consist, by far the greater part, of branch notes and checks +redeemed in the Northeast, purchased back by the branches, and on +their way back to the place from which they issued; and, 4. The +last class of proof was in the fact, that the branches north of the +Potomac, being unable or unwilling to redeem these notes any longer, +actually ceased to redeem them last fall, even when taken in revenue +payment to the United States, until coerced by the Secretary of +the Treasury; and that they will not be redeemed for individuals +now, and are actually degenerating into a mere local currency. Upon +these proofs and arguments, Mr. B. rested his case, and held it +to be fully established first, by argument, founded in the nature +of bank circulation over an extended territory; and secondly, by +proof, derived from the operation of the present bank of the United +States, that neither the present bank, nor any one that the wisdom +of man can devise, can ever succeed in diffusing a general paper +circulation over the States of this Union. + +VI. Dropping every other objection to the bank--looking at it purely +and simply as a supplier of national currency--he, Mr. B., could +not consent to prolong the existence of the present bank. Certainly +a profuse issue of paper at all points--an additional circulation +of even a few millions poured out at the destitute points--would +make currency plenty for a little while, but for a little while +only. Nothing permanent would result from such a measure. On the +contrary, in one or two years, the destitution and distress would be +greater than it now is. At the same time, it is completely in the +power of the bank, at this moment, to grant relief, full, adequate, +instantaneous relief! In making this assertion, Mr B. meant to prove +it; and to prove it, he meant to do it in a way that it should reach +the understanding of every candid and impartial friend that the bank +possessed; for he meant to discard and drop from the inquiry, all +his own views upon the subject; to leave out of view every statement +made, and every opinion entertained by himself, and his friends, and +proceed to the inquiry upon the evidence of the bank alone--upon +that evidence which flowed from the bank directory itself, and from +the most zealous, and best informed of its friends on this floor. +Mr. B. assumed that a mere cessation to curtail discounts, at this +time, would be a relief--that it would be the salvation of those +who were pressed--and put an end to the cry of distress; he averred +that this curtailment must now cease, or the bank must find a new +reason for carrying it on; for the old reason is exhausted, and +cannot apply. Mr. B. then took two distinct views to sustain his +position: one founded in the actual conduct and present condition of +the bank itself, and the other in a comparative view of the conduct +and condition of the former Bank of the United States, at the +approaching period of its dissolution. + +I. As to the conduct and condition of the present bank. + +Mr. B. appealed to the knowledge of all present for the accuracy +of his assertion, when he said that the bank had now reduced her +discounts, dollar for dollar, to the amount of public deposits +withdrawn. The adversaries of the bank said the reduction was much +larger than the abstraction; but he dropped that, and confined +himself strictly to the admissions and declarations of the bank +itself. Taking then the fact to be, as the bank alleged it to +be, that she had merely brought down her business in proportion +to the capital taken from her, it followed of course that there +was no reason for reducing her business any lower. Her relative +position--her actual strength--was the same now that it was before +the removal; and the old reason could not be available for the +reduction of another dollar. Next, as to her condition. Mr. B. +undertook to affirm, and would quickly prove, that the general +condition of the bank was better now than it had been for years +past; and that the bank was better able to make loans, or to +increase her circulation, than she was in any of those past periods +in which she was so lavishly accommodating the public. For the +proof of this, Mr. B. had recourse to her specie fund, always the +true test of a bank's ability, and showed it to be greater now than +it had been for two years past, when her loans and circulation +were so much greater than they are now. He took the month of May, +1832, when the whole amount of specie on hand was $7,890,347 59; +when the net amount of notes in circulation was $21,044,415; and +when the total discounts were $70,428,070 72: and then contrasted +it with the condition of the bank at this time, that is to say, +in the month of February last, when the last return was made; the +items stands thus: specie, $10,523,385 69; net amount of notes in +circulation, $19,260,472; total discounts, $54,842,973 64. From this +view of figures, taken from the official bank returns, from which +it appeared that the specie in the bank was nearly three millions +greater than it was in May, 1832, her net circulation nearly two +millions less, and her loans and discounts upwards of fifteen +millions less; Mr. B. would submit it to all candid men to say +whether the bank is not more able to accommodate the community now +than she was then? At all events, he would demand if she was not now +able to cease pressing them? + +II. As to the comparative condition and conduct of the first Bank +the United States at the period of its approaching dissolution. + +Mr. B. took the condition of the bank from Mr. Gallatin's statement +of its affairs to Congress, made in January, 1811, just three months +before the charter expired; and which showed the discounts and loans +of the bank to be $14,578,294 25, her capital being $10,000,000; so +that the amount of her loans, three months before her dissolution, +was nearly in proportion--near enough for all practical views--to +the proportion which the present loans of the Bank of the United +States bear to its capital of thirty-five millions. Fifty per cent. +upon the former would give fifteen millions; fifty per cent. upon +the latter would give fifty-two millions and a half. To make the +relative condition of the two banks precisely equal, it will be +sufficient that the loans and discounts of the present bank shall be +reduced to fifty-two millions by the month of January, 1836; that +is to say, it need not make any further sensible reduction of its +loans for nearly two years to come. Thus, the mere imitation of the +conduct of the old bank will be a relief to the community. A mere +cessation to curtail, will put an end to the distress, and let the +country go on, quietly and regularly, in its moneyed operations. +If the bank will not do this--if it will go on to curtail--it is +bound to give some new reason to the country. The old reason, of +the removal of the deposits, will no longer answer. Mr. B. had no +faith in that reason from the beginning, but he was now taking the +bank upon her own evidence, and trying her upon her own reasons, +and he held it to be impossible for her to go on without the +production of a reason. The hostility of the government--rather +an incomprehensible, and altogether a gratuitous reason, from the +beginning--will no longer answer. The government in 1811 was as +hostile to the old bank, as the government now is to this one; +and rather more so. Both Houses of Congress were then hostile to +it, and hostile unto death! For they let it die! die on the day +appointed by law for its death, without pity, without remorse, +without the reprieve of one day. The government can do no worse now. +The Secretary of the Treasury has removed the deposits; and that +account is settled by the reduction of an equal amount of loans and +discounts. The rest depends upon the government; and the hostility +of the government cannot go further than to kill the bank, and +cannot kill it more dead than the old bank was killed in 1811. Mr. +B. had a further comparison to draw between the conduct of the old +bank, and the present one. The old bank permitted her discounts +to remain at their maximum to the very end of her charter; she +discounted sixty days' paper up to the last day of her existence; +while this bank has commenced a furious curtailment two years and +a half before the expiration of her charter. Again: the old bank +had not an hour, as a corporation, to wind up her business after +the end of her charter; this bank has the use of all her corporate +faculties, for that purpose, for two years after the end of her +charter. Again: the present bank pretends that she will have to +collect the whole of her debts within the period limited for winding +up her affairs; the old bank took upwards of twelve years after the +expiration of her charter to collect hers! She created a trust; she +appointed trustees; all the debts and credits were put into their +hands, the trustees proceeded like any other collectors, giving time +to all debtors who would secure the debt, pay interest punctually, +and discharge the principal by instalments. This is what the old +bank did; and she did not close her affairs until the 16th of June, +in the year 1823. The whole operation was conducted so gently, +that the public knew nothing about it. The cotemporaries of the +dissolution of the bank, knew nothing about its dissolution. And +this is what the present bank may do, if it pleases. That it has not +done so--that it is now grinding the community, and threatening to +grind them still harder, is a proof of this dangerous nature of a +great moneyed power; and should be a warning to the people who now +behold its conduct--who feel its gripe, and hear its threat--never +to suffer the existence of such another power in our free and happy +land. + +VII. Mr. B. deprecated the spirit which seemed to have broken out +against State banks; it was a spirit which augured badly for the +rights of the States. Those banks were created by the States; +and the works of the States ought to be respected; the stock in +those banks was held by American citizens, and ought not to be +injuriously assailed to give value to stock held in the federal +bank by foreigners and aliens. The very mode of carrying on the +warfare against State banks, has itself been an injury, and a just +cause of complaint. Some of the most inconsiderable have been picked +out--their affairs presented in the most unfavorable light; and then +held forth as a fair sample of the whole. How much more easy would +it have been to have acted a more grateful, and a more equitable +part! a part more just to the State governments which created those +banks, and the American citizens who held stock in them! Instead +of hunting out for remote and inconsiderable banks, and instituting +a most disparaging scrutiny into their small affairs, and making +this high Senate the conspicuous theatre for the exhibition of +their insignificance, why not take the higher order of the State +banks?--those whose names and characters are well known? whose stock +upon the exchange of London and New-York, is superior to that of the +United States Bank? whose individual deposits are greater than those +of the rival branches of the Bank of the United States, seated in +their neighborhood? whose bills of exchange are as eagerly sought +for as those of the federal bank? which have reduced exchange below +the rates of the federal bank? and which, in every particular that +tries the credit, is superior to the one which is receiving so much +homage and admiration? Mr. B. said there were plenty of such State +banks as he had described; they were to be found in every principal +city, from New Orleans to Boston. Some of them had been selected for +deposit banks, others not; but there was no difficulty in making a +selection of an ample number. + +This spirit of hostility to the State banks, Mr. B. said, was of +recent origin, and seemed to keep pace with the spirit of attack +upon the political rights of the States. When the first federal bank +was created, in the year 1791, it was not even made, by its charter, +a place of deposit for the public moneys. Mr. Jefferson preferred +the State banks at that time; and so declared himself in his cabinet +opinion to President Washington. Mr. Gallatin deposited a part of +the public moneys in the State banks during the whole of the long +period that he was at the head of the treasury. At the dissolution +of the first Bank of the United States, he turned over all the +public moneys which he held in deposit to these banks, taking their +obligation to pay out all the treasury warrants drawn upon them in +gold and silver, if desired by the holder. When the present bank +was chartered, the State banks stood upon an equal footing with the +federal bank, and were placed upon an equality with it as banks of +deposit, in the very charter which created the federal bank. Mr. B. +was alluding to the 14th fundamental article of the constitution +of the bank--the article which provided for the establishment of +branches--and which presented an argument in justification of the +removal of the deposits which the adversaries of that measure most +pertinaciously decline to answer. The government wanted banks of +deposit, not of circulation; and by that article, the State banks +are made just as much banks of deposit for the United States as the +Bank of the United States is. They are put upon exact equality, +so far as the federal government is concerned; for she stipulates +but for one single branch of the United States Bank, and that to +be placed at Washington city. As for all other branches, their +establishment was made to depend--not on the will, or power, of +the federal government--not on any supposed or real necessity on +her part to have the use of such branches--but upon contingencies +over which she had no control; contingencies depending, one upon +the mere calculation of profit and loss by the bank itself, the +other upon the subscriptions of stock within a State, and the +application of its legislature. In these contingencies, namely, +if the Bank of the United States thought it to her interest to +establish branches in the States, she might do it; or, if 2,000 +shares of stock was subscribed for in a State, and thereupon an +application was made by the State legislature for the institution of +a branch, then its establishment within the State became obligatory +upon the bank. In neither contingency had the will, the power, +or the necessities of the federal government, the least weight, +concern, or consideration, in the establishment of the branch. If +not established, and so far as the government is concerned, it might +not be, then the State banks, selected by the United States Bank, +and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, were to be the banks +of deposit for the federal moneys. This was an argument, Mr. B. +said, in justification of the removal of the deposits, and in favor +of the use of the State banks which gentlemen on the opposite side +of the question--gentlemen who take so much pains to decry State +banks--have been careful not to answer. + +The evils of a small paper circulation, he considered among the +greatest grievances that could afflict a community. The evils +were innumerable, and fell almost exclusively upon those who were +least able to bear them, or to guard against them. If a bank stops +payment, the holders of the small notes, who are usually the working +part of the community, are the last to find it out, and the first +to suffer. If counterfeiting is perpetrated, it is chiefly the +small notes which are selected for imitation, because they are most +current among those who know the least about notes, and who are most +easily made the dupes of imposition, and the victims of fraud. As +the expeller of hard money, small notes were the bane and curse of a +country. A nation is scarce, or abundant, in hard money, precisely +in the degree in which it tolerates the lower denominations of bank +notes. France tolerates no note less than $100; and has a gold and +silver circulation of 350 millions of dollars. England tolerates no +note of less than $25; and has a gold and silver circulation of 130 +millions of dollars: in the United States, where $5 is the minimum +size of the federal bank notes, the whole specie circulation, +including what is in the banks, does not amount to thirty millions +of dollars. To increase the quantity of hard money in the United +States, and to supply the body of the people with an adequate specie +currency to serve for their daily wants, and ordinary transactions, +the banknote circulation below twenty dollars, ought to be +suppressed. If Congress could pass a law to that effect, it ought +to bed one; but it cannot pass such a law: it has no constitutional +power to pass it. Congress can, however, do something else, which +will, in time, effectually put down such a currency. It can discard +it, and disparage it. It can reject it from all federal payments. It +can reject the whole circulation of any bank that will continue to +issue small notes. Their rejection from all federal payments, would +check their currency, and confine the orbit of their circulation +to the immediate neighborhood of the issuing bank. The bank itself +would find but little profit from issuing them--public sentiment +would come to the aid of federal policy. The people of the States, +when countenanced and sustained by the federal government, would +indulge their natural antipathy and honest detestation of a small +paper currency. They would make war upon all small notes. The +State legislatures would be under the control of the people; and +the States that should first have the wisdom to limit their paper +circulation to a minimum of twenty dollar bills, would immediately +fill up with gold and silver. The common currency would be +entirely metallic; and there would be a broad and solid basis for +a superstructure of large notes; while the States which continued +to tolerate the small notes, would be afflicted with all the evils +of a most pestilential part of the paper system,--small notes, part +counterfeit, part uncurrent, half worn out; and all incapable of +being used with any regard to a beneficial economy. Mr. B. went on +to depict the evils of a small note currency, which he looked upon +as the bane and curse of the laboring part of the community, and the +reproach and opprobrium of any government that tolerated it. He said +that the government which suffered its currency to fall into such a +state that the farmer, the artisan, the market man, the day laborer, +and the hired servant, could only be paid in small bank notes, was a +government which abdicated one of its most sacred duties; and became +an accomplice on the part of the strong in the oppression of the +weak. + +Mr. B. placed great reliance upon the restoration of the gold +currency for putting down a small note circulation. No man would +choose to carry a bundle of small bank notes in his pocket, even +new and clean ones, much less old, ragged, and filthy ones, when he +could get gold in their place. A limitation upon the receivability +of these notes, in payment of federal dues, would complete their +suppression. Mr. B. did not aspire to the felicity of seeing as +fine a currency in the United States as there is in France, where +there was no bank note under five hundred francs, and where there +was a gold and silver circulation at the rate of eleven dollars a +head for each man, woman, and child, in the kingdom, namely, three +hundred and fifty millions of dollars for a population of thirty-two +millions of souls; but he did aspire to the comparative happiness +of seeing as good currency established for ourselves, by ourselves, +as our old fellow-subjects--the people of old England--now possess +from their king, lords, and commons. They--he spoke of England +proper--had no bank note less than five pounds sterling, and they +possessed a specie circulation (of which three-fourths was gold) at +the rate of about nine dollars a head, men, women, children (even +paupers) included; namely, about one hundred and thirty millions for +a population of fourteen millions. He, Mr. B., must be allowed to +aspire to the happiness of possessing, and in his sphere to labor +to acquire, as good a circulation as these English have; and that +would be an immeasurable improvement upon our present condition. +We have local bank notes of one, two, three, four dollars; we have +federal bank notes of five and ten dollars--the notes of those +English who are using gold at home while we are using their paper +here:--we have not a particle of gold, and not more silver than at +the rate of about two dollars a head, men, women, children (even +slaves) included; namely, about thirty millions of silver for a +population of thirteen millions. Mr. B. believed there was not upon +the face of the earth, a country whose actual currency was in a more +deplorable condition than that of the United States was at present; +the bitter fruit of that fatal paper system which was brought upon +us, with the establishment of the first Bank of the United States in +1791, and which will be continued upon us until the citadel of that +system--the Bastile of paper money, the present Bank of the United +States,--shall cease to exist. + +Mr. B. said, that he was not the organ of the President on this +floor--he had no authority from the President to speak his +sentiments to the Senate. Even if he knew them, it would be +unparliamentary, and irregular, to state them. There was a way for +the Senate to communicate with the President, which was too well +known to every gentleman to require any indication from him. But +he might be permitted to suggest--in the absence of all regular +information--that if any Senator wished to understand, and to +comment upon, the President's opinions on currency, he might, +perhaps, come something nearer to the mark, by commenting on what +he (Mr. B.) had been saying, than by having recourse to the town +meeting reports of inimical bank committees. + + + + +CHAPTER CVI. + +ATTEMPTED INVESTIGATION OF THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. + + +The House of Representatives had appointed a select committee of +its members to investigate the affairs of the Bank of the United +States--seven in number, and consisting of Mr. Francis Thomas, +of Maryland; Mr. Edward Everett, of Massachusetts; Mr. Henry A. +Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania; Mr. John Y. Mason, of Virginia; Mr. W. +W. Ellsworth, of Connecticut; Mr. Abijah Mann, Jr. of New-York; Mr. +Robert T. Lytle, of Ohio. The authority under which the committee +acted, required them to ascertain: 1. The causes of the commercial +embarrassment, and the public distress complained of in the numerous +distress memorials presented to the two Houses during the session; +and whether the bank had been any way instrumental, through its +management or money, in producing the distress and embarrassment, +of which so much complaint was made. 2. To inquire whether the +charter of the bank had been violated; and what corruptions and +abuses, if any, had existed in its management. 3. To inquire whether +the bank had used its corporate power, or money, to control the +press, to interpose in politics, or to influence elections. The +authority conferred upon the committee was ample for the execution +of these inquiries. It was authorized to send for persons and +papers; to summon and examine witnesses on oath; to visit, if +necessary, the principal bank, and its branches; to inspect the +books, correspondence and accounts of the bank, and other papers +connected with its management. The right of the House to make this +investigation was two-fold: _first_, under the twenty-third article +of the charter: _secondly_, as the founder of the corporation; to +whom belongs, in law language, the right to "visit" the institution +it has founded; which "visiting" is for examination--as a bishop +"visits" his diocese--a superintendent "visits" the works and +persons under his care; not to see them, but to examine into +their management and condition. There was also, a _third_ right +of examination, resulting from the act of the corporation; it was +again soliciting a re-charter, and was bound to show that the +corporators had used their actual charter fairly and legally before +it asked for another. And, _fourthly_, there was a further right +of investigation, still resulting from its conduct. It denied all +the accusations brought against it by the government directors, +and brought before Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury; +and joined issue upon those accusations in a memorial addressed +to the two Houses of Congress, To refuse examination under these +circumstances would be shrinking from the issue which itself had +joined. The committee proceeded to Philadelphia, and soon found +that the bank did not mean to submit to an examination. Captious +and special pleading objections were made at every step, until +attempts on one side and objections on the other ended in a total +refusal to submit their books for inspection, or themselves for an +examination. The directors had appointed a company of seven to meet +the committee of the House--a procedure unwarranted by any right or +usage, and offensive in its pretentious equality; but to which the +committee consented, at first, from a desire to do nothing to balk +the examination. That corporation committee was to sit with them, +in the room in the bank assigned for the examination; and took care +always to pre-occupy it before the House committee arrived; and to +act as if at home, receiving guests. The committee then took a room +in a hotel, and asked to have the bank books sent to them; which +was refused. They then desired to have the books subjected to their +inspection in the bank itself; in which request they were baffled, +and defeated. The bank committee required written specification +of their points of inquiry, either in examining a book, or asking +a question--that it might judge its legality; which they confined +to mere breaches of the charter. And when the directors were +summoned to answer questions, they refused to be sworn, and excused +themselves on the ground of being parties to the proceeding. Some +passages from the committee's report will show to what extent this +higgling and contumacy was carried by this corporation--deriving its +existence from Congress, and endeavoring to force a renewed charter +from it while refusing to show how it had used the first one. Thus: + + "On the 23d of April, their chairman addressed to the President + of the bank, a communication, inclosing a copy of the resolution + of the House of Representatives, and notifying him of the + readiness of the committee to visit the bank on the ensuing + day, at any hour agreeable to him. In reply, the President + informed the committee that the papers thus received should be + submitted to the board of directors, at a special meeting to + be called for that purpose. It appears, in the journal of the + proceedings of the committee, herewith presented to the House, + that this was done, and that the directors appointed a committee + of seven of their board, to receive the committee of the House + of Representatives, and to offer for their inspection such books + and papers of the bank, as may be necessary to exhibit the + proceedings of the corporation, according to the requirement of + the charter. In the letter of John Sergeant, Esq., as chairman + of the committee of directors communicating the proceedings of + the board, he says that he was directed to inform the chairman + of this committee that the committee of the directors 'will + immediately direct the necessary arrangements to be made for the + accommodation of the committee of the House of Representatives,' + and would attend at the bank to receive them the next day, at + eleven o'clock. Your committee attended, and were received by + the committee of directors. + + "Up to this period, nothing had occurred to justify the belief + that a disposition was felt, on the part of the managers of + the bank, to embarrass the proceedings of the committee, or + have them conducted differently from those of the two preceding + committees of investigation. On assembling, however, the next + morning, at the bank, they found the room which had been offered + for their accommodation, preoccupied by the committee of the + board, with the president of the bank, as an _ex officio_ + member, claiming the right to be present at the investigations + and examinations of this committee. This proceeding the + committee were not prepared to expect. When the appointment of + the committee of seven was first made, it was supposed that that + measure, however designed, was not well calculated to facilitate + the examination. + + "With a previous determination to be present when their books + were to be inspected, they could have waited to avow it until + these books were called for, and the attempt made to inspect + them in their absence. These circumstances are now reviewed, + because they then excited an apprehension, which the sequel + formed into conviction, that this committee of directors + had been appointed to supervise the acts and doings of your + committee, and to limit and restrain their proceedings, not + according to the directions contained in the resolution of the + House, but the will and judgment of the board of directors. Your + committee have chosen to ascribe this claim of the committee of + directors to sit conjointly with them, to the desire to prevent + them from making use of the books and papers, for some of the + purposes pointed out by the resolution of the House. They are + sensible that this claim to be present at all examinations, + avowed prematurely, and subsequently persisted in with peculiar + pertinacity, could be attributed to very different motives; + but respect for themselves, and respect for the gentlemen + who compose the committee of directors, utterly forbids the + ascription to them of a feeling which would merit compassion and + contempt much more than resentment. + + "This novel position, voluntarily and deliberately taken by + the committee of the directors, predicated on an idea of + equality of rights with your committee, under your resolution, + rendered it probable, and in some measure necessary, that your + committee should express its opinions of the relative rights + of the corporation and the House of Representatives. To avoid + all misunderstanding and future misrepresentations, it was + desirable that each question should be decided separately. + Contemplating an extended investigation, but unwilling that + an apprehension should exist of improper disclosures being + made of the transactions of the bank and its customers your + committee, following the example of the committee of 1832, + adopted a resolution declaring that their proceedings should be + confidential, until otherwise ordered by the committee, and also + a resolution that the committee would conduct its investigations + 'without the presence of any person not required or invited + to attend.' A copy of these resolutions was furnished to the + committee of directors, in the hope that the exclusive control + of a room at the bank, during its hours of business, would + thereafter be conceded to your committee, while the claim of + the committee of directors to be present when the books were + submitted for inspection, should be postponed for decision, when + the books were called for and produced by them. + + "On the 28th ult. this committee assembled at the banking + house, and again found the room they expected to find set apart + for their use, preoccupied by the committee of directors, and + others, officers of the bank. And instead of such assurances + as they had a right to expect, they received copies of two + resolutions adopted by the board of directors, in which they + were given to understand that their continued occupation of + the room must be considered a favor and not a matter of right; + and in which the board indulge in unjust commentaries on the + resolution of the House of Representatives; and intimate + an apprehension that your committee design to make their + examinations secret, partial, unjust, oppressive and contrary to + common right." + +On receiving this offensive communication, manifestly intended to +bring on a quarrel, the committee adopted a resolution to sit in a +room of their hotel, and advised the bank accordingly; and required +the president and directors to submit the books to their inspection +in the room so chosen, at a day and hour named. To this the +directors answered that they could not comply; and the committee, +desirous to do all they could to accomplish the investigation +committed to them, then gave notice that they would attend at the +bank on a named day and hour to inspect the books in the bank +itself--either at the counter, or in a room. Arriving at the +appointed time, and asking to see the books, they were positively +refused, reasons in writing being assigned for the refusal. They +then made a written request to see certain books specifically and +for a specified purpose, namely, to ascertain the truth of the +report of the government directors in using the money and power of +the bank in politics, in elections, or in producing the distress. +The manner in which this call was treated must be given in the words +of the report itself; thus: + + "Without giving a specific answer to these calls for books + and papers, the committee of directors presented a written + communication, which was said to be 'indicative of the mode of + proceeding deemed right by the bank.' + + "The committee of the board in that communication, express the + opinion, that the inquiry can only be rightfully extended to + alleged violations of the charter, and deny virtually the right + of the House of Representatives to authorize the inquiries + required in the resolution. + + "They also required of the committee of investigation, 'when + they asked for books and papers, to state specifically in + writing, the purposes for which they are proposed to be + inspected; and if it be to establish a violation of the charter, + then to state specifically in writing, what are the alleged or + supposed violations of charter, to which the evidence is alleged + to be applicable.' + + "To this extraordinary requirement, made on the supposition + that your committee were charged with the duty of crimination, + or prosecution for criminal offence, and implying a right on + the part of the directors to determine for what purposes the + inspection should be made, and what books or papers should + be submitted to inspection, your committee replied, that + they were not charged with the duty of criminating the bank, + its directors, or others; but simply to inquire, amongst + other things, whether any prosecution in legal form should + be instituted, and from the nature of their duties, and the + instructions of the House of Representatives, they were not + bound to state specifically in writing any charges against + the bank, or any special purpose for which they required the + production of the books and papers for inspection." + +The committee then asked for copies of the accounts and entries +which they wished to see, and were answered that it would require +the labor of two clerks for ten months to make them out; and so +declined to give the copies. The committee finding that they could +make nothing out of books and papers, determined to change their +examination of things into that of persons; and for that purpose +had recourse to the subpoenas, furnished by the House; and had them +served by the United States marshal on the president and directors. +This subpoena, which contained a clause of _duces tecum_, with +respect to the books, was so far obeyed as to bring the directors +in person before the committee; and so far disobeyed as to bring +them without the books, and so far exceeded as to bring them with a +written refusal to be sworn--for reasons which they stated. But this +part deserves to be told in the language of the report; which says: + + "Believing they had now exhausted, in their efforts to execute + the duty devolved upon them, all reasonable means depending + solely upon the provisions of the bank charter, to obtain the + inspection of the books of this corporation, your committee + were at last reluctantly compelled to resort to the subpoenas + which had been furnished to them under the seal of this House, + and attested by its clerk. They, thereby, on the 9th inst. + directed the marshal of the eastern district of Pennsylvania to + summon Nicholas Biddle, president, and thirteen other persons, + directors of the bank, to attend at their committee room, on the + next day, at twelve o'clock, at noon, to testify concerning the + matters of which your committee were authorized to inquire, and + to bring with them certain books therein named for inspection. + The marshal served the summons in due form of law, and at the + time appointed, the persons therein named appeared before the + committee and presented a written communication signed by each + of them, as the answer of each to the requirements of the + subpoena, which is in the appendix to this report. In this paper + they declare 'that they do not produce the books required, + because they are not in the custody of either of us, but as has + been heretofore stated, of the board,' and add, 'considering + that as corporators and directors, we are parties to the + proceeding--we do not consider ourselves bound to testify, and + therefore respectfully decline to do so.'" + +This put an end to the attempted investigation. The committee +returned to Washington--made report of their proceedings, and +moved: "That the speaker of this House do issue his warrant to the +sergeant-at-arms, to arrest Nicholas Biddle, president--Manuel +Eyre, Lawrence Lewis, Ambrose White, Daniel W. Cox, John Holmes, +Charles Chauncey, John Goddard, John R. Neff, William Platt, +Matthew Newkirk, James C. Fisher, John S. Henry, and John Sergeant, +directors--of the Bank of the United States, and bring them to +the bar of this House to answer for the contempt of its lawful +authority." This resolve was not acted upon by the House; and the +directors had the satisfaction to enjoy a negative triumph in their +contempt of the House, flagrant as that contempt was upon its own +showing, and still more so upon its contrast with the conduct of +the same bank (though under a different set of directors), in the +year 1819. A committee of investigation was then appointed, armed +with the same powers which were granted to this committee of the +year 1834, and the directors of that time readily submitted to +every species of examination which the committee chose to make. +They visited the principal bank at Philadelphia, and several of +its branches. They had free and unrestrained access to the books +and papers of the bank. They were furnished by the officers with +all the copies and extracts they asked for. They summoned before +them the directors and officers of the bank, examined them on oath, +took their testimony in writing--and obtained full answers to all +their questions, whether they implied illegalities violative of the +charter, or abuses, or mismanagement, or mistakes and errors. + + + + +CHAPTER CVII. + +MR. TANEY'S REPORT ON THE FINANCES--EXPOSURE OF THE DISTRESS +ALARMS--END OF THE PANIC. + + +About the time when the panic was at its height, and Congress most +heavily assailed with distress memorials, the Secretary of the +Treasury was called upon by a resolve of the Senate for a report +upon the finances--with the full belief that the finances were going +to ruin, and that the government would soon be left without adequate +revenue, and driven to the mortifying resource of loans. The call +on the Secretary was made early in May, and was answered the middle +of June; and was an utter disappointment to those who called for +it. Far from showing the financial decline which had been expected, +it showed an increase in every branch of the revenue! and from that +authentic test of the national condition, it was authentically shown +that the Union was prosperous! and that the distress, of which so +much was heard, was confined to the victims of the United States +Bank, so far as it was real; and that all beyond that was fictitious +and artificial--the result of the machinery for organizing panic, +oppressing debtors, breaking up labor, and alarming the timid. When +the report came into the Senate, the reading of it was commenced +at the table of the Secretary, and had not proceeded far when Mr. +Webster moved to cease the reading, and send it to the Committee on +Finance--that committee in which a report of that kind could not +expect to find either an early or favorable notice. We had expected +a motion to get rid of it, in some quiet way, and had prepared for +whatever might happen. Mr. Taney had sent for me the day before it +came in; read it over with me; showed me all the tables on which +it was founded; and prepared me to sustain and emblazon it: for +it was our intention that such a report should go to the country, +not in the quiet, subdued tone of a State paper, but with all the +emphasis, and all the challenges to public attention, which the +amplifications, the animation, and the fire and freedom which +the speaking style admitted. The instant, then, that Mr. Webster +made his motion to stop the reading, and refer the report to the +Finance Committee, Mr. Benton rose, and demanded that the reading be +continued: a demand which he had a right to make, as the rules gave +it to every member. He had no occasion to hear it read, and probably +heard nothing of it; but the form was necessary, as the report was +to be the text of his speech. The instant it was done, he rose and +delivered his speech, seizing the circumstance of the interrupted +reading to furnish the brief exordium, and to give a fresh and +impromptu air to what he was going to say. The following is the +speech: + +Mr. Benton rose, and said that this report was of a nature to +deserve some attention, before it left the chamber of the Senate, +and went to a committee, from which it might not return in time +for consideration at this session. It had been called for under +circumstances which attracted attention, and disclosed information +which deserved to be known. It was called for early in May, in the +crisis of the alarm operations, and with confident assertions that +the answer to the call would prove the distress and the suffering +of the country. It was confidently asserted that the Secretary of +the Treasury had over-estimated the revenues of the year; that +there would be a great falling off--a decline--a bankruptcy; +that confidence was destroyed--enterprise checked--industry +paralyzed--commerce suspended! that the direful act of one man, in +one dire order, had changed the face of the country, from a scene +of unparalleled prosperity to a scene of unparalleled desolation! +that the canal was a solitude, the lake a desert waste of waters, +the ocean without ships, the commercial towns deserted, silent, and +sad; orders for goods countermanded; foreign purchases stopped! and +that the answer of the Secretary would prove all this, in showing +the falsity of his own estimates, and the great decline in the +revenue and importations of the country. Such were the assertions +and predictions under which the call was made, and to which the +public attention was attracted by every device of theatrical +declamation from this floor. Well, the answer comes. The Secretary +sends in his report, with every statement called for. It is a report +to make the patriot's heart rejoice! full of high and gratifying +facts; replete with rich information; and pregnant with evidences +of national prosperity. How is it received--how received by those +who called for it? With downcast looks, and wordless tongues! A +motion is even made to stop the reading! to stop the reading of such +a report! called for under such circumstances; while whole days +are given up to reading the monotonous, tautologous, and endless +repetitions of distress memorials, the echo of our own speeches, +and the thousandth edition of the same work, without emendation or +correction! All these can be read, and printed, too, and lauded +with studied eulogium, and their contents sent out to the people, +freighted upon every wind; but this official report of the Secretary +of the Treasury, upon the state of their own revenues, and of +their own commerce, called for by an order of the Senate, is to be +treated like an unwelcome and worthless intruder; received without a +word--not even read--slipped out upon a motion--disposed of as the +Abbé Sieyes voted for the death of Louis the Sixteenth: _mort sans +phrase!_ death, without talk! But he, Mr. B., did not mean to suffer +this report to be dispatched in this unceremonious and compendious +style. It had been called for to be given to the people, and the +people should hear of it. It was not what was expected, but it is +what is true, and what will rejoice the heart of every patriot in +America. A pit was dug for Mr. Taney; the diggers of the pit have +fallen into it; the fault is not his; and the sooner they clamber +out, the better for themselves. The people have a right to know the +contents of this report, and know them they shall; and if there is +any man in this America, whose heart is so constructed as to grieve +over the prosperity of his country, let him prepare himself for +sorrow; for the proof is forthcoming, that never, since America had +a place among nations, was the prosperity of the country equal to +what it is at this day! + +Mr. B. then requested the Secretary of the Senate to send him the +report, and comparative statements; which being done, Mr. B. opened +the report, and went over the heads of it to show that the Secretary +of the Treasury had not over-estimated the revenue of the year, as +he had been charged, and as the report was expected to prove: that +the revenue was, in fact, superior to the estimate; and that the +importations would equal, if not exceed, the highest amount that +they had ever attained. + +To appreciate the statements which he should make, Mr. B. said it +was necessary for the Senate to recollect that the list of dutiable +articles was now greatly reduced. Many articles were now free of +duty, which formerly paid heavy duties; many others were reduced +in duty; and the fair effect of these abolitions and reductions +would be a diminution of revenue even without a diminution of +imports; yet the Secretary's estimate, made at the commencement +of the session, was more than realized, and showed the gratifying +spectacle of a full and overflowing treasury, instead of the empty +one which had been predicted; and left to Congress the grateful +occupation of further reducing taxes, instead of the odious task of +borrowing money, as had been so loudly anticipated for six months +past. The revenue accruing from imports in the first quarter of the +present year, was 5,344,540 dollars; the payments actually made +into the treasury from the custom-houses for the same quarter, were +4,435,386 dollars; and the payments from lands for the same time, +were 1,398,206 dollars. The two first months of the second quarter +were producing in a full ratio to the first quarter; and the actual +amount of available funds in the treasury on the 9th day of this +month, was eleven millions, two hundred and forty-nine thousand, +four hundred and twelve dollars. The two last quarters of the year +were always the most productive. It was the time of the largest +importations of foreign goods which pay most duty--the woollens--and +the season, also, for the largest sale of public lands. It is well +believed that the estimate will be more largely exceeded in those +two quarters than in the two first; and that the excess for the +whole year, over the estimate, will be full two millions of dollars. +This, Mr. B. said, was one of the evidences of public prosperity +which the report contained, and which utterly contradicted the idea +of distress and commercial embarrassment which had been propagated, +from this chamber, for the last six months. + +Mr. B. proceeded to the next evidence of commercial prosperity; it +was the increased importations of foreign goods. These imports, +judging from the five first months, would be seven millions more +than they were two years ago, when the Bank of the United States +had seventy millions loaned out; and they were twenty millions more +than in the time of Mr. Adams's administration. At the rate they +had commenced, they would amount to one hundred and ten millions +for the year. This will exceed whatever was known in our country. +The imports, for the time that President Jackson has served, have +regularly advanced from about $74,000,000 to $108,000,000. The +following is the statement of these imports, from which Mr. B. read: + + 1829 $74,492,527 + 1830 70,876,920 + 1831 103,191,124 + 1832 101,029,266 + 1833 108,118,311 + +Mr. B. said that the imports of the last year were greater in +proportion than in any previous year; a temporary decline might +reasonably have been expected; such declines always take place after +excessive importations. If it had occurred now, though naturally +to have been expected, the fact would have been trumpeted forth as +the infallible sign--the proof positive--of commercial distress, +occasioned by the fatal removal of the deposits. But, as there was +no decline, but on the contrary, an actual increase, he must claim +the evidence for the other side of the account, and set it down as +proof positive that commerce is not destroyed; and, consequently, +that the removal of the deposits did not destroy commerce. + +The next evidence of commercial prosperity which Mr. B. would +exhibit to the Senate, was in the increased, and increasing number +of ship arrivals from foreign ports. The number of arrivals for +the month of May, in New-York, was two hundred and twenty-three, +exceeding by thirty-six those of the month of April, and showing +not only a great, but an increasing activity in the commerce of +that great emporium--he would not say of the United States, or even +of North America--but he would call it that great emporium of the +two Americas, and of the New World; for the goods imported to that +place, were thence distributed to every part of the two Americas, +from the Canadian lakes to Cape Horn. + +A third evidence of national prosperity was in the sales of the +public lands. Mr. B. had, on a former occasion, adverted to these +sales, so far as the first quarter was concerned; and had shown, +that instead of falling off, as had been predicted on this floor, +the revenue from the sales of these lands had actually doubled, and +more than doubled, what they were in the first quarter of 1833. The +receipts for lands for that quarter, were $668,526; for the first +quarter of the present year they were $1,398,206; being two to one, +and $60,000 over! The receipts for the two first months of the +second quarter, were also known, and would carry the revenue from +lands, for the first five months of this year, to two millions of +dollars; indicating five millions for the whole year; an enormous +amount, from which the people of the new States ought to be, in +some degree, relieved, by a reduction in the price of lands. Mr. B. +begged in the most emphatic terms, to remind the Senate, that at +the commencement of the session, the sales of the public lands were +selected as one of the criterions by which the ruin and desolation +of the country were to be judged. It was then predicted, and the +prediction put forth with all the boldness of infallible prophecy, +that the removal of the deposits would stop the sales of the public +lands; that money would disappear, and the people have nothing to +buy with; that the produce of the earth would rot upon the hands of +the farmer. These were the predictions; and if the sales had really +declined, what a proof would immediately be found in the fact to +prove the truth of the prophecy, and the dire effects of changing +the public moneys from one set of banking-houses to another! But +there is no decline; but a doubling of the former product; and a +fair conclusion thence deduced that the new States, in the interior, +are as prosperous as the old ones, on the sea-coast. + +Having proved the general prosperity of the country from +these infallible data--flourishing revenue--flourishing +commerce--increased arrivals of ships--and increased sales of +public lands, Mr. B. said that he was far from denying that actual +distress had existed. He had admitted the fact of that distress +heretofore, not to the extent to which it was charged, but to a +sufficient extent to excite sympathy for the sufferers; and he had +distinctly charged the whole distress that did exist to the Bank +of the United States, and the Senate of the United States--to the +screw-and-pressure operations of the bank, and the alarm speeches +in the Senate. He had made this charge; and made it under a full +sense of the moral responsibility which he owed to the people, in +affirming any thing so disadvantageous to others, from this elevated +theatre. He had, therefore, given his proofs to accompany the +charge; and he had now to say to the Senate, and through the Senate +to the people, that he found new proofs for that charge in the +detailed statements of the accruing revenue, which had been called +for by the Senate, and furnished by the Secretary of the Treasury. + +Mr. B. said he must be pardoned for repeating his request to the +Senate, to recollect how often they had been told that trade was +paralyzed; that orders for foreign goods were countermanded; that +the importing cities were the pictures of desolation; their ships +idle; their wharves deserted; their mariners wandering up and +down. Now, said Mr. B., in looking over the detailed statement +of the accruing revenue, it was found that there was no decline +of commerce, except at places where the policy and power of the +United States Bank was predominant! Where that power or policy +was predominant, revenue declined; where it was not predominant, +or the policy of the bank not exerted, the revenue increased; +and increased fast enough to make up the deficiency at the other +places. Mr. B. proceeded to verify this statement by a reference +to specified places. Thus, at Philadelphia, where the bank holds +its seat of empire, the revenue fell off about one third; it was +$797,316 for the first quarter of 1833, and only $542,498 for the +first quarter of 1834. At New-York, where the bank has not been +able to get the upper hand, there was an increase of more than +$120,000; the revenue there, for the first quarter of 1833, was +$3,122,166; for the first of 1834, it was $3,249,786. At Boston, +where the bank is again predominant, the revenue fell off about one +third; at Salem, Mass., it fell off four fifths. At Baltimore, where +the bank has been defeated, there was an increase in the revenue +of more than $70,000. At Richmond, the revenue was doubled, from +$12,034 to $25,810. At Charleston, it was increased from $69,503 to +$102,810. At Petersburg, it was slightly increased; and throughout +all the region south of the Potomac, there was either an increase, +or the slight falling off which might result from diminished duties +without diminished importations. Mr. B. said he knew that bank +power was predominant in some of the cities of the South; but he +knew, also, that the bank policy of distress and oppression had not +been practised there. That was not the region to be governed by +the scourge. The high mettle of that region required a different +policy: gentleness, conciliation, coaxing! If the South was to be +gained over by the bank, it was to be done by favor, not by fear. +The scourge, though so much the most congenial to the haughty spirit +of the moneyed power, was only to be applied where it would be +submitted to; and, therefore, the whole region south of the Potomac, +was exempted from the lash. + +Mr. B. here paused to fix the attention of the Senate upon these +facts. Where the power of the bank enabled her to depress commerce +and sink the revenue, and her policy permitted her to do it, +commerce was depressed; and the revenue was sunk, and the prophecies +of the distress orators were fulfilled; but where her power did +not predominate, or where her policy required a different course, +commerce increased, and the revenue increased; and the result of the +whole is, that New-York and some other anti-bank cities have gained +what Philadelphia and other bank cities have lost; and the federal +treasury is just as well off, as if it had got its accustomed supply +from every place. + +This view of facts, Mr. B. said, must fasten upon the bank the odium +of having produced all the real commercial distress which has been +felt. But at one point, at New Orleans, there was further evidence +to convict her of wanton and wicked oppression. It was not in the +Secretary's reports, but it was in the weekly returns of the +bank; and showed that, in the beginning of March, that institution +had carried off from her branch in New Orleans, the sum of about +$800,000 in specie, which it had been collecting all the winter, by +a wanton curtailment, under the pretext of supplying the amount of +the deposits taken from her at that place. These $800,000 dollars +were collected from the New Orleans merchants in the very crisis of +the arrival of Western produce. The merchants were pressed to pay +debts, when they ought to have been accommodated with loans. The +price of produce was thereby depressed; the whole West suffered from +the depression; and now it is proved that the money was not wanted +to supply the place of the deposits, but was sent to Philadelphia, +where there was no use for it, the bank having more than she can +use; and that the whole operation was a wanton and wicked measure +to coerce the West to cry out for a return of the deposits, and a +renewal of the charter, by attacking their commerce in the market of +New Orleans. This fact, said Mr. B., would have been proved from the +books of the bank, if they had been inspected. Failing in that, the +proof was intelligibly found in the weekly returns. + +Mr. B. took up another table to prove the prosperity of the country: +it was in the increase of specie since the programme for the +distress had been published. That programme dated from the first day +of October last, and the clear increase since that time is the one +half of the whole quantity then in the United States. The imports +had been $11,128,291; the exports only $998,761. + +Mr. B. remarked, upon this statement, that it presented a clear gain +of more than ten millions of dollars. He was of opinion that two +millions ought to be added for sums not entered at the custom-house, +which would make twelve millions; and added to the six millions of +1833, would give eighteen millions of specie of clear gain to the +country, in the last twenty months. This, he said was prosperity. It +was wealth itself; and besides, it showed that the country was not +in debt for its large importations, and that a larger proportion of +foreign imports now consisted of specie than was ever known before. +Mr. B. particularized the imports and exports of gold; how the +former had increased, and the latter diminished, during the last +few months; and said that a great amount of gold, both foreign and +domestic, was now waiting in the country to see if Congress would +raise gold to its fair value. If so raised, this gold would remain, +and enter into circulation; if not, it would immediately go off to +foreign countries; for gold was not a thing to stay where it was +undervalued. He also spoke of silver, and said that it had arrived +without law, but could not remain without law. Unless Congress +passed an act to make it current, and that at full value as money, +and not at the mint value, as bullion, it would go off. + +Mr. B. had a further view to give of the prosperity of the country, +and further evidence to show that all the distress really suffered +was factitious and unnatural. It was in the great increase of money +in the United States, during the last year and a half. He spoke of +money; not paper promises to pay money, but the thing itself--real +gold and silver--and affirmed that there was a clear gain of from +eighteen to twenty millions of specie, within the time that he had +mentioned. He then took up the custom-house returns to verify this +important statement, and to let the people see that the country +was never so well off for money as at the very time that it was +proclaimed to be in the lowest state of poverty and misery. He first +showed the imports and exports of specie and bullion for the year +ending the 30th of September, 1833. It was as follows: + + _Year ending September 30, 1833._ + + Imports. Exports. + Gold bullion, $48,267 $26,775 + Silver do. 297,840 + Gold coin, 563,585 495,890 + Silver do. 6,160,676 1,722,196 + --------- --------- + $7,070,368 $2,244,861 + +Mr. B. having read over this statement, remarked upon it, that it +presented a clear balance of near five millions of specie in favor +of the United States on the first day of October last, without +counting at least another million which was brought by passengers, +and not put upon the custom-house books. It might be assumed, he +said, that there was a clear accession of six millions of specie +to the money of the United States, on the morning of that very day +which had been pitched upon by all the distress orators in the +country, to date the ruin and desolation of the country. + +Mr. B. then showed a statement of the imports and exports of specie +and bullion, from the first of October, 1833, to the 11th of June, +instant. + +Mr. B. recapitulated the evidences of national prosperity--increased +imports--revenue from customs exceeding the estimate--increased +revenue from public lands--increased amount of specie--above eleven +millions of available funds now in the treasury--domestic and +foreign commerce active--the price of produce and property fair and +good--labor every where finding employment and reward--more money in +the country than ever was in it at any one time before--the numerous +advertisements for the purchase of slaves, in the papers of this +city, for the Southern market, which indicated the high price of +Southern products--and affirmed his conscientious belief, that the +country was more prosperous at this time than at any period of its +existence; and inveighed in terms of strong indignation against the +arts and artifices, which for the last six months had disturbed and +agitated the country, and done serious mischief to many individuals. +He regretted the miscarriage of the attempt to examine the Bank of +the United States, which he believed would have completed the proof +against that institution for its share in getting up an unnatural +and factitious scene of distress, in the midst of real prosperity. +But he did not limit his invective to the bank, but came directly to +the Senate, and charged a full share upon the theatrical distress +speeches, delivered upon the floor of the Senate, in imitation of +Volney's soliloquy over the ruins of Palmyra. He repeated some +passages from the most affecting of these lamentations over the +desolation of the country, such as the Senate had been accustomed +to hear about the time of the New-York and Virginia elections. "The +canal a solitude! The lake a desert waste of waters! That populous +city lately resounding with the hum of busy multitudes, now silent +and sad! A whole nation, in the midst of unparalleled prosperity, +and Arcadian felicity, suddenly struck into poverty, and plunged +into unutterable woe! and all this by the direful act of one wilful +man!" Such, said Mr. B., were the lamentations over the ruins, +not of the Tadmor in the desert, but of this America, whose true +condition you have just seen exhibited in the faithful report of +the Secretary of the Treasury. Not even the "baseless fabric of a +vision" was ever more destitute of foundation, than those lamentable +accounts of desolation. The lamentation has ceased; the panic has +gone off; would to God he could follow out the noble line of the +poet, and say, "leaving not a wreck behind." But he could not say +that. There were wrecks! wrecks of merchants in every city in +which the bank tried its cruel policy, and wrecks of banks in this +district, where the panic speeches fell thickest and loudest upon +the ears of an astonished and terrified community! + +But, continued Mr. B., the game is up; the alarm is over; the people +are tired of it; the agitators have ceased to work the engine of +alarm. A month ago he had said it was "the last of pea-time" with +these distress memorials; he would now use a bolder figure, and say, +that the Secretary's report, just read, had expelled forever the +ghost of alarm from the chamber of the Senate. All ghosts, said Mr. +B., are afraid of the light. The crowing of the cock--the break of +day--remits them all, the whole shadowy tribe, to their dark and +dreary abodes. How then can this poor ghost of alarm, which has +done such hard service for six months past, how can it stand the +full light, the broad glare, the clear sunshine of the Secretary's +report? "Alas, poor ghost!" The shade of the "noble Dane" never quit +the stage under a more inexorable law than the one which now drives +thee away! This report, replete with plain facts, and luminous +truths, puts to flight the apparition of distress, breaks down the +whole machinery of alarm, and proves that the American people are, +at this day, the most prosperous people on which the beneficent sun +of heaven did ever shine! + +Mr. B. congratulated himself that the spectre of distress could +never be made to cross the Mississippi. It made but slow progress +any where in the Great Valley, but was balked at the King of Floods. +A letter from St. Louis informed him that an attempt had just been +made to get up a distress meeting in the town of St. Louis; but +without effect. The officers were obtained, and according to the +approved rule of such meetings, they were converts from Jacksonism; +but there the distress proceedings stopped, and took another turn. +The farce could not be played in that town. The actors would not +mount the stage. + +Mr. B. spoke of the circulation of the Bank of the United States, +and said that its notes might be withdrawn without being felt or +known by the community. It contributed but four millions and a +quarter to the circulation at this time. He verified this statement +by showing that the bank had twelve millions and a quarter of specie +in its vaults, and but sixteen millions and a half of notes in +circulation. The difference was four millions and a quarter; and +that was the precise amount which that gigantic institution now +contributed to the circulation of the country! Only four millions +and a quarter. If the gold bill passed, and raised gold sixteen to +one, there would be more than that amount of gold in circulation in +three months. The foreign coin bill, and the gold bill, would give +the country many dollars in specie, without interest, for each paper +dollar which the bank issues, and for which the country pays so +dearly. The dissolution of the bank would turn out twelve millions +and a quarter of specie, to circulate among the people; and the +sooner that is done the better it will be for the country. + +The Bank is now a nuisance, said Mr. B. With upwards of twelve +millions in specie, and less than seventeen millions in circulation, +and only fifty-two millions of loans, it pretends that it cannot +lend a dollar, not even to business men, to be returned in sixty +days; when, two years ago, with only six millions of specie and +twenty-two millions of circulation, it ran up its loans to seventy +millions. The president of the bank then swore, that all above six +millions of specie was a surplus! How is it now, with near double +as much specie, and five millions less of notes out, and twelve +millions less of debt? The bank needs less specie than any other +banking institution, because its notes are receivable, by law, in +all federal payments; and from that circumstance alone would be +current, at par, although the bank itself might be wholly unable to +redeem them. Such a bank is a nuisance. It is the dog in the manger. +It might lend money to business men, at short dates, to the last day +of its existence; yet the signs are for a new pressure; a new game +of distress for the fall elections in Pennsylvania, New-York, and +Ohio. If that game should be attempted, Mr. B. said, it would have +to be done without excuse, for the bank was full of money; without +pretext, for the deposit farce is over; without the aid of panic +speeches, for the Senate will not be in session. + +Mr. B. said, that among the strange events which took place in +this world, nothing could be more strange than to find, in our own +country, and in the nineteenth century, any practical illustration +of the ancient doctrine of the metempsychosis. Stranger still, +if that doctrine should be so far improved, as to take effect in +soulless bodies; for, according to the founders of the doctrine, the +soul alone could transmigrate. Now, corporations had no souls; that +was law, laid down by all the books: that all corporations, moneyed +ones especially, and above all, the Bank of the United States, +was most soulless. Yet the rumor was, that this bank intended to +attempt the operation of effecting a transfer of her soul; and after +submitting to death in her present form, to rise up in a new one. +Mr. B. said he, for one, should be ready for the old sinner, come +in the body of what beast it might. No form should deceive him, not +even if it condescended, in its new shape, to issue from Wall-street +instead of Chestnut! + +A word more, and Mr. B. was done. It was a word to those gentlemen +whose declarations, many ten thousand times issued from this floor, +had deluded a hundred thousand people to send memorials here, +certifying what those gentlemen so incontinently repeated, that +the removal of the deposits had made the distress, and nothing but +the restoration of the deposits, or the renewal of the charter, +could remove the distress! Well! the deposits are not restored, +and the charter is not renewed; and yet the distress is gone! +What is the inference? Why that gentlemen are convicted, and +condemned, upon their own argument! They leave this chamber to go +home, self-convicted upon the very test which they themselves have +established; and after having declared, for six months, upon this +floor, that the removal of the deposits made the distress, and +nothing but their restoration, or the renewal of the bank charter, +could relieve it, and that they would sit here until the dog-days, +and the winter solstice, to effect this restoration or renewal: +they now go home in good time for harvest, without effecting the +restoration or the renewal; and find every where, as they go the +evidences of the highest prosperity which ever blessed the land. +Yes! repeated and exclaimed Mr. B. with great emphasis, the deposits +are not restored--the charter is not renewed--the distress is +gone--and the distress speeches have ceased! No more lamentation +over the desolation of the land now; and a gentleman who should +undertake to entertain the Senate again in that vein, in the face +of the present national prosperity--in the face of the present +report from the Secretary of the Treasury--would be stared at, as +the Trojans were accustomed to stare at the frantic exhibitions of +Priam's distracted daughter, while vaticinating the downfall of Troy +in the midst of the heroic exploits of Hector. + +At the conclusion of this speech Mr. Webster spoke a few words, +signifying that foreigners might have made the importations which +kept up the revenue; and Mr. Chambers, of Maryland, spoke more +fully, to show that there was not time yet for the distress to work +its effect nationally. Mr. Webster then varied his motion, and, +instead of sending the Secretary's report to the Finance Committee, +moved to lay it upon the table: which was done: and being printed, +and passed into the newspapers, with the speech to emblazon it, had +a great effect in bringing the panic to a close. + + + + +CHAPTER CVIII. + +REVIVAL OF THE GOLD CURRENCY. + + +A measure of relief was now at hand, before which the machinery +of distress was to balk, and cease its long and cruel labors: it +was the passage of the bill for equalizing the value of gold and +silver, and legalizing the tender of foreign coins of both metals. +The bills were brought forward in the House by Mr. Campbell P. White +of New-York, and passed after an animated contest, in which the +chief question was as to the true relative value of the two metals, +varied by some into a preference for national bank paper. Fifteen +and five-eighths to one was the ratio of nearly all who seemed best +calculated, from their pursuits, to understand the subject. The +thick array of speakers was on that side; and the eighteen banks +of the city of New-York, with Mr. Gallatin at their head, favored +that proportion. The difficulty of adjusting this value, so that +neither metal should expel the other, had been the stumbling block +for a great many years; and now this difficulty seemed to be as +formidable as ever. Refined calculations were gone into: scientific +light was sought: history was rummaged back to the times of the +Roman empire: and there seemed to be no way of getting to a concord +of opinion either from the lights of science, the voice of history, +or the result of calculations. The author of this View had (in his +speeches on the subject), taken up the question in a practical point +of view, regardless of history, and calculations, and the opinions +of bank officers; and looking to the actual, and equal, circulation +of the two metals in different countries, he saw that this equality +and actuality of circulation had existed for above three hundred +years in the Spanish dominions of Mexico and South America, where +the proportion was 16 to one. Taking his stand upon this single +fact, as the practical test which solved the question, all the real +friends of the gold currency soon rallied to it. Mr. White gave up +the bill which he had first introduced, and adopted the Spanish +ratio. Mr. Clowney of South Carolina, Mr. Gillet and Mr. Cambreleng +of New-York, Mr. Ewing of Indiana, Mr. McKim of Maryland, and other +speakers, gave it a warm support. Mr. John Quincy Adams would vote +for it, though he thought the gold was over-valued; but if found to +be so, the difference could be corrected hereafter. The principal +speakers against it and in favor of a lower rate, were Messrs. +Gorham of Massachusetts; Selden of New-York; Binney of Pennsylvania; +and Wilde of Georgia. And, eventually the bill was passed by a +large majority--145 to 36. In the Senate it had an easy passage. +Mr. Calhoun and Webster supported it: Mr. Clay opposed it: and on +the final vote there were but seven negatives: Messrs. Chambers +of Maryland; Clay; Knight of Rhode Island; Alexander Porter of +Louisiana; Silsbee of Massachusetts; Southard of New Jersey; Sprague +of Maine. + +The good effects of the bill were immediately seen. Gold began to +flow into the country through all the channels of commerce: old +chests gave up their hordes: the mint was busy: and in a few months, +and as if by magic, a currency banished from the country for thirty +years, overspread the land, and gave joy and confidence to all +the pursuits of industry. But this joy was not universal. A large +interest connected with the Bank of the United States, and its +subsidiary and subaltern institutions, and the whole paper system, +vehemently opposed it; and spared neither pains nor expense to check +its circulation, and to bring odium upon its supporters. People +were alarmed with counterfeits. Gilt counters were exhibited in the +markets, to alarm the ignorant. The coin itself was burlesqued, in +mock imitations of brass or copper, with grotesque figures, and +ludicrous inscriptions--the "whole hog" and the "better currency," +being the favorite devices. Many newspapers expended their daily +wit in its stale depreciation. The most exalted of the paper money +party, would recoil a step when it was offered to them, and beg +for paper. The name of "Gold humbug" was fastened upon the person +supposed to have been chiefly instrumental in bringing the derided +coin into existence; and he, not to be abashed, made its eulogy +a standing theme--vaunting its excellence, boasting its coming +abundance, to spread over the land, flow up the Mississippi, shine +through the interstices of the long silken purse, and to be locked +up safely in the farmer's trusty oaken chest. For a year there was +a real war of the paper against gold. But there was something that +was an overmatch for the arts, or power, of the paper system in this +particular, and which needed no persuasions to guide it when it had +its choice: it was the instinctive feeling of the masses! which told +them that money which would jingle in the pocket was the right money +for them--that hard money was the right money for hard hands--that +gold was the true currency for every man that had any thing true to +give for it, either in labor or property: and upon these instinctive +feelings gold became the avidious demand of the vast operative and +producing classes. + + + + +CHAPTER CIX. + +REJECTION OF MR. TANEY, NOMINATED FOR SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + + +A presentiment of what was to happen induced the President to delay, +until near the end of the session, the nomination to the Senate +of Mr. Taney for Secretary of the Treasury. He had offended the +Bank of the United States too much to expect his confirmation in +the present temper of the Senate. He had a right to hold back the +nomination to the last day of the session, as the recess appointment +was valid to its end; and he retained it to the last week, not being +willing to lose the able and faithful services of that gentleman +during the actual session of Congress. At last, on the 23d of +June, the nomination was sent in, and immediately rejected by the +usual majority in all cases in which the bank was concerned. Mr. +Taney, the same day resigned his place; and Mr. McClintock Young, +first clerk of the treasury, remained by law acting Secretary. Mr. +Benjamin Franklin Butler, of New-York, nominated for the place of +attorney-general, was confirmed--he having done nothing since he +came into the cabinet to subject him to the fate of his predecessor, +though fully concurring with the President in all his measures in +relation to the bank. + + + + +CHAPTER CX. + +SENATORIAL INVESTIGATION OF THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. + + +This corporation had lost so much ground in the public estimation, +by repulsing the investigation attempted by the House of +Representatives, that it became necessary to retrieve the loss by +some report in its favor. The friends of the institution determined, +therefore, to have an investigation made by the Senate--by the +Finance Committee of that body. In conformity to this determination +Mr. Southard, on the last day of the session moved that that +committee should have leave to sit during the recess of the Senate +to inquire whether the Bank of the United States had violated its +charter--whether it was a safe depository of the public moneys--and +what had been its conduct since 1832 in regard to extension and +curtailment of loans, and its general management since that time. +The committee to whom this investigation was committed, consisted +of Messrs. Webster, Tyler, Ewing, Mangum, and Wilkins. Of this +committee all, except the last named, were the opponents of the +administration, friends of the bank, its zealous advocates in all +the questions between it and the government, speaking ardently in +its favor, and voting with it on all questions during the session. +Mr. Wilkins very properly refused to serve on the committee; and +Mr. King of Alabama, being proposed in his place, also, and with +equal propriety, refused to serve. This act of the Senate in thus +undertaking to examine the bank after a repulse of the committee +of the House of Representatives and still standing out in contempt +of that House, and by a committee so composed, and so restricted, +completed the measure of mortification to all the friends of the +American Senate. It was deemed a cruel wound given to itself by the +Senate. It was a wrong thing, done in a wrong way, and could have no +result but to lessen the dignity and respectability of the Senate. +The members of the committee were the advocates of the bank, and +its public defenders on all the points to be examined. This was a +violation of parliamentary law, as well as of the first principles +of decency and propriety--the whole of which require criminatory +investigations to be made, by those who make the accusations. It +was to be done in vacation; for which purpose the committee was +to sit in the recess--a proceeding without precedent, without +warrant from any word in the constitution--and susceptible of the +most abuseful and factious use. The only semblance of precedent +for it was the committee of the House in 1824, on the memorial of +Mr. Ninian Edwards against Mr. Crawford in that year; but that +was no warrant for this proceeding. It was a mere authority to an +existing committee which had gone through its examination, and made +its report to the House, to continue its session after the House +adjourned to take the deposition of the principal witness, detained +by sickness, but on his way to the examination. This deposition +the committee were to take, publish, and be dissolved; and so +it was done accordingly. And even this slight continuation of a +committee was obtained from the House with difficulty, and under +the most urgent circumstances. Mr. Crawford was a candidate for the +presidency; the election was to come on before Congress met again; +Mr. Edwards had made criminal charges against him; all the testimony +had been taken, except that of Mr. Edwards himself; and he had +notified the committee that he was on his way to appear before them +in obedience to their summons. And it was under these circumstances +that the existing committee was authorized to remain in session for +his arrival--to receive his testimony--publish it--and dissolve. No +perambulation through the country--no indefinite session--no putting +members upon Congress _per diems_ and mileage from one session to +another. Wrongful and abuseful in its creation, this peripatetic +committee of the Senate was equally so in its composition and +object. It was composed of the advocates of the bank, and its +object evidently was to retrieve for that institution a part of the +ground which it had lost; and was so viewed by the community. The +clear-sighted masses saw nothing in it but a contrivance to varnish +the bank, and the odious appellation of "whitewashing committee" was +fastened upon it. + + + + +CHAPTER CXI. + +DOWNFALL OF THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. + + +When the author of the Æneid had shown the opening grandeur of Rome, +he deemed himself justified in departing from the chronological +order of events to look ahead, and give a glimpse of the dead +Marcellus, hope and heir of the Augustan empire; in the like manner +the writer of this View, after having shown the greatness of the +United States Bank--exemplified in her capacity to have Jackson +condemned--the government directors and a secretary of the treasury +rejected--a committee of the House of Representatives repulsed--the +country convulsed and agonized--and to obtain from the Senate of the +United States a committee to proceed to the city of Philadelphia +to "wash out its foul linen;"--after seeing all this and beholding +the greatness of the moneyed power at the culminating point of its +domination, I feel justified in looking ahead a few years to see +it in its altered phase--in its ruined and fallen estate. And this +shall be done in the simplest form of exhibition; namely: by copying +some announcements from the Philadelphia papers of the day. Thus: 1. +"Resolved (by the stockholders), that it is expedient for the Bank +of the United States to make a general assignment of the real and +personal estate, goods and chattels, rights and credits, whatsoever, +and wheresoever, of the said corporation, to five persons, for +the payment or securing of the debts of the same--agreeably to +the provisions of the acts of Assembly of this commonwealth +(Pennsylvania)." 2. "It is known that measures have been taken to +rescue the property of this shattered institution from impending +peril, and to recover as much as possible of those enormous bounties +which it was conceded had been paid by its late managers to trading +politicians and mercenary publishers for corrupt services, rendered +to it during its charter-seeking and electioneering campaigns." +3. "The amount of the suit instituted by the Bank of the United +States against Mr. N. Biddle is $1,018,000, paid out during his +administration, for which no vouchers can be found." 4. "The +United States Bank is a perfect wreck, and is seemingly the prey +of the officers and their friends, which are making away with its +choicest assets by selling them to each other, and taking pay in +the depreciated paper of the South." 5. "Besides its own stock of +35,000,000, which is sunk, the bank carries down with it a great +many other institutions and companies, involving a loss of about +21,000,000 more--making a loss of 56,000,000--besides injuries to +individuals." 6. "There is no price for the United States Bank +stock. Some shares are sold, but as lottery tickets would be. The +mass of the stockholders stand, and look on, as passengers on a +ship that is going down, and from which there is no escape." 7. "By +virtue of a writ of _venditioni exponas_, directed to the sheriff of +the city and county of Philadelphia, will be exposed to public sale +to the highest bidder, on Friday, the 4th day of November next, the +marble house and the grounds known as the Bank of the United States, +&c." 8. "By virtue of a writ of _levari facias_, to me directed, +will be exposed to public sale the estate known as 'Andalusia,' +ninety-nine and a half acres, one of the most highly improved places +in Philadelphia; the mansion-house, and out-houses and offices, +all on the most splendid scale; the green-houses, hot-houses, and +conservatories, extensive and useful; taken as the property of +Nicholas Biddle." 9. "To the honorable Court of General Sessions. +The grand jury for the county of Philadelphia, respectfully +submit to the court, on their oaths and affirmations, that certain +officers connected with the United States Bank, have been guilty of +a gross violation of the law--colluding together to defraud those +stockholders who had trusted their property to be preserved by them. +And that there is good ground to warrant a prosecution of such +persons for criminal offences, which the grand jury do now present +to the court, and ask that the attorney-general be directed to send +up for the action of the grand jury, bills of indictment against +Nicholas Biddle, Samuel Jaudon, John Andrews, and others, to the +grand jury unknown, for a conspiracy to defraud the stockholders in +the Bank of the United States of the sums of, &c." 10. "Bills of +indictment have been found against Nicholas Biddle, Samuel Jaudon +and John Andrews, according to the presentment of the grand jury; +and bench warrants issued, which have been executed upon them." +11. "Examination of Nicholas Biddle, and others, before Recorder +Vaux. Yesterday afternoon the crowd and excitement in and about the +court-room where the examination was to take place was even greater +than the day before. The court-room doors were kept closed up to +within a few minutes of four o'clock, the crowd outside blocking +up every avenue leading to the room. When the doors were thrown +open it was immediately filled to overflowing. At four the Recorder +took his seat, and announcing that he was ready to proceed, the +defendants were called, and severally answered to their names, &c." +12. "On Tuesday, the 18th, the examination of Nicholas Biddle and +others, was continued, and concluded; and the Recorder ordered, that +Nicholas Biddle, Thomas Dunlap, John Andrews, Samuel Jaudon, and +Joseph Cowperthwaite, each enter into a separate recognizance, with +two or more sufficient sureties, in the sum of $10,000, for their +appearance at the present session of the court of general sessions +for the city and county of Philadelphia, to answer the crime of +which they thus stand charged." 13. "Nicholas Biddle and those +indicted with him have been carried upon writs of _habeas corpus_ +before the Judges Barton, Conrad, and Doran, and discharged from +the custody of the sheriff." 14. "The criminal proceedings against +these former officers of the Bank of the United States have been +brought to a close. To get rid of the charges against them without +trial of the facts against them, before a jury, they had themselves +surrendered by their bail, and sued out writs of _habeas corpus_ +for the release of their persons. The opinions of the judges, the +proceedings having been concluded, were delivered yesterday. The +opinions of Judges Barton and Conrad was for their discharge; that +of Judge Doran was unfavorable. They were accordingly discharged. +The indignation of the community is intense against this escape from +the indictments without jury trials." + + + + +CHAPTER CXII. + +DEATH OF JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROANOAKE. + + +He died at Philadelphia in the summer of 1833--the scene of his +early and brilliant apparition on the stage of public life, having +commenced his parliamentary career in that city, under the first Mr. +Adams, when Congress sat there, and when he was barely of an age to +be admitted into the body. For more than thirty years he was the +political meteor of Congress, blazing with undiminished splendor +during the whole time, and often appearing as the "planetary plague" +which shed, not war and pestilence on nations, but agony and fear +on members. His sarcasm was keen, refined, withering--with a +great tendency to indulge in it; but, as he believed, as a lawful +parliamentary weapon to effect some desirable purpose. Pretension, +meanness, vice, demagogism, were the frequent subjects of the +exercise of his talent; and, when confined to them, he was the +benefactor of the House. Wit and genius all allowed him; sagacity +was a quality of his mind visible to all observers--and which +gave him an intuitive insight into the effect of measures. During +the first six years of Mr. Jefferson's administration, he was the +"Murat" of his party, brilliant in the charge, and always ready for +it; and valued in the council, as well as in the field. He was long +the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means--a place always +of labor and responsibility, and of more then than now, when the +elements of revenue were less abundant; and no man could have been +placed in that situation during Mr. Jefferson's time whose known +sagacity was not a pledge for the safety of his lead in the most +sudden and critical circumstances. He was one of those whom that +eminent statesman habitually consulted during the period of their +friendship, and to whom he carefully communicated his plans before +they were given to the public. On his arrival at Washington at the +opening of each session of Congress during this period, he regularly +found waiting for him at his established lodgings--then Crawford's, +Georgetown--the card of Mr. Jefferson, with an invitation for dinner +the next day; a dinner at which the leading measures of the ensuing +session were the principal topic. Mr. Jefferson did not treat in +that way a member in whose sagacity he had not confidence. + +It is not just to judge such a man by ordinary rules, nor by +detached and separate incidents in his life. To comprehend him, +he must be judged as a whole--physically and mentally--and under +many aspects, and for his entire life. He was never well--a chronic +victim of ill health from the cradle to the grave. A letter from +his most intimate and valued friend, Mr. Macon, written to me after +his death, expressed the belief that he had never enjoyed during +his life one day of perfect health--such as well people enjoy. +Such life-long suffering must have its effect on the temper and +on the mind; and it had on his--bringing the temper often to the +querulous mood, and the state of his mind sometimes to the question +of insanity; a question which became judicial after his death, when +the validity of his will came to be contested. I had my opinion on +the point, and gave it responsibly, in a deposition duly taken, +to be read on the trial of the will; and in which a belief in his +insanity, at several specified periods, was fully expressed--with +the reasons for the opinion. I had good opportunities of forming an +opinion, living in the same house with him several years, having +his confidence, and seeing him at all hours of the day and night. +It also on several occasions became my duty to study the question, +with a view to govern my own conduct under critical circumstances. +Twice he applied to me to carry challenges for him. It would have +been inhuman to have gone out with a man not in his right mind, +and critical to one's self, as any accident on the ground might +seriously compromise the second. My opinion was fixed, of occasional +temporary aberrations of mind; and during such periods he would do +and say strange things--but always in his own way--not only method, +but genius in his fantasies: nothing to bespeak a bad heart, but +only exaltation and excitement. The most brilliant talk that I +ever heard from him came forth on such occasions--a flow for hours +(at one time seven hours), of copious wit and classic allusion--a +perfect scattering of the diamonds of the mind. I heard a friend +remark on one of these occasions, "he has wasted intellectual +jewelry enough here this evening to equip many speakers for great +orations." I once sounded him on the delicate point of his own +opinion of himself:--of course when he was in a perfectly natural +state, and when he had said something to permit an approach to +such a subject. It was during his last visit to Washington, two +winters before he died. It was in my room, in the gloom of the +evening light, as the day was going out and the lamps not lit--no +one present but ourselves--he reclining on a sofa, silent and +thoughtful, speaking but seldom, and I only in reply, I heard him +repeat, as if to himself, those lines from Johnson, (which in fact +I had often heard from him before), on "Senility and Imbecility," +which show us life under its most melancholy form. + + "In life's last scenes what prodigies surprise, + Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! + From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, + And Swift expires, a driveller and a show." + +When he had thus repeated these lines, which he did with deep +feeling and in slow and measured cadence, I deemed it excusable +to make a remark of a kind which I had never ventured on before; +and said: Mr. Randolph I have several times heard you repeat these +lines, as if they could have an application to yourself, while no +person can have less reason to fear the fate of Swift. I said this +to sound him, and to see what he thought of himself. His answer was: +"I have lived in dread of insanity." That answer was the opening of +a sealed book--revealed to me the source of much mental agony that +I had seen him undergo. I did deem him in danger of the fate of +Swift, and from the same cause as judged by his latest and greatest +biographer, Sir Walter Scott. + +His parliamentary life was resplendent in talent--elevated in moral +tone--always moving on the lofty line of honor and patriotism, and +scorning every thing mean and selfish. He was the indignant enemy of +personal and plunder legislation, and the very scourge of intrigue +and corruption. He reverenced an honest man in the humblest garb, +and scorned the dishonest, though plated with gold. An opinion was +propagated that he was fickle in his friendships. Certainly there +were some capricious changes; but far more instances of steadfast +adherence. His friendship with Mr. Macon was historic. Their names +went together in life--live together in death--and are honored +together, most by those who knew them best. With Mr. Tazewell, his +friendship was still longer than that with Mr. Macon, commencing +in boyhood, and only ending with life. So of many others; and +pre-eminently so of his neighbors and constituents--the people of +his congressional district--affectionate as well as faithful to him; +electing him as they did, from boyhood to the grave. No one felt +more for friends, or was more solicitous and anxious at the side +of the sick and dying bed. Love of wine was attributed to him; and +what was mental excitement, was referred to deep potations. It was +a great error. I never saw him affected by wine--not even to the +slightest departure from the habitual and scrupulous decorum of his +manners. His temper was naturally gay and social, and so indulged +when suffering of mind and body permitted. He was the charm of the +dinner-table, where his cheerful and sparkling wit delighted every +ear, lit up every countenance, and detained every guest. He was +charitable; but chose to conceal the hand that ministered relief. I +have often seen him send little children out to give to the poor. + +He was one of the large slaveholders of Virginia, but disliked +the institution, and, when let alone, opposed its extension. +Thus, in 1803, when as chairman of the committee which reported +upon the Indiana memorial for a temporary dispensation from the +anti-slavery part of the ordinance of 1787, he puts the question +upon a statesman's ground; and reports against it, in a brief and +comprehensive argument: + + "That the rapid population of the State of Ohio sufficiently + evinces, in the opinion of your committee, that the labor of + the slave is not necessary to promote the growth and settlement + of colonies in that region. That this labor, demonstrably + the dearest of any, can only be employed to advantage in the + cultivation of products more valuable than any known to + that quarter of the United States: and the committee deem it + highly dangerous and inexpedient to impair a provision wisely + calculated to promote the happiness and prosperity of the + northwestern country, and to give strength and security to that + extensive frontier. In the salutary operation of this sagacious + and benevolent restraint, it is believed that the inhabitants of + Indiana will, at no very distant day, find ample remuneration + for a temporary privation of labor and emigration." + +He was against slavery; and by his will, both manumitted and +provided for the hundreds which he held. But he was against +foreign interference with his rights, his feelings, or his duties; +and never failed to resent and rebuke such interference. Thus, +he was one of the most zealous of the opposers of the proposed +Missouri restriction; and even voted against the divisional line +of "thirty-six thirty." In the House, when the term "slaveholder" +would be reproachfully used, he would assume it, and refer to a +member, not in the parliamentary phrase of colleague, but in the +complimentary title of "my fellow-slaveholder." And, in London, +when the consignees of his tobacco, and the slave factors of his +father, urged him to liberate his slaves, he quieted their intrusive +philanthropy, on the spot, by saying, "Yes: you buy and set free to +the amount of the money you have received from my father and his +estate for these slaves, and I will set free an equal number." + +In his youth and later age, he fought duels: in his middle life, he +was against them; and, for a while, would neither give nor receive a +challenge. He was under religious convictions to the contrary, but +finally yielded (as he believed) to an argument of his own, that +a duel was private war, and rested upon the same basis as public +war; and that both were allowable, when there was no other redress +for insults and injuries. That was his argument; but I thought his +relapse came more from feeling than reason; and especially from +the death of Decatur, to whom he was greatly attached, and whose +duel with Barron long and greatly excited him. He had religious +impressions, and a vein of piety which showed itself more in +private than in external observances. He was habitual in his +reverential regard for the divinity of our religion; and one of his +beautiful expressions was, that, "If woman had lost us paradise, +she had gained us heaven." The Bible and Shakespeare were, in his +latter years, his constant companions--travelling with him on the +road--remaining with him in the chamber. The last time I saw him (in +that last visit to Washington, after his return from the Russian +mission, and when he was in full view of death) I heard him read the +chapter in the Revelations (of the opening of the seals), with such +power and beauty of voice and delivery, and such depth of pathos, +that I felt as if I had never heard the chapter read before. When +he had got to the end of the opening of the sixth seal, he stopped +the reading, laid the book (open at the place) on his breast, as he +lay on his bed, and began a discourse upon the beauty and sublimity +of the Scriptural writings, compared to which he considered all +human compositions vain and empty. Going over the images presented +by the opening of the seals, he averred that their divinity was in +their sublimity--that no human power could take the same images, +and inspire the same awe and terror, and sink ourselves into such +nothingness in the presence of the "wrath of the Lamb"--that he +wanted no proof of their divine origin but the sublime feelings +which they inspired. + + + + +CHAPTER CXIII. + +DEATH OF MR. WIRT. + + +He died at the age of sixty-two, after having reached a place in +the first line at the Virginia bar, where there were such lawyers +as Wickham, Tazewell, Watkins Leigh; and a place in the front rank +of the bar of the Supreme Court, where there were such jurists as +Webster and Pinkney; and after having attained the high honor of +professional preferment in the appointment of Attorney General of +the United States under the administration of Mr. Monroe. His life +contains instructive lessons. Born to no advantages of wealth or +position, he raised himself to what he became by his own exertions. +In danger of falling into a fatal habit in early life, he retrieved +himself (touched by the noble generosity of her who afterwards +became his admired and beloved wife), from the brink of the abyss, +and became the model of every domestic virtue; with genius to shine +without labor, he yet considered genius nothing without labor, +and gave through life a laborious application to the study of the +law as a science, and to each particular case in which he was ever +employed. The elegant pursuits of literature occupied the moments +taken from professional studies and labors, and gave to the reading +public several admired productions, of which the long-desired and +beautiful "Life of Patrick Henry," was the most considerable: a +grateful commemoration of Virginia's greatest orator, which has been +justly repaid to one of her first class orators, by Mr. Kennedy of +Maryland, in his classic "Life of William Wirt." How grateful to see +citizens, thus engaged in laborious professions, snatching moments +from their daily labors to do justice to the illustrious dead--to +enlighten posterity by their history, and encourage it by their +example. Worthy of his political and literary eminence, and its +most shining and crowning ornament, was the state of his domestic +relations--exemplary in every thing that gives joy and decorum to +the private family, and rewarded with every blessing which could +result from such relations. But, why use this feeble pen, when the +voice of Webster is at hand? Mr. Wirt died during the term of the +Supreme Court, his revered friend, the Chief Justice Marshall, still +living to preside, and to give, in touching language, the order +to spread the proceedings of the bar (in relation to his death) +upon the records of the court. At the bar meeting, which adopted +these proceedings, Mr. Webster thus paid the tribute of justice and +affection to one with whom professional rivalry had been the source +and cement of personal friendship: + + "It is announced to us that one of the oldest, one of the + ablest, one of the most distinguished members of this bar, has + departed this mortal life. William Wirt is no more! He has this + day closed a professional career, among the longest and the most + brilliant, which the distinguished members of the profession + in the United States have at any time accomplished. Unsullied + in every thing which regards professional honor and integrity, + patient of labor, and rich in those stores of learning, which + are the reward of patient labor and patient labor only; and + if equalled, yet certainly allowed not to be excelled, in + fervent, animated and persuasive eloquence, he has left an + example which those who seek to raise themselves to great + heights of professional eminence, will, hereafter emulously + study. Fortunate, indeed, will be the few, who shall imitate it + successfully! + + "As a public man, it is not our peculiar duty to speak of + Mr. Wirt here. His character in that respect belongs to his + country, and to the history of his country. And, sir, if we + were to speak of him in his private life, and in his social + relations, all we could possibly say of his urbanity, his + kindness, the faithfulness of his friendships, and the warmth + of his affections, would hardly seem sufficiently strong and + glowing to do him justice, in the feeling and judgment of + those who, separated, now forever from his embraces can only + enshrine his memory in their bleeding hearts. Nor may we, sir, + more than allude to that other relation, which belonged to him, + and belongs to us all; that high and paramount relation, which + connects man with his Maker! It may be permitted us, however, to + have the pleasure of recording his name, as one who felt a deep + sense of religious duty, and who placed all his hopes of the + future, in the truth and in the doctrines of Christianity. + + "But our particular ties to him were the ties of our profession. + He was our brother, and he was our friend. With talents powerful + enough to excite the strength of the strongest, with a kindness + both of heart and of manner capable of warming and winning + the coldest of his brethren, he has now completed the term of + his professional life, and of his earthly existence, in the + enjoyment of the high respect and cordial affections of us all. + Let us, then, sir, hasten to pay to his memory the well-deserved + tribute of our regard. Let us lose no time in testifying our + sense of our loss, and in expressing our grief, that one great + light of our profession is extinguished forever." + + + + +CHAPTER CXIV. + +DEATH OF THE LAST OF THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. + + +On the morning of July 4th, 1826--just fifty years after the +event--but three of the fifty-six members of the continental +Congress of 1776 who had signed the Declaration of Independence, +remained alive; on the evening of that day there remained but +one--Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, Maryland; then a full score +beyond the Psalmist's limit of manly life, and destined to a further +lease of six good years. It has been remarked of the "signers of +the Declaration" that a felicitous existence seems to have been +reserved for them; blessed with long life and good health, honored +with the public esteem, raised to the highest dignities of the +States and of the federal government, happy in their posterity, and +happy in the view of the great and prosperous country which their +labors had brought into existence. Among these, so felicitous and +so illustrious, he was one of the most happy, and among the most +distinguished. He enjoyed the honors of his pure and patriot life +in all their forms; age, and health, and mind, for sixteen years +beyond that fourscore which brings labor and sorrow and weakness to +man; ample fortune; public honors in filling the highest offices of +his State, and a seat in the Senate of the United States; private +enjoyment in an honorable and brilliant posterity. Born to fortune, +and to the care of wise and good parents, he had all the advantages +of education which the colleges of France and the "Inns of Court" +of London could give. With every thing to lose in unsuccessful +rebellion, he risked all from the first opening of the contest +with the mother country: and when he walked up to the secretary's +table to sign the paper, which might become a death-warrant to its +authors, the remark was made, "there go some millions." And his +signing was a privilege, claimed and granted. He was not present +at the declaration. He was not even a member of Congress on the +memorable Fourth of July. He was in Annapolis on that day, a +member of the Maryland Assembly, and zealously engaged in urging a +revocation of the instructions which limited the Maryland delegates +in the continental Congress to obtaining a redress of grievances +without breaking the connection with the mother country. He +succeeded--was appointed a delegate--flew to his post--and added his +name to the patriot list. + +All history tells of the throwing overboard of the tea in Boston +harbor: it has not been equally attentive to the burning of the tea +in Annapolis harbor. It was the summer of 1774 that the brigantine +"Peggy Stewart" approached Annapolis with a cargo of the forbidden +leaves on board. The people were in commotion at the news. It was +an insult, and a defiance. Swift destruction was in preparation +for the vessel: instant chastisement was in search of the owners. +Terror seized them. They sent to Charles Carroll as the only man +that could moderate the fury of the people, and save their persons +and property from a sudden destruction. He told them there was but +one way to save their persons, and that was to burn their vessel +and cargo, instantly and in the sight of the people. It was done: +and thus the flames consumed at Annapolis, what the waves had buried +at Boston: and in both cases the spirit and the sacrifice was the +same--opposition to taxation without representation, and destruction +to its symbol. + + + + +CHAPTER CXV. + +COMMENCEMENT OF THE SESSION 1834-'35: PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. + + +Towards the close of the previous session, Mr. Stevenson had +resigned the place of speaker of the House of Representatives in +consequence of his nomination to be minister plenipotentiary and +envoy extraordinary to the court of St. James--a nomination then +rejected by the Senate, but subsequently confirmed. Mr. John Bell +of Tennessee, was elected speaker in his place, his principal +competitor being Mr. James K. Polk of the same State: and, with +this difference in its organization, the House met at the usual +time--the first Monday of December. The Cabinet then stood: John +Forsyth, Secretary of State, in place of Louis McLane, resigned; +Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury; Lewis Cass, Secretary at +War; Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy; William T. Barry, +Post Master General; Benjamin Franklin Butler, Attorney General. +The condition of our affairs with France, was the prominent +feature of the message, and presented the relations of the United +States with that power under a serious aspect. The indemnity +stipulated in the treaty of 1831 had not been paid--no one of the +instalments;--and the President laid the subject before Congress for +its consideration, and action, if deemed necessary. + + "I regret to say that the pledges made through the minister of + France have not been redeemed. The new Chambers met on the 31st + July last, and although the subject of fulfilling treaties was + alluded to in the speech from the throne, no attempt was made by + the King or his Cabinet to procure an appropriation to carry it + into execution. The reasons given for this omission, although + they might be considered sufficient in an ordinary case, are not + consistent with the expectations founded upon the assurances + given here, for there is no constitutional obstacle to entering + into legislative business at the first meeting of the Chambers. + This point, however, might have been overlooked, had not the + Chambers, instead of being called to meet at so early a day + that the result of their deliberations might be communicated + to me before the meeting of Congress, been prorogued to the + 29th of the present month--a period so late that their decision + can scarcely be made known to the present Congress prior to + its dissolution. To avoid this delay, our minister in Paris, + in virtue of the assurance given by the French minister in the + United States, strongly urged the convocation of the Chambers + at an earlier day, but without success. It is proper to remark, + however, that this refusal has been accompanied with the most + positive assurances, on the part of the Executive government of + France, of their intention to press the appropriation at the + ensuing session of the Chambers. + + "If it shall be the pleasure of Congress to await the further + action of the French Chambers, no further consideration of + the subject will, at this session, probably be required at + your hands. But if, from the original delay in asking for an + appropriation; from the refusal of the Chambers to grant it + when asked; from the omission to bring the subject before the + Chambers at their last session; from the fact that, including + that session, there have been five different occasions when + the appropriation might have been made; and from the delay in + convoking the Chambers until some weeks after the meeting of + Congress, when it was well known that a communication of the + whole subject to Congress at the last session was prevented by + assurances that it should be disposed of before its present + meeting, you should feel yourselves constrained to doubt whether + it be the intention of the French government in all its branches + to carry the treaty into effect, and think that such measures as + the occasion may be deemed to call for should be now adopted, + the important question arises, what those measures shall be." + +The question then, of further delay, waiting on the action of +France, or of action on our own part, was thus referred to Congress; +but under the constitutional injunction, to recommend to that body +the measures he should deem necessary, and in compliance with his +own sense of duty, and according to the frankness of his temper, he +fully and categorically gave his own opinion of what ought to be +done; thus: + + "It is my conviction that the United States ought to insist on + a prompt execution of the treaty; and, in case it be refused, + or longer delayed, take redress into their own hands. After + the delay, on the part of France, of a quarter of a century, + in acknowledging these claims by treaty, it is not to be + tolerated that another quarter of a century is to be wasted in + negotiating about the payment. The laws of nations provide + a remedy for such occasions. It is a well-settled principle + of the international code, that where one nation owes another + a liquidated debt, which it refuses or neglects to pay, + the aggrieved party may seize on the property belonging to + the other, its citizens or subjects, sufficient to pay the + debt, without giving just cause of war. This remedy has been + repeatedly resorted to, and recently by France herself towards + Portugal, under circumstances less unquestionable." + + "Since France, in violation of the pledges given through her + minister here, has delayed her final action so long that her + decision will not probably be known in time to be communicated + to this Congress, I recommend that a law be passed authorizing + reprisals upon French property, in case provision shall not be + made for the payment of the debt at the approaching session of + the French Chambers. Such a measure ought not to be considered + by France as a menace. Her pride and power are too well known + to expect any thing from her fears, and preclude the necessity + of the declaration that nothing partaking of the character of + intimidation is intended by us. She ought to look upon it as the + evidence only of an inflexible determination on the part of the + United States to insist on their rights. That Government, by + doing only what it has itself acknowledged to be just, will be + able to spare the United States the necessity of taking redress + into their own hands, and save the property of French citizens + from that seizure and sequestration which American citizens + so long endured without retaliation or redress. If she should + continue to refuse that act of acknowledged justice, and, in + violation of the law of nations, make reprisals on our part the + occasion of hostilities against the United States, she would but + add violence to injustice, and could not fail to expose herself + to the just censure of civilized nations, and to the retributive + judgments of Heaven." + +In making this recommendation, and in looking to its possible result +as producing war between the two countries, the President showed +himself fully sensible to all the considerations which should make +such an event deplorable between powers of ancient friendship, and +their harmony and friendship desirable for the sake of the progress +and maintenance of liberal political systems in Europe. And on this +point he said: + + "Collision with France is the more to be regretted, on account + of the position she occupies in Europe in relation to liberal + institutions. But in maintaining our national rights and honor, + all governments are alike to us. If, by a collision with France, + in a case where she is clearly in the wrong, the march of + liberal principles shall be impeded, the responsibility for that + result, as well as every other, will rest on her own head." + +This State of our relations with France gave rise to some animated +proceedings in our Congress, which will be noticed in their proper +place. The condition of the finances was shown to be good--not only +adequate for all the purposes of the government and the complete +extinguishment of the remainder of the public debt, but still +leaving a balance in the treasury equal to one fourth of the annual +income at the end of the year. Thus: + + "According to the estimate of the Treasury Department, the + revenue accruing from all sources, during the present year, will + amount to twenty millions six hundred and twenty-four thousand + seven hundred and seventeen dollars, which, with the balance + remaining in the Treasury on the first of January last, of + eleven millions seven hundred and two thousand nine hundred and + five dollars, produces an aggregate of thirty-two millions three + hundred and twenty-seven thousand six hundred and twenty-three + dollars. The total expenditure during the year for all objects, + including the public debt, is estimated at twenty-five millions + five hundred and ninety-one thousand three hundred and ninety + dollars, which will leave a balance in the Treasury on the first + of January, 1835, of six millions seven hundred and thirty-six + thousand two hundred and thirty-two dollars. In this balance, + however, will be included about one million one hundred and + fifty thousand dollars of what was heretofore reported by the + department as not effective." + +This unavailable item of above a million of dollars consisted of +local bank notes, received in payment of public lands during the +years of general distress and bank suspensions from 1819 to 1822; +and the banks which issued them having failed they became worthless; +and were finally dropt from any enumeration of the contents of the +treasury. The extinction of the public debt, constituting a marked +event in our financial history, and an era in the state of the +treasury, was looked to by the President as the epoch most proper +for the settlement of our doubtful points of future policy, and the +inauguration of a system of rigorous economy: to which effect the +message said: + + "Free from public debt, at peace with all the world, and with no + complicated interests to consult in our intercourse with foreign + powers, the present may be hailed as the epoch in our history + the most favorable for the settlement of those principles + in our domestic policy, which shall be best calculated to + give stability to our republic, and secure the blessings of + freedom to our citizens. While we are felicitating ourselves, + therefore, upon the extinguishment of the national debt, and + the prosperous state of our finances, let us not be tempted to + depart from those sound maxims of public policy, which enjoin + a just adaptation of the revenue to the expenditures that are + consistent with a rigid economy, and an entire abstinence + from all topics of legislation that are not clearly within + the constitutional powers of the Government, and suggested + by the wants of the country. Properly regarded, under such a + policy, every diminution of the public burdens arising from + taxation, gives to individual enterprise increased power, and + furnishes to all the members of our happy confederacy, new + motives for patriotic affection and support. But, above all, its + most important effect will be found in its influence upon the + character of the Government, by confining its action to those + objects which will be sure to secure to it the attachment and + support of our fellow-citizens." + +The President had a new cause of complaint to communicate +against the Bank of the United States, which was the seizure of +the dividends due the United States on the public stock in the +institution. The occasion was, the claim for damages which the bank +set up on a protested bill of exchange, sold to it on the faith of +the French treaty; and which was protested for non-payment. The case +is thus told by the President: + + "To the needless distresses brought on the country during + the last session of Congress, has since been added the open + seizure of the dividends on the public stock, to the amount of + $170,041, under pretence of paying damages, cost, and interest, + upon the protested French bill. This sum constituted a portion + of the estimated revenues for the year 1834, upon which the + appropriations made by Congress were based. It would as soon + have been expected that our collectors would seize on the + customs, or the receivers of our land offices on the moneys + arising from the sale of public lands, under pretences of claims + against the United States, as that the bank would have retained + the dividends. Indeed, if the principle be established that any + one who chooses to set up a claim against the United States + may, without authority of law, seize on the public property or + money wherever he can find it, to pay such claim, there will + remain no assurance that our revenue will reach the treasury, + or that it will be applied after the appropriation to the + purposes designated in the law. The paymasters of our army, and + the pursers of our navy, may, under like pretences, apply to + their own use moneys appropriated to set in motion the public + force, and in time of war leave the country without defence. + This measure, resorted to by the Bank, is disorganizing and + revolutionary, and, if generally resorted to by private citizens + in like cases, would fill the land with anarchy and violence." + +The money thus seized by the bank was retained until recovered +from it by due course of law. The corporation was sued, judgment +recovered against it, and the money made upon a writ of execution; +so that the illegality of its conduct in making this seizure +was judicially established. The President also communicated new +proofs of the wantonness of the pressure and distress made by the +bank during the preceding session--the fact coming to light that +it had shipped about three millions and a half of the specie to +Europe which it had squeezed out of the hands of the people during +the panic;--and also that, immediately after the adjournment of +Congress, the action of the bank was reversed--the curtailment +changed into extension; and a discount line of seventeen millions +rapidly ran out. + + "Immediately after the close of the last session, the bank, + through its president, announced its ability and readiness + to abandon the system of unparalleled curtailment, and the + interruption of domestic exchanges, which it had practised upon + from the 1st of August, 1833, to the 30th of June, 1834, and to + extend its accommodations to the community. The grounds assumed + in this annunciation amounted to an acknowledgment that the + curtailment, in the extent to which it had been carried, was + not necessary to the safety of the bank, and had been persisted + in merely to induce Congress to grant the prayer of the bank + in its memorial relative to the removal of the deposits, and + to give it a new charter. They were substantially a confession + that all the real distresses which individuals and the country + had endured for the preceding six or eight months, had been + needlessly produced by it, with the view of effecting, through + the sufferings of the people, the legislative action of + Congress. It is a subject of congratulation that Congress and + the country had the virtue and firmness to bear the infliction; + that the energies of our people soon found relief from this + wanton tyranny, in vast importations of the precious metals from + almost every part of the world; and that, at the close of this + tremendous effort to control our government, the bank found + itself powerless, and no longer able to loan out its surplus + means. The community had learned to manage its affairs without + its assistance, and trade had already found new auxiliaries; so + that, on the 1st of October last, the extraordinary spectacle + was presented of a national bank, more than one half of whose + capital was either lying unproductive in its vaults, or in the + hands of foreign bankers." + +Certainly this was a confession of the whole criminality of the bank +in making the distress; but even this confession did not prevent the +Senate's Finance Committee from making an honorable report in its +favor. But there is something in the laws of moral right above the +powers of man, or the designs and plans of banks and politicians. +The greatest calamity of the bank--the loss of thirty-five millions +of stock to its subscribers--chiefly dates from this period and +this conduct. Up to this time its waste and losses, though great, +might still have been remediable; but now the incurable course was +taken. Half its capital lying idle! Good borrowers were scarce; good +indorsers still more so; and a general acceptance of stocks in lieu +of the usual security was the fatal resort. First, its own stock, +then a great variety of stocks were taken; and when the bank went +into liquidation, its own stock was gone! and the others in every +imaginable degree of depreciation, from under par to nothing. The +government had directors in the bank at that time, Messrs. Charles +McAllister, Edward D. Ingraham, and ---- Ellmaker; and the President +was under no mistake in any thing he said. The message recurs to the +fixed policy of the President in selling the public stock in the +bank, and says: + + "I feel it my duty to recommend to you that a law be passed + authorizing the sale of the public stock; that the provision + of the charter requiring the receipt of notes of the bank in + payment of public dues, shall, in accordance with the power + reserved to Congress in the 14th section of the charter, be + suspended until the bank pays to the treasury the dividends + withheld; and that all laws connecting the government or its + officers with the bank, directly or indirectly, be repealed; and + that the institution be left hereafter to its own resources and + means." + +The wisdom of this persevering recommendation was, fortunately, +appreciated in time to save the United States from the fate of other +stockholders. The attention of Congress was again called to the +regulation of the deposits in State banks. As yet there was no law +upon the subject. The bill for that purpose passed in the House of +Representatives at the previous session, had been laid upon the +table in the Senate; and thus was kept open a head of complaint +against the President for the illegal custody of the public moneys. +It was not illegal. It was the custody, more or less resorted to, +under every administration of the federal government, and never +called illegal except under President Jackson; but it was a trust of +a kind to require regulation by law; and he, therefore, earnestly +recommended it. The message said: + + "The attention of Congress is earnestly invited to the + regulation of the deposits in the State banks, by law. Although + the power now exercised by the Executive department in this + behalf is only such as was uniformly exerted through every + administration from the origin of the government up to the + establishment of the present bank, yet it is one which is + susceptible of regulation by law, and, therefore, ought so to + be regulated. The power of Congress to direct in what places + the Treasurer shall keep the moneys in the Treasury, and to + impose restrictions upon the Executive authority, in relation to + their custody and removal, is unlimited, and its exercise will + rather be courted than discouraged by those public officers and + agents on whom rests the responsibility for their safety. It is + desirable that as little power as possible should be left to the + President or Secretary of the Treasury over those institutions, + which, being thus freed from Executive influence, and without + a common head to direct their operations, would have neither + the temptation nor the ability to interfere in the political + conflicts of the country. Not deriving their charters from the + national authorities, they would never have those inducements + to meddle in general elections, which have led the Bank of the + United States to agitate and convulse the country for upwards of + two years." + +The increase of the gold currency was a subject of congratulation, +and the purification of paper by the suppression of small notes a +matter of earnest recommendation with the President--the latter +addressed to the people of the States, and every way worthy of their +adoption. He said: + + "The progress of our gold coinage is creditable to the officers + of the mint, and promises in a short period to furnish the + country with a sound and portable currency, which will much + diminish the inconvenience to travellers of the want of a + general paper currency, should the State banks be incapable of + furnishing it. Those institutions have already shown themselves + competent to purchase and furnish domestic exchange for the + convenience of trade, at reasonable rates; and not a doubt + is entertained that, in a short period, all the wants of the + country, in bank accommodations and exchange, will be supplied + as promptly and as cheaply as they have heretofore been by + the Bank of the United States. If the several States shall be + induced gradually to reform their banking systems, and prohibit + the issue of all small notes, we shall, in a few years, have a + currency as sound, and as little liable to fluctuations, as any + other commercial country." + +The message contained the standing recommendation for reform in the +presidential election. The direct vote of the people, the President +considered the only safeguard for the purity of that election, on +which depended so much of the safe working of the government. The +message said: + + "I trust that I may be also pardoned for renewing the + recommendation I have so often submitted to your attention in + regard to the mode of electing the President and Vice-President + of the United States. All the reflection I have been able to + bestow upon the subject, increases my conviction that the best + interests of the country will be promoted by the adoption + of some plan which will secure, in all contingencies, that + important right of sovereignty to the direct control of the + people. Could this be attained, and the terms of those officers + be limited to a single period of either four or six years, I + think our liberties would possess an additional safeguard." + + + + +CHAPTER CXVI. + +REPORT OF THE BANK COMMITTEE. + + +Early in the session the Finance Committee of the Senate, which had +been directed to make an examination into the affairs of the Bank +of the United States, made their report--an elaborate paper, the +reading of which occupied two hours and a half,--for this report +was honored with a reading at the Secretary's table, while but few +of the reports made by heads of departments, and relating to the +affairs of the whole Union, received that honor. It was not only +read through, but by its author--Mr. Tyler, the second named of +the committee; the first named, or official chairman, Mr. Webster, +not having acted on the committee. The report was a most elaborate +vindication of the conduct of the bank at all points; but it did +not stop at the defence of the institution, but went forward to the +crimination of others. It dragged in the names of General Jackson, +Mr. Van Buren, and Mr. Benton, laying hold of the circumstance +of their having done ordinary acts of duty to their friends and +constituents in promoting their application for branch banks, to +raise false implications against them as having been in favor of the +institution. If such had been the fact, it did not come within the +scope of the committee's appointment, nor of the resolution under +which they acted, to have reported upon such circumstance: but the +implications were untrue; and Mr. Benton being the only one present +that had the right of speech, assailed the report the instant it was +read--declaring that such things were not to pass uncontradicted for +an instant--that the Senate was not to adjourn, or the galleries to +disperse without hearing the contradiction. And being thus suddenly +called up by a sense of duty to himself and his friends, he would +do justice upon the report at once, exposing its numerous fallacies +from the moment they appeared in the chamber. He commenced with the +imputations upon himself, General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren, and +scornfully repulsed the base and gratuitous assumptions which had +been made. He said: + + "His own name was made to figure in that report--in very good + company to be sure, that of President Jackson, Vice-President + Van Buren and Mr. senator Grundy. It seems that we have all been + detected in something that deserves exposure--in the offence + of aiding our respective constituents, or fellow-citizens in + obtaining branch banks to be located in our respective States; + and upon this detection, the assertion is made that these + branches were not extended to these States for political effect, + when the charter was nearly run out, but in good faith, and + upon our application, to aid the business of the country. Mr. + B. said, it was true that he had forwarded a petition from the + merchants of St. Louis, about 1826 or '27, soliciting a branch + at that place: and he had accompanied it by a letter, as he had + been requested to do, sustaining and supporting their request; + and bearing the testimony to their characters as men of business + and property which the occasion and the truth required. He did + this for merchants who were his political enemies, and he did + it readily and cordially, as a representative ought to act for + his constituents, whether they are for him, or against him, in + the elections. So far so good; but the allegation of the report + is, that the branch at St. Louis was established upon this + petition and this letter, and therefore was not established with + political views, but purely and simply for business purposes. + Now, said Mr. B., I have a question to put to the senator from + Virginia (Mr. Tyler), who has made the report for the committee: + It is this: whether the president or directors of the bank had + informed him that General Cadwallader had been sent as an agent + to St. Louis, to examine the place, and to report upon its + ability to sustain a branch? + + "Mr. Tyler rose, and said, that he had heard nothing at the bank + upon the subject of Gen. Cadwallader having been sent to St. + Louis, or any report upon the place being made." + + "Then, said Mr. Benton, resuming his speech, the committee has + been treated unworthily,--scurvily,--basely,--by the bank! It + has been made the instrument to report an untruth to the Senate, + and to the American people; and neither the Senate, nor that + part of the American people who chance to be in this chamber, + shall be permitted to leave their places until that falsehood is + exposed. + + "Sir, said Mr B., addressing the Vice-President, the president, + and directors of the Bank of the United States, upon receiving + the merchants' petition, and my letter, _did not send a branch + to St. Louis_! They sent an agent there, in the person of + General Cadwallader, to examine the place, and to report upon + its mercantile capabilities and wants; and upon that report, + the decision was made, and made against the request of the + merchants, and that upon the ground that the business of the + place would not justify the establishment of a branch. The + petition from the merchants came to Mr. B. while he was here, in + his seat; it was forwarded from this place to Philadelphia; the + agent made his visit to St. Louis before he (Mr. B.) returned; + and when he got home, in the spring, or summer, the merchants + informed him of what had occurred; and that they had received + a letter from the directory of the bank, informing them that a + branch could not be granted; and there the whole affair, so far + as the petition and the letter were concerned, died away. But, + said Mr. B., it happened just in that time, that I made my first + demonstration--struck my first blow--against the bank; and the + next news that I had from the merchants was, that another letter + had been received from the bank, without any new petition having + been sent, and without any new report upon the business of the + place, informing them that the branch was to come! And come it + did, and immediately went to work to gain men and presses, to + govern the politics of the State, to exclude him (Mr. B.) from + re-election to the Senate; and to oppose every candidate, from + governor to constable, who was not for the bank. The branch had + even furnished a list to the mother bank, through some of its + officers, of the names and residences of the active citizens + in every part of the State; and to these, and to their great + astonishment at the familiarity and condescension of the high + directory in Philadelphia, myriads of bank documents were sent, + with a minute description of name and place, postage free. At + the presidential election of 1832, the State was deluged with + these favors. At his own re-elections to the Senate, the two + last, the branch bank was in the field against him every where, + and in every form; its directors traversing the State, going + to the houses of the members of the General Assembly after they + were elected, in almost every county, over a State of sixty + thousand square miles; and then attending the legislature as + lobby members, to oppose him. Of these things Mr. B. had never + spoken in public before, nor should he have done it now, had + it not been for the falsehood attempted to be palmed upon the + Senate through the instrumentality of its committee. But having + been driven into it, he would mention another circumstance, + which also, he had never named in public before, but which would + throw light upon the establishment of the branch in St. Louis, + and the kind of business which it had to perform. An immense + edition of a review of his speech on the veto message, was + circulated through his State on the eve of his last election. + It bore the impress of the bank foundry in Philadelphia, and + was intended to let the people of Missouri see that he (Mr. + B.) was a very unfit person to represent them: and afterwards + it was seen from the report of the government directors to the + President of the United States, that seventy-five thousand + copies of that review were paid for by the Bank of the United + States!" + +The committee had gone out of their way--departed from the business +with which they were charged by the Senate's resolution--to bring up +a stale imputation upon Gen. Jackson, for becoming inimical to Mr. +Biddle, because he could not make him subservient to his purposes. +The imputation was unfounded and gratuitous, and disproved by the +journals of the Senate, which bore Gen. Jackson's nomination of Mr. +Biddle for government director--and at the head of those directors, +thereby indicating him for president of the bank--three several +times, in as many successive years, after the time alleged for this +hostility and vindictiveness. This unjustifiable imputation became +the immediate, the next point of Mr. Benton's animadversion; and was +thus disposed of: + + "Mr. B. said there was another thing which must be noticed + now, because the proof to confound it was written in our own + journals. He alluded to the 'hostility' of the President of the + United States to the bank, which made so large a figure in that + report. The 'vindictiveness' of the President,--the 'hostility' + of the President, was often pressed into the service of that + report--which he must be permitted to qualify as an elaborate + defence of the bank. Whether used originally, or by quotation, + it was the same thing. The quotation from Mr. Duane was made + to help out the argument of the committee--to sustain their + position--and thereby became their own. The 'vindictiveness' + of the President towards the bank, is brought forward with + imposing gravity by the committee; and no one is at a loss to + understand what is meant! The charge has been made too often + not to suggest the whole story as often as it is hinted. The + President became hostile to Mr. Biddle, according to this fine + story, because he could not manage him! because he could not + make him use the institution for political purposes! and hence + his revenge, his vindictiveness, his hatred of Mr. Biddle, and + his change of sentiment towards the institution. This is the + charge which has run through the bank presses for three years, + and is alleged to take date from 1829, when an application was + made to change the president of the Portsmouth branch. But how + stands the truth, recorded upon our own journals? It stands + thus: that for three consecutive years after the harboring + of this deadly malice against Mr. Biddle, for not managing + the institution to suit the President's political wishes--for + three years, one after another, with this 'vindictive' hate + in his bosom, and this diabolical determination to ruin + the institution, he nominates this same Mr. Biddle to the + Senate, as one of the government directors, and at the head + of those directors! Mr. Biddle and some of his friends with + him came in, upon every nomination for three successive years, + after vengeance had been sworn against him! For three years + afterwards he is not only named a director, but indicated for + the presidency of the bank, by being put at the head of those + who came recommended by the nomination of the President, and + the sanction of the Senate! Thus was he nominated for the + years 1830, 1831, and 1832; and it was only after the report + of Mr. Clayton's committee of 1832 that the President ceased + to nominate Mr. Biddle for government director! Such was the + frank, confiding and friendly conduct of the President; while + Mr. Biddle, conscious that he did not deserve a nomination + at his hands, had himself also elected during each of these + years, at the head of the stockholders' ticket. He knew what + he was meditating and hatching against the President, though + the President did not! What then becomes of the charge faintly + shadowed forth by the committee, and publicly and directly + made by the bank and its friends? False! False as hell! and no + senator can say it without finding the proof of the falsehood + recorded in our own journal!" + +Mr. Benton next defended Mr. Taney from an unjustifiable and +gratuitous assault made upon him by the committee--the more +unwarrantable because that gentleman was in retirement--no more in +public life--having resigned his place of Secretary of the Treasury +the day he was rejected by the Senate. Mr. Taney, in his report +upon the removal of the deposits, had repeated, what the government +directors and a committee of the House of Representatives had first +reported, of the illegal conduct of the bank committee of exchange, +in making loans. The fact was true, and as since shown, to a far +higher degree than then detected; and the Senate's committee were +unjustifiable in defending it. But not satisfied with this defence +of a criminal institution against a just accusation, they took the +opportunity of casting censure upon Mr. Taney, and gaining a victory +over him by making a false issue. Mr. Benton immediately corrected +this injustice. He said: + + "That he was not now going into a general answer to the report, + but he must do justice to an absent gentleman--one of the + purest men upon earth, both in public and private life, and + who, after the manner he had been treated in this chamber, + ought to be secure, in his retirement, from senatorial attack + and injustice. The committee have joined a conspicuous issue + with Mr. Taney; and they have carried a glorious bank victory + over him, by turning off the trial upon a false point. Mr. + Taney arraigned the legality of the conduct of the exchange + committee, which, overleaping the business of such a committee, + which is to buy and sell _real bills of exchange_, had become + invested with the power of the whole board; transacting that + business which, by the charter, could only be done by the + board of directors, and by a board of not less than seven, and + which they could not delegate. Yet this committee, of three, + selected by the President himself, was shown by the report + of the government directors to transact the most important + business; such as making immense loans, upon long credits, and + upon questionable security; sometimes covering its operations + under this simulated garb, and falsified pretext, _of buying + a bill of exchange_; sometimes using no disguise at all. It + was shown, by the same report, to have the exclusive charge of + conducting the curtailment last winter; a business of the most + important character to the country, having no manner of affinity + to the proper functions of an exchange committee; and which they + conducted in the most partial and iniquitous manner; and without + even reporting to the board. All this the government directors + communicated. All this was commented upon on this floor; yet + Mr. Taney is selected! He is the one pitched upon; as if nobody + but him had arraigned the illegal acts of this committee; and + then he is made to arraign the existence of the committee, and + not its misconduct! Is this right? Is it fair? Is it just thus + to pursue that gentleman, and to pursue him unjustly? Can the + vengeance of the bank never be appeased while he lives and moves + on earth?" + +After having vindicated the President, the Vice-President, Mr. +Grundy, Mr. Taney, and himself, from the unfounded imputations of +the committee, so gratuitously presented, so unwarranted in fact, +and so foreign to the purpose for which they were appointed, Mr. +Benton laid hold of some facts which had come to light for the +purpose of showing the misconduct of the bank, and to invalidate the +committee's report. The first was the transportation of specie to +London while pressing it out of the community here. He said: + + "He had performed a duty, which ought not to be delayed an hour, + in defending himself, the President, and Mr. Taney, from the + sad injustice of that report; the report itself, with all its + elaborate pleadings for the bank,--its errors of omission and + commission,--would come up for argument after it was printed; + and when, with God's blessing, and the help of better hands, + he would hope to show that it was the duty of the Senate to + recommit it, with instructions to examine witnesses upon oath, + and to bring out that secret history of the institution, which + seems to have been a sealed book to the committee. For the + present, he would bring to light two facts, detected in the + intricate mazes of the monthly statements, which would fix at + once, both the character of the bank and the character of the + report; the bank, for its audacity, wickedness and falsehood; + the report, for its blindness, fatuity, and partiality. + + "The bank, as all America knows (said Mr. B.), filled the whole + country with the endless cry which had been echoed and re-echoed + from this chamber, that the removal of the deposits had laid her + under the necessity of curtailing her debts; had compelled her + to call in her loans, to fill the vacuum in her coffers produced + by this removal; and thus to enable herself to stand the + pressure which the 'hostility' of the government was bringing + upon her. This was the assertion for six long months; and now + let facts confront this assertion, and reveal the truth to an + outraged and insulted community. + + "The first fact" (said Mr. B.), is the transfer of the moneys to + London, to lie there idle, while squeezed out of the people here + during the panic and pressure. + + "The cry of distress was raised in December, at the meeting + of Congress; and during that month the sum of $129,764 was + transferred by the bank to its agents, the Barings. This cry + waxed stronger till July, and until that time the monthly + transfers were: + + December, $129,764 + February, 355,253 + March, 261,543 + May, 34,749 + June, 2,142,054 + July, 501,950 + ---------- + $3,425,313 + + + Making the sum of near three millions and a half transferred + to London, to lie idle in the hands of an agent, while that + very money was squeezed out of a few cities here; and the + whole country, and the halls of Congress, were filled with the + deafening din of the cry, that the bank was forced to curtail, + to supply the loss in her own coffers from the removal of the + deposits! And, worse yet! The bank had, in the hands of the + same agents, a large sum when the transfers of these panic + collections began; making in the whole, the sum of $4,261,201, + on the first day of July last, which was lying idle in her + agents' hands in London, drawing little or no interest there, + while squeezed out of the hands of those who were paying bank + interest here, near seven per cent.; and had afterwards to go + into brokers' hands to borrow at one or two per cent. a month. + Even now, at the last returns on the first day of this month, + about two millions and a half of this money ($2,678,006) was + still lying idle in the hands of the Barings! waiting till + foreign exchange can be put up again to eight or ten per cent. + The enormity of this conduct, Mr. B. said, was aggravated by + the notorious fact, that the transfers of this money were made + by sinking the price of exchange as low as five per cent. below + par, when shippers and planters had bills to sell; and raising + it eight per cent. above par when merchants and importers had + to buy; thus double taxing the commerce of the country--double + taxing the producer and consumer--and making a fluctuation of + thirteen per cent. in foreign exchange, in the brief space of + six months. And all this to make money scarce at home while + charging that scarcity upon the President! Thus combining + calumny and stock-jobbing with the diabolical attempt to ruin + the country, or to rule it." + +The next glaring fact which showed the enormous culpability of the +bank in making the pressure and distress, was the abduction of about +a million and a quarter of hard dollars from New Orleans, while +distressing the business community there by refusal of discounts and +the curtailment of loans, under pretence of making up what she lost +there by the removal of the deposits. The fact of the abduction was +detected in the monthly reports still made to the Secretary of the +Treasury, and was full proof of the wantonness and wickedness of +the pressure, as the amount thus squeezed out of the community was +immediately transferred to Philadelphia or New-York; to be thence +shipped to London. Mr. Benton thus exposed this iniquity: + + "The next fact, Mr. B. said, was the abduction of an immense + amount of specie from New Orleans, at the moment the Western + produce was arriving there; and thus disabling the merchants + from buying that produce, and thereby sinking its price nearly + one half; and all under the false pretext of supplying the loss + in its coffers, occasioned by the removal of the deposits. + + "The falsehood and wickedness of this conduct will appear from + the fact, that, at the time of the removal of the deposits, in + October, the public deposits, in the New Orleans branch, were + far less than the amount afterwards curtailed, and sent off; and + that these deposits were not entirely drawn out, for many months + after the curtailment and abduction of the money. Thus, the + public deposits, in October, were: + + "In the name of the Treasurer + of the United States, $294,228 62 + "In the name of public officers, 173,764 64 + ----------- + $467,993 26 + + "In all, less than half a million of dollars. + + "In March, there was still on hand: + + "In the name of the Treasurer, $40,266 28 + "In the name of public officers, 63,671 80 + ----------- + $103,938 08 + + "In all, upwards of one hundred thousand dollars; and making the + actual withdrawal of deposits, at that branch, but $360,000, and + that paid out gradually, in the discharge of government demands. + + "Now, what was the actual curtailment, during the same + period? It is shown from the monthly statements, that these + curtailments, on local loans, were $788,904; being upwards of + double the amount of deposits, miscalled _removed_; for they + were not removed; but only paid out in the regular progress of + government disbursement, and actually remaining in the mass of + circulation, and much of it in the bank itself. But the specie + removed during the same time! that was the fact, the damning + fact, upon which he relied. This abduction was: + + "In the month of November, $334,647 } + "In the month of March, 808,084 } _at the least_ + --------- + $1,142,731 + + "Making near a million and a quarter of dollars, at the least. + Mr. B. repeated, at the least; for a monthly statement does not + show the accumulation of the month which might also be sent + off; and the statement could only be relied on for so much as + appeared a month before the abduction was made. Probably the + sum was upwards of a million and a quarter of hard dollars, + thus taken away from New Orleans last winter, by stopping + accommodations, calling in loans, breaking up domestic exchange, + creating panic and pressure, and sinking the price of all + produce; that the mother bank might transfer funds to London, + gamble in foreign exchange, spread desolation and terror + through the land; and then charge the whole upon the President + of the United States; and end with the grand consummation of + bringing a new political party into power, and perpetuating its + own charter." + +Mr. Benton commented on the barefacedness of running out an immense +line of discounts, so soon done after the rise of the last session +of Congress, and so suddenly, that the friends of the bank, in +remote places, not having had time to be informed of the "reversal +of the bank screws," were still in full chorus, justifying the +curtailment; and concluded with denouncing the report as _ex parte_, +and remarking upon the success of the committee in finding what they +were not sent to look for, and not finding what they ought to have +found. He said: + + "These are some of the astounding iniquities which have escaped + the eyes of the committee, while they have been so successful + in their antiquarian researches into Andrew Jackson's and Felix + Grundy's letters, ten or twenty years ago, and into Martin Van + Buren's and Thomas H. Benton's, six or eight years ago; letters + which every public man is called upon to give to his neighbors, + or constituents; which no public man ought to refuse, or, in all + probability ever did refuse; and which are so ostentatiously + paraded in the report, and so emphatically read in this chamber, + with pause and gesture; and with such a sympathetic look for the + expected smile from the friends of the bank; letters which, so + far as he was concerned, had been used to make the committee the + organ of a falsehood. And now, Mr. B. would be glad to know, who + put the committee on the scent of those old musty letters; for + there was nothing in the resolution, under which they acted, to + conduct their footsteps to the silent covert of that small game." + +Mr. Tyler made a brief reply, in defence of the report of the +committee, in which he said: + + "The senator from Missouri had denominated the report 'an + elaborate defence of the bank.' He had said that it justified + the bank in its course of curtailment, during the last winter + and the early part of the summer. Sir, if the honorable senator + had paid more attention to the reading, or had waited to have + it in print, he would not have hazarded such a declaration. He + would have perceived that that whole question was submitted to + the decision of the Senate. The committee had presented both + sides of the question--the view most favorable, and that most + unfavorable, to the institution. It exhibited the measures of + the Executive and those of the bank consequent upon them, on the + one side, and the available resources of the bank on the other. + The fact that its circulation of $19,000,000 was protected by + specie to the amount of $10,000,000, and claims on the State + banks exceeding $2,000,000, which were equal to specie--that + its purchase of domestic exchange had so declined, from May + to October, as to place at its disposal more than $5,000,000; + something more than a doubt is expressed whether, under ordinary + circumstances, the bank would have been justified in curtailing + its discounts. So, too, in regard to a perseverance in its + measures of precaution as long as it did, a summary of facts is + given to enable the Senate to decide upon the propriety of the + course pursued by the bank. The effort of the committee has been + to present these subjects fairly to the Senate and the country. + They have sought 'nothing to extenuate,' nor have they 'set down + ought in malice.' The statements are presented to the senator, + for his calm and deliberate consideration--to each senator, to + be weighed as becomes his high station. And what is the course + of the honorable senator? The moment he (Mr. T.) could return + to his seat from the Clerk's table, the gentleman pounces upon + the report, and makes assertions which a careful perusal of it + would cause him to know it does not contain. On one subject, the + controversy relative to the bill of exchange, and the damages + consequent on its protest, the committee had expressed the + opinion, that the government was in error, and he, as a member + of that committee, would declare his own conviction that that + opinion was sound and maintainable before any fair and impartial + tribunal in the world. Certain persons started back with alarm, + at the mere mention of a court of justice. The trial by jury had + become hateful in their eyes. The great principles of _magna + charta_ are to be overlooked, and the declarations contained in + the bill of rights are become too old-fashioned to be valuable. + Popular prejudices are to be addressed, and instead of an appeal + to the calm judgment of mankind, every lurking prejudice is to + be awakened, because a corporation, or a set of individuals, + have believed themselves wronged by the accounting officers of + the treasury, and have had the temerity and impudence to take a + course calculated to bring their rights before the forum of the + courts. Let those who see cause to pursue this course rejoice as + they may please, and exult in the success which attends it. For + one, I renounce it as unworthy American statesmen. The committee + had addressed a sober and temperate but firm argument, upon this + subject, to the Senate; and, standing in the presence of that + august body, and before the whole American people, he rested + upon that argument for the truth of the opinion advanced. An + opinion, for the honesty of which, on his own part, he would + avouch, after the most solemn manner, under the unutterable + obligations he was under to his Creator. + + "The senator had also spoken in strong language as to that part + of the report which related to the committee of exchange. He + had said that a false issue had been presented--that the late + Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Taney) had never contended that + the bank had no right to appoint a committee of exchange--that + such a committee was appointed by all banks. In this last + declaration the gentleman is correct. All banks have a committee + to purchase exchange. But Mr. T. would admonish the gentleman + to beware. He would find himself condemning him whom he wished + to defend. Mr. Taney's very language is quoted in the report. + He places the violation of the charter distinctly on the ground + that the business of the bank is intrusted to three members + on the exchange committee, when the charter requires that + not less than seven shall constitute a board to do business. + His very words are given in the report, so that he cannot be + misunderstood; and the commentary of the committee consists in a + mere narrative of facts. Little more is done than to give facts, + and the honorable senator takes the alarm; and, in his effort + to rescue the late Secretary from their influence, plunges him + still deeper into difficulty. + + "The senator had loudly talked of the committee having been made + an instrument of, by the bank. For himself, he renounced the + ascription. He would tell the honorable senator that he could + not be made an instrument of by the bank, or by a still greater + and more formidable power, the administration. He stood upon + that floor to accomplish the purposes for which he was sent + there. In the consciousness of his own honesty, he stood firm + and erect. He would worship alone at the shrine of truth and of + honor. It was a precious thing, in the eyes of some men, to bask + in the sunshine of power. He rested only upon the support, which + had never failed him, of the high and lofty feelings of his + constituents. He would not be an instrument even in their hands, + if it were possible for them to require it of him, to gratify an + unrighteous motive." + + + + +CHAPTER CXVII. + +FRENCH SPOLIATIONS BEFORE 1800. + + +These claims had acquired an imposing aspect by this time. They were +called "prior" to the year 1800; but how much prior was not shown, +and they might reach back to the establishment of our independence. +Their payment by the United States rested upon assumptions which +constituted the basis of the demand, and on which the bill was +framed. It assumed, _first_--That illegal seizures, detentions, +captures, condemnations, and confiscations were made of the vessels +and property of citizens of the United States before the period +mentioned. _Secondly_--That these acts were committed by such orders +and under such circumstances, as gave the sufferers a right to +indemnity from the French government. _Thirdly_--That these claims +had been annulled by the United States for public considerations. +_Fourthly_--That this annulment gave these sufferers a just claim +upon the United States for the amount of their losses. Upon these +four assumptions the bill rested--some of them disputable in +point of fact, and others in point of law. Of these latter was +the assumption of the liability of the United States to become +paymasters themselves in cases where failing, by war or negotiation, +to obtain redress they make a treaty settlement, surrendering or +abandoning claims. This is an assumption contrary to reason and law. +Every nation is bound to give protection to the persons and property +of their citizens; but the government is the judge of the measure +and degree of that protection; and is not bound to treat for ever, +or to fight for ever, to obtain such redress. After having done its +best for the indemnity of some individuals, it is bound to consider +what is due to the whole community--and to act accordingly; and the +unredressed citizens have to put up with their losses if abandoned +at the general settlement which, sooner or later, must terminate all +national controversies. All this was well stated by Mr. Bibb, of +Kentucky, in a speech on these French claims upon the bill of the +present year. He said: + + "He was well aware that the interests of individuals ought to be + supported by their governments to a certain degree, but he did + not think that governments were bound to push such interest to + the extremity of war--he did not admit that the rights of the + whole were to be jeoparded by the claims of individuals--the + safety of the community was paramount to the claims of private + citizens. He would proceed to see if the interests of our + citizens had been neglected by this government. These claims + have been urged from year to year, with all the earnestness and + zeal due from the nation. But they went on from bad to worse, + till negotiations were in vain. We then assumed a hostile + position. During the year '98, more than twenty laws were + passed by Congress upon this very subject--some for raising + troops--some for providing arms and munitions of war--some for + fitting out a naval force, and so on. Was this neglecting the + claims of our citizens? We went as far as the interests of the + nation would permit. We prosecuted these claims to the very + verge of plunging into that dreadful war then desolating Europe. + The government then issued its proclamation of neutrality and + non-intercourse. Mr. B. next proceeded to show that France had + no just claims upon us, arising from the guaranty. This guaranty + against France was not considered binding, even by France + herself, any further than was consistent with our relations with + other nations; that it was so declared by her minister; and, + moreover, that she acknowledged the justice of our neutrality. + These treaties had been violated by France, and the United + States could not surely be bound by treaties which she had + herself violated; and consequently, we were under no obligation + on account of the guaranty. Mr. B. went on to show that, by the + terms of the treaty of 1800, the debts due to our citizens had + not been relinquished:--that as the guaranty did not exist, and + as the claims had not been abandoned, Mr. B. concluded that + these claims ought not to be paid by this government. He was + opposed to going back thirty-four years to sit in judgment on + the constituted authorities of that time. There should be a + stability in the government, and he was not disposed to question + the judgment of the man (Washington) who has justly been called + the first in war and the first in peace. We are sitting here to + rejudge the decisions of the government thirty-four years since." + +This is well stated, and the conclusion just and logical, that we +ought not to go back thirty-four years to call in question the +judgment of Washington's administration. He was looking to the +latest date of the claims when he said thirty-four years, which +surely was enough; but Washington's decision in his proclamation +of neutrality was seven years before that time; and the claims +themselves have the year 1800 for their period of limitation--not +of commencement, which was many years before. This doctrine of +governmental liability when abandoning the claims of citizens +for which indemnity could not be obtained, is unknown in other +countries, and was unknown in ours in the earlier ages of the +government. There was a case of this abandonment in our early +history which rested upon no "assumption" of fact, but on the +fact itself; and in which no attempt was made to enforce the +novel doctrine. It was the case of the slaves carried off by the +British troops at the close of the Revolutionary War, and for which +indemnity was stipulated in the treaty of peace. Great Britain +refused that indemnity; and after vain efforts to obtain it by the +Congress of the confederation, and afterwards under Washington's +administration, this claim of indemnity, no longer resting upon +a claim of the sufferers, but upon a treaty stipulation--upon an +article in a treaty for their benefit--was abandoned to obtain a +general advantage for the whole community in the commercial treaty +with Great Britain. As these claims for French spoliations are still +continued (1850), I give some of the speeches for and against them +fifteen years ago, believing that they present the strength of the +argument on both sides. The opening speech of Mr. Webster presented +the case: + + "He should content himself with stating very briefly an outline + of the grounds on which these claims are supposed to rest, and + then leave the subject to the consideration of the Senate. He, + however, should be happy, in the course of the debate, to make + such explanations as might be called for. It would be seen + that the bill proposed to make satisfaction, to an amount not + exceeding five millions of dollars, to such citizens of the + United States, or their legal representatives, as had valid + claims for indemnity on the French government, rising out + of illegal captures, detentions, and condemnations, made or + committed on their property prior to the 30th day of September, + 1800. This bill supposed two or three leading propositions to be + true. + + "It supposed, in the first place, that illegal seizures, + detentions, captures, condemnations, and confiscations, were + made, of the vessels and property of the citizens of the United + States, before the 30th September, 1800. + + "It supposed, in the second place, that these acts of wrong were + committed by such orders and under such circumstances, as that + the sufferers had a just right and claim for indemnity from the + hands of the government of France. + + "Going on these two propositions, the bill assumed one other, + and that was, that all such claims on France as came within + a prescribed period, or down to a prescribed period, had + been annulled by the United States, and that this gave them + a right to claim indemnity from this government. It supposed + a liability in justice, in fairness and equity, on the part + of this government, to make the indemnity. These were the + grounds on which the bill was framed. That there were many + such confiscations no one doubted, and many such acts of wrong + as were mentioned in the first section of the bill. That they + were committed by Frenchmen, and under such circumstances as + gave those who suffered wrong an unquestionable right to claim + indemnity from the French government, nobody, he supposed, + at this day, would question. There were two questions which + might be made the subject of discussion, and two only occurred + to him at that moment. The one was, 'On what ground was the + government of the United States answerable to any extent for + the injury done to these claimants?' The other, 'To what extent + was the government in justice bound?' And _first_--of the + first. 'Why was it that the government of the United States had + become responsible in law or equity to its citizens, for the + claims--for any indemnity for the wrongs committed on their + commerce by the subjects of France before 1800?' + + "To this question there was an answer, which, whether + satisfactory or not, had at least the merit of being a very + short one. It was, that, by a treaty between France and the + United States, bearing date the 30th of September, 1800, in + a political capacity, the government of the United States + discharged and released the government of France from this + indemnity. It went upon the ground, which was sustained by + all the correspondence which had preceded the treaty of 1800, + that the disputes arising between the two countries should be + settled by a negotiation. And claims and pretensions having + been asserted on either side, commissioners on the part of the + United States were sent out to assert and maintain the claims of + indemnity which they demanded; while commissioners appointed on + the part of France asserted a claim to the full extent of the + stipulations made in '78, which they said the United States had + promised to fulfil, and in order to carry into effect the treaty + of alliance of the same date, viz.: February, 1778. + + "The negotiation ultimately terminated, and a treaty was finally + ratified upon the terms and conditions of an offset of the + respective claims against each other, and for ever; so that the + United States government, by the surrender and discharge of + these claims of its citizens, had made this surrender to the + French government to obtain for itself a discharge from the + onerous liabilities imposed upon them by the treaty of 1778, and + in order to escape from fulfilling other stipulations proclaimed + in the treaty of commerce of that year, and which, if not + fulfilled, might have brought about a war with France. This was + the ground on which these claims rested. + + "Heretofore, when the subject had been before Congress, + gentlemen had taken this view of the case; and he believed + there was a report presented to the Senate at the time, which + set forth that the claims of our citizens, being left open, the + United States had done these claimants no injury, and that it + did not exempt the government of France from liability." + +Mr. Wright, of New-York, spoke fully against the bill, and upon +a close view of all the facts of the case and all the law of the +case as growing out of treaties or found in the law of nations. +His speech was not only a masterly argument, but an historical +monument, going back to the first treaty with France in 1778, +and coming down through our legislation and diplomacy on French +questions to the time of its delivery. A separate chapter is due to +this great speech; and it will be given entire in the next one. + + + + +CHAPTER CXVIII. + +FRENCH SPOLIATIONS: SPEECH OF MR. WRIGHT, OF NEW-YORK. + + + "Mr. Wright understood the friends of this bill to put its + merits upon the single and distinct ground that the government + of the United States had released France from the payment of + the claims for a consideration, passing directly to the benefit + of our government, and fully equal in value to the claims + themselves. Mr. W. said he should argue the several questions + presented, upon the supposition that this was the extent to + which the friends of the bill had gone, or were disposed to go, + in claiming a liability on the part of the United States to pay + the claimants; and, thus understood, he was ready to proceed to + an examination of the strength of this position. + + "His first duty, then, was to examine the relations existing + between France and the United States prior to the commencement + of the disturbances out of which these claims have arisen; and + the discharge of this duty would compel a dry and uninteresting + reference to the several treaties which, at that period, + governed those relations. + + "The seventeenth article of the treaty of amity and commerce of + the 6th February, 1778, was the first of these references, and + that article was in the following words: + + "'_Art. 17._ It shall be lawful for the ships of war of either + party, and privateers, freely to carry whithersoever they please + the ships and goods taken from their enemies, without being + obliged to pay any duty to the officers of the admiralty or any + other judges; nor shall such prizes be arrested or seized when + they come to or enter the ports of either party; nor shall the + searchers or other officers of those places search the same, + or make examination concerning the lawfulness of such prizes; + but they may hoist sail at any time and depart and carry their + prizes to the places expressed in their commissions, which the + commanders of such ships of war shall be obliged to show; on the + contrary, no shelter or refuge shall be given in their ports + to such as shall have made prize of the subjects, people, or + property of either of the parties; but if such shall come in, + being forced by stress of weather, or the danger of the sea, + all proper means shall be vigorously used, that they go out and + retire from thence as soon as possible.' + + "This article, Mr. W. said, would be found to be one of the + most material of all the stipulations between the two nations, + in an examination of the diplomatic correspondence during the + whole period of the disturbances, from the breaking out of the + war between France and England, in 1793, until the treaty of + the 30th September, 1800. The privileges claimed by France, + and the exclusions she insisted on as applicable to the other + belligerent Powers, were fruitful sources of complaint on both + sides, and constituted many material points of disagreement + between the two nations through this entire interval. What + these claims were on the part of France, and how far they were + admitted by the United States, and how far controverted, will, + Mr. W. said, be more properly considered in another part of + the argument. As connected, however, with this branch of the + relations, he thought it necessary to refer to the twenty-second + article of the same treaty, which was in the following words: + + "'_Art. 22._ It shall not be lawful for any foreign privateers, + not belonging to subjects of the Most Christian King, nor + citizens of the said United States, who have commissions from + any other prince or State in enmity with either nation, to fit + their ships in the ports of either the one or the other of the + aforesaid parties, to sell what they have taken, or in any other + manner whatsoever to exchange their ships, merchandises, or any + other lading; neither shall they be allowed even to purchase + victuals, except such as shall be necessary for their going + to the next port of that prince or State from which they have + commissions.' + + "Mr. W. said he now passed to a different branch of the + relations between the two countries, as established by this + treaty of amity and commerce, which was the reciprocal right + of either to carry on a free trade with the enemies of the + other, restricted only by the stipulations of the same treaty in + relation to articles to be considered contraband of war. This + reciprocal right is defined in the twenty-third article of the + treaty, which is in the words following: + + "'_Art. 23._ It shall be lawful for all and singular the + subjects of the Most Christian King, and the citizens, people, + and inhabitants of the said United States, to sail with their + ships with all manner of liberty and security, no distinction + being made who are the proprietors of the merchandises laden + thereon, from any port to the places of those who now are or + hereafter shall be at enmity with the Most Christian King, + or the United States. It shall likewise be lawful for the + subjects and inhabitants aforesaid to sail with the ships and + merchandises aforementioned, and to trade with the same liberty + and security from the places, ports, and havens of those who + are enemies of both or either party, without any opposition + or disturbance whatsoever, not only directly from the places + of the enemy aforementioned to neutral places, but also from + one place belonging to an enemy to another place belonging to + an enemy, whether they be under the jurisdiction of the same + prince, or under several. And it is hereby stipulated that free + ships shall also give a freedom to goods, and that every thing + shall be deemed to be free and exempt which shall be found on + board the ships belonging to the subjects of either of the + confederates, although the whole lading, or any part thereof, + should appertain to the enemies of either, contraband goods + being always excepted. It is also agreed, in like manner, that + the same liberty be extended to persons who are on board a free + ship, with this effect, that although they be enemies to both or + either party, they are not to be taken out of that free ship, + unless they are soldiers and in actual service of the enemies.' + + "The restrictions as to articles to be held between the two + nations as contraband of war, Mr. W. said, were to be found + in the twenty-fourth article of this same treaty of amity and + commerce, and were as follows: + + "'_Art._ 24. This liberty of navigation and commerce shall + extend to all kinds of merchandises, excepting those only which + are distinguished by the name of contraband, and under this + name of contraband, or prohibited goods, shall be comprehended + arms, great guns, bombs, with fuses and other things belonging + to them, cannon ball, gunpowder, match, pikes, swords, lances, + spears, halberds, mortars, petards, grenades, saltpetre, + muskets, musket ball, helmets, breastplates, coats of mail, + and the like kinds of arms proper for arming soldiers, musket + rests, belts, horses with their furniture, and all other warlike + instruments whatever. These merchandises which follow shall + not be reckoned among contraband or prohibited goods; that + is to say, all sorts of cloths, and all other manufactures + woven of any wool, flax, silk, cotton, or any other material + whatever; all kinds of wearing apparel, together with the + species whereof they are used to be made; gold and silver, as + well coined as uncoined: tin, iron, latten, copper, brass, + coals; as also wheat and barley, and any other kind of corn + and pulse: tobacco, and likewise all manner of spices; salted + and smoked flesh, salted fish, cheese, and butter, beer, oils, + wines, sugars, and all sorts of salts; and, in general, all + provisions which serve for the nourishment of mankind, and the + sustenance of life; furthermore, all kinds of cotton, hemp, + flax, tar, pitch, ropes, cables, sails, sail cloths, anchors, + and any part of anchors, also ships' masts, planks, boards, and + beams, of what trees soever; and all other things proper either + for building or repairing ships, and all other goods whatever + which have not been worked into the form of any instrument or + thing prepared for war by land or by sea, shall not be reputed + contraband, much less such as have been already wrought and + made up for any other use; all which shall be wholly reckoned + among free goods; as likewise all other merchandises and things + which are not comprehended and particularly mentioned in the + foregoing enumeration of contraband goods, so that they may be + transported and carried in the freest manner by the subjects of + both confederates, even to the places belonging to an enemy, + such towns or places being only excepted as are at that time + besieged, blocked up, or invested.' + + "Mr. W. said this closed his references to this treaty, with + the remark, which he wished carefully borne in mind, that the + accepted public law was greatly departed from in this last + article. Provisions, in their broadest sense, materials for + ships, rigging for ships, and indeed almost all the articles + of trade mentioned in the long exception in the article of the + treaty, were articles contraband of war by the law of nations. + This article, therefore, placed our commerce with France upon + a footing widely different, in case of a war between France + and any third power, from the rules which would regulate that + commerce with the other belligerent, with whom we might not have + a similar commercial treaty. Such was its effect as compared + with our relations with England, with which power we had no + commercial treaty whatever, but depended upon the law of nations + as our commercial rule and standard of intercourse. + + "Mr. W. said he now passed to the treaty of alliance between + France and the United States, of the same date with the treaty + of amity and commerce before referred to, and his first + reference was to the 11th article of this latter treaty. It was + in the following words: + + "'_Art._ 11. The two parties guarantee mutually from the + present time, and for ever, against all other powers, to wit: + The United States to His Most Christian Majesty the present + possessions of the Crown of France in America, as well as those + which it may acquire by the future treaty of peace: And His + Most Christian Majesty guarantees on his part to the United + States, their liberty, sovereignty, and independence, absolute + and unlimited, as well in matters of government as commerce, + and also their possessions, and the additions or conquests + that their confederation may obtain during the war, from any + of the dominions now or heretofore possessed by Great Britain + in North America, conformable to the fifth and sixth articles + above written, the whole as their possessions shall be fixed and + assured to the said States at the moment of the cessation of + their present war with England.' + + "This article, Mr. W. said, was the most important reference he + had made, or could make, so far as the claims provided for by + this bill were concerned, because he understood the friends of + the bill to derive the principal consideration to the United + States, which created their liability to pay the claims, from + the guaranty on the part of the United States contained in + it. The Senate would see that the article was a mutual and + reciprocal guaranty, 1st. On the part of the United States to + France, of her possessions in America; and 2d. On the part of + France to the United States, of their 'liberty, sovereignity, + and independence, absolute and unlimited, as well in matters + of government as commerce, and also their possessions,' &c.; + and that the respective guarantees were 'for ever.' It would + by-and-by appear in what manner this guaranty on the part of our + government was claimed to be the foundation for this pecuniary + responsibility for millions, but at present he must complete his + references to the treaties which formed the law between the two + nations, and the rule of their relations to and with each other. + He had but one more article to read, and that was important + only as it went to define the one last cited. This was the 12th + article of the treaty of alliance, and was as follows: + + "'_Art._ 12. In order to fix more precisely the sense and + application of the preceding article, the contracting parties + declare that, in case of a rupture between France and England, + the reciprocal guaranty declared in the said article shall have + its full force and effect the moment such war shall break out; + and if such rupture shall not take place, the mutual obligations + of the said guaranty shall not commence until the moment of + the cessation of the present war between the United States and + England shall have ascertained their possessions.' + + "These, said Mr. W., are the treaty stipulations between France + and the United States, existing at the time of the commencement + of the disturbances between the two countries, which gave rise + to the claims now the subject of consideration, and which seem + to bear most materially upon the points in issue. There were + other provisions in the treaties between the two governments + more or less applicable to the present discussion, but, in the + course he had marked out for himself, a reference to them was + not indispensable, and he was not disposed to occupy the time + or weary the patience of the Senate with more of these dry + documentary quotations than he found absolutely essential to + a full and clear understanding of the points he proposed to + examine. + + "Mr. W. said he was now ready to present the origin of the + claims which formed the subject of the bill. The war between + France and England broke out, according to his recollection, + late in the year 1792, or early in the year 1793, and the + United States resolved upon preserving the same neutral + position between those belligerents, which they had assumed at + the commencement of the war between France and certain other + European powers. This neutrality on the part of the United + States seemed to be acceptable to the then French Republic, and + her minister in the United States and her diplomatic agents at + home were free and distinct in their expressions to this effect. + + "Still that Republic made broad claims under the 17th article of + the treaty of amity and commerce before quoted, and her minister + here assumed the right to purchase ships, arm them as privateers + in our ports, commission officers for them, enlist our own + citizens to man them and, thus prepared, to send them from our + ports to cruise against English vessels upon our coast. Many + prizes were made, which were brought into our ports, submitted + to the admiralty jurisdiction conferred by the French Republic + upon her consuls in the United States, condemned, and the + captured vessels and cargoes exposed for sale in our markets. + These practices were immediately and earnestly complained of by + the British government as violations of the neutrality which + our government had declared, and which we assumed to maintain + in regard to all the belligerents, as favors granted to one of + the belligerents, not demandable of right under our treaties + with France, and as wholly inconsistent, according to the rules + of international law, with our continuance as a neutral power. + Our government so far yielded to these complaints as to prohibit + the French from fitting out, arming, equipping, or commissioning + privateers in our ports, and from enlisting our citizens to bear + arms under the French flag. + + "This decision of the rights of France, under the treaty of + amity and commerce, produced warm remonstrances from her + minister in the United States, but was finally ostensibly + acquiesced in by the Republic, although constant complaints + of evasions and violations of the rule continued to harass + our government, and to occupy the attention of the respective + diplomatists. + + "The exclusive privilege of our ports for her armed vessels, + privateers, and their prizes, granted to France by the treaty + of amity and commerce, as has before been seen, excited the + jealousy of England, and she was not slow in sending a portion + of her vast navy to line our coast and block up our ports and + harbors. The insolence of power induced some of her armed + vessels to enter our ports, and to remain, in violation of our + treaty with France, though not by the consent of our government, + or when we had the power to enforce the treaty by their + ejection. These incidents, however, did not fail to form the + subject of new charges from the French ministers, of bad faith + on our part, of partiality to England to the prejudice of our + old and faithful ally, of permitted violations of the treaties, + and of an inefficiency and want of zeal in the performance of + our duties as neutrals. To give point to these complaints, + some few instances occurred in which British vessels brought + their prizes into our ports, whether in all cases under those + casualties of stress of weather, or the dangers of the sea, + which rendered the act in conformity with the treaties and the + law of nations or not, is not perhaps very certain or very + material, inasmuch as the spirit of complaint seems to have + taken possession of the French negotiators, and these acts gave + colorable ground to their remonstrances. + + "Contemporaneously with these grounds of misunderstanding and + these collisions of interest between the belligerents, and + between the interests of either of them and the preservation of + our neutrality, the French began to discover the disadvantages + to them, and the great advantages to the British, of the + different rules which governed the commerce between the two + nations and the United States. The rule between us and France + was the commercial treaty of which the articles above quoted + form a part, and the rule between us and Great Britain, was that + laid down by the law of nations. Mr. W. said he would detain + the Senate to point out but two of the differences between + these rules of commerce and intercourse, because upon these + two principally depended the difficulties which followed. The + first was, that, by the treaty between us and France, 'free + ships shall also give a freedom to the goods; and every thing + shall be deemed to be free and exempt which shall be found on + board the ships belonging to the subjects of either of the + confederates, although the whole lading, or any part thereof, + should appertain to the enemy of either, contraband goods being + always excepted;' while the law of nations, which was the rule + between us and England, made the goods of an enemy a lawful + prize, though found in the vessel of a friend. Hence it followed + that French property on board of an American vessel was subject + to capture by British cruisers without indignity to our flag, + or a violation to international law, while British property on + board of an American vessel could not be captured by a French + vessel without an insult to the flag of the United States, and + a direct violation of the twenty-third article of the treaty of + amity and commerce between us and France, before referred to. + + "Mr. W. said the second instance of disadvantage to France which + he proposed to mention, was the great difference between the + articles made contraband of war by the twenty-fourth article of + the treaty of amity and commerce, before read to the Senate, and + by the law of nations. By the treaty, provisions of all kinds, + ship timber, ship tackle (guns only excepted), and a large list + of other articles of trade and commerce, were declared not to be + contraband of war, while the same articles are expressly made + contraband by the law of nations. Hence an American vessel, + clearing for a French port with a cargo of provisions or ship + stores, was lawful prize to a British cruiser, as, by the law + of nations, carrying articles contraband of war to an enemy, + while the same vessel, clearing for a British port, with the + same cargo, could not be captured by a French vessel, because + the treaty declared that the articles composing the cargo + should not be contraband as between the United States and + France. Mr. W. said the Senate would see, at a single glance, + how eminently these two advantages on the part of Great Britain + were calculated to turn our commerce to her ports, where, if the + treaty between us and France was observed, our vessels could + go in perfect safety, while, laden with provisions, our only + considerable export, and destined for a French port, they were + liable to capture, as carrying to an enemy contraband articles. + Upon their return, too, they were equally out of danger from + French cruisers, as, by the treaty, free ships made free the + goods on board; while, if they cleared from a port in France + with a French cargo, they were lawful prize to the British, upon + the principle of the law of nations, that the goods of an enemy + are lawful prize, even when found in the vessel of a friend. + + "Both nations were in constant and urgent want of provisions + from the United States; and this double advantage to England + of having her ports open and free to our vessels, and of + possessing the right to capture those bound to French ports, + exasperated the French Republic beyond endurance. Her ministers + remonstrated with our government, controverted our construction + of British rights, again renewed the accusations of partiality, + and finally threw off the obligations of the treaty; and, by + a solemn decree of their authorities at home, established the + rule which governed the practice of the British cruisers. + France, assuming to believe that the United States permitted the + neutrality of her flag to be violated by the British, without + resistance, declared that she would treat the flag of all + neutral vessels as that flag should permit itself to be treated + by the other belligerents. This opened our commerce to the + almost indiscriminate plunder and depredation of all the powers + at war, and but for the want of the provisions of the United + States, which was too strongly felt both in England and France + not to govern, in a great degree, the policy of the two nations, + it would seem probable, from the documentary history of the + period, that it must have been swept from the ocean. Impelled by + this want, however, the British adopted the rule, at an early + day, that the provisions captured, although in a strict legal + sense forfeited, as being by the law of nations contraband, + should not be confiscated, but carried into English ports, and + paid for, at the market price of the same provisions, at the + port of their destination. The same want compelled the French, + when they came to the conclusion to lay aside the obligations + of the treaty, and to govern themselves, not by solemn compacts + with friendly powers, but by the standards of wrong adopted + by their enemies, to adopt also the same rule, and instead of + confiscating the cargo as contraband of war, if provisions, to + decree a compensation graduated by the market value at the port + of destination. + + "Such, said Mr. W., is a succinct view of the disturbances + between France and the United States, and between France and + Great Britain, out of which grew what are now called the French + claims for spoliations upon our commerce, prior to the 30th of + September, 1800. Other subjects of difference might have had + a remote influence; but, Mr. W. said, he believed it would be + admitted by all, that those he had named were the principal, + and might be assumed as having given rise to the commercial + irregularities in which the claims commenced. This state of + things, without material change, continued until the year 1798, + when our government adopted a course of measures intended to + suspend our intercourse with France, until she should be brought + to respect our rights. These measures were persevered in by the + United States, up to September, 1800, and were terminated by the + treaty between the two nations of the 30th of that month. Here, + too, terminated claims which now occupy the attention of the + Senate. + + "As it was the object of the claimants to show a liability, on + the part of our government, to pay their claims, and the bill + under discussion assumed that liability, and provided, in part + at least, for the payment, Mr. W. said it became his duty to + inquire what the government had done to obtain indemnity for + these claimants from France, and to see whether negligence + on its part had furnished equitable or legal ground for the + institution of this large claim upon the national treasury. + The period of time covered by the claims, as he understood the + subject, was from the breaking out of the war between France and + England, in 1793, to the signing of the treaty between France + and the United States, in September, 1800; and he would consider + the efforts the government had made to obtain indemnity: + + "1st. From 1793 to 1798. + + "2d. From 1798 to the treaty of the 30th September, 1800. + + "During the first period, Mr. W. said, these efforts were + confined to negotiation, and he felt safe in the assertion + that, during no equal period in the history of our government, + could there be found such untiring and unremitted exertions + to obtain justice for citizens who had been injured in their + properties by the unlawful acts of a foreign power. Any one who + would read the mass of diplomatic correspondence between this + government and France, from 1793 to 1798, and who would mark + the frequent and extraordinary missions, bearing constantly in + mind that the recovery of these claims was the only ground upon + our part for the whole negotiation, would find it difficult to + say where negligence towards the rights and interests of its + citizens is imputable to the government of the United States, + during this period. He was not aware that such an imputation + had been or would be made; but sure he was that it could not be + made with justice, or sustained by the facts upon the record. No + liability, therefore, equitable or legal, had been incurred, up + to the year 1798. + + "And if, said Mr. W., negligence is not imputable, prior to + 1798, and no liability had then been incurred, how is it for + the second period, from 1798 to 1800? The efforts of the former + period were negotiation--constant, earnest, extraordinary + negotiation. What were they for the latter period? His answer + was, war; actual, open war; and he believed the statute book + of the United States would justify him in the position. He was + well aware that this point would be strenuously controverted, + because the friends of the bill would admit that, if a state of + war between the two countries did exist, it put an end to claims + existing prior to the war, and not provided for in the treaty of + peace, as well as to all pretence for claims to indemnity for + injuries to our commerce, committed by our enemy in time of war. + Mr. W. said he had found the evidences so numerous, to establish + his position that a state of actual war did exist, that he + had been quite at a loss from what portion of the testimony + of record to make his selections, so as to establish the fact + beyond reasonable dispute, and at the same time not to weary + the Senate by tedious references to laws and documents. He had + finally concluded to confine himself exclusively to the statute + book, as the highest possible evidence, as in his judgment + entirely conclusive, and as being susceptible of an arrangement + and condensation which would convey to the Senate the whole + material evidence, in a satisfactory manner, and in less compass + than the proofs to be drawn from any other source. He had, + therefore, made a very brief abstract of a few statutes, which + he would read in his place: + + "By an act of the 28th May, 1798, Congress authorized the + capture of all armed vessels of France which had committed + depredations upon our commerce, or which should be found + hovering upon our coast for the purpose of committing such + depredations. + + "By an act of the 13th June, 1798, only sixteen days after the + passage of the former act, Congress prohibited all vessels of + the United States from visiting any of the ports of France or + her dependencies, under the penalty of forfeiture of vessel and + cargo; required every vessel clearing for a foreign port to + give bonds (the owner, or factor and master) in the amount of + the vessel and cargo, and good sureties in half that amount, + conditioned that the vessel to which the clearance was to be + granted, would not, voluntarily, visit any port of France or + her dependencies; and prohibited all vessels of France, armed + or unarmed, or owned, fitted, hired, or employed, by any person + resident within the territory of the French Republic, or its + dependencies, or sailing or coming therefrom, from entering or + remaining in any port of the United States, unless permitted by + the President, by special passport, to be granted by him in each + case. + + "By an act of the 25th June, 1798, only twelve days after the + passage of the last-mentioned act, Congress authorized the + merchant vessels of the United States to arm, and to defend + themselves against any search, restraint, or seizure, by vessels + sailing under French colors, to repel force by force to capture + any French vessel attempting a search, restraint, or seizure, + and to recapture any American merchant vessel which had been + captured by the French. + + "Here, Mr. W. said, he felt constrained to make a remark upon + the character of these several acts of Congress, and to call + the attention of the Senate to their peculiar adaptation to the + measures which speedily followed in future acts of the national + legislature. The first, authorizing the capture of French armed + vessels, was peculiarly calculated to put in martial preparation + all the navy which the United States then possessed, and to + spread it upon our coast. The second, establishing a perfect + non-intercourse with France, was sure to call home our merchant + vessels from that country and her dependencies, to confine + within our own ports those vessels intended for commerce with + France, and thus to withdraw from the reach of the French + cruisers a large portion of the ships and property of our + citizens. The third, authorizing our merchantmen to arm, was the + greatest inducement the government could give to its citizens + to arm our whole commercial marine, and was sure to put in + warlike preparation as great a portion of our merchant vessels + as a desire of self-defence, patriotism, or cupidity, would arm. + Could measures more eminently calculated to prepare the country + for a state of war have been devised or adopted? Was this the + intention of those measures, on the part of the government, and + was that intention carried out into action? Mr. W. said he would + let the subsequent acts of the Congress of the United States + answer; and for that purpose, he would proceed to read from his + abstract of those acts: + + "By an act of the 28th June, 1798, three days after the passage + of the act last referred to, Congress authorized the forfeiture + and condemnation of all French vessels captured in pursuance of + the acts before mentioned, and provided for the distribution of + the prize money, and for the confinement and support, at the + expense of the United States, of prisoners taken in the captured + vessels. + + "By an act of the 7th July, 1798, nine days after the passage + of the last-recited act, Congress declared 'that the United + States are of right freed and exonerated from the stipulations + of the treaties and of the consular convention heretofore + concluded between the United States and France; and that the + same shall not henceforth be regarded as legally obligatory on + the government or citizens of the United States.' + + "By an act of the 9th July, 1798, two days after the passage + of the act declaring void the treaties, Congress authorized + the capture, by the public armed vessels of the United States, + of all armed French vessels, whether within the jurisdictional + limits of the United States or upon the high seas, their + condemnation as prizes, their sale, and the distribution of the + prize money; empowered the President to grant commissions to + private armed vessels to make the same captures, and with the + same rights and powers, as public armed vessels; and provided + for the safe keeping and support of the prisoners taken, at the + expense of the United States. + + "By an act of the 9th February, 1799, Congress continued the + non-intercourse between the United States and France for one + year, from the 3d of March, 1799. + + "By an act of the 28th February, 1799, Congress provided for an + exchange of prisoners with France, or authorized the President, + at his discretion, to send to the dominions of France, without + an exchange, such prisoners as might remain in the power of the + United States. + + "By an act of the 3d March, 1799, Congress directed the + President, in case any citizens of the United States, taken on + board vessels belonging to any of the powers at war with France, + by French vessels, should be put to death, corporally punished, + or unreasonably imprisoned, to retaliate promptly and fully upon + any French prisoners in the power of the United States. + + "By an act of the 27th February, 1800, Congress again continued + the non-intercourse between us and France, for one year, from + the 3d of March, 1800. + + "Mr. W. said he had now closed the references he proposed + to make to the laws of Congress, to prove that war--actual + war--existed between the United States and France, from July, + 1798, until that war was terminated by the treaty of the 30th + of September, 1800. He had, he hoped, before shown that the + measures of Congress, up to the passage of the act of Congress + of the 25th of June, 1798, and including that act, were + appropriate measures preparatory to a state of war; and he had + now shown a total suspension of the peaceable relations between + the two governments, by the declaration of Congress that the + treaties should no longer be considered binding and obligatory + upon our government or its citizens. What, then, but war could + be inferred from an indiscriminate direction to our public armed + vessels, put in a state of preparation, by preparatory acts, to + capture all armed French vessels upon the high seas, and from + granting commissions to our whole commercial marine, also armed + by the operation of previous acts of Congress, authorizing them + to make the same captures, with regulations applicable to both, + for the condemnation of the prizes, the distribution of the + prize money, and the detention, support, and exchange of the + prisoners taken in the captured vessels? Will any man, said Mr. + W., call this a state of peace? + + "[Here Mr. Webster, chairman of the select committee which + reported the bill, answered, 'Certainly.'] + + "Mr. W. proceeded. He said he was not deeply read in the + treatises upon national law, and he should never dispute with + that learned gentleman upon the technical definitions of peace + and war, as given in the books; but his appeal was to the plain + sense of every senator and every citizen of the country. Would + either call that state of things which he had described, and + which he had shown to exist from the highest of all evidence, + the laws of Congress alone, peace? It was a state of open and + undisguised hostility, of force opposed to force, of war upon + the ocean, as far as our government were in command of the + means to carry on a maritime war. If it was peace, he should + like to be informed, by the friends of the bill, what would + be war. This was violence and bloodshed, the power of the one + nation against the power of the other, reciprocally exhibited by + physical force. + + "Couple with this the withdrawal by France of her minister + from this government, and her refusal to receive the American + commission, consisting of Messrs. Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry, + and the consequent suspension of negotiations between the two + governments, during the period referred to; and Mr. W. said, if + the facts and the national records did not show a state of war, + he was at a loss to know what state of things between nations + should be called war. + + "If, however, the Senate should think him wrong in this + conclusion, and that the claims were not utterly barred by war, + he trusted the facts disclosed in this part of his argument + would be considered sufficient at least to protect the faith + of the government in the discharge of its whole duty to its + citizens; and that after it had carried on these two years of + war, or, if not war, of actual force and actual fighting, in + which the blood of its citizens had been shed, and their lives + sacrificed to an unknown extent, for the single and sole purpose + of enforcing these claims of individuals, the imputation of + negligence, and hence of liability to pay the claims, would not + be urged as growing out of this portion of the conduct of the + government. + + "Mr. W. said he now came to consider the treaty of the 30th + September, 1800, and the reasons which appeared plainly to his + mind to have induced the American negotiators to place that + negotiation upon the basis, not of an existing war, but of a + continued peace. That such was assumed to be the basis of the + negotiation, he believed to be true, and this fact, and this + fact only, so far as he had heard the arguments of the friends + of the bill, was depended upon to prove that there had been no + war. He had attempted to show that war in fact had existed, and + been carried on for two years; and if he could now show that the + inducement, on the part of the American ministers, to place the + negotiation which was to put an end to the existing hostilities + upon a peace basis, arose from no considerations of a national + or political character, and from no ideas of consistency with + the existing state of facts, but solely from a desire still + to save, as far as might be in their power, the interests of + these claimants, he should submit with great confidence that it + did not lay in the mouths of the same claimants to turn round + and claim this implied admission of an absence of war, thus + made by the agents of the government out of kindness to them, + and an excess of regard for their interests, as the basis of + a liability to pay the damages which they had sustained, and + which this diplomatic untruth, like all the previous steps of + the government, failed to recover for them. What, then, Mr. + President, said Mr. W., was the subject on our part, of the + constant and laborious negotiations carried on between the two + governments from 1793 to 1798? The claims. What, on our part, + was the object of the disturbances from 1798 to 1800--of the + non-intercourse--of the sending into service our navy, and + arming our merchant vessels--of our raising troops and providing + armies on the land--of the expenditure of the millions taken + from the treasury and added to our public debt, to equip and + sustain these fleets and armies? The claims. Why were our + citizens sent to capture the French, to spill their blood, and + lay down their lives upon the high seas? To recover the claims. + These were the whole matter. We had no other demand upon France, + and, upon our part, no other cause of difference with her. + + "What public, or national, or political object had we in the + negotiation of 1800, which led to the treaty of the 30th + September of that year? None, but to put an end to the existing + hostilities, and to restore relations of peace and friendship. + These could have been as well secured by negotiating upon a + war as a peace basis. Indeed, as there were in our former + treaties stipulations which we did not want to revive, a + negotiation upon the basis of existing war was preferable, so + far as the interests of the government were concerned, because + that would put all questions, growing out of former treaties + between the parties, for ever at rest. Still our negotiators + consented to put the negotiation upon the basis of continued + peace, and why? Because the adoption of a basis of existing war + would have barred effectually and for ever all classes of the + claims. This, Mr. W. said, was the only possible assignable + reason for the course pursued by the American negotiators; + it was the only reason growing out of the existing facts, + or out of the interests, public or private, involved in the + difficulties between the two nations. He therefore felt himself + fully warranted in the conclusion, that the American ministers + preferred and adopted a peace basis for the negotiation which + resulted in the treaty of the 30th of September, 1800, solely + from a wish, as far as they might be able, to save the interests + of our citizens holding claims against France. + + "Did they, Mr. President, said Mr. W., succeed by this artifice + in benefiting the citizens who had sustained injuries? He would + let the treaty speak for itself. The following are extracts from + the 4th and 5th articles: + + "'_Art._ 4. Property captured, and not yet definitively + condemned, or which may be captured before the exchange of + ratifications (contraband goods destined to an enemy's port + excepted), shall be mutually restored on the following proof of + ownership.' + + "[Here follows the form of proof, when the article proceeds:] + + "'This article shall take effect from the date of the signature + of the present convention. And if, from the date of the said + signature, any property shall be condemned contrary to the + intent of the said convention, before the knowledge of this + stipulation shall be obtained, the property so condemned shall, + without delay, be restored or paid for.' + + "'_Art._ 5. The debts contracted for by one of the two nations + with individuals of the other, or by individuals of the one + with individuals of the other, shall be paid, or the payment + may be prosecuted in the same manner as if there had been no + misunderstanding between the two States. But this clause shall + not extend to indemnities claimed on account of captures or + confiscations.' + + "Here, Mr. W. said, was evidence from the treaty itself, that, + by assuming a peace basis for the negotiation, the property of + our merchants captured and not condemned was saved to them, and + that certain classes of claimants against the French government + were provided for, and their rights expressly reserved. So much, + therefore, was gained by our negotiators by a departure from the + facts, and negotiating to put an end to existing hostilities + upon the basis of a continued peace. Was it, then, generous + or just to permit these merchants, because our ministers did + not succeed in saving all they claimed, to set up this implied + admission of continued peace as the foundation of a liability + against their own government to pay what was not recovered + from France? He could not so consider it, and he felt sure the + country never would consent to so responsible an implication + from an act of excessive kindness. Mr. W. said he must not be + understood as admitting that all was not, by the effect of + this treaty, recovered from France, which she ever recognized + to be due, or ever intended to pay. On the contrary, his best + impression was, from what he had been able to learn of the + claims, that the treaty of Louisiana provided for the payment of + all the claims which France ever admitted, ever intended to pay, + or which there was the most remote hope of recovering in any + way whatever. He should, in a subsequent part of his remarks, + have occasion to examine that treaty, the claims which were paid + under it, and to compare the claims paid with those urged before + the treaty of September, 1800. + + "Mr. W. said he now came to the consideration of the liability + of the United States to these claimants, in case it shall be + determined by the Senate that a war between France and the + United States had not existed to bar all ground of claim either + against France or the United States. He understood the claimants + to put this liability upon the assertion that the government of + the United States had released their claims against France by + the treaty of the 30th of September, 1800, and that the release + was made for a full and valuable consideration passing to the + United States, which in law and equity made it their duty to + pay the claims. The consideration passing to the United States + is alleged to be their release from the onerous obligations + imposed upon them by the treaties of amity and commerce and + alliance of 1778, and the consular convention of 1778, and + especially and principally by the seventeenth article of the + treaty of amity and commerce, in relation to armed vessels, + privateers, and prizes, and by the eleventh article of the + treaty of alliance containing the mutual guarantees. + + "The release, Mr. W. said, was claimed to have been made in the + striking out, by the Senate of the United States, of the second + article of the treaty of 30th September, 1800, as that article + was originally inserted and agreed upon by the respective + negotiators of the two powers, as it stood at the time the + treaty was signed. To cause this point to be clearly understood, + it would be necessary for him to trouble the Senate with a + history of the ratification of this treaty. The second article, + as inserted by the negotiators, and as standing at the time of + the signing of the treaty, was in the following words: + + "'_Art._ 2. The ministers plenipotentiary of the two powers + not being able to agree, at present, respecting the treaty of + alliance of 6th February, 1778, the treaty of amity and commerce + of the same date, and the convention of 14th of November, 1788, + nor upon the indemnities mutually due or claimed, the parties + will negotiate further upon these subjects at a convenient + time; and, until they may have agreed upon these points, the + said treaties and convention shall have no operation, and the + relations of the two countries shall be regulated as follows:' + + "The residue of the treaty, Mr. W. said, was a substantial copy + of the former treaties of amity and commerce, and alliance + between the two nations, with such modifications as were + desirable to both, and as experience under the former treaties + had shown to be for the mutual interests of both. + + "This second article was submitted to the Senate by the + President as a part of the treaty, as by the constitution of the + United States the President was bound to do, to the end that + the treaty might be properly ratified on the part of the United + States, the French government having previously adopted and + ratified it as it was signed by the respective negotiators, the + second article being then in the form given above. The Senate + refused to advise and consent to this article, and expunged it + from the treaty, inserting in its place the following: + + "'It is agreed that the present convention shall be in force for + the term of eight years from the time of the exchange of the + ratifications.' + + "In this shape, and with this modification the treaty was duly + ratified by the President of the United States, and returned to + the French government for its dissent or concurrence. Bonaparte, + then First Consul, concurred in the modification made by the + Senate, in the following language, and upon the condition + therein expressed: + + "'The government of the United States having added to its + ratification that the convention should be in force for the + space of eight years, and having omitted the second article, + the government of the French Republic consents to accept, + ratify, and confirm the above convention, with the addition, + purporting that the convention shall be in force for the space + of eight years, and with the retrenchment of the second article: + _Provided_, That, by this retrenchment, the two States renounce + the respective pretensions which are the object of the said + article.' + + "This ratification by the French Republic, thus qualified, + was returned to the United States, and the treaty, with the + respective conditional ratifications, was again submitted by + the President of the United States to the Senate. That body + 'resolved that they considered the said convention as fully + ratified, and returned the same to the President for the usual + promulgation;' whereupon he completed the ratification in the + usual forms and by the usual publication. + + "This, Mr. W. said, was the documentary history of this treaty + and of its ratification, and here was the release of their + claims relied upon by the claimants under the bill before the + Senate. They contend that this second article of the treaty, as + originally inserted by the negotiators, reserved their claims + for future negotiation, and also reserved the subjects of + disagreement under the treaties of amity and commerce, and of + alliance, of 1778, and the consular convention of 1788; that + the seventeenth article of the treaty of amity and commerce, + and the eleventh article of the treaty of alliance, were + particularly onerous upon the United States; that, to discharge + the government from the onerous obligations imposed upon it + in these two articles of the respective treaties, the Senate + was induced to expunge the second article of the treaty of + the 30th September above referred to, and, by consequence, to + expunge the reservation of their claims as subjects of future + negotiation between the two nations; that, in thus obtaining a + discharge from the onerous obligations of these treaties, and + especially of the two articles above designated, the United + States was benefited to an amount beyond the whole value of the + claims discharged, and that this benefit was the inducement to + the expunging of the second article of the treaty, with a full + knowledge that the act did discharge the claims, and create a + legal and equitable obligation on the part of the government to + pay them. + + "These, Mr. W. said, he understood to be the assumptions of + the claimants, and this their course of reasoning to arrive at + the conclusion that the United States were liable to them for + the amount of their claims. He must here raise a preliminary + question, which he had satisfied himself would show which + assumptions of the claimants to be wholly without foundation, so + far as the idea of benefit to the United States was supposed to + be derived from expunging this second article of the treaty of + 1800. What, he must be permitted to ask, would have been the + liability of the United States under the 'onerous obligations' + referred to, in case the Senate had ratified the treaty, + retaining this second article? The binding force of the treaties + of amity and commerce, and of alliance, and of the consular + convention, was released, and the treaties and convention were + themselves suspended by the very article in question; and the + subjects of disagreement growing out of them were merely made + matters of future negotiation 'at a convenient time.' What + was the value or the burden of such an obligation upon the + United States? for this was the only obligation from which our + government was released by striking out the article. The value, + Mr. W. said, was the value of the privilege, being at perfect + liberty, in the premises, of assenting to or dissenting from a + bad bargain, in a matter of negotiation between ourselves and a + foreign power. This was the consideration passing to the United + States, and, so far as he was able to view the subject, this + was all the consideration the government had received, if it be + granted (which he must by no means be understood to admit), that + the striking out of the article was a release of the claims, + and that such release was intended as a consideration for the + benefits to accrue to the government from the act. + + "Mr. W. said he felt bound to dwell, for a moment, upon this + point. What was the value of an obligation to negotiate 'at a + convenient time?' Was it any thing to be valued? The 'convenient + time' might never arrive, or if it did arrive, and negotiations + were opened, were not the government as much at liberty as in + any other case of negotiation, to refuse propositions which were + deemed disadvantageous to itself? The treaties were suspended, + and could not be revived without the consent of the United + States; and, of consequence, the 'onerous obligations' comprised + in certain articles of these treaties were also suspended until + the same consent should revive them. Could he, then, be mistaken + in the conclusion that, if the treaty of 1800 had been ratified + with the second article forming a part of it, as originally + agreed by the negotiators, the United States would have been as + effectually released from the onerous obligations of the former + treaties, until those obligations should again be put in force + by their consent, as they were released when that article was + stricken out, and the treaty ratified without it? In short, + could he be mistaken in the position that all the inducement, of + a national character, to expunge that article from the treaty, + was to get rid of an obligation to negotiate 'at a convenient + time?' And could it be possible that such an inducement would + have led the Senate of the United States, understanding this + consequence, to impose upon the government a liability to + the amount of $5,000,000? He could not adopt so absurd a + supposition; and he felt himself compelled to say that this view + of the action of the government in the ratification of the + treaty of 1800, in his mind, put an end to the pretence that the + striking out of this article relieved the United States from + obligations so onerous as to form a valuable consideration for + the payments provided for in this bill. He could not view the + obligation released--a mere obligation to negotiate--as onerous + at all, or as forming any consideration whatever for a pecuniary + liability, much less for a liability for millions. + + "Mr. W. said he now proposed to consider whether the effect + of expunging the second article of the treaty of 1800 was to + release any claim of value--any claim which France had ever + acknowledged, or ever intended to pay. He had before shown, by + extracts from the fourth and fifth articles of the treaty of + 1800, that certain classes of claims were saved by that treaty, + as it was ratified. The claims so reserved and provided for were + paid in pursuance of provisions contained in the treaty between + France and the United States, of the 30th of April, 1803; and to + determine what claims were thus paid, a reference to some of the + articles of that treaty was necessary. The purchase of Louisiana + was made by the United States for the sum of 80,000,000 of + francs, 60,000,000 of which were to be paid into the French + treasury, and the remaining 20,000,000 were to be applied to + the payment of these claims. Three separate treaties were made + between the parties, bearing all the same date, the first + providing for the cession of the territory, the second for the + payment of the 60,000,000 of francs to the French treasury, and + the third for the adjustment and payment of the claims. + + "Mr. W. said the references proposed were to the last-named + treaty, and were the following: + + "'_Art._ 1. The debts due by France to citizens of the United + States, contracted before the 8th of Vendemiaire, ninth year + of the French Republic (30th September, 1800), shall be paid + according to the following regulations, with interest at six + per cent., to commence from the period when the accounts and + vouchers were presented to the French government.' + + "'_Art._ 2. The debts provided for by the preceding article + are those whose result is comprised in the conjectural note + annexed to the present convention, and which, with the interest, + cannot exceed the sum of twenty millions of francs. The claims + comprised in the said note, which fall within the exceptions of + the following articles, shall not be admitted to the benefit of + this provision.' + + "'_Art._ 4. It is expressly agreed that the preceding articles + shall comprehend no debts but such as are due to citizens of the + United States, who have been and are yet creditors of France, + for supplies, for embargoes, and prizes made at sea, in which + the appeal has been properly lodged within the time mentioned + in the said convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year (30th + September, 1800).' + + "'_Art._ 5. The preceding articles shall apply only, 1st, to + captures of which the council of prizes shall have ordered + restitution, it being well understood that the claimant cannot + have recourse to the United States otherwise than he might have + had to the government of the French Republic, and only in case + of the insufficiency of the captors; 2d, the debts mentioned + in the said fifth article of the convention, contracted before + the 8th Vendemiaire, and 9 (30th September, 1800), the payment + of which has been heretofore claimed of the actual government + of France, and for which the creditors have a right to the + protection of the United States; the said fifth article does + not comprehend prizes whose condemnation has been or shall + be confirmed; it is the express intention of the contracting + parties not to extend the benefit of the present convention to + reclamations of American citizens, who shall have established + houses of commerce in France, England, or other countries than + the United States, in partnership with foreigners, and who + by that reason and the nature of their commerce, ought to be + regarded as domiciliated in the places where such houses exist. + All agreements and bargains concerning merchandise, which shall + not be the property of American citizens, are equally excepted + from the benefit of the said convention, saving, however, to + such persons their claims in like manner as if this treaty had + not been made. + + "From these provisions of the treaty, Mr. W. said, it would + appear that the claims to be paid were of three descriptions, to + wit: + + "1. Claims for supplies. + + "2. Claims for embargoes. + + "3. Claims for captures made at sea, of a description defined + in the last clause of the 4th and the first clause of the 5th + article. + + "How far these claims embraced all which France ever + acknowledged, or ever intended to pay, Mr. W. said he was unable + to say, as the time allowed him to examine the case had not + permitted him to look sufficiently into the documents to make + up his mind with precision upon this point. He had found, in a + report made to the Senate on the 14th of January, 1831, in favor + of this bill, by the honorable Mr. Livingston, then a Senator + from the State of Louisiana, the following Classification of the + French claims, as insisted on at a period before the making of + the treaty of 1800, to wit: + + "'1. From the capture and detention of about fifty vessels. + + "'2. The detention, for a year, of eighty other vessels, under + the Bordeaux embargo. + + "'3. The non-payment of supplies to the West India islands, and + to continental France. + + "'4. For depredations committed on our commerce in the West + Indies. + + "Mr. W. said the comparison of the two classifications of + claims would show, at a single view, that Nos. 2 and 3 in Mr. + Livingston's list were provided for by the treaty of 1803, from + which he had read. Whether any, and if any, what portions of + Nos. 1 and 4 in Mr. Livingston's list were embraced in No 3 of + the provisions of the treaty, as he had numbered them he was + unable to say; but this much he could say, that he had found + nothing to satisfy his mind that parts of both those classes + of claims were not so included, and therefore provided for and + paid under the treaty; nor had he been able to find any thing to + show that this treaty of 1803 did not provide for and pay all + the claims which France ever acknowledged or ever intended to + pay. He was, therefore, unprepared to admit, and did not admit, + that any thing of value to any class of individual claimants + was released by expunging the second original article from + the treaty of the 30th September, 1800. On the contrary, he + was strongly impressed with the belief that the adjustment of + claims provided for in the treaty of 1803 had gone to the whole + extent to which the French government had, at any period of the + negotiations, intended to go. + + "Mr. W. said this impression was greatly strengthened by the + circumstance that the claims under the Bordeaux embargo were + expressly provided for in this treaty, while he could see + nothing in the treaty of 1800 which seemed to him to authorize + the supposition that this class of claims was more clearly + embraced within the reservations in that treaty than any class + which had been admitted by the French government. + + "Another fact, Mr. W. said, was material to this subject, and + should be borne carefully in mind by every senator. It was, that + not a cent was paid by France, even upon the claims reserved + and admitted by the treaty of 1800, until the sale of Louisiana + to the United States, for a sum greater by thirty millions of + francs than that for which the French minister was instructed + to sell it. Yes, Mr. President, said Mr. W., the only payment + yet made upon any portion of these claims has been virtually + made by the United States; for it has been made out of the + consideration money paid for Louisiana, after paying into the + French treasury ten millions of francs beyond the price France + herself placed upon the territory. It is a singular fact that + the French negotiator was instructed to make the sale for fifty + millions, if he could get no more; and when he found that, by + yielding twenty millions to pay the claims, he could get eighty + millions for the territory, and thus put ten millions more into + the treasury of his nation than she had instructed him to ask + for the whole, he yielded to the claims and closed the treaty. + It was safe to say that, but for this speculation in the sale + of Louisiana, not one dollar would have been paid upon the + claims to this day. All our subsequent negotiations with France + of a similar character, and our present relations with that + country, growing out of private claims, justify this position. + What, then, would have been the value of claims, if such fairly + existed, which were not acknowledged and provided for by the + treaty of 1800, but were left for future negotiation 'at a + convenient time?' Would they have been worth the five millions + of dollars you propose to appropriate by this bill? Would they + have been worth further negotiation? He thought they would not. + + "Mr. W. said he would avail himself of this occasion, when + speaking of the treaty of Louisiana and of its connection with + these claims, to explain a mistake into which he had fallen, and + which he found from conversation with several gentlemen, who + had been for some years members of Congress, had been common to + them and to himself. The mistake to which he alluded was, the + supposition that the claimants under this bill put their case + upon the assumption that their claims had constituted part of + the consideration for which Louisiana had been ceded to the + United States; and that the consideration they contended the + government had received, and upon which its liability rested, + was the cession of that territory for a less sum, in money, than + was considered to be its value, on account of the release of + the French government from those private claims. He had rested + under this misapprehension until the opening of the present + debate, and until he commenced an examination of the case. He + then found that it was an entire misapprehension; that the + United States had paid, in money, for Louisiana, thirty millions + of francs beyond the price which France had set upon it; that + the claimants under this bill did not rest their claims at all + upon this basis, and that the friends of the bill in the Senate + did not pretend to derive the liability of the government from + this source. Mr. W. said he was induced to make this explanation + in justice to himself, and because there might be some person + within the hearing of his voice who might still be under the + same misapprehension. + + "He had now, Mr. W. said, attempted to establish the following + propositions, viz.: + + "1. That a state of actual war, by which he meant a state of + actual hostilities and of force, and an interruption of all + diplomatic or friendly intercourse between the United States and + France, had existed from the time of the passage of the acts + of the 7th and 9th of July, 1798, before referred to, until + the sending of the negotiators, Ellsworth, Davie, and Murray, + in 1800, to make a treaty which put an end to the hostilities + existing, upon the best terms that could be obtained; and + that the treaty of the 30th of September, 1800, concluded by + these negotiators, was, in fact, and so far as private claims + were concerned, to be considered as a treaty of peace, and + to conclude all such claims, not reserved by it, as finally + ratified by the two powers. + + "2. That the treaty of amity and commerce, and the treaty of + alliance of 1778, as well as the consular convention of 1788, + were suspended by the 2d article of the treaty of 1800, and + from that time became mere matters for negotiation between the + parties at a convenient time; that, therefore, the desire to + get rid of these treaties, and of any 'onerous obligations' + contained in them, was only the desire to get rid of an + obligation to negotiate 'at a convenient time;' and that such a + consideration could not have induced the Senate of the United + States to expunge that article from the treaty, if thereby that + body had supposed it was imposing upon the country a liability + to pay to its citizens the sum of five millions of dollars--a + sum much larger than France had asked, in money, for a full + discharge from the 'onerous obligations' relied upon. + + "3. That the treaty of 1800 reserved and provided for certain + portions of the claims; that payment, according to such + reservations, was made under the treaty of 1803; and that it is + at least doubtful whether the payment thus made did not cover + all the claims ever admitted, or ever intended to be paid by + France; for which reason the expunging of the second article of + the treaty of 1800, by the Senate of the United States, in all + probability, released nothing which ever had, or which was ever + likely to have value. + + "Mr. W. said, if he had been successful in establishing either + of these positions, there was an end of the claims, and, by + consequence, a defeat of the bill. + + "The advocates of the bill conceded that two positions must be + established, on their part, to sustain it, to wit: + + "1. That the claims were valid claims against France, and had + never been paid. And + + "2. That they were released by the government of the United + States for a full and valuable consideration passing to its + benefit by means of the release. + + "If, then, a state of war had existed, it would not be contended + that any claims of this character, not reserved or provided + for in the treaty of peace, were valid claims after the + ratification of such a treaty. His first proposition, therefore, + if sustained, would defeat the bill, by establishing the fact + that the claims, if not reserved in the treaty of 1800, were not + valid claims. + + "The second proposition, if sustained, would establish the + fact that, inasmuch as the valuable consideration passing to + the United States was alleged to grow out of the 'onerous + obligations' in the treaty of amity and commerce, the treaty + of alliance, and the consular convention; and inasmuch as + these treaties, and all obligations, past, present, or future, + 'onerous' or otherwise, growing out of them, were suspended + and made inoperative by the second article of the treaty of + the 30th of September, 1800, until further negotiation, by the + common consent of both powers, should revive them, the Senate of + the United States could not have expected, when they expunged + this article from the treaty, that, by thus discharging the + government from an obligation to negotiate 'at a convenient + time,' they were incurring against it a liability of millions; + in other words, the discharge of the government from an + obligation to negotiate upon any subject 'at a convenient time,' + could not have been considered by the Senate of the United + States as a good and valuable consideration for the payment of + private claims to the amount of five millions of dollars. + + "The third proposition, if sustained, would prove that all the + claims ever acknowledged, or ever intended to be paid by France, + were paid under the treaty of 1803, and that, therefore, as + claims never admitted or recognized by France would scarcely be + urged as valid claims against her, no valid claims remained; + and, consequently, the expunging of the second article of the + treaty of the 30th of September, 1800, released nothing which + was valid, and nothing remained to be paid by the United States + as a liability incurred by that modification of that treaty. + Here Mr. W. said he would rest his reasoning as to these three + propositions. + + "But if the Senate should determine that he had been wrong in + them all, and had failed to sustain either, he had still another + proposition, which he considered conclusive and unanswerable, as + to any valuable consideration for the release of these claims + having passed to the United States in consequence of their + discharge from the 'onerous obligations' said to have been + contained in the former treaties. These 'onerous obligations,' + and the only ones of which he had heard any thing in the course + of the debate, or of which he had found any thing in the + documents, arose under the 17th article of the treaty of amity + and commerce, and the 11th article of the treaty of alliance; + and, in relation to both, he laid down this broad proposition, + which would be fully sustained by the treaties themselves, and + by every act and every expression on the part of the American + negotiators, and the government of the United States, viz.: + + "'The obligations, liabilities, and responsibilities, imposed + upon the government of the United States and upon France by the + 17th article of the treaty of amity and commerce of 1778, and + by the 11th article of the treaty of alliance of 1778, where + mutual, reciprocal, and equal: each formed the consideration, + and the only consideration, for the other; and, therefore, any + release which discharged both powers from those liabilities, + responsibilities, and obligations, must have been mutual, + reciprocal, and equal; and the release of either must have + formed a full and valuable consideration for the release of the + other.' + + "Mr. W. said he would not trouble the Senate by again reading + the articles from the respective treaties. They would be + recollected, and no one would controvert the fact that, when + the treaties were made, these articles were intended to contain + mutual, reciprocal, and equal obligations. By the first we + gave to France the liberty of our ports for her armed vessels, + privateers, and prizes, and prohibited all other powers from + the enjoyment of the same privilege; and France gave to us the + liberty of her ports for our armed vessels, privateers, and + prizes, and guarded the privilege by the same prohibition to + other powers; and by the second we guaranteed to France, for + ever, her possessions in America, and France guaranteed to us, + for ever, 'our liberty, sovereignty, and independence, absolute + and unlimited, as well in matters of government as commerce.' + Such were the obligations in their original inception. Will + it be contended that they were not mutual, reciprocal, and + equal, and that, in each instance, the one did not form the + consideration for the other? Surely no one will take this ground. + + "If, then, said Mr. W., the obligations imposed upon each + government by these articles of the respective treaties were + mutual, reciprocal, and equal, when undertaken, they must have + remained equal until abrogated by war, or changed by treaty + stipulation. No treaty, subsequent to those which contain the + obligations, had affected them in any manner whatever. If, as + he had attempted to show, war had existed from July, 1778, to + 1800, that would not have rendered the obligations unequal, + but would have abrogated them altogether. If, as the friends + of the bill contend, there had been no war, and the treaties + were in full force up to the signing of the convention of the + 30th of September, 1800, what was the effect of that treaty, + as originally signed by the negotiators, upon these mutual, + reciprocal, and equal obligations? The second original article + of that treaty will answer. It did not attempt to disturb their + mutuality, reciprocity, or equality, but suspended them as they + were, past, present, or future, and made all the subject of + future negotiation 'at a convenient time.' + + "But, Mr. W. said, the Senate of the United States expunged + this article of the treaty of 1800, and refused to advise and + consent to ratify it as a part of the treaty; and hence it was + contended the United States had discharged themselves from + the 'onerous obligations' of these articles in the respective + treaties, and had, by that act, incurred, to the claimants + under this bill, the heavy liability which it recognizes. If + the expunging of that article discharged the United States from + obligations thus onerous, did it not discharge France from + the fellow obligations? Was not the discharge, made in that + manner, as mutual, reciprocal, and equal, as the obligations + in their inception, and in all their subsequent stages up to + that act? How, then, could it be contended that the discharge + of the one was not a full and adequate consideration for the + discharge of the other? Nothing upon the face of the treaties + authorized the introduction of this inequality at this step + in the official proceedings. Nothing in the record of the + proceedings of the Senate, when acting upon the article, + indicates that they intended to pay five millions of dollars to + render this mutual release equal between the two powers. The + obligations and responsibilities were reserved as subjects of + future negotiation, upon terms of equality, and the striking out + of that reservation was but a mutual and reciprocal and equal + release from the obligation further to negotiate. This much for + the reciprocity of these obligations as derived from the action + of the sovereign powers themselves. + + "What was to be learned from the action of their respective + negotiators? He did not doubt but that attempts had been + made on the part of France to exhibit an inequality in the + obligations under the treaty, and to set up that inequality + against the claims of our citizens; but had our negotiators + ever admitted the inequality to exist, or ever attempted to + compromise the rights of the claimants under this bill for + such a consideration? He could not find that they had. He did + not hear it contended that they had: and, from the evidence of + their acts, remaining upon record, as a part of the diplomatic + correspondence of the period, he could not suppose they had ever + entertained the idea. He had said that the American negotiators + had always treated these obligations as mutual, reciprocal, and + equal; and he now proposed to read to the Senate a part of a + letter from Messrs. Ellsworth, Davie, and Murray, addressed to + the French negotiators, and containing the project of a treaty, + to justify his assertion. The letter was dated 20th August, + 1800, and it would be recollected that its authors were the + negotiators, on the part of the United States, of the treaty of + the 30th of September, 1800. The extract is as follows: + + "'1. Let it be declared that the former treaties are renewed + and confirmed, and shall have the same effect as if no + misunderstanding between the two powers had intervened, except + so far as they are derogated from by the present treaty. + + "'2. It shall be optional with either party to pay to the + other, within seven years, three millions of francs, in money + or securities which may be issued for indemnities, and thereby + to reduce the rights of the other as to privateers and prizes, + to those of the most favored nation, And during the said term + allowed for option, the right of both parties shall be limited + by the line of the most favored nation. + + "'3. The mutual guaranty in the treaty of alliance shall be so + specified and limited, that its future obligation shall be, on + the part of France, when the United States shall be attacked, + to furnish and deliver at her own ports military stores to + the amount of one million of francs; and, on the part of the + United States, when the French possessions in America, in any + future war, shall be attacked, to furnish and deliver at their + own ports a like amount in provisions. It shall, moreover, be + optional for either party to exonerate itself wholly of its + obligation, by paying to the other, within seven years, a gross + sum of five millions of francs, in money or such securities as + may be issued for indemnities.' + + "Mr. W. asked if he needed further proofs that not only the + American government, but the American negotiators, treated + these obligations under the treaty as, in all respects, mutual, + reciprocal, and equal; and if the fallacy of the argument + that the United States had obtained to itself a valuable + consideration for the release of these private claims in the + release of itself from these obligations, was not utterly and + entirely disproved by these facts? Was not the release of the + obligations on the one side the release of them on the other? + And was not the one release the necessary consideration for the + other? How, then, could it be said, with any justice, that we + sought our release at the expense of the claimants? There was no + reasonable ground for such an allegation, either from the acts + of our government or of our negotiators. When the latter fixed + a value upon our obligations as to the privateers and prizes, + and as to the guaranty, in the same article they fixed the same + price, to a franc, upon the reciprocal obligations of France; + and when the former discharged our liability, by expunging the + second article of the treaty of 1800, the same act discharged + the corresponding liability of the French government. + + "Here, then, Mr. W. said, must end all pretence of a valuable + consideration for these claims passing to the United States from + this source. The onerous obligations were mutual, reciprocal, + and equal, and the respective releases were mutual, reciprocal, + and equal, and simultaneous, and nothing could be fairly drawn + from the act which operated these mutual releases to benefit + these claimants. + + "Mr. W. said he was, then, necessarily brought back to the + proposition with which he started in the commencement of his + argument, that, if the United States were liable to pay these + claimants, that liability must rest upon the broad ground of + a failure by the government, after ordinary, and, in this + instance, extraordinary efforts to collect the money. The idea + of a release of the claims for a valuable consideration passing + to the government had been exploded, and, if a liability was to + be claimed on account of a failure to collect the money, upon + what ground did it rest? What had the government done to protect + the rights of these claimants? It had negotiated from 1793 to + 1798, with a vigilance and zeal and talent almost unprecedented + in the history of diplomacy. It had sent to France minister + after minister, and, upon several occasions, extraordinary + missions composed of several individuals. Between 1798 and 1800, + it had equipped fleets and armies, expended millions in warlike + preparation, and finally sent forth its citizens to battle and + death, to force the payment of the claims. Were we now to be + told, that our failure in these efforts had created a liability + against us to pay the money? That the same citizens who had been + taxed to pay the expenses of these long negotiations, and of + this war for the claims, were to be further taxed to pay such of + the claims as we had failed to collect? He could never consent + to such a deduction from such premises. + + "But, Mr. President, said Mr. W., there is another view of + this subject, placed upon this basis, which renders this bill + of trifling importance in the comparison. If the failure to + collect these claims has created the liability to pay them, + that liability goes to the extent of the claims proved, and the + interest upon them, not to a partial, and perhaps trifling, + dividend. Who, then, would undertake to say what amount of + claims might not be proved during the state of things he had + described, from the breaking out of the war between France and + England, in 1793, to the execution of the treaty, in 1800? For + a great portion of the period, the municipal regulations of + France required the captured cargoes to be not confiscated, but + paid for at the market value at the port to which the vessel was + destined. Still the capture would be proved, the value of the + cargo ascertained, before the commission which the bill proposes + to establish; and who would adduce the proof that the same cargo + was paid for by the French government? + + "This principle, however, Mr. W. said, went much further than + the whole subject of the old French claims. It extended to all + claims for spoliations upon our commerce, since the existence of + the government, which we had failed to collect. Who could say + where the liability would end? In how many cases had claims of + this character been settled by treaty, what had been collected + in each case, and what amount remained unpaid, after the release + of the foreign government? He had made an unsuccessful effort + to answer these inquiries, so far as the files of the state + department would furnish the information, as he had found that + it could only be collected by an examination of each individual + claim; and this would impose a labor upon the department of + an unreasonable character, and would occupy more time than + remained to furnish the information for his use upon the present + occasion. He had, however, been favored by the Secretary of + State with the amounts allowed by the commissioners, the + amounts paid, and the rate of pay upon the principal, in two + recent cases, the Florida treaty, and the treaty with Denmark. + In the former instance, the payment was ninety-one and two + thirds per centum upon the principal, while in the latter it + was but thirty-one and one eighth per centum. Assume that these + two cases are the maximum and minimum of all the cases where + releases have been given for partial payments; and he begged the + Senate to reflect upon the amounts unpaid which might be called + from the national treasury, if the principle were once admitted + that a failure to collect creates a liability to pay. + + "That in his assumption that a liability of this sort must go + to the whole amount of the claims, he only took the ground + contended for by the friends of this bill, he would trouble the + Senate with another extract from the report of Mr. Livingston, + from which he had before read. In speaking of the amount which + should be appropriated, Mr. Livingston says: + + "'The only remaining inquiry is the amount; and on this point + the committee have had some difficulty. Two modes of measuring + the compensation suggested themselves: + + "'1. The actual loss sustained by the petitioners. + + "'2. The value of the advantages received, as the consideration, + by the United States. + + "'The first is the one demanded by strict justice; and is the + only one that satisfies the word used by the constitution, + which requires just compensation, which cannot be said to have + been made when any thing less than the full value is given. + But there were difficulties which appeared insurmountable, to + the adoption of this rule at the present day, arising from the + multiplicity of the claims, the nature of the depredations which + occasioned them, the loss of documents, either by the lapse of + time, or the wilful destruction of them by the depredators. The + committee, therefore, could not undertake to provide a specific + relief for each of the petitioners. But they have recommended + the institution of a board, to enter into the investigation, + and apportion a sum which the committee have recommended to be + appropriated, _pro rata_, among the several claimants.' + + "'The committee could not believe that the amount of + compensation to the sufferers should be calculated by the + advantages secured to the United States, because it was not, + according to their ideas, the true measure. If the property + of an individual be taken for public use, and the government + miscalculate, and find that the object to which they have + applied it has been injurious rather than beneficial, the + value of the property is still due to the owner, who ought not + to suffer for the false speculations which have been made. A + turnpike or canal may be very unproductive; but the owner of the + land which has been taken for its construction is not the less + entitled to its value. On the other hand, he can have no manner + of right to more than the value of his property, be the object + to which it has been applied ever so beneficial.' + + "Here, Mr. W. said, were two proposed grounds of estimating the + extent of the liability of the government to the claimants; and + that which graduated it by the value received by the government + was distinctly rejected, while that making the amount of the + claims the measure of liability, was as distinctly asserted + to be the true and just standard. He hoped he had shown, to + the satisfaction of the Senate, that the former rule of value + received by the government would allow the claimants nothing + at all, while he was compelled to say that, upon the broad + principle that a failure to collect creates a liability to + pay, he could not controvert the correctness of the conclusion + that the liability must be commensurate with the claim. He + could controvert, he thought, successfully, the principle, + but he could not the measure of damages when the principle was + conceded. He would here conclude his remarks upon the points + he had noticed, by the earnest declaration that he believed + the passage of this bill would open more widely the doors of + the public treasury than any legislation of which he had any + knowledge, or to which Congress had ever yielded its assent. + + "Mr. W. said he had a few observations to offer relative to the + mode of legislation proposed, and to the details of the bill, + and he would trouble the Senate no further. + + "His first objection, under this head, was to the mode of + legislation. If the government be liable to pay these claims, + the claimants are citizens of the country, and Congress is + as accessible to them as to other claimants who have demands + against the treasury. Why were they not permitted, individually, + to apply to Congress to establish their respective claims, as + other claimants were bound to do, and to receive such relief, in + each case, as Congress, in its wisdom, should see fit to grant? + Why were these claims, more than others, grouped together, + and attempted to be made a matter of national importance? + Why was a commission to be established to ascertain their + validity, a duty in ordinary cases discharged by Congress + itself? Were the Senate sure that much of the importance given + to those claims had not proceeded from this association, and + from the formidable amount thus presented at one view? Would + any gentleman be able to convince himself that, acting upon + a single claim in this immense mass, he should have given it + his favorable consideration? For his part, he considered the + mode of legislation unusual and objectionable. His principal + objections to the details were, that the second section of the + bill prescribed the rules which should govern the commission + in deciding upon the claims, among which 'the former treaties + between the United States and France' were enumerated; and that + the bill contained no declaration that the payments made under + it were in full of the claims, or that the respective claimants + should execute a release, as a condition of receiving their + dividends. + + "The first objection was predicated upon the fact that the bill + covered the whole period from the making of the treaties of + 1778, to that of the 30th September, 1800, and made the former + treaties the rule of adjudication, when Congress on the 7th + July, 1798, by a deliberate legislative act, declared those + treaties void, and no longer binding upon the United States or + their citizens. It is a fact abundantly proved by the documents, + that a large portion of the claims now to be paid, arose within + the period last alluded to; and that treaties declared to be + void should be made the law in determining what were and what + were not illegal captures, during the time that they were held + to have no force, and when our citizens were authorized by + law to go upon the high seas, regardless of their provisions, + Mr. W. said, would seem to him to be an absurdity which the + Senate would not legalize. He was fully aware that the first + section of the bill purported to provide for 'valid claims to + indemnity upon the French government, arising out of illegal + captures, detentions, forcible seizures, illegal condemnations, + and confiscations;' but it could not be overlooked that illegal + captures, condemnations, and confiscations, must relate entirely + to the law which was to govern the adjudication; and if that + law was a void treaty which the claimants were not bound to + observe, and did not observe, was it not more than possible that + a capture, condemnation, or confiscation, might, by compulsion, + be adjudged illegal under the rule fixed by the bill, while that + same capture, condemnation, or confiscation, was strictly legal + under the laws which governed the commerce of the claimant when + the capture was made? He must say that it appeared clear to his + mind that the rule of adjudication upon the validity of claims + of this description, should, in all cases, be the same rule + which governed the commerce out of which the claims have arisen. + + "His second objection, Mr. W. said, was made more as a wish + that a record of the intentions of the present Congress should + be preserved upon the face of the bill, than from any idea that + the provision suggested would afford the least protection to the + public treasury. Every day's legislation showed the futility of + the insertion in an act of Congress of a declaration that the + appropriation made should be in full of a claim; and in this, as + in other like cases, should this bill pass, he did not expect + that it would be, in practice, any thing more than an instalment + upon the claims which would be sustained before the commission. + The files of the state department would contain the record + evidence of the balance, with the admission of the government, + in the passage of this bill, that an equal liability remained + to pay that balance, whatever it might be. Even a release from + the respective claimants he should consider as likely to have + no other effect than to change their future applications from + a demand of legal right, which they now assume to have, to one + of equity and favor; and he was yet to see that the latter + would not be as successful as the former. He must give his vote + against the bill, whether modified in that particular or not, + and he should do so under the most full and clear conviction, + that it was a proposition fraught with greater dangers to the + public treasury, than any law which had ever yet received the + assent of Congress." + + + + +CHAPTER CXIX. + +FRENCH SPOLIATIONS--MR. WEBSTER'S SPEECH. + + + "The question, sir, involved in this case, is essentially a + judicial question. It is not a question of public policy, but a + question of private right; a question between the government and + the petitioners: and, as the government is to be judge in its + own case, it would seem to be the duty of its members to examine + the subject with the most scrupulous good faith, and the most + solicitous desire to do justice. + + "There is a propriety in commencing the examination of these + claims in the Senate, because it was the Senate which, by its + amendment of the treaty of 1800, and its subsequent ratification + of that treaty, and its recognition of the declaration of the + French government, effectually released the claims as against + France, and for ever cut off the petitioners from all hopes of + redress from that quarter. The claims, as claims against our own + government, have their foundation in these acts of the Senate + itself; and it may certainly be expected that the Senate will + consider the effects of its own proceedings, on private rights + and private interests, with that candor and justice which belong + to its high character. + + "It ought not to be objected to these petitioners, that their + claim is old, or that they are now reviving any thing which has + heretofore been abandoned. There has been no delay which is not + reasonably accounted for. The treaty by which the claimants say + their claims on France for these captures and confiscations were + released was concluded in 1800. They immediately applied to + Congress for indemnity, as will be seen by the report made in + 1802, in the House of Representatives, by a committee of which a + distinguished member from Virginia, not now living [Mr. Giles], + was chairman. + + "In 1807, on the petition of sundry merchants and others, + citizens of Charleston, in South Carolina, a committee of the + House of Representatives, of which Mr. Marion, of that State, + was chairman, made a report, declaring that the committee was of + opinion that the government of the United States was bound to + indemnify the claimants. But at this time our affairs with the + European powers at war had become exceedingly embarrassed; our + government had felt itself compelled to withdraw our commerce + from the ocean; and it was not until after the conclusion of the + war of 1812, and after the general pacification of Europe, that + a suitable opportunity occurred of presenting the subject again + to the serious consideration of Congress. From that time the + petitioners have been constantly before us, and the period has + at length arrived proper for a final decision of their case. + + "Another objection, sir, has been urged against these claims, + well calculated to diminish the favor with which they might + otherwise be received, and which is without any substantial + foundation in fact. It is, that a great portion of them has been + bought up, as a matter of speculation, and it is now holden by + these purchasers. It has even been said, I think, on the floor + of the Senate, that nine tenths, or ninety hundredths, of all + the claims are owned by speculators. + + "Such unfounded statements are not only wholly unjust towards + these petitioners themselves, but they do great mischief to + other interests. I have observed that a French gentleman of + distinction, formerly a resident in this country, is represented + in the public newspapers as having declined the offer of a seat + in the French administration, on the ground that he could not + support the American treaty; and he could not support the treaty + because he had learned, or heard, while in America, that the + claims were no longer the property of the original sufferers, + but had passed into unworthy hands. If any such thing has + been learned in the United States, it has been learned from + sources entirely incorrect. The general fact is not so; and + this prejudice, thus operating on a great national interest--an + interest in regard to which we are in danger of being seriously + embroiled with a foreign state--was created, doubtless, by the + same incorrect and unfounded assertions which have been made + relative to this other class of claims. + + "In regard to both classes, and to all classes of claims of + American citizens on foreign governments, the statement is at + variance with the facts. Those who make it have no proof of + it. On the contrary, incontrovertible evidence exists of the + truth of the very reverse of this statement. The claims against + France, since 1800, are now in the course of adjudication. They + are all, or very nearly all, presented to the proper tribunal. + Proofs accompany them, and the rules of the tribunal require + that, in each case, the true ownership should be fully and + exactly set out, on oath; and be proved by the papers, vouchers, + and other evidence. Now, sir, if any man is acquainted, or will + make himself acquainted, with the proceedings of this tribunal, + so far as to see who are the parties claiming the indemnity, he + will see the absolute and enormous error of those who represent + these claims to be owned, in great part, by speculators. + + "The truth is, sir, that these claims, as well those since + 1800 as before, are owned and possessed by the original + sufferers, with such changes only as happen in regard to all + other property. The original owner of ship and cargo; his + representative, where such owner is dead; underwriters who + have paid losses on account of captures and confiscations; and + creditors of insolvents and bankrupts who were interested in + the claims--these are the descriptions of persons who, in all + these cases, own vastly the larger portion of the claims. This + is true of the claims on Spain, as is most manifest from the + proceedings of the commissioners under the Spanish treaty. + It is true of the claims on France arising since 1800, as is + equally manifest by the proceedings of the commissioners now + sitting; and it is equally true of the claims which are the + subject of this discussion, and provided for in this bill. In + some instances claims have been assigned from one to another, in + the settlement of family affairs. They have been transferred, + in other instances, to secure or to pay debts; they have + been transferred, sometimes, in the settlement of insurance + accounts; and it is probable there are a few cases in which the + necessities of the holders have compelled them to sell them. But + nothing can be further from the truth than that they have been + the general subjects of purchase and sale, and that they are + now holden mainly by purchasers from the original owners. They + have been compared to the unfunded debt. But that consisted in + scrip, of fixed amount, and which passed from hand to hand by + delivery. These claims cannot so pass from hand to hand. In each + case, not only the value but the amount is uncertain. Whether + there be any claim, is in each case a matter for investigation + and proof; and so is the amount, when the justice of the claim + itself is established. These circumstances are of themselves + quite sufficient to prevent the easy and frequent transfer of + the claims from hand to hand. They would lead us to expect + that to happen which actually has happened; and that is, that + the claims remain with their original owners, and their legal + heirs and representatives, with such exceptions as I have + already mentioned. As to the portion of the claims now owned by + underwriters, it can hardly be necessary to say that they stand + on the same equity and justice as if possessed and presented by + the owners of ships and goods. There is no more universal maxim + of law and justice, throughout the civilized and commercial + world, than that an underwriter, who has paid a loss on ships + or merchandise to the owner, is entitled to whatever may be + received from the property. His right accrues by the very act + of payment; and if the property, or its proceeds, be afterwards + recovered, in whole or in part, whether the recovery be from the + sea, from captors, or from the justice of foreign states, such + recovery is for the benefit of the underwriter. Any attempt, + therefore, to prejudice these claims, on the ground that many of + them belong to insurance companies, or other underwriters, is at + war with the first principles of justice. + + "A short, but accurate, general view of the history and + character of these claims is presented in the report of the + Secretary of State, on the 20th of May, 1826, in compliance + with a resolution of the Senate. Allow me, sir, to read the + paragraphs: + + "'The Secretary can hardly suppose it to have been the intention + of the resolution to require the expression of an argumentative + opinion as to the degree of responsibility to the American + sufferers from French spoliations, which the convention of 1800 + extinguished, on the part of France, or devolved on the United + States, the Senate itself being most competent to decide that + question. Under this impression, he hopes that he will have + sufficiently conformed to the purposes of the Senate, by a brief + statement, prepared in a hurried moment, of what he understands + to be the question. + + "'The second article of the convention of 1800 was in the + following words: "The ministers plenipotentiary of the two + parties, not being able to agree, at present, respecting the + treaty of alliance of the 6th of February, 1778, the treaty + of amity and commerce of the same date, and the convention of + the 14th of November, 1788, nor upon the indemnities mutually + due or claimed, the parties will negotiate further on these + subjects, at a convenient time; and, until they may have agreed + upon these points, the said treaties and convention shall have + no operation, and the relations of the two countries shall be + regulated as follows." + + "'When that convention was laid before the Senate, it gave its + consent and advice that it should be ratified, provided that + the second article be expunged, and that the following article + be added or inserted: "It is agreed that the present convention + shall be in force for the term of eight years from the time of + the exchange of the ratifications;" and it was accordingly so + ratified by the President of the United States, on the 18th day + of February, 1801. On the 31st of July of the same year, it was + ratified by Bonaparte, First Consul of the French Republic, who + incorporated in the instrument of his ratification the following + clause as part of it: "The government of the United States, + having added to its ratification that the convention should be + in force for the space of eight years, and having omitted the + second article, the government of the French Republic consents + to accept, ratify, and confirm the above convention, with the + addition, importing that the convention shall be in force for + the space of eight years, and with the retrenchment of the + second article: _Provided_, That, by this retrenchment, the two + states renounce the respective pretensions which are the object + of the said article." + + "'The French ratification being thus conditional, was, + nevertheless, exchanged against that of the United States, at + Paris, on the same 31st of July. The President of the United + States considering it necessary again to submit the convention, + in this state, to the Senate, on the 19th day of December, 1801, + it was resolved by the Senate that they considered the said + convention as fully ratified, and returned it to the President + for the usual promulgation. It was accordingly promulgated, and + thereafter regarded as a valid and binding compact. The two + contracting parties thus agreed, by the retrenchment of the + second article, mutually to renounce the respective pretensions + which were the object of that article. The pretensions of the + United States, to which allusion is thus made, arose out of the + spoliations under color of French authority, in contravention + of law and existing treaties. Those of France sprung from the + treaty of alliance of the 6th of February, 1778, the treaty of + amity and commerce of the same date, and the convention of the + 14th of November, 1788. Whatever obligations or indemnities, + from these sources, either party had a right to demand, were + respectively waived and abandoned; and the consideration which + induced one party to renounce his pretensions, was that of + renunciation by the other party of his pretensions. What was + the value of the obligations and indemnities, so reciprocally + renounced, can only be matter of speculation. The amount of the + indemnities due to the citizens of the United States was very + large; and, on the other hand, the obligation was great (to + specify no other French pretensions), under which the United + States were placed, in the eleventh article of the treaty of + alliance of the 6th of February, 1778, by which they were bound + for ever to guarantee from that time the then possessions of + the Crown of France in America, as well as those which it might + acquire by the future treaty of peace with Great Britain; all + these possessions having been, it is believed, conquered at, + or not long after, the exchange of the ratifications of the + convention of September, 1800, by the arms of Great Britain, + from France. + + "'The fifth article of the amendments to the constitution + provides: "Nor shall private property be taken for public use, + without just compensation." If the indemnities to which citizens + of the United States were entitled for French spoliations prior + to the 30th of September, 1800, have been appropriated to + absolve the United States from the fulfilment of an obligation + which they had contracted, or from the payment of indemnities + which they were bound to make to France, the Senate is most + competent to determine how far such an appropriation is a public + use of private property within the spirit of the constitution, + and whether equitable considerations do not require some + compensation to be made to the claimants. The Senate is also + best able to estimate the probability which existed of an + ultimate recovery from France of the amount due for those + indemnities, if they had not been renounced; in making which + estimate, it will, no doubt, give just weight to the painful + consideration that repeated and urgent appeals have been, in + vain, made to the justice of France for satisfaction of flagrant + wrongs committed upon property of other citizens of the United + States, subsequent to the period of the 30th of September, 1800.' + + "Before the interference of our government with these claims, + they constituted just demands against the government of + France. They were not vague expectations of possible future + indemnity for injuries received, too uncertain to be regarded + as valuable, or be esteemed property. They were just demands, + and, as such, they were property. The courts of law took notice + of them as property. They were capable of being devised, of + being distributed among heirs and next of kin, and of being + transferred and assigned, like other legal and just debts. A + claim or demand for a ship unjustly seized and confiscated + is property, as clearly as the ship itself. It may not be so + valuable, or so certain; but it is as clear a right, and has + been uniformly so regarded by the courts of law. The papers show + that American citizens had claims against the French government + for six hundred and fifteen vessels unlawfully seized and + confiscated. If this were so, it is difficult to see how the + government of the United States can release these claims for + its own benefit, with any more propriety than it could have + applied the money to its own use, if the French government had + been ready to make compensation, in money, for the property thus + illegally seized and confiscated; or how the government could + appropriate to itself the just claims which the owners of these + six hundred and fifteen vessels held against the wrong-doers, + without making compensation, any more than it could appropriate + to itself, without making compensation, six hundred and fifteen + ships which had not been seized. I do not mean to say that the + rate of compensation should be the same in both cases; I do + not mean to say that a claim for a ship is of as much value as + a ship; but I mean to say that both the one and the other are + property, and that government cannot, with justice, deprive + a man of either, for its own benefit, without making a fair + compensation. + + "It will be perceived at once, sir, that these claims do not + rest on the ground of any neglect or omission, on the part of + the government of the United States, in demanding satisfaction + from France. That is not the ground. The government of the + United States, in that respect, performed its full duty. It + remonstrated against these illegal seizures; it insisted on + redress; it sent two special missions to France, charged + expressly, among other duties, with the duty of demanding + indemnity. But France had her subjects of complaint, also, + against the government of the United States, which she pressed + with equal earnestness and confidence, and which she would + neither postpone nor relinquish, except on the condition that + the United States would postpone or relinquish these claims. And + to meet this condition, and to restore harmony between the two + nations, the United States did agree, first to postpone, and + afterwards to relinquish, these claims of its own citizens. In + other words, the government of the United States bought off the + claims of France against itself, by discharging claims of our + own citizens against France. + + "This, sir, is the ground on which these citizens think they + have a claim for reasonable indemnity against their own + government. And now, sir, before proceeding to the disputed + part of the case, permit me to state what is admitted. + + "In the first place, then, it is universally admitted that these + petitioners once had just claims against the government of + France, on account of these illegal captures and condemnations. + + "In the next place, it is admitted that these claims no longer + exist against France; that they have, in some way, been + extinguished or released, as to her; and that she is for ever + discharged from all duty of paying or satisfying them, in whole + or in part. + + "These two points being admitted, it is then necessary, in order + to support the present bill, to maintain four propositions: + + "1. That these claims subsisted against France up to the time + of the treaty of September, 1800, between France and the United + States. + + "2. That they were released, surrendered, or extinguished by + that treaty, its amendment in the Senate, and the manner of its + final ratification. + + "3. That they were thus released, surrendered, or extinguished, + for political and national considerations, for objects and + purposes deemed important to the United States, but in which + these claimants had no more interest than any other citizens. + + "4. That the amount or measure of indemnity proposed by this + bill is no more than a fair and reasonable compensation, so far + as we can judge by what has been done in similar cases. + + "1. Were these subsisting claims against France up to the time + of the treaty? It is a conclusive answer to this question, to + say that the government of the United States insisted that they + did exist, up to the time of the treaty, and demanded indemnity + for them, and that the French government fully admitted their + existence, and acknowledged its obligation to make such + indemnity. + + "The negotiation, which terminated in the treaty, was opened by + a direct proposition for indemnity, made by our ministers, the + justice and propriety of which was immediately acceded to by the + ministers of France. + + "On the 7th of April, 1800, in their first letter to the + ministers of France, Messrs. Ellsworth, Davie, and Murray, say: + + "'Citizen ministers:--The undersigned, appreciating the value + of time, and wishing by frankness to evince their sincerity, + enter directly upon the great object of their mission--an object + which they believe may be best obtained by avoiding to retrace + minutely the too well-known and too painful incidents which have + rendered a negotiation necessary. + + "'To satisfy the demands of justice, and render a reconciliation + cordial and permanent, they propose an arrangement, such + as shall be compatible with national honor and existing + circumstances, to ascertain and discharge the equitable claims + of the citizens of either nation upon the other, whether founded + on contract, treaty, or the law of nations. The way being thus + prepared, the undersigned will be at liberty to stipulate for + that reciprocity and freedom of commercial intercourse between + the two countries which must essentially contribute to their + mutual advantage. + + "'Should this general view of the subject be approved by the + ministers plenipotentiary to whom it is addressed, the details, + it is presumed, may be easily adjusted, and that confidence + restored which ought never to have been shaken.' + + "To this letter the French ministers immediately returned the + following answer: + + "'The ministers plenipotentiary of the French Republic have read + attentively the proposition for a plan of negotiation which was + communicated to them by the envoys extraordinary and ministers + plenipotentiary of the United States of America. + + "'They think that the first object of the negotiation ought to + be the determination of the regulations, and the steps to be + followed for the estimation and indemnification of injuries for + which either nation may make claim for itself, or for any of its + citizens. And that the second object is to assure the execution + of treaties of friendship and commerce made between the two + nations, and the accomplishment of the views of reciprocal + advantages which suggested them.' + + "It is certain, therefore, that the negotiation commenced in the + recognition, by both parties, of the existence of individual + claims, and of the justice of making satisfaction for them; and + it is equally clear that, throughout the whole negotiation, + neither party suggested that these claims had already been + either satisfied or extinguished; and it is indisputable that + the treaty itself, in the second article, expressly admitted + their existence, and solemly recognized the duty of providing + for them at some future period. + + "It will be observed, sir, that the French negotiators, in + their first letter, while they admit the justice of providing + indemnity for individual claims, bring forward, also, claims + arising under treaties; taking care, thus early, to advance + the pretensions of France on account of alleged violations by + the United States of the treaties of 1778. On that part of the + case, I shall say something hereafter; but I use this first + letter of the French ministers at present only to show that, + from the first, the French government admitted its obligation to + indemnify individuals who had suffered wrongs and injuries. + + "The honorable member from New-York [Mr. Wright] contends, sir, + that, at the time of concluding the treaty, these claims had + ceased to exist. He says that a war had taken place between the + United States and France, and by the war the claims had become + extinguished. I differ from the honorable member, both as to the + fact of war, and as to the consequences to be deduced from it, + in this case, even if public war had existed. If we admit, for + argument sake, that war had existed, yet we find that, on the + restoration of amity, both parties admit the justice of these + claims and their continued existence, and the party against + which they are preferred acknowledges her obligation, and + expresses her willingness to pay them. The mere fact of war can + never extinguish any claim. If, indeed, claims for indemnity be + the professed ground of a war, and peace be afterwards concluded + without obtaining any acknowledgment of the right, such a peace + may be construed to be a relinquishment of the right, on the + ground that the question has been put to the arbitration of the + sword, and decided. But, if a war be waged to enforce a disputed + claim, and it be carried on till the adverse party admit the + claim, and agree to provide for its payment, it would be + strange, indeed, to hold that the claim itself was extinguished + by the very war which had compelled its express recognition. + Now, whatever we call that state of things which existed between + the United States and France from 1798 to 1800, it is evident + that neither party contended or supposed that it had been such + a state of things as had extinguished individual claims for + indemnity for illegal seizures and confiscations. + + "The honorable member, sir, to sustain his point, must prove + that the United States went to war to vindicate these claims; + that they waged that war unsuccessfully; and that they were + therefore glad to make peace, without obtaining payment of the + claims, or any admission of their justice. I am happy, sir, to + say that, in my opinion, facts do not authorize any such record + to be made up against the United States. I think it is clear, + sir, that whatever misunderstanding existed between the United + States and France, it did not amount, at any time, to open and + public war. It is certain that the amicable relations of the two + countries were much disturbed; it is certain that the United + States authorized armed resistance to French captures, and the + captures of French vessels of war found hovering on our coast; + but it is certain, also, not only that there was no declaration + of war, on either side, but that the United States, under all + their provocations, did never authorize general reprisals on + French commerce. At the very moment when the gentleman says war + raged between the United States and France, French citizens + came into our courts, in their own names, claimed restitution + for property seized by American cruisers, and obtained decrees + of restitution. They claimed as citizens of France and obtained + restoration, in our courts, as citizens of France. It must have + been a singular war, sir, in which such proceedings could take + place. Upon a fair view of the whole matter, Mr. President, it + will be found, I think, that every thing done by the United + States was defensive. No part of it was ever retaliatory. The + United States do not take justice into their own hands. + + "The strongest measure, perhaps, adopted by Congress, was the + act of May 28, 1798. The honorable member from New-York has + referred to this act, and chiefly relies upon it, to prove the + existence, or the commencement, of actual war. But does it prove + either the one or the other? + + "It is not an act declaring war; it is not an act authorizing + reprisals; it is not an act which, in any way, acknowledges the + actual existence of war. Its whole implication and import is the + other way. Its title is, 'An act more effectually to protect the + commerce and coasts of the United States.' + + "This is its preamble: + + "'Whereas armed vessels, sailing under authority, or pretence + of authority, from the Republic of France, have committed + depredations on the commerce of the United States, and have + recently captured the vessels and property of citizens thereof, + on and near the coasts, in violation of the law of nations, + and treaties between the United States and the French nation: + therefore'-- + + "And then follows its only section, in these words: + + "'SEC. 1. _Be it enacted, &c._, That it shall be lawful for the + President of the United States, and he is hereby authorized, + to instruct and direct the commanders of the armed vessels + belonging to the United States, to seize, take, and bring into + any port of the United States, to be proceeded against according + to the laws of nations, any such armed vessel which shall have + committed, or which shall be found hovering on the coasts of the + United States for the purpose of committing, depredations on + the vessels belonging to citizens thereof; and also retake any + ship or vessel, of any citizen or citizens of the United States, + which may have been captured by any such armed vessel.' + + "This act, it is true, authorized the use of force, under + certain circumstances, and for certain objects, against French + vessels. But there may be acts of authorized force, there may be + assaults, there may be battles, there may be captures of ships + and imprisonment of persons, and yet no general war. Cases of + this kind may occur under that practice of retortion which is + justified, when adopted for just cause, by the laws and usages + of nations, and which all the writers distinguish from general + war. + + "The first provision in this law is purely preventive and + defensive; and the other hardly goes beyond it. Armed vessels + hovering on our coast, and capturing our vessels, under + authority, or pretence of authority, from a foreign state, + might be captured and brought in, and vessels already seized + by them retaken. The act is limited to armed vessels; but why + was this, if general war existed? Why was not the naval power + of the country let loose at once, if there were war, against + the commerce of the enemy? The cruisers of France were preying + on our commerce; if there was war, why were we restrained from + general reprisals on her commerce? This restraining of the + operation of our naval marine to armed vessels of France, and to + such of them only as should be found hovering on our coast, for + the purpose of committing depredations on our commerce, instead + of proving a state of war, proves, I think, irresistibly, that + a state of general war did not exist. But even if this act of + Congress left the matter doubtful, other acts passed at and + near the same time demonstrate the understanding of Congress + to have been, that although the relations between the two + countries were greatly disturbed, yet that war did not exist. On + the same day (May 28, 1798) in which this act passed, on which + the member from New-York lays so much stress, as proving the + actual existence of war with France, Congress passed another + act, entitled 'An act authorizing the President of the United + States to raise a provisional army;' and the first section + declared that the President should be authorized, 'in the event + of a declaration of war against the United States, or of actual + invasion of their territory by a foreign power, or of imminent + danger of such invasion, to cause to be enlisted,' &c., ten + thousand men. + + "On the 16th of July following, Congress passed the law for + augmenting the army, the second section of which authorized the + President to raise twelve additional regiments of infantry, and + six troops of light dragoons, 'to be enlisted for and during + the continuance of the existing differences between the United + States and the French Republic, unless sooner discharged,' &c. + + "The following spring, by the act of the 2d of March, 1799, + entitled 'An act giving eventual authority to the President of + the United States to augment the army,' Congress provided that + it should be lawful for the President of the United States, + in case war should break out between the United States and a + foreign European power, &c., to raise twenty-four regiments of + infantry, &c. And in the act for better organizing the army, + passed the next day, Congress repeats the declaration, contained + in a former act, that certain provisions shall not take effect + unless war shall break out between the United States and some + European prince, potentate, or state. + + "On the 20th of February, 1800, an act was passed to suspend + the act for augmenting the army; and this last act declared + that further enlistments should be suspended until the further + order of Congress, unless in the recess of Congress and during + the continuance of the existing differences between the United + States and the French Republic, war should break out between the + United States and the French Republic, or imminent danger of + an invasion of their territory by the said Republic should be + discovered. + + "On the 14th of May, 1800, four months before the conclusion of + the treaty, Congress passed an act authorizing the suspension + of military appointments, and the discharge of troops under the + provisions of the previous laws. No commentary is necessary, + sir, on the texts of these statutes, to show that Congress never + recognized the existence of war between the United States and + France. They apprehended war might break out; and they made + suitable provision for that exigency, should it occur; but it is + quite impossible to reconcile the express and so often repeated + declarations of these statutes, commencing in 1798, running + through 1799, and ending in 1800, with the actual existence of + war between the two countries at any period within those years. + + "The honorable member's second principal source of argument, + to make out the fact of a state of war, is the several + non-intercourse acts. And here again it seems to me an exactly + opposite inference is the true one. In 1798, 1799, and 1800, + acts of Congress were passed suspending the commercial + intercourse between the United States, each for one year. Did + any government ever pass a law of temporary non-intercourse + with a public enemy? Such a law would be little less than an + absurdity. War itself effectually creates non-intercourse. + It renders all trade with the enemy illegal, and, of course, + subjects all vessels found so engaged, with their cargoes, to + capture and condemnation as enemy's property. The first of these + laws was passed June 13, 1798, the last, February 27, 1800. + Will the honorable member from New-York tell us when the war + commenced? When did it break out? When did those 'differences,' + of which the acts of Congress speak, assume a character of + general hostility? Was there a state of war on the 13th of June, + 1798, when Congress passed the first non-intercourse act; and + did Congress, in a state of public war, limit non-intercourse + with the enemy to one year? Or was there a state of peace in + June, 1798? and, if so, I ask again, at what time after that + period, and before September, 1800, did the war break out? + Difficulties of no small magnitude surround the gentleman, I + think, whatever course he takes through these statutes, while + he attempts to prove from them a state of war. The truth + is, they prove, incontestably, a state of peace; a state of + endangered, disturbed, agitated peace; but still a state of + peace. Finding themselves in a state of great misunderstanding + and contention with France, and seeing our commerce a daily + prey to the rapacity of her cruisers, the United States + preferred non-intercourse to war. This is the ground of the + non-intercourse acts. Apprehending, nevertheless, that war might + break out, Congress made prudent provision for it by augmenting + the military force of the country. This is the ground of the + laws for raising a provisional army. The entire provisions of + all these laws necessarily suppose an existing state of peace; + but they imply also an apprehension that war might commence. For + a state of actual war they were all unsuited; and some of them + would have been, in such a state, preposterous and absurd. To a + state of present peace, but disturbed, interrupted, and likely + to terminate in open hostilities, they were all perfectly well + adapted. And as many of these acts, in express terms, speak of + war as not actually existing, but as likely or liable to break + out, it is clear, beyond all reasonable question, that Congress + never, at any time, regarded the state of things existing + between the United States and France as being a state of war. + + "As little did the executive government so regard it, as must be + apparent from the instructions given to our ministers, when the + mission was sent to France. Those instructions, having recurred + to the numerous acts of wrong committed on the commerce of the + United States, and the refusal of indemnity by the government + of France, proceed to say: 'This conduct of the French Republic + would well have justified an immediate declaration of war on the + part of the United States; but, desirous of maintaining peace, + and still willing to leave open the door of reconciliation with + France, the United States contented themselves with preparations + for defence, and measures calculated to protect their commerce.' + + "It is equally clear, on the other hand, that neither the French + government nor the French ministers acted on the supposition + that war had existed between the two nations. And it was for + this reason that they held the treaties of 1778 still binding. + Within a month or two of the signature of the treaty, the + ministers plenipotentiary of the French Republic write thus to + Messrs. Ellsworth, Davie, and Murray: 'In the first place, they + will insist upon the principle already laid down in their former + note, viz.: that the treaties which united France and the United + States are not broken; that even war could not have broken them; + but that the state of misunderstanding which existed for some + time between France and the United States, by the act of some + agents rather than by the will of the respective governments, + has not been a state of war, at least on the side of France.' + + "Finally, sir, the treaty itself, what is it? It is not called + a treaty of peace; it does not provide for putting an end to + hostilities. It says not one word of any preceding war; but it + does say that 'differences' have arisen between the two states, + and that they have, therefore, respectively, appointed their + plenipotentiaries, and given them full powers to treat upon + those 'differences,' and to terminate the same. + + "But the second article of the treaty, as negotiated and agreed + on by the ministers of both governments, is, of itself, a + complete refutation of the whole argument which is urged against + this bill, on the ground that the claims had been extinguished + by war, since that article distinctly and expressly acknowledges + the existence of the claims, and contains a solemn pledge that + the two governments, not being able to agree on them at present, + will negotiate further on them, at convenient time thereafter. + Whether we look, then, to the decisions of the American courts, + to the acts of Congress, to the instructions of the American + executive government, to the language of our ministers, to the + declarations of the French government and the French ministers, + or to the unequivocal language of the treaty itself, as + originally agreed to, we meet irresistible proof of the truth of + the declaration, that the state of misunderstanding which had + existed between the two countries was not war. + + "If the treaty had remained as the ministers on both sides + agreed upon it, the claimants, though their indemnity was + postponed, would have had no just claim on their own government. + But the treaty did not remain in this state. This second article + was stricken out by the Senate; and, in order to see the obvious + motive of the Senate in thus striking out the second article, + allow me to read the whole article. It is in these words: + + "'The ministers plenipotentiary of the two parties not being + able to agree, at present, respecting the treaty of alliance + of the 6th of February, 1778, the treaty of amity and commerce + of the same date, and the convention of the 14th of November, + 1788, nor upon the indemnities mutually due or claimed, the + parties will negotiate further on these subjects at a convenient + time, and until they may have agreed upon these points, the + said treaties and convention shall have no operation, and the + relations of the two countries shall be regulated as follows.' + + "The article thus stipulating to make the claims of France, + under the old treaties, matter of further negotiation, in + order to get rid of such negotiation, and the whole subject, + the Senate struck out the entire article, and ratified the + treaty in this corrected form. France ratified the treaty, + as thus amended, with the further declaration that, by thus + retrenching the second article, the two nations renounce the + respective pretensions which were the object of the article. + In this declaration of the French government, the Senate + afterwards acquiesced; so that the government of France, by this + retrenchment, agreed to renounce her claims under the treaties + of 1778, and the United States, in like manner, renounced the + claims of their citizens for indemnities due to them. + + "And this proves, sir, the second proposition which I stated + at the commencement of my remarks, viz.: that these claims + were released, relinquished, or extinguished, by the amendment + of the treaty, and its ratification as amended. It is only + necessary to add, on this point, that these claims for captures + before 1800 would have been good claims under the late treaty + with France, and would have come in for a dividend in the fund + provided by that treaty, if they had not been released by the + treaty of 1800. And they are now excluded from all participation + in the benefit of the late treaty, because of such release or + extinguishment by that of 1800. + + "In the third place, sir, it is to be proved, if it be not + proved already, that these claims were surrendered, or + released by the government of the United States, on national + considerations, and for objects in which these claimants had no + more interest than any other citizens. + + "Now, sir, I do not feel called on to make out that the claims + and complaints of France against the government of the United + States were well founded. It is certain that she put forth such + claims and complaints, and insisted on them to the end. It is + certain that, by the treaty of alliance of 1778, the United + States did guaranty to France her West India possessions. It is + certain that, by the treaty of commerce of the same date, the + United States stipulated that French vessels of war might bring + their prizes into the ports of the United States, and that the + enemies of France should not enjoy that privilege; and it is + certain that France contended that the United States had plainly + violated this article, as well by their subsequent treaty with + England as by other acts of the government. For the violation + of these treaties she claimed indemnity from the government + of the United States. Without admitting the justice of these + pretensions, the government of the United States found them + extremely embarrassing, and they authorized our ministers in + France to buy them off by money. + + "For the purpose of showing the justice of the present bill, + it is not necessary to insist that France was right in these + pretensions. Right or wrong, the United States were anxious to + get rid of the embarrassments which they occasioned. They were + willing to compromise the matter. The existing state of things, + then, was exactly this: + + "France admitted that citizens of the United States had just + claims against her; but she insisted that she, on the other + hand, had just claims against the government of the United + States. + + "She would not satisfy our citizens, till our government agreed + to satisfy her. Finally, a treaty is ratified, by which the + claims on both sides are renounced. + + "The only question is, whether the relinquishment of these + individual claims was the price which the United States paid + for the relinquishment, by France, of her claims against our + government? And who can doubt it? Look to the negotiation; + the claims on both sides were discussed together. Look to the + second article of the treaty, as originally agreed to; the + claims on both sides are there reserved together. And look to + the Senate's amendment, and to the subsequent declaration of + the French government, acquiesced in by the Senate; and there + the claims on both sides are renounced together. What stronger + proof could there be of mutuality of consideration? Sir, allow + me to put this direct question to the honorable member from + New-York. If the United States did not agree to renounce these + claims, in consideration that France would renounce hers, what + was the reason why they surrendered thus the claims of their + own citizens? Did they do it without any consideration at all? + Was the surrender wholly gratuitous? Did they thus solemnly + renounce claims for indemnity, so just, so long insisted on by + themselves, the object of two special missions, the subjects of + so much previous controversy, and at one time so near being the + cause of open war--did the government surrender and renounce + them gratuitously, or for nothing? Had it no reasonable motive + in the relinquishment? Sir, it is impossible to maintain any + such ground. + + "And, on the other hand, let me ask, was it for nothing that + France relinquished, what she had so long insisted on, the + obligation of the United States to fulfil the treaties of 1778? + For the extinguishment of this obligation we had already offered + her a large sum of money, which she had declined. Was she now + willing to give it up without any equivalent? + + "Sir, the whole history of the negotiation is full of proof that + the individual claims of our citizens, and the government claims + of France against the United States, constituted the respective + demands of the two parties. They were brought forward together, + discussed together, insisted on together. The French ministers + would never consent to disconnect them. While they admitted, in + the fullest manner, the claims on our side, they maintained, + with persevering resolution, the claims on the side of France. + It would fatigue the Senate were I to go through the whole + correspondence, and show, as I could easily do, that, in every + stage of the negotiation, these two subjects were kept together. + I will only refer to some of the more prominent and decisive + parts. + + "In the first place, the general instructions which our + ministers received from our own government, when they undertook + the mission, directed them to insist on the claims of + American citizens against France, to propose a joint board of + commissioners to state those claims, and to agree to refer the + claims of France for infringements of the treaty of commerce to + the same board. I will read, sir, so much of the instructions as + comprehend these points: + + "'1. At the opening of the negotiation you will inform the + French ministers that the United States expect from France, as + an indispensable condition of the treaty, a stipulation to make + to the citizens of the United States full compensation for all + losses and damages which they shall have sustained by reason of + irregular or illegal captures or condemnations of their vessels + and other property, under color of authority or commissions + from the French Republic or its agents. And all captures and + condemnations are deemed irregular or illegal when contrary + to the law of nations, generally received and acknowledged in + Europe, and to the stipulations in the treaty of amity and + commerce of the 6th of February, 1778, fairly and ingenuously + interpreted, while that treaty remained in force.' + + "'2. If these preliminaries should be satisfactorily arranged, + then, for the purpose of examining and adjusting all the + claims of our citizens, it will be necessary to provide for + the appointment of a board of commissioners, similar to that + described in the sixth and seventh articles of the treaty of + amity and commerce between the United States and Great Britain.' + + "'As the French government have heretofore complained of + infringements of the treaty of amity and commerce, by the United + States or their citizens, all claims for injuries, thereby + occasioned to France or its citizens, are to be submitted to the + same board; and whatever damages they award will be allowed by + the United States, and deducted from the sums awarded to be paid + by France.' + + "Now, sir, suppose this board had been constituted, and suppose + that it had made awards against France, in behalf of citizens + of the United States, and had made awards also in favor of + the government of France against the government of the United + States; and then these last awards had been deducted from the + amount of the former, and the property of citizens thus applied + to discharge the public obligations of the country, would any + body doubt that such citizens would be entitled to indemnity? + And are they less entitled, because, instead of being first + liquidated and ascertained, and then set off, one against the + other, they are finally agreed to be set off against each other, + and mutually relinquished in the lump? + + "Acting upon their instructions, it will be seen that the + American ministers made an actual offer to suspend the claim for + indemnities till France should be satisfied as to her political + rights under the treaties. On the 15th of July they made this + proposition to the French negotiators: + + "'Indemnities to be ascertained and secured in the manner + proposed in our project of a treaty, but not to be paid until + the United States shall have offered to France an article + stipulating free admission, in the ports of each, for the + privateers and prizes of the other, to the exclusion of their + enemies.' + + "This, it will be at once seen, was a direct offer to suspend + the claims of our own citizens till our government should be + willing to renew to France the obligation of the treaty of 1778. + Was not this an offer to make use of private property for public + purposes? + + "On the 11th of August, the French plenipotentiaries thus write + to the ministers of the United States: + + "'The propositions which the French ministers have the honor + to communicate to the ministers plenipotentiary of the United + States are reduced to this simple alternative: + + "'Either the ancient treaties, with the privileges resulting + from priority, and a stipulation of reciprocal indemnities; + + "'Or a new treaty, assuring equality without indemnity.' + + "In other words, this offer is, 'if you will acknowledge or + renew the obligation of the old treaties, which secure to us + privileges in your ports which our enemies are not to enjoy, + then we will make indemnities for the losses of your citizens; + or, if you will give up all claim for such indemnities, then + we will relinquish our especial privileges under the former + treaties, and agree to a new treaty which shall only put us on a + footing of equality with Great Britain, our enemy.' + + "On the 20th of August our ministers propose that the former + treaties, so far as they respect the rights of privateers, + shall be renewed; but that it shall be optional with the United + States, by the payment, within seven years, of three millions + of francs, either in money or in securities issued by the + French government for indemnities to our citizens, to buy off + this obligation, or to buy off all its political obligations, + under both the old treaties, by payment in like manner of five + millions of francs. + + "On the 4th of September the French ministers submit these + propositions. + + "'A commission shall regulate the indemnities which either of + the two nations may owe to the citizens of the other. + + "'The indemnities which shall be due by France to the citizens + of the United States shall be paid for by the United States, + and in return for which France yields the exclusive privilege + resulting from the 17th and 22d articles of the treaty of + commerce, and from the rights of guaranty of the 11th article of + the treaty of alliance.' + + "The American ministers considered these propositions as + inadmissible. They, however, on their part, made an approach + to them, by proposing, in substance, that it should be left + optional with the United States, on the exchange of the + ratification, to relinquish the indemnities, and in that case, + the old treaties not to be obligatory on the United States, so + far as they conferred exclusive privileges on France. This will + be seen in the letter of the American ministers of the 5th of + September. + + "On the 18th of September the American ministers say to those of + France; + + "'It remains only to consider the expediency of a temporary + arrangement. Should such an arrangement comport with the views + of France, the following principles are offered as the basis of + it: + + "'1st. The ministers plenipotentiary of the respective + parties not being able at present to agree respecting the + former treaties and indemnities, the parties will, in due and + convenient time, further treat on those subjects; and, until + they shall have agreed respecting the same, the said treaties + shall have no operation.' + + "This, the Senate will see, is substantially the proposition + which was ultimately accepted, and which formed the second + article of the treaty. By that article, these claims, on both + sides, were postponed for the present, and afterwards, by other + acts of the two governments, they were mutually and for ever + renounced and relinquished. + + "And now, sir, if any gentleman can look to the treaty, look + to the instructions under which it was concluded, look to the + correspondence which preceded it, and look to the subsequent + agreement of the two governments to renounce claims, on both + sides, and not admit that the property of these private citizens + has been taken to buy off embarrassing claims of France on + the government of the United States, I know not what other or + further evidence could ever force that conviction on his mind. + + "I will conclude this part of the case by showing you how + this matter was understood by the American administration + which finally accepted the treaty, with this renouncement of + indemnities. The treaty was negotiated in the administration of + Mr. Adams. It was amended in the Senate, as already stated, and + ratified on the third day of February, 1801, Mr. Adams being + still in office. Being thus ratified, with the amendment, it + was sent back to France, and on the thirty-first day of July, + the first Consul ratified the treaty, as amended by striking + out the second article, but accompanied the ratification with + this declaration, 'provided that, by this retrenchment, the two + states renounce their respective pretensions, which are the + object of the said article.' + + "With this declaration appended, the treaty came back to + the United States. Mr. Jefferson had now become President, + and Mr. Madison was Secretary of State. In consequence of + the declaration of the French government, accompanying its + ratification of the treaty and now attached to it, Mr. Jefferson + again referred the treaty to the Senate, and on the 19th of + December, 1801, the Senate resolved that they considered the + treaty as duly ratified. Now, sir, in order to show what Mr. + Jefferson and his administration thought of this treaty, and the + effect of its ratification, in its then existing form, I beg + leave to read an extract of an official letter from Mr. Madison + to Mr. Pinckney, then our minister in Spain. Mr. Pinckney was at + that time negotiating for the adjustment of our claims on Spain; + and, among others, for captures committed within the territories + of Spain, by French subjects. Spain objected to these claims, on + the ground that the United States had claimed redress of such + injuries from France. In writing to Mr. Pinckney (under date of + February 6th, 1804), and commenting on this plea of Spain, Mr. + Madison says: + + "'The plea on which it seems the Spanish government now + principally relies, is the erasure of the second article from + our late convention with France, by which France was released + from the indemnities due for spoliations committed under her + immediate responsibility to the United States. This plea did not + appear in the early objections of Spain to our claims. It was an + afterthought, resulting from the insufficiency of every other + plea, and is certainly as little valid as any other.' + + "'The injuries for which indemnities are claimed from Spain, + though committed by Frenchmen, took place under Spanish + authority. Spain, therefore, is answerable for them. To her we + have looked, and continue to look for redress. If the injuries + done to us by her resulted in any manner from injuries done to + her by France, she may, if she pleases, resort to France as we + resort to her. But whether her resort to France would be just + or unjust is a question between her and France, not between + either her and us, or us and France. We claim against her, not + against France. In releasing France, therefore, we have not + released her. The claims, again, from which France was released, + were admitted by France, and the release was for a valuable + consideration, in a correspondent release of the United States + from certain claims on them. The claims we make on Spain were + never admitted by France, nor made on France by the United + States; they made, therefore, no part of the bargain with her, + and could not be included in the release.' + + "Certainly, sir, words could not have been used which should + more clearly affirm that these individual claims, these private + rights of property, had been applied to public uses. Mr. + Madison here declares, unequivocally, that these claims had + been admitted by France; that they were relinquished by the + government of the United States; that they were relinquished + for a valuable consideration; that that consideration was a + correspondent release of the United States from certain claims + on them; and that the whole transaction was a bargain between + the two governments. This, sir, be it remembered, was little + more than two years after the final promulgation of the treaty; + it was by the Secretary of State under that administration which + gave effect to the treaty in its amended form, and it proves, + beyond mistake and beyond doubt, the clear judgment which that + administration had formed upon the true nature and character of + the whole transaction." + + + + +CHAPTER CXX. + +FRENCH SPOLIATIONS--MR. BENTON'S SPEECH. + + +"The whole stress of the question lies in a few simple facts, which, +if disembarrassed from the confusion of terms and conditions, and +viewed in their plain and true character, render it difficult not +to arrive at a just and correct view of the case. The advocates of +this measure have no other grounds to rest their case upon than an +assumption of facts; they assume that the United States lay under +binding and onerous stipulations to France; that the claims of this +bill were recognized by France; and that the United States made +herself responsible for these claims, instead of France; took them +upon herself, and became bound to pay them, in consideration of +getting rid of the burdens which weighed upon her. It is assumed +that the claims were good when the United States abandoned them; +and that the consideration, which it is pretended the United States +received, was of a nature to make her fully responsible to the +claimants, and to render it obligatory upon her to satisfy the +claims. + +"The measure rests entirely upon these assumptions; but I shall show +that they are nothing more than assumptions; that these claims were +not recognized by France, and could not be, by the law of nations; +they were good for nothing when they were made; they were good for +nothing when we abandoned them. The United States owed nothing to +France, and received no consideration whatever from her, to make +us responsible for payment. What I here maintain, I shall proceed +to prove, not by any artful chain of argument, but by plain and +historical facts. + +"Let me ask, sir, on what grounds is it maintained that the United +States received a valuable consideration for these claims? Under +what onerous stipulations did she lie? In what did her debt consist, +which it is alleged France gave up in payment for these claims? By +the treaty of '78, the United States was bound to guarantee the +French American possessions to France; and France, on her part, +guaranteed to the United States her sovereignty and territory. In +'93, the war between Great Britain and France broke out; and this +rupture between those nations immediately gave rise to the question +how far this guaranty was obligatory upon the United States? Whether +we were bound by it to protect France on the side of her American +possessions against any hostile attack of Great Britain; and thus +become involved as subalterns in a war in which we had no concern +or interest whatever? Here we come to the point at once; for if it +should appear that we were not bound by this guaranty to become +parties to a distant European war, then, sir, it will be an evident, +a decided result and conclusion, that we were under no obligation +to France--that we owed her no debt on account of this guaranty; +and, plainly enough, it will follow, we received no valuable +consideration for the claims of this bill, when France released +us from an obligation which it will appear we never owed. Let us +briefly see how the case stands. + +"France, to get rid of claims made by us, puts forward counter +claims under this guaranty; proposing by such a diplomatic manoeuvre +to get rid of our demand, the injustice of which she protested +against. She succeeded, and both parties abandoned their claims. +And is it now to be urged upon us that, on the grounds of this +astute diplomacy, we actually received a valuable consideration +for claims which were considered good for nothing? France met our +claims, which were good for nothing, by a counter claim, which was +good for nothing; and when we found ourselves thus encountered, +we abandoned our previous claim, in order to be released from +the counter one opposed to it. After this, is it, I would ask, a +suitable return for our over-wrought anxiety to obtain satisfaction +for our citizens, that any one of them should, some thirty years +after this, turn round upon us and say: "now you have received a +valuable consideration for our claims; now, then, you are bound +to pay us!" But this is in fact, sir, the language of this bill. +I unhesitatingly say that the guaranty (a release from which is +the pretended consideration by which the whole people of the +United States are brought in debtors to a few insurance offices to +the amount of millions), this guaranty, sir, I affirm, was good +for nothing. I speak on no less authority, and in no less a name +than that of the great father of his country, Washington himself, +when I affirm that this guaranty imposed upon us no obligations +towards France. How, then, shall we be persuaded that, in virtue +of this guaranty, we are bound to pay the debts and make good the +spoliations of France? + +"When the war broke out between Great Britain and France in 1793, +Washington addressed to his cabinet a series of questions, inquiring +their opinions on this very question--how far the treaty of +guaranty of 1778 was obligatory upon the United States--intending +to take their opinions as a guidance for his conduct in such a +difficult situation. [Here the honorable Senator read extracts from +Washington's queries to his cabinet, with some of the opinions +themselves.] + +"In consequence of the opinions of his cabinet concurring with +his own sentiments, President Washington issued a proclamation of +neutrality, disregarding the guaranty, and proclaiming that we +were not bound by any preceding treaties to defend American France +against Great Britain. The wisdom of this measure is apparent. He +wisely thought it was not prudent our infant Republic should become +absorbed in the vortex of European politics; and therefore, sir, not +without long and mature deliberation how far this treaty of guaranty +was obligatory upon us, he pronounced against it; and in so doing +he pronounced against the very bill before us; for the bill has +nothing to stand upon but this guaranty; it pretends that the United +States is bound to pay for injuries inflicted by France, because +of a release from a guaranty by which the great Washington himself +solemnly pronounced we were not bound! What do we now behold, sir? +We behold an array in this House, and on this floor, against the +policy of Washington! They seek to undo his deed; they condemn his +principles; they call in question the wisdom and justice of his wise +and paternal counsels; they urge against him that the guaranty bound +us, and what for? What is the motive of this opposition against +his measures? Why, sir, that this bill may pass; and the people, +the burden-bearing people, be made to pay away a few millions, in +consideration of obligations which, after mature deliberation, +Washington pronounced not to lie upon us! + +"I think, sir, enough has been said to put to rest for ever the +question of our obligations under this guaranty. Whatever the +claims may be, it must be evident to the common sense of every +individual, that we are not, and cannot be, bound to pay them in +the stead of France, because of a pretended release from a guaranty +which did not bind us; I say did not bind us, because, to have +observed it, would have led to our ruin and destruction; and it +is a clear principle of the law of nations, that a treaty is not +obligatory when it is impossible to observe it. But, sir, leaving +the question whether we were made responsible for the debts of +France, whether we were placed under an obligation to atone to our +own citizens for injuries which a foreign power had committed; +leaving this question as settled (and I trust settled for ever), I +come to consider the claims themselves, their justice, and their +validity. And here the principle of this bill will prove, on this +head, as weak and untenable--nay, more--as outrageous to every +idea of common sense, as it was on the former head. With what +reason, I would ask, can gentlemen press the American people to +pay these claims, when it would be unreasonable to press France +herself to pay them? If France, who committed the wrong, could not +justly be called upon to atone for it, how can the United States +now be called upon for this money? In 1798, the treaty of peace +with France was virtually abolished by various acts of Congress +authorizing hostilities, and by proclamation of the President to +the same effect; it was abolished on account of its violation by +France; on account of those depredations which this bill calls upon +us to make good. By those acts of Congress we sought satisfaction +for these claims; and, having done so, it was too late afterwards to +seek fresh satisfaction by demanding indemnity. There was war, sir, +as the gentleman from Georgia has clearly shown--war on account of +these spoliations--and when we sought redress, by acts of warfare, +we precluded ourselves from the right of demanding redress by +indemnity. We could not, therefore, justly urge these claims against +France; and I therefore demand, how can they be urged against us? +What are the invincible arguments by which gentlemen establish the +justice and validity of these claims? For, surely, before we consent +to sweep away millions from the public treasury, we ought to hear +at least some good reasons. Let me examine their good reasons. The +argument to prove the validity of these claims, and that we are +bound to pay them, is this: France acknowledged them, and the United +States took them upon herself; that is, they were paid by way of +offset, and the valuable consideration the United States received +was a release from her pretended obligations! Now, sir, let us +see how France acknowledged them. These very claims were denied, +resisted, and rejected, by every successive government of France! +The law of nations was urged against them; because, having engaged +in a state of war, on the account of them, we had no right to a +double redress--first by reprisals, and afterwards by indemnity! +Besides, France justified her spoliations, on the ground that we +violated our neutrality; that the ships seized were laden with goods +belonging to the English, the enemies of France; and it is well +known, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, this was the +fact--that American citizens lent their names to the English, and +were ready to risk all the dangers of French spoliation, for sake +of the great profits, which more than covered the risk. And, in the +face of all these facts, we are told that the French acknowledged +the claims, paid them by a release, and we are now bound to satisfy +them! And how is this proved? Where are the invincible arguments +by which the public treasury is to be emptied? Hear them, if it +is possible even to hear them with patience! When we urged these +claims, the French negotiators set up a counter claim; and, to +obtain a release from this, we abandoned them! Thus it is that the +French acknowledged these claims; and, on this pretence, because +of this diplomatic cunning and ingenuity, we are now told that the +national honor calls on us to pay them! Was ever such a thing heard +of before? Why, sir, if we pass this bill, we shall deserve eternal +obloquy and disgrace from the whole American people. France, after +repeatedly and perseveringly denying and resisting these claims, +at last gets rid of them for ever by an ingenious trick, and by +pretending to acknowledge them; and now her debt (if it was a debt) +is thrown upon us; and, in consequence of this little trick, the +public treasury is to be tricked out of several millions! Sir, +this is monstrous! I say it is outrageous! I intend no personal +disrespect to any gentleman by these observations; but I must do my +duty to my country, and I repeat it, sir, this is outrageous! + +"It is strenuously insisted upon, and appears to be firmly relied +upon by gentlemen who have advocated this measure, that the United +States has actually received from France full consideration for +these claims; in a word, that France has paid them! I have already +shown, by historical facts, by the law of nations, and, further, by +the authority and actions of Washington himself, the father of his +country, that we were placed under no obligations to France by the +treaty of guaranty; and that, therefore, a release from obligations +which did not exist, is no valuable consideration at all! But, sir, +how can it be urged upon us that France actually paid us for claims +which were denied and resisted, when we all know very well that, for +undisputed claims, for claims acknowledged by treaty, for claims +solemnly engaged to be paid, we could never succeed in getting one +farthing. I thank the senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Hill), for +the enlightened view he has given on this case. What, sir, was the +conduct of Napoleon, with respect to money? He had bound himself to +pay us twenty millions of francs, and he would not pay one farthing! +And yet, sir, we are confidently assured by the advocates of this +bill that these claims were paid to us by Napoleon! When Louisiana +was sold, he ordered Marbois to get fifty millions, and did not +even then, intend to pay us out of that sum the twenty millions he +had bound himself by treaty to pay. Marbois succeeded in getting +thirty millions of francs more from us, and from this the twenty +millions due was deducted; thus, sir, we were made to pay ourselves +our own due, and Napoleon escaped the payment of a farthing. I mean +to make no reflection upon our negotiators at that treaty; we may +be glad that we got Louisiana at any amount; for, if we had not +obtained it by money, we should soon have possessed it by blood: +the young West, like a lion, would have sprung upon the delta of +the Mississippi, and we should have had an earlier edition of the +battle of New Orleans. It is not to be regretted, therefore, that +we gained Louisiana by negotiation, although we paid our debts +ourselves in that bargain. But Napoleon absolutely scolded Marbois +for allowing the deduction of twenty millions out of the sum we paid +for Louisiana, forgetting that his minister had got thirty millions +more than he ordered him to ask, and that we had paid ourselves the +twenty millions due to us under treaty. Having such a man to deal +with, how can it be maintained on this floor that the United States +has been paid by him the claims in this bill, and that, therefore, +the treasury is bound to satisfy them? Let senators, I entreat them, +but ask themselves the question, what these claims were worth in +the view of Napoleon, that they may not form such an unwarranted +conclusion as to think he ever paid them. Every government of France +which preceded him had treated them as English claims, and is it +likely that he who refused to pay claims subsequent to these, under +treaty signed by himself, would pay old claims anterior to 1800? +The claims were not worth a straw; they were considered as lawful +spoliations; that by our proclamation we had broken the neutrality; +and, after all, that they were incurred by English enterprises, +covered by the American flag. It is pretended he acknowledged them! +Would he have inserted two lines in the treaty to rescind them, +to get rid of such claims, when he would not pay those he had +acknowledged? + +To recur once more, sir, to the valuable consideration which it +is pretended we received for these claims. It is maintained that +we were paid by receiving a release from onerous obligations +imposed upon us by the treaty of guaranty, which obligations I have +already shown that the great Washington himself pronounced to be +nothing; and therefore, sir, it plainly follows that this valuable +consideration was--nothing! + +What, sir! Is it said we were released from obligations? From what +obligations, I would ask, were we relieved? From the obligation of +guaranteeing to France her American possessions; from the obligation +of conquering St. Domingo for France! From an impossibility, sir! +for do we not know that this was impossible to the fleets and armies +of France, under Le Clerc, the brother-in-law of Napoleon himself? +Did they not perish miserably by the knives of infuriated negroes +and the desolating ravages of pestilence? Again, we were released +from the obligation of restoring Guadaloupe to the French; which +also was not possible, unless we had entered into a war with Great +Britain! And thus, sir, the valuable consideration, the release by +which these claims are said to be fully paid to the United States, +turns out to be a release from nothing! a release from absolute +impossibilities; for it was not possible to guarantee to France her +colonies; she lost them, and there was nothing to guarantee; it was +a one-sided guaranty! She surrendered them by treaty, and there is +nothing for the guaranty to operate on. + +The gentleman from Georgia [Mr. King], has given a vivid and able +picture of the exertions of the United States government in behalf +of these claims. He has shown that they have been paid, and more +than paid, on our part, by the invaluable blood of our citizens! +Such, indeed, is the fact. What has not been done by the United +States on behalf of these claims? For these very claims, for the +protection of those very claimants, we underwent an incredible +expense both in military and naval armaments. + +[Here the honorable senator read a long list of military and naval +preparations made by Congress for the protection of these claims, +specifying the dates and the numbers.] + +Nor did the United States confine herself solely to these strenuous +exertions and expensive armaments; besides raising fleets and +armies, she sent across the Atlantic embassies and agents; she gave +letters of marque, by which every injured individual might take +his own remedy and repay himself his losses. For these very claims +the people were laden at that period with heavy taxes, besides the +blood of our people which was spilt for them. Loans were raised at +eight per cent. to obtain redress for these claims; and what was the +consequence? It overturned the men in power at that period; this it +was which produced that result, more than political differences. + +The people were taxed and suffered for these same claims in that +day; and now they are brought forward again to exhaust the public +treasury and to sweep away more millions yet from the people, to +impose taxes again upon them, for the very same claims for which the +people have already once been taxed; reviving the system of '98, +to render loans and debts and encumbrances again to be required; +to embarrass the government, entangle the State, to impoverish the +people; to dig, in a word, by gradual measures of this description, +a pit to plunge the nation headlong into inextricable difficulty and +ruin! + +The government, in those days, performed its duty to the citizens in +the protection of their commerce; and by vindicating, asserting, and +satisfying these claims, it left nothing undone which now is to be +done; the pretensions of this bill are therefore utterly unfounded! +Duties are reciprocal; the duty of government is protection, and +that of citizens allegiance. This bill attempts to throw upon the +present government the duties and expenses of a former government, +which have been already once acquitted. On its part, government +has fulfilled, with energy and zeal, its duty to the citizens; it +has protected and now is protecting their rights, and asserting +their just claims. Witness our navy, kept up in time of peace, for +the protection of commerce and for the profit of our citizens; +witness our cruisers on every point of the globe, for the security +of citizens pursuing every kind of lawful business. But, there are +limits to the protection of the interests of individual citizens; +peace must, at one time or other, be obtained, and sacrifices are to +be made for a valuable consideration. Now, sir, peace is a valuable +consideration, and claims are often necessarily abandoned to obtain +it. In 1814, we gave up claims for the sake of peace; we gave up +claims for Spanish spoliations, at the treaty of Florida; we gave up +claims to Denmark. These claims also were given up, long anterior to +others I have mentioned. When peace is made, the claims take their +chance; some are given up for a gross sum, and some, such as these, +when they are worth nothing, will fetch nothing. How monstrous, +therefore, that measure is, which would transfer abandoned and +disputed claims from the country, by which they were said to be due, +to our own country, to our own government, upon our own citizens, +requiring us to pay what others owed (nay, what it is doubtful if +they did owe); requiring us to pay what we have never received one +farthing for, and for which, if we had received millions, we have +paid away more than those millions in arduous exertions on their +behalf! + +I should not discharge the duty I owe to my country, if I did not +probe still deeper into these transactions. What were the losses +which led to these claims? Gentlemen have indulged themselves in all +the flights and raptures of poetry on this pathetic topic; we have +heard of "ships swept from the ocean, families plunged in want and +ruin;" and such like! What is the fact, sir? It is as the gentleman +from New Hampshire has said: never, sir, was there known, before or +since, such a flourishing state of commerce as the very time and +period of these spoliations. At that time, men made fortunes if they +saved one ship only, out of every four or five, from the French +cruisers! Let us examine the stubborn facts of sober arithmetic, +in this case, and not sit still and see the people's money charmed +out of the treasury by the persuasive notes of poetry. [Mr. B here +referred to public documents showing that, in the years 1793, +'94, '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, up to 1800, the exports, annually +increased at a rapid rate, till, in 1800 they amounted to more than +$91,000,000]. + +It must be taken into consideration that, at this period, our +population was less than it is now, our territory was much more +limited, we had not Louisiana and the port of New Orleans, and yet +our commerce was far more flourishing than it ever has been since; +and at a time, too, when we had no mammoth banking corporation to +boast of its indispensable, its vital necessity to commerce! These +are the facts of numbers, of arithmetic, which blow away the edifice +of the gentlemen's poetry, as the wind scatters straws. + +With respect to the parties in whose hands these claims are. They +are in the hands of insurance offices, assignees, and jobbers; +they are in the hands of the knowing ones who have bought them up +for two, three, five, ten cents in the dollar! What has become of +the screaming babes that have been held up after the ancient Roman +method, to excite pity and move our sympathies? What has become of +the widows and original claimants? They have been bought out long +ago by the knowing ones. If we countenance this bill, sir, we shall +renew the disgraceful scenes of 1793, and witness a repetition of +the infamous fraud and gambling, and all the old artifices which +the certificate funding act gave rise to. (Mr. B. here read several +interesting extracts, describing the scenes which then took place.) + +One of the most revolting features of this bill is its relation +to the insurers. The most infamous and odious act ever passed by +Congress was the certificate funding act of 1793, an act passed in +favor of a crowd of speculators; but the principle of this bill +is more odious than even it; I mean that of paying insurers for +their losses. The United States, sir, insure! Can any thing be +conceived more revolting and atrocious than to direct the funds of +the treasury, the property of the people, to such iniquitous uses? +On what principle is this grounded? Their occupation is a safe one; +they make calculations against all probabilities; they make fortunes +at all times; and especially at this very time when we are called +upon to refund their losses, they made immense fortunes. It would be +far more just and equitable if Congress were to insure the farmers +and planters, and pay them their losses on the failure of the cotton +crop; they, sir, are more entitled to put forth such claims than +speculators and gamblers, whose trade and business it is to make +money by losses. This bill, if passed, would be the most odious and +unprincipled ever passed by Congress. + +Another question, sir, occurs to me: what sum of money will this +bill abstract from the treasury? It says five millions, it is true; +but it does not say "and no more;" it does not say that they will +be in full. If the project of passing this bill should succeed, not +only will claims be made, but next will come interest upon them! +Reflect, sir, one moment: interest from 1798 and 1800 to this day! +Nor is there any limitation of the amount of claims; no, sir, it +would not be possible for the imagination of man, to invent more +cunning words than the wording of this bill. It is made to cover +all sorts of claims; there is no kind of specification adequate to +exclude them; the most illegal claims will be admitted by its loose +phraseology! + +Again suffer me to call your attention to another feature of this +atrocious measure; let me warn my country of the abyss which it is +attempted to open before it, by this and other similar measures of +draining and exhausting the public treasury! + +These claims rejected and spurned by France; these claims for which +we have never received one cent, all the payment ever made for them +urged upon us by their advocates being a metaphysical and imaginary +payment; these claims which, under such deceptive circumstances as +these, we, sir, are called upon to pay, and to pay to insurers, +usurers, gamblers, and speculators; these monstrous claims which are +foisted upon the American people, let me ask, how are they to be +adjudged by this bill? Is it credible, sir? They are to be tried by +an _ex parte_ tribunal! Commissioners are to be appointed, and then, +once seated in this berth, they are to give away and dispose of the +public money according to the cases proved! No doubt sir, they will +be all honorable men. I do not dispute that! No doubt it will be +utterly impossible to prove corruption, or bribery, or interested +motives, or partialities against them; nay, sir, no doubt it will be +dangerous to suspect such honorable men; we shall be replied to at +once by the indignant question, "are they not all honorable men?" +But to all intents and purposes this tribunal will be an _ex parte_, +a one-sided tribunal and passive to the action of the claimants. + +Again, look at the species of evidence which will be invited to +appear before these commissioners; of what description will it be? +Here is not a thing recent and fresh upon which evidence, may be +gained. Here are transactions of thirty or forty years ago. The +evidence is gone, witnesses dead, memories failing, no testimony +to be procured, and no lack of claimants, notwithstanding. Then, +sir, the next best evidence, that suspicious and worthless sort of +evidence, will have to be restored to; and this will be ready at +hand to suit every convenience in any quantity. There could not be +a more effective and deeper plan than this devised to empty the +treasury! Here will be sixty millions exhibited as a lure for false +evidence, and false claims; an awful, a tremendous temptation for +men to send their souls to hell for the sake of money. On the behalf +of the moral interests of my country, while it may yet not be too +late, I denounce this bill, and warn Congress not to lend itself to +a measure by which it will debauch the public morals, and open a +wide gulf of wrong-doing and not-to-be-imagined evil! + +The bill proposes the amount of only five millions, while, by the +looseness of its wording, it will admit old claims of all sorts +and different natures; claims long since abandoned for gross sums; +all will come in by this bill! One hundred millions of dollars +will not pay all that will be patched up under the cover of this +bill! In bills of this description we may see a covert attempt to +renew the public debt, to make loans and taxes necessary, and the +engine of loans necessary with them! There are those who would +gladly overwhelm the country in debt; that corporations might be +maintained which thrive by debt, and make their profits out of the +misery and encumbrances of the people. Shall the people be denied +the least repose from taxation? Shall all the labor and exertions +of government to extinguish the public debt be in vain? Shall its +great exertions to establish economy in the State, and do away +with a system of loans and extravagance, be thwarted and resisted +by bills of this insidious aim and character? Shall the people be +prevented from feeling in reality that we have no debt: shall they +only know it by dinners and public rejoicings? Shall such a happy +and beneficial result of wise and wholesome measures be rendered +all in vain by envious efforts to destroy the whole, and render it +impossible for the country to go on without borrowing and being in +debt? + + * * * * * + +The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 25 to 20; but failed in the +House of Representatives. It still continues to importune the two +Houses; and though baffled for fifty years, is as pertinacious as +ever. Surely there ought to be some limit to these presentations +of the same claim. It is a game in which the government has no +chance. No number of rejections decides any thing in favor of the +government; a single decision in their favor decides all against +them. Renewed applications become incessant, and endless; and +eventually must succeed. Claims become stronger upon age--gain +double strength upon time--often directly, by newly discovered +evidence--always indirectly, by the loss of adversary evidence, and +by the death of contemporaries. Two remedies are in the hands of +Congress--one, to break up claim agencies, by allowing no claim to +be paid to an agent; the other, to break up speculating assignments, +by allowing no more to be received by an assignee than he has +actually paid for the claim. Assignees and agents are now the great +prosecutors of claims against the government. They constitute a +profession--a new one--resident at Washington city. Their calling +has become a new industrial pursuit--and a most industrious +one--skilful and persevering, acting on system and in phalanx; and +entirely an overmatch for the succession of new members who come +ignorantly to the consideration of the cases which they have so well +dressed up. It would be to the honor of Congress, and the protection +of the treasury, to institute a searching examination into the +practices of these agents, to see whether any undue means are used +to procure the legislation they desire. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXI. + +ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JACKSON. + + +On Friday, the 30th of January, the President with some members of +his Cabinet, attended the funeral ceremonies of Warren R. Davis, +Esq., in the hall of the House of Representatives--of which body +Mr. Davis had been a member from the State of South Carolina. The +procession had moved out with the body, and its front had reached +the foot of the broad steps of the eastern portico, when the +President, with Mr. Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. +Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy, were issuing from the door +of the great rotunda--which opens upon the portico. At that instant +a person stepped from the crowd into the little open space in front +of the President, levelled a pistol at him, at the distance of about +eight feet, and attempted to fire. It was a percussion lock, and the +cap exploded, without firing the powder in the barrel. The explosion +of the cap was so loud that many persons thought the pistol had +fired: I heard it at the foot of the steps, far from the place, and +a great crowd between. Instantly the person dropped the pistol which +had missed fire, took another which he held ready cocked in the left +hand, concealed by a cloak--levelled it--and pulled the trigger. It +was also a percussion lock, and the cap exploded without firing the +powder in the barrel. The President instantly rushed upon him with +his uplifted cane: the man shrunk back; Mr. Woodbury aimed a blow at +him; Lieutenant Gedney of the Navy knocked him down; he was secured +by the bystanders, who delivered him to the officers of justice for +judicial examination. The examination took place before the chief +justice of the district, Mr. Cranch; by whom he was committed in +default of bail. His name was ascertained to be Richard Lawrence, +an Englishman by birth, and house-painter by trade, at present out +of employment, melancholy and irascible. The pistols were examined, +and found to be well loaded; and fired afterwards without fail, +carrying their bullets true, and driving them through inch boards +at thirty feet distance; nor could any reason be found for the two +failures at the door of the rotunda. On his examination the prisoner +seemed to be at his ease, as if unconscious of having done any +thing wrong--refusing to cross-examine the witnesses who testified +against him, or to give any explanation of his conduct. The idea of +an unsound mind strongly impressing itself upon the public opinion, +the marshal of the district invited two of the most respectable +physicians of the city (Dr. Caussin and Dr. Thomas Sewell), to visit +him and examine into his mental condition. They did so: and the +following is the report which they made upon the case: + + "The undersigned, having been requested by the marshal of the + District of Columbia to visit Richard Lawrence, now confined + in the jail of the county of Washington, for an attempt to + assassinate the President of the United States, with a view + to ascertain, as far as practicable, the present condition + of his bodily health and state of mind, and believing that + a detail of the examination will be more satisfactory than + an abstract opinion on the subject, we therefore give the + following statement. On entering his room, we engaged in + a free conversation with him, in which he participated, + apparently, in the most artless and unreserved manner. The first + interrogatory propounded was, as to his age--which question + alone he sportively declined answering. We then inquired into + the condition of his health, for several years past--to which + he replied that it had been uniformly good, and that he had + never labored under any mental derangement; nor did he admit + the existence of any of those symptoms of physical derangement + which usually attend mental alienation. He said he was born + in England, and came to this country when twelve or thirteen + years of age, and that his father died in this District, about + six or eight years since; that his father was a Protestant and + his mother a Methodist, and that he was not a professor of + any religion, but sometimes read the Bible, and occasionally + attended church. He stated that he was a painter by trade, + and had followed that occupation to the present time; but, of + late, could not find steady employment--which had caused much + pecuniary embarrassment with him; that he had been generally + temperate in his habits, using ardent spirits moderately when at + work; but, for the last three or four weeks, had not taken any; + that he had never gambled, and, in other respects, had led a + regular, sober life. + + "Upon being interrogated as to the circumstances connected + with the attempted assassination, he said that he had been + deliberating on it for some time past, and that he had called + at the President's house about a week previous to the attempt, + and being conducted to the President's apartment by the porter, + found him in conversation with a member of Congress, whom he + believed to have been Mr. Sutherland, of Pennsylvania; that he + stated to the President that he wanted money to take him to + England, and that he must give him a check on the bank, and the + President remarked, that he was too much engaged to attend to + him--he must call another time, for Mr. Dibble was in waiting + for an interview. When asked about the pistols which he had + used, he stated that his father left him a pair, but not being + alike, about four years since he exchanged one for another, + which exactly matched the best of the pair; these were both + flint locks, which he recently had altered to percussion locks, + by a Mr. Boteler; that he had been frequently in the habit + of loading and firing those pistols at marks, and that he had + never known them to fail going off on any other occasion, and + that, at the distance of ten yards, the ball always passed + through an inch plank. He also stated that he had loaded those + pistols three or four days previous, with ordinary care, for + the purpose attempted; but that he used a pencil instead of a + ramrod, and that during that period, they were at all times + carried in his pocket; and when asked why they failed to + explode, he replied he knew no cause. When asked why he went + to the capitol on that day, he replied that he expected that + the President would be there. He also stated, that he was in + the rotunda when the President arrived; and on being asked why + he did not then attempt to shoot him, he replied that he did + not wish to interfere with the funeral ceremony, and therefore + waited till it was over. He also observed that he did not enter + the hall, but looked through a window from a lobby, and saw the + President seated with members of Congress, and he then returned + to the rotunda, and waited till the President again entered + it, and then passed through and took his position in the east + portico, about two yards from the door, drew his pistols from + his inside coat pocket, cocked them and held one in each hand, + concealed by his coat, lest he should alarm the spectators--and + states, that as soon as the one in the right hand missed fire, + he immediately dropped or exchanged it, and attempted to fire + the second, before he was seized; he further stated that he + aimed each pistol at the President's heart, and intended, if the + first pistol had gone off, and the president had fallen, to have + defended himself with the second, if defence had been necessary. + On being asked if he did not expect to have been killed on the + spot, if he had killed the President, he replied he did not; + and that he had no doubt but that he would have been protected + by the spectators. He was frequently questioned whether he had + any friends present, from whom he expected protection. To this + he replied, that he never had mentioned his intention to any + one, and that no one in particular knew his design; but that + he presumed it was generally know that he intended to put the + President out of the way. He further stated, that when the + President arrived at the door, near which he stood, finding + him supported on the left by Mr. Woodbury, and observing many + persons in his rear, and being himself rather to the right of + the President, in order to avoid wounding Mr. Woodbury, and + those in the rear, he stepped a little to his own right, so + that should the ball pass through the body of the President, + it would be received by the door-frame or stone wall. On being + asked if he felt no trepidation during the attempt: He replied, + not the slightest, until he found that the second pistol had + missed fire. Then observing that the President was advancing + upon him, with an uplifted cane, he feared that it contained + a sword, which might have been thrust through him before he + could have been protected by the crowd. And when interrogated + as to the motive which induced him to attempt the assassination + of the President, he replied, that he had been told that the + President had caused his loss of occupation, and the consequent + want of money, and he believed that to put him out of the way, + was the only remedy for this evil; but to the interrogatory, who + told you this? he could not identify any one, but remarked that + his brother-in-law, Mr. Redfern, told him that he would have + no more business, because he was opposed to the President--and + he believed Redfern to be in league with the President against + him. Again being questioned, whether he had often attended the + debates in Congress, during the present session, and whether + they had influenced him in making this attack on the person of + the President, he replied that he had frequently attended the + discussions in both branches of Congress, but that they had, in + no degree, influenced his action. + + "Upon being asked if he expected to become the president of the + United States, if Gen. Jackson had fallen, he replied no. + + "When asked whom he wished to be the President, his answer + was, there were many persons in the House of Representatives. + On being asked if there were no persons in the Senate, yes, + several; and it was the Senate to which I alluded. Who, in + your opinion, of the Senate, would make a good President? He + answered, Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, Mr. Calhoun. What do you think + of Col. Benton, Mr. Van Buren, or Judge White, for President? He + thought they would do well. On being asked if he knew any member + of either house of Congress, he replied that he did not--and + never spoke to one in his life, or they to him. On being + asked what benefit he expected himself from the death of the + President, he answered he could not rise unless the President + fell, and that he expected thereby to recover his liberty, and + that the mechanics would all be benefited; that the mechanics + would have plenty of work; and that money would be more plenty. + On being asked why it would be more plenty, he replied, it would + be more easily obtained from the bank. On being asked what bank, + he replied, the Bank of the United States. On being asked if he + knew the president, directors, or any of the officers of the + bank, or had ever held any intercourse with them, or knew how he + could get money out of the bank, he replied no--that he slightly + knew Mr. Smith only. + + "On being asked with respect to the speeches which he had heard + in Congress, and whether he was particularly pleased with those + of Messrs. Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, he replied that he was, + because they were on his side. He was then asked if he was well + pleased with the speeches of Col. Benton and Judge White? He + said he was and thought Col. Benton highly talented. + + "When asked if he was friendly to Gen. Jackson, he replied, + no. Why not? He answered, because he was a tyrant. Who told + you he was a tyrant? He answered, it was a common talk with + the people, and that he had read it in all the papers. He was + asked if he could name any one who had told him so? He replied, + no. He was asked if he ever threatened to shoot Mr. Clay, Mr. + Webster, or Mr. Calhoun, or whether he would shoot them if he + had an opportunity? He replied, no. When asked if he would shoot + Mr. Van Buren? He replied, no, that he once met with Mr. Van + Buren in the rotunda, and told him he was in want of money and + must have it, and if he did not get it he (Mr. Van Buren), or + Gen. Jackson must fall. He was asked if any person were present + during the conversation? He replied, that there were several + present, and when asked if he recollected one of them, he + replied that he did not. When asked if any one advised him to + shoot Gen. Jackson, or say that it ought to be done? He replied, + I do not like to say. On being pressed on this point, he said no + one in particular had advised him. + + "He further stated, that believing the President to be the + source of all his difficulties, he was still fixed in his + purpose to kill him, and if his successor pursued the same + course, to put him out of the way also--and declared that no + power in this country could punish him for having done so, + because it would be resisted by the powers of Europe, as well + as of this country. He also stated, that he had been long in + correspondence with the powers of Europe, and that his family + had been wrongfully deprived of the crown of England, and that + _he_ should yet live to regain it--and that he considered the + President of the United States nothing more than his clerk. + + "We now think proper to add, that the young man appears + perfectly tranquil and unconcerned, as to the final result, and + seems to anticipate no punishment for what he has done. The + above contains the leading, and literally expressed facts of the + whole conversation we had with him, which continued at least + two hours. The questions were frequently repeated at different + stages of the examination; and presented in various forms." + +It is clearly to be seen from this medical examination of the man, +that this attempted assassination of the President, was one of those +cases of which history presents many instances--a diseased mind +acted upon by a general outcry against a public man. Lawrence was in +the particular condition to be acted upon by what he heard against +General Jackson:--a workman out of employment--needy--idle--mentally +morbid; and with reason enough to argue regularly from false +premises. He heard the President accused of breaking up the labor +of the country! and believed it--of making money scarce! and he +believed it--of producing the distress! and believed it--of being +a tyrant! and believed it--of being an obstacle to all relief! and +believed it. And coming to a regular conclusion from all these +beliefs, he attempted to do what he believed the state of things +required him to do--take the life of the man whom he considered +the sole cause of his own and the general calamity--and the sole +obstacle to his own and the general happiness. Hallucination of mind +was evident; and the wretched victim of a dreadful delusion was +afterwards treated as insane, and never brought to trial. But the +circumstance made a deep impression upon the public feeling, and +irresistibly carried many minds to the belief in a superintending +Providence, manifested in the extraordinary case of two pistols in +succession--so well loaded, so coolly handled, and which afterwards +fired with such readiness, force, and precision--missing fire, each +in its turn, when levelled eight feet at the President's heart. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXII. + +ALABAMA EXPUNGING RESOLUTIONS. + + +Mr. King, of Alabama, presented the preamble and joint resolution +of the general assembly of his State, entreating their senators +in Congress to use their "untiring efforts" to cause to be +expunged from the journal of the Senate, the resolve condemnatory +of President Jackson, for the removal of the deposits. Mr. Clay +desired to know, before any order was taken on those resolutions, +whether the senator presenting them, proposed to make any motion in +relation to expunging the journal? This inquiry was made in a way +to show that Mr. King was to meet resistance to his motion if he +attempted it. The expunging process was extremely distasteful to +the senators whose act was proposed to be stigmatized;--and they +now began to be sensitive at its mention.--When Mr. Benton first +gave notice of his intention to move it, his notice was looked upon +as an idle menace, which would end in nothing. Now it was becoming +a serious proceeding. The States were taking it up. Several of +them, through their legislatures--Alabama, Mississippi, New Jersey, +New-York, North Carolina--had already given the fatal instructions; +and it was certain that more would follow. Those of Alabama were +the first presented; and it was felt necessary to make head against +them from the beginning. Hence, the interrogatory put by Mr. Clay +to Mr. King--the inquiry whether he intended to move an expunging +resolution?--and the subsequent motion to lay the resolutions of the +State upon the table if he answered negatively. Now it was not the +intention of Mr. King to move the expunging resolution. It was not +his desire to take that business out of the hands of Mr. Benton, +who had conceived it--made a speech for it--given notice of it at +the last session as a measure for the present one--and had actually +given notice at the present session of his intention to offer the +resolution. Mr. King's answer would necessarily, therefore, be in +the negative, and Mr. Clay's motion then became regular to lay it +upon the table. Mr. Benton, therefore, felt himself called upon to +answer Mr. Clay, and to recall to the recollection of the Senate +what took place at the time the sentence of condemnation had passed; +and rose and said: + + "He had then (at the time of passing the condemnatory + resolution), in his place, given immediate notice that he should + commence a series of motions for the purpose of expunging the + resolutions from the journals. He had then made use of the word + expunge, in contradistinction to the word repeal, or the word + reverse, because it was his opinion then, and that opinion had + been confirmed by all his subsequent reflection, that repeal or + reversal of the resolution would not do adequate justice. To + do that would require a complete expurgation of the journal. + It would require that process which is denominated expunging, + by which, to the present, and to all future times, it would be + indicated that that had been placed upon the journals which + should never have gone there. He had given that notice, after + serious reflection, that it might be seen that the Senate was + trampling the constitution of the United States under foot; and + not only that, but also the very forms, to say nothing of the + substance, of all criminal justice. + + "He had given this notice in obedience to the dictates of + his bosom, which were afterwards sustained by the decision + of his head, without consultation with any other person, but + after conference only with himself and his God. To a single + human being he had said that he should do it, but he had not + consulted with any one. In the ordinary routine of business, no + one was more ready to consult with his friends, and to defer + to their opinions, than he was; but there were some occasions + on which he held council with no man, but took his own course, + without regard to consequences. It would have been a matter + of entire indifference with him, had the whole Senate risen + as one man, and declared a determination to give a unanimous + vote against him. It would have mattered nothing. He would not + have deferred to any human being. Actuated by these feelings he + had given notice of his intention in the month of May; and in + obedience to that determination he had, on the last day of the + session, laid his resolution on the table, in order to keep the + matter alive. + + "This brought him to the answer to the question proposed. The + presentation of the resolutions of the legislature of Alabama + afforded a fit and proper occasion to give that public notice + which he had already informally and privately given to many + members of the Senate. He had said that he should bring forward + his resolution at the earliest convenient time. And yesterday + evening, when he saw the attempt which was made to give to a + proceeding emanating from the Post Office Committee, and to + which, by the unanimous consent of that committee, a legislative + direction had been assigned, a new form, by one of the senators + from South Carolina, so as to make it a proceeding against + persons, in contradistinction to the public matters embodied in + the report; when he heard these persons assailed by one of the + senators from South Carolina, in such a manner as to prevent any + possibility of doubt concerning them; and when he discovered + that the object of these gentle gentlemen was impeachment in + substance, if not in form, he did at once form the determination + to give notice this morning of his intention to move his + resolution at the earliest convenient period. + + "This was his answer to the question which had been proposed. + + "Mr. King, of Alabama, said he was surprised to hear the + question of the honorable senator from Kentucky, as he did + not expect such an inquiry: for he had supposed it was well + understood by every member of the Senate what his sentiments + were in regard to the right of instruction. The legislature of + Alabama had instructed him to pursue a particular course, and he + should obey their instructions. With regard to the resolution + to which the legislature alluded, he could merely say that he + voted against it at the time it was adopted by the Senate. His + opinion as to it was then, as well as now, perfectly understood. + If the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Benton] declined bringing + the subject forward relative to the propriety of expunging + the resolution in question from the journal of the Senate, + he, himself should, at some proper time, do so, and also say + something on the great and important question as to the right + of instruction. Now, that might be admitted in its fullest + extent. He held his place there, subject to the control of the + legislature of Alabama, and whenever their instructions reached + him, he should be governed by them. He made this statement + without entering into the consideration of the propriety or + impropriety of senators exercising their own judgment as to + the course they deemed most proper to pursue. For himself, + never having doubted the right of a legislature to instruct + their senators in Congress, he should consider himself culpable + if he did not carry their wishes into effect, when properly + expressed. And he had hoped there would have been no expression + of the Senate at this time, as he was not disposed to enter into + a discussion then, for particular reasons, which it was not + necessary he should state. + + "As to the propriety of acting on the subject then, that would + depend upon the opinions of gentlemen as to the importance, the + great importance, of having the journal of the Senate freed + from what many supposed to be an unconstitutional act of the + Senate, although the majority of it thought otherwise. He would + now say that, if no one should bring forward a proposition to + get the resolution expunged, he, feeling himself bound to obey + the opinions of the legislature, should do so, and would vote + for it. If no precedent was to be found for such an act of the + Senate, he should most unhesitatingly vote for expunging the + resolution from the journal of the Senate, in such manner as + should be justified by precedent. + + "Mr. Clay said the honorable member from Alabama had risen + in his place, and presented to the Senate two resolutions, + adopted by the legislature of his State, instructing him and + his colleague to use their untiring exertions to cause to be + expunged from the journals of the Senate certain resolutions + passed during the last session of Congress, on the subject + of the removal of the deposits from the Bank of the United + States. The resolutions of Alabama had been presented; they were + accompanied by no motion to carry the intentions of that State + into effect; nor were they accompanied by any intimation from + the honorable senator, who presented them, of his intention to + make any proposition, in relation to them, to the Senate. Under + these circumstances, the inquiry was made by him (Mr. C) of the + senator from Alabama, which he thought the occasion called for. + The inquiry was a very natural one, and he had learned with + unfeigned surprise that the senator did not expect it. He would + now say to the senator from Alabama, that of him, and of him + alone, were these inquiries made; and with regard to the reply + made by another senator (Mr. Benton), he would further say, that + his relations to him were not such as to enable him to know what + were that senator's intentions, at any time, and on any subject; + nor was it necessary he should know them. + + "He had nothing further to say, than to express the hope that + the senator from Alabama would, for the present, withdraw the + resolutions he had presented; and if, after he had consulted + precedents, and a careful examination of the constitution of + the United States, he finds that he can, consistently with + them, make any propositions for the action of the Senate, he + (Mr. C.) would be willing to receive the resolutions, and pay + to them all that attention and respect which the proceedings + of one of the States of this Union merited. If the gentleman + did not pursue that course, he should feel himself bound, by + every consideration, by all the obligations which bound a public + man to discharge his duty to his God, his country, and his own + honor, to resist such an unconstitutional procedure as the + reception of these resolutions, without the expressed wish of + the legislature of Alabama, and without any intimation from her + senators, of any proposition to be made on them, at the very + threshold. He did hope that, for the present, the gentleman + would withdraw these resolutions, and at a proper time present + them with some substantive proposition for the consideration + of the Senate. If he did not, the debate must go on, to the + exclusion of the important one commenced yesterday, and which + every gentleman expected to be continued to-day, as he should in + such case feel it necessary to submit a motion for the Senate + to decide whether, under present circumstances, the resolutions + could be received. + + "Mr. Clay declared that when such a resolution should be offered + he should discharge the duty which he owed to his God, his + country and his honor. + + "Mr. King of Alabama, had felt an unwillingness from the first + to enter into this discussion, for reasons which would be + understood by every gentleman. It was his wish, and was so + understood by one or two friends whom he had consulted, that + the resolutions should lie on the table for the present, until + the debate on another subject was disposed of. In reply to the + senator from Kentucky, he must say that he could not, situated + as he was, accede to his proposition. His object certainly + was to carry into effect the wishes of the legislature of his + State; and he, as well as his colleague, felt bound to obey the + will of the sovereign State of Alabama, whenever made known + to them. He certainly should, at a proper time, present a + distinct proposition in relation to these resolutions for the + consideration of the Senate; and the senator from Kentucky could + then have an opportunity of discharging 'his duty to his God, + to his country, and his own honor,' in a manner most consistent + with his own sense of propriety. + + "Mr. Clay would not renew the intimation of any intention on + his part, to submit a motion to the Senate, if there was any + probability that the senator from Alabama would withdraw the + resolutions he had submitted. He now gave notice that, if the + senator did not think fit to withdraw them, he should feel it + his duty to submit a proposition which would most probably lead + to a debate, and prevent the one commenced yesterday from being + resumed to-day. + + "Mr. Calhoun moved that the resolution be laid upon the table, + to give the senator from Alabama [Mr. King], an opportunity to + prepare a resolution to accomplish the meditated purpose of + rescinding the former resolutions of the Senate. I confess, sir + (observed Mr. C), I feel some curiosity to see how the senator + from Alabama will reconcile such a proceeding with the free + and independent existence of a Senate. I feel, sir, a great + curiosity to hear how that gentleman proposes that the journals + are to be kept, if such a procedure is allowed to take effect. I + should like to know how he proposes to repeal a journal. By what + strange process he would destroy facts, and annihilate events + and things which are now the depositories of history. When he + shall have satisfied my curiosity on this particular, then there + is another thing I am anxious to be informed upon, and that + is, what form, what strange and new plan of proceeding, will + he suggest for the adoption of the Senate? I will tell him; I + will show him the only resource that is left, the point to which + he necessarily comes, and that is this: he will be obliged to + declare, in his resolution, that the principle upon which the + Senate acted was not correct; that it was a false and erroneous + principle. And let me ask, what was that principle, which now, + it seems, is to be destroyed? The principle on which the Senate + acted, the principle which that gentleman engages to overthrow, + is this: 'we have a right to express our opinion.' He will be + compelled to deny that; or, perhaps, he may take refuge from + such a predicament by qualifying his subversion of this first + principle of legislative freedom. And how will he qualify the + denial of this principle? that is, how will he deny it, and yet + apparently maintain it? He has only one resource left, and that + is, to pretend that we have a right to express our opinions, but + not of the President. This is the end and aim; yes, this is the + inevitable consequence and result of such an extraordinary, such + a monstrous procedure. + + "So then, it is come to this, that the Senate has no right to + express its opinion in relation to the Executive? A distinction + is now set up between the President and all other officers, and + the gentleman is prepared with a resolution to give effect and + energy to the distinction; and now, for the first time that + such a doctrine has ever been heard on the American soil, he is + prepared to profess and publish, in the face of the American + people, that old and worn-out dogma of old and worn-out nations, + 'the King can do no wrong!' that his officers, his ministers, + are alone responsible; that we shall be permitted perhaps to + utter our opinions of them; but a unanimous opinion expressed by + the Senate, in relation to the President himself, is no longer + suffered to exist, is no longer permitted to be given; it must + be expunged from the journals. + + "I confess I am agitated with an intense curiosity: I wish + to see with what ingenuity of artful disguise the Senate is + to be reduced to the dumb legislation of Bonaparte's Senate. + This very question brings on the issue. This very proposition + of expunging our resolutions is the question in which the + expunging of our legislative freedom and independence is to be + agitated. I confess I long to see the strange extremities to + which the gentleman will come. It is a question of the utmost + magnitude; I an anxious to see it brought on; two senators + [Messrs. Benton, and King of Alabama] have pledged themselves + to bring it forward. They cannot do it too soon--they cannot + too soon expose the horrible reality of the condition to which + our country is reduced. I hope they will make no delay; let + them hasten in their course; let them lose no time in their + effort to expunge the Senate, and dissolve the system of + government and constitution. Yes, I entreat them to push their + deliberate purpose to a resolve. They have now given origin + to a question than which none perhaps is, in its effects and + tendencies, of deeper and more radical importance; it is a + question more important than that of the bank, or than that of + the Post Office, and I am exceedingly anxious to see how far + they will carry out the doctrine they have advanced; a doctrine + as enslaving and as despotic as any that is maintained by the + Autocrat of all the Russias. To give them an opportunity, I move + to lay the resolutions on the table, and I promise them that, + when they move their resolution, I will be ready to take it up. + + "Mr. Clay said that the proposition to receive the resolutions + was a preliminary one, and was the question to which he had + at first invited the attention of the Senate. The debate, + certainly, had been very irregular, and not strictly in order. + He had contended, from the first, for the purpose of avoiding an + interference with a debate on another subject, that the subject + of the Alabama resolutions should not be agitated at that time. + The senator from Alabama having refused to withdraw these + resolutions, he was compelled to a course which would, in all + probability, lead to a protracted debate. + + "Mr. Clay then submitted the following: + + "_Resolved_, That the resolutions of the legislature of Alabama, + presented by the senator from that State, ought not to be acted + upon by the Senate, inasmuch as they are not addressed to the + Senate, nor contain any request that they be laid before the + Senate; and inasmuch, also, as that which those resolutions + direct should be done, cannot be done without violating the + constitution of the United States." + + "Mr. Calhoun here moved to lay the resolutions on the table, + which motion took precedence of Mr. Clay's, and was not + debatable. He withdrew it, however, at the request of Mr. + Clayton. + + "Mr. Benton said an objection had been raised to the resolutions + of Alabama, by the senator from South Carolina and the senator + from Delaware, to which he would briefly reply. Need he + refer those gentlemen to the course of their own reading? he + would refer them to the case in a State contiguous to South + Carolina, where certain proceedings of its legislature were + publicly burnt. (The journal of the Yazoo fraud, in Georgia.) + Need he refer them to the case of Wilkes? where the British + House of Commons expunged certain proceedings from their + journal--expunged! not by the childish process of sending out + for every copy and cutting a leaf from each, but by a more + effectual process. He would describe the _modus_ as he read it + in the parliamentary history. It was this: There was a total + suspension of business in the House, and the clerk, taking the + official journal, the original record of its proceedings, and + reading the clause to be expunged, obliterated it, word after + word, not by making a Saint Andrew's cross over the clause, as + is sometimes done in old accounts, but by completely erasing out + every letter. This is the way expunging is done, and this is + what I propose to get done in the Senate, through the power of + the people, upon this lawless condemnation of President Jackson: + and no system of tactics or manoeuvres shall prevent me from + following up the design according to the notice given yesterday. + + "Mr. King of Alabama, in reply, said that when the proper + time arrived--and he should use his own time, on his own + responsibility--he would bring forward the resolution, of which + the senator from Missouri had given notice, if not prevented by + the previous action of that gentleman. He had no doubt of the + power of the Senate to repeal any resolution it had adopted. + What! repeal facts? asked the senator from South Carolina. He + would ask that gentleman if they had it not in their power to + retrace their steps when they have done wrong? If they had it + not in their power to correct their own journal when asserting + what was not true? The democratic party of the country had + spoken, pronounced judgment upon the facts stated in that + journal. They had declared that these facts were not true; that + the condemnation pronounced against the Chief Magistrate, for + having violated the constitution of the United States, was not + true; and it was high time that it was stricken from the journal + it disgraced. + + "Mr. Calhoun observed that the senator from Alabama having made + some personal allusions to him, he felt bound to notice them, + although not at all disposed to intrude upon the patience of + the Senate. The senator had said that he (Mr. C.) was truly + connected with party. Now, if by 'party' the gentleman meant + that he was enlisted in any political scheme, that he desired + to promote the success of any party, or was anxious to see + any particular man elevated to the Chief Magistracy, he did + him great injustice. It was a long time since he (Mr. C.) had + taken any active part in the political affairs of the country. + The senator need only to have looked back to his vote, for the + last eight years, to have been satisfied that he (Mr. C.) had + voluntarily put himself in the very small minority to which he + belonged, and that he had done this to serve the gallant and + patriotic State of South Carolina. Would the gentleman say that + he did not step forward in defence of South Carolina, in the + great and magnanimous stand which she took in defence of her + rights? Now, he wished the senator to understand him, that he + had put himself in a minority of at least one to a hundred; that + he had abandoned party voluntarily, freely; and he would tell + every Senator--for he was constrained to speak of himself, and + therefore he should speak boldly--he would not turn upon his + heel for the administration of the affairs of this government. + He believed that such was the hold which corruption had obtained + in this government, that any man who should undertake to reform + it would not be sustained." + +Mr. King of Alabama moved that the resolutions be printed, which +motion was superseded by a motion to lay it on the table, which +prevailed--yeas twenty-seven, nays twenty--as follows: + + "YEAS.--Messrs. Bell, Bibb, Black, Calhoun, Clay, Clayton, + Ewing, Frelinghuysen, Goldsborough, Hendricks, Kent, Knight, + Leigh, Mangum, Naudain, Poindexter, Porter, Prentiss, Robbins, + Silsbee, Smith, Southard, Swift, Tomlinson, Tyler, Waggaman, + Webster. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Cuthbert, Grundy, Hill, + Kane, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Linn, McKean, Moore, + Morris, Preston, Robinson, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, White, + Wright." + +And thus the resolutions of a sovereign State, in favor of expunging +what it deemed to be a lawless sentence passed upon the President, +were refused even a reception and a printing--a circumstance +which seemed to augur badly for the final success of the series +of expunging motions which I had pledged myself to make. But, in +fact, it was not discouraging--but the contrary. It strengthened +the conviction that such conduct would sooner induce the change of +senators in the democratic States, and permit the act to be done. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXIII. + +THE EXPUNGING RESOLUTION. + + +From the moment of the Senate's condemnation of General Jackson, Mr. +Benton gave notice of his intention to move the expunction of the +sentence from the journal, periodically and continually until the +object should be effected, or his political life come to its end. In +conformity to this notice, he made his formal motion at the session +'34-'35; and in these words: + + "_Resolved_, That the resolution adopted by the Senate, on + the 28th day of March, in the year 1834, in the following + words: '_Resolved_, 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,' be, and + the same hereby is, ordered to be expunged from the journals + of the Senate; because the said resolution is illegal and + unjust, of evil example, indefinite and vague, expressing a + criminal charge without specification; and was irregularly and + unconstitutionally adopted by the Senate, in subversion of the + rights of defence which belong to an accused and impeachable + officer; and at a time and under circumstances to endanger the + political rights, and to injure the pecuniary interests of the + people of the United States." + +This proposition was extremely distasteful to the Senate--to the +majority which passed the sentence on General Jackson; and Mr. +Southard, senator from New Jersey, spoke their sentiments, and his +own, when he thus bitterly characterized it as an indictment which +the Senate itself was required to try, and to degrade itself in its +own condemnation,--he said: + + "The object of this resolution (said Mr. S.), not to obtain + an expression from the Senate that their former opinions were + erroneous, nor that the Executive acted correctly in relation + to the public treasury. It goes further, and denounces the + act of the Senate as so unconstitutional, unjustifiable, and + offensive, that the evidence of it ought not to be permitted to + remain upon the records of the government. It is an indictment + against the Senate. The senator from Missouri calls upon + us to sit in judgment upon our own act, and warns us that + we can save ourselves from future and lasting denunciation + and reproach only by pronouncing our own condemnation by + our votes. He assures us that he has no desire or intention + to degrade the Senate, but the position in which he would + place us is one of deep degradation--degradation of the most + humiliating character--which not only acknowledges error, and + admits inexcusable misconduct in this legislative branch of + the government, but bows it down before the majesty of the + Executive, and makes us offer incense to his infallibility." + +The bitterness of this self trial was aggravated by seeing the +course which the public mind was taking. A current, strong and +steady, and constantly swelling, was setting in for the President +and against the Senate; and resolutions from the legislatures +of several States--Alabama, Mississippi, New Jersey, North +Carolina--had already arrived instructing their senators to vote +for the expurgation which Mr. Benton proposed. In the mean time he +had not yet made his leading speech in favor of his motion; and he +judged this to be the proper time to do so, in order to produce its +effects on the elections of the ensuing summer; and accordingly now +spoke as follows: + +Mr. Benton then rose and addressed the Senate in support of his +motion. He said that the resolution which he had offered, though +resolved upon, as he had heretofore stated, without consultation +with any person, was not resolved upon without great deliberation in +his own mind. The criminating resolution, which it was his object +to expunge, was presented to the Senate, December 26th, 1833. The +senator from Kentucky who introduced it [Mr. Clay], commenced a +discussion of it on that day, which was continued through the months +of January and February, and to the end, nearly, of the month of +March. The vote was taken upon it the 28th of March; and about a +fortnight thereafter he announced to the Senate his intention to +commence a series of motions for expunging the resolution from the +journal. Here, then, were nearly four months for consideration; for +the decision was expected; and he had very anxiously considered, +during that period, all the difficulties, and all the proprieties, +of the step which he meditated. Was the intended motion to clear +the journal of the resolution right in itself? The convictions of +his judgment told him that it was. Was expurgation the proper mode? +Yes; he was thoroughly satisfied that that was the proper mode of +proceeding in this case. For the criminating resolution which he +wished to get rid of combined all the characteristics of a case +which required erasure and obliteration: for it was a case, as +he believed, of the exercise of power without authority, without +even jurisdiction; illegal, irregular, and unjust. Other modes of +annulling the resolution, as rescinding, reversing, repealing, +could not be proper in such a case; for they would imply rightful +jurisdiction, a lawful authority, a legal action, though an +erroneous judgment. All that he denied. He denied the authority of +the Senate to pass such a resolution at all; and he affirmed that +it was unjust, and contrary to the truth, as well as contrary to +law. This being his view of the resolution, he held that the true +and proper course, the parliamentary course of proceeding in such a +case, was to expunge it. + +But, said Mr. B., it is objected that the Senate has no right to +expunge any thing from its journal; that it is required by the +constitution to keep a journal; and, being so required, could not +destroy any part of it. This, said Mr. B., is sticking in the bark; +and in the thinnest bark in which a shot, even the smallest, was +ever lodged. Various are the meanings of the word keep, used as a +verb. To keep a journal is to write down, daily, the history of what +you do. For the Senate to keep a journal is to cause to be written +down, every day, the account of its proceedings; and, having done +that, the constitutional injunction is satisfied. The constitution +was satisfied by entering this criminating resolution on the +journal; it will be equally satisfied by entering the expunging +resolution on the same journal. In each case the Senate keeps a +journal of its own proceedings. + +It is objected, also, that we have no right to destroy a part of +the journal; and that to expunge is to destroy and to prevent the +expunged part from being known in future. Not so the fact, said Mr. +B. The matter expunged is not destroyed. It is incorporated in the +expunging resolution, and lives as long as that lives; the only +effect of the expurgation being to express, in the most emphatic +manner, the opinion that such matter ought never to have been put in +the journal. + +Mr. B. said he would support these positions by authority, the +authority of eminent examples; and would cite two cases, out of a +multitude that might be adduced, to show that expunging was the +proper course, the parliamentary course, in such a case as the one +now before the Senate, and that the expunged matter was incorporated +and preserved in the expunging resolution. + +Mr. B. then read, from a volume of British Parliamentary History, +the celebrated case of the Middlesex election, in which the +resolution to expel the famous John Wilkes was expunged from the +journal, but preserved in the expurgatory resolution, so as to +be just as well read now as if it had never been blotted out from +the journals of the British House of Commons. The resolution ran +in these words: "That the resolution of the House of the 17th +February, 1769, 'that John Wilkes, Esq., having been, in this +session of Parliament, expelled this House, was and is incapable +of being elected a member to serve in the present Parliament,' be +expunged from the journals of this House, as being subversive of the +rights of the whole body of electors of this kingdom." Such, said +Mr. B., were the terms of the expunging resolution in the case of +the Middlesex election, as it was annually introduced from 1769 to +1782; when it was finally passed by a vote of near three to one, and +the clause ordered to be expunged was blotted out of the journal, +and obliterated, by the clerk at the table, in the presence of the +whole House, which remained silent, and all business suspended until +the obliteration was complete. Yet the history of the case is not +lost. Though blotted out of one part of the journal, it is saved +in another; and here, at the distance of half a century, and some +thousand miles from London, the whole case is read as fully as if no +such operation had ever been performed upon it. + +Having given a precedent from British parliamentary history, Mr. +B. would give another from American history; not, indeed, from the +Congress of the assembled States, but from one of the oldest and +most respectable States of the Union; he spoke of Massachusetts, and +of the resolution adopted in the Senate of that State during the +late war, adverse to the celebration of our national victories; and +which, some ten years afterwards, was expunged from the journals by +a solemn vote of the Senate. + +A year ago, said Mr. B., the Senate tried President Jackson; now the +Senate itself is on trial nominally before itself; but in reality +before America, Europe, and posterity. We shall give our voices in +our own case; we shall vote for or against this motion; and the +entry upon the record will be according to the majority of voices. +But that is not the end, but the beginning of our trial. We shall +be judged by others; by the public, by the present age, and by all +posterity! The proceedings of this case, and of this day, will not +be limited to the present age; they will go down to posterity, and +to the latest ages. President Jackson is not a character to be +forgotten in history. His name is not to be confined to the dry +catalogue and official nomenclature of mere American Presidents. +Like the great Romans who attained the consulship, not by the paltry +arts of electioneering, but through a series of illustrious deeds, +his name will live, not for the offices he filled, but for the deeds +which he performed. He is the first President that has ever received +the condemnation of the Senate for the violation of the laws and +the constitution, the first whose name is borne upon the journals +of the American Senate for the violation of that constitution +which he is sworn to observe, and of those laws which he is bound +to see faithfully executed. Such a condemnation cannot escape the +observation of history. It will be read, considered, judged! when +the men of this day, and the passions of this hour, shall have +passed to eternal repose. + +Before he proceeded to the exposition of the case which he intended +to make, he wished to avail himself of an argument which had been +conclusive elsewhere, and which he trusted could not be without +effect in this Senate. It was the argument of public opinion. In +the case of the Middlesex election, it had been decisive with the +British House of Commons; in the Massachusetts case, it had been +decisive with the Senate of that State. In both these cases many +gentlemen yielded their private opinions to public sentiment; and +public sentiment having been well pronounced in the case now before +the Senate, he had a right to look for the same deferential respect +for it here which had been shown elsewhere. + +Mr. B. then took up a volume of British parliamentary history for +the year 1782, the 22d volume, and read various passages from pages +1407, 1408, 1410, 1411, to show the stress which had been laid on +the argument of public opinion in favor of expunging the Middlesex +resolutions; and the deference which was paid to it by the House, +and by members who had, until then, opposed the motion to expunge. +He read first from Mr. Wilkes' opening speech, on renewing his +annual motion for the fourteenth time, as follows: + +"If the people of England, sir, have at any time explicitly and +fully declared an opinion respecting a momentous constitutional +question, it has been in regard to the Middlesex election in 1768." +* * * * "Their voice was never heard in a more clear and distinct +manner than on this point of the first magnitude for all the +electors of the kingdom, and I trust will now be heard favorably." + +He then read from Mr. Fox's speech. Mr. Fox had heretofore opposed +the expunging resolution, but now yielded to it in obedience to the +voice of the people. + +"He (Mr. Fox) had turned the question often in his mind, he was +still of opinion that the resolution which gentlemen wanted to +expunge was founded on proper principles." * * * * "Though he +opposed the motion, he felt very little anxiety for the event of +the question; for when he found the voice of the people was against +the privilege, as he believed was the case at present, he would +not preserve the privilege." * * * * "The people had associated, +they had declared their sentiments to Parliament, and had taught +Parliament to listen to the voice of their constituents." + +Having read these passages, Mr. B. said they were the sentiments of +an English whig of the old school. Mr. Fox was a whig of the old +school. He acknowledged the right of the people to instruct their +representatives. He yielded to the general voice himself, though +not specially instructed; and he uses the remarkable expression +which acknowledges the duty of Parliament to obey the will of the +people. "They had declared their sentiments to Parliament, and had +taught Parliament to listen to the voice of their constituents." +This, said Mr. B., was fifty years ago; it was spoken by a member of +Parliament, who, besides being the first debater of his age, was at +that time Secretary at War. He acknowledged the duty of Parliament +to obey the voice of the people. The son of a peer of the realm, +and only not a peer himself because he was not the eldest son, he +still acknowledged the great democratic principle which lies at +the bottom of all representative government. After this, after +such an example, will American Senators be unwilling to obey the +people? Will they require people to teach Congress the lesson which +Mr. Fox says the English people had taught their Parliament fifty +years ago? The voice of the people of the United States had been +heard on this subject. The elections declared it. The vote of many +legislatures declared it. From the confines of the Republic the +voice of the people came rolling in--a swelling tide, rising as it +flowed--and covering the capitol with its mountain waves. Can that +voice be disregarded? Will members of a republican Congress be less +obedient to the voice of the people than were the representatives of +a monarchical House of Commons? + +Mr. B. then proceeded to the argument of his motion. He moved to +expunge the resolution of March 28, 1834, from the journals of the +Senate, because it was illegal and unjust; vague and indefinite; +a criminal charge without specification; unwarranted by the +constitution and laws; subversive of the rights of defence which +belong to an accused and impeachable officer; of evil example; and +adopted at a time and under circumstances to involve the political +rights and the pecuniary interests of the people of the United +States in peculiar danger and serious injury. + +These reasons for expunging the criminating resolution from the +journals, Mr. B. said, were not phrases collected and paraded for +effect, or strung together for harmony of sound. They were each, +separately and individually, substantive reasons; every word an +allegation of fact, or of law. Without going fully into the argument +now, he would make an exposition which would lay open his meaning, +and enable each allegation, whether of law or of fact, to be fully +understood, and replied to in the sense intended. + +1. _Illegal and unjust._--These were the first heads under which +Mr. B. would develope his objections, he would say the outline of +his objections, to the resolution proposed to be expunged. He held +it to be illegal, because it contained a criminal charge, on which +the President might be impeached, and for which he might be tried +by the Senate. The resolution adopted by the Senate is precisely +the first step taken in the House of Representatives to bring on an +impeachment. It was a resolution offered by a member in his place, +containing a criminal charge against an impeachable officer, debated +for a hundred days; and then voted upon by the Senate, and the +officer voted to be guilty. This is the precise mode of bringing on +an impeachment in the House of Representatives; and, to prove it, +Mr. B. would read from a work of approved authority on parliamentary +practice; it was from Mr. Jefferson's Manual. Mr. B. then read from +the Manual, under the section entitled Impeachment, and from that +head of the section entitled accusation. The writer was giving +the British Parliamentary practice, to which our own constitution +is conformable. "The Commons, as the grand inquest of the nation, +became suitors for penal justice. The general course is to pass +a resolution containing a criminal charge against the supposed +delinquent; and then to direct some member to impeach him by oral +accusation at the bar of the House of Lords, in the name of the +Commons." + +Repeating a clause of what he had read, Mr. B. said the general +course is to pass a criminal charge against the supposed delinquent. +This is exactly what the Senate did; and what did it do next? +Nothing. And why nothing? Because there was nothing to be done +by them but to execute the sentence they had passed; and that +they could not do. Penal justice was the consequence of the +resolution; and a judgment of penalties could not be attempted +on such an irregular proceeding. The only kind of penal justice +which the Senate could inflict was that of public opinion; it was +to ostracize the President, and to expose him to public odium, as +a violator of the laws and constitution of his country. Having +shown the resolution to be illegal, Mr. B. would pronounce it +to be unjust; for he affirmed the resolution to be untrue; he +maintained that the President had violated no law, no part of the +constitution, in dismissing Mr. Duane from the Treasury, appointing +Mr. Taney, or causing the deposits to be removed; for these were +the specifications contained in the original resolution, also in +the second modification of the resolution, and intended in the +third modification, when stripped of specifications, and reduced +to a vague and general charge. It was in this shape of a general +charge that the resolution passed. No new specifications were even +suggested in debate. The alterations were made voluntarily, by the +friends of the resolution, at the last moment of the debate, and +just when the vote was to be taken. And why were the specifications +then dropped? Because no majority could be found to agree in them? +or because it was thought prudent to drop the name of the Bank of +the United States? or for both these reasons together? Be that as +it may, said Mr. B., the condemnation of the President, and the +support of the bank, were connected in the resolution, and will +be indissolubly connected in the public mind; and the President +was unjustly condemned in the same resolution that befriended and +sustained the cause of the bank. He held the condemnation to be +untrue in point of fact, and therefore unjust; for he maintained +that there was no breach of the laws and constitution in any thing +that President Jackson did, in removing Mr. Duane, or in appointing +Mr. Taney, or in causing the deposits to be removed. There was no +violation of law, or constitution, in any part of these proceedings; +on the contrary, the whole country, and the government itself, +was redeemed from the dominion of a great and daring moneyed +corporation, by the wisdom and energy of these very proceedings. + +2. _Vague and indefinite_; a criminal charge without specification. +Such was the resolution, Mr. B. said, when it passed the Senate; but +such it was not when first introduced, nor even when first altered; +in its first and second forms it contained specifications, and these +specifications identified the condemnation of the President with the +defence of the bank; in its third form, these specifications were +omitted, and no others were substituted; the bank and the resolution +stood disconnected on the record, but as much connected, in fact, +as ever. The resolution was reduced to a vague and indefinite form, +on purpose, and in that circumstance, acquired a new character of +injustice to President Jackson. His accusers should have specified +the law, and the clause in the constitution, which was violated; +they should have specified the acts which constituted the violation. +This was due to the accused, that he might know on what points to +defend himself; it was due to the public, that they might know +on what points to hold the accusers to their responsibility, and +to make them accountable for an unjust accusation. To sustain +this position, Mr. B. had recourse to history and example, and +produced the case of Mr. Giles's accusation of General Hamilton, +then Secretary of the Treasury, in the year 1793. Mr. Giles, he +said, proceeded in a manly, responsible manner. He specified the +law and the alleged violations of the law, so that the friends of +General Hamilton could see what to defend, and so as to make himself +accountable for the accusation. He specified the law, which he +believed to be violated, by its date and its title; and he specified +the two instances in which he held that law to have been infringed. + +Mr. B. said he had a double object in quoting this resolution of Mr. +Giles, which was intended to lay the foundation for an impeachment +against General Hamilton; it was to show, first, the speciality +with which these criminating resolutions should be drawn; next, to +show the absence of any allegations of corrupt or wicked intention. +The mere violation of law was charged as the offence, as it was in +three of the articles of impeachment against Judge Chase; and thus, +the absence of an allegation of corrupt intention in the resolution +adopted against President Jackson, was no argument against its +impeachment character, especially as exhibited in its first and +second form, with the criminal averment, "dangerous to the liberties +of the people." + +For the purpose of exposing the studied vagueness of the resolution +as passed, detecting its connection with the Bank of the United +States, demonstrating its criminal character in twice retaining +the criminal averment, "dangerous to the liberties of the people," +and showing the progressive changes it had to undergo before it +could conciliate a majority of the votes, Mr. B. would exhibit +all three of the resolutions, and read them side by side of each +other, as they appeared before the Senate, in the first, second, +and third forms which they were made to wear. They appeared first +in the embryo, or primordial form; then they assumed their aurelia, +or chrysalis state; in the third stage, they reached the ultimate +perfection of their imperfect nature. + + +FIRST FORM.--_December 26, 1833._ + +"_Resolved_, That by dismissing the late Secretary of the Treasury, +because he would not, contrary to his sense of his own duty, remove +the money of the United States, in deposit with the Bank of the +United States and its branches, in conformity with the President's +opinion, and by appointing his successor to make such removal, which +has been done, the President has assumed the exercise of a power +over the treasury of the United States not granted to him by the +constitution and laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the people." + + +SECOND FORM.--_March 28, 1834._ + +"_Resolved_, That, in taking upon himself the responsibility of +removing the deposit of the public money from the Bank of the +United States, the President of the United States has assumed the +exercise of a power over the treasury of the United States not +granted to him by the constitution and laws, and dangerous to the +liberties of the people." + + +THIRD FORM.--_March 28, 1834._ + +"_Resolved_, 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." + +Having exhibited the original resolution, with its variations, +Mr. B. would leave it to others to explain the reasons of such +extraordinary metamorphoses. Whether to get rid of the bank +association, or to get rid of the impeachment clause, or to +conciliate the votes of all who were willing to condemn the +President, but could not tell for what, it was not for him to +say; but one thing he would venture to say, that the majority who +agreed in passing a general resolution, containing a criminal +charge against President Jackson, for violating the laws and the +constitution, cannot now agree in naming the law or the clause in +the constitution violated, or in specifying any act constituting +such violation. And here Mr. B. paused, and offered to give way to +the gentlemen of the opposition, if they would now undertake to +specify any act which President Jackson had done in violation of law +or constitution. + +3. _Unwarranted by the constitution and laws._--Mr. B. said this +head explained itself. It needed no development to be understood by +the Senate or the country. The President was condemned without the +form of a trial; and, therefore, his condemnation was unwarranted by +the constitution and laws. + +4. _Subversive of the rights of defence, which belong to an +accused and impeachable officer._--This head, also (Mr. B. said), +explained itself. An accused person had a right to be heard before +he was condemned; an impeachable officer could not be condemned +unheard by the Senate, without subverting all the rights of +defence which belong to him, and disqualifying the Senate to act +as impartial judges in the event of his being regularly impeached +for the same offence. In this case, the House of Representatives, +if they confided in the Senate's condemnation, would send up an +impeachment; that they had not done so, was proof that they had no +confidence in the correctness of our decision. + +5. _Of evil example._--Nothing, said Mr. B., could he more unjust +and illegal in itself, and therefore more evil in example, than to +try people without a hearing, and condemn them without defence. In +this case, such a trial and such a condemnation was aggravated by +the refusal of the Senate, after their sentence was pronounced, to +receive the defence of the President, and let it be printed for the +inspection of posterity! So that, if this criminating resolution +is not expunged, the singular spectacle will go down to posterity, +of a condemnation, and a refusal to permit an answer from the +condemned person standing recorded on the pages of the same journal! +Mr. B. said the Senate must look forward to the time--far ahead, +perhaps, but a time which may come--when this body may be filled +with disappointed competitors, or personal enemies of the President, +or of aspirants to the very office which he holds, and who may not +scruple to undertake to cripple him by senatorial condemnations; to +attaint him by convictions; to ostracise him by vote; and lest this +should happen, and the present condemnation of President Jackson +should become the precedent for such an odious proceeding, the evil +example should be arrested, should be removed, by expunging the +present sentence from the journals of the Senate. And here Mr. B. +would avail himself of a voice which had often been heard in the +two Houses of Congress, and always with respect and veneration. It +was the voice of a wise man, an honest man, a good man, a patriot; +one who knew no cause but the cause of his country; and who, a +quarter of a century ago, foresaw and described the scenes of this +day, and foretold the consequences which must have happened to any +other President, under the circumstances in which President Jackson +has been placed. He spoke of Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, +and of the sentiments which he expressed, in the year 1810, when +called upon to give a vote in approbation of Mr. Madison's conduct +in dismissing Mr. Jackson, the then British minister to the United +States. He opposed the resolution of approbation, because the House +had nothing to do with the President in their legislative character, +except the passing of laws, calling for information or impeaching; +and, looking into the evil consequences of undertaking to judge of +the President's conduct, he foretold the exact predicament in which +the Senate is now involved, with respect to President Jackson. Mr. +B. then read extracts from the speech of Mr. Macon, on the occasion +referred to: + +"I am opposed to the resolution, not for the reasons which have +been offered against it, nor for any which can be drawn from the +documents before us, but because I am opposed to addressing the +President of the United States upon any subject whatever. We have +nothing to do with him, in our legislative character, except the +passing of laws, calling on him for information, or to impeach. +On the day of the presidential election, we, in common with our +fellow-citizens, are to pass on his conduct, and resolutions of this +sort will have no weight on that day. It is on this ground solely +that I am opposed to adopting any resolution whatever in relation +to the Executive conduct. If the national legislature can pass +resolutions to approve the conduct of the President, may they not +also pass resolutions to censure? And what would be the situation +of the country, if we were now discussing a motion to request the +President to recall Mr. Jackson, and again to endeavor to negotiate +with him?" + +6. _At a time, and under circumstances, to involve the political +rights and pecuniary interests of the people of the United States +in serious injury and peculiar danger._--This head of his argument, +Mr. B. said, would require a development and detail which he had not +deemed necessary at this time, considering what had been said by him +at the last session, and what would now be said by others, to give +the reasons which he had so briefly touched. But at this point he +approached new ground; he entered a new field; he saw an extended +horizon of argument and fact expand before him, and it became +necessary for him to expand with his subject. The condemnation of +the President is indissolubly connected with the cause of the bank! +The first form of the resolution exhibited the connection; the +second form did also; every speech did the same; for every speech +in condemnation of the President was in justification of the bank; +every speech in justification of the President was in condemnation +of the bank; and thus the two objects were identical and reciprocal. +The attack of one was a defence of the other; the defence of one +was the attack of the other. And thus it continued for the long +protracted period of nearly one hundred days--from December 26th, +1833, to March 28th, 1834--when, for reasons not explained to +the Senate, upon a private consultation among the friends of the +resolution, the mover of it came forward to the Secretary's table, +and voluntarily made the alterations which cut the connection +between the bank and the resolution! but it stood upon the record, +by striking out every thing relative to the dismissal of Mr. Duane, +the appointment of Mr. Taney, and the removal of the deposits. +But the alteration was made in the record only. The connection +still subsisted in fact, now lives in memory, and shall live in +history. Yes, sir, said Mr. B., addressing himself to the President +of the Senate; yes, sir, the condemnation of the President was in +indissolubly connected with the cause of the bank, with the removal +of the deposits, the renewal of the charter, the restoration of the +deposits, the vindication of Mr. Duane, the rejection of Mr. Taney, +the fate of elections, the overthrow of Jackson's administration, +the fall of prices, the distress meetings, the distress memorials, +the distress committees, the distress speeches; and all the long +list of hapless measures which astonished, terrified, afflicted, and +deeply injured the country during the long and agonized protraction +of the famous panic session. All these things are connected, said +Mr. B.; and it became his duty to place a part of the proof which +established the connection before the Senate and the people. + +Mr. B. then took up the appendix to the report made by the Senate's +Committee of Finance on the bank, commonly called Mr. Tyler's +report, and read extracts from instructions sent to two-and-twenty +tranches of the bank, contemporaneously with the progress of the +debate on the criminating resolutions; the object and effect of +which, and their connection with the debate in the Senate, would be +quickly seen. Premising that the bank had dispatched orders to the +same branches, in the month of August, and had curtailed $4,066,000, +and again, in the month of October, to curtail $5,825,000, and to +increase the rates of their exchange, and had expressly stated in +a circular, on the 17th of that month, that this reduction would +place the branches in a position of entire security, Mr. B. invoked +attention to the shower of orders, and their dates, which he was +about to read. He read passages from page 77 to 82, inclusive. They +were all extracts of letters from the president of the bank in +person, to the presidents of the branches; for Mr. B. said it must +be remembered, as one of the peculiar features of the bank attack +upon the country last winter, that the whole business of conducting +this curtailment, and raising exchanges, and doing whatever it +pleased with the commerce, currency, and business of the country, +was withdrawn from the board of directors, and confided to one of +those convenient committees of which the president is ex officio +member and creator; and which, in this case, was expressly absolved +from reporting to the board of directors! The letters, then, are +all from Nicholas Biddle, president, and not from Samuel Jaudon, +cashier, and are addressed direct to the presidents of the branch +banks. + +When Mr. B. had finished reading these extracts, he turned to the +report made by the senator from Virginia, who sat on his right +[Mr. Tyler], where all that was said about these new measures of +hostility, and the propriety of the bank's conduct in this third +curtailment, and in its increase upon rates of exchange, was +compressed into twenty lines, and the wisdom or necessity of them +were left to be pronounced upon by the judgment of the Senate. Mr. +B. would read those twenty lines of that report: + +"The whole amount of reduction ordered by the above proceedings +(curtailment ordered on 8th and 17th of October) was $5,825,906. The +same table, No. 4, exhibits the fact, that on the 23d of January a +further reduction was ordered to the amount of $3,320,000. This was +communicated to the offices in letters from the president, stating +'that the present situation of the bank, and the new measures of +hostility which are understood to be in contemplation, make it +expedient to place the institution beyond the reach of all danger; +for this purpose, I am directed to instruct your office to conduct +its business on the following footing' (appendix, No. 9, copies of +letters). The offices of Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington, St. +Louis, Nashville, and Natchez, were further directed to confine +themselves to ninety days' bills on Baltimore, and the cities north +of it, of which they were allowed to purchase any amount their means +would justify: and to bills on New Orleans, which they were to take +only in payment of pre-existing debts to the bank and its offices; +while the office at New Orleans was directed to abstain from drawing +on the Western offices, and to make its purchases mainly on the +North Atlantic cities. The committee has thus given a full, and +somewhat elaborate detail of the various measures resorted to by the +bank, from the 13th of August, 1833; of their wisdom and necessity +the Senate will best be able to pronounce a correct judgment." + +This, Mr. B. said, was the meagre and stinted manner in which the +report treated a transaction which he would show to be the most +cold-blooded, calculating, and diabolical, which the annals of any +country on this side of Asia could exhibit. + +[Mr. Tyler here said there were two pages on this subject to be +found at another part of the report, and opened the report at the +place for Mr. B.] + +Mr. B. said the two pages contained but few allusions to this +subject, and nothing to add to or vary what was contained in the +twenty lines he had read. He looked upon it as a great omission +in the report; the more so as the committee had been expressly +commanded to report upon the curtailments and the conduct of the +bank in the business of internal exchange. He had hoped to have had +searching inquiries and detailed statements of facts on these vital +points. He looked to the senator from Virginia [Mr. Tyler] for these +inquiries and statements. He wished him to show, by the manner in +which he would drag to light, and expose to view, the vast crimes of +the bank, that the Old Dominion was still the mother of the Gracchi; +that the Old lady was not yet forty-five; that she could breed sons! +Sons to emulate the fame of the Scipios. But he was disappointed. +The report was dumb, silent, speechless, upon the operations of the +bank during its terrible campaign of panic and pressure upon the +American people. And now he would pay one instalment of the speech +which had been promised some time ago on the subject of this report; +for there was part of that speech which was strictly applicable and +appropriate to the head he was now discussing. + +Mr. B. then addressed himself to the senator from Virginia, who sat +on his right [Mr. Tyler], and requested him to supply an omission +in his report, and to inform what were those new measures of +hostility alluded to in the two-and-twenty letters of instruction +of the bank, and repeated in the report, and which were made the +pretext for this third curtailment, and these new and extraordinary +restrictions and impositions upon the purchase of bills of exchange. + +[Mr. Tyler answered that it was the expected prohibition upon the +receivability of the branch bank drafts in payment of the federal +revenue.] + +Mr. B. resumed: The senator is right. These drafts are mentioned +in one of the circular letters, and but one of them, as the new +measure understood to be in contemplation, and which understanding +had been made the pretext for scourging the country. He (Mr. B.) +was incapable of a theatrical artifice--a stage trick--in a grave +debate. He had no question but that the senator could answer his +question, and he knew that he had answered it truly; but he wanted +his testimony, his evidence, against the bank; he wanted proof to +tie the bank down to this answer, to this pretext, to this thin +disguise for her conduct in scourging the country. The answer is +now given; the proof is adduced; and the apprehended prohibition of +the receivability of the branch drafts stands both as the pretext +and the sole pretext for the pressure commenced in January, the +doubling the rates of exchange, breaking up exchanges between the +five Western branch banks, and concentrating the collection of bills +of exchange upon four great commercial cities. + +Mr. B. then took six positions, which he enumerated, and undertook +to demonstrate to be true. They were: + +1. That it was untrue, in point of fact, that there were any new +measures in contemplation, or action, to destroy the bank. + +2. That it was untrue, in point of fact, that the President harbored +hostile and revengeful designs against the existence of the bank. + +3. That it was untrue, in point of fact, that there was any +necessity for this third curtailment, which was ordered the last of +January. + +4. That there was no excuse, justification, or apology for the +conduct of the bank in relation to domestic exchange, in doubling +its rates, breaking it up between the five Western branches turning +the collection of bills upon the principal commercial cities, and +forbidding the branch at New Orleans to purchase bills on any part +of the West. + +5. That this curtailment and these exchange regulations in January +were political and revolutionary, and connected themselves with the +resolution in the Senate for the condemnation of President Jackson. + +6. That the distress of the country was occasioned by the Bank of +the United States and the Senate of the United States, and not by +the removal of the deposits. + +Having stated his positions, Mr. B. proceeded to demonstrate them. + +1. As to the new measures to destroy the bank, Mr. B. said there +were no such measures. The one indicated, that of stopping the +receipt of the branch bank drafts in payments to the United States, +existed nowhere but in the two-and-twenty letters of instruction of +the president of the bank. There is not even an allegation that the +measure existed; the language is "in contemplation"--"understood +to be in contemplation," and upon this flimsy pretext of an +understanding of something in contemplation, and which something +never took place, a set of ruthless orders are sent out to every +quarter of the Union to make a pressure for money, and to embarrass +the domestic exchanges of the Union. Three days would have brought +an answer from Washington to Philadelphia--from the Treasury to +the bank; and let it be known that there was no intention to +stop the receipt of these drafts at that time. But it would seem +that the bank did not recognize the legitimacy of Mr. Taney's +appointment! and therefore would not condescend to correspond with +him as Secretary of the Treasury! But time gave the answer, even +if the bank would not inquire at the Treasury. Day after day, week +after week, month after month passed off, and these redoubtable +new measures never made their appearance. Why not then stop the +curtailment, and restore the exchanges to their former footing? +February, March, April, May, June, five months, one hundred and +fifty days, all passed away; the new measures never came; and yet +the pressure upon the country was kept up; the two-and-twenty orders +were continued in force. What can be thought of an institution +which, being armed by law with power over the moneyed system of the +whole country, should proceed to exercise that power to distress +that country for money upon an understanding that something was +in contemplation; and never inquire if its understanding was +correct, nor cease its operations, when each successive day, for +one hundred and fifty days, proved to it that no such thing was in +contemplation? At last, on the 27th of June, when the pressure is +to be relaxed, it is done upon another ground; not upon the ground +that the new measures had never taken effect, but because Congress +was about to rise without having done any thing for the bank. Here +is a clear confession that the allegation of new measures was a mere +pretext; and that the motive was to operate upon Congress, and force +a restoration of the deposits, and renewal of the charter. + +Mr. B. said he knew all about these drafts. The President always +condemned their legality, and was for stopping the receipt of them. +Mr. Taney, when Attorney General, condemned them in 1831. Mr. B. +had applied to Mr. McLane, in 1832, to stop them; but he came to no +decision. He applied to Mr. Duane, by letter, as soon as he came +into the Treasury; but got no answer. He applied to Mr. Taney as +soon as he arrived at Washington in the fall of 1833; and Mr. Taney +decided that he would not stop them until the moneyed concerns of +the country had recovered their tranquillity and prosperity, lest +the bank should make it the pretext of new attempts to distress the +country; and thus the very thing which Mr. Taney refused to do, lest +it should be made a pretext for oppression, was falsely converted +into a pretext to do what he was determined they should have no +pretext for doing. + +But Mr. B. took higher ground still; it was this: that, even if the +receipt for the drafts had been stopped in January or February, +there would have been no necessity on that account for curtailing +debts and embarrassing exchanges. This ground he sustained by +showing--1st. That the bank had at that time two millions of dollars +in Europe, lying idle, as a fund to draw bills of exchange upon; +and the mere sale of bills on this sum would have met every demand +which the rejection of the drafts could have thrown upon it. 2. That +it sent the money it raised by this curtailment to Europe, to the +amount of three and a half millions; and thereby showed that it was +not collected to meet any demand at home. 3d. That the bank had at +that time (January, 1834) the sum of $4,230,509 of public money in +hand, and therefore had United States money enough in possession to +balance any injury from rejection of drafts. 4th. That the bank had +notes enough on hand to supply the place of all the drafts, even +if they were all driven in. 5th. That it had stopped the receipt +of these branch drafts itself at the branches, except each for its +own in November, 1833, and was compelled to resume their receipt +by the energetic and just conduct of Mr. Taney, in giving transfer +drafts to be used against the branches which would not honour the +notes and drafts of the other branches. Here Mr. B. turned upon Mr. +Tyler's report, and severely arraigned it for alleging that the bank +always honored its paper at every point, and furnishing a supply of +negative testimony to prove that assertion, when there was a large +mass of positive testimony, the disinterested evidence of numerous +respectable persons, to prove the contrary, and which the committee +had not noticed. + +Finally, M. B. had recourse to Mr. Biddle's own testimony to +annihilate his (Mr. Biddle's) affected alarm for the destruction of +the bank, and the injury to the country from the repulse of these +famous branch drafts from revenue payments. It was in a letter of +Mr. Biddle to Mr. Woodbury in the fall of 1834, when the receipt of +these drafts was actually stopped, and in the order which was issued +to the branches to continue to issue them as usual. Mr. B. read a +passage from this letter to show that the receipt of these drafts +was always a mere Treasury arrangement, in which the bank felt no +interest; that the refusal to receive them was an object at all +times of perfect indifference to the bank, and would not have been +even noticed by it, if Mr. Woodbury had not sent him a copy of his +circular. + +Mr. B. invoked the attention of the Senate upon the fatal +contradictions which this letter of November, and these instructions +of January, 1834, exhibit. In January, the mere understanding of +a design in contemplation to exclude these drafts from revenue +payments, is a danger of such alarming magnitude, an invasion +of the rights of the bank in such a flagrant manner, a proof of +such vindictive determination to prostrate, sacrifice, and ruin +the institution, that the entire continent must be laid under +contribution to raise money to enable the institution to stand the +shock! November of the same year when the order for the rejection +actually comes, then the same measure is declared to be one of +the utmost indifference to the bank; in which it never felt any +interest; which the Treasury adopted for its own convenience; which +was always under the exclusive control of the Treasury; about which +the bank had never expressed a wish; of which it would have taken +no notice if the Secretary had not sent them a circular; and the +expediency of which it was not intended to question in the remotest +degree! Having pointed out these fatal contradictions, Mr. B. said +it was a case in which the emphatic ejaculation might well be +repeated: Oh! that mine enemy would write a book! + +To put the seal of the bank's contempt on the order prohibiting +the receipt of these drafts, to show its disregard of law, and its +ability to sustain its drafts upon its own resources, and without +the advantage of government receivability, Mr. B. read the order +which the president of the bank addressed to all the branches on +the receipt of the circular which gave him information of the +rejection of these drafts. It was in these words: "This will make +no alteration whatever in your practice, with regard to issuing +or paying these drafts, which you will continue as heretofore." +What a pity, said Mr. B., that the president of the bank could not +have thought of issuing such an order as this in January, instead +of sending forth the mandate for curtailing debts, embarrassing +exchange, levying three millions and a half, alarming the country +with the cry of danger, and exhibiting President Jackson as a +vindictive tyrant, intent upon the ruin of the bank! + +2. The hostility of the President to the bank. This assertion, said +Mr. B., so incontinently reiterated by the president of the bank, +is taken up and repeated by our Finance Committee, to whose report +he was now paying an instalment of those respects which he had +promised them. This assertion, so far as the bank and the committee +are concerned in making it is an assertion without evidence, and, so +far as the facts are concerned, is an assertion against evidence. If +there is any evidence of the bank or the committee to support this +assertion, in the forty pages of the report, or the three hundred +pages of the appendix, the four members of the Finance Committee +can produce it when they come to reply. That there was evidence to +contradict it, he was now ready to show. This evidence consisted +in four or five public and prominent facts, which he would now +mention, and in other circumstances, which he would show hereafter. +The first was the fact which he mentioned when this report was first +read on the 18th of December last, namely, that President Jackson +had nominated Mr. Biddle at the head of the government directors, +and thereby indicated him for the presidency of the bank, for +three successive years after this hostility was supposed to have +commenced. The second was, that the President had never ordered a +_scire facias_ to issue against the bank to vacate its charter, +which he has the right, under the twenty-third section of the +charter, to do, whenever he believed the charter to be violated. The +third, that during many years, he has never required his Secretaries +of the Treasury to stop the governmental receipt of the branch bank +drafts, although his own mind upon their illegality had been made up +for several years past. The fourth, that after all the clamor--all +the invocations upon heaven and earth against the tyranny of +removing the deposits--those deposits have never happened to be +quite entirely removed! An average of near four millions of dollars +of public money has remained in the hands of the bank for each +month, from the 1st of October, 1833, to the 1st of January, 1835, +inclusively! embracing the entire period from the time the order +was to take effect against depositing in the Bank of the United +States down to the commencement of the present year! So far are the +deposits from being quite entirely removed, as the public are led +to believe, that, at the distance of fifteen months from the time +the order for the removal began to take effect, there remained in +the hands of the bank the large sum of three millions eight hundred +and seventy-eight thousand nine hundred and fifty-one dollars and +ninety-seven cents, according to her own showing in her monthly +statements. That President Jackson is, and always has been, opposed +to the existence of the bank, is a fact as true as it is honorable +to him; that he is hostile to it, in the vindictive and revengeful +sense of the phrase, is an assertion, Mr. B. would take the liberty +to repeat, without evidence, so far as he could see into the proofs +of the committee, and against evidence, to the full extent of all +the testimony within his view. Far from indulging in revengeful +resentment against the bank, he has been patient, indulgent, and +forebearing towards it, to a degree hardly compatible with his duty +to his country, and with his constitutional supervision over the +faithful execution of the laws; to a degree which has drawn upon +him, as a deduction from his own conduct, an argument in favor of +the legality of this very branch bank currency, on the part of +this very committee, as may be seen in their report. Again, the +very circumstance on which this charge of hostility rests in the +two-and-twenty letters of Mr. Biddle, proves it to be untrue: for +the stoppage of the drafts, understood to be in contemplation, was +not in contemplation, and did not take place until the pecuniary +concerns of the country were tranquil and prosperous; and when it +did thus take place, the president of the bank declared it to have +been always the exclusive right of the government to do it, in which +the bank had no interest, and for which it cared nothing. No, said +Mr. B., the President has opposed the recharter of the bank; he has +not attacked its present charter; he has opposed its future, not its +present existence; and those who characterize this opposition to a +future charter as attacking the bank, and destroying the bank, must +admit that they advocate the hereditary right of the bank to a new +charter after the old one is out; and that they deny to a public man +the right of opposing that hereditary claim. + +3. That there was no necessity for this third curtailment ordered +in January. Mr. B. said, to have a full conception of the truth of +this position, it was proper to recollect that the bank made its +first curtailment in August, when the appointment of an agent to +arrange with the deposit banks announced the fact that the Bank of +the United States was soon to cease to be the depository of public +moneys. The reduction under that first curtailment was $4,066,000. +The second was in October, and under that order for curtailment the +reduction was $5,825,000. The whole reduction, then, consequent +upon the expected and actual removal of deposits, was $9,891,000. +At the same time the whole amount of deposits on the first day of +October, the day for the removal, or rather for the cessation to +deposit in the United States Bank to take effect, was $9,868,435; +and on the first day of February, 1834, when the third curtailment +was ordered, there were still $3,066,561 of these deposits on hand, +and have remained on hand to near that amount ever since; so +that the bank in the two first curtailments, accomplished between +August and January, had actually curtailed to the whole amount, +and to the exact amount, upon precise calculation, of the amount +of deposits on hand on the first of October; and still had, on the +first of January, a fraction over three millions of the deposits +in its possession. This simple statement of sums and dates shows +that there was no necessity for ordering a further reduction of +$3,320,000 in January, as the bank had already curtailed to the +whole amount of the deposits, and $22,500 over. Nor did the bank put +the third curtailment upon that ground, but upon the new measures +in contemplation; thus leaving her advocates every where still to +attribute the pressure created by the third curtailment to the old +cause of the removal of the deposits. This simple statement of facts +is sufficient to show that this third curtailment was unnecessary. +What confirms that view, is that the bank remitted to Europe, as +fast as it was collected, the whole amount of the curtailment, and +$105,000 over; there to lie idle until she could raise the foreign +exchange to eight per cent. above par; which she had sunk to five +per cent. below par, and thus make two sets of profits out of one +operation in distressing and pressing the country. + +4. No excuse for doubling the rates of exchange, breaking up the +exchange business in the West, forbidding the branch at New Orleans +to purchase a single bill on the West, and concentrating the +collection of exchange on the four great commercial cities. For +this, Mr. B. said, no apology, no excuse, no justification, was +offered by the bank. The act stood unjustified and unjustifiable. +The bank itself has shrunk from the attempt to justify it; our +committee, in that report of which the bank proclaims itself to be +proud, gives no opinion in its brief notice of a few lines upon +this transaction; but leaves it to the Senate to pronounce upon its +wisdom and necessity! The committee, Mr. B. said, had failed in +their duty to their country by the manner in which they had veiled +this affair of the exchanges in a few lines; and then blinked the +question of its enormity, by referring it to the judgment of the +Senate. He made the same remark upon the contemporaneous measure of +the third curtailment; and called on the author of the report [Mr. +Tyler] to defend his report, and to defend the conduct of the bank +now, if he could; and requested him to receive all this part of his +speech as a further instalment paid of what was due to that report +on the bank. + +5. That the curtailment and exchange regulations of January were +political and revolutionary, and connect themselves with the +contemporaneous proceedings of the Senate for the condemnation of +the President. That this curtailment, and these regulations were +wanton and wicked, was a proposition, Mr. B. said, which resulted +as a logical conclusion from what had been already shown, namely, +that they were causeless and unnecessary, and done upon pretexts +which have been demonstrated to be false. That they were political +and revolutionary, and connected with the proceedings in the Senate +for the condemnation of the President, he would now prove. In the +exhibition of this proof, the first thing to be looked to is the +chronology of the events--the time at which the bank made this +third curtailment, and sent forth these exchange regulations--and +the time at which the Senate carried on the proceeding against +the President. Viewed under this aspect, the two movements are +not only connected, but identical and inseparable. The time for +the condemnation of the President covers the period from the 25th +of December, 1833, to the 28th of March, 1834; the bank movement +is included in the same period; the orders for the pressure were +issued from the 21st of January to the 1st of February, and were to +accomplish their effect in the month of March, and by the first of +April; except in one place, where, for a reason which will be shown +at a proper time, the accomplishment of the effect was protracted +till the 10th day of April. These, Mr. B. said, were the dates of +issuing the orders and accomplishing their effect; the date of the +adoption of the resolution in the bank for this movement is not +given in the report, but must have been, in the nature of things, +anterior to the issue of the orders; it must have been some days +before the issue of the orders; and was, in all probability, a few +days after the commencement of the movement in the Senate against +the President. The next point of connection, Mr. B. said, was in +the subject matter; and here it was necessary to recur to the +original form, and to the second form, of the resolution for the +condemnation of the President. In the first, or primordial form, +the resolution was expressly connected with the cause of the bank. +It was, for dismissing Mr. Duane because he would not remove the +deposits, and appointing Mr. Taney because he would remove them. +In the second form of the resolution--that form which naturalists +would call its aurelia, or chrysalis state--the phraseology of +the connection was varied, but still the connection was retained +and expressed. The names of Mr. Duane and Mr. Taney were dropped; +and the removal of the deposits upon his own responsibility, was +the alleged offence of the President. In its third and ultimate +transformation, all allusion to the bank was dropped, and the vague +term "revenue" was substituted; but it was a substitution of phrase +only, without any alteration of sense or meaning. The resolution +is the same under all its phases. It is still the bank, and Mr. +Taney, and Mr. Duane, and the removal of the deposits, which are +the things to be understood, though no longer prudent to express. +All these substantial objects are veiled, and substituted by the +empty phrase "revenue;" which might signify the force bill in South +Carolina, and the bank question in Philadelphia! The vagueness of +the expression left every gentleman to fight upon his own hook, and +to hang his vote upon any mental reservation which could be found +in his own mind! and Mr. B. would go before the intelligence of +any rational man with the declaration that the connection between +the condemnation of the President and the cause of the bank was +doubly proved; first by the words of the resolution, and next by +the omission of those words. The next point of connection, Mr. B. +said, was detected in the times, varied to suit each State, at which +the pressure under the curtailment was to reach its maximum; and +the manner in which the restrictions upon the sale and purchase of +bills of exchange was made to fall exclusively and heavily upon the +principal commercial cities, at the moment when most deeply engaged +in the purchase and shipment of produce. Thus, in New-York, where +the great charter elections were to take place during the first +week in April, the curtailment was to reach its maximum pressure +on the first day of that month. In Virginia, where the elections +are continued throughout the whole month of April, the pressure +was not to reach its climax until the tenth day of that month. +In Connecticut, where the elections occurred about the first of +April, the pressure was to have its last turn of the screw in the +month of March. And in these three instances, the only ones in +which the elections were depending, the political bearing of the +pressure was clear and undeniable. The sympathy in the Senate in +the results of those political calculations, was displayed in the +exultation which broke out on receiving the news of the elections +in Virginia, New-York, and Connecticut--an exultation which broke +out into the most extravagant rejoicings over the supposed downfall +of the administration. The careful calculation to make the pressure +and the exchange regulations fall upon the commercial cities at the +moment to injure commerce most, was also visible in the times fixed +for each. Thus, in all the western cities, Cincinnati, Louisville, +Lexington, Nashville, Pittsburg, Saint Louis, the pressure was +to reach its maximum by the first day of March; the shipments of +western produce to New Orleans being mostly over by that time; but +in New Orleans the pressure was to be continued till the first of +April, because the shipping season is protracted there till that +month, and thus the produce which left the upper States under the +depression of the pressure, was to meet the same pressure upon +its arrival in New Orleans; and thus enable the friends of the +bank to read their ruined prices of western produce on the floor +of this Senate. In Baltimore, the first of March was fixed, which +would cover the active business season there. So much, said Mr. +B., for the pressure by curtailment; now for the pressure by bills +of exchange, and he would take the case of New Orleans first. +All the branches in the West, and every where else in the Union, +were authorized to purchase bills of exchange at short dates, not +exceeding ninety days, on that emporium of the West; so as to +increase the demand for money there; at the same time the branch in +New Orleans was forbid to purchase a single bill in any part of the +valley of the Mississippi. This prohibition was for two purposes; +first, to break up exchange; and next, to make money scarce in +New Orleans; as, in default of bills of exchange, silver would be +shipped, and the shipping of silver would make a pressure upon all +the local banks. To help out this operation, Mr. B. said, it must be +well and continually remembered that the Bank of the United States +itself abducted about one million and a quarter of hard dollars from +New Orleans during the period of the pressure there; thus proving +that all her affected necessity for curtailment was a false and +wicked pretext for the cover of her own political and revolutionary +views. + +The case of the western branches was next adverted to by Mr. B. +Among these, he said, the business of exchange was broken up _in +toto_. The five western branches were forbid to purchase exchange +at all; and this tyrannical order was not even veiled with the +pretext of an excuse. Upon the North Atlantic cities, Mr. B. said, +unlimited authority to all the branches was given to purchase +bills, all at short dates, under ninety days; and all intended +to become due during the shipping season, and to increase the +demand for money while the curtailment was going on, and the screw +turning from day to day to lessen the capacity of getting money, +and make it more scarce as the demand for it became urgent. Thus +were the great commercial cities, New Orleans, New-York, Baltimore, +and Philadelphia, subject to a double process of oppression; and +that at the precise season of purchasing and shipping crops, so +as to make their distress recoil upon the planters and farmers; +and all this upon the pretext of new measures understood to be in +contemplation. Time again becomes material, said Mr. B. The bank +pressure was arranged in January, to reach its climax in March and +the first of April; the debate in the Senate for the condemnation of +President Jackson, which commenced in the last days of December, was +protracted over the whole period of the bank pressure, and reached +its consummation at the same time; namely, the 28th day of March. +The two movements covered the same period of time, reached their +conclusions together, and co-operated in the effect to be produced; +and during the three months of this double movement, the Senate +chamber resounded daily with the cry that the tyranny and vengeance +of the President, and his violation of laws and constitution, had +created the whole distress, and struck the nation from a state of +Arcadian felicity--from a condition of unparalleled prosperity--to +the lowest depth of misery and ruin. And here Mr. B. obtested and +besought the Senate to consider the indifference with which the bank +treated its friends in the Senate, and the sorrowful contradiction +in which they were left to be caught. In the Senate, and all over +the country, the friends of the bank were allowed to go on with +the old tune, and run upon the wrong scent, of removal of the +deposits creating all the distress; while, in the two-and-twenty +circular letters dispatched to create this distress, it was not +the old measure alone, but the new measures contemplated, which +constituted the pretext for this very same distress. Thus, the bank +stood upon one pretext, and its friends stood upon another; and for +this mortifying contradiction, in which all its friends have become +exposed to see their mournful speeches exploded by the bank itself, +a just indignation ought now to be felt by all the friends of the +bank, who were laying the distress to the removal of the deposits, +and daily crying out that nothing could relieve the country but the +restoration of the deposits, or the recharter of the bank; while +the bank itself was writing to its branches that it was the new +measures understood to be in contemplation that was occasioning +all the mischief. Mr. B. would close this head with a remark which +ought to excite reflections which should never die away; which +should be remembered as long as national banks existed, or asked for +existence. It was this: That here was a proved case of a national +bank availing itself of its organization, and of its power, to send +secret orders, upon a false pretext, to every part of the Union, +to create distress and panic for the purpose of accomplishing an +object of its own; and then publicly and calumniously charging all +this mischief on the act of the President for the removal of the +deposits. This recollection should warn the country against ever +permitting another national bank to repeat a crime of such frightful +immorality, and such enormous injury to the business and property of +the people. Mr. B. expressed his profound regret that the report of +the bank committee was silent upon these dreadful enormities, while +so elaborate upon trifles in favor of the bank. He was indignant +at the mischief done to private property; the fall in the price of +staples, of stocks, and of all real and personal estate; at the ruin +of many merchants, and the injury of many citizens, which took place +during this hideous season of panic and pressure. He was indignant +at the bank for creating it, and still more for its criminal +audacity in charging its own conduct upon the President; and he was +mortified, profoundly mortified, that all this should have escaped +the attention of the Finance Committee, and enabled them to make a +report of which the bank, in its official organ, declares itself to +be justly proud; which it now has undergoing the usual process of +diffusion through the publication of supplemental gazettes; which +it openly avers would have insured the recharter if it had come +out in time; and to which it now looks for such recharter as soon +as President Jackson retires, and the country can be thrown into +confusion by the distractions of a presidential election. + +Mr. B. now took up another head of evidence to prove the fact that +the curtailment and exchange regulations of January were political +and revolutionary, and connected with the proceedings of the +Senate for the condemnation of the President; and here he would +proceed upon evidence drawn from the bank itself. Mr. B. then read +extracts from Mr. Biddle's letters of instructions (January 30, +1834) to Joseph Johnson, Esquire, president of the branch bank at +Charleston, South Carolina. They were as follows: "With a view to +meet the coming crisis in the banking concerns of the country, and +especially to provide against new measures of hostility understood +to be in contemplation by the executive officers at Washington, +a general reduction has been ordered at the several offices, and +I have now to ask your particular attention to accomplish it." * +* * * "It is as disagreeable to us as it can be to yourselves to +impose any restrictions upon the business of the office. But you are +perfectly aware of the effort which has been making for some time +to prostrate the bank, to which this new measure to which I have +alluded will soon be added, unless the projectors become alarmed at +it. On the defeat of these attempts to destroy the bank depends, in +our deliberate judgment, not merely the pecuniary interests, but the +whole free institutions of our country; and our determination is, +by even a temporary sacrifice of profit, to place the bank entirety +beyond the reach of those who meditate its destruction." + +Mr. B. would invoke the deepest attention to this letter. The +passages which he had read were not in the circulars addressed +at the same time to the other branches. It was confined to this +letter, with something similar in one more which he would presently +read. The coming crisis in the banking concerns of the country is +here shadowed forth, and secretly foretold, three months before it +happened; and with good reason, for the prophet of the evil was to +assist in fulfilling his prophecy. With this secret prediction, +made in January, is to be connected the public predictions +contemporaneously made on this floor, and continued till April, +when the explosion of some banks in this district was proclaimed as +the commencement of the general ruin which was to involve all local +banks, and especially the whole safety-fund list of banks, in one +universal catastrophe. The Senate would remember all this, and spare +him repetitions which must now be heard with pain, though uttered +with satisfaction a few months ago. The whole free institutions +of our country was the next phrase in the letter to which Mr. B. +called attention. He said that in this phrase the political designs +of the bank stood revealed; and he averred that this language was +identical with that used upon this floor. Here, then, is the secret +order of the bank, avowing that the whole free institutions of the +country are taken into its holy keeping; and that it was determined +to submit to a temporary sacrifice of profit in sustaining the bank, +which itself sustains the whole free institutions of the country! +What insolence! What audacity! But, said Mr. B., what is here meant +by free institutions, was the elections! and the true meaning of +Mr. Biddle's letter is, that the bank meant to submit to temporary +sacrifices of money to carry the elections, and put down the Jackson +administration. No other meaning can be put upon the words; and if +there could, there is further proof in reserve to nail the infamous +and wicked design upon the bank. Another passage in this letter, Mr. +B. would point out, and then proceed to a new piece of evidence. +It was the passage which said this new measure will soon be added, +unless the projectors become alarmed at it. Now, said Mr. B., take +this as you please; either that the projectors did, or did not, +become alarmed at their new measure; the fact is clear that no new +measure was put in force, and that the bank, in proceeding to act +upon that assumption, was inventing and fabricating a pretext to +justify the scourge which it was meditating against the country. +Dates are here material, said Mr. B. The first letters, founded on +these new measures, were dated the 21st of January; and spoke of +them as being understood to be in contemplation. This letter to Mr. +Johnson, which speaks hypothetically, is dated the 30th of January, +being eight days later; in which time the bank had doubtless heard +that its understanding about what was in contemplation was all +false; and to cover its retreat from having sent a falsehood to +two-and-twenty branches, it gives notice that the new measures which +were the alleged pretext of panic and pressure upon the country +were not to take place, because the projectors had got alarmed. The +beautiful idea of the projectors--that is to say, General Jackson, +for he is the person intended--becoming alarmed at interdicting the +reception of illegal drafts at the treasury, is conjured up as a +salvo for the honor of the bank, in making two-and-twenty instances +of false assertion. But the panic and pressure orders are not +countermanded. They are to go on, although the projectors do become +alarmed, and although the new measure be dropped. + +Mr. B. had an extract from a second letter to read upon this +subject. It was to the president of the New Orleans branch, Mr. +W. W. Montgomery, and dated Bank of the United States the 24th of +January. He read the extract: "The state of things here is very +gloomy; and, unless Congress takes some decided step to prevent the +progress of the troubles, they may soon outgrow our control. Thus +circumstanced, our first duty is, to the institution, to preserve +it from all danger; and we are therefore anxious, for a short time +at least, to keep our business within manageable limits, and to +make some sacrifice of property to entire security. It is a moment +of great interest, and exposed to sudden changes in public affairs, +which may induce the bank to conform its policy to them; of these +dangers, should any occur, you will have early advice." When he +had read this extract, Mr. B. proceeded to comment upon it; almost +every word of it being pregnant with political and revolutionary +meaning of the plainest import. The whole extract, he said, was the +language of a politician, not of a banker, and looked to political +events to which the bank intended to conform its policy. In this +way, he commented successively upon the gloomy state of things at +the bank (for the letter is dated in the bank), and the troubles +which were to outgrow their control, unless Congress took some +decided step. These troubles, Mr. B. said, could not be the dangers +to the bank; for the bank had taken entire care of itself in the +two-and-twenty orders which it had sent out to curtail loans and +break up exchanges. Every one of these orders announced the power +of the bank, and the determination of the bank, to take care of +itself. Troubles outgrow our control! What insolence! When the bank +itself, and its confederates, were the creators and fomenters of all +these troubles, the progress of which it affected to deplore. The +next words--moment of great interest, exposed to sudden changes in +public affairs, induce the bank to conform its policy to them--Mr. +B. said, were too flagrant and too barefaced for comment. They were +equivalent to an open declaration that a revolution was momently +expected, in which Jackson's administration would be overthrown, and +the friends of the bank brought into power; and, as soon as that +happened, the bank would inform its branches of it; and would then +conform its policy to this revolution, and relieve the country from +the distress which it was then inflicting upon it. Sir, said Mr. +B., addressing the Vice-President, thirty years ago, the prophetic +vision of Mr. Jefferson foresaw this crisis; thirty years ago, he +said that this bank was an enemy to our form of government; that, +by its ramification and power, and by seizing on a critical moment +in our affairs, it could upset the government! And this is what it +would have done last winter, had it not been for one man! one man! +one single man! with whom God had vouchsafed to favor our America in +that hour of her greatest trial. That one man stood a sole obstacle +to the dread career of the bank; stood for six months as the +rampart which defended the country, the citadel upon which the bank +artillery incessantly thundered! And what was the conduct of the +Senate all this time? It was trying and condemning that man, killing +him off with a senatorial condemnation, removing the obstacle which +stood between the bank and its prey; and, in so doing, establishing +the indissoluble connection between the movement of the bank +in distressing the country, and the movement of the Senate in +condemning the President. + +Mr. B. said that certainly no more proof was necessary, on this +head, to show that the designs of the bank were political +and revolutionary, intended to put down General Jackson's +administration, and to connect itself with the Senate; but he had +more proof, that of a publication under the editorial head of the +_National Gazette_, and which publication he assumed to say, was +written by the president of the bank. It was a long article of four +columns; but he would only read a paragraph. He read: "The great +contest now waging in this country is between its free institutions +and the violence of a vulgar despotism. The government is turned +into a baneful faction, and the spirit of liberty contends against +it throughout the country. On the one hand is this miserable cabal, +with all the patronage of the Executive; on the other hand, the +yet unbroken mind and heart of the country, with the Senate and +the bank;--[in reading these words, in which the bank associated +itself with the Senate, Mr. B. repeated the famous expression of +Cardinal Wolsey, in associating himself with the king: '_Ego et +rex meus_;']--the House of Representatives, hitherto the intuitive +champion of freedom, shaken by the intrigues of the kitchen, +hesitates for a time, but cannot fail before long to break its own +fetters first, and then those of the country. In that quarrel, we +predict, they who administer the bank will shrink from no proper +share which the country may assign to them. Personally, they must be +as indifferent as any of their fellow-citizens to the recharter of +the bank. But they will not suffer themselves, nor the institution +intrusted to them, to be the instruments of private wrong and public +outrage; nor will they omit any effort to rescue the institutions +of the country from being trodden under foot by a faction of +interlopers. To these profligate adventurers, whether their power is +displayed in the executive or legislative department, the directors +of the bank will, we are satisfied, never yield the thousandth part +of an inch of their own personal rights, or their own official +duties; and will continue this resistance until the country, roused +to a proper sense of its dangers and its wrongs, shall drive the +usurpers out of the high places they dishonor." This letter, said +Mr. B., discloses, in terms which admit of no explanation or denial, +the design of the bank in creating the pressure which was got up +and continued during the panic session. It was to rouse the people, +by dint of suffering, against the President and the House of +Representatives, and to overturn them both at the ensuing elections. +To do this, now stands revealed as its avowed object. The Senate +and the bank were to stand together against the President and the +House; and each to act its part for the same common object: the +bank to scourge the people for money, and charge its own scourging +upon the President; the Senate to condemn him for a violation of +the laws and constitution, and to brand him as the Cæsar, Cromwell, +Bonaparte--the tyrant, despot, usurper, whose head would be cut +off in any kingdom of Europe for such acts as he practised here. +Mr. B. said, the contemplation of the conduct of the bank, during +the panic session, was revolting and incredible. It combined every +thing to revolt and shock the moral sense. Oppression, falsehood, +calumny, revolution, the ruin of individuals, the fabrication of +false pretences, the machinations for overturning the government, +the imputation of its own crimes upon the head of the President; the +enriching its favorites with the spoils of the country, insolence +to the House of Representatives, and its affected guardianship +of the liberties of the people and the free institutions of the +country; such were the prominent features of its conduct. The +parallel of its enormity was not to be found on this side of Asia; +an example of such remorseless atrocity was only to be seen in +the conduct of the Paul Benfields and the Debi Sings who ravaged +India under the name of the Marquis of Hastings. Even what had been +casually and imperfectly brought to light, disclosed a system of +calculated enormity which required the genius of Burke to paint. +What was behind would require labors of a committee, constituted +upon parliamentary principles, not to plaster, but to probe the +wounds and ulcers of the bank; and such a committee he should hope +to see, not now, but hereafter, not in the vacation but in the +session of Congress. For he had no idea of these peripatetic and +recess committees, of which the panic session had been so prolific. +He wanted a committee, unquestionable in the legality of its own +appointment, duly qualified in a parliamentary sense for discovering +the misconduct they are set to investigate; and sitting under the +wing of the authority which can punish the insolent, compel the +refractory, and enforce the obedience which is due to its mandates. + +6. The distress of the country occasioned by the Bank of the United +States and the Senate of the United States.--This, Mr. B. said, +might be an unpleasant topic to discuss in the Senate; but this +Senate, for four months of the last session, and during the whole +debate on the resolution to condemn the President, had resounded +with the cry that the President had created all the distress; and +the huge and motley mass, throughout the Union, which marched under +the _oriflamme_ of the bank, had every where repeated and reiterated +the same cry. If there was any thing unpleasant, then, in the +discussion of this topic in this place, the blame must be laid on +those who, by using that argument in support of their resolution +against the President, devolved upon the defenders of the President +the necessity of refuting it. Mr. B. would have recourse to facts +to establish his position. The first fact he would recur to was the +history of a reduction of deposits, made once before in this same +bank, so nearly identical in every particular with the reduction +which took place under the order for the late removal of deposits, +that it would require exact references to documentary evidence to +put its credibility beyond the incredulity of the senses. Not only +the amount from which the reduction was made, its progress, and +ultimate depression, corresponded so closely as each to seem to be +the history of the same transaction, but they began in the same +month, descended in the same ratio, except in the instances which +operate to the disadvantage of the late reduction, and, at the end +of fifteen months, had reached the same point. Mr. B. spoke of the +reduction of deposits which took place in the years 1818 and 1819; +and would exhibit a table to compare it with the reductions under +the late order for the removal of the deposits. + +Here, said Mr. B., is a similar and parallel redaction of deposits +in this same bank, and that at a period of real pecuniary distress +to itself; a period when great frauds were discovered in its +management; when a committee examined it, and reported it guilty +of violating its charter; when its stock fell in a few weeks from +one hundred and eighty to ninety; when propositions to repeal +its charter, without the formality of a _scire facias_, were +discussed in Congress; when nearly all presses, and nearly all +voices, condemned it; and when a real necessity compelled it to +reduce its discounts and loans with more rapidity, and to a far +greater comparative extent, than that which has attended the late +reduction. Yet, what was the state of the country? Distressed, to +be sure, but no panic; no convulsion in the community; no cry of +revolution. And why this difference? If mere reduction of deposits +was to be attended with these effects at one time, why not at the +other? Sir, said Mr. B., addressing the Vice-President, the reason +is plain and obvious. The bank was unconnected with politics, in +1819; it had no desire, at that time, to govern the elections, and +to overturn an administration; it had no political confederates; it +had no president of the bank then to make war upon the President of +the United States, and to stimulate and aid a great political party +in crushing the President, who would not sign a new charter, and +in crushing the House of Representatives which stood by him. There +was no resolution then to condemn the President for a violation of +the laws and the constitution. And it was this fatal resolution, +which we now propose to expunge, which did the principal part of the +mischief. That resolution was the root of the evil; the signal for +panic meetings, panic memorials, panic deputations, panic speeches, +and panic jubilees. That resolution, exhibited in the Senate +chamber, was the scarlet mantle of the consul, hung out from his +tent; it was the signal for battle. That resolution, and the alarm +speeches which attended it, was the tocsin which started a continent +from its repose. And the condemnation which followed it, and which +left this chamber just in time to reach the New-York, Virginia, +and Connecticut elections, completed the effect upon the public +mind, and upon the politics and commerce of the country, which the +measures of the bank had been co-operating for three months to +produce. And here he must express his especial and eternal wonder +how all these movements of bank and Senate co-operating together, +if not by arrangement, at least by a most miraculous system of +accidents, to endanger the political rights, and to injure the +pecuniary interests of the people of the United States, could so far +escape the observation of the investigating committee of the Senate, +as not to draw from them the expression of one solitary opinion, the +suggestion of one single idea, the application of one single remark, +to the prejudice of the bank. Surely they ought to have touched +these scenes with something more than a few meagre, stinted, and +starved lines of faint allusion to the "new measures understood to +be in contemplation;" those new measures which were so falsely, so +wickedly fabricated to cover the preconcerted and premeditated plot +to upset the government by stimulating the people to revolution, +through the combined operations of the pecuniary pressure and +political alarms. + +The table itself was entitled to the gravest recollection, not only +for the comparison which it suggested, but the fact of showing +the actual progress and history of the removal of the deposits, +and blasting the whole story of the President's hostility to the +bank. From this table it is seen that the deposits, in point of +fact, have never been all taken from the bank; that the removal, +so far as it went, was gradual and gentle; that an average of +three millions has always been there; that nearly four millions +was there on the 1st day of January last; and before these facts, +the fabricated story of the President's hostility to the bank, his +vindictiveness, and violent determination to prostrate, destroy, and +ruin the institution, must fall back upon its authors, and recoil +upon the heads of the inventors and propagators of such a groundless +imputation. + +Mr. B. could give another fact to prove that it was the Senate and +the bank, and the Senate more than the bank, which produced the +distress during the last winter. It was this: that although the +curtailments of the bank were much larger both before and after +the session of Congress, yet there was no distress in the country, +except during the session, and while the alarm speeches were in a +course of delivery on this floor. Thus, the curtailment from the 1st +of August to the 1st of October, was $4,066,000; from the 1st of +October to the meeting of Congress in December, the curtailment was +$5,641,000--making $9,707,000 in four months, and no distress in the +country. During the session of Congress (seven months) there was a +curtailment of $3,428,138; and during this time the distress raged. +From the rise of Congress (last of June) to the 1st of November, a +period of four months, the curtailment was $5,270,771, and the word +distress was not heard in the country. Why? Because there were no +panic speeches. Congress had adjourned; and the bank, being left +to its own resources, could only injure individuals, but could not +alarm and convulse the community. + +Mr. B. would finish this view of the conduct of the bank in creating +a wanton pressure, by giving two instances; one was the case of +the deposit bank in this city; the other was the case of a senator +opposed to the bank. He said that the branch bank at this place +had made a steady run upon the Metropolis Bank from the beginning +to the ending of the panic session. The amount of specie which it +had taken was $605,000: evidently for the purpose of blowing up +the pet bank in this district; and during all that time the branch +refused to receive the notes, or branch drafts, of any other branch, +or the notes of the mother bank; or checks upon any city north +of Baltimore. On the pet bank in Baltimore it would take checks, +because the design was to blow up that also. Here, said Mr. B., +was a clear and flagrant case of pressure for specie for the mere +purpose of mischief, and of adding the Metropolis Bank to the list +of those who stopped payment at that time. And here Mr. B. felt +himself bound to pay his respects to the Committee on Finance, that +went to examine the bank last summer. That committee, at pages +16 and 22, of their report, brought forward an unfounded charge +against the administration for making runs upon the branches of +the United States Bank, to break them; while it had been silent +with respect to a well-founded instance of the same nature from +the Bank of the United States towards the deposit bank in this +district. Their language is: "The administrative department of the +government had manifested a spirit of decided hostility to the +bank. It had no reason to expect any indulgence or clemency at +its hands; and in this opinion, if entertained by the directors, +about which there can be but little question, subsequent events +very soon proved they were not mistaken. The President's address +to his cabinet; the tone assumed by the Secretary (Mr. Taney) +in his official communication to Congress, and the developments +subsequently made by Mr. Duane in his address to the public, all +confirm the correctness of this anticipation. The measure which +the bank had cause to fear was the accumulation by government of +large masses of notes, and the existence thereby of heavy demands +against its offices" (p. 16). "In persevering in its policy of +redeeming its notes whenever presented, and thereby continuing them +as a universal medium of exchange, in opposition to complaints on +that head from some of the branches (see copies of correspondence), +the security of the institution and the good of the country were +alike promoted. The accumulation of the notes of any one branch +for the purpose of a run upon it by any agent of the government, +when specie might be obtained at the very places of collection, in +exchange for the notes of the most distant branches, would have +been odious in the eyes of the public, and ascribed to no other +feeling than a feeling of vindictiveness" (p. 22). Upon these +extracts, Mr. B. said, it was clear that the committee had been so +unfortunate as to commit a series of mistakes, and every mistake to +the advantage of the bank, and to the prejudice of the government +and the country. First, the government is charged, for the charge +is clear, though slightly veiled, that the President of the United +States in his vindictiveness against the bank, would cause the +notes of the branches to be accumulated, and pressed upon them +to break them. Next, the committee omit to notice the very thing +actually done, in our very presence here, by the Bank of the United +States against a deposit bank, which it charges without foundation +upon the President. Then it credits the bank with the honor of +paying its notes every where, and exchanging the notes of the most +distant branches for specie, when the case of the Metropolis Bank, +here in our presence, for the whole period of the panic session, +proves the contrary; and when we have a printed document, positive +testimony from many banks, and brokers, testifying that the branches +in Baltimore and New-York, during the fall of 1833, positively +refused to redeem the notes of other branches, or to accept them +in exchange for the notes of the local banks, though taken in +payment of revenue; and that, in consequence, the notes of distant +branches fell below par, and were sold at a discount, or lent for +short periods without interest, on condition of getting specie for +them; and that this continued till Mr. Taney coerced the bank, by +means of transfer drafts, to cause the notes of her branches to be +received and honored at other branches as usual. In all this, Mr. B. +said, the report of the committee was most unfortunate; and showed +the necessity for a new committee to examine that institution; a +committee constituted upon parliamentary principles--a majority in +favor of inquiry--like that of the Post Office. The creation of such +a committee, Mr. B. said, was the more necessary, as one of the main +guards intended by the charter to be placed over the bank was not +there during the period of the pressure and panic operations; he +alluded to the government directors; the history of whose rejection, +after such long delays in the Senate to act on their nomination, is +known to the whole country. + +The next instance of wanton pressure which Mr. B. would mention, +was the case of an individual, then a member of the Senate from +Pennsylvania, now minister to St. Petersburg (Mr. Wilkins). That +gentleman had informed him (Mr. B.), towards the close of the last +session, that the bank had caused a _scire facias_ to be served +in his house, to the alarm and distress of his wife, to revive a +judgment against him, whilst he was here opposing the bank. + +[Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, here rose, and wished to know of Mr. B. whether +it was the Bank of the United States that had issued this _scire +facias_ against Mr. Wilkins.] + +Mr. B. was very certain that it was. He recollected not only the +information, but the time and the place when and where it was given; +it was the last days of the last session, and at the window beyond +that door (pointing to the door in the corner behind him); and he +added, if there is any question to be raised, it can be settled +without sending to Russia; the _scire facias_, if issued, will be +on record in Pittsburg. Mr. B. then said, the cause of this conduct +to Mr. Wilkins can be understood when it is recollected that he had +denied on this floor the existence of the great distress which had +been depicted at Pittsburg; and the necessity that the bank was +under to push him at that time can be appreciated by seeing that two +and fifty members of Congress, as reported by the Finance Committee, +had received "accommodations" from the bank and its branches in the +same year that a senator, and a citizen of Pennsylvania, opposed to +the bank, was thus proceeded against.[10] + + [10] At pages 37 and 38 of the report, the Finance Committee fully + acquits the bank of all injurious discriminations between borrowers + and applicants, of different politics. + +Mr. B. returned to the resolution which it was proposed to expunge. +He said it ought to go. It was the root of the evil, the father +of the mischief, the source of the injury, the box of Pandora, +which had filled the land with calamity and consternation for six +long months. It was that resolution, far more than the conduct +of the bank, which raised the panic, sunk the price of property, +crushed many merchants, impressed the country with the terror of +an impending revolution, and frightened so many good people out of +the rational exercise of their elective franchise at the spring +elections. All these evils have now passed away. The panic has +subsided; the price of produce and property has recovered from +its depression, and risen beyond its former bounds. The country +is tranquil, prosperous, and happy. The States which had been +frightened from their propriety at the spring elections, have +regained their self-command. Now, with the total vanishing of its +effects, let the cause vanish also. Let this resolution for the +condemnation of President Jackson be expunged from the journals of +the Senate! Let it be effaced, erased, blotted out, obliterated from +the face of that page on which it should never have been written! +Would to God it could be expunged from the page of all history, +and from the memory of all mankind. Would that, so far as it is +concerned, the minds of the whole existing generation should be +dipped in the fabulous and oblivious waters of the river Lethe. But +these wishes are vain. The resolution must survive and live. History +will record it; memory will retain it; tradition will hand it down. +In the very act of expurgation it lives; for what is taken from +one page is placed on another. All atonement for the unfortunate +calamitous act of the Senate is imperfect and inadequate. Expunge, +if we can, still the only effect will be to express our solemn +convictions, by that obliteration, that such a resolution ought +never to have soiled the pages of our journal. This is all that +we can do; and this much we are bound to do, by every obligation +of justice to the President, whose name has been attainted; by +every consideration of duty to the country, whose voice demands +this reparation; by our regard to the constitution, which has been +trampled under foot; by respect to the House of Representatives, +whose function has been usurped; by self-respect, which requires +the Senate to vindicate its justice, to correct its errors, and +re-establish its high name for equity, dignity, and moderation. To +err is human; not to err is divine; to correct error is the work of +supereminent and also superhuman moral excellence, and this exalted +work now remains for the Senate to perform. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXIV. + +EXPUNGING RESOLUTION: REJECTED, AND RENEWED. + + +The speech which had been delivered by Mr. Benton, was intended for +effect upon the country--to influence the forthcoming elections--and +not with any view to act upon the Senate, still consisting of the +same members who had passed the condemnatory resolution, and not +expected to condemn their own act. The expunging resolution was +laid upon the table, without any intention to move it again during +the present session; but, on the last day of the session, when the +Senate was crowded with business, and when there was hardly time +to finish up the indispensable legislation, the motion was called +up, and by one of its opponents--Mr. Clayton, of Delaware--the +author of the motion being under the necessity to vote for the +taking up, though expecting no good from it. The moment it was +taken up, Mr. White, of Tennessee, moved to strike out the word +"expunge," and insert "rescind, reverse, and make null and void." +This motion astonished Mr. Benton. Mr. White, besides opposing all +the proceedings against President Jackson, had been his personal and +political friend from early youth--for the more than forty years +which each of them had resided in Tennessee. He expected his aid, +and felt the danger of such a defection. Mr. Benton defended his +word as being strictly parliamentary, and the only one which was +proper to be used when an unauthorized act is to be condemned--all +other phrases admitting the legality of the act which is to be +invalidated. Mr. White justified his motion on the ground that an +expurgation of the journal would be its obliteration, which he +deemed inconsistent with the constitutional injunction to "keep" +a journal--the word "keep" being taken in its primary sense of +"holding," "preserving," instead of "writing," a journal: but the +mover of the resolution soon saw that Mr. White was not the only one +of his friends who had yielded at that point--that others had given +way--and, came about him importuning him to give up the obnoxious +word. Seeing himself almost deserted, he yielded a mortifying and +reluctant assent; and voted with others of his friends to emasculate +his own motion--to reduce it from its high tone of reprobation, to +the legal formula which applied to the reversal of a mere error in +a legal proceeding. The moment the vote was taken, Mr. Webster rose +and exulted in the victory over the hated phrase. He proclaimed the +accomplishment of every thing that he desired in relation to the +expunging resolution: the word was itself expunged; and he went on +to triumph in the victory which had been achieved, saying: + + "That which made this resolution, which we have now amended, + particularly offensive, was this: it proposed to expunge our + journal. It called on us to violate, to obliterate, to erase, + our own records. It was calculated to fix a particular stigma, + a peculiar mark of reproach or disgrace, on the resolution of + March last. It was designed to distinguish it, and reprobate + it, in some especial manner. Now, sir, all this most happily, + is completely defeated by the almost unanimous vote of the + Senate which has just now been taken. The Senate has declared, + in the most emphatic manner, that its journal shall not be + tampered with. I rejoice most heartily, sir, in this decisive + result. It is now settled, by authority not likely to be shaken, + that our records are sacred. Men may change, opinions may + change, power may change, but, thanks to the firmness of the + Senate, the records of this body do not change. No instructions + from without, no dictates from principalities or powers, + nothing--nothing can be allowed to induce the Senate to falsify + its own records, to disgrace its own proceedings, or violate + the rights of its members. For one, sir, I feel that we have + fully and completely accomplished all that could be desired in + relation to this matter. The attempt to induce the Senate to + expunge its journal has failed, signally and effectually failed. + The record remains, neither blurred, blotted, nor disgraced." + +And then, to secure the victory which he had gained, Mr. Webster +immediately moved to lay the amended resolution on the table, with +the peremptory declaration that he would not withdraw his motion +for friend or foe. The resolve was laid upon the table by a vote +of 27 to 20. The exulting speech of Mr. Webster restored me to +my courage--made a man of me again; and the moment the vote was +over, I rose and submitted the original resolution over again, with +the detested word in it--to stand for the second week of the next +session--with the peremptory declaration that I would never yield it +again to the solicitations of friend or foe. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXV. + +BRANCH MINTS AT NEW ORLEANS, AND IN THE GOLD REGIONS OF GEORGIA AND +NORTH CAROLINA. + + +The bill had been reported upon the proposition of Mr. Waggaman, +senator from Louisiana, and was earnestly and perseveringly opposed +by Mr. Clay. He moved its indefinite postponement, and contended +that the mint at Philadelphia was fully competent to do all the +coinage which the country required. He denied the correctness of the +argument, that the mint at New Orleans was necessary to prevent the +transportation of the bullion to Philadelphia. It would find its way +to the great commercial marts of the country whether coined or not. +He considered it unwise and injudicious to establish these branches. +He supposed it would gratify the pride of the States of North +Carolina and Georgia to have them there; but when the objections +to the measure were so strong, he could not consent to yield his +opposition to it. He moved the indefinite postponement of the bill, +and asked the yeas and nays on his motion; which were ordered.--Mr. +Mangum regretted the opposition of the senator from Kentucky (Mr. +Clay), and thought it necessary to multiply the number of American +coins, and bring the mints to the places of production. There was +an actual loss of near four per cent. in transporting the gold +bullion from the Georgia and North Carolina mines to Philadelphia +for coinage. With respect to gratifying the pride of the Southern +States, it was a misconception; for those States had no pride to +gratify. He saw no evil in the multiplication of these mints. It +was well shown by the senator from Missouri, when the bill was +up before, that, in the commentaries on the constitution it was +understood that branches might be multiplied.--Mr. Frelinghuysen +thought that the object of having a mint was mistaken. The mint was +established for the accommodation of the government, and he thought +the present one sufficient. Why put an additional burden upon the +government because the people in the South have been so fortunate as +to find gold?--Mr. Bedford Brown of North Carolina, said the senator +from New Jersey, asked why we apply to Congress to relieve us from +the burden of transporting our bullion to be coined, when the +manufacturers of the North did not ask to be paid for transporting +their material. He said it was true the manufacturers had not asked +for this transportation assistance, but they asked for what was +much more valuable, and got it--protection. The people of the South +ask no protection; they rely on their own exertions; they ask but +a simple act of justice--for their rights, under the power granted +by the States to Congress to regulate the value of coin, and to +make the coin itself. It has the exclusive privilege of Congress, +and he wished to see it exercised in the spirit in which it was +granted; and which was to make the coinage general for the benefit +of all the sections of the Union, and not local to one section. The +remark of the gentlemen is founded in mistake. What are the facts? +Can the gold bullion of North Carolina be circulated as currency? +We all know it cannot; it is only used as bullion, and carried to +Philadelphia at a great loss. Another reason for the passage of +the bill, and one which Mr. Brown hoped would not be less regarded +by senators on the other side of the House, was that the measure +would be auxiliary to the restoration of the metallic currency, and +bring the government back to that currency which was the only one +contemplated by the constitution. + +Mr. Benton took the high ground of constitutional right to the +establishment of these branches, and as many more as the interests +of the States required. He referred to the Federalist, No. 44, +written by Mr. Madison, that in surrendering the coining power to +the federal government, the States did not surrender their right +to have local mints. He read the passage from the number which +he mentioned, and which was the exposition of the clause in the +constitution relative to the coining power. It was express, and +clear in the assertion, that the States were not to be put to the +expense and trouble of sending their bullion and foreign coins to +a central mint to be recoined; but that, as many local mints would +be established under the authority of the general government as +should be necessary. Upon this exposition of the meaning of the +constitution, Mr. B. said, the States accepted the constitution; and +it would be a fraud on them now to deny branches where they were +needed. He referred to the gold mines in North Carolina, and the +delay with which that State accepted the constitution, and inquired +whether she would have accepted it at all, without an amendment to +secure her rights, if she could have foreseen the great discoveries +of gold within her limits, and the present opposition to granting +her a local mint. That State, through her legislature, had applied +for a branch of the mint years ago, and all that was said in her +favor was equally applicable to Georgia. Mr. B. said, the reasons +in the Federalist for branch mints were infinitely stronger now +than when Mr. Madison wrote in 1788. Then, the Southern gold region +was unknown, and the acquisition of Louisiana not dreamed of. New +Orleans, and the South, now require branch mints, and claim the +execution of the constitution as expounded by Mr. Madison. + +Mr. B. claimed the right to the establishment of these branches +as an act of justice to the people of the South and the West. +Philadelphia could coin, but not diffuse the coin among them. Money +was attracted to Philadelphia from the South and West, but not +returned back again to those regions. Local mints alone could supply +them. France had ten branch mints; Mexico had eight; the United +States not one. The establishment of branches was indispensable to +the diffusion of a hard-money currency, especially gold; and every +friend to that currency should promote the establishment of branches. + +Mr. B. said, there were six hundred machines at work coining paper +money--he alluded to the six hundred banks in the United States; and +only one machine at work coining gold and silver. He believed there +ought to be five or six branch mints in the United States; that is, +two or three more than provided for in this bill; one at Charleston, +South Carolina, one at Norfolk or Richmond, Virginia, and one +at New-York or Boston. The United States Bank had twenty-four +branches; give the United States Mint five or six branches; and the +name of that bank would cease to be urged upon us. Nobody would want +her paper when they could get gold. + +Mr. B. scouted the idea of expense on such an object as this. The +expense was but inconsiderable in itself, and was nothing compared +to its object. For the object was to supply the country with a safe +currency,--with a constitutional currency; and currency was a thing +which concerned every citizen. It was a point at which the action +of government reached every human being, and bore directly upon +his property, upon his labor, and upon his daily bread. The States +had a good currency when this federal government was formed; it +was gold and silver for common use, and large bank notes for large +operations. Now the whole land is infested with a vile currency +of small paper: and every citizen was more or less cheated. He +himself had but two bank notes in the world, and they were both +counterfeits, on the United States Bank, with St. Andrew's cross +drawn through their faces. He used nothing but gold and silver since +the gold bill passed. + +In reply to Mr. Frelinghuysen, who asked where was the gold +currency? He would answer, far the greatest part of it was in the +vaults of the Bank of the United States, and its branches, to be +sold or shipped to Europe; or at all events, to be kept out of +circulation, to enable the friends of the bank to ask, where is the +gold currency? and then call the gold bill a humbug. But he would +tell the gentleman where a part of the gold was; it was in the +Metropolis Bank in this city, and subject to his check to the full +amount of his pay and mileage. Yes, said Mr. B., now, for the first +time, Congress is paid in gold, and it is every member's own fault +if he does not draw it and use it. + +Mr. B. said this question concerned the South and West, and he would +hope to see the representatives from these two sections united in +support of the bill. He saw with pleasure, that several gentlemen +from the north of the Potomac, and from New England were disposed +to support it. Their help was most acceptable on a subject so near +and so dear to the South and West. Every inhabitant of the South +and West was personally interested in the success of the bill. +From New Orleans, the new coin would ascend the Mississippi River, +scatter itself all along its banks, fill all its towns, cities, +and villages, branch off into the interior of the country, ascend +all the tributary streams, and replenish and refresh the whole face +of the land. From the Southern mints, the new gold would come into +the West, and especially into Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee, by the +stock drivers, being to them a safe and easy remittance, and to the +country a noble accession to their currency; enabling them quickly +to dispense with their small notes. + +It was asked, Mr. B. said, what loss has the Western People now +sustained for want of gold? He would answer that the whole West was +full of counterfeit paper; that counterfeit paper formed a large +part of the actual circulation, especially of the United States +branch drafts; that sooner or later all these counterfeits must stop +in somebody's hands; and they would be sure to stop in the hands +of those who were least able to bear the loss. Every trader down +the Mississippi, Mr. B. said, was more or less imposed upon with +counterfeit paper; some lost nearly their whole cargoes. Now if +there was a branch mint in New Orleans every one would get new gold. +He could get it direct from the mint; or have his gold examined +there before he received it. Mr. B. said that one great object of +establishing branch mints was to prevent and detect counterfeiting. +Such establishments would detect every counterfeit piece, and enable +every body to have recourse to a prompt and safe standard for +ascertaining what was genuine and what not. This was a great reason +for the ten branches in France. + +Mr. B. was against the paper system. He was against all small notes. +He was against all paper currency for common use; and being against +it he was in favor of the measures that would put down small paper +and put up gold and silver. The branching of the mint was one of the +indispensable measures for accomplishing that object, and therefore +he was for it. He was in favor of practical measures. Speeches alone +would not do. A gentleman might make a fine speech in favor of hard +money; but unless he gave votes in favor of measures to accomplish +it, the speech would be inoperative. Mr. B. held the French currency +to be the best in the world, where there was no bank note under 500 +francs (near $100), and where, in consequence, there was a gold and +silver circulation of upwards of five hundred millions of dollars; +a currency which had lately stood two revolutions and one conquest, +without the least fluctuation in its quantity or value. + +New Orleans, he said, occupied the most felicitous point in America +for a mint. It was at the point of reception and diffusion. The +specie of Mexico came there; and when there, it ascended the river +into the whole West. It was the market city--the emporium of the +Great Valley; and from that point every exporter of produce could +receive his supply and bring it home. Mr. B. reiterated that this +was a question of currency; of hard money against paper; of gold +against United States Bank notes. It was a struggle with the paper +system. He said the gold bill was one step; the branching the mint +would be the second step; the suppression of all notes under twenty +dollars would be the third step towards getting a gold and silver +currency. The States could do much towards putting down small notes; +the federal government could put them down, by putting the banks +which issued them under the _ban_; or, what was better, and best of +all, returning to the act of 1789, which enacted that the revenues +of the federal government should be received in gold and silver coin +only. + + * * * * * + +The question was then put on Mr. Clay's motion for indefinite +postponement--and failed--16 yeas to 27 nays. Further strenuous +exertion was made to defeat the bill. Mr. Clay moved to postpone +it to the ensuing week--which, being near the end of the session, +would be a delay which might be fatal to it; but it came near +passing--20 yeas to 22 nays. A motion was made by Mr. Clay to +recommit the bill to the Committee of Finance--a motion equivalent +to its abandonment for the session, which failed. Mr. Calhoun +gave the bill an earnest support. He said it was a question of +magnitude, and of vital importance to the South, and deserved the +most serious consideration. Yet, he was sorry to say, he had seen +more persevering opposition made to it than to any other measure for +the last two years. It was a sectional question, but one intended +to extend equal benefits to all the States--Mr. Clay said, if +there had been resistance on one side, there had also been a most +unparalleled, and he must say, unbounded perseverance on the other. +He would repeat that in whatever light he had received the proposed +measure, he had been unable to come to any other conclusion than +this, that it was, in his humble judgment, delusive, uncalled for, +calculated to deceive the people--to hold out ideas which would +never be realized;--and as utterly unworthy of the consideration +of the Senate.--Mr. Calhoun was astonished at the warmth of Mr. +Clay on this question--a question as much sectional in one point of +view, as a measure could be, but national in another. Let senators +say what they would, this government was bound, in his opinion, to +establish the mints which had been asked for. Finally, the question +was taken, and carried--24 to 19--the yeas being: Messrs. Benton, +Bibb, Brown, Calhoun, Cuthbert, Hendricks, Kane, King of Alabama, +King of Georgia, Leigh, Linn, Mangum, Morris, Porter, Preston, +Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tyler, Waggaman, Webster, +White, Wright. The nays were: Messrs. Bell of New Hampshire, Black +of Mississippi, Buchanan, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, Frelinghuysen, +Goldsborough, Isaac Hill, Knight, McKean, Naudain, Robbins, +Silsbee, Smith, Southard, Swift, Tipton, Tomlinson. The bill was +immediately carried to the House of Representatives; and there being +a large majority there in favor of the hard money policy of the +administration, it was taken up and acted upon, although so near the +end of the session; and easily passed. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXVI. + +REGULATION DEPOSIT BILL. + + +The President had recommended to Congress the passage of an +act to regulate the custody of the public moneys in the local +banks, intrusted with their keeping. It was a renewal of the same +recommendation made at the time of their removal, and in conformity +to which the House of Representatives had passed the bill which had +been defeated in the Senate. The same bill was sent up to the Senate +again, and passed by a large majority: twenty-eight to twelve. The +yeas were: Messrs. Benton, Black of Mississippi, Calhoun, Clayton +of Delaware, Cuthbert of Georgia, Ewing of Ohio, Frelinghuysen, +Goldsborough, Kent, Knight, Leigh, Linn, McKean, Mangum, Moore, +Alexander Porter, Prentiss, Preston, Robbins, Robinson, Smith, +Southard, Swift, Tomlinson, Tyler, Waggaman, Webster, Wright. The +nays were: Messrs. Bibb, Brown, Buchanan, Hendricks, Hill, Kane, +King of Alabama, Morris of Ohio, Poindexter, Ruggles, Shepley, +Tallmadge. And thus, the complaint ceased which had so long +prevailed against the President, on the alleged illegality of the +State bank custody of the public moneys. These banks were taken +as a necessity, and as a half-way house between the Bank of the +United States and an Independent treasury. After a brief sojourn +in the intermediate abode, they passed on to the Independent +treasury--there, it is hoped, to remain for ever. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXVII. + +DEFEAT OF THE DEFENCE APPROPRIATION, AND LOSS OF THE FORTIFICATION +BILL. + + +The President in his annual message at the commencement had +communicated to Congress the state of our relations with France, and +especially the continued failure to pay the indemnities stipulated +by the treaty of 1831; and had recommended to Congress measures of +reprisal against the commerce of France. The recommendation, in the +House of Representatives, was referred to the committee of foreign +relations, which through their chairman, Mr. Cambreling, made a +report adverse to immediate resort to reprisals, and recommending +contingent preparation to meet any emergency which should grow +out of a continued refusal on the part of France to comply with +her treaty, and make the stipulated payment. In conformity with +this last recommendation, and at the suggestion of Mr. John Quincy +Adams, it was resolved unanimously upon yeas and nays, or rather +upon yeas, their being no nays, and 212 members voting--"That in +the opinion of this House, the treaty of the 4th of July 1831 with +France be maintained, and its execution insisted upon:" and, with +the like unanimity it was resolved--"That preparations ought to +be made to meet any emergency growing out of our relations with +France." These two resolutions showed the temper of the House, +and that it intended to vindicate the rights of our citizens, if +necessary at the expense of war. Accordingly an appropriation of +three millions of dollars was inserted by the House in the general +fortification bill to enable the President to make such military +and naval preparations during the recess of Congress as the state +of our relations with France might require. This appropriation was +zealously voted by the House: in the Senate it met with no favor; +and was rejected. The House insisted on its appropriation: the +Senate "adhered" to its vote: and that brought the disagreement to +a committee of conference, proposed by the House. In the mean time +Congress was in the expiring moments of its session; and eventually +the whole appropriation for contingent preparation, and the whole +fortification bill, was lost by the termination of the Congress. +It was a most serious loss; and it became a question which House +was responsible for such a misfortune--regrettable at all times, +but particularly so in the face of our relations with France. The +starting point in the road which led to this loss was the motion +made by Mr. Webster to "adhere"--a harsh motion, and more calculated +to estrange than to unite the two Houses. Mr. King, of Alabama, +immediately took up the motion in that sense; and said: + + "He very much regretted that the senator from Massachusetts + should have made such a motion; it had seldom or never been + resorted to until other and more gentle means had failed to + produce a unity of action between the two Houses. At this + stage of the proceeding it would be considered (and justly) + harsh in its character; and, he had no doubt, if sanctioned + by the Senate, would greatly exasperate the other House, and + probably endanger the passage of the bill altogether. Are + gentlemen, said Mr. K., prepared for this? Will they, at this + particular juncture, in the present condition of things, take + upon themselves such a fearful responsibility as the rejection + of this bill might involve? For himself, if your forts are to + be left unarmed, your ships unrepaired and out of commission, + and your whole sea-coast exposed without defences of any kind, + the responsibility should not rest upon his shoulders. It is + as well, said Mr. K., to speak plainly on this subject. Our + position with regard to France was known to all who heard him + to be of such a character as would not, in his opinion, justify + prudent men, men who look to the preservation of the rights and + the honor of the nation, in withholding the means, the most + ample means, to maintain those rights and preserve unimpaired + that honor. + + "Mr. K. said, while he was free to confess that the proposed + appropriation was not in its terms altogether as specific as + he could have wished it, he could not view it in the light + which had, or seemed to have, so much alarmed the senator from + Massachusetts, and others who had spoken on the subject. We are + told, said Mr. K., that the adoption of the amendment made by + the House will prostrate the fortress of the constitution and + bury under its ruins the liberties of the people. He had too + long been accustomed to the course of debate here, particularly + in times of high party excitement, to pay much attention to + bold assertion or violent denunciation. In what, he asked, does + it violate the constitution? Does it give to the President the + power of declaring war? You have been told, and told truly, by + my friend from Pennsylvania [Mr. Buchanan], that this power + alone belongs to Congress; nor does this bill in the slightest + degree impair it. Does it authorize the raising of armies? No, + not one man can be enlisted beyond the number required to fill + up the ranks of your little army; and whether you pass this + amendment or not, that power is already possessed under existing + laws. Is it, said Mr. K., even unprecedented and unusual? A + little attention to the history of our government must satisfy + all who heard him, that it is neither the one nor the other. + + "During the whole period of the administrations of General + Washington and the elder Adams, all appropriations were + general, applying a gross sum for the expenditure of the + different departments of the government, under the direction + of the President; and it was not till Mr. Jefferson came into + office, that, at his recommendation, specific appropriations + were adopted. Was the constitution violated, broken down, + and destroyed, under the administration of the father of + his country? Or did the fortress to which the senator from + Massachusetts, on this occasion, clings so fondly, tumble into + ruin, when millions were placed in the hands of Mr. Jefferson + himself, to be disposed of for a designated object, but, in + every thing else, subject to his unlimited discretion? No, said + Mr. K., our liberties remained unimpaired; and, he trusted in + God, would so remain for centuries yet to come. He would not + urge his confidence in the distinguished individual at the head + of the government as a reason why this amendment should pass; + he was in favor of limiting executive discretion as far as + practicable; but circumstances may present themselves, causes + may exist, which would place it out of the power of Congress + promptly to meet the emergency. To whom, then, should they look? + Surely to the head of the government--to the man selected by the + people to guard their rights and protect their interests. He + put it to senators to say whether, in a possible contingency, + which all would understand, our forts should not be armed, or + ships put in commission? None will venture to gainsay it. Yet + the extent to which such armament should be carried must, from + the very necessity of the case, be left to the sound discretion + of the President. From the position he occupies, no one can be + so competent to form a correct judgment, and he could not, if + he would, apply the money to other objects than the defences + of the country. Mr. K. said he would not, at this last moment + of the session, when time was so very precious, further detain + the Senate than to express his deep apprehension, his alarm, + lest this most important bill should be lost by this conflict + between the two Houses. He would beg of senators to reflect on + the disastrous consequences which might ensue. He would again + entreat the senator from Massachusetts to withdraw his motion, + and ask a conference, and thus leave some reasonable ground for + hope of ultimate agreement on this most important subject." + +The motion was persisted in, and the "adherence" carried by a vote +of twenty-nine to seventeen. The yeas and nays were: + + YEAS.--Messrs. Bell, Bibb, Calhoun, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, + Frelinghuysen, Goldsborough, Hendricks, Kent, Knight, Leigh, + Mangum, Moore, Naudain, Poindexter, Porter, Prentiss, Preston, + Robbins, Silsbee, Smith, Southard, Swift, Tomlinson, Tyler, + Waggaman, Webster, White.--29. + + NAYS.--Messrs. Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Cuthbert, Grundy, Hill, + Kane, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Linn, McKean, Ruggles, + Robinson, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, Wright.--17. + +Upon being notified of this vote, the House took the conciliatory +step of "insisting;" and asked a "conference." The Senate agreed +to the request--appointed a committee on its part, which was met +by another on the part of the House, which could not agree about +the three millions; and while engaged in these attempts at concord, +the existence of the Congress terminated. It was after midnight; +the morning of the fourth of March had commenced; many members said +their power was at an end--others that it would continue till twelve +o'clock, noon; for it was that hour, on the 3d of March, 1789, that +the first Congress commenced its existence, and that day should +only be counted half, and the half of the next day taken to make +out two complete years for each Congress. To this it was answered +that, in law, there are no fractions of a day; that the whole day +counted in a legal transaction: in the birth of a measure or of a +man. The first day that the first Congress sat was the day of its +birth, without looking to the hour at which it formed a quorum; the +day a man was born was the day of his birth, and he counted from +the beginning of the day, and the whole day, and not from the hour +and minute at which he entered the world--a rule which would rob all +the afternoon-born children of more or less of the day on which they +were born, and postpone their majority until the day after their +birthday. While these disquisitions were going on, many members were +going off; and the Senate hearing nothing from the House, dispatched +a message to it, on the motion of Mr. Webster, "respectfully to +remind it" of the disagreement on the fortification bill; on +receiving which message, Mr. Cambreleng, chairman of conference, on +the part of the House, stood up and said: + + "That the committee of conference of the two Houses had met, + and had concurred in an amendment which was very unsatisfactory + to him. It proposed an unconditional appropriation of three + hundred thousand dollars for arming the fortifications, and + five hundred thousand dollars for repairs of and equipping our + vessels of war--an amount totally inadequate, if it should be + required, and more than was necessary, if it should not be. When + he came into the House from the conference, they were calling + the ayes and noes on the resolution to pay the compensation due + the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Letcher). He voted on that + resolution, but there was no quorum voting. On a subsequent + proposition to adjourn, the ayes and noes were called, and again + there was no quorum voting. Under such circumstances, and at two + o'clock in the morning, he did not feel authorized to present to + the House an appropriation of eight hundred thousand dollars. + He regretted the loss, not only of the appropriation for the + defence of the country, but of the whole fortification bill; + but let the responsibility fall where it ought--on the Senate + of the United States. The House had discharged its duty to the + country. It had sent the fortification bill to the Senate, with + an additional appropriation, entirely for the defence of the + country. The Senate had rejected that appropriation, without + even deigning to propose any amendment whatever, either in form + or amount. The House sent it a second time; and a second time + no amendment was proposed, but the reverse; the Senate adhered, + without condescending to ask even a conference. Had that body + asked a conference, in the first instance, some provision + would have been made for defence, and the fortification bill + would have been saved before the hour arrived which terminated + the existence of the present House of Representatives. As it + was, the committees did not concur till this House had ceased + to exist--the ayes and noes had been twice taken without a + quorum--the bill was evidently lost, and the Senate must take + the responsibility of leaving the country defenceless. He could + not feel authorized to report the bill to the House, situated + as it was, and at this hour in the morning; but if any other + member of the committee of conference proposed to do it, he + should make no objection, though he believed such a proposition + utterly ineffectual at this hour; for no member could, at this + hour in the morning, be compelled to vote." + +Many members said the time was out, and that there had been no +quorum for two hours. A count was had, and a quorum not found. +The members were requested to pass through tellers, and did so: +only eight-two present. Mr. John Y. Mason informed the House that +the Senate had adjourned; then the House did the same--making the +adjournment in due form, after a vote of thanks to the speaker, and +hearing his parting address in return. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXVIII. + +DISTRIBUTION OF REVENUE. + + +Propositions for distributing the public land revenue among the +States, had become common, to be succeeded by others to distribute +the lands themselves, and finally the Custom House revenue, as well +as that of the lands. The progress of distribution was natural +and inevitable in that direction, when once begun. Mr. Calhoun +and his friends had opposed these proposed distributions as +unconstitutional, as well as demoralizing but after his junction +with Mr. Clay, he began to favor them; but still with the salvo of +an amendment to the constitution. With this view, in the latter part +of the session of 1835, he moved a resolution of inquiry into the +extent of executive patronage, the increase of public expenditure, +and the increase of the number of persons employed or fed by the +federal government; and he asked for a select committee of six +to report upon his resolution. Both motions were granted by the +Senate; and, according to parliamentary law, and the principles +of fair legislation (which always accord a committee favorable to +the object proposed), the members of the committee were appointed +upon the selection of the six which he wished. They were: Messrs. +Webster, Southard, Bibb, King of Georgia, and Benton--which, with +himself, would make six. Mr. Webster declined, and Mr. Poindexter +was appointed in his place; Mr. Southard did not act; and the +committee, consisting of five, stood, politically, three against +the administration--two for it; and was thus a frustration of Mr. +Calhoun's plan of having an impartial committee, taken equally from +the three political parties. He had proposed the committee upon the +basis of three political parties in the Senate, desiring to have two +members from each party; giving as a reason for that desire, that he +wished to go into the examination of the important inquiry proposed, +with a committee free from all prejudice, and calculated to give it +an impartial consideration. This division into three parties was +not to the taste of all the members; and hence the refusal of some +to serve upon it. It was the first time that the existence of three +parties was proposed to be made the basis of senatorial action, and +did not succeed. The actual committee classed democratically, but +with the majority opposed to the administration. + +At the first meeting a sub-committee of three was formed--Mr. +Calhoun of course at its head--to draw up a report for the +consideration of the full committee: and of this sub-committee a +majority was against the administration. Very soon the committee +was assembled to hear the report read. I was surprised at it--both +at the quickness of the preparation and the character of the paper. +It was an elaborate, ingenious and plausible attack upon the +administration, accusing it of having doubled the expenses of the +government--of having doubled the number of persons employed or +supported by it--of holding the public moneys in illegal custody--of +exercising a patronage tending to corruption--the whole the result +of an over full treasury, which there was no way to deplete but by +a distribution of the surplus revenue among the States; for which +purpose an amendment of the constitution would be necessary; and +was proposed. Mr. Benton heard the reading in silence; and when +finished declared his dissent to it: said he should make no minority +report--a kind of reports which he always disliked; but when read +in the Senate he should rise in his place and oppose it. Mr. King, +of Georgia, sided with Mr. Benton; and thus the report went in. Mr. +Calhoun read it himself at the secretary's table, and moved its +printing. Mr. Poindexter moved an extra number of 30,000 copies; +and spoke at length in support of his motion, and in favor of the +report. Mr. King, of Georgia, followed him against the report: and +Mr. Benton followed Mr. King on the same side. On the subject of +the increase of expenditures doubled within the time mentioned, he +showed that it came from extraordinary objects, not belonging to +the expenses of the government, but temporary in their nature and +transient in their existence; namely, the expenses of removing the +Indians, the Indian war upon the Mississippi, and the pension act of +1832; which carried up the revolutionary pensions from $355,000 per +annum to $3,500,000--just tenfold--and by an act which the friends +of the administration opposed. He showed also that the increase in +the number of persons employed, or supported by the government, came +in a great degree from the same measure which carried up the number +of pensioners from 17,000 to 40,000. On the subject of the illegal +custody of the public moneys, it was shown, in the first place, that +the custody was not illegal; and, in the second, that the deposit +regulation bill had been defeated in the Senate by the opponents +of the administration. Having vindicated the administration from +the charge of extravagance, and the illegal custody of the public +moneys, Mr. Benton came to the main part of the report--the surplus +in the treasury, its distribution for eight years among the States +(just the period to cover two presidential elections); and the +proposed amendment to the constitution to permit that distribution +to be made: and here it is right that the report should be allowed +to speak for itself. Having assumed the annual surplus to be nine +millions for eight years--until the compromise of 1833 worked out +its problem;--that this surplus was inevitable, and that there was +no legitimate object of federal care on which it could be expended, +the report brought out distribution as the only practical depletion +of the treasury, and the only remedy for the corruptions which an +exuberant treasury engendered. It proceeded thus: + + "But if no subject of expenditure can be selected on which the + surplus can be safely expended, and if neither the revenue nor + expenditure can, under existing circumstances, be reduced, the + next inquiry is, what is to be done with the surplus, which, as + has been shown, will probably equal, on an average, for the next + eight years, the sum of $9,000,000 beyond the just wants of the + government? A surplus of which, unless some safe disposition + can be made, all other means of reducing the patronage of the + Executive must prove ineffectual. + + "Your committee are deeply sensible of the great difficulty + of finding any satisfactory solution of this question; but + believing that the very existence of our institutions, and with + them the liberty of the country, may depend on the success of + their investigation, they have carefully explored the whole + ground, and the result of their inquiry is, that but one means + has occurred to them holding out any reasonable prospect of + success. A few preliminary remarks will be necessary to explain + their views. + + "Amidst all the difficulties of our situation, there is one + consolation: that the danger from Executive patronage, as far + as it depends on excess of revenue, must be temporary. Assuming + that the act of 2d of March, 1833, will be left undisturbed, by + its provisions the income, after the year 1842, is to be reduced + to the economical wants of the government. The government, + then, is in a state of passage from one where the revenue is + excessive, to another in which, at a fixed and no distant + period, it will be reduced to its proper limits. The difficulty + in the intermediate time is, that the revenue cannot be brought + down to the expenditure, nor the expenditure, without great + danger, raised to the revenue, for reasons already explained. + How is this difficulty to be overcome? It might seem that the + simple and natural means would be, to vest the surplus in some + safe and profitable stock, to accumulate for future use; but + the difficulty in such a course will, on examination, be found + insuperable. + + "At the very commencement, in selecting the stock, there would + be great, if not insurmountable, difficulties. No one would + think of investing the surplus in bank stock, against which + there are so many and such decisive reasons that it is not + deemed necessary to state them; nor would the objections be less + decisive against vesting in the stock of the States, which would + create the dangerous relation of debtor and creditor between + the government and the members of the Union. But suppose this + difficulty surmounted, and that some stock perfectly safe was + selected, there would still remain another that could not be + surmounted. There cannot be found a stock, with an interest in + its favor sufficiently strong to compete with the interests + which, with a large surplus revenue, will be ever found in + favor of expenditures. It must be perfectly obvious to all who + have the least experience, or who will duly reflect on the + subject, that were a fund selected in which to vest the surplus + revenue for future use, there would be found in practice a + constant conflict between the interest in favor of some local + or favorite scheme of expenditure, and that in favor of the + stock. Nor can it be less obvious that, in point of fact, the + former would prove far stronger than the latter. The result is + obvious. The surplus, be it ever so great, would be absorbed by + appropriations, instead of being vested in the stock; and the + scheme, of course, would, in practice, prove an abortion; which + brings us back to the original inquiry, how is the surplus to + be disposed of until the excess shall be reduced to the just and + economical wants of the government? + + "After bestowing on this question, on the successful solution + of which so much depends, the most deliberate attention, your + committee, as they have already stated, can advise but one means + by which it can be effected; and that is, an amendment of the + constitution, authorizing the temporary distribution of the + surplus revenue among the States till the year 1843; when, as + has been shown, the income and expenditure will be equalized. + + "Your committee are fully aware of the many and fatal objections + to the distribution of the surplus revenue among the States, + considered as a part of the ordinary and regular system of + this government. They admit them to be as great as can well be + imagined. The proposition itself, that the government should + collect money for the purpose of such distribution, or should + distribute a surplus for the purpose of perpetuating taxes, + is too absurd to require refutation; and yet what would be + when applied, as supposed, so absurd and pernicious, is, in + the opinion of your committee, in the present extraordinary + and deeply disordered state of our affairs, not only useful + and salutary, but indispensable to the restoration of the body + politic to a sound condition; just as some potent medicine, + which it would be dangerous and absurd to prescribe to the + healthy, may, to the diseased, be the only means of arresting + the hand of death. Distribution, as proposed, is not for the + preposterous and dangerous purpose of raising a revenue for + distribution, or of distributing the surplus as a means of + perpetuating a system of duties or taxes; but a temporary + measure to dispose of an unavoidable surplus while the revenue + is in the course of reduction, and which cannot be otherwise + disposed of, without greatly aggravating a disease that + threatens the most dangerous consequences; and which holds out + hope, not only of arresting its further progress, but also of + restoring the body politic to a state of health and vigor. The + truth of this assertion a few observations will suffice to + illustrate. + + "It must be obvious, on a little reflection, that the effects + of distribution of the surplus would be to place the interests + of the States, on all questions of expenditure, in opposition + to expenditure, as every reduction of expense would necessarily + increase the sum to be distributed among the States. The effect + of this would be convert them, through their interests, into + faithful and vigilant sentinels on the side of economy and + accountability in the expenditures of this government; and would + thus powerfully tend to restore the government, in its fiscal + action, to the plain and honest simplicity of former days. + + "It may, perhaps, be thought by some that the power which the + distribution among the States would bring to bear against + the expenditure and its consequent tendency to retrench the + disbursements of the government, would be so strong, as not + only to curtail useless or improper expenditure, but also + the useful and necessary. Such, undoubtedly, would be the + consequence, if the process were too long continued; but in the + present irregular and excessive action of the system, when its + centripetal force threatens to concentrate all its powers in a + single department, the fear that the action of this government + will be too much reduced by the measure under consideration, in + the short period to which it is proposed to limit its operation, + is without just foundation. On the contrary, if the proposed + measure should be applied in the present diseased state of the + government, its effect would be like that of some powerful + alterative medicine operating just long enough to change the + present morbid action, but not sufficiently long to superinduce + another of an opposite character. + + "But it may be objected that, though the distribution might + reduce all useless expenditure, it would at the same time give + additional power to the interest in favor of taxation. It is + not denied that such would be its tendency; and, if the danger + from increased duties or taxes was at this time as great as that + from a surplus revenue, the objection would be fatal; but it is + confidently believed that such is not the case. On the contrary, + in proposing the measure, it is assumed that the act of March + 2, 1833, will remain undisturbed. It is on the strength of this + assumption that the measure is proposed, and, as it is believed, + safely proposed. + + "It may, however, be said that the distribution may create, + on the part of the States, an appetite in its favor which + may ultimately lead to its adoption as a permanent measure. + It may indeed tend to excite such an appetite, short as is + the period proposed for its operation; but it is obvious + that this danger is far more than countervailed by the fact + that the proposed amendment to the constitution to authorize + the distribution would place the power beyond the reach of + legislative construction; and thus effectually prevent the + possibility of its adoption as a permanent measure; as it + cannot be conceived that three-fourths of the States will ever + assent to an amendment of the constitution to authorize a + distribution, except as an extraordinary measure, applicable to + some extraordinary condition of the country like the present. + + "Giving, however, to these and other objections which may be + urged, all the force that can be claimed for them, it must be + remembered the question is not whether the measure proposed is + or is not liable to this or that objection, but whether any + other less objectionable can be devised; or rather, whether + there is any other, which promises the least prospect of + relief, that can be applied. Let not the delusion prevail that + the disease, after running through its natural course, will + terminate of itself, without fatal consequences. Experience + is opposed to such anticipations. Many and striking are the + examples of free States perishing under that excess of + patronage which now afflicts ours. It may, in fact, be said + with truth, that all or nearly all diseases which afflict free + governments may be traced directly or indirectly to excess of + revenue and expenditure; the effect of which is to rally around + the government a powerful, corrupt, and subservient corps--a + corps ever obedient to its will, and ready to sustain it in + every measure, whether right or wrong; and which, if the cause + of the disease be not eradicated, must ultimately render the + government stronger than the people. + + "What progress this dangerous disease has already made in our + country it is not for your committee to say; but when they + reflect on the present symptoms; on the almost unbounded extent + of executive patronage, wielded by a single will; the surplus + revenue, which cannot be reduced within proper limits in less + than seven years--a period which covers two presidential + elections, on both of which all this mighty power and influence + will be brought to bear; and when they consider that, with the + vast patronage and influence of this government, that of all + the States acting in concert with it will be combined, there + are just grounds to fear that the fate which has befallen so + many other free governments must also befall ours, unless, + indeed, some effectual remedy be forthwith applied. It is under + this impression that your committee have suggested the one + proposal; not as free from all objections, but as the only one + of sufficient power to arrest the disease and to restore the + body politic to a sound condition; and they have accordingly + reported a resolution so to amend the constitution that the + money remaining in the treasury at the end of each year till the + 1st of January, 1843, deducting therefrom the sum of $2,000,000 + to meet current and contingent expenses, shall annually be + distributed among the States and Territories, including the + District of Columbia; and, for that purpose, the sum to be + distributed to be divided into as many shares as there are + senators and representatives in Congress, adding two for each + territory and two for the District of Columbia; and that there + shall be allotted to each State a number of shares equal to its + representation in both Houses, and to the territories, including + the District of Columbia, two shares each. Supposing the surplus + to be distributed should average $9,000,000 annually, as + estimated, it would give to each share $30,405; which multiplied + by the number of senators and representatives from a State will + show the amount to which any State will be entitled." + +The report being here introduced to speak for itself, the reply +also is introduced as delivered upon the instant, and found in the +Congress register of debates, thus: + + "Mr. Benton next came to the proposition in the report to amend + the constitution for eight years, to enable Congress to make + distribution among the States, Territories, and District of + Columbia, of the annual surplus of public money. The surplus is + carefully calculated at $9,000,000 per annum for eight years; + and the rule of distribution assumed goes to divide that sum + into as many shares as there are senators and representatives + in Congress; each State to take shares according to her + representation; which the report shows would give for each share + precisely $30,405; and then leaves it to the State itself, by a + little ciphering, in multiplying the aforesaid sum of $30,405 by + the whole number of senators and representatives which it may + have in Congress, to calculate the annual amount of the stipend + it would receive. This process the report extends through a + period of eight years; so that the whole sum to be divided to + the States, Territories, and District of Columbia, will amount + to seventy-two millions of dollars. + + "Of all the propositions which he ever witnessed, brought + forward to astonish the senses, to confound recollection, and + to make him doubt the reality of a past or a present scene, + this proposition, said Mr. B., eclipses and distances the + whole! What! the Senate of the United States--not only the + same Senate, but the same members, sitting in the same chairs, + looking in each others' faces, remembering what each had said + only a few short months ago--now to be called upon to make an + alteration in the constitution of the United States, for the + purpose of dividing seventy-two millions of surplus money in + the treasury; when that same treasury was proclaimed, affirmed, + vaticinated, and proved, upon calculations, for the whole + period of the last session, to be sinking into bankruptcy! that + it would be destitute of revenue by the end of the year, and + could never be replenished until the deposits were restored! + the bank rechartered! and the usurper and despot driven from + the high place which he dishonored and abused! This was the cry + then; the cry which resounded through this chamber for six long + months, and was wafted upon every breeze to every quarter of the + Republic, to alarm, agitate, disquiet and enrage the people. The + author of this report, and the whole party with which he marched + under the _oriflamme_ of the Bank of the United States, filled + the Union with this cry of a bankrupt treasury, and predicted + the certain and speedy downfall of the administration, from the + want of money to carry on the operations of the government. + + "[Mr. Calhoun here rose and wished to know of Mr. Benton whether + he meant to include him in the number of those who had predicted + a deficiency in the revenue.] + + "Mr. B. said he would answer the gentleman by telling him + an anecdote. It was the story of a drummer taken prisoner + in the low countries by the videttes of Marshal Saxe, under + circumstances which deprived him of the protection of the laws + of war. About to be shot, the poor drummer plead in his defence + that he was a non-combatant; he did not fight and kill people; + he did nothing, he said, but beat his drum in the rear of the + line. But he was answered, so much the worse; that he made + other people fight, and kill one another, by driving them on + with that drum of his in the rear of the line; and so he should + suffer for it. Mr. B. hoped that the story would be understood, + and that it would be received by the gentleman as an answer to + his question; as neither in law, politics, nor war, was there + any difference between what a man did by himself, and did by + another. Be that as it may, said Mr. B., the strangeness of the + scene in which we are now engaged remains the same. Last year + it was a bankrupt treasury, and it beggared government; now it + is a treasury gorged to bursting with surplus millions, and a + government trampling down liberty, contaminating morals, bribing + and wielding vast masses of people, from the unemployable + funds of countless treasures. Such are the scenes which the + two sessions present; and it is in vain to deny it, for the + fatal speeches of that fatal session have gone forth to all the + borders of the republic. They were printed here by the myriad, + franked by members by the ton weight, freighted to all parts + by a decried and overwhelmed Post Office, and paid for! paid + for! by whom? Thanks for one thing, at least! The report of the + Finance Committee on the bank (Mr. Tyler's report) effected the + exhumation of one mass--one mass of hidden and buried putridity; + it was the printing account of the Bank of the United States for + that session of Congress which will long live in the history of + our country under the odious appellation of the panic session. + That printing account has been dug up; is the black vomit of + the bank! and he knew the medicine which could bring forty + such vomits from the foul stomach of the old red harlot. It + was the medicine of a committee of investigation, constituted + upon parliamentary principles; a committee, composed, in + its majority, of those who charged misconduct, and evinced + a disposition to probe every charge to the bottom; such a + committee as the Senate had appointed, at the same session, not + for the bank, but for the post office. + + "Yes, exclaimed Mr. B., not only the treasury was to be + bankrupt, but the currency was to be ruined. There was to be + no money. The trash in the treasury, what little there was, + was to be nothing but depreciated paper, the vile issues of + insolvent pet banks. Silver, and United States bank notes, and + even good bills of exchange, were all to go off, all to take + leave, and make their mournful exit together; and gold! that + was a trick unworthy of countenance; a gull to bamboozle the + simple, and to insult the intelligent, until the fall election + were over. Ruin, ruin, ruin to the currency was the lugubrious + cry of the day, and the sorrowful burden of the speech for six + long months. Now, on the contrary, it seems to be admitted that + there is to be money, real good money, in the treasury, such + as the fiercest haters of the pet banks would wish to have; + and that not a little, since seventy-two millions of surpluses + are proposed to be drawn from that same empty treasury in the + brief space of eight years. Not a word about ruined currency + now. Not a word about the currency itself. The very word seems + to be dropped from the vocabulary of gentlemen. All lips closed + tight, all tongues hushed still, all allusion avoided, to that + once dear phrase. The silver currency doubled in a year; four + millions of gold coins in half a year; exchanges reduced to the + lowest and most uniform rates; the whole expenses of Congress + paid in gold; working people receiving gold and silver for their + ordinary wages. Such are the results which have confounded the + prophets of wo, silenced the tongues of lamentation, expelled + the word currency from our debates; and brought the people to + question, if it cannot bring themselves, to doubt, the future + infallibility of those undaunted alarmists who still go forward + with new and confident predictions, notwithstanding they + have been so recently and so conspicuously deceived in their + vaticinations of a ruined currency, a bankrupt treasury, and a + beggard government. + + "But here we are, said Mr. B., actually engaged in a serious + proposition to alter the constitution of the United States + for the period of eight years, in order to get rid of surplus + revenue; and a most dazzling, seductive, and fascinating scheme + is presented; no less than nine millions a year for eight + consecutive years. It took like wildfire, Mr. B. said, and + he had seen a member--no, that might seem too particular--he + had seen a gentleman who looked upon it as establishing a + new era in the affairs of our America, establishing a new + test for the formation of parties, bringing a new question + into all our elections, State and federal; and operating the + political salvation and elevation of all who supported it and + the immediate, utter, and irretrievable political damnation + of all who opposed it. But Mr. B. dissented from the novelty + of the scheme. It was an old acquaintance of his, only new + vamped and new burnished, for the present occasion. It is the + same proposition, only to be accomplished in a different way, + which was brought forward, some years ago, by a senator from + New Jersey (Mr. Dickerson) and which then received unmeasured + condemnation, not merely for unconstitutionality, but for all + its effects and consequences: the degradation of mendicant + States, receiving their annual allowance from the bounty of the + federal government; the debauchment of the public morals, when + every citizen was to look to the federal treasury for money, + and every candidate for office was to outbid his competitor in + offering it; the consolidation of the States, thus resulting + from a central supply of revenue; the folly of collecting + with one hand to pay back with the other; and both hands to + be greased at the expense of the citizen, who pays one man to + collect the money from him, and another to bring it back to + him, _minus_ the interest and the cost of a double operation in + fetching and carrying; and the eventual and inevitable progress + of the scheme to the plunder of the weaker half of the Union by + the stronger; when the stronger half would undoubtedly throw + the whole burden of raising the money upon the weaker half, and + then take the main portion to themselves. Such were the main + objections uttered against this plan, seven years ago, when + a gallant son of South Carolina (General Hayne) stood by his + (Mr. B.'s) side--no, stood before him--and led him in the fight + against that fatal and delusive scheme, now brought forward + under a more seclusive, dangerous, alarming, inexcusable, + unjustifiable, and demoralizing form. + + "Yes, said Mr. B., it is not only the revival of the same plan + for dividing surplus revenue, which received its condemnation + on this floor, seven or eight years ago; but it is the + modification, and that in a form infinitely worse for the new + States, of the famous land bill which now lies upon our table. + It takes up the object of that bill, and runs away with it, + giving nine millions where that gave three, and leaves the + author of that bill out of sight behind; and can the gentleman + from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun) be so short-sighted as not + to see that somebody will play him the same prank, and come + forward with propositions to raise and divide twenty, thirty, + forty millions; and thus outleap, outjump, and outrun him in the + race of popularity, just as far as he himself has now outjumped, + outleaped, and outran, the author of the land distribution bill? + + "Yes, said Mr. B., this scheme for dividing surplus revenue + is an old acquaintance on this floor; but never did it come + upon this floor at a time so inauspicious, under a form so + questionable, and upon assumptions so unfounded in fact, so + delusive in argument. He would speak of the inauspiciousness + of the time hereafter; at present, he would take positions in + direct contradiction to all the arguments of fact and reason + upon which this monstrous scheme of distribution is erected and + defended. Condensed into their essence, these arguments are: + + "1. That there will be a surplus of nine millions annually, for + eight years. + + "2. That there is no way to reduce the revenue. + + "3. That there is no object of general utility to which these + surpluses can be applied. + + "4. That distribution is the only way to carry them off without + poisoning and corrupting the whole body politic. + + "Mr. B. disputed the whole of those propositions, and would + undertake to show each to be unfounded and erroneous. + + "1. The report says that the surplus will probably equal, on + the average, for the next eight years, the sum of $9,000,000 + beyond the just wants of the government; and in a subsequent + part it says, supposing the surplus to be distributed should + average $9,000,000, annually, as estimated, it would give to + each share $30,405, which, multiplied by the senators and + representatives of any State, would show the sum to which it + would be entitled. The amendment which has been reported to + carry this distribution into effect is to take effect for the + year 1835--the present year--and to continue till the 1st day + of January, 1843; of course it is inclusive of 1842, and makes + a period of eight years for the distribution to go on. The + amendment contains a blank, which is to be filled up with the + sum which is to be left in the treasury every year, to meet + contingent and unexpected demands and the report shows that this + blank is to be filled with the sum of $2,000,000. Here, then, + is the totality of these surpluses, eleven millions a year, + for eight consecutive years; but of which nine millions are + to be taken annually for distribution. Now, nine times eight + are seventy-two, so that here is a report setting forth the + enormous sum of $72,000,000 of mere surplus, after satisfying + all the just wants of the government, and leaving two millions + in the treasury, to be held up for distribution, and to excite + the people to clamor for their shares of such a great and + dazzling prize. At the same time, Mr. B. said, there would be + no such surplus. It was a delusive bait held out to whet the + appetite of the people for the spoils of their country; and + could never be realized, even if the amendment for authorizing + the distribution should now pass. The seventy-two millions could + never be found; they would exist nowhere but in this report, in + the author's imagination, and in the deluded hopes of an excited + community. The seventy-two millions could never be found; they + would turn out to be the 'fellows in Kendal green and buckram + suits,' which figured so largely in the imagination of Sir John + Falstaff--the two-and-fifty men in buckram which the valiant old + knight received upon his point, thus! [extending a pencil in + the attitude of defence]. The calculations of the author of the + report were wild, delusive, astonishing, incredible. He (Mr. B.) + could not limit himself to the epithet wild, for it was a clear + case of hallucination. + + "Mr. B. then took up the treasury report of Mr. Secretary + Woodbury, communicated at the commencement of the present + session of Congress, and containing the estimates required by + law of the expected income and expenditure for the present year, + and also for the year 1836. At pages 4 and 5 are the estimates + for the present year; the income estimated at $20,000,000, + the expenditures at $19,683,540; being a difference of only + some three hundred thousand dollars between the income and the + outlay; and such is the chance for nine millions taken, and two + left in the first year of the distribution. At pages 10, 14, 15, + the revenue for 1836 is computed; and, after going over all the + heads of expense, on which diminutions will probably be made, + he computes the income and outlay of the year at about equal; or + probably a little surplus to the amount of one million. These + are the estimates, said Mr. B., formed upon data, and coming + from an officer making reports upon his responsibility, and + for the legislative guidance of Congress; and to which we are + bound to give credence until they are shown to be incorrect. + Here, then, are the first two years of the eight disposed of, + and nothing found in them to divide. The last two years of the + term could be dispatched even more quickly, said Mr. B.; for + every body that understands the compromise act of March, 1833, + must know that, in the last two years of the operation of that + act, there would be an actual deficit in the treasury. Look + at the terms of the act! It proceeds by slow and insensible + degrees, making slight deductions once in two years, until the + years 1841 and 1842, when it ceases crawling, and commences + jumping; and leaps down, at two jumps, to twenty per centum on + the value of the articles which pay duty, which articles are + less than one half of our importations. Twenty per cent. upon + the amount of goods which will then pay duty will produce but + little, say twelve or thirteen millions, upon the basis of + sixty or seventy millions of dutiable articles imported then, + which only amount to forty-seven millions now. Then there will + be no surplus at all for one half the period of eight years: + the first two and the last two. In the middle period of four + years there will probably be a surplus of two or three millions; + but Mr. B. took issue upon all the allegations with respect + to it; as that there was no way to reduce the revenue without + disturbing the compromise act of March, 1833; that there was no + object of general utility to which it could be applied; and that + distribution was the only way to get rid of it. + + "Equally delusive, and profoundly erroneous, was the + gentleman's idea of the surplus which could be taken out of the + appropriations. True, that operation could be performed once, + and but once. The run of our treasury payments show that about + one quarter of the year's expenditure is not paid within the + year, but the first quarter of the next year, and thus could + be paid out of the revenue received in the first quarter of + the next year, even if the revenue of the last quarter of the + preceding year was thrown away. But this was a thing which could + only be done once. You might rely upon the first quarter, but + you could not upon the second, third, and fourth. There would + not be a dollar in the treasury at the end of four years, if + you deducted a quarter's amount four times successively. It + was a case, if a homely adage might be allowed, which would + well apply--you could not eat the cake and have it too. Mr. B. + submitted it, then, to the Senate, that, on the first point of + objection to the report, his issue was maintained. There was + no such surplus of nine millions a year for eight years, as + had been assumed, nor any thing near it; and this assumption + being the corner-stone of the whole edifice of the scheme of + distribution, it was sufficient to show the fallacy of that data + to blow the whole scheme into the empty air. + + "Mr. B. admonished the Senate to beware of ridicule. To pass a + solemn vote for amending the constitution, for the purpose of + enabling Congress to make distribution of surpluses of revenue, + and then find no surplus to distribute, might lessen the dignity + and diminish the weight of so grave a body. It might expose it + to ridicule; and that was a hard thing for public bodies, and + public men, to stand. The Senate had stood much in its time; + much in the latter part of Mr. Monroe's administration, when + the Washington Republican habitually denounced it as a faction, + and displayed many brilliant essays, written by no mean hand, + to prove that the epithet was well applied, though applied to a + majority. It had stood much, also, during the four years of the + second Mr. Adams's administration; as the surviving pages of the + defunct National Journal could still attest: but in all that + time it stood clear of ridicule; it did nothing upon which saucy + wit could lay its lash. Let it beware now! for the passage of + this amendment may expose it to untried peril; the peril of song + and caricature. And wo the Senate, farewell to its dignity, if + it once gets into the windows of the printshop, and becomes the + burden of the ballads which the milkmaids sing to their cows. + + "2. Mr. B. took up his second head of objection. The report + affirmed that there was no way to reduce the revenue before + the end of the year 1842, without violating the terms of the + compromise act of March, 1833. Mr. B. said he had opposed + that act when it was on its passage, and had then stated his + objections to it. It was certainly an extraordinary act, a + sort of new constitution for nine years, as he had heard it + felicitously called. It was made in an unusual manner, not + precisely by three men on an island on the coast of Italy, but + by two in some room of a boarding-house in this city; and then + pushed through Congress under a press of sail, and a duresse + of feeling; under the factitious cry of dissolution of the + Union, raised by those who had been declaring, on one hand, + that the tariff could not be reduced without dissolving the + Union; and on the other that it could not be kept up without + dissolving the same Union. The value of all such cries, Mr. B. + said, would be appreciated in future, when it was seen with how + much facility certain persons who had stood under the opposite + poles of the earth, as it were, on the subject of the tariff + had come together to compromise their opinions, and to lay the + tariff on the shelf for nine years! a period which covered two + presidential elections! That act was no favorite of his, but + he would let it alone; and thus leaving it to work out its + design for nine years, he would say there were ways to reduce + the revenue, very sensibly, without affecting the terms or the + spirit of that act. And here he would speak upon data. He had + the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Woodbury) to + declare that he believed he could reduce the revenue in this way + and upon imports to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars; + and he, Mr. B., should submit a resolution calling upon the + Secretary to furnish the details of this reduction to the Senate + at the commencement of their next stated session, that Congress + might act upon it. Further, Mr. B. would say, that it appeared + to him that the whole list of articles in the fifth section of + the act, amounting to thirty or forty in number, and which by + that section are to be free of duty in 1842, and which in his + opinion might be made free this day, and that not only without + injury to the manufacturers, but with such manifest advantage + to them, that, as an equivalent for it, and for the sake of + obtaining it, they ought to come forward of themselves, and + make a voluntary concession of reductions on some other points, + especially on some classes of woollen goods. + + "Having given Mr. Woodbury's authority for a reduction of + $500,000 on imports, Mr. B. would show another source from + which a much larger reduction could be made, and that without + affecting this famous act of March, 1833, in another and a + different quarter; it was in the Western quarter, the new + States, the public lands! The act of 1833 did not embrace this + source of revenue, and Congress was free to act upon it, and + to give the people of the new States the same relief on the + purchase of the article on which they chiefly paid revenue as + it had done to the old States in the reduction of the tariff. + Mr. B. did not go into the worn-out and exploded objections + to the reduction of the price of the lands which the report + had gathered up from their old sleeping places, and presented + again to the Senate. Speculators, monopolies, the fall in the + price of real estate all over the Union; these were exploded + fallacies which he was sorry to see paraded here again, and + which he should not detain the Senate to answer. Suffice it to + say, that there is no application made now, made heretofore, or + intended to be made, so far as he knew, to reduce the price of + new land! One dollar and a quarter was low enough for the first + choice of new lands; but it was not low enough for the second, + third, fourth, and fifth choices! It was not low enough for + the refuse lands which had been five, ten, twenty, forty years + in market; and which could find no purchaser at $1 25, for the + solid reason that they were worth but the half, the quarter, the + tenth part, of that sum. It was for such lands that reduction + of prices was sought, and had been sought for many years, and + would continue to be sought until it was obtained; for it was + impossible to believe that Congress would persevere in the + flagrant injustice of for ever refusing to reduce the price of + refuse and unsalable lands to their actual value. The policy of + President Jackson, communicated in his messages, Mr. B. said, + was the policy of wisdom and justice. He was for disposing of + the lands more for the purpose of promoting settlements, and + creating freeholders, than for the purpose of exacting revenue + from the meritorious class of citizens who cultivate the soil. + He would sell the lands at prices which would pay expenses--the + expense of acquiring them from the Indians, and surveying and + selling them; and this system of moderate prices with donations, + or nominal sales to actual settlers, would do justice to the new + States, and effect a sensible reduction in the revenue; enough + to prevent the necessity of amending the constitution to get rid + of nine million surpluses! But whether the price of lands was + reduced or not, Mr. B. said, the revenue from that source would + soon be diminished. The revenue had been exorbitant from the + sale of lands for three or four years past. And why? Precisely + because immense bodies of new lands, and much of it in the + States adapted to the production of the great staples which now + bear so high a price, have within that period, come into market; + but these fresh lands must soon be exhausted; the old and refuse + only remain for sale; and the revenue from that source will sink + down to its former usual amount, instead of remaining at three + millions a year for nine years, as the report assumes. + + "3. When he had thus shown that a diminution of revenue could + be effected, both on imports and on refuse and unsalable lands, + Mr. B. took up the third issue which he had joined with the + report; namely, the possibility of finding an object of general + utility on which the surpluses could be expended. The report + affirmed there was no such object; he, on the contrary, affirmed + that there were such; not one, but several, not only useful, + but necessary, not merely necessary, but exigent; not exigent + only, but in the highest possible degree indispensable and + essential. He alluded to the whole class of measures connected + with the general and permanent defence of the Union! In peace, + prepare for war! is the admonition of wisdom in all ages and + in all nations; and sorely and grievously has our America + heretofore paid for the neglect of that admonition. She has + paid for it in blood, in money, and in shame. Are we prepared + now? And is there any reason why we should not prepare now? + Look at your maritime coast, from Passamaquoddy Bay to Florida + point; your gulf coast, from Florida point to the Sabine; your + lake frontier, in its whole extent. What is the picture? Almost + destitute of forts; and, it might be said, quite destitute of + armament. Look at your armories and arsenals--too few and too + empty; and the West almost destitute! Look at your militia, many + of them mustering with corn stalks; the States deficient in + arms, especially in field artillery, and in swords and pistols + for their cavalry! Look at your navy; slowly increasing under + an annual appropriation of half a million a year, instead of a + whole million, at which it was fixed soon after the late war, + and from which it was reduced some years ago, when money ran + low in the treasury! Look at your dock-yards and navy-yards; + thinly dotted along the maritime coast, and hardly seen at all + on the gulf coast, where the whole South, and the great West, + so imperiously demand naval protection! Such is the picture; + such the state of our country; such its state at this time, when + even the most unobservant should see something to make us think + of defence! Such is the state of our defences now, with which, + oh! strange and wonderful contradiction! the administration is + now reproached, reviled, flouted, and taunted, by those who + go for distribution, and turn their backs on defence! and who + complain of the President for leaving us in this condition, when + five years ago, in the year 1829, he recommended the annual + sum of $250,000 for arming the fortifications (which Congress + refused to give), and who now are for taking the money out of + the treasury, to be divided among the people; instead of turning + it all to the great object of the general and permanent defence + of the Union, for which they were so solicitous, so clamorous, + so feelingly alive, and patriotically sensitive, even one short + month ago. + + "Does not the present state of the country (said Mr. B.) call + for defence? and is not this the propitious time for putting + it in defence? and will not that object absorb every dollar + of real surplus that can be found in the treasury for these + eight years of plenty, during which we are to be afflicted with + seventy-two millions of surplus? Let us see. Let us take one + single branch of the general system of defence, and see how it + stands, and what it would cost to put it in the condition which + the safety and the honor of the country demanded. He spoke of + the fortifications, and selected that branch, because he had + data to go upon; data to which the senator from South Carolina, + the author of this report, could not object. + + "The design (said Mr. B.) of fortifying the coasts of the + United States is as old as the Union itself. Our documents + are full of executive recommendations, departmental reports, + and reports of committees upon this subject, all urging this + great object upon the attention of Congress. From 1789, through + every succeeding administration, the subject was presented to + Congress; but it was only after the late war, and when the + evils of a defenceless coast were fresh before the eyes of the + people, that the subject was presented in the most impressive, + persevering, and systematic form. An engineer of the first rank + (General Bernard) was taken into our service from the school of + the great Napoleon. A resolution of the House of Representatives + called on the War Department for a plan of defence, and a + designation of forts adequate to the protection of the country; + and upon this call examinations were made, estimates framed, + and forts projected for the whole maritime coast from Savannah + to Boston. The result was the presentation, in 1821, of a + plan for ninety forts upon that part of the coast; namely, + twenty-four of the first class; twenty-three of the second; + and forty-three of the third. Under the administration of Mr. + Monroe, and the urgent recommendations of the then head of the + War Department (Mr. Calhoun), the construction of these forts + was commenced, and pushed with spirit and activity; but, owing + to circumstances not necessary now to be detailed, the object + declined in the public favor, lost a part of its popularity, + perhaps justly, and has since proceeded so slowly that, at the + end of twenty years from the late war, no more than thirteen of + these forts have been constructed; namely, eight of the first + class, three of the second, and two of the third; and of these + thirteen constructed, none are armed; almost all of them are + without guns or carriages, and more ready for the occupation of + an enemy than for the defence of ourselves. This is the state + of fortifications on the maritime coast, exclusive of the New + England coast to the north of Boston, exclusive of Cape Cod, + south of Boston, and exclusive of the Atlantic coast of Florida. + The lake frontier is untouched. The gulf frontier, almost two + thousand miles in length, barely is dotted with a few forts in + the neighborhood of Pensacola, New Orleans, and Mobile; all the + rest of the coast may be set down as naked and defenceless. + This was our condition. Now, Mr. B. did not venture to give an + opinion that the whole plan of fortifications developed in the + reports of 1821 should be carried into effect; but he would + say, and that most confidently, that much of it ought to be; + and it would be the business of Congress to decide on each fort + in making a specific appropriation for it. He would also say + that many forts would be found to be necessary which were not + embraced in that plan; for it did not touch the lake coast, and + the gulf coast, nor the New England coast, north of Boston, nor + any point of the land frontier. Without going into the question + at all, of how many were necessary, or where they should be + placed, it was sufficient to show that there were enough + wanting, beyond dispute, to constitute an object of utility, + worthy of the national expenditure; and sufficient to absorb, + not nine millions of annual surplus, to be sure, but about as + many millions of surplus as would ever be found, and the bank + stock into the bargain. The thirteen forts constructed had cost + twelve millions one hundred and thirteen thousand dollars; near + one million of dollars each. But this was for construction + only; the armament was still to follow; and for this object + two millions were estimated in 1821 for the ninety forts then + recommended; and of that two millions it may be assumed that but + little has been granted by Congress. So much for fortifications; + in itself a single branch of defence, and sufficient to absorb + many millions. But there were many other branches of defence + which, Mr. B. said, he would barely enumerate. There was the + navy, including its gradual increase, its dock-yards, its + navy-yards; then the armories and arsenals, which were so much + wanted in the South and West, and especially in the South, + for a reason (besides those which apply to foreign enemies) + which need not be named; then the supply of arms to the States, + especially field artillery, swords, and pistols, for which + an annual but inadequate appropriation had been made for so + long a time that he believed the States had almost forgot the + subject. Here are objects enough, Mr. President, exclaimed + Mr. B., to absorb every dollar of our surplus, and the bank + stock besides. The surpluses, he was certain, would be wholly + insufficient, and the bank stock, by a solemn resolution of + the two Houses of Congress, should be devoted to the object. + As a fund was set apart, and held sacred and inviolable, for + the payment of the public debt so; should a fund be now created + for national defence, and this bank stock should be the first + and most sacred item put into it. It is the only way to save + that stock from becoming the prey of incessant contrivances to + draw money from the treasury. Mr. B. said that he intended to + submit resolutions, requesting the President to cause to be + communicated to the next Congress full information upon all the + points that he had touched; the probable revenue and expenditure + for the next eight years; the plan and expense of fortifying + the coast; the navy, and every other point connected with the + general and permanent defence of the Union, with a view to let + Congress take it up, upon system, and with a design to complete + it without further delay. And he demanded, why hurry on this + amendment before that information can come in? + + "Now is the auspicious moment, said Mr. B., for the republic + to rouse from the apathy into which it has lately sunk on the + subject of national defence. The public debt is paid; a sum of + six or seven millions will come from the bank; some surpluses + may occur; let the national defence become the next great + object after the payment of the debt, and all spare money go + to that purpose. If further stimulus were wanted, it might be + found in the present aspect of our foreign affairs, and in the + reproaches, the taunts, and in the offensive insinuations which + certain gentlemen have been indulging in for two months with + respect to the defenceless state of the coast; and which they + attribute to the negligence of the administration. Certainly + such gentlemen will not take that money for distribution, for + the immediate application of which their defenceless country is + now crying aloud, and stretching forth her imploring hands. + + "Mr. B. would here avail himself of a voice more potential than + his own to enforce attention to the great object of national + defence, the revival of which he was now attempting. It was + a voice which the senator from South Carolina, the author of + this proposition to squander in distributions the funds which + should be sacred to defence, would instantly recognize. It was + an extract from a message communicated to Congress, December 3, + 1822, by President Monroe. Whether considered under the relation + of similarity which it bears to the language and sentiments of + cotemporaneous reports from the then head of the War Department; + the position which the writer of those reports then held in + relation to President Monroe; the right which he possessed, + as Secretary of War, to know, at least, what was put into the + message in relation to measures connected with his department; + considered under any and all of these aspects, the extracts + which he was about to read might be considered as expressing + the sentiments, if not speaking the words, of the gentleman who + now sees no object of utility in providing for the defence of + his country; and who then plead the cause of that defence with + so much truth and energy, and with such commendable excess of + patriotic zeal. + + "Mr. B. then read as follows: + + "'Should war break out in any of those countries (the European), + who can foretell the extent to which it may be carried, or + the desolation which may spread? Exempt as we are from these + causes (of European civil wars), our internal tranquillity is + secure; and distant as we are from the troubled scene, and + faithful to just principles in regard to other powers, we might + reasonably presume that we should not be molested by them. This, + however, ought not to be calculated on as certain. Unprovoked + injuries are often inflicted, and even the peculiar felicity of + our situation might, with some, be a cause of excitement and + aggression. The history of the late wars in Europe furnishes + a complete demonstration that no system of conduct, however + correct in principle, can protect neutral powers from injury + from any party; that a defenceless position and distinguished + love of peace are the surest invitations to war; and that there + is no way to avoid it, other than by being always prepared, + and willing, for just cause, to meet it. If there be a people + on earth, whose more especial duty it is to be at all times + prepared to defend the rights with which they are blessed, and + to surpass all others in sustaining the necessary burdens, and + in submitting to sacrifices to make such preparations, it is + undoubtedly the people of these States.' + + "Mr. B. having read thus far, stopped to make a remark, and but + a remark, upon a single sentiment in it. He would not weaken + the force and energy of the whole passage by going over it in + detail; but he invoked attention upon the last sentiment--our + peculiar duty, so strongly painted, to sustain burdens, and + submit to sacrifices, to accomplish the noble object of putting + our country into an attitude of defence! The ease with which we + can prepare for the same defence now, by the facile operation of + applying to that purpose surpluses of revenue and bank stock, + for which we have no other use, was the point on which he would + invoke and arrest the Senate's attention. + + "Mr. B. resumed his reading, and read the next paragraph, + which enumerated all the causes which might lead to general + war in Europe, and our involvement in it, and concluded with + the declaration 'That the reasons for pushing forward all our + measures of defence, with the utmost vigor, appear to me to + acquire new force.' And then added, these causes for European + war are now in as great force as then; the danger of our + involvement is more apparent now than then; the reasons for + sensibility to our national honor are nearer now than then; + and upon all the principles of the passage from which he was + reading, the reasons for pushing forward all our measures of + defence with the utmost vigor, possessed far more force in this + present year 1835, than they did in the year 1822. + + "Mr. B. continued to read: + + "'The United States owe to the world a great example, and by + means thereof, to the cause of liberty and humanity a generous + support. They have so far succeeded to the satisfaction of the + virtuous and enlightened of every country. There is no reason to + doubt that their whole movement will be regulated by a sacred + regard to principle, all our institutions being founded on that + basis. The ability to support our own cause, under any trial + to which it may be exposed, is the great point on which the + public solicitude rests. It has often been charged against free + governments, that they have neither the foresight nor the virtue + to provide at the proper season for great emergencies; that + their course is improvident and expensive; that war will always + find them unprepared; and, whatever may be its calamities, that + its terrible warnings will be disregarded and forgotten as soon + as peace returns. I have full confidence that this charge, so + far as it relates to the United States, will be shown to be + utterly destitute of truth.' + + "Mr. B., as he closed the book, said, he would make a few + remarks upon some of the points in this passage, which he had + last read--the reproach so often charged upon free governments + for want of foresight and virtue, their improvidence and + expensiveness, their proneness to disregard and forget in peace + the warning lessons of the most terrible calamities of war. And + he would take the liberty to suggest that, of all the mortal + beings now alive upon this earth, the author of the report under + discussion ought to be the last to disregard and to forget the + solemn and impressive admonition which the passage conveyed! the + last to so act as to subject his government to the mortifying + charge which has been so often cast upon them! the last to + subject the virtue of the people to the humiliating trial of + deciding between the defence and the plunder of their country! + + "Mr. B. dwelt a moment on another point in the passage which + he had read--the great example which this republic owed to the + world, and to the cause of free governments, to prove itself + capable of supporting its cause under every trial; and that by + providing in peace for the dangers of war. It was a striking + point in the passage, and presented a grand and philosophic + conception to the reflecting mind. The example to be shown to + the world, and the duty of this republic to exhibit it, was an + elevated and patriotic conception, and worthy of the genius + which then presided over the War Department. But what is the + example which we are now required to exhibit? It is that of a + people preferring the spoils of their country to its defence! + It is that of the electioneerer, going from city to city, from + house to house, even to the uninformed tenant of the distant + hamlet, who has no means of detecting the fallacies which are + brought from afar to deceive his understanding: it is the + example of this electioneerer, with slate and pencil in his + hand (and here Mr. B. took up an old book cover, and a pencil, + and stooped over it to make figures, as if working out a little + sum in arithmetic), it is the example of this electioneerer, + offering for distribution that money which should be sacred to + the defence of his country; and pointing out for overthrow, at + the next election, every candidate for office who should be + found in opposition to this wretched and deceptive scheme of + distribution. This is the example which it is proposed that we + should now exhibit. And little did it enter into his (Mr. B.'s) + imagination, about the time that message was written, that it + should fall to his lot to plead for the defence of his country + against the author of this report. He admired the grandeur of + conception which the reports of the war office then displayed. + He said he differed from the party with whom he then acted, + in giving a general, though not a universal, support to the + Secretary of War. He looked to him as one who, when mellowed by + age and chastened by experience, might be among the most admired + Presidents that ever filled the presidential chair. [Mr. B., by + a _lapsus linguæ_, said throne, but corrected the expression on + its echo from the galleries.] + + "Mr. B. said there was an example which it was worthy to + imitate: that of France; her coast defended by forts and + batteries, behind which the rich city reposed in safety--the + tranquil peasant cultivated his vine in security--while the + proud navy of England sailed innoxious before them, a spectacle + of amusement, not an object of terror. And there was an example + to be avoided: the case of our own America during the late war; + when the approach of a British squadron, upon any point of our + extended coast, was the signal for flight, for terror, for + consternation; when the hearts of the brave and the almost naked + hands of heroes were the sole reliance for defence; and where + those hearts and those hands could not come, the sacred soil of + our country was invaded; the ruffian soldier and the rude sailor + became the insolent masters of our citizens' houses; their + footsteps marked by the desolation of fields, the conflagration + of cities, the flight of virgins, the violation of matrons! the + blood of fathers, husbands, sons! This is the example which we + should avoid! + + "But the amendment is to be temporary: it is only to last until + 1842. What an idea!--a temporary alteration in a constitution + made for endless ages! But let no one think it will be + temporary, if once adopted. No! if the people once come to taste + that blood; if they once bring themselves to the acceptance + of money from the treasury they are gone for ever. They will + take that money in all time to come; and he that promises + most, receives most votes. The corruption of the Romans, the + debauchment of the voters, the venality of elections, commenced + with the Tribunitial distribution of corn out of the public + granaries; it advanced to the distribution of the spoils of + foreign nations, brought home to Rome by victorious generals and + divided out among the people; it ended in bringing the spoils + of the country into the canvass for the consulship, and in + putting up the diadem of empire itself to be knocked down to the + hammer of the auctioneer. In our America there can be no spoils + of conquered nations to distribute. Her own treasury--her own + lands--can alone furnish the fund. Begin at once, no matter how, + or upon what--surplus revenue, the proceeds of the lands, or the + lands themselves--no matter; the progress and the issue of the + whole game is as inevitable as it is obvious. Candidates bid, + the voters listen; and a plundered and pillaged country--the + empty skin of an immolated victim--is the prize and the spoil of + the last and the highest bidder." + +The proposition to amend the constitution to admit of this +distribution was never brought to a vote. In fact it was never +mentioned again after the day of the above discussion. It seemed +to have support from no source but that of its origin; and very +soon events came to scatter the basis on which the whole stress +and conclusion of the report lay. Instead of a surplus of nine +millions to cover the period of two presidential elections, there +was a deficit in the treasury in the period of the first one; and +the government reduced to the humiliating resorts to obtain money +to keep itself in motion--mendicant expeditions to Europe to borrow +money, returning without it--and paper money struck under the name +of treasury notes. But this attempt to amend the constitution to +permit a distribution, becomes a material point in the history of +the working of our government, seeing that a distribution afterwards +took place without the amendment to permit it. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXIX. + +COMMENCEMENT OF TWENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS--PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. + + +The following was the list of the members: + + SENATORS: + + MAINE--Ether Shepley, John Ruggles. + + NEW HAMPSHIRE--Isaac Hill, Henry Hubbard. + + MASSACHUSETTS--Daniel Webster, John Davis. + + RHODE ISLAND--Nehemiah R. Knight, Asher Robbins. + + CONNECTICUT--Gideon Tomlinson, Nathan Smith. + + VERMONT--Samuel Prentiss, Benjamin Swift. + + NEW-YORK--Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, Silas Wright, jun. + + NEW JERSEY--Samuel L. Southard, Garret D. Wall. + + PENNSYLVANIA--James Buchanan, Samuel McKean. + + DELAWARE--John M. Clayton, Arnold Naudain. + + MARYLAND--Robert H. Goldsborough, Jos. Kent. + + VIRGINIA--Benjamin Watkins Leigh, John Tyler. + + NORTH CAROLINA--Bedford Brown, Willie P. Mangum. + + SOUTH CAROLINA--J. C. Calhoun, William C. Preston. + + GEORGIA--Alfred Cuthbert, John P. King. + + KENTUCKY--Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden. + + TENNESSEE--Felix Grundy, Hugh L. White. + + OHIO--Thomas Ewing, Thomas Morris. + + LOUISIANA--Alexander Porter, Robert C. Nicholas. + + INDIANA--Wm. Hendricks, John Tipton. + + MISSISSIPPI--John Black, Robert J. Walker. + + ILLINOIS--Elias K. Kane, John M. Robinson. + + ALABAMA--Wm. R. King, Gabriel P. Moore. + + MISSOURI--Lewis F. Linn, Thomas H. Benton. + + REPRESENTATIVES: + + MAINE--Jeremiah Bailey, George Evans, John Fairfield, Joseph + Hall, Leonard Jarvis, Moses Mason, Gorham Parks, Francis O. J. + Smith--8. + + NEW HAMPSHIRE--Benning M. Bean, Robert Burns, Samuel Cushman, + Franklin Pierce, Jos. Weeks--5. + + MASSACHUSETTS--John Quincy Adams, Nathaniel B. Borden, George + N. Briggs, William B. Calhoun, Caleb Cushing, George Grennell, + jr., Samuel Hoar, William Jackson, Abbot Lawrence, Levi Lincoln, + Stephen C. Phillips, John Reed--12. + + RHODE ISLAND--Dutee J. Pearce, W. Sprague--2. + + CONNECTICUT--Elisha Haley, Samuel Ingham, Andrew T. Judson, + Lancelot Phelps, Isaac Toucey, Zalmon Wildman--6. + + VERMONT--Heman Allen, Horace Everett, Hiland Hall, Henry F. + Janes, William Slade--5. + + NEW-YORK--Samuel Barton, Saml. Beardsley, Abraham Bockee, + Matthias J. Bovee, John W. Brown, C. C. Cambreleng, Graham H. + Chapin, Timothy Childs, John Cramer, Ulysses F. Doubleday, + Valentine Efner, Dudley Farlin, Philo C. Fuller, William K. + Fuller, Ransom H. Gillet, Francis Granger, Gideon Hard, Abner + Hazeltine, Hiram P. Hunt, Abel Huntington, Gerrit Y. Lansing, + George W. Lay, Gideon Lee, Joshua Lee, Stephen B. Leonard, + Thomas C. Love, Abijah Mann, jr., William Mason, John McKeon, + Ely Moore, Sherman Page, Joseph Reynolds, David Russell, William + Seymour, Nicholas Sickles, William Taylor, Joel Turrill, Aaron + Vanderpoel, Aaron Ward, Daniel Wardwell--40. + + NEW JERSEY--Philemon Dickerson, Samuel Fowler, Thomas Lee, James + Parker, Ferdinand S. Schenck, William N. Shinn--6. + + PENNSYLVANIA--Joseph B. Anthony, Michael W. Ash, John Banks, + Andrew Beaumont, Andrew Buchanan, George Chambers, William P. + Clark, Edward Darlington, Harmar Denny, Jacob Fry, jr., John + Galbraith, James Harper, Samuel S. Harrison, Joseph Henderson, + William Hiester, Edward B. Hubley, Joseph R. Ingersoll, John + Klingensmith, jr., John Laporte, Henry Logan, Job Mann, + Thomas M. T. McKennan, Jesse Miller, Matthias Morris, Henry + A. Muhlenberg, David Potts, jr., Joel B. Sutherland, David D. + Wagener.--28. + + DELAWARE.--John J. Milligan.--1. + + MARYLAND.--Benjamin C. Howard, Daniel Jenifer, Isaac McKim, + James A. Pearce, John N. Steele, Francis Thomas, James Turner, + George C. Washington.--8. + + VIRGINIA.--James M. H. Beale, James W. Bouldin, Nathaniel H. + Claiborne, Walter Coles, Robert Craig, George C. Dromgoole, + James Garland, G. W. Hopkins, Joseph Johnson, John W. Jones, + George Loyall, Edward Lucas, John Y. Mason, William McComas, + Charles F. Mercer, William S. Morgan, John M. Patton, John + Roane, John Robertson, John Taliaferro, Henry A. Wise.--21. + + NORTH CAROLINA.--Jesse A. Bynum, Henry W. Connor, Edmund + Deberry, James Graham, Micajah T. Hawkins, James J. McKay, + William Montgomery, Ebenezer Pettigrew, Abraham Rencher, + William B. Shepard, Augustine H. Shepperd, Jesse Speight, Lewis + Williams.--13. + + SOUTH CAROLINA.--Robert B. Campbell, William J. Grayson, John + K. Griffin, James H. Hammond, Richard J. Manning, Francis W. + Pickens, Henry L. Pinckney, James Rogers, Waddy Thompson, jr.--9. + + GEORGIA.--Jesse F. Cleveland, John Coffee, Thomas Glasscock, + Seaton Grantland, Charles E. Haynes, Hopkins Holsey, Jabez + Jackson, George W. Owens, George W. B. Towns.--9. + + ALABAMA.--Reuben Chapman, Joab Lawler, Dixon H. Lewis, Francis + S. Lyon, Joshua L. Martin.--5. + + MISSISSIPPI.--David Dickson, J. F. H. Claiborne.--2. + + LOUISIANA.--Rice Garland, Henry Johnson, Eleazer W. Ripley.--3. + + TENNESSEE.--John Bell, Samuel Bunch, William B. Carter, William + C. Dunlap, John B. Forester, Adam Huntsman, Cave Johnson, Luke + Lea, Abram P. Maury, Balie Peyton, James K. Polk, E. J. Shields, + James Standefer.--13. + + KENTUCKY.--Chilton Allan, Lynn Boyd, John Calhoun, John + Chambers, Richard French, Wm. J. Graves, Benjamin Hardin, + James Harlan, Albert G. Hawes, Richard M. Johnson, Joseph R. + Underwood, John White, Sherrod Williams.--13. + + MISSOURI.--Wm. H. Ashley, Albert G. Harrison.--2. + + ILLINOIS.--Zadok Casey, William L. May, John Reynolds.--3. + + INDIANA.--Ratliff Boon, John Carr, John W. Davis, Edward A. + Hannegan, George L. Kinnard, Amos Lane, Jonathan McCarty.--7. + + OHIO.--William K. Bond, John Chaney, Thomas Corwin, Joseph H. + Crane, Thomas L. Hamer, Elias Howell, Benjamin Jones, William + Kennon, Daniel Kilgore, Sampson Mason, Jeremiah McLene, William + Patterson, Jonathan Sloane, David Spangler, Bellamy Storer, + John Thompson, Samuel F. Vinton, Taylor Webster, Elisha + Whittlesey.--19. + + DELEGATES. + + ARKANSAS TERRITORY.--Ambrose H. Sevier. + + FLORIDA TERRITORY.--Joseph M. White. + + MICHIGAN TERRITORY.--George W. Jones. + +Mr. James K. Polk of Tennessee, was elected speaker of the House, +and by a large majority over the late speaker, Mr. John Bell of +the same State. The vote stood one hundred and thirty-two to +eighty-four, and was considered a test of the administration +strength, Mr. Polk being supported by that party, and Mr. Bell +having become identified with those who, in siding with Mr. Hugh L. +White as a candidate for the presidency, were considered as having +divided from the democratic party. Among the eminent names missed +from the list of the House of Representatives, were: Mr. Wayne of +Georgia, appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court of the United +States; and Mr. Edward Everett of Massachusetts, who declined a +re-election. + +The state of our relations with France, in the continued non-payment +of the stipulated indemnity, was the prominent feature in the +President's message; and the subject itself becoming more serious +in the apparent indisposition in Congress to sustain his views, +manifested in the loss of the fortification bill, through the +disagreement of the two Houses. The obligation to pay was admitted, +and the money even voted for that purpose; but offence was taken at +the President's message, and payment refused until an apology should +be made. The President had already shown, on its first intimation, +that no offence was intended, nor any disrespect justly deducible +from the language that he had used; and he was now peremptory in +refusing to make the required apology; and had instructed the United +States' _chargé d'affaires_ to demand the money; and, if not paid, +to leave France immediately. The ministers of both countries had +previously withdrawn, and the last link in the chain of diplomatic +communication was upon the point of being broken. The question +having narrowed down to this small point, the President deemed +it proper to give a retrospective view of it, to justify his +determination, neither to apologize nor to negotiate further. He +said: + + "On entering upon the duties of my station, I found the United + States an unsuccessful applicant to the justice of France, for + the satisfaction of claims, the validity of which was never + questionable, and has now been most solemnly admitted by France + herself. The antiquity of these claims, their high justice, and + the aggravating circumstances out of which they arose, are too + familiar to the American people to require description. It is + sufficient to say, that, for a period of ten years and upwards, + our commerce was, with but little interruption, the subject of + constant aggressions, on the part of France--aggressions, the + ordinary features of which were condemnations of vessels and + cargoes, under arbitrary decrees, adopted in contravention, as + well of the laws of nations as of treaty stipulations, burnings + on the high seas, and seizures and confiscations, under special + imperial rescripts, in the ports of other nations occupied by + the armies, or under the control of France. Such, it is now + conceded, is the character of the wrongs we suffered; wrongs, + in many cases, so flagrant that even their authors never denied + our right to reparation. Of the extent of these injuries, some + conception may be formed from the fact that, after the burning + of a large amount at sea, and the necessary deterioration in + other cases, by long detention, the American property so seized + and sacrificed at forced sales, excluding what was adjudged + to privateers, before or without condemnation, brought into + the French treasury upwards of twenty-four millions of francs, + besides large custom-house duties. + + "The subject had already been an affair of twenty years' + uninterrupted negotiation, except for a short time, when France + was overwhelmed by the military power of united Europe. During + this period, whilst other nations were extorting from her + payment of their claims at the point of the bayonet, the United + States intermitted their demand for justice, out of respect to + the oppressed condition of a gallant people, to whom they felt + under obligations for fraternal assistance in their own days of + suffering and of peril. The bad effects of these protracted and + unavailing discussions, as well upon our relations with France + as upon our national character, were obvious; and the line of + duty was, to my mind, equally so. This was, either to insist + upon the adjustment of our claims, within a reasonable period, + or to abandon them altogether. I could not doubt that, by this + course, the interest and honor of both countries would be best + consulted. Instructions were, therefore, given in this spirit to + the minister, who was sent out once more to demand reparation. + Upon the meeting of Congress, in December, 1829, I felt it my + duty to speak of these claims; and the delays of France, in + terms calculated to call the serious attention of both countries + to the subject. The then French Ministry took exception to the + message, on the ground of its containing a menace, under which + it was not agreeable to the French government to negotiate. The + American minister, of his own accord, refuted the construction + which was attempted to be put upon the message, and, at the + same time, called to the recollection of the French ministry, + that the President's message was a communication addressed, + not to foreign governments, but to the Congress of the United + States, in which it was enjoined upon him, by the constitution, + to lay before that body information of the state of the Union, + comprehending its foreign as well as its domestic relations; and + that if, in the discharge of this duty, he felt it incumbent + upon him to summon the attention of Congress in due time to what + might be the possible consequences of existing difficulties with + any foreign government, he might fairly be supposed to do so, + under a sense of what was due from him in a frank communication + with another branch of his own government, and not from any + intention of holding a menace over a foreign power. The views + taken by him received my approbation, the French government was + satisfied, and the negotiation was continued. It terminated + in the treaty of July 4, 1831, recognizing the justice of + our claims, in part, and promising payment to the amount of + twenty-five millions of francs, in six annual instalments. + + "The ratifications of this treaty were exchanged at Washington, + on the 2d of February, 1832; and, in five days thereafter, + it was laid before Congress, who immediately passed the acts + necessary, on our part, to secure to France the commercial + advantages conceded to her in the compact. The treaty had + previously been solemnly ratified by the King of the French, + in terms which are certainly not mere matters of form, and of + which the translation is as follows: 'We, approving the above + convention, in all and each of the depositions which are + contained in it, do declare by ourselves, as well as by our + heirs and successors, that it is accepted, approved, ratified, + and confirmed; and by these presents, signed by our hand, we + do accept, approve, ratify, and confirm it; promising, on the + faith and word of a king, to observe it, and to cause it to be + observed inviolably, without ever contravening it, or suffering + it to be contravened, directly or indirectly, for any cause, or + under any pretence whatsoever.' + + "Official information of the exchange of ratifications in + the United States reached Paris, whilst the Chambers were + in session. The extraordinary, and, to us, injurious delays + of the French government, in their action upon the subject + of its fulfilment, have been heretofore stated to Congress, + and I have no disposition to enlarge upon them here. It is + sufficient to observe that the then pending session was allowed + to expire, without even an effort to obtain the necessary + appropriations--that the two succeeding ones were also suffered + to pass away without any thing like a serious attempt to + obtain a decision upon the subject; and that it was not until + the fourth session--almost three years after the conclusion + of the treaty, and more than two years after the exchange of + ratifications--that the bill for the execution of the treaty + was pressed to a vote, and rejected. In the mean time, the + government of the United States, having full confidence that + a treaty entered into and so solemnly ratified by the French + king, would be executed in good faith, and not doubting that + provision would be made for the payment of the first instalment, + which was to become due on the second day of February, 1833, + negotiated a draft for the amount through the Bank of the + United States. When this draft was presented by the holder, + with the credentials required by the treaty to authorize him + to receive the money, the government of France allowed it to + be protested. In addition to the injury in the non-payment of + the money by France, conformably to her engagement, the United + States were exposed to a heavy claim on the part of the bank, + under pretence of damages, in satisfaction of which, that + institution seized upon, and still retains, an equal amount of + the public moneys. Congress was in session when the decision of + the Chambers reached Washington; and an immediate communication + of this apparently final decision of France not to fulfil the + stipulations of the treaty, was the course naturally to be + expected from the President. The deep tone of dissatisfaction + which pervaded the public mind, and the correspondent excitement + produced in Congress by only a general knowledge of the result, + rendered it more than probable, that a resort to immediate + measures of redress would be the consequence of calling the + attention of that body to the subject. Sincerely desirous of + preserving the pacific relations which had so long existed + between the two countries, I was anxious to avoid this course if + I could be satisfied that, by doing so, neither the interests + nor the honor of my country would be compromitted. Without + the fullest assurances upon that point, I could not hope to + acquit myself of the responsibility to be incurred in suffering + Congress to adjourn without laying the subject before them. + Those received by me were believed to be of that character. + + "The expectations justly founded upon the promises thus solemnly + made to this government by that of France, were not realized. + The French Chambers met on the 31st of July, 1834, soon after + the election, and although our minister in Paris urged the + French ministry to press the subject before them, they declined + doing so. He next insisted that the Chambers, if prorogued + without acting on the subject, should be reassembled at a period + so early that their action on the treaty might be known in + Washington prior to the meeting of Congress. This reasonable + request was not only declined, but the Chambers were prorogued + on the 29th of December; a day so late, that their decision, + however urgently pressed, could not, in all probability, be + obtained in time to reach Washington before the necessary + adjournment of Congress by the constitution. The reasons given + by the ministry for refusing to convoke the Chambers, at an + earlier period, were afterwards shown not to be insuperable, + by their actual convocation, on the first of December, under a + special call for domestic purposes, which fact, however, did not + become known to this Government until after the commencement of + the last session of Congress. + + "Thus disappointed in our just expectations, it became my + imperative duty to consult with Congress in regard to the + expediency of a resort to retaliatory measures, in case the + stipulations of the treaty should not be speedily complied with; + and to recommend such as, in my judgment, the occasion called + for. To this end, an unreserved communication of the case, + in all its aspects, became indispensable. To have shrunk, in + making it, from saying all that was necessary to its correct + understanding, and that the truth would justify, for fear of + giving offence to others, would have been unworthy of us. + To have gone, on the other hand, a single step further, for + the purpose of wounding the pride of a government and people + with whom we had so many motives of cultivating relations of + amity and reciprocal advantage, would have been unwise and + improper. Admonished by the past of the difficulty of making + even the simplest statement of our wrongs, without disturbing + the sensibilities of those who had, by their position, become + responsible for their redress, and earnestly desirous of + preventing further obstacles from that source, I went out of + my way to preclude a construction of the message, by which the + recommendation that was made to Congress might be regarded as a + menace to France, in not only disavowing such a design, but in + declaring that her pride and her power were too well known to + expect any thing from her fears. The message did not reach Paris + until more than a month after the Chambers had been in session; + and such was the insensibility of the ministry to our rightful + claims and just expectations, that our minister had been + informed that the matter, when introduced, would not be pressed + as a cabinet measure. + + "Although the message was not officially communicated to the + French government, and notwithstanding the declaration to the + contrary which it contained, the French ministry decided to + consider the conditional recommendation of reprisals a menace + and an insult, which the honor of the nation made it incumbent + on them to resent. The measures resorted to by them to evince + their sense of the supposed indignity were, the immediate + recall of their minister at Washington, the offer of passports + to the American minister at Paris, and a public notice to the + legislative chambers that all diplomatic intercourse with the + United States had been suspended. + + "Having, in this manner, vindicated the dignity of France, + they next proceeded to illustrate her justice. To this end a + bill was immediately introduced into the Chamber of Deputies, + proposing to make the appropriations necessary to carry into + effect the treaty. As this bill subsequently passed into a law, + the provisions of which now constitute the main subject of + difficulty between the two nations, it becomes my duty, in order + to place the subject before you in a clear light, to trace the + history of its passage, and to refer, with some particularity, + to the proceedings and discussions in regard to it. The Minister + of Finance, in his opening speech, alluded to the measures + which had been adopted to resent the supposed indignity, and + recommended the execution of the treaty as a measure required + by the honor and justice of France. He, as the organ of the + ministry, declared the message, so long as it had not received + the sanction of Congress, a mere expression of the personal + opinion of the President, for which neither the government + nor people of the United States were responsible; and that an + engagement had been entered into, for the fulfilment of which + the honor of France was pledged. Entertaining these views, the + single condition which the French ministry proposed to annex to + the payment of the money was, that it should not be made until + it was ascertained that the government of the United States + had done nothing to injure the interests of France; or, in + other words, that no steps had been authorized by Congress of a + hostile character towards France. + + "What the disposition or action of Congress might be, was then + unknown to the French Cabinet. But, on the 14th of January, + the Senate resolved that it was, at that time inexpedient + to adopt any legislative measures in regard to the state of + affairs between the United States and France, and no action + on the subject had occurred in the House of Representatives. + These facts were known in Paris prior to the 28th of March, + 1835, when the committee, to whom the bill of indemnification + had been referred, reported it to the Chamber of Deputies. + That committee substantially re-echoed the sentiments of the + ministry, declared that Congress had set aside the proposition + of the President, and recommended the passage of the bill, + without any other restriction than that originally proposed. + Thus was it known to the French ministry and chambers that if + the position assumed by them, and which had been so frequently + and solemnly announced as the only one compatible with the honor + of France, was maintained, and the bill passed as originally + proposed, the money would be paid, and there would be an end of + this unfortunate controversy. + + "But this cheering prospect was soon destroyed by an amendment + introduced into the bill at the moment of its passage, providing + that the money should not be paid until the French government + had received satisfactory explanations of the President's + message of the 2d December, 1834; and, what is still more + extraordinary, the president of the council of ministers adopted + this amendment, and consented to its incorporation in the + bill. In regard to a supposed insult which had been formally + resented by the recall of their minister, and the offer of + passports to ours, they now, for the first time, proposed to + ask explanations. Sentiments and propositions, which they had + declared could not justly be imputed to the government or + people of the United States, are set up as obstacles to the + performance of an act of conceded justice to that government and + people. They had declared that the honor of France required the + fulfilment of the engagement into which the King had entered, + unless Congress adopted the recommendations of the message. + They ascertained that Congress did not adopt them, and yet + that fulfilment is refused, unless they first obtain from the + President explanations of an opinion characterized by themselves + as personal and inoperative." + +Having thus traced the controversy down to the point on which it +hung--no payment without an apology first made--the President took +up this condition as a new feature in the case--presenting national +degradation on one side, and twenty-five millions of francs on the +other--and declared his determination to submit to no dishonor, and +repulsed the apology as a stain upon the national character; and +concluded this head of his message with saying: + + "In any event, however, the principle involved in the new aspect + which has been given to the controversy is so vitally important + to the independent administration of the government, that it + can neither be surrendered nor compromitted without national + degradation. I hope it is unnecessary for me to say that such a + sacrifice will not be made through any agency of mine. The honor + of my country shall never be stained by an apology from me for + the statement of truth and the performance of duty; nor can I + give any explanation of my official acts, except such as is due + to integrity and justice, and consistent with the principles + on which our institutions have been framed. This determination + will, I am confident, be approved by my constituents. I have + indeed studied their character to but little purpose, if the + sum of twenty-five millions of francs will have the weight of a + feather in the estimation of what appertains to their national + independence: and if, unhappily, a different impression should + at any time obtain, in any quarter, they will, I am sure, + rally round the government of their choice with alacrity and + unanimity, and silence for ever the degrading imputation." + +The loss of the fortification bill at the previous session, had been +a serious interruption to our system of defences, and an injury +to the country in that point of view, independently of its effect +upon our relations with France. A system of general and permanent +fortification of the coasts and harbors had been adopted at the +close of the war of 1812; and throughout our extended frontier +were many works in different degrees of completion, the stoppage +of which involved loss and destruction, as well as delay, in this +indispensable work. Looking at the loss of the bill in this point of +view, the President said: + + "Much loss and inconvenience have been experienced, in + consequence of the failure of the bill containing the ordinary + appropriations for fortifications which passed one branch of the + national legislature at the last session, but was lost in the + other. This failure was the more regretted, not only because it + necessarily interrupted and delayed the progress of a system + of national defence, projected immediately after the last war, + and since steadily pursued, but also because it contained a + contingent appropriation, inserted in accordance with the views + of the Executive, in aid of this important object, and other + branches of the national defence, some portions of which might + have been most usefully applied during the past season. I + invite your early attention to that part of the report of the + Secretary of War which relates to this subject, and recommend an + appropriation sufficiently liberal to accelerate the armament + of the fortifications agreeably to the proposition submitted + by him, and to place our whole Atlantic seaboard in a complete + state of defence. A just regard to the permanent interests of + the country evidently requires this measure. But there are also + other reasons which at the present juncture give it peculiar + force, and make it my duty to call the subject to your special + consideration." + +The plan for the removal of the Indians to the west of the +Mississippi being now in successful progress and having well nigh +reached its consummation, the President took the occasion, while +communicating that gratifying fact, to make an authentic exposition +of the humane policy which had governed the United States in +adopting this policy. He showed that it was still more for the +benefit of the Indians than that of the white population who were +relieved of their presence--that besides being fully paid for all +the lands they abandoned, and receiving annuities often amounting +to thirty dollars a head, and being inducted into the arts of +civilized life, they also received in every instance more land than +they abandoned, of better quality, better situated for them from +its frontier situation, and in the same parallels of latitude. This +portion of his message will be read with particular gratification +by all persons of humane dispositions, and especially so by all +candid persons who had been deluded into the belief of injustice and +oppression practised upon these people. He said: + + "The plan of removing the aboriginal people who yet remain + within the settled portions of the United States, to the country + west of the Mississippi River, approaches its consummation. It + was adopted on the most mature consideration of the condition + of this race, and ought to be persisted in till the object + is accomplished, and prosecuted with as much vigor as a just + regard to their circumstances will permit, and as fast as + their consent can be obtained. All preceding experiments for + the improvement of the Indians have failed. It seems now to be + an established fact, that they cannot live in contact with a + civilized community and prosper. Ages of fruitless endeavors + have, at length, brought us to a knowledge of this principle + of intercommunication with them. The past we cannot recall, + but the future we can provide for. Independently of the treaty + stipulations into which we have entered with the various tribes, + for the usufructuary rights they have ceded to us, no one can + doubt the moral duty of the government of the United States + to protect, and, if possible, to preserve and perpetuate, the + scattered remnants of this race, which are left within our + borders. In the discharge of this duty, an extensive region in + the West has been assigned for their permanent residence. It has + been divided into districts, and allotted among them. Many have + already removed, and others are preparing to go; and with the + exception of two small bands, living in Ohio and Indiana, not + exceeding 1,500 persons, and of the Cherokees, all the tribes + on the east side of the Mississippi, and extending from Lake + Michigan to Florida, have entered into engagements which will + lead to their transplantation. + + "The plan for their removal and re-establishment is founded upon + the knowledge we have gained of their character and habits, + and has been dictated by a spirit of enlarged liberality. A + territory exceeding in extent that relinquished, has been + granted to each tribe. Of its climate, fertility, and capacity + to support an Indian population, the representations are highly + favorable. To these districts the Indians are removed at the + expense of the United States, and with certain supplies of + clothing, arms, ammunition, and other indispensable articles, + they are also furnished gratuitously with provisions for the + period of a year after their arrival at their new homes. In that + time, from the nature of the country, and of the products raised + by them, they can subsist themselves by agricultural labor, if + they choose to resort to that mode of life. If they do not, they + are upon the skirts of the great prairies, where countless herds + of buffalo roam, and a short time suffices to adapt their own + habits to the changes which a change of the animals destined for + their food may require. Ample arrangements have also been made + for the support of schools. In some instances, council-houses + and churches are to be erected, dwellings constructed for the + chiefs, and mills for common use. Funds have been set apart for + the maintenance of the poor. The most necessary mechanical arts + have been introduced, and blacksmiths, gunsmiths, wheelwrights, + millwrights, &c. are supported among them. Steel and iron, and + sometimes salt, are purchased for them, and ploughs and other + farming utensils, domestic animals, looms, spinning-wheels, + cars, &c., are presented to them. And besides these beneficial + arrangements, annuities are in all cases paid, amounting in + some instances to more than thirty dollars for each individual + of the tribe; and in all cases sufficiently great, if justly + divided, and prudently expended, to enable them, in addition to + their own exertions, to live comfortably. And as a stimulus for + exertion, it is now provided by law, that, 'in all cases of the + appointment of interpreters, or other persons employed for the + benefit of the Indian, a preference shall be given to persons of + Indian descent, if such can be found who are properly qualified + for the discharge of the duties.'" + +The effect of the revival of the gold currency was a subject of +great congratulation with the President, and its influence was felt +in every department of industry. Near twenty millions of dollars had +entered the country--a sum far above the average circulation of the +Bank of the United States in its best days, and a currency of a kind +to diffuse itself over the country, and remain where there was a +demand for it, and for which, different from a bank paper currency, +no interest was paid for its use, and no danger incurred of its +becoming useless. He thus referred to this gratifying circumstance: + + "Connected with the condition of the finances, and the + flourishing state of the country in all its branches of + industry, it is pleasing to witness the advantages which have + been already derived from the recent laws regulating the value + of the gold coinage. These advantages will be more apparent in + the course of the next year, when the branch mints authorized to + be established in North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, shall + have gone into operation. Aided, as it is hoped they will be, + by further reforms in the banking systems of the States, and by + judicious regulations on the part of Congress in relation to the + custody of the public moneys, it may be confidently anticipated + that the use of gold and silver as a circulating medium will + become general in the ordinary transactions connected with the + labor of the country. The great desideratum, in modern times, + is an efficient check upon the power of banks, preventing that + excessive issue of paper whence arise those fluctuations in + the standard of value which render uncertain the rewards of + labor. It was supposed by those who established the Bank of + the United States, that, from the credit given to it by the + custody of the public moneys, and other privileges, and the + precautions taken to guard against the evils which the country + had suffered in the bankruptcy of many of the State institutions + of that period, we should derive from that institution all the + security and benefits of a sound currency, and every good end + that was attainable under that provision of the constitution + which authorizes Congress alone to coin money and regulate the + value thereof. But it is scarcely necessary now to say that + these anticipations have not been realized. After the extensive + embarrassment and distress recently produced by the Bank of + the United States, from which the country is now recovering, + aggravated as they were by pretensions to power which defied the + public authority, and which, if acquiesced in by the people, + would have changed the whole character of our government, every + candid and intelligent individual must admit that, for the + attainment of the great advantages of a sound currency, we must + look to a course of legislation radically different from that + which created such an institution." + +Railroads were at this time still in their infancy in the United +States; they were but few in number and comparatively feeble; but +the nature of a monopoly is the same under all circumstances and +the United States, in their post-office department, had begun to +feel the effects of the extortion and overbearing of monopolizing +companies, clothed with chartered privileges intended to be for +the public as well as private advantage, but usually perverted to +purposes of self-enrichment, and of oppression. The evil had already +become so serious as to require the attention of Congress; and the +President thus recommended the subject to its consideration: + + "Particular attention is solicited to that portion of the + report of the postmaster-general which relates to the carriage + of the mails of the United States upon railroads constructed + by private corporations under the authority of the several + States. The reliance which the general government can place + on those roads as a means of carrying on its operations, and + the principles on which the use of them is to be obtained, + cannot too soon be considered and settled. Already does the + spirit of monopoly begin to exhibit its natural propensities + in attempts to exact from the public, for services which it + supposes cannot be obtained on other terms, the most extravagant + compensation. If these claims be persisted in, the question may + arise whether a combination of citizens, acting under charters + of incorporation from the States, can, by a direct refusal or + the demand of an exorbitant price, exclude the United States + from the use of the established channels of communication + between the different sections of the country; and whether the + United States cannot, without transcending their constitutional + powers, secure to the post-office department the use of those + roads, by an act of Congress which shall provide within itself + some equitable mode of adjusting the amount of compensation. + To obviate, if possible, the necessity of considering this + question, it is suggested whether it be not expedient to + fix, by law, the amounts which shall be offered to railroad + companies for the conveyance of the mails, graduated according + to their average weight, to be ascertained and declared by the + postmaster-general. It is probable that a liberal proposition of + that sort would be accepted." + +The subject of slavery took a new turn of disturbance between the +North and South about this time. The particular form of annoyance +which it now wore was that of the transmission into the slave +States, through the United States mail, of incendiary publications, +tending to excite servile insurrections. Societies, individuals and +foreigners were engaged in this diabolical work--as injurious to the +slaves by the further restrictions which it brought upon them, as to +the owners whose lives and property were endangered. The President +brought this practice to the notice of Congress, with a view to its +remedy. He said: + + "In connection with these provisions in relation to the + post-office department, I must also invite your attention to + the painful excitement produced in the South by attempts to + circulate through the mails inflammatory appeals addressed to + the passions of the slaves, in prints, and in various sorts of + publications, calculated to stimulate them to insurrection, and + to produce all the horrors of a servile war. There is doubtless + no respectable portion of our countrymen who can be so far + misled, as to feel any other sentiment than that of indignant + regret at conduct so destructive of the harmony and peace of + the country, and so repugnant to the principles of our national + compact and to the dictates of humanity and religion. Our + happiness and prosperity essentially depend upon peace within + our borders: and peace depends upon the maintenance, in good + faith, of those compromises of the constitution upon which the + Union is founded. It is fortunate for the country that the good + sense, the generous feeling, and the deep-rooted attachment + of the people of the non-slaveholding States, to the Union, + and to their fellow-citizens of the same blood in the South, + have given so strong and impressive a tone to the sentiments + entertained against the proceedings of the misguided persons + who have engaged in these unconstitutional and wicked attempts, + and especially against the emissaries from foreign parts, who + have dared to interfere in this matter, as to authorize the + hope that those attempts will no longer be persisted in. But if + these expressions of the public will, shall not be sufficient + to effect so desirable a result, not a doubt can be entertained + that the non-slaveholding States, so far from countenancing + the slightest interference with the constitutional rights + of the South, will be prompt to exercise their authority in + suppressing, so far as in them lies, whatever is calculated + to produce this evil. In leaving the care of other branches + of this interesting subject to the State authorities, to whom + they properly belong, it is nevertheless proper for Congress to + take such measures as will prevent the post-office department, + which was designed to foster an amicable intercourse and + correspondence between all the members of the confederacy, + from being used as an instrument of an opposite character. The + general government, to which the great trust is confided of + preserving inviolate the relations created among the States, by + the constitution, is especially bound to avoid in its own action + any thing that may disturb them. I would, therefore, call the + special attention of Congress to the subject, and respectfully + suggest the propriety of passing such a law as will prohibit, + under severe penalties, the circulation in the Southern States, + through the mail, of incendiary publications intended to + instigate the slaves to insurrection." + +The President in this impressive paragraph makes a just distinction +between the conduct of misguided men, and of wicked emissaries, +engaged in disturbing the harmony of the Union, and the patriotic +people of the non-slaveholding States who discountenance their +work and repress their labors. The former receive the brand of +reprobation, and are pointed out for criminal legislation: the +latter receive the applause due to good citizens. + +The President concludes this message, as he had done many others, +with a recurrence to the necessity of reform in the mode of electing +the two first officers of the Republic. His convictions must have +been deep and strong thus to bring him back so many times to the +fundamental point of direct elections by the people, and total +suppression of all intermediate agencies. He says: + + "I felt it to be my duty in the first message which I + communicated to Congress, to urge upon its attention + the propriety of amending that part of the constitution + which provides for the election of the President and the + Vice-President of the United States. The leading object which + I had in view was the adoption of some new provision, which + would secure to the people the performance of this high duty, + without any intermediate agency. In my annual communications + since, I have enforced the same views, from a sincere conviction + that the best interests of the country would be promoted by + their adoption. If the subject were an ordinary one, I should + have regarded the failure of Congress to act upon it, as an + indication of their judgment, that the disadvantages which + belong to the present system were not so great as those which + would result from any attainable substitute that had been + submitted to their consideration. Recollecting, however, that + propositions to introduce a new feature in our fundamental laws + cannot be too patiently examined, and ought not to be received + with favor, until the great body of the people are thoroughly + impressed with their necessity and value, as a remedy for + real evils, I feel that in renewing the recommendation I have + heretofore made on this subject, I am not transcending the + bounds of a just deference to the sense of Congress, or to the + disposition of the people. However much we may differ in the + choice of the measures which should guide the administration + of the government, there can be but little doubt in the minds + of those who are really friendly to the republican features of + our system, that one of its most important securities consists + in the separation of the legislative and executive powers, at + the same time that each is held responsible to the great source + of authority, which is acknowledged to be supreme, in the will + of the people constitutionally expressed. My reflection and + experience satisfy me, that the framers of the constitution, + although they were anxious to mark this feature as a settled + and fixed principle in the structure of the government, did not + adopt all the precautions that were necessary to secure its + practical observance, and that we cannot be said to have carried + into complete effect their intentions until the evils which + arise from this organic defect are remedied. All history tells + us that a free people should be watchful of delegated power, + and should never acquiesce in a practice which will diminish + their control over it. This obligation, so universal in its + application to all the principles of a Republic, is peculiarly + so in ours, where the formation of parties, founded on sectional + interests, is so much fostered by the extent of our territory. + These interests, represented by candidates for the Presidency, + are constantly prone, in the zeal of party and selfish objects, + to generate influences, unmindful of the general good, and + forgetful of the restraints which the great body of the people + would enforce, if they were, in no contingency, to lose the + right of expressing their will. The experience of our country + from the formation of the government to the present day, + demonstrates that the people cannot too soon adopt some stronger + safeguard for their right to elect the highest officers known to + the constitution, than is contained in that sacred instrument as + it now stands." + + + + +CHAPTER CXXX. + +ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. + + +Mr. Buchanan presented the memorial of the religious society of +"Friends," in the State of Pennsylvania, adopted at their Caln +quarterly meeting, requesting Congress to abolish slavery and the +slave trade, in the District of Columbia. He said the memorial did +not emanate from fanatics, endeavoring to disturb the peace and +security of society in the Southern States, by the distribution of +incendiary publications, but from a society of Christians, whose +object had always been to promote good-will and peace among men. +It was entitled to respect from the character of the memorialists; +but he dissented from the opinion which they expressed and the +request which they made. The constitution recognized slavery; it +existed here; was found here when the District was ceded to the +United States; the slaves here were the property of the inhabitants; +and he was opposed to the disturbance of their rights. Congress +had no right to interfere with slavery in the States. That was +determined in the first Congress that ever sat--in the Congress +which commenced in 1789 and ended in 1791--and in the first session +of that Congress. The Religious Society of Friends then petitioned +Congress against slavery, and it was resolved, in answer to that +petition, that Congress had no authority to interfere in the +emancipation of slaves, or with their treatment, in any of the +States: and that was the answer still to be given. He then adverted +to the circumstances under which the memorial was presented. A +number of fanatics, led on by foreign incendiaries, have been +scattering firebrands through the Southern States--publications +and pictures exciting the slaves to revolt, and to the destruction +of their owners. Instead of benefiting the slaves by this conduct, +they do them the greatest injury, causing the bonds to be drawn +tighter upon them; and postponing emancipation even in those States +which might eventually contemplate it. These were his opinions on +slavery, and on the prayer of this memorial. He was opposed to +granting the prayer, but was in favor of receiving the petition +as the similar one had been received, in 1790, and giving it the +same answer; and, he had no doubt, with the same happy effect of +putting an end to such applications, and giving peace and quiet to +the country. He could not vote for the motion of the senator from +South Carolina, Mr. Calhoun, to reject it. He thought rejection +would inflame the question: reception and condemnation would quiet +it. Mr. Calhoun had moved to reject all petitions of the kind--not +reject upon their merits, after consideration, but beforehand, when +presented for reception. This was the starting point of a long and +acrimonious contest in the two Houses of Congress, in which the +right of petition was maintained on one side, and the good policy +of quieting the question by reception and rejection: on the other +side, it was held that the rights, the peace, and the dignity of the +States required all anti-slavery petitions to be repulsed, at the +first presentation, without reception or consideration. The author +of this View aspired to no lead in conducting this question; he +thought it was one to be settled by policy; that is to say, in the +way that would soonest quiet it. He thought there was a clear line +of distinction between mistaken philanthropists, and mischievous +incendiaries--also between the free States themselves and the +incendiary societies and individuals within them; and took an +early moment to express these opinions in order to set up the line +between what was mistake and what was crime--and between the acts of +individuals, on one hand, and of States, on the other; and in that +sense delivered the following speech: + +"Mr. Benton rose to express his concurrence in the suggestion of the +senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Buchanan), that the consideration of +this subject be postponed until Monday. It had come up suddenly and +unexpectedly to-day, and the postponement would give an opportunity +for senators to reflect, and to confer together, and to conclude +what was best to be done, where all were united in wishing the same +end, namely, to allay, and not to produce, excitement. He had risen +for this purpose; but, being on his feet he would say a few words +on the general subject, which the presentation of these petitions +had so suddenly and unexpectedly brought up. With respect to the +petitioners, and those with whom they acted, he had no doubt but +that many of them were good people, aiming at benevolent objects, +and endeavoring to ameliorate the condition of one part of the human +race, without inflicting calamities on another part; but they were +mistaken in their mode of proceeding; and so far from accomplishing +any part of their object, the whole effect of their interposition +was to aggravate the condition of those in whose behalf they were +interfering. But there was another part, and he meant to speak of +the abolitionists, generally, as the body containing the part of +which he spoke; there was another part whom he could not qualify +as good people, seeking benevolent ends by mistaken means, but +as incendiaries and agitators, with diabolical objects in view, +to be accomplished by wicked and deplorable means. He did not go +into the proofs now to establish the correctness of his opinion of +this latter class, but he presumed it would be admitted that every +attempt to work upon the passions of the slaves, and to excite them +to murder their owners, was a wicked and diabolical attempt, and the +work of a midnight incendiary. Pictures of slave degradation and +misery, and of the white man's luxury and cruelty, were attempts +of this kind; for they were appeals to the vengeance of slaves, +and not to the intelligence or reason of those who legislated for +them. He (Mr. B.) had had many pictures of this kind, as well as +many diabolical publications, sent to him on this subject, during +the last summer; the whole of which he had cast into the fire, +and should not have thought of referring to the circumstance at +this time, as displaying the character of the incendiary part of +the abolitionists, had he not, within these few days past, and +while abolition petitions were pouring into the other end of the +Capitol, received one of these pictures, the design of which could +be nothing but mischief of the blackest dye. It was a print from +an engraving (and Mr. B. exhibited it, and handed it to senators +near him), representing a large and spreading tree of liberty, +beneath whose ample shade a slave owner was at one time luxuriously +reposing, with slaves fanning him; at another, carried forth in a +palanquin, to view the half-naked laborers in the cotton field, +whom drivers, with whips, were scourging to the task. The print +was evidently from the abolition mint, and came to him by some +other conveyance than that of the mail, for there was no post-mark +of any kind to identify its origin, and to indicate its line of +march. For what purpose could such a picture be intended, unless +to inflame the passions of slaves? And why engrave it, except to +multiply copies for extensive distribution? But it was not pictures +alone that operated upon the passions of the slaves, but speeches, +publications, petitions presented in Congress, and the whole +machinery of abolition societies. None of these things went to the +understandings of the slaves, but to their passions, all imperfectly +understood, and inspiring vague hopes, and stimulating abortive and +fatal insurrections. Societies, especially, were the foundation of +the greatest mischiefs. Whatever might be their objects, the slaves +never did, and never can, understand them but in one way: as allies +organized for action, and ready to march to their aid on the first +signal of insurrection! It was thus that the massacre of San Domingo +was made. The society in Paris, _Les Amis des Noirs_, Friends of +the Blacks, with its affiliated societies throughout France and +in London, made that massacre. And who composed that society? In +the beginning, it comprised the extremes of virtue and of vice; +it contained the best and the basest of human kind! Lafayette and +the Abbé Gregoire, those purest of philanthropists; and Marat and +Anacharsis Clootz, those imps of hell in human shape. In the end +(for all such societies run the same career of degeneration), the +good men, disgusted with their associates, retired from the scene; +and the wicked ruled at pleasure. Declamations against slavery, +publications in gazettes, pictures, petitions to the constituent +assembly, were the mode of proceeding; and the fish-women of +Paris--he said it with humiliation, because American females had +signed the petitions now before us--the fish-women of Paris, +the very _poissardes_ from the quays of the Seine, became the +obstreperous champions of West India emancipation. The effect upon +the French islands is known to the world; but what is not known +to the world, or not sufficiently known to it, is that the same +societies which wrapt in flames and drenched in blood the beautiful +island, which was then a garden and is now a wilderness, were +the means of exciting an insurrection upon our own continent: in +Louisiana, where a French slave population existed, and where the +language of _Les Amis des Noirs_ could be understood, and where +their emissaries could glide. The knowledge of this event (Mr. B. +said) ought to be better known, both to show the danger of these +societies, however distant, and though oceans may roll between them +and their victims, and the fate of the slaves who may be excited +to insurrection by them on any part of the American continent. He +would read the notice of the event from the work of Mr. Charles +Gayarre, lately elected by his native State to a seat on this floor, +and whose resignation of that honor he sincerely regretted, and +particularly for the cause which occasioned it, and which abstracted +talent from a station that it would have adorned. Mr. B. read +from the work, '_Essai Historique sur la Louisiane_:' 'The white +population of Louisiana was not the only part of the population +which was agitated by the French revolution. The blacks, encouraged +without doubt by the success which their race had obtained in San +Domingo, dreamed of liberty, and sought to shake off the yoke. +The insurrection was planned at Pointe Coupeé, which was then an +isolated parish, and in which the number of slaves was considerable. +The conspiracy took birth on the plantation of Mr. Julien Poydras, +a rich planter, who was then travelling in the United States, and +spread itself rapidly throughout the parish. The death of all the +whites was resolved. Happily the conspirators could not agree upon +the day for the massacre; and from this disagreement resulted a +quarrel, which led to the discovery of the plot. The militia of the +parish immediately took arms, and the Baron de Carondelet caused +them to be supported by the troops of the line. It was resolved +to arrest, and to punish the principal conspirators. The slaves +opposed it; but they were quickly dispersed, with the loss of +twenty of their number killed on the spot. Fifty of the insurgents +were condemned to death. Sixteen were executed in different parts +of the parish; the rest were put on board a galley and hung at +intervals, all along the river, as far as New Orleans (a distance +of one hundred and fifty miles). The severity of the chastisement +intimidated the blacks, and all returned to perfect order.' + +"Resuming his remarks, Mr. B. said he had read this passage to show +that our white population had a right to dread, nay, were bound +to dread, the mischievous influence of these societies, even when +an ocean intervened, and much more when they stood upon the same +hemisphere, and within the bosom of the same country. He had also +read it to show the miserable fate of their victims, and to warn all +that were good and virtuous--all that were honest, but mistaken--in +the three hundred and fifty affiliated societies, vaunted by the +individuals who style themselves their executive committee, and +who date, from the commercial emporium of this Union, their high +manifesto against the President; to warn them at once to secede from +associations which, whatever may be their designs, can have no other +effect than to revive in the Southern States the tragedy, not of San +Domingo, but of the parish of Pointe Coupeé. + +"Mr. B. went on to say that these societies had already perpetrated +more mischief than the joint remainder of all their lives spent in +prayers of contrition, and in works of retribution, could ever atone +for. They had thrown the state of the emancipation question fifty +years back. They had subjected every traveller, and every emigrant, +from the non-slaveholding States, to be received with coldness, and +viewed with suspicion and jealousy, in the slaveholding States. They +had occasioned many slaves to lose their lives. They had caused +the deportation of many ten thousands from the grain-growing to +the planting States. They had caused the privileges of all slaves +to be curtailed, and their bonds to be more tightly drawn. Nor was +the mischief of their conduct confined to slaves; it reached the +free colored people, and opened a sudden gulf of misery to that +population. In all the slave States, this population has paid the +forfeit of their intermediate position; and suffered proscription +as the instruments, real or suspected, of the abolition societies. +In all these States, their exodus had either been enforced or was +impending. In Missouri there was a clause in the constitution which +prohibited their emigration to the State; but that clause had +remained a dead letter in the book until the agitation produced +among the slaves by the distant rumbling of the abolition thunder, +led to the knowledge in some instances, and to the belief in others, +that these people were the antennæ of the abolitionists; and their +medium for communicating with the slaves, and for exciting them +to desertion first, and to insurrection eventually. Then ensued +a painful scene. The people met, resolved, and prescribed thirty +days for the exodus of the obnoxious caste. Under that decree a +general emigration had to take place at the commencement of winter. +Many worthy and industrious people had to quit their business and +their homes, and to go forth under circumstances which rendered +them objects of suspicion wherever they went, and sealed the door +against the acquisition of new friends while depriving them of the +protection of old ones. He (Mr. B.) had witnessed many instances of +this kind, and had given certificates to several, to show that they +were banished, not for their offences, but for their misfortunes; +for the misfortune of being allied to the race which the abolition +societies had made the object of their gratuitous philanthropy. + +"Having said thus much of the abolition societies in the +non-slaveholding States, Mr. B. turned, with pride and exultation, +to a different theme--the conduct of the great body of the people +in all these States. Before he saw that conduct, and while the +black question, like a portentous cloud was gathering and darkening +on the Northeastern horizon, he trembled, not for the South, but +for the Union. He feared that he saw the fatal work of dissolution +about to begin, and the bonds of this glorious confederacy about +to snap; but the conduct of the great body of the people in all +the non-slaveholding States quickly dispelled that fear, and in +its place planted deep the strongest assurance of the harmony and +indivisibility of the Union which he had felt for many years. Their +conduct was above all praise, above all thanks, above all gratitude. +They had chased off the foreign emissaries, silenced the gabbling +tongues of female dupes, and dispersed the assemblages, whether +fanatical, visionary, or incendiary, of all that congregated to +preach against evils which afflicted others not them; and to propose +remedies to aggravate the disease which they pretended to cure. They +had acted with a noble spirit. They had exerted a vigor beyond all +law. They had obeyed the enactments, not of the statute book, but of +the heart; and while that spirit was in the heart, he cared nothing +for laws written in a book. He would rely upon that spirit to +complete the good work it has begun; to dry up these societies; to +separate the mistaken philanthropist from the reckless fanatic and +the wicked incendiary, and put an end to publications and petitions +which, whatever may be their design, can have no other effect than +to impede the object which they invoke, and to aggravate the evil +which they deplore. + +"Turning to the immediate question before the Senate, that of the +rejection of the petitions, Mr. B. said his wish was to give that +vote which would have the greatest effect in putting down these +societies. He thought the vote to be given to be rather one of +expediency than of constitutional obligation. The clause in the +constitution so often quoted in favor of the right of petitioning +for a redress of grievances would seem to him to apply rather to +the grievances felt by ourselves than to those felt by others, and +which others might think an advantage, what we thought a grievance. +The petitioners from Ohio think it a grievance that the people of +the District of Columbia should suffer the institution of slavery, +and pray for the redress of that grievance; the people of the +District think the institution an advantage, and want no redress; +now, which has the right of petitioning? Looking to the past action +of the Senate, Mr. B. saw that, about thirty years ago, a petition +against slavery, and that in the States, was presented to this body +by the society of Quakers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and that +the same question upon its reception was made, and decided by yeas +and nays, 19 to 9, in favor of receiving it. He read the names, to +show that the senators from the slave and non-slaveholding States +voted some for and some against the reception, according to each +one's opinion, and not according to the position or the character +of the State from which he came. Mr. B. repeated that he thought +this question to be one of expediency, and that it was expedient to +give the vote which would go furthest towards quieting the public +mind. The quieting the South depended upon quieting the North; for +when the abolitionists were put down in the former place, the latter +would be at ease. It seemed to him, then, that the gentlemen of the +non-slaveholding States were the proper persons to speak first. They +knew the temper of their own constituents best, and what might have +a good or an ill effect upon them, either to increase the abolition +fever, or to allay it. He knew that the feeling of the Senate was +general; that all wished for the same end; and the senators of the +North as cordially as those of the South." + + + + +CHAPTER CXXXI. + +MAIL CIRCULATION OF INCENDIARY PUBLICATIONS. + + +Mr. Calhoun moved that so much of the President's message as related +to the mail transmission of incendiary publications be referred +to a select committee. Mr. King, of Alabama, opposed the motion, +urging that the only way that Congress could interfere would be by +a post-office regulation; and that all such regulation properly +referred itself to the committee on post-offices and post-roads. He +did not look to the particular construction of the committee, but +had no doubt the members of that committee could see the evil of +these incendiary transmissions through the mails, and would provide +a remedy which they should deem constitutional, proper and adequate; +and he expressed a fear that, by giving the subject too much +importance, an excitement might be got up. Mr. Calhoun replied that +the Senator from Alabama had mistaken his object--that it was not to +produce any unnecessary excitement, but to adopt such a course as +would secure a committee which would calmly and dispassionately go +into an examination of the whole subject; which would investigate +the character of those publications, to ascertain whether they were +incendiary or not; and, if so, on that ground to put a check on +their transmission through the mails. He could not but express his +astonishment at the objection which had been taken to his motion, +for he knew that the Senator from Alabama felt that deep interest in +the subject which pervaded the feelings of every man in the South. +He believed that the post-office committee would be fully occupied +with the regular business which would be brought before them; and +it was this consideration, and no party feeling, which had induced +him to make his motion. Mr. Grundy, chairman of the committee on +post-offices and post-roads, said that his position was such as to +have imposed silence upon him, if that silence might not have been +misunderstood. In reply to the objection that a majority of the +committee were not from the slave States, that circumstance might +be an advantage; it might give the greater weight to their action, +which it was known would be favorable to the object of the motion. +He would say that the federal government could do but little on +this subject except through a post-office regulation, and thereby +aiding the efficiency of the State laws. He did not desire to see +any power exercised which would have the least tendency to interfere +with the sovereignty of the States. Mr. Calhoun adhering to his +desire for a select committee, and expressing his belief that a +great constitutional question was to be settled, and that the crisis +required calmness and firmness, and the action of a committee that +came mainly from the endangered part of the Union--his request was +granted; and a committee of five appointed, composed as he desired; +namely, Mr. Calhoun chairman, Mr. King of Georgia, Mr. Mangum +of North Carolina, Mr. Davis of Massachusetts, and Mr. Lewis F. +Linn of Missouri. A bill and a report were soon brought in by the +committee--a bill subjecting to penalties any post-master who should +knowingly receive and put into the mail any publication, or picture +touching the subject of slavery, to go into any State or territory +in which the circulation of such publication, or picture, should +be forbid by the State laws. When the report was read Mr. Mangum +moved the printing of 5000 extra copies of it. This motion brought a +majority of the committee to their feet, to disclaim their assent to +parts of the report; and to absolve themselves from responsibility +for its contents. A conversational debate ensued on this point, on +which Mr. Davis, Messrs. King of Alabama and Georgia, Mr. Linn and +Mr. Calhoun thus expressed themselves: + + "Mr. Davis said that, as a motion had been made to print the + paper purporting to be a report from the select committee of + which he was a member, he would remark that the views contained + in it did not entirely meet his approbation, though it contained + many things which he approved of. He had risen for no other + purpose than to make this statement, lest the impression should + go abroad with the report that he assented to those portions of + it which did not meet his approbation." + + "Mr. King, of Georgia, said that, lest the same misunderstanding + should go forth with respect to his views, he must state that + the report was not entirely assented to by himself. However, + the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun), in making this + report, had already stated that the majority of the committee + did not agree to the whole of it, though many parts of it were + concurred in by all." + + "Mr. Davis said he would add further, that he might have taken + the usual course, and made an additional report, containing all + his views on the subject, but thought it hardly worth while, and + he had contented himself with making the statement that he had + just made." + + "Mr. King, of Alabama, said this was a departure from the usual + course--by it a minority might dissent; and yet, when the report + was published, it would seem to be a report of the committee of + the Senate, and not a report of two members of it. It was proper + that the whole matter should go together with the bill, that the + report submitted by the minority might be read with the bill, + to show that the reading of the report was not in conflict with + the principles of the bill reported. He thought the senator from + North Carolina (Mr. Mangum) had better modify his motion, so as + to have the report and bill published together." + + "Mr. Linn remarked that, being a member of the committee, it + was but proper for him to say that he had assented to several + parts of the report, though he did not concur with it in all its + parts. Should it become necessary, he would, when the subject + again came before the Senate, explain in what particulars he + had coincided with the views given in the report, and how far + he had dissented from them. The bill, he said, had met with his + approbation." + + "Mr. Calhoun said he hoped his friend from North Carolina would + modify his motion, so as to include the printing of the bill + with the report. It would be seen, by comparing both together, + that there was no _non sequitur_ in the bill, coming as it did + after this report." + + "Mr. King, of Alabama, had only stated his impressions from + hearing the report and bill read. It appeared to him unusual + that a report should be made by a minority, and merely + acquiesced in by the committee, and that the bill should be + adverse to it." + + "Mr. Davis said the report was, as he understood it to be read + from the chair, the report of the committee. He had spoken for + himself only, and for nobody else, lest the impression might go + abroad that he concurred in all parts of the report, when he + dissented from some of them." + + "Mr. Calhoun said that a majority of the committee did not + concur in the report, though there were two members of it, + himself and the gentleman from North Carolina, who concurred + throughout; three other gentlemen concurred with the greater + part of the report, though they dissented from some parts of it; + and two gentlemen concurred also with some parts of it. As to + the bill, two of the committee would have preferred a different + one, though they had rather have that than none at all; another + gentleman was opposed to it altogether. The bill, however, was a + natural consequence of the report, and the two did not disagree + with each other." + +The parts of the report which were chiefly exceptionable were two: +1. The part which related to the nature of the federal government, +as being founded in "compact;" which was the corner-stone of the +doctrine of nullification, and its corollary that the laws of +nations were in full force between the several States, as sovereign +and independent communities except as modified by the compact; 2. +The part that argued, as upon a subsisting danger, the evils by an +abolition of slavery in the slave States by interference from other +States. On the first of these points the report said: + + "That the States which form our Federal Union are sovereign and + independent communities, bound together by a constitutional + compact, and are possessed of all the powers belonging to + distinct and separate States, excepting such as are delegated + to be exercised by the general government, is assumed as + unquestionable. The compact itself expressly provides that all + powers not delegated are reserved to the States and the people. + To ascertain, then, whether the power in question is delegated + or reserved, it is only necessary to ascertain whether it is to + be found among the enumerated powers or not. If it be not among + them, it belongs, of course, to the reserved powers. On turning + to the constitution, it will be seen that, while the power of + defending the country against external danger is found among + the enumerated, the instrument is wholly silent as to the power + of defending the internal peace and security of the States; and + of course, reserves to the States this important power, as it + stood before the adoption of the constitution, with no other + limitation, as has been stated, except such as are expressly + prescribed by the instrument itself. From what has been stated, + it may be inferred that the right of a State to defend itself + against internal dangers is a part of the great, primary, and + inherent right of self-defence, which, by the laws of nature, + belongs to all communities; and so jealous were the States of + this essential right, without which their independence could not + be preserved, that it is expressly provided by the constitution, + that the general government shall not assist a State, even in + case of domestic violence, except on the application of the + authorities of the State itself; thus excluding, by a necessary + consequence, its interference in all other cases. + + "Having now shown that it belongs to the slaveholding States, + whose institutions are in danger, and not to Congress, as is + supposed by the message, to determine what papers are incendiary + and intended to excite insurrection among the slaves, it remains + to inquire, in the next place, what are the corresponding duties + of the general government, and the other States, from within + whose limits and jurisdiction their institutions are attacked; a + subject intimately connected with that with which the committee + are immediately charged, and which, at the present juncture, + ought to be fully understood by all the parties. The committee + will begin with the first. It remains next to inquire into the + duty of the States from within whose limits and jurisdiction + the internal peace and security of the slaveholding States are + endangered. In order to comprehend more fully the nature and + extent of their duty, it will be necessary to make a few remarks + on the relations which exist between the States of our Federal + Union, with the rights and obligations reciprocally resulting + from such relations. It has already been stated that the States + which compose our Federal Union are sovereign and independent + communities, united by a constitutional compact. Among its + members the laws of nations are in full force and obligation, + except as altered or modified by the compact; and, of course, + the States possess, with that exception, all the rights, and + are subject to all the duties, which separate and distinct + communities possess, or to which they are subject. Among these + are comprehended the obligation which all States are under to + prevent their citizens from disturbing the peace or endangering + the security of other States; and in case of being disturbed + or endangered, the right of the latter to demand of the former + to adopt such measures as will prevent their recurrence, and + if refused or neglected, to resort to such measures as its + protection may require. This right remains, of course, in + force among the States of this Union, with such limitations + as are imposed expressly by the constitution. Within their + limits, the rights of the slaveholding States are as full to + demand of the States within whose limits and jurisdiction their + peace is assailed, to adopt the measures necessary to prevent + the same, and if refused or neglected, to resort to means to + protect themselves, as if they were separate and independent + communities." + +This part of the report was that which, in founding the federal +government in compact, as under the old articles of the +confederation, and in bringing the law of nations to apply between +the States as independent and sovereign communities, except where +limited by the compact, was supposed to contain the doctrine of +nullification and secession; and the concluding part of the report +is an argument in favor of the course recommended in the _Crisis_ +in the event that New-York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania did not +suppress the abolition societies. The report continues: + + "Their professed object is the emancipation of slaves in the + Southern States, which they propose to accomplish through + the agencies of organized societies, spread throughout the + non-slaveholding States, and a powerful press, directed mainly + to excite, in the other States, hatred and abhorrence against + the institutions and citizens of the slaveholding States, by + addresses, lectures, and pictorial representations, abounding + in false and exaggerated statements. If the magnitude of the + mischief affords, in any degree, the measure by which to judge + of the criminality of a project, few have ever been devised + to be compared with the present, whether the end be regarded, + or the means by which it is proposed to be accomplished. The + blindness of fanaticism is proverbial. With more zeal than + understanding, it constantly misconceives the nature of the + object at which it aims, and towards which it rushes with + headlong violence, regardless of the means by which it is to + be effected. Never was its character more fully exemplified + than in the present instance. Setting out with the abstract + principle that slavery is an evil, the fanatical zealots come + at once to the conclusion that it is their duty to abolish + it, regardless of all the disasters which must follow. Never + was conclusion more false or dangerous. Admitting their + assumption, there are innumerable things which, regarded in + the abstract, are evils, but which it would be madness to + attempt to abolish. Thus regarded, government itself is an + evil, with most of its institutions intended to protect life + and property, comprehending the civil as well as the criminal + and military code, which are tolerated only because to abolish + them would be to increase instead of diminishing the evil. The + reason is equally applicable to the case under consideration, + to illustrate which, a few remarks on slavery, as it actually + exists in the Southern States, will be necessary. + + "He who regards slavery in those States simply under the + relation of master and slave, as important as that relation is, + viewed merely as a question of property to the slaveholding + section of the Union, has a very imperfect conception of the + institution, and the impossibility of abolishing it without + disasters unexampled in the history of the world. To understand + its nature and importance fully, it must be borne in mind that + slavery, as it exists in the Southern States (including under + the Southern all the slaveholding States), involves not only + the relation of master and slave, but, also, the social and + political relations of two races, of nearly equal numbers, from + different quarters of the globe, and the most opposite of all + others in every particular that distinguishes one race of men + from another. Emancipation would destroy these relations--would + divest the masters of their property, and subvert the relation, + social and political, that has existed between the races from + almost the first settlement of the Southern States. It is not + the intention of the committee to dwell on the pecuniary aspect + of this vital subject, the vast amount of property involved, + equal at least to $950,000,000; the ruin of families and + individuals; the impoverishment and prostration of an entire + section of the Union, and the fatal blow that would be given to + the productions of the great agricultural staples, on which the + commerce, the navigation, the manufactures, and the revenue of + the country, almost entirely depend. As great as these disasters + would be, they are nothing, compared to what must follow the + subversion of the existing relation between the two races, to + which the committee will confine their remarks. Under this + relation, the two races have long lived in peace and prosperity, + and if not disturbed, would long continue so to live. While the + European race has rapidly increased in wealth and numbers, and + at the same time has maintained an equality, at least, morally + and intellectually, with their brethren of the non-slaveholding + States; the African race has multiplied with not less rapidity, + accompanied by great improvement, physically and intellectually, + and the enjoyment of a degree of comfort with which the laboring + class in few countries can compare, and confessedly greatly + superior to what the free people of the same race possess in the + non-slaveholding States. It may, indeed, be safely asserted, + that there is no example in history in which a savage people, + such as their ancestors were when brought into the country, + have ever advanced in the same period so rapidly in numbers + and improvement. To destroy the existing relations would be to + destroy this prosperity, and to place the two races in a state + of conflict, which must end in the expulsion or extirpation of + one or the other. No other can be substituted, compatible with + their peace or security. The difficulty is in the diversity of + the races. So strongly drawn is the line between the two, in + consequence of it, and so strengthened by the force of habit, + and education, that it is impossible for them to exist together + in the same community, where their numbers are so nearly equal + as in the slaveholding States, under any other relation than + which now exists. Social and political equality between them is + impossible. No power on earth can overcome the difficulty. The + causes resisting lie too deep in the principles of our nature + to be surmounted. But, without such equality, to change the + present condition of the African race, were it possible, would + be but to change the form of slavery. It would make them the + slaves of the community, instead of the slaves of individuals, + with less responsibility and interest in their welfare on the + part of the community than is felt by their present masters; + while it would destroy the security and independence of the + European race, if the African should be permitted to continue + in their changed condition within the limits of those States. + They would look to the other States for support and protection, + and would become, virtually, their allies and dependents; and + would thus place in the hands of those States the most effectual + instrument to destroy the influence and control the destiny of + the rest of the Union. It is against this relation between the + two races that the blind and criminal zeal of the abolitionists + is directed--a relation that now preserves in quiet and + security more than 6,500,000 of human beings, and which cannot + he destroyed without destroying the peace and prosperity of + nearly half the States of the Union, and involving their entire + population in a deadly conflict, that must terminate either in + the expulsion or extirpation of those who are the object of the + misguided and false humanity of those who claim to be their + friends. He must be blind, indeed, who does not perceive that + the subversion of a relation which must be followed with such + disastrous consequences can only be effected by convulsions that + would devastate the country, burst asunder the bonds of Union, + and ingulf in a sea of blood the institutions of the country. It + is madness to suppose that the slaveholding States would quietly + submit to be sacrificed. Every consideration--interest, duty, + and humanity, the love of country, the sense of wrong, hatred + of oppressors, and treacherous and faithless confederates, + and finally despair--would impel them to the most daring and + desperate resistance in defence of property, family, country, + liberty, and existence. But wicked and cruel as is the end + aimed at, it is fully equalled by the criminality of the means + by which it is proposed to be accomplished. These, as has been + stated, consist in organized societies and a powerful press, + directed mainly with a view to excite the bitterest animosity + and hatred of the people of the non-slaveholding States against + the citizens and institutions of the slaveholding States. It + is easy to see to what disastrous results such means must + tend. Passing over the more obvious effects, their tendency to + excite to insurrection and servile war, with all its horrors, + and the necessity which such tendency must impose on the + slaveholding States to resort to the most rigid discipline and + severe police, to the great injury of the present condition + of the slaves, there remains another, threatening incalculable + mischief to the country. The inevitable tendency of the means + to which the abolitionists have resorted to effect their object + must, if persisted in, end in completely alienating the two + great sections of the Union. The incessant action of hundreds + of societies, and a vast printing establishment, throwing + out daily thousands of artful and inflammatory publications, + must make, in time, a deep impression on the section of the + Union where they freely circulate, and are mainly designed to + have effect. Tho well-informed and thoughtful may hold them + in contempt, but the young, the inexperienced, the ignorant, + and thoughtless, will receive the poison. In process of time, + when the number of proselytes is sufficiently multiplied, the + artful and profligate, who are ever on the watch to seize on + any means, however wicked and dangerous, will unite with the + fanatics, and make their movements the basis of a powerful + political party, that will seek advancement by diffusing, as + widely as possible, hatred against the slaveholding States. But, + as hatred begets hatred, and animosity animosity, these feelings + would become reciprocal, till every vestige of attachment + would cease to exist between the two sections, when the Union + and the constitution, the offspring of mutual affection and + confidence, would forever perish. Such is the danger to which + the movements of the abolitionists expose the country. If the + force of the obligation is in proportion to the magnitude of the + danger, stronger cannot be imposed, than is at present, on the + States within whose limits the danger originates, to arrest its + further progress--a duty they owe, not only to the States whose + institutions are assailed, but to the Union and constitution, as + has been shown, and, it may be added, to themselves." + +The insidiousness of this report was in the assumption of an actual +impending danger of the abolition of slavery in all the slave +States--the destruction of nine hundred and fifty millions of +property--the ocean of blood to be shed--the war of extermination +between two races--and the necessity for extraordinary means to +prevent these dire calamities; when the fact was, that there was +not one particle of any such danger. The assumption was contrary to +fact: the report was inflammatory and disorganizing: and if there +was any thing enigmatical in its conclusions, it was sufficiently +interpreted in the contemporaneous publications in the Southern +slave States, which were open in their declarations that a cause for +separation had occurred, limited only by the conduct of the free +States in suppressing within a given time the incendiary societies +within their borders. This limitation would throw the responsibility +of disunion upon the non-slaveholding States failing to suppress +these societies: for disunion, in that case, was foreshadowed in +another part of this report, and fully avowed in contemporary +Southern publications. Thus the report said: + + "Those States, on the other hand, are not only under all + the obligations which independent communities would be, to + adopt such measures, but also under the obligation which the + constitution superadds, rendered more sacred, if possible, by + the fact that, while the Union imposes restrictions on the right + of the slaveholding States to defend themselves, it affords the + medium through which their peace and security are assailed. It + is not the intention of the committee to inquire what those + restrictions are, and what are the means which, under the + constitution, are left to the slaveholding States to protect + themselves. The period has not yet come, and they trust never + will, when it may be necessary to decide those questions; but + come it must, unless the States whose duty it is to suppress + the danger shall see in time its magnitude and the obligations + which they are under to adopt speedy and effectual measures + to arrest its further progress. That the full force of this + obligation may be understood by all parties, the committee + propose, in conclusion, to touch briefly on the movements of + the abolitionists, with the view of showing the dangerous + consequences to which they must lead if not arrested." + +These were ominous intimations, to receive their full interpretation +elsewhere, and indissolubly connecting themselves with the late +disunion attitude of South Carolina--the basis of discontent only +changed. Mr. King of Georgia said that positions had been assumed +and principles insisted upon by Mr. Calhoun, not only inconsistent +with the bill reported, but he thought inconsistent with the +"existence of the Union itself, and which if established and +carried into practice, must hastily end in its dissolution." Mr. +Calhoun in his reply pretty well justified these conclusions of +the Georgia senator. He made it a point that the non-slaveholding +States had done nothing yet to suppress the incendiary societies +within their limits; and joining that non-action of these States +with a refusal of Congress to pass this bill, he looked upon it as +in vain to expect security or protection for the slaveholding States +except from themselves--from State interposition, as authorized +in the Virginia resolutions of 1798; and as recently carried out +by South Carolina in her nullification proceedings; and declared +that nothing was wanted but "concert" among themselves to place +their domestic institutions, their peace and security under their +own protection and beyond the reach of danger. All this was thus +intelligibly, and ominously stated in his reply to Mr. King: + + "Thus far (I say it with regret) our just hopes have not been + realized. The legislatures of the South, backed by the voice + their constituents expressed through innumerable meetings, + have called upon the non-slaveholding States to repress the + movements made within the jurisdiction of those States against + their peace and security. Not a step has been taken; not a law + has been passed, or even proposed; and I venture to assert that + none will be; not but what there is a favorable disposition + towards us in the North, but I clearly see the state of + political parties there presents insuperable impediments to + any legislation on the subject. I rest my opinion on the fact + that the non-slaveholding States, from the elements of their + population, are, and will continue to be, divided and distracted + by parties of nearly equal strength; and that each will always + be ready to seize on every movement of the other which may give + them the superiority, without much regard to consequences, + as affecting their own States, and much less, remote and + distant sections. Nor have we been less disappointed as to the + proceedings of Congress. Believing that the general government + has no right or authority over the subject of slavery, we had + just grounds to hope Congress would refuse all jurisdiction in + reference to it, in whatever form it might be presented. The + very opposite course has been pursued. Abolition petitions have + not only been received in both Houses, but received on the most + obnoxious and dangerous of all grounds--that we are bound to + receive them; that is, to take jurisdiction of the question + of slavery whenever the abolitionists may think proper to + petition for its abolition, either here or in the States. Thus + far, then, we of the slaveholding States have been grievously + disappointed. One question still remains to be decided that + is presented by this bill. To refuse to pass this bill would + be virtually to co-operate with the abolitionists--would be + to make the officers and agents of the post-office department + in effect their agents and abettors in the circulation of + their incendiary publications, in violation of the laws of the + States. It is your unquestionable duty, as I have demonstrably + proved, to abstain from their violation; and, by refusing or + neglecting to discharge that duty, you would clearly enlist, + in the existing controversy, on the side of the abolitionists + against the Southern States. Should such be your decision, + by refusing to pass this bill, I shall say to the people of + the South, look to yourselves--you have nothing to hope from + others. But I must tell the Senate, be your decision what it + may, the South will never abandon the principles of this + bill. If you refuse co-operation with our laws, and conflict + should ensue between your and our law, the Southern States will + never yield to the superiority of yours. We have a remedy in + our hands, which, in such events, we shall not fail to apply. + We have high authority for asserting that, in such cases, + 'State interposition is the rightful remedy'--a doctrine first + announced by Jefferson--adopted by the patriotic and republican + State of Kentucky by a solemn resolution, in 1798, and finally + carried out into successful practice on a recent occasion, ever + to be remembered, by the gallant State which I, part, have the + honor to represent. In this well-tested and efficient remedy, + sustained by the principles developed in the report and asserted + in this bill, the slaveholding States have an ample protection. + Let it be fixed, let it be riveted in every Southern mind, that + the laws of the slaveholding States for the protection of their + domestic institutions are paramount to the laws of the general + government in regulation of commerce and the mail, and that the + latter must yield to the former in the event of conflict; and + that, if the government should refuse to yield, the States have + a right to interpose, and we are safe. With these principles, + nothing but concert would be wanting to bid defiance to the + movements of the abolitionists, whether at home or abroad, and + to place our domestic institutions, and, with them, our security + and peace, under our own protection, and beyond the reach of + danger." + +These were very significant intimations. Congress itself was to +become the ally of the abolitionists, and enlist in their cause, if +it did not pass his bill, which was opposed by Southern senators and +founded upon a minority report of a Southern committee selected by +Mr. Calhoun himself. It was well known it was not to pass; and in +view of that fact it was urged upon the South to nullify and secede. + +Thus, within two short years after the "compromise" of 1833 +had taken Mr. Calhoun out of the hands of the law, he publicly +and avowedly relapsed into the same condition; recurring again +to secession for a new grievance; and to be resorted to upon +contingencies which he knew to be certain; and encouraged in +this course by the success of the first trial of strength with +the federal government. It has been told at the proper place--in +the chapter which gave the secret history of the compromise of +1833--that Mr. Webster refused to go into that measure, saying that +the time had come to try the strength of the constitution and of +the government: and it now becomes proper to tell that Mr. Clay, +after seeing the relapse of Mr. Calhoun, became doubtful of the +correctness of his own policy in that affair; and often said to his +friends that, "in looking back upon the whole case, he had seriously +doubted the policy of his interference." Certainly it was a most +deplorable interference, arresting the process of the law when it +was on the point of settling every thing without hurting a hair of +any man's head, and putting an end to nullification for ever; and +giving it a victory, real or fancied, to encourage a new edition of +the same proceedings in a far more dangerous and pervading form. But +to return to the bill before the Senate. + + "Mr. Webster addressed the Senate at length in opposition to + the bill, commencing his argument against what he contended was + its vagueness and obscurity, in not sufficiently defining what + were the publications the circulation of which it intended to + prohibit. The bill provided that it should not be lawful for + any deputy postmaster, in any State, territory, or district of + the United States, knowingly to deliver to any person whatever, + any pamphlet, newspaper, handbill, or other printed paper or + pictorial representation, touching the subject of slavery, + where, by the laws of the said State, district, or territory, + their circulation was prohibited. Under this provision, Mr. + W. contended that it was impossible to say what publications + might not be prohibited from circulation. No matter what + was the publication, whether for or against slavery, if it + touched the subject in any shape or form, it would fall under + the prohibition. Even the constitution of the United States + might be prohibited; and the person who was clothed with the + power to judge in this delicate matter was one of the deputy + postmasters, who, notwithstanding the difficulties with which + he was encompassed in coming to a correct decision, must decide + correctly, under pain of being removed from office. It would be + necessary, also, he said, for the deputy postmasters referred to + in this bill, to make themselves acquainted with all the various + laws passed by the States, touching the subject of slavery, and + to decide on them, no matter how variant they might be with + each other. Mr. W. also contended that the bill conflicted with + that provision in the constitution which prohibited Congress + from passing any law to abridge the freedom of speech or of the + press. What was the liberty of the press? he asked. It was the + liberty of printing as well as the liberty of publishing, in all + the ordinary modes of publication; and was not the circulation + of papers through the mails an ordinary mode of publication? + He was afraid that they were in some danger of taking a step + in this matter that they might hereafter have cause to regret, + by its being contended that whatever in this bill applies to + publications touching slavery, applies to other publications + that the States might think proper to prohibit; and Congress + might, under this example, be called upon to pass laws to + suppress the circulation of political, religious, or any other + description of publications which produced excitement in the + States. Was this bill in accordance with the general force and + temper of the constitution and its amendments? It was not in + accordance with that provision of the instrument under which + the freedom of speech and of the press was secured. Whatever + laws the State legislatures might pass on the subject, Congress + was restrained from legislating in any manner whatever, with + regard to the press. It would be admitted, that if a newspaper + came directed to him, he had a property in it; and how could any + man, then, take that property and burn it without due form of + law? and he did not know how this newspaper could be pronounced + an unlawful publication, and having no property in it, without + a legal trial. Mr. W. argued against the right to examine into + the nature of publications sent to the post-office, and said + that the right of an individual in his papers was secured to + him in every free country in the world. In England, it was + expressly provided that the papers of the subject shall be free + from all unreasonable searches and seizures--language, he said, + to be found in our constitution. This principle established + in England, so essential to liberty, had been followed out in + France, where the right of printing and publishing was secured + in the fullest extent; the individual publishing being amenable + to the laws for what he published; and every man printed and + published what he pleased, at his peril. Mr. Webster went on, + at some length, to show that the bill was contrary to that + provision of the constitution which prohibits Congress to pass + any law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press." + +Mr. Clay spoke against the bill, saying: + + "The evil complained of was the circulation of papers having a + certain tendency. The papers, unless circulated, did no harm, + and while in the post-office or in the mail, they were not + circulated--it was the circulation solely which constituted the + evil. It was the taking them out of the mail, and the use that + was to be made of them, that constituted the mischief. Then it + was perfectly competent to the State authorities to apply the + remedy. The instant that a prohibited paper was handed out, + whether to a citizen or sojourner, he was subject to the laws + which might compel him either to surrender them or burn them. + He considered the bill not only unnecessary, but as a law of + a dangerous, if not a doubtful, authority. It was objected + that it was vague and indefinite in its character; and how is + that objection got over? The bill provided that it shall not + be lawful for any deputy postmaster, in any State, territory, + or district of the United States, knowingly to deliver to any + person whatever, any pamphlet, newspaper, handbill, or other + printed paper or pictorial representation, touching the subject + of slavery, where, by the laws of the said State, territory, + or district, their circulation is prohibited. Now, what could + be more vague and indefinite than this description? Now, could + it be decided, by this description, what publications should + be withheld from distribution? The gentleman from Pennsylvania + said that the laws of the States would supply the omission. He + thought the senator was premature in saying that there would be + precision in State laws, before he showed it by producing the + law. He had seen no such law, and he did not know whether the + description in the bill was applicable or not. There was another + objection to this part of the bill; it applied not only to the + present laws of the States, but to any future laws that might + pass. Mr. C. denied that the bill applied to the slaveholding + States only; and went on to argue that it could be applied to + all the States, and to any publication touching the subject of + slavery whatever, whether for or against it, if such publication + was only prohibited by the laws of such State. Thus, for + instance, a non-slaveholding State might prohibit publications + in defence of the institution of slavery, and this bill would + apply to it as well as to the laws of the slaveholding States; + but the law would be inoperative: it declared that the deputy + postmaster should not be amenable, unless he knowingly shall + deliver, &c. Why, the postmaster might plead ignorance, and of + course the law would be inoperative. + + "But he wanted to know whence Congress derived the power to pass + this law. It was said that it was to carry into effect the laws + of the States. Where did they get such authority? He thought + that their only authority to pass laws was in pursuance of the + constitution; but to pass laws to carry into effect the laws + of the States, was a most prolific authority, and there was no + knowing where it was to stop; it would make the legislation of + Congress dependent upon the legislation of twenty-four different + sovereignties. He thought the bill was of a most dangerous + tendency. The senator from Pennsylvania asked if the post-office + power did not give them the right to regulate what should be + carried in the mails. Why, there was no such power as that + claimed in the bill; and if they passed such a law, it would + be exercising a most dangerous power. Why, if such doctrine + prevailed, the government might designate the persons, or + parties, or classes, who should have the benefit of the mails, + excluding all others." + +At last the voting came on; and, what looks sufficiently curious on +the outside view, there were three tie votes successively--two on +amendments, and one on the engrossment of the bill. The two ties on +amendments stood fifteen to fifteen--the absentees being eighteen: +one third of the Senate: the tie on engrossment was eighteen to +eighteen--the absentees being twelve: one fourth of the Senate. It +was Mr. Calhoun who called for the yeas and nays on each of these +questions. It was evident that there was a design to throw the +bill into the hands of the Vice-President--a New-Yorker, and the +prominent candidate for the presidency. In committee of the whole he +did not vote in the case of a tie; but it was necessary to establish +an equilibrium of votes there to be ready for the immediate vote in +Senate on the engrossment; and when the committee tie was deranged +by the accession of three votes on one side, the equilibrium was +immediately re-established by three on the other. Mr. Van Buren, +at the moment of this vote (on the engrossment) was out of the +chair, and walking behind the colonnade back of the presiding +officer's chair. My eyes were wide open to what was to take place. +Mr. Calhoun, not seeing him, eagerly and loudly asked where was the +Vice-President? and told the Sergeant-at-arms to look for him. But +he needed no looking for. He was within hearing of all that passed, +and ready for the contingency: and immediately stepping up to his +chair, and standing up, promptly gave the casting vote in favor of +the engrossment. I deemed it a political vote, that is to say, given +from policy; and I deemed it justifiable under the circumstances. +Mr. Calhoun had made the rejection of the bill a test of alliance +with Northern abolitionists, and a cause for the secession of the +Southern States: and if the bill had been rejected by Van Buren's +vote, the whole responsibility of its loss would have been thrown +upon him and the North; and the South inflamed against those States +and himself--the more so as Mr. White, of Tennessee, the opposing +democratic candidate for the presidency, gave his votes for the +bill. Mr. Wright also, as I believe, voted politically, and on all +the votes both in the committee and the Senate. He was the political +and the personal friend of the Vice-President, most confidential +with him, and believed to be the best index to his opinions. He was +perfectly sensible of his position, and in every vote on the subject +voted with Mr. Calhoun. Several other senators voted politically, +and without compunction, although it was a bad bill, as it was known +it would not pass. The author of this View would not so vote. He was +tired of the eternal cry of dissolving the Union--did not believe +in it--and would not give a repugnant vote to avoid the trial. The +tie vote having been effected, and failed of its expected result, +the Senate afterwards voted quite fully on the final passage of the +bill, and rejected it--twenty-five to nineteen: only four absent. +The yeas were: Messrs. Black, Bedford, Brown, Buchanan, Calhoun, +Cuthbert of Georgia, Grundy, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, +Mangum, Moore, Nicholas of Louisiana, Alexander Porter, Preston of +South Carolina, Rives, Robinson, Tallmadge, Walker of Mississippi, +White of Tennessee, Silas Wright. The nays were: Messrs. Benton, +Clay, Crittenden, Davis of Massachusetts, Ewing of Illinois, Ewing +of Ohio, Goldsborough of Maryland, Hendricks, Hubbard, Kent, Knight, +Leigh, McKean of Pennsylvania, Thomas Morris of Ohio, Naudain +of Delaware, Niles of Connecticut, Prentiss, Ruggles, Shepley, +Southard, Swift, Tipton, Tomlinson, Wall of New Jersey, Webster: +majority six against the bill; and seven of them, if the solecism +may be allowed, from the slave States. And thus was accomplished one +of the contingencies in which "State interposition" was again to +be applied--the "rightful remedy of nullification" again resorted +to--and the "domestic institutions" of the Southern States, by +"concert" among themselves, "to be placed beyond the reach of +danger." + + + + +CHAPTER CXXXII. + +FRENCH AFFAIRS--APPROACH OF A FRENCH SQUADRON--APOLOGY REQUIRED. + + +In his annual message at the commencement of the session the +President gave a general statement of our affairs with France, and +promised a special communication on the subject at an early day. +That communication was soon made, and showed a continued refusal +on the part of France to pay the indemnity, unless an apology was +first made; and also showed that a French fleet was preparing for +the American seas, under circumstances which implied a design either +to overawe the American government, or to be ready for expected +hostilities. On the subject of the apology, the message said: + + "Whilst, however, the government of the United States was + awaiting the movements of the French government, in perfect + confidence that the difficulty was at an end, the Secretary + of State received a call from the French chargé d'affaires in + Washington, who desired to read to him a letter he had received + from the French minister of foreign affairs. He was asked + whether he was instructed or directed to make any official + communication, and replied that he was only authorized to + read the letter, and furnish a copy if requested. It was an + attempt to make known to the government of the United States, + privately, in what manner it could make explanations, apparently + voluntary, but really dictated by France, acceptable to her, + and thus obtain payment of the twenty-five millions of francs. + No exception was taken to this mode of communication, which + is often used to prepare the way for official intercourse; + but the suggestions made in it were, in their substance, + wholly inadmissible. Not being in the shape of an official + communication to this government, it did not admit of reply or + official notice; nor could it safely be made the basis of any + action by the Executive or the legislature; and the Secretary of + State did not think proper to ask a copy, because he could have + no use for it." + +One cannot but be struck with the extreme moderation with which +the President gives the history of this private attempt to obtain +a dictated apology from him. He recounts it soberly and quietly, +without a single expression of irritated feeling; and seems to have +met and put aside the attempt in the same quiet manner, it was +a proof of his extreme indisposition to have any collision with +France, and of his perfect determination to keep himself on the +right side in the controversy, whatever aspect it might assume. But +that was not the only trial to which his temper was put. The attempt +to obtain the apology being civilly repulsed, and the proffered copy +of the dictated terms refused to be taken, an attempt was made to +get that copy placed upon the archives of the government, with the +view to its getting to Congress, and through Congress to the people; +to become a point of attack upon the President for not giving the +apology, and thereby getting the money from France, and returning to +friendly relations with her. Of this attempt to get a refused paper +upon our archives, and to make it operate as an appeal to the people +against their own government, the President (still preserving all +his moderation), gives this account: + + "Copies of papers, marked Nos. 9, 10, and 11 show an attempt + on the part of the French chargé d'affaires, many weeks + afterwards, to place a copy of this paper among the archives + of this government, which for obvious reasons, was not allowed + to be done; but the assurance before given was repeated, that + any official communication which he might be authorized to + make in the accustomed form would receive a prompt and just + consideration. The indiscretion of this attempt was made + more manifest by the subsequent avowal of the French chargé + d'affaires, that the object was to bring the letter before + Congress and the American people. If foreign agents, on a + subject of disagreement between their government and this, + wish to prefer an appeal to the American people, they will + hereafter, it is hoped, better appreciate their own rights, and + the respect due to others, than to attempt to use the Executive + as the passive organ of their communications. It is due to the + character of our institutions that the diplomatic intercourse of + this government should be conducted with the utmost directness + and simplicity, and that, in all cases of importance, the + communications received or made by the Executive should assume + the accustomed official form. It is only by insisting on this + form that foreign powers can be held to full responsibility; + that their communications can be officially replied to; or + that the advice or interference of the legislature can, with + propriety, be invited by the President. This course is also best + calculated, on the one hand, to shield that officer from unjust + suspicions; and, on the other, to subject this portion of his + acts to public scrutiny, and, if occasion shall require it, + to constitutional animadversion. It was the more necessary to + adhere to these principles in the instance in question, inasmuch + as, in addition to other important interests, it very intimately + concerned the national honor; a matter, in my judgment, much + too sacred to be made the subject of private and unofficial + negotiation." + +Having shown the state of the question, the President next gave +his opinion of what ought to be done by Congress; which was, the +interdiction of our ports to the entry of French vessels and French +products:--a milder remedy than that of reprisals which he had +recommended at the previous session. He said: + + "It is time that this unequal position of affairs should cease, + and that legislative action should be brought to sustain + Executive exertion in such measures as the case requires. + While France persists in her refusal to comply with the terms + of a treaty, the object of which was, by removing all causes + of mutual complaint, to renew ancient feelings of friendship, + and to unite the two nations in the bonds of amity, and of + a mutually beneficial commerce, she cannot justly complain + if we adopt such peaceful remedies as the law of nations and + the circumstances of the case may authorize and demand. Of + the nature of these remedies I have heretofore had occasion + to speak; and, in reference to a particular contingency, to + express my conviction that reprisals would be best adapted to + the emergency then contemplated. Since that period, France, + by all the departments of her government, has acknowledged + the validity of our claims and the obligations of the treaty, + and has appropriated the moneys which are necessary to its + execution; and though payment is withheld on grounds vitally + important to our existence as an independent nation, it is + not to be believed that she can have determined permanently + to retain a position so utterly indefensible. In the altered + state of the questions in controversy, and under all existing + circumstances, it appears to me that, until such a determination + shall have become evident, it will be proper and sufficient to + retaliate her present refusal to comply with her engagements + by prohibiting the introduction of French products and the + entry of French vessels into our ports. Between this and the + interdiction of all commercial intercourse, or other remedies, + you, as the representatives of the people, must determine. I + recommend the former, in the present posture of our affairs, as + being the least injurious to our commerce, and as attended with + the least difficulty of returning to the usual state of friendly + intercourse, if the government of France shall render us the + justice that is due; and also as a proper preliminary step to + stronger measures, should their adoption be rendered necessary + by subsequent events." + +This interdiction of the commerce of France, though a milder measure +than that of reprisals, would still have been a severe one--severe +at any time, and particularly so since the formation of this treaty, +the execution of which was so much delayed by France; for that was +a treaty of two parts--something to be done on each side. On the +part of France to pay us indemnities: on our side to reduce the +duties on French wines: and this reduction had been immediately made +by Congress, to take effect from the date of the ratification of +the treaty; and the benefit of that reduction had now been enjoyed +by French commerce for near four years. But that was not the only +benefit which this treaty brought to France from the good feeling it +produced in America: it procured a discrimination in favor of silks +imported from this side of the Cape of Good Hope--a discrimination +inuring, and intended to inure, to the benefit of France. The author +of this View was much instrumental in procuring that discrimination, +and did it upon conversations with the then resident French minister +at Washington, and founding his argument upon data derived from +him. The data were to show that the discrimination would be +beneficial to the trade of both countries; but the inducing cause +was good-will to France, and a desire to bury all recollection of +past differences in our emulation of good works. This view of the +treaty, and a statement of the advantages which France had obtained +from it, was well shown by Mr. Buchanan in his speech in support of +the message on French affairs; in which be said: + + "The government of the United States proceeded immediately + to execute their part of the treaty. By the act of the 13th + July, 1832, the duties on French wines were reduced according + to its terms, to take effect from the day of the exchange of + ratifications. At the same session, the Congress of the United + States, impelled, no doubt, by their kindly feelings towards + France, which had been roused into action by what they believed + to be a final and equitable settlement of all our disputes, + voluntarily reduced the duty upon silks coming from this side + of the Cape of Good Hope, to five per cent., whilst those from + beyond were fixed at ten per cent. And at the next session, + on the 2d of March, 1833, this duty of five per cent. was + taken off altogether; and ever since, French silks have been + admitted into our country free of duty. There is now, in fact, a + discriminating duty of ten per cent. in their favor, over silks + from beyond the Cape of Good Hope. + + "What has France gained by these measures in duties on her + wines and her silks, which she would otherwise have been bound + to pay? I have called upon the Secretary of the Treasury, for + the purpose of ascertaining the amount. I now hold in my hand + a tabular statement, prepared at my request, which shows, that + had the duties remained what they were, at the date of the + ratification of the treaty, these articles, since that time + would have paid into the Treasury, on the 30th September, 1834, + the sum of $3,061,525. Judging from the large importations which + have since been made, I feel no hesitation in declaring it as my + opinion, that, at the present moment, these duties would amount + to more than the whole indemnity which France has engaged to + pay to our fellow-citizens. Before the conclusion of the ten + years mentioned in the treaty, she will have been freed from + the payment of duties to an amount considerably above twelve + millions of dollars." + +It is almost incomprehensible that there should have been such +delay in complying with a treaty on the part of France bringing her +such advantages; and it is due to the King, Louis Philippe to say, +that he constantly referred the delay to the difficulty of getting +the appropriation through the French legislative chambers. He +often applied for the appropriation, but could not venture to make +it an administration question; and the offensive demand for the +apology came from that quarter, in the shape of an unprecedented +proviso to the law (when it did pass), that the money was not to +be paid until there had been an apology. The only objection to the +King's conduct was that he did not make the appropriation a cabinet +measure, and try issues with the chambers; but that objection has +become less since; and in fact totally disappeared, from seeing a +few years afterwards, the ease with which the King was expelled +from his throne, and how unable he was to try issues with the +chambers. The elder branch of the Bourbons, and all their adherents, +were unfriendly to the United States, considering the American +revolution as the cause of the French revolution; and consequently +the source of all their twenty-five years of exile, suffering and +death. The republicans were also inimical to him, and sided with the +legitimists. + +The President concluded his message with stating that a large French +naval armament was under orders for our seas; and said: + + "Of the cause and intent of these armaments I have no authentic + information, nor any other means of judging, except such as + are common to yourselves and to the public; but whatever may + be their object, we are not at liberty to regard them as + unconnected with the measures which hostile movements on the + part of France may compel us to pursue. They at least deserve + to be met by adequate preparations on our part, and I therefore + strongly urge large and speedy appropriations for the increase + of the navy, and the completion of our coast defences. + + "If this array of military force be really designed to affect + the action of the government and people of the United States on + the questions now pending between the two nations, then indeed + would it be dishonorable to pause a moment on the alternative + which such a state of things would present to us. Come what may, + the explanation which France demands can never be accorded; + and no armament, however powerful and imposing, at a distance, + or on our coast, will, I trust, deter us from discharging the + high duties which we owe to our constituents, to our national + character, and to the world." + +Mr. Buchanan sustained the message in a careful and well-considered +review of this whole French question, showing that the demand of +an apology was an insult in aggravation of the injury, and could +not be given without national degradation; joining the President in +his call for measures for preserving the rights and honor of the +country; declaring that if hostilities came they were preferable to +disgrace, and that the whole world would put the blame on France. +Mr. Calhoun took a different view of it, declaring that the state +of our affairs with France was the effect of the President's +mismanagement, and that if war came it would be entirely his fault; +and affirmed his deliberate belief that it was the President's +design to have war with France. He said: + + "I fear that the condition in which the country is now placed + has been the result of a deliberate and systematic policy. + I am bound to speak my sentiments freely. It is due to my + constituents and the country, to act with perfect candor and + truth on a question in which their interests is so deeply + involved. I will not assert that the Executive has deliberately + aimed at war from the commencement; but I will say that, + from the beginning of the controversy to the present moment, + the course which the President has pursued is precisely the + one calculated to terminate in a conflict between the two + nations. It has been in his power, at every period, to give + the controversy a direction by which the peace of the country + might be preserved, without the least sacrifice of reputation + or honor; but he has preferred the opposite. I feel (said Mr. + C.) how painful it is to make these declarations; how unpleasant + it is to occupy a position which might, by any possibility, + be construed in opposition to our country's cause; but, in my + conception, the honor and the interests of the country can only + be maintained by pursuing the course that truth and justice may + dictate. Acting under this impression, I do not hesitate to + assert, after a careful examination of the documents connected + with this unhappy controversy, that, if war must come, we are + the authors--we are the responsible party. Standing, as I fear + we do, on the eve of a conflict, it would to me have been a + source of pride and pleasure to make an opposite declaration; + but that sacred regard to truth and justice, which, I trust, + will ever be my guide under the most difficult circumstances, + would not permit." + +Mr. Benton maintained that it was the conduct of the Senate at the +last session which had given to the French question its present +and hostile aspect: that the belief of divided counsels, and of a +majority against the President, and that we looked to money and +not to honor, had encouraged the French chambers to insult us by +demanding an apology, and to attempt to intimidate us by sending a +fleet upon our coasts. He said: + + "It was in March last that the three millions and the + fortification bill were lost; since then the whole aspect of + the French question is changed. The money is withheld, and + explanation is demanded, an apology is prescribed, and a French + fleet approaches. Our government, charged with insulting France, + when no insult was intended by us, and none can be detected in + our words by her, is itself openly and vehemently insulted. The + apology is to degrade us; the fleet to intimidate us; and the + two together constitute an insult of the gravest character. + There in no parallel to it, except in the history of France + herself; but not France of the 19th century, nor even of the + 18th, but in the remote and ill-regulated times of the 17th + century, and in the days of the proudest of the French Kings, + and towards one of the smallest Italian republics. I allude, + sir, to what happened between Louis XIV. and the Doge of Genoa, + and will read the account of it from the pen of Voltaire, in his + Age of Louis XIV. + + "'The Genoese had built four galleys for the service of Spain; + the King (of France) forbade them, by his envoy, St. Olon, one + of his gentlemen in ordinary, to launch those galleys. The + Genoese, incensed at this violation of their liberties, and + depending too much on the support of Spain, refused to obey the + order. Immediately fourteen men of war, twenty galleys, ten + bomb-ketches, with several frigates, set sail from the port of + Toulon. They arrived before Genoa, and the ten bomb-ketches + discharged 14,000 shells into the town, which reduced to ashes + a principal part of those marble edifices which had entitled + this city to the name of Genoa the Proud. Four thousand men were + then landed, who marched up to the gates, and burnt the suburb + of St. Peter, of Arena. It was now thought prudent to submit, + in order to prevent the total destruction of the city. The King + exacted that the Doge of Genoa, with four of the principal + senators, should come and implore his clemency in the palace + of Versailles; and, lest the Genoese should elude the making + this satisfaction, and lessen in any manner the pomp of it, he + insisted further that the Doge, who was to perform this embassy, + should be continued in his magistracy, notwithstanding the + perpetual law of Genoa, which deprives the Doge of his dignity + who is absent but a moment from the city. Imperialo Lercaro, + Doge of Genoa, attended by the senators Lomellino, Garibaldi, + Durazzo, and Salvago, repaired to Versailles, to submit to what + was required of him. The Doge appeared in his robes of state, + his head covered with a bonnet of red velvet, which he often + took off during his speech; made his apology, the very words + and demeanor of which were dictated and prescribed to him by + Seignelai,' (the French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs). + + "Thus, said Mr. B., was the city of Genoa, and its Doge, treated + by Louis XIV. But it was not the Doge who was degraded by this + indignity, but the republic of which he was chief magistrate, + and all the republics of Italy, besides, which felt themselves + all humbled by the outrage which a king had inflicted upon one + of their number. So of the apology demanded, and of the fleet + sent upon us, and in presence of which President Jackson, + according to the _Constitutionnel_, is to make his decision, + and to remit it to the Tuileries. It is not President Jackson + that is outraged, but the republic of which he is President; and + all existing republics, wheresoever situated. Our whole country + is insulted, and that is the feeling of the whole country; + and this feeling pours in upon us every day, in every manner + in which public sentiment can be manifested, and especially + in the noble resolves of the States whose legislatures are + in session, and who hasten to declare their adherence to the + policy of the special message. True, President Jackson is not + required to repair to the Tuileries, with four of his most + obnoxious senators, and there recite, in person, to the King + of the French, the apology which he had first rehearsed to the + Duke de Broglie; true, the bomb-ketches of Admiral Mackau have + not yet fired 14,000 shells on one of our cities; but the mere + demand for an apology, the mere dictation of its terms, and the + mere advance of a fleet, in the present state of the world, and + in the difference of parties, is a greater outrage to us than + the actual perpetration of the enormities were to the Genoese. + This is not the seventeenth century. President Jackson is not + the Doge of a trading city. We are not Italians, to be trampled + upon by European kings; but Americans, the descendants of + that Anglo-Saxon race, which, for a thousand years, has known + how to command respect, and to preserve its place at the head + of nations. We are young, but old enough to prove that the + theory of the Frenchman, the Abbé Raynal, is as false in its + application to the people of this hemisphere as it is to the + other productions of nature; and that the belittling tendencies + of the New World are no more exemplified in the human race than + they are in the exhibition of her rivers and her mountains, and + in the indigenous races of the mammoth and the mastodon. The + Duke de Broglie has made a mistake, the less excusable, because + he might find in his own country, and perhaps in his own family, + examples of the extreme criticalness of attempting to overawe + a community of freemen. There was a Marshal Broglie, who was + Minister at War, at the commencement of the French Revolution, + and who advised the formation of a camp of 20,000 men to + overawe Paris. The camp was formed. Paris revolted; captured + the Bastile; marched to Versailles; stormed the Tuileries; + overset the monarchy; and established the Revolution. So much + for attempting to intimidate a city. And yet, here is a nation + of freemen to be intimidated: a republic of fourteen millions of + people, and descendants of that Anglo-Saxon race which, from the + days of Agincourt and Cressy, of Blenheim and Ramillies, down to + the days of Salamanca and Waterloo, have always known perfectly + well how to deal with the impetuous and fiery courage of the + French." + +Mr. Benton also showed that there was a party in the French +Chambers, working to separate the President of the United States +from the people of the United States, and to make him responsible +for the hostile attitude of the two countries. In this sense acted +the deputy, Mons. Henry de Chabaulon, who spoke thus: + + "The insult of President Jackson comes from himself only. This + is more evident, from the refusal of the American Congress to + concur with him in it. The French Chamber, by interfering, + would render the affair more serious, and make its arrangement + more difficult, and even dangerous. Let us put the case to + ourselves. Suppose the United States had taken part with General + Jackson, we should have had to demand satisfaction, not from + him, but from the United States; and, instead of now talking + about negotiation, we should have had to make appropriations + for a war, and to intrust to our heroes of Navarino and Algiers + the task of teaching the Americans that France knows the way to + Washington as well as England." + +This language was received with applause in the Chamber, by the +extremes. It was the language held six weeks after the rise of +Congress, and when the loss of the three millions asked by the +President for contingent preparation, and after the loss of the +fortification bill, were fully known in Paris. Another speaker in +the Chamber, Mons. Rancé, was so elated by these losses as to allow +himself to discourse thus: + + "Gentlemen, we should put on one side of the tribune the + twenty-five millions, on the other the sword of France. + When the Americans see this good long sword, this very long + sword, gentlemen (for it struck down every thing from Lisbon + to Moscow), they will perhaps recollect what it did for the + independence of their country; they will, perhaps, too, reflect + upon what it could do to support and avenge the honor and + dignity of France, when outraged by an ungrateful people. [Cries + of 'well said!'] Believe me, gentlemen, they would sooner + touch your money than dare to touch your sword; and for your + twenty-five millions they will bring you back the satisfactory + receipt, which it is your duty to exact." + +And this also was received with great approbation, in the +Chamber, by the two extremes and was promptly followed by two +royal ordinances, published in the _Moniteur_, under which the +Admiral Mackau was to take command of a "squadron of observation," +and proceed to the West Indies. The _Constitutionnel_, the +demi-official paper of the government, stated that this measure was +warranted by the actual state of the relations between France and +the United States--that the United States had no force to oppose to +it--and applauded the government for its foresight and energy. Mr. +Benton thus commented upon the approach of this French squadron: + + "A French fleet of sixty vessels of war, to be followed by sixty + more, now in commission, approaches our coast; and approaches + it for the avowed purpose of observing our conduct, in relation + to France. It is styled, in the French papers, a squadron + of observation; and we are sufficiently acquainted with the + military vocabulary of France to know what that phrase means. + In the days of the great Emperor, we were accustomed to see the + armies which demolished empires at a blow, wear that pacific + title up to the moment that the blow was ready to be struck. + These grand armies assembled on the frontiers of empires, gave + emphasis to negotiation, and crushed what resisted. A squadron + of observation, then, is a squadron of intimidation first, and + of attack eventually; and nothing could be more palpable than + that such was the character of the squadron in question. It + leaves the French coast contemporaneously with the departure of + our diplomatic agent, and the assembling of our Congress; it + arrives upon our coast at the very moment that we shall have + to vote upon French affairs; and it takes a position upon our + Southern border--that border, above all others, on which we are, + at this time, peculiarly sensitive to hostile approach. + + "What have we done, continued Mr. B., to draw this squadron + upon us? We have done no wrong to France; we are making no + preparations against her; and not even ordinary preparations + for general and permanent security. We have treaties, and are + executing them, even the treaty that she does not execute. We + have been executing that treaty for four years, and may say that + we have paid France as much under it as we have in vain demanded + from her, as the first instalment of the indemnity; not, in + fact, by taking money out of our treasury and delivering to + her, but, what is better for her, namely, leaving her own money + in her own hands, in the shape of diminished duties upon her + wines, as provided for in this same treaty, which we execute, + and which she does not. In this way, France has gained one or + two millions of dollars from us, besides the encouragement to + her wine trade. On the article of silks, she is also gaining + money from us in the same way, not by treaty, but by law. Our + discriminating duties in favor of silks, from this side the Cape + of Good Hope, operate almost entirely in her favor. Our great + supplies of silks are from France, England, and China. In four + years, and under the operation of this discriminating duty, our + imports of French silks have risen from two millions of dollars + per annum to six millions and a half; from England, they have + risen from a quarter of a million to three quarters; from China, + they have sunk from three millions and a quarter to one million + and a quarter. This discriminating duty has left between one and + two millions of dollars in the pockets of Frenchmen, besides + the encouragement to the silk manufacture and trade. Why, then, + has she sent this squadron, to observe us first, and to strike + us eventually? She knows our pacific disposition towards her + not only from our own words and actions, but from the official + report of her own officers: from the very officer sent out last + spring, in a brig, to carry back the recalled minister." + +Mr. Benton then went on to charge the present state of our affairs +with France distinctly and emphatically upon the conduct of the +Senate, in their refusal to attend to the national defences--in +their opposition to the President--and in the disposition manifested +rather to pull down the President, in a party contest, than to +sustain him against France--rather to plunder their own country than +to defend it, by taking the public money for distribution instead of +defence. To this effect, he said: + + "He had never spoken unkindly of the French nation, neither + in his place here, as a senator, nor in his private capacity + elsewhere. Born since the American Revolution, bred up in + habitual affection for the French name, coming upon the stage + of life when the glories of the republic and of the empire were + filling the world and dazzling the imagination, politically + connected with the party which, a few years ago, was called + French, his bosom had glowed with admiration for that people; + and youthful affection had ripened into manly friendship. He + would not now permit himself to speak unkindly, much less to use + epithets; but he could not avoid fixing his attention upon the + reason assigned in the _Constitutionnel_ for the present advance + of the French squadron upon us. That reason is this: 'America + will have no force capable of being opposed to it.' This is the + reason. Our nakedness, our destitution, has drawn upon us the + honor of this visit; and we are now to speak, and vote, and + so to demean ourselves, as men standing in the presence of a + force which they cannot resist, and which had taught the lesson + of submission to the Turk and the Arab! And here I change the + theme: I turn from French intimidation to American legislation; + and I ask how it comes that we have no force to oppose to this + squadron which comes here to take a position upon our borders, + and to show us that it knows the way to Washington as well as + the English? This is my future theme; and I have to present the + American Senate as the responsible party for leaving our country + in this wretched condition. First, there is the three million + appropriation which was lost by the opposition of the Senate, + and which carried down with it the whole fortification bill, to + which it was attached. That bill, besides the three millions, + contained thirteen specific appropriations for works of defence, + part originating in the House of Representatives, and part in + the Senate, and appropriating $900,000 to the completion and + armament of forts. + + "All these specific appropriations, continued Mr. B., were lost + in the bill which was sunk by the opposition of the Senate to + the three millions, which were attached to it by the House of + Representatives. He (Mr. B.) was not a member of the conference + committee which had the disagreement of the two Houses committed + to its charge, and could go into no detail as to what happened + in that conference; he took his stand upon the palpable ground + that the opposition which the Senate made to the three million + appropriation, the speeches which denounced it, and the + prolonged invectives against the President, which inflamed the + passions and consumed the precious time at the last moment of + the session, were the true causes of the loss of that bill; and + so leaves the responsibility for the loss on the shoulders of + the Senate. + + "Mr. B. recalled attention to the reason demi-officially + assigned in the _Constitutionnel_, for the approach of the + French fleet of observation, and to show that it came because + 'America had no force capable of being opposed to it.' It was + a subsidiary argument, and a fair illustration of the dangers + and humiliations of a defenceless position. It should stimulate + us to instant and vigorous action; to the concentration of all + our money, and all our hands, to the sacred task of national + defence. For himself, he did not believe there would be war, + because he knew that there ought not to be war; but that belief + would have no effect upon his conduct. He went for national + defence, because that policy was right in itself, without regard + to times and circumstances. He went for it now, because it was + the response, and the only response, which American honor could + give to the visit of Admiral Mackau. Above all, he went for + it because it was the way, and the only manly way, of letting + France know that she had committed a mistake in sending this + fleet upon us. In conclusion, he would call for the yeas and + nays, and remark that our votes would have to be given under the + guns of France, and under the eyes of Europe." + +The reproach cast by Mr. Benton on the conduct of the Senate, in +causing the loss of the defence bills, and the consequent insult +from France, brought several members to their feet in defence of +themselves and the body to which they belonged. + + "Mr. Webster said his duty was to take care that neither in + nor out of the Senate there should be any mistake, the effect + of which should be to produce an impression unfavorable or + reproachful to the character and patriotism of the American + people. He remembered the progress of that bill (the bill + alluded to by Mr. Benton), the incidents of its history, and the + real cause of its loss. And he would satisfy any man that the + loss of it was not attributable to any member or officer of the + Senate. He would not, however, do so until the Senate should + again have been in session on executive business. As soon as + that took place, he should undertake to show that it was not to + any dereliction of duty on the part of the Senate that the loss + of that bill was to be attributed. + + "Mr. Preston of South Carolina said every senator had concurred + in general appropriations to put the navy and army in a state + of defence. This undefined appropriation was not the only + exception. The gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Benton) had said + this appropriation was intended to operate as a permanent + defence. The senator from Missouri (Mr. Benton) had preferred + a general indictment against the Senate before the people of + the United States. It was strange the gentleman should ask the + departments for calculations to enable us to know how much was + necessary to appropriate, when the information was not given to + us when we rejected the undefined appropriations. I rejoice, + said Mr. P., that the gentleman has said even to my fears there + will be no French war. France was not going to squabble with + America on a little point of honor, that might do for duellists + to quarrel about, but not for nations. There was no reason why + blood should be poured out like water in righting this point of + honor. If this matter was placed on its proper basis, his hopes + would be lit up into a blaze of confidence. The President had + recommended making reprisals, if France refused payment. France + had refused, but the remedy was not pursued. It may be, said + he, that this fleet is merely coming to protect the commerce + of France. If the President of the United States, at the last + session of Congress, had suggested the necessity of making this + appropriation, we would have poured out the treasury; we would + have filled his hands for all necessary purposes. There was one + hundred thousand dollars appropriated that had not been called + for. He did not know whether he was permitted to go any further + and say to what extent any of the departments were disposed to + go in this matter. + + "Mr. Clayton of Delaware was surprised at the suggestion of + an idea that the American Senate was not disposed to make the + necessary appropriations for the defence of the country; that + they had endeavored to prevent the passage of a bill, the + object of which was to make provision for large appropriations + for our defence. The senator from Missouri had gone into a + liberal attack of the Senate. He (Mr. C.) was not disposed to + say any thing further of the events of the last night of the + session. He took occasion to say there were other matters in + connection with this appropriation. Before any department or + any friend of the administration had named an appropriation for + defence, he made the motion to appropriate five hundred thousand + dollars. It was on his motion that the Committee on Military + Affairs made the appropriation to increase the fortifications. + Actuated by the very same motives which induced him to move that + appropriation, he had moved an additional appropriation to Fort + Delaware. The motion was to increase the seventy-five thousand + to one hundred and fifty thousand, and elicited a protracted + debate. The next question was, whether, in the general bill, + five hundred thousand dollars should be appropriated. He + recollected the honorable chairman of the Committee on Finance + told them there was an amendment before that committee of + similar tenor. As chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, + he felt disinclined to give it up. The amendment fell on the + single ground, by one vote, that the Committee on Finance had + before it the identical proposition made by the Committee on + Military Affairs. He appealed to the country whether, under + those circumstances, they were to be arraigned before the + people of the country on a charge of a want of patriotism. He + had always felt deeply affected when those general remarks + were made impugning the motives of patriotism of the senators. + He was willing to go as far as he who goes farthest in making + appropriations for the national protection. Nay, he would be in + advance of the administration." + +Mr. Benton returned to his charge that the defence bills of the last +session were lost through the conduct of the Senate. It was the +Senate which disagreed to the House amendment of three millions to +the fortification bill (which itself contained appropriations to the +amount of $900,000); and it was the Senate which moved to "adhere" +to its disagreement, thereby adopting the harsh measure which so +much endangers legislation. And, in support of his views, he said: + + "The bill died under lapse of time. It died because not acted + upon before midnight of the last day of the session. Right or + wrong, the session was over before the report of the conferees + could be acted on. The House of Representatives was without a + quorum, and the Senate was about in the same condition. Two + attempts in the Senate to get a vote on some printing moved by + his colleague (Mr. Linn), were both lost for want of a quorum. + The session then was at an end, for want of quorums, whether the + legal right to sit had ceased or not. The bill was not rejected + either in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, but it + died for want of action upon it; and that action was prevented + by want of time. Now, whose fault was it that there was no time + left for acting on the report of the conferees? That was the + true question, and the answer to it would show where the fault + lay. This answer is as clear as mid-day, though the transaction + took place in the darkness of midnight. It was this Senate! + The bill came to the Senate in full time to have been acted + upon, if it had been treated as all bills must be treated that + are intended to be passed in the last hours of the session. It + is no time for speaking. All speaking is then fatal to bills, + and equally fatal, whether for or against them. Yet, what was + the conduct of the Senate with respect to this bill? Members + commenced speaking upon it with vehemence and perseverance, and + continued at it, one after another. These speeches were fatal + to the bill. They were numerous, and consumed much time to + deliver them. They were criminative, and provoked replies. They + denounced the President without measure; and, by implication, + the House of Representatives, which sustained him. They were + intemperate, and destroyed the temper of others. In this way + the precious time was consumed in which the bill might have + been acted upon; and, for want of which time, it is lost. Every + one that made a speech helped to destroy it; and nearly the + whole body of the opposition spoke, and most of them at much + length, and with unusual warmth and animation. So certain was + he of the ruinous effect of this speaking, that he himself + never opened his mouth nor uttered one word upon it. Then came + the fatal motion to adhere, the effect of which was to make + bad worse, and to destroy the last chance, unless the House of + Representatives had humbled itself to ask a conference from + the Senate. The fatal effect of this motion to adhere, Mr. B. + would show from Jefferson's Manual; and read as follows: 'The + regular progression in this case is, that the Commons disagree + to the amendment; the Lords insist on it; the Commons insist on + their disagreement; the Lords adhere to their amendment; the + Commons adhere to their disagreement; the term of insisting + may be repeated as often as they choose to keep the question + open; but the first adherence by either renders it necessary + for the other to recede or to adhere also; when the matter is + usually suffered to fall. (10 Grey, 148.) Latterly, however, + there are instances of their having gone to a second adherence. + There must be an absolute conclusion of the subject somewhere, + or otherwise transactions between the Houses would become + endless. (3 Hatsell, 268, 270.) The term of insisting, we are + told by Sir John Trevor, was then (1678) newly introduced into + parliamentary usage by the Lords. (7 Grey, 94.) It was certainly + a happy innovation, as it multiplies the opportunities of trying + modifications, which may bring the Houses to a concurrence. + Either House, however, is free to pass over the term of + insisting, and to adhere in the first instance. (10 Grey, + 146.) But it is not respectful to the other. In the ordinary + parliamentary course, there are two free conferences at least + before an adherence. (10 Grey, 147.)' + + "This is the regular progression in the case of amendments, + and there are five steps in it. 1. To agree. 2. To disagree. + 3. To recede. 4. To insist. 5. To adhere. Of these five steps + adherence is the last, and yet it was the first adopted by the + Senate. The effect of its adoption was, in parliamentary usage, + to put an end to the matter. It was, by the law of Parliament, + a disrespect to the House. No conference was even asked by the + Senate after the adherence, although, by the parliamentary law, + there ought to have been two free conferences at least before + the adherence was voted. All this was fully stated to the Senate + that night, and before the question to adhere was put. It was + fully stated by you, sir (said Mr. B., addressing himself to + Mr. King, of Alabama, who was then in the Vice-President's + chair). This vote to adhere, coupled with the violent speeches, + denouncing the President, and, by implication, censuring the + House of Representatives, and coupled with the total omission + of the Senate to ask for a conference, seemed to indicate a + fatal purpose to destroy the bill; and lost it would have been + upon the spot, if the House of Representatives, forgetting the + disrespect with which it had been treated, and passing over the + censure impliedly cast upon it, had not humbled itself to come + and ask for a conference. The House humbled itself; but it was a + patriotic and noble humiliation; it was to serve their country. + The conference was granted, and an amendment was agreed upon + by the conferees, by which the amount was reduced, and the sum + divided, and $300,000 allowed to the military, and $500,000 to + the naval service. This was done at last, and after all the + irritating speeches and irritating conduct of the Senate; but + the precious time was gone. The hour of midnight was not only + come, but members were dispersed; quorums were unattainable; and + the bill died for want of action. And now (said Mr. B.) I return + to my question. I resume, and maintain my position upon it. I + ask how it came to pass, if want of specification was really the + objection--how it came to pass that the Senate did not do at + first what it did at last? Why did it not amend, by the easy, + natural, obvious, and parliamentary process of disagreeing, + insisting, and asking for a committee of conference? + + "Mr. B. would say but a word on the new calendar, which + would make the day begin in the middle. It was sufficient to + state such a conception to expose it to ridicule. A farmer + would be sadly put out if his laborers should refuse to come + until mid-day. The thing was rather too fanciful for grave + deliberation. Suffice it to say there are no fractions of days + in any calendar. There is no three and one fourth, three and one + half, and three and three fourths of March, or any other month. + When one day ends, another begins, and midnight is the turning + point both in law and in practice. All our laws of the last day + are dated the 3d of March; and, in point of fact, Congress, + for every beneficial purpose, is dissolved at midnight. Many + members will not act, and go away; and such was the practice of + the venerable Mr. Macon, of North Carolina, who always acted + precisely as President Jackson did. He put on his hat and went + away at midnight; he went away when his own watch told him it + was midnight; after which he believed he had no authority to act + as a legislator, nor the Senate to make him act as such. This + was President Jackson's course. He stayed in the Capitol until a + quarter after one, to sign all the bills which Congress should + pass before midnight. He stayed until a majority of Congress was + gone, and quorums unattainable. He stayed in the Capitol, in + a room convenient to the Senate, to act upon every thing that + was sent to him, and did not have to be waked up, as Washington + was, to sign after midnight; a most unfortunate reference to + Washington, who, by going to bed at midnight, showed that he + considered the business of the day ended; and by getting up and + putting on his night gown, and signing a bill at two o'clock in + the morning of the 4th, showed that he would sign at that hour + what had passed before midnight; and does not that act bear date + the 3d of March?" + +Mr. Webster earnestly defended the Senate's conduct and his own; and +said: + + "This proposition, sir, was thus unexpectedly and suddenly put + to us, at eight o'clock in the evening of the last day of the + session. Unusual, unprecedented, extraordinary, as it obviously + is, on the face of it, the manner of presenting it was still + more extraordinary. The President had asked for no such grant + of money; no department had recommended it; no estimate had + suggested it; no reason whatever was given for it. No emergency + had happened, and nothing new had occurred; every thing known + to the administration at that hour, respecting our foreign + relations, had certainly been known to it for days and for weeks + before. + + "With what propriety, then, could the Senate be called on to + sanction a proceeding so entirely irregular and anomalous? + Sir, I recollect the occurrences of the moment very well, + and I remember the impression which this vote of the House + seemed to make all around the Senate. We had just come out of + executive session; the doors were but just opened; and I hardly + remember whether there was a single spectator in the hall or + the galleries. I had been at the clerk's table, and had not + reached my seat when the message was read. All the senators + were in the chamber. I heard the message certainly with great + surprise and astonishment; and I immediately moved the Senate + to disagree to this vote of the House. My relation to the + subject, in consequence of my connection with the Committee on + Finance, made it my duty to propose some course, and I had not + a moment's doubt or hesitation what that course ought to be. I + took upon myself, then, sir, the responsibility of moving that + the Senate should disagree to this vote, and I now acknowledge + that responsibility. It might be presumptuous to say that I + took a leading part, but I certainly took an early part, a + decided part, and an earnest part, in rejecting this broad grant + of three millions of dollars, without limitation of purpose + or specification of object; called for by no recommendation, + founded on no estimate, made necessary by no state of things + which was made known to us. Certainly, sir, I took a part in + its rejection; and I stand here, in my place in the Senate, + to-day, ready to defend the part so taken by me; or rather, + sir. I disclaim all defence, and all occasion of defence, and I + assert it as meritorious to have been among those who arrested, + at the earliest moment, this extraordinary departure from all + settled usage, and, as I think, from plain constitutional + injunction--this indefinite voting of a vast sum of money to + mere executive discretion, without limit assigned, without + object specified, without reason given, and without the least + control under heaven. + + "Sir, I am told that, in opposing this grant, I spoke with + warmth, and I suppose I may have done so. If I did, it was + a warmth springing from as honest a conviction of duty as + ever influenced a public man. It was spontaneous, unaffected, + sincere. There had been among us, sir, no consultation, no + concert. There could have been none. Between the reading of the + message and my motion to disagree there was not time enough for + any two members of the Senate to exchange five words on the + subject. The proposition was sudden and perfectly unexpected. I + resisted it, as irregular, as dangerous in itself, and dangerous + in its precedent, as wholly unnecessary, and as violating the + plain intention, if not the express words, of the constitution. + Before the Senate I then avowed, and before the country I now + avow, my part in this opposition. Whatsoever is to fall on those + who sanctioned it, of that let me have my full share. + + "The Senate, sir, rejected this grant by a vote of twenty-nine + against nineteen. Those twenty-nine names are on the journal; + and whensoever the expunging process may commence, or how far + soever it may be carried, I pray it, in mercy, not to erase + mine from that record. I beseech it, in its sparing goodness, + to leave me that proof of attachment to duty and to principle. + It may draw around it, over it, or through it, black lines, or + red lines, or any lines; it may mark it in any way which either + the most prostrate and fantastical spirit of man-worship, or + the most ingenious and elaborate study of self-degradation may + devise, if only it will leave it so that those who inherit my + blood, or who may hereafter care for my reputation, shall be + able to behold it where it now stands. + + "The House, sir, insisted on this amendment. The Senate adhered + to its disagreement. The House asked a conference, to which + request the Senate immediately acceded. The committees of + conference met, and, in a short time, came to an agreement. They + agreed to recommend to their respective Houses, as a substitute + for the vote proposed by the House, the following: + + "'As an additional appropriation for arming the fortifications + of the United States, three hundred thousand dollars.' + + "As an additional appropriation for the repair and equipment + of ships of war of the United States, five hundred thousand + dollars.' + + "I immediately reported this agreement of the committees of + conference to the Senate; but, inasmuch as the bill was in the + House of Representatives, the Senate could not act further on + the matter until the House should first have considered the + report of the committees, decided thereon, and sent us the bill. + I did not myself take any note of the particular hour of this + part of the transaction. The honorable member from Virginia (Mr. + Leigh) says he consulted his watch at the time, and he knows + that I had come from the conference, and was in my seat, at a + quarter past eleven. I have no reason to think that he is under + any mistake in this particular. He says it so happened that he + had occasion to take notice of the hour, and well remembers it. + It could not well have been later than this, as any one will be + satisfied who will look at our journals, public and executive, + and see what a mass of business was dispatched after I came from + the committees, and before the adjournment of the Senate. Having + made the report, sir, I had no doubt that both Houses would + concur in the result of the conference, and looked every moment + for the officer of the House bringing the bill. He did not come, + however, and I pretty soon learned that there was doubt whether + the committee on the part of the House would report to the House + the agreement of the conferees. At first I did not at all credit + this; but it was confirmed by one communication after another, + until I was obliged to think it true. Seeing that the bill was + thus in danger of being lost, and intending, at any rate, that + no blame should justly attach to the Senate, I immediately moved + the following resolution: + + "'_Resolved_, That a message be sent to the honorable the + House of Representatives, respectfully to remind the House of + the report of the committee of conference appointed on the + disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the + House to the amendment of the Senate to the bill respecting the + fortifications of the United States.' + + "You recollect this resolution, sir, having, as I well remember, + taken some part on the occasion. + + "This resolution was promptly passed; the Secretary carried + it to the House, and delivered it. What was done in the House + on the receipt of this message now appears from the printed + journal. I have no wish to comment on the proceedings there + recorded--all may read them, and each be able to form his own + opinion. Suffice it to say, that the House of Representatives, + having then possession of the bill, chose to retain that + possession, and never acted on the report of the committee. + The bill, therefore, was lost. It was lost in the House of + Representatives. It died there, and there its remains are to + be found. No opportunity was given to the members of the House + to decide whether they would agree to the report of the two + committees or not. From a quarter past eleven, when the report + was agreed to by the committees, until two or three o'clock in + the morning, the House remained in session. If at any time there + was not a quorum of members present, the attendance of a quorum, + we are to presume, might have been commanded, as there was + undoubtedly a great majority of the members still in the city. + + "But now, sir, there is one other transaction of the evening + which I feel bound to state, because I think it quite important, + on several accounts, that it should be known. + + "A nomination was pending before the Senate, for a judge of the + Supreme Court. In the course of the sitting, that nomination + was called up, and, on motion, was indefinitely postponed. In + other words, it was rejected; for an indefinite postponement + is a rejection. The office, of course, remained vacant, and + the nomination of another person to fill it became necessary. + The President of the United States was then in the capitol, + as is usual on the evening of the last day of the session, in + the chamber assigned to him, and with the heads of departments + around him. When nominations are rejected under these + circumstances, it has been usual for the President immediately + to transmit a new nomination to the Senate; otherwise the + office must remain vacant till the next session, as the vacancy + in such case has not happened in the recess of Congress. The + vote of the Senate, indefinitely postponing this nomination, + was carried to the President's room by the Secretary of the + Senate. The President told the Secretary that it was more than + an hour past twelve o'clock, and that he could receive no + further communications from the Senate, and immediately after, + as I have understood, left the capitol. The Secretary brought + back the paper containing the certified copy of the vote of the + Senate, and indorsed thereon the substance of the President's + answer, and also added that, according to his own watch, it was + a quarter past one o'clock." + +This was the argument of Mr. Webster in defence of the Senate +and himself; but it could not alter the facts of the case--that +the Senate disagreed to the House appropriation--that it adhered +harshly--that it consumed the time in elaborate speeches against +the President--and that the bill was lost upon lapse of time, the +existence of the Congress itself expiring while this contention, +began by the Senate, was going on. + +Mr. Webster dissented from the new doctrine of counting years by +fractions of a day, as a thing having no place in the constitution, +in law, or in practice;--and which was besides impracticable, and +said: + + "There is no clause of the constitution, nor is there any law, + which declares that the term of office of members of the House + of Representatives shall expire at twelve o'clock at night + on the 3d of March. They are to hold for two years, but the + precise hour for the commencement of that term of two years + is nowhere fixed by constitutional or legal provision. It has + been established by usage and by inference, and very properly + established, that, since the first Congress commenced its + existence on the first Wednesday in March, 1789, which happened + to be the 4th day of that month, therefore, the 4th of March + is the day of the commencement of each successive term, but + no hour is fixed by law or practice. The true rule is, as I + think, most undoubtedly, that the session holden on the last + day, constitutes the last day, for all legislative and legal + purposes. While the session commenced on that day continues, + the day itself continues, according to the established practice + both of legislative and judicial bodies. This could not well be + otherwise. If the precise moment of actual time were to settle + such a matter, it would be material to ask, who shall settle + the time? Shall it be done by public authority; or shall every + man observe the tick of his own watch? If absolute time is to + furnish a precise rule, the excess of a minute, it is obvious, + would be as fatal as the excess of an hour. Sir, no bodies, + judicial or legislative, have ever been so hypercritical, + so astute to no purpose, so much more nice than wise, as to + govern themselves by any such ideas. The session for the day, + at whatever hour it commences, or at whatever hour it breaks + up, is the legislative day. Every thing has reference to the + commencement of that diurnal session. For instance, this is the + 14th day of January; we assembled here to day at twelve o'clock; + our journal is dated January 14th, and if we should remain until + five o'clock to-morrow morning (and the Senate has sometimes + sat so late) our proceedings would still all bear date of the + 14th of January; they would be so stated upon the journal, and + the journal is a record, and is a conclusive record, so far as + respects the proceedings of the body." + +But he adduced practice to the contrary, and showed that the +expiring Congress had often sat after midnight, on the day of +the 3d of March, in the years when that day was the end of the +Congress; and in speaking of what had often occurred, he was right. +I have often seen it myself; but in such cases there was usually an +acknowledgment of the wrong by stopping the Senate clock, or setting +it back; and I have also seen the hour called and marked on the +journal after twelve, and the bills sent to the President, noted +as passed at such an hour of the morning of the fourth; when they +remained untouched by the President; and all bills and acts sent to +him on the morning of the fourth are dated of the third; and that +date legalizes them, although erroneous in point of fact. But, many +of the elder members, such as Mr. Macon, would have nothing to do +with these contrivances, and left the chamber at midnight, saying +that the Congress was constitutionally extinct, and that they had +no longer any power to sit and act as a Senate. Upon this point Mr. +Grundy, of Tennessee, a distinguished jurist as well as statesman, +delivered his opinion, and in consonance with the best authorities. +He said: + + "A serious question seems now to be made, as to what time + Congress constitutionally terminates. Until lately, I have not + heard it seriously urged that twelve o'clock, on the 3d of + March, at night, is not the true period. It is now insisted, + however, that at twelve o'clock on the 4th of March is the true + time; and the argument in support of this is, that the first + Congress met at twelve o'clock, on the 4th of March. This is + not placing the question on the true ground; it is not when the + Congress did meet, or when the President was qualified by taking + the oath of office, but when did they have the constitutional + right to meet? This certainly was, and is, in all future cases, + on the 4th of March; and if the day commence, according to the + universal acceptation and understanding of the country, at the + first moment after twelve o'clock at night on the 3d of March, + the constitutional right or power of the new Congress commences + at that time; and if called by the Chief Magistrate to meet at + that time, they might then qualify and open their session. There + would be no use in arguing away the common understanding of the + country, and it would seem as reasonable to maintain that the + 4th of March ended when the first Congress adjourned, as it is + to say that it began when they met. From twelve o'clock at night + until twelve o'clock at night is the mode of computing a day by + the people of the United States, and I do not feel authorized + to establish a different mode of computation for Congress. At + what hour does Christmas commence? When does the first day of + the year, or the first of January, commence? Is it at midnight + or at noon? If the first day of a year or month begins and ends + at midnight, does not every other day? Congress has always acted + upon the impression that the 3d of March ended at midnight; + hence that setting back of clocks which we have witnessed on the + 3d of March, at the termination of the short session. + + "In using this argument, I do not wish to be understood as + censuring those who have transacted the public business here + after twelve o'clock on the 3d of March. From this error, if + it be one, I claim no exemption. With a single exception, I + believe, I have always remained until the final adjournment + of both Houses. As to the President of the United States, he + remained until after one o'clock on the 4th of March. This was + making a full and fair allowance for the difference that might + exist in different instruments for keeping time; and he then + retired from his chamber in the Capitol. The fortification bill + never passed Congress; it never was offered to him for his + signature; he, therefore, can be in no fault. It was argued that + many acts of Congress passed on the 4th of March, at the short + session, are upon our statute books, and that these acts are + valid and binding. It should be remembered that they all bear + date on the 3d of March; and so high is the authenticity of our + records, that, according to the rules of evidence, no testimony + can be received to contradict any thing which appears upon the + face of our acts." + +To show the practice of the Senate, when its attention was called to +the true hour, and to the fact that the fourth day of March was upon +them, the author of this View, in the course of this debate, showed +the history of the actual termination of the last session--the +one at which the fortification bill was lost. Mr. Hill, of New +Hampshire, was speaking of certain enormous printing jobs which were +pressed upon the Senate in its expiring moments, and defeated after +midnight; Mr. Benton asked leave to tell the secret history of this +defeat; which being granted, he stood up, and said: + + "He defeated these printing jobs after midnight, and by speaking + against time. He had avowed his determination to speak out the + session; and after speaking a long time against time, he found + that time stood still; that the hands of our clock obstinately + refused to pass the hour of twelve; and thereupon addressed + the presiding officer (Mr. Tyler, the President _pro tem._), + to call to his attention the refractory disposition of the + clock; which, in fact, had been set back by the officers of the + House, according to common usage on the last night, to hide from + ourselves the fact that our time was at an end. The presiding + officer (Mr. B. said) directed an officer of the House to put + forward the clock to the right time; which was done; and not + another vote was taken that night, except the vote to adjourn." + +This was a case, as the lawyers say, in point. It was the refusal +of the Senate the very night in question, to do any thing except +to give the adjourning vote after the attention of the Senate was +called to the hour. + +In reply to Mr. Calhoun's argument against American arming, and that +such arming would be war on our side, Mr. Grundy replied: + + "But it is said by the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. + Calhoun), that, if we arm, we instantly make war: it is war. If + this be so, we are placed in a most humiliating situation. Since + this controversy commenced, the French nation has armed; they + have increased their vessels of war; they have equipped them; + they have enlisted or pressed additional seamen into the public + service; they have appointed to the command of this large naval + force one of their most experienced and renowned naval officers; + and this squadron, thus prepared, and for what particular + purpose we know not, is now actually in the neighborhood of + the American coast. I admit the proceeding on the part of the + French government is neither war, nor just cause of war on our + part; but, seeing this, shall we be told, if we do similar + acts, designed to defend our own country, we are making war? + As I understand the public law, every nation has the right to + judge for itself of the extent of its own military and naval + armaments, and no other nation has a right to complain or call + it in question. It appears to me that, although the preparations + and armaments of the French government are matters not to be + excepted to, still they should admonish us to place our country + in a condition in which it could be defended in the event the + present difficulties between the two nations should lead to + hostilities." + +In the course of the debate the greater part of the opposition +senators declared their intention to sustain measures of defence; on +which Mr. Benton congratulated the country, and said: + + "A good consequence had resulted from an unpleasant debate. + All parties had disclaimed the merit of sinking the + fortification bill of the last session, and a majority had + evinced a determination to repair the evil by voting adequate + appropriations now. This was good. It bespoke better results + in time to come, and would dispel that illusion of divided + counsels on which the French government had so largely + calculated. The rejection of the three millions, and the loss + of the fortification bill, had deceived France; it had led her + into the mistake of supposing that we viewed every question in + a mercantile point of view; that the question of profit and + loss was the only rule we had to go by; that national honor + was no object; and that, to obtain these miserable twenty-five + millions of francs, we should be ready to submit to any quantity + of indignity, and to wade through any depth of national + humiliation. The debate which has taken place will dispel that + illusion; and the first dispatch which the young Admiral Mackau + will have to send to his government will be to inform it that + there has been a mistake in this business--that these Americans + wrangle among themselves, but unite against foreigners; and that + many opposition senators are ready to vote double the amount + of the twenty-five millions to put the country in a condition + to sustain that noble sentiment of President Jackson, that the + honor of his country shall never be stained by his making an + apology for speaking truth in the performance of duty." + + + + +CHAPTER CXXXIII. + +FRENCH INDEMNITIES: BRITISH MEDIATION: INDEMNITIES PAID. + + +The message of the President in relation to French affairs had been +referred to the Senate's committee on foreign relations, and before +any report had been received from that committee a further message +was received from the President informing the Senate that Great +Britain had offered her friendly mediation between the United States +and France--that it had been accepted by the governments both of +France and the United States; and recommending a suspension of all +retaliatory measures against France; but a vigorous prosecution of +the national works of general and permanent defence. The message +also stated that the mediation had been accepted on the part of +the United States with a careful reservation of the points in the +controversy which involved the honor of the country, and which +admitted of no compromise--a reservation which, in the vocabulary +of General Jackson, was equivalent to saying that the indemnities +must be paid, and no apologies made. And such in fact was the case. +Within a month from the date of that message the four instalments +of the indemnities then due, wore fully paid and without waiting +for any action on the part of the mediator. In communicating the +offer of the British mediation the President expressed his high +appreciation of the "elevated and disinterested motives of that +offer." The motives were, in fact, both elevated and disinterested; +and presents one of those noble spectacles in the conduct of nations +on which history loves to dwell. France and the United States had +fought together against Great Britain; now Great Britain steps +between France and the United States to prevent them from fighting +each other. George the Third received the combined attacks of +French and Americans; his son, William the Fourth, interposes to +prevent their arms from being turned against each other. It was +a noble intervention, and a just return for the good work of the +Emperor Alexander in offering his mediation between the United +States and Great Britain--good works these peace mediations, and as +nearly divine as humanity can reach;--worthy of all praise, of long +remembrance, and continual imitation;--the more so in this case of +the British mediation when the event to be prevented would have been +so favorable to British interests--would have thrown the commerce +of the United States and of France into her hands, and enriched her +at the expense of both. Happily the progress of the age which, in +cultivating good will among nations, elevates great powers above +all selfishness, and permits no unfriendly recollection--no selfish +calculation--to balk the impulsions of a noble philanthropy. + +I have made a copious chapter upon the subject of this episodical +controversy with France--more full, it might seem, than the subject +required, seeing its speedy and happy termination: but not without +object. Instructive lessons result from this history; both from the +French and American side of it. The wrong to the United States came +from the French chamber of deputies--from the opposition part of it, +composed of the two extremes of republicans and legitimists, deadly +hostile to each other, but combined in any attempt to embarrass +a king whom both wished to destroy: and this French opposition +inflamed the question there. In the United States there was also +an opposition, composed of two, lately hostile parties (the modern +whigs and the southern dissatisfied democracy); and this opposition, +dominant in the Senate, and frustrating the President's measures, +gave encouragement to the French opposition: and the two together, +brought their respective countries to the brink of war. The two +oppositions are responsible for the hostile attitude to which the +two countries were brought. That this is not a harsh opinion, nor +without foundation, may be seen by the history which is given of the +case in the chapter dedicated to it; and if more is wanting, it may +be found in the recorded debates of the day; in which things were +said which were afterwards regretted; and which, being regretted, +the author of this View has no desire to repeat:--the instructive +lesson of history which he wishes to inculcate, being complete +without the exhumation of what ought to remain buried. Nor can +the steadiness and firmness of President Jackson be overlooked in +this reflective view. In all the aspects of the French question +he remained inflexible in his demand for justice, and in his +determination, so far as it depended upon him to have it. In his +final message, communicating to congress the conclusion of the +affair, he gracefully associated congress with himself in their +joy at the restoration of the ancient cordial relations between +two countries, of ancient friendship, which misconceptions had +temporarily alienated from each other. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXXIV. + +PRESIDENT JACKSON'S FOREIGN DIPLOMACY. + + +A view of President Jackson's foreign diplomacy has been reserved +for the last year of his administration, and to the conclusion of +his longest, latest, and most difficult negotiation; and is now +presented in a single chapter, giving the history of his intercourse +with foreign nations. From no part of his administration was more +harm apprehended, by those who dreaded the election of General +Jackson, than from this source. From his military character they +feared embroilments; from his want of experience as a diplomatist, +they feared mistakes and blunders in our foreign intercourse. These +apprehensions were very sincerely entertained by a large proportion +of our citizens; but, as the event proved, entirely without +foundation. No part of his administration, successful, beneficial, +and honorable as it was at home, was more successful, beneficial +and honorable than that of his foreign diplomacy. He obtained +indemnities for all outrages committed on our commerce before +his time, and none were committed during his time. He made good +commercial treaties with some nations from which they could not be +obtained before--settled some long-standing and vexatious questions; +and left the whole world at peace with his country, and engaged in +the good offices of trade and hospitality. A brief detail of actual +occurrences will justify this general and agreeable statement, + +1. THE DIRECT TRADE WITH THE BRITISH WEST INDIES.--I have already +shown, in a separate chapter, the recovery, in the first year of +his administration, of this valuable branch of our commerce, so +desirable to us from the nearness of those islands to our shore, +the domestic productions which they took from us, the employment +it gave to our navigation, the actual large amount of the trade, +the acceptable articles it gave in return, and its satisfactory +establishment on a durable basis after fifty years of interrupted, +and precarious, and restricted enjoyment: and I add nothing more on +that head. I proceed to new cases of indemnities obtained, or of new +treaties formed. + +2. At the head of these stands the FRENCH INDEMNITY TREATY.--The +commerce of the United States had suffered greatly under the decrees +of the Emperor Napoleon, and redress had been sought by every +administration, and in vain, from that of Mr. Madison to that of +Mr. John Quincy Adams, inclusively. President Jackson determined +from the first moment of his administration to prosecute the claims +on France with vigor; and that not only as a matter of right, +but of policy. There were other secondary powers, such as Naples +and Spain, subject to the same kind of reclamation, and which +had sheltered their refusal behind that of France; and with some +show of reason, as France, besides having committed the largest +depredation, was the origin of the system under which they acted, +and the inducing cause of their conduct. France was the strong +power in this class of wrong-doers, and as such was the one first +to be dealt with. In his first annual message to the two Houses of +Congress, President Jackson brought this subject before that body, +and disclosed his own policy in relation to it. He took up the +question as one of undeniable wrong which had already given rise +to much unpleasant discussion, and which might lead to possible +collision between the two governments; and expressed a confident +hope that the injurious delays of the past would find a redress in +the equity of the future. This was pretty clear language, and stood +for something in the message of a President whose maxim of foreign +policy was, to "ask nothing but what was right, and to submit to +nothing that was wrong." At the same time, Mr. William C. Rives, +of Virginia, was sent to Paris as minister plenipotentiary and +envoy extraordinary, and especially charged with this reclamation. +His mission was successful; and at the commencement of the session +1831-'32, the President had the gratification to communicate +to both Houses of Congress and to submit to the Senate for its +approbation, the treaty which closed up this long-standing head of +complaint against an ancient ally. The French government agreed +to pay twenty-five millions of francs to American citizens "for +(such was the language of the treaty) unlawful seizures, captures, +sequestrations, confiscations or destruction of their vessels, +cargoes or other property;" subject to a deduction of one million +and a half of francs for claims of French citizens, or the royal +treasury, for "ancient supplies or accounts," or for reclamations +on account of commercial injury. Thus all American claims for +spoliation in the time of the Emperor Napoleon were acknowledged +and agreed to be satisfied, and the acknowledgment and agreement +for satisfaction made in terms which admitted the illegality and +injustice of the acts in which they originated. At the same time +all the French claims upon the United States, from the time of +our revolution, of which two (those of the heirs of Beaumarchais +and of the Count Rochambeau) had been a subject of reclamation +for forty years, were satisfied. The treaty was signed July 4th, +1831, one year after the accession of Louis Phillippe to the +French throne--and to the natural desire of the new king (under +the circumstances of his elevation) to be on good terms with the +United States; and to the good offices of General Lafayette, then +once more influential in the councils of France, as well as to the +zealous exertions of our minister, the auspicious conclusion of +this business is to be much attributed. The indemnity payable in +six annual equal instalments, was satisfactory to government and +to the claimants; and in communicating information of the treaty +to Congress, President Jackson, after a just congratulation on +putting an end to a subject of irritation which for many years +had, in some degree, alienated two nations from each other, which, +from interest as well as from early recollections, ought to cherish +the most friendly relations--and (as if feeling all the further +consequential advantages of this success) went on to state, as some +of the good effects to result from it, that it gave encouragement +to persevere in demands for justice from other nations; that it +would be an admonition that just claims would be prosecuted to +satisfactory conclusions, and give assurance to our own citizens +that their own government will exert all its constitutional power to +obtain redress for all their foreign wrongs. This latter declaration +was afterwards put to the proof, in relation to the execution of +the treaty itself, and was kept to the whole extent of its letter +and spirit, and with good results both to France and the United +States. It so happened that the French legislative chambers refused +to vote appropriations necessary to carry the treaty into effect. +An acrimonious correspondence between the two governments took +place, becoming complicated with resentment on the part of France +for some expressions, which she found to be disrespectful, in a +message of President Jackson. The French minister was recalled from +the United States; the American minister received his passport; +and reprisals were recommended to Congress by the President. But +there was no necessity for them. The intent to give offence, or to +be disrespectful, was disclaimed; the instalments in arrear were +paid; the two nations returned to their accustomed good feeling; +and no visible trace remains of the brief and transient cloud +which for a while overshadowed them. So finished, in the time of +Jackson, with entire satisfaction to ourselves, and with honor to +both parties, the question of reclamations from France for injuries +done our citizens in the time of the Great Emperor; and which the +administrations of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and John Quincy Adams +had been unable to enforce. + +3. DANISH TREATY.--This was a convention for indemnity for +spoliations on American commerce, committed twenty years before the +time of General Jackson's administration. They had been committed +during the years 1808, 1809, 1810, and 1811, that is to say, during +the last year of Mr. Jefferson's administration and the three first +years of Mr. Madison's. They consisted of illegal seizures and +illegal condemnations or confiscations of American vessels and +their cargoes in Danish ports, during the time when the British +orders in council and the French imperial decrees were devastating +the commerce of neutral nations, and subjecting the weaker powers +of Europe to the course of policy which the two great belligerent +powers had adopted. The termination of the great European contest, +and the return of nations to the accustomed paths of commercial +intercourse and just and friendly relations, furnished a suitable +opportunity for the United States, whose citizens had suffered so +much, to demand indemnity for these injuries. The demand had been +made; and had been followed up with zeal during each succeeding +administration, but without effect, until the administration of Mr. +John Quincy Adams. During that administration, and in the hands of +the American Chargé d'Affaires (Mr. Henry Wheaton), the negotiation +made encouraging progress. General Jackson did not change the +negotiator--did not incur double expense, a year's delay, and +substitute a raw for a ripe minister--and the negotiation went on +to a speedy and prosperous conclusion. The treaty was concluded in +March, 1830, and extended to a complete settlement of all questions +of reclamation on both sides. The Danish government renounced +all pretension to the claims which it had preferred, and agreed +to pay the sum of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the +government of the United States, to be by it distributed among the +American claimants. This convention, which received the immediate +ratification of the President and Senate, terminated all differences +with a friendly power, with whom the United States never had any +but kind relations (these spoliations excepted), and whose trade to +her West India islands, lying at our door, and taking much of our +domestic productions, was so desirable to us. + +4. NEAPOLITAN INDEMNITY TREATY.--When Murat was King of Naples, +and acting upon the system of his brother-in-law, the Emperor +Napoleon, he seized and confiscated many vessels and their cargoes, +belonging to citizens of the United States. The years 1809, 1810, +1811 and 1812 were the periods of these wrongs. Efforts had been +made under each administration, from Mr. Madison to Mr. John Quincy +Adams, to obtain redress, but in vain. Among others, the special +mission of Mr. William Pinkney, the eminent orator and jurist, +was instituted in the last year of Mr. Madison's administration, +exclusively charged, at that court, with soliciting indemnity for +the Murat spoliations. A Bourbon was then upon the throne, and this +'legitimate,' considering Murat as an usurper who had taken the +kingdom from its proper owners, and done more harm to them than to +any body else, was naturally averse to making compensation to other +nations for his injurious acts. This repugnance had found an excuse +in the fact that France, the great original wrongdoer in all these +spoliations, and under whose lead and protection they were all +committed, had not yet been brought to acknowledge the wrong and to +make satisfaction. The indemnity treaty with France, in July 1831, +put an end to this excuse; and the fact of the depredations being +clear, and the law of nations indisputably in our favor, a further +and more earnest appeal was made to the Neapolitan government. Mr. +John Nelson, of Maryland, was appointed United States Chargé to +Naples, and concluded a convention for the payment of the claims. +The sum of two millions one hundred and fifteen thousand Neapolitan +ducats was stipulated to be paid to the United States government, +to be by it distributed among the claimants; and, being entirely +satisfactory, the convention immediately received the American +ratification. Thus, another head of injury to our citizens, and +of twenty years' standing, was settled by General Jackson, and in +a case in which the strongest prejudice and the most revolting +repugnance had to be overcome. Murat had been shot by order of the +Neapolitan king, for attempting to recover the kingdom; he was +deemed a usurper while he had it; the exiled royal family thought +themselves sufficiently wronged by him in their own persons, without +being made responsible for his wrongs to others; and although bound +by the law of nations to answer for his conduct while king in point +of fact, yet for almost twenty years--from their restoration in +1814 to 1832--they had resisted and repulsed the incessant and just +demands of the United States. Considering the sacrifice of pride, as +well as the large compensation, which this branch of the Bourbons +had to make in paying a bill of damages against an intrusive king +of the Bonaparte dynasty, and this indemnity obtained from Naples +in the third year of General Jackson's first presidential term, +which had been refused to his three predecessors--Messrs. Madison, +Monroe and John Quincy Adams--may be looked upon as one of the most +remarkable of his diplomatic successes. + +SPANISH INDEMNITY TREATY.--The treaty of 1819 with Spain, by +which we gained Florida and lost Texas, and paid five millions of +dollars to our own citizens for Spanish spoliations, settled up +all demands upon that power up to that time; but fresh causes of +complaint soon grew up. All the Spanish-American states had become +independent--had established their own forms of government--and +commenced political and commercial communications with all the +world. Spanish policy revolted at this escape of colonies from its +hands; and although unable to subdue the new governments, was able +to refuse to acknowledge their independence--able to issue paper +blockades, and to seize and confiscate the American merchant vessels +trading to the new states. In this way much damage had been done to +American commerce, even in the brief interval between the date of +the treaty of 1819 and General Jackson's election to the presidency, +ten years thereafter. A new list of claims for spoliations had +grown up; and one of the early acts of the new President was to +institute a mission to demand indemnity. Mr. Cornelius Van Ness, +of New-York, was the minister appointed; and having been refused +in his first application, and given an account of the refusal to +his government, President Jackson dispatched a special messenger to +the American minister at Madrid, with instructions, "once more" to +bring the subject to the consideration of the Spanish government; +informing Congress at the same time, that he had made his last +demand; and that, if justice was not done, he would bring the case +before that body, "as the constitutional judge of what was proper to +be done when negotiation fails to obtain redress for wrongs." But +it was not found necessary to bring the case before Congress. On a +closer examination of the claims presented and for the enforcement +of which the power of the government had been invoked, it was +found that there had occurred in this case what often takes place +in reclamation upon foreign powers; that claims were preferred +which were not founded in justice, and which were not entitled +to the national interference. Faithful to his principle to ask +nothing but what was right, General Jackson ordered these unfounded +claims to be dropped, and the just claims only to be insisted +upon; and in communicating this fact to Congress, he declared his +policy characteristically with regard to foreign nations, and in +terms which deserve to be remembered. He said: "Faithful to the +principle of asking nothing but what was clearly right, additional +instructions have been sent to modify our demands, so as to embrace +those only on which, according to the laws of nations, we had a +strict right to insist upon." Under these modified instructions +a treaty of indemnity was concluded (February, 1834), and the +sum of twelve millions of reals vellon stipulated to be paid to +the government of the United States, for distribution among the +claimants. Thus, another instance of spoliation upon our foreign +commerce, and the last that remained unredressed, was closed up and +satisfied under the administration of General Jackson; and this +last of the revolutionary men had the gratification to restore +unmixed cordial intercourse with a power which had been our ally in +the war of the Revolution; which had ceded to us the Floridas, to +round off with a natural boundary our Southern territory; which was +our neighbor, conterminous in dominions, from the Atlantic to the +Pacific; and which, notwithstanding the jars and collisions to which +bordering nations are always subject, had never committed an act of +hostility upon the United States. The conclusion of this affair was +grateful to all the rememberers of our revolutionary history, and +equally honorable to both parties: to General Jackson, who renounced +unfounded claims, and to the Spanish government, which paid the good +as soon as separated from the bad. + +6. RUSSIAN COMMERCIAL TREATY.--Our relations with Russia had been +peculiar--politically, always friendly; commercially, always +liberal--yet, no treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, to +assure these advantages and guarantee their continuance. The United +States had often sought such a treaty. Many special missions, and of +the most eminent citizens, and at various times, and under different +administrations, and under the Congress of the confederation +before there was any administration, had been instituted for that +purpose--that of Mr. Francis Dana of Massachusetts (under whom +the young John Quincy Adams, at the age of sixteen, served his +diplomatic apprenticeship as private secretary), in 1784, under +the old Congress; that of Mr. Rufus King, under the first Mr. +Adams; that of Mr. John Quincy Adams, Mr. Albert Gallatin, Mr. +James A. Bayard, and Mr. William Pinkney, under Mr. Monroe; that +of Mr. George Washington Campbell, and Mr. Henry Middleton, under +Mr. Monroe (the latter continued under Mr. John Quincy Adams); +and all in vain. For some cause, never publicly explained, the +guaranty of a treaty had been constantly declined, while the actual +advantages of the most favorable one had been constantly extended +to us. A convention with us for the definition of boundaries on the +northwest coast of America, and to stipulate for mutual freedom +of fishing and navigation in the North Pacific Ocean, had been +readily agreed upon by the Emperor Alexander, and wisely, as by +separating his claims, he avoided such controversies as afterwards +grew up between the United States and Great Britain, on account +of their joint occupation; but no commercial treaty. Every thing +else was all that our interest could ask, or her friendship extend. +Reciprocity of diplomatic intercourse was fully established; +ministers regularly appointed to reside with us--and those of my +time (I speak only of those who came within my Thirty Years' View), +the Chevalier de Politica, the Baron Thuyl, the Baron Krudener, +and especially the one that has remained longest among us, and +has married an American lady, M. Alexandre de Bodisco--all of a +personal character and deportment to be most agreeable to our +government and citizens, well fitted to represent the feelings +of the most friendly sovereigns, and to promote and maintain the +most courteous and amicable intercourse between the two countries. +The Emperor Alexander had signally displayed his good will in +offering his mediation to terminate the war with Great Britain; +and still further, in consenting to become arbitrator between the +United States and Great Britain in settling their difference in +the construction of the Ghent treaty, in the article relating to +fugitive and deported slaves. We enjoyed in Russian ports all the +commercial privileges of the most favored nation; but it was by +an unfixed tenure--at the will of the reigning sovereign; and the +interests of commerce required a more stable guaranty. Still, up to +the commencement of General Jackson's administration, there was no +American treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with that great +power. The attention of President Jackson was early directed to this +anomalous point; and Mr. John Randolph of Roanoke, then retired from +Congress, was induced, by the earnest persuasions of the President, +and his Secretary of State, Mr. Van Buren, to accept the place of +envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Court of +St. Petersburg--to renew the applications for the treaty which had +so long been made in vain. Repairing to that post, Mr. Randolph +found that the rigors of a Russian climate were too severe for the +texture of his fragile constitution; and was soon recalled at his +own request. Mr. James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, was then appointed +in his place; and by him the long-desired treaty was concluded, +December, 1832--the Count Nesselrode the Russian negotiator, and +the Emperor Nicholas the reigning sovereign. It was a treaty of +great moment to the United States; for, although it added nothing to +the commercial privileges actually enjoyed, yet it gave stability +to their enjoyment; and so imparted confidence to the enterprise +of merchants. It was limited to seven years' duration, but with a +clause of indefinite continuance, subject to termination upon one +year's notice from either party. Near twenty years have elapsed: no +notice for its termination has ever been given; and the commerce +between the two countries feels all the advantages resulting from +stability and national guaranties. And thus was obtained, in the +first term of General Jackson's administration, an important treaty +with a great power, which all previous administrations and the +Congress of the Confederation had been unable to obtain. + +7. PORTUGUESE INDEMNITY.--During the years 1829 and '30, during the +blockade of Terceira, several illegal seizures were made of American +vessels, by Portuguese men-of-war, for alleged violations of the +blockade. The United States _chargé d'affairs_ at Lisbon, Mr. Thomas +L. Brent, was charged with the necessary reclamations, and had no +difficulty in coming to an amicable adjustment. Indemnity in the +four cases of seizure was agreed upon in March, 1832, and payment +in instalments stipulated to be made. There was default in all the +instalments after the first--not from bad faith, but from total +inability--although the instalments were, in a national point of +view, of small amount. It deserves to be recorded, as an instance +of the want to which a kingdom, whose very name had been once +the synonym of gold regions and diamond mines, may be reduced by +wretched government, that in one of the interviews of the American +_chargé_ (then Mr. Edward Kavanagh), with the Portuguese Minister of +Finance, the minister told him "that no persons in the employment of +the government, except the military, had been paid any part of their +salaries for a long time; and that, on that day, there was not one +hundred dollars in the treasury." In this total inability to pay, +and with the fact of having settled fairly, further time was given +until the first day of July, 1837; when full and final payment was +made, to the satisfaction of the claimants. + +Indemnity was made to the claimants by allowing interest on the +delayed payments, and an advantage was granted to an article +of American commerce by admitting rice of the United States in +Portuguese ports at a reduced duty. The whole amount paid was +about $140,000, which included damages to some other vessels, and +compensation to the seamen of the captured vessels for imprisonment +and loss of clothes--the sum of about $1,600 for these latter +items--so carefully and minutely were the rights of American +citizens guarded in Jackson's time. Some other claims on Portugal, +considered as doubtful, among them the case of the brave Captain +Reid, of the privateer General Armstrong, were left open for future +prosecution, without prejudice from being omitted in the settlement +of the Terceira claims, which were a separate class. + +8. TREATY WITH THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.--At the commencement of the +annual session of Congress of 1830-'31, President Jackson had the +gratification to lay before the Senate a treaty of friendship and +commerce between the United States and the Turkish emperor--the +Sultan Mahmoud, noted for his liberal foreign views, his domestic +reforms, his protection of Christians, and his energetic suppression +of the janissaries--those formidable barbarian cohorts, worse than +prætorian, which had so long dominated the Turkish throne. It was +the first American treaty made with that power, and so declared in +the preamble (and in terms which implied a personal compliment from +the Porte in doing now what it had always refused to do before), +and was eminently desirable to us for commercial, political and +social reasons. The Turkish dominions include what was once nearly +the one half of the Roman world, and countries which had celebrity +before Rome was founded. Sacred and profane history had given these +dominions a venerable interest in our eyes. They covered the seat +which was the birth-place of the human race, the cradle of the +Christian religion; the early theatre of the arts and sciences; and +contained the city which was founded by the first Roman Christian +emperor. Under good government it had always been the seat of rich +commerce and of great wealth. Under every aspect it was desirable +to the United States to have its social, political and commercial +intercourse with these dominions placed on a safe and stable footing +under the guaranty of treaty stipulations; and this object was now +accomplished. These were the general considerations; particular and +recent circumstances gave them additional weight. + +Exclusion of our commerce from the Black Sea, and the advantages +which some nations had lately gained by the treaty of Adrianople, +called for renewed exertions on our part; and they were made by +General Jackson. A commissioner was appointed (Mr. Charles Rhind) +to open negotiations with the Sublime Porte; and with him were +associated the United States naval commander in the Mediterranean +(Commodore Biddle), and the United States consul at Smyrna (Mr. +David Offley). Mr. Rhind completed the negotiation, though the other +gentlemen joined in the signature of the treaty. By the provisions +of this treaty, our trade with the Turkish dominions was placed on +the footing of the most favored nation; and being without limitation +as to time, may be considered as perpetual, subject only to be +abrogated by war, in itself improbable, or by other events not to +be expected. The right of passing the Dardanelles and of navigating +the Black Sea was secured to our merchant ships, in ballast or with +cargo, and to carry the products of the United States and of the +Ottoman empire, except the prohibited articles. The flag of the +United States was to be respected. Factors, or commercial brokers, +of any religion were allowed to be employed by our merchants. +Consuls were placed on a footing of security, and travelling +with passports was protected. Fairness and justice in suits and +litigations were provided for. In questions between a citizen of +the United States and a subject of the Sublime Porte, the parties +were not to be heard, nor judgment pronounced, unless the American +interpreter (dragoman) was present. In questions between American +citizens the trial was to be before the United States minister or +consul. "Even when they (the American citizens, so runs the fourth +article), shall have committed some offence, they shall not be +arrested and put in prison by the local authorities, but shall be +tried by the minister or consul, and punished according to the +offence." By this treaty all that was granted to other nations by +the treaty of Adrianople is also granted to the United States, with +the additional stipulation, to be always placed on the footing of +the most favored nation--a stipulation wholly independent of the +treaty exacted by Russia at Adrianople as the fruit of victories, +and of itself equivalent to a full and liberal treaty; and the +whole guaranteed by a particular treaty with ourselves, which +makes us independent of the general treaty of Adrianople. A spirit +of justice, liberality and kindness runs through it. Assistance +and protection is to be given throughout the Turkish dominions to +American wrecked vessels and their crews; and all property recovered +from a wreck is to be delivered up to the American consul of the +nearest port, for the benefit of the owners. Ships of war of the two +countries are to exhibit towards each other friendly and courteous +conduct, and Turkish ships of war are to treat American merchant +vessels with kindness and respect. This treaty has now been in force +near twenty years, observed with perfect good faith by each, and +attended by all the good consequences expected from it. The valuable +commerce of the Black Sea, and of all the Turkish ports of Asia +Minor, Europe and Africa (once the finest part of the Roman world), +travelling, residence, and the pursuit of business throughout the +Turkish dominions, are made as safe to our citizens as in any of +the European countries; and thus the United States, though amongst +the youngest in the family of nations, besides securing particular +advantages to her own citizens, has done her part in bringing those +ancient countries into the system of modern European commercial +policy, and in harmonizing people long estranged from each other. + +9. RENEWAL OF THE TREATY WITH MOROCCO.--A treaty had been made with +this power in the time of the old Congress under the Confederation; +and it is honorable to Morocco to see in that treaty, at the time +when all other powers on the Barbary coast deemed the property +of a Christian, lawful prey, and his person a proper subject for +captivity, entering into such stipulations as these following, +with a nation so young as the United States: "Neither party to +take commissions from an enemy; persons and property captured in +an enemy's vessel to be released; American citizens and effects to +be restored; stranded vessels to be protected; vessels engaged in +gunshot of forts to be protected; enemies' vessels not allowed to +follow out of port for twenty-four hours; American commerce to be +on the most favored footing; exchange of prisoners in time of war; +no compulsion in buying or selling goods; no examination of goods +on board, except contraband was proved; no detention of vessels; +disputes between Americans to be settled by their consuls, and the +consul assisted when necessary; killing punished by the law of the +country; the effects of persons dying intestate to be taken care of, +and delivered to the consul, and, if no consul, to be deposited with +some person of trust; no appeal to arms unless refusal of friendly +arrangements; in case of war, nine months to be allowed to citizens +of each power residing in the dominions of the other to settle their +affairs and remove." This treaty, made in 1787, was the work of +Benjamin Franklin (though absent at the signature), John Adams, at +London, and Thomas Jefferson, at Paris, acting through the agent, +Thomas Barclay, at Fez; and was written with a plainness, simplicity +and beauty, which I have not seen equalled in any treaty, between +any nations, before or since. It was extended to fifty years, and +renewed by General Jackson, in the last year of his administration, +for fifty years more; and afterwards until twelve months' notice of +a desire to abridge it should be given by one of the parties. The +resident American consul at Tangier, Mr. James R. Leib, negotiated +the renewal; and all the parties concerned had the good taste to +preserve the style and language of the original throughout. It will +stand, both for the matter and the style, a monument to the honor of +our early statesmen. + +10. TREATY OF AMITY AND COMMERCE WITH SIAM.--This was concluded in +March, 1833, Mr. Edmund Roberts the negotiator on the part of the +United States, and contained the provisions in behalf of American +citizens and commerce which had been agreed upon in the treaty with +the Sublime Porte, which was itself principally framed upon that +with Morocco in 1787; and which may well become the model of all +that may be made, in all time to come, with all the Oriental nations. + +11. THE SAME WITH THE SULTAN OF MUSCAT. + +Such were the fruits of the foreign diplomacy of President Jackson. +There were other treaties negotiated under his administration--with +Austria, Mexico, Chili, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela--but being in the +ordinary course of foreign intercourse, do not come within the scope +of this View, which confines itself to a notice of such treaties +as were new or difficult--which were unattainable by previous +administrations; and those which brought indemnity to our citizens +for spoliations committed upon them in the time of General Jackson's +predecessors. In this point of view, the list of treaties presented, +is grand and impressive; the bare recital of which, in the most +subdued language of historical narrative, places the foreign +diplomacy of General Jackson on a level with the most splendid +which the history of any nation has presented. First, the direct +trade with the British West Indies, which had baffled the skill and +power of all administrations, from Washington to John Quincy Adams +inclusive, recovered, established, and placed on a permanent and +satisfactory footing. Then indemnities from France, Spain, Denmark, +Naples, Portugal, for injuries committed on our commerce in the +time of the great Napoleon. Then original treaties of commerce and +friendship with great powers from which they never could be obtained +before--Russia, Austria, the Sublime Porte. Then leaving his country +at peace with all the world, after going through an administration +of eight years which brought him, as a legacy from his predecessors, +the accumulated questions of half an age to settle with the great +powers. This is the eulogy of FACTS, worth enough, in the plainest +language, to dispense with eulogium of WORDS. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXXV. + +SLAVERY AGITATION. + + +"It is painful to see the unceasing efforts to alarm the South by +imputations against the North of unconstitutional designs on the +subject of slavery. You are right, I have no doubt, in believing +that no such intermeddling disposition exists in the body of our +Northern brethren. Their good faith is sufficiently guaranteed +by the interest they have as merchants, as ship owners, and as +manufacturers, in preserving a Union with the slaveholding States. +On the other hand what madness in the South to look for greater +safety in disunion. It would be worse than jumping into the fire +for fear of the frying pan. The danger from the alarms is, that +the pride and resentment exerted by them may be an overmatch for +the dictates of prudence; and favor the project of a Southern +convention, insidiously revived, as promising by its councils, +the best securities against grievances of every sort from the +North."--So wrote Mr. Madison to Mr. Clay, in June 1833. It is a +writing every word of which is matter for grave reflection, and +the date at the head of all. It is dated just three months after +the tariff "compromise" of 1833, which, in arranging the tariff +question for nine years, was supposed to have quieted the South--put +an end to agitation, and to the idea of a Southern convention--and +given peace and harmony to the whole Union. Not so the fact--at +least not so the fact in South Carolina. Agitation did not cease +there on one point, before it began on another: the idea of a +Southern convention for one cause, was hardly abandoned before it +was "insidiously revived" upon another. I use the language of Mr. +Madison in qualifying this revival with a term of odious import: for +no man was a better master of our language than he was--no one more +scrupulously just in all his judgments upon men and things--and no +one occupying a position either personally, politically, or locally, +to speak more advisedly on the subject of which he spoke. He was +pained to see the efforts to alarm the South on the subject of +slavery, and the revival of the project for a Southern convention; +and he feared the effect which these alarms should have on the +pride and resentment of Southern people. His letter was not to +a neighbor, or to a citizen in private life, but to a public man +on the theatre of national action, and one who had acted a part +in composing national difficulties. It was evidently written for +a purpose. It was in answer to Mr. Clay's expressed belief, that +no design hostile to Southern slavery existed in the body of the +Northern people--to concur with him in that belief--and to give him +warning that the danger was in another quarter--in the South itself: +and that it looked to a dissolution of the Union. It was to warn an +eminent public man of a new source of national danger, more alarming +than the one he had just been composing. + +About the same time, and to an old and confidential friend (Edward +Coles, Esq., who had been his private secretary when President), +Mr. Madison also wrote: "On the other hand what more dangerous +than nullification, or more evident than the progress it continues +to make, either in its original shape or in the disguises it +assumes? Nullification has the effect of putting powder under +the constitution and the Union, and a match in the hand of every +party to blow them up at pleasure. And for its progress, hearken +to the tone in which it is now preached: cast your eyes on its +increasing minorities in the most of the Southern States, without +a decrease in any of them. Look at Virginia herself, and read in +the gazettes, and in the proceedings of popular meetings, the +figure which the anarchical principle now makes, in contrast with +the scouting reception given to it but a short time ago. It is not +probable that this offspring of the discontents of South Carolina +will ever approach success in a majority of the States: but a +susceptibility of the contagion in the Southern States is visible: +and the danger not to be concealed, that the sympathy arising +from known causes, and the inculcated impression of a permanent +incompatibility of interests between the South and the North, may +put it in the power of popular leaders, aspiring to the highest +stations, to unite the South on some critical occasion, in a course +that will end in creating a new theatre of great though inferior +interest. In pursuing this course, the first and most obvious step +is nullification, the next secession, and the last a farewell +separation." + +In this view of the dangers of nullification in its new +"disguise"--the susceptibility of the South to its contagious +influence--its fatal action upon an "inculcated incompatibility +of interests" between the North and the South--its increase in +the slave States--its progress, first to secession, and then to +"farewell separation:" in this view of the old danger under its +new disguise, Mr. Madison, then eighty-four years old, writes with +the wisdom of age, the foresight of experience; the spirit of +patriotism, and the "pain" of heart which a contemplation of the +division of those States excited which it had been the pride, the +glory, and the labor of his life to unite. The slavery turn which +was given to the Southern agitation was the aspect of the danger +which filled his mind with sorrow and misgiving:--and not without +reason. A paper published in Washington City, and in the interest +of Mr. Calhoun, was incessant in propagating the slavery alarm--in +denouncing the North--in exhorting the Southern States to unity of +feeling and concert of action as the only means of saving their +domestic institutions. The language had become current in some parts +of the South, that it was impossible to unite the Southern States +upon the tariff question: that the sugar interest in Louisiana would +prevent her from joining: that it was a mistake to have made that +issue: that the slavery question was the right one. And coincident +with this current language were many publications, urging a Southern +convention, and concert of action. Passing by all these, which might +be deemed mere newspaper articles, there was one which bore the +impress of thought and authenticity--which assumed the convention +to be a certainty, the time only remaining to be fixed, and the +cause for it to be in full operation in the Northern States. It +was published in the Charleston Mercury in 1835,--was entitled the +"Crisis"--and had the formality of a manifesto; and after dilating +upon the aggressions and encroachments of the North, proceeded thus: + + "The proper time for a convention of the slaveholding States + will be when the legislatures of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts + and New-York shall have adjourned without passing laws for the + suppression of the abolition societies. Should either of these + States pass such laws, it would be well to wait till their + efficacy should be tested. The adjournment of the legislatures + of the Northern States without adopting any measures effectually + to put down Garrison, Tappan and their associates, will present + an issue which must be met by the South, or it will be vain for + us ever after to attempt any thing further than for the State + to provide for her own safety by defensive measures of her own. + If the issue presented is to be met, it can only be done by a + convention of the aggrieved States; the proceedings of which, + to be of any value, must embody and make known the sentiments + of the whole South, and contain the distinct annunciation of + our fixed and unaltered determination to obtain the redress of + our grievances, be the consequences what they may. We must have + it clearly understood that, in framing a constitutional union + with our Northern brethren, the slaveholding States consider + themselves as no more liable to any more interference with their + domestic concerns than if they had remained entirely independent + of the other States, and that, as such interference would, among + independent nations, be a just cause of war, so among members of + such a confederacy as ours, it must place the several States in + the relation towards each other of open enemies. To sum up in a + few words the whole argument on this subject, we would say that + the abolitionists can only be put down by legislation in the + States in which they exist, and this can only be brought about + by the embodied opinion of the whole South, acting upon public + opinion at the North, which can only be effected through the + instrumentality of a condition of the slaveholding States." + +It is impossible to read this paragraph from the "Crisis," without +seeing that it is identical with Mr. Calhoun's report and speech +upon incendiary publications transmitted through the mail. The same +complaint against the North; the same exaction of the suppression +of abolition societies; the same penalty for omitting to suppress +them; that penalty always the same--a Southern convention, and +secession--and the same idea of the contingent foreign relation +to each other of the respective States, always treated as a +confederacy, under a compact. Upon his arrival at Washington at +the commencement of the session 1835-'36, all his conduct was +conformable to the programme laid down in the "Crisis," and the +whole of it calculated to produce the event therein hypothetically +announced; and, unfortunately, a double set of movements was then +in the process of being carried on by the abolitionists, which +favored his purposes. One of these was the mail transmission into +the slave States of incendiary publications; and it has been seen in +what manner he availed himself of that wickedness to predicate upon +it a right of Southern secession; the other was the annoyance of +Congress with a profusion of petitions for the abolition of slavery +in the District of Columbia; and his conduct with respect to these +petitions, remains to be shown. Mr. Morris, of Ohio, presented two +from that State, himself opposed to touching the subject of slavery +in the States, but deeming it his duty to present those which +applied to the District of Columbia. Mr. Calhoun demanded that they +be read; which being done,-- + + "He demanded the question on receiving them, which, he said, was + a preliminary question, which any member had a right to make. + He demanded it on behalf of the State which he represented; + he demanded it, because the petitions were in themselves a + foul slander on nearly one half of the States of the Union; he + demanded it, because the question involved was one over which + neither this nor the House had any power whatever; and a stop + might be put to that agitation which prevailed in so large + a section of the country, and which, unless checked, would + endanger the existence of the Union. That the petitions just + read contained a gross, false, and malicious slander, on eleven + States represented on this floor, there was no man who in his + heart could deny. This was, in itself, not only good, but the + highest cause why these petitions should not be received. Had + it not been the practice of the Senate to reject petitions + which reflected on any individual member of their body; and + should they who were the representatives of sovereign States + permit petitions to be brought there, wilfully, maliciously, + almost wickedly, slandering so many sovereign States of this + Union? Were the States to be less protected than individual + members on that floor? He demanded the question on receiving + the petitions, because they asked for what was a violation of + the constitution. The question of emancipation exclusively + belonged to the several States. Congress had no jurisdiction + on the subject, no more in this District than the State of + South Carolina: it was a question for the individual State to + determine, and not to be touched by Congress. He himself well + understood, and the people of his State should understand, that + this was an emancipation movement. Those who have moved in it + regard this District as the weak point through which the first + movement should be made upon the States. We (said Mr. C.), of + the South, are bound to resist it. We will meet this question + as firmly as if it were the direct question of emancipation in + the States. It is a movement which ought to, which must be, + arrested, _in limine_, or the guards of the constitution will + give way and be destroyed. He demanded the question on receiving + the petitions, because of the agitation which would result from + discussing the subject. The danger to be apprehended was from + the agitation of the question on that floor. He did not fear + those incendiary publications which were circulated abroad, + and which could easily be counteracted. But he dreaded the + agitation which would rise out of the discussion in Congress on + the subject. Every man knew that there existed a body of men in + the Northern States who were ready to second any insurrectionary + movement of the blacks; and that these men would be on the alert + to turn these discussions to their advantage. He dreaded the + discussion in another sense. It would have a tendency to break + asunder this Union. What effect could be brought about by the + interference of these petitioners? Could they expect to produce + a change of mind in the Southern people? No; the effect would + be directly the opposite. The more they were assailed on this + point, the more closely would they cling to their institutions. + And what would be the effect on the rising generation, but to + inspire it with odium against those whose mistaken views and + misdirected zeal menaced the peace and security of the Southern + States. The effect must be to bring our institutions into odium. + As a lover of the Union, he dreaded this discussion; and asked + for some decided measure to arrest the course of the evil. There + must, there shall be some decided step, or the Southern people + never will submit. And how are we to treat the subject? By + receiving these petitions one after another, and thus tampering, + trifling, sporting with the feelings of the South? No, no, no! + The abolitionists well understand the effect of such a course + of proceeding. It will give importance to their movements, and + accelerate the ends they propose. Nothing can, nothing will stop + these petitions but a prompt and stern rejection of them. We + must turn them away from our doors, regardless of what may be + done or said. If the issue must be, let it come, and let us meet + it, as, I hope, we shall be prepared to do." + +This was new and extreme ground taken by Mr. Calhoun. To put the +District of Columbia and the States on the same footing with +respect to slavery legislation, was entirely contrary to the +constitution itself, and to the whole doctrine of Congress upon +it. The constitution gave to Congress exclusive jurisdiction over +the District of Columbia, without limitation of subjects; but it +had always refused, though often petitioned, to interfere with +the subject of slavery in the District of Columbia so long as it +existed in the two States (Maryland and Virginia) which ceded that +District to the federal government. The doctrine of Mr. Calhoun +was, therefore, new; his inference that slavery was to be attacked +in the States through the opening in the District, was gratuitous; +his "demand" (for that was the word he constantly used), that these +petitions should be refused a reception, was a harsh motion, made +in a harsh manner; his assumption that the existence of the Union +was at stake, was without evidence and contrary to evidence; his +remedy, in State resistance, was disunion; his eagerness to catch at +an "issue," showed that he was on the watch for "issues," and ready +to seize any one that would get up a contest; his language was all +inflammatory, and calculated to rouse an alarm in the slaveholding +States:--for the whole of which he constantly assumed to speak. Mr. +Morris thus replied to him: + + "In presenting these petitions he would say, on the part of + the State of Ohio, that she went to the entire extent of the + opinions of the senator from South Carolina on one point. We + deny, said he, the power of Congress to legislate concerning + local institutions, or to meddle in any way with slavery in + any of the States; but we have always entertained the opinion + that Congress has primary and exclusive legislation over this + District; under this impression, these petitioners have come + to the Senate to present their petitions. The doctrine that + Congress have no power over the subject of slavery in this + District is to me a new one; and it is one that will not meet + with credence in the State in which I reside. I believe these + petitioners have the right to present themselves here, placing + their feet on the constitution of their country, when they come + to ask of Congress to exercise those powers which they can + legitimately exercise. I believe they have a right to be heard + in their petitions, and that Congress may afterwards dispose + of these petitions as in their wisdom they may think proper. + Under these impressions, these petitioners come to be heard, + and they have a right to be heard. Is not the right of petition + a fundamental right? I believe it is a sacred and fundamental + right, belonging to the people, to petition Congress for the + redress of their grievances. While this right is secured by + the constitution, it is incompetent to any legislative body to + prescribe how the right is to be exercised, or when, or on what + subject; or else this right becomes a mere mockery. If you are + to tell the people that they are only to petition on this or + that subject, or in this or that manner, the right of petition + is but a mockery. It is true we have a right to say that no + petition which is couched in disrespectful language shall be + received; but I presume there is a sufficient check provided + against this in the responsibility under which every senator + presents a petition. Any petition conveyed in such language + would always meet with his decided disapprobation. But if we + deny the right of the people to petition in this instance, I + would ask how far they have the right. While they believe they + possess the right, no denial of it by Congress will prevent them + from exercising it." + +Mr. Bedford Brown, of North Carolina, entirely dissented from +the views presented by Mr. Calhoun, and considered the course he +proposed, and the language which he used, exactly calculated to +produce the agitation which he professed to deprecate. He said: + + "He felt himself constrained, by a sense of duty to the State + from which he came, deeply and vitally interested as she was + in every thing connected with the agitating question which had + unexpectedly been brought into discussion that morning, to + present, in a few words, his views as to the proper direction + which should be given to that and all other petitions relating + to slavery in the District of Columbia. He felt himself more + especially called on to do so from the aspect which the question + had assumed, in consequence of the motion of the gentleman + from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN], to refuse to receive the + petition. He had believed from the first time he had reflected + on this subject, and subsequent events had but strengthened + that conviction, that the most proper disposition of all such + petitions was to lay them on the table, without printing. This + course, while it indicated to the fanatics that Congress will + yield no countenance to their designs, at the same time marks + them with decided reprobation by a refusal to print. But, in + his estimation, another reason gave to the motion to lay them + on the table a decided preference over any other proceedings by + which they should be met. The peculiar merit of this motion, + as applicable to this question, is, that it precludes all + debate, and would thus prevent the agitation of a subject in + Congress which all should deprecate as fraught with mischief + to every portion of this happy and flourishing confederacy. + Mr. B. said that honorable gentlemen who advocated this motion + had disclaimed all intention to produce agitation on this + question. He did not pretend to question the sincerity of their + declarations, and, while willing to do every justice to their + motives, he must be allowed to say that no method could be + devised better calculated, in his judgment, to produce such + a result. He (Mr. B.) most sincerely believed that the best + interests of the Southern States would be most consulted by + pursuing such a course here as would harmonize the feelings of + every section, and avoid opening for discussion so dangerous + and delicate a question. He believed all the senators who were + present a few days since, when a petition of similar character + had been presented by an honorable senator, had, by their + votes to lay it on the table, sanctioned the course which he + now suggested. [Mr. CALHOUN, in explanation, said that himself + and his colleague were absent from the Senate on the occasion + alluded to.] Mr. B. resumed his remarks, and said that he had + made no reference to the votes of any particular members of + that body, but what he had said was, that a similar petition + had been laid on the table without objection from any one, + and consequently by a unanimous vote of the senators present. + Here, then, was a most emphatic declaration, by gentlemen + representing the Northern States as well as those from other + parts of the Union, by this vote, that they will entertain + no attempt at legislation on the question of slavery in the + District of Columbia. Why, then, asked Mr. B., should we now + adopt a mode of proceeding calculated to disturb the harmonious + action of the Senate, which had been produced by the former + vote? Why (he would respectfully ask of honorable gentlemen + who press the motion to refuse to receive the petition) and + for what beneficial purpose do they press it? By persisting in + such a course it would, beyond all doubt, open a wide range of + discussion, it would not fail to call forth a great diversity of + opinion in relation to the extent of the right to petition under + the constitution. Nor would it be confined to that question + alone, judging from an expression which had fallen from an + honorable gentleman from Virginia [Mr. TYLER], in the course + of this debate. That gentleman had declared his preference for + a direct negative vote by the Senate, as to the constitutional + power of Congress to emancipate slaves in the District of + Columbia. He, for one, protested, politically speaking, against + opening this Pandora's box in the halls of Congress. For all + beneficial and practical purposes, an overwhelming majority + of the members representing the Northern States were, with + the South, in opposition to any interference with slavery in + the District of Columbia. If there was half a dozen in both + branches of Congress who did not stand in entire opposition to + any interference with slavery, in this District or elsewhere, + he had yet to learn it. Was it wise, was it prudent, was it + magnanimous, in gentlemen representing the Southern States, to + urge this matter still further, and say to our Northern friends + in Congress, 'Gentlemen, we all agree in the general conclusion, + that Congress should not interfere in this question, but we wish + to know your reasons for arriving at this conclusion; we wish + you to declare, by your votes, whether you arrive at this result + because you think it unconstitutional or not?' Mr. B. said that + he would yield to none in zeal in sustaining and supporting, + to the extent of his ability, what he believed to be the true + interest of the South; but he should take leave to say that, + when the almost united will of both branches of Congress, for + all practical purposes, was with us, against all interference on + this subject, he should not hazard the peace and quiet of the + country by going on a Quixotic expedition in pursuit of abstract + constitutional questions." + +Mr. King, of Georgia, was still more pointed than Mr. Brown in +deprecating the course Mr. Calhoun pursued, and charging upon it +the effect of increasing the slavery agitation, and giving the +abolitionists ground to stand upon in giving them the right of +petition to defend. He said: + + "This being among the Southern members a mere difference of form + in the manner of disposing of the subject, I regret exceedingly + that the senator from Carolina has thought it his duty (as he + doubtless has) to press the subject upon the consideration of + the Senate in such form as not only to permit, but in some + measure to create, a necessity for the continued agitation of + the subject. For he believed, with others, that nothing was + better calculated to increase agitation and excitement than + such motions as that of the senator from South Carolina. What + was the object of the motion? Senators said, and no doubt + sincerely, that their object was to quiet the agitation of the + subject. Well, (said Mr. K.,) my object is precisely the same. + We differ, then, only in the means of securing a common end; + and he could tell the Senators that the value of the motion as + a means would likely be estimated by its tendency to secure + the end desired. Would even an affirmative vote on the motion + quiet the agitation of the subject? He thought, on the contrary, + it would much increase it. How would it stop the agitation? + What would be decided? Nothing, except it be that the Senate + would not receive the particular memorial before it. Would that + prevent the presentation of others? Not at all; it would only + increase the number, by making a new issue for debate, which + was all the abolitionists wanted; or, at any rate, the most + they now expected. These petitions had been coming here without + intermission ever since the foundation of the government, and + he could tell the senator that if they were each to be honored + by a lengthy discussion on presentment, an honor not heretofore + granted to them, they would not only continue to come here, but + they would thicken upon us so long as the government remained + in existence. We may seek occasions (said Mr. K.) to rave about + our rights; we may appeal to the guaranties of the constitution, + which are denied; we may speak of the strength of the South, + and pour out unmeasured denunciations against the North; we + may threaten vengeance against the abolitionists, and menace + a dissolution of the Union, and all that; and thus exhausting + ourselves mentally and physically, and setting down to applaud + the spirit of our own efforts, Arthur Tappan and his pious + fraternity would very coolly remark: 'Well, that is precisely + what I wanted; I wanted agitation in the South; I wished to + provoke the "aristocratic slaveholder" to make extravagant + demands on the North, which the North could not consistently + surrender them. I wished them, under the pretext of securing + their own rights, to encroach upon the rights of all the + American people. In short, I wish to change the issue; upon the + present issue we are dead. Every movement, every demonstration + of feeling among our own people, shows that upon the present + issue the great body of the people is against us. The issue + must be changed, or the prospects of abolition are at an end.' + This language (Mr. K. said) was not conjectured, but there was + much evidence of its truth. Sir (said Mr. K.), if Southern + senators were actually in the pay of the abolition directory on + Nassau-street they could not more effectually co-operate in the + views and administer to the wishes of these enemies to the peace + and quiet of our country." + +Mr. Calhoun was dissatisfied at the speeches of Mr. Brown and Mr. +King, and considered them as dividing and distracting the South in +their opposition to his motion, while his own course was to keep +them united in a case where union was so important, and in which +they stood but a handful in the midst of an overwhelming majority. +He said: + + "I have heard with deep mortification and regret the speech of + the senator from Georgia; not that I suppose that his arguments + can have much impression in the South, but because of their + tendency to divide and distract the Southern delegation on this, + to us, all-momentous question. We are here but a handful in + the midst of an overwhelming majority. It is the duty of every + member from the South, on this great and vital question, where + union is so important to those whom we represent, to avoid every + thing calculated to divide or distract our ranks. I (said Mr. + C.), the Senate will bear witness, have, in all that I have + said on this subject, been careful to respect the feelings of + Southern members who have differed from me in the policy to + be pursued. Having thus acted, on my part, I must express my + surprise at the harsh expressions, to say the least, in which + the senator from Georgia has indulged." + +The declaration of this overwhelming majority against the South +brought a great number of the non-slaveholding senators to their +feet, to declare the concurrence of their _States_ with the South +upon the subject of slavery, and to depreciate the abolitionists as +few in number in any of the Northern States; and discountenanced, +reprobated and repulsed wherever they were found. Among these, Mr. +Isaac Hill of New Hampshire, thus spoke: + + "I do not (said he) object to many of the positions taken by + senators on the abstract question of Northern interference with + slavery in the South. But I do protest against the excitement + that is attempted on the floor of Congress, to be kept up + against the North. I do protest against the array that is made + here of the acts of a few misguided fanatics as the acts of the + whole or of a large portion of the people of the North. I do + protest against the countenance that is here given to the idea + that the people of the North generally are interfering with the + rights and property of the people of the South. + + "There is no course that will better suit the few Northern + fanatics than the agitation of the question of slavery in the + halls of Congress--nothing will please them better than the + discussions which are taking place, and a solemn vote of either + branch denying them the right to prefer petitions here, praying + that slavery may be abolished in the District of Columbia. A + denial of that right at once enables them, and not without color + of truth, to cry out that the contest going on is 'a struggle + between power and liberty.' + + "Believing the intentions of those who have moved simultaneously + to get up these petitions at this time, to be mischief, I + was glad to see the first petition that came in here laid on + the table without discussion, and without reference to any + committee. The motion to lay on the table precludes all debate; + and, if decided affirmatively, prevents agitation. It was with + the view of preventing agitation of this subject that I moved + to lay the second set of petitions on the table. A senator from + the South (Mr. Calhoun) has chosen a different course; he has + interposed a motion which opens a debate that may be continued + for months. He has chosen to agitate this question; and he has + presented that question, the decision of which, let senators + vote as they may, will best please the agitators who are urging + the fanatics forward. + + "I have said the people of the North were more united in their + opposition to the plans of the advocates of antislavery, than on + any other subject. This opposition is confined to no political + party; it pervades every class of the community. They deprecate + all interference with the subject of slavery, because they + believe such interference may involve the existence and welfare + of the Union itself, and because they understand the obligations + which the non-slaveholding States owe to the slaveholding + States by the compact of confederation. It is the strong desire + to perpetuate the Union; it is the determination which every + patriotic and virtuous citizen has made, in no event to abandon + the 'ark of our safety,' that now impels the united North to + take its stand against the agitators of the antislavery project. + So effectually has the strong public sentiment put down that + agitation in New England, that it is now kept alive only by the + power of money, which the agitators have collected, and apply in + the hiring of agents, and in issues from presses that are kept + in their employ. + + "The antislavery movement, which brings in petitions from + various parts of the country asking Congress to abolish slavery + in the District of Columbia, originates with a few persons, + who have been in the habit of making charitable religious + institutions subservient to political purposes, and who have + even controlled some of those charitable associations. The + petitions are set on foot by men who have had, and who continue + to have, influence with ministers and religious teachers of + different denominations. They have issued and sent out their + circulars calling for a united effort to press on Congress the + abolition of slavery in this District. Many of the clergymen + who have been instruments of the agitators, have done so from + no bad motive. Some of them, discovering the purpose of the + agitators--discovering that their labors were calculated to + make the condition of the slave worse, and to create animosity + between the people of the North and the South, have paused in + their course, and desisted from the further application of a + mistaken philanthropy. Others, having enlisted deeply their + feelings, still pursue the unprofitable labor. They present here + the names of inconsiderate men and women, many of whom do not + know, when they subscribe their papers, what they are asking; + and others of whom, placing implicit faith in their religious + teacher, are taught to believe they are thereby doing a work of + disinterested benevolence, which will be requited by rewards in + a future life. + + "Now, sir, as much as I abhor the doings of weak or wicked men + who are moving this abolition question at the North, I yet have + not as bad an opinion of them as I have of some others who are + attempting to make of these puerile proceedings an object of + alarm to the whole South. + + "Of all the vehicles, tracts, pamphlets, and newspapers, printed + and circulated by the abolitionists, there is no ten or twenty + of them that have contributed so much to the excitement as a + single newspaper printed in this city. I need not name this + paper when I inform you that, for the last five years, it has + been laboring to produce a Northern and Southern party--to fan + the flame of sectional prejudice--to open wider the breach, + to drive harder the wedge, which shall divide the North from + the South. It is the newspaper which, in 1831-'2, strove to + create that state of things, in relation to the tariff, which + would produce inevitable collision between the two sections of + the country, and which urged to that crisis in South Carolina, + terminating in her deep disgrace---- + + "[Mr. Calhoun here interrupted Mr. Hill, and called him to + order. Mr. H. took his seat, and Mr. Hubbard (being in the + chair) decided that the remarks of Mr. H. did not impugn the + motives of any man--they were only descriptive of the effects of + certain proceedings upon the State of South Carolina, and that + he was not out of order.] + + "Mr. H. resumed: It is the newspaper which condemns or ridicules + the well-meant efforts of an officer of the government to stop + the circulation of incendiary publications in the slaveholding + States, and which designedly magnifies the number and the + efforts of the Northern abolitionists. It is the newspaper + which libels the whole North by representing the almost united + people of that region to be insincere in their efforts to + prevent the mischief of a few fanatical and misguided persons + who are engaged in the abolition cause. + + "I have before me a copy of this newspaper (the _United States + Telegraph_), filled to the brim with the exciting subject. It + contains, among other things, a speech of an honorable senator + (Mr. Leigh of Virginia), which I shall not be surprised soon + to learn has been issued by thousands and tens of thousands + from the abolition mint at New-York, for circulation in the + South. Surely the honorable senator's speech, containing that + part of the Channing pamphlet, is most likely to move the + Southern slaves to a servile war, at the same time the Channing + extracts and the speech itself are most admirably calculated to + awaken the fears or arouse the indignation of their masters. + The circulation of such a speech will effect the object of + the abolitionists without trenching upon their funds. Let the + agitation be kept up in Congress, and let this newspaper be + extensively circulated in the South, filled with such speeches + and such extracts as this exhibits, and little will be left for + the Northern abolitionists to do. They need do no more than + send in their petitions: the late printer of the Senate and + his friends in Congress, will create enough of excitement to + effect every object of those who direct the movements of the + abolitionists." + +At the same moment that these petitions were presented in the +Senate, their counterparts were presented in the House, with +the same declarations from Northern representatives in favor of +the rights of the South, and in depreciation of the number and +importance of the abolitionists in the North. Among these, Mr. +Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, was one of the most emphatic on +both points. He said: + + "This was not the last memorial of the same character which + would be sent here. It was perfectly apparent that the question + must be met now, or at some future time, fully and explicitly, + and such an expression of this House given as could leave + no possible room to doubt as to the opinions and sentiments + entertained by its members. He (Mr. P.), indeed, considered the + overwhelming vote of the House, the other day, laying a memorial + of similar tenor, and, he believed, the same in terms, upon the + table, as fixing upon it the stamp of reprobation. He supposed + that all sections of the country would be satisfied with that + expression; but gentlemen seemed now to consider the vote as + equivocal and evasive. He was unwilling that any imputation + should rest upon the North, in consequence of the misguided and + fanatical zeal of a few--comparatively very few--who, however + honest might have been their purposes, he believed had done + incalculable mischief, and whose movements, he knew, received no + more sanction among the great mass of the people of the North, + than they did at the South. For one, he (Mr. P.), while he + would be the last to infringe upon any of the sacred reserved + rights of the people, was prepared to stamp with disapprobation, + in the most express and unequivocal terms, the whole movement + upon this subject. Mr. P. said he would not resume his seat + without tendering to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Mason), + just and generous as he always was, his acknowledgments for + the admission frankly made in the opening of his remarks. He + had said that, during the period that he had occupied a seat + in this House (as Mr. P. understood him), he had never known + six men seriously disposed to interfere with the rights of the + slaveholders at the South. Sir, said Mr. P., gentlemen may be + assured there was no such disposition as a general sentiment + prevailing among the people; at least he felt confidence in + asserting that, among the people of the State which he had the + honor in part to represent, there was not one in a hundred who + did not entertain the most sacred regard for the rights of + their Southern brethren--nay, not one in five hundred who would + not have those rights protected at any and every hazard. There + was not the slightest disposition to interfere with any rights + secured by the constitution, which binds together, and which he + humbly hoped ever would bind together, this great and glorious + confederacy as one family. Mr. P. had only to say that, to some + sweeping charges of improper interference, the action of the + people of the North at home, during the last year, and the vote + of their representatives here the other day, was a sufficient + and conclusive answer." + +The newspaper named by Mr. Hill was entirely in the interest of Mr. +Calhoun, and the course which it followed, and upon system, and +incessantly to get up a slavery quarrel between the North and the +South, was undeniable--every daily number of the paper containing +the proof of its incendiary work. Mr. Calhoun would not reply to Mr. +Hill, but would send a paper to the Secretary's table to be read +in contradiction of his statements. Mr. Calhoun then handed to the +Secretary a newspaper containing an article impugning the statement +made by Mr. Pierce, in the House of Representatives, as to the +small number of the abolitionists in the State of New Hampshire; +which was read, and which contained scurrilous reflections on Mr. +Pierce, and severe strictures on the state of slavery in the South. +Mr. Hill asked for the title of the newspaper; and it was given, +"_The Herald of Freedom_." Mr. Hill said it was an abolition +paper, printed, but not circulated, at Concord, New Hampshire. He +said the same paper had been sent to him, and he saw in it one of +Mr. Calhoun's speeches; which was republished as good food for the +abolitionists; and said he thought the Senate was well employed in +listening to the reading of disgusting extracts from an hireling +abolition paper, for the purpose of impugning the statements of a +member of the House of Representatives, defending the South there, +and who could not be here to defend himself. It was also a breach +of parliamentary law for a member in one House to attack what was +said by a member in another. Mr. Pierce's statement had been heard +with great satisfaction by all except Mr. Calhoun; but to him it was +so repugnant, as invalidating his assertion of a great abolition +party in the North, that he could not refrain from this mode of +contradicting it. It was felt by all as disorderly and improper, +and the presiding officer then in the chair (Mr. Hubbard, from New +Hampshire) felt himself called upon to excuse his own conduct in not +having checked the reading of the article. He said: + + "He felt as if an apology was due from him to the Senate, for + not having checked the reading of the paragraphs from the + newspaper which had just been read by the Secretary. He was + wholly ignorant of the contents of the paper, and could not + have anticipated the purport of the article which the senator + from South Carolina had requested the Secretary to read. He + understood the senator to say that he wished the paper to be + read, to show that the statement made by the senator from New + Hampshire, as to the feelings and sentiments of the people of + that State upon the subject of the abolition of slavery, was + not correct. It certainly would have been out of order, for any + senator to have alluded to the remarks made by a member of the + House of Representatives, in debate; and, in his judgment, it + was equally out of order to permit paragraphs from a newspaper + to be read in the Senate, which went to impugn the course of any + member of the other House; and he should not have permitted the + paper to have been read, without the direction of the Senate, if + he had been aware of the character of the article." + +Mr. Calhoun said he was entitled to the floor and did not like +to be interrupted by the chair: he meant no disrespect to Mr. +Pierce, "but wished the real state of things to be known"--as if +an abolition newspaper was better authority than a statement from +a member in his place in the House. It happened that Mr. Pierce +was coming into the Senate Chamber as this reading scene was going +on; and, being greatly surprised, and feeling much aggrieved, and +having no right to speak for himself, he spoke to the author of this +View to maintain the truth of his statement against the scurrilous +contradiction of it which had been read. Mr. Benton, therefore, +stood up-- + + "To say a word on the subject of Mr. Pierce, the member of the + House of Representatives, from New Hampshire, whose statements + in the House of Representatives had been contradicted in the + newspaper article read at the Secretary's table. He had the + pleasure of an intimate acquaintance with that gentleman, and + the highest respect for him, both on his own account and that + of his venerable and patriotic father, who was lately Governor + of New Hampshire. It had so happened (said Mr. B.) that, in the + very moment of the reading of this article, the member of the + House of Representatives, whose statement it contradicted, was + coming into the Senate Chamber, and his whitening countenance + showed the deep emotion excited in his bosom. The statement + which that gentleman had made in the House was in the highest + degree consolatory and agreeable to the people of the + slaveholding States. He had said that not one in five hundred + in his State was in favor of the abolitionists: an expression + understood by every body, not as an arithmetical proposition + worked out by figures, but as a strong mode of declaring that + these abolitionists were few in number. In that sense it was + understood, and was a most welcome and agreeable piece of + information to the people of the slaveholding States. The + newspaper article contradicts him, and vaunts the number of the + abolitionists, and the numerous signers to their petition. Now + (said Mr. B.), the member of the House of Representatives (Mr. + Pierce) has this moment informed me that he knows nothing of + these petitions, and knows nothing to change his opinion as to + the small number of abolitionists in his State. Mr. B. thought, + therefore, that his statement ought not to be considered as + discredited by the newspaper publication; and he, for one, + should still give faith to his opinion." + +In his eagerness to invalidate the statement of Mr. Pierce, Mr. +Calhoun had overlooked a solecism of action in which it involved +him. His bill to suppress the mail transmission of incendiary +publications was still before the Senate, not yet decided; and +here was matter read in the Senate, and to go forth as part of its +proceedings, the most incendiary and diabolical that had yet been +seen. This oversight was perceived by the author of this View, who, +after vindicating the statement of Mr. Pierce, went on to expose +this solecism, and-- + + "Took up the bill reported by the select committee on incendiary + publications, and read the section which forbade their + transmission by mail, and subjected the postmasters to fine + and loss of office, who would put them up for transmission; + and wished to know whether this incendiary publication, which + had been read at the Secretary's table, would be included in + the prohibition, after being so read, and thus becoming a part + of our debates? As a publication in New Hampshire, it was + clearly forbid; as part of our congressional proceedings would + it still be forbid? There was a difficulty in this, he said, + take it either away. If it could still be inculcated from this + floor, then the prohibition in the bill was mere child's play; + if it could not, and all the city papers which contained it + were to be stopped, then the other congressional proceedings + in the same paper would be stopped also; and thus the people + would be prevented from knowing what their representatives were + doing. It seemed to him to be but lame work to stop incendiary + publications in the villages where they were printed, and then + to circulate them from this chamber among the proceedings of + Congress; and that, issuing from this centre, and spreading to + all the points of the circumference of this extended Union, one + reading here would give it ten thousand times more notoriety + and diffusion than the printing of it in the village could do. + He concluded with expressing his wish that the reporters would + not copy into their account of debate the paper that was read. + It was too offensive to the member of the House [Mr. Pierce], + and would be too disagreeable to the people of the slaveholding + States, to be entitled to a place in our debates, and to become + a part of our congressional history, to be diffused over the + country in gazettes, and transmitted to posterity in the volumes + of debates. He hoped they would all omit it." + +The reporters complied with this request, and the Congress debates +were spared the pollution of this infusion of scurrility, and the +permanent record of this abusive assault upon a member of the House +because he was a friend to the South. But it made a deep impression +upon senators; and Mr. King, of Georgia, adverted to it a few days +afterwards to show the strangeness of the scene--Southern senators +attacking their Northern friends because they defended the South. He +said: + + "It was known that there was a talented, patriotic, and highly + influential member of the other House, from New Hampshire + [Mr. Pierce], to whose diligence and determined efforts he + had heard attributed, in a great degree, the present prostrate + condition of the abolitionists in that State. He had been the + open and active friend of the South from the beginning, and + had encountered the hostility of the abolitionists in every + form. He had made a statement of the strength and prospects of + the abolitionists in his State, near the commencement of the + session, that was very gratifying to the people of the South. + This statement was corroborated by one of the senators from that + State a few days after, and the senator from Carolina rose, and, + without due reflection, he was very sure, drew from his pocket + a dirty sheet, an abolition paper, containing a scurrilous + article against the member from New Hampshire, which pronounced + him an impostor and a liar. The same thing in effect had just + been repeated by the senator from Mississippi against one of the + best friends of the South, Governor Marcy, of New-York. [Here + Mr. Calhoun rose to explain, and said he had intended, by the + introduction of the paper, no disrespect to the member from + New Hampshire; and Mr. Black also rose to say he only wished + to show the course the abolitionists were pursuing, and their + future views.] Mr. King said he had been interrupted by the + senators, but corrected by neither of them. He was not attacking + their motives, but only exposing their mistakes. The article + read by his friend from Carolina was abusive of the member from + New Hampshire, and contradicted his statements. The article + read by his friend from Mississippi against Governor Marcy was + of a similar character. It abused, menaced, and contradicted + him. These abusive productions would seem to be credited and + adopted by those who used them as evidence, and incorporated + them in their speeches. Here, then, was a contest in the North + between the most open and avowed friends of the South and the + abolitionists; and we had the strange exhibition of Southern + gentlemen apparently espousing the cause of the latter, who were + continually furnishing them evidence with which to aid them in + the contest. Did gentlemen call this backing their friends? What + encouragement did such treatment afford to our friends at the + North to step forth in our behalf?" + +Mr. King did not limit himself to the defence of Mr. Pierce, but +went on to deny the increase of abolitionism at the North, and to +show that it was dying out there until revived by agitation here. He +said: + + "A great deal had been stated in one form or other, and in + one quarter or other, as to the numbers and increase of these + disturbers of the peace; and he did not undertake to say what + was the fact. He learned, and thought it probable, that they + had increased since the commencement of the session, and had + heard also the increase attributed to the manner in which the + subject had been treated here. However this might be, what he + insisted on was, that those base productions were no evidence of + the fact, or of any fact; and especially should not be used by + Southern men, in opposition to the statements of high-minded, + honorable men at the North, who were the active and efficient + friends of the South." + +As an evidence of the manner in which the English emissary, George +Thompson, had been treated in the North, upon whose labors so much +stress had been laid in the South, Mr. King read from an English +newspaper (the Leeds Mercury), Thompson's own account of his mission +as written to his English employers; thus: + + "Letters of a most distressing nature have been received from + Mr. George Thompson, the zealous and devoted missionary of + slave emancipation, who has gone from this country to the + United States, and who writes from Boston. He says that 'the + North (that is, New England, where slavery does not exist), + has universally sympathized with the South,' in opposition to + the abolitionists; that 'the North has let fall the mask;' + that 'merchants and mechanics, priests and politicians, have + alike stood forth the defenders of Southern despots, and the + furious denouncers of Northern philanthropy;' that all parties + of politics, especially the supporters of the two rivals for + the presidential office (Van Buren and Webster), vie with each + other in denouncing the abolitionists; and that even religious + men shun them, except when the abolitionists can fairly gain a + hearing from them. With regard to himself, he speaks as follows: + 'Rewards are offered for my abduction and assassination; and + in every direction I meet with those who believe they would be + doing God and their country service by depriving me of life. + I have appeared in public, and some of my escapes from the + hands of my foes have been truly providential. On Friday last, + I narrowly escaped losing my life in Concord, New Hampshire.' + 'Boston, September 11.--This morning a short gallows was found + standing opposite the door of my house, 23 Bay-street, in this + city, now occupied by Garrison. Two halters hung from the beam, + with the words above them, By order of Judge Lynch!'" + +Mr. Hill corroborated the account which this emissary gave of his +disastrous mission, and added that he had escaped from Concord in +the night, and in woman's clothes: and then said: + + "The present agitation in the North is kept up by the + application of money; it is a state of things altogether forced. + Agents are hired, disguised in the character of ministers + of the Gospel, to preach abolition of slavery where slavery + does not exist; and presses are kept in constant employment to + scatter abolition publications through the country. Deny the + right of petition to the misguided men and women who are induced + from no bad motive to petition for the abolition of slavery in + the District of Columbia, and you do more to increase their + numbers than will thousands of dollars paid to the emissaries + who traverse the country to distribute abolition tracts and to + spread abolition doctrines. Continue to debate abolition in + either branch of Congress, and you more effectually subserve + the incendiary views of the movers of abolition than any thing + they can do for themselves. It may suit those who have been + disappointed in all their political projects, to try what this + subject of abolition will now avail them. Such men will be + likely to find, in the end, that the people have too strong + attachment for that happy Union, to which we owe all our + prosperity and happiness, to be thrown from their propriety at + every agitating blast which may be blown across the land." + +Mr. Webster gave his opinion in favor of receiving the petitions, +not to grant their prayer, but to yield to a constitutional right on +the part of the petitioners; and said: + + "He thought they ought to be received, referred, and considered. + That was what was usually done with petitions on other + subjects, and what had been uniformly done, heretofore, with + petitions on this subject also. Those who believed they had an + undoubted right to petition, and that Congress had undoubted + constitutional authority over the subjects to which their + petitions related, would not be satisfied with a refusal to + receive the petitions, nor with a formal reception of them, + followed by an immediate vote rejecting their prayer. In + parliamentary terms there was some difference between these two + modes of proceeding, but it would be considered as little else + than a difference in mere form. He thought the question must at + some time be met, considered, and discussed. In this matter, as + in others, Congress must stand on its reasons. It was in vain + to attempt to shut the door against petitions, and expect in + that way to avoid discussion. On the presentment of the first + of these petitions, he had been of opinion that it ought to + be referred to the proper committee. He was of that opinion + still. The subject could not be stifled. It must be discussed, + and he wished it should be discussed calmly, dispassionately, + and fully, in all its branches, and all its bearings. To + reject the prayer of a petition at once, without reference or + consideration, was not respectful; and in this case nothing + could be possibly gained by going out of the usual course of + respectful consideration." + +The trial votes were had upon the petition of the Society of +Friends, the Caln petition; and on Mr. Calhoun's motion to refuse +to receive it. His motion was largely rejected--35 to 10. The vote +to receive was: Messrs. Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Clay, Clayton, +Crittenden, Davis, Ewing of Illinois, Ewing of Ohio, Goldsborough, +Grundy, Hendricks, Hill, Hubbard, Kent, King of Alabama, King of +Georgia, Knight, Linn, McKean, Morris, Naudain, Niles, Prentiss, +Robbins, Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley, Southard, Swift, Tallmadge, +Tipton, Tomlinson, Wall, Webster, Wright. The nays were: Messrs. +Black, Calhoun, Cuthbert, Leigh, Moore, Nicholas, Porter, Preston, +Walker, White. + +The motion to reject the petition being thus lost (only a meagre +minority of the Southern members voting for it), the motion to +reject its prayer next came on; and on that motion Mr. Calhoun +refused to vote, saying: + + "The Senate has by voting to receive this petition, on the + ground on which the reception was placed, assumed the principle + that we are bound to receive petitions to abolish slavery, + whether in this District or the States; that is, to take + jurisdiction of the question of abolishing slavery whenever + and in whatever manner the abolitionists may think proper to + present the question. He considered this decision pregnant with + consequences of the most disastrous character. When and how + they were to occur it was not for him to predict; but he could + not be mistaken in the fact that there must follow a long train + of evils. What, he would ask, must hereafter be the condition + on this floor of the senators from the slaveholding States? No + one can expect that what has been done will arrest the progress + of the abolitionists. Its effects must be the opposite, and + instead of diminishing must greatly increase the number of the + petitions. Under the decision of the Senate, we of the South are + doomed to sit here and receive in silence, however outrageous + or abusive in their language towards us and those whom we + represent, the petitions of the incendiaries who are making + war on our institutions. Nay, more, we are bound, without the + power of resistance to see the Senate, at the request of these + incendiaries, whenever they think proper to petition, extend + its jurisdiction on the subject of slavery over the States as + well as this District. Thus deprived of all power of effectual + resistance, can any thing be considered more hopeless and + degrading than our situation; to sit here, year after year, + session after session, hearing ourselves and our constituents + vilified by thousands of incendiary publications in the form of + petitions, of which the Senate, by its decision, is bound to + take jurisdiction, and against which we must rise like culprits + to defend ourselves, or permit them to go uncontradicted and + unresisted? We must ultimately be not only degraded in our own + estimation and that of the world, but be exhausted and worn out + in such a contest." + +This was a most unjustifiable assumption on the part of Mr. Calhoun, +to say that in voting to receive this petition, confined to slavery +in the District of Columbia, the Senate took jurisdiction of the +question in the States--jurisdiction of the question of abolishing +slavery whenever, and in whatever manner, the abolitionists might +ask. It was unjustifiable towards the Senate, and giving a false +alarm to the South. The thirty-five senators voting to receive the +petition wholly repudiated the idea of interfering with slavery in +the States. Twelve of them were from the slaveholding States, so +that Mr. Calhoun was outvoted in his own half of the Union. The +petition itself was confined to the object of emancipation and the +suppression of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, where it +alleged, and truly that Congress possessed jurisdiction; and there +was nothing either in the prayer, or in the language of the petition +to justify the inferences drawn from its reception, or to justify +the assumption that it was an insult and outrage to the senators +from the slaveholding States. It was a brief and temperate memorial +in these words: + + "The memorial of Caln Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society + of Friends, commonly called Quakers, respectfully represents: + That, having long felt deep sympathy with that portion of the + inhabitants of these United States which is held in bondage, + and having no doubt that the happiness and interests, moral and + pecuniary, of both master and slave, and our whole community, + would be greatly promoted if the inestimable right to liberty + was extended equally to all, we contemplate with extreme regret + that the District of Columbia, over which you possess entire + control, is acknowledged to be one of the greatest marts for + the traffic in the persons of human beings in the known world, + notwithstanding the principles of the constitution declare that + all men have an unalienable right to the blessing of liberty. + We therefore earnestly desire that you will enact such laws as + will secure the right of freedom to every human being residing + within the constitutional jurisdiction of Congress, and prohibit + every species of traffic in the persons of men, which in as + inconsistent in principle and inhuman in practice as the foreign + slave trade." + +This was the petition. It was in favor of emancipation in the +District, and prayed the suppression of the slave trade in the +District; and neither of these objects had any relation to +emancipation or the slave trade, in the States. Mr. Preston, the +colleague of Mr. Calhoun, gave his reasons for voting to reject the +prayer of the petition, having failed in his first object to reject +the petition itself: and Mr. Davis, of Massachusetts, repulsed the +inferences and assumptions of Mr. Calhoun in consequence of the vote +to receive the petition. He denied the justice of any suggestion +that it portended mischief to the South, to the constitution, or +to the Union; or that it was to make the District the headquarters +of abolitionists, and the stepping-stone and entering wedge to the +attack of slavery in the States: and said: + + "Neither the petition on which the debate had arisen, nor + any other that he had seen, proposed directly or indirectly + to disturb the Union, unless the abolition of slavery in + this District, or the suppression or regulation of the slave + trade within it, would have that effect. For himself, Mr. D. + believed no purpose could be further than this from the minds + of the petitioners. He could not determine what thoughts or + motives might be in the minds of men, but he judged by what + was revealed; and he could not persuade himself that these + petitioners were not attached to the Union and that they had + (as had been suggested) any ulterior purpose of making this + District the headquarters of future operation--the stronghold + of anti-slavery--the stepping-stone to an attack upon the + constitutional rights of the South. He was obliged to repudiate + these inferences as unjust, for he had seen no proof to sustain + them in any of the petitions that had come here. The petitioners + entertained opinions coincident with their fellow-citizens as + to the power of Congress to legislate in regard to slavery in + this District; and being desirous that slavery should cease + here, if it could be abolished upon just principles; and, if + not, that the traffic carried on here from other quarters should + be suppressed or regulated, they came here to ask Congress + to investigate the matter. This was all; and he could see + no evidence in it of a clandestine purpose to disregard the + constitution or to disturb the Union." + +The vote was almost unanimous on Mr. Buchanan's motion--34 to 6; and +those six against it, not because they were in favor of granting +the prayer of the memorialists, but because they believed that +the petition ought to be referred to a committee, reported upon, +and then rejected--which was the ancient mode of treating such +petitions; and also the mode in which they were now treated in the +House of Representatives. The vote was: + + "Yeas--Messrs. Benton, Black, Brown, Buchanan, Clay, Crittenden, + Cuthbert, Ewing of Illinois, Ewing of Ohio, Goldsborough, + Grundy, Hill, Hubbard, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Leigh, + Linn, McKean, Moore, Nicholas, Niles, Porter, Preston, Robbins, + Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomlinson, + Walker, Wall, White, Wright--34. + + "Nays--Messrs. Davis, Hendricks, Knight, Prentiss, Swift, + Webster--6." + +After this decision, Mr. Webster gave notice that he had in hand +several similar petitions, which he had forborne to present till +this one from Pennsylvania should be disposed of; and that now he +should, on an early occasion, present them, and move to dispose of +them in the way in which it had been his opinion from the first that +all such petitions should have been treated; that is, referred to a +committee for consideration and inquiry. + +The action of the House of Representatives will now be seen on the +subject of these petitions; for duplicates of the same generally +went to that body; and there, under the lead of a South Carolina +member, and with large majorities of the House, they were disposed +of very differently from the way that Mr. Calhoun demanded in the +Senate, and in the way that he deemed so fatal to the slaveholding +States. Mr. Henry L. Pinckney, of the Charleston district, moved +that it be-- + + "_Resolved_, That all the memorials which have been offered, + or may hereafter be presented to this House, praying for the + abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; and also the + resolutions offered by an honorable member from Maine (Mr. + Jarvis), with the amendment thereto proposed by an honorable + member from Virginia (Mr. Wise), together with every other + paper or proposition that may be submitted in relation to the + subject, be referred to a select committee, with instructions to + report: that Congress possesses no constitutional authority to + interfere in any way with the institution of slavery in any of + the States of this confederacy: and that in the opinion of this + House, Congress ought not to interfere, in any way, with slavery + in the District of Columbia, because it would be a violation + of the public faith, unwise, impolitic, and dangerous to the + Union. Assigning such reasons for these conclusions, as, in the + judgment of the committee, may be best calculated to enlighten + the public mind, to allay excitement, to repress agitation, to + secure and maintain the just rights of the slave-holding States, + and of the people of this District, and to restore harmony and + tranquillity amongst the various sections of this Union." + +On putting the question the motion was divided, so as to have a +separate vote on the different propositions of the resolve; and +each was carried by large, and some by nearly unanimous majorities. +On the first division, To refer all the memorials to a select +committee, the vote was 174 to 48. On the second division, That +Congress possesses no constitutional authority to interfere, in +any way, with the institution of slavery in any of the States, +the vote was 201 to 7--the seven negatives being Mr. John Quincy +Adams, Mr. Harmer Denny of Pennsylvania, Mr. William Jackson, +Mr. Horace Everett of Vermont, Mr. Rice Garland of Louisiana, +Mr. Thomas Glascock of Georgia, Mr. William Jackson, Mr. John +Robertson of Virginia; and they, because opposed to voting on such +a proposition, deemed gratuitous and intermeddling. On the third +division, of the resolve, That Congress ought not to interfere in +any way with slavery in the District of Columbia, the vote stood +163 to 47. And on the fourth division, giving as reasons for such +non-interference, Because it would be a violation of the public +faith, unwise, impolitic, and dangerous to the Union, the vote +was, 127 to 75. On the last division, To assign reasons for this +report, the vote stood 167 to 6. So the committee was ordered, and +consisted of Mr. Pinckney, Mr. Hamer of Ohio, Mr. Pierce of New +Hampshire, Mr. Hardin of Kentucky, Mr. Jarvis of Maine, Mr. Owens of +Georgia, Mr. Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, Mr. Dromgoole of Virginia, +and Mr. Turrill of New-York. The committee reported, and digested +their report into two resolutions, _first_, That Congress possesses +no constitutional authority to interfere, in any way, with the +institution of slavery in any State of this confederacy. _Secondly_, +That Congress ought not to interfere in any way with slavery in the +District of Columbia. And, "for the purpose of arresting agitation, +and restoring tranquillity to the public mind," they recommended +the adoption of this resolve: "That all petitions, memorials, +resolutions, propositions, or papers relating in any way to the +subject of slavery, or the abolition of slavery, shall, without +either being printed or referred, be laid upon the table; and that +no further action whatever be had upon them." All these resolutions +were adopted; and the latter one by a vote of 117 to 68; so that +the House came to the same course which the Senate had taken in +relation to these memorials. Mr. Adams, whose votes, taken by +themselves, might present him as acting with the abolitionists, was +entirely opposed to their objects, and was governed by a sense of +what appeared to him to be the right of petition, and also the most +effectual way of putting an end to an agitation which he sincerely +deprecated. And on this point it is right that he should be heard +for himself, as speaking for himself when Mr. Pinckney's motion was +before the House. He then said: + + "But, sir, not being in favor of the object of the petitions, + I then gave notice to the House and to the country, that upon + the supposition that these petitions had been transmitted to me + under the expectation that I should present them, I felt it my + duty to say, I should not support them. And, sir, the reason + which I gave at that time for declining to support them was + precisely the same reason which the gentleman from Virginia + now gives for reconsidering this motion--namely, to keep the + discussion of the subject out of the House. I said, sir, that + I believed this discussion would be altogether unprofitable to + the House and to the country; but, in deference to the sacred + right of petition, I moved that these fifteen petitions, all + of which were numerously signed, should be referred to the + Committee on the District of Colombia, at the head of which + was, at that time, a distinguished citizen of Virginia now, I + regret to say--and the whole country has occasion to regret--no + more. These petitions were thus referred, and, after a short + period of time, the chairman of the Committee on the District + of Columbia made a report to this House, which report was read, + and unanimously accepted; and nothing more has been heard of + these petitions from that day to this. In taking the course I + then took, I was not sustained by the unanimous voice of my own + constituents; there were many among them, persons as respectable + and as entitled to consideration as any others, who disapproved + of the course I pursued on that occasion. + + "Attempts were made within the district I then represented + to get up meetings of the people to instruct me to pursue + a different course, or to multiply petitions of the same + character. These efforts were continued during the whole of that + long session of Congress; but I am gratified to add, without any + other result than that, from one single town of the district + which I had the honor to represent, a solitary petition was + forwarded before the close of the session, with a request that + I would present it to the House. Sir, I did present it, and it + was referred to the same Committee on the District of Columbia, + and I believe nothing more has been heard of it since. From + the experience of this session, I was perfectly satisfied + that the true and only method of keeping this subject out of + discussion was, to take that course; to refer all petitions of + this kind to the Committee on the District of Columbia, or some + other committee of the House, to receive their report, and to + accept it unanimously. This does equal justice to all parties + in the country; it avoids the discussion of this agitating + question on the one hand, and, on the other, it pays a due + respect to the right of the constituent to petition. Two years + afterwards, similar petitions were presented, and at that time + an effort made, without success, to do that which has now been + done successfully in one instance. An effort was made to lay + these petitions on the table; the House did not accede to the + proposition: they referred the petitions as they had been before + referred, and with the same result. For, from the moment that + these petitions are referred to the Committee on the District of + Columbia, they go to the family vault 'of all the Capulets,' and + you will never hear of them afterwards. + + "At the first session of the last Congress, a gentleman from + the State of New-York, a distinguished member of this House, + now no longer here, which I regret to say, although I do not + doubt that his place is well supplied, presented one or more + petitions to this effect, and delivered a long and eloquent + speech of two hours in support of them. And what was the + result? He was not answered: not a word was said, but the vote + of the House was taken; the petitions were referred to the + Committees on the District, and we have heard nothing more of + them since. At the same session, or probably at the very last + session, a distinguished member of this House, from the State + of Connecticut, presented one or more petitions to the same + effect, and declared in his place that he himself concurred in + all the opinions expressed. Did this declaration light up the + flame of discord in this House? Sir, he was heard with patience + and complacency. He moved the reference of the petitions to the + Committee on the District of Columbia, and there they went to + sleep the sleep of death. Mr. Adams, speaking from recollection, + was [the reporter is requested by him to state] mistaken with + respect to the reference of the petitions presented at the last + session of Congress to the committee. They were then for the + first time laid on the table, as was the motion to print one of + them. At the preceding session of the last Congress, as at all + former times, all such petitions had been referred to committees + and printed when so desired. Why not adopt the same course + now? Here is a petition which has been already referred to the + Committee on the District of Columbia. Leave it there, and, my + word for it, sir, you will have just such a result as has taken + place time after time before. Your Committee on the District + certainly is not an abolition committee. You will have a fit, + proper, and able report from them; the House, _sub silentio_, + will adopt it, and you will hear no more about it. But if you + are to reconsider the vote, and to lay these petitions on the + table; if you come to the resolution that this House will not + receive any more petitions, what will be the consequence? In a + large portion of this country every individual member who votes + with you will be left at home at the next election, and some one + will be sent who is not prepared to lay these petitions on the + table." + +There was certainly reason in what Mr. Adams proposed, and +encouragement to adopt his course, from the good effect which had +already attended it in other cases; and from the further good effect +which he affirmed, that, in taking that course, the committee and +the House would have come to the same conclusion by a unanimous, +instead of a divided vote, as at present. His course was also +conformable to that of the earliest action of Congress upon the +subject. It was in the session of Congress of 1789-'90--being the +first under the constitution--that the two questions of abolishing +the foreign slave trade, and of providing for domestic emancipation, +came before it; and then, as in the case of the Caln Memorial, from +the Religious Society of Friends, there was discussion as to the +mode of acting upon it--which ended in referring the memorial to a +special committee, without instructions. That committee, a majority +being from the non-slaveholding States, reported against the +memorial on both points; and on the question of emancipation in the +States, the resolve which the committee recommended (after having +been slightly altered in phraseology), read thus: "_That Congress +have no authority to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in +the treatment of them within any of the States; it remaining with +the several States to provide any regulations therein which humanity +and true policy may require._" And under this resolve, and this +treatment of the subject, the slavery question was then quieted; +and remained so until revived in our own time. In the discussion +which then took place Mr. Madison was entirely in favor of sending +the petition to a committee; and thought the only way to get up an +agitation in the country, would be by opposing that course. He said: + + "The question of sending the petition to a committee was no + otherwise important than as gentlemen made it so by their + serious opposition. Had they permitted the commitment of the + memorial, as a matter of course, no notice would have been taken + of it out of doors: it could never have been blown up into a + decision of the question respecting the discouragement of the + African slave trade, nor alarm the owners with an apprehension + that the general government were about to abolish slavery + in all the States. Such things are not contemplated by any + gentleman, but they excite alarm by their extended objections + to committing the memorials. The debate has taken a serious + turn; and it will be owing to this alone if an alarm is created: + for, had the memorial been treated in the usual way, it would + have been considered, as a matter of course; and a report might + have been made so as to give general satisfaction. If there was + the slightest tendency by the commitment to break in upon the + constitution, he would object to it: but he did not see upon + what ground such an event could be apprehended. The petition did + not contemplate even a breach of the constitution: it prayed, in + general terms, for the interference of Congress so far as they + were constitutionally authorized." + +This chapter opens and concludes with the words of Mr. Madison. It +is beautiful to behold the wise, just, and consistent course of +that virtuous and patriotic man--the same from the beginning to +the ending of his life; and always in harmony with the sanctity of +the laws, the honor and interests of his country, and the peace +of his fellow-citizens. May his example not be lost upon us. This +chapter has been copious on the subject of slavery. It relates +to a period when a new point of departure was taken on the slave +question; when the question was carried into Congress with avowed +alternatives of dissolving the Union; and conducted in a way to show +that dissolution was an object to be attained, not prevented; and +this being the starting point of the slavery agitation which has +since menaced the Union, it is right that every citizen should have +a clear view of its origin, progress, and design. From the beginning +of the Missouri controversy up to the year 1835, the author of this +View looked to the North as the point of danger from the slavery +agitation: since that time he has looked to the South for that +danger, as Mr. Madison did two years earlier. Equally opposed to it +in either quarter, he has opposed it in both. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXXVI. + +REMOVAL OF THE CHEROKEES FROM GEORGIA. + + +The removal of the Creek Indians from this State was accomplished +by the treaty of 1826, and that satisfied the obligations of the +United States to Georgia, under the compact of 1802, so far as the +Creek tribe was concerned. But the same obligation remained with +respect to the Cherokees, contracted at the same time, and founded +on the same valuable consideration, namely: the cession by Georgia +to the United States of her western territory, now constituting the +two States of Alabama and Mississippi. And twenty-five years' delay, +and under incessant application, the compact had been carried into +effect with respect to the Creeks; it was now thirty-five years +since it was formed, and it still remained unexecuted with respect +to the Cherokees. Georgia was impatient and importunate, and justly +so, for the removal of this tribe, the last remaining obstacle +to the full enjoyment of all her territory. General Jackson was +equally anxious to effect the removal, both as an act of justice to +Georgia, and also to Alabama (part of whose territory was likewise +covered by the Cherokees), and also to complete the business of +the total removal of all the Indians from the east to the west +side of the Mississippi. It was the only tribe remaining in any +of the States, and he was in the last year of his presidency, and +the time becoming short, as well as the occasion urgent, and the +question becoming more complex and difficult. Part of the tribe had +removed long before. Faction split the remainder that staid behind. +Intrusive counsellors, chiefly from the Northern States, came in +to inflame dissension, aggravate difficulties, and impede removal. +For climax to this state of things, party spirit laid hold of it, +and the politicians in opposition to General Jackson endeavored to +turn it to the prejudice of his administration. Nothing daunted by +this combination of obstacles, General Jackson pursued his plan +with firmness and vigor, well seconded by his Secretary at War, Mr. +Cass--the War Department being then charged with the administration +of the Indian affairs. In the autumn of 1835, a commission had been +appointed to treat with the half tribe in Georgia and Alabama. +It was very judiciously composed to accomplish its purpose, being +partly military and partly ecclesiastic. General William Carroll, +of Tennessee, well known to all the Southern Indians as a brave and +humane warrior, and the Reverend John F. Schermerhorn, of New-York, +well known as a missionary laborer, composed the commission; and it +had all the success which the President expected. + +In the winter of 1835-'36, a treaty was negotiated, by which the +Cherokees, making clean disposal of all their possessions east of +the Mississippi, ceded the whole, and agreed to go West, to join the +half tribe beyond that river. The consideration paid them was ample, +and besides the moneyed consideration, they had large inducements, +founded in views of their own welfare, to make the removal. These +inducements were set out by themselves in the preamble to the +treaty, and were declared to be: "A desire to get rid of the +difficulties experienced by a residence within the settled parts of +the United States; and to reunite their people, by joining those +who had crossed the Mississippi; and to live in a country beyond +the limits of State sovereignties, and where they could establish +and enjoy a government of their choice, and perpetuate a state of +society, which might be most consonant with their views, habits, +and condition, and which might tend to their individual comfort, +and their advancement in civilization." These were sensible reasons +for desiring a removal, and, added to the moneyed consideration, +made it immensely desirable to the Indians. The direct consideration +was five millions of dollars, which, added to stipulations to pay +for the improvements on the ceded lands--to defray the expenses +of removal to their new homes beyond the Mississippi--to subsist +them for one year after their arrival--to commute school funds and +annuities--to allow pre-emptions and pay for reserves--with some +liberal grants of money from Congress, for the sake of quieting +complaints--and some large departmental allowances, amounted, in +the whole, to more than twelve millions of dollars! Being almost +as much for their single extinction of Indian title in the corner +of two States, as the whole province of Louisiana cost! And this +in addition to seven millions of acres granted for their new home, +and making a larger and a better home than the one they had left. +Considered as a moneyed transaction, the advantage was altogether, +and out of all proportion, on the side of the Indians; but relief to +the States, and quiet to the Indians, and the completion of a wise +and humane policy, were overruling considerations, which sanctioned +the enormity of the amount paid. + +Advantageous as this treaty was to the Indians, and desirable as it +was to both parties, it was earnestly opposed in the Senate; and +only saved by one vote. The discontented party of the Cherokees, +and the intrusive counsellors, and party spirit, pursued it to +Washington city, and organized an opposition to it, headed by +the great chiefs then opposed to the administration of General +Jackson--Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, and Mr. Calhoun. Immediately after +the treaty was communicated to the Senate, Mr. Clay presented a +memorial and protest against it from the "Cherokee nation," as they +were entitled by the faction that protested; and also memorials from +several individual Cherokees; all which were printed and referred to +the Senate's Committee on Indian Affairs, and duly considered when +the merits of the treaty came to be examined. The examination was +long and close, extending at intervals for nearly three months--from +March 7th to the end of May--and assuming very nearly a complete +party aspect. On the 18th of May Mr. Clay made a motion which, as +disclosing the grounds of the opposition to the treaty, deserves +to be set out in its own words. It was a motion to reject the +resolution of ratification, and to adopt this resolve in its place: +"That the instrument of writing, purporting to be a treaty concluded +at New Echota on the 29th of December, 1835, between the United +States and the chiefs, head men and people of the Cherokee tribe of +Indians, and the supplementary articles thereto annexed, were not +made and concluded by authority, on the part of the Cherokee tribe, +competent to bind it; and, therefore, without reference to the terms +and conditions of the said agreement and supplementary articles, +the Senate cannot consent to and advise the ratification thereof, +as a valid treaty, binding upon the Cherokee tribe or nation;" +concluding with a recommendation to the President to treat again +with the Cherokees east of the Mississippi for the whole, or any +of their possessions on this side of that river. The vote on this +resolve and recommendation was, 29 yeas to 15 nays; and it requiring +two-thirds to adopt it, it was, of course, lost. But it showed that +the treaty itself was in imminent danger of being lost, and would +actually be lost, in a vote, as the Senate then stood. The whole +number of the Senate was forty-eight; only forty-four had voted. +There were four members absent, and unless two of these could be got +in, and vote with the friends of the treaty, and no one got in on +the other side, the treaty was rejected. It was a close pinch, and +made me recollect what I have often heard Mr. Randolph say, that +there were always members to get out of the way at a pinching vote, +or to lend a hand at a pinching vote. Fortunately the four absent +senators were classified as friends of the administration, and two +of them came in to our side, the other two refusing to go to the +other side: thus saving the treaty by one vote. The vote stood, +thirty-one for the treaty, fifteen against it; and it was only +saved by a strong Northern vote. The yeas were: Messrs. Benton of +Missouri; Black of Mississippi; Brown of North Carolina; Buchanan of +Pennsylvania; Cuthbert of Georgia; Ewing of Illinois; Goldsborough +of Maryland; Grundy of Tennessee; Hendricks of Indiana; Hubbard of +New Hampshire; Kent of Maryland; King of Alabama; King of Georgia; +Linn of Missouri; McKean of Pennsylvania; Mangum of North Carolina; +Moore of Alabama; Morris of Ohio; Niles of Connecticut; Preston of +South Carolina; Rives of Virginia; Robinson of Illinois; Ruggles and +Shepley of Maine; N. P. Tallmadge of New-York; Tipton of Illinois; +Walker of Mississippi; Wall of New Jersey; White of Tennessee; and +Wright of New-York--31. The nays were: Messrs. Calhoun of South +Carolina; Clay of Kentucky; Clayton of Delaware; Crittenden of +Kentucky; Davis of Massachusetts; Ewing of Ohio; Leigh of Virginia; +Naudain of Delaware; Porter of Louisiana; Prentiss of Vermont; +Robbins of Rhode Island; Southard of New Jersey; Swift of Vermont; +Tomlinson of Connecticut; and Webster of Massachusetts--15. Thus the +treaty was barely saved. One vote less in its favor, or one more +against it, and it would have been lost. Two members were absent. If +either had come in and voted with the opposition, it would have been +lost. It was saved by the free State vote--by the fourteen free +State affirmative votes, which precisely balanced and neutralized +the seven slave State negatives. If any one of these fourteen had +voted with the negatives, or even been absent at the vote, the +treaty would have been lost; and thus the South is indebted to the +North for this most important treaty, which completed the relief +of the Southern States--the Chickasaws, Creeks and Choctaws having +previously agreed to remove, and the treaties with them (except with +the Creeks) having been ratified without serious opposition. + +The ratification of this treaty for the removal of the Cherokees +was one of the most difficult and delicate questions which we ever +had to manage, and in which success seemed to be impossible up to +the last moment. It was a Southern question, involving an extension +of slavery, and was opposed by all three of the great opposition +leaders; who only required a minority of one third to make good +their point. At best, it required a good Northern vote, in addition +to the undivided South, to carry the treaty; but, with the South +divided, it seemed hardly possible to obtain the requisite number +to make up for that defection; yet it was done, and done at the +very time that the systematic plan had commenced, to charge the +Northern States with a design to abolish slavery in the South. And +I, who write history, not for applause, but for the sake of the +instruction which it affords, gather up these dry details from the +neglected documents in which they lie hidden, and bring them forth +to the knowledge and consideration of all candid and impartial men, +that they may see the just and fraternal spirit in which the free +States then acted towards their brethren of the South. Nor can +it fail to be observed, as a curious contrast, that, in the very +moment that Mr. Calhoun was seeing cause for Southern alarm lest the +North should abolish slavery in the South, the Northern senators +were extending the area of slavery in Georgia by converting Indian +soil into slave soil: and that against strenuous exertions made by +himself. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXXVII. + +EXTENSION OF THE MISSOURI BOUNDARY. + + +This was a measure of great moment to Missouri and full of +difficulties in itself, and requiring a double process to accomplish +it--an act of Congress to extend the boundary, and an Indian treaty +to remove the Indians to a new home. It was to extend the existing +boundary of the State so as to include a triangle between the +existing line and the Missouri River, large enough to form seven +counties of the first class, and fertile enough to sustain the +densest population. The difficulties were threefold: 1. To make +still larger a State which was already one of the largest in the +Union. 2. To remove Indians from a possession which had just been +assigned them in perpetuity. 3. To alter the Missouri compromise +line in relation to slave territory, and thereby convert free soil +into slave soil. The two first difficulties were serious--the third +formidable: and in the then state of the public mind in relation +to slave territory, this enlargement of a great slave State, and +by converting free soil into slave, and impairing the compromise +line, was an almost impossible undertaking, and in no way to be +accomplished without a generous co-operation from the members of the +free States. They were a majority in the House of Representatives, +and no act of Congress could pass for altering the compromise line +without their aid: they were equal in the Senate, where treaty for +the removal of the Indians could be ratified except by a concurrence +of two thirds. And all these difficulties to be overcome at a +time when Congress was inflamed with angry debates upon abolition +petitions, transmission of incendiary publications, imputed designs +to abolish slavery; and the appearance of the criminating article +in South Carolina entitled the "Crises," announcing a Southern +convention and a secession if certain Northern States did not +suppress the abolition societies within their limits within a +limited time. + +In the face of all these discouraging obstacles the two Missouri +senators, Messrs. Benton and Linn, commenced their operations. The +first was to procure a bill for the alteration of the compromise +line and the extension of the boundary: it was obtained from the +Judiciary Committee, reported by Mr. John M. Clayton of Delaware: +and passed the Senate without material opposition. It went to the +House of Representatives; and found there no serious opposition +to its passage. A treaty was negotiated with the Sac and Fox +Indians to whom the country had been assigned, and was ratified +by the requisite two thirds. And this, besides doing an act of +generous justice to the State of Missouri, was the noble answer +which Northern members gave to the imputed design of abolishing +slavery in the States! actually extending it! and by an addition +equal in extent to such States as Delaware and Rhode Island; and +by its fertility equal to one of the third class of States. And +this accomplished by the extraordinary process of altering a +compromise line intended to be perpetual, and the reconversion of +soil which had been slave, and made free, back again from free to +slave. And all this when, had there been the least disposition to +impede the proper extension of a slave State, there were plausible +reasons enough to cover an opposition, in the serious objections +to enlarging a State already the largest in the Union--to removing +Indians again from a home to which they had just been removed +under a national pledge of no more removals--and to disturbing the +compromise line of 1820 on which the Missouri question had been +settled; and the line between free and slave territory fixed for +national reasons, to remain for ever. The author of this View was +part and parcel of all that transaction--remembers well the anxiety +of the State to obtain the extension--her joy at obtaining it--the +gratitude which all felt to the Northern members without whose +aid it could not have been done; and whose magnanimous assistance +under such trying circumstances he now records as one of the +proofs--(this work contains many others)--of the willingness of the +non-slaveholding part of the Union to be just and generous to their +slaveholding brethren, even in disregard of cherished prejudices and +offensive criminations. It was the second great proof to this effect +at this identical session, the ratification of the Georgia Cherokee +treaty being the other. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXXVIII. + +ADMISSION OF THE STATES OF ARKANSAS AND MICHIGAN INTO THE UNION. + + +These two young States had applied to Congress for an act to enable +them to hold a convention, and form State constitutions, preparatory +to admission into the Union. Congress refused to pass the acts, and +the people of the two territories held the convention by their own +authority, formed their constitutions--sent copies to Congress, +praying admission as States. They both applied at this session, and +the proceedings on their respective applications were simultaneous +in Congress, though in separate bills. That of Michigan was taken up +first, and had been brought before each House in a message from the +President in these words: + + "By the act of the 11th of January, 1805, all that part of the + Indian Territory lying north of a line drawn due 'east from + the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan until it shall + intersect Lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said + southerly bend, through the middle of said lake, to its northern + extremity, and thence, due north, to the northern boundary of + the United States,' was erected into a separate Territory, by + the name of Michigan. The Territory comprised within these + limits being part of the district of country described in the + ordinance of the 13th of July, 1787, which provides that, + whenever any of the States into which the same should be divided + should have sixty thousand free inhabitants, such State should + be admitted by its delegates 'into the Congress of the United + States, on an equal footing with the original States in all + respects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent + constitution and State government, provided the constitution + and government so to be formed shall be republican, and in + conformity to the principles contained in these articles,' the + inhabitants thereof have, during the present year, in pursuance + of the right secured by the ordinance, formed a constitution and + State government. That instrument, together with various other + documents connected therewith, has been transmitted to me for + the purpose of being laid before Congress, to whom the power + and duty of admitting new States into the Union exclusively + appertains; and the whole are herewith communicated for your + early decision." + +The application was referred to a select committee, Mr. Benton +the chairman; and a memorial, entitled from the "Legislature of +Michigan," was also referred to the same committee, though objected +to by some senators as purporting to come from a State which, as +yet, had no existence. But the objection was considered by others as +being one of form--that it might be considered as coming from the +people of Michigan--and was not even material in that point of view, +as the question was already before the Senate on the President's +Message. Some objection was also made to the boundaries, as being +too large, and as trenching upon those of Indiana and Ohio. A +bill was reported for the admission of the State, in support of +which Mr. Benton said, the committee had included in the proposed +limits a considerable portion of territory on the northwest, and +had estimated the superficial contents of the State at 60,000 +square miles. The territory attached contained but a very small +portion of Indian population. It was necessary to make her large +and strong, being a frontier State both to the Indians and to the +British possessions. It should have a large front on Lake Superior. +The principal points of objection, of a permanent character, +were, that the proceedings of the people were revolutionary, in +forming a constitution without a previous act of Congress; and +her constitution inconsistent with that of the United States in +admitting aliens to vote before naturalization. To the first it +was answered that she had applied for an act of Congress two years +ago, and was denied by the then dominant party, and that it was +contradictory to object to her, for not having that which had been +refused to be given; and on the second, that the same thing had been +done for a quarter of a century. On the latter point Mr. Buchanan +said: + + "Michigan confined herself to such residents and inhabitants of + her territory as were there at the signing of her constitution; + and to those alone she extended the right of suffrage. Now, + we had admitted Ohio and Illinois into this Union; two sister + States, of whom we ought certainly to be very proud. He would + refer senators to the provision in the constitution of Ohio on + that subject. By it, all white male inhabitants, twenty-one + years of age, or upwards, having resided one year in the State, + are entitled to vote. Michigan had made the proper distinction; + she had very properly confined the elective franchise to + inhabitants within the State at the time of the adoption of her + constitution; but Ohio had given the right of suffrage as to + all future time to all her white inhabitants over the age of + twenty-one years; a case embracing all time to come, and not + limited as in the constitution of Michigan. He had understood + that, since the adoption of her constitution, Ohio had repealed + this provision by law. He did not know whether this was so or + not; but here it was, as plain as the English language could + make it, that all the white male inhabitants of Ohio, above + the age of twenty-one years, were entitled to vote at her + elections. Well, what had Illinois done in this matter? He + would read an extract from her constitution, by which it would + appear that only six months' previous residence was required + to acquire the right of suffrage. The constitution of Illinois + was therefore still broader and more liberal than that of Ohio. + There, in all elections, all white male inhabitants above the + age of twenty-one years, having resided in the State six months + previous to the election, shall enjoy the rights of an elector. + Now, sir, it had been made a matter of preference by settlers + to go to Illinois, instead of the other new States, where they + must become citizens before they could vote; and he appealed to + the senators from Illinois whether this was not now the case, + and whether any man could not now vote in that State after a six + months' residence. + + "[Mr. Robinson said that such was the fact.] + + "Now, here were two constitutions of States, the senator from + one of which was most strenuously opposed to the admission of + Michigan, who had not extended the right of suffrage as far as + was done by either of them. Did Michigan do right in thus fixing + the elective franchise? He contended that she did act right; and + if she had not acted so, she would not have acted in obedience + to the spirit, if not the very letter, of the ordinance of 1787. + Michigan took the right ground, while the States of Ohio and + Illinois went back in making perpetual in their constitution + what was contained in the ordinance. When Congress admitted them + and Indiana on this principle, he thought it very ungracious + in any of their senators or representatives to declare that + Michigan should not be admitted, because she has extended the + right of suffrage to the few persons within her limits at the + adoption of her constitution. He felt inclined to go a good deal + further into this subject; but as he was exceedingly anxious + that the decision should be made soon, he would not extend his + remarks any further. It appeared to him that an amendment might + very well be made to this bill, requiring that the assent of the + people of Michigan shall be given to the change of boundary. + He did hope that by this bill all objections would be removed; + and that this State, so ready to rush into our arms, would not + be repulsed, because of the absence of some formalities, which, + perhaps, were very proper, but certainly not indispensable." + +On the other point, that of a revolutionary movement, Mr. Buchanan +answered: + + "I think their course is clearly justifiable; but if there to + any thing wrong or unusual in it, it is to be attributed to the + neglect of Congress. For three years, they have been rapping + at your door, and asking for the consent of Congress to form + a constitution, and for admission into the Union; but their + petitions have not been heeded, and have been treated with + neglect. Not being able to be admitted in the way they sought, + they have been forced to take their own course, and stand upon + their rights--rights secured to them by the constitution and a + solemn irrepealable ordinance. They have taken the census of + the territory; they have formed a constitution, elected their + officers, and the whole machinery of a State government is ready + to be put in operation: they are only awaiting your action. + Having assumed this attitude, they now demand admission as a + matter of right: they demand it as an act of justice at your + hands. Are they now to be repelled, or to be told that they + must retrace their steps, and come into the Union in the way + they at first sought to do, but could not obtain the sanction + of Congress? Sir, I fear the consequences of such a decision; I + tremble at an act of such injustice." + +The bill passed the Senate by rather a close vote--twenty-four to +eighteen; the latter being all senators in the opposition. It then +went to the House of Representatives for concurrence. From the time +of the admission of new States, it had been the practice to admit +a free and slave State together, or alternately, so as to keep up +a numerical equilibrium between them--a practice resulting from +some slight jealousy existing, from the beginning, between the two +classes of States. In 1820, when the Missouri controversy inflamed +that jealousy, the State of Massachusetts divided herself to furnish +territory for the formation of a new free State (Maine) to balance +Missouri; and the acts of Congress _for_ the admission of both, +were passed contemporaneously, March, 1820. Now, in 1836, when the +slave question again was much inflamed, and a State of each kind to +be admitted, the proceedings for that purpose were kept as nearly +together as possible, not to include them in the same bill. The +moment, then, that the Michigan bill had passed the Senate, that of +Arkansas was taken up, under the lead of Mr. Buchanan, to whom the +Arkansas application had been confided, as that of Michigan had been +to Mr. Benton. This latter senator alluded to this circumstance to +show that the people of these young States had no fear of trusting +their rights and interests to the care of senators differing from +themselves on the slavery question. He said: + + "It was worthy of notice, that, on the presentation of these two + great questions for the admission of two States, the people of + those States were so slightly affected by the exertions that had + been made to disturb and ulcerate the public mind on the subject + of slavery, as to put them in the hands of senators who might + be supposed to entertain opinions on that subject different + from those held by the States whose interests they were charged + with. Thus, the people of Arkansas had put their application + into the hands of a gentleman representing a non-slaveholding + State; and the people of Michigan had put their application + into the hands of a senator (himself) coming from a State where + the institutions of slavery existed; affording a most beautiful + illustration of the total impotence of all attempts to agitate + and ulcerate the public mind on the worn-out subject of slavery. + He would further take occasion to say, that the abolition + question seemed to have died out; there not having been a single + presentation of a petition on that subject, since the general + jail delivery ordered by the Senate." + +Mr. Swift, of Vermont, could not vote for the admission of Arkansas, +because the constitution of the State sanctioned perpetual slavery; +and said: + + "That, although he felt every disposition to vote for the + admission of the new State into the Union, yet there were + operative reasons under which he must vote against it. On + looking at the constitution submitted by Arkansas, he found that + they had made the institution of slavery perpetual; and to this + he could never give his assent. He did not mean to oppose the + passage of the bill, but had merely risen to explain the reasons + why he could not vote for it." + +Mr. Buchanan felt himself bound by the Missouri compromise to vote +for the admission, and pointed out the ameliorating feature in the +constitution which guaranteed the right of jury trials to slaves; +and said: + + "That, on the subject of slavery, this constitution was more + liberal than the constitution of any of the slaveholding States + that had been admitted into the Union. It preserved the very + words of the other constitutions, in regard to slavery; but + there were other provisions in it in favor of the slaves, and + among them a provision which secured to them the right of trial + by jury; thus putting them, in that particular, on an equal + footing with the whites. He considered the compromise which had + been made, when Missouri was admitted into the Union, as having + settled the question as to slavery in the new South Western + States; and the committee, therefore, did not deem it right to + interfere with the question of slavery in Arkansas." + +Mr. Prentiss, of Vermont, opposed the admission, on account of the +"revolutionary" manner in which the State had held her convention, +without the authorization of a previous act of Congress, and because +her constitution had given perpetual sanction to slavery; and, +referring to the reasons which induced him to vote against the +admission of Michigan, said: + + "That he must also vote against the admission of Arkansas. He + viewed the movements of these two territories, with regard to + their admission into the Union, as decidedly revolutionary, + forming their constitution without the previous consent + of Congress, and importunately knocking at its doors for + admission. The objections he had to the admission of Arkansas, + particularly, were, that she had formed her constitution without + the previous assent of Congress, and in that constitution + had made slavery perpetual, as noticed by his colleague. He + regretted that he was compelled to vote against this bill; but + he could not, in the discharge of his duty, do otherwise." + +Mr. Morris, of Ohio, spoke more fully on the objectionable point +than other senators, justifying the right of the people of a +territory, when amounting to 60,000 to meet and form their own +constitution--regretting the slavery clause in the constitution of +Arkansas, but refusing to vote against her on that account, as she +was not restrained by the ordinance of 1787, nor had entered into +agreement against slavery. He said: + + "Before I record my vote in favor of the passage of the bill + under consideration, I must ask the indulgence of the Senate for + a moment, while I offer a few of the reasons which govern me in + the vote I shall give. Being one of the representatives of a + free State, and believing slavery to be wrong in principle, and + mischievous in practice, I wish to be clearly understood on the + subject, both here and by those I have the honor to represent. I + have objections to the constitution of Arkansas, on the ground + that slavery is recognized in that constitution, and settled + and established as a fundamental principle in her government. I + object to the existence of this principle forming a part of the + organic law in any State; and I would vote against the admission + of Arkansas, as a member of this Union, if I believed I had + the power to do so. The wrong, in a moral sense, with which I + view slavery, would be sufficient for me to do this, did I not + consider my political obligations, and the duty, as a member + of this body, I owe to the constitution under which I now act, + clearly require of me the vote I shall give. I hold that any + portion of American citizens, who may reside on a portion of the + territory of the United States, whenever their numbers shall + amount to that which would entitle them to a representation in + the House of Representatives in Congress, have the right to + provide for themselves a constitution and State government, and + to be admitted into the Union whenever they shall so apply; and + they are not bound to wait the action of Congress in the first + instance, except there is some compact or agreement requiring + them to do so. I place this right upon the broad, and, I + consider, indisputable ground, that all persons, living within + the jurisdiction of the United States, are entitled to equal + privileges; and it ought to be matter of high gratification to + us here, that, in every portion, even the most remote, of our + country, our people are anxious to obtain this high privilege at + as early a day as possible. It furnishes clear proof that the + Union is highly esteemed, and has its foundation deep in the + hearts of our fellow-citizens. + + "By the constitution of the United States, power is given + to Congress to admit new States into the Union. It is in + the character of a State that any portion of our citizens, + inhabiting any part of the territory of the United States, + must apply to be admitted into the Union; a State government + and constitution must first be formed. It is not necessary for + the power of Congress, and I doubt whether Congress has such + power, to prescribe the mode by which the people shall form a + State constitution; and, for this plain reason, that Congress + would be entirely incompetent to the exercise of any coercive + power to carry into effect the mode they might prescribe. I + cannot, therefore, vote against the admission of Arkansas + into the Union, on the ground that there was no previous act + of Congress to authorize the holding of her convention. As a + member of Congress, I will not look beyond the constitution that + has been presented. I have no right to presume it was formed + by incompetent persons, or that it does not fully express the + opinions and wishes of the people of that country. It is true + that the United States shall guarantee to every State in the + Union a republican form of government: meaning, in my judgment, + that Congress shall not permit any power to establish, in any + State, a government without the assent of the people of such + State; and it will not be amiss that we remember here, also, + that that guaranty is to the State, and not as to the formation + of the government by the people of the State; but should it + be admitted that Congress can look into the constitution of a + State, in order to ascertain its character, before such State + is admitted into the Union, yet I contend that Congress cannot + object to it for the want of a republican form, if it contains + the great principle that all power is inherent in the people, + and that the government drew all its just powers from the + governed. + + "The people of the territory of Arkansas, having formed + for themselves a State government, having presented their + constitution for admission into the Union, and that + constitution being republican in its form, and believing + that the people who prepared and sent this constitution here + are sufficiently numerous to entitle them to a representative + in Congress, and believing, also, that Congress has no right + or power to regulate the system of police these people have + established for themselves, and the ordinance of 1787 not + operating on them, nor have they entered into any agreement + with the United States that slavery should not be admitted in + their State, have the right to choose this lot for themselves, + though I regret that they made this choice. Yet believing that + this government has no right to interfere with the question of + slavery in any of the States, or prescribe what shall or shall + not be considered property in the different States, or by what + tenure property of any kind shall be holden, but that all these + are exclusively questions of State policy, I cannot, as a member + of this body, refuse my vote to admit this State into the Union, + because her constitution recognizes the right and existence of + slavery." + +Mr. Alexander Porter, of Louisiana, would vote against the +admission, on account of the "revolutionary" proceedings of the +people in the formation of their constitution, without a previous +act of Congress. It is believed that Mr. Clay voted upon the same +ground. There were but six votes against the admission; namely: Mr. +Clay, Mr. Knight of Rhode Island, Mr. Porter, Mr. Prentiss, Mr. +Robbins of Rhode Island, and Mr. Swift. It is believed that Mr. +Robbins and Mr. Knight voted on the same ground with Mr. Clay and +Mr. Porter. So, the bill was easily passed, and the two bills went +together to the House of Representatives, where they gave rise to +proceedings, the interest of which still survives, and a knowledge +of which, therefore, becomes necessary. The two bills were made the +special order for the same day, Wednesday, the 8th of June, Congress +being to adjourn on the 4th of July; and the Michigan bill having +priority on the calendar, as it had first passed the Senate. Mr. +Wise, of Virginia, on the announcement of the Michigan bill, from +the chair, as the business before the House, moved to postpone its +consideration until the ensuing Monday, in order to proceed with the +Arkansas bill. Mr. Thomas, of Maryland, objected to the motion, and +said: + + "He would call the attention of the House to the position of + the two bills on the Speaker's table, and endeavor to show + that this postponement is entirely unnecessary. These bills + are from the Senate. By the rules of this House, two, I may + say three, questions will arise, to be decided before they can + become a law, so far as this House is concerned. We must first + order each of these bills to be read a third time; the next + question then will be, when shall the bill be read a third + time? And the last question to be decided will be, shall the + bill pass? Why, then, should Southern men now make an effort to + give precedence to the bill for the admission of Arkansas into + the Union? If they manifest distrust, must we not expect that + fears will be entertained by Northern members, that unreasonable + opposition will be made to the admission of Michigan? Let us + proceed harmoniously, until we find that our harmony must be + interrupted. We shall lose nothing by so doing. If a majority + of the House be in favor of reading a third time the Michigan + bill, they will order it to be done. After that vote has been + taken, we can refuse to read the bill a third time, go into + Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, then consider + the Arkansas bill, report it to the House, order it to be read a + third time, and in this order proceed to read them each a third + time, if a majority of the House be in favor of that proceeding. + Let it not be said that Southern men may be taken by surprise, + if the proceeding here respectfully recommended be adopted. If + the friends of Arkansas are sufficiently numerous to carry now + the motion to postpone, they can arrest at any time the action + of the House on the Michigan bill, until clear undubitable + indications have been given that the Missouri compromise is not + to be disregarded." + +These latter words of Mr. Thomas revealed the point of jealousy +between some Southern and Northern members, and brought the +observance of the Missouri compromise fully into view, as a question +to be tried. Mr. Wise, after some remarks, modified his motion by +moving to refer both bills to the Committee of the Whole on the +state of the Union, with instructions to incorporate the two bills +into one bill. Mr. Patton, of Virginia, opposed the latter motion, +and gave his reasons at length against it. If his colleague would so +modify his motion as to move to refer both bills to the Committee of +the Whole House, without the instructions, he would vote for it. Mr. +Bouldin, of Virginia, successor to Mr. Randolph, said: + + "He agreed with his colleague [Mr. Patton] in a fact too + plain for any to overlook, that both bills must be acted on + separately, and that one must have the preference in point of + time. Michigan had it at that time--he was willing it should + hold it. His colleague [Mr. Patton] seemed to think that in + the incipient steps in relation to this bill, it would be well + enough to suffer Michigan to hold her present position; but + that, before the final passage of the bill, it would be well + to require of the House (or rather of the non-slaveholding + portion of the Union) to give some unequivocal guaranty to the + South that no difficulty would be raised as to the reception of + Arkansas in regard to negro slavery. Mr. B. was willing to go + on with the bill for the admission of Michigan. He had the most + implicit confidence in the House, particularly alluding to the + non-slaveholding part of the Union, that no serious difficulty + would be made as to the admission of Arkansas in regard to negro + slavery. If there were any serious difficulties to be raised + in the House to the admission of Arkansas, upon the ground + of negro slavery, he wished immediate notice of it. If his + confidence was misplaced, he wished to be corrected as soon and + as certainly as possible. If there really was any intention in + the House of putting the South under any difficulty, restraint, + limit, any shackle or embarrassment on the South on account of + negro slavery (some gentlemen said slavery, but he said _negro_ + slavery), he wished to know it. If there were any individuals + having such feeling, he wished to know them; he wished to hear + their names upon yeas and nays. If there were a majority, he + should act promptly, decisively, immediately upon it, and had + no doubt all the South would do the same. There might be some + question as to the claim of non-slaveholding States to stop the + progress of Southern habits and Southern influence Northward. + As to Arkansas, there could be no question; and if seriously + pressed, such claims could leave no doubt on the minds of + the South as to the object of those who pressed them, or the + course to be pursued by them. Such a stand being taken by the + non-slaveholding States, it would make little difference whether + Michigan was in or out of this Union. He said he would sit down, + again assuring the House, and the gentlemen particularly from + the non-slaveholding States, of his entire confidence that no + such thing would be seriously attempted by any considerable + numbers of this House." + +Mr. Lewis, of Worth Carolina, took decided ground in favor of giving +the Arkansas bill the priority of decision; and expressed himself +thus: + + "He should vote for the proposition of the gentleman from + Virginia [Mr. Wise] to lay the bill for the admission of + Michigan into the Union on the table, until the bill for the + admission of Arkansas should be first passed. He should do this, + for the obvious reason that there were dangers, he would not + say how great, which beset Arkansas, and which did not beset + Michigan. The question of slavery could be moved as a condition + for the admission of Arkansas, and it could not as a condition + to the admission of Michigan. I look upon the Arkansas question + as therefore the weaker of the two, and for that reason I would + give it precedence. Besides, upon the delicate question which + may be involved in the admission of Arkansas, we may be the + weaker party in this House. For that reason, if gentlemen mean + to offer no obstructions to the admission of Arkansas, let them + give the assurance by helping the weaker party through with the + weaker question. We of the South cannot, and will not, as I + pledge myself, offer any objections to the domestic institutions + of Michigan with regard to slavery. Can any gentleman make the + same pledge that no such proposition shall come from the North? + Besides, the two bills are not now on an equal footing. The bill + for the admission of Arkansas must be sent to a Committee of + the Whole on the state of the Union. The bill for the admission + of Michigan need not necessarily go to that committee. It will + therefore pass in perfect safety, while we shall be left to get + Arkansas along, through the tedious stages of commitment, as + well as we can. The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Sutherland] + says that these two bills will be hostages for the safety of + each other. Not, sir, if you pass the stronger bill in advance + of the weaker. Besides, the North want no hostages on this + subject. Their institutions cannot be attacked. We of the South + want a hostage, to protect us on a delicate question; and the + effect of giving precedence to the Michigan bill is to deprive + us of that hostage." + +Mr. Cushing, of Massachusetts, addressed the committee at length on +the subject, of which only the leading passages can be given. He +said: + + "The House has now continued in session for the space of + eighteen or nineteen hours, without any interval of refreshment + or rest. It is impossible to mistake the intentions of the + ruling majority. I see clearly that the committee is resolved to + sit out the debate on these important bills for the admission + of Michigan and Arkansas into the Union. This, it is apparent, + the majority have the power as well as the right to do. Whether + it be just and reasonable, is another question. I shall not + quarrel, however, with the avowed will of the House. It has + done me the favor to hear me with patience on other occasions; + and I cannot render it the unfit return of trespassing on its + indulgence at this unseasonable hour, nor seek to defeat its + purposes by speaking against time. But having been charged + with sundry memorials from citizens of Massachusetts and New + Hampshire, remonstrating against that clause in the constitution + of Arkansas which relates to the subject of slavery, I should + be recreant to the trust they have reposed in me, if I suffered + the bill for the admission of Arkansas to pass without a word of + protestation. The extraordinary circumstances under which I rise + to address the committee impel me to brevity and succinctness; + but they would afford me no justification for a passive + acquiescence in the admission of Arkansas into the Union, with + all the sins of its constitution upon its head. + + "The constitution of Arkansas, as communicated to Congress in + the memorial of the people of that Territory, praying to be + admitted into the Union, contains the following clause: 'The + General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws for the + emancipation of slaves without the consent of the owners. They + shall have no power to prevent emigrants to this State from + bringing with them such persons as are deemed slaves by the + laws of any one of the United States.' This provision of the + constitution of Arkansas is condemned by those whom I represent + on this occasion as anti-republican, as wrong on general + principles of civil polity, and as unjust to the inhabitants + of the non-slaveholding States. They object to it as being, + in effect, a provision to render slavery perpetual in the new + State of Arkansas. I concur in reprobating such a clause. The + legislature of Arkansas is forbidden to emancipate the slaves + within its jurisdiction, even though it should be ready to + indemnify fully their owners. It is forbidden to exclude slaves + from being imported into the State. I cannot, by any vote of + mine, ratify or sanction a constitution of government which + undertakes in this way to foreclose in advance the progress of + civilization and of liberty for ever. In order to do justice + to the unchangeable opinions of the North, without, in any + respect, invading the rights, real or supposed, of the South, + my colleague [Mr. Adams], the vigilant eye of whose unsleeping + mind there is nothing which escapes, has moved an amendment of + the bill for the admission of Arkansas into the Union, so that, + if the amendment be adopted, the bill would read as follows: + 'The State of Arkansas is admitted into the Union upon the + express condition that the people of the said State shall never + interfere with the primary disposal of the public lands within + the said State, nor shall they levy a tax on any of the lands + of the United States within the said State; and nothing in this + act shall be construed as an assent by Congress [to the article + in the constitution of the said State relating to slavery and + to the emancipation of the slaves, or] to all or to any of the + propositions contained in the ordinance of the said convention + of the people of Arkansas, nor to deprive the said State of + Arkansas of the same grants, subject to the same restrictions, + which were made to the State of Missouri.' This amendment is, + according to my judgment, reasonable and proper in itself, and + the very least that any member from the North can propose in + vindication of the opinions and principles of himself and his + constituents. + + "It is opposed, however, by the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. + Wise], with his accustomed vigor and ability. He alleges + considerations adverse to the motion. He interrogates the + friends of the proposed amendment in regard to its force, + effect, and purposes, in terms which seem to challenge + response; or which, at any rate, if not distinctly and promptly + met, would leave the objections which those interrogatories + impliedly convey, to be taken as confessed and admitted by our + significant silence. What may be the opinions of Martin Van + Buren as to this particular bill, what his conduct formerly in + reference to a similar case, is a point concerning which I can + have no controversy with the gentleman from Virginia. I look + only to the merits of the question before the committee. There + is involved in it a principle which I regard as immeasurably + more important than the opinion of any individual in this + nation, however high his present situation or his possible + destiny--the great principle of constitutional freedom. The + gentleman from Virginia, who, I cheerfully admit, is always + frank and honorable in his course upon this floor, has just + declared that, as a Southern man, he had felt it to be his duty + to come forward and take a stand in behalf of an institution of + the South. That institution is slavery. In like manner, I feel + it to be my duty, as a Northern man, to take a counter stand in + conservation of one among the dearest of the institutions of the + North. This institution is liberty. It is not to assail slavery, + but to defend liberty, that I speak. It is demanded of us, Do + you seek to impose restrictions on Arkansas, in violation of + the compromise under which Missouri entered the Union? I might + content myself with replying that the State of Massachusetts was + not a party to that compromise. She never directly or indirectly + assented to it. Most of her Representatives in Congress voted + against it. Those of her Representatives who, regarding that + compromise in the light of an act of conciliation important to + the general interests of the Union, voted for it, were disavowed + and denounced at home, and were stigmatized even here, by a + Southern member, as over-compliant towards the exactingness + of the South. On the first introduction of this subject to + the notice of the House, the gentleman from Virginia made a + declaration, which I particularly noticed at the time, for + the purpose of having the tenor of the declaration distinctly + understood by the House and by the country. The gentleman gave + it to be known that, if members from the North held themselves + not engaged by the terms of the compromise under which Missouri + entered into the Union, neither would members from the South + hold themselves engaged thereby; and that, if we sought to + impose restrictions affecting slave property on the one hand, + they might be impelled, on the other hand, to introduce slavery + into the heart of the North. I heard the suggestion with the + feelings natural to one born and bred in a land of equality and + freedom. I took occasion to protest, in the surprised impulse + of the moment, against the idea of putting restrictions on + liberty in one quarter of the Union, in retaliation of the + attempt to limit the spread of slavery in another quarter. + I held up to view the inconsistency and inconsequence of + uttering the warmest eulogiums on freedom one day, of pouring + out aspirations that the spirit of liberty might pervade the + universe, and at another time threatening the North with the + establishment of Slavery within its borders, if a Northern + member should deprecate the legal perpetuation of slavery + in a proposed new State of the West. It did not fall within + the rules of pertinent debate to pursue the subject at that + time; and I have but a single idea to present now, in addition + to what I then observed. It is not possible for me to judge + whether the gentleman from Virginia, and any of his friends or + fellow-citizens at the South, deliberately and soberly cherish + the extraordinary purpose which his language implied. I trust + it was but a hasty thought, struck out in the ardor of debate. + To introduce slavery into the heart of the North? Vain idea! + Invasion, pestilence, civil war, may conspire to exterminate + the eight millions of free spirits who now dwell there. This, + in the long lapse of ages incalculable, is possible to happen. + You may raze to the earth the thronged cities, the industrious + villages, the peaceful hamlets of the North. You may lay waste + its fertile valleys and verdant hill-sides. You may plant its + very soil with salt, and consign it to everlasting desolation. + You may transform its beautiful fields into a desert as bare + as the blank face of the sands of Sahara. You may reach the + realization of the infernal boast with which Attila the Hun + marched his barbaric hosts into Italy, demolishing whatever + there is of civilization or prosperity in the happy dwellings of + the North, and reducing their very substance to powder, so that + a squadron of cavalry shall gallop over the site of populous + cities, unimpeded as this wild steeds on the savannas of the + West. All this you may do: it is within the bounds of physical + possibility. But I solemnly assure every gentleman within the + sound of my voice, I proclaim to the country and to the world, + that, until all this be fully accomplished to the uttermost + extremity of the letter, you cannot, you shall not, introduce + slavery into the heart of the North." + +A point of order being raised whether the two bills were not +required by a rule of the House to go before the Committee of the +Whole, the Speaker, Mr. Polk, decided in the affirmative--the +Arkansas bill, upon the ground of containing an appropriation for +the salary of judges; and that of Michigan because it provided +for judges, which involved a necessity for an appropriation. The +two bills then went into Committee of the Whole, Mr. Speight, of +North Carolina, in the chair. Many members spoke, and much of the +speaking related to the boundaries of Michigan, and especially the +line between herself and the State of Ohio--to which no surviving +interest attaches. The debate, therefore, will only be pursued as +it presents points of present and future interest. These may be +assumed under three heads: 1. The formation of constitutions without +the previous assent of Congress: and this was applicable to both +States. 2. The right of aliens to vote before naturalization. 3. +The right of Arkansas to be admitted with slavery by virtue of the +rights of a State,--by virtue of the third article of the treaty +which ceded Louisiana to the United States--and by virtue of the +Missouri compromise. On these points, Mr. Hamer, of Ohio, spoke thus: + + "One of the principal objections urged against their admission + at this time is, that their proceedings have been lawless and + revolutionary; and that, for the example's sake, if for no other + reason, we should reject their application, and force them to + go back and do all their work over again. I cannot assent to + this proposition. Two ways are open to every territory that + desires to emerge from its dependent condition and become a + State. It may either petition Congress for leave to form a + State constitution, and, when that permission is given, proceed + to form it, and present the new State constitution for our + approbation; or they may meet, in the first instance, form + the constitution, and offer it for our approval. There is no + impropriety in either mode. It is optional with Congress, at + last, to admit the State or not, as may be thought expedient. If + they wish to admit her, they can do it by two acts of Congress; + one to authorize the formation of a constitution, and the other + to approve of it when made; or by one act allowing the prayer + of the petitioners to become a State, and approving of their + constitution at the same time. This latter course is the one + adopted in the present case. There is nothing disrespectful + in it. Indeed, there is much to justify the Territory in its + proceeding. Year after year they petitioned for leave to form + a constitution, and it was refused, or their application was + treated with neglect. Wearied with repeated instances of this + treatment, they have formed a constitution, brought it to us, + and asked us to sanction it, and admit them into the Union. + We have the authority to do this; and if their constitution + is republican, we ought to do it. There is no weight in this + objection, and I will dismiss it without further remark. + Another objection is, that aliens have aided in making this + constitution, and are allowed the right of suffrage in all + elections by the provisions it contains. As to the first point, + it is sufficient to say that all the new States northwest of + the Ohio formed their constitutions precisely in the same way. + The ordinance of 1787 does not require sixty thousand citizens + of the United States to be resident within the limits of a new + State, in order to authorize a constitution and admission into + the Union. It requires that number of 'free inhabitants;' and + the alien who resides there, if he be a 'free inhabitant,' is + entitled to vote in the election of delegates to the convention; + and afterwards in deciding whether the people will accept the + constitution formed by their convention. Such has been the + construction and practice in all the country north of the Ohio; + and as the last census shows that there are but a few hundreds + of aliens in Michigan, it would be hard to set aside their + constitution, because some of these may have participated in its + formation. It would be unjust to do so, if we had the power; but + we have no authority to do it; for if we regard the ordinance + as of any validity, it allows all 'free inhabitants' to vote in + framing the State governments which are to be created within the + sphere of its influence. We will now turn to the remaining point + in this objection, and we shall see that it has no more force in + it than the other. + + "The constitution allows all white male citizens over twenty-one + years of age, having resided six months in Michigan, to vote + at all elections; and every white male inhabitant residing in + the State at the time of signing the constitution is allowed + the same privilege. These provisions undoubtedly confer on + aliens the right of suffrage; and it is contended that they + are in violation of the constitution of the United States. + That instrument declares that 'new States may be admitted by + the Congress into this Union;' that 'the United States shall + guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of + government;' and that 'the citizens of each State shall be + entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the + several States.' The ordinance of 1787 provides that the + constitution to be formed northwest of the Ohio 'shall be + republican.' + + "It is an error not very uncommon to suppose that the right + of suffrage is inseparably connected with the privilege of + citizenship. A slight investigation of the subject will prove + that this is not so. The privileges are totally distinct. + A State cannot make an American citizen who, under the + constitution of the United States shall be entitled to the + rights of citizenship throughout the Union. The power belongs + to the federal government. We pass all the naturalization laws, + by which aliens are transformed into citizens. We do so under + the constitution of the United States, conceding to us this + authority. But, on the other hand, we have no control over + the right of suffrage in the different States. That belongs + exclusively to State legislation and State authority. It varies + in almost all the States; and yet who ever supposed that + Congress could interfere to change the rules adopted by the + people in regard to it? No one, I presume. Why then attempt to + control it here? Other States have adopted the same provisions. + Look at the constitutions of Ohio and other new States, and you + will find that they require residence only, and not citizenship, + to enable a man to vote. Each State can confer this right upon + all persons within her limits. It gives them no rights beyond + the limits of the State. It cannot make them citizens, for that + would violate the naturalization laws; or, rather, it would + render them nugatory. It cannot give them a right to vote in any + other State, for that would infringe upon the authority of such + State to regulate its own affairs. It simply confers the right + of aiding in the choice of public officers whilst the alien + remains in the State; it does not make him a citizen; nor is + it of the slightest advantage to him beyond the boundaries of + Michigan." + +Mr. Hamer concluded his remarks with a feeling allusion to the +distractions which had prevailed during the Missouri controversy, +a congratulation upon their disappearance under the Missouri +compromise and an earnest exhortation to harmony and the +preservation of good feeling in the speedy admission of the two +States; and said: + + "We can put an end to a most distracting contest, that has + agitated our country from Maine to Georgia, and from the + Atlantic to the most remote settlement upon the frontier. There + was a time when the most painful anxiety pervaded the whole + nation; and whilst each one waited with feverish impatience for + further intelligence from the disputed territory, he trembled + lest the ensuing mail should bear the disastrous tidings of a + civil strife in which brother had fallen by the hand of brother, + and the soil of freedom had been stained by the blood of her own + sons. But the storm has passed. The usual good fortune of the + American people has prevailed. The land heaves in view, and a + haven, with its wide-spread arms, invites us to enter. After so + long an exposure to the fury of a tempest that was apparently + gathering in our political horizon, let us seize the first + opportunity to steer the ship into a safe harbor, far beyond + the reach of that elemental war that threatened her security in + the open sea. Let us pass this bill. It does justice to all. It + conciliates all. Its provisions will carry peace and harmony to + those who are now agitated by strife, and disquieted by tumults + and disorders. By this just, humane, and beneficent policy, we + shall consolidate our liberties, and make this government what + Mr. Jefferson, more than thirty years ago, declared it to be, + 'the strongest government on earth; the only one where every + man, at the call of the law, will fly to the standard of the + law, and meet invasions of the public order as his own personal + concern.' With this policy on the part of the government, and + the spirit of patriotism that now animates our citizens in full + vigor, united America may bid defiance to a world in arms; and + should Providence continue to smile upon our country, we may + confidently anticipate that the freedom, the happiness, and the + prosperity, which we now enjoy, will be as perpetual as the + lofty mountains that crown our continent, or the noble rivers + that fertilize our plains." + +Mr. Adams commenced a speech in Committee of the Whole, which +was finished in the House, and being prepared for publication by +himself, and therefore free from error, is here given--all the main +parts of it--to show his real position on the slavery question, so +much misunderstood at the time on account of his tenacious adherence +to the right of petition. He said: + + "I cannot, consistently with my sense of my obligations as a + citizen of the United States, and bound by oath to support their + constitution, I cannot object to the admission of Arkansas + into the Union as a slave State; I cannot propose or agree to + make it a condition of her admission, that a convention of her + people shall expunge this article from her constitution. She + is entitled to admission as a slave State, as Louisiana and + Mississippi, and Alabama, and Missouri, have been admitted, + by virtue of that article in the treaty for the acquisition + of Louisiana, which secures to the inhabitants of the ceded + territories all the rights, privileges, and immunities, of the + original citizens of the United States; and stipulates for + their admission, conformably to that principle, into the Union. + Louisiana was purchased as a country wherein slavery was the + established law of the land. As Congress have not power in time + of peace to abolish slavery in the original States of the Union, + they are equally destitute of the power in those parts of the + territory ceded by France to the United States by the name of + Louisiana, where slavery existed at the time of the acquisition. + Slavery is in this Union the subject of internal legislation + in the States, and in peace is cognizable by Congress only, as + it is tacitly tolerated and protected where it exists by the + constitution of the United States, and as it mingles in their + intercourse with other nations. Arkansas, therefore, comes, + and has the right to come into the Union with her slaves and + her slave laws. It is written in the bond, and, however I may + lament that it ever was so written, I must faithfully perform + its obligations. I am content to receive her as one of the + slave-holding States of this Union; but I am unwilling that + Congress, in accepting her constitution, should even lie under + the imputation of assenting to an article in the constitution of + a State which withholds from its legislature the power of giving + freedom to the slave. Upon this topic I will not enlarge. Were I + disposed so to do, twenty hours of continuous session have too + much exhausted my own physical strength, and the faculties as + well as the indulgence of those who might incline to hear me, + for me to trespass longer upon their patience. When the bill + shall be reported to the House, I may, perhaps, again ask to be + heard, upon renewing there, as I intend, the motion for this + amendment." + +After a session of twenty-five hours, including the whole night, +the committee rose and reported the two bills to the House. Of the +arduousness of this session, which began at ten in the morning of +Thursday, and was continued until eleven o'clock the next morning, +Mr. Adams, who remained at his post the whole time, gave this +account in a subsequent notice of the sitting: + + "On Thursday, the 9th of June, the House went into Committee + of the Whole on the state of the Union upon two bills; one to + fix the Northern boundary of the State of Ohio, and for the + conditional admission of the State of Michigan into the Union; + and the other for the admission of the State of Arkansas into + the Union. The bill for fixing the Northern boundary of the + State of Ohio, and the conditional admission of Michigan into + the Union, was first taken up for consideration, and gave rise + to debates which continued till near one o'clock of the morning + of Friday, the 10th of June: repeated motions to adjourn had + been made and rejected. The committee had twice found itself + without a quorum, and had been thereby compelled to rise, and + report the fact to the House. In the first instance there had + been found within private calling distance a sufficient number + of members, who, though absent from their duty of attendance + upon the House, were upon the alert to appear and answer to + their names to make a quorum to vote against adjourning, and + then to retire again to their amusement or repose. Upon the + first restoration of the quorum by this operation, the delegate + from Arkansas said that if the committee would only take up + and read the bill, he would not urge any discussion upon it + then, and would consent to the committee's rising, and resuming + the subject at the next sitting of the House. The bill was + accordingly read; a motion was then made for the committee to + rise, and rejected; an amendment to the bill was moved, on + taking the question upon which there was no quorum. The usual + expedient of private call to straggling members was found + ineffectual. A call of the House was ordered, at one o'clock + in the morning. This operation to be carried through all its + stages, must necessarily consume about three hours of time, + during which the House can do no other business. Upon this call, + after the names of all the members had been twice called over, + and all the absentees for whom any valid or plausible excuse was + offered had been excused, there remained eighty-one names of + members, who, by the rules of the House, were to be taken into + custody as they should appear, or were to be sent for, and taken + into custody wherever they might be found, by special messengers + appointed for that purpose. At this hour of the night the city + of Washington was ransacked by these special messengers, and the + members of the House were summoned from their beds to be brought + in custody of these special messengers, before the House, to + answer for their absence. After hearing the excuses of two of + these members, and the acknowledged no good reason of a third, + they were all excused in a mass, without payment of fees; which + fees, to the amount of two or three hundred dollars, have of + course become a charge upon the people, and to be paid with + their money. By this operation, between four and five o'clock + of the morning, a small quorum of the House was obtained, and, + without any vote of the House, the speaker left the chair, which + was resumed by the chairman of the Committee of the Whole." + +Mr. Adams resumed his seat, and Mr. Wise addressed the committee, +particularly in reply to Mr. Cushing. Confusion, noise and disorder +became great in the Hall. Several members spoke; and cries of +"order," and "question" were frequent. Personal reflections +passed, and an affair of honor followed between two Southern +members, happily adjusted without bloodshed. The chairman, Mr. +Speight, by great exertions, had procured attention to Mr. Hoar, of +Massachusetts. Afterwards Mr. Adams again addressed the committee. +Mr. Wise inquired of him whether in his own opinion, if his +amendment should be adopted, the State of Arkansas would, by this +bill, be admitted? Mr. Adams answered--"Certainly, sir. There is not +in my amendment the shadow of a restriction proposed upon the State. +It leaves the State, like all the rest, to regulate the subject of +slavery within herself by her own laws." The motion of Mr. Adams was +rejected, only thirty-two members voting for it; being not one third +of the members from the non-slaveholding States. + +The vote was taken on the Michigan bill first, and was ordered to a +third reading by a vote of 153 to 45. The nays were: + + "Messrs. John Quincy Adams, Heman Allen, Jeremiah Bailey, John + Bell, George N. Briggs, William B. Calhoun, George Chambers, + John Chambers, Timothy Childs, William Clark, Horace Everett, + William J. Graves, George Grennell, jr., John K. Griffin, + Hiland Hall, Gideon Hard, Benjamin Hardin, James Harper, Abner + Hazeltine, Samuel Hoar, Joseph R. Ingersoll, Daniel Jenifer, + Abbott Lawrence, Levi Lincoln, Thomas C. Love, Samson Mason, + Jonathan McCarty, Thomas M. T. McKennan, Charles F. Mercer, + John J. Milligan, Mathias Morris, James Parker, James A. + Pearce, Stephen C. Phillips, David Potts, jr., John Reed, + John Robertson, David Russell, William Slade, John N. Steele, + John Taliaferro, Joseph R. Underwood, Lewis Williams, Sherrod + Williams, Henry A. Wise." + +It is remarkable that this list of nays begins with Mr. Adams, and +ends with Mr. Wise--a proof that all the negative votes, were not +given upon the same reasons. + +The vote was immediately after taken on ordering to a third reading +the bill for the admission of the State of Arkansas; which was so +ordered by a vote of 143 to 50. The nays were: + + "Messrs. John Quincy Adams, Heman Allen, Joseph B. Anthony, + Jeremiah Bailey, William K. Bond, Nathaniel E. Borden, George + N. Briggs, William B. Calhoun, Timothy Childs, William Clark, + Joseph H. Crane, Caleb Cushing, Edward Darlington, Harmer Denny, + George Evans, Horace Everett, Philo C. Fuller, George Grennell, + jr., Hiland Hall, Gideon Hard, James Harper, Abner Hazeltine, + Joseph Henderson, William Hiester, Samuel Hoar, William Jackson, + Henry F. Janes, Benjamin Jones, John Laporte, Abbott Lawrence, + George W. Lay, Levi Lincoln, Thomas C. Love, Samson Mason, + Jonathan McCarthy, Thomas M. T. McKennan, Mathias Morris, James + Parker, Dutee J. Pearce, Stephen C. Phillips, David Potts, jr., + John Reed, David Russell, William N. Shinn, William Slade, + John Thomson, Joseph R. Underwood, Samuel F. Vinton, Elisha + Whittlesey, Lewis Williams." + +Here again the beginning and the ending of the list of voters is +remarkable, beginning again with Mr. Adams, and terminating with +Mr. Lewis Williams, of North Carolina--two gentlemen wide apart in +their political courses, and certainly voting on this occasion on +different principles. + +From the meagreness of these negative votes, it is evident that +the struggle was, not to pass the two bills, but to bring them to +a vote. This was the secret of the arduous session of twenty-five +hours in the House. Besides the public objections which clogged +their admission--boundaries in one, slavery in the other, alien +voting, and (what was deemed by some), revolutionary conduct in +both in holding conventions without authority of Congress; besides +these public reasons, there was another cause operating silently, +and which went more to the postponement than to the rejection of the +States. This cause was political and partisan, and grew out of the +impending presidential election, to be held before Congress should +meet again. Mr. Van Buren was the democratic candidate; General +William Henry Harrison was the candidate of the opposition; and +Mr. Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, was brought forward by a fraction +which divided from the democratic party. The new States, it was +known, would vote, if now admitted, for Mr. Van Buren; and this +furnished a reason to the friends of the other candidates (even +those friendly to eventual admission, and on which some of them were +believed to act), to wish to stave off the admission to the ensuing +session.--The actual negative vote to the admission of each State, +was not only small, but nearly the same in number, and mixed both +as to political parties and sectional localities; so as to exclude +the idea of any regular or considerable opposition to Arkansas as a +slave State. The vote which would come nearest to referring itself +to that cause was the one on Mr. Adams' proposed amendment to the +State constitution; and there the whole vote amounted only to 32; +and of the sentiments of the greater part of these, including Mr. +Adams himself, the speech of that gentleman must be considered +the authentic exponent; and will refer their opposition, not to +any objection to the admission of the State as slave-holding, but +to an unwillingness to appear upon the record as assenting to a +constitution which forbid emancipation, and made slavery perpetual. +The number actually voting to reject the State, and keep her out +of the Union, because she admitted slavery, must have been quite +small--not more in proportion, probably, than what it was in the +Senate. + + + + +CHAPTER CXXXIX. + +ATTEMPTED INQUIRY INTO THE MILITARY ACADEMY. + + +This institution, soon after its organization under the act of 1812, +began to attract public attention, as an establishment unfriendly +to the rights of the people, of questionable constitutionality, as +being for the benefit of the rich and influential; and as costing +an enormous sum for each officer obtained from it for actual +service. Movements against it were soon commenced in Congress, +and for some years perseveringly continued, principally under the +lead of Mr. Newton Cannon, and Mr. John Cooke, representatives +from the State of Tennessee. Their speeches and statements made +considerable impression upon the public mind, but very little upon +Congress, where no amelioration of any kind could be obtained, +either in the organization of the institution, or in the practical +administration which had grown up under it. In the session of +1834-'35 these efforts were renewed, chiefly induced by Mr. Albert +Gallatin Hawes, representative from Kentucky, who moved for, and +attained the appointment of a committee of twenty-four, one from +each State; which made a report, for which no consideration could +be procured--not even the printing of the report. Baffled in their +attempts to get at their object in the usual forms of legislation, +the members opposed to the institution resorted to the extraordinary +mode of attacking its existence in an appropriation bill: that is to +say, resisting appropriations for its support--a mode of proceeding +entirely hopeless of success, but justifiable, as they believed, +under the circumstances; and at all events as giving them an +opportunity to get their objections before the public. + +It was at the session of 1835-'36, that this form of opposition took +its most determined course; and some brief notices of what was said +then may still be of service in awakening a spirit of inquiry in +the country, and promoting investigations which have so long been +requested and denied. But it was not until after another attempt had +failed to do any thing through a committee at this session also, +that the ultimate resource of an attack upon the appropriation for +the support of the institution was resorted to. Early in the session +Mr. Hawes offered this resolution: "That a select committee of nine +be appointed to inquire into what amendments, if any, are expedient +to be made to the laws relating to the military Academy at West +Point, in the State of New-York; and also into the expediency of +modifying the organization of said institution; and also whether it +would not comport with the public interest to abolish the same: with +power in the committee to report by bill or otherwise." Mr. Hawes, +in support of his motion reminded the House of the appointment of +the committee of the last session, of its report, and his inability +to obtain action upon it, or to procure an order for its printing. +The resolution which he now submitted varied but in one particular +from that which he had offered the year before, and that was in +the reduced number of the committee asked for. Twenty-four was a +larger number than could be induced to enter into any extended or +patient investigation; and he now proposed a committee of nine +only. His resolution was only one of inquiry, to obtain a report +for the information of the people, and the action of the House--a +species of resolution usually granted as a matter of course; and +he hoped there would be no objection to his motion. Mr. Wardwell, +of New-York, objected to the appointment of a select committee, +and thought the inquiry ought to go to the standing committee on +military affairs. Mr. F. O. J. Smith, of Maine, wished to hear some +reason assigned for this motion. It seemed to him that a special +committee ought to be raised; but if the friends of the institution +were fearful of a select committee, and would assign that fear as a +motive for preferring the standing committee, he would withdraw his +objection. Mr. Briggs, of Massachusetts, believed the subject was +already referred to the military committee in the general reference +to that committee of all that related in the President's message +to this Academy; and so believing, he made it a point of order for +the Speaker to decide, whether the motion of Mr. Hawes could be +entertained. The Speaker, Mr. Polk, said that the motion was one of +inquiry; and he considered the reference of the President's message +as not applying to the case. Mr. Briggs adhered to his belief that +the subject ought to go to a standing committee. The committee had +made an elaborate report at the last session, which was now on the +files of the House; and if gentlemen wished information from it, +they could order it to be printed. Mr. John Reynolds, of Illinois, +said it was astonishing that members of this House, friends of this +institution, were so strenuous in their opposition to investigation. +If it was an institution founded on a proper basis, and conducted +on proper and republican principles, they had nothing to fear from +investigation; if otherwise the people had; and the great dread +of investigation portended something wrong. His constituents were +dissatisfied with this Academy, and expected him to represent them +fairly in doing his part to reform, or to abolish it; and he should +not disappoint them. The member from Massachusetts, Mr. Briggs, he +said, had endeavored to stifle this inquiry, by making it a point +of order to be decided by the Speaker; which augured badly for the +integrity of the institution. Failing in that attempt to stifle +inquiry, he had joined the member from New-York, Mr. Wardwell, in +the attempt to send it to a committee where no inquiry would be +made, and in violation of parliamentary practice. He, Mr. Reynolds, +had great respect for the members of the military committee; but +some of them, and perhaps all, had expressed an opinion in favor +of the institution. Neither the chairman, nor any member of the +committee had asked for this inquiry; it was the law of parliament, +and also of reason and common sense, that all inquiries should go +to committees disposed to make them; and it was without precedent +or justification, and injurious to the fair conducting of business, +to take an inquiry out of the hands of a member that moves it, +and is responsible for its adequate prosecution, and refer it +to a committee that is against it, or indifferent to it. When a +member gets up, and moves an inquiry touching any branch of the +public service, or the official conduct of any officer, he incurs a +responsibility to the moral sense of the House and of the country. +He assumes that there is something wrong--that he can find it out +if he has a chance; and he is entitled to a chance, both for his +own sake and the country; and not only to have his committee, +but to be its chairman, and to have a majority of the members +favorable to its object. If it were otherwise members would have +but poor encouragement to move inquiries for the public service. +Cut off himself from the performance of his work, an indifferent +or prejudiced committee may neglect inquiry, or pervert it into +defence; and subject the mover to the imputation of preferring +false and frivolous motions; and so discredit him, while injuring +the public, and sheltering abuse. Under a just report he believed +the Academy would wither and die. Under its present organization +it is a monopoly for the gratuitous education of the sons and +connections of the rich and influential--to be afterwards preferred +for army appointments, or even for civil appointments; and to be +always provided for as the children of the government, getting not +only gratuitous education, but a preference in appointments. A +private soldier, though a young David, slaying Goliath, could get +no appointment in our army. He must stand back for a West-Pointer, +even the most inefficient, who through favor, or driving, had gone +through his course and got his diploma. Promotion was the stimulus +and the reward to merit. We, members of Congress, rise from the +ranks of the people when we come here, and have to depend upon +merit to get here. Why not let the same rule apply in the army, and +give a chance to merit there, instead of giving all the offices +to those who may have no turn for war, who only want support, and +get it by public patronage, and favor, because they have official +friends or parents? The report made at the last session looks +bad for the Academy. Let any one read it, and he will feel that +there is something wrong. If the friends of the institution would +suffer that report to be printed, and let it go to the people, it +would be a great satisfaction. Mr. Wardwell said the last Congress +had refused to print the report; and asked why it was that these +complaints against the Academy came from the West? Was it because +the Western engineers wanted the employment on the roads and bridges +in place of the regular officers. Mr. Hannegan, of Indiana, said he +was a member of the military committee which made the report at the +last session, and which Mr. Wardwell had reminded them the House +refused to order to be printed. And why that refusal? Because the +friends of the Academy took post behind the two-thirds rule; and +the order for printing could not be obtained because two-thirds of +the House could not be got to suspend the rule, even for one hour, +and that the morning hour. The friends of the Academy rallied, +he said, to prevent the suspension of the rule, and to prevent +publicity to the report. Mr. Hamer, of Ohio, said, why oppose this +inquiry? The people desire it. A large portion of them believed +the Academy to be an aristocratical institution, which ought to be +abolished; others believe it to be republican, and that it ought to +be cherished. Then why not inquire, and find out which is right, +and legislate accordingly? Mr. Abijah Mann, of New-York, said +there was a considerable interest in the States surrounding this +institution, and he had seen a strong disposition in the members +coming from those States to defend it against all charges. He was +a member of the committee of twenty-four at the last session, and +concurred partially in the report which was made, which was, to +say the least of it, an elaborate examination of the institution +from its foundation. He knew that in doing so he had incurred some +censure from a part of his own State; but he never had flinched, +and never would flinch, from the performance of any duty here +which he felt it incumbent upon him to discharge. He had found much +to censure, and believed if the friends of the institution would +take the trouble to investigate it as the committee of twenty-four +had done, they would find more to censure in the principle of the +establishment than they were aware of. There were abuses in this +institution, developed in that report, of a character that would not +find, he presumed, a single advocate upon that floor when they came +to be published. He believed the principle of the institution was +utterly inconsistent with the principle of all other institutions; +but he was not for exterminating it. Reformation was his object. +It was the only avenue by which the people of the country could +approach the offices of the army--the only gateway by which they +could be reached. The principle was wrong, and the practice bad. We +saw individuals continually pressing the government for admission +into this institution, to be educated professedly for the military +service, but very frequently, and too generally with the secret +design in their hearts to devote themselves to the civil pursuits +of society; and this was a fraud upon the government, and a poor +way for the future officer to begin his educational life. When +the report of the twenty-four came to be printed, as he hoped it +would, it would be seen that this institution cost the government +by far too much for the education of these young men. Whether it +sprung from abuse or not, such was the fact when they looked at +utility connected with the expenditure. If he recollected the report +aright it proved that not more than two out of five who entered +the institution remained there long enough to graduate; and not +two more out of five graduates who entered the army. If his memory +served him right the report would show that every graduate coming +from that institution in the last ten years, had cost the United +States more than five thousand dollars; and previously a much +larger sum; and he believed within one year the graduates had cost +upwards of thirty thousand dollars. If there be any truth in these +statements the institution must be mismanaged, or misconducted, and +ought to be thoroughly investigated and reformed. And he appealed +to the friends of the Academy to withdraw their opposition, and +suffer the report to be printed, and the select committee to be +raised; but he appealed in vain. The opposition was kept up, and +the two-thirds rule again resorted to, and effectually used to balk +the friends of inquiry. It was after this second failure to get at +the subject regularly through a committee, and a published report, +that the friends of inquiry resorted to the last alternative--that +of an attack upon the appropriation. The opportunity for this +was not presented until near the end of the session, when Mr. +Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, delivered a well-considered and +well-reasoned speech against the institution, bottomed on facts, and +sustained by conclusions, in the highest degree condemnatory of the +Academy; and which will be given in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER CXL. + +MILITARY ACADEMY--SPEECH OF MR. PIERCE. + + + "MR. CHAIRMAN:--An attempt was made during the last Congress + to bring the subject of the reorganization of the Military + Academy before the country, through a report of a committee. + The same thing has been done during the present session, again + and again, but all efforts have proved alike unsuccessful! + Still, you do not cease to call for appropriations; you require + the people's money for the support of the institution, while + you refuse them the light necessary to enable them to judge of + the propriety of your annual requisitions. Whether the amount + proposed to be appropriated, by the bill upon your table, is + too great or too small, or precisely sufficient to cover the + current expenses of the institution, is a matter into which I + will not at present inquire; but I shall feel bound to oppose + the bill in every stage of its progress. I cannot vote a single + dollar until the resolution of inquiry, presented by my friend + from Kentucky (Mr. Hawes), at an early day in the session, shall + be first taken up and disposed of. I am aware, sir, that it + will be said, because I have heard the same declaration on a + former occasion, that this is not the proper time to discuss the + merits of the institution; that the bill is to make provision + for expenses already incurred in part; and whatever opinions + may be entertained upon the necessity of a reorganization, the + appropriation must be made. I say to gentlemen who are opposed + to the principles of the institution, and to those who believe + that abuses exist, which ought to be exposed and corrected, that + now is their only time, and this the only opportunity, during + the present session, to attain their object, and I trust they + will steadily resist the bill until its friends shall find it + necessary to take up the resolution of inquiry, and give it its + proper reference. + + "Sir, why has this investigation been resisted? Is it not an + institution which has already cost this country more than three + millions of dollars, for which you propose, in this very bill, + an appropriation of more than one hundred and thirty thousand + dollars, and which, at the same time, in the estimation of + a large portion of the citizens of this Union, has failed, + eminently failed, to fulfil the objects for which it was + established, of sufficient interest and importance to claim the + consideration of a committee of this House, and of the House + itself? I should have expected the resolution of the gentleman + from Kentucky (Mr. Hawes), merely proposing an inquiry, to pass + without opposition, had I not witnessed the strong sensation, + nay, excitement, that was produced here, at the last session, + by the presentation of his yet unpublished report. Sir, if you + would have an exhibition of highly excited feeling, it requires + little observation to learn that you may produce it at any + moment by attacking such laws as confer exclusive and gratuitous + privileges. The adoption of the resolution of inquiry, at the + last session of Congress, and the appointment of a select + committee under it, were made occasion of newspaper paragraphs, + which, in tone of lamentation and direful prediction, rivalled + the most highly wrought specimens of the panic era. One of + those articles I have preserved, and have before me. It + commences thus: '_The architects of ruin._--This name has been + appropriately given to those who are leading on the base, the + ignorant, and the unprincipled, in a remorseless war upon all + the guards and defences of society.' + + "I introduce it here merely to show what are, in certain + quarters, considered the guards and defences of society. After + various compliments, similar to that just cited, the article + proceeds: 'All this is dangerous as novel, and the ultimate + results cannot be contemplated without anxiety. If this spirit + extends, who can check it? "Down with the Bank;" "down with the + Military Academy;" "down with the Judiciary;" "down with the + Senate;" will be followed by watchwords of a worse character.' + Here, Mr. Chairman, you have the United States Bank first, and + then the Military Academy, as the guards and defences of your + country. If it be so, you are, indeed, feebly protected. One + of these guards and defences is already tottering. And who are + the 'architects of ruin' that have resolved its downfall? Are + they the base, the ignorant, and the unprincipled? No, sir. The + most pure and patriotic portion of your community: the staid, + industrious, intelligent farmers and mechanics, through a + public servant, who has met responsibilities and seconded their + wishes, with equal intrepidity and success, in the camp and in + the cabinet, have accomplished this great work. Mr. Chairman, + there is no real danger to be apprehended from this much-dreaded + levelling principle. + + "From the middling interest you have derived your most able + and efficient support in the most gloomy and trying periods + of your history. And what have they asked in return? Nothing + but the common advantages and blessings of a free government, + administered under equal and impartial laws. They are + responsible for no portion of your legislation, which, through + its partial and unjust operation, has shaken this Union to + its centre. That has had its origin in a different quarter, + sustained by wealth, the wealth of monopolies, and the power + and influence which wealth, thus accumulated and disposed, + never fails to control. Indeed, sir, while far from demanding + at your hands special favors for themselves, they have not, + in my judgment, been sufficiently jealous of all legislation + conferring exclusive and gratuitous privileges. + + "That the law creating the institution, of which I am now + speaking, and the practice under it, is strongly marked by both + these characteristics, is apparent at a single glance. It is + gratuitous, because those who are so fortunate as to obtain + admission there, receive their education without any obligation, + except such as a sense of honor may impose, to return, either by + service or otherwise, the slightest equivalent. It is exclusive, + inasmuch as only one youth, out of a population of more than + 47,000, can participate in its advantages at the same time; and + those who are successful are admitted at an age, when their + characters cannot have become developed, and with very little + knowledge of their adaptation, mental or physical, for military + life. The system disregards one of those great principles which, + carried into practice, contributed, perhaps, more than any other + to render the arms of Napoleon invincible for so many years. + Who does not perceive that it destroys the very life and spring + of military ardor and enthusiasm, by utterly foreclosing all + hope of promotion to the soldier and non-commissioned officer? + However meritorious may be his services, however pre-eminent may + become his qualifications for command, all is unavailing. The + portcullis is dropped between him and preferment; the wisdom + of your laws having provided another criterion than that of + admitted courage and conduct, by which to determine who are + worthy of command. They have made an Academy, where a certain + number of young gentlemen are educated annually at the public + expense, and to which there is, of consequence, a general rush, + not so much from sentiments of patriotism and a taste for + military life, as from motives less worthy--the avenue, and + the only avenue, to rank in your army. These are truths. Mr. + Chairman, which no man will pretend to deny; and I leave it + for this House and the nation to determine whether they do not + exhibit a spirit of exclusiveness, alike at variance with the + genius of your government, and the efficiency and chivalrous + character of your military force. + + "Sir, no man can feel more deeply interested in the army, or + entertain a higher regard for it, than myself. My earliest + recollections connect themselves fondly and gratefully with the + names of the brave men who, relinquishing the quiet and security + of civil life, were staking their all upon the defence of their + country's rights and honor. One of the most distinguished among + that noble band now occupies and honors a seat upon this floor. + It is not fit that I should indulge in expressions of personal + respect and admiration, which I am sure would find a hearty + response in the bosom of every member of this committee. I + allude to him merely to express the hope that, on some occasion, + we may have, upon this subject, the benefit of his experience + and observation. And if his opinions shall differ from my own, I + promise carefully to review every step by which I have been led + to my present conclusions. You cannot mistake me, sir; I refer + to the hero of Erie. I have declared myself the friend of the + army. Satisfy me, then, what measures are best calculated to + render it effective and what all desire it to be, and I go for + the proposition with my whole heart. + + "But I cannot believe that the Military Academy, as at present + organized, is calculated to accomplish this desirable end. It + may, and undoubtedly does, send forth into the country much + military knowledge; but the advantage which your army, or that + which will constitute your army in time of need, derives from + it, is by no means commensurate with the expense you incur. + Here, Mr. Chairman, permit me to say that I deny, utterly, the + expediency, and the right to educate, at the public expense, any + number of young men who, on the completion of their education, + are not to form a portion of your military force, but to return + to the walks of private life. Such was never the operation of + the Military Academy, until after the law of 1812; and the + doctrine, so far as I have been able to ascertain, was first + formally announced by a distinguished individual, at this time + sufficiently jealous of the exercise of executive patronage, and + greatly alarmed by what he conceives to be the tendencies of + this government to centralism and consolidation. It may be found + in the report of the Secretary of War, communicated to Congress + in 1819. + + "If it shall, upon due consideration, receive the sanction of + Congress and the country, I can see no limit to the exercise of + power and government patronage. Follow out the principle, and + where will it lead you? You confer upon the national government + the absolute guardianship of literature and science, military + and civil; you need not stop at military science; any one, in + the wide range of sciences, becomes at once a legitimate and + constitutional object of your patronage; you are confined by no + limit but your discretion; you have no check but your own good + pleasure. If you may afford instruction, at the public expense, + in the languages, in philosophy, in chemistry, and in the exact + sciences, to young gentlemen who are under no obligation to + enter the service of their country, but are, in fact, destined + for civil life, why may you not, by parity of reasoning, provide + the means of a legal, or theological, or medical education, on + the ground that the recipients of your bounty will carry forth + a fund of useful knowledge, that may, at some time, under some + circumstances, produce a beneficial influence, and promote 'the + general welfare?' Sir, I fear that even some of us may live to + see the day when this 'general welfare' of your constitution + will leave us little ground to boast of a government of limited + powers. But I did not propose at this time to discuss the + abstract question of constitutional right. I will regard the + expediency alone; and, whether the power exist or not, its + exercise, in an institution like this, is subversive of the + only principle upon which a school, conducted at the public + expense, can be made profitable to the public service--that of + making an admission into your school, and an education there, + secondary to an appointment in the army. Sir, this distinctive + feature characterized all your legislation, and all executive + recommendations, down to 1810. + + "I may as well notice here, as at any time, an answer which + has always been ready when objections have been raised to + this institution--an answer which, if it has not proved quite + satisfactory to minds that yield their assent more readily + to strong reasons than to the authority of great names, has + yet, unquestionably, exercised a powerful influence upon the + public mind. It has not gone forth upon the authority of an + individual merely, but has been published to the world with the + approbation of a committee of a former Congress. It is this: + that the institution has received, at different times, the + sanction of such names as Washington, Adams, and Jefferson; + and this has been claimed with such boldness, and in a form so + imposing, as almost to forbid any question of its accuracy. + If this were correct, in point of fact, it would be entitled + to the most profound respect and consideration, and no change + should be urged against the weight of such authority, without + mature deliberation, and thorough conviction of, expediency. + Unfortunately for the advocates of the institution, and + fortunately for the interests of the country, this claim cannot + be sustained by reference to executive documents, from the first + report of General Knox, in 1790, to the close of Mr. Jefferson's + administration. + + "The error has undoubtedly innocently occurred, by confounding + the Military Academy at West Point as it was, with the Military + Academy at West Point as it is. The report of Secretary + Knox, just referred to, is characterized by this distinctive + feature--that the corps proposed to be organized were 'to serve + as an actual defence to the community,' and to constitute a + part of the active military force of the country, 'to serve in + the field, or on the frontier, or in the fortifications of the + sea-coast, as the commander-in-chief may direct.' At a later + period, the report of the Secretary of War (Mr. McHenry), + communicated to Congress in 1800 although it proposed a plan + for military schools, differing in many essential particulars + from those which had preceded it, still retained the distinctive + feature just named as characterizing the report of General Knox. + + "With regard to educating young men gratuitously, which, + whatever may have been the design, I am prepared to show is the + practical operation of the Academy, as at present organized, + I cannot, perhaps, exhibit more clearly the sentiments of the + Executive at that early day, urgent as was the occasion, and + strong as must have been the desire, to give strength and + efficiency to the military force, than by reading one or two + paragraphs from a supplementary report of Secretary McHenry, + addressed to the chairman of the Committee of Defence, on the + 31st January, 1800. + + "The Secretary says: 'Agreeably to the plan of the Military + Academy, the directors thereof are to be officers taken from + the army; consequently, no expense will be incurred by such + appointments. The plan also contemplates that officers of the + army, cadets, and non-commissioned officers, shall receive + instruction in the Academy. As the rations and fuel which + they are entitled to in the army will suffice for them in the + Academy, no additional expense will be required for objects of + maintenance while there. The expenses of servants and certain + incidental expenses relative to the police and administration, + may be defrayed by those who shall be admitted, out of their pay + and emoluments.' + + "You will observe, Mr. Chairman, from the phraseology of the + report, that all were to constitute a part of your actual + military force; and that whatever additional charges should + be incurred, were to be defrayed by those who might receive + the advantages of instruction. These were provisions, just, as + they are important. Let me call your attention for a moment + to a report of Col. Williams, which was made the subject of a + special message, communicated to Congress by Mr. Jefferson, + on the 18th of March, 1808. The extract I propose to read, as + sustaining fully the views of Mr. McHenry upon this point, is + in the following words: 'It might be well to make the plan upon + such a scale as not only to take in the minor officers of the + navy, but also any youths from any of the States who might wish + for such an education, whether designed for the army or navy, + or neither, and let them be assessed to the value of their + education, which might form a fund for extra or contingent + expenses.' Sir, these are the true doctrines upon this subject; + doctrines worthy of the administration under which they were + promulgated, and in accordance with the views of statesmen in + the earlier and purer days of the Republic. Give to the officers + of your army the highest advantages for perfection in all the + branches of military science, and let those advantages be open + to all, in rotation, and under such terms and regulations as + shall be at once impartial toward the officers and advantageous + to the service; but let all young gentlemen who have a taste + for military life, and desire to adopt arms as a profession, + prepare themselves for subordinate situations at their own + expense, or at the expense of their parents or guardians, in + the same manner that the youth of the country are qualified for + the professions of civil life. Sir, while upon this subject + of gratuitous education, I will read an extract from 'Dupin's + Military Force of Great Britain,' to show what favor it finds in + another country, from the practice and experience of which we + may derive some advantages, however far from approving of its + institutions generally. The extract is from the 2d vol. 71st + page, and relates to the terms on which young gentlemen are + admitted to the junior departments of the Royal Military College + at Sandhurst. + + "_First_: The sons of officers of all ranks, whether of the + land or sea forces, who have died in the service, leaving their + families in pecuniary distress; this class are instructed, + boarded, and habited gratuitously by the State; being required + only to provide their equipments on admission, and to maintain + themselves in linen. _Secondly_: The sons of all officers of + the army above the rank of subalterns actually in the service, + and who pay a sum proportioned to their ranks, according to a + scale per annum regulated by the supreme board. The sons of + living naval officers of rank not below that of master and + commander, are also admitted on payment of annual stipends, + similar to those of corresponding ranks in the army. The orphan + sons of officers, who have not left their families in pecuniary + difficulties, are admitted into this class on paying the + stipends required of officers of the rank held by their parents + at the time of their decease. _Thirdly_: The sons of noblemen + and private gentlemen who pay a yearly sum equivalent to the + expenses of their education, board, and clothing, according to a + rate regulated from time to time by the commissioners.' Sir, let + it be remembered that these are the regulations of a government + which, with all its wealth and power, is, from its structure and + practice, groaning under the accumulated weight of pensions, + sinecures, and gratuities, and yet you observe, that only one + class, 'the sons of officers of all ranks, whether of the land + or sea forces, who have died in the service, leaving their + families in pecuniary distress,' are educated gratuitously. + + "I do not approve even of this, but I hold it up in contrast + with your own principles and practice. If the patience of + the committee would warrant me, Mr. Chairman, I could show, + by reference to Executive communications, and the concurrent + legislation of Congress in 1794, 1796, 1802, and 1808, that + prior to the last mentioned date, such an institution as we now + have was neither recommended nor contemplated. Upon this point + I will not detain you longer; but when hereafter confronted by + the authority of great names, I trust we shall be told where the + expressions of approbation are to be found. We may then judge + of their applicability to the Military Academy as at present + organized. I am far from desiring to see this country destitute + of a Military Academy; but I would have it a school of practice, + and instruction, for officers actually in the service of the + United States: not an institution for educating gratuitously, + young gentlemen, who, on the completion of their term, or after + a few months' leave of absence, resign their commissions and + return to the pursuits of civil life. If any one doubts that + this is the practical operation of your present system, I refer + him to the annual list of resignations, to be found in the + Adjutant General's office. + + "Firmly as I am convinced of the necessity of a reorganization, + I would take no step to create an unjust prejudice against the + institution. All that I ask, and, so far as I know, all that + any of the opponents of the institution ask, is, that after a + full and impartial investigation, it shall stand or fall upon + its merits. I know there are graduates of the institution who + are ornaments to the army, and an honor to their country; but + they, and not the seminary, are entitled to the credit. Here + I would remark, once for all, that I do not reflect upon the + officers or pupils of the Academy; it is to the principles of + the institution itself, as at present organized, that I object. + It is often said that the graduates leave the institution with + sentiments that but ill accord with the feelings and opinions + of the great mass of the people of that government from which + they derive the means of education, and that many who take + commissions possess few qualifications for the command of men, + either in war or in peace. Most of the members of this House + have had more or less intercourse with these young gentlemen, + and I leave it for each individual to form his own opinion + of the correctness of the charges. Thus much I will say for + myself, that I believe that these, and greater evils, are the + natural, if not the inevitable, result of the principles in + which this institution is founded; and any system of education, + established upon similar principles, on government patronage + alone, will produce like results, now and for ever. Sir, what + are some of these results? By the report of the Secretary of + War, dated January, 1831, we are informed that, "by an estimate + of the last five years (preceding that date), it appears that + the supply of the army from the corps of graduated cadets, has + averaged about twenty-two annually, while those who graduated + are about forty, making in each year an excess of eighteen. + The number received annually into the Academy averages one + hundred, of which only the number stated, to wit, forty, pass + through the prescribed course of education at schools, and + become supernumerary lieutenants in the army." By the report + of the Secretary of War, December, 1830, we are informed, that + "the number of promotions to the army from this corps, for the + last five years, has averaged about twenty-two annually while + the number of graduates has been at an average of forty. This + excess, which is annually increasing, has placed eighty-seven + in waiting until vacancies shall take place, and show that in + the next year, probably, and in the succeeding one, certainly, + there will be an excess beyond what the existing law authorizes + to be commissioned. There will then be 106 supernumerary brevet + second lieutenants appurtenant to the army, at an average annual + expense of $80,000. Sir, that results here disclosed were not + anticipated by Mr. Madison, is apparent from a recurrence to his + messages of 1810 and 1811. + + "In passing the law of 1812, both Congress and the President + acted for the occasion, and they expected those who should + succeed them to act in a similar manner. Their feelings of + patriotism and resentment were aroused, by beholding the + privileges of freemen wantonly invaded, our glorious stars + and stripes disregarded, and national and individual rights + trampled in the dust. The war was pending. The necessity for + increasing the military force of the country was obvious and + pressing, and the urgent occasion for increased facilities + for military instruction, equally apparent. Sir, it was under + circumstances like these, when we had not only enemies abroad, + but, I blush to say, enemies at home, that the institution, + as at present organized, had its origin. It will hardly be + pretended that it was the original design of the law to + augment the number of persons instructed, beyond the wants of + the public service. Well, the report of the Secretary shows, + that for five years prior to 1831, the Academy had furnished + eighteen supernumeraries annually. A practical operation of + this character has no sanction in the recommendation of Mr. + Madison. The report demonstrates, further, the _fruitfulness_ + and _utility_ of this institution, by showing the fact, that but + two-fifths of those who enter the Academy graduate, and that but + a fraction more than one-fifth enter the public service. This is + not the fault of the administration of the Academy; it is not + the fault of the young gentlemen who are _sent_ there; on your + present peace establishment there can be but little to stimulate + them, particularly in the acquisition of military science. There + can hardly be but one object in the mind of the student, and + that would be to obtain an education for the purposes of civil + life. The difficulty is, that the institution has outlived both + the occasion that called it into existence, and its original + design. I have before remarked, that the Academy was manifestly + enlarged to correspond with the army and militia actually to + be called into service. Look then for a moment at facts, and + observe with how much wisdom, justice, and sound policy, you + retain the provisions of the law of 1812. The total authorized + force of 1813, after the declaration of war, was 58,254; and in + October, 1814, the military establishment amounted to 62,428. + By the act of March, 1815, the peace establishment was limited + to 10,000, and now hardly exceeds that number. Thus you make + a reduction of more than 50,000 in your actual military force, + to accommodate the expenses of the government to its wants. + And why do you refuse to do the same with your grand system + of public education? Why does that remain unchanged? Why not + reduce it at once, at least to the actual wants of the service, + and dispense with your corps of supernumerary lieutenants? Sir, + there is, there can be but one answer to the question, and that + may be found in the war report of 1819, to which I have before + had occasion to allude. The Secretary says, 'the cadets who + cannot be provided for in the army will return to private life, + but in the event of a war their knowledge will not be lost to + the country.' Indeed, sir, these young gentlemen, if they could + be _induced_ to take the field, would, after a lapse of ten or + fifteen years, come up from the bar, or it may be the pulpit, + fresh in military science, and admirably qualified for command + in the face of an enemy. The magazine of facts, to prove at + the same glance the extravagance and unfruitfulness of this + institution, is not easily exhausted: but I am admonished by + the lateness of the hour to omit many considerations which I + regard as both interesting and important. I will only detain + the committee to make a single statement, placing side by side + some aggregate results. There has already been expended upon + the institution more than three millions three hundred thousand + dollars. Between 1815, and 1821, thirteen hundred and eighteen + students were admitted into the Academy; and of all the cadets + who were ever there, only two hundred and sixty-five remained in + the service at the end of 1830. Here are the expenses you have + incurred, and the products you have realized. + + "I leave them to be balanced by the people. But for myself, + believing as I do, that the Academy stands forth as an anomaly + among the institutions of this country; that it is at variance + with the spirit, if not the letter of the constitution under + which we live; so long as this House shall deny investigation + into its principles and practical operation, I, as an individual + member, will refuse to appropriate the first dollar for its + support." + + + + +CHAPTER CXLI. + +EXPUNGING RESOLUTION--PERORATION OF SENATOR BENTON'S SECOND SPEECH. + + +"The condemnation of the President, combining as it did all that +illegality and injustice could inflict, had the further misfortune +to be co-operative in its effect with the conspiracy of the Bank of +the United States to effect the most wicked and universal scheme +of mischief which the annals of modern times exhibit. It was a plot +against the government, and against the property of the country. The +government was to be upset, and property revolutionized. Six hundred +banks were to be broken--the general currency ruined--myriads +bankrupted--all business stopped--all property sunk in value--all +confidence destroyed! that out of this wide spread ruin and +pervading distress, the vengeful institution might glut its avarice +and ambition, trample upon the President, take possession of the +government, reclaim its lost deposits, and perpetuate its charter. +These crimes, revolting and frightful in themselves, were to be +accomplished by the perpetration of a whole system of subordinate +and subsidiary crime! the people to be deceived and excited; the +President to be calumniated; the effects of the bank's own conduct +to be charged upon him; meetings got up; business suspended; +distress deputations organized; and the Senate chamber converted +into a theatre for the dramatic exhibition of all this fictitious +woe. That it was the deep and sad misfortune of the Senate so to +act, as to be co-operative in all this scene of mischief, is too +fully proved by the facts known, to admit of denial. I speak of +acts, not of motives. The effect of the Senate's conduct in trying +the President and uttering alarm speeches; was to co-operate with +the bank, and that secondarily, and as a subordinate performer; +for it is incontestable that the bank began the whole affair; the +little book of fifty pages proves that. The bank began it; the +bank followed it up; the bank attends to it now. It is a case +which might well be entered on our journal as a State is entered +against a criminal in the docket of a court: the Bank of the United +States _versus_ President Jackson: on impeachment for removing the +deposits. The entry would be justified by the facts, for these are +the indubitable facts. The bank started the accusation; the Senate +took it up. The bank furnished arguments; the Senate used them. +The bank excited meetings; the Senate extolled them. The bank sent +deputations; the senators received them with honor. The deputations +reported answers for the President which he never gave; the Senate +repeated and enforced these answers. Hand in hand throughout the +whole process, the bank and the Senate acted together, and succeeded +in getting up the most serious and afflicting panic ever known +in this country. The whole country was agitated. Cities, towns, +and villages, the entire country and the whole earth seemed to be +in commotion against one man. A revolution was proclaimed! the +overthrow of all law was announced! the substitution of one man's +will for the voice of the whole government, was daily asserted! the +public sense was astounded and bewildered with dire and portentous +annunciations! In the midst of all this machinery of alarm and +distress, many good citizens lost their reckoning; sensible heads +went wrong; stout hearts quailed; old friends gave way; temporizing +counsels came in; and the solitary defender of his country was urged +to yield! Oh, how much depended upon that one man at that dread +and awful point of time! If he had given way, then all was gone! +An insolent, rapacious, and revengeful institution would have been +installed in sovereign power. The federal and State governments, +the Congress, the Presidency, the State legislatures, all would +have fallen under the dominion of the bank; and all departments +of the government would have been filled and administered by the +debtors, pensioners, and attorneys of that institution. He did not +yield, and the country was saved. The heroic patriotism of one man +prevented all this calamity, and saved the Republic from becoming +the appendage and fief of a moneyed corporation. And what has been +his reward? So far as the people are concerned, honor, gratitude, +blessings, everlasting benedictions; so far as the Senate is +concerned, dishonor, denunciation, stigma, infamy. And shall these +two verdicts stand? Shall our journal bear the verdict of infamy, +while the hearts of the people glow and palpitate with the verdict +of honor? + +"President Jackson has done more for the human race than the whole +tribe of politicians put together; and shall he remain stigmatized +and condemned for the most glorious action of his life? The bare +attempt to stigmatize Mr. Jefferson was not merely expunged, but +cut out from the journal; so that no trace of it remains upon the +Senate records. The designs are the same in both cases; but the +aggravations are inexpressibly greater in the case of President +Jackson. Referring to the journals of the House of Representatives +for the character of the attempt against President Jefferson, and +the reasons for repulsing it, and it is seen that the attempt +was made to criminate Mr. Jefferson, and to charge him upon the +journals with a violation of the laws; and that this attempt was +made at a time, and under circumstances insidiously calculated to +excite unjust suspicion in the minds of the people against the Chief +Magistrate. Such was precisely the character of the charge; and the +effect of the charge against President Jackson, with the difference +only that the proceeding against President Jackson, was many ten +thousand times more revolting and aggravated; commencing as it did +in the Bank, carried on by a violent political party, prosecuted +to sentence and condemnation; and calculated, if believed, to +destroy the President, to change the administration, and to put an +end to popular representative government. Yes, sir, to put an end +to elective and representative government! For what are all the +attacks upon President Jackson's administration but attacks upon the +people who elect and re-elect him, who approve his administration, +and by approving, make it their own? To condemn such a President, +thus supported, is to condemn the people, to condemn the elective +principle, to condemn the fundamental principle of our government; +and to establish the favorite dogma of the monarchists, that +the people are incapable of self-government, and will surrender +themselves as collared slaves into the hands of military chieftains. + +"Great are the services which President Jackson has rendered his +country. As a General he has extended her frontiers, saved a city, +and carried her renown to the highest pitch of glory. His civil +administration has rivalled and transcended his warlike exploits. +Indemnities procured from the great powers of Europe for spoliations +committed on our citizens under former administrations, and which, +by former administrations were reclaimed in vain; peace and +friendship with the whole world, and, what is more, the respect of +the whole world; the character of our America exalted in Europe; +so exalted that the American citizen, treading the continent of +Europe, and contemplating the sudden and great elevation of the +national character, might feel as if he himself was an hundred feet +high. Such is the picture abroad! At home we behold a brilliant and +grateful scene; the public debt paid,--taxes reduced,--the gold +currency restored,--the Southern States released from a useless +and dangerous population,--all disturbing questions settled,--a +gigantic moneyed institution repulsed in its march to the conquest +of the government,--the highest prosperity attained,--and the Hero +Patriot now crowning the list of his glorious services by covering +his country with the panoply of defence, and consummating his +measures for the restoration and preservation of the currency of the +constitution. We have had brilliant and prosperous administrations; +but that of President Jackson eclipses, surpasses, and casts into +the shade, all that have preceded it. And is he to be branded, +stigmatized, condemned, unjustly and untruly condemned; and the +records of the Senate to bear the evidence of this outrage to the +latest posterity? Shall this President, so glorious in peace and +in war, so successful at home and abroad, whose administration, +now, hailed with applause and gratitude by the people, and destined +to shine for unnumbered ages in the political firmament of our +history: shall this President, whose name is to live for ever, +whose retirement from life and services will be through the gate +that leads to the temple of everlasting fame; shall _he_ go down to +posterity with this condemnation upon him; and that for the most +glorious action of his life? + +"Mr. President, I have some knowledge of history, and some +acquaintance with the dangers which nations have encountered, and +from which heroes and statesmen have saved them. I have read much +of ancient and modern history, and nowhere have I found a parallel +to the services rendered by President Jackson in crushing the +conspiracy of the Bank, but in the labors of the Roman Consul in +crushing the conspiracy of Catiline. The two conspiracies were +identical in their objects; both directed against the government, +and the property of the country. Cicero extinguished the +Catilinarean conspiracy, and saved Rome; President Jackson defeated +the conspiracy of the Bank, and saved our America. Their heroic +service was the same, and their fates have been strangely alike. +Cicero was condemned for violating the laws and the constitution; so +has been President Jackson. The consul was refused a hearing in his +own defence: so has been President Jackson. The life of Cicero was +attempted by two assassins; twice was the murderous pistol levelled +at our President. All Italy, the whole Roman world, bore Cicero +to the Capitol, and tore the sentence of the consul's condemnation +from the _fasti_ of the republic: a million of Americans, fathers +and heads of families, now demand the expurgation of the sentence +against the President. Cicero, followed by all that was virtuous in +Rome, repaired to the temple of the tutelary gods, and swore upon +the altar that he had saved his country: President Jackson, in the +temple of the living God, might take the same oath, and find its +response in the hearts of millions. Nor shall the parallel stop +here; but after times, and remote posterities shall render the +same honors to each. Two thousand years have passed, and the great +actions of the consul are fresh and green in history. The school-boy +learns them; the patriot studies them; the statesman applies them: +so shall it be with our patriot President. Two thousand years +hence,--ten thousand,--nay, while time itself shall last, for who +can contemplate the time when the memory of this republic shall be +lost? while time itself shall last, the name and fame of Jackson +shall remain and flourish; and this last great act by which he saved +the government from subversion, and property from revolution, shall +stand forth as the seal and crown of his heroic services. And if +any thing that I myself may do or say, shall survive the brief hour +in which I live, it will be the part which I have taken, and the +efforts which I have made, to sustain and defend the great defender +of his country. + +"Mr. President, I have now finished the view which an imperious +sense of duty has required me to take of this subject. I trust +that I have proceeded upon proofs and facts, and have left nothing +unsustained which I feel it to be my duty to advance. It is not my +design to repeat, or to recapitulate; but there is one further and +vital consideration which demands the notice of a remark, and which +I should be faithless to the genius of our government, if I should +pretermit. It is known, sir, that ambition for office is the bane +of free States, and the contentions of rivals the destruction of +their country. These contentions lead to every species of injustice, +and to every variety of violence, and all cloaked with the pretext +of the public good. Civil wars and banishment at Rome; civil wars, +and the ostracism at Athens; bills of attainder, star-chamber +prosecutions, and impeachments In England; all to get rid of some +envied, or hated rival, and all pretexted with the public good: +such has been the history of free States for two thousand years. +The wise men who framed our constitution were well aware of all +this danger and all this mischief, and took effectual care, as +they thought, to guard against it. Banishment, the ostracism, the +star-chamber prosecutions, bills of attainder, all those summary +and violent modes of hunting down a rival, which deprive the victim +of defence by depriving him of the intervention of an accusing body +to stand between the accuser and the trying body; all these are +proscribed by the genius of our constitution. Impeachments alone +are permitted; and these would most usually occur for political +offences, and be of a character to enlist the passions of many, +and to agitate the country. An effectual guard, it was supposed, +was provided against the abuse of the impeachment power, first, by +requiring a charge to be preferred by the House of Representatives, +as the grand Inquest of the nation; and _next_, in confining the +trial to the Senate, and requiring a majority of two-thirds to +convict. The gravity, the dignity, the age of the senators, and the +great and various powers with which they were invested--greater and +more various than are united in the same persons under any other +constitutional government upon earth--these were supposed to make +the Senate a safe depository for the impeachment power; and if the +plan of the constitution is followed out it must be admitted to be +so. But if a public officer can be arraigned by his rivals before +the Senate for impeachable offences without the intervention of the +House of Representatives, and if he can be pronounced guilty by a +simple majority, instead of a majority of two-thirds, then has the +whole frame of our government miscarried, and the door left wide +open to the greatest mischief which has ever afflicted the people of +free States. Then can rivals and competitors go on to do what it was +intended they should never do; accuse, denounce, condemn, and hunt +down each other! Great has been the weight of the American Senate. +Time was when its rejections for office were fatal to character; +time is when its rejections are rather passports to public favor. +Why this sad and ominous decline? Let no one deceive himself. +Public opinion is the arbiter of character in our enlightened day; +it is the Areopagus from which there is no appeal! That arbiter +has pronounced against the Senate. It has sustained the President, +and condemned the Senate. If it had sustained the Senate, the +President must have been ruined! as it has not, the Senate must be +ruined, if it perseveres in its course, and goes on to brave public +opinion!--as an institution, it must be ruined!" + + + + +CHAPTER CXLII. + +DISTRIBUTION OF THE LAND REVENUE. + + +"The great loss of the bank has been in the depreciation of the +securities; and the only way to regain a capital is to restore their +value. A large portion of them consists of State stocks, which are +so far below their intrinsic worth that the present prices could +not have been anticipated by any reasonable man. No doubt can be +entertained of their ultimate payment. The States themselves, +unaided, can satisfy every claim against them; they will do it +speedily, if Congress adopt the measures contemplated for their +relief. A division of the public lands among the States, which would +enable them all to pay their debts--or a pledge of the proceeds +of sales for that purpose--would be abundant security. Either of +these acts would inspire confidence, and enhance the value of all +kinds of property." This paragraph appeared in the Philadelphia +National Gazette, was attributed to Mr. Biddle, President of the +Bank of the United States; and connects that institution with all +the plans for distributing the public land money among the States, +either in the shape of a direct distribution, or in the disguise +of a deposit of the surplus revenue; and this for the purpose of +enhancing the value of the State stocks held by it. That institution +was known to have interfered in the federal legislation, to promote +or to baffle the passage of laws, as deemed to be favorable or +otherwise to her interests; and this resort to the land revenue +through an act of Congress was an eminent instance of the spirit of +interference. This distribution had become, very nearly, a party +measure; and of the party of which the bank was a member, and Mr. +Clay the chief. He was the author of the scheme--had introduced it +at several sessions--and now renewed it. Mr. Webster also made a +proposition to the same effect at this session. It was the summer +of the presidential election; and great calculations were made by +the party which favored the distribution upon its effect in adding +to their popularity. Mr. Clay limited his plan of distribution to +five years; but the limitation was justly considered as nothing--as +a mere means of beginning the system of these distributions--which +once began, would go on of themselves, while our presidential +elections continued, and any thing to divide could be found in the +treasury. Mr. Benton opposed the whole scheme, and confronted it +with a proposition to devote the surplus revenue to the purposes +of national defence; thereby making an issue, as he declared, +between the plunder of the country and the defence of the country. +He introduced an antagonistic bill, as he termed it, devoting the +surplus moneys to the public defences; and showing by reports from +the war and navy departments that seven millions a year for fifteen +years would be required for the completion of the naval defences, +and thirty millions to complete the military defences; of which nine +millions per annum could be beneficially expended; and then went on +to say: + + "That the reports from which he had read, taken together, + presented a complete system of preparation for the national + defence; every arm and branch of defence was to be provided + for; an increase of the navy, including steamships; appropriate + fortifications, including steam batteries; armories, foundries, + arsenals, with ample supplies of arms and munitions of war; an + increase of troops for the West and Northwest; a line of posts + and a military road from the Red River to the Wisconsin, in + the rear of the settlements, and mounted dragoons to scour the + country; every thing was considered; all was reduced to system, + and a general, adequate, and appropriate plan of national + defence was presented, sufficient to absorb all the surplus + revenue, and wanting nothing but the vote of Congress to carry + it into effect. In this great system of national defence the + whole Union was equally interested; for the country, in all + that concerned its defences, was but a unit, and every section + was interested in the defence of every other section, and every + individual citizen was interested in the defence of the whole + population. It was in vain to say that the navy was on the sea, + and the fortifications on the seaboard, and that the citizens + in the interior States, or in the valley of the Mississippi, + had no interest in these remote defences. Such an idea was + mistaken and delusive. The inhabitant of Missouri and of Indiana + had a direct interest in keeping open the mouths of the rivers, + defending the seaport towns, and preserving a naval force that + would protect the produce of his labor in crossing the ocean, + and arriving safely in foreign markets. All the forts at the + mouth of the Mississippi were just as much for the benefit of + the western States, as if those States were down at the mouth + of that river. So of all the forts on the Gulf of Mexico. Five + forts are completed in the delta of the Mississippi; two are + completed on the Florida or Alabama coast; and seven or eight + more are projected; all calculated to give security to western + commerce in passing through the Gulf of Mexico. Much had been + done for that frontier, but more remained to be done; and + among the great works contemplated in that quarter were large + establishments at Pensacola, Key West, or the Dry Tortugas. + Large military and naval stations were contemplated at these + points, and no expenditure or preparations could exceed in + amount the magnitude of the interests to be protected. On the + Atlantic board the commerce of the States found its way to + the ocean through many outlets, from Maine to Florida; in the + West, on the contrary, the whole commerce of the valley of + the Mississippi, all that of the Alabama, of western Florida, + and some part of Georgia, passes through a single outlet, + and reaches the ocean by passing between Key West and Cuba. + Here, then, is an immense commerce collected into one channel, + compressed into one line, and passing, as it were, through one + gate. This gives to Key West and the Dry Tortugas an importance + hardly possessed by any point on the globe; for, besides + commanding the commerce of the entire West, it will also command + that of Mexico, of the West Indies, of the Caribbean sea, and + of South America down to the middle of that continent at its + most eastern projection, Cape Roque. To understand the cause of + all this (Mr. B. said), it was necessary to look to the trade + winds, which, blowing across the Atlantic between the tropics, + strike the South American continent at Cape Roque, follow the + retreating coast of that continent up to the Caribbean sea, and + to the Gulf of Mexico, creating the gulf stream as they go, + and by the combined effect of a current in the air and in the + water, sweeping all vessels from this side Cape Roque into its + stream, carrying them round west of Cuba and bringing them out + between Key West and the Havana. These two positions, then, + constitute the gate through which every thing must pass that + comes from the valley of the Mississippi, from Mexico, and from + South America as low down as Cape Roque. As the masters of the + Mississippi, we should be able to predominate in the Gulf of + Mexico; and, to do so, we must have great establishments at Key + West and Pensacola. Such establishments are now proposed; and + every citizen of the West should look upon them as the guardians + of his own immediate interests, the indispensable safeguard + to his own commerce; and to him the highest, most sacred, + and most beneficial object to which surplus revenue could be + applied. The Gulf of Mexico should be considered as the estuary + of the Mississippi. A naval and military supremacy should be + established in that gulf, cost what it might; for without that + supremacy the commerce of the entire West would lie at the mercy + of the fleets and privateers of inimical powers. + + "Mr. B. returned to the immediate object of his remarks--to the + object of showing that the defences of the country would absorb + every surplus dollar that would ever be found in the treasury. + He recapitulated the aggregates of those heads of expenditure; + for the navy, about forty millions of dollars, embracing the + increase of the navy, navy yards, ordnance, and repairs of + vessels for a series of years; for fortifications, about thirty + millions, reported by the engineer department; and which sum, + after reducing the size of some of the largest class of forts, + not yet commenced, would still be large enough, with the sum + reported by the ordnance department, amounting to near thirty + millions, to make a totality not much less than one hundred + millions; and far more than sufficient to swallow up all the + surpluses which will ever be found to exist in the treasury. + Even after deducting much from these estimates, the remainder + will still go beyond any surplus that will actually be found. + Every person knows that the present year is no criterion for + estimating the revenue; excess of paper issues has inflated all + business, and led to excess in all branches of the revenue; next + year it will be down, and soon fall as much below the usual + level as it now is above it. More than that; what is now called + a surplus in the treasury is no surplus, but a mere accumulation + for want of passing the appropriation bills. The whole of it is + pledged to the bills which are piled upon our tables, and which + we cannot get passed; for the opposition is strong enough to + arrest the appropriations, to dam up the money in the treasury; + and then call that a surplus which would now be in a course + of expenditure, if the necessary appropriation bills could be + passed. + + "The public defences will require near one hundred millions of + dollars; the annual amount required for these defences alone + amount to thirteen or fourteen millions. The engineer department + answers explicitly that it can beneficially expend six millions + of dollars annually; the ordnance that it can beneficially + expend three millions; the navy that it can beneficially expend + several millions; and all this for a series of years. This + distribution bill has five years to run, and in that time, if + the money is applied to defence instead of distribution, the + great work of national defence will be so far completed as to + place the United States in condition to cause her rights and her + interests, her flag and her soil, to be honored and respected by + the whole world." + +The bill was passed in the Senate, though by a vote somewhat +close--25 to 20. The yeas were: + + Messrs. Black, Buchanan, Clay, Clayton, Crittenden, Davis, Ewing + of Ohio, Goldsborough, Hendricks, Kent, Knight, Leigh, McKean, + Mangum, Naudain, Nicholas, Porter, Prentiss, Preston, Robbins, + Southard, Swift, Tomlinson, Webster White. + + NAYS.--Messrs. Benton, Calhoun, Cuthbert, Ewing of Illinois, + Grundy, Hill, Hubbard, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Linn, + Moore, Morris, Niles, Rives, Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley, + Tallmadge, Walker, Wright. + +Being sent to the House for concurrence it became evident that it +could not pass that body; and then the friends of distribution in +the Senate fell upon a new mode to effect their object, and in a +form to gain the votes of many members who held distribution to be +a violation of the constitution--among them Mr. Calhoun;--who took +the lead in the movement. There was a bill before the Senate to +regulate the keeping of the public moneys in the deposit banks; and +this was turned into distribution of the surplus public moneys with +the States, in proportion to their representation in Congress, to +be returned when Congress should call for it: and this was called +a deposit with the States; and the faith of the States pledged for +returning the money. The deposit was defended on the same argument +on which Mr. Calhoun had proposed to amend the constitution two +years before; namely that there was no other way to get rid of +the surplus. And to a suggestion from Mr. Wright that the moneys, +when once so deposited might never be got back again, Mr. Calhoun +answered: + + "But the senator from New-York objects to the measure, that + it would, in effect, amount to a distribution, on the ground, + as he conceives, that the States would never refund. He does + not doubt but that they would, if called on to refund by the + government; but he says that Congress will in fact never make + the call. He rests this conclusion on the supposition that there + would be a majority of the States opposed to it. He admits, in + case the revenue should become deficient, that the southern or + staple States would prefer to refund their quota, rather than to + raise the imposts to meet the deficit; but he insists that the + contrary would be the case with the manufacturing States, which + would prefer to increase the imposts to refunding their quota, + on the ground that the increase of the duties would promote the + interests of manufactures. I cannot agree with the senator that + those States would assume a position so utterly untenable as to + refuse to refund a deposit which their faith would be plighted + to return, and rest the refusal on the ground of preferring + to lay a tax, because it would be a bounty to them, and would + consequently throw the whole burden of the tax on the other + States. But, be this as it may, I can tell the senator that, if + they should take a course so unjust and monstrous, he may be + assured that the other States would most unquestionably resist + the increase of the imposts; so that the government would have + to take its choice, either to go without the money, or call on + the States to refund the deposits." + +Mr. Benton took an objection to this scheme of deposit, that it +was a distribution under a false name, making a double disposition +of the same money; that the land money was to be distributed under +the bill already passed by the Senate: and he moved an amendment +to except that money from the operation of the deposit to be made +with the States. He said it was hardly to be supposed that, in the +nineteenth century, a grave legislative body would pass two bills +for dividing the same money; and it was to save the Senate from the +ridicule of such a blunder that he called their attention to it, +and proposed the amendment. Mr. Calhoun said there was a remedy for +it in a few words, by adding a proviso of exception, if the land +distribution bill became a law. Mr. Benton was utterly opposed to +such a proviso--a proviso to take effect if the same thing did not +become law in another bill. Mr. Morris also wished to know if the +Senate was about to make a double distribution of the same money? As +far it respected the action of the Senate the land bill was, to all +intents and purposes, a law. It had passed the Senate, and they were +done with it. It had changed its title from "bill" to "act." It was +now the act of the Senate, and they could not know what disposition +the House would make of it. Mr. Webster believed the land bill could +not pass the House; that it was put to rest there; and therefore +he had no objection to voting for the second one: thus admitting +that, under the name of "distribution" the act could not pass the +House, and that a change of name was indispensable. Mr. Wright made +a speech of statements and facts to show that there would be no +surplus; and taking up that idea, Mr. Benton spoke thus: + + "About this time two years ago, the Senate was engaged in + proclaiming the danger of a bankrupt Treasury, and in proving + to the people that utter ruin must ensue from the removal + of the deposits from the Bank of the United States. The same + Senate, nothing abated in confidence from the failure of former + predictions, is now engaged in celebrating the prosperity of + the country, and proclaiming a surplus of forty, and fifty, + and sixty millions of dollars in that same Treasury, which + so short a time since they thought was going to be bankrupt. + Both occupations are equally unfortunate. Our Treasury is in + no more danger of bursting from distension now, than it was + of collapsing from depletion then. The ghost of the panic was + driven from this chamber in May, 1834, by the report of Mr. + Taney, showing that all the sources of the national revenue were + in their usual rich and bountiful condition; and that there was + no danger of bankruptcy. The speech and statement, so brief and + perspicuous, just delivered by the senator from New York [Mr. + Wright], will perform the same office upon the distribution + spirit, by showing that the appropriations of the session will + require nearly as much money as the public Treasury will be + found to contain. The present exaggerations about the surplus + will have their day, as the panic about an empty Treasury had + its day; and time, which corrects all things, will show the + enormity of these errors which excite the public mind, and + stimulate the public appetite, for a division of forty, fifty, + and sixty millions of surplus treasure." + +The bill being ordered to a third reading, with only six dissenting +votes, the author of this View could not consent to let it pass +without an attempt to stigmatize it, and render it odious to the +people, as a distribution in disguise--as a deposit never to be +reclaimed; as a miserable evasion of the constitution; as an +attempt to debauch the people with their own money; as plundering +instead of defending the country; as a cheat that would only last +till the presidential election was over; for there would be no +money to deposit after the first or second quarter;--and as having +the inevitable effect, if not the intention, to break the deposit +banks; and, finally, as disappointing its authors in their schemes +of popularity: in which he was prophetic; as, out of half a dozen +aspirants to the presidency, who voted for it, no one of them ever +attained that place. The following are parts of his speech: + + "I now come, Mr. President (continued Mr. B.), to the second + subject in the bill--the distribution feature--and to which + the objections are, not of detail, but of principle; but which + objections are so strong, in the mind of myself and some + friends, that, far from shrinking from the contest, and sneaking + away in our little minority of six, where we were left last + evening, we come forward with unabated resolution to renew our + opposition, and to signalize our dissent; anxious to have it + known that we contended to the last against the seductions of a + measure, specious to the view, and tempting to the taste, but + fraught with mischief and fearful consequences to the character + of this government, and to the stability and harmony of this + confederacy. + + "Stripping this enactment of statutory verbiage, and collecting + the provisions of the section into a single view, they seem + to be these: 1. The public moneys, above a specific sum, are + to be deposited with the States, in a specified ratio; 2. The + States are to give certificates of deposit, payable to the + United States; but no time, or contingency, is fixed for the + payment; 3. The Secretary of the Treasury is to sell and assign + the certificates, limited to a ratable proportion of each, + when necessary to meet appropriations made by Congress; 4. + The certificates so assigned are to bear an interest of five + per cent., payable half yearly; 5. To bear no interest before + assignment; 6. The principal to be payable at the pleasure of + the State. + + "This, Mr. President, is the enactment; and what is such an + enactment? Sir, I will tell you what it is. It is, in name, a + deposit; in form, a loan; in essence and design, a distribution. + Names cannot alter things; and it is as idle to call a gift a + deposit, as it would be to call a stab of the dagger a kiss of + the lips. It is a distribution of the revenues, under the name + of a deposit, and under the form of a loan. It is known to be + so, and is intended to be so; and all this verbiage about a + deposit is nothing but the device and contrivance of those who + have been for years endeavoring to distribute the revenues, + sometimes by the land bill, sometimes by direct propositions, + and sometimes by proposed amendments to the constitution. + Finding all these modes of accomplishing the object met and + frustrated by the constitution, they fall upon this invention + of a deposit, and exult in the success of an old scheme under a + new name. That it is no deposit, but a free gift, and a regular + distribution, is clear and demonstrable, not only from the + avowed principles, declared intentions, and systematic purposes + of those who conduct the bill, but also from the means devised + to effect their object. Names are nothing. The thing done gives + character to the transaction; and the imposition of an erroneous + name cannot change that character. This is no deposit. It has + no feature, no attribute, no characteristic no quality of a + deposit. A deposit is a trust requiring the consent of two + parties, leaving to one the rights of ownership, and imposing + on the other the duties of trustee. The depositor retains the + right of property, and reserves the privilege of resumption; the + depositary is bound to restore. But here the right of property + is parted with; the privilege of resumption is surrendered; the + obligation to render back is not imposed. On the contrary, our + money is put where we cannot reach it. Our treasury warrant + cannot pursue it. The States are to keep the money, free of + interest, until it is needed to meet appropriations; and then + the Secretary of the Treasury is--to do what?--call upon the + State? No! but to sell and assign the certificate; and the + State is to pay the assignee an interest half yearly, and the + principal when it pleases. Now, these appropriations will never + be made. The members of Congress are not yet born--the race of + representatives is not yet known--who will vote appropriations + for national objects, to be paid out of their own State + treasuries. Sooner will the tariff be revived, or the price of + public land be raised. Sooner will the assignability of the + certificate be repealed by law. The contingency will never + arrive, on which the Secretary is to assign: so the deposit + will stand as a loan for ever, without interest. At the end + of some years, the nominal transaction will be rescinded; the + certificates will all be cancelled by one general, unanimous, + harmonious vote in Congress. The disguise of a deposit, like the + mask after a play, will be thrown aside; and the delivery of + the money will turn out to be, what it is now intended to be, + a gift from the beginning. This will be the end of the first + chapter. And now, how unbecoming in the Senate to practise this + indirection, and to do by a false name what cannot be done by + its true one. The constitution, by the acknowledgment of many + who conduct this bill, will not admit of a distribution of the + revenues. Not further back than the last session, and again at + the commencement of the present session, a proposition was made + to amend the constitution, to permit this identical distribution + to be made. That proposition is now upon our calendar, for the + action of Congress. All at once, it is discovered that a change + of names will do as well as a change of the constitution. Strike + out the word 'distribute,' and insert the word 'deposit;' and, + incontinently, the impediment is removed: the constitution + difficulty is surmounted; the division of the money can be + made. This, at least, is quick work. It looks magical, though + not the exploit of the magician. It commits nobody, though + not the invention of the non-committal school. After all, it + must be admitted to be a very compendious mode of amending the + constitution, and such a one as the framers of that instrument + never happened to think of. Is this fancy, or is it fact? Are we + legislating, or amusing ourselves with phantasmagoria? Can we + forget that we now have upon the calendar a proposition to amend + the constitution, to effect this very distribution, and that + the only difference between that resolution and this thirteenth + section, is in substituting the word 'deposit' for the word + 'distribute?' + + "Having shown this pretended deposit to be a distribution in + disguise, and to be a mere evasion of the constitution, Mr. + B. proceeded to examine its effects, and to trace its ruinous + consequences upon the federal government and the States. It is + brought forward as a temporary measure, as a single operation, + as a thing to be done but once; but what career, either for good + or for evil, ever stopped with the first step? It is the first + step which costs the difficulty; that taken, the second becomes + easy, and repetition habitual. Let this distribution, in this + disguise, take effect; and future distribution will be common + and regular. Every presidential election will bring them, and + larger each time; as the consular elections in Rome, commencing + with distributions of grain from the public granaries, went on + to the exhibitions of games and shows, the remission of debts, + largesses in money, lands, and provisions; until the rival + candidates openly bid against each other, and the diadem of + empire was put up at auction, and knocked down to the last and + highest bidder. The purity of elections may not yet be affected + in our young and vigorous country; but how long will it be + before voters will look to the candidates for the magnitude + of their distributions, instead of looking to them for the + qualifications which the presidential office requires? + + "The bad consequences of this distribution of money to the + States are palpable and frightful. It is complicating the + federal and State systems, and multiplying their points of + contact and hazards of collision. Take it as ostensibly + presented; that of a deposit or loan, to be repaid at some + future time; then it is establishing the relation of debtor and + creditor between them: a relation critical between friends, + embarrassing between a State and its citizens; and eminently + dangerous between confederate States and their common head. + It is a relation always deprecated in our federal system. The + land credit system was abolished by Congress, fifteen years + ago, to get rid of the relation of debtor and creditor between + the federal government and the citizens of the States; and + seven or eight millions of debt, principal and interest, was + then surrendered. The collection of a large debt from numerous + individual debtors, was found to he almost impossible. How much + worse if the State itself becomes the debtor! and more, if all + the States become indebted together! Any attempt to collect + the debt would be attended, first with ill blood, then with + cancellation. It must be the representatives of the States who + are to enforce the collection of the debt. This they would not + do. They would stand together against the creditor. No member + of Congress could vote to tax his State to raise money for + the general purposes of the confederacy. No one could vote an + appropriation which was to become a charge on his own State + treasury. Taxation would first be resorted to, and the tariff + and the public lands would become the fountain of supply to the + federal government. Taken as a real transaction--as a deposit + with the States, or a loan to the States--as this measure + professes to be, and it is fraught with consequences adverse to + the harmony of the federal system, and fraught with new burdens + upon the customs, and upon the lands; taken as a fiction to + avoid the constitution, as a John Doe and Richard Roe invention + to convey a gift under the name of a deposit, and to effect a + distribution under the disguise of a loan, and it is an artifice + which makes derision of the constitution, lets down the Senate + from its lofty station; and provides a facile way for doing any + thing that any Congress may choose to do in all time to come. It + is only to depose one word and instal another--it is merely to + change a name--and the frowning constitution immediately smiles + on the late forbidden attempt. + + "To the federal government the consequences of these + distributions must be deplorable and destructive. It must be + remitted to the helpless condition of the old confederacy, + depending for its supplies upon the voluntary contributions + of the States. Worse than depending upon the voluntary + contributions, it will be left to the gratuitous leavings, to + the eleemosynary crumbs, which remain upon the table after the + feast of the States is over. God grant they may not prove to be + the feasts of the Lapithæ and Centaurs! But the States will be + served first; and what remains may go to the objects of common + defence and national concern for which the confederacy was + framed, and for which the power of raising money was confided + to Congress. The distribution bills will be passed first, and + the appropriation bills afterwards; and every appropriation + will be cut down to the lowest point, and kept off to the last + moment. To stave off as long as possible, to reduce as low as + possible, to defeat whenever possible, will be the tactics of + federal legislation; and when at last some object of national + expenditure has miraculously run the gauntlet of all these + assaults, and escaped the perils of these multiplied dangers, + behold the enemy still ahead, and the recapture which awaits + the devoted appropriation, in the shape of an unexpended + balance, on the first day of January then next ensuing. Thus + it is already; distribution has occupied us all the session. A + proposition to amend the constitution, to enable us to make the + division, was brought in in the first month of the session. The + land bill followed, and engrossed months, to the exclusion of + national defence. Then came the deposit scheme, which absorbs + the remainder of the session. For nearly seven months we have + been occupied with distribution, and the Senate has actually + passed two bills to effect the same object, and to divide the + same identical money. Two bills to divide money, while one + bill cannot be got through for the great objects of national + defence named in the constitution. We are now near the end of + the seventh month of the session. The day named by the Senate + for the termination of the session is long passed by; the day + fixed by the two Houses is close at hand. The year is half gone, + and the season for labor largely lost; yet what is the state + of the general, national, and most essential appropriations? + Not a shilling is yet voted for fortifications; not a shilling + for the ordnance; nothing for filling the empty ranks of the + skeleton army; nothing for the new Indian treaties; nothing for + the continuation of the Cumberland road; nothing for rebuilding + the burnt-down Treasury; nothing for the custom-house in New + Orleans; nothing for extinguishing the rights of private + corporators in the Louisville canal, and making that great + thoroughfare free to the commerce of the West; nothing for the + western armory, and arsenals in the States which have none; + nothing for the extension of the circuit court system to the + new States of the West and Southwest; nothing for improving + the mint machinery; nothing for keeping the mints regularly + supplied with metals for coining; nothing for the new marine + hospitals; nothing for the expenses of the visitors now gone to + the Military Academy; nothing for the chain of posts and the + military road along the Western and Northwestern frontier. All + these, and a long list of other objects, remain without a cent + to this day; and those who have kept them off now coolly turn + upon us, and say the money cannot be expended if appropriated, + and that, on the first of January, it must fall into the + surplus fund to be divided. Of the bills passed, many of the + most essential character have been delayed for months, to the + great injury of individuals and of the public service. Clerks + and salaried officers have been borrowing money at usury to + support their families, while we, wholly absorbed with dividing + surpluses, were withholding from them their stipulated wages. + Laborers at Harper's Ferry Armory have been without money to go + to market for their families, and some have lived three weeks + without meat, because we must attend to the distribution bills + before we can attend to the pay bills. Disbursing officers + have raised money on their own account, to supply the want of + appropriations. Even the annual Indian Annuity Bill has but + just got through; the Indians even--the poor Indians, as they + were wont to be called--even they have had to wait, in want and + misery, for the annual stipends solemnly guarantied by treaties. + All this has already taken place under the deplorable influence + of the distribution spirit. + + "The progress which the distribution spirit has made in + advancing beyond its own pretensions, is a striking feature in + the history of the case, and ominous of what may be expected + from its future exactions. Originally the proposition was to + divide the surplus. It was the surplus, and nothing but the + surplus, which was to be taken; that bona fide and inevitable + surplus which remained after all the defences were provided + for, and all needed appropriations fully made. Now the defences + are postponed and decried; the needful appropriations are + rejected, stinted, and deferred, till they cannot be used; + and, instead of the surplus, it is the integral revenue, it + is the money in the Treasury, it is the money appropriated by + law, which is to be seized upon and divided out. It is the + unexpended balances which are now the object of all desire and + the prize of meditated distribution. The word surplus is not + in the bill! that word, which has figured in so many speeches, + which has been the subject of so much speculation, which has + been the cause of so much delusion in the public mind, and + of so much excited hope; that word is not in the bill! It is + carefully, studiously, systematically excluded, and a form of + expression is adopted to cover all the money in the Treasury, + a small sum excepted, although appropriated by law to the most + sacred and necessary objects. A recapture of the appropriated + money is intended; and thus the very identical money which we + appropriate at this session is to be seized upon on the first + day of January, torn away from the objects to which it was + dedicated, and absorbed in the fund for general distribution. + And why? because the cormorant appetite of distribution grows + as it feeds, and becomes more ravenous as it gorges. It set out + for the surplus; now it takes the unexpended balances, save five + millions; next year it will take all. But it is sufficient to + contemplate the thing as it is; it is sufficient to contemplate + this bill as seizing upon the unexpended balances on the first + day of January, regardless of the objects to which they are + appropriated; and to witness its effect upon the laws, the + policy, and the existence of the federal government. + + "Such, then, is the progress of the distribution spirit; + a cormorant appetite, growing as it feeds, ravening as it + gorges; seizing the appropriated moneys, and leaving the + federal government to starve upon crumbs, and to die of + inanition. But this appetite is not the sole cause for this + seizure. There is another reason for it, connected with the + movements in this chamber, and founded in the deep-seated law + of self-preservation. For six months the public mind has been + stimulated with the story of sixty millions of surplus money in + the Treasury; and two months ago, the grave Senate of the United + States carried the rash joke of that illusory asseveration so + far as to pass a bill to commence the distribution of that vast + sum. It was the land bill which was to do it, commencing its + swelling dividends on the 1st day of July, dealing them out + every ninety days, and completing the splendid distribution of + prizes, in the sixty-four million lottery, in eighteen months + from the commencement of the drawing. It was two months ago that + we passed this bill; and all attempts then made to convince the + people that they were deluded, were vain and useless. Sixty-four + millions they were promised, sixty-four millions they were to + have, sixty-four millions they began to want; and slates and + pencils were just as busy then in figuring out the dividends + of the sixty-four millions, to begin on the 1st of July, as + they now are in figuring out the dividends under the forty, + fifty, and sixty millions, which are to begin on the 1st of + January next. And now behold the end of the first chapter. + The 1st of July is come, but the sixty-four millions are not + in the Treasury! It is not there; and any attempt to commence + the distribution of that sum, according to the terms of the + land bill, would bankrupt the Treasury, stop the government, + and cause Congress to be called together, to levy taxes or make + loans. So much for the land bill, which two months ago received + all the praises which are now bestowed upon the deposit bill. + So the drawing had to be postponed, the performance had to + be adjourned, and the 1st of January was substituted for the + 1st of July. This gives six months to go upon, and defers the + catastrophe of the mountain in labor until the presidential + election is over. Still the first of January must come; and the + ridicule would be too great, if there was nothing, or next to + nothing, to divide. And nothing, or next to nothing, there would + be, if the appropriations were fairly made, and made in time, + and if nothing but a surplus was left to divide. There would be + no more in the deposit bank, in that event, than has usually + been in the Bank of the United States--say ten, or twelve, or + fourteen, or sixteen millions; and from which, in the hands + of a single bank, none of those dangers to the country were + then seen which are now discovered in like sums in three dozen + unconnected and independent banks. Even after all the delays + and reductions in the appropriations, the surplus will now be + but a trifle--such a trifle as must expose to ridicule, or + something worse, all those who have tantalized the public with + the expectation of forty, fifty, or sixty millions to divide. + To avoid this fate, and to make up something for distribution, + then, the unexpended balances have been fallen upon; the law of + 1795 is nullified; the fiscal year is changed; the policy of + the government subverted; reason, justice, propriety outraged; + all contracts, labor, service, salaries cut off, interrupted, + or reduced; appropriations recaptured, and the government + paralyzed. Sir, the people are deceived; they are made to + believe that a surplus only, an unavoidable surplus, is to be + divided, when the fact is that appropriated moneys are to be + seized. + + "Sir, I am opposed to the whole policy of this measure. I am + opposed to it as going to sap the foundations of the Federal + Government, and to undo the constitution, and that by evasion, + in the very point for which the constitution was made. What + is that point? A Treasury! a Treasury! a Treasury of its own, + unconnected with, and independent of the States. It was for + this that wise and patriotic men wrote, and spoke, and prayed + for the fourteen years that intervened from the declaration of + independence, in 1776, to the formation of the constitution in + 1789. It was for this that so many appeals were made, so many + efforts exerted, so many fruitless attempts so long repeated, + to obtain from the States the power of raising revenue from + imports. It was for this that the convention of 1787 met, and + but for this they never would have met. The formation of a + federal treasury, unconnected with the States, and independent + of the States, was the cause of the meeting of that convention; + it was the great object of its labors; it was the point to which + all its exertions tended, and it was the point at which failure + would have been the failure of the whole object of the meeting, + of the whole frame of the general government, and of the whole + design of the constitution. With infinite labor, pains, and + difficulty, they succeeded in erecting the edifice of the + federal treasury; we, not builders, but destroyers, "architects + of ruin," undo in a night what they accomplished in many + years. We expunge the federal treasury; we throw the federal + government back upon States for supplies; we unhinge and undo + the constitution; and we effect our purpose by an artifice which + derides, mocks, ridicules that sacred instrument, and opens the + way to its perpetual evasion by every paltry performer that is + able to dethrone one word, and exalt another in its place. + + "I object to the time for another reason. There is no necessity + to act at all upon this subject, at this session of Congress. + The distribution is not to take effect until after we are in + session again, and when the true state of the treasury shall + be known. Its true state cannot be known now; but enough + is known to make it questionable whether there will be any + surplus, requiring a specific disposition, over and beyond the + wants of the country. Many appropriations are yet behind; two + Indian wars are yet to be finished; when the wars are over, + the vanquished Indians are to be removed to the West; and when + there, either the Federal Government or the States must raise + a force to protect the people from them. Twenty-five thousand + Creeks, seven thousand Seminoles, eighteen thousand Cherokees, + and others, making a totality of seventy-two thousand, are + to be removed; and the expenses of removal, and the year's + subsistence afterwards, is close upon seventy dollars per + head. It is a problem whether there will be any surplus worth + disposing of. The surplus party themselves admit there will + be a disappointment unless they go beyond the surplus, and + seize the appropriated moneys. The Senator from New-York [Mr. + Wright], has made an exposition, as candid and perspicuous as + it is patriotic and unanswerable, showing that there will be + an excess of appropriations over the money in the treasury on + the day that we adjourn; and that we shall have to depend upon + the accruing revenue of the remainder of the year to meet the + demands which we authorize. This is the state of the surplus + question: problematical, debatable; the weight of the evidence + and the strength of the argument entirely against it; time + enough to ascertain the truth, and yet a determination to reject + all evidence, refuse all time, rush on to the object, and + divide the money, cost what it may to the constitution, the + government, the good of the States, and the purity of elections. + The catastrophe of the land bill project ought certainly to be a + warning to us. Two months ago it was pushed through, as the only + means of saving the country, as the blessed act which was to + save the republic. It was to commence on the first day of July + its magnificent operations of distributing sixty four millions; + now it lies a corpse in the House of Representatives, a monument + of haste and folly, its very authors endeavoring to supersede + it by another measure, because it could not take effect without + ruining the country; and, what is equally important to them, + ruining themselves. + + "Admitting that the year produces more revenue than is wanting, + is it wise, is it statesmanlike, is it consonant with our + experience, to take fright at the event, and throw the money + away? Did we not have forty millions of income in the year + 1817? and did we not have an empty treasury in 1819? Instead of + taking fright and throwing the money away, the statesman should + look into the cause of things; he should take for his motto the + prayer of Virgil: _Cognoscere causa rerum_. Let me know the + cause of things; and, learning this cause, act accordingly. + If the redundant supply is accidental and transient, it will + quickly correct itself; if founded in laws, alter them. This + is the part not merely of wisdom, but of common sense: it was + the conduct of 1817, when the excessive supply was seen to be + the effect of transient causes--termination of the war and + efflorescence of the paper system--and left to correct itself, + which it did in two years. It should be the conduct now, when + the excessive income is seen to be the effect of the laws and + the paper system combined, and when legislation or regulation is + necessary to correct it. Reduction of the tariff; reduction of + the price of land to actual settlers; rejection of bank paper + from universal receivability for public dues; these are the + remedies. After all, the whole evil may be found in a single + cause, and the whole remedy may be seen in a single measure. + The public lands are exchangeable for paper. Seven hundred and + fifty machines are at work striking off paper; that paper is + performing the grand rounds, from the banks to the public lands, + and from the lands to the banks. Every body, especially a public + man, may take as much as his trunks can carry. The public domain + is changing into paper; the public treasury is filling up with + paper; the new States are deluged with paper; the currency is + ruining with paper; farmers, settlers, cultivators, are outbid, + deprived of their selected homes, or made to pay double for + them, by public men loaded, not like Philip's ass, with bags of + gold, but like bank advocates, with bales of paper. Sir, the + evil is in the unbridled state of the paper system, and in the + unchecked receivability of paper for federal dues. Here is the + evil. Banks are our masters; not one, but seven hundred and + fifty! and this splendid federal Congress, like a chained and + chastised slave, lies helpless and powerless at their feet. + + "Sir, I can see nothing but evil, turn on which side I may, + from this fatal scheme of dividing money; not surplus money, + but appropriated funds; not by an amendment, but by a derisory + evasion of the constitution. Where is it to end? History shows + us that those who begin revolutions never end them; that those + who commence innovations never limit them. Here is a great + innovation, constituting in reality--not in figure of speech, + but in reality--a revolution in the form of our government. + We set out to divide the surplus; we are now dividing the + appropriated funds. To prevent all appropriations except to the + powerful States, will be the next step; and the small States, + in self-defence, must oppose all appropriations, and go for + a division of the whole. They will have to stand together in + the Senate, and oppose all appropriations. It will not do for + the large States to take all the appropriations first, and the + bulk of the distribution afterwards; and there will be no way + to prevent it but to refuse all appropriations, divide out + the money among the States, and let each State lay it out for + itself. A new surplus party will supersede the present surplus + party, as successive factions supersede each other in chaotic + revolutions. They will make Congress the _quæstor_ of provinces, + to collect money for the States to administer. This will be + their argument: the States know best what they need, and can lay + out the money to the best advantage, and to suit themselves. + One State will want roads and no canals; another canals and no + roads; one will want forts, another troops; one wants ships, + another steam-cars; one wants high schools, another low schools; + one is for the useful arts, another is for the fine arts, for + lyceums, athenæums, museums, arts, statuary, painting, music; + and the paper State will want all for banks. Thus will things + go on, and Congress will have no appropriation to make, except + to the President, and his head clerks, and their under clerks. + Even our own pay, like it was under the confederation, may be + remitted to our own States. The eight dollars a day may be voted + to them, and supported by the argument that they can get better + men for four dollars a day; and so save half the money, and + have the work better done. Such is the progress in this road to + ruin. Sir, I say of this measure, as I said of its progenitor, + the land bill: if I could be willing to let evil pass, that + good might come of it, I should be willing to let this bill + pass. A recoil, a reaction, a revulsion must take place. This + confederacy cannot go to ruin. This Union has a place in the + hearts of the people which will save it from nullification + in disguise, as well as from nullification in arms. One word + of myself. It is now ten years since schemes of distribution + were broached upon this floor. They began with a senator from + New Jersey, now Secretary of the navy (Mr. Dickerson). They + were denounced by many, for their unconstitutionality, their + corrupting tendencies, and their fatal effects upon the federal + and State governments. I took my position then, have stood + upon it during all the modifications of the original scheme; + and continue standing upon it now. My answer then was, pay the + public debt and reduce the taxes; my answer now is, provide for + the public defences, reduce the taxes, and bridle the paper + system. On this ground I have stood--on this I stand; and never + did I feel more satisfaction and more exultation in my vote, + when triumphant in numbers, than I now do in a minority of six." + +The bill went to the House, and was concurred in by a large +majority--one hundred and fifty-five to thirty-eight--although, +under the name of distribution, there was no chance for it to pass +that House. Deeming the opposition of this small minority courageous +as well as meritorious, and deserving to be held in honorable +remembrance, their names are here set down; to wit: + + Messrs. Michael W. Ash, James M. H. Beale, Benning M. Bean, + Andrew Beaumont, John W. Brown, Robert Burns, John F. H. + Claiborne, Walter Coles, Samuel Cushman, George C. Dromgoole, + John Fairfield, William K. Fuller, Ransom H. Gillet, Joseph + Hall, Thomas L. Hamer, Leonard Jarvis, Cave Johnson, Gerrit Y. + Lansing, Gideon Lee, George Loyall, Abijah Mann, jr., John Y. + Mason, James J. McKay, John McKeon, Isaac McKim, Gorham Parks, + Franklin Pierce, Henry L. Pinckney, John Roane, James Rogers, + Nicholas Sickles, William Taylor, Francis Thomas, Joel Turrill, + Aaron Vanderpoel, Aaron Ward, Daniel Wardwell, Henry A. Wise. + +The bill passed the House, and was approved by the President, but +with a repugnance of feeling, and a recoil of judgment, which it +required great efforts of friends to overcome; and with a regret for +it afterwards which he often and publicly expressed. It was a grief +that his name was seen to such an act. It was a most unfortunate +act, a plain evasion of the constitution for a bad purpose--soon +gave a sad overthrow to the democracy--and disappointed every +calculation made upon it. Politically, it was no advantage to +its numerous and emulous supporters--of no disservice to its few +determined opponents--only four in number, in the Senate, the two +senators from Mississippi voting against it, for reasons found +in the constitution of their State. To the States, it was of no +advantage, raising expectations which were not fulfilled, and upon +which many of them acted as realities, and commenced enterprises to +which they were inadequate. It was understood that some of Mr. Van +Buren's friends favored the President's approval, and recommended +him to sign it--induced by the supposed effect which its rejection +might have on the democratic party in the election. The opponents +of the bill did not visit the President to give him their opinions, +nor had he heard their arguments. If they had seen him, their +opinions concurring with his own feelings and judgment, his conduct +might have been different, and the approval of the act withheld. It +might not have prevented the act from becoming a law, as two thirds +in each House might have been found to support it; but it would +have deprived the bill of the odor of his name, and saved himself +from subsequent regrets. In a party point of view, it was the +commencement of calamities, being an efficient cause in that general +suspension of specie payments, which quickly occurred, and brought +so much embarrassment on the Van Buren administration, ending in the +great democratic defeat of 1840. But of this hereafter. + + + + +CHAPTER CXLIII. + +RECHARTER OF THE DISTRICT BANKS--SPEECH OF MR. BENTON: THE PARTS OF +LOCAL AND TEMPORARY INTEREST OMITTED. + + +"Mr. Benton rose to oppose the passage of the bill, notwithstanding +it was at the third reading, and that it was not usual to continue +opposition, which seemed to be useless, at that late stage. +But there were occasions when he never took such things into +calculation, and when he continued to resist pernicious measures, +regardless of common usages, as long as the forms of parliamentary +proceeding would allow him to go on. Thus he had acted at the +passing of the United States Bank charter, in 1832; thus he did +at the passing of the resolution against President Jackson, in +1834; and thus he did at the passing of the famous land bill, at +the present session. He had continued to speak against all these +measures, long after speaking seemed to be of any avail; and, +far from regretting, he had reason to rejoice at the course that +he had pursued. The event proved him to be right; for all these +measures, though floated through this chamber upon the swelling +wave of a resistless and impatient majority, had quickly run their +brief career. Their day of triumph had been short. The bank charter +perished at the first general election; the condemnatory resolution +was received by the continent in a tempest of execration; and +the land bill, that last hope of expiring party, has dropped an +abortion from the Senate. It is dead even here, in this chamber, +where it originated--where it was once so omnipotent that, to speak +against it, was deemed by some to be an idle consumption of time, +and by others to be an unparliamentary demonstration against the +ascertained will of the House. Yet, that land bill is finished. +That brief candle is out. The Senate has revoked that bill; has +retracted, recanted, and sung its palinode over that unfortunate +conception. It has sent out a committee--an extraordinary committee +of nine--to devise some other scheme for dividing that same money +which the land bill divides! and, in doing so, the Senate has +authentically declared a change of opinion, and a revocation of its +sentiments in favor of that bill. Thus it has happened, in recent +and signal cases, that, by continuing the contest after the battle +seemed to be lost, the battle was in fact gained; and so it may be +again. These charters may yet be defeated; and whether they will +be or not, is nothing to me. I believe them to be wrong--greatly, +immeasurably wrong!--and shall continue to oppose them without +regard to calculations, or consequences, until the rules of +parliamentary proceeding shall put an end to the contest. Mr. B. +said he had moved for a select committee, at the commencement of +the session, to examine into the condition of these banks, and he +had done so with no other object than to endeavor to provide some +checks and guards for the security of the country against the abuses +and excesses of the paper system. The select committee had not been +raised. The standing Committee on the District of Columbia had been +charged with the subject; and, seeing that they had made a report +adverse to his opinions, and brought in a bill which he could not +sanction, it would be his part to act upon the meagre materials +which had been placed before the Senate and endeavor to accomplish +as a member of that body, what could have been attempted, with +better prospects of success, as a member of a committee which had +had the management of the subject. + +"Mr. B. said he had wished to have been on a select committee for +the charter of these banks; he wished to have revived the idea of a +bank without circulation, and to have disconnected the government +from the banking of the district. He had failed in his attempt to +raise such a committee; and, as an individual member of the Senate, +he could now do no more than mention in debate the ideas which he +would have wished to have ripened into legislation through the +instrumentality of a committee. + +"Mr. B. said he had demonstrated that no bank of circulation ought +to be authorized in this district; and, he would add, that none to +furnish currency, except of large notes, ought to be authorized +any where; yet what are we doing? We are breeding six little +corporations at a birth, to issue $2,250,000 of paper currency: +and on what terms? No bonus; no tax on the capital; none on the +circulation; no reduction of interest in lieu of bonus or tax; +no specie but what the stockholders please to put in; and no +liability on the part of the stockholders for a failure of these +corporations to redeem their notes and pay their debts. This is +what we are doing; and now let us see what burdens and taxes +these six corporations will impose upon the business part of the +community--the productive classes among which they are to be +perpetuated. First, there is the support of these six corporation +governments; for every bank must have a government, like a State +or kingdom; and the persons who administer these corporation +governments must be paid, and paid by the people, and that according +to the rates fixed by themselves and not by the people. Each of +these six banks must have its president, cashier, clerks, and +messengers; its notary public to protest notes; and its attorney +to bring suits. The aggregate salaries, fees, and perquisites, of +all these officers of the six banks will be the first tax on the +people. Next comes the profits to the stockholders. The nett profits +of banks are usually eight to ten per cent. at present; the gross +profits are several per cent. more; and the gross profits are what +the people pay. Assuming the gross profits to be twelve per cent., +and the annual levy upon the community will be about $270,000. The +third loss to the community will be on the fluctuations of prices +of labor and property, and the rise and fall of stocks, from the +expansions and contractions of currency, produced by making money +plenty or scarce, as it suits the interest of the bank managers. +This item cannot be calculated and depends entirely upon the +moderation and consciences of the Neptunes who preside over the flux +and reflux of the paper ocean; and to whom all tides, whether of ebb +or flow, and all conditions of the sea, whether of calm or storm, +are equally welcome, equally auspicious, and equally productive. +Then come three other heads of loss to the community, and of profit +to the bank: loss of notes from wear and tear, counterfeits imposed +upon the people for good notes, and good notes rejected by the banks +for counterfeits; and then the loss to the holders from the stoppage +and failure of banks, and the shaving in of notes and stocks. Such +are the burdens and taxes to be imposed upon the people to give +them a paper currency, when, if the paper currency were kept away, +and only large notes used, as in France, they would have a gold and +silver currency without paying a tax to any body for it, and without +being subject to any of the frightful evils resulting from the paper +system. + +"Objecting to all banks of circulation, but not able to suppress +them entirely, Mr. B. suggested some ameliorations in the charters +proposed to be granted to render them less dangerous to the +community. 1. The liability of the stockholders for all the debts of +the institution, as in the Scottish banks. 2. The bank stock to be +subject to taxation, like other property. 3. To issue or receive no +note of less than twenty dollars. 4. The charters to be repealable +at the will of Congress: and he gave reasons for each of these +improvements; and first for the liability of the stockholders. He +said: + +"Reasons for this liability were strong and palpable. A man that +owes should pay while he has property to pay with; and it is +iniquitous and unjustifiable that a bank director, or stockholder, +should riot in wealth while the business part of the community +should hold the bank notes which they have put into circulation, and +be able to get nothing for them after the bank had closed its doors. +Such exemptions are contrary to the rights of this community, and +one of the great causes of the failure of banks. A liability in the +stockbrokers is one of the best securities which the public can +have for the correct management and solvency of the institution. +The famous Scottish banks, which, in upwards of one hundred years' +operations, had neither once convulsed the country with contractions +and expansions, nor once stopped payment, were constituted upon this +principle. All the country banks in England, and all the bankers on +the continent of Europe, were liable to a still greater degree; for +in them each stockholder, or partner, was liable, individually, for +the whole amount of the debts of the bank. The principle proposed to +be incorporated in these charters strikes the just medium between +the common law principle, which makes each partner liable for the +whole debts of the firm; and the corporation principle in the United +States, which absolves each from all liability, and leaves the +penniless and soulless carcase of a defunct and eviscerated bank +alone responsible to the community. Liability to the amount of the +stock was an equitable principle, and with summary process for the +recovery of the amounts of notes and deposits, and the invalidity of +transfers of stock to avoid this liability, would be found a good +remedy for a great evil. If the stockholders in the three banks +which stopped payment in this city during the panic session had been +thus liable, the notes would not have been shaved out of the hands +of the holders; if the bank which stopped in Baltimore at the same +time, had been subject to this principle, the riots, which have +afflicted that city in consequence of that stoppage, would not have +taken place. Instead of these losses and riots, law and remedy would +have prevailed; every stockholder would have been summoned before a +justice of the peace--judgment granted against him on motion--for +the amount held by the complainant; and so on, until all were paid, +or he could plead that he had paid up the whole amount of his stock." + +The evil of small notes he classed under three general heads: 1. The +banishment of gold and silver. 2. Encouragement to counterfeiting. +3. Throwing the burthens and losses of the paper system upon the +laboring and small-dealing part of the community, who have no share +in the profits of banking, and should not be made to bear its +losses. On these points, he said: + +"The instinct of banks to sink their circulation to the lowest +denomination of notes which can be forced upon the community, is a +trait in the system universally proved to exist wherever banks of +circulation have been permitted to give a currency to a country; +and the effect of that instinct has always been to banish gold and +silver. When the Bank of England was chartered, in the year 1694, +it could issue no note less than £100 sterling; that amount was +gradually reduced by the persevering efforts of the bank, to £50; +then to £20; then to £15; then to £10; at last to £5; and finally to +£2 and £1. Those last denominations were not reached until the year +1797, or until one hundred and three years after the institution of +the bank; and as the several reductions in the size of the notes, +and the consequent increase of paper currency took place, gold +became more and more scarce; and with the issue of the one and two +pound notes, it totally disappeared from the country. + +"This effect was foretold by all political economists, and +especially by Mr. Burke, then aged and retired from public life, +who wrote from his retreat, to Mr. Canning, to say to Mr. Pitt, the +Prime Minister, these prophetic words: 'If this bill for the one and +two pounds is permitted to pass, we shall never see another guinea +in England.' The bill did pass, and the prediction was fulfilled; +for not another guinea, half guinea, or sovereign, was seen in +England, for circulation, until the bill was repealed two and twenty +years afterwards! After remaining nearly a quarter of a century +without a gold circulation, England abolished her one and two pound +notes, limited her paper currency to £5 sterling, required all Bank +of England notes to be paid in gold, and allowed four years for +the act to take effect. Before the four years were out, the Bank +of England reported to Parliament that it was ready to begin gold +payments; and commenced accordingly, and has continued them ever +since. + +"The encouragement of counterfeiting was the next great evil +which Mr. B. pointed out as belonging to a small note currency; +and of all the denominations of notes, he said those of one and +two pounds in England (corresponding with fives and tens in the +United States), were those to which the demoralizing business of +counterfeiting was chiefly directed! They were the chosen game +of the forging depredator! and that, for the obvious reasons that +fives and tens were small enough to pass currently among persons +not much acquainted with bank paper, and large enough to afford +some profit to compensate for the expense and labor of producing +the counterfeit, and the risk of passing it. Below fives, the +profits are too small for the labor and risk. Too many have to be +forged and passed before an article of any value can be purchased; +and the change to be got in silver, in passing one for a small +article, is too little. Of twenty and upwards, though the profit +is greater on passing them, yet the danger of detection is also +greater. On account of its larger size, the note is not only more +closely scrutinized before it is received, and the passer of it +better remembered, but the circulation of them is more confined to +business men and large dealers, and silver change will not be given +for them in buying small articles. The fives and tens, then, in +the United States, like the £1 and £2 in England, are the peculiar +game of counterfeiters, and this is fully proved by the criminal +statistics of the forgery department in both countries. According to +returns made to the British Parliament for twenty-two years--from +1797 to 1819--the period in which the one and two pound notes +were allowed to circulate, the whole number of prosecutions for +counterfeiting, or passing counterfeit notes of the Bank of England, +was 998: in that number there were 313 capital convictions; 530 +inferior convictions; and 155 acquittals: and the sum of £249,900, +near a million and a quarter of dollars, was expended by the bank +in attending to prosecutions. Of this great number of prosecutions, +the returns show that the mass of them were for offences connected +with the one and two pound notes. The proportion may be distinctly +seen in the number of counterfeit notes of different denominations +detected at the Bank of England in a given period of time--from the +1st of January, 1812, to the 10th of April, 1818--being a period of +six years and three months out of the twenty-two years that the one +and two pound notes continued to circulate. The detections were, of +one pound notes, the number of 107,238; of two pound notes, 17,787; +of five pound notes, 5,826; of ten pound notes, 419; of twenty pound +notes, 54. Of all above twenty pounds, 35. The proportion of ones +and twos to the other sizes may be well seen in the tables for this +brief period; but to have any idea of the mass of counterfeiting +done upon those small notes, the whole period of twenty-two years +must be considered, and the entire kingdom of Great Britain taken +in; for the list only includes the number of counterfeits detected +at the counter of the bank; a place to which the guilty never carry +their forgeries, and to which a portion only of those circulating +in and about London could be carried. The proportion of crime +connected with the small notes is here shown to be enormously +and frightfully great. The same results are found in the United +States. Mr. B. had looked over the statistics of crime connected +with the counterfeiting of bank notes in the United States, and +found the ratio between the great and small notes to be about +the same that it was in England. He had had recourse to the most +authentic data--Bicknell's Counterfeit Detector--and there found +the editions of counterfeit notes of the local or State banks, to +be eight hundred and eighteen, of which seven hundred and fifty-six +were of ten dollars and under; and sixty-two editions only were of +twenty dollars and upwards. Of the Bank of the United States and +its branches, he found eighty-two editions of fives; seventy-one +editions of tens; twenty-six editions of twenties; and two editions +of fifties; still showing that in the United States, as well as in +England, on local banks as well as that of the United States, the +course of counterfeiting was still the same; and that the whole +stress of the crime fell upon the five and ten dollar notes in this +country, and their corresponding classes, the one and two pound +notes in England. Mr. B. also exhibited the pages of Bicknell's +Counterfeit Detector, a pamphlet covered over column after column +with its frightful lists, nearly all under twenty dollars; and he +called upon the Senate in the sacred name of the morals of the +country--in the name of virtue and morality--to endeavor to check +the fountain of this crime, by stopping the issue of the description +of notes on which it exerted nearly its whole force. + +"Mr. B. could not quit the evils of the crime of counterfeiting in +the United States without remarking that the difficulty of legal +detection and punishment was so great, owing to the distance at +which the counterfeits were circulated from the banks purporting +to issue them, and the still greater difficulty (in most cases +impossible) of getting witnesses to attend in person, in States +in which they do not reside, the counterfeiters all choosing to +practise their crime and circulate their forgeries in States +which do not contain the banks whose paper they are imitating. So +difficult is it to obtain the attendance of witnesses in other +States, that the crime of counterfeiting is almost practised with +impunity. The notes under $20 feed and supply this crime; let them +be stopped, and ninety-nine hundredths of this crime will stop with +them. + +"A third objection which Mr. B. urged against the notes under +twenty dollars was, that nearly the whole evils of that part of +the paper system fell upon the laboring and small dealing part of +the community. Nearly all the counterfeits lodged in their hands, +or were shaved out of their hands. When a bank failed, the mass +of its circulation being in small notes, sunk upon their hands. +The gain to the banks from the wear and tear of small notes, came +out of them; the loss from the same cause, falling upon them. The +ten or twelve percent. annual profit for furnishing a currency in +place of gold and silver (for which no interest would be paid to +the mint or the government), chiefly falls upon them; for the paper +currency is chiefly under twenty dollars. These evils they almost +exclusively bear, while they have, over and above all these, their +full proportion of all the evils resulting from the expansions and +contractions which are incessantly going on, totally destroying the +standard of value, periodically convulsing the country; and in every +cycle of five or six years making a lottery of all property, in +which all the prizes are drawn by bank managers and their friends. + +"He wished the basis of circulation throughout the country to be in +hard money. Farmers, laborers, and market people, ought to receive +their payments in hard money. They ought not to be put to the risk +of receiving bank notes in all their small dealings. They are no +judges of good or bad notes. Counterfeits are sure to fall upon +their hands; and the whole business of counterfeiting was mainly +directed to such notes as they handle--those under twenty dollars. + +"Mr. B. said he here wished to fix the attention of those who +were in favor of a respectable paper currency--a currency of +respectable-sized notes of twenty dollars and upwards--on the great +fact, that the larger the specie basis, the larger and safer would +be the superstructure of paper which rested upon it; the smaller +that specie basis, the smaller and more unsafe must be the paper +which rested on it. The currency of England is $300,000,000, to +wit: £8,000,000 sterling (near $40,000,000) in silver; £22,000,000 +sterling (above $100,000,000) in gold; and about £30,000,000 +sterling (near $150,000,000) in bank notes. The currency of the +United States is difficult to be ascertained, from the multitude of +banks, and the incessant ebb and flow of their issues; calculations +vary; but all put the paper circulation at less than $100,000,000; +and the proportion of specie and paper, at more than one half paper. +This is agreed upon all hands, and is sufficient for the practical +result, that an increase of our specie to $100,000,000, and the +suppression of small notes, will give a larger total circulation +than we now have, and a safer one. The total circulation may +then be $200,000,000, in the proportions of half paper and half +specie; and the specie, half gold and half silver. This would be an +immense improvement upon our present condition, both in quantity +and in quality; the paper part would become respectable from the +suppression of notes under twenty dollars, which are of no profit +except to the banks which issue them, and the counterfeiters +who imitate them; the specie part would be equally improved by +becoming one half gold. Mr. B. could not quit this important point, +namely, the practicability of soon obtaining a specie currency of +$100,000,000, and the one half gold, without giving other proofs +to show the facility with which it has been every where done when +attempted. He referred to our own history immediately after the +Revolution, when the disappearance of paper money was instantly +followed, as if by magic, by the appearance of gold and silver; +to France, where the energy of the great Napoleon, then first +consul, restored an abundant supply of gold and silver in one +year; to England, where the acquisition of gold was at the rate of +$24,000,000 per annum for four years after the notes under five +pounds were ordered to be suppressed; and he referred with triumph +to our own present history, when, in defiance of an immense and +powerful political and moneyed combination against gold, we will +have acquired about $20,000,000 of that metal in the two concluding +years of President Jackson's administration. + +"Mr. B. took this occasion to express his regret that the true idea +of banks seemed to be lost in this country, and that here we had +but little conception of a bank, except as an issuer of currency. +A bank of discount and deposit, in contradistinction to a bank of +circulation, is hardly thought of in the United States; and it may +be news to some bank projectors, who suppose that nothing can be +done without banks to issue millions of paper, to learn that the +great bankers in London and Paris, and other capitals of Europe, +issue no paper; and, still more, it may be news to them to learn +that Liverpool and Manchester, two cities which happen to do about +as much business as a myriad of such cities as this our Washington +put together, also happen to have no banks to issue currency for +them. They use money and bills of exchange, and have banks of +discount and deposit, but no banks of circulation. Mr. Gallatin, in +his Essay upon Currency, thus speaks of them: + +"'There are, however, even in England, where incorporated country +banks issuing paper are as numerous, and have been attended with +the same advantages, and the same evils, as our country banks, some +extensive districts, highly industrious and prosperous, where no +such bank does exist, and where that want is supplied by bills of +exchange drawn on London. This is the case in Lancashire, which +includes Liverpool and Manchester, and where such bills, drawn at +ninety days after date, are indorsed by each successive holder, and +circulate through numerous persons before they reach their ultimate +destination, and are paid by the drawee.' + +"Mr. B. greatly regretted that such banks as those in Liverpool +and Manchester were not in vogue in the United States. They were +the right kind of banks. They did great good, and were wholly free +from mischief. They lent money; they kept money; they transferred +credits on books; they bought and sold bills of exchange; and +these bills, circulating through many hands, and indorsed by each, +answered the purpose of large bank notes, without their dangers, and +became stronger every time they were passed. To the banks it was a +profitable business to sell them, because they got both exchange and +interest. To the commercial community they were convenient, both +as a remittance and as funds in hand. To the community they were +entirely safe. Banks of discount and deposit in the United States, +issuing no currency, and issuing no bank note except of $100 and +upwards, and dealing in exchange, would be entitled to the favor and +confidence of the people and of the federal government. Such banks +only should be the depositories of the public moneys. + +"It is the faculty of issuing paper currency which makes banks +dangerous to the country, and the height to which this danger has +risen in the United States, and the progress which it is making, +should rouse and alarm the whole community. It is destroying all +standard of value. It is subjecting the country to demoralizing +and ruinous fluctuations of price. It is making a lottery of +property, and making merchandise of money, which has to be bought +by the ticket holders in the great lottery at two and three per +cent. a month. It is equivalent to the destruction of weights and +measures, and like buying and selling without counting, weighing, +or measuring. It is the realization, in a different form, of the +debasement and arbitrary alteration of the value of coins practised +by the kings of Europe in former ages, and now by the Sultan of +Turkey. It is extinguishing the idea of fixed, moderate, annual +interest. Great duties are thus imposed upon the legislator; and +the first of these duties is to revive and favor the class of banks +of discount and deposit; banks to make loans, keep money, transfer +credits on books, buy and sell exchange, deal in bullion; but to +issue no paper. This class of banks should be revived and favored; +and the United States could easily revive them by confiding to them +the public deposits. The next great duty of the legislator is to +limit the issues of banks of circulation, and make them indemnify +the community in some little degree, by refunding, in annual taxes, +some part of their undue gains. + +"The progress of the banking business is alarming and deplorable in +the United States. It is now computed that there are 750 banks and +their branches in operation, all having authority to issue currency; +and, what is worse, all that currency is receivable by the federal +government. The quantity of chartered bank capital, as it is called, +is estimated at near $800,000,000; the amount of this capital +reported by the banks to have been paid in is about $300,000,000; +and the quantity of paper money which they are authorized by their +charters to issue is about $750,000,000. How much of this is +actually issued can never be known with any precision; for such are +the fluctuations in the amount of a paper currency, flowing from +750 fountains, that the circulation of one day cannot be relied +upon for the next. The amount of capital, reported to be paid in, +is, however, well ascertained, and that is fixed at $300,000,000. +This, upon its face, and without recourse to any other evidence, is +proof that our banking system, as a whole, is unsolid and delusive, +and a frightful imposition upon the people. Nothing but specie can +form the capital of a bank; there are not above sixty or seventy +millions of specie in the country, and, of that, the banks have not +the one half. Thirty millions in specie is the extent; the remainder +of the capital must have been made up of that undefinable material +called 'specie funds,' or 'funds equivalent to specie,' the fallacy +of which is established by the facts already stated, and which show +that all the specie in the country put together is not sufficient +to meet the one fifth part of these 'specie funds,' or 'funds +equivalent to specie.' The equivalent, then, does not exist! credit +alone exists; and any general attempt to realize these 'specie +funds,' and turn them into specie, would explode the whole banking +system, and cover the country with ruin. There may be some solid and +substantial banks in the country, and undoubtedly there are better +and worse among them; but as a whole--and it is in that point of +view the community is interested--as a whole, the system is unsolid +and delusive; and there is no safety for the country until great and +radical reforms are effected. + +"The burdens which these 750 banks impose upon the people were +then briefly touched by Mr. B. It was a great field, which he had +not time to explore, but which could not, in justice, be entirely +passed by. First, there were the salaries and fees of 750 sets of +bank officers: presidents, cashiers, clerks, messengers, notaries +public to protest notes, and attorneys to sue on them; all these +had salaries, and good salaries, paid by the people, though the +people had no hand in fixing these salaries: next, the profits to +the stockholders, which, at an average of ten per centum gross +would give thirty millions of dollars, all levied upon the people; +then came the profits to the brokers, first cousins to the bankers, +for changing notes for money, or for other notes at par; then the +gain to the banks and their friends on speculations in property, +merchandise, produce, and stocks, during the periodical visitations +of the expansions and contractions of the currency; then the gain +from the wear and tear of notes, which is so much loss to the +people; and, finally, the great chapter of counterfeiting which, +without being profitable to the bank, is a great burden to the +people, on whose hands all the counterfeits sink. The amount of +these burdens he could not compute; but there was one item about +which there was no dispute--the salaries to the officers and the +profits to the stockholders--and this presented an array of names +more numerous, and an amount of money more excessive, than was to be +found in the 'Blue Book,' with the Army and Navy Register inclusive. + +"Mr. B. said this was a faint sketch of the burdens of the banking +system as carried on in the United States, where every bank is a +coiner of paper currency, and where every town, in some States, +must have its banks of circulation, while such cities as Liverpool +and Manchester have no such banks, and where the paper money of all +these machines receive wings to fly over the whole continent, and +to infest the whole land, from their universal receivability by the +federal government in payment of all dues at their custom-houses, +land-offices, post-offices, and by all the district attorneys, +marshals, and clerks, employed under the federal judiciary. The +improvidence of the States, in chartering such institutions, is +great and deplorable; but their error was trifling, compared to the +improvidence of the federal government in taking the paper coinage +of all these banks for the currency of the federal government, +maugre that clause in the constitution which recognizes nothing but +gold and silver for currency, and which was intended for ever to +defend and preserve this Union from the evils of paper money. + +"Mr. B. averred, with a perfect knowledge of the fact, that the +banking system of the United States was on a worse footing than +it was in any country upon the face of the earth; and that, in +addition to its deep and dangerous defects, it was also the most +expensive and burdensome, and gave the most undue advantages to +one part of the community over another. He had no doubt but that +this banking system was more burdensome to the free citizens of the +United States than ever the feudal system was to the villeins, and +serfs, and peasants of Europe. And what did they get in return for +this vast burden? A pestiferous currency of small paper! when they +might have a gold currency without paying interest, or suffering +losses, if their banks, like those in Liverpool and Manchester, +issued no currency except as bills of exchange; or, like the Bank of +France, issued no notes but those of 500 and 1,000 francs (say $100 +and $500); or even, like the Bank of England, issued no note under +£5 sterling, and payable in gold. And with how much real capital +is this banking system, so burdensome to the people of the United +States, carried on? About $30,000,000! Yes; on about $30,000,000 of +specie rests the $300,000,000 paid in, and on which the community +are paying interest, and giving profits to bankers, and blindly +yielding their faith and confidence, as if the whole $300,000,000 +was a solid bed of gold and silver, instead of being, as it is, one +tenth part specie, and nine tenths paper credit!" + +Other senators spoke against the recharter of these banks, without +the amelioration of their charters which the public welfare +required; but without effect. The amendments were all rejected, +and the bill passed for the recharter of the whole six by a large +vote--26 to 14. The yeas and nays were: + + YEAS.--Messrs. Black, Buchanan, Calhoun, Clay, Crittenden, + Cuthbert, Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Goldsborough, Hendricks, + Hubbard, Kent, King of Alabama, Knight, Leigh, Naudain, + Nicholas, Porter, Prentiss, Rives, Southard, Swift, Tallmadge, + Tomlinson, Walker, Webster. + + NAYS.--Messrs. Benton, Ewing of Illinois, King of Georgia, Linn, + McKean, Mangum, Morris, Niles, Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley, Wall, + White, Wright. + + + + +CHAPTER CXLIV. + +INDEPENDENCE OF TEXAS. + + +During several months memorials had been coming in from public +meetings in different cities in favor of acknowledging the +independence of Texas--the public feeling in behalf of the people +of that small revolted province, strong from the beginning of the +contest, now inflamed into rage from the massacres of the Alamo +and of Goliad. Towards the middle of May news of the victory of +San Jacinto arrived at Washington. Public feeling no longer knew +any bounds. The people were exalted--Congress not less so--and +a feeling for the acknowledgment of Texian independence, if not +universal, almost general. The sixteenth of May--the first sitting +of the Senate after this great news--Mr. Mangum, of North Carolina, +presented the proceedings of a public meeting in Burke county, of +that State, praying Congress to acknowledge the independence of the +young republic. Mr. Preston said: "The effects of that victory had +opened up a curtain to a most magnificent scene. This invader had +come at the head of his forces, urged on by no ordinary impulse--by +an infuriate fanaticism--by a superstitious catholicism, goaded on +by a miserable priesthood, against that invincible Anglo-Saxon race, +the van of which now approaches the _del Norte_. It was at once a +war of religion and of liberty. And when that noble race engaged in +a war, victory was sure to perch upon their standard. This was not +merely the retribution of the cruel war upon the Alamo, but that +tide which was swollen by this extraordinary victory would roll +on; and it was not in the spirit of prophecy to say where it would +stop." Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, said: + + "He had, upon the 22d of April last, called the attention of the + Senate to the struggle in Texas, and suggested the reservation + of any surplus that might remain in the treasury, for the + purpose of acquiring Texas from whatever government might remain + the government _de facto_ of that country. At that period (said + Mr. W.) no allusion had been made, he believed, by any one in + either House of Congress to the situation of affairs in Texas. + And now (said Mr. W.), upon the very day that he had called the + attention of the Senate to this subject, it appeared that Santa + Anna had been captured, and his army overthrown. Mr. W. said he + had never doubted this result. When on the 22d of April last, + resolutions were introduced before the Senate by the senator + from Ohio (Mr. Morris), requesting Congress to recognize the + independence of Texas, he (Mr. W.) had opposed laying these + resolutions on the table, and advocated their reference to + a committee of the Senate. Mr. W. said he had addressed the + Senate then under very different circumstances from those which + now existed. The cries of the expiring prisoners at the Alamo + were then resounding in our ears; the victorious usurper was + advancing onward with his exterminating warfare, and, in the + minds of many, all was gloom and despondency; but Mr. W. said + that the published report of our proceedings demonstrated that + he did not for a moment despond; that his confidence in the + rifle of the West was firm and unshaken; and that he had then + declared that the sun was not more certain to set in the western + horizon, than that Texas would maintain her independence; and + this sentiment he had taken occasion to repeat in the debate on + this subject in the Senate on the 9th of May last. Mr. W. said + that what was then prediction was now reality; and his heart + beat high, and his pulse throbbed with delight, in contemplating + this triumph of liberty. Sir (said Mr. W.), the people of the + valley of the Mississippi never could have permitted Santa Anna + and his myrmidons to retain the dominion of Texas." + +Mr. Walker afterwards moved the reference of all the memorials in +relation to Texas to the Committee on Foreign Relations. If the +accounts received from Texas had been official (for as yet there +were nothing but newspaper accounts of the great victory), he would +have moved for the immediate recognition of the Texian independence. +Being unofficial, he could only move the reference to the committee +in the expectation that they would investigate the facts and bring +the subject before the Senate in a suitable form for action. Mr. +Webster said: + + "That if the people of Texas had established a government _de + facto_, it was undoubtedly the duty of this government to + acknowledge their independence. The time and manner of doing + so, however, were all matters proper for grave and mature + consideration. He should have been better satisfied, had this + matter not been moved again till all the evidence had been + collected, and until they had received official information of + the important events that had taken place in Texas. As this + proceeding had been moved by a member of the administration + party, he felt himself bound to understand that the Executive + was not opposed to take the first steps now, and that in + his opinion this proceeding was not dangerous or premature. + Mr. W. was of opinion that it would be best not to act with + precipitation. If this information was true, they would + doubtless before long hear from Texas herself; for as soon as + she felt that she was a country, and had a country, she would + naturally present her claims to her neighbors, to be recognized + as an independent nation. He did not say that it would be + necessary to wait for this event, but he thought it would be + discreet to do so. He would be one of the first to acknowledge + the independence of Texas, on reasonable proof that she had + established a government. There were views connected with Texas + which he would not now present, as it would be premature to do + so; but he would observe that he had received some information + from a respectable source, which turned his attention to the + very significant expression used by Mr. Monroe in his message + of 1822, that no European Power should ever be permitted to + establish a colony on the American continent. He had no doubt + that attempts would be made by some European government to + obtain a cession of Texas from the government of Mexico." + +Mr. King, of Alabama, counselled moderation and deliberation, +although he was aware that in the present excited feeling in +relation to Texas, every prudent and cautious course would be +misunderstood, and a proper reserve be probably construed into +hostility to Texian independence: but he would, so long as he +remained a member on that floor, be regardless of every personal +consideration, and place himself in opposition to all measures which +he conceived were calculated to detract from the exalted character +of this country for good faith, and for undeviating adherence to all +its treaty stipulations. He then went on to say: + + "He knew not whether the information received of the + extraordinary successes of the Texans was to be relied on or + not; he sincerely hoped it might prove true; no man here felt + a deeper detestation of the bloodthirsty wretches who had + cruelly butchered their defenceless prisoners, than he did; + but, whether true or false, did it become wise, discreet, + prudent men, bound by the strongest considerations to preserve + the honor and faith of the country, to be hurried along by the + effervescence of feeling, and at once abandon the course, and, + he would say, the only true course, which this government has + invariably, heretofore, pursued towards foreign powers? We have + uniformly (said Mr. K.) recognized the existing governments--the + governments _de facto_; we have not stopped to inquire whether + it is a despotic or constitutional government; whether it is + a republic or a despotism. All we ask is, does a government + actually exist? and, having satisfied ourselves of that fact, + we look no further, but recognize it as it is. It was on this + principle (said Mr. K.)--this safe, this correct principle, + that we recognized what was called the Republic of France, + founded on the ruins of the old monarchy; then, the consular + government; a little after, the imperial; and when that was + crushed by a combination of all Europe, and that extraordinary + man who wielded it was driven into exile, we again acknowledged + the kingly government of the House of Bourbon, and now the + constitutional King Louis Philippe of Orleans. + + "Sir (said Mr. K.), we take things as they are; we ask not + how governments are established--by what revolutions they are + brought into existence. Let us see an independent government in + Texas, and he would not be behind the senator from Mississippi + nor the senator from South Carolina in pressing forward to its + recognition, and establishing with it the most cordial and + friendly relations." + +Mr. Calhoun went beyond all other speakers, and advocated not +only immediate recognition of the independence of Texas, but her +simultaneous admission into the Union; was in favor of acting on +both questions together, and at the present session; and saw an +interest in the slaveholding States in preventing Texas from having +the power to annoy them. And he said: + + "He was of opinion that it would add more strength to the cause + of Texas, to wait for a few days, until they received official + confirmation of the victory and capture of Santa Anna, in order + to obtain a more unanimous vote in favor of the recognition of + Texas. He had been of but one opinion, from the beginning, that, + so far from Mexico being able to reduce Texas, there was great + danger of Mexico, herself, being conquered by the Texans. The + result of one battle had placed the ruler of Mexico in the power + of the Texans; and they were now able, either to dictate what + terms they pleased to him, or to make terms with the opposition + in Mexico. This extraordinary meeting had given a handful of + brave men a most powerful control over the destinies of Mexico; + he trusted they would use their victory with moderation. He + had made up his mind not only to recognize the independence of + Texas, but for her admission into this Union; and if the Texans + managed their affairs prudently, they would soon be called upon + to decide that question. No man could suppose for a moment + that that country could ever come again under the dominion of + Mexico; and he was of opinion that it was not for our interests + that there should be an independent community between us and + Mexico. There were powerful reasons why Texas should be a part + of this Union. The Southern States, owning a slave population, + were deeply interested in preventing that country from having + the power to annoy them; and the navigating and manufacturing + interests of the North and the East were equally interested in + making it a part of this Union. He thought they would soon be + called on to decide these questions; and when they did act on + it, he was for acting on both together--for recognizing the + independence of Texas, and for admitting her into the Union. + Though he felt the deepest solicitude on this subject, he was + for acting calmly, deliberately, and cautiously, but at the same + time with decision and firmness. They should not violate their + neutrality; but when they were once satisfied that Texas had + established a government, they should do as they had done in + all other similar cases: recognize her as an independent nation; + and if her people, who were once citizens of this Republic, + wished to come back to us, he would receive them with open arms. + If events should go on as they had done, he could not but hope + that, before the close of the present session of Congress, they + would not only acknowledge the independence of Texas, but admit + her into the Union. He hoped there would be no unnecessary + delay, for, in such cases, delays were dangerous; but that they + would act with unanimity, and act promptly." + +The author of this View did not reply to Mr. Calhoun, being then on +ill terms with him; but he saw in the speech much to be considered +and remembered--the shadowings forth of coming events; the +revelation of a new theatre for the slavery agitation; and a design +to make the Texas question an element in the impending election. Mr. +Calhoun had been one of Mr. Monroe's cabinet, at the time that Texas +was ceded to Spain, and for reasons (as Mr. Monroe stated to General +Jackson, in the private letter heretofore quoted) of internal policy +and consideration; that is to say, to conciliate the free States, +by amputating slave territory, and preventing their opposition +to future Southern presidential candidates. He did not use those +precise words, but that was the meaning of the words used. The +cession of Texas was made in the crisis of the Missouri controversy; +and both Mr. Monroe and Mr. Calhoun received the benefit of the +conciliation it produced: Mr. Monroe in the re-election, almost +unanimous, of 1820; and Mr. Calhoun in the vice-presidential +elections of 1824 and 1828; in which he was so much a favorite of +the North as to get more votes than Mr. Adams received in the free +States, and owed to them his honorable election by the people, when +all others were defeated, on the popular vote. Their justification +(that of Mr. Monroe's cabinet) for this cession of a great province, +was, that the loss was temporary--"that it could be got back again +whenever it was wanted"--but the victory of San Jacinto was hardly +foreseen at that time. It was these reasons (Northern conciliation, +and getting it back when we pleased) that reconciled General Jackson +to the cession, at the time it was made. One of the foremost to give +away Texas, Mr. Calhoun was the very foremost to get her back; and +at an immense cost to our foreign relations and domestic peace. The +immediate admission of Texas into the Union, was his plan. She was +at war with Mexico--we at peace: to incorporate her into the Union, +was to adopt her war. We had treaties of amity with Mexico: to join +Texas in the war, was to be faithless to those treaties. We had a +presidential election depending; and to discuss the question of +Texian admission into our Union, was to bring that element into the +canvass, in which all prudent men who were adverse to the admission +(as Mr. Van Buren and his friends were), would be thrown under the +force of an immense popular current; while all that were in favor +of it would expect to swim high upon the waves of that current. The +proposition was incredibly rash, tending to involve us in war and +dishonor; and also disrespectful to Texas herself, who had not asked +for admission; and extravagantly hasty, in being broached before +there was any official news of the great victory. Before the debate +was over, the author of this View took an opportunity to reply, +without reference to other speakers, and to give reasons against +the present admission of Texas. But there was one of Mr. Calhoun's +reasons for immediate admission, which to him was enigmatical, and +at that time, incomprehensible; and that was, the prevention of +Texas "from having the power to annoy" the Southern slave States. We +had just been employed in suppressing, or exploding, this annoyance, +in the Northeast; and, in the twinkling of an eye, it sprung up in +the Southwest, two thousand miles off, and quite diagonally from its +late point of apparition. That sudden and so distant re-appearance +of the danger, was a puzzle, remaining unsolved until the Tyler +administration, and the return of Mr. Duff Green from London, with +the discovery of the British abolition plot; which was to be planted +in Texas, spread into the South, and blow up its slavery. Mr. +Bedford Brown, and others, answered Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Brown said: + + "He regarded our national character as worth infinitely more + than all the territorial possessions of Mexico, her wealth, or + the wealth of all other nations added together. We occupied a + standing among the nations of the earth, of which we might well + be proud, and which we ought not to permit to be tarnished. We + have, said Mr. B., arrived at that period of our history, as + a nation, when it behooves us to act with the greatest wisdom + and circumspection. But a few years since as a nation, we were + comparatively in a state of infancy; we were now, in the + confidence of youth, and with the buoyancy of spirit incident + to this period of our existence as a nation, about to enter on + 'man's estate.' Powerful in resources, and conscious of our + strength, let us not forget the sacred obligations of justice + and good faith, which form the indispensable basis of a nation's + character--greatness and freedom; and without which, no people + could long preserve the blessings of self-government. Republican + government was based on the principles of justice; and for it to + be administered on any other, either in its foreign or domestic + affairs, was to undermine its foundation and to hasten its + overthrow." + +Mr. Rives concurred in the necessity for caution; and said: + + "This government should act with moderation, calmness, and + dignity; and, because he wished the Senate to act with that + becoming moderation, calmness, and dignity, which ought to + characterize its deliberations on international subjects, it + was his wish that the subject might be referred. If it was + postponed, it would come up again for discussion, from morning + to morning, to the exclusion of most of the business of the + Senate, as there was nothing to prevent the presentation of + petitions every morning, to excite discussion. It was for the + purpose of avoiding these discussions, that he should vote + to refer it at once to the Committee on Foreign Relations. A + prominent member of that committee had been long and intimately + acquainted with the subject of our foreign relations, and there + were members on it representing all the different sections of + the country, to whose charge he believed the subject could be + safely committed. It would seem, from the course of debate + this morning, that gentlemen supposed the question of the + recognition of the independence of Texas, or its admission into + this Union, was directly before the Senate; and some gentlemen + had volunteered their opinions in advance of the report of the + committee. He did not vote to refer it to the committee to + receive its quietus, but that they might give their views upon + it; nor did he feel as if he were called upon to express an + opinion upon the propriety of the measure. It was strange that + senators, who stated that their opinions were made up, should + oppose the reference." + +Mr. Niles, of Connecticut, was entirely in favor of preserving the +national faith inviolate, and its honor untarnished, and ourselves +from the imputation of base motives in our future conduct in +relation to Texas, and said: + + "This was a case in which this government should act with + caution. In ordinary cases of this kind the question was only + one of fact, and was but little calculated to compromit the + interests or honor of the United States; but the question in + regard to Texas was very different, and vastly more important. + That is a country on our own borders, and its inhabitants, most + of them, emigrants from the United States; and most of the brave + men constituting its army, who are so heroically fighting to + redeem the province, are citizens of the United States, who + have engaged in this bold enterprise as volunteers. Were this + government to be precipitate in acknowledging the independence + of Texas, might it not be exposed to a suspicion of having + encouraged these enterprises of its citizens? There is another + consideration of more importance. Should the independence of + Texas be followed by its annexation to the United States, + the reasons for suspicions derogatory to the national faith + might be still stronger. If we, by our own act, contribute to + clothe the constituted authorities of the province with the + power of sovereignty over it, and then accept a cession of + the country from those authorities, might there not be some + reason to charge us with having recognized the independence + of the country as a means of getting possession of it? These + and other considerations require that this government should + act with caution; yet, when the proper time arrives it will be + our duty to act, and to act promptly. But he trusted that all + would feel the importance of preserving the national faith and + national honor. They should not only be kept pure, but free from + injurious suspicions, being more to be prized than any extension + of territory, wealth, population, or other acquisition, which + enters into the elements of national prosperity or power." + +The various memorials were referred to the committee on foreign +relations, consisting of Mr. Clay, Mr. King of Georgia, Mr. +Tallmadge, Mr. Mangum, and Mr. Porter of Louisiana; which reported +early, and unanimously, in favor of the recognition of the +independence of Texas, as soon as satisfactory information should +be received, showing that she had a civil government in operation +capable of performing the duties and fulfilling the obligations of a +civilized power. In the report which accompanied the Resolution, its +author, Mr. Clay, said: + + "Sentiments of sympathy and devotion to civil liberty, + which have always animated the people of the United States, + have prompted the adoption of the resolution, and other + manifestations of popular feeling which have been referred + to the committee, recommending an acknowledgment of the + independence of Texas. The committee shares fully in all these + sentiments; but a wise and prudent government should not act + solely on the impulse of feeling, however natural and laudable + it may be. It ought to avoid all precipitation, and not adopt + so grave a measure as that of recognizing the independence of a + new Power, until it has satisfactory information, and has fully + deliberated. + + "The committee has no information respecting the recent + movements in Texas, except such as is derived from the + public prints. According to that, the war broke out in + Texas last autumn. Its professed object, like that of our + revolutionary contest in the commencement, was not separation + and independence, but a redress of grievances. In March last, + independence was proclaimed, and a constitution and form of + government were established. No means of ascertaining accurately + the exact amount of the population of Texas are at the command + of the committee. It has been estimated at some sixty or seventy + thousand souls. Nor are the precise limits of the country which + passes under the denomination of Texas known to the committee. + They are probably not clearly defined, but they are supposed to + be extensive, and sufficiently large, when peopled, to form a + respectable Power." + +Mr. Southard concurred in the views and conclusion of the report, +but desired to say a few words in reply to that part of Mr. +Calhoun's speech which looked to the "balance of power, and the +perpetuation of our institutions," as a reason for the speedy +admission of Texas into the Union, and said: + + "I should not have risen to express these notions, if I had not + understood the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] to + declare that he regarded the acknowledgment of the independence + of Texas as important, and principally important, because it + prepared the way for the speedy admission of that State as + a member of our Union; and that he looked anxiously to that + event, as conducing to a proper balance of power, and to the + perpetuation of our institutions. I am not now, sir, prepared + to express an opinion on that question--a question which all + must foresee will embrace interests as wide as our Union, and + as lasting in their consequences as the freedom which our + institutions secure. When it shall be necessarily presented to + me, I shall endeavor to meet it in a manner suitable to its + magnitude, and to the vital interests which it involves; but I + will not, on the present resolution, anticipate it; nor can I + permit an inference, as to my decision upon it, to be drawn from + the vote which I now give. That vote is upon this resolution + alone, and confined to it, founded upon principles sustained + by the laws of nations, upon the unvarying practice of our + government, and upon the facts as they are now known to exist. + It relates to the independence of Texas, not to the admission of + Texas into this Union. The achievement of the one, at the proper + time, may be justified; the other may be found to be opposed by + the highest and strongest considerations of interest and duty. I + discuss neither at this time; nor am I willing that the remarks + of the senator should lead, in or out of this chamber, to the + inference that all those who vote for the resolution concur with + him in opinion. The question which he has started should be left + perfectly open and free." + +The vote in favor of the Resolution reported by Mr. Clay was +unanimous--39 senators present and voting. In the House of +Representatives a similar resolution was reported from the House +Committee of foreign relations, Mr. John Y. Mason, of Virginia, +chairman; and adopted by a vote of 113 to 22. The nays were: Messrs. +John Quincy Adams, Heman Allen, Jeremiah Bailey, Andrew Beaumont, +James W. Bouldin, William Clark, Walter Coles, Edward Darlington, +George Grennell, jr., Hiland Hall, Abner Hazeltine, William Hiester, +Abbott Lawrence, Levi Lincoln, Thomas C. Love, John J. Milligan, +Dutee J. Pearce, Stephen C. Phillips, David Potts, jr., John Reed, +David Russell, William Slade. + +It is remarkable that in the progress of this Texas question both +Mr. Adams and Mr. Calhoun reversed their positions--the former being +against, and the latter in favor, of its alienation in 1819; the +former being against, and the latter in favor of its recovery in +1836-'44.--Mr. Benton was the last speaker in the Senate in favor +of the recognition of independence; and his speech being the most +full and carefully historical of any one delivered, it is presented +entire in the next chapter; and, it is believed, that in going more +fully than other speakers did into the origin and events of the +Texas Revolution, it will give a fair and condensed view of that +remarkable event, so interesting to the American people. + + + + +CHAPTER CXLV. + +TEXAS INDEPENDENCE--MR. BENTON'S SPEECH. + + +'Mr. Benton rose and said he should confine himself strictly to the +proposition presented in the resolution, and should not complicate +the practical question of recognition with speculations on the +future fate of Texas. Such speculations could have no good effect +upon either of the countries interested; upon Mexico, Texas, or the +United States. Texas has not asked for admission into this Union. +Her independence is still contested by Mexico. Her boundaries and +other important points in her political condition, are not yet +adjusted. To discuss the question of her admission into this Union, +under these circumstances, is to treat her with disrespect, to +embroil ourselves with Mexico, to compromise the disinterestedness +of our motives in the eyes of Europe; and to start among ourselves +prematurely, and without reason, a question which, whenever it +comes, cannot be without its own intrinsic difficulties and +perplexities. + +"Since the three months that the affairs of Texas have been the +subject of repeated discussion in this chamber, I have imposed +on myself a reserve, not the effect of want of feeling, but the +effect of strong feeling, and some judgment combined, which has +not permitted me to give utterance to the general expression of +my sentiments. Once only have I spoken, and that at the most +critical moment of the contest, and when the reported advance of +the Mexicans upon Nacogdoches, and the actual movement of General +Gaines and our own troops in that direction, gave reason to +apprehend the encounter of flags, or the collision of arms, which +might compromise individuals or endanger the peace of nations. It +was then that I used those words, not entirely enigmatical, and +which have since been repeated by some, without the prefix of their +important qualifications, namely; that while neutrality was the +obvious line of our duty and of our interest, yet there might be +emergencies in which the obligation of duty could have no force, and +the calculations of interest could have no place; when, in fact, +a man should have no head to think! nothing but a heart to feel! +and an arm to strike! and I illustrated this sentiment. It was +after the affair of Goliad, and the imputed order to unpeople the +country, with the supposititious case of prisoners assassinated, +women violated, and children slaughtered; and these horrors to be +perpetrated in the presence or hearing of an American army. In +such a case I declared it to be my sentiment--and I now repeat it, +for I feel it to be in me--in such a case, I declared it to be my +sentiment, that treaties were nothing, books were nothing, laws were +nothing! that the paramount law of God and nature was every thing! +and that the American soldier, hearing the cries of helplessness +and weakness, and remembering only that he was a man, and born of +woman, and the father of children, should fly to the rescue, and +strike to prevent the perpetration of crimes which shock humanity +and dishonor the age. I uttered this sentiment not upon impulsion, +but with consideration; not for theatrical effect, but as a rule +for action; not as vague declamation, but with an eye to possible +or probable events, and with a view to the public justification of +General Gaines and his men, if, under circumstances appalling to +humanity, they should nobly resolve to obey the impulsions of the +heart instead of coldly consulting the musty leaves of books and +treaties. + +"Beyond this I did not go, and, except in this instance, I do not +speak. Duty and interest prescribed to the United States a rigorous +neutrality; and this condition she has faithfully fulfilled. +Our young men have gone to Texas to fight; but they have gone +without the sanction of the laws, and against the orders of the +Government. They have gone upon that impulsion which, in all time, +has carried the heroic youth of all ages to seek renown in the +perils and glories of distant war. Our foreign enlistment law is +not repealed. Unlike England, in the civil war now raging in Spain, +we have not licensed interference by repealing our penalties: we +have not stimulated action by withdrawing obstacles. No member of +our Congress, like General Evans in the British Parliament, has +left his seat to levy troops in the streets of the metropolis, +and to lead them to battle and to victory in the land torn by +civil discord. Our statute against armaments to invade friendly +powers is in full force. Proclamations have attested our neutral +dispositions. Prosecutions have been ordered against violators of +law. A naval force in the gulf, and a land force on the Sabine, +have been directed to enforce the policy of the government; and +so far as acts have gone, the advantage has been on the side of +Mexico; for the Texian armed schooner Invincible has been brought +into an American port by an American ship of war. If parties and +individuals still go to Texas to fight, the act is particular, not +national, compromising none but the parties themselves, and may +take place on one side as well as on the other. The conduct of +the administration has been strictly neutral; and, as a friend to +that administration, and from my own convictions, I have conformed +to its policy, avoiding the language which would irritate, and +opposing the acts which might interrupt pacific and commercial +communications. Mexico is our nearest neighbor, dividing with us +the continent of North America, and possessing the elements of a +great power. Our boundaries are co-terminous for more than two +thousand miles. We have inland and maritime commerce. She has mines; +we have ships. General considerations impose upon each power the +duties of reciprocal friendship; especial inducements invite us to +uninterrupted commercial intercourse. As a western senator, coming +from the banks of the Mississippi, and from the State of Missouri, +I cannot be blind to the consequences of interrupting that double +line of inland and maritime commerce, which, stretching to the mines +of Mexico, brings back the perennial supply of solid money which +enriches the interior, and enables New Orleans to purchase the vast +accumulation of agricultural produce of which she is the emporium. +Wonderful are the workings of commerce, and more apt to find out its +own proper channels by its own operations than to be guided into +them by the hand of legislation. New Orleans now is what the Havana +once was--the entrepot of the Mexican trade, and the recipient of +its mineral wealth. The superficial reader of commercial statistics +would say that Mexico but slightly encourages our domestic industry; +that she takes nothing from our agriculture, and but little from our +manufactures. On the contrary, the close observer would see a very +different picture. He would see the products of our soil passing +to all the countries of Europe, exchanging into fine fabrics, and +these returning in the ships of many nations, our own predominant, +to the city of New Orleans; and thence going off in small Mexican +vessels to Matamoros, Tampico, Vera Cruz, and other Mexican ports. +The return from these ports is in the precious metals; and, to +confine myself to a single year, as a sample of the whole, it may +be stated that, of the ten millions and three quarters of silver +coin and bullion received in the United States, according to the +custom-house returns during the least year, eight millions and one +quarter of it came from Mexico alone, and the mass of it through +the port of New Orleans. This amount of treasure is not received +for nothing, nor, as it would seem on the commercial tables, for +foreign fabrics unconnected with American industry, but, in reality, +for domestic productions changed into foreign fabrics, and giving +double employment to the navigation of the country. New Orleans +has taken the place of the Havana; it has become the entrepot of +this trade; and many circumstances, not directed by law, or even +known to lawgivers, have combined to produce the result. First, the +application of steam power to the propulsion of vessels, which, +in the form of towboats, has given to a river city a prompt and +facile communication with the sea; then the advantage of full and +assorted cargoes, which brings the importing vessel to a point where +she delivers freight for two different empires; then the marked +advantage of a return cargo, with cheap and abundant supplies, +which are always found in the grand emporium of the great West; +then the discriminating duties in Mexican ports in favor of Mexican +vessels, which makes it advantageous to the importer to stop and +transship at New Orleans; finally, our enterprise, our police, and +our free institutions, our perfect security, under just laws, for +life, liberty, person and property. These circumstances, undirected +by government, and without the knowledge of government, have given +to New Orleans the supreme advantage of being the entrepot of the +Mexican trade; and have presented the unparalleled spectacle of the +noblest valley in the world, and the richest mines in the world, +sending their respective products to meet each other at the mouth +of the noblest river in the world; and there to create in lapse of +time, the most wonderful city which any age or country has ever +beheld. A look upon the map of the great West, and a tolerable +capacity to calculate the aggregate of geographical advantages, must +impress the beholder with a vast opinion of the future greatness +of New Orleans; but he will only look upon one half of the picture +unless he contemplates this new branch of trade which is making the +emporium of the Mississippi the entrepot of Mexican commerce, and +the recipient of the Mexican mines, and which, though now so great, +is still in its infancy. Let not government mar a consummation +so auspicious in its aspect, and teeming with so many rich and +precious results. Let no unnecessary collision with Mexico interrupt +our commerce, turn back the streams of three hundred mines to the +Havana, and give a wound to a noble city which must be felt to the +head-spring and source of every stream that pours its tribute into +the King of Floods. + +"Thus far Mexico has no cause of complaint. The conduct of our +government has been that of rigorous neutrality. The present +motion does not depart from that line of conduct; for the proposed +recognition is not only contingent upon the _de facto_ independence +of Texas, but it follows in the train, and conforms to the spirit, +of the actual arrangements of the President General Santa Anna, +for the complete separation of the countries. We have authentic +information that the President General has agreed to an armistice; +that he has directed the evacuation of the country; that the +Mexican army is in full retreat; that the Rio Grande, a limit far +beyond the discovery and settlement of La Salle, in 1684, is the +provisional boundary; and that negotiations are impending for the +establishment of peace on the basis of separation. Mexico has had +the advantage of these arrangements, though made by a captive chief, +in the unmolested retreat and happy extrication of her troops from +their perilous position. Under these circumstances, it can be no +infringement of neutrality for the Senate of the United States to +adopt a resolution for the contingent and qualified acknowledgment +of Texian independence. Even after the adoption of the resolution, +it will remain inoperative upon the hands of the President until he +shall have the satisfactory information which shall enable him to +act without detriment to any interest, and without infraction of any +law. + +"Even without the armistice and provisional treaty with Santa +Anna, I look upon the separation of the two countries as being +in the fixed order of events, and absolutely certain to take +place. Texas and Mexico are not formed for union. They are not +homogeneous. I speak of Texas as known to La Salle, the bay of St. +Bernard--(Matagorda)--and the waters which belong to it, being +the western boundary. They do not belong to the same divisions +of country, nor to the same systems of commerce, nor to the same +pursuits of business. They have no affinities--no attractions--no +tendencies to coalesce. In the course of centuries, and while +Mexico has extended her settlements infinitely further in other +directions--to the head of the Rio Grande in the north, and to +the bay of San Francisco in the northwest; yet no settlement had +been extended east, along the neighboring coast of the Gulf of +Mexico. The rich and deep cotton and sugar lands of Texas, though +at the very door of Mexico, yet requiring the application of a +laborious industry to make them productive, have presented no +temptation to the mining and pastoral population of that empire. +For ages this beautiful agricultural and planting region had lain +untouched. Within a few years, and by another race, its settlement +has begun; and the presence of this race has not smoothed, but +increased, the obstacles to union presented by nature. Sooner or +later, separation would be inevitable; and the progress of human +events has accelerated the operation of natural causes. Goliad +has torn Texas from Mexico; Goliad has decreed independence; San +Jacinto has sealed it! What the massacre decreed, the victory has +sealed; and the day of the martyrdom of prisoners must for ever be +regarded as the day of disunion between Texas and Mexico. I speak +of it politically, not morally; that massacre was a great political +blunder, a miscalculation, an error, and a mistake. It was expected +to put an end to resistance, to subdue rebellion, to drown revolt +in blood, and to extinguish aid in terror. On the contrary, it has +given life and invincibility to the cause of Texas. It has fired +the souls of her own citizens, and imparted to their courage the +energies of revenge and despair. It has given to her the sympathies +and commiseration of the civilized world. It has given her men and +money, and claims upon the aid and a hold upon the sensibilities +of the human race. If the struggle goes on, not only our America, +but Europe will send its chivalry to join in the contest. I repeat +it; that cruel morning of the Alamo, and that black day of Goliad, +were great political faults. The blood of the martyr is the seed of +the church. The blood of slaughtered patriots is the dragon's teeth +sown upon the earth, from which heroes, full grown and armed, leap +into life, and rush into battle. Often will the Mexican, guiltless +of that blood, feel the Anglo-American steel for the deed of that +day, if this war continues. Many were the innocent at San Jacinto, +whose cries, in broken Spanish, abjuring Goliad and the Alamo, could +not save their devoted lives from the avenging remembrance of the +slaughtered garrison and the massacred prisoners. + +"Unhappy day, for ever to be deplored, that Sunday morning, March +6, 1836, when the undaunted garrison of the Alamo, victorious in +so many assaults over twenty times their number perished to the +last man by the hands of those, part of whom they had released on +parole two months before, leaving not one to tell how they first +dealt out to multitudes that death which they themselves finally +received. Unhappy day that Palm Sunday, March 27, when the five +hundred and twelve prisoners at Goliad, issuing from the sally port +at dawn of day, one by one, under the cruel delusion of a return +to their families, found themselves enveloped in double files of +cavalry and infantry, marched to a spot fit for the perpetration of +the horrid deed--and there, without an instant to think of parents, +country, friends, and God--in the midst of the consternation of +terror and surprise, were inhumanly set upon, and pitilessly put +to death, in spite of those moving cries which reached to heaven, +and regardless of those supplicating hands, stretched forth for +mercy, from which arms had been taken under the perfidious forms of +a capitulation. Five hundred and six perished that morning--young, +vigorous, brave, sons of respectable families, and the pride of +many a parent's heart--and their bleeding bodies, torn with wounds, +and many yet alive, were thrown in heaps upon vast fires, for the +flames to consume what the steel had mangled. Six only escaped, +and not by mercy, but by miracles. And this was the work of man +upon his brother; of Christian upon Christian; of those upon those +who adore the same God, invoke the same heavenly benediction, and +draw precepts of charity and mercy from the same divine fountain. +Accursed be the ground on which the dreadful deed was done! Sterile, +and set apart, let it for ever be! No fruitful cultivation should +ever enrich it; no joyful edifice should ever adorn it; but shut +up, and closed by gloomy walls, the mournful cypress, the weeping +willow, and the inscriptive monument, should for ever attest the +foul deed of which it was the scene, and invoke from every passenger +the throb of pity for the slain, and the start of horror for the +slayer. And you, neglected victims of the Old Mission and San +Patricio, shall you be forgotten because your numbers were fewer, +and your hapless fate more concealed? No! but to you also justice +shall be done. One common fate befell you all; one common memorial +shall perpetuate your names, and embalm your memories. Inexorable +history will sit in judgment upon all concerned, and will reject +the plea of government orders, even if those orders emanated from +the government, instead of being dictated to it. The French National +Convention, in 1793, ordered all the English prisoners who should +be taken in battle to be put to death. The French armies refused to +execute the decree. They answered, that French soldiers were the +protectors, not the assassins of prisoners; and all France, all +Europe, the whole civilized world, applauded the noble reply. + +"But let us not forget that there is some relief to this black +and bloody picture--some alleviation to the horror of its +appalling features. There was humanity, as well as cruelty, at +Goliad--humanity to deplore what it could not prevent. The letter +of Colonel Fernandez does honor to the human heart. Doubtless many +other officers felt and mourned like him, and spent the day in +unavailing regrets. The ladies, Losero and others, of Matamoros, +saving the doomed victims in that city, from day to day, by their +intercessions, appear like ministering angels. Several public +journals, and many individuals, in Mexico, have given vent to +feelings worthy of Christians, and of the civilization of the age; +and the poor woman on the Gaudaloupe, who succored and saved the +young Georgian (Hadaway), how nobly she appears! He was one of the +few that escaped the fate of the Georgia battalion sent to the +Old Mission. Overpowered by famine and despair, without arms and +without comrades, he entered a solitary house filled with Mexican +soldiers hunting the fugitives of his party. His action amazed them; +and, thinking it a snare, they stepped out to look for the armed +body of which he was supposed to be the decoy. In that instant +food was given him by the humane woman, and instant flight to the +swamp was pointed out. He fled, receiving the fire of many guns +as he went; and, escaping the perils of the way, the hazards of +battle at San Jacinto, where he fought, and of Indian massacre in +the Creek nation, when the two stages were taken and part of his +travelling companions killed, he lives to publish in America that +instance of devoted humanity in the poor woman of the Gaudaloupe. +Such acts as all these deserve to be commemorated. They relieve the +revolting picture of military barbarity--soften the resentments of +nations--and redeem a people from the offence of individuals. + +"Great is the mistake which has prevailed in Mexico, and in some +parts of the United States, on the character of the population which +has gone to Texas. It has been common to disparage and to stigmatize +them. Nothing could be more unjust; and, speaking from knowledge +either personally or well acquired (for it falls to my lot to know, +either from actual acquaintance or good information the mass of its +inhabitants), I can vindicate them from erroneous imputations, and +place their conduct and character on the honorable ground which they +deserve to occupy. The founder of the Texian colony was Mr. Moses +Austin, a respectable and enterprising native of Connecticut, and +largely engaged in the lead mines of Upper Louisiana when I went to +the Territory of Missouri in 1815. The present head of the colony, +his son, Mr. Stephen F. Austin, then a very young man, was a member +of the Territorial Legislature, distinguished for his intelligence, +business habits, and gentlemanly conduct. Among the grantees we +distinguish the name of Robertson, son of the patriarchal founder +and first settler of West Tennessee. Of the body of the emigrants, +most of them are heads of families or enterprising young men, gone +to better their condition by receiving grants of fine land in a +fine climate, and to continue to live under the republican form of +government to which they had been accustomed. There sits one of +them (pointing to Mr. Carson, late member of Congress from North +Carolina, and now Secretary of State for Texas). We all know him; +our greetings on his appearance in this chamber attest our respect; +and such as we know him to be, so do I know the multitude of those +to be who have gone to Texas. They have gone, not as intruders, but +as grantees; and to become a barrier between the Mexicans and the +marauding Indians who infested their borders. + +"Heartless is the calumny invented and propagated, not from this +floor, but elsewhere, on the cause of the Texian revolt. It is said +to be a war for the extension of slavery. It had as well be said +that our own Revolution was a war for the extension of slavery. +So far from it, that no revolt, not even our own, ever had a more +just and a more sacred origin. The settlers in Texas went to live +under the form of government which they had left behind in the +United States--a government which extends so many guarantees for +life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness, and which +their American and English ancestors had vindicated for so many +hundred years. A succession of violent changes in government, +and the rapid overthrow of rulers, annoyed and distressed them; +but they remained tranquil under every violence which did not +immediately bear on themselves. In 1822 the republic of 1821 was +superseded by the imperial diadem of Iturbide. In 1823 he was +deposed and banished, returned and was shot, and Victoria made +President. Mentuno and Bravo disputed the presidency with Victoria; +and found, in banishment, the mildest issue known among Mexicans +to unsuccessful civil war. Pedraza was elected in 1828; Guerrero +overthrew him the next year. Then Bustamente overthrew Guerrero; +and, quickly, Santa Anna overthrew Bustamente, and, with him, all +the forms of the constitution, and the whole frame of the federative +government. By his own will, and by force, Santa Anna dissolved +the existing Congress, convened another, formed the two Houses +into one, called it a convention; and made it the instrument for +deposing, without trial, the constitutional Vice-President, Gomez +Farias, putting Barragan into his place, annihilating the State +governments, and establishing a consolidated government, of which +he was monarch, under the retained republican title of President. +Still, the Texians did not take up arms: they did not acquiesce, +but they did not revolt. They retained their State government in +operation, and looked to the other States, older and more powerful +than Texas, to vindicate the general cause, and to re-establish the +federal constitution of 1824. In September, 1835, this was still +her position. In that month, a Mexican armed vessel appeared off +the coast of Texas, and declared her ports blockaded. At the same +time, General Cos appeared in the West with an army of fifteen +hundred men, with orders to arrest the State authorities, to disarm +the inhabitants, leaving one gun to every five hundred souls; and +to reduce the State to unconditional submission. Gonzales was the +selected point for the commencement of the execution of these +orders; and the first thing was the arms, those trusty rifles +which the settlers had brought with them from the United States, +which were their defence against savages, their resource for +game, and the guard which converted their houses into castles +stronger than those 'which the king cannot enter.' A detachment +of General Cos's army appeared at the village of Gonzales, on the +28th of September, and demanded the arms of the inhabitants; it +was the same demand, and for the same purpose, which the British +detachment, under Major Pitcairn had made at Lexington, on the +19th of April 1775. It was the same demand! and the same answer +was given--resistance--battle--victory! for the American blood was +at Gonzales as it had been at Lexington; and between using their +arms, and surrendering their arms, that blood can never hesitate. +Then followed the rapid succession of brilliant events, which, in +two months, left Texas without an armed enemy in her borders, and +the strong forts of Goliad and the Alamo, with their garrisons and +cannon, the almost bloodless prizes of a few hundred Texian rifles. +This was the origin of the revolt; and a calumny more heartless can +never be imagined than that which would convert this just and holy +defence of life, liberty, and property, into an aggression for the +extension of slavery. + +"Just in its origin, valiant and humane in its conduct, sacred +in its object, the Texian revolt has illustrated the Anglo-Saxon +character, and given it new titles to the respect and admiration of +the world. + +"It shows that liberty, justice, valor--moral, physical, and +intellectual power--discriminate that race wherever it goes. Let +our America rejoice, let Old England rejoice, that the Brassos and +Colorado, new and strange names--streams far beyond the western +bank of the Father of Floods--have felt the impress, and witnessed +the exploits of a people sprung from their loins, and carrying +their language, laws, and customs, their _magna charta_ and its +glorious privileges, into new regions and far distant climes. Of the +individuals who have purchased lasting renown in this young war, it +would be impossible, in this place to speak in detail, and invidious +to discriminate; but there is one among them whose position forms +an exception, and whose early association with myself justifies and +claims the tribute of a particular notice. I speak of him whose +romantic victory has given to the Jacinto[11] that immortality in +grave and serious history which the diskos of Apollo had given to +it in the fabulous pages of the heathen mythology. General Houston +was born in the State of Virginia, county of Rockbridge: he was +appointed an ensign in the army of the United States, during the +late war with Great Britain, and served in the Creek campaign +under the banners of Jackson. I was the lieutenant colonel of the +regiment to which he belonged, and the first field officer to whom +he reported. I then marked in him the same soldierly and gentlemanly +qualities which have since distinguished his eventful career: frank, +generous, brave; ready to do, or to suffer, whatever the obligations +of civil or military duty imposed; and always prompt to answer the +call of honor, patriotism, and friendship. Sincerely do I rejoice in +his victory. It is a victory without alloy, and without parallel, +except at New Orleans. It is a victory which the civilization of +the age, and the honor of the human race, required him to gain: +for the nineteenth century is not the age in which a repetition +of the Goliad matins could be endured. Nobly has he answered the +requisition; fresh and luxuriant are the laurels which adorn his +brow. + + [11] Hyacinth; hyacinthus; huakinthos; water flower. + +"It is not within the scope of my present purpose, to speak of +military events, and to celebrate the exploits of that vanguard +of the Anglo-Saxons who are now on the confines of the ancient +empire of Montezuma; but that combat of the San Jacinto! it must +for ever remain in the catalogue of military miracles. Seven +hundred and fifty citizens, miscellaneously armed with rifles, +muskets, belt pistols, and knives, under a leader who had never seen +service, except as a subaltern, march to attack near double their +numbers--march in open day across a clear prairie, to attack upwards +of twelve hundred veterans, the élite of an invading army of seven +thousand, posted in a wood, their flanks secured, front intrenched; +and commanded by a general trained in civil wars, victorious in +numberless battles; and chief of an empire of which no man becomes +chief except as conqueror. In twenty minutes, the position is +forced. The combat becomes a carnage. The flowery prairie is stained +with blood; the hyacinth is no longer blue, but scarlet. Six hundred +Mexicans are dead; six hundred more are prisoners, half wounded; the +President General himself is a prisoner; the camp and baggage all +taken; and the loss of the victors, six killed and twenty wounded. +Such are the results, and which no European can believe, but those +who saw Jackson at New Orleans. Houston is the pupil of Jackson; and +he is the first self-made general, since the time of Mark Antony, +and the King Antigonus, who has taken the general of the army and +the head of the government captive in battle. Different from Antony, +he has spared the life of his captive, though forfeited by every +law, human and divine. + +"I voted, in 1821, to acknowledge the absolute independence of +Mexico; I vote now to recognize the contingent and expected +independence of Texas. In both cases, the vote is given upon the +same principle--upon the principle of disjunction where conjunction +is impossible or disastrous. The Union of Mexico and Spain had +become impossible; that of Mexico and Texas is no longer desirable +or possible. A more fatal present could not be made than that of +the future incorporation of the Texas of La Salle with the ancient +empire of Montezuma. They could not live together, and extermination +is not the genius of the age; and, besides, is more easily talked of +than done. Bloodshed only could be the fruit of their conjunction; +and every drop of that blood would be the dragon's teeth sown upon +the earth. No wise Mexican should wish to have this Trojan horse +shut up within their walls." + + + + +CHAPTER CXLVI. + +THE SPECIE CIRCULAR. + + +The issue of the Treasury order, known as the "Specie Circular," was +one of the events which marked the foresight, the decision, and the +invincible firmness of General Jackson. It was issued immediately +after the adjournment of Congress, and would have been issued before +the adjournment, except for the fear that Congress would counteract +it by law. It was an order to all the land-offices to reject paper +money, and receive nothing but gold and silver in payment of the +public lands; and was issued under the authority of the resolution +of the year 1816 which, in giving the Secretary of the Treasury +discretionary authority to receive the notes of specie paying +banks in revenue payments, gave him also the right to reject them. +The number of these banks had now become so great, the quantity +of notes issued so enormous, the facility of obtaining loans so +universal, and the temptation to converting shadowy paper into real +estate, so tempting, that the rising streams of paper from seven +hundred and fifty banks took their course towards the new States, +seat of the public domain--discharging in accumulated volume there +collected torrents upon the different land-offices. The sales were +running up to five millions a month, with the prospect of unbounded +increase after the rise of Congress; and it was this increase from +the land sales which made that surplus which the constitution had +been burlesqued to divide among the States. And there was no limit +to this conversion of public land into inconvertible paper. In the +custom-house branch of the revenue there was a limit in the amount +to be received--limited by the amount of duties to be paid: but in +the land-office branch there was no limit. It was therefore at that +point that the remedy was wanted; and, for that reason, the "Specie +Circular" was limited in its application to the land-offices; and +totally forbade the sale of the public lands for any thing but hard +money. It was an order of incalculable value to the United States, +and issued by President Jackson in known disregard of the will both +of the majority of Congress and of his cabinet. + +Before the adjournment of Congress, and in concert with the +President, the author of this View had attempted to get an act of +Congress to stop the evil; and in support of his motion to that +effect gave his opinion of the evil itself, and of the benefits +which would result from its suppression. He said: + + "He was able to inform the Senate how it happened that the sales + of the public lands had deceived all calculations, and run up + from four millions a year to five millions a quarter; it was + this: speculators went to banks, borrowed five, ten, twenty, + fifty thousand dollars in paper, in small notes, usually under + twenty dollars, and engaged to carry off these notes to a great + distance, sometimes five hundred or a thousand miles; and there + laid them out for public lands. Being land-office money, they + would circulate in the country; many of these small notes would + never return at all, and their loss would be a clear gain to + the bank; others would not return for a long time; and the bank + would draw interest on them for years before they had to redeem + them. Thus speculators, loaded with paper, would outbid settlers + and cultivators, who had no undue accommodations from banks, + and who had nothing but specie to give for lands, or the notes + which were its real equivalent. Mr. B. said that, living in a + new State, it came within his knowledge that such accommodations + as he had mentioned were the main cause of the excessive sales + which had taken place in the public lands, and that the effect + was equally injurious to every interest concerned--except the + banks and the speculators: it was injurious to the treasury, + which was filling up with paper; to the new States, which were + flooded with paper; and to settlers and cultivators, who were + outbid by speculators, loaded with this borrowed paper. A return + to specie payments for lands is the remedy for all these evils." + +Having exposed the evil, and that to the country generally as well +as to the federal treasury, Mr. B. went on to give his opinion of +the benefits of suppressing it; and said: + + "It would put an end to every complaint now connected with + the subject, and have a beneficial effect upon every public + and private interest. Upon the federal government its effect + would be to check the unnatural sale of the public lands to + speculators for paper; it would throw the speculators out of + market, limit the sales to settlers and cultivators, stop + the swelling increases of paper surpluses in the treasury, + put an end to all projects for disposing of surpluses; and + relieve all anxiety for the fate of the public moneys in the + deposit banks. Upon the new States, where the public lands are + situated, its effects would be most auspicious. It would stop + the flood of paper with which they are inundated, and bring + in a steady stream of gold and silver in its place. It would + give them a hard-money currency, and especially a share of the + gold currency; for every emigrant could then carry gold to the + country. Upon the settler and cultivator who wished to purchase + land its effect would be peculiarly advantageous. He would be + relieved from the competition of speculators; he would not have + to contend with those who received undue accommodations at + banks, and came to the land-offices loaded with bales of bank + notes which they had borrowed upon condition of carrying them + far away, and turning them loose where many would be lost, and + never get back to the bank that issued them. All these and many + other good effects would thus be produced, and no hardship or + evil of any kind could accrue to the meritorious part of the + country; for the settler and cultivator who wishes to buy land + for use, or for a settlement for his children, or to increase + his farm, would have no difficulty in getting hard money to make + his purchase. He has no undue accommodations from banks. He + has no paper but what is good; such as he can readily convert + into specie. To him the exaction of specie payments from all + purchasers would be a rule of equality, which would enable him + to purchase what he needs without competition with fictitious + and borrowed capital." + +Mr. B. gave a view of the actual condition of the paper currency, +which he described as hideous and appalling, doomed to a +catastrophe; and he advised every prudent man, as well as the +government, to fly from its embrace. His voice, and his warning, +answered no purpose. He got no support for his motion. A few +friends were willing to stand by him, but the opposition senators +stood out in unbroken front against it, reinforced largely by the +friends of the administration: but it is in vain to attribute the +whole opposition to the measure merely to the mistaken opinions of +friends, and the resentful policy of foes. There was another cause +operating to the same effect; and the truth of history requires +it to be told. There were many members of Congress engaged in +these land speculations, upon loans of bank paper; and who were +unwilling to see a sudden termination of so profitable a game. The +rejection of the bill it was thought would be sufficient; and on +the news of it the speculation redoubled its activity. But there +was a remedy in reserve for the cure of the evil which they had +not foreseen, and which was applied the moment that Congress was +gone. Jackson was still President! and he had the nerve which the +occasion required. He saw the public lands fleeting away--saw that +Congress would not interfere--and knew the majority of his cabinet +to be against his interference. He did as he had often done in +councils of war--called the council together to hear a decision. +He summoned his cabinet--laid the case before them--heard the +majority of adverse opinions:--and directed the order to issue. His +private Secretary, Mr. Donelson, was directed to prepare a draught +of the order. The author of this View was all the while in the +office of this private Secretary. Mr. Donelson came to him, with +the President's decision, and requested him to draw up the order. +It was done--the rough draught carried back to the council--put +into official form--signed--issued. It was a second edition of the +removal of the deposits scene, and made an immense sensation. The +disappointed speculators raged. Congress was considered insulted, +the cabinet defied, the banks disgraced. But the vindication of the +measure soon came, in the discovery of the fact, that some tens of +millions of this bank paper was on its way to the land-offices to be +changed into land--when overtaken by this fatal "Specie Circular," +and turned back to the sources from which it came. + + + + +CHAPTER CXLVII. + +DEATH OF MR. MADISON, FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. + + +He died in the last year of the second term of the presidency +of General Jackson, at the advanced age of eighty-six, his mind +clear and active to the last, and greatly occupied with solicitous +concern for the safety of the Union which he had contributed so +much to establish. He was a patriot from the beginning. "When the +first blood was shed in the streets of Boston, he was a student +in the process of his education at Princeton College, where the +next year, he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was even +then so highly distinguished by the power of application and the +rapidity of progress, that he performed all the exercises of the +two senior collegiate years in one--while at the same time his +deportment was so exemplary, that Dr. Witherspoon, then at the head +of the college, and afterwards himself one of the most eminent +patriots and sages of our revolution, always delighted in bearing +testimony to the excellency of his character at that early stage +of his career; and said to Thomas Jefferson long afterwards, when +they were all colleagues in the revolutionary Congress, that in the +whole career of Mr. Madison at Princeton, he had never known him +say, or do, an indiscreet thing." So wrote Mr. John Quincy Adams +in his discourse upon the "Life of James Madison," written at the +request of the two Houses of Congress: and in this germ of manhood +is to be seen all the qualities of head and heart which mature +age, and great events, so fully developed, and which so nobly went +into the formation of national character while constituting his +own: the same quick intellect, the same laborious application, +the same purity of morals, the same decorum of deportment. He had +a rare combination of talent--a speaker, a writer, a counsellor. +In these qualities of the mind he classed with General Hamilton; +and was, perhaps, the only eminent public man of his day who +so classed, and so equally contended in three of the fields of +intellectual action. Mr. Jefferson was accustomed to say he was +the only man that could answer Hamilton. Perspicuity, precision, +closeness of reasoning, and strict adherence to the unity of his +subject, were the characteristics of his style; and his speeches +in Congress, and his dispatches from the State Department, may be +equally studied as models of style, diplomatic and parliamentary +as sources of information, as examples of integrity in conducting +public questions: and as illustrations of the amenity with which +the most earnest debate, and the most critical correspondence, +can be conducted by good sense, good taste, and good temper. Mr. +Madison was one of the great founders of our present united federal +government, equally efficient in the working convention which +framed the constitution and the written labors which secured its +adoption. Co-laborer with General Hamilton in the convention and +in the Federalist--both members of the old Congress and of the +convention at the same time, and working together in both bodies +for the attainment of the same end, until the division of parties +in Washington's time began to estrange old friends, and to array +against each other former cordial political co-laborers. As the +first writer of one party, General Hamilton wrote some leading +papers, which, as the first writer of the other party, Mr. Madison +was called upon to answer: but without forgetting on the part of +either their previous relations, their decorum of character, and +their mutual respect for each other. Nothing that either said could +give an unpleasant personal feeling to the other; and, though +writing under borrowed names, their productions were equally known +to each other and the public; for none but themselves could imitate +themselves. Purity, modesty, decorum--a moderation, temperance, and +virtue in everything--were the characteristics of Mr. Madison's life +and manners; and it is grateful to look back upon such elevation +and beauty of personal character in the illustrious and venerated +founders of our Republic, leaving such virtuous private characters +to be admired, as well as such great works to be preserved. The +offer of this tribute to the memory of one of the purest of public +men is the more gratefully rendered, private reasons mixing with +considerations of public duty. Mr. Madison is the only President +from whom he ever asked a favor, and who granted immediately all +that was asked--a lieutenant-colonelcy in the army of the United +States in the late war with Great Britain. + + + + +CHAPTER CXLVIII. + +DEATH OF MR. MONROE, FIFTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. + + +He died during the first term of the administration of President +Jackson, and is appropriately noticed in this work next after Mr. +Madison, with whom he had been so long and so intimately associated, +both in public and in private life; and whose successor he had been +in successive high posts, including that of the presidency itself. +He is one of our eminent public characters which have not attained +their due place in history; nor has any one attempted to give him +that place but one--Mr. John Quincy Adams--in his discourse upon the +life of Mr. Monroe. Mr. Adams, and who could be a more competent +judge? places him in the first line of American statesmen, and +contributing, during the fifty years of his connection with the +public affairs, a full share in the aggrandisement and advancement +of his country. His parts were not shining, but solid. He lacked +genius, but he possessed judgment: and it was the remark of Dean +Swift, well illustrated in his own case and that of his associate +friends, Harley and Bolingbroke (three of the rarest geniuses that +ever acted together, and whose cause went to ruin notwithstanding +their wit and eloquence), that genius was not necessary to the +conducting of the affairs of state: that judgment, diligence, +knowledge, good intentions, and will, were sufficient. Mr. Monroe +was an instance of the soundness of this remark, as well as the +three brilliant geniuses of Queen Anne's time, and on the opposite +side of it. Mr. Monroe had none of the mental qualities which dazzle +and astonish mankind; but he had a discretion which seldom committed +a mistake--an integrity that always looked to the public good--a +firmness of will which carried him resolutely upon his object--a +diligence that mastered every subject--and a perseverance that +yielded to no obstacle or reverse. He began his patriotic career +in the military service, at the commencement of the war of the +revolution--went into the general assembly of his native State at +an early age--and thence, while still young, into the continental +Congress. There he showed his character, and laid the foundation +of his future political fortunes in his uncompromising opposition +to the plan of a treaty with Spain by which the navigation of the +Mississippi was to be given up for twenty-five years in return +for commercial privileges. It was the qualities of judgment, and +perseverance, which he displayed on that occasion, which brought +him those calls to diplomacy in which he was afterwards so much +employed with three of the then greatest European powers--France, +Spain, Great Britain. And it was in allusion to this circumstance +that President Jefferson afterwards, when the right of deposit at +New Orleans had been violated by Spain, and when a minister was +wanted to recover it, said, "Monroe is the man: the defence of +the Mississippi belongs to him." And under this appointment he +had the felicity to put his name to the treaty which secured the +Mississippi, its navigation and all the territory drained by its +western waters, to the United States for ever. Several times in +his life he seemed to miscarry, and to fall from the top to the +bottom of the political ladder: but always to reascend as high, or +higher than ever. Recalled by Washington from the French mission, to +which he had been appointed from the Senate of the United States, +he returned to the starting point of his early career--the general +assembly of his State--served as a member from his county--was +elected Governor; and from that post restored by Jefferson to the +French mission, soon to be followed by the embassies to Spain +and England. Becoming estranged from Mr. Madison about the time +of that gentleman's first election to the presidency, and having +returned from his missions a little mortified that Mr. Jefferson had +rejected his British treaty without sending it to the Senate, he +was again at the foot of the political ladder, and apparently out +of favor with those who were at its top. Nothing despairing, he +went back to the old starting point--served again in the Virginia +general assembly--was again elected Governor: and from that post was +called to the cabinet of Mr. Madison, to be his double Secretary +of State and War. He was the effective power in the declaration of +war against Great Britain. His residence abroad had shown him that +unavenged British wrongs was lowering our character with Europe, and +that war with the "mistress of the seas" was as necessary to our +respectability in the eyes of the world, as to the security of our +citizens and commerce upon the ocean. He brought up Mr. Madison to +the war point. He drew the war report which the committee on foreign +relations presented to the House--that report which the absence of +Mr. Peter B. Porter, the chairman, and the hesitancy of Mr. Grundy, +the second on the committee, threw into the hands of Mr. Calhoun, +the third on the list and the youngest of the committee; and the +presentation of which immediately gave him a national reputation. +Prime mover of the war, he was also one of its most efficient +supporters, taking upon himself, when adversity pressed, the actual +duties of war minister, financier, and foreign secretary at the +same time. He was an enemy to all extravagance, to all intrigue, +to all indirection in the conduct of business. Mr. Jefferson's +comprehensive and compendious eulogium upon him, as brief as true, +was the faithful description of the man--"honest and brave." He +was an enemy to nepotism, and no consideration or entreaty--no +need of the support which an office would give, or intercession +from friends--could ever induce him to appoint a relative to any +place under the government. He had opposed the adoption of the +constitution until amendments were obtained; but these had, he +became one of its firmest supporters, and labored faithfully, +anxiously and devotedly, to administer it in its purity. He was +the first President under whom the author of this View served, +commencing his first senatorial term with the commencement of the +second presidential term of this last of the men of the revolution +who were spared to fill the office in the great Republic which they +had founded. + + + + +CHAPTER CXLIX. + +DEATH OF CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL. + + +He died in the middle of the second term of General Jackson's +presidency, having been chief justice of the Supreme Court of the +United States full thirty-five years, presiding all the while (to +use the inimitable language of Mr. Randolph), "with native dignity +and unpretending grace." He was supremely fitted for high judicial +station:--a solid judgment, great reasoning powers, acute and +penetrating mind: with manners and habits to suit the purity and +the paucity of the ermine:--attentive, patient, laborious: grave on +the bench, social in the intercourse of life: simple in his tastes, +and inexorably just. Seen by a stranger come into a room, and he +would be taken for a modest country gentleman, without claims to +attention, and ready to take the lowest place in company, or at +table, and to act his part without trouble to any body. Spoken to, +and closely observed, he would be seen to be a gentleman of finished +breeding, of winning and prepossessing talk, and just as much mind +as the occasion required him to show. Coming to man's estate at the +beginning of the revolution he followed the current into which so +many young men, destined to become eminent, so ardently entered; +and served in the army, and with notice and observation, under the +eyes of Washington. Elected to Congress at an early age he served +in the House of Representatives in the time of the elder Mr. Adams, +and found in one of the prominent questions of the day a subject +entirely fitted to his acute and logical turn of mind--the case of +the famous Jonathan Robbins, claiming to be an American citizen, +reclaimed by the British government as a deserter, delivered up, and +hanged at the yard-arm of an English man-of-war. Party spirit took +up the case, and it was one to inflame that spirit. Mr. Marshall +spoke in defence of the administration, and made the master speech +of the day, when there were such master speakers in Congress as +Madison, Gallatin, William B. Giles, Edward Livingston, John +Randolph. It was a judicial subject, adapted to the legal mind of +Mr. Marshall, requiring a legal pleading: and well did he plead +it. Mr. Randolph has often been heard to say that it distanced +competition--leaving all associates and opponents far behind, and +carrying the case. Seldom has one speech brought so much fame, +and high appointment to any one man. When he had delivered it +his reputation was in the zenith: in less than nine brief months +thereafter he was Secretary at War, Secretary of State, Minister +to France, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United +States. Politically, he classed with the federal party, and was one +of those high-minded and patriotic men of that party, who, acting on +principle, commanded the respect of those even who deemed them wrong. + + + + +CHAPTER CL. + +DEATH OF COL. BURR, THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. + + +He was one of the few who, entering the war of independence with +ardor and brilliant prospects, disappointed the expectations he +had created, dishonored the cause he had espoused, and ended in +shame the career which he had opened with splendor. He was in the +adventurous expedition of Arnold through the wilderness to Quebec, +went ahead in the disguise of a priest to give intelligence of the +approach of aid to General Montgomery, arrived safely through many +dangers, captivated the General by the courage and address which +he had shown, was received by him into his military family; and +was at his side when he was killed. Returning to the seat of war +in the Northern States he was invited by Washington, captivated +like Montgomery by the soldierly and intellectual qualities he +had shown, to his headquarters, with a view to placing him on his +staff; but he soon perceived that the brilliant young man lacked +principle; and quietly got rid of him. The after part of his life +was such as to justify the opinion which Washington had formed +of him; but such was his address and talent as to rise to high +political distinction: Attorney General of New-York, Senator in +Congress, and Vice-President of the United States. At the close of +the presidential election of 1800, he stood equal with Mr. Jefferson +in the vote which he received, and his undoubted successor at +the end of Mr. Jefferson's term. But there his honors came to a +stand, and took a downward turn, nor ceased descending until he was +landed in the abyss of shame, misery, and desolation. He intrigued +with the federalists to supplant Mr. Jefferson--to get the place +of President, for which he had not received a single vote--was +suspected, detected, baffled--lost the respect of his party, and was +thrown upon crimes to recover a position, or to avenge his losses. +The treasonable attempt in the West, and the killing of General +Hamilton, ended his career in the United States. But although he +had deceived the masses, and reached the second office of the +government, with the certainty of attaining the first if he only +remained still, yet there were some close observers whom he never +deceived. The early mistrust of Washington has been mentioned: it +became stronger as Burr mounted higher in the public favor; and in +1794, when a senator in Congress, and when the republican party +had taken him for their choice for the French mission in the place +of Mr. Monroe recalled, and had sent a committee of which Mr. +Madison was chief to ask his nomination from Washington, that wise +and virtuous man peremptorily refused it, giving as a categorical +reason, that his rule was invariable, never to appoint an immoral +man to any office. Mr. Jefferson had the same ill opinion of him, +and, notwithstanding his party zeal, always considered him in +market when the federalists had any high office to bestow. But +General Hamilton was most thoroughly imbued with a sense of his +unworthiness, and deemed it due to his country to balk his election +over Jefferson; and did so. His letters to the federal members of +Congress painted Burr in his true character, and dashed far from +his grasp, and for ever, the gilded prize his hand was touching. +For that frustration of his hopes, four years afterwards, he +killed Hamilton in a duel, having on the part of Burr the spirit +of an assassination--cold-blooded, calculated, revengeful, and +falsely-pretexted. He alleged some trivial and recent matter for the +challenge, such as would not justify it in any code of honor; and +went to the ground to kill upon an old grudge which he was ashamed +to avow. Hard was the fate of Hamilton--losing his life at the +early age of forty-two for having done justice to his country in +the person of the man to whom he stood most politically opposed, +and the chief of the party by which he had been constrained to +retire from the scene of public life at the age of thirty-four--the +age at which most others begin it--he having accomplished gigantic +works. He was the man most eminently and variously endowed of all +the eminent men of his day--at once soldier and statesman, with a +head to conceive, and a hand to execute: a writer, an orator, a +jurist: an organizing mind, able to grasp the greatest system; and +administrative, to execute the smallest details: wholly turned to +the practical business of life, and with a capacity for application +and production which teemed with gigantic labors, each worthy to +be the sole product of a single master intellect; but lavished in +litters from the ever teeming fecundity of his prolific genius. +Hard his fate, when, withdrawing from public life at the age of +thirty-four, he felt himself constrained to appeal to posterity for +that justice which contemporaries withheld from him. And the appeal +was not in vain. Statues rise to his memory: history embalms his +name: posterity will do justice to the man who at the age of twenty +was "the principal and most confidential aid of Washington," who +retained the love and confidence of the Father of his country to the +last; and to whom honorable opponents, while opposing his systems +of policy, accorded honor, and patriotism, and social affections, +and transcendental abilities.--This chapter was commenced to write a +notice of the character of Colonel Burr; but that subject will not +remain under the pen. At the appearance of that name, the spirit of +Hamilton starts up to rebuke the intrusion--to drive back the foul +apparition to its gloomy abode--and to concentrate all generous +feeling on itself. + + + + +CHAPTER CLI. + +DEATH OF WILLIAM B. GILES, OF VIRGINIA. + + +He also died under the presidency of General Jackson. He was one +of the eminent public men coming upon the stage of action with the +establishment of the new constitution--with the change from a League +to a Union; from the confederation to the unity of the States--and +was one of the most conspicuous in the early annals of our Congress. +He had that kind of speaking talent which is most effective in +legislative bodies, and which is so different from set-speaking. +He was a debater; and was considered by Mr. Randolph to be, in our +House of Representatives, what Charles Fox was admitted to be in +the British House of Commons: the most accomplished debater which +his country had ever seen. But their acquired advantages were very +different, and their schools of practice very opposite. Mr. Fox +perfected himself in the House, speaking on every subject; Mr. Giles +out of the House, talking to every body. Mr. Fox, a ripe scholar, +addicted to literature, and imbued with all the learning of all the +classics in all time; Mr. Giles neither read nor studied, but talked +incessantly with able men, rather debating with them all the while: +and drew from this source of information, and from the ready powers +of his mind, the ample means of speaking on every subject with the +fulness which the occasion required, the quickness which confounds +an adversary, and the effect which a lick in time always produces. +He had the kind of talent which was necessary to complete the +circle of all sorts of ability which sustained the administration +of Mr. Jefferson. Macon was wise, Randolph brilliant, Gallatin and +Madison able in argument; but Giles was the ready champion, always +ripe for the combat--always furnished with the ready change to meet +every bill. He was long a member of the House; then senator, and +governor; and died at an advanced age, like Patrick Henry, without +doing justice to his genius in the transmission of his labors to +posterity; because, like Henry, he had been deficient in education +and in reading. He was the intimate friend of all the eminent men of +his day, which sufficiently bespeaks him a gentleman of manners and +heart, as well as a statesman of head and tongue. + + + + +CHAPTER CLII. + +PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1836. + + +Mr. Van Buren was the candidate of the democratic party; General +Harrison the candidate of the opposition; and Mr. Hugh L. White +that of a fragment of the democracy. Mr. Van Buren was elected, +receiving one hundred and seventy electoral votes, to seventy-three +given to General Harrison, and twenty-six given to Mr. White. The +States voting for each, were:--Mr. Van Buren: Maine, New Hampshire, +Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North +Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, +Michigan, Arkansas. For General Harrison: Vermont, New Jersey, +Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana. For Mr. White: +Georgia and Tennessee. Massachusetts complimented Mr. Webster +by bestowing her fourteen votes upon him; and South Carolina, +as in the two preceding elections, threw her vote away upon a +citizen not a candidate, and not a child of her soil--Mr. Mangum +of North Carolina--disappointing the expectations of Mr. White's +friends, whose standing for the presidency had been instigated by +Mr. Calhoun, to divide the democratic party and defeat Mr. Van +Buren. Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was the democratic +candidate for the vice-presidency, and received one hundred and +forty-seven votes, which, not being a majority of the whole number +of votes given, the election was referred to the Senate, to choose +between the two highest on the list; and that body being largely +democratic, he was duly elected: receiving thirty-three out of +forty-nine senatorial votes. The rest of the vice-presidential vote, +in the electoral colleges, had been between Mr. Francis Granger, +of New York, who received seventy-seven votes; Mr. John Tyler, of +Virginia, who received forty-seven; and Mr. William Smith, of South +Carolina, complimented by Virginia with her twenty-three votes. +Mr. Granger, being the next highest on the list, after Colonel +Johnson, was voted for as one of the two referred to the Senate; +and received sixteen votes. A list of the senators voting for each +will show the strength of the respective parties in the Senate, at +the approaching end of President Jackson's administration; and how +signally all the efforts intended to overthrow him had ended in the +discomfiture of their authors, and converted an absolute majority +of the whole Senate into a meagre minority of one third. The votes +for Colonel Johnson were: Mr. Benton of Missouri; Mr. Black of +Mississippi; Mr. Bedford Brown of North Carolina; Mr. Buchanan +of Pennsylvania; Mr. Cuthbert of Georgia; Mr. Dana of Maine; Mr. +Ewing of Illinois; Mr. Fulton of Arkansas; Mr. Grundy of Tennessee; +Mr. Hendricks of Indiana; Mr. Hubbard of Maine; Mr. William Rufus +King of Alabama; Mr. John P. King of Georgia; Mr. Louis F. Linn of +Missouri; Mr. Lucius Lyon of Michigan Mr. McKean of Pennsylvania; +Mr. Gabriel Moore of Alabama; Mr. Morris of Ohio; Mr. Alexander +Mouton of Louisiana; Mr. Wilson C. Nicholas of Louisiana; Mr. +Niles of Connecticut; Mr. John Norvell of Michigan; Mr. John Page +of New Hampshire; Mr. Richard E. Parker of Virginia; Mr. Rives of +Virginia; Mr. John M. Robinson of Illinois; Mr. Ruggles of Maine; +Mr. Ambrose H. Sevier of Arkansas; Mr. Peleg Sprague of Maine; Mr. +Robert Strange of North Carolina; Mr. Nathaniel P. Talmadge of New +York; Mr. Tipton of Indiana; Mr. Robert J. Walker of Mississippi; +Mr. Silas Wright of New York. Those voting for Mr. Francis Granger +were: Mr. Richard H. Bayard of Delaware; Mr. Clay; Mr. John M. +Clayton of Delaware; Mr. John Crittenden of Kentucky; Mr. John Davis +of Massachusetts; Mr. Thomas Ewing of Ohio; Mr. Kent of Maryland; +Mr. Nehemiah Knight of Rhode Island; Mr. Prentiss of Vermont; Mr. +Asher Robbins of Rhode Island; Mr. Samuel L. Southard of New Jersey; +Mr. John S. Spence of Maryland; Mr. Swift of Vermont; Mr. Gideon +Tomlinson of Connecticut; Mr. Wall of New Jersey; Mr. Webster. South +Carolina did not vote, neither in the person of Mr. Calhoun nor in +that of his colleague, Mr. Preston: an omission which could not be +attributed to absence or accident, as both were present; nor fail +to be remarked and considered ominous in the then temper of the +State, and her refusal to vote in the three preceding presidential +elections. + + + + +CHAPTER CLIII. + +LAST ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT JACKSON. + + +At the opening of the second Session of the twenty-fourth Congress, +President Jackson delivered his last Annual Message, and under +circumstances to be grateful to his heart. The powerful opposition +in Congress had been broken down, and he saw full majorities +of ardent and tried friends in each House. We were in peace and +friendship with all the world, and all exciting questions quieted +at home. Industry in all its branches was prosperous. The revenue +was abundant--too much so. The people were happy. His message, of +course, was first a recapitulation of this auspicious state of +things, at home and abroad; and then a reference to the questions +of domestic interest and policy which required attention, and +might call for action. At the head of these measures stood the +deposit act of the last session--the act which under the insidious +and fabulous title of a deposit of a surplus of revenue with the +States--made an actual distribution of that surplus; and was +intended by its contrivers to do so. His notice of this measure went +to two points--his own regrets for having signed the act, and his +misgivings in relation to its future observation. He said: + + "The consequences apprehended, when the deposit act of the last + session received a reluctant approval, have been measurably + realized. Though an act merely for the deposit of the surplus + moneys of the United States in the State Treasuries, for safe + keeping, until they may be wanted for the service of the general + government, it has been extensively spoken of as an act to give + the money to the several States, and they have been advised + to use it as a gift, without regard to the means of refunding + it when called for. Such a suggestion has doubtless been made + without a due consideration of the obligation of the deposit + act, and without a proper attention to the various principles + and interests which are affected by it. It is manifest that + the law itself cannot sanction such a suggestion, and that, as + it now stands, the States have no more authority to receive + and use these deposits without intending to return them, + than any deposit bank, or any individual temporarily charged + with the safe-keeping or application of the public money, + would now have for converting the same to their private use, + without the consent and against the will of the government. + But, independently of the violation of public faith and moral + obligation which are involved in this suggestion, when examined + in reference to the terms of the present deposit act, it is + believed that the considerations which should govern the future + legislation of Congress on this subject, will be equally + conclusive against the adoption of any measure recognizing the + principles on which the suggestion has been made." + +This misgiving was well founded. Before the session was over there +was actually a motion to release the States from their obligation +to restore the money--to lay which motion on the table there were +seventy-three resisting votes--an astonishing number in itself, +and the more so as given by the same members, sitting in the same +seats, who had voted for the act as a deposit a few months before. +Such a vote was ominous of the fate of the money; and that fate was +not long delayed. Akin to this measure, and in fact the parent of +which it was the bastard progeny, was distribution itself, under +its own proper name; and which it was evident was soon to be openly +attempted, encouraged as its advocates were by the success gained in +the deposit act. The President, with his characteristic frankness +and firmness, impugned that policy in advance; and deprecated its +effects under every aspect of public and private justice, and of +every consideration of a wise or just policy. He said: + + "To collect revenue merely for distribution to the States, + would seem to be highly impolitic, if not as dangerous as + the proposition to retain it in the Treasury. The shortest + reflection must satisfy every one that to require the people + to pay taxes to the government merely that they may be paid + back again, is sporting with the substantial interests of the + country, and no system which produces such a result can be + expected to receive the public countenance. Nothing could be + gained by it, even if each individual who contributed a portion + of the tax could receive back promptly the same portion. But it + is apparent that no system of the kind can ever be enforced, + which will not absorb a considerable portion of the money, to be + distributed in salaries and commissions to the agents employed + in the process, and in the various losses and depreciations + which arise from other causes; and the practical effect of such + an attempt must ever be to burden the people with taxes, not + for purposes beneficial to them, but to swell the profits of + deposit banks, and support a band of useless public officers. A + distribution to the people is impracticable and unjust in other + respects. It would be taking one man's property and giving it + to another. Such would be the unavoidable result of a rule of + equality (and none other is spoken of, or would be likely to + be adopted), inasmuch as there is no mode by which the amount + of the individual contributions of our citizens to the public + revenue can be ascertained. We know that they contribute + _unequally_, and a rule therefore that would distribute to them + _equally_, would be liable to all the objections which apply + to the principle of an equal division of property. To make the + general government the instrument of carrying this odious + principle into effect, would be at once to destroy the means of + its usefulness, and change the character designed for it by the + framers of the constitution." + +There was another consideration connected with this policy of +distribution which the President did not name, and could not, in the +decorum and reserve of an official communication to Congress: it was +the intended effect of these distributions--to debauch the people +with their own money, and to gain presidential votes by lavishing +upon them the spoils of their country. To the honor of the people +this intended effect never occurred; no one of those contriving +these distributions ever reaching the high object of their ambition. +Instead of distribution--instead of raising money from the people to +be returned to the people, with all the deductions which the double +operation of collecting and dividing would incur, and with the +losses which unfaithful agents might inflict--instead of that idle +and wasteful process, which would have been childish if it had not +been vicious, he recommended a reduction of taxes on the comforts +and necessaries of life, and the levy of no more money than was +necessary for the economical administration of the government; and +said: + + "In reducing the revenue to the wants of the government, + your particular attention is invited to those articles which + constitute the necessaries of life. The duty on salt was laid + as a war tax, and was no doubt continued to assist in providing + for the payment of the war debt. There is no article the + release of which from taxation would be felt so generally and + so beneficially. To this may be added all kinds of fuel and + provisions. Justice and benevolence unite in favor of releasing + the poor of our cities from burdens which are not necessary to + the support of our government, and tend only to increase the + wants of the destitute." + +The issuance of the "Treasury Circular" naturally claimed a place +in the President's message; and received it. The President gave his +reason for the measure in the necessity of saving the public domain +from being exchanged for bank paper money, which was not wanted, and +might be of little value or use when wanted; and expressed himself +thus: + + "The effects of an extension of bank credits, and over-issues + of bank paper, have been strikingly illustrated in the sales of + the public lands. From the returns made by the various registers + and receivers in the early part of last summer it was perceived + that the receipts arising from the sales of the public lands, + were increasing to an unprecedented amount. In effect, however, + these receipts amounted to nothing more than credits in bank. + The banks lent out their notes to speculators; they were paid + to the receivers, and immediately returned to the banks, to be + lent out again and again; being mere instruments to transfer + to speculators the most valuable public land, and pay the + government by a credit on the books of the banks. Those credits + on the books of some of the western banks, usually called + deposits, were already greatly beyond their immediate means of + payment, and were rapidly increasing. Indeed each speculation + furnished means for another; for no sooner had one individual or + company paid in the notes, than they were immediately lent to + another for a like purpose; and the banks were extending their + business and their issues so largely, as to alarm considerate + men, and render it doubtful whether these bank credits, if + permitted to accumulate, would ultimately be of the least value + to the government. The spirit of expansion and speculation + was not confined to the deposit banks, but pervaded the whole + multitude of banks throughout the Union, and was giving rise + to new institutions to aggravate the evil. The safety of the + public funds, and the interest of the people generally, required + that these operations should be checked; and it became the + duty of every branch of the general and State governments to + adopt all legitimate and proper means to produce that salutary + effect. Under this view of my duty, I directed the issuing of + the order which will be laid before you by the Secretary of the + Treasury, requiring payment for the public lands sold to be + made in specie, with an exception until the 15th of the present + month, in favor of actual settlers. This measure has produced + many salutary consequences. It checked the career of the Western + banks, and gave them additional strength in anticipation of the + pressure which has since pervaded our Eastern as well as the + European commercial cities. By preventing the extension of the + credit system, it measurably cut off the means of speculation, + and retarded its progress in monopolizing the most valuable of + the public lands. It has tended to save the new States from + a non-resident proprietorship, one of the greatest obstacles + to the advancement of a new country, and the prosperity of an + old one. It has tended to keep open the public lands for the + entry of emigrants at government prices, instead of their being + compelled to purchase of speculators at double or treble prices. + And it is conveying into the interior large sums in silver + and gold, there to enter permanently into the currency of the + country, and place it on a firmer foundation. It is confidently + believed that the country will find in the motives which induced + that order, and the happy consequences which will have ensued, + much to commend and nothing to condemn." + +The people were satisfied with the Treasury Circular; they saw its +honesty and good effects; but the politicians were not satisfied +with it. They thought they saw in it a new exercise of illegal +power in the President--a new tampering with the currency--a new +destruction of the public prosperity; and commenced an attack upon +it the moment Congress met, very much in the style of the attack +upon the order for the removal of the deposits; and with fresh +hopes from the resentment of the "thousand banks," whose notes had +been excluded, and from the discontent of many members of Congress +whose schemes of speculation had been balked. And notwithstanding +the democratic majorities in the two Houses, the attack upon the +"Circular" had a great success, many members being interested in +the excluded banks, and partners in schemes for monopolizing the +lands. A bill intended to repeal the Circular was actually passed +through both Houses; but not in direct terms. That would have been +too flagrant. It was a bad thing, and could not be fairly done, and +therefore gave rise to indirection and ambiguity of provisions, and +complication of phrases, and a multiplication of amphibologies, +which brought the bill to a very ridiculous conclusion when it got +to the hands of General Jackson. But of this hereafter. + +The intrusive efforts made by politicians and missionaries, first, +to prevent treaties from being formed with the Indians to remove +from the Southern States, and then to prevent the removal after the +treaties were made, led to serious refusals on the part of some +of these tribes to emigrate; and it became necessary to dispatch +officers of high rank and reputation, with regular troops, to keep +down outrages and induce peaceable removal. Major General Jesup +was sent to the Creek nation, where he had a splendid success in a +speedy and bloodless accomplishment of his object. Major General +Scott was sent to the Cherokees, where a pertinacious resistance +was long encountered, but eventually and peaceably overcome. The +Seminole hostilities in Florida were just breaking out; and the +President, in his message, thus notices all these events: + + "The military movements rendered necessary by the aggressions + of the hostile portions of the Seminole and Creek tribes of + Indians, and by other circumstances, have required the active + employment of nearly our whole regular force, including the + marine corps, and of large bodies of militia and volunteers. + With all these events, so far as they were known at the seat + of government before the termination of your last session, + you are already acquainted; and it is therefore only needful + in this place to lay before you a brief summary of what has + since occurred. The war with the Seminoles during the summer + was, on our part, chiefly confined to the protection of our + frontier settlements from the incursions of the enemy; and, as + a necessary and important means for the accomplishment of that + end, to the maintenance of the posts previously established. + In the course of this duty several actions took place, in + which the bravery and discipline of both officers and men were + conspicuously displayed, and which I have deemed it proper to + notice in respect to the former, by the granting of brevet rank + for gallant services in the field. But as the force of the + Indians was not so far weakened by these partial successes as to + lead them to submit, and as their savage inroads were frequently + repeated, early measures were taken for placing at the disposal + of Governor Call, who, as commander-in-chief of the territorial + militia, had been temporarily invested with the command, an + ample force, for the purpose of resuming offensive operations + in the most efficient manner, so soon as the season should + permit. Major General Jesup was also directed, on the conclusion + of his duties in the Creek country, to repair to Florida, and + assume the command. Happily for the interests of humanity, the + hostilities with the Creeks were brought to a close soon after + your adjournment, without that effusion of blood, which at one + time was apprehended as inevitable. The unconditional submission + of the hostile party was followed by their speedy removal to the + country assigned them west of the Mississippi. The inquiry as to + the alleged frauds in the purchase of the reservations of these + Indians, and the causes of their hostilities, requested by the + resolution of the House of Representatives of the 1st of July + last to be made by the President, is now going on, through the + agency of commissioners appointed for that purpose. Their report + may be expected during your present session. The difficulties + apprehended in the Cherokee country have been prevented, and the + peace and safety of that region and its vicinity effectually + secured, by the timely measures taken by the war department, and + still continued." + +The Bank of the United States was destined to receive another, and +a parting notice from General Jackson, and greatly to its further +discredit, brought upon it by its own lawless and dishonest course. +Its charter had expired, and it had delayed to refund the stock +paid for by the United States, or to pay the back dividend; and had +transferred itself with all its effects, and all its subscribers +except the United States, to a new corporation, under the same +name, created by a _proviso_ to a road bill in the General Assembly +of Pennsylvania, obtained by bribery, as subsequent legislative +investigation proved. This transfer, or transmigration, was a new +and most amazing procedure. The metempsychosis of a bank was a +novelty which confounded and astounded the senses, and set the wits +of Congress to work to find out how it could legally be done. The +President, though a good lawyer and judge of law, did not trouble +himself with legal subtleties and disquisitions. He took the broad, +moral, practical, business view of the question; and pronounced it +to be dishonest, unlawful, and irresponsible; and recommended to +Congress to look after its stock. The message said: + + "The conduct and present condition of that bank, and the great + amount of capital vested in it by the United States, require + your careful attention. Its charter expired on the third day of + March last, and it has now no power but that given in the 21st + section, 'to use the corporate name, style, and capacity, for + the purpose of suits, for the final settlement and liquidation + of the affairs and accounts of the corporation, and for the sale + and disposition of their estate, real, personal, and mixed, and + not for any other purpose, or in any other manner whatsoever, + nor for a period exceeding two years after the expiration of + the said term of incorporation.' Before the expiration of + the charter, the stockholders of the bank obtained an act of + incorporation from the legislature of Pennsylvania, excluding + only the United States. Instead of proceeding to wind up their + concerns, and pay over to the United States the amount due on + account of the stock held by them, the president and directors + of the old bank appear to have transferred the books, papers, + notes, obligations, and most or all of its property, to this new + corporation, which entered upon business as a continuation of + the old concern. Amongst other acts of questionable validity, + the notes of the expired corporation are known to have been used + as its own, and again put in circulation. That the old bank had + no right to issue or reissue its notes after the expiration of + its charter, cannot be denied; and that it could not confer any + such right on its substitute, any more than exercise it itself, + is equally plain. In law and honesty, the notes of the bank + in circulation, at the expiration of its charter, should have + been called in by public advertisement, paid up as presented, + and, together with those on hand, cancelled and destroyed. + Their re-issue is sanctioned by no law, and warranted by no + necessity. If the United States be responsible in their stock + for the payment of these notes, their re-issue by the new + corporation, for their own profit, is a fraud on the government. + If the United States is not responsible, then there is no legal + responsibility in any quarter, and it is a fraud on the country. + They are the redeemed notes of a dissolved partnership, but, + contrary to the wishes of the retiring partner, and without his + consent, are again re-issued and circulated. It is the high + and peculiar duty of Congress to decide whether any further + legislation be necessary for the security of the large amount + of public property now held and in use by the new bank, and + for vindicating the rights of the government, and compelling a + speedy and honest settlement with all the creditors of the old + bank, public and private, or whether the subject shall be left + to the power now possessed by the executive and judiciary. It + remains to be seen whether the persons, who, as managers of + the old bank, undertook to control the government, retained + the public dividends, shut their doors upon a committee of the + House of Representatives, and filled the country with panic to + accomplish their own sinister objects, may now, as managers of + a new Bank, continue with impunity to flood the country with a + spurious currency, use the seven millions of government stock + for their own profit, and refuse to the United States all + information as to the present condition of their own property, + and the prospect of recovering it into their own possession. + The lessons taught by the bank of the United States cannot + well be lost upon the American people. They will take care + never again to place so tremendous a power in irresponsible + hands, and it will be fortunate if they seriously consider the + consequences which are likely to result on a smaller scale from + the facility with which corporate powers are granted by their + State government." + +This novel and amazing attempt of the bank to transmigrate into +the body of another bank with all its effects, was a necessity of +its position--the necessity which draws a criminal to even insane +acts to prevent the detection, exposure, and ruin from which guilt +recoils in not less guilty contrivances. The bank was broken, and +could not wind up, and wished to postpone, or by chance avert +the dreaded discovery. It was in the position of a glass vase, +cracked from top to bottom, and ready to split open if touched, but +looking as if whole while sitting unmoved on the shelf. The great +bank was in this condition, and therefore untouchable, and saw no +resource except in a metempsychosis--a difficult process for a +soulless institution--and thereby endeavoring to continue its life +without a change of name, form, or substance. The experiment was a +catastrophe, as might have been expected beforehand; and as was soon +seen afterwards. + +The injury resulting to the public service from the long delay +in making the appropriations at the last session--delayed while +occupied with distribution bills until the season for labor had well +passed away. On this point the message said: + + "No time was lost, after the making of the requisite + appropriations, in resuming the great national work of + completing the unfinished fortifications on our seaboard, and + of placing them in a proper state of defence. In consequence, + however, of the very late day at which those bills were passed, + but little progress could be made during the season which has + just closed. A very large amount of the moneys granted at your + last session accordingly remains unexpended; but as the work + will be again resumed at the earliest moment in the coming + spring, the balance of the existing appropriations, and, in + several cases which will be laid before you, with the proper + estimates, further sums for the like objects, may be usefully + expended during the next year." + +Here was one of the evils of dividing the public money, and of +factious opposition to the government. The session of 1834-'5 had +closed without a dollar for the military defences, leaving half +finished works unfinished, and finished works unarmed; and that in +the presence of a threatening collision with France; and at the +subsequent session of 1835-6, the appropriations were not made until +the month of July and when they could not be used or applied. + +Scarcely did the railroad system begin to spread itself along the +highways of the United States than the effects of the monopoly +and extortion incident to moneyed corporations, began to manifest +itself in exorbitant demands for the transportation of the mails, +and in capricious refusals to carry them at all except on their own +terms. President Jackson was not the man to submit to an imposition, +or to capitulate to a corporation. He brought the subject before +Congress, and invited particular attention to it in a paragraph of +his message; in which he said: + + "Your particular attention is invited to the subject of mail + contracts with railroad companies. The present laws providing + for the making of contracts are based upon the presumption that + competition among bidders will secure the service at a fair + price. But on most of the railroad lines there is no competition + in that kind of transportation, and advertising is therefore + useless. No contract can now be made with them, except such as + shall be negotiated before the time of offering or afterwards, + and the power of the Postmaster-general to pay them high prices + is, practically, without limitation. It would be a relief to + him, and no doubt would conduce to the public interest, to + prescribe by law some equitable basis upon which such contracts + shall rest, and restrict him by a fixed rule of allowance. Under + a liberal act of that sort, he would undoubtedly be able to + secure the services of most of the railroad companies, and the + interest of the Department would be thus advanced." + +The message recommended a friendly supervision over the Indian +tribes removed to the West of the Mississippi, with the important +suggestion of preventing intestine war by military interference, as +well as improving their condition by all the usual means. On these +points, it said: + + "The national policy, founded alike in interest and in humanity, + so long and so steadily pursued by this government, for the + removal of the Indian tribes originally settled on this side + of the Mississippi, to the west of that river, may be said to + have been consummated by the conclusion of the late treaty with + the Cherokees. The measures taken in the execution of that + treaty, and in relation to our Indian affairs generally, will + fully appear by referring to the accompanying papers. Without + dwelling on the numerous and important topics embraced in them, + I again invite your attention to the importance of providing + a well-digested and comprehensive system for the protection, + supervision and improvement of the various tribes now planted + in the Indian country. The suggestions submitted by the + commissioner of Indian affairs, and enforced by the secretary, + on this subject, and also in regard to the establishment of + additional military posts in the Indian country, are entitled + to your profound consideration. Both measures are necessary for + the double purpose of protecting the Indians from intestine + war, and in other respects complying with our engagements to + them, and of securing our Western frontier against incursions, + which otherwise will assuredly be made on it. The best hopes + of humanity, in regard to the aboriginal race, the welfare + of our rapidly extending settlements, and the honor of the + United States, are all deeply involved in the relations + existing between this government and the emigrating tribes. I + trust, therefore, that the various matters submitted in the + accompanying documents, in respect to those relations, will + receive your early and mature deliberation; and that it may + issue in the adoption of legislative measures adapted to the + circumstances and duties of the present crisis." + +This suggestion of preventing intestine wars (as they are called) +in the bosoms of the tribes, is founded equally in humanity to +the Indians and duty to ourselves. Such wars are nothing but +massacres, assassinations and confiscations. The stronger party +oppress a hated, or feared minority or chief; and slay with +impunity (in some of the tribes), where the assumption of a form of +government, modelled after that of the white race, for which they +have no capacity, gives the justification of executions to what +is nothing but revenge and assassination. Under their own ancient +laws, of blood for blood, and for the slain to avenge the wrong, +this liability of personal responsibility restrained the killings +to cases of public justifiable necessity. Since the removal of that +responsibility, revenge, ambition, plunder, take their course: and +the consequence is a series of assassinations which have been going +on for a long time; and still continue. To aggravate many of these +massacres, and to give their victims a stronger claim upon the +protection of the United States, they are done upon those who are +friends to the United States, upon accusations of having betrayed +the interest of the tribe in some treaty for the sale of lands. The +United States claim jurisdiction over their country, and exercise it +in the punishment of some classes of criminals; and it would be good +to extend it to the length recommended by President Jackson. + +The message would have been incomplete without a renewal of the +standing recommendation to take the presidential election out of the +hands of intermediate bodies, and give it directly to the people. +He earnestly urged an amendment to the constitution to that effect; +but that remedy being of slow, difficult, and doubtful attainment, +the more speedy process by the action of the people becomes the +more necessary. Congressional caucuses were put down by the people +in the election of 1824: their substitute and successor--national +conventions--ruled by a minority, and managed by intrigue and +corruption, are about as much worse than a Congress caucus as +Congress itself would be if the members appointed, or contrived the +appointment, of themselves, instead of being elected by the people. +The message appropriately concluded with thanks to the people for +the high honors to which they had lifted him, and their support +under arduous circumstances, and said: + + "Having now finished the observations deemed proper on this, + the last occasion I shall have of communicating with the + two Houses of Congress at their meeting, I cannot omit an + expression of the gratitude which is due to the great body + of my fellow citizens, in whose partiality and indulgence I + have found encouragement and support in the many difficult and + trying scenes through which it has been my lot to pass during + my public career. Though deeply sensible that my exertions have + not been crowned with a success corresponding to the degree of + favor bestowed upon me, I am sure that they will be considered + as having been directed by an earnest desire to promote the + good of my country; and I am consoled by the persuasion that + whatever errors have been committed will find a corrective in + the intelligence and patriotism of those who will succeed us. + All that has occurred during my administration is calculated + to inspire me with increased confidence in the stability of + our institutions, and should I be spared to enter upon that + retirement which is so suitable to my age and infirm health, and + so much desired by me in other respects, I shall not cease to + invoke that beneficent Being to whose providence we are already + so signally indebted for the continuance of his blessings on our + beloved country." + + + + +CHAPTER CLIV. + +FINAL REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS. + + +At the commencement of the annual session of 1836-'37, President +Jackson had the gratification to make known to Congress the +completion of the long-pursued policy of removing all the Indians +in the States, and within the organized territories of the Union, +to their new homes west of the Mississippi. It was a policy +commencing with Jefferson, pursued by all succeeding Presidents, and +accomplished by Jackson. The Creeks and Cherokees had withdrawn from +Georgia and Alabama; the Chickasaws and Choctaws from Mississippi +and Alabama; the Seminoles had stipulated to remove from Florida; +Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri had all been relieved of their +Indian population; Kentucky and Tennessee, by earlier treaties with +the Chickasaws, had received the same advantage. This freed the +slave States from an obstacle to their growth and prosperity, and +left them free to expand, and to cultivate, to the full measure +of their ample boundaries. All the free Atlantic States had long +been relieved from their Indian populations, and in this respect +the northern and southern States were now upon an equality. The +result has been proved to be, what it was then believed it would +be, beneficial to both parties; and still more so to the Indians +than to the whites. With them it was a question of extinction, +the time only the debatable point. They were daily wasting under +contact with the whites, and had before their eyes the eventual but +certain fate of the hundreds of tribes found by the early colonists +on the Roanoke, the James River, the Potomac, the Susquehannah, +the Delaware, the Connecticut, the Merrimac, the Kennebec and the +Penobscot. The removal saved the southern tribes from that fate; +and in giving them new and unmolested homes beyond the verge of the +white man's settlement, in a country temperate in climate, fertile +in soil, adapted to agriculture and to pasturage, with an outlet for +hunting, abounding with salt water and salt springs--it left them +to work out in peace the problem of Indian civilization. To all the +relieved States the removal of the tribes within their borders was a +great benefit--to the slave States transcendently and inappreciably +great. The largest tribes were within their limits, and the best of +their lands in the hands of the Indians, to the extent, in some of +the States, as Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, of a third or a +quarter of their whole area. I have heretofore shown, in the case of +the Creeks and the Cherokees in Georgia, that the ratification of +the treaties for the extinction of Indian claims within her limits, +and which removed the tribes which encumbered her, received the +cordial support of northern senators; and that, in fact, without +that support these great objects could not have been accomplished. +I have now to say the same of all the other slave States. They were +all relieved in like manner. Chickasaws and Choctaws in Mississippi +and Alabama; Chickasaw claims in Tennessee and Kentucky; Seminoles +in Florida; Caddos and Quapaws in Louisiana and in Arkansas; +Kickapoos, Delawares, Shawnees, Osages, Iowas, Pinkeshaws, Weas, +Peorias, in Missouri; all underwent the same process, and with the +same support and result. Northern votes, in the Senate, came to the +ratification of every treaty, and to the passage of every necessary +appropriation act in the House of Representatives. Northern men may +be said to have made the treaties, and passed the acts, as without +their aid it could not have been done, constituting, as they did, a +large majority in the House, and being equal in the Senate, where +a vote of two-thirds was wanting. I do not go over these treaties +and laws one by one, to show their passage, and by what votes. I +did that in the case of the Creek treaty and the Cherokee treaty, +for the removal of these tribes from Georgia; and showed that the +North was unanimous in one case, and nearly so in the other, while +in both treaties there was a southern opposition, and in one of +them (the Cherokee), both Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay in the negative: +and these instances may stand for an illustration of the whole. And +thus the area of slave population has been almost doubled in the +slave States, by sending away the Indians to make room for their +expansion; and it is unjust and cruel--unjust and cruel in itself, +independent of the motive--to charge these Northern States with +a design to abolish slavery in the South. If they had harbored +such design--if they had been merely unfriendly to the growth and +prosperity of these Southern States, there was an easy way to +have gratified their feelings, without committing a breach of the +constitution, or an aggression or encroachment upon these States: +they had only to sit still and vote against the ratification of the +treaties, and the enactment of the laws which effected this great +removal. They did not do so--did not sit still and vote against +their Southern brethren. On the contrary, they stood up and spoke +aloud, and gave to these laws and treaties an effective and zealous +support. And I, who was the Senate's chairman of the committee of +Indian affairs at this time, and know how these things were done, +and who was so thankful for northern help at the time; I, who know +the truth and love justice, and cherish the harmony and union of +the American people, feel it to be my duty and my privilege to note +this great act of justice from the North to the South, to stand +in history as a perpetual contradiction of all imputed design in +the free States to abolish slavery in the slave States. I speak of +States, not of individuals or societies. + +I have shown that this policy of the universal removal of the +Indians from the East to the West of the Mississippi originated +with Mr. Jefferson, and from the most humane motives, and after +having seen the extinction of more than forty tribes in his own +State of Virginia; and had been followed up under all subsequent +administrations. With General Jackson it was nothing but the +continuation of an established policy, but one in which he heartily +concurred, and of which his local position and his experience made +him one of the safest of judges; but, like every other act of his +administration, it was destined to obloquy and opposition, and +to misrepresentations, which have survived the object of their +creation, and gone into history. He was charged with injustice +to the Indians, in not protecting them against the laws and +jurisdiction of the States; with cruelty, in driving them away from +the bones of their fathers; with robbery, in taking their lands for +paltry considerations. Parts of the tribes were excited to resist +the execution of the treaties, and it even became necessary to send +troops and distinguished generals--Scott to the Cherokees, Jesup +to the Creeks--to effect their removal; which, by the mildness and +steadiness of these generals, and according to the humane spirit of +their orders, was eventually accomplished without the aid of force. +The outcry raised against General Jackson, on account of these +measures, reached the ears of the French traveller and writer on +American democracy (De Tocqueville), then sojourning among us and +collecting materials for his work, and induced him to write thus in +his chapter 18: + + "The ejectment of the Indians very often takes place, at the + present day, in a regular, and, as it were, legal manner. When + the white population begins to approach the limit of a desert + inhabited by a savage tribe, the government of the United States + usually dispatches envoys to them, who assemble the Indians + in a large plain, and having first eaten and drunk with them, + accost them in the following manner: 'What have you to do in + the land of your fathers? Before long you must dig up their + bones in order to live. In what respect is the country you + inhabit better than another? Are there no woods, marshes or + prairies, except where you dwell? and can you live nowhere but + under your own sun? Beyond those mountains, which you see at + the horizon--beyond the lake which bounds your territory on the + west--there lie vast countries where beasts of chase are found + in great abundance. Sell your lands to us, and go and live + happily in those solitudes.' + + "After holding this language, they spread before the eyes of + the Indians fire-arms, woollen garments, kegs of brandy, glass + necklaces, bracelets of tinsel, ear-rings, and looking-glasses. + If, when they have beheld all these riches, they still hesitate, + it is insinuated that they have not the means of refusing their + required consent, and that the government itself will not long + have the power of protecting them in their rights. What are + they to do? Half convinced, half compelled, they go to inhabit + new deserts, where the importunate whites will not permit them + to remain ten years in tranquillity. In this manner do the + Americans obtain, at a very low price, whole provinces, which + the richest sovereigns in Europe could not purchase." + +The Grecian Plutarch deemed it necessary to reside forty years in +Rome, to qualify himself to write the lives of some Roman citizens; +and then made mistakes. European writers do not deem it necessary +to reside in our country at all in order to write our history. A +sojourn of some months in the principal towns--a rapid flight along +some great roads--the gossip of the steamboat, the steam-car, the +stage-coach, and the hotel--the whispers of some earwigs--with the +reading of the daily papers and the periodicals, all more or less +engaged in partisan warfare--and the view of some debates, or scene, +in Congress, which may be an exception to its ordinary decorum +and intelligence: these constitute a modern European traveller's +qualifications to write American history. No wonder that they commit +mistakes, even where the intent is honest. And no wonder that Mons. +de Tocqueville, with admitted good intentions, but with no "forty +years" residence among us, should be no exception to the rule +which condemns the travelling European writer of American history +to the compilation of facts manufactured for partisan effect, and +to the invention of reasons supplied from his own fancy. I have +already had occasion, several times, to correct the errors of +Mons. de Tocqueville. It is a compliment to him, implicative of +respect, and by no means extended to others, who err more largely, +and of purpose, but less harmfully. His error in all that he has +here written is profound! and is injurious, not merely to General +Jackson, to whom his mistakes apply, but to the national character, +made up as it is of the acts of individuals; and which character it +is the duty of every American to cherish and exalt in all that is +worthy, and to protect and defend from all unjust imputation. It +was in this sense that I marked this passage in De Tocqueville for +refutation as soon as his book appeared, and took steps to make the +contradiction (so far as the alleged robbery and cheating of the +Indians was concerned) authentic and complete and as public and +durable as the archives of the government itself. In this sense I +had a call made for a full, numerical, chronological and official +statement of all our Indian purchases, from the beginning of the +federal government in 1789 to that day, 1840--tribe by tribe, +cession by cession, year by year--for the fifty years which the +government had existed; with the number of acres acquired at each +cession, and the amount paid for each. + +The call was made in the Senate of the United States, and answered +by document No. 616, 1st session, 26th Congress, in a document of +thirteen printed tabular pages, and authenticated by the signatures +of Mr. Van Buren, President; Mr. Poinsett, Secretary at War; and +Mr. Hartley Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. From this +document it appeared, that the United States had paid to the Indians +eighty-five millions of dollars for land purchases up to the year +1840! to which five or six millions may be added for purchases +since--say ninety millions. This is near six times as much as the +United States gave the great Napoleon for Louisiana, the whole +of it, soil and jurisdiction; and nearly three times as much as +all three of the great foreign purchases--Louisiana, Florida and +California--cost us! and that for soil alone, and for so much as +would only be a fragment of Louisiana or California. Impressive as +this statement is in the gross, it becomes more so in the detail, +and when applied to the particular tribes whose imputed sufferings +have drawn so mournful a picture from Mons. de Tocqueville. These +are the four great southern tribes--Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws +and Choctaws. Applied to them, and the table of purchases and +payments stands thus: To the Creek Indians twenty-two millions of +dollars for twenty-five millions of acres; which is seven millions +more than was paid France for Louisiana, and seventeen millions +more than was paid Spain for Florida. To the Choctaws, twenty-three +millions of dollars (besides reserved tracts), for twenty millions +of acres, being three millions more than was paid for Louisiana and +Florida. To the Cherokees, for eleven millions of acres, was paid +about fifteen millions of dollars, the exact price of Louisiana or +California. To the Chickasaws, the whole net amount for which this +country sold under the land system of the United States, and by the +United States land officers, three millions of dollars for six and +three-quarter millions of acres, being the way the nation chose to +dispose of it. Here are fifty-six millions to four tribes, leaving +thirty millions to go to the small tribes whose names are unknown to +history, and which it is probable the writer on American democracy +had never heard of when sketching the picture of their fancied +oppressions. + +I will attend to the case of these small remote tribes, and +say that, besides their proportion of the remaining thirty-six +millions of dollars, they received a kind of compensation suited +to their condition, and intended to induct them into the comforts +of civilized life. Of these I will give one example, drawn from a +treaty with the Osages, in 1839; and which was only in addition to +similar benefits to the same tribe, in previous treaties, and which +were extended to all the tribes which were in the hunting state. +These benefits were, to these Osages, two blacksmith's shops, with +four blacksmiths, with five hundred pounds of iron and sixty pounds +of steel annually; a grist and a saw mill, with millers for the +same; 1,000 cows and calves; two thousand breeding swine; 1,000 +ploughs; 1,000 sets of horse-gear; 1,000 axes; 1,000 hoes; a house +each for ten chiefs, costing two hundred dollars apiece; to furnish +these chiefs with six good wagons, sixteen carts, twenty-eight yokes +of oxen, with yokes and log-chain; to pay all claims for injuries +committed by the tribe on the white people, or on other Indians, to +the amount of thirty thousand dollars; to purchase their reserved +lands at two dollars per acre; three thousand dollars to reimburse +that sum for so much deducted from their annuity, in 1825, for +property taken from the whites, and since returned; and, finally, +three thousand dollars more for an imputed wrongful withholding of +that amount, for the same reason, in the annuity payment of the +year 1829. In previous treaties, had been given seed grains, and +seed vegetables, with fruit seeds and fruit trees; domestic fowls; +laborers to plough up their ground and to make their fences, to +raise crops and to save them, and teach the Indians how to farm; +with spinning, weaving, and sewing implements, and persons to +show their use. Now, all this was in one single treaty, with an +inconsiderable tribe, which had been largely provided for in the +same way in six different previous treaties! And all the rude +tribes--those in the hunting state, or just emerging from it--were +provided for in the same manner, the object of the United States +being to train them to agriculture and pasturage--to conduct them +from the hunting to the pastoral and agricultural state; and for +that purpose, and in addition to all other benefits, are to be added +the support of schools, the encouragement of missionaries, and a +small annual contribution to religious societies who take charge of +their civilization. + +Besides all this, the government keeps up a large establishment +for the special care of the Indians, and the management of their +affairs; a special bureau, presided over by a commissioner at +Washington City; superintendents in different districts; agents, +sub-agents, and interpreters, resident with the tribe; and all +charged with seeing to their rights and interests--seeing that the +laws are observed towards them; that no injuries are done them by +the whites; that none but licensed traders go among them; that +nothing shall be bought from them which is necessary for their +comfort, nor any thing sold to them which may be to their detriment. +Among the prohibited articles are spirits of all kinds; and so +severe are the penalties on this head, that forfeiture of the +license, forfeiture of the whole cargo of goods, forfeiture of the +penalty of the bond, and immediate suit in the nearest federal court +for its recovery, expulsion from the Indian country, and disability +for ever to acquire another license, immediately follow every +breach of the laws for the introduction of the smallest quantity of +any kind of spirits. How unfortunate, then, in M. de Tocqueville +to write, that kegs of brandy are spread before the Indians to +induce them to sell their lands! How unfortunate in representing +these purchases to be made in exchange for woollen garments, glass +necklaces, tinsel bracelets, ear-rings, and looking-glasses! What a +picture this assertion of his makes by the side of the eighty-five +millions of dollars at that time actually paid to those Indians +for their lands, and the long and large list of agricultural +articles and implements--long and large list of domestic animals +and fowls--the ample supply of mills and shops, with mechanics +to work them and teach their use--the provisions for schools and +missionaries, for building fences and houses--which are found in +the Osage treaty quoted, and which are to be found, more or less, +in every treaty with every tribe emerging from the hunter state. +The fact is, that the government of the United States has made it a +fixed policy to cherish and protect the Indians, to improve their +condition, and turn them to the habits of civilized life; and great +is the wrong and injury which the mistake of this writer has done to +our national character abroad, in representing the United States as +cheating and robbing these children of the forest. + +But Mons. de Tocqueville has quoted names and documents, and +particular instances of imposition upon Indians, to justify his +picture; and in doing so has committed the mistakes into which +a stranger and sojourner may easily fall. He cites the report +of Messrs. Clark and Cass, and makes a wrong application--an +inverted application--of what they reported. They were speaking of +the practices of disorderly persons in trading with the Indians +for their skins and furs. They were reporting to the government +an abuse, for correction and punishment. They were not speaking +of United States commissioners, treating for the purchase of +lands, but of individual traders, violating the laws. They were +themselves those commissioners and superintendents of Indian +affairs, and governors of Territories, one for the northwest, in +Michigan, the other for the far west, in Missouri; and both noted +for their justice and humanity to the Indians, and for their +long and careful administration of their affairs within their +respective superintendencies. Mons. de Tocqueville has quoted their +words correctly, but with the comical blunder of reversing their +application, and applying to the commissioners themselves, in their +land negotiations for the government, the cheateries which they were +denouncing to the government, in the illicit traffic of lawless +traders. This was the comic blunder of a stranger: yet this is to +appear as American history in Europe, and to be translated into our +own language at home, and commended in a preface and notes. + + + + +CHAPTER CLV. + +RECISION OF THE TREASURY CIRCULAR. + + +Immediately upon the opening of the Senate and the organization +of the body, Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, gave notice of his intention to +move a joint resolution to rescind the treasury circular; and on +hearing the notice, Mr. Benton made it known that he would oppose +the resolution at the second reading--a step seldom resorted to, +except when the measure to be so opposed is deemed too flagrantly +wrong to be entitled to the honor of rejection in the usual forms of +legislation. The debate came on promptly, and upon the lead of the +mover of the resolution, in a prepared and well-considered speech, +in which he said: + + "This extraordinary paper was issued by the Secretary of the + Treasury on the 11th of July last, in the form of a circular + to the receivers of public money in the several land offices + in the United States, directing them, after the 15th of August + then next, to receive in payment for public lands nothing but + gold and silver and certificates of deposits, signed by the + Treasurer of the United States, with a saving in favor of + actual settlers, and bona fide residents in the State in which + the land happened to lie. This saving was for a limited time, + and expires, I think, to-morrow. The professed object of this + order was to check the speculations in public lands; to check + excessive issues of bank paper in the West, and to increase the + specie currency of the country; and the necessity of the measure + was supported, or pretended to be supported, by the opinions + of members of this body and the other branch of Congress. But, + before I proceed to examine in detail this paper, its character, + and its consequences, I will briefly advert to the state of + things out of which it grew. I am confident, and I believe I + can make the thing manifest, that the avowed objects were not + the only, nor even the leading objects for which this order was + framed; they may have influenced the minds of some who advised + it, but those who planned, and those who at last virtually + executed it, were governed by other and different motives, + which I shall proceed to explain. It was foreseen, prior to the + commencement of the last session of Congress, that there would + be a very large surplus of money in the public treasury beyond + the wants of the country for all their reasonable expenditures. + It was also well understood that the land bill, or some other + measure for the distribution of this fund, would be again + presented to Congress; and, if the true condition of the public + sentiment were known and understood, that its distribution, + in some form or other, would be demanded by the country. On + the other hand, it seems to have been determined by the party, + and some of those who act with it thoroughly, that the money + should remain where it was in the deposit banks, so that it + could be wielded at pleasure by the executive. This order grew + out of the contest to which I have referred. It was issued not + by the advice of Congress or under the sanction of any law. It + was delayed until Congress was fairly out of the city, and all + possibility of interference by legislation was removed; and then + came forth this new and last expedient. It was known that these + funds, received for public lands, had become a chief source of + revenue, and it may have occurred to some that the passage of a + treasury order of this kind would have a tendency to embarrass + the country; and as the bill for the regulation of the deposits + had just passed, the public might be brought to believe that + all the mischief occasioned by the order was the effect of the + distribution bill. It has, indeed, happened, that this scheme + has failed; the public understand it rightly, but that was not + by any means certain at the time the measure was devised. It was + not then foreseen that the people would as generally see through + the contrivance as it has since been found that they do. There + may have been various other motives which led to the measure. + Many minds were probably to be consulted; for it is not to be + presumed that a step like this was taken without consultation, + and guided by the will of a single individual alone. That is + not the way in which these things are done. No doubt one effect + hoped for by some was, that a check would be put to the sales of + the public lands. The operation of the order would naturally be, + to raise the price of land by raising the price of the currency + in which it was to be paid for. But, while this would be the + effect on small buyers, those who purchased on a large scale + would be enabled to sell at an advance of ten or fifteen per + cent. over what would have been given if the United States lands + had been open to purchasers in the ordinary way. Those who had + borrowed money of the deposit banks and paid it out for lands, + would thus be enabled to make sales to advantage; and by means + of such sales make payment to the banks who found it necessary + to call in their large loans, in order to meet the provisions of + the deposit bill. The order, therefore, was likely to operate + to the common benefit of the deposit banks and the great land + dealers, while it counteracted the effect of the obnoxious + deposit bill. There may have been yet another motive actuating + some of those who devised this order. There was danger that the + deposit banks, when called upon to refund the public treasure, + would be unable to do it: indeed, it was said on this floor that + the immediate effect of the distribution bill would be to break + those banks. How this treasury order would operate to collect + the specie of the country into the land offices, whence it + would immediately go into the deposit banks, and would prove an + acceptable aid to them while making the transfers required by + law. These seem to me to have been among the real motives which + led to the adoption of that order." + +Mr. Ewing then argued at length against the legality of the treasury +circular, quoting the joint resolution of 1816, and insisting that +its provisions had been violated; also insisting on the largeness +of the surplus, and that it had turned out to be much larger than +was admitted by the friends of the administration; which latter +assertion was in fact true, because the appropriations for the +public service (the bills for which were in the hands of the +opposition members) had been kept off till the middle of the summer, +and could not be used; and so left some fifteen millions in the +treasury of appropriated money which fell under the terms of the +deposit act, and became divisible as surplus. + +Mr. Benton replied to Mr. Ewing, saying: + + "In the first of these objects the present movement is twin + brother to the famous resolution of 1833, but without its + boldness; for that resolution declared its object upon its face, + while this one eschews specification, and insidiously seeks + a judgment of condemnation by inference and argument. In the + second of these objects every body will recognize the great + design of the second branch of the same famous resolution of + 1833, which, in the restoration of the deposits to the Bank of + the United States, clearly went to the establishment of the + paper system, and its supremacy over the federal government. The + present movement, therefore, is a second edition of the old one, + but a lame and impotent affair compared to that. Then, we had + a magnificent panic; now, nothing but a miserable starveling! + For though the letter of the president of the Bank of the + United States announced, early in November, that the meeting of + Congress was the time for the new distress to become intense, + yet we are two weeks deep in the session, and no distress + memorial, no distress deputation, no distress committees, to + this hour! Nothing, in fact, in that line, but the distress + speech of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Ewing]; so that the new + panic of 1836 has all the signs of being a lean and slender + affair--a mere church-mouse concern--a sort of dwarfish, impish + imitation of the gigantic spectre which stalked through the land + in 1833." + +Mr. Benton then showed that this subaltern and Lilliputian panic was +brought upon the stage in the same way, and by the same managers, +with its gigantic brother of 1833-'34; and quoted from a published +letter of Mr. Biddle in November preceding, and a public speech of +Mr. Clay in the month of September preceding, in which they gave +out the programme for the institution of the little panic; and +the proceeding against the President for violating the laws; and +against the treasury order itself as the cause of the new distress. +Mr. Biddle in his publication said: "Our pecuniary condition seems +to be a strange anomaly. When Congress adjourned, it left the +country with abundant crops, and high prices for them--with every +branch of industry flourishing, and with more specie than we ever +had before--with all the elements of universal prosperity. None of +these have undergone the slightest change; yet, after a few months, +Congress will re-assemble, and find the whole country suffering +intense pecuniary distress. The occasion of this, and the remedy for +it, will occupy our thoughts. In my judgment, the main cause of it +is the mismanagement of the revenue--mismanagement in two respects: +the mode of executing the distribution law, and the order requiring +specie for the payment of the public lands--an act which seems to +me a most wanton abuse of power, if not a flagrant usurpation. +The remedy follows the causes of the evils. The first measure of +relief, therefore, should be the instant repeal of the treasury +order requiring specie for lands; the second, the adoption of a +proper system to execute the distribution law. These measures would +restore confidence in twenty-four hours, and repose in at least as +many days. If the treasury will not adopt them voluntarily, Congress +should immediately command it." This was the recommendation, or +mandate, of the president of the Bank of the United States, still +acting as a part of the national legislative power even in its new +transformation, and keeping an eye upon that distribution which +Congress passed as a deposit, which he had recommended as raising +the price of the State stocks held by the bank; and the delay in +the delivery of which he considers as one of the causes which had +brought on the new distress. Mr. Clay in his Lexington speech had +taken the same grounds; and speaking of the continued tampering with +the currency by the administration, went on to say: + + "One rash, lawless, and crude experiment succeeds another. He + considered the late treasury order, by which all payments for + public lands were to be in specie, with one exception, for a + short duration, a most ill-advised, illegal, and pernicious + measure. In principle it was wrong, in practice it will favor + the very speculation which it professes to endeavor to suppress. + The officer who issued it, as if conscious of its obnoxious + character, shelters himself behind the name of the President. + But the President and Secretary had no right to promulgate any + such order. The law admits of no such discrimination. If the + resolution of the 30th of April, 1816, continued in operation + (and the administration on the occasion of the removal of + the deposits, and on the present occasion, relies upon it as + in full force), it gave the Secretary no such discretion as + he has exercised. That resolution required and directed the + Secretary of the Treasury to adopt such measures as he might + deem necessary, 'to cause, as soon as may be, all duties, taxes, + debts, or sums of money, accruing or becoming payable to the + United States, to be collected and paid in the legal currency of + the United States, or treasury notes, or notes of the Bank of + the United States, as by law provided and declared, or in notes + of banks which are payable and paid on demand, in said legal + currency of the United States.' This resolution was restrictive + and prohibitory upon the Secretary only as to the notes of banks + not redeemable in specie on demand. As to all such notes, he was + forbidden to receive them from and after the 20th of February, + 1817. As to the notes of banks which were payable and paid on + demand in specie, the resolution was not merely permissive, it + was compulsory and mandatory. He was bound, and is yet bound, to + receive them, until Congress interfere." + +Mr. Benton replied to the arguments of Mr. Ewing, the letter of +Mr. Biddle, and the speech of Mr. Clay; and considered them all +as identical, and properly answered in the lump, without special +reference to the co-operating assailants. On the point of the +alleged illegality of the treasury order, he produced the Joint +Resolution of 1816 under which it was done; and then said: + + "This is the law, and nothing can be plainer than the right + of selection which it gives to the Secretary of the Treasury. + Four different _media_ are mentioned in which the revenue may + be collected, and the Secretary is made the actor, the agent, + and the power, by which the collection is to be effected. He + is to do it in one, or in another. He may choose several, or + all, or two, or one. All are in the disjunctive. No two are + joined together, but all are disjoined, and presented to him + individually and separately. It is clearly the right of the + Secretary to order the collections to be made in either of the + four _media_ mentioned. That the resolution is not mandatory + in favor of any one of the four, is obvious from the manner in + which the notes of the Bank of the United States are mentioned. + They were to be received as then provided for by law; for the + bank charter had then just passed; and the 14th section had + provided for the reception of the notes of this institution + until Congress, by law, should direct otherwise. The right of + the institution to deliver its notes in payment of the revenue, + was anterior to this resolution, and always held under that + 14th section, never under this joint resolution, and when that + section was repealed at the last session of this Congress, + that right was admitted to be gone, and has never been claimed + since. The words of the law are clear; the practice under + it has been uniform and uninterrupted from the date of its + passage to the present day. For twenty years, and under three + Presidents, all the Secretaries of the Treasury have acted + alike. Each has made selections, permitting the notes of some + specie-paying banks to be received, and forbidding others. Mr. + Crawford did it in numerous instances; and fierce and universal + as were the attacks upon that eminent patriot, during the + presidential canvass of 1824, no human being ever thought of + charging him with illegality in this respect. Mr. Rush twice + made similar selections, during the administration of Mr. Adams, + and no one, either in the same cabinet with him, or out of the + cabinet against him, ever complained of it. For twenty years + the practice has been uniform; and every citizen of the West + knows that that practice was the general, though not universal, + exclusion of the Western specie-paying bank paper from the + Western land offices. This every man in the West knows, and + knows that that general exclusion continued down to the day that + the Bank of the United States ceased to be the depository of the + public moneys. It was that event which opened the door to the + receivability of State bank paper which has since been enjoyed." + +Having vindicated the treasury order from the charge of illegality, +Mr. Benton took up the head of the new distress, and said: + + "The news of all this approaching calamity was given out in + advance in the Kentucky speech and the Philadelphia letter, + already referred to; and the fact of its positive advent and + actual presence was vouched by the senator from Ohio [Mr. Ewing] + on the last day that the Senate was in session. I do not permit + myself (said Mr. B.) to bandy contradictory asseverations and + debatable assertions across this floor. I choose rather to make + an issue, and to test assertion by the application of evidence. + In this way I will proceed at present. I will take the letter + of the president of the Bank of the United States as being + official in this case, and most authoritative in the distress + department of this combined movement against President Jackson. + He announces, in November, the forthcoming of the national + calamity in December; and after charging part of this ruin and + mischief on the mode of executing what he ostentatiously styles + the distribution law, when there is no such law in the country, + he goes on to charge the remainder, being ten-fold more than the + former upon the Treasury order which excludes paper money from + the land offices." + +Mr. Benton then read Mr. Biddle's description of the new distress, +which, in his publication was awful and appalling, but which, he +said, was nowhere visible except in the localities where the bank +had power to make it. It was a picture of woe and ruin, but not +without hope and remedy if Congress followed his directions; in the +mean time he thus instructed the country how to behave, and promised +his co-operation--that of the bank--in the overthrow of President +Jackson, and his successor, Mr. Van Buren (for that is what he meant +in this passage): + + "In the mean time, all forbearance and calmness should be + maintained. There is great reason for anxiety--none whatever for + alarm; and with mutual confidence and courage, the country may + yet be able to defend itself against the government. In that + struggle my own poor efforts shall not be wanting. I go for the + country, whoever rules it. I go for the country, loved when + worst governed--and it will afford me far more gratification + to assist in repairing wrongs, than to triumph over those who + inflict them." + +This pledge of aid in a struggle with the government was a key +to unlock the meaning of the movements then going on to produce +the general suspension of specie payments in all the banks which +saluted the administration of Mr. Van Buren in the first quarter +of its existence, and intended to produce it in its first month. +Considering specie payments as the only safety of the country, and +foreseeing the general bank explosions, chiefly contrived by the +Bank of the United States, which was to re-appear in the ruin, and +claim its re-establishment as the only remedy for the evils which +itself and its confederates created, Mr. Benton said: + + "There is no safety for the federal revenues but in the total + exclusion of local paper, and that from every branch of the + revenue--customs, lands, and post office. There is no safety for + the national finances but in the constitutional medium of gold + and silver. After forty years of wandering in the wilderness + of paper money, we have approached the confines of the + constitutional medium. Seventy-five millions of specie in the + country, with the prospect of annual increase of ten or twelve + millions for the next four years; three branch mints to commence + next spring, and the complete restoration of the gold currency; + announce the success of President Jackson's great measures + for the reform of the currency and vindicate the constitution + from the libel of having prescribed an impracticable currency. + The success is complete; and there is no way to thwart it, + but to put down the treasury order, and to re-open the public + lands to the inundation of paper money. Of this, it is not to + be dissembled, there is great danger. Four deeply interested + classes are at work to do it--speculators, local banks, United + States Bank, and politicians out of power. They may succeed, but + he (Mr. B.) would not despair. The darkest hour of night is just + before the break of day; and, through the gloom ahead, he saw + the bright vision of the constitutional currency erect, radiant, + and victorious. Through regulation, or explosion, success must + eventually come. If reform measures go on, gold and silver will + be gradually and temperately restored; if reform measures are + stopped, then the paper system runs riot, and explodes from its + own expansion. Then the Bank of the United States will exult + in the catastrophe, and claim its own re-establishment as the + only adequate regulator of the local banks. Then it will be said + the specie experiment has failed! But no; the contrary will be + known, that the specie experiment has not failed, but it was + put down by the voice and power of the interested classes, and + must be put up again by the voice and power of the disinterested + community." + +This was uttered in December 1836: in April 1837 it was history. + +Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, replied to Mr. Benton; and said: + + "The senator from Missouri had exhibited a table, the results + of which he had pressed with a very triumphant air. Was it + extraordinary that the deposit banks should be strengthened? + The effect of the order went directly to sustain them. But + it was at the expense of all the other banks of the country. + Under this order, all the specie was collected and carried into + their vaults: an operation which went to disturb and embarrass + the general circulation of the country, and to produce that + pecuniary difficulty which was felt in all quarters of the + Union. Mr. C. did not profess to be competent to judge how far + the whole of this distress was attributable to the operation + of the treasury order, but of this at least he was very sure, + through a great part of the Western country, it was universally + attributed to that cause. The senator from Missouri supposed + that the order had produced no part of this pressure. If not, + he would ask what it had produced? Had it increased the specie + in the country? Had it increased the specie in actual and + general circulation? If it had done no evil, what good had it + done? This, he believed was as yet undiscovered. So far as + it had operated at all, it had been to derange the state of + the currency, and to give it a direction inverse to the course + of business. The honorable senator, however, could not see + how moving money across a street could operate to affect the + currency; and seemed to suppose that moving money from west to + east, or from east to west, would have as little effect. Money, + however, if left to itself, would always move according to the + ordinary course of business transactions. This course might + indeed be disturbed for a time, but it would be like forcing the + needle away from the pole: you might turn it round and round as + often as you pleased, but, left to itself, it would still settle + at the north. Our great commercial cities were the natural + repositories where money centred and settled. There it was + wanted, and it was more valuable if left there than if carried + into the interior. Any intelligent business man in the West + would rather have money paid him for a debt in New-York than at + his own door. It was worth more to him. If, then, specie was + forced, by treasury tactics, to take a direction contrary to the + natural course of business, and to move from east to west, the + operation would be beneficial to none, injurious to all. It was + not in the power of government to keep it in a false direction + or position. Specie was in exile whenever it was forced out of + that place where business called for it. Such an operation did + no real good. It was a forced movement and was soon overcome by + the natural course of things. + + "Mr. C. was well aware that men might be deluded and mystified + on this subject, and that while the delusion lasted, this + treasury order might be held up before the eyes of men as a + splendid arrangement in finance; but it was only like the + natural rainbow, which owed its very existence to the mist in + which it had its being. The moment the atmosphere was clear, + its bright colors vanished from the view. So it would be with + this matter. The specie of the country must resume its natural + course. Man might as well escape from the physical necessities + of their nature, as from the laws which governed the movements + of finance: and the man who professed to reverse or dispense + with the one was no greater quack than he who made the same + professions with regard to the other. + + "But it was said to be the distribution bill which had done all + the mischief; and Mr. C. was ready to admit that the manner in + which the government had attempted to carry that law into effect + might in part have furnished the basis for such a supposition. + He had no doubt that the pecuniary evils of the country had been + aggravated by the manner in which this had been done." + +Mr. Webster also replied to Mr. Benton, in an elaborate speech, in +which, before arguing the legal question, he said: + + "The honorable member from Missouri (Mr. Benton) objects even + to giving the resolution to rescind a second reading. He avails + himself of his right, though it be not according to general + practice, to arrest the progress of the measure at its first + stage. This, at least, is open, bold, and manly warfare. + The honorable member, in his elaborate speech, founds his + opposition to this resolution, and his support of the treasury + order, on those general principles respecting currency which + he is known to entertain, and which he has maintained for many + years. His opinions some of us regard as altogether ultra and + impracticable; looking to a state of things not desirable in + itself, even if it were practicable; and, if it were desirable, + as being far beyond the power of this government to bring about. + + "The honorable member has manifested much perseverance and + abundant labor, most undoubtedly, in support of his opinions; + he is understood, also, to have had countenance from high + places; and what new hopes of success the present moment holds + out to him, I am not able to judge, but we shall probably soon + see. It is precisely on these general and long-known opinions + that he rests his support of the treasury order. A question, + therefore, is at once raised between the gentleman's principles + and opinions on the subject of the currency, and the principles + and opinions which have generally prevailed in the country, + and which are, and have been, entirely opposite to his. That + question is now about to be put to the vote of the Senate. In + the progress and by the termination of this discussion, we + shall learn whether the gentleman's sentiments are or are not + to prevail, so far, at least, as the Senate is concerned. The + country will rejoice, I am sure, to see some declaration of + the opinions of Congress on a subject about which so much has + been said, and which is so well calculated, by its perpetual + agitation, to disquiet and disturb the confidence of society. + + "We are now fast approaching the day when one administration + goes out of office, and another is to come in. The country has + an interest in learning, as soon as possible, whether the new + administration, while it receives the power and patronage, is + to inherit, also, the topics and the projects of the past; + whether it is to keep up the avowal of the same objects and + the same schemes, especially in regard to the currency. The + order of the Secretary is prospective, and, on the face of it, + perpetual. Nothing in or about it gives it the least appearance + of a temporary measure. On the contrary, its terms imply no + limitation in point of duration, and the gradual manner in + which it is to come into operation shows plainly an intention + of making it the settled and permanent policy of government. + Indeed, it is but now beginning its complete existence. It is + only five or six days since its full operation has commenced. Is + it to stand as the law of the land and the rule of the treasury, + under the administration which is to ensue? And are those + notions of an exclusive specie currency, and opposition to all + banks, on which it is defended, to be espoused and maintained by + the new administration, as they have been by its predecessor? + These are questions, not of mere curiosity, but of the highest + interest to the whole country. In considering this order, the + first thing naturally is, to look for the causes which led to + it, or are assigned for its promulgation. And these, on the + face of the order itself, are declared to be 'complaints which + have been made of frauds, speculations, and monopolies, in the + purchase of the public lands, and the aid which is said to be + given to effect these objects, by excessive bank credits, and + dangerous, if not partial, facilities through bank drafts and + bank deposits, and the general evil influence likely to result + to the public interest, and especially the safety of the great + amount of money in the treasury, and the sound condition of + the currency of the country, from the further exchange of the + national domain in this manner, and chiefly for bank credits and + paper money.' + + "This is the catalogue of evils to be cured by this order. + In what these frauds consist, what are the monopolies + complained of, or what is precisely intended by these injurious + speculations, we are not informed. All is left on the general + surmise of fraud, speculation, and monopoly. It is not avowed + or intimated that the government has sustained any loss, + either by the receipt of the bank notes which proved not to + be equivalent to specie, or in any other way. And it is not a + little remarkable that these evils, of fraud, speculation, and + monopoly, should have become so enormous and so notorious, on + the 11th of July, as to require this executive interference for + their suppression, and yet that they should not have reached + such a height as to make it proper to lay the subject before + Congress, although Congress remained in session until within + seven days of the date of the order. And what makes this + circumstance still more remarkable, is the fact that, in his + annual message, at the commencement of the same session, the + President had spoken of the rapid sales of the public lands as + one of the most gratifying proofs of the general prosperity of + the country, without suggesting that any danger whatever was + to be apprehended from fraud, speculation, or monopoly. His + words were: 'Among the evidences of the increasing prosperity + of the country, not the least gratifying, is that afforded by + the receipts from the sales of the public lands, which amount, + in the present year, to the unexpected sum of eleven millions.' + From the time of the delivery of that message, down to the date + of the treasury order, there had not been the least change, so + far as I know, or so far as we are informed, in the manner of + receiving payment for the public lands. Every thing stood, on + the 11th of July, 1836, as it had stood at the opening of the + session, in December, 1835. How so different a view of things + happened to be taken at the two periods, we may be able to + learn, perhaps, in the further progress of this debate. + + "The order speaks of the 'evil influence' likely to result from + the further exchange of the public lands into 'paper money.' + Now, this is the very language of the gentleman from Missouri. + He habitually speaks of the notes of all banks, however + solvent, and however promptly their notes may be redeemed in + gold and silver, as 'paper money.' The Secretary has adopted + the honorable member's phrases, and he speaks, too, of all the + bank notes received at the land offices, although every one of + them is redeemable in specie, on demand, but as so much 'paper + money.' In this respect, also, sir, I hope we may know more as + we grow older, and be able to learn whether, in times to come, + as in times recently passed, the justly obnoxious and odious + character of 'paper money' is to be applied to the issues of + all the banks in all the States, with whatever punctuality they + redeem their bills. This is quite new, as financial language. + By paper money, in its obnoxious sense, I understand paper + issues on credit alone, without capital, without funds assigned + for its payment, resting only on the good faith and the future + ability of those who issue it. Such was the paper money of our + revolutionary times; and such, perhaps, may have been the true + character of the paper of particular institutions since. But + the notes of banks of competent capitals, limited in amount to + a due proportion to such capitals, made payable on demand in + gold and silver, and always so paid on demand, are paper money + in no sense but one; that is to say, they are made of paper, + and they circulate as money. And it may be proper enough for + those who maintain that nothing should so circulate but gold and + silver, to denominate such bank notes 'paper money,' since they + regard them but as paper intruders into channels which should + flow only with gold and silver. If this language of the order is + authentic, and is to be so hereafter, and all bank notes are to + be regarded and stigmatized as mere 'paper money,' the sooner + the country knows it the better. + + "The member from Missouri charges those who wish to rescind the + treasury order with two objects: first, to degrade and disgrace + the President; and, next, to overthrow the constitutional + currency of the country. For my own part, sir, I denounce + nobody; I seek to degrade or disgrace nobody. Holding the order + illegal and unwise, I shall certainly vote to rescind it; + and, in the discharge of this duty, I hope I am not expected + to shrink back, lest I might do something which might call in + question the wisdom of the Secretary, or even of the President. + And I hope that so much of independence as may be manifested by + free discussion and an honest vote is not to cause denunciation + from any quarter. If it should, let it come." + +It became a very extended debate, in which Mr. Niles, Mr. Rives, +Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Southard, Mr. Strange of N. C., Mr. Clay, Mr. +Walker of Miss., and others partook. The subject having been +referred to the committee of public lands, of which Mr. Walker was +chairman, reported a bill, "limiting and designating the funds +receivable for the revenues of the United States;" the object of +which was to rescind the treasury circular without naming it, and +to continue the receipt of bank notes in payment of all dues to the +government. Soon after the bill was reported, and had received its +second reading, a motion was made in the Senate to lay the impending +subject (public lands) on the table for the purpose of considering +the bill reported by Mr. Walker to limit and designate the funds +receivable in public dues. Mr. Benton was taken by surprise by this +motion, which was immediately agreed to, and the bill ordered to be +engrossed for a third reading the next day. To that third reading +Mr. Benton looked for his opportunity to speak; and availed himself +of it, commencing his speech with giving the reason why he did not +speak the evening before when the question was on the engrossment +of the bill. He said he could not have foreseen that the subject +depending before the Senate, the bill for limiting the sales of the +public lands to actual settlers, would be laid down for the purpose +of taking up this subject out of its order; and, therefore, had not +brought with him some memorandums which he intended to use when +this subject came up. He did not choose to ask for delay, because +his habit was to speak to subjects when they were called; and in +this particular cause he did not think it material when he spoke; +for he was very well aware that his speaking would not affect the +fate of the bill. It would pass; and that was known to all in the +chamber. It was known to the senator from Ohio (Mr. Ewing) who +indulged himself in saying he thought otherwise a few days ago; +but that was only a good-natured way of stimulating his friends, +and bringing them up to the scratch. The bill would pass, and that +by a good vote, for it would have the vote of the opposition, and +a division of the administration vote. Why, then, did he speak? +Because it was due to his position, and the part he had acted on +the currency questions, to express his sentiments more fully on +this bill, so vital to the general currency, than could be done +by a mere negative vote. He should, therefore, speak against it, +and should direct his attention to the bill reported by the Public +Land Committee, which had so totally changed the character of the +proceeding on this subject. The recision of the treasury order was +introduced a resolution--it went out a resolution--but it came back +a bill, and a bill to regulate, not the land office receipts only, +but all the receipts of the federal government; and in this new form +is to become statute law, and a law to operate on all the revenues, +and to repeal all other laws upon the subject to which it related. +In this new form it assumes an importance, and acquires an effect, +infinitely beyond a resolution, and becomes in fact, as well as in +name, a totally new measure. Mr. B. reminded the Senate that he had, +in his first speech on this subject, given it as his opinion, that +two main objects were proposed to be accomplished by the rescinding +resolution; first, the implied condemnation of President Jackson for +violating the laws and constitution, and destroying the prosperity +of the country; and, secondly, the imposition of the paper currency +of the States upon the federal government. With respect to the first +of these objects, he presumed it was fully proved by the speeches +of all the opposition senators who had spoken on this subject; and, +with respect to the second, he believed it would find its proof in +the change which the original resolution had undergone, and the form +it was now assuming of statute law, and especially with the proviso +which was added at the end of the second section. + +Mr. B. then took up the bill reported by the committee, and +remarked, first, upon its phraseology, not in the spirit of +verbal criticism, but in the spirit of candid objection and fair +argument. There were cases in which words were things, and this +was one of those cases. Money was a thing, and the only words in +the constitution of that thing were, "gold and silver coin." The +bill of the committee was systematically exclusive of the words +which meant this thing, and used words which included things +which were not money. These words were, then, a fair subject of +objection and argument, because they went to set aside the money of +the constitution, and to admit the public revenues to be paid in +something which was not money. The title of the bill uses the word +"funds." It professes to designate the funds receivable for the +revenues of the United States. Upon this word Mr. B. had remarked +before, as being one of the most indefinite in the English language; +and, so far from signifying money only, even paper money only, that +it comprehended every variety of paper security, public or private, +individual or corporate out of which money could be raised. The +retention of this word by the committee, after the objections made +to it, were indicative of their intentions to lay open the federal +treasury to the reception of something which was not constitutional +money; and this intention, thus disclosed in the title to the bill, +was fully carried out in its enactments. The words "legal currency +of the United States" are twice used in the first section, when the +words "gold and silver" would have been more appropriate and more +definite, if hard money was intended. + +Mr. B. admitted that, in the eye of a regular bred constitutional +lawyer, legal currency might imply constitutional currency; but +certain it was that the common and popular meaning of the phrase was +not limited to constitutional money, but included every currency +that the statute law made receivable for debts. Thus, the notes of +the Bank of the United States were generally considered as legal +currency, because receivable by law in payment of public dues; and +in like manner the notes of all specie-paying banks would, under +the committee's bill, rise to the dignity of legal currency. The +second section of the bill twice used the word "cash;" a word which, +however understood at the Bank of England, where it always means +ready money, and where ready money signifies gold coin in hand, yet +with the banks with which we have to deal it has no such meaning, +but includes all sorts of current paper money on hand, as well as +gold and silver on hand. + +Having remarked upon the phraseology of the bill, and shown that a +paper currency composed of the notes of a thousand local banks, not +only might become the currency of the federal government, but was +evidently intended to be made its currency; and that in the face of +all the protestations of the friends of the administration in favor +of re-establishing the national gold currency, Mr. B. would now +take up the bill of the committee under two or three other aspects, +and show it to be as mistaken in its design as it would be impotent +in its effect. In the first place, it transferred the business of +suppressing the small note circulation from the deposit branch +to the collecting branch of the public revenue. At present, the +business was in a course of progress through the deposit banks, as +a condition of holding the public moneys; and, as such, had a place +in the deposit act of the last session, and also had a place in the +President's message of the last session, where the suppression of +paper currency under twenty dollars was expressly referred to the +action of the deposit banks, and as a condition of their retaining +the public deposits. It was through the deposit banks, and not +through the reception of local bank paper, that the suppression +of small notes should be effected. In the next place, he objected +to the committee's bill, because it proposed to make a bargain +with each of the thousand banks now in the United States, and the +hundreds more which will soon be born; and to give them a right--a +right by law--to have their notes received at the federal treasury. +He was against such a bargain. He had no idea of making a contract +with these thousand banks for the reception of their notes. He had +no idea of contracting with them, and giving them a right to plead +the constitution of the United States against us, if, at any time, +after having agreed to receive their notes, upon condition that they +would give up their small circulation, they should choose to say we +had impaired the contract by not continuing to receive them; and so +either relapse into the issue of this small trash, or have recourse +to the judicial process to compel the United States to abide the +contract, and continue the reception of all their notes. Mr. B. had +no idea of letting down this federal government to such petty and +inconvenient bargains with a thousand moneyed corporations. The +government of the United States ought to act as a government, and +not as a contractor. It should prescribe conditions, and not make +bargains. It should give the law. He was against these bargains, +even if they were good ones; but they were bad bargains, wretchedly +bad, and ought to be rejected as such, even if all higher and nobler +considerations were out of the question. What is the consideration +that the United States is to receive? A mere individual agreement +with each bank by itself, that in three years it will cease to issue +notes under ten dollars and in five years it will cease to issue +notes under twenty dollars. What is the price which she pays for +this consideration? In the first place, it receives the notes of +such bank as gold and silver at all the land-offices, custom-houses, +and post-offices, of the United States; and, of course, pays them +out again as gold and silver to all her debtors. In the next place, +it compels the deposit banks to credit them as cash. In the third +place, it accredits the whole circulation of the banks, and makes +it current all over the United States, in consequence of universal +receivability for all federal dues. In other words, it endorses, +so far as credit is concerned, the whole circulation of every bank +that comes into the bargain thus proposed. This is certainly a +most wretched bargain on the part of the United States--a bargain +in which what she receives is ruinous to her; for the more local +payment she receives in payment of her revenues, the worse for her, +and the sooner will her treasury be filled with unavailable funds. + +Mr. B. having gone over these objections to the committee's bill, +would now ascend to a class of objections of a higher and graver +character. He had already remarked that the committee had carried +out a resolution, and had brought back a bill; that the committee +proposed a statutory enactment, where the senator from Ohio [Mr. +Ewing], and the senator from Virginia [Mr. Rives], had only proposed +a joint resolution; and he had already further remarked, that in +addition to this total change in the mode of action, the committee +had added what neither of these senators had proposed, a clause, +under a proviso, to enact paper money into cash--to pass paper money +to the credit of the United States, as cash--and to punish, by the +loss of the deposits, any deposit bank which should refuse so to +receive, so to credit, and so to pass, the notes "receivable" under +the provisions of their bill. These two changes make entirely a new +measure--one of wholly a different character from the resolutions +of the two senators--a measure which openly and in terms, and under +penalties undertakes to make local State paper a legal tender to the +federal government, and to compel the reception of all its revenues +in the notes "receivable" under the provisions of the committee's +bill. After this gigantic step--this colossal movement--in favor of +paper money, there was but one step more for the committee to take; +and that was to make these notes a legal tender in all payments +from the federal government. But that step was unnecessary to +be taken in words, for it is taken in fact, when the other great +step becomes law. For it is incontestable that what the government +receives, it must pay out; and what it pays out becomes the currency +of the country. So that when this bill passes, the paper money of +the local banks will be a tender by law to the federal government, +and a tender by _duresse_ from the government to its creditors and +the people. This is the state to which the committee's bill will +bring us! and now, let us pause and contemplate, for a moment, the +position we occupy, and the vast ocean of paper on which we are +proposed to be embarked. + +We stand upon a constitution which recognizes nothing but gold and +silver for money; we stand upon a legislation of near fifty years, +which recognizes nothing but gold and silver money. Now, for the +first time, we have a statutory enactment proposed to recognize the +paper of a wilderness of local banks for money, and in so doing to +repeal all prior legislation by law, and the constitution by fact. +This is an era in our legislation. It is statute law to control all +other law, and is not a resolution to aid other laws, and to express +the opinions of Congress. It is statutory enactment to create law, +and not a declaratory resolution to expound law; and the effects +of this statute would be, to make a paper government--to insure +the exportation of our specie--to leave the State banks without +foundations to rest upon--to produce a certain catastrophe in the +whole paper system--to revive the pretensions of the United States +Bank--and to fasten for a time the Adam Smith system upon the +Federal Government and the whole Union. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Benton concluded his speech with a warning against the coming +explosion of the banks; and said: + + * * * * * + +The day of revulsion may come sooner or later, and its effects may +be more or less disastrous; but, come it must, and disastrous, to +some degree, it must be. The present bloat in the paper system +cannot continue; the present depreciation of money exemplified +in the high price of every thing dependent upon the home market, +cannot last. The revulsion will come, as surely as it did in +1819-'20. But it will come with less force if the treasury order is +maintained, and if paper money shall be excluded from the federal +treasury. But, let these things go as they may, and let reckless +or mischievous banks do what they please, there is still a refuge +for the wise and good; there is still an ark of safety for every +honest bank, and for every prudent man; it is in the mass of gold +and silver now in the country--the seventy odd millions which the +wisdom of President Jackson's administration has accumulated--and +by getting their share of which, all who are so disposed can take +care of themselves. Sir (said Mr. B.), I have performed a duty to +myself, not pleasant, but necessary. This bill is to be an era in +our legislation and in our political history. It is to be a point +upon which the future age will be thrown back, and from which future +consequences will be traced. I separate myself from it; I wash my +hands of it; I oppose it. I am one of those who promised gold, not +paper. I promised the currency of the constitution, not the currency +of corporations. I did not join in putting down the Bank of the +United States, to put up a wilderness of local banks. I did not join +in putting down the paper currency of a national bank, to put up a +national paper currency of a thousand local banks. I did not strike +Cæsar to make Anthony master of Rome. + +Mr. Walker replied to what he called the bill of indictment +preferred by the Senator from Missouri against the committee on +public lands; and after some prefatory remarks went on to say: + + "But when that senator, having exhausted the argument, or + having none to offer had indulged in violent and intemperate + denunciation of the Committee on Public Lands, and of the + report made by him as their organ, Mr. W. could not withhold + the expression of his surprise and astonishment. Mr. W. said it + was his good fortune to be upon terms of the kindest personal + intercourse with every senator, and these friendly relations + should not be interrupted by any aggression upon his part. + And now, Mr. W. said, he called upon the whole Senate to bear + witness, as he was sure they all cheerfully would, that in this + controversy he was not the aggressor, and that nothing had been + done or said by him to provoke the wrath of the senator from + Missouri, unless, indeed, to differ from him in opinion upon + any subject constituted an offence in the mind of that senator. + If such were the views of that gentleman, if he was prepared to + immolate every senator who would not worship the same images of + gold and silver which decorated the political chapel of the + honorable gentleman, Mr. W. was fearful that the senator from + Missouri would do execution upon every member of the Senate + but himself, and be left here alone in his glory. Mr. W. said + he recurred to the remarks of the senator from Missouri with + feelings of regret, rather than of anger or excitement; and + that he could not but hope, that when the senator from Missouri + had calmly reflected upon this subject, he would himself see + much to regret in the course he had pursued in relation to + the Committee on Public Lands, and much to recall that he had + uttered under feelings of temporary excitement. Sir (said Mr. + W.), being deeply solicitous to preserve unbroken the ranks of + the democratic party in this body, participating with the people + in grateful recollection of the distinguished services rendered + by the senator from Missouri to the democracy of the Union, he + would pass by many of the remarks made by that senator on this + subject. + + "[Mr. Benton here rose from his chair, and demanded, with much + warmth, that Mr. Walker should not pass by one of them. Mr. W. + asked, what one? Mr. B. replied, in an angry tone, Not one, sir. + Then Mr. W. said he would examine them all, and in a spirit of + perfect freedom; that he would endeavor to return blow for blow; + and that, if the senator from Missouri desired, as it appeared + he did, an angry controversy with him, in all its consequences, + in and out of this house, he could be gratified.] + + "Sir (said Mr. W.), why has the senator from Missouri assailed + the Committee on Public Lands, and himself, as its humble organ? + He was not the author of this measure, so much denounced by + the senator from Missouri, nor had he said one word upon the + subject. The measure originated with the senator from Virginia + [Mr. Rives]. He was the author of the measure, and had been, + and still was, its able, zealous, and successful advocate. Why, + then, had the senator from Missouri assailed him (Mr. W.), and + permitted the author of the measure to escape unpunished? Sir, + are the arrows which appear to be aimed by the senator from + Missouri at the humble organ of the Committee on Public lands, + who reported this bill, intended to inflict a wound in another + quarter? Is one senator the apparent object of assault, when + another is designed as the real victim? Sir, when the senator + from Missouri, without any provocation, like a thunderbolt from + an unclouded sky, broke upon the Senate in a perfect tempest + of wrath and fury, bursting upon his poor head like a tropical + tornado, did he intend to sweep before the avenging storm + another individual more obnoxious to his censure? + + "Sir (said Mr. W.), the senator from Missouri has thrice + repeated the prayer, 'God save the country from the Committee + on Public Lands;' but Mr. W. fully believed if the prayer of + the country could be heard within these walls, it would be, God + save us from the wild, visionary, ruinous, and impracticable + schemes of the senator of Missouri, for exclusive gold and + silver currency; and such is not only the prayer of the + country, but of the Senate, with scarcely a dissenting voice. + Sir, if the senator from Missouri could, by his mandate, in + direct opposition to the views of the President, heretofore + expressed, sweep from existence all the banks of the States, + and establish his exclusive constitutional currency of gold + and silver, he would bring upon this country scenes of ruin + and distress without a parallel--an immediate bankruptcy of + nearly every debtor, and of almost every creditor to whom + large amounts were due, a prodigious depreciation in the price + of all property and all products, and an immediate cessation + by States and individuals of nearly every work of private + enterprise or public improvement. The country would be involved + in one universal bankruptcy, and near the grave of the nation's + prosperity would perhaps repose the scattered fragments of + those great and glorious institutions which give happiness to + millions here, and hopes to millions more of disenthralment from + despotic power. Sir, in resistance to the power of the Bank of + the United States, in opposition to the re-establishment of + any similar institution, the senator from Missouri would find + Mr. W. with him; but he could not enlist as a recruit in this + new crusade against the banks of his own and every other State + in the Union. These institutions, whether for good or evil, + are created by the States, cherished and sustained by them, in + many cases owned in whole or in part by the States, and closely + united with their prosperity; and what right have we to destroy + them? What right had he, a humble servant of the people of + Mississippi, to say to his own, or any other State, your State + legislation is wrong--your State institution, your State banks, + must be annihilated, and we will legislate here to effect this + object. Are we the masters or servants of the sovereign States, + that we dare speak to them in language like this--that we dare + attempt to prostrate here those institutions which are created + and maintained by those very States which we represent on this + floor? These may be the opinions entertained by some senators + of their duty to the States they represent, but they were not + his (Mr. W's) views or his opinions. He was sincerely desirous + to co-operate with his State in limiting any dangerous powers + of the banks, in enlarging the circulation of gold and silver, + and in suppressing the small note currency, so as to avoid that + explosion which was to be apprehended from excessive issues of + bank paper. But a total annihilation of all the banks of his own + State, now possessing a chartered capital of near forty millions + of dollars, would, Mr. W. knew, produce almost universal + bankruptcy, and was not, he believed, anticipated by any one of + his constituents. + + "But the senator from Missouri tells us that this measure of the + committee is a repeal of the constitution, by authorizing the + receipt of paper money in revenue payments. If so, then the + constitution never has had an existence; for the period cannot + be designated when paper money was not so receivable by the + federal government. This species of money was expressly made + receivable for the public dues by an act of Congress, passed + immediately after the adoption of the constitution, and which + remained in force until eighteen hundred and eleven. It was + so received, as a matter of practice, from eighteen hundred + and eleven until eighteen hundred and sixteen, when, again, by + an act of Congress then passed, and which has just expired, + it was so authorized to be received during all that period. + Now, although these acts have expired, there is that which is + equivalent to a law still in force, expressly authorizing the + notes of the specie-paying banks of the States to be received in + revenue payments. It is the joint resolution of eighteen hundred + and sixteen, adopted by both houses of Congress, and approved by + President Madison. + + "Where is the distinction, in principle, as regards the + reception of bank paper on public account, between the two + provisions? And the senator from Missouri, in thus denouncing + the bill of the committee as a repeal of the constitution, + denounces directly the President of the United States. Congress, + no more than a State legislature, can make any thing but + gold or silver a tender in payment of debts by one citizen + to another; but that Congress, or a State legislature, or an + individual, may waive their constitutional rights, and receive + bank paper or drafts, in payment of any debt, is a principle of + universal adoption in theory and practice, and never doubted + by any one until at the present session by the senator from + Missouri. The distinction of the senator in this respect was as + incomprehensible to him (Mr. W.) as he believed it was to every + senator, and, indeed, was discernible only by the magnifying + powers of a solar microscope. It was a point-no-point, which, + like the logarithmic spiral, or asymptote of the hyperbolic + curve, might be for ever approached without reaching; an + infinitesimal, the ghost of an idea, not only without length, + breadth, thickness, shape, weight, or dimensions, but without + position--a mere imaginary nothing, which flitted before the + bewildered vision of the honorable senator, when traversing, + in his fitful somnambulism, that tesselated pavement of gold, + silver, and bullion, which that senator delighted to occupy. + Sir, the senator, from Missouri might have heaped mountain + high his piles of metal; he might have swept, in his Quixotic + flight, over the banks of the States, putting to the sword + their officers, stockholders, directory, and legislative bodies + by which they were chartered; he might, in his reveries, have + demolished their charters, and consumed their paper by the fire + of his eloquence; he might have transacted, in fancy, with a + metallic currency of twenty-eight millions in circulation, an + actual annual business of fifteen hundred millions, and Mr. W. + would not have disturbed his beatific visions, nor would any + other senator--for they were visions only, that could never + be realized--but when, descending from his ethereal flights, + he seized upon the Committee on Public Lands as criminals, + arraigned them as violators of the constitution, and prayed + Heaven for deliverance from them, Mr. W. could be silent no + longer. Yes, even then he would have passed lightly over the + ashes of the theories of the honorable Senator, for, if he + desired to make assaults upon any, it would be upon the living, + and not the dead; but that senator, in the opening of his + (Mr. W.'s) address, had rejected the olive branch which, upon + the urgent solicitation of mutual friends, against his own + judgment, he had extended to the honorable senator. The senator + from Missouri had thus, in substance, declared his 'voice was + still for war.' Be it so; but he hoped the Senate would all + recollect that he (Mr. W.) was not the aggressor; and that, + whilst he trusted he never would wantonly assail the feelings + or reputation of any senator, he thanked God that he was not so + abject or degraded as to submit, with impunity, to unprovoked + attacks or unfounded accusations from any quarter. Could he thus + submit, he would be unfit to represent the noble, generous, and + gallant people, whose rights and interests it was his pride and + glory to endeavor to protect, whose honor and character were + dearer to him than life itself, and should never be tarnished by + any act of his, as one of their humble representatives upon this + floor." + +Mr. Rives returned thanks to Mr. Walker for his able and +satisfactory defence of the bill, which in fact was his own +resolution changed into a bill. He should not be able to add much +to what had been said by the honorable senator, but was desirous of +adding his mite in reply to so much of what had been so zealously +urged by the senator from Missouri (Mr. Benton), as had not been +touched upon by the chairman of the land committee; and did so in an +elaborate speech a few days thereafter. Mr. Benton did not reply to +either of the senators; he believed that the events of a few months +would answer them, and the vote being immediately taken, the bill +was passed almost unanimously--only five dissenting votes. The yeas +and nays were: + + YEAS--Messrs. Black, Brown, Buchanan, Clay, Clayton, Crittenden, + Cuthbert, Dana, Davis, Ewing of Illinois, Ewing of Ohio, Fulton, + Grundy, Hendricks, Hubbard, Kent, King of Alabama, King of + Georgia, Knight, McKean, Moore, Nicholas, Niles, Norvell, Page, + Parker, Prentiss, Preston, Rives, Robbins, Robinson, Sevier, + Southard, Swift, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomlinson, Walker, Wall, + Webster, White.--41. + + NAYS--Messrs. Benton, Linn, Morris, Ruggles, Wright--5. + +The name of Mr. Calhoun is not in either list of these votes. He had +a reason for not voting, which he expressed to the Senate, before +the vote was taken; thus: + + "He had been very anxious to express his opinions somewhat at + large upon this subject. He put no faith in this measure to + arrest the downward course of the country. He believed the state + of the currency was almost incurably bad, so that it was very + doubtful whether the highest skill and wisdom could restore + it to soundness; and it was destined, at no distant time, + to undergo an entire revolution. An explosion he considered + inevitable, and so much the greater, the longer it should be + delayed. Mr. C. would have been glad to go over the whole + subject; but as he was now unprepared to assign his reasons for + the vote which he might give, he was unwilling to vote at all." + +The explosion of the banks, which Mr. Calhoun considered inevitable, +was an event so fully announced by its "shadow coming before," that +Mr. Benton was astonished that so many senators could be blind to +its approach, and willing, by law, to make their notes receivable in +all payments to the federal government. The bill went to the House +of Representatives, where a very important amendment was reported +from the Committee of Ways and Means to which the bill had been +referred, intended to preserve to the Secretary of the Treasury his +control over the receivability of money for the public dues, so as +to enable him to protect the constitutional currency and reject +the notes of banks deemed by him to be unworthy of credit. That +amendment was in these words, and its rejection goes to illustrate +the character of the bill that was passed: + + "_And be it further enacted_, That no part of this act shall + be construed as repealing any existing law relative to the + collection of the revenue from customs or public lands in the + legal currency, or as substituting bank notes of any description + as a lawful currency for coin, as provided in the constitution + of the United States; nor to deprive the Secretary of the + Treasury of the power to direct the collectors or receivers of + the public revenue, whether derived from duties, taxes, debts, + or sales of the public lands, not to receive in payment, for any + sum due to the United States, the notes of any bank or banks + which the said Secretary may have reason to believe unworthy + of credit, or which he apprehends may be compelled to suspend + specie payments." + +Mr. Cambreleng, chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, in +support of this amendment, said it had been reported for the +purpose of preventing a misconstruction of the bill as it came from +the Senate, and securing the public revenue from serious frauds, +and asked for the yeas and nays. The amendment was cut off by a +sustained call for the previous question; and the bill passed by a +strong vote--143 to 59 The nays were: + + NAYS--Messrs. Ash, Barton, Bean, Beaumont, Black, Bockee, Boyd, + Brown, Burns, Cambreleng, Chaney, Chapin, Coles, Cushman, + Doubleday, Dromgoole, Efner, Fairfield, Farlin, Fry, Fuller, + Galbraith, J. Hall, Hamer, Hardin, A. G. Harrison, Hawes, Holt, + Huntington, Jarvis, C. Johnson, B. Jones, Lansing, J. Lee, + Leonard, Logan, Loyall, A. Mann, W. Mason, M. Mason, McKay, + McKeon, McLean, Page, Parks, F. Pierce, Joseph Reynolds, Rogers, + Seymour, Shinn, Sickles, Smith, Taylor, Thomas, J. Thomson, + Turrill, Vanderpoel, Ward, Wardwell--59. + +It was near the end of the session before the bill passed the House +of Representatives. It only got to the hands of the President in the +afternoon of the day before the constitutional dissolution of the +Congress. He might have retained it (for want of the ten days for +consideration which the constitution allowed him), without assigning +any reason to Congress for so doing; but he chose to assign a +reason which, though good and valid in itself, may have been helped +on to its conclusions by the evil tendencies of the measure. That +reason was the ambiguous and equivocal character of the bill, and +the diversity of interpretations which might be placed upon its +provisions; and was contained in the following message to the Senate: + + "The bill from the Senate entitled 'An act designating and + limiting the funds receivable for the revenues of the United + States', came to my hands yesterday, at two o'clock P. M. On + perusing it, I found its provisions so complex and uncertain, + that I deemed it necessary to obtain the opinion of the Attorney + General of the United States on several important questions, + touching its construction and effect, before I could decide on + the disposition to be made of it. The Attorney General took up + the subject immediately, and his reply was reported to me this + day, at five o'clock P. M. As this officer, after a careful and + laborious examination of the bill, and a distinct expression of + his opinion on the points proposed to him, still came to the + conclusion that the construction of the bill, should it become + a law, would be yet a subject of much perplexity and doubt (a + view of the bill entirely coincident with my own), and as I + cannot think it proper, in a matter of such interest and of such + constant application, to approve a bill so liable to diversity + of interpretations, and more especially as I have not had time, + amid the duties constantly pressing on me, to give the subject + that deliberate consideration which its importance demands, I + am constrained to retain the bill, without acting definitively + thereon; and to the end that my reasons for this step may be + fully understood. I shall cause this paper, with the opinion of + the Attorney General, and the bill in question, to be deposited + in the Department of State." + +Thus the firmness of the President again saved the country from an +immense calamity, and in a few months covered him with the plaudits +of a preserved and grateful country. + + + + +CHAPTER CLVI. + +DISTRIBUTION OF LANDS AND MONEY--VARIOUS PROPOSITIONS + + +The spirit of distribution, having got a taste of that feast in the +insidious deposit bill at the preceding session, became ungovernable +in its appetite for it at this session, and open and undisguised +in its efforts to effect its objects. Within the first week of the +meeting of Congress, Mr. Mercer, a representative from Virginia, +moved a resolution that the Committee of Ways and Means be directed +to bring in a bill to release the States from all obligation ever +to return the dividends they should receive under the so-called +deposit act. It was a bold movement, considering that the States +had not yet received a dollar, and that it was addressed to the +same members, sitting in the same chairs, who had enacted the +measure under the character of a deposit, to be sacredly returned +to the United States whenever desired; and under that character +had gained over to the support of the act two classes of voters +who could not otherwise have been obtained; namely, those who +condemned the policy of distribution, and those who denied its +constitutionality. Mr. Dunlap, of Tennessee, met Mr. Mercer's motion +at the threshold--condemned it as an open conversion of deposit into +distribution--as a breach of the condition on which the deposit was +obtained--as unfit to be discussed; and moved that it be laid upon +the table--a motion that precludes discussion, and brings on an +immediate vote. Mr. Mercer asked for the yeas and nays, which being +taken showed the astonishing spectacle of seventy-three members +recording their names against the motion. The vote was 126 to 73. +Simultaneously with Mr. Mercer's movement in the House to pull the +mask from the deposit bill, and reveal it in its true character, +was Mr. Clay's movement in the Senate to revive his land-money +distribution bill, to give it immediate effect, and continue its +operation for five years. In the first days of the session he gave +notice of his intention to bring in his bill; and quickly followed +up his notice with its actual introduction. On presenting the bill, +he said it was due to the occasion to make some explanations: and +thus went on to make them: + + "The operation of the bill which had heretofore several times + passed the Senate, and once the House, commenced on the last + of December, 1822, and was to continue five years. It provided + for a distribution of the nett proceeds of the public lands + during that period, upon well-known principles. But the deposit + act of the last session had disposed of so large a part of + the divisible fund under the land bill, that he did not think + it right, in the present state of the treasury, to give the + bill--which he was about to apply for leave to introduce--that + retrospective character. He had accordingly, in the draught + which he was going to submit, made the last day of the present + month its commencement, and the last day of the year 1841 its + termination. If it should pass, therefore, in this shape, the + period of its duration will be the same as that prescribed + in the former bills. The Senate will readily comprehend the + motive for fixing the end of the year 1841, as it is at that + time that the biennial reductions of ten per cent. upon the + existing duties cease, according to the act of the 2d March + 1833, commonly called the compromise act, and a reduction of + one half of the excess beyond twenty per cent. of any duty then + remaining, is to take effect. By that time, a fair experiment + of the land bill will have been made, and Congress can then + determine whether the proceeds of the national domain shall + continue to be equitably divided, or shall be applied to the + current expenses of the government. The bill in his hand assigns + to the new State of Arkansas her just proportion of the fund, + and grants to her 500,000 acres of land as proposed to other + States. A similar assignment and grant are not made to Michigan, + because her admission into the Union is not yet complete. But + when that event occurs, provision is made by which that State + will receive its fair dividend. He had restored, in this + draught, the provision contained in the original plan for the + distribution of the public lands, which he had presented to the + Senate, by which the States, in the application of the fund, + are restricted to the great objects of education, internal + improvement, and colonization. Such a restriction would, he + believed relieve the Legislatures of the several States from + embarrassing controversies about the disposition of the fund, + and would secure the application of what was common in its + origin, to common benefits in its ultimate destination. But it + was scarcely necessary for him to say that this provision, as + well as the fate of the whole bill, depended upon the superior + wisdom of the Senate and of the House. In all respects, other + than those now particularly mentioned, the bill is exactly as it + passed this body at the last session." + +The bill was referred to the Committee on Public Lands, consisting +of Mr. Walker of Mississippi, Mr. Ewing of Ohio, Mr. King of +Alabama, Mr. Ruggles of Maine, Mr. Fulton of Arkansas. The committee +returned the bill with an amendment, proposing to strike out the +entire bill, and substitute for it a new one, to restrict the sale +of the lands to actual settlers in limited quantities. In the course +of the discussion of the bill, Mr. Benton offered an amendment, +securing to any head of a family, any young man over the age of +eighteen, and any widow, a settlement right in 160 acres at reduced +prices, and inhabitation and cultivation for five years: which +amendment was lost by a close vote--18 to 20. The yeas and nays were: + + Yeas--Messrs. Benton, Black, Dana, Ewing of Illinois, Fulton, + Hendricks, King of Alabama, Linn, Moore, Morris, Nicholas, + Rives, Robinson, Sevier, Strange, Tipton, Walker, White--18. + + Nays--Messrs. Bayard, Brown, Calhoun, Clay, Clayton, Crittenden, + Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Hubbard, Kent, King of Georgia, Niles, + Page, Prentiss, Robbins, Ruggles, Swift, Tallmadge, Wright--20. + +The substitute reported by the committee on public lands, after an +extended debate, and various motions of amendment, was put to the +vote, and adopted--twenty-four to sixteen--the yeas and nays being: + + YEAS--Messrs. Benton, Black, Brown, Buchanan, Cuthbert, Ewing of + Illinois, Fulton, Grundy, Hendricks, Hubbard, King of Alabama, + Linn, Lyon, Moore, Mouton, Nicholas, Niles, Norvell, Page, + Rives, Robinson, Strange, Walker, Wright--24. + + NAYS--Messrs. Bayard, Calhoun, Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Kent, King + of Georgia, Knight, Prentiss, Robbins, Sevier, Southard, Swift, + Tomlinson, Wall, Webster, White--16. + +So Mr. Clay's plan of a five years' open distribution of the land +money to the States, in addition to the actual distribution, under +the deposit mask, was now defeated in the Senate: but that did +not put an end to kindred schemes. They multiplied in different +forms; and continued to vex Congress to almost the last day of its +existence. Mr. Calhoun brought a plan for the cession of all the +public lands to the States in which they lay, to be sold by them +on graduated prices, extending to thirty-five years, on condition +that the States should take the expenses of the land system on +themselves, and pay thirty-three and a third per centum, of the +sales, to the federal treasury. Mr. Benton objected, on principle, +to any complication of moneyed or property transactions between +the States and the federal government, leading, as they inevitably +would, to dissension and contention; and ending in controversies +between the members and the head of the federal government: and, +on detail, because the graduation was extended beyond a period +when the new States would be strong enough to obtain better terms, +without the complication of a contract, and the condition of a +purchase. Within the thirty-five years, there would be three new +apportionments of representatives, under the censuses of 1840, 1850, +and 1860--doubling or trebling the new States' representation each +time; also several new States admitted; so that they would be strong +enough to take effectual measures for the extinction of the federal +titles within the States, on just and equitable principles. Mr. +Buchanan openly assailed Mr. Calhoun's proposition as a bid for the +presidency; and said: + + "He had heard a great deal said about bribing the people with + their own money; arguments of that kind had been reiterated, + but they had never had much effect on him. But speaking on + the same principles on which this had been said, and without + intending any thing personal toward the honorable senator from + South Carolina, he would say this was the most splendid bribe + that had ever yet been offered. It was to give the entire + public domain to the people of the new States, without fee or + reward, and on the single condition that they should not bring + all the land into market at once. It was the first time such a + proposition had been brought forward for legislation; and he + solemnly protested against the principle that Congress had any + right, in equity or justice, to give what belonged to the entire + people of the Union to the inhabitants of any State or States + whatever. After warmly expressing his dissent to the amendment, + Mr. B. said he hoped it would not receive the sanction of any + considerable portion of the Senate." + +Mr. Sevier of Arkansas, said it might be very true that presidential +candidates would bid deep for the favor of the West; but that was +no reason why the West should refuse a good offer, when made. +Deeming this a good one, and beneficial to the new States, he was +for taking it. Mr. Linn, of Missouri, objected to the proposition of +Mr. Calhoun, as an amendment to the bill in favor of actual settlers +(in which form it was offered), because it would be the occasion of +losing both measures; and said: + + "He might probably vote for it as an independent proposition, + but could not as it now stood. He had set out with the + determination to vote against every amendment which should + be proposed, as the bill had once been nearly lost by the + multiplication of them. If this amendment should be received, + the residue of the session would be taken up in discussing it, + and nothing would be done for his constituents. He wanted them + to know that he had done his utmost, which was but little, + to carry into effect their wishes, and to secure their best + interests in the settlement of the new country. He was anxious + to obtain the passage of an equitable pre-emption law, which + should secure to them their homes, and not throw the country + into the hands of great capitalists, as had been done in the + case of the Holland Land Company, and thus retard the settlement + of the West. As to the evasions of previous pre-emption laws, + of which so much had been said, he believed they either had + no existence in Missouri, or had been grossly exaggerated. In + the course of his professional duty (Mr. Linn is a physician, + in large practice), he had occasion to become extensively + acquainted with the people concerning whom these things had been + asserted (he referred to the emigrants who had settled in that + State, under the pre-emption law of 1814), and he could say, + nothing of the kind had fallen under his observation. They had + come there, in most cases, poor, surrounded by all the evils and + disadvantages of emigration to a new country; he had attended + many of them in sickness; and he could truly aver that they + were, as a whole, the best and most upright body of people he + had ever known. + + "Mr. L. said he was a practical man, though his temperament + might be somewhat warm. He looked to things which were + attainable, and in the near prospect of being obtained, rather + than at those contingent and distant. Here was a bill, far + advanced in the Senate, and, as he hoped, on the eve of passing. + He believed it would secure a great good to his constituents; + and he could not consent to risk that bill by accepting the + amendment proposed by the senator from South Carolina. If the + senator from Arkansas would let this go, he might possibly find + that it was a better thing than he could ever get again. He + wanted that Congress should so regulate the public lands, and so + arrange the terms on which it was disposed of, as to furnish in + the West an opportunity for poor men to become rich, and every + worthy and industrious man prosperous and happy." + +Mr. Calhoun felt himself called upon to rise in defence of his +proposition, and in vindication of his own motives in offering it; +and did so, in a brief speech, saying: + + "When the Senate had entered upon the present discussion, he had + had little thought of offering a proposition like this. He had, + indeed, always seen that there was a period coming when this + government must cede to the new States the possession of their + own soil; but he had never thought, till now, that period was + so near. What he had seen this session, however, and especially + the nature and character of the bill which was now likely to + pass, had fully satisfied him that the time had arrived. There + were at present eighteen senators from the new States. In four + years, there would be six more, which would make twenty-four. + All, therefore, must see that, in a very short period, those + States would have this question in their own hands. And it had + been openly said that they ought not to accept of the present + proposition, because they would soon be able to get better + terms. He thought, therefore, that, instead of attempting to + resist any longer what must eventually happen, it would be + better for all concerned that Congress should yield at once to + the force of circumstances, and cede the public domain. His + objects in this movement were high and solemn objects. He wished + to break down the vassalage of the new States. He desired that + this government should cease to hold the relation of a landlord. + He wished, further, to draw this great fund out of the vortex + of the presidential contest, with which it had openly been + announced to the Senate there was an avowed design to connect + it. He thought the country had been sufficiently agitated, + corrupted, and debased, by the influence of that contest; and + he wished to take this great engine out of the hands of power. + If he were a candidate for the presidency, he would wish to + leave it there. He wished to go further: he sought to remove the + immense amount of patronage connected with the management of + this domain--a patronage which had corrupted both the old and + the new States to an enormous extent. He sought to counteract + the centralism, which was the great danger of this government, + and thereby to preserve the liberties of the people much longer + than would otherwise be possible. As to what was to be received + for these lands, he cared nothing about it. He would have + consented at once to yield the whole, and withdraw altogether + the landlordship of the general government over them, had he + not believed that it would be most for the benefit of the new + States themselves that it should continue somewhat longer. These + were the views which had induced him to present the amendment. + He offered no gilded pill. He threw in no apple of discord. + He was no bidder for popularity. He prescribed to himself a + more humble aim, which was simply to do his duty. He sought to + counteract the corrupting tendency of the existing course of + things. He sought to weaken this government by divesting it of + at least a part of the immense patronage it wielded. He held + that every great landed estate required a local administration, + conducted by persons more intimately acquainted with local wants + and interests than the members of a central government could + possibly be. If any body asked him for a proof of the truth of + his positions, he might point them to the bill now before the + Senate. Such were the sentiments, shortly stated, which had + governed him on this occasion. He had done his duty, and he must + leave the result with God and with the new States." + +Mr. Calhoun's proposition was then put to the vote, and almost +unanimously rejected, only six senators besides himself voting +for it; namely: Messrs. King of Georgia; Moore of Alabama; Morris +of Ohio; Robinson of Illinois; Sevier of Arkansas; and White of +Tennessee. And thus a third project of distribution (counting Mr. +Mercer's motion as one), at this session, had miscarried. But it was +not the end. Mr. Chilton Allen, representative from Kentucky, moved +a direct distribution of land to the old States, equal in amount +to the grants which had been made to the new States. Mr. Abijah +Mann, jr., of New York, strikingly exposed the injustice of this +proposition, in a few brief remarks, saying: + + "It must be apparent, by this time, that this proposition was + neither more nor less than a new edition of the old and exploded + idea of distributing the proceeds of the sales of the public + lands, attempted to be concealed under rubbish and verbiage, + and gilded over by the patriotic idea of applying it to the + public education. Its paternity is suspicious, and its hope + fallacious and delusive. The preamble to this resolution is + illusory and deceptive, addressed to the cupidity of the old + States represented on this floor. It recites the grants made by + Congress to each of the new States of the public lands in the + aggregate, without specifying the motive or consideration upon + which they were made. Its argument is, that an equal quantity + should be granted to the old States, to make them respectively + equal sharers in the public lands. Now, sir (said Mr. M.), + nothing could be devised more disingenuous and deceptive. Let + us look at it briefly. The idea is, that the old States granted + these lands to the new for an implied consideration, and + resulting benefit to themselves; that it was a sort of Indian + gift, to be refunded with increase. Not so, sir, at all. If + Mr. M. understood the motives inducing those grants, they were + paternal on the part of the old States; proceeding upon that + generous and noble liberality which induces a wealthy father + to advance and provide for his children. This was the moving + consideration, though he (Mr. M.) was aware that the grants in + aid of the improvements of the new States and territories were + upon consideration of advancing the sale and improvement of the + remaining lands in those States held by the United States." + +The proposition of Mr. Allen was disposed of by a motion to lie on +the table, which prevailed--one hundred and fourteen to eighty-one +votes; but the end of these propositions was not yet. Another +motion to divide surpluses was to be made, and was made in the +expiring days of the session, and by way of amendment to the regular +fortification bill. Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, moved, on the 25th +of February, that a further deposit of all the public monies in +the treasury on the first day of January, 1838, above the sum of +five millions of dollars, should be "deposited" with the States, +according to the terms of the "deposit" bill of the preceding +session; and which would have the effect of making a second +"deposit" after the completion of the first one. The argument for +it was the same which had been used in the first case; the argument +against it was the one previously used, with the addition of the +objectionable proceeding of springing such a proposition at the +end of the session, and as an amendment to a defence appropriation +bill, on its passage; to which it was utterly incongruous, and must +defeat; as, if it failed to sink the bill in one of the Houses, +it must certainly be rejected by the President, who, it was now +known, would not be cheated again with the word deposit. It was also +opposed as an act of supererogation, as nobody could tell whether +there would be any surplus a year hence; and further, it was opposed +as an act of usurpation and an encroachment upon the authority of +the ensuing Congress. A new Congress was to be elected, and to +assemble before that time; the present Congress would expire in +six days: and it was argued that it was neither right nor decent +to anticipate their successors, and do what they, fresh from the +people, might not do. Mr. Yell, of Arkansas, was the principal +speaker against it; and said: + + "I voted, Mr. Speaker, against the amendment proposed by the + gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Bell), because I am of opinion + that this bill, if passed, and sanctioned by the President--and + I trust that it never will receive the countenance of that + distinguished man and illustrious statesman--will at once + establish a system demoralizing and corrupting in its + influences, and tend to the destruction of the sovereignty + of the States, and render them dependant suppliants on the + general government. This measure of distribution, since it has + been a hobby-horse for gentlemen to ride on, has presented an + anomalous spectacle! The time yet belongs to the history of this + Congress, when honorable gentlemen, from the South and West, + were daily found arraying themselves against every species of + unnecessary taxation, boldly avowing that they were opposed to + any and all tariff systems which would yield a revenue beyond + the actual wants and demands of the government. Such was their + language but a few weeks or months ago; and, in proclaiming it, + they struggled hard to excel each other in zeal and violence. + And now, sir, what is the spectacle we behold? A system of + distribution--another and a specious name for a system of + _bribery_ has been started; the hounds are in full cry; and the + same honorable and patriotic gentlemen now step forward, and, + at the watchword of 'put money in thy purse; aye, put money + in thy purse,' vote for the distribution or bribery measure; + the effect of which is to entail on this country a system of + taxation and oppression, which has had no parallel since the + days of the tea and ten-penny tax--two frightful measures of + discord, which roused enfeebled colonies to rebellion, and led + to the foundation of this mighty republic. But we are told, Mr. + Speaker, that this proposed distribution is only for momentary + duration; that it is necessary to relieve the Treasury of a + redundant income, and that it will speedily be discontinued! + Indeed, sir! What evidence have we of the fact? What evidence do + we require to disprove the assertion? This scheme was commenced + the last session; it has been introduced at this; and let me + tell you, Mr. Speaker, it never will be abandoned so long as the + high tariff party can wheedle the people with a siren lullaby, + and cheat them out of their rights, by dazzling the vision with + gold, and deluding the fancy by the attributes of sophistry. + Depend upon it, sir, if this baleful system of distribution be + not nipped in the bud, it will betray the people into submission + by a species of taxation which no nation on earth should + endure. Sir, continued Mr. Y., I enter my protest against a + system of bargain and corruption, which is to be executed by + parties of different political complexions, for the purpose of + dividing the _spoils_ which they have plundered from the people. + If the sales of the public lands are to be continued for the + benefit of the speculators who go to the West in multitudes for + the purpose of _legally stealing_ the lands and improvements of + the people of the new States, I hope my constituents may know + who it is that thus imposes upon them a system of _legalized + fraud and oppression_. If, sir, my constituents are to be + sacrificed by the maintenance of a system of persecution, got + up and carried on for the purpose of filling the pockets of + others to their ruin, I wish them to know who is the author of + the enormity. I had hoped, Mr. Speaker, and that hope has not + yet been abandoned, that if ever this branch of the government + is bent on the destruction of the rights of the people, and + a violation of the Constitution, there is yet one ordeal for + it to pass where it may be shorn of its baneful aspect. And, + Mr. Speaker, I trust in God that, in its passage through that + ordeal, it will find a _quietus_." + +Mr. Bell's motion succeeded. The second "deposit" act, by a vote of +112 to 70, was engrafted on the appropriation bill for completing +and constructing fortifications; and, thus loaded, that bill went +to the Senate. Being referred to the Committee on Finance, that +committee directed their chairman, Mr. Wright of New-York, to move +to strike it out. The motion was resisted by Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Clay, +Mr. Webster, Mr. White of Tennessee, Mr. Ewing of Ohio, Crittenden, +Preston, Southard, and Clayton; and supported by Messrs. Wright, +Benton, Bedford Brown, Buchanan, Grundy, Niles of Connecticut, +Rives, Strange of North Carolina: and being put to the vote, the +motion was carried, and the "deposit" clause struck from the bill by +a vote of 26 to 19. The yeas and nays were: + + "YEAS--Messrs. Benton, Black, Brown, Cuthbert, Ewing of + Illinois, Fulton, Grundy, Hubbard, King of Alabama, King of + Georgia, Linn, Lyon, Nicholas, Niles, Norvell, Page, Parker, + Rives, Ruggles, Sevier, Strange, Tallmadge, Walker, Wall, + Wright--26. + + "NAYS--Messrs. Bayard, Calhoun, Clayton, Crittenden, Davis, + Ewing of Ohio, Hendricks, Kent, Knight, Moore, Prentiss, + Preston, Robbins, Southard, Spence, Swift, Tomlinson, Webster, + White--19." + +Being returned to the House, a motion was made to disagree to the +Senate's amendment, and argued with great warmth on each side, +the opponents to the "deposit" reminding its friends of the loss +of a previous appropriation bill for fortifications; and warning +them that their perseverance must now have the same effect, and +operate a sacrifice of defence to the spirit of distribution: but +all in vain. The motion to disagree was carried--110 to 94. The +disputed clause then went through all the parliamentary forms +known to the occasion. The Senate "insisted" on its amendment: a +motion to "recede" was made and lost in the House: a motion to +"adhere" was made, and prevailed: then the Senate "adhered": then +a committee of "conference" was appointed, and they "disagreed." +This being reported to the Houses, the bill fell--the fortification +appropriations were lost: and in this direct issue between the +plunder of the country, and the defence of the country, defence +was beaten. Such was the deplorable progress which the spirit of +distribution had made. + + + + +CHAPTER CLVII. + +MILITARY ACADEMY: ITS RIDING-HOUSE. + + +The annual appropriation bill for the support of this Academy +contained a clause for the purchase of forty horses, "for +instruction in light artillery and cavalry exercise;" and proposed +ten thousand dollars for the purpose. This purchase was opposed, and +the clause stricken out. The bill also contained a clause proposing +thirty thousand dollars, in addition to the amount theretofore +appropriated, for the erection of a building for "recitation +and military exercises," as the clause expressed itself. It was +understood to be for the riding-house in bad weather. Mr. McKay, +of North Carolina, moved to strike out the clause, upon the ground +that military men ought to be inured to hardship, not pampered in +effeminacy; and that, as war was carried on in the field, so young +officers should be learned to ride in the open air, and on rough +ground, and to be afraid of no weather. The clause was stricken +out, but restored upon re-consideration; in opposition to which Mr. +Smith, of Maine, was the principal speaker; and said: + + "I beg leave to call the attention of the committee to the + paragraph of this bill proposed to be stricken out. It is an + appropriation of thirty thousand dollars, in addition to the + amount already appropriated, for the erection of a building + within which to exercise and drill the cadets at West Point. + The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Ingersoll] who reported + this bill, and who never engages himself in any subject without + making himself entire master of all its parts, will do the + committee the justice, I trust, to inform them, when he shall + next take the floor, what the amount heretofore appropriated for + this same building, in which to exercise the cadets, actually + has been; that, if we decide on the propriety of having such a + building, we may also know how much we have heretofore taken + from the public Treasury for its erection, and to what sum the + thirty thousand dollars now proposed will be an addition. + + "The honorable gentleman from New-York [Mr. Cambreleng] says + this proposed building is to protect the cadets during the + inclemency of the winter season, when the snow is from two to + six feet deep; and has urged upon the committee the extreme + hardship of requiring the cadets to perform their exercises in + the open air in such an inclement and cold region as that where + West Point is situated. Sir, if the gentleman would extend his + inquiries somewhat further North or East, he would find that at + points where the winters are still more inclement than at West + Point, and where the snow lies for months in succession from + two to eight feet deep, a very large and useful and respectable + portion of the citizens not only incur the snows and storms of + winter by day without workshops or buildings to protect them, + but actually pursue the business of months amid such snows and + storms, without a roof, or board, or so much as a shingle to + cover and protect them by either day or night, and do not dream + of murmuring. But, forsooth, the young cadet at West Point, who + goes there to acquire an education for himself, who is clothed + and fed, and even paid for his time, by the government while + acquiring his education, cannot endure the atmosphere of West + Point, without a magnificent building to shield him during + the few hours in the week, while in the act of being drilled, + as part of his education! The government is called upon to + appropriate thirty thousand dollars, in addition to what has + already been appropriated for the purpose, to protect the young + cadet, who is preparing to be a soldier, against this temporary + and yet most salutary exposure, as I esteem it. Sir, is Congress + prepared thus to pamper the effeminacy of these young gentlemen, + at such an expense, too, upon the public Treasury? Is it not + enough to educate them for nothing, and to pay them for their + time while you are educating them, and that you provide for + their comfortable subsistence, comfortable lodgings, and all the + ordinary comforts, not to say numerous luxuries of life, without + attempting to keep them for ever within doors, to be raised like + children? I am opposed to it; and I think, whenever the people + of this nation shall be made acquainted with the fact, they too + will be opposed to it. + + "The gentleman from New-York says the exposure of the cadets is + very great and that, among other duties, they are required to + perform camp duties for three months in the year. It is true, + sir, that the law of Congress imposes three months' camp duty + upon the cadet. But the same tender spirit of guardianship which + has suggested the expediency of housing the cadets from the + atmosphere while performing their drill duties and exercises + has in some way construed away one third of the law of Congress + upon this subject; and, instead of three months' camp duty, as + the law requires, the cadets are required, by the rules and + regulations of the institution, to camp out only two months + of the year; and for this purpose, sir, every species of camp + utensils and camp furniture that government money can purchase + is provided for them; and this same duty, thus pictured forth + here by the gentleman from New-York as a severe hardship, is in + fact so tempered to the cadets as to become a mere luxury--a + matter of absolute preference among the cadets. The gentleman + from New-York will find, by the rules and regulations of the + Academy, the months of July and August, or of August and + September, are selected for this camp duty: seasons of the + year, sir, when it is absolutely a luxury and privilege for + the cadets to leave their close quarters and confined rooms, + to perform duty out door, and to spend the nights in their + well-furnished camps. Sir, the hardships and exposures of the + cadets are nothing compared with those of the generality of our + fellow-citizens in the North, in their ordinary pursuits; and + yet we are called upon to add to their luxuries--two hundred and + fifty dollar horses to ride, splendid camp equipage to protect + them from the dews and damp air of summer, and magnificent + buildings to shield them in their winter exercises. I think it + is high time for Congress, and for the people of this nation, + to reflect seriously upon these matters, and to inquire with + somewhat of particularity into the character of this institution. + + "But the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Ingersoll), + has volunteered to put the reputation of the West Point Academy + for morality in issue at this time, and sets it out in eloquent + description, as pre-eminently pure and irreproachable in this + respect. + + "Sir, does not the honorable gentleman know that the history + of this institution, within a few years back only, bears quite + different testimony upon this subject? Does not the gentleman + know the fact--a fact well substantiated by the Register of + Debates in your library--that only a few years since the + government was forced into the necessity of purchasing up, at an + expense of ten thousand dollars, a neighboring tavern stand, as + the only means of saving the institution from being overwhelmed + and ruined by the gross immoralities of the cadets? Is not the + gentleman aware that the whole argument urged to force and + justify the government into this purchase was, that the moral + power of the Academy was unequal to the counter influences of + the neighboring tavern? And are we to be told, sir, that this + institution stands forth in its history pre-eminently pure, + and above comparison with the institutions that exist upon the + private enterprise and munificence, and thirst for knowledge, + that characterize our countrymen? I make these suggestions, + and allude to these facts, not voluntarily, and from a wish to + create a discussion upon either the merits or demerits of the + Academy. When I made the proposition to strike from this bill + the ten thousand dollars proposed to be appropriated for the + purchase of horses, I neither intended nor desired to enter into + a discussion of the institution. I have not now spoken, except + upon the impulse given by the remarks of the gentlemen from + New-York and Pennsylvania; and now, instead of going into the + facts that do exist in relation to the Academy, I can assure + gentlemen that I have but scarcely approached them. I have + been willing, and am now willing, to have these facts brought + to light at another time, and upon a proper occasion that will + occur hereafter, and leave the people of this nation to judge + of them dispassionately. A report upon the subject of this + institution will be made shortly, as the honorable gentleman + from Kentucky (Mr. Hawes) has assured the house. From that + report, all will be able to form an opinion as to the policy + of the institution in its present shape and under its present + discipline. That some grave objections exist to both its shape + and discipline, I think all will agree. But I wish not to + discuss either at this time. Let us know, however, and let the + country know, something about the expensive buildings now in + progress at West Point, before we conclude to add this further + appropriation of thirty thousand dollars to the expenses of the + institution; and, while I am up, I will call the attention of + the honorable gentleman who reported this bill to another item + in it, which embraces forage for horses among other matters, and + I wish him to specify to the committee what proportion of the + sum of over thirteen thousand dollars contained in this item, is + based upon the supposed supply of forage. We have stricken out + the appropriation for purchasing horses, and another part of the + bill provides forage for the officers' horses; hence a portion + of the item now adverted to should probably be stricken out." + +The debate became spirited and discursive, grave and gay, and gave +rise to some ridiculous suggestions, as that if it was necessary +to protect these young officers from bad weather when exercising +on horseback it ought to be done in no greater degree than young +women are protected in like circumstances--parasols for the sun, +umbrellas for rain, and pelisses for cold: which it was insisted +would be a great economy. On the other hand it was insisted that +riding-houses were appurtenant to the military colleges of Europe, +and that fine riders were trained in these schools. The $30,000, +in addition to previous appropriations for the same purpose, was +granted; but has been found to be insufficient; and a late Board of +Visitors, following the lead of the Superintendent of the Academy, +and powerfully backed by the War Office, at Washington City, has +earnestly recommended a further additional appropriation of $20,000, +still further to improve the riding-house; on the ground that, "the +room now used for the purpose is extremely dangerous to the lives +and limbs of the cadets." This further accommodation is deemed +indispensable to the proper teaching of the art of "equitation:" +that is to say, to the art of riding on the back of a horse; and the +Visitors recommend this accommodation to Congress, in the following +pathetic terms: "The attention of the committee has been drawn to +the consideration of the expediency of erecting a new building for +cavalry exercise. We are aware that the subject has been before +Congress, upon the recommendation of former boards of Visitors, and +we cannot add to the force of the arguments made use of by them, in +favor of the measure. We would regret to be compelled to believe +that there is a greater indifference to the safety of human life and +limb in this country than in most others. It is enough for us to say +that, in the opinion of the Superintendent, the course of equitation +cannot be properly taught without it, 'and that the room now used +for the purpose is extremely dangerous to the lives and limbs of +the cadets.' In this opinion, we entirely concur. The appropriation +required for the erection of such a building will amount to some +$20,000. We can hardly excuse ourselves, if we neglect to bring +this subject, so far as we are able to do so, most emphatically +to the notice of those who have the power, and, we doubt not, the +disposition also, to remove the evil." + + + + +CHAPTER CLVIII. + +SALT TAX: MR. BENTON'S FOURTH SPEECH AGAINST IT. + + +The amount which this tax brings into the treasury is about 600,000 +dollars, and that upon an article costing about 650,000 dollars; +and one-half of the tax received goes to the fishing bounties and +allowances founded upon it. So that what upon the record is a tax +of about 100 per centum, is in the reality a tax of 200 per centum; +and that upon an article of prime necessity and universal use, while +we have articles of luxury and superfluity--wines, silks--either +free of tax, or nominally taxed at some ten or twenty per centum. +The bare statement of the case is revolting and mortifying; but +it is only by looking into the detail of the tax--its amount upon +different varieties of salt--its effect upon the trade and sale of +the article--upon its importation and use--and the consequences +upon the agriculture of the country, for want of adequate supplies +of salt--that the weight of the tax, and the disastrous effects of +its imposition, can be ascertained. To enable the Senate to judge +of these effects and consequences, and to render my remarks more +intelligible, I will read a table of the importation of salt for +the year 1835--the last that has been made up--and which is known +to be a fair index to the annual importations for many years past. +With the number of bushels, and the name of the country from which +the importations come, will be given the value of each parcel at the +place it was obtained, and the original cost per bushel. + + Statement of the quantity of Salt imported into the United + States during the year 1835, with the value and cost thereof, + per bushel, at the place from which it was imported: + + No. of Cost + Countries. bushels. p. bus. + Sweden and Norway, 8,556 $572 6 3-4 + Swedish West Indies, 6,856 708 10 1-4 + Danish West Indies, 2,351 386 16 + Dutch West Indies, 141,566 12,967 9 + England, 2,613,077 412,507 16 1-2 + Ireland, 51,954 12,276 + Gibraltar, 17,832 1,385 7 3-4 + Malta, 1,500 118 7 3-4 + British West Indies, 959,786 98,497 10 + British Am. Colonies, 138,593 30,374 + France on Mediterranean, 32,648 2,155 6 2-3 + Spain on Atlantic, 360,140 16,760 4 3-4 + Spain on Mediterran., 101,000 5,443 5 1-3 + Portugal, 780,000 55,087 7 + Cape de Verd Islands, 8,134 751 9 1-10 + Italy, 36,742 1,580 4 1-3 + Sicily, 5,786 156 2 2-3 + Trieste, 7,888 255 3 7-8 + Turkey, 9,377 984 10 1-10 + Colombia, 17,162 1,227 + Brazil, 250 68 + Argentine Republic, 402 41 + Africa, 5,733 615 10 2-3 + --------- -------- ------ + 5,735,364 655,000 + +Mr. B. would remark that salt, being brought in ballast, the +greatest quantity came from England, where we had the largest +trade; and that its importation, with a tax upon it, being merely +incidental to trade, this greatest quantity came from the place +where it cost most, and was of far inferior kind. The salt from +England was nearly one half of the whole quantity imported; its cost +was about sixteen cents a bushel; and its quality was so inferior +that neither in the United States, nor in Great Britain, could it +be used for curing provisions, fish, butter, or any thing that +required long keeping, or exposure to southern heats. This was the +salt commonly called Liverpool. It was made by artificial heat, +and never was, and never can be made pure, as the mere agitation +of the boiling prevents the separation of the _bittern_, and other +foreign and poisonous ingredients with which all salt water, and +even mineral salt, is more or less impregnated. The other half of +the imported salt costs far less than the English salt, and is +infinitely superior to it; so far superior that the English salt +will not even serve for a substitute in the important business of +curing fish, and flesh, for long keeping, or southern exposure. This +salt was made by the action of the sun in the latitudes approaching, +and under the tropics. We begin to obtain it in the West Indies, and +in large quantity on Turk's Island; and get it from all the islands +and coasts, under the sun's track, from the Gulf of Mexico to the +Black Sea. The Cape de Verd Islands, the Atlantic and Mediterranean +coasts of Spain and Portugal, the Mediterranean coast of France, +the two coasts of Italy, the islands in the Mediterranean, the +coasts of the Adriatic, the Archipelago, up to the Black Sea, all +produce it and send it to us. The table which has been read shows +that the original cost of this salt--the purest and strongest in +the world--is about nine or ten cents a bushel in the Gulf of +Mexico; five, six and seven cents on the coasts of France, Spain +and Portugal; three and four cents in Italy and the Adriatic; and +less than three cents in Sicily. Yet all this salt bears one uniform +duty; it was all twenty cents a bushel, and is now near ten cents +a bushel; so that while the tax on the English salt is a little +upwards of fifty per cent. on the value, the same tax on all the +other salt is from one hundred to two hundred, and three hundred +and near four hundred per cent. The sun-made salt is chiefly used +in the Great West, in curing provisions; the Liverpool is chiefly +used on the Atlantic coasts; and thus the people in different +sections of the Union pay different degrees of tax upon the same +articles, and that which costs least is taxed most. A tax ranging +to some hundred per cent. is in itself an enormous tax; and thus +the duty collected by the federal government from all the consumers +of the sun-made salt, is in itself excessive; amounting, in many +instances, to double, treble, or even quadruple the original cost of +the article. This is an enormity of taxation which strikes the mind +at the first blush; but, it is only the beginning of the enormity, +the extent of which is only discoverable in tracing its effects +to all their diversified and injurious consequences. In the first +place, it checks and prevents the importation of the salt. Coming as +ballast, and not as an article of commerce on which profit is to be +made, the shipper cannot bring it except he is supplied with money +to pay the duty, or surrenders it into the hands of salt dealers, +on landing, to go his security for the payment of the duty. Thus, +the importation of the article is itself checked; and this check +operates with the greatest force in all cases where the original +price of the salt was least; and, therefore, where it operates most +injuriously to the country. In all such cases the tax operates as a +prohibition to use salt as ballast, and checks its importation from +all the places of its production nearest the sun's track, from the +Gulf of Mexico to Constantinople. In the next place, the imposition +of the tax throws the salt into the hands of an intermediate set +of dealers in the seaports, who either advance the duty, or go +security for it, and who thus become possessed of nearly all the +salt which is imported. A few persons employed in this business +engross the salt, and fix the price for all in the market; and fix +it higher or lower, not according to the cost of the article, but +according to the necessities of the country, and the quantity on +hand, and the season of the year. The prices at which they fix it +are known to all purchasers, and may be seen in all prices-current. +It is generally, in the case of alum salt, four, five, ten, or +fifteen times as much as it cost. It is generally forty, or fifty, +or sixty cents a bushel, and nearly the same price for all sorts, +without any reference to the original cost, whether it cost three +cents, or five cents, or ten cents, or fifteen cents a bushel. +About one uniform price is put on the whole, and the purchaser +has to submit to the imposition. This results from the effect of +the tax, throwing the article, which is nothing but ballast, into +the hands of salt dealers. The importer does not bring more money +than the salt is worth, to pay the duty; he does not come prepared +to pay a heavy duty on his ballast; he has to depend upon raising +the money for paying the duty after he arrives in the United +States; and this throws him into the hands of the salt dealer, and +subjects the country purchaser to all the fair charges attending +this change of hands, and this establishment of an intermediate +dealer, who must have his profits; and also to all the additional +exactions which he may choose to make. This should not be. There +should be no costs, nor charges, nor intermediate profits, on such +an article as salt. It comes as ballast; as ballast it should be +handed out--should be handed from the ship to the steamboat--should +escape port charges, and intermediate profits--and this would be the +case, if the duty was abolished. Thus the charges, costs, profits, +and exactions, in consequence of the tax, are greater than the tax +itself! But this is not all--a further injury, resulting from the +tax, is yet to be inflicted upon the consumer. It is well known +that the measured bushel of alum salt, and all sun-made salt is +alum salt--it is well known that a bushel of this salt weighs about +eighty-four pounds; yet the custom-house bushel goes by weight, +and not by measure, and fifty-six pounds is there the bushel. Thus +the consumer, in consequence of having the salt sent through the +custom-house, is shifted from the measured to the weighed bushel, +and loses twenty-eight pounds by the operation! but this is not +his whole loss; the intermediate salt dealer deducts six pounds +more, and gives fifty pounds for the bushel; and thus this taxed +and custom-housed article, after paying some hundred per cent. to +the government and several hundred per cent. more to the regraters, +is worked into a loss of thirty-four pounds on every bushel! All +these losses and impositions would vanish, if salt was freed from +the necessity of passing the custom-houses; and to do that, it must +be freed _in toto_ from taxation. The slightest duty would operate +nearly the whole mischief, for it would throw the article into +the hands of regraters, and would substitute the weighed for the +measured bushel. + +Such are the direct injuries of the salt tax; a tax enormous in +itself, disproportionate in its application to the same article in +different parts of the Union, and bearing hardest upon that kind +which is cheapest, best, and most indispensable. The levy to the +government is enormous, $650,000 per annum upon an article only +worth about $600,000; but what the government receives is a trifle, +compared to what is exacted by the regrater,--what is lost in the +difference between the weighed and the measured bushel,--and the +loss which the farmer sustains for want of adequate supplies of salt +for his stock, and their food. Assuming the government tax to be ten +cents a bushel, the average cost of alum salt to be seven cents, +and the regrater's price to be fifty cents, and it is clear that he +receives upwards of three times as much as the government does; and +that the tribute to those regraters is near two millions of dollars +per annum. Assuming again that thirty-four pounds in the bushel +are lost to the consumer in the substitution of the weighed for +the measured bushel, and here is another loss amounting to nearly +three-eighths of the value of the salt; that is to say, to about +$250,000 on an importation of $650,000 worth. + +These detailed views of the operation and effects of the salt duty, +continued Mr. B., place the burdens of that tax in the most odious +and revolting light; but the picture is not yet complete; two other +features are to be introduced into it, each of which, separately, +and still more, both put together, go far to double its enormity, +and to carry the iniquity of such a tax up to the very verge of +criminality and sinfulness. The first of these features is, in +the loss which the farmers sustain for want of adequate supplies +of salt for their stock; and the second, from the fact that the +duty is a one-sided tax, being imposed only on some sections of +the Union, and not at all upon another section of the Union. A few +details will verify these additional features. First, as to the loss +which the country sustains for want of adequate supplies of salt. +Every practical man knows that every description of stock requires +salt--hogs, horses, cattle, sheep; and that all the prepared food +of cattle requires it also--hay, fodder, clover, shucks, &c. In +England it is ascertained, by experience, that sheep require, +each, half a pound a week, which is twenty-eight pounds, or half a +custom-house bushel, per annum; cows require a bushel and a half per +annum; young cattle a bushel; draught horses, and draught cattle, a +bushel; colts, and young cattle, from three pecks to a bushel each, +per annum; and it was computed in England, before the abolition of +the salt-tax there, that the stock of the English farmers, for want +of adequate supplies of salt, was injured to an annual amount far +beyond the product of the tax. + +Dr. Young, before a committee of the British House of Commons, +and upon oath, testified to his belief that the use of salt free +of tax would benefit the agricultural interest, in the increased +value of their stock alone, to the annual amount of three millions +sterling, near fifteen millions of dollars. Such was the injury of +the salt-tax in England to the agricultural interest in the single +article of stock. What the injury might be to the agricultural +interest in the United States on the same article, on account of +the stinted use of salt occasioned by the tax, might be vaguely +conceived from general observation and a few established facts. +In the first place, it was known to every body that stock in our +country was stinted for salt; that neither hogs, horses, cattle, +or sheep, received any thing near the quantity found by experience +to be necessary in England; and, as for their food, that little or +no salt was put upon it in the United States; while in England, +ten or fifteen pounds of salt to the ton of hay, clover, &c. was +used in curing it. Taking a single branch of the stock of the +United States, that of sheep, and more decided evidence of the +deplorable deficiency of salt cannot be produced. The sheep in +the United States were computed by the wool-growers, in 1832, in +their petitions to Congress, at twenty millions; this number, at +half a bushel each, would require about ten millions of bushels; +now the whole supply of salt in the United States, both home-made +and imported, barely exceeds ten millions; so that, if the sheep +received an adequate supply, there would not remain a pound for any +other purpose! Of course, the sheep did not receive an adequate +supply, nor perhaps the fourth part of what was necessary; and so +of all other stock. To give an opinion of the total loss to the +agricultural interest in the United States for want of the free use +of this article, would require the minute, comprehensive, sagacious, +and peculiar turn of mind of Dr. Young; but it may be sufficient for +the argument, and for all practical purposes, to assume that our +loss, in proportion to the number of our stock, is greater than that +of the English farmers, and amounts to fifteen or twenty times the +value of the tax itself! + + + + +CHAPTER CLIX. + +EXPUNGING RESOLUTION--PREPARATION FOR DECISION. + + +It was now the last session of the last term of the presidency +of General Jackson, and the work of the American Senate doing +justice to itself by undoing the wrong which it had done to itself +in its condemnation of the President, was at hand. The appeal to +the people had produced its full effect; and, in less time than +had been expected. Confident from the beginning in the verdict of +the people, the author of the movement had not counted upon its +delivery until several years--probably until after the retirement +of General Jackson, and until the subsidence of the passions +which usually pursue a public man while he remains on the stage +of action. Contrary to all expectation, the public mind was made +up in less than three years, and before the termination of that +second administration which was half run when the sentence of +condemnation was passed. At the commencement of this session, +1836-'37, the public voice had come in, and in an imperative form. +A majority of the States had acted decisively on the subject--some +superseding their senators at the end of their terms who had given +the obnoxious vote, and replacing them by those who would expunge +it; others sending legislative instructions to their senators, which +carried along with them, in the democratic States, the obligation +of obedience or resignation; and of which it was known there were +enough to obey to accomplish the desired expurgation. Great was +the number superseded, or forced to resign. The great leaders, Mr. +Clay, Mr. Webster, Mr. Calhoun, easily maintained themselves in +their respective States; but the mortality fell heavily upon their +followers, and left them in a helpless minority. The time had come +for action; and on the second day after the meeting of the Senate, +Mr. Benton gave notice of his intention to bring in at an early +period the unwelcome resolution, and to press it to a decision. +Heretofore he had introduced it without any view to action, but +merely for an occasion for a speech, to go to the people; but the +opposition, exulting in their strength, would of themselves call it +up, against the wishes of the mover, to receive the rejection which +they were able to give it. Now these dispositions were reversed; the +mover was for decision--they for staving it off. On the 26th day of +December--the third anniversary of the day on which Mr. Clay had +moved the condemnatory resolution--Mr. Benton laid upon the table +the resolve to expunge it--followed by his third and last speech on +the subject. The following is the resolution; the speech constitutes +the next chapter: + + _Resolution to expunge from the Journal the Resolution of the + Senate of March 28, 1834, in relation to President Jackson and + the Removal of the Deposits._ + + "Whereas, on the 26th day of December, in the year 1833, the + following resolve was moved in the Senate: + + "'_Resolved_, That, by dismissing the late Secretary of the + Treasury, because he would not, contrary to his own sense of + duty, remove the money of the United States in deposit with + the Bank of the United States and its branches, in conformity + with the President's opinion, and by appointing his successor + to effect such removal, which has been done, the President + has assumed the exercise of a power over the Treasury of the + United States, not granted him by the Constitution and laws, and + dangerous to the liberties of the people.' + + "Which proposed resolve was altered and changed by the mover + thereof, on the 28th day of March, in the year 1834, so as to + read as follows: + + "'_Resolved_, That, in taking upon himself the responsibility of + removing the deposit of the public money from the Bank of the + United States, the President of the United States has assumed + the exercise of a power over the Treasury of the United States + not granted to him by the constitution and laws, and dangerous + to the liberties of the people.' + + "Which resolve, so changed and modified by the mover thereof, on + the same day and year last mentioned, was further altered, so as + to read in these words: + + "'_Resolved_, That the President, in the late executive + proceedings in relation to the revenue has assumed upon himself + authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, + but in derogation of both:' + + "In which last mentioned form the said resolve, on the same day + and year last mentioned, was adopted by the Senate, and became + the act and judgment of that body, and, as such, now remains + upon the journal thereof: + + "And whereas the said resolve was 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 citizen, and in subversion of the fundamental principles + of law and justice; _because_ President Jackson was thereby + adjudged and pronounced to be guilty of an impeachable offence, + and a stigma placed upon him as a violator of his oath of + office, and of the laws and constitution which he was sworn to + preserve, protect, and defend, _without_ going through the forms + of an impeachment, and without allowing to him the benefits of a + trial, or the means of defence: + + "And whereas the said resolve, in all its various shapes and + forms, was unfounded and erroneous in point of fact, and + therefore unjust and unrighteous, as well as irregular and + unauthorized by the constitution; _because_ the said President + Jackson neither in the act of dismissing Mr. Duane, nor in the + appointment of Mr. Taney, as specified in the first form of + the resolve; nor in taking upon himself the responsibility of + removing the deposits, as specified in the second form of the + same resolve; nor in any act which was then, or can now, be + specified under the vague and ambiguous terms of the general + denunciation contained in the third and last form of the + resolve, did do or commit any act in violation or in derogation + of the laws and constitution; or dangerous to the liberties of + the people: + + "And whereas the said resolve, as adopted, was uncertain and + ambiguous, containing nothing but a loose and floating charge + for derogating from the laws and constitution, and assuming + ungranted power and authority in the late executive proceedings + in relation to the public revenue; _without_ specifying what + part of the executive proceedings, or what part of the public + revenue was intended to be referred to; or what parts of the + laws and constitution were supposed to have been infringed; + or in what part of the Union, or at what period of his + administration, these late proceedings were supposed to have + taken place; _thereby_ putting each senator at liberty to vote + in favor of the resolve upon a separate and secret reason of + his own, and leaving the ground of the Senate's judgment to be + guessed at by the public, and to be differently and diversely + interpreted by individual senators, according to the private and + particular understanding of each: _contrary_ to all the ends of + justice, and to all the forms of legal or judicial proceeding; + to the great prejudice of the accused, who could not know + against what to defend himself; and to the loss of senatorial + responsibility, by shielding senators from public accountability + for making up a judgment upon grounds which the public cannot + know, and which, if known, might prove to be insufficient in + law, or unfounded in fact: + + "And whereas the specification contained in the first and + second forms of the resolve having been objected to in debate, + and shown to be insufficient to sustain the charges they were + adduced to support, and it being well believed that no majority + could be obtained to vote for the said specifications, and the + same having been actually withdrawn by the mover in the face of + the whole Senate, in consequence of such objection and belief, + and before any vote taken thereupon; the said specifications + could not afterwards be admitted by any rule of parliamentary + practice, or by any principle of legal implication, secret + intendment, or mental reservation, to remain and continue a part + of the written and public resolve from which they were thus + withdrawn; and, if they could be so admitted, they would not be + sufficient to sustain the charges thereto contained: + + "And whereas the Senate being the constitutional tribunal + for the trial of the President, when charged by the House + of Representatives with offences against the laws and the + constitution, the adoption of the said resolve, before any + impeachment preferred by the House, was a breach of the + privileges of the House; not warranted by the constitution; + a subversion of justice; a prejudication of a question which + might legally come before the Senate; and a disqualification of + that body to perform its constitutional duty with fairness and + impartiality, if the President should thereafter be regularly + impeached by the House of Representatives for the same offence: + + "And whereas the temperate, respectful, and argumentative + defence and protest of the President against the aforesaid + proceeding of the Senate was rejected and repulsed by that + body, and was voted to be a breach of its privileges, and was + not permitted to be entered on its journal or printed among + its documents; while all memorials, petitions, resolves, + and remonstrances against the President, however violent or + unfounded, and calculated to inflame the people against him, + were duly and honorably received, encomiastically commented upon + in speeches, read at the table, ordered to be printed with the + long list of names attached, referred to the Finance Committee + for consideration, filed away among the public archives, and now + constitute a part of the public documents of the Senate, to be + handed down to the latest posterity: + + "And whereas the said resolve was introduced, debated, and + adopted, at a time and under circumstances which had the effect + of co-operating with the Bank of the United States in the + parricidal attempt which that institution was then making to + produce a panic and pressure in the country; to destroy the + confidence of the people in President Jackson; to paralyze his + administration; to govern the elections; to bankrupt the State + banks; ruin their currency; fill the whole Union with terror + and distress; and thereby to extort from the sufferings and the + alarms of the people, the restoration of the deposits and the + renewal of its charter: + + "And whereas the said resolve is of evil example and dangerous + precedent, and should never have been received, debated, or + adopted by the Senate, or admitted to entry upon its journal: + Wherefore, + + "_Resolved_, That the said resolve be expunged from the journal; + and, for that purpose, that the Secretary of the Senate, at + such time as the Senate may appoint, shall bring the manuscript + journal of the session 1833 '34 into the Senate, and, in the + presence of the Senate, draw black lines round the said resolve, + and write across the face thereof, in strong letters, the + following words: 'Expunged by order of the Senate, this -- day + of ----, in the year of our Lord 1837.'" + + + + +CHAPTER CLX. + +EXPUNGING RESOLUTION.--MR. BENTON'S THIRD SPEECH. + + +Mr. President: It is now near three years since the resolve was +adopted by the Senate, which it is my present motion to expunge +from the journal. At the moment that this resolve was adopted, +I gave notice of my intention to move to expunge it; and then +expressed my confident belief that the motion would eventually +prevail. That expression of confidence was not an ebullition of +vanity, or a presumptuous calculation, intended to accelerate the +event it affected to foretell. It was not a vain boast, or an idle +assumption, but was the result of a deep conviction of the injustice +done President Jackson, and a thorough reliance upon the justice of +the American people. I felt that the President had been wronged; +and my heart told me that this wrong would be redressed! The event +proves that I was not mistaken. The question of expunging this +resolution has been carried to the people, and their decision has +been had upon it. They decide in favor of the expurgation; and their +decision has been both made and manifested, and communicated to us +in a great variety of ways. A great number of States have expressly +instructed their senators to vote for this expurgation. A very great +majority of the States have elected senators and representatives +to Congress, upon the express ground of favoring this expurgation. +The Bank of the United States, which took the initiative in the +accusation against the President, and furnished the material, and +worked the machinery which was used against him, and which was then +so powerful on this floor, has become more and more odious to the +public mind, and musters now but a slender phalanx of friends in the +two Houses of Congress. The late Presidential election furnishes +additional evidence of public sentiment. The candidate who was the +friend of President Jackson, the supporter of his administration, +and the avowed advocate for the expurgation, has received a large +majority of the suffrages of the whole Union, and that after an +express declaration of his sentiments on this precise point. The +evidence of the public will, exhibited in all these forms, is too +manifest to be mistaken, too explicit to require illustration, and +too imperative to be disregarded. Omitting details and specific +enumeration of proofs, I refer to our own files for the instructions +to expunge,--to the complexion of the two Houses for the temper of +the people,--to the denationalized condition of the Bank of the +United States for the fate of the imperious accuser,--and to the +issue of the Presidential election for the answer of the Union. +All these are pregnant proofs of the public will, and the last +pre-eminently so: because, both the question of the expurgation, +and the form of the process, was directly put in issue upon it. A +representative of the people from the State of Kentucky formally +interrogated a prominent candidate for the Presidency on these +points, and required from him a public answer for the information +of the public mind. The answer was given, and published, and read +by all the voters before the election; and I deem it right to refer +to that answer in this place, not only as evidence of the points +put in issue, but also for the purpose of doing more ample justice +to President Jackson by incorporating into the legislative history +of this case, the high and honorable testimony in his favor of the +eminent citizen, Mr. Van Buren, who has just been exalted to the +lofty honors of the American Presidency: + + "Your last question seeks to know 'my' opinion as to the + constitutional power of the Senate or House of Representatives + to expunge or obliterate from the journals the proceedings of a + previous session. + + "You will, I am sure, be satisfied upon further consideration, + that there are but few questions of a political character less + connected with the duties of the office of President of the + United States, or that might not with equal propriety be put by + an elector to a candidate for that station, than this. With the + journals of neither house of Congress can he properly have any + thing to do. But, as your question has doubtless been induced by + the pendency of Col. Benton's resolutions, to expunge from the + journals of the Senate certain other resolutions touching the + official conduct of President Jackson, I prefer to say, that I + regarded the passage of Col. Benton's preamble and resolutions + to be an act of justice to a faithful and greatly injured public + servant, not only constitutional in itself, but imperiously + demanded by a proper respect for the well known will of the + people." + +I do not propose, sir, to draw violent, unwarranted, or strained +inferences. I do not assume to say that the question of this +expurgation was a leading, or a controlling point in the issue of +this election. I do not assume to say, or insinuate, that every +individual, and every voter, delivered his suffrage with reference +to this question. Doubtless there were many exceptions. Still, the +triumphant election of the candidate who had expressed himself +in the terms just quoted, and who was, besides, the personal and +political friend of President Jackson, and the avowed approver of +his administration, must be admitted to a place among the proofs in +this case, and ranked among the high concurring evidences of the +public sentiment in favor of the motion which I make. + +Assuming, then, that we have ascertained the will of the people +on this great question, the inquiry presents itself, how far the +expression of that will ought to be conclusive of our action here? +I hold that it ought to be binding and obligatory upon us! and +that, not only upon the principles of representative government, +which requires obedience to the known will of the people, but also +in conformity to the principles upon which the proceeding against +President Jackson was conducted when the sentence against him was +adopted. Then every thing was done with especial reference to the +will of the people! Their impulsion was assumed to be the sole +motive to action; and to them the ultimate verdict was expressly +referred. The whole machinery of alarm and pressure--every engine of +political and moneyed power--was put in motion, and worked for many +months, to excite the people against the President; and to stir up +meetings, memorials, petitions, travelling committees, and distress +deputations against him; and each symptom of popular discontent was +hailed as an evidence of public will, and quoted here as proof that +the people demanded the condemnation of the President. Not only +legislative assemblies, and memorials from large assemblies, were +then produced here as evidence of public opinion, but the petitions +of boys under age, the remonstrances of a few signers, and the +results of the most inconsiderable elections, were ostentatiously +paraded and magnified, as the evidence of the sovereign will of our +constituents. Thus, sir, the public voice was every thing while +that voice, partially obtained through political and pecuniary +machinations, was adverse to the President. Then the popular will +was the shrine at which all worshipped. Now, when that will is +regularly, soberly, repeatedly, and almost universally expressed +through the ballot boxes, at the various elections, and turns out +to be in favor of the President, certainly no one can disregard it, +nor otherwise look at it than as the solemn verdict of the competent +and ultimate tribunal upon an issue fairly made up, fully argued, +and duly submitted for decision. As such verdict, I receive it. +As the deliberate verdict of the sovereign people, I bow to it. I +am content. I do not mean to reopen the case, nor to recommence +the argument. I leave that work to others, if any others choose to +perform it. For myself, I am content; and, dispensing with further +argument, I shall call for judgment, and ask to have execution +done, upon that unhappy journal, which the verdict of millions of +freemen finds guilty of bearing on its face an untrue, illegal, +and unconstitutional sentence of condemnation against the approved +President of the Republic. + +But, while declining to reopen the argument of this question, and +refusing to tread over again the ground already traversed, there is +another and a different task to perform; one which the approaching +termination of President Jackson's administration makes peculiarly +proper at this time, and which it is my privilege, and perhaps my +duty, to execute, as being the suitable conclusion to the arduous +contest in which we have been so long engaged; I allude to the +general tenor of his administration, and to its effect, for good +or for evil, upon the condition of his country. This is the proper +time for such a view to be taken. The political existence of this +great man now draws to a close. In little more than forty days he +ceases to be a public character. In a few brief weeks he ceases to +be an object of political hope to any, and should cease to be an +object of political hate, or envy, to all. Whatever of motive the +servile and timeserving might have found in his exalted station for +raising the altar of adulation, and burning the incense of praise +before him, that motive can no longer exist. The dispenser of the +patronage of an empire--the chief of this great confederacy of +States--is soon to be a private individual, stripped of all power +to reward, or to punish. His own thoughts, as he has shown us in +the concluding paragraph of that message which is to be the last +of its kind that we shall ever receive from him, are directed to +that beloved retirement from which he was drawn by the voice of +millions of freemen, and to which he now looks for that interval of +repose which age and infirmities require. Under these circumstances, +he ceases to be a subject for the ebullition of the passions, +and passes into a character for the contemplation of history. +Historically, then, shall I view him; and limiting this view to his +civil administration. I demand, where is there a chief magistrate +of whom so much evil has been predicted, and from whom so much good +has come? Never has any man entered upon the chief magistracy of +a country under such appalling predictions of ruin and woe! never +has any one been so pursued with direful prognostications! never +has any one been so beset and impeded by a powerful combination +of political and moneyed confederates! never has any one in any +country where the administration of justice has risen above the +knife or the bowstring, been so lawlessly and shamelessly tried and +condemned by rivals and enemies, without hearing, without defence, +without the forms of law or justice! History has been ransacked to +find examples of tyrants sufficiently odious to illustrate him by +comparison. Language has been tortured to find epithets sufficiently +strong to paint him in description. Imagination has been exhausted +in her efforts to deck him with revolting and inhuman attributes. +Tyrant, despot, usurper; destroyer of the liberties of his country; +rash, ignorant, imbecile; endangering the public peace with all +foreign nations; destroying domestic prosperity at home; ruining all +industry, all commerce, all manufactures; annihilating confidence +between man and man; delivering up the streets of populous cities +to grass and weeds, and the wharves of commercial towns to the +encumbrance of decaying vessels; depriving labor of all reward; +depriving industry of all employment; destroying the currency; +plunging an innocent and happy people from the summit of felicity to +the depths of misery, want, and despair. Such is the faint outline, +followed up by actual condemnation, of the appalling denunciations +daily uttered against this one MAN, from the moment he became an +object of political competition, down to the concluding moment of +his political existence. + +"The sacred voice of inspiration has told us that there is a +time for all things. There certainly has been a time for every +evil that human nature admits of to be vaticinated of President +Jackson's administration; equally certain the time has now come for +all rational and well-disposed people to compare the predictions +with the facts, and to ask themselves if these calamitous +prognostications have been verified by events? Have we peace, or +war, with foreign nations? Certainly, we have peace with all the +world! peace with all its benign, and felicitous, and beneficent +influences! Are we respected, or despised abroad? Certainly the +American name never was more honored throughout the four quarters +of the globe, than in this very moment. Do we hear of indignity, or +outrage in any quarter? of merchants robbed in foreign ports? of +vessels searched on the high seas? of American citizens impressed +into foreign service? of the national flag insulted any where? On +the contrary, we see former wrongs repaired; no new ones inflicted. +France pays twenty-five millions of francs for spoliations committed +thirty years ago; Naples pays two millions one hundred thousand +ducats for wrongs of the same date; Denmark pays six hundred and +fifty thousand rix dollars for wrongs done a quarter of a century +ago; Spain engages to pay twelve millions of reals vellon for +injuries of fifteen years date; and Portugal, the last in the list +of former aggressors, admits her liability, and only waits the +adjustment of details to close her account by adequate indemnity. +So far from war, insult, contempt, and spoliation from abroad; this +denounced administration has been the season of peace and good +will, and the auspicious era of universal reparation. So far from +suffering injury at the hands of foreign powers, our merchants +have received indemnities for all former injuries. It has been the +day of accounting, of settlement, and of retribution. The total +list of arrearages, extending through four successive previous +administrations, has been closed and settled up. The wrongs done +to commerce for thirty years back, and under so many different +Presidents, and indemnities withheld from all, have been repaired +and paid over under the beneficent and glorious administration of +President Jackson. But one single instance of outrage has occurred, +and that at the extremities of the world, and by a piratical +horde, amenable to no law but the law of force. The Malays of +Sumatra committed a robbery and massacre upon an American vessel. +Wretches! they did not then know that JACKSON was President of the +United States! and that no distance, no time, no idle ceremonial +of treating with robbers and assassins, was to hold back the arm +of justice. Commodore Downes went out. His cannon and his bayonets +struck the outlaws in their den. They paid in terror and in blood +for the outrage which was committed; and the great lesson was taught +to these distant pirates--to our antipodes themselves--that not even +the entire diameter of this globe could protect them! and that the +name of American citizen, like that of Roman citizen in the great +days of the Republic and of the empire, was to be the inviolable +passport of all that wore it throughout the whole extent of the +habitable world. + +"At home, the most gratifying picture presents itself to the view: +the public debt paid off; taxes reduced one half; the completion +of the public defences systematically commenced; the compact with +Georgia, uncomplied with since 1802, now carried into effect, and +her soil ready to be freed, as her jurisdiction has been delivered, +from the presence and encumbrance of an Indian population. +Mississippi and Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina; +Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas; in a word, all the +States encumbered with an Indian population have been relieved from +that encumbrance; and the Indians themselves have been transferred +to new and permanent homes, every way better adapted to the +enjoyment of their existence, the preservation of their rights, and +the improvement of their condition. + +"The currency is not ruined! On the contrary, seventy-five millions +of specie in the country is a spectacle never seen before, and is +the barrier of the people against the designs of any banks which +may attempt to suspend payments, and to force a dishonored paper +currency upon the community. These seventy-five millions are +the security of the people against the dangers of a depreciated +and inconvertible paper money. Gold, after a disappearance of +thirty years, is restored to our country. All Europe beholds with +admiration the success of our efforts in three years, to supply +ourselves with the currency which our constitution guarantees, +and which the example of France and Holland shows to be so easily +attainable, and of such incalculable value to industry, morals, +economy, and solid wealth. The success of these efforts is styled in +the best London papers, not merely a reformation, but a revolution +in the currency! a revolution by which our America is now regaining +from Europe the gold and silver which she has been sending to it for +thirty years past." + +Domestic industry is not paralyzed; confidence is not destroyed; +factories are not stopped; workmen are not mendicants for bread +and employment; credit is not extinguished; prices have not sunk; +grass is not growing in the streets of populous cities; the +wharves are not lumbered with decaying vessels; columns of curses, +rising from the bosoms of a ruined and agonized people, are not +ascending to heaven against the destroyer of a nation's felicity +and prosperity. On the contrary, the reverse of all this is true! +and true to a degree that astonishes and bewilders the senses. I +know that all is not gold that glitters; that there is a difference +between a specious and a solid prosperity. I know that a part of +the present prosperity is apparent only--the effect of an increase +of fifty millions of paper money, forced into circulation by one +thousand banks; but, after making due allowance for this fictitious +and delusive excess, the real prosperity of the country is still +unprecedentedly and transcendently great. I know that every flow +must be followed by its ebb, that every expansion must be followed +by its contraction. I know that a revulsion of the paper system is +inevitable; but I know, also, that these seventy-five millions of +gold and silver is the bulwark of the country, and will enable every +honest bank to meet its liabilities, and every prudent citizen to +take care of himself. + +Turning to some points in the civil administration of President +Jackson, and how much do we not find to admire! The great cause of +the constitution has been vindicated from an imputation of more than +forty years' duration. He has demonstrated, by the fact itself, +that a national bank is not 'necessary' to the fiscal operations +of the federal government; and in that demonstration he has upset +the argument of General Hamilton, and the decision of the Supreme +Court of the United States, and all that ever has been said in favor +of the constitutionality of a national bank. All this argument and +decision rested on the single assumption of the 'necessity' of +that institution to the federal government. He has shown it is not +'necessary;' that the currency of the constitution, and especially +a gold currency, is all that the federal government wants, and that +she can get that whenever she pleases. In this single act, he has +vindicated the constitution from an unjust imputation, and knocked +from under the decision of the Supreme Court the assumed fact on +which it rested. He has prepared the way for the reversal of that +decision; and it is a question for lawyers to answer, whether the +case is not ripe for the application of that writ of most remedial +nature, as Lord Coke calls it, and which was invented, lest, in any +case, there should be an oppressive defect of justice! the venerable +writ of _audita querela defendentis_, to ascertain the truth of a +fact happening since the judgment; and upon the due finding of which +the judgment will be vacated. Let the lawyers bring their books, and +answer us, if there is not a case here presented for the application +of that ancient and most remedial writ? + +From President Jackson, the country has first learned the true +theory and practical intent of the constitution, in giving to the +Executive a qualified negative on the legislative power of Congress. +Far from being an odious, dangerous, or kingly prerogative, this +power, as vested in the President, is nothing but a qualified copy +of the famous veto power vested in the tribunes of the people among +the Romans, and intended to suspend the passage of a law until the +people themselves should have time to consider it. The qualified +veto of the President destroys nothing; it only delays the passage +of a law, and refers it to the people for their consideration and +decision. It is the reference of a law, not to a committee of the +House, or of the whole House, but to the committee of the whole +Union. It is a recommitment of the bill to the people, for them +to examine and consider; and if, upon this examination, they are +content to pass it, it will pass at the next session. The delay +of a few months is the only effect of a veto, in a case where the +people shall ultimately approve a law; where they do not approve it, +the interposition of the veto is the barrier which saves them the +adoption of a law, the repeal of which might afterwards be almost +impossible. The qualified negative is, therefore, a beneficent +power, intended, as General Hamilton expressly declares in the +'Federalist,' to protect, first, the executive department from the +encroachments of the legislative department; and, secondly, to +preserve the people from hasty, dangerous, or criminal legislation +on the part of their representatives. This is the design and +intention of the veto power; and the fear expressed by General +Hamilton was, that Presidents, so far from exercising it too often, +would not exercise it as often as the safety of the people required; +that they might lack the moral courage to stake themselves in +opposition to a favorite measure of the majority of the two Houses +of Congress; and thus deprive the people, in many instances, of +their right to pass upon a bill before it becomes a final law. The +cases in which President Jackson has exercised the veto power has +shown the soundness of these observations. No ordinary President +would have staked himself against the Bank of the United States, +and the two Houses of Congress, in 1832. It required President +Jackson to confront that power--to stem that torrent--to stay the +progress of that charter, and to refer it to the people for their +decision. His moral courage was equal to the crisis. He arrested +the charter until it could go to the people, and they have arrested +it for ever. Had he not done so, the charter would have become law, +and its repeal almost impossible. The people of the whole Union +would now have been in the condition of the people of Pennsylvania, +bestrode by the monster, in daily conflict with him, and maintaining +a doubtful contest for supremacy between the government of a State +and the directory of a moneyed corporation. + +To detail specific acts which adorn the administration of President +Jackson, and illustrate the intuitive sagacity of his intellect, +the firmness of his mind, his disregard of personal popularity, +and his entire devotion to the public good, would be inconsistent +with this rapid sketch, intended merely to present general views, +and not to detail single actions, howsoever worthy they may be +of a splendid page in the volume of history. But how can we pass +over the great measure of the removal of the public moneys from +the Bank of the United States, in the autumn of 1833? that wise, +heroic, and masterly measure of prevention, which has rescued an +empire from the fangs of a merciless, revengeful, greedy, insatiate, +implacable, moneyed power! It is a remark for which I am indebted +to the philosophic observation of my most esteemed colleague and +friend (pointing to Dr. Linn), that, while it requires far greater +talent to foresee an evil before it happens, and to arrest it by +precautionary measures, than it requires to apply an adequate remedy +to the same evil after it has happened, yet the applause bestowed +by the world is always greatest in the latter case. Of this, the +removal of the public moneys from the Bank of the United States is +an eminent instance. The veto of 1832, which arrested the charter +which Congress had granted, immediately received the applause and +approbation of a majority of the Union: the removal of the deposits, +which prevented the bank from forcing a recharter, was disapproved +by a large majority of the country, and even of his own friends; yet +the veto would have been unavailing, and the bank would inevitably +have been rechartered, if the deposits had not been removed. The +immense sums of public money since accumulated would have enabled +the bank, if she had retained the possession of it, to have coerced +a recharter. Nothing but the removal could have prevented her +from extorting a recharter from the sufferings and terrors of the +people. If it had not been for that measure, the previous veto would +have been unavailing; the bank would have been again installed +in power; and this entire federal government would have been held +as an appendage to that bank; and administered according to her +directions, and by her nominees. That great measure of prevention, +the removal of the deposits, though feebly and faintly supported by +friends at first, has expelled the bank from the field, and driven +her into abeyance under a State charter. She is not dead, but, +holding her capital and stockholders together under a State charter, +she has taken a position to watch events, and to profit by them. The +royal tiger has gone into the jungle; and, crouched on his belly, +he awaits the favorable moment for emerging from his covert, and +springing on the body of the unsuspicious traveller! + +The Treasury order for excluding paper money from the land offices +is another wise measure, originating in enlightened forecast, +and preventing great mischiefs. The President foresaw the evils +of suffering a thousand streams of paper money, issuing from a +thousand different banks, to discharge themselves on the national +domain. He foresaw that if these currents were allowed to run their +course, that the public lands would be swept away, the Treasury +would be filled with irredeemable paper, a vast number of banks must +be broken by their folly, and the cry set up that nothing but a +national bank could regulate the currency. He stopped the course of +these streams of paper; and, in so doing, has saved the country from +a great calamity, and excited anew the machinations of those whose +schemes of gain and mischief have been disappointed; and who had +counted on a new edition of panic and pressure, and again saluting +Congress with the old story of confidence destroyed, currency +ruined, prosperity annihilated, and distress produced, by the +tyranny of one man. They began their lugubrious song; but ridicule +and contempt have proved too strong for money and insolence; and the +panic letter of the ex-president of the denationalized bank, after +limping about for a few days, has shrunk from the lash of public +scorn, and disappeared from the forum of public debate. + +The difficulty with France: what an instance it presents of the +superior sagacity of President Jackson over all the commonplace +politicians who beset and impede his administration at home! That +difficulty, inflamed and aggravated by domestic faction, wore, at +one time, a portentous aspect; the skill, firmness, elevation of +purpose, and manly frankness of the President, avoided the danger, +accomplished the object, commanded the admiration of Europe, and +retained the friendship of France. He conducted the delicate affair +to a successful and mutually honorable issue. All is amicably +and happily terminated, leaving not a wound, nor even a scar, +behind--leaving the Frenchman and American on the ground on which +they have stood for fifty years, and should for ever stand; the +ground of friendship, respect, good will, and mutual wishes for the +honor, happiness, and prosperity, of each other. + +But why this specification? So beneficent and so glorious has been +the administration of this President, that where to begin, and +where to end, in the enumeration of great measures, would be the +embarrassment of him who has his eulogy to make. He came into office +the first of generals; he goes out the first of statesmen. His +civil competitors have shared the fate of his military opponents; +and Washington city has been to the American politicians who have +assailed him, what New Orleans was to the British generals who +attacked his lines. Repulsed! driven back! discomfited! crushed! +has been the fate of all assailants, foreign and domestic, civil +and military. At home and abroad, the impress of his genius and of +his character is felt. He has impressed upon the age in which he +lives the stamp of his arms, of his diplomacy, and of his domestic +policy. In a word, so transcendent have been the merits of his +administration, that they have operated a miracle upon the minds +of his most inveterate opponents. He has expunged their objections +to military chieftains! He has shown them that they were mistaken; +that military men were not the dangerous rulers they had imagined, +but safe and prosperous conductors of the vessel of state. He has +changed their fear into love. With visible signs they admit their +error, and, instead of deprecating, they now invoke the reign of +chieftains. They labored hard to procure a military successor to the +present incumbent; and if their love goes on increasing at the same +rate, the republic may be put to the expense of periodical wars, to +breed a perpetual succession of these chieftains to rule over them +and their posterity for ever. + +To drop this irony, which the inconsistency of mad opponents +has provoked, and to return to the plain delineations of +historical painting, the mind instinctively dwells on the vast and +unprecedented popularity of this President. Great is the influence, +great the power, greater than any man ever before possessed in our +America, which he has acquired over the public mind. And how has he +acquired it? Not by the arts of intrigue, or the juggling tricks +of diplomacy; not by undermining rivals, or sacrificing public +interests for the gratification of classes or individuals. But he +has acquired it, first, by the exercise of an intuitive sagacity +which, leaving all book learning at an immeasurable distance behind, +has always enabled him to adopt the right remedy, at the right time, +and to conquer soonest when the men of forms and office thought +him most near to ruin and despair. Next, by a moral courage which +knew no fear when the public good beckoned him to go on. Last, +and chiefest, he has acquired it by an open honesty of purpose, +which knew no concealments; by a straightforwardness of action, +which disdained the forms of office and the arts of intrigue; by +a disinterestedness of motive, which knew no selfish or sordid +calculation; a devotedness of patriotism, which staked every thing +personal on the issue of every measure which the public welfare +required him to adopt. By these qualities, and these means, he has +acquired his prodigious popularity, and his transcendent influence +over the public mind; and if there are any who envy that influence +and popularity, let them envy, also, and emulate, if they can, the +qualities and means by which they were acquired. + +Great has been the opposition to President Jackson's administration; +greater, perhaps, than ever has been exhibited against any +government, short of actual insurrection and forcible resistance. +Revolution has been proclaimed! and every thing has been done that +could be expected to produce revolution. The country has been +alarmed, agitated, convulsed. From the Senate chamber to the village +bar-room, from one end of the continent to the other, denunciation, +agitation, excitement, has been the order of the day. For eight +years the President of this republic has stood upon a volcano, +vomiting fire and flames upon him, and threatening the country +itself with ruin and desolation, if the people did not expel the +usurper, despot, and tyrant, as he was called, from the high place +to which the suffrages of millions of freemen had elevated him. + +Great is the confidence which he has always reposed in the +discernment and equity of the American people. I have been +accustomed to see him for many years, and under many discouraging +trials; but never saw him doubt, for an instant, the ultimate +support of the people. It was my privilege to see him often, and +during the most gloomy period of the panic conspiracy, when the +whole earth seemed to be in commotion against him, and when many +friends were faltering, and stout hearts were quailing, before the +raging storm which bank machination, and senatorial denunciation, +had conjured up to overwhelm him. I saw him in the darkest moments +of this gloomy period; and never did I see his confidence in the +ultimate support of his fellow-citizens forsake him for an instant. +He always said the people would stand by those who stand by them; +and nobly have they justified that confidence! That verdict, the +voice of millions, which now demands the expurgation of that +sentence, which the Senate and the bank then pronounced upon him, +is the magnificent response of the people's hearts to the implicit +confidence which he then reposed in them. But it was not in the +people only that he had confidence; there was another, and a far +higher Power, to which he constantly looked to save the country, and +its defenders, from every danger; and signal events prove that he +did not look to that high Power in vain. + +Sir, I think it right, in approaching the termination of this great +question, to present this faint and rapid sketch of the brilliant, +beneficent, and glorious administration of President Jackson. It +is not for me to attempt to do it justice; it is not for ordinary +men to attempt its history. His military life, resplendent with +dazzling events, will demand the pen of a nervous writer; his +civil administration, replete with scenes which have called into +action so many and such various passions of the human heart, and +which has given to native sagacity so many victories over practised +politicians, will require the profound, luminous, and philosophical +conceptions of a Livy, a Plutarch, or a Sallust. This history is not +to be written in our day. The cotemporaries of such events are not +the hands to describe them. Time must first do its office--must +silence the passions, remove the actors, develope consequences, +and canonize all that is sacred to honor, patriotism, and glory. +In after ages the historic genius of our America shall produce the +writers which the subject demands--men far removed from the contests +of this day, who will know how to estimate this great epoch, and how +to acquire an immortality for their own names by painting, with a +master's hand, the immortal events of the patriot President's life. + +And now, sir, I finish the task which, three years ago, I imposed +on myself. Solitary and alone, and amidst the jeers and taunts of +my opponents, I put this ball in motion. The people have taken it +up, and rolled it forward, and I am no longer any thing but a unit +in the vast mass which now propels it. In the name of that mass I +speak. I demand the execution of the edict of the people; I demand +the expurgation of that sentence which the voice of a few senators, +and the power of their confederate, the Bank of the United States, +has caused to be placed on the journal of the Senate; and which the +voice of millions of freemen has ordered to be expunged from it. + + + + +CHAPTER CLXI. + +EXPUNGING RESOLUTION: MR. CLAY, MR. CALHOUN, MR. WEBSTER: LAST +SCENE: RESOLUTION PASSED, AND EXECUTED. + + +Saturday, the 14th of January, the democratic senators agreed to +have a meeting, and to take their final measures for passing the +expunging resolution. They knew they had the numbers; but they also +knew that they had adversaries to grapple with to whom might be +applied the proud motto of Louis the Fourteenth: "Not an unequal +match for numbers." They also knew that members of the party were in +the process of separating from it, and would require conciliating. +They met in the night at the then famous restaurant of Boulanger, +giving to the assemblage the air of a convivial entertainment. It +continued till midnight, and required all the moderation, tact and +skill of the prime movers to obtain and maintain the union upon +details, on the success of which the fate of the measure depended. +The men of conciliation were to be the efficient men of that night; +and all the winning resources of Wright, Allen of Ohio and Linn of +Missouri, were put into requisition. There were serious differences +upon the mode of expurgation, while agreed upon the thing; and +finally obliteration, the favorite of the mover, was given up; +and the mode of expurgation adopted which had been proposed in +the resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia; namely, to +inclose the obnoxious sentence in a square of black lines--an oblong +square: a compromise of opinions to which the mover agreed upon +condition of being allowed to compose the epitaph--"Expunged by the +order of the Senate." The agreement which was to lead to victory +was then adopted, each one severally pledging himself to it, that +there should be no adjournment of the Senate after the resolution +was called until it was passed; and that it should be called +immediately after the morning business the Monday ensuing. Expecting +a protracted session, extending through the day and night, and +knowing the difficulty of keeping men steady to their work and in +good humor, when tired and hungry, the mover of the proceeding took +care to provide, as far as possible, against such a state of things; +and gave orders that night to have an ample supply of cold hams, +turkeys, rounds of beef, pickles, wines and cups of hot coffee, +ready in a certain committee room near the Senate chamber by four +o'clock on the afternoon of Monday. + +The motion to take up the subject was made at the appointed +time, and immediately a debate of long speeches, chiefly on the +other side, opened itself upon the question. It was evident that +consumption of time, delay and adjournment, was their plan. The +three great leaders did not join in the opening; but their place +was well supplied by many of their friends, able speakers--some +effective, some eloquent: Preston of South Carolina; Richard H. +Bayard and John M. Clayton of Delaware; Crittenden of Kentucky; +Southard of New Jersey; White of Tennessee; Ewing of Ohio. They +were only the half in number, but strong in zeal and ability, +that commenced the contest three years before, reinforced by Mr. +White of Tennessee. As the darkness of approaching night came on, +and the great chandelier was lit up, splendidly illuminating the +chamber, then crowded with the members of the House, and the +lobbies and galleries filled to their utmost capacity by visitors +and spectators, the scene became grand and impressive. A few +spoke on the side of the resolution--chiefly Rives, Buchanan, +Niles--and with an air of ease and satisfaction that bespoke a quiet +determination, and a consciousness of victory. The committee room +had been resorted to in parties of four and six at a time, always +leaving enough on watch: and not resorted to by one side alone. +The opposition were invited to a full participation--an invitation +of which those who were able to maintain their good temper readily +availed themselves; but the greater part were not in a humor to eat +any thing--especially at such a feast. The night was wearing away: +the expungers were in full force--masters of the chamber--happy--and +visibly determined to remain. It became evident to the great +opposition leaders that the inevitable hour had come: that the +damnable deed was to be done that night: and that the dignity of +silence was no longer to them a tenable position. The battle was +going against them, and they must go into it, without being able +to re-establish it. In the beginning, they had not considered the +expunging movement a serious proceeding: as it advanced they still +expected it to miscarry on some point: now the reality of the +thing stood before them, confronting their presence, and refusing +to "down" at any command. They broke silence, and gave vent to +language which bespoke the agony of their feelings, and betrayed the +revulsion of stomach with which they approached the odious subject. +Mr. Calhoun said: + + "No one, not blinded by party zeal, can possibly be insensible + that the measure proposed is a violation of the constitution. + The constitution requires the Senate to keep a journal; this + resolution goes to expunge the journal. If you may expunge a + part, you may expunge the whole; and if it is expunged, how is + it kept? The constitution says the journal shall be kept; this + resolution says it shall be destroyed. It does the very thing + which the constitution declares shall not be done. That is the + argument, the whole argument. There is none other. Talk of + precedents? and precedents drawn from a foreign country? They + don't apply. No, sir. This is to be done, not in consequence + of argument, but in spite of argument. I understand the case. + I know perfectly well the gentlemen have no liberty to vote + otherwise. They are coerced by an exterior power. They try, + indeed, to comfort their conscience by saying that it is the + will of the people, and the voice of the people. It is no such + thing. We all know how these legislative returns have been + obtained. It is by dictation from the White House. The President + himself, with that vast mass of patronage which he wields, and + the thousand expectations he is able to hold up, has obtained + these votes of the State Legislatures; and this, forsooth, is + said to be the voice of the people. The voice of the people! + Sir, can we forget the scene which was exhibited in this chamber + when that expunging resolution was first introduced here? Have + we forgotten the universal giving way of conscience, so that the + senator from Missouri was left alone? I see before me senators + who could not swallow that resolution; and has its nature + changed since then? Is it any more constitutional now than it + was then? Not at all. But executive power has interposed. Talk + to me of the voice of the people? No, sir. It is the combination + of patronage and power to coerce this body into a gross and + palpable violation of the constitution. Some individuals, I + perceive, think to escape through the particular form in which + this act is to be perpetrated. They tell us that the resolution + on your records is not to be expunged, but is only to be + endorsed 'Expunged.' Really, sir, I do not know how to argue + against such contemptible sophistry. The occasion is too solemn + for an argument of this sort. You are going to violate the + constitution, and you get rid of the infamy by a falsehood. You + yourselves say that the resolution is expunged by your order. + Yet you say it is not expunged. You put your act in express + words. You record it, and then turn round and deny it. + + "But why do I waste my breath? I know it is all utterly vain. + The day is gone; night approaches, and night is suitable to + the dark deed we meditate. There is a sort of destiny in this + thing. The act must be performed; and it is an act which will + tell on the political history of this country for ever. Other + preceding violations of the constitution (and they have been + many and great) filled my bosom with indignation, but this fills + it only with grief. Others were done in the heat of party. + Power was, as it were, compelled to support itself by seizing + upon new instruments of influence and patronage; and there were + ambitious and able men to direct the process. Such was the + removal of the deposits, which the President seized upon by a + new and unprecedented act of arbitrary power; an act which gave + him ample means of rewarding friends and punishing enemies. + Something may, perhaps, be pardoned to him in this matter, on + the old apology of tyrants--the plea of necessity. But here + there can be no such apology. Here no necessity can so much as + be pretended. This act originates in pure, unmixed, personal + idolatry. It is the melancholy evidence of a broken spirit, + ready to bow at the feet of power. The former act was such a one + as might have been perpetrated in the days of Pompey or Cæsar; + but an act like this could never have been consummated by a + Roman Senate until the times of Caligula and Nero." + +Mr. Calhoun was right in his taunt about the universal giving way +when the resolution was first introduced--the solitude in which the +mover was then left--and in which solitude he would have been left +to the end, had it not been for his courage in reinstating the word +expunge, and appealing to the people. + +Mr. Clay commenced with showing that he had never believed in the +reality of the proceeding until now; that he had considered the +resolution as a thing to be taken up for a speech, and laid down +when the speech was delivered; and that the last laying down, at the +previous session, was the end of the matter. He said: + + "Considering that he was the mover of the resolution of March, + 1834, and the consequent relation in which he stood to the + majority of the Senate by whose vote it was adopted, he had + felt it to be his duty to say something on this expunging + resolution; and he had always intended to do so when he should + be persuaded that there existed a settled purpose of pressing it + to a final decision. But it had been so taken up and put down at + the last session--taken up one day, when a speech was prepared + for delivery, and put down when it was pronounced--that he had + really doubted whether there existed any serious intention of + ever putting it to the vote. At the very close of the last + session, it will be recollected that the resolution came + up, and in several quarters of the Senate a disposition was + manifested to come to a definitive decision. On that occasion + he had offered to waive his right to address the Senate, and + silently to vote upon the resolution; but it was again laid upon + the table; and laid there for ever, as the country supposed, + and as he believed. It is, however, now revived; and, sundry + changes having taken place in the members of this body, it would + seem that the present design is to bring the resolution to an + absolute conclusion." + +Then, after an argument against the expurgation, which, of +necessity, was obliged to be a recapitulation of the argument in +favor of the original condemnation of the President, he went on +to give vent to his feelings in expressions not less bitter and +denunciatory of the President and his friends than those used by Mr. +Calhoun, saying: + + "But if the matter of expunction be contrary to the truth of the + case, reproachful for its base subserviency, derogatory from + the just and necessary powers of the Senate, and repugnant + to the constitution of the United States, the manner in which + it is proposed to accomplish this dark deed is also highly + exceptionable. The expunging resolution, which is to blot out or + enshroud the four or five lines in which the resolution of 1834 + stands recorded, or rather the recitals by which it is preceded, + are spun out into a thread of enormous length. It runs, whereas, + and whereas, and whereas, and whereas, and whereas, &c., into + a formidable array of nine several whereases. One who should + have the courage to begin to read them, unaware of what was to + be their termination, would think that at the end of such a + tremendous display he must find the very devil." + +And then coming to the conclusion, he concentrated his wrath and +grief in an apostrophizing peroration, which lacked nothing but +verisimilitude to have been grand and affecting. Thus: + + "But why should I detain the Senate, or needlessly waste my + breath in fruitless exertions. The decree has gone forth. It + is one of urgency, too. The deed is to be done--that foul deed + which, like the blood-stained hands of the guilty Macbeth, + all ocean's waters will never wash out. Proceed, then, with + the noble work which lies before you, and, like other skilful + executioners, do it quickly. And when you have perpetrated it, + go home to the people, and tell them what glorious honors you + have achieved for our common country. Tell them that you have + extinguished one of the brightest and purest lights that ever + burnt at the altar of civil liberty. Tell them that you have + silenced one of the noblest batteries that ever thundered in + defence of the constitution, and bravely spiked the cannon. + Tell them that, henceforward, no matter what daring or + outrageous act any President may perform, you have for ever + hermetically sealed the mouth of the Senate. Tell them that he + may fearlessly assume what powers he pleases, snatch from its + lawful custody the public purse, command a military detachment + to enter the halls of the capitol, overawe Congress, trample + down the constitution, and raze every bulwark of freedom; but + that the Senate must stand mute, in silent submission, and not + dare to raise its opposing voice. That it must wait until a + House of Representatives, humbled and subdued like itself, and + a majority of it composed of the partisans of the President, + shall prefer articles of impeachment. Tell them, finally, that + you have restored the glorious doctrines of passive obedience + and non-resistance. And, if the people do not pour out their + indignation and imprecations, I have yet to learn the character + of American freemen." + +Mr. Webster spoke last, and after a pause in the debate which +seemed to indicate its conclusion; and only rose, and that slowly, +as the question was about to be put. Having no personal griefs in +relation to General Jackson like Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay, and with +a temperament less ardent, he delivered himself with comparative +moderation, confining himself to a brief protest against the act; +and concluding, in measured and considered language, with expressing +his grief and mortification at what he was to behold; thus: + + "We have seen, with deep and sincere pain, the legislatures of + respectable States instructing the senators of those States + to vote for and support this violation of the journal of the + Senate; and this pain is infinitely increased by our full + belief, and entire conviction, that most, if not all these + proceedings of States had their origin in promptings from + Washington; that they have been urgently requested and insisted + on, as being necessary to the accomplishment of the intended + purpose; and that it is nothing else but the influence and power + of the executive branch of this government which has brought + the legislatures of so many of the free States of this Union + to quit the sphere of their ordinary duties, for the purpose + of co-operating to accomplish a measure, in our judgment, + so unconstitutional, so derogatory to the character of the + Senate, and marked with so broad an impression of compliance + with power. But this resolution is to pass. We expect it. That + cause, which has been powerful enough to influence so many State + legislatures, will show itself powerful enough, especially with + such aids, to secure the passage of the resolution here. We + make up our minds to behold the spectacle which is to ensue. + We collect ourselves to look on, in silence, while a scene is + exhibited which if we did not regard it as a ruthless violation + of a sacred instrument, would appear to us to be little elevated + above the character of a contemptible farce. This scene we shall + behold; and hundreds of American citizens, as many as may crowd + into these lobbies and galleries, will behold it also: with what + feelings I do not undertake to say." + +Midnight was now approaching. The dense masses which filled every +inch of room in the lobbies and the galleries, remained immovable. +No one went out: no one could get in. The floor of the Senate was +crammed with privileged persons, and it seemed that all Congress +was there. Expectation, and determination to see the conclusion, +was depicted upon every countenance. It was evident there was to +be no adjournment until the vote should be taken--until the deed +was done; and this aspect of invincible determination, had its +effect upon the ranks of the opposition. They began to falter +under a useless persistence, for they alone now did the speaking; +and while Mr. Webster was yet reciting his protest, two senators +from the opposite side, who had been best able to maintain their +equanimity, came round to the author of this View, and said "This +question has degenerated into a trial of nerves and muscles. It +has become a question of physical endurance; and we see no use in +wearing ourselves out to keep off for a few hours longer what has +to come before we separate. We see that you are able and determined +to carry your measure: so call the vote as soon as you please. We +shall say no more." Mr. Webster concluded. No one rose. There was a +pause, a dead silence, and an intense feeling. Presently the silence +was invaded by the single word "question"--the parliamentary call +for a vote--rising from the seats of different senators. One blank +in the resolve remained to be filled--the date of its adoption. It +was done. The acting president of the Senate, Mr. King, of Alabama, +then directed the roll to be called. The yeas and nays had been +previously ordered, and proceeded to be called by the secretary of +the Senate, Mr. Asbury Dickens. Forty-three senators were present, +answering: five absent. The yeas were: + + "Messrs. Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Dana, Ewing of Illinois, + Fulton, Grundy, Hubbard, King of Alabama, Linn, Morris, + Nicholas, Niles, Page, Rives, Robinson, Ruggles, Sevier, + Strange, Tallmadge, Tipton, Walker, Wall, Wright. + + "NAYS.--Messrs. Bayard, Black, Calhoun, Clay, Crittenden, + Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Hendricks, Kent, Knight, Moore, Prentiss, + Preston, Robbins, Southard, Swift, Tomlinson, Webster, White." + +The passage of the resolution was announced from the chair. Mr. +Benton rose, and said that nothing now remained but to execute +the order of the Senate; which he moved be done forthwith. It was +ordered accordingly. The Secretary thereupon produced the original +manuscript journal of the Senate, and opening at the page which +contained the condemnatory sentence of March 28th, 1834, proceeded +in open Senate to draw a square of broad black lines around the +sentence, and to write across its face in strong letters these +words: "Expunged by order of the Senate, this 16th day of March, +1837." Up to this moment the crowd in the great circular gallery, +looking down upon the Senate, though sullen and menacing in their +looks, had made no manifestation of feeling; and it was doubtless +not the intention of Mr. Webster to excite that manifestation when +he referred to their numbers, and expressed his ignorance of the +feeling with which they would see the deed done which he so much +deprecated. Doubtless no one intended to excite that crowd, mainly +composed, as of usual since the bank question began, of friends of +that institution; but its appearance became such that Senator Linn, +colleague of Senator Benton, Mr. George W. Jones, since senator +from Iowa, and others sent out and brought in arms; other friends +gathered about him; among them Mrs. Benton, who, remembering what +had happened to General Jackson, and knowing that, after him, her +husband was most obnoxious to the bank party, had her anxiety +sufficiently excited to wish to be near him in this concluding scene +of a seven years' contest with that great moneyed power. Things were +in this state when the Secretary of the Senate began to perform the +expunging process on the manuscript journal. Instantly a storm of +hisses, groans, and vociferations arose from the left wing of the +circular gallery, over the head of Senator Benton. The presiding +officer promptly gave the order, which the rules prescribe in such +cases, to clear the gallery. Mr. Benton opposed the order, saying: + + "I hope the galleries will not be cleared, as many innocent + persons will be excluded, who have been guilty of no violation + of order. Let the ruffians who have made the disturbance + alone be punished: let them be apprehended. I hope the + sergeant-at-arms will be directed to enter the gallery, and + seize the ruffians, ascertaining who they are in the best way + he can. Let him apprehend them and bring them to the bar of + the Senate. Let him seize the bank ruffians. I hope that they + will not now be suffered to insult the Senate, as they did when + it was under the power of the Bank of the United States, when + ruffians, with arms upon them, insulted us with impunity. Let + them be taken and brought to the bar of the Senate. Here is one + just above me, that may easily be identified--the bank ruffians!" + +Mr. Benton knew that he was the object of this outrage, and +that the way to treat these subaltern wretches was to defy and +seize them, and have them dragged as criminals to the bar of the +Senate. They were congregated immediately over his head, and had +evidently collected into that place. His motion was agreed to. The +order to clear the galleries was revoked; the order to seize the +disturbers was given, and immediately executed by the energetic +sergeant-at-arms, Mr. John Shackford, and his assistants. The +ringleader was seized, and brought to the bar. This sudden example +intimidated the rest; and the expunging process was performed in +quiet. The whole scene was impressive; but no part of it so much so +as to see the great leaders who, for seven long years had warred +upon General Jackson, and a thousand times pronounced him ruined, +each rising in his place, with pain and reluctance, to confess +themselves vanquished--to admit his power, and their weakness--and +to exhale their griefs in unavailing reproaches, and impotent +deprecations. It was a tribute to his invincibility which cast into +the shade all the eulogiums of his friends. The gratification of +General Jackson was extreme. He gave a grand dinner to the expungers +(as they were called) and their wives; and being too weak to sit at +the table, he only met the company, placed the "head-expunger" in +his chair, and withdrew to his sick chamber. That expurgation! it +was the "crowning mercy" of his civil, as New Orleans had been of +his military, life! + + + + +CHAPTER CLXII. + +THE SUPREME COURT--JUDGES AND OFFICERS. + + +The death of Chief Justice Marshall had vacated that high office, +and Roger B. Taney, Esq., was nominated to fill it. He still +encountered opposition in the Senate; but only enough to show +how much that opposition had declined since the time when he +was rejected as Secretary of the Treasury. The vote against his +confirmation was reduced to fifteen; namely: Messrs. Black of +Mississippi; Calhoun, Clay, Crittenden; Ewing of Ohio; Leigh of +Virginia; Mangum; Naudain of Delaware; Porter of Louisiana; Preston; +Robbins of Rhode Island; Southard, Tomlinson, Webster, White of +Tennessee. + +Among the Justices of the Supreme Court, these changes took place +from the commencement of this View to the end of General Jackson's +administration: Smith Thompson, Esq., of New York, in 1823, in place +of Brockholst Livingston, Esq., deceased; Robert Trimble, Esq., of +Kentucky, in 1826, in place of Thomas Todd, deceased; John McLean, +Esq., of Ohio, in 1829, in place of Robert Trimble, deceased; +Henry Baldwin, Esq., of Pennsylvania, in 1830, in place of Bushrod +Washington, deceased; James M. Wayne, Esq., of Georgia, in 1835, +in place of William Johnson, deceased; Philip P. Barbour, Esq., of +Virginia, in 1836, in place of Gabriel Duval, resigned. + +In the same time, William Griffith, Esq. of New Jersey, was +appointed Clerk, in 1826, in place of Elias B. Caldwell, deceased; +and William Thomas Carroll, Esq., of the District of Columbia, was +appointed, in 1827, in place William Griffith, deceased. Of the +reporters of the decisions of the Supreme Court, Richard Peters, +jr., Esq., of Pennsylvania, was appointed, in 1828, in place of +Henry Wheaton; and Benjamin C. Howard, Esq., of Maryland, was +appointed, in 1843, to succeed Mr. Peters, deceased. + +The Marshals of the District, during the same period, were: Henry +Ashton, of the District of Columbia, appointed, in 1831, in place of +Tench Ringgold; Alexander Hunter, of the same District, in place of +Henry Ashton; Robert Wallace, in 1848 in place of Alexander Hunter, +deceased; Richard Wallach, in 1849, in place of Robert Wallace; and +Jonah D. Hoover, in 1853, in place of Richard Wallach. + + + + +CHAPTER CLXIII. + +FAREWELL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT JACKSON--EXTRACT. + + +Following the example of Washington, General Jackson issued a +Farewell Address to the people of the United States, at his +retiring from the presidency; and, like that of Washington, it +was principally devoted to the danger of disunion, and to the +preservation of harmony and good feeling between the different +sections of the country. General Washington only had to contemplate +the danger of disunion, as a possibility, and as an event of future +contingency; General Jackson had to confront it as a present, +actual, subsisting danger; and said: + + "We behold systematic efforts publicly made to sow the seeds of + discord between different parts of the United States, and to + place party divisions directly upon geographical distinctions; + to excite the South against the North, and the North against the + South, and to force into the controversy the most delicate and + exciting topics--topics upon which it is impossible that a large + portion of the Union can ever speak without strong emotion. + Appeals, too, are constantly made to sectional interests, in + order to influence the election of the Chief Magistrate, as if + it were desired that he should favor a particular quarter of the + country, instead of fulfilling the duties of his station with + impartial justice to all; and the possible dissolution of the + Union has at length become an ordinary and familiar subject of + discussion. Has the warning voice of Washington been forgotten? + or have designs already been formed to sever the Union? Let it + not be supposed that I impute to all of those who have taken + an active part in these unwise and unprofitable discussions, a + want of patriotism or of public virtue. The honorable feelings + of State pride, and local attachments, find a place in the + bosoms of the most enlightened and pure. But while such men are + conscious of their own integrity and honesty of purpose, they + ought never to forget that the citizens of other States are + their political brethren; and that, however mistaken they may be + in their views, the great body of them are equally honest and + upright with themselves. Mutual suspicions and reproaches may in + time create mutual hostility; and artful and designing men will + always be found, who are ready to foment these fatal divisions, + and to inflame the natural jealousies of different sections of + the country! The history of the world is full of such examples, + and especially the history of republics. + + "What have you to gain by division and dissension? Delude not + yourselves with the belief, that a breach, once made, may be + afterwards repaired. If the Union is once severed, the line of + separation will grow wider and wider; and the controversies + which are now debated and settled in the halls of legislation, + will then be tried in fields of battle, and determined by the + sword. Neither should you deceive yourselves with the hope, + that the first line of separation would be the permanent one, + and that nothing but harmony and concord would be found in the + new associations formed upon the dissolution of this Union. + Local interests would still be found there, and unchastened + ambition. And if the recollection of common dangers, in which + the people of these United States stood side by side against + the common foe--the memory of victories won by their united + valor; the prosperity and happiness they have enjoyed under the + present constitution; the proud name they bear as citizens of + this great republic--if all these recollections and proofs of + common interest are not strong enough to bind us together as one + people, what tie will hold united the new divisions of empire, + when these bonds have been broken and this Union dissevered? The + first line of separation would not last for a single generation; + new fragments would be torn off; new leaders would spring up; + and this great and glorious republic would soon be broken into + a multitude of petty States, without commerce, without credit; + jealous of one another; armed for mutual aggressions; loaded + with taxes to pay armies and leaders; seeking aid against each + other from foreign powers; insulted and trampled upon by the + nations of Europe; until, harassed with conflicts, and humbled + and debased in spirit, they would be ready to submit to the + absolute dominion of any military adventurer, and to surrender + their liberty for the sake of repose. It is impossible to + look on the consequences that would inevitably follow the + destruction of this government, and not feel indignant when we + hear cold calculations about the value of the Union, and have + so constantly before us a line of conduct so well calculated to + weaken its ties." + +Nothing but the deepest conviction of an actual danger could have +induced General Jackson, in this solemn manner, and with such +pointed reference and obvious application, to have given this +warning to his countrymen, at that last moment, when he was quitting +office, and returning to his home to die. He was, indeed, firmly +impressed with a sense of that danger--as much so as Mr. Madison +was--and with the same "pain" of feeling, and presentiment of great +calamities to our country. What has since taken place has shown +that their apprehensions were not groundless--that the danger was +deep-seated, and wide-spread; and the end not yet. + + + + +CHAPTER CLXIV. + +CONCLUSION OF GENERAL JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. + + +The enemies of popular representative government may suppose that +they find something in this work to justify the reproach of faction +and violence which they lavish upon such forms of government; but +it will be by committing the mistake of overlooking the broad +features of a picture to find a blemish in the detail--disregarding +a statesman's life to find a misstep; and shutting their eyes +upon the action of the people. The mistakes and errors of public +men are fairly shown in this work; and that might seem to justify +the reproach: but the action of the people is immediately seen +to come in, to correct every error, and to show the capacity of +the people for wise and virtuous government. It would be tedious +to enumerate the instances of this conservative supervision, so +continually exemplified in the course of this history; but some +eminent cases stand out too prominently to be overlooked. The +recharter of the Bank of the United States was a favorite measure +with politicians; the people rejected it; and the wisdom of their +conduct is now universally admitted. The distribution of land +and money was a favorite measure with politicians; the people +condemned it and no one of those engaged in these distributions +ever attained the presidency. President Jackson, in his last +annual message to Congress, and in direct reference to this +conservative action of the people, declared "that all that had +occurred during his administration was calculated to inspire him +with increased confidence in the stability of our institutions." +I make the same declaration, founded upon the same view of the +conduct of the people--upon the observation of their conduct in +trying circumstances; and their uniform discernment to see, and +virtue and patriotism to do, whatever the honor and interest of the +country required. The work is full of consolation and encouragement +to popular government; and in that point of view it may be safely +referred to by the friends of that form of government. I have +written veraciously and of acts, not of motives. I have shown a +persevering attack upon President Jackson on the part of three +eminent public men during his whole administration; but have made +no attribution of motives. But another historian has not been so +forbearing--one to whose testimony there can be no objection, either +on account of bias, judgment, or information; and who, writing +under the responsibility of history, has indicated a motive in two +of the assailants. Mr. Adams, in his history of the administration +of Mr. Monroe, gives an account of the attempt in the two Houses +of Congress in 1818, to censure General Jackson for his conduct +in the Seminole war, and says: "Efforts were made in Congress to +procure a vote censuring the conduct of General Jackson, whose fast +increasing popularity had, in all probability, already excited +the envy of politicians. Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun in particular +favored this movement; but the President himself, and Mr. Adams, +the Secretary of State, who had charge of the Spanish negotiation, +warmly espoused the cause of the American commander." This fear of +a rising popularity was not without reason. There were proposals to +bring General Jackson forward for the presidency in 1816, and in +1820; to which he would not listen, on account of his friendship to +Mr. Monroe. A refusal to enter the canvass at those periods, and +for that reason, naturally threw him into it in 1824, when he would +come into competition with those two gentlemen. Their opposition +to him, therefore, dates back to the first term of Mr. Monroe's +administration; that of Mr. Clay openly and responsibly; that of Mr. +Calhoun secretly and deceptiously, as shown in the "Exposition." +They were both of the same political party school with General +Jackson; and it was probably his rising to the head of that party +which threw them both out of it. Mr. Webster's opposition arose from +his political relations, as belonging to the opposite school; and +was always more moderate, and better guarded by decorum. He even +appeared, sometimes, as the justifier and supporter of President +Jackson's measures; as in the well-known instance of South Carolina +nullification. Mr. Clay's efforts were limited to the overthrow of +President Jackson; Mr. Calhoun's extended to the overthrow of the +Union, and to the establishment of a southern confederacy of the +slave States. The subsequent volume will have to pursue this subject. + +This chapter ends the view of the administration of President +Jackson, promised to him in his lifetime, constituting an entire +work in itself, and covering one of the most eventful periods of +American history--as trying to the virtue and intelligence of the +American people as was the war of the revolution to their courage +and patriotism. + + + + +CHAPTER CLXV. + +RETIRING AND DEATH OF GENERAL JACKSON--ADMINISTRATION OF MARTIN VAN +BUREN. + + +The second and last term of General Jackson's presidency expired on +the 3d of March, 1837. The next day, at twelve, he appeared with +his successor, Mr. Van Buren, on the elevated and spacious eastern +portico of the capitol, as one of the citizens who came to witness +the inauguration of the new President, and no way distinguished +from them, except by his place on the left hand of the President +elect. The day was beautiful--clear sky, balmy vernal sun, tranquil +atmosphere;--and the assemblage immense. On foot, in the large +area in front of the steps, orderly without troops, and closely +wedged together, their faces turned to the portico--presenting +to the beholders from all the eastern windows the appearance of +a field paved with human faces. This vast crowd remained riveted +to their places, and profoundly silent, until the ceremony of +inauguration was over. It was the stillness and silence of reverence +and affection; and there was no room for mistake as to whom this +mute and impressive homage was rendered. For once, the rising was +eclipsed by the setting sun. Though disrobed of power, and retiring +to the shades of private life, it was evident that the great +ex-President was the absorbing object of this intense regard. At +the moment he began to descend the broad steps of the portico to +take his seat in the open carriage which was to bear him away, the +deep repressed feeling of the dense mass brook forth, acclamations +and cheers bursting from the heart and filling the air--such as +power never commanded, nor man in power received. It was the +affection, gratitude, and admiration of the living age, saluting +for the last time a great man. It was the acclaim of posterity, +breaking from the bosoms of contemporaries. It was the anticipation +of futurity--unpurchasable homage to the hero-patriot who, all +his life, and in all circumstances of his life, in peace and in +war, and glorious in each, had been the friend of his country, +devoted to her, regardless of self. Uncovered, and bowing, with +a look of unaffected humility and thankfulness, he acknowledged +in mute signs his deep sensibility to this affecting overflow of +popular feeling. I was looking down from a side window, and felt an +emotion which had never passed through me before. I had seen the +inauguration of many presidents, and their going away, and their +days of state, vested with power, and surrounded by the splendors +of the first magistracy of a great republic. But they all appeared +to be as pageants, empty and soulless, brief to the view, unreal +to the touch, and soon to vanish. But here there seemed to be a +reality--a real scene--a man and the people--he, laying down power +and withdrawing through the portals of everlasting fame;--they, +sounding in his ears the everlasting plaudits of unborn generations. +Two days after, I saw the patriot ex-President in the car which +bore him off to his desired seclusion. I saw him depart with that +look of quiet enjoyment which bespoke the inward satisfaction of +the soul at exchanging the cares of office for the repose of home. +History, poetry, oratory, marble and brass, will hand down the +military exploits of Jackson: this work will commemorate the events +of his civil administration, not less glorious than his military +achievements, great as they were; and this brief notice of his last +appearance at the American capital is intended to preserve some +faint memory of a scene, the grandeur of which was so impressive to +the beholder, and the solace of which must have been so grateful to +the heart of the departing patriot. + +Eight years afterwards he died at the Hermitage, in the full +possession of all his faculties, and strong to the last in the +ruling passion of his soul--love of country. Public history will +do justice to his public life; but a further notice is wanted of +him--a notice of the domestic man--of the man at home, with his +wife, his friends, his neighbors, his slaves; and this I feel some +qualification for giving, from my long and varied acquaintance +with him. First, his intimate and early friend--then a rude +rupture--afterwards friendship and intimacy for twenty years, and +until his death: in all forty years of personal observation, in the +double relation of friend and foe, and in all the walks of life, +public and private, civil and military. + +The first time that I saw General Jackson was at Nashville, +Tennessee, in 1799--he on the bench, a judge of the then Superior +Court, and I a youth of seventeen, back in the crowd. He was then a +remarkable man, and had his ascendant over all who approached him, +not the effect of his high judicial station, nor of the senatorial +rank which he had held and resigned; nor of military exploits, for +he had not then been to war; but the effect of personal qualities; +cordial and graceful manners, hospitable temper, elevation of mind, +undaunted spirit, generosity, and perfect integrity. In charging +the jury in the impending case, he committed a slight solecism in +language which grated on my ear, and lodged on my memory, without +derogating in the least from the respect which he inspired; and +without awakening the slightest suspicion that I was ever to be +engaged in smoothing his diction. The first time I spoke with him +was some years after, at a (then) frontier town in Tennessee, when +he was returning from a Southern visit, which brought him through +the towns and camps of some of the Indian tribes. In pulling off +his overcoat, I perceived on the white lining of the turning down +sleeve, a dark speck, which had life and motion. I brushed it off, +and put the heel of my shoe upon it--little thinking that I was ever +to brush away from him game of a very different kind. He smiled; +and we began a conversation, in which he very quickly revealed a +leading trait of his character,--that of encouraging young men in +their laudable pursuits. Getting my name and parentage, and learning +my intended profession, he manifested a regard for me, said he +had received hospitality at my father's house in North Carolina, +gave me kind invitations to visit him; and expressed a belief that +I would do well at the bar--generous words which had the effect +of promoting what they undertook to foretell. Soon after, he had +further opportunity to show his generous feelings. I was employed +in a criminal case of great magnitude, where the oldest and ablest +counsel appeared--Haywood, Grundy, Whiteside,--and the trial of +which General Jackson attended through concern for the fate of a +friend. As junior counsel I had to precede my elders, and did my +best; and, it being on the side of his feelings, he found my effort +to be better than it was. He complimented me greatly, and from that +time our intimacy began. + +I soon after became his aid, he being a Major General in the +Tennessee militia--made so by a majority of one vote. How much often +depends upon one vote!--New Orleans, the Creek campaign, and all +their consequences, date from that one vote!--and after that, I +was habitually at his house; and, as an inmate, had opportunities +to know his domestic life, and at the period when it was least +understood and most misrepresented. He had resigned his place on the +bench of the Superior Court, as he had previously resigned his place +in the Senate of the United States, and lived on a superb estate +of some thousand acres, twelve miles from Nashville, then hardly +known by its subsequent famous name of the Hermitage--name chosen +for its perfect accord with his feelings; for he had then actually +withdrawn from the stage of public life, and from a state of feeling +well known to belong to great talent when finding no theatre for +its congenial employment. He was a careful farmer, overlooking +every thing himself, seeing that the fields and fences were in good +order, the stock well attended, and the slaves comfortably provided +for. His house was the seat of hospitality, the resort of friends +and acquaintances, and of all strangers visiting the State--and the +more agreeable to all from the perfect conformity of Mrs. Jackson's +character to his own. But he needed some excitement beyond that +which a farming life can afford, and found it, for some years, in +the animating sports of the turf. He loved fine horses--racers of +speed and bottom--owned several, and contested the four mile heats +with the best that could be bred, or brought to the State, and for +large sums. That is the nearest to gaming that I ever knew him +to come. Cards and the cockpit have been imputed to him, but most +erroneously. I never saw him engaged in either. Duels were usual +in that time, and he had his share of them, with their unpleasant +concomitants; but they passed away with all their animosities, and +he has often been seen zealously pressing the advancement of those +against whom he had but lately been arrayed in deadly hostility. + +His temper was placable as well as irascible, and his +reconciliations were cordial and sincere. Of that, my own case was +a signal instance. After a deadly feud, I became his confidential +adviser; was offered the highest marks of his favor, and received +from his dying bed a message of friendship, dictated when life was +departing, and when he would have to pause for breath. There was +a deep-seated vein of piety in him, unaffectedly showing itself +in his reverence for divine worship, respect for the ministers of +the gospel, their hospitable reception in his house, and constant +encouragement of all the pious tendencies of Mrs. Jackson. And when +they both afterwards became members of a church, it was the natural +and regular result of their early and cherished feelings. He was +gentle in his house, and alive to the tenderest emotions; and of +this, I can give an instance, greatly in contrast with his supposed +character, and worth more than a long discourse in showing what that +character really was. I arrived at his house one wet chilly evening, +in February, and came upon him in the twilight, sitting alone before +the fire, a lamb and a child between his knees. He started a little, +called a servant to remove the two innocents to another room, and +explained to me how it was. The child had cried because the lamb was +out in the cold, and begged him to bring it in--which he had done +to please the child, his adopted son, then not two years old. The +ferocious man does not do that! and though Jackson had his passions +and his violence, they were for men and enemies--those who stood +up against him--and not for women and children, or the weak and +helpless: for all whom his feelings were those of protection and +support. His hospitality was active as well as cordial, embracing +the worthy in every walk of life, and seeking out deserving +objects to receive it, no matter how obscure. Of this, I learned a +characteristic instance in relation to the son of the famous Daniel +Boone. The young man had come to Nashville on his father's business, +to be detained some weeks, and had his lodgings at a small tavern, +towards the lower part of the town. General Jackson heard of it; +sought him out; found him; took him home to remain as long as his +business detained him in the country, saying, "Your father's dog +should not stay in a tavern, where I have a house." This was heart! +and I had it from the young man himself, long after, when he was a +State Senator of the General Assembly of Missouri, and, as such, +nominated me for the United States Senate, at my first election, in +1820: an act of hereditary friendship, as our fathers had been early +friends. + +Abhorrence of debt, public and private, dislike of banks, and love +of hard money--love of justice and love of country, were ruling +passions with Jackson; and of these he gave constant evidence in +all the situations of his life. Of private debts he contracted none +of his own, and made any sacrifices to get out of those incurred +for others. Of this he gave a signal instance, not long before +the war of 1812--selling the improved part of his estate, with +the best buildings of the country upon it, to pay a debt incurred +in a mercantile adventure to assist a young relative; and going +into log-houses in the forest to begin a new home and farm. He was +living in these rude tenements when he vanquished the British at New +Orleans; and, probably, a view of their conqueror's domicile would +have astonished the British officers as much as their defeat had +done. He was attached to his friends, and to his country, and never +believed any report to the discredit of either, until compelled by +proof. He would not believe in the first reports of the surrender +of General Hull, and became sad and oppressed when forced to +believe it. He never gave up a friend in a doubtful case, or from +policy, or calculation. He was a firm believer in the goodness of a +superintending Providence, and in the eventual right judgment and +justice of the people. I have seen him at the most desperate part of +his fortunes, and never saw him waver in the belief that all would +come right in the end. In the time of Cromwell he would have been a +puritan. + +The character of his mind was that of judgment, with a rapid and +almost intuitive perception, followed by an instant and decisive +action. It was that which made him a General, and a President for +the time in which he served. He had vigorous thoughts, but not the +faculty of arranging them in a regular composition, either written +or spoken; and in formal papers he usually gave his draft to an +aid, a friend, or a secretary, to be written over--often to the +loss of vigor. But the thoughts were his own vigorously expressed; +and without effort, writing with a rapid pen, and never blotting +or altering; but, as Carlyle says of Cromwell, hitting the nail +upon the head as he went. I have a great deal of his writing now, +some on public affairs and covering several sheets of paper; and +no erasures or interlineations anywhere. His conversation was like +his writing, a vigorous flowing current, apparently without the +trouble of thinking, and always impressive. His conclusions were +rapid, and immovable, when he was under strong convictions; though +often yielding, on minor points, to his friends. And no man yielded +quicker when he was convinced; perfectly illustrating the difference +between firmness and obstinacy. Of all the Presidents who have done +me the honor to listen to my opinions, there was no one to whom I +spoke with more confidence when I felt myself strongly to be in the +right. + +He had a load to carry all his life; resulting from a temper which +refused compromises and bargaining, and went for a clean victory +or a clean defeat, in every case. Hence, every step he took was a +contest: and, it may be added, every contest was a victory. I have +already said that he was elected a Major General in Tennessee--an +election on which so much afterwards depended--by one vote. His +appointment in the United States regular army was a conquest +from the administration, which had twice refused to appoint him +a Brigadier, and once disbanded him as a volunteer general, and +only yielded to his militia victories. His election as President +was a victory over politicians--as was every leading event of his +administration. + +I have said that his appointment in the regular army was a victory +over the administration, and it belongs to the inside view of +history, and to the illustration of government mistakes, and the +elucidation of individual merit surmounting obstacles, to tell how +it was. Twice passed by to give preference to two others in the +West (General Harrison and General Winchester), once disbanded, and +omitted in all the lists of military nominations, how did he get +at last to be appointed Major General? It was thus. Congress had +passed an act authorizing the President to accept organized corps +of volunteers. I proposed to General Jackson to raise a corps under +that act, and hold it ready for service. He did so; and with this +corps and some militia, he defeated the Creek Indians, and gained +the reputation which forced his appointment in the regular army. +I drew up the address which he made to his division at the time, +and when I carried it to him in the evening, I found the child and +the lamb between his knees. He had not thought of this resource, +but caught at it instantly, adopted the address, with two slight +alterations, and published it to his division. I raised a regiment +myself, and made the speeches at the general musters, which helped +to raise two others, assisted by a small band of friends--all +feeling confident that if we could conquer the difficulty--master +the first step--and get him upon the theatre of action, he would +do the rest himself. This is the way he got into the regular army, +not only unselected by the wisdom of government, but rejected by +it--a stone rejected by the master builders--and worked in by an +unseen hand, to become the corner stone of the temple. The aged men +of Tennessee will remember all this, and it is time that history +should learn it. But to return to the private life and personal +characteristics of this extraordinary man. + +There was an innate, unvarying, self-acting delicacy in his +intercourse with the female sex, including all womankind; and +on that point my personal observation (and my opportunities for +observation were both large and various), enables me to join in +the declaration of the belief expressed by his earliest friend and +most intimate associate, the late Judge Overton, of Tennessee. The +Roman general won an immortality of honor by one act of continence; +what praise is due to Jackson, whose whole life was continent? I +repeat: if he had been born in the time of Cromwell, he would have +been a puritan. Nothing could exceed his kindness and affection to +Mrs. Jackson, always increasing in proportion as his elevation, +and culminating fortunes, drew cruel attacks upon her. I knew her +well, and that a more exemplary woman in all the relations of +life, wife, friend, neighbor, relative, mistress of slaves--never +lived, and never presented a more quiet, cheerful and admirable +management of her household. She had not education, but she had a +heart, and a good one; and that was always leading her to do kind +things in the kindest manner. She had the General's own warm heart, +frank manners and hospitable temper; and no two persons could have +been better suited to each other, lived more happily together, or +made a house more attractive to visitors. She had the faculty--a +rare one--of retaining names and titles in a throng of visitors, +addressing each one appropriately, and dispensing hospitality to all +with a cordiality which enhanced its value. No bashful youth, or +plain old man, whose modesty sat them down at the lower end of the +table, could escape her cordial attention, any more than the titled +gentlemen on her right and left. Young persons were her delight, and +she always had her house filled with them--clever young women and +clever young men--all calling her affectionately, "Aunt Rachel." +I was young then, and was one of that number. I owe it to early +recollections, and to cherished convictions--in this last notice +of the Hermitage--to bear this faithful testimony to the memory of +its long mistress--the loved and honored wife of a great man. Her +greatest eulogy is in the affection which he bore her living, and in +the sorrow with which he mourned her dead. She died at the moment +of the General's first election to the Presidency; and every one +that had a just petition to present, or charitable request to make, +lost in her death, the surest channel to the ear and to the heart +of the President. His regard for her survived, and lived in the +persons of her nearest relatives. A nephew of hers was his adopted +son and heir, taking his own name, and now the respectable master +of the Hermitage. Another nephew, Andrew Jackson Donelson, Esq., +was his private secretary when President. The Presidential mansion +was presided over during his term by her niece, the most amiable +Mrs. Donelson; and all his conduct bespoke affectionate and lasting +remembrance of one he had held so dear. + + +END OF VOLUME I. + + + + +INDEX TO VOL. I. + + + A + + _A. B. Plot_, The.-- + Charges against Wm. H. Crawford, 35; + the A. B. papers, a series of articles which appeared in the + newspapers, 35; + expectation of the accuser that matter would lie over until after + the Presidential election, 35; + immediate action, 35; + committee appointed, 35; + answer of Crawford, 35; + its character, 35; + who written by, 35; + proceeding in the case, 35; + testimony of Edwards, 36; + his proceedings, 36; + report of committee, 36. + + ADAMS, JOHN, decease of, 87; + sketch of his character, 87. + + ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY, Secretary of State, 7; + his diary relative to the unanimity of the cabinet on the Missouri + question, 8; + connection with the treaty of 1818, 15; + on internal improvements, 22; + candidate for the Presidency in 1824, 44; + commencement of his administration, 54; + his inaugural address, 54; + grounds of opposition, 54; + the majority of the Senate opposed, 55; + strong minority of the House opposed, 55; + position of the two Houses with regard to the President, 91; + contest for Speaker, 92; + organization of the committees, 92; + contents of the President's message, 92; + its notice of the Panama Congress, 92; + the finances, 93; + uselessness of retaining a balance in the treasury, 93; + members of the two Houses, 93; + array of business talent, 94; + three classes of men: men of speech and judgment, men of judgment + and no speech, men of speech and no judgment, 94; + on the Committee of Bank Investigation, 241; + his position on the slavery question, 686. + + _Affairs, how changed by the War of 1812, and their subsequent + aspect._--War of 1812, 1; + necessity and importance, 1; + changes it produced in American policy, 1; + state of the finances and currency under which it struggled, 1; + its termination with respect to its causes, 1; + gold ceased to be a currency, 1; + silver banished, 1; + local banks, 1; + suspension of specie payments, 1; + Treasury notes resorted to, 1; + depreciation, 1; + their use, 1; + the Government, paralyzed by the state of the finances, + forced to seek peace, 1; + impressment the cause of the declaration of the war, 1; + first time in modern history that a war terminated by a treaty + without a stipulation as to its cause, 1; + treaty of 1807, why rejected by the President, 1; + its importance, 1; + the war showed the British Government that the people of the + United States would fight on the point of impressment, + 2; + no impressment since, 2; + causes of the success of the war, in spite of the empty + treasury, 2; + exemption held by right and by might, 2; + the financial lesson taught by the war, 2; + the lesson when availed of, 2; + its effects, 2. + The second Bank grew out of the war, 2; + currency of the constitution not thought of, 2; + national bank regarded as the only remedy, 2; + its constitutionality, 2; + the word "_necessary_," 2; + Hamilton's grounds for a bank, 2; + difficulties of the finances during the second war ascribed to + the want of a bank, 3; + concessions of its old opponents, 3; + many subsequently convinced the constitutional currency had not + had a fair trial, 3; + national bank shown to be unnecessary by the Mexican war, 3; + constitutional question decided, 3. + Protection of American industry as a substantive object grew out + of the war, 3; + incidental protection always acknowledged and granted, 3; + domestic manufactures wanted, during the non-importation period + of the embargo and hostilities, 3; + want of articles of defence felt during the war, 3; + protection for the sake of protection carried in 1816, 3; + course of legislation reversed, 3. + Question of internal improvements developed by the war, 3; + want of facilities for transportation felt in military + operations, 3; + the power claimed as an incident to the greatest powers, 3; + found in the word "necessary," 3; + complicated the national legislation from 1820 to 1850, 3; + the question does not extend to territories, 4; + no political rights under the constitution, 4; + rivers and harbors--internal improvement of based on the + commercial and revenue clause, 4; + the restriction contended for, 4. + Boundaries between the treaty-making power and the legislative + departments a subject of examination, 4; + the broad proposition, 4; + the qualification, 4; + a vital one, 4; + which department to judge of encroachments by the other? 4; + discussions in Congress, between 1815 and 1820, on this + point, 4. + The doctrine of secession was born of the war of 1812, 4; + the design imputed to the Hartford Convention, 4; + its existence raised the question, 4; + the right then repudiated by the democracy, 4; + language respecting it then south of the Potomac, 4; + the question thus far compromised, not settled, 5. + Slavery agitation took its rise about 1819, 5; + manner in which it was then quieted, 5; + the compromise a clear gain to the anti-slavery side, 5; + a southern measure, 5; + its features, 5. + Debt created by the war, 5; + amount of the public debt at its close, 5; + the problem to be solved was whether a public debt could be paid + in time of peace, 5. + Public distress becomes a prominent feature of subsequent + years, 5; + expansion and collapse of the bank, 5; + gloom of 1819 and 1820, 5; + commercial proceedings, 5; + legislative proceedings, 5; + distress the cry--relief the demand, 6; + good results of the war, 6. + + _Amendment of the Constitution._-- + Mistakes of European writers on our system of Government, 37; + Thiers and De Tocqueville, 37; + the electors but an instrument to obey the will of the + people, 37; + electors useless, 37; + amendment proposed, 37; + views of the convention which framed the constitution, 37; + Benton's remarks on a direct vote of the people for + President, 37; + "evil of the want of uniformity in the choice of Presidential + electors endangers the rights of the people, 37; + the district system, 38; + origin of the general ticket system 10 States, 38; + objection to a direct vote of the people considered, 38; + whence it is taken, 39; + admit its truth, what then? 39; + better officers elected, 39; + ancient history, 39; + triumph of popular elections, 39; + other objections to intermediate electors, 40; + time and experience condemn the continuance of the electoral + system, 40; + even if the plan of the constitution had not failed, it is + better to get rid of the electors, 40; + historical examples, 41." + An attempt to give the election of President and Vice-President + to the direct vote of the people, 78; + various propositions offered, 78; + committee appointed to report, 78; + plan reported by the committee, 78; + its prominent features, 79; + abolition of the electors and direct vote of the people--a + second election between the two highest--uniformity in + the mode of election, 79; + advantages of the plan, 79. + _Exclusion of Members of Congress from Civil Office + appointments._-- + Inquiry into the expediency of amending the Constitution so as + to exclude members from appointment to civil office + moved, 82; + motion only applied to the term for which they were elected, 82; + committee report that the exclusion should extend to the + Presidential term during which the member was elected, 83; + proceedings of the convention that framed the constitution, 83; + other conventions, 83; + extracts from the proceedings of Federal Convention, 83; + early jealousy on this point, 83; + provisions for the independence of the two Houses, 83; + instance of the observance of these provisions, 84; + instance of the contrary, 84; + the Constitutional limitation a small restraint, 84; + views of the "Federalist," 84; + what has been the working of the Government? 85; + the effects of legislation, 85; + other evils resulting from the appointment of members to + office, 85; + the independence of the departments ceases between the + Executive and Legislative, 86; + examples of early Presidents, 86. + + ANDERSON, RICHARD C., Jun., Representative from Kentucky, 7; + nominated minister to Panama, 66. + + _Appropriation for Defences and Fortification Bill._-- + Preparation recommended in the message, 554; + referred and reported on, 554; + resolved unanimously that the treaty with France be maintained and + its execution insisted on, 554; + and that preparations ought to be made to meet any emergency, 554; + appropriation of three millions inserted in the Fortification + bill, 554; + rejected in the Senate, 554; + House insist, 554; + Senate adhere, 554; + remarks of Mr. King, of Alabama, 554; + this motion never resorted to until more gentle means have + failed, 554; + are gentlemen prepared to take upon themselves such a fearful + responsibility as the rejection of this bill? 554; + in what does it violate the constitution 555; + appropriations under Washington's administration, 555; + adherence carried, 555; + conference asked by the House, 555; + committees disagree, 555; + question as to the hour of the termination of the session, 555; + remark of Mr. Cambreleng, 556; + responsibility put on the Senate, 556. + + ARCHER, WILLIAM S., Representative from Virginia, 7; + on reference of the bank memorial to a select committee, 234. + + _Arkansas Territory, cession of a part of to the Cherokees_-- + Reasons for making her a first-class State, 107; + a treaty negotiated altering the western boundary, 107; + can a law of Congress be abolished by an Indian treaty? 107; + is it expedient to weaken the future State? 107; + supremacy of the treaty-making power considered, 107; + power in Congress to dispose of territory, 108; + the treaty ratified, 108; a southern measure, 108; + twelve thousand square miles taken off of slave territory, 108; + object to assist in inducing the removal of the Cherokees, 108; + what became of the white inhabitants, 109; + bought by the government, 109. + + _Arkansas and Michigan, admission of._-- + Application for an enabling act, 627; + Congress refuse to pass it, 627; + people hold conventions on their own authority and form + constitutions, 627; + message communicating the constitution of Michigan, 627; + referred, also a memorial entitled from the "Legislature of + Michigan," 627; + objection to its title, 628; + bill reported, 628; + objections, 628; + remarks of Mr. Buchanan, 628; + bill passed and sent to the House, 628; + the practice of admitting a free and slave State together, 629. + Application of Arkansas taken up, 629; + remarks of Mr. Swift against the admission, on the ground of + slavery, 629; + do. of Mr. Buchanan in favor of her admission, 629; + Prentiss opposes the admission on the ground of the + revolutionary manner in which the State had held her + convention, 630; + remarks of Mr. Morris, 630; + bill passed and sent to the House, 631. + Moved in the House to postpone the Michigan to take up the + Arkansas bill, 631; + remarks of Mr. Thomas, 631; + the point of jealousy between some Southern and Northern + members revealed, 631; + remarks on the motion to refer both bills and combine them in + one, 631; + Lewis's remarks on giving the Arkansas bill the priority of + decision, 632; + further debate, 633; + bills referred to the Committee of the Whole, 634; + points of the debate-- + First, the formation of constitutions without the previous + assent of Congress; + Second, the right of aliens to vote before naturalization; + Third, the right of Arkansas to be admitted with slavery by + virtue of the rights of a State--of the treaty of + Louisiana and of the Missouri Compromise, 634, 635, 636; + an account of the session of twenty-four hours, 636; + bill put to vote, 637; + struggle to bring the bills to a vote not to pass them, 637; + causes, 637; + one special one, 637. + + ASTOR, JOHN JACOB.--His colony at Astoria, 13, 109. + + AUSTIN, MOSES, founder of the Texas Colony, 674. + + + B + + BALDWIN, HENRY, Representative from Pennsylvania, 7; + coadjutor with Clay on the Missouri question, 10; + appointed Justice of the Supreme Court, 120. + + _Bank of the United States._-- + When charter of first expired, 1; + origin of the second, 2; + its course in 1819, 5. + Constitutionality and expediency called in question in, General + Jackson's first message, 158; + suggestion of one founded on the credit and revenues of the + Government, 158; + a gold currency and an independent treasury suggested to General + Jackson, and approved at once, 158; + cause of a resort to the deposit system, 158; + the idea of a government fiscal agent stigmatized, 158; + reports of committees, 158; + war of the bank commenced, 158; + its alliance with the opposition, 158; + its power, 158; + statement of its president, 159; + its power to ruin and destroy local banks, 159. + Ceaseless activity in behalf of the bank, since the President's + message in 1829, 187; + little done on the other side, 187; + current all setting one way, 187; + failure of attempts to counteract it, 187; + permission asked to introduce a resolution against the + re-charter, 187; + speech on the occasion, showing that the institution had too + much power over the people and the government--over + business and politics; and disposed to exercise it against + freedom and equality, 187; + proposal to revive the currency of the constitution, 187; + "willing to see the currency of the government left to the hard + money intended by the constitution," 187; + every species of paper left to the State governments, 187; + experience of France and England, 187; + a hard money party against a paper party, 187; + justification for bringing forward the question of renewal, 188; + the reports on previous resolutions offered at the close of each + session and all in favor of renewal, 188; + then followed the message of President Jackson, 188; + its reference, 188; + report, etc., 188; + the conduct of the bank and its friends second ground for + justification, 188; + these proceedings, 189; + an example drawn from the British Parliament, 189; + remarks of Sir Henry Parnell, 189; + do. of Mr. Hume, 189; + do. of Mr. Edward Ellice, 189; + do. of Sir William Pulteney, 190; + it is said the debate will injure the stockholders, depreciate + the value of their property, and that it is wrong to sport + with vested rights, 190; + the stockholders know the facts and such assertions absurd, 190; + the institution has forfeited its charter and may be shut up any + hour, 190; + the case of the Bank vs. Owens, 190; + parliamentary rule requiring members to withdraw who have an + interest in the subject of discussion, 191. + The bank is an institution too great and powerful to be tolerated + in a government of free and equal laws, 191; + on renewal, its direct power must speedily become boundless and + uncontrollable, 191; + authorized to own and issue ninety millions, 191; + its indirect power, 191; + to whom is all this power granted? 191; + by whom is it to be exercised? 191; + it will become the absolute monopolist of American money, 191; + what happened in Great Britain in 1795, 192; + letter of the bank directors to Pitt, 192; + condition of Great Britain at that time, 192; + it subdued the minister to the purposes of the bank, 192; + for twenty years the bank was the dominant power in + England, 192; + cannot the Bank of the United States act in the same way? 192. + Its tendencies are dangerous and pernicious to the government and + the people, 192; + the heads of each mischief, 192, 193. + The exclusive privileges and anti-republican monopoly which it + gives the stockholders, 193; + the exclusive legal privileges it gives, 193; + twelve enumerated, 194; + their effect and bearing, 194; + compensation made by the Bank of England for undrawn balances, + 194; + amount of undrawn balances, 194; + injury suffered by the people on account of the uncompensated + masses of public money in the hands of the bank, 195; + to discredit and disparage the notes of all other banks by + excluding them from the collection of the revenue, 196; + the power to hold real estate, receive rents, &c., 197; + effect of this vast capacity to acquire and legal power to + retain real estate, 197; + the power to deal in pawns, merchandise, and bills of + exchange, 198; + to establish branches in the different States without their + consent and in defiance of their resistance, 199; + exemption of the stockholders from individual liability, 199; + to have the United States for a partner, 200; + extract from the speech of Pulteney, 200; + amount of stock owned by foreigners, 201; + exemptions from due course of law for violations of its + charter, 201; + these privileges secured by a pledge of the public faith to + charter no other bank, 202; + the government from which we have made this copy has condemned + the original, 202; + correspondence between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the + Bank directors, 203; + how was this Babylon prostrated? 204; + effect of the speech, 204; + how it was received, 204; + leave refused, 205. + + Statement that the bank has failed in furnishing a uniform + currency, 220; + it vicious and illegal currency, 220; + origin of the practice, 220; + leave to bring in a resolution declaring it illegal asked + for, 220; + reasons, 220; + "the resolution expresses its own object, 221; + the currency arraigned, 221; + the points of incompatibility between this currency and the + requisites of the charter, 221; + fourteen points stated, 221; + the currency fails at every test, 221; + these orders cannot serve as currency because they are subject + to the law of endorsed paper, 222; + being once paid they are done with, 222; + operations of the bank in 1817, 222; + origin of the branch bank orders, 223; + this currency ought to be suppressed, 223; + the fact of illegality sufficient to require it, 223; + pernicious consequences result from it, 223; + the branch bank orders are not payable in the States in which + they are issued, 223; + practice of the Bank of Ireland, 224; + leave refused, 224. + + Message of the President in 1829-30, 224; + its remarks relative to the bank, 224; + the position of the constitutional question, 224; + the democracy opposed not only the bank but the latitudinarian + construction which would authorize it, 225; + it was the turning point between a strong and splendid + government on one side and a plain economical government + on the other, limited by a written constitution, 225; + the construction was the main point, 225; + effect of the message on the democracy of the country, 225; + the contest at hand, 225; + violent attacks upon the President, 226; + remark of M. Tocqueville on President Jackson and the bank, 226; + every word an error, 226; + examined, 226; + application for a renewal of the charter when and why made, 226; + action of friends of Jackson and the bank, 227; + memorial for renewal presented, 227; + course of events, 227; + error of De Tocqueville exposed, 228; + another extract, 228; + its errors exposed, 229; + consequences of refusing the re-charter, 229. + + _Re-charter._--Convention of the National Republicans to + nominate a President, 232; + the nominations, 232; + addresses of the convention, 232; + remarks relative to the-bank, 232; + "its beneficial character, 232; + no pretext of any adequate motive is assigned for the + President's denunciation, 233; + are the people ready to destroy one of their most valuable + institutions to gratify the caprice of the + President? 233." + + The Bank question presented as an issue of the election by its + friends, 233; + two classes of friends, 233; + one friends of the President, the other against him, 233; + how the consent of the former was obtained, 233; + memorial for re-charter presented, 233; + referred to a select committee in the Senate, 233; + referred to the Committee of Ways and Means in the House, 233; + reason of the difference, 233; + motion to refer to a select committee, 234; + remarks, 234; + this measure entirely disconnected from the Baltimore + convention, 234; + "a select committee the proper one, 234; + the course in such cases, 234; + the question should not be taken up at this session, 234; + the stockholders left the application discretionary with the + directors, 235; + it will divide the whole country, 235; + the bank has been charged with using its funds and those of the + people in operating upon and controlling public + opinion, 235; + this of sufficient consequence to demand an accurate + inquiry, 235; + charged with violating its charter, 235; + other charges, 235; + memorial referred to Committee of Ways and Means, 235. + _Investigation ordered._-- + Course necessary to be pursued by the opposition, 235; + to prepare the people to sustain the veto, 235; + policy of the bank leaders, 236; + reasons for taking up the investigation in the House, 236; + motion for inquiry made, 236; + manner in which the motion was treated, 236; + resistance to investigation, 236; + "a re-charter is asked, yet the friends of the bank shrink from + inquiry, 236; + the inference which might be drawn from this resistance, 237; + what is the ground of opposition? 237; + how the memorial was treated in the other House, 237; + result of the examination in 1819, 237; + three years after it went into existence, it was on the verge of + bankruptcy, 237;" + right of either House to make the inquiry, 237; + the misconduct of the bank in numerous instances, 237; + list of accusations against the bank, 238; + the friends of the bank obliged to declare in favor of + examination, 238; + modes of investigation proposed, 239; + restrictions proposed to the inquiry, 239; + remarks upon the manner in which the proposed inquiry has been + treated by the House, 239; + remarks on modes adopted by the bank for extorting usury, 240; + another mode makes the loan take the form of a domestic bill + from the beginning, 240; + effect of the debate on the bank with the country, 240; + speakers against the bank, 240; + advocates of the bank, 241; + the Committee of Investigation, 241; + its composition, 241; + three reports, 241; + their character, 241. + _The three per cent. debt._-- + This a portion of the revolutionary debt standing at + sixty-four, 242; + money in the bank to pay it, 242; + the money retained to sustain the bank and the debt not paid + until it rose to par, 242; + remarks on the course of the bank, 242; + the loss to the people, 243. + _Bill for re-charter reported._-- + Remarks relative to previous charters, 243; + former course of Webster, 243; + his defence of his present position, 243; + "the years that have passed, 248; + the effects of experience, 243; + action of Calhoun in procuring the present charter, 244; + the vote of Webster against it, 244; + his views, 244; + evils of a disordered currency, 244; + the small note currency cause of the small amount of specie in + the country, 244;" + the grant of exclusive privileges and the bonus required + opposed, 245; + remarks upon them, 245; + the present application of the bank opposed, 245; + "some years before the charter expires, 245; + now late in the session, 245; + not time to do justice to the subject, 245; + other subjects of more immediate and pressing interest must be + thrown aside, 245; + an unfinished investigation presents another reason for delaying + the final action of Congress on this subject, 245; + the people have no opportunity to make up their minds on the + information now printed, 246; + this question belongs to the Congress elected within the next + census, 246; + looks like usurpation on the part of this Congress, 246; + different representation in the next Congress, 246; + a charter should be granted with as little invasion of the + rights of posterity as possible, 246; + this question must effect the presidential election if not + decide it, 246; + take a lesson from the monarchical parliament of England, 247." + A motion declaratory of the right of the States to admit or deny + the establishment of branches of the mother bank within + their limits, offered, 247; + remarks, 247; + "if this amendment is struck out it is tantamount to a + legislative declaration that no such rights existed, 247; + decision of the Supreme Court on the right of the States to tax + the branches, 247; + this is the supremacy of the bank and the degradation of the + States, 247; + the argument that these branches are necessary to enable the + Federal Government to carry on its fiscal operations and + therefore ought to be independent of State legislation, is + answered by the determination of Congress itself, 247; + every thing is left to the bank itself except the branch at this + place, 247; + the establishment of branches is a mere question of profit and + loss to the bank, 247; + point of the question, 247; + motion rejected. + Motion to strike out the exclusive privileges and to make the + stockholders liable, 248; + "example of the Scottish banks, 248; + the excellence of their plan, 248, + clauses granting exclusive privileges, 248; + the establishment of any other bank by the United States + prohibited during the existence of the charter, 248; + this is contrary to the genius of our Government, 249; + the restriction upon future Congresses is at war with every + principle of constitutional right and legislative + equality, 249; + is this Congress to impose restrictions upon the power of their + successors? 249; + in nine months this Congress is defunct, 249; + the renewed charter will not take effect till three years after + the full representation of the next Congress in + power, 249." + All amendments proposed by the opponents of the bank voted + down, 250; + the interest of members of the Senate as stockholders, 250; + bill passed in the Senate and House, 250. + _The Veto._-- + "If this government sells exclusive privileges, it should at + least exact for them as much as they are worth in the + market, 251; + the present value of the monopoly is seventeen millions, and the + act proposes to sell it for three, 251; + how can the present stockholders have any claim to the special + favor of the Government? 251; + this act does not permit competition in the purchase of this + monopoly, 251; + not just to set others aside and grant this privilege to the few + who have been fortunate enough to secure the stock, 251; + "the force of precedents for constitutionality argued + against, 252; + decision of the Supreme Court, 252; + examined 252; + remarks, 252; + "precedence is a dangerous source of authority, and should not + be regarded as deciding questions of constitutional + power except where the acquiescence of the people and the + States is well settled, 253; + precedents are really against the bank, 253; + if the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of + this act, it ought not to control the coordinate + authorities of this Government, 253; + in the case relied on, the Supreme Court have not decided that + all the features of this corporation are compatible with + the constitution, 253; + the misconduct of the institution, both in conducting its + business and in resisting investigation, 253; + suspicions are entertained and charges made of gross violations + of the charter, 253; + the recommendation of a majority of the committee, 253; + additional reason for less haste and more caution, 253." + The great speeches from the advocates of the bank now made to + repel the effects of the veto, 254; + a transfer of the question to the political arena, 254; + to the presidential election, 254; + frightful distress predicted, and a change of the chief + magistrate the only means of averting the calamity, 254; + remarks of Webster on this point, 254; + remarks of White upon the bank taking the lead of a political + party, 254; + the distress pictured by Clayton, 254; + the winding up of the bank, with regard to time, 255; + case of the previous bank, 255; + menace of distress from the bank if denied a renewal, entirety + gratuitous, 255; + vehement declamation against the veto, 255; + remarks of Clay on the veto power, 255; + reply of Benton, 255; + objects of the vetoes of the French king, 256; + "the fable of the cat and the eagle, 256; + why debate the bank question, now it is vetoed, and not debate + it before? 257; + the bank is finished, why debate it now? 257; + the bank is in the field, fearful and tremendous combatant in + the presidential election, 257; + the Great West is selected as the theatre of her + operations, 257; + ruin is to be the punishment of the West, if she votes for + Jackson, 257; + the bank debt has been created for electioneering purposes, 258; + this point examined, 258; + the establishment of several new branches and the promise of + more, 259; + the alleged necessity for the prompt and vigorous collection of + this debt, if the charter is not renewed, 259; + the opinion of the Senator from Kentucky, about the legality of + this trust, 259; + once in every ten years the capital of this debt is paid in + interest, 259; + the ruinous drain of capital in hard money from the West, 259; + the old banks of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, defended from + the aspersions cast on them, 260; + manner in which the charter was pushed through, pending an + investigation, 260; + the foreign stockholders of the bank, 260; + the bank a monopoly, 261; + English authority for calling the Bank of England a monopoly, + and the British bank in America is copied from it, 261; + the President's idea of his oath, 261; + his independence in construing the constitution, 262; + the drain upon the resources of the West, made by the bank, 262; + address to the Jackson bank men, 262; + address to the West, 262; + the dangerous power of the bank and the present audacity of her + conduct, 263." + "Dissatisfaction expressed that the speeches of some Senators fill + the galleries, and those of others empty them, 263; + charged with a want of courtesy to the President, 263; + charges of the Senator from Missouri, once against the + President, 263. + "No adjourned question of veracity between the Senator from + Missouri and the President, 264; + the prediction charged upon the Senator from Missouri, 264;" + further debate, 264; + direful picture of distress drawn, 265. + _Delay in paying the three per cents._-- + Message recommended that the United States stock should be sold, + and that a committee be appointed to investigate its + condition, 287; + referred to a special committee of friends of the bank, 287; + objected that the committee should not proceed until the report + of the agent of the Secretary of the Treasury was + made, 287; + its depreciation of the stock, 287; + this objection fallacious, 287; + the loss of the bank, by depreciation, stated at half a + million, 288; + nothing before the House to make an inquiry into the condition + of the bank desirable, 288; + eventual ability to discharge all its obligations, is not of + itself sufficient to entitle the bank to the confidence + of the Government, 288; + what was the Executive complaint against the bank? 288; + that it had interfered with the payment of the public debt, 288; + effect of the charges upon the feelings of the corporators, 288; + the report of the agent, 288; + the exhibit contrasted with its actual state, 288; + a large surplus presented for the stockholders, 289; + the report a mere compendium of the bank returns, 289; + proceedings of the bank with regard to the three per cents, 289; + investigation referred to the Committee of Ways and Means, 289; + report, 289; + public deposits reported entirely safe, 289; + resolution to continue the deposits in the bank offered, 289; + debate, 289; + the bank exceeded its legitimate authority in relation to the + three per cents, 290; + had the bank promptly paid the public money deposited in its + vaults when called for, 290; + proceedings of the bank, 290; + resolution carried, 291; + loss by the manner the three per cents were paid, 291. + _Sale of Stock in the._-- + Sale of United States stock in all corporate companies + recommended by the President, 294; + partnership of government with corporations condemned, 294; + bill introduced, 294; + moved to reject it, 294; + debate, 294; + indication at this persecution of a national institution, 294; + indignities to which members were subjected who presumed to take + any step concerning the bank which militated against that + corporation, 295; + a plain business proceeding, 295; + an isolated proposition, 295; + the bill summarily rejected, 295; + fifty members borrowers of the bank, 296; + the same thing had happened once before, 296; + proposed in 1827 to sell the stock solely on the ground of + public advantage, 296; + remarks on this proposition at the time, 296; + reflections, 296. + _Removal of the Deposits._-- + Order for removal issued by the Secretary of the Treasury, 373; + the President's own message, 374; + reports of directors to the President, 374; + extracts from them, 374, 375; + resolutions adopted by the board, 376; + further outrages of the bank, 376; + the exchange committee of the banks, 376; + paper read by President Jackson to his Cabinet, 376; + extracts, 377, 378; + impression produced by the removal, 379. + _Proceedings of the Bank on the removal of the Deposits._-- + The reference of the President's paper to a committee, 379; + report, 379; + extracts, 379; + its temper, 379; + gives the lead to proceedings in Congress, 380; + the violations of law and the constitution referred to, 380; + amount of the charges against the President by the bank, 381. + _Report of the Secretary of the Treasury relative to removal of + the Deposits._-- + Reasons for the cessation of deposits in the bank, 381; + the duty of the Secretary, 381; + no prospects of a renewal of the charter, 382; + other reasons, 383; + the board of directors, 383; + authority of the Secretary to remove the deposits, 384; + the deposit banks, 385; + difficulty of obtaining the deposit banks, 385; + power of the Bank of the United States, 385. + _In the Senate._-- + Report considered, 393; + proposed, that the Senate act upon it at once without the + intervention of a committee, 393; + the House the proper place to investigate the charges made in + that report, 393; + resolution offered, 393; + referred, 394; + report, 394; + remarks on the despotism of the committee, 394; + reply, 394; + report drawn by the counsel for the bank, 394; + inefficiency of the resolution, 395; + no action proposed, 395; + resolution adopted, 395. + Resolution subsequently proposed again with another requiring the + return of the deposits to the bank, 396; + remarks, 396; + impropriety of the resolutions so near the close of the + session, 396; + other considerations, 397; + resolutions adopted, 397; + sent to the House and not taken up, 397. + _In the House._-- + Report of the Secretary, memorial of the bank, and of the + government directors referred, 398; + report, 398; + adopted, 398. + _Government Directors, their Nomination and Rejection._-- + Opposition manifested to four of the five nominated, 385; + resolution of inquiry into their fitness, &c., offered and + rejected, 385; + four rejected, 386; + no complaint against them except from the bank, 386; + rejected for the report made to the President, 386; + re-nominated, 386; + message, 386; + extracts, 387, 388; + question raised as to which was the nominating power for bank + directors, the President and Senate or the Bank and + Senate, 388; + determination to try this question, 389; + message referred to a committee, 389; + report against the re-nominations, 389; + the absolute right of the Senate to reject, 389; + their privilege to give no reasons, 389; + the general policy of making re-nominations, 389; + extracts, 389; + memorial of the rejected directors, 389; + extracts, 390; + their rights and duties as government directors, 390; + opinion of Alexander Hamilton relative to government + directors, 391; + opinion of Alexander J. Dallas, 391; + reasons why the motion to strike out government directors was + resisted when the charter was under consideration, 391; + they are the guardians of the public interest, and to secure a + just and honorable administration of the affairs of the + bank, 391; + the nominations again rejected, 392; + reasons kept secret, 392; + motion made to publish the proceedings, 392; + lost, 392; + remarks on the Report of the Committee of Investigation relative + to the Exchange Committee, 392. + _Call on the President for a copy of the paper read to his + Cabinet._-- + Request to be informed if it was genuine, 399; + and if so to furnish a copy, 399; + Senate not the branch of the Legislature to call for this + document, 399; + uses to which the paper might be put, 399; + it cannot be rightfully called for, 399; + resolution passed, 400; + answer of the President, 400; + denied the right to call, &c., 400. + _Attempted Investigation._-- + Select Committee appointed in the House to investigate the + affairs of the United States Bank, 458; + objects to be ascertained, 459; + authority given to the committee, 459; + right of the House to make the investigation, 459; + proceedings of the bank to defeat investigation, 459; + report of committee, 459; + extracts, 460; + treatment of their call for certain books, 461; + action under subpoenas, 461; + a warrant recommended for the apprehension of the president and + directors, 461; + the committee of 1819, 462. + _Investigation by the Senate._-- + Since much ground lost in public opinion by resisting the + investigation of the House to retrieve the bank, an + investigation commences in the Senate, 470; + committee moved, 470; + view of this act of the Senate, 471; + the members of the committee defenders of the bank, 471; + the only semblance of precedent, 471; + called the "Whitewashing Committee," 471. + _Downfall of the Bank._-- + Copy of resolutions of its stockholders, 471; + extracts from Philadelphia papers, 472; + report of the Finance Committee, 481; + its friendly reception, 481; + its contents, 481; + its declarations contradicted by Senator Benton, 482; + extracts, 482; + imputations upon the President, Vice-President, and Senator + Benton, 482; + committee departed from the business with which they were + charged, 483; + the charge of hostility to the bank on the part of the + President, 483; + defends the Secretary of the Treasury against the imputations + of the report, 484; + misconduct of the bank shown from recent facts, 484; + the abduction of a million and a half from New Orleans, 485; + the report _ex-parte_, 486; + reply in defence of the report, 486; + extracts, 486. + _See Jackson's Administration._ + + _Banks in the District, recharter of._-- + Speech of Senator Benton, 658; + "the charters wrong, 658; + no bank of circulation ought to be authorized in this + district, 659; + none to furnish other currency than large notes should be + chartered anywhere, 659; + ameliorations in charters proposed to be granted in order to + render them less dangerous to the community, 659; + liability of the stockholders, 659; + bank stock to be subject to taxation like other property, 659; + to issue no notes less than twenty dollars, 659; + the charters to be repealable at the will of Congress, 659; + evil of small notes classed under three heads, 660; + the banishment of gold and silver counterfeiting and throwing + other burdens of losses upon the poorer classes, 660; + the basis of circulation throughout the country should be hard + money, 662; + the true idea of banks seemed to be lost in the country, 663; + the faculty of issuing paper money renders banks dangerous, 663; + progress of banking business is alarming and deplorable in the + United States, 663; + the burdens which the banks impose on the people, 664;" + recharter carried, 665. + + BARBOUR, JAMES, Senator from Virginia, 7; + governor, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8; + on the Virginia resolutions, 35; + Secretary at War, 55; + negotiates treaty with the Cherokees, 107. + + BARBOUR, PHILIP P., Representative from Virginia, 7; + on selling the stock of the United States in the bank, 296; + his character, 296. + + BARRY, WILLIAM T., Postmaster General, 120; + appointed Minister to Spain, 181. + + BAYARD, JAMES, Commissioner at Ghent, 91. + + BENTON, THOMAS H., instigator of the clause prohibiting legislative + interference with slavery in the constitution of Missouri, 8; + his first experience in standing "solitary and alone," 16; + views relative to the settlement of Oregon, 13; + first suggests sending ministers to Oriental nations, 14; + denounces the treaty of 1818, 15, 17; + moves amendment to the constitution, 37; + visit to Jefferson, 43; + offers a bill to occupy Columbia river, 50; + remarks on the treaty with the Creeks, 61; + on the duty on indigo, 97; + on the sale of the public lands, 103, 130; + on slavery, 136; + on the peroration of Webster, 142; + on the regulation of commerce, 151; + the repeal of the alum salt tax, 155; + on the Bank of the United States, 187; + his silence relative to the nomination of Van Buren as Minister to + England, 218; + letter to Van Buren, 218; + on the illegal currency of the Bank of the United States, 220; + on government expenses, 231; + against the exclusive privileges of the bank, 245; + reply to Clay on the veto power, 255, 256; + on the compromise tariff bill, 319; + on home valuation, 324; + on Missouri resolutions, 360; + on report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 393; + on the removal of the deposits, 406; + gives notice of the expunging resolution, 428; + on a gold currency, 436; + on public distress, 462; + on the Report of the Senate Committee to investigate the affairs + of the bank, 482; + relative to the expunging resolutions of Alabama, 524; + on the Branch Mints, 551; + on distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, 560; + on the memorial to abolish slavery in the District of + Columbia, 577; + on French affairs, 591; + on abolition petitions, 617; + on the Expunging resolution, 645; + on distribution of the land proceeds, 649, 652; + on rechartering the district banks, 658; + on Texas Independence, 670; + on the specie circular, 677; + on revision of the specie circular, 695, 701; + on the salt tax, 714; + on the Expunging resolution, 719. + + BERRIEN, JOHN M., remarks on the treaty with the Creeks, 62; + attorney-general, 120; + resigns his seat in the cabinet, 181. + + BIBB, GEORGE M., on home valuation, 324; + on the French spoliation bill, 487. + + _Birthday_ of Jefferson and the doctrine of nullification, 148. + + BLAIR, FRANCIS P., how led to establish the Globe newspaper, 130. + + BLOOMFIELD, JOSEPH, Representative from New Jersey, votes for the + admission of Missouri, 9. + + BOULDIN, JAMES W., on the admission of Arkansas, 631. + + BRANCH, JOHN, Secretary of the Navy, 120; + resigns his seat in the cabinet, 181. + + _Branch Mints at New Orleans and in the Southern gold regions._-- + Bill reported, 550; + opposed by Mr. Clay, 550; + unwise and injudicious to establish these branches, 550; + indefinite postponement moved, 550; + no evil in the nullification of mints, 550; + the present one sufficient, 551; + the measure would be auxiliary to the restoration of the metallic + currency, 551; + remarks of Mr. Benton, 551; + "constitutional right to establish these mints, 551; + an act of justice to the South and West, 551; + give the mint five or six branches and nobody would want the bank + paper, 552; + the idea of expense on such an object scouted, 552; + for the greater part of the gold currency is in the vaults of the + bank, 552; + what loss has the Western people now sustained for want of + gold? 552; + in favor of measures that will put down small paper and put up + gold and silver, 552;" + postponement lost, 553; + other motions made and lost, 553; + bill passed, 553. + + _British West India Trade, recovery of._--Account of this + trade, 124; + six negotiations carried on between the United States and Great + Britain on this subject, 124; + limited concessions only obtained, 125; + a primary object with Washington, 125; + his letter of instructions to Gouverneur Morris, 125; + a prominent point in our first negotiation in 1794, 125; + attempts of 1822 and 1823, 125; + remarks on the negotiation of 1822, 125; + effect of the word "elsewhere," 126; + attempts of Mr. Adams' administration to negotiate, 126; + effects of his failure, 126; + Gallatin's interview with Mr. Huskisson, 126; + despatch, 126; + facts communicated to Congress by President Adams, 127; + the case presented hopeless, 127; + the loss of this trade an injury to the country, 127; + the position of General Jackson, 127; + minister sent to London, 127; + reasons given for a renewed application, 128; + point of right waived, 128; + the trade recovered, 128; + the trade under the act of Parliament, 128; + the grounds of success, 128. + + BROWN, BEDFORD, for Van Buren as Minister to England, 216; + on the branch mints, 551; + on abolition petitions, 612. + + BROWN, JAMES, Senator from Louisiana, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + BUCHANAN, JAMES, presents memorial of the Society of Friends, 576; + on French affairs, 590; + in favor of the admission of Arkansas, 630; + on distribution of the land proceeds, 708. + + BURKE, EDMUND, on the sale of the crown lands, 102. + + BURR, COL. AARON, _decease of_.--Brilliant prospects ending in + shame, 681; + in the expedition with Arnold, 681; + the opinion of Washington, 681; + position at the close of the presidential election of 1800, 681; + his character as regarded by his compeers, 682; + his talents, 682; + the fate of Hamilton, 682. + + BURTON, HUTCHINS G., Representative from North Carolina, 7; + governor, 7. + + BUSH, HENRY, Representative from Ohio, 7. + + BUTLER, BENJAMIN F., nominated Secretary of the Treasury, 470. + + BUTLER, THOMAS, Representative from Louisiana, 7. + + + C + + CALHOUN, JOHN C., Secretary at War, 7; + on internal improvement, 22; + candidate for the Vice-Presidency in 1824, 45; + rupture with Jackson, 167; + his friendship for Jackson, 218; + on the compromise tariff bill, 315; + on home valuation, 324; + offers nullification resolutions, 334; + on the principles of nullification, 335; + on distribution of proceeds of land sales, 364, 651, 709; + on the removal of the deposits, 411; + on the plan of relief, 484; + on the expunging resolutions of Alabama, 526, 527; + on the branch mints, 553; + on the combination of the slave States, 585; + on French affairs, 591; + on abolition petitions, 611, 614, 619; + on the independence of Texas, 667; + on the Expunging resolution, 728. + + CAMBRELENG, C. C., on the Committee of Bank Investigation, 241; + on the fortification bill, 556. + + CAMPBELL, JOHN W., Representative from Ohio, 7. + + CANNON, NEWTON, Representative from Tennessee, 7; + governor, 7. + + CARROLL, CHARLES, _decease of_; last of the signers of the + Declaration of Independence, 476; + fate of other signers felicitous, 477; + his career, 477; + not present on the day of signing, 477; + signed afterwards, 477; + incident, 477. + + CARSON, KIT, application for a commission in the army, 183. + + CASS, LEWIS, Secretary at War, 181. + + CHAMBERS, E. F., against Van Buren as Minister to England, 215. + + CHANDLER, JOHN, Senator from Maine, 9; + votes for the admission of Missouri, 9. + + _Chesapeake Canal_ discussed, 22. + + CLARKE, GEN., treaties with the Indians, 29. + + CLAY, HENRY, Representative from Kentucky, 7; + efforts for the declaration of war in 1812, 6; + moves a joint committee of both Houses on the admission of + Missouri, 9; + often complimented as the author of the Compromise of 1820, 10; + selects the members of the joint committee in the House, 10; + his coadjutors, 10; movement against the treaty of 1818, 17; + on internal improvement, 22; + address to Lafayette, 30; + on public distress, 32; + lays before the House the note of Vivian Edwards, 34; + appoints committee on charges against Crawford, 35; + candidate for the Presidency in 1824, 44; + letter to Benton relative to declaring his intention previously to + vote for Adams, 48; + Secretary of State, 55; + Commissioner at Ghent, 91; + against Van Buren as Minister to England, 215; + nominated for the Presidency, 232; + remarks on the veto power, 255, 256; + on the origin of the protective policy, 267; + report relative to the public lands, 275; + candidate for the Presidency, 282; + on the Compromise Tariff bill, 313; + on Kendall cotton, 319; + on distribution of proceeds of land sales, 363; + on report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 393; + on the removal of the deposits, 402; + on the expunging resolutions of Alabama, 525, 527; + on the bill to suppress incendiary publications, 586; + on distribution of land proceeds, 707; + on the Expunging resolution, 729. + + CLAY, MRS., her appearance on the evening previous to the duel + between Clay and Randolph, 74. + + CLAYTON, J. M., against Van Buren as Minister to England, 215; + on the coming distress of the people, 254; + on home valuation, 324-326; + on French affairs, 594; + moves a committee of investigation on the Bank affairs, 236; + on the committee to investigate the affairs of the U. S. + Bank, 241. + + COBB, THOMAS W., Representative from Georgia, 7. + + COOKE, JOHN, Representative from Tennessee, 7. + + COLES, EDWARD, publishes correction of errors relative to the + passage of the ordinance of 1787. + + _Columbia River, occupation of_, bill to authorize the President to + take possession and occupy the country offered, 50; + object of the British, 50; + the British pretensions examined under their own exhibition of + title, 50, 51, 52, 53; + title as claimed by the United States, 54. + + _Combination against General Jackson._--_See Bank of the United + States._ + + _Commerce, regulation of._--The power which is given to Congress by + the constitution, 149; + not yet been executed in the sense intended by the + constitution, 149; + views of Mr. Jefferson, of Madison, Hamilton, &c., 149; + remarks, 149; + the principle of the regulation was to be that of + reciprocity, 150; + mode of acting, 150; + object to carry out these views on the extinction of the public + debt, 150; + bill to revive the policy of the Madison resolutions, 150; + Madison's remarks, 150; + "the commerce of the United States not on that respectable footing + to which its nature and importance entitled it, 150; + situation of things previous to the adoption of the + constitution, 150; + effects to be produced by the resolutions proposed, 150; + advantageous position this country is entitled to stand in, 150; + our country may make her enemies feel the extent of her + power, 150;" + "bill proposed, 151; + to provide for the abolition of duties, 151; + the title of the bill, 151; + the bill, 152; + the first section, 152; + contains the principle of + abolishing duties by the joint act of the Legislative and + Executive departments, 152; + the idea of equivalents, 152; + in what way may the restriction on our commerce be best removed, + regulated, or counteracted? 152; + two methods, 152; + friendly arrangements, 152; + the plan proposed, 152; + benefits resulting from an abolition of duties, 153; + do not our agriculture and manufactures require better markets + abroad than they possess at this time? 153; + the merits of the plan, 153; + its success, 153; + advantages arising from a payment of the public debt, 153; + the treaties should be for limited terms, 154;" + remarks, 154. + + _Committee_ on the charges against W. H. Crawford, 35; + on amendments to the constitution, 78; + on the reduction of Executive patronage, 80; + on the application of the bank for a renewal of its charter, 233; + House, to whom was referred the memorial of the bank, 235; + of investigation into the affairs of the U. S. Bank, 241; + to investigate the affairs of the bank, 458, 470; + on incendiary publications, 580; + on abolition petitions, 621. + + _Congress_, 22d, its members, 208; + their talent, 208; + commencement of 24th, 568; + when does the term of its session expire? 598, 599. + + COOK, DANIEL P., Representative from Illinois, 7. + + CRAWFORD, WILLIAM H., Secretary of the Treasury, 7; + devises a measure of relief for the public land debtors, 12; + on internal improvement, 22; + charges against, 35; + candidate for the Presidency in 1824, 44; + declines the Secretaryship of the Treasury tendered by Adams, 55; + letter to Mr. Forsyth, 182. + + CRITTENDEN, JOHN J., on the recision of the specie circular, 698. + + CROOKS, RAMSEY, founder of the colony at Astoria, 13. + + CROWELL, JOHN, Representative from Alabama, 7. + + _Cumberland Road_ discussed, 22. + + CUSHING, CALEB, on the admission of Arkansas, 632. + + + D + + DALLAS, GEORGE M., presents memorial for a renewal of the bank + charter, 227; + remarks, 227; + on the operation of the Tariff, 270; + on home valuation, 324. + + DANE, NATHAN, claimed as the author of the ordinance of 1787, 133. + + DANIEL, on the Virginia resolutions, 351. + + DAVIS, JOHN, on the compromise tariff bill, 310. + + _Debt_, public, amount of at the close of the second war, 5. + + _Deposit Bank bill_, to regulate the custody of the public + money, 553; + bill once defeated in the Senate, 553; + sent up again and passed, 553. + + DICKENS ASBURY, writes the answer of Crawford to charges against + him, 35. + + _Distribution of the Revenue._-- + These propositions first opposed and afterwards favored by Mr. + Calhoun with the salvo of an amendment to the constitution, 556; + committee of inquiry appointed, 556; + basis upon which the committee was proposed, 557; + first meeting and a sub-committee appointed, 557; + the report an ingenious and plausible attack upon the + administration, &c., 557; + debate on the report, 557; + expenses doubled from extraordinary objects, not belonging to + the Government, temporary in their nature and + transient, 557; + the distribution of the surplus and the amendment of the + constitution, 557; + distribution the only practical depletion of the Treasury and + remedy for the corruptions which an exuberant Treasury + engendered, 557; + no minority report made, 557; + custody of the public moneys not illegal, 557; + opponents of the Administration defeated the Deposit Regulation + bill, 557; + the report, 557; + "what is to be done with the surplus? 557; + existence of our institutions and the liberty of the country may + depend on the success of this investigation, 558; + danger from excess of patronage arising from excess of revenue + must be temporary, 558; + the Government in a state of passage from an excess of revenue + to a limited revenue, 558; + objects of investment, 558; + objections to distribution, 558; + effects of distribution, 558; + reasons for suggesting this proposal, 559." + Reply of Senator Benton, 559; + "proposition in the report to amend the constitution for eight + years to enable Congress to make the distribution, 560; + eclipses all other propositions, 560; + predictions from the same source of a deficiency of the + revenue, 560; + anecdote, 560; + the Treasury was to be bankrupt and the currency ruined, 560; + the amendment of the constitution, 561; + this scheme an old acquaintance on this floor, 561; + the statement of a surplus examined, 561; + report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 562; + it is said there is no way to reduce the revenue before the end + of 1842 without violating the compromise, 563; + sources from which a large reduction could be made, 563; + it is said there is no possibility of finding an article of + general utility on which the surpluses could be + expended, 564; + several useful, necessary, and exigeant measures, 564; + defenceless state of the country, 564; + fortifying the coasts, 564; + message of President Monroe in 1822, 565; + extracts, 566; + remarks upon the extracts, 566, 567;" + no vote ever taken on the amendment to the constitution, 567; + deficiency in the Treasury, 567; + distribution afterward took place without the amendment, 567. + Extract from the National Gazette attributed to Nicholas + Biddle, 649; + distribution nearly become a party measure, 649; + the plans proposed, 649; + remarks of Senator Benton, 649; + introduces an antagonistic bill, devoting the surplus money to + the public defences, 649; + making an issue between the plunder of the country and the + defence of the country, 649; + every surplus dollar required for the defences, 650; + bill passed Senate, 651; + sent to the House, 651; + course adopted to secure votes in the House, 651. + Scheme of deposit with the States, 651; + objections, 651; + vote on the passage of the bill, 652; + objections urged against the bill, 652; + attempt to debauch the people, 653; + consequences must be deplorable and destructive to the Federal + Government, 654; + the progress of the distribution spirit, 654; + the measure goes to sap the foundations of the Federal + Government, 655; + is it wise to throw away this money? 656; + nothing but evil in this fatal scheme, 657; + bill passes the House, 657; + feelings of the President on approving of the act, 657. + Moved that a bill be brought in to release the States from all + obligations ever to return the dividends under the deposit + act, 707; + motion condemned at the outset, 707; + laid on the table, 707; + Clay's movement to revive the land distribution bill, 707; + his remarks, 707; + a substitute reported, 708; + kindred schemes, 708; + Calhoun's proposition, 708; + debate, 708; + Calhoun in reply, 709; + proposition rejected, 710; + Allen's proposition, 710; + laid on the table, 710; + deposit clause attached to the appropriation bill, 711; + struck out in the Senate, 711; + lost, 712. + + _Delaware._--Her position in relation to slavery, 10. + + DE TOCQUEVILLE, errors of, 159; + errors respecting the House of Representatives, 205; + errors respecting Bank of the United States, 226, 228. + + _Duel between Clay and Randolph._-- + Interview between Randolph and Benton, 70; + Randolph declares he shall not fire at Clay, 70; + circumstances of the delivery of the challenge, 70; + reasons for refusing to fire at Clay, 70; + meaning of "two pledges" referred to by Mr. Randolph, 71; + conduct of Randolph, 71; + characteristics, 71; + Randolph's letter of acceptance, 71; + protest of Randolph, an explanation, 71; + further communications, 72; + remarks on Randolph's speech in the Senate, 72; + attempt of the seconds to delay the meeting, 72; + the report of Randolph's remarks made to Clay, 73; + inquiry between the seconds as to the cause of the quarrel, 73; + further views on the speech, 73; + "Puritan and blackleg," 73; + place of the duel, 73; + interview between Benton and Clay, 74; + subsequent interview between Benton and Randolph, 74; + Randolph arranging his worldly affairs, 74; + Randolph at the bank, 74; + the pieces of gold, 75; + manner in which the word was to be given, 75; + the preparations on the ground, 75; + an accidental discharge of a pistol, 75; + Randolph's remark, 75; + after the first fire Benton interposes, 76; + Clay's answer, 76; + Randolph's feelings and remarks, 76; + the second fire of Clay, 77; + Randolph fires in the air, 77; + reconciliation and gratification of the parties, 77; + the gold seals of Hamilton, Tatnall, and Benton, 77. + + DUNCANSON, J. M., interview with Gen. Duff Green, 128. + + DUVAL, Judge of Supreme Court, 8. + + + E + + EARLE, ELIAS, Representative from South Carolina, 7; + Governor, 7. + + EATON, JOHN H., Secretary at War, 120; + resigns his seat in the Cabinet, 181; + appointed Governor of Florida, 181; + Minister to Spain, 181. + + EDWARDS, WELDON N., Representative from North Carolina, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + EDWARDS, NINIAN, note of, 34; + brought back from his mission to Mexico, by the + Sergeant-at-Arms, 35. + + _Election of 1832._-- + The candidates, 282; + a question of systems and measures tried in the persons of those + who stood out boldly in their representation, 282; + the defeat of Clay, 282; + the success of Jackson, 282; + the point and lesson of the Vice-Presidential election, 282; + the vote, 282; + Anti-masonic excitement, 282; + its result, 283. + + ELLIOTT, JOHN, votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8; + remarks on the removal of the Indians, 27. + + ELLMAKER, AMOS, candidate for the Presidency, 282. + + EUSTIS, WILLIAM, Representative from Massachusetts, 7; + of revolutionary memory, 7. + + EWING, THOMAS, against VAN BUREN as Minister to England, 215; + on the specie circular, 694. + + _Expenses of Government._-- + Expenses from 1820 to 1831, 230; + comparison with the present day, 230; + remarks, 230; + "it is said that since 1820 the expenses have nearly doubled, 230; + excepting four years the expenses have not increased, 230; + cause of reduced expenditures in certain years," 230; + error in the basis of calculation, 231; + "two great and broad facts in view, 231; + expenditures for different years, 231; + object to show a great increase in a short time," 232; + important to know the correct expenses, 232. + + _Expunging resolution_, notice of by Senator Benton, 428. + _Do. of Alabama._-- + Resolutions of the General Assembly of Alabama, entreating their + Senators to use their best endeavors to cause to be + expunged from the Journal of the Senate the resolve + condemnatory of President Jackson for the removal of the + deposits, 524; + several States had already given instructions, 524; + inquiry of Mr. Clay relative to the intention of the Senator + from Alabama relative to the resolutions, 524; + reply of Mr. Benton, 524; + the notice given by him at the time of passing the condemnatory + resolution, 524; + reasons for giving the notice, 524; + answer to the inquiry of Mr. Clay, 525. + Remarks of Mr. King, 525; + "surprised at the question," 525; + bound to obey instructions, 525; + if the gentleman from Missouri declined, he should at the proper + time bring forward an expunging resolution, 525; + further remarks, 525; + Mr. Clay's remarks, 525; + "no motion accompanies these resolutions, 525; + the inquiry a natural one, 525; + a hope that the resolutions would be withdrawn, 526; + if, after consulting precedents, the Senator from Alabama should + deem proper to offer them, they would be entitled to + consideration, 526; + until then, his duty to resist such an unconstitutional + procedure as the reception of these resolutions," 526. + "Decline to accede to this proposition, 526; + object to carry out his instructions, 526; + at a proper time a distinct proposition would be presented on + this subject," 526. + Moved to lay the resolutions on the table, by Mr. Calhoun, 526; + object to give the Senator an opportunity to prepare a + rescinding resolution, 526; + curious to see how such a proceeding would be reconciled with + the independent existence of the Senate, 526; + how is it proposed to repeal a journal? 526; + the only course left is to declare that the principle upon which + the Senate acted is not correct, 526; + what is the principle to be overthrown but that "we have a right + to express our opinions," 526; + then it comes to this, that the Senate had no right to express + its opinion in relation to the executive, 526; + "the king can do no wrong," 526; + this is the very question in which the expunging our legislative + freedom and independence is to be agitated, 527; + a question or the utmost magnitude, 527; + none of deeper or more radical importance, 527. + The question on receiving the resolutions, 527; + the case of Georgia legislative proceedings, 527; + the case of Wilkes, in the British House of Commons, 527; + no doubt of the power of the Senate to repeal, 527; + have we not it in our power to retrace our steps when we have + done wrong, or to correct our journal, which asserts what + is not true? 527; + the democratic party of the country had declared the facts of + the journal to be false, 527; + the party to which Mr. Calhoun belongs, 527; + resolution laid on the table, 528; + reception and printing refused to a resolution of a sovereign + State, 528. + _Expunging Resolution of Senator Benton_, 528; + extremely distasteful to a majority of the Senate, 528; + characterized as an indictment which the Senate itself was + required to try, and to degrade itself in its own + condemnation, 528; + remarks, 528; + this bitterness aggravated by the course which the public mind + was taking, 528; + resolutions of several States had arrived, instructing their + Senators to vote for the expurgation, 529; + speech of Senator Benton on the motion, 529; + time of presenting the criminal resolution, 529; + length of its discussion, 529; + date of its passage, 529; + an announcement of a series of motions for its expurgation, 529; + this step considered for four months, 529; + was expurgation the proper mode, 529; + the criminating resolution combined all the characteristics of a + case which required erasure and obliteration, 529; + a case of the exercise of power without authority and without + jurisdiction, 529; + other modes of annulling the resolution not proper in this + case, 529; + they would imply rightful jurisdiction, a lawful authority, a + legal action, though an erroneous judgment, 529; + it is objected that the Senate have no right to expunge any + thing from its journal, 529; + it is said we have no right to destroy a part of the + journal, 529; + to expunge, it is said, is to destroy, 529; + not so, 529; + it is incorporated in the expunging resolution, and lives as + long as that lives, 529; + the case of the Middlesex election, 529; + the resolution to expel John Wilkes expunged from the journals + of the House of Commons, 529; + words of the resolution, 530; + annually introduced from 1769 to 1782, and passed, 530; + the history of the case not lost, 530; + the resolution adopted in the Senate of Massachusetts during the + late war, adverse to the celebration of our national + victories, 530; + expunged ten years afterward, 530; + the Senate tried President Jackson a year ago, now it is itself + nominally on trial before itself, but in reality before + America, Europe and posterity, 530; + the proceedings of this day will not be limited to the present + age; they will go down to posterity, 530; + the first President who has received the condemnation of the + Senate for the violation of the laws and constitution + which he is sworn to observe, 530; + the argument of public opinion in the case of the Middlesex + election, 530; + extract from Wilkes' speech, 530; + do. from Fox's speech, 531; + an English Whig of the old school acknowledges the right of the + people to instruct their representatives, 531; + acknowledges the duty of Parliament to obey the voice of the + people, 531; + the voice of the people of the United States has been heard on + this subject, 531; + the resolution should be expunged because it is illegal and + unjust, 531; + illegal because it contains a criminal charge, 531; + the first step taken in the House on an impeachment, 531; + the British Parliament practise an impeachment to which our + constitution is conformable, 532; + the injustice of the resolution shown, 532; + this point examined, 522; + the resolution vague and indefinite, 532; + the law should be specified and the clause of the constitution + violated, 532; + Giles' accusation against General Hamilton, 532; + different forms in which the resolution was presented, 533; + reasons of such extraordinary metamorphoses, 533; + opportunity for any Senator to speak who would undertake to + specify any act in which the President had violated the + constitution, 533; + the resolution was unwarranted by the constitution and laws, 533; + subversion of the rights of defence which belong to an accused + and impeachable officer, 533; + of evil example, 534; + speech of Mr. Macon on the vote of approbation, 534; + the resolution passed at a time and under circumstances to + involve the political rights and pecuniary interests of + the people of the United States in serious injury and + peculiar danger, 534; + this condemnation of the President indissolubly connected with + the cause of the bank, 534; + instructions sent to the branch banks contemporaneously with the + progress of the debate on the criminating resolution, 535; + extracts, 535; + six positions taken, 536; + no new measures to destroy the Bank, 537; + the President harbored no hostile and revengeful designs against + the bank, 538; + not true that there was any necessity for the curtailment + ordered in January, 539; + no excuse or apology for doubting the rates of exchange, + breaking up the exchange business in the West, and + concentrating the collection of exchange on the four + great commercial cities, 540; + the curtailments of these exchange regulations were political + and revolutionary, and connect themselves with the + contemporaneous proceedings of the Senate for the + condemnation of the President, 540; + the case of the Western branches, 542; + evidence drawn from the bank itself, 543; + extracts from Mr. Biddle's letters, 543, 544; + article in the National Gazette, 545; + the distress of the country occasioned by the bank of the United + States and the Senate of the United States, 546; + history of the reduction of the deposits, 546; + in 1819 the bank was unconnected with politics, 546; + further proof that the Senate and the bank, and the Senate more + than the bank, produced the distress during last + winter, 547; + two instances of the bank creating wanton pressure, 547; + the resolution which it is proposed to expunge," 549. + The expunging resolution laid on the table, 549; + called up on the last, 549; + motion to strike out the word "expunge" and insert "rescind, + reverse, and make null and void," 549; + the friends of the expunging resolution astonished, 549; + an expurgation of the journal would be its obliteration, 549; + inconsistent with the constitutional injunction "to keep a + journal," 549; + the mover of the expunging resolution yields, 550; + carried, 550; + exultation of Mr. Webster that the word "expunge" was + expunged, 550; + remarks, 550; + the original expunging resolution renewed, 550. + Remarks of Senator Benton, 645; + "the condemnation of the President co-operative with the + conspiracy of the bank to effect the most wicked scheme + of mischief exhibited in modern times, 646; + President Jackson has done more for the human race than the + whole tribe of politicians put together, 646; + his services to the country, 647; + no parallel to Jackson crushing the bank except in the Roman + Consul crushing Catiline, 647; + further remarks, 648." + Less than three years were sufficient to express public sentiment + in favor of reversal, 717; + notice of the intention to bring up the resolution, 718; + the resolution, 718; + remarks of Senator Benton, 719; + "the change in public sentiment, 720; + ascertained, 720; + how far should the expression of this will be conclusive of our + action, 720; + the terror of Jackson's administration and its effect for good + or evil on the country," 721, 722, 723, 724, 725. + Meeting of democratic Senators, 727; + final measures taken, 727; + debate on the motion to take up the subject, 727; + the speakers, 727, 728; + feelings of the opposition, 728; + expressions of Calhoun, 728; + feeling and expressions of Clay, 729; + Webster's protest against the act, 730; + resolution passed, 730; + the expunging done in open Senate, 730; + excitement in the galleries, 731; + dinner given by President Jackson, 731. + + + F + + FARNHAM, RUSSELL, founder of Colony at Astoria, 18. + + _Finances._--Distress of the Government in 1820, 11; + economy forced upon it, 11; + army reduced from 10,000 to 6,000 men, 11; + naval appropriation reduced one half, 11; + twenty-one millions more than double the amount required for the + actual expenses of the government, 11; + how expended, 11; + mistake to suppose an amount necessary to be left in the Treasury + as a reserve, 11. + + _Florida, Treaty and Cession of Texas._-- + Treaty of 1818, giving up Texas and acquiring Florida, 15; + its denunciation, 15; + action of Monroe's Cabinet, 15; + treaty approved by the country, 15; + points of the treaty, 15; + letter of Monroe to General Jackson, 15; + repugnance of the Northeast to see the aggrandizement of the Union + on the South and West, 16; + extent of this feeling, 16; + views of Jefferson and Jackson on the cession of Texas, 16; + Spain fails to ratify, 16; + negotiations revived, 16; + treaty ratified, 17; + movement against the treaty, 17; + change in the relations of Spain and Mexico, 17; + treaty with Mexico, 17; + three times ratified by the Senate, 17; + how the territory was got back, 17; + extinguished slave territory nearly, 17; + Indian treaties, 18; + largest territorial abolition of slavery ever effected, 18; + how received at the South, 18; + the inside view, 18. + + FLOYD, JOHN, Representative from Virginia, 7; + moves a proposition for the settlement of Columbia river, 13; + his character, 13. + + FOOT, SAMUEL A., resolution of inquiry relative to public + lands, 130; + against Van Buren as Minister to England, 215. + + FORSYTH, JOHN, on the donation to the Greeks, 63; + for Van Buren as Minister to England, 216; + on the Compromise tariff bill, 315; + Secretary of State, 477. + + FRELINGHUYSEN, THEODORE, against Van Buren as Minister to + England, 215. + + _French and Spanish Land Claims, settlement of._-- + State of titles in Louisiana on its transfer to the United + States, 219; + the treaty protected every thing that was property, 279; + the question was to apply it to the land titles, 279; + boards of commissions established, 279; + their operation, 279; + defects, 279; + the act of 1832, 280; + its first section, 280; + its successful operation, 280. + + _French Indemnity._-- + Special communication from the President, 588; + French fleet approaching the coast, 588; + implying a design to overawe the government or to be ready for + expected hostilities, 588; + remarks of the message on the subject of an apology, 588; + a private attempt to obtain a dictated apology, 588; + an attempt made to get this refused apology placed on the + archives of the government, 588; + statement of the message, 589; + the interdiction of our ports to the entry of French vessels + and French products recommended, 589; + nature of the treaty that had been formed, 589; + stipulated for reduction of duties on wines by our government + and the payment of indemnity by France, 589; + advantages to France, 590; + reasons of such delay on the part of France, 590; + extract relative to the French armament, 590. + Calhoun charges upon the President a design to have war with + France, 591; + Benton asserts that the conduct of the Senate at its last + session had given to the French question its present + hostile aspect, 591; + remarks, 591; + conduct of France insulting to us, 591; + an example from French history, 591; + a party in the French Chambers working to separate the President + from the people of the United States, and to make him + responsible for the hostile attitude of the two + countries, 592; + comments on the approach of the French fleet, 593; + the present state of affairs charged upon the conduct of the + Senate, 593; + defence of Senators, 594; + the Senate charged with the loss of the defence bills at the + last session, 595; + defence of the Senate by Webster, 596; + further discussion on the time when the second session of + Congress expires, 598, 599; + American arming declared to be war on our side, 600; + denied, 600. + + _British Mediation._-- + Message informing the Senate that Great Britain had offered her + friendly mediation between the United States and + France, 600; + suspension of retaliatory measures recommended, 600; + all points in the controversy involving the honor of the United + States excepted, 600; + motives of the offer, 600, 601; + reflections upon this subject, 601. + + _French Spoliation Claim._-- + Ground of examined, 91; + assumptions on which their payment by the United States + rested, 487; + liability of the United States to become paymasters themselves, + in cases where failing, by war or negotiation, to obtain + redress they make a treaty settlement surrendering or + abandoning the claims, 487; + this point examined, 487; + governments not bound to push such interests to the extremity of + a war, 487; + ought not to go back thirty-four years and call in question the + judgment of Washington's administration, 488; + another instance of abandonment, 488; + speech of Mr. Webster, 488; + grounds of the claims, 489; + speech of Mr. Wright, 489; + relations between France and the United States prior to the + disturbances, 489; + stipulations of treaties, 490, 491; + origin of the claims which formed the subject of the bill, 491; + reference to acts of Congress to prove that war existed between + the United States and France, 493; + the treaty of 1800, 495; + what object in the negotiation of 1800, 496; + liability of the United States, 496; + further remarks, 497, 498; + propositions established, 500; + the advocates of the bill concede that two positions must be + established on their part to sustain it, 500, 501, + 502, 503. + Speech of Mr. Webster, 505; + "essentially a judicial question, 505; + oldness of the claims, 505; + said most of them have been bought up, 505; + report of the Secretary of State presenting a general view of + the history and character of these claims, 506; + before the interference of our government with them they + constituted just demands against France, 507; + grounds upon which the claims are vested by the claimants, 507; + points admitted, 508; + propositions to be established, 508; + were these subsisting claims against France at the time of the + treaty? 508; + these claims released and relinquished by the amendment of the + treaty and its ratifications, 511; + these claims surrendered or released by the government on + national considerations, 511; + further remarks," 512, 513, 514. + Speech of Mr. Benton, 514; + "the whole stress of the question lies in a few simple + facts, 514; + assumed grounds on which the claims rest, 515; + on what grounds is it maintained that the United States received + a valuable consideration for these claims? 515; + the case as between France and us relative to these claims, 515; + our obligation under the guarantee of France, 515; + the justice and validity of the claims themselves, 516; + how can the American people be pressed to pay these claims when + it would be unreasonable to press France herself to pay + them? 516; + it is said the United States have received full consideration + from France for these claims, 517; + exertions made by the United States on behalf of these + claims, 518; + what were the losses which led to these claims? 519; + one of the most revolting features of this bill is its relation + to the insurers, 519; + what sum of money will this bill abstract from the + treasury?" 520; + bill passed the Senate, 521; + lost in the House, 521; + claim agencies and assignments should be broken up, 521; + assignees and agents constitute a profession, 521. + + + G + + GAILLARD, JOHN, Senator from South Carolina, 7; + President of the Senate, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8; + decease of, 77; + nearly thirty years in the Senate, 77; + nine times elected president of the Senate, 77; + his character as presiding officer, 77. + + GALLATIN, ALBERT, candidate for the Vice Presidency in 1824, 45; + commissioner at Ghent, 71; + negotiates for joint occupation of Oregon, 109; + interview with Huskisson, 126. + + GILES, WM. B., _decease of_, his peculiar talent, 683; + the Charles Fox of the House, 683; + his character, 683. + + GILMER, GEORGE, Representative from Georgia, 7; + Governor, 7; + action relative to the Cherokees, 165. + + _Globe Newspaper, the establishment of._-- + An interview, 129; + scheme to set aside Gen. Jackson and run Mr. Calhoun for the next + President, 129; + propositions, 129; + communicated to General Jackson, 129; + the Telegraph newspaper, 129; + Francis P. Blair, 129; + how brought to the notice of General Jackson, 129; + establishes the _Globe newspaper_, 130; + stand taken by, 182. + + _Gold currency_, remarks of Mr. Benton upon a, 436; + bills to equalize the value of gold and silver and legalizing the + tender of foreign coins in either, brought forward, 469; + the relative value of the two metals, 469; + experience of Mexico and South America, 469; + 16 to 1, 469; + bill passed, 469; + its good effects, 469, 470. + + _Government_, the, its personal aspect in 1820, 7. + + GRANNY WHITE, the case of, 105. + + GRUNDY, FELIX, offers anti-nullification resolutions, 34. + + + H + + HALL, THOMAS H., Representative from North Carolina, 7. + + HAMAR, THOMAS L., on the admission of Arkansas, 634. + + HAMILTON, General, argument for a national bank drawn from the + Indian War, 2. + + HAMILTON, JAMES A., acts as Secretary of State, 119. + + HARDIN, BENJAMIN, Representative from Kentucky, 7. + + _Hartford convention._--Design of secession imputed to, 4. + + HAYNE, ROBERT Y., on revision of the tariff, 99; + on the duty on indigo, 99; + on sales of the public lands, 132; + debate with Webster, 138, 140; + in reply to Webster, 140; + against Van Buren as Minister to England, 215; + on southern resistance to the tariff, 274. + + HENDRICKS, WILLIAM, Representative from Indiana, 7. + + HILL, ISAAC, on abolition petitions, 614. + + HOLMES, JOHN, Senator from Maine, 7; + votes for the admission of Missouri, 9; + against Van Buren as Minister to England, 215. + + HORSEY, OUTERBRIDGE, votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + _House of Representatives._-- + Errors of De Tocqueville, 205; + reputation of the work in Europe, 205; + immense superiority attributed to the Senate arising from the + different manner of election, 205; + statement of De Tocqueville, 205; + its tenor to disparage democracy--to attack the principle of + popular elections, 205; + advantage of extending instead of restricting the privilege of the + direct vote, 206; + further remarks on his statement, 206; + every man of eminence has owed his first elevation to popular + elections, 206; + experience of England, Scotland, Ireland and Rome, of the success + of a direct vote, 206; + popular election the safest and wisest mode of election, 206; + the difference then between the two Houses has vanished, 206; + causes to account for an occasional difference, 206; + statesmen not improvised, 207; + time often required to carry measures, 207; + instance parliamentary reform, 207; + other great British measures, 207; + short service the evil of the House, 207; + instances of Adams and Randolph retaken up by the people when + dropped from the Senate, 207; + this error disparages the controlling branch of our + Government, 207; + the British House of Commons, 208; + the Senate now occupies prominent public attention, 208. + + HUNTER, WILLIAM, Senator from Rhode Island, 7. + + + I + + _Imprisonment for debt, abolition of._-- + Act of Congress passed to abolish all imprisonment on process + issuing from the courts of the United States, 292; + effect of the example, 292; + report, 292; + extracts, 292; + "power of the creditor over the debtor in ancient Greece and + Rome, 292; + the history of English jurisprudence furnishes the remarkable + fact that for many centuries personal liberty could not be + violated for debt, 292; + progress of imprisonment in England, 293; + further remarks," 293; + act passed, 293; + effect upon the States, 293; + imprisonment condemned by morality, by humanity, and by the + science of political economy, 294. + + _Incendiary publications circulated by mail._-- + Moved, that so much of the President's message as related to + this subject be referred to a select committee, 580; + opposed, should go to the committee on post-offices and + post-roads, 580; + object to secure a committee that would calmly investigate the + whole subject, 580; + discussion relative to the committee, 580; + special committee appointed, 580; + bill and report, 580; + dissent of various members of the committee from the sentiments + of the report, 581; + two parts exceptionable, 581; + the nature of the Federal Government founded in "compact" and on + interference of non-slave States with slavery in other + States, 581; + extracts from the report, 581, 582, 583; + insidiousness of the report consisted in the assumption of + impending danger of the abolition of slavery in all the + slave States, and the necessity for extraordinary means to + prevent these dire calamities, when the fact was that + there was not one particle of any such danger, 584; + the report foreshadows disunion, 584; + in vain to expect security or protection for the slaveholding + States except from themselves, and concert only wanted + among them to obtain this end, 584; + Calhoun recurs to secession for a new grievance, 585; + remark of Clay relative to the compromise of 1833, 585; + remarks of Mr. Webster, 586; + examination of the features of the bill, 586; + remarks of Mr. Clay on the bill, 586; + the bill not only unnecessary, but as a law of dangerous, if not + a doubtful authority, 586; + whence did Congress derive the power to pass this law? 587. + Votes on the bill, 587; + three successive tie votes, 587; + yeas and nays called, 587; + the Vice-President called for, 587; + gives the casting vote for engrossment, 587; + remarks on the vote of various Senators, 587. + + _Indian Factory System._-- + Its origin, 21; + objects, 21; + how carried on, 21; + its inside working, 21; + bill to repeal passed, 21; + shows how long the Indians and the Government may be cheated + without knowing it, 21. + + _Indians, removal of._-- + Large tracts held by the Indians in South and Western States in + 1821, 27; + early policy of the Government, 27; + applications to the Federal Government incessant for their + removal, 27; + what has become of the tribes in the older States? 27; + speech of Elliot, 27; + views of Jefferson, 28; + action of Monroe's administration, 28; + process for effecting the removal, 28; + bill passed, 28; + treaties ratified, 29; + the system of removal begun, 29. + _Creeks, removal from Georgia._-- + Agreement between the United States and Georgia, 58; + treaty of removal concluded in 1824, 58; + resisted by the nation, 59; + attempts to enforce it by the State of Georgia, 59; + interference of the Administration, 59; + new treaty negotiated, 59; + objections to it in the Senate, 59; + further negotiation, 59; + treaty ratified, 59; + an incident, 59; + remarks of Van Buren, 60; + remarks of Benton, 61; + others, 62, 63. + + _Cherokees, removal from Georgia._-- + Facts of the case, 624; + combination of obstacles, 624; + proceedings relative to, 624; + treaty with the Cherokees, 624; + amount of the stipulation, 624; + treaty opposed in the Senate, 624; + protest from the Cherokee nation, 625; + proposition to reject the treaty, 625; + close vote, 625; + saved by free State votes, 626; + involved an extension of slavery, 626; + just and fraternal spirit of the free States to their southern + brethren, 626. + _Final removal of._-- + This policy when commenced, 690; + completed, 690; + effects, 690; + extent of the removals, 690; + increase of area of slave population, 691; + conduct of the northern States, 691; + outcry against General Jackson, 691; + statements of De Tocqueville, 691; + remarks, 692; + amount of payments to the Indians, 692; + the smaller remote tribes, 693; + the Indian bureau, 693. + + _Indian sovereignties within States._-- + Indian oligarchies set up in some of the States, 163; + remarks of President Jackson's message in 1829-30, 164; + "the condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes within + States, an object of much interest, 164; + has the General Government a right to sustain them in erecting + an independent government within the limits of a State? 164; + reference to the constitution, 164; + their efforts discountenanced," 164; + passage of an act to enable their removal recommended, 164; + an old policy taken hold of by party spirit, 164; + proceedings in Georgia, 164; + proceedings of the Cherokees, 164; + action of Governor Gilmer relative to the suit of the + Cherokees, 165; + charge of Judge Clayton to the Grand Jury of the Indian + countries, 165; + address of Milner to the Foreign Missionary Society of + London, 165; + remarks, 166; + the case of George Tassels, 166; + answer of Governor Gilmer to a request to make up a case before + the United States Supreme Court, 166; + settlement, 166. + + INGHAM, SAMUEL D., Secretary of the Treasury, 119; + resigns his seat in the cabinet, 181. + + _Internal Improvements_ within the States, source of the + question, 3; + New York canal finished, 22; + roads and canals all the vogue, 22; + candidates for the Presidency spread their sails, 22; + advocates of the measure, 22; + two prominent subjects discussed, 22; + extent of the design, 22; + Monroe's veto, 22; + the statement of the question, 22; + constitutional point how viewed in the message, 23; + the post-office and post-road grant of power, 23; + the war power, 23; + the power to regulate commerce, 24; + to pay debts and provide for the general welfare, 24; + to make laws necessary and proper, 25; + to make needful rules and regulations, 26; + the point on which Mr. Monroe yielded, 26; + the act for surveys passed, 26; + places recommended for improvement, 26; + veto message of Jackson, 26; + fate of the system, 27. + + + J + + JACKSON, ANDREW, views on the cession of Texas, 16; + on internal improvement, 22; + candidate for the Presidency in 1824, 44; + message relative to a removal of the Indians, 164; + veto of Maysville road bill, 167; + letter to Van Buren, relative to his agency in the rupture of + the cabinet, 217; + veto of the recharter of the bank, 251; + elected President, 282; + proclamation against South Carolina, 299; + retains the bill to distribute the proceeds of the sales of the + public lands, 364; + veto, 365. + _His administration._-- + His inaugural address, 119; + his cabinet, 119; + members of Congress, 120; + Speaker, 121; + recommendations of his first annual message, 121; + "amendment of the constitution relative to elections of + President and Vice President," 121; + remarks, 122; + amendment to the constitution too far removed from the + people, 122; + events impressively urge it, 122; + not another example on earth of a free people surrendering the + choice of their President, 122; + exclusion of members of Congress from office recommended, 122; + remarks of the message on this point, 122; + the policy recommended respecting the navy, 122; + instructions to Virginia Senators in 1800, 122; + the army and navy as found by President Jackson, 123; + recommendations relative to ship building, 123; + the inutility of the Bank of the United States asserted, 123; + remarks of the message, 123; + manner in which they were perverted, 123; + the finances, 124; + other recommendations, 124. + _Breaking up of the Cabinet._-- + Resignation of the members, 181; + courtesy of the proceeding, 181; + ground upon which the President placed the required + resignations, 181; + the new cabinet, 181; + excitement in party politics, 181; + attack on Mr. Crawford, 181; + his answer, 181; + exposure of errors of the pamphlet of Calhoun, 181; + the words of Mr. Crawford, 182; + change in the course of the Telegraph newspaper, 182; + the stand taken by the Globe.--_See Globe newspaper._ + Twenty-second Congress, 208; + the Speaker, 209; + message, 210; + boundary between Maine and New Brunswick referred to the King of + Netherlands, 210; + his opinion on the case, 210; + our claims with France, 210; + a treaty made, 210; + differences with Spain, 210; + claims against Naples, 211; + our demands on the Sicilies, 211; + relations with Russia, 211; + effect of our treaty with Austria, 211; + China and the East Indies, 212; + Mexico, 212; + Central America, 212; + South American powers, 212; + state of the finances, 213; + insolvent debtors to the Government, 213; + election of President and Vice President by a direct vote of the + people, 213; + the bank of the United States, 213. + Message after a second election, 283; + wholly confined to business topics, 283; + the finances, 283; + extinguishment of the national debt, 283; + reduction of burthens on the people, 283; + protection should be limited to a few articles of indispensable + necessity, 284; + views on the public lands, 284; + should cease to be a source of revenue soon as practicable, 284; + the federal title should be extinguished in the States, 284; + donations or sales at barely reimbursing prices is the wise + policy of the government, 284; + after a fixed day the surrender of that unsold should take + place, 284; + advantages of this course, 284; + removal of the Indians nearly consummated, 285; + obstacles to the removal of the Indian tribes, 285; + the removals seized upon by party spirit, 285; + Congress appealed to and refused to intervene, 285; + the Supreme Court appealed to and refused the application, 285; + the case of the missionaries, 285; + the case of Tassells, 285; + interference in the affairs of Georgia, 286; + an intimation given of the insolvency of the bank and the + insecurity of the public deposits, 286; + this intimation received with scorn by the friends of the + bank, 286; + conduct of the bank in relation to the payment of five millions + of the three per cent. stock, 286; + the attitude of South Carolina, 286; + opposition to the revenue laws, 286. + Message to 23d Congress, 371; + the state of the finances, 371; + remarks relative to an economical administration, 371; + reasons for the removal of the public deposits, 371; + amendments to the constitution recommended, 372; + remarks on conventions, 372. + _Combination against General Jackson._-- + Incident in the career of Mr. Fox, leader in the House of + Commons, 400; + union against Gen. Jackson, 400; + their movements take a personal and vindictive character, 400; + power of the bank to produce distress, 401; + speakers, 401; + the business of the combination divided--distress and panic + the object, 401; + the friends of General Jackson, 401; + speech of Mr. Clay on the removal of the deposits, 402. + "In the midst of a revolution, hitherto bloodless, 402; + the Judiciary has not been exempted from the prevailing rage for + innovation, 402; + a large proportion of the good nod enlightened men of the Union + are yielding to sentiments of despondency, 402; + at the close of last session the power of Congress over the + purse was left untouched, 403; + after all the testimonies of the safety of the public money, + who would have supposed that the place would have been + changed? 403; + by virtue of whose will, power, dictation, were the deposits + removed? 404; + the President has no power over the Public Treasury, 404; + some of the tremendous consequences which may ensue from this + high-handed measure, 405; + what security have the people against the lawless conduct of the + President? 405; + the instance of Cæsar, 405; + what is it our duty to do?" 406; + remarks in reply, 406. + "The first of the resolutions a direct impeachment of the + President, 406; + we are trying an impeachment, 406; + the Senate should consider well before they proceed + further, 407; + the right of the President to dismiss his secretaries, 407; + two other impeachments going on at the same time, 407; + the President on trial for a high crime, 407; + for a misdemeanor, 408; + the Secretary of the Treasury on trial, 408; + the charge of being the instrument of the President, 408; + people called upon to rise and drive the Goths from the + capitol, 409; + the bank was not the Treasury of the United States, 409; + fourteenth article of the bank charter, 409; + the legal existence of the Treasury brought out by the + debates," 410. + Union of Clay and Calhoun against Jackson, 411; + speech of Calhoun, 411; + gives Clay assurance of aid, 411; + the robbery of the Treasury, 411; + the revolution not to go backwards, 412; + entirely owing to the military nod nullifying attitude of South + Carolina that the compromise was passed, 412; + a political coalition to act against Gen. Jackson, 412; + opposition to the "usurpations" of the President, 413; + contempt and scorn at the Secretary's reasons for removing the + deposits, 413; + the removal of Secretary Dunne an abuse of power, 413; + Calhoun's independence of the bank, 414; + Clay disclaims all connection with the bank, 414; + the list of Congressional borrowers or retainers large, 415. + Message to Congress in 1834, 477; + relations with France, 477; + the indemnity stipulated in the treaty has not been paid, 477; + extracts, 477; + question of waiting on the action of France, or of action on our + part, referred to Congress, 478; + United States should insist on a prompt execution, 478; + consequences considered, 478; + collision with France to be regretted on account of her position + with regard to liberal institutions, 478; + condition of the finances, 479; + freedom from public debt, 479; + seizure of the dividends due the United States on stock, by the + bank, 479; + other proceedings of the bank, 480; + criminality of the bank in making the distress, 480; + bank losses commenced at this period, 480; + selling the stock in the bank, 480; + law relative to public deposits, 480; + increase of the gold currency, 481; + reform in the Presidential election, 481. + Meeting of twenty-fourth Congress, 568; + choice of Speaker, 569; + message of the President, 589; + "relations with France, 569; + origin of our claims against France, 569; + extent of the injuries we received, 569; + an affair of uninterrupted negotiation for twenty years, except + a short time when France was overwhelmed by the military + power of United Europe, 569; + subject brought up in the message of 1829, 570; + exceptions taken to the message by the French Government, 570; + the justice of the claims recognized and the amount stipulated + in the treaty of 1831, 570; + its ratification, 570; + delays of the French Government in their action upon the subject + of its fulfilment heretofore stated, 570; + expectations founded on the promises of the French Government + not realized, 571; + consultation with Congress relative to measures for + reprisal, 571; + regarded as an insult by the French Government, 571; + recall of their Minister and suspension of all diplomatic + intercourse, 571; + having vindicated the dignity of France, they next proceeded to + illustrate her justice, 571; + bill passed in the Chamber of Deputies to make the + appropriations necessary to carry into effect the + treaty, 571; + a stipulation that the money should not be paid until it was + ascertained that no steps had been authorized by Congress + of a hostile character towards France, 571; + this point ascertained, 572; + subsequently the bill amended to require a satisfactory + explanation of the President's message," 572; + the apology repulsed by the President as a stain on the national + character, 572; + injurious effects of the loss of the fortification bill in the + previous Congress, 572; + the humane policy which governed the United States in the + removal of the Indians, 573; + the revival of the gold currency and its influence on the + industry of the country, 573; + increase of specie in the country, 573; + the transportation of the mails by railroad and the extortion + of the companies, 574; + the transmission by mail into the slave States of incendiary + publications tending to excite servile insurrection, 574; + reform in the mode of electing the two first officers of the + Republic, 575. + _Foreign Diplomacy_.--Most alarm felt from this part of his + administration by the opponents of his election, 601; + no part more successful, beneficial, and honorable, 601. + The British West India trade recovered, 602. + The French Indemnity treaty, 602; + efforts previously for redress, 602; + the message, 602; + Rives sent as Minister, 602; + the treaty, 602; + further proceedings, 603. + The Danish treaty of indemnity for spoliations on American + commerce, 603; + consisted of illegal seizures and confiscations of American + vessels in Danish ports during the time of the British + orders in Council and the French decrees, 603; + negotiations of J. Q. Adams' administration, 603; + subsequent success of the negotiations, 603. + Neapolitan indemnity treaty for spoliations on American + commerce, 603; + previous efforts to obtain indemnity, 603; + cause of delay, 604; + embarrassments, 604; + success, 604. + Spanish indemnity treaty for causes of complaint since 1819, 604; + Spanish blockades of ports of South American colonies, 604; + state of negotiations, 604; + success, 605. + Russian commercial treaty, none before negotiated, 605; + many previous efforts, 605; + every thing else granted but a commercial treaty, 605; + final success of negotiations, 606. + Portuguese indemnity for seizures during the blockade of + Terceira, 606; + treaty made, 606; + inability of Portugal to pay, 606; + time extended and payment made, 606. + Treaty with the Ottoman Empire made in 1831, 606; + first treaty with that power, 606; + still further treaty in relation to our commerce needed, 607; + stipulations, 607; + success, 607. + + Renewal of the treaty with Morocco, 608. + Treaty with Siam, 608. + Treaty with Sultan of Muscat, 608. + Last message, 684; + recapitulation of the auspicious state of things at home and + abroad, 684; + the deposit act, 684; + the distribution scheme, 685; + effects, 685; + issuance of the Treasury circular, 685; + attack upon the circular in Congress, 686; + Seminole hostilities in Florida, 686; + the stock in the Bank of the United States, 687; + the delay of appropriations, 688; + mail contracts with railroads, 688; + supervision over the Indian tribes, 689; + the mode of the Presidential election, 689. + Farewell address of President Jackson, 732; + on disunion, 732; + his apprehensions, 733. + Conclusion of his administration, 733; + remarks and reflections, 733, 734; + appearance at the inauguration of Van Buren, 735; + his reception, 735; + his retirement, 735; + his decease, 736; + his first appearance to the writer, 736; + first interview, 736; + intercourse, 736; + Mrs. Jackson, 737, 739; + his character, 737, 738; + elected Major-General in Tennessee, 738; + nephews, 739. + + _Jackson and Calhoun, rupture between._-- + Pamphlet of Mr. Calhoun relative to, 167; + its title, 167; + its contents, 167; + the case as it was made out in the pamphlet an intrigue on the + part of Van Buren to supplant a rival, 168; + this case confronted by Jackson, 168; + his previous opinion of Calhoun, 168; + the reply of Jackson never published heretofore, 168; + how it came into the possession of Benton, 168; + letter of Kendall, 168; + contents of Jackson's exposition, 168; + justification of himself under the law of nations and the treaty + with Spain for taking military possession of Florida, 168; + do. under the orders of Monroe and Calhoun as Secretary of + War, 168; + a statement of Mr. Calhoun's conduct towards him in all that + affair of the Seminole War, &c., 169; + "introduction, 169; + extracts from orders, 169; + letter of Calhoun, 169; + Jackson's letter to Monroe, 169; + manner of the reception the letter, 170; + reply by John Rhea, 170; + circumstances under which Jackson entered Florida, 170; + conduct of the Spanish authorities, 171; + the impressions under which Jackson acted, 171; + his dispatch to the Secretary of War, 172; + acted within the letter and spirit of orders, and in accordance + with the secret understanding of the Government, in taking + possession of St. Marks and Pensacola, 172; + letters to the Secretary of War, 172; + no replies of disapprobation, 172; + statements of a Georgia journal, 173; + no reason to doubt Mr. Calhoun's approval, 173; + further evidence, 173; + letter of Col. A. P. Hayne, 173; + his impressions derived from Mr. Calhoun, 174; + informed that Calhoun was the instigator of the attacks upon + him, 174; + and that Crawford was unjustly blamed, 174; + statement of Mr. Cobb, 174; + inquiries of Col. Hamilton of Mr. Calhoun, 174; + private letter of Gen. Jackson to Mr. Calhoun, 174; + Calhoun's reply, 175; + recapitulation, 175; + how the suspicions of Gen. Jackson were wakened against Mr. + Calhoun, 175; + statement of Mr. T. Ringold, 175; + the statement of Mr. Crawford obtained, 175; + inquiry relative to its correctness, of Calhoun, 175; + his reply, 175; + _note_, 175; + united testimony of the Cabinet, 176; + toast of Calhoun by Gen. Jackson, 177; + the report on the resolutions of censure in the House, 177; + its bitterness due to Mr. Calhoun, 177; + proceedings of Mr. Leacock, 177; + Calhoun's secret communications to him, 178; + report of Mr. Leacock, 178; + a darker shade added, 178; + success of Calhoun's management thus far, 179; + the mask worn by Mr. Calhoun, 179; + further statements," 180; + calamitous events followed this rupture, 180; + Crawford's words relative to the production of the private letter + of Jackson to Monroe in the Cabinet meeting, 180. + + _Jackson, attempted assassination of._-- + The President and Cabinet attend the funeral of William E. + Davis, 521; + circumstances of the attempt to shoot the President, 521; + the assailant knocked down and secured, 521; + the prisoner, 521; + the pistols, 521; + prisoner examined by physicians relative to the soundness of his + mind, 522; + report of physicians, 522; + diseased mind acted upon by a general outcry against a public + man, 523; + not tried, but treated as insane, 524. + + _Jackson, President, Senatorial Condemnation of._-- + Clay and Calhoun the leading spirits in this measure, 423; + the resolution passed, 423; + irrelevance of the resolution to any right or duty of the + Senate, 423; + its effect, 423; + composure of President Jackson, 424; + course of his friends, 424; + mischief of the distress, 424; + the Protest of the President, 425; + its contents, 425; + extracts, 425; + "it wants both the form and substance of a legislative + measure, 425; + the whole phraseology judicial, 425; + its charges, 425; + in substance an impeachment of the President, 425; + this impeachment originated in the Senate without the aid or + concurrence of the House, 426; + Senators from three States voted contrary to the sense of their + legislatures, 426; + words of the Protest, 427; + an appeal to his private history for the patriotism and + integrity of his life," 427; + the excitement which ensued upon its reading in the Senate, 427. + Notice of the Expunging resolution given, 428; + remarks, 428; + "instance of the House of Commons, 428; + the question brought before the American people, 428; + motion to reject the President's message, is the question, 429; + the charges of the resolution, 429; + speeches in support of the resolution, 430; + three characters in which the Senate can act, 430; + one of the most difficult and delicate tasks in the convention + was to select a court for the trial of impeachments, 430; + it is an object not more to be desired, than difficult to be + obtained, 431; + further remarks, 431; + the Star Chamber Court, 432; + what occasion has the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment, + for the power of execution," 432; + motion carried, 432; + reasons for the Senate's refusal, 433. + + JEFFERSON, THOMAS, rejects the treaty of 1807, 1; + his idea of a commercial communication with Asia, 14; + his interview with the traveller Ledyard, 14; + seeks discovery of the Columbia river, 14; + projects the expedition of Lewis and Clarke, 14; + views on the cession of Texas, 16; + letter to Dr. Breckenridge, 16; + as a statesman, 28; + remarks on future French affairs, 31; + remarks on the road from Georgia to New Orleans, 43; + decease of, 87; + character, 87, 88; + his connection with the doctrine of nullification, 148. + + JESUP, Gen., second to Mr. Clay in the duel with Randolph, 70; + his statement, 70. + + JOHNNY, the servant of Randolph, anxiety for his master at the duel + between Randolph and Clay, 75. + + JOHNSON, CHARLES, on reference of the Bank memorial to a select + committee, 235. + + JOHNSON, HENRY, Senator from Louisiana, 7; + governor, 7. + + JOHNSON, RICHARD M., Senator from Kentucky, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8; + Judge of Supreme Court, 8. + On committee of bank investigation, 241; + reports on imprisonment for debt, 292. + + _Joint Committee_ of both Houses on the admission of Missouri, 9. + + JONES, FRANCIS, Representative from Tennessee, 7. + + + K + + KENDALL, AMOS, letter to Calhoun, 168; + Postmaster General, 181. + + KING, RUFUS, Senator from New York, 7; + appointed Minister + to England, 57; + long service in the Government, 57; + his manners, 57; + dress, 57; + courtesy between him and Van Buren, 57; + his suggestions to Senator Benton, 58; + his statement of the sentiment of the revolutionary period, 58. + + KING, WILLIAM R., Senator from Alabama, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8; + on the Expunging resolutions of Alabama, 525, 526, 527. + + KING, JOHN P., on abolition petitions, 613, 617; + on the independence of Texas, 666. + + KREMER, GEORGE, avowed author of an anonymous publication against + Clay, 71. + + + L + + LAFAYETTE, _his visit_.-- + An absence of forty years, 29; + manner of his reception, 29; + address of Speaker Clay, 30; + Lafayette in the presence of posterity, 30; + appropriation of money and land to Lafayette, 30; + the grants opposed 30; + reasons, 30; + advocated, 31; + his sacrifices, 31; + views of Jefferson, 31; + return of Lafayette to France, 31. + + LANMAN, JAMES, _the case of_.--On the expiration of the Senatorial + term of Lanman, the Legislature of Connecticut failing to + elect, the governor appointed him, 56; + debate on the validity of the appointment, 56; + not a case in which a governor can fill a vacancy, the vacancy + foreseen, not _happened_, 56; + precedents reported to the Senate, 56; + unsatisfactory, 56; + motion to admit, rejected, 56. + + LAWRENCE, RICHARD, attempts to assassinate President Jackson, 521. + + LEAKE, WALTER, votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + LEDYARD, JOHN, attempts the discovery of the Columbia river, 14. + + LETCHER, ROBERT P., moves the compromise tariff bill, 309. + + LEWIS, of North Carolina, on the admission of Arkansas, 632. + + LIVINGSTON, EDWARD, Secretary of State, 181. + + LLOYD, EDWARD, Senator from Maryland, 7; + governor, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + LOGAN, WILLIAM, votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + LOWNDES, WILLIAM, Representative from South Carolina, 7; + weight of his opinions, 8; + on the committee to whom was referred the application of + Missouri, 9; + decease, 18; + his character, 18. + + LOWRIE, WALTER, votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + + M + + MACAULAY, his description of removals from office, 162. + + MACON, NATHANIEL, Senator from North Carolina, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8; + opposes the grants to Lafayette, 30; + his vote for Vice-President in 1824, 45; + answer relative to the authorship of the report on the Panama + mission, 68. + Retirement of, 114; + his temperament, 114; + fixed the time for his retirement long before, 114; + his resignation, 114; + his death, 114; + his character, 114; + sketch of his life, 115; + enters the army, 115; + refuses to leave the camp for the legislative assembly of his + native State, 115; + the battle of Guilford, 115; + Macon's civil life, 116; + his political principles, 116; + disregard of wealth, 117; + his friendships, 117; + his executor, 117; + codicil to his will, 117; + his charity, 118; + his dress, 118; + his disinterestedness, 118; + his simplicity, 118; + letter on the Military Academy, 182; + his character, 534. + + MADISON, JAMES, yields in favor of the second bank, 3; + on the regulation of commerce, 156; + his veto of an internal improvement bill, 167; + his letter on slavery agitation, 609; + remarks, 623; + decease of--time of his death, 678; + remarks of Dr. Witherspoon, 678; + his talent, 677; + his writings, 679; + characteristics, 679. + + MCGUIRE, J. C., publishes a quarto volume of Madison's letters, 149. + + MANGUM, WILLIE P., on the branch Mints, 550. + + MARCY, WILLIAM L., for Van Buren as Minister to England, 216. + + MARSHALL, JOHN, Chief Justice, 7; + administers the oath of office to Jackson, 119; + decease of Chief Justice, 681; + his character, 681; + his speech in the case of Jonathan Robbins, 681. + + MCDUFFIE, GEORGE, moves amendment to the constitution, 37; + expresses the views of the South on the revised tariff, 100; + on revision of the tariff, 100; + on the Committee of Bank Investigation, 241. + + MCINTOSH, WILLIAM, Chief of Creek Indians, 58; + negotiates a treaty, 58. + + MCLANE, LOUIS, Representative from Delaware, 7; + sent Minister to England, 127; + Secretary of the Treasury, 181. + + MCLEAN, JOHN, Postmaster General, 7; + Postmaster-General, 58; + appointed Justice of the Supreme Court, 120. + + MCKINNEY, THOMAS L., superintendent of the Indian factory + system, 21. + + MEIGS, R. J., coadjutor with Clay on the Missouri question, 10. + + _Memorial_ of the Bank Directors to Congress relative to the + removal of the public deposits, 379; + of the rejected Government Directors of the Bank to Congress, 389. + + MERCER, CHARLES FENTON, Representative from Virginia, 7. + + _Message_ on the South Carolina proceedings, 303; + relative to the distribution of the proceeds of the sale of public + lands, 365; + to twenty-third Congress, 369; + on the renomination of the Bank Directors, 386. + + METCALFE, THOMAS, Representative from Kentucky, 7; + governor, 7. + + _Michigan_, admission of. _See Arkansas_. + + _Military Academy._-- + Numerous desertions in the army, 182; + difficulty to find a remedy for the evil, 182; + letter from Mr. Macon, 182; + not a government in the world so unfriendly to the rights of the + people as ours since the establishment of the West Point + Institution, 182; + officers rise from the ranks in all countries of Europe, 183; + returns to Parliament, 183; + how is it in our service? 183; + difficulty of obtaining a commission for a citizen in the + regular regiments, 183; + case of Hermann Thorn, 183; + admitted to service in Austria, 183; + case of Kit Carson, 183; + rejected because he did not come through the West Point + gate, 183; + this rule of appointment become the law of the land, 183; + popular opposition to the institution, 184; + it is said Washington was the founder of the institution, 184; + the institution of his day a very different affair, 184; + explained, 184; + all was right until 1812, 184; + extract from the act of 1812, 184; + the deception of the clause, 184; + other deceptions which follow, 185; + this establishment is mainly a school for the gratuitous + education of those who have influence to get there, 184; + gratuitous instruction to the children of the living is a + vicious principle, 185; + vital objections to the institution, 185; + a monopoly of the appointments how effected, 185; + the President and the academy are the real appointing power, and + the Senate an office for the registration of + appointments, 186; + act of 1812 rests its constitutionality on fictions, 186; + the title of the act fictitious, 186; + its title, 186; + our academy an imitation of European military schools, 186; + the remedy for these evils is to repeal the act of 1812, 186. + _Attempted Inquiry into._-- + Organized under the act of 1812, 638; + movements against early commenced, 638; + committee appointed, 638; + report 638; + no attention given to it, 638; + other motions, 638; + debate, 639; + a monopoly for the gratuitous education of the sons of the + rich and influential, 639; + some rule should apply to the army as applies to members of + Congress, 640; + further efforts to obtain an investigation, 640; + attack on the appropriation resorted to, 641; + remarks of Franklin Pierce, 641; + "grounds of opposition, 641; + why has this investigation been resisted? 641; + from the middling interest comes the most efficient support in + trying periods, 642; + exclusiveness of the institution, 642; + the military academy not calculated to make the army + effective, 642; + the institution in the times of Washington, &c., and the + institution as it is now, 643; + gratuitous education in Great Britain examined, 644; + further remarks," 645. + A clause in the appropriation bill for the purchase of forty + horses, &c., erection of a building, a riding house in bad + weather, 712; + struck out, 712; + opposition to its restoration, 712, 713; + further debate, 714. + + _Missouri, admission of._-- + Exciting question of session of Congress of 1820-'21, 8; + the state admitted without restriction, 8; + the compromise, 8; + work of the South, 8; + unanimity of the President's cabinet, 8; + unanimity of the Senate on the compromise, 8; + its constitutionality called in question, 8; + Senators voting for it, 8; + vote in the House, 8; + the increase of slave States avowed to be a question of political + power between the two sections of the Union, 8; + provision in the Missouri Constitution forbidding Legislative + interference, 8; + clause authorizing the prohibition of the emigration of free + people of color, 9; + its treatment by Congress, 9; + the real point of objection, 9; + application for admission presented and referred, 9; + report of committee, 9; + resolution rejected, 9; + its fate in the Senate, 9; + House reject the resolution of the Senate, 9; + joint committee ordered and appointed in both Houses, 9; + report, 9; + adopted in the House, 9; + in the Senate, 10; + compliance of the General Assembly of Missouri, 10; + defeat of the attempt to restrict a State from having slaves if + she chose, 10; + the real struggle, object of, 10; + the objectionable clause, how since regarded, 10; + excitement of the occasion, 10; + a federal movement, 10; + sentiments of the northern democracy, 10; + a movement for the balance of power, 10. + + _Missouri resolutions._-- + Not now discussed, 360; + the old confederation was a league with a legislature acting on + sovereignties, 361; + the Federalist on the defects of the old system, 361; + on the certain destruction of the Union when the sword is once + drawn between the members, 361; + advantage of working if the laws operate on citizens and not on + States, 361. + + _Missouri Question, extension of._-- + Object to extend the boundary on the Missouri river, 626; + difficulties, 626; + threefold, 626; + a bill for the alteration of the compromise line and the extension + of the boundary reported, 627; + passed both Houses, 627; + this was the answer which northern members gave to the imputed + design of abolishing slavery, 627. + + MITCHELL, GEORGE E., on reference of the bank memorial, to a select + committee, 284. + + MONROE, JAMES, negotiates the treaty of 1807, 1; + efforts for the declaration of war in 1812, 6: President, 7; + letter showing the unanimity of his cabinet on the Missouri + question, 8; + his letters to Jackson on the cession of Texas, 15; + ditto to Jefferson, 16; + cause of these letters, 17; + veto on internal improvement bill, 22; + veto of Cumberland road bill, 167; + decease of, his place in history, 679; + his character, 679; + genius, 679; + discretion, 679; + foundation of his political career, 680; + remark of Jefferson, 680; + his career, 680. + + MONROE doctrine, 67. + + MOORE, GABRIEL, anecdote respecting the rejection of Van Buren as + Minister to England, 215; + against Van Buren as Minister to England, 215. + + MORRIS, THOMAS, on abolition petitions, 612. + + + N + + _New Mexico_, _internal trade with_.--All foreign ingress cut off + until 1821, 41; + intercourse between Missouri and the "Western Internal + Provinces," 41; + a branch of interior commerce, 41; + a bill brought into the Senate to open road and to afford + protection against the savages, 41; + statement of facts relative to the trade, 41; + precedents for the construction of a road, 42; + remarks of Mr. Jefferson on the road from Georgia to New + Orleans, 43; + the foreign part of the road the point of difficulty, 43; + moved to strike out the extra territorial part of the national + highway, 43; + views of Senators, 43, 44; + bill passed, 44; + road to New Mexico built under Adams' administration, 44. + + NILES, JOHN M., on the Independence of Texas, 668. + + NOBLE, JAMES, votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + _Nullification_--Event of its origin, 95; + the assumed right of a State to annul an act of Congress, 138; + new turn in the debate, 138; + allusions to the conduct of New England in 1812, 138; + meetings in South Carolina on the Tariff, 138; + resolves passed, 138; + their defence, 183; + the doctrine summed up, 138; + counter explanation, 139; + the Virginia resolution, 139; + how the South Carolina doctrine would have operated in New + England, 139; + the doctrine has no foundation in the constitution or in + Virginia resolutions, 139; + "the character of the government," 139; + "supremacy of the constitution and laws, 140;" + interpretation of the Virginia resolutions disputed, 140; + remarks, 140; + Hartford Convention, 140; + pledge of forcible resistance to any attempt to enforce + unconstitutional laws, 140; + remarks, 141; + Webster's peroration, 141; + remarks of Benton, 142; + his slowness to believe in any design to subvert the Union, 142. + + Anniversary of Jefferson's birth-day, 148; + a subscription dinner, 148; + the guests, 148; + the regular toasts, 148; + conversation excited by them, 148; + toast of the President, 148; + toast of Calhoun, 148; + remarks relative to Mr. Jefferson, 148; + his vindication, 148; + resolves of Virginia, 149. + + _Ordinance in South Carolina_.--The fate of the American system + was sealed by the elections of 1832, 297; + the course of South Carolina, 297; + words of the ordinance, 297, 298; + it placed the State in the attitude of open and forcible + resistance to the laws of the United States to take effect + in the February following, 298; + officially communicated to the President, 298; + his oath of office, 298. + + _Proclamation against nullification_.--Proceedings of the South + Carolina convention stated, 299; + the ordinance founded not on the indefeasible right of resisting + acts which are plainly unconstitutional and too oppressive + to be endured, 299; + but on the position that a State may declare the acts of Congress + void and prohibit their execution, 300; + two appeals from an unconstitutional act, 300; + words of the social compact, 300; + if this doctrine had been established at an early day the Union + would have been dissolved in its infancy, 300; + our constitutional history shows it would have been repudiated if + proposed for a feature of our Government, 300; + the constitution declares, &c., 301; + a law repealed by a small majority of the voters of a single + State, 301; + the constitution forms a government, not a league, 301; + address to the members of the convention, 302. + + _Message on the South Carolina proceedings_.--Notice in the annual + message, 303; + continuation and aggravation of the proceedings, 303; + special message, 303; + "ordinance transmitted by the Governor of South Carolina, 303; + hope indulged that by explaining the recommendations proposed to + Congress, the authorities of South Carolina might + recede, 303; + hence proclamation issued, 303; + the reasonable expectations not realized, 303; + neither the recommendations of the Executive nor the disposition + manifested by Congress, nor the unequivocal expression of + public opinion, have produced any relaxation in the measures + of opposition, 303; + the State authorities actively organizing their military + resources, 304; + proclamation of the Governor has openly defied the authority of + the Executive of the Union, 304; + determination of the authorities of South Carolina, 304; + acts on the part of South Carolina, 304, 305; + no sufficient cause for such proceedings on the part of South + Carolina, 306; + she still claims to be a component part of the Union, 306; + the duty of the Executive, 307; + recommendations of the President, 307; + importance of the crisis," 307. + + Deep feeling of discontent in South Carolina operated upon by + politicians, 308; + this feeling just and reasonable, and operated upon by politicians + for personal and ambitious objects, 308; + twofold aspect of his proclamation and message, 308; + one of relief and justice in reducing the revenue; and the other, + firm and mild in enforcing the laws against offenders, 308; + two classes of discontented--the honest and the politicians, 308; + bills proposed in Congress, 308. + + _Revenue Collection or Force Bill._--Bill to secure the execution + of certain laws in South Carolina, 330; + remarks, 330; + "contains no novel principle, 330; + provision for removal of the Custom House, 330; + legislation necessary, 330; + secession on one hand, and nullification on the other, 331; + state of affairs in South Carolina, 331; + the bill confers on the President the power of closing old ports + of entry and opening new ones, 331; + a prominent cause which led to the revolution, 331; + empowered to employ the land and naval forces to put down all + abettors, 332; + no ambiguity about this measure, 332; + the President is charged by the constitution with the execution of + the laws, 332; + the President's measure, 332; + the resemblance between this bill and the Boston Port bill, 333; + the war is waged against the measures of the administration," 333; + the support or Mr. Webster, 333. + + _Nullification resolutions._--Resolutions on the powers of the + government introduced into the Senate, 334; + counter-resolutions offered, 334; + source whence Mr. Calhoun obtained the seminal idea of + nullification as a remedy in a government, 335; + Virginia resolution of, 98, 99; + the essential idea derived from the Roman tribunitian veto, 335; + considered a cure for all the disorders of a Roman State, 335; + remarks, 335; + "the Roman system, 335; + operation of the Roman veto, 335; + the right of a State to interfere, 336; + governments of several States might be cited as an argument + against this view, 336; + the tendency to conflict in this action," 336; + Calhoun's opinion of the defects of our form of government, + and the remedy for these defects, 337; + the defect of an unchecked authority of the majority, 337; + the remedy an authority in the minority to check that majority and + to secede, 337; + example of Jewish history, 337; + its squint to the Virginia resolutions, 337; + circumstances under which this remedy contended for, 337; + object to create or find this remedy in our system, 337; + nullification, resistance, secession, found by Calhoun in the + Virginia resolutions, 337; + all that was intended by the Virginia resolutions, being merely + an appeal to public opinion, 337; + debate, 337; + "what was the conduct of Virginia in the memorable era of 98 and + 99, 338; + her real intentions and policy were proved not by declarations + and speeches merely, but by facts, 338; + the constitution does not provide for events which must be + preceded by its own distraction, 338; + secession and nullification revolutionary, 338; + its tendency is to break up the constitution as to all the other + States, 339; + it strikes a deadly blow at the vital principle of the whole + Union, 339; + it arrests the power of the law, absolves the citizen from duty, + and elevates another authority to supreme command, 339; + the laws must be repealed throughout the whole Union, or executed + in Carolina as well as elsewhere, 339. + + "Nature of our federal government, 339; + a union in contradistinction to a league, 339; + it is not a compact or confederacy between the people of the + several States in their sovereign capacities, 339; + no State authority has power to dissolve those relations, 340; + the constitution, acts of Congress, &c., the supreme law, 340; + an attempt of a State at nullification a direct usurpation of the + just powers of the federal government," 340; + some other cause than the alleged one at the bottom of this + desire of secession, 340; + ambitious and personal proceedings intimated as involved in the + proceedings of South Carolina, 340; + expression of Calhoun, 340; + a contest between power and liberty, 341; + the freedom and the slave property of the South involved, 341; + exclusion of patriotic men of the South from the Presidency, 341; + contradicted by all history of our national elections, 341; + protective tariff the sole or main cause of the South Carolina + discontent, 341; + remarks on this point, 341; + "another subject connected with this which will prevent the return + of peace and quiet, 341; + the force bill a practical assertion of one theory of the + government against another, 341; + the bill cannot be acquiesced in, unless the South is dead to the + sense of liberty," 341; + these positions not sustained by Southern sentiment, 342--_See + Tariff, Reduction of duties._ + + + O + + _Ordinance of 1787._--Authorship claimed for Nathan Dane, 133; + claimed for Jefferson, 133; + history of the case, 133; + its ultimate passage the work of the South, 133; + extracts from the Journal of Congress, 134; + remarks on the claim for Dane of authorship, 134; + "origin of the measure, 134; + an attempt to transfer the honor to the South, 135; + proposed a second time," 135; + statements compared with facts, 135, 136. + + _Oregon Territory._--Proposition for the settlement of, first made + at the session of 1820-21, 13; + causes that led to it, 13; + committee moved, 13; + carried, 13; + the committee, 13; + report, 13; + proceedings in the House, 13; + consequences of neglect by the Government, 13; + advantages from its settlement, 13; + historical facts, 14. + + _Joint occupation of._--Astoria captured during the war of + 1812, 109; + not restored under the treaty of Ghent, 109; + convention for joint occupation concluded at London, 109; + words of the convention, 109; + article written by Benton on the subject, 109; + out traders driven out of the country, 110; + other effects of the joint occupation, 110; + resolutions against the ratification of the subsequent treaty + relative to continuance of the joint occupation, 111. + + OTIS, HARRISON GRAY, Senator from Massachusetts, 7. + + + P + + PALMER, WILIAM A., votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + _Panama Mission._--A master subject in its day, 65; + gave rise to grave questions, 65; + designed as a popular movement to turn the tide running against + Adams, 65; + the Congress at Panama, 65; + debate in the Senate on the nomination of ministers, 65; + invited by the South American States to send deputies, 65; + motion to debate the question with open doors, 65; + reference to the President, 65; + his answer, 65; + indignation of the Senate, 66; + nominations confirmed, 66; + patronage distributed to advocates of the measure, 66; + the basis of the agreement for the Congress, the existing state of + war between all the new States and the mother country, 66; + its object, 66; + relations of the United States, 66; + message of the President relative to objects of the Congress, 67; + the Monroe doctrine, 67; + extract from Adams' message respecting it, 67; + entirely confined to our own borders, 67; + other objects--advancement of religious liberty, 67; + proofs of our good will, 67; + reference of the message, 67; + adverse report, 67; + expressive of the democratic doctrines of the day, 67; + its general principle that of good-will and friendship, but no + entangling alliances, 68; + remarks of committee on religious freedom, 68; + their views on the Monroe doctrine, 68; + our present unconnected and friendly position regarded as most + beneficial to the republics, 68; + the advantages of friendly relations without entangling + alliances, 69; + right of the President to institute the mission, 69; + relations with Haiti, on what principle established, 69; + excitement produced by the proposed mission, 69. + + _Paper_ read to the cabinet by General Jackson relative to the + removal of the public deposits, 376. + + _Patronage, Executive, reduction of._--Committee appointed to report + on the expediency of reducing, 80; + the committee, 80; + report, 80; + the six bills reported, 80; + extract from the report, 80; + "grounds of the committee's opinion, 80; + multiply the guards against the abuse of power, 81; + the extent of patronage," 81; + subsequent increase of patronage, 81; + remarks on the bills reported, 81, 82. + + PARROTT, JOHN F., votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + PIERCE, FRANKLIN, on abolition petitions, 615. + + PINCKNEY, CHARLES, Representative from South Carolina, 7. + + PINKNEY, WILLIAM, Senator from Maryland, 7; + negotiates the treaty of 1807, 1; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8; + decease, 19; + rank as an orator, 19; + speeches, 19; + on the Missouri controversy, 19; + abilities, 20; + manner in which Randolph announces his death, 20; + character, 20. + + PLEASANTS, JAMES, Senator from Virginia, 7; + governor, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + POINDEXTER, GEORGE, against Van Buren as Minister to England, 215; + on the protest of General Jackson, 427. + + POLK, JAMES K., on the non-payment of the three per cents., 289; + on continuing the deposits in the bank, 289; + chosen Speaker of the House, 569. + + _Presidential election of 1824._--The candidates, 44; + how brought forward, 44; + number of electoral votes, 44; + vote for each, 44; + candidates for the Vice Presidency, 45; + vote, 45. + + _In the House._--The theory and practical working of the + constitution in the election of President and + Vice-President, 46; + first election in the House that of Jefferson and Burr, 46; + ballotings, 47; + effect on the constitution, 47; + second election in the House that of 1824, 47; + proceedings, 47; + the democratic principle finally victorious, 47; + conduct of certain individuals, 48; + Clay expresses to Benton his intention to vote for Adams before + the election, 48; + letter of Clay to Benton, 48; + evidences of Clay's declaration, 48; + this election put an end to caucus nominations by members of + Congress, 49; + a different mode of concentrating public opinion adopted 49; + its degeneration, 49; + an anomalous body where the election is now virtually made, 49; + this destructive to the rights and sovereignty of the people, 49; + the remedy, 49. + + _Presidential election of 1828._--The candidates, 111; + result 111; + vote of the free States for the slave-holding candidates, 111; + election of Jackson a triumph of democratic principle, 111; + errors of Mons. de Tocqueville, 112; + charge of violent temper against Jackson, 112; + "mediocre talent and no capacity to govern," 112; + "opposed by a majority of enlightened classes," 113; + "raised to the Presidency solely by the recollection of the + victory of New Orleans," 113. _See page_ 282. + + _Presidential election of 1836._--The candidates, 683; + Vice-President elected by the Senate, 683; + details 683, 684. + + PRESTON, WILLIAM C., on French affairs, 594. + + _Protection_ to American Industry, origin of the question, 3. + + _Protective System._--The periodical season for its discussion, 265; + the session most prolific of party topics and party contests of + any ever known, 266; + the reason, 266; + the subjects, 266; + the bank and tariff two leading measures, 266; + proposal of the President's message, 266; + the proposition of Mr. Clay, 266; + the seven years before the Tariff and the seven years after, 266; + the one, calamity; the other, prosperity, 266; + remarks, 266; + the seven years of calamity immediately followed the establishment + of the bank, 266; + protection an incident before 1816, afterwards an object, 267; + origin and progress of the protective policy, 267. + + "It began on the 4th of July, 1789. The second act on the statute + book, 267; + prosperity consequent on the French revolution, 267; + state of things after the peace in 1815, 267; + subject again brought up in 1820, 267; + summary of the policy," 267. + + Other speakers in favor of the policy, 268; + those against it, 268; + bearing of the question on the harmony and the stability of the + Union. 268. + + A crisis arrived, 268; + dissatisfaction of all the South, 268; + objects of the Revolution, 268; + manufacturers should be supported incidentally, 268. + + "This system an overruling necessity, 269; + the danger to its existence lies in the abandonment, and not in + the continuance of the American system, 269; + great excitement in South Carolina, 269; + the Union necessary to the whole and to all its parts, 269; + the majority must govern, 269; + can it be believed that two-thirds of the people would consent to + the destruction of a policy believed to be indispensably + necessary to their prosperity?"; 269. + + An appalling picture dissolution of the Union presented on either + hand, 270; + former designs of bringing Jackson forward for the + Presidency, 270; + views entertained in South Carolina, 270; + views of the Democratic party 270; + "cannot feel indifferent to the sufferings of any portion of the + American people, 270; + what is the cause of Southern distress? 271; + other causes which exist," 271; + the levy and expenditure of the federal government the cause of + Southern decadence, 271; + exportation of American manufactures, 272; + this fact urged to show the excellence of American fabrics, and + that they are worthy of protection, 272; + also urged to show their independence of protection, 272; + "American cottons now traverse the one-half of the circumference + of the globe, 272; + effect of these duties to create monopolies at home, 272; + the Custom House returns," 272; + the prosperity attributed to the Tariffs of 1824 and 1828, 272; + real cause of the revived prosperity, 273; + remarks, 273; + Clay's remarks on his own failing powers and advanced age, 273; + compliments on his remarks, 273; + sparring between Gen. Smith and Mr. Clay on the age of the latter, + 273, 274; + the seriousness of Southern resistance to the Tariff, 274; + an appeal to all to meet the South in a spirit of + conciliation, 274. + + _Protest_ of Gen. Jackson on the vote of censure in the Senate, 425. + + _Public distress._--From the moment of the removal of the deposits, + the plan of the bank was to force their return, and with it a + renewal of its charter, by operating on the business of the + country and the alarms of the people, 415; + course to be pursued, 415; + first step to get up distress meetings, 415; + memorial sent to Congress, 415; + speeches on their presentation, 415; + remarks of Mr. Tyler on presenting a memorial from Virginia, 416; + do. of Mr. Robbins on presenting a memorial, 416; + do. of Mr. Webster on presenting a memorial, 417, 418, 419; + do. of Mr. Southard on presenting a memorial, 417; + do. of Mr. Clay on presenting a memorial, 418; + do. of Mr. Kent on presenting a memorial, 418; + Clay's apostrophe to the Vice President, charging him with a + message of prayer and supplication to the President, 420; + the Vice President takes a pinch of Mr. Clay's snuff, 420; + resolution of a public meeting relative to the message to be + conveyed by the Vice President, 420. + + All this is a repetition of what was heard in 1811, 421; + extracts from Debates of Congress, 421; + the two distresses proved the same thing, 421; + agitation and commotion in the large cities, 421; + gaining a municipal election in New York, 421; + extracts relative to everyday occurrences, 421; + amounts of money expended, 422. + + Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the Finances, 462; + call made at the height of the panic, 462; + showed an increase in every branch of the revenue, instead of a + decline, 462; + test of the prosperity of the United States, 462; + the distress confined to the victims of the Bank, or fictitious + and artificial, 462; + attempt to quietly put the report aside, 462; + preparation made to defeat this move, 462; + the entire reading demanded, 462; + speech of Mr. Benton on its conclusion, 462; + the speech, 462; + "assertions and predictions under which the call had been + made, 462; + a report to make the patriot's heart rejoice, 463; + it had been called for to be given to the people, and the people + should have it, 463; + the statements of the report examined, 463; + evidence of commercial prosperity, 464; + increased imports, increased shipping, increased sales of public + lands, 464; + it has been said that trade is paralyzed, 465; + the odium of all the distress falls on the bank, 465; + the prosperity of the country, 466; + recapitulation of the evidences, 467; + the alarm is over, the people are tired of it, 467; + the spectre of distress could never be made to cross the + Mississippi, 467; + the bank is now a nuisance," 468; + report laid on the table and printed, 469. _See Tariff._ + + _Public Land Debtors._--The credit system then prevailed, 11; + debt for lands sold to the Government, 12; + situation of the public land debtors, 12; + system on which the lands were sold, 12; + subject referred to in the President's message, 12; + the measure of relief devised, 12; + the cash system and reduced price adopted, 12; + the pre-emption right introduced, 12; + opposed, 12; + carried, 12; + the graduation principle pressed, 12. + + _Public Lands._--Burke's bill for the sale of the Crown lands + presented in the British House of Commons, 102; + its application to this country, 102; + his remarks, 102; + sales of land by a government to its citizens a false policy, 102; + movements to obtain a graduation of price, 103; + recommendation of Jackson's message, 103; + the revenue derived from the sale of lands a trifle compared with + the revenue derivable from the same lands through settlement + and cultivation, 103; + sale of land brings no population, cultivation produces + population, 103; + remarks in favor of donation of lands, 103; + example of the Atlantic States in favor of donations, 104; + remarks against the reservation of saline and mineral lands, 104; + these lands sold in Missouri, 105; + system of renting mines abolished, 105; + case of "Granny White," 105; + the example of all nations in favor of giving land, 106; + proclamation of the King of Persia in 1823, 106; + Western States sufferers by this land policy, 106; + change in public sentiment, 107. + + A proposition to inquire into the expediency of limiting the sales + of land to those in market--to suspend the surveys, + &c., 130; + "a proposition that would check emigration to the new States of + the West, 130; + limit settlements, 130; + deliver up large portions to the dominion of wild beasts, 131; + remove the land records, 131; + never right to inquire into the expediency of doing wrong, 131; + inquiry is to do wrong," 131; + charge upon the East of intending to check the growth of the + West, 132; + history of the first ordinance for the sale and survey, 132; + to make clean work is like requiring your guest to eat all the + bones before he should have more meat, 132; + the propriety of selling at auction prices and at an arbitrary + minimum for all qualities, 132; + system adopted by all nations, 133; + the British and Spanish colonies fostered under a very different + system, 133; + indefinite postponement moved, 133. + + _Distribution to the States._--Bill to reduce the price ordered to + a third reading, 275; + pre-emption established, 275; + plan to distribute the proceeds reported, 275; + report, 275; + "inexpedient to reduce the price, or to cede the lands to the + States, 275; + sound policy enjoins the preservation of the existing + system, 275; + governments, no more than individuals, should be intoxicated by + prosperity, 275; + should husband their resources, 276; + the proposal to divide the proceeds among the States, 276; + a bill for this purpose reported," 276. + + Impropriety of originating such a bill in a Committee of + Manufactures, 276; + referred to the Committee on Public Lands, 276; + a counter report, 276; + "this view fundamentally erroneous, 276; + the Committee on Manufactures regard the Federal domain merely as + an object of revenue, 276; + quotation from the speech of Burke, 276; + these sentiments the inspiration of political wisdom, 277; + expectations from the public lands, 277; + result of an experiment of near fifty years, 277; + the bill to divide the proceeds is wholly inadmissible in + principle and erroneous in its details, 277; + it proposes to change injuriously and fatally for the new States + the character of their relation to the Federal Government on + this subject, 277; + its effects, 277; + the details of the bill are pregnant with injustice and unsound + policy, 278; + it makes no distinction between those States which did or did not + make cessions of their vacant land to the Federal + Government, 278; + it proposes benefits to some States which they cannot receive + without dishonor nor refuse without pecuniary + prejudice, 278; + these lands were granted to pay the debts of the Revolutionary + War, 278; + other objections, 278; + postponed in the House, 279. + + _Distribution of proceeds._--Bill renewed, 362; + arguments in its favor, 362; + provisions of the bill, 362; + advantages of settling the question and disposing of the public + lands, 363; + revenue from sales considered, 363. + + A measure dangerous in itself and unconstitutional, 364; + bill passed the Senate, 364; + passed in the House with amendments, 364; + Senate concur on the last night of the session, 364; + retained by the President, 364; + reasons, 364; + denunciations of the Press, 365; + next session bill returned with objections, 365; + "first principles of the whole subject, 365; + the practice of the Government, 365; + an entire subversion of one of the compacts by which the United + States became possessed of the Western domain, 366; + these ancient compacts are invaluable monuments of an age of + patriotism and virtue, 366; + other principles inserted in the bill, 366; + the object to create a surplus for distribution, 367; + a more direct road to consolidation cannot be devised, 367; + difficult to perceive what advantages will accrue to the + States, 368; + the true policy is that the public lands shall cease as soon as + practicable to be a source of revenue, 368; + statement of revenues derived from the public lands," 368; + remarks on this veto message, 369. + + + R + + RANDOLPH, JOHN, Representative from Virginia, 7; + opposes Clay on the Missouri question, 10; + decease of, 473; + place of his death, 473; + his career, 473; + how he should be judged, 473; + never enjoyed a day of perfect health, 473; + insanity at periods, 473; + conversation on that point, 474; + his parliamentary life, 474; + friendship with Macon, 474; + disposition, 474; + feelings on slavery, 474; + as a duellist, 475; + religious sentiment, 475. + + _Relief, Mr. Webster's plan of._--Renewal of the charter of the bank + for six years, 433; + to give up the exclusive or monopoly feature, 433; + further particulars, 433; + leave asked to bring in the bill, 433; + opposition from Clay and Calhoun, 433; + reasons for Calhoun's position, 434; + his object to "unbank the banks," 434; + remarks, 434; + ultimate object to arrive at a metallic currency, 435; + this an object of the administration, 435; + conversations among Senators, 435; + motion for leave to bring in a bill laid on the table, 435; + excuse for this movement, 436. + + No previous opportunity to show the people the kind of currency + they were entitled to possess, 436; + the Government intended to be a hard money Government, 436; + evidences on this point, 437, 438; + the quantity of specie derivable from foreign commerce, added to + the quantity of gold derivable from our mines, were fully + sufficient to furnish the people with an abundant + circulation of gold and silver, 438, 439; + the value now set upon gold is unjust and erroneous, 440; + these laws have expelled it from circulation, 440; + nature and effects of this false valuation, 441, 442, 443; + intention and meaning of the constitution that foreign coins + should pass currently as money, and at their full value, + within the United States, 444; + the plan presented for the support of public credit in 1791, 445; + four points presented, 445; + facts, 445; + injuries resulting from the exclusion of foreign coins, 446; + what reason can now be given for not preventing it? 447; + a review of the present condition of the statute currency of the + United States, 448; + three distinct objections to the Bank of the United States as a + regulator of the currency, 449; + a power that belongs to the Government, 449; + it cannot be delegated, 449; + it ought not to be delegated to any bank, 450; + differs from Mr. Calhoun in the capacity of the bank to supply a + general currency, 451, 452; + circulation of the bank in 1833, 453; + objections to prolonging the existence of the present bank, 454; + the conduct of the present bank, 454; + that of the first bank, 455; + the spirit which seems to have broken out against the State banks + deprecated, 456; + a small paper circulation one of the greatest grievances that can + afflict a community, 457; + restoration of the gold currency has great influence in putting + down a small note circulation, 458. _See Public Distress._ + + _Removals from Office._--Error of De Tocqueville, 159; + his statement, 159; + case of Adams' administration, 159; + no distinct party lines, 159; + no case presented to him for political removal, 160; + so in the main with Jackson, 160; + extent of removals by him, 160; + his election a change of parties, 160; + he followed the example of Jefferson, 160; + the circumstances of Jefferson, 160; + the four years' limitation law not then in force, 161; + fundamental principle, 161; + his letter to Monroe, 161; + do. to Governor Giles on removals, 161; + do. to Elbridge Gerry, 161; + do. to Mr. Lincoln, 161; + Jefferson's law of removals, 161; + said he had never done justice to his own party in this + respect, 162; + clamor against Jackson, 162; + the practice of removals for opinion' sake becoming too + common, 162; + description of Macaulay, 162; + the evil become worse since the time of De + Tocqueville, 162; + an evil in our country, 162; + Jefferson's rule affords the remedy, 162; + remarks upon it, 163. + + _Report_ of Government Bank Directors, 374. + + _Resolutions_ of Webster relative to the Compromise, 317; + relative to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the + removal of the public deposits, &c., 394, 398. + + RHEA, JOHN, Representative from Tennessee, 7. + + _Rivers and Harbors._--Internal Improvement of, how based, 4; + how restricted, 4. + + RIVES, WILLIAM C., on the meaning of the Virginia resolutions, 337; + on the independence of Texas, 668. + + ROBERTS, JONATHAN, votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + ROBERTSON, GEORGE, Representative from Kentucky, 7. + + ROWAN, JOHN, on revision of the tariff, 95. + + RUSH, RICHARD, Secretary of the Treasury, 55; + negotiates for joint occupancy of Oregon, 109. + + + S + + _Salt Tax, repeal of._--This tax an odious measure, 143; + fluctuations in the tax, 143; + efforts to repeal it, 143; + "the English salt tax and manner of its repeal, 144; + the enormous amount of the tax, 144; + contrary to every principle of taxation, 144; + the distribution of this tax on different sections of the + Union, 144; + the Northwest, 144; + the South, 145; + the West, 145; + provision curers and exporters were entitled to the same bounty + and allowance with exporters of fish, 145; + the provision trade of the West, 145; + the repeal of the salt duty the greatest favor to this trade, 145; + the domestic manufacture has enjoyed all possible protection, 146; + time enough been had for the trial, 146; + the American system without a gross departure from its principles + could not cover this duty any longer, 146; + every argument that could be used here had been used in England in + vain, 147; + the petition of the British manufacturers, 147; + effect of an era of free trade in salt," 147. + + This tax a curse, 154; + a mystery in salt, 154; + bill to abolish offered, 155; + the fisheries, 155; + "the tax on alum salt, the foundation of all these bounties, 155; + different acts of Congress recited, 155, 156; + reasons for abolishing the duty on alum salt, 156; + an article of indispensable necessity to the provision trade of + the United States, 156; + no salt of the kind made in the United States, 156; + the duly enormous and quadruples the price, 156; + it is unequal in its operation, 156; + means of drawing an undue amount of money from the public + treasury, 157; + a practical violation of one of the most equitable clauses in the + Constitution of the United States, 157; + it now rests on a false basis, 157; + its repeal will not materially diminish the revenue nor delay the + extinguishment of the public debt, 157; + it belongs to an unhappy period in the history of the + government," 157. + + Amount paid by it into the treasury, 714; + quantity imported, 714; + its import from England, 715; + effect of the tax, 716; + its direct injuries, 716; + the burdens appear in the most odious light, 716; + testimony of Dr. Young, 717. + + SANFORD, NATHAN, Senator from New York, 7; + candidate for Vice Presidency in 1824, 45. + + SCOTT, JOHN, Delegate from Missouri, 8; + presents the application of Missouri for admission into the + Union, 9. + + _Seal of Colonel Benton_, origin of it, 77. + + _Secession_ of a State--origin of the doctrine, 4; + Senate in favor, 34; + do. against, 34. + + SERGEANT, JOHN, Representative from Pennsylvania, 7; + on the committee to whom was referred the application of + Missouri, 9; + nominated minister to Panama, 60; + renominated for the Vice Presidency, 232; + candidate for the Vice Presidency, 282. + + SEVIER, AMBROSE H., on the cession of the public lands, 709. + + SHAW, H., Representative from Massachusetts, 9; + votes for the admission of Missouri, 9; + coadjutor with Clay on the Missouri question, 10. + + _Sierra Leone_, origin of the colony of, 88. + + SILSBEE, NATHANIEL, Representative from Massachusetts, 7. + + _Slaves deported, British Indemnity for._--Controversy respecting + slaves carried off in the war of 1812 concluded in 1827, 88; + similar controversy under the treaty of 1783, 88; + origin of the colony of Sierra Leone, 88; + subject referred to the Emperor Alexander, 88; + arbitrament disputed, 88; + payment made, 88; + statement of the case, 88; + the reference, 89; + views, 89; + the third treaty, 89; + the payment, 90; + the example, 90; + question of restitution arising under the Revolutionary war, 90; + number carried off, 90; + the commissioners at Ghent, 91; + French spoliation claim, 91; + contrast with the claim for deported slaves, 91; + proof that Northern men will do justice to the South, 91. + + _Slavery, effect of its existence or non-existence on different + States._--"The ghost of the Missouri question, 136; + the line drawn between the free State of Ohio and the slave State + of Kentucky, 136; + views of leading men North and South indisputably the same in the + earlier periods of our government, 136; + the sublime morality of those who cannot bear the abstract + contemplation of slavery a thousand miles off, 136; + the morality of the primitive Christians," 136; + conduct of the Free States at the first introduction of the + slavery topic into Congress, 137; + further remarks, 138. + + _Slavery in the District of Columbia, Abolition of._--Memorial of + Society of Friends in Pennsylvania, 576; + source whence the memorial emanated, 576; + previous proceedings on these memorials, 576; + motion to reject when presented for reception, 576; + this point the origin of a long and acrimonious war in the two + Houses of Congress, 576; + reception and condemnation would quiet the question, 576; + moved to postpone, 577; + remarks of Senator Benton, 577; + "character of the petitioners, 577; + the abolitionists, 577; + publications and prints, 577; + intended to inflame the passions of slaves, 577; + cause of the massacre of San Domingo, 577; + course of the French society, 578; + the conspiracy in Louisiana, 578; + these societies had already perpetrated more mischief than the + joint remainder of all their lives spent in prayers of + contrition and works of retribution, could ever atone + for, 578; + the conduct of the great body of the people in the free + States, 579; + object is to give that vote which will have the greatest effect in + putting down these societies, 579; + past action of the Senate," 579. + + _Slavery agitation._-- + Tune of its rise, 5; + unceasing efforts to alarm the South by imputations against the + North, of unconstitutional designs on the subject of + slavery, 609; + letter of Mr. Madison to Mr. Clay, 609; + letter to Edward Coles, 609; + nullification in a new disguise, 609; + publications to alarm the South, 610; + the "Crisis," 610; + the subject of a Southern Convention, 610; + the conduct of Mr. Calhoun, 610; + petitions for the abolition of slavery in the district of + Columbia, 611; + Calhoun's remarks, 611; + extreme ground taken, 611; + his doctrine, 611; + reply of Mr. Morris, 612; + Bedford Brown in reply to Mr. Calhoun, 612; + King charges upon the remarks of Calhoun the effect of + increasing the slavery agitation, 613; + Calhoun, in reply, charges that any other course will divide + and distract the South, 614; + remarks of Mr. Hill relative to the views of Northern + States, 614; + petitions in the House, 615; + remarks of Mr. Franklin Pierce, 615; + course of the Telegraph newspaper, 615; + the Herald of Freedom newspaper, 616; + Calhoun sends a paper to the Clerk's desk to be read, containing + an attack upon a member of the other House, 616; + apology by the presiding officer for permitting it to be + read, 616; + remarks of Mr. Benton at the request, and in defence of Mr. + Pierce, 617; + the statement of Mr. Calhoun involved him in the solecism of + sending forth incendiary publications through the action + of the Senate, 617; + remarks of Mr. Benton on this point, 617; + remarks of Mr. King on the strange scene of Southern Senators + attacking their Northern friends because they defended the + South, 617; + increase of abolitionism denied, 618; + treatment of George Thompson, 618; + further statements, 619; + remarks of Mr. Webster, 619; + refusal of Mr. Calhoun to vote on the motion to reject the + prayer of petitioners, 619; + his remarks, 619; + an unjustifiable assumption, 620; + memorial of the Society of Friends, 620; + further remarks, 620. + Action of the House on abolition petitions, 621; + resolution presented by Mr. Pinkney, 621; + votes, 621; + committee ordered and report, 621; + report adopted, 621; + remarks of Mr. J. Q. Adams on the reception of these + petitions, 622; + action of early Congresses on this subject, 623; + Madison on abolition petitions, 623; + his consistent course, 623; + South, the point of danger from slavery agitation, 623. + + SLOAN, JOHN, Representative from Ohio, 7. + + SMITH, BERNARD, Representative from New Jersey, 9; + votes for the admission of Missouri, 9. + + SMITH, SAMUEL, Representative from Maryland, 7; + on the committee to whom was referred the application of + Missouri, 9; + for Van Buren as Minister to England, 216; + on the British West India Trade, 125; + on the expenses of government, 230; + on the protective policy, 268; + on the compromise tariff bill, 315, 327. + + SMITH, WILLIAM, Senator from South Carolina, 7; + Judge, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8; + moves to be excused from voting on the measure for the relief of + public land debtors, as he was one, 12; + excuse refused, 12. + + SMYTHE, ALEXANDER, Representative from Virginia, 7. + + SOUTHARD, SAMUEL L., Senator from New Jersey, 7; + Secretary of the Navy, 55; + on the Expunging resolution, 528; + on the independence of Texas, 669. + + _Speakers_ in the House in favor of protection, 32; + ditto against, 33. + + _Specie Circular._-- + Its issue marked the firmness, foresight, and decision of General + Jackson, 676; + its purport, 676; + extent of the land sales, 677; + remarks on the evil which required the specie circular, 677; + benefits of suppressing it, 677; + a view of the actual condition of the paper currency, 678; + bill which was the basis of the remarks rejected, 678; + President decides to issue the order, 678. + Resolution to rescind the Treasury Circular offered, 694; + remarks of Senator Ewing, 694; + origin of the order, 695; + its legality, 695; + remarks of Senator Benton, 695; + a little panic, 695; + letter of Mr. Biddle, 696; + Clay's speech at Lexington, 696; + illegality of the treasury order examined, 696; + the new distress, 697; + Mr. Biddle's description of it, 697; + movement to produce a general suspension of specie + payments, 697; + remarks of Senator Benton, 697; + reply of Senator Crittenden, 698; + ditto of Senator Webster, 699; + other speakers, 700; + subject referred, 700; + report, 700; + action of the Senate, 700; + cause of Mr. Benton's speech, 700; + his speech on the proceedings, 701, 702; + explosion of the banks foretold, 708; + reply of Senator Walker to Benton, 708, 704; + Mr. Calhoun's reason for not voting on the recision bill, 706; + bill passed in the Senate, 706; + amendment of the House, 706; + lost, 706; + veto, 706. + + STEVENSON, ANDREW, chosen Speaker, 121; + elected Speaker, 209; + chosen Speaker of the House, 371. + + STORES, HENRY R., Representative from New York, 7. + + STOKES, MONTFORT, Senator from North Carolina, 7; + Governor, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + STORY, JOSEPH, Justice of Supreme Court, 7. + + _Supreme Court_, its Judges and officers, 731. + + SWIFT, BENJAMIN, opposes the admission of Arkansas, 627. + + + T + + TANEY, ROGER B., Attorney General, 181; + nomination as Secretary of the Treasury sent in near close of the + session, 470; + immediately rejected, 470; + resigns, 470; + appointed Chief Justice, 731; + vote in the Senate, 731. + + _Tariff and American System._-- + Beginning of the question, 32; + protection looked for among the incidental powers, 32; + the design was to make protection the object, and revenue the + incident, 32; + revision of the tariff proposed, 32; + public distress the leading argument for the new tariff, 32; + remarks of Mr. Clay, 32. + "Public distress of the whole country the most prominent object of + attention, 32; + its evidences, 32; + its extent, 32; + a truthful picture," 32. + Other speakers, 32, the distress disputed, 33; + its cause the paper system, 33; + no necessity for protection, 33; + Webster's remarks, 33; + other speakers in opposition, 33; + passage of the bill in the House, 34; + closeness of the vote, 34; + moved to refer to finance committees in the Senate, 34; + lost, 34; + referred to committee on manufactures, 34; + passed the Senate, 34; + increase of revenue a motive with some friends of the bill, 34; + views of the candidates for the Presidency, 34; + position of various States on the bill, 34. + _Revision of._-- + Date of a serious division between the North and South, 95; + the work of politicians and manufacturers, 95; + productions of different States favored by additional duties on + their rival imports, 95; + remarks, 95; + "in vain that it is called the American system, 95; + as a tax for the support of Government, it is to be supported; + if for any other purpose, it is to be reprobated, 95; + the surrender of individual opinion to the interest of the + State," 95; + the bill contained a vicious principle, 95; + the tariff an issue in the Presidential contest, 96; + manufacturers warned not to mingle their interests in + politics, 96; + change of policy in the New England States, 96; + "she held back, 96; + denounced, 96; + the present measure called a New England one, 96; + tone of those who administered the Government," 96; + the question now both political and sectional, 97; + the duty on indigo, 97; + remarks on the motion, 97; + "history of its production, 97; + reasons for encouraging its home production, 98; + reasons for a unanimous vote, 98; + burdens imposed by every tariff on Virginia and the + Carolinas," 99; + "object to make the bill consistent, though opposed to the + principle, 99; + no boon asked for the South, 99; + capacity of the country to produce it, 100;" + motion lost, 100; + a nominal duty imposed, 100; + this regarded as an insult by the South, 100; + Southern views of the bill, 100; + scheme of this Tariff, where conceived, 101; + the bill a regular appendage of presidential elections, 101; + change between the prosperity of the North and the South, 101; + cause to which attributed, 101; + its justice, 101; + feeling of the mass of democratic members, 102. + _Reduction of Duties._-- + A certain amount reduced, at the previous session, 308; + a step in the right direction, 308; + further reduction expected, 308; + Verplanck's bill, 308; + the financial history of the country since the late war, 309; + a satisfactory statement, 309; + carrying back the protective system to the year of its + commencement, 309; + abundant protection to real manufacturers, 309; + bound to be satisfactory to the South Carolina school, 309; + bill lingered in the House under interminable debates on systems + and theories, 309; + suddenly knocked over by a new bill, 309; + moved to strike out all after the enacting clause, and to insert + a new bill, called the compromise, 309; + delay asked for by Northern members, 310; + remarks, 310; + "one short hour ago collecting our papers to go home, 310; + a new bill, proposed, and the cry of 'question' raised, 310; + hasty legislation deprecated in matters of great + importance, 310; + this matter assumes an imposing attitude, 310; + a bill to tranquillize feelings, 310; + it is said the next Congress will be hostile to the tariff, 311; + the discontent has a deeper seat than the tariff," 311; + the seductive and treacherous nature of compromise + legislation, 311; + bill passed at once, 311; + a bill without precedent in the annals of legislation, 312; + the manner of proceeding, 312; + the degree to which it was a compromise, 312; + list of the voters, 312. + Clay asks leave to introduce a bill called a "compromise + measure," 313; + remarks, 313; + "two great objects in view, 314; + the first object looks at the tariff, 313; + it stands in imminent danger, 313; + it must fall at the next session, 313; + be productive of calamitous consequences, 313; + can be placed on a better foundation now, than at the next + session, 313; + the majority of the dominant party is adverse to the + tariff, 313; + the father of the system charged with its unnatural + abandonment, 313; + a wish to separate it from politics," 314; + the principle of the bill a series of annual reductions of + one-tenth per cent., &c., 314; + other features of the bill, 314; + remarks on the number of years the protective policy has to run, + and the guaranties for its abandonment, 314; + a stipulation to continue nine years, and no guarantee for its + abandonment, 314; + moral guarantees, 314; + "this project has not the elements of success, 315; + a violation of the constitution, as the Senate have no power to + originate a revenue bill, 315; + after they are defeated, and can no longer maintain a conflict, + they come to make the best bargain they can, 315; + the tariff is in its last gasp, 315; + what has the tariff led us to already? 315; + what evidence that the manufacturers will not come at the end of + the time, and ask more protection than ever," 315; + "a measure for harmony, 315; + the unhappy divisions of North and South attributable to this + bill, 315; + further remarks," 315; + fallibility of political opinions, 316; + Clay's views, 316; + Calhoun's views, 316; + Clay's determination relative to a reaction, 316; + manner in which the bill was received by the public, 316; + Niles' Register, 316; + conclusions of the manufacturers, 316; + position of Webster, 316; + not consulted on the subject, 316; + "the bill a well-understood surrender of the power of + discrimination, or a stipulation not to use that power for + a certain period, 317; + if the tariff is in danger, it is because the people will not + sanction it, 317; + resolutions relative to the bill," 317. + Probable reasons for Webster's exclusion from all knowledge of the + compromise bill, 318; + coincidence of his views with those of General Jackson, 318; + a reduction of the tariff to a stable condition frustrated by + the compromise bill, 318; + objections urged against the bill, 318; + attitude of South Carolina surmounted the objections, 318; + would remove all cause of discontent from her, 318; + House bill introduced during the discussion on the question of + leave, 319; + ditto passed, 319; + share of the manufacturing states in this compromise, 319; + an incident showing that "measures may be passed on other + reasons than their merits, 319; + remarks, 319; + "an extraordinary augmentation of duties in a bill which was to + reduce duties, 319; + two or three little factories in Connecticut must be + protected, 319; + contrary to the whole tenor and policy of the bill, 320; + a view of the circumstances which had attended the duties on + these woollens," 320. + Another incident--the character of protection openly claimed for + this bill, 320; + remarks of various Senators on this point, 321; + silence of Calhoun on this point, 321. + The constitutionality of originating this bill in the Senate, 321; + purely a question of privilege, and the decision of it belonged + alone to the other House, 321; + no Committee of Ways and Means in the Senate, 321; + it is not the less a money bill turn its object being + protection, 321; + amendment proposed relative to the drawback on manufactured + imports, 321; + instance refined sugar, 322; + lost, 322; + carried, so far as relates to sugar, in after years, 322. + Motion to substitute home valuations for foreign or imported + goods, 322; + strenuously opposed by Calhoun, 322; + insisted upon by friends of the bill, 322; + moved to lay the bill on the table, 322; + adjournment moved and carried, 322; + Calhoun recedes, 322; + the conditions, 322; + their fallacy, 323; + debate on this point, 323; + "a home valuation deemed necessary by the friends of the + protective system, 323; + believed that after nine years most of the manufacturers will be + sufficiently grown to protect themselves under a + twenty-five per cent. duty, 323; + it would be an increase of duties, 323; + essentially necessary in order to prevent and detect + frauds, 323; + it will be an entering wedge for future measures, 323; + for the sake of conciliation, the bill is brought forward, 324; + the objections to the motion insurmountable, 324; + the bill will save South Carolina from herself, 324; + you cannot have the fair twenty per cent. without adopting the + principle of home valuation, 325; + the unequal operation of the home valuation, 325; + not possible to maintain our institutions and our liberties + under the continuance of this controversy, 326; + proposed to lay the bill on the table, 326; + further debate, 327; + motion withdrawn, 327; + amendment moved, 327; + adjournment moved, 327; + carried, 327; + amendment that no valuation be adopted which will operate + unequally in different parts of the Union considered, 327; + requirement of the constitution, 327; + merchant put to great inconvenience, 327; + the bill is declared to be permanent, 327; + home valuation impracticable and unprecedented, and unknown in + any legislation, 328; + without the assurance that the principle will not be disturbed, + bill should be opposed, 329; + home valuation tending to a violation at the constitution, 329; + injurious and almost fatal to the Southern ports, 329; + create great additional expense, 329; + an increase of duties in a new form, 329; + the fate of the bill depends on the fate of the amendment, 329; + two conditions of the vote of Mr. Calhoun, 329; + amendment fixing a home valuation adopted," 330; + a new principle thus adopted at the expense of the + constitution, 330. + _Compromise, secret history of._-- + Calhoun and Clay rival candidates for the Presidency, 342; + leaders in opposite political systems, 342; + cause of their friendship, 342; + rupture, 342; + a question between them, which had the upper hand of the + other, 342; + Letcher conceives the idea of a compromise to release South + Carolina from her position, 342; + determination of Jackson to arrest Calhoun for high + treason, 343; + conferences, 343; + agreement with the manufacturers, 343; + action of Mr. Clayton, 343; + amendments which were agreed to, 343; + manner of the passage of the home valuation amendment, 344; + Calhoun's remarks, 344; + his vote, 344; + John M. Clayton master of both, 344. + _Act of 1833._-- + Compromises, 344; + act of 1833 a breach of all the rules and principles of + legislation, 345; + a conception of rival politicians who had failed in the game of + agitation, and threw it up for the game of + pacification, 345; + how could this measure be effected in a country so vast and + intelligent, 345; + Benton's view of the compromise, 346; + vices of the act, 346; + mischiefs done to the frame of the government, 347. + _See Protective System_. + + TATNALL, Col., on the treaty with the Creeks, 64; + second to Randolph in the duel with Clay, 72. + + TAYLOR, JOHN W., Representative from New York, 7; + Speaker, 7; + votes for the Missouri compromise, 8. + + _Taylor, John_, decease of, a perfect and complete republican + statesman, 45; + demeanor, 45; + dress, 45; + his character, 45; + writings, 45; + presented the Virginia Resolutions of 1798, 46; + on the Virginia resolutions, 351. + + TAYLOR, G. K., on the Virginia Resolutions, 350. + + _Territories._--Their rights under the constitution, 4. + + _Texas_, _Independence of._-- + Memorials on the subject, 665; + effects of the victory of San Jacinto, 665; + remarks, 665; + reference to Committee on Foreign Affairs moved, 666; + if Texas has a government _de facto_, it is the duty of the + government to acknowledge it, 666; + moderation and deliberation counselled, 666; + acknowledgment and admission advocated, 667; + new theatre for the slavery agitation revealed, 667; + a design to make Texas an element in the Presidential + election, 667; + the former cession of Texas, 667; + the course of Calhoun, 667; + remarks of Bedford Brown, 668; + remarks of Mr. Rives, 668; + national faith should be preserved inviolate, 668; + report in favor, 669; + "the balance of power and the perpetuation of our institutions," + as a reason for admission, 669; + resolutions of recognition passed both Houses, 670; + remarks of Senator Benton, 670; + the separation of the two countries among the fixed order of + events, 672; + the Alamo, 673; + humanity of Mexican ladies, 674; + calumny on the cause of the revolt, 674; + the revolt has illustrated the Anglo Saxon character, 675. + + THOMAS, JESSE B., votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + THOMAS, FRANCIS, on Committee of Bank Investigation, 241; + on the admission of Arkansas, 631. + + THOMPSON, SMITH, Secretary of the Navy, 7. + + TOMPKINS, D. D., Vice President, 7. + + THORN, Lieut., his fate, 109. + + THORN, HERMANN, application for a commission in the army, 183. + + _Treasury notes_, resorted to, 1; + degree of depreciation in second year the war of 1812, 1. + + _Treaty of 1807._--Cause of its rejection without reference to the + Senate, 1. + + _Treaty-making power._--Its extent, 4. + + _Treaty of_ Indian Springs, 58. + + TRIMBLE, DANIEL, Representative from Kentucky, 7. + + TUCKER, GEORGE, Representative from Virginia, 7. + + TYLER, JOHN, Representative from Virginia, 7; + on the force bill, 331; + defends the Senate investigating committee's report, 486. + + + V + + VAN BUREN, MARTIN, remarks in the treaty with the Creeks, 60; + Secretary of State, 119; + appointed Minister to England, 181; + resigns his seat in the cabinet, 181; + his rejection as Minister to England, 214; + candidates for the succession to General Jackson, 214; + effect of Van Buren's appointment as Secretary of State, 214; + a stepping-stone to the Presidency, 214; + appointed minister, and left for London, 214; + charged with breaking up the cabinet for the purpose of ousting + the friends of Calhoun, 214; + his nomination sent to the Senate, and rejection certain, soon + as a case could be made out for justification, 214; + causes of objection, 215; + rejection was not enough--a killing off in the public mind + intended, 215; + the speeches, 215; + anecdote, 215; + the speakers, 215; + apostrophe of Madame Roland, 215; + oh politics! how much bamboozling is practised in thy name, 215; + tie votes, 215; + speakers for the nomination, 216; + grounds upon which the objections were based, 216; + quotation from McLane, 216; + report of Mr. Gallatin containing a refutation of the objections + relative to the British trade, 216; + the original of Van Buren's letter of instructions, 216; + unpublished speech of Van Buren, 217; + the Washington ground, 217; + Jackson, author of the instructions, 217; + letter of General Jackson to Van Buren after the latter became + President, 217; + completely disproving a dishonorable imputation, 217; + Calhoun's friendship for Jackson, 218; + the New York system of proscription, 218; + silence of Benton, reason for, 218; + his letter to Van Buren, 218; + the rejection in England, 219; + its effects upon Mr. Van Buren, 219; + remark of Calhoun, 219; + the tie votes, 219; + the injunction of secrecy removed, 219; + relative to removals under Jackson, 218; + elected Vice President, 282. + + VAN DYKE, NICHOLAS, votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + _Veto of Maysville Road Bill._-- + Third veto on the subject of internal improvements, 167; + history of these vetoes, 167; + they embrace all the constitutional reasoning on the + question, 167. + + _Veto of the bank, effects of._-- + This a general caption for the opposition newspapers throughout + the country, 280; + the ruin of the country made to appear, 280; + extracts from journals, 281; + the programme of the bank and its branches, 281; + wicked attempt on the part of a moneyed corporation to govern the + election, 281. + + VERPLANCK'S, GULIAN C., bill for the reduction of duties, 308. + + _Virginia resolutions_, suggestive of nullification to Mr. + Calhoun, 335; + debate of 1830, the dawn of the ideas of nullification, 347; + the Virginia resolutions quoted, 347; + nullification doctrines avowed, 347; + resolutions of '98 appealed to, 347; + the resolutions, 346; + their vindication, 348; + from their text, 348; + the right and duty of State interposition claimed, 348; + forcible or nullifying interposition not meant, 348; + the constitution suggests several modes of interposition, 348; + to interpose, does not mean to nullify and set at nought, 349. + The cotemporaneous interpretation, 349; + where found, 349; + speakers in the Virginia Legislature, 349; + opinions advanced by the speakers, 350, 351; + the opposers of the resolutions did not charge upon them, nor + their supporters in any manner contend for any principle + like that of nullification, 352; + responses of State Legislatures, report on the, 352; + extracts, 352; + enumeration of the powers which in the promises are claimed for + the States, 353; + views of the republicans who adopted the resolutions, 353; + remark of Madison, 353; + of Monroe in 1800, 354; + the passage of the sedition law, 354; + conduct of the people of Virginia, 354. + The resolutions disabused of nullification by their author, 354; + the letters of Madison, 355; + extracts from his letter to Mr. Everett, 355; + reasons for rejecting in the constitution fanciful and + impracticable theories, 355; + what the constitution adopts as a security of the rights and + powers of the States, 356; + completeness of these provisions for the security of the + States, 356; + on the doctrine of nullification, 356; + letter to Joseph C. Cabell, 356, 357, 359; + to Daniel Webster, 356; + to James Robertson, 356; + to N. P. Trist, 357, 359; + to C. E. Haynes, 357; + to Andrew Stevenson, 357; + from a memorandum on nullification, 358, 359; + _note_, 358; + to Mr. Townsend, 359; + further extracts, 360; + remarks, 360. + + _Vote_ against the ratification of the treaty of 1818, 17; + on repairs of Cumberland road, 22; + on the bill to make a road to New Mexico, 44; + on the bill to occupy the Columbia river, 50; + on the nomination of Clay as Secretary of State, 55; + on the nominations to the Panama mission, 66; + on treaty with the Cherokees, 108; + on leave to offer a resolution of inquiry relative to recharter of + the bank, 205; + on the recharter of the bank, 250; + do. in the House, 250; + on selling the stock of the United States in bank, 295; + on the compromise tariff bill, 312; + on the compromise bill, 330; + on the bill to distribute the sales from public lands, 364; + on the resolution of inquiry into the fitness of the persons + nominated for bank directors, 385; + on the resolution relative to the report of the Secretary of the + Treasury, 395; + on the resolution condemning President Jackson, 423; + on Webster's plan of relief, 435; + on laying the expunging resolutions of Alabama on the table, 528; + on the branch mints, 553; + on the deposit bank bill, 553; + on the fortification bill, 555; + on the incendiary publication bill, 588; + on the reception of abolition petitions, 619; + on abolition petition of Society of Friends, 621; + on abolition petitions in the House, 621; + on the Cherokee treaty, 625; + on the admission of Arkansas, 631; + on the distribution bill, 651; + on recognizing the independence of Texas, 670; + on the recision of the specie circular, 705; + on the substitute to land distribution, 708; + on striking out the deposit clause from the appropriation + bill, 711. + + + W + + WALKER, JOHN W., Senator from Alabama, 7; + judge, 7; + votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8; + on the independence of Texas, 665; + on the specie circular, 703. + + _War of 1812._-- + By whose exertions the declaration was obtained, 6; + its great results, 6. + + WASHINGTON, Judge, of Supreme Court, 8. + + WATMOUGH, JOHN G., on the Committee of Bank investigation, 241. + + WAYNE, JAMES M., moves a reference of the bank memorial to a select + committee, 284; + on the bank investigation, 288; + appointed Judge of the Supreme Court, 569. + + WEBSTER, DANIEL, denies the public distress, 33; + on the protective system, 96; + on revision of the tariff, 96; + on the ordinance of 1787, 134; + on the conduct of the free States on slavery, 137; + in reply to Hayne, 138; + debate with Hayne, 138, 140; + opposes Van Buren as Minister to England, 215; + on the recharter of the bank, 243, 244; + on the prospect of public distress, 254; + on the force bill, 332; + on nullification, 338; + on the French spoliation bill, 488, 505; + on the Expunging resolution, 550; + on the bill to suppress incendiary publications, 586; + on French affairs, 594, 596; + on abolition petitions, 619; + on the specie circular, 699. + + WHITE, HUGH L., on the entrance of the bank directors into the + political field, 254. + + WICKLIFFE, CHARLES H., on the Committee of Inquiry, 287. + + WILKINS, WILLIAM, on the force bill, 330. + + WILLIAMS, JOHN, Senator from Tennessee, 7. + + WILLIAMS, LEWIS, Representative from South Carolina, 7; + Father of the House, 7. + + WILLIAMS, T. H., votes for the Missouri Compromise, 8. + + WIRT, WILLIAM, Attorney General, 7, 55; + counsel for the Cherokee Indians, 165; + candidate for the Presidency, 282; + decease of, 475; + rank as a lawyer, 475; + lessons of his life, 475; + early condition, 475; + authorship, 476; + time of his death, 476; + remarks of Mr. Webster at bar meeting, 476. + + WOODBURY, LEVI, Secretary of the Navy, 181. + + WRIGHT, SILAS, on the French Spoliation bill, 489. + + + Y + + YELL, ARCHIBALD, on the cession of the public lands, 711. + + + + +Recent American History and Biography. + + +Destruction and Reconstruction. + + Personal Experiences of the Late War. By RICHARD TAYLOR, + Lieutenant-General in the Confederate Army. 1 vol., 8vo. Cloth, + price, $2.00. + +Four Years with General Lee: + + Being a Summary of the more Important Events touching the + Career of General Robert E. Lee, in the War between the States; + together with an Authoritative Statement of the Strength of the + Army which he commanded in the Field. By WILLIAM H. TAYLOR, of + his Staff, and late Adjutant-General of the Army of Northern + Virginia. 8vo. Cloth, $2.00. + +Military Operations of Joseph E. Johnston. + + Narrative of Military Operations directed during the Late War + between the States. By JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, General C. S. A. + Illustrated by Steel Plates and Maps. 1 vol., 8vo. Cloth, $5.00; + sheep, $6.00; half morocco, $7.50. + +The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston. + + By his Son, Colonel WILLIAM PRESTON JOHNSTON. One large octavo + volume, 774 pages. With Maps, a fine Portrait on Steel, and + Eight full-page Illustrations. Cloth, $5.00; sheep, $6.00; half + turkey, $7.00. + +The Autobiography of William H. Seward (1801-1834). + + With a later Memoir by his Son, FREDERICK W. SEWARD, late + Assistant Secretary of State. Per volume, over 800 pages, cloth, + $4.25; sheep, $5.25; half turkey, $6.25; full turkey, $8.25. + +Military History of General U. S. Grant. + + From April, 1861, to April, 1865. By ADAM BADEAU, Colonel and + Aide de-Camp to the General-in-Chief, Brevet Brigadier-General + U. S. A. With Portrait, and numerous Maps. 3 vols., 8vo, + complete. Cloth, $12.00; sheep, $15.00; half turkey, $20.00. + +Memoirs of W. T. Sherman. + + By Himself. (With a Military Map showing the Marches of the + United States Forces under General Sherman's command.) Two + handsome vols., 8vo. Blue cloth, $5.50; sheep, $7.00; half + morocco, $8.50; full morocco, $12.00. + +CHEAP EDITION. 1 vol. Cloth, $3.50. + +D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 1, 3, & 5 Bond St., New York. + + =HISTORY OF THE WORLD=, FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS TO THE FALL OF + THE WESTERN EMPIRE. By PHILIP SMITH, B. A. 3 vols., 8vo, vellum + cloth, gilt top, $2.00 per vol. + + New edition, in elegant style, and at greatly reduced price. + + "These volumes embody the results of many years of arduous + and conscientious study. The work is entitled to be called + the ablest and most satisfactory book on the subject in our + language. The author's methods are dignified and judicious, + and he has availed himself of all the recent light thrown by + philological research on the annals of the East. The work + is well supplied with maps."--_Dr. C. K. Adams's Manual of + Historical Literature._ + + =MONTESQUIEU'S CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CAUSES OF THE GRANDEUR AND + DECADENCE OF THE ROMANS.= A New Translation, together with an + Introduction, Critical and Illustrative Notes, and an Analytical + Index. By JEHU BAKER. Being incidentally a Rational Discussion + of the Phenomena and the Tendencies of History in General. 12mo. + Cloth, $2.00. + + "Mr. Jehu Baker has rendered a great service to English-speaking + people by producing a new and admirable translation of + Montesquieu's 'Considerations on the Grandeur and Decadence of + the Romans.' But Mr. Baker has by no means confined himself + to the simple work of translation. Many foot-notes have been + added throughout the volume, each chapter is followed by an + extended and elaborate note, and a careful analytical index + greatly increases the value of the work for purposes of + reference."--_Boston Courier._ + + =THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL, AND THEIR PLACE IN HISTORY=, TO THE + CLOSE OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY B. C. By W. ROBERTSON SMITH, M. A., + LL. D., author of "The Old Testament in the Jewish Church." + 12mo. Cloth, $1.75. + + "It is not every Professor of Hebrew whose academical lectures + would furnish forth such a rich feast as now lies before + us. Even the happy few who know something of the facts of + the Bible will learn much from the felicitousness or the + present exposition. For Mr. Robertson Smith is not only a + 'full man,' but has a singular gift of making a hard subject + intelligible.... He loves to blow away the mists of controversy + and show the truth in all its attractive simplicity."--_The + Academy._ + + =THE VISION OF ESTHER.= By CHARLES DE KAY. A sequel to "The + Vision of Nimrod; an Oriental Romance in Verse." 12mo. Cloth, + $1.50. + + "This work belongs to a new time, to a new class of readers and + thinkers, and to a future group of poets. It will grow upon + the thought and attention of the public as independent effort + always does. Mr. De Kay has an unusual mastery of language; and + it would be hard to find more beautifully written verse, of a + vigorous and natural sort, than one can easily discover in this + poem. It need only be added that 'Esther,' like the poetry of M. + Sully-Prudhomme, is one of the signs of the time. The movement + of thought, of discovery, of aspiration, is in a straight line. + No one can fail to see the line. The poet most run as the world + runs; and Mr. De Kay is at least one American poet who has felt + the fire of his age. He will live longer than the imitators of + Longfellow and Bryant."--_New York Times._ + + =L. L. L.; OR, FIFTY LAW LESSONS.= Embracing all the Technical + Points of Business Law. By ARTHUR B. CLARK, Principal B. & S. + Business College, Newark, N. J. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25. + + +_For sale by all booksellers; or mailed, post-paid, on receipt of +price._ + + +New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's note: + +Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. +Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as +printed. + +Mismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where +the missing quote should be placed. + +The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the +transcriber and is placed in the public domain. + +Page 41: " without the protection or counteance" ... "counteance" +has been replaced with "countenance". + +Page 48: "I had communicated to you unequivocally, before the +15th of December, 1824, my determition to vote for Mr. Adams" ... +"determition" has been changed to "determination". + +Page 162: " merely because they had owed they situations to some +(whig) nobleman" ... the second "they" has been changed to "their". + +Page 283: "for the gallant veterans of the Revotion" ... "Revotion" +has been changed to "Revolution". + +Page 375: " $2,850 for 01,000 copies of 'Gallatin on Banking,'" ... +01,1000 has been changed to 10,000. + +Page 442, 443: "Mr. B. did not think it necessary to descant and +expatiate upon the merits and advantages" of a gold currency." ... +The word "descant" was very unclear and was inserted in the hope +that it is the word intended by the author. + +Page 548: "necessity for a new committee to examine that" ... the +word "that" is unclear, and could possibly be "the". + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thirty Years' View (Vol. I of 2), by +Thomas Hart Benton + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44851 *** |