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Whether it can carry any advantage or disadvantage to this or that section, I have not considered, and I shall not consider. Not even reputation do I expect or desire from my efforts, except the legitimate one of having faithfully discharged my duty to such a question, whether as a Senator or a citi

zen.

As to this easy and most culpable policy of eternal delays, however, have you not already by it quadrupled your difficulties and your eventual losses? Had you at once, on recovering possession of Astoria in 1818, built military posts and provi ded for settlers, you never would have heard of the British pretensions since started. The same policy of indecision gave you the difficulties of your Northeastern question and the disadvantages of its late adjustment. Sir, the country of an offensive policy (like England) always gains, and that of a defensive one (like ourselves) always loses, by these delays.

But the Senator from South Carolina says this is the first instance of a proposition, under this Government, to found a colony at the public charge. No; but we bought them ready made to our handsand splendid acquisitions they were; and, strange to say, as powerful arguments, and as strong language, were used against the purchase of Louisiana, as are now used against the occupation of Oregon.

Now, in the first place, no such idea has been put forward as founding a colony at the public expense. No boon is asked, but a very limited one of lands, to be redeemed from the wilderness; and such a gift has, with all the nations of the globe, been a common feature in the first planting of remote settlements. Except this, and the protection of your laws, nothing is claimed. To such a method you owe it that you are the owners of this broad Union. Of Oregon, you can never otherwise take possession; and the only fault is, that you have been so tardy to put it in practice. Had you, before the time of Commodore Porter, secured your foothold there, by fortifying a port on the Columbia, you might have saved millions in property and commercial advantages, now forever lost and forfeited. Twenty millions of dollars, invested by your citizens in the whale fisheries alone of these seas, yet admonish you that you have not a moment to lose in securing there the shelter of a commodious harbor. All these things-the relations you are establishing with the Sandwich group-the long and rich coast-trade of the Pacific--the honor and the rights of the country--call upon you to pass this bill.

For such objects, you are started at an appropriation of $100,000. Mean time, for an extorted provision of your late treaty, (Britain telling you that if you did not carry out your laws for repressing the slave-trade, she would do it for you,) you gladly pay an annual $600,000, with hymns of praise to the great negotiator whose transcendent abilities brought about such an arrangement.

So much for the enormous cost of this novel colonization; and now as to its novelty. Sir, have we never before colonized? Have you not, at an expense of millions, removed the Indians from your settled States, and colonized them beyond your border? I do not complain of that measure: nay, I rejoice at it, as one full of humanity; but I have often had occasion to point out to you the duties which it imposes upon you of guarding the exposed parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and other portions of your Western frontier from the dangers of that Indian population; to keep which in check, many of the provisions of this bill are indispensable.

Certainly there are interests, deemed paramount in some parts of this Union, which gentlemen may conceive as likely to be affected by this bill. I know not whether the growth of this new colony (if you choose to call it such) is to give a future predonderance to the free States, or not. I look to the territory only as the common home of citizens from every part of the Union. When numerous enough to form a distinct sovereignty, it will be for them to choose whether they will obey, or not, the great law of consanguinity and of similar freedom which so strongly impels towards each other even the fragments of our peculiar race. By that sort of yearning, we see Texas seeking to reunite herself to us, in spite of distance and dispersion. So much, indeed, do the facilities for intercourse and concentration outgo the causes of separation and dispersion, that if Texas were a free State instead of a slave State, I do not

The Oregon Bill-Mr. Linn.

know if I should, on the other score, repel her wish to become a member of this Union.

The Senator from South Carolina thinks that only compression within narrow limits can give a high state of civilization. This is true, or false, ac-cording to the idea which is to be affixed to the term civilization. Is it formed by the loftiest intellectual results among a certain class? or is it the purest moral culture of all classes? Christianity, aided only by ordinary intelligence, has done more to humanize and to elevate mankind, than all the intellectual glories of Paganism could ever for a moment effect. That Christianity doe not shut itself up in narrow bounds, or nurture national selfishness. Broad, diffusive, and full of all the charities of man to man, its principle is universal brotherhood. The spirit of the age itself forbids the shutting up within narrow limits the blessings which our institutions are so fit to diffuse -blessings which the active and expansive spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race seems fitted and destined to spread over the whole earth. I care not fo. that high civilization whose standard is wealth or power; or that other, which erects upon partial laws the superiority of the few. I am not a lover of the civilization which takes for one of its main instruments great corporate associations-contrivances for enabling one set of men to lord it over another. None of these is the high civilization which I desire for this country; but the moral culture, the general intelligence, the careful domestic education and discipline, the Christian brotherhood of a whole happy and virtuous nation. When we give scope and encouragement to this virtuous social activity, we best perform our legislative part as to the work of civilization.

To talk of the Rocky Mountains as an impassable barrier, is, sir, but to speak as folks did of the Alleghany fifty years ago. Distance is almost annihilated by the existing state of things; and, vastly as our limits have been extended, they have, in point of time and difficulty, contracted almost as much, since the formation of our Government; so that the attendance here of delegates from beyond the Rocky Mountains really involves nothing absurd, or even improbable.

[Mr. L. here laid before the Senate a copy of the contract usually passed between the Hudson Bay Company and its employees, or servants. He referred to it as conclusive proof of permanent settlement, if not of permanent land grants, and of the firm reliance which the company has in the pledges of the British Government.]

He went on to argue that the proposition of the British ministers to Mr. Gallatin in 1826-27, was a palpable admission of our rights, and rendered decisive by the attendant circumstances. They then proposed to insert, in the renewed convention then under negotiation, provisions that neither pow. er should assume or exercise any right of sovereignty or dominion over any part of the country for fifteen years; and that no settlement then exist. ing, or which might thereafter be formed, should ever be adduced by either party in support of any claim of sovereignty or dominion. This proposition was referred, by our negotiator, to the President, (Mr. Adams,) and rejected, on the ground that it would preclude our exercising our rights of dominion and sovereignty. The proposition, on their part, is more than a tacit admission, and its rejection by us, upon such grounds, an assertion of our right to exercise the sovereignty, while their silence as to that reason forms a fresh assent to it.

In no part of the negotiations is there a word to prove that, on either part, a doubt was entertained of our right to plant military posts. Great Britain, indeed, clearly, though indirectly, admits it. For Mr. Gallatin says, in his letter to Mr. Clay, dated at London, 7th August, 1827, that "there was no intention on the part of Great Britain to colonize the country, or to impede the progress of our settlements. But Great Britain owed protection to her subjects in that quarter, and could not admit that they should, so long as the permanent boundary was not settled, be liable to a foreign jurisdiction. Nor would her interest, or a due regard to national character, permit her to acquiesce in an exclusive military occupation of the country, on the part of the United States."

The utmost objection, then, which can be inferred to the bill, is the possibility that Great Britain, by a future adjustment, may prove entitled to territory within which may lie lands assigned to our citizens under these prospective grants. But it has been already abundantly proved that Great Britain does

Senate.

this through her Hudson Bay Company. They, in their contracts, grant the soil-a sovereign act to which they themselves are not competent, and which, therefore, supposes the delegation and consent of their Government-a Government certainly not unaware of what they are doing in this behoof, and notoriously promising them its support in what ever interests or settlements may grow up there.

In everything, Britain interprets the convention for herself. She has told you what she would not and what she would permit you to do. She says you must not set up a distinct State or Territorial Government there; but that you may do as she has done-extend to that territory the laws of one of your other Territories or States. Well, that is all that this bill proposes. Never before was the treaty interpreted as tying up our hands from the exer cise of our sovereignty; that construction is now thrust upon us for the first time, by the fear of making an issue with Great Britain. An issue with Britain! Methinks, sir, there is small need of furnishing issues to a power so capable of erecing pretensions out of anything; and little policy in starting claims for her, to whose claims you always succumb. Seizing upon your Northwest coast, during the last war, she has ever since kept you out of it, from year to year, until she is now able, by the control which she has established over the Indians, to take possession of your rivers and harbors, and virtually exclude you from the trade of your own shores.

Senators have enlarged upon the pacific, and even the fraternal feelings which Great Britain manifested towards us in the late treaty. I am sorry to say that I can discover, in that adjustment nothing to indicate any desire of peace, except upon condition of our yielding her everything that was in contest. You gave her all she wanted; and now you are in raptures of amazement at her moderation and humanity in not going to war! For her violations of your territory and vessels, you took an apology which she did not design to offer as such. Of the anomalous McLeod case, she complained loudly, calling lustily upon you to take it out of the hands of the State authorities. You complied as far as you could, and apologized for all that you could not; taking care, meantime, not to irritate her by too much mention of your own greater wrong-that of the Caroline and the death of Durfee. She has openly told you to carry out your own laws for the suppression of the slave-trade, or she would do it for you; she has plainly told you that if you did not enforce your laws for the pres ervation of neutrality on the Canadian borders. she would do it for you; and you have meekly submitted, promising at once to keep up, on the African coast, a force of eighty guns. She complains, and you make amends; she claims, and you yield; she requires, and you comply. And lo! you are delighted and amazed at her wonderfully pa cific temper! War, sir! Why, what excuse could she have for talking of it, when, to stop her mouth, you have given her all she demanded; and when, to gratify her, you incur an expenditure of three millions in five years; while we are told that, for this important bill, the treasury cannot burden itself with a single outlay of $100,000.

I should deplore a war, however necessary but, deploring it, I should none the more shrink from it, if the rights, the interests, or the honor of my country demanded it. When any of these were decisively at stake, not even before the form dable power of Great Britain would I hesitate fc:

a moment.

But, Mr. President, I do not anticipate any such result from the passage of the bill. Its probable e fects will be to bring the two Governments to see the necessity of promptly and definitively settling this long-discussed and long agitated subject, before British and American interests in the Territory of Oregon become so commingled, yet so variart as to close the door to any other method of adjust ment, but a resort to arms.

A bill to authorize the adoption of measures fo: the occupation and settlement of the Territory of Oregon, for extending certain portions of the laws of the United States over the same, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rept sentatives of the United States of America in Con gress assembled, That the President of the Une States is hereby authorized and required to cause be erected, at suitable places and distances, a line

27TH CONG....3D SESS.

stockade and blockhouse forts, not exceeding five in number, from some point on the Missouri and Arkansas rivers, into the best pass for entering the valley of the Oregon; and, also, at or near the mouth of the Columbia river.

That provision hereafter shall be made by law to secure and grant six hundred and forty acres, or oue section of land, to every white male inhabitant of the Territory of Oregon, of the age of eighteen years and upward, who shall cultivate and use the same for five consecutive years; or to his heir or heirs-at-law, if such there be, in case of his decease. And to every such inhabitant or cultivator (being a married man) there shall be granted, in addition, one hundred and sixty acres to the wife of said hus. band, and the like quantity of one hundred and sixty-acres to the father for each child under the age of eighteen years he may have, or which may be born within the five years aforesaid.

That no sale, alienation, or contract of any kind, shall be valid, of such lands, before the patent is issued therefor; nor shall the same be liable to be taken in execution, or bound by any judgment, mortgage, or lien, of any kind, before the patent is issued; and all pretended alienations or contracts for alienating such lands, made before the issuing of the patents, shall be null and void against the settler himself, his wife, or widow, or against his heirs-at-law, or against purchasers, after the issuing of the patent.

That the President is hereby authorized and required to appoint two additional Indian agents, with a salary of two thousand dollars each, whose duty it shall be (under his direction and control) to superintend the interests of the United States with any or every Indian tribe west of any agency now established by law.

That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars be appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to carry into effect the rovisions of this act.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the supreme court and district courts of the Territory of Iowa be, and the same is hereby, extended over that part of the Indian territories lying west of the present limits of the said Territory of Iowa, and south of the fortyninth degree of north latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains, and north of the boundary line between the United States and the Republic of Texas, not included within the limits of any State; and, also, over the Indian territories comprising the Rocky Mountains and the country between them and the Pacific ocean, south of fifty-four degrees and forty minutes of north latitude, and north of the fortysecond degree of north latitude; and justices of the peace may be appointed for the said territory, in the same manner, and with the same powers, as now provided by law in relation to the Territory of Iowa: Provided, That any subject of the Government of Great Britain, who shall have been arrested under the provisions of this act for any crime alleged to have been committed within the territory westward of the Stony or Rocky Mountains, while the same remains free and open to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the United States and of Great Britain, pursuant to stipulations between the two powers, shall be delivered up, on proof of his being such British subject, to the nearest or most convenient authorities having cognizance of such offence by the laws of Great Britain, for the purpose of being prosecuted and tried according to such laws.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That one associate judge of the supreme court of the Territory of Iowa, in addition to the number now authorized by law, may, in the discretion of the President, be appointed, to hold his office by the same tenure and for the same time, receive the same compensation, and possess all the powers and authority conferred by law upon the associate judges of the said Territory; and one judicial district shall be organized by the said supreme court, in addition to the existing number, in reference to the jurisdiction conferred by this act; and a district court shall be held in the said district by the judge of the supreme court, at such times and places as the said court shall direct; and the said district court shall possess all the powers and authority vested in the present district courts of the said Territory, and may, in like manner appoint its own clerk.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That any justice of the peace, appointed in and for the territories described in the second section of this act, shall have power to cause all offenders against the laws of the United States to be arrested by such persons

The Army Bill---Mr. Weller.

as they shall appoint for that purpose, and to commit such offenders to safe custody for trial, in the same cases and in the manner provided by law in relation to the Territory of Iowa; and to cause the offenders so committed to be conveyed to the place appointed for the holding of a district court for the said Territory of Iowa, nearest and most convenient to the place of such commitment, there to be detained for trial, by such persons as shall be authorized for that purpose by any judge of the supreme court, or any justice of the peace of_the said Territory; or where such offenders are British subjects, to cause them to be delivered to the nearest or most convenient British authorities, as herein before provided; and the expenses of such commitment, removal, and detention shall be paid in the same manner as provided by law in respect to the fees of the marshal of the said Territory.

REMARKS OF MR. WELLER,

OF OHIO.

In the House of Representatives, February 17, 1843-On the army bill.

The amendment of the Senate, appropriating $150,000 to the continuation of the improvement of the navigation of the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, and Arkansas rivers, being under consideration

Mr. WELLER said he desired to submit a few remarks upon the pending amendment. He would not, at this late period of the session, when so many important bills remain to be disposed of, obtrude any remarks upon the House, if it were not for the fact that the State which he had the honor, in part, to represent, was deeply interested in this measure. As a Representative, sent here to watch over her interests, he could not consent to have a vote taken on this proposition, without presenting some facts which he deemed of importance.

The amendment appropriates $150,000 to continue the improvements heretofore commenced (and for some time past suspended) in the navigation of the Western rivers. It is presented here as an isolated, independent proposition, having no connexion whatever with any other public work, and relying for support exclusively upon its own merits. For one, he preferred that it should come before us in this form; for he utterly abhorred the "log-rolling system," which had too frequently been introduced into our legislation here-a system calculated to corrupt legislation and plunder the treasury, by involving the Government in appropriations not demanded by the public weal. He would have each measure to stand or fall upon its own merits; and, unless he could satisfy gentlemen that the public interest required that this expenditure should be made, he would be content to see it defeated.

Mr. W. said, in order to ascertain the importance of the uninterrupted navigation of these rivers, it was only necessary to look at the immense region of territory interested therein, the vast amount of commerce floating upon these waters, and the large number of persons whose lives were placed in jeopardy by the obstructions which this appropriation is designed to remove. The work was one of importance to the Union generally, but especially so to that portion of our population residing in the vicinity of these rivers. Eleven States-containing more than one-third of the whole population of the Union-were directly interested in the navigation of these rivers. A vast amount of the produce which we send to our Atlantic brethren, and which is either consumed by them, or shipped to foreign ports, as well as the goods which we receive in return, passes over these rivers; and hence the work is one of a general character, in which the whole Union is more or less interested. If, as is contended by some gentlemen who are "wise above what is written," Congress has not the constitutional power to open these great national channels of commerce, by removing the obstructions which impede or endanger their nav. igation, then the Federal Government is an impracticable machine. Although a strict constructionist himself, he was not willing to give such an interpretation to the Constitution as would make that instrument a dead letter. Whilst he admitted that the Federal Government had not the power to go into the States and construct improvements of a local character, yet he contended that, when the work was of a general and national character, affecting the interests of the whole Republic-such as the im

H. of Reps.

provement of these rivers, or the making of harbors for our commerce, or building of light-houseswe had the power. Such had been the construction given to the Constitution by its framers, and by the wisest statesmen trom all sections of the Union, ever since the organization of the Government. It would not be right, even if it were practicable, to compel the States lying near these rivers to make these improvements.

Some gentlemen from New York, who have spoken against this amendment, seem to think that all the commerce of this country floats upon the Hudson river! No doubt they were sincere in this opinion; but, if they could find leisure to travel a little-especially if they would venture so far as to cross the Alleghanies, and look into the vast and fertile valley which stretches along these rivers, they might, perhaps, be convinced that there was some little commerce besides that which floats on the Hudson! A man sometimes gains a good deal of information by getting far enough from home to lose sight of the smoke of his own dwelling. He might point these gentlemen to his own proud State-one of the junior members of this Confederacy-a State which, a little more than forty years ago, lay nearly in a state of nature, an unbroken wilderness, inhabited by wild beasts and savage men; but which, under the industry and enterprise of her hardy and independent sons, had been made to "bloom and blossom as the rose"-a State which now numbered more than a million and a half of inhabitants, and whose boundless natural resources justified the fondest anticipations of her future greatness. Yes, (said Mr. W.,) let these Hudson-river gentlemen go into Ohio-already the third State in the Union--and they will learn, possibly, to their astonishment, that there are civilized people beyond the mountains, who are entitled to some of the benefits of your legislation. They would find a soil as productive as any upon the face of the earth, and a people as enlightened and patriotic as the citizens of any of the States of this Union. It might enlarge the patriotism of some of these Southern gentlemen, too, who are constantly prating about Southern rights, if they permitted their vision to extend a little beyond the limits of their own impoverished, worm-eaten districts. But he had not risen to disparage other States, or bestow a eulogy on his own. Ohio needed no commendation from him. The Indian wars of the West, the victorious battles in which the country has been engaged, can attest the gallantry, the daring chivalry, and exalted patriotism of her sons. Her internal improvements, her roads and canals, her magnificent public institutions, her inexhaustible resources, the rapid progress she has made in everything calculated to dignify human nature, must attest her greatness.

These gentlemen, (said Mr. W.,) when asked to make a small appropriation to be expended in the West, reply that they cannot go with us unless we will vote large sums to the improvement of their rivers-something must be done for the Hudson river. If the facts presented in relation to that river make out a case half as strong as ours, then he pledged himself to go for it. But some of these gentlemen, who oppose this amendment, could very coolly vote $120,000 out of the treasury to purchase columns to adorn the Boston custom-house. They could expend two millions and a half of dollars in building two custom-houses in the North; but when we ask them for $150,000 to remove the obstructions which are daily destroying the property and lives of our people in the West, we are favored with homilies on economy! He, too, was in favor of economy; and more especially now, in the present condition of the national treasury. He would not vote for any appropriation to works of this character, unless clearly satisfied that the public interest imperiously demanded it. He held that this was an expenditure absolutely necessary, and to refuse it would be anything else but economy.

Mr. W. said he had always voted liberally towards the increase and support of the navy, although no portion of the vast sums appropriated were to be expended in his section of the country. He had gone as far as the public interest would justify with Atlantic gentlemen, in the construction of harbors and light-houses to protect their commerce; and, as he before remarked, he was ready to go for an appropriation to the Hudson river, if the facts were sufficient to warrant it. This river (about which we hear so much) was, he believed, navigable only about 160 or 170 miles; and he would be glad to have some gentleman from

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New York give him an estimate of the commerce which floated on its waters.

Mr. BARNARD said he was ready to inform the gentleman; but he should be glad first to know what were the gentleman's own notions as to the probable amount about which he inquired. From the tone of the gentleman's remarks, he should suppose he thought there was no commerce on the Hudson at all.

Mr. WELLER replied that he had said nothing to authorize such a supposition. All he had said was, that there was some commerce in this country other than that which passed over the Hudson-a fact which, from the tenor of their remarks, they seemed to doubt. He had travelled upon the Hudson, and knew that the business on that river was extensive; but at the same time he was unwilling that it should be set down as equal to the commerce of the Ohio and Mississippi.

Mr. BARNARD stated that the value of the commerce yearly floating on the Hudson was about $60,000,000.

Mr. WELLER. And did the gentleman actually suppose that the entire commerce of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers only amounted to $60,000,000? Why, sir, at least that amount descends the Mississippi and enters the single port of New Orleans every year. Take the amount which enters that port; to this add the value of the cargoes ascending, and the coast trade, and you will have more than one hundred and twenty millions as the value of the commerce floating on the Mississippi every year. If you estimate the trade between the towns on the other rivers, and the value of the goods shipped at Pittsburg and Wheeling, for the West and Southwest, you will have, as the gross amount of the commerce on the Mississippi and its tributaries, at least two hundred and thirty millions.

Mr. BARNARD asked what proportion of this was on the Ohio?

Mr. WELLER said he was not now prepared to answer that question, but could give him the information after he closed his remarks.

Mr. TRIPLETT said that it was about seventy-one millions.

Mr. WELLER resumed. The Ohio is navigable from Pittsburg to the mouth-a distance of 1,000 miles; the Mississippi, from the falls of St. Anthony to the ocean-a distance of 2,000 miles. The whole number of steamboats which plied upon the Western rivers in 1842 is set down at 450-worth $7,200,000. These boats, in consequence of the difficulties in the navigation, and other causes, must be replaced every five years, as few of them will endure service for a longer period. In addition to this, 4,000 flat-boats, worth $420,000, descend the Mississippi every year; and as they do not, of course, return, this is an annual expenditure. An intelligent committee at Cincinnati-from whose report I have (said Mr. W.) gathered many of my facts-estimate the number of persons employed in the navigation of these rivers at 40,000. Here, then, you have this vast amount of property, and the lives of these 40,000 men, besides the thousands of passengers, with their property, who are daily ascending and descending these rivers, placed in such inminent peril by your refusal to remove these obstructions. Some small appropriation had been made in former years, and the most beneficial results had been produced. Between the years 1822 and 1827, (5 years,) the value of the boats, including cargoes, lost by snags alone, which could have been easily removed, is estimated at $1,362,500.

From 1827 to 1832, (five years,) owing to the appropriations made by Congress to remove these obstacles, we find that the losses are reduced to $381,000; and this, notwithstanding the number of boats had, in the meanwhile, largely increased. Had those efforts been followed up vigorously, the navigation of these rivers would now be comparatively safe; but they have been neglected, and a frightful loss of life and property had been the consequence. During the seventeen months preceding last December, seventy two steamboats, worth, apart from their cargoes, $1,200,000, had been destroyed: at least sixty-five of this number had been lost upon the snags and bars which a small expenditure could have removed. A statement was laid on our tables this morning, showing the value of the pronerty lost on each one of these rivers, in 1840, 1841, and 1842, from which it will be seen that the gross amount of property lost in those three years was $2,532,078. He regretted that it was not in his power to show the vast number of lives lost within that period..

The Bankrupt Law-Mr. G. Davis.

Besides the obstructions already alluded to, there are some of a legislative character deeply affecting our interests. We are compelled to pay enormous tolls to the Louisville Canal Company, in which the General Government has invested $290,200. That company has for some years past been dividing 18 per cent. (the maximum allowed by law) amongst its stockholders, and the General Government has already received a considerable sum over and above the amount paid for its stock. A steamboat worth $25,000, of 300 tons burden, must pay $180 every time passes up or down the Ohio; and this is, of course, a tax upon our commerce, in part for the benefit of the Federal Government. The Governinent should, in his opinion, purchase the whole amount of the stock, and make the navigation of the river entirely fiee; or else take the necessary steps to reduce the tolls to a reasonable amount. We are also compelled, in consequence of the dangers in the navigation of these rivers, to pay a further tax of from 12 to 16 per cent. to effect an insurance upon our boats.

With these facts before the House, he called upon gentlemen to say whether the public interest did not demand that this appropriation should pass? Will gentlemen, whose duty it is to look to the interests of the whole country, and so legislate as to advance it, refuse to give us $150,000 to a work, the magnitude of which has been so fully estab lished? Will they suffer our property to be lost, our commerce ruined, and the lives of our people destroyed, for the want of a few dollars from the national treasury to remove the snags and bars in these waters? He appealed to the generosity--to the magnanimity-to the justice of gentlemen, in behalf of this appropriation. If they turn a deaf ear upon all our entreaties now, let me teil them (said Mr. W.) the day is not far distant when the West will have its proper weight and influence in the national councils. In the next Congress, its relative strength will be much increased; and we, who have always been amongst the first to arm in defence of the country--we, who have patiently borne more than our share of the taxes of the Government, will do to ourselves that justice which you have denied us. He had no idea he would be in the next Congress himself; but he trusted he would be succeeded by some one as devotedly attached to Ohio as he was, and who would be able to do more than he had done to advance her interests. The great West, in her rapid career, must ere long control the destinies of the republic, and her interests could not much longer be overlooked.

SPEECH OF MR. G. DAVIS,

OF KENTUCKY.

In the House of Representatives, January 19, 1843Against the motion to reconsider the vote by which the bill to repeal the bankrupt act passed the House of Representatives.

Mr. SPEAKER: I voted for the repeal of the bankrupt law, and I shall vote against the reconsideration of the act of repeal that has passed this House. In this course, my justification is, that I represent the deliberate will of my constituents. I conceive. that it is not the duty of the Representative to hearken to mere popular ebullition-and, indeed, where he has important information, not possessed by those whom he represents, he may often be under the highest obligations to act contrary to their opinions; but upon measures which they have had time and opportunity to examine, and have come to a considerate judgment upon, it would be infidelity on his part not to submit himself to their will. The bankrupt law has been scanned by my constituents, with all the lights afforded by repeated and elaborate discussions in Congress and in the newspapers; they, by a large majority, condemn it unequivocally; and my relation of Representative to them requires my conformity.

This debate, though, has wandered from the particular subject under consideration, and has assumed a general political character, which I neither condemn nor regret, as I believe it will be beneficial to the country. There is always time enough for proper legislation; indeed, one of the besetting vices of our system is too much legisla tion. In my opinion, if one-half of every session was employed in revising ill-digested legislation, exposing and correcting the perversion and nonexecution of the laws, scrutinizing administrative abuses and delinquency, and holding in check the inherent and ever active tendency of the Executive to absorb all the powers of the Government, it

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would be well appropriated. This cannot be done without the existence of conflicting parties; and I rejoice that such do, as they ever will, exist in our country, whilst it preserves the form and the spirit of freedom. But I utterly reject the definition of party, as given by the gentleman from Massachu. setts, [Mr. CUSHING,] from this view. He tells us that party is "an association of men seeking to get into power." This is pithy and comprehen sive, and accurately defines the clique to which he now belongs. It is faction, profligate faction. Parties are formed upon a difference of opinion in re lation to legislative or administrative measures; they now divide, and they have always divided, the American people; and where they are charac terized by moderation, love of country and of truth, they constitute the good genius of popular liberty. I admit that they are too often degraded, by com. mingling the objects and spirit of faction in their operations; and yet it is a source of abiding gratification to me, that if the Whig party now held the power of this Government, it would be continually subject to the scrutiny and assaults of a strong and talented opposition. Irresponsible power is the greatest of corrupting influences upon men; and I hope never to see its existence in our system. Ani. mated by this spirit, I propose to enter into this discussion, and to make some strictures upon the existing Administration, and upon those who support it.

The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. CUSHING] Commenced his speech this morning by assuming a most extraordinary and unwarrantable position. He deliberately said to this House, that, at the extra session of Congress, an only alternative was presented to gentlemen-"either the sup port of the constitutional Administration of the Government, under the lead of the President, or of a factious anarchy, under the lead of an ex-Senator from Kentucky," [Mr. Clay.] I would ask the gentleman if the principles of that Senator had not been distinctly and repeatedly unfolded in measures which he, with characteristic frankness, had urged both upon Congress and upon the country, almost times without number, during the last twenty years? and whether the gentleman himself had not given a long, oft-renewed, and unqualified adhesion to those measures? Did that distinguished individual put forth any new principles, or originate any new measures? He only proposed and advocated those measures which formed the distinctive policy of the Whig party, and which involved the great principles that constitute the peculiar canons of its political faith. But the gentleman tells us measures are not principles. If his meaning be, that the seven principles are his, and that measures are not his principles, I agree with him; but it is not so with true Whigs. All the measures which we support involve important principles; and we measure the value of public men by the ability and fidelity with which they maintain them.

But let us look something further into this charge of factious anarchy, which the gentleman charges Mr. Clay and the Whigs to have produced in the Government at the extra session. He has reiterated this allegation frequently, and in va rious forms. In a former speech on this subject, he says: "We have seen the Whig party hurl itself, in the madness of desperation, against the fixed and immovable Government and Constitution; and that party had been dashed to pieces at its feet." Again: "If you will not co-operate with the President in carrying on the Government, which is your high est duty, he must seek the aid of your adversaries." The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. KENNEDY] follows in a speech, and takes to himself and his as sociates (the Democrats) great credit for support. ing the administration of John Tyler, whom be pronounces to be an honest old soul. This patriotic pretension has often been made by that party and its prints; but how arrogantly and falsely, will be

seen.

During the last Congress, the Democrats had the majority in both Houses; and yet they not only refused to make appropriations to pay debts to a large amount, which they themselves had contracted and left unpaid, but they wilfully neglected to appro priate money necessary for the current public ser vice, and even to provide the ways and means to raise the sums which they did vote. The presi dential election was impending, and their purpose was to produce a seeming, but illusive, retrenchThe consequence would have been, but for the extra session, and the additional revenues

ment.

then raised by Whig measures, that there would have been a deficit in the treasury, at the end of the current year, of about five millions of dollars, or the disbursements for all objects (amounting to nearly a full quarter) must have ceased. Such was the condition of affairs produced by the legislation of the Democratic party, when John Tyler took possession of the executive chair. In view of it, and of the disordered state of the currency and general monetary concerns of the country, President Harrison had called an extraordinary session of Congress. There were passed, during that session, acts for the following objects: Appropriating between twenty-three and twenty-four thousand dollars to Mrs. Harrison; repealing the sub-treasury; distributing the proceeds of the public lands; establishing a uniform system of bankruptcy; to pay arrears and make further appropriations for carrying on the Florida war; to continue operations on certain fortifications; to pay the debts of the General Post Office; to restore the naval pension fund; to borrow twelve millions of dollars; to lay impost duties on free articles of importation; and two bills to establish a bank, or fiscal agent. Of these twelve distinct measures, the President recommended and sustained the first ten; they were administrative measures, as was also the second bank bill-for Mr. Tyler made Messrs. Webster and Ewing (his Secretaries of State and the Treasury) special ambassadors to the Whigs of Congress, to tender to them that project. He reviewed the state of the treasury in his first message in June, and assumed that, as early as the 1st September ensuing, there would be a deficit of upwards of four millions of dollars. These measures were necessary, then, to replenish an exhausted treasury, to redeem the Government from the opprobrium of defalcation in the payment of its honest debts, and to enable the President to conduct the ordinary public service, involving the military defences of the country. Mr. Clay and the Whigs supported them, and carried them triumphantly through Congress; and yet the gentleman from Massachusetts, the peculiar and the ablest friend of the President on this floor, bas the assurance to proclaim, in debate, that the only alternative which was offered to gentlemen at the extra session, was "either the support of the constitutional administration of the Government, under the President, or of a factious anarchy, under the lead of an ex-Senator from Kentucky." The gentleman from Indiana and his associates (the Democrats) perseveringly opposed in debate and voted against, each and all those measures; and they, with a modesty equal to that of their coadjutor of Massachu setts, are continually rebuking the Whigs for their factious opposition to John Tyler, and vociferating that they are the honest and fair supporters of his administration.

The case may yet be presented stronger for the Whigs. At the last session of Congress, there were passed for the support of the Government, and especially to enable the President to administer his department, the civil and diplomatic appropriation bill; the military appropriation bill; the Indian appropriation bill; the naval appropriation bill; the fortification bill; the loan bill; the bill to raise additional revenue by increased impost duties; the remedial justice bill; and the treasury-note bill. The most of these bills were to supply the very fuel and oil which was necessary to keep the machine of Government in motion; and three of them were absolutely required to replenish a heavy deficit in the treasury, which still existed. Mr. Clay sustained such of these measures as had been introduced before he resigned his seat in the Senate. The Whigs advocated all of them in argument, and passed them by their votes. The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. KENNEDY] voted against all, as did his political friends, except a small number who went for the treasury-note bill, because it was of the category of their system of policy. The gentleman from Massachusetts was the supporter of the whole of these measures; influenced, no doubt, as much by his loyalty to the administration of John Tyler, as his love of country. The only difference between him and the Whigs, was, that he changed his former position upon the question of the disposition of the proceeds of the public lands, and warmly espoused the President's cherished notion of restoring them to the treasury. It is true, the gentleman endeavored to fortify the new ground which he had assumed with some nonsensical jargon-that the lands were indispensable as security for the loan which Congress had authorized; and the public credit could not and would not be reinstated, so as to induce

The Bankrupt Law-Mr. G. Davis.

capitalists to purchase this stock, until the law distributing the proceeds of the lands should be repealed or suspended. This was done; but still the public credit continued as inanimate as before. Moneyed men ceased not to distrust our means and our faith, to contemn the loan, and to despise the feebleness and hesitancy of the Government. The tariff bill-so coldly approved by the Presidentwill eventually revive public credit. The treasury project of a charter of a United States Bank, which received the sanction of the President and his cabinet, was opposed in one of its features by the Whigs, but totally by the Democrats. The main distinctive measure of the Administration (the exchequer) is opposed by both parties. Does not this review demonstrate that the atrocious charge made by the gentleman from Massachusetts against the Whig party and its great leader is wholly calumnious, and without foundation? Does it not expose the bold impudence of the Democrats, in their assumption that the Whigs deny to John Tyler the means of administering the Government, and they are the honest and patriotic supporters of his administration? It is by this game of bold, ambidextrous, and reckless assumption, that the Democrats have seized and held on to the power which has ruled this nation for the last fourteen years. Their new ally [Mr. COSHING] has gloated upon its success; and, in combination with them, has attempted again to play it off, and with a good deal of success, upon an abused people; but the illusion is fast passing away.

There were two other positions in the speech of the gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. KENNEDY,] which strongly arrested my attention. He warned his friends that if they passed their sub-treasury in the next Congress, John Tyler would veto it. He advised them against such a course, and avowed that he would never vote for any measure which was threatened with a velo. He justified the removals from office by the Administration for difference of opinion, and declared that it would be right and proper for John Tyler to remove all men from office who were not his supporters, and fill their places with his friends. The gentleman tells us that he is a Hoosier; but it cannot be that, in giving utterance to these opinions, he correctly represents the wild and free spirits which roam the ocean The prairies and primeval forests of Indiana. young and sturdy Freedom of the great West, unfettered as the wave of the Father of Waters, recognizes no such slavish sentiments. It would rather proclaim, in tones of thunder, that no President is the great feudatory of this nation, with 50,000 places as his fiefs, to be granted to his slaves and vassals, and to be reclaimed by his own lordly will; that the Presidency itself, and all other offices, are only tolerated because they are necessary to the social system; and that the greatest good to the reople is the only consideration which should guide in appointments and removals. It would thus expos. tulate with this Representative: You are to support measures as they are wise, and good, and necessary; and you are not to desert them, or to falter in your duty, because any President brandishes the veio at them. You are a portion of the legislative power of this Union. You are sworn to support the Constitution, which separates the law-making from the executive power; and the principle of action which you avow, leads to the assumption of all legislative power by the President, and the certain subversion of our whole system. The natural and ever-acting tendency of a single executive in free governments is to absorb all political power; and, instead of making such an extensive surrender, it is your duty to dispute every act of aggression upon your department. I have the kindest feelings for the gentleman from Indiana. He has an excellent natural mind, and strong common sense; but he is giving melancholy evidence of the progress and of the fatal fruits of the spoils principle, and the abuse of the veto power in the administration of the Government. The adjustment of the veto power is proved, by experience, to be one of the greatest defects in our system. A proposition to the convention which formed the Constitution to make this power absolute, would probably not have received a single vote; and yet, in its present form, it is practically absolute. So controlling is the influence which this power itself-the power of appointment and removal to fifty thousand offices, and other great powers-confers upon the President, that it has never been, and all concur that it never will be, overruled by the constitutional majority of two-thirds of both Houses. When prac

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tice proves it to be unqualified in its operation, and it is conceded that those who made the Constitution did not intend, and could not have been induced, to give it that form, the case for its modification is made out--unless it is an important conservative principle in our Government. Such has been argued to be its character, among other reasons, because it is vested in the President; and that this office is the moft democratic feature of the Government, inasmuch as he is elected by all the people of the United States. This view is specious, but altogether unsound. Judges are elected in some of the States by the people of their districts; yet they do not represent democracy, nor act democratically-nor would they, if they were elected by the whole people of the State. Some of the worst tyrants that have ever lived have been elected by the peo ple of the country which they afterwards oppressed. Whether an office partakes more of a despotic or a democratic cast, whether the incumbent is more apt to act from his own will or the popular will, depends rather upon the extent of the powers, and the manner in which they are exercised by him, than the nature of the authority which places him in office. The President is elected for four years. He is located for his term in this city, for the daily discharge of his duties. Without the grossest abuse and corruption in office, he can be held to no legal or constitutional responsibility. He is totally exempt from that moral responsibility which results from daily association with those who trusted him with power. He has no personal knowledge of their condition, their interests, their wants, or their wills, because he is necessarily separated from them; and, if this was not the case, they are immensely too numerous for him to ac quire this knowledge. In most of his official acts, he has no law but his own discretion-his own ab solute and irreversible will. Those whom he generally sees are officers dependent upon his pleas ure and caprice for their continuance in place, or to fill offices for which they are making to him humble suit; and it is their interest and practice to flatter him, and to tell him his will, whatever it may be, is the popular will. Power and parasites are certain to corrupt him, in a greater or less degree; and he becomes suspicious of, and inimical to, all and everything which may thwart his purposes. Selfish, sinister, and adroit men pour falsehood and flattery into his ear; kindle ambition, revenge, and evil passions in his heart; and pervert to wicked and mischievous purposes his authority: and he cannot be relied upon as representing and reflecting correctly the great public opinion of the nation. The design was, when this power acted, that it should soar above the reign of faction; but it has proved to be a dangerous auxiliary of it. The President is generally the head of a party; and, when he is in unison with his friends, it adds vastly to their strength and efficiency: when they revolt against his dictation, or, from motives of patriotism, pass wholesome meas ures to which he is opposed, (and this has sometimes happened,) he can strangle them with the veto. When the people rise up against the President and the party dominant in Congress, and send a majority for a different course of policy, he thwarts and defeats their wil by the one-man power. It is alien and unfriendly to our institutions: it ought to be modified; for it is aiding greatly in their gradual but certain subversion.

The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. CUSH◄ ING] denominates (as he often does) the President to be the Government, and represents the majority of the present Congress as "dashing itself to atoms at its feet." My understanding is, that our Government is the organized political power which rules these United States. Louis XIV. said he was the state; and I have seen John Tyler compared in the court journal to the Grand Monarque: but, when Washington, and Hamilton, and Madison, and Jay, were forming the most complicated system of Government that has ever existed, and were separating its powers into three co-ordinate branches, and constituting the President the mere head of a subordinate one, I imagine that they had no design that any President-and especially such a one as John Tyler-should be the living, active, operating impersonation of the Government of the United States. No, no; that is rather strong even for court sycophaney! But, throughout his speech, whenever the gentleman refers to the President, he speaks of him as "the Government." I will read a paragraph or two from the gentleman's speech:

27TH CONG....3D SESS.

"In this state of things," Mr. C. said, "he knew not how far parties might split, whether from difference in opinion or from personal relations. He could see, in the race for the Presidency, no individual who, so far as he could judge, presented an overwhelming, irresistible power. Looking to overt acts as the criterion, he would say there was • no such competitor. He understood there was to be a Whig convention, and there was to be also a Democratic convention; and he did not know that they might not agree. [A laugh.] But there were certain buddings-some early blossoms of discord -which might lead to a doubt as to what would be the precise course of the convention. However this might be, this he did know, that, during a year and a half to come, there must be great popular commotions and discussions. Whether a candidate might be nominated by each convention or not, this he knew-and why should he not say it? He thought, on the whole, he had better say it: [several voices--'Oh, yes, do say it, do :'] it would not be for the political interest of any one of the parties to carry on a very furious war against the Administration and its friends.

[Here Mr. C. was brought to a pause by peals of laughter, and cries, "Ah, that's a tender point."]

"Mr. C. said that he considered it as material that there should be a frank understanding on these matters. There were men in the Administration, or connected with the Administration, who, at a proper time, might have a word to say. He did not know whether their voice would be potential; but this he did know, that of all the elements now in tumultuous and conflicting motion in the national cauldron-in the grand political seething-pot-the most potential of all was the Federal Government, (President.) [Cries of 'Oh, yes--it has the offices!'] No; not by the distribution of office-not by the power of patronage. No; he went deeper-it was by the constitutional power of the Federal Government, (President.) Let gentlemen go back to the extra session. An important measure had been proposed by the Administration; a committee had reported upon it; it was pushed along through the Houses, when lo, there came a veto! There were consequences; yes, and the relation held by Administration measures to the action of Congress, showed that there was a power which the Constitution gave to the Government (President) to act upon events and effect results, that was a hundred fold greater than all its powers of mere patronage."

In another part of his speech, the gentleman said: "I would say to gentlemen of all parties in this House, and more especially to gentlemen cons:ituting the majority in Congress, If you will not co-operate with the President in carrying on the Government, which is your highest duty, he must seek the aid of your adversaries. If you Whigs will lock the wheels of Government, I trust aid will be found in the Democrats; and thus, and thus only, I present the question to the House." Is it not strange that this gentleman, having used this .anguage, should boldly challenge any man to make good the position, that he offered to barter to party the power and influence of John Tyler and his administration? He is their trusted and confidential organ in this House. His object is not to get from Congress all proper aid to enable the President to administer his department; for that has been, in a spirit of patriotism, liberally afforded by the Whigs, and by the Whigs only. His purpose is the same which the Executive has been steadily and systematically pursuing for upwards of twelve years. It is, to draw to the President the absolute control of the initiation, the form, and fate of all measures of legislation. The particular measure at this time is the exchequer. He proclaims on this floor, that parties may split from differences of opinion and personal relations; that both the Democratic and Whig parties were to hold national conventions; that there were a legion of aspirants to the office of the Presidency, whose pretensions were to be discussed, and to excite greatly the public mind for a year and a half to come; that it was altogether doubtful who would get the Whig and Democratic nominations; and of all the causes by which parties, sections of parties, and men, were to be put up and put down, the most potential was the President and his administration; that the Whigs had refused their support to the exchequer, and the other attempts of John Tyler to control the legislation of Congress; that if the Democrats, and any section of the Whigs, would lend themselves to that end, the President

The Bankrupt Law-Mr. G. Davis.

and the Administration would not only use all the patronage to their aggrandizement, but would also bring to bear in their favor the veto power, which, "to act upon events and effect results, was a hundred fold greater than all the mere power of patronage," and could control "the national policy." I appeal to candid men who heard the gentleman, if I have not fairly presented his points and his positions. And was the moral sense of this nation ever before outraged with anything so shameless and profligate? Shades of Washington and Madison-was it ever dreamed that the executive power which you fashioned and established, to be exercised in a spirit of lofty, pure, and enlightened patriotism, should be wielded by an Administration which would cast away all standard of political morality, and come into Congress by their accredited agent, and offer to prostitute their whole patronage, and even the sprig of kingly prerogative-the veto, which the gentleman says, truly, is so potent-that it might acquire the power to usurp the legislation of the Government, and that by the degradation and corruption of Congress? No President has a right to any other political influence, except that moral power which wise and just measures, and a faithful and vigilant administration of his department, will certainly give him; and he ought not to be tolerated to resort to any other means to obtain it.

But this proposition is as deceitful as it is infamous. John Tyler has never kept faith with any party; his object is to get a seeming present support from one of the parties in Congress, and to trust to events to make it permanent. When the time comes, he would add another to his long list of treacheries. Shortly after the Presidency fell upon him, he, by his Secretary of State-in analogy to the English premiership-addressed a pompous but hollow proclamation to the Secretary of the Treasury, in which it is declared: "He (the President) therefore directs the information to be given to all the officers of agents in your department of the public service, that partisan interference in popular elections, whether of State officers or of this Government, and for whomsoever or against whomsoever it may be exercised, will be regarded by him as cause of removal." In his first annual message he says, on the subject of removal, that his own conduct had "been governed by a conscientious purpose to exercise the removing power only in cases of unfaithfulness or inability, or in those in which its exercise appeared necessary, in order to discountenance and suppress the spirit of active partisanship on the part of the holders of office, which not only withdraws them from the steady and impartial discharge of their official daties, but exerts an undue and injurious influence over elections, and degrades the character of the Government itself, inasmuch as it exhibits the chief magistrate as being a party, through his agents, in the secret plots or open workings of political parties."

These sentiments are eminently just and proper; and does it not exhibit a hardihood, an obtusity to dishonor almost incredible, that the very men who have so recently proclaimed them to the nation, should offer to desecrate, in the mode which they thus prescribe, the whole executive power of the Government? If the offences which they denounce are dangerous and scandalous, that which they have committed is abhorrent, and tends to revolution by means of corruption.

The gentleman [Mr. CUSHING] treats the President as the great ruling power of the Government, and Congress as a subordinate incidental department, whose business is merely to co-operate in giving effect to his views. I take issue with the gentleman, and maintain that, in all free Governments, and especially in ours, the legislative branch is predominant. Popular liberty has nowhere existed, nor will it long exist, under any other adjustment of pow er. Congress is invested with the high powers of declaring war, providing all the means by which it is waged, and for the public defence; borrowing and appropriating money; creating and paying public debts; imposing taxes; coining money; regulating commerce with foreign nations and among the States; defining and punishing treason and felonies, &c.; and is expressly made the repository of all the undefined powers that may be necessary and proper to execute those which the Constitution has conferred upon it, upon the other departments, and upon every officer of the Government-even this puissant President himself. His principal powerwhich is greater and more operative than the whole aggregate besides-is to execute the laws

It seems to be the purpose of the gentleman and the Administration to introduce the English system by which the ministry has the iniation and the control of all the principal measures of legislation; but the effort is to withhold from Congress the overruling control which Parliament, and especially the House of Commons, exerts in these matters. We deny that England is a free country; and yet, her House of Commons has more influence and efficiency in her Government than has the House of Representatives in ours. The public opinion of the nation speaks potentially through the House of Commons; and no minister can hold his place, no war can be continued, no measure or course of policy can be perseveringly urged or opposed by the King or ministry against the will of the nation as spoken by the Commons. It was this House that forced George the Third to terminate the war of our revolution, by an acknowledgment of our independence; that carried the emancipation of the Catholics against all the opposition of the King, and the more stubborn and imperious Duke of Wellington; and that effected that great pacific revolution, the reform of its own representation. No minister can stand against the judgment and the vote of the House of Commons; and when he is there defeated upon any measure or important proposition, it is his imperative signal to throw up his seals of office; and there is named as his successor one who immediately conforms the Executive Government to the will of the people as thus spoken. So, when the ministry seems to be fashioning legislation according to its own will, is, in truth, submitting to the mandates of the House of Commons. The gentleman and our republican Administration want to be subordinate to no such influence; their attempt is to raise the President above all control, and to degrade Congress to a mere registry of his edicts.

The gentleman has often inveighed against the despotism of Congress. Sir, a numerous popular representation and a despotism never did, and never can exist, together. Such a body may commit occasional acts of injustice and oppression, but it is impossible for it to maintain a systematic, persevering, and enduring tyranny; it has too many diverse wills, interests, and ends. It fluctuates so rapidly in all these elements of action, and in its personnel, that its neutralizes, checks, and reverses fitfully its own decisions; it it were otherwise, it has neither the means nor the aptitude for their efficient execution. It is the undivided, secret, rapid, energetic will of a single Executive, dispensing office and honors, wielding the purse and the sword, and transmitted from individual to individ ual by succession or election, which all history proves to be the great enemy of popular liberty. This is the power in our system which her votaries ought to watch with sleepless vigilance; for its advance here has been quite as rapid and threatening as in most countries whose freedom it has cloven down. Sir, instead of being able to maintain the firm, rigorous, and iron rule of despotism, the natural tendency of a large representative body, frequently elected, is not only to liberty, but also to licentiousness; and it is in part to correct this inherent vice, that other branches of our Government than this House have been constituted. But all experience establishes this truth-that such assemblies are the natural and most potent enemies of despotism. What is the history of modern Eng lish liberty? Formerly, the mass of that people were not recognised in her political system; the third estate and its House of Commons had its origin under Edward 3d; but there was no popular freedom in the island for two centuries afterwards. Henry 8th wrested the spiritual authority over his dominions from the See of Rome, and united it with the absolute civil and political power which he possessed. His purpose was not to ameliorate the condition of the Protestants, but to sway an undivided temporal and spiritual power in his own realm. He was one of the most absolute and bloody tyrants that ever reigned. He could not only sus pend the law, but his proclamations had the force