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27TH CONG.......SD SESS.

again, from the fact that both wanted to establish a paper currency for this great nation. Some of them were for an exchequer, and others for a Bank of the United States. Some of them, too, wanted to bolster up the paper of the State banks with the credit of the General Government. All, in fact, wanted to renovate the same system of paper-money, under the evils of which the country now suffered so grievously. He would, then, glance at some of the expedients of this party, and, among them, the $200,000,000 scheme of the gentleman from Maryland, [Mr. W. C. JOHNSON.] What was that scheme? Why, that the Government shall issue two hundred millions of bonds, at an interest of 3 per cent., based on the pretended sale of the public lands; in other words, to put $200,000,000 of Government paper afloat, without any adequate security for its redemption. Such was, in a few words, the scheme of the gentleman from Maryland. Now, what was the proposition of another gentleman from the same side of the House? [Mr. CUSHING.] That the Government should carry on the business of private banking on private account, and, at the same time, give currency to depreciated bank paper. Such was the exchequer. But he would return to the two hundred million scheme; for he feared that all this longing after papermoney would end in it at last.

The Chairman called to order for irrelevancy. Mr. SMITH of Virginia interposed, and begged that the gentleman might be permitted to proceed, as the other gentleman from New York [Mr. J. C. CLARK] had been allowed to go on without any restriction or limitation.

After one or two remarks from the Chair

Commercial intercourse with China-Mr. Gordon.

Mr. GORDON resumed, and said he should proceed in order. The ground he took in this matter was, that this party could not be safely intrusted with money, because of the extravagant and impolitic projects they were ever ready to force upon the adoption of the House. He wished to know, before he intrusted this Administration and this party with money-(for he took it that this bill emanated from the majority)-before he opened the purse-strings of the nation, and intrusted them with the treasure of the people, he wished to inquire into their system and policy of government. He presumed this would be as much in order (and he hoped the Chairman would so rule it) as to debate the Faneuil Hall speech of Mr. Webster. Was it not as much in order to allude to the state of the finances of the Government, as to treat of what his colleague was pleased to term the treachery of his political friends? He desired to discuss the position taken by a majority of that party, through their own Committee of Ways and Means-that it was competent and constitutional for the General Government to issue $200,000,000 of bonds, to be given to the States, and also what "relief" such a scheme would afford to the people. He would, however, first treat of the exchequer.

Here the Chairman again interrupted Mr. G., and said that the topics he was discussing were irrelevant to the subject under consideration, and therefore out of order.

Mr. R. D. DAVIS rose, and remarked that he understood his colleague to allude to these subjects incidentally, and as illustrative of his general argu

ment.

Mr. WELLER said that the gentleman from New York [Mr. J. C. CLARK] had been allowed to speak of all the subjects which the gentleman [Mr. GORDON] now wished to discuss, and was not called to order. He should think the gentleman now on the floor [Mr. GORDON] had a right to discuss the same subjects in reply.

The Chairman insisting upon his decision-
Mr. WELLER took an appeal.

Mr. GORDON resumed, and requested his friend from Ohio to withdraw the appeal, inasmuch as to decide it would largely take off from the hour allotted to him. [Mr. WELLER did so.] He should be able to come out, in order.

His colleague had given a most glowing description of the temple of the great Whig party, with columns, and colonnades, and a lofty dome; and bad complained that the man behind the throne, at the other end of the avenue, was exercising his great strength in tearing down that mighty edifice. Now, he thought it would not require a Samson to tear down a log-cabin! Even the very boys of the city made it their pastime to tear and pull to pieces the few models of Whig architecture which were found here. What were the columns and colonnades of this glorious temple,

so glowingly described by his colleague? Why, he believed that the sign out of doors, whether the latch-string was pulled in or not, was a cider barrel and a coon skin; whilst the edifice itself was built of rough logs, with the chinks between them stopped up with mud. It was a temple of night revelry and debauch, where its votaries drank hard cider, and, too often for their own good, became fuddled! If, then, this mighty man-this premier at the end of the avenue-aided by the boys, did tear down the consecrated temple of Whigery, he did more good than harm. He (Mr. G.) applauded him for the act. True, it was a small business for such a man to be engaged in; but all must admit that it was no less dignified an employment than that of assisting his friends to raise these remarkable edifices.

He thought it would be an instructive fact to the people of this country, could they know whether the two hundred million project, darkly hinted at in the Faneuil Hall speech, originated in this country or in England; and also whether it was first conceived before or after the visit of that mighty man to England in 1839; whether it was before or after he got the thousand pounds for his opinion on the subject of State credit. These facts might be highly important to the people, in enabling them to judge of the merits of the scheme. He considered it as no more nor less than a project for the benefit of the British fund-mongers, and the success of which would crush this Republic. Once adopted, the Government could not subsist a day. There would be a consolidation of all the power of the States in the Federal Government. Congress would have taken upon itself to discharge all the debts created by the extravagance of the States, and the profligacy of their agents, without the power to restrain their propensities to further debt and scheming extravagance. This would be consolidation in its fullest sense, and would break up our present form of government; for the States would undoubtedly come to their senses in time, and shake off the odious burden imposed on them, by repudiation or nullification. For himself, sooner than see his own State (New York) saddled with the debts of other States, he would resort at once to nullification or repudiation. Yes; he wouldrather repudiate than entail upon the people of his State debts created by the spendthrift propensities of others. Let gentlemen in Congress abstain from tinkering the credit of the States. Let them preserve intact, inviolate, and untarnished, the faith and credit of the General Government; and, he was willing to answer for it, that would be the test mode that could be adopted to preserve the credit of the States. He could not think of any consideration which should for one moment influence Congress to assume the State debts; nor could he see how, by possibility, the people could, in any shape, be benefited by it. At this very time, the annual revenue of the General Government from customs, lands, and all sources combined, does not amount to $15,000,000. The annual ordihary expenditures of the Government are $23,000,000. The national debt is now $26,000,000, at an annual interest of $1,560,000. What, then, must be our reliable sources of reveuue, unless by resorting to direct internal taxation? Here, then, with a debt of $26,000,000 pressing down the credit of the General Government, is an annual deficit, after exhausting all our income, and without discharging a dollar of the principal of the debt, of $9,500,000 to be provided by increased taxes, in order to save this Government from repudiation, disgrace, and financial ruin. Yet it proposed to superadd to this load of debt two hundred millions, by an issue of bonds bearing 3 per cent. interest, on the baseless security of the public lands; when their proceeds, all told, added to the duties on imports, fall more than nine millions and a half short of the annual expenditures! The interest upon these two hundred millions is, of course, to be paid by means of a direct tax upon the pockets of the people; for, to think of paying it with the customs and land sales, is out of the question. Where would these bonds of the General Government go? Would they go to the people, to be distributed per capita among them, according to agrarian principles? Not a dollar. How, then, would they be disposed of? The share of each indebted State would be handed over to its creditors, and the share of the non-indebted States to their authorities, to stimulate them and their agents to the same ruinous and reckless career of extravagance and wild scheming which would inevitably lead to

H. of Reps.

bankruptcy and defalcations. How, then, he re

peated, were the people to be benefited by this $200,000,000 scheme, (even if this Government were able to meet the new and heavy responsibility,) whilst it, at the same time, discharged all its other duties and obligations?-an undertaking which no man in his senses believed could ever be perform ed. Could the people, by any possibility, be relieved by grinding taxes? If taxation would produce relief and blessings, then, indeed, the people would be doubly blessed! If it is true (as was contended formerly) that a national debt is a national blessing, then, indeed, will this project confer that blessing in a most eminent degree! In his (Mr. G.'s) view, however, this scheme, emanating as it had from the brains of visionary dreamers, would produce blessings and "relief" with a vengeance!such blessings as national discredit and insolvency, and such "relief" as practical repudiation by the General Government. Relief, indeed! Relieving the people with their own money and credit! It was a mockery to talk of such relief.

But let him turn to another aspect of the question. Whether a war with England would be a blessing or not, he could not now undertake to say. He did not know but that it would do some good, by arousing a spirit of patriotism in the country, and by enkindling a good feeling in the hearts of the money-making people, who would not hesitate to ask even a desecration of the Constitution itself, if thereby they could make money. But let it be conceded that a war with England was a blessing of the most desirable kind. He did not believe that the people of this country would do any improper act to promote it. Let England espouse the cause of the Rothschilds, and other foreign bankers, if she dared; let her take up arms in defence of the Nicholas Biddles on the other side of the Atlantic; let her make common cause with them, and wage war upon our country and our Constitution-he wished to see the trial come at once. He wished to see the strength and virtue of our Constitution tested. He wished to see the heart and energies of our people pass through the ordeal to which they would be subjected. He felt confident that all the patriotic ardor that inflamed the bosoms of our ancestors would be at one enkindled, and that our people would come out from the contest unscathed. The people of this country, he thought, owed a debt of gratitude to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. ADAMS] for putting the matter upon the foot ing he had placed it. That gentleman, by threatening war in case of a non-payment of the State debts, could not have more effectually served the ends of those who were opposed to assumption. Indeed, he had put it out of the power of this Government, without dishonor, to assume the State debts under such a menace. The gentleman's speech, designed to intimidate, would be hereafter held up as an ap peal to the pride and the martial spirit of the people.

But what was the further tendency of the gentleman's argument? Why, that this Government must necessarily assume the State debts; for it was shown that a State might go on, ad libitum, contracting what debts she pleased, giving her bonds to for eigners for the amount, and then this Government must be dragged into the payment of her obligations; for a single State had in this way the power to involve this Union in a war with a foreign power, notwithstanding the power to declare war was, by the Constitution, placed, not with the Government of a State, but with the Federal Government. He would not discuss the validity of Mississippi bonds, for that subject had been sufficiently discussed on this floor. He cared not whether they were valid or not, so far as the argument there was concerned; but the idea that a State might contract what debts she pleased, and that this Government must pay them, or assume her indebtedness, was putting this country in the power and at the mercy of a single State. Why, he would prefer consolidation to such a state of things-he would prefer that the State lines should be blotted out-that the whole people of this Union, if they were to be compelled to assume the responsibility of repayment, should at least have a voice in the contracting of these debts. He asked the House what control the State of New York, which he in part represented, had either here or at home, in her State Legisla ture, or by her press, or her public meetings-of, indeed, in any form--over the contracting of the debts of the State of Indiana, of Mississippi, of of Pennsylvania? Those States contracted their debts without consultation with New York; she

27TH CONG....SD SESS.

was not permitted to say a word on the subject; and yet the modern doctrine which they heard there was, that the pockets of the people of that State were to be reached for the repayment and liquidation of those debts. Now, he would appeal to the chairman of this committee [Mr. WINTHROP] as a patriot, as a statesman, and as a highminded man from Massachusetts, who had studied the fathers of the Constitution, whether this wild scheme was ever dreamed of by those revered framers of the charter of our liberties; and whether, in the whole range of their deliberations, there was the least perceptible leaning to such an enormous power which now found advocates in the venerable gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. ADAMS,] and the gentleman from Maryland, [Mr. W. C. JOHNBON,] and some others.

But perhaps he had said as much on the Fanueil Hall speech and its tendencies, as the occasion would justify; and he would turn for a moment to the exchequer, which was but another emanation of the same brain-the brain of one who had said that, if he understood anything, it was the subject of finance; and that the bill of the gentleman from Massachusetts was not worth the parchment on which it was written, compared with the mighty scheme of consolidation which he had prepared. And what did the scheme of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. CUSHING] propose? Why, in the first place, that private individuals might deposite $10,000,000 in the treasury of such exchequer of the United States; thereby withdrawing $10,000,000 of specie, gold and silver, from the currency of the country, and receiving, in return, ten millions of certificates, which would become its circulation. But further, it provided that the Government creditors-the holders of its bonds and obligations or treasury notes-might receive certificates for the amount of the debts due to them by the United States, to a like amount of $10,000,000; thus making the issue of certificates equal to $20,000,000 if this latter provision be observed, being but a modification of the former one; a receiving of the debt due to the public creditor, and a returning of it to the treasury, and receiving, as in the case of a private depositor, certificates for the sum deposited. Thus, then, they had $20,000,000 of specie drawn from the circulation of the country, and paper certificates substituted. And yet even this was not all; for the mints had an unlimited power to receive foreign coin, and to issue certificates for the coin so received. But further still; the exchequer board was to be authorized to sell bills of exchange, also to an unlimited amount, at a premium of not exceeding 2 per cent. And for what purpose, he would ask, was all this to be done? It was certainly not to add to the circulation of the country; for every dollar of the great amounts he had enumerated was taken from the circulating medium, for which the paper certificates were to be substituted. They were thus to take the gold and silver from circulation, and supply the place of it with paper, that this Government might become the depository of the funds of individuals to the amount of millions, for which this Government would become responsible.

When the sub-treasury was under consideration, a standing objection raised by the opposition to it was, that it would hoard the specie of the country in the vaults of the treasury, so far as revenues of the Government went-which, as all knew, were in a constant course of receipt and payment. Now, by the exchequer, this objection is doubled. It applies with double force to that scheme; for it is not only proposed to hoard the specie derived from customs and the public lands, but also the coin owned by private individuals. The specie in the United States is estimated at from eighty to one hundred millions, including that in the vaults of the banks. This amount, too, goes on increasing in proportion, and the banks go out of existence. Nothing is clearer, better ascertained, or more generally understood, than that coin disappears in proportion as paper circulates, and returns to form the circulating medium as soon as paper is withdrawn from it. The process is simple. The banks issue their paper, for which they receive coin. They then export this coin from the country, to be sold as bullion--an article of merchandise. When the banks are called on to redeem their notes, they suspend, and blow up-a consequence not to be wondered at by those who have viewed their operations. A return from paper to specie circulation is attended with pressure, and in many cases bankruptcy. It is the crisis in

Commercial intercourse with China--Mr. Gordon.

monetary affairs, like the crisis in the sick man's disease, from which dates the commencement of returning health.

Such is substantially our present condition. Such is the modus operandi by which the circulation of the country has been despoiled of its coin. Take, for example, the State of Ohio. Its banks have expelled the gold and silver which would have naturally flowed into it, and remained in the channels of circulation. That great State is now left vastly short of its share of the circulating medium of the commercial world. It has been reduced vastly below its value by the operation of a false banking system. Currency is to be measured by its value, and not by its quantity. A paper currency is worth the amount of specie it rests on as a basis, and no more. You cannot enhance the value of the currency by floods of paper, no matter how much be issued, beyond what would be a due share of the gold and silver of the trading nations; on the contrary, such a course would greatly depreciate and reduce it. Like water, currency will find its own level; and, but for banks and paper contrivances, would equalize itself all over the civilized world, in the ratio of the population and trade of each com. mercial nation. Banks, like dams in the river, obstruct the influx of specie, prevent the flow of its current, divert it from its natural channels, and drive it from the circulation of countries where they are permitted to exist, to other countries where they are not. There cannot be a doubt but that the paper system of the United States has depreciated the standard of value belonging to gold and silver coin in all parts of the world, as well as here at home; at the same time that it has not, to the same extent, increased the circulating medium, by superadding to the general amount in as great a degree as it forced the gold and silver coin of this into other countries. The effect has been the same as if an equal amount of gold and silver had been suddenly dug up from the bowels of the earth, coined, and placed in the channels of circulation; thereby swelling the streams above their banks, and overflowing the land. To his mind, nothing could be more palpable than the truth of these posi

tions.

Great indeed are the advantages which the merchants and traders of a specie country have, in their commercial intercourse, over those of a country whose currency is paper! Let those advantages be rightly understood, and the baseless paper policy must go down forever to the tomb of the Capulets. The specie country sells to the paper country by the paper measure, which is marked too high. The latter, deceived as to the capacity of its own measure, buys less than it pays for, and supposed it was contracting to receive. The people of the specie country sell at paper prices, and receive their pay in specie. This specie-although, by the operation of the paper system, depreciated in the country where that system is carried out-when transferred to a country where specie dealings are universal, rises to its true level, as fixed and es imated by the opinion of the world. It is thus that the people of specie countries find it to be their interest to exchange their products for our gold and silver, and keep up an artificial drain upon us. Of course, the whole operation is to our prejudice, and for the benefit of foreigners-leaving a continual balance of trade against us.

As to the exchequer, he would not say it would. operate in the same manner as the banks, should it ever remain unchanged, unmodified, and unamended, and perform its functions as claimed by its friends. But would it always remain in its present form? And even if it could be permitted so to remain, what guaranty had the people that it would perform all its functions in the same admi rable manner claimed for it by its friends? He de paired of seeing these objects attained. He could but regard it as the entering wedge to the final admission of the power and universal preva lence of bank paper in the business of the country, throughout all its ramifications. He could not consent so to shape the action of the Government as to dictate a paper policy to all the business trans actions of the people, and thereby direct their fate and destiny. This view of the question was itself an objection to one and all of the exchequer schemes which had been proposed; for it seemed the friends of an exchequer could not all agree about the ex. chequer which ought to he adopted by Congress.

How, he asked, was the proposed exchequer intended to operate? Not to collect and export specie, as the banks always have, and ever will find it

H. of Reps

to their interest to do, although the country be brought to insolvency by the operation. It professed to collect, and hoard in its own vaults, all the specie of the United States; and to circulate, in place of this specie, an equal amount of paper certificates. How would the country gain by the operation? Nothing would be added to the currency; nothing contributed to public or private enterprise; no stimulus given to business; nothing gained by anybody, or by any branch of industry, except the mere avoidance of the expense of transmitting, specie from place to place--an advantage more than counterpoised by the loss of confidence which the precious metals must, and ever will, command over every description of paper, no matter how well secured. As to the superior cheapness of the exchequer in transmitting funds, such a thing could not be well established. The exchequer must charge as much as the cost of transportation and insurance of specie. There could be no difference in the price charged by the exchequer, and that by private individuals and dealers in money and exchanges. If the exchequer should charge more, it would, of course, be underbid by brokers, and patronized by no one. If it should charge less, it would, of course, have more business than it could accomplish, and would become a heavy charge upon the Government.

The effect of hoarding the specie of the country in the vaults of the exchequer, would be to incite and encourage embezzlement. It would, he thought, be putting too much money under the control of Government officers, and subjecting them to too strong temptations. It would be rendering them liable to the same temptations to which bank officers in this country had offered so little resistance. In spite of bonds, and penalties, and oaths, embezzlement would be committed, and the United States Government saddled with the responsibility of making good vast amounts of private funds received by it in its capacity of dealer in exchanges. Who were to have the keeping of these public and private deposites, mixed together to the amount of all the specie in the United States, and coequal with the currency of a great commercial people? This pregnant question was answered by the provisions of the plan itself. Let gentlemen turn to the three first sections, and they would find there a new and unnecessary class of public officers to manage private funds--all to be appointed by the Executive, and increasing the already too much extended influence of the Executive. Yes; a large class of men are to be paid exorbitant salaries out of the public treasury, for managing the transmission of private funds! The plan is to go into operation with one commissioner, one principal clerk, ten assistants, eleven registers, and their twenty clerks at the board in Washing ton, and their agencies in the States where the money is to be kept. All this force is to be added to the regular force of the Treasury Department. And this is only the beginning of the scheme! Where it would end, if adopted, the Lord only knows.

The amount of specie brought into the exchequer would be equal to the amount of the currency of the country, should the system work as its friends claim that it will; its object being to furnish a paper currency of equal value through the country. Its design is to supply the place of a United States bank, since that institution has become an "obsclete idea." It is intended to fill with its certificates and drafts, that space which was once filled by the notes, drafts, and credits of the United States Bank. Such is the amount proposed to be intrusted to the hands of officers of the United States on private account, and the Government itself responsi ble! And for what object and end? In order that the specie of the country may be drawn from circulation paper promises to pay and certificates are to be issued to fill the vacuum; and the people familiarized to the use of paper, until they regard it as cash of intrinsic value-thereby paving the way for the triumph of paper-money schemes and the ascendency of the moneyed aristocracy. The history of this class, in our own as well as in other countries, proves that they will never rest satisfied until they shall have gained a control over all the wealth, labor, and hard earnings of the producing classes. They will not be contented until they have revived the credit system, which but recently exploded, and left the people in the lowest depths of indebtedness and distress. Let the country, he besought, be delivered from the curse of these schemes, and from the fatuity and recklessness of the party which came into power in 1840 by the most unpar.

27TH CONG.......3D SESS.

alleled and disgraceful means ever resorted to in the long annals of political corruption! Every patriot might well look with apprehension and alarm upon the blot which he feared was beginning to appear upon the hitherto fair escutcheon of our country. He had still some hope that the eyes of the blind dupes would be opened to the wiles of the schemers who were making them instrumental in subjugating the masses to the idle and listless millionaires, who contrive to grow richer and richer day by day, from the toil and sweat of other men's brows. Let the people drink deeply at the wellsprings of knowledge. Let them qualify themselves to govern with wisdom and moderation. Let them learn (and they must learn it sooner or later) to "let well enough alone," and cease tinkering the immutable laws of commerce and currency-laws which are founded upon the nature of man, and are as little capable of being altered by human legislation as the laws of matter. Let them profit by the bitter experience they have learned, and henceforth know that it would be as impossible for Government to discover the philosopher's stone, or invent a machine of perpetual motion, as to convert paper into gold and silver, or make "promises to pay" equivalent in all respects to solid coin. Never has man, with all his ingenuity, with all his talent at invention, with all his wonderful discoveries in science and in art, been able to counterfeit the precious metals, and elude speedy detection. The precious metals have an intrinsic value, apart from their value as a circulating medium. Paper is, at best, but a representative of value, and which may prove to be as baseless and visionary as the man in the moon. A statesman should as soon think of catching the will-o'-the-wisp of the marsh, or the evanescent colors of the gorgeous rainbow, as of attempting to make anything else answer the exact purposes of gold and silver.

The earth teems with wealth, and Heaven has decreed that it shall only be realized by labor. Let Government confine itself within its proper sphere of protecting and securing the fruits of honest labor to each and every man in the community, drawing the line between meum and tuum, and punishing all invasions on private right. Let it do this, and it will have discharged all its domestic duties to the people. Further interference in their private affairs would be more like usurpation and oppression, than any pretended protection.

The present has been emphatically a Congress of scheming experiments. There have been proposed, as sine qua nons, the two bank bills which were vetoed by the President, differing from each other and every other; the exchequer of the Treas ury Department, and the exchequer of the select committee, [Mr. CUSHING'S;] the bill of Governor Pope, which is the scheme of a great bank based on the public lands; the bill of Mr. Everett of Vermont; the bill of Mr. Barnard; and last, though not least, the two hundred million scheme of Government stock, which is the joint offspring of the Barings in England, the Secretary of State, and an honorable member of Congress from Maryland. All these bubbles have appeared and disappeared in rapid succession, and, like the baseless fabric of a vision, have left nothing behind. They and their fate reminded him of the ill-starred extra session of 1841-every measure of which had been repealed by the same Congress, and nothing of which now remained on the statute books, except the mere appropriation bills. Discordant in principle, crudely conceived, impracticable of adoption, and wanting the confidence and respect of even a majority of the party whence they emanated, they are the fruits of all the labors of the majorities here and in the Senate during the three sessions of the 27th Congress; and most truly do they reflect the composition of the 'candle-ends, cheese-parings, rag-tag-and-bobtail" party, which came into power by the eruption of 1840, and which was so graphically described by the distinguished gentleman of that party, [Mr. J. C. CLARK,] who but a short time since addressed the committee. As it was the first, so, it was to be hoped, it would be the last Whig Congress ever convened here! The present gen. eration must pass away before the same fantastic tricks can be again played off with success. people, who were told that a "change" would be no worse for them, and who heeded the insidious advice, will not soon again turn a listening ear to their deceivers. They have learned with sorrow their great mistake, and will not permit themselves to be duped a second time. In tracing the history of this party, (the like of which never existed,) the faithful

The

Assumption of State Debts-Mr. McDuffie.

chronicler will date its origin from the modern credit system, which immediately preceded it, and which poisoned and corrupted the public morals by its gambling, reckless, unregulated spirit.

SPEECH OF MR. McDUFFIE,
OF SOUTH CAROLINA,

In Senate, February 20, 1843.--The following resolutions submitted by Mr. McDUFFIE coming up in order, viz:

Resolved, That the Government of the United States has no constitutional power to assuine the debts contracted by the States for their own proper purposes, by the issue of stock, whatever fund may be pledged for the payment of the interest or principal.

Resolved, That it is inexpedient for this Government thus to assume the aforesaid debts.

Mr. McDUFFIE said it was not his design, when he presented these resolutions, to have offered a single remark, with the purpose of enforcing the doctrines they declare. But, as he perceived that the Senate was not yet full, he would avail himself of the occasion to submit one or two views to its consideration. And, in the first place, he asked, had Congress the constitutional power to carry into execution the scheme to which these resolutions relate? This was the first and most important question; and, in regard to that question, he confessed the very great surprise with which he heard the Senator from Kentucky over the way, [Mr CRITTENDEN,] When particularly interrogated as to his opinion of the question of constitutional power, declare, that though he disclaimed all obligation on the part of Congress to pay the debts of the States, and could not now conceive of an emergency which would justify their assumption, yet he must say that Congress was not prohibited from such an exercise of power. Mr. McDUFFIE said he was the more surprised at such a remark as coming from the honorable Senator from Kentucky, who, he was sure, was politically educated under those sound constitutional doctrines from the pen of Mr. Jefferson, which were promulgated by Kentucky in 1800. Mr. McD. asked the Senator if those great doctrines were to be reversed; and if, instead of looking to the express grants of the Constitution for the powers of Congress, we were to assume all those which were not expressly prohibited.

[Mr. CRITTENDEN asked leave to explain the remarks alluded to. What he meant to say was, (as the whole tenor of his remarks would show,) that he was unwilling to to express an opinion at that time as to the power of Congress. He did not intend to say that Congress could exercise any powers, except such as were expressly granted, or which were implied as necessary to carry express grants of power into effect.]

Mr. MCDUFFIE said he was glad to hear the explanation of the Senator from Kentucky. He entirely concurred in the principles of construction he now laid down, and was sure they must condemn the assumption of power now under consideration. But he would proceed to show (as he flattered himself he could do, most conclusively) that not only was there no grant in the Constitution giving the least color of right to exercise this pow er; but that the only grant in the Constitution, hav ing relation to the subject, contained an express prohibition against such an exercise of power, as plain and positive as human language could make it. Now, what, he asked, was proposed to be done? and what were the powers practically involved in the scheme of assuming the State debts? He begged Senators to realize the true effect and character of the measure, and not to be deluded by a mere empty form. The stock proposed to be issued, it was true, was to be sustained, in part, by a pledge of the income derived from the public lands; but it would be a gross delusion to suppose that the whole credit and resources of the Government were not also as fully pledged for the redemption of the proposed stock, as if no particular fund were pledged. The very act of assumption extinguished the State debts, and created a Federal debt to the same extent. Now, what were the powers involved in doing all this? He answered, the whole money power of the Government-borrowing money, levying taxes, and appropriating the revenue derived from these sources. Yes, sir, the whole of this greatest of all the powers of Congress was to be called in requisition to execute the proposed scheme and, he would add, no other power whatever. And he would now ask, if there was not, in reference to the exercise of this power, a limitation as

Senate.

clear and distinct as language could make it, amounting to an express prohibition of the pro posed assumption? The clause of the Constitution which clothes Congress with the power of raising revenue, expressly limits this power to the objects of "providing for the common defence and general welfare of the United States." Now it is remarkable that these words of limitation which have been made the prolific source of all doubtful and constructive powers, should thus place a decided negative upon this most monstrous of all the assumptions of Federal power ever attempted. For, if the payment of debs contracted by the separate States, for their own proper purposes, can be drawn by construction within the scope of the "common defence and general welfare

terms

of the United States," language must have totally changed its meaning, and we had as well throw aside the Constitution at once, as worse than useless. As it thus appeared to him strikingly clear that the powers involved in the execution of the proposed scheme were positively prohibited by an express limitation, he would not further occupy the time of the Senate in attempting to make that plainer, which is as plain as language can make it, We are thus (said Mr. McD.) arrested at the very threshold; and all those who concur with me in the opinion that the measure in question is plainly and expressly unconstitutional, must also agree that any law of Congress, in execution of it, and every act done under such law, would be now and forever destitute of all binding obligation, and, to all intents and purposes, null and void. It would be utterly impossible to pledge the faith of this Government to any contract thus made, without any shadow of authority, and in open defiance of the express words of the Constitution.

But suppose (said he) that, by some strained construction, we cou'd get rid of this express limitation, and also of the no less conclusive objection that there is no grant of such a power in the Constitution: yet, when we come to look into the practi cal working of the proposed assumption, it will be seen so totally to invert all the principles of the Government, and destroy the responsibility which sustains and controls our whole political system, State and Federal, as to render its unconstitutional ity palpable, independently of the want of an express grant, and the existence of an express limitation. The result of the proposed scheme was to make this Government tax-gatherer for the States; and to give the funds, thus collected, to the Governments of the respective States, to be expended by them at pleasure, either in payment of their debts, or in executing new and extravagant schemes of internal improvement. I beg the aitention of the Senate (said Mr. McD.) to this view of the subject, as it clearly shows that the State Governments will have the expenditure of this immense fund, without any responsibility to those who will have to pay the taxes-the people of the United States. Thus, sir, the State Governments are to be wholly exempted from the essential check of responsibility in a matter which most of all demands it-the discretionary expenditure of public money on works of internal improvement. Greater temptations and greater facilities could not be offered for a corrupt system of favoritism and extravagance!

And, (said Mr. McD.,) if we will but look into the circumstances under which the money obtained for the State stocks we are called upon to assume has been expended, and the extraordinary popular delusion under which it was applied to the construction of wild schemes of internal improvement, we shall be impressively admonished of the madness and folly of the proposed assumption. In the course of a few years, two hundred millions of foreign capital were brought into the country. While this enormous amount of money was in the progress of accumulation, it was like a shower of gold poured out upon the States, totally deranging the monetary affairs of the country; and the natural effect of which was to enhance the price of everything to the extreme point of inflation. And it may not be inappropriate to remark here, that the importation of this immense amount of foreign capital contributed, not less than the expansion of our bank circulation, to produce the revulsion and distresses under which we are now suffering. Indeed, it largely aided in producing that expansion. During the period to which I have referred, (said he,) a perfect delirium prevailed. Men acted as if they were under the influence of a stimulating draught. All responsibility in the expenditure of this borrowed money was destroyed; and it would be seen that the

27TH CONG.....3D SESS.

State Governments, and all their agents employed in carrying on their works of internal improvement, acted precisely as if the money they were expending were rained down from the heavens, and the shower would last forever. The consequence of this universal excitement and delirium was a system of unexampled extravagance and waste, causing the works executed to cost three, four, or five times as much as it would now cost to construct them. And (said Mr. McD.) I will venture the opinion, that, at this moment, there is no prudent man-even if one could be found having the requisite capitalwho would accept, as a gift, nine-tenths of the works made with this borrowed capital, if he were bound, by the terms of the gift, to keep thein up. They would not pay expenses; and the money expended must be regarded as sunk and lost forever. And here I cannot but express an opinion I have long entertained, and which the occasion forcibly suggests-that, for all governments, the faculty of borrowing money, and funding the debt, is one of the most unfortunate discoveries ever made in political economy; and that, for the States of this Union, all should now unite in deploring its existence. And now, (said he,) when the States have just waked up from this fatal delirium, to survey, in soberness, the embarrassment and ruin that surround them, is it proper that we, by the monstrous scheme proposed, should administer to them again the same bewildering dose, producing the same disasters? It is perfectly clear that the practical operation of the scheme will be to place another two hundred millions of dollars at the disposal of the State Governments, to be used by them, without any responsibility to the people of the United States, who must pay the taxes by which this money is to be raised. Now, is it not obvious, that, if the State Governments were held to a separate responsibility; by requiring each to raise, by taxes imposed on its own constituents, the money necessary to pay its own debts, and execute its own improvements,-the only effective check upon the extravagance of Government, which human wisdom has devised, would be brought into active operation? When every citizen of the State knows and feels that he pays his full proportion of every dollar expended, then, and not till then, will he hold his representative and his executive agents to a rigorous accountability.

And now, (said Mr. McD.,) a few words on the naked question of expediency. And here I must ask the projectors of this grand scheme of delusion, what is the great favor we should confer upon the States by its adoption? The honorable Senator from Maryland [Mr. MERRICK] had been pleased to speak of the paternal character of this Government in its relation to the States, and the obligations incident to that character. The duties of a paternal government! Mr. President, this is not the first time, by many hundreds, that I have heard this language used on the floor of Congress. Whenever Congress was called upon to do any wrong— whenever an outrage was about to be perpetrated upon the rights of the people--it was always attempted to cover and consecrate it by assuming this paternal character. It was a remark of Junius, (which I do not repeat as approving his particular application of it,) "that whenever a Scotchman smiled in his face, he involuntarily put his hand on his pocket." Now I must remark, that whenever I hear the paternal character of this Government invoked, I involuntarily put my hand upon my pocket, suspecting some secret design of legislative injustice and plunder. And what, I ask, is the practical character and effect of measures professing to give money to the States? Do gentlemen aim to inculcate upon the people of the States the idolatrous idea, that this Government (as if some godlike power) is endowed with inherent wealth, or some supernatural alchemic process of creating money, not derived from the people themselves? And were they, like children, to be deluded into the belief that Congress, by these inherent self-created measures, were about to relieve their pecuniary embarrassments? All this tended to induce the people to bow down and worship this Government, as the Persians worshipped the sun. God forbid that this tendency, to which all communities are but too prone, should be countenanced or encouraged by any measures of ours.

Let us meet the question fairly, and expose the operation of the proposed measure plainly to the people. Every power we exercise, and every dollar we possess, must be derived from the people of those very States to whom we affect to manifest

Naval Appropriation Bill-Mr. J. L. White.

such paternal munificence, in giving them back what we have taken from them already, or imposed on ourselves the obligation to do so hereafter; deducting, however, what has stuck to the fingers of a host of officers, or fallen by the wayside, in the double process of collecting and giving back the

money.

Since, then, we have nothing to give the people, and are, in fact, dependent upon them, and the revenue drawn from their labor, for the very bread we eat-as their representatives here, let us realize the fact, (as the people certainly will,) that for every dollar we may seem to give the States, in one form, we shall be under the necessity of drawing from them one dollar and twenty-five cents (including the expenses of collecting and distributing) in some form of taxation. I confidently ask, then, if there is a single Senator on this floor who will give countenance to this insane scheme of deception, by which the evils of to-day are to be postponed till tomorrow, only to fall with redoubled force upon those who vainly hope to be relieved from their embarrassments?

I am aware (said Mr. McD.) that this scheme is recommended to many, by the expectation that the revenue by which the interest of the proposed stock will be paid, and the stock ultimately redeemed, will be raised by indirect taxation. But this hope is utterly destitute of foundation. Can any one suppose that, with an exhausted treasury, a Government living from day to day upon the miserable shifts of borrowing, and a commerce which is almost cut off by an unjustand suicidal policy, (so that the duties will not, by some eight millions of dollars, defray the ordinary expenses of the several departments,) we can nevertheless pay an annual interest of six millions upon the stock proposed to be issued, without resorting to direct taxes? No, sir; in less than a single year we should be driven to the alternative of direct taxation, or of refusing to pay the interest on the stock, to the utter ruin of our public credit.

And this brings me to another view of the subject, which deserves to be gravely considered. This scheme is designed to relieve the indebted States, by indirectly assuming their debts; but, in order to accomplish this, it is necessary to do something more. It is, therefore, proposed to issue $200,000,000 of 3 per cent. stock, and distribute it among the Statesnot in proportion to their debts, but to their federal numbers. Now, while the distributive share of Pennsylvania would not pay one-half part of her debts, that of other States would far exceed them; and that of some would be a clear fund, subject to no debt at all, South Carolina, for example, with a very small debt, would be entitled to above six millions; the economical and exemplary State of North Carolina (which, I believe, has scarcely any debt) will be entitled to above nine millions; and Missouri would be entitled to about three millions, with no debt at all. Now, mark the unequal operation of this scheme on the indebted and on the unindebted States! The former, if (as it is said) they could exchange their United States 3 per cents. for State 6 per cents., would realize the par value for their distributive share. Now, what would be the condition of the unindebted States, and those owing less than their share of the stock? What could they realize for that stock; and to what use could they apply the proceeds? It is proposed to throw two hundred millions of our 3 per cent. stock on the markets of the world, with a considerable and increasing debt already hanging over us, and without the means of paying that debt, or even the ordinary current expenses of the Government. Pray, what would that stock be worth to North Carolina, Missouri, and the other unindebted States, and States but little indebted? We have ascertained, by actual experiment, that our 6 per cent. stock could not be sold in Europe at par--or, indeed, at any price -though small in amount. What, then, will be the value of the proposed 3 per cents., when the amount of our debts shall be swelled to two hundred and forty millions, with an annual interest of eight millions and a half, and an annual revenue notoriously insufficient to pay one-half our annual expenses, including this interest?

Sir, (said Mr. McD.,) it would be extravagant to suppose it could be sold at fifty dollars for the hundred. I do not believe it could be sold for that price. So that, in effect, you would compel these States to receive this stock, for which they have no use, at par; when they could not obtain for it one-half its par value. I say they would be Compelled to receive it at par; because they would

H. of Reps.

have to pay their full proportion of the taxes necessary to pay the interest annually, and finally, in some twenty years, to redeem the whole amount of the principal, after having paid $170,000,000 as nterest. Such, sir, would be the operation of this most monstrous and abominable project. In twenty years after paying this $170,000,000 in current interest, our immediate posterity would have to redeem the whole amount of the debt itself-a sum nearly twice as large as the debt of the late war with Great Britain; a war, by which our character as a nation was established, and the glory of our arms, by sea and land, extended throughout the world. Such would be the inheritance which, as reckless and improvident fathers, we should leave to our children. Nothing could be more unwise as it regards all the States; and nothing could be more monstrously unequal and unjust to the unindebted States. But I have no idea, after the opinions I hope to hear expressed in this Senate, that foreigners would take this stock on any

terms.

But, (said Mr. McD.,) as I perceive the Senate is now full, I have no disposition to press the argument further. I feel it, however, to be my duty, before I sit down-a duty which I owe to myself, to the States, and to the foreign and domestic capitalists to whom this stock may be offered-to make, in my place here, a solemn declaration, by which I will stand or fall, to the end that those capitalists (particularly the holders of State stocks in Europe) may not be deceived. I confidently believe, then, that all the States will ultimately fulfil their obligations and redeem their faith, which has been constitutionally pledged. I as confidently believe that this Government has no shadow of constitutional power to issue stock, pledging the public faith for any such purpose as that indicated in the resolutions, and that the whole $200,000,000 would not be constitutionally worth the paper on which these resolutions are written. The promises upon the face of it would be utterly null and void, and I would feel no more obligation to fedeem them than to pay a forged note. And if, by any accident, a party should ever get temporary possession of the power of this Government, by whom such stock shall be issued, I here solemnly declare and pledge myself that I will wage war-exterminating waragainst it, so long as my life lasts, whether I shall be in Congress or out of it. And whether it may be called nullification, repudiation, or by whatever other name of odiuin it may be designated, I will persevere in resisting, by all the influence I can exert as a citizen, and all the power I may possess as a legislator, the payment of all claims upon the United States founded upon this unconstitutional attempt to assume the debts of the States; holding at the same time that we are under the most sacred obligation to preserve the faith of the Government constitutionally pledged, free from violation, or even suspicion. 1, notwithstanding all this, foreign capitalists should still take the proposed stock in exchange for State stocks, they will act upon their own responsibility, and not upon mine-their eyes will be fully open to the consequences; and let them make the experiment.

SPEECH OF MR. WHITE,

OF INDIANA,

In the House of Representatives, February 8, 1843. In reply to Mr. HOLMES, of South Carolina, on the principles which divide the two parties.

The House being in Committee of the Whole on the naval appropriation bill

Mr. WHITE addressed the Committee as follows: Mr. CHAIRMAN: From the commencement of this Congress to the present time, a fashion has prevailed here, among that portion of the House who style themselves the Democracy, in every speech-no matter what the subject under consideration-to indulge in vehement abuse of the Whig party, its principles, and the motives which have governed its members in their legislative action. By one gentleman we' are informed that the great political struggle of 1840 was characterized by nothing but base and shameless appeals to the worst passions of the populace; that no principles were contended for, and none involved; and that the great victory achieved by that contest proved nothing but a popular desire for a change of rulers. Another gentleman proclaims, in a strain of indignant rebuke, that we had one set of principles

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for the West, another set for the North, and yet another for the South; and that, accommodating our theories to the great variety of popular prejudices, we sought success, regardless of the means employed; and, therefore, nothing was decided by the people. Another gentleman, [Mr. PICKENS,] and one whose ability and position demand for his remarks more than an ordinary share of consideration, declares that "never did a party succeed to power with principles more corrupt and profligate;" thus conceding to us some principles, and according to them the credit of uniformity and universality, although stig. matized with the characteristics of profligacy and corruption.

If gentlemen could agree among themselves, and hold a uniformity of sentiment upon this point, a reply might be more easily made to them. As it is, however, being uninformed upon which allegation in the complaint the "Democracy" intend to rely, I shall not at this time traverse either. It is sufficient that each contradicts the other; and but one can be true.

If, in 1840, Whig principles were not well defined and well understood, now is the time to forestall any future reproach for a similar condition of things, by a clear, open, manly, and bold declaration of the principles by each party, upon which the great battle of 1844 shall be fought. No period can better than the present be adapted to the settlement of preliminaries and the "defining of positions."

While gentlemen have been so liberal in the bestowal of their animadversions upon Whig policy and Whig principles, it seems to have escaped their notice that there were two sides to the question; and that, while making their crusade into the enemy's country, their own citadel might be exposed to successful attack. Let us, in return for the civilities of these gentlemen "Democrats," examine their position. Are they united or divided upon questions of national policy? What are their principles?

The gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. HOLMES,] who has just resumed his seat, had disclosed to us the Democratic panacea for all the ills to which the country has fallen heir-FREE TRADE. Is this the cardinal principle of the Democratic party?

Or

is there a diversity of sentiment upon it in that party? We have the testimony of the gentleman to whom I have alluded that this is not only the principle, but the great principle, of Democracy. Direct taxation, the necessary result of this policy, the gentleman scouts-not, as his speech would indicate, on account of its impropriety as a political or national measure; but because of the present inability of the people to meet the exactions of such a system of finance. That this is contemplated by him as an ultimate resort, none who heard his speech can doubt; although the evil day is to be postponed until the public distress shall be relieved. There are other gentlemen of his party, however, who, in their enthusiasm for the establishment of this new heresy of free trade, do not scruple to declare their readiness now to resort to its necessary result-direct taxation; and I here pause to pay the tribute of my admiration to them for the independence of their theory, and the boldness with which they defend it. However full, in my judgment, it may be of error, the manliness with which it has been avowed, and the majestic intellects which have been enlisted to expound and enforce it, challenge a large degree of respe It would have been more in keeping with the independence of a South Carolina Representative, had the gentleman marched boldly up to the support of his friends in their advocacy of this doctrine, instead of exhibiting, piecemeal, his concurrence with their views, while he feared an open avowal. The position in which he left himself is anything but enviable. Free trade was urged upon us as the only remedy for existing evils; while direct taxation, the only mode of raising revenue under his system of financial policy, was rejected. How, when all restrictions are removed from our commerce, and we are deprived of imposts, we are to raise revenue for the uses of the Government-direct taxation being out of the question-was left to our conjecture. Sir, this scheme of political economy is only equalled in magnificence and sublimity of conception by that of the Illinois Legislature; which sapient body recently passed a joint resolution, in substance, decla

Naval Appropriation Bill-Mr J. L. White.

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answer.

ring that all tariffs were oppressive and unjust, and that, in the present distressed state of the people, direct taxation was not to be thought of. All of which being interpreted is, that the Government must be administered without revenue, and all its officers serve without pay! But, sir, I repeat the question: Is free trade the cardinal principle of Democracy?" I ask an answer from the party on this floor, for none better than they can Let there be no dodging-let gentlemen avow and disavow. It is due to the country and themselves that their "position should be defined." Since they accuse us of contrariety in sentiment, and of holding a set of promiscuous tenets, it is proper that they should reveal to the country the concord of their counsels, if there be any, and disclose their principles free from all obscurity. But why interrogate? There is no prominent member of the party who will risk his veracity upon a denial. During the last session, one gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. RHETT] entertained us with an hour-long speech upon the equality and justice of free trade, and deprecated all tariffs as so many gross infringements of the Constitution and the rights of the States; which latter, in the estimation of a certain clique of politicians, seem to be of higher and holier authority than the first. A gentleman from Alabama [Mr. LEWIS] expressed the same, or similar views, in that lucid and forcible manner which has ever characterized his oratory; and I well remember the profound attention which was paid to him, and the deep impression which he made upon the House. Another member from South Carolina [Mr. PICKENS] has, within a few days, proclaimed that "there is no harmony for the Democratic party, except upon the broad principle of free trade." A gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. HUNTER,] during the present Congress, has, with a frankness which always distinguishes him, ably advocated the same doctrine. But this principle of free trade is not local in its party application. To whatever quarter of this Union it may be indebted for its paternity, it is ubiquitous with the "Democracy." It has its advocates at the North as well as at the South; and from "Northern men with Southern principles" I summon witnesses to testify to its legitimacy as the offspring of "Democracy."

One of the Representatives from the city of New York [Mr. RoOSEVELT] has sought frequent occasions to express his party preference for this system of policy, and has advocated it with an untiring zeal and industry. A colleague of his, too, from the same city, whom, as it is unparliamentary to "call names," I will designate as the young gentleman from New York, [Mr. McKEON,] has, in repeated instances, come to the aid of the elder gentleman in his advocacy of this free-trade policy; and I may add, that no man upon this floor has stricken more good blows for that policy, nor has any been more vociferous in its commendation to the country as the true universal Democratic faith, than the young member from New York. One of the members of the Pennsylvania delegation from the city of Philadelphia-the great man of the delegation, as well as of the States, and a man of gigantic mind he is too, [Mr. C. J. INGERSOLL,] and one who, if his course as a Representative, and all his party speeches here and elsewhere be summoned as witnesses, prove him to be a genuine disciple of Democracy, the most rank, radical, and unquestioned-has also joined in the warfare against imposts and protection, and thrown the weight of his great influence and intellect into the scale of free trade. This, indeed, in his remarks a few days ago, was offered as the specific, and the only one, for the relief of individual and public embarrassments. The catalogue does not stop here. Another gentleman of the New York delegation, [Mr. DAVIS,] at the past session, made us a speech, from which it appeared that, while he sustained without flinching all the avowed principles of his party, there were some of the more radical ones unavowed, from which he was determined to strip the guise of secrecy; and, with a master hand, he did it. His revelation of democratic faith furnished us much amusement; and a faith it proved to be more radical, comprehensive, and latitudinous, more "omnium gatherum" in its character, more levelling and agrarian in its operation and results, than any ever

H. of Reps.

before offered by party leaders to the credulity of a confiding people. And what was it? FREE TRADE, hard-money, no banks or bank paper, no credit, DIRECT TAXATION, the universal rights of man, and no laws for the collection of debts. If the array of authorities is not yet sufficient to identify the principle of free trade with Democracy, I bring another witness to the stand; to doubt the testimony of whom would bring down upon the offender all the rigors of the party inquisition. That witness is the now prominent, distinguished, and recognised leader of the Democratic party, JOHN C. CALHOUN-a man for whom, and for whose integrity, public and pri vate, I entertain the highest respect; and, although my opinion upon this point may be adverse to that of the party of which I am one, there is nothing in this subject or occasion that requires me to withhold its expression. Whatever may have been his political vacillations, (and they are many,) in all I be lieve he has been actuated by what he conceived to be the common interests of his countrymen-proudly disregarding all those consequences to the popularity of a statesman which ever flow from a change of position, no matter whether, by such change, error be corrected or avoided. But let him speak upon this policy of free trade and its generality. During the past session, when the revenue bill was under consideration in the Senate, Mr. CALHOUN, in the course of a speech which he made upon the bill, said: "He had not spoken with a view to change a vote here: he knew that an angel from heaven could not affect the actions or opinions of those here. But he confided in the strength and ultimate triumph of truth. We had formerly struggled against greater odds. But now we see the whole Democratic party rallied under the banner of free trade." Can language be plainer, or a principle be more clearly defined? And let it be remembered that we have it from the highest possible authority, that to the advocacy and support of this principle the "whole Democratic party" have rallied. Sir, is anything more needed to prove that free trade is the cardinal principle of Democracy? The witnesses I have introduced are those who rank not only high, but highest with their party for talent and integrity: their will is the law, and their principles the principles of the party. If their testimony is not to be relied upon, then is there no longer virtue among statesmen, and truth has fled these halls to give place to dissembling and deceit.

Now, sir, although I believe with Mr. CALHOUN, that "the whole Democratic party" are secretly in favor of free trade, I know that Democratic members from the North hold a different language when at home among their constituents. One of the New York democratic State papers, the leading organ of the party, during the gubernatorial contest in November last, called upon all tariff men of both parties to glorify SILAS WRIGHT, because, by his vote in the Senate of the United States, he had saved the tariff bill-the same bill that the Legislature of South Carolina has recently, by joint resolution, asked us to repeal; and threatening us, if we do not, with that fearful remedy-a "resort to her original rights." The lead of this paper was followed by many of the "distinguished Democracy" in their addresses to the people as well as in their private communications with their constituents. Yet these gentlemen here are as gentle as cooing doves, and whisper softly in the believing ears of their Southren brethren, "wo are for free trade."

Sir, it is time that the delusion were destroyed, and the mask of hypocrisy stripped from such Janusfaced politicians. They cannot have one set of principles for the constituent bodies, and another set for the ears of partisans leaders. I call upon Northern Democrats now to rise in their places and declare whether they are for free trade. It is due to your selves-it is due to your stations-it is due to the country-it is due to honor and fair dealing, that you should precisely "define your positions." If you are united in political sentiment, let it be so understood. If you are divided past all hope of com. promise or reconciliation, let us-let the country know it, and decide upon the merits of your controversy. Why conceal your condition? What cause for concealment? Do men or measures divide you? Or are you not divided, and are your counsels har

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