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

and the sanction of laws; and, during his reign, more than seventy-two thousand persons perished by execution. Elizabeth was not less proud and imperious in disposition; she, too, exercised the suspending power, and vetoed, some sessions, more than half the acts which Parliament passed. Under her rule, industry spread, the arts and commerce flourished, the wealth and consideration of the commons rapidly increased, and the spirit of liberty grew with their affluence, intelligence, and strength. Their murmurs began to alarm, their voice to be heeded, and their wrongs to be redressed by the haughty Tudor. They remonstrated by their House of Parliament with the imperial virago her. self against abuses by monopolies; she had the sagacity to discern that there was a spirit up, not to be trifled with; she curbed the hot blood of her father, and with great judgment and tact graciously corrected the evil. James 1st had as much attachment to power and prerogative, but not the courage or talent to maintain them; he was constantly making issues with Parliament, but was too feeble for the conflict; the consequence was, the spirit of liberty and of the commons grew apace. When Charles 1st came to the throne, it had acquired strength and resolution enough to defy and to conquer the perils which awaited it. It numbered among its champions a Milton and a Hampton, a Cromwell and a Bunyan. It was mixed up with the hysterical tears, the austere form, and the gloomy enthusiasm of the religion of the Puritans; but it was nevertheless upheld by prudence and sound sense, by genius and attainment, by activity and fortitude, and by a devotion which no danger could awe, no treasure could corrupt, no honors could seduce, nothing could shake. It was fully equal to one of the great. est of human events-the dethronement and the execution of Charles. All that is valuable in English or American liberty, civil or religious, is due to the Puritans, and the House of Commons of the Long Parliament; they stormed the main citadel of despotic power; their successors have been marshalled by their example, from conquest to conquest in the overthrow of the weaker ones. The freedom of England has been won, by ages of heroic struggle on the part of her House of Commons, from her tyrant kings. It is a magnificent fabric, which nobly vindicates numerous representative assemblies of the people from the foul aspersion of a tendency to despotism.

The gentleman occupies a strange position, and puts forth extraordinary notions, considering the measures and principles which he always, until the commencement of this Administration, advocated with so much zeal and ability. I had read many of his speeches before I knew him. I admired his talents and attainments; I approved of the soundness of his views, and was instructed and fortified in my own. But he is wonderfully metamorphosed; and I think if he will examine the matter deliberately, he will find it to be quite as true, that he has broken his neck politically in jumping his somersets, as that "the Whig party has knocked out its brains against the fixed fact." He tells us that party is nothing but an association of men struggling for power; and that he contemns measures that measures are not principles. The gen tleman must have been reading the celebrated treatise, "The Prince," for such dicta are of the school of Machiavelli; and his sudden and total abandonment of all the principles as well as measures, to which he was as strongly pledged as any Whig, good and true, proves that he had studied his lesson to some purpose. At the extra session of 1837, he opposed the sub treasury in a very elaborate speech, in which we find these passages: "We are to have a Government paper-currency, recognisable by the Government of the United States, and employed in its dealings; but it is to be irredeemable Government paper." "If the scheme were not too laughingly absurd to spend time in arguing about it seriously; if the mischiefs of a Government paper currency had not had an out-and-out trial both in Europe and America, I might discuss it as a question of political economy. But I will not occupy the committee in this way. I am astounded at the fatuity of any set of men who can think of any such project." "I welcome the general idea hat Government should not be ever prone to interere in the private pursuits of the citizen. One of he mischiefs of the times has been the meddlesome nterference of General Jackson in the business of he country-his prurient tampering with the curency under the pretext of reforming it. This is he very thing I would prevent. It is one reason

The Bankrupt Law-Mr. G. Davis.

why I am against a marriage of Bank and State. I wish to have banks the business agents, not the party hacks, of the Administration. I oppose the sub-treasury for the same reason. If adopted, it would enable the Government to put up exchange or to put down exchange, and to produce fluctuations in the money-market at will. It would place the whole commerce and business of the United States at the arbitrary mercy of the President of the United States." He gave, then, a definition of a bank, and avowed the sub-treasury to be a Government bank; and upon those and other objections which are unanswerable, he pertinaciously opposed that measure for three years; and, it having been forced upon him and the country, at the earliest opportunity he voted for its repeal. Now, he is the unscrupulous advocate of the exchequer, a measure embodying both the sub treasury and a great organized Government bank, and faught with more frightful dangers than his own excited imagination had pictured in the whole three years.

He was one of the staunchest supporters of a United States Bank. He characterized "the refusal of the late President (Jackson) to sign the bill rechartering the bank, like the removal of the deposites, to be in defiance and violation of the popular will." He argued that a mixed circulation of coin and paper was irreversably fixed upon the country, and asks: "But how shall the paper circulation be supplied? and how regulated? The plain, obvious, straightforward course would be to hearken to the voice of experience, and to follow out the analogies of our political institutions. Twice, for long periods of time, have we tried a national bank, and in each period it has fulfilled its appointed purpose of supplying a safe and equal currency, and of regulating and controlling the issues of the State banks. Twice have we tried for a few years to drag on without a national bank, and each of these experiments has been a season of disaster and confusion." And yet, sir, he has denied that he was ever the supporter of a bank of the United States, and is now one of the most rabid revilers of such an institution.

He was for Mr. Clay's land bill; and he has abandoned, and now contemns it. No man has been more frequent and unsparing in his denunciations of General Jackson; and now he is the sycophantic eulogist of the old hero. He was the unflinching defender of the constitutional rights and powers of Congress. This Administration has not only resorted to the most flagitious abuse of the veto power, but has renewed every other assault, open or insidious, of Presidents Jackson and Van Buren upon Congress, which he, at the time, so indignantly rebuked; and he now justifies them all. He has gone far ahead of the extremest parasites of executive power. John Tyler vetoed four acts of Congress which the gentleman had voted for, and strange, by his subtle sophistry, he defended each of the vetoes; and most strange, when the House, in conformity to the provisions of the Constitution, voted again upon the measures, his vote was recorded in their favor, and to overrule the very vetoes of which he had just been the venal advocate. He has proclaimed that the President is a co-ordinate branch of the legislative power; that "the President has as much right to discuss Congress, as Congress has to discuss him;" that this House has no more right to require of the Executive any paper in the departments, than the President has to demand of it the papers in the custody of its clerk. He has sweepingly, again and again, condemned the present Congress-its measures, its spirit, and its action; and, in the manner of prophetic railing, he has warned us that we are rushing on to our destiny.

This same gentleman, in 1837, made a speech in this House, which contains an analysis of the Constitution, among the soundest, most instructive, and condensed, I have ever seen. I will read a passage or two from it. "The powers vested in the President, by the Constitution, are partly expressly enumerated, and the rest are such as Congress may see fit to intrust to the President, either under the several specific powers granted to Congress, or under the general power, which closes the enumeration, and is suppletory to all the rest." "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or any officer or department thereof." Here is the life-giving clause; the grant to Congress to infuse vitality into the unpowers

defined

of the executive.

H. of Reps.

Again: "Yet we have, in late times, seen the principal officers of the executive departments treated as the mere servants of the President-the humble instruments of his supreme will; instead of what the Constitution supposes-the agents of the law of the land, and the instruments of Congress as well as the President."

He then enters into some very cogent reasoning, and concludes, "that the vitality of the functions of the executive, under the Constitution, is to be infused into them by the legislation of Congress."

He then proceeds to a general enumeration of the abuses of President Jackson, and continues: "I denounce these acts of the Administration, and the pretences of power by which they are sought to be defended, as the crowning evidences of the means of corruption, and the scope for usurpation, which these functions afford."

"First. I conclude, as the general inference, that the powers of the Executive are, as compared with those of Congress, or any other department of the Government, particularly susceptible of abuse; that they have been abused; and that they have a persevering tendency continually to increase."

"In the second place, I conclude, as the other general inference, that the remedy for the abuses to which I have referred, is, to diminish the power and influence of the Executive. The salvation of the Government depends upon it."

"A wise and a brave people, it has been well said, will neither be cheated nor bullied out of liberty. But such a people may cease to be vigilantly wise-to be unshakingly brave--by resigning themselves to the treacherous and corrupt influences of power. Would to God some divine afflatus might descend upon the Constitution, to resuscitate and animate its enfeebled energies; that the voice of the Almighty, from the empyreal height where he sits enthroned, penetrating the clouds which surround us, would say, even to these dry bones of the Constitution: 'Live! be thou once more a creature of health and strength, to go forth, in the majesty of thy beauty, a ministering angel, on a mission of blessings to the world.'"

He concluded by offering this preamble:

"Whereas the influence of the executive department of the Government has, for some time past, in derogation of the letter and spirit of the Constitution, continued to increase, and ought to be diminished."

It was followed by two resolutions; the first of which proposed to refer so much of the President's message as relates to the collection, safekeeping, and transfer of the public moneys, to a select committee, with instructions to report such method of effecting these objects "as would most promote the public welfare, and secure the liberties of the people."

"Secondly, such other reforms in the practice of the Government as, in their opinion, shall tend to bring back the administration thereof to the standard of the original purity of the Constitution."

There was no abuse in the executive administration of General Jackson which does not now exist in an aggravated form, and which the gentleman does not now justify--except Congress is not degraded to be the employing tool of John Tyler. And this is its sin! This is the cause that John Tyler and his constitutional advisers are daily pouring out their ribald abuse. It is for this reason that the most miserable faction that ever existed is constantly hurling rancorous, but pointless, denunciation against the majority of this House; that those who compose it are so often reading us lectures against ultraism, and in favor of patriotism, whilst they are in the very plenitude of venality, and of factious animosity. The gentleman tells us, in the speech read from, that the President can exercise no power not expressly conferred upon him by the Constitution, without the interposition of congressional legislation; and yet he has here declared, with pointed emphasis, that the power of removal-an implied power--is vested by the Constitution in the President alone; that he cannot be interfered with in its exercise. Is Mr. Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts, Mr. Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts? or is he some other person? He says we are for recurring to obsolete ideas; he is for the principles of progress, and keeping up with the improvements of the age. We deny that his innovation is improvement. We cautiously adopt principles which stand the test of experiment; but we totally reject his heinous political Mormonism.

But the gentleman, in his tergiversations and

27TH CONG....3D SESS.

apostacy, is but following, and at humble distance, the lead of a greater man-Daniel Webster. Í have no unfounded prejudices against the Secretary of State: I once admired him as much as his most devoted friends do. I still regard him as a man of stupendous mind-an intellectual Titan-and, in some departments of mental operations, equal, prob. ably, to the greatest of ancients or moderns. But the closet, and not the great, living, active, execu tive theatre of the world, is his appropriate field. He has nothing of what is commonly called genius, and is defective in invention; his superiority results from great and general intellectual power. His mind is a vast crucible, into which the world's inellectual wealth may be heaved; and he can anayze it all, and reproduce it in forms of new and magnificent utility. In his senatorial career, he as won for himself a civic crown more imperishble than all the bloody laurels of the mightiest conquerors. His speeches upon banks, the currency, and the public revenues, form a solid and regularly built structure, as enduring as the pyramids. In all the powers of logic, argumentation, and composition, he has no superior; and his speeches--parliamentary and forensic-are among the noblest monuments of the intellect of the present day; and will be regarded as models when centuries upon centuries have rolled away. He ought to have belonged to his country, to the age, and to mankind, and to have shown one of the mightiest and brightest spirits; but he wants one-half of such a man-moral sense. "How are the mighty fallen!" He is, indeed, a political Lucifer; and he, too, is great even in his ruin! I once preferred him to all men but one for the Presidency; and if, by the continuance of his services, and fidelity to our causeto those immortal truths and principles to which he so long devoted himself-he should have won the first place in the confidence of his countrymen, I, and the friends of him whom he will quarrel with as his rival, would have cheerfully acquiesced.

A sub-treasury, a Government paper currency, or a Government bank, cannot be presented in any possible form, that either, or all, are not met and overthrown by Mr. Webster's luminous and unanswerable arguments. Since his connexion with John Tyler-since the lion has been serving the jackall--he has concocted the exchequer, which is a union of two to produce the third; and it has no provision, no faculty, no principle, which cannot be annihilated by a hundred passages from his speeches. He has said more for a bank of the United States--for its utility and indispensable necessity, to both Government and the people-than all living men besides. He never, until he filled his present place, uttered one word to the contrary; but, so late as the fall of 1840, in his speech at Saratoga, reiterated it all. He now rejects and scorns a bank as useless and obsolete, and arrogantly proclaims that it will never get another vote in New England. It is more probable he will never be able to control another vote in New England. He has lauded Mr. Clay's land bill as the wisest measure of a great statesman, and advocated it himself as the foundation stone of the tariff policy; he has also abandoned it. He proclaimed, "under an October sun" of 1840, in the capital of the Old Dominion, that "the power and influence of the execu tive of our Government had increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished;" and was "dangerous to liberty." He adheres to an Administration that is making every effort to stride on in this course of usurpation, and throws his whole influence against every attempt to reduce it within constitutional limits. He has conclusively demonstrated that the President cannot, constitutionally, remove from place such officers as the Senate have confirmed; and he constantly advises John Tyler to such infractions of the Constitution. In his Virginia speech, he said: "Of all things in a popular Government, a Government press is most to be dreaded. One of the first things to be done, when a new administration shall come into power, will be to separate the Government press from the politics of the coun. try." And as soon as John Tyler resolved to betray his party, then Mr. Webster commenced the most active operations to purchase up for him all the presses in any way connected with the State Department, and to turn their thunders upon the Whig party in Congress. He published the proclamation (before read from) to the Secretary of the Treasury, in which he says: "He (the President) therefore directs the information to be given to all the officers and agents in your department of the

The Bankrupt Law-Mr. G. Davis.

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." "But persons employed under the Government, and paid for their services out of the public treasury, are not expected to take an active or officious part in attempts to influence the mind or the votes of others; such conduct being deemed inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution, and the duties of public agents acting under it." He not only remains a component part of an administration which daily violates a principle it so formally promulged, but he shamelessly tramples upon it himself, by stipulating that his own appointees shall continue the practice which he has proscribed before the whole country. He says, distinctly, to office-seekers, You must not only be against Mr. Clay, but you must be for Mr. Tyler, and you must sustain him. In the same paper, he tells incumbents: "It is not intended that any officer shall be restrained in the free and proper expression and maintenance of his opinion respecting public men or public measures, or in the exer-. cise of the fullest degree of the constitutional right of suffrage." And he now breaks faith with those dependent upon the will of the Administration, by sustaining the expulsion from place, of clerks, tidewaiters, and night-watches; not because they express a preference for another, but because they do not express a preference for John Tyler. The President made him an organ of communication between himself and the Whigs of Congress, and, through him, pledged his faith to approve the second bank charter passed at the extra session; and notwithstanding John Tyler insulted him, by a refusal to redeem the pledge, he degraded himself, by publishing to the country that he knew of no cause for the dissolution of the cabinet, and covered himself with infamy by remaining in it "solitary and alone." He has been guilty, personally, in various ways, of violating the law which he promulged against officers interfering in elections, and to influence the minds of others. He has come to the Capitol, mingled among the members of both Houses, and used persuasions and threats to procure the postponement of measures of great importance to the country, because they were objectionable to the President, although acceptable to himself. He has attempted to seduce members of Congress from their Whig principles, and to come, not to the support of other principles, but of Tylerism. When the other members of the late cabinet were consulting with him, and with each other, upon the propriety of throwing up their places, he exclaimed, "Who is John Tyler? He is nothing! We would crush him as easily as we can the moth in this carpet!" stamping his foot with contemptuous indignation. Now he is a supple courtier, and a fawning sycophant at John Tyler's footstool of power. But the premier knew his master-he is an intellectual moth. When we think of his perfidy, and his political sins, we feel the most indignant resentment; but then we contemplate the imbecility of his mind, and the paltriness of his personal qualities, and it subsides into cold contempt. The most cruel punishment of antiquity was to bind a person to a dead carcase; and this is the only mode in which John Tyler could now be made noxious to either of the existing political parties.

The reason why the active interference of officeholders in elections has been objected to, is to prevent the influence of the Executive from reaching, indirectly, Congress. How dare the Secretary of State approach its members, and throw himself against the passage of measures of legislation? How dare he, and his coadjutor of the War Department, two office-holders, leave their offices and go forth, on the eve of important elections, making political speeches, and writing elaborate addresses, to influence their result? Are these "such services as ought to be paid for out of the public treasury," and as are "consistent with the spirit of the Constitution, and the duties of public agents acting under it," when performed by this pair of notable dignitaries? and yet of so decidedly an opposite character, when done by humble subordinates, as to be cause of removal? Their own law is proper and salutary, and they ought to be punished in conformity to it, by being ejected from their places. If it is not the lust of office which has induced Mr. Webster to cling with so much tenacity, and at such a cost, to his present situation, what is it? The British treaty is negotiated, and still he is as firmly moored in it as ever. "Ill-weaved ambition! how art thou shrunk?" To

H. of Reps.

wards the premier, I admit, I am actuated by a sense of both wrong and injury-for he has done us injury; but the Secretary of War has done nothing but wrong. The immorality of his politics is so notorious as to render him harmless. He had been Clintonian and anti-Clintonian, Jacksonain and anti-Jacksonian, against Tyler, and for him. He has always been willing to be the tool of any party or man who would buy him, and at length he found a purchaser in John Tyler; and the trans action, in open and bold profligacy, challenges in vain a parallel in the annals of this country. John C. Spencer wrote a circular address, convoking the Syracuse convention, in which he denounced John Tyler's administration, and his vetoes, as the exercise of kingly power: in the course of a few days he came on to this city, and solicited, and accepted, the place which he fills. The dishonor of the connexion will stick to him like the poisoned shirt of Nessus. Spencer, and the "guard," and the few others who have abandoned the cause for which they were among the most clamorous, are mere mercenaries, who attached themselves to the Whigs for the spoils, and for the spoils only. Such men might be dangerous as enemies, but they would be much more dangerous as friends and allies; for on any day they would sell country and principles for money and place. We say to themOff-begone; your presence poutes our camp, and would tarnish our victory.

The principles and measures of the Whigs were as fully and fairly before the country, in the last presidential canvass, as the principles or measures of any party ever were, or can be. They were boldly submitted, in opposition to those of the Democrats, to the American people; and judgment was, with remarkable distinctness, pronounced in their favor. But for the basest treachery, they would, at the extra session, all have been imbodied in the laws of Congress, and their regenerating influence would long since have been felt by seventeen millions of people; and what a mass of distress and ruin they would have averted from this deeply afflicted country! How many despair. ing hearts will owe poverty and want, not to the ambition merely, but to the fatuity of one heartless man. If the deep, silent curses of millions of wronged beings could have blasted one wretch from the face of the earth, the mitigation of our ills would now be in successful operation. But i is in the providence of the moral world, that some times the weakest and worst of men have the power to achieve an inconceivable amount of mischief and how grievously is this truth enforced by the present condition of our countrymen.

But the Whigs are neither subdued nor dismay. ed. They have been temporarily disheartened by the desertion of him whom an unlooked-for eveni, and not their choice, placed at their head. They folded their arms with mingled feelings of surprise, revulsion, and disgust; but their spirit is not deadit only slumbers; and when the day of trial comes, it will be terrible to its enemies in its renovated energies. They poise themselves upon the recti tude and utility of their measures; upon the purity and firmness of their purpose; and with calm corf dence await the issue. Their Whigery is the same as that which inspired the souls and nerved the arms of our fathers through seven years of toil and blood; and they invoke their countrymen to throng in serried ranks to its support. They have a leace worthy of their trust, and their cause, whose soul quailed not in their darkest adversity; whose rally ing voice was heard above the loud shouts of a triumphant enemy; whose devotion wavered not when all but honor seemed to be lost; and whose unconquerable spirit, bearing aloft the standard of anoth er, marshalled us at length to a glorious victory. Who does not know that he is Henry Clays Though his place is a private station, Henry Clay is in the presence of his country and the world. At the age of nineteen, an unknown and uneducated boy, he burst upon a distant thea tre, amidst the exciting scenes of 1798. Even then he grappled with Nicholas, and Breckenridge, and Murray, in the conflict of mind with mind: he rap idly won the ascendant, and he has impressed his noble image upon the gallant State which adopted the stranger boy with such generous enthusias Dauntless in courage and unmatched in genius the expansive operations of his great soul alone have given him position in the front rank of mar kind. His civil achievements adorn every paged his country's history throughout the past gener tion. As a parliamentary leader, in practical state

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

manship, in oratory which convinces the reason and rules the passions-in all the high powers of executive capability, he has no equal. Intuitive and accurate apprehension, soundness of judgment, directness and comprehensiveness of mind, and high and honest purpose, are among his distinguishing characteristics. His system of policy is as broad as this confederacy, enlarged as its great and varied interests, and based upon eternal principles and truth. He is ambitious; but he has ever held that turbulent and towering passion strictly subject to the behests of honor, to patriotism, to devotion to constitutional liberty, and to the rights of the people. Neither his services nor his renown have been limited to his own race, or to his own country; but both pervade the civilized world. Exposed for years to the resentments of a great party, his firm, unwavering, consistent, and lofty course has conquered their suspicions and their enmity; and now there is none whose good opinion is of any value, who do not pay homage to his greatness and integrity, and exult in the consciousness that he is their countryman, because of the lustre which he has shed upon the name. He may or may not attain to the Presidency; but he occupies, and will ever occupy, one of the loftiest positions in the moral world-a summit bathed all over in living and glorious light, revealing the whole man as he is, without fear and without reproach. He is our trusted, our well-tried champion-faithful among the faithless-the impersonation of our glorious cause, under whose banner we go forth (politically) to conquer or to perish; and if, in this conflict, we are to fall, you will find

"Our backs to the field and our feet to the foe."

REMARKS OF MR. DAYTON,

OF NEW JERSEY.

In Senate, February 15, 1843--On Mr. McDUFFIE'S resolutions and the amendments.

Mr. DAYTON said:

The resolutions of the gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. McDUFFIE,] as well as his remarks in support of those resolutions, assert only general abstract principles, extending to no measure of a practical character for the relief of the country. was the more disappointed in this, as he alleges that all parties are responsible for the present condition of things.

His abstract principles may be condensed fairly as follows:

In reference to the currency: Do nothing; the country will work out its own salvation. (He might have added, "with fear and trembling.") This principle is not a new one: it was one of the principles of the last Administration, that the currency should take care of itself.

In reference to finance and commerce, his doctrine is, that we should be governed by the legislation of Great Britain; that, if she looks only towards free trade, we are to reciprocate; that our tariff laws are a curse to our revenue, and the legislation of Congress is more destructive to commerce than all the pirates that ever swept the ocean! (By the way, that is the only community of modern times who have ever carried into effect the gentleman's doctrines of free trade.)

These are his principles; and they appear to me to carry with them their own refutation. If they needed an answer, they have had one in full from the gentleman who preceded me. I am thankful, sir, that such principles have not as yet given birth to any measure: what they may do in future, remains to be seen. There is a bird of the desert which deposites its egg in the sands, and leaves it there, to quicken, or addle, as the action of the elements may determine; and it is so of these principles. They are dropped in the public mind; and, should it ever warm them into life, they will break their shell, and we will then see the strange, foreign, anti-American prodigy which shall stalk forth. At present, I content myself with having stated the principles in their baldness, without following the argument.

The resolutions of the gentleman from Maine, [Mr. EVANS,] amendatory of those above alluded to, are likewise the assertion of general principles only. In those principles, generally, I heartily concur. But the third, I apprehend, is exceptionable. This resolution, in substance, is: That, while Congress does not intend to adopt any measure for the payment of the debts of the States, yet, "in view of the disastrous consequences to the national character and credit," &c., it "declares that the debts of

Mr. McDuffie's Resolutions-Mr. Dayton.

the several States, created by legislative authority thereof respectively, are obligatory and binding,' &c.; and that it is "the duty of the people of said States" to resort to the most efficient means to pay them, &c.

As an individual, I have no doubt of the truth of the above propositions; but, as a member of this body, I prefer substituting my amendment. I am not one of those who see a constitutional scruple behind every bush; but still I would prefer keeping within the line of acknowledged right: more particularly where, as in this case, there is no possible inducement to go out of it.

I did not understand the gentleman's resolutions as holding out the idea, either directly or indirectly, of the assumption of State debts, as has been intimated from the other side of this chamber. The first sentence of the resolution is an express negation of it.

My amendment was with a view

1. To get rid of that part of the resolution by which we assume to declare what contracts are, or are not, binding upon the States. And

2. To incorporate into these resolutions something vindicatory of the faith and credit of the Federal Government.

By what authority is it that we have the right to declare, in our legislative character, what obligations between States and strangers are binding? Who and what has constituted us the judge? Is it one of the powers expressly granted, or an incident to any such power? We may talk about ourselves, and say what we will, and what we will not

do. But we ought never to say-or, in the language of the resolution, to declare-what others are bound to do, unless we have the clear right to make such declaration.

The position assumed was, that we had the right, because the delinquencies of the States were affecting our national character; and, therefore, the expression of opinion was justified. But surely the Federal Government has no powers originating in any such uncertain, doubtful source. Who is to settle what does and what does not affect our national character, as preliminary to the exercise of this right? Or how much must that character be affected? How hard must be the blow which knocks this latent right, like hidden fire, from the flint? Will the failure of a merchant or a bank do it? These affect our credit, it is said, "pro tanto." But is it the right or duty of this Government to declare the law of the contract between the merchant or bank and its creditor? It is obvious that no power can originate in such a source. But the right was claimed on another ground. It was said that we are the creditor of some of the States, and therefore have a creditor's right to talk; that the Secretary of the Treasury has, no doubt, told these delinquent States the same thing.

I submit to the candor of gentlemen, whether this resolution is based, or purports to be based, upon any such ground. It "declares that the debts of the several States" are binding. What debts, and what States? Not that one whose bonds we happen to hold, but all. But why is it, on the face of this resolution, that we assume to express this opinion? Not because we are creditors; but, in the language of the resolution, "in view of the disastrous consequences to the national character and credit." The expression of an opinion by the Secretary of the Treasury is a very different thing from a declaration of the law of the contract by the American Senate, When it speaks, it ought to be "as one having authority;" and, if without authority, I submit that it had better be silent.

Aside from our doubtful right to declare the law, it strikes me as impolitic. I do desire to keep the credit and faith of the Federal Government distinct from the States; and so I presume do other gentlemen. Yet this mixing up of our national character and the State debts, and our declaratory opinions about legal rights and moral duties, all in one resolution, is kneading too much in the same trough. Its effect is to leaven, to a greater extent, our national credit with unmerited distrust.

I have heard a great deal said here and elsewhere of the loss of our national credit-in these resolutions; in the reports upon our tables; even in Executive messages-everywhere, indeed. Yet it appears not to have entered the head of anybody to vindicate the faith of the nation. Even while denying our legal obligation to answer for the debis of the States, our whole tone has been such as to convey the idea that we felt ourselves morally involved in their delinquency. This I deny; and, in sup

Senate.

port of that part of my amendment, desire to say a few words-not in that spirit of national whining, which has become so common, nor yet in the spirit of railing, but as an appeal to the justice and liberality of the world.

Let us open the records of national faith, and see by what right it is that we are vilified by othersby what right it is that Great Britain assumes to act as "custos morum" for the nations of the earth.

One of the earliest evidences of British ability in finance was in the reign of Charles II. The supplies were exhausted, and his Majesty needed money. Clifford was dignified with a peerage and the treasurer's staff, for the following notable suggestion (got from Shaftesbury.) He advised that they seize upon the funds which had been paid into the exchequer by bankers upon the faith of Government. It was done at once-the exchequer was shut up-none had warning; the ruin of many followed; bankers stopped payment; merchants could answer no bills; distrust took place everywhere. This is the language of her own historian, who denounces the act as "an open violation of the most solemn engagements, foreign and domestic."

The first item in the public debt of Great Britain is the consummation of this outrage.

The amount due from Government, and which it had had in gold and silver, was £1,328,526.

The payment of this sum was stopped for twenty-five years. In the mean time hundreds had died in penury and want; and then Government, instead of paying them seventeen millions of dollars which were due for principal and interest, forced the creditors, by act of Parliament, to accept of onehalf of the principal only-less than three millions of dollars--or nothing; and for this, the issued bills bearing an interest of three per cent. only, instead of eight, the usual rate when they got the money.

This sum now constitutes the very first item in the public debt of Great Britain. It is the basis upon which the whole of that immense pile rests, stained as it is with national perfidy and oppres

sion.

Again, in 1811, we have another and more modern instance of Britain's boasted financial faith. The notes of the Bank of England having become depreciated by their immense issues and loans to Government, the obligation was cancelled in this way. Having first relieved the bank from paying specie, they next resolve that these bills are worth their face in specie, (and this at a time when they were notoriously at a discount of at least ten per cent.,) and then made them a legal tender. But lest even this would not satisfy the public that ninety pounds were equal to one hundred, they went further, and made it a highly penal offencea misdemeanor-for any one to either receive or pay them away at less than their face. Notwithstanding this, they continued to depreciate until they reached a discount of twenty, thirty, and forty per cent.; and Government then paid off its public creditors, "nolens volens," in this depreciated paper, and nothing else. The effect of this glorious operation in finance may be seen and appreciated by reference to Mushet's tables.

But, whatever may be the peculiar notions of Great Britain upon the subject of financial faith, as indicated by the above, at least she claims never to have denied her obligations. If she defrauded her creditors, it was always "pursuant to the act in that case made and provided;" and her creditors have the consolation of knowing that she has never denied their debts! Oh, no.

Of repudiation she has a holy horror. With what an air of pious complacency are we branded as a nation of swindlers and cheats; while they, with upturned eyes, thank God they are not as other men! Yet, unless the past be a fable, and history a lie; repudiation, even in its worst form, has had its place there.

By an ordinance of the Long Parliament, all the crown and church lands were seized upon for the public use. They were disposed of at a season of great pecuniary want, to raise money to carry on the civil government and pay her armies. They passed into the hands of honest purchasers, who, relying upon public faith, paid therefor a fulí price, and Government received their moneys.

Yet, notwithstanding all this, a few years after, Parliament, by public enactment, again seized upon these lands, and handed them back to the church and the crown. Thousands were beggared by the act. Government was at least bound, by every principle of law and justice, to make good the damages. It was a debt of the most sacred charac

27TH CONG....3D SESS.

ter. Yet, after a little legislative coquetry, she denied the debt; and to those who clamored too loudly for justice, she gave a place in Newgate and the Tower.

Sir, I know not to what extent a careful eye might not trace this moral delinquency. But of one thing I am sure, it little becomes Englishmen to lecture us upon moral duty or public faith.

There was one pecuniary transaction between the two Governments, and it illustrates strongly my position. In the treaty of 1793, the United States assumed to "make full and complete compensation" for certain debts due from American citizens to British subjects, inasmuch as difficulty was found in collecting them; and to do it in specie. The amount was settled by convention, between Rufus King and Lord Hawkesbury, in 1802, at £600,000. This sum was paid to the last dollar, and in specie; and this, too, at a time when England herself paid her public creditors in nothing but depreciated paper.

But our bonds will not sell in Europe; and therefore our credit, they say, is gone. And has there never been a time when British paper could not be sold at par? Sir, the history of the past teaches this. While the certificates and treasury notes of this Government have commanded, almost in the worst of times, dollar for dollar, the exchequer bills of England, (even when bearing an interest of 7 per cent.,) which represent her floating debt, have been at a discount as low as 40 per cent.; while her 3 per cents., which I take as a specimen of her funded debt, have oscillated between the extremes of 471 and 100; and this not through the agency or in time of war only, but of public distress and commercial disasters. While she has been arbitrary and faithless to her creditor, this Government has never defrauded one of a dollar. While she is staggering under a debt of £788,398,570, (more than thirty-five hundred millions of dollars,) we, as compared with her, have none at all. Our whole public debt would scarcely pay the discount on a thirty-day note drawn for hers. Yet her citizens and the European world hold British credit good, while ours is to be doubted.

Sir, there is no Government of the world whose credit ought to stand higher than that of these United States. There has none-no, not one-acted with a faith more pure; not a man of the Old World, or of the New, has lost a dollar by its promises. Its means are boundless; its debts as nothing; its honor pure.

And how is it with the other sovereignties of the Old World? Not one can be named which is not staggering under its load. Within the last few years, the debts of the principal powers of Europe (which it is believed have not been materially altered since) were as follows: Great Britain I have already alluded to. France (did time permit, I would show how she had paid her creditors) had a debt of £191,893,053, with a revenue insufficient to meet the expenditures of her Government; Austria had a debt of about £80,000,000; Holland, in 1833, had a debt of about £10,000,000, which is vastly in creased since; Naples, of £20,000,000; Denmark, between £10,000,000 and £11,000,000; Portugal, an acknowledged debt, in 1838, of £19,086, 122; Prussia, of £29,000,000; Russia, of £50,000,000; Spain, according to her official statements, of £89,600,000, and it is believed that her actual debt is three times that amount. With these budgets of iniquity upon their backs, (the fruits of rapine and war,) they stagger along like the old sinner of Bunyan's alegory, reading homilies to us, doubting whether we can follow! We, in lusty youth, carrying the weight of a thistledown, and with an inheritance stretching from sea to sea! There is a cool assurance in this thing, to which the history of the world has no parallel.

Sir, I am not one of those who make a merit of abusing Great Britain. She has my highest respect; but, in the lifetime of an empire, matters such as I have alluded to will occur; and they should teach us charity. With the kindest of feelings-when they scout at us as faithless; when they affect a sanctimonious regard for plighted faith which we have not; when they claim a credit in the markets of the world denied to us-human nature cannot refrain from asking how they are entitled to it.

Mr. President, I have no disposition to speak of persons, except as connected with things; but I have before said that, from the highest official of Government to the lowest, the same humiliating spectacle is seen. We appear to have forgotten that the respect and confidence of others depend much

Commercial intercourse with China-Mr. Gordon.

upon that tone of respect and confidence we assume for ourselves.

It was with surprise and mortification that I read in the recent message of the President of the United States the result of a late petty mission to the money markets of Europe. Could not the discreditable fact have been left to rumor-to the chance of remaining unknown to the many, and being forgotten by the few? Was it necessary for any useful purpose that our shame be published in this enduring form to the ends of the earth? The loan has been taken by our own citizens, who knew us best. Was its negotiation aided by an announcement of the fact that our credit was dishonored abroad? Why further depreciate, in this most effective of all possible ways, the credit of the country? The fact is stated in connexion with, and in aid of, the argument in favor of the exchequer plan. But surely the Chief Magistrate of this country, with American blood in his veins, and, I hope, an American heart in his bosom, should have hesitated in this kind of formal and official announcement of the dishonor of American credit. It is a course of business "sui generis." The country draws upon the money markets of Europe for five millions of dollars. The bill is dishonored: when, forthwith, the drawer--this country, through its highest officer--makes solemn protest of the draft against itself, and gives public notice! Did his Excellency suppose that anybody was likely to pay for the honor of the drawer? If not, why send the discreditable fact to the ends of the earth?

Again: in the same message, and in the same connexion, is another matter, equally indicating the want of that proper tone of sentiment which the organs of every Government should assume on all questions affecting its national credit: I allude to that part of the message in which the President refers us to his recommendation that the land-fund be "mortgaged for the redemption of the principal and interest of any loan" which the Government might contract, and thereby "vindicate the Government from all suspicion of bad faith or inability," &c.

Sir, I am a citizen of the Federal Government of these United States; I am a citizen of the State Government of New Jersey: neither have ever dis honored their faith by a broken promise. Aside from other objections to this plan, my feelings revolt at it as an indignity--as an unmerited imputation.

An American President recommends to an American Congress that, in addition to our national faith, we give collateral security by mortgage; that we submit to terms in the markets of the world not asked of other nations-terms implying a distrust of our integrity and our honor!

Far back in the history of the world, when loans were made upon the personal responsibility of kings and princes, it was not an unusual thing to put the crown jewels in pledge. But our loan was to be made upon the credit of neither king nor prince, but upon the plighted faith of Government. The proposition from the Executive to hypothecate our crown jewels as collateral to our faith, had it been made by a foreign power, would have been resented as an insult.

Sir, we are frail creatures-we scarcely know ourselves; but I think it is in no improper spirit that I arraign this high functionary before the country as forgetful of its honor. The money could be procured, and has been procured, without any such extraordinary means. But, if it could not have been, taxation was open to us; better that, than negotiating on terms implying a distrust of our integrity.

But this charge of forgetfulness of what is due to ourselves, does not attach to the Chief Magistrate alone. It does appear to me, as if one party in this country have systematically decried its credit-have made an effort to swell in public estimation the amount of its indebtedness, and depreciate its resources. Have we met these charges as we ought? Unquestionably, a system of retrenchment has been in progress since the revolution of 1840, which has saved, and is saving, millions to the country. The danger, indeed, is, from present appearances, that Congress will rush blindly from one extreme to another-will show a "zeal outrunning wisdom." In this respect, at least, Whig promises have been kept to the letter. There is nothing, so far as I know, which should involve the credit of the Federal Government in the slightest suspicion; yet, even in this hall, and everywhere, there is a species of tame submission to moral cas

H. of Reps.

tigation. When we are told that our credit is suspected, when every wind that blows brings with it charges of dishonesty aad fraud, no voice has been heard to vindicate the unstained faith of the nation. This ought not to be. Whatever may be the sins of some of the States, (and God knows I am no apologist for them,) the faith of the Republic is without spot or blemish.

Did I not feel that, from the peculiar organiza. tion of our Government, there could be no claim upon us for State debts, I would have hesitated to throw back upon the world the perfidy of the world. It would have been brazen effrontery. I cannot but believe that European capitalists understand our system better than is pretended. If a partnership in Liverpool were of that kind called limited-or, in other words, for specific objects-each person having contributed a specified amount of capital, and liable for no more; and one, two, or three of the twenty-six partners should become embarrassed in their private affairs, the firm would very readily understand that it was neither morally nor legally bound for private debts. Ay, and they would understand, too, how the firm might be safe, though individuals were not so. Yet the articles of partnership (if I may be allowed the expression) under which the Federal Government does business have been published throughout the world. They are the American Constitution, of which all had notice. So far as the States have any interest in this firm beyond what is necessary for the transaction of its business, (as the proceeds of the public lands,) I would have no objection to return the same to them, to do with as they judge proper; but whatever may be the power of the Federal Government in regard to the assumption of State debts, (about which I give no opinion,) I utterly protest against its moral or legal liability for the delinquency of any State or States of the Union.

Sir, the secret of this spirit of railing against us abroad is not in the anticipated loss of money only. That they have been used to at home. Still less does it arise from any peculiar excess of financial virtue; but it comes from, and is in aid of, their old spleen against our institutions.

I am aware that this debate is not of the most useful character; but it will be remembered that it did not originate on this side of the chamber. If these resolutions be pressed to a vote, I trust my amendment may be first adopted. It is necessary to divest them of the assumption of that doubtful power to declare an opinion on the law, as well as to indicate our sense of what is due to the credit and char. acter of the Federal Government.

SPEECH OF MR. GORDON,

OF NEW YORK.

In the House of Representatives, February 21, 1843.On the bill making an appropriation for com. mercial intercourse with China.

Mr. GORDON rose, and addressed the Chair.

He said he did not rise, on the present occasion, to become the apologist and defender of the present Administration; for he had no agency in bring ing it into power in the memorable contest of 1840. Far from it: he had exerted himself, to the best of his ability, to keep it out. He had risen for the purpose of replying impromptu, and, as well as the occasion would permit, to the speech just made by his colleague, [Mr. J. C. CLARK,]-a speech sui generis in point of taste, and partaking strongly of the fumes of the midnight lamp. His colleague had taken more than ordinary pains to cull from the pages of Shakspeare, Junius, Byron, and the classics of ancient and modern times, the choicest epithets of vituperation, of sarcasm, and of obloquy, to crowd them into a memorized philippic of an hour's length against the Executive and the prime minister, whom he had so zealously labored to elevate to power. He did not recollect to have heard a speech this session in which more wrath and gall was poured out upon the doomed heads of "Captain" Tyler and Daniel Webster. Indeed, the lex talionis, or law of retaliation, as practised in the olden time, between the flood and the advent of Christendom, would well apply to him. Let not his colleague, then, complain if he received as good, and as much, as he had hurled at Messrs. Tyler and Webster! Let him not murmur if the poisoned chalice was returned to his own lips!

His colleague now said that he was sorry that the present Administration was invested with power. Such a declaration did not at all surprise him, (Mr. G.,) strange as it might seem to others,

27TH CONG....3D SESS.

As far back as 1840, he did not doubt but that his colleague would repent of the exertions he then was making-and why? Because he foresaw that the Whig party would fall to pieces by its own want of any cohesive principle, and by that lustful longing after office and the spoils which the patronage of a kingdom could not have satiated. In attempting to describe the party which the President would create for himself, by the influence of executive patronage, his colleague had well delineated the party to which he himself belonged, and which never could have been so truly represented had not his colleague been familiar with the materials of which it was composed. What were they? The cheese-parings, the candleends, the rag-tag and bob-tail of all the factions, cliques, and parties, that ever existed. Such was the assemblage which met at Harrisburg in the month of December, 1839. So sensible were the members of that assemblage of the fact that radical differences existed among themselves, that they did not even dare to talk to each other about any common principle upon which they could enter the presidential contest. They, therefore, suspended the consideration of all such subjects; besought the "generous confidence" of the public; put their own favorite instrument, the gag, into the mouth of their candidate; and surrounded him with a committee to spea for him! All this was done from the knowledge that they held no one principle in common with each other, and from the fear that the adoption of a broad and general class of principles might disturb some of the "candle-ends." Fit representatives of the party to which his colleague belonged, and under whose victorious banners he fought the battle of 1840! Once, indeed, his colleague did belong to the Deinocratic party. It was long prior to the year 1837. But that evil spirit, called "ambition," whispered in his ear; and he, charmed by its witchery, immediately performed what is called a Somerset. It was so far back as 1826, when his colleague went over to the opposition, and was elevated to Congress by the Federalists, aided by a portion of the Republican party which he had led astray. What followed? How did his colleague serve his new friends and allies who elected him? By coming to Congress in 1827; and, after taking the oath of office, advocating, with signal zeal, all the Democratic measures of the session-thus coldly turning his back upon the men, and scornfully trampling under foot the measures of the party who elected him.

The CHAIRMAN here called to order.

Mr. GORDON said he was not impugning the motives of his colleague, by any means. Far from it. He was only stating facts. [Laughter.] And he believed that, according to the decision of the chairman, [Mr. WINTHROP] money bills, when under consideration in Committee of the Whole, opened the door to all sorts of debate. [Laughter.] But, to return to the facts he had been stating. His colleague left the Democratic party. There was no doubt of that. It was, therefore, for his colleague to explain the motives which actuated him in so doing, when he became the candidate of an irregular party, after having been from his youth a stickler for regular nominations.

[Here Mr. J. C. CLARK rose, and desired to ask a question.]

Mr. GORDON Said he must decline yielding the floor. Under the rule which his colleague's friends had adopted, his time was short; and he therefore wished it to be understood that, when he was addressing the Chair, he desired to occupy the floor exclusively. His colleague was elected to Congress by the Democratic party in 1836, (ten years after his irregular election;) and twice since had been elected by the Federalists of the Chenango district.

Mr. CLARK (from his seat) asked if he did not, after his election in 1836 by the Democratic party, go into a minority of one thousand, and work up? Mr. GORDON remarked that he had not supposed the minority was so small; but if it was, then so much the worse for his colleague; for it showed that he had broken down the party whose cause he espoused, and into whose confidence and good graces he had managed to initiate himself. The party had much trouble on his account, all owing to the great degree of confidence which was reposed in him, and enabled him, by a bad use of it, to deceive so many faithful followers. These hon. est Democrats (to their credit be it said) followed him but a short time. They soon obeyed their nat ural instincts, quit their deceiver, and returned to

Commercial intercourse with China-Mr. Gordon.

their first love-where every other Democrat would return, if God should only spare his life to take a "sober second thought." His colleague, it seemed, got back to the Democratic party after his apostacy in 1826; and how? By entering it under the Jackson banner, which he was among the first to unfurl. Yes; his colleague basked in the light, and triumped in the victory, of that hero and statesmanhis constituents pardoning him of former transgressions in consideration of his years, and of the natural proneness of youth to indiscretion. Foreseeing, with eagle-eyed sagacity, the rising popularity of the man who had filled the measure of his country's glory, his colleague lost no time in becoming the champion of General Jackson, and soon, by his zeal and services, excelled the strongest Democrat in all the country. This, though it gave him grace and favor with his old friends, did not restore him to full confidence and communion with them. Long did he sit upon the stool of repentance in sackcloth and ashes, mourning over his transgressions, and appearing meek as possible before the people. To crown the long catalogue of his professions of faith in the Democratic creed, preparatory to his full restoration to public confidence, he was the author of a set of resolutions which were adopted at the Norwich convention, held in February 1835, and composed of delegates from the several towns in Chenango county, and which resolutions justified the removal of the deposites by Gen. Jackson, denounced a Bank of the United States as unconstitutional and inexpedient, asserted that gold and silver were the only safe and proper currency, and charged that a United States bank would be dan gerous in corrupting members of Congress. These resolutions were reported by his colleague, as chairman of the committee, and unanimously adopted by the convention. His agency in getting them up, and having them passed, secured his appointment to the State convention held the following year to select electors for President and Vice President, and also his nomination and consequent election to Congress by the Democratic party in the fall of 1836.

What respect could be paid to the views of men who denounced a bank of the United States as unconstitutional, inexpedient, politically dangerous, and corrupting to members of Congress; and then, after all this, turned around, and borrowed of it about $4,000 in 1837, and $6,000 more in 1840, making in all the round sum of $10,000-"a fair business transaction"-never to be paid but by the sponging process of the bankrupt law; and then, with utter shamelessness, voted for the creation of the very institution they before denounced? What weight should be given to the opinions of men who voted for the bankrupt law, and then became voluntary applicants for its benefits? What effect could the denunciation of an apostate have against apostacy? It was like the pot calling the kettle black. With what face, then, could a man who had been refused an office (say, that of consul to Liverpool) pretend to stand up on this floor, and accuse a man who defeated his appointment of corrupt selfishness for clinging to office?

At the extra session of 1841, his colleague voted for the bankrupt law, and is now a voluntary applicant for the benefit of the act--his inventory showing, (as Mr. G. was informed,) among other things, an indebtedness to the Bank of the United States of some ten thousand dollars, for money loaned in 1837. During the 27th Congress, he voted for the two bills incorporating a bank of the United States, which were vetoed by President Tyler; and for which vetoes he now was in the habit of denouncing the Executive in the most bitter and scathing terms. Of the Norwich convention, in 1836, he was the most active and leading member, and was the prime mover and author of the resolutions embodying the cardinal doctrines of the party, then and now. What his motives were, in taking the part he did in that convention, he (Mr. G.) would leave to his colleague to explain. It was not for him to say; and, besides, it was unparliamentary on that floor to speak of the motives of honorable members. This much, however, he would say: that the part taken by his colleague at that convention secured his nomination and election to Congress, and reunited him to the Democratic party. His colleague then stood upon the same intimate footing with the Democratic party which he had occupied prior to his apostacy in 1826; and had he not again forfeited and abused the confidence of the people, it would have abided with him to his latest breath.

H. of Reps.

Confidence is a plant of slow growth. Once crushed, it withers and dies. It was not long before his colleague forfeited the respect and confidence he had so studiously sought and won. He served with the Democratic party until he came on to Washington at the extra session of 1837, when he joined the Conservative clique. Thenceforward, he battled against the Democratic party. Like most other apostates, he did not join the Federalists immediately; but stopped at the Conservative halfway house, and there refreshed himself, until that slimly-patronized resting-place was razed to the ground, when he went smack over to the embraces of the Federal party. There he now is! There, he (Mr. G.) trusted, he would ever remain! There he MUST remain, if he depended upon the Democ racy of old Chenango to rescue him! He (Mr. G.) did not undertake to impeach the motives of his colleague; he merely stated facts, which his colleague might answer if he saw fit. He could not refrain from saying what he had, when he saw his colleague, in the speech of to-day, sneering at the Democratic party, casting reproaches upon them, calling one of their Governors the "hero of clambakes," and denouncing the party generally as locofocos and disorganizers. It had been well remarked that the Devil could quote Scripture, and preach a good sermon, when it suited his purpose. Now, he thought his colleague was not a very fit person to read a lecture to the present Administration on the subject of apostacy, and to deal out denunciations, right and left, upon it, and upon the Democratic party. Such lectures came with ill grace indeed from such an author! His colleague should first pluck out the big, glaring beam in his own eye, before he undertook to scan and criticise the motes in other people's eyes.

Now, he would ask, what was the principal ground of his colleague's complaint?-what the source of all his grief, and wailing, and lamentation over the untimely fate of his fallen party? Was it that he mourned the sacrifice of any principle-any exalted motive of action, that bound his party together? Not at all. His colleague did not once allude to the principles of his party. His grief was of a different complexion. It was the loss of the spoils the loss of power and influence-the impossibility of obtaining patronage and place—that his colleague lamented. Yes, it was the loss of all for which his colleague's party had been contending-the sad wreck of all their hopes! His colleague had spoken of the love of office, and the treachery of men in high places; but said nothing of the principles of his party, nor uttered one regret at the failure of their measures. When Francis the First, at the battle of Pavia, was defeated, and his army cut to pieces, he wrote his mother word that he "had lost all, save honor." So it was with the Democratic party after the contest of 1840. They lost all but their principles. They rallied under the flag of their undying principles; and, without the aid of patronage and place, and the spoils, achieved the most glorious victories throughout the Union. How different was the case with the party of which his colleague was now a member! When the patronage and power of the Executive was wrenched from them, and by the man they had themselves elevated, their all was gone! They could not say, like Francis the First, "we have lost all, save honor." They could not say, like the Democratic party, "we have lost all, save principle." Their only note was a cross, crabbed, muttering cry, like that uttered here to-day by his colleague over the loss of the spoils. Deprived of these, they were as outcasts at sea, without anchor and without compass. The Democratic party, on the contrary, shorn of the trappings of office, became more powerful than before; and, like the giant Antæus, gathered new strength from their fall.

Although about to retire from public life, he cherished as ardent a desire for the success of the Democratic party as ever. He could never consent that his ardor should be dampened, and his zeal quenched, by the fact that he was soon to go out of Congress; but, in or out of Congress, in public or in private life, his hopes and his exertions must ever be the same.

As to the issues between his colleague and the present Administration, he considered all that a mere family quarrel. The Whig party, and the body of the supporters of the Administration, might be disunited now; but the time, he predicted, would come when they would be allied again, and pursuing the same objects. They would be united

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