APRIL 8, 1836.] Maine Resolutions. [SENATE. dissolve the Union, if Maine had taken a different stand, having no particular application as to the people of the He had made this explanation, he would again repeat, in reference to the language of these petitions, to prevent highly colored pictures of their offensive language from going abroad, to add to the excitement already existing on this subject, and to repel the inference that him and his friends had voted to receive a petition couch Mr. MORRIS, in justice to the Senator from North Carolina, [Mr. BROWN,] must say that his impressions were that his statements in regard to these petitions were correct. He had suggested to the Senator from South Carolina, when he gave him these petitions, that he was not to use them on the present occasion; and he had also informed him that, as soon as the present debate was over, he would lay them before the Senate, when all could judge whether the language was such as they deemed proper to be received, or otherwise. It is, sir, said Mr. B., a very great sin, in the estimation of some gentlemen, to vote to receive these petitions; but they must recollect that they set the example. He expressed the confident belief that both of the gentlemen from South Carolina voted, at the last session, to receive petitions of a like character. He could cite a dozen instances from the journal of the last session where they were received, on different days, by the unanimous consent of this body; and, more than that, were unanimously referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia; and certainly the gentlemen could not have been absent upon every occasion, with their known attentive habits to business. To enlist in a warfare with these petitioners on this floor, when their objects had found but few, if any, advocates here, was but little calculated to gain distinction or elevation for the South; he had, therefore, uniformly been in favor of that silent and contemptous course towards them, by which they always had been consigned to a neglect and insignificance, to them the most cutting and mortifying course of all others; and to the exertions of honorable gentlemen they were indebted for that notoriety which the present session of Congress had more than ever given them. The Senator from South Carolina nearest to him, [Mr. PRESTON,] in alluding to some of his remarks, said that he would not tender his gratitude to the Legislature of Maine, because they adopted these resolutions; that they were nothing more than what the South was entitled to, and what the South'had a right to demand. He trusted that he, too, felt that manly independence becoming a southern representative; he trusted that he, too, would never ask more than the South was entitled to receive; but he also trusted that he never should be insensible to those sympathies which bound together the different sections of this great republic, nor backward in expressing the pleasure with which he saw a kindred feeling cherished by his brethren of any portion of their common country. This was the ground that he took, Mr. CALHOUN was very happy that the Senator from and these were the feelings which called forth the North Carolina had at last made up his mind to reject animadversions of the Senator from South Carolina. He petitions that were such as he would deem offensive in well knew the strength of the South, and its capability their language; and he hoped that he and all other south- to protect itself against all attempts on its internal peace; ern Senators would in time see the propriety of reject-on that he felt the most perfect reliance; but the resoluing all abolition petitions, no matter in what language they were couched, for, from the very nature of the subject they treated, they must be offensive to the South. Mr. BROWN felt himself bound to explain, with a view to prevent any misapprehension on this subject. He did say that the epithets, which he had before repeated, were not, as had been represented, in any of the petitions which he had examined or had heard read, offensive as their language was. The gentleman from South Carolina has not been able, he presumed, to find the alleged epithets in the petition which he had then before him, and to which he had made reference, other wise he supposed he would have read them to the Senate. Ile only draws inferences from certain vague and general expressions, having no immediate application to the people of the South. It was not that on which he had made the issue, but it was upon the existence of the fact, whether the epithets alleged to be used in the petitions were to be found in any of them. He had not been met on that issue but by constructions and inferences put on vague and general expressions, tions just read from the State of Maine, he thought, ought to be hailed by every southern man as an earnest of the indissoluble ties which bound the North and South together, and of the strength and durability of the Union. Mr. CALHOUN said the Senator from North Carolina certainly did not hear his remarks. The Senator from Ohio [Mr. MORRIS] had put the petitions in his hands, and suggested to him not to use them. He would now refer to some of the expressions found in one of these petitions; among them was the phrase, "traffic in human flesh," a phrase borrowed from the shambles, from the butchers, holding up to all the world, that the gentleman and his constituents treated human beings as they treated beeves. That was the first. The petition went on to say, that (dealing in slaves) had been solemnly declared piracy by the laws of our own, and all Christian nations;" assimilating the acts of himself and those whom he represented, with the acts of those who seize Africans on the coast of Africa, and sell them for slaves. If he could lay his hands on the other petitions, he could point out the epi thets he had quoted; but those he had given were, he thought, sufficiently offensive to justify a southern representative in voting to reject them. But he would read a little further. "It (slavery) was sinful because it violated the laws of God and man;""because it (slavery) corrupted the public morals." This was some of the language of the petitions which had been withdrawn to make way for the Quaker petitions which were first tried in order to obtain the sanction of the southern representatives to that most dangerous of all principles, that they were bound to receive petitions, no matter in what language they were drawn. The Senator from North Carolina had mistaken him in supposing he had found nothing in these petitions that was as offensive as he had termed them. The Senator from Ohio, on putting them in his hands, had requested him not to use them at that time. Mr. MANGUM would inquire of his colleague whether he understood him correctly in saying that he would feel it his duty to reject petitions only that were offensive to that body, or some member of it. Mr. BROWN replied that he would vote to reject petitions that violated the rules of the Senate, by the use of language indecorous towards individual members of the body or to the body itself--rules which every parliamentary body had adopted. [APRIL 8, 1835. Carolina [Mr. BROWN] was utterly mistaken when he said that he (Mr. C.) voted to receive a petition on this subject. No vote of his would be found on the journal. He might have suffered petitions to pass at former ses sions, when there was but a few of them presented. He confessed he had neglected this matter too long. The gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. BROWN] said he (Mr. C.) had not made good his word. He (Mr. C.) thought the expressions in the petition to which he had referred were as strong as the terms used by him. It seemed, however, that the Senator cared for nothing but the precise words. He had shown that these petitions likened his constituents to pirates, and spoke of them as dealers in human flesh. This, he thought, was sufficiently strong to make good his position. Mr. WALKER said that he did not rise to embark in any discussion of the abolition question, but to state some facts to the Senate. It had been said by the Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. PRESTON,] that twentyeight thousand memorialists had subscribed these abolition petitions. Mr. W. said that, feeling a deep interest in this question, he had looked at the names of the subscribers to these petitions, and found that a majority, or nearly a majority, of the whole number appeared to be females. [Here Mr. PRESTON said thirteen thousand were fe males.] Mr. MANGUM said he had so understood his colleague; but it was with undisguised astonishment that he Mr. W. remarked that of the remainder it was per heard such doctrines pronounced by those who set up fectly obvious, on the slightest inspection, that a vast as the exclusive representatives of the democracy of number were children; many of the names are made up the South. Sir, said he, who gave us the right to ex- of entire families, including all the children, male and clude petitions because offensive to ourselves, and not female, and repeatedly all written by the same hand. to exclude them when they use offensive terms in refer- Mr. W. even believed that at least three fourths of ence to our constituents? Who are we, said he, that these petitioners were children or females, but the we are not to be touched but our feelings are outraged; whole number would constitute but a small portion of a and this great constitutional right of petition, about republic embracing now a population probably of fif which so much has been said, is to be violated if our teen millions. Mr. W. said he would make one further honor is called in question? He scouted such doctrine. remark on this subject; he did it with regret; he had If, said he, we have the right to reject petitions because been pained to see the names of so many American fe our persons are reflected on, are we to be silent when males to these petitions. It appeared to him exceedeleven sovereign States are reflected on in terms of the ingly indelicate that sensitive females of shrinking grossest abuse, and denounced as dealers in human modesty should present their names here as petitioners, flesh, and likened to pirates? He should like to see in relation to the doméstic institutions of the South, or how those gentlemen, who affected to be the exclusive of this District. Surely they would be much better emrepresentatives of the democracy of the South, shield-ployed in attending to their domestic duties as mothers, ed themselves from this dilemma. Was this a part of sisters, wives, and daughters, than in interfering with a the democracy of the day, and the doctrine of those matter in regard to which they were entirely ignorant. who, par excellence, termed themselves the real demo. Mr. W. said, he believed, if the ladies and Sunday school crats, abhorring every thing in the shape of aristocracy? children would let us alone, there would be but few abHe claimed for himself no exemption that he did not olition petitions. At all events, the ladies and children claim for those he represented; and when he could not could only be a subject of ridicule, and not of alarm, to cause the rejection of petitions outraging their feelings, the people of the South; more especially would the he would claim no exemption for his own. They had South not be alarmed by a few women and children, been told by his colleague, that these petitions were of when we have this day presented to us the resolutions fensive enough. He should like to know from him of the Legislature of the State of Maine, unanimously when they would be too much so. They had seen a condemning abolitionism, i n a manner admitted to be sa wonderful facility in gentlemen endeavoring to lessen isfactory by the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. PRES the odium of these abolition petitions. He had seen it TON] himself. in their endeavoring to prove that there was nothing Mr. BROWN observed that it was with very proto be apprehended from all these abolition petitions; found regret that he rose to detain the Senate for a sta that the whole was confined to a miserable, contempt-gle moment. Nothing could have been more unexpect. ible party; and yet the wings of every wind from the North had blown upon us these petitions and publications on the subject, without number. He himself had no fears. The abolitionists might go on subsidizing presses, and inundating the country with their publications and petitions. The South, if united, was able to protect itself against the whole non-slaveholding | world. The real danger consisted in the South being divided; in their being put to sleep by calling out, "all's well," while the storm was rustling over their heads. Mr. CALHOUN rose to say, the Senator from North ed to him, when he took his seat this morning, than to be engaged in a discussion of this nature; and he much regretted that he was now compelled, in self-defence, to continue that discussion. The gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] said he never voted to refer petitions of this kind to the Committee on the District of Columbia, and that no such vote of his was to be found recorded on the journal. Mark the words, Mr. Pres dent, “recorded on the journal." But there were nimerous petitions on this very subject, both at the last session and the session before, that were unanimously referred to the Committee on the District, without one word being heard from any quarter in disapprobation. Now, he would ask, was it probable that the gentleman was absent on all these different occasions? Would it be pretended for a moment that when the question was propounded, "Shall these petitions be referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia," and no member objecting--would it be pretended for a moment, when such a question was propounded, and the gentleman from South Carolina sanctioned the reference by his silence, that he did not vote for it as essentially as if his name had been recorded on the journal? Indeed, (said Mr. B.,) the denial of the Senator that any such vote of his was recorded on the journal, was a distinction without a difference. His colleague [Mr. MANGUM] had made some remarks that he (Mr. B.) thought, at any rate, were pointed with no little application to himself. That gentleman, too, had discovered that it was one of the upardonable sins of a southern representative against southern rights to vote for the reception and reference of petitions on the subject of abolition; votes, let it be remembered, that had been given from the earliest periods of our legislative history, by as high-minded, chivalrous, and patriotic republicans of the South--democrats, if it suited the gentleman better--as any who now claimed to be the exclusive advocates of southern rights. He would venture to assert that there was no southern representative, who took his seat previous to the present session, but had given the same vote. They, too, had committed this unpardonable sin; but the hidden influences of this mysterious session of 1836 had suddenly dissolved the sleep in which they were enwrapped; and they had as suddenly discovered that it was an outrage on southern rights and southern honor to receive petitions of the same nature with those they had voted to receive and refer again and again. [Mr. MANGUM here interrupted Mr. BROWN, by say. ing that he never gave such votes.] Mr. BROWN continued. He would ask the gentleman if he was not present when abolition petitions were received, and when the question was propounded, "Shall the petitions be referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia;" and whether he did not, by making no objection to the reception and reference, give his unqualified acquiescence to both? [Mr. MANGUM said that he did not know whether he was present on such occasions.] Mr. BROWN resumed. But there was one petition that had been presented as late as the commencement of the present session, when the honorable gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. GRUNDY] moved to lay it on the table. He believed that his colleague was in his seat when that motion was made, and he did not remember that he made any objections to it. His colleague had thought proper to indulge in some gratuitous advice to him as to what ought to characterize the conduct of a southern representative when petitions reflecting on his constituents were presented. He was not in the habit of gratuitously giving his advice to any one, much less to his colleague; but, if he was, he might say to him that he who was so ready to give gratuitous lectures to others ought to learn first to obey them, and that very wholesome admonition had been given him from a highly respected source, which he would do well maturely to consider. | [SENATE. ed and intelligent constituents offended at the impotent acts of ignorant and deluded minors and females. Sir, said he, my constituents are possessed of a degree of intelligence, gallantry, and high-mindedness, that would give a different answer to these ignorant and misguided petitioners than that proposed by my colleague. It would be that of silent contempt. Without going any further on this part of the subject, he would express it as his solemn belief, before God and the whole world, that all this agitation and excitement on the subject of abolition had not been produced by the miserable fanatics, of whom so much had been said that session, but it had resulted, in part, from the designs of a more sagacious political party, for the purpose of operating on the South at an important crisis. The time at which it had commenced, the manner in which it had been carried on, the avidity with which it had been seized upon and trumpeted forth by the presses of a certain party at the South--all these had produced, in his mind, a conviction that it would require a world of proof to shake. The time when these incendiary publications were first thrown abroad in such masses was when the elections in North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee, and shortly afterwards in Georgia, were about to commence; it was on the eve of the important elections in those States that these publications were precipitated upon the South; and yet it had been said that these incendiaries were the friends of the party now in power. What, sir! The friends of a certain political party to deluge the South with publications on a subject of such delicacy, and so well calculated to be used by their opponents to their disadvantage! Could any thing be more absurd than such a supposition? No, sir; it was another party, and far more sagacious and calculating in their designs than the deluded zealots who were used to subserve their political purposes; and what most powerfully corroborated this opinion was the fact that the presses of this party immediately seized upon these incendiary publications, so opportunely thrown out, and wielded them with great force and ingenuity against their opponents. He repeated that the whole was not a fanatical movement, but that it had a political party in alliance with it, and shown so plainly to be so by subsequent events, as hardly to need a confirmation. How then could he, as a southern man, give his vote to deny the right of petition, and sanction designs which, from the beginning to the end, he utterly condemned? How could he, as a southern man, give his vote to uphold a deep-laid party scheme, as, he believed, that had been floating for a time on the tempestuous waves of political excitement, but that was des tined inevitably to subside into its original insignificance with the occasion which produced it. Sir, (said Mr. B.,) the course I took was dictated by the highest considerations of public duty, and flowed from a jealous regard of the rights and honor of the South, as well as a sincere and ardent attachment to the Union. It was to aid in reprobating the attempts to desecrate the social relations and domestic peace of the South by the introduction of this dangerous question into her politics, creating an unreasonable and unfound. ed jealousy of our northern fellow-citizens, and weakening the bonds of this Union to subserve the unholy designs of party: it was for these reasons that he had taken the stand that he did. And gratified he was at the reIt was said, both by the Senator from South Carolina sult; for every thing that had transpired on this subject and by his colleague, that he ought to have resisted the since the commencement of the session had only tended reception of these petitions, because they were offensive to show that the attachment of the people to this Union and indecorous in their language to those whom he rep- was not to be shaken, and that it rested on the most resented. What, sir, (said Mr. B.,) petitions from wo- firm and abiding foundations. These were the reasons men, and a parcel of children!--for it had been proved which induced him to take the course he did. And was that a large number of these petitioners were women he to be told that he was recreant to the South, because and children. What, sir, (said Mr. B.,) my high-mind- | he had done that which had been done on repeated oc casions by those quite equal in intelligence, patriotism, | and chivalrous southern feelings, to those who now claimed to be the exclusive defenders of southern honor? Was he to be accused of dereliction of duty to the South for voting to receive petitions on the subject of abolition, by those who were present on repeated occasions, when such petitions were not only unanimously received, but referred to one of the standing committees of that body, without raising the slightest objection to the reference? He knew that the South bad too much strength within her own bosom to be unnecessarily alarmed; and he knew that she had too much intelligence to permit herself to be excited to her own injury by the cry of wolf! wolf! when there was no danger. He had conceived it to be his duty to make these few remarks principally in self-defence. There was nothing farther from his intention, when he took his seat this morning, than to engage in a discussion of this nature; for he had hoped that this spirit of evil omen had received its death blow, and that it would be no more revived this session. He regretted that the gentleman from South Carolina had thought proper on an occasion like this, when the resolutions of Maine came bearing the olive branch, to receive them, not in the spirit of peace, but in the spirit of discord. Mr. PRESTON said that three years ago, when he took his seat in this body, a petition on this subject was presented. He was unacquainted with the practice of the Senate, and looked round him to see if some one more experienced than himself was not going to rise, and seing none, he rose and made the question of its reception. But gentlemen from all parts of the Senate rose, and said it had been usual to give petitions of that kind a particular direction, where they quietly remained, without being heard of more. A Senator from Maryland said that was the lion's den for these petitions. He was willing they should be laid on the table, or despatched in any other way, and acquiesced. But did not the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. BROWN] see a different state of circumstances now? The Quakers had said they had pressed it year after year without interruption, and there were more petitions presented this session than had been since the commencement of this institution. If a mischievous boy threw a cracker on the floor of the Senate, and the Sergeant-at-arms trampled it out, it was a small matter. But when the building was surrounded by incendiaries, with torches in their hands, were they not to be roused from their lethargy? He was not going to be impelled to mix up this matter with politics, which separated father from son, and party from country, and mingled them in its own vortex. While a portion of them were alarmed, while they counted by hundreds and by thousands what used to be units, philosophy taught them distrust on both sides. While the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. BRowN] says party feelings on our side have induced this alarm, let us say party may have its influence on his side. He (Mr. P.) entreated gentlemen, when they called them alarm. ists, to bear in mind that there was another party saying peace! peace! where there was no peace. Which was the safe side, to magnify or diminish the danger? Were they to fold their arms, and wait till the presidential election was over? They might then find a storm too violent to resist. He did not say whether party had been mixed up with this matter. But it was said they had falsely raised the cry of wolf! wolf! The shepherd's boy cried wolf! wolf! when the shepherd was asleep, and the wolf came! Mr. RUGGLES remarked, that in presenting to the Senate resolutions which had been so cordially approved by the Senators from the South, he had not expected that a debate would have ensued, characterized as this [APRIL 8, 1836. had been. The sentiments and opinions contained in those resolutions, he had supposed, would be consolatory to southern feeling, and they had been warmly sp proved from that quarter. One of the resolutions asserted that all public discussion of the question of slavery had been arrested and suppressed in Maine by a decide! expression of public disapprobation. Gentlemen say they heartily approve of these resolutions, and he regretted that they had not on this occasion given a prac tical illustration of the sincerity which he had no doubt they felt, in expressing their approval of the sup pression of such discussions. The circumstance of their having passed without any exciting and agitating debate, he had ventured, with great deference, to con mend to favorable consideration. He said that he himself had been so favorably impressed with it as an example, that he should follow it on this occasion, by ab staining from any discussion of the matter, and should move that the resolutions be printed, and hoped the question would be permitted to be taken without further debate. The resolutions were then laid upon the table and or dered to be printed. GRANT OF LAND TO MISSOURI. The Senate proceeded to the consideration of the bill granting a certain quantity of land to the State of Missouri for internal improvements. Mr. BENTON explained the object of the bill. The principle, he said, contained in this bill, had been voted for in the general land bill, distributing the proceeds of the sales of the public lands among the States. In draw. ing it up, however, he had only provided for the State of Missouri; and those gentlemen representing new States that had not received any donations for puble works, might now offer amendments to provide for them; while those representing States that had received grants might move to amend it, by adding grants for so much as would make, together with what they had received, the same number of acres as was granted to Missouri by this bill. Mr. WALKER moved to amend the bill by inserting a grant of 500,000 acres; and, on Mr. NICHOLAS'S mov ing to insert a like grant for the State of Louisiana, accepted the motion as a modification of his amendment. Mr. KING, of Alabama, then moved to amend the bill by inserting a grant of so much to each of the States of Alabama, Indiana, and Illinois, as would make, with what the said States had already received, 500,000 acres each. After some remarks from Mr. EWING. Mr. CRITTENDEN felt little interest in the question involved in the discussion between the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. BENTON] and the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. EWING] as to who had received the most of the public lands. For his part, he was satisfied the State of Ohio had received enough. If it was unjust to grant these lands to Ohio, he did not feel bound to follow up that justice in regard to other States. He had risen to state, so that he might not be misunderstood, that he would vote for these amendments, and after that he would vote against the whole bill. He regarded it as an act of the most flagrant injustice, and partial legislation. If it were termed liberality to the new States, it was injustice to the old ones. He was constrained, by a sense of justice to the old States, to place himself in opposi tion to the whole bill. What had these new States done to merit such liberality on the part of the general Government, except encountering the difficulties of settling a new State? There was not one half the difficulties in settling them that were encountered in the settlement of Kentucky. In fact, Kentucky and Tennessee were the pioneers to the settlement of the new States. Until a mere matter of favor could justify the Senate in going on with these partial grants, he must oppose them. And until a proper disposition should be manifested towards the old States, as well as the new ones, he should vote against it. Mr. CLAY presumed there was no intention, on the part of the Senate, to pass this bill, either as originally reported or in any shape the amendments might present it; and, presuming that it would be rejected on its third reading, he thought it would prevent delay to take the question as to the final disposition of it at once. therefore moved that it be indefinitely postponed. He Mr. BENTON said he had been treated in a manner which outraged all the rules and the courtesies of parliamentary proceeding; his own bill had been taken away from him and put into another, which he detested, and against which he voted, and thus voted against his own. He had borne this treatment for years, but he should bear it no longer without availing himself of every motion and of every effort known to the rules of the House to cor. rect the wrong which had been done him. Four or five years ago he brought in this bill to grant to Missouri 500,000 acres of land, for the purpose of internal improvement. It was only half the quantity which had been granted to Ohio for similar purposes. The bill had been favorably considered by the Senate, and was ordered to a third reading. In this state the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. CLAY] had got it incorporated in his distribution bill, where he (Mr. B.) had to vote against it, and where it had shared the fate of that bill, being vetoed with it. It was now in the same distribution bill, and must share its fate a second time, be that fate what it may. Certainly he (Mr. B.) would vote against it for ever in that bill; and it was nearly certain, looking to the President's messages, that it would be vetoed again, even if it passed Congress. Mr. B. said his bill had a right to stand or fall upon its own merits. It ought not to be subjected to the fate of the distribution bill, and would have none of the inain objections of that bill to encounter. It had repeatedly received the vote of majorities while in that bill, and he presumed would receive the vote of majorities again. The gentleman from Kentucky nearest to him [Mr. CRIT. TENDEN] might consistently vote against it, as he intimated an intention to do, for he had never voted for it in the other bill; but the case was different with the Senaator from Ohio, [Mr. EwING;] he had voted for it often in the distribution bill, and might vote against it by itself, and justify himself as he could for the contradiction. It was perfectly immaterial to him (Mr. B.) what the plea of justification was. He knew that the grant was either right or wrong; if wrong, it ought not to be voted for in the distribution bill; if right, it ought not to be rejected in its own bill. [SENATE. to their own State. This had happened. He had voted against the grant himself, when found in the land bill of the Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. CLAY,] and the newspapers of a certain party had taken great pains to emblazon that vote; but the intelligent and high-spirited people of Missouri sustained him in his course, and were indignant at the outrage to herself, and the trick upon her Senator. Another feature of this case Mr. B. would mention. His bill had been buried in the Land Committee of 1833-134, for seven months. He brought it in as soon as Congress met; it went to the Public Land Committee, and it remained there till the end of the session in June, and was then returned among the unconsidered business of the committee. [Here Mr. B. inquired of the Secretary who composed that committee? The Secretary gave him the list of the names. He read some of them--Mr. Poindexter, Mr. Clay, Mr. McKean, &c.] He said that a member of the committee told him he had never heard of it in committee; and when at the end of the session his bill was returned among the unconsidered business of the committee, he had called the attention of the Senate to the fact, by way of showing how his bill had been treated, and he had also sent an attestation of the fact to the Governor of the State, to be shown to the members of the General Assembly. Thus had he been treated, and not himself only, but the State whose Senator he was, and whose interests were thus trampled upon. For several years he had annually brought in this bill. It was now before the Senate again, and in a duplicate form. It was in a bill by itself, and it was also in the land distribution bill. In the latter bill it could never pass; in the bill by itself might pass, and certainly would, unless the spectacle was exhibited of those refusing to vote for it in one bill and voting for it in another. The Senator from Ohio [Mr. EwING] intended to exhibit that spectacle for one, but he knew of no others, and presumed that the majority of those who voted for it in one bill would do it in the other; as right was right, whether it was found in this bill or in that of the Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. CLAY.] Mr. B. said that six of the new States were interested in the bill. They all claimed grants on the same principle that Ohio has obtained hers. Ohio had received a million and six thousand acres for internal improvement. This quantity was stated to him in writing by the late Commissioner of the Land Office, (Mr. Hayward.) Missouri, Mississippi, and Louisiana, had received nothing; Alabama, Indiana, and Illinois, had received less than half a million each; and his bill proposed that each of these six States should receive half as much as Ohio. The application was moderate, for they might well demand the same quantity that Ohio had received. All of them had the same interest in the issue of his motion; for all these grants had been seized upon, and crammed into the distribution bill, to swell the mass of temptation which that bill held out; they had all been vetoed in that bill, and would, judging from the President's messages, be vetoed again, if kept in it. They should all go in a bill by themselves. They were in a bill by themselves before they were ingulphed in the maw of the distribution bill. They had been in that maw about as many years as Jonah was days in the whale's belly; and he now meant to get them out of it; and must appeal to the justice of the Senate-it was the first time he had ever made such an appeal-he must appeal to their justice to restore him his bill, and let it stand or fall upon its own merits. The whole proceedings, he said, had been not only a violation of parliamentary rules and proprieties in respect to him, but an injury to the State of Missouri, and besides that, an insult to her. That State wished to have the grant; she was entitled to it, upon the same principle that Ohio had received a million of acres, Alabama 400,000, and Illinois and Indiana nearly half a million each. This she was entitled to, and the Legislature of the State had passed resolutions claiming the grant, and had also passed resolutions against the land distribution bill. In this State of the question, it was not only a wrong, but it was an insult to the State to take the grant which she had asked for, and put it into a bill which had received a veto, and would almost certainly receive it❘ again, and against which she had instructed her delega- Mr. EWING, of Ohio, said there was a slight difference tion to vote, and thus say to her, in effect, that she between the Senator from Missouri, [Mr. BENTON,] and should not have the grant she applied for, unless she himself. He had combined the amount of lands given would take also what she objected to; and it was laying to Ohio with grants for colleges and salt reservaher Senators under the necessity of voting against a grant tions. VOL. XII.-71 |