(for I did suppose he had come from Mr. Clay, though he used the term of Mr. Clay's friends,) that before I would reach the presidential chair by such means of bargain and corruption, I would see the earth open and swallow both Mr. Clay and his friends, and myself with them. This disclosure was made to me by Mr. James Buchanan, a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, a gentleman of the first respectability and intelligence. "The evening before he had communicated, substantially, the same proposition to Major Eaton, my colleague in the Senate, [How did the General know that?] with a desire, warmly manifested, that he should communicate with me, and ascertain my views on the subject. This he declined doing, suggesting to Mr. Buchanan that he, as well as himself, could converse with me, and ascertain my views on the matter; though, from his knowledge of me, he thought that he could well conjecture my answer-that I would enter into no engage. ments whatever. To be thus approached by a gentleman of Mr. Buchanan's high character and standing, with an apology proffered at the time for what he was about to remark to me; one who, as I understood, had always to that moment been on familiar and friendly terms with Mr. Clay, assuring me that on certain terms and conditions being assented to on my part, then, by a union of Mr. Clay and his friends, they would put an end to the presidential contest in one hour,' what other conclusion or inference was to be made than that he spoke by authority either of Mr. Clay himself, or some of his confidential friends? The character of Mr. Buchanan with me forbids the idea that he was acting on his own responsibility, or that, under any circumstances, he could have been induced to propose an arrangement unless possessed of satisfactory assurances that, if accepted, it would be carried fully into effect. A weak mind would seldom or ever be thus disposed to act-an intelligent one never. Under all the circumstancces appearing at the time, I did not resist the impression that Mr. Buchanan had approached me on the cautiously submit. ted proposition of some authorized person; and, therefore, in giving him my answer, did so, requesting him to say to Mr. Clay and his friends,' what that answer had been," &c. Observe what Mr. Buchanan says in his letter of explanation, August 8, 1827 "After I had finished, the General [Jackson] declared he had not the least objection to answer my question. that he thought well of Mr. Adams, but had never said or intimated that he would or that he would not appoint him Secretary of State. That these were secrets he would keep to himself; he would conceal them from the very hairs of his head. That if he believed his right hand then knew what his left would do upon the subject of appointments to office, he would cut it off and cast it into the fire. That if ever he should be elected President, it should be without solicitation and without intrigue," &c. Mr. Speaker, it is not my purpose to expose contradictions, or to defend those against whom these charges were made. But I call up these scenes, that the world may compare the mock sentiments of affected purity then expressed with the conduct and notorious facts of the present day. And I here take occasion to say that, if it be true, as the President states, that he was approached in January, 1825, with such propositions, from a gentle man who declared to him" that he thought it was right to fight such intriguers with their own weapons"-l say if this be true, it proclaims that he who could avow So base and infamous a sentiment was utterly destitute of all true conceptions of private honor or public integrity. If the President, in 1825, had such a high sense of honor and respect" for the unbiased will of the people" as to refuse to let it be known-not that he would VOL. XIII.-78 [H. OF R. appoint any particular individual, but that he would not appoint a certain gentleman Secretary of State-where was his honor, where was his delicacy, in 1834, when he proposed to Judge White and his friends" to regu late and control the whole election by a Ruckerized convention, and through "bargain and corruption" to produce acquiescence by offering himself the first office in the republic to one, and reconciling another with the second office? Little did he think that, in 1825, he was uttering denunciations against his own course in 1834; little did he think, when he penned these declarations in 1827, that he was writing epithets to be called up, like burning letters, over his own conduct and character in 1836. Mr. Speaker, (continued Mr. P.,) it is with great pain and reluctance that I am compelled to speak of these transactions as I feel that I ought. Nothing could induce me to do so at present but the solemn conviction that I believe they are deeply identified with the liberties of this country. I speak of the President as officially connected with the institutions of freedom. I scorn to excuse him, and to hold up his minions and understrappers for responsibility and denunciation. No, sir; I disdain to use moderate language. I shall take his own epithets. I here then charge that the President has wilfully and openly interfered to appoint his successor, and that he has endeavored to accomplish his object by shameless bargain and corruption." He has succeeded, and, now, standing on the defaced and spurned constitution, waves aloft the unrestrained sceptre of empire over a deceived and betrayed country. Let us be rich and prosperous; let us be happy and free from personal restraint; let us retain all the forms of a republic, yet are we slaves, and history will hold up our infamy and deg. radation, if we acquiesce and submit to this lawless dictation. Rome still retained the forms of a republic, long after her conquering generals from devastated provinces brought in the plunder of sacked cities to be divided amongst those who were styled "Roman citizens." Her people still nominally elected their tribune, long after the very sources of power had been corrupted and polluted by the bribery and profligacy of captivating chiefs and abandoned demagogues. These tribunes, who were at first elected to defend, as they nobly did, popular rights, afterwards became prostituted, and, although ostensibly appointed still by the people, yet they knew the hand of their master, and prostrated the liberties of their country before his will. They were arranged and appointed beforehand by those who held the power of the republic. We, too, may still boast the forms of a free people, and long preserve them. have seen the nomination and appointment of a successor to the Chief Executive; we have witnessed the success of that appointment. All the popularity and influence of the President, with his hundred thousand dependants, all the weight, and power, and influence of the Government, in all its vast and extensive ramifications, have been brought to bear upon the appointment of a successor. ask, sir, if we confirm, by re-election, this fraudulent appointment, will not posterity say we, too, are free only in name? Our country has been foully deceived; we have been basely deluded by all the arts of "intrigue, bargain, and corruption." Let it not be said that these things are of no importance; that they have no effect upon practical liberty. Look to their consequences in the future. In physics, in morals, and in politics, those causes are at first small-which produce the most tremendous effects upon the destiny of man.. The collection of a few shillings of ship-money brought the head of a monarch to the block, and changed for a time the Government of Great Britain. Go into the far West, and trace out, if you can, the origin of the vast Mississippi itself, you will find a bubble at the foot of perhaps some name We And I less hill, from which runs a stream, at the ripple of whose waters not a living creature turns aside; but follow it to the valley below, and it swells, and it deepens, and it widens, until the wealth of a nation floats on its surface, and at the angry voice of whose stormy waves the hardy mariner trembles. I need not say that this is a full illustration of the history and progress of political affairs; that from apparently a small beginning the most tremendous results are produced; that one step over the great landmarks of the constitution will lead to the overthrow of all law, to the prostration of liberty, and the abandoned reign of arbitrary power. A drop of water oozing through the dykes of Holland, if unnoticed, would desolate the fairest regions, and spread terror through a ruined country. If now, in the infancy of our Government, the President has it in his power to nominate and appoint his successor, the day is not far distant when we shall live under a power more odious than hereditary monarchy, because it will be exercised under the deceitful name and habiliments of a republic. We are told that the South is to be "reconciled by the successor falling into Southern principles," and that it is policy to acquiesce in the appointment. Sir, there may be at heart traitors in the South, but it will be treason to the constitution and to the country to submit to the dictation. No! never, never. We have been foully betrayed, and against the principles of the succession we declare uncompromising, unextinguishable war, "war to the knife." It may be that we shall be but few in numbers; it may be that our flag-staff shall be shattered and broken, but we will nail the flag to the gunwale, and conquer or perish under it. Let not gentlemen suppose that the present state of things is to last forever--let them not suppose that the dominant party of to-day is to be the dominant party of to-morrow--let them not, in the arrogance of power, forever forget right. These things they may not perhaps feel in their day and generation, but their children may live to see the day when they shall curse, in the bitterness and deep auguish of their hearts, the memory of their fathers, for having brought down upon them degradation and ruin. Even Robespierre himself would have paused in his bloody career of ambition, if he could have foreseen that the same guillotine which he raised over the neck of Danton was so soon to be brought down with a just vengeance upon his own. And the Duke of Orleans, unprincipled as he was, when he sat in that infamous assembly which voted the death of Louis XVI, would have trembled with horror, as he gave his vote for the death of his own blood cousin, if he could have known that, under the despotism he was aiding to raise, his property was so soon to be confisca ted and his dripping head held up by the executioner to the vengeance of a lawless mob. How can the South acquiesce under an administration the head of which has admitted that this Government has the constitutional power to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia? I tell gentlemen they will yet be brought to quail and tremble under the tremendous power of this doctrine. We will yet see the lightning flash, and feel the earthquake's heave. The issue will be made, and we must be prepared to meet it like men, or to crave mercy from one who is against us in sentiment and in feeling. The coming administration has elements of weakness which it will be difficult to recover from. The opposition can never be satisfied with the corrupt and profli gate principles under which it has been dictated. Look around and see the strength that is to be put forth. Where is old Massachusetts? There she is, firm as her granite and everlasting hills, ready for another contest. Look to those people on both sides of the Ohio, who have raised their flag over their country's ramparts, and [JAN. 3, 1837. have so nobly defended themselves against the mercenary bands of power; look to those intrepid people, through whose bosom run the waters of the Tennessee and the Cumberland-where are they all? Ready and eager to step forward in the breach that has been made over the barriers thrown around the freedom of the elective franchise. Look to those people on both sides of the Savannah, and where are they? United in feeling and in sentiment, with one banner streaming aloft in the breeze--that banner under which the constitution was made--the banner under which Jefferson fought his way to victory and to fame--the only banner under which this Government can be reformed--the noble banner of free trade and State rights, under which defeat is no disgrace, and victory is redemption and liberty, We may be defeated, but not conquered; we have yet the undying spirit of freemen. Then let us come to the rally, and the republic may yet be safe. Mr. P. then concluded by moving the adoption of the original resolution. Mr. DUNLAP said he regretted the necessity there was for him to occupy the time of the House on this question; but from the remarks that had just fallen from the honorable gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. PICKENS] he felt it a duty he owed to the Executive, as one of the Representatives from Tennessee, to answer some of the remarks of the honorable gentleman, and to correct him as to some of the facts he had stated. The gentleman from South Carolina has charged General Jackson with dictating to the American people who should be his successor, and by bargain, intrigue, and corruption, to have actually made the American people vote for and elect his successor. To prove these prem ises to be true, the gentleman has referred to a public speech made by an honorable Senator from Tennessee, [Mr. WHITE,] in which the President is charged with having proposed to make the honorable Senator Vice President if he would not run for the presidency. Mr. D. said the gentleman had also referred to the speech of his honorable colleague, [Mr. PEYTON,] made a few days since in this House, in which the President is charged with interfering with the elections in Tennessee, and abusing a portion of the Representatives from that State. Mr. D. said he had it from the mouth of the President that he never made such a proposition as the one mentioned in Mr. White's speech; and that he never said that one of his colleagues [Mr. SHIELDS] was of no ac count, and that his constituents ought to send some one that was of some account; nor did he ever say that another of his colleagues [Mr. HUNTSMAN] was on the fence, and no one knows which side he will fall. These charges the President pronounces to be false. Now, sir, said Mr. D., if the premises of the gentleman from South Carolina are erroneous, his conclusions must ne cessarily be so. Mr. D. said the administration of President Jackson had been more violently attacked than that of any other President. The opposition to it had made charge after charge against it, and no doubt often without knowing whether they were true or false; and they had misrepre sented what the President had said about persons who had always supported his administration, to make them his enemies, and thus get them to give publicity to those charges. Mr. D. said he regretted very much that either of his colleagues should have thought it necessary for them to make the charges they did against the Executive. He was the adopted son of Tennessee; he had spent a life, from boyhood to where he now lies on a bed of sickness, in the service of his country; he has of ten led the sons of Tennessee to victory and glory, and has gained for himself and his favorite Tennessee im perishable renown. Mr. D. said he should have felt that he had done injustice to the President, to his constitu ents, to his State, and to his country, if he had kept his seat, and had not given the House the information he had. He said he was a native Tennesseean, and proud of the name; that he was at all times ready to defend the character of his State or her sons, for it is the character of the public servant that gives character to the State. In detracting from the character of General Jackson, you detract from the character of the State. Sir, (said Mr. D.,) General Jackson has given to the State of Tennessee more character than any of her other citizens. Mr. D. said he knew full well that great efforts had been made to get Tennessee in opposition to the President, but that could never be done. Tennesseeans were governed by principle. Although a majority of them differed with the President as to who should be the suc sessor, they were not opposed to him or to his administration. Mr. D. said he was opposed to the election of Mr. Van Buren, and in favor of his colleague, (Mr. White.) He was for him, for his worth and merit, but he was not prepared to take the course of the gentle. man from South Carolina, who had declared open and uncompromising war against the next administration. Sir, (said Mr. D.,) how does that gentleman know what will be the principles upon which the next President will administer this Government? Mr. Van Buren has been elected by a majority of the States and a majority of the people; and it is to be presumed that he will administer it on the good old republican principle; and if so, he should most unquestionably support his administration. He would not oppose or support any administration but upon principle. Mr. D. said he would now say a few words to the friends of the administration. The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. WISE] had preferred a general charge against the executive officers of this administration, and asked that a committee might be appointed to examine all of them. Mr. D. said he hoped no friends of the administration would shrink from this general investigation. We now had it in our power to silence the slang of the enemies of the administration forever, by letting them go and examine all the offices; and if there have been any frauds or corruptions in any of them, let the brand of infamy be fixed on them, and let the country and all future administrations know they are unworthy to be trusted. We know, (said Mr. D.,) and the American people know, that it is impossible for the President to know all the persons he has to appoint to office, and that he has to depend on his friends for information, and, in some instances, he may have been imposed on, and unworthy men recommended to him. If there be any such, let them be hunted out, and their crimes made known to this House and the whole American people. Mr. D. said, if any amendment should be adopted, it would give the enemies of the administration an opportunity of saying they were limited in their inquiries, and that the administration was afraid of a general investigation. As one of the friends of the administration, (Mr. D. said,) he was for the broadest inquiry, and he would vote for the inquiry in the way they desired it, that there should be no excuse that they were limited. [H. OF R. He to witness it in my colleague. I thought I had seen [Mr. DUNLAP rose, and said he did not intend to be catechised in this style by his colleague, [Mr. PEYTON;] but as to the time when the President made the denial to him, he (Mr. D.) was not unwilling to give his colleague whatever information he might desire. He would, therefore, say that he (Mr. D.) had not seen the President from July last until December; he had never had any conversation with the President in relation to the tales circulated in Tennessee until after his colleague (Mr. P.) had made his late speech on the resolution now before the House. In reference to this speech, and the speech made by the Senator from Tennessee, [Mr. WHITE,] the President made the denial which he had repeated.] Mr. PEYTON resumed. Just as I expected, Mr. Speaker. The evidence has been extracted at this session of Congress, since I made a speech, to be used upon this occasion. Is it not extraordinary, while the gentleman is bellowing so pathetically, thundering his sympathy in to the very stones of the Capitol, about the poor sick President, the dying President, that he should convict himself of tormenting and harassing him on such subjects? But, sir, this shows that what I have often said is the fact that nothing transpires here but it is im mediately hissed into the ears of the President by some eaves-dropper, some penny-post carrier of news, from this hall. Sir, they know the President's excitability; they know how to extract from his excited feelings deMr. PEYTON said: Since my colleague has volunteer-nunciations broad, denials, general and special, of whated his services, and come upon the stand to give evidence against me, the direct tendency of which is to attack my veracity, although he seems to evade that, I claim the right to examine the witness. I mean, sir, to examine him upon his voir dire, and require him to speak the whole truth. This seeming extraordinary sensitiveness of the gentleman, the mock sympathy in the loud appeals which he has just exhibited, the pretended necessity of defending the President, are the usual evidences which I have observed to accompany a Van Bu ren conversion. Yes, sir, and I am not at all surprised me. ever was said, especially in the shape in which they present it before him; and then they run forth, proclaiming to the world that they are authorized by the old Hero to denounce and convict the object of their attack of falsehood. The gentleman says he will not be catechised by How dare he then volunteer himself as a witness here against me? No, sir, he cannot stand up and answer me; if he were, I would make him acknowledge that the President did not deny what I stated to be true. At what has the gentleman taken fire? At the charge that the President was highly excited in Tennes see, and took an active part in favor of Mr. Van Buren while there? Yes, sir, and he professes to bear a commission from the President himself, which will destroy all that I stated on the subject. Does he pretend that the President of the United States of America authorized him to deny what I related as having taken place at Jonesborough, in relation to his defence of Reuben Whitney? [Here Mr. DUNLAP iuquired whether his colleague wished him to answer him.] [JAN. 3, 1837. questions, two specifications out of seven; and the charge of interference is as fully made out by those five undenied and undeniable specifications, as it would be by seven, or seventy. And yet the gentleman says he is authorized to contradict the whole charge as false. Now, sir, with all the gentleman's professed feelings of regard for Mr. White, he has never had his sensitiveness shocked into his defence upon this floor. Oh, no; he has been unmoved while deluges of calumny have been poured upon him from the press; and the batteries of executive denunciation have been levelled at him from the day of his announcement as a candidate for the presidency. And now this same dumb supporter of his is running to the President for evidence to assail him as the propagator of falsehood. He a friend of Mr. White! When and how has he shown it? I think it is time for these insidious assaults upon that venerable man to cease. All his assailants tree themselves behind the President before they take their aim at him. But he is armed too strong in honesty. They have not the power to tarnish his name. In reference to the coming administration, my colleague seems to be quite in a rage that any one should think of any thing but pas sive obedience and non-resistance to it; he speaks loudly of pure measures, not yet known or understood, and therefore not to be opposed. I myself will support all that is pure in that pure administration. It is a sorry dynas ty, to be sure. But, sir, the man himself is "tainted with original sin," as was once said by a voice (I wish it was now animate and here) now stilled and gone, (John Randolph's,) and the people have a right to demand an atonement to their offended majesty. To succeed in his ambitious views, he has struck a deadly blow at the bal lot-box; he has broken down the sacred guarantees of liberty; he has transferred the sovereign power from the people to the President, which President he is. And is he not answerable for this? Are not these principles incompatible with freedom? What atonement can he make but to give back into the hands of the people their violated rights, their lost privileges, their ancient sovereignty and freedom of elections? Nothing but full and complete restoration; nothing short of the entire ra zing to its foundation his caucus system, his executive patronage system, his bribery system, his whole New York system, will ever be an atonement for what he has already done. Mr. PEYTON. No, sir, not yet. I wish the gentleman to take it not in broken doses, but all together, and may be it will operate the better. I know the President made no such denial, because that exhibition was published in the Van Buren press of Jonesborough. Secondly, did he commission the gentleman to come here and deny that he charged me with opposing the appropriation to the Cherokee treaty? I know not, sir, what strongly operating cause has induced this evidence, now volunteered in this hall. But, sir, I know that no man can get the President to forget or deny that. Thirdly, did the President deny that he charged the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. WISE] with being a liar, at Sparta, Tennessee? Fourthly, did he deny saying of the able, manly, and lucid speech of my colleague, [Mr. FORESTER,] at the same place, that any one could get such a speech written at Washington for five dollars? Fifthly. Did be deny saying at Mrs. Saunders's, in Sumner county, Tennessee, that my colleague [Colonel BELL] told twenty lies in one speech, and knew them to be lies at the time, and that I was a greater liar than Bell?, No, sir, the gentleman will not, he dare not, say that the President denied one of these five specifications, going to show his interference in the election while he was in Tennessee. Then the gentleman has not, I perceive, got a carte blanche from the President to deny any thing and every thing which he may think necessary. If he denies any thing which I have said upon the authority of the President, I demand that he produce a witness, and prove that the President told him so. It is not surprising that the President should have forgotten a part of what took place in Tennessee. I wish he could forget all these things--all that transpired while he was in Tennessee. I envy him not his office who will run to the President, harass him with goading reflections, and then draw forth the hasty declarations of an exasperated man, to be used for a hidden purpose. This is unaccountable, unless it is necessary to bolster up a political summerset, about to be cut in the face of a frowning and indignant constituency. Such a monœu vre could not, perhaps, be safely made without the benefit of the President's name to give it sanction. But, sir, I would always prefer a bold, open, honest, opponent to a spy in the camp. These doubtful, hesitating, news-carrying men are not fit for these times, and the sooner they make an open desertion the better. Now is the time for men to come upon the stage, and act their parts; high-minded men, who love liberty more than they do gold; who love office less than they do honor. Such a man, in a good cause, has nothing to fear. My colleague, [Mr. DUNLAP,] it would seem, only wished an opportunity of manifesting his zeal by filling the honorable office of trumpeter, to announce the President's denial in this House. I am sorry to see the gentleman fixing his fancy upon office, and then make his first appear-Now, is it not better to adjust this matter? Would not ance in such an office as this. If the gentleman was of fended with my remarks, why go to the President? Why not meet me' Why drag the President in, and attempt to force an issue between him and myself? Why say that the President denied the whole, and then say he will not be catechised by me? I say that the President has not denied the whole; he has only denied, according to the gentleman's own admission, when he rose to answer my The gentleman speaks of those pure measures which are yet to come, as though they would sanctify all that is past. Can he, can any man, do as much public good in four years, ay, in a lifetime, as he has done harm, in the manner, the means by which he has ascended to power? Is he to say to the American people, "I will make you an excellent master; here is a new blanket, and I shall now expect that you behave like good, obedient slaves!" No murmuring, no clamor about who is master, though, as that would be factious. Sir, look at his system, and see to what it has already brought the country. Has he not directly or indirectly tempted every man in the country who is looked upon as in his way? Sir, the very man who is so insidiously struck at by the gentleman (Mr. White) was approached, and I know it. It is true that the bribe was not offered directly, and was offensive to him. The proposition was made to his friends in the mildest form, and the smoothest and most coaxing tones. Mr. White be satisfied with the vice presidency? Would he not like to retire to a seat on the supreme benchstation for which he is so well qualified-with so handsome a salary, and that for life too?" No, sir! all your offices and all your money would not shake the firmness or tempt the virtue of that man. But, sir, all men are not aimed so strong in honesty-all men are not steeled with his Roman firmness against such temptations. That office was bestowed, upon what conditions I will not say, upon another. And, sir, the third office in the Government, the chair which you occupy, was, in the same persuasive, coaxing manner, offered to my friend and colleague, [Mr. BELL,] upon condition that he would sell himself, abandon friends whom he loved, principles which he believed were identified with the dearest interest of his country, and join a party in whose principles and political honesty he had no confidence. But, no, sir, he spurned it! All men are not so strongly fortified against temptations as he was. And now those who have never had office, who would not accept it on the only terms upon which office is bestowed in these days, are traitors who are looking solely to self-aggrandizement, while they who have sold themselves for those places which they fill before our eyes are the pure, unstained patriots! My colleague pretends great love for Mr. White. Why, then, has he never raised that voice which we have so distinctly heard here to-day, in his defence? But, sir, my only purpose in rising was to put my colleague on his answer; he, however, has declined answering my questions, and I therefore charge him with admitting all that I have stated to be true. As to any part of what I stated having been forgotten, or denied by the President, it will not be considered remarkable by any one that be should have forgotten any particular transaction or remark, when they know that so treacherous was his memory, that, notwithstanding the proof positive, the Globe itself, was laid before him at Knoxville, showing his mistake in relation to my course on the Cherokee appropriation, yet, ten miles further on his road, he repeated the same charge. And now, sir, these gentlemen go to him on his dying bed, as they say, feeble and worn down by disease, and extract evidence from him of what passed in Tennessee, and bring it here to be used against those who did not, and who will not, obey orders with regard to the successor. Such statements do not satisfy me: I demand a witness to the conversation; I want proof of what the President does and what he does not deny. Mr. DUNLAP said he had but performed a duty in saying what he had, and, if he had not done it, he would have been unworthy to be the Representative of the thirteenth congressional district in Tennessee; that he performed his duty without regard of consequences to himself. He did not conceive that his colleague had any right to complain of his course, as he was but answering charges that had been made against the President; and if they were untrue, his colleague should have been gratified to learn that the President was not guilty of the charges that had been imputed to him. Mr. D. said that his colleague [Mr. PEYTON] had not given his statement of what the President should have said as being made to him, but to others, and by them communicated to him. Mr. D. said it was but due to his two colleagues [Messrs. SHIELDS and HUNTSMAN] that he should have made the statement be did. Mr. D. said he had called to see the Fresident in his sick room, and the President spoke to bim of the charges his enemies had made against him, and the efforts they were making to alienate his friends from him, and then mentioned what my colleague had charged him with saying about my other two colleagues, and the President said he had never made use of any such expressions about either of them; that the statement was false. Mr. D. said the gentleman from South Carolina had taken the facts stated by my colleague as undeniably true; and if he had remained silent, and let the speech of the gentleman have gone to the country as true, he would have been guilty of a dereliction of duty, not only to the Executive, but to his country, for which his constituents would never have forgiven him. Mr. D. said he had done his duty, and would do it again [H. OF R. in the aggregate amounting to eleven million fifty-seven thousand six hundred and eighty-five acres: And whereas each of the United States has an equal right to participate in the benefit of the public lands, the common property of the Union; And every wise and good American having agreed in the opinion that the cause of general education is indissolubly identified with the cause of general liberty: Therefore, to do equal and exact justice to all the States, to aid in diffusing among the rising generation intelligence enough to comprehend and spirit enough to defend their rights, and thus to elevate the national character and insure the perpetuity of our free institutions Be it resolved, That a select committee of one member from each State be appointed, whose duty it shall be to inquire into the justice and expediency of making to each of the thirteen original American States, together with each of the States of Vermont, Maine, Kentucky, and Tennessee, such grants of the public lands, for the purposes of education, as will correspond in a just proportion with those heretofore made in favor of the firstnamed States and Territories, and that said committee have leave to report by bill or otherwise. But, to avoid the objection of one State holding land in another, the committee is directed to insert a clause in the bill which they may report, providing that the grants to be made thereby shall be subject to sale under the laws of the General Government now in force, and that the proceeds arising therefrom shall be paid over to the States entitled to the same. Mr. HALL, of Maine, moved to amend the resolution by striking out the words "select committee, to consist of one member from each State," and insert "the Com. mittee on Public Lands." Mr. C. ALLAN said he hoped the amendment would not prevail, because it would be perceived that the duty imposed on the committee was one which did not properly fall within the class of duties assigned to the Committee on Public Lands. But there was another reason. That committee, he believed, consisted of a majority of members from the new States, in whose favor these grants had heretofore been made. He submitted to the justice and impartiality of the House whether it was fair to submit a proposition which had for its object to do equal and exact justice to the twenty-six American States, to a committee composed of a majority of members from the new States. He (Mr. A) bad rejoiced that these grants had been made to the new States; and |