endure it with greater patience. But to a living man, and a man who can reward the deed, sir, I cannot look the thing steadily in the face. I protest to you that my inmost heart is bowed down at the thought with sorrow and shame.

But the deed is to be done. States have spoken. Whether the people of the United States have spoken might bear a question. Certainly many States have uttered their voice, whose right to speak I should be the last to question. That they have acted under mistaken views, I have not a doubt. The act is fraught with most dangerous consequences. It inflicts deep wounds on the dignity and the potency of this body; for I see in the countenances of many honorable gentlemen that they would gladly avoid this thing, and would, if they could, avoid the deed.. I do believe that, in the very moment of inflicting the blow, their hearts will be haunted by the same emotions which fill and oppress my own. And while, under the pressure of dire necessity, they raise the axe, they feel prepared, like other executioners, first to ask pardon of the victim. Ay, sir, I believe that when it comes to the actual performance of the tragedy, there will be a secret whisper in their ear that will say to them, perhaps in this case our party feelings have pressed us a little too far. And when, after a solemn and mournful pause, the Secretary has performed his detested office, and has mangled the record of the Senate, will any here rise in his place and cry aloud, thus perish all traitors? Or will they not rather hang their heads, and, smiting on their breasts, heave mournful sighs over so hard a necessity? I shall witness it; and whatever I may feel, I shall feel nothing personally. So far as I am personally concerned, I can fold my arms in perfect coolness, and witness the deed without shrinking. All I feel now is for the Senate-is for the constitution-is for the country. I may cry wo, wo, to England, but not to me. In a moment I shall recover my self-possession, shall rise, shall rejoice, that it was my good fortune to have my name entered on the same page where the rights of this body were recorded, and that there, in company with the Senate's honor, it shall safely abide forever, in spite of your black lines.

Mr. RIVES followed, and addressed the Senate at great length in support of the resolution. [It appears that, from some cause unknown to the publishers, this speech was never reported.]

When Mr. RIVES had taken his seat,

Mr. MOORE rose and said: Allusions had been made by the Senator from Virginia [Mr. RIVES] to instructions by the Legislatures, in order to influence the votes of Senators relative to this very extraordinary procedure. And as the gentleman may have intended a compliment to Alabama by including her in his allusions, he felt it to be his duty to explain the character of her legislative action on this subject.

[Here Mr. Rives rose and said he intended nothing special as regarded Alabama; his remark was intended to be general.]

Mr. M. resumed and said, although the explanation was satisfactory, yet, as he was up, he hoped he would be indulged in making a few comments only. He did not entertain the vain hope that he could add any thing to the interesting debate that had already occurred upon the resolutions now before the Senate; and, as one who intended to vote against them, he felt that he might well content himself with the argument and views that had been urged by others, not only on a former occasion, but the very able exposition with which the Senate was favored by the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. CRITTENDEN] on yesterday, and also by the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. PRESTON] to-day.

But the Senator from Virginia [Mr. RIVES] has not been able to see the force of any argument from that

[SENATE.

quarter. This is not unlikely. The peculiar situation of that gentleman, as connected with the question, was not well calculated to carry conviction to his mind. Yet others may well imagine, to say their argument was lucid and forcible would not do justice to those gentlemen. Sir, they were withering in sarcasm, eloquent and convincing in argument.

Mr. M. could not say how certain Senators, advocates for the black-line process, felt, but assured the President he himself was delighted, and could fain have wished that crowds of those who had dispensed with the trouble of thinking and judging for themselves upon great political questions, contenting themselves with transferring this important political privilege into the hands of others, to be exercised for them, had been present upon the occasion.

Mr. M. reminded his colleague that when these reso lutions were first discussed at a former session, he and himself were found side by side, shoulder to shoulder, exercising their united influence in opposition to them, although at that time they had received the instructions of the General Assembly, commanding their vote in their favor; that his colleague and himself then followed the lead of that stern and inflexible, but much abused and slandered patriot and statesman, the honorable Senator from Tennessee, [Mr. WHITE,] who proposed an amendment, having for its object the repeal and rescinding the obnoxious resolution of the Senate, which censured the President, (and which they had not voted for,) thereby stamping it with the disapprobation of this body, and at the same time preserving the constitution inviolate.

We then thought this was all that could have been reasonably expected, and that this would do ample justice to General Jackson. We thought then, as he (Mr. M.) thought now, that this was not a legitimate subject upon which the General Assembly possessed the right to give instructions. To render instructions binding, the subject-matter must be constitutional and proper; they must not require the public servant to perform an unworthy or an immoral act; they cannot require him to violate the constitution of the land. That sacred instrument, which we have pledged ourselves to support by taking a solemn oath at your desk, requires the Senate to keep a journal of its proceedings, for the most important and valuable purposes. Among these were the following, viz: that our constituents and posterity may read and know our acts, in order that, if they be evil, we may receive merited censure, and if virtnous, that the journals may be resorted to as the means of defence and justification. To expunge, therefore, any portion of the journals of the Senate, to his mind, would be a most flagrant and palpable violation of that sacred instrument.

The appeal which his colleague and himself had made from the judgment of the General Assembly had been responded to by the people; a more mature deliberation had taken place as to the propriety of expunging the journals of the Senate, and at the two last sessions of the Legislature the effort was again renewed to repass the resolutions of instructions, in order to command our votes. They failed; they could not be forced through the Senate. Here was a triumph of principle over party spirit and party drill and discipline, in favor of the constitution and laws of the land. And now he was called upon again to vote upon the expunging resolution; his opinion remained unchanged; he should again vote against them, and he hoped again in company with his colleague, which he could not doubt. The instructions being withdrawn, he had great pleasure in voting under circumstances so strongly indicating the approval of the citizens of the State, as it was in accordance with the dictates of his own judgment and conscience.

Mr. M. said his colleague would recollect that when they returned to the bosom of their constituents, thể same measure of justice had not been meted out to him

that his colleague had been favored with; that it had been his misfortune to have the vote referred to in opposition to the expunging resolutions made the subject of censure and denunciation, by a contemptible public meeting, called in the vicinity of, and doubtless at the instance of, a public functionary high in office in Alabama, a slave to the kitchen cabinet; and this meeting, composed of his slavish partisans, had the indecency and gross injustice to denounce and censure him for not obeying the instructions of the General Assembly; while his colleague, who gave the same vote, and made a longer speech against the right and propriety of the instructions of the Legislature, received laudatory resolutions. He (Mr. M.) would not say this was done on account of his colleague's vote on the expungng resolutions, but mainly, he presumed, for his support of those measures calculated to promote the success of the individual selected by General Jackson to succeed him. It was upon this subject that his difference in his official conduct from his colleague was so criminal. It matters not in these modern times of democratic republicanism how consistent and faithful a public servant may be, as regards principles and measures; this availeth nothing; he must advocate the caucus nom nee; this was the only true test of merit; and although he had known the time when a great majority, perhaps nine tenths, of bis constituents were with him on this very question, yet, by means of a borrowed capital, this obsequious nominee of the President and his office-holders had succeeded in obtaining the vote of the State.

[JAN. 13, 1837.

at some future day, that justice would be awarded to him which is now withheld.

If he had come here to get office for himself or his friends, and, looking to that object alone, had forgotten the interest of his constituents, he might easily have supported, as others did, every measure of the administration, right or wrong. He might have sustained the Chief Magistrate in the extraordinary prerogative of nominating his successor, and in that equally dangerous, but more unworthy and contemptible object of mutila ting the journals of the Senate.

But the black-line process was not original with the mover, the Senator from Missouri, [Mr. BENTON.] The resolution, as originally introduced, proceeded boldly to the object. He was sorry to say this metaphorical mode of expunging emanated from Virginis. He deeply re gretted it. He had been taught to entertain for that renowned State the highest respect; but this was a project which sought to do that by indirection which the friends of the measure did not dare do by direct means. The modification, therefore, was far from recommending the measure to his favor.

Mr. NILES asked for the reading of the resolution, omitting the preamble; which having been read by the Secretary, Mr. N. said that he had some thoughts of moving to strike out that part of the resolution which related to the black lines, which seemed to disturb the feelings of honorable Senators so much. He had no partiality to that part of the resolution, and should pre fer that the process or mode of expunging should be omitted. But the resolution was so drawn that he could not well move to amend it; and as he was not very solicitous about that part which relates to the black lines, one way or the other, he should not make the motion. What he esteemed as the essential and substantive part of the resolution, or what the lawyers call the gist and gravamen, the pith and substance of the whole, would stand as well, and answer the purpose intended quite as effectually, without the part relating to the black lines. He considered that the sum and substance of the whole consisted in that expressive and appropriate word, "expunge"-that he could by no means consent to part with; it was the word which he liked, and which the people seemed to like. It had become a very popular

was intended to be done; but the form of doing it was of little consequence with him. Whether it was done typically or physically, or by drawing black lines around the obnoxious resolution, or by the legal import, efficacy, and effect, of the word "expunge," was with him a matter of indifference. He looked at the substance, and not the form; and the object aimed at was to purify our journal, by removing from it the obnoxious and un. constitutional resolution of March, 1834, or to place upon its face the mark and stamp of reprobation.

He (Mr. M.) would bow with due submission to the will of his constituents, but he hoped his enemies would not succeed, by making up false issues, in their efforts to deceive the people. All he wished was sheer justice. While he was proud to be in company with those with whom he was associated on this question, he yet claimed to be a true republican, a Jeffersonian republican, a republican of the old school; and if he was not claimed as belonging to the democratic republican party, according to the modern acceptation of the term, which he believed meant nothing more nor less than a tame and servile submission to the will of one man, as regarded his favor. ite selected to succeed him, yet he claimed to have been a consistent advocate of all the great principles and measures which were proclaimed by the Chief Magisword of late, and it expressed fully and completely what trate and his friends, in that memorable contest which resulted in his triumph, in which many of those who now seek to distinguish themselves as his (Mr. M's) political enemies and persecutors, were active and bitter in the ranks of General Jackson's opponents; and among these was the very individual who is now at the head of the party, who, as soon as victory had crowned our efforts, deserted his friends and his party, and proposed to enter in the service of the old hero, provided he could receive pardon for the past, and rewards for his future service. Mr. M. said he had stated that he had given a liberal support to all the leading measures avowed by General Jackson and his friends in their contest for power. Among these were reform and retrenchment, as regarded the expenditures of this Government; opposition to that system of internal improvement which sought to tax one portion of the citizens of this country for the benefit of another, including the tariff; the policy relative to the Indians; the reservation of the elective franchise in its purity; opposition to the practice, so corrupting, of appointing members of Congress to office, &c.; and he challenged his political enemies to point their finger to any instance in which he had not faithfully sustained all these great principles; and although he and his friends had been proscribed, he could view his course without regret, and with an approving conscience, which he would not exchange for all the satisfaction his enemies might enjoy for their vindictive persecution. He hoped,

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I am, however, sorry, said Mr. N., that those black lines have had so serious an effect on the imaginations of honorable Senators. They seem to have filled their imaginations with all sorts of dark and sombre images, and to have cast so dark a slade, so thick a gloom, over the subject, that they cannot illustrate their ideas in any other way than by reference to those solemn ceremonies, those mournful and sacred rites, which comprise the last duties that man, in this mortal world, performs for his fellow-man. This expunging business, it seems, has at last become a sort of funeral ceremony. Well, sir, if this is s", if this matter has become so solemn and sorrowful, he hoped it might be a monitory and useful lesson to us all, individually and collectively, as a striking and impressive example of the instability and mutations of all things in this world, whether public or pri vate. Sir, this solemn scene, which is now compared to a funeral ceremony, is only the sequel of a scene of

quite an opposite character. The proceedings, sir, under the resolution which it is now proposed to expunge, instead of resembling the most solemn and sorrowful of all earthly rites, was of the most joyous character; it was a great national jubilee, which continued from day to day, and week to week, for more than three months.

[SENATE.

"thirteen" which carried the country safely through the Revolution; "God bless them," if I may be permit ted to repeat a declaration, often used, of a distinguished gentleman of Virginia, now no more. The Legislature of his State, by a very large majority, about two thirds, he believed, had passed resolutions condemning the resolu The trial and condemnation of the President, the de- tion of the Senate of March, 1834, as false in point of fact, nunciatory speeches, and the whole process of panic- unconstitutional, an unwarrantable assumption of power, making, was a very animating and ignoble business: and dangerous to the liberties of the country. For this there were no black lines then to disturb gentlemen's act, his State, with others, was arraigned, ridiculed, and imaginations, or fill them with gloomy visions; the condemned. And what is it that these States have done, scene was lively and animated, full of high hopes, and that they are denounced, and their Legislatures treated characterized by fierce conflicts of party strife and con- as no better than so many caucuses? They have had the tention. But now comes the end. How great the independence, and felt it to be a duty, to express an change? Those black expunging lines have cast so opinion concerning an act of one branch of this Gov gloomy a shade over the whole subject, that they can be ernment, and to pronounce it unconstitutional and dancompared only to the solemn pall. Well, sir, if this gerous. Is a proceeding of this description to be delast act in this long drama must be compared to a fu- nounced as factious, a mere caucus movement, and that, neral ceremonial, he thought there was no difficulty in too, by the great champion of State rights? Is there no assigning to each actor his part. The resolution of example for this measure on the part of the States? Has March, 1834, which is to be expunged, is the corpse; the Senator forgot that memorable crisis in our political the black lines to be drawn around it are the pall; and history, when many of the States, following the lead of the his friend from Kentucky, [Mr. CRITTENDEN,] it is evi- "Ancient Dominion," which the Senator has attempted, dent from his speech yesterday, was prepared to act as in an especial measure, to hold up to scorn and conofficiating priest, and the gentleman from South Caroli-tempt, declared an act of Congress to be unconstituna who has just addressed us [Mr. PRESTON] will be associated with him; if we look around this hall, it will not be difficult to discover the relatives and the mourners. The priests have already performed their part, they have praised the dead, and admonished the living; we have heard their fervid invocations, and their rehearsal of the solemn dirge.

Mr. President, we have been told, in the eloquent speech of the Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. PRESTON,] that the resolution before us, and the whole expunging proceeding, is intended to operate against the Senators who voted for the resolution of March, 1834; that it is they who are to be expunged from the Senate; that they are arraigned, put upon their trial, and are to be condemned and offered up as victims to exalt and honor the President. He asserts that he is one of the number, and is prepared for the sacrifice, and calls on the executioners to come forward and strike the deadly blow. Having placed the question in this light, considered himself and his friends as the accused, and voluntarily taken the criminal's seat, it was to have been expected that we should have heard something partaking of the character of a defence. That gentleman appears to have been selected as the counsel of the accused, and, considering his acknowledged ability, he (Mr. N.) had expected an able defence; for one, he had indulged the hope that if he had not been able to make out a com. plete justification, he would at least have shown such circumstances of extenuation, which, if they did not produce a verdict of acquittal, would at least have induced the triers to have recommended the accused to mercy, or to some mitigation of the severity of the punishment. But in these reasonable expectations he had been disappointed. What sort of a defence have we wit nessed? Why, sir, the gentleman, after having voluntarily assumed the criminal's seat, immediately changed the character of an accused to an accuser; he at once becomes the prosecutor, and attempts to defend his own acts, by boldly denouncing the conduct of others. In the first place, he arraigns and brings before the bar of the Senate, for condemnation, a large number of the Sovereign States of this Union; all the States, and there was not less than eleven, and he believed more, which have instructed their Senators to vote to expunge the obnoxious resolution of March, 1834, are boldly denounced. His own State was one of the number; a very small and unimportant member of the confederacy, yet jealous of its rights and honor; one of the good old

tional, and dangerous to the rights of the States and the liberties of the people? In their bold and patriotic course then they were sustained by the people, as they have been and will be now.

The next point in the defence consists in a general denunciation of the people. Mr. N. said he hoped he might be excused for alluding to the people of the States; for notwithstanding, on another occasion, the honorable Senator from South Carolina [Mr. PRESTON] seemed to doubt their existence, still he thought that as yet they were not entirely excluded from our political system. They still form an element of political power. He was not surprised at the sneers and the contemptuous manner in which the people and popular opinion had been spoken of; but he was somewhat astonished at the effort to hold up the Legislatures of the States to contempt, coming from the quarter that it did: from a pro. fessed advocate of State rights, who seemed to regard all political power as rightfully belonging to the constituted authorities of the States.

The able and eloquent advocate of the accused, still acting as public prosecutor, next arraigns the majority of the Senate. This seems to be an important point in his defence. We are charged with a bold and daring violation of the constitution, and of being ready to im molate, on the shrine of party, the liberties of our coun try; of humbling and degrading the American Senate at the feet of the Executive, and to bestow the homage of our adoration on the President. Sir, we deny the charge; we repel and throw it back on those from whom it comes. It is not our purpose to exalt the President at the expense of the Senate; it is not our purpose to humble or disgrace the Senate; far from it. Our object is directly the reverse: we seek to remove the disgrace which was cast upon it by a former factious majority; we wish to restore its tarnished honor, to purify its jour nals, to regain that confidence in the public opinion which it had lost.

It is also said, we are thirsting for the blood of the victims; that we are now demanding judgment and exe. cution against them. But from whom does this demand come? who is it that is praying for execution? Is it the majority here, or is it the States and the people? Do we not faithfully represent their will? Sir, it is the States and the people who have come up here, and are demanding judgment and execution; they have decided this question; they have given in their verdict, and they now demand execution; they demand it in a voice that