but at those above that Executive. The poisoned arrows which are scattered strike not only those against whom they are aimed, but at the body of the American people. If there are corrupters, where are the corrupted? Are we to seek for them amongst the honest yeomanry of the land? Is this degrading character to be given to our Countrymen I trust we are not ready to look upon a majority of our fellow-citizens as obedient slaves, obeying the edicts of an imperial master. The sin of the Executive has been that he moved in unison with the people, and for this he is denounced. This is his crime, in the eyes of his opponents. I cannot believe that his course will at any time be deemed unpatriotic, or prejudicial to the institutions of our common country. The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. ROBERTSON] objected most strenuously to the proscription which had been carried out during the present administration. The opposition is distinguished, if we are to believe what we hear, by magnanimity, by generosity, by respect for freedom of opinion. Cases have been adduced to show the oppression heaped upon some of our fellow-citizens. I could not but observe the indignation excited amongst some of the opponents of the administration at the recital of instances of removals from office. I cannot speak of the merits of these cases; I am ignorant of them. I cannot, however, but look upon the denunciations which have been made against removals from office as an evidence of a policy which has not heretofore distinguished our opponents. I suppose that hereafter, in no part of the country where they hold the power, no man is to be removed who entertains opinions in accordance with those of the democracy. The guillotine which I have seen ready to do its office in one city of this Union is to be removed-the victims are to be released. I have, I confess candidly, Mr. Speaker, some misgivings. Judg ing from the past, I can have but little hope for the future. "To know the right, and yet the wrong pursue," seems to be the fate of our opponents. [JAN. 17, 1837. must plead guilty. It has been a contest in which we have seen the concentrated wealth of the nation in arms against the Government and the people; and we have seen that contest concluded with the triumph of the peo ple over an institution which had threatened to poison the very fountains of your prosperity. We have carried on a war against a system which carries within the most alarming ments. You have seen institutions invested with a power of creating a “paper currency," starting into existence in every section. You have seen a power placed in the hands of a particular class of men to control the fortunes of their fellow-citizens. You have seen prices rising, values disturbed, an unsettled and feverish state of public feeling. You have seen the swollen tide of speculation rushing from one end of the country to the other, bearing upon it every individual. Purchases made, not with a view to the natural opera tions of trade, but regulated alone by the credits which might be obtained. You have seen the favorable gale, swelling every man's sails; but now the tempest is seen, driving before it thousands, whose fate it will be difficult to predict. You have seen in this country, and on the other side of the Atlantic, gathering signs in the com mercial horizon; anxiety, intense anxiety, pervading every section of the country. When the cause of the excitement is examined, when it is asserted that the over issues have been the main cause of the present state of things, when we are told to look back to the troubles in England in past years, and observe that the same state of things was produced by similar causes; yet when the effort is made by the Government to check this evil, by calling into circulation the constitutional currency of the country, with a view to give security to your financial operations, to give stability to the value of property, and to afford labor its just reward, it is denounced as tyran nical and oppressive. The question of currency, I am willing to admit, is intricate; but I do not believe it too intricate to be beyond the understanding of an acute and intelligent people of a people whose pursuits render it necessary for them to watch every movement in the industry and finance of the country. They desire a sound currency, but not a currency which is given to them by holding their liberties at the will of any body of men. Look at the city of New York, where the opposition, during the celebrated panic session, obtained power. The process of removal was fully carried out. The lamps in our streets were not allowed to be lighted by those who were democrats. Look to Philadelphia; one sweeping proscription, if rumor speaks truly. Look to Pennsylvania, when the Government of the State was changed. The offices given to those who had placed the present incumbents in power, and those who thought with the general administration proscribed, and their families, depending for subsistence on the emoluments of their humble offices, turned adrift upon the world. Sir, this proscription which they denounce they practice. Let not the charge be made against us until, by their example, they can enforce their advice with more authority than they can at present. Let not their indigest epochs of the past? Are they found in some brilliant nation be excited against the administration, or their sympathy expressed in favor of its supposed victims, so long as they have on every side an opportunity of bestowing their sympathy on those who have suffered by the exercise of the power they hold. The administration cannot be justly liable to this accusation. Here and elsewhere it has been confidently asserted, by those who have examined this subject, that a large majority of those holding offices are opposed to the administration; and the sweeping proscription and persecution for expression of opinion cannot with propriety be charged against it. We have heard much of the war on the currency which has been waged by the present administration. The disturbance of our financial operations, the chaos of our commercial affairs, have been placed to the account of the Executive. The party in power for the past seven years has been carrying on, if any, a war on the United States Bank; and if that be a war on the currency, they I cannot omit a reference to the allusions which have been made to the President during this debate. The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. WISE] has traced his course from the period of his early obscurity to the present ex alted station which he now holds. From its rise in hum bleness, he has found the tenor of his life a broad and sweeping current, rolling onward under the living light of day and the steady gaze of the nation. Parallels are sought; but where? Are they sought for amongst the patriots whose reputations are interwoven with the brightexample of devotion to country, of fidelity to her institutions, of purity of purpose, of undying patriotism; amongst the Aristides, the Curtii, or the Catos? No, sit; we find them seeking for parallels in the most corrupt and degraded periods of the Roman Government. They find them in a Commedus or a Severus; in the vile, the profligate, and depraved emperors of a crumbling em pire. Who is your modern Commodus? Shall I sum mon from his many battle fields the manes of the dead to be his defenders? No, sir, let the living attest his worth! Let them answer whether or not it was by col lecting around him the abandoned Cleanders of his time he led your country through many difficulties up to the eminence on which he now is leaving her! Even in the highest excitement of a political contest, we ought not to forget the services of our public men-of those who "have done the state some service." The petty differences of party will disappear, but the results of the labor of those men never will be destroyed. For one, I will not desecrate the temple of our Union by any attempt to deface one particle of those brilliant names that may cast their splendor over it. Fidelity to our own principles never can be incompatible with justice and toleration for those of our opponents. I speak of this point not as a partisan, but as an American. I cannot be deterred, by the fear of being termed a flatterer, from doing justice to any man. I ask gentlemen how they can hope that the people will attend to their charges? We are told it is to inform the people of the dangers they have passed-of the conspiracies against their liberties that have been exploded. Why, sir, Cicero himself would not have been heeded when the conspirators were deprived of all power to injure. The people of this country will not, as the hour is approaching which is to separate them from him who has for years enjoyed their highest confidence, stand with ready ear to listen to denunciations. Not while one spark of gratitude remains will they refuse to shield him. They will be seen protecting him from the flames of political persecutions; they will be the first to rescue him-the patriot who has led their armies to victory and given permanency to their Union-from the ignominy of being placed in the same niche of immortal infamy with a Commodus or a Severus. There is one aspect in which the present discussion will be viewed with interest by the country. It is the objections which have been raised against the coming administration. We are told that the people have no pledge of any line of policy; that the President elect is untrammelled by any promises. He can sustain a tariff or an anti-tariff policy; be may be for internal improvements by the General Government, or against them; he may be for a national bank, or against it; for distribution, or against distribution- that upon leading political questions he is in no manner committed. What, sir! no policy promised? If there is any point on which the President elect is not committed, the fault lies not with him. Not far from me is the member from Kentucky, [Mr. WILLIAMS,] who submitted questions of the highest importance to the country before the election. The reply to those queries is part of your political history. That reply formed the chief point of attack in your presidential contests. On most of the points which agitated the country, the people of this country have had an ample exposition of the views of the individual who has been elevated by their suffrages to the first office within their power. You have, in the document to which I refer, his opinions with regard to the Bank of the United States. You have his views on the great and absorbing subject of your public revenues, and the policy of distribu tion. When he speaks of this measure, it is but in accordance, so far as results are concerned, with the opinions of a distinguished statesman, whose course is sustained by a large portion of the opponents of the administration, and whose sentiments are given in a speech, delivered some years since, in the Senate of the United States. The Clerk of the House will read the passage in that speech to which I refer. [H. OF R. loss arising from the charges of collection, and with the loss also of interest, while the money is performing the unnecessary circuit; and it would therefore be unwise. If it is to be collected from one portion of the people, and given to another, it would be unjnst. If it is to be given to the States in their corporate capacity, to be used by them in their public expenditures, I know of no principle in the constitution which authorizes the Fedcral Government to become such a collector for the States, nor of any principle of safety or propriety which admits of the States becoming such recipients of gratuity from the General Government. "The public revenue, then, should be regulated and adapted to the proper service of the General Government." These views were presented by one of the Senators from Kentucky, [Mr. CLAY.] These views were sustained by the minority which were found on the deposite bill of the last session; and it could not be objected to by that minority, that from those with whom they differed in sentiment they could obtain support for the course which they pursued. It is the pledge that we shall have aid in relieving the people from burdens of a grievous character, and a pledge which we have a right to insist on being fulfilled. But, sir, his opponents were not satisfied with the course which the President elect had pursued before the nation in a long life of political action; they were not satisfied with his open and avowed declarations, but in every section of the country he was represented to entertain different views, but always those which might be particularly unpopular. will not attempt to follow the whole train, but I cannot forego the opportunity of referring to one of the means called into action against him. I allude to the fact of dragging his opinions on religious manners into the political contest. His opponents, aware of the prejudice existing against one creed in this | country, eagerly scized upon it to operate with effect upon some portion of our citizens. We are told that the votes of States were given against him on this reason. The spirit of intolerance-that spirit which has at all times, and in all countries, left the evidences of its triumphs in the blasted happiness and withered prosperity of thousands, was brought into the contest. was the avowal of my colleague [Mr. VANDERPOEL] in favor of the can lidate, showing that he did not eutertain certain opinions. It was insisted, that even if he did not entertain them, yet he had been guilty, at least, of an act which, in England, would have rendered him liable to the pains and penaltics of a præmunire. But even in England, under an enlightened and liberal legislation, that badge of barbarity had been destroyed, and in this country never had existed. Punishment was due for the transgression, and the guilty must be reached through the ballot-box. Sir, no language can express the deep humiliation with which I refer to this topic; I feel that in a land of freedom-that land which gave to the cause of civil and religious liberty a Carroll, and contains the ashes of him whose pride was not alone to have been the author of the Declaration of Independence, but of the code to secure freedom of conscience--that there is a In vain The clerk then read as follows: Speaking of the public debt, he remarked: "It is so near being totally extinguished that we may now safely inquire whether, without prejudice to any established pol-spirit which would drive a portion of our fellow citizens icy, we may not relieve the consumption of the country by the repeal or reduction of duties, and curtail, consid erably, the public revenue. In making this inquiry, the first question which presents itself is, whether it is expedient to preserve the existing duties, in order to accumulate a surplus in the Treasury for the purpose of subsequent distribution among the several States. I think not. If the collection for the purpose of such a surplus is to be made from the pockets of one portion of the people, to be ultimately returned to the same pockets, the process would be attended with the certain from the advantages of the Government, and place them as outcasts without the pale of your constitution. If this is to be the consequence of entertaining certain opinions, your constitution will be a mockery, your pledge of equality of rights is violated. Are they who have unloosed this whirlwind blind to the ravages it has else. where cominitted? Are they desirous of substituting the war of fanaticism for the peace and charity which exist at present through the country? Let them consider that the persecution which follows and crushes one sect to-day may turn upon another to morrow. Let H. OF R.] Executive Administration. [JAN. 17, 1837. this humble tribute from one who owes her much; and | justice requires that her character should not be misrep resented. This debate, sir, is the announcement of a course of policy which the country ought fully to understand. What is the development that we have seen made? That opposition is at once to be formed to the coming administration. We are told that a war is to be waged, a war of extermination, against him who has been placed in power by the sacrifice of the principles of liberty. A war against the man is to be declared. Why not avow at once a struggle, a "war to the knife," with the democracy? Where is the evidence of the violation of any rights by the successful candidate? Where the proof that, in his triumphant march to the Capitol, he has driv en his chariot with savage exultation over the mangled corse of your constitution? If opposition is at once to be arrayed, let the country know it. I cannot believe that he who sustains the coming administration must necessarily be a "traitor to the interests of the South," as we heard in this discussion. I will not admit that the South, which has but within a few short weeks past given evi dence of its confidence, is at once to be marshalled in opposition, and that this position is to be assumed that no matter with what purity, no matter with what patriotism, no matter with what success, the policy of the them not hope to be able to check the fiery steeds they have driven to the edge of the precipice," and to save themselves from dashing down into the abyss where myriads lie entombed the victims of a similar spirit! Is this the age in which such scenes are to be enacted? No, sir; extinguish the lights of civilization and intelligence, before you illumine the torch of fanaticism. Its lurid glare will be lost in the blaze of freedom. Bring back the days of the Vandal and the Goth. Let then the ministers of savage orgies shout with joy around the tombs of the dead they have violated, and with frantic exultation amid the blazing ruins of seminaries of learning; at such a time, let the demon of persecution be unchained, and rush from one end of the country to the other. But if we desire peace, if we seek for the exercise of feelings of charity, we must not violate the spirit of that constitution which secures protection to all. The persecution of the ballot-box is but the precursor of penal legislation. We must not permit the ballot-box to be converted into an engine of oppression upon any portion of our countrymen. Let it be remembered that amongst those who are denounced are those whose integrity and devotion to the country are not to be questioned; that they are your fellow-citizens, who ask for nothing more than their constitutional rights, and ought not, will not, submit to less. I cannot be mistaken in my countrymen, or our institutions, when I say that in the intel-coming administration may be distinguished, still it must ligence and the liberality which should ever distinguish Americans, there is a guarantee for liberty of conscience which can never be destroyed; and that American liberty consists in freedom of opinion, freedom of industry, freedom of conscience. We have been told that the approaching administration will be brought into power by the vilest means; that it is the triumph of the New York system. I find that it is the fashion of the hour to refer to that State. Her immense resources, her natural and artificial advantages, are paraded to excite a jealousy against her interests and her sons. Is this the spirit in which this Union was framed, or can be maintained? Why, to secure a petty triumph of party, is this effort made to array section against section, State against State? In sorrow, not in anger, have I heard the charges made against that State. I have witnessed the efforts to injure her fair fame; but still I look upon my native State with pride. Not one particle of her reputation is yet tarnished. That State can look back upon the past with high satisfaction, and look forward to the future with the brightest anticipations. What, sir, has been her system? She has had a giant's strength, but she has used it like a giant." She stands erect in the consciousness of her sacrifices to the independence, the liberty of the country, and to the Union of these States. She presents to you her Saratoga, as her evidence of her devotion to the cause of the Revolution. Every point of her whole frontier is the theatre of resistance to the invasion of a savage or a civilized foe. In peace, as in war, no sordid policy has characterized her course. I challenge gentlemen to point out in the votes of her Representatives here, or in the legislation of the S ate, any disposition to elevate that State at the sacrifice of the rights or interests of any section of this confederacy. Her history contains not a single line for which one of her sons need blush. Proud of her history, proud of her enterprise, for one, I would, in the language of one who has given glory, not only to that State, but to the whole confederacy, as soon forget the mother that gave me birth, as that State the trophies of whose system may be seen in the unrivalled prosperity of her millions of inhabitants. The power she wields was never exercised for oppression. Mighty she has been, but none has been more meek. To be the equal, not the superior, of her sister Stat s, has ever been her object. Gratitude demands be paralyzed, still it must be crushed, must be annihi lated. This I will not admit. The people will afford to their Chief Magistrate the same lenity and the same rule they would apply to the humblest servant in the public service. They will judge of him by his acts. It will be in vain to denounce the manner in which he was electednone could be more honorable. In vain will they denounce the success of the man-they will discover that the strug gle which has closed was not concluded by the triumph of any man. Let me assure gentlemen it is not the tri umph of the candidate which causes the exultation which they observe on every side. It is the triumph of the true principles of your Government of the Union; it is the triumph of the people. We have been told that the people have been routed by the prætorian cohorts. Ne, sir; gentlemen mistake the scattered and retreating bands. The people are not seen flying in every direc tion. The people are not vanquished, but victorious, proudly victorious. They are victors over combinations unheard of in the annals of political warfare; victors over misrepresentation; victors over prejudice; victors over principles of every nature. "The flag of the country is still flying." Sir, I repeat the language of the gen tleman from Virginia, [Mr. WISE:] the flag of the coun try is still flying. We differ, sir, as to the character of that ensign. It is not the drapeau blanc; not the flag with a single star emblazoned on its folds; not the flag which was seen flying on one portion of your coast, the signal for the advance of a hostile fleet, but the flag which floated in triumph over Jefferson; which was secu amidst the blaze of an enemy's cannon in the days of Madison; that flag around which have always rallied the unterrified friends of liberty; that banner is still flying; never, I trust, never to be struck down. And who, sir, are the prætorian bands who are rushing to the rescue! Look, sir, to the majority of this House; to a majority of the other branch of your Legislature; a majority of the people of this country. You may see them rushing from the granite hills of the East; you will find them pouring down in hordes from the North. They are to be found in the boundless and fertile prairies of the West, and may be seen gathering from the chivalrous South, even from the Old Dominion. On every side the yeomanry of the land have been eager to rally under this labarum. And yet these are the marauders, the trainbands, the obedient janizaries, the præto:ian cohorts, who are INDEX TO THE DEBATES IN THE SENATE. Abolition in the District of Columbia; a memorial from Appropriation bill for the civil and diplomatic expenses Arbuckle, Colonel; a bill for his relief, 991; negativ- ed. Armory bill; a bill to establish a foundry or armory in Books, on the distribution of; a resolution for distribu- for committee rooms, a resolution for supplying, Burning of the public buildings; a bill to alter and amend the act for the punishment of certain crimes Cherokee Indians; a memorial from 2,500 Indians, east at the commencement of every session of Con- British authors on the subject, 670; the memo- VOL. XIII.-1 Dana, Judah, elected from the State of Maine, to sup- Deposite banks; a call on the Secretary of the Treasury Dickins, Asbury, elected Secretary of the Senate, 6. motion to strike out the second section of the Duties, the reduction of, proposed to be referred to the a bill for the remission of duties on goods destroy- Expunging the journal; notice given by Mr. Benton of Extra session of the Senate, 1035. Foreign emigrants; a memorial from sundry inhabitants French and Neapolitan indemnities; a bill to anticipate Harbors; a bill making appropriations for certain har- Inauguration of President Van Buren, a committee of Indian Johnston, Colonel Philip, the petition of the heirs of, 123. ii Land; Mr. Clay's bill for dividing the proceeds of the | Pierce, Franklin, elected a Senator from New Hamp. public lands amongst the several States, 20. frauds; a resolution calling on the Secretary of a cession of the public land; a bill introduced to laws and decisions; resolutions calling on the Sec- Lowrie, Walter, resigns his office of Secretary of the Light-houses; a bill making appropriations for light- McKinley, John, elected as a Senator for Alabama, from McCartney, John; a bill for his relief ordered to be en. Madison's writings; a letter from the President in rela- Pilots, shire for six years from the 4th of March next; 1009. Post Office; an inquiry instituted into the cause of the Department; a bill to give security to correspond- message convening an extra session of the Senate, President and Vice President, a joint committee appoint. tion to a purchase and publication of them, 4; Scott, General; resolution calling on the President for a the report of the committee was taken up for Marine corps; resolution instructing the Committee on Meade, Richard W., a bill for the relief of the executrix Mexico, a message of the President in relation to inju ries sustained from the Government of, 723. Michigan; a message from the President stating its read- Messrs. Norvell and Lyon, her Senators, were ed. Naval service, a bill making appropriations for, for the Nourse, Joseph; report of the Committee of Claims in Order, points of, 707, 708. Patent Office; an inquiry instituted into the extent of the loss lately sustained by fire, 21. a bill supplementary to the act for the improve- copy of the proceedings of the late court of in- Senators, a list of, 2. Sick and disabled seamen; a resolution calling on the Sec- Slave property, foreign aggression upon; a resolution Spence, Standing committees appointed, 6, 7. Surplus revenue; a bill to renew in part the deposite bill a motion made to reconsider the above vote, and Treasury circular; a resolution offered for its repeal, 8, Vice President, retirement of, and his address on the oc- thanks of the Senate for his impartiality, dignity, |