JAN. 28, 1836.]

one.

cess of the bill, to recede from its position? It will be recollected this was a bill making ordinary appropriations; the House encumbered it with an extraordinary It ran against constitutional objections-the very last to be surrendered. Could it reasonably be expected or required of the Senate, in violation, as they believed, of their duty and the plain injunctions of the constitution, to adopt that provision? Was it unreasonable to expect and to require of the House that the bill, in its ordinary form, should be permitted to go along unobstructed? In some considerable portions of the bill, both branches concurred. Why not agree, then, and, so far as they did agree, pass the bill? The House, and the House alone, refused to do it. It said to the Senate, We agree with you that the ordinary fortification bill ought to pass-the country requires it; but we will not pass it, unless you will agree to an extraordinary appropriation, which you hold to be unconstitutional and inexpedient; and, if you refuse it, you will be responsible for our failure to pass the ordinary bill. It seems to me, sir, there can hardly be two opinions upon such a proposition. The Senate would not agree to so unreasonable a demand. But what did it do? It agreed, for the purpose of securing the passage of the bill, to meet the House upon some middle ground. A compromise was effected by conferees, appointed by each body. The Senate waited and waited, as we have seen, to adopt and carry this compromise into effect. The House neglected or refused to do so, and thereby the bill was lost. Can there be a doubt in which branch it failed, and by whose means it was lost? But it is contended that, before this arrangement was effected, the House was dissolved-its constitutional functions ceased; and, for that reason, it could not adopt the compromise recommended by the conferees. Suppose it had been so; are the Senate therefore responsible for the failure of the bill? But it was not so. I agree entirely in my recollections with the honorable member from Kentucky, [Mr. HARDIN,] who has just spoken, and with my friend from Massachusetts, [Mr. REED.] There was time, after the report had been agreed upon, and before 12 o'clock, to have made it to the House, and procured its adoption. The conferees did return, as the gentleman says, before the Cumberland road bill was put upon its passage; and it is agreed, on all hands, that the midnight hour arrived while the ayes and noes were being called on that bill. In this, I am confident I cannot be mistaken. Why, then, it may be inquired, was not the report made? Why did not the bill pass? I cannot pretend to answer. But this I will say that I discovered, early in the stages of disagreement, as I thought, a willingness to permit the bill to be lost. I do not say with a view to throw the responsibility of it upon the Senate; but with a distinct avowal that its loss would be justly chargeable to that quarter. As early as nine or ten o'clock in the evening, when the first notice was received from the Senate of its disagreement to the appropriation, on a motion to recede, the member from New York [Mr. CAMBRELENG] said, "he hoped the House would not recede. If the Senate had taken the responsibility of defeating the appropriation, it might remain with them. He would take no part of it." This was the first intimation that the responsibility must be cast upon the Senate. Others took the same view, and spoke with warmth, to say the least of it. The House did did not recede; and the bill again went, its oft-travelled path, to the Senate. In a short period, between 10 and 11 o'clock, according to my recollection, it came back, with a message that the Senate adhered to its disagree. ment to our appropriation. What occurred then, sir? A very strong and decided disposition was expressed by leading gentlemen that the House should adhere also,

[H. or R.

and thereby cut off all opportunity of passing the bill, and every means of compromise. The only other alternative was, by asking a conference; and by that mode the bill might even then be saved. The member from New York [Mr. CAMBRELENG] moved "to adhere;" in other words, to destroy the bill beyond the power of revival. An honorable member from Virginia [Mr. MERCER] moved "to recede;" thereby preserving the power to pass the bill. An honorable member from Tennessee, the chairman of the Committee of Ways and and Means, [Mr. POLK,] said, "the motion to adhere had priority to the other;" undoubtedly signifying thereby his desire that the motion should prevail-that the bill should be lost. An honorable member from Ohio, [Mr. LYTLE,] who had no hesitation to speak freely and fearlessly on all occasions, as he did eloquently, his opinions, addressed the House in these words: "He objected entirely," he said, "to any con. ciliatory proposition. The House had gone as far as prudence and patriotism would justify them in going to conciliate the Senate. The only question was, where the responsibility of the loss of the bill should lodge? Let the other body take the responsibility of defeating it"-the appropriation of three millions. He conjured the House not to depart from the stand it had assumed; declared it would be pusillanimous to do so; and urgently and eloquently rallied his friends to stand firm upon that question. Now, sir, I can readily perceive in these proceedings a strong solicitude, and determination, tou, to hold the Senate responsible for the loss of the bill; I look in vain for evidence of an anxiety to save the ordinary appropriations for fortifications. They were, apparently, very readily given up, for the other object, which was possibly regarded a much greater one-of prostrating the Senate. The majority of the House, however, did not sustain the motion to adhere, but adopted the wiser course of requesting a conference. It was seen that the majority which passed the appropriation was giving way. It passed, at first, by a majority of 32. It was insisted on, in the next vote, by a majority reduced to 23; a third vote reduced it to 19; and if another vote had been allowed to be taken, I doubt not the whole amendment would have been abandoned rather than the bill should fail. Another vote upon it was not permitted from that hour to the present. The conferees were appointed, and, I have already said, returned to this hall in season to have reported before 12 o'clock. The compromise which they had agreed to recommend was immediately known to the members, and privately discussed. There was but one voice, so far as I heard, in the House, and that was in favor of its adoption. We were anxiously waiting, from moment to moment, for the report to be made; when, suddenly, as by an electric shock, a thrill was sent through this House, agitating and moving the countenances and voices of members; little squads were collected here and there, and all at once we heard it echoed and reechoed on all sides that the report could not be made; the bill must fail, and the responsibility would rest upon the Senate. From what quarter this came, by whose agency brought about, I do not pretend to say--I do not know. But it was familiarly spoken of at the time, that a certain high personage, in accordance with whose views, it now appears, the three millions were voted, upon being apprized of the result of the conference, manifested exceeding indignation that his faithful Commons should succumb in any degrre to "the factious Senate." Rather would he lose the bill altogether, and they would be held responsible for it. This, or some. thing very like it, was soon known in this hall; and it was also known that the President had closed, or was about to close, his official relations with Congress; its constitutional functions, in his judgment, having ceased. Cer

“Mr. Cambreleng. I protest against the right to call the House. What member will answer to his name? [I will, I will, exclaimed many members.] I am as much in favor of the fortification bill as the gentleman from New Jersey; but I say the responsibility of its failure rests upon the Senate, and not upon us. The bill was defeated by the Senate." [No, no, not so, was exclaimed by many voices.] After such a direct warning from such a quarter, is it to be wondered at that a quorum could not be found? An honorable member from North Carolina, [Mr. Barringer,] faithful to his duty, and observant of all that occurred here, had no hesitation in expressly charging the loss of the bill to an intrigue carried on in the House, and he offered the names of the individuals concerned in it. If we may have any access to the ear of the select committee who may be appointed to investigate this grave affair, I pray the honorable member from Massachusetts to call upon this gentleman to testify. Mr. Barringer said, "the bill was defeated by an intrigue here-in this House. If gentlemen desired names, he would give them. But if this was declined, he would say that there were members who now sat in their seats, and would not answer to their names, who did so in consummation of the intrigue." Names were not demanded. They might have been had. Amid these scenes of disorder and confusion, which we of the minority vainly strove to repress, passed the last night of the last session of the last Congress; and, for the honor of the country and its institutions, I hope such another may never be witnessed. And, in the midst of these scenes, the fortification bill drew its last breath, and heaved its expiring throes. That it was destroyed in the House, and for purposes known to those who had an agency in the proceedings of that night, it seems to me no rational mind can doubt. Examine as we will, investigate as we will, vituperate as we will, these plain facts stand out; and no sophistry can elude, no ingenuity pervert them. Sir, I have done upon this matter. I have but another topic to touch.

The honorable member, with a precision of aim which leaves nothing of doubt as to whom his shafts were sped, and whom he describes as "the Achilles" of the Senate, essays to bring down from his high standing one representing his own Commonwealth, with unsurpassed ability, in the other branch of the Legislature. The attack was little to have been expected from that quarter. A scene of disgraceful disorder, such as the Speaker says he had never witnessed in ten years' experience here, doubtless gratified the cherished feelings of the member into the delusive fancy of a triumph worthy his achievement. Sir, I shall not attempt encomiums upon that distinguished statesman. It is unnecessary for me--it cannot be required of any man-to come forward in his defence. His character, his services, his actions, his opinions, the efforts of his transcendent powers, are before the world. They speak out for him in a voice that cannot be silenced. They stand forth in full view, and no man can obscure or blot them from the history of this country. It has been exceedingly painful to me to take a part, and especially the part I have taken, in this debate. Recollections of the past are thronging in my mind, and weigh me down in sadness-almost in silence. Gladly would I have been spared this day. But, sir, when those whom I hold in honor and respect-whom the country holds high-high in its estimation, are made the object of attack such as we have witnessed, I should miserably fail in my own sense of duty were I to sit in silence. The day has not long gone by since I saw those who now give sanction to this attack, and the party to which they belong, gladly, ay, anxiously, seeking the aid of the powerful arm of that great champion and defender of the constitution; since I saw this administration, reeling and tottering as it did under the tremendous VOL. XII.-153

[H. of R.

blows of men of giant strength from the chivalric region of the South, beseeching the unfailing support of that same undaunted hand. I refer to no preceding administrations, which leaned, and leaned with confidence, upon him, as upon a pillar of immoveable strength; but I wish to tell the honorable member from Massachusetts [Mr. ADAMS] that not one of the friends who now rally round the object of his attack will falter in his course. Not one will be shaken in his confidence and attachment. We shall stand by him, let who will desert, let who will vituperate. But after all, sir, how little is there, upon merely personal considerations and preferences, to justify the feelings of anxiety which we cannot repress, for the advancement of any man, however able, however estimable. We are admonished of the frailty of human attachments and human hopes. How wise is it that the future is hid from our view; that we cannot lift the veil which shuts out from our observation the end of our own best and wisest exertions! Much, how much, of our ardor might be abated; how might our arms be paralyzed, if we could look beyond the present hour, and behold the fulfilment which the future holds in store! If, sir, I could raise this impenetrable curtain, and look forward to the future as I can look back upon the past, ardently as I desire, for the good of our common country and his own fame, and much as I would now do to promote the elevation of that distinguished statesman to the highest places of power--every desire might fail-every effort cease. Yes, sir, if I should see him descending from that lofty eminence, soured, disappointed, vindictive--forgetful of his own character, and of the friends who had stood by him in the hour of need; if I should see the infirmities of our nature--the lower and baser passions--mastering and expelling all the noble and generous properties which I know belong to his heart; if I should see him betraying and abandoning the cause which he now upholds, making his friends to hang their heads in very shame and confusion--I do not say, sir, that I would pray Heaven to blast all our efforts in the cause of our country--but rather would I see his sun go down now, even from its high noon, so that it leave us a glorious light to cheer, and animate, and guide, and to which we could turn our eyes with high and heart-stirring pride: rather would I see this, than to behold him putting off the mighty armor of Achilles, which no man can wear, to act his perjured part who by fraud levelled the proud walls of Troy to the dust; rather this, far rather, than to see him lingering on the stage of political action, behind his time, "the derision of his enemies--the melancholy pity of his friends."

Note by Mr. Evans.

Some expressions are quoted in the preceding remarks as having been used by Mr. ADAMs, which are not contained in the report of his speech which was published in the National Intelligencer. To enable those who have had access to that report only to understand the propriety of the quotations, the subjoined extract is given from the speech published in the Globe, where it first appeared, under his revision, as it is understood. Some other differences also exist between the two reports, but they are not material to be noticed, to the understanding of these remarks.

Extract." It was said, sir, that there had been thrilling and unexampled eloquence of indignation at this conspiracy of man-worship, servility, and corruption, displayed by the House of Representatives in that appropriation of three millions for the contingent necessary defence of the country from foreign aggression; but I trust that I have already shown, to the satisfaction of this House, that all that eloquence was gratuitous, and all that indignation wastefully squandered away; some

small portion of which might have been profitably expended upon the foreign treaty-breakers, under whose injustice our own country was smarting. This indignation, and the temper with which it was manifested by these repeated insults to the House, did strike me as so extraordinary, and, I must add, so unreasonable, that it was impossible to avoid the inquiry, where the real sting of that three million appropriation did lay, and what it was that had excited this tempest of passion against it? And I thought the true motive was discernible in that unanimous vote of two hundred and seventeen ayes, in the House, demanding that the execution of the treaty should be insisted on. That vote, however overlooked then, or now, had been neither unseen nor unfelt. It was not only a departure from the do-nothing policy of the Senate, but might be felt to contain a pungent, though tacit, rebuke upon that paralytic policy. The three million appropriation was the complement and efficient energy of the unanimous vote of the preceding day. That vote was exclusively the act of the House. The appropriation required the concurring vote of the Senate; and that vote would have made the Senate the unwilling accessary to implied censure upon its own quietism under foreign wrong. The vote of the House could not be nullified, but its efficient operations might be unnerved, by the refusal of the appropriation; and so the bloodless ghost of executive dictation, and man-worship, and servility, were conjured up; and the overbearing arrogance of votes to adhere, and messages to remind, was substituted, for the deficiency of better reasons, for refusing the appropriation.” When Mr. EVANS concluded his remarks, several members rose and addressed the Chair.

Mr. BYNUM obtained the floor, but, the hour being late, he moved an adjournment; which was carried.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29.

LAST YEAR'S FORTIFICATION BILL. The House resumed the consideration of the following resolution, heretofore offered by Mr. J. Q. ADAMS:

Resolved, That so much of the message of the President of the United States to Congress at the commencement of the present session as relates to the failure, at the last session of Congress, of the hill containing the ordinary appropriations for fortifications, be referred to a select committee, with instructions to inquire into, and report to the House, the causes and circumstances of the failure of that bill.

The question pending being the amendment of Mr. WILLIAMS, of North Carolina, to amend the resolution by adding thereto the words "with power to send for persons and papers"-

Mr. BYNUM said it was with sincere regret that he found himself compelled to address the House on the present occasion; but he had rights which he was bound to sustain, whenever they were invaded by friend or enemy. He had not risen for the purpose of making any thing like an electioneering speech. He protested against electioneering for Presidents in the House, and in every other legislative body. The people of the United States, in their sovereign capacity, had the exclusive right to do that; and the House of Representatives never should make a President. He knew that there was an opinion abroad, that in the Congress of the United States was combined the greater part of the intelligence, and some had thought that it contained the greater part of the virtue, of the country; but he was not one of those who subscribed to that doctrine. He believed there was to be found more virtue and intelligence out of Congress than in it; and he felt proud that

it was so.

So long as the people were intelligent and virtuous,

[JAN. 29, 1836.

he feared no usurper in the White House, nor league of demagogues in any other branch of the Legislature. He would not be the Cato on that floor to electioneer for any man for President, nor did he believe that any effort made there would make one. The present Congress stood redeemed on that subject. Not many years since a President was attempted to be made in another quarter. Denunciations of a serious nature were made against him, and the people were called upon to sustain them. What did the people say? They said, away with your denunciations; we call for facts, and will be governed by facts; and the people did decide. But, nothing daunted with that, they were trying to play the same game over again. The batteries had been opened on that floor, for the purpose of firing away on public opinion. He came here for the purpose of discharging his duty as a representative of the people, and would do that fearlessly; but he did not come here to make a President, or to unmake one. The gentleman from Virginia had told us that, upon the issue of the question under consideration, depended the presidential election. He admitted the superior sagacity of that gentleman; but for the life of him he could not determine how its termination would either make Judge White or Mr. Van Buren President. The gentleman from Virginia had said that he (Mr. B.) had thrown obstacles in the way of an examination to prove corruption in certain gentlemen of the House. He was at a loss to know what the gentleman meant. He would go into an investigation as far as that gentleman dare go.

Mr. WISE said he did not charge the gentleman with throwing obstacles in his way. The gentleman could throw no stumblingblock in his way. He did say that the gentleman had been very particular to say that it was not proved that the House was responsible for the failure of the appropriation bill. He did not know whether that was meant or not meant; and he was not disposed to join issue with the gentleman.

Mr. BYNUM was glad to find that the gentleman did not accuse him of throwing obstacles in his way. He was opposed to no investigation. But the gentleman from Virginia had made a serious charge against some of the most prominent members of the House, and against the President of the United States. He understood the gentleman to say that the three million appropriation was procured, or attempted to be procured, by certain individuals in the House, for secret service money.

Mr. WISE said he repeated that he understood that the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means knew that the President desired it, and the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs had told us that he knew of it; but, instead of communicating it to the House officially, they only informed a few individuals of it, and told them to say nothing about it.

Mr. BYNUM said the gentleman had not answered him at all. He would go with the gentleman, if he would accept of his feeble company, in the investigation. He asked him again if he understood him right when he said the appropriation was to be procured for secret service money?

Mr. WISE said he had answered the question, and he thought the gentleman from North Carolina was in the secret; but, as he was not, he would ask the honorable Speaker of the House, who ought to tell; he would ask honorable members of the House if the appropriation was wanted for secret service money, or was it wanted for the defence of the country?

Mr. BYNUM said he asked for a direct answer. He had understood the gentleman to have made the assertion directly. If the President had attempted to impose on the House for the purpose of extracting three millions for secret service money, he was for carrying the inves

But

tigation to the White House. He was for probing it to the bottom. If he understood the gentleman right, he was for purging the House of corruption, and the White House of despotism. Mr. B. said he had not the ability, he had not the intellectual power, to do that; and if the gentleman from Virginia had, Judge White might step aside, and he would go for him for President, because he could do more than any other man in America. he thought he understood the gentleman to oppose the resolution under consideration. He thought the gentleman ought to have seen the necessity of adopting the resolution, or something like it, for the purpose of enabling him to carry on his investigation. The gentleman from Virginia had also said that there was a trained band in the House; but the gentleman did not tell us who belonged to that trained band. It was but a short time

since the gentleman professed to belong to that same band.

Mr. WISE said, let me plead not guilty of belonging to that band--never in my life.

Mr. BYNUM said that the gentleman had been elected by professing to belong to that party; and, if Mr. B. understood him rightly, he was favorable to the principles of the present administration, and came to Congress a supporter of the President; and he appealed to the members who were in Congress at that time to sustain him in the assertion.

Mr. WISE said, when he spoke of the trained band, he meant the trained band of the party on the night of the 3d March, 1835; and he begged leave to make a distinction between the friends of the President and the friends of the party.

Mr. BYNUM said he confessed that the gentleman had got into an inexplicable difficulty. He had divided the friends of the President from the friends of the party. He saw that the gentleman's perspicacity was too keen for him to follow. The gentleman had stated, in the commencement of this harangue, that he would tell the whole truth. But he had not told us that there were presidential partisans on the other side of the House. There were other parties besides the Van Buren party. There were a number of gentlemen elected under the influence of the President's name, but when they came to Congress they were suddenly changed to the other side.

Messrs.

Mr. B. was proceeding in his remarks, when Mr. ASHLEY called for the orders of the day. Some conversation took place between WHITTLESEY, BELL, PATTON, WISE, PEYTON, ADAMS, EVANS, and the CHAIR, as to the right of the gentleman from Missouri to submit the motion for the orders of the day, the House having suspended the rules, in order to enable the gentleman from Massachusetts to introduce the resolution under discussion.

The SPEAKER decided that the motion was in order, and that the pending debate, under the rules, could only be continued, at that time, by a vote of two thirds.

Mr. WISE then moved to suspend the rules for the purpose of permitting the discussion on the resolution to progress, and called for the yeas and nays on his motion; which were ordered, and were as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Chilton Allan, Bell, Bond, Bunch, John Calhoon, Cambreleng, Campbell, Carter, Childs, Nathaniel H. Claiborne, Clark, Cleveland, Cushing, Denny, Rice Garland, Granger, Grayson, Griffin, Hammond, Hardin, Harper, Ingham, Jarvis, Lincoln, Love, Samson Mason, Maury, McComas, McKay, McKennan, McKeon, Mercer, Miller, Milligan, Muhlenberg, Franklin Pierce, Pettigrew, Peyton, Rencher, Robertson, Russell, Shields, Spangler, Storer, Waddy Thompson, White, Lewis Williams, Wise-48.

NAYS-Messrs. Adams, Heman Allen, Anthony, Ash, Ashley, Banks, Barton, Beale, Bean, Beaumont, Boon,

[H. OF R.

Borden, Bouldin, Bovee, Boyd, Briggs, Brown, Burns, Bynum, William B. Calhoun, Carr, Casey, George Chambers, John Chambers, Chaney, Chapman, Chapin, John F. H. Claiborne, Coles, Connor, Corwin, Craig, Cramer, Crane, Cushman, Davis, Deberry, Dickerson, Dickson, Dromgoole, Dunlap, Efner, Evans, Everett, Fairfield, Farlin, Fowler, French, Fry, Philo C. Fuller, William K. Fuller, James Garland, Gillet, Glascock, Graham, Graves, Grennell, Haley, Joseph Hall, Hamer, Hannegan, Hard, Harlan, Samuel S. Harrison, Albert G. Harrison, Hawes, Hawkins, Haynes, Hazeltine, Henderson, Hiester, Hoar, Holsey, Hopkins, Howell, Hubley, Hunt, Huntington, Huntsman, Ingersoll, Jabez Jackson, Janes, Joseph Johnson, Richard M. Johnson, Cave Johnson, Henry Johnson, John W. Jones, Benjamin Jones, Judson, Kennon, Kilgore, Kinnard, Klingensmith, Lane, Lansing, Lawler, Lawrence, Gideon Lee, Joshua Lee, Luke Lea, Leonard, Logan, Loyall, Lucas, Lyon, Abijah Mann, Job Mann, Martin, William Mason, Moses Mason, May, McKim, McLene, Montgomery, Moore, Morgan, Morris, Owens, Page, Parker, Patterson, Patton, Dutee J. Pearce, James A. Pearce, Phelps, Phillips, Pinckney, Potts, Reed, John Reynolds, Josephi Reynolds, Ripley, Roane, Rogers, Schenck, Seymour, Augustine H. Shepperd, Shinn, Sloane, Smith, Sprague, Standefer, Steele, Sutherland, Taliaferro, Taylor, John Thomson, Toucey, Towns, Turner, Turrill, Underwood, Vanderpoel, Wagener, Ward, Wardwell, Washington, Weeks, Whittlesey, Sherrod Williams-160.

So the House refused to suspend the rules. Several engrossed bills were then read a third time and passed.

Mr. HAWES, of Kentucky, moved that when the House adjourn, it should adjourn to Monday.

The motion not being in order, he moved that the rules of the House be suspended to allow of the resolution. The vote being taken, there were, ayes 84, noes 61. So the House refused to suspend the rules.

Mr. ANTHONY moved that the House do now adjourn.

The vote was taken by tellers, and the result was, ayes 62, noes 59.

So the House adjourned.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 30.

The question of order arising on the appeal from a decision of the Chair, taken by Mr. ADAMS on the presentation of a petition praying the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, having been postponed to this day,

Mr. ADAMS said that the House had already decided the question of appeal upon another petition. He should therefore move to lay the motion on the table.

After some conversation between Messrs. BRIGGS, ADAMS, and the CHAIR, Mr. ADAMS withdrew his appeal, and the question on the reception of the petition was laid over to Monday.

SUFFERERS IN FLORIDA.

Mr. WHITE, of Florida, asked leave to introduce a resolution relating to the unfortunate situation of the Territory of Florida at this time.