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rived from them; to make our beloved land, for a thousand generations, that chosen spot where happiness springs from a perfect equality of political rights.

For myself, therefore, I desire to declare, that the principle that will govern me, in the high duty to which my country calls me, is a strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the constitution, as it was designed by those who framed it. Looking back to it as a sacred instrument, carefully and not easily framed; remembering that it was throughout a work of concession and compromise; viewing it as limited to national objects; regarding it as leaving to the people and the States all power not explicitly parted with; I shall endeavor to preserve, protect, and defend it, by anxiously referring to its provision for direction in every action. To matters of domestic concernment which it has intrusted to the Federal Government, and to such as relate to our intercourse with foreign nations, I shall zealously devote myself; beyond those limits I shall never pass.

To enter, on this occasion, into a further or more minute exposition of my views on the various questions of domestic policy, would be as obtrusive as it is probably unexpected. Before the suffrages of my countrymen were conferred upon me, I submitted to them, with great precision, my opinions on all the most prominent of these subjects These opinions I shall endeavor to carry out with my utmost ability. Our course of foreign policy has been so uniform and intelligible as to constitute a rule of executive conduct which leaves little to my discretion, unless, indeed, I were willing to run counter to the lights of experience and the known opinions of my constituents. We sedulously cultivate the friendship of all nations, as the condition most compatible with our welfare and the principles of our Government. We decline alliances, as adverse to our peace. We desire commercial relations on equal terms, being ever willing to give a fair equivalent for advantages received. We endeavor to conduct our intercourse with openness and sincerity; promptly avowing our objects, and seeking to establish that mutual frankness which is as beneficial in the dealings of nations as of men. We have no disposition, and we disclaim

VOL. XIII.-14

[SENATE

all right, to meddle in disputes, whether internal or foreign, that may molest other countries; regarding them, in their actual state, as social communities, and preserving a strict neutrality in all their controversies. Well knowing the tried valor of our people, and our exhaustless resources, we neither anticipate nor fear any designed aggression; and, in the consciousness of our own just conduct, we feel a security that we shall never be called upon to exert our determination, never to permit an invasion of our rights without punishment or redress. In approaching, then, in the presence of my assembled countrymen, to make the solemn promise that yet remains, and to pledge myself that I will faithfully execute the office I am about to fill, I bring with me a settled purpose to maintain the institutions of my country, which, I trust, will atone for the errors I commit.

In receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided to my illustrious predecessor, and which he has discharged so faithfully and so well, I know that I cannot expect to perform the arduous task with equal ability and success. But, united as I have been in his councils, a daily witness of his exclusive and unsurpassed devotion to his country's welfare, agreeing with him in sentiments which his countrymen have warmly supported, and permitted to partake largely of his confidence, I may hope that somewhat of the same cheering approbation will be found to attend upon my path. For him I but express, with my own, the wishes of all—that he may yet long live to enjoy the brilliant evening of his well-spent life; and, for myself, conscious of but one desire, faithfully to serve my country, I throw myself, without fear, on its justice and its kindness. Beyond that I only look to the gracious protection of the Divine Being, whose strengthening support I humbly solicit, and whom I fervently pray to look down upon us all. May it be among the dispensations of His providence to bless our beloved country with honors and with length of days; may her ways be ways of pleasantness, and all her paths be peace. MARTIN VAN BUREN.

MARCH 4, 1837.

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MONDAY, December 5, 1836.

At twelve o'clock the SPEAKER (Hon. JAMES K. POLK of Tennessee) took the chair, and called the House to order.

The roll of members having been called over by the Clerk, (WALTER S. FRANKLIN Esq.,) and a quorum being found in attendance, the House proceeded to business, and appointed a committee, jointly with a committee of the Senate, to wait upon the President of the United States, and inform him of the organization of the two Houses, and their readiness to receive any communication from him.

TUESDAY, December 6.

The Hon. JOHN YOUNG, elected a member from the State of New York, to supply the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Philo C. Fuller, appeared this day, was qualified, and took his seat.

Mr. D. J. PEARCE informed the House that the joint committee appointed on yesterday to wait on the President of the United States, had performed their duty; and that they had been directed by the President to say that, at 12 o'clock this day, he would make a communication, in writing, to both Houses. (See Senate proceedings of this date.)

WEDNESDAY, December 7. Death of Mr. Dickson. Mr. CLAIBORNE, of Mississippi, addressed the House as follows:

Mr. Speaker: It is only a few years since I witnessed from that gallery the affecting honors paid to the remains of a distinguished Representative from the State of Mississippi.*

* Hon. Christopher Rankin,

*

Since that period, she has lost two sons," eminent for talents in the public service, and you are now called on to render the last homage to the memory of another. The time that has intervened since the death of my lamented colleague saves me the painful duty of being the first to communicate it to his friends, now present. He died, sir, as he had lived, through a life of extraordinary vicissitudes, with charac teristic fortitude, with but one wish ungratified -a wish so natural to the human heart-that, in his dark hour of dissolution, he might be supported by his nearest and best beloved, and the cherished beings that grew up and clustered around his fireside.

Sir, let death come when it will, in what shape it may, in the battle or the shipwreck, or in the solitude of the cloister, it is appalling to human contemplation. But when it overtakes us in a distant land, and we know that our last moments of agony and infirmity are to be witnessed by stranger eyes, and are conscious that we must be carried down to an unwept grave, where no kindred dust shall mingle with ours forever, and the last hope of home and of family fades from our filmed view, oh! sir, this is death! this it is to die. Such was the destiny of my colleague, "by strangers honored and by strangers mourned." His dying message was for those broken-hearted ones, now in widowhood and orphanage-his expiring sigh a prayer for them!

Mr Speaker, I shall pronounce no_eulogy on the dead. Let his history speak it. For twenty years he preserved a high position in the public service, and died poorer than when he entered it, leaving to his children the riches of an honorable name. If it be praise to have lived beloved and die unreproached, then it is due to him.

*Thomas B. Read and Robert H. Adams, of the U. S. Senate.

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It now only remains for us to pay the final honors to his memory-sad, because it seems like breaking the last link that binds the living to the dead; solemn, when we reflect how soon, how very soon, some friend now present may invoke the same tribute for ourselves!

I offer you, sir, the following resolution : Resolved, That, in testimony of their respect for the memory of DAVID DICKSON, late a Representative from the State of Mississippi, the members of this House will wear crape for one month.

This resolution was unanimously agreed to.

Death of General Coffee, of Georgia. Mr. HAYNES, of Georgia, addressed the chair as follows:

Mr. Speaker: On me has devolved the mournful duty of announcing to this House the death of one of its members, my friend and colleague, the Hon. JOHN COFFEE, of Georgia. For a considerable portion of the last session of Congress he labored under severe indisposition, which at different periods detained him from the service of the House. Although his symptoms were so mitigated before the adjournment as to enable him to resume the regular discharge of his official duties, no radical amendment had taken place, and with gradually increasing force his disease closed his existence, in the bosom of his family, in the month of September last.

In speaking of a departed friend and colleagde, the language of eulogy might be excused; but to those who have been associated with General COFFEE in the labors of this House, for the last three years, such language would be unnecessary.

Suffice it to say that, in his domestic and social relations, he was eminently characterized by affectionate kindness and courtesy, and that public duties were discharged with honor to himself and fidelity to his country. As the usual mark of respect, I offer the following res

olutions:

Resolved, unanimously, That this House has received with the liveliest sensibility the annunciation of the death of the Hon. JOHN COFFEE, a Representative from the State of Georgia.

Resolved, unanimously, That this House tenders to the relatives of the deceased the expression of its sympathy on this mournful event; and, as a testimony of respect for the memory of the deceased, the members will wear crape on the left arm for thirty days.

These resolutions were unanimously agreed to; and then, on motion of Mr. CUSHMAN, The House adjourned.

THURSDAY, December 8.

The Madison Papers.

The following Message in writing was received from the President of the United States: To the Senate and House of Representatives :

I transmit, herewith, copies of my correspondence

[H. OF R.

with Mrs. Madison, produced by the resolution adopted at the last session by the Senate and House of Representatives, on the decease of her venerated husband. The occasion seems to be appropriate to present a letter from her on the subject of the publication of a work of great political interest and ability, carefully prepared by Mr. Madison's own hand, under circumstances that give it claims to be considered as little less than official.

Congress has already, at considerable expense, pubished, in a variety of forms, the naked journals of the revolutionary Congress, and of the conventions that formed the Constitution of the United States. I am persuaded that the work of Mr. Madison, considering the author, the subject-matter of it, and the circumstances under which it was prepared-long withheld from the public as it has been by those motives of personal kindness and delicacy that gave tone to his intercourse with his fellow-men until he and all who had been participators with him in the scenes he describes have passed away-well deserves to become the property of the nation; and cannot fail, if published and disseminated at the public charge, to confer the most important of all benefits on the present and every succeeding generation-accurate knowledge of the principles of their Government, and the circumstances under which they were recommended, and imbodied in the constitution for adop

tion.

DECEMBER 6, 1836.

ANDREW JACKSON.

The Message, having been read, was, on motion of Mr. PATTON, referred to the proposed Joint Committee on the Library, and ordered to be printed.

Death of Mr. Kinnard.

Mr. DAVIS, of Indiana, addressed the Chair as follows:

is mine of this morning to announce to the Mr. Speaker: Painful as the duty may be, it House the decease of another of its members.

My friend and colleague, the Hon. GEORGE L. KINNARD, died at Cincinnati on the 25th ult., after a few days of suffering much more severe than ordinarily falls to the lot of mankind in passing that dread ordeal. The immediate cause of his death is perhaps well known to this House and to the country. It was his misfortune to suffer from one of those appalling accidents which are of but too frequent recurrence upon our steamboats, by the bursting of their machinery. He, too, like one of our associates whose death was announced on yesterday, died among strangers, yet among friends. At the hospitable mansion of the Hon. Robert T. Lytle, (where he paid the great debt of nature,) he received the most unremitting attention and kindness, as also the most unwearied services of those who rank among the first in the profession of medicine; but all would not do; the omnipotent fiat had gone forth by which he was called from the service of his country to the service of his God. Had I studied by set phrase to pass a eulogy upon his character, I should find words too cold, language too inexpressive, to do justice to his vir

H. OF R.]

Executive Administration—Mr. Wise's Resolution.

[DECEMBER, 1836.

So the resolution was ordered to lie on the table.

tues. It was my good fortune to be favored | the question of laying his resolution on the for many years with his acquaintance, and to table; which were ordered; and being taken share largely in his friendship. With a clear without debate, (the rules not admitting debate and discriminating mind, an honest heart, and on a motion to lay any proposition on the an untiring industry, he had elevated himself to table,) stood-yeas 126, nays 73. the highest seat in the affections of those who knew him best. In all the varied relations of life, (to which he was about to add another of a sacred and responsible character,) he sustained the most unsullied reputation, leaving to the world indubitable evidence, not only that he was a man of high attainments, but that he was emphatically one of God's noblest works-an honest man.

Mr. D. then submitted the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That as a testimonial of respect for the memory of the Hon. GEORGE L. KINNARD, late a member of this House from the State of Indiana, the members of this body will wear crape on the left arm for thirty days.

Resolved, That the connections and constituents of Mr. KINNARD are joined in the sincerest condolence for the loss of that intestimable man to them, to us, and to the country.

The House adjourned.

MONDAY, December 12.

TUESDAY, December 13.

The President's Message.

On motion of Mr. LOYALL, the House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, (Mr. ADAMS in the chair,) on the annual Message of the President of the United States.

Executive Administration.

Mr. WISE offered the following resolution :

Resolved, That so much of the President's Message as relates to the condition of the various executive departments, the ability and integrity with which they have been conducted, the vigilant and faithful discharge of the public business in all of them, and the causes of complaint, from any quarter, at the manner in which they have fulfilled the objects of their creation, be referred to a select committee, to consist of nine members, with power to send for persons and papers, and with instructions to inquire into

Deposit with the States-Motion to release them the condition of the various executive departments,

from its Restoration.

the ability and integrity with which they have been conducted, into the manner in which the public busiMr. MERCER moved the following resolution: ness has been discharged in all of them, and into all causes of complaint, from any quarter, at the manResolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means be instructed to report a bill to amend the 13th sec-offices, or any of their officers or agents, of every dener in which said departments, or their business or tion of the act of the last session of Congress, en- scription whatever, directly or indirectly connected titled "An act to regulate the deposits of the public with them in any manner, officially or unofficially, in money," by releasing the several States who may receive any part of the surplus revenue of the United duties pertaining to the public interest, have fulfilled or failed to accomplish the objects of their creation, States, in pursuance of that act, from any obligation to return the same. or have violated their duties, or have injured or impaired the public service and interest; and that said of time as to them may seem expedient and proper. committee, in its inquiries, may refer to such periods

Mr. MERCER, after a few observations upon the object of this proposition, moved to postpone the consideration of the resolution till Wednesday week next, and make it the special order of the day for that day.

Mr. WISE then addressed the House as follows:

Mr. Chairman: In submitting the resolution of reference which I have sent to the Chair, I deem it my duty to offer some reflections to the House and to the country.

Sir, this paper is the last annual message of Andrew Jackson. The contemplation of it as such is deeply affecting to the sincere lover of him, and solemnly mournful to the honest lover of his country.

Mr. DUNLAP remarked: Mr. Speaker, I am opposed to the gentleman's resolution being made the special order of this House. The resolution involves a very important question, to wit, the power of Congress to distribute the surplus revenue. This important constitutional question was avoided at the last session, and now it is intended to be brought up, to the exclusion of all other business. The States have the money, and may do what they please with it, and I wish the discussion of this subject to be postponed until a long session of Congress. This will be a very short session, and should be a business session. I am opposed to all unne- A man of humble but respectable origin, he cessary discussion at this session; and I desire was born in the times of his country's travail that the business of the American people should for independence. His precocious spirit of rebe attended to. I therefore move that the res-sistance to oppression marked his infant body olution be laid on the table.

Mr. MERCER asked for the yeas and nays on

What should the last annual message of Andrew Jackson have been? Who is he, what has he been? The answer to this question ought to determine what this last act of its kind of his should have been.

with the scars of the Revolution. After the times which tried men's souls had passed away;

DECEMBER, 1836.]

Executive Administration-Mr. Wise's Resolution.

[H. OF R.

after the blessings of freedom had been secured | office-holders and office-seekers-the favorite by all the muniments of the institutions of our pet of the people, who was to scourge bribery fathers, the fruits of peace, and virtue, and and corruption, whose name was to be terror wisdom, and jealous patriotism; after varied to all evil-doers, whose policy was to be reand chequered scenes of private and public life, trenchment and reform, by whom the independunder a destiny adverse only so far as it was ence of Congress of executive patronage was full of dangers, in games not olympic, in con- to be maintained, by whom that patronage was tests not heroic, we find him in the midst of to be curtailed to harmlessness, and in whom his country's second troubles a citizen soldier, "the line of safe precedents" was to be broken a major-general of the army of the republic. and destroyed. He was swept and rushed along on the roaring tide of an overwhelming popularity high up into office, on the second him-no fickleness in it, it has never retired for a moment; notwithstanding strong winds which have blown from every point of the compass, and opposing currents in every direction, it has continued to swell and swell, until it has become a flood-I will not say which threatens the dry land. He came into power professing and proclaiming the most severe, aye, stoical democratic principles; the people confided in him, were bound to him the closer, and have never wavered yet in their confidence-I will not say, though he has tried it to the uttermost. Unfortunately for him, when he was crowned with the reward of his military services, and was inducted into office, he not only found "competitors to be removed, enemies to be punished," but he was beset by friends from whom he should have put up prayers to be saved. I will not say that he was lacking in those magnanimous qualifications of a truly great man, which alone could rid him and guard him from these misfortunes—for man, poor feeble man, is weak under the most ordinary temptations, and his virtue must be strong who presides in a palace-but misfortunes they were.

He was ambitious of fame; and as long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their ben-flood, and that popularity has never deserted efactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters." A bold, energetic, and dauntless commander, he carried conquest, in spite of all dangers and difficulties, into the wilderness of the savage tribes of the Southern frontier; was the daring but successful and justified invader of a neutral territory, and finally "filled the measure of his country's glory" in defence of Orleans, where he assumed to be the arbiter of martial law, the judge advocate of men's allegiance-where he conquered the conquerors of Napoleonwhere he professed and practised submission to the civil authority, and where he acquired the title of Hero. And there was created, I will say, “a dear-bought debt of gratitude" from his country.

So it was, he was buoyed up in the affections of the sovereign people. Has he done wrong? He was popular. Has he done worse than wrong? He was popular, and he was the President who could do no wrong, in whom popularity was joined with power and patronage. Has ruthless proscription for opinion's sake turned faithful public servants out of their employment, and snatched from the mouths of their families their bread? We are told the President ordered the removals, and the people had sanctioned proscription! Has favoritism filled the vacancies which proscription has made with the servile tools of party, to do the bidding of

"Hail, second Saviour!" was shouted from the lips of every grateful heart, and echoed from every hill and valley; his name was emblazoned high on the rolls of imperishable military fame, and peace was quick to hallow his victory. With peace his warlike occupations were gone, but civil honors were showered and thickened around him. From the camp he rose to a seat in the Senate chamber-for then the Senate chamber was higher than the camp. He bore, or seemed to bear, his honors patiently; but all that had been done or could be done, it seemed, was not enough for him, in the estimation of a generous people. He was nominated for the first place on earth-the presidency of these united, sovereign, and independent States of America; for then these States were united, sovereign, and independent. Civilians and statesmen, of proudest names and stations, were his competitors; but he was the people's candidate, against men in office, against the powers that were, against their intrigues, their patronage, and their caucuses; and in consideration thereof, and of his just appella-power? We are told that the President had tion of Hero, he was most popular and strongest in the plurality of votes. He was defeateddefeated here, in this hall, in the House of Representatives, by men such as we are-and what we, the representatives of the people, are, I will not name-by means I will not describe. It is sufficient to say that the manner of his defeat was not only enough to insure his subsequent triumph, but to rivet him immovably, right or wrong, in the hearts of his countrymen forever. He became the champion of popular rights and the elective franchise, against

need of his own friends, and that the people have sanctioned the maxim, "that to the victors belong the spoils! Have the highest and richest offices, worth more than half of a million, been bestowed as rewards upon members of Congress, and has "corruption become the order of the day?" We are told that the President was the best judge of the selection of high functionaries, and that the people have sanctioned the "order of the day!" As "till the reign of Severus, the virtue and even the good sense of the Emperors had been distin

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