OF THE

DEBATES OF CONGRESS,

FROM 1789 TO 1856.

FROM GALES AND SEATON'S ANNALS OF CONGRESS; FROM THEIR
REGISTER OF DEBATES; AND FROM THE OFFICIAL
REPORTED DEBATES, BY JOHN C. RIVES.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF THE THIRTY YEARS' VIEW.

VOL. IX.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 346 & 348 BROADWAY.

1858.

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

NINETEENTH CONGRESS.-FIRST SESSION

PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES

IN

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

CONTINUED FROM VOL. VIII.

MONDAY, March 13, 1826.

Amendment of the Constitution. The House, on motion of Mr. McDurFIE, resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, Mr. MCLANE, of Delaware, in the chair, on the resolutions for the amendment of the constitution.

Mr. BRYAN addressed the committee as lows:

Mr. Chairman: I regret that, to the other disadvantages under which I labor in addressing the committee in this stage of the debate, that of bodily indisposition should be added; but as I have the privilege of the floor to-day, I am determined to exercise it.

column to promote party views or individual aggrandizement, I should deem myself an imitator-yes, sir, a humble imitator of the wretch who applied the torch of destruction to the Ephesian temple to gain an execrable immortality.

It would be a vain regret, sir, to express my sorrow, that I cannot spread before the comfol-mittee the rich classical repast with which they have been so sumptuously regaled by the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. EVERETT.) It has not been my lot, like him, to breathe the inspiring zephyrs of the land of Homer; I have not had my imagination fired, and my heart exhilarated and ennobled by treading the plains of Marathon and Platea; I have not mused amid the ruins of Athens, and gathered lessons of political wisdom from the silent, but impressive memorials of her departed greatness; nor has fair science, "rich with the spoils of time," unfolded to me those secret treasures which she could not conceal from that honorable gentleman.

I am not desirous to impose upon this committee a general essay upon the constitution; but I confess, sir, I am solicitous to explain the reasons of my vote, and willing to assume all the just responsibilities of my station. In doing this, as briefly as I can, I may be permitted to regret my political inexperience, and want of constitutional learning; but, sir, I derive some consolation from the belief, that, if I am inexperienced, I am also unprejudiced. I have not been reared at the feet of any political Gamaliel; my opinions of men and measures, erroneous though they may be, are my own; they have not been assumed by compact, and therefore, sir, I feel myself at liberty to correct and amend them as experience may dictate. Upon the subject of this constitutional reformation, I have earnestly endeavored to discover the true meaning and spirit of the constitution, and am sincerely desirous to carry these into full and complete effect. God forbid that I should ever be so weak or so wicked as to displace one stone of this hallowed temple In endeavoring to reply to the argument of where liberty delights to dwell, for any other the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, purpose than to secure her permanent abode. I hope he will do me the justice to believe that I most solemnly assure the committee, that, if I do so in a spirit of kindness and respect. I I could be impelled by other motives-more should do violence to my own feelings were I especially, sir, if I should attempt to unfix a to act otherwise; for, although I differ from

I come not here, sir, from the Lyceum or the Portico; I come, sir, from the court-yards and cotton-fields of North Carolina; and I come, sir, to proclaim the wishes and assert the rights of the people I have the honor to represent. My life, sir, has been spent among the people of my native State; the most valued part of my political information has been derived from association and converse with my fellow-citizens. I know their wants, and I feel them too; I know, sir, that they wish to participate in the election of the Chief Magistrate of this Union, and that they are dissatisfied with the present mode of expressing their voice-if expression it may be called.