furthermore, to know, whether he expects his
litter of State banks, trading on all the reve
nues of the Government, are likely to supply
the "ordinary channels of circulation with
gold and silver," and to aid in the "effort to
restore the Government to its true constitu
tional character and destination that of a
simple, solid, hard money Government?" But,
Mr. President, I will not longer dwell on this
topic, but go on to define my position in re
gard to others.
I read attentively, at the earliest opportuni
ty, the report of the Secretary of the Treasury,
in answer to the call of my colleague on that
officer, in regard to the manner of his execu
ting the law authorizing him to sell the bonds
of the Bank of the United States; and here,
sir, permit me to remark, that I have not the
least doubt but ihat the course of my colleague,
on that occasion, was strictly parliamentary,
because it was permitted; but it was certainly
novel and unusual to say the least of it. On
that call, he made a long speech, condemning
in unmeasured terms that officer on the very
points on which, by the permission of the
Senate, he was about to seek information.
Yes, sir, my colleague made three long
speeches against the Secretary of the Treasu
ry: in the first he prejudged him without
hearing; in the second he condemned him
without a trial, and in the third he attempted
to execute him without the "benefit of clergy."
Mr. President, it is a mournful fact, owing
to the imperfection of language, there is noth
ing which the wisest mau can indite, that in
genuity cannot pervert to mean something
totally different from what the author intended
to convey; and had I, sir, perhaps have read
the Secretary's report, with the same querulous
temper and morbid feeling which seems to
possess my colleague in regard to that officer,
and also possessed the same ingenuity m col
lating and construing language to mean ex
actly what I wish it to mean, I too might have
discovered black spots, and picked many
flaws in it. But I do declare, that after an
attentive perusal, with a sincere desire to see
them, that report did not strike me as being
in any manner obnoxious to the severe criti
cism and harsh rebukes which my colleague
had in anticipation bestowed upon it. After
his second speech, his review of the docu
ment, in which he confidently asserted that
its appearance had fulfilled all his predictions
about it, I read it a second time with increas
ed attention, and a similar desire to detect its
vices; and I was alike unsuccessful in discov
ering the frauds and cheats and juggling by
which it had been characterized. Nothing
upon earth is further from my mind, than to
believe that the Government has any, the re
motest idea, of forming any, the slightest
connection, with the banks, further than is
justified by existing la ws, is demanded by the
creditors themselves of the Government, or
grows out of the necessity arising from the
neglect, nay, sir, I may almost say, the refus
al of Congress to provide and designs suffi
cient depositories for the funds of the Govern
ment. If such an intention was manifested,
it would, sir, be for those with whom I act to
complain, and complain they would. It would
seem to me that it would be a source of plea
sure to my colleague, unless, indeed, he goes
entirely- Yrcfri r itt nUfnSCr banks at
all, except in the precise manner, and to the
precise extent, he may think right and pro
per. Sir, one of these bonds was sold. There
is the solemn, written contract for cash. But
my colleague denies that any cash was paid,
became, I suppose, the Spanish milled dollars
were not lugged all the way from Philadelphia
to this city, and counted out to the Treasurer.
The money, sir, was wanted for immediate
use; and why? Because, sir, Congress sat
here from the first Monday in December,
1837, to the 9th day of Jul?, 1S3S, and did
not, till the last moments of the session, make
provision to meet the debts of the nation; most
of them, too, growing out of appropriations
made by that very Congress, when they knew
there was not money on hand to meet them.
That is the reason the money was wanted for
immediate use; but it was not wanted here.
It was wanted in Florida, on the Canadian
frontier, and at distant points in the far West,
and elsewhere, to pay jour army and navy,
and other public creditors; and was, in my
opinion, wisely and prudently left in Phila
delphia, whence it could be with facility and
certainty, and "without cost or charge" to the
Government, remitted when or Avhere it was
wanted. Sir, is a sale less a cash sale, be
cause my convenience or my interest induces
me to leave the proceeds in the hands of the
purchaser, subject to my order? My col
league seems to think that the terms of the
law, "cash in hand," or "ready money," would
require that the Secretary of the Treasury, or
the Treasurer, should have actually received
into his bands, should have fingered the mil
lions of dollars. Sir, this sale was, to all in
tents and purposes, a cash sale. It so pur
ports to be in the solemn written contract.
It so proved to be, both to the Government
and the Bank; and ought so to appear to my
colleague above ali others, as it was for specie,
or its equivalent that is, the notes of specie
paying State banks, which he thinks "as much
a constitutional currency as gold and silver,"
(which I do not.)
Mr. President, it is no part of my present
plan to go into an analysis, or minute defence
of the report of the Secretary. That work has
been so luminously and efficiently performed
by my friend from New York, (Mr. Wright,)
that a further prosecution of it would be supe
rerogation. This, however, I will say, that
after the most careful examination of his con
duct, I do deliberately think that, when the sit
uation of the country, the peculiar embarrass
ments of the currency, the emptiness of the
Treasury in consequence of the failure of
Congress, timely, to provide ways and means
to meet their heavy drafts upon it his entire
privation, ever since the spring of 1837, of
the ordinary depositories of the public money,
added to the many other difficulties he has
had to encounter, shall be duly and impartial
ly estimated lie ought, and will receive the
thanks of the country, for his steady, patient,
and untiring labor, and for his firm, persever
ing, and successful efforts to keep the cur
rency of the country, as far as existing laws
permit, within the range and meaning and
limitation of the Constitution. But, Mr. Pre
sident, the whole tenor and temper of the
speeches of my colleague, prove, beyond all
doubt, on the mind of any man .who heard
them, that it was not the humble Secretary at
whom his barbed and poisoned shafts were
aimed. On a former, and a memorable oc
casion, when another Secretary of the Trea
sury was the object of bitter denunciation in
this Chamber, and was held to be responsible
for acts required by the President to be done
by him, my colleague proved that the Secre
tary was but the arm, the organ, of the Presi
dent; and, but a few days ago, he said that
the present incumbent was his mere "cats
paw." It is not with a "catspaw" that he has
been intending to deal on the present occa
sion. No, sir, he had higher game in view.
It was at the President he aimed his javelin;
no man who Heard nun can aouui u.
sir, nothing that he said more astonished me,
than to hear him yes, sir, him above all other
men reiterating the stale slang about Exe
cutive patronage, and the "purse and the
sword," chanting over again the old "doleful
ieremaid" about "a power behind the throne
greater than the throne nseii.
Mr. President, I know nothing about this
wonderful thing called Executive patronage.
I have never tasted of it, and cannot, there
fore, speak of its blighted influence on the
moral character and independence of those
who bask in its sunshine. There was a time,
a few years ago, when it was said to be used
to it utmost extent. Complaints of its use,
and its abuse, were louder during a portion
of General Jackson's administration than
ever before, or since. My colleague was in
Congress at that time: I do not recollect that
he then raised his voice against this corrupt
ing influence: but I do recollect that he receiv
ed a pretty good slice of the patronag-e of that
day. During the same Administration, when
a hero, a military chieftain, a conqueror, a
warrior, indeed, who had done bloody service
with his sword, sat in your Presidential chair,
there was a prodigious outcry about the same
danger from the "purse and the sword" in the
hands of the Executive. My colleague was
then a member of this body, and boldly step
ped forward to prove that such an idea was
absurd and ridiculous, inasmuch as the power
to raise money, (the purse,) and the power to
raise armies, (the sword,) were both, by the
Constitution, confined to Congress. The
honorable Senator from Kentucky in my eye,
Mr. Clay, will recollect how fiercely my
colleague contested this point with him, and
how clearly he put down the inference he had
erroneously drawn from an expression of Pa
trick Henry, about the States having parted
with the "purse and the sword," by showing
that Mr. Henry only meant to say that the
States had given to Congress the power to
raise money and to raise armies. And, after
all this, is it not most strange, passing strange,
that now, when a man of peace a meek,
mild, placid man one whose whole life has
been devoted to civil pursuits, and who, I dare
say, never had an epaulette on his shoulder or
a sword upon his thigh, is the President of the
United States, my colleague should feel alarm
ed about the ''purse and the sword" being in
the hands of the Executive! Sir, I can scarce
ly realize this. There is something amusing
in the thought of danger from the sword in
the hands of our President. Why. sir. he
ImmII. lift groaaJiai-'e brfkarl sword; but,
sir, it is the danger from these "legions" of
officers, these "praetorian bands," whom our
President is to head, sword in hand, and
march to the Capitol, that has seized upon the
imagination of my colleague. I hope he will
get over his uneasiness on that score, and I
assure him that it is too late in the day to
frighten the people by such talk. If they could
not be alarmed by the sword of Andrew Jack
son, they will not be afraid of his pacific suc
cessor. But, this other terrible thing that we
used, in days of panic memory, to hear so
much about, and which my colleague has re
vived this "poicer behind the throne gi-eal-er
than the throne ilstlf." Perhaps, sir, if,
when my colleague put himself behind the
"throne," as he informs us he did, and gave
his "advice and his warning," they had been
followed, and he thus, in his opinion, be
come the "poicer behind the throne, greater
than the throne itself," we might not now hear
from him all these deep lamentations, these
bitter denunciations, these fearful forebodings,
with which he is attempting to excite the pub
lic mind. Sir, when, some days ago, I heard
my colleague allude to certain Senators on
this side of the chamber in a sarcastic if not a
sneering manner, as the pillars of this Ad
ministration, it filled me with strange feelings.
I could but inquire where I was, and to whom
I was listening. Before, and at the time, sir,
when I was sent to the Senate by Virginia, I
know well that that State claimed the proud
honor of having on this floor, a pillar of this
Administration. Yes, sir, a lofty, bright, and
adamantine pillar; a pillar which had hereto
fore stood firm and unshaken against the
many rude shocks, violent assaults, and wily
arts of Whigery. That pillar was my colleague.
I was sent here to twine round and support it;
I was sent here to cheer him on in that ca
reer, which had already rendered him as dear
to the Democratic party of America, as it had
rendered him hateful to the self-styled Whigs.
My support, I well knew, could be but feeble
indeed, except in the honest zeal with which
it would be rendered; feeble as it might be,
little did I think, and deeply have I been dis
appointed and mortified, to find that it has
been totally rejected. Sir, feeble as I am, I
will stand alone in this chamber, as the pillar
of the Democracy of Virginia, an1 should the
edifice be battered down over my head, and
crush me to the earth, I had rather be the
smallest fragment of such a pillar, which can
be raked up from the rubbish, than to be the
loftiest and proudest triumphal column, which
those who contribute to beat it down, can ever
erect upon its ruins.
Sir, my colleague, strange to tell! deplores
most bitterly any thing like parly! He says:
"party, party, I go for my country!" Sir, this
was an exclamation worthy of a Brutus or
Cato; but we do not now-a-days, often see
such men as they. Sir, I take no exception
to the remark, although the assertion by any
one gentleman, that he goes for his country,
may carry with it the inference that those who
differ with him do not. No, sir, I take no
exception because the only way in which we
can go efficiently for our country, is through
the medium of party; and sir, because there is
such a universal admission by the contending
parties in this country, that each has at heart.
the good of the country, that whenever I hear
a man who deems it necessary to say that he
cares not for party, that he goes for his coun
try, it does not, in the slightest degree, strength
en my estimation of his patriotism. No, sir;
far from it. Far be it from me to deny, sir,
that my colleague has gone for his country.
I have labored too often, and too zealously, to
shield him from the immolating wrath of the
Whigs, and to contribute to his elevation, to
have doubted that fact. Sir, he has been
highly and justly honored by his country
But he should never forget that it was parry
which conferred upon him all those honors
Sir, I know of no man who has been, more
emphatically the child, the nursling of party,
than my talented colleague. It was party
that first sent him a young man, into the Leg
islature of Virginia, where it had sent me a
few years before. It was party that sent him
to the Congress of the United States in the
other end of this Capitol the Democratic
. . i . i - .1
party. It was party tnai seni nun meuce as
minister to France the Democratic party.
T uma nnrtv which, on his return to America.
sent him to the Senate of the United States
that same Democratic party. It was party
that drove him out of this chamber the Whig
party! It was party, sir, the same old Demo
cratic party, that sent him back into it, and it
will be party a new party the Neutral par
ty, that will send him I know not where
my sagacious and oft prophetic friend from
Connecticut, Mr. Niles, thinks to the
Treasury Department; or, as it is, in parlance,
often called here, the Exchequer (a custom,
I think, "more honored in the breach thau in
the observance") perhaps, for aught I know,
to the White House itself; or mayhap to the
dignified chair you now fill, in which some!
not I; no, not, I, sir but in which some say
he might be now calmly, quietly, and content
edly sitting if he had not been jostled out of
it. But, sir, to this Neutral party. I must,
in furtherance of my object, to define my po
sition, say something of it. I wish it to be
most distinctly understood, that there is no
neutrality in regard to party politics in my
composition; and, such is my temperament,
that I cannot well conceive how anf man,
(as I before said,) who has borue an active
share in the storm of party politics which has
Ions railed in our country, can possiblj enjoy
that state of blessed quiescence and compo
sure. When my colleague first begat to file
off from those ranks in which he had long
stood a prominent and active member, he cal
led himself a Conservative. Yes, sir; we
heard then of nothing but the Conservative
party Conservative a sweet, a koneyed
word. But in a little time, those of as who
did not agree with this Conservative party,
were called "Subservatives," a verjr harsh
and bitter word. These Conservatives, how
ever, soon began to lose much of their sweet
ness, and became very spicy, and again
changed their name, and called theaiselve3
the "Spartan band." Yes, sir, we saw the
Spartan band, with Leonidas at their head,
forcing their way through the strong hosts of
Democracy, over to the Whig camp; and now
that they "read their title clear" to rank in that
camp, they again changed their names, aud
called themselves neutrals yes, neutrals
and we now hear, as ir from Jupiter "t o rnrrrs
himself, of nothing but the diunder of the arm
ed neutrality. Now, Mr. President, I have
said that I never was, and am not, a neutral
in party politics. Should I ever become oue,
(which is very improbable,) I do sincerely
hope that I may be enabled, with Christian
meekness, to fold my arms and say, "God
bless the Commonwealth; or, if that div ine
I feeling is denied mc, that I may, with the
justice of Aristides, and the impartiality of
Cato, look upon the battle field, and suffer no
i consideration whatever to induce me, in my
necessary intercourse between the great belli
gerents, to deal in articles 'contraband of
war." And above all things, if the great law
of nature and justice, self-defence, shall drive
me to arm as a neutral, that I may endeavor to
deal my blows with strict impartiality; and, if
any thing, look rather with a kindly eye to
those who had evej been my fi ieuds and al
lies, and with one of suspicion and fear to
that party who. through all time, had hated and
reviled inc. I do not mean, sir, to question
or impeach the impartiality with which my
colleague will discharge the delicate duties of
a neutral armed at all points. 1 trust that it
will be his intention to be strictly impartial in
the blows which he says he will have to deal
out on the right and the left. I do not know
how deeply wounded, or how keenly pained
have been the great belligerent Whig party,
by the blows he has already inflicted on them;
but candor compels me to say, that their ad
versaries, the Administration party, have felt
that his sword "was sharper than a serpent's
tooth."
But, sir, it may not be amiss to look a lit
tle further into this thing of a third party, no
matter by what name they may call themselves.
Noue that has ever arisen in this country, or
in England, has lived long as a distinct, in
dependent party. It is not consistent with
the nature of man, or with the institutions of
either of these countries, that such parties can
long maintain a distinctive, separate exist
ence; and if a minority, or third party, could
long exist in this country, and wield the pow
er set up for this aforesaid "armed neutrality,"
to regulate and control the conduct of the
other two great parties, that is, to rule the will
of the great majority of the people, I, for one,
should think it a most deplorable case indeed;
aud have no hesitation in saying, that the pre
tension thus set up for this party is more dan
gerous to the liberty of the people, and more
directly hostile to the principles of our blessed
Constitution, than any I have ever yet heard
urged against them.
Do you, sir, recollect the memorable third
party, yclept, the minority party, that sprung
up about the year 1806? I am sure you do
much better than I John Randolph of Roan
oke was at the head of that party. Yes, sir,
John Randolph the great, the taleuted, the
proud, the daring John Randolph, was its
head and founder. Compared to any minori
ty party, before or since, it was greatly supe
rior, both in talent and numbers. And what
became of it? It melted away; and in a few
years not a trace or vestige of it was left.
"Like the snow falls irt the river,
A moment white, then gone forever."
It was fierce aud formidable for a while; but it
soon lost all its strength and dissolved, and
its members took their stations in one or the
other of the two great contending parties of
the day; which, most assuredry, with some
slight shades of difference growing out of the
altered condition of the country, aud a change
of name, were the same identical two parties
that fought die battle of '98, and are now
again struggling for nscendancy. It may be
worthy of remark, as to that minority party, to
state that John Randolph, with all his talents
and zeal, and fiery temper, and love o con
quest, never set up the pretension to "an arm
ed neutrality." He laid no claim to the de
lusive inference, speciously drawn by sophis
tical analogy, and with diplomatic subtlety,
from the posithori of Queen Catherine of Rus
sia to coutrol the destinies of the nation,
and subject the will of the majority to the pow
er of a small minority of the people. No,
sir: John Randolph of Roanoke, with all his
peculiarities, was, in many respects, one of
the purest Republicans America has ever had.
He adhered with pertinacious nicety to the
principles of the Constitution as its framers
intended them, and not as its latitudinous
construers would have them to be; and, above
all things, he valued the great principle at-the
root of all our institutions, that the majority
should govern the minority; and however
haughty and aristocratic he might seem in his
personal carriage, he more than once, in a
manner and under circumstances which evinc
ed his devotion to that great principle, bowed
to the "majesty of the people," when ostra
ciled by a majority of their suffrages. No,
sir, the great object of the third party headed
by John Randolph, in the year 1806, was to
change the minority into a majority; and in
that way, and that only, to rule the country.
Failing in that plan, the party was dissolved,
without a resort to argumeuts drawn from the
position of Queen Catherine of Russia, to
break in upon the great principle which lies
at the foundation of our institutions. No, sir,
John Randolph scorned, knowing that he was
in a minority, to exert power in any other way.
He scorned to hold the balance, and, as did
the monkey iu the fable, who weighed for the
two cats, pinch off first from the one scale,
and then from the other, till he had robbed
them of all their cheese. Sir, the longest liv
ed minority party I have ever heard of, is the
one which has existed for some years past in
France, under the name of the third party.
What has been its history? In reading, a
short lime ago, an extract from a French
newspaper, I was struck with its speaking of
the "Sofa party." 1 at tirst supposed mat a
fourth political party had risen up in France
to confound their confusion; but, on reading
a little further, I discovered that the writer was
speaking of the same old French third party
that has made so much noise in the world;
and which had acquired the cognomen of the
"Sofa Party," because what do you suppose,
Mr. President, was the cause? Why, sir, be
cause they are now so reduced in numbers
that they can all sit together on a sofa!! Such,
sir, will be the fate of this Conservative party,
this Spartan baud, this armed neutrality.
They may, sir, have to sit for a season on
what, I believe, in some of our churches is
denominated the anxious bench; and may,
perhaps, be required to subscribe their faith,
gain full admission into the temple of the
great church militant of Whiggery, and take
their seats on the sofa, alongside with the
fathers and ciders of that renowned sect.
Mr. President, I am truly sorry that I have
been compelled to break silence at all, on this
occasion, and pained to be compelled to break
it in strains which may not be agreeable to
my colleague; but, sir, it is the misfortune of
this life that most of our sacred duties are of a
painful character. The one which I have
been constrained to discharge this evening, is
of that description. Being so, I have post
poned its discharge to the last moment, and
to a period when none could say that I was
interfering in the relations now existing be
tween him and our mutual constituents. No.
sir, I have been perfectly content that, with
out any, the least, interference on my part, he
should manage those relations in his own
way. I have meant no personal offence to
him. This is not the place in which I would
seek to indicate such a feeling, if I entertain
ed it. My difference with him is entirely of
a political character; and it has been mv
pride, and frequently my boast, that that dif
ference had not disturbed our personal rela
tions. I only seek, sir, and this is the only
time, according to my notious, (which may
have been fastidious,) in which I could find
the opportunity to present myself fully and
fairly to our mutual constituents, iu the auta
gonistical position which it has been, most
unexpectedly and painfully, my misfortune to
hold towards ray colleague, from the first mo
ment I entered this chamber to the present. I
stand where I did when I was sent hither by
Virginia. He, however, has thought proper,
at this critical moment, to throw himself, with
all his great weight, into one of the scales of
that balance in which we are both to be
weighed; and it is not in my nature, sir, to per
mit that in which he has left me to stand
alone, to "kick the beam," without a solitary
feeble struggle to maintain its equipoise .
No man, Mr. President, in thi3 Senate
cares less than I do about retaining his seat
in this Chamber. I would not, sir, to hold it
for life, make an overture for the Whig vote of
the Legislature of Virginia, or permit, know- j
ingly, a single man in that Commonwealth
to doubt my opinions in regard to this ad
ministration, or any of the lead iug measures
or men of the day. To the Whigs, as a party,
I am utterly and absolutely opposed; as indi- j
viduals, no man is disposed more folly and
more liberally to appreciate them than I.
Some of the dearest friends of my heart are of
them. Both in the General Assembly of Vir
ginia and throughout that Commonwealth,
there are Whigs, as they call themselves,
whose friendship I am proud to enjoy. I have
long enjoyed it. They know that I never did,
and never will, deceive them.
Now, sir, by way of summing up, and recapitu
lating the definition I have desired to give o my
position, in terms not to be doubted, or misunder
stood by any, I take leave to say, that as at present
advised, I prefer Martin Van Buren as the next
President of the United States, to any man who, to
my knowledge, has been as yet named, or thought
of, as his successor. I give him this preterence, be
cause I thus far, in the main, approve of his admin
istration of the Government; because he is in lavor
of a strict construction of the Federal Constitution,
as laid down in Madison's celebrated report; be
cause he is opposed to the Bank, a Bank, or any
Bank established by Congress, or ; any other de
partment, or power of the General Government;
because he is- opposed to a system of internal im
provement by the General Government; besause he
is opposed to a protecting tariff", and is for quadrat
ing, as near as possible: the revenue of the country,
to a reduced expenditure of public money, so as
never again, if avoidable, to have a large surplus
fund in the Federal Treasury, with which to de
bauch the State Governments, and demoralize the
people. And last, though not. least, 'I am for him
because he is a "Northern man with Southern feel
ings." Thanks to him for the stand he timely and
magananiinoiJoly made, and is ever ready in the
hour of need or peril to make, for the sacred com- ;
promises of the Constitution in regard to that great,
vital, and delicate subject, which ia at tlrs moment !
a burning torch in the hands of the vile incendiaries
of the temple of our liberty and the Union. He did
not, sir, wait till the battle had been fought and !
won before he denned his position to the vile Alio- !
litiomsts. He stood side by side with us during !
the "heat and burden of the day." No Southern ;
man ouht ever to forget his stand on that question, j
Mr. President my colleague has very frequently i
advisrd and invoked the Administration members
of the Senate, of whom he knows me to be one, to
bethink themselves, and pause in their mad career j
ot party, and chanae their course. Let me now,
sir, in turn, most earnestly and most anxiously im- !
plore him to pause; yes, sir, to pause for it is not I
. - Hi I'l I V-V.V 1 1 1 1 1 V. 1 ins. IIJ.ti I IVI P j J
the fold of his old Democratic Rrpuhlcan friends,
companions, admirers, and supporters I do assure
him that there is not one of them who is not griev
ed to part with him, and is still willing to give him
the fraternal hu, and forgive and forget all ihat has
passed. We have r-quired no sacrifice by him of ;
his opinion or his conscience or any isolated mea
sures. We are all prone to differ from each other
in opinion, and it ia in the part of charity and kind
ness to think nothing of minor differences. There
is nothing, sir I know it there is nothing about
which my colleague was ever more mistaken, than
in the intimation, if not the assertion often made by
htm that there was a settled purpose to drive him
from the ranks of the Administration party! When
the first symptoms of his disaffection were manifest
ed, no mother ever treated her infant babe with
more tenderness than his old political associates in
this chamber were disposed to treat him, and they
endeavored, to the utmost of their power, and by
all their conduct, to afford him no pretext of that
kind, if he should ultimately determine to abandon
our camp. And may I say to my colleague that if
any newspaper editor, or scribbler, or "orjan," has
injured or slandered him, he should have put it
down to the freedom, if not to the licentiousness, of
the press; and that, under any circumstances, it is
far below the "elevated statesman-like feelings" he
professes, to make their abuse a justification for
leaving a party with whom he has so long co-operated,
and who would so willingly have continued
in fellowship wit h him; and of his co-operating with
those between whom and hiin there has been, for
on equally long period, a reciprocal hostility of the
strongest character. But, sir, if my colleague will
not or cannot continue in communion with us, we
may dcplore,'but we cannot help it. And, sir, as,
on a recent occasion, my colleague, imagining that
he saw a marriage about to be solemnised between
the Government and the Pennsvlv ?nia Bank of the
United States, assumed, in the "name of his coun
try to forbid the bans," so sir, should I perceive
that a marriage is about to be solemnised between
my colleague and the great Whig party, as I think
certainly will be, unless there is the most cunning
coquetry on the one side, or should be a cruel jilt
ing on the other. I will assume, :n the name and
behalf of the Democracy of my country, to confirm
and ratify the bans, and give him away in mar
riage, (and certainly I nev.r expected to stand
sponsor to a runaway match;) and, sir, I will, on
the solemn occasion, say to his new spouse, that we
have parted reluctantly with one of our dearest and
most favorite children that if he is treated with
kindness and distinction, he will be a valuable ac
quisition to his new connection for that his dowry
is rich indeed, consisting of all those precious se
crets, which we never impart to any of our chil
dren, except to those of them who, we have good
reason to think, will never quit the household, or
marry ut of the family.
Mr. Preside.it, 1 have done. I have discharged
a paintui amy. ir a..r ..;.CTr .1
others, could alleviate the painful task, it is the
kind and profound attention with which the Senate,
exhausted by a session of unusual length, have
honored my remarks. My heart assures me that I
shall never forget the comoliment.
and reduces the expenses below twenty mil
lions. Then come the pensious, which con
stkuto no part of the expenses of the Govern
ment, but are gratuities bestowed for past ser
vices, real or supposed. The appropriations
of the last session for these, are two and a
half millions; but nearly as much more will
have to be paid under permanent pension
laws; but as only two and a half millions are
in the appropriation bills of this year, only
that sum will be counted; and this will brine
down the expenses to eighteen millions. Then
comes $500,000 for the protection of tho
Northern frontier, and for the Western fron
tier military road, $52,000; all three of these
being extraordinary objects of expenditure,
incident to our relations with the British and
the Indians. They make $162,000. Then
comes numerous heavy appropriations for"
public buildings, towit: $100,000 for the new
Treasury; 150,000 for the new Post Office?
50,000 for the new Patent Office; 30,000 for
the new jail in Washington City; 150,000 for
the new custom-house in New York; 75,000
for the new custom-house in Boston. Deduct
all these, and you have less than seventeen
millions for the expenses of the Government.
Then comes 90,000 for the survey of the
coasts of the United States, and also the large
sums for fortifying and defending the coun
try and in the increase of the navy, which, be
ing permanent objoot for the security of Tne
country, have no more to do with the expens
es of the Government than the fencing and
improving a plantation has to do with the,
personal expenses of a family. Make these
fair deductions, and others which might be
named, and the expenses of the Government
for the year 1839, will be found to be on the
strictest scale of economy, and such as to in
vite and defy the attacks of the Opposition.
The authentic list of every class of expen
ditures was published in the Globe of March
27; and we would suggest to our Democratic
friends throughout the Union that they should
carefully look it over, and then lay by the pa
per for future reference, to be ready for the
Federalists, if they should attempt again to
deceive the people about extravagant appro
priations, as they did last year."
POLITICA T.
Private claims,
45,o65 27
$36,862,242 78
The following remarks upon the appropri
ations made for the year 1839, we copy from
the Globe:
"The Opposition have heretofore endeav
ored to deceive die public into a belief that
the Democratic Administrations have become
quite extravagant, carrying up the appropria
tions to above $40,000,000 per annum. The
attempt had success for a while, until it was
shown that of these large amounts about the
one-half wej for occasional, contingent and
extraordinary objects, no way connected with
the expeuses of the government; and that, de
ducting these, the cardinal feature of democ
racy, that of economy, would be seen to have
been duly attended to. So it is of the year
1S39. The appropriations are, in round num
bers, $38,000,000; but, after the proper deduc
tions, it will be seen that the expenses of the
government are considerably below the one
half of that sum. The first item to be deduct
ed is $10,000,000 for the contingent calling
into service of fifty thousand men to repel, if
neeessary, the aggressions of Great Britain.
The second item is $5,100,000 for the Post
Office Department, not one dollar of which is
paid from the Federal Treasury, but comes
wholly from the Post Office itself. These
two items reduce the thirty-eight to twenty
three millions. Then comes $1,850,000 for
the expenses of the Florida war, over and
above the expense of the regular army. Then
comes $1,65,000 for the Indian Department,
the greater part of which refers to the removal
and subsistence of the emigrating Indians,
and compensation for their property and lands.
This makes three aud a half millions more,
LITERARY.
From the Augusta Constitutionalist.
The acts of a public nature, passed at the
last session of Congress, are now iu course
of publication in this paper. We begin on
our first page of this day's paper, and con
clude on the next page, the ac t making appro
priations for the civil aud diplomatic expens
es of the government.
Iu obedience to an act passed ia 1836, the
Clerk of the House of Representatives has
published in the Washington papers, a state
ment of all appropriations made during the
session. Y e have room only for the recapi
tulation of the statement, which is as follows:
Civil and diplomatic, 9,010,CS1 57
Army, fortifications, and Mil
itary Academy, 16,556,253 65
Navy, 5,130,7S1 64
Revolutionary and other pen
sioners, 2,499,02u 15
Current expenses of the In
dian department, 1,755,607 28
Preventing and suppressing
Indian hostilities, 1,S56,774 GO
To promote the progress of
the useful arts, 9,259 22
From the JVeto York Evening Star.
INDECISION,
A Tale of the Far West, and other Poems.
By J. K. .Mitchell, JU. D. Philadelphia:
Carey .$- Hart. 1839.
That this poem should have been written in
"the midst of arduous and professional duties,"
is surprising; but not more so, than the same
versatility of talent displayed throughout the
entire volume; which comprises, besides the
principal poem, mauy sacred and fugitive of
ferings; some of which are of exceeding beau
ty. The opening of this narrative-poem is
spirited and fine A vessel leaves old Scotia
bound for the Western World. Upon her
deck are emigrants and others, occupied with
their own peculiar thoughts and sad feelings.
The farewell is spoken, and
"The hills of Scotland swell on either side,
And 'neath the vessel heave the waves of
Clyde."
After leaving the shore, to beguile the time;
"As chance or taste decide, the groups on
deck,
Of home or wilderness, of port or wreck,
Converse."
and an American imbued with the wonders
of his own transatlantic home bursts forth
into a "Song of the Prairie," than which,
nothing cau be more descriptive, of the mo
notonous and wearisome beauty, of the vast
ocean of grass in its "billowy pride;" so re
markable a feature in the more Western
States. The song of the Scotchman ensues;
which for tenderness and pathos, and natural
feeling, we might fancy Burns' ain sweet lyre
had been struck, and it now reverberated
among his native hills in this exquisite fare
well to them.
Iu perusiug the first division of the poem,
we involuatarily surmise, why the hero, Nor
man, with wealth and youth
if lost.- i'ltellee t, and feeling heart,
MnKched !y to tune and adorned by art."
hen honors thronged, fastidious choice 1
w n ,
And Lov illumed the home, where Hymen ,
loiii had been,"
with "wife and child, and hope and health,"
why he should moodily withdraw himself, with
au appearance of blighted happiness or pre
vious guilt; as
"Apart from all upon the airy shroinJ
Sat one, whose sadness taught to than the
crowd,"
and allow this unwholesome spirit to attain
such entire possession of his mind, as gradu
ally to impair reason; progressively evinced
itself, first,
"the open book,
Its noble home in Norman's face forsook ;"
"To drink in fury from the very eye,
Whose smile before, to him, was extacy.""
And then in his strange hatred to his fond
aud beautiful wife, to whom, broken-hearted
and dying,
"It was some solace to her heart to find
His loss of love to her, was loss of mind."
But this unhappy temperament is explained
in the morbid sensativeness of a highly gifted
and proud mind, struggling against loss of
station and wealth; that
"Could not bear the coHness of the proud,
The lessened homage of the venal crowd,
The flight of summer-friends the common
places,
Of sympathy from those who lent their face,
In ostentation still."
And,
" 'Twas Norman's fate, one single fault to
know.
The fruitful cause of many a future woe.
That noblest virtue, moral courage, knew
No place within his bosom, where there grew
All else to dignify, adorn and bleasf
But, wanting that, he wanted happiness.
'Twere vain to tell how like a blight it fell
On life's young spring, how potently the spell
Despoiled his summer time of hope, and bunt
The ties that bound him to the land, where first
He drew his infant breath; where nature smiled
Propitiously on fancy's favored child."
It is, perhaps, generally more in keeping
with a truly noble nature, to possess that very