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SENATE.]

President's Protest.

[APRIL 21, 1834.

have also the right to make that interference effective;" their hopes would rest on executive patronage, and pro-
and it is not at all to be presumed that he rates his own motion from the Executive hand. He knew the conse-
powers and his own rights, in point of efficiency, lower quence of the exercise of this power; and, knowing, has
than the powers and rights of this body; and that he will used it to an extent exceeding all that was ever heard or
claim less for himself, when he has interfered, than he is thought of by other Presidents, or in other times. How
willing to concede to them, in case they may interfere.many, Mr. President-was it five or was it six-that were
Sir, this quarrel is sought without any just cause what-appointed in a single year, from this Senate, to high exec-
ever. All Executive power, and all his individual popu-utive offices? What numbers from the other House to
larity, are to be arrayed and armed against the Senate, offices of all descriptions, high and low? It seemed to
which he regards as all that now stands firmly, and that be thought glory enough to serve the President in any
has the power to stand, between him and absolute uncon- station. He became, at once, every thing-the country
trolled dominion.
and the people nothing. As the constitution is not amend-

And the Senate does possess the power, if not to place ed, and that means of saving our legislators from corrup the constitution upon its ancient pillars, at least to prevent tion, and our country from "tyranny," cannot now avail its utter prostration, and total and final ruin. And first us, we, who would preserve the purity of our institutions, among the defensive weapons with which we are armed, and avert that tyranny, must resort to the only other is the power to check the abuse of executive patronage means now in our power. And I trust we will resort to which has entered into our halls of legislation, and ex-it, and adhere to it with stern inflexibility, and that, if tended itself into every section of our country, and into the President will nominate, the Senate will not confirm, all the haunts of business and of life. It has gone forth any member of Congress to any executive office whatcorrupting and to corrupt. General Jackson, when a ever. I, for one, will not advise and consent to any such candidate for the high station which he now fills, saw and appointment. Another evil is worthy to be noticed and exposed the danger to which our institutions are subject- arrested, while it may. General Jackson early foresaw, ed, by this unrestrained exercise of the power of appoint- or apprehended, that Executive patronage would be ment. I read from his letter of resignation to the legisla- made "to bear upon the elective franchise;" and that ture of Tennessee, presented the 14th of October, 1825. evil has now come upon the country in full and unmitiIn speaking of a proposed amendment to the constitution gated virulence. Armies of office-holders, whose names of the United States, which should render members of fill a volume, swarm in our cities, and are stationed in Congress ineligible to any executive appointment, he every town and village in our country. They compose the nucleus around which the political party which sup

the Government.

says: "The effect of such a constitutional provision is ob- ports the present dominant power, gather, and form, and vious. By it, Congress, in a considerable degree, would rally. Others traverse the country, collect and convey be free from that connexion with the Executive depart- intelligence, and arrange and marshal the hosts, and prement, which at present gives strong ground of jealousy pare them for action. No man can, at this day, obtain and apprehension on the part of the people. Members, an executive appointment, unless he have earned it as a instead of being liable to be withdrawn from legislating political partisan, or some friend has so earned it for him. on the great interests of the nation, through prospects of No man can retain an office unless he continues to do executive patronage, would be more liberally confided in battle in obedience to the mandates of his leader. Such by their constituents, while their vigilance would be less is the present state of things. But the Senate may check, interrupted by party feelings and party excitements. if it cannot entirely correct, this evil also. And I, for Calculations from intrigue or management would fail. one, will do all that in me lies to correct it. I will advise Nor would their deliberations or their investigation of and consent to the appointment of no man to any office, subjects consume so much time. The morals of the who has earned that appointment in the arena as a policountry would be improved; and virtue, uniting with the tical gladiator. And I will advise and consent to the relabors of the representatives and the official ministers of appointment of no man to any responsible office, who, the law, would tend to perpetuate the honor and glory of while he held that office, abused it to the mere purposes of party, instead of using it for the benefit of his country. "But if this change in the constitution be not obtain- When I can have proof of either of these things, clear ed, and important appointments continue to devolve and unquestionable, my course, for one, will be decisive on representatives in Congress, it requires no depth of and unvarying. We have too long heard as the ground, thought to be convinced that corruption will become the and the only successful ground, of recommendation to order of the day; and that, under the garb of conscien office, that the applicant was devoted to the interests of tious sacrifices to the public good, evils of serious impor-one man rather than the interests of his country; that he tance to the freedom and prosperity of the republic may had rendered, and he was capable of rendering, service arise. It is through this channel the people may expect to that man, or his party, rather than to his country. At to be attacked in their constitutional sovereignty, and the same time, I would inquire into no man's political where tyranny may be expected to spring up in some fa- opinions or personal preferences; it is a gross abuse that vorable emergency. Against such inroads, every guard such inquiries have ever been made in appointments to ought to be interposed, and none better occurs than that office. I will be disposed to do all that is possible to of closing the suspected avenue with some necessary con- correct that abuse; and it can only be done by disappointstitutional restriction. We know that human nature is ing the hopes of him who expects to rise by making a prone to evil. We are early taught to pray that we may trade of politics. The Senate have always possessed not be led into temptation; and hence the opinion, that, these powers, but it has not always been necessary to by a constitutional provision, all avenues to temptation, on exercise them. It is only in the last resort-'tis when the part of our political servants, should be closed." the ship drifts before wind and tide that the sheet anchor Good sound doctrine this, and truth, solemn truth, as is cast out to fix and save her. And it is a struggle now his subsequent conduct and the present state of our for the very existence of the constitution which is struck country verify. He saw the danger. He saw the cer- at in its last stronghold. The protest of the President, tainty that corruption would become the order of the day, which is before you, is his arrière ban, the summons to if members of Congress were subject to the temptation his powers to come up and do battle against the Senate. of executive appointment. He knew that their eyes And it is a mighty power, and that power a unit-conwould be turned to the Executive, and not to the people trolled by one head, and animated by one spirit-that is who sent them, and whom they should serve; and that arrayed against, and now pressing upon us. With us

APRIL 21, 1834.]

President's Protest.

[SENATE.

there is division-different views, divided counsels-all Let it be remembered that the constitution gives the Presanxious to sustain the dignity and independence of the ident the command of the military. If you give him comSenate; but all cannot agree as to the true mode by plete power over the man with the strong box, he will which they are to be sustained. The honorable Senator have the liberty of America under his thumb. It is easy from Alabama [Mr. KING] is of opinion that true dignity to see the evil which may result. If he wants to establish rests in submission. In this he is entirely consistent. He an arbitrary authority, and finds the Secretary of Finance has always, I believe, advised and pursued the same course not inclined to second his endeavors, he has nothing more in every contest between the Executive and the Senate. to do than to remove him, and get one appointed of prinAnother honorable Senator, for whom I have great re- ciples more congenial with his own. Then, says he, I spect, but whom we have not yet heard on this subject have got the army; let me have but the money, and I will, I have no doubt, as heretofore, be of opinion, that will establish my throne on the ruins of your visionary the President and the Senate are both a little wrong-republic. Let no gentleman say I am contemplating the Senate most so; and he will, on the whole, reckon it imaginary dangers-the mere chimeras of a heated brain." is the best for us to submit. Others, and I am one of Sir, whatever it might then seem, it was no chimera. them, think and feel, that, be the odds against us what How strictly, to the very letter, has his prediction been it may, we should stand for our constitutional rights, and verified! The powers which the constitution has placed defend and sustain them by all constitutional means. in the hands of the President, and those which, within The protest warns us, that, if we persist, the harmony five years, he has been able to seize into his grasp, either of the relations between the President and the Senate within or without the pale of the constitution, cannot fail will be destroyed, and that it will lead to serious altera- to excite the deepest alarm in the bosom of every friend tions in the frame-work of our constitution, or "the prac- of American liberty. He has the power of the swordtical abandonment of some of its provisions." And what, that the constitution gives him; the command of the army sir, do you suppose, are the provisions of the constitution, and the navy; but even there, to make himself more abin addition to those which he has disregarded and viola-solute, he has asserted and exercised doubtful and odious ted, which he now proposes practically to abandon, if the powers, if, indeed, he has not assumed unconstitutional Senate persist in thwarting his will? Dispense with the powers-the right of removing, by his own mere will, confirmation of the Senate to his appointments, by ap- any officer in the army or the navy, without a trial by pointing in the recess, and again and again so appointing, court-martial, or against the judgment of such court; I as in the case of Gwynn? Suppose, then, as would prob- deny that the constitution has vested him with any such ably be the case, we so frame the appropriation bill, power, and its assumption is against the whole spirit and that nothing could by law be paid to an officer not con- genius of our institutions. Its tendency is obvious. It firmed by the Senate? He would practically abandon makes the President superior to the law, and the officer another of the provisions of the constitution; pay his who would hesitate to obey his illegal command, must do officers without regard to the appropriations, or make it at the hazard of his own removal, and having his stathem the depositories of so much of the public treasure tion filled by one who would be more supple and obedient. as will indemnify them for delay and difficulty in procu- He has also perverted the power of appointment to a ring their salaries. If this be not his purpose, why does mere instrument of influence and corruption. I charache assert that broad claim of control over the public terize it by the strong words which he has used in his letpurse, utterly unknown, and unheard of, down to the ter of resignation. By means of that power, unless we day of the promulgation of that protest. The bold doc- impose a salutary check upon it, he may operate on memtrine that "Congress cannot take out of the hands of the bers of this and the other House of Congress, by raising Executive department the custody of the public property their hopes, exciting their fears, and bringing them as or money, without an assumption of executive power, suppliants to his feet, or to the feet of the vilest minions and a subversion of the first principles of the constitution," who surround him, and who are supposed to influence the explanatory protest which he sent us this morning his secret councils. Abroad, throughout the various covers up and mystifies; but it does not retract this as- parts of the Union, he wields that power also, not for the sumption of power. The plain strong text does but benefit of the nation, of which he is the head, but for carry out to its results the lawless power which he had the purposes of party; for the purpose of sustaining and already exercised in seizing the public deposites, and perpetuating influence; and to that end the public treasholding them in his own custody. He now simply bids ures are lavished and consumed. defiance to Congress, and says, in effect, he has the public purse; he has a right to it, and he will keep it. The Secretary, in whose care it was placed, is now his Secretary, and we can put it in the custody of no agent who will not at once be his agent, by virtue of his trust. Such is the text of his protest; and the gloss which came in to-day does not, in my opinion, retract or explain, it only obscures it.

He claims, too, a dispensing power over the laws; laws which have passed through all the solemnities of enactment, which have received the sanction of both Houses of Congress, and of the Executive, and even of the highest judicial tribunal of the country. He claims the right to refuse to execute them, on the ground that he considers them as against the constitution. He has also seized into his possession and claims the sole control over the pubAs the President has, in his protest, appealed to the lic treasure, and denies that Congress can make any law, debate in 1789, on the bill for organizing the Department within the pale of the constitution, which may rescue it of Foreign Affairs, I will, while the attention of the Sen-from his hands. And he claims that by virtue of his ate is turned to the subject, refer to the speech of a mem- oath of office, he may, and ought to enter the halls of ber from Georgia, [Mr. JACKSON,] who foretold, in an legislation, especially this chamber, and preserve, protect, admirable manner, some of the consequences which have and defend the constitution against the acts of this Senate. resulted from the unfortunate admission of the power of And what have we to oppose to his accumulated power, removal, first inserted in that law. The clause which I his inroads, and his aggressions? The constitution, which read is in the 4th Elliot's Debates, pages 169, 170. is our banner, stout hearts, firm and resolute minds, and Speaking of the evil consequences of placing the power an unwavering trust in God and our country. of removal in the hands of the President, he says: "But Sir, cast back your eyes for but eight short years over let me ask gentlemen, if it be possible to place these the history of our country, and you will see by what comofficers in such a situation as to deprive them of their bination of circumstances those powers have been gathindependence and firmness? For, I apprehend, it is not ered, and concentrated in a single hand; it is an instructintended to stop with the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. live, but mournful retrospection. But what then was the

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Sed mi, infirmior sum
Unus multorum-

[APRIL 21, 1834.

situation of our country? What is it now? And what has produced the rapid and alarming change? Within that time, strong and marked divisions, partly of princi-I do not, and I cannot, wholly deny their influence. ple, partly sectional, developed themselves in the nation, Yet it would have required but a tinge of superstitious took strong possession of the public mind, and fixed the gloom to have drawn from that event darker forebodings attention, and absorbed the feelings of the people. Our of that which was to come. In our primitive wilds, where constitution, and the powers which it confers upon the the order of nature is unbroken by the hand of man; there, national legislature, became a subject of deep and all-per- where majestic trees arise, spread forth their branches, vading interest; the one would limit to the strict letter of live out their age, and decline; sometimes will an ancient the instrument, the other would extend, by a rational and patriarchal plant, which has stood for centuries the winds necessary intendment, those powers. The present Chief and storms, fall when no breeze agitates a leaf of the And when, in the calm stillness Magistrate, and those who most adhere to him, assumed trees that surround it.

But I am none of

a doubtful station, now flattering the hopes, and now of a summer's noon, the solitary woodsman hears on either alarming the fears of each of the contending parties, as he hand the heavy crash of huge branchless trunks, falling seemed disposed to incline to or oppose their doctrines. by their own weight to the earth from whence they Thus the contest was encouraged and kept up with fierce- sprung, prescient of the future, he foresees the whirlness and violence. Public attention was fixed and cen- wind at hand, which shall sweep through the forest, break tred upon that struggle; while the Executive was (some- its strongest stems, upturn its deepest roots, and strew in times gradually, at other times by a bold and sudden the dust its tallest, proudest heads. wrench) drawing and seizing all the powers of Govern- those who indulge in gloomy anticipation. I do not dement to himself, and even those who watched the legisla- spair of the republic. My trust is strong that the gallant tive power with the most suspicious jealousy, permitted ride the storm; saved alike from the breakers and billows ship, in which all our hopes are embarked, will yet outhis enormous strides to dominion for a long time to pass unheeded, and without censure. Heavily did the vessel of disunion, and the greedy whirlpool-the all-ingulfing of state labor in her onward course, under this various maelstrom of executive power-that unbroken, if not unharmed, she may pursue her prosperous voyage far down the stream of time; and that the banner of our country, which now waves over us so proudly, will still float in triumph, borne on the winds of Heaven, fanned by the breath of fame, every stripe bright and unsullied, every star fixed in its sphere, ages after each of us now here shall have ceased to gaze on its majestic folds forever.

pressure:

"Harder beset,

And more endanger'd, than when Argo pass'd
Through Bosphorus, betwixt the jutting rocks;
Or when Ulysses, on the larboard shunn'd
Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd."

Still, she has thus far won her way, amid the fighting elements; but the rocks, and shoals, and whirlpools, are not yet passed, and no quiet haven is in sight. We have long seen and felt the downward tendency of things, but could scarcely poise ourselves in calmness to resist or check its motion; for so rapid has been the torrent which dashes and rolls us onward, that the head becomes giddy, and the mind bewildered, and the eye dim, as we gaze upon the billows which rush and foam asound us.

When Mr. EWING had concluded

Mr. KANE obtained the floor, but gave way to

Mr. WILKINS, who said he would move, if there was no indisposition on the part of gentlemen to take up the business connected with the foreign relations of the country, which he had mentioned before, that, for that purpose, the Senate go into Executive session.

Mr. POINDEXTER would prefer the postponement of Executive business until to-morrow.

Mr. CALHOUN hoped the motion of the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. WILKINS,] would prevail, and that it would be acted upon.

Mr. CLAYTON did not perceive the necessity of going into Executive business.

The question was then taken upon Mr. WILKINS'S
motion, when there appeared-ayes 18, noes 20.
So the Senate refused to go into Executive session.
Mr. FORSYTH offered an amendment to the first reso-

Sir, our republic has long been a theme of speculation among the savans of Europe. They profess to have cast its horoscope, and fifty years were fixed upon by many as the utmost limit of its duration. But those years passed by, and beheld us a united and a happy people; our political atmosphere agitated by no storm, and scarcely a cloud to obscure the serenity of our horizon-all of the present, was prosperity; all of the future, hope. True, upon the day of that anniversary two venerated fathers of our freedom and of our country fell; but they sunk calmly to rest, in the maturity of years and in the fulness of time; and their simultaneous departure on that day of jubilee, for lution proposed by Mr. POINDEXTER, which was, after the another and a better would, was hailed by our nation as a words "17th instant," to insert "in the following words:" propitious sign, sent to us from Heaven. Wandering the and then to recite the whole of the message of the Presiother day in the alcoves of the library, I accidentally dent; and, in the third resolution, to insert after the words opened a volume containing the orations delivered by "with the declaration that accompanied it"—"containing many distinguished men on that solemn occasion, and 1 the following words," and then to recite the whole of that noted some expressions of a few who now sit in this hall, declaration. which are deep fraught with the then prevailing, I may say universal, feeling. It is inquired by one, "Is this the effect of accident or blind chance? or has that God, who holds in his bands the destiny of nations and of men, designed these things as an evidence of the permanence and perpetuity of our institutions?" Another says, "Is it not stamped with the seal of Divinity?" And a third, descanting on the prospects bright and glorious which opened on our beloved country, says, "Auspicious omens

cheer us."

Strong spirits, (I use the term in the sense in which the French academicians use it, les forts esprits,) strong spirits may sneer at these impressions, which are the offspring of feeling rather than of reason, and which resolve themselves into no philosophical connexion of cause and consequence:

Mr. POINDEXTER said, he understood the effect of the amendment would be to destroy the resolutions. The object was to get the messages on the Journals. Mr. LEIGH inquired if such was the object, and was answered in the affirmative.

Mr. BIBB rose on a point of order. He was not one of those men who had much knowledge of points of order; but as the amendment was totally inconsistent with the original proposition, for the avowed object of the mover was to destroy the resolutions, he thought it could not be in order.

The CHAIR could not conceive that there was any question of order. The paper was in possession of the Clerk, and at the disposal of the Senate.

Mr. CALHOUN considered this a very novel case; and it appeared to him that it involved a point of order. The

APRIL 21, 1834.]

President's Protest.

[SENATE.

object of all rules, was to carry into effect the intention of into effect, the honorable Senator might withdraw his the body; and here the very point at issue was, whether amendment, pocket the document, and walk out of the the papers of the President should go on the Journals. Senate. The procedure of the honorable Senator was no This amendment, therefore, must be out of order. The reduction of his views to writing. He (Mr. W.) thought question was, whether an individual member could thus time ought to be allowed the honorable Senator; but if the put aside the intention of the Senate. Senate did not choose to grant time, there was no remedy. Mr. FORSYTH did not understand the point of ob-The honorable Senator had no right to take up the docujection. His object was to incorporate the message with ment from the table of the Senate, and offer it as his the resolutions, that its true character might be seen. motion. Mr. SPRAGUE said, when the paper was read to the Mr. PRESTON said, it was remarkable to see one docSenate, he noticed that the President called the Secreta-ument answer so many purposes. It was in the first place ries his Secretaries, not only once, but repeatedly; where- sent to the Senate as a protest, and then published to the as, in the printed copy, this expression was used but once. nation as a proclamation of the President. It was a proBy examining the original, he had found his in ink, and test to the Senate one day, in one shape, and the next the in pencil, over it. He would ask which was the true day, in another shape. Even while the Senate was disreading, and which was to be incorporated in this motion. cussing it in one form, it assumed another through the Mr. CALHOUN said, the rule required that every mo-medium of the President's private Secretary. This was tion should be given in writing; and he requested that the second time that papers had been altered, after they this motion should be put in writing, in all its parts. had been placed in the possession of the Senate. On a Mr. FORSYTH would reduce it to writing, when he former occasion he had said that this tampering with pahad an opportunity. pers was a very improper and dangerous practice, was The SECRETARY explained in regard to the alterations much to be avoided. A protest was sent to the Senate by made in the message, The next morning after the mes- the President, and when it was found that it contained sage was sent in, the President's private Secretary had some passages likely to rouse the indignation of the people told him of two or three verbal errors, of which his Sec- by the despotic disposition which they indicated, the priretary was one. He had informed him, that as the mes-vate Secretary was sent down to alter the document, and sage had been read, he could permit no amendment, but make it more palatable. Thus altered, 40,000 copies he had himself inserted the corrections in pencil, for the were distributed to the people. He had said this morning mere purpose of reference. that he rejoiced to see the President beginning a luminous

Mr. WEBSTER called for the other corrections, and commentary on the text he had sent to the Senate; he did the Secretary read a number of instances, in which ex-not expect, however, that the text would have been pression was substituted for admission, removing for con- touched. They had now before them a new text. The trolling, exercise for examine, &c. document had been interfered with while it was in the

The SECRETARY said, On Friday morning.

Mr. CLAY wished to know at what time these correc-possession of the Senate, and they were engaged in distions were made. cussing it. The particular points to which Senators had objected Mr. CLAY requested that the Senate might know, and had been removed. The paper had originally stalked the country, that on Friday morning, after the paper had in tragic boots, and with a haughty mien; but now, throwbeen commented on, after my Secretary had been repeat-ing aside the sock and gown, it came forward under the edly pronounced by the President, this alteration had been comic face of an amendment. Suppose the Senator from attempted. Georgia, now that the Chair had decided that his motion There was another thing to be observed and remember- was in order, chooses to withdraw his amendment, to ed: any man must perceive that transforming the papers whom would the document then belong. The use to could not have been rendered necessary by the mistakes which the paper was attempted to be put, was cerof a clerk; no clerk could mistake his for the, and no clerk tainly not a proper one; it could not be made to ancould commit the other mistakes, such as money for prop-swer so many purposes. The protest of the President erty, &c. was now brought forward as an amendment.

"To Mr. C. hoped the Secretary would not insert any more what vile uses may we come at last: the dust of Alexpencil marks. The paper proved that the attempt itself ander may stop a bung-hole." There was another point was another instance of Executive encroachment. What! of order. The amendment was in direct contradiction to after a paper had been printed and commented on, might the original motion. Common sense taught, that such an the President send his private Secretary to alter it? But amendment could not be received. it showed the spirit of the times, and it showed but too strongly the spirit of the man.

Mr. FORSYTH now began to reduce his amendment to writing.

Mr. CALHOUN said he should be disposed to withdraw his motion, if the Senator from Georgia would withdraw his amendment, and return it to the Executive. That, Mr. C. said he thought would be the best disposi

Mr. WEBSTER said, that while the gentleman was en-tion of it. gaged in that agreeable operation, he wished to say that the account given by the Secretary should be reduced to writing.

Mr. FORSYTH called for the ayes and noes upon his motion, and read a rule of the Senate to show that it was perfectly in order.

Mr. FORSYTH brought to the Chair the first part of If, he said, he were disposed to be critical, he might his amendment, in his own writing, and the original Ex-say, that gentlemen sought to deprive him of his right ecutive manifesto, as the remainder of it.

Mr. POINDEXTER objected to that form of the amendment, by taking the document itself.

The CHAIR said, it was not necessary for him to reduce the whole to writing; printed, or other parts, might be incorporated.

to have this resolution put upon the Journal.

Every necessary purpose was answered by the course he had pursued. What would be their situation if a Senator was to be deprived of his right to make an amendment, by a mere question of order. Three or four hours would be necessary to make a copy of the document, and in the mean time a vote might be taken, and he would thus be deprived of one of his most sacred rights Mr. WEBSTER said, there appeared to him to be a as a Senator of the United States. The question was now Concord of ingenuity between the Chair and the gentle-whether his motion should be received. Honorable genman from Georgia. If the course proposed was carried tlemen made use of the document in question to condemn

Mr. CALHOUN appealed from the decision of the Chair.

SENATE.]

President's Protest.—Albany Memorial.—Adams (Mass.) Memorial.

[APRIL 22, 1834.

the President, and he, Mr. F., was not to be permitted to of names, attached to one copy of the memorial, had been make use of it as an amendment. With regard to the alterations which had been made, he begged to say that the paper had not been received by the Senate, and, until that was done, the President had a right to alter it. But what were the alterations? Did the President shrink from any thing he had previously said? If he did, let him be condemned, but not otherwise. The President's character was too well known for any one to believe him guilty of such conduct. The words "his Secretary," were still retained; he, Mr. F., wished to know if any alteration had taken place in substance.

Mr. SPRAGUE called for the reading of the document in its original and in its altered state.

Mr. KANE asked if any alteration had been really made?

The SECRETARY replied in the negative. He had merely inserted the words in pencil for the purpose of reference. The Secretary then read those parts of the paper in which alterations had been made, and showed what the alterations were.

Mr. LEIGH wished to understand what was the object of the Senate. He understood the question now to be on an appeal from the decision of the Chair, that it was in order for the gentleman from Georgia, to take a document from the Senate and to submit it to the Chair in the form of writing, that his motion might be in order. Was that the question?

left out of the package which had been handed to me. They have lost no time in forwarding this omitted list, and I now hold it in my hand, to be presented to the Senate, and added to the others. To be sure against further error, I have asked an officer of the Senate to have these additional names counted, and he certifies them to amount to 1,485. Here they are, sir-the original signatures--and here comes with them a regular affidavit, verifying the paper, and accounting for the omission. This makes up, sir, the number as originally stated; and I hope will be satisfactory. If it should not be, and if it would give gentlemen any gratification to receive an additional 500 or 1,000 names, I imagine little pains would be necessary to furnish them that gratification.

Mr. President, in one of those unrivalled speeches of Mr. Burke, in which he indulged his admiration of Ameri ca, he says, when speaking of the growth of our population, "Whether I put the present numbers too high, or too low, is a matter of little moment. Such is the strength with which population shoots in that part of the world, that, state the numbers as high as we will, while the dispute continues, the exaggeration ends. While we are discussing any given magnitude, they are grown to it."

Sir, a similar sentiment would be just in regard to the numbers among our fellow-citizens, who are rallying to oppose the recent measures of Government. State The CHAIR said that the rule existed, although it was the numbers as we will, if the statement be not true tonot usually acted upon. He supposed the intention of day, it will yet probably be true to-morrow. the rule to be, that the resolution might be generally un- Mr. WRIGHT rose to move the printing of the names. derstood; and he imagined, that taking the document from the table would answer that purpose.

Mr. LEIGH said, if the object had not been distinctly avowed by the gentleman from Georgia to be, to compel the Senate to do what it might object to do, he would not have made any remarks on the subject. But from the manner in which the Chair had acted, it seemed to him as if the Chair claimed similar power over that body to that which the President of the United States claimed over the public money.

The question was, which paper should be received; and the main question was, which should be spread over the Journals of the Senate. The majority was against it, and the object of the gentleman from Georgia was, that the Senate should be openly accused. The question with him was, whether the motion was in order. He would vote that it be not received; or, in other words, that he [Mr. FORSYTH] shall not have it in his power to do that which the Senate had determined not to do. He would not profess to be well informed on the subject; but he would vote against the motion.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN then moved an adjournment, which, after a little opposition, was carried. And the Senate adjourned.

TUESDAY, APRIL 22.

ALBANY MEMORIAL.

He added, that the Senate would do him the credit to say, that he had expressed his belief that there was some mistake about the matter. He moved that these names be printed.

Mr. WEBSTER expressed his wish that the names might be printed. He would do the justice to the honorable member to say, that he understood him to have expressed himself as he had stated.

The paper was then referred, and the names ordered to be printed.

ADAMS (MASS.) MEMORIAL.

Mr. WEBSTER said he had to present to the Senate a memorial from the farmers, manufacturers, mechanics, and traders of the town of Adams, in the county of Berkshire, in Massachusetts. These memorialists complain of the injurious effects of the recent measures of Government on their business and means of living. Twelve hundred persons, they state, have been engaged in manufacturing, in that township, having entered into those pursuits under the encouragement of Government, and assurances of its protection. That, in the midst of prosperity, their career has been suddenly arrested; some of the establishments have been obliged to stop, and others to dismiss their hands, more or less, and many individnals have fallen into great want and great distress. These memorialists aver, sir, that that is true, which I have more than once predicted would soon be found

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Mr. WEBSTER rose and said, it would be remember-true; and that is, that the measures of the administration ed that not long before he left his seat, on leave of ab- tend to make some of the rich richer, and all the poor sence he had had the honor of presenting a memorial poorer; and all, they say, of whatever tongue or kindred, from citizens of Albany, complaining of recent measures who have foreign capital at command, enjoy advantages of Government. He had been authorized on that occa-over American industry and perseverance. As Amerision to state, and had stated, that the number of signers cans, then, they address themselves to Congress: they was twenty-eight hundred, or thereabouts. I soon after say to Congress, restore the currency, restore the consaw, said Mr. W., that this statement was denied, and that fidence of the people, restore the character and credit of no more than thirteen or fourteen hundred names were to the nation, restore our prosperity and happiness. One be found to the papers. The honorable member from act of yours can do all this." New York, [Mr. WRIGHT,] I believe himself alluded to this apparent deficiency. So soon, sir, as these observations reached the memorialists, they inquired into the cause of the mistake, and they found that one long roll

Sir, as one of the representatives of the people of North Adams, I respond to them, by saying, that, so far as depends on my efforts here, and on those of my colleague, and on those of their own able and excellent rep

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