avail to protect it. Its own resolution, its own valor, its own indomitable determination to maintain its rights against all men, these, and these alone, could in that case uphold southern interests.

Meanwhile the people of the south had all requisite guarantees. First, they had the sacred provisions of the constitution; and then they had the character of our government as a confederacy, the existence of these interests long before the adoption of the constitution, and the rights and duties of the government in regard to them, recognised and laid down by that sacred instrument. That was the security of the south. As one who himself lived where that peculiar interest existed, he possessed no security from the existence of the veto power; none, none whatever. He felt himself secure in that mutual harmony, which it was alike the interest of all to cultivate, in the constitutional securities, and in the certainty of the disruption of the union, as the inevitable result, the moment that interest should be assailed; in the capacity and determination of the south to defend herself at all hazards, and against all forms of attack, whether from abroad or at home. There, there, was the security, and not in this miserable despotic veto power of the president of the United States.

Mr. Clay went on to say, that the amendment which he had the honor of proposing to the senate, was encountered by arguments which were directly opposed to each other. He was told by one, that this power was a sacred thing, not lightly to be touched, but to be held in honor and veneration, as the choicest legacy left by our ancestors. He was told, on the other hand, by an honorable friend in his eye, that the amendment was vain, because it was a thing impossible ever to get the constitution amended. He admitted it was a thing extremely difficult, requiring as it did the concurrence of eighteen states. But now, in reply to the first argument, those who regarded the constitution as so worthy of preservation, should be satisfied that no light and trivial amendment to it ever could be carried into effect; but if they were convinced that any amendment would be for the good of the country, it was their duty to put it forth, and submit it to public will. As to the second argument, he admitted, as he said, its full force. It was, indeed, extremely doubtful, whether any gentleman here present would ever live to see the constitution amended; but still it was the duty of every friend of his country to use proper efforts to have it improved. One attempt only had succeeded since those alterations were adopted, which took place immediately after the adoption of the constitution itself. But this subject had been a good deal considered in the country, and if Mr. Clay had been successful in any degree in demonstrating its expediency, neither class of objectors ought to persevere in opposing it.

As to another amendment, which had reference to the appointment of the secretary of the treasury and the treasurer of the United

States, Mr. Clay admitted, that if his friend from Virginia, (Mr. Archer,) could succeed in establishing what Mr. Clay had attempted years ago to demonstrate that congress did possess the constitutional power to define the tenure of office, and to defend it against the power of dismission-there would, to be sure, be less necessity for making a special provision in regard to these two officers. But still, for greater security, Mr. Clay should prefer to have the appointment of the treasurer and the secretary explicitly placed in the hands of congress.

Mr. Clay observed, that if there was any sentiment in relation to public affairs, on which the people of this country had made up their minds, it was in regard to the necessity of limiting executive power. Its present overgrown character had long been viewed by them with apprehension. The power was not personal, it was mainly official. You might take a mechanic from the avenue and make him president, and he would instantly be surrounded with power and influence, the power and the influence of his office. It was very true, that the personal popularity of an incumbent might add much to his power, but the power itself was official, not personal, and its danger arose from its tendency and ability to accumulate. This was demonstrated by all past history, and was witnessed by all we saw around us. All these considerations called upon senators in the language of patriotism deeply to reflect on the consequences which might ensue, should not a power so great in itself, and so prone to increase, be subjected to some salutary limitation.

Let not gentlemen deceive themselves by names. The unpretending name, president of the United States, was no security against the extent or the abuse of power. The power assigned to a public individual did not depend on the title he might bear. The danger arose not from his name, but from the quantum of power at his command. Whether he were called emperor, dictator, king, liberator, protector, sultan, or president of the United States, was of no consequence at all. Look at his power; that was what we had to guard against. The most tremendous power known to antiquity was the shortest in duration. It was not, then, in duration, any more than in title, that the danger lay, but in the magnitude of the power. This called for every safeguard. The dictatorship of Rome continued but for a brief period; yet, while it lasted, the whole state was in his hands. He did whatever he pleased, whether with life, liberty, or property. We had, then, no security against the power of the president of the United States in the shortness of the term for which he was chosen.

We often found very pathetic reflections in the writings of scholars, on the sad condition of kings; on the isolation of their thrones; on the effect of their station in removing them from the body of society, where no voice could reach them but the voice of

flatterers, and where they were perpetually surrounded by the incense of adulation; and the chief ground of sympathy seemed to be, the impossibility that truth should reach their ears. It might be said, that this was true of kings, but did not apply on this side of the water; but let Mr. Clay tell those who thought so, that the actual condition of a president of the United States did not very widely differ from that of the monarchs of the old world. Here, too, the chief magistrate occupied an isolated station, where the voice of his country and the cries of its distress could not reach his ear. He, too, was surrounded by a cordon of favorites, flatterers, and fawns. Isolated in this district, with no embarrassments himself, the echoes of the public distress, if they reached his ear at all, reached it with a faint and feeble sound, being obstructed by those who surrounded his person, and approached him only to flatter. Facts were boldly denied, and all complaints attributed to a factious spirit. Now, he would ask, was a man thus separated, and thus surrounded, more likely to know the real sufferings, wants, and wishes of his countrymen, than the two hundred and forty-two men in the other house, or the fifty-two men in this house, who came up here directly from their bosom, who shared in all their sufferings, who felt their wants, participated in their wishes, and sympathized with all their sorrows? That was the true question of the veto power. Now he thought if these things were duly considered, (and he spoke not of this or of that incumbent of the office, but of the circumstances of every one who filled it,) it must be admitted, by every candid mind, that the responsibility was great of a man who should undertake, on his own private opinion, to resist and suppress the will of the nation, constitutionally expressed. It was a power not merely to annul the national will, as lawfully uttered by its own chosen representatives; but the power to initiate legislation itself, and to substitute for the will of the nation an alien will, neither of the nation, nor of its representatives.

But, he was physically unable to go further into this subject. The question was the old question, whether we should have, in this country, a power tyrannical, despotic, absolute, the exercise of which must, sooner or later, produce an absolute despotism, or a free representative government, with powers clearly defined and carefully separated? That was the true question to be decided.

There were other amendments accompanying this one, on which he wished to say a few words, but was to-day unable to do so. (Several offers had been made by gentlemen near him to move an adjournment, but he had persevered in declining them.)

That in relation to securing to congress the appointment of the secretary and treasurer, was one of those reforms to which he considered the whig party solemnly pledged, as one of the measures proper to be pursued in the process of limiting executive power, but he could not now dwell upon it.

The other, relating to the appointment of members of congress to office, only went, in effect, to carry out the principles already sanctioned by that article of the constitution, which declares, that no member should be appointed to an office which had been created, or the emoluments of which had been increased with his concurrence. This went one step further, and declared, that no member should be appointed to an office which had been created with or without his concurrence, before or after he was a member. Whenever a man accepted an office which he was reasonably expected to hold, for a definite term, he should continue to hold it for that entire period, unless some very strong reason existed to the contrary, and which had not existed prior to his appointment.

There was one concluding remark on the amendment at present before the senate, with which he would close what he had now to say. Although he admitted, that the principles he had laid down would, if carried fairly out, lead to the abolition of the veto altogether, as inconsistent with the fundamental axiom of free government, yet he was of opinion, that this, like other reforms, should be introduced slowly, and with circumspection, without suddenly rushing from one extreme to another. Before the power should be utterly abolished, he deemed it prudent, that an experiment should be made in a modified form; and instead of requiring a majority of two thirds of both houses to supersede the veto of the president, he thought it sufficient to require the concurrence of a majority of the whole number of members elected to each house of Congress.

He asked, whether this would not afford a sufficient security against the dangers of hasty legislation; and, in confirmation of its sufficiency, he would appeal to what had been the experience of all the states, where such a provision had been adopted. If a bill, after having undergone a full investigation and discussion, should pass both houses, and be transmitted to the president for his signature, and he should return it with his veto, and the reasons for that veto, and it should then be again considered and fully discussed, in view of the objections urged against it by the executive, (to say nothing of the whole influence derived from his office, and all that pertained to it,) and still there should be found a clear majority, not of a quorum present, but of the total number of members chosen by the people, was not the presumption irresistible, that the bill ought to become a law? Surely, surely, this was a sufficient evidence of the will of the people, and an abundant safeguard against the hazardous consequences of hasty and ill-advised legislation.

ON THE COMPROMISE TARIFF.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 18, 1842.

[MR. CLAY, in presenting a memorial from citizens of Pennsylvania, in relation to the tariff, and in opposition to the tariff act, took occasion, as requested by the memorialists, to express his views in regard to the subject, briefly, as follows. ]

Two motives had operated on my mind, and I believe on the minds of others, to induce them to concur in the passage of the law, (of 1833.) The first was, to avert the calamity of civil war, the fire of which having been lighted up in South Carolina, threatened to extend its flames over the whole union; the second was, to preserve from utter destruction the system of protection which Pennsylvania favored, when the law was passed; and I will repeat here, although it will not be long before I shall have an opportunity to go into an examination of the whole subject, that if the compromise act had not been adopted, the whole system of protection would have been swept by the board, by the preponderating influence of the illustrious man then at the head of the government, (general Jackson,) at the very next session after its enactment. With regard to the operation of this act, it is a great mistake to say, that any portion of the embarrassments of the country has resulted from it. Other causes have contributed to this result, and it is to be attributed to the experiments which have been made upon the currency. The embarrassments are also to be attributed to the action of the states, which, by plunging into schemes of internal improvement, have contracted debts abroad, and thereby given a false and fictitious appearance to the prosperity of the country; and when their bonds depreciated, the evils under which they now suffer, as a consequence, ensued. As to the compromise, I have already said, that it is my purpose, as long as I shall remain in the senate, to maintain, that the original principles of the act should be carried out faithfully and honestly; and if, in providing for an adequate revenue for an economical administration of the government, they can at the same time afford incidental protection, I shall be happy if both of these objects can be accomplished; but if it should be necessary,