SENATE.] The Tariff-Reduction of Duties-Nullification-Compromise Bill. [MARCH, 1833. one that our great resources must forever remain | as I have so often said, can only be found in a dormant if they are to wait their development system, a complete system, of protection. They from the operations of free trade. But by the never can be found in a few fragments of a aid of Governinent they may be rapidly and system. Then, in 1842, the barriers are to be fully developed; and by means so obvious, so broken down, and our markets are to be thrown direct, and so adequate, that nothing appears open to the world, while the markets of the to me so unaccountable as the struggle that is world are to remain closed against us, as they made to prevent their adoption; or to get rid now are. Then will commence the glorious of them, so far as they have been adopted. It era of free trade, and its reign, by the bill, is only to give to the industry, the capital, and thereafter is to be everlasting. The 30th of the enterprise of the country, the market of June, 1842, will be to England a day of jubilee, the country, and the work is accomplished, or such as she has rarely witnessed; the prospect in a train of rapid accomplishment. The result of that day will infuse a lively joy into every is necessary; if we look into the cause, we see British bosom; for that day is to let in and it must be necessary; we see there a force that give to her industry, while it takes from our must have this effect. A market is the mighty own, the supply of the wants of eighteen milions power that is to perform this mighty work; of people, and on her own terms. and there are no limits to this power when created by this policy. The market brings forth your resources, and your resources augment the market; the action and the reaction are reciprocal, and the reciprocal effect is as unlimited as your resources themselves. The stream does not flow with more certainty from its fountain, and roll on to the ocean, than the development of all our resources would flow, from the operation of the simple expedient of giving to the industry of the country the market of the country. Is it wise, then, to tell this country, as this bill seems to tell them, that this policy, so benevolent in its effects, so almighty, I might almost say, in its benevolent effects, is an evil in itself; and to be got rid of as soon as it can be under existing circumstances? I think not. Again this bill, if it is to be the permanent system of the country, (and there is nothing in it that implies the contrary; that is what it professes to be on its face,) it does propose that the country shall take security against the country-not to pursue any further, after the 30th of June, 1842, the great work of developing her own resources; to which work a system of protection is indispensable. For I have not heard one gentleman, either friend or foe to it, say that this bill would afford a system of protection; nor is it possible that any one should say this, and speak from knowledge of the subject. But it has only been said, in its favor, first, that it preserves the principle of protection. Now, what signifies it to preserve the principle of protection, if protection itself is not preserved? If the principle is so limited and restricted in its exercise, as it is in this bill, that it cannot give protection, it might as well be out of the bill as in it. It is nugatory as to the great object. And then, it is said that the bill, as it is, will protect some branches of industry. True, it may some-a few. I think it probable that some few fragments of the system will remain, and survive the shock of 1842; but the system itself will be gone; and with it will be gone the necessary means to the great end of developing the resources of the country, which, "What shame, what loss is this to Greece! what joy To Troy's proud monarch, and the friends of Troy !" If we were now at war with Great Britain, and if by the fortune of that war this country was subdued, and at the mercy of Great Britain; (I ask pardon of my country for supposing an event of the contest which I know would be impossible;) in that event, the worst we should have to apprehend from our conquerors would be, that very condition which we are going to impose upon ourselves. The greatest calamity that foreign war and foreign subjugation could inflict, is going to be inflicted on the country by the country herself. What, then, Great Britain, with her thousand ships, with her Wellington, and her Wellington armies, and by a ten years' war, could not acquire to herself, she is going to secure to herself by one single act of our own folly. Her young and gigantic rival, and the only rival she now dreads, whose eagle she has seen taking his flights with many a jealous pang, that young and gigantic rival is going to relieve her from all her inquietudes, by becoming her tributary. We may, then, bid adieu to all those visions of glory in which we have so fondly indulged, as connected with our future destinies, and take an humble rank with the tributary nations of the earth; tributary to a nation who has the wisdom to adhere to a policy which we have the folly to reject, and shall have renounced forever. I know it is said this bill is not to be what it professes to be a permanent system for this country. But, if this system is to be adopted, and then to be destroyed, who are to destroy it? We, the friends of the policy, are to destroy it-we are to wage the war-we are to make the attack-we are to obtain the conquest over it. Now, I had rather be in a condition to have to defend our own possessions, than to have to attack and conquer those of the enemy. I do not like the idea of first giving up our possessions, and then of going to war in order to recover them back. The event of that war depends upon the uncertain_contingencies of the uncertain future; and I see nothing in the hopes resting on those contingencies to countervail the force of my contrary fears, and to quiet my mind on the subject. MARCH, 1833.] Public Lands: Distribution of the proceeds of the Sales among the States. [SENATE. It is said, too, that the treasury is in danger | scorched by the fire. The tendency to fly off of a plethora, from a surplus, or accumulating from the Union, I should hope, was not very surpluses, of revenue; that this danger must strong, if it could be overcome and constrained be obviated by graduating our income to the by so frail a ligature. But to be serious: this wants of the Government. Wants of the Gov- very argument is what alarms me most as to ernment! These must depend upon the ob- the stability and efficiency of this Union. Here, jects of expenditure by the Government; and in this body, we have seen an inherent power these must be determined by the wisdom and claimed for the States unknown to the constidiscretion of Congress, hereafter, as well as tution, and incompatible with it, and to be desnow; they cannot be prescribed and limited potic over this Union. We have seen a State by us. If an overflowing treasury be an evil, arm herself with this power, and put herself in it will be time enough to apply a remedy when an attitude to exert it. That State hath neither the evil exists. At present it does not exist, disarmed herself nor renounced this power. nor can we know with certainty that it will Now we offer to her this bill to induce her, not exist hereafter. But is an overflowing treas- to renounce this power, but to refrain from its ury an evil? and such an evil, that all the great exercise at present. Is not this a practical interests of the country, involved in the devel-recognition of this fatal power? What is to opment of her great resources, must be sacri- hinder this State from resuming this attificed to its prevention? An evil! Who feels tude hereafter? What is to hinder any other this surplus of revenue, if there should be a sur- from assuming the same attitude, by this power plus, as a burden? From whom does it abstract to wrest from the General Government any one necessary of life, one comfort, one luxury? one of its powers, or, what amounts to the same Not an individual in this country. The reve-thing, prevent its exercise? In that case, by nues of this country are no more felt as a bur- this precedent, we are either to yield the disden upon them, by the people of this country,puted power, or to buy off the Union by a than the dews of heaven are felt as a burden compromise. If this precedent is to govern upon them; they are alike unconscious of both; hereafter, where is the security for the stability and no one would think of the former as a bur- or efficiency of this Union? I cannot see. den, but for the metaphysics employed to prove it to be a burden. What sort of burden is that which is felt only by the aid of metaphysics, and then only by the aid of imagina tion? I hope we shall consider, and, if we do not, that a future Congress will consider, the great and glorious objects yet to be accomplished by this Government, and to which these surpluses will be necessary-objects of national improvement, demanded by the geographical situation of the country, and which constitute, in fact, one of her great resources yet to be developed; and the establishments, too, necessary to develop the resources of the mind of the country-if she should deem it worthy of her ambition to aspire to the most glorious of all fame, the fame which mind confers by her immortal works. Believe me, the establishments necessary to this glorious end are yet to be created. Little views to little savings, very proper for petty corporations, are not the views proper to the statesman in the American Congress. These ought to be large and prospective, and to correspond to the grandeur of the trust committed to his charge; otherwise he runs the risk of dwarfing the country born of gigantic proportions to the littleness of his little views. The prospect of these surpluses, then, far from embarrassing, rejoices me; for I see in them the means to great and desirable ends, and without occasioning a particle of grievance or inconvenience to the people. I know it is said, too, that the dissolution of the Union is threatened, and that this bill is necessary to hold the States together. Yet it is said, in the same breath, that this bond is no bond, and is represented as frangible as the flax This bill, however, I suppose, is to pass, notwithstanding all these considerations, and the many others that have been urged with so much more ability. If it does pass, it may smother the fire now raging in one place, but I fear it will preserve the embers that one day will consume the fabric of the Union. [Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Frelinghuysen, Mr. Dallas, Mr. Ewing of Ohio, Mr. Mangum of North Carolina, Mr. John M. Clayton of Delaware, Mr. Webster, Mr. Silsbee of Massachusetts, Mr. Forsyth, Mr. Sprague, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Silas Wright, Mr. Bibb, and Mr. Clay, made brief expositions of their personal sentiments towards the bill, or of its practical working on certain points; after which the vote was taken, and the bill passed by the following vote :] YEAS.-Messrs. Bell, Bibb, Black, Calhoun, Chambers, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, Foot, Forsyth, Frelinghuysen, Grundy, Hill, Holmes, Johnston, King, ManRobinson, Sprague, Tomlinson, Tyler, Waggaman, gum, Miller, Moore, Naudain, Poindexter, Rives, White, Wright-29. NAYS.-Messrs. Benton, Buckner, Dallas, Dickerson, Dudley, Hendricks, Knight, Prentiss, Robbins, Ruggles, Seymour, Silsbee, Smith, Tipton, Webster, Wilkins-16. Public Lands: Distribution of the proceeds of the Sales among the States. [The Senate took up the amendment of the House of Representatives to the bill providing for the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands.] Mr. CLAY said that, although the objects to which these proceeds were to be applied were SENATE.] Public Lands-Miscellaneous Business-Adjournment. [MARCH, 1833. a favorite point with him, yet as he had found | The resolution was unanimously adopted. that he was differing on this topic with some About half-past four o'clock, A. M., a comof his friends, and as it had been suggested that mittee on the part of the Senate was appointed there might be difficulty in another quarter if to join such committee as the House might apthe words struck out by the House were re-point, to wait on the President, and inform him tained, he would move to concur in the amend- that the two Houses were ready to adjourn. ment. Mr. ROBINSON expressed a hope that the question would not be pressed at this late hour, in so thin a Senate, when many were absent who are so much interested in the measure. Mr. CLAY expressed his regret that, at this late period of the session, the Senator from Illinois should wish for delay, which might endanger the passage of the bill. It was not the fault of the members present that there are so many absentees. He wished to take the question to-night, in order that the Executive might have time to act upon the bill. Mr. CHAMBERS said he should vote against the amendment. He would rather vote against the bill than take it with the amendment. The question was then taken on the motion to concur, and decided by YEAS.-Messrs. Bell, Black, Buckner, Clay, Clayton, Dudley, Ewing, Foot, Hendricks, Holmes, King, Mangum, Moore, Naudain, Poindexter, Prentiss, Robbins, Seymour, Silsbee, Sprague, Tomlinson, Tyler, White-23. NAYS.-Messrs. Bibb, Chambers, Grundy, Robinson, Tipton-5. And at 11 o'clock the Senate adjourned. SATURDAY, March 2. Evening Session. On motion of Mr. DUDLEY, the Senate then proceeded to the consideration of executive busi ness. When the doors were re-opened, Mr. CLAY was found speaking. He was engaged in expressing his approbation of the conduct of the President pro tempore of this body. The present, he said, had been a very arduous session. He should not have voted for the present presiding officer, had he been present when he was elected; nor did he mean to say what would be his vote, if the election were now to be made. But he gave with great pleasure his testimony in favor of the faithful, and able, and impartial manner in which that officer had performed his duty. He concluded with asking leave to present the following resolution: Resolved, That the thanks of the Senate be presented to th Honorable HUGH L. WHITE, for the dignity, ability, and impartiality, with which he has discharged the duties of President pro tempore of the Senate. The House having appointed a committee, the joint committee waited on the President, and returned with an answer that he had no further communication to make; whereupon, Mr. KING moved that the Senate adjourn. Mr WHITE (President pro tempore) then rose and addressed the Senate, as follows: Before the presiding officer leaves the chair, he is desirous of saying a few words. We met under circumstances calculated to induce us to believe that matters of high excitement would arise during our sojourn here. It was by the will of the majority of this body that I was placed in this chair, to preside over your deliberations. I looked upon the high honor thus conferred to be but temporary; for could I then have foreseen that I was to act in this capacity until now, most cerinduced me to shrink from undertaking the task. tainly my distrust of my experience would have The duties of the Chair are at all times arduous, but the more particularly so when topics of high interest and importance are under discussion. My experience, however, has convinced me that even under these circumstances, the presiding officer may have a pleasant task to perform, when every member submits himself to be guided by the rules of this body, instead of having a law for himself. I take pleasure in stating, that during the whole course of the session, no act has been done by any one member, and no single expression has reached my ear, calculated to give pain to the presiding officer. If, in the discharge of the duties confided to me, I have had the misfortune to injure or to wound the feelings of any individual, I trust he will do me the justice to believe that it has happened without any intention on my part. I have endeavored to act impartially towards every member of this body; and I would have them to have had to perform, and amidst all the excitements bear in mind, that if, during the arduous duties I that have existed, any thing like order has been preserved, it must be attributed more to the kindness and courtesy of Senators towards the presiding officer, than to the capacity which he was able to bring to the duties assigned him. It is not probable, in the course of human events, that we can all ever assemble in this chamber again. I shall, after putting the question, take a farewell of all who are here present, and I feel regret that I cannot exchange good wishes with those who are absent; hoping that it may be our good fortune all to meet again. The President then put the question on adjournment, which was carried, nemine dissentiente; and The Senate, at five o'clock, A. M., adjourned sine die. DECEMBER, 1832.] Death of Mr. Doddridge-Veto of the Harbor Bill-President's Message. [H. or R. TWENTY-SECOND CONGRESS.-SECOND SESSION. PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. MONDAY, December 3, 1832. At 12 o'clock Mr. Speaker STEVENSON took the chair, and called the House to order. The Clerk having called over the roll, one hundred and sixty-five members answered to their names; which being a quorum, a message was ordered to be sent to the Senate announcing that the House of Representatives was organized, and ready to proceed to business. Death of Mr. Doddridge. Chair the message of the President to the two Houses of Congress at the opening of the session. (See Senate Proceedings.) The message was read, referred to the com- The following message was received from the again in stating my objections to the bill entitled "An act for the improvement of certain harbors, and the navigation of certain rivers," which was not received a sufficient time before the close of the last session to enable me to examine it before the adjournment. Mr. MERCER rose and observed, that it was In addition to the general views I have heretohis melancholy duty to announce to the House fore expressed to Congress on the subject of interthe decease of his lamented colleague, the Honor-nal improvement, it is my duty to advert to it able PHILIP DODDRIDGE, and to offer a resolution, assuring the friends of the deceased, and the country at large, of the sense entertained by this House of the loss it had sustained. In performing this duty, Mr. M. said, that were he to indulge the feeling he possessed of the merits of his departed friend, he should find himself speedily arrested. In intellectual power, that friend had been surpassed by few in this or any other country; in integrity of motive, he was excelled by none; and in simplicity of heart, by no man he had ever known. Mr. M. then offered the following resolution: Resolved, unanimously, That the members of the House of Representatives, from a sincere desire of showing every mark of respect due to the memory of PHILIP DODDRIDGE, late a member thereof from the State of Virginia, will go in mourning by the usual mode of wearing crape round the left arm for one month. The resolution was agreed to. TUESDAY, December 4. A message was announced from the President of the United States; and Mr. Donelson, his private secretary, delivered to the Having maturely considered that bill within the time allowed me by the constitution, and being convinced that some of its provisions conflict with the rule adopted for my guide on this subject of legislation, I have been compelled to withhold from it my signature; and it has, therefore, failed to become a law. To facilitate as far as I can the intelligent action of Congress upon the subjects embraced in this bill, I transmit, herewith, a report from the Engineer Department, distinguishing, as far as the information in its possession would enable it, between those appropriations which do, and those which do not, conflict with the rules by which my conduct in this respect has hitherto been governed. By that report it will be seen that there is a class of appropriations in the bill for the improvement of streams, that are not navigable, that are not channels of commerce, and that do not pertain to the harbors or ports of entry designated by any law, or have any ascertained connection with the usual establishments for the security of commerce, external or internal. It is obvious that such appropriations involve the sanction of a principle that concedes to the General H. OF R.] President's Message-Election of Sergeant-at-Arms—Public Lands. [DECEMBER, 1832, Government an unlimited power over the subject | candidates were nominated for the office. of internal improvements; and that I could not, After three unsuccessful ballotings, the result therefore, approve a bill containing them, without on the fourth ballot stood as follows: receding from the positions taken in my veto of the For William J. McCormick Maysville road bill, and, afterwards, in my annual William B. Robinson message of December 7, 1830. William A. Gordon Jonathan Nye Thomas B. Randolph It is to be regretted that the rules by which this classification of the improvements in this bill has been made by the Engineer Department are not more definite and certain, and that embarrassment may not always be avoided by the observance of them; but, as neither my own reflection, nor the lights derived from other sources, have furnished me with a better guide, I shall continue to apply my best exertions to their application and enforcement. In thus employing my best faculties to exercise the powers with which I am invested, to avoid evils, and to effect the greatest attainable good for our common country, I feel that I may trust to your cordial co-operation; and the experience of the past leaves me no room to doubt the liberal indulgence and favorable consideration of those for whom we act. And many scattering votes. MONDAY, December 10. Election of Sergeant-at-arms. The House then again proceeded to ballot for a Sergeant-at-arms, to supply the vacancy in that office occasioned by the resignation of John Oswald Dunn; and, on the ninth ballot, Thomas B. Randolph, of Virginia, was elected. TUESDAY, December 11. On motion of Mr. CARR, of Indiana, the petitions of the citizens of the State of Kentucky and Indiana, praying for an appropriation to be made to improve the Indian Chute, through the falls of the Ohio river, which were referred to the Committee on Internal Improvements at the last session of Congress, and not acted upon, are again referred to said committee. In mak The grounds upon which I have given my assent to appropriations for the construction of light-houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and the removal of sand-bars, sawyers, and other temporary or partial impediments in our navigable rivers and harbors, and with which many of the provisions of this bill correspond, have been so fully stated, that I trust a repetition of them is unnecessary. Had there been incorporated in the bill no provisions for works of a different description, depending on principles which extend the power of making appropriations to every object which the discretion of the Governing this motion, ment may select, and losing sight of the distinctions between national and local character, which I had stated would be my future guide on the subject, I should have cheerfully signed the bill. ANDREW JACKSON. After some conversation between him and Mr. WICKLIFFE, he agreed to postpone the consideration of his motion for reconsideration until to-morrow. Mr. EVERETT offered the following resolution, which lies on the table one day : Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to communicate to this House, as far as the public service will permit, such portions as have not heretofore been communicated, of the instructions given to our ministers in France on the subject of claims for spoliations, and of the correspondence of said ministers with the French Government, and with the Secretary of State of the United States on the same subject. The hour appointed for proceeding to the election of a Sergeant-at-arms, having arrived, the House proceeded to the ballot: twenty-six Mr. C. remarked, that it was a subject in which a large portion of the commercial and agricultural community of the West felt a deep interest, and hoped that the action of the House might be had upon it during the present session. The Public Lands. Mr. CLAY, of Alabama, offered the following: Resolved, That the Committee on Public Lands be instructed to inquire into the expediency of reduc ing the price of such portions of the public lands as have been offered at public sale, and have remained unsold for the period of five years and upwards. Resolved further, That said committee inquire into the expediency of relinquishing to the respective States in which they are situated, such portions of the public lands as may have been offered at public sale, and, being subject to private entry, have remained unsold for the period of ten years. Mr. WILLIAMS, of North Carolina, observed that the resolution involved a very important question-perhaps as important a one as had ever been offered to the consideration of Congress; and he wished that its consideration should be postponed to Monday next. Why was this unceasing demand heard for the relinquishment by the United States of all its public lands? For his own part, he was unable to give any good reason for it; and as he desired time to reflect on the subject of the reso lution, he moved its postponement till Monday. | Mr. CLAY said that this was a species of |