they were all ascribable to an improper organization? He was very unwilling to pronounce judgment on individual character, but from what he had already heard, he should reserve himself for a still narrower and stricter invesstigation. There had been deep turpitude connected with this Department, and its existence had been permitted for years, until it had produced the foul and monstrous corruption which had been now developed. The Govsternment had not yet crept to the age of manhood, and yet it had obtained this maturity in corruption. Was there then to be nothing but this prospective arrangement, from which there would be no advantage in bringing to punishment those who had been fattening on the public spoils? Was it proper for the Senate to stand by and see such a state of things? If the public officers had acted thus improperly, and the President chose to assume it as his own act, was this House to submit? When he thus asserted his sole responsibility, was this House to remain silent? Let it not be said that it is inconsistent with the policy of Senators to go into this matter now. If not now, he was fearful that it would not be touched this session. He was anxious to lay his hand on the culprits. God grant there might be none among them for whom he had a kind feeling. But, even if so, he would do his duty as a representative of the State of South Carolina, and hold him up to punishment. He would ask, then, if the Senate were to be put off with this bill, and there was to be no further investigation of the past? After the committee had gone through such honorable labor, there ought to be some

er

other conclusion.

[SENATE.

ments as those he had just listened to, he repeated, with the utmost mortification. The guilt of this Department was open and palpable. No one on the floor of the Senate could be bold enough to rise in his place to extenuate or palliate it. All saw and lamented the rapid strides which deep and debasing corruption had made in it. It exceeded any thing in the history of the rottenest ages of the Roman empire. Could it be possible that any one on that floor could rise and attempt to sustain this Department, after listening, as they had done, to these most extraordinary and mortifying disclosures of the committee? Should the President sustain, and the people submit to them, there would be for ever an end to our institutions. He did hope that some Senator who had more leisure than he had, would look into these documents, and prepare a resolution expressing to the people of the United States the opinion of the Senate in relation to them.

Mr. CUTHBERT said he was far from agreeing with the Senators from South Carolina. The committee had manifested much more wisdom in the course they had pursued than would have been done by adopting their recommendation. They had recommended legislative measures for the purpose of remedying evils which we could not remedy. Did we want the voice of party again to resound through these halls? If it was to be made a party cause, let it be made at a proper time, and not mingle it with the proceedings of this committee. Was this country so corrupt that the people were incapable of seeing and correcting any errors which might creep into the Government? Or was the Government so corrupt that an attempt should be made to weaken the attachment of the people to it, and the institutions of this country?

Mr. BENTON said that he would not have uttered one word on the subject before the Senate, had it not been for the remarks of the Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. CALHOUN,] who sat immediately on his left. If he understood that Senator right, he was for making a trial of the Senators on that floor. He was for proceeding judicially against the officers of the Post Office Department, for the purpose of making a trial against Senators in opposition to him. If this was the case, all he had to say to that Senator was, that he was ready to proceed, either to-day or to-morrow, to the trial.

Mr. EWING, in reply to the Senators from South Carolina, would simply say, on the part of the committee, that they did not believe that the corruptions and abuses discovered by them were consequent on the defective organization of the Post Office Department. But, at the same time, he must say that the committee never believed that these corruptions and abuses could have amounted to the enormous extent shown in the report, had the Post Office Department been organized like the other Departments of the Government. The committee had boldly and openly expressed the opinion that the vilest frauds had been committed in the transactions connected with that Department; but they had not proposed to devise any remedy for the evils that have passed, though they proposed a measure to prevent their Mr. CALHOUN said that he could not help expressrecurrence. The committee did not believe that they ing his surprise at the imputation that this was made a could propose any remedy for the evils that have exist party question. Who dreamt of making it a party quesed. They had not shrunk from the expression of the tion? If there was any one present who wished to idenmost candid and open opinion as to the flagrant abuses tify himself with such a thing, let him step forth. He of trust, and of public law, committed in that Depart- wanted to try no man. But here was a voluminous docment; and they did not hesitate to say that the President ument, that not one-hundredth part of the people of of the United States ought long since to have hurled from the United States would have an opportunity to read their offices, with indignation and disgrace, those who when printed, and they would take the impression with had so shamefully violated the high and sacred trusts re- which it had been received in this body as its true charposed in them. Opinions in relation to the facts brought acter. Did not the Senator (addressing himself to Mr. to light by the committee could as well be formed by BENTON) see that, if nothing was said in regard to the any Senator as by a member of the committee; and it report, the impression would be made abroad that the was for this consideration that they had not thought it deplorable state of the Post Office affairs would be attrinecessary to present a resolution expressive of the senti-buted merely to its being illorganized? What he (Mr. ments of the Senate.

Mr. CALHOUN said he earnestly hoped that some Senator would present a resolution expressing the sentiments and feelings of the Senate on the gross corruptions which had been exposed in the report. He had listened with the profoundest attention to the reading of the report and documents, and could solemnly aver that his most powerful feelings were those of the deepest shame and mortification. During the twenty-two years in which he had in some form or other been connected with the Government, he never could have conceived that such rottenness, such corruption, such abominable violations of trust, could ever exist in any of its depart

C.) would say was this, and he would boldly say it: it belonged to the people of the United States that they should know the sentiments of Senators on these transactions of the Department. That was what he avowed. And how could they know them, unless by incorporating the essence of what was contained in the report in a resolution. He verily believed that there was no Senator present who could object to such a proposition. The vote on it must be a unanimous one. And surely the zeal of the honorable chairman of the Post Office Committee would not carry him so far as to make this a party question. Make it a party question! Who dreamt of such a thing?

SENATE.]

Post Office Report.

Did the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. CUTHBERT] wish to identify himself with such a thing? Was that a party question which the gentleman supposed to be made? He dreamt of nothing of the kind. He had but one sentiment on this subject; and that was a deep, profound melancholy. Those who acted with him felt the deepest mortification that in so short a time such transactions could exist in this country, and could be so long tolerated. No; he acted boldly, and declared distinctly what he meant, when he repeated that the people of the United States should be put in possession of the sentiments of the Senate in regard to the document now before it. His object, then, was to obtain an expression of them. If the conduct of the Post Office Department was different from what it was said to be-if there were any sentiments which could be avowed in its favor, he should be happy to hear them.

He had made it a point to attend to the reading of the report, as he did not know that he should have time to peruse it after it was printed. If there was any diversity of opinion, it was due to them that they should have an opportunity of expressing their sentiments. His object was to obtain a fair expression of the opinion of this body. If no other gentleman would make a motion to that effect, he would. No denunciation-no charge of party-could ever have the slightest influence on him. What he had said, he would repeat—that he had done so from a conviction of his right and duty, and he was not to be intimidated. His object was free, direct, open, and avowed.

Mr. C., in conclusion, again said that his only object was that the people should be put in possession of the sentiments of the Senate.

Mr. CUTHBERT observed that no objection would be made by him to prevent the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] from pursuing any course his overinspiring zeal dictated. What he was about to say was, and he would maintain it, that, in the present stage of the business, to pursue a judicial course would neither be consonant with the dictates of good taste, in good feeling, or warranted by sound judgment. This much he was ready to maintain, and he invited the gentleman to proceed.

Mr. PRESTON replied. He had asked of the committee if they had not intended to offer any resolutions expressive of their convictions and views concerning the conduct of the Department. And it had been objected to him that he was interrupting the ordinary course of things, and had evinced a disposition to raise party feelings in this hall on one of the gravest matters which had ever been presented for consideration. No one knew better than himself the strength and influence of party feeling. He acknowledged himself to be a party man, affected, in some degree, by that feeling; and, yielding the same measure to others which was dealt out to himself, he might well be permitted to distrust the gentlemen on the other side of some slight infection of the same feeling. What was the ordinary and regular course in matters of this kind? The committee were empowered to report by bill or otherwise. They had reported by bill. And this bill did not carry out the views in the report of the conduct of the Department so strongly as they might have been enforced by resolution. The gentleman from Ohio had said that the committee looked to a prospective remedy. Now, he (Mr P.) wanted a vivid and unequivocal expression of the over-boiling, honest, and indignant feelings of the Senate at this glaring exposition of abuses. Was this party feeling? What was the course pursued last year? The Committee on the Post Office had reported sundry resolutions expressive of the feelings then produced by investigation, and the same ought to have been their present course. And was the recommendation of this principle, which was enter

[JAN. 27, 1835.

tained at the last session, to be scouted as an attempt to excite party feelings? Was it to be itself characterized as a burst of party feeling? The corruptions of the Department could not be concealed. They had become so manifest to the public eye, that no one could be found to defend the enormons frauds which were set forth in the report of the committee.

On the vote last year on one of the resolutions of the committee, party feeling had entirely subsided. Gentlemen who had been pitted against each other all the previous part of the session, maintaining their adverse opinions with the utmost vehemence of expression, agreed on that occasion, and every Senator, as his name was called, not excepting even the chairman of the Post Office Committee himself, concurred in voting for the resolution declaring the course of the Postmaster General a violation of law. It never had entered into the heart of any one man that the feeling on that occasion partook of party spirit. But if the black catalogue now presented deserved the coloring given to it in the report of the committee-if the facts stated in the report of the majority were true, as stated, he should protest, under the operation of party feeling, perhaps, to a certain extent, that no circumstances connected with party feeling could have induced him to desire that such an exposition should go abroad. He had no desire to see a system, so generally good as ours, injured and degraded by such fraudulent practices. He had hoped that he should never, as a party man, be furnished with such a weapon as this to wield against this administration. He should have been glad to see a resolution similar to that which was adopted last session by the unanimous vote of the SenHe should be glad to meet the gentleman from Georgia on any resolution so worded as to avoid the imputation of party feeling, for the purpose of giving a correct expression and imbodying of the views of the

ate.

Senate.

Why (said Mr. P.) should we stir up party feeling now? What object can we hope to obtain? We bare been beaten. I yield that to the gentleman from Geor gia. And it would now be useless to make any attempt to stem the tide which sets so powerfully against us. Í could not therefore desire to stir up party feelings in the breasts of others; nor for our own good, nor for any purpose, take any party ground. But, although he entertained these views, he considered it to be his duty, under his oath, to do every thing within the grasp of his ability to arrest the torrent of corruption which was now spreading its destructive inundation over the land. Unless this was done, God only knew what would be the consequences. Therefore, he had entertained the hope that the committee would have offered a resolution cal culated to remove this foul stain upon our national character. The plague spot had appeared upon the bosom of the infant; and it was their duty to do every thing in their power to remove it. If it must prey on the whole of the body politic, and our institutions must fall a victim to the foul and loathsome disease, let the Senate be able to say that they had done all they could do to arrest its progress.

He had made this suggestion on the subject of a resolution, because it had been the habit of committees to do so, and they might do it in this case with perfect propriety. Last year a string of resolutions accompanied the report, as well as a bill. There could be no person who had any doubts of the existence of malfeasance in the Department; and that its administration had not been conducted as a due regard for the interests, the honor, and the dignity of the country demanded that it should have been. Was it proper, then, when these facts were presented in such black and glaring colors, that the Senate should receive the information in the ordinary manner, and coolly pass on to the orders

of the day, just as though nothing had happened. He had intended to say nothing on this subject, and would not have risen but for the apparent apathy of the Senate in reference to the matter, but he feared lest this apathy might be received as an acquiescence in a state of things which ought not to be tolerated. It might be inferred that there was a disposition to acquiesce, when only a prospective remedy was offered by the committee, as if all the abuses which had been detected and exposed had been merely the result of the mal-organization of the office. He was convinced that they were not all the result of that mal-organization, but that they were to be ascribed, in a great degree, to the corruptions of the officers employed there. If such a collection of vermin were feeding on the Government, it was their duty to hunt out and destroy them. He would not pretend to suggest the sort of resolution which should be offered. He had only intended to call the attention of the Senator from Georgia to the fact that there was a resolution reported by the committee at the last session, which had been sustained by a unanimous vote of the Senate, and he thought that such a resolution would be most desirable, if made at present.

Mr. CUTHBERT made a brief reply, which, as his back was towards the reporters, and his delivery remarkably rapid, was almost unintelligible to them. He was understood to say that, if he had felt, after the first remarks of the Senator from South Carolina, the same as he did now, he should not have risen and expressed himself so warmly as he had done. He agreed, for the most part, with what had now fallen from that gentleman. But still there was some exception which suggested itself to his mind, for he could not believe that this Republic had already arrived at that point of corruption as to present a warning example to the whole world.

Mr. SOUTHARD then rose and said that he should have made no remarks, but for the call which had been so emphatically made on the committee by the Senators from South Carolina. The object which these Senators had in view did not escape the attention of the com

mittee.

Mr. S. was proceeding, when, at the suggestion of Mr. EWING, in consequence of the lateness of the hour, he gave way, and

The Senate adjourned.

WEDNESDAY, January 28.

ALABAMA RESOLUTIONS.

[SENATE.

punging the resolutions from the journals. He had then made use of the word expunge, in contradistinction to the word repeal, or the word reverse, because it was his opinion then, and that opinion had been confirmed by all his subsequent reflection, that repeal or reversal of the resolution would not do adequate justice. To do that would require a complete expurgation of the journals. It would require that process which is denominated expunging, by which, to the present and to all future times, it would be indicated that that had been placed upon the journals which should never have gone there. He had given that notice, after serious reflection, that it might be seen that the Senate was trampling the constitution of the United States under feet; and not only that, but also the very forms, to say nothing of the substance, of all criminal justice.

He had given this notice in obedience to the dictates of his bosom, which were afterwards sustained by the decision of his head, without consultation with any other person, but after conference only with himself and his God. To a single human being he had said that he should do it, but he had not consulted with any one. In the ordinary routine of business, no one was more ready to consult with his friends, and to defer to their opinions, than he was; but there were some occasions on which he held council with no man, but took his own course, without regard to consequences. On this occasion he had counselled with no being on earth, for he had made no calculation as to consequences. It would have been a matter of entire indifference with him, had the whole Senate risen as one man, and declared a determination to give a unanimous vote against him. It would have mattered nothing. He would not have deferred to any human being. Actuated by these feelings, he had given notice of his intention in the month of May; and in obedience to that determination he had, on the last day of the session, laid his resolution on the table, in order to keep the matter alive.

This brought him to the answer to the question proposed. The presentation of the resolutions of the Legislature of Alabana afforded a fit and proper occasion to give that public notice which he had already informally and privately given to many members of the Senate. He had said that he should bring forward his resolu tion at the earliest convenient time. And yesterday evening, when he saw the attempt which was made to give to a proceeding emanating from the Post Office Committee, and to which, by the unanimous consent of that committee, a legislative direction had been assigned, a new form, by the two Senators from South Carolina, so as to make it a proceeding against persons, in contradistinction to the public matters imbodied in the report; when he heard these persons assailed by one of the Senators from South Carolina, in such a manner as to prevent any possibility of doubt concerning them; and when he discovered that the object of these gentlemen was impeachment in substance, if not in form, he did at once form the determination to give notice this Mr. CLAY said, before any order was taken for lay-morning of his intention to move his resolution at the ing these resolutions on the table, resolutions which appeared to be addressed to the Senators from Alabama, and in the nature of instructions to them what they were required by the Legislature to do, he should be glad to know, from the honorable gentleman who had presented them, whether it was his intention now, or on any future occasion, to submit a proposition to the Senate to expunge from the journal of the Senate the resolution to which those resolutions referred?

Mr. KING presented the preamble and joint resolutions of the Legislature of the State of Alabama, instructing their Senators in Congress to use their untiring efforts to cause to be expunged from the journals of the Senate the resolution of the last session relative to the removal of the public deposites from the Bank of the United States.

b The resolutions having been read,

Mr. BENTON rose and recalled to the Senate the time when the resolution, to which the Alabama resolutions referred, was adopted by the Senate. He had then, in his place, given immediate notice that he should commence a series of motions for the purpose of ex

earliest convenient period.

This was his answer to the question which had been proposed.

Mr. KING, of Alabama, said he was surprised to hear the question of the honorable Senator from Kentucky, as he did not expect such an inquiry: for he had supposed it was well understood by every member of the Senate what his sentiments were in regard to the right of instruction. The Legislature of Alabama had instructed him to pursue a particular course, and he should obey their instructions. With regard to the resolution to which the Legislature alluded, he could merely say that he voted against it at the time it was adopted by the Senate. His opinion as to it was then,

Sir, (said Mr. M.,) my colleague might have saved himAs to the propriety of acting on the subject then, that self the trouble of informing the Senate that the resolu would depend upon the opinions of gentlemen as to the tions were not designed to influence his conduct on the importance, the great importance, of having the journal subject of the expunging resolution; bis willingness to of the Senate freed from what many supposed to be an vote in conformity with the instructions upon this subunconstitutional act of the Senate, although the majori-ject, he presumed, would not be doubted either here