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disperse the Council of Five Hundred, or of Forty-eight, by the bayonet. I have been told that, very lately, the clerks in the several departments have been required to renew their official oaths. For what purpose? I must, in candor, say, that I have as yet no serious apprehensions of a forcible dissolution of the Senate. The army and the navy, thank God, are sound and patriotic to the core. They will not allow themselves to be servile instruments of treason, usurpation, and the overthrow of civil liberty, if any such designs now exist. And if the President marches at the head of either or both of his cabinets, to put down the Senate, I think our sergeant-at-arms, with his assistants, can repel, capture, and give a good account of the invading foe.

I second the motion of the Senator from New Jersey to print and refer the proceedings which he has presented. Mr. FORSYTH said, that, as great importance seemed to be attached to this proceeding, he should be glad to know the object of this convention of delegates, and the manner in which they were chosen by the people.

Mr. SOUTHARD repeated what he had before stated on the subject.

[APRIL 23, 1834

The gentleman from Kentucky had understood that a certain expression had fallen from General Jackson, in a conversation with the brother of Napoleon, the ex-King of Spain; and, on this understanding, he had charged the President with a desire to disperse the legislature of the United States by force. Now, he put it to the gentleman from Kentucky, whether such an inference was just to the President of the United States.

Mr. PRESTON then made some observations which were only partially heard. He stated that the President had, in his message, stated the fact, that certain Senators had voted otherwise than they had been instructed. Why, in this canvass of Senatorial motives, had he spread on the Executive Journal the facts of these instructions, and that the Senators had not complied with them? Was it all surplusage? Was it not intended to warrant any inference? If it was intended that no inference should be drawn from the facts, why was so useless, so ridiculous a course pursued, as to place the facts in the message? It reminded him of the situation of a certain ridiculous person in a farce, who put to every one the question"Have you ten pence about you? I only ask for infor

Mr. FORSYTH resumed. He understood the thing.mation." It appeared that, in the State of New Jersey, there were Mr. FORSYTH explained. He did not say that no inseveral meetings of persons holding particular opinions ference was to be drawn. The President had been charon the subject of the late measure of the Executive. ged with directly stating that the Senators had not done These persons had appointed delegates to meet in a con- their duty. To that he had replied; certainly, the Prevention, and here were the proceedings. And we were sident must have intended that inference should be drawn gravely told by the gentleman from Kentucky, that this from his statement of facts. was the true and obligatory sense of the people, to oper Mr. PRESTON resumed. Certainly; and he intended ate on their representatives in Congress, any thing in the that it should be inferred that the representatives of pubproceedings of the legislature of the State to the contra- lic opinion in those States had not performed their duty. ry notwithstanding. He put it to the gentleman from Every body was able to comprehend it. But the gentleKentucky to say, if he could, that this was a convention man from Georgia had laid it down that the electors alone representing a majority of the people of New Jersey. had a right to instruct, and that the legislature was reThere had been no expression of the sense of the people sponsible only to the people. Now, he might pause here to through the ballot box; it was the opinion of one side, an compare the doctrines inferrible from the message, with opinion expressed merely for political and party effect; certain other proceedings respecting legislatures. This and they who represent the State in Congress are re-proclamation was intended against the Senate. They had quired to take this expression for their guide. Now, all had one previously against the bank, in which the Presi this was merely matter of opinion. He wished to be in-dent took all the responsibility. There had been another formed who ought to instruct the Senators of the State in proclamation, never to be forgotten, in which it was anCongress, but they who elected them. This question he nounced that the people of a sovereign State ought not put to those who believed that the Senators were bound to obey the Legislature of that State, but were bound to to obey their instructions. The correct principle was, render obedience to him; and where the Legislature had that they who elect the legislature have a right to control passed a law by a majority of two-thirds, he threatened that legislature; and that the legislature who elect the the people with fire and sword, if they did not disobey Senators have a right to instruct them. The Senators are that law. But now it suits his purpose to appeal to the to obey the legislature, and the legislature is responsible Legislature against the people. to the people. The people, in this instance, ought to have directed their instructions to the legislature, to undo what they had previously done.

Mr. P. then went into an argument on the powers inherent in the Senate, as trustees appointed by the Legislatures, who were themselves only trustees of the people; The gentleman from Kentucky had done injustice to contending that the Senate ought to look to the original the President of the United States. It was not alleged sources of their power, and not merely to the court by by the President that the Senators had not done their which they were appointed. The Senate, therefore, are duty; but he had merely given the facts concerning the bound to look to the people of the States, and not to the proceedings of the legislatures of New Jersey and Maine. Legislatures. The people had a right to meet in convenAs to the instructions to the President, where did the tions, and, instead of instructing their representatives, gentleman from Kentucky find them? We have had me- might desire them to come home. This they could do. morials in abundance on both sides, but only a portion of If he were told he must give up his sentiments in obethe people have as yet spoken. A great part of the dience to instructions, he could never consent to do it, people have not yet said any thing. The President but he would admit the power of the people to abridge would be at a loss to find any instructions in these con-his term of service. Mr. P. then went on to deny that flicting memorials. If he were to come here to ascertain the power of instruction was necessarily implied by the what proportion of the people have spoken, how many power of election, and asked if the college of electors, would he find? Of the twelve millions of the American after performing their duty in electing the President, people, how many have spoken? Gentlemen made a could meet together and instruct him as to the manner in great mistake. They thought there were great chan- which be should discharge the duties of his office. He ges, because there were noisy, riotous meetings, factious considered that the election of Senators by the Legisla assemblages, amounting almost to treason. In great tures was a function precisely similar, just as definite and cities, masses of individuals were easily assembled, and unextended a power. They were appointed to elect were excited by trifling causes. Let gentlemen wait a Senators, just as electors were chosen to make a Presi little, and they would see the real opinion of the people. Ident.

APRIL 23, 1834.]

New Jersey Memorials.

[SENATE.

He believed that the Senators do their duty when they should meet here at the commencement of another sesobey the State, and not the Legislature of the State. It sion, there would no longer be any disposition to dishad been said that we calculate too warmly on what is go- pute the fact.

ing on throughout the country. It might be so. The Mr. FORSYTH, in reply to Mr. PRESTON, said he Senate had appealed to the people, and they are the ar- had spoken of the doctrine of instruction as settled in Virbiters between the departments of the Government.ginia, which in that State, according to theory and pracWhen their decision shall come, the Senate must obey, tice, is, that the people of the United States shall instruct but that decision must come in a proper form: but he be- their Representatives in Congress, and that the Legislalieved that their decision would sustain the Senate. Noth-tures of the States shall instruct their Senators. The Sening but the most unequivocal testimony could convince ators were elected by the Legislature alone, and the peohim that the people can, will, or dare submit to the usur-ple had no means of interfering but by acting on the Lepations of the Executive. gislature. Therefore, if the Legislature instructs their He believed that a great change was going on, and that Senators, it is supposed that they have the opinions of the Who was he to the permanence of their Government was involved in the majority by whom they are elected.

issue, and he believed that it would be preserved. If, obey! Why, the constitution of his State was as binding however, the opinions of the gentleman from Georgia on him as on the Legislature who elected him; and he was could prevail, we should be without hope. The change first to obey that. But where the right of instruction is was going on. "Clamor!" says the gentleman from conceded, he must obey those who elected him. The Georgia, "interested clamors, faction, almost treason!" Senators from New Jersey both contended that the will says the gentleman from Georgia. All the movements of of the people of New Jersey is against their Legislathe people against the encroachments of power have beenture. Now, said he, I go for the converse of the propdenounced as factious. The people a faction! The cries osition, for they were elected by a majority of the peoof an injured, outraged, suffering, distressed people, fac-ple, and until another election was had, it could not tious! The prayers and supplications and remonstran-be known that they had lost the favor of the people. ces of a people, driven, pressed to ruin, for relief for The Senator from South Carolina had said, that an aptheir wives and children, factious! The tempest which peal was made to the people, and that they would deis now agitating the whole of our sea-coast, arising mere- cide it against the administration. When that decision ly from faction! How does faction act? In riotous move-was made, he would submit to it, whatever it might be. ments, and in driving freemen from the polls? These But something, he must observe, was to be gained by ma may be indications of faction. But this was the first time king these assertions beforehand, that public opinion was he had heard that, when the people take their case into in such a way. It was forestalling public opinion, and their own hands, and say that their complaints shall be he was not willing to let it pass without giving what were heard, this is faction. Where could the gentleman from his sentiments as to public opinion.

Georgia find the facts to justify the assertion that the He appealed to the State of Pennsylvania, from which conduct of the people was "almost treason?" What is the gentleman from Massachusetts had just arrived. What treason? Can the people be guilty of treason? Is it trea- was the opinion of a majority of the people of that State? son to check the encroachments of executive power, and There was hardly but one opinion there. At least nineto say that the balance of power shall be restored? Have tenths of its population were against the Bank of the not the people a right to say this? It may be that a Pres- United States, which was the cause of all the evil. If the ident, strong in his temper, and uniting with him Con- gentleman found fault with him for speaking of factious gress in one branch, might come to the Senate and inflict proceedings in the streets of a neighboring city, he would chastisement upon it, require you to kiss the rod, and answer, that he did not refer to any expressions of opinthen to hang it up in your hall, as a perpetual memento ion by peaceable, orderly citizens, nor of the acts of any of your offence. The President may assail us through a honorable men, but of brawling crowds, profaning even thousand channels, and charge us with being bought and the Sabbath day, for the sake of abusing the President of sold, but however we may be disposed to bear our backs the United States. When the people of the United to the lash, shall it be said that the people shall not give States meant to express their disapprobation of the Prestheir sentiments to the tempest and the whirlwind, to ident, they would not profane the Sabbath for that purstrike where it will? The people of the United States pose. The people do not believe that the President That question is yet always proceed according to law. They had been exci- has seized on the public treasure. ted by attacks on the Senate; and he should be glad to see to be tried before them. I deny that he has a doit of it them express their opinions; but he desired to see them in his possession. expressed only through the legitimate and ordinary chanMr. CHAMBERS said, the honorable Senator from nels. He was convinced that the people were going on. Georgia has, at last, found a habitation and a home for They will sustain the New Jersey Senators, and all those his "faction"-his "something, not treason, but just who are doing their duty by sustaining the constitution. like treason;" he has located the scene in my State, and The public had recorded their verdict of condemnation the actors are my constituents. against the President. The flame had first caught in the proceedings of the citizens of Baltimore, on Sunday cities, and had widened and deepened there, and the coun- last. Sir, amongst the gentlemen in that assemblage, try would respond to it. The first blow was aimed at were many of my earliest and most esteemed friends, the prosperity of cities, and the cities were the first to many whose friendship and respect any man may be proud speak: but he believed that the day was advancing, when to boast; many whose character, whether for intellectual, the whole country would rise and speak in a voice which moral, or even religious attainment, will compare with an would make itself heard. equal number in any community; men who would spurn the One word only he wished to say concerning the reso-imputation of riotous, factious, almost treasonable conduct. lutions. The convention purports to represent the opin- [Mr. FORSYTH disclaimed having applied the term "alions of the people of New Jersey. At the head of this most treason" to that meeting. convention was a gentleman who had been a Jackson

The Senator alludes to

Mr. CHAMBERS said, Where does the Senator find elector. From this fact, that there was a man from treason? I ask for the persons and the occasion intended among the friends of General Jackson taking part against by the remark. his conduct, it was clear that changes were going on; and

Mr. FORSYTH here made some explanation, which was these changes are going on and multiplying by thousands not distinctly heard, and concluded by reading a parawhile we are discussing. He trusted that, when they graph from a Baltimore newspaper.]

VOL. X.-91

SENATE.]

New Jersey Memorials.

[APRIL 23, 1834.

Mr. CHAMBERS resumed. The Senator's treason, then, triarchs factious, rebellious, treasonable. Those which has no existence but in his imagination. Sir, I tell the were held on Sunday were thought impious, and the of Senator he is as wide of the true character of the gentle- fence against the Deity of Heaven was certainly not the men of Baltimore, when he describes them as riotous and less aggravated because it was in union with an offence factious, and violators of the Sabbath, as he would be against an idol scarcely less reverenced by those who were he to call them traitors. I had the best means of worshipped him. Sir, for one, I trust and hope we shall ascertaining who composed the "factious crowd" of the long witness such rebellion; I trust and hope that the same Senator. I was also hurrying on to resist the aggression treason which led our patriot sires to bold and successful upon this body, to take my seat on this floor, and receive resistance against lawless usurpation, will animate their my portion of the lecture administered to the Senate of sons to similar resistance. It is my deep conviction that the United States by Executive majesty, in this novel such is to be the issue. The people may be deluded, thing called a "protest." Having been in the city in a but they are pure in purpose; they are awakening to a few minutes after the scene which the Senator describes true conception of their danger. Thus aroused, they as factious, riotous, and not treasonable, I can tell him will inform themselves, and understanding, they will, that I found there some of those who had been leaders, with resistless might, drive out those faithless agents ardent and influential leaders, in the cause of his hero; who have betrayed their confidence. some who had been loud in his praise, who had enlisted In a Government where the laws themselves do not their affections and their passions, whose judgments were open to the people an avenue by which they can arrive at scarcely within the reach of fact or argument, but upon a desired result of correction, there must, in such a case, whom the events of the last few weeks, and more espe- be revolution and bloodshed. The people cannot, in cially, the events of the last few days, have not produced whatever numbers, speak in terms which, by the regular the most wholesome influence. The scales of error have action of the laws, will peaceably control or remove the fallen from their eyes; they see, and they deplore, the offending rulers. The emperor or the king is not periodrashness and the danger of confiding power to hands not ically elevated to the throne by the suffrages of the great only incompetent, but dangerous. They see, and they body of the people, and no resort is had to their will to deplore, that artful and wicked men are carrying out their determine his continuance. Here we are yet happily in desperate and destructive purposes, under the sanction possession of legal means to dethrone our rulers peaceably of that popularity which they have assisted to build up and effectually. The ballot-box is a weapon not less effifor him who is the cloak and the shield to this irresponsi- cient in the United States than the sword and the bayonet ble power behind the throne. in Europe. This will restrain our people in the most vioSir, I wish the Senator from Georgia could have had lent excitement. It has restrained them when nothing the same opportunity to witness the spirit that pervaded beside could have prevented violence. The just sense of the citizens of Baltimore. He would have been remind-outrage and injury inflicted upon the purity of our institued of the best days of the republic. He would have tions and the sanctity of our laws, the high claims to arbiheard the pure and unadulterated sentiments of patriot-trary power, and the wide-spread, withering ruin which ism, the most anxious and deep-toned solicitude for the has been effected in execution of these pretensions, would sacred institutions of our country-the most anxious ap-have driven any other people to revolution, to violence prehensions for the free republican principles of our glo- and forcible resistance, and thousands of American patriots rious constitution-the most trembling alarm at the threat- would this day be in arms to rescue the constitution and ened blow to the majesty of the laws. He would have the laws, but for the conviction that a bloodless battle and found these feelings deeply agitating the bosoms of men certain victory may be gained by the surer, safer means of who have most stake in society, who have long lived in elections. the community which they honor, respected and beloved I say, then, to all who desire to live and die in the freefor their intelligence, and their social, domestic, and per-dom which the peril and blood of our ancestors have pursonal virtues; and he would have found, too, that so per-chased; who mean to resist the approach of despotism at vading and intense was this feeling, that its expression was that point at which alone it can be resisted-its beginnot restrained even on the Sabbath, in a community, and ning-you who will have your public agents to adminisby those where and by whom the sanctity of that day is ter their trusts according to the laws you have prescribed regarded with as much holy reverence as by any commu- for their conduct; who do not, in short, design to have nity. It requires more self-control than I possess, to sit quietly in my chair, and hear imputed to such men the character given by the Senator from Georgia.

all power concentrated in one man-to all such I would say, Admonish your confiding neighbor of the existing danger; spread before his prejudiced mind the evident But, sir, it is the language which has always been ap- tokens of the slow poison which his political doctrine is plied by those who have usurped power, and ever will infusing into the system; urge him to throw aside the be. The bold and acknowledged conqueror, who open-shackles of party, and to look beyond the interests of one ly seizes upon the Government and claims to control its man, or even one party, and regard the great interests of whole action, breathes slaughter and extermination to all the nation-its fundamental principles of government, who dare resist his claims, and executes his threat upon its past history and practice, the pure and simple docthe pretext of subduing treason and rebellion, and his trines of former republican Presidents, of our Washingbayonets are the correctives for faction and treason. He ton, our Jefferson, our Madison; their acknowledged obwho, by the slow but more fatal process of corruption ligation to the laws made by the legitimate organs of the and gradual approach to despotism, would subdue resist-people and the States; their cautious abstinence from the ance from freemen, will make the creatures of his pow- exercise of any questionable power; their anxious regard er the executioners of his will. He who dares sound the and respect for the authority of Congress; and their dealarm, must be denounced as an enemy to God and man.votion to the sacred restraining principles which the conThe voice of freedom, the manly remonstrance of patri- stitution has declared shall mark the limit of their au. otism, will be sedition, riot, faction-now "almost," thority. Look to the healthful action of the system under and anon "altogether," treason. Yes, sir, the noble, such a course of wise administration; look to the growth the glorious resistance of our gallant ancestors, in 1776, and prosperity of the country; the wealth and abundance was "faction"-was "treason." King George III, and which blessed us; the peace, happiness, and contentment his secretaries, and those who claimed for him the right to which abounded in our borders; the march of intellect possess and control the revenues of his American colo- and science. And then, when filled with this contemplanies, thought the assemblages of our revolutionary pa- tion, point him to the gloomy, dreary prospect which now

APRIL 23, 1834.]

New Jersey Memorials.

[SENATE.

[Mr. CHAMBERS said: No, sir, I was not there; I should have been proud to have been among them.]

every where assails his astonished vision; to a scene in to call in question the religiousness or respectability of contrast with all he has ever seen or known before; and the individuals who were present at that meeting. He then tell him, and tell him truly, The wretchedness, and should not have done so, for he understood the honorable poverty, and misery you witness, is the fatal effect of one Senator to have been among them. man's folly and passion. The remedy will be applied, not by faction or "almost treason." It may be that, yielding to those impulses which are strongly implanted in the hu- Mr. FORSYTH resumed: He was of opinion that nothing man breast, a sense of unprovoked injury may drive indi- but a spirit of faction could have prompted them to make viduals who have been deprived of the very means of sub- such an exhibition on the Sabbath day. It was a well sistence, who witness the cries of naked children for known fact that the city of Philadelphia had always acted bread, and see the tear of distress in the eye of a wife in opposition to the rest of Pennsylvania. Now, as to the silently suffering the agonies of starvation, or the scarcely expression which he had made use of-that they had less intolerable agony of living upon cold charity, to oc-"almost committed treason," he spoke not of the acts, casional bursts of desperation and violence. These will but of the indications of a design on the part of the people be repressed, and men will not prefer unlawful means to to act-not against the Senate, but to compel Congress accomplish what they may rightfully effect.

to act.

[Mr. CLAY said: Not against the Senate?]

The Senator from Georgia has visited Philadelphia, and I have smiled to hear the history of his hopes and his Mr. FORSYTH continued: No, but against Congress. speculations. He thinks nine-tenths of the people of Penn- He had a paper in his hand, and it was published amidst sylvania will sustain the President! He admits that in the excitement, either on Sunday or the next day. Philadelphia all is lost. I am sure the Senator was in a [Here Mr. F. read two or three passages from a Baltisociety there somewhat new to him. Of his former asso- more print, setting forth in strong terms the cause which ciates, he could scarcely find one remaining in the faith the people have to defend-one, resembling that for he holds. His means of information were probably limit-which their ancestors fought, and who had sheathed their ed-perhaps confined to those who have the same easy swords only when they had gained freedom. The Presifaith with himself in this behalf. Why, sir, the people dent and Congress could relieve the people, and, if they in the cities are the same sort of people as those in the did not, revolution must come, &c.] country. On any great question of political power or po- Mr. F. proceeded: Was there any other meaning inlitical propriety, they have the same feelings, and will tended by that language than this-that, unless Congress have the same judgment. It is true, in cities, where the purposed to grant relief, by succumbing to the bank, revpopulation is so dense, men confer more rapidly, and olution must come? No overt acts, it had been said, were come to their conclusions in masses more promptly. committed, but moral treason had been indulged in; and When conviction of error is felt, the good work of ref- such a course of conduct, he was sure, would be looked ormation is commenced; but there is a strong obstacle down upon by the indignant eye of the people of the still to its consummation. In the cities the cotemporane- United States.

Is acknowledgment of error renders the condition of Mr. CHAMBERS said: I must insist on the correction each individual less offensive, by exposing his pride-the to which the remarks of the Senator are subject. He fatal sin of our nature-to fewer and less mortifying at- tells us that the history of the country presents no parallel tacks from those who remain obdurate. It requires a de- to the present times; that such excitement has been ungree of moral courage, not always found, even with honest known; that no instance has occurred where men of inmen, to come out alone and single-handed to renounce tellectual, moral, and religious character had yielded to further communion with a creed, the doctrines of which feelings, which could not be restrained on the Sabbath. are far from acceptable. Sir, I repeat, there has been such a period in our hisHas the honorable Senator ever felt such a sentiment? tory-a period when the hand of power assumed the "cusHas he never persevered in the defence of a political tody and control" of our property, as the hand of power tenet, because, from the high elevation on which he stands now assumes; when arbitrary power, in violation of an before the American people and the world, he was unwil- unwritten constitution, seized upon the public revenue, ling to wound his pride by the acknowledgment of error? as arbitrary power now seizes upon the public revenue in In matters of pecuniary interest, where the real or sup-violation of our written constitution and laws. The noble posed advantages of city and country are in opposition, spirit of the whigs of that day was excited; they knew they will differ; but on great political doctrines they will that, if not resisted, the lawless pretension to control their think alike. The hopes of the Senator are delusive; they money and property would end in the destruction of all prove that those in power-misused and abused power-liberty; they met the approach of despotism at its first are the last to see and know the real state of popular step. The same spirit is now excited, the same detersentiment. One would think that facts of recent occur- mined resistance will oppose the first dawnings of despotrence would open the eyes of those who are not judicially ism now. Does the honorable Senator rebuke the spirit blinded. Is the voice of New York unheard-that glori- of '76, because it led his ancestors and mine to meet on ous voice, responsive to the claims of patriotism and the Sunday, to talk on Sunday, or even to fight and conquer principles of constitutional law? Are the elections in Vir-battles on Sunday? No, sir, they believed it was "acginia regarded? or in Maine, and every where in those ceptable service" to carry on the good work by using which have been very lately held? In every great con- Sunday, when an occasion presented on that day which test for civil liberty, the city and the country had agreed. could not be found on any other day. They did so in 1776, when the Executive head of the Government claimed dominion over the purse, as well as the sword. They will not do less now, when the same claim is preferred.

Sir, the people of Baltimore, who are censured by the Senator, believe that a struggle is now going on, as essentially vital to their liberties as the struggle in '76; they believe this as conscientiously as they believe in their obSir, I rose only to give expression to a feeling which ligations to their God, and to the day which He has sancticould not be repressed when friends dear to me were as- fied. The Senator does not perceive it. Quite possible. sailed. The feebleness of my effort to vindicate them The ministers of the King, and his partisans and supportwill be abundantly supplied by their virtues, which have ers, in '76, did not perceive usurpation then. The exattracted the respect and esteem of the community in citement of the people was rebuked; it was "senseless which they live. cry," ""faction," almost and altogether treason. It must be so now, and the experience of all ages and nations pre

Mr. FORSYTH replied, stating that he had no intention

SENATE.]

New Jersey Memorials.

[APRIL 23, 1834.

sented precisely this difference of sentiment and language the people come to a decision. The gentle man might between the friends of power and the friends of liberty have taken lessons from the recent results of the elections and the law. The whigs of '76 could not correct their both in the North and in the South; and yet one of his rulers by the ballot-box, and they resorted to the only most constant arguments is to tell us of what he hopes weapon which could give them redress. Thanks to their from the people. He may yet have to place himself in patriotism and their wisdom for the better condition in the anxious seat of the constituents of the member from which we live. The ballot-box is now effective, and Maryland, and, like them, repent the support he has nothing else could, at this moment, avert a civil war. Sir, given to those who have brought such disasters on the if it were not for the abiding conviction that a peaceable country. mode of effectual redress is open to the people, it is my With respect to the resolutions of the Legislatures of confirmed belief they would at this moment be in arms. New Jersey and Maine, the President records them in It is not in human nature-I care not how refined or culti- his protest as a censure of the Senators from those States, vated to witness the prostration of their fortunes, the and asks the Senate to record them on their Journal as sudden annihilation of their hopes, the daily regular ap-authentic; yet all this is not to be taken as a rebuke of proach to penury and want; themselves, and those more those members for their votes in the Senate. Why, the dear to them, denied their daily bread for their daily la- honorable gentleman might see, at once, that in this the bor, and to feel and know that it is the work of arbitrary President had committed a gross and palpable abuse of power grasping at the vitals of that constitution and the the privileges of this House." laws which they hold sacred. It is not in human nature that men, free men, should thus observe and feel, without adopting the appropriate means of redress.

He rose to ask the gentleman from Georgia if he had done him justice in relation to the conversation he had referred to as having taken place between the President The appropriate mode of redress is undoubtedly by a and the ex-King of Spain. The President said he had calm but firm and animated expression of the popular made the ex-Emperor Napoleon his model. Now he, will, by exciting a just indignation against the measures Mr. C., did not say that he feared that the President which produce the evil, and by concentrating the effect- could use the army and navy to disperse the National Leive power of the people at the polls. This was what the gislature; but that he had too much confidence in the citizens of Baltimore are disposed to do, and in due time patriotism of the army and navy to fear that they could they will give us very satisfactory evidences of it. be used for any such purpose. On the contrary, he said that two of the officers of that House would be sufficient to meet any force that could be sent.

I thought the terms employed by the Senator from Georgia, in reference to this meeting, any thing but just. I am glad to hear him qualify them. The community to Mr. WEBSTER said he was very sorry to be compelwhich the gentleman composing the meeting belonged, is led to rise again on this question. But circumstances as moral and religious as any other; the gentlemen them- had come within his own knowledge, which he deemed selves were many of them from the most estimable ranks it necessary to mention. When he arrived in Philadelin that community; men with whom the Senator from phia, on his return to Washington, he received informaGeorgia may consider it his pride, as I consider it an tion of the very extraordinary communication sent by honor, to associate as acquaintances and friends. the President to the Senate; and certainly all that he Mr. FORSYTH said the reference of the gentleman conversed with viewed it with the utmost alarm and disreminded him of a piece of information he had lately re-approbation. When he arrived at Baltimore, he found ceived. He thought it had been said that the people of multitudes of people in the streets, certainly not assemPhiladelphia were those who had suffered the most from bled in a riotous manner, but evincing a deep state of the late pecuniary pressure, yet he learned, to his great feeling from some great cause. When the boat arrived satisfaction, that the last season was the only one in which at the wharf, a gentleman came forward and introduced committees of charity had not travelled round to collect one venerable man, who addressed him, by saying, "I contributions to clothe and feed the distressed. am a member of the Presbyterian church, and you may

Mr. CHAMBERS said the whole country was in such be surprised to see me in the crowd on such a day; but a state of extreme suffering, as to render it almost impos- I remember that we had no Sundays in revolutionary sible to collect money for charitable objects. times to interfere with our duty to our country. We Mr. CLAY observed, that he rose with a good deal of know that our liberties are in danger, and we come down reluctance, but since he found such additional arguments to you for the purpose of making you acquainted with from the gentleman from Georgia, (Mr. FORSYTH,) he our true situation, and to ask what we are to depend on." should make a few observations, only out of respect to The honorable gentleman says this crowd was comhim. The gentleman has announced that the President posed of men influenced by the exasperated feelings of has not one dollar of the public money in his possession. faction. Was there no feeling of exasperation separate True, sir; the money in the hands of these selected banks from faction? Did the honorable gentleman never hear is all gone. Considering the analogies of history, it of the exasperated feelings of patriotism? And did these would be seen, in the manner the Executive is moving feelings never call forth crowds to assemble in the streets, on to despotism, how remarkably striking they are. even on a Sunday? With what eyes did the gentleman When a celebrated ancestor of the honorable Senator look on the many who meet on every day of the week from South Carolina [Mr. PRESTON] once remarked through the whole Union? Were they exclusively of the on the floor of the General Assembly of Virginia, classes of one particular party. He must know that these that Cæsar had found a Brutus, and Charles a Crom- masses were collected by a general feeling of oppression. well, the cry of treason resounded; and now we are told Did the gentleman never see such crowds collected at a by a no less loyal supporter of the Chief Magistrate, that steamboat wharf that he could not get through without we are committing treason. Treason, sir! When and being jostled? So far as he (Mr. W.) was concerned, where, and against whom? Why, he had hoped that it was a matter of no importance. But so far as the city treason consisted only in some overt act, as it was defined of Baltimore was concerned, which was behind no city in the constitution; but now, it seems, that treason can in the Union for high patriotism, intelligence, moral be committed against one of the parts of this Government. worth, and religious feeling, the observations of the genIn the reign of terror we had only sedition; but now, tleman deserved some rebuke. opposition to the President was treason. The honorable member, said Mr. C., tells us that the people will sustain the acts of the Executive, and that we shall see it when

The honorable gentleman seemed to have in his eye some terra incognita, out of which that great voice is to come, which is to settle this great question in favor of

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