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we shall be exposed to a long and bloody war. This fear is, perhaps, ill founded, and if so I shall thank God that I was mistaken. I know that in the order of his Providence, the wisest ends frequently result from the most foolish measures. It is our duty to submit ourselves to his high dispensations. I know that war, with all its misery, is not wholly without advantage. It calls forth the energies of character, it favors the manly virtues, it gives elevation to sentiment, it produces national union, generates patriotic love, and infuses a just sense of national honor. If then we are doomed to war, let us meet it as we ought; and when the hour of trial comes, let it find us a band of brothers,

Sir, I have done, and I pray to Almighty God that this day's debate may eventuate in the prosperity, the freedom, the peace, the power, and the glory of our country.

Mr. WRIGHT (in explanation) said, the gentleman who spoke last had mistated his expressions and sentiments; he had stated that he (Mr. W.) had held forth the idea, that we should petition France for a redress of grievances, as we had in our colonial state petitioned Great Britain.

Mr. MORRIS, said he had not expressed himself so....it was not his intention to convey any such meaning.

Mr. WRIGHT. The gentleman has retracted and I am satisfied; though he did certainly so couch his language as to leave an impression of that abject kind.

Mr. TRACY moved a division of the question.

Mr. WRIGHT said the question was incapable of division, as it was on striking out all that follows the word resolved.

Gen. S. T. MASON said as the gentlemen appeared disposed to create a debate on a subject of no importance at that hour of the day, (half past seven P. M.) he would move for an adjournment.

A division was then called for, and upon counting, the Vice President declared the numbers twelve and twelve, that the house was equally divided, and that he was against an adjournment.

Mr. ANDERSON asked if the President of the Senate meant to say there were only twelve for an adjournment?.... He was answered in the affirmative. Mr. A. demanded a division, and upon counting, it appeared there were thirteen for adjourning, and twelve against it.

The house was adjourned.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25.

The order of the day being read, on the resolutions of fered by Mr. Ross....

Mr. ANDERSON (of Tennessee) said he rose with much diffidence, after the very able discussion which the subject had already undergone; after so many men distinguished among the first in our country, had treated it with so much ability, he could not expect to furnish many new facts or observations on the subject. But coming from that part of the country which is particularly interested in the discussion, he felt himself particularly bound to offer a few remarks, which some erroneous statements that had fallen in debate, from the gentleman from Delaware, (Mr. WHITE) particularly called for. He would, while he was up, endeavor to add a few observations on the resolutions.

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The first of the resolutions appeared to him to le introduced merely with a view to involve the members who were opposed to hostile measures, in a dilemma. It was the assertion of a truth which no one would deny, but it was connected with other resolutions or assertions, which must from proprie. ty bring the whole under a negative vote. Taking the naked proposition that we have a right to the place of deposit, we all agree; that it has been suspended, we are equally agreed; but there we stop; by prefacing their resolutions with these truths, they expect either to induce us to vote for other things repugnant to our judgment, or afford room for the imputation wrong motives and clamor abroad. But we are not to be led astray in this way, nor are the people of this country to be so deceived. On the first organization of the government, the most earnest attention was directed to that river; and it is now as much an object of the care of government, as at any period since we have been an independent people. Gentlemen have not, therefore, represented the matter with that candor which the seriousness of the subject demanded. The navigation of the Mississippi has not been infringed on the prèsent occasion, though the arguments of all, and the 'assertions of some, went to the extreme on that point. The river, he repeated, it was and continues to be open, and he could not discover the utility of our declaring our right to the free navigation when we are in full unmolested possession of the right. He could indeed discover something beside utility

he could see a design no wise founded....the gentlemen ex pected with them the votes of the western members....they expected to play upon our passions, and to place us between the danger of unpopularity and the sense of personal feeling, in a case of a critical nature. But gentlemen would find them selves mistaken to the utmost; though he felt himself in com mon with other western members, responsible to his constituents, yet he would on all occasions where the sense of right impressed itself strongly on him, risk popularity to do right. On this occasion, he saw no danger of his popularity, because, although he was aware that the people whom he represented were dissatisfied, they respected their government and themselves too much to countenance any means that were not honorable and just, to obtain the deposit right.

The resolutions call upon us to declare the deprivation of the right of deposit to be hostile to our honor and interests. On this there were a variety of opinions; and it appears to be agreed, (for it was not contradicted by any) that the act of an individual unauthorised, cannot be either a cause of war, or an act of the government of which he is an officer. No gentleman has positively declared the act to be authorised by Spain....we have the best evidence that the case will admit, that it has not been authorised. As the act of an individual, therefore, it cannot affect the honor of this country. That the interests are affected are agreed on all hands, but then the due course of proceeding has been adopted, and redress is to be expected. If it should be denied us, we have our remedy, and it is then that it will become a point of honor. But now, as had been well said by his friend from Georgia, (Gen. JACKSON) if we were to rashly declare the act of the individual contrary to our national honor, we could not retrogade. And if Spain should not do us justice, he trusted that we should then take our strong ground, and not give way a step. This would be the effect; gentlemen do not know the American character, they under rate it; there is not that levity in it which gentlemen suppose capable of being lightly led astray; the character. of America is fixed....and when real necessity calls for their exertions, the people will require no artificial excitement.

It was said that the tenure we hold by is uncertain, and it was not consistent with our dignity. This was a ground upon which all the art and ingenuity for which the gentleman who framed the resolutions is so much distinguished for; it is calculated to seize upon the passions of western men by a shew of solicitude for the security of their rights and prospe rity. But, however ingenious the contrivance, the deception

apon which it is founded, must destroy all its intended effect; for the facts upon which it rests for support, must first be acknowleged, before the conclusions can follow. And the notion of dignity with which the idea is connected must lead to a suspicion that something more is meant than bare right or justice, because in them alone true dignity rests.

The next point is that we must be secured in this, our absolute right. He would ask, was hostility and invasion of a neigh bor's territory compatible with dignity, or the means calculated to give us this security? We all agree upon the necessity of the right, and of its permanent security. We differ very widely upon the mode by which we are to establish this security. This point had been dwelt on with very great labor by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and discussed with particular splendor of language, and in a variety of views by the gentleman from New York, (Mr. MORRIS); but upon testing the eloquence and ingenuity of the gentlemen by simple facts, and comparing their erroneous conceptions of the western people, with the labor which they have employed to force arguments from extraneous sources, the only result which remains, is, that the gentlemen are very ingenious and very eloquent, but not at all convincing. For with all the pains they have taken to enlighten us, they have not produced a single reason why we should depart on this occasion from the course which had been ever pursued as the wisest policy by our government; they had not given us the remotest ground of justifiable hope, that even if we were to adopt their views, that we should be more likely to obtain our object in that shape. The gentlemen had invoked us to descend the river, but they had not told us what we should gain, nor even counted on the difficulties of the very first part of their project. They had kept out of sight what no wise man in public affairs will ever neglect the consideration of, the chances of adversity or of disappointment, from natural or accidental causes. They had not calculated even the consequences of a war which must be the inevitable result....which would deprive us in the first instance of our treaty right, and which even after war had taken place, lives and money wasted, would leave us under the necessity of treating at last.

Having so far stated his exceptions to the leading features of the resolutions, he would not undertake to follow the gentlemen on the other side through all those mazes in which they had endeavored to perplex the subject, and bewilder the house; but he would offer a few observations on some detached points. A gentleman from Delaware had, he conceived,

thrown out an unwarrantable and indecorous insinuation, that there was a disposition in some of the members of that house to throw themselves at the footstool of the First Consul. That gentleman should know that such a disposition'could not be countenanced, if it were conceived; and it would be doing injustice to his understanding to suppose that he had misunderstood the sentiments uttered by any gentleman. The uniform sentiment entertained and expressed, countenanced no such mean or dishonorable purpose; our object is to demand justice and redress for violated rights, and the security of those rights held under a treaty which had its existence prior to the treaty of cession from Spain to France. This was the usual course; what the motive of the gentleman was, who had made an insinuation so improper, he would not in that place express, but he had an opinion of that motive. We are told as a reason why we should seize upon New Orleans, that it belongs to France. This he conceived to be rather a sound reason why we should not attack it; for the suspension of our right is the act of a Spanish officer. The gentleman says, the Spaniards mean to usurp the exclusive navigation of the Mississippi. This is no doubt an artful mode of addressing the passions of the western people; but facts here overturn the most artful insinuations. The navigation of the Mississippi is not even brought into question....no obstruction has been so much as attempted to the navigation of that river; the sum of the injury and the dispute is the infringement of a right of deposit, and that granted only for a limited time at the place where it is suspended.

He says the western people will not wait for negociation. He could not conceive upon what kind of instinct or intelligence gentlemen could pretend to know the sentiments and character of the western people better than those who lived. among them, and who immediately represented them. When did that part of the country manifest a disregard to the union, or the peace of their country? Did they not suffer their country to be cut in twain by the treaty of Holstein, and one half ceded to the Indians, and did they not suffer all the attendant evils patiently? For what end? Because the public good required it.

From time to time, he had heard in that house and in other places, the most wanton and cruel aspersions cast upon the people of the western country. He knew not how gentlemen could reconcile their pretensions of regard for the western people, with odious imputations which were constantly

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