The Online Library of Liberty

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• Foreword
• The Webster-hayne Debate On the Nature of the Union
• Robert Y. Hayne: Speech of Mr. Hayne , of South Carolina [january 19, 1830]
• Daniel Webster: Speech of Mr. Webster , of Massachusetts [january 20, 1830]
• Speech of Mr. Hayne , of South Carolina [january 25, 1830]
• Speech of Mr. Webster , of Massachusetts [january 26 and 27, 1830]
• Speech of Mr. Hayne , of South Carolina [january 27, 1830]
• Thomas Hart Benton: Speech of Mr. Benton, of Missouri [january 20 and 29, February 1 and 2, 1830]
• John Rowan: Speech of Mr. Rowan , of Kentucky [february 4, 1830]
• William Smith: Speech of Mr. Smith , of South Carolina [february 25, 1830]
• John M. Clayton: Speech of Mr. Clayton , of Delaware [march 4, 1830]
• Speech of Mr. Livingston , of Louisiana [march 9, 1830]

Speech of Mr. Livingston,
of Louisiana

[March 9, 1830]

The resolution of Mr. Foot, of Connecticut, relative to the public lands, being under consideration, Mr. Livingston addressed the Chair as follows:

Mr. President: The important topics that have been presented to our consideration, and the ability with which the questions arising out of them have been hitherto discussed, cannot but have excited a very considerable interest; which I regret exceedingly that I shall be obliged to interrupt, and greatly disappoint those who look for a continuance of “the popular harangue, the tart reply, the logic, and the wisdom, and the wit,” with which we have been entertained. For, sir, you can expect nothing from me but a very plain, and, I fear, a very dull exposition of my views on some of the subjects comprised in this excursive debate—unembellished by eloquence, unseasoned by the pungency of personal allusions. For I have no accusations to make of sectional hostility to the State I represent, and, of consequence, no recriminations to urge in its behalf, no personal animosity to indulge, and but one—yes, sir, I have one personal defence to make; a necessary defence against a grave accusation; but that will be as moderate as I know it will be complete, satisfactory, and, I had almost said, triumphant.

The multiplicity and nature of the subjects that have been considered in debating a resolution with which none of them seem to have the slightest connection, and the addition of new subjects which every speaker has thought it proper to increase the former stock, has given me, I confess, some uneasiness. I feared an irruption of the Cherokees, and was not without apprehensions that we should be called on to terminate the question of Sunday mails; or, if the Anti-Masonic Convention should take offence at the secrecy of our Executive session, or insist on the expulsion of all the initiated from our councils, that we should be obliged to contend with them for our seats. Indeed, I had myself serious thoughts of introducing the reformation of our National code, and a plan for the gradual increase of the Navy, and am not yet quite decided whether, before I sit down, I shall not urge the abolition of capital punishments. In truth, Mr. President, the whole brought forcibly to my recollection an anecdote told in one of the numerous memoirs written during the reign of Louis XIV, too trivial, perhaps, to be introduced into this grave debate, but which, perhaps, may be excused. A young lady had been educated in all the learning of the times, and her progress had been so much to the satisfaction of the princess who had directed her studies, that, on her first introduction, her patroness used to address her thus: “Come, miss! discourse with these ladies and gentlemen on the subject of theology; so, that will do. Now talk of geography; after that, you will converse on the subjects of astronomy and metaphysics, and then give your ideas on logic and belle lettres.” And thus the poor girl, to her great annoyance, and the greater of her auditors, was put through the whole circle of the sciences in which she had been instructed. Sir, might not a hearer of our debates for some days past, have concluded that we, too, had been directed in a similar way, and that you had said, to each of the speakers, “Sir, please to rise and speak on the disposition of the public lands; after that, you may talk to the tariff; let us know all you think on the subject of internal improvement; and, before you sit down, discuss the powers of the Senate in relation to appointments, and the right of a State to recede from the Union; and finish by letting us know whether you approve or oppose the measures of the present, or the six preceding administrations.” The approximation, Sir, of so many heterogeneous materials for discussion, must provoke a smile; and most of those who have addressed you, while they lamented that subjects, unconnected with the resolution, had been introduced into debate, rarely sat down without adding to the number. For my own part, I think the discussion may be turned to useful purposes. It may, by the interchange of opinion, increase our own information on all the important points which have been examined, while, not being called on for a vote, we may weigh them at leisure, and come to a conclusion, without being influenced by the warmth of debate.

The publication of what has been said, will spread useful information on topics highly proper to be understood in the community at large.

The recurrence which has necessarily been had to first principles is of incalculable use. The nature, form, history, and changes of our Government, imperceptible or disregarded at the time of their occurrence, are remarked; abuses are pointed out; and the people are brought to reflect on the past, and provide for the future.

It affords a favorable opportunity, by explanations that would not otherwise have been made, to remove prejudice and doubts as to political character and conduct. For instance, Sir, it has already produced one which has given me, individually, sincere pleasure. The Senator from Massachusetts, who so eloquently engaged the attention of his auditors in the beginning of the debate, took that occasion to disavow any connexion with the Hartford Convention; to declare, in unequivocal terms, that he “had nothing to do with the Hartford Convention.” Sir, I repeat, I heard this explicit declaration with great pleasure, because, on my arrival here as a member of the other House, in which I first had the satisfaction of being acquainted, and associating with that Senator, I received an impression (from whom, or how, or where, it would be impossible for me now to tell,) that, although not a member of that Convention, he had, in some sort, favored, promoted, or approved of its meeting; and, being only on such terms of social intercourse as one gentleman has with another, without that intimacy which would have justified my making a personal inquiry on the subject, I heard, and doubtless all who had received the same impressions, heard, with great satisfaction, a declaration which has so completely eradicated every suspicion that the Senator from Massachusetts lent his countenance to that injudicious, ill-timed, and dangerous measure, to which others have given stronger epithets of disapprobation. Sir, I happen to know something, not of the proceedings or views of that body, but of the effect its existence had in encouraging our enemy in exciting hopes of disunion, nay, of disgraceful adherence to their cause. While these worthy citizens were occupied in deliberating on the plans, whatever they were, which drew them together in the East; while they and others associated with them in party feeling, were devising means of putting an end to the war, by vilifying those who declared, and detracting from the merit of those who conducted it, by opposing every measure for prosecuting it with vigor, and obstructing our means of defence, by denouncing the war itself as unjust, and the gallant exploits of our Army and Navy as unfit subjects for rejoicing—while these men were thus employed at one extremity of the Union, others were differently engaged at the other. A small but gallant band, directed by their heroic leader, were striving also to put an end to the war, but by far different means; by means of brave, uncompromising, uncalculating resistance; their attacks were made upon the enemies of their country, not upon its Government; among them were militiamen, who, without any constitutional scruples about passing the boundary of their State, had marched more than a thousand miles beyond those boundaries in search of the enemy. They found him, and glorious victory at the same moment; joined to my brave constituents, they gave a most signal defeat to more than three times their number; and signalized the close of the war by an action in itself capable of putting an end to the contest. Immediately after this great event, I was sent on a mission to the British fleet. Circumstances protracted my stay on board the Admiral’s ship for several days; during which, having been formerly acquainted with an officer high in command, I discovered, not only from his conversation, but that of almost all the officers, that the utmost reliance was placed on the Hartford Convention, for effecting a dissolution of the Union, and the neutrality of New England. I have no evidence that these hopes and expectations were derived from any communication with any member of that body. But I know that the enemy were, as must naturally have been the case, encouraged by the appearance of division which that meeting was calculated to produce; it was made the topic of conversation as often as civility to me would allow. An assembly, on whose deliberations were founded such insolent expectations, so injurious to the patriotism and integrity of a part of my country, whose inhabitants I had always been taught to respect—such an assembly could not but have raised the most unfavorable impressions of its object; and the suspicion of having favored or promoted its meeting, necessarily derogated from the high opinion which might otherwise have been entertained of the discretion or patriotism of any one to whom it attached.

As this debate has offered an occasion of making a declaration which I am sure must have been heard with equal satisfaction by all who, like me, were under impressions which that declaration completely removed, so, if it should (as I sincerely hope it may) produce a similar disclaimer of that construction of the Constitution which gives all powers to Congress under the general expression of providing for the general welfare; if it should produce this effect, it will completely annihilate one of the most dangerous party dogmas, and verify what has been so frequently said, that federalism was extinct; and, on the other hand, an open avowal of that doctrine will have the effect of putting us on our guard against its operation, so that the frank interchange of sentiment that may be expected, must, in every view, be beneficial.

Yet, Sir, I should, notwithstanding these ideas of the utility of the debate, have taken no part in it but for these considerations:

The importance of the subject of the resolution to the State I represent; The appeals that have been made to my recollection, in the course of the discussion;

And the necessity of repelling a charge implicating me, and others with whom I acted, in a charge of hostility to the Father of his Country.

The original resolution, now completely abandoned, and only incidentally referred to, must form a prominent figure in the observation I shall address to the Senate. The subject it involves is one of deep interest to my State; and the policy of the General Government, with respect to its public land within our boundaries, shall be freely canvassed. Representing, with my worthy colleague, the interests of that State, I should betray those interests were I not to seize this favorable opportunity of making known the true state of our claims on the justice of the Union. I confine myself to my own State—the others are too ably represented to need my aid. Some of them have thought that they could trace the measures of which they complain to particular sections of the Union, and I must not be understood as censuring this course. Though I do not think it necessary for my State, other gentlemen, who undoubtedly understand this subject better than I do, think it is so for them. It is not for me to blame them. My friend from Missouri has, with his characteristic diligence, collected a mass of evidence on this subject, which is perhaps conclusive; but this it does not suit my purpose to examine; I will not attempt any such research. The measures of which I shall complain are those of the nation. I should bewilder myself, do injustice to others, and cause useless irritation, were I to seek, in old journals or forgotten documents, for the names of those who voted for or against the measures of which I am forced to complain, or try to discover what river or what geographical line divided them. All those votes I am bound to believe were given from proper motives, though from erroneous views. I feel no sectional or personal hostility, and will endeavor to excite none. In avowing this course, I am far from arraigning that which some of my friends have pursued; they are the best judges of their own griefs, and the best mode of redressing them. For my own part, I repeat, that all of which I shall complain are the acts and omissions of the whole Government; and I state them, because I hope and believe that, when they shall be fully known, compensation for injuries and injurious omissions will be offered, and all stipulations faithfully performed.

Louisiana was ceded by France to the United States in 1803. By the treaty of cession the United States acquired all the vacant lands within the province, and the sovereignty over it; but under the following conditions:

To maintain the inhabitants in the enjoyment of their property;

To admit them as soon as possible into the Union, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution.

Neither of these conditions have been faithfully performed, according to the spirit of the stipulation.

To maintain the inhabitants in the enjoyment of their property, it was essential that all disputed claims to it should be submitted to the decision of a court, whether such claims were made by individuals or the Government. Yet all the titles disallowed by the Government were directed to be decided by Commissioners of its own choosing, holding their offices at the will of the President. This was not only doing injustice to us, but was an infringement on the constitutional distribution of power, by which the judicial powers of the United States are vested in a Supreme and inferior Courts, of which the Judges are to hold their offices during good behavior, who are to take cognizance of all controversies to which the United States are parties, and from the decisions of the latter of which, an appeal lies to the former. Now, no one can deny that, to decide on the validity of a title to land, is a judicial function; that the United States are parties to all the controversies in relation to their titles to public lands; and that the Commissioners are not such judges as are intended by the Constitution. Yet, Sir, you refuse to give us the enjoyment of two millions, and more, of acres claimed by citizens of my State, under perfect grants, made by the former sovereigns of the province, because your Commissioners, under the instructions of an Executive Department, have refused to ratify them. Year after year, for more than twenty years, they have petitioned for their right under the treaty, or for a judicial inquiry into their title; year after year you have refused this just and reasonable demand. You have partially granted it to the adjoining States and Territory of Missouri, Alabama, and Arkansas, but have pertinaciously, unjustly, and cruelly refused it to us. We have, also, in common with the adjoining States of Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama, (all in part or in the whole taken out of the territory ceded by treaty) been deprived of the benefits of the judiciary system of the United States. Lives and fortunes submitted to the legal decision of a single man. Lives without appeal—fortunes, under 2000 dollars, without appeal. Both, in my opinion, have been more than once illegally sacrificed to this cruel neglect of our rights.

To understand the next grievance of which I complain, the attention of the Senate must be drawn to the topographical features of the country, as well as its statistics and geographical position. In the short distance of four degrees of latitude, the extent of this State on one side of the Mississippi and two on the other, that river, by its meandering course, and the division of its waters in the Delta, presents banks of near 1500 miles on both its sides—the other rivers falling into it nearly as much more. All these are subject to annual inundation; and in the whole alluvial soil the banks of the river are the highest ground, which descends in an inclined plane to the level of the ocean. It follows from this configuration that the banks of the river must be secured by dikes, or that the whole of the alluvial country must be submerged during every annual rise of the river. The construction of these dikes was a duty imposed on the first settlers of the province, as a condition of their grants; and this mighty river, encased in high and solid embankments for near two hundred miles of its course, attests how faithfully this condition was fulfilled. A wonderful work, when compared with the slender population by which it was effected. By the terms of the cession, the United States became proprietor of all the vacant lands; but they have not considered themselves liable to any of the duties that would have attached to the property had it been in private hands: they expressly exempt themselves, and even those to whom they may sell, during five years, from taxes or any contribution to Government; and, practically, have refused to make any of the improvements necessary, not only for reclaiming their own lands, but for protecting their inhabitants from the effects of the inundation which has been described; and, in numerous instances, parishes have been obliged, in their own defence, to perform this expensive operation for you. Now, Sir, the State contains 36,000,000 of acres, of which your Commissioners have confirmed, and you have granted and sold, only 5,000,000; so that you now own six-sevenths of the whole State. That one-seventh, which is in private hands, supports a population of more than 200,000 souls, and raises an agricultural produce, beyond its own consumption, of 8,000,000 of dollars. Yet, with this evident advantage, resulting from a settlement of the old titles, and the sale of the lands in the State, which, at the same rate, would give a population of more than a million, and an export nearly equal to that of all the rest of the States, you have only sold 250,000 acres of the public land; you refuse to try or to allow just claims to the amount of two millions of acres, and, with the richest soil in the world, we are condemned to a scanty population, and to see the owners of six-sevenths of our soil refusing to contribute to the expenses of our Government, forcing us to defend their property, as well as ours, from destructive inundations and more destructive invasions, and for more than a quarter of a century, by delaying the disposition of the lands, breaking that which I shall prove was the most important condition on which they received the country.

That condition was not only security to property, but “that the inhabitants should be incorporated in the Union, as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution;” that is to say, that the country should be erected into a State, as soon as it could be done according to the principles of the Constitution; but there was no principle to oppose its being done instantly. Yet, notwithstanding the most spirited remonstrance made in the first year after the cession—a remonstrance now on your files, and which testifies not only the desire to enjoy the privilege, but the ability to exercise it, you kept them in the subordinate grade of a territory for more than eight years, and you lopped off the greater part of the province, out of which, without their consent, you have made an extensive territory, and a more extensive State. It is true, sir, that, at this late period, you brought Louisiana into the Union; you assigned their boundaries; you approved of their Constitution; and you admitted their Senators and Representatives in the councils of the nation. But is this all that is necessarily implied by the obligation of the treaty? Is an extent of territorial limit all that is required? In contracting to create a State, you promised to promote its population. In stipulating that it should become one of a confederacy of free republics, you promised the means of making that population worthy of the name, and capable of exercising the duties of freemen; you promised them the means of moral, religious, and scientific education; you promised such a disposition of the lands as would fill the space assigned the new member of the Union with independent freeholders, the product of whose labors, after supporting themselves in comfort, would contribute to the necessary expenses of the local Government, and increase, by their consumption, the revenues of yours. Unless you did this, you did nothing. Your assignment of boundaries, your statutory provisions, would have been a mockery, if we had not, by almost miraculous exertions, broke the shackles imposed on our progress, and supplied, by the energy of our scanty population, the want of numbers, which your laws denied us. You forgot that population, as well as soil, was necessary. You forgot the lesson taught by a Greek, and elegantly paraphrased by a British poet—

• “What constitutes a State?
• Not high raised battlement, nor labored mound,
• Thick wall or moated gate.
• Not cities fair with spires and turrets crown’d,
• Not bays and broad armed ports,
• Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride!
• Not starr’d and spangled courts,
• Where low bowed baseness wafts perfume to pride!
• No! men! high minded men!
• Men who their duties know;
• But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain,
• Prevent the long aimed blow.
• And crush the tyrant when they burst the chain—
• These constitute a State!”

These your policy would have refused; but these Heaven had provided, by inspiring the little band which our scanty population could afford, and their few associates, with the energy, patriotism, and self devotion, which the moment of danger required. Think you, sir, that, if my constituents, instead of the noble minded men who flew to the standard of the country the moment its soil was invaded—who heroically and successfully contended against odds in discipline and numbers, and braved dangers, before which even high courage might quail—who can boast of having gained for the State the honor of that resolution on your statute book, which records, in terms to which they and their posterity may look with pride, that “the brave Louisianians are entitled to the thanks, and deserve well of the whole people of the United States”—an honor which, as yet, no other State has attained; if, instead of the enlightened people who gave the first example to their sister States, of providing a written code of laws, and will be the last to give them an example of dishonor, or want of attachment to the Union; if, instead of these, they had been the degraded vassals of arbitrary power, hugging rather than bursting their chain, incapable of appreciating the advantages of liberty and self government, such as their calumniators in and out of Congress represented them to be; I ask, sir, whether all the laws you could have passed would have enabled them to become a State, unless those laws, by rendering the acquisition of lands easy, should have supplied us with a race of independent, well informed cultivators of the soil—the bone and sinew of every State?

You have left us for this, to our own resources; you have done worse; by denying the power of trying our titles, you have deprived us of those to which we are legally entitled, independently of your laws; and you have for twenty-five years forced the proprietors of grants to contribute to the support of the State Government according to the value of their lands, while you, by unfounded claims, prevent them making any use of them.

In these, as is the case in most unjust measures, the interest of those who adopt them has been most materially injured. If our titles had been confirmed; if the lands had been surveyed and disposed of at low prices to actual settlers; if large allowances had been made out of them for public education and other useful institutions; if, while the lands remained un-sold, the Government had subjected itself to the duties required of other land holders, it is no extravagant calculation to say that the State would have, at this day, contained a million of inhabitants, producing from the soil an excess above their own consumption of forty millions of dollars, and, if there be any truth in the calculations of political economy, paying annually, by the duties on their consumption, according to the present rates, more than ten times as much as the aggregate sales of all your lands have produced in any one year.

As I said, sir, I confine my remarks to my own State, and I consider the policy pursued with respect to the lands it contains as unjust, narrow, unwise, and in the highest degree injurious to the Union. If, twenty years ago, the lands had been parcelled out to actual settlers according to the policy pursued by the French and Spanish possessors of the province, without exacting any consideration, I have not the slightest doubt that, in a mere pecuniary point of view, it would have been the wisest measure, and that, through your Custom-house, you would, as long as you chose to continue your duties, receive more dollars and cents twenty fold than you will annually receive in the comparatively few years that your lands in the State will be on sale. It is because I think it not too late to change this policy that I have seized this occasion to expose it. Confirm all our just titles, submit those of which you doubt to the Judiciary, endow all our public institutions liberally, remember that you deprive us of laying taxes for this purpose by condemning to sterility six-sevenths of the land in the State. Supply this defect, rescue your own lands, and those of our citizens which adjoin yours, from the destructive effects of inundation, and connect us by canals and roads with the rest of the Union. Give, if you cannot sell, your lands to settlers, who will become consumers, and add to your revenue; who will be hardy and independent, and add to your strength; and who will form an iron frontier on your Southern and Western boundary, that will set invasion at defiance.

In asserting their rights, I address my just complaints to the Representatives of the people and the States. I trace our injuries to no section of country, to no party, to no particular men. I can make proper allowance for opinions that may have actuated all who advocated the different measures of which we complain, without imputing them to a marked and improper hostility. Constitutional scruples were entertained to our admission; they are removed. Doubts existed of our attachment to the Union, of our courage to defend it; they have been triumphantly destroyed. Our ability for self-government was made a question, but our legislation has long since solved it. Now, therefore, we look for justice, and I trust, Sir, that we shall not look in vain.

Having finished what I thought myself obliged to say on the policy pursued with respect to the State, I have tried to find some chain by which this subject might be connected with another, to which frequent allusions have been made—the existence of present, and the history of past parties in our Legislature. This I have found it difficult to do, unless from the consideration that, in popular governments, party connects itself with every thing;—nothing too high or too low, too grave or too trivial; from a construction of the Constitution to the merits of an actor; from the election of a president to that of a constable. It is not surprising, therefore, that party views may at times have mixed themselves with the measures pursued by the General Government towards the Western States. But I cannot willingly bring myself to believe that there is a party permanently, and on principle, hostile to the prosperity of those States. Allusions have been made to those which formerly divided us, and which are still, under other names, supposed to exist. It may be useful to examine their nature, and refer to their history. It is quite obvious that parties must exist in all popular governments, and not less so, that they are, when not carried to excess, useful, and even necessary; but we must carefully observe their different kinds. The first and most important is that which divides the supporters of general tenets on the construction of the powers of government, or of any of its branches, from the opposers of those tenets; these being from their nature permanent, and occurring in almost every operation of the Government, form, until their doctrines are fully established, or finally given up, a marked line of division between all who take any part in public affairs; there can be in the nature of things no neutrals; every man who has any opinion, or even acts on those of others, must be united with one or the other of these parties; and when they are thus arrayed, great sacrifices of individual opinion must be made in matters of minor importance, in order to secure strength in those which regard the great question. Hence we find, that, whenever the country is divided by a permanent party of this kind, it brings within its vortex every measure of government, and that useful laws are opposed by the one party, and injurious measures favored by the other, from the effect that the one or the other will have in gaining proselytes, or preserving friends.

Whenever such great party division ceases to exist, it is generally replaced by those which are formed for the elevation or depression of particular men, or the support or opposition to particular measures. These last having no permanent principle to rest upon, continually change with the men, and the operations which they purport to favor or oppose. Opposition in both these parties is extremely useful; the first, to preserve the Government pure in its organization, the other in its operations.

The establishment of our present happy Constitution (happy unless corrupted by false constructions, or torn by mad and ruinous resistance,) was preceded by the contest of two parties, whose names (not a common occurrence) designated their principles, and the object for which they respectively contended. It was general, and founded on principle; the one contending for a radical change in the confederation of the States—these were designated as federalists; the other, opposed to this change—who were styled anti-federalists. When the States had agreed to the Constitution, this party became extinct; the object on the one side having been completely established, and the opposition on the other generally abandoned. Coeval with the operations of the new government, arose a new party, of the same general permanent kind, because it was founded on a contrariety of opinion on the powers of the new government. Among those who had most zealously promoted its adoption, were men of high talents, who strove in its formation to give it a character of greater energy, and increase its powers at the expense of those of the States; being obliged to yield many of their ideas to those of others, who thought it too energetic as it was, they compromised with their opponents, and agreed to the Constitution as it is, or, rather, as it was before the amendments. It was natural that men entertaining those ideas, should put every construction on the words of the compact that would bring it nearer to, what they thought, the point of perfection. Men of equal eminence and abilities had co-operated as indefatigably in procuring the adoption, but from a conviction that the powers given to the Federal Government, strictly construed, were sufficient for all national purposes; that any extension of them would be injurious, if not ruinous; and that no construction or direct change should be permitted that would lessen the power or influence of the State Governments. These last description of federalists were naturally joined by the individuals who had formed the extinct party of anti-federalists; and, together, under the name of the republican party, they watched the movements, and opposed the suspicious measures of those whom I have first designated, and who retained the name of federalists.

The first and most dangerous principle, sometimes avowed by the federal party, but generally acted upon, was that under the construction of the words in the preamble, that the object of the Constitution was to promote the general welfare, and the use of the same phrase in the power to lay taxes on any object which promoted the general welfare of the United States, unless expressly inhibited, was included. The direct operation of this interpretation in consolidating the General Government, and annihilating the power of the States, was evident, and the avowal of it alarming. Besides this, there were many incidents which, to minds already excited by more important opinions and events, created suspicions of a design to change the forms, as well as the substance, of the new Government; and which, although by one party considered “trifles light as air,” were by the other thought to be “confirmation strong as proofs from holy writ.” The President having opened the session by a speech to both Houses, as was then, and for twelve years continued to be, the mode, one of the first subjects of deliberation in the Senate was the style by which he should be addressed in their answer. A committee was appointed to consider this subject, and they reported that the President should be styled His Highness. The democratic branch, however, insisted on calling him simply what the people had made him—the President of the United States; and the Senate, yielding to the necessity of the moment, came to the following resolution:

By which you will perceive that, as the resolution has never been further acted upon, we may to-morrow confirm the report of the committee, and decorate our President with the princely title of Highness, and the ominous appellation of Protector. One other incident which I remember, took place in the gay world of which my youth then made me a denizen. The citizens of New York, among other marks of hospitality and desire to show a proper attention to the Great Man, who had just reluctantly given up his retirement at the unanimous voice of his fellow citizens, gave a grand inauguration ball; on the ceremonial of which it was said one, at least, of those who afterwards composed his cabinet, was consulted. But though he came from the Eastward, I do not mean to say that this was an Eastern measure. In a conspicuous part of the large ball room was erected a superb canopy, and under the canopy was placed what the ill-natured democrats called a throne; whether it was or not, not having had the honor to see one, I cannot tell. Napoleon said, a throne is a block of wood covered with velvet. This was a small sofa or a large chair, covered with some costly material, and on it they induced the President to sit; and when the music sounded for the dance, every couple, before they took their station in the long column of the country dances, then in fashion, were directed to go up and make a low obeisance, to the great annoyance of the President, who is said, when he quitted the seat, (in which he had thus reluctantly and by surprise been placed) thus to have addressed the contrivers of the ceremonial, with some warmth: “You have made a fool of me once; but I will take care you never do it again.” Such fooleries, Sir, are hardly worth relating, but they are characteristic of the views of parties—at least they were thought so then. Hae nugae, said the democrats, (or such of them as understood Latin) seria ducent, and many of the more apprehensive thought they saw royalty typified in these signs of the times. These imaginary fears soon gave way; but others of greater reality succeeded them. Circumstances of historical notoriety influenced the minds of both parties with foreign predilections and animosities; and the federal party, which had constantly been predominant in Congress, sealed their construction of the powers of the General Government by the passage of the alien law and the sedition law. Nothing could exceed the indignation which these practical applications of the federal doctrine excited in the minds of their opponents. An attack on the liberty of the press, not only unauthorized, but forbidden by the Constitution by the one act, the arbitrary power vested in the President by the other, opened the eyes of the people to the principles of the party by which they were passed, and, at the very next election, they were deprived of a power they had so grossly abused. Having mentioned the alien law, let me stop to perform an act of justice to deceased worth. In the first stages of that bill, for it was hurried through the House, I was absent from the seat with which I was then honored in the House of Representatives. I returned on the day set for its third reading. Before I went to the House, I met with a Senator from Virginia,* who, notwithstanding the disparity of our years, honored me with his friendship, sometimes instructed me by his advice, and always stimulated me by his example. The conversation naturally turned on the measure depending before the House; and he detailed to me its provisions, spoke with his usual animation of its unconstitutional features, and inspired me with his own indignation against its attack on the liberty of the nation. Warmed with this conversation, I went to the House and made a speech in opposition to the bill, which was at the time spoken of with applause, and sometimes attracts attention even now; but whatever of merit it had, was owing to the circumstance I have related; and I might address him who urged me to declare my sentiments on the occasion, in the words of the poet to his muse—

Quod spiro et placeo (si placeo) tuum est.

The country has since been deprived of the services of that Senator, but she has the consolation to know that the mantle of his patriotism, talents, and virtues, has fallen on his son and successor in this body.

I have given you, Sir, so much of the history and state of parties as was necessary for the understanding of the refutation I must make of a charge brought against me, and those with whom it was my happiness to associate, and will always be my pride to have acted in those times. I repeat the charge, verbatim, from the printed speech of the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster.) Speaking of the merits of New England, which I, at least, have never attempted to lessen, he says he “will not rake into the rubbish of by-gone times to blot the escutcheon of any State, any party, or any part of the country;” yet, Sir, in the same page, he endeavors to fix a blot of the blackest ingratitude on a party, on men (I do not speak, Sir, of myself,) who have rendered most important services to the country, to one of whom it has given the highest mark of its confidence and esteem, and all of whom were, in the transaction alluded to, much more sinned against than sinning. The honorable gentleman goes on to say: “Gen. Washington’s administration was steadily and zealously maintained, as we all know, by New England. It was violently opposed elsewhere. We know in what quarter he had most earnest, constant, and persevering support in all his great and leading measures. We know where his private and personal character was held in the highest degree of attachment and veneration; and we know too where his measures were opposed, his services slighted, and his character vilified. We know, or we might know, if we turn to the journals, who expressed respect, gratitude, and regret, when he retired from the Chief Magistracy; and who refused to express respect, gratitude, or regret—I shall not open these journals.”

Sir, the honorable gentleman would have done well to open the journals, or not to have referred to them. If he had opened them, he would have found the name of the individual who addresses you arrayed with those of men more worthy of note, in the vote to which he alludes. If he had opened the debates which led to that vote, as I think he ought to have done, he would have seen how utterly void of foundation is the charge he has brought. I do not think the gentleman intended any personal allusion to me; the terms of civility on which we are, forbid it—the consciousness of having said nothing to provoke the attack forbids it; but, Sir, the individual, who cannot arrogate to himself sufficient importance to justify the supposition that he was the object intended, was, at that time, the representative, the sole representative, of the first commercial city in the Union. That individual is now one of the members of this body, representing a sovereign State. He owes it, therefore, to those who have offered him these marks of their confidence, to show that they were not unworthily bestowed; he owes it to himself to disprove the reflection which the allegation casts on his character. Suffer me, also, Mr. President, to remark, that this very charge was used during the late election; and that the refutation I am about to give was so widely diffused that it is somewhat singular it should never have come to the Senator’s knowledge, or that he should have forgotten it if it had. Yet one or the other must have been the case, or he would not now have repeated the tale, nor, by incorporating it in his eloquent harangue, have given new currency to a refuted calumny which had long before been nailed to the counter. Since the honorable gentleman believes the tale to be true, and surely he would not otherwise repeat it, hundreds of others must give it the like credit; and it increases the obligation I am under to explain all the circumstances attending it.

I have shown, Sir, what were the doctrines and measures of the federal party at that time; during the whole of the Presidency of Washington they were predominant in both Houses; and as Washington was the head of the Government, one of their greatest objects was, to cover all their proceedings with the popularity of his name; to represent all opposition to their measures, as personal hostility to him; and to force the republican party either to approve all their measures, or, by opposing them, incur the odium of being unfriendly to the Father of his Country. In this they were for the most part defeated. The universal confidence reposed in the high character of Washington, the gratitude felt for his services, the veneration for his name, had practically produced the effect, in our Government, which a constitutional maxim has in that of England. He could not, it was believed, do wrong—most certainly he never meant wrong—most certainly his ardent wishes were for the happiness of the country he had conducted through so many perils, and the preservation of that form of government which had been adopted under his auspices. Yet measures were adopted, during his Presidency, which a very large proportion of the country thought injurious to their interests, and, on one occasion, a majority of their Representatives deemed them to be an infringement on their privileges. None of these were ascribed to the President; a practice which he introduced, enabled us to ascribe to his administration (to which in truth they belonged) all the measures of which we disapproved. The practice alluded to, was that of assembling the Heads of Department in a Cabinet Council, and being guided, as was generally understood, by the opinion of a majority in all important concerns. Hence the official acts of the President came to be considered as those of his Cabinet, and were, in common parlance, called the acts of the administration, and they were opposed, when it was deemed necessary, and canvassed, and freely spoken of in debate, without any hostility being felt, or supposed to be felt, towards the President. Indeed, several of those most prominent in opposition to acts of the administration, were men for whom Washington had the highest esteem, and who were among those who most admired and revered him.

Of the acts to which the republican party were opposed, it may be necessary to specify some, in order to show that the opposition was not a frivolous or a personal one.

The Chief Justice of the United States was sent as a Minister Plenipotentiary to England, while he held his Judicial office, which he retained until after his return. Thus, in our opinion, blending the Executive and Judicial departments, directed by the Constitution to be separated, and setting an example which might create an undue influence on the bench, in favor of the Executive.

This minister negotiated a treaty which contained stipulations requiring the agency of the House of Representatives, in the exercise of their constitutional powers over the subject of them, to carry into effect. To enable them discreetly to exercise these powers, the House respectfully requested the communication of such papers, in relation to the treaty, as could, without injury to our foreign relations, be made public. This request, the President was advised to refuse; and the refusal was grounded on a denial of the constitutional right of the House to exercise any discretion in carrying the treaty into effect. On this refusal, the House of Representatives passed a resolution declaratory of the right which the President had denied. I will not trouble the Senate with adverting to any other measures which I, and those who acted with me, opposed. We opposed them, Sir, without, in any instance, forgetting the sentiments of respect, gratitude, and high admiration, which were due to the name and character of Washington. We believed that it would have been a dereliction of duty to give up the independent expression of that opinion, because it was contrary to measures falsely ascribed to a name they revered; and conscious of the weight of that name. I may, without vanity, say, there was some degree of merit in stemming the tide of popularity that was attached to it.

The mission of Mr. Jay took place after the second election of General Washington, and the discussion on the treaty, in the first session of the fourth Congress, the seventh year of his Presidency. In his speech on the opening of the second session of the same Congress, (I repeat, sir, what I formerly wrote on this occasion) he alluded in affecting terms to his approaching retirement from office. I can solemnly say for myself, that, on this occasion, so far from any ill feeling towards the President, none among those who arrogated to themselves the title of his exclusive friends, could feel more sincerely, or were more disposed to express every sentiment of gratitude for his services, admiration for his character, or wishes for his happiness, than I was. These were ideas that had grown up with me from childhood. I had never heard the name of Washington pronounced but with veneration by those near relatives who were engaged with him in the same perilous struggle. Independence, liberty, and victory, were associated with it in my mind; and the awful admiration with which, when yet a boy, I was first admitted to his presence, yielded only to the more rational sentiments of gratitude and national pride, when, at a maturer age, I could appreciate his services, and estimate the honor his virtues and character had conferred on the nation. I had seen him in the hour of peril, when the contest was doubtful, and when his life and reputation, as well as the liberties of the country, depended on the issue. I had seen him in the moment of triumph, when the surrender of a hostile army had secured that independence. My admiration followed him in his first retreat, and was not lessened by his quitting it to give the aid of his name and influence to the union of the States under an efficient government. In addition to this, he had received me with kindness in my youthful visits to his camp; and, without having it in my power to boast of any particular intimacy, circumstances had thrown me frequently in the way of receiving from him such attentions as indicated some degree of regard. With these motives for joining in the most energetic expressions of gratitude, with a heart filled with sentiments of veneration, and desirous of recording them, my concern can scarcely be expressed, when I found that I must be debarred from joining my voice with those of my fellow-citizens in expressing those feelings, unless, in the same breath, I should pronounce a recantation of principles which I then thought, and still think, were well founded, and declare that I approved measures which I had just solemnly declared I thought injurious to the country.

Thus, Sir, it was contrived. At that period, the President opened the session by a speech, (the more convenient mode of sending a message having been introduced five years afterwards by Mr. Jefferson,) and the House made an answer, which they presented in a body. The answer on this occasion was most artfully and most ably drawn. It was the work of a federal committee, and was supported by a federal majority. It contained, as it ought to have contained, every expression that gratitude, veneration, and affectionate regret, could suggest; and to the adoption of these there would not have been a dissenting voice; it would have been carried, not only unanimously, but by acclamation. But the dominant party had other views; it was to be made the instrument of degrading their opponents, if they could vote for it, or of holding them up to all posterity as opposers of the Saviour of his Country if they refused to pronounce their own condemnation. They preferred a paltry party triumph to the glory of the man they professed to honor, and deprived him of the expression of an unanimous vote, that they might have some pretence to stigmatize their opponents with ingratitude. The press, sir, the omnipotent press, and the publicity of our debates, have enabled me, even at this distant day, to defeat this unworthy end—unworthy of the honorable men who contrived and executed it, and which nothing but the madness of party would have suggested to them.

To understand this fully, Sir, I should read to you the whole of the address. Its general character I have stated. But I will confine myself to one or two passages, which show what was endeavored to be forced upon us, and the amendments offered will show what we were willing to say; and I will then ask who it was that refused a unanimous expression of gratitude, respect, and merit?

The debates of that period were very concisely taken down; but (in Carpenter’s debate, p. 62) we find enough for our purpose. It is there stated that Mr. Livingston expressed his sorrow “that the answer was not so drawn as to avoid this debate, and his sincere hope that parties would so unite as to make it agreeable to all. He moved some amendments, first, to correct an error in the phraseology, which were adopted; and, in the course of his remarks, used these expressions: ‘He hoped, notwithstanding the tenacity of adherence to words, that all might agree in the address; he would be extremely hurt, he said, could he conceive that we differed in sentiments of gratitude and admiration for that great man; but, while he was desirous to express this, he could not do it at the expense of his feelings and principles. The former he might sacrifice, but the latter he could not to any man.’”

I invite the particular attention of the Senate to the passage which I proposed to alter as it stood in the address; it was in these words:

“And while we entertain a grateful conviction that your wise, firm, and patriotic administration has been signally conducive to the success of the present form of government, we cannot forbear to express the deep sensations of regret with which we contemplate your intended retirement from office.” Now, sir, mark what were the words objected to in this sentence; bear in mind the distinctions that have been drawn between the character of the President, and that of his administration;—remember what was the sense in which that word was universally used at the day; recollect, too, what I have just said of the opposition to one of the leading measures of that administration, and you will then be enabled to judge whether I, and those with whom I acted, could give our assent to this passage as it stood. To show, however, that, while we could not, with consistency or truth, say, that the measures of the cabinet were wise and patriotic, but that we were perfectly willing to use these epithets as applied to the President, I moved to strike out the words “wise, firm, and patriotic administration,” and insert “your wisdom, firmness, and patriotism;” the sentence then would have read thus: “while we entertain a grateful conviction, that your wisdom, firmness, and patriotism, have been signally conducive to the success of the present form of Government, we cannot forbear to express the deep sensations of regret, with which we contemplate your intended retirement from office.” Now, sir, compare this clause, which we were all ready to vote for, and did vote for, with that which was supported by the majority; and say which of them expresses the greatest veneration for the person, and the personal character of Washington— that which ascribes wisdom, firmness, and patriotism, to the measures of his cabinet, or that which attaches them to himself. Say whether we refused to express regret at his retirement, when that word, accompanied by an epithet most expressive of its intensity, is readily adopted. Say who were the real friends to the glory of our great leader in war, and director in peace—those who, for a paltry party triumph, deprived him of an unanimous expression of thanks and admiration, who forced him to appear rather as the chief of a party, than in his true character of the man uniting all affections, regretted, beloved, venerated by all his fellow citizens; or those who intreated that, on this occasion at least, party considerations should be laid aside, and that they might be permitted to join their voice to that of their country, and of the world, in expressing the sentiments with which their hearts were filled. Say, finally, Sir, whether the Senator from Massachusetts is justified in the allegation, that we refused to express respect, gratitude, and regret, on the retirement of Washington; or what is more than insinuated, that we slighted his services and vilified his character. Sir, the register I have quoted shows, that I supported my amendment by expressing the very sentiments you have just heard; and I must add, that, shortly after this transaction, while my votes, speeches, and conduct, were fresh in the recollection of my constituents, my term of service expired, and I was re-elected by an increased majority. Would a man, entertaining the sentiments of Washington that have been ascribed to me, have received the votes of a city where his name was adored. Nay, more sir; one of the most conspicuous of those who have incurred the reproach of the Senator from Massachusetts, and for whose sole use it was perhaps designed—the President of the United States—was not long since selected, by the veteran reliques of the Revolutionary war; the chosen companions in arms of their venerated commander; the New York Society of Cincinnati—as one of the very few honorary members to whom that distinction has been bestowed. They have, since that, done me the same honor. Would the venerable remnant of the friends and companions of Washington, associated under his auspices for the purpose of cherishing the friendships contracted during the contest he so gloriously conducted, and watching over his fame, so inseparably connected with their own—would they have conferred this distinction on two men, who had, at any period of their lives, shown themselves his enemies or detractors? Me, sir, they knew from my childhood; my whole life was before them. At the time these votes were given, I was their immediate representative. Many of them were opposed to me in the politics of the day, but they knew my conduct to have been such as I have described, and they did justice to my motives; and most assuredly, would not have joined in my unanimous association to their honorable body, had they doubted the purity of either.

In the course of this defensive part of my address to the Senate, I have been obliged to refer, with some minuteness, to the state of parties at a remote period. I have done so with no desire to renew forgotten animosities, or impute injurious designs to the living or the dead. The latter consideration has induced me to stop short of the scenes which occurred in this place, in the first session that was held here; much of what I know, more of what I heard, would have this tendency if detailed. Designs of the most violent and disorganizing kind were ascribed to some of the Federal party, in a letter bearing the signature of one of its distinguished members; but which was attributed to mistake by another, a no less respectable leading man of the same party, both of them since deceased. It does not enter into my purpose to determine between them. I had a high respect for both, and an intimacy with one, which was never interrupted by our difference in political tenets; in truth, I had, during the whole course of those violent times, the good fortune to preserve the most friendly intercourse with most of my principal political opponents. I thought their political principles dangerous; and they thought my ideas of government inefficient; but we did justice to the purity of each other’s motives, and preserved social harmony amid party discord. It is far, therefore, I repeat, from my intention, to renew heats which are now allayed by a reference to the olden times of party; but I referred to them because they were necessary to my defence. Because, having left the Atlantic states soon after the triumph of the republican party in 1800, I thought, on my return to public life, after a retirement of more than twenty years—I thought I discovered some of the great dogmas of federalism prevailing in our public councils; and thinking them always dangerous, I felt it a duty to take this occasion to guard against their revival. Engaged during my absence in professional pursuits, and wholly absorbed by them, I had not marked the changes of political parties or events. I knew not even the appellations by which they were distinguished; but in whatever shape the old dangerous federal doctrine of assuming all power under the claim of providing for the general welfare, may have appeared; under whatever colors its partisans may enroll themselves, quocunque nomine gaudent, federalists, federal republican, or national federalists, I now do and ever will hold it a paramount duty to discover and oppose their doctrines. I know that many who belonged to the federal party, never did entertain this dangerous opinion; I believe that many who did entertain, have abjured it; I most sincerely hope they all have; and thinking this a favorable occasion to produce a disclaimer of them, I have seized it to submit the propriety of doing so. Should this doctrine be formally abandoned here, one great source of suspicion and ill feeling will be destroyed; and when that is done, enough will remain to satisfy the most zealous lover of party.

These, Mr. President, were some of my reasons for speaking of the history of party under our Government. I had another. It was to mark the difference between the necessary, and, if I may so express it, the legitimate parties existing in all free Governments, founded on differences of opinion in fundamental principles, or an attachment to, or dislike of, particular measures and particular men; between these and that spirit of dissension into which they are apt to degenerate: to throw the weight of my experience, and the little my opinions may have, in the scale, and lift up a warning voice against the indulgence of the passions which lead to them, the allusions that irritate, the personal reflections that embitter debate, and the altercations that debase it. The spirit of which I speak originates in the most trifling as well as the most important circumstances. The liberties of a nation or the color of a cockade are sufficient to excite it. It creates imaginary, and magnifies real causes of complaint; arrogates to itself every virtue—denies every merit to its opponents; secretly entertains the worst designs—publicly imputes them to its adversaries: poisons domestic happiness with its dissensions; assails the character of the living with calumny, and, invading the very secrets of the grave with its viperous slanders, destroys the reputations of the dead; harangues in the market place; disputes at the social board; distracts public councils with unprincipled propositions and intrigues; embitters their discussions with invective and recrimination, and degrades them by personalities and vulgar abuse; seats itself on the bench; clothes itself in the robes of justice; soils the purity of the ermine, and poisons the administration of justice in its source; mounts the pulpit, and, in the name of a God of mercy and peace, preaches discord and vengeance; invokes the worst scourges of Heaven, war, pestilence, and famine, as preferable alternatives to party defeat: blind, vindictive, cruel, remorseless, unprincipled, and at last frantic, it communicates its madness to friends as well as foes; respects nothing, fears nothing; rushes on the sword; braves the dangers of the ocean; and would not be turned from its mad career by the majesty of Heaven itself, armed with its tremendous thunders.

The tristes irae of the poet—

• ——Quas neque noricus
• Deterret ensis, nec mare naufragum,
• Nec saevus ignis, nec tremendo
• Jupiter ipse ruens tumultu.

And to which, with an elegance of expression and profundity of thought rarely united, he ascribes the ruin of republics—

• ——Et altis urbibus ultimae
• Stetere causae cur perirent
• Funditus, imprimeretque muris
• Hostile aratrum exercitus insolens.

Yes, sir, the poet tells us true. These few lines contain a most important lesson. Not long before he wrote them, there existed a confederacy of independent States, united, as ours are, by the same religion, language, manners, and laws. Fair cities, adorned with noble edifices, decorated by the miracles of the imitative arts, governed by wise magistrates, and defended by intrepid warriors—where sages gave lessons of morality and wisdom—poured forth their numerous inhabitants at stated seasons to assist at solemn games, where poets sung, and historians read their instructive pages, to admiring crowds; where the young contended for the prize of agility or strength, and the old recounted their former exploits; where the wisdom, and valor, and talent, and beauty, of each State, were the boast and pride of the whole. What followed? Civil dissension breathed its poisonous influence over them, and they met to contend, not for the peaceful prizes of dexterity or genius, but in the deadly strife of civil war. Where are their magnificent temples, their theatres, their statues of gods and heroes? They have vanished: they have been swept by the besom of destruction! The ploughshare of devastation has been driven over their walls, and their mighty ruins remain as monumental warnings to free States, of the danger of falling into the excess of party rage.

From these evils may Heaven, in its mercy, preserve our beloved country: but, that this prayer may be heard, we must begin by correcting in ourselves every approach of the passions which lead to them. Is there no danger? Have no symptoms appeared to justify a fear that too great an excitement has been already produced by no sufficient cause? I am no censor of the conduct of others: it is sufficient for me to watch over my own. The wisdom of gentlemen must be their guide in the sentiments they entertain, and their discretion in the language in which they utter them. No doubt they think the occasion calls for the warmth they have shown; but of this the people must judge; and, that they may judge with impartiality, let the facts which have drawn forth the invectives we have heard, be fairly submitted to them.

We have heard much of supposed lines of division in this body. “This side of the House” and “the other side,” “majority” and “minority,” “opposition” and “administration,” are as familiarly mentioned as if they were universally understood. Now, sir, I profess my ignorance. In what cause have the Senators of the United States arranged themselves into different bodies, and arrayed themselves under adverse banners? If the dangerous doctrine of undefined and undefinable powers in the General Government be assumed as the watchword; if the dormant—I had thought the extinct— principles of persecuting federalism are to be revived let it be declared; and I, for one, will not hesitate on which side of the party line I shall be found. As yet, sir, I see no constitutional question of a permanent nature to divide us. We undoubtedly think differently of particular measures, and have our preferences for particular men: these, surely, can not arrange us into any but temporary divisions, lasting no longer than while the election of the man is pending, or the debate on the measure continues. The election has been long decided. Do gentlemen understand that, because they preferred another candidate, they are to form an opposition to all measures he recommends, or to all appointments he has made? Do they imagine that those who supported him in his election are, in this House, to form a separate party for the indiscriminate approbation of all he may advise or do? Of their own intentions, gentlemen are the best judges: they must think for themselves, and draw what lines they choose for their own conduct; but, for one, sir, I inform them they cannot do so for me. I shall now, as I have always done, exercise my own judgment, guided by the instruction I receive from debate, on all important measures. I gave to the election of the present Chief Magistrate all the aid which my vote and little influence could give. My own knowledge of facts enabled me to refute many slanders: my intimate acquaintance with his character and services gave some weight to the testimony by which I cleared them from misrepresentation. I thought him entitled to the place, because he possessed talents which eminently qualified him to execute its duties; because he had rendered services such as but one man had ever before rendered to the country: because I had witnessed the energy, courage, prudence, and talent, by which he saved the State I represent from the worst of desolations. These were my inducements for his support during the first election when he was a candidate. The decision of that election, in favor of a man having a fewer number of votes, was calculated to embitter the minds of his friends, and make them hostile to the successful candidate. Yet, Sir, during his Presidency, I gave a practical proof of the profession I now make: a measure of great importance was proposed by his administration—I mean the Panama mission; I thought great good might result from it, and, although it was violently opposed by those with whom I had acted in the election, I not only voted for, but supported it by argument, I then thought, and I still think, that its nature and object were both of them misrepresented or misunderstood; and that, if the assembly had taken place as it was first proposed, our envoys attending in a diplomatic, not a representative character, might, by their influence and advice, have prevented many dissensions that have since distracted those republics; might have introduced stipulations favorable to commerce, social intercourse, and the great interests of humanity. My reasons for that vote are published. And the fact, that, although one of the warmest friends of the unsuccessful candidate, and one of those who felt the deepest regret when his opponent was declared to be elected, I yet supported such measures of his administration as I approved when they were opposed by my political friends, ought to be a sure pledge of my sincerity when I say, that I will support no important measure that I disapprove, merely because it is one of the present administration. I have not, however, the passions avowed by the honorable Senator from Maine, (Mr. Holmes) who told us, if I understood him, that he had always been and always wished to be, in a minority. [Mr. Holmes explained, he did not say he desired to be in a minority, but that he believed he always would be.] Mr. Livingston continued: It seems I have not repeated the words used by the honorable Senator, which I regret; but the sense is the same. If he has always been in a minority it must have been a matter of choice, otherwise, in the ups and downs of his congressional life, in the turns of the political wheel, it must have so happened, that, for a short time, at least, he must have been uppermost; if so, it struck me as a singular predilection. But there is no disputing about tastes; and the Senator has, at least, one great precedent for his:

and I am sure he cannot be offended by my classing him with the stern republican, who would not survive the liberties of his country, as a fitter associate than the nameless one offered to him by my friend from Tennessee. But, Sir, neither the example of Cato nor of the Senator tempt me. I am contented with the victrix causa; contending for what I think right, I like to see it succeed. On this occasion I have as yet had no cause to repent my choice; nor have the charges, urged with so much warmth against the measures of the President, changed the opinion I had formed of his talents to conduct the affairs of the nation with honor, advantage, and success. I listened to them attentively, resolved to weigh calmly, and determine impartially on all that could be urged. Sir, I expected a like disposition in those who have expressed their disapprobation; I expected a detail of facts supported by proof, and of calm and clear deductions from those facts; need I say that I have been mistaken? When I heard from the Senator from Maine, “that this administration had glutted its vengeance upon the purest patriots on earth; that no age, condition, or sex, had escaped; that the sins of the fathers had been visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation; that innocence, virtue, patriotism, had all, all been swept into the gulf of misery,” and listened to the impressive tone in which the eloquent Senator from Delaware reprobated the spirit of oriental despotism, which had displaced deputy postmasters, and recalled unoffending ministers from abroad, need I repeat that I was disappointed? Now I ask—will not the country ask—what is there to justify such exaggerated invective?—language that might be applied to the tyranny of Nero or Caracalla, but which is evidence of nothing but a heated imagination when used to express disapprobation of removals from, and appointments to, office. But let us, Sir, before we catch the infection of this fever, while our pulse still beats evenly, and our heads are cool, examine calmly into the oppressions of the Executive which have excited this patriotic fervor. The honourable Senator from Maine did not deign a single specification, except one, which I confess I cannot fully comprehend—this bloody administration which, in its savage warfare, spares neither men, women, nor children, has visited, in its vengeance, the sins of the fathers upon the third and fourth generation of their descendants. Now, Sir, I cannot comprehend what offence the great great grandfather of any one of the removed officers, who must have lived in the reign of Queen Ann, could have given to the President, or any one in his administration—this, I confess, puzzles me.

The Senator from Delaware has been more explicit: and from his address, to which I listened with great pleasure, I gathered that these were the grounds of complaint.

That the principles of the administration are destructive of the liberties of the country. Such were the words used, as I noted them, and not without much surprise.

That the public treasure has been extravagantly and illegally expended.

That the press has been subsidized for party purposes.

That persons have been removed from office without the advice and consent of the Senate; the President having no constitutional right to do so.

That if there be such a right, it is illegal to exercise it without giving to the Senate the reasons for which the removals were made.

That removals have been made for no other cause than to satisfy the vengeance of the President, or for the purpose of rewarding his friends.

That he has made appointments out of the two Houses of Congress, and particularly out of the Senate, for the purpose of rewarding his friends.

Of each of these grave charges in its order.

First, (says the Senator from Delaware) the principles of the administration are destructive of the liberties of the people. By administration the Senator must mean here, and on other occasions, where he uses the term, the President: for, as far as I have understood, there is now no cabinet in the sense in which that word has been usually taken. If my information be correct, the words of the Constitution, and what I have always believed to be its true intent on this subject, have been pursued, rather than the example of former Presidents. The Constitution, in enumerating the rights and duties of the President, says, “he may require the opinion in writing of the principal officers in each of the Executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices.” Instead of this, from the first organization of the Government, the Heads of Departments have been convened and converted into a cabinet council, not where, according to the Constitution, each was to give his opinion on the affairs of his own department, but where all were consulted on every difficult question relating to the affairs of each, or of the Government in general; and where, it has been generally understood, particularly during the presidency of Washington, that the President was guided by the voice of the majority and the responsibility of the Executive, so far as regarded public opinion, was, if not thrown on the cabinet, at least divided with them. Indeed, Sir, I know, that, at a long subsequent period, a most illegal and oppressive act, by which I was deeply injured, was justified as being done by the advice of the cabinet. Now, Sir, as I have said, there is no such cloak for Executive acts; the President performs the duties of his office and assumes the responsibility they incur. The Cabinet, a body unknown to the Constitution, does not exist. The chiefs of the Departments are consulted on the business of their respective offices; they are answerable to the President; and he, so far as he sanctions their acts, to the country. Of this, however, I have no further information than any other Senator has obtained, or may obtain.

In speaking of the administration of the Executive Department, therefore, it must be understood that gentlemen mean the acts of the President, or of his officers, sanctioned by him.

His principles, then, according to the charge, are subversive of the liberties of the people.

The only modes by which the principles of a man may be known, are either by his professions, or by a long course of action evincive of them. Submit the principles of the Executive to these tests. First, his professions. He has made two communications to us, and to the country—his inaugural address and his message at the opening of this session. Surely the gentleman does not mean to apply the epithet he has used to the principles avowed in either of these instruments; if he does, the voice of the whole people of the United States, re-echoed from foreign nations, will contradict him; the principles there announced, as those by which he will be guided, are, an adherence to the Constitution of the United States, a respect for those of the individual States, economy, justice, liberty, equal protection to industry, manufactures, and trade, and a strict enforcement of the laws at home, and the extension of commerce; the observance of treaties, the assertion of our rights, and the establishment of a good understanding with all nations abroad. Which of these principles, thus professed, are subversive of the liberties of the people? if any, let them be pointed out. The charge then is not justified by any principle openly professed. Examine the other source. Can those principles be discovered by his course of conduct? Observe, Sir, that this is a sweeping accusation of evincing dangerous principles; any single improper act, even if it could be substantiated, would not justify it; it may be in contradiction to his professions, it may be injurious, but, unless persevered in, or followed up by others, they can be accounted for only by supposing that they were dictated by such principles, it does not justify the charge.

The present Chief Magistrate has been in office a year. During that time, he has assumed no new power; he has evinced no desire to enlarge those confided to him by the Constitution; and if, in their exercise, he has not exactly followed the march which the Senator thinks the proper one; if he has selected for office those in whom he, and not the Senator, had confidence; if he has consulted his own, and not the Senator’s, discretion; surely he ought not to be denounced as entertaining principles destructive of the liberties of the people. In examining the Constitution for the rules which were to direct his duties, he certainly found nothing written there by which he was bound to conform his own opinion to that of any Senator or any party. Where discretion is given to him, he has used it on his responsibility to the people; and the exercise of this discretion, even if it be not conformable to that which would have been suggested by the superior wisdom of those who arraign his conduct, cannot authorize them to call his principles in question. Where no discretion was given him, he has confined himself, as far as I have heard or observed, to the strictest rule of the Constitution and law.

Enough, then, and more than enough, in refutation of this vague and general charge. Let us come to those that are more specific.

The public treasure has been extravagantly and illegally expended.

It is not, under this head, even pretended that any other or greater sum has been taken or paid to any individual, than that which was due by law for the service or salary for which it was given. But comparisons are made between the amount of expenditure made under the last, and that made under the present administration. As applied to our Government, there cannot be a more fallacious rule for measuring the true economy or wisdom of the exercise of Executive functions. What has the President to do with the extravagance of the general expenditure? These are directed by legislative wisdom. But he must approve all laws! True, he must approve them; but remember, that, if there was any extravagance in the expenditures of the last year, his predecessor, not he, is answerable for it. He has not approved a single law under which a dollar was disbursed in the year 1829; and all of the contracts for the service of that year were made before he came into office. But, Sir, there was no extravagance in the appropriations; (for the contracts I will not vouch, because I am uninformed,) on the contrary, there was a marked, I will not say a designed, reduction of a usual and necessary appropriation for the contingent expenses of the foreign missions. In former estimates, this had been put at $25,000: in the estimate for 1829, it will be found, by deducting the salaries and outfits provided for, it was only $11,000.

But although I protest against his mode of testing the economy or profusion of the Executive, yet, as it has been relied on, let it be looked into, and it will be found that the expenditure of the year 1828 exceeded that of 1829 by more than $400,000; it is true that near $700,000, properly chargeable to the year ’27, was expended in ’28, for awards under the Convention with England, but this was balanced again by a payment of nearly the same sum in 1829, for expenditures for objects of internal improvement directed in the year 1828, and properly chargeable to that year.

But, Sir, I have done with these irrelevant calculations. If the criterion contended for was the true one, it would make in favor of the present Executive; but, in truth, it shows neither extravagance or profusion in that Department. It shows what the united legislative wisdom of the Union thought necessary to be expended, and it shows nothing more; and the truest economy is frequently found in the largest expenditure. This depends altogether on the object for which it is incurred.

There is, however, one branch of expenditure more immediately under the President’s direction; which, indeed, like all other expenditures, must be provided for by law, but which, from its peculiar nature, demands a greater degree of confidence in the Executive than any other—I mean the expenses of our foreign intercourse. All negotiations with foreign Powers, being a part of Executive duty vested in the President, the nature of the service frequently forbids that previous disclosure, which is expected in every other case; and the estimates for this service, furnished by the Executive, are most generally followed by appropriations; in the estimates, the existing missions are enumerated, and if any new one is contemplated, which requires no secrecy, it is also mentioned, and, to provide for unforeseen cases, an appropriation for the contingent fund of missions abroad, made, and placed at the President’s order; besides this, if the interest of the country should require that there should be an expense which the contingent fund should not cover, it must be left, as in the case of all other excess of expenditure over the appropriation, to be provided for under the head of “deficiencies in the appropriations” of the preceding year—an item to be found very frequently in the estimates; and, if well founded, always provided for by an appropriation. Here, again, the same reasoning which I have used with respect to the general annual expenditure, will apply to this particular head. It may be large, and not extravagant. The occasion must determine whether it was judicious or not; and, therefore, though again the comparison is greatly in favor of the present administration, yet I am, in candor, obliged to admit that this circumstance alone will not decide the question in favor of its economy as compared with that of its predecessors. That depends on other circumstances, and other inquiries must be made to determine their weight. But it would seem that, if the same number of missions be kept up, and some of them of an increased rank and expense; if additional expenditures have been incurred by the necessary change of ministers; and yet the whole expenditure is less than under the preceding missions, it would seem to follow, that, if all this now is done at a less expense than formerly occurred, there must have been a saving in some part of the expenditure under the present that did not exist under former administrations. Figures cannot deceive us; let us bring the question to that test, and compare the years 1817 and 1818 the two first of Mr. Monroe’s administration; 1825 and 1826, the two first of Mr. Adams’, and the last and the present years, the two first of General Jackson’s. To the comparative view of the expenses of foreign intercourse, let us add that of the contingent expenses of the Department of State during the same years. From which it results that the expenditures for foreign intercourse in the year 1829, added to the whole appropriation asked for for the year 1830, supposing the whole to be expended, are less than those of the two first years of Mr. Monroe’s administration by $233,065.56, and less than the two first years of Mr. Adams’ presidency by $134,024.98. That the contingent expenses of the Department of State, in the last and present years, is less than the two corresponding years of Mr. Adams’ administration by $10,280.45, and exceeds that of Mr. Monroe’s only two hundred and nineteen dollars—an excess more than counterbalanced by the increased expense of printing the biennial calendar. But as a part of this excess consists of items of occasional and temporary occurrence only, we must bring the comparison to bear only on the permanent items, consisting of—

• The diplomatic department, strictly so called;
• The contingent expenses of foreign intercourse;
• And treaties with the Mediterranean Powers.
• On comparing these, the balances will stand thus:

The expenditure in the two first years of the present administration, falls short of that in the two first years of Mr. Monroe, by the sum of $38,258; and of that in the corresponding years of Mr. J. Q. Adams, by 5,302, notwithstanding the additional expense of outfits incurred in the last year.

[Mr. L. here read an abstract of the expenses of foreign intercourse for the several years above referred to—(see note A.) He then proceeded.]

For the full understanding of the accounts I have just referred to, it may be necessary to state, that previous to the year 1801, the accounts of our foreign relations were kept at the Treasury, under the head “Intercourse with Foreign Nations,” and included every charge in relation to our foreign relations—even the “contingent expenses of foreign intercourse,” commonly known by the appellation of the “Secret Service Fund.” In 1801, according to an arrangement made by Mr. Gallatin, the bankers of the United States in Europe were directed to open an account headed “the Diplomatic Department;” a correspondent account was of course opened at the Treasury, and, under this head, until the year 1814, were brought every item which had formerly been comprehended under the head of the intercourse with foreign nations; and this fund was provided, by general appropriation, in the same words. In 1814, the appropriations became more specific “for the salaries, allowances, and contingent expenses, of Ministers to foreign nations, and for Secretaries of Legation;” and in 1818, the present form of appropriation, designating the several missions, was first adopted. But, from the date I have mentioned, 1801, until the present day, the accounts have been kept in the Treasury, under the general head of the “diplomatic department.” And the course has been, to remit to our bankers in Europe, and charge to this fund, the moneys necessary for the payment of the salaries and allowed expenses of our foreign agents. These bankers are sometimes in advance to the United States, when unforeseen occurrences oblige the President, during the recess, to increase the expenses of our foreign intercourse, by new missions; and in those cases, appropriations are asked for, and made at the next session of Congress to reimburse them. This was the case in the year 1816, to the amount of $50,000; in the year 1818, to the amount of $20,000; and probably, other instances may be found by a more careful examination than I have been able to give to the subject.

In the last year, owing to the insufficiency of the contingent fund for the expenses of foreign missions, which must not be confounded with the contingent expenses of foreign intercourse, (the secret service fund) there was a deficiency of about $40,000, which was included in the estimates for the current year, and, as I stated in the debate on the appropriation, would have been more accordant with form; to have been asked for as a deficiency in the appropriations of the last year. But the effect is precisely the same; by appropriating for the salaries and outfits of foreign ministers, &c. as it stands in the bill, it is carried to the credit of the diplomatic fund, and will be remitted to our bankers to make good their advances.

After having shown that the sum expended for our foreign intercourse is actually much less than in former administrations, the statement I have just made of the mode of keeping the accounts, may be necessary, when we consider another charge, loudly made out of the House, and confidently and with a triumphant air repeated on this floor, that the laws which forbid a transfer of one appropriation to meet a deficiency on another, have been violated by the President. The Senator from Delaware, who most earnestly urged this charge, added, that the President had appropriated money for outfits contrary to law. Now, sir, the honorable Senator, in the charge of an illegal transfer, must have been ill informed, or he would not have hazarded it. No transfer whatever has been made. The balance in the Treasury to the credit of the “Diplomatic Department” was applied to outfits that have been paid; that balance was what remained unremitted to our bankers in Europe. If our Ministers there have drawn upon them for their quarter’s salaries, due on the first of January last, they of course are in advance; because, as I have stated, the appropriation of 1829 fell short of the expenditure about the sum of $40,000. The appropriation for the contingent expenses of missions abroad always formed part of the “Diplomatic Fund,” and without any exception has been made liable to the drafts on that fund; therefore, there was no illegal transfer. The other contingent fund (that for foreign intercourse, the secret service fund,) might consistently with former usage, have been applied to this use; but with a scrupulous regard to the directions of the law, the President suffered it to remain untouched, and to the amount of $13,900, it has been carried to the Surplus Fund, having been more than two years appropriated. There has been, therefore, no illegal transfer of appropriations—there has been no transfer whatever. And this charge also falls under the investigation, which the President should rejoice has been provoked here, where it must meet its final overthrow. Now to the one connected with it, and urged with equal warmth, (I will not say violence.) Outfits have been paid, for which there was no specific appropriations. Can the gentleman have calculated the consequences of the doctrine implied in this charge? Can he have reflected on the blot its establishment would fix on the characters of men whose memory I know he reveres? Surely not. But as to the consequences of the doctrine. If it be true, the President cannot, in time of war, send a Minister to make peace in the recess, when no previous appropriation has been made for an outfit. He must lose the most favorable opportunities for negotiation, and suffer the ravages of war to go on until he can call Congress, at the expense of more than $100,000, to get an appropriation of $9000. Observe, sir, that, if our bankers were ready to advance the sum— nay, if he were ready to advance it himself, the doctrine contended for would make it equally illegal. How comes it that gentlemen who agree with the Senator from Delaware in this doctrine, have ever voted an appropriation to supply the deficiencies of former years? Why have they not censured the Presidents under whose authority they were created? No, sir; they were silent under Madison, silent under Monroe, when deficiencies in this department were voted for without a word of dissatisfaction. They, and all our predecessors were silent; and it was reserved for the present occasion to discover that an outfit could not be legally paid until there was a specific appropriation. General Washington appointed Mr. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to France; Mr. Jefferson appointed Mr. Charles Pinkney to Spain, Mr. Monroe to England, Mr. Armstrong to France, Mr. Monroe again to Spain, Mr. William Pinkney to England, and Mr. Erving to Denmark; Mr. Madison appointed Mr. Crawford to France, and Mr. Irving to Spain; Mr. Monroe appointed Mr. Rush to England, and Mr. Everett to the Netherlands; and Mr. J. Q. Adams appointed Mr. Tudor to Brazil. All these appointments were made in the recess, and without any specific appropriations. Their salaries and outfits were paid out of the Diplomatic fund generally, and when that fund was indebted to our bankers, provision, as we have seen, was made to reimburse them.

Now, Sir, let the gentleman, and those who join him in the crimination of the Executive, determine whether they are willing to incur the ruinous consequences attending the establishment of their doctrine, and the inculpation of every former President, the Father of his Country included, in their sweeping charge. And I pray the Senate also to remark, that, if these appointments and outfits in the recess, without a special appropriation, were proper by former Presidents, (as they undoubtedly were) even in the cases where the appropriations were specified for particular missions, without providing for outfits in the recess, the present case must be infinitely more justifiable: for the appropriation for 1828 gives a gross sum for salaries, outfits, and contingencies, without specifying how much was intended for each, thereby creating a general fund, applicable to all such objects; but, being inadequate to the exigencies of the year, an appropriation has been asked for to provide for the deficiency, as has been usual in this and in every other department of the Government. This deficiency was provided for in the House of Representatives without any opposition, and in the Senate with only, I think, three or four dissenting votes. And this, Sir, is the whole extent of the affair of the outfits, and the illegal appropriations and transfers, which has been made the ground of so much serious accusation against the President. I hope we shall hear no more of this groundless charge. Now, Sir, to another connected with it: the missions for which these outfits were expended were totally unnecessary. The men whose recall occasioned them were fit persons to be entrusted with the business they were charged with; they ought to have been left; their recall was not only unnecessary, but, in the opinion of the Senator, a proscription. Now, Sir, what means the Senator may have of judging on this point, I cannot tell; all I know is, that I have none that would justify me in believing that all these gentlemen possessed just such qualities and talents as ought to have induced the President to constitute them his agents in the important negotiations we have with foreign Powers. And if I had brought myself to this belief, there are certain considerations that would induce me to think that a man selected by the people of the nation to manage for them this very concern, might, possibly, have rather more information, and must be much better qualified than I was to form a proper opinion. I might say, as I do say, although these are very estimable men, in my opinion, yet the President, possibly, may have reasons to believe that others may succeed where they have failed. He may not unreasonably think that, in addition to a Minister’s being a man of ability and integrity, he ought to possess the perfect confidence of the First Magistrate, whose views he is to carry into effect. These reflections, Sir, would probably occur to me did I disapprove of the nominations which have been made, and would prevent my expressing any warm disapprobation of measures, of the propriety of which I had not the means of judging. Much more would this induce me to refrain from stigmatising them as illegal usurpations of power, and cruel proscriptions.

Do gentlemen really suppose that, by applying to the recall of a Minister a word which leads the mind to the murders and assassinations of Marius and Sylla, and the Triumvirate, they can identify the two cases? Sir, the attempt is not very complimentary to our understanding; and the approximation only tends to show the ridiculous disparity of the cases.

What are these proscriptions? Five Ministers Plenipotentiary, at one “fell swoop!” —incar