Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (4 of 16 vol.). United States. Congress

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СКАЧАТЬ when it is so easy and efficacious a remedy for all our difficulties? Sir, the nation expects it; the nation has a right to demand it. May I not then hope, sir, that the hitherto dominant spirit of party will now yield to an occasion, so obvious, so urgent, so honorable! Sir, I cannot express to you the pleasure I should feel at my heart, if I could see all irritations banished, and harmony and mutual good will universally pervading all political scenes and all social intercourse. That the present occasion may be improved to this desirable end, is the most fervent prayer of one, who, in the present delicate, interesting crisis of the nation, feels a devotion for his country beyond every thing else on this side of Heaven!

      After Mr. Giles concluded, the question was taken on the passage of the resolution to a third reading. There were twenty-four members present, besides the President pro tem.; of whom twenty voted in favor of it. It was ordered to be read a third time on Monday next.

      Monday, December 11

      Mr. Gilman, from the committee, reported the resolution relating to the official correspondence between the Secretary of State and Francis J. Jackson, Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty, correctly engrossed; and the resolution was read the third time.

      On the question, Shall this resolution pass? it was determined in the affirmative – yeas 20, nays 4, as follows:

      Yeas. – Messrs. Bradley, Brent, Condit, Crawford, Gaillard, German, Giles, Gilman, Gregg, Griswold, Lambert, Leib, Mathewson, Meigs, Parker, Pope, Reed, Smith of Maryland, Sumter, and Turner.

      Nays. – Messrs. Goodrich, Hillhouse, Lloyd, and Pickering.

      Monday, December 18

      John Smith, from the State of New York, attended.

      Thursday, December 21

      Joseph Anderson, from the State of Tennessee, attended.

      Tuesday, December 26

      Jesse Franklin, from the State of North Carolina, attended.

      Thursday, December 28

      Charles Tait, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Georgia, in the place of John Milledge, resigned, produced his credentials; which were read, and, the oath prescribed by law having been administered to him, he took his seat in the Senate.

      Tuesday, January 2, 1810

      James A. Bayard, from the State of Delaware, attended.

      Thursday, January 4

      Jenkin Whiteside, from the State of Tennessee, attended.

      Friday, January 12

      Alexander Campbell, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Ohio, in place of Edward Tiffin, resigned; and Christopher G. Champlin, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Rhode Island, in the place of Francis Malbone, deceased; severally produced their credentials, which were read. And the oath prescribed by law having been administered to them, they took their seats in the Senate.

      Tuesday, January 23

Naval Armament

      The Senate resumed the third reading of the bill authorizing the fitting out, officering, and manning, the frigates belonging to the United States.

      Thursday, February 1

      The President communicated a letter from the Governor of the State of Kentucky, enclosing a certificate of the appointment of Henry Clay a Senator of the United States, in place of Buckner Thruston, resigned. And the certificate was read, and ordered to lie on file.

      Monday, February 5

      Henry Clay, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Kentucky, in the place of Buckner Thruston, attended, and the oath prescribed by law having been administered to him, he took his seat in the Senate.

      Thursday, February 22

Non-Intercourse

      Mr. Gilman, from the committee, reported the amendments to the bill, entitled "An act respecting the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and for other purposes," correctly engrossed; and the bill was read the third time as amended.

      Mr. Clay. – Mr. President: At all times embarrassed when I have ventured to address you, it is with peculiar diffidence I rise on this occasion. The profound respect I have been taught to entertain for this body, my conscious inadequacy to discuss, as it deserves, the question before you, the magnitude of that question, and the recent seat I have taken in this House, are too well calculated to appall, and would impel me to silence if any other member would assume the task I propose attempting. But, sir, when the regular troops of this House, disciplined as they are in the great affairs of this nation, are inactive at their posts, it becomes the duty of its raw militia, however lately enlisted, to step forth in defence of the honor and independence of the country.

      I voted yesterday against the amendment offered by the gentleman from Maryland, because, while that vote did not pledge me for the ultimate passage of the bill, it would have allowed me to give it my support if no better proposition was tendered. I do not like the bill as sent from the House of Representatives. It was a crazy vessel, shattered and leaky; but it afforded some shelter, bad as it was. It was opposition to the aggressive edicts of the belligerents. Taken from us without a substitute, we are left defenceless, naked, and exposed to all the rage and violence of the storm.

      Sir, have we not been for years contending against the tyranny of the ocean? Has not Congress solemnly pledged itself to the world not to surrender our rights? And has not the nation at large in all its capacities of meetings of the people, State, and General Government, resolved to maintain at all hazards our maritime independence? Your whole circle of commercial restrictions, including the non-importation, embargo, and non-intercourse acts, had in view an opposition to the offensive measures of the belligerents, so justly complained of by us. They presented resistance– the peaceful resistance of the law. When this is abandoned without effect, I am for resistance by the sword.

      No man in the nation wants peace more than I; but I prefer the troubled ocean of war, demanded by the honor and independence of the country, with all its calamities and desolation, to the tranquil and putrescent pool of ignominious peace. If we can accommodate our differences with one of the belligerents only, I should prefer that one to be Britain; but if with neither, and we are forced into a selection of our enemy, then am I for war with Britain, because I believe her prior in aggression, and her injuries and insults to us were atrocious in character. I shall not attempt to exhibit an account between the belligerents of mercantile spoliations inflicted and menaced. On that point we have just cause of war with both. Britain stands pre-eminent in her outrage on us, by her violation of the sacred personal rights of American freemen, in the arbitrary and lawless imprisonment of our seamen, the attack on the Chesapeake – the murder, sir. I will not dwell on the long catalogue of our wrongs and disgrace, which has been repeated until the sensibility of the nation is benumbed by the dishonorable detail.

      But we are asked for the means of carrying on the war, and those who oppose it triumphantly appeal to the vacant vaults of the Treasury. With the unimpaired credit of the Government invigorated by a faithful observance of public engagements, and a rapid extinction of the debt of the land, with the boundless territories in the west presenting a safe pledge for reimbursement of loans to any extent, is it not astonishing that despondency itself СКАЧАТЬ