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

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Ordered, That Mr. Alexander, Mr. David R. Williams, Mr. John G. Jackson, Mr. Key, and Mr. Quincy, be appointed a committee, pursuant to the said resolution.

      A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate have passed a bill, entitled "An act supplemental to an act entitled 'An act for extending the terms of credit on revenue bonds, in certain cases, and for other purposes;'" also, a bill, entitled "An act to change the post route from Annapolis to Rockhall, by Baltimore to Rockhall;" to which they desire the concurrence of this House.

Foreign Relations

      The following is Mr. Gardenier's speech entire:

      Mr. Speaker: I had intended to defer the delivery of my sentiments upon the second resolution, until that resolution should come before the House. But the course which the debate has taken, has produced a change in my original intention.

      That the first resolution is an unnecessary one, because no clear, definite, practical results can flow from it, appears to me self-evident. Are the people of this country suspected of an intention to abandon their rights or their independence? Indeed, sir, they are not. Why then is it, that we are called upon to make a new declaration of independence? Or was the Administration conducted in such a manner as to make the firmness and patriotism of the nation itself doubted abroad? Even I, sir, who am not suspected of a blind confidence in our rulers, will not advance such a charge.

      The true question is not, Is the matter expressed in this abstract proposition true? But, Is it necessary that a resolution containing it should be passed by this House? I agree with the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Campbell) that it would be no less ridiculous to pass this resolution than to pass one that the sun shines. Allowing both to be true, both are equally unnecessary to be embodied in a resolution of this House. Begin this system of abstract legislation, and where are you to stop? Sir, it partakes too much of the character of disturbed, revolutionary times. To such a blasphemous height was this notion of voting abstract propositions, or declarations, or truisms (call them what you will) carried at one time in France, that their Convention very gravely decreed "that there was a God!" This was a self-evident truth; and being so could not become more so by being decreed. And if the edicts of Great Britain and France go to the destruction of our "rights, honor and independence," our voting that such is their operation, makes it neither more nor less true.

      But, it is said, a select committee have placed the resolution before us, and we are bound to vote whether the assertions it contains are true or false. Why, sir, if I should offer a resolution that at this moment the sun shines, and some one should second me, would it be contended that this House ought gravely to proceed to the question? and if any member should say, "I vote against this resolution because it is too true to be made more so; and because, therefore, I think it unnecessary to be passed," that he, sir, should be considered blind?

      Again, gentlemen, some too with whom I am in the habit of acting, say, at the worst, the resolution is harmless – it ties you down to no specific course, and therefore you may as well vote for it; that to vote against it, will afford a handle against our popularity – that the resolution itself is an artful one – a trap set to catch the Federalists, as it will hold them up to suspicion, if they vote against it – for the vote will appear upon the Journals, when the argument is not to be found there. Well, sir, if it be in truth a trap to catch poor Federalism in, I, for one, sir, am willing to be caught. I never deceived the people whom I have the honor to represent, either by giving a vote to the propriety of which my judgment was opposed, or by professing opinions which I did not entertain; and, sir, I trust in God I never shall. The applause of my constituents is dear to me. But I would rather strive to deserve it – than, not deserving it, to receive it. Yes, sir, my course shall be always a plain one – a straightforward course. I have not acquired the confidence of my constituents by increasing their delusions. I have always labored to disperse them. At my first election to this House, a decided majority of them were opposed to my politics. The thought has often distressed me. But the cause of that distress exists no longer. And, therefore, sir, I will go on discharging my duty with the most scrupulous obedience to my judgment, and where the weight of a hair ought to turn the scale, it shall turn it.

      But if I had no other objection against this abstract "harmless" resolution, there is one which would be decisive: I would reject it on account of "the company it keeps." The committee, for reasons which I shall not stop to disclose, have thought it important to introduce this, by way of propping the second one. That second one, sir, the undoubted object and inevitable tendency of which my whole soul recoils from, which I abhor and deprecate, as fatal to the prosperity and happiness of my country – as the grave of its honor – and I fear I do not go too far when I add, of its independence! that resolution is not alone submission to France; but, under the pretence of resisting her infractions of the laws of nations, her violations of the sacred rights of hospitality, her laughing to scorn the obligation of treaties – it makes us submit to all – to encourage a perseverance in all. Nay, sir, it throws the whole weight of our power into her scale, and we become not only the passive, but, to the whole extent of our means, the active instruments of that policy which we affect to abhor. This, sir, unhappily, is capable of the most clear demonstration; and, in the proper place it shall appear so. I enter now upon the discussion of the second resolution. And although I am aware how little professions of sincerity and embarrassment are generally regarded, and, indeed, how little they ought to be regarded, yet I cannot approach this awful subject without declaring that I feel as if I was about to enter the sanctuary of our country's independence; and I tremble with the same fearful distrust of my powers, the same distressing perplexity which would embarrass me if I had entered the labyrinth in which was concealed the secret of that country's honor, prosperity and glory. I do feel, sir, that we should enter upon the discussion of this question divested of all the prejudices and passion of party – no less than all foreign predilections and animosities – with clean hearts, sir; yes, hearts seven times purified, to prepare them for the discharge of the sacred, the holy duties of this awful crisis. He who can come to this debate with other motives than to save his country, placed as it is on the brink of a dreadful precipice, deserves to be heard nowhere but in the cells of the Inquisition. The sound of his voice should never be suffered to pollute the Hall of the Representatives of the American people. But he who, thinking that he has traced the causes and the progress of our misfortunes, and that he may, perhaps, point the nation to a path which may lead it back to the prosperous position it has been made to abandon, would be a traitor to the State, if any considerations could keep him silent.

      In my view, sir, we have gone on so long in error – our affairs have been suffered to run on, year after year, into so much confusion, that it is not easy to say what should be done. But if it is magnanimous to retract error, certainly it is only the performance of a sacred duty, which their servants owe the people, to abandon a system which has produced only disappointment and disasters hitherto, and promises only ruin and disgrace in future.

      The time, sir, has been, when the Government was respected at home and abroad, when the people were prosperous and happy, when the political body was in high, in vigorous health; when America rejoiced in the fulness of her glory, and the whole extent of the United States presented a scene unknown in any other country, in any other age. Behold now the mournful contrast, the sad reverse! We are "indeed fallen, fallen from our high estate!" The nation is sick – sick at heart. We are called upon to apply a remedy; and none will answer which shall not be effectual. No quack prescriptions will answer now. And the cure, to be effectual, must not persevere in a course which has not only produced no good, nor promises any; but which has brought the patient (if I may use the figure of the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Nelson) to his present forlorn condition. Such a perseverance may seem to argue great hardihood, or, if you please, spirit; but, after all, it is nothing but the desperate frenzy of a losing, half-ruined gamester.

      It becomes, therefore, at last, indispensable to take a retrospective view of our affairs. And, if in taking this view, we should find the cause of our disasters, we must not fear to contemplate it, to hold it up; and, having grown wise by experience, we must not be prevented by false pride, from profiting СКАЧАТЬ