SENATE.]

Mr. Foot's Resolution.

[FEB. 3, 1830.

ders of the day.' It was made by Mr. Pettit, of Penn-acted upon during that session; and at the commencement sylvania, and there were more votes for it out of New of the next session, in November, 1785, all the unfinished England than from within it. business of the preceding was taken up, and this appears But if the gentleman's sensibilities were so much outrag- to have been subsequently referred to the large committee ed by the idea of passing over that report in favor of war which the gentleman has mentioned. But the justice and and bloodshed, even for a moment, in order to take up a charity with which sinister motives are attributed to the substitute of peace and security, what will he say, how North, is further illustrated by the fact, that upon the mowill he bear the shock, when he finds that a motion was tion of Mr. McHenry to strike out this obnoxious clause, made, not by a delegate from New England, nor even from every member, with the single exception of Mr. Howell, the north of the Potomac, but from the South, from of Rhode Island, answered in the affirmative; and yet it is Georgia, to postpone the whole for six days; and that insisted that the North, who had the whole perfectly in there were no less than fifteen voices in the affirmative, their power, were wickedly intent upon it as a means to and two-thirds of them from without the limits of New cramp the growth of the West, and were defeated only England! Nay, more, that this very report, which it was by those of a more magnanimous region. so monstrous and horrible to hesitate even for a moment By the same ordinance, one-third part of all the mines in adopting, was, upon the final question, absolutely re- of gold, silver, copper, and lead, were in all sales to be jected, and that, too, not by a bare majority of the Con-reserved to the Government. Upon a motion to strike out gress, but by a vote of two to one-six States to three; this reservation, and thus leave the whole to the purchas and of the six, two only being from the Northeast! And of ers, Massachusetts was divided, Rhode Island divided, and the individual delegates, seventeen voted in the affirma- all the other States and all the other delegates, excepting tive, and nine only in the negative; Mr. Houston, of Geor- Mr. Monroe, answered in the negative. This instance of gia, being excused at his own request! comparative liberality seems to have wholly cscaped the

I have been accustomed, sir, from my earliest recollec-gentleman's observation. tions, to cherish the memory of those who composed the Strange as it may seem, it has, in this debate, been Continental Congress with reverence and gratitude. I made matter of loud and bitter complaint, that the United have supposed that the very existence of this great, pros-States had sold the public lands for money; have coined perous, and happy republic, demonstrated the elevation of the soil into gold and silver, as it was expressed. The their intellectual and moral character, their wisdom, pu- right and the obligation of the Government to do this rity, and beneficence; that their monuments were every have been so unanswerably established by the gentleman where but over their graves. Is all this illusion? Is their from Massachusetts, [Mr. WEBSTER] that I shall not disepitaph still to be written? And shall we now inscribe cuss it. It would be useless, indeed, for me to follow upon their tomb, Here lie the members of the Continental where is seen the giant's track. I shall endeavor, throughCongress of 1786--those cold blooded, cruel, inhuman monsters, who are to be paralleled in all history only by the fiends of the French Revolution, who washed their hands in the blood of their brethren?

There are some exaggerations too extravagant even for the figures of rhetoric or the fictions of poetry. My own section of country might be well content to appear sombre and unlovely to that vision which can present the revered patriots of the Revolution in colors so dark, and with fea

tures so distorted.

out, to avoid the ground which he has occupied. I will only now add, that however illiberal some persons may now consider the selling, instead of giving away this common property of the nation, it is not a mere Yankee notion, nor even confined to the wrong side of Mason's and Dixon's line; but has, from the first, been insisted upon by the statesmen of the more congenial South. In February, 1786, a committee of Congress, consisting of Messrs. Pinckney, of South Carolina, McKean, of South Carolina, Monroe, of Virginia, King, of Massachusetts, and Pettit, The next topic of crimination against our forefathers of Pennsylvania, held the following language: We "conwas a clause originally inserted in the ordinance for ascer-template with great satisfaction the prospect of extinguishtaining the mode of disposing of lands in the westerning a part of the domestic debt, by the sales of the westcountry, when it was reported by a committee, in 1785, ern lands, but a considerable time must clapse," &c. And and which prohibited the sale, by the public officer, of a in the Virginia convention, in 1788, Mr. Harrison said, second township, by sections, until after all the first should "the back lands and imposts will be sufficient for all the have been disposed of. It arose from an evident solici- exigencies of Government.' Mr. Grayson spoke of the tude for the security of the frontier settlers, and a desire “domestic debt being diminished by the sale of western to keep them in some measure compact, that they might lands;" and Mr. Madison, speaking of the Mississippi, be competent to their own protection, instead of scatter- said, "a material consideration was, that the cession of ing over immense forests, beyond the reach of timely suc- that river would diminish the value of the western counThis is well known to have been the policy of try, which was a common fund for the United States, Washington. It is not a little singular that the gentleman and would consequently tend to impoverish their public should have made this a theme of reiterated and vehement treasury. These, sir, were rational grounds." And in condemnation, when he had just before complained so 1786, the Virginia delegation to Congress, with reference loudly of an alleged indifference to the safety of the new to the same subject, say, "the States who have ceded it, settlements. He insists that a majority of the committee and the confederacy at large, look up to the western lands lived north of the Potomac, and that their object was to as a substantial fund for the discharge of the public debt." stint the growth of the West. He did not tell us who| The navigation of the Mississippi occupied a large composed it. [Mr. BENTON explained by reading the space in the gentleman's contrast of sectional liberality names of a committee consisting of one from each State, and illiberality. It is, indeed, a subject of importance, and A. D. 1785.] Mr. S proceeded. The committee, which vastly more worthy of attention than most of those upon the gentleman had just named was not that which origi- which he has expatiated. nally reported the ordinance, but one to whom it was sub- The specification of charge is, that, in the year 1786, sequently referred, and who do not appear to have made Mr. Jay, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, proposed the any amendments or alterations. It was, I believe, first making of a treaty with Gardoqui, the Spanish minister, reported in May, 1784, by a committee consisting of Mr. by which the navigation of that river should be relinquishJefferson, of Virginia, Williamson, of North Carolina, ed to Spain, for twenty-five or thirty years, in consideraReed, of South Carolina, Howell, of Rhode Island, and tion of certain commercial stipulations, for mutual interGerry, of Massachusetts; and its paternity is thus transfer-change of commodities, by which all the productions of red to the south side of the Potomac. It was not finally this country, with the exception of tobacco, were to be

cor.

FEB. 3, 1830.]

Mr. Foot's Resolution.

[SENATE.

received into the Spanish dominions. This proposition only from what has just been stated, but from the facts was supported by the States of the North; and the gen- which I shall hereafter adduce, and to which he has made tleman charitably supposes, from a desire to deprive their no allusion. fellow-citizens of the West of that great highway so essental to their prosperity.

That a majority of the delegates from Virginia were opposed to the contemplated treaty, is unquestionably true; but is there not reason to believe that this was occasioned, in some degree, at least, by the circumstance that her great staple, tobacco, was not provided for; especially when we find that one of her most eminent citizens [Mr. Monroe] disapproved of it merely for its commercial regulations.

It is to be recollected that Spain, being then in possession of Louisiana and the Floridas, most positively and peremptorily denied that we had any right to participate in the use of that river. Prostrated as our strength and finances then were, the country was not in a condition to enforce our claim by arms. Thus situated, it was apparent that we could have no immediate enjoyment of the But the delegation from that State, in the same year, waters of the Mississippi, and it was believed that the best 1786, themselves proposed to enter into permanent stipumode for securing the future permanent possession of them lations with Spain, by which we should relinquish, forever, was to lease it, for a while, to the Spanish Government, all right of transporting any articles up the Mississippi, for a valuable consideration; and that, by assenting to from its mouth; and New Orleans should be made an ensuch an arrangement, and holding it by our permission, trepot, at which our produce, carried down the river, Spain would unequivocally acknowledge our right, which should be landed, and pay duties to the Spanish Crown; would revert to us, accompanied by the possession, at the and a consul of the United States there should be responexpiration of the stipulated term. And it was thought, sible for every violation of these engagements. Now, sir, moreover, that it would be dishonorable to the country to compare these renunciations and sacrifices, to endure suffer a foreign nation to withhold it from us in a hostile through all time, with the mere temporary relinquishattitude. It was also apprehended that Great Britain ment for twenty-five or thirty years, and let the candid would unite with Spain in resisisting our claim, and ex- and intelligent declare which would have been most wise, cluding us forever from the enjoyment of our right. and have best secured the true and permanent interests and safety of the Western country.

These facts rest upon no doubtful authority; they are supported by the disinterested testimony of high minded and honorable men, actors in the scenes which they describe, and who, in 1788, were willing to do that justice to their associates which is now attempted to be withdrawn.

General Lee, in the Virginia convention, made the following statement:

There was a time

But the comparison ends not here. when the Southern States, and Virginia with the rest, were disposed to make an absolute and perfect surrender of all right to the waters of the Mississippi, but the Northern and Eastern States opposed it. It was at the period of their greatest distress, and for the purpose of obtaining succor from Spain. For this we have the high authority of Mr. Madison himself, who says,

"I feel myself called on, by the honorable gentleman, to come forward and tell the truth about the transaction "It was soon perceived, after the commencement of respecting the Mississippi." "There are men of inte- the war with Great Britain, that, among the various obgrity and truth here, who were also then in Congress.jects that would affect the happiness of the people of I call on them to put me right with respect to those America, the navigation of the Mississippi was one. transactions. As far as I could gather from what was then Throughout the whole history of foreign negotiation, great passing, I believe there was not a gentleman in that Con- stress was laid on its preservation. In the time of our gress who had an idea of surrendering the navigation of greatest distresses, particularly when the Southern States that river. They thought of the best mode of securing it. were the scene of war, the Southern States cast their eyes Some thought one way, and some another. I was one of around to be relieved from their misfortunes. It was those who thought the mode which has been alluded to supposed that assistance might be obtained for the relinthe best to secure it. I shall never deny that it was my quishment of that navigation. It was thought that, for so opinion. I was one peculiarly interested. I had a for- substantial a consideration, Spain might be induced to aftune in that country, purchased, not by paper money, but ford decisive succor. It was opposed by the Northern by gold, to the amount of eight thousand pounds. But and Eastern States. They were sensible that it might be private interest could not have influenced me. The pub- dangerous to surrender this important right, particularly lic welfare was my criterion. In my opinion, I united pri- to the inhabitants of the Western country. But so it was, vate interest to public interest, not of the whole people of that the Southern States were for it, and the Eastern Virginia, but of the United States. I thought I was pro- States opposed to it." moting the real interests of the people."

Mr. Madison said:

And Mr. Monroe, after speaking of the constant efforts of Virginia to preserve this navigation, says,

"There were seven States who thought it right to "There was a time, it is true, when even this State, in give up the navigation of the Mississippi for twenty-five years, for several reasons, which have been mentioned. some measure, abandoned the object, by authorizing this As far as I can recollect, it was nearly as my honorable cession to the court of Spain."

friend said; but they had no idea of absolutely alienating It is not my purpose to censure those who advocated it. I think one material consideration which governed that surrender. They felt themselves constrained by the But the Northern States, more them was, that there were grounds of serious negotiation necessities of the war.

between Great Britain and Spain, which might bring on unyielding in their purpose, never despaired of the rea coalition between those nations, which might enable public; they sent their own sons to fight the battles of them to bind us on different sides, permanently withhold their distant brethren, and freely furnished, from withthat navigation from us, and injure us, in other respects, in themselves, that succor which others were willing to materially. The temporary cession, it was supposed, purchase from foreign hands, at so great a price; and would fix the permanent right in our favor, and prevent now they are, even here, rewarded with contumely and that dangerous coalition." reproach!

For these transactions, as affecting the interests of the Such is the effect of partial or distorted views of distant region beyond the Alleghanies, the gentleman has cast events; of resting upon insulated parts of remote transunmeasured opprobrium upon the North, and bestowed actions; of seizing and following the mere shreds of hisa corresponding eulogium upon the South, particularly tory, which lead to error and injustice, instead of light and Virginia; with what justice or candor may be seen, not truth.

VOL. VI.-16

SENATE.]

Mr. Foot's Resolution.

[FEB. 3, 1830.

By the terms of the treaty proposed by Mr. Jay, and bill for that purpose was before the Senate, an amendwhich have been so much reprobated, Spain was to re- ment was proposed by Mr. Dana, providing that it should ceive all the productions of the United States, with the not take effect until the consent of each State should have exception of a single article; and yet the gentleman has, been obtained. Yet this proposition was defeated by somehow, fallen into the error of asserting that the privi- Northern Senators: if they had voted in the affirmative, it lege was confined to fish and oil, which he several times would have prevailed by a vote of eighteen to ten. The repeated, adding, in a particular tone, id est, from New whole amendment of Mr. Dana consisted of two alternative England." Sir, whatever the manner in which that gen- propositions, providing that the act should not take effect tleman may choose to allude to the fruits of their labor, it until the consent of each State should have been obtained, is not in his power to depreciate the merits or importance or the constitution have been so amended as to authorize of our hardy fishermen-of that class of men who, with Congress to pass the act. A division of the question being John Manly, in 1775, first unfurled the American ban- required, a distinct vote was taken on the first proposition; ner upon the ocean, and first caused the proud cross of which alone seems to have been selected for special aniSt. George to bow to it in submission. madversion. I marvel much that the gentleman's vision should have been confined to one half of the amendment, especially when he was in search of motives, and they would have been clearly disclosed by a glance at the other half. Doubts were entertained of the constitutional powdoubts entitled to respect? Is it not known that Mr. Jefferson himself, to whose opinions the gentleman bows with such profound reverence, repeatedly declared, in his letters to Mr. Dunbar and others, that Congress had no such power? and, if I mistake not, Mr. Madison, in March, 1803, then Secretary of State, framed his instructions to Messrs. Livingston and Monroe upon the basis of this constitutional disability. He was so particular as to give a formula of some of the articles to be inserted in the proposed treaty for the acquisition of Louisiana, one of which is prescribed in these words:

Yet even the fisheries, the right which Heaven gave, wherever the winds would waft, or the waves would bear us, which were deemed so highly of that Mr. Grayson denominated them the cornfields of the East; even these were so far abandoned, that the Congress refused to make their er of Congress to admit Louisiana. And were not those preservation a sine qua non of a treaty, but authorized peace to be concluded without any stipulations for their security. Thanks to the wisdom and firmness of the commissioners who saved us from that calamity.

In January, 1803, President Jefferson nominated Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe co-ministers to the French republic, for the purpose of obtaining, from the First Consul, an extension of our rights on the Mississippi. Upon the question of confirmation, by the Senate, of the nomination of Mr. Monroe, there were fifteen affirmatives, and twelve negatives. And this opposition is made food for accusation against the States of the Northeast, as "To incorporate the inhabitants of the newly ceded evincing hostility to the objects of the mission and the in- territory with the citizens of the United States, on an equal terests to be affected by it. Yet, sir, without the affirma- footing, being a provision which cannot now be made, it tive votes which were given from those States, Mr. Mon-is to be expected, from the character and policy of the roe's nomination could not have been confirmed: for, if United States, that such incorporation will take place withyou substract the three votes which their Senators gave out unnecessary delay. In the mean time they shall be in favor, and place them in opposition to the confirmation, secure in their persons and property, and in the free enthere would have been but twelve for, and fifteen against joyment of their religion." it. But, on the same page of the Journal, and in the sen- Here, sir, our negotiators were unequivocally warned tence next preceding the statement of the question of Mr. not only to make no agreement for the admission of the Monroe's appointment, we find that the nomination of Mr. inhabitants of the ceded territory into the Union, but to Livingston was confirmed without a division. The mis- declare that such a stipulation could not then be made. sion and its purposes were thus unanimously approved. By what was it prohibited except the limits of the constiThe votes against Mr. Monroe must have arisen from the tution? And what was the necessary delay, but to obtain conviction that the expense of a second minister was un- the requisite authority by amendment? On the 12th of necessary; and when we consider the ability of Chan- August, 1803, after the formation of the treaty, and before cellor Livingston, and the subsequent history of the ne- its ratification, Mr. Jefferson holds the following strong and gotiation, that opinion may not appear to have been explicit language, in a letter to Mr. Breckenridge: wholly unfounded. On the same page, too, we find that "This treaty must, of course, be laid before both Houses, Mr. Monroe was immediately, without a division, con- because both have important functions to exercise respectfirmed as minister to Spain, in conjunction with Mr. ing it. They, I presume, will see their duty to their counPinckney, the object of that mission being also, avow-try in ratifying and paying for it, so as to secure a good edly, to secure and extend our rights to the Mississippi. which would otherwise probably be never again in their It is strange, indeed, that these facts should have escaped power! the gentleman's scrutiny.

But I suppose they must then appeal to the nation for an additional article to the constitution approving When the Louisiana treaty was presented to the Senate, and confirming an act which the nation had not previousin October, 1803, there were twenty-seven votes in favor ly authorized. The constitution has made no provision of its ratification, and seven only against it; and this, too, for our holding foreign territory, still less for incorporatis made a topic of crimination against those on our side of ing foreign nations into our Union. The Executive, in the Potomac. Yet, of those yeas, one half were by Sena- seizing the fugitive occurrence which so much advances tors north of that river, and four of them from New Eng-the good of the country, have done an act against the conland; and, as it required two-thirds to ratify, these four stitution."

had it in their power to have rejected the treaty. Is this It is not my intention to enter into the argument, or evidence of Northern hostility to the West? Mr. Jeffer- even to express an opinion upon the subject, but merely son, in 1805, attributed the little opposition which did ex- to show that it is not strange, that seven Senators, or even ist, to higher and purer motives-to a "candid apprehen- a Committee of the Legislature of Massachusetts, should sion that the enlargement of our territory would endanger have doubted the existence of a constitutional power the Union." And we shall presently see that there may which President Jefferson so peremptorily denied. have been other reasons also in accordance with his own opinions.

The Missouri question has been invoked upon this occasion. It is not a correct representation, to say that the The gentleman inveighed vehemently against the North, North were opposed to the admission of that State; they for its alleged opposition to the admission of Louisiana in-proffered her their cordial embrace. to the Union, the evidence of which was, that, when the exclude involuntary servitude from her limits; and, beBut they wished to

FEB. 3, 1830.]

Mr. Foot's Resolution.

[SENATE.

lieving it, as they did, most sincerely and conscientiously, that wonderful man, to whose intellect the most powerful to be a great moral and political evil, they were actuated minds, and to whose goodness the purest hearts, do willby no feelings of unkindness, but the purest motives of ing homage. justice and benevolence, in endeavoring to secure what to them seemed a great blessing to her citizens. That it was a disinterested effort, is attested by the Senator from South Carolina, who declares it to be for their interest that slavery should exist at the South.

It has been broadly and strongly asserted, that "the North have, from the beginning, done all in their power to cripple and strangle the West;" and all historical facts, no matter how various or opposite their character, which pass through the alembic of the gentleman's speech, are As to the admission of Mississippi, the preparatory act, made to yield the bitter spirit of Northern hostility. If the authorizing the formation of her constitution, passed with- act be in any degree doubtful in its appearance, it is of out a division, through the various stages, in the Senate, course viewed in its most offensive aspect; and if it be one until it came to the question of engrossment, to which of unmixed wisdom and beneficence, still its brightness is there were eleven negatives. Those gentlemen might|to be overshadowed by the ascription of impure and somhave thought the application premature. But I shall not bre motives. When the stream fertilizes and gladdens stop to inquire into their motives, because I perceive every thing in its course, still it may be insisted that the among them the name of the venerable Macon, of North invisible fountain is corrupted and poisonous. Carolina, who so recently occupied a seat here, and to whose successor, now near me, it belongs, to vindicate him from any aspersion upon his intention; and also, the name of an honorable gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. SMITH] now in his seat, for whose conduct it would be presumptuous in me to assign reasons, he being so eminently able to answer for himself.

The resolution for the final admission of that State was reported by a Committee on the 3d of December, 1817, being the third day of the session; was, forthwith, by unanimous consent, read a first, second, and third time, and actually passed on the same day, although any one member might have required its postponement. This shows how far there was a disposition to retard her progress into full communion with the American family.

At one time, to decline a reduction of the price of the public lands, or even to require any price whatever, is crying and unheard of injustice-the poverty of the people is portrayed to us in glowing colors, and we are told that we are grinding them into the dust by our exactions. But when we do reduce the price, or even relinquish existing debts, we are answered by the gentleman that no thanks are due to us; so far from a favor, it is an offence, because it carries with it an implication of poverty and inability to pay, which should be repelled as an insult. Even the system of Internal Improvements has, in his view, ceased to be beneficial to the West-nay, positively injurious. All its fruits have been blasted by the friendly salutations of the Northern breeze. He tells us that, if a road or canal be of any utility to a State, its benefits are I do not intend to exhaust the patience of the Senate, to be measured only by the distance which it passes within by following the gentleman through all the little, trifling her limits; and thus the one million seven hundred and incidents to which he has resorted, to sustain his general twenty-one thousand eight hundred and forty-five dollars position. Their importance and pertinency may be illus-expended upon the Cumberland road, this side of Ohio, trated by his thrice told story of an illumination at the sur-although projected as a Western measure, urged as a Westrender of Detroit, which flashed upon the world for the ern measure, and adopted and sustained as a Western first time, in the gentleman's speech. I have not been measure, is, in fact, only for the benefit of the East. But, able to find any one who ever heard of it before. [Here unfortunately for his argument, that East lies wholly Mr. BENTON spoke to Mr. S. in an under tone. ]--He now on the south side of Mason's and Dixon's line. By this tells me it was in a small village in New Hampshire. I doubt criterion, no matter what great avenues and markets are the fact; but even if some individual there had the folly to open to our citizens, they are of no value to them, if put an extra candle in his window, is it to be gravely at- beyond the limits of their own particular State. By this tributed to a general animosity of the people towards their means, too, he charges all the works for public defence fellow-citizens, who were thousands of miles distant? and improvement of harbors to the particular section in Another matter, of almost equal gravity, was, that Gene- which they are located. He might have extended the ral Hull, a few years ago, was actually invited to dine with principle, and considered a fortification to be for those some of his friends; and the convivialities of the festive merely who inhabit the little island upon which it is placed; board are, by the gentleman's imagination, converted into or a light house, for the sole accommodation of its keeper, the acrid humors of inveterate hostility. This occurrence the only tenant of the rock where it stands. took place long since the termination of the last war. Ge- Sir, every man who produces or consumes any thing neral Hull had just then presented to the public some new that is transported along our coast, or imported from, or explanatory statements in an appeal, well adapted to ex-exported to, any foreign country, is interested in these facite commiseration. Some persons, who had known that cilities to our commerce and navigation. If we owned veteran officer of the Revolution in other and better days, not a ship in the United States, but depended solely upon listening only to his own story, were convinced that he had foreigners for the vehicles of our commerce, still we must been wronged. Their sympathy was excited, and they afford these accommodations, or pay more than their exextended the hand of charity and friendship to sooth the pense in the enhanced price of transportation, and rate feelings of his estimable family, as well as to alleviate his of freight and insurance. Suppose we had adopted the own sufferings, and smooth his path to the grave. And gentleman's new criterion of the benefit of avenues of inthis act of personal friendship and benevolence is adduc-ter-communication, when we were securing the navigation ed as proof that not only those individuals, but the inhabi- of the Miss ssippi, that great highway of nature, and had tants of New England generally, are actuated by unhallow- said that the productions of each State may float upon its ed passions of enmity towards others. After Aaron Burr's majestic current, to its own borders, but no farther, and conspiracy, and subsequent to his arrest as a criminal, he that even this privilege is to be extended to those only was invited to a dinner at Richmond, and sat down at the whose territory is actually washed by its waters. Would same table with the Chief Justice, before whom he was this have satisfied the demands of the inhabitants and sesoon to be arraigned upon a charge of high treason. Did cured to them the benefits which they now enjoy? any one ever imagine that this was to be charged as a State The gentleman undertook a comparison of the approoffence, for which the people of Virginia were responsi- priations for the improvement of certain sections of counble? Nay, may not circumstances have existed, which try, but entirely overlooked the immense donations of would exempt even the individuals from imputation! Sure public lands to his own favorite region, which, at the I am that not the slightest shade rests upon the fame of minimum price, have amounted to no less than nine mil

SENATE.]

Mr. Foot's Resolution.

[FEB. 3, 1830.

lions seven hundred and fifty-nine thousand five hundred of one portion of our country--if the line of the Potomac and four dollars, as appears by a statement from the Se- is to be constantly drawn by those who live south of it, cretary of the Treasury--an amount far greater than the must they not expect that those who live north will aggregate of all the sums embraced by his enumeration. sometimes remind them that there are two sides to that "The North," says the gentleman, have, "from the line? Or, if they point to a still narrower circle, and, makbeginning, done all in their power to cripple and strangle ing the six Northeastern States their line of demarcathe West." Sir, before such an assertion was hazarded, tion, constantly allude to them in ungracious tones, must all our history should have been dispassionately examin- not New England of necessity assume a corresponding ed. It should have been recollected that, of the old thir- attitude, and poise herself upon her own energics? Sir, teen States, nine were north of the Potomac; that in we do firmly believe that we have exercised towards our their hands was the whole Western country, to be mould-distant brethren that "charity" which "suffereth long ed at pleasure; that they could have scaled up the mag- and is kind;" which "envieth not;" which "vaunteth nificent Mississippi, and devoted the immense regions up- not itself;" "doth not behave itself unseemly;" "is not on its borders to beasts and savages; or, if populated, they easily provoked;" "thinketh no evil;" "rejoiceth not in could forever have refused to receive them into the Ame- iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." rican family, or extended to them the rights and privileges The gentleman's attack upon New England has rested of American citizens. Even the five New England States, almost exclusively upon the transactions of the late war. constituting, as they did, more than one-third of the If his only object had been to condemn certain measures whole number, might forever have excluded Louisiana of the leaders of a party there in opposition to the war, I and Florida, and have rejected every treaty for enlarging should not deem it necessary to make a single remark in or confirming the privileges of the West. The power of reply. I resisted them to the utmost of my ability at the the North was ample, complete, and irresistible, over the time of their greatest strength, and my opinions are still whole region beyond the Alleghanies; and instead of be- unchanged. But I can assent to no indiscriminate cening employed to wither and destroy, it has been assidu- sure. If it was intended to fix any stigma upon the geously exerted to cherish, sustain, and strengthen. Its in-neral character of the people of New England, I, although habitants were regarded as children-bone of our bon, the humblest of their representatives here, feel bound to flesh of our flesh; their infant steps were sustained, and repel it. We have the explicit declaration of Mr. Monroe their path defended, by the strong arm of the nation. We himself, then Secretary of War, and since deliberately rejoiced in their prosperity; the blessed fruit of our own made, that the confidence of the Government in the peobenignant care. We received them cordially to the full ple of Massachusetts was never shaken for a moment. communion of all the inestimable blessings of free govern- [Here Mr. HAYNE explained, by saying that he never ment and republican institutions, which had been pur-intended to cast any reproach upon the people of New chased by the blood of our fathers. We parted to them England. That his remarks were confined to a particular our inheritance; we gave them of our strength; we re- party, which he had designated and described.] signed to them our power. From being more than two- Mr. S. resumed. Although such were the ideas conthirds of the whole number, we have voluntarily, by our veyed by one portion of the gentleman's speech, yet, own generous acts, made ourselves a minority of the taken in connexion with his declaration of war, at its comStates. And now we are told, here, in the Senate cham-mencement, a different result would seem to follow. He ber of the United States, that "the North have, from the at first regretted that the contest should be sectional; and beginning, done all in their power to cripple and strangle then arrayed the South against New England, as opposing the West!" sections of country; and having thus proclaimed the war Sir, I deeply deplore the cause, be it what it may, which by geographical lines, he of course assumed a hostile attican at any time, or in any place, giv e birth to declarations tude towards the people of that territory which he assailof such a character, tending to alienate the affections, and ed. Why should he regret the peculiar character of the poison the mutual confidence, of different portions of contest as sectional, if it was merely one of old political our country. Heaven itself has made them for union and parties? I ain quite willing, however, to receive the exhappiness; and man and woman might as well quarrel planation which the gentleman has just given, and shall with each other for the difference of their formation, as omit some of the remarks which I had contemplated. If the great geographical divisions of our republic for the his only object, in entering the territory of New England, features and adaptions which their Creator has given them. was to thrust at the dead, or wave his sword in triumph Mr. S. said he would now turn his attention to some of over their graves, I do not envy him either the glory or the remarks of the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. the magnanimity of the achievement. But there are some HAYNE.] That gentleman, after expressing his regret topics to which I shall advert, because they have been that the controversy should become sectional, and lament-treated in a manner calculated to produce an injurious ing the supposed necessity of assuming an unfriendly at- effect, whatever may have been the purpose of their intitude, proceeded to present the Southern States and New troduction.

England in hostile array against each other. He [Mr. S.] The Hartford Convention has filled no small space in believed that the responsibility of giving the debate that this discussion; it is wielded as a powerful engine against character must rest principally upon the gentleman him- the Northeastern States. I remember it well, and have self; for there had been nothing in any previous speech never spoken of it but in terms of decided condemnation. which called for the attack which he had made upon the It had but few friends while living, and still fewer mournNortheastern States. I [said Mr. S.] will not follow his ers to follow it to the grave; and if its skeleton is now dug example; but, as far as possible, consistently with my up, and held on high to the view of the whole nation, it duty, avoid every unpleasant allusion. From my earliest will cast its shade upon a small part only of the fair surface recollections, I have been deeply impressed with the sen- of New England.

timents inculcated by the Farewell Address of the Father The sermons of Osgood and Parish have been produced of his Country, in which we are taught "to frown indig- here, and inflamed passages read, avowedly as evidence of nantly upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate public sentiment, and the gentleman called the writers one portion of our country from the rest," and to lament "pious and good men." So do not I. Sir, they were inthat geographical discriminations of Northern and South-furiated fanatics, political madmen; condemned by the ern, Atlantic and Western, should ever occasion the be- sober-minded of their own party; and I would as soon lief that there could be any distinction of views or interest. produce the outpourings of Bedlam as proof of public But if these distinctions are insisted on by the citizens opinion, as effusions such as theirs.