MARCH, 1826.]

my

General Appropriation Bill-Cumberland Road.

[SENATE.

of the earth-I don't know whether it is established by the modern Philosophers that it is hollow at the South pole as well as at the North -but I don't mean to enter into that question, sir, because I don't mean to enter into the earth, as long as I can keep above ground. It is the height of folly in us, as it would be in any other nation under the sun, to acquire by conquest, whether by the conquisito of Blackstone, which he says means purchase or conquest by force of arms, territories in order that these territories may govern us instead of our governing them; this I deem to be madness or folly, not wisdom; doctrines are not, I know, at all orthodox, and why? I go on the principle that the first duty of a nation is to itself; aye, and of a man, too, sir—if Old England was to admit representatives, black or white, from her fifty millions of Hindoos according to a certain ratio, in the Commons House of Parliament-or even from Scotland and Ireland, they would govern Old England, instead of Old England ruling themand if as an Englishman, I would never consent to be governed by Scotland or Ireland, a fortiori, I would not submit to be ruled by Canada, by the East Indies, or by New Holland-Virginia acted very foolishly when she followed this ignis fatuus of equality of rights to her own undoing. say ignis fatuus: for, whenever it leads to her advantage, it is not allowed to be the true guide. For is not the smallest State, as a State, on a footing with the largest here? What, then, do you tell me about a representation per capita in the Federal Government? I don't care a pinch of snuff whether your representation be per capita, or whether your districts, like every sheet of paper in this quire, consists of an equal number of square inches or square lines. You may make your districts thus equal in superficial area or in population-you may provide, that, if a woman in the chequer A, be brought to bed of twins, that one of the children shall be removed into chequer B, to preserve equality of repre- I have no hesitation in saying, that never sentation for any uncertainty is fatal in the were people so wild as we have been in the certain sciences-a miss is as good as a mile. pursuit of this ignis fatuus, not only across the These notions of applying geometry and arith-Ohio, but beyond the Mississippi-beyond Aumetic to government is the Government of Lagado-it is Laputan-it is Lilliputian-mathematics have no more relation to government than chemistry. You might as well undertake to construct a Government upon chemical principles for the use of man.

men shall remain in Pennsylvania, in the county of Washington, they shall send one Representative here: and, as an integral part of Pennsylvania, shall send their proportion of her two Senators-let only these men strike their tents, and go in quality of emigrants, and set down in one of those political diagrams called States, beyond the Ohio, and they shall not only send a member, whether they have the requisite number or not, (each State shall have at least one Representative,) but they shall send two Senators here-to counterpoise Pennsylvania or New York. That is, that 30,000 men in one place have rights that the very same men have not in another place; upon the principle that the rights of men depend upon the question of numbers, and nothing else which is manifestly contradictory and absurd. Did they do no more than that? I am a matter-of-fact man, sir, and abhor abstractions in politics, and in every thing else, except pure mathematics and metaphysics; which last I have long since given up to the boarding schools for young ladies-but did not this same State of Missouri, which is not even now lawfully in the Union, which by its one member would have controlled the whole thirtyseven of New York-did not this State of Missouri, which is not now constitutionally one of the United States, make the Chief Magistrate of the Union by the vote of one single man in the other House? Does the gentleman consider this as nothing? Is this the nothing given to the western country? Aye, sir; is it not by this nothing given to that country, that the voice of the majority of the people of the United States has been suffocated-strangled-and countervailed; and are we, because we are not in favor of it, to hold our peace? It would be prudent in us to do so, perhaps gentlemen think it would be very civil in us to do so, and no doubt it would be more agreeable to them--but I shall not do so.

I don't pretend to be more learned on the subjects of the partition of this Territory than the gentleman from Ohio-but Congress did reserve the power of carving five or three States out of the lands on the other side of the river Ohio did reserve to itself the power, and in the act defining the boundaries of Ohio, gave to that State territories which ought to be part of the State of Michigan-I mean beyond the Miami of the Lake. I don't mean to enter into a squabble, whether it is your land or my land: this is what I mean, sir-Congress, after having passed this act, which, by cession of the State of Virginia, did what? It said, as long as 30,000

rora and the Ganges-to barter away their independence to the control of one man, and the State of Virginia stood looking on in helpless impotence-there was only one man in her delegation who was capable of voting for the present incumbent (Mr. NEWTON)-verily he shall have his reward—but not from us-from him. Yes, sir, we twenty helpless individuals stood by to see the single Delegate from Missouri countervail the vote of the ancient and renowned Commonwealth, whose true Representatives we were. I speak of the fact, that one Delegate was put in one scale, and Virginia, with her two and twenty members, in the other-we kicked the beam, sir-we were not merely balanced, but we kicked the beam -for the Missouri vote settled the question. Is this nothing? Is this a correct statement, or is it the romance of love-sick girls-or boys "all for love, or the world well lost "-the

SENATE.]

General Appropriation Bill-Cumberland Road.

[MARCH, 1826.

ascendency of old Virginia destroyed—I speak | throw out these imperfect hints, and if my not of her ascendency abroad, but at home- opinion is worth nothing, it may serve to ex not over other States, but over her own un- cite a train of thought in others, and elicit that questioned territory-in Virginia herself, all which is of great value. We should cease to for love of our Western brethren, of liberty be a deliberative Assembly if we did not deand equality-the liberty of being dictated to liberate-if we were logicians in the schools it by them, not in the election of President, but would be otherwise-if, when a man comes upon our own soil-of being upon a footing of into the world to converse with mankind, he equality with Missouri, upon this very Cum- were to put on the armor of the schools and berland road, and on the subject of our black courts of law-to deal in syllogisms and enthypopulation, involving not only all our property, mems-and rebutters and surrebutters—to set a but what money cannot buy. I don't want to price upon his tobacco by syllogism, and court have an ascendency over our brethren beyond his wife by a dilemma of marriage or single the Ohio, or north of the river Potomac, or- blessedness, he would only show himself to be east, I was going to say, of the western boun- a learned fool. It will not do to bring into a dary of Pennsylvania-yes,-I do want to get parliamentary body the technical habits of a back to the country of Youghiogheny. I owe profession that is more remarkable for sharpmy seat here to no favor, or affection from anyening the perception, than for enlarging and man under the sun-and the moment it is to be kept by conciliating opinions that come in direct collision with my own, unless they come in a shape that I am bound in duty and in honor to respect; in that of the Legislature and people whom I represent-I am ready to resign it. I do not set up the claim of acting independently of instructions, to what I know to be the sentiments of the State-far from it -I think any man here who does go against what he knows to be the sentiments of the State which he represents, is in the situation of a Foreign Minister who goes against what he knows to be the opinions of his court, and violates the instructions which he has received; and he who deliberately violates such instructions, I consider to be ripe-did I say?-rotten rather, and fit for every mischief. Suppose, what is not to be supposed, an extreme case, a real case of conscience-let him resign.

Having used some pretty plain language on this subject, all that I have now to say is, that that sort of equality which gives to thirty thousand people on one of these diagrams, power in this House equal to the largest of the good old United States-which gives to them an influence in the first instance over the Presidential election in a ratio treble of that population in the Electoral College, and, in a certain contingency, equal power with the largest and oldest of the original States, is an equality that I do not understand. I would not concede it to them if their population was equal to ours; so far, at least, as relates to the intermeddling with the internal affairs of Virginia and why? No Government can be safe for Virginia, that is not a Government of persons having a common feeling-a common interest-a common right with Virginia; and this holds good in every Government under the sun. Therefore it was that the British Parliament was not the proper Representative of this country-therefore it is, that the saints and fanatics are not the proper Representatives of Jamaica; and if Jamaica was strong enough,

she would tell them so.

This is not a Court of Law where we are to plead, but it is a deliberative Assembly-I

liberalizing the understanding. A good deal has been said, sir, about the dignity of this Assembly; about its being improper to talk vernacular English here we must speak so superfine and mincing that nobody but an accom plished lady from a "female seminary" can understand us. Is that the case in the House of Commons, or even in the House of Peers! Again, sir, on the subject of talking beside the question; can you conceive any question more foreign to the business of the House of Peers than a contested election in the House of Commons? Any thing more foreign to the subject here, be it what it may, than a contested elec tion in the other House? Yet, sir, on what subject did Lord Chatham make that great speech in which he put down Lord Mansfield, who, endeavoring to shelter himself under forms and technicalities, the refuge of the bar, declared that the House could not entertain the question on the expulsion of Wilkes? It was on that occasion that Chatham made that great speech-in which he did only not call him, to his face, a rogue: for, after praising two other great luminaries of the law, for their integrity, and legal science, and attainments, he said, I vow, my Lords, I think the noble Lord [Mans field] equals them both in abilities. When you know how much depends on the tone-the eye

the finger-though a man may not be disciplined to put out his hand and place it on his breast-"here's my hand, and here's my heart; I never will deceive you;"-it is self-evident that he could not have called him a dishonest man in terms more forcibly than by this inuendo.

Again, sir-have not assertions, not the most delicate, been made on the floor of both Houses of Parliament, in the House of Peers, with all its robes and wigs, and every thing else? Was it not broadly insinuated, over and over again, that there was an adulterous intercourse between the Dowager Princess of Wales and the Earl of Bute, the favorite? Is this very delicate? Is this very sentimental and refined! And was there not, when I was last in England, a Bishop obliged to fly from the country for the commission of a crime not to be named amongst Christians? And would not this have

been investigated and tried in open court? | Courts of law are sometimes very coarse things; they have to call spades, spades, to try tough cases, whomsoever's fastidious delicacy they may offend. So are legislative bodies coarse things-it is there where the passions of men are brought into collision; and when the strife is for empire, that if you expect to carry on the intercourse as you would at a meeting of ladies and gentlemen, where everybody is in the most amiable disposition possible, and where nothing in the slightest degree indelicate can be endured, you are grossly mistaken-this body must probe every thing that comes before it, in the same manner that the House of Peers in England probes every thing, without consulting the delicate sensibilities of young misses of either sex, or going to the circulating library, or the Sorrows of Werter, or Rousseau's Nouveille Heloise, where the most abominable sentiments are covered up in the most elegant yet voluptuous language, or one of Anacreon Moore's songs, which the poor little things sing, and do not know that they are singing all the time-what cannot be named. The refinement of a nation is in language always in the inverse ratio of the purity of their manners. Did not the House of Commons compel Sir John Trevor to put the question himself whether or not he had been guilty of bribery, and corruption, as their Speaker? They would not let the Clerk put it he was reduced to propound it himself; and when it had voted that he was guilty, they expelled him, and he had to walk out, and make his humble bow of thanks that he was not kicked out.

[SENATE.

YEAS.-Messrs. Berrien, Chandler, Clayton, Cobb, Dickerson, Findlay, Hayne, King, Macon, Randolph, Sanford, Van Buren, White, Willey, and Woodbury-15.

NAYS.-Messrs. Barton, Benton, Chase, Eaton, Edwards, Harrison, Hendricks, Holmes, Johnson of Kentucky, Johnston of Louisiana, Kane, Knight, Marks, Mills, Noble, Reeds, Robbins, Ruggles, Seymour, Smith, Thomas.-21.

Mr. Cовв next moved to strike out the item of $750 for repairs made on the Cumberland Road in 1825; which motion was lost.

FRIDAY, March 24.

Case of Col. Delassus, Ex-Spanish Governor of
West Florida.

Mr. BENTON rose, to ask leave, of which he gave notice on Wednesday, to bring in a bill for the relief of Don Carlos Dehault Delassus. This individual, said Mr. B., was the king of Spain's Governor in Upper Louisiana, at the time of the cession of that province to the United States, and upon the cessation of his functions there, he was transferred to Baton Rouge, and became the King's Governor over the province of West Florida. .It is known to everybody that we claimed this province, as far as the Rio Perdido, under the terms of the Louisiana treaty, and that the King of Spain denied our right and refused to give it up. In this posture of demand and refusal, the question continued until the night of the 23d of September, 1810, when the American inhabitants of the west end of the province rose in arms against the Spanish authorities, captured the fort in which they resided, killed some, and made prisoners of the others, including the Governor. The Federal Government of the United States had nothing to do with this affair. It excited nobody to insurrection, nor seized any thing by the hands of its agents; but the Federal Governor of Louisiana was hard by, and after a decent interval, the fort and its armament, with the province and its population, was delivered up to him; and, after a further interval, the captors, for their trouble and expenses in the premises, were gratified with some seventy or eighty thousand dollars out of the Treasury of the United States. In the mean time the prisoners, by order of the Governor of Louisiana, were set at liberty: but the sum of thirteen hundred dollars, taken by the captors out of the Governor's private desk, and reclaimed by him as his own, and the further sum of six thousand dollars, taken out of the military chest, and reclaimed by him as the King's money, (sent to him for the payment of salaries, his own salary included;) these sums, I say, were not given up, but applied by After some explanatory conversation between the captors to the payment of their own men, Messrs. HOLMES and RANDOLPH, the question and the Governor was told to look to the Unitwas taken on the motion to strike out the ap-ed States for his indemnification. propriation, and decided in the negative, by yeas and nays, as follows:

I have said these things to put myself rectus in curia here we don't come here to pay compliments to one another-we don't come here to blink any question-to call bribery and corruption "influence "-we don't come here to call military despotism " a vigor beyond the law"-we come here to do our duty as men, to be the faithful Representatives of the States that send us here. Having done that, sir, according to my views of the true interests of Virginia, I shall feel indifferent myself whether I fall under the censure of any other State, or subdivision of States, beyond a certain mystical line, a parallel of latitude, not having a common feeling and common interest with me, and which I will not trust to legislate within the limits of the State of Virginia on any subject, unless they can show me the grant in this blue book, [holding up the constitution,] and when they can, I cannot gainsay it—but never, under pretence of districting the States, or any other, however plausible, shall they put their hands within the limits of that State, and do any one act that by the terms of the constitution they cannot now lawfully do.

VOL VIII.-31

These, Mr. President, are the facts upon which is founded the application for leave,

SENATE.]

Executive Powers.

[MARCH, 1826.

which I now make, to bring in "A Bill for the | was the capital of his dominion. He had more, Relief of Don Carlos Dehault Delassus."

With the bill, I shall present his petition, supported by vouchers; and, at the proper time, I shall, by a reference to these, prove the truth of every word of the statement which I have made. But my bill differs from his petition in the measure of relief which it proposes to give. The petitoner prays for the restoration of his own money, with interest, and for so much of the King's as would pay the arrearages of his salary to the day of his capture. He prays for this, and for nothing more nor less. He has not framed his petition, like a suitor in chancery, with a double aspect, looking to this, if he cannot get that. But, as a good chancellor always grants relief according to the case made out, and not according to the suitor's prayer, so we, in my opinion, should give to the petitioner in this case the relief to which he is entitled, whether he has asked it or not; with this impression, I have drawn the bill for the whole amount taken, and conceive it our duty to make the entire restitution to be just as clear, as is the petitioner's right to receive it. In the first place, we are bound to restore it, because we had no right to take it. We claimed West Florida, as far as the Rio Perdido, under the terms of the Louisiana treaty; but we claimed no money under that treaty, neither the King's nor his subjects'; but the money of both was taken, and taken by those who took the province, and we have made their act our own, and assumed all its liabilities, by receiving the fruits of their enterprise, and rewarding them for what they did. In the next place, the petitioner has a right to receive back all the money that was taken from his possession, both the King's and his own. His right to his own cannot be questioned; his right to receive the King's is just as clear. He was the King's officer, and had the keeping of the money for the purpose of paying certain salaries. The King trusted him, and it is not for us to say that he is unworthy of trust. Besides, the laws are in force, and payment can be coerced if refused. But the great moral ground is, that, having no right to take this money, we have none to retain it; that it is our duty to restore it, and the duty of others to account for its disbursement.

I think, Mr. President, that these considerations are sufficient, not only to procure me leave to introduce the bill, but to ensure its final passage. But, if other considerations are necessary, they may be found in the character of the petitioner, his former state, and present condition, and in the injustice with which all his countrymen of Louisiana have been treated by these United States. The Ex-Governor Delassus is as irreproachable a man in private and public life, as any that lives. He has been Governor, with almost unlimited powers, over a province larger than the kingdom of Europe, and he is now the cultivator of a farm of some twenty acres in the suburb of the town which

or rather ought to have more, than twenty acres. The King of Spain gave him some thousands; but the United States Government picked a hole in his title papers, and have fought him out of his land for five and twenty years. He is one of that body of Frenchmen who were transferred to us with the cession of Louisiana, and who have seen the young grow old, and the old die; who have seen a quarter of a century roll over their heads, and a generation pass from the earth; while they have stood at your doors vain petitioners for the land which they received from the bounty of a King, and which they are in danger of losing from the cupidity of a Republic.

The leave being granted, Mr. B. introduced the bill; which was twice read and referred.

THURSDAY, March 30.

Executive Powers-Right of the President to Institute a New Mission without the Advice and Consent of the Senate.

On motion of Mr. BRANCH, the Senate then proceeded to the consideration of the resolu tion submitted by him, protesting against the competency of the President of the United States to have appointed Ministers to the Congress of Panama, without the advice and consent of the Senate.

Mr. BRANCH rose, and said: Under the impression that the first and most important duty I owe to the State that sent me here, is to preserve inviolate, and to transmit to posterity unimpaired, the form of Government under which we live, I have believed it to be my duty to submit, for the consideration of the Senate, the resolution which has been read. My opinion is, that a Representative has performed but a part of his duty, and perhaps the least part, when he discharges the ordinary duties of legislation as delegated to him by the con stitution. I feel, said Mr. B., that we have an important task to execute in resisting the encroachment of ambition on the constitutional powers of this body, whether they be open or covert.

The principle embraced by the resolution is so plain, in itself, so obvious in its nature, as to need no argument on my part, to make it plainer. I should conceive it to be an insult to the understanding of the Senate to attempt such an argument. The resolution asserts & constitutional principle. Yes, sir, a fundamental principle, which is, doubtless, properly appreciated by this body.

It may be, however, proper for me to call the attention of the Senate to the opening mes sage of the President of the United States, at the commencement of the present session, and to his Executive communication to the Senate, of the 26th December last. For it will be found that, in these communications, he has assumed a power, and asserted a right, which I boldly contend he does not possess: and in