man, of whatever party, What has been the result of these experiments? Does any gentleman still doubt? Let him look to the disclosures made by the circular of one of the deposit banks of Ohio, which was read by an honorable Senator here a day or two since. That bank will not receive the notes of the speciepaying banks of that State from the Land Office, as I understand the circular, or, at any rate, it tells the Land Office that it will not. Here are thirty or forty specie-paying banks in Ohio, all of good credit, and out of the whole number three are to be selected, entitled to no more confidence than the others, whose notes are to be taken for public lands. If gentlemen from the West and Southwest are satisfied with this arrangement, I certainly greatly commend their quiescent temperament.

I said, in the commencement of my remarks, I know of nothing I can do in regard to the resolution, except to sit still and see how far gentlemen will go, and what this state of things will end in. Here is this vast surplus revenue under no control whatever, and from appearances, though the session is nearly over, likely to remain so. Two measures of the highest importance have been proposed; one to diminish this fund, another to secure its safety. I wish to understand, and the country to know, whether any thing is to be done with either of these propositions. For my own part, I believe that a national bank is the only security for the national treasure; but as there is no such institution, a more extended use should be made of this treasure, and in its distribution no preference should be given, as was the fact in the instance of the banks of Ohio, to which I have just alluded. In some way or other this fund must be distributed. It is absolutely necessary. The provisions of the land bill seem to me eminently calculated to effect this object; but if that measure shall not be adopted, I will give my vote for any proper and equitable measure which may be brought forward, let it come from what quarter it may. In all probability, there will be a diminution in the amount of land sales for some time to come. The purchases of the last year, I suppose, have exceeded the demands of emigration. They were made by speculators, for the purpose of holding up lands for increased prices. The spirit of speculation, indeed, seems to be very much directed to the acquisition of the public lands. I cannot say what will be the further progress, or where the end, of these things; but

I think one thing quite clear, and that is, that the existing surplus ought to be distributed.

I repeat, that I intend no detailed opposition to the measure now before the Senate; and had I been in my seat, I should not have opposed the amendment to the pension bill. Let the experiments, one and all, have their course. I shall do nothing except to vote against all these visionary projects, until the country shall become convinced that a sound currency, and with it a general security for property and the earnings of honest labor, are things of too much importance to be sacrificed to mere projects, whether political or financial.

After some remarks by Mr. Niles of Connecticut, and Mr. Benton of Missouri, Mr. Webster said:

The gentleman from Missouri has referred to the resolution of 1816; and I will beg leave to make a brief explanation in reference to the part I bore in it. The events of the war had greatly deranged the currency of the country, and a great pecuniary pressure was felt from one end of the continent to the other. The war took place in 1812, and not two months of it had passed before there was a cessation of specie payments by at least two thirds of all the banks of the country. So strong was the pressure, that, although the enemy blockaded the Chesapeake, so that not a barrel of pork or flour could be sent to market, yet the prices of these articles rose fifty per cent. This state of things continued; the collectors of the customs everywhere received the notes of their own local banks for duties payable at their own places, but would not receive the bills of the banks of the other cities. And what was the consequence? Why, at the close of the session of Congress, a member, if he had been fortunate enough to preserve any of his pay, had to give twenty-five per cent. to get the money received here exchanged for money that he could carry home. Another effect of this state of the currency was this. The Constitution provided that, in the reg ulation of commerce or revenue, no preference should be given to the ports of one State over those of another. Yet Baltimore, for instance, which had the exchange against her, had an advantage, by the payment of her duties in the bills of her banks, of at least twenty-five per cent. over some Northern cities. The resolution then introduced by me was to provide that the reve

nue should be equally paid in all parts of the United States; and what was the effect of it? The bank bill had just passed, and the resolution was, that all debts due the government should be paid in the legal coin, in notes of the Bank of the United States, or in notes of banks that paid coin on demand. That was the operation of the resolution of 1816, rendered absolutely necessary by the existing state of things.

The gentleman from Connecticut inquires whether the omission to use the powers of Congress necessarily increases that of the executive. I will put a poser to the gentleman. The President himself admits that it is the appropriate duty of Congress to take the public treasure into its hands, and appoint agents to take care of it. The gentleman himself must admit this, for I suppose that he does not go the lengths of the Senator from Tennessee in being willing that things should remain as they were. Then, if it is their duty to take care of the national treasure, and they do not do it, it will go into the hands of the executive. Is not the custody of the national treasure power? and if they neglect to use this power, do they not augment the power of the executive ?

The future historian of recent events in this country will find no topic more important and prominent, than a review of the doctrines which have been advanced with regard to executive power, and the means employed to increase it. The President himself first advanced the doctrine, and it has been repeated here, that the President is the sole representative of the people of the United States. Does the Constitution make him so? Does the Constitution acknowledge any other representative of the people than the members of the other house? But it has been found extremely convenient to those who wish to increase the President's power to give him this title. This claim of the President reminds me of a remark made many years ago by a member of the House of Representatives. That gentleman had voted against the first Bank of the United States, and had changed his mind, and was about to vote for the second. If, said the gentleman, the people have given us the power to make a bank, we can do it; and if they have not, we are the representatives of the people, and can take the power. And this is the doctrine applied to the President as the peculiar representative of the people. The Constitution gives him a modi

cum of power, and he, claiming the lion's part, takes all the rest. This is the result of that overwhelming personal popularity which leads men to disregard all the received maxims of the founders of this government, and to yield up all power into the hands of one man. They cannot even now quote the doctrines of Mr. Jefferson without being scouted, and they cannot resist any power claimed by the executive, however arbitrary, but must yield up every thing to him by one universal confidence, because he is the representative of the people.

After further remarks by Mr. Niles, Mr. Webster said:

It is the best course, when a gentleman replies to another, to use his very words as far as his recollection permits him. I have noticed, on other occasions, that the Senator from Connecticut gives his own language as that of the gentleman he is replying to, puts his own construction upon it, and then replies to this man of straw. I hope that the gentleman will, when he quotes me in future, use my exact language, and not put into my mouth words that I do not use. The gentleman, in speaking of the President, used the term representative of the people precisely in the meaning of the term as applied to a member of the House of Representatives. Now, it is impossible to believe in any idea of power pertaining to the President in this character. But I would remind the Senator that the President himself, in more than one communication, has claimed this character and power. It will be found in the Protest that he is the only single representative of the people. Sir, this is the very essence of consolidation, and in the worst of hands. Do we not all know that the people have not one representative? Do we not know that the States are divided into Congressional districts, each of which elects a representative, and that the States themselves are represented by two members on this floor? Do we not all know, that the framers of the Constitution carefully avoided giving him any such power at all? I admit that the President, in reference to his popularity merely, is called, with great propriety, the representative of the people; but in other respects he is no more so than was the President of the old Congress.

THE LOUISVILLE CANAL.*

MR. PRESIDENT,-I regret the warmth with which my friend from Ohio,† and my friend from Louisiana, have spoken on this occasion; but while I regret it, I can hardly say I blame it. They have expressed disappointment, and I think they may well feel disappointment. I confess, Sir, I feel disappointment also. Looking to the magnitude of this object, looking to its highly interesting character to the West, looking to the great concern which our Western friends have manifested for its success, I myself feel, not only disappointment, but, in some de gree, mortification, at the result of the vote which has now been taken. That vote, if it stands, must be decisive of the success of the measure.

No doubt, Sir, it is altogether vain to pass this bill, unless it contain such provisions as will induce the stockholders in the corporation to part with their interests.

In the first place, Sir, why do we hear so much reproach and denunciation against the members of this corporation? Have they not hazarded their property in an undertaking of great importance and utility to the country? Has not Congress itself encouraged their enterprise, by taking a part of the stock on account of the government? Are we not ourselves shareholders in this company? Their tolls, it is said, are large; that is true. Yet not only did they run all the risks usually attending such enterprises, but, even with their large tolls, all their receipts, up to this hour, by no means give a return from their

*Remarks made in the Senate of the United States, on the Bill to authorize the Purchase, on the part of the Government, of the Private Stock in the Louisville and Portland Canal, on the 25th of May, 1836. Mr. Porter.

Mr. Ewing.