from which the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations seems to have taken advice-rumor, and the public papers. Nor do we know that he ever intends to return to his post. We are, therefore, directed and required, by the Secretary of State, to appropriate this item of $9,000, for the salary of a public minister, who has been in the public service, at the place of his destined residence, not much more than a like number of days. He arrived at St Petersburgh, was presented to the Emperor, made his bow, or genuflection, retired, and went to-England? France? Italy? or where? No mortal man, on this side the Atlantic, can inform us.

During this nine days' residence what service did he render to the American People? The Secretary is satisfied; and we surely ought not to be anxious about this great affair. We are told it is a matter exclusively within the competency of the Executive; and, therefore, it is, I presume, considered, that the Representatives of the People have no other vocation, but to vote the promised and required compensation.

What could such a man do for his country in the character of a foreign minister? Just what he has done which was very much like what each man in the nation of all parties, who knew him, must have expected he would do. Genius he certainly has; for he is original and unlike all other men. If you please, he is eloquent; but if so, that eloquence is, like himself, sui generis. These have enabled him to perform what he has done; could they

qualify him for the services of a great diplomatic minister? Do not these require sound judgment, deep, extensive, and regular thinking; laborious perseverance in business; and, above all, prudence, and vigilant circumspection? In his thirty years' public service, where are the monuments of his political wisdom, and labors of patriotism? They are all of a piece-of one uniform character; and this Russian residence will neither give the blush, nor the palm to any other public transaction of this remarkable man throughout his political life.

With a perfect knowledge of this man, the Secretary of State could not have contrived this legation, so different from all others, with any view to the public service. This man was sent out not to benefit the people abroad, but to relieve the Administration at home. The crafty Secretary had witnessed the political movements of this eccentric man. He feared the comet might return again and visit his political hemisphere. He had seen it blaze in perihelion

'With fear of change perplexing men

in power.' Was it not prudent to remove this star of malign influence to another sky? It has been done; and the nation must pay, not for a mission. made for the advancement of their interests, but made to secure the political power of the Secretary.

We have been told that our relations with Russia are of great and important interest; and, therefore, we cannot dispense with this appropriation, because, if we refuse this salary, we shall defeat the

mission. Should this mission, by which no public benefit was intended, and from which none can be hoped, be recalled, it may be replaced by one of better purpose, and efficient character. It is an obstruction in the straight forward' path of our relations with Russia, and we are laboring to abate, or to remove it out of the

way.

Our relations with that Government are truly important. That Empire is perhaps the most numerous in population, and certainly the most extensive in territory, of any power on the globe. No nation of the old world, otherwise than by colonies, approaches so near to us. This people is advancing in civilization, wealth, and power, beyond any example in its former history. In the last controversy of arms, between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, bad not other Powers of Europe interposed a shielding hand, the Moslem, after a dominion of more than four centuries in the fairest part of Europe, had been driven beyond the Bosphorus; and the Autocrat of Russia would have ascended the throne of Constantine. At all times, our relations with such a Power must be important to the American People. Are those relations taken care of now, as heretofore they have been, and as now especially they ought to be?

Yes, sir, I say as now they should be. For now Europe is convulsed, and agitated from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. The flame of war is but just repressed. Troops are called into the field, in almost every nation; and Rus

sia, in a kind of winter campaign, has sent out two hundred thousand soldiers to her south western frontier, to look out on the old battle fields of Belgium and France. In this condition of Europe, do we not require an able, a diligent, a resident minister at Russia? Withhold this appropriation, abolish this sinecure legation, and this may be effected.

One other fact, in the history of our diplomacy, renders the residence of a skilful, faithful minister at that Court, at this time, above all others, indispensable. We learn from the Department of State, through the same medium, this message, that a treaty of amity and commerce has been negotiated between the United States and the Sublime Port.. The Secretary, with great candor, told us what the Turk had agreed to do for the Christian, but, he with great caution, concealed what the Christian had agreed to do for the Turk. What have we learned from this witness? Why, truly, that a secret article is contained in this treaty; and this fact was, I believed, published in the newspapers, before we received the message. It is said, it is believed, that by this article the American People agree to furnish armed ships to the Sultan of Turkey, in his future wars with Christian nations. Do you believe, sir, that our Envoy had left Constantinople before the Russian minister at the Port knew this fact? The very Drogoman, by whom your Mr Rhind talked with Reis Effendi, would, for half a plate full of piasters, have told the whole story to Count Orloff; and sworn

he was doing good service to the Prophet, by betraying one Christian dog to another. Sir, our friendship for the Russian Empire has been so cherished by the present Sovereign, and his illustrious predecessor, that it has become a sentiment of the American People? Is not this secret article a diplomatic fraud, not only on that friendship, but, which it quite as much concerns us to consider, upon that sovereign who has so generously cherished it? I say nothing now of what may happen, if the Turk should again war upon the Greek: nor how it may comport with the republican principles of the Secretary of State, when he shall call on this House to furnish ships to that Despot, thereby aiding him in bringing that People again under his iron yoke. What shall we say to the Emperor of Russia? Who shall make our explanation, if we shall have any to make? It is probable that the news of this treaty, and perhaps a copy of it, reached the Court of St Petersburgh, shortly after our minister left that city. The shortness of his residence there, the suddenness, of his departure, the intelligence of this secret article, the intended sojourn of that minister, perhaps in England, perhaps in France, the attitudes of the nations of Europe, all giving dreadful note of preparation for war, must have had some tendency to place our relations with Russia on a footing not the most firm and friendly. Does not sound policy-does not national good sense, call on the American People to have an able minister at that Court, and that

too right speedily? Have we one there now? Under the mission for which this appropriation is to be made, are we likely soon, or ever, I do not say to have such a man there, but to have there any minister at all? I shall therefore oppose this appropriation, because it is intended to support a mission, formed for purposes unconnected with the public interests, places our foreign relation in peril, and is without any justification in law, usage, or constitutional principle.

Mr Wayne observed, that when the gentleman from Ohio made the motion to strike from the bill under consideration the appropriation for the salary of the Minister to Russia, he had accompanied it with two declarations, neither of which was a fact, though both had the appearance of being so. "His declarations were, that the President had told us the United States was not represented at the Court of Russia, and that it was not probable we soon would be, the last being an assertion of his own. These were the reasons he had given to sustain his motion, and both he professes to have derived from the message. Sir, the President, after stating our amicable relations with Russia, and that no means will be left unemployed to promote them, and to improve the commercial intercourse between the two nations, sincerely regrets to inform us, that extreme indisposition had compelled the minister to leave, temporarily, his post, for a more genial climate, and that this was a privilege which had been committed to the minister's discretion, in consideration

of the extent to which his constitution had been impaired in the public service. But the President also states, he had received the most satisfactory assurances that the public interests would not suffer in the minister's absence, as it was his intention to keep up an intercourse with the Russian Cabinet, through the Secretary of Legation. So far, then, sir, from not being represented, we are informed that, notwithstanding disease had forced the minister to leave St Petersburgh for a time, he was, though under its pressure, not unmindful of his duty, of the particular interests which had been confided to him, and of the welfare of his country. How different is this statement from the naked declaration of the gentleman, which, without any explanation from him, implies an entire suspension of all negotiation during the minister's absence; conveys an intimation that the public interest was suffering, and the imputation, that the appropriation was asked to pay for constructive, and not for actual services. Equally unfortunate is the gentleman's declaration, that it was not probable we would soon be represented at the Russian Court; as it is the opposite conclusion to which a candid mind would come from the language of the message. In such a case, nothing could be certainly said or promised, but enough was said to show that the President had a definite hope, that the minister would return in the spring to his post, with a full ability to give to his country the use of those talents and attainments by which he

had become so much distinguished at home.

The motion is not therefore sustained by the facts of the case : we are forced to look beyond them for the cause which induced it; and it seems to have been intended to give an opportunity for an out-pouring of party resentment, which has been the more violent and personal from having no substantial cause of complaint, upon which it would fasten its rancour. The gentleman from Rhode Island [Mr Burgess] has indulged in a wide range of observation, in no way connected with the subject, and by no. means sanctioned by the remarks of the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, to which he more than once referred as an example to protect him in his irregular course. The House had understood the Chairman to deprecate any reliance being placed upon newspaper conjectures and calumnies; but the gentleman had made them the basis of his argument and his authority for facts-and until he had done so, the real subject of debate had not been lost sight of. What connection, sir, with his subject, has the treaty with Turkey, or any one of its articles, about which we cannot know anything, until it shall be ratified, or its provisions shall be divulged by a vote of the Senate, unless information concerning it has been got by a shameless violation of fidelity to the constitution. Did the historical reading of the gentleman not remind him how often it has happened in negotiation, that an inadmissible article is permitted