[MR. CALHOUN, of South Carolina, having been opposed to the
measure introduced by Mr. Clay, to distribute the proceeds of
the sales of public lands among the several states, brought
into the senate a bill of his own, by which he proposed to cede
all of the public lands belonging to the United States, to the
states in which they were situated, on certain conditions. A
similar project had been recommended by general Jackson. On this
occasion a debate of some warmth took place between Mr. Clay and
Mr. Calhoun, the substance of which is given below.]
AGREEABLY to notice given on Tuesday last, Mr. Calhoun asked leave,
and introduced a bill to cede the public lands to the states in which
they are respectively situated. The bill was read by its title, and,
on motion of Mr. Calhoun, referred to the committee on the public lands
soon after.
Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, having given notice of his intention to move
to introduce the copy-right bill, stated, that he regretted that he
was detained by indisposition this morning, and prevented from being
present when the bill was introduced by the senator from South Carolina,
(Mr. Calhoun,) for ceding the public lands to certain states, within
which they are situated. He had wished to suggest some other reference
of it than to the committee on the public lands, but unless some
senator would move a reconsideration of the order of reference to that
committee, he could not offer the suggestion which he wished to make.
[Mr. Southard moved the reconsideration, and Mr. Calhoun
objecting to it without some satisfactory reason,]
Mr. Clay went on to observe, that as the committee was constituted,
four of its five members were from new states. He meant to offer no
disrespect to them; but he must say, that this was a measure which,
disguised as it may be, and colorable as its provisions were, was, in
effect, a donation of upwards of one hundred millions of acres of the
common property of all the states of this union to particular states.
He did not think it right that such a measure should be committed in
the hands of senators exclusively representing the donees. He thought
that a committee ought to be constituted, in which the old states
should have a fuller and fairer representation. We should preserve,
whatever we may do, the decorum of legislation, and not violate the
decencies of justice. Whilst up, Mr. Clay would be glad if any senator
would inform him, whether the administration is in favor of or against
this measure, or stands neutral and uncommitted. This inquiry he should
not make, if the recent relations between the senator who introduced
this bill, and the head of that administration continued to exist; but
rumors, of which the city, the circles, and the press are full, assert
that these relations are entirely changed, and have, within a few days,
been substituted by others of an intimate, friendly, and confidential
nature. And shortly after the time when this new state of things is
alleged to have taken place, the senator gave notice of his intention
to move to introduce this bill. Whether this motion has or has not
any connection with that adjustment of former differences, the public
would, he had no doubt, be glad to know. At all events, it is important
to know in what relation of support, opposition, or neutrality the
administration actually stands to this momentous measure; and he,
(Mr. Clay,) supposed that the senator from South Carolina, or some
other senator, could communicate the desired information.
* * * * *
Mr. Clay said, he had understood the senator as felicitating himself
on the opportunity which had been now afforded him, by Mr. Clay, of
defining, once more, his political position; and Mr. Clay must say,
that he had now defined it very clearly, and had apparently given it a
new definition. The senator now declared that all the leading measures
of the present administration had met his approbation, and should
receive his support, it turned out, then, that the rumor to which Mr.
Clay had alluded, was true, and that the senator from South Carolina
might be hereafter regarded as a supporter of this administration,
since he had declared that all its leading measures were approved by
him, and should have his support.
Also, to the allusion which the senator from South Carolina had made,
in regard to Mr. Clay’s support of the head of another administration,
(Mr. Adams,) it occasioned Mr. Clay no pain whatever. It was an
old story, which had long been sunk in oblivion, except when the
senator and a few others thought proper to bring it up. But what were
the facts of that case. Mr. Clay was then a member of the house of
representatives, to whom three persons had been returned, from whom,
it was the duty of the house to make a selection for the presidency. As
to one of those three candidates, he was known to be in an unfortunate
condition, in which no one sympathized with him more than did Mr. Clay.
Certainly the senator from South Carolina did not. That gentleman was,
therefore, out of the question as a candidate for the chief magistracy;
and Mr. Clay had, consequently, the only alternative of the illustrious
individual at the hermitage, or of the man who was now distinguished
in the house of representatives, and who had held so many public places
with honor to himself and benefit to the country; and, if there was any
truth in history, the choice which Mr. Clay then made, was precisely
the choice which the senator from South Carolina had urged upon his
friends. The senator himself had declared his preference of Adams to
Jackson, Mr. Clay made the same choice, and experience had approved it
from that day to this, and would to eternity. History would ratify and
approve it. Let the senator from South Carolina make any thing out of
that part of Mr. Clay’s public career if he could. Mr. Clay defied him.
The senator had alluded to Mr. Clay as the advocate of compromise.
Certainly he was. This government itself, to a great extent, was
founded and rested on compromise; and, in the particular compromise
to which allusion had been made, Mr. Clay thought no man ought to be
more grateful for it than the senator from South Carolina. But for that
compromise, Mr. Clay was not all confident that he would have now had
the honor to meet that senator face to face in this national capitol.
The senator had said, that his own position was that of state rights.
But what was the character of this bill? It was a bill to strip
seventeen of the states of their rightful inheritance; to sell it for
a mess of pottage, to surrender it for a trifle――a mere nominal sum.
The bill was, in effect, an attempt to strip and rob seventeen states
of this union of their property, and to assign it over to some eight or
nine of the states. If this was what the senator called vindicating the
rights of the states, Mr. Clay prayed God to deliver us from all such
rights, and all such advocates. * * *
I am sorry to be obliged to prolong this discussion; but I made no
allusion to compromise, till it was done by the senator himself. I
made no reference to the event of 1825, till he had made it; and I
did not, in the most distant manner, allude to nullification; and it
is extraordinary that the senator himself should have introduced it,
especially at a moment when he is uniting with the authors of the force
bill, and of those measures which put down nullification.
The senator says, I was flat on my back, and that he was my master.
Sir, I would not own him as my slave. He my master! and I compelled by
him! And, as if it were impossible to go far enough in one paragraph,
he refers to certain letters of his own, to prove that I was flat on
my back! and that I was not only on my back, but another senator and
the president had robbed me! I was flat on my back, and unable to do
any thing but what the senator from South Carolina permitted me to do!
Sir, what was the case? I introduced the compromise in spite of
the opposition of the gentleman who is said to have robbed me of the
manufacturers. It met his uncompromising opposition. That measure had,
on my part, nothing personal in it. But I saw the condition of the
senator from South Carolina and his friends. They had reduced South
Carolina by that unwise measure, (of nullification,) to a state of
war; and I, therefore, wished to save the effusion of human blood, and
especially the blood of our fellow-citizens. That was one motive with
me; and another was a regard for that very interest which the senator
says I helped to destroy. I saw that this great interest had so got in
the power of the chief magistrate, that it was evident that, at the
next session of congress, the whole protective system would be swept by
the board. I therefore desired to give it, at least, a lease of years;
and for that purpose, I, in concert with others, brought forward that
measure, which was necessary to save that interest from total
annihilation.
But, to display still further the circumstances in which the senator is
placed, he says, from that very day of the compromise, all obligations
were cancelled that could, on account of it, rest on him, on South
Carolina, and on the south. Sir, what right has he to speak in the name
of the whole south? or even of South Carolina itself? For, if history
is to be called upon, if we may judge of the future from the past, the
time will come when the senator cannot propose to be the organ even of
the chivalrous and enlightened people of South Carolina.
Sir, I am not one of those who are looking out for what may ensue
to themselves. My course is nearly run; it is so by nature, and so in
the progress of political events. I have nothing to ask of the senator
of the south, nor of South Carolina, nor yet of the country at large.
But I will go, when I do go, or when I choose to go, into retirement,
with the undying conviction, that, for a quarter of a century, I have
endeavored to serve and to save the country, faithfully and honorably,
without a view to my own interest, or my own aggrandizement; and of
that delightful conviction and consciousness no human being, nor all
mankind, can ever deprive me. * * * * *
One word――does not the senator feel that he himself brings his
political character into debate? I simply made the inquiry, (and I
put it to the senators to say if such was the fact,) to know whether
this measure, which involves, in all, about a thousand millions
of the public lands――whether this measure had the sanction of the
administration or not. I did it in no way for the purpose of offence;
and, by the way, I referred to a rumor which is afloat, of new
relations, public and political, with the head of the administration,
and stated, that I would not have made the inquiry but for that fact.
And is it not right, in regard to a great measure, to know whether or
not it has the support of the administration? He would at once have
put an end to the discussion if he had simply said he knew nothing
of the views of the administration, but had introduced this measure
independently. But instead of this, he gets in a passion because I
referred to this rumor, and concludes by saying, that the greater part
of the measures of the present administration are approved, and they
will be supported by him.