[From _Matthew Lyon_, by J. F. McLaughlin (New York, 1900)]
The Postmaster General [Gideon Granger] has not lost my esteem, nor do
I think his character can be injured by the braying of a jackal, or
the fulminations of a madman. But, sir, permit me to inquire from whom
these charges of bribery, of corruption, and of robbery, come? Is it
from one who has for forty years, in one shape or other, been
intrusted with the property and concerns of other people, and has
never wanted for confidence, one whose long and steady practice of
industry, integrity, and well doing, has obtained for him his standing
on this floor? Is it from one who sneered with contempt on the
importunity with which he has solicited to set a price on the
important vote he held in the last Presidential election? No, sir,
these charges have been fabricated in the disordered imagination of a
young man whose pride has been provoked by my refusing to sing encores
to all his political dogmas. I have had the impudence to differ from
him in some few points, and some few times to neglect his fiat. It is
long since I have observed that the very sight of my plebeian face has
had an unpleasant effect on the gentleman's nose, for out of respect
to this House and to the State he represents, I will yet occasionally
call him gentleman. I say, sir, these charges have been brought
against me by a person nursed in the bosom of opulence, inheriting the
life services of a numerous train of the human species, and extensive
fields, the original proprietors of which property, in all
probability, came no honester by it than the purchasers of the Georgia
lands did by what they claim. Let that gentleman apply the fable of
the thief and the receiver, in Dilworth's Spelling Book, so
ingeniously quoted by himself, in his own case, and give up the stolen
men in his possession. I say, sir, these charges have come from a
person whose fortune, leisure and genius have enabled him to obtain a
great share of the wisdom of the schools, but who in years,
experience, and the knowledge of the world and the ways of man, is
many, many years behind those he implicates--a person who, from his
rant in this House, seems to have got his head as full of British
contracts and British modes of corruption as ever Don Quixote's was
supposed to have been of chivalry, enchantments and knight errantry--a
person who seems to think no man can be honest and independent unless
he has inherited land and negroes, nor is he willing to allow a man to
vote in the people's elections unless he is a landholder.
I can tell that gentleman I am as far from offering or receiving a
bribe as he or any other member on this floor; it is a charge which no
man ever made against me before him, who from his insulated situation,
unconversant with the world, is perhaps as little acquainted with my
character as any member of this House, or almost any man in the
nation, and I do most cordially believe that, had my back and my mind
been supple enough to rise and fall with his motions, I should have
escaped his censure.
I, sir, have none of that pride which sets men above being merchants
and dealers; the calling of a merchant is, in my opinion, equally
dignified, and no more than equally dignified with that of a farmer,
or a manufacturer. I have a great part of my life been engaged in all
the stations of merchant, farmer and manufacturer, in which I have
honestly earned and lost a great deal of property, in the character of
a merchant. I act like other merchants, look out for customers with
whom I can make bargains advantageous to both parties; it is all the
same to me whether I contract with an individual or the public; I see
no constitutional impediment to a member of this House serving the
public for the same reward the public gives another. Whenever my
constituents or myself think I have contracts inconsistent with my
duties as a member of this House, I will retire from it.
I came to this House as a representative of a free, a brave, and a
generous people. I thank my Creator that He gave me the face of a man,
not that of an ape or a monkey, and that He gave me the heart of a man
also, a heart which will spare to its last drop in defence of the
dignity of the station my generous constituents have placed me in. I
shall trouble the House no farther at this time, than by observing
that I shall not be deterred by the threats of the member from
Virginia from giving the vote I think the interest and honor of the
nation require; and by saying if that member means to be understood
that I have offered contracts from the Postmaster-General, the
assertion or insinuation has no foundation in truth, and I challenge
him to bring forward his boasted proof.