CHAPTER CC.

CONCLUSION.

I have finished the View which I proposed to take of the Thirty

Years' working of the federal government during the time that I was

a part of it--a task undertaken for a useful purpose and faithfully

executed, whether the object of the undertaking has been attained or

not. The preservation of what good and wise men gave us, has been

the object; and for that purpose it has been a duty of necessity to

show the evil, as well as the good, that I have seen, both of men

and measures. The good, I have exultingly exhibited! happy to show

it, for the admiration and imitation of posterity: the evil, I have

stintedly exposed, only for correction, and for the warning example.

I have seen the capacity of the people for self-government tried at

many points, and always found equal to the demands of the occasion.

Two other trials, now going on, remain to be decided to settle the

question of that capacity. 1. The election of President! and whether

that election is to be governed by the virtue and intelligence of

the people, or to become the spoil of intrigue and corruption? 2.

The sentiment of political nationality! and whether it is to remain

co-extensive with the Union, leading to harmony and fraternity; or,

divide into sectionalism, ending in hate, alienation, separation and

civil war?

An irresponsible body (chiefly self-constituted, and mainly

dominated by professional office-seekers and office-holders) have

usurped the election of President (for the nomination is the

election, so far as the party is concerned); and always making

it with a view to their own profit in the monopoly of office and

plunder.

A sectional question now divides the Union, arraying one-half

against the other, becoming more exasperated daily--which has

already destroyed the benefits of the Union, and which, unless

checked, will also destroy its form.

Confederate republics are short-lived--the shortest in the whole

family of governments. Two diseases beset them--corrupt election

of the chief magistrate, when elective; sectional contention, when

interest or ambition are at issue. Our confederacy is now laboring

under both diseases: and the body of the people, now as always,

honest in sentiment and patriotic in design, remain unconscious

of the danger--and even become instruments in the hands of their

destroyers.

If what is written in these chapters shall contribute to open their

eyes to these dangers, and rouse them to the resumption of their

electoral privileges and the suppression of sectional contention,

then this View will not have been written in vain. If not, the

writer will still have one consolation--the knowledge of the fact

that he has labored in his day and generation, to preserve and

perpetuate the blessings of that Union and self-government which

wise and good men gave us.

THE END.

INDEX TO VOL. II.

A

ADAMS, JOHN Q., on the bill for the relief of Mrs. Harrison, 258;

on the origin of the Pension act of 1837, 269;

defends the administration in the McLeod affair, 289;

on the protest of President Tyler, 418;

relative to the Chinese mission, 511;

on the Home squadron, 575;

decease of, 707;

manner of his death, 707;

House and Senate adjourn, 707;

Senator Benton requested to second the motion of funeral honors in

the Senate, 707;

reflections, 707;

eloquent remarks of McDowell, 708;

eulogium of Senator Benton, 708, 709.--_See Index_, vol. 1.

ADAMS, CHARLES F., candidate for Vice President, 723.

ALLEN, WILLIAM, on the Oregon question, 663, 664.

ALISON, the historian, remark on the war of 1812, 573.

_Amendment of the Constitution._--Speech of Mr. Benton, 626;

the plan proposed, 626;

object and principle of the amendment to dispense with all other

intermediate bodies, and keep the election wholly in the

hands of the people, 626;

liberty would be ruined by providing any kind of substitute but

popular elections, 627;

at present, the will of the people was liable to be frustrated in

the election of their chief officers, by the intervention of

small bodies of men between themselves and the object of

their choice, 627;

details of the proposed amendment, 627;

its efficiency and practicability in preserving the rights of the

people, maintaining the purity of elections, 628;

a copy of the proposition, 628. _See Index_, vol. 1.

ANDERSON, ALEXANDER, Eulogium on Hugh L. White, 185.

_Anti-Duelling Act._--Death of Cilley, 148;

penalties of the duelling act, 148;

the act did not look to the assassinations under the pretext of

self-defence, which were to rise up in the place of the

regular duel, 148;

contrast, 148;

the act did not suppress the passions in which duels

originate, 149;

the law was also mistaken in the nature of its penalties, 149;

defective in not pursuing the homicidal offence into all the new

forms it might assume, 149.

ARCHER, WILLIAM S., on the charge of a privy council of President

Tyler's, 327. _See Index_, vol. 1.

_Ashburton, Lord, his mission.--See British Treaty._

_Assumption of State Debts._--Amount of these debts, 171;

Sidney Smith, 171;

assumption sought by a class of the bondholders as more

substantial security, 171;

London Bankers' Circular, 171;

resolutions against the constitutionality, the justice, and the

policy of any such measure, 171;

attempt to reverse their import by obtaining a direct vote of the

Senate in favor of distributing the land revenue to aid the

States, 172;

proposition rejected, 172.

Speech of Mr. Benton, 172;

extracts, 172;

"this movement been long going on, 172;

steps taken in the road to assumption, 172;

time for enemies of assumption to take the field and to act, 173;

disguised assumption in the form of land revenue distribution is

the shape in which we shall have to meet the danger, 173;

we have had one assumption in this country, 173;

intense excitement, 173;

statement of Mr. Jefferson, 174;

the picture presented, 174;

these stocks of the States are now greatly depreciated, 174;

what more unwise or unjust to contract debts on long time as some

of the States have done, 175;

the evils of foreign influence, 175;

the constitution itself contains a special canon directed against

them, 175;

to what purpose all this precaution if we invite foreign

influence?" 175.

B

BADGER, GEORGE E., Secretary of the Navy, 209;

reasons for resigning his seat in President Tyler's Cabinet, 354.

BANCROFT, GEORGE, Secretary of the Navy, 650.

_Bank, National, First Bill._--This the great measure of the session

and the great object of the whig party, 317;

all others complete without it, 317;

kept in the background during the canvass, 318;

call upon the secretary for a plan, 318;

objections of the President, 318;

its title, 318;

its course in the Senate, 318;

passed in both Houses, 318;

views of the democracy, 318;

light dawning upon them, 318;

veto, 318;

remarks of Mr. Clay, 318;

"circumstances under which Mr. Tyler became President, 319;

his address, 319;

interpretation of one passage, 319;

most confident and buoyant hopes entertained, 319;

fears that the President's address had been misunderstood, 319;

name of the proposed bank," 319;

Mr. Tyler's early opinions on a bank, 320;

extract, 320;

remarks of Mr. Clay on the passage, 320;

the course which the President might have taken and saved his

consistency, 321;

retaining the bill ten days, 321;

a third course to resign the Presidency, 321;

the propriety of the step enforced by Mr. Clay, 321;

remarks of Mr. Clay, 321;

his allusion to the rumor that the President was proposing a

suitable bill, 321;

remarks of Mr. Rives in defence of the President, 322;

a bank not an issue in the election, 323;

the imputation of perfidy repelled, 323;

General Harrison would have disproved the same bill, 323;

the conditions upon which he would sign a bill for a bank, 323;

reasons to believe he would have signed a bill, 323;

reply of Mr. Clay, 323;

Mr. Rives at "the half way house," 323;

Mr. Tyler's inner circle of advisers, 324;

caustic remarks of Mr. Clay thereon, 324;

rumor of a design to make a third party, 324;

remarks of Mr. Clay upon it, 324;

the bank was the great issue, 324;

apostrophe of Mr. Clay, 325;

reply of Mr. Rives to the imputed cabal--the privy council, 325;

remarks on sojourning in the half way house, 326;

rumor of a dictatorship installed in the capitol, 326;

disclaimer of Mr. Clay, 326;

conversational debate between Mr. Archer and Mr. Clay, 326, 327;

vote, 328.

Effects of the rejection, 328;

hisses in the Senate and outrages at the President's house, 328;

an inquiry into the extent of the disturbances moved, 328;

proceedings dropped, 328;

visit of Senators to the President, 328;

remarks of Mr. Clay on this visit, 328;

further remarks, 329;

Buchanan in reply pictures scenes that might have happened on the

same night at the other end of the avenue, 330;

a motion made to amend the Fiscal bill, so as to prevent members

of Congress from borrowing money from the institution, 330;

remarks of Mr. Pierce, 330;

"incorruptibility of members of Congress, 330;

what did history teach in relation to the course of members of

Congress," 331;

reference to the bank report by Mr. Tyler, 331;

the vote, 331;

its significance, 331.

Two histories to the second attempt at a fiscal bill, 331;

one public, the other secret, 331;

bill reported from a select committee on the currency early in the

session, 332;

move to strike out all after the enacting clause and insert a new

bill, 332;

remarks of Mr. Sargeant on the proposed new bill, 332;

the bill before committee, 332;

sharp practice, 332;

objections to rapid legislation, 333;

debate on the bill, 333;

bill passed, 333;

its title, 333;

remarks of Mr. Benton in ridicule of the bill, 333;

referred to a committee, 335;

a one-sided committee, 335;

remarks of Mr. King upon the appointment of this committee, 335;

rule of Jefferson's Manual quoted in justification, 336;

remarks of Mr. Benton, 336;

remarks of Mr. Buchanan, 337;

bill reported by the chairman with remarks upon the favorable

views of the President, 337;

amendments offered by Mr. Benton, 338;

objection to the exchange dealings authorized, 339;

operation of a bill as a discount, 339;

this exposed by Senator Tappan, 339;

amendment requiring all the stockholders to be citizens of the

United States, 340;

none but citizens allowed to take the original stock would not

prevent foreigners owning it, 340;

the bill designed to resurrect by smuggling the United States

Bank, 340;

same amendment moved in a different form, 340;

debate, 340;

vote, 341;

the bill compared with the old bank charter, 341;

bill passed and sent to the President and disapproved, 341;

violent speaking excited by the veto, 341;

the speakers, 341;

nays on the returned bill, 341.

Secret history of the returned bank bill, 342;

conversation between Mr. Gilmer and a whig member of the

House, 342;

change in Mr. Tyler, 342;

effect on the whigs, 343;

newspapers in the President's interest, 343;

no information given to the cabinet respecting the first veto

message, 343;

slight to his cabinet, 343;

readiness of the President for a second bill as stated by Mr.

Ewing, 343;

Mr. Bell's account, 343;

statement of Mr. A. H. Stuart, 344;

was the President sincere in his professions, or were they only

phrases to deceive the whigs and

calm the commotion which raged in their camp, 344;

a cabinet meeting on the new bill and proceedings, 345;

statement of Mr. Ewing, 345;

the sixteenth fundamental article, 345;

every part of the bill made to suit the President, 346;

further exposition, 346;

statement of Mr. Bell, 346;

proceedings of the members of the Cabinet under instructions to

prepare a majority of each House for the passage of the

second bill, 346;

grounds of the veto, and the explanations and careful preparation

of the point on which it turned, 347;

reason for Mr. Berrien's motion to postpone the consideration of

the veto and take up the bank bill, 347;

statement of Mr. A. H. Stuart, 347;

another side to this statement that the President was in favor of

the second bill, 348;

signs and facts which show against it from the beginning, 348;

letter of Mr. Webster, 349;

letter of Mr. Botts noticed, 349;

"Head him or die," 349;

how the phrase was intended and how interpreted, 349;

solution of the views of Mr. Tyler, 350;

he would have signed no bank bill under any name after the eighth

or ninth day of the session, 350.

Reception of the veto message in the Senate, 350;

hisses and applause in the galleries, 350;

Mr. Benton moves that the Sergeant-at-Arms take into custody those

who hissed, 351;

debate on the amount of the disorderly proceedings, 351, 352.

_See Tyler's Administration._

_Bank of the United States._--Changes to a State institution, 23;

history since the expiration of her charter, 23;

the bill reported in the Assembly of Pennsylvania, 24;

the tail to a bill to repeal a tax and make roads and canals, 24;

its reception in the House, 24;

an explanation demanded, 24;

letter of Mr. Biddle to J. Q. Adams, 24;

the first step in the movement, 24;

how managed, 24;

the bonus, 24;

passage of the bill through the legislature, 25;

indignation of the people, 25;

investigation of the next legislature, 25;

remarks, 25.

Refuses to cease its operations after its legal existence had

expired, 67;

its proviso charter made no difference in its condition, 67;

its use of the defunct notes of the expired institution, 68;

statement of its conduct by Mr. Buchanan, 68;

remarks of Calhoun on the right of Congress to pass a bill on this

subject, 69;

it rests on the general power of legislation, 69;

character of the bill, 69;

this the last question between the bank and the Federal

government, 69.

_Resumption by the Pennsylvania U. S. Bank._--Effect of resumption

by the New York banks, 94;

convention called in Philadelphia, 94;

result of its deliberations, 94;

resumption, 94;

speedy failure again and forever of the U. S. Bank foretold, 94.

Exposition of its affairs, 157;

resignation of Mr. Biddle, 157;

prediction of Senator Benton, 157;

suspension, 157;

its effects, 157;

another statement of her condition, 158.

Silence in Congress on this institution, 365;

her condition, 365;

report of the affairs to the stockholders, 365;

the exhibition of waste and destruction, 365;

proceedings of the bank during the period of the application for a

recharter, 366;

its loans, 366;

to whom made, 366;

manner in which they were made, 366;

extract from the report on this point, 366;

its foreign agencies, 367;

business of these stock speculations, 367;

extract, 367;

losses by the cotton agency, 368;

extracts from the report, 368;

the way of the bank in guaranteeing the individual contracts of

Mr. Biddle, 369;

unintelligible accounts of large amounts, 369;

parties concerned refuse to give an explanation, 369;

entertainments to members of Congress at immense expense, 369;

losses of stockholders, 369;

statement of the London Bankers' Circular, 370;

the credit of the bank and the prices of its stock kept up by

delusive statements of profits, 370;

operations to make the second suspension begin in New York, 370;

extent of the ruin, 371;

the case of London bankers and their punishment, 371;

remarks of the Judge on passing sentence, 372. _See Index_,

vol. 1.

_Bankrupt Act against the Banks._--Recommended by the President, 43;

reasons, 43;

framers of the constitution hard-money men, 43;

operation of the constitution had nullified this intention, 44;

a question whether the fault was in the instrument or in the

administrators, 44;

remedy now proposed, 44;

all that was wanted was a Congress to back the President, 44;

the array against it, 44;

opposition of Mr. Webster, 44;

right of Congress questioned, 44;

doubtless sanctioned by the whole cabinet, 45;

speech of Mr. Benton, 45;

"a bankrupt law authorized by the constitution," 45;

signification of the word bankruptcy, 45;

what is this grant of power, and does the country require its

exercise, 45;

Congress is not confined to English statutory decisions for the

construction of phrases used in the constitution, 45;

the term is not of English but Roman origin, 46;

it is said, we must confine our legislation to the usual objects,

the usual subjects, and the usual purposes of bankrupt laws

in England, 46;

on what act of English legislation can an example be fixed? 46;

the acts passed on this subject, 47;

affirmative definitions of the classes liable to bankruptcy in

England, 47;

the negative, 47;

cut off from improvement since the adoption of our constitution,

48;

in this view we must find one of two things--a case in point or a

general authority, 48;

these considered, 48;

a case in point, 48;

the general practice of the British Parliament for five hundred

years, over the whole subject of bankruptcy, 49;

it is asked if bankrupt laws ordinarily extend to moneyed

corporations, 49;

No; Why? 49;

the question of corporation unreliability in England, 49;

do such law ordinarily extend to corporations at all? 50;

history of our first bankrupt law, 51;

the bill of 1827, 51;

it is said, the object of bankrupt laws has no relation to

currency, 51;

what says history? 51;

effect of the application of bankrupt laws in England twofold,

51;

recommendation of the President, 51;

the British bankrupt code as it relates to bank notes, 52;

all our acts and bills have applied to bankers, 53;

and why not to banks? 53;

why this distinction? 53;

banks of circulation are the fittest subjects of a bankrupt

law, 53;

the opinion that there can be no resumption of specie payments

until the Bank of the United States is rechartered, 54;

as bankrupts, the Federal authority extends to all the banks, 54;

other great purposes to be attained by the application of a

bankrupt law to banks, 54;

every form of government has something in it to excite the pride

and to rouse the devotion of its citizens, 55;

we are called upon to have mercy on the banks, the prayer should

be to them to have mercy on the citizens, 55;

Jefferson's legacy is never to suffer the government to fall under

the control of unauthorized or self-created institutions, 55;

it is said that bankruptcy is a severe remedy to apply to banks, 56;

three things for which the banks have no excuse, and which should

forever weigh against their claims to favor, 56.

Congress convened at the urgent instance of Mr. Clay, 229;

a bankrupt act not in the programme of Mr. Clay or the message of

President Tyler, 229;

parties nearly balanced in the Senate, 229;

one member obtains leave to bring in a bill on bankruptcy, 229;

manner of its passage, 229;

the bank bill and the land bill made to pass it through both

Houses, 230;

its passage through the House, 230;

amendment, 230;

proceedings in the Senate to get up the amendment, 230, 231;

remark of White, of Indiana, 231;

remark of Senator Benton, 231, remark of Senator Linn, 231;

bankrupt bill reported as passed the House, 232;

remarks of Mr. King, 232;

distribution bill laid on the table and the bankrupt bill taken

up, 232;

remarks of Mr. Walker, 232;

the bank distribution and bankrupt bills travel together, 232;

remarks on the amendment to the bankrupt bill, 233;

passed, 233;

remarks on the nature of the bankrupt bill, 233, 234.

Speech of Mr. Benton on the bankrupt bill, 234;

"this is not a bankrupt system but an insolvent law, perverted to

a discharge from debts, instead of a discharge from

imprisonment," 234;

it is framed from the English insolvent debtor act, 234;

the English acts, 234;

how came such a bill to be introduced here? 235;

it is an insolvent bill, 235;

defended by insisting that insolvency and bankruptcy are the same

thing, a mere inability to pay debts, 235;

extracts from Webster's remarks, 235;

no foundation for confounding bankruptcy and insolvency, 235;

Blackstone's definition of a bankrupt, 235;

ability and fraud the basis of the system, 235;

_cessio bonorum_, 236;

laws of Scotland, 236;

_cessio_ examined, 236;

bankruptcy defined by the laws of Scotland, 237;

the Code Napoleon, 238;

the civil law, 238;

comparison of sections of the bill with the English law, 239;

voluntary and involuntary bankruptcy under the bill, 240.

_An attempt to Repeal._--Repeal commenced at the outset of the

session, 395;

passed the House and lost in the Senate, 395;

repealed at the next session, 396;

the fate of the confederate bills, 396.

_Repeal._--A repeal of a great act of legislation by the same

Congress that passed it, 463;

a homage to the will of the people, 463;

remarks of Mr. Benton on offering a petition from the State of

Vermont for the repeal of the act, 463;

"the act unconstitutional in abolishing debts with the consent of

a given majority of the creditors, 463;

principles of the act of 1800, 464;

forms which the wisdom of the law provided for executing

itself, 464;

an invasion of the rights of the States over the ordinary

relations of debtor and creditor within their own

limits," 465;

the passage of the act has been a reproach to Congress, its repeal

should do them honor, and still more the people under whose

will it was done, 465;

a bankrupt act has never been favored by the American people, 465;

the system has been nearly intolerable in England, 466;

further remarks, 466.

An act to repeal promptly passed both houses, 503;

a splendid victory for the minority, who had resisted the passage

of the original bill, 503;

all the authorities had sustained the act, 503;

sense of the people revolted against it, 503;

former act repealed in two years, 503;

its repeal a bitter mortification to the administration, 503;

Cushing in defence of the act, 504;

extract, 504;

an unparliamentary reference to Mr. Clay, 504;

reply by Mr. Davis, 504;

Cushing upon the impotent attacks on the administration, 504;

extracts, 505;

the seductive arguments of persuasion and enticement used to gain

adherents to the new administration, 505;

appeals to the democratic party, 505;

reply of Mr. Thompson, 505;

Cushing states that there are persons connected with the

administration who will yet be heard of for the Presidency,

505;

indignant reply of Mr. Thompson, 505;

reproaches cast upon Cushing, 506;

Davis upon the charges of Cushing, 506;

his versatility in defending vetoes, 507.

_Banks, Suspension of Payment by._--Deranged finances and broken up

treasury awaited the nascent administration, 9;

two parties at work to accomplish it, 9;

condition of the banks, 9;

remarks of Senator Benton on the prospect, 9;

do on rescinding the specie circular, 10;

desperate condition of the deposit banks, 10;

proper amount of specie to be retained by the banks, 10;

amount retained by the Bank of England, 10;

amount retained by the deposit banks, 10;

conference between Senator Benton and Mr. Van Buren, 10;

remark of the latter, 10;

Senator Benton miffed, 10;

silence, 10;

course which might have been taken, 11;

benefits, 11.

_Preparations for the Distress and Suspension._--Characteristic

letter of Mr. Biddle, 11;

picture of ruin presented, alarm given out, and the Federal

government the cause, 11;

extracts, 11;

course followed in and out of Congress, 12;

reception of Mr. Webster in New York, 12;

the public meeting, 12;

cause of this demonstration, 12;

his speech a manifesto against Jackson's administration, a protest

against its continuation in the person of his successor, and

an invocation to a general combination against it, 13;

the ominous sentence of the speech, 13;

extract relating to the general distress, 13;

conclusion of the speech, 13;

its vehement appeal, 14;

the specie circular, 14;

the original draft, 14;

the rescinding bill, 15;

President Jackson's action, 15;

an experiment on the nerves of the President resolved on, 15.

Consequences of Webster's speech, 16;

an immense meeting, 16;

its resolves, 16;

the word "experiment," 16;

a committee of fifty to wait on the President, 17;

to call another meeting on their return, 17;

co-operation of other cities invited, 17;

state of feeling as characterized by the press, 17;

visit of the committee to the President, 18;

extract from their addresses, 18;

a written answer of complete refusal, 18;

their return, 18;

visit of Mr. Biddle to the President, 19;

a second meeting in New York, 19;

report, 19;

resolutions adopted, 19;

list of grievances, 19;

remarks, 20.

_Actual Suspension._--Suspension not recommended at any public

meeting, 20;

the suspension, 20;

proceedings, 20;

act of self-defence on the part of the deposit banks, 21;

course of the United States Bank, 21;

letter of Mr. Biddle, 21;

extracts, 21;

Webster's tour at the West and his speeches, 22;

first speech at Wheeling, 22;

extract, 22;

the time when the suspension was to take place, 22;

Bank of the United States to be the remedy, 23;

the contrivance of politicians now exposed, 23.

_Effects of the Suspension._--Disturbance in the business of the

country, 26;

depreciation of bank notes, 26;

disappearance of small specie, 26;

"better currency," 26;

"the whole hog," 26;

inflammatory publications of the press, 26;

extracts, 26;

government payments, 27;

the medium, 27;

condition of the administration, 27;

payment of the Tennessee volunteers, 27;

its effect, 27;

visit of the agent to Washington, 27;

extra session of Congress necessary, 28.

_Attempted Resumption._--Declaration of the Bank of the United

States of its ability to continue paying specie, 43;

resumption commenced in New York, 43;

resolution, 43;

committee of correspondence, 43;

opposition of the Philadelphia interest, 43;

the explanation, 43.

_Resumption of Specie Payments by the New York Banks._--The proposed

convention, 83;

frustrated by the United States Bank, 83;

Philadelphia banks refuse to co-operate, 83;

letter from Mr. Biddle to John Q. Adams, 83;

a characteristic sentence, 83;

his threat against the New York banks, 83;

a general bank convention, 83;

vote on resumption, 83;

reasons for the vote, 84;

resumption by the New York banks, 84;

resumption general, 84;

the United States Bank, 84;

her stock, 84;

her power, 84;

speech of Mr. Webster, expressing her wishes, 84;

her friends come to the rescue for the last time, 85;

Mr. Benton's remarks, 85.

"Two periods working the termination of a national bank charter,

each full of lessons, 85;

the two compared, 85;

the quantity of the currency, 86;

its solidity, 86;

it is said, there is no specie, 86;

the cause of the non-resumption is plain and undeniable, 87;

what say the New York City banks? 87;

extract from their report, 87;

the reasons, 87;

it is said there can be no resumption until Congress act on the

currency, 88;

conduct of the leading banks, 88;

the honest commercial banks have resumed or mean to resume, 89;

politicians propose to compel the government to receive paper

money for its dues, 89;

the pretext is to aid the banks in resuming, 89;

an enemy lies in wait for the banks, 89;

power of the United States Bank over others, 90;

the contrast between former and the present bank stoppages, 90;

justice to the men of this day," 91.

_Mr. Clay's Resolution in favor of Resuming Banks._--Proposed to

make the notes of resuming banks receivable in payment of

all dues to the Federal government, 91;

render assistance to the banks, 92.

No power can prevent the solvent banks from resuming, 92;

every solvent one in the country will resume in a few months, 92;

Congress cannot prevent them if it tried, 92;

the most revolting proposition ever made in Congress, 93;

proposition lost, 93.

_Divorce of Bank and State._--The bill is to declare the divorce and

the amendment is to exclude their notes from revenue

payments, 56;

this change to be made gradually, 56;

it will restore the currency of the constitution and re-establish

the great acts of 1789 and 1800, 56;

great evils--pecuniary, political, and moral--have flowed from

this departure from our constitution, 57;

loss to the government from the banks, 57;

losses from the local banks, 57;

comparison with steamboats, 57;

the case with the banks, 58;

the epoch of resumption is to be a perilous crisis to many, 58;

they fell in time of peace and prosperity, 58;

banks of circulation are banks of hazard and of failure, 58;

the power of a few banks over the whole presents a new feature in

our system, 58;

they have all become links of one chain, 59;

the government and its creditors must continue to sustain losses

if they continue to use such depositories and to receive

such paper, 59;

in an instant every disbursing officer in the Union was stripped

of the money he was going to pay out, 59;

it was tantamount to a disbandment of the entire government, 59;

it is a danger we have just escaped, 60;

the same danger may be seen again if we use them, 60;

what excuse have we for abandoning the precise advantage for which

the constitution was formed? 60;

the moral view of this question not examined, 60;

the government required to retrace its steps and to return to first

principles, 61;

what is the obstacle to the adoption of this course, 61;

the message recommends four things, 61;

the right and obligation of the government to keep its own moneys

in its own hands results from the law of self-preservation,

61;

England trusts none of her banks with the collection, keeping, and

disbursement of her public money, 62;

what were the "continental treasurers" of the confederation, 62;

bill reported by the Finance Committee, 62;

taunted with these treasury notes, 62;

the case of France on the occasion of the First Consul, 63;

French currency is the best in the world, 63;

Congress has a sacred duty to perform in reforming the finances

and the currency, 64;

this is a measure of reform worthy to be called a reformation, 65.

Destined to be carried into effect at this session, 164;

opposition to it, 164;

remarks of Mr. Clay, 164;

bill passed the Senate, 165;

passed the House under the previous question, 165;

the title of the bill, 165;

form in which opposition appeared, 165;

proceedings in the House, 166;

title passed by the operation of the previous question, 167.

_Banks, Specie basis for._--A point of great moment, 128;

well understood in England, 128;

vice of the banking system of this country, 128;

the motion intended to require the bank to keep a certain amount

of specie, 128;

testimony of Horsley Palmer, 128;

requirement on the Bank of England, 129;

the proportion in England is one-third, 129;

first object when a bank stops payment, 129;

the issuing of currency is the prerogative of sovereignty, 130;

proportion required of the deposit banks, 130;

effect of the Treasury order of 1836 upon them, 130.

_Bank Notes, Tax on._--Motion for leave to bring in a bill to tax

the circulation of banks, bankers, and all corporations

issuing paper money, 179;

nothing more just than that this interest should contribute to the

support of government, 179;

in other countries it was subject to taxation, 179;

has formerly been taxed in our country, 179;

manner of levying the bank tax in Great Britain, 180;

taxation of the Bank of England, 180;

equity of the tax, its simplicity, and large product, 180;

unknown how the banking interest would relish the proposition,

181;

petition of Stephen Girard, 181;

objects of the bill, 181.

_Banks, District, Re-charter of._--Amendment proposed to the bill

prohibiting the issue of bills less than five dollars, &c.,

273;

"the design is to suppress two evils of banking--that of small

notes and that of banks combining to sustain each other in

a state of suspension," 273;

shall notes banish gold and silver from the country? 274;

one a curse to the public, 274;

why are banks so fond of issuing these small notes? 274;

counterfeiting is of small notes, 274;

an Insurance Company of St. Louis, 275;

a proper opportunity to bring before the people the question

whether they should have an exclusive paper currency or

not, 275;

some merchants think there is no living without banks, 275.

_See Index_, vol. I.

BARBOUR, PHILIP P., decease of, 202;

his mess, 202;

his character, 203;

intellect, 203;

death, 203;

instance of self-denial and fidelity to party, 203;

position in Virginia, 203.

_See Index_, vol. I.

BARROW, SENATOR, decease of, 706;

early life, 706;

his character, 706;

his intellect 706;

youth, 706.

BATES, ISAAC C., on exempting salt from duty, 315.

BAYARD, R. H., on the slavery resolutions, 139.

BELL, JOHN, candidate for Speaker, 160;

Secretary at War, 209;

on the readiness of President Tyler to sign a second bank bill,

343, 346;

his reasons for resigning his seat in President Tyler's cabinet,

355.

BENTON, THOMAS H., on the bankrupt act for banks, 45;

on the divorce of bank and State, 56;

on the Florida war, 72;

on bank resumption, 85;

on the graduation bill, 126;

on the armed occupation of Florida, 167;

on the assumption of State debts, 172;

on the salt tax, 176;

on the tax on bank notes, 179;

on the drawback on refined sugar, 190;

on fishing bounties and allowances, 194;

on the bankrupt bill, 234;

on the nature and effect of the previous question, 253;

on the bill for the relief of Mrs. Harrison, 262;

on the issue of small bills, 273;

on the action of the administration in the McLeod affair, 291;

on the repeal of the tariff compromise, 312;

on the committee on the bank bill, 336;

offers amendment to the second bank bill, 338;

moves to arrest the persons who hissed in the Senate gallery, 351;

against the Fiscal plan of Mr. Tyler, 375, 376;

on paper money payments, 406;

on the merits of the British treaty, 426;

on the North-eastern boundary, 438;

on the North-western boundary, 441;

on the expenses of the Navy, 456;

on the Oregon bill, 474;

eulogy on Linn, 485;

on the Chinese mission, 512;

on the annexation of Texas, 619;

on the authorship of the war with Mexico, 689;

on the Oregon question, 667;

his plan for conducting the Mexican war, 678;

designed for the appointment of Lieutenant-General, 678;

on the expedition of Col. Doniphan, 684;

advice relative to the conduct of the war against the northern

frontiers of Mexico, 687;

advises with the President relative to the prosecution of the war,

693;

his reply to Calhoun's question respecting his support of the

latter's resolutions, 697;

on the cause that may dissolve the Union, 715;

on Clay's compromise plan, 749;

on the protest of Southern Senators, 771.

_See Index_, vol. I.

BIBB, GEORGE M., Secretary of the Treasury, 569.

_See Index_, vol. I.

BIDDLE, NICHOLAS, his letters, 11, 24;

visits the President, 19;

his letter to J. Q. Adams, 83;

decease of, 567;

BLACK, Mr., on the appropriation for the Military Academy, 468.

BLAIR, FRANCIS P., statement of the declaration of Mr. Polk relative

to the mode of Texas annexation, 637.

_See Index_, vol. I.

BOTTS, JOHN M., on the protest of President Tyler, 419.

BREDON, Mr., on the nomination of Van Buren, 593.

BREWSTER, Mr., on the nomination of Van Buren, 592.

_Brig Somers_, Mutiny on board. _See Somers._

_British Treaty._--The Maine boundary still unsettled, 420;

particulars of the case, 420;

subject referred to the King of the Netherlands, 420;

his award rejected, 420;

Ashburton appointed on a special mission, 420;

professing to come to settle all questions--only such were settled

as suited Great Britain, 421;

points embraced in the treaty, 421;

points omitted, 421;

return of Ashburton, 421;

thanks of Parliament to him, 421;

discussion in Parliament, 422;

the map having the original line of the North-eastern boundary

hidden from Lord Ashburton's, 422;

remark of Brougham, 422;

his speech when charged with a want of frankness to this country,

422;

extract, 422;

sport in the British Parliament, 422;

map shown to Mr. Everett, 423;

statement of the result of the treaty on this point by an English

speaker, 423;

manner of conducting the negotiations, 423;

no instructions given to the Secretary of State, 423;

remarks of Mr. Benton, 423;

the action of certain Senators forestalled, 424;

the treaty or war was the constant alternative presented, 424;

remarks of Mr. Benton, 424;

extract, 424;

his remarks on the unsettled points of difficulty, 425.

Mr. Benton's remarks on the merits of the treaty, 426;

"four subjects omitted--the Columbia River and valley,

impressment, the outrage on the Caroline, and the liberation

of American slaves, 426.

"The Oregon territory, 426;

remark on the President's message relative to its omission from

the negotiation, 426;

the American title to the Columbia River and its valley stated,

426, 427;

the treaty of 1818, 427;

its great fault, 428;

another fault was in admitting a claim on the part of Great

Britain to any portion of these territories, 428;

our title under the Nootka Sound treaty, 428;

Sir Alexander McKenzie, 429;

the British title to the Columbia, 429;

it is asked, what do we want of this country so far off from

us? 430;

the value and extent of the country, 430.

"Impressment is another of the omitted subjects, 430;

correspondence upon it, 431;

manner in which it was treated, 431;

how different this holiday scene from the firm and virile language

of Mr. Jefferson, 432;

if this treaty is ratified, we must begin where we were in 1806,

432.

"The case of the liberated slaves of the Creole is another of the

omitted subjects, 432;

only one of a number of cases recently occurred, 432;

peculiarity of these cases, 433;

each of these vessels should have been received with the

hospitality due to misfortune, and allowed to depart with

all convenient dispatch and with all her contents, of

persons and property, 433;

remarks of the President's message, 433;

the grounds taken by the Government and the engagements entered

into by the British Minister, examined, 433;

Lord Ashburton proposes London as the best place to consider this

subject, 434.

"The burning of the Caroline, another of the omitted subjects,

434;

this case is now near four years old, 435;

the note of Lord Ashburton sent to us by the President, 435;

it is said there is a certain amount of gullibility in the public

mind which must be provided for, 436;

the letter of our Secretary, 436;

the whole negotiation has been one of shame and injury, but this

catastrophe of the Caroline puts the finishing hand to our

disgrace, 437;

the timing of this negotiation after the retirement of Mr. Van

Buren, and when the Government was in more pliable hands, 437;

further remarks, 437."

_The North-eastern Boundary Article._--Remarks of Mr. Benton. The

establishment of the low land boundary in place of the

mountain boundary, and parallel to it, 438;

contrived for the purpose of weakening our boundary and retiring

it further from Quebec, 438;

character of this line, 438;

remarks, 438;

a palliation attempted, 439;

letters on the subject, 439;

plea of Ashburton, 440;

to mitigate the enormity of this barefaced sacrifice, a

description of the soil given, 440;

report of Mr. Buchanan and the resolution of the Senate, 440;

the award of the King of the Netherlands infinitely better for

us, 441.

_North-western Boundary._--"The line from the Lake of the Woods to

the Mississippi, was disputable, 441;

that from Lake Superior to the Lake of the Woods described, 442;

proposition of a British traveller to turn the line down from

Isle-Royale near two hundred miles to St. Louis River, 442;

reasons, 442;

words of Ashburton, 443;

what he claimed, he got, 443;

the value of the concession, 443;

the Secretary put himself to the trouble to hunt testimony to

justify his surrender of the northern route to the British,

443;

his letter, 443;

answer of Mr. Ferguson, 444;

do. of Mr. Delafield, 444;

the answers refused to follow the lead of the questions, asked,"

444.

_Extradition Article._--"It stipulates for the mutual surrender of

fugitive criminals, 444;

no light on the origin, progress, and formation of this article,

445;

this is a subject long since considered in our country, 445;

Jefferson's views, 445;

these surrenders could only be under three limitations, 445;

his proposition, 445;

compared with the article of the treaty, 445;

it is said to be copied from the article in Jay's treaty, 446;

the two articles, 446;

difference between them, 446;

another essential difference, which nullifies the article in its

material bearing, 447;

words of the message relative to this article, 448;

nothing can be more deceptive and fallacious than its

recommendation, 448;

what offences are embraced, and what excluded," 448.

_African Squadron for the Suppression of the Slave Trade._--Nothing

in relation to the subject in the shape

of negotiation is communicated to us, 449;

the immediate and practical effects which lie within our view, and

display the enormous expediency of the measure, 449;

the expense in money, 449;

in what circumstances do we undertake all this fine work? 450;

Great Britain is not the country to read us a lesson upon the

atrocity of the slave trade, or to stimulate our exertions

to suppress it, 450;

these articles of the treaty bind us in this alliance with Great

Britain, 451;

the papers communicated do not show at whose instance these

articles were inserted, 451.

BROUGHAM, LORD, speech relative to the Ashburton treaty, 422.

BROWN, CHARLES, on the coast survey, 488.

BUCHANAN, JAMES, his proposition relative to the deposit fund, 37;

on the slavery resolutions, 138;

on the committee on the bank bill, 337;

on the disorder in the Senate gallery, 351;

on the Missouri Compromise line, 633;

Secretary of State, 650.

_See Index_, vol. I.

BUTLER, BENJAMIN F., Attorney-General, 9;

resigns, 9;

on the adoption of the two-thirds rule in the democratic

convention, 591.

_See Index_, vol. I.

BUTLER, WILLIAM O., on the action of the administration in the

McLeod affair, 291;

nominated for the Vice-Presidency, 722.

C

CALHOUN, JOHN C., debate with Clay, 97;

justifies his resolutions, 139;

resolution relative to the liberation of slaves in British

colonial ports, 182;

in opposition to the war rule, 250;

against the previous question, 255;

on the passage of the bill declaring war in 1812, 256;

passage with Clay, 257;

on the bill for the relief of Mrs. Harrison, 260;

on the naval pension act, 267;

on the repeal of the compromise, 311, 312, 313;

on exempting salt from duty, 316;

on expenditures, 397;

on naval expenditures, 452;

on the Oregon settlement bill, 471;

appointed Secretary of State, 569;

opens negotiations on Oregon, 661;

offers resolutions relative to slavery, 696;

in relation to the Oregon territorial bill, 711, 714;

on the dissolution of the Union, 715;

on extending the constitution to territories, 730;

his last speech, 744, 769.

Decease of, 747;

eulogium by Senator Butler, 747;

birth, 747;

student, 747;

a member of Congress, 747;

his fellow-members, 747;

his political career, 748;

rank as a parliamentary speaker, 748.

_See Index_, vol. I.

_California, Admission of._--The test question in the great slavery

agitation, 769;

remarks of Calhoun in his last speech, 769;

passage of the bill, 769;

protest of ten Senators opposed to it, 769;

extract, 769;

the signers, 770;

question of reception raised, 770;

remarks of Senator Benton, 771;

reception refused, 772.

_Caroline_, a steamboat, her destruction, 278.

CASS, LEWIS, on the fugitive slave bill, 779;

nominated for the Presidency, 722.

_See Index_, vol. I.

CATRON, JOHN, Judge of the Supreme Court, 9.

_Cessio bonorum_, the law of, 236.

_Chinese Mission._--Bill reported to provide the means of opening

future intercourse between the United States and China, 510;

extract from the bill, 510;

objectionable features of the bill, 510;

the act of 1790, 510;

moved to strike out the restrictions to the use of the money, 510;

remarks of Mr. Merriweather in opposition to the amendment, 511;

further debate, 511;

McKeon in opposition to the whole scheme, 511;

amendment adopted, 512;

bill passed, 512.

Mr. Cushing takes no part in the discussion, 518;

bill called up in the Senate at midnight on the last day, 512;

Mr. Benton's remarks against the mission, 512;

"no necessity for a treaty with China, 512;

the outfit, 512;

ill framed after the act of 1790," 513;

further debate, 513;

amendment carried, that no agent be appointed without the consent

of the Senate, 514;

no nomination made before the adjournment, 514;

Mr. Cushing appointed in the recess, 514;

remarks, 514;

outfit of the minister, 515;

his embarkation, 515;

arrival, 515;

address to the Governor-General of Canton, 515;

reply, 515;

correspondence, 515;

no necessity for a treaty of commerce on the part of the United

States, 515;

remarks, 516;

Mr. Cushing objects to delay to send to Pekin, 516;

extracts, 516, 517;

threats, &c., 517;

remonstrance of the Governor, 517;

a salute to the ship demanded, 518;

remonstrance of the Governor, 518;

threats of war to China, 518;

reply of the Governor, 519;

rejoinder of Mr. Cushing, 519;

further complaints from Mr. Cushing, 519;

answer from the Emperor, 520;

arrival of a commissioner to treat, 520;

difficulty, 520;

justification for not going to Pekin, 521;

remarks, 521;

effect of the publication of the correspondence, 522.

CLARK, J. C., in the Chinese mission, 501.

CLAY AND CALHOUN--_Debate between_.--Calhoun's co-operation with

Clay and Webster, 97;

co-operates with the democrats, 97;

feelings of the opposition, 97;

a feeling of personal resentment against Calhoun, 97;

Clay's talent for philippic, 97;

bursting of the storm, 97;

Calhoun's speech in favor of the Independent Treasury, 97;

answer of Mr. Clay, 97;

time for preparation, 98;

the attack on Calhoun, 98;

his reply, 98;

rejoinder of Mr. Clay, 99;

rejoinders, 99;

attempted excuse of Clay for making the attack, 99;

the Edgefield letter, 99;

character of this contest between two eminent men, and of their

oratory, 99;

Fox and Burke, 100;

remarkable passages in the speeches of each, 100;

remarks, 100;

Mr. Clay's speech, 101.

"Who are most conspicuous of those pressing this bill upon

Congress and the American people? 101;

its endorser the Senator from South Carolina, 101;

intimated that my course in opposing the bill was unpatriotic,

101;

the arduous contest in which we were so long engaged was about to

terminate in a glorious victory, 102;

at this critical moment the Senator left us, 102;

the speech of the Senator, 102;

the alternatives presented, 102;

if we denounced the pet bank system, must we take a system

infinitely worse? 103;

attack upon the whole banking system of the United States, 103;

the doctrine of 1816, 103;

we concur in nothing now," 103.

Reply of Mr. Calhoun, 103;

"he has not even attempted to answer a large and not the least

weighty portion of my remarks, 104;

the introduction of personal remarks, which cannot pass unnoticed,

104;

no shadow of a pretext for this attack, 104;

what can be his motive? 104;

the weakness of his cause has led him to personalities, 104;

the leading charge is that I have left his side and joined the

other, 105;

three questions involved in the present issue, 105;

remarks four years ago, 105;

another reference to the record, 105;

the measure of renewing the charter of the bank, 106;

relations with Mr. Webster, 106;

statement of his past course by further reference to speeches,

107;

the charge of desertion falls prostrate to the ground, 107;

the first fruits of union in the attack would have been a national

bank, 108;

explanation of views expressed in the Edgefield letter, 108;

further explanation of views entertained, 109;

present political position, 110;

the attack on my intellectual faculties, 110;

qualities wanting in Clay's mind, 110;

commencement of Calhoun's public life, 111;

support of the Navy, 111;

the restrictive system opposed, 111;

the bank proposed in 1814, 111;

administration of the War Department, 112;

the Vice-President's chair," 112.

Rejoinder of Mr. Clay, 112;

"anxious to avoid all personal controversy, 112;

a painful duty, 112;

ever anxious to think well of Calhoun, 112;

the Edgefield letter, 112;

extract, 113;

nullification overthrew the protective policy! 113;

it sanctioned the constitutional power it had so strongly

controverted, 113;

no one ever supposed the protective policy would be perpetual,

113;

further extract from the Edgefield letter, 114;

he has left no party and joined no party, 114;

charges me with going over on some occasion, 114;

the stale calumny of George Kremer, 114;

who went in 1825, 115;

charges me with always riding some hobby, 115;

he is free from all reproach of sticking to hobbies," 115.

Rejoinder of Mr. Calhoun, 116;

"the Senator tells us that he is among the most constant men in

this world, 116;

his speech remarkable both for its omissions and mistakes," 116.

Rejoinder of Mr. Clay, 116;

"he says, if I have not changed principles, I have at least got

into strange company, 117;

extract from his speeches, 117;

the dispute about the protection of cotton manufacture," 117.

Rejoinders, 118;

conclusion, 118;

reconciliation of Calhoun with Van Buren, 118;

sinister motives charged, 119;

further taunts of Mr. Clay, 119;

the change of Clay to the side of Adams, 119;

expositions of the compromise of 1833, 119;

bargain charged between Clay and Adams, 120;

remarks, 120;

Calhoun for the succession, 120;

Calhoun and Van Buren, 120;

source of the real disorders of the country, 121;

Adams and Clay, 121;

the threat of Gen. Jackson, 120;

the compromise measure, 122;

Webster on the side of Jackson at the time of nullification, 122;

"he my master," 123;

further remarks, 123.

CLAY, HENRY, on the slavery resolutions, 138;

offers a programme of measures for Tyler's administration, 219;

proposes to introduce the hour rule in the Senate, 250;

on exempting salt from duty, 316;

on the veto of the bank by President Tyler, 318;

his feelings on the veto of the bank bill by President Tyler, 356.

_Retirement of._--Resigns his seat in the Senate, and delivers a

valedictory address, 398;

reasons, 398;

formally announces his retirement, 399;

extract, 399;

period at which he had formed the design of retiring, 399;

time when the design was really formed, 399;

could have been elected when Harrison was, 399;

that triumph a fruitless one, 399;

reasons for not resigning at the time intended, 400;

reasons for appearing at the regular session, 400;

the formation of a new cabinet wholly hostile to him, and the

attempt to take the whig party from him, 400;

the failure of his measures, 400;

review of the past, 401;

extract, 401;

thanks to his friends, 401;

notice of foes, 401;

imputation of the dictatorship, 402;

extract, 402;

secret of Clay's leadership, 402;

forgiveness implored for offences, 402;

a tribute to Crittenden, 403;

a motion to adjourn, 403;

the criticism of Senators on the valedictory, 403.

Candidate for the Presidency in 1844, 625.

His plan for a compromise, 742;

all measures to be settled in one bill, 742;

the manner, 742;

failure, 742.

Resolution respecting slavery in New Mexico, 743;

Davis advocates the extension of the Missouri Compromise to the

Pacific, 743;

reply of Mr. Clay, 743;

vote 744;

Senator Benton's speech against it, 749;

a bill of thirty-nine sections pressed upon us as a remedy for the

national calamities, 749;

no political distress, 749;

a parcel of old bills which might each have been passed by itself

long ago, 750;

how did the committee get possession of these bills? 750;

the California bill made the scape-goat of all, 750;

reasons for urging the conjunction of the State and Territories,

751;

the territorial government bills are now the object, and put with

the California bill to make them more certain, 752;

all the evils of incongruous conjunctions here exemplified, 753;

the compensation to California, 754;

the reasons of the committee present grave errors in law, both

constitutional and municipal, and of geography and history,

754;

features of the Texas bill, 755;

division line of New Mexico and Texas, 756;

the possession of New Mexico continuous, &c., 757;

further remarks on the original territory of New Mexico, 758;

question of large emancipation, 759;

grounds for refusal to extend slavery into New Mexico, 760;

the point of the true objection to the extension of slavery

mistaken, 760;

fugitive slave bill and slave trade suppression in the District of

Columbia, 761;

no parties to the compromise, 762;

Dr. Jacob Townsend and Dr. Samuel Townsend, 763;

further remarks, 764, 765;

rejection of Clay's plan, 768.

_See Index_, vol. I.

CLAYTON, JOHN M., Secretary of State, 737.

_See Index_, vol. I.

_Coast Survey._--Its origin, 487;

growth and importance, 487;

become a civil department almost, 487;

efforts to restore the naval superintendence, 488;

movement for its re-organization, 488;

remarks of Mr. B. Mallory in support of it, 488;

proposition to reduce the appropriation and to transfer the work

from the Treasury to the Navy Department, to be done by army

and naval officers, 488;

an examination of the laws on the subject, 482, 490;

proposition rejected, 491;

another made and rejected, 491.

Belongs to the Navy Department, 726;

manner of its execution in Great Britain, 727;

the great cost of the survey, 727;

the Navy should do the whole and get the credit, 728;

our Bureau of Hydrography has only a divided and subordinate part

of the survey, 728;

our officers not incompetent, 728;

our Navy large and nearly idle, 729.

COBB, HOWELL C., chosen Speaker, 740.

COLLAMER, JACOB, Postmaster General, 737.

_Committee_ of fifty to wait on the President, 17.

_Congress_, extra session, 28;

its members, 28;

their character, 29;

first session of the twenty-sixth convenes, 158;

its members, 158;

New Jersey contested election, 159;

first session of twenty-seventh, 213;

its members, 213;

difficulty of organization, 215;

first session of twenty-eighth, 563;

its members, 563;

organization of the House, 565;

twenty-ninth convenes, 655;

list of members, 655;

election of Speaker, 656;

meeting of the second session of the twenty-ninth, 677;

first session of the thirtieth, 702;

its members, 702, 703;

first session of thirty-first, 738;

its members, 738, 739;

numerous ballots for Speaker, 740.

CONRAD, CHARLES M., Secretary at War, 768.

_Contested Election of New Jersey._--Two sets of members, 159;

one set holding the certificates, the other claiming to have

received a majority of the votes, 159;

both referred to the committee of contested elections, 159;

House organize, 159;

issue put on the rights of the voters, 159;

the result, 160;

the contest in the House for Speaker, 160;

its result, 160;

its causes, 160.

CORWIN, THOMAS, Secretary of the Treasury, 768.

CRAWFORD, GEORGE W., Secretary at War, 737.

CRAWFORD, WILLIAM H., decease of, 562;

a great man, who became greater as he was closely examined, 562;

his appearance in 1821, 563;

a formidable candidate for the Presidency, 563;

pulled down in 1824, 563;

service in the Senate, 563;

talents, 563;

Minister to France, 563;

Secretary of the Treasury, 563;

a dauntless foe to nullification, 563.

_Creole, the American brig._--A case of slaves liberated by British

authorities while on the voyage from one American port to

another, 409;

brig bound from Richmond to New Orleans, mutiny and massacre by

the slaves, 409;

affidavit of the master at Nassau, N. P.--proceedings at Nassau,

410, 411;

this was the fifth of such outrages, 411;

the Caroline affair still unatoned for, 411;

call upon the President for information, 411;

remarks of Mr. Calhoun on moving a reference to the Committee on

Foreign relations, 411;

despatch of the Secretary of State, 412;

approved in the Senate, 413;

allusion to the mission of Lord Ashburton, 413.

CRITTENDEN, JOHN J., on the slavery resolutions, 138;

Attorney General, 209;

reasons for resigning his seat in President Tyler's Cabinet, 356;

eulogy on Dean, 487;

Attorney General, 768.

_See Index_, vol. I.

CUSHING, CALEB, attack on the President's message, 33;

on the organization of the House, 215;

defends the Administration in the McLeod affair, 289;

opposes the reduction of certain missions, 305;

replies to the Whig manifesto against Mr. Tyler, 359;

report on the third fiscal agent, 394;

in defence of the Bankrupt Act, 504;

his nomination rejected in the Senate, 629.

D

DALLAS, GEORGE M., elected Vice-President, 625.

_Danish Sound Dues._--Report of Mr. Webster, 362;

"the right of Denmark to levy these dues, 362;

recognized by European governments in several treaties, 362;

the tariff of 1645 never been revised, 362;

other charges, 363;

American commerce," 363;

negotiations to obtain the benefit of all reductions recommended,

363;

remarks, 364;

success of these recommendations, 364;

commerce of different nations through the Sound, 364.

DAVIS, G., reply to Mr. Cushing, 504, 506.

DAVIS JOHN W., chosen Speaker, 656.

DEAN, EZRA, on the home squadron, 577.

_Democratic Convention._--A motley assemblage, 591;

almost all under instructions for Mr. Van Buren, 591;

Van Buren to be nominated on the first ballot, unless a movement

made, 591;

motion to adopt the two-thirds rule, 591;

objected to as in violation of a fundamental principle, 591;

remarks of Morton, 591;

Butler enforces the majority rule, 591;

remarks, 591;

adoption of the rule, 592;

the ballotings, 592;

moved that Mr. Van Buren, having received a majority, be declared

nominated, 592;

violent debate, 592;

division in the Pennsylvania delegation, 593;

Van Buren withdrawn and Polk nominated, 594;

a surprise and a marvel to the country, 594;

nomination and declining of Silas Wright for the Vice-Presidency,

594;

object of stating these facts, 595.

_Refusal of Mr. Calhoun to submit his name._--His objections, 596;

the mode of choosing the delegates, and the manner of their

giving their votes, 596;

extract, 596;

the convention not constituted in conformity to the fundamental

articles of the republican creed, 596;

the working of the constitution on an election, 596;

Congressional presidential caucuses put down by the will of the

people, 597;

convention system more objectionable than the Congressional

caucus, 597;

the objection to the convention system that States voted which

could not aid in the election, 598;

extract, 598;

the danger of centralizing the nomination in the hands of a few

States by the present mode, 598;

danger of throwing the nomination into the meshes of a train-band

of office-holders and office-seekers, 598;

any President may now nominate his successor, 599;

remarks, 599.

_Deposits with the States, retention of._--Terms of the deposit, 36;

amounts deposited, 36;

wants of the Treasury, 36;

the cheat of the bill, 36;

bill to postpone the fourth instalment, 36;

its reception, 36;

remarks of Webster, 36;

of others, 36;

proposition of Mr. Buchanan, 37;

remarks of Mr. Niles, 37;

proposition carried, 37;

principle of the deposit act reversed, 37;

a disposition in the House to treat the act as a contract, and to

enforce it, 37;

remarks of Cushing on this point, 37;

remarks, 38;

carried, 38;

reconsidered and postponed to January 1st, 1839, 38;

fourth instalment finally relinquished, 38;

end of this scheme, 39;

remarks, 39.

DICKERSON, MAHLON, Secretary of the Navy, 9.

_Dictatorship_ charged upon Mr. Clay, 359.

_Distribution of the Public Lands Revenue._--Two hundred millions

due from states and corporations to Europe, 240;

indirect assumption by giving the public lands revenue recommended

by President Tyler, 241;

a violation of the constitution, 241;

remarks of Calhoun, 241;

what a time for squandering this patrimony, 241;

indebtedness, 241;

state of the national defences, 242;

picture of taxation in England, 242;

an open exertion of a foreign interest to influence our

legislation manifested, 243;

remarks of Fernando Wood, 243;

remarks of Mr. Benton, 243;

the bill denounced as unconstitutional, 244;

the constitution was not made to divide money, 244;

bill bound to pass, 245;

its features, 245;

supposed this scheme would be popular, 245;

passed, 245;

the course of these distribution bills, 246;

remarks, 247.

_Disunion movements._--Extract from a South Carolina paper, 780;

an organ of disunion established at Washington, 781;

disunion convention at Nashville, 781;

reasons given by the States for their action, 781;

an issue of fact taken on their truth, 781;

declarations of speakers in the South Carolina Legislature, 782,

783;

extracts from public addresses, 783;

Fourth of July toasts, 784;

failure of a Southern Congress, 784;

interpretation of Calhoun's last speech, 784;

changes in the causes ascribed for disunion, 785;

inauguration of the slavery agitation, how it was done, 786;

views of Mr. Madison, 786.

DOUGLAS, STEPHEN A., moves to extend the Missouri Compromise line

to the Pacific, 711.

DREW, CAPTAIN, his report of the capture of the Caroline, 279.

E

_Electric Telegraph._--Concerted signals for communicating

intelligence, 578;

first telegraphs, 578;

idea of using electricity first broached by Dr. Franklin, 578;

Prof. Morse gave practical application to the idea, 578;

his progress in the invention, 578;

application to Congress, 578;

results as relates to public defence, 578.

EWING, THOMAS, Secretary of the Treasury, 209;

states the readiness of President Tyler to sign a second bank

bill, 343-345;

reasons for resigning his seat in President Tyler's cabinet, 354;

Secretary of the Home Department, 737.

_See Index_, vol. I.

_Exchequer Board._--The plan for a bank proposed by President Tyler,

376;

Mr. Benton's speech against it, 376;

"we have gone back beyond the times of Hamilton, 376;

to those of Walpole and Queen Anne, 376;

the administration of Walpole, the fountain-head of British woes,

377;

extract from Smollett's continuation of Hume, 377;

corporations brought into existence by him, 377;

further extract, 378;

contrast with those in the United States, 378;

corporation credit ruined by the explosions of banks and companies

in both countries, 379;

the origin of our exchequer scheme, 379;

the manner in which this exchequer system has worked in England,

and from its workings there we may judge of its workings

here, 380;

amount of exchequer bills issued, 380;

the rapid growth and dangerous perversion of such issues, 381;

the British debt is the fruit of the exchequer system in Great

Britain, the same that we are now urged to adopt and under

the same circumstances, 381;

let no one say the exchequer and funding system will not work in

the same way in this country, 382;

if there were a thousand constitutional provisions in favor of

paper money, I should still be against it on account of its

own inherent baseness and vice, 383;

remarks of Webster on hard money in 1816, 383;

felicitation of the Senator from Virginia over these exchequer

bills, 384;

remark of Hamilton against Government paper money, 385;

division of the Whigs, 385;

the Tyler-Webster Whigs for Government banking, 385;

what are the pretexts for this flagrant attempt? 385;

distress still the staple of all whig speeches made here, 386;

action of the Biddle King Bank, 386;

was not all distress to cease when the democracy were turned out?

387;

the cry is distress! and the remedy a national poultice of

lamp-black and rags;

a national currency of uniform value, and universal circulation is

what modern whigs demand, meaning all the while a national

currency of paper money, 388;

specie acquisitions during the last twenty years, 388;

Gallatin on the quantity of gold and silver in Europe and America,

388;

points upon which the statesman's attention should be fixed, 388;

the quantity of paper money per head which any nation can use,

389;

the facility with which any industrious country can supply itself

with a hard money currency, 390;

the currency of Cuba, 390;

Holland and Cuba have the best currencies in the world, 391;

no abundant currency, low interest, and facility of loans except

in hard money countries, 391;

the soldiers of Mark Antony, 391;

people believe the old continental bills are to be revived and

restored to circulation by the Federal Government, 392;

proposition to supply the administration with these old bills,

instead of putting out a new emission, 393;

advantages of the old bills," 393.

The measure immediately taken up in either branch of Congress,

394;

a select committee of the House, 394;

report, 394;

extracts, 394;

the measure recommended for adoption, 394;

the bill, 395;

died a natural death, 395;

committee of the Senate discharged from the consideration of the

measure, 395.

_Expenditures of the Government._--Tendency of all governments to

increase their expenses, and it should be the care of all

statesmen to restrain them, 198;

economy a principle in the political faith of the Republican

party, 198;

gradual increase, 198;

report of the Secretary on the ordinary and extraordinary payments

and the public debts, 199;

three branches of public expenditure, 199;

evils of extravagance, 199;

room for reduction, 199;

speech of Senator Benton, 200;

"character and contents of the tables reported by the Secretary of

the Treasury, 200;

expenses of 1824 and of 1839 compared, 200;

expenses of 1824, 201;

expenses of 1889, 201;

further remarks on the statements," 202.

The civil list, its expenditures, 397;

extract from Calhoun's speech, 397;

"the contingent expenses of the two Houses of Congress, 398;

increased expense of collecting the duties on imports," 398;

facts to be gleaned from these statements, 398.

_Expense of the Navy._--The naval policy of the United States a

question of party division from the origin of parties, 452;

the policy of a great navy developed with great vigor under Mr.

Tyler, 452;

recommendations of the new Secretary, 452;

remarks of Mr. Calhoun, 452;

"aggregate expense of the British navy in 1840, 452;

its force, 453; force of our navy, 453;

the great increase proposed in the navy over last year is at the

head of the objects of retrenchment, 453;

expenses of the government of three classes, 453;

estimates," 453;

remarks of Mr. Woodbury, 454;

extract, 454;

present naval establishment a war rate, 455;

limitations of the act of 1806, 455;

increase carried, 455;

remarks of Mr. Benton, 456.

"The attempt made in 1822 to limit and fix a naval peace

establishment, 456;

actual state of the navy in 1841 and 1842, 456;

extract from Bayard's report, 456;

examine the plan in its parts, and see the enormity of its

proportions, 457;

the cost of each gun afloat, and the number of men to work it,

457;

I am asked how I get at these $9,000 cost for each gun afloat,

458;

correctness of the statement, 458;

Clay's resolutions, 459;

it is an obligation of imperious duty on Congress to arrest the

present state of things, to turn back the establishment to

what it was a year ago," 459.

Remarks of Mr. Merriweather, 482;

no hostility to the service led to a desire to reduce the pay of

the navy, 482;

pay at different periods, 482, 483;

fifty thousand dollars required to defray the expenses of

court-martials the present year, 483;

further points on which reduction can be made, stated, 484.

Annual appropriation considered, 507;

amendment moved to reduce number of master-mates, 507;

remarks of Cave Johnson, 507;

"should have a peace establishment for the navy as well as the

army, 507;

table of the British service, 507;

expenditures, 508;

squadrons," 508.

Principle of a naval force establishment nowhere developed, 508;

the amount of danger must be considered to measure the amount of

a naval peace establishment, 508;

remarks of Mr. Hamlin on abuses in the navy, 509;

enormous increase in the number of officers of the navy, 509;

items of extravagance, 509;

Hale's remarks on the abuses in the navy expenditures, and the

irresponsibility of officers, 509;

excess of navy-yards, 509;

no results attended the movement, 509.

_See Index_, vol. I.

"_Experiment_," the staple word of distress oratory, 16.

_Explosion of the Great Gun._--Excursion on board the Princeton,

567;

the company, 567;

the day, 567;

the guns of the vessel, 567;

trip down the Potomac, 567;

the firing, 568;

the President called back as he was about to witness it, 568;

the explosion, 568;

the fatal results, 568;

the effect on Col. Benton of the concussion, 569.

F

FEATHERSTONHAUGH, Mr., remarks on the results of the Ashburton

Treaty, 423.

FICKLIN, ORLANDO, on the appropriation for the military academy,

468.

FILLMORE, MILLARD, on the veto of the provisional tariff, 415;

candidate for Vice-President, 722;

elected, 723;

his inauguration as President, 767;

first official act, 767;

public funeral of Gen. Taylor, 763.

_Florida Armed Occupation Bill._--Armed occupation, with land to the

occupant, is the true way of settling and holding a conquered

country, 167;

fashion to depreciate the services of the troops in Florida, 168;

besides their military labors, our troops have done an immensity

of service of a different kind, 168;

the military have done their duty, and deserved well of their

country, 169;

the massacre on the banks of the Calvosahatchee, 169;

the plan of Congress has been tried and ended disastrously, 169;

we have to choose between granting the means, or doing nothing,

170;

Florida cannot be abandoned, 170;

it is the armed settler alone whose presence announces dominion,

170;

this is the most efficient remedy, 171;

the peninsula is a desolation, 171.

_Florida Indian War._--See _Indian War_.

_Florida and Iowa_, admission of, 660;

admitted by a single bill, 660;

arose from the antagonistic provisions on the subject of Slavery,

660;

free and slave States thus numerically even, 660.

_See Index_, vol. I.

_Foreign Missions, Reduction of._--Moved to strike from the

appropriation bill the salaries of some missions, 305;

question how far the House had a right to interfere with these

missions, and control them by withholding compensation, 305;

"the appointment of ministers gives them certain vested rights,"

305;

idea of vested rights scouted, 306;

time to inquire into their propriety when voting the salaries,

306;

remarks of Mr. Ingersoll, 306;

resolution of Mr. Adams to reduce the expenditures by reducing

the number of ministers, 306;

the subject should be pursued, and the object accomplished, 306;

many branches belong to the inquiry, 306.

FORSYTH, JOHN, Secretary of State, 9;

decease of, 659;

career of honor, 659;

connection with Crawford, 659;

rank as a debater, 659;

in social life, 659.

FORWARD, WALTER, Secretary of the Treasury, 356.

FRANKLIN, WALTER S., elected Clerk, 29.

FRAZER, Mr., on the nomination of Van Buren, 593.

FRELINGHUYSEN, THEODORE, candidate for the Vice-Presidency in 1844,

625.

FRENCH, B. B., chosen Clerk of the House, 656;

chosen clerk, 703.

FREMONT, JOHN C.--His first expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 478;

how it came about, 478;

Senator Linn moves the printing of the report of this expedition,

478;

remarks upon the objects and results of the expedition 478-479.

_Second Expedition._--Its grand results, 579;

not an offspring of the Government, 579;

countermanded after it began, 579;

his wife retains the countermanding order, and the expedition goes

forward, 579;

her conduct approved by her father, 579;

occasion of countermanding the expedition, 579;

object of the expedition, 580;

maps up to that time, 580;

crossing the mountains, 580;

progress south, 581;

discoveries, 581;

return of Fremont, 581.

_Third Expedition._--When commenced, 688;

the line of observation, 688;

start for Oregon, 689;

overtaken by two men, 689;

a messenger from the Government, 689;

turns towards California, 689;

the night of the interview, 690;

attack of savages, 690;

succeeding events, 690;

arrival in the Valley of Sacramento, 691;

three great operations going on, 691;

deputation of American settlers, 691;

approach of Castro, 691;

California secured as an independent country, 691;

efforts of Great Britain to secure the country, 692;

how the prize escaped them, 692;

remarks, 692.

_Court Martialled._--Brought home a prisoner from his third

expedition, 715;

speech of Lieut. Emory, 715;

his offence in the eyes of officers of the army, 716;

specifications of mutiny, 716;

justice to Gen. Kearney, 716;

the gravamen of the charge, 717;

proof of his innocence derived from the journals of Kearney's

officers, 717;

statement of Carson, 718;

result of the trial, 718;

course of the President, 719;

resignation of Fremont, 719.

_Fourth Expedition._--Undertaken at his own expense, 719;

the line of exploration, 719;

the march on foot, 719;

error of the guide, 720;

terrors of their situation, 720;

extricated by the aid of Indians, 720;

a new outfit obtained, 721;

march, 721;

meeting hostile Indians, 721;

subsequent explorations, 721.

G

GALLATIN, ALBERT, on the quantity of gold and silver in Europe and

America, 388.

_See Index_, vol. I.

GARDINER, Mr., killed on board the Princeton, 568.

GILMER, THOMAS W., against the bill for the relief of Mrs. Harrison,

258;

against the abrogation of the compromise, 309;

killed on board the Princeton, 568;

his letter relative to Texas, 581.

GILPIN, HENRY D., Attorney General, 9.

GIRARD, STEPHEN, memorial of, 181.

_Globe Newspaper superseded._--A visit to Mr. Polk, 651;

condition on which he could receive the vote of South Carolina,

651;

Mr. Blair and the Globe were to be given up, 651;

to whom obnoxious, 651;

position of Mr. Tyler, 651;

withdraws, 651;

reason, 651;

$50,000 transferred from a bank in Philadelphia to a village bank

in the interior of Pennsylvania, 651;

letters to Andrew Jackson Donnelson, 651;

proposition of Mr. Polk to Mr. Blair, 652;

letter of General Jackson to Mr. Blair, 652;

the Globe sold, 654;

letter of Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Rives, 654;

payment for the Globe, 655;

_see Index_, vol. I.

GOUGE, WILLIAM, on the quantity of gold and silver, 389.

GRAHAM, WILLIAM A., Secretary of the Navy, 768.

GRUNDY, FELIX, Attorney-General, 9.

GRANGER, FRANCIS, Postmaster General, 209;

on the course of Mr. Cushing, 514.

H

HALE, JOHN P., on abuses in the navy, 509;

on the home squadron, 575-576.

HALL, NATHAN K., Postmaster General, 768.

HAMLIN, HANNIBAL, on abuses in the navy, 509.

HANNEGAN, EDWARD A., on the Oregon question, 663-664.

HARALSON, H. A., on the appropriation for the military academy, 468.

HARRISON, WILLIAM H., candidate for the Presidency, 204;

meeting of the Senate, 209;

oath administered to the Vice-President, 209;

scene in the chamber, 209;

the eastern portico, 209;

the inaugural, 209;

the oath administered, 209;

cabinet nominations confirmed, 209;

proclamation convoking an extra session of Congress, 209;

sickness of Harrison, 210;

death, 210;

character, 210;

public manifestations, 210;

origin of the family, 210;

Benton's remarks on Harrison, 210;

his fidelity to public trust, 216.

HARRISON, Mrs., widow of President H.--Bill for the relief of,

introduced, 257;

to indemnify the President for his expenses in the Presidential

election, and in removing to the seat of government, 257;

words of the bill, 257;

motives on which the bill had been founded, explained by J. Q.

Adams, 258;

vehement opposition to the principle of the bill, 258;

reasons of Mr. Payne, of Ala., for voting against the bill, 258;

a precedent which might hereafter be strained and tortured, 259;

remarks of Mr. Underwood, 259;

passage of the bill in the House, 259.

In the Senate, remarks of Mr. Calhoun on the bill, 259,

"this is no new thing, 260;

the enormous pension-list of the government, 260;

no part of the constitution authorizes such an appropriation,"

260;

remarks of Senator Woodbury, 260;

first application of a pension to a civil officer likely to

succeed, 260;

protest against any legislation based upon our sympathies, 260;

claim did not come from the family of General Harrison, but from

persons who had advanced money for the purposes stated in

the bill, 260;

moved to recommit the bill, 260;

amendments proposed so as to secure the money to the widow, 260;

motion to recommit lost, 261;

Benton's remarks in reply to the argument founded on the alleged

poverty of General Harrison, 261;

the poverty of Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, 261;

bill passed, 262.

Speech of Senator Benton on the bill, 262;

a bill to make a grant of money, 262;

first case of the kind on the statute-book, 262;

it was said at the last session that a new set of books was to be

opened, 263;

the federal constitution differs fundamentally from those of the

States, 263;

it is said this is a payment in hand, 263;

by the constitution, the persons who fill offices are to receive a

compensation for their services, 264;

it is in vain to look to general clauses of the constitution, 264;

gentlemen refuse to commit themselves on the record, 265.

HAYNE, ROBERT Y., his gifts, 186;

appearance, 186;

mental qualities, 186;

talents, 186;

exemplary morals, 186;

habits, 186;

position in South Carolina, 187;

marriage, 187;

becomes member of Congress, 187;

associates, 187;

estimate put upon him, 187;

his debate with Webster, 187;

remarks, 187;

assistance of Mr. Calhoun, 188;

retires from the Senate, 188;

subsequent occupation, 188.

_See Index_, vol. I.

HAYWOOD, WILLIAM H., on the Oregon question, 662.

HENSHAW, DAVID, nomination rejected in the Senate, 630.

HICKMAN, Mr., on the nomination of Van Buren, 592.

_Home Squadron and Aid to Private Steam Lines._--Reasons for the

home squadron of Great Britain, 271;

United States has no need of a home squadron, 271;

Great Britain had one, therefore we must, 271;

bill passed, 271;

reasons given for it, 271;

appropriation made in gross, 272;

objected to, 272;

contrary to democratic practice, which required specific

appropriations, 272;

an increase of the navy in disguise, 272;

comparative statement of expenses of the navy, 272;

statement of the French and British navies, 273;

the railroad and electric telegraph have opened a new era in

defensive war, 273;

bill passed in the house almost unanimously, 273;

recommendation relative to ocean steamers, 273;

a useless waste of money, 273.

Resolution to inquire into the origin, use and expense of the

home squadron, 575;

remarks of Mr. Hale, 575;

"indebted to the present administration for a home squadron, 575;

said to be necessary for protecting the coasting trade, 575;

we need not such a navy as Great Britain," 575;

remarks of Mr. J. Ingersoll, 575;

in favor of retrenchment and economy, but the process ought to

begin in the civil and diplomatic department, 575;

the army and the navy the two great objects of wasteful

expenditure, 575;

reply of Mr. Hale to those who, without offering a word in favor

of this domestic squadron, were endeavoring to keep it up,

576;

no result followed, 576;

remarks of Mr. Dean on this item in the appropriation bill, 577;

more ships built and building than can be used, and three times

as many officers as can be employed, 577;

remarks of Mr. McKay, 577;

the illegality and wastefulness admitted, 577;

but the money has been earned by work and labor, 577;

the abuse sanctioned, 577;

a powerful combined interest pushes forward an augmented navy

without regard to any object but its own interest, 577.

_Hour Rule in the House._--Institution of, 247;

permanent injury done in order to get rid of temporary annoyance,

247;

such an anomaly never seen in a deliberative assembly, 248;

the English remedy for license in debate, 248;

the first instance of enforcing this new rule, 248;

described, 248;

same thing undertaken in the Senate, 249;

reason, 249;

numerous amendments offered to bills, 249;

the opposition speakers, 249;

Clay's remark on the anxiety of the country for action, 250;

sharp reply of Calhoun, 250;

a succession of contradictory asseverations, 250;

question asked of Clay if he meant to apply to the Senate the "gag

law," 251;

resolution of the democratic Senators, 251;

taunts of Calhoun, 251;

determination of Clay, 251;

remarks of Senator Linn, 252;

subject dropped and revived again, 252.

Another measure to be introduced, 252;

the previous question, 253;

issue made up, to introduce and to oppose it, 253;

remarks of Mr. Benton on the effect of the previous question, 253;

the previous question annihilates legislation, 254;

the previous question and the old sedition law are measures of the

same character, 254;

change of tone in Mr. Clay, 255;

intimation of going into executive session, 255;

hesitation, 255;

friends of the measure dared by Mr. Calhoun, 255;

remarks of Senator Linn on the words of Mr. Clay, 256;

executive session, 256;

an explanation by Mr. Calhoun relative to the declaration of war,

in 1812, 256;

further taunts, 257;

loan bill taken up, 257.

HUBBARD, SAMUEL D., Postmaster General, 768.

HUNTER, R. M. T., elected Speaker, 160.

HUNTINGTON, JABEZ W., on making salt free of duty, 315.

I

_Independent Treasury._--The crowning measure of the extra session,

39;

vehement opposition, 39;

the divorce of bank and state, 39;

attitude of Mr. Calhoun, 40;

taunts upon him, 40;

his reply, 40;

proposes to discontinue the use of bank paper in the receipts and

disbursements of the government, 40;

his remarks, 40;

divorce of bank and state treated as a divorce of the bank from

the people, 41;

Webster's main argument for a bank, 41;

regulator of the currency and the domestic exchanges, 41;

the founders of the bank never thought of such arguments for its

establishment, 41;

the discussion, 41;

remarks, 42.

Consists of two distinct parts, 124;

1st, keeping the public money--2d, the hard money currency in

which they were to be paid, 124;

a bill reported, 124;

hard money section added to the bill, 124;

struck out, 124;

bill opposed by Mr. Calhoun, 124;

reasons, 124;

passed the Senate and lost in the House, 125.

Repeal of, 219;

No. 1 in the list of bills, 219;

no substitute provided, 219;

motion to exclude the bank of the U.S., 220; vote, 220;

speech of Senator Benton, 220;

"artifices used against the independent treasury," 220;

French explanation of the vote, 221;

artifices exposed, 221;

what constitutes the independent treasury system, 221;

the advocate of British systems, 222;

history of our fiscal agents, 222;

proved by experience to be the safest, cheapest, and best mode of

collecting, keeping, and disbursing the revenue, 223;

no other system provided in its place, 223;

who demands the repeal of this system, 224;

this system was established by the will of the people, 225;

the spirit which pursues the measure, 225;

the deposits may go to the bank of the United States, 226;

laudations of Biddle, 227;

the State charter made no difference in the character or

management of the bank, 227;

the conduct of those who refused a re-charter was wise and

prudent, 228;

further remarks, 228.

Good effects of a gold and silver currency during the war, 726;

Government bills above par and every loan taken at a premium, 726;

triumph of the gold currency, 726.

_Indian War in Florida._--One of the most troublesome, expensive,

and unmanageable of Indian wars, 70;

its continuance and cost, 70;

its origin, 70;

one of flagrant and cruel aggression on the part of the Indians,

70;

the murder by a party under Osceola, 70;

other massacres, 70;

escape of a soldier of Dade's command, 70;

the struggle, 70;

the slaughter, 71;

misrepresentation of the origin and conduct of the war, 72;

speech of Mr. Benton, 72.

Charged that a fraud was committed on the Indians in the treaty

negotiated with them for their removal, 72;

affixed to the Payne's Landing treaty, 72;

afterwards transferred to the Fort Gibson treaty, 72;

the posts, 72, 73;

pretexts and excuses of the Indians for not removing, 73;

their real object, 73;

the agreement with the Creeks, 73;

article four of the treaty, 73;

extract from the treaty at Fort Gibson, 74;

how stands the accusation? 74;

every thing was done that was stipulated for, done by the persons

who were to do it, and done in the exact manner agreed upon,

74;

proved that no fraud was practised upon the Indians, 75;

moderation with which the United States acted, 75;

statement of Lieut. Harris, 75;

hostile proceedings not expected by the Government, 75;

the prime mover in all this mischief, 76;

our sympathies particularly invoked for him, 76;

statements tending to disparage the troops, answered, 76;

great error and great injustice in these imputations, 76;

reason why the same feats are not performed in Florida as in

Canada, 77;

eight months in the year military exertions are impossible, 77;

conduct of the army in Florida, 77;

charges of inefficiency against Gen. Jesup, 78;

of imbecility, 78;

with how much truth and justice is this charge made? 78;

his vindication, 78;

a specific accusation against the honor of this officer, 79;

justification of the seizure of Osceola, 79;

he had broken his parole, 79;

he had violated an order in coming in, with a view to return to

the hostiles, 79;

he had broken a truce, 79;

the expediency of having detained him, 80;

complaint of the length of time Gen. Jesup has consumed without

bringing the war to a conclusion, 80;

his essential policy, 81;

the little said to be expected by his large force, 81;

false information given to the Indians, 81;

remarks respecting his predecessors, 81;

the expenses of the war, 82;

concluding remarks, 82.

INGERSOLL, CHARLES J., on the administration in the McLeod case,

287;

moves the reduction of certain missions, 305;

on the repeal of the compromise tariff, 310;

on the home squadron, 575.

_Iowa and Florida_, admission of, 660.

J