"_Resolved_, That the Committee on Public Lands be instructed to
inquire and report the quantity of public lands remaining unsold
within each State and Territory, and whether it be expedient to
limit for a certain period the sales of the public lands to such
lands only as have heretofore been offered for sale, and are now
subject to entry at the minimum price. And, also, whether the
office of Surveyor-General, and some of the land offices, may not
be abolished without detriment to the public interest; or whether
it be expedient to adopt measures to hasten the sales and extend
more rapidly the surveys of the public lands."
We have thus heard, Sir, what the resolution is which is actually before
us for consideration; and it will readily occur to every one, that it is
almost the only subject about which something has not been said in the
speech, running through two days, by which the Senate has been
entertained by the gentleman from South Carolina. Every topic in the
wide range of our public affairs, whether past or present,--every thing,
general or local, whether belonging to national politics or party
politics,--seems to have attracted more or less of the honorable
member's attention, save only the resolution before the Senate. He has
spoken of every thing but the public lands; they have escaped his
notice. To that subject, in all his excursions, he has not paid even the
cold respect of a passing glance.
When this debate, Sir, was to be resumed, on Thursday morning, it so
happened that it would have been convenient for me to be elsewhere. The
honorable member, however, did not incline to put off the discussion to
another day. He had a shot, he said, to return, and he wished to
discharge it. That shot, Sir, which he thus kindly informed us was
coming, that we might stand out of the way, or prepare ourselves to fall
by it and die with decency, has now been received. Under all advantages,
and with expectation awakened by the tone which preceded it, it has been
discharged, and has spent its force. It may become me to say no more of
its effect, than that, if nobody is found, after all, either killed or
wounded, it is not the first time, in the history of human affairs, that
the vigor and success of the war have not quite come up to the lofty and
sounding phrase of the manifesto.
The gentleman, Sir, in declining to postpone the debate, told the
Senate, with the emphasis of his hand upon his heart, that there was
something rankling _here_, which he wished to relieve. [Mr. Hayne rose,
and disclaimed having used the word _rankling_.] It would not, Mr.
President, be safe for the honorable member to appeal to those around
him, upon the question whether he did in fact make use of that word. But
he may have been unconscious of it. At any rate, it is enough that he
disclaims it. But still, with or without the use of that particular
word, he had yet something _here_, he said, of which he wished to rid
himself by an immediate reply. In this respect, Sir, I have a great
advantage over the honorable gentleman. There is nothing _here_, Sir,
which gives me the slightest uneasiness; neither fear, nor anger, nor
that which is sometimes more troublesome than either, the consciousness
of having been in the wrong. There is nothing, either originating
_here_, or now received _here_ by the gentleman's shot. Nothing
originating here, for I had not the slightest feeling of unkindness
towards the honorable member. Some passages, it is true, had occurred
since our acquaintance in this body, which I could have wished might
have been otherwise; but I had used philosophy and forgotten them. I
paid the honorable member the attention of listening with respect to his
first speech; and when he sat down, though surprised, and I must even
say astonished, at some of his opinions, nothing was farther from my
intention than to commence any personal warfare. Through the whole of
the few remarks I made in answer, I avoided, studiously and carefully,
every thing which I thought possible to be construed into disrespect.
And, Sir, while there is thus nothing originating _here_ which I have
wished at any time, or now wish, to discharge, I must repeat, also, that
nothing has been received _here_ which _rankles_, or in any way gives me
annoyance. I will not accuse the honorable member of violating the rules
of civilized war; I will not say, that he poisoned his arrows. But
whether his shafts were, or were not, dipped in that which would have
caused rankling if they had reached their destination, there was not, as
it happened, quite strength enough in the bow to bring them to their
mark. If he wishes now to gather up those shafts, he must look for them
elsewhere; they will not be found fixed and quivering in the object at
which they were aimed.
The honorable member complained that I had slept on his speech. I must
have slept on it, or not slept at all. The moment the honorable member
sat down, his friend from Missouri rose, and, with much honeyed
commendation of the speech, suggested that the impressions which it had
produced were too charming and delightful to be disturbed by other
sentiments or other sounds, and proposed that the Senate should adjourn.
Would it have been quite amiable in me, Sir, to interrupt this excellent
good feeling? Must I not have been absolutely malicious, if I could have
thrust myself forward, to destroy sensations thus pleasing? Was it not
much better and kinder, both to sleep upon them myself, and to allow
others also the pleasure of sleeping upon them? But if it be meant, by
sleeping upon his speech, that I took time to prepare a reply to it, it
is quite a mistake. Owing to other engagements, I could not employ even
the interval between the adjournment of the Senate and its meeting the
next morning, in attention to the subject of this debate. Nevertheless,
Sir, the mere matter of fact is undoubtedly true. I did sleep on the
gentleman's speech, and slept soundly. And I slept equally well on his
speech of yesterday, to which I am now replying. It is quite possible
that in this respect, also, I possess some advantage over the honorable
member, attributable, doubtless, to a cooler temperament on my part;
for, in truth, I slept upon his speeches remarkably well.
But the gentleman inquires why _he_ was made the object of such a reply.
Why was _he_ singled out? If an attack has been made on the East, he, he
assures us, did not begin it; it was made by the gentleman from
Missouri. Sir, I answered the gentleman's speech because I happened to
hear it; and because, also, I chose to give an answer to that speech,
which, if unanswered, I thought most likely to produce injurious
impressions. I did not stop to inquire who was the original drawer of
the bill. I found a responsible indorser before me, and it was my
purpose to hold him liable, and to bring him to his just responsibility,
without delay. But, Sir, this interrogatory of the honorable member was
only introductory to another. He proceeded to ask me whether I had
turned upon him, in this debate, from the consciousness that I should
find an overmatch, if I ventured on a contest with his friend from
Missouri. If, Sir, the honorable member, _modestiae gratia_, had chosen
thus to defer to his friend, and to pay him a compliment, without
intentional disparagement to others, it would have been quite according
to the friendly courtesies of debate, and not at all ungrateful to my
own feelings. I am not one of those, Sir, who esteem any tribute of
regard, whether light and occasional, or more serious and deliberate,
which may be bestowed on others, as so much unjustly withholden from
themselves. But the tone and manner of the gentleman's question forbid
me thus to interpret it. I am not at liberty to consider it as nothing
more than a civility to his friend. It had an air of taunt and
disparagement, something of the loftiness of asserted superiority, which
does not allow me to pass it over without notice. It was put as a
question for me to answer, and so put as if it were difficult for me to
answer, whether I deemed the member from Missouri an overmatch for
myself in debate here. It seems to me, Sir, that this is extraordinary
language, and an extraordinary tone, for the discussions of this body.
Matches and overmatches! Those terms are more applicable elsewhere than
here, and fitter for other assemblies than this. Sir, the gentleman
seems to forget where and what we are. This is a Senate, a Senate of
equals, of men of individual honor and personal character, and of
absolute independence. We know no masters, we acknowledge no dictators.
This is a hall for mutual consultation and discussion; not an arena for
the exhibition of champions. I offer myself, Sir, as a match for no man;
I throw the challenge of debate at no man's feet. But then, Sir, since
the honorable member has put the question in a manner that calls for an
answer, I will give him an answer; and I tell him, that, holding myself
to be the humblest of the members here, I yet know nothing in the arm of
his friend from Missouri, either alone or when aided by the arm of _his_
friend from South Carolina, that need deter even me from espousing
whatever opinions I may choose to espouse, from debating whenever I may
choose to debate, or from speaking whatever I may see fit to say, on the
floor of the Senate. Sir, when uttered as matter of commendation or
compliment, I should dissent from nothing which the honorable member
might say of his friend. Still less do I put forth any pretensions of my
own. But when put to me as matter of taunt, I throw it back, and say to
the gentleman, that he could possibly say nothing less likely than such
a comparison to wound my pride of personal character. The anger of its
tone rescued the remark from intentional irony, which otherwise,
probably, would have been its general acceptation. But, Sir, if it be
imagined that by this mutual quotation and commendation; if it be
supposed that, by casting the characters of the drama assigning to each
his part, to one the attack, to another the cry of onset; or if it be
thought that, by a loud and empty vaunt of anticipated victory, any
laurels are to be won here; if it be imagined, especially, that any or
all these things will shake any purpose of mine,--I can tell the
honorable member, once for all, that he is greatly mistaken, and that he
is dealing with one of whose temper and character he has yet much to
learn. Sir, I shall not allow myself, on this occasion, I hope on no
occasion, to be betrayed into any loss of temper; but if provoked, as I
trust I never shall be, into crimination and recrimination, the
honorable member may perhaps find, that, in that contest, there will be
blows to take as well as blows to give; that others can state
comparisons as significant, at least, as his own, and that his impunity
may possibly demand of him whatever powers of taunt and sarcasm he may
possess. I commend him to a prudent husbandry of his resources.
But, Sir, the Coalition! The Coalition! Ay, "the murdered Coalition!"
The gentleman asks, if I were led or frighted into this debate by the
spectre of the Coalition. "Was it the ghost of the murdered Coalition,"
he exclaims, "which haunted the member from Massachusetts; and which,
like the ghost of Banquo, would never down?" "The murdered Coalition!"
Sir, this charge of a coalition, in reference to the late
administration, is not original with the honorable member. It did not
spring up in the Senate. Whether as a fact, as an argument, or as an
embellishment, it is all borrowed. He adopts it, indeed, from a very low
origin, and a still lower present condition. It is one of the thousand
calumnies with which the press teemed, during an excited political
canvass. It was a charge, of which there was not only no proof or
probability, but which was in itself wholly impossible to be true. No
man of common information ever believed a syllable of it. Yet it was of
that class of falsehoods, which, by continued repetition, through all
the organs of detraction and abuse, are capable of misleading those who
are already far misled, and of further fanning passion already kindling
into flame. Doubtless it served in its day, and in greater or less
degree, the end designed by it. Having done that, it has sunk into the
general mass of stale and loathed calumnies. It is the very cast-off
slough of a polluted and shameless press. Incapable of further mischief,
it lies in the sewer, lifeless and despised. It is not now, Sir, in the
power of the honorable member to give it dignity or decency, by
attempting to elevate it, and to introduce it into the Senate. He cannot
change it from what it is, an object of general disgust and scorn. On
the contrary, the contact, if he choose to touch it, is more likely to
drag him down, down, to the place where it lies itself.
But, Sir, the honorable member was not, for other reasons, entirely
happy in his allusion to the story of Banquo's murder and Banquo's
ghost. It was not, I think, the friends, but the enemies of the murdered
Banquo, at whose bidding his spirit would not _down_. The honorable
gentleman is fresh in his reading of the English classics, and can put
me right if I am wrong: but, according to my poor recollection, it was
at those who had begun with caresses and ended with foul and treacherous
murder that the gory locks were shaken. The ghost of Banquo, like that
of Hamlet, was an honest ghost. It disturbed no innocent man. It knew
where its appearance would strike terror, and who would cry out, A
ghost! It made itself visible in the right quarter, and compelled the
guilty and the conscience-smitten, and none others, to start, with,
"Pr'ythee, see there! behold!--look! lo,
If I stand here, I saw him!"
THEIR eyeballs were seared (was it not so, Sir?) who had thought to
shield themselves by concealing their own hand, and laying the
imputation of the crime on a low and hireling agency in wickedness; who
had vainly attempted to stifle the workings of their own coward
consciences by ejaculating through white lips and chattering teeth,
"Thou canst not say I did it!" I have misread the great poet if those
who had no way partaken in the deed of the death, either found that they
were, or _feared that they should be_, pushed from their stools by the
ghost of the slain, or exclaimed to a spectre created by their own fears
and their own remorse, "Avaunt! and quit our sight!"
There is another particular, Sir, in which the honorable member's quick
perception of resemblances might, I should think, have seen something in
the story of Banquo, making it not altogether a subject of the most
pleasant contemplation. Those who murdered Banquo, what did they win by
it? Substantial good? Permanent power? Or disappointment, rather, and
sore mortification,--dust and ashes, the common fate of vaulting
ambition overleaping itself? Did not even-handed justice erelong commend
the poisoned chalice to their own lips? Did they not soon find that for
another they had "filed their mind"? that their ambition, though
apparently for the moment successful, had but put a barren sceptre in
their grasp? Ay, Sir,
"a barren sceptre in their gripe,
_Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand,
No son of theirs succeeding_."
Sir, I need pursue the allusion no farther. I leave the honorable
gentleman to run it out at his leisure, and to derive from it all the
gratification it is calculated to administer. If he finds himself
pleased with the associations, and prepared to be quite satisfied,
though the parallel should be entirely completed, I had almost said, I
am satisfied also; but that I shall think of. Yes, Sir, I will think of
that.
In the course of my observations the other day, Mr. President, I paid a
passing tribute of respect to a very worthy man, Mr. Dane of
Massachusetts. It so happened that he drew the Ordinance of 1787, for
the government of the Northwestern Territory. A man of so much ability,
and so little pretence; of so great a capacity to do good, and so
unmixed a disposition to do it for its own sake; a gentleman who had
acted an important part, forty years ago, in a measure the influence of
which is still deeply felt in the very matter which was the subject of
debate,--might, I thought, receive from me a commendatory recognition.
But the honorable member was inclined to be facetious on the subject. He
was rather disposed to make it matter of ridicule, that I had introduced
into the debate the name of one Nathan Dane, of whom he assures us he
had never before heard. Sir, if the honorable member had never before
heard of Mr. Dane, I am sorry for it. It shows him less acquainted with
the public men of the country than I had supposed. Let me tell him,
however, that a sneer from him at the mention of the name of Mr. Dane is
in bad taste. It may well be a high mark of ambition, Sir, either with
the honorable gentleman or myself, to accomplish as much to make our
names known to advantage, and remembered with gratitude, as Mr. Dane has
accomplished. But the truth is, Sir, I suspect, that Mr. Dane lives a
little too far north. He is of Massachusetts, and too near the north
star to be reached by the honorable gentleman's telescope. If his sphere
had happened to range south of Mason and Dixon's line, he might,
probably, have come within the scope of his vision.
I spoke, Sir, of the Ordinance of 1787, which prohibits slavery, in all
future times, northwest of the Ohio, as a measure of great wisdom and
foresight, and one which had been attended with highly beneficial and
permanent consequences. I supposed that, on this point, no two gentlemen
in the Senate could entertain different opinions. But the simple
expression of this sentiment has led the gentleman, not only into a
labored defence of slavery, in the abstract, and on principle, but also
into a warm accusation against me, as having attacked the system of
domestic slavery now existing in the Southern States. For all this,
there was not the slightest foundation, in any thing said or intimated
by me. I did not utter a single word which any ingenuity could torture
into an attack on the slavery of the South. I said, only, that it was
highly wise and useful, in legislating for the Northwestern country
while it was yet a wilderness, to prohibit the introduction of slaves;
and I added, that I presumed there was no reflecting and intelligent
person, in the neighboring State of Kentucky, who would doubt that, if
the same prohibition had been extended, at the same early period, over
that commonwealth, her strength and population would, at this day, have
been far greater than they are. If these opinions be thought doubtful,
they are nevertheless, I trust, neither extraordinary nor disrespectful.
They attack nobody and menace nobody. And yet, Sir, the gentleman's
optics have discovered, even in the mere expression of this sentiment,
what he calls the very spirit of the Missouri question! He represents me
as making an onset on the whole South, and manifesting a spirit which
would interfere with, and disturb, their domestic condition!
Sir, this injustice no otherwise surprises me, than as it is committed
here, and committed without the slightest pretence of ground for it. I
say it only surprises me as being done here; for I know full well, that
it is, and has been, the settled policy of some persons in the South,
for years, to represent the people of the North as disposed to interfere
with them in their own exclusive and peculiar concerns. This is a
delicate and sensitive point in Southern feeling; and of late years it
has always been touched, and generally with effect, whenever the object
has been to unite the whole South against Northern men or Northern
measures. This feeling, always carefully kept alive, and maintained at
too intense a heat to admit discrimination or reflection, is a lever of
great power in our political machine. It moves vast bodies, and gives to
them one and the same direction. But it is without adequate cause, and
the suspicion which exists is wholly groundless. There is not, and never
has been, a disposition in the North to interfere with these interests
of the South. Such interference has never been supposed to be within the
power of government; nor has it been in any way attempted. The slavery
of the South has always been regarded as a matter of domestic policy,
left with the States themselves, and with which the Federal government
had nothing to do. Certainly, Sir, I am, and ever have been, of that
opinion. The gentleman, indeed, argues that slavery, in the abstract, is
no evil. Most assuredly I need not say I differ with him, altogether and
most widely, on that point. I regard domestic slavery as one of the
greatest evils, both moral and political. But whether it be a malady,
and whether it be curable, and if so, by what means; or, on the other
hand, whether it be the _vulnus immedicabile_ of the social system, I
leave it to those whose right and duty it is to inquire and to decide.
And this I believe, Sir, is, and uniformly has been, the sentiment of
the North. Let us look a little at the history of this matter.
When the present Constitution was submitted for the ratification of the
people, there were those who imagined that the powers of the government
which it proposed to establish might, in some possible mode, be exerted
in measures tending to the abolition of slavery. This suggestion would
of course attract much attention in the Southern conventions. In that of
Virginia, Governor Randolph said:--
"I hope there is none here, who, considering the subject in the calm
light of philosophy, will make an objection dishonorable to Virginia;
that, at the moment they are securing the rights of their citizens, an
objection is started, that there is a spark of hope that those
unfortunate men now held in bondage may, by the operation of the general
government, be made free."
At the very first Congress, petitions on the subject were presented, if
I mistake not, from different States. The Pennsylvania society for
promoting the abolition of slavery took a lead, and laid before Congress
a memorial, praying Congress to promote the abolition by such powers as
it possessed. This memorial was referred, in the House of
Representatives, to a select committee, consisting of Mr. Foster of New
Hampshire, Mr. Gerry of Massachusetts, Mr. Huntington of Connecticut,
Mr. Lawrence of New York, Mr. Sinnickson of New Jersey, Mr. Hartley of
Pennsylvania, and Mr. Parker of Virginia,--all of them, Sir, as you will
observe, Northern men but the last. This committee made a report, which
was referred to a committee of the whole House, and there considered and
discussed for several days; and being amended, although without material
alteration, it was made to express three distinct propositions, on the
subject of slavery and the slave-trade. First, in the words of the
Constitution, that Congress could not, prior to the year 1808, prohibit
the migration or importation of such persons as any of the States then
existing should think proper to admit; and, secondly, that Congress had
authority to restrain the citizens of the United States from carrying on
the African slave-trade, for the purpose of supplying foreign countries.
On this proposition, our early laws against those who engage in that
traffic are founded. The third proposition, and that which bears on the
present question, was expressed in the following terms:--
"_Resolved_, That Congress have no authority to interfere in the
emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them in any of the
States; it remaining with the several States alone to provide rules and
regulations therein which humanity and true policy may require."
This resolution received the sanction of the House of Representatives so
early as March, 1790. And now, Sir, the honorable member will allow me
to remind him, that not only were the select committee who reported the
resolution, with a single exception, all Northern men, but also that, of
the members then composing the House of Representatives, a large
majority, I believe nearly two thirds, were Northern men also.
The House agreed to insert these resolutions in its journal; and from
that day to this it has never been maintained or contended at the North,
that Congress had any authority to regulate or interfere with the
condition of slaves in the several States. No Northern gentleman, to my
knowledge, has moved any such question in either House of Congress.
The fears of the South, whatever fears they might have entertained, were
allayed and quieted by this early decision; and so remained till they
were excited afresh, without cause, but for collateral and indirect
purposes. When it became necessary, or was thought so, by some political
persons, to find an unvarying ground for the exclusion of Northern men
from confidence and from lead in the affairs of the republic, then, and
not till then, the cry was raised, and the feeling industriously
excited, that the influence of Northern men in the public counsels would
endanger the relation of master and slave. For myself, I claim no other
merit than that this gross and enormous injustice towards the whole
North has not wrought upon me to change my opinions or my political
conduct. I hope I am above violating my principles, even under the smart
of injury and false imputations. Unjust suspicions and undeserved
reproach, whatever pain I may experience from them, will not induce me,
I trust, to overstep the limits of constitutional duty, or to encroach
on the rights of others. The domestic slavery of the Southern States I
leave where I find it,--in the hands of their own governments. It is
their affair, not mine. Nor do I complain of the peculiar effect which
the magnitude of that population has had in the distribution of power
under this Federal government. We know, Sir, that the representation of
the States in the other house is not equal. We know that great advantage
in that respect is enjoyed by the slave-holding States; and we know,
too, that the intended equivalent for that advantage, that is to say,
the imposition of direct taxes in the same ratio, has become merely
nominal, the habit of the government being almost invariably to collect
its revenue from other sources and in other modes. Nevertheless, I do
not complain; nor would I countenance any movement to alter this
arrangement of representation. It is the original bargain, the compact;
let it stand; let the advantage of it be fully enjoyed. The Union itself
is too full of benefit to be hazarded in propositions for changing its
original basis. I go for the Constitution as it is, and for the Union as
it is. But I am resolved not to submit in silence to accusations, either
against myself individually or against the North, wholly unfounded and
unjust,--accusations which impute to us a disposition to evade the
constitutional compact, and to extend the power of the government over
the internal laws and domestic condition of the States. All such
accusations, wherever and whenever made, all insinuations of the
existence of any such purposes, I know and feel to be groundless and
injurious. And we must confide in Southern gentlemen themselves; we must
trust to those whose integrity of heart and magnanimity of feeling will
lead them to a desire to maintain and disseminate truth, and who possess
the means of its diffusion with the Southern public; we must leave it to
them to disabuse that public of its prejudices. But in the mean time,
for my own part, I shall continue to act justly, whether those towards
whom justice is exercised receive it with candor or with contumely.
Having had occasion to recur to the Ordinance of 1787, in order to
defend myself against the inferences which the honorable member has
chosen to draw from my former observations on that subject, I am not
willing now entirely to take leave of it without another remark. It need
hardly be said, that that paper expresses just sentiments on the great
subject of civil and religious liberty. Such sentiments were common, and
abound in all our state papers of that day. But this Ordinance did that
which was not so common, and which is not even now universal; that is,
it set forth and declared it to be a high and binding duty of government
itself to support schools and advance the means of education, on the
plain reason that religion, morality, and knowledge are necessary to
good government, and to the happiness of mankind. One observation
further. The important provision incorporated into the Constitution of
the United States, and into several of those of the States, and
recently, as we have seen, adopted into the reformed constitution of
Virginia, restraining legislative power in questions of private right,
and from impairing the obligation of contracts, is first introduced and
established, as far as I am informed, as matter of express written
constitutional law, in this Ordinance of 1787. And I must add, also, in
regard to the author of the Ordinance, who has not had the happiness to
attract the gentleman's notice heretofore, nor to avoid his sarcasm now,
that he was chairman of that select committee of the old Congress, whose
report first expressed the strong sense of that body, that the old
Confederation was not adequate to the exigencies of the country, and
recommended to the States to send delegates to the convention which
formed the present Constitution.
An attempt has been made to transfer from the North to the South the
honor of this exclusion of slavery from the Northwestern Territory. The
journal, without argument or comment, refutes such attempts. The cession
by Virginia was made in March, 1784. On the 19th of April following, a
committee, consisting of Messrs. Jefferson, Chase, and Howell, reported
a plan for a temporary government of the territory, in which was this
article: "That, after the year 1800, there shall be neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in
punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been convicted." Mr.
Spaight of North Carolina moved to strike out this paragraph. The
question was put, according to the form then practised, "Shall these
words stand as a part of the plan?" New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, seven
States, voted in the affirmative; Maryland, Virginia, and South
Carolina, in the negative. North Carolina was divided. As the consent of
nine States was necessary, the words could not stand, and were struck
out accordingly. Mr. Jefferson voted for the clause, but was overruled
by his colleagues.
In March of the next year (1785), Mr. King of Massachusetts, seconded by
Mr. Ellery of Rhode Island, proposed the formerly rejected article, with
this addition: "And that this regulation shall be an article of compact,
and remain a fundamental principle of the constitutions between the
thirteen original States, and each of the States described in the
resolve." On this clause, which provided the adequate and thorough
security, the eight Northern States at that time voted affirmatively,
and the four Southern States negatively. The votes of nine States were
not yet obtained, and thus the provision was again rejected by the
Southern States. The perseverance of the North held out, and two years
afterwards the object was attained. It is no derogation from the credit,
whatever that may be, of drawing the Ordinance, that its principles had
before been prepared and discussed, in the form of resolutions. If one
should reason in that way, what would become of the distinguished honor
of the author of the Declaration of Independence? There is not a
sentiment in that paper which had not been voted and resolved in the
assemblies, and other popular bodies in the country, over and over
again.
But the honorable member has now found out that this gentleman, Mr.
Dane, was a member of the Hartford Convention. However uninformed the
honorable member may be of characters and occurrences at the North, it
would seem that he has at his elbow, on this occasion, some high-minded
and lofty spirit, some magnanimous and true-hearted monitor, possessing
the means of local knowledge, and ready to supply the honorable member
with every thing, down even to forgotten and moth-eaten two-penny
pamphlets, which may be used to the disadvantage of his own country. But
as to the Hartford Convention, Sir, allow me to say, that the
proceedings of that body seem now to be less read and studied in New
England than farther South. They appear to be looked to, not in New
England, but elsewhere, for the purpose of seeing how far they may serve
as a precedent. But they will not answer the purpose, they are quite too
tame. The latitude in which they originated was too cold. Other
conventions, of more recent existence, have gone a whole bar's length
beyond it. The learned doctors of Colleton and Abbeville have pushed
their commentaries on the Hartford collect so far, that the original
text-writers are thrown entirely into the shade. I have nothing to do,
Sir, with the Hartford Convention. Its journal, which the gentleman has
quoted, I never read. So far as the honorable member may discover in its
proceedings a spirit in any degree resembling that which was avowed and
justified in those other conventions to which I have alluded, or so far
as those proceedings can be shown to be disloyal to the Constitution, or
tending to disunion, so far I shall be as ready as any one to bestow on
them reprehension and censure.
Having dwelt long on this convention, and other occurrences of that day,
in the hope, probably, (which will not be gratified,) that I should
leave the course of this debate to follow him at length in those
excursions, the honorable member returned, and attempted another object.
He referred to a speech of mine in the other house, the same which I had
occasion to allude to myself, the other day; and has quoted a passage or
two from it, with a bold, though uneasy and laboring, air of confidence,
as if he had detected in me an inconsistency. Judging from the
gentleman's manner, a stranger to the course of the debate and to the
point in discussion would have imagined, from so triumphant a tone, that
the honorable member was about to overwhelm me with a manifest
contradiction. Any one who heard him, and who had not heard what I had,
in fact, previously said, must have thought me routed and discomfited,
as the gentleman had promised. Sir, a breath blows all this triumph
away. There is not the slightest difference in the purport of my remarks
on the two occasions. What I said here on Wednesday is in exact
accordance with the opinion expressed by me in the other house in 1825.
Though the gentleman had the metaphysics of Hudibras, though he were
able
"to sever and divide
A hair 'twixt north and northwest side,"
he yet could not insert his metaphysical scissors between the fair
reading of my remarks in 1825, and what I said here last week. There is
not only no contradiction, no difference, but, in truth, too exact a
similarity, both in thought and language, to be entirely in just taste.
I had myself quoted the same speech; had recurred to it, and spoke with
it open before me; and much of what I said was little more than a
repetition from it. In order to make finishing work with this alleged
contradiction, permit me to recur to the origin of this debate, and
review its course. This seems expedient, and may be done as well now as
at any time.
Well, then, its history is this. The honorable member from Connecticut
moved a resolution, which constitutes the first branch of that which is
now before us; that is to say, a resolution, instructing the committee
on public lands to inquire into the expediency of limiting, for a
certain period, the sales of the public lands, to such as have
heretofore been offered for sale; and whether sundry offices connected
with the sales of the lands might not be abolished without detriment to
the public service. In the progress of the discussion which arose on
this resolution, an honorable member from New Hampshire moved to amend
the resolution, so as entirely to reverse its object; that is, to strike
it all out, and insert a direction to the committee to inquire into the
expediency of adopting measures to hasten the sales, and expend more
rapidly the surveys, of the lands.
The honorable member from Maine[1] suggested that both those
propositions might well enough go for consideration to the committee;
and in this state of the question, the member from South Carolina
addressed the Senate in his first speech. He rose, he said, to give us
his own free thoughts on the public lands. I saw him rise with pleasure,
and listened with expectation, though before he concluded I was filled
with surprise. Certainly, I was never more surprised, than to find him
following up, to the extent he did, the sentiments and opinions which
the gentleman from Missouri had put forth, and which it is known he has
long entertained.
I need not repeat at large the general topics of the honorable
gentleman's speech. When he said yesterday that he did not attack the
Eastern States, he certainly must have forgotten, not only particular
remarks, but the whole drift and tenor of his speech; unless he means by
not attacking, that he did not commence hostilities, but that another
had preceded him in the attack. He, in the first place, disapproved of
the whole course of the government, for forty years, in regard to its
disposition of the public lands; and then, turning northward and
eastward, and fancying he had found a cause for alleged narrowness and
niggardliness in the "accursed policy of the tariff", to which he
represented the people of New England as wedded, he went on for a full
hour with remarks, the whole scope of which was to exhibit the results
of this policy, in feelings and in measures unfavorable to the West. I
thought his opinions unfounded and erroneous, as to the general course
of the government, and ventured to reply to them.
The gentleman had remarked on the analogy of other cases, and quoted the
conduct of European governments towards their own subjects settling on
this continent, as in point, to show that we had been harsh and rigid in
selling, when we should have given the public lands to settlers without
price. I thought the honorable member had suffered his judgment to be
betrayed by a false analogy; that he was struck with an appearance of
resemblance where there was no real similitude. I think so still. The
first settlers of North America were enterprising spirits, engaged in
private adventure, or fleeing from tyranny at home. When arrived here,
they were forgotten by the mother country, or remembered only to be
oppressed. Carried away again by the appearance of analogy, or struck
with the eloquence of the passage, the honorable member yesterday
observed, that the conduct of government towards the Western emigrants,
or my representation of it, brought to his mind a celebrated speech in
the British Parliament. It was, Sir, the speech of Colonel Barre. On the
question of the stamp act, or tea tax, I forget which, Colonel Barre had
heard a member on the treasury bench argue, that the people of the
United States, being British colonists, planted by the maternal care,
nourished by the indulgence, and protected by the arms of England, would
not grudge their mite to relieve the mother country from the heavy
burden under which she groaned. The language of Colonel Barre, in reply
to this, was: "They planted by your care? Your oppression planted them
in America. They fled from your tyranny, and grew by your neglect of
them. So soon as you began to care for them, you showed your care by
sending persons to spy out their liberties, misrepresent their
character, prey upon them, and eat out their substance."
And how does the honorable gentleman mean to maintain, that language
like this is applicable to the conduct of the government of the United
States towards the Western emigrants, or to any representation given by
me of that conduct? Were the settlers in the West driven thither by our
oppression? Have they flourished only by our neglect of them? Has the
government done nothing but prey upon them, and eat out their substance?
Sir, this fervid eloquence of the British speaker, just when and where
it was uttered, and fit to remain an exercise for the schools, is not a
little out of place, when it is brought thence to be applied here to the
conduct of our own country towards her own citizens. From America to
England, it may be true; from Americans to their own government, it
would be strange language. Let us leave it, to be recited and declaimed
by our boys against a foreign nation; not introduce it here, to recite
and declaim ourselves against our own.
But I come to the point of the alleged contradiction. In my remarks on
Wednesday, I contended that we could not give away gratuitously all the
public lands; that we held them in trust; that the government had
solemnly pledged itself to dispose of them as a common fund for the
common benefit, and to sell and settle them as its discretion should
dictate. Now, Sir, what contradiction does the gentleman find to this
sentiment in the speech of 1825? He quotes me as having then said, that
we ought not to hug these lands as a very great treasure. Very well,
Sir, supposing me to be accurately reported in that expression, what is
the contradiction? I have not now said, that we should hug these lands
as a favorite source of pecuniary income. No such thing. It is not my
view. What I have said, and what I do say, is, that they are a common
fund, to be disposed of for the common benefit, to be sold at low prices
for the accommodation of settlers, keeping the object of settling the
lands as much in view as that of raising money from them. This I say
now, and this I have always said. Is this hugging them as a favorite
treasure? Is there no difference between hugging and hoarding this fund,
on the one hand, as a great treasure, and, on the other, of disposing of
it at low prices, placing the proceeds in the general treasury of the
Union? My opinion is, that as much is to be made of the land as fairly
and reasonably may be, selling it all the while at such rates as to give
the fullest effect to settlement. This is not giving it all away to the
States, as the gentleman would propose; nor is it hugging the fund
closely and tenaciously, as a favorite treasure; but it is, in my
judgment, a just and wise policy, perfectly according with all the
various duties which rest on government. So much for my contradiction.
And what is it? Where is the ground of the gentleman's triumph? What
inconsistency in word or doctrine has he been able to detect? Sir, if
this be a sample of that discomfiture with which the honorable gentleman
threatened me, commend me to the word _discomfiture_ for the rest of my
life.
But, after all, this is not the point of the debate; and I must now
bring the gentleman back to what is the point.
The real question between me and him is, Has the doctrine been advanced
at the South or the East, that the population of the West should be
retarded, or at least need not be hastened, on account of its effect to
drain off the people from the Atlantic States? Is this doctrine, as has
been alleged, of Eastern origin? That is the question. Has the gentleman
found any thing by which he can make good his accusation? I submit to
the Senate, that he has entirely failed; and, as far as this debate has
shown, the only person who has advanced such sentiments is a gentleman
from South Carolina, and a friend of the honorable member himself. The
honorable gentleman has given no answer to this; there is none which can
be given. The simple fact, while it requires no comment to enforce it,
defies all argument to refute it. I could refer to the speeches of
another Southern gentleman, in years before, of the same general
character, and to the same effect, as that which has been quoted; but I
will not consume the time of the Senate by the reading of them.
So then, Sir, New England is guiltless of the policy of retarding
Western population, and of all envy and jealousy of the growth of the
new States. Whatever there be of that policy in the country, no part of
it is hers. If it has a local habitation, the honorable member has
probably seen by this time where to look for it; and if it now has
received a name, he has himself christened it.
We approach, at length, Sir, to a more important part of the honorable
gentleman's observations. Since it does not accord with my views of
justice and policy to give away the public lands altogether, as a mere
matter of gratuity, I am asked by the honorable gentleman on what ground
it is that I consent to vote them away in particular instances. How, he
inquires, do I reconcile with these professed sentiments, my support of
measures appropriating portions of the lands to particular roads,
particular canals, particular rivers, and particular institutions of
education in the West? This leads, Sir, to the real and wide difference
in political opinion between the honorable gentleman and myself. On my
part, I look upon all these objects as connected with the common good,
fairly embraced in its object and its terms; he, on the contrary, deems
them all, if good at all, only local good. This is our difference. The
interrogatory which he proceeded to put at once explains this
difference. "What interest," asks he, "has South Carolina in a canal in
Ohio?" Sir, this very question is full of significance. It develops the
gentleman's whole political system; and its answer expounds mine. Here
we differ. I look upon a road over the Alleghanies, a canal round the
falls of the Ohio, or a canal or railway from the Atlantic to the
Western waters, as being an object large and extensive enough to be
fairly said to be for the common benefit. The gentleman thinks
otherwise, and this is the key to his construction of the powers of the
government. He may well ask what interest has South Carolina in a canal
in Ohio. On his system, it is true, she has no interest. On that system,
Ohio and Carolina are different governments, and different countries;
connected here, it is true, by some slight and ill-defined bond of
union, but in all main respects separate and diverse. On that system,
Carolina has no more interest in a canal in Ohio than in Mexico. The
gentleman, therefore, only follows out his own principles; he does no
more than arrive at the natural conclusions of his own doctrines; he
only announces the true results of that creed which he has adopted
himself, and would persuade others to adopt, when he thus declares that
South Carolina has no interest in a public work in Ohio.
Sir, we narrow-minded people of New England do not reason thus. Our
_notion_ of things is entirely different. We look upon the States, not
as separated, but as united. We love to dwell on that union, and on the
mutual happiness which it has so much promoted, and the common renown
which it has so greatly contributed to acquire. In our contemplation,
Carolina and Ohio are parts of the same country; States, united under
the same general government, having interests, common, associated,
intermingled. In whatever is within the proper sphere of the
constitutional power of this government, we look upon the States as one.
We do not impose geographical limits to our patriotic feeling or regard;
we do not follow rivers and mountains, and lines of latitude, to find
boundaries, beyond which public improvements do not benefit us. We who
come here, as agents and representatives of these narrow-minded and
selfish men of New England, consider ourselves as bound to regard with
an equal eye the good of the whole, in whatever is within our powers of
legislation. Sir, if a railroad or canal, beginning in South Carolina
and ending in South Carolina, appeared to me to be of national
importance and national magnitude, believing, as I do, that the power of
government extends to the encouragement of works of that description, if
I were to stand up here and ask, What interest has Massachusetts in a
railroad in South Carolina? I should not be willing to face my
constituents. These same narrow-minded men would tell me, that they had
sent me to act for the whole country, and that one who possessed too
little comprehension, either of intellect or feeling, one who was not
large enough, both in mind and in heart, to embrace the whole, was not
fit to be intrusted with the interest of any part.
Sir, I do not desire to enlarge the powers of the government by
unjustifiable construction, nor to exercise any not within a fair
interpretation. But when it is believed that a power does exist, then it
is, in my judgment, to be exercised for the general benefit of the
whole. So far as respects the exercise of such a power, the States are
one. It was the very object of the Constitution to create unity of
interests to the extent of the powers of the general government. In war
and peace we are one; in commerce, one; because the authority of the
general government reaches to war and peace, and to the regulation of
commerce. I have never seen any more difficulty in erecting light-houses
on the lakes, than on the ocean; in improving the harbors of inland
seas, than if they were within the ebb and flow of the tide; or in
removing obstructions in the vast streams of the West, more than in any
work to facilitate commerce on the Atlantic coast. If there be any power
for one, there is power also for the other; and they are all and equally
for the common good of the country.
There are other objects, apparently more local, or the benefit of which
is less general, towards which, nevertheless, I have concurred with
others, to give aid by donations of land. It is proposed to construct a
road, in or through one of the new States, in which this government
possesses large quantities of land. Have the United States no right, or,
as a great and untaxed proprietor, are they under no obligation to
contribute to an object thus calculated to promote the common good of
all the proprietors, themselves included? And even with respect to
education, which is the extreme case, let the question be considered. In
the first place, as we have seen, it was made matter of compact with
these States, that they should do their part to promote education. In
the next place, our whole system of land laws proceeds on the idea that
education is for the common good; because, in every division, a certain
portion is uniformly reserved and appropriated for the use of schools.
And, finally, have not these new States singularly strong claims,
founded on the ground already stated, that the government is a great
untaxed proprietor, in the ownership of the soil? It is a consideration
of great importance, that probably there is in no part of the country,
or of the world, so great call for the means of education, as in these
new States, owing to the vast numbers of persons within those ages in
which education and instruction are usually received, if received at
all. This is the natural consequence of recency of settlement and rapid
increase. The census of these States shows how great a proportion of the
whole population occupies the classes between infancy and manhood. These
are the wide fields, and here is the deep and quick soil for the seeds
of knowledge and virtue; and this is the favored season, the very
spring-time for sowing them. Let them be disseminated without stint. Let
them be scattered with a bountiful hand, broadcast. Whatever the
government can fairly do towards these objects, in my opinion, ought to
be done.
These, Sir, are the grounds, succinctly stated, on which my votes for
grants of lands for particular objects rest; while I maintain, at the
same time, that it is all a common fund, for the common benefit. And
reasons like these, I presume, have influenced the votes of other
gentlemen from New England. Those who have a different view of the
powers of the government, of course, come to different conclusions, on
these, as on other questions. I observed, when speaking on this subject
before, that if we looked to any measure, whether for a road, a canal,
or any thing else, intended for the improvement of the West, it would be
found that, if the New England _ayes_ were struck out of the lists of
votes, the Southern _noes_ would always have rejected the measure. The
truth of this has not been denied, and cannot be denied. In stating
this, I thought it just to ascribe it to the constitutional scruples of
the South, rather than to any other less favorable or less charitable
cause. But no sooner had I done this, than the honorable gentleman asks
if I reproach him and his friends with their constitutional scruples.
Sir, I reproach nobody. I stated a fact, and gave the most respectful
reason for it that occurred to me. The gentleman cannot deny the fact;
he may, if he choose, disclaim the reason. It is not long since I had
occasion, in presenting a petition from his own State, to account for
its being intrusted to my hands, by saying, that the constitutional
opinions of the gentleman and his worthy colleague prevented them from
supporting it. Sir, did I state this as matter of reproach? Far from it.
Did I attempt to find any other cause than an honest one for these
scruples? Sir, I did not. It did not become me to doubt or to insinuate
that the gentleman had either changed his sentiments, or that he had
made up a set of constitutional opinions accommodated to any particular
combination of political occurrences. Had I done so, I should have felt,
that, while I was entitled to little credit in thus questioning other
people's motives, I justified the whole world in suspecting my own. But
how has the gentleman returned this respect for others' opinions? His
own candor and justice, how have they been exhibited towards the motives
of others, while he has been at so much pains to maintain, what nobody
has disputed, the purity of his own? Why, Sir, he has asked _when_, and
_how_, and _why_ New England votes were found going for measures
favorable to the West. He has demanded to be informed whether all this
did not begin in 1825, and while the election of President was still
pending.
Sir, to these questions retort would be justified; and it is both cogent
and at hand. Nevertheless, I will answer the inquiry, not by retort, but
by facts. I will tell the gentleman _when_, and _how_, and _why_ New
England has supported measures favorable to the West. I have already
referred to the early history of the government, to the first
acquisition of the lands, to the original laws for disposing of them,
and for governing the territories where they lie; and have shown the
influence of New England men and New England principles in all these
leading measures. I should not be pardoned were I to go over that ground
again. Coming to more recent times, and to measures of a less general
character, I have endeavored to prove that every thing of this kind,
designed for Western improvement, has depended on the votes of New
England; all this is true beyond the power of contradiction. And now,
Sir, there are two measures to which I will refer, not so ancient as to
belong to the early history of the public lands, and not so recent as to
be on this side of the period when the gentleman charitably imagines a
new direction may have been given to New England feeling and New England
votes. These measures, and the New England votes in support of them, may
be taken as samples and specimens of all the rest.
In 1820 (observe, Mr. President, in 1820) the people of the West
besought Congress for a reduction in the price of lands. In favor of
that reduction, New England, with a delegation of forty members in the
other house, gave thirty-three votes, and one only against it. The four
Southern States, with more than fifty members, gave thirty-two votes for
it, and seven against it. Again, in 1821, (observe again, Sir, the
time,) the law passed for the relief of the purchasers of the public
lands. This was a measure of vital importance to the West, and more
especially to the Southwest. It authorized the relinquishment of
contracts for lands which had been entered into at high prices, and a
reduction in other cases of not less than thirty-seven and a half per
cent on the purchase-money. Many millions of dollars, six or seven, I
believe, probably much more, were relinquished by this law. On this
bill, New England, with her forty members, gave more affirmative votes
than the four Southern States, with their fifty-two or fifty-three
members. These two are far the most important general measures
respecting the public lands which have been adopted within the last
twenty years. They took place in 1820 and 1821. That is the time _when_.
As to the manner _how_, the gentleman already sees that it was by voting
in solid column for the required relief; and, lastly, as to the cause
_why_, I tell the gentleman it was because the members from New England
thought the measures just and salutary; because they entertained towards
the West neither envy, hatred, nor malice; because they deemed it
becoming them, as just and enlightened public men, to meet the exigency
which had arisen in the West with the appropriate measure of relief;
because they felt it due to their own characters, and the characters of
their New England predecessors in this government, to act towards the
new States in the spirit of a liberal, patronizing, magnanimous policy.
So much, Sir, for the cause _why_; and I hope that by this time, Sir,
the honorable gentleman is satisfied; if not, I do not know _when_, or
_how_, or _why_ he ever will be.
Having recurred to these two important measures, in answer to the
gentleman's inquiries, I must now beg permission to go back to a period
somewhat earlier, for the purpose of still further showing how much, or
rather how little, reason there is for the gentleman's insinuation that
political hopes or fears, or party associations, were the grounds of
these New England votes. And after what has been said, I hope it may be
forgiven me if I allude to some political opinions and votes of my own,
of very little public importance certainly, but which, from the time at
which they were given and expressed, may pass for good witnesses on this
occasion.
This government, Mr. President, from its origin to the peace of 1815,
had been too much engrossed with various other important concerns to be
able to turn its thoughts inward, and look to the development of its
vast internal resources. In the early part of President Washington's
administration, it was fully occupied with completing its own
organization, providing for the public debt, defending the frontiers,
and maintaining domestic peace. Before the termination of that
administration, the fires of the French Revolution blazed forth, as
from a new-opened volcano, and the whole breadth of the ocean did not
secure us from its effects. The smoke and the cinders reached us, though
not the burning lava. Difficult and agitating questions, embarrassing to
government and dividing public opinion, sprung out of the new state of
our foreign relations, and were succeeded by others, and yet again by
others, equally embarrassing and equally exciting division and discord,
through the long series of twenty years, till they finally issued in the
war with England. Down to the close of that war, no distinct, marked,
and deliberate attention had been given, or could have been given, to
the internal condition of the country, its capacities of improvement, or
the constitutional power of the government in regard to objects
connected with such improvement.
The peace, Mr. President, brought about an entirely new and a most
interesting state of things; it opened to us other prospects and
suggested other duties. We ourselves were changed, and the whole world
was changed. The pacification of Europe, after June, 1815, assumed a
firm and permanent aspect. The nations evidently manifested that they
were disposed for peace. Some agitation of the waves might be expected,
even after the storm had subsided; but the tendency was, strongly and
rapidly, towards settled repose.
It so happened, Sir, that I was at that time a member of Congress, and,
like others, naturally turned my thoughts to the contemplation of the
recently altered condition of the country and of the world. It appeared
plainly enough to me, as well as to wiser and more experienced men, that
the policy of the government would naturally take a start in a new
direction; because new directions would necessarily be given to the
pursuits and occupations of the people. We had pushed our commerce far
and fast, under the advantage of a neutral flag. But there were now no
longer flags, either neutral or belligerent. The harvest of neutrality
had been great, but we had gathered it all. With the peace of Europe, it
was obvious there would spring up in her circle of nations a revived and
invigorated spirit of trade, and a new activity in all the business and
objects of civilized life. Hereafter, our commercial gains were to be
earned only by success in a close and intense competition. Other nations
would produce for themselves, and carry for themselves, and manufacture
for themselves, to the full extent of their abilities. The crops of our
plains would no longer sustain European armies, nor our ships longer
supply those whom war had rendered unable to supply themselves. It was
obvious, that, under these circumstances, the country would begin to
survey itself, and to estimate its own capacity of improvement.
And this improvement,--how was it to be accomplished, and who was to
accomplish it? We were ten or twelve millions of people, spread over
almost half a world. We were more than twenty States, some stretching
along the same seaboard, some along the same line of inland frontier,
and others on opposite banks of the same vast rivers. Two considerations
at once presented themselves with great force, in looking at this state
of things. One was, that that great branch of improvement which
consisted in furnishing new facilities of intercourse necessarily ran
into different States in every leading instance, and would benefit the
citizens of all such States. No one State, therefore, in such cases,
would assume the whole expense, nor was the co-operation of several
States to be expected. Take the instance of the Delaware breakwater. It
will cost several millions of money. Would Pennsylvania alone ever have
constructed it? Certainly never, while this Union lasts, because it is
not for her sole benefit. Would Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware
have united to accomplish it at their joint expense? Certainly not, for
the same reason. It could not be done, therefore, but by the general
government. The same may be said of the large inland undertakings,
except that, in them, government, instead of bearing the whole expense,
co-operates with others who bear a part. The other consideration is,
that the United States have the means. They enjoy the revenues derived
from commerce, and the States have no abundant and easy sources of
public income. The custom-houses fill the general treasury, while the
States have scanty resources, except by resort to heavy direct taxes.
Under this view of things, I thought it necessary to settle, at least
for myself, some definite notions with respect to the powers of the
government in regard to internal affairs. It may not savor too much of
self-commendation to remark, that, with this object, I considered the
Constitution, its judicial construction, its contemporaneous exposition,
and the whole history of the legislation of Congress under it; and I
arrived at the conclusion, that government had power to accomplish
sundry objects, or aid in their accomplishment, which are now commonly
spoken of as INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. That conclusion, Sir, may have been
right, or it may have been wrong. I am not about to argue the grounds of
it at large. I say only, that it was adopted and acted on even so early
as in 1816. Yes, Mr. President, I made up my opinion, and determined on
my intended course of political conduct, on these subjects, in the
Fourteenth Congress, in 1816. And now, Mr. President, I have further to
say, that I made up these opinions, and entered on this course of
political conduct, _Teucro duce_.[2] Yes, Sir, I pursued in all this a
South Carolina track on the doctrines of internal improvement. South
Carolina, as she was then represented in the other house, set forth in
1816 under a fresh and leading breeze, and I was among the followers.
But if my leader sees new lights and turns a sharp corner, unless I see
new lights also, I keep straight on in the same path. I repeat, that
leading gentlemen from South Carolina were first and foremost in behalf
of the doctrines of internal improvements, when those doctrines came
first to be considered and acted upon in Congress. The debate on the
bank question, on the tariff of 1816, and on the direct tax, will show
who was who, and what was what, at that time.
The tariff of 1816, (one of the plain cases of oppression and
usurpation, from which, if the government does not recede, individual
States may justly secede from the government,) is, Sir, in truth, a
South Carolina tariff, supported by South Carolina votes. But for those
votes, it could not have passed in the form in which it did pass;
whereas, if it had depended on Massachusetts votes, it would have been
lost. Does not the honorable gentleman well know all this? There are
certainly those who do, full well, know it all. I do not say this to
reproach South Carolina. I only state the fact; and I think it will
appear to be true, that among the earliest and boldest advocates of the
tariff, as a measure of protection, and on the express ground of
protection, were leading gentlemen of South Carolina in Congress. I did
not then, and cannot now, understand their language in any other sense.
While this tariff of 1816 was under discussion in the House of
Representatives, an honorable gentleman from Georgia, now of this
house,[3] moved to reduce the proposed duty on cotton. He failed, by
four votes, South Carolina giving three votes (enough to have turned the
scale) against his motion. The act, Sir, then passed, and received on
its passage the support of a majority of the Representatives of South
Carolina present and voting. This act is the first in the order of those
now denounced as plain usurpations. We see it daily in the list, by the
side of those of 1824 and 1828, as a case of manifest oppression,
justifying disunion. I put it home to the honorable member from South
Carolina, that his own State was not only "art and part" in this
measure, but the _causa causans_. Without her aid, this seminal
principle of mischief, this root of Upas, could not have been planted. I
have already said, and it is true, that this act proceeded on the ground
of protection. It interfered directly with existing interests of great
value and amount. It cut up the Calcutta cotton trade by the roots; but
it passed, nevertheless, and it passed on the principle of protecting
manufactures, on the principle against free trade, on the principle
opposed to that _which lets us alone_.
Such, Mr. President, were the opinions of important and leading
gentlemen from South Carolina, on the subject of internal improvement,
in 1816. I went out of Congress the next year, and, returning again in
1823, thought I found South Carolina where I had left her. I really
supposed that all things remained as they were, and that the South
Carolina doctrine of internal improvements would be defended by the same
eloquent voices, and the same strong arms, as formerly. In the lapse of
these six years, it is true, political associations had assumed a new
aspect and new divisions. A strong party had arisen in the South hostile
to the doctrine of internal improvements. Anti-consolidation was the
flag under which this party fought; and its supporters inveighed against
internal improvements, much after the manner in which the honorable
gentleman has now inveighed against them, as part and parcel of the
system of consolidation. Whether this party arose in South Carolina
itself, or in the neighborhood, is more than I know. I think the latter.
However that may have been, there were those found in South Carolina
ready to make war upon it, and who did make intrepid war upon it. Names
being regarded as things in such controversies, they bestowed on the
anti-improvement gentlemen the appellation of Radicals. Yes, Sir, the
appellation of Radicals, as a term of distinction applicable and applied
to those who denied the liberal doctrines of internal improvement,
originated, according to the best of my recollection, somewhere between
North Carolina and Georgia. Well, Sir, these mischievous Radicals were
to be put down, and the strong arm of South Carolina was stretched out
to put them down. About this time I returned to Congress. The battle
with the Radicals had been fought, and our South Carolina champions of
the doctrines of internal improvement had nobly maintained their ground,
and were understood to have achieved a victory. We looked upon them as
conquerors. They had driven back the enemy with discomfiture, a thing,
by the way, Sir, which is not always performed when it is promised. A
gentleman to whom I have already referred in this debate had come into
Congress, during my absence from it, from South Carolina, and had
brought with him a high reputation for ability. He came from a school
with which we had been acquainted, _et noscitur a sociis_. I hold in my
hand, Sir, a printed speech of this distinguished gentleman,[4] "ON
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS," delivered about the period to which I now refer,
and printed with a few introductory remarks upon _consolidation_; in
which, Sir, I think he quite consolidated the arguments of his
opponents, the Radicals, if to _crush_ be to consolidate. I give you a
short but significant quotation from these remarks. He is speaking of a
pamphlet, then recently published, entitled "Consolidation"; and, having
alluded to the question of renewing the charter of the former Bank of
the United States, he says:--
"Moreover, in the early history of parties, and when Mr. Crawford
advocated a renewal of the old charter, it was considered a Federal
measure; which internal improvement _never was_, as this author
erroneously states. This latter measure originated in the
administration of Mr. Jefferson, with the appropriation for the
Cumberland Road; and was first proposed, _as a system_, by Mr.
Calhoun, and carried through the House of Representatives by a
large majority of the Republicans, including almost every one of
the leading men who carried us through the late war."
So, then, internal improvement is not one of the Federal heresies. One
paragraph more, Sir:--
"The author in question, not content with denouncing as
Federalists, General Jackson, Mr. Adams, Mr. Calhoun, and the
majority of the South Carolina delegation in Congress, modestly
extends the denunciation to Mr. Monroe and the whole Republican
party. Here are his words: 'During the administration of Mr. Monroe
much has passed which the Republican party would be glad to approve
if they could!! But the principal feature, and that which has
chiefly elicited these observations, is the renewal of the SYSTEM
OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.' Now this measure was adopted by a vote
of 115 to 86 of a Republican Congress, and sanctioned by a
Republican President. Who, then, is this author, who assumes the
high prerogative of denouncing, in the name of the Republican
party, the Republican administration of the country? A denunciation
including within its sweep _Calhoun, Lowndes, and Cheves_, men who
will be regarded as the brightest ornaments of South Carolina, and
the strongest pillars of the Republican party, as long as the late
war shall be remembered, and talents and patriotism shall be
regarded as the proper objects of the admiration and gratitude of a
free people!!"
Such are the opinions, Sir, which were maintained by South Carolina
gentlemen, in the House of Representatives, on the subject of internal
improvements, when I took my seat there as a member from Massachusetts
in 1823. But this is not all. We had a bill before us, and passed it in
that house, entitled, "An Act to procure the necessary surveys, plans,
and estimates upon the subject of roads and canals." It authorized the
President to cause surveys and estimates to be made of the routes of
such roads and canals as he might deem of national importance in a
commercial or military point of view, or for the transportation of the
mail, and appropriated thirty thousand dollars out of the treasury to
defray the expense. This act, though preliminary in its nature, covered
the whole ground. It took for granted the complete power of internal
improvement, as far as any of its advocates had ever contended for it.
Having passed the other house, the bill came up to the Senate, and was
here considered and debated in April, 1824. The honorable member from
South Carolina was a member of the Senate at that time. While the bill
was under consideration here, a motion was made to add the following
proviso: "_Provided_, That nothing herein contained shall be construed
to affirm _or admit_ a power in Congress, on their own authority, to
make roads or canals within any of the States of the Union." The yeas
and nays were taken on this proviso, and the honorable member voted _in
the negative_! The proviso failed.
A motion was then made to add this proviso, viz.: "_Provided_, That the
faith of the United States is hereby pledged, that no money shall ever
be expended for roads or canals, except it shall be among the several
States, and in the same proportion as direct taxes are laid and assessed
by the provisions of the Constitution." The honorable member voted
_against this proviso_ also, and it failed. The bill was then put on its
passage, and the honorable member voted _for it_, and it passed, and
became a law.
Now, it strikes me, Sir, that there is no maintaining these votes, but
upon the power of internal improvement, in its broadest sense. In truth,
these bills for surveys and estimates have always been considered as
test questions; they show who is for and who against internal
improvement. This law itself went the whole length, and assumed the full
and complete power. The gentleman's votes sustained that power, in every
form in which the various propositions to amend presented it. He went
for the entire and unrestrained authority, without consulting the
States, and without agreeing to any proportionate distribution. And now
suffer me to remind you, Mr. President, that it is this very same power,
thus sanctioned, in every form, by the gentleman's own opinion, which is
so plain and manifest a usurpation, that the State of South Carolina is
supposed to be justified in refusing submission to any laws carrying the
power into effect. Truly, Sir, is not this a little too hard? May we not
crave some mercy, under favor and protection of the gentleman's own
authority? Admitting that a road, or a canal, must be written down flat
usurpation as was ever committed, may we find no mitigation in our
respect for his place, and his vote, as one that knows the law?
The tariff, which South Carolina had an efficient hand in establishing,
in 1816, and this asserted power of internal improvement, advanced by
her in the same year, and, as we have seen, approved and sanctioned by
her Representatives in 1824,--these two measures are the great grounds
on which she is now thought to be justified in breaking up the Union, if
she sees fit to break it up!
I may now safely say, I think, that we have had the authority of leading
and distinguished gentlemen from South Carolina in support of the
doctrine of internal improvement. I repeat, that, up to 1824, I for one
followed South Carolina; but when that star, in its ascension, veered
off in an unexpected direction, I relied on its light no longer.
Here the Vice-President said, "Does the chair understand the
gentleman from Massachusetts to say that the person now occupying
the chair of the Senate has changed his opinions on the subject of
internal improvements?"
From nothing ever said to me, Sir, have I had reason to know of any
change in the opinions of the person filling the chair of the Senate. If
such change has taken place, I regret it. I speak generally of the State
of South Carolina. Individuals we know there are who hold opinions
favorable to the power. An application for its exercise, in behalf of a
public work in South Carolina itself, is now pending, I believe, in the
other house, presented by members from that State.
I have thus, Sir, perhaps not without some tediousness of detail, shown,
if I am in error on the subject of internal improvement, how, and in
what company, I fell into that error. If I am wrong, it is apparent who
misled me.
I go to other remarks of the honorable member; and I have to complain of
an entire misapprehension of what I said on the subject of the national
debt, though I can hardly perceive how any one could misunderstand me.
What I said was, not that I wished to put off the payment of the debt,
but, on the contrary, that I had always voted for every measure for its
reduction, as uniformly as the gentleman himself. He seems to claim the
exclusive merit of a disposition to reduce the public charge. I do not
allow it to him. As a debt, I was, I am for paying it, because it is a
charge on our finances, and on the industry of the country. But I
observed, that I thought I perceived a morbid fervor on that subject, an
excessive anxiety to pay off the debt, not so much because it is a debt
simply, as because, while it lasts, it furnishes one objection to
disunion. It is, while it continues, a tie of common interest. I did not
impute such motives to the honorable member himself, but that there is
such a feeling in existence I have not a particle of doubt. The most I
said was, that, if one effect of the debt was to strengthen our Union,
that effect itself was not regretted by me, however much others might
regret it. The gentleman has not seen how to reply to this, otherwise
than by supposing me to have advanced the doctrine that a national debt
is a national blessing. Others, I must hope, will find much less
difficulty in understanding me. I distinctly and pointedly cautioned the
honorable member not to understand me as expressing an opinion favorable
to the continuance of the debt. I repeated this caution, and repeated it
more than once; but it was thrown away.
On yet another point, I was still more unaccountably misunderstood. The
gentleman had harangued against "consolidation." I told him, in reply,
that there was one kind of consolidation to which I was attached, and
that was the consolidation of our Union; that this was precisely that
consolidation to which I feared others were not attached, and that such
consolidation was the very end of the Constitution, the leading object,
as they had informed us themselves, which its framers had kept in view.
I turned to their communication,[5] and read their very words, "the
consolidation of the Union," and expressed my devotion to this sort of
consolidation. I said, in terms, that I wished not in the slightest
degree to augment the powers of this government; that my object was to
preserve, not to enlarge; and that by consolidating the Union I
understood no more than the strengthening of the Union, and perpetuating
it. Having been thus explicit, having thus read from the printed book
the precise words which I adopted, as expressing my own sentiments, it
passes comprehension how any man could understand me as contending for
an extension of the powers of the government, or for consolidation in
that odious sense in which it means an accumulation, in the federal
government, of the powers properly belonging to the States.
I repeat, Sir, that, in adopting the sentiment of the framers of the
Constitution, I read their language audibly, and word for word; and I
pointed out the distinction, just as fully as I have now done, between
the consolidation of the Union and that other obnoxious consolidation
which I disclaimed. And yet the honorable member misunderstood me. The
gentleman had said that he wished for no fixed revenue,--not a shilling.
If by a word he could convert the Capitol into gold, he would not do it.
Why all this fear of revenue? Why, Sir, because, as the gentleman told
us, it tends to consolidation. Now this can mean neither more nor less
than that a common revenue is a common interest, and that all common
interests tend to preserve the union of the States. I confess I like
that tendency; if the gentleman dislikes it, he is right in deprecating
a shilling of fixed revenue. So much, Sir, for consolidation.
As well as I recollect the course of his remarks, the honorable
gentleman next recurred to the subject of the tariff. He did not doubt
the word must be of unpleasant sound to me, and proceeded, with an
effort neither new nor attended with new success, to involve me and my
votes in inconsistency and contradiction. I am happy the honorable
gentleman has furnished me an opportunity of a timely remark or two on
that subject. I was glad he approached it, for it is a question I enter
upon without fear from anybody. The strenuous toil of the gentleman has
been to raise an inconsistency between my dissent to the tariff in 1824,
and my vote in 1828. It is labor lost. He pays undeserved compliment to
my speech in 1824; but this is to raise me high, that my fall, as he
would have it, in 1828, may be more signal. Sir, there was no fall.
Between the ground I stood on in 1824 and that I took in 1828, there was
not only no precipice, but no declivity. It was a change of position to
meet new circumstances, but on the same level. A plain tale explains the
whole matter. In 1816 I had not acquiesced in the tariff, then supported
by South Carolina. To some parts of it, especially, I felt and expressed
great repugnance. I held the same opinions in 1820, at the meeting in
Faneuil Hall, to which the gentleman has alluded. I said then, and say
now, that, as an original question, the authority of Congress to
exercise the revenue power, with direct reference to the protection of
manufactures, is a questionable authority, far more questionable, in my
judgment, than the power of internal improvements. I must confess, Sir,
that in one respect some impression has been made on my opinions lately.
Mr. Madison's publication has put the power in a very strong light. He
has placed it, I must acknowledge, upon grounds of construction and
argument which seem impregnable. But even if the power were doubtful, on
the face of the Constitution itself, it had been assumed and asserted in
the first revenue law ever passed under that same Constitution and on
this ground, as a matter settled by contemporaneous practice, I had
refrained from expressing the opinion that the tariff laws transcended
constitutional limits, as the gentleman supposes. What I did say at
Faneuil Hall, as far as I now remember, was, that this was originally
matter of doubtful construction. The gentleman himself, I suppose,
thinks there is no doubt about it, and that the laws are plainly against
the Constitution. Mr. Madison's letters, already referred to, contain,
in my judgment, by far the most able exposition extant of this part of
the Constitution. He has satisfied me, so far as the practice of the
government had left it an open question.
With a great majority of the Representatives of Massachusetts, I voted
against the tariff of 1824. My reasons were then given, and I will not
now repeat them. But, notwithstanding our dissent, the great States of
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky went for the bill, in almost
unbroken column, and it passed. Congress and the President sanctioned
it, and it became the law of the land. What, then, were we to do? Our
only option was, either to fall in with this settled course of public
policy, and accommodate ourselves to it as well as we could, or to
embrace the South Carolina doctrine, and talk of nullifying the statute
by State interference.
This last alternative did not suit our principles, and of course we
adopted the former. In 1827, the subject came again before Congress, on
a proposition to afford some relief to the branch of wool and woollens.
We looked upon the system of protection as being fixed and settled. The
law of 1824 remained. It had gone into full operation, and, in regard to
some objects intended by it, perhaps most of them, had produced all its
expected effects. No man proposed to repeal it; no man attempted to
renew the general contest on its principle. But, owing to subsequent and
unforeseen occurrences, the benefit intended by it to wool and woollen
fabrics had not been realized. Events not known here when the law passed
had taken place, which defeated its object in that particular respect. A
measure was accordingly brought forward to meet this precise deficiency,
to remedy this particular defect. It was limited to wool and woollens.
Was ever any thing more reasonable? If the policy of the tariff laws had
become established in principle, as the permanent policy of the
government, should they not be revised and amended, and made equal, like
other laws, as exigencies should arise, or justice require? Because we
had doubted about adopting the system, were we to refuse to cure its
manifest defects, after it had been adopted, and when no one attempted
its repeal? And this, Sir, is the inconsistency so much bruited. I had
voted against the tariff of 1824, but it passed; and in 1827 and 1828 I
voted to amend it, in a point essential to the interest of my
constituents. Where is the inconsistency? Could I do otherwise? Sir,
does political consistency consist in always giving negative votes? Does
it require of a public man to refuse to concur in amending laws, because
they passed against his consent? Having voted against the tariff
originally, does consistency demand that I should do all in my power to
maintain an unequal tariff, burdensome to my own constituents in many
respects, favorable in none? To consistency of that sort, I lay no
claim. And there is another sort to which I lay as little, and that is,
a kind of consistency by which persons feel themselves as much bound to
oppose a proposition after it has become a law of the land as before.