.* *?_ C • 5-' *^'' "'^..'-^^i^-^o'"^""- .V ,.-., V- .•' -0^ f * • f' .%. v5 •» ^•^I'-r^^t ■ cS ' . . ' j^<^ .0^ t' 0" ^"■'^^ . * ' ^ ' -^^ V* *1^'* <:>^ xv » ^^^^^•^ /^^fA'% "^^--.A^^ ^^. ^^^^;. ^^- "<.-*>5^^ 0^' "^-^ ''."-':'*^ A ^oK C /•''-^% -o ^l-4Vr^,. ^'^ ^^ ... 0' f*^ • • , ' ^^0 '^^ * . < 1 • o,^ ^ * • - ° ^"' -^-v ^ > . t • • , ♦>% r) V* ^ , V* »\:c.'* q •• *^'\ •. ■ 0^ • V ^'- '^^^rS .^-^ ' o /r\ V ;^\ X/ /^^^^^t' %,^^ ^^ ADDRESS OF GABRIEL MOORE TO THE FREEMEN OF ALABAMA, IN REPIV TO RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, ISVITINO HIM TO RESIGN HI3 SEAT AS ONE OF TUB IBENATOKS IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. ^/ ^'/ASrtl^' Washington.' PRINTED BY DUFF GREiSN, IS35. r , \ TO THE FREEMEN OF ALABAMA. • Fellow Citizens: The late General Assembly of the State having thought proper to pass resolutions, impugning my political course as a member of the United States Senate; and having also attempted, in a most extraor- dinary manner, to abridge my constitutional term of service, by re- quiring an immediate resignation of the office which I now hold; I claim the humble privilege of appearing before the tribunal of public opinion, to vindicate myself from the charges with which I have been assailed, and to in^ oke the public judgment on the course which, with due deliberation, 1 have prescribed to myself. I wish it to be distinctly borne in mind, that it is not my design to arraign the General Assembly, or any of its members, but to defend myself. The people are the legitimate source of all power, and to them every public servant is responsible for the discharge of his trust. In appealing to them, my purpose is not to call forth their censure on others, but to acquit myself before the only tribunal which has juris- diction over the question. Whatever opinion I may entertain of the acts of the General Assem- bly, or the operation of those acts against my own rights, towards the General Assembly itself, in its high representative character, and in the discharge of its constitutional duties, I can entertain no other feelings than those of the most profound respect. If, therefore, my response to the resolutions is not through the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, it is because those bodies, in their collective capacities, are no longer in being, but have returned to, and constitute a portion of the people, before whom I submit the vindication of my conduct. It is a principle coeval with the first institutions of justice, that when an individual is charged with any offence, wheiher political or civil, the offence so charged shall be particularized — and specifically set forth, so that the accused cannot mistake the particular act or acts which he has to defend. So completely is this principle interwoven into the very conceptions of justice which prevail in all civilized communities, that even a debt not specifically set forth in all its distinct liabilities cannot be recovered in a court of justice. Had the General Assembly adhered to this obvious rule of law, as well as of justice, and specifi- callj^^t forth those acts on my part which rendered me obnoxious to the^Bnsure, an issue might easily be joined on those acts, and the people could speedily determine between us. Strange, however, as it may appear, though I have been tried and found guilty by the General Assembly, without a hearing, or even a notice served upon me; and although condemnation has been an- nounced, and an extraordinary and an unheard of sentence has been passed against me, and though a punishment (as I shall show beyond the limits of the law) has been assigned me, my accusers have not to this day made known to me a single act upon which iheir judgment was founded. If I had, during the discharge of my public duties, given a single vote where motives of private interest prevailed over the public good; if through the promptings of ambition or avarice I had, in a single instance, attempted to propitiate power or patronage at the expense of the interest or the liberties of my constituents, then might these acts with the most appaling particularity have been brought up in judgment against m.e; and if found guilty, I could not have complained of the severest punishment. I thanlc my God, how- ever, my conscience tells me I have been guilty of no such betrayal of public confidence. That I may often have erred in judgment in the discharge of public duty, I am free to admit; but that I have from selfish motives corruptly bartered away the rights of the people, I not only deny, but think I can prove by my accusers themselves, who, in their zeal to condemn and punish me, have brought no such charge against me. It was in vain that those few in the Legislature who strove to avert the prescriptive violence which was aimed at an absent and per- secuted man asked, again and again, what act of mine rendered me the object of such unbounded censure. No act was specified; no journals produced; no proof was ever thought necessary where no charge was preferred. I submit it to the candor of my fellow citizens, whether the failure of the General Assembly to specify my offences does not argu€ both a want of justice to me, and a want of confidence in the truth of their own charges; and whether predetermined punishment docs not appear 10 be the end and aim of this whole proceeding. But, fellow citizens, as I propose the freest and fullest investigation of my public conduct; as I have an abiding consciousness, that, how- ever I may have been frequentl}' subjected to the common infirmity of erring in judgment, not a single feeling of private interest has ever controlled my course, I will, in the absence of all direct and positive charges in the resolutions, attempt to reply to objections urged in the most vague manner, and couched in the most general terms. I trust tliat this review, though more tedious than would Iiave been necessary to meet direct charges, will not deter any citizen who fairly estimates the value of reputation to a public servant, from doing me the justice of giving it an attentive perusal. It will scarcely be contended by the General Assembly that any other ihan public considerations should control their public delibera- tions, and that any attempt to inflict a wound on the private feelings, or throw imputations on the private character of an individual, is not only beneath the dignity of a Legislative Assembly, but is a direct invasion of the private rights of a free citizen. While I admit to the fullest extent the right, not only of the Legis- lature but of every individual in the community, however humble, to canvass freely and without reserve the acts and conduct of public men in the discharge of public duties, I deny the right of memb .-. ?, under the garb of official duty, to attack the motives, and to arraign the in- tentions of a public servant, acting in a different character, in such a way as to inflict a wound on his private reputation. My complaint is not that the Legislature has too freely canvassed my public acts, but that while they have failed to do this, they have been rr.ost lavish in attributing to me motives utterly irreconcileable with my reputation as a man. If I had been arraigned before the General Assembly upon an impeachment for the grossest corruptions, more strong and apt phrases of moral guilt could not have been applied to me. I am ac- cused of "pursuing a course of conduct in palpable violation of the known wishes, and in disregard of the known sentiments of a large majority of my constituents." 1 am admonished "it is ni)- duty in justice to the constituency I have misrepresented, to the remnant of devotion to republican principles I yet profess, to transmit forthwith my resignation to the Governor, that an individual more acceptable to the people of this State, and better calculated consciejitiousli/ and pro- perly to represent their wishes, may be elected by their representa- tives." In addition to all this, which I can characterize as nothin''' else than a tirade of personal abuse, allusion is made to my conduct both " in and out of Congress, &c. " Now I submit it to the candor of the people of Alabama, not whether I deserve this censure, but whether the Legislature of Alabama has not been guilty of a most flagrant assault upon privaleright, in thusheaping abuse on an individual because he has chanced to differ with them, or even the President, upon certain points of public policy. 6 Has the General Assembly consulted its own dignity, or what is of still more consequence, the dignity of those they represent, (for they seem to have forgotten that they, too, are public servants,) in supplying the total absence of facts in their resolutions by the most bitter invec- tives? If I had given an)- vote which showed so irreconcileable a dif- ference between my opinions and those of the people of Alabama, as to have convinced the Legislature lliat I could no longer represent them^ could not this fact have been cited, and the vote adduced, in a series of resolutions, without charging me with violating the known ivishes and sentiments of my constituents — without an inuendo that "I profess a remnant of republican principles" which I do not possess; and with- out advising me to give way to the election of an individual " better calculated conscientiously and properly to represent their wishes;" which can be understood in no other sense than that I have not "con- scientiously and properly representetl their wishes." I cannot suppose that the members of the General Assembly are so ignorant of the cour- tesies of political warfare as not to know, that though the utmost dif- ference in political opinion may be most freely avowed and discussed, yet an imputation upon the motives of a political opponent is regarded as a direct and personal insult, and such an insult as, if offered to many wha voted for these resolutions, would, perhaps, have been promptly resented. And can such gentlemen believe that their official station invests them with a power to ofler an offence to my feelings which their own could not brook? I urge this, not as an argument that my personal feelings have been violated in a manner that would give me claims to personal satis- faction, but for the higher purpose of showing that the Legislature, though professing in these resolutions to have been discharging public trusts, were, in truth, indulging private feelings in at least a most vin- dictive and undignified manner. Many, in following the lead of party, might have been unconscious of this tendency in the resolutions; but I have old, bitter, and deep grudging enemies, who were glad to give boih point and venom to the darts which have been levelled against mo, and who no doubt rejoiced that in so doing they stood behind the screen of official responsibility. These men, doubtless, will know who I mean; if tliey will call on me I slndl liave the candor to let them know. It is not the first time these extraordinary resolutions have been at- tril)uted to another than their putative father. 1 should not be sur- prised if they were conceived in Hunlsville, although they may never have seen the light until they reached Tuscaloosa. Be this as it may, I submit it to the candor of a liberal public to say whether, if a Legis- lature of my most bitter and unrelenting personal enennies had been collected together, they could, in the virulence of their private feel- ings, have devised a set of resolutions more vague and indefinite in facts — more harsh or vindictive in epithets. Perhaps this is all a heretic, or one " committed in favor of heretical doctrines" had a right to expect. Heretics have in all ages shared the hardest fate, and many have burnt at the stake for offences not belter defined or proven than those which I am called to expiate. The law which governs in suck cases carries with it one absolute certainty — the certainty of punishment; and he who is so unfortunate as to meet with so little charity as to be accused of heresy ;, whether political or re- ligious, need expect but little clemency, or even justice, in the mea- sure of his ptmishment. Having thus adverted to the temper of these resolutions, I feel it a duty which I owe to myself, in the most solemn manner to den}"^ that I have misrepresented the known wishes of my constituents. I have been accused of an alliance and co-operation with that combination of parties which have united themselves to oppose and embarrass the pre- f^ent national administration. I deny an alliance with any man, or set of men, for any such pur- pose; and I confidently appeal to my votes in the Senate as a conclusive refutation of this charge. By these I am willing to be judged, and by them it will be found that I have in a great many cases sustained the Administration, In fact, I have-always done so, when I could consist- ently with what I believed to be the rights and interests of the people I represented. I will not deny that I have frequently differed with the Administration; and in all such cases I have felt it my duty to indicate that difference by my votes. If it is now or ever has been the wish of the people of Alabama that I should vary or change my vote according to the wishes of the President, or any other individual, I have totally misconceived the character of those I represent. I do not, nor will I believe it; and, come from what source it may, I must, until I am convinced to the contrary, pronounce it a foul slander upon the spirited freemen of Alabama. If I have understood my position, I have been the representative of the people of Alabama, and not of the President. If the people or the Legislature have expected that I should, on all questions, think and act with the President, it would have been but just that I should have been apprised of so unreasonable an expectation. No independent mind ever did or ever can think alike on every sub- ject with any Administration; and if I had known that such was expected of me, I should long since have resigned. If a complete conformity of 8 public action and opinion with the views of the Executive be establish- ed as the standard of political faith, I know not an individual representa- tive from the State, even in the ranks of \h^ faithful, who can abide the test. There is none who have not departed from true faith; nOy not one. Every representative from the State, in both Houses, voted against the Force Bill, although that measure stands on the statute book as, perhaps of all others, the most prominent of General Jackson's Administration, and one which he thought proper most strongly to re- commend. Why was it that the cry of opposition was not then raised against others as well as myself? Why did not this attempt to avert the sword and bayonent from the breasts of our brethren of South Carolina involve us all in the charge of unfaithfulness to the Administration, and commit us all to the heretical doctrine of nullification? If the State of South Carolina was at that time in a position of rebellious treason against the Government and its constitutional laws, then indeed did the crisis justify an employment of physical force against her as a common enemy of the Union. If, on the contrary, she interposed her high sovereign authority not against the law, but an usurpation of the Government, and was, in fact, standing up in defence of the constitution, as all those must have believed who voted against the employment of force, then with uhat propriety can her doctrines be pronounced " heretical," without branding with heresy all those who took this favorable view of her conduct ? I am willing to vote for the repeal of the force bill tomor-^ row. Will any representative from the State avow that he is not ? although it is well known the President would oppose the repeal with all his power. Thus, fellow citizens, it will be seen that I have, in the discharge of my official duties, committed myself upon this, the only question before Congress which has involved the doctrine of nullification, precisely to the extent of my colleagues, and not a jot or tittle farther. It is true, J did not come Iwme and acknowledge that I had done wrong in giving this vote, by palliati7ig, excusing, or apo- logizing for it; but I have rested securely in the conviction, that of all the acts of my public life, that is one of the last which I ever expect to regret. If there be in fact a pardoning power which excuses one man for opposing the measures of the Administration, while it punishes another fur the same otfence, then ought the General Assembly to have made it known. Perhaps, as a measure of Executive clemency', a dispensation is sometimes granted to an individual to give an opposi- tion vote oil one subject, on condition that he si)all, on all others, sycopliant-like, faithfully subserve the purposes of those in power; or, perhaps, in deference to the independent exercise of individual opinion, it may have been solemnly adjudged that a representative of the people has the unquestioned right, once in five years' public ser- vice, to differ from the Executive with impunity. If this be not the rule, I would like to know what rule does govern, and how far and how often a public servant may be permitted to think and act without the permission of the Executive. The General Assembly itself, in the resolutions adopted, does not avow an unqualified approbation of all the measures of the Administration. On the contrary, they believe <' its prominent measures and course of policy to be dictated by wis- dom and patriotism." Now, if a support of ih^ prominent measures be made the test, I aver that, with the exception of the force bill above alluded to, I have given the Administration my warm and cordial support. If opposi- tion to the tariff be one of those prominent measures, I am willing to measure my opposition to that system with any friend of the Presi- dent, or even with the President himself. In opposing the system of internal improvements (in arresting which the friends of the President claim for him much credit) I have gone as far as he who has gone far- thest. I have not, during my senatorial term, given a single vote recognizing the right of the Government to carry on this system. In this prominent measure of the Administration, I claim to have gone farther than many who claim to be the President's warmest and most exclusive friends. In opposition to the United States Bank I have given the President my warmest support. I appeal, fearlessly, to every vote I have ever given on the subject, as evidence of my uo- compromising opposition to that institution. If the speedy payment of the public debt be considered as one of the prominent measures of the Administration, I call on my most bitter enemies to point to an individual who has more uniformly opposed a system of profligate and wasteful expenditure of public money. I now submit it to my fellow citizens — What prominent measure of the Administration have I opposed? Has not the General Assembly most wisely avoided specifications, in their attempt to involve me in <' opposition to iha pro??iineni measures to the Administration." But, fellow citizens, as the General Assembly has been pleased to advert to the '' latter part of my official course, as containing the gross- est aberrations from my public duty, perhaps I may abridge ihis re- view of my senatorial service by looking here for those enormities which were so revolting to the political sentiment of the State as to require an immediate resignation of my office. And here I must do 10 the General Assembly the justice to acknowledge, that this allusion to the " latter part of my political career" is some clue, and the only one by which I am to hunt out the particular offence at which their repro- bation is pointed. In making this concession, I am not certain the words were not in- serted for the covert purpose of justifying them in doing what preceding Legislatures had thought proper not to do, and of leading off the public mind from the true cause of their indignation towards me. So far as I am entitled to an opinion, I would say that during '< the latter part of my political career," and particularly during the last session, I came less in collision with the measures or wishes of the Administration than at any previous session. It will be recollected that the most prominent, if not the only point on which the Administration was assailed during the last session, was upon the propriety of the removal of the public deposites from the Bank of the United States, which had been effected some weeks before the meeting of Congress. Although upon this question I believed the removal had been made without sufficient cause, such was my respect for the opinions of those I represented, and so fully was I convinced that the sentiments of a majority of the State justified the act, that upon the final vote I rose in my place, and after stating the convictions of my own judgment, I declared my intention of voting against the restoration of the deposites, on the express ground, that in so doing I believed I was representing the wishes of a majority of the people of Alabama, After this earnest endeavor on my part fairly to represent the feelings of my constituents, even at the sacrifice of my own judgment, upon the only subject on which a knowledge of their opinions reached me during the session, I ask with what pro- priety or justice the General Assembly could, at their next session, charge me with " pursuing a course of conduct in palpable violation of the known wishes, and disregard of the known sentiments of a large majority of my constituents." So far from this being the fact, the vote I gave was in pursuance of the supposed wishes, and in regard to the presumed sentiments of a majority of my constituents; and it was for this reason, and for this only, that I gave the vote in opposition to my own private convictions. I go farther, and declare, that in all cases where the wishes of my constituents have been known to me, I have always considered, and do still consider it my duty to be governed thereby, unless in so doing I shall violate my oath to support the con- stitution. In all cases where the wishes of my constituents are not known to me, I feel myself at liberty to pursue the dictates of my own judgment. 11 Acting under this obvious conviction of public duty, I voted against a resolution in the following words, viz. : " That the President, in the late executive proceedings in relation to the public revenue, has as- sumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the consti- tution and laws, but in derogation of both." Although this resolution embodied my own convictions, that the President had no right to remove the public revenue from the place in which it was deposited by law, yet a belief that a majority of those I represented, sustained these acts of the President, induced me so far to forego my own judg- ment, as to cause me to vote against the above resolution. I stated at the time, distinctly, that though my own opinions corresponded with the resolution, I could not in my representative character vote for the resolution, without affirming what I was convinced would be in opposition to the opinions of the people I represented. Of my vote on both of the above mentioned resolutions the General Assembly, in their eagerness to reprehend my conduct, must have been entirely ignorant, or they never could have ventured the charge that I was disposed to misrepresent the known wishes of my constitu- ents. I am further induced to believe the random and haphazard charges contained in the resolutions of the General Assembly were the result of an indiscriminate prejudice raised against me, by a knot of my bitterest enemies, rather than the convictions arising from a full knowledge of my actual votes, from the fact; that since I have been instructed to resign my seat, I have been also instructed " to use my most untiring efforts to have the resolution of the Senate, condemning this course of the President, expunged from the journals" of that body. Now, as the great object of the leaders in this matter in the General Assembly appears to have been to visit me with their severest reprehension, I cannot doubt that the above instructions were brought forward and voted for,under a belief that I had voted last session, in favor of this obnoxious resolution of censure against the President, and that the instructions would add to my embarrassment. In this I am glad to undeceive them, as I voted against this particular resolution, which is so obnoxious as to be thought unworthy to remain on the journals of the Senate, I take great plea- sure in saying, that I am ready at all times to reaffirm that vote. Ac- knowledging fully the right of the Legislature to instruct me as to any vote I may give, and believing myself bound to obey such instructions so long as they may emanate from, and are in accordance with the will of the people, and not in violation of the constitution, I shall cheer- fully give my vote for another resolution, which shall have the effect 2 12 of repealing, annulling, and reversing the vote of censure against the President in relation to the deposites. Having done this, I shall have substantially complied, in good faith, with the instructions of the Ge- neral Assembly. I shall have used my best efforts to expunge the resolution from the journals when I shall endeavor to destroy its effect on the journals. Taking the instructions in this sense, I feel no hesitation in obeying them. If, however, they were intended to go further, and are to be understood literally, as conveying instructions to me to destroy, alter, falsify, or suppress the record of any part of our proceedings, then I consider myself bound by no such instructions. It would be no less than an order from the General Assembly to violate that provision in the constitution which requires "that each House shall keep a journal of its ])roceedings.-" What is a journal but a complete record of all the acts and doings of the body.? Can this record be altered, falsified, or suppressed, without violating the above provision of the constitution? If we can expunge or erase a part of the journal, can we not suppress or destroy the whole, and thus prostrate the responsibility of the Senate to the people? We can repeal any act or resolution which stands on the journals, but we cannot, by erasure or expunging, so far falsify the journals as to make them say no such actor resolution ever existed. No such attempt has ever been made since the commencement of the Government; and whenever it shall be consummated, the al)ove pro- vision of the constitution will not only have been flagrantly violated, but the sacred responsibility of the representative to his constituents will be totally destroyed, by destroying the authenticity of the only re- cord of his proceedings. I will not assume that such was the object of the General Assembly; on the contrary, I shall take it for granted that their object was to destroy the effect of the vote of censure against the President, by another resolution reprehending that vote; and this ob- ject I shall use my best exertions to carry into effect. To go further, would not only be a violation of the oath I have taken to defend the constitution, but would, iu my estimation, be exceeding the just \Vishes and expectations of the people. In the course I have prescribed to myself, I feel satisfied that I shall sustain their wishes more fully, than by lending myself to an undignified and vindictive proceeding, which shall not only violate the constitution but degrade the Senate. Having thus fully and frankly stated the views which shall govern ine in relation to the instructions above alluded to, I should be glad to know how the General Assembly could properly instruct me on the above subject, after first instructing me to resign my seat. Could any- 13 thing be more paradoxical than to send on to me instructions forthwith to resign my seat, and then, before the answer could possibly be re- ceived, to transmit instructions that I should pursue a particular course on a particular question? Which set of resolutions am I to obey? If I had obeyed the first, I could not by possibility obey the last. To do both would be impossible. Am I to understand that where the legisla- tive will is expressed in two different ways, the last governs and repeals the first? If so, the resolutions instructing me to resign have been re- scinded by the subsequent resolutions, and I should now be disobeying the will of the Legislature were I to resign. Perhaps subsequent re- flection has convinced the General Assembly that they had no consti- tutional right to instruct me to resign; and hence, in passing the second resolutions, they treated the first as unconstitutional, inoperative, null, and void. If this motive did really govern, an avowal of it would not only have been proper, but would have exhibited a magnanimity well worthy of the General Assembly. I think it may be seriously questioned, not only from the contradic- tory character of the second set of instructions, but from intrinsic evi- dence furnished by the first, whether the General Assembly ever be- lieved it had a constitutional right to instruct me authoritatively to re- sign, and whether the whole proceeding was not gotten up for the sole purpose of inflicting a wound on my private feelings. On their face they purport to be joint resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama. It will be recollected that, by the constitution of Alabama, all joint resolutions are to be read three several days in each house, and when passed are to be signed by the Governor, and to have the force of a law. So far, then, as legislative form is concerned, they are as authoritative as any act of the land. They purport to be, not only the official opinions of the General Assembly, but a legislative act, sanctioned by the three departments of the Government, and, like all other laws, subject to be enforced by the Executive. Strange, how- ever, as it may appear, these resolutions, though forwarded to me by the Executive, are incomplete, for the want of his signature and ap* proval. I might, upon the reception of them, had I have been disposed to turn this question upon a quibble rather than to have it tried upon its merits, have transmitted them back to the Executive as a mere legis- lative nothing. But with all their imperfections, the resolutions con- tained principles too grave to have met with this reception. Why was it that the Governor refused his signature to the above resolutions? The political opinions expressed in them did not differ from his own. I can conceive no other reason than that he believed he had no power 14 to give, by his signature and approval, authority to demands on me, which the Legislature had no right to make. By pursuing this subject a little farther, we shall see how far the good sense of the Governor, in refusing his signature, relieved him from the most ridiculous dilem- ma, in which the joint resolutions would have placed him. Let it be borne in mind, that when signed by him, they would have had the force of law, and by his oath he would have been bound to see them executed and obeyed. They purport to be "joint resolutions requesting the Hon. Gabriel Moore to resign his seat in the Senate of the United States." It might well have occurred to the Governor, if he signed these resolutions, how he would have enforced my resignation. Cer- tainly by no power known to the constitution and laws. He might well have questioned whether, as the resolutions contained nothing but the request of the General Assembly, I would yield to that request, although backed by all the solemnity and authority of joint resolutions signed by the Governor. He might also have been struck with the singular spectacle of a law requesting an individual to do a particular act, at the same time that he is denounced and abused in the most vio- lent manner. Superiors, acting in the sphere of their rightful powers, command; enemies denounce; and friends only have the right to re- quest. In which of these positions the resolutions place the General Assembly, I submit to the judgment of the people. Certain it is, in the estimation of those who voted for the resolutions, there is no con- stitutional right in the Legislature to instruct me authoritatively to re- sign; unless, indeed, through n tender and delicate regard to my feel- ings, the language of request was substituted for that of command. Considering, therefore, these resolutions of the General Assembly like all other requests, as addressed to my discretion, I cannot comply with the request without admitting that the charges of official misconduct upon which it was founded, are both just and true. But, fellow citizens, as I am a sincere advocate of the great republi- can doctrine of instruction, I feel myself called upon to rescue this doctrine from any imputation that the Legislature can instruct a Senator to resign his seat, and that such instructions are obligatory. It was reserved for the Legislature of Alabama to assume, for the first time, this new and most extraordinary position. By the constitution, a Senator is elected for six years. Can any one contend that this tenure of service, fixed by the constitution, can be altered at the mere plea- sure, and be made subject to the mere will of the Legislature? If this was the intention of that instrument, why was it not declared that Senators shall hold their office during the will of the Legislature? 15 Suppose that an election of a Senator takes place at one session of the Legislature, and an individual is elected to that office on account of certain political opinions in coincidence wiiji a majority of its mem- bers. At the next election by the people, a Legislature of entirely a different political complexion is elected; can the Legislature, so elected instruct the Senator to resign because of his opinions? Certainly not. They can instruct him to vote on a particular measure in a particular way, and to advocate a particular line of policy. And if these in- structions are sustained by the will of the people, the Senator should either obey the instructions or resign his seat. To instruct him to resign, is an admission that they have no right, by instructions, to control his senatorial course into an acquiescence with the will of the people. The effect of this doctrine would be to put down the efficacy of instructions, so far as they are intended to operate on the measures of the Government, and to make them potent only in their operation upon the senatorial term of service. Tlie people at every annual election of their representatives would, in fact, be electing Senators to Con- gress; and instead of making their selections to suit the ordinary pur- poses of legislation, they would be compelled to vote with an eye strictly directed to the efiect of their vote, on the Senate of the United States. Now, if the last General Assembly had thought proper to instruct my vote on any particular question, I should most cheerfully have obeyed such instruction?!, unless such obedience had involved a violation of the higher will of the people, or of the constitution. Their failure to do this, and their instructions to me to resign my seat, evinced an opposition to, and a want of confidence in the legitimate doctrine of instruction. In truth, I am warranted, from the temper and spirit of the resolutions, in believing that it was not the wish of the General Assembly to instruct me into an observance of the popular will, but that their sole object was to vacate my seat. I am accused in the reso- lutions of having, during the whole term of my service, violated the public will; and yet, with several successive Legislatures holding the doctrine of the right of instruction, no attempt was ever before made to instruct me as to what had been a departure from, or what in future would be an observance of that will. Can this be accounted for upon any other principle than that some of the members who voted for these resolutions, professing so great a veneration for the popular will, were either totally indifierent with regard to it, or were in fact afraid that I would, by obeying instructions, leave no further ground for an attempt to vacate my seat, which they sought with much more eagerness than they did my compliance with instructions? 16 Fellow citizens; Having thus attempted to vindicate my official con- duct from the imputations thrown on it by the resolutions of the General Assembly; and having explicitly avowed the course I intended to pursue, in relation to the instructions, or rather <' request"' that I should resign my seat, I feel it due to myself, to tear off the veil from my opponents, and to make manifest the real motives by which they have been governed. My original and besetting sin with these in- dividuals, and one which even my political destruction can never expiate, was my vote for the rejection of Martin Van Buren. This is the head and front of my offending; and for this I have been pursued by the partisans of that individual with a vengeance as keen as death, and as insatiate as the grave. Shortly after that vote was given, it will be recollected what efforts were made to rouse the public indignation against me. Meetings were held, in which I was denounced beyond measure and mercy; and whilst it was attempted to prostrate me, it was also thought a favorable opportunity to arouse the public sympathy into a feeling of regard and affection for that individual. Attempts •were then made to compel me by the force of public opinion to resign my seat. At the ensuing Legislature, resolutions instructing me to resign were expected to have passed almost by acclamation. Parti- tisaa presses then, as now, resorted to every means in their power to inflame the public mind, and to excite a spirit of persecution against me, in orler to produce that result; and yet all these efforts proved abortive. The appeal thus made to the people failed of its object; and at the meeting of the General Assembly my friends exultingly chal- Ic^nged the partisans of Mr. Van Buren to bring forward their reso- lutions of censure. They were then too prudent to meet this bold defiance. These are the men, fellow citizens, who, at that time dis- appointed in tlieir threatened attempt to prostrate me, and to bind the State of Alabama firmly to the car of the magician of Kinderhook, have, by combining their strength, by concealing the real cause of their hostility under charges of opposition to the Administration, and taking advantage of General Jackson's popularity, succeeded in pass- ing resolutions instructing me to resign. But ill effecting this object mark the change in their tactics. In the former case the}' made their appeal to the people — they agitated the question ]jubllcly, and with all the injustice with which I was then treated, thoy had the merit, and the sole merit, of declaring their ob- ject openly. In the latter case their plans, though deeply laid, were well conceal- ed; not a whisper was heard on the subject before the general election 17 sn August; none but the initiated were trusted with the secret; no appeals were made to the people, because before the people they had been once frustrated. It was not until in November last, when I was about leaving home, and after an individual who possesses quite as much influence in that quarter as his disinterestedness and intrinsic merit give him a just claim to, who has for the last four years been known here as the friend of Mr, Van Burcn, and who has been cautiously feeling the pulse of the people in Alabama, and who has occasionally ventured to express to some of them his preference for that individual, and his great fears that there should be a division in the republican ranks — I say, it was not until that individual had enjoyed the oppor- tunity of advising with some of the citizens of the county, if not im- mediately after he had passed through it, that a meeting was got up at Bolivar, mainly, I have no doubt, by the exertions of a warm adherent of his, instructing the delegation from the county, to vote for the reso- lutions demanding the resignation of my seat. The next public meet- ing was in the county of Blount, in which another individual, who, though inferior in every point of view, yet no less devoted to the same personage, appeared as the prime mover and grand master of ceremonies. A meeting was also procured in Limestone county, by a man and his friends, who is my personal, political, and, I may say, my hereditary enemy, and closely connected by affinity to the person who was most active at the meeting in Jackson — whose animosity was whet- ted by the fierce contests in which it was my fortune in former times to take part against a powerful and heartless moneyed aristocracy, who, by the aid of the old Huntsville bank, sucked, like so many vampires, the substance and very hearts' blood of the honest hard working men of North Alabama. The feelings engendered by that hard contest, be- tween wealth on one side and honest industry on the other, have never been forgotten. They will, I have no doubt, even in the second and third generation, follow me to the grave. They have stood ready, and always will stand ready, to join any cause which threatens my de- struction. These feelings have come to the aid of P'an L'tirenis7?i in this contest. Heightened by the recollection of a political defeat at mv hands; they exist in the breast of the prime mover of this unparalleled persecution which has been gotten up against me. In the breast of others, and particularly of a representative of Limestone, they have been powerful auxiliaries in sacrificing me on the altar of f''a?i Burenism. I have no doubt, many who stood by me in those heated contests, and fought with me shoulder to shoulder against bank monopoly, aris- tocracy, and wealth, have, by the artful stratagems of my enemies, been ^18 their " known sentiments" on this great question; who will try to give effect to their will, or who will covertly attempt to defeat it by caucuses and national conventions. Already has this attempt to pledge the vote of the slate to the will of a convention been made in the last General Assembly, by the very men who were foremost in denounc- ing me for a disregard of the will of the people. I have no doabt, fel- low citizens, that every effort will be made to cheat the people of Alabama out of their honest preferences for Judge White : men vvill affect the greatest anxiety for his cause, and yet doubt of his chances of success; they will cry "don't divide the party — prevent an election by the House of Representatives;" and when all these cuckoo notes have failed, they will come forward and claim to be the first, staunchest, and most consistent friends of the people's choice. Mark what I now say! Those who have been most active in creating an excitement against me, will be the most reluctant to renounce their New York idol, which they have secretly worshipped, and enlist under ihe banner of Hdoh L. White. With an unabated confidence in the intelligence of the people, and the ultimate justice of their awards to public servants, I am, fellow citizens. Your obedient servant, GABRIEL MOORE. 39 f A <1n ■» .<: X/ i^ ^ .^' • 11* .il^- -'-- --- ^ =^0 • • • A^ . . , \ ^ ♦'^ ^'-^ 0^ c. %**