IHI 1 E386 Lt48 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS lill llli 00005076817 § ♦ '^^ %.yy&^ SPEECH O F WADDY THOMPSON, SOUTH-CAROLINA, HOUSE OF llEPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN COMMITTEE OP THE WHOLE THE STATE OF THE UNION DELIVERED FEBRUARY 5, 1839. WASHINGTON : PRINTED AT THE MADI30NIAN OFFICE. 1839. SPEECH. It is not my purpose, sir, to make a speech, but to throw together some " random recollections" of the last and present administrations. It may not be wholly un- profitable, especially, if it shall suggest to some of my former political friends to look well to the new associations which they are about to form. Brief it probably will, desultory it must be. My colleague (Mr. Pickens) has said that any party which acts upon the principles set fortli in the report of the Committee of Ways and Means shall have his support. I understand him by this to mean, and only to mean, that he will support the measures which may be proposed for carrying out these principles, and not as pledging himself to support the re-election of those now in power. 1 hope that in so understanding my colleague I am not mistaken. I am sure I am not. Thus understood, I entirely agree with him. I have always thus acted whepever the administration has, by accident, staggered on a proper measure. I have voted for it. I shall continue to do so. More than this my col- league could not have intended. He had too often, and too fiercely, denounced those in power. He had uttered too many eloquent and burning anathemas against them as not only ignorant and incompetent, but as corrupt and profligate, to make it possible for him to unite with them without the amplest recantation — if not as aa act of justice to them, as due to himself and the country. Besides, sir, there is another reason much more honorable to him, which would prevent it. He knows those in power — he knows Ihem well — and has known them long ; and if accident, or the necessities of their position, have driven them into a wise and proper policy, he well knows that when that necessity no longer exists, they will, by a natural proclivity, relapse into their former courses. "Why this joy and exultation — this rapture I may say — at the j)rofession of sound and just principles? Is this profes- sion any new thing ? Is there a single one of these principles — state rights, economy , retrenchment, anti-internal improvement, or any other that has not been constantly asserted in the messages and documents from the commencement of the late administration, and in practice as constantly and most flagrantly violated ? All this I will prove. Is there any where a more admirable compendium of the doctrines of the States rights party than the messages of Gen. Jackson ? the man who has done more to break down all the landmarks of the Constitution, and to consolidate all power in this Federal Government, than every other man who has preceded him. A gentleman of Kentucky, formerly a distinguished member of this body, who said and did so many good things, that I have always regretted that he leftCongress before I entered it, once said that Virginia would die some day of an abstraction. Sir, there was a profound philosophy in the remark, and it is true as applied to more states of the South than Virginia — we are destined to die — to be killed by abstrac- tions. Profess our principles, talk of retrenchment, reform, state rights, and especially if you will add a word or two of state remedies and the right of state interposition, and adopt in practice what measures you please — force bills, tariffs, Cumberland roads, harbor bills, or whatever else you choose. And such, sir, has been, and is now, the policy of this administration. To gull and catch the South with the profession of certain principles, and to secure other sections with the solid realities of acts in violation of every one of those principles. Their motto is that of Lady Macbeth — "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it." I have said that I would show that the late and present administrations have violated every single one of the great principles upon which Gen. Jackson came into power. I will add, sir, that never have the just expectations of patriotic and confiding friends been so cruelly disappointed, since the return of Charles the Second to England, when a noble minded and loyal people lined the roads from Dover to London with joyous and heartfelt greetings, and in the exuberance of their generous joy, freely forgiving all the past offences of his odious race in their happy visions of hope of the future. How that confidence was repaid who does not know. Thatheartless profligate rode on through this dense and living mass of loyalty and love as insensible to all these feelings as the horse that bore him — the nobler animal of the two. Since that day,"^! repeat, the just expectations of patriotic and devoted friends have not been so disappointed, or pledges so openly violated. Shall we trust again to the hollow professions of these very same men. No, sir, the head of your party was once told by a distinguished Senator from Virginia — you have deceived us once, that was your fault — if you do it again, it will be ours. I said every principle. No, sir, there is one to which they have adhered with a noble fidelity. That famous maxim — " To the victors belong the spoils." The general policy of the party cannot be more fitly illustrated than by the measure now under discussion, whilst forever prating of retrenchment and econo- my, they lavish thousands and millions on the Cumberland road, harbors, and other such objects, not only in violation of the Constitution, but of all their own professed opinions, and seek to atone for it by reducing an appropriation for an important arm of the national defence, the paltry sum of $60,000, and by cheating mail contractors and other small employees of the Government. A word or two as to this matter of internal improvement. If there was anv one principle which more than another entered into the canvass which resulted in the election of General Jackson, it was the question of internal improvement ; and, sir, what has been the result? I will tell you. That administration actually expended more money in internal improvement than all the preceding administra- tions from the foundation of the Government. In the Administration of his pre- decessor, an amount next to nothing was expended ; but he was turned out for the enormity of holding an abstract opinion in favor of the power. His successor, who carries the exercise of that power to the most extreme and alarming extent, is not only to be excused, but that successor, or what is the same thing, his nomi- nee and eleve, is to be confided in, notwithstanding other and weighty objections; because he makes similar promises. I reply to such promises as did old Quickely to FalstaflT, " aye, and you said so before Sir John." A man may be borne down by a torrent which ho cannot resist. He may be overcome by force, but if he bears himself rightly, and preserves his mens siln cuncia recti, he may have a jov in defeat which even success cannot give. But for myself, I have no fancy for being cheated that makes one think meanly of himself. How stands our present Chief Magistrate on this question of internal improve- ment? Did he not vote for placing turnpike gates on the Cumberland road? a power by far the greatest that has ever been asserted or attempted — the power of destroying the right of travelling, of the citizen in his own State, without the per- mission of, and paying tribute to, another (iovcrnment. Jhit to come to matters of much more recent occurrence. Did he not, at the last session, sign a bill appropriating nearly two millions for clearing out harbors ? A species of internal improvement which, whilst it is as unconstitutional as any other, is infinitely the most to be deprecated, as it is necessarily local and partial: and must enure only to the benefit of the commercial sections, which are always the most wealthy, to the exclusion of the interior, the poorer sections, and those most needinir these aids. Nay, more, sir, the benefit is not even local ; it is indi- vidual, and for the benefit mainly, of those owning the lands where the harbors are made. Again: did he not sign a bill making appropriation lor the Cumber- land road, and will ho not continue to sign them as often as they are passed? No one doubts it, and yet he professes to think these measures unconstitutional, and Southern men who do really think them so, and rise in wrath whenever they are before the House, recommend this Chief Magistrate to their friends of the South, as the .special guardian and conservator of their peculiar principles. Why, sir, is all this ? Why have not these professions been carried out? Are those who make them insincere ? Then they are not to be trusted. Are they sin- cere ? Then they have shown themselves mcompetent, if for ten years, with a dense, compact and drilled majority of thirty or forty votes, instead of reform in these particulars, they have been running on from bad to worse. There is another point upon which the South is urged to an embrace, which but lately was regarded as foul and leprous — tlic tariff. 1 can hardly persuade myself that there is any one, ccrtaiidy no respectable number of politicians in this country, who do not regard that question as settled, and permanently settled. Some gentlemen speak of the compromise as ending in 1842. 1 regard it as beginning then, and that the intermediate time has only been a course of preparation. Whence the danger of renewed agitation? The South is satisfied with it, bad bargain as'it unquestionably was — a very bad bargain. But the point of honor was saved, and as Francis the First said after the battle of Pavia, it is all that was saved. The manufacturers are satisfied, as they have much reason to be, for they never were more prosperous. Whence then the danger ? There is none, sir, but from political agitators, who desire to use this topic as they have used it, and as they would use the most sacred and delicate of the institutions of public or of private life, as counters in their cheating and profligate games of personal am- bition. 1 understand the game, for a game it is, and I here, in my place, denounce it as it deserves. That there is one little corner, if no otlier, where just denunciation will be heeded. Those now in power are much indebted for that power to this very tariir subject— it has done them yeoman's service, and they desire to have again in their hands so powerful an instrument. They expect again to divide, as they have done, the Northern and Southern wings of the opposition, and still more, they calculate to gain favor with each party, as they have heretofore done, by professing difl'erent opinions in every different line of latitude — opposed to the tariff in the South — surprised in the North that any one could have doubted their support of that policy. Is it forgotten, sir, that Mr. Van Buren voted for the taritVof 1828. The bill of abominations; one of those things, by which a wise and inscrutable Providence, works good out of evil. 1 do believe that the revolt- ing enormity of that bill, enal)h;d the South at last, to assail the whole policy as successfully as it did ; yes, sir, for this revolting measure, unconstitutional as bis friends now admit it to be, he not only voted, but was in favor of the Force Bill ; to execute, by the bayonet, a law which he believed unconstitutional. Great God, sir, to what have we come; are we men, bearded men, or children, that such lan- guage should be addressed to us ; such attempts to cheat and laugh at us. For mercy's sake, if you are determined to overcome us, do it in such a way as will leave us some little of our own self-esteem. Do not make of us, willingly, con- scious dupes. But, sir, the support of it was not all; he was closetted, night after night, with the Southern gentlemen, consulting as to the best means of defeat- ing the measure, and, to their perfect astonishment, voted for it. Here we see him voting for this most pernicious and unconstitutional measure and think- ing it so, and in violation of other very high obligations. What was the ex- cuse ? He did it under the coercion of instructions from his Legislature — a New York Legislature — an Albany Regency Legislature, instructing him, who was confessedly their head, to do that to which his own inclinations and sense of duty were opposed. Credat Judeus apella non ego. But this reason was only given at the South. If I am not wholly mis- taken, at a public meeting, shortly afterwards in Albany, Mr. Van Buren pro- fessed himself in favor of a protective tarifl', and expressed his surprise that any one should ever have doubted it. Because, forsdbih, he owned twenty thousand sheep. Not influenced by any of those high and exciting topics of encourage- ment to our own native industry, of complete national independence, which, de- lusive and fallacious as they are, have something lofty and generous and exci- ting in them. Oh no, sir, not for any of these ; but because he had twenty thousand sheep. He was amazed that any one should suppose it possible for a man who owned 20,000 sheep, to be opposed to the tariff. Truly a most sheepish reason. ^ Sir, if that disastrous measure is ever again to agitate this country, I desire some other dependence than that which shall be placed in any one man, and es- pecially on a man who, when the country was on the eve of a civil war, was heard or thought of by no one. In that, or any other great crisis, other spirits are looked to, to direct the storm. I have no fears on that subject. It will not be re- vived. If it is, thank God, the whole South will be animated as one man, with the same self-devoting spirit as was heretofore one of the smallest of them, in the terrible conflict through which she passed. When denounced by her ene- mies, abandoned by friends, and deserted in the hour of peril by those who should have sustained, she trod, undismayed, " her war path" alone. There is another subject too delicate to be lightly touched, and too important not to be alluded to. We are asked to rely upon this same individual for the protection of another and our greatest interest — whilst I will not deny that he has lately acted well on that subject, and would not insinuate that he has the slightest taint of abolitionism upon him ; still I do want confidence in his dispo- sition or his ability to meet a gieat crisis, to throw himself in the way of a bursting torrent — God has given the qualities necessary to (his to ie\w men, and he is not one of them. Possessed, although he unquestionably is, of many high endowments, I cannot however close my eyes to the fact, that his zeal in favor of the South has been in exact proportion as his star has waned in the North ; and, although Mr. Van Buren has unquestionably acted well of late upon this subject, I cannot forget that he voted for the instructions under which Rufus King introduced the Missouri question into Congress — nor have I forgotten that I have seen a letter from him, about that time, to a political friend, in which in re- ference to those instructions he says 'don't be alarmed, it will benefit our party ;' I speak from memory, but believe those arc the very words. Here again is an- other most sheepish reason : He would not do it from any generous and enlarged enthusiasm for human liberty, but because it would benefit the party. Yes, sir, to benefit a political party, our whole political fabric was made, from capitol to basement stone, to reel and totter, and patriots and philanthropists looked on with trembling honor, expecting to see topple in ruins the proudest and the last tem- ple reared by human wisdom to human liberty. But there were those who looked on unterrified and unconcerned, "purring over sinister intrigues and petty stratagems." It would benefit the parly. Were there none of those honorable fears, "fears of the brave," that the brightest hope of man might be extinguished forever — no one noble throb of filial devotion, no trembling concern for the dan- gers of the republic — oh, no, if the country should survive the shock it would benefit the party. He felt unconcerned for all these, and played on his mise- rable game of party politics, unmoved amidst the throes and beatings of a con- vulsed and endangered state. But, sir, if it is unpleasant to look on this side of the picture, there is another of a very different character. There has always been in our happy country, talents and virtues which have risen to the level of the great occasion that de- manded them. It was so then. There were men who, cleansing themselves from every selfish feeling, without which no man ever performed a glorious action, with singleness and purity of heart, devoted themselves to restoring peace and quiet to the country and saving its glorious institutions, and they did so. The petty intriguers, who had commenced the agitation, slunk away in dismay, as certain unclean birds on the rising of the sun. But is it not, sir, rather too much that the man who was amongst the first to originate that dangerous agi- tation, should now be proclaimed as the only annointed saviour of Southern insti- tutions, and he a slave holder himself, who quieted it, denounced as a dangerous agitator? I do not believe that the eyes of our rulers are ever raised above the petty consideration of party tactics to the great and general interests of the country. A more striking instance of this has not occurred than in a note to the report of the Committee of Ways and Means. It is charged as an unnecessary extra- vagance, the additional appropriation for the Cherokee Indians, of two millions ; and it is said that this increase was recommended by a committee of the Senate, ol which Judge AVhite was chairman. Now, sir, without any intentional disrespect to the honorable chairman, I pronoimcc that there is not one word of truth in the whole statement. It is not true. It did not originate in the Senate, and it never was referred to a committee, of which Judge White was chairman; but to the committee, of which Mr. Wright was chairman, an authority greater, no doubt, with the gentleman, but with few others than that of 'the just Aristides.' It is not true that there was any additional appropriation proposed. The proposition, originally, was made in this House, and that was not for an additional appropriation, but to allow the President to divert two millions of the five which were appropriated for the suppression of Indian hostilities, to the removal, peacefully, of the Chero- kees, if the President should deem it expedient. This is the amendment. "Pro- vided, that if the President shall ascertain that all dissatisfaction of further opposi- tion on the part of any portion of the Cherokee Indians to the treaty of 1835 can be allayed or avoided, by allowing an additional compensation for lands ceded to the United States by said treaty, and that thereby the Government may be saved the expense of keeping up the large military force within the Cherokee country, now contemplated, he is hereby authorized to apply two millions of dollars of the sum appropriated by this act to that object." Whatman that has a heart could object to this? It is a matter of feeling. I cannot speak for others, but I certainly do not envy the man, who would prefer to expend five millions in crushing a poor, helpless, and deeply injured people, and driving them from the home of their fathers in chains, and at the point of the bayonet, instead of two millions as a measure of peace, of kindness and con- ciliation. I know of nothing in our own, nor the history of any other people, more revolting than all the circumstances of that treaty. The partition of Poland was a disgusting act of brute force. But here is a combination of cruelty, oppression and force ; and as if no element should be wanting in the hateful compound, fraud was superadded — and as if to remove the right of the Indians to complain of the fraud upon them, another fraud was perpetrated on our own Government, as is too manifest to admit of a doubt. The commissioners were first ordered only to treat ■with the majority of the nation. They applied to the Department to be autho' rized to treat with the minority, but were refused. They had the boldness to apply again, and were again refused. They then sent a special messenger, Mr. Curry, to Washington, to communicate verbally — yes, sir, verbally — Litera scripta manet — with the Department, and communicate freely to the Secretary the views of the Commissioners, and to ask his assent. We have no evidence what those verbal communications were, but vve do know that this special messenger returned, with the approval of the Department of the suggestions of the Commissioners, and that the treaty was instantly made with the minority — with one-sixteenth only of the nation, and the meanest portion of it. Who doubts that it was done in pursuance of the authority of the Secretary 1 They would not have dared to do it without, and in open violation of previous instructions — and yet when the instructions, under which the treaty was made, were called for in the Senate, all these verbal instructions were withheld — and it is thus that, I said, a fraud was practised on our own Government, as well as en the Indians. It was under these circumstances of deliberate fraud and oppression, that a civilized and virtuous people, the remnant of a once powerful tribe, were about to be forced for ever from their homes and the graves of their fathers — a people, upon whom our own Government had made a great and successful experiment There is nothing in history which approaches the gigantic strides of this people, in the career of civilization. In less than the fourth of a century, a perfectly bar- barous people were transformed into one altogether civilized — a virtuous, indus- trious and prosperous people. But there was a stern and inexorable necessity that they should remove. I felt that necessity, and as a measure of practical hu- mar ity to the Indians themselves, and all questions of humanity are practical ques- t